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A61861 Memorials of the Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury wherein the history of the Church, and the reformation of it, during the primacy of the said archbishop, are greatly illustrated : and many singular matters relating thereunto : now first published in three books : collected chiefly from records, registers, authentick letters, and other original manuscripts / by John Strype ... Strype, John, 1643-1737. 1694 (1694) Wing S6024; ESTC R17780 820,958 784

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by any Doctor above a thousand Years after Christ that Christ's Body is in the Sacrament of the Altar really he would give over So that his Library was the Storehouse of Ecclesiastical Writers of all Ages And which was open for the use of Learned Men. Here old Latimer spent many an Hour and found some Books so remarkable that once he thought fit to mention one in a Sermon before the King And when Ascham of Cambridg a great Student of Politer Learning and of Greek Authors wanted Gregory Nyssen in Greek not the Latin Translation of him and which it seems the University could not afford he earnestly entreated Poynet his Grace's Chaplain to borrow it in his Name and for his use for some Months of the Arch-bishop For in those Times it was rare to meet with those Greek Fathers in their own Language and not spoiled by some ill Latin Translation Another of his Books I will mention because it is now in the possession of a Reverend Friend of mine near Canterbury in which Book the Arch-bishop's Name is yet to be seen written thus with his own Hand Thomas Cantuariensis and a remarkable Book it is which we may conclude the Arch-bishop often perused viz. Epistolae Historiae Joannis Hus. Printed at Wittemberg 1537. And this Learning happening in a Mind possessed with Piety made him the more deeply sensible of the greatness of the Charge that lay upon him And as he well knew under what Needs the Church laboured so he was very solicitous that nothing might be wanting on his part shewing himself a most conscientious Bishop and tender Pastor of Christ's Flock He was not guided in his Episcopal Function by vain Glory or Affectation of popular Applause or worldly Ambition or Covetousness but only by the Holy and Pious Ends of discharging his Duty and promoting the Honour of Christ and the Knowledg of his Gospel and the Good of his People as he took God to witness in the Preface of his Book of the Sacrament A Paragraph whereof I think not unworthy to be here inserted whereby it may appear of what a truly Apostolical Spirit our Arch-bishop was When I see said he Christ's Vinyard overgrown with Thorns Brambles and Weeds I know that everlasting Woe appertaineth to me if I hold my Peace and put not to my Hand and Tongue to labour in purging his Vinyard God I take to witness who seeth the Hearts of all Men thorowly unto the bottom that I take this Labour for none other Consideration but for the Glory of his Name and the Discharge of my Duty and the Zeal I have toward the Flock of Christ. I know in what Office God hath placed me and to what Purpose That is to say to set forth his Word truly unto his People to the uttermost of my Power without respect of Persons or regard of Things in the World but of him alone I know what Account I shall make to him hereof at the last Day when every Man shall answer for his Vocation and receive for the fame Good or Evil according as he hath done I know how Antichrist hath obscured the Glory of God and the true Knowledg of his Word overcasting the same with Mists and Clouds of Error and Ignorance thrô false Glosses and Interpretations It pitieth me to see the simple and hungry Flock of Christ led into corrupt Pastures to be carried blindfold they know not whither and to be fed with Poison instead of wholsome Meats And moved by the Duty Office and Place whereunto it hath pleased God to call me I give warning in his Name unto all that profess Christ that they flee far from Babylon if they will save their Souls and to beware of that great Harlot that is to say the pestiferous See of Rome that she make you not drunk with her pleasant Wine c. And as he had this Care of the whole Church of this Land as the high Patriarch thereof so he particularly had his Eye upon his own Diocess He took Care even in King Henry's ticklish Reign to place such Ministers in Kent as were Learned and dared to open their Mouths to preach Gospel-Doctrin and to convince the People of the Usurpations of the Bishop of Rome and of the Idolatry and Superstitions wherein they had been so long nursled up And for the preventing whereof for Time to come he ordered his Arch-deacon and other his Officers to take down Images out of Churches and deface them Which things created him much hatred among the Popish Clergy whose Gain depended so much therein He had a peculiar regard of the greater Towns of his Diocess that such Places might be furnished with able Men where the Inhabitants were numerous and the Salaries generally small Whereby he saw it came to pass that where there was most need of Learned Men there the most Ignorant were placed Therefore he thought this worthy his redressing I meet with this Memorandum in one of his Note-books These Towns following are especially to be remembred that in them there be placed Learned Men with sufficient Stipends Sandwich Dover Folkston Ashford Tenderden Crambroke Faversham Hearn Whitstable Marden Maydston Wye and Wingham In these great Towns as well as Canterbury he often preached himself And for his Sermons at Sandwich he was once complained of openly in the Parliament-house to have brought him under the Lash of the Statute of the Six Articles And within seven or eight Years after his first entrance into the See he had placed such store of good Preachers about Kent that at another time a long List of Articles were drawn up against them and given in to the Justices of the County at a quarter-Quarter-Sessions of the Peace and they by a Combination preferred the Complaint to the King and Council His high Estate puffed him not up nor made him forget the great Work of his Calling which he very earnestly desired to prosecute above all things in the World Nor did he care at all for the high Titles that were attributed to him as he was Arch-bishop of Canterbury as may appear by this Passage Upon occasion of a Question arising concerning his Stile of Primate of all England for bearing which in his Summons for a Provincial Visitation the Bishop of Winchester out of Malice had complained to King Henry against him as though it were an Encroachment upon the King's Supremacy he protested to Crumwel then Secretary who had sent him word of it That as God should be merciful to him in the Day of Judgment he set not more by any Title or Stile than he did by the paring of an Apple further than it should be to the setting forth God's Word and Will His Expression was That they were the Successors of Diotrephes that affected glorious Titles Stiles and Pomps He professed He could have been willing that Bishops should lay aside their lofty Stiles and only write themselves by the Stile of their Offices The
It was Sir Thomas Cheyny who in the Year 1549 was one of those that met with Warwick in London and published a Proclamation against the Arch-bishop's Friend the Duke of Somerset as a Traitor Which might be an occasion that the Arch-bishop did not much affect Cheyny nor Cheyny the Arch-bishop Concerning this Difference between them which it seems was taken notice of at Court when his true Friend Cecyl had wrote to him advising a Reconciliation he gave this Christian and meek Answer from his House at Ford That there was no Man more loth to be in Contention with any Man than he was especially with him who was his near Neighbour dwelling both in one County and whose familiar and entire Friendship he most desired and that for the Quietness of the whole County Adding That the Examples of the Rulers and Heads would the People and Members follow His Peaceableness also appeared in his hearty Desires of the Publick Peace as well as Private When upon occasion of hearing of the Wars that were about the Year 1552 eagerly followed both in Christendom and out of it he used these words The Sophy and the Turk the Emperor and the French King not much better in Religion than they such it seems was his Censure of them by reason of the Cruelty and Persecution they exercised and the Disturbances they made in the World rolling the Stone or turning the Wheel of Fortune up and down I pray God send us Peace and Quietness with all Realms as well as among our selves But though he were of so quiet and mild a Spirit yet being a plain down-right Man he would never learn the Arts of Flattery and base Compliances with them that were uppermost Which had like to have created him much trouble from Northumberland to whom he carried not himself with that Deference and Pleasingness as he expected For Cranmer knew the bad Heart of this haughty Man and could not forget the ill Measure his Friend the Duke of Somerset had found at his Hands He did not care to make any Application to him nor to be an Instrument in forwarding any of his designing Business When he was to write up to some of the Court concerning Reiner Wolf I suppose for Licence to print the Articles of Religion Anno 1552 he desired to take Cecyl's Advice to whom he should write For I know not saith he to whom to write but my Lord of Northumberland to whom to make any Address he would fain have avoided if he could There was about the Year 1552 a Commission issued out for a strict Enquiry to be made after all such as had defrauded the King of any Goods or Treasure accruing to him by the suppression of Chauntries or that belonged to Churches Now this was done by Northumberland and his Creatures on purpose that it might light heavy upon Somerset's Friends who had been the chief Visitors in those Affairs and had many of them been supposed to have enriched themselves thereby Commissioners were appointed in each County In Kent the Commission was directed to the Arch-bishop and to several other Gentlemen and Justices of Peace The Arch-bishop perceiving well the Spite and Malice of this Commission acted very slowly in it Insomuch that Northumberland began to be highly angry with him Cecyl observing it and having ever a great Veneration for that good Man and fearing he might feel the Effects of his Fury writ to him signifying Northumberland's Displeasure and giving him Advice to take heed of him For which the Arch-bishop thanked him and prudently writ his Excusatory Letter to that Duke dated November ●0 signifying That the Cause of his Stay of the Commission was because he was alone and that the Gentlemen and Justices of Peace who were in Commission with him were then at London probably because of the Term before whose coming Home if he should proceed without them he might as he said travel in vain and take more Pains than he should do good And by such soft but honest words mollifying him for the Procrastination of that which he had no mind to meddle in But not long after he and Ridley Bishop of London with him fell under great Displeasure with this Duke and the rest of the great Men of his Party who in the latter end of King Edward's Reign governed all The Reason whereof was for opposing as much as they could though to no effect the Spoil of the Church-Goods which were taken away only by a Commandment of the Higher Powers without Request or Consent of them to whom they did belong as Ridley himself relates in his Treatise wherein he lamented the Change of Religion in England Which indeed was more than ever Henry VIII had done Add to the rest that our Bishop was of a bold and undaunted Courage in the Cause of God and his Church It was a brave and generous Act and worthy the chief Bishop of the English Church I mean that publick Challenge which he made to maintain the Common-Prayer Book and the other parts of the Reformation by the Scripture and Fathers in open Disputation against whomsoever if the Queen so pleased to permit it Which was done by him soon after the Queen's coming to the Throne And had he not been prevented by others who dispersed Copies of this Challenge without his knowledg it had been made very solemnly as he freely told the Queen's Council by fixing this his Declaration on the Doors of S. Pauls and other Churches with his Hand and Seal to it And his Courage herein appeared the greater because he was at this very Time under a Cloud and in great Danger having some time before now been convented before the Council and confined to Lambeth And whosoever shall consider that good Progress that by his Means was made in Religion not only in King Edward's Reign but even in that of King Henry under the Discouragements of antiently-rivited Superstition and Idolatry and withal shall ponder the haughty Nature of that Prince of so difficult Address and so addicted to the old Religion and how dangerous it was to dissent from him or to attempt to draw him off from his own Perswasions cannot but judg Cranmer to have been of a very bold Spirit to venture so far as he did And undoubtedly his Courage went an equal pace with his Wisdom and Discretion and was no whit inferior to his other excellent Qualifications And this I say the rather to vindicate the Memory of this most Reverend Prelat from an unworthy Reflection made upon him in a trisling Account of his Life Wherein he is charged to be Of too easy and flexible a Disposition which made him cowardly to comply with the Church of Rome And that though he never did any harm to the Protestants yet he did not unto them so much good as he might or ought For the confutation of which I appeal to numberless Passages which I have written of him But