begun to hate Priests this would make them much more to do so nay and the very Name of Learning too As for the Authority of the Universities they were many times led by Affection which was well known And he wished they had never erred in their Determinations He shewed that they were brought to the King's Part with great difficulty Moreover against the Universities Authority he set the Authority of the King's Father and his Council the Queen's Father and his Council and the Pope and his Then he proceeded to Political Considerations of the Pope and Emperor and the French King That the Pope was a great Adversary of the King's purpose he had shewed divers tokens already and that not without cause Because if he should consent he should do against his Predecessors and restrain his own Power which he would rather gladly enlarge and likewise raise Seditions in many Realms as in Portugal Of whose King the Emperor married one Sister and the Duke of Savoy the other Then he went on extolling the Emperor's Power and lessening that of the French King as to his aiding of us Mentioning the Mischief the Emperor might do England by forbidding only our trading into Flanders and Spain That the French never used to keep their Leagues with us but for their own Ends and that we could never find in our Hearts to trust them And that the two Nations never loved one another And that if the French should but suspect that this new Matrimony of the King with the Lady Ann Bolen now purposed should not continue we must not expect Succor of them but upon intolerable Conditions And then lastly he comes to deliberate for the saving the King's Honour Which as it was impossible to do if he proceeded one step further for he had already he said gone to the very Brink so he began to propound certain means for the rescue of it Thus far is Cranmer's Relation of the Book But here he breaks off the Messenger that tarried for the Letter being in haste promising the next Day to come to the Earl to whom he wrote all this and relate the rest to him by Word of Mouth These Means in short were as I collect from some other Passages of this Letter to refer the Matter wholly to the Pope and to reject the thoughts of matching with the Lady Ann. The which was now much talked of For the King and She were very great and about this very time they both rode together from Hampton-Court to Windsor though she were yet no more then the Lady Ann without any other Title The Censure which our Divine gave of this Book and the Writer was this wherein his Modesty and Candor as well as Judgment appeared That Pole had shewed himself both Witty and Eloquent And that for his Wisdom he might have been of Counsel to the King and such his Rhetorick that if his Book should have been set forth and known to the common People he believed it were not possible to perswade them to the contrary Concerning that which he chiefly drove at namely That the King should commit his great Matter to the Pope's Judgment Cranmer gave his Opinion That he seemed therein to lack much Judgment And that though he pressed it with such goodly Eloquence both of Words and Sentence that he were likely to perswade many yet him he said he perswaded in that Point nothing at all No Cranmer had too well studied the Point to leave such a Case of Conscience to the Pope's Decision But in many other things in this Discourse of Pole he professed he was much satisfied I have placed this whole Letter in the Appendix at the end of these Memorials as I shall do many other Letters and Papers of value partly for the Satisfaction of more curious Readers that love to see Originals and partly for the preservation of many choice Monuments relating to this Man and these Times and for the transferring them to posterity CHAP. III. Cranmer's Embassies IN the Year 1530 Dr. Cranmer was sent by the King into France Italy and Germany with the Earl of Wiltshire Chief Ambassador Dr. Lee Elect Arch-Bishop of York Dr. Stokesly Elect of London Divines Trigonel Karn and Benet Doctors of the Law to dispute these Matrimonial matters of his Majesty at Paris Rome and other places Carrying the Book he had made upon that Subject with him From France they took their Journey to the Pope where Cranmer's Book was delivered to him and he ready to justify it and to offer a Dispute against the Marriage openly upon these two Points which his Book chiefly consisted of viz. I. That no Man Iure Divino could or ought to marry his Brother's Wife II. That the Bishop of Rome by no means ought to dispense to the contrary But after sundry Promises and Appointments made there was no Man found to oppose him and publickly to dispute these Matters with him Yet in more private Argumentations with them that were about the Pope he so forced them that at last they openly granted even in the Pope's chief Court of the Rota that the said Marriage was against God's Law But as for the Pope's Power of Dispensing with the Laws of God it was too advantagious a Tenet to be parted with But Dr. Cranmer boldly and honestly denied it utterly before them all The King's Ambassadors from the Pope repaired to the Emperor Charles V. Cranmer only being left behind at Rome to make good his Challenge and withal more privately to get the Judgments and Subscriptions of the Learned Men there in the King's Case which was one of his Businesses also in Germany after What he did in this latter Affair he signified by a Letter to Crook another of the King's Agents for that purpose in Italy Namely That his Success there at Rome was but little and that they dared not to attempt to know any Man's Mind because of the Pope who had said that Friars should not discuss his Power And added That he looked for little Favour in that Court but to have the Pope and all his Cardinals declare against them Here at Rome Cranmer abode for some Months But in all the Journey he behaved himself so learnedly soberly and wittily that the Earl of Wilts gave him such Commendations to the King by his Letters that the rest coming home he sent him a Commission with Instructions to be his sole Ambassador to the Emperor in his said great Cause Which Commissional Letters of the King to him bare date Ianuary 24. 1531. wherein he was stiled Consiliarius Regius ad Caesarem Orator By this opportunity of travelling through Germany following the Emperor's Court by his Conferences he fully satisfied many Learned Germans which afore were of a contrary Judgment and divers in the Emperor 's own Court and Council also One of the chiefest of these and who suffered severely for it was Cornelius Agrippa Kt. Doctor of both Laws
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
he had his Commission and took it down with him Which he advisedly did the better to warrant and bear him out in what he intended to do in his Diocess which he purposed to visit This was a Year of Visitation For there was a new Visitation now again appointed throughout all England to see how the People stood affected to the King to discover Cheats and Impostures either in Images Relicks or such like The Arch-bishop also thinking good now to visit his Diocess procured the Licence of the Vice-Gerent Lord Crumwel so to do Because I suppose all other Visitations were to cease to give way to the King's Visitation And to render his Power of Visiting the more unquestionable and void of scruple he desired the Vice-gerent that in drawing up of his Commission his Licence to visit might be put into it by Dr. Peter who was then if I mistake not Master of the Faculties to the said Vice-gerent and afterwards Secretary of State And because he would not do any thing without the Counsel and Allowance of the Vice-gerent he asked his Advice how he should order in his Visitation such Persons as had transgressed the King's Injunctions Which came out the Year before under Crumwel's Name Whereof some were for the restraint of the Number of Holy Days a great cause of Superstition and of the continuance of it And afterwards other Injunctions came out whereof the first was that in all Parishes once every Sunday for a quarter of a Year together the Supremacy should be taught and the Laws to that intent read These Injunctions were in number Eleven as they are set down in the Lord Herbert's History The Vicar of Croydon under the ABp's Nose had been guilty of certain Misdemeanors Which I suppose were speaking or preaching to the disparagement of the King's Supremacy and in favour of the Pope Now before he went into the Countrey and having as yet divers Bishops and Learned Men with him at Lambeth he thought it advisable to call this Man before them at this time But before he would do it he thought it best to consult with Crumwel and take his Advice whether he should now do it and before these Bishops or not So ticklish a thing then was it for the Bishops to do any things of themselves without the privity and order of this great Vice-gerent Cranmer was aware of it and therefore required Direction from him in every thing But whatsoever was done with this Vicar the Arch-bishop was soon down in his Diocess and having taken an Account of the People and Clergy what Conformity they bare to the King's Laws and Injunctions he found them superstitiously set upon the observation of their old Holy Days Some whereof he punished and others he admonished according to the degree of their Crimes And he discovered the chief Cause to lie in the Curates and Priests who did animatâ— the People to what they did indeed their Interest and Gain was concerned The great inconvenience of these Holy Days lay partly in the numerousness of them so that the attendance upon them hindred dispatching and doing Justice in Westminster-hall in the Terms and the gathering in Harvest in the Countrey partly in the Superstitions that these Holy Days maintained in the idolatrous Worship of supposed Saints and partly in the Riot Debauchery and Drunkenness that these Times were celebrated with among the common People and lastly the Poverty it brought upon the meaner sort being detained from going about their ordinary Labours and Callings to provide for themselves and Families For the prevention of these Superstitions for the Future and to make the People more obedient to the King's Laws he gave out strict Orders to all Parsons of Parishes upon pain of Deprivation that they should cause the abrogated Holy Days not to be observed for the future and to present to the Arch-bishop all Persons in their respective Parishes as should do contrary to any of the King's Ordinances already set forth or that should be hereafter by his Authority relating to the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church And this course he conceived so good an Expedient that he counselled the Lord Vice-gerent that all Bishops in their several Diocesses might be commanded to do the same for the avoiding of Disobedience and Contention in the Realm By which means he said The Evil-Will of the People might be conveyed from the King and his Council upon the Ordinaries And so the Love and Obedience of the People better secured to their Soveraign Such was his care of his Prince to preserve him in the Affections of his People that he was willing to take upon himself their Enmity that it might not light upon the King But Cranmer had observed these Holy Days were kept by many even in the Court under the King's Eye which he well knew was an Example and Encouragement to the whole Nation And therefore he signified to the Lord Crumwel that they could never perswade the People to cease from keeping them when the King 's own Houshold were an Example unto the rest to break his own Ordinances See his Letter to Crumwel in the Appendix CHAP. XV. The Bible printed HE was now at Ford and it was in the Month of August when something fell out that gave the good Arch-bishop as much Joy as ever happened to him in all the time of his Prelacy It was the printing of the Holy Bible in the English Tongue in the great Volume Which was now finished by the great Pains and Charges of Richard Grafton the Printer Osiander who knew the Arch-bishop well when he was the King's Ambassador in Germany saith of him that he was Sacrarum Literarum Studiossimum Indeed he always had a great value for the Scriptures because they were the Word of God and extraordinary desirous he was from the very first entrance upon his Bishoprick that the People might have the liberty of reading it and for that purpose to have it interpreted into the Vulgar Language And so by Crumwel's means he got leave from the King that it might be translated and printed The care of the Translation lay wholly upon him assigning little Portions of this Holy Book to divers Bishops and Learned Men to do and being dispatched to be sent back to him And to his inexpressible Satisfaction he saw the Work finished in this Year about Iuly or August As soon as some of the Copies came to his Hand one he sent to Crumwel entreating him that he would present it from him to the King and no question he thought it the noblest Present that ever he made him and withal to intercede with his Majesty that the said Book might by his Authority be both bought and used by all indifferently Both which Crumwel did For which the Arch-bishop was full of Gladness and Gratitude and wrote two Letters to him soon after one another wherein he thanked him most heartily telling him How he had hereby made
Riot in the University and thereby to endanger the King's Professor and was therefore got away into Scotland conscious likewise to himself of Calumnies and Wrongs done by him against the Arch-bishop some time after wrote to the Arch-bishop a submissive Letter praying him to forgive all the Injuries he had done his Grace and to obtain the King's Pardon for him that he might return Home again And he promised to write a Book for the Marriage of Priests as he had done before against it That he was the more desirous to come Home into England because otherwise he should be put upon writing against his Grace's Book of the Sacrament and all his Proceedings in Religion being then harboured as he would make it believed by such as required it at his Hands But in Q. Mary's Days he revolted again and was a most zealous Papist and then did that indeed which he gave some Hints of before for he wrote vehemently against Cranmer's Book But from Oxford let us look over to Cambridg Where Disputations likewise were held in the Month of Iune before the King's Commissioners who were Ridley Bishop of Rochester Thomas Bishop of Ely Mr. Cheke Dr. May and Dr. Wendy the King's Physician The Questions were That Transubstantiation could not be proved by Scripture nor be confirmed by the Consent of Antient Fathers for a thousand Years past And that the Lord's Supper is no Oblation or Sacrifice otherwise than a Remembrance of Christ's Death There were three Solemn Disputations In the first Dr. Madew was Respondent and Glyn Langdale Sedgwick and Yong Opponents In the Second Dr. Glyn was Respondent on the Popish side Opponents Pern Grindal Guest Pilkington In the third Dr. Pern was Respondent Parker Pollard Vavasor Yong Opponents After these Disputations were ended the Bishop of Rochester determined the Truth of these Questions ad placitum suum as a Papist wrote out of whose Notes I transcribe the Names of these Disputants Besides these Disputations when Bucer came to Cambridg he was engaged in another with Sedgwick Pern and Yong upon these Questions I. That the Canonical Books of Scripture alone do teach sufficiently all things necessary to Salvation II. That there is no Church in Earth that erreth not as well in Faith as Manners III. That we are so freely justified of God that before our Justification whatsoever good Works we seem to do have the Nature of Sin Concerning this last he and Yong had several Combates Which are set down in his English Works As to Bucer's Opinion of the Presence in the Sacrament the great Controversy of this Time it may not be amiss to consider what so great a Professor thought herein and especially by what we saw before that Martyr and he did somewhat differ in this Point For as he would not admit those words Carnally and Naturally so neither did he like Realiter and Substantialiter Bucer's Judgment drawn up by himself sententiously in 54 Aphorisms may be seen in the Appendix as I meet with it among Fox's Papers It is extant in Latin among his Scripta Anglicana and intitled Concessio D. M. Buc. de Sancta Eucharistia in Anglia Aphoristicos scripta Anno 1550. And so we take our leave of Bucer for this Year We shall hear of him again in the next CHAP. XV. Matters of the Church and its State now LET me now crave a little room to set down some Matters that relate to the Church coming within the compass of this Year which will shew what mean Advances Religion as yet had made in the Nation Divers Relicks of Popery still continued in the Nation by means partly of the Bishops partly of the Justices of Peace Popishly affected In London Bishop Boner drove on but heavily in the King's Proceedings though he outwardly complied In his Cathedral Church there remained still the Apostles Mass and our Lady's Mass and other Masses under the Defence and Nomination of our Lady's Communion used in the private Chappels and other remote places of the same Church tho not in the Chancel contrary to the King's Proceedings Therefore the Lord Protector and others of the Council wrote to the Bishop Iune 24. Complaining of this and ordering that no such Masses should be used in S. Paul's Church any longer and that the Holy Communion according to the Act of Parliament should be ministred at the high Altar of the Church and in no other place of the same and only at such times as the high Masses were wont to be used except some number of People for their necessary Business desired to have a Communion in the Morning and yet the same to be exercised in the Chancel at the high Altar as was appointed in the Book of Publick Service Accordingly Boner directed his Letters to the Dean and Chapter of Paul's to call together those that were resident and to declare these Matters As it was thus in London so in the Countries too many of the Justices were slack in seeing to the execution of the King's Laws relating not only to Religion but to other Affairs And in some Shires that were further distant the People had never so much as heard of the King's Proclamation by the Default of the Justices who winked at the Peoples neglect thereof For the quickening of the Justices of Peace at this time when a Foreign Invasion was daily expected and Foreign Power was come into Scotland to aid that Nation against England the Lord Protector and the Privy-Council assembled at the Star-Chamber and called before them all the Justices which was a thing accustomed sometimes to be done for the Justices to appear before the King and Council there to have Admonitions and Warnings given them for the discharge of their Duty And then the Lord Chancellor Rich made a Speech to them That they should repair down into their several Countries with speed and give warning to other Gentlemen to go down to their Houses and there to see good Order and Rule kept that their Sessions of Goal-delivery and Quarter-Sessions be well observed that Vagabonds and seditious Tale-bearers of the King or his Council and such as preached without Licence be repress'd and punished That if there should be any Uproars or Routs and Riots of lewd Fellows or privy Traitors they should appease them And that if any Enemy should chance to arise in any Place of England they should fire the Beacons as had been wrote to them before and repulse the same in as good Array as they could And that for that purpose they should see diligently that Men have Horse Harness and other Furniture of Weapon ready And to the Bishops the Council now sent Letters again for Redress of the Contempt and Neglect of the Book of Common-Prayer which to this time long after the publishing thereof was either not known at all to many or very irreverently used Occasioned especially by the winking of the Bishops and the stubborn Disobedience
belief And these were in my heart as my Lord Bp. Hethe of Worcester can testify Neither was I commanded thus to speak but even of mine own free wil. And then he went to his prayers and dyed NUM LXXIV Archbishop Cranmers Letter to the Queen sueing for his pardon in the Lady Janes business MOst Lamentably mourning and moaning himself unto your Highnes Thomas Cranmer although unworthy either to write or speak unto your Highnes yet having no person that I know to be mediator for me and knowing your pitiful ears ready to hear al pitiful complaints and seeing so many to have felt your aboundant clemency in like case Am now constrained most lamentably and with most penitent and sorrowful heart to ask mercy and pardon for my heinous folly and offence in consenting and following the Testament and last Will of our late Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI. your Graces brother Which wel God he knoweth I never liked nor any thing grieved me so much that your Graces brother did And if by any means it had been in me to have letted the making of that Wil I would have done it And what I said therin as wel to the Councel as to himself divers of your Majesties Councel can report but none so wel as the Marquess of Northampton and the L. Darcy then Lord Chamberlain to the Kings Majesty Which two were present at the Communication between the Kings Majesty and me I desired to talk with the Kings Majesty alone but I could not be suffered and so I failed of my purpose For if I might have commoned with the King alone and at good leisure my trust was that I should have altered him from his purpose but they being present my labor was in vain Then when I could not dissuade him from the said Will and both he and his Privy Councel also informed me that the Judges and his learned Counsil said that the Act of entayling the Crown made by his Father could not be prejudicial to him but that he being in possession of the Crown might make his Wil therof This seemed very strange unto me But being the sentence of the Judges and other his learned Counsil in the Lawes of this realm as both he and his Counsil informed me methought it became not me being unlearned in the Law to stand against my Prince therin And so at length I was required by the Kings Majesty himself to set to my hand to his Wil Saying that he trusted that I alone would not be more repugnant to his Wil then the rest of the Councel were Which words surely grieved my heart very sore And so I granted him to subscribe his Wil and to follow the same Which when I had set my hand unto I did it unfainedly and without dissimulation For the which I submit my self most humbly unto your Majesty acknowledging mine offence with most grievous and sorrowful heart and beseeching your mercy and pardon Which my heart giveth me shal not be denyed unto me being granted before to so many Which travailed not so much to dissuade both the King and his Councel as I did And wheras it is contained in two Acts of Parlament as I understand that I with the Duke of Northumberland should devise and compass the deprivation of your Majesty from your royal Crown surely it is untrue For the Duke never opened his mouth to me to move me any such matter Nor his heart was not such toward me seeking long time my destruction that he would ever trust me in such a matter or think that I would be persuaded by him It was other of the Councel that moved me and the King himself the Duke of Northumberland not being present Neither before neither after had I ever any privy communication with the Duke of that matter saving that openly at the Councel table the Duke said unto me that it became not me to say to the King as I did when I went about to dissuade him from his said Will Now as concerning the state of religion as it is used in this realm of England at this present if it please your Highnes to licence me I would gladly write my mind unto your Majesty I wil never God willing be author of Sedition to move Subjects from the obedience of their Heads and Rulers Which is an offence most detestable If I have uttered my mind to your Majesty being a Christian Queen and Governor of this Realm of whom I am most assuredly persuaded that your gracious intent is above al other regards to prefer Gods true word his honor and glory if I have uttered I say my mind unto your Majesty then I shal think my self discharged For it lyes not in me but in your Grace only to se the Reformation of things that be amisse To private subjects it appertaineth not to reform things but quietly to suffer that they cannot amend Yet nevertheles to shew your Majesty my mind in things appertaining unto God methink it my duty knowing that I do and considering the place which in time past I have occupied Yet wil I not presume therunto without your Graces plesure first known and your Licence obtained Wherof I most humbly prostrate to the ground do beseech your Majesty and I shal not cease daily to pray to Almighty God for the good preservation of your Majesty from al Enemies bodily and ghostly and for the encrease of al goodnes heavenly and earthly during my life as I do and wil do whatsoever become of me NUM LXXV Cardinal Poles Instructions for his Messenger to the Queen Instructions for Master Thomas Goldwel MAster Goldwel After ye have made my most humble Salutations with al due reverence to the Queens Highnes on my behalf and presented my Letters to the same then pleasing her Grace to hear your Commission given by me and to understand the cause why I do send you to her ye may expound the same in that form that followeth First of al Seeing that the whole cause of my sending you to her Highnes at this time is grounded upon the request that her Grace maketh unto me in her letters sent me these dayes past from the Emperors court dated in London the xxviij of October in the Latine tongue Wherunto her G. doth demand answer of me in two points One is touching the difficulty she feareth by signes she seeth already touching the renouncing of the title of the Supremacy of the Church in her Realmes when it shal be put forth in the Parlament Which signes be that wheras her Majesty already hath caused to be put forth to the Parlament the abolishing of those lawes which concerned the annullation of the Legitimate matrimony of the gracious Lady the Queen Mother to her G. the same passing the Upper house and put forth to the Lower albeit in the effect they would not refuse to aggree to al that might make to the establishing of the right of her G. to the Crown yet they did not gladly
was at a stand He was translated from this imaginary Bishoprick to be Bishop of Oxford in the Year 1541. One Iohn Hatton had the Title of Episcopus Negropont He was Suffragan under the Arch-bishop of York Iohn Thornden who was several times Commissiary of Oxon while Arch-bishop Warham was Chancellor of that University was stiled Episcopus Syrinensis And hereafter in the progress of this Book we shall meet with a Bishop of Hippolitanum who assisted Arch-bishop Cranmer at his Ordinations These were but Titulary Bishops and the use of them was to supply the Diocesans absence to consecrate Churches and Church-yards and to reconcile them to assist at Ordinations and confer Orders to confirm Children and the like Sometimes these Suffragans had no Titles at all to any place but were Bishops at large Such an one named Richard Martin is met with in an old Register at Canterbury who was Guardian of the Gray-Fryars there By his last Will made 1498 he gave a Library to the Church and Covent He was Parson of Ickham and Vicar of Lyd in Kent and writ himself in the said Will Bishop of the Vniversal Church By which the Antiquarian supposed nothing else was meant but that he was a Bishop in Name endued with Orders but not with Jurisdiction Episcopal having no particular Charge to intend but generally officiating as Bishop in any part of the Christian Church This I have writ that the Reader may not be put to a stand when he shall in these Commentaries meet with some of these Titular Bishops But proceed we now to the Bishops that were this Year Consecrated Diocesan Bishops April the 11 th Nicholas Shaxton was consecrated Bishop of Sarum in the King's Chappel of S. Stephen by our Arch-bishop Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Christopher Sidoniens assisting Septemb. the 15 th was the Act of Confirmation and Election of Edward Fox Elect of Hereford and of William Barlow Prior of the Priory of Canons Regular of Bisham of the Order of S. Augustin Sarum for the Bishoprick of S. Asaph The Consecration of these two last are not inserted in the Register March the 18 th the Act of Confirmation and Election of George Brown D. D. Provincial of the Order of Friars Augustin in the City of London for the Arch-bishoprick of Dublin Consecrated March the 19 th by the Arch-bishop at Lambeth Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting Of this last-mentioned Bishop I shall take some further notice having been the first Protestant Bishop in Ireland as Cranmer was in England a great furtherer of the Reformation in that Land being a stirring Man and of good Parts and Confidence He was first taken notice of by Crumwel Lord Privy Seal and by his sole means preferred to this Dignity in the Church of Ireland upon the observation that was taken of him when he was Provincial of the Augustin Order in England advising all People to make their Application only to Christ and not to Saints Whereby he was recommended unto K. Henry who much favoured him When the King's Supremacy was to be brought in and recognized in Ireland which was the same Year wherein he was made Arch-bishop he was appointed one of the King's Commissioners for the procuring the Nobility Gentry and Clergy to reject the Pope and to own the King for Supream Head of the Church In which Commission he acted with that diligence that it was to the hazard of his Life such opposition was made to it in that Realm At which time in an Assembly of the Clergy George Dowdal Arch-bishop of Ardmagh made a Speech to them and laid a Curse upon those whosoever they were that should own the King's Supremacy Within five Years after this this Arch-bishop Brown caused all Superstitious Relicks and Images to be removed out of the two Cathedrals in Dublin and out of the rest of the Churches in his Diocess and ordered the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and the Creed to be set up in Frames above the Altar in Christ's-Church Dublin In K. Edward VI. his Reign he received the English Common-Prayer-Book into that Realm upon the King's Proclamation for that purpose after much opposition by Dowdal And it was read in Christ's-Church Dublin on Easter Day 1551. He preached also a Sermon in Christ's-Church for having the Scripture in the Mother-Tongue and against Image-worship And for this his forwardness and conformity in Religion and the perverseness of the other Arch-bishop of Ardmagh who had violently resisted all good Proceedings the Title of Primacy was taken from him and conferred upon the Arch-bishop of Dublin And Dowdal was banished or as others say voluntarily left his Bishoprick And then Goodacre sent from England with Bale for the See of Ossory succeeded In Q. Mary's days Dowdal was restored and being a great Man in this Reign expulsed Archbishop Brown from his See for being a married Man Who two or three Years after was succeeded by Hugh Corwin a Complier in all Reigns and Brown soon after died Suffragan Bishops The first of these standing in the Register of the Arch-bishop was the Suffragan of the See of Ipswich The Bishop of Norwich according to the direction of the late Act wherein the Bishop was to nominate two for Suffragan to the King and the King was to name one of them to the Arch-bishop to receive Consecration humbly signified to the King that he was destitute of the Aid of a Suffragan and so prayed him to appoint either George Abbot of the Monastery of S. Mary's of Leyston or Thomas Mannyng Prior of the Monastery of S. Mary's of Butley to be his Suffragan without mentioning for what place And on the 7 th of March in the 27 th of his Reign he sent to the Arch-bishop to make the latter Suffragan of Gipwich Who was accordingly consecrated by the Arch-bishop and invested in insigniis Episcopalibus Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting The Date not specified but probably on the same Day with the Consecration following there being the same Assistants The said Bishop of Norwich sent to the King recommending to him to be Suffragan Thomas de Castleacre of the Cluniac Order and Iohn Salisbury Prior of S. Faiths of Horsham of the Order of S. Benet both Priors of Monasteries in Norwich Diocess The King sent to the Arch-bishop to consecrate Iohn the Prior of S. Faiths for Suffragan of Thetford Accordingly he consecrated him March the 19 th Nicholas Bishop of Sarum and Iohn Bishop of Rochester assisting CHAP. X. The Audience Court THE good Arch-bishop almost every Year met with new Opposition from the Popish Clergy The late Act for abolishing the Pope's Authority and some Acts before that for restraining of Applications to Rome served them now as a Colour to strike at one of the Arch-bishop's Courts viz. that of the Audience a Court which the Arch-bishops used to hold in
Feast that they should be without it The said Proclamation also set the Price at ten Shillings a Book unbound and well Bound and Clasped not above twelve Shillings And charged all Ordinaries to take care for the seeing this Command of the King the better executed And upon this Boner being now newly Bishop of London set up six Bibles in certain convenient Places of S. Paul's Church together with an Admonition to the Readers fastned upon the Pillars to which the Bibles were chained to this Tenor That whosoever came there to read should prepare himself to be edified and made the better thereby That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the King's Injunctions made in that behalf That he bring with him Discretion honest Intent Charity Reverence and quiet Behaviour That there should no such Number meet together there as to make a Multitude That no Exposition be made thereupon but what is declared in the Book it self That it be not read with Noise in time of Divine Service Or that any Disputation or Contention be used at it But it was not much above two Years after that the Popish Bishops obtained of the King the suppression of the Bible again For after they had taken off the Lord Crumwel they made great complaint to the King their old Complaint of the Translation and of the Prefaces Whereas indeed and in truth it was the Text it self rather than the Prefaces or Translation that disturbed them Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold the Bishops promising the King to amend and correct it but never performed it And Grafton was now so long after summoned and charged with printing Matthews's Bible Which he being timerous made Excuses for Then he was examined about the great Bible and what the Notes were he intâ—nded to set thereto He replied that he added none to his Bible when he perceived the King and the Clergy not willing to have any Yet Grafton was sent to the Fleet and there remained six Weeks and before he came out was bound in three hundred Pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the King and the Clergy should agree upon a Translation And they procured an Order from the King that the falsâ— Translation of Tindal as they called it should not be uttered either by Printer or Bookseller and no other Books to be retained that spoke against the Sacrament of the Altar No Annotations or Preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could Nor the Bible to be read in the Church and nothing to be taught contrary to the King's Instructions And from henceforth the Bible was stopp'd during the remainder of King Henry's Reign But however for some certain Ends the King restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures to comply with the importunate Suits of the Popish Bishops yet his Judgment always was for the free use of them among his Subjects and in order to that for the translating and printing them For proof of which I will recite the words of the Translator of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon S. Luke in his Preface thereunto viz. Nic. Vdal a Man of Eminency in those Days a Canon of Windsor and a Servant unto Q. Katharine the King 's last Wife His most Excellent Majesty from the first day that he wore the Imperial Crown of this Realm foresaw that to the executing the Premisses viz. to destroy counterfeit Religions and to root up all Idolatry done to dead Images it was necessary that his People should be reduced to the sincerity of Christ's Religion by knowing of God's Word He considered that requisite it was his Subjects were nurâ—led in Christ by reading the Scriptures whose Knowledg should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the Slights of the Romish Juggling And therefore as soon as might be his Highness by most wholsome and godly Laws provided that it might be lawful for all his most faithful loving Subjects to read the Word of God and the Rules of Christ's Discipline which they professed He provided that the Holy Bible should be set forth in our own Vulgar Language to the end that England might the better attain to the Sincerity of Christ's Doctrine which they might draw out of the clear Fountain and Spring of the Gospel CHAP. XXII The Arch-bishop retired OUR Arch-bishop after the unhappy Death of the Lord Crumwel so excellent an Instrument in correcting the Abuses of Religion out of sorrow and care of himself betook himself to more Retirement and greater Privacy For in and after this Year 1540 I find nothing in his Register but the Acts of Confirmations and Elections and Consecrations of Bishops as Bishopricks fell vacant the Arch-bishop very seldom Consecrating any himself but commissionating others by his Letters to Confirm and Consecrate And nothing to be found a great way on in the Register concerning giving Ordinances and Injunctions to the Diocess or Province And no wonder for there was now no Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the Arch-bishop's Directions and Counsels for reforming Abuses and to see them executed in the Church And his own Sorrows and the Troubles he met with in these Times from his Enemies made him judg it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better Days But before the Death of Crumwel when Boner Bishop Elect of London was to be consecrated the Arch-bishop probably not liking him and seeing through him whatever his Pretences were and therefore declining to have any hand in his Preferment sent his Commission in April to Stephen Bishop of Winchester Richard Bishop of Chichester Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Iohn Bishop of Hertford i. e. Hereford to consecrate him Which it is said in the Register they did accordingly per Sacri chrismatis unctionem manuum suarum impositionem In this Consecration the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted it seems upon an ancient Privilege of their Church which I do not find in this Register they had at other Consecrations done namely that the Consecration should be celebrated at the Church of Canterbury and at no other Church or Oratory without their Allowance And so in a formal Instrument they gave their Licence and Consent directed to the Arch-bishop to proceed to the Consecration elsewhere The Letter is from Thomas the Prior and the Chapter of Canterbury and it ran thus Licet antiquitus fuerit salubriter ordinatum hactenusque in per totam vestram Provinciam Cantuar ' inconcussè observatum quod quilibet Suffraganâ—us Ecclesiae vestrae Metropoliticae Christi Cantuar ' memoratae in Ecclesia vestra Metropolit ' Cantuar ' non alibi pntialiter consecrari benedici debeat c. Yet they gave their Consent that he might be Consecrated in any other Oratory But yet so that neither they nor the Church received any Prejudice and reserving to
themselves a decent Cope as every Suffragan of the Church of Canterbury according as his Profession was ought to give to the same Church by Right and ancient Custom and the Rights Liberties Privileges and other Customs of the said Church always and in all things being safe The renewing of this their old pretended Privilege look'd like some check to the Arch-bishop and as though they required of him a sort of dependence on them now more than before and it shewed some secret Ill-will towards him which brake out more openly not long after as we shall shew in the Process of our Story In the Register is also recorded Boner's Oath of Fidelity to the King against the Bishop of Rome Which I will add here that Men may see with what little Affection to the Pope this Man was let into the Bishoprick which he afterwards made so much use of for him and his Usurpations though thereby he stands upon Record for ever for Perjury But the Oath was this Ye shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise exercise or have any manner of Authority Jurisdiction or Power within this Realm or any other the King's Dominions but that ye shall resist the same at all times to the uttermost of your Power And that from henceforth ye shall accept repute and take the King's Majesty to be the only Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England c. So help you God and all Saints and the Holy Evangelists Signed thus ✚ In fidem praemissorum Ego Edm. Boner Elect. Confirmat Londoniens huic praesenti chart a subscripsi By the Arch-bishop's Letters bearing date May 20. he made Robert Harvey B. LL. his Commissary in Calais and in all the other Neighbouring Places in France being his Diocess A Man surely wherein the good Arch-bishop was mistaken or else he would never have ventured to set such a Substitute of such bigotted cruel Principles in that place This Harvey condemned a poor labouring Man of Calais who said he would never believe that any Priest could make the Lord's Body at his pleasure Whereupon he was accused before the Commissary who roundly condemned him to be burnt inveighing against him and saying He was an Heretick and should die a vile Death The poor Man said He should die a viler shortly And so it came to pass for half a Year after he was hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason He seemed to have succeded in the room of a Man of better Principles called Sir Iohn Butler Who was deprived of his Commissariship by some Bishops Commissioners from the King for the examining several Persons suspect of Religion in Calais The Council there had about the Year 1539 complained of him as a maintainer of Damplip a learned and pious Preacher there So he was sent for into England and charged to favour Damplip because he preached so long there and was not restrained nor punish'd by him He answered warily and prudently that the Lord Lisle Lord Deputy and his Council entertained and friendly used him and countenanced him by hearing him preach so that he could not do otherwise than he did After long attendance upon the King's Commissioners he was discharged and returned home but discharged also of his Commissary's place too And having been an Officer of the Arch-bishop's I will add a word or two more concerning him About the Year 1536 he was apprehended in Calais and bound by Sureties not to pass the Gates of that Town upon the Accusation of two Souldiers that he should have said in contempt of the Corporal Presence That if the Sacrament of the Altar be Flesh Blood and Bone then there is good Aqua vitae at John Spicer's Where probably was very bad This Butler and one Smith were soon after brought by Pursevants into England and there brought before the Privy-Council in the Star-Chamber for Sedition and Heresy which were Charges ordinarily laid against the Professors of the Gospel in those Times and thence sent to the Fleet and brought soon after to Bath-place there sitting Clark Bishop of Bath Sampson Bishop of Chichester and Reps Bishop of Norwich the King's Commissioners And no wonder he met with these Troubles For he had raised up the hatred of the Friars of Calais against him by being a Discoverer and Destroyer of one of their gross Religious Cheats There had been great talk of a Miracle in S. Nicolas Church for the conviction of Men that the Wafer after Consecration was indeed turned into the Body Flesh and Bones of Christ. For in a Tomb in that Church representing the Sepulchre there were lying upon a Marble Stone three Hosts sprinkled with Blood and a Bone representing some Miracle This Miracle was in writing with a Pope's Bull of Pardon annexed to those I suppose that should visit that Church There was also a Picture of the Resurrection bearing some relation to this Miracle This Picture and Story Damplip freely spake against in one of his Sermons saying that it was but an Illusion of the French before Calais was English Upon this Sermon the King also having ordered the taking away all superstitious Shrines there came a Commission to the Lord Deputy of Calais to this Sir Iohn Butler the Arch-bishop's Commissary and one or two more that they should search whether this were true and if they found it not so that immediately the Shrine should be plucked down and so it was For breaking up a Stone in the corner of the Tomb instead of the three Hosts the Blood and the Bone they found souldered in the Cross of Marble lying under the Sepulchre three plain white Counters which they had painted like unto Hosts and a Bone that is in the tip of a Sheep's Tail This Damplip shewed the next Day being Sunday unto the People and after that they were sent to the King by the Lord Deputy But this so angred the Friars and their Creatures that it cost Damplip his Life and Commissary Butler much trouble and the loss of his Office After Harvey Hugh Glazier B. D. and Canon of Christ's-Church Canterbury succeeded in the Office of Commissary to the Arch-bishop fo◠Calais He was once a Friar but afterwards favoured the Reformation He was put up to preach at Paul's Cross the first Lent after King Edward came to the Crown and then asserted the observation of Lent to be but of human Institution This Year the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from Monks to Secular Men of the Clergy viz. Prebendaries or Canons Petticanons Choristers and Scholars At this Erection were present Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop the Lord Rich Chancellor of the Court of the Augmentation of the Revenues of the Crown Sir Christopher Hales Knight the King's Attorney Sir Anthony Sentleger Knight with divers other Commissioners And nominating and electing such convenient and fit Persons as should serve for the Furniture of the said Cathedral Church according to the
appear there before the Arch-bishop Where Iohn Whitwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner and Thomas Langley both Priests and his Grace's Chaplains exhibited a Schedule of divers Heresies and damned Opinions against the said Assheton Which are recited in the Abjuration which he made The Tenor whereof is as followeth In the Name of God Amen Before you most Learned Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop Primate and Metropolitan of all England Commissary of our most dread Soveraign Lord and excellent Prince Edward VI by the Grace of God c. I Iohn Assheton Priest of my pure Heart Free-will voluntary and sincere Knowledg confess and openly recognize that in Times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say 1. That the Trinity of Persons was established by the Confession of Athanasius declared by a Psalm Quicunque vult c. And that the Holy Ghost is not God but only a certain Power of the Father 2. That Iesus Christ that was conceived of the Virgin Mary was a holy Prophet and especially beloved of God the Father but that he was not the true and living God Forasmuch as he was seen and lived hungred and thirsted 3. That this only is the Fruit of Iesus Christ's Passion that whereas we were strangers from God and had no knowledg of his Testament it pleased God by Christ to bring us to the acknowledging of his holy Power by the Testament Wherefore I the said Iohn Assheton detesting and abhorring all and every my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions willingly and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and his Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and abominable Opinions Granting and confessing now 1. That the blessed Trinity consisteth in Three distinct Persons and one Godhead as God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost coequal in Power and Might 2. That Jesus Christ is both God and Man after his holy Nature eternally begotten of his Father of his own Substance and in his Humanity was conceived by the Holy Ghost incarnate and for our Redemption being very God became Man 3. That by the Death of Iesus Christ we be not only made Partakers of the Testament and so disposed to the Knowledg of his godly Will and Power but also that we have full Redemption and Remission of our Sins in his Blood Then he subscribed his Hand to this Confession before the Arch-bishop exhibiting it for his Act and lifting up his Hand beseeched his Grace to deal mercifully and graciously with him and touching the Gospel gave his Faith that he would faithfully and humbly obey the Commands of the Holy Mother-Church and whatsoever Penance the said most Reverend Father should lay upon him To these erroneous Doctrines we must add others that now also spread themselves As that Christ took not Flesh of the Virgin That the Baptism of Infants was not profitable Of which Error one Michael Thombe of London Butcher recanted the Year following viz. 1549 May 11. having been then convented before the Arch-bishop at Lambeth I Michael Thombe of London Bocher of my pure Heart and free Will voluntarily and sincerely acknowledg and confess and openly recognize that in times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors and Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say That Christ took no Flesh of our Lady and that the Baptism of Infants is not profitable because it goeth before Faith Wherefore I the said Michael Thombe detesting and abhorring all and every such my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and of the Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of Holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions granting and confessing now That Christ took Flesh of the Virgin Mary and that the Baptism of Infants is profitable and necessary And by this Submission and Penance doing Thombe escaped But another of the same Opinion more obstinate came to a sadder End and was Burnt namely Ioan Bocher or Ioan of Kent Her Opinion is in the Instrument drawn up against her in the ABp's Register Which ran thus That you believe that the Word was made Flesh in the Virgin 's Belly but that Christ took Flesh of the Virgin you believe not because the Flesh of the Virgin being the outward Man was sinfully gotten and born in Sin But the Word by the Consent of the inward Man of the Virgin was made Flesh. This she stood perversely in So the Arch-bishop himself excommunicated her judicially the Sentence being read by him April 1549 in S. Mary's Chappel within the Cathedral Church of Pauls Sir Thomas Smith William Cook Dean of the Arches Hugh Latimer Richard Lyell LL. D. the King's Commissioners assisting She was committed afterwards to the Secular Arm and certified so to be by an Instrument made by the Commissioners to the King After she was condemned she was a Sevennight in the Lord Chancellor Rich his House and every day the Arch-bishop and Bishop Ridley came and reasoned with her that if possible they might save her from the Fire But nothing would do I will here produce Latimer's Censure of her who well knew her Case being one of the Commissioners that sat upon her She would say saith he in his Sermon on S. Iohn Evangelist's Day That our Saviour was not very Man nor had received Flesh of his Mother Mary And yet she could shew no reason why she should believe so Her Opinion was this The Son of God said she penetrated through her as through a Glass taking no Substance of her This foolish Woman denied the common Creed Natus ex Maria Virgine and said that our Saviour had a fantastical Body A Dutch Man an Arian named George van Paris denying Christ to be true God came to a like End with Ioan namely that of burning to Death being condemned for Heresy that was in the Year 1551. But tho I make some Anticipation in my History yet I do it that I may lay these Heresies here together that started up or rather shewed themselves more visibly in this Reign CHAP. IX The Arch-bishop Visits THE Arch-bishop in this Year held a Visitation in divers Places throughout his Diocess Wherein enquiry was to be made concerning the Behaviour both of the Priests and the People in eighty six Articles Whereby may be seen the Arch-bishop's conscientious Care and Solicitude for the abrogating of Superstition and the promoting of true Religion That he might reduce the Clergy to Learning
Places collected from thence in the nature of Inferences and Observations Which I conclude the Arch-bishop put him upon doing while he was now with him The Work was looked over and examined by the Arch-bishop Notes and Corrections of his own Hand being here and there inserted Also the Gospel of S. Mark is handled in the same method by another of the Arch-bishop's Guests Which Writing hath this Inscription by Cranmer's Hand Petrus Alexander in Marcum At this time therefore there were at the Arch-bishop's House besides Bucer Alasco Peter Martyr Paulus Phagius Peter Alexander Bernardine Ochin Mat. Negelinus after a Minister of Strasburgh who accompanied Bucer and Fagius into England and others whose Names do not occur Three of these were soon after preferred to publick Places of Reading in the Universities Peter Alexander was of Artois and lived with the Arch-bishop before Bucer came into England He was a Learned Man but had different Sentiments in the Matter of the Eucharist enclining to the belief of a Corporeal Presence with the Lutherans Though some Years after he came over to a righter Judgment as his Companion Peter Martyr signified to Calvin in a Letter wrote from Strasburgh Peter Martyr coming about the beginning of the Year 1549 unto the University of Oxford his first Readings were upon the eleventh Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians In which Chapter is some Discourse of the Lord's Supper The Professor when he came so far took occasion to expatiate more largely upon that Argument and the rather that he might state it aright in the midst of those hot Contests that were then about it among Learned Men. These Lectures on the Sacrament he soon after printed at London for the Benefit of the World as they were two Years after done at Zurick and dedicated them to his Patron the Arch-bishop And that partly to give a publick Testimony of his Sense of the Arch-bishop's great Humanity and Benefits towards him Which were so large that he must do nothing else but tell of them to be sufficiently thankful for them And known it was to all as he said how obligingly he received and how liberally he entertained both himself and many other Strangers of his Rank and Condition And partly that by his Authority he would protect and defend what he should find in his Book to be consonant to the Holy Scriptures and agreeable to the King's Laws For he had he said Skill and Industry enough to do it who had himself often both in Publick and Private conflicted with the Adversaries and with admirable Learning accuracy of Wit and Dexterity vindicated the Truth from the spinous and confused Cavils of Sophisters Nor did he want Will to stand up for Sound and Christian Doctrines as all good Men knew who saw how earnest he was in his Labours of restoring Religion that for that Cause he drew upon himself many Enmities and threatning Dangers The first Occasion of Bucer's Call into England was thus He had wrote to Iohn Hales a learned English-man his Acquaintance the sad Estate of Germany and that he could scarce stay any longer in the Place where he was This Hales acquainted the Arch-bishop with which made a great Impression upon his compassionate Soul and he brake out into those words of the Psalmist Mirifica misericordias tuas qui salvos facis sperantes in te a resistentibus dexterae tuae And forthwith writ to Brucer a Letter in October 1548 to come over to this Realm which should be a most safe Harbour for him urging him to become a Labourer in the Lord's Harvest here begun and using other Arguments with him to move him hereunto in the most obliging Stile possible calling him My Bucer And that he might come over the safer from Harms and Enemies the Arch-bishop recommended him to one Hills an English-Merchant to provide for his Passage The Arch-bishop's Letter may be found in the Appendix To this Letter Bucer wrote an Answer seeming upon some Considerations to decline the Arch-bishop's Invitation This Letter coming to the Arch-bishop's Hands he shewed to Peter Alexander who by the Arch-bishop's Order wrote back to Bucer in the said Arch-bishop's and the Protector 's Name to call him again over which Letter was dated March 24 from Lambeth telling him withal that the good old Man Latimer saluted him Letters I suppose of the same Import were also dispatched to the Learned Fagius Bucer and Fagius who were thus honourably invited into England by repeated Letters of the Lord Protector and Arch-bishop Cranmer were by them also nominated for Publick Professors in the University of Cambridg the one of Divinity the other of the Hebrew Tongue This was looked on by their Friends as a notable piece of God's good Providence that when these two eminent Champions of the true Religion were in so much present Danger in Germany so seasonable a Refuge was provided for them elsewhere They both arrived safe in England in the end of April and abode with the Arch-bishop above a quarter of a Year until towards the end of the long Vacation the Arch-bishop intending they should be at Cambridg when the Term should begin in order to their Reading During this Interval while they continued at Lambeth they were not idle being every day busied in some Study and Exercise agreeable to their Function as was hinted before But the main of their Thoughts were taken up in preparing for their University-Lectures Which of what Subject-Matter they should be the Arch-bishop himself directed As it had been a great while his pious and most earnest Desire that the Holy Bible should come abroad in the greatest Exactness and true Agreement with the original Text. So he laid this Work upon these two Learned Men. First That they should give a clear plain and succinct Interpretation of the Scripture according to the Propriety of the Language And Secondly Illustrate difficult and obscure Places and reconcile those that seemed repugnant to one another And it was his Will and his Advice that to this End and Purpose their publick Readings should tend This pious and good Work by the Arch-bishop assigned to them they most gladly and readily undertook For their more regular carrying on this Business they allotted to each other by consent their distinct Tasks Fagius because his Talent lay in the Hebrew Learning was to undertake the Old Testament and Bucer the New The Leisure they now enjoyed with the Arch-bishop they spent in preparing their respective Lectures Fagius entred upon the Evangelical Prophet Esaias and Bucer upon the Gospel of the Evangelist Iohn And some Chapters in each Book were dispatched by them But it was not long but both of them fell Sick which gave a very unhappy stop to their Studies Fagius his Distemper proved mortal who was seized at first with a very acute Fever And notwithstanding Physick and Attendance remaining very ill he had a great desire to remove to Cambridg to
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
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