Ireland and all other his Highness Dominions And that with my Body Cunning Wit and uttermost of my Power without Guile Fraud or other undue Means I shall observe keep maintain and defend all the King's Majesty's Stiles Titles and Rights with the whole Effects and Contents of the Acts provided for the same and all other Acts and Statutes made and to be made within the Realm in and for that purpose and the Derogation Extirpation and Extinguishment of the usurped and pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome and all other Foreign Potestates as afore And also as well his Statute made in the said 28 th Year as his Statute made in the Parliament holden in the 35 th Year of the King's Majesty's Reign for Establishment and Declaration of his Highness Succession and all Acts and Statutes made and to be made in Confirmation and Corroboration of the King's Majesty's Power and Supremacy in Earth of his Church of England and of Ireland and all other his Grace's Dominions I shall also defend and maintain with my Body and Goods with all my Wit and Power And thus I shall do against all manner of Persons of what State Dignity Degree or Condition soever they be and in no wise do nor attempt nor to my Power suffer or know to be done or attempted directly or indirectly any thing or things privily or apertly to the let hindrance damage or derogation of any of the said Statutes or any part thereof by any manner of Means or for or by any manner of Pretence And in case any Oath hath been made by me to any Person or Persons in Maintenance Defence or Favour of the Bishop of Rome or his Authority Jurisdiction or Power or against any the Statutes aforesaid I repute the same as vain and adnichilate I shall wholly observe and keep this Oath So help me God and all Saints and the Holy Evangeles And then after this Oath followed the Prayers before the Benediction of the Pall and the Ceremonies of delivering it CHAP. XXX The Arch-bishop Reformeth the Canon Law OUR Arch-bishop seeing the great Evil and Inconvenience of Canons and Papal Laws which were still in Force and studied much in the Kingdom had in his Mind now a good while to get them suppressed or to reduce them into a narrower Compass and to cull out of them a set of just and wholsome Laws that should serve for the Government of the Ecclesiastical State And indeed there was great need of some Reformation of these Laws For most of them extolled the Pope unmeasurably and made his Power to be above that of Emperors and Kings Some of them were That he that acknowledged not himself to be under the Bishop of Rome and that the Pope is ordained of God to have the Primacy over the World is an Heretick That Princes Laws if they be against the Canons and Decrees of the Bishop of Rome be of no Force That all the Decrees of the Bishop of Rome ought to be kept perpetually as God's Word spoken by the Mouth of Peter That all Kings Bishops and Noblemen that believe or suffer the Bishop of Rome's Decrees in any thing to be violated are accursed That the See of Rome hath neither Spot nor Wrinkle And abundance of the like which the Arch-bishop himself drew out of the Canon Laws and are set down by the Bishop of Sarum in his History Therefore by the Arch-bishop's Motion and Advice the King had an Act past the last Year viz. 1544. That his Majesty should have Authority during his Life to name thirty two Persons that is to say sixteen Spiritual and sixteen Temporal to examine all Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial and Synodal and to draw up such Laws Ecclesiastical as should be thought by the King and them convenient to be used in all Spiritual Courts According to this Act tho it seems this Nomination hapned some time before the making of the same the King nominated several Persons to study and prepare a Scheme of good Laws for the Church Who brought their Business to a Conclusion and so it rested for a time The Archbishop being now to go down into Kent to meet some Commissioners at Sittingborn went to Hampton-Court to take his leave of the King There he put him in mind of these Ecclesiastical Laws and urged him to ratify them So the King bad him dispatch to him the Names of the Persons which had been chiefly left to Cranmer's Election and the Book they had made This care he going out of Town left with Heth Bishop of Rochester So that these Laws by the great Pains of the Arch-bishop and some Learned Men about him were brought to that good Perfection that they wanted nothing but the Confirmation of the King And there was a Letter drawn up ready for that purpose for the King to sign It was directed to all Arch-bishops Bishops Abbots Clerks Dukes Marquesses Earls Barons Knights and Gentlemen and all others of whatsoever Degree his Subjects and Liege-men Giving them to understand That in the room of the corrupt Laws Decrees and Statutes that proceeded from the Bishops of Rome which were all abolished he had put forth by his Authority another Set of Ecclesiastical Laws which he required to be observed under pain of his Indignation The Copy of this Letter may be read in the Appendix But whatsoever the Matter was whether it were the King 's other Business or the secret Oppositions of Bishop Gardiner and the Papists this Letter was not signed by the King I have seen the Digest of these Ecclesiastical Laws in a Manuscript in Folio fairly written out by the Arch-bishop's Secretary with the Title to each Chapter prefixed and the Index of the Chapters at the beginning both of the Arch-bishop's own Hand In many places there be his own Corrections and Additions and sometimes a Cross by him struck through divers Lines And so he proceeded a good way in the Book And where the Arch-bishop left off Peter Martyr went on by his Order to revise the rest in the Method he had begun And in the Title De Praescriptionibus the greatest part of the seventh Chapter is Martyr's own writing viz. beginning at this word Rumpitur which is in Pag. 248. of the printed Book Lin. 23. and so to the end of the Chapter So that this Manuscript I conjecture was the first Draught of these Laws prepared in the Reign of King Henry and revised in the Reign of King Edward his Successor when P. Martyr was appointed by that King's Letters to be one of those that were to be employed in this Work who was much at this Time with the Arch-bishop In this Draught were several Chapters afterwards added partly by Cranmer and partly by Martyr There was yet a latter and more perfect Draught of these Laws as they were compleated and finished in King Edward's Reign This Draught fell into the
Irenicum published by him from a Manuscript Volume once belonging to Arch-bishop Cranmer In this Convocation the Arch-bishop bore the great Sway and what things were agitated herein were chiefly by his Motion and Direction Some whereof were turned into Laws by the Parliament that was now sitting through his Activeness and Influence As particularly that Repeal of the Statute of the Six Articles and of some other severe Laws decreeing divers things Treason and Felony made in the former King's Reign For when the Arch-bishop in the Convocation had made a Speech to the Clergy exhorting them to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider what Things in the Church needed Reformation that so the Church might be discharged of all Popish Trash not yet thrown out Some told him that as long as the Six Articles remained it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council Upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By his means also another great thing moved in the Convocation was now ratified and made a Law by this Parliament which was for the Administration of the Communion under both Kinds throughout the Kingdom of England and Ireland And upon this the King appointed certain Grave and Learned Bishops and others to assemble at Windsor-Castle there to treat and confer together and to conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order of Communion according to the Rules of Scripture and the Use of the Primitive Church And this being framed it was enjoined to be used throughout the Realm by a Proclamation and all required to receive it with due Reverence I meet with a Writing of the Arch-bishop without Date consisting of Queries concerning the Mass in order to the abolishing it and changing it into a Communion Which I know not where so well to place as here now the Convocation was employed upon this Matter For it seems to have been drawn up by the Arch-bishop on purpose to be laid before the Consideration of this House The Queries were these What or wherein Iohn Fasting giving Alms being Baptized or receiving the Sacrament of the Altar in England doth profit and avail Thomas dwelling in Italy and not knowing what Iohn in England doth Whether it profit them that be in Heaven and wherein Whether it lieth in the Faster Giver of Alms Receiver of the Sacrament him that is Baptized to defraud any Member of Christ's Body of the Benefit of Fasting Alms-Deeds Baptism or Receiving of the Sacrament and to apply the same Benefit to one Person more than to another What thing is the Presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which you call the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ And wherein standeth it in Act Gesture or Word and in what Act Gesture or Word Is there any Rite or Prayer and expressed in the Scripture which Christ used or commanded at the first Institution of the Mass which we be now bound to use and what the same be Whether in the Primitive Church there were any Priests that lived by saying of Mass Mattens and Even-song and praying for Souls only And where any such State of Priesthood be allowed in the Scriptures or be meet to be allowed now For what Cause were it not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in the English Tongue Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution What Time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priests alone should receive the Sacrament Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the Time of the Mass to the understanding of the People being present Whether in the Mass it were convenient to use such Speech as the People may understand To proceed to some other Things wherein our Arch-bishop was this Year concerned In Iune the Church of S. Pauls was hanged with Black and a sumptuous Hearse set up in the Choire and a Dirige there sung for the French King who deceased the March precedent And on the next Day the Arch-bishop assisted with eight Bishops more all in rich Mitres and their other Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem and the Bishop of Rochester preached a Funeral Sermon A nice Matter was now put by the Council to the Arch-bishop having some other Bishops and Learned Men joined with him to the Number of Ten. The Case was Whether a Man divorced from his Wife for her Adultery might not lawfully marry again This was propounded upon the Account of a great Man in those Times namely the Brother of Queen Katherine Par Marquess of Northampton who had gotten a Divorce from his Wife the Daughter of Bourchier Earl of Essex for Adultery The Canon Law would not allow marrying again upon a Divorce making Divorce to be only a Separation from Bed and Board and not a Dissolving the Knot of Marriage This was a great Question depending among the Civilians And it being committed to the Determination of our Arch-bishop and some other Delegates tho the Marquess staid not for their Resolution but in this Interval married Elizabeth Daughter of the Lord Brook he searched so diligently into the Scriptures first and then into the Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that his Collections swelled into a Volume yet remaining in the Hands of a Learned Bishop of this Realm The Sum whereof is digested by the Bishop of Saâ—â—m Cranmer seemed to allow of Marriage in the Innocent Person He was a Means also to the Council of forbidding Processions Wherein the People carried Candles on Candlemass-day Ashes on Ash-wednesday Palms on Palm-sunday because he saw they were used so much to Superstition and looked like Festivals to the Heathen Gods So that this Year on Candlemass-day the old Custom of bearing Candles in the Church and on Ash-wednesday following giving Ashes in the Church was left off through the whole City of London He was a Member of a Committee this Winter appointed to examine all the Offices of the Church and to consider where they needed Reformation and accordingly to reform them Of this Commission were most of the Bishops and several others of the most Learned Divines in the Nation And a new Office for the Communion was by them prepared and by Authority set forth as was observed before and received all over England CHAP. V. The Arch-bishop's Catechism THIS Year the Arch-bishop put forth a very useful Catechism intituled A short Instruction to Christian Religion for the singular Profit of Children and young People This Catechism went not by way of Question and Answer but contained an easy Exposition of the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the two Sacraments The first and second Commandments were put together as one and the whole recital
of old Popish Curats The Letter is dated the 23 d of Iuly and is extant in Fox In London by the Connivance and Remisness of the Bishop many neglected the Divine Service then established and others did in secret Places of the Diocess often frequent the Popish Mass and other Superstitious Rites not allowed by the Laws of England The Sins of Adultery greatly encreased The Churches and particularly the Mother-Church of S. Paul's ran into Dilapidations the Glass was broken and the Ornaments and other Buildings belonging to Churches neglected Many refused to pay Tithes to their Curates probably of both sorts such as were Papists to those Curats as more diligently preached Reformation and obeyed the King's Laws and such as were not so to such Curats as were more backward thereunto Bishop Boner also himself now seldom came to Church seldomer preached and celebrated the English Communion Wherefore the Council sent certain private Injunctions to Boner for the redress of these things That he should preach in his own Person at Paul's Cross and declare certain Articles relating to the before-mentioned Neglects which the Council now sent to him to redress That he should preach once in a Quarter and exhort the People to Obedience and that he should be present at every Sermon at Paul's Cross that he should on the principal Feasts celebrate the Communion and at all times that his Predecessors used to Celebrate and sing High Mass. That he should call before him all such as did not frequent the Church and Common-Prayer and the Holy Communion and punish them as also Adulterers and that he should look to the Reparation of S. Paul's and other Churches and that the People pay their Tithes The Adulteries before hinted which the Council thought fit to recommend to the Bishop to take particular cognizance of makes me add that about this time the Nation grew infamous for this Crime It began among the Nobility and so spread at length among the inferior sort Noblemen would very frequently put away their Wives and marry others if they liked another Woman better or were like to obtain Wealth by her And they would sometimes pretend their former Wives to be false to their Beds and so be divorced and marry again such whom they fancied The first occasion of this seemed to be in the Earl of Northampton divorcing himself from his first Wife Anne Daughter to the Earl of Essex and after marrying Elizabeth Daughter to the Lord Cobham In like manner Henry Son of William Earl of Pembroke put away Katharine Daughter to Henry the Duke of Suffolk and married Mary the Daughter of Sir Henry Sidney These Adulteries and Divorces encreased much yea and marrying again without Divorce which became a great Scandal to the Realm and to the Religion professed in it and gave much Sorrow and Trouble in good Men to see it In so much that they thought it necessary to move for an Act of Parliament to punish Adultery with Death This Latimer in a Sermon preached in the Year 1550 signified to the King For the Love of God saith he take an order for Marriage here in England This is some Account of the Retardation of Religion On the other hand the Endeavors of those that wished well to it were not wanting Now the Protestants began more freely to put forth Books and to disperse such as were formerly printed beyond Sea in the behalf of Religion against Popery and concerning such as had suffered under the Cruelties of the Church of Rome Bale about these Days dispersed his Books One was The Image of both Churches applying the Divine Prophecy of the Revelations to the Apostate Church of Rome Another was a Vindication of the Lady Anne Ascue who suffered the cruel Death of Burning about the end of King Henry's Reign Whose Cause the Papists studiously had rendred bad This Book he intitled The Elucidation of Anne Ascue's Martyrdom Which was this Year exposed publickly to sale at Winchester and the Parts thereabouts as a Reproach to the Bishop of Winchester who was the great Cause of her Death Four of these Books came to that Bishop's own Eyes being then at Winchester they had Leaves put in as Additions to the Book some glewed and some unglewed which probably contained some further Intelligences that the Author had gathered since his first writing of the Book And herein some Reflexions were made freely according to Bale's Talent upon some of the Court not sparing Paget himself though then Secretary of State Another of Bale's Books that went now about was touching the Death of Luther Therein was a Prayer of the Duke of Saxony mentioned which the Bishop of Winchester gladly took hold on Wherein that Duke as to the justness of his Cause remitted himself to God's Judgment to be shewed on him here in this World if the Cause he undertook were not Just concerning Religion and desired God if it were not Good to order him to be taken and spoiled of his Honors and Possessions Since which the Duke was taken Prisoner and at the very time of his taking the Papists made an Observation that the Sun appeared so strangely in England as the like had not been seen before So apt are Men to interpret Events according to their own preconceived Opinions But at this Winchester took much Advantage Whereas indeed the Issues of God's Providence in this World are not favourable always even to the best Causes The keeping of Lent was now called into Controversy and asserted that it was not to be observed upon a religious Account And this was done the rather because the Papists placed so much Religion in the bare Fast. In the Pulpit it began to be cried down Tongue and Ioseph two great Preachers in London said That Lent was one of Christ's Miracles which God ordained not Men to imitate or follow And that it was an insupportable Burden There was a set of Rhimes now made about the burial of Lent which was called Iack of Lent 's Testament and publicly sold in Winchester Market therein Steven Gardiner the Bishop was touched who was a great Man for keeping it For in the Ballad Stephen Stockfish was bequeathed in this Will to Stephen Gardiner Of this he made a long Complaint to the Protector But yet this Neglect of Lent was not encouraged by the Superiors For it was kept at Court and Preparations for the King's Diet were made accordingly this Lent by the Protector The Protestants indeed were for keeping it and an Order was issued out for that purpose tho not upon a Religious but Politick Account But the greater part of the ordinary People would not be brought to it by this Distinction So that the Preachers were fain to be employed Latimer preached That those that regard-not Laws and Statutes were despisers of Magistrates There be Laws made of Diet he said what Meats we shall eat at all times And this Law is made in Policy as I suppose for
in the sending them to him it was uncertain Some suspected Grimbold himself but others rather the Messenger for it would not enter into Shipside's Head that Grimbold should play such a Iudas's part CHAP. XII A Parliament Pole reconciles the Realm GREAT Care was now to be taken of getting Parliament-men that might do what was to be laid before them now the Pope's Legat was to be received and the last Parliament failing Expectation Therefore Letters were dispatched from the Queen and Interests made all the Nation over to procure such Persons to be elected as should be named to them In a Manuscript containing divers Orders that were sent into Norfolk in Q. Mary's Time there is a Letter from that Queen Anno 2 o dated Octob. 6 to the Earl of Sussex directing him to assist in choosing such Men to sit in Parliament As were of Wise Grave and Catholick sort such as indeed meant the true Honour of God with the Prosperity of the Nation The Advancement whereof We as the Letter runneth and our dear Husband the King do chiefly profess and intend without alteration of any Man 's particular Possession as amongst other false Rumors the hinderers of our good Purposes and favourers of Heresies do most utterly report For to make the intent of restoring the Abby-Lands to be the less credited it was thought convenient to be laid upon the Hereticks With these general Letters there seemed to go private Instructions what particular Men were to be set up For upon the aforesaid Letter the Earl of Sussex sent a Letter Octob. 14 to Sir Tho. Woodhouse High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and to Sir William Woodhouse about the Elections of Knights of those Shires viz. That they should reserve their Interests and Voices for such as he should name and that he would soon consult with them about the Matter He then in pursuit of the Queen's Letter recommended to the Bailiff of Yarmouth Iohn Millicent to be elected Burgess for that Town This Parliament sate Novemb. 11. Cardinal Pole was this Summer brought to Flanders by the Emperor who had stayed him before on the Way The Queen sent over the Lord Paget and the Lord Hastings to the Cardinal to conduct him over in quality of the Pope's Legate And the same day he landed at Dover which was Novemb. 21. the Bill past for the taking off his Attainder Three days after he came to London and so to Lambeth-house Which was ready prepared for his coming Cardinal Pole before he came into England and in the last Reign had the reputation here ordinarily of a vertuous sober and learned Man and was much beloved by the English Nation as well for his Qualities as his honourable Extraction Latimer in one of his Sermons before K. Edward hath these words of him I never remember that Man speaking of Pole but I remember him with a heavy Heart a Witty Man a Learned Man a Man of a Noble House so in favour that if he had tarried in the Realm and would have conformed himself to the King's Proceedings I heard say and I believe it verily he had been Bishop of York at this Day And he would have done much good in that part of the Realm For those Quarters have always had need of Learned Men and a preaching Prelate One great Author the Cardinal much conversed in was S. Hierom. Latimer wished That he would have followed S. Hierom in his Exposition of that Place Come out of her my People Where that Father understood it of Rome and called that City The purple Whore of Babylon Almighty God saith Get you from it get you from Rome saith Hierom. It were subjoined Latimer more commendable to go from it than to go to it as Pole hath done Soon after his return into England he was mighty busy in reconciling the Realm to the Pope He performed it in his own Person to the Parliament on the thirtieth of November with much Solemnity and to the Convocation on the sixth of December On which day the Parliament being dissolved he the Lord Legate sent for the whole Convocation of Upper and Lower House to Lambeth And there he absolved them all from their Perjuries Schisms and Heresies Which Absolution they received upon their Knees Then he gave them an Exhortation and congratulated their Conversion and so they departed Ianuary 23. Upon the dismission of the Convocation the Bishops and inferior Clergy waited again upon the Legate at Lambeth Where he willed them all to repair to their Cures and Charges and exhorted them to entreat their Flocks with all Mildness and to endeavor to win them by Gentleness rather than by Extremity and Rigor and so let them depart Ianuary 28. He granted a Commission to the Bp of VVinchester and divers other Bishops to sit upon and judg according to the Laws lately revived against Hereticks all such Ministers and others that were in Prison for Heresy Which was done undoubtedly to take off all the eminentest of the Protestant Clergy then in hold And the very same day such haste they made they sat in Commission in S. Mary Overies Church upon Rogers Hoper and Cardmaker And the next to that upon Hoper and Rogers again upon Taylor also and Bradford when the two former were formally excommunicated The day following they sat upon Taylor and Bradford again to which were added Ferrar Crome and Saunders Then they excommunicated Bradford and Saunders But that this Reconciliation to the Pope and Church of Rome might sound the louder in all Parts and Corners of the Nation and all Persons every where might make their formal Submissions to the Pope and thankfully take the mighty Benefit of his Yoke upon them again the Legate was not contented to reconcile the Nation himself under their Representatives in the Parliament and Convocation but upon pretence that he could not in his own Person pardon and reconcile all the People therefore he granted out a Commission to each Bishop in his own Diocess to do it to their respective Clergy and Laity deputed in his Name and by his Authority derived from the Pope Such a Commission he granted February 8 to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury that See being then held Vacant Therein authorizing them to absolve all manner of Persons as well Lay as Ecclesiasticks Religious as Secular from their Schism Heresies and Errors and from all Censures due thereupon And to dispense with the Clergy upon divers Irregularities as with such who had received Orders from Schismatical Bishops or had been collated into their Livings by them To dispense also with the Religious and Regulars for departing from their Cloisters without the Pope's Licence permitting them to wear the Habit of Priests and to serve Cures considering the scarcity of Priests and to live out of their Cloisters Also to dispense with Priests that had married Wives though they were Widows or Women defiled and with such who had been twice married doing
Willelmus Episcopus Landavensis Bishop of Landaff whose Title of Landavensis the Ignorance or Mistake of the Scribe changed into Navatensis By a like mistake very frequent in our Ancient Records the Bishop of Lincoln Lincolniensis is corruptly stiled Nicoliensis Page 37. line 6. Iohn Thornden who was often Commissary of Oxon while Archbishop Warham was Chancellor of that University was stiled Episcopus Syrinensis His Name was Iohn Thornton Many years after him Richard Thornden was Suffragan Bishop in the Diocess of Canterbury In Thornton endeth the Catalogue of Suffragan Bishops which you could find Consecrated before the time of Archbishop Cranmer being in all seven If it pleaseth God to permit me to to finish my Angliâ— Sacra I shall exhibit a perfect Succession of Suffragan Bishops in almost all the Diocesses of England for about Two hundred years before the Reformation Ibid. line 8. And hereafter we shall meet with a Bishop of Hippolitanum who assisted Archbishop Cranmer at his Ordinations It will be hard to find such a City as Hyppolitanum in the world We had in England many Suffragan Bishops who successively assumed the Title of Bishops of Hippo the See of the Great St. Austin These were wont to stile themselves Hipponenses but some of them not being so good Grammarians took the Stile of Ypolitanenses and Hippolitanenses which latter Appellation might give occasion to the mistake concerning a Bishop of Hippolitanum Page 38. line 3. ab imo The King sent to the Archbishop to make Thomas Mannyng Suffragan of Gipwich who was accordingly Consecrated by the Archbishop This Gipwich is no other than Ipswich the chief Town of Suffolk in Latin called Gipâ—svicum and Gipwicum from which place Mannyng at his Prâ—motion to the Office of a Suffragan Bishop took his Title Page 41. line 3. This choice Treasure the Original Book containing the Subscription of the Members of the Convocation to certain Articles of Religion Sir Robert Cotton afterwards procured And at the bottom of the first Page is written Robertus Cotton Bruceâ—s by Sir Robert's own hand signifying his Value of this Monument Sir Robert did not by that Subscription of his Name testify any extraordinary Value of this Volume for he wrote the same words at the bottom of the first Page of all or almost all the Manuscript Volumes of his Library Page 50. line 26. Iune Anno 1536. William Rugg was Consecrated Bishop of Norwich His Consecration is omitted in the Register Probably he was consecrated with Sampson Bishop of Chicâ—ester who was Confirmed Iune 10 th Rugg could not be Consecrated in Iune for he was not Confirmed till the 28 th of that Month and the first Sunday after that day was Iuly 2 d. Bishops were wont to be Consecrated on the next Sunday after their Confirmation So that it is most likely Sampson was Consecrated Iune 11 th and Rugg together with Warton of St. Asaph on Iuly 2 d. Page 61. line 18. ab imo Iune 24. Anno 1537. Iohn Bird was Consecrated Suffragan of the See of Penrith in Landaff Diocess and Lewis Thomas Suffragan Bishop of the See of Salop. It should have been said that Bird was Consecrated Suffragan of the Diocess of Landaff with the Title of Bishop of Penrith Bishop of Shrewsbury not Salop for Penrith is no more in Landaff Diocess than Shrewsbury is in that of St. Asaph But it may be observed That in the first Act of Parliament made in this Reign touching Suffragan Bishops certain Titles were appointed to which the said Suffragans should be Consecrated taken from several of the chief Towns in England but it was not required that the Suffragan of any particular Diocess should take his Title from some Town in that Diocess but was left at liberty to take it from any Town mentioned in that Act. Which was accordingly practised indifferently till the Promulgation of the second Act concerning Suffragans Ibid. line 2. It was now forbidden by the Parliament that the Feast of St. Thomas a Becket the pretended Martyr should be celebrated any more He is also stiled Thomas a Becket Page 70. line 21. 28. Page 92. line 4. c. This is a small Error but being so often repeated deserveth to be observed and corrected The Name of that Archbishop was Thomas Becket nor can it otherwise be found to have been written in any Authentick History Record Kalendar or other Book If the Vulgar did formerly as it doth now call him Thomas a Becket their Mistake is not to be followed by Learned men Page 62. line 8. The Reason why Archbishop Cranmer all this while that is from the first making the Act concerning Suffragans in the year 1534 to this time 1537. had nominated none for Suffragan to this See Dover till now when he nominated and consecrated Richard Yngworth in December might be because there seemed to be a Suffragan already even the same that had been in the time of Archbishop Warham namely Iohn Thornton Prior of Dover who was one of the Witnesses appointed by that Archbishop to certify what was found and seen at the opening of St. Dunstan's Tomb. Richard Thornden seems to have succeeded Yngworth in this Office St. Dunstan's Tomb was opened in April 1508 and Thornden died not till the last year of Queen Mary So that if to Thernton succeeded Yngworth and to Yngworth succeeded Thornden there will be no room for any of those three Bishops of Sidon who were before in this History pag. 36. said to have assisted the Archbishops Warham and Cranmer in the Quality of Suffragan Bishops For the very first of them Thomas Wellys was Suffragan Bishop after the year 1508. I know not when he was made Suffragan or when he died but I am certain that he survived the year 1511. As for Christopher and the other Thomas Bishops of Sidon they indeed were not the peculiar Suffragans of the Archbishops of Canterbury as I before said Page 63. line 28. March 24. 1537. Henry Holbeach was Consecrated Suffragan Bishop of Bristow in the Bishop of London's Chappel in the said Bishop's House scituate in Lambeth-Marsh by the said Bishop c. The Bishops of London never had any House scituate in Lambeth-Marsh but the Bishops of Rochester at that time had which House was soon after conveyed from the See of Rochester to the Crown and afterwards from the Crown by exchange to the See of Carlisle to which it now belongeth Page 86. line 22. ab imo In this Consecration of Bonner Bishop of London Anno 1540. the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted it seems upon an Ancient Privilege of their Church which I do not find in this Register that of Archbishop Cranmer they had at other Consecrations done namely that the Consecration should be celebrated at the Church of Canterbury and at no other Church or Oratory without their allowance And so in a formal Instrument they gave their License and Consent The renewing of this their old pretended Privilege looked
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
none until some other Means should be found out by the States of the Empire for healing the present Divisions And that he would use his utmost diligence that a Council should be denounced within six Months and the Year after to be commenced And that if this could not be obtained then these Matters should be referred to the Imperial Diets to be handled there That in the mean time all Judicial Proceedings relating to Religion should be suspended and that no Law-Suits should hereafter be commenced against the Protestants and that in case any were he commanded that they should be void and null This Edict was published in the Month of August this Year Together with the aforesaid Proclamation he transferred over to the King the Tax of all the States of the Empire that is How many Souldiers every Man was limited to find for Aid against the Turk Whence our Ambassador made a particular Observation to his Master for his better Direction what number of Forces it were equal for him to send and to justify his Refusal to comply with the Emperor in case he should have demanded more than was his Proportion Taking his Measures from the said Tax And the Observation which he made was this That his Grace might perceive that the greatest Prince in Germany only the Duke of Burgundy and Austria excepted was not appointed above 120 Horsemen and 554 Footmen A Transcript of this Letter of Cranmer to the King I have put in the Appendix These Passages will serve to shew Dr. Cranmer's Diligence Wisdom and other Abilities in the Quality he now stood in of an Ambassador Being now resident in the Emperor's Court the King made use of him in another Embassy but to be more secretly made to the Elector Frederick Duke of Saxony that the Emperor might not be privy to it For in the Month of Iuly Dr. Cranmer departed incognito from Ratisbon where the Emperor was and had there appointed a Diet in order to the coming to some Terms of Peace with the Protestants until a Council should be called and came privately to the Duke then abiding in a certain Hospital as it was called and delivered Letters to him and to Philip Duke of Lunenburgh and Wolfgang Prince of Anhalt At this first Congress he assured the Elector of his Master the King of England's Friendship as the Letters he delivered imported The next day he returned to the Elector's Court Pontanus and Spalatinus two of the Elector's Counsellors being present Here at this Meeting he required divers things concerning Peace with the Emperor the State of Religion Aid against the Turk and the Goods of the Church which the Princes were said to invade He spake magnificent things of the King his Master as what mighty Aids he had offered the Emperor against the Turk and as he told them the French King would do And so taking Letters to the King from Frederick dated Iuly 15. he was dismissed But four days after he came again privately with one Servant only and had conference with Spalatinus all alone telling him that he had forgot as he pretended one part of his Message and that was That not only his Master but the French King was ready to give Assistance to the Elector and his Confederates in the case of Religion And he desired to know in what state the Business of the Election of Ferdinand stood whom being the Emperor's Brother he had made King of the Romans by a pretended Election Which Election gave offence and Frederick Duke of Saxony had manifested Imperfect and Defective What Answer was given to Cranmer was not known Only it was thought that this was somewhat unseasonably acted because saith my Author there was Peace at this time between the Emperor and the English which the Kings Ambassador by those Offers did desire to disturb This it seems was the Judgment of the Protestants concerning this Overture to them by the King's Ambassador as tho it were not sincere But I do not find but that whatsoever Peace was now between the Emperor and the English the former League with him was shaking by reason of the Emperor's disobliging the King in siding so earnestly with Queen Katharine in the Controversy between the King and her CHAP. IV. Cranmer made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury AND this great Trust the King his gracious Master committed to him as a mark of the Honour he had for him and a Sign of further Preferment he was minded to advance him to And about this very time happened a fair Opportunity to the King to manifest his Favour to him Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury departing this mortal Life whereby that See became Vacant The Preferment indeed seemed too great for Cranmer at one stride to step into without some other intervening Dignities to have been first conferred on him But the King thinking him the fittest Man of all the English Clergy to be promoted to this high Office resolved to give it to him though now absent abroad upon his Business Hereupon the King commanded him to hasten Home though he concealed the Reason from him which was to take the Archbishoprick he had designed for him Which when he came Home in Obedience to his Majesty though much against his Inclination and after many Refusals proceeding from his great Modesty and Humility and certain Scruples at length he did accept It doth not appear to me what Ecclesiastical Places he had before only that he was the King's Chaplain and Arch-deacon of Taunton The Pope also in honour to his Master had constituted him Poenitentiary General of England He had also a Benefice while he lived in the Earl of Wiltshire's Family which was bestowed upon him by the King A mention whereof I find in one of his Letters to the said Earl It was in the Month of August 1532 that William Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a wise and Grave Man a great Patron of the most Learned Erasmus and once Lord Chancellor of England Who seemed to foresee and foretell or at least to conjecture that Thomas Cranmer should succeed him as judging him in his own Mind the fittest Person for the King 's and Church's Service in that juncture to enter upon that See For this truth methinks we may pick out of those malicious words of Harpsfield in his Ecclesiastical History viz. That Arch-Bishop Warham should say That a Thomas should succeed him who by a loose and remiss indulgence of a licentious sort of Life granted to the People and by unsound Doctrines would more disgrace the Church of Canterbury and all the rest of the Church of England than Thomas the Martyr did amplify it by his Martyrdom And that he admonished his Nephew and Name-sake William Warham Arch-deacon of Canterbury that if any Thomas should succeed in the See while he lived he should not by any means enter into his Service It is not unusual nay it is seldom otherwise for Popish Historians to
Crumwel speak against it the Reason being no question because they saw the King so resolved upon it Nay it came to be a flying Report that the Arch-bishop of Canterbury himself and all the Bishops except Sarum consented But this is not likely that Cranmer who had so openly and zealously opposed it should be so soon changed and brought to comply with it Nay at the very same time it passed he staid and protested against it though the King desired him to go out since he could not consent to it Worcester also as well as Sarum was committed to Prison and he as well as the other resigned up his Bishoprick upon the Act. In the foresaid Disputation in the Parliament-house the Arch-bishop behaved himself with such humble modesty and obedience in word towards his Prince protesting the Cause not to be his but God's that neither his Enterprize was misliked of the King and his Allegations and Reasons were so strong that they could not be refuted Great pity it is that these Arguments of the Arch-bishop are lost which I suppose they are irrecoverably because Fox that lived so near those Times and so elaborate a Searcher after such Papers could not meet with them and all that he could do was to wish that they were extant to be seen and read However I will make my Conjecture here that I am apt to think that one of the main Matters insisted on by him at this time was against the cruel Penalty annexed to these Articles For I find in one of the Arch-bishop's Manuscript Volumes now in Benet-College Library there is in this very Year a Discourse in Latin upon this Subject Num in haereticos jure Magistratui gravius animadvertere liceat Decisio Vrbani Rhegii Interprete Iacobo Gisleno Anno 1539. Which Book I suppose he might at this juncture have read over and made use of The Dukes and Lords of Parliament that as above was said came over to Lambeth to visit and dine with him by the King's Command used words to him to this Tenor The King's Pleasure is that we should in his behalf cherish and comfort you as one that for your travail in the late Parliament declared your self both greatly Learned and also Discreet and Wise And therefore my Lord be not discouraged for any thing that past there contrary to your Allegations The Arch-bishop replied In the first place my Lords I heartily thank the King's Highness for his singular good Affection towards me and you all for your pains And I hope in God that hereafter my Allegations and Authorities shall take place to the Glory of God and Commodity of the Realm Every of the Lords brought forth his Sentence in commendation of him to shew what good-will both the King and they bare to him One of them entred into a Comparison between the said Arch-bishop and Cardinal Wolsey preferring the Arch-bishop before him for his mild and gentle Nature whereas he said the Cardinal was a stubborn and churlish Prelate that could never abide any Noble-man The Lord Crumwel as Cranmer's Secretary relates who himself heard the words You my Lord said he were born in an happy Hour I suppose for do or say what you will the King will always take it well at your Hands And I must needs confess that in some things I have complained of you to his Majesty but all in vain for he will never give credit against you whatsoever is laid to your Charge But let me or any other of the Council be complained of his Grace will most seriously chide and fall out with us And therefore you are most happy if you can keep you in this State The Roman Zealots having obtained this Act of the Six Articles desisted not but seconded their Blow by a Book of Ceremonies to be used by the Church of England so intituled all running after the old Popish strain It proceeded all along in favour of the Roman Church's superstitious Ceremonies endeavouring to shew the good signification of them The Book first begins with an Index of the Points touched therein viz. Churches and Church-yards the hallowing and reconcileing them The Ceremonies about the Sacrament of Baptism Ordering of the Ministers of the Church in general Divine Service to be sung and said in the Church Mattins Prime and other Hours Ceremonies used in the Mass. Sundays with other Feasts Bells Vesture and Tonsure of the Ministers of the Church and what Service they be bound unto Bearing Candles upon Candlemass-day Fasting Days The giving of Ashes The covering of the Cross and Images in Lent Bearing of Palms The Service of Wednesday Thursday and Friday before Easter The hallowing of Oil and Chrism The washing of the Altars The hallowing of the Font upon Saturday in the Easter-Even The Ceremonies of the Resurrection in Easter-Morning General and other particular Processions Benedictions of Bells or Priests Holy Water and holy Bread A general Doctrine to what intent Ceremonies be ordained and of what value they be The Book it self is too long to be here inserted but such as have the Curiosity may find it in the Cotton Library and may observe what Pains was taken to smooth and varnish over the old Supperstions I do not find this Book mentioned by any of our Historians The Bishop of Winchester with his own Pen hath an Annotation in the Margin of one place in the Book And I strongly suspect he was more than the Revisor of it and that it was drawn up by him and his Party and strongly pushed on to be owned as the Act of the Clergy For this Year there was a Convocation The King had sent his Letters written March the 12 th in the 30 th Year of his Reign viz. 1538. to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury for summoning a Convocation to meet together at St. Paul's the second day of May. But this Assembly by the King's Letters to him was prorogued till November the 4 th At this Convocation I suppose these Articles were invented and propounded to the House All this long Book in behalf of the Ceremonies did our laborious Metropolitan put himself to the pains of answering and thereby hindred the Reception of it For concerning this I do interpret that Passage of Fox viz. That the Arch-bishop confuted eighty eight Articles devised by a Convocation and which were laboured to be received but were not But to return to the six Articles Great triumphing now there was on the Papists Side as appears by a Letter wrote from some Roman Catholick Member of the House of Lords to his Friend Which may be read in the Appendix But after some time the King perceiving that the said Arch-bishop and Bishops did this thing not of Malice or Stubbornness but out of a zeal they had to God's Glory and the Common-wealth reformed in part the said Six Articles and somewhat blunted the Edg of them March 20. Two Commissions were sent to the Arch-bishop to take the Surrender
same in the English Tongue to the intent that there may be an Uniformity in every Place Whereby it may please God at all times to prosper his Majesty in all his Affairs And the rather to have regard at this time unto the Uprightness of his Grace's Quarrel and to send his Highness victorious Success of the same And thus we bid your Lordship most heartily well to fare From Petworth the 10 th Day of August Your Lordship's assured loving Friends W. Essex St. Wynton Ant. Brown Will. Paget The Copy of this Letter the Arch-bishop dispatched to the Bishop of London and in a Letter of his own he first stirred him up to take care of making due Provisions for the religious Performance of these Prayers in his Diocess upon consideration of the King 's great Wars by Land and Sea and his Wars in France in Scotland and in the Parts about Bulloign Then he enjoined him and all the Bishops in his Province every Fourth and Sixth Day to retire to Prayer and Supplication to God and that the People should as he wrote Concinna modulatione una voce cunctipotentem Deum Sabaoth omnis Victoriae largitorem unicum sanctè piè non labiis sed corde puro adorent In becoming Harmony and with one Voice holily and piously not with the Lips but with a pure Heart adore the Almighty God of Sabaoth the only giver of all Victory And in these smaller Matters our Arch-bishop was fain now to be contented to busy himself since about this Juncture Winton or his Party had the Ascendent and did all at Court Concerning these latter Times of King Henry when the Popish Bishops carried all before them again and the Acts of Parliament that were made whereby the Bishops were empowred to call Sessions as oft as they would to try those that gave not due Obedience to the Superstitions of the Church and that upon pain of Treason Thus Iohn Bale complains whose Words may give us some light into the sad Condition of these Times Still remaineth there Soul-Masses of all Abominations the principal their prodigious Sacrifices their Censings of Idols their boyish Processions their uncommanded Worshippings and their Confessions in the Ear of all Traitery the Fountain with many other strange Observations which the Scripture of God knoweth not Nothing is brought as yet to Christ's clear Institution and sincere Ordinance but all remaineth still as the Antichrists left it Nothing is tried by God's Word but by the ancient Authority of Fathers Now passeth all under their Title Though the old Bishops of Rome were of late Years proved Antichrists and their Names razed out of our Books yet must they thus properly for old Acquaintance be called still Our Fathers If it were naught afore I think it is now much worse for now are they become laudable Ceremonies whereas before-time they were but Ceremonies alone Now are they become necessary Rites godly Constitutions seemly Vsages and civil Ordinances whereas afore they had no such Names And he that disobeyeth them shall not only be judged a Felon and worthy to be hanged by their new-forged Laws but also condemned for a Traitor against the King though he never in his Life hindred but rather to his Power hath forwarded the Common-Wealth To put this with such-like in Execution th◠Bishops have Authority every Month in the Year if they list to call a Session to Hang and Burn at their pleasure And this is ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament to stand the more in Effect Gardiner Bishop of Winchester had by his Policy and Interest brought things thus backward again and exalted the Power of the Bishops that of late Years had been much eclipsed And so he plainly told one Seton a Man of Eminency in these Times both for Piety and Learning in London who met with Troubles there about the Year 1541 for a Sermon preached at S. Anthonies against Justification by Works This Seton being now it seems fallen into new Troubles and brought before the aforesaid Bishop when he was able no longer to withstand the manifest Truth said to him Mr. Seton we know ye are Learned and plenteously endued with Knowledg in the Scriptures yet think not that ye shall overcome us No no set your Heart at rest and look never to have it said that ye have overcome the Bishops For it shall not be so Robert Holgate Bishop of Landaff was this Year preferred to the See of York His Confirmation is mentioned in the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Register Wherein is set down an Oath which he then took of Renunciation of the Pope and Acknowledgment of the King's Supremacy very full and large Afterwards I find the same Oath administred to Kitchin Elect of Landaff and Ridley Elect of Rochester and Farrar of S. Davids But I think it not unworthy to be here set down as I find it seeming to be a new Form drawn up to be henceforth taken by all Bishops And this Arch-bishop of York the first that took it I Robert Arch-bishop of York Elect having now the Vail of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any Foreign Potestate hath nor ought to have any Jurisdiction Power or Authority within this Realm neither by God's Law nor by any just Law or Means And though by Sufferance and Abusions in Time past they aforesaid have usurped and vindicated a feigned and unlawful Power and Jurisdiction within this Realm which hath been supported till few Years past Therefore because it might be deemed and thought thereby that I took or take it for Just and Good I therefore do now clearly and frankly renounce forsake refuse and relinquish that pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction both of the See and Bishop of Rome and of all other Foreign Powers And that I shall never consent or agree that the foresaid See or Bp of Rome or any of their Successors shall practise exercise or have any manner of Authority Jurisdiction or Power within this Realm or any other the King's Realms or Dominions nor any Foreign Potestate of what State Degree or Condition he be but that I shall resist the same to the uttermost of my Power and that I shall bear Faith Troth and true Allegiance to the King's Majesty and to his Heirs and Successors declared or hereafter to be declared by the Authority of the Act made in the Sessions of his Parliament holden at Westminster the 14 th day of Ianuary in the 35 th Year and in the Act made in the 28 th Year of the King's Majesty's Reign And that I shall accept repute and take the King's Majesty his Heirs and Successors when they or any of them shall enjoy his Place to be the only Supream Head in Earth under God of the Church of England and
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
of that which lacked And so transmitted the Book again from Croydon Septemb. 19. to Sir William Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke the one the King 's Principal Secretary and the other his Tutor being the two great Patrons of the Reformation at the Court Desiring them together to take these Articles into their serious Considerations for he well knew them to be both wise and good Men and very well seen in Divine Learning And he referred it to their Wisdoms whether they thought best to move the King's Majesty therein before his coming to Court as though he conceived the King might make some demur in so weighty an Affair till he should consult with the Metropolitan in order to the coming to a Resolution or that there were some great Persons about the King that might cast some Scruples and Objections in his Mind concerning it which he by his Presence might prevent or be ready at hand to resolve Cecyl and Cheke thought it more convenient the Arch-bishop should offer them to the King himself So coming to Court soon after he delivered the Book to the King and moved him for their publishing and due observation And so leaving them before the King and Council they were then again delivered unto certain of the King's Chaplains who made some Alterations For I find that Octob. 2. a Letter was directed to Mr. Harley Bill Horn Grindal Pern and Knox to consider certain Articles which must be these Articles of Religion exhibited to the King's Majesty to be subscribed by all such as shall be admitted to be Preachers or Ministers in any part of the Realm and to make report of their Opinions touching the same The Time of the Year declined now towards the latter end of November and the Arch-bishop being retired down from Croydon to his House at Ford near Canterbury the Privy-Council Novemb. 20. dispatched by a Messenger the Articles unto him to be reviewed and for his last Hand that they might be presented before the Convocation and allowed there and so be published by the Royal Authority The Arch-bishop received the Book and Letter from the Council Novemb. 23. And making some Notes upon it enclosed them in a Letter to the Lords and sent them together with the Book the next day beseeching them to prevail with the King that all Bishops should have Authority to cause their respective Clergy to subscribe it And then he trusted as he wrote that such a Concord and Quietness in Religion would soon follow as otherwise would not be in many Years And thereby God would be glorified the Truth advanced and their Lordships rewarded by him as the setters forth of his true Word and Gospel This pious Letter may be read in the Appendix The King went a Progress this Summer and the Arch-bishop retired to Croydon where I find him in Iuly August and September And thence Octob. 11. he went to Ford to spend some time in his Diocess Now he was absent from the Court and the King abroad at that distance that he could not frequently wait upon him and be present at the Council his Enemies were at work to bring him into trouble as we shall see by and by CHAP. XXVIII Persons nominated for Irish Bishopricks THERE were certain Bishopricks in Ireland about this time vacant one whereof was that of Armagh And it was thought convenient to have them filled by Divines out of England In the Month of August the Arch-bishop was consulted with for this that so by the Influence of very wise and learned Men and good Preachers the Gospel might be the better propagated in that dark Region But because it was foreseen to be difficult to procure any English Men so endowed to go over thither therefore Secretary Cecyl being then with the King in his Progress sent a Letter to the Arch-bishop at Croyden to nominate some worthy Persons for those Preferments and whom he thought would be willing to undertake them He returned him the Names of Four viz. Mr. Whitehead of Hadley Mr. Turner of Canterbury Sir Thomas Rosse and Sir Robert Wisdome He said He knew many others in England that would be meet Persons for those Places but very few that would gladly be perswaded to go thither For it seems the English were never very fond of living in Ireland But he added concerning these four which he had named That he thought they being ordinarily called for Conscience-sake would not refuse to bestow the Talent committed unto them wheresoever it should please the King's Majesty to appoint them He recommended likewise a fifth Person for this Promotion one Mr. Whitacre a wise and well-learned Man as he characters him who was Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester Poynet But he doubted whether he would be perswaded to take it upon him It may not be amiss to make some enquiry who and what those Four before-mentioned Persons were Mr. Whithead was an Exile in Queen Mary's Reign and Pastor of the English Congregation at Frankford And at the Conference in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Government he was one of the Nine Disputants on the Protestant side and one of the appointed Eight to revise the Service-Book The Writer of the Troubles at Frankford mentions three viz. Coverdale Turner and this Whitehead of whom he saith That they were the most ancient Preachers of the Gospel and the most ancient Fathers of this our Country and that from their Pens as well as their Mouths most of Queen Elizabeth's Divines and Bishops first received the Light of the Gospel Why Cranmer should stile him VVhithead of Hadley I do not apprehend seeing Dr. Rowland Taylor his Chaplain was now Parâ—on of Hadley who not long after was there burnt And one Yeomans was Taylor 's Curat there who also was afterwards burnt at Norwich But I suppose this was some other Hadley I find two about this Time bearing the Name of Turner both eminent Men and Preachers The one was named William Turner a Doctor in Physick and greatly befriended by Sir Iohn Cheke and Sir William Cecyl This Man a Native of Northumberland was the first English Man that compiled an Herbal which was the Ground-work of that which Gerard laid the last Hand unto He was a Retainer to the Duke of Somerset in Edward the Sixth's Time and was Physician in ordinary to his Family And the Year before this viz. 1551 I find him Dean of Wells The other was Richard Turner a Staffordshire-Man in former time Curate of Chartam in Kent and commonly called Turner of Canterbury living in the family of Mr. Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary of whom afterwards who held the Impropriation of that Parsonage and had presented this Man to the Vicarage For his free and bold preaching against Popish Errors and asserting the King's Supremacy and for the extraordinary Success of his Ministry in bringing Multitudes of People in those Parts out of Ignorance and Superstition he was put to much Trouble and Danger He was
first complained of to the King And being brought up the Arch-bishop and other Ecclesiastical Commissioners were commanded to examine him upon certain Articles But by the secret Favour of the Arch-bishop and his own prudent Answers he was then discharged Soon after upon some false Reports told of him King Henry was so offended that he sent for the Arch-bishop willing him to have him whipt out of the Country But the Arch-bishop pacified the King and sent him Home the second time Afterwards a third time his old Enemies the Popish Clergy got him convented before the Privy-Council and committed for Doctrines preached by him before he came into Kent The Arch-bishop being then down in his Diocess Turner was sent back to him with an Order to recant To whom when his fast Friend and Patron Mr. Morice had applied himself in his behalf the Arch-bishop himself being now under some Cloud dared not to interpose because as he then said it had been put into the King's Head that he was the great Favourer and Maintainer of all the Hereticks in the Kingdom Morice then that he might prevent this Recantation if possible which would have been such a Reflection to the Doctrine he before had preached addrest his Letters to Sir Anthony Denny Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber and Sir William Butts his Physician relating at large Turner's Casâ— And by their means the King became better informed of the Man and in fine commanded him to be retained as a faithful Subject This Story is at large related by Fox And this I judg to be that Turner whom the Arch-bishop nominated for Ireland having lived long in his Diocess and so well known to him and whom he had I suppose removed to Canterbury to a Prebend or some other Preferment there Here he did this remarkable and bold piece of Service that when about three Years past the Rebels were up in Kent he then preached twice in the Camp near Canterbury for which the Rebels were going to hang him But God preserved him In Queen Mary's time he fled to Basil where he expounded upon S. Iames the Hebrews and the Ephesians to the Exiles there when Iames Pilkington expounded Ecclesiastes and both Epistles of of Peter and the Galatians And Bentham the Acts of the Apostles Thomas Rosse or Rose was also as memorable a Man very eminent both for his Preachings and Sufferings He was a West-country Man but by Providence was removed into Suffolk And at Hadley had preached against Purgatory and worshipping Images about the time that Bilney and Latimer did the like in Cambridg which was five and twenty or thirty Years past whereby he had brought many to the knowledg of the Truth in that Town About the Year 1532 when certain Persons out of their Zeal against Idolatry had stolen by Night the Rood out of the Church at Dover-court in Essex for which being found guilty of Felony they were hanged Rose seemed to have been privy hereunto For with the Rood they conveyed away the Slippers the Coat and the Tapers belonging to it which Coat Rose burnt Whether for this or some other thing he was complained of to the Council and brought before them and by the Bishop of Lincoln was committed to Prison Where he lay for some Days and Nights with both his Legs in an high pair of Stocks his Body lying along on the Ground Thence he was removed to Lambeth in the Year that Cranmer was Consecrated which was 1533 who set him at liberty Afterward he was admitted by Crumwel to be his Chaplain that thereby he might get a Licence to preach After various tossings from Place to Place for safety of his Life he fled into Flanders and Germany and came to Zurick and remained with Bullinger and to Basil where he was entertained by Grineus After some time he returned back into England But was glad to fly beyond Sea again Three Years after in his Voyage back to his own Country again he was taken Prisoner by some French and carried into Diep where he was spoiled of all he had His Ransom was soon after paid by a well-disposed Person who also brought him over into England Then the Earl of Sussex received him and his Wife and Child privately into his House But when this was known the Earl sent him a secret Letter to be gone And so he lurked in London till the Death of King Henry VIII King Edward gave him the Living of VVest-Ham near London in Essex Being deprived upon Queen Mary's coming to the Crown he was sometime Preacher to a Congregation in London But was taken at one of their Meetings in Bow-Church-yard Which I suppose was in the Year 1555. For then he was in the Tower and thence in the Month of May by the Council's Letters he was delivered to the Sheriff of Norfolk to be conveyed and delivered to the Bishop of Norwich and he either to reduce him to recant or to proceed against him according to Law Much Imprisonment and many Examinations he underwent both from the Bishops of Winchester and Norwich but escaped at last by a great Providence beyond Sea where he tarried till the Death of Queen Mary And after these his Harassings up and down in the World he was at last in Queen Elizabeth's happy Reign quietly settled at Luton in Bedfordshire where he was Preacher and lived to a very great Age. The fourth was Robert Wisdome a Man eminent as the rest both for his exemplary Conversation and for his Preaching together with his Sufferings attending thereon In Henry the Eighth his Reign he was a Person of Fame among the Professors of the Gospel in the South Parts of the Nation whence after many painful Labours and Persecutions he fled into the North as did divers other Preachers of the pure Religion in those Times There in Staffordshire he was one of those that were entertained by Iohn Old a pious Professor and Harbourer of good Men and Thomas Becon was another who was taken up with Bradford in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign and committed to the Tower Of this Old the said Becon in a Treatise of his printed in Edward the sixth his Reign gives this Character That he was to him and VVisdom as Iason was to Paul and Silas He received us joyfully into his House and liberally for the Lord's Sake ministred to our Necessities And as he begun so did he continue a right hearty Friend and dearly loving Brother so long as we remained in the Country While VVisdom was here he was ever vertuously occupied and suffered no Hour to pass without some good Fruit employing himself now in Writing as he had before in Preaching Besides other Books formerly writ by him he penned here a very godly and fruitful Exposition upon certain Psalms of David Of the which he translated some into English Metre There is one of them and I think no more still remaining in our ordinary singing Psalms namely the hundred twenty fifth
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
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
the Romish Pox and the Leprosy shewing afterward the Remedies against these Diseases For being a very facetious Man he delivered his Reproofs and Counsels under witty and pleasant Discourse He wrote also The hunting of the Romish Fox Iohn Iuel afterwards Bishop of Salisbury assisted Peter Martyr at Strasburgh in setting out his Commentaries upon the Book of Iudges Who being publick Reader of Divinity there had first read those Commentaries and had many Learned English-Men for his Auditors as Poynet Grindal Sands Sir Iohn Cheke Sir Anthony Cook and divers other Knights and Gentlemen as well as Divines And when he was removed to Zurick to succeed Pelican he took Iuel with him thither In Frankford there happening as was said before unhappy Contentions about Ceremonies and Matters of Discipline and it was feared that these Dissensions might spread themselves into the other Fraternities in Zurick and other places Iuel's great Business was to allay these Animosities partly by Letters and partly by his own verbal Exhortations That they should as Brethren lay aside Strife and Emulation especially for such small Matters That they would hereby offend the Minds of all good Men which things they ought to have a special heed of Some who seemed more complaining and uneasy at these things he exhorted to Patience admonishing That we ought not to leap from the Smoke into the Fire and that we ought to bear a part in Christ's Cross and to consider how much better it was with them than with their poor Brethren that endured Tortures in England And he would often repeat to them Bear a while then things will not endure an Age. Thomas Becon formerly a Minister in Canterbury and well known to the Arch-bishop wrote an Epistle in his Exile and sent it to certain Godly Brethren in England Declaring in it the Causes of all the Miseries and Calamities that were fallen upon England How they might be redrest and what a merciful Lord our God is to all faithful penitent Sinners that unfeignedly turn to him This Epistle was brought into England and read of the Brethren in their Religious Meetings not without Fruit. In this Epistle he added a Supplication to God at good length for the restoring of his Holy Word to the Church of England Wherein the devout Christian complaineth his Grief and Sorrow to his Lord for taking away the Light of Christ's Gospel and humbly acknowledging his Fault and worthy Punishment most heartily wisheth the Subversion of Anti-christ's Kingdom and the Restitution of Christ's most Glorious Kingdom in this Realm He wrote also an Epistle to the Massing Priests wherein he shewed what a wicked Idol the Mass was and what a Difference there was between the Lord's-Supper and that and what Popes brought in every part of the Mass and put them together as it was then used Laurence Humfrey while he was in exile wrote a Book in Latin intituled Optimates being Instructions for Noble-men in three Books It was printed at Basil by Oporinus and dedicated to Q. Elizabeth soon after her entrance upon her Kingdom The Reason of this his Discourse was out of an universal Love to Mankind and desire to better the Condition of the World whose Welfare depended so much upon the Sobriety and Vertue of those of Noble Rank and Quality Since Nobility as he wrote widely spread it self through all the Regions and Coasts of Christendom and was preferred to Places of Trust and Honour in all Princes Courts and was the very Nerve and Strength of Commonwealths and since from it issued the greatest Helps or Hindrances to the Publick Safety Pure Religion the Lives and Maners of Men Therefore he thought the Gentry and Nobility being imbued with Right and Christian Opinions not formed to the corrupt Rules of Antiquity Kings would govern better the Ministers of Ecclesiastical Matters would more faithfully perform their Functions and the common Sort would more diligently discharge all necessary Offices and the whole Common-weal might seem more healthfully to breath to live and to recover and persist in a good Constitution Beside this excellent Book both for the Matter and Elegancy of the Latin Stile he printed two or three other things at Basil and he wrote while he was abroad a Commentary upon the Prophet Isaiah But I know not whether it were published Bartholomew Traheron Library-Keeper to K. Edward and Dean of Chichester made divers Readings to the English Congregation upon the beginning of St. Iohn's Gospel and after printed them against the wicked Enterprizes of the new start-up Arians in England Iohn Fox famous to Posterity for his immense Labours in his Acts and Monuments was received by the Accurate and Learned Printer Oporinus of Basil for the Corrector of his Press He published and which I think was the first thing he published and his first-fruits a Chronological History of the Church The first Part from the first Times unto Martin Luther This Book he presented unto Oporinus with an handsom Epistle Wherein he desired to be received by him into his Service and that he would vouchsafe to be his Learned Patron under whom he might follow his Studies being one that would be content with a small Salary Promising him that if he would employ him either there at Basil or at Argentine or some University which he should rather chuse Aut me said he destituent omnia aut efficiam Christo opitulante ut omnes politioris literaturae homines intelligant quantum Operiano nomini officinae debeant While he was here employed by Oporinus at spare Hours he began his History of the Acts of the Church in Latin Which he drew out more briefly at first and before his return home into England well near finished Having here compleated the Copy which was but the first Part of what he intended but making a just Volume in Folio he sent this Work to Basil to be printed And so it was in the Year 155 It remained many Years after in those Parts in great Request and was read by Foreign Nations although hardly known at all by our own Being now in Peace and Safety at Home Fox reviewed this his Work and in the Year 1566 first published it in English very Voluminous because of those many Relations of the Persecutions in Q. Mary's Days that came to his Hands All this Work he did himself without the help of any Amanuensis nor had he any Servant to do his necessary Domestick Business being fain to be often diverted by his own private Occasions from his Work He afterwards enlarged these his Labours into three large Volumes which have since undergone many Editions But to look back to what he published in his Exile There came to his Hand all the Trials and Examinations of the Learned Martyr Ioh. Philpot Arch-deacon of Winchester drawn up by himself and finally his Death being burnt in Smithfield 1555. These things Fox put into Latin as he had an excellent Latin Stile
seemed to gratify him For Vstazades desired that the Cause of his Death might be published This I ask said he for the Guerdon of my Time-service to thee and to thy Father Which the King readily granted thinking that when the Christians should all know it it would make them the more afraid and sooner to consent to him But so soon as it was published and Vstazades put to death Lord how it comforted not only Simeon then being in Prison but also all the Christians Bradford having told this History improved it after this Tenor. This History I wish said he were marked as well of us as of all our Popish Gospellers which have none other things to excuse them than Vstazades had For his Heart was with God howsoever he framed his Body We should behave our selves straitly against such Brethren as Simeon did and then they the sooner would play Vstazades Part. Which thing no marvail though they do not so long as we rock them asleep by regarding them and their Companions as daily we do and so are partakers of their Evil and at the length shall feel of their Smart and Punishment Of these outward Compliers with the Mass was one Ann Hartipol that formerly harboured the Lady Ann Ascue burnt in King Henry's Reign She now went to Mass pretending her Conscience to be â—ound before God and that her Conscience gave her leave to go To whom Philpot wrote an excellent Letter which is extant among the Letters of the Martyrs The People of this Practice had been tampering with the Lady Vane a pious Lady and a great Benefactor to the poor Prisoners of Christ Insomuch that she propounded to Bradford three Questioâ—s concerning the Mass being Cases of Conscience what she were best to do whether to go to it or not He told her in a Letter That the Questions would never be well seen nor answered until the Thing whereof they arose were well considered That is how great an Evil it was That there was never Thing upon the Earth so great and so much an Adversary to God's true Service to Christ's Death Passion Priesthood Sacrifice and Kingdom to the Ministry of God's Word and Sacrament to the Church of God to Repentance Faith and all true Godliness of Life as that was whereof the Questions arose And that therefore a Christian Man could not but so much the more abhor it and all things that in any Point might seem to allow it or any thing pertaining to the same Bradford also writ a little Book on this Argument intituled The Hurt of the Mass. This Book he sent to his Acquaintance to stop their going to the Popish Service and particularly to Mr. Shaleros a Friend of his in Lancashire and recommended the reading of it to one Riddleston that had defiled himself in this false Service CHAP. XVII A bloody Time The Queen 's great Belly A Convocation THE Year 1555 was a bloody Year and many honest People both of the Clergy and Laity were burnt alive in all Parts because they believed not Transubstantiation Insomuch that a tender Heart cannot but shrink at the very remembrance thereof And as if there were a kind of Delight in this sort of cruel Executions Instructions were sent abroad in the beginning of the Year unto the Justices of Peace through all Counties in England to enquire diligently in every Parish for Persons disaffected to the Popish Religion And in each Parish were some appointed to be secret Informers against the rest And for the better discovery of such poor Professors of the Gospel that fled from Place to Place for their Safety the Constables and four or more of the Catholick sort in every Parish were authorized to take Examination of all such as might be suspected how they lived and where they were And such as absented from the Mass and conformed not themselves to the Church were to be brought before the Justices Who were to perswade them to conform and if they would not to bind them to good Abearing or commit them to Prison The Justices were also commanded by another Order soon after to deliver such as leaned to Erroneous and Heretical Opinions and would not be reclaimed by the Justices to the Ordinaries to be by them travailed with and continuing Obstinate to have the Laws executed upon them May 27. These Orders came from the King and Queen to the Justices of Norfolk Which as I extract from a Manuscript relating the Orders sent into that County were in these special Articles I. To divide themselves into several Districtions II. To assist such Preachers as should be sent For it was thought convenient to send abroad Itinerary Preachers as was done in the last King's Reign who should by their Doctrine endeavour to reduce the People to the old Religion and to use them reverently and to be present at their Sermons and to travail soberly with such as abstained from coming to Church or by any other open Doings should appear not perswaded to conform themselves and to use others that be wilful and perverse more roundly either by rebuking them or binding them to good Behaviour or by imprisoning them as the Quality of the Persons and the Circumstance of their Doings may deserve III. To lay special wait for Teachers of Heresies and Procurers of secret Meetings to that purpose That they and their Families shew good Examples and begin first to reform their Servants if any of them be faulty IV. To apprehend spreaders of false and seditious Rumours V. To procure one or more in every Parish secretly instructed to give information of the Behaviour of the Inhabitants VI. To charge the Constable and four or more Catholick Inhabitants of every Parish to give account of idle Vagabonds and suspected Persons meaning by these the poor Professors or Preachers of the Gospel who crept about for their own Safety and had no settled Habitation and the Retainers of such Persons To observe Hue and Cry and to look after the Watches in every Parish VII To send an Account of Felons c. when any should be apprehended VIII To meet every Month and confer about these Matters Whereupon the Justices meeting together it was resolved by them to obey every of the said Orders Particularly concerning the Fifth they resolved That these secret Informations should be given to the Justices and that the accused Parties should be examined without knowledg by whom they were accused The Earl of Sussex lived in that County and was one of chief Trust there For this Earl had Command in Norfolk of Queen Mary's Army when she first laid her Claim to the Crown and managed it with that Prudence and Conduct that others were induced by his Means to come in This Earl received several Informations against Ministers and others for it seems notwithstanding all these severe Usages the Popish Mass had not yet so prevailed every where but that in divers places there were some remainders of
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
which agrees within a Day a Passage at the end of a Piece of Bucer's intituled Explicatio de vi usu S. Ministerii where it is said That he died at Cambridg before he finish'd it Pridie Cal. Martias Anno 1551. I have one Learned Man more behind to mention and he our own Country-Man to whom our Arch-bishop was a Patron and that is the celebrated Antiquarian Iohn Leland Library-keeper to Henry VIII and who by a Commission under the Broad Seal granted to him for that purpose by the King had got together a vast Heap of Collections of the Historical Antiquities of this Nation which he was many Years a making by his Travels and diligent Searches into the Libraries of Abbies and Religious-Houses before and at their Dissolution and elsewhere From whence he intended to compile a compleat History of the Antiquities of Britain To which he wholly devoted himself But being at that time poor and the Charges of such an Undertaking great he wanted some Body to make this known to the King and to recommend him effectually to his Favour and Countenance and to procure him a Royal Gratuity For which purpose he made his Application to Cranmer who he well knew was the great Encourager of Learning and Ingenuity in a very elegant Address in Verse as he was an excellent Poet. And I am apt to think the Preferments that soon after befel him as a good Parsonage near Oxford and a Canonry of the King's College in that University and a Prebendship elsewhere accrued to him by the means of the Arch-bishop laying open his State before the King His Copy of Verses were as follow Ad Thomam Cranmerum Cantiorum Archiepiscopum EST congesta mihi domi supellex Ingens aurea nobilis venusta Qua totus studeo Britanniarum Vero reddere gloriam nitori Sed fortuna meis noverca coeptis Iam felicibus invidet maligna Quare ne pereant brevi vel hora Multarum mihi noctium labores Omnes patriae simul decora Ornamenta cadant suusque splendor Antiquis malè desit usque rebus Cranmere eximium decus piorum Implorare tuam benignitatem Cogor Fac igitur tuo sueto Pro candore meum decus patronumque Vt tantùm faveat roges labori Incoepto pretium sequetur amplum Sic nomen tibi litterae elegantes Rectè perpetuum dabunt suósque Partim vel titulos tibi receptos Concedet memori Britannus ore Sic te posteritas amabit omnis Et fama super aethera innotesces CHAP. XXVIII Arch-bishop Cranmer's Relations and Chaplains TO look now a little into the Arch-bishop's more private and domestick Concerns He had two Wives While he was Fellow of Iesus College in Cambridg not being in Orders he married his first named Ioan dwelling at the Dolphin opposite to Iesus Lane which I think is a publick House to this Day Which occasioned some of his Enemies afterwards to say That he was once an Ostler because he lodged sometime with his Wife at that House Her he buried within a Year dying in Child-bed And then for divers Years he continued studying hard and reading Learned Lectures in the University and bringing up Youth till he was called to the Court His second Wife named Ann he married in Germany while he was Ambassador there By her he had Children In King Henry's Reign he kept her Secret and upon the Act of the Six Articles he sent her away into Germany that he might give no Offence nor draw any Danger upon himself In the time of King Edward when the Marriage of the Clergy was allowed he brought her forth and lived openly with her He had Children that survived him For whose sake an Act of Parliament passed in the Year 1562 to restore them in Blood their Father having been condemned for Treason in consenting to the Lady Iane's Succession to the Crown For which yet he was pardoned by Queen Mary Probably the Pardon was only Verbal or not Authentickly enough drawn up or might admit of some Doubt To take off which such an Act was procured How many Children he had or what Issue remains of them to this Day I am not able after all my Enquiries to shew His Wife survived him For we may give so much Credit to a very angry Book writ against the Execution of Iustice in England by Cardinal Allen Which charging the Arch-bishop with Breach of Vows saith That at the very Day and Hour of his Death he was sacrilegiously joined in pretended Marriage to a Woman notwithstanding his Vow and Order And living she was toward the latter End of Arch-bishop Parker's Time and for her Subsistence enjoyed an Abby in Nottingham-shire which King Henry upon Dr. Butt's his Motion without the Arch-bishop's knowledg granted to him and his Heirs For his Wife and Children he could not escape many a Taunt from his Enemies behind his Back and one to his Face from Dr. Martin one of those that were commissionated to sit as Judges upon him at Oxford He told him in reproach That his Children were Bondmen to the See of Canterbury Whether there be any such old Canon-Law I know not But the Arch-bishop smiled and asked him If a Priest at his Benefice kept a Concubine and had Children by her whether those Children were Bond-men to the Benefice or no And that he trusted they would make his Childrens Case no worse I find two of his Name in King Edward's Reign but whether they were his or his Brother Edmund's Sons or some other Relations I cannot tell There was one Richard Cranmer one of the Witnesses at the Abjuration of Ashton Priest an Arian 1548. Daniel Cranmer of Bilsington of the Diocess of Canterbury who about administring to a Will was for contumacy to the Court of Canterbury Excommunicate and a Significavit was issued out against him thereupon in the Year 1552. There was also a Thomas Cranmer about these Times who bought something in Ware-Lane of the City of Canterbury He was Publick Notary and Register to the Arch-deacon in the Year 1569. I find likewise one Robert Cranmer Esq. who was Nephew to the Arch-bishop and alive at the latter End of Queen Elizabeth This Robert left one only Daughter and Heiress named Ann. Whom Sir Arthur Harris of Crixey in Essex married and enjoyed with her three Manors Postling which came to the said Robert in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth Kingsnorth in Vlcomb and Saltwood Both which he purchased in the latter end of that Queen Upon whose Grandchild Sir Cranmer Harris of Lincoln's-Inn Kt. those Estates descended There was another Cranmer of Canterbury who enjoyed a Manor called Sapinton in Petham in Kent One of whose Off-spring by descent successively was intitled to the Propriety of it and was alive when Philpot published his Book of that County viz. 1659. There â—e living at this Time among divers others two Knights of this Name Sir Cesar Cranmer once belonging
away and give place unto Romish Decrees And then by your own Article you hold and condemn your selves to be Heretics How be you bewitched by these false Papists Why do you suffer them thus to abuse you by their subtilty to make you condemn your selves of Heresy Why do you not send them unto the Kings Majesty like errant Traitors as indeed they be Saying unto him Most mighty Prince and most drad Soveraign Lord we present here unto you most heinous Traitors against your Majesty and realm and greatest Dissemblers and falsest Deceivers of us your Simple and ignorant people and yet in our own hearts your true and faithful Subjects We have erred We have grievously offended your Majesty but by ignorance being so seduced and provoked by the crafty persuasions of these most hainous Traitors that we wist not what we did But pardon us Soveraign Lord have pity upon our Simplicity and ignorance and these abominable Traitors punish according to their deservings Have mercy most merciful Prince of us your poor flock which were ignorantly led out of the way and strike with the Swords those malicious guides that purposely would have led us to our utter destruction If you did thus then would you do the parts of true faithful and loyal Subjects and should declare to the world that al that you have hitherto done was done by error and ignorance And I would nothing doubt of the Kings Majestie his Clemency and Mercy towards you But yet to the intent that you may further know how unreasonable your first Article is I wil yet reherse another sort of the holy Lawes and Decrees One is That no Lay man may have a Benefice to farm Another is That none of the Clergy may give any thing to the relief of the commonweal and necessity of their own realm without the consent of the Bp. of Rome Another is That no Lay man may meddle with election or any other thing that pertaineth unto any of the Clergy Another is That none of the Clergy ought to give any oath of fidelity to their Princes except they have temporal lands of them Another is That Princes ought to obey the Bps and the Decrees of the Church and to submit their Heads unto their Bps and not to be judges over the Bps. Another is Whosoever offendeth the Liberties of the Church or doth break any Interdiction that cometh from Rome or conspireth against the Person or Estate of the Bp. or See of Rome or by any maner offendeth disobeyeth or rebelleth against the same Bp. or See or that killeth a Priest or offendeth personally against a Bp. or other Prelate or invadeth spoileth withholdeth or wasteth Lands belonging to the Church of Rome or to any other Church immediately subject unto Rome or whosoever invadeth any Pilgrims that go to Rome or any Suitors to the Court of Rome or that let the devolution of causes unto that Court or that put any new charges or impositions real or personal upon a Church or ecclesiastical person and generally All others that offend in the cases contained in the Bul which is usually published by the Bps. of Rome upon Maunday thursday Al these can be assoiled by no Priest Bp Archbp nor by none other but only by the Bp. of Rome or by his express Licence These with an infinite number of like sort be the godly and holy Decrees which you long so sore for and so much desire Now would I know whether you think that these decrees were made for the common wealth of al realmes or only for the private weal of the Bp. of Rome and of his Bps. and Clergy And whether you like and long for these laws or now at the hearing of them your longing is done If you like them Wel for my part I would you had them practised among you for a while so that the rest of the Realm were not troubled neither with you nor with your Decrees unles you repented your selves of your foolish demands I think within a year you would kneel on your knees to the Kings Majestie desiring him to take from your necks the yokes and halters which you had made for your selves But to conclude the sum of the first Article in few words It is nothing else but a clear subversion of the whole State and Lawes of this realm and to make this Realm to be whole governed by Romish Lawes and to crown the Idol and Antichrist of Rome king of this realm and to make our most undoubted and natural King his vile Subject and slave Oh! what was in your minds to ask such a thing and so presumptuously to say that you wil have it I trust there be not in you so much malice and devilishness as the Article containeth but that you were craftily subornate by subtil Papists to ask and demand you wist not what If you had asked that the Word of God might be duly observed and kept every where within this Realm And whosoever would gainsay Gods word to be holden as a Heretic If you had declared your selves to be godly men al that be godly would have commended and furthered your requests But forasmuch as you ask Romish Canons and Decrees to be observed and kept here in England and whosoever shal againsay them to be holdon as hereticks there is neither godly nor truly English man that will allow you or consent to your Articles But clean contrary to your Articles a great number of godly persons within this realm for the very love that they have to God that his Name may be glorified above al things be daily humble Suitors to the Kings Majesty that he following the steps of his Father wil study and travail to weed out of this his Realm al Popish Decrees Lawes and Canons and whatsoever else is contrary to Gods word and that the speakers against Gods word may be taken as they be indeed for Heretics And is any of you so far from reason that he thinketh the Kings Majesty ought to hearken to you that by force and stubbornness say you wil have Romish Laws and Decrees kept in this realm and to turn his ears from them that with al humility be suitors for Gods Word But now wil I come to your other Articles wherein I wil be brief forasmuch as in the first I have been long and tedious II. Your second Article is this WEE wil have the Law of our Soveraign Lord K. Henry VIII concerning the six Articles to be used again as in his time they were Letting pas your rude stile nothing becoming Subjects to say You wil have First I examine you of the cause of your wilful wil wherefore you wil have these six Articles which never were laws in no region but this nor in this realm also until the 31 st year of King Henry VIII And in some things so enforced by the evil Counsil of certain Papists against the truth and common judgment both of Divines and Lawyers that if the Kings Majesty himself
the Vilains to rule the Gentlemen and the Servants their Masters If men would suffer this God wil not but wil take vengeance on al them that wil break his order as he did of Dathan and Abiram altho for a time he be a God of much sufferance and hideth his indignation under his mercy That the evil of themselves may repent and se their own folly XIV Your fourteenth Article is this WEE wil that the half part of the Abby lands and Chantry lands in every mans possession howsoever he came by them be given again to two places where two of the chief Abbies were within every County Where such half part shal bee taken out and there to be established a place for devout persons which shal pray for the King and the Common wealth And to the same we wil have al the Almes of the Church box given for these seven years At the beginning you pâ—etended that you meant nothing against the Kings Majesty but now you open your selves plainly to the world that you go about to pluck the Crown from his head and against al justice and equity not only to take from him such lands as be annexed unto his Crown and be parcel of the same but also against al right and reason to take from al other men such lands as they came to by most just title by gift by sale by exchange or otherwise There is no respect nor difference had among you whether they come to them by right or by wrong Be you so blind that you cannot see how justly you proceed to take the sword in your hand against your prince and to dispossesse just Inheritors without any cause Christ would not take upon him to judg the right and title of lands betwixt two brethren and you arrogantly presume not only to judg but unjustly to take away al mens right titles yea even from the King himself And do you not tremble for fear that the Vengeance of God shal fal upon you before you have grace to repent And yet you not contented with this your Rebellion would have your shameful act celebrated with a perpetual memory as it were to boast and glory of your iniquity For in memory of your fact you would have established in every country two places to pray for the King and the Common-wealth Wherby your abominable behaviour at this present may never be forgotten but be remembred unto the worlds end That when the Kings Majesty was in Wars with Scotland and France you under pretence of the Common wealth rebelled and made so great sedition against him within his own realm as never before was heard of And therfore you must be prayed for for ever in every County of this realm It were more fit for you to make humble Supplication upon your knees to the Kings Majesty desiring him not only to forgive you this fault but also that the same may never be put in Chronicle nor writing and that neither shew nor mention may remain to your posterity that ever subjects were so unkind to their Prince and so ungracious toward God that contrary to Gods word they should so use themselves against their Soveraign Lord and King And this I assure you of that if al the whole world should pray for you until Doomsday their prayers should no more avail you then they should avail the Devils in hel if they prayed for them unles you be so penitent and sory for your disobedience that you wil ever hereafter so long as you live study to redubbe and recompence the same with al true and faithful obedience and not only your selves but also procuring al other so much as lyeth in you And so much detesting such uproars and seditions that if you se any man towards any such things you wil to your power resist him and open him unto such Governors and Rulers as may straitway repres the same As for your last Article thanks be to God it needs not to be answered which is this Your last Article is this FOR the particular griefes of our Country we wil have them so ordered as Humfrey Arundel and Henry Bray the Kings Maior of Bodman shal inform the Kings Majesty if they may have salve Conduct in the Kings great Seal to pas und repas with an Herald of Armes Who ever heard such arrogancy in Subjects to require and wil of their Princes that their own particular causes may be ordered neither according to reason nor the lawes of the Realm but according to the Information of two most hainous Traitors Was it ever heard before this time that information should be a judgment altho the Informers were of never so great credit And wil you have suffice the information of two villanous Papistical Traitors You wil deprive the King of his lands pertaining to his Crown and other men of their just possessions and inheritances and judg your own causes as you list your selves And what can you be called then but most wicked judges and most errant Traitors Except only Ignorance or Force may excuse youâ— that either you were constrained by your Capitains against your wills or deceived by blind Priests and other crafty persuaders to ask you wist not what How much then ought you to detest and abhor such men hereafter and to beware of al such like as long as you live and to give most humble and hearty thanks unto God who hath made an end of this Article and brought Arundel and Bray to that they have deserved that is perpetual shame confusion and death Yet I beâ—seech God so to extend his grace unto them that they may dy wel which have lived il Amen NUM XLI The Archbishops notes for an Homily against the Rebellion Sentences of the Scripture against Sedition 1 Cor. 3. CUM sit inter vos zelus contentio nonne carnales estis sicut homines ambulatis Et 1 Cor. 6. Quare non magis injuriam accipitis Quare non magis fraudem patimini Iac. 3. Si zelum amarum habetis contentiones sint in cordibus vestris c. non est ista Sapientia desursum descendens a Patre Luminum sed terrena animalis Diabolica Ubi enim zelus contentio ibi inconstantia omne opus malum c. Et Cap. 4. Unde bella lites inter vos Nonne ex concupiscentijs vestris quae m ilitant in membris vestris How God hath plagued Sedition in time past Num. 18. Dathan and Abiram for ther sedition against Moses and Aaron did miserably perish by Gods just judgment the earth opening and swallowing them down quick 2 Reg. 15. 18. Absalom moving Sedition against David did miserably perish likewise 2 Reg. 20. Seba for his Sedition against David lost his head 3 Reg. 1. 2. Adonias also for his Sedition against Solomon was slain Acts 8. Iudas and Theudas for their Sedition were justly slain Acts 21. An Egyptian likewise which moved the people of Israel to Sedition received that he
deserved Tumults in England Iack Cade Iack Straw In Germany for their Sedition were slain almost in one month about two hundred thousand The Sword by Gods word pertaineth not to Subjects but only to Magistrates Tho the Magistrates be evil and very tyrants against the Common-wealth and enemies to Christs religion yet yee Subjects must obey in all worldly things as the Christians do under the Turk and ought so to do as long as he commandeth them not to do against God How ungodly then is it for our Subjects to take the Sword where there reigneth a most Christian prince most desirous to reform al griefs Subjects ought to make humble suit to their Prince for Reformation of al injuries and not to come with force The Sword of the Subjects at this present cometh not of God nor for the Common wealth of the Realm but of the Devil and destroyeth the Commonweale First For that it is against the word of God Secondly For that they rise so many lies whereof the Devil is ever the Author Quia mendax est Pater ejus Thirdly For that they spoile and rob men and command every man to come to them and to send to them what they please Fourthly For that they let the harvest Which is the chief sustentation of our life and God of his goodness hath sent it abundantly And they by their folly do cause it to be lost and abandoned Fiftly For that they be led by rage and fury without reason have no respect neither of the Kings Authority nor of the Papists in the West Country nor of our affaires in France nor Scotland Which by their Sedition is so much hindred that there could not be imagined so great a dammage to the Realm Sixtly That they give Commandment in the Kings name and in pain of death having none authority so to do Ever against God the Devil hath raised Sedition As appeareth by the Sedition of Dathan and Abiram and al the murmurations of the children of Israel against Moses and Aaron Also of the conspiracy against Zorobabel in the reedifying of the Temple Also against Christ and his Apostles in sundry parts of the World Also In Germany lately and now among us For the Devil can abide no right reformation in religion Civil war is the greatest scourge that can be and most certain argument of Gods indignation against us for our ingratitude that we either wil not receive his true word or that they which receive the same dishonor God in their living when they pretend to honor him with their mouths Which ingratitude and contumely God can in no wise bear at our hands The Remedies to avert Gods Indignation from us is to receive his Word and to live according therunto Returning unto God with prayer and penance Or else surely more grievous afflictions shal follow if more grievous may be then Civil wars among our selves The chief Authors of al these tumults be idle and naughty people Which nothing have nor nothing or little wil labor to have that wil riot in expending but not labor in getting And these tumults first were excitated by the Papists and others which came from the Western Camp To the intent that by sowing division among our selves we should not be able to impeach them NUM XLII The Lady Mary to the Councel justifying her self for using the Mass in K. Edwards Minority IT is no smal greyf to me to parceyve that they whom the Kings Majesty my father whose Soule god pardon made in thys worlde of nothing in respecte of that they be come to now and at hys last ende put in trust to se hys Wyll perfourmed wherunto they were al sworne upon a boke it gryeveth me I say for the Love I beare to theym to se bothe howe they break his wyll and what usurped power they take upon theym in making as they cal it lawes both cleane contrarye to hys procedynges and wyll and also ageyust the coustome of al Crystendome and in my conscyence ageynst the lawe of god and hys chyrche Which passeth al the reste But thoughe you among you have forgotten the Kyng my father yet both gods commandment and nature wyll not suffre me to do so Wherfore with gods helpe I wyll remayne an obedyent chylde to hys lawes as he left theym tylle suche tyme as the Kynges majeste my brother shal have parfayt yers of discrecyon to order the power that god hath sent hym and to be a Judge in theyse matters hymself And I doubte not but he shal then accept my so doing better then theyrs which have taken a pece of his power upon them in his mynoryte I do not a little mervayle that you can find fawte with me for observing of that lawe which was allowed by him that was a kyng not only of power but also of knowledge how to order his power To which lawes al you consented and seemed at that tyme to the outward appearance very wel to lyke the same And more immediately when the Kyng reasons to have his proceedyngs observed Wherfore I do wonder that you can fynde fawte with me and non al thys whyle with some amongst your selves for runnyng halfe a year before that which you now call a lawe ye and before the byshopps cam together Wherin me thynketh you do me very myche wronge if I should not have as mych preemynence to contynew in kepyng a ful authorysed Lawe made without parcyalyte they had both to break the lawe which at that tyme your selves must nedes confesse was of ful power and strengthe and to use alteracyons of theyr own invencyon contrary both to that ye and to your new Lawe as you call it NUM XLIII The Archbishops letter to Martin Bucer inviting him over into England GRatiam pacem Dei in Christo. Legi tuas literas ad Iohannem Halesium in quibus tristissimos Germaniae casus commemorans te in tua urbe verbi ministerio vix diutius praeesse posse scribis Gemens igitur Prophetae illud exclamavi Mirifica misericordias tuas qui Salvos facis sperantes in te a resistentibus dexterae tuae Nec dubito quin Deus hoc similes piorum gemitus exauditurus sit veram doctrinam quae hactenus in vestris Ecclesijs syncere propagata est conservaturus defensurus sit adversus omnes diaboli mundi furores Interim Saevientibus fluctuum procellis in portus confugiendum est ijs qui vela in altum tendere non possunt Tibi igitur mi Bucere portus longe tutissimus erit nostrum regnum in quo Dei beneficio semina verae doctrinae feliciter spargi caeperunt Veni igitur ad nos te nobis operarium praesta in messe Domini Non minus proderis Catholicae Dei Ecclesiae cum apud nos fueris quam si pristinas sedes retineres Adde quod adflictae patriae vulnera absens melius sanare poteris quam nunc possis praesens Omni