I find in a Supplication made to Queen Elizabeth by Ralph Morice that had been his Secretary for the space of twenty Years During which time he was employed by that most Reverend Father in writing for him about the serious Affairs of the Prince and Realm committed unto him by those most noble and worthy Princes King Henry VIII and King Edward VI concerning as well the Writings of those great and weighty Matrimonial Causes of the said K. Henry VIII as also about the extirpation of the Bishop of Rome his usurped Power and Authority the Reformation of corrupt Religion and Ecclesiastical Laws and Alteration of Divine Service and of divers and sundry Conferences of Learned Men for the Establishing and Advancement of sincere Religion with such like Wherein he said he was most painfully occupied in writing of no small Volumes from time to time CHAP. XXIII The Arch-bishop's Regard to Learned Men. FROM these truly Noble and Useful Exercises of his great Knowledg and Learning let us descend unto the Respect he bare to good Letters Which appeared from his Favour to Places of Learning and Men of Learning We shewed before what were the Applications of the University of Cambridg to him and what a gracious Patron he was to it and its Members Among whose good Offices to that University besides those already mentioned it must not be omitted that he was the great Instrument of placing there those two very Learned Foreign Divines Paulus Fagius and Martin Bucer By his frequent Letters to them then at Strasburg urging them with the distracted and dangerous State of Germany he first brought them over into England in the Year 1548 and having entertained them in his Family the next Year he preferred them both in Cambridg Fagius to be publick Professor of the Hebrew Tongue and Bucer of Divinity And beside the University-Salary he procured for each of them from the King in the third Year of his Reign Patents for an Honorary Stipend of an hundred Pounds per Annum each De gratiâ speciali Domini Regis to be paid by the Hands of the Clerk of the Hanaper or out of the Treasury of the Court of Augmentations Durante beneplacito Domini Regis As I find by King Edward the Sixth's Book of Sales formerly mentioned Which Patents bare date Septemb. 26. Anno 1549. and their Salaries payable from the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin By the way I do not see any where in the said Book of Sales that Peter Martyr placed Professor of Divinity in the other University of Oxon enjoyed any such Royal Salary though he also had been invited over by Canterbury with the King's Knowledg and Allowance and placed there by that Arch-bishop's Means Yet he and his Companion Ochinus had their Annual Allowances from the King and so I suppose had all other Learned Foreigners here Melancthon also who was now expected over was intended some more extraordinary Gratuity Unto this Noble Christian Hospitality and Liberality Latimer the great Court-Preacher excited the King in one of his Sermons before him The Passage may deserve to be repeated I hear say Master Melancthon that great Clerk should come hither I would wish him and such as he is two hundred Pounds a Year The King should never want it in his Coffers at the Year's end There is yet among us two great Learned Men Petrus Martyr and Bernard Ochin which have an hundred Mark a piece I would the King would bestow a thousand Pounds on that Sort. These Matters I doubt not were concerted between Latimer and our Arch-bishop before at whose Palace he now was for the most part As I find by one of his Sermons wherein he speaks of his taking Boat at Lambeth and in another Place he mentioneth a Book he met with in my Lord of Canterbury's Library and elsewhere of many Suitors that applied to him at my Lord of Canterbury's that interrupted his Studies there The use I make of this is that it is a fair Conjecture hence that this and the many other excellent Things so plainly propounded by this Preacher to King Edward happened by the Counsel and Suggestion of the Arch-bishop But to return There was one Dr. William Mowse a Civilian and probably one of his Officers whom for his Merits and Learning our Arch-bishop for many a Year had been a special Benefactor to Sir Iohn Cheke also bare him a very good Will Upon the removal of Dr. Haddon to some other Preferment this Dr. Mowse succeeded Master of Trinity-hall in Cambridg And in the Year 1552 the Arch-bishop valuing his Worth and Integrity was a Suitor at Court for some further Preferment for him whatever it were which the Study of the Civil Law had qualified him for writing his Letters on Mowse's behalf to Secretary Cecyl who was then with the King in his Progress not to forget him And accordingly he was remembred and obtained the Place For which the Arch-bishop afterwards gave him his most hearty Thanks And Dr. Mowse also sent the same Secretary a Letter of Thanks from Cambridg for the Preferment he had obtained by his Means The main Drift thereof was to excuse himself for his Neglect in that he had not sooner paid his Acknowledgments Which as it seems the Secretary had taken some notice of having expected to be thanked for the Kindness he had done him This Letter because there is therein mention made of our Arch-bishop's singular Munificence and Cheke's Affection towards him and Mowse himself once making a Figure in that University I have thought it not amiss to insert in the Appendix Though this Man seemed to be none of the steadiest in his Religion For I find him put out of his Mastership of Trinity-Hall in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign for having been a Protestant and to make way for the Restoration of Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who had been outed before Upon whose Death that Mastership falling void and Mowse having complied with the Romish Religion he became Master there again And soon after in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he was deprived by her Commissioners for being a Papist and one Harvey came in his Room Dr. Mowse's Fickleness appeared that upon the first tidings that fled to Cambridg of Queen Mary's Success against the Lady Iane's Party he with several other temporizing University-Men changed his Religion and in four and twenty Hours was both Protestant and Papist The Truth is his Judgment varied according to his worldly Interest And being one of those that came about so roundly he was appointed by the complying Party of the University to be one of the two Dr. Hatcher being the other that should repair unto Dr. Sands then the Vice-Chancellor to demand of him without any colour of Reason or Authority the University-Books the Keys and such other things as were in his keeping And so they did And my Author makes an Observation of his Ingratitude as well as of
MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI Câ—â—â—MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's
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
Noble-men then about him that Bishop was a turbulent wilful Man and if he were joined with them they should have no quiet in their Consultations The same Reason we may conclude moved the King now in these Deliberations about Religion to lay him aside These Persons were generally learned and moderate Men and such as we may conjecture the Arch-bishop had the Nomination of to the King However we may be sure Winchester was not idle at this time And first the Doctrine of the Sacraments was examined by propounding seventeen distinct Questions drawn up as I have reason to conclude by the Arch-bishop on which the Divines were to consult But each one was to set down in Writing his Sense of every of these Questions singly and succinctly These Questions are the same with those in the History of the Reformation The Right Reverend Author hath set down there the several Answers that those Bishops and Divines that he met with in Bishop Stillingfleet's Manuscript made to each Question which I shall not now repeat after him But I find in a Cotton Book a few Pages that deserve according to my poor Judgment to be transcribed of something which is not in that History being the Answers of other Bishops and Divines in the same Commission The first is Nameless but for some Reasons I believe him to be the Bishop of Durham Each Page consisteth of three Columes the middle Colume contains the Questions On one side-Colume is writ his Answer to each Question on the other side-Colume are the King's Notes upon the Answer wrote by his own Hand I refer the Reader to the Appendix for this There follow in the Cotton Book Solutions of each of these Questions by another omitted by the Bishop of Sarum in his History He is nameless also but appears to have been some popishly affected Bishop but yet one that conversed much with the Arch-bishop the Bishop of S. David's and Dr. Cox and was I suppose Thirleby Elect of Westminster For in many places in the Margin of his Paper are set the Names of those Men for what purpose I do not know unless to signify their Judgments as agreeable with his though in these very places sometimes their Minds and his differ This Man's Answer also was perused by the King who sometimes writ his own Objections in the Margin This also I have cast into the Appendix In the conclusion of this famous Consultation upon these seventeen Articles concerning the Sacraments their Resolutions being drawn up in Writing under their own hands The Arch-bishop having these Discourses given into his hand for the King's Use drew up a Summary of each Man's Judgment Which together with his own he caused to be written fairly out by his Secretary and so presented to the King The Bishop of Sarum hath saved me the trouble of writing them out in this Work having presented them already to the World in his History from another Manuscript than the Cotton Book which I make use of which is a true Original The Arch-bishop's Summary may be found among the Collections in the said History against the word Aggrement in the Margin and the Arch-bishop's own Judgment against his Name in the Margin At the conclusion of his Paper which he sent to the King he subscribed thus most warily and modestly with his own Hand T. Cantuarien This is mine Opinion and Sentence at this present which nevertheless I do not temerariously define but refer the Judgment thereof unto your Majesty Besides these 17 Questions there are in this choice Cottonian Manuscript divers others propounded to another Combination of Bishops and Divines perhaps about this time or rather I conceive three Years before with their Answers under their Hands thereunto being called together in order to the composing the Book called The Institution As concerning Confirmation Whether this Sacrament be a Sacrament of the New Testament instituted by Christ or not What is the outward Sign and invisible Grace that is conferred in the same What Promises be made that the said Graces shall be received by this Sacrament The Bishop of Sarum hath printed among his Collections the Resolutions of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and Bishop of London to these Queries having taken them out of this Manuscript Volume which I use But there be here the Opinions of many more both Bishops and other Dignitaries of the Church As namely the Arch-bishop of York the Bishops of Ely Rochester Lincoln Bangor and Sarum Then follows the Opinion of the Bishop of London and next of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Then come the Judgments of Dr. Wotton Dean of Canterbury Dr. Barber Arch-deacon of Cleveland and Warden of All-Souls Oxon and one of the Convocation in 1562. Dr. Bell a Civilian employed in the King's Business against Queen Katharine Arch-deacon of Glocester and soon after Bishop of Worcester Dr. Wolman Dean of Wells Dr. Marshall Arch-deacon of Nottingham Dr. Cliff Treasurer of the Church of York Dr. Edmunds the same I suppose that was Master of Peter-house Cambridg Dr. Downs Chancellor of the Church of York Dr. Marmaduke the same probably that was called Marmaduke VValdeby Dr. Robinson for Robertson I suppose Arch-deacon of Leicester Dr. Smith he probably that was Professor of Divinity in Oxon Dr. Buckmaster and another nameless And as these Learned Men treated of this Point of Confirmation so by the various Heads and Discourses I meet with here they all gave their Judgments of divers other chief Points of Religion as De Fide De Salvatione De Matrimonio De Poenitentia De Sacramentorum usu and De auriculari Confessione Where is a Letter of the King 's own writing in answer to somewhat the Bishop of Durham had writ upon that Argument This Royal Letter the Bishop of Sarum hath printed in his History Of Priests Marriage whereof the King wrote a short Discourse Of Pilgrimages Of Purgatory of this there is a Discourse wrote by Latimer And after follows another by the King Latimer's Discourse is animadverted upon by the King's Pen in the Margin De utraque specie Three or four large Discourses thereupon in favour of Receiving in one Kind One whereof was part of the King's Answer to the German Ambassadours that were sent hither about a Treaty in the Years 1538 and 1539. The Second is part of an Apology by an English Divine to those German Protestants for Communion in one Kind and for private Mass. And this latter probably is the Bishop of Durham's because the Correction of the Paper transcribed as it seems by his Secretary here and there is his own Hand So that some of these Discourses were I make no doubt drawn up by the Divines for the King's Use in order to his Answer to the Writing which the German Agents the last Year had composed before their Voyage home But these Papers some English and some Latin are so large that they would too much swell this Volume and
was much offended that he was named in the Book and pretended this to be one Reason why he did write against it to vindicate himself as well as the Papal Church hereby so dangerously struck at This Book of Cranmer's was turned into Latin by Iohn Yong who complied afterwards with the old Religion under Queen Mary and was Master of Pembroke-Hall Cambridg At this Book the Defenders of Popery were so nettled that in the same Year 1550 Winchester then in the Tower and fickle Dr. Smith then at Lovain printed Answers Of Smith's Book I shall only note by the way that March 8. 1550. there was an Order of Council to examine the bringer over of his Book against Cranmer Such a Countenance did the State give to the Arch-bishop and his Book Gardiner's Book made the greatest noise Which was printed in France and intituled An Explication and Assertion of the true Catholick Faith touching the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar with the Confutation of a Book written against the same In the Beginning of his Book he wrote That his Sermon before the King on St. Peter's Day touching the Sacrament of the Altar gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's Book against it and that he was called before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth for his Catholick Faith in the Sacrament Whereas indeed this was not the Cause of his Troubles nor had some former Copies of his Book these words But after the Commission was issued forth against him to make his Cause appear the more specious as if it were the Cause of the Church he thought fit to make an Alteration in the beginning of his Book in the manner abovesaid And to carry on the Scene he in open Court offered his Book before the King's Commissioners To this Book of Gardiners our Arch-bishop studied and composed an Answer holding himself bound for the Vindication of the Evangelical Truth as well as of his own Writing and for the Satisfaction of the People not to suffer it to lie untaken notice of When it was known the Arch-bishop was preparing an Answer against Gardiner the People were in very great expectation and conceived an earnest desire to see and read it Having therefore dispatched his Copy and sent it to Rainold Wolf his Printer it was printed off in the Month of September 1551. But there was some stop put to the publishing of it occasioned by a Proclamation issued out from the King whereby for some political Ends both the printing and selling of English Books without the Allowance of the King's Majesty or six of his Privy-Council was forbidden The Arch-bishop being desirous that his Book might come abroad the next Term for the Contentation of many who had long expected the same sent to Secretary Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke to procure either from the King or Council a Licence to the said Wolf for printing and selling his Book Which was obtained and the Book published accordingly This Letter of the ABp's dated Sept. 29. I have thought not amiss to reposit in the Appendix Octob. 1. A Licence was granted to Wolf to publish the Book under the King's Privilege the Court then being at Hampton-Court and the Arch-bishop himself present The Title this second Book of the Arch-bishop's bore was An Answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan unto a crafty and sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly Doctrine of the most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Wherein is also as occasion serveth answered such Places of the Book of Dr. Richard Smith as may seem any thing worthy the answering Also a true Copy of the Book written and in open Court delivered by Dr. Stephen Gardiner not one Word added or diminished but faithfully in all Points agreeing with the Original This Book of Arch-bishop Cranmer's was printed again at London 1580 with his Life and some other things His Reply to Gardiner was in the most fair and candid Method that could be devised For he first set down his own Treatise Piece by Piece then Gardiner's Reply thereunto Word for Word leaving not one Paragraph without a full Answer His Reply to Smith was only of some things most worthy to be taken notice of the rest of Smith's Book being meer Trifles This Reply to Smith he inserted in the Body of his Answer to Gardiner as occasion served Only at the end he made a particular Reply to Smith's Preface It seemed to be a very compleat Exercitation upon that Subject The Book was stored with so great Learning and Plenty of Arguments Vt ea Controversia saith one of his Successors a nemine unquam contra Pontificios accuratius tractata esse videatur That no one Controversy was by any ever handled against the Papists more accurately It may not be amiss to mention here the Opinion that Cranmer himself had of his Book in that famous and renowned Confession he made of his Faith in S. Mary's Church Oxon immediately before he was led away to his Burning Where he expressed his full Approbation and great Confidence of the Doctrine contained therein saying That as for the Sacrament he believed as he had taught in his Book against the Bishop of VVinchester The which Book he said taught so true a Doctrine of the Sacrament that it should stand at the last Day before the Judgment of God where the Papistical Doctrine contrary thereto should be ashamed to shew her Face The Papists spake as much against this Book being much galled by it Dr. Tresham in his Disputation with Latimer said There were six hundred Errors in the Book Weston thinking to invalidate the Book by the pretended Novelty of the Doctrine asked the same Father How long he had been of that Opinion He said Not past seven Years that is about the Year 1547 and that Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book confirmed his Judgment therein and added That if he could but remember all therein contained he would not fear to answer any Man in this Matter The Arch-bishop had acknowledged to the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford that Ridley had first begun to enlighten him as to the true Notion of the Presence as he had maintained it in his Book Hereupon one of them took occasion to try to baffle the true Doctrine by making the whole stress of it to depend upon the Authority of single Ridley Latimer said he leaned upon Cranmer and Cranmer leaned upon Ridley Whereas the truth of this was no more but that Ridley reading Bertram's Book of the Body and Blood of Christ was sharpened to examine the old Opinion more accurately of the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood and looking into Ecclesiastical Authors he found it greatly controverted in the ninth Century and learnedly writ against Which made him begin to conclude it none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but more lately
Year 1557 the Exiles here printed it with this Title Defensio c. a Thoma Cranmero Martyre scripta Ab Authore in Vinculis recognita aucta Before it is a new Preface to the Reader made as it is thought by Sir Iohn Cheke relating to the Arch-bishop and this his Book shewing how well-weighed and well-thought on this Doctrine of the Sacrament was before he published it and that he let it not go abroad till he had diligently compared and pondred all Scriptures and Ancient Authors and confirmed it at last by his Blood In the body of the Book the places where any Enlargements are are signified by an Hand pointing thereunto In the Margent is often to be found this word Object with certain Numbers added Which Numbers shew those Places which Gardiner under the Name of Marcus Antonius did endeavour to confute The very Original these English Exiles here at Embden kept as a great Treasure among them and as a Memorial of the Holy Martyr Besides this the Arch-bishop fully intended to have his Vindication of his Book impugned by Gardiner put into Latin also but he lived not to see that done But care was taken of this Business among the Exiles Insomuch that both Sir Iohn Choke and Iohn Fox were busied about it at the same time But the former surceased and left the whole Work to Fox then at Frankford after he had finished the first part In this Piece done by Cheke Iohn a Lasco had an hand for he put in the Latin School-Terms instead of more pure good Latin which Cheke had used And it was judged fit that such Words should be used where the ABp in his English had used them And this Cheke and A Lasco themselves wrote to Fox Fox undertook the rest by the Incitation and Encouragement of P. Martyr and of Grindal and Pilkington both Bishops afterwards Who gave him Directions for the translating and as Doubts occurred concerning the Sense of certain Matters in the Book as he met with them he consulted with these Men for their Judgments therein Grindal in one Letter bad him write a Catalogue of all Passages by him doubted of and send it to him Fox finished his Translation in the Year 1557 before Iune For which he had a Congratulatory Letter from Grindal who was his chief Assistant and Counsellor herein The Work was dispatched to the Press at Basil I suppose and when one Part was printed the Censors of the Press thought it would be better to defer an Argument of that Nature to better Times the Controversy having been bandied up and down so much already But Froscover undertook the printing of the whole Book Fox would do nothing of himself but leaving himself to the Judgment of his Learned Brethren to commit the Work now to Froscover or no Queen Mary's Death and the return of the Exiles I suppose stopped further progress in this Matter The Original Manuscript under Fox's own Hand in very cleanly elegant Latin I have lying by me It bears this Title De totâ Sacramenti Eucharistiae causa Institutionum Libri V. Autore D. THOMA CRANMERO Archiepiscopo Cantuariensi Quibus Stephani Garneri Episcopi Wintoniensi SMYTHI Doctoris Theologi impugnationibus respondetur And that I may bring here together all that relates to Cranmer as to this Matter of the Sacrament I must not omit what I saw in the Benet-Library There is a thin Note-book of this Arch-bishop's with this Title wrote by his own Hand De re Sacramentaria which I verily believe are his Meditations and Conclusions when he set himself accurately to examine the Sacramental Controversy and fell off from the Opinion of the Carnal Presence The Notes consist of nothing but Quotations out of ancient Ecclesiastical Authors about the Lord's Supper interlined in many Places by the Arch-bishop's Pen. On the top of some of the Pages are these Sentences writ by himself being Doctrines provable out of the Sentences there produced and transcribed Panis vocatur Corpus Christi Vinum Sanguis Panis est Corpus meum Vinum est Sanguis meus figurativae sunt locutiones Quid significet haec figura Edere carnem bibere sanguinem Mali non edunt bibunt corpus sanguinem Domini Patres Vet. Testamenti edebant bibebant Christum sicut Nos Sicut in Eucharistia ita in Baptismo presens est Christus Contra Transubstantiationem After this follow these Writings of the Arch-bishop's own Hand which Arch-bishop Parker elsewhere transcribed for his own Satisfaction Multa affirmant crassi Papistae seu Capernaitae quae neque Scriptura neque ullus Veterum unquam dixerat Viz. Quod Accidentia maneant sine subjecto Quod Accidentia panis vini sunt Sacramenta non panis vinum Quod Panis non est figura sed accidentia panis Quod Christus non appellavit panem corpus suum Quod cum Christus dixit Hoc est corpus meum pronomen Hoc non refertur ad panem sed ad corpus Christi Quod tot corpora Christi accipimus aut toties corpus ejus accipimus quoties aut in quot partes dentibus secamus panem Thus having set down divers Assertions of Papists or Capernaites as he stiled them which neither Scripture nor Ancient Fathers knew any thing of his Notes proceed to state wherein Papists and Protestants disagree Praecipua Capita in quibus a Papisticis dissentimus Christum Papistae statuunt in pane nos in homine comedente Illi in comedentis ore nos in toto homine Illi Corpus Christi aiunt evolare masticato vel consumpto pane Nos manere in homine dicimus quamdiu membrum est Christi Illi in pane statuunt per annum integrum diutius si duret panis Nos in homine statuimus inhabitare quamdiu Templum Dei fuerit Illorum Sententiâ quod ad realem praesentiam attinet non amplius edit homo quam bellua neque magis ei prodest quam cuivis animanti Thus God made use of this Arch-bishop who was once of the most violent Asserters of the Corporal Presence to be the chiefest Instrument of overthrowing it But this good Work required to be carried on after Cranmer's Death For great Brags were made of Gardiner's second Book and it was boasted that none dared to encounter this their Goliath P. Martyr was thought the fittest Man to succeed Cranmer in this Province to maintain the Truth that began now to shine forth He overcome by the Solicitation of Friends composed a Book against Gardiner as was said before and printed it at Zurick Wherein I. He defended the Arguments of our Men which had been collected together and pretended to be confuted by Gardiner's Book II. He defended those Rules which Cranmer had put forth in his Tract of the Sacrament III. He maintained those Answers whereby the Arguments of the Adversaries were wont to be refuted And IV. He asserted the just and
Kings of England viz. Supream Head of the Church of England was left out Which by a Statute made in the 35 o of Henry VIII was ordained to be united and annexed for ever to the Imperial Crown of this Realm In which third Parliament of the Queen they repealed what was done by K. Henry VIII for the restitution of the Liberty of the Realm and extinguishing the usurped Authority of the Bishop of Rome This Flaw Gardiner the Lord Chancellor well seeing thought craftily to excuse by saying as may be seen in a Piece of the Statute made in the same Parliament Cap. 8. That it lay in the free Choice and free Liberty of the Kings of this Realm whether they would express the same Title in their Stile or no. But it is replied to this that though any Man may renounce his own private Right yet he may not renounce his Right in that which toucheth the Common-Wealth or a third Person And this Title and Stile more touched the Common-Wealth and the Realm of England than the King In this first Parliament an Act was made for confirmation of the Marriage of the Queen's Mother to her Father K. Henry Herein the leading Men shewed their Malice against the good Arch-bishop by their wording of the Preamble as That Thomas Cranmer late Arch-bishop did most ungodly and against Law judg the Divorce upon his own unadvised Understanding of the Scriptures and upon the Testimonies of the Universities and some bare and most untrue Conjectures And they declared the Sentence given by him to be unlawful But I cannot let this pass for the Reputation of the Arch-bishop without taking notice of the Censure that the Bishop of Sarum doth worthily bestow upon Bishop Gardiner whom he concludes to be the drawer up of this Act That he shewed himself herein to be past all Shame and that it was as high a pitch of Malice and Impudence as could be devised For Gardiner had been setting this on long before Cranmer was known to the King and had joined with him in the Commission and had given his Consent to the Sentence Nor was the Divorce meerly grounded upon Cranmer's understanding the Scriptures but upon the fullest and most studied Arguments that had perhaps been in any Age brought together in one particular Case And both Houses of Convocation had condemned the Marriage before his Sentence CHAP. V. The Arch-bishop Attainted THIS Parliament Attainted Cranmer with the Lady Iane and her Husband and some others And in November he was adjuged guilty of High Treason at Guild-hall And under this Judgment he lay for a good while which was very uneasy to him desiring to suffer under the imputation of Heresy under this Government rather than Treason He was now looked upon as devested of his Arch-bishoprick being a Person attainted And the Fruits of his Bishoprick were Sequestred Canterbury being now without an Arch-bishop the Dean Dr. VVotton acted in that Station according to his Office in the Vacancy of the See So he sent out many Commissions There was a Commission from him to Iohn Cotterel and VVilliam Bowerman to exercise Jurisdiction in the See of VVells by the Resignation of Barlow Bishop there Another Commission to the See of Bristol upon the Resignation of Bush. Another for the See of Litchfield upon the Death of Richard Sampson Which Commission was directed to David Pool LL. D. dated 1554. Septemb. ult Another to exercise Jurisdiction in the See of Exon Vacant by the Death of Veysy February 9. 1554. Another for the Consecration of Gilbert Bourn Bishop of Bath and VVells Iohn VVhite Bishop of Lincoln Morice Griffith of Rochester Iohn Cotes of Chester Henry Morgan of S. David's Iames Brook of Glocester Who were all Consecrated together in the Church of S. Saviour's Southwark April 1. 1554. This Commission I suppose was to the Bishop of VVinchester Another Commission for the Consecration of Hopton Bishop of Norwich dated Octob. 6. 1554. consecrated Octob. 28. following Another Commission to Consecrate Holiman Bishop of Bristol and Bayn Bishop of Litchfield dated Novemb. 16 1554. consecrated Novemb. 18. following Another Commission to Consecrate Iames Turbervil Bishop of Exon who was Consecrated September 8. 1555. And for VVilliam Glin Bishop of Bangor the same Date All these five last named were Consecrated in a Chappel of the Bishop of London in London The poor Arch-bishop most instantly sued to the Queen for his Pardon acknowledging his Fault in the most submissive manner that could be But though She had granted Pardons to divers others that had signed K. Edward's Will and made no such boggle to do it as the Arch-bishop did yet the Arch-bishop remained unpardoned He sent divers humble petitionary Letters to the Queen and her Council for the obtaining this Favour In one Letter to her he called it his Hainous Folly and Offence and said That he never liked it nor that any thing that the Queen's Brother ever did grieved him so much and that if it had been in his Power he would have letted the doing of it That divers of the Queen's Council knew what he had said to the King and the Council against proceeding in it and that he endeavoured to talk to the King alone about it but was not permitted and that when he could not disswade him from this Will he was hardly brought to sign it notwithstanding what the Judges told him to satisfy him in Point of Law And that at last it was the King's earnest Request to him that he would not be the only Man that refused it Which with the Judgment of the Lawyers overcame him to set his Hand But I refer the Reader to the Appendix to weigh this whole Letter as it is there transcribed Another Petition the next Year 1554 he sent up from Oxon by Dr. VVeston to the Council And therein he begged them to interceed with the Queen for his Pardon But VVeston carrying it half-way to London and then opening it and seeing the Contents of it sent it back again to the Arch-bishop and refused to be the Messenger This at length was the Resolution that was taken concerning him in this Matter because for shame they could not deny him a Pardon when others far more Guilty and deeper in the Business had it That he should be pardoned the Treason as an Act of the Queen's Grace and then he should be proceeded against for Heresy for diâ— they were resolved he should When this Pardon was at length obtained he was right glad being very gladly ready to undergo Afflictions for the Doctrine that he had taught and the Reformation he had set on Foot because this he reckoned to be suffering for God's Cause and not as an Evil-doer The Arch-bishop looked now with weeping Eyes upon the present sad Condition of Religion and the miserable Apostacy of the Church lapsed into all the formerly rejected Superstitions Nor could he now procure any Redress Yet he felt a
them to do otherwise But determinately to say what was best he could not but trusted He whose Cause they had in hand would put them in Mind to do that which should be most for his Glory the Profit of his Flock and their own Salvation It came at length to that forwardness that VVeston and his Complices had taken out the Commission And it was easy to obtain such a Commission at such a Lord Chancellor's Hands And they were likely speedily to put it in execution Hoper who seemed to have the first notice of it sent the intelligence in a Letter to Farrar Taylor Bradford and Philpot Prisoners in the King 's Bench. He shewed them what his Advice was and desired them to consult among themselves what Course were best to be taken His own Thoughts were considering what foul Play the three Learned Men had at Oxford and which they were like to have themselves at this Disputation I. Because they did commonly make false Allegations of the Doctors and took Pieces and Scraps of them to prove their Tenets against the real Mind and Sense of those Authors they should therefore refuse wholly to dispute unless they might have Books present before them II. To have sworn Notaries to take things spoken indifferently which would be hard to have the Adversaries having the oversight of all things and so would make theirs better and the Protestants worse III. If they perceived when they were disputing that two or three or more spake together and used Taunts and Scoffs as they did at Oxon then to refuse to dispute any longer but to appeal to be heard before the Queen and the whole Council Whereby this Benefit would happen that they should be delivered from the Commissioners appointed to hear and judg them who meant nothing less than to hear the Cause indifferently being all Enemies already unto the Protestants and their Cause and at a point to give Sentence against them And then many at the Court might be strengthned who know the Truth already and others better informed who erred rather of Zeal than Malice and a third sort that be indurate might be answered fully to their shame He knew he said the Adversaries would deny their Appeal but yet he advised to challenge it and to take witness thereof of such as should be present and require for indifferency of Hearing and Judgment to be heard either before the Queen and Council or else before all the Parliament as it was used in K. Edward's Days So wise and wary now were they But I do not find that this Project of the Papists went further And let us return and visit these three faithful Prisoners of Iesus Christ. After their Disputation and Condemnation their Servants were discharged that so they might not have any Conference or Intelligence of any thing abroad But God provided for every one of them instead of their Servants faithful Fellows that would be content to hear and see and do for them whatsoever they could as Ridley wrote in a Letter to Bradford To these Fathers also came supplies of Meat Money and Shirts from London not only from such as were of their Acquaintance but from Strangers with whom they had no acquaintance doing it for God's Sake and his Gospel's The Bailiffs so watched them now that they would not suffer them to have any Conferences among themselves The Scholars of that University seemed universally against them Which Ridley in a Letter to his Friend Bradford could not but take notice of calling it A wonderful thing that among so many never yet Scholar offered any of them so far as he knew any manner of Favour either for or in Christ's Cause They had all things common among them as Meat Money and whatever one had that might do another good Neither of them now in Prison were idle Old Latimer read the New Testament through seven Times deliberately while he was a Prisoner Cranmer busied himself earnestly in vindication of his Writings of the Sacrament against Winchester under the Name of Marcus Constantius And so did Ridley who in two Treatises which he now made shewed how Winchester varied from other Papists in eighteen Articles and from himself in eighteen more And a third Paper he wrote shewing several things Winchester yielded unto concerning the spiritual Use of the Sacrament Fox hath set down these in his History and preserved them to us these Collections of Ridley falling into his Hands Ridley also wrote while he was a Prisoner in Oxford De Abominationibus Sedis Romanae Pontificum Romanorum and Annotations more large upon Tonstal's first Book of Transubstantiation I suppose and more sparingly upon the Second He was now also diligent to set others on work for the exposing false Religion Desiring one Grimbold to translate Laurentius Valla his Book which he made and wrote against the Fable of Constantine's Donation and glorious Exaltation of the See of Rome And having done that he would have had him to translate a Work of Aeneas Sylvius De Gestis Basiliensis Concilii In which altho said he there be many things that savour of the Pan yet I dare say the Papists would glory but a little to see such Books go forth in English He directed Austin Bernher Latimer's Servant to recommend those Works unto Grimbold who had been his Chaplain and a Man as Ridley gave him the Character of much Eloquence both in English and Latin but he complied and subscribed And he also bad Austin tell Grimbold That if he would know where to have these Books he might find them in a Work set forth by Ortwinus Gratius intitled Fasciculus rerum expetendarum And added That if such things had been set forth in our English Tongue heretofore he supposed great Good might have come to Christ's Church thereby But we have not yet mentioned all the Pieces that Ridley wrote in Prison For besides those above-mentioned were these following I. A little Treatise which was jointly composed by him and Latimer in the Tower which is preserved in Fox with the Letters N. R. before Ridley's Sayings and H. L. before Latimer's II. A Draught which he drew out of the Evangelists and S. Paul shewing thence that the words of the Lord's Supper are figuratively to be understood alledging out of the Doctors three of the Greek Church Origen Chrysostom and Theodoret and three of the Latin Tertullian Augustin and Gelasius III. Three Positions to the third Question propounded in Oxford concerning the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass. IV. His Disputation in the Schools as he wrote it after it was over V. A Letter Ad Fratres in diversis Carceribus All these fell into the Hands of the Papists by this Mishap or Treachery Grimbold expressing a great desire to have every thing that Ridley had writ during his Imprisonment Mr. Shipside Ridley's Brother-in-Law procured and sent him all those Writings before mentioned but they were all seized whether in Grimbold's Possession or
was brought and trained unto the Wil of our late Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI. and what I spake against the same Wherein I refer me to the reports of your Honors and Worships Furthermore this is to signify to your Lordships that upon Monday Tuesday and Wednesday last past were open Disputations here in Oxford against me Mr. Ridley and Mr. Latimer in three matters concerning the Sacrament First of the Real presence Secondly Of Transubstantiation And thirdly Of the Sacrifice of the Mas. Upon Monday against me Upon Tuesday against D. Ridley and upon Wednesday against Mr. Latimer How the other two were ordered I know not for we were separated So that none of us knoweth what the other said nor how they were ordered But as concerning my self I can report D. Chadsey was appointed to dispute against me But the Disputation was so confused that I never knew the like every man bringing forth what him liked without order And such hast was made that no answer could be suffered to be taken fully to any argument before another brought a new argument And in such weighty matters the Disputation must needs be ended in one day which can scantly be ended in three months And when we had answered them they would not appoint us one day to bring sorth our proofes that they might answer us being required by me therunto Wheras I my self have more to say then can be wel discussed as I suppose in twenty dayes The means to resolve the truth had been to have suffered us to answer fully to al that they could say and then they again to answer us fully to al that we can say But why they would not answer us what other cause can there be but that either they feared their matter or that they were not able to answer us Or else for some consideration they made such hast not to seek the truth but to condemne us That it must be don in post hast before the matters could be throughly heard For in al hast we were al three condemned of heresy Thus much I thought good to signify to your Lordships that you may know the indifferent handling of matters Leaving the judgment therof unto your Wisdomes And I beseech your Lordships to remember me a poor prisoner unto the Queens Majesty and I shal pray as I do daily unto God for the long preservation of your good Lordships in al godlines and felicitie April 23. NUM LXXX The Lord Legates Commission to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury deputing them to Absolve and Dispense with the Clergy in his stead and absolve the Laity Commissio Domini Reginaldi Poli Legati de Latere REginaldus miseratione divina Sanctae Mariae de Cosmeden Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Diaconus Cardinalis Polus nuncupatus Sanctissimi D. N. Papae Sedis Apostolicae ad Serenissimos Philippum Mariam Angliae Reges universum Angliae regnum de Latere Legatus Venerabilibus ac nobis in Christo dilectis DECANO CAPITULO Ecclesiae Metropolitices Christi Cant. ad quos omnis omnimoda jurisdictio Spiritualis Ecclesiastica quae ad Archiepiscopum Cant. sede plena pertinuit ipsa Sede jam vacante notorie dinoscitur pertinere seu eorum in Spiritualibus Vicario Generali Salutem in Domino sempiternam Cum Sanctissimus in Christo Pater Dominus noster Dominus JULIUS providentia divina Papa tertius inter alias facultates pro hujus regni omniumque personarum in ea existentium Sanctae Ecclesiae reconciliatione facienda necessarias nobis in hac nostra Legatione concessas hanc specialiter indulserit ut quoscumque in haeresium schismatis errores lapsos ab eis a quibuscúnque censuris poenis propterea incursis absolvere cum eis super irregularitate praemissorum occasione contracta Dispensare alia multa adhaec necessaria seu quomodolibet opportuna facere Et hoc idem munus Catholicis locorum Ordinarijs alijs personis Deum timentibus fide insignibus literarum scientia praeditis demandare possumus prout in ejus literis tam sub plumbo quam in forma Brevis expeditis plenius continetur CUMque de benignitate Serenissimorum Regum pietate Regnum hoc universaliter omnes Domini Spirituales Temporales aliaeque personae Communitatum in eo quod proximè celebratum est Parliamento congregatae singulariter primùm deinde universum corpus Cleri provinciae Cantuariensis omnes ferè personae singulares dictum corpus repraesentantes coram nobis existentes aliaeque pleraeque fuerint sanctae ecclesiae Catholicae per nos ipsos reconciliatae Speremúsque fore ut omnes aliae quae reconciliatae adhuc non sunt reconciliatae fuerint Difficiléque potius impossibile sit ut tam numerosa multitudo per manus nostras reconcilietur Ideo vices nostras in hoc locorum Ordinarijs alijs Personis ut supra qualificatis delegandas duximus CIRCUMSPECTIONI igitur vestrae de cujus probitate charitatis zelo plenam in Domino fiduciam obtinemus Authoritate Apostolicâ nobis per Literas ejusdem Sanctissimi D. N. Papae per nos vobis nunc impensâ omnes singulas utriusque Sexus tam laicas quam ecclesiasticas singulares quorumvis ordinum Regulares vestrae civitatis Dioceseos personas in quibusvis etiam sacris ordinibus constitutas cujuscumque etiam status qualitatis existant etiamsi Capitulum Collegium Universitas seu Communitas fuerit quarumvis haeresium novarum Sectarum professores aut in eis culpabiles vel suspectas ac credentes receptatores fautores ipsorum suos errores agnoscentes ac de illis dolentes ad orthodoxam fidem recipi humiliter postulantes cognita in ipsis vera non ficta aut simulata poenitentia ab omnibus singulis haeresium schismatis ab orthodoxa fide Apostasiarum blasphemiarum aliorum quorumcúnque similium errorum etiam sub generali sermone non venientium peccatis criminibus excessibus delictis de quibus tamen inquisiti vel accusati seu condemnati non fuerint quibúsvis excommunicationis suspensionis interdictionum alijs ecclesiasticis temporalibus sententijs censuris poenis in eas praemissorum infra scriptorum occasione ac jure vel ab homine latis vel promulgatis etiamsi eis pluribus annis insorduerint earum Absolutio dictae Sedi etiam per literas in die coenae Domini legi consuetas reservata existat In utroque Conscientiae scil contentioso foro eos vero qui jam inquisiti vel accusati aut condemnati fuerint vel ut praefertur ad cor revertentes in foro conscientiae tantum plenariè absolventes Liberantes NECNON cum eis super irregularitate per eos occasione praemissorum contractâ etiam quia sic Legati Missas alia divina officia etiam contra ritus ceremonias hactenus probatas
the pretended Matrimony of K. Henry c. hath been and is none at all You will please to consider whether the Latin words fuisse esse nullum should not have been rather translated hath been and is null which is the Canonical Term expressing Voidance in Law Page 23. line 44. Licenses were granted this year 1533 to the Lady Guilford and the Marchioness of Dorset to have the Eucharist c. ministred to them in their private Chappels whether indulged to them by the Archbishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed c. or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judge The Archbishop cannot be hence supposed to have countenanced any Separation from the Parochial Worship of that time or to have insinuated his Judgment of the Danger Superstition or Idolatry of the Publick Worship then used since such Licenses were customary acts very frequent before and at that time Many hundreds of them may be found among the Faculties granted by the Predecessors of this Archbishop more than Two hundred years upwards Private Oratories were then more used and Domestick Chaplains entertained in much greater number than in latter times Yet none then presumed to make use of either without License first obtained of their Diocesans Which Discipline was formerly observed by all strictly and continued in great measure till the time of Archbishop Abbot altho now little regarded So that hereby Archbishop Cranmer gave no occasion for any such Conjecture as is here made any more than Archbishop Parker did when he granted a like License to his own Wife altho she was no Puritan or Separatist from the Established Worship Page 25. line 40. This year 1534 all the Learned and Spiritual men in England subscribed to it with their Hands That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom The Archbishop's Church in Canterbury began for the Prior and Convent thereof solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy c. The Original whereof is in a Volume of the Cotton Library The Right Reverend the Bishop of Salisbury in his History of the Reformation giveth two or three such Instruments of the Subscription of so many particular Convents and supposeth that no more remain but that all the rest were in the Reign of Queen Mary destroyed by Bp. Bonner by Virtue of a Commission granted to him for razing of Scandalous Records In truth all those Instruments do yet remain and are a most Authentick Justification of the Proceedings of the King in abolishing the Papal Supremacy The Originals of them do yet remain in their proper place the King's Exchequer into which they were at first returned and where they have been hitherto kept There are in my hands no less than One hundred seventy five such Instruments transcribed long since from thence containing the Subscriptions of all the Bishops Chapters Monastries Colleges Hospitals c. of Thirteen Diocesses The Subscriptions of those of the other Nine Diocesses are to my certain knowledge yet remaining in another place but I have not yet gained Copies of them Some of these Instruments have been transcribed into the Volume of the Cotton Library here mentioned but that is only a Transcript containeth not the Originals as is here supposed Nor did the Church of Canterbury begin the Subscription for however the Instrument of that Church may be placed first upon account of the Preeminence of it the Instruments of several Religious Houses even in that Diocess are dated before it Page 29. line 31. Nix Bishop of Norwich died two years after September 1534. and came in to be Bishop in the year 1500. He died in the middle of Ianuary 1535 6 and was Consecrated Bishop in April 1501. Page 32. line 6. ab imo The Archbishop began his Provincial Visitation Iure Metropolitico the last year 1534. It was somewhat extraordinary for such a Visitation had not been in an hundred years before The Diocess of Winchester having been visited but five years ago by his Predecessor Warham The Archbishop in his Letter in answer to the Bishop of Winchester in the Appendix Pag. 21. saith truly That the Diocess of Winchester was visited by his Predecessor Warham the third year before this But when he addeth That else it had not been visited by any of his Predecessors these forty years he is to be understood cautiously For altho perhaps it had not been visited by any Archbishop since the death of Bishop Langton which was in the year 1493 yet it had been visited Metropolitico by the Chapter of Canterbury in the beginning of the year 1501. Again when it is said from Bishop Stokâ—sly's Letter in the Appendix page 22. That such a Provincial Visitation had not been held by any of the Archbishop's Predecessors in an hundred years before this also is to be understood dextrously For men in their Juridical Answers are wont to alledge any thing which may seem to make for their Cause little regarding whether it be exactly true or no. It is true the Archbishops of Canterbury had not for so long a time undertaken or performed a Metropolitical Visitation of their whole Province at one time but they had often within that time visited particular Diocesses Iure Metropolitico which was a sufficient President to the Cause then in hand Page 36. line 32. Suffragan Bishops were not unusual in the Realm To give some Instances of them Certain bearing the Title of Bishops of Sidon assisted the Archbishops of Canterbury one of these was named Thomas Wellys Prior of St. Gregories by Canterbury he being Archbishop Warham's Chaplain was sent by him c. There was afterwards one Christopher that bore that Title and assisted Archbishop Cranmer about these times 1535. in Ordinations And another Thomas intituled of Sidon succeeded It should seem to be here supposed That the Suffragans of the Diocess of Canterbury did then commonly take their Titles from Sidon whereas indeed none of them save that Thomas Wellys here mentioned was intituled from thence As for Christopher he was not Suffragan to the Archbishops of Canterbury and that other Thomas of Sidon was in Cranmer's time Suffragan to the Bishops of London That Thomas Wellys moreover who was Prior of St. Gregories and Titular Bishop of Sidon was not Chaplain to Archbishop Warham for Archbishops never entertained Regulars in the quality of Chaplains Archbishop Warham had indeed a Chaplain of that name but he was neither Prior nor Bishop but a Secular Doctor of Divinity and Rector of Chartham near Canterbury Ibid. line 47. Long before these I find one William Botlesham Episcopus Navatensis Anno 1382. at the Convocation in London summoned against the Wicklivites If this were a Titular Bishop only he had nothing to do in the Convocation nor any Right to be summoned to it That Willelmus Botlesham Episcopus Navatensis was in truth no other than
their Ministration This is not universally true All Secular Married Clergy-men who desired it were restored after such Penance undergone unless some other great Demerit intervened But no Regulars could obtain that favour Marriage in them being accounted Apostacy from their Vow and Order Page 331. line 12. The said Poinet late Bishop of Winchester but now an Exile very learnedly answered this Book of Dr. Martin against Priests Marriage in two several Treatises The second Treatise he lived not to finish but the Copy falling into the hands of Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury he published it in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign with very large and excellent Additions of his own The same Book is ascribed to Poinet infra lin 39. with some doubt pag. 330. med page 53 69 c. This Book was most certainly none of Poinet's for the Author of it saith of himself more than once that he was a Layman had designed indeed to enter into Holy Orders but was prevented by the Death of K. Edward and the Iniquity of the Times succeeding to it He lived in or about either Norwich or Lincoln and died before the end of Q. Mary's Reign Archbishop Parker in Publishing it did not adjoin his own Additions to all the Printed Copies but only to a few of them Page 369. line 3. c. Latimer 's Character is best taken from them who best knew him and lived in his time One of these Thomas Becon thus speaks of him while he was yet alive in the beginning of K. Edward Latimer was very famous for the Sincerity and Goodness of his Evangelical Doctrine which since the beginning of his Preaching had in all points been so conformable to the teaching of Christ and his Apostles His Fame began to grow apace while he was at Cambridge some years before 1530. doing abundance of good there among the Studentâ— by his Sermons Before them he did by invincible Arguments c. prove That the Holy Screptures ought to be read in the English Tongue of all Christen People whether they were Priests or Laymen c. Good Mr. Becon did herein either want true information or hath imposed upon his Readers Latimer was so far from maintaining this Doctrine ever since the beginning of his Preaching that he was one of those Divines who being deputed by the University of Cambridge joined with Archbishop Warham and other Bishops and Divines in Condemning all English Translations of the Scripture and solemnly subscribed this Determination The Publication of the H. Scripture in the Vulgar Tongue is not necessary to Christians and the King's Majesty and the Bishops do well in forbidding to the people the common use of the H. Scripture in the English Tongue This was done in the year 1530. Page 383. line 16. ab imo The Queen would not alter her Determination to have Archbishop Cranmer burnt by the Instigation as I suppose of Pole the Legate I would not have remittted you to so obscure an Author as Anthony Harmer if your self had not mentioned him in your Preface He hath offered some Reasons in his Specimen page 144. not altogether contemptible to clear Cardinal Pole from this Imputation I am so charitable as to be willing at least to assent to his Reasons your self can better judge of the Validity of them Page 398. line 9. Among Archbishop Cranmer's Writings are reckoned from Bale Letters to Learned Men one Book and thereto is added This I cannot hear any tidings of The Archbishop's Letters to Learned men never were either by himself or others collected into one or more Books especially at that time But it was Bale's foolish way to account to every great man whom he hath placed in his Rhapsody of Writers One Book of Epistles Epist. Dedicat. page 3. The Judgment of Archbishop Arundel was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laity's use thereof For he preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne in 1392. commended her particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester c. This MS. Fragment hath been often published And Arundel when he preached this Sermon was not Archbishop of Canterbury nor one of Cranmer's Predecessors as is here supposed But after all the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel in this Case is better declared by an Authentick Decree than by a Rhetorical Passage in a Sermon wherein he was obliged to commend the Deceased Queen He was so far then from favouring the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue or the use of them by the Laity that in the year 1408 he made this famous Decree in the Synod of Oxford Periculosa res est c. It is a dangerous thing to translate the H. Scripture We decree therefore and ordain That henceforth no man by his own authority translate any Book of H. Scripture into the English or any other Tongue by way of Book Libel or Treatise and that no such Book or Translation be read by any one upon pain of the higher Excommunication I might also observe to you That the Case of Archbishop Chichely which you had mentioned immediately before this is mistaken he doing therein nothing more than what was usual as also the Case of Archbishop Islip who decreed in the Case by you mentioned nothing but what was consonant to the Rules of Canon Law and the Papal Definitions it being a Rule in both that Simplex Votum impedit matrimonium contrahendum sed non dirimit contractum But I fear I have been too long already I will only put you farther in mind that when in the following Pages you compare the Archbishops of Canterbury preceding to and succeeding the Reformation and accuse the former to have minded chiefly great Worldly Pomp and Appearance but praise the latter for regarding littlâ— or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory the Comparison is not altogether just For Parker and Whitgift whom you chuse to instance in lived in as great State Pomp and Magnificence and were attended with as large a Retinue as most of their Predecessors And that in your Preface page 7. instead of an Augustine Monk of Canterbury should be substituted a Monk of St. Augustines in Canterbury And lastly That Page 11. Edward Howes should if I mistake not be changed into Edmund Howes These Sir are the only Errors which I have discovered in your History That the Observation of them may in any measure contribute to the Illustration of your Work as I doubt not but your Work will highly contribute to the Information of the Curious and the Iustification of our Reformation is the Hearty Desire of SIR Your most Humble Servant HEN. WHARTON Novemb. 13. 1693. A TABLE OF THE Letters Instruments Records c. Made use of in this History and contained in the Appendix to the Memorials of Archbishop CRANMER With the NUMBER and PAGE under which each may be found and the