and therewith procure for him the like Licence as to the other had been granted And lastly that Goodacre and his Collegue Bale might find the better Countenance and Authority when they should exercise their Functions in that Country the Privy-Council wrote two Letters to the Lord-Deputy and Council of Ireland the one dated Octob. 27. in commendation of Bale Bishop Elect of Ossory and the other dated Novemb. 4. in commendation of Goodacre Bishop Elect of Armachan CHAP. XXIX The Arch-bishop charged with Covetousness TO divert the King after the loss of his Unkle whom he dearly loved Northumberland took him in Progress in the Summer of this Year While he was in this Progress some about his Person that they might the better make way for their Sacrilegious Designs and to make the King the more inclinable to lay Hands on the Episcopal Demeans or at least to clip and pare them buzzed about the Court Rumours how Rich the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other Bishops were and withal how niggardly and unsutably they lived to their great Incomes laying up and scraping together to enrich themselves and their Posterities whereby Hospitality was neglected which was especially required of them Hereupon Sir William Cecyl the Secretary who was now with the King and took notice of these Discourses and saw well the malicious Tendency thereof and moreover thought them perhaps in some measure to be true laboured to hinder the ill Consequence For he was ever a very great Favourer as of the Reformed Clergy so of their Estate and Honours This put him upon writing a private Letter from Court to the Arch-bishop desiring him favourably to take a piece of good Counsel at his Hands as he intended it innocently and out of a good Mind acquainting him with the Reports at the Court of his Riches and of his Covetousness reminding him withal of that Passage of St. Paul They that will be Rich fall into Temptation and a Snare meaning probably thereby the Danger that he and the rest of his Brethren might expose their Revenues to thereby The Arch-bishop seemed somewhat netled and perceiving the ill Designs dispatched an Answer hereunto giving a true Account of his own Condition and of the other Bishops as to temporal Things and letting him understand how much the World was mistaken in him and the rest That for himself he feared not that Saying of St. Paul half so much as he did stark Beggary That he took not half so much Care for his Living when he was a Scholar of Cambridg as he did at that present For although he had now much more Revenue yet he said he had much more to do withal That he had more Care now to live as an Arch-bishop than he had at that Time to live like a Scholar That he had not now so much as he had within ten Years past by an hundred and fifty Pounds of certain Rent besides Casualties That he paid double for every thing he bought And that if a good Auditor had this Account he should find no great Surplusage to grow rich upon And then as for the rest of the Bishops he told him That they were all Beggars but only one single Man of them and yet he dared well say that he was not very Rich. And that if he knew any Bishop that were Covetous he would surely admonish him Intreating the Secretary that if he could inform him of any such he would signify him and himself would advertise him thinking he could do it better than the other Who seemed to have hinted his Mind to the Arch-bishop that he intended to do it This Letter will be found among the rest in the Appendix No doubt the Arch-bishop was thus large and earnest on this Subject to supply the Secretary with Arguments to confute that malicious Talk at Court concerning the Bishops and to prevent the Mischiefs hatching against them Nor indeed was this the first time this Arch-bishop was thus slandered For some of his Enemies divers Years before had charged him to his loving Master King Henry VIII with Covetousness and ill House-keeping And the chief of these that raised this Report was Sir Thomas Seimour But the King made him to convince himself by sending him to Lambeth about Dinner-time upon some pretended Message Where his own Eyes saw how the Arch-bishop lived in far other sort than he had told the King keeping great and noble Hospitality So that when he returned he acknowledged to his Majesty that he never saw so honourable a Hall set in this Realm besides his Majesty's in all his Life with better Order and so well furnished in each Degree And the King then gave this Testimony of him Ah good Man all that he hath he spendeth in House-keeping For this Reason probably it was as well as upon the account of his good Service and also of the Exchanges he was forced to make that the said King gave him a promise of a Grant of some Lands and by a general Clause in his Will signified as much which was That certain Persons should be considered Accordingly I find in the forementioned Manuscript-Book of Sales of King's Lands that Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury did in the first Year of King Edward VI. partly by Purchase and partly by Exchange of other Lands procure divers Lands of the King He obtained the Rectory of VVhalley Blackbourn and Rachdale in the County of Lancaster lately belonging to the Monastery or Abby of VVhalley in the same County and divers other Lands and Tenaments in the Counties of Lancaster Kent Surrey London Bangor And this partly in Consideration of King Henry VIII his Promise and in performance of his Will and partly in exchange for the Mannor and Park of Mayfield in the County of Sussex and divers other Lands and Tenements in the Counties of Middlesex Hertford Kent Buckingham and York This Purchase he made I suppose not for himself but for his See About the same time he also bought of the King for the sum of five hundred and eighty Pounds eight Shillings and four Pence the Mannor of Sleford in the County of Lincoln and of Middleton-Cheny in the County of Northampton and divers other Lands and Tenements in the said Counties He made another Purchase of the King the same Year that is the first of his Reign for four hundred twenty nine Pounds fourteen shillings and two Pence and for the fulfilling the last Will of the late King and in consideration of Services as it is expressed in the said Book of Sales This Purchase was the Priory of Arthington in the County of York and divers other Lands and Tenements in York Nottingham and Kent An Extract of which three Purchases exactly taken out of the said Book with the Value of the Lands and the Rent reserved and the Time of the Issues and the Test of the Patent I have thought fit to insert in the Appendix which
lawful for one Brother to marry his Brother's Wife being known of his Brother Of the which Cambridg Doctors Cranmer was appointed for one such was his Fame then in that University for Learning But because he was not then at Cambridg another was chosen in his stead These Learned Men agreed fully with one Consent that it was lawful with the Pope's Dispensation so to do But if Cranmer had been there he would have been of another Mind as we shall see in the Sequel This great Matrimonial Cause gave the first step to Dr. Cranmer's Preferment For when Fox and Gardiner the one the King's Almoner and the other his Secretary lighting by chance in Dr. Cranmer's Company at one Mr. Cressies House situate in Waltham-Abbey Parish in Essex had on design fallen upon Discourse of that Matter purposely to learn his Judgment therein knowing him an eminent noted Reader of Divinity in Cambridg He gave his own Sense of the Cause in words to this effect I have nothing at all studied said he for the Verity of this Cause nor am beaten therein as you have been Howbeit I do think that you go not the next way to work to bring the Matter unto a perfect Conclusion and End especially for the satisfaction of the troubled Conscience of the King's Highness For in observing the common Process and frustratory Delays of these your Courts the Matter will linger long enough and peradventure in the end come to small effect And this is most certain said he there is but one Truth in it Which no Men ought or better can discuss than the Divines Whose Sentence may be soon known and brought so to pass with little Industry and Charges that the King's Conscience may thereby be quieted and pacified Which we all ought to consider and regard in this Question or Doubt and then his Highness in Conscience quieted may determine himself that which shall seem Good before God And let these tumultuary Processes give place unto a certain Truth His Opinion thus unwillingly drawn from him was so much liked of by them to whom he spake it that they thought it worth their acquainting the King with it Which they did within two days after at Greenwich Whereupon the King commanded he should be sent for to the Court. Which was done and he brought into the King's Presence Who having heard him discourse upon the Marriage and well observing the Gravity and Modesty as well as Learning of the Man resolved to cherish and make much of him This was about August 1529 the King having commanded him to digest in Writing what he could say upon the foresaid Argument retained him and committed him unto the Family and Care of the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond named Sir Thomas Bolen dwelling then at Durham-House Esteeming him a fit Person for Cranmer to reside with who had himself been employed in Embassies to Rome and Germany about the same Matter and so able to instruct our Divine in particular Passages relating thereunto And likewise would be sure to afford him all the Security and Favour and Aid possible from the Prospect that if the King 's former Marriage could be proved unlawful and thereby null and void his own Family would be in a fair probability to be highly advanced by the King 's matching with his Daughter the Lady Ann Bolen Nor was Cranmer unsutably placed here in regard of the Disposition of his Noble Host being accounted one of the learnedest Noblemen in the Land and endued with a Mind enclined to Philosophy Erasmus who had good Intelligence in England and knew this Earl himself gives this Account of him to Damianus à Goes Est enim Vir ut uno ore praedicant omnes unus prope inter Nobiles eruditus animóque planè Philosophico He was also much addicted to the Study and Love of the Holy Scriptures as the same Erasmus in an Epistle to him mentioneth and commendeth him for I do the more congratulate your Happiness when I observe the Sacred Scriptures to be so dear to a Man as you are of Power one of the Laity and a Courtier and that you have such a desire to tha◠Pearl of Price He was also a Patron of Learning and Learned Men. And if there were nothing else to testify this it would be enough to say that he was well-affected to the Great Erasmus and a true valuer of his Studies The World is beholden to this Noble Peer for some of the Labours that proceeded from the Pen of that most Learned Man For upon his desire Erasmus wrote three Tracts One was Enarrations upon the Twenty second Psalm intituled Dominus regit me but more truly the Twenty third Another was an Explication of the Apostles Creed And the third Directions how to prepare for Death And from these Subjects which this Noble-man chose to desire Erasmus his Thoughts of we may conclude also his Pious and Religious Mind At which his vertuous Accomplishments as they rendred his House a sutable Harbour for the Learned and Pious Cranmer so they were not a little encreased by his Converse and Familiarity there For while Cranmer abode here a great Friendship was contracted between him and that Noble Family especially the chief Members of it the Countess and the Lady Ann and the Earl himself who often held serious Conferences with him about the great Matter And in the Earl's absence from Home Letters passed between them Cranmer writing to him of the Affairs of the Court and of the Welfare of his Family as well as of other more weighty Things In one Letter dated from Hampton-Court in the Month of Iune which by Circumstance must be in the Year 1530. he writ to him That the King's Grace my Lady his Wife my Lady Ann his Daughter were in good Health And that the King and my Lady Ann rode the Day before to Windsor from Hampton-Court and that Night they were look'd for again there praying God to be their Guide And I cannot look upon this Pious and Learned Man's placing here in this Family but as guided by a peculiar Hand of Divine Providence Whereby this House became better acquainted with the Knowledg of the Gospel and had the Seeds of true Religion scattered in the Hearts of those Noble Persons that were related to it Particularly of Her who was afterwards to be advanced to that high and publick Station to be Consort to the King And that she became a Favourer and as much as she durst a Promoter of the purer Religion must I think in a great measure be owing thereunto When Cranmer had accomplished the King's Request and finished his Book he himself the Secretary and the Almoner and other Learned Men had in Commission to dispute the Cause in Question in both the Universities Which being first attempted at Cambridg Dr. Cranmer by his Authority Learning and Perswasion brought over divers Learned Men in one Day of the contrary
at Canterbury IN order to the bettering the State of Religion in the Nation the Arch-bishop's Endeavours both with the King and the Clergy were not wanting from time to time And something soon after fell out which afforded him a fair opportunity which was this The King resolving to vindicate his own Right of Supremacy against the Encroachments of Popes in his Dominions especially now the Parliament had restored it to him being at Winchester sent for his Bishops thither about Michaelmas ordering them to go down to their respective Diocesses and there in their own Persons to preach up the Regal Authority and to explain to the People the Reason of excluding the Pope from all Jurisdiction in these Realms Our Arch-bishop according to this Command speeds down into his Diocess to promote this Service for the King and the Church too He went not into the neerer parts of Kent about Otford and Knol where his most frequent Residence used to be because his Influence had a good effect for the Instruction of the People thereabouts in this as well as in other Points of sound Religion But he repaired into the East parts of his Diocess where he preached up and down upon the two Articles of the Pope's Usurpations and the King's Supremacy But the People of Canterbury being less perswaded of these Points than all his Diocess besides there in his Cathedral Church he preached two Sermons wherein he insisted upon three things I. That the Bishop of Rome was not God's Vicar upon Earth as he was taken Here he declared by what Crafts the Bishop of Rome had obtained his usurped Authority II. That the Holiness that See so much boasted of and by which Name Popes affected to be stiled was but a Holiness in Name and that there was no such Holiness at Rome And here he launched out into the Vices and profligate kind of living there III. He inveighed against the Bishop of Rome's Laws Which were miscalled Divinae Leges and Sacri Canones He said that those of his Laws which were good the King had commanded to be observed And so they were to be kept out of obedience to him And here he descended to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church that they ought not to be rejected nor yet to be observed with an Opinion that of themselves they make Men holy or remit their Sins seeing our Sins are remitted by the Death of our Saviour Christ. But that they were observed for a common Commodity and for good Order and Quietness as the Common Laws of the Kingdom were And for this Cause Ceremonies were instituted in the Church and for a remembrance of many good things as the King's Laws dispose Men unto Justice and unto Peace And therefore he made it a general Rule that Ceremonies were to be observed as the Laws of the Land were These Sermons of the Arch-bishop it seems as they were new Doctrines to them so they were received by them at first with much gladness But the Friars did not at all like these Discourses They thought such Doctrines laid open the Truth too much and might prove prejudicial unto their Gains And therefore by a Combination among themselves they thought it convenient that the Arch-bishop's Sermons should be by some of their Party confuted and in the same place where he preached them So soon after came up the Prior of the black Friars in Canterbury levelling his Discourse against the three things that the Arch-bishop had preached He asserted the Church of Christ never erred that he would not slander the Bishops of Rome and that the Laws of the Church were equal with the Laws of God This angry Prior also told the Arch-bishop to his Face in a good Audience concerning what he had preached of the Bishop of Rome's Vices that he knew no Vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And whereas the Arch-bishop had said in his Sermon to the People that he had prayed many Years that we might be separated from that See and that he might see the Power of Rome destroyed because it wrought so many things contrary to the Honour of God and the Wealth of the Realm and because he saw no hopes of amendment and that he thanked God he had now seen it in this Realm for this the Prior cried out against him that he preached uncharitably The Arch-bishop not suffering his Authority to be thus affronted nor the King's Service to be thus hindred convented the Prior before him before Christmass At his first examination he denied that he preached against the Arch-bishop and confessed that his Grace had not preached any thing amiss But sometime afterward being got free from the mild Arch-bishop and being secretly upheld by some Persons in the Combination he then said he had preached amiss in many things and that he purposely preached against him This created the Arch-bishop abundance of Slander in those parts The Business came to the King's Ears who seemed to require the Arch-bishop to censure him in his own Court But upon occasion of this the Arch-bishop wrote his whole Cause in a Letter to the King dated from his House at Ford 1535. Declaring what he had preached and what the other had preached in contradiction to him And withal entreated his Majesty that he the Arch-bishop might not have the judging of him lest he might seem partial but that he would commit the hearing unto the Lord Privy Seal who was Crumwel or else to assign unto him other Persons whom his Majesty pleased that the Cause might be jointly heard together He appealed to the King and his Council If the Prior did not defend the Bishop of Rome though he had said nothing else than that the Church never erred For then they were no Errors as he inferred that were taught of the Pope's Power and that he was Christ's Vicar in Earth and by God's Law Head of all the World Spiritual and Temporal and that all People must believe that de necessitate Salutis and that whosoever did any thing against the See of Rome is an Heretick But if these be no Errors then your Grace's Laws said he be Erroneous that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more Power than other Bishops and them to be Traitors that defend the contrary In fine in the stomach of an Arch-bishop and finding it necessary to put a stop to the ill designs of these Friars he concluded That if that Man who had so highly offended the King and openly preached against him being his Ordinary and Metropolitan of the Province and that in such Matters as concerned the Authority Mis-living and Laws of the Bishop of Rome and that also within his own Church if he were not looked upon he left it to the King's Prudence to expend what Example it might prove unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome's Authority and of what estimation he the Arch-bishop should be reputed hereafter and what Credence would be
't is said from the Arch-bishop Therefore the King prest by some of the Papists about him who began now after Lambert's Death to listen to them set forth a Proclamation Novemb. 16. for the stopping of such Matrimonies Which ran in this Tenor. That the King's Majesty understanding that a few in number of this his Realm being Priests as well Religious as other had taken Wives and married themselves c. His Highness in no wise minding that the generality of the Clergy of this his Realm should with the Example of such a few number of light Persons proceed to Marriage without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm Did therefore streightly charge and command as well all and singular the said Priests as have attempted Marriages that be openly known as all such as would presumptuously proceed to the same that they ne any of them should minister any Sacrament or other Ministry Mystical Ne have any Office Dignity Cure Privilege Profit or Commodity heretofore accustomed and belonging to the Clergy of this Realm but should be utterly after such Marriages expelled and deprived from the same and be had and reputed as Lay-persons to all intents and purposes And that such as should after this Proclamation contrary to his Commandment of their presumptuous Mind take Wives and be married should run in his Grace's Indignation and suffer further Punishment and Imprisonment at his Grace's Will and Pleasure Dat. xvi Novembris Anno Regni sui xxx Wherein we may observe what a particular regard the King had for the Arch-bishop in relation to his Wife that the danger of the Proclamation might not reach him by limiting the Penalty not to such as were married and kept their Wives secretly but to such as should marry hereafter and such as kept them openly And we may observe further that it seemed to be in the King's Mind in due time to tolerate Marriages to Priests by Act of Parliament which that Clause seems to import that these Priests had married themselves without a common Consent of his Highness and his Realm And Bishop Ponet or whoever else was the Author of the Defence of Priests Marriage assures us that the King intended to permit Priests to take Wives knowing how necessary it was to grant that Liberty and he affirms that it was not unknown to divers that heard him speak oft of that Matter But was hindred by some jealous Councellors that pretended how ill the People would take it had it been done by his Authority The Sect of Anabaptists did now begin to pester this Church and would openly dispute their Principles in Taverns and publick places and some of them were taken up Many also of their Books were brought in and printed here also which was the cause that the King now set out a severe Proclamation against them and their Books To which he joined the Sacramentaries as lately with the other come into the Land Declaring That he abhorred and detested their Errors and that those that were apprehended he would make Examples Ordering that they should be detected and brought before the King or his Council and that all that were not should in eight or ten days depart the Kingdom This Proclamation may be read in the Appendix Num. VIII Where I have misplaced it A Commission also was then given out to the Arch-bishop to Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Rich. Bishop of Chichester and others against this Sect. Which Commission was signed at the bottom by Thomas Crumwel It was observed that the Parsons Vicars and Curates did read confusedly the Word of God and the King's Injunctions lately set forth and commanded by them to be read humming and hauking thereat that almost no Man could understand the meaning of the Injunction And they secretly suborned certain spreaders of Rumors and false Tales in Corners who interpreted the Injunctions to a false sense And because there was an Order that all Christnings Marriages and Burials should be registred from time to time and the Books surely kept in the Parish Churches they blew abroad that the King intended to make new Exactions at all Christnings Weddings and Burials adding that therein the King went about to take away the Liberties of the Realm for which they said Thomas a Becket died And they bad their Parishioners notwithstanding what they read being compelled so to do that they should do as they did in Times past to live as their Fathers and that the old Fashion is the best and other crafty and seditious Parables they gave out among them This forced the King to write his Letters to the Justices of Peace to take up such seditious Parsons Vicars and Curates And in these Letters is explained the true Reason of Thomas a Beckeâ—'s Contention with K. Henry II. As that he contended that none of the Clergy offending should be called to account or corrected but in the Bishop's Courts only and not by the Laws of the Realm and that no King should be Crowned but by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury only The Church of Hereford being now become vacant by the Death of Fox an excellent Instrument of the Reformation the Archbishop committed the custody of the Spiritualities to Hugh Coren Doctor of Canon Laws and Prebendary of that Church and by him visited the Church and Diocess and gave certain Injunctions to the Parsons Vicars and other Curats there These Injunctions as I find them in Cranmer's Register were eight in number Which I shall not here insert at large because they may be met with in the History of the Reformation But in short they enjoined the Observation of the King's Injunctions given by his Majesty's Commissaries in the Year 1536. They enjoined that they should have by the first of August a whole Bible in Latin and English or at least a New Testament in the same Languages That they should every day study one Chapter of the Bible or Testament conferring the Latin and English together and to begin at the beginning of the Book and so continue to the End That they should not discourage any Lay-men from reading the Bible but encourage them to it And to read it for the Reformation of their Lives and Knowledg of their Duty and not to be bold and presumptuous in judging of things before they have perfect Knowledg That they should both in their Preachings and Confessions and in other their Doings excite their Parishioners unto such Works as are commanded by God expresly Adding that for this God should demand of them a strict Reckoning And to teach them that other Works which they do of their own Devotion are not to be so highly esteemed as the other And that for the not doing them God will not ask any Account That no Friar have any Cure or Service in their Churches unless he were dispensed withal and licensed by the Ordinary That they admit no young Person to the Sacrament who never received it before unless such
Person openly in the Church after Mass upon a Holy-day say the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments That they twice a Quarter declare the Bands of Matrimony and the danger of using their Bodies but with such Persons as they might by the Law of God and that no privy Contracts be made as they would avoid the extream Peril of the Laws of the Realm No Diocesan Bishop Consecrated this Year Bishops Suffragans Robert Bishop of S. Asaph recommended to the King Iohn Bradley Abbot of the Monastery of Milton of the order of S. Benedict or William Pelles both Batchellors of Divinity to the Dignity of Suffragan within the Diocess Province rather of Canterbury mentioning no particular See The Bishop of Bath and Wells also recommended two to the King out of which to nominate a Suffragan to some See within the Province of Canterbury viz. William Finch late Prior of Bremar and Richard Walshe Prior of the Hospital of S. Iohn Baptist of Bridgewater April the 7 th William Finch was nominated by the King to the Arch-bishop to be Consecrated for Suffragan of Taunton and then consecrated in the Chappel of S. Maries in the Conventual Church of the Friars Preachers London by Iohn Bishop of Rochester by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and William Suffragan of Colchester assisting And March the 23. Iohn Bradley was consecrated Suffragan of Shaftsbury in the Chancel of the Parish-Church of S. Iohn Baptist in Southampton by Iohn Bishop of Bangor by the Letters Commissional of Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Iohn Ipolitanen and Thomas Suffragan of Marleborough assisting CHAP. XIX The Act of Six Articles THIS Year October the 6 th I meet with a Commission ad Facultates granted from the Arch-bishop to a famous Man Nicolas Wotton LL. D. a Man of great Learning and made use of by the King afterwards in divers Embassies and a Privy-Counsellor to King Henry and his three Children successively Princes of the Realm and Dean of Canterbury and York This Commission was in pursuance of a late Act of Parliament to this Tenor That in whatsoever Cases not prohibited by Divine Right in which the Bishop of Rome or Roman See heretofore accustomed to Dispence and also in all other Cases in which the Bishop or See of Rome accustomed not to dispence if so be they were not forbid by Divine Right in these Cases the Arch-bishop had Power granted him to Dispense In this Office he constituted Wotton his Commissary or Deputy for the Term of his natural Life He succeeded Edmund Boner Master of the Arch-bishop's Faculties now preferred to the Bishoprick of Hereford So that Cranmer took notice of the Merits of this Man who was so much made use of afterwards in the Church and State and was of that great Esteem and Reputation that he was thought on in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign for ABp of Canterbury In the Year 1528. he was Doctor of Laws and the Bishop of London's Official In the Year 1540 he was Resident for the King in the Duke of Cleve's Court and had been employed in the Match between the King and the Lady Ann of that House the Year before and perhaps this might be the first time he was sent abroad in the King's Business In the Year 1539 the King took occasion to be displeased with the Arch-bishop and the other Bishops of the new Learning as they then termed them because they could not be brought to give their Consent in the Parliament that the King should have all the Monasteries suppressed to his own sole use They were willing he should have all the Lands as his Ancestors gave to any of them but the Residue they would have had bestowed upon Hospitals Grammar-Schools for bringing up of Youth in Vertue and good Learning with other things profitable in the Common-wealth The King was hereunto stirred by the crafty Insinuations of the Bishop of Winchester and other old dissembling Papists And as an effect of this Displeasure as it was thought in the Parliament this Year he made the terrible bloody Act of the Six Articles Whereby none were suffered to speak a word against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation upon pain of being burnt to Death as an Heretick and to forfeit all his Lands and Goods as in case of Treason And moreover it was made Felony and forfeiture of Lands and Goods to defend the Communion in both kinds Marriage in a Priest or in any Man or Woman that had vowed Chastity or to say any thing against the necessity of Private Masses and Auricular Confession Which Articles were plainly enough designed against any that should dare to open their Mouths against these Romish Errors and especially to impose Silence and that on pain of Death upon many honest Preachers that were now risen up and used to speak freely against these Abuses and as a good means to keep the poor People still securely in their old Ignorance and Superstition But before this Act passed marvellous great struggling there was on both Parts for and against it But the side of the Favourers of the Gospel at this time was the weaker the King now enclining more to the other Party for the reason abovesaid and for other Causes Wherein I refer the Reader to the Conjectures of the Lord Herbert The Bishops disputed long in the House some for it and some against it The Arch-bishop disputed earnestly three days against it using divers Arguments to disswade passing the Act. Which were so remarkable for the Learning and Weight of them that the King required a Copy of them And though he was resolved not to alter his purpose of having this Act made yet he was not offended with the Arch-bishops freedom as knowing the Sincerity of the Man Even those in the House that dissented from him were greatly taken with the Gravity Eloquence and Learning he then shewed and particularly the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk Who told him so at his Table soon after being sent by the King to him to comfort him under his dejection for this Act with Crumwel and many other Lords The Papist Writers say he opposed it because himself was a Married Man and so it would touch him close But it is plain that there were other of these Six Articles which he utterly disliked And especially he abhorred the rigorous penalty of the Act. But hereupon he privately sent away his Wife into Germany among her Friends On this side also were beside the Arch-bishop the Bishops of Ely Sarum Worcester Rochester and St. Davids York Durham Winchester and Carlile went vigorously the other way Against the former the King himself argued with his Learning out of the Scriptures and would by all means prove these Articles thence The Parliament Men said little against this Bill but seemed all unanimous for it Neither did the Lord Chancellor Audley no nor the Lord Privy Seal
one of the great Incendiaries was censured at Windsor For he and one Symons a Lawyer and Ockham that laid Traps for others were catch'd at length themselves They were Men that busied themselves in framing Indictments upon the six Articles against great Numbers of those that favoured or professed the Gospel and in sending them to Court to Winchester who was to prefer the Complaints to the Council The King being more and more informed of their base Conspiracies and disliking their bloody Dispositions commanded the Council should search into the Matters And so London and his Fellows being examined before the said Council were in the end found to be perjured in denying upon their Oaths what they had indeed done and was proved manifestly to their Faces Hereupon they were adjudged perjured Persons and appointed to ride through Windsor Reading and Newbery where they had done most Mischief with their Faces towards the Horse-Tail and a Paper upon their Heads declaring their Crime and to stand upon the Pillory in each of those Towns And that Punishment they underwent and then were sent to the Fleet. London not long after died there probably out of Shame and Sorrow This was the End of one of these Conspirators German Gardiner was a Year after hanged drawn and quartered as a Traitor for denying the King's Supremacy And the Bishop of Winchester after this never had Favour or Regard of the King more And Heywood another of the Crew of the Informers and Witnesses was condemned for Treason with Gardiner but making a Recantation his Life was spared CHAP. XXVIII The Arch-bishop falls into more Troubles AFter this the Arch-bishop received two terrible Shocks more if I am right in the placing them as I think I am though I leave Fox to follow Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary in his Manuscript Declaration of the said Arch-bishop The former was a Complaint that was made openly against him in Parliament and the latter when the Lords of the Privy-Council accused him unto the King and required that he should be sent to the Tower Sir Iohn Gostwick a Knight for Bedforshire a Man of great Service in his Time but Papistical stood up in the House and laid to his Charge his Sermons and Lectures both at Sandwich and Canterbury containing as he said manifest Heresy against the Sacrament of the Altar Though it was much they should accuse him in that Point seeing he then held a Corporal Presence but it displeased them that it was after the Lutheran way rather than after theirs of Transubstantiation But the King perceived easily this proceeded of Malice for that he was a Stranger in Kent and had neither heard the Arch-bishop preach nor read there Knowing thereby that he was set on and made an Instrument to serve other Mens Purposes the King marvellously stormed at the Matter calling Gostwick openly Varlet and said That he had plaid a villanous part to abuse in open Parliament the Primate of the Realm especially being in Favour with his Prince as he was What will they do with him said he if I were gone Whereupon the King sent word unto Gostwick by one of his Privy-Chamber after this sort Tell the Varlet Gostwick That if he do not acknowledg his Fault unto my Lord of Canterbury and so reconcile himself towards him that he may become his good Lord I will soon both make him a poor Gostwick and otherwise punish him to the Example of others He wondred he said he could hear my Lord of Canterbury preaching out of Kent And that if he had been a Kentish-Man he might have had some more shadow to put up an Accusation against him Now Gostwick hearing of this grievous Threat came with all possible speed unto Lambeth and there submitted himself in such sorrowful case that my Lord out of hand not only forgave all his Offences but also went directly unto the King for the obtaining of the King's Favour which he obtained very hardly and upon condition that the King might hear no more of his meddling that way This happened I suppose in the Parliament that began in Ianuary and continued till March 29. 1544. The Arch-bishop's Palace at Canterbury was this Year burnt and therein his Brother-in-Law and other Men according to Stow. I find no Bishops Consecrated in this Year At length the Confederacy of the Papists in the Privy-Council whereof I suspect the Duke of Norfolk to be one a great Friend of Winchester's by whose Instigation this Design was set on Foot came and accused him most grievously unto the King That he with his Learned Men had so infected the whole Realm with their unsavoury Doctrine that three parts of the Land were become abominable Hereticks And that it might prove dangerous to the King being like to produce such Commotions and Uproars as were sprung up in Germany And therefore they desired that the Arch-bishop might be committed unto the Tower until he might be examined The King was very strait in granting this They told him That the Arch-bishop being one of the Privy-Council no Man dared to object Matter against him unless he were first committed to durance Which being done Men would be bold to tell the Truth and say their Consciences Upon this Pâ—rswasion of theirs the King granted unto them that they should call him the next Day before them and as they saw cause so to commit him to the Tower At Midnight about Eleven of the Clock before the Day he should appear before the Council the King sent Mr. Denny to my Lord at Lambeth willing him incontinently to come over to VVestminster to him The Arch-bishop was in Bed but rose straitway and repaired to the King whom he found in the Gallery at VVhitehall Being come the King declared unto him what he had done in giving Liberty to the Council to commit him to Prison for that they bare him in hand that he and his learned Men had sown such Doctrine in the Realm that all Men almost were infected with Heresy and that no Man durst bring Matter against him being at Liberty and one of the Council And therefore I have granted to their Request said the King but whether I have done well or no what say you my Lord The Arch-bishop first humbly thanked the King that it had pleased him to give him that warning before-hand And that he was very well content to be committed to the Tower for the trial of his Doctrine so that he might be indifferently heard as he doubted not but that his Majesty would see him so to be used Whereat the King cried out O Lord God what fond Simplicity have you so to permit your self to be imprisoned that every Enemy of yours may take Advantage against you Do not you know that when they have you once in Prison three or four false Knaves will soon be procured to witness against you and condemn you which else now being at Liberty dare not once open their Lips or appear before
But when the Time of Harvest drew near there happened a great Plague of Rain So in August Letters were issued out from the King to the Arch-bishop that he should appoint certâ—in Prayers to be used for the ceasing of the Wet-weather and to write to the rest of the Province to do the like But hear the King's Letter MOST Reverend Father in God right Trusty and right intirely Beloved We greet you well And forasmuch as there hath been now a late and still continueth much Rain and other unseasonable Weather whereby is like to ensue great Hurt and Damage to the Corn and Fruits now ripe upon the Ground unless it shall please God of his infinite Goodness to stretch forth his holy Hand over us Considering by sundry Examples heretofore that God at the Contemplation of earnest and devout Prayers oftentimes extended his Mercy and Grace and hath also assuredly promised that whensoever we call upon him for Things meet for us he will grant unto us the same We having the Governance and Charge of his People committed unto Us have thought good to cause the same to be exhorted by You and other the Prelats of this our Realm with an earnest repentant Heart for their Iniquities to call unto God for Mercy and with devout and humble Prayer and Supplication every Person both by himself apart and also by Common-Prayer to beseech him to send unto us such seasonable and temperate Weather to have in those Fruits and Corn on the Ground which hitherto he hath caused so plenteously to grow For the which purpose we require you and nevertheless command you to send unto all your Brethren the Bishops within your Province to cause such general Rogations and Processions to be made incontinently within their Diocesses as in case like heretofore hath been accustomed in this behalf accordingly Yevon under our Signet at our Manor of the Moor the 20 th Day of August the XXXV Year of our Reign The Arch-bishop accordingly sent his Order dated August 23. 1543. to Edmond Bishop of London that there might be Prayers and Supplications in his Diocess every Fourth and Sixth Days of the Week And the like Order was dispatched to all the other Bishops in his Province By their Prayers as was accustomed to implore God's Mercy to avert his Wrath that the People had justly deserved And not to cease their Prayers and Suffrages till further Order from him It is not so evident that these Prayers were in the English Tongue But in the Year following viz. 1544. there were without Controversy certain Suffrages drawn up in our Mother-Tongue by the Arch-bishop's means which he intended to be universally observed every where Upon the Arch-bishop's pious Motions as it seems the King issued out his Letters to him dated in Iune for the publication of these Prayers in English to be from thenceforth continually used in the Church together with setting forth the King's Injunctions by Preaching and good Exhortation that the People who before did but slackly observe their Devotions for want of understanding the Divine Service might henceforth more frequently and more fervently resort to religious Worship I shall not here set down the King's Letter as I transcribed it out of Arch-bishop Cranmer's Register because Bishop Burnet hath printed it already in his first Volume among the Collections pag. 264. It runs in such a pious strain as tho none but the Arch-bishop had been the Suggestor thereof That since at that time Christendom was plagued with Wars Hatred and Dissensions and in no Place was Peace and Agreement and since it was out of the Power of Man to redress these Miseries God alone being able to restore Peace and unite Mens Hearts Therefore the King was resolved to have general Processions used in all Churches with all Reverence and Devotion of the People And because the not understanding the Prayers and Suffrages formerly used caused that the People came but slackly to the Processions therefore the King now had published certain Prayers in our Native Tongue Which he with his present Letter had sent to the Arch-bishop for the special Trust and Confidence he had of his Godly Mind and the earnest desire that was in him for the setting forth of God's Glory and the true worshipping of his Name And that these Prayers should not be observed for a Month or two as his other Injunctions had been but that they together with the Injunctions should be earnestly set forth by Preaching good Exhortation and otherwise in such sort as they might feel the Godly Taste thereof and godly and joyously with Thanks receive embrace and frequent the same Commanding the Arch-bishop that he should not only cause the same Suffrages to be used in his own Diocess but signify the King's Pleasure in this regard to all other Bishops of his Province And that he should have a special respect hereunto and make report if any did not with good dexterity accomplish the same It was given under the King's Signet at his Manor of S. Iames's Iune 11. in the 36 th of his Reign I have not met with these Suffrages which if I had I should have been enclined to publish them here and the rather because I believe they were of Cranmer's own composing According to this Letter the Arch-bishop dispersed his Letters to Edmund Bishop of London and the other Bishops with a Copy of the Suffrages to be used urging withal the observation of all the King's Injunctions heretofore promulgated for the confirming and establishing of Sacred Religion About August this Year the King was upon going himself in Person to invade France against which Nation he was now in Hostility and had prepared a mighty Army by Land and Sea for that purpose Now the Arch-bishop was again called upon by the Privy-Counsellors to appoint Processions in the English Tongue through the Realm for the King 's good Success in this great Expedition The Councils Letter ran in this Tenor. AFTER our right-hearty Commendations to your good Lordship These shall be to signify to the same That the King's Highness having so provided for the Safety of his Grace's Realm as the great Malice of his Enemies shall by the Grace of God take small effect For the repulsing of which his Highness hath in a readiness to set abroad at the furthest on Wednesday next such a puissant Navy as hath not been seen assembled in the remembrance of Man Considering nevertheless that all Victories and good Successes come only at the Direction and Appointment of God following herein that Trade of such a Christian Prince as he is hath devised to have Processions throughout the Realm in such sort as in like Cases hath heretofore laudably been accustomed Requiring your Lordship therefore to take Order incontinently that from henceforth through your Province the said Processions be kept continually upon the accustomed Days and none otherwise and sung or said as the number of the Quoire shall serve for the
same in the English Tongue to the intent that there may be an Uniformity in every Place Whereby it may please God at all times to prosper his Majesty in all his Affairs And the rather to have regard at this time unto the Uprightness of his Grace's Quarrel and to send his Highness victorious Success of the same And thus we bid your Lordship most heartily well to fare From Petworth the 10 th Day of August Your Lordship's assured loving Friends W. Essex St. Wynton Ant. Brown Will. Paget The Copy of this Letter the Arch-bishop dispatched to the Bishop of London and in a Letter of his own he first stirred him up to take care of making due Provisions for the religious Performance of these Prayers in his Diocess upon consideration of the King 's great Wars by Land and Sea and his Wars in France in Scotland and in the Parts about Bulloign Then he enjoined him and all the Bishops in his Province every Fourth and Sixth Day to retire to Prayer and Supplication to God and that the People should as he wrote Concinna modulatione una voce cunctipotentem Deum Sabaoth omnis Victoriae largitorem unicum sanctè piè non labiis sed corde puro adorent In becoming Harmony and with one Voice holily and piously not with the Lips but with a pure Heart adore the Almighty God of Sabaoth the only giver of all Victory And in these smaller Matters our Arch-bishop was fain now to be contented to busy himself since about this Juncture Winton or his Party had the Ascendent and did all at Court Concerning these latter Times of King Henry when the Popish Bishops carried all before them again and the Acts of Parliament that were made whereby the Bishops were empowred to call Sessions as oft as they would to try those that gave not due Obedience to the Superstitions of the Church and that upon pain of Treason Thus Iohn Bale complains whose Words may give us some light into the sad Condition of these Times Still remaineth there Soul-Masses of all Abominations the principal their prodigious Sacrifices their Censings of Idols their boyish Processions their uncommanded Worshippings and their Confessions in the Ear of all Traitery the Fountain with many other strange Observations which the Scripture of God knoweth not Nothing is brought as yet to Christ's clear Institution and sincere Ordinance but all remaineth still as the Antichrists left it Nothing is tried by God's Word but by the ancient Authority of Fathers Now passeth all under their Title Though the old Bishops of Rome were of late Years proved Antichrists and their Names razed out of our Books yet must they thus properly for old Acquaintance be called still Our Fathers If it were naught afore I think it is now much worse for now are they become laudable Ceremonies whereas before-time they were but Ceremonies alone Now are they become necessary Rites godly Constitutions seemly Vsages and civil Ordinances whereas afore they had no such Names And he that disobeyeth them shall not only be judged a Felon and worthy to be hanged by their new-forged Laws but also condemned for a Traitor against the King though he never in his Life hindred but rather to his Power hath forwarded the Common-Wealth To put this with such-like in Execution th◠Bishops have Authority every Month in the Year if they list to call a Session to Hang and Burn at their pleasure And this is ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament to stand the more in Effect Gardiner Bishop of Winchester had by his Policy and Interest brought things thus backward again and exalted the Power of the Bishops that of late Years had been much eclipsed And so he plainly told one Seton a Man of Eminency in these Times both for Piety and Learning in London who met with Troubles there about the Year 1541 for a Sermon preached at S. Anthonies against Justification by Works This Seton being now it seems fallen into new Troubles and brought before the aforesaid Bishop when he was able no longer to withstand the manifest Truth said to him Mr. Seton we know ye are Learned and plenteously endued with Knowledg in the Scriptures yet think not that ye shall overcome us No no set your Heart at rest and look never to have it said that ye have overcome the Bishops For it shall not be so Robert Holgate Bishop of Landaff was this Year preferred to the See of York His Confirmation is mentioned in the Arch-bishop of Canterbury's Register Wherein is set down an Oath which he then took of Renunciation of the Pope and Acknowledgment of the King's Supremacy very full and large Afterwards I find the same Oath administred to Kitchin Elect of Landaff and Ridley Elect of Rochester and Farrar of S. Davids But I think it not unworthy to be here set down as I find it seeming to be a new Form drawn up to be henceforth taken by all Bishops And this Arch-bishop of York the first that took it I Robert Arch-bishop of York Elect having now the Vail of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Conscience that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any Foreign Potestate hath nor ought to have any Jurisdiction Power or Authority within this Realm neither by God's Law nor by any just Law or Means And though by Sufferance and Abusions in Time past they aforesaid have usurped and vindicated a feigned and unlawful Power and Jurisdiction within this Realm which hath been supported till few Years past Therefore because it might be deemed and thought thereby that I took or take it for Just and Good I therefore do now clearly and frankly renounce forsake refuse and relinquish that pretended Authority Power and Jurisdiction both of the See and Bishop of Rome and of all other Foreign Powers And that I shall never consent or agree that the foresaid See or Bp of Rome or any of their Successors shall practise exercise or have any manner of Authority Jurisdiction or Power within this Realm or any other the King's Realms or Dominions nor any Foreign Potestate of what State Degree or Condition he be but that I shall resist the same to the uttermost of my Power and that I shall bear Faith Troth and true Allegiance to the King's Majesty and to his Heirs and Successors declared or hereafter to be declared by the Authority of the Act made in the Sessions of his Parliament holden at Westminster the 14 th day of Ianuary in the 35 th Year and in the Act made in the 28 th Year of the King's Majesty's Reign And that I shall accept repute and take the King's Majesty his Heirs and Successors when they or any of them shall enjoy his Place to be the only Supream Head in Earth under God of the Church of England and
must be attributed to his being Abroad that the King gave an Ear to the Arch-bishop and apointed a Set of more moderate Bishops and Divines to prepare Matter for his Allowance and Ratification But VVinchester tho at a distance had Information of these Designs by his Intelligencers and by making the King believe that if he suffered any Innovations in Religion to proceed the Emperor would withdraw his Mediation for a League by these crafty Means of this Man these good Motions proceeded no further So that there were two Abuses in Religion which our Arch-bishop by Time and seasonable Inculcation brought the King off from He had a very great Esteem for Images in Churches and for the Worship used to the Cross. And many Disputations and Discourses happened between the King and the Arch-bishop concerning them Once at the King's Palace at Newhal in Essex Canterbury and Winchester being alone with the King a Talk happened about Images and the Arguments that were used for abolishing them were considered The Arch-bishop who built all his Arguments upon the Word of God produced the second Commandment and thence he raised his Argument But the King discussed it as a Commandment relating only to the Jews and not to us as VVinchester relates in one of his Letters to the Duke of Somerset adding because the reasoning was so much to his own Mind That the King so discussed it that all the Clerks in Christendom could not amend it And when at another time one had used Arguments against the Image of the Trinity whether Cranmer or some else I know not VVinchester heard the King answer them too So possess'd was the King once with an Opinion of retaining them and yet at length by the Arch-bishop's wise and moderate Carriage and Speeches the King was brought to another Opinion and to give his Orders for the abolishing of a great many of them namely of such as had been abused But when he had done this he would not forgo the other but commanded Kneeling and Creeping to the Cross. And gross was the Superstition that was committed in this blind Devotion which the King by the Arch-bishop's means being at length sensible of was prevailed with that this also should no more be used as you heard before There was one thing more this careful Arch-bishop recommended to the King this Year He was troubled for his Cathedral Church of Canterbury observing how the Revenues of it were diminished and made away daily by the Prebendaries thereof to satisfy the insatiable Greediness of the Laity and it may be their own too And the Courtiers and others were hard to be withstood when they were minded to rake from the Church The Practice was that when any were minded to get a Portion of Land from the Church they would first engage the King therein and so the Church was to make it over to him Anâ— then by Gift or for some trifling Consideration as a Sale it was conveyed to them from the King Nay sometimes they would use the King's Name without his knowledg Cranmer had the Honesty and the Courage to make Complaint of this Abuse and Injury done to the Revenues of the Cathedral That those of the Church to their Disquietment and also great Charges did alienate their Lands daily as it was said by the King's Commandment But he was sure he said that others had gotten the best Lands and not his Majesty Therefore he sued that when his Majesty was minded to have any of their Lands that they might have some Letters from him to declare his Pleasure without the which they were sworn to make no Alienation and that the same Alienations might not be made at other Mens Pleasures but only to his Majesty's Use. By which Means it is likely the Prebendaries had more quiet Possession of their Lands for the time to come By this Time the Arch-bishop had compassed two very good Things in order to the furthering the Common People in Knowledg and True Religion The one was that he brought in among the Laity a more common use of the Scriptures and the other that Sermons were more frequently preached than had been before But both these to the Grief of the Arch-bishop were sadly abused For now the Contending of Preachers in their Pulpits one against another grew more and more and became most scandalous So that few preached the Word of God truly and sincerely but ran almost wholly upon Matters controverted and in that railing manner that their Expressions were very provoking So that this came to the sowing of Discord among the People instead of promoting Love Unity and solid Religion The Laity on the other hand some of them railed much on the Bishops and spoke contemptibly of the Priests and taunted the Preachers The Scriptures were much read but the Effect of it appeared too much in their making use of it only for Jangling and Disputation upon Points of Religion and to taunt at the Ignorance or Error of Priests Others on the other hand to be even with the Gospellers made it their Business to derogate from the Scripture to deal with it irreverently and to rhime and sing and make sport with it in Ale-houses and Taverns These things came to King Henry's Ears which made him very earnestly blame both the Laity and Spirituality for it in a Speech which he made at the Dissolution of his Parliament this Year A Bishop Confirmed Anthony Kitchin alias Dunstan D.D. was Elected and Confirmed Bishop of Landaff May 2. The ABp sent his Commissional Letters dated the same Day to Thomas Bishop of Westminster for his Consecration But the Consecration is not entred in the Register His Oath to the King began thus I Anthony Kitchin Elect Bishop of Landaff having now the Vale of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Heart that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any Foreign Potestate hath or ought to have c. as before Another Proclamation was set out the next Year which was the last issued out under this King prohibiting again Tindal's and Coverdale's English New Testament or any other than what was permitted by Parliament and also the English Books of Wickliff Frith c. the King being vexed with the Contests and Clamours of the People one against another while they disputed so much of what they read and practised so little A small matter oftentimes creates great Brablings and Contentions in Fraternities Such a small thing now occurred in the Arch-bishop's Church Two of the Prebends were minded to change Houses but the rest it seems made some Opposition as reckoning it contrary to a certain Statute of that Church The Arch-bishop hearing hereof seasonably interposed and interpreted their Statute for them The Preachers also of this Church seem not to have been fairly dealt with by the Prebends
made of seven steps of height all round where the King's Majesty's Chair Royal stood and he sat therein after he was crowned all the Mass-while Fourthly At nine of the Clock all Westminster Choire was in their Copes and three goodly Crosses before them and after them other three goodly rich Crosses and the King's Chappel with his Children following all in Scarlet with Surplices and Copes on their Backs And after them ten Bishops in Scarlet with their Rochets and rich Copes on their Backs and their Mitres on their Heads did set forth at the West Door of Westminster towards the King's Palace there to receive his Grace and my Lord of Canterbury with his Cross before him alone and his Mitre on his Head And so past forth in order as before is said And within a certain space after were certain blew Cloths laid abroad in the Church-floor against the King's coming and so all the Palace even to York place Then is described the setting forward to Westminster Church to his Coronation Unction and Confirmation After all the Lords in order had kneeled down and kiss'd his Grace's right Foot and after held their Hands between his Grace's Hands and kiss'd his Grace's left Cheek and so did their Homage Then began a Mass of the Holy Ghost by my Lord of Canterbury with good singing in the Choire and Organs playing There at Offering time his Grace offered to the Altar a Pound of Gold a Loaf of Bread and a Chalice of Wine Then after the Levation of the Mass there was read by my Lord Chancellor in presence of all the Nobles a General Pardon granted by King Henry the Eighth Father to our Liege Lord the King that all shall be pardoned that have offended before the 28 th day of Ianuary last past When the King's Majesty with his Nobles came to the Place of the Coronation within a while after his Grace was removed into a Chair of Crimson Velvet and born in the Chair between two Noblemen unto the North-side of the Stage and shewed to the People and these words spoken to the People by my Lord of Canterbury in this manner saying Sirs here I present unto you K. Edward the rightful Inheritor to the Crown of this Realm Wherefore all ye that be come this Day to do your Homage Service and bounden Duty Be ye willing to do the same To the which all the People cried with a loud Voice and said Yea Yea Yea and cried King Edward and prayed God save King Edward And so to the South-side in like manner and to the East-side and to the West-side After this his Grace was born again to the high Altar in his Chair and there sat bare-headed And all his Nobles and Peers of the Realm were about his Grace and my Lord of Canterbury Principal And there made certain Prayers and Godly Psalms over his Grace and the Choire answered with goodly Singing the Organs playing and Trumpets blowing Then after a certain Unction Blessing and Signing of his Grace he was born into a Place by the high Altar where the Kings use always to kneel at the Levation of the Parliament-Mass And there his Grace was made ready of new Garments and after a certain space brought forth between two Noble-men and sat before the High Altar bare-headed Then after a while his Grace was anointed in the Breast his Soles of his Feet his Elbows his Wrists of his Hands and his Crown of his Head with vertuous Prayer said by the Bishop of Canterbury and sung by the Choire Then anon after this a goodly fair Cloth of red Tinsel Gold was hung over his Head And my Lord of Canterbury kneeling on his Knees and his Grace lying prostrate afore the Altar anointed his Back Then after this my Lord of Canterbury arose and stood up and the fair Cloth taken away Then my Lord Protector Duke of Somerset held the Crown in his Hand a certain space and immediately after began Te Deum with the Organs going the Choire singing and the Trumpets playing in the Battlements of the Church Then immediately after that was the Crown set on the King's Majesty's Head by them two viz. Somerset and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury And after that another Crown and so his Grace was crowned with three Crowns The Relation breaks off here abruptly But what is wanting may be supplied by the Order of the Coronation as Bishop Burnet hath taken it out of the Council-Book and given it us in his History At this Coronation there was no Sermon as I can find but that was supplied by an excellent Speech which was made by the Arch-bishop It was found among the inestimable Collections of Arch-bishop Vsher and though published of late Years yet I cannot but insert it here tending so much to illustrate the Memory of this great and good Arch-bishop MOST Dread and Royal Soveraign The Promises your Highness hath made here at your Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his Works are not to be taken in the Bishop of Rome's Sense when you commit any thing distastful to that See to hit your Majesty in the Teeth as Pope Paul the Third late Bishop of Rome sent to your Royal Father saying Didst thou not promise at our permission of thy Coronation to forsake the Devil and all his Works and dost thou run to Heresy For the Breach of this thy Promise knowest thou not that 't is in our Power to dispose of thy Sword and Scepter to whom we please We your Majesty's Clergy do humbly conceive that this Promise reacheth not at your Highness Sword Spiritual or Temporal or in the least at your Highness swaying the Scepter of this your Dominion as you and your Predecessors have had them from God Neither could your Ancestors lawfully resign up their Crowns to the Bishop of Rome or his Legats according to their ancient Oaths then taken upon that Ceremony The Bishops of Canterbury for the most part have crowned your Predecessors and anointed them Kings of this Land Yet it was not in their Power to receive or reject them neither did it give them Authority to prescribe them Conditions to take or to leave their Crowns although the Bishops of Rome would encroach upon your Predecessors by their Act and Oil that in the end they might possess those Bishops with an Interest to dispose of their Crowns at their Pleasure But the wiser sort will look to their Claws and clip them The solemn Rites of Coronation have their Ends and Utility yet neither direct Force or Necessity They be good Admonitions to put Kings in mind of their Duty to God but no encreasement of their Dignity For they be God's Anointed not in respect of the Oil which the Bishop useth but in consideration of their Power which is Ordained Of the Sword which is Authorized Of their Persons which are elected of God and endued with the Gifts of his Spirit for the better ruling and guiding of his People The Oil if added
is but a Ceremony If it be wanting that King is yet a perfect Monarch notwithstanding and God's Anoined as well as if he was inoiled Now for the Person or Bishop that doth anoint a King it is proper to be done by the chiefest But if they cannot or will not any Bishop may perform this Ceremony To condition with Monarchs upon these Ceremonies the Bishop of Rome or other Bishops owning his Supremacy hath no Authority but he may faithfully declare what God requires at the Hands of Kings and Rulers that is Religion and Vertue Therefore not from the Bishop of Rome but as a Messenger from my Saviour Iesus Christ I shall most humbly admonish your Royal Majesty what Things your Highness is to perform Your Majesty is God's Vicegerent and Christ's Vicar within your own Dominions and to see with your Predecessor Iosias God truly worshipped and Idolatry destroyed the Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome banished from your Subjects and Images removed These Acts be Signs of a second Iosias who reformed the Church of God in his Days You are to reward Vertue to revenge Sin to justify the Innocent to relieve the Poor to procure Peace to repress Violence and to execute Justice throughout your Realms For Precedents on those Kings who performed not these Things the Old Law shews how the Lord revenged his Quarrel and on those Kings who fulfilled these things he poured forth his Blessings in abundance For Example it is written of Iosiah in the Book of the Kings thus Like unto him there was no King that turned to the Lord with all his Heart according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him This was to that Prince a perpetual Fame of Dignity to remain to the End of Days Being bound by my Function to lay these Things before your Royal Highness the one as a Reward if you fulfil the other as a Judgment from God if you neglect them Yet I openly declare before the living God and before these Nobles of the Land that I have no Commission to denounce your Majesty deprived if your Highness miss in part or in whole of these Performances Much less to draw up Indentures between God and your Majesty or to say you forfeit your Crown with a Clause for the Bishop of Rome as have been done by your Majesty's Predecessors King Iohn and his Son Henry of this Land The Almighty God of his Mercy let the Light of his Countenance shine upon your Majesty grant you a prosperous and happy Reign defend you and save you and let your Subjects say Amen God save the King I find no Bishop Consecrated this Year CHAP. II. A Royal Visitation BY these and other pious Instigations of the Arch-bishop who was of high esteem with the King he began early to think of the Church and to take care about rectifying the Disorders of its Members For about April there was a Royal Visitation resolved upon all England over for the better Reformation of Religion And accordingly in the beginning of May Letters were issued out from the King to the Arch-bishops that they and all their Fellow-Bishops should forbear their Visitations as was usually done in all Royal and Archiepiscopal Visitations And it was enjoined that no Ministers should preach in any Churches but in their own In a Volume in the Cotton Library there be extant the King's Letters to Robert Arch-bishop of York relating to this Visitation signed by our Arch-bishop the Duke of Somerset the Protector and his Brother Sir Thomas Seymour the Lord Russel Favourers of the Reformation the Lord St. Iohns Petres the Secretary who went along with it Gage Controuler of the Houshold and Baker Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations back-Friends to it I do not set down the Letter it self because the Bishop of Sarum hath already published it in his History Very worthy sober and learned Men were appointed for Visitors both of the Laity and Clergy And there was a Book of Injunctions prepared whereby the King 's Visitors were to govern their Visitation The Original of which Book of Injunctions is extant in Benet-College Library There I have seen them being signed by Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Duke of Somerset Sir Thomas Seymour and divers others of the Privy-Council but no Bishop save Cranmer only he being I suppose the only Bishop then a Privy-Counsellor and now often appearing in the Council for the better forwarding of Religion These Injunctions are printed in Bishop Sparrow's Collection and briefly epitomized in the History of the Reformation The Persons nominated for this present Employment were these as I find them set down in a Manuscript formerly belonging to Arch-bishop Parker but now in the Benet-College Library Where you may observe the Visitors were divided into six Sets and to each Set were apportioned particular Counties and a Preacher and a Register in this exact Method following Visitors Added by ABp Parker Counties visited Dean of Westminster Boston York Sir Iohn Herseley Kt.  Durysme Nicholas Ridley Preacher  Carlyll Edward Plankney Register  Chester Sir Anthony Coke Kt.  Westminster Sir Iohn Godsalve Kt.   Dr. Christopher Nevison The Elder London Iohn Gosnold A Lawyer  Dr. Madewe Preacher  Norwich Peter Lylly Register  Ely Sir Iohn Hales Kt.  Rochester Sir Iohn Mason Kt.   Sir Anthony Cope Kt.  Canterbury Dr. Cave A Lawyer  Mr. Briggs Preacher Once of Pembroke Chichester Rafe Morice Register  Winchester Dean of Pauls Dr. May. Sarisbury Dean of Exeter Dr. Hains Exeter Sir Walter Buckler Kt.  Bath Mr. Cotisford Preacher  Bristow Iohn Redman Register Of Haslingfeld Glocester Dean of Lincoln Dr. Taylor Peterburgh Dr. Rowland Taylor  Lincoln Mr. Iohn Ioseph Once of Canterbury Oxford  a Friar Coventry Iohn Old Register  Litchfeld Mr. Morison Once Husband to the Earl of Rutland's Wife Worcester  Hereford Mr. Syddel  Landaff Mr. Ferrowr Preacher After L. Bishop of S. Davids S. Davids George Constantine Register  Bangor Hue Rawlins Preacher in the Welch Tongue  S. Asse Where we may observe that in every Company of Visitors was joined one Preacher or more whose Business in the respective Circuits was to preach to the People to dehort them from the superstitious use of Beads and such-like Things and to learn them to worship God truly in Heart and Mind and to obey the Prince The Method which these Commissioners used in their Visitation as we collect from what was done at S. Pauls London was this They summoned the Bishop and the Members of each Cathedral and first sware them to renounce the Bishop of Rome and to the King's Supremacy and then that they should present all things in their Church and Diocess needful to be reformed Then certain Interrogatories and Articles of Enquiry were read to them by the Register To perform which an Oath was administred to
telling him his Intent was hereby only to set out the Freedom of God's Mercy But Winchester challenged him to shew Scripture for it or any one ancient Writer That Faith in justifying excludeth Charity This Winchester afterward declared at large to the Lord Protector and added That the Arch-bishop in that Homily of Salvation had taken such a Matter in hand and so handled it as if he were his extream Enemy he would have wished him to have taken that Piece in hand and so to have handled it as he did He represented one of the Arch-bishop's Arguments for Faith excluding Charity to be thus out of that Homily We be justified by Faith without all Works of the Law Charity is a Work of the Law Ergo We are justified without Charity But I warn the Reader to consult the Homily it self before he pass his Judgment upon Cranmer's Argument as it is here represented by one that was none of his Friend In fine he said There were as many Faults in that Homily of Salvation as he had been Weeks in Prison and that was seven besides the Matter viz. making a Trouble without Necessity In short he charged the Arch-bishop for troubling the World with such a needless Speculation as this is because he said that in Baptism we are justified being Infants before we can talk of the Justification we strive for For all Men receive their Justification in their Infancy in Baptism And if they fall after Baptism they must arise again by the Sacrament of Penance And so this Doctrine he said was to be sent to the Universities where it is meet to be talked and disputed of and not fit for Homilies And to disparage further the Arch-bishop's Judgment he told the Protector That if my Lord of Canterbury would needs travail in this Matter he should never perswade that Faith excluded Charity in Justification unless he borrowed Prisons of the Protector and then he might percase have some to agree to it As poor Men kneel at Rome when the Bishop of Rome goeth by or else are knocked on the Head with a Halbard And then he made some scoffing mention of the Strength of God's Spirit in the Arch-bishop and his Learning in his Laws so as to be able to overthrow with his Breath all Untruths and establish Truths I make no Reflection upon all this unseemly Language of this Bishop but leave it to the Reader to judg hereby of the Learning and Spirit that was in him And could we have retrieved the Arch-bishop's own Arguments and Replies to these Barkings of Winchester they would have left to the World a full Vindication of Cranmer and his Doctrine As to Erasmus's Paraphrase the said Bishop pretended He found divers things in it to condemn the Work and that he agreed with them that said Erasmus laid the Eggs and Luther hatched them and that of all the monstrous Opinions that have risen evil Men had a wondrous Occasion ministred to them from that Book He also wrote to the Protector the particular Objections he made against it He said He might term it in one word Abomination both for the Malice and Untruth of much Matter out of Erasmus's Pen and also for the arrogant Ignorance of the Translator of it considering that Book was authorized by the King and a Charge laid upon the Realm of twenty thousand Pounds by enjoining every Parish to buy one Whereof he had made an Estimate by the probable number of Buyers and the Price of the Book He charged the Translator with Ignorance both in Latin and English a Man he said far unmeet to meddle with such a Matter and not without Malice on his part Finally The Matter he had to shew in both the Books was in some part dangerous and the Concealment thereof a great Fault if he did not utter it And that he pretended made him some-while ago write to the Council declaring his Mind in relation thereunto For which he was sent to the Fleet. The true Occasion whereof as I take it from his own Letter written with his own Hand which I have before me was this Upon the Departure of the Lord Protector against the Scots the King's Visitors began their Visitation Then as soon as the Bishop heard of the Visitation and the Books of Homilies and Injunctions were come to his hands he wrote to the Council trusting upon such earnest Advertisements as he made they would incontinently have sent for him and upon knowledg of so evident Matter as he thought he had to shew would have staid till the Protector 's Return He saw as he said a Determination to do all things suddenly at one time Whereunto though the Protector had agreed yet of his Wisdom as the Bishop conjectured he had rather these Matters should have tarried till his Return had he not been pressed on both Sides an Expression which the Protector in a Letter to him had used He reckoned that if he could have staid this Matter in his Absence though by bringing himself into extream Danger besides his Duty to God and the King he should have done the Protector a Pleasure of whom he had this Opinion that willingly and wittingly he would neither break the Act of Parliament nor command Books to be bought by Authority that contained such Doctrine as those Books did Thus he had he said remembrance of his Grace in these his Letters to the Council but he chiefly made not his Grace but God his Foundation with the Preservation of the late deceased King's Honour and the Surety of the King then being His Writing he confessed was vehement but he would have none offended with it for he wrote it with a whole Heart and if he could have written it with the Blood of his Heart he would have done it to have staid the thing till it had been more maturely digested He touched lively one Point in his Letter to the Council and considered whether the King might command against a Common Law or an Act of Parliament and shewed the Danger of it in the late Lord Cardinal and the Lord Typtoft before him who was Executed on Tower-hill for acting against the Laws of the Land though it were by the King's Commission and by other Precedents Not long after these Letters of the Bishop to the Council they sent for him When he came before them he came furnished with his Trinkets his Sleeves and Bosom trussed full of Books to furnish his former Allegations He was heard very well and gently Then he shewed Matter that he thought would have moved them For there he shewed the two contrary Books meaning the Homilies and Erasmus's Paraphrase But the Council told him they were not moved and added That their Consciences agreed not with his using many good Words to bring him to Conformity After he had been aside from them and was returned again they entred a precise Order with him either to receive the Injunctions or to refuse In which Case they told him
him in these things to dispense with him But the Arch-bishop for certain Reasons refused it Then was the Arch-bishop solicited by great Men. The Earl of Warwick afterwards the great Duke of Northumberland wrote to him a Letter dated Iuly 23 the Bearer whereof was Hoper himself that the rather at his Instance he would not charge the Bishop Elect of Gloucester with an Oath burthenous to his Conscience Which was I suppose the Oath of Canonical Obedience And when Hoper had sued to the King either to discharge him of the Bishoprick or that he might be dispensed with in the Ceremonies used in Consecration which he knew the Arch-bishop could not do no more than to dispense with the Laws of the Land whereby he should run into a Premunire the King wrote a Letter to Cranmer dated Aug. 5 therein freeing him of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures that he might incur by omitting those Rites but yet by any thing that appears in the Letter without any urging or perswasion used to the Arch-bishop to omit the said Rites leaving that to his own Discretion But the Arch-bishop thought the King 's bare Letters were not sufficient to secure him against established Laws When this would not do then endeavour was used to satisfy Hoper's Conscience And Ridley Bishop now of London was thought for his great Learning to be a fit Person to confer with him There were long Arguings between them and at last it came to some Heats And Hoper still remained resolved not to comply holding it if not unlawful yet highly inexpedient to use those very Vestments that the Papal Bishops used The Council upon this sent for Hoper and because they would in no wise the stirring up of Controversies between Men of one Profession willed him to cease the Occasion hereof Hoper humbly besought them that for Declaration of his Doings he might put in Writing such Arguments as moved him to be of the Opinion he held Which was granted him These Arguments it seems were communicated to Ridley to answer And October the 6 th the Council being then at Richmond the Arch-bishop present they wrote to the Bishop of London commanding him to be at Court on Sunday next and to bring with him what he should for Answer think convenient In the mean time to bring the Question to more Evidence and Satisfaction the Arch-bishop according to his Custom to consult in Religious Matters with the learnedest Men of other Nations wrote to Cambridg to Martin Bucer for his Judgment Who upon occasion of this Controversy wrote two Epistles one to Hoper and another to the Arch-bishop both de re Vestiariâ That to the latter was in answer to these two Queries which Cranmer had sent for his Resolution about I. Whether without offending of God the Ministers of the Church of England may use those Garments which are now used and prescribed to be used by the Magistrates II. Whether he that affirms it Unlawful or refuseth to use these Garments sinneth against God because he saith that is Unclean which God hath sanctified and against the Magistrate who commandeth a political Order Bucer to both these Questions gave his Resolution in the Affirmative in his Answer to the Arch-bishop dated Decemb. 8. But he thought considering how the Habits had been Occasion to some of Superstition and to others of Contention that it were better at some good Opportunity wholly to take them away Besides Bucer's Letter to Hoper from Cambridg mentioned before P. Martyr from Oxon wrote him a large Letter dated Novemb. 4. For both these good Men were desirous that Hoper should have Satisfaction that so useful a Man might come in place in the Church To both these Hoper had wrote and sent his Arguments against the Episcopal Vestments by a Messenger dispatched on purpose Martyr told him That he took much delight in that singular and ardent Study that appeared in him that Christian Religion might again aspire to a chaste and pure Simplicity That for his part he could be very hardly brought off from that simple and pure Way which he knew they used a great while at Strasburgh where the difference of Garments in Holy Things was taken away And so he prayed God it might continue Thus he said Hoper might see that in the Sum they both agreed together he wishing for that which Hoper endeavoured That in Rites he was for coming as near as possible to the Sacred Scripture and for taking Pattern by the better Times of the Church But yet that he could not be brought by his Arguments to think that the use of Garments was destructive or in their own Nature contrary to the Word of God A Matter which he thought to be altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that therefore indifferent Things as they were sometimes to be taken away so might be used And that if he had thought this were wicked he would never have communicated with the Church of England That there might be some great Good follow from the use at present of the Garments namely that if we suffered the Gospel to be first preached and well rooted Men would afterwards better and more easily be perswaded to let go these outward Customs But now when a Change is brought in of the necessary Heads of Religion and that with so great difficulty if we should make those things that are indifferent to be impious so we might alienate the Minds of all that they would not endure to hear solid Doctrine and receive the necessary Ceremonies That there was no doubt England owed much to him for his great pains in Preaching and Teaching And in return he had gained much Favour and Authority in the Realm whereby he was in a Capacity of doing much Good to the Glory of God Only he bad Hoper take heed that by unseasonable and too bitter Sermous he became not an Hindrance to himself Besides that by looking upon these indifferent Things as sinful and destructive we should condemn many Gospel-Churches and too sharply tax very many which anciently were esteemed most famous and celebrated And whereas there were two Arguments that made Hoper ready to charge the use of these Vestments to be not indifferent he proceeded to consider them One was this That this would be to call back again the Priesthood of Aaron The other That they were Inventions of Antichrist and that we ought to be estranged not only from the Pope but from all his Devices But as to the former he shewed him That the Apostles for Peace-sake commanded the Gentiles to abstain from Blood and Fornication which were Aaronical Customs And so are Tithes for the maintenance of the Clergy Psalms and Hymns can scarce be shewn to be commanded in the New Testament to be sung in publick Assemblies which are very manifest to be used in the Old That there are not a few things that our Church hath borrowed from the Mosaical Decrees and that
the Morals of this Man tainted having once made a very foul Slip being guilty of an Act of Uncleanness For which Sir William Cecyl Secretary of State who had been his good Friend was exceedingly displeased with him and withdrew all Favour and Countenance from him calling him Wicked Man and intending to inflict some severe Punishment upon him which seemed to be Banishment out of the Nation or at least turning him out of his Family where he seems to have been entertained Angelo wrote him a very penitent Letter minding him of the frailty of Human Nature and of the Mercy of God to Moses Aaron David Ionas Peter after their Falls And that if he were forced to depart the Kingdom he must either be compelled to renounce the Truth of the Gospel or have his Blood shed by the Enemies thereof This was as I suppose in the Year 1551. In fine he got over this Brunt and recovered mild Cecyl's Favour For I find a Year after our Arch-bishop wrote to him to further a certain Business of Michael Angelo at Court as much as he could This is all I have to say of that Italian Congregation and the Minister thereof For further memory of which I have added in the Appendix two Letters of this Michael Angelo to Secretary Cecyl whence many of the Matters next above mentioned were collected As there was thus a German and Italian Church in London so also there was a third of French Men under A Lasco's Superintendency One Member of which a very honest Man and of sound Religion by the general Testimony of that Church had desired to set up a Printing-house for his Livelihood chiefly for printing the Liturgy and other Books of the Church of England in French for the use of the French Islands under the English Subjection In whose behalf the Superintendent readily interceeded by a Letter with the Secretary to procure the King's Letters Patents for his Licence and Authority so to do The issue of which will be seen in the progress of this History The Letter I have transcribed to accompany two others of A Lasâ—o in the Appendix CHAP. XXIII The Church at Glastenbury IN the same Year viz. 1550. another Church of Strangers and they most what French and Walloons began to settle at Glastenbury in Somersetshire They were Weavers and followed the Manufacture of Kersies and Cloth of that Nature as I conjecture Their great Patrons were the Duke of Somerset and Sir William Cecyl I add and our Arch-bishop though I do not find his Name mentioned in the Papers I make use of relating to this Church For there is no question but that his Counsel and Aid concurred in the settlement of this Church as well as those in London and particularly as to the Preacher whom I suspect to have been one of those Learned Foreign Divines whom he harboured in his own House His Name was Valerandus Pollanus a Man of great worth both for Learning and Integrity who had the Title of Superintendent of the Strangers Church at Glastenbury as Iohn a Lasco had of that at London given to each to fix a Character of Honour and Esteem upon their Persons and perhaps to exempt them and their Churches from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops of those respective Diocesses This Pollanus turned into Latine and printed the Disputations held in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign between the Protestants and Papists at the Convocation Anno 1553. If any desire to know the particular State and Condition of the establishment of these Strangers as to their Trade it stood thus Pollanus in behalf of the rest had preferred a Petition to the Duke of Somerset and the rest of the Lords of the Council to this Effect That they might be permitted to form themselves into a Church for the free Exercise of Religion and to follow peaceably their Calling of Weaving declaring as an Argument to perswade them to allow the same the considerable Benefit that would accrue thence to the Realm And that for Shops and Working-houses and for reception of them and their Families they might enjoy some old dissolved Religious House Their Petition was condescended to And the Duke being a great Cherisher of those of the Religion resolved to be their Patron and to take the managing of this whole Cause upon himself The Duke in the Month of Iune this Year had made an exchange of certain Lands with the King and that probably for the better accommodating of these Strangers He had parted with the Castle and Lordship of Sleford and other Lands and Tenements in the County of Lincoln to the King and the King had granted him in lieu thereof all and singular his Messuages Lands Tenements and Hereditaments with their Appurtenances in the Town of Glastenbury namely what had belonged to the Abby and other Lands and Tenements in Kingston upon Hull to the value of 214 l. 14 s. 5 d. obq as I find in a Manuscript Book mentioning the several Sales that King made Having obtained such Conveniences in Glastenbury he resolved to plant this Manufacture here which he thought would tend so much to the Benefit of the Country himself and these poor Strangers too Conditions were mutually entred into The Conditions on Somerset's part were That he should provide them Houses convenient for their Occupations and to contain themselves and Families that five Acres of Pasture Land or as much as would serve for the feeding of two Cows throughout the Year should be allotted to each of them and until Land were so allotted they should enjoy the Park in common for the said use with some part also of the Gardens They were also to be supplied with Monies from the Duke to buy Wool and defray other Charges necessary to set them on Work They were also empowered to employ both English Men and Women as they should have occasion in Spinning and other Works belonging to their Trade And so accordingly they went down to Gastenbury and fell to work But upon the Troubles and Fall of Somerset which happened about fourteen or fifteen Months after their Affairs were much obstructed His Servants neglected to furnish them with Money according to Contract Nor was he at leisure now to regard them The People among whom they lived took this opportunity to express what little kindness they had for them it being the Temper of the Common-sort to be jealous of Strangers and rude to them So that they were not without their Discontents and Discouragements For they wanted those Conveniences of room for Work-houses and Habitations that were promised them They ran in Debt and were forced to lay to pawn the Clothes they had wove to supply their Wants Cornish one of the chief of their Procurators appointed to oversee them and further their Trade proved very deceitful and false to them Who came to them pretending Letters from the Council and treating them at first with fair Words and after
probably may not be unacceptable to curious Persons Which Purchases when we consider we might be ready to make a stand to resolve our selves how the Arch-bishop could represent his Condition so mean as he did in the Letter before-mentioned as though he feared he should die a Beggar But it will unriddle this if we think how the Arch-bishoprick had been fleeced by King Henry VIII in ten Years before insomuch that the Rents were less by an hundred and fifty Pounds per Annum than they were before besides the loss of Fines and other accidental Benefits as it is mentioned by the Arch-bishop in his Letter Add those extraordinary Expences he was at in the maintenance of Divines and Scholars Strangers that were Exiles for Religion and the Salaries and Pensions and Gratuities sent to Learned Men abroad besides his great and liberal House-keeping and constant Table and large Retinue But to make appear more particularly in this place how K. Henry pared his Revenue I will give one Instance of what was past away at one clap by Exchange which was indeed so considerable that it was commonly called The great Exchange This way of exchanging Lands was much used in those Times wherein the Princes commonly made good Bargains for themselves and ill Ones for the Bishopricks This Exchange made by Cranmer with the King was on the first day of December in the twenty ninth Year of his Reign being the very Year of the Suppression of the greater Abbies and Religious Convents They were the ancient Demeans belonging to the Arch-bishoprick consisting of many noble Manors whereof some had Palaces annexed to them I shall name only those that lay in the County of Kent as I find them dispersed in Philpot's Book of Kent I. The Manor and Palace of Maidstone Which Palace Lâ—land saith was once a Castle II. The Manor and Palace of Charing III. Wingham IV. Wingham-Bâ—rton in the 〈◊〉 of Alresford But in this Philpot is mistaken for thâ—s was 〈…〉 Edward Bainton for ninety nine Years by means of the King'â— own Solicitation to the Arch-bishop V. Wrotham VI. Saltwood that had in times past a magnificent Castle and Park and many Manors held of it by Knights Service which made it called an Honour VII Tenham VIII Bexley IX Aldington Where was a Seat for the Arch-bishop a Park and a Chase for Deer called Aldington-Frith Besides Clive or Cliff and Malingden a Manor appendant thereunto which King Henry took away from this See and Bishop without any Satisfaction as far as I can find Also Pynner Heyes Harrow Mortlake c. were part of this great Exchange In lieu of these Demeans past over to the Crown by way of Exchange the King conveyed several Manors to the Arch-bishop all which had appertained to the lately dissolved Religious Houses Namely these among others I. Pising a parcel of the Abbey of S. Radigunds II. Brandred another Manor belonging to the said Abbey III. The College of Bredgar IV. Raculver another Abbey suppress'd V. Dudmanscomb belonging to the Priory of S. Martins in Dover One Author viz. Kilburn that hath wrote of Kent makes Cranmer also to have made over to the King the sumptuous Palace of Otford built by Arch-bishop VVarham which cost him thirty three thousand Pounds a vast Sum in those Days as Lambard tells us Philpot another Writer of that County saith That this was incorporated into the Revenue of the Crown by the Builder himself Arch-bishop VVarham about the twelfth Year of that King's Reign together with the Magnificent Seat of Knoll near Sevenoke exchanging both with the King for other Lands to extinguish the Passions of such as looked with regret and desire upon the Patrimony of the Church But it appears by a Writing of Cranmer's own Secretary that this Arch-bishop parted with both Otford and Knoll at once to the King after he had possessed them some Years and not VVarham as Philpot mistakes The World is apt to blame Cranmer for parting with these Revenues of the See But surely it was a true Apology that the Author before-named made for the Arch-bishop's great Exchange namely Because he finding that the spreading Demeans of the Church were in danger to be torn off by the Talons of Avarice and Rapine to mortify the growing Appetites of Sacrilegious Cormorants exchanged them with the Crown Which may be enough to stop any Clamours against this most Reverend Prelat for this his doing Especially considering what I shall add upon this Argument hereafter from his own Secretary His Care and Concern for the Welfare of the English Church made him ever most earnestly to love the King and to have a very tender Regard for the Safety of his Person Who in the Summer of this Year as was hinted before went a Progress accompanied by the Duke of Northumberland brought about probably by him to get more into the King's Affections and to have his own Designs the better to take effect and with the less Opposition and Controll and possibly that the King might be the further off from the Arch-bishop to consult withal But he had now a more especial Concern upon him for his Majesty at this Time as though his Mind had prophetically presaged some Evil to befal the King in that Progress and indeed it was the last Progress that ever he made And so methinks do these Expressions of the Arch-bishop sound in a Letter dated in Iuly to Cecyl then attending the Court Beseeching Almighty God to preserve the King's Majesty with all his Council and Family and send him well to return from his Progress And in a Letter the next Month He thanked Cecyl for his News but especially said he for that ye advertise me that the King's Majesty is in good Health Wherein I beseech God long to continue his Highness And when in the latter end of the following Month the Gests that is the Stages of his Majesty's Progress were altered which looked like some ill Design the Arch-bishop entreated Cecyl to send him the new resolved-upon Gests from that time to the end that he might from time to time know where his Majesty was adding his Prayer again for him That God would preserve and prosper him CHAP. XXX His Care for the Vacancies Falls Sick WHILE the King was thus abroad and the Arch-bishop absent unworthy or disaffected Men were in a fairer probability of getting Promotions in the Church while he was not at hand for to nominate fit Men to the King and to advise him in the bestowing the vacant Dignities and Benefices The Arch-bishop knew very well how much Learning and Sobriety contributed towards the bringing the Nation out of Popery and that nothing tended so effectually to continue it as the contrary This Matter the Arch-bishop seemed to have discoursed at large with Secretary Cecyl at parting Who therefore by a Letter sent to the said Arch-bishop then at his House at Ford desired him to send him up a
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-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
first made an Oration directed unto the Arch-bishop at the opening of his Commission Next Dr. Martin made a short Speech and being with Dr. Story appointed the King's and Queen's Attorneys he offered unto the said Bishop their Proxy sealed with the Broad-Seal of England and then presenting himself to be Proctor on their behalf After that he proceeded to exhibit certain Articles against the Arch-bishop containing Adultery and Perjury the one for being Married the other for breaking his Oath to the Pope Also he exhibited Books of Heresy made partly by him and partly by his Authority published And so produced him as a Party principal to answer to his Lordship After this having leave given him the Arch-bishop beginning with the Lord's Prayer and Creed made a long and learned Apology for himself Which is preserved to Posterity in the Acts and Monuments By his Discourse before the Commissioners it appeared how little he was taken with the splendor of worldly Things For he professed That the loss of his Promotions grieved him not He thanked God as heartily for that poor and afflicted State in which he then was as ever he did for the Times of his Prosperity But that which stuck closest to him as he said and created him the greatest Sorrow was to think that all that Pains and Trouble that had been taken by K. Henry and himself for so many Years to retrieve the Antient Authority of the Kings of England and to vindicate the Nation from a Foreign Power and from the Baseness and infinite Inconveniences of crouching to the Bishops of Rome should now thus easily be quite undone again And therefore he said all his Trouble at that time and the greatest that ever he had in his Life was to see the King and Queen's Majesties by their Proctors there to become his Accusers and that in their own Realm and Country before a Foreign Power For that if he had transgressed the Laws of the Land their Majesties had sufficient Authority and Power both from God and the Ordinance of the Realm to punish him Whereunto he would be at all times content to submit himself At this time of his Trial several Interrogatories were administred unto him to make answer to As concerning his Marriage Concerning his setting abroad Heresies and making and publishing certain Books of Heresy To which he confessed That the Catechism and the Book of Articles and the Book against Bishop Gardiner were of his doing Concerning subscribing those Articles and his compelling Persons to subscribe Which he denied but that he exhorted them that were willing to subscribe he acknowledged Concerning his open maintaining his Errors in Oxon Whereas they brought him to the Disputation themselves Concerning his being noted with the Infamy of Schism and that he moved the King and Subjects of his Realm to recede from the Catholick Church and See of Rome Which he acknowledged but that their Departure or Recess had in it no matter of Schism Concerning his being twice sworn to the Pope And Dr. Martin then shewed a Copy of his Protestation against the Pope at his Consecration under a publick Notary's Hand That he took upon him the See of Rome in consecrating Bishops and Priests without Leave or Licence from the said See To which he answered That it was permitted to him by the Publick Laws of the Realm Concerning his standing out still to subscribe to the Pope's Authority when the whole Nation had This being done a publick Notary entred his Answers Then the Bishop of Glocester made another Speech at breaking up of this Meeting and Dr. Story another reflecting upon what Cranmer had said with Reviling and Taunts The last thing they did at this Meeting was to swear several Persons who were the next Day to declare what they knew or could remember against this Reverend Father And these were Dr. Marshal Dean of Christ's-Church a most furious and zelotical Man and who to shew his spight against the Reformation had caused Peter Martyr's Wife who deceased while he was the King's Professor to be taken out of her Grave and buried in his Dunghil Dr. Smith Publick Professor who had recanted most solemnly in K. Edward's Days and to whom the Arch-bishop was a good Friend yet not long afterwards he wrote against his Book and was now sworn a Witness against him Dr. Tresham a Canon of Christ-Church who was one of the Disputers against Cranmer and had said in his Popish Zeal That there were 600 Errors in his Book of the Sacrament Dr. Crook Mr. London a Relation I suppose of Dr. London who came to shame for his false Accusation of Cranmer and others in K. Henry's Reign and now this Man 't is like was willing to be even with Cranmer for his Relation's sake Mr. Curtop another Canon of Christ's-Church formerly a great Hearer of P. Martyr Mr. Ward Mr. Serles the same I suppose who belonged to the Church of Canterbury and had been among the number of the Conspirators against him in K. Henry's Days And these being sworn the Arch-bishop was allowed to make his Exceptions against any of them Who resolutely said He would admit none of them all being perjured Men having sworn against the Pope and now received and defended him And that therefore they were not in Christian Religion And so the good Father was remitted back for that time to Prison again I know not what the Depositions of these Witnesses were given in against him the next Day For Fox relates nothing thereof nor any other as I know of Doubtless they were some of the Doctrines that he preached or taught or defended in Canterbury formerly or more lately in his Disputations in the Schools or in his Discourses in his Prison or at Christ's-Church where he sometimes was entertained But to all that was objected against him he made his Answers And the last thing they of this Commission did was to cite him to appear at Rome within eighty Days to make there his Answer in Person Which he said He would be content to do if the King and Queen would send him And so he was again remanded back to durance where he still remained And an account of what these Commissioners had done was dispatched to Rome forthwith From whence the final Sentence was sent in December next Then Pope Paul sent his Letters Executory unto the King and Queen and to the Bishops of London and Ely to degrade and deprive him and in the end of those fourscore Days he was declared Contumax as wilfully absenting himself from Rome when he was summoned to go though he was detained in Prison which might have been a lawful and just Excuse But these Matters must proceed in their Form whatsoever Absurdity or Falsehood there were in them By these Letters Executory which are in the first Edition of Fox but omitted in all the rest we may collect how the Process went against Cranmer at Rome which I shall here briefly set down
would deal sincerely with him without Fraud or Craft and use him as they would wish to be used in the like case themselves Bidding them remember that with what Measure they meet it should be measured to them again Therefore to make himself some amends for all this foul Dealing his last Refuge was an Appeal Whereof he seriously bethought himself when and in what manner to make it The Causes for his resolving upon it besides those already mentioned were because he remembred Luther once did so in such a Case and that he might not seem rashly to cast away his own Life and because he was bound by his Oath never to receive the Pope's Authority in this Realm and because the Commissioners had broken their Promise with him as above was said and because he thought the Bishop of Rome was not an indifferent Judg in this Cause which was his own Cause for all the Arch-bishop's Troubles came upon him for departing from him He therefore wrote privately to a trusty Friend and Learned in the Law then in the University to instruct him in the Order and Form of an Appeal and whether he should first Appeal from the Judg-Delegate to the Pope or else from that Judg immediately to a General Council And so earnestly entreated him to lay aside all other Studies and to take this in Hand presently because he was summoned to make his Answer at Rome the sixteenth Day of this Month that is of February There was one reason more moved him to Appeal which must not be omitted namely that he might gain Time to finish his Answer to Marcus Antonius He feared after all they would not admit his Appeal But he did not much pass and desired God's Will might be done So that God might be glorified by his Life or Death He thought it much better to die in Christ's Quarrel than to be shut in the Prison of the Body unless it were for the advancement of God's Glory and the Profit of his Brethren This Letter of the Arch-bishop being writ with so much Strength and Presence of Mind and shewing so much Prudence and Wit is happily preserved in Fox's Monuments where it may be read This Appeal when the Arch-bishop had produced and preferred to the Bishop of Ely he told him That they could not admit of it because their Commission was to proceed against him Omni Appellatione remota Cranmer replied That this Cause was not every private Man's Cause but that it was between the Pope and him immediately and none otherwise and that no Man ought to be Judg in his own Cause And therefore they did him the more Wrong So at last Thirlby received it of him and said If it might be admitted it should And so after this Interruption they proceeded to degrade him taking off the rest of his Habits And then put him on a poor Yeoman-Beadle's Gown threadbare and a Towns-man's Cap. And Boner told him He was no Lord any more and so was sent to Prison CHAP. XX. Cranmer Writes to the Queen AND now having undergone these Brunts with all this Gravity Discretion Learning and Courage he next resolved to give the Queen a true and impartial Account of these Transactions to prevent Misreports and to justify himself in what he had said and done Two Letters therefore he wrote to her but thought not fit to entrust them with the Commissioners since Weston had served him such a Trick in the like Case before In these Letters he related the reason of his refusing the Bishop of Glocester for his Judg and of his Appeal For as he thought it his Duty at that juncture to declare himself in that publick manner against the Bishop of Rome so he reckoned he ought to declare himself also to the Supream Magistrate And therefore before the Bishop of Glocester and the Commissioners he said That as he had thus discharged his own Conscience towards the World so he would also write his Mind to her Grace touching this Matter He wrote to her That the twelfth Day of that Month he was cited to appear at Rome the eightieth Day after And that it could not but grieve the Heart of a natural Subject to be accused by the King and Queen of his own Country and before any outward Judg as if the King and Queen were Subjects within their own Realm and were fain to complain and require Justice at a Stranger 's Hand against their own Subject being already condemned to Death by their own Laws As though the King and Queen could not have or do Justice within their own Realm against their own Subjects but they must seek it at a Stranger 's Hand in a strange Land Then he proceeded to shew her why he refused the Pope's Authority when Brooks Bishop of Glocester came to try him namely Because he was sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction in the Realm of England Another reason why he denied his Authority was Because his Authority repugned to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and to the Laws of the same For the Pope saith all manner of Power both Temporal and Spiritual is given unto him of God and that Temporal Power is given to Kings and Emperors to use it under him Whereas contrary to this Claim said the Arch-bishop the Imperial Crown of this Realm is taken immediately from God to be used under him only and is subject to none but God alone Moreover to the Imperial Laws of this Realm all the Kings in their Coronations and all Justices when they receive their Offices are sworn and all the whole Realm bound to defend them But contrary hereunto the Pope he said made void and commanded to blot out of our Books all Laws and Customs repugnant to his Laws Then he proceeded to shew how contrary the Laws of the Realm and the Pope's Laws were And therefore that the Kings of this Realm had provided for their Laws by the Premunire So that if any Man let the execution of the Law by any Authority from the See of Rome he fell into the Premunire And to meet with this the Popes had provided for their Law by Cursing He supposed that these things were not fully opened in the Parliament-house when the Pope's Authority was received again For if they were he could not believe that the King and Queen the Nobles and Commons would again receive a Foreign Authority so hurtful and prejudicial to the Crown and to the Laws and State of this Realm He rebuked the Clergy who were the main Movers of this at the Parliament for their own Ends. For they desired to have the Pope their chief Head to the intent that they might have as it were a Kingdom and Laws within themselves distinct from the Laws of the Crown and live in this Realm like Lords and Kings without damage or fear of any Man And then he glanced at some of the Clergy probably
Farm of that Parsonage and the Nomination of the Curat And being a Man of Conscience and Integrity endeavoured to procure here an honest and able Preacher and so presented to the Church one Richard Turner a Man of an irreprehensible Life and well-learned in the Holy Scriptures Who for his Doctrine against the Popish Superstition and the Pope's Supremacy met with great Troubles But his Patron very stifly stood by him and procured the Arch-bishop to favour him And having an Interest with Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Butts Courtiers he wrote Mr. Turner's Case at large to them and got them to read his Letter before the King Who though before he had been by sinister Reports so incensed against him as to command him to be whip'd out of the Country now by this Means he conceived better Thoughts of him and commanded him to be cherish'd as a good Subject as I have before more at large related Another Passage I meet with of this Man relates to the Kindness of the ABp his Master to him Who in token of his Good-will he bore him and of his readiness to reward his Diligence and Faithfulness in his Service did procure him a Lease of the Parsonage of Ospring in Kent being an Impropriation belonging unto S. Iohns-College in Cambridg worth better than forty Marks by the Year de claro when Wheat was but a Noble the Quarter This the Arch-bishop got a Grant of from the said College for him But when the Lease was prepared and ready to be sealed one Hawkins of the Guard by his importunate Suit got King Henry VIII to obtain it of the College to be sealed for the use of him the said Hawkins The Arch-bishop then solicited the King in his Servant's behalf and the King promised him and also Dr. Day the Master of the College that he would otherwise recompense Morice for the same with like Value or better Which was never done the King dying before he did any thing for him This caused Morice to prefer a Supplication unto Queen Elizabeth setting forth his said Case and desiring therefore her Liberality Aid and Succour especially considering that her Royal Father had in his Will provided that all such who had sustained any manner of Damage or Hinderance by him should be satisfied for the same Suing therefore to her Majesty for a Pension that had been allowed unto one Wilbore late Prior of the Monastery of S. Augustines lately deceased that it might be conferred upon him during his Life And indeed he seemed now in his old Age to have need of some such Favour his Condition being but mean according to worldly Things and having four Daughters all marriageable and not where-withal to bestow them according to their Quality This his Poverty he urged to the Queen and that the granting him this Pension would be a good furtherance of his said Daughters Marriage The same Person had some Lands descended to him from Iames his Father out of two Manors the one called Royden-Manor and the other called The Temple both situate and lying in the Parish of Royden His said Father upon some certain Reasons and Agreements surrendred two long Leases of both these Manors into King Henry VIII his Hands In consideration of which and of long and true Services the said King did give except and reserve certain Tenements Lands Pastures and Meadows out of the said two Lordships to the Use of the said Iames and his Heirs and Assigns for ever as appeared by his Letters Patents And Iames did enjoy them peaceably and quietly without any molestation until his Death which was in the second Year of Queen Mary But of late the Leases of the Manors being sold away unto others they laid Claim and Titlâ— unto the said reserved Lands upon the Information of one Thurgood Steward of the Courts there pretending that there were not Words sufficient in the said Letters Patents to justify the said Exceptions This occasioned Ralph Morice the Son who enjoyed some of the Copy-holds within the said Exceptions to sue unto the Queen for her Majesty's Letters Patents to ratify and confirm the said Exceptions that the King 's Godly Disposition Intent and Meaning might be in Force to Iames Morice's Heirs and Assigns for ever What Success he had in this and the former Petition I find not but am ready to think the Queen gratified him in both as well for his own Merits as out of that high Respect she bore to the Memory of our incomparable Prelat whose Servant he had so long been and for whose sake he recommended himself and his Suit to her I have inserted the former of these Supplications in the Appendix being an Original of Morice's own Hand-writing and containing some memorable Passages in it This Man was by the Arch-bishop's Means appointed Register in King Edward VI his Visitation which was in the second Year of his Reign the Articles whereof were drawn up by the Arch-bishop and preserved to us in Bishop Sparrow's Collections And being ready to depart with the King's Commissioners the Arch-bishop sent for him to Hampton-Court and willed him to make Notes of certain Matters in the said Visitation whereof he gave him particular Instructions and had large Discourse with him of the good Success that this Course was like to have In the beginning of Queen Mary he suffered much Being glad to fly from his own House but afterwards taken by the Justices and committed to Custody Out of which he escaped by breaking Prison His House was often searched But he out-lived those hard Times and was alive in the Year 1565 and then lived at Bekesborn It was this Morice that supplied Mr. Fox the Writer of the Acts and Monuments with those Memorials concerning the Bishop of Winchester which shewed how small a Share he had in King Henry's Affections notwithstanding his boasting thereof which he was very apt to do and particularly how that King came to leave him out of his last Will. All which Sir Anthony Denny related to our Arch-bishop in the hearing of this his Secretary Who was alive when Fox wrote this and whom he asserts towards the end of his eighth Book as a Witness to the same For it is to be noted here that among those Persons that assisted this Author with Matter for the compiling his laborious Books this Morice was one and to whom we are to reckon our selves beholden for divers other material Passages of our Church-History and especially those of his Lord and Master the Arch-bishop which are preserved in the said Books to Posterity To Day the Printer he sent many Papers of Monuments for the furnishing Fox's History and many more he had communicated but that in Queen Mary's Reign his House in two Years was thrice searched by which means he lost a great sort of Things worthy perpetual Memory and especially divers Letters of King Edward to the Arch-bishop and of the Arch-bishop to him
losing of Promotion nor hope of Gain or winning of Favour could move him to relent or give place unto the Truth of his Conscience As experience thereof well appeared as well in defence of the true Religion against the Six Articles in the Parliament as in that he offered to combate with the Duke of Northumberland in K. Edward's Time speaking then on behalf of his Prince for the staying of the Chauntries until his Highness had come unto lawful Age and that especially for the maintenance of his better State then But if at his Prince's Pleasure in case of Religion at any time he was forced to give place that was done with such humble Protestation and so knit up for the safeguard of his Faith and Conscience that it had been better his Good-will had never been requested than so to relent or give over as he did Which most dangerously besides sundry times else he especially attempted when the Six Articles past by Parliament and when my L. Crumwel was in the Tower At what time the Book of Articles of our Religion was new penned For even at that Season the whole Rabblement which he took to be his Friends being Commissioners with him forsook him and his Opinion and Doctrine And so leaving him Post alone revolted altogether on the part of Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester As by Name Bishop Hethe Shaxton Day and all other of the meaner sort By whom these so named were chiefly advanced and preferred unto Dignities And yet this sudden Inversion notwithstanding God gave him such Favour with his Prince that Book altogether past by his Assertion against all their Minds More to be marvelled at the Time considered than by any Reason to compass how it should come to pass For then would there have been laid thousands of Pounds to Hundreds in London that he should before that Synod had been ended have been shut up in the Tower beside his Friend the Lord Crumwel Howbeit the King's Majesty having an assured and approved affiance of his both deep Knowledg in Religion and Fidelity both to God and Him suspected in that time other Men in their Judgments not to walk uprightly nor sincerely For that some of them swerved from their former Opinions in Doctrine And having great experience of the constancy of the Lord Cranmer it drave him all along to join with the said Lord Cranmer in the confirmation of his Opinion and Doctrin against all the rest to their great Admiration For at all Times when the King's Majesty would be resolved in any Doubt or Question he would but send word to my Lord over Night and by the next Day the King would have in writing brief Notes of the Doctors Minds as well Divines as Lawyers both Old and New with a Conclusion of his own Mind Which he could never get in such a readiness of any no not of all his Chaplains and Clergy about him in so short a Time For being thorowly seen in all kinds of Expositors he could incontinently lay open thirty forty sixty or more some whiles of Authors And so reducing the Notes of them altogether would advertise the King more in one Day than all his Learned Men could do in a Month. And it was no mervail for it was well known that commonly if he had not Business of the Prince's or special urgent Causes before him he spent three parts of the Day in Study as effectually as he had done at Cambridg And therefore it was that the King said on a time to the Bishop of Winchester the King and my said Lord of Winchester defending together that the Canons of the Apostles were of as good Authority as the four Evangelists contrary to my Lord Cranmer's Assertion My Lord of Canterbury said the King is too old a Truant for us twain Again His Estimation was such with his Prince that in Matters of great Importance wherein no Creature durst once move the King for fear of Displeasure or moving the King's Patience or otherwise for troubling his Mind then was my Lord Cranmer most violently by the whole Council obtruded and thrust out to undertake that Danger and Peril in Hand As beside many other times I remember twice he served the Council's Expectation The first time was when he staied the King 's determinate Mind and Sentence in that he fully purposed to send the Lady Mary his Daughter unto the Tower and there to suffer as a Subject because She would not obey the Laws of the Realm in refusing the Bishop of Rome's Authority and Religion Whose stay in that behalf the King then said unto the Lord Cranmer would be to his utter Confusion at the length The other dangerous Attempt was in the disclosing the unlawful Behaviour of Queen Katharine Howard towards the King in keeping unlawful Company with Durrant her Servant For the King's Affection was so mervailously set upon that Gentlewoman as it was never known that he had the like to any Woman So that no Man durst take in Hand to open to him that Wound being in great perplexity how he would take it And then the Council had no other Refuge but unto my Lord Cranmer Who with over-much Importunity gave the Charge which was done with such Circumspection that the King gave over his Affections unto Reason and wrought mervellous colourably for the Trial of the same Now as concerning the Manner and Order of his Hospitality and House-keeping As he was a Man abandoned from all kind of Avarice so was he content to maintain Hospitality both liberally and honourably and yet not surmounting the Limits of his Revenues Having more respect and foresight unto the Iniquity of the Times being inclined to pull and spoil from the Clergy than to his own private Commodity For else if he had not so done he was right sure that his Successors should have had as much Revenues left unto them as were left unto the late Abbies Especially considering that the Lands and Revenues of the said Abbies being now utterly consumed and spread abroad and for that there remained no more Exercise to set on work or no Officers but Surveyors Auditors and Receivers it was high time to shew an Example of liberal Hospitality For although these said Workmen only brought up and practised in subverting of Monastical Possessions had brought that kind of Hospitality unto utter Confusion yet ceased they not to undermine the Prince by divers Perswasions for him also to overthrow the honourable State of the Clergy And because they would lay a sure Foundation to build their Purpose upon they found the Means to put into the King's Head That the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept no Hospitality or House correspondent unto his Revenues and Dignity but sold his Woods and by great Incomes and Fines made Money to purchase Lands for his Wife and Children And to the intent that the King should with the more facility believe this Information Sir Thomas Seymor the
Duke of Somerset's Brother being one of the Privy-Chamber was procured to take this Matter in hand And before he informed the King thereof he blasted it abroad in the Court Insomuch that the Gentlemen and he fell out for the same They declare That his Report was manifestly false as well for the keeping of his House as for the purchasing Lands for his Wife and Children This notwithstanding Mr. Seymor went through with his Information and declared unto the King as is before declared The King hearing this Tale with the Sequel that was That it was meet for the Bishops not to be troubled ne vexed with Temporal Affairs in ruling their Honours Lordships and Manors but rather they having an honest Pension of Money yearly allowed unto them for their Hospitality should surrender unto the King's Majesty all their Royalties and Temporalties said I do marvel that it is said my Lord of Canterbury should keep no good Hospitality for I have heard the contrary And so with a few more Commendations of my Lord as one that little regarded the Suit but yet as it appeared afterward something smelling what they went about left off any further to talk of that Matter and converted his Communication to another Purpose Notwithstanding within a Month after whether it was of Chance or of Purpose it is unknown the King going to Dinner called Mr. Seymour unto him and said Go ye straightways unto Lambeth and bid my Lord of Canterbury come and speak with me at two of the Clock at Afternoon Incontinently Mr. Seymor came to Lambeth and being brought into the Hall by the Porter it chanced the Hall was set to Dinner And when he was at the Skreen and perceived the Hall furnished with three principal Messes beside the rest of the Tables thorowly set having a guilty Conscience of his untrue Report made to the King recoâ—led back and would have gone in to my Lord by the Chappel-way Mr. Nevyl being Steward perceiving that rose up and went after him and declared unto him that he could not go that way and so brought him back unto my Lord through the Hall And when he came to my Lord and had done his Message my Lord caused him to sit down and dine with him But making a short Dinner because he would bring the King word again of his Message he departed and came to the King before he was risen from the Table When he came to the King's Presence said the King Will my Lord of Canterbury come to Us He will wait on your Majesty said Mr. Seymor at two of the Clock Then said the King had my Lord dined before you came No forsooth said Mr. Seymor for I found him at Dinner Well said the King What Chear made he you With these words Mr. Seymor kneeled down and besought the King's Majesty of Pardon What is the matter said the King I do remember said Mr. Seymor that I told your Highness that my Lord of Canterbury kept no Hospitality correspondent unto his Dignity and now I perceive that I did abuse your Highness with an Untruth For besides your Grace's House I think he be not in the Realm of none Estate or Degree that hath such a Hall furnished or that fareth more honourably at his own Table Ah said the King have you spied your own Fault now I assure your Highness said Mr. Seymor it is not so much my Fault as other Mens who seemed to be honest Men that enformed me hereof But I shall henceforth the worse trust them while they live Then said the King I knew your Purpose well enough you have had among you the Commodities of the Abbies which you have consumed Some with superfluous Apparel some at Dice and Cards and other ungracious Rule And now you would have the Bishops Lands and Revenues to abuse likewise If my Lord of Canterbury keep such a Hall as you say being neither Term nor Parliament he is merely well visited at those Times I warrant you And if the other Bishops kept the like for their Degree they had not need to have any thing taken from them but rather to be added and holpen And therefore set your Hearts at rest there shall no such Alteration be made while I live said the King So that in very deed where some had penned certain Books for the altering that State in the next Parliament they durst never bring them forth to be read Whereupon it also came to pass that when the King understood that contrary unto the Report my Lord of Canterbury had purchased no Lands his Highness was content upon the only Motion of Dr. Butts without my Lord Cranmer's Knowledg That he should have the Abbey in Nottinghamshire which his Wife now enjoyeth Thus much I have declared concerning Mr. Seymor's Practice to the intent Men may understand that my Lord Cranmer's Hospitality was a mean to stay the Estate of the Clergy in their Possessions CHAP. XXXI Arch-bishop Cranmer preserved the Revenues of his See AND here I must answer for my Lord Cranmer against certain Objections which are in divers Mens Heads That by his Means all the Preferments Offices and Farmes are so given and let out that his Successors have nothing to give or bestow upon their Friends and Servants nor that such Hospitality can be kept by reason of his Fault in letting go such things as should have maintained Provisions of Household But to answer this in a few words before I descend to any particular Declaration It is most true that if he had not well behaved himself towards his Prince and the World his Successors should not been cumbred with any piece of Temporal Revenues either Lands Woods or other Revenues And I pray God they may maintain in this mild and quiet Time that which he in a most dangerous World did uphold and left to his Successors Yet for better declaration in answering to those Objections it is to be considered that when he entred upon his Dignity every Man about the King made means to get some Reversion of Farmes or of other Office of him In so much that the King himself made means to him for one or two things before he was Consecrated as for the Farm of Wingham-Barton Which was granted unto Sir Edward Bainton Kt. for fourscore and nineteen Years When my Lord perceived that in such Suits as he granted to the King and Queen Men would needs have an hundred Years save one he wrote to the Chapter of Christ-Church and willed them in any Condition not to confirm any more of his Grants of Leases which were above one and twenty Years By this means much Suit was stopped So that in very deed he gave out his Leases but for one and twenty Years Which would not satisfy the greedy Appetites of some Men And therefore they found a Provision for it For when my Lord had let out certain goodly Farmes at Pinner Heyes Harrow on the Hill Mortlake c. to the number of ten or
Carnal Presence For a Conclusion let the Reader not hear me but another speak for our Arch-bishop against one of these Calumniators and he a Portugal Bishop After Cranmer by hearing of the Gospel began to savour of Christian Profession what Wickedness was ever reported of him With what outrage of Lust was he enflamed What Murders what seditious Tumults what secret Conspiracies were ever seen or suspected so much to proceed from him Unless ye account him blame-worthy for this that when King Henry Father to Mary upon great Displeasure conceived was for some secret Causes determined to strike off her Head this Reverend Arch-bishop did pacify the Wrath of the Father and with mild continual Intercession preserved the Life of the Daughter Who for Life preserved acquitted her Patron with Death As concerning his Marriage if you reproachfully impute that to Lust which Paul doth dignify with so honourable a Title I do answer That he was the Husband of one Wife with whom he continued many Years more chastly and holily than Osorius in that his stinking sole and single Life peradventure one Month tho he flee never so often to his Catholick Confessions And I see no Cause why the Name of a Wife shall not be accounted in each respect as Holy with the true Professors of the Gospel as the Name of a Concubine with the Papists Thus Fox And so I have at last by God's favourable Concurrence finished this my Work and have compiled an imperfect History yet with the best Diligence I could of this singular Arch-bishop and blessed Martyr and in the conclusion have briefly vindicated him from those many false Surmises and Imputations that his implacable Enemies of the Roman Faction have reported and published abroad against him Not contented with the shedding of his Blood unless they stigmatized his Name and Memory and formed the World into a belief that he was one of the vilest Wretches that lived who in Reality and Truth appeareth to have been one of the holiest Bishops and one of the best Men that Age produced THE END THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer NUM I. Account of Mr. Pool's Book by Dr. Cranmer To the Ryght honorable and my syngular good Lorde my Lorde of Wylshire IT may please your Lordeshipe to bee advertised that the Kynge his grace my Lady your wyfe my Lady Anne your doughter be in good helth whereof thankes be to God As concernynge the Kinge hys cause Mayster Raynolde Poole hath wrytten a booke moch contrary to the kinge hys purpose wyth such wytte that it appereth that he myght be for hys wysedome of the cownsel to the kinge hys grace And of such eloquence that if it were set forth and knowne to the commen people I suppose yt were not possible to persuade them to the contrary The pryncypal intent whereof ys that the kinge hys grace sholde be contente to commyt hys grete cause to the jugement of the pope wherein me semeth he lacketh moch jugement But he swadeth that with such goodly eloquence both of words and sentence that he were lyke to persuade many but me hee persuadeth in that poynt no thynge at al. But in many other thynges he satysfyeth me very wel The som wherof I shal shortly reherse Furst he sheweth the cause wherfore he had never pleasure to intromytte hymself in this cause And that was the trouble which was lyke to ensue to this realme therof by dyversitie of tytles Wherof what hurte myght come we have had exsample in our fathers dayes by the tytles of Lancaster and Yorke And where os god hath gyven many noble gyfts unto the kinge hys grace as wel of body and mynde os also of fortune yet this excedeth al other that in hym al tytles do mete and come togyder and this Realme ys restored to tranquillitie and peace so oweth he to provide that this londe fal not agayne to the forsaide mysery and troble which may come aswel by the people within this realme which thynke surely that they have an hayre lawful alâ—â—ady with whom they al be wel contente and wolde be sory to have any other And yt wolde be harde to persuade thaym to take any other levynge her os also by the Emperour whych ys a man of so grete power the quene beying hys awnt the Princes hys nece whome he so moch doth and ever hath favored And where he harde reasons for the kynge hys party that he was moved of god hys lawe which doth straytly forbed and that with many gret thretts that no man shal mary hys brother hys wife And os for the people yt longeth not to thayr judgement and yet yt ys to be thought that thay wil be contente whan thay shal knowe that the awncyente Doctores of the Chyrch and the determinations of so many grete vniversities be of the kynge hys sentence And os concernynge the Emperour if he be so unryghtful that he wyl mayntene an unjust cause yet god wil never fayl thaym that stonde opon his party and for any thynge wyl not transgresse hys commawndments And besyde that we shal not lacke the ayde of the Frenshe kynge whyche partely for the Lege whych he hath made with us and partly for the dyspleasure and olde grutch which he bereth toward the Emperour wolde be glad to have occasion to be avenged Thies reasons he bryngeth for the kyngs party agaynst hys owne opynyon To which he maketh answer in this maner Fyrst os towchynge the Lawe of god he thynketh that yf the kinge were pleased to take the contrary parte he myght os wel justifie that and have os good grownde of the scripture therfore os for that parte which he now taketh And yet if he thought the kyngs party never so juste and that this his mariage were undowtedly agaynst godds pleasure than he cowde not deny but yt sholde be wel done for the kynge to refuse this mariage and to take another wyfe but that he sholde be a doar therin and a setter forwarde therof he cowde never fynde in hys harte And yet he grawnteth that he hath no good reason therfore but only affection which he bereth and of dewty oweth unto the kyngs parson For in so doing he sholde not only wayke ye and utterly take away the Princes Title but also he must neds accuse the most and cheife parte of al the kyngs lyfe hiderto which hath bene so infortunate to lyve more than xx yers in a matrimony so shameful so abominable so bestial and agaynst nature yf it be so os the books which do defend the kyngs party do say that the abomination therof ys naturally wrytten and graven in every mans harte so that none excusation can be made by ignorance And thus to accuse the noble nature of the kyngs grace and to take away the title of hys succession he cowde never fynd in hys harte were the kyngs cause never so
the Vilains to rule the Gentlemen and the Servants their Masters If men would suffer this God wil not but wil take vengeance on al them that wil break his order as he did of Dathan and Abiram altho for a time he be a God of much sufferance and hideth his indignation under his mercy That the evil of themselves may repent and se their own folly XIV Your fourteenth Article is this WEE wil that the half part of the Abby lands and Chantry lands in every mans possession howsoever he came by them be given again to two places where two of the chief Abbies were within every County Where such half part shal bee taken out and there to be established a place for devout persons which shal pray for the King and the Common wealth And to the same we wil have al the Almes of the Church box given for these seven years At the beginning you pâ—etended that you meant nothing against the Kings Majesty but now you open your selves plainly to the world that you go about to pluck the Crown from his head and against al justice and equity not only to take from him such lands as be annexed unto his Crown and be parcel of the same but also against al right and reason to take from al other men such lands as they came to by most just title by gift by sale by exchange or otherwise There is no respect nor difference had among you whether they come to them by right or by wrong Be you so blind that you cannot see how justly you proceed to take the sword in your hand against your prince and to dispossesse just Inheritors without any cause Christ would not take upon him to judg the right and title of lands betwixt two brethren and you arrogantly presume not only to judg but unjustly to take away al mens right titles yea even from the King himself And do you not tremble for fear that the Vengeance of God shal fal upon you before you have grace to repent And yet you not contented with this your Rebellion would have your shameful act celebrated with a perpetual memory as it were to boast and glory of your iniquity For in memory of your fact you would have established in every country two places to pray for the King and the Common-wealth Wherby your abominable behaviour at this present may never be forgotten but be remembred unto the worlds end That when the Kings Majesty was in Wars with Scotland and France you under pretence of the Common wealth rebelled and made so great sedition against him within his own realm as never before was heard of And therfore you must be prayed for for ever in every County of this realm It were more fit for you to make humble Supplication upon your knees to the Kings Majesty desiring him not only to forgive you this fault but also that the same may never be put in Chronicle nor writing and that neither shew nor mention may remain to your posterity that ever subjects were so unkind to their Prince and so ungracious toward God that contrary to Gods word they should so use themselves against their Soveraign Lord and King And this I assure you of that if al the whole world should pray for you until Doomsday their prayers should no more avail you then they should avail the Devils in hel if they prayed for them unles you be so penitent and sory for your disobedience that you wil ever hereafter so long as you live study to redubbe and recompence the same with al true and faithful obedience and not only your selves but also procuring al other so much as lyeth in you And so much detesting such uproars and seditions that if you se any man towards any such things you wil to your power resist him and open him unto such Governors and Rulers as may straitway repres the same As for your last Article thanks be to God it needs not to be answered which is this Your last Article is this FOR the particular griefes of our Country we wil have them so ordered as Humfrey Arundel and Henry Bray the Kings Maior of Bodman shal inform the Kings Majesty if they may have salve Conduct in the Kings great Seal to pas und repas with an Herald of Armes Who ever heard such arrogancy in Subjects to require and wil of their Princes that their own particular causes may be ordered neither according to reason nor the lawes of the Realm but according to the Information of two most hainous Traitors Was it ever heard before this time that information should be a judgment altho the Informers were of never so great credit And wil you have suffice the information of two villanous Papistical Traitors You wil deprive the King of his lands pertaining to his Crown and other men of their just possessions and inheritances and judg your own causes as you list your selves And what can you be called then but most wicked judges and most errant Traitors Except only Ignorance or Force may excuse youâ— that either you were constrained by your Capitains against your wills or deceived by blind Priests and other crafty persuaders to ask you wist not what How much then ought you to detest and abhor such men hereafter and to beware of al such like as long as you live and to give most humble and hearty thanks unto God who hath made an end of this Article and brought Arundel and Bray to that they have deserved that is perpetual shame confusion and death Yet I beâ—seech God so to extend his grace unto them that they may dy wel which have lived il Amen NUM XLI The Archbishops notes for an Homily against the Rebellion Sentences of the Scripture against Sedition 1 Cor. 3. CUM sit inter vos zelus contentio nonne carnales estis sicut homines ambulatis Et 1 Cor. 6. Quare non magis injuriam accipitis Quare non magis fraudem patimini Iac. 3. Si zelum amarum habetis contentiones sint in cordibus vestris c. non est ista Sapientia desursum descendens a Patre Luminum sed terrena animalis Diabolica Ubi enim zelus contentio ibi inconstantia omne opus malum c. Et Cap. 4. Unde bella lites inter vos Nonne ex concupiscentijs vestris quae m ilitant in membris vestris How God hath plagued Sedition in time past Num. 18. Dathan and Abiram for ther sedition against Moses and Aaron did miserably perish by Gods just judgment the earth opening and swallowing them down quick 2 Reg. 15. 18. Absalom moving Sedition against David did miserably perish likewise 2 Reg. 20. Seba for his Sedition against David lost his head 3 Reg. 1. 2. Adonias also for his Sedition against Solomon was slain Acts 8. Iudas and Theudas for their Sedition were justly slain Acts 21. An Egyptian likewise which moved the people of Israel to Sedition received that he
rowe Now God sped thee wel And I wil no more mell The Answer to the Enemy A rope is a fytt reward for such rysshe repers As have strowed this Church ageinst the Kings prechers THE Pulpits are now replenished with them that prech the truthe And Popish traitors banished which seemed to you great ruthe But yf you and the Freers were clean owt of this land This realme to the last years ful firme and sure should stand When such as with you trust shal al ly in the dust And ryse thereout agayne unto perpetual payne With them that laugh and scorne eyther at hye or lowe Had better not been borne such evil seeds to sowe Yee pray God spede them wel and ye wil no more mell Forsothe ye have said wel But if ye may be knowen Ye are like for to be taken and quartered like a baken And of your frends forsaken for these sedis ye have sowen Like as the last yere Traitors were knowen By standing in the felds with weapon and swordes So this year their treason is sowen In traiterous bills and railing words Some of their carcases standith on the gates And their heads most fyttely on London bridge Therefore ye Traytors beware your pates For yf ye be founde the same way must ye tridge God save the Kings Majestie long for to reigne To suppresse al rebells and truthe to maynteyne An old Song of John Nobody I. IN December when the dayes draw to be be short After November when the nights wax noysome and Long As I past by a place privily at a port I saw one sit by himself making a song His last talk of trifles who told with his tongue That few were fast i' th' faith I feyned that freake Whether he wanted wit or some had done him wrong He said he was little Iohn Nobody that durst not speak II. Iohn Nobody quoth I What news thou soon note and tell What maner men thou mean that are so mad He said These gay gallants that wil construe the gospel As Solomon the sage with semblance ful sad To discus divinity they nought adread More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke Thou lyest quoth I thou Losel like a leud lad He said he was little Iohn Nobody that durst not speak III. It s meet for every man on this matter to talk And the glorious gospel ghostly to have in mind It is sothe said that Sect but much unseemly scalk As boyes babble in books that in Scripture are blind Yet to their fancy soon a cause wil find As to live in lust in lechery to leyke Such Caitives count to be come of Cains kind But that I little Iohn Nobody durst not speak IV. For our Reverend Father hath set forth an order Our service to be said in our Seignours tongue As Solomon the sage set forth the Scripture Our suffrages and service with many a sweet song With Homilies and godly books us among That no stiff stubborn stomacks we should freyke But wretches nere worse to do poor men wrong But that I little Iohn Nobody dare not speak V. For Bribery was never so great since born was our Lord And Whoredom was never les hated sith Christ harrowed Hel And poor men are so sore punished commonly through the world Thus would it grieve any one that good is to hear tel For al the homilies and good books yet their hearts be so quel That if a man do amiss with mischefe they wil him wreake The fashion of these new fellows it is so vile and fell But that I little Iohn Nobody dare not speake VI. Thus to live after their lust that life would they have And in letchery to lyke al their long life For al the preaching of Paul yet many a proud knave Wil move mischiefe in their mind both to maid and wife To bring them in advoutry or else they wil strife And in brawling about baudery Gods Commandments break But of these frantic il fellowes few of them do thrife Though I little Iohn Nobody dare not speak VII If thou company with them they wil currishly carp and not care According to their foolish fantacy but fast wil they naught Prayer with them is but prating Therefore they it forbear Both Almes deeds and holiness they hate it in their thought Therefore pray we to that Prince that with his bloud us bought That he wil mend that is amiss For many a man ful freyke Is sorry for these Sects though they say little or nought And that I little Iohn Nobody dare not once speake VIII Thus in no place this Nobody in no time I met Where no man then nought was nor nothing did appear Though the sound of a Synagogue for sorrow I swett That Hercules through the eccho did cause me to hear Then I drew me down into a dale wheras the dumb deer Did shiver for a shower but I shunted from a freyke For I would no wight in this world wist who I were But little Iohn Nobody that dare not once speake NUM L. John a Lasco's Letter from Embden signifying the dangerous condition they were in and the Persecutions they expected Clarissimo viro Domino Sicilio a consilijs libellis sâ—pplicibus Illustrissimi Domini Protectoris Domino fratri meo observandissimo S. Cum mihi ad alios scribendum istuc esset facere non potui quin ad te quoque scriberem Vir Clarissime memor videlicet illius quòd te mihi istic delegerim cui mea omnia nota prae alijs esse velim Volui itaque tibi de meo huc reditu significare nempe me felicissimo itinere gratia Domino usum me ex Anglia in Frisiam Orientalem intra triduum trajecisse Navis praesectum a Domino Protectore nobis additum habebamus virum optimum fidelissimum qui Dominum Comitem Bremam usque est sequutus ut certi aliquid opinor ab illo vobis adferat Ego quae scio ad Dominum Cantuariensem omnia perscripsi ut Illustriâ—â—imo Domino Protectori exponat quae tibi quoque incognita non fore puto Scripturus alioqui eadem ad te omnia si non id parum necessarium adeoque supervacaneum esse judicarem Nos hic crucem certissimam expectamus ad eam perferendam mutuo nos in Domino cohortamur cum invocatione nominis sancti sui ut per patientiam fidem ferendo superemus omnia quaeâ—únque in nos permittere ille volet ad nominis sui gloriam nostri probationem Certi illum curam nostri habere ita potentem esse ut â—mnes omnium hostium phalanges quicunque sint tandem illi unico oris sui verbo sternat momento uno rursum ita bonâ—m ut ne pilum quidem temerè e nostro capite detrahi patiatur etiamsi nos totus mundus impetere conetur Támque nobis malè velle non possit unquam quà m mater infanti
And Smith The Duke of Somerset's Death Inter Foxii MSS. Winchester suppos'd to be in the Plot. Articles against the Duke What he is blamed for The new Book of Common-Prayer established Troubles at Frankford Coverdale made Bp of Exon. Scory Bp Elect of Rochester The ABp appoints a Guardian of the Spiritualties of Lincoln Cranm. Reg And of Wigorn. Cranm. Regist. And of Chichester And of Hereford And of Bangor Hoper visits his Diocess No. LXIII Two Disputations concerning the Sacrament Miscellan C. Dr. Redman dies Bâ—con's Reports Fox's Acts. The ABp and others appointed to Reform the Ecclesiastical Laws The Method they observed Scory Cranm. Regist Coverdalâ— An. 1552. The Articles of Religion framed and published Fox The ABp's diligence in them Council-Book No. LXIV The ABp retires to Ford. Consulted with for fit Persons to fill the Irish Seeâ— * I suppose this might be a slip of the ABp's Pen or Memory writing Whitacre for Goodacre who afterwards was placed in that Irish See and haâ— been Poynet 's Chaplain Some Account of the four Divines nominated by him for the Archbishoprick of Armagh Mr. Wâ—ithead Mr. Turner Bale's Cent. Thomas Rosse or Rose Robert Wisdome * The Iewel of Ioy. †They were both forced to recant openly at St. Pauls Cross in the Year 1544 together with one Shingleton And herâ—upon I suppose they conveyed themselves into the North parts for Security The Character the ABp gave of the two former Turner designed for Armagh But declines it Hist. Ref. Vol. 1. p. 205. N. LXV LXVI Goodacre made ABpof Armagh Vocation of Iohn Bale Beatae memoriae in Hibernià concionatorem vigilantissimum ac Theologica eloquentia non immerito commendatum Balaei Centur. Letters from the Council to Ireland recommending the Irish Bishops Council-Book A Rumour gigen out of the ABp's Covetousness and Wealth Which Cecyl sends him word of The ABp's Answer for himself and the other Bishops †He probably was Holgate ABp of York No. LXVII This very Slander raised upon him to K. Henry Fox K. Henry promised him Lands This promise performed by King Edward His Purchases No. LXVIII The Arch-bishoprick fleeced by K. Henry Lands past away to the Crown by Exchange Villarâ— Cantian Lands made over to the Arch-bishop The Arch-bishop parted also with Knoll and Otford to the King MSS. C.C.C.C What moved him to make these Exchanges His Cares and Fears for the King His care for filling the Vacancies of the Church Labored under an Ague this Autumn The great Mortality of Agues about this Time Stow's Chron. That which most concerned him in his Sickness The Secretary sends the Arch-bishop the Copy of the Emperor's Pacification Vid. Slâ—id Lib. 24. His Kindness for Germany His Correspondence with Germany And with Herman Arch-bishop of Colen The Sutableness of both these Arch-bishops Dispositions Their diligence in Reforming Mel. Epist. Printed at Leyden 1647. Pag. 34. Nec aliam video nisi hanc unam ut retineant Episcopi Collegia sâ—a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suas opes recipiant doctrinam piam Ubi supra The Troubles of Bp Tonstol MS. of an old Council-Book The Cause of this Bp's Punishment A Bill in Parliament to attaint Tonstal The Care of the Diocess committed to the Dean The new Common-Prayer began to be used Stow's Chron. This Book put into French for the King's French Subjects The Age still vicious Iewâ—l of Ioy. A new Sect in Kent Council-Book The ABp's Business in Kent A Letter for Installing Bishop Hoper Council-Book The Vicar of Beden Council-Book Sampson and Knox. The Council favour Knox. Collect. Vol. 2. p. 42. Council-Book Iohn Taylor An. 1553. Great use made of the ABp at Council The Articles of Religion enjoined by the King's Authority Cran. Regist. An. 1553. The Catechism for Schools A Catechism set forth by the Synod Fox The ABp opposeth the new Settlement of the Crown Denieth before the Council to subscribe to the Exclusion of the Lady Mary Foxii MSS. Sets his Hand The ABp ingratefully dealt with The Council subscribe and swear to the limited Succession Vol. II. p. 223. No. LXVIII The King dies Cooper's Chron. His Character Nic. Vdal his Pres. to Erasm. Paraphrase The ABp delights in this Prince's Proficiency K. Edward's Writings Fox Fox Mr. Petyt's MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Full. Ch. Hist. Full. Ch. Hist. Ibid. Mr. Petyt's MSS. Cotton Libr. and Hist. Ref. Trinity-Col Libr. Cott. Librar Cott. Libr. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Sir W. H. MSS. Fox The King 's Memorial for Religion The Ab◠〈◊〉 at Council His Presence in Council in the Year 1550. In the Year 1551. In the Year 1552. An. 1553. Iohn Harley The ABp's and Counsellors concern with the Lady Iane. No. LXIX No. LXX They declare for Q. Mary No. LXXI And write to Northumberland to lay down his Arms. Stow. The Queen owned by the Ambassadors The ABp misreported to have said Mass. Mass at Canterbury Which he makes a publick Declaration against Foxii MSS. The Declaration Appears before the Commissioners at Pauls And before the Council The ABp of York committed to the Tower and his Goods seized C.C.C.C. Librar Miscell Bâ— At Battersea At Cawood Gardiner's Passage of the two ABps This Reign begins with Rigour Halts Oration The Protestant Bishops deprived Registr Eccl. Cant. The hard Usage of the inferior Clergy * Mr. Rich. Wilks ‖ Dr. Parker †Mr. Bradford Bullingham and May. ‖ A great Number * Dr. Ponet Taylâ—r Parker Preface to the Defence of Priests Marriage * Mr. Aylmer Harbour for Faithful Subjects Professors cast into the Marshalsea Winchester's Alms. Pet. Martyr writes of this to Calvin P. Martyr's Epist. The State of the Church now P. Martyr Amico cuidam The Queen leaves all Matters to Winchester I. Rogers The Queen crowned The Service still said The Queen's Proclamation of her Religion Signs of a Change of Religion The ABp adviseth to flight No. LXXII Cranmer will not flee Whither the Prosessors fly And who ‖ Chiliades Pref. to Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament in Latin Duke of Northumberland put to death His Speech No. LXXIII Sir Iohn Gates his Speech And Palmer's The Duke's labours to get hiâ— Life Wardword p. 43. Whether he was always â— Papist P. Martyr departs Vit. P. Mart. per Simler Malice towards him A Scandal of the Queen Titus B. 2. A Parliament Hales Oration The Parliament repeal Q. Katherine's Divorce and Cranmer taxed for it Hist. Reform Vol. 2. p. 254. The ABp attainted of Treason The Dean of Canterbury acts in the Vacancy Ex Reg. Eccl. Cant. The ABp sues for Pardon of Treason No. LXXIV Obtains it He desires to open his Mind to the Queen concerning Religion A Convocation How it opened The ABp and three more crowded together in the Tower The Queen sends to Pole The Contents of her Letters Concerning theSupremacy Concerning the new Bishops Pole's Advice to the Queen