CHAP. XXIV The Archbishop's care of the Revenues of the Church Bucer dies The Archbishop labours to preserve the Revenues of the Church The detaining the Church-Revenues a Scandal to the Reformation Calvin to the Archbishop upon this matter And to the Duke of Somerset Bucer publickly disputeth at Cambridge Dieth The University wrote up concerning his Death Bucer's Library His Widow retires to Germany The Correspondence between him and Martyr A Plot of the Papists at Oxon against Martyr at an Act. Martyr's Judgment of the Communion-Book Bucer's great dangers Poynet Consecrated and Hoper CHAP. XXV The Archbishop publisheth his Book against Gardiner Cranmer publisheth his Book of the Sacrament His first Book of that Subject Wrote against by Gardiner and Smith Vindicated in another Book by the Archbishop The Method of the Archbishop's Reply The Judgments made of this Book How the Archbishop came off from the Opinion of the Corporal Presence The Archbishop's great Skill in Controversy Peter Mâ—rtyr enlightned by Cranmer Fox's Conjecture of the Archbishop A second Book of Gardiner against the Archbishop The Archbishop begins a third Book Martyr takes up the Quarrel Cranmer puts out his Book of the Sacrament in Latin Printed again at Embden Cranmer's second Book intended to be â—ut into Latin Some Notes of Cranmer concerning the Sacrament Martyr succeeds Cranmer in this Province Writes against Gardiner And Smith CHAP. XXVI The Duke of Somerset 's Death The Duke of Somerset's Death Winchester suppos'd to be in the Plot. Articles against the Duke What he is blamed for The new Book of Common-Prayer established Coverdale made Bishop of Exon. Scory Bishop Elect of Rochester The Archbishop appoints a Guardian of the Spiritualties of Lincoln And of Wigorn And of Chichester And of Hereford And of Bâ—ngor Hoper visits his Diocess Two Disputations concerning the Sacrament Dr. Redman dies The Archbishop and others appointed to reform Ecclesiastical Laws The method they observed Scory Coverdale Consecrated CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion The Articles of Religion framed and published The Archbishop's diligence in them The Archbishop retires to Ford. CHAP. XXVIII Persons nominated for Irish Bishopricks Consulted with for fit Persons to fill the Irish Sees Some account of the four Divines nominated by him for the Archbishoprick of Armagh Mr. Whitehead Mr. Turner Thomas Rosse or Rose Robert Wisdom The Character the Archbishop gave of the two former Turner designed for Armagh But declines it Goodacre made Archbishop of Armagh Letters from the Council to Ireland recommending the Irish Bishops CHAP. XXIX The Archbishop charged with Covetousness A Rumour given out of the Archbishop's Covetousness and Wealth Which Cecyl sends him word of The Archbishop's Answer for himself and the other Bishops This very slander raised upon him to K. Henry K. Henry promised him Lands This Promise performed by K. Edward His Purchases The Archbishoprick fleeced by K. Henry Lands past away to the Crown by Exchange Lands made over to the Archbishop The Archbishop parted also with Knol and Otford to the King What moved him to make these Exchanges His Cares and Fears for the King CHAP. XXX His care for the Vacancies Falls sick His Care for filling the Vacancies of the Church Laboured under an Ague this Autumn The great Mortality of Agues about this time That which most concerned him in his Sickness The Secretary sends the Archbishop the Copy of the Emperor's Pacification CHAP. XXXI His Kindness for Germany His Kindness for Germany His Correspondence with Germany And with Herman Archbishop of Colâ—n The suitableness of both these Archbishops Dispositions Their diligence in Reforming CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal The Troubles of Bishop Tonstal The Causes of this Bishop's Punishment A Bill in Parliament to attaint Tonstal The Care of the Diocess committed to the Dean CHAP. XXXIII The New Common-Prayer The Archbishop in Kent The New Common-Prayer began to be used This Book put into French for the King's French Subjects The Age still vicious A new Sect in Kent The Archbishop's business in Kent A Letter for Installing Bishop Hoper The Vicar of Beden Sampson and Knox. The Council favour Knox. Iohn Taylor Consecrated CHAP. XXXIV A Catechism The Archbishop opposeth the Exclusion of the Lady Mary Great use made of the Archbishop at Council The Articles of Religion enjoined by the King's Authority The Catechism for Schools A Catechism set forth by the Synod The Archbishop opposeth the New Settlement of the Crown Denyeth before the Council to subscribe to the Exclusion of the Lady Mary Sets his hand The Archbishop ungratefully dealt with The Council subscribe and swear to the Limited Succession CHAP. XXXV The King dies The King dies His Character The Archbishop delights in this Prince's Proficiency K. Edward's Writings The King 's Memorial for Religion The Archbishop frequent at Council His Presence in the Council in the year 1550. In the year 1551. In the year 1552. And 1553. Iohn Harley Consecrated Bishop BOOK III. CHAP. I. Queen Mary soon recognized The Archbishop slandered and imprisoned THE Archbishops and Counsellors concern with the Lady Iane. They declare for Q. Mary And write to Northumberland to lay down his Arms. The Queen owned by the Ambassadors The Archbishop misreported to have said Mass. Mass at Canterbury Which he makes a Publick Declaration against The Declaration Appears before the Commissioners at Pâ—uls And before the Council The Archbishop of York committed to the Tower and his Goods seized At Battersea At Cawood Gardiner's passage of the two Archbishops CHAP. II. Protestant Bishops and Clergy cast into Prisons and deprived This Reign begins with Rigor The Protestant Bishops deprived The hard usage of the Inferior Clergy Professors cast into the Mâ—rshalsea Winchester's Alms. P. Martyr writes of this to Calvin The state of the Church now The Queen leaves all matters to Winchester The Queen Crowned The Service still said The Queen's Proclamation of her Religion Signs of a Change of Religion CHAP. III. The Archbishop adviseth Professors to fly The Archbishop adviseth to flight Cranmer will not fly Whither the Professors fly And who Duke of Northumberland put to Death His Speech Sir Iohn Gates his Speech And Palmer's The Duke lâ—bours to get his life Whether he was always a Papist CHAP. IV. Peter Martyr departs A Parliament P. Martyr departs Malice towards him A Scandal of the Queen A Parliament The Parliament repeal Q. Katherine's Divorce And Cranmer taxed for it CHAP. V. The Archbishop attainted The Archbishop attainted of Treason The Dean of Canterbury acts in the Vacancy The Archbishop sues for Pardon of Treason Obtains it He desires to open his mind to the Queen concerning Religion CHAP. VI. A Convocation A Convocation How it opened The Archbishop and three more crowded together in the Tower CHAP. VII The Queen sends to Cardinal Pole The Queen sends to Pole The Contents of her Letters Concerning the
order thereunto What they performed may be perceived by the Bible that goes under the Name of the Geneva Bible at this Day It was in those Days when it first came forth better esteemed of than of later Times At Frankford where they had great Countenance of the Magistrates of the City arose great Contentions and Quarrels among themselves about the Discipline of the Church and in framing a New Service different from what was before set forth in K. Edward's Reign to be used in the publick Congregation which new Service came nearer to the Form of the Church of Geneva This occasioned great Troubles Animosities and Separations to the discredit of themselves and the Reformation These Matters may be seen at large in the Troubles at Frankford There is one thing which that Book making I think no mention of I will here relate Some of the English upon this Dissension carried their Children to be baptized by Lutheran Priests for tho the Lutherans were against the poor Exiles they thought so well of them as to be willing their Children should be initiated into the Church by their Ministry The Occasion whereof seemed to be that in the Divisions of this Church one Party would not let their Children be baptized by the English Minister This causing a new Disturbance some wrote to the great Divine P. Martyr now at Argentine for his Resolution of this Question An liceat hominibus Evangelicis Baptismum a Lutheranis accipere To this he answered in a Letter to the Church disapproving of their doings Telling them That the way to heal their Differences was to bring their Children to be baptized in such Churches with which they agreed in Faith and Doctrine So that this created a new Quarrel among them for some held it unlawful to receive Baptism from those that were not Orthodox in their Doctrine and others again thought it lawful And this made them send to Martyr for his Judgment as aforesaid Who wrote That he would not say it was unlawful for that it could not be judged by the Word of God but he disliked the Practice and propounded divers Arguments against it Those that were for it said It was an indifferent thing To which Martyr made this reply That indifferent things were not to be used to the Scandal of the Weak They said The Difference was not so great between us in the matter of the Sacrament But Martyr said It was of great Moment because in it there was a Contest concerning the chief Head of Religion They added that the Lutheran Divines did think in the Matter of Baptism as they did But Martyr answered That they were mistaken for those Divines affirmed more of the Sacrament than is fit and tied the Grace of God to Baptism and that they thought there was no Salvation without Baptism and that they affirmed that Infants had Faith To the Exiles residing here at Frankford some in the Year 1555 conveyed Gardiner's Book against Cranmer intitled Marcus Antonius with Ridley's Answer to the Objections of that Book and a Treatise in English of Transubstantiation wrote by the same Ridley This last they intended to turn into Latine and so to print both But on second Thoughts they demurred upon it fearing it might enrage Gardiner the more against Ridley who was yet alive Whereupon Grindal wrote to him to know his Mind therein before they proceeded to Print Many of the Fugitives took up their Residence at Basil upon two Reasons one was because the People of that City were especially very kind and courteous unto such English as came thither for Shelter the other because those that were of slenderer Fortunes might have Imployment in the Printing-houses there the Printers in Basil in this Age having the Reputation of exceeding all others of that Art throughout Germany for the Exactness and Elegancy of their Printing And they rather chose English Men for the Overseers and Correctors of their Presses being noted for the most careful and diligent of all others Whereby many poor Scholars made a shift to subsist in these hard Times Indeed many of these Exiles assisted in promoting of Learning and Religion by publishing to the World their own or other Mens Writings Iohn Scory that had been Bishop of Chichester wrote a very comfortable Epistle unto all the Faithful that were in Prison or in any other Trouble for the Defence of God's Truth Printed in the Year 1555. He was Preacher to the English Congregation at Embden and stiled their Superintendent From hence this and many other good Books were sent into England by certain Persons to be dispersed about in London and other Places There was one Elizabeth Young that came thence with a Book called Antichrist and several others Who was taken up for bringing in Prohibited and Heretical Books and endured much Trouble There was also another named Thomas Bryce that brought Books from Wesel into Kent and London he was watched and dogged but escaped several Times Sir Iohn Baker a Kentish Man and a great Papist and a Courtier laid his Spies to attack him Iohn Old printed a Book at Waterford 1555 intitled The Acquittal or Purgation of the most Catholick Christen Prince Edward VI. against all such as blasphemously and traiterously infamed him or the Church in his Reign of Heresy or Sedition The writing of this Book was occasioned from the Preachers of England in Q. Mary's Time in their Sermons at S. Paul's Cross and in other Pulpits spewing out as the Book expresseth it with Scolding Roaring and Railing the Poison of Antichrist's Traditions and infaming the Order Form and Vse of Preaching Prayers and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set forth and exercised by common Authority in the Church of England reformed under the Government of Edward VI. and vilely slandering of his Father K. Henry VIII for banishing the violent usurped Power and Supremacy of the Romish antient Antichrist for his Brother 's known Wife and for taking justly upon him the Title and Estate of Supremacy incident and appertaining by the undoubted Ordinance of God to his Regal Office and Imperial Crown Thomas Sampson formerly Dean of Chichester wrote an Epistle to the Inhabitants of Alhallows-Breadstreet where in K. Edward's Time he had been Incumbent William Turner Doctor of Physick and that had been Physician in the Duke of Somerset's Family and after Dean of Wells another Exile put forth a Book Anno 1555. called A new Book of Spiritual Physick for divers Diseases of the Nobility and Gentlemen of England Dedicating it to divers of the chief Nobility It consisted of three Parts In the first he shewed who were Noble and Gentlemen and how many Works and Properties belong unto such and wherein their Office chiefly standeth In the second Part he shewed great Diseases were in the Nobility and Gentry which letted them from doing their Office In the third Part he specified what the Diseases were as namely the whole Palsy the Dropsy
Chair tho with as much Reluctancy in You as was in Him Of Your GRACE'S Endowments to qualify You for this most Eminent Station I will be wholly silent knowing how abhorrent Your Generous Nature is from Reading or Hearing Your Own Commendations Nor MY LORD is this my End in this my Dedication But this it is That You would so far Encourage these my Weak and Imperfect Labours done out of a Good Intent as to cast a Favourable Eye upon them for the sake of Your Glorious Predecessor the Subject of this Book and to repute me among the Number May it please Your GRACE Of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servants JOHN STRYPE THE PREFACE I Think it fit by way of Preface to these Memorials to admonish the Reader of a few things preparatory to the Perusal thereof As What it was put me at first upon making these Collections concerning Archbishop Cranmer and the State of the Church in his time What induced me to make them Publick And What Credit may be given to them with some other occasional matters I. As to the first I have been for a long time not a little addicted to read whatsoever I could of the Reformation of this famous Church that I might truly understand for what Reasons it was at first attempted in what Methods it proceeded by what Men it was chiefly managed and carried on and how it stood in truth as to its Doctrine Discipline and Government Reputation Learning Piety and such like in its first Establishment and the Earlier Times of it For which purpose I did not only read over what we have in Print of these Matters but for more satisfaction I was carried on to look into MSS. whether Registers Records Letters Instruments and such like A great sort of which by Providence fell into my hands And besides them I have turned over many more in Libraries and elsewhere from whence I made Transcriptions Extracts and Collections for my own use and satisfaction which swelled to no little bulk And while I was doing this I took always a more curious View into the Lives Manners and Doings Learning Virtues and Abilities of the chief leading men whether Archbishops and Bishops or other Church-men of whom we have but little Account extant tho many of them very Great and Good men little more remaining of some of them than their Names The Reverence I bore in my mind to Archbishop Cranmer the Father of the Reformation here in England and the first of that Ancient Metropolitan See that so bravely shook off the Pope and his Appendages inclined me especially to gather up what Notices I could of him Afterwards as my leisure served me out of my indigested Mass of Notes I compiled into some order Memorials of him and of the Affairs of the Church during his Primacy in which he for the most part was concerned and bore a great share with K. Henry and the Lord Cromwel his Vicegerent in Spirituals After some Years these Memorials lying by me I enlarged considerably and digested them into Annals and had thoughts of making them Publick being excited and encouraged thereunto by my Friends who were privy to these my Doings II. And indeed many Considerations induced me hereunto As in general the great Benefit of reading Histories of former Times which what that is take in the Words of Iohn Fox For the things which be first are to be preferred before those which be later And then is the reading of Histories much necessary in the Church to know what went before and what followed after And therefore not without cause History in old Authors is called The Witness of Times the Light of Verity the Life of Memory the Teacher of Life and Shewer of Antiquity Without the knowledge whereof man's Life is blind and soon may fall into any kind of Error as by manifest experience we have to see in these desolate later Times of the Church whenas the Bishops of Rome under colour of Antiquity have turned Truth into Heresy and brought in such new-found Devices of strange Doctrine and Religion as in the former Ages of the Church were never heard of And all through Ignorance of Times and for lack of True History And therefore the Use of History being so considerable Historians in some Kingdoms have been maintained by Publick Encouragement And so the Writer of the Epistle to K. Edward before Erasmus's Paraphrase Englished propounded once to that King That there should be a Publick Salary allotted to some able Persons to Translate good Books and to Write Chronicles for bestowing so great a Benefit on the Commonwealth But particularly the History of the Church and matters relating to Religion have a more special benefit as being conversant about Spiritual things which are weightier by far and concern us more a great deal than Temporal But the more is the pity in this sort of History there is a greater Defect than in the other I speak of our own Nation for tho the History of the State in the last Age was excellently done by the Pens of the Lord Herbert and Mr. Cambden yet the Matters of the Church they professedly declined or did but touch at the former saying expresly His intention was not in an History to discuss Theological Matters as holding it sufficient to have pointed at the places where they are controverted And the latter in his History as often as he came to matters of the Church tells us That he left his Readers to the Ecclesiastical Historian Which hath made me wonder at and apt to accuse the Slothfulness of that Age that during all the time of K. Henry K. Edward and Q. Mary wherein Religion was so tossed about and took up so much of those Reigns there is no one Ecclesiastical History thereof written except that of the diligent and learned Mr. Fox and during the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames I think none at all Till of late years when by length of time and destruction of many Original MSS. by the Civil Wars divers remarkable Transactions were buried and lost some few Learned Men employed themselves in Collecting and Publishing what Memorials of Religion and the Church they could retrieve as namely Dr. Fuller Dr. Heylin and especially Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum to whom the English Church must be ever beholden for his great and happy Pains contributed hereunto But yet there be good Gleanings after these Writers and many things of remark there are relating to the Church in those Three busie Reigns of Henry Edward and Mary whereof these Historians are either wholly silent or speak imperfectly or erroneously Some whereof in my Searches I have met with which I have disposed in these Memorials But besides the General Benefit of History especially Ecclesiastical this Particular History now recommended unto the English Nation may produce this good effect To make us value and esteem as we ought our Reformed Religion when we see by
of two Houses of Religious Persons namely that of Christ's-Church Canterbury and that of Rochester Towards the latter end of this Year several new Bishopricks were founded out of old Monasteries and several Deaneries and Colleges of Prebends out of divers Priories belonging to Cathedral Churches Herein as Crumwel so Cranmer had a great Hand Who laboured with the King that in these New Foundations there should be Readers of Divinity Greek and Hebrew and Students trained up in Religion and Learning From whence as a Nursery the Bishops should supply their Diocesses with honest and able Ministers And so every Bishop should have a College of Clergy-men under his Eye to be preferred according to their Merits For it was our Arch-bishops regret that the Prebendaries were bestowed as they were This Complaint Bishop Burnet tells us he saw in a long Letter of Cranmer's own hand Bishops Confirmed In Arch-bishops Cranmer's Register I find these Bishops Confirmed their Consecrations being omitted August the 11 th Iohn Bell LL. D. brought up in Baliol College and Arch-deacon of Glocester was Confirmed Bishop of Worcester upon the Resignation of Bishop Latimer in the Chappel of Lambeth He is stiled in the Register the King's Chaplain and Councellor November the Iohn Skyp D. D. Arch-deacon of Dorset and once Chaplain to Queen Ann Boleâ— was Confirmed Bishop of Hereford The King's Letter to the Archbishop to consecrate him bears date November 8. CHAP. XX. The Arch-bishop in Commission THE next Year viz. 1540. The Arch-bishop lost his great Friend and Assistant in carrying on the Reformation I mean the Lord Crumwel And when he was by Popish Craft and Malice taken off their next Work was to sacrifice Cranmer And many were the Accusations that were put up against him and Trial was made many ways to bring him to his Death or at least to bring him in disgrace with the King And first they thought to compass their Ends against him by occasion of a Commission now issued out from the King to a select Number of Bishops whereof the Arch-bishop was one which Commission was confirmed by Act of Parliament for inspecting into Matters of Religion and explaining some of the chief Doctrines of it These Commissioners had drawn up a set of Articles favouring the old Popish Superstitions And meeting together at Lambeth they produced them and vehemently urged that they should be established and that the Arch-bishop would yield to the Allowance of them especially seeing there was a signification that it was the King's Will and Pleasure that the Articles should run in that Tenour But they could not win the Arch-bishop neither by Fear nor Flattery No though the Lord Crumwel at this very time lay in the Tower There was not one Commissioner now on his part but all shrank away and complied with the Time and even those he most trusted to viz. Bishop Hethe of Rochester and Bishop Skip of Hereford The Arch-bishop as he disliked the Book already drawn up by them so he presented another Book wherein were divers Amendments of theirs After much arguing and disputing nor could the Arch-bishop be brought off Hethe and Skip with a Friend or two more walked down with him into his Garden at Lambeth and there used all the Perswasion they could urging to him that the King was resolved to have iâ— so and the Danger therefore of opposing it But he honestly persisted in his constancy telling them That there was but one Truth in the Articles to be concluded upon which if they hid from his Majesty by consenting unto a contrary Doctrine his Highness would in process of Time perceive the Truth and see how colorably they had delt with him And he knew he said his Grace's Nature so well that he would never after credit and trust them And they being both his Friends he bad them beware in time and discharge their Consciences in maintenance of the Truth But though nothing of all this could stir them yet what he said sufficiently confirmed the Arch-bishop to persist in his Resolution The Arch-bishop standing thus alone went himself to the King and so wrought with him that his Majesty joined with him against all the rest of them and the Book of Articles past on his side When indeed this stifness of Canterbury was the very thing his Enemies desired thinking that for this Opposition the King would certainly have thrown him into the Tower and many Wagers were laid in London about it So that this ended in two good Issues that the Arch-bishop's Enemies were clothed with Shame and Disappointment and a very good Book chiefly of the Arch-bishop's composing came forth for the Instruction of the People known by the Name of A necessary Erudition of any Christian Man A particular Account whereof may be read in the History of the Reformation This vexed Winchester to the Heart that his Plot took no better Effect but he put it up till he should find other Opportunities to attack him which after happened as we shall see in the sequel of this Story But this Matter deserves to be a little more particularly treated of The King had as was said before appointed several of the Eminent Divines of his Realm to deliberate about sundry Points of Religion then in Controversy and to give in their Sentences distinctly And that in regard of the Germans who the last Year had sent over in Writing the Judgment of their Divines respecting some Articles of Religion and had offered his Majesty to appoint some of their Divines to meet some others of the King 's in any Place he should assign or to come over into England to confeâ— together And also in regard of a more exact review of the Institution of a Christian Man put forth about two or three Years before and now intended to be published again as a more perfect Piece of Religious Instruction for the People The King therefore being minded thorowly to sift divers Points of Religion then started and much controverted commanded a particular number of Bishops and other his Learned Chaplains and Dignitaries to compare the Rites and Ceremonies and Tenets of the present Church by the Scriptures and by the most Ancient Writers and to see how far the Scripture or good Antiquity did allow of the same And this I suppose he did by the instigation of Arch-bishop Cranmer The Names of the Commissioners were these Cranmer ABp of Canterbury Lee ABp of York Boner Bishop of London Tunstal Bishop of Durham Barlow Bishop of S. David's Aldrich Bishop of Carlisle Skyp Bishop of Hereford Hethe Bishop of Rochester Thirleby Bishop Elect of Westminster Doctors Cox Robinson Day Oglethorp Redman Edgeworth Symonds Tresham Leyghton Curwen Crayford Where we may wonder not to see the Name of the Bishop of Winton But if we consider the Reason the King gave why he left him out of the Number of his Executors viz. because as he told several
of the Second omitted according to the use in those Times But that Commandment is explained under the first The Substance of this Book is grave serious and sound Doctrine It is said in the Title Page to be overseen and corrected by the Arch-bishop Indeed it was a Catechism wrote originally in the German Language for the use of the younger Sort in Norinberg Translated into Latin by Iustus Ionas Junior who now was entertained by the Arch-bishop in his Family and thence turned into our Vulgar Tongue by the said Arch-bishop or his special Order But 't is certain so great a Hand he had therein that in the Arch-bishop's first Book of the Sacrament he said that it was translated by himself and set forth Bishop Gardiner in his Book against the Arch-bishop takes advantage of two things in this Catechism against him as though he himself when he put it forth was of the Opinion of the Corporal Presence The one was a Picture that stood before the Book where was an Altar with Candles lighted and the Priest apparelled after the old Sort putting the Wafer into the Communicant's Mouth The other is an Expression or two used somewhere in the Book That with our bodily Mouths we receive the Body and Blood of Christ And that in the Sacrament we receive truly the Body and Blood of Christ. And this we must believe if we will be counted Christen Men. But to both Cranmer in his next Book against Gardiner made answer That as for the Picture it was that was set before the Dutch Edition of the Book and so none of his doing but that he afterwards caused the Popish Picture to be altered into a Picture representing Christ eating his last Supper with his Disciples As for the Expressions he said he taught that we in the Sacrament do receive the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually and that the words Really and Substantially were not used but Truly And in his Answer to Dr. Richard Smith's Preface wrote against the said Arch-bishop who it seems had twitted him also with this Catechism he spake largely of these his Expressions in his own Vindication There was another Book of the Arch-bishop's against Vnwritten Verities which I do by Conjecture place here as put forth under this Year or near this Time Which I suppose Dr. Smith nibbled at in his Book of Traditions which this Year he recanted The Book was in Latin and consisted only of Allegations out of the Bible and Ancient Writers In Queen Mary's Days the Book was again published by an English Exile naming himself E. P. The Title it now bore was A Confutation of Vnwritten Verities by divers Authorities diligently and truly gathered out of the Holy Scripture and Ancient Fathers By Tho. Cranmer late Arch-bishop and burned at Oxford for the Defence of the true Doctrine of our Saviour Translated and set forth by E. P. Before it is a Preface of the Translator to his Country-men and Brethren in England In it he lamented the woful State of Things in England by the Restoring of Popery and the Persecution of Protestants there and shewed what a kind of Man the chief Bishop then in England viz. Cardinal Pool was who in the last King's Reign went from Prince to Prince to excite them to make War against his own Prince and Country This Treatise is but a bare Collection of places of Holy Scripture and Ancient Fathers to prove That the Canon of the Bible is a true and sound and perfect Doctrine containing all Things necessary to Salvation That neither the Writing of the Old Fathers without the Word of God nor General Councils nor the Oracles of Angels nor Apparitions from the Dead nor Customs can be sufficient in Religion to establish Doctrine or maintain new Articles of Faith Then Reasons are given against Unwritten Verities and the places of Holy Scripture and other Writers which the Papists bring to maintain Unwritten Verities are answered At last the Objections of the Papists are confuted in a concluding Chapter Which last part was not writ by the Arch-bishop but by the Translator For relating here the Story of the Holy Maid of Kent he saith she was examined by Tho. Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury And at last he saith I have plainly and fully answered to all that I remember the Papists do or can allege by Writing Preaching or Reasoning for the Defence of their Unwritten Verities on which they build so many detestable Idolatries and Heresies But yet if any be able to answer so plainly and truly to the Scriptures Authorities and Reasons rehearsed by me as I have done to theirs and to prove their Doctrines by as plain Testimonies and Reasons as I have done mine I shall not only acknowledg my Ignorance and Error but I shall gladly return into England recant my Heresies c. Hence it is plain that the Conclusion of the Book as well as the Preface was writ by the Translator I will add one Passage taken out of this Book about the middle whereby it may be seen what a Clergy was now in England Having quoted the Canons of the Apostles Let not a Bishop or Deacon put away his Wife c. He makes a heavy complaint against the frequent practice of beastly Sins in the Priests Adultery Sodomy c. and that they never were punished And in my Memory as he proceeds which is above thirty Years and also by the Information of others that be twenty Years elder than I I could never learn that one Priest was punished This is some Account of the Care he took for the Church in general as Metropolitan But he had a particular Care of his own Diocess now his Power was not checked as it was in the former Reign especially of the City of Canterbury which had been formerly the backwardest in Religion of any other Place of his Diocess He supplied this City with store of excellent Learned Preachers Turner the two Ridleys Becon Besely and Iohn Ioseph who this Year went along with the King's Visitors as one of their Preachers These converted not a few to sincere Religion as may appear by those Numbers of Canterbury that in Queen Mary's Reign suffered the Torment of Fire for their Profession of the Gospel But in that Reign all the Preachers fled so that there was scarce one remaining in the City Which was looked upon as a particular Sign of God's Displeasure against that Place because the Professors there and others reformed not themselves according to those Opportunities of Grace which God had put into their Hands And so I find in a Letter to them wrote by some eminent Person in Prison in Queen Mary's Reign Alas how few faithful Servants hath the Lord of Life in these troublesome Days within Canterbury to whom above all other People in comparison of multitude he hath sent most plenteously his Word in the Mouths of most excellent Preachers But even as the People were Negligent Hard-hearted nothing willing
them obliquely therewith And in fine he wrote that He and those with him knew more than they did to whom they writ Probably he meant that he knew that this Anger against the Duke arose from the private Malice of some of them or their Hatred of the Reformation notwithstanding all the fair Pretences of their Care of the King and the Protector 's Misgovernment This Letter the Lords from Ely-house answered Charging and commanding the Arch-bishop and those with him to have a continual earnest watch of the King's Person and that he be not removed from Windsor-Castle as they would answer the same at their utmost Perils They wondred much they said that they would suffer the King's Royal Person to remain in the Guard of the Duke's Men and that Strangers should be Armed with the King's Armour and be nearest about his Person For it seems many of the King's Servants in this Fear were removed away They advised the Arch-bishop and the Lord Paget to come over to their Side and to leave the poor Duke alone Upon this the Arch-bishop and the others wrote a second Letter dated October the 10 th Wherein they assured the Lords that they could whensoever they pleased to require it give such very good Reasons for their so often mentioning Cruelty in their other Letter as they questioned not they would be well satisfied with And so upon the Lord 's propounding a Meeting with the King and them they accorded thereunto in great prudence willing for Peace and Quietness in that dangerous Time so to do These Letters are recorded in the History of the Reformation The Common-Prayer-Book and Administration of the Sacraments by the great care and study of the Arch-bishop was now finished and settled by Act of Parliament which would not down with a great many But upon the taking up of the Duke of Somerset in the Month of October and laying him in the Tower it was generally said that now the old Latin-Service should come in again the common Opinion being that the Common-Prayer was peculiarly of his procuring And that there were such Designs among Somerset's Enemies who were generally favourers of the old Religion it is not improbable The good Arch-bishop thought it now time to interpose in this thing and to obtain from the Privy-Council somewhat to confirm the Book of Common-Prayer So there was in Decemb. 25. a general Letter drawn up to all the Bishops of England Letting them understand That there was no intention of bringing in again Latin-Service conjured Bread and Water nor any such abrogated Ceremonies And that the abolishing of these and the setting forth of the Book of Common-Prayer was done by the whole State of the Realm That the Book was grounded upon the Holy Scripture and was agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the edifying of the Subject And therefore that the changing of that for the old Latin-Service would be a preferring of Ignorance to Knowledg Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again The Bishops therefore were bid with all speed to command their Deans and Prebendaries and all Parsons Vicars and Curates to bring to such Places as the Bishops should appoint all Antiphoners Missals c. and all other Books of Service and that they be defaced and abolished that they be no let to that Godly and uniform Order set forth And to commit to Ward any stubborn and disobedient Persons that brought not the said Books and to certify the Council of their Misbehaviour That they should make search if any of these Superstitious Books were withdrawn or hid That whereas there were some Persons who refused to contribute to the buying of Bread and Wine for the Communion according to the Order of the Book whereby many-times the Holy Communion was fain to be omitted to convent such Persons before them and admonish them and if they refused to do accordingly to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censure This was signed by the Arch-bishop and the Lord Chancellor Rich and four more CHAP. XIII The Arch-bishop entertains learned Foreigners THE Arch-bishop had now in his Family several Learned Men. Some he sent for from beyond Sea and some in pity he entertained being Exiles for Religion Among the former sort was Martin Bucer a Man of great Learning and Moderation and who bore a great part in the Reformation of Germany While he and the rest abode under his Roof the Arch-bishop still employed them sometimes in learned Conferences and Consultations held with them sometimes in writing their Judgment upon some Subjects in Divinity Here Bucer wrote to the Lady Elizabeth a Letter bearing Date the 6 th of the Calends of September commending her Study in Piety and Learning and exciting her to proceed therein incited so to do I make no doubt by the Arch-bishop whom Bucer in that Letter makes mention of and stileth Patrem suum benignissimum hospitem Hence also he wrote another Letter to the Marquess of Northampton who was a Patron of Learning and a Professor of Religion in the behalf of Sleidan who was promised a Pension by the King to enable him to write the History of the Progress of Religion beginning at Luther A part of the Letter translated into English ran thus Therefore if we should not take care that this so great Act of Divine Goodness towards us viz. the Reformation began in the Year 1517 should be most diligently written and consecrated to Posterity we should lie under the Crime of the neglect of God's Glory and most foul Ingratitude Therefore Iohn Sleidan a very Learned and Eloquent Man five Years ago began to compile an History of this Nature as the Work he had published did witness But after he was much encouraged in this Undertaking and well furnished with Matter the Calamities that befel Germany for our own Deserts intercepted the pious Attempts of this Man so very useful to the Church Nor doth it appear now from whence besides the King's Majesty we may hope that some small Benignity may be obtained for Sleidan since the Salaries which he received for this purpose from the German Princes failed and he was poor That Iohn Alasco Dr. Peter Martyr and he considering these things and weighing how the truly Christian King Edward was even born with a desire of illustrating the Glory of Christ and what need there was to set Sleidan again upon finishing the History of the Gospel restored to us they had therefore presumed to supplicate the King in his behalf and intreated the Marquess to promote and forward their Supplication and to vouchsafe to contribute his Help also We shall hear more of this hereafter I find also Annotations writ by the said Bucer upon S. Matthew reaching as far as the eighth Chapter and there ending in this method There is the Latin Translation with large Notes added in the Margin and at the end of each Chapter common
this Heir made amends for the Nation 's so long expectation of a Prince His singular Excellency in all kind of Princely Towardliness to use the words of one who lived in those Times was such that no Place no Time no Cause no Book no Person either in publick Audience or else in private Company made any mention of him but thought himself even of very Conscience bound to powdre the same with manifold Praises of his incomparable Vertues and Gifts of Grace And again How happy are we English-Men of such a King in whose Childhood appeareth as perfect Grace Vertue godly Zeal desire of Literature Gravity Prudence Justice and Magnanimity as hath heretofore been found in Kings of most mature Age of full Discretion of antient Fame and of passing high Estimation And again That God hath of singular Favour and Mercy towards this Realm of England sent your Grace to reign over us the thing it self by the whole Process doth declare The Arch-bishop his Godfather took exceeding complacency in a Prince of such Hopes and would often congratulate Sir Iohn Cheke his School-master having such a Scholar even with Tears His Instructors would sometimes give Account to the Arch-bishop of his Proficiency in his Studies a thing that they knew would be acceptable to him Thus did Dr. Cox his Tutor in a Letter acquaint the ABp of the Prince's Towardliness Godliness Gentleness and all honest Qualities and that both the Arch-bishop and all the Realm ought to take him for a singular Gift sent of God That he read Cato Vives his Satellitium Esop's Fables and made Latin besides things of the Bible and that he conned pleasantly and perfectly The Arch-bishop out of his dear Love to him and to encourage him would sometimes himself write in Latin to him And one of his Letters to him is yet extant in Fox His great Parts might be seen by his Letters Journals Memorials Discourses and Writings which were many divers lost but of those that are yet extant these are the most A Letter to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury his God-father from Ampthil in Latin being then but about seven Years old Another in Latin to the Arch-bishop from Hartford which was an Answer to one from the Arch-bishop A Letter in French to his Sister the Lady Elizabeth writ Decemb. 18 1546. A Letter to his Unkle the Duke of Somerset after his Success against the Scots 1547. To Q. Katharine Par after her Marriage with the Lord Admiral his Unkle Another Letter to her A Letter to the Earl of Hartford his Cousin in Latin A Letter to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick concerning the Duke of Somerset's Arraignment Another to B. Fitz-Patrick consisting of Instructions to him when he went into France Another to Fitz-Patrick giving him an Account of his Progress in August 1552. Orders concerning the Habits and Apparel of his Subjects according to their Degrees and Qualities Mention is also made in the History of the Reformation of Letters in Latin to K. Henry his Father at eight Years old and to Queen Katharine Par. His Journal writ all with his own Hand from the beginning of his Reign 1547 until the 28 th of Novemb. 1552. A Collection of Passages of Scripture against Idolatry in French Dedicated to the Protector A Discourse about the Reformation of many Abuses both Ecclesiastical and Temporal A Reformation of the Order of the Garter Translated out of English into Latin by K. Edward These four last are published in the History of the Reformation Volume II. among the Collections A Book written in French by him at twelve Years of Age against the Pope intitled A L'encontre les abus du Monde A Memorial February 1551. Another Memorial dated Octob. 13. 1552. Another Memorial His Prayer a little before his Death I shall reherse none of these Writings but only one of the Memorials because it bordereth so near upon our present History and shews so much this Young Prince's Care of Religion and for the good Estate of the Church animated admonished counselled and directed in these Matters by the Arch-bishop For Religion Octob. 13. 1552. I. A Catechism to be set forth for to be taught in all Grammar-Schools II. An Uniformity of Doctrine to which all Preachers should set their Hands III. Commissions to be granted to those Bishops that be Grave Learned Wise Sober and of good Religion for the executing of Discipline IV. To find fault with the slightfulness of the Pastors and to deliver them Articles of Visitation willing and commanding them to be more diligent in their Office and to keep more Preachers V. The abrogating of the old Canon-Law and establishment of a New VI. The dividing of the Bishoprick of Durham into two and placing of Men in them VII The placing of Harley into the Bishoprick of Hereford VIII The making of more Homilies IX The making of more Injunctions X. The placing of one in a Bishoprick in Ireland which Turner of Canterbury hath refused Some of these things were already done and some in Hand Hereby we may see what further Steps in the Reformation would have been made had the good King lived So that in this King's Reign Religion made a good Progress and Superstition and Idolatry was in a good manner purged out of the Church Which was the more to be wondred at considering the Minority of the King the grievous Factions at Court and the too common Practice then of scoffing and buffooning Religion and the more conscientious Professors of it For of this sort of Men Russians and dissolute Livers there were many followed the Court and were Favorites to the Leading-Men there I mean the two Dukes and proved after base Time-servers and Flatterers in the Reign of Queen Mary During this Reign Arch-bishop Cranmer was a very active Man and great Deference seemed to be given to his Judgment by the King and Council in the Matters that were then transacting especially as concerning the Reformation of Religion For I find him very frequently at the Council-Board and often sent for thither or sent unto when absent And here I will not think much to set down all the particular Days when and Places where he was present in Person with the Privy-Counsellors from the Year 1550 beginning unto the middle of the Year 1553 near the the Time of the King's Death as it was extracted carefully out of a Council-Book that commenceth at the above-said Year Anno 1550 April 19. He was present at the Council then at Greenwich This Month one Putto who had been put to silence for his lend Preaching that is against the Steps made in the Reformation and did now nevertheless of his own Head preach as lendly as he had done before was referred to the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely to be corrected April 28. The Arch-bishop present at Council May 2 4 7 11 On
Prison skulking about for some time at length he saved himself by Exile He was a Man mightily tossed about For to look upon him before this in King Henry's Reign then for his Security he was forced to leave his Friends and Country wandring as far as Darbyshire and the Peak where he privately taught School for a Subsistence And coming a mere Stranger into Alsop in the Dale one Mr. Alsop a pious Man in that barbarous Country shewed him great Civility Afterwards he travelled into Stafforâ—shire where he also educated Children in good Literature and instilled into their Minds the Principles of Christian Doctrine After a Year's tarrying there and in Leicester-shire he flitted into Warwick-shire where he taught also divers Gentlemens Sons and where he met with old Father Latimer to his great Joy who had first made him acquainted with the Gospel when he was a Scholar in Cambridg twenty Years before He wrote a great many Books forty in number suted to the various Occasions of Christians both in the Persecutions under Queen Mary and the free Profession and Restoration of the Gospel under King Edward and Queen Elizabeth and many more against the Religion of the Roman Church All these did this learned and painful Author compose for the Benefit of the Professors of Religion Whereby he did such Service to the enlightning of Mens Minds in the knowledg of the Truth and for the exposing the Corruptions of Popery that it was thought convenient that some of that Communion should be employed to write against him And so Richard Smith sometime Reader of Divinity in Oxon and one that had subscribed to the Reformed Religion and after fled into Brabant and became a zealous Assertor of Popery writ in a bitter Stile against some of Becon's Books as he had done against the Arch-bishop himself before I find this Becon put up to preach one of the Lent Sermons at St. Pauls Cross in the Year 1566. And such then was his Fame for a Preacher and such his Favour with the greatest Prelats that the Lord Mayor for that Year sent a Message to Arch-bishop Parker That his Grace would prevail with him to preach one of the Sermons at the Spittle that Easter In the Year 1564 he revised and reprinted all his former Books in three Volumes dedicating the whole to all the Arch-bishops and Bishops of the Realm And in Commendation thereof Parkhurst Bishop of Norwich wrote these Verses to him Vidi perlegi doctos Baecone Libellos Quos tua non pridem Sancta Minerva dedit Dispeream siquid legi unquam sanctius aut si Quid potuit populo tradier utilius Auspice perge Deo tales vulgare Libellos Vaniloquax sed nec lingua timenda tibi est Sic Christum possis avido inculcare popello Sic possis nomen condecorare tuum Besides these there was his Postil being Godly and Learned Sermons on all the Sunday-Gospels in the Year Printed in Quarto in the Year 1567. I shall say no more of his Chaplains after I shall have mentioned Richard Harman Who seems to have been one of his first Chaplains being once of King's-College but went away Scholar probably for Religion afterwards lived in Iesus-College and commenced Master of Arts with Cranmer Whom he also preferred to be his Domestick afterwards This Man was one of those Cambridg-Men that were elected into S. Frideswide's-College in Oxon and suffered much there for Religion He was afterwards a Canon of Windsor but fell back to Popery CHAP. XXIX Arch-bishop Cranmer's Officers I Shall now add a few words of Two of his Civil Officers His Steward and his Secretary on Nevyl was his Steward in K. Henry's Reign who conducted Sir Iohn Seimour coming with a Message from the King through the Hall when the Tables were sumptuously set unto the ABp at Dinner him I have nothing to say of But he had another afterwards named Robert Watson born in Norwich of whom I have a word or two say He was a great Civilian and an Exile for Religion in Queen Mary's Reign But before his escape beyond Sea he lay in Prison in Norwich a Year and four Months saith Bale almost two Years saith Fox And then was most fortunately delivered without doing any Violence to his Conscience by the Subscription which he made Being Abroad he wrote a Piece intituled Aetiologia to all that sincerely professed Christ wheresoever dispersed especially his Countrymen the English banished with him In this Tract he gave a Relation of himself and his Imprisonment and Escape and of the Disputes that happened between him and his Adversaries concerning Transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament and by what means he escaped safe in Body and Conscience Which was a rare Matter to do from such Inquisitors It was propounded to him to set his Hand to these words viz. That he believed and confessed that the Bread and Wine in the Eucharist through the Omnipotency of God's Word pronounced by the Priest were turned into the Body and Blood of Christ and after Consecration under the Forms of Bread and Wine remained the true Body and Blood of Christ and no other Substance To which he made this Subscription His omnibus eatenus assentior subscribo quatenus Verbo Dei nituntur eoque sensu quo sunt ab Ecclesia Catholica a Sanctis Patribus intellecta By the Means of one Dr. Barret a Learned Friar of Norwich he was upon this favourable Subscription dismissed But Christopherson Dean of Norwich when he understood it was much incensed and laid out to take him again But he by the help of Friends escaped over the Seas Now lastly of Ralph Morice his Secretary so much employed and so greatly intrusted by our Arch-bishop it may not be amiss to set down a few Memorials He was his Secretary not so much for ordinary Matters incident to his Archiepiscopal Office as his Amanuensis for Learned Treatises and Discourses which he composed In this Place he remained for twenty Years that is from the Arch-bishop's first entrance upon his See to the Death of King Edward VI his good Master He was a very considerable Person and of good Birth being the Son of Iames Morice of Royden in the County of Essex Esq. Which Iames was sometime Servant unto the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond and Derby and Clerk of her Kitchin and Master of her Works and particularly of Christs-College and S. Iohns in Cambridg both which she founded He also and his Son William were joint Receivers of the Lands called Richmond-Lands and other Lands called the Recovered-Lands Our Ralph by reason of his Service about the Arch-bishop was well known to Bishop Heth Bishop Thirlby Bishop Cox Bishop Barlow and Bishop Scory Men that were much about the Arch-bishop and his Friends and who were privy to those Volumes that the Secretary writ out for his Master He dwelt sometime in Chartham not far from Canterbury and had 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 â—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
MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI Câ—â—â—MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's
none until some other Means should be found out by the States of the Empire for healing the present Divisions And that he would use his utmost diligence that a Council should be denounced within six Months and the Year after to be commenced And that if this could not be obtained then these Matters should be referred to the Imperial Diets to be handled there That in the mean time all Judicial Proceedings relating to Religion should be suspended and that no Law-Suits should hereafter be commenced against the Protestants and that in case any were he commanded that they should be void and null This Edict was published in the Month of August this Year Together with the aforesaid Proclamation he transferred over to the King the Tax of all the States of the Empire that is How many Souldiers every Man was limited to find for Aid against the Turk Whence our Ambassador made a particular Observation to his Master for his better Direction what number of Forces it were equal for him to send and to justify his Refusal to comply with the Emperor in case he should have demanded more than was his Proportion Taking his Measures from the said Tax And the Observation which he made was this That his Grace might perceive that the greatest Prince in Germany only the Duke of Burgundy and Austria excepted was not appointed above 120 Horsemen and 554 Footmen A Transcript of this Letter of Cranmer to the King I have put in the Appendix These Passages will serve to shew Dr. Cranmer's Diligence Wisdom and other Abilities in the Quality he now stood in of an Ambassador Being now resident in the Emperor's Court the King made use of him in another Embassy but to be more secretly made to the Elector Frederick Duke of Saxony that the Emperor might not be privy to it For in the Month of Iuly Dr. Cranmer departed incognito from Ratisbon where the Emperor was and had there appointed a Diet in order to the coming to some Terms of Peace with the Protestants until a Council should be called and came privately to the Duke then abiding in a certain Hospital as it was called and delivered Letters to him and to Philip Duke of Lunenburgh and Wolfgang Prince of Anhalt At this first Congress he assured the Elector of his Master the King of England's Friendship as the Letters he delivered imported The next day he returned to the Elector's Court Pontanus and Spalatinus two of the Elector's Counsellors being present Here at this Meeting he required divers things concerning Peace with the Emperor the State of Religion Aid against the Turk and the Goods of the Church which the Princes were said to invade He spake magnificent things of the King his Master as what mighty Aids he had offered the Emperor against the Turk and as he told them the French King would do And so taking Letters to the King from Frederick dated Iuly 15. he was dismissed But four days after he came again privately with one Servant only and had conference with Spalatinus all alone telling him that he had forgot as he pretended one part of his Message and that was That not only his Master but the French King was ready to give Assistance to the Elector and his Confederates in the case of Religion And he desired to know in what state the Business of the Election of Ferdinand stood whom being the Emperor's Brother he had made King of the Romans by a pretended Election Which Election gave offence and Frederick Duke of Saxony had manifested Imperfect and Defective What Answer was given to Cranmer was not known Only it was thought that this was somewhat unseasonably acted because saith my Author there was Peace at this time between the Emperor and the English which the Kings Ambassador by those Offers did desire to disturb This it seems was the Judgment of the Protestants concerning this Overture to them by the King's Ambassador as tho it were not sincere But I do not find but that whatsoever Peace was now between the Emperor and the English the former League with him was shaking by reason of the Emperor's disobliging the King in siding so earnestly with Queen Katharine in the Controversy between the King and her CHAP. IV. Cranmer made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury AND this great Trust the King his gracious Master committed to him as a mark of the Honour he had for him and a Sign of further Preferment he was minded to advance him to And about this very time happened a fair Opportunity to the King to manifest his Favour to him Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury departing this mortal Life whereby that See became Vacant The Preferment indeed seemed too great for Cranmer at one stride to step into without some other intervening Dignities to have been first conferred on him But the King thinking him the fittest Man of all the English Clergy to be promoted to this high Office resolved to give it to him though now absent abroad upon his Business Hereupon the King commanded him to hasten Home though he concealed the Reason from him which was to take the Archbishoprick he had designed for him Which when he came Home in Obedience to his Majesty though much against his Inclination and after many Refusals proceeding from his great Modesty and Humility and certain Scruples at length he did accept It doth not appear to me what Ecclesiastical Places he had before only that he was the King's Chaplain and Arch-deacon of Taunton The Pope also in honour to his Master had constituted him Poenitentiary General of England He had also a Benefice while he lived in the Earl of Wiltshire's Family which was bestowed upon him by the King A mention whereof I find in one of his Letters to the said Earl It was in the Month of August 1532 that William Warham Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a wise and Grave Man a great Patron of the most Learned Erasmus and once Lord Chancellor of England Who seemed to foresee and foretell or at least to conjecture that Thomas Cranmer should succeed him as judging him in his own Mind the fittest Person for the King 's and Church's Service in that juncture to enter upon that See For this truth methinks we may pick out of those malicious words of Harpsfield in his Ecclesiastical History viz. That Arch-Bishop Warham should say That a Thomas should succeed him who by a loose and remiss indulgence of a licentious sort of Life granted to the People and by unsound Doctrines would more disgrace the Church of Canterbury and all the rest of the Church of England than Thomas the Martyr did amplify it by his Martyrdom And that he admonished his Nephew and Name-sake William Warham Arch-deacon of Canterbury that if any Thomas should succeed in the See while he lived he should not by any means enter into his Service It is not unusual nay it is seldom otherwise for Popish Historians to
themselves and are as much bound to obey as their Temporal Subjects or Lay-men as the Priests call them that the Issue was the abolishing of that Foreign Papal Power and the expulsion of it out of this Realm by the full consent of Parliament A Licence dated Feb. 13. this Year was granted by the Arch-Bishop to Mary the Relict of Sir Henry Guilford Kt. to have the Eucharist Matrimony and Baptism ministred in any Chappel or Oratory within her Mannors where she should reside during her Life And such a Licence dated also Feb. 13. the next Year was granted by him to Margaret Marchioness of Dorset Whether indulged to them by the Arch-Bishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed and that there might be some private Places for purer worshipping God and administration of the Sacraments or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judg CHAP. VI. The Arch-bishop presseth the Translation of the Bible THIS Rub of the Papal Power being now taken out of the way and the King's Supremacy settled in the next Sessions of Parliament in Novemb. 1534. a Way was opened for a Reformation of Errors and Abuses in Religion So that as the Arch-bishop judged it a thing impossible to make any amendment of Religion under the Pope's Dominion so he thought it now the same being dispatched out of the Realm a meeâ— time to restore the true Doctrine of Christ according to the Word of God and the old Primitive Church within his Jurisdiction and Cure and with the said Pope to abolish also all false Doctrine Errors and Heresies by him brought into the Church for the accomplishing of which he let pass no Opportunities A Convocation now afforded him one Our Arch-bishop from his first entrance upon his Dignity had it much in his mind to get the Holy Scriptures put into the Vulgar Language and a Liberty for all to read them The Convocation now was so well disposed by the influence of the Arch-bishop and his Friends that they did petition the King that the Bible might be translated by some Learned Men of his Highnesses nomination And as this good Motion was briefly made in the House by the Arch-bishop so they agreed upon him to carry their Petition But they clogged it with another which the Arch-bishop did not so well approve of For about the Month of December they pass'd this Order of Convocation The Bishops Abbots Priors of this Upper House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury met together in the Chapter-House of St. Paul unanimously did consent that the most Reverend Father the Arch-bishop should make instance in their Names to the King that his Majesty would vouchsafe for the encrease of the Faith of his Subjects to decree and command That all his Subjects in whose possession any Books of suspect Doctrine were especially in the Vulgar Language imprinted beyond or on this side the Sea should be warned within three Months to bring them in before Persons to be appointed by the King under a certain Pain to be limited by the King And that moreover his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Scriptures should be translated into the Vulgar Tongue by some honest and learned Men to be nominated by the King and to be delivered unto the People according to their Learning This was resolved in the Convocation Decemb. 19. Accordingly the King issued out soon after his Proclamation What this Proclamation was I do not know unless it were one I meet with about this time against bringing in or printing seditious Books of Anabaptists and Sacramentaries who were said to be lately come into the Realm and against some of his own Subjects who publickly disputed in Taverns and other open Places upon those Points of Religion which the King was offended withal For the Correction and Regulating of which the King in the said Proclamation commanded sundry Articles to be observed which for the length of them I have put into the Appendix Unless perhaps this Proclamation may belong to the Year 1538. About the month of Iune this Year was a Book drawn up for Bishops and Priests wherein was an Order for preaching and in the same were Forms devised for the Beads as well for Preachers as Curates In which Forms the King's Title of Supream Head was specified In this Book was commandment given by the King that â—very Preacher should before Easter once in solemn Audience deâ—â—are the usurped Jurisdiction within this Realm of the Bishop of â—ome and the King 's just Cause to decline from the same and also to open and declare such things as might avow and justify the King's refusal of Marriage with the Princess Dowager and his contract anew with Queen Ann. And also in the same Book an Order was given for the suppression of the General Sentence or Curse This Book the Arch-bishop who we may well suppose had a great hand in it sent by the King's Commandment to all the Bishops and to the Arch-bishop of York though out of his Province that Arch-bishop lying under some Jealousy as it seems with the King Therefore after the receit of the Book the said Arch-bishop of York the next Sunday which was the second Sunday after Trinity went from Cawood to York and there in his own Person declared as well the King's Cause touching the Matrimony as his refusal of the Pope's Jurisdiction so fully that nothing that needed to be opened was left unspoken as that Arch-bishop wrote himself to the King in his own Vindication And that the Auditory might be the greater he sent to York forthwith upon the receit of the Book to publish there that he would be there the next Sunday following and caused the Churches to make an end of their Service in such time as every Man might have opportunity to be at the Sermon and especially required the Mayor and his Brethren and one Mr. Magnus and Sir George Lawson his Majesty's Chaplains to be there And a very great Confluence there was Then the Arch-bishop preached from that Text Vxorem duxi c. Whence he took occasion to utter and declare both his foresaid Matters and the Injury done to the King's Highness by Pope Clement As the Convocation this Year had declared the Pope to have no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom so this would not serve the King till all the Learned and Spiritual Men in England had subscribed to it with their Hands The Arch-bishop's Church of Canterbury began For the Prior and Convent thereof moved and influenced not a little by their Diocesan solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy and for acknowledgment of the King Supream Head of the Church of England under this Position Quod Romanus Episcopus non habet majorem aliqâ—am jurisdictionem a Deo sibi collatam in hoc regno
their Clients Causes It was urged also that it was a great discouragement to young Men in studying the Law when there is so little prospect of Benefit thereby Lastly That it was contrary to the Civil and Canon Law that permits any Man to be Proctor for another a few excepted But this Paper notably enough written may be read at large in the Appendix And so I leave the Reader to judg of the Expediency of this Order of the Arch-bishop by weighing the Arch-bishop's Reasons with these last mentioned Surely this his Act deserved commendation for his good Intentions thereby though some lesser Inconveniences attended which no doubt he had also well considered before he proceeded to do what he did When Queen Ann on May the 2 d was sent to the Tower by a sudden Jealousy of the King her Husband The next day the Arch-bishop extreamly troubled at it struck in with many good Words with the King on her behalf in form of a Letter of Consolation to him yet wisely making no Apology for her but acknowledging how divers of the Lords had told him of certain of her Faults which he said he was sorry to hear And concluded desiring that the King would however continue his Love to the Gospel lest it should be thought that it was for her sake only that he had favoured it Being in the Tower there arose up new Matter against Queen Ann namely concerning some lawful Impediment of her Marriage with the King and that was thought to be a Pre-Contract between her and the Earl of Northumberland Whereupon the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York were made Commissioners to examine this Matter And she being before the Arch-bishop of Canterbury confessed certain just true and lawful Impediments as the Act in the 26 of Hen. VIII expresseth it but not mentioning what they were So that by that Act the said Marriage is declared never to have been good nor consonant to the Laws Yet the Earl of Northumberland being examined upon Oath before both the Arch-bishops denied it Upon the Truth of which he received also the Blessed Sacrament And the Lord Herbert saw an Original Letter to Secretary Crumwel to the same import But her Confession of it so far prevailed with the King that he would be divorced from her and with our Arch-bishop that he performed it by due Order and Process of Law And an Act passed that the Marriage between the King and Queen Ann was null and void and the Issue illegitimate The Arch-bishop granted a Licence dated Iuly the 24 th with the full Consent of Richard Withipol Vicar of Walthamstow in Essex to George Monoux Alderman of London and Thomas his Son to have the Sacrament administred in his Chappel or Oratory in his House De Moones now a Farm near Higham-hill in the said Parish of VValthamstow Indulging therein to the Wife of the said Thomas to be purified or churched in the same Chappel I the rather mention this that it may serve to recal the Memory of that pious and charitable Citizen and Draper Sir Geo. Monoux who built the fair Steeple of that Parish-Church and allowed a Salary for ever for ringing the great Bell at a certain Hour in the Night and Morning the Winter half Year He built also the North Isle of the said Church in the Glass-windows whereof is yet remaining his Coat of Arms. In the Chancel his Body was interred under a fair Altar-Monument yet standing In the Church-yard he founded an Hospital and Free-School and very liberally endowed it though now the Endowments are sadly diminished He also made a Causeway over Walthamstow-Marsh to Lockbridg over the River Lee for the conveniency of Travellers from those Parts to London and left wherewith to continue and keep it in Repair but that also is lost and the Ruins now only to be seen But enough of that The Germans conceived great hope of good to befal the Church by Cranmer's Influence and Presidency in England and took their opportunities of addressing to him This Year Martin Bucer published a large Book in Folio upon the Epistle to the Romans intituled Metaphrasis Enâ—rratio and dedicated it in a long Epistle to the Arch-bishop Wherein are sundry Expressions which will shew how well known abroad the Arch-bishop was already among the Protestants and what an excellent Bishop they looked upon him to be and how fixed their Eyes were upon him for doing great things towards a Reformation in England For thus he writ in this Epistle Te omnes praedicant animo praeditum Archiepiscopo tanti sicque ad gloriam Christi comparati regni Primate digno c. That all Men proclaimed him endowed with a Mind worthy of an Arch-bishop and Primate of so great a Kingdom and so disposed to the Glory of Christ. That he had so attained to this high Estate in Christ by his spiritual Wisdom Holiness of Life and most ardent Zeal to render Christ's Glory more illustrious that gathering together the Humble and taking pity upon the Sheepfold being indeed dispersed and scattered abroad he always sought and saved that which was lost and brought back Christ's poor Sheep to his Fold and the Pastures of everlasting Life when they had been before most miserably harassed by the Servants of Superstition and the Emissaries of the Roman Tyranny And after speaking of the King 's rooting out the Usurpation of the Pope and his pretended Jurisdiction by taking to himself the Supremacy the said Learned Man excited Cranmer to a further Reformation by telling him How easy now it would be for him and the other Arch-bishops and Bishops who were endued with the Spirit and Zeal of Christ from the remainders of the Ecclesiastical Administration to retain what might contribute to the true edifying of Consciences the saving Instruction of Youth and to the just Discipline and Polity of the whole Christian People For when the Enemies were once removed out of the way there could not then happen among us any extraordinary great Concussion of Religion and Ecclesiastical Discipline or any dashing one against another as among them in Germany of necessity came to pass striving so many Years for the Church of Christ against such obstinate Enemies The Consecrations this Year were these Diocesan Bishops Iune the 10 th Richard Sampson Doctor of Decrees and Dean of the King's Chappel was elected and confirmed Bishop of Chichester by Resignation of Robert Sherburn who was now very old No Consecration set down in the Register Iune William Rugg a Monk was consecrated Bishop of Norwich This is omitted also if I mistake not in the Register Probably he was consecrated with Sampson Iuly the 2 d Robert Warton Abbot of Bermondsey was consecrated Bishop of S. Asaph at Lambeth by the Arch-bishop Iohn Bishop of Bangor and William Bishop of Norwich assisting Suffragan Bishops Octob. 20. William More B. D. consecrated Suffragan of Colchester by Iohn Bishop of
Rochester by virtue of the Arch-bishop's Letters Commissional to him assisted by Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Thomas Bishop of Sidon This More held the Monastery of Walden in Essex an House of Benedictines in Commendam where Audley-end now stands and surrendred it to the King 1539. CHAP. XIII The Bishops Book THE pious ABp thought it highly conducible to the Christian Growth of the common People in Knowledg and Religion and to disintangle them from gross Ignorance and Superstition in which they had been nursled up by their Popish Guides that the Ten Commandments the Lord's Prayer and the Creed and the Grounds of Religion should be explained soundly and orthodoxly and recommended unto their reading Wherefore he consulting with the Lord Crumwel his constant Associate and Assistant in such Matters and by his and other his Friends importuning the King a Commission was issued out from him in the Year 1537. to the Arch-bishop to Stokesly Bishop of London Gardiner of Winchester Sampson of Chichester Repps of Norwich Goodrick of Ely Latimer of Worcester Shaxton of Salisbury Fox of Hereford Barlow of S. Davids and other Bishops and Learned Divines to meet together and to devise an wholsome and plain Exposition upon those Subjects and to set forth a Truth of Religion purged of Errors and Heresies Accordingly they met at the Arch-bishop's House at Lambeth Their Course was that after they had drawn up their Expositions upon each Head and agreed thereto they all subscribed their Hands declaring their Consent and Approbation In the Disputations which happened among them in this Work Winchester the Pope's chief Champion with three or four other of the Bishops went about with all subtil Sophistry to maintain all Idolatry Heresy and Superstition written in the Canon Law or used in the Church under the Pope's Tyranny But at the last whether overpower'd with Number or convinced by the Word of God and consent of Ancient Authors and the Primitive Church they all agreed upon and set their Hands to a Godly Book of Religion Which they finished by the end of Iuly and staid for nothing but the Vicar-General's Order whether to send it immediately to him or that the Bishop of Hereford should bring it with him at his next coming to the Court But the Plague now raging in Lambeth and People dying even at the Palace-Doors the Arch-bishop desired Crumwel for the King's Licence to the Bishops to depart for their own Safety their Business being now in effect drawn to a Conclusion Soon after the Bishops and Divines parted and the Arch-bishop hastened to his House at Ford near Canterbury The Book was delivered by Crumwel to the King which he at his leisure diligently perused corrected and augmented And then after five or six Months assigned Crumwel to dispatch it unto the Arch-bishop that he might give his Judgment upon the King's Animadversions A Pursevant brought it to Ford. The Arch-bishop advisedly read and considered what the King had writ and disliking some things made his own Annotations upon some of the Royal Corrections there especially we may well imagine where the King had altered the Book in favour of some of the old Doctrines and Corruptions And when he sent it back again with those Annotations he wrote these Lines to Crumwel therewith on the 25 th day of Ianuary MY very singular good Lord After most hearty Commendations unto your Lordship these shall be to advertise the same That as concerning the Book lately devised by me and other Bishops of this Realm which you sent unto me corrected by the King's Highness your Lordship shall receive the same again by this Bearer the Pursevant with certain Annotations of mine own concerning the same Wherein I trust the King's Highness will pardon my Presumption that I have been so scrupulous and as it were a picker of Quarrels to his Grace's Book making a great Matter of every little Fault or rather where no Fault is at all Which I do only for this Intent that because now the Book shall be set forth by his Grace's Censure and Judgment I would have nothing therein that Momus could reprehend And I refer all mine Annotations again to his Grace's most exact Judgment And I have ordered my Annotations so by Numbers that his Grace may readily turn to every place And in the lower Margin of this Book next to the Binding he may find the Numbers which shall direct him to the Words whereupon I make the Annotations And all those his Grace's Castigations which I have made none Annotations upon I like them very well And in divers places I have made Annotations which places nevertheless I mislike not as shall appear by the same Annotations At length this Book came forth printed by Barthelet in the Year 1537 and was commonly called the Bishops Book because the Bishops were the Composers of it It was intituled The godly and pious Institution of a Christian Man and consisted of a Declaration of the Lord's Prayer and of the Ave Mary the Creed the Ten Commandments and the Seven Sacraments It was Established by Act of Parliament having been signed by the two Arch-bishops nineteen Bishops eight Arch-deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law The Opinion that the Favourers of the Gospel had of this Book in those Times may appear by what I find in a Manuscript of the Life of this Arch-bishop by an unknown Author that wrote it soon after the said Arch-bishop's Death A godly Book of Religion not much unlike the Book set forth by K. Edward VI. except in two Points The one was the real Preâ—ence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament of the Altar Of the which Opinion the Arch-bishop was at that time and the most part of the other Bishops and learned Men. The other Error was of Praying Kissing and Kneeling before Images Which saith he was added by the King after the Bishops had set their Hands to the contrary But this Book came forth again two Years after viz. 1540. unless my Manuscript mistake this Year for 1543. very much enlarged and reduced into another Form and bearing another Name A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of any Christian Man And because the King had put it forth by his own Authority it was called now The King's Book as before it was called The Bishops But that none might be confounded in these Books he may know that there was in the Year 1536 another Book also called The Bishops Book upon the same reason that this was so called because the Arch-bishops and Bishops had the making thereof It was a Declaration against the Papal Supremacy written upon occasion of Pole's Book of Ecclesiastical Vnion mentioned before And in the Year 1533 there came forth another Book in Latin called The King's Book intituled The Difference between the Kingly and Ecclesiastical Power reported to be made as Bale writes by Fox the King's Almoner Which was translated into English
his Memory famous to Posterity within the Realm among all such as should hereafter be favourers of God's Word and that he should hear of this good Deed of his at the last Day That for his part it was such a content to his Mind that he could not have done him a greater pleasure if he had given him a thousand Pounds And that such Knowledg would ensue hereupon that it should appear he had done excellent Service both to God and the King He also particularly spake of the Bishop of Worcester how highly obliged he was sure he was to him for this But I refer the Reader to his own Letters which follow MY very singular good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me unto your Lordship And whereas I understand that your Lordship at my Request hath not only exhibited the Bible which I sent unto you to the King's Majesty but also hath obtained of his Grace that the same shall be allowed by his Authority to be bought and read within this Realm My Lord for this your Pains taken in this behalf I give you my most hearty Thanks Assuring your Lordship for the Contentation of my Mind you have shewed me more pleasure here than if you had given me a thousand Pounds and I doubt not but that hereby such Fruit of good Knowledg shall ensue that it shall well appear hereafter what high and excellent Service you have done unto God and the King Which shall so much redound to your Honour that besides God's Reward you shall obtain perpetual Memory for the same within this Realm And as for me you may reckon me your Bondman for the same And I dare be bold to say so may ye do my Lord of Worcester Thus my Lord right hartily fare ye well At Ford the xiii day of August Your own Bound-man ever T. Cantuarien And in another Letter fifteen days after he again renewed his Thanks MY very singular and special good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me to your Lordship These shall be to give you most hearty Thanks that any Heart can think and that in the Name of them which favour God's Word for your diligence at this time in procuring the King's Highness to set forth the said God's Word and his Gospel by his Grace's Authority For the which Act not only the King's Majesty but also you shall have a perpetual Laud and Memory of all them that be now â—or hereafter shall be God's faithful People and the Favourers of his Word And this Deed you shall hear of at the Great Day when all things shall be opened and made manifest For our Saviour Christ saith in the said Gospel that whosoever shrinketh from Him and his Word and is abashed to profess and set it forth before Men in this World he will refuse him at that Day And contrary whosoever constantly doth profess Him and his Word and studieth to set that forward in this World Christ will declare the same at the Last Day before his Father and all his Angels and take upon him the Defence of those Men. Now because by these Letters of the Arch-bishop it appears how instrumental Crumwel was when the Bible was printed to procure the setting it forth by the King's Authority I will here relate more at large what Countenance and Assistance he gave to this pious Work all along and those that were concerned and employed in the doing of it The Bible as Fox speaks had been printed in the Year 1532 and reprinted again three or four Years after The Undertakers and Printers were Grafton and Whitchurch who printed it at Hamburgh The Corrector was Iohn Rogers a Learned Divine afterwards a Canon of St. Paul's in King Edward's Time and the first Martyr in the next Reign The Translator was William Tyndal another Learned Martyr with the help of Miles Coverdale after Bishop of Exeter But before all this second Edition was finish'd Tyndal was taken and put to death for his Religion in Flanders in the Year 1536. And his Name then growing into ignominy as one burnt for an Heretick they thought it might prejudice the Book if he should be named for the Translator thereof and so they used a feigned Name calling it Thomas Matthews Bible though Tyndal before his death had finished all but the Apocrypha which was translated by Rogers abovesaid who added also some Marginal Notes In this Bible were certain Prologues and a special Table collected of the common Places in the Bible and Texts of Scripture for proving the same And chiefly the common Places of the Lord's Supper the Marriage of Priests and the Mass. Of which it was there said that it was not to be found in Scripture This Bible giving the Clergy offence was gotten to be restrained Some Years after came forth the Bible aforesaid wherein Cranmer had the great Hand which as I suppose was nothing but the former corrected the Prologues and Table being left out When Grafton had finished this Work and printed off fifteen hundred Bibles at his great Charge amounting to five hundred Pounds a round Sum in those days the Ld. Crumwel desired to have six of his Books Which he forthwith sent by his Servant a clear Man of all suspicion of any Infection coming that day out of Flanders Grafton not adventuring to come himself with the Books because of the Infection at London where he was These Books therefore he sent together with a Letter of Thanks for being so assistant in the publication which as he writ in his Letter the Arch-bishop said the Tidings of did him more good than the Gift of ten thousand Pounds and for procuring the King's Licence which was thought fit to be signified in the Title Page in red Letters thus Set forth by the King 's most gracious Licence But several would not believe the King had licensed it and therefore he desired further of Crumwel that he would get it licensed under the Privy Seal which would be a Defence for the present and for the future But take the Letter as Grafton himself penned it MOST humbly beseeching your Lordship to understand that according to your Request I have sent your Lordship six Bibles which gladly I would have brought my self but because of the Sickness which remaineth in the City and therefore I have sent them by my Servant which this day came out of Flanders Requiring your Lordship if I may be so bold as to desire you to accept them as my simple Gift given to you for those most godly Pains for which the heavenly Father is bound even of his Justice to reward you with the Everlasting Kingdom of God For your Lordship's moving our most gracious Prince to the Allowance and Licensing of such a Work hath wrought such an Act worthy of Praise as never was mentioned in any Chronicle in this Realm and as my Lord of Canterbury said the Tydings thereof did him more good than the gift of 10000 l.
yet certain there are which believe not that it pleased the King's Grace to license it to go forth Wherefore if your Lordship's Pleasure were such that we might have it Licensed under your Privy Seal it would be a Defence at this present and in time to come for all Enemies and Adversaries of the same And forasmuch as this Request is for the maintenance of the Lord's Word which is to maintain the Lord himself I fear not but that your Lordship will be earnest therein And I am assured that my Lord of Canterbury Worcester and Salisbury will give your Lordship such Thanks as in them lieth And sure ye may be that the Heavenly Lord will reward you for the Establishment of his Glorious Truth And what your Lordship's Pleasure is in this Request if it may please your Lordship to inform my Servant I and all that love God heartily are bound to pray for your Preservation all the days of our Life At London the xxviii day of this present Month of August 1537. Your Orator while he lâ—veth Richard Grafton Grocer And as this Printer had addressed to Crumwel for the Privy Seal so he apprehended now a further need of the Corroboration of Authority upon another Account For some observing how exceeding acceptable the English Bible was to the common People were designing to print it in a less Volume and smaller Letters whereby it would come to pass that Grafton would be undersold and so he and his Creditors would be undone and besides it was like to prove a very ill Edition and very Erroneous Insomuch that Grafton affirmed they would commit as many Faults as there were Sentences in the Bible And it must needs be so because then the Printers were generally Dutchmen within the Realm that could neither speak nor write true English nor for Covetousness-sake would they allow any Learned Men at all to oversee and correct what they printed as formerly it had been printed but Paper Letter Ink and Correction would be all naught Therefore he desired one Favour more of the Lord Crumwel and that was to obtain for him of the King that none should print the Bible for three Years but himself And to move him he said he was sure the Bishop of Canterbury and other his special Friends would not be unthankful to him He urged to him that his whole Living lay upon this Point And for the better and quicker sale of his Books he desired also that by his Commandment in the King's Name every Curate might be obliged to have one â—hat they might learn to know God and to instruct their Parishioners and that every Abby should have six to be laid in several places of the Convent He wished some Commissions might be issued out to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of Sarum and Worcester and they would readily cause this to be done in their Diocesses To which he earnestly added his own Arguments to provoke Crumwel to yield to his request This Letter may be found in the Appendix CHAP. XVI Many Suffragan Bishops made IT was now forbidden by the Parliament and in pursuance thereof by the Bishops in their several Diocesses that the Feast of S. Thomas a Becket the pretended Martyr should be celebrated any more nor of S. Laurence nor of divers others the Feasts of the Twelve Apostles excepted and of our Lady S. Michael and Mary Magdalene Also the Feast of the Holy Cross was forbid and commanded that none should presume to keep those Feasts Holy that is they should ring no Bells nor adorn their Churches nor go in Procession nor do other such-like things as belonged to the Celebration of Festivals So when S. Thomas's Eve came which had used constantly by the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and their Domesticks to be celebrated by Fasting Arch-bishop Cranmer took no notice of that Eve but eat Flesh and supped in his Parlour with his Family Which created much Observation it having never been seen before the Arch-bishop thinking it unworthy that a Man of that Devotion to the See of Rome and disloyalty to his natural Prince should bâ— so religiously commemorated Bishops Diocesan Consecrated March the 25 th Robert Holgate Master of the Order of Sempringham was consecrated Bishop of Landaff in the Chappel of S. Mary in the Conventual Church of Friars Preachers of the City of London by Iohn Bishop of Rochester by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop to him Iohn Bishop of Bangor and Nicolas Bishop of Sarum assisting This Holgate was either Abbot or Prior of S. Mary Watte an House of Gilbertines which he held in Commendam and surrendred in the Year 1539. Suffragan Bishops Iune the 24 th Iohn Bird S. Th. P. Provincial of the Order of Friars Carmelites of the City of London was consecrated Suffragan of the See of Penrith in Landaff Diocess And Lewis Thomas formerly Abbot of the Monastery of Kynmer Suffragan Bishop of the See of Salop both consecrated at Lambeth by the Arch-bishop The Assistant Bishops at this Consecration not mentioned in the Register Of Bird a word or two I find him in Norwich about the Year 1531. busy with Bilney before his Death He was a Person K. Henry made use of for in the Year 1535 he with Fox the Almoner and Bedel a Clark of the Council were sent to Q. Katharine divorsed from the King to forbear the Name of Queen Which nevertheless she would not do He preached certain Sermons before the King against the Pope's Supremacy Bale in his Exposition upon the Revelations makes him to be one of the Ten Horns that shall hate the Whore Godwin asserts of him that he was once Bishop of Ossory Bale in his Centuries mentions not at all his being an Irish Bishop but naming his Preferments first calls him Episcopus Penricensis In 1539 made Bishop of Bangor and removed to Chester 1541. He was married and therefore upon Q. Mary's access to the Crown was deprived of his Bishoprick but complied with the old Religion I find him alive in the Year 1555 being then at Fulham at Bishop Bonner's and there he lodged Upon his coming he brought his Present with him a Dish of Apples and a Bottle of Wine While he was here he exhorted Mr. Hawkes Convented for pretended Heresy before Bonner to learn of his Elders and to bear with some things and be taught by the Church and not to go too far In that Queen's Reign he became Bonner's Suffragan and Vicar of Dunmow in Essex November the 4 th Thomas Morley formerly Abbot of Stanley in Sarum Diocess of the Cistertian Order was consecrated in the Chappel of Lambeth Suffragan of the See of Marlborough by the Arch-bishop assisted by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Iohn Bishop of Rochester December the first the Arch-bishop according to the Direction of the Act for Suffragan Bishops nominated to the King two Persons out of which he might elect a
Feast that they should be without it The said Proclamation also set the Price at ten Shillings a Book unbound and well Bound and Clasped not above twelve Shillings And charged all Ordinaries to take care for the seeing this Command of the King the better executed And upon this Boner being now newly Bishop of London set up six Bibles in certain convenient Places of S. Paul's Church together with an Admonition to the Readers fastned upon the Pillars to which the Bibles were chained to this Tenor That whosoever came there to read should prepare himself to be edified and made the better thereby That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the King's Injunctions made in that behalf That he bring with him Discretion honest Intent Charity Reverence and quiet Behaviour That there should no such Number meet together there as to make a Multitude That no Exposition be made thereupon but what is declared in the Book it self That it be not read with Noise in time of Divine Service Or that any Disputation or Contention be used at it But it was not much above two Years after that the Popish Bishops obtained of the King the suppression of the Bible again For after they had taken off the Lord Crumwel they made great complaint to the King their old Complaint of the Translation and of the Prefaces Whereas indeed and in truth it was the Text it self rather than the Prefaces or Translation that disturbed them Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold the Bishops promising the King to amend and correct it but never performed it And Grafton was now so long after summoned and charged with printing Matthews's Bible Which he being timerous made Excuses for Then he was examined about the great Bible and what the Notes were he intâ—nded to set thereto He replied that he added none to his Bible when he perceived the King and the Clergy not willing to have any Yet Grafton was sent to the Fleet and there remained six Weeks and before he came out was bound in three hundred Pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the King and the Clergy should agree upon a Translation And they procured an Order from the King that the falsâ— Translation of Tindal as they called it should not be uttered either by Printer or Bookseller and no other Books to be retained that spoke against the Sacrament of the Altar No Annotations or Preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could Nor the Bible to be read in the Church and nothing to be taught contrary to the King's Instructions And from henceforth the Bible was stopp'd during the remainder of King Henry's Reign But however for some certain Ends the King restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures to comply with the importunate Suits of the Popish Bishops yet his Judgment always was for the free use of them among his Subjects and in order to that for the translating and printing them For proof of which I will recite the words of the Translator of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon S. Luke in his Preface thereunto viz. Nic. Vdal a Man of Eminency in those Days a Canon of Windsor and a Servant unto Q. Katharine the King 's last Wife His most Excellent Majesty from the first day that he wore the Imperial Crown of this Realm foresaw that to the executing the Premisses viz. to destroy counterfeit Religions and to root up all Idolatry done to dead Images it was necessary that his People should be reduced to the sincerity of Christ's Religion by knowing of God's Word He considered that requisite it was his Subjects were nurâ—led in Christ by reading the Scriptures whose Knowledg should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the Slights of the Romish Juggling And therefore as soon as might be his Highness by most wholsome and godly Laws provided that it might be lawful for all his most faithful loving Subjects to read the Word of God and the Rules of Christ's Discipline which they professed He provided that the Holy Bible should be set forth in our own Vulgar Language to the end that England might the better attain to the Sincerity of Christ's Doctrine which they might draw out of the clear Fountain and Spring of the Gospel CHAP. XXII The Arch-bishop retired OUR Arch-bishop after the unhappy Death of the Lord Crumwel so excellent an Instrument in correcting the Abuses of Religion out of sorrow and care of himself betook himself to more Retirement and greater Privacy For in and after this Year 1540 I find nothing in his Register but the Acts of Confirmations and Elections and Consecrations of Bishops as Bishopricks fell vacant the Arch-bishop very seldom Consecrating any himself but commissionating others by his Letters to Confirm and Consecrate And nothing to be found a great way on in the Register concerning giving Ordinances and Injunctions to the Diocess or Province And no wonder for there was now no Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the Arch-bishop's Directions and Counsels for reforming Abuses and to see them executed in the Church And his own Sorrows and the Troubles he met with in these Times from his Enemies made him judg it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better Days But before the Death of Crumwel when Boner Bishop Elect of London was to be consecrated the Arch-bishop probably not liking him and seeing through him whatever his Pretences were and therefore declining to have any hand in his Preferment sent his Commission in April to Stephen Bishop of Winchester Richard Bishop of Chichester Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Iohn Bishop of Hertford i. e. Hereford to consecrate him Which it is said in the Register they did accordingly per Sacri chrismatis unctionem manuum suarum impositionem In this Consecration the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted it seems upon an ancient Privilege of their Church which I do not find in this Register they had at other Consecrations done namely that the Consecration should be celebrated at the Church of Canterbury and at no other Church or Oratory without their Allowance And so in a formal Instrument they gave their Licence and Consent directed to the Arch-bishop to proceed to the Consecration elsewhere The Letter is from Thomas the Prior and the Chapter of Canterbury and it ran thus Licet antiquitus fuerit salubriter ordinatum hactenusque in per totam vestram Provinciam Cantuar ' inconcussè observatum quod quilibet Suffraganâ—us Ecclesiae vestrae Metropoliticae Christi Cantuar ' memoratae in Ecclesia vestra Metropolit ' Cantuar ' non alibi pntialiter consecrari benedici debeat c. Yet they gave their Consent that he might be Consecrated in any other Oratory But yet so that neither they nor the Church received any Prejudice and reserving to
themselves a decent Cope as every Suffragan of the Church of Canterbury according as his Profession was ought to give to the same Church by Right and ancient Custom and the Rights Liberties Privileges and other Customs of the said Church always and in all things being safe The renewing of this their old pretended Privilege look'd like some check to the Arch-bishop and as though they required of him a sort of dependence on them now more than before and it shewed some secret Ill-will towards him which brake out more openly not long after as we shall shew in the Process of our Story In the Register is also recorded Boner's Oath of Fidelity to the King against the Bishop of Rome Which I will add here that Men may see with what little Affection to the Pope this Man was let into the Bishoprick which he afterwards made so much use of for him and his Usurpations though thereby he stands upon Record for ever for Perjury But the Oath was this Ye shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise exercise or have any manner of Authority Jurisdiction or Power within this Realm or any other the King's Dominions but that ye shall resist the same at all times to the uttermost of your Power And that from henceforth ye shall accept repute and take the King's Majesty to be the only Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England c. So help you God and all Saints and the Holy Evangelists Signed thus ✚ In fidem praemissorum Ego Edm. Boner Elect. Confirmat Londoniens huic praesenti chart a subscripsi By the Arch-bishop's Letters bearing date May 20. he made Robert Harvey B. LL. his Commissary in Calais and in all the other Neighbouring Places in France being his Diocess A Man surely wherein the good Arch-bishop was mistaken or else he would never have ventured to set such a Substitute of such bigotted cruel Principles in that place This Harvey condemned a poor labouring Man of Calais who said he would never believe that any Priest could make the Lord's Body at his pleasure Whereupon he was accused before the Commissary who roundly condemned him to be burnt inveighing against him and saying He was an Heretick and should die a vile Death The poor Man said He should die a viler shortly And so it came to pass for half a Year after he was hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason He seemed to have succeded in the room of a Man of better Principles called Sir Iohn Butler Who was deprived of his Commissariship by some Bishops Commissioners from the King for the examining several Persons suspect of Religion in Calais The Council there had about the Year 1539 complained of him as a maintainer of Damplip a learned and pious Preacher there So he was sent for into England and charged to favour Damplip because he preached so long there and was not restrained nor punish'd by him He answered warily and prudently that the Lord Lisle Lord Deputy and his Council entertained and friendly used him and countenanced him by hearing him preach so that he could not do otherwise than he did After long attendance upon the King's Commissioners he was discharged and returned home but discharged also of his Commissary's place too And having been an Officer of the Arch-bishop's I will add a word or two more concerning him About the Year 1536 he was apprehended in Calais and bound by Sureties not to pass the Gates of that Town upon the Accusation of two Souldiers that he should have said in contempt of the Corporal Presence That if the Sacrament of the Altar be Flesh Blood and Bone then there is good Aqua vitae at John Spicer's Where probably was very bad This Butler and one Smith were soon after brought by Pursevants into England and there brought before the Privy-Council in the Star-Chamber for Sedition and Heresy which were Charges ordinarily laid against the Professors of the Gospel in those Times and thence sent to the Fleet and brought soon after to Bath-place there sitting Clark Bishop of Bath Sampson Bishop of Chichester and Reps Bishop of Norwich the King's Commissioners And no wonder he met with these Troubles For he had raised up the hatred of the Friars of Calais against him by being a Discoverer and Destroyer of one of their gross Religious Cheats There had been great talk of a Miracle in S. Nicolas Church for the conviction of Men that the Wafer after Consecration was indeed turned into the Body Flesh and Bones of Christ. For in a Tomb in that Church representing the Sepulchre there were lying upon a Marble Stone three Hosts sprinkled with Blood and a Bone representing some Miracle This Miracle was in writing with a Pope's Bull of Pardon annexed to those I suppose that should visit that Church There was also a Picture of the Resurrection bearing some relation to this Miracle This Picture and Story Damplip freely spake against in one of his Sermons saying that it was but an Illusion of the French before Calais was English Upon this Sermon the King also having ordered the taking away all superstitious Shrines there came a Commission to the Lord Deputy of Calais to this Sir Iohn Butler the Arch-bishop's Commissary and one or two more that they should search whether this were true and if they found it not so that immediately the Shrine should be plucked down and so it was For breaking up a Stone in the corner of the Tomb instead of the three Hosts the Blood and the Bone they found souldered in the Cross of Marble lying under the Sepulchre three plain white Counters which they had painted like unto Hosts and a Bone that is in the tip of a Sheep's Tail This Damplip shewed the next Day being Sunday unto the People and after that they were sent to the King by the Lord Deputy But this so angred the Friars and their Creatures that it cost Damplip his Life and Commissary Butler much trouble and the loss of his Office After Harvey Hugh Glazier B. D. and Canon of Christ's-Church Canterbury succeeded in the Office of Commissary to the Arch-bishop fo◠Calais He was once a Friar but afterwards favoured the Reformation He was put up to preach at Paul's Cross the first Lent after King Edward came to the Crown and then asserted the observation of Lent to be but of human Institution This Year the Cathedral Church of Canterbury was altered from Monks to Secular Men of the Clergy viz. Prebendaries or Canons Petticanons Choristers and Scholars At this Erection were present Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop the Lord Rich Chancellor of the Court of the Augmentation of the Revenues of the Crown Sir Christopher Hales Knight the King's Attorney Sir Anthony Sentleger Knight with divers other Commissioners And nominating and electing such convenient and fit Persons as should serve for the Furniture of the said Cathedral Church according to the
Mannor was not given to Christ-Church till after the Year 1400. Thomas Goldstone a Prior of that Church and a great Builder built the Mannor-house for a Mansion for the Priors and a Chappel annexed and a new Hall adjoining to the Dormitory and divers other Edifices there as we learn from the History of the Priors of Canterbury lately published To which we may add a Record in that Church to direct us in the Computation of the Time Viz. Anno Dom. 1508. In vigiliis S. Marci Capella dedicatur in Manerio de Lyvyngsborn procurante Thoma Goldston At the Dissolution this was alienated and given to Gage and from him it came to Arch-bishop Cranmer and his Successors And the Bargain was confirmed by Act of Parliament Anno Henr. 34. The Arch-bishop as he had opportunity preferred Learned and Pious Men in his Diocess in the Benefices of his Church and such who freely preached against the Pope and his Superstitions against Images and the Worship of them The chief of these were Nic. Ridley afterwards Bishop of London whom he made Vicar of Herne and Prebend of Canterbury and Iohn Scory afterwards Bishop of Chichester whom he made one of the six Preachers Michael Drum and Lancelot Ridley worthy Men were two more of the Six These he preferred and divers others about through his Diocess that set the Abuses of Popery open before the Peoples Eyes in their Sermons This so angred the Men of the old Religion and particularly some of his own Church in Canterbury that they detected them to the Arch-bishop by articling against them for their Doctrine This they did this Year when the Arch-bishop visited his Church And about two Years after they did so again as shall be taken notice of in due Season About this time it was that Serles and Shether two of the Six Preachers of Canterbury were by the Arch-bishop's Censure put to Recantation for some unsound Passages they had preached Which made them such Enemies to the Arch-bishop and such Contrivers of his Ruin by devising and drawing up a great number of Articles against him if they could have accomplished their Design as shall be seen hereafter under the Year 1543. It was observed of Shether at this time that after the pronouncing his Recantation or Declaration he added these words Good Christians I take God to record that I never preached any thing to you in my Life but the Truth And so in short gave himself the Lie and overthrew all the Recantation he had made before The latter end of the Year there was a Convocation Wherein one of the Matters before them was concerning the procuring a true Translation of the New Testament Which was indeed intended not so much to do such a good Work as to hinder it For having decried the present Translation on purpose to make it unlawful for any to use it they pretended to set themselves about a new One But it was merely to delay and put off the People from the common use of the Scripture As appeared plainly enough in that the Bishops themselves undertook it And so having it in their own Hands they might make what delays they pleased For in the third Session a Proposition was made for the Translation and an Assignation to each Bishop of his Task As Matthew to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Mark to the Bishop of Lincoln Luke to Winton Iohn to Ely and so of the rest But the Arch-bishop saw through all this And therefore in a Sessions that followed after told the House from the King to whom I suppose he had discovered this Intrigue that the Translation should be left to the Learned of both Universities This was a Surprize to the Bishops who all except Ely and S. David's protested against it and began to undervalue the Sufficiency of the Universities as much decayed of late and that they were but young Men and that the greatest Learning lay in the Convocation-men But the Arch-bishop roundly said that he would stick by his Master's Will and Pleasure and that the Vniversities should examine the Translation Bishops Consecrated May 29 being Sunday William Knight was Consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester by Virtue of the Arch-bishop's Letters to him assisted by Richard Suffragan of Dover and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford in the Chappel of the said Bishop of Bath's House situate in the Minories without Aldgate September the 25 th Iohn Wakeman late Abbot of Teuksbury was Consecrated the first Bishop of Glocester by the Arch-bishop Edmond Bishop of London and Thomas Bishop of Westminster assisting Iohn Chambre B. D. was Consecrated first Bishop of Peterburgh Octob. 23. in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh in the Presbytery there by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Bishop of Ely and William Bishop of Norwich by Commission from the Arch-bishop February the 19 th Arthur Bulkeley in the Chappel of Iohn Incent LL. D. Dean of St. Paul's by Iohn Bishop of Sarum by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop William Bishop of St. David's and Iohn Bishop of Glocester assisting Robert King another Abbot and Titular Bishop Reonen Suffragan to the Bishop of Lincoln was this Year Consecrated Bishop of Oxford The Date or his Consecrators I cannot assign the Act being omitted in the Arch-bishop's Register He was first a Monk of Rewly a Priory without Oxford of the Cistertian Order Then Abbot of Bruerne in Oxfordshire After Abbot of Thame of which he was also called Bishop and lastly of Oseney Both which he surrendred to the King at the dissolution of Monasteries This Man when Suffragan preached at S. Mary's in Stamford where he most fiercely inveighed against such as used the New Testament In Q. Mary's Reign he was a persecutor of the Protestants and died 1557. CHAP. XXIV The King's Book revised THE Arch-bishop was this Year among other things employed in the King's Book as it now was called that is The Erudition of any Christian Man spoken of before For the King was minded now to have it well reviewed and if there were any Errors and less proper Expressions to have them corrected and amended And so to have it recommended unto the People as a compleat Book of Christian Principles in the stead of the Scripture which upon pretence of their abuse of the King would not allow longer to be read Accordingly a Correction was made throughout the Book and the correct Copy sent to Cranmer to peruse Which he did and added his own Annotations upon various Passages in it at good length And had it not been too long I had transcribed it wholly out of a Volume in the Benet-College Library But for a taste take this that follows In the Title under his own Hand was this written Animadversions upon the King's Book Vpon the Chapter of Original Sin For the first Offence of our Father Adam No Man shall be damned for the Offences of Adam
Apostles S. Peter S. Paul S. Andrew c. The Prayer for the King nameth K. Henry VIII and his gracious Son Prince Edward In the Kalendar Thomas a Becket's Days are still retained in red Letters But I suppose that was done of course by the Printer using the old Kalendar In the same Book is a large and pious Paraphrase on Psalm LI. A Dialogue between the Father and the Son Meditations on Christ's Passion and many other things By somewhat that happened this Year the Arch-bishop proved very instrumental in promoting the Reformation of corrupt Religion in the Neighbouring Nation of Scotland which this Year had received a great Overthrow by the English Army and great Numbers of Scotish Noblemen and Gentlemen were taken Prisoners and brought up to London and after disposed of in the Houses of the English Nobility and Gentry under an easy Restraint The Earl of Cassillis was sent to Lambeth where the good Arch-bishop shewed him all Respects in providing him with Necessaries and Conveniences but especially in taking care of his Soul He detected to him the great Errors of Popery and the Reasons of those Regulations that had been lately made in Religion in England And so successful was the Arch-bishop herein that the Earl went home much enlightned in true Religion which that Nation then had a great aversion to for they highly misliked the Courses King Henry took Which Prejudices the King understanding endeavoured to take off by sending Barlow Bishop of S. Davids to Scotland with the Book of The Institution of a Christian Man Which nevertheless made no great Impression upon that People But this that happened to the Scotish Nobility that were now taken Prisoners and especially this Guest of the Arch-bishop becoming better enclined to Religion by the Knowledg they received while they remained here had a happier Effect and brought on the Reformation that after happened in that Kingdom The Parliament being summoned in Ianuary in order to the King 's making War with France whither he intended to go in Person the Arch-bishop resolved to try this Occasion to do some good Service again for Religion which had of late received a great stop His Endeavour now was to moderate the severe Acts about Religion and to get some Liberty for the Peoples reading of the Scripture Cranmer first made the Motion and four Bishops viz. Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester seconded him But Winchester opposed the Arch-bishop's Motion with all earnestness And the Faction combined with so much Violence that these Bishops and all other fell off from the Arch-bishop and two of them endeavoured to perswade the Arch-bishop to desist at present and to stay for a better Opportunity But he refused and followed his Stroke with as much vigour as he could and in fine by his perswasion with the King and the Lords a Bill past And the King was the rather inclined thereunto because he being now to go abroad upon a weighty Expedition thought convenient to leave his Subjects at home as easy as might be So with much struggling an Act was past intituled An Act for the Advancement of True Religion and the Abolishment of the contrary In this Act as Tindal's Translation of the Scriptures was forbidden to be kept or used so other Bibles were allowed to some Persons excepting the Annotations and Preambles which were to be cut or dashed out And the King 's former Proclamations and Injunctions with the Primers and other Books printed in English for the Instruction of the People before the Year 1540 were still to be in force which it seems before were not And that every Nobleman and Gentleman might have the Bible read in their Houses and that Noble Ladies and Gentlewomen and Merchants might read it themselves But no Men or Women under those Degrees That every Person might read and teach in their Houses the Book set out in the Year 1540 which was The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man with the Psalter Primer Pater noster Ave and Creed in English But when Winchester and his Party saw that they could not hinder the Bill from passing they clogged it with Provisoes that it came short of what the Arch-bishop intended it as that the People of all sorts and conditions universally might not read the Scriptures but only some few of the higher Rank And that no Book should be printed about Religion without the King's Allowance And that the Act of the Six Articles should be in the same Force it was before A Bishop Consecrated Iune the 25 th being Sunday Paul Bush Provincial of the Bonhommes was consecrated the first Bishop of Bristol by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester assisted by Thomas Bishop of Westminster and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford This Consecration was celebrated in the Parish-Church of Hampton in the Diocess of Westminster CHAP. XXV Presentments at a Visitation BY the Act above-mentioned the generality of the People were restrained from reading the Holy Scriptures But in lieu of it was set forth by the King and his Clergy in the Year 1543 a Doctrine for all his Subjects to use and follow which was the Book abovesaid and all Books that were contrary to it were by Authority of Parliament condemned It was printed in London by Thomas Barthelet This Book the Arch-bishop enjoined to be made publick in his Diocess as I suppose it was in all other Diocesses throughout the Kingdom and allowed no preaching or arguing against it And when one Mr. Ioseph once a Friar in Canterbury now a learned and earnest Preacher and who was afterward preferred to Bow-Church in London had attempted to preach against some things in the Book the Arch-bishop checked and forbad him For indeed there were some Points therein which the Arch-bishop himself did not approve of foisted into it by Winchester's Means and Interest at that time with the King Which Bishop politickly as well as flatteringly called it The King's Book a Title which the Arch-Bishop did not much like for he knew well enough Winchester's Hand was in it And so he told him plainly in K. Edward's Time when he might speak his Mind telling him in relation thereunto That he had seduced the King But because of the Authority of the Parliament ratifying the Book and the many good and useful Things that were in it the Arch-bishop introduced and countenanced it in his Diocess and would not allow open preaching against it The Arch-bishop about the Month of September held a Visitation in Canterbury chiefly because of the Jangling of the Preachers and the divers Doctrines vented among them according as their Fancies Interests or Judgments led them The Visitation proceeded upon the King's Injunctions and other late Ordinances And here I shall set down before the Reader some of the Presentments as I take them from an Original in a Volume that belonged to this Archbishop Wherein notice may be taken what ignorance was then in some of the Priests what
your Face No not so my Lord said the King I have better regard unto you than to permit your Enemies so to overthrow you And therefore I will have you to Morrow come to the Council which no doubt will send for you And when they break this Matter unto you require them that being one of them you may have so much Favour as they would have themselves that is to have your Accusers brought before you And if they stand with you without regard of your Allegations and will in no Condition condescend unto your Request but will needs commit you to the Tower then appeal you from them to our Person and give to them this my Ring which he then delivered unto the Arch-bishop by the which said the King they shall well understand that I have taken your Cause into my Hand from them Which Ring they well know that I use it for no other Purpose but to call Matters from the Council into mine own Hands to be ordered and determined And with this good Advice Cranmer after most humble Thanks departed from the King's Majesty The next Morning according to the King's Monition and his own Expectation the Council sent for him by Eight of the Clock in the Morning And when he came to the Council-Chamber-Door he was not permitted to enter into the Council-Chamber but stood without among Serving-men and Lacquies above three quarters of an hour many Counsellors and others going in and out The Matter seemed strange unto his Secretary who then attended upon him which made him slip away to Dr. Butts to whom he related the manner of the thing Who by and by came and kept my Lord Company And yet e're he was called into the Council Dr. Butts went to the King and told him that he had seen a strange Sight What is that said the King Marry said he my Lord of Canterbury is become a Lacquey or a Serving-man For to my knowledg he hath stood among them this hour almost at the Council-Chamber-Door Have they served my Lord so It is well enough said the King I shall talk with them by and by Anon Cranmer was called into the Council there it was declared unto him That a great Complaint was made of him both to the King and to them That he and others by his Permission had infected the whole Realm with Heresy And therefore it was the King's Pleasure that they should commit him to the Tower and there for his Trial to be examined Cranmer required as is before declared with many both Reasons and Perswasions that he might have his Accusers come there before them before they used any further Extremity against him In fine there was no Intreaty could serve but that he must needs depart to the Tower I am sorry my Lords said Cranmer that you drive me unto this Exigent to appeal from you to the King's Majesty who by this Token hath resumed this Matter into his own Hand and dischargeth you thereof And so delivered the King's Ring unto them By and by the Lord Russel swore a great Oath and said Did not I tell you my Lords what would come of this Matter I know right well that the King would never permit my Lord of Canterbury to have such a Blemish as to be imprisoned unless it were for High-Treason And so as the manner was when they had once received that Ring they left off their Matter and went all unto the King's Person both with his Token and the Cause When they came unto his Highness the King said unto them Ah my Lords I thought that I had had a discreet and wise Council but now I perceive that I am deceived How have you handled here my Lord of Canterbury What make ye of him A Slave Shutting him out of the Council-Chamber among Serving-men Would ye be so handled your selves And after such taunting words as these spoken the King added I would you should well understand that I account my Lord of Canterbury as faithful a Man towards me as ever was Prelate in this Realm and one to whom I am many ways beholden by the Faith I owe unto God and so laid his Hand upon his Breast And therefore who loveth me said he will upon that Account regard him And with these words all and especially my Lord of Norfolk answered and said We meant no manner of Hurt unto my Lord of Canterbury that we requested to have him in Durance Which we only did because he might after his Trial be set at Liberty to his greater Glory Well said the King I pray you use not my Friends so I perceive now well enough how the World goeth among you There remaineth Malice among you one to another let it be avoided out of hand I would advise you And so the King departed and the Lords shook Hands every Man with the Arch-bishop Against whom never more after durst any Man spurn during King Henry's Life And because the King would have Love always nourished between the Lords of the Council and the Arch-bishop he would send them divers times to Dinner with him And so he did after this Reconciliation Thus did the King interpose himself divers times between his Arch-bishop and his irreconcileable Enemies the Papists and observing by these Essays against him under what Perils he was like to come hereafter for his Religion about this Time it was as I conjecture that the King changed his Coat of Arms. For unto the Year 1543 he bore his Paternal Coat of Three Cranes Sable as I find by a Date set under his Arms yet remaining in a Window in Lambeth-House For it is to be noted That the King perceiving how much ado Cranmer would have in the Defence of his Religion altered the Three Cranes which were parcel of his Ancestors Arms into Three Pelicans declaring unto him That those Birds should signify unto him that he ought to be ready as the Pelican is to shed his Blood for his young Ones brought up in the Faith of Christ. For said the King you are like to be tasted if you stand to your Tackling at length As in very deed many and sundry times he was shouldered at both in this King's Reign as you have heard and under the two succeding Princes CHAP. XXIX Occasional Prayers and Suffrages OCcasional Prayers and Suffrages to be used throughout all Churches began now to be more usual than formerly For these common Devotions were twice this Year appointed by Authority as they had been once the last which I look upon the Arch-bishop to be the great Instrument in procuring That he might by this means by little and little bring into use Prayer in the English Tongue which he so much desired and that the People by understanding part of their Prayers might be the more desirous to have their whole Service rendred intelligible whereby God might be served with the more Seriousness and true Devotion The last Year there was a plentiful Crop upon the Ground
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
themselves to him with their just Defence and not only to him but to others and particularly to Mr. Cecyl one formerly their Colleague who was now Master of Requests to the Protector letting him know the whole Matter that he might upon occasion represent the Cause the more favourably to the Arch-bishop And Ascham himself was their Scribe whose Epistle penned in a handsome Latin Stile being not extant among his printed Epistles and being subservient to the History of the University in those Times I have thought worthy to be inserted among the Originals In this Letter he charged the other Party as well with Malice as Ignorance For this their Question was very agreeable to Thomas Aquinas who proved that the Mass exceeded the Lord's Supper in many Prerogatives and much differed from it by many Notes as Women Children Bastards maimed Persons were not allowed to partake of the Mass but they were received to the Holy Supper So that should any say as he proceeds in his Letter that the Mass and the Supper were the same they might exclaim against them much more Their Adversaries had charged them with being too rash in not staying for what Reformation the State should make But he said that all Cambridg wanted rather Spurs to put them forward than a Bridle to keep them back But though their Dispute were prohibited yet their Studies upon the same Argument had in a manner encreased having now written a just Treatise of the Mass which they intended shortly to present to the Protector and waited only for Cecyl's and Cheke's Advice therein But I must beg Pardon of the Reader for this Excursion And as I have given an Instance or two of the private Address of a particular College to him in a particular Case so I will subjoin another more publick of the University in general In the Year abovesaid being the first Year of the King the University laboured under the Fears of the Encroachments of the Town upon their Privileges and likewise under great Suspicions of being spoiled of its Revenues or at least of having them much diminished she having observed how those of her Sister the Church were daily invaded by secular Hands These Fears put Cambridg now in a decaying State and the Studies of good Literature began to be but little minded Add also hereunto that Ecclesiastical Preferments which formerly were the peculiarRewards of Academicks were now ordinarily enjoyed by mere unlearned Lay-men So the Earl of Hartford held a Deanery a Treasureship of a Cathedral Church and four of the best Prebends and his Son three hundred Pounds a Year out of a Bishoprick And Learned Men were seldom taken notice of or had Honours conferred on them and if they obtained any Rewards they were but small Nor were Scholars now in any Repute or Value So that neither Poor nor Rich abode long at their Studies in the University to attain to any considerable Degrees of Learning The Poor could not because the Encouragements there were scarce capable to maintain them and the richer Sort would not chusing rather to follow some other Course because of the obscure and neglected Condition Learning then lay under The Grammar Schools also became disused Parents chusing any other Calling for their Children rather than to bring them up to Letters As Roger Ascham a Man that well knew the State of the University complains in a Letter to the Marquess of Northampton This was the Cause that the said Ascham pensively thus writ unto our Arch-bishop not long after That the University was then in so depressed and drooping a Condition that very few had hope of coming thither at all and fewer had any Comfort to make long tarrying when they were there And that Abroad it retained not so much as the Shadow of its Ancient Dignity At this low Ebb the University now was when King Edward the Sixth came to the Scepter But there being a Parliament this Year in the Month of November the chief Officers thereof thought it adviseable however to prevent it if they could from sinking lower and to keep at least what they had by getting their Ancient Privileges confirmed by that Parliament And for this purpose they writ their earnest Letters to the Arch-bishop Iohn Madew their Vice-chancellor the Bearer urging to him Not only that it was a thing usual at the beginning of Princes Reigns to shew that Favour to the University to have their Privileges renewed by Parliament but chiefly that the Favour his Grace should do to it would be a true piece of Service to the Religion which he had such a tender Care of That every one knew how much it concerned the Common-wealth that Account should be made of Learning but how much it concerned the pure Religion as they stiled that of the Reformation he alone did consider above all others That he knew how that about five hundred Years past or more the knowledg of Letters by the Fault of Kings who ought to have cherish'd it began to withdraw it self from Men and to hide it self in Darkness In which dark Times so involved in Ignorance that notable wild Boar out of the Wood spoiled the Vineyard of Christ above measure Not only treading down the Kings of the Earth and conferring upon himself the Empire of the World but so invaded and broke into the Holy Seat and Temple of Conscience that now there were scarce any Manners of Men any Course of Life any Rite of Ceremonies any Sacrament of the Church any Footstep of Christ which were not either laid waste by his Thunder or defiled by his Breath Or to speak in milder but more significant terms with S. Paul which were not most foully corrupted and adulterated by the Wisdom of humane Will-worship That it was this Night of Discipline and want of Knowledg which robbed us of God's Word and advanced the Empire of Man's Doctrine to that Arbitrary Height that instead of the true Worship of God the right using of things Divine a holy and pure Course of Life Hypocrisy Idolatry and Adultery were most cunningly conveyed and brought in That they did the more willingly mention this Pest of Ignorance conceiving great Hope that the Honour of Learning would be restored anew now when all things tended in a wonderful manner to the illustrating of true Religion which good Learning did necessarily accompany And that since God had now raised him up on purpose for the restoring of the Gospel and had so long reserved him for that End they doubted not but he would give all his Pains and Authority to preserve the Welfare of Learning And that somewhat for this Reason because at that time there could happen no Calamity or Advantage thereunto but every Man would be apt either to charge him with the Blame of the one or attribute to him the Praise of the other This eloquent Letter indicted by the Pen of Ascham then the University-Orator having some remarkable Passages of the State of
Places collected from thence in the nature of Inferences and Observations Which I conclude the Arch-bishop put him upon doing while he was now with him The Work was looked over and examined by the Arch-bishop Notes and Corrections of his own Hand being here and there inserted Also the Gospel of S. Mark is handled in the same method by another of the Arch-bishop's Guests Which Writing hath this Inscription by Cranmer's Hand Petrus Alexander in Marcum At this time therefore there were at the Arch-bishop's House besides Bucer Alasco Peter Martyr Paulus Phagius Peter Alexander Bernardine Ochin Mat. Negelinus after a Minister of Strasburgh who accompanied Bucer and Fagius into England and others whose Names do not occur Three of these were soon after preferred to publick Places of Reading in the Universities Peter Alexander was of Artois and lived with the Arch-bishop before Bucer came into England He was a Learned Man but had different Sentiments in the Matter of the Eucharist enclining to the belief of a Corporeal Presence with the Lutherans Though some Years after he came over to a righter Judgment as his Companion Peter Martyr signified to Calvin in a Letter wrote from Strasburgh Peter Martyr coming about the beginning of the Year 1549 unto the University of Oxford his first Readings were upon the eleventh Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians In which Chapter is some Discourse of the Lord's Supper The Professor when he came so far took occasion to expatiate more largely upon that Argument and the rather that he might state it aright in the midst of those hot Contests that were then about it among Learned Men. These Lectures on the Sacrament he soon after printed at London for the Benefit of the World as they were two Years after done at Zurick and dedicated them to his Patron the Arch-bishop And that partly to give a publick Testimony of his Sense of the Arch-bishop's great Humanity and Benefits towards him Which were so large that he must do nothing else but tell of them to be sufficiently thankful for them And known it was to all as he said how obligingly he received and how liberally he entertained both himself and many other Strangers of his Rank and Condition And partly that by his Authority he would protect and defend what he should find in his Book to be consonant to the Holy Scriptures and agreeable to the King's Laws For he had he said Skill and Industry enough to do it who had himself often both in Publick and Private conflicted with the Adversaries and with admirable Learning accuracy of Wit and Dexterity vindicated the Truth from the spinous and confused Cavils of Sophisters Nor did he want Will to stand up for Sound and Christian Doctrines as all good Men knew who saw how earnest he was in his Labours of restoring Religion that for that Cause he drew upon himself many Enmities and threatning Dangers The first Occasion of Bucer's Call into England was thus He had wrote to Iohn Hales a learned English-man his Acquaintance the sad Estate of Germany and that he could scarce stay any longer in the Place where he was This Hales acquainted the Arch-bishop with which made a great Impression upon his compassionate Soul and he brake out into those words of the Psalmist Mirifica misericordias tuas qui salvos facis sperantes in te a resistentibus dexterae tuae And forthwith writ to Brucer a Letter in October 1548 to come over to this Realm which should be a most safe Harbour for him urging him to become a Labourer in the Lord's Harvest here begun and using other Arguments with him to move him hereunto in the most obliging Stile possible calling him My Bucer And that he might come over the safer from Harms and Enemies the Arch-bishop recommended him to one Hills an English-Merchant to provide for his Passage The Arch-bishop's Letter may be found in the Appendix To this Letter Bucer wrote an Answer seeming upon some Considerations to decline the Arch-bishop's Invitation This Letter coming to the Arch-bishop's Hands he shewed to Peter Alexander who by the Arch-bishop's Order wrote back to Bucer in the said Arch-bishop's and the Protector 's Name to call him again over which Letter was dated March 24 from Lambeth telling him withal that the good old Man Latimer saluted him Letters I suppose of the same Import were also dispatched to the Learned Fagius Bucer and Fagius who were thus honourably invited into England by repeated Letters of the Lord Protector and Arch-bishop Cranmer were by them also nominated for Publick Professors in the University of Cambridg the one of Divinity the other of the Hebrew Tongue This was looked on by their Friends as a notable piece of God's good Providence that when these two eminent Champions of the true Religion were in so much present Danger in Germany so seasonable a Refuge was provided for them elsewhere They both arrived safe in England in the end of April and abode with the Arch-bishop above a quarter of a Year until towards the end of the long Vacation the Arch-bishop intending they should be at Cambridg when the Term should begin in order to their Reading During this Interval while they continued at Lambeth they were not idle being every day busied in some Study and Exercise agreeable to their Function as was hinted before But the main of their Thoughts were taken up in preparing for their University-Lectures Which of what Subject-Matter they should be the Arch-bishop himself directed As it had been a great while his pious and most earnest Desire that the Holy Bible should come abroad in the greatest Exactness and true Agreement with the original Text. So he laid this Work upon these two Learned Men. First That they should give a clear plain and succinct Interpretation of the Scripture according to the Propriety of the Language And Secondly Illustrate difficult and obscure Places and reconcile those that seemed repugnant to one another And it was his Will and his Advice that to this End and Purpose their publick Readings should tend This pious and good Work by the Arch-bishop assigned to them they most gladly and readily undertook For their more regular carrying on this Business they allotted to each other by consent their distinct Tasks Fagius because his Talent lay in the Hebrew Learning was to undertake the Old Testament and Bucer the New The Leisure they now enjoyed with the Arch-bishop they spent in preparing their respective Lectures Fagius entred upon the Evangelical Prophet Esaias and Bucer upon the Gospel of the Evangelist Iohn And some Chapters in each Book were dispatched by them But it was not long but both of them fell Sick which gave a very unhappy stop to their Studies Fagius his Distemper proved mortal who was seized at first with a very acute Fever And notwithstanding Physick and Attendance remaining very ill he had a great desire to remove to Cambridg to
of old Popish Curats The Letter is dated the 23 d of Iuly and is extant in Fox In London by the Connivance and Remisness of the Bishop many neglected the Divine Service then established and others did in secret Places of the Diocess often frequent the Popish Mass and other Superstitious Rites not allowed by the Laws of England The Sins of Adultery greatly encreased The Churches and particularly the Mother-Church of S. Paul's ran into Dilapidations the Glass was broken and the Ornaments and other Buildings belonging to Churches neglected Many refused to pay Tithes to their Curates probably of both sorts such as were Papists to those Curats as more diligently preached Reformation and obeyed the King's Laws and such as were not so to such Curats as were more backward thereunto Bishop Boner also himself now seldom came to Church seldomer preached and celebrated the English Communion Wherefore the Council sent certain private Injunctions to Boner for the redress of these things That he should preach in his own Person at Paul's Cross and declare certain Articles relating to the before-mentioned Neglects which the Council now sent to him to redress That he should preach once in a Quarter and exhort the People to Obedience and that he should be present at every Sermon at Paul's Cross that he should on the principal Feasts celebrate the Communion and at all times that his Predecessors used to Celebrate and sing High Mass. That he should call before him all such as did not frequent the Church and Common-Prayer and the Holy Communion and punish them as also Adulterers and that he should look to the Reparation of S. Paul's and other Churches and that the People pay their Tithes The Adulteries before hinted which the Council thought fit to recommend to the Bishop to take particular cognizance of makes me add that about this time the Nation grew infamous for this Crime It began among the Nobility and so spread at length among the inferior sort Noblemen would very frequently put away their Wives and marry others if they liked another Woman better or were like to obtain Wealth by her And they would sometimes pretend their former Wives to be false to their Beds and so be divorced and marry again such whom they fancied The first occasion of this seemed to be in the Earl of Northampton divorcing himself from his first Wife Anne Daughter to the Earl of Essex and after marrying Elizabeth Daughter to the Lord Cobham In like manner Henry Son of William Earl of Pembroke put away Katharine Daughter to Henry the Duke of Suffolk and married Mary the Daughter of Sir Henry Sidney These Adulteries and Divorces encreased much yea and marrying again without Divorce which became a great Scandal to the Realm and to the Religion professed in it and gave much Sorrow and Trouble in good Men to see it In so much that they thought it necessary to move for an Act of Parliament to punish Adultery with Death This Latimer in a Sermon preached in the Year 1550 signified to the King For the Love of God saith he take an order for Marriage here in England This is some Account of the Retardation of Religion On the other hand the Endeavors of those that wished well to it were not wanting Now the Protestants began more freely to put forth Books and to disperse such as were formerly printed beyond Sea in the behalf of Religion against Popery and concerning such as had suffered under the Cruelties of the Church of Rome Bale about these Days dispersed his Books One was The Image of both Churches applying the Divine Prophecy of the Revelations to the Apostate Church of Rome Another was a Vindication of the Lady Anne Ascue who suffered the cruel Death of Burning about the end of King Henry's Reign Whose Cause the Papists studiously had rendred bad This Book he intitled The Elucidation of Anne Ascue's Martyrdom Which was this Year exposed publickly to sale at Winchester and the Parts thereabouts as a Reproach to the Bishop of Winchester who was the great Cause of her Death Four of these Books came to that Bishop's own Eyes being then at Winchester they had Leaves put in as Additions to the Book some glewed and some unglewed which probably contained some further Intelligences that the Author had gathered since his first writing of the Book And herein some Reflexions were made freely according to Bale's Talent upon some of the Court not sparing Paget himself though then Secretary of State Another of Bale's Books that went now about was touching the Death of Luther Therein was a Prayer of the Duke of Saxony mentioned which the Bishop of Winchester gladly took hold on Wherein that Duke as to the justness of his Cause remitted himself to God's Judgment to be shewed on him here in this World if the Cause he undertook were not Just concerning Religion and desired God if it were not Good to order him to be taken and spoiled of his Honors and Possessions Since which the Duke was taken Prisoner and at the very time of his taking the Papists made an Observation that the Sun appeared so strangely in England as the like had not been seen before So apt are Men to interpret Events according to their own preconceived Opinions But at this Winchester took much Advantage Whereas indeed the Issues of God's Providence in this World are not favourable always even to the best Causes The keeping of Lent was now called into Controversy and asserted that it was not to be observed upon a religious Account And this was done the rather because the Papists placed so much Religion in the bare Fast. In the Pulpit it began to be cried down Tongue and Ioseph two great Preachers in London said That Lent was one of Christ's Miracles which God ordained not Men to imitate or follow And that it was an insupportable Burden There was a set of Rhimes now made about the burial of Lent which was called Iack of Lent 's Testament and publicly sold in Winchester Market therein Steven Gardiner the Bishop was touched who was a great Man for keeping it For in the Ballad Stephen Stockfish was bequeathed in this Will to Stephen Gardiner Of this he made a long Complaint to the Protector But yet this Neglect of Lent was not encouraged by the Superiors For it was kept at Court and Preparations for the King's Diet were made accordingly this Lent by the Protector The Protestants indeed were for keeping it and an Order was issued out for that purpose tho not upon a Religious but Politick Account But the greater part of the ordinary People would not be brought to it by this Distinction So that the Preachers were fain to be employed Latimer preached That those that regard-not Laws and Statutes were despisers of Magistrates There be Laws made of Diet he said what Meats we shall eat at all times And this Law is made in Policy as I suppose for
things should be put in the same posture they were before To which the College by Dr. Haddon's elegant Pen wrot an Answer That as to their abolishing Masses they said they were private Masses and the Statutes of the College did seem to enjoin only Masses wherein was a Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ. That that was not Perjury when by the common Consent of the College some minuter Matters of the Statutes were changed That had he himself been there he would have done as they did considering the Reports that came from the Court brought by Witnesses worthy of Credit And that as for their Disputations they urged that it was free for them to dispute Matters controverted for better Inquiry into the Truth And that it was done with Lenity without any perversness of Speech He had a younger Brother named William who was above forty Years after Bishop of Winton This Man was a Scholar of the College while his Brother was Provost and Bishop To whom he sent once a Request to supply him with a little Money to buy him some Books and other Necessaries he stood in need of at that time His Brother answered him knowing him to be well affected to the Gospel That for his part he held it not fit to relieve those that were not of the True Church and therefore he would not in any wise relieve him Thus had his Religion destroyed in him the very Principles of Nature This Bishop had been a vehement Asserter of Transubstantiation yet in April 1550. he preached against it at Westminster which King Edward thought fit to take notice of in his Journal and he complied and went along with all the Steps of the Reformation till the declining of this Year 1550 when the Matter of taking down Altars was set on Foot For then it seems either there was a Prospect that the Reformation carring on would have a Stop or it was secretly agreed among the Popishly affected now to fall off In Queen Mary's Days he was a mighty busy Man and one of the Commissioners for the examination and condemning to Death the Professors of Religion When in Conference with Bradford that Holy Man had charged him for departing from the Reformed Church as it was in King Edward's Days he told him That he was but a young Man and yet in the first Year of that King he was five or six and forty Years of Age and that coming from the University he went with the World But it was always against his Conscience He could it seems dispense with his Conscience upon Occasion and yet what a Man of Conscience was he when Altars were to be pulled down He sat a Commissioner upon Hoper together with Winchester London Durham and Landaff and however gently he had been used in his Trouble that was forgot and he treated that Reverend Man most rudely undecently falling upon him with foul Words and with a scornful Countenance calling him Hypocrite CHAP. XXI Papists grow bold Loose Professors restrained THUS indeed when the Papists found they could not prevail by outward Force which they had tried to the utmost the last Year they now used other Arts. One among the rest was to libel the Government and disperse scurrilous Rhimes and Ballads upon the Preachers One of these was this Year fastned upon the Pulpit of some eminent Church probably of S. Paul's Which nevertheless soon had an Answer to it And not long after a more witty Ballad was put abroad glancing as it seems at the Arch-bishop upon occasion of the Liberty of reading the Bible and of the English Service and the publishing the Homily-Book and other good Books Whipping the Government under the Person of one Iohn No-body because that notwithstanding all these religious Pretences there was so much Sin Lechery Adultery Bribery and want of Charity A tast of this their Poetry I have put into the Appendix because some probably may be so Curious as to peruse the Fancy of that Age. The Papists were at this Juncture very bold whether it were that they had taken up a Conceit that the old Religion would be again restored upon the Disgrace of the Duke of Somerset or upon some other Reasons To stay these Men the Council as they had proceeded before against some Popish Bishops so they thought fit to use some Rigors towards others noted to be the forwardest Men. One of these was Dr. Chedsey who was one of the Disputants against P. Martyr the King's Professor He took now upon him to preach openly at Oxford against the Steps of the Reformation that were made and making Wherefore March 16 he was commited to the Marshalsea for seditious Preaching Where he lay till November the 11 th 1551. And then he was ordered to be brought to the Bishop of Ely's where he enjoyed his Table and an easier Restraint March 19. Serjeant Morgan was committed to the Fleet for hearing Mass in the Lady Mary's Chappel March 22 Sir Anthony Brown was committed to the Fleet for the same Offence And three days after viz. March 25. Mr. White Warden of Winchester appeared before the Council and confessed that he had divers Books and Letters from beyond Sea and namely from one Martyn a Scholar there who opposed the King's Majesty's Proceedings utterly And it being manifest that he had consented to things of that sort in such wise that greater Practices were thought to be in him that ways he was committed to the Tower where lying for some months he shewed better Conformity in Matters of Religion So that in Iune 14 1551. The Council wrote a Letter to the Arch-bishop that he should send to the Lieutenant of the Tower for Mr. White to be brought to him and with him to remain till such time as he should reclaim him Which being done he was to be sent back again to the Tower until the King's Majesty's further Pleasure upon his Lordship's Certificate of his Proceedings with him This White however he complied now was in Queen Mary's Reign made Bishop successively of Lincoln and Winchester and preached that Queen's Funeral Sermon and was deprived by the next Queen for refusing Conformity to the Religion then established And while the Papists on one hand were so busy in promoting their Ends there were a looser sort of Professors of Religion disgraced the Reformation on the other For some there were that took the liberty of meeting together in certain Places and there to propound odd Questions and vent dangerous Doctrines and Opinions Of these also the Council having notice they thought it very fit to discountenance and restrain them Ianuary 27. A number of Persons a sort of Anabaptists about sixty met in a House on a Sunday in the Parish of Bocking in Essex where arose among them a great Dispute Whether it were necessary to stand or kneel bare-head or covered at Prayers and they concluded the Ceremony not to be material
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
was much offended that he was named in the Book and pretended this to be one Reason why he did write against it to vindicate himself as well as the Papal Church hereby so dangerously struck at This Book of Cranmer's was turned into Latin by Iohn Yong who complied afterwards with the old Religion under Queen Mary and was Master of Pembroke-Hall Cambridg At this Book the Defenders of Popery were so nettled that in the same Year 1550 Winchester then in the Tower and fickle Dr. Smith then at Lovain printed Answers Of Smith's Book I shall only note by the way that March 8. 1550. there was an Order of Council to examine the bringer over of his Book against Cranmer Such a Countenance did the State give to the Arch-bishop and his Book Gardiner's Book made the greatest noise Which was printed in France and intituled An Explication and Assertion of the true Catholick Faith touching the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar with the Confutation of a Book written against the same In the Beginning of his Book he wrote That his Sermon before the King on St. Peter's Day touching the Sacrament of the Altar gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's Book against it and that he was called before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth for his Catholick Faith in the Sacrament Whereas indeed this was not the Cause of his Troubles nor had some former Copies of his Book these words But after the Commission was issued forth against him to make his Cause appear the more specious as if it were the Cause of the Church he thought fit to make an Alteration in the beginning of his Book in the manner abovesaid And to carry on the Scene he in open Court offered his Book before the King's Commissioners To this Book of Gardiners our Arch-bishop studied and composed an Answer holding himself bound for the Vindication of the Evangelical Truth as well as of his own Writing and for the Satisfaction of the People not to suffer it to lie untaken notice of When it was known the Arch-bishop was preparing an Answer against Gardiner the People were in very great expectation and conceived an earnest desire to see and read it Having therefore dispatched his Copy and sent it to Rainold Wolf his Printer it was printed off in the Month of September 1551. But there was some stop put to the publishing of it occasioned by a Proclamation issued out from the King whereby for some political Ends both the printing and selling of English Books without the Allowance of the King's Majesty or six of his Privy-Council was forbidden The Arch-bishop being desirous that his Book might come abroad the next Term for the Contentation of many who had long expected the same sent to Secretary Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke to procure either from the King or Council a Licence to the said Wolf for printing and selling his Book Which was obtained and the Book published accordingly This Letter of the ABp's dated Sept. 29. I have thought not amiss to reposit in the Appendix Octob. 1. A Licence was granted to Wolf to publish the Book under the King's Privilege the Court then being at Hampton-Court and the Arch-bishop himself present The Title this second Book of the Arch-bishop's bore was An Answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan unto a crafty and sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly Doctrine of the most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Wherein is also as occasion serveth answered such Places of the Book of Dr. Richard Smith as may seem any thing worthy the answering Also a true Copy of the Book written and in open Court delivered by Dr. Stephen Gardiner not one Word added or diminished but faithfully in all Points agreeing with the Original This Book of Arch-bishop Cranmer's was printed again at London 1580 with his Life and some other things His Reply to Gardiner was in the most fair and candid Method that could be devised For he first set down his own Treatise Piece by Piece then Gardiner's Reply thereunto Word for Word leaving not one Paragraph without a full Answer His Reply to Smith was only of some things most worthy to be taken notice of the rest of Smith's Book being meer Trifles This Reply to Smith he inserted in the Body of his Answer to Gardiner as occasion served Only at the end he made a particular Reply to Smith's Preface It seemed to be a very compleat Exercitation upon that Subject The Book was stored with so great Learning and Plenty of Arguments Vt ea Controversia saith one of his Successors a nemine unquam contra Pontificios accuratius tractata esse videatur That no one Controversy was by any ever handled against the Papists more accurately It may not be amiss to mention here the Opinion that Cranmer himself had of his Book in that famous and renowned Confession he made of his Faith in S. Mary's Church Oxon immediately before he was led away to his Burning Where he expressed his full Approbation and great Confidence of the Doctrine contained therein saying That as for the Sacrament he believed as he had taught in his Book against the Bishop of VVinchester The which Book he said taught so true a Doctrine of the Sacrament that it should stand at the last Day before the Judgment of God where the Papistical Doctrine contrary thereto should be ashamed to shew her Face The Papists spake as much against this Book being much galled by it Dr. Tresham in his Disputation with Latimer said There were six hundred Errors in the Book Weston thinking to invalidate the Book by the pretended Novelty of the Doctrine asked the same Father How long he had been of that Opinion He said Not past seven Years that is about the Year 1547 and that Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book confirmed his Judgment therein and added That if he could but remember all therein contained he would not fear to answer any Man in this Matter The Arch-bishop had acknowledged to the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford that Ridley had first begun to enlighten him as to the true Notion of the Presence as he had maintained it in his Book Hereupon one of them took occasion to try to baffle the true Doctrine by making the whole stress of it to depend upon the Authority of single Ridley Latimer said he leaned upon Cranmer and Cranmer leaned upon Ridley Whereas the truth of this was no more but that Ridley reading Bertram's Book of the Body and Blood of Christ was sharpened to examine the old Opinion more accurately of the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood and looking into Ecclesiastical Authors he found it greatly controverted in the ninth Century and learnedly writ against Which made him begin to conclude it none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but more lately
for there was that which would comfort him when he should be in such a case as he was then in One asked him concerning the Doctrine of the School-Doctors that Bread remained not after Consecration He replied There was none of the School-Doctors knew what Consecratio did mean And pausing a while said It was Tota actio The whole Action in ministring the Sacrament as Christ did institute it After the Conference with him was ended Yong retiring into another Chamber said to Wilks that Dr. Redman so moved him that whereas he was before in such Opinion of certain things that he would have burned and lost his Life for them now he doubted of them But I see said he a Man shall know more and more by process of time and by reading and hearing others And Mr. Dr. Redman's saying shall cause me to look more diligently for them Ellis Lomas Redman's Servant said he knew his Master had declared to King Henry that Faith only justifieth but that he thought that Doctrine was not to be taught the People lest they should be negligent to do good Works All this I have related of this Divine that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest Men of his Time and lay up the dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines The Sweating-sickness breaking out this Year in great violence whereby the two Sons of the Duke of Suffolk were taken off Letters from the Council dated Iuly 18 were sent to all the Bishops to perswade the People to Prayer and to see God better served It being enacted 1549 That the King might during three Years appoint sixteen Spiritual Men and sixteen Temporal to examine the old Ecclesiastical Laws and to compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws to be in force in the room of the old this third Year Octob. 6. a Commission was issued out to the same number of Persons authorizing them to reform the Canon Laws that is to say to eight Bishops eight Divines eight Civil Lawyers and eight Common Whose Names as they occur in an Original are as follow BISHOPS The Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Exeter Glocester Bath Rochestre DIVINES Mr. Taylor of Lincoln Cox Almoner Parker of Cambridg Latimer Cook Sir Anthony I suppose Peter Martyr Cheke Ioannes a Laseo CIVILIANS Mr. Peter Cecyl Sir Tho. Smith Taylor of Hadeligh Dr. May Mr. Traheron Dr. Lyel Mr. Skinner LAWYERS Justice Hales Justice Bromly Goodrick Gosnal Stamford Carel Lucas Brook Recorder of London It was so ordered that this number should be divided into four distinct Classes or Companies each to consist of two Bishops two Divines to Civilians and two Common-Lawyers And to each Company were assigned their set parts Which when one Company had finished it was transmitted to the other Companies to be by them all well considered and inspected But out of all the number of two and thirty eight especially were selected from each rank two viz. out of the Bishops the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely out of the Divines Cox and Martyr out of the Civilians Taylor and May out of the Common-Lawyers Lucas and Goodrick To whom a new Commission was made Novemb. 9 for the first forming of the Work and preparation of the Matter And the Arch-bishop supervised the whole Work This Work they plied close this Winter But lest they should be straitned for time the Parliament gave the King three Years longer for accomplishing this Affair So Feb. 2. A Letter was sent from the Council to make a new Commission to the Arch-bishop and to the other Bishops and Learned Men Civilians and Lawyers for the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws according to the Act of Parliament made in the last Session This was a very noble Enterprize and well worthy the Thoughts of our excellent Arch-bishop Who with indefatigable Pains had been both in this and the last King's Reign labouring to bring this Matter about and he did his part for he brought the Work to perfection But it wanted the King's Ratification which was delayed partly by Business and partly by Enemies Bishops Consecrated August the 30 th Iohn Scory Ponet being translated to Winchester was consecrated Bishop of Rochester at Croyden by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford Miles Coverdale was at the same time and place Consecrated Bishop of Exon all with their Surplices and Copes and Coverdale so habited also CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion OUR Arch-bishop and certain of the Bishops and other Divines but whom by Name I find not were this Year chiefly busied in composing and preparing a Book of Articles of Religion which was to contain what should be publickly owned as the Sum of the Doctrine of the Church of England This the Arch-bishop had long before this bore in his Mind as excellently serviceable for the creating of a Concord and Quietness among Men and for the putting an End to Contentions and Disputes in Matters of Religion These Articles the Arch-bishop was the Penner or at least the great Director of with the assistance as is very probable of Bishop Ridley And so he publickly owned afterwards in his Answer to certain Interrogatories put to him by Queen Mary's Commissioners viz. That the Catechism the Book of Articles and the Book against Winchester were his Doings These Articles were in number Forty two and were agreed to in the Convocation 1552. And in the Year 1553 they were published by the King's Authority both in Latin and English After they were finished he laboured to have the Clergy subscribe them but against their Wills he compelled none though afterwards some charged him falsly to do so Which he utterly denied as he declared before the said Queen's Commissioners But to enter into some Particulars concerning so eminent a Matter Ecclesiastical as this was In the Year 1551 the King and his Privy-Council ordered the Archbishop to frame a Book of Articles of Religion for the preserving and maintaining Peace and Unity of Doctrine in this Church that being finish'd they might be set forth by Publick Authority The Arch-bishop in obedience hereunto drew up a set of Articles which were delivered to certain other Bishops to be inspected and subscribed I suppose by them Before them they lay until this Year 1552. Then May 2. a Letter was sent from the Council to our Arch-bishop to send the Articles that were delivered the last Year to the Bishops and to signify whether the same were set forth by any Publick Authority according to the Minutes The Arch-bishop accordingly sent the Articles and his Answer unto the Lords of the Council In September I find the Articles were again in his Hands Then he set the Book in a better Order and put Titles upon each of the Articles and some Additions for the better perfecting of the Work and supply
of that which lacked And so transmitted the Book again from Croydon Septemb. 19. to Sir William Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke the one the King 's Principal Secretary and the other his Tutor being the two great Patrons of the Reformation at the Court Desiring them together to take these Articles into their serious Considerations for he well knew them to be both wise and good Men and very well seen in Divine Learning And he referred it to their Wisdoms whether they thought best to move the King's Majesty therein before his coming to Court as though he conceived the King might make some demur in so weighty an Affair till he should consult with the Metropolitan in order to the coming to a Resolution or that there were some great Persons about the King that might cast some Scruples and Objections in his Mind concerning it which he by his Presence might prevent or be ready at hand to resolve Cecyl and Cheke thought it more convenient the Arch-bishop should offer them to the King himself So coming to Court soon after he delivered the Book to the King and moved him for their publishing and due observation And so leaving them before the King and Council they were then again delivered unto certain of the King's Chaplains who made some Alterations For I find that Octob. 2. a Letter was directed to Mr. Harley Bill Horn Grindal Pern and Knox to consider certain Articles which must be these Articles of Religion exhibited to the King's Majesty to be subscribed by all such as shall be admitted to be Preachers or Ministers in any part of the Realm and to make report of their Opinions touching the same The Time of the Year declined now towards the latter end of November and the Arch-bishop being retired down from Croydon to his House at Ford near Canterbury the Privy-Council Novemb. 20. dispatched by a Messenger the Articles unto him to be reviewed and for his last Hand that they might be presented before the Convocation and allowed there and so be published by the Royal Authority The Arch-bishop received the Book and Letter from the Council Novemb. 23. And making some Notes upon it enclosed them in a Letter to the Lords and sent them together with the Book the next day beseeching them to prevail with the King that all Bishops should have Authority to cause their respective Clergy to subscribe it And then he trusted as he wrote that such a Concord and Quietness in Religion would soon follow as otherwise would not be in many Years And thereby God would be glorified the Truth advanced and their Lordships rewarded by him as the setters forth of his true Word and Gospel This pious Letter may be read in the Appendix The King went a Progress this Summer and the Arch-bishop retired to Croydon where I find him in Iuly August and September And thence Octob. 11. he went to Ford to spend some time in his Diocess Now he was absent from the Court and the King abroad at that distance that he could not frequently wait upon him and be present at the Council his Enemies were at work to bring him into trouble as we shall see by and by CHAP. XXVIII Persons nominated for Irish Bishopricks THERE were certain Bishopricks in Ireland about this time vacant one whereof was that of Armagh And it was thought convenient to have them filled by Divines out of England In the Month of August the Arch-bishop was consulted with for this that so by the Influence of very wise and learned Men and good Preachers the Gospel might be the better propagated in that dark Region But because it was foreseen to be difficult to procure any English Men so endowed to go over thither therefore Secretary Cecyl being then with the King in his Progress sent a Letter to the Arch-bishop at Croyden to nominate some worthy Persons for those Preferments and whom he thought would be willing to undertake them He returned him the Names of Four viz. Mr. Whitehead of Hadley Mr. Turner of Canterbury Sir Thomas Rosse and Sir Robert Wisdome He said He knew many others in England that would be meet Persons for those Places but very few that would gladly be perswaded to go thither For it seems the English were never very fond of living in Ireland But he added concerning these four which he had named That he thought they being ordinarily called for Conscience-sake would not refuse to bestow the Talent committed unto them wheresoever it should please the King's Majesty to appoint them He recommended likewise a fifth Person for this Promotion one Mr. Whitacre a wise and well-learned Man as he characters him who was Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester Poynet But he doubted whether he would be perswaded to take it upon him It may not be amiss to make some enquiry who and what those Four before-mentioned Persons were Mr. Whithead was an Exile in Queen Mary's Reign and Pastor of the English Congregation at Frankford And at the Conference in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Government he was one of the Nine Disputants on the Protestant side and one of the appointed Eight to revise the Service-Book The Writer of the Troubles at Frankford mentions three viz. Coverdale Turner and this Whitehead of whom he saith That they were the most ancient Preachers of the Gospel and the most ancient Fathers of this our Country and that from their Pens as well as their Mouths most of Queen Elizabeth's Divines and Bishops first received the Light of the Gospel Why Cranmer should stile him VVhithead of Hadley I do not apprehend seeing Dr. Rowland Taylor his Chaplain was now Parâ—on of Hadley who not long after was there burnt And one Yeomans was Taylor 's Curat there who also was afterwards burnt at Norwich But I suppose this was some other Hadley I find two about this Time bearing the Name of Turner both eminent Men and Preachers The one was named William Turner a Doctor in Physick and greatly befriended by Sir Iohn Cheke and Sir William Cecyl This Man a Native of Northumberland was the first English Man that compiled an Herbal which was the Ground-work of that which Gerard laid the last Hand unto He was a Retainer to the Duke of Somerset in Edward the Sixth's Time and was Physician in ordinary to his Family And the Year before this viz. 1551 I find him Dean of Wells The other was Richard Turner a Staffordshire-Man in former time Curate of Chartam in Kent and commonly called Turner of Canterbury living in the family of Mr. Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary of whom afterwards who held the Impropriation of that Parsonage and had presented this Man to the Vicarage For his free and bold preaching against Popish Errors and asserting the King's Supremacy and for the extraordinary Success of his Ministry in bringing Multitudes of People in those Parts out of Ignorance and Superstition he was put to much Trouble and Danger He was
Notwithstanding this cleansing of the Church from Superstition and Idolatry and bringing in the Knowledg of the Gospel by the Arch-bishop's constant Pains and Study the People generally even the Professors themselves were bad enough as to their Morals and Religion had yet got but little hold of them A clear sight of the Behaviour of these Times may be seen by what Tho. Becon a Chaplain of Cranmer's writ in his Preface to a Book put forth in those Days What a nomber of fals Christians lyve ther at thys present day unto the excedynge dishonour of the Christen Profession which with theyr Mouth confesse that they know God but with theyr Dedes they utterly denye hym and are abhominable disobedient to the Word of God and utterlye estranged from al good Works What a swarm of grosse Gospellers have we also among us which can prattle of the Gospel very fynely talk much of the Justification of Faith crake very stoutly of the free remissyon of all theyr Sins by Christ's Blood avaunce themselves to be of the Number of those which are predestinate unto Eternal Glory But how far do theyr Life differ from al true Christianitie They are puffed up with al kynd of Pryde they swel with al kynd of Envy Malice Hatred and Enmity against theyr Neghbour they brenne with unquencheable Lusts of Carnal Concupiscence they walowe and tumble in al kynd of beastly Pleasures theyr gredy covetous Affects are insatiable thenlarging of theyr Lordshipps thencreasyng of theyr Substance the scrapyng together of theyr Worldly Possessions infynite and knoweth no End In fyne all theyr Endeavours tend unto thys End to shew themselves very Ethnycks and utterly estraunged from God in theyr Conversation although in Words they otherwise pretend As for theyr Almes-Dedes theyr Praying theyr Watchyng theyr Fastyng and such other Godly Exercises of the Spirit they are utterly banished from these rude and gross Gospellers All theyr Religion consisteth in Words and Disputations in Christen Acts and Godly Dedes nothyng at all These evil Manners of the Professors themselves looked with so sad a Face that it made the best Men assuredly expect a Change and woful Times to follow Septemb. 27. A Letter was sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop to examine a Sect newly sprung up in Kent Whereof there was now a Book of Examinations sent him and to commune with a Man and a Woman the Informers bearers of the Letter who could inform him somewhat of the Matter And to take such order in the same according to the Commission that these Errors might not be suffered thus to overspread the King's Faithful Subjects What this Sect was appeareth not The Anabaptists were taken notice of and a Commission issued out against them some Years before These were Sectaries more new and whereof the Council very lately was informed It may be they were of the Family of Love or David George his Sect who made himself some-time Christ and some-time the Holy Ghost For a little before these Times divers Sects sprang up under the Profession of the Gospel in High and Low Germany some whereof dispersed themselves into England Which Sects began to do so much hurt to the Reformation among us that the Author before-mentioned laments it in these words What wicked and ungodly Opinions are there sown now-a-days of the Anabaptists Davidians Libertines and such other pestilent Sects in the Hearts of the People unto the great Disquietness of Christ's Church moving rather unto Sedition than unto pure Religion unto Heresy than unto things Godly The examination of this new Sect was one of the Businesses the Arch-bishop was employed in while he was in his Retirement at his House near Canterbury Another was the sitting upon a Commission to him and other Gentlemen of Kent for enquiry after such as had embezelled the Plate and Goods belonging to Chauntries c. given by the Parliament to the King and converting them to their own uses But this being somewhat an odious Work he was not very forward to enter upon especially because he thought whatsoever he and the other Commissioners should recover would be but swallowed up by the Duke of Northumberland and his Friends and the King be little the better But because he did not make more haste he was charged by his Enemies at Court as a neglecter of the King's Business Which cost him a Letter in excuse of himself to the said Duke signifying that he omitted this Business a while till the Gentlemen and Justices of Peace of Kent who where then mostly at London were come home Decemb. 2. A Letter was sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop to grant out a Warrant Ad Installandum for the Bishop of VVorcester and Glocester without paying any Fees for the same because he paid Fees for another Mandate which served to no purpose Febr. 20. An Order was sent to the Arch-bishop from the Council to examine the Vicar of Beden in the County of Berks according to an Information inclosed and to advertise the Lords of his Proceedings therein What this Vicar's Crime was I know not but I observe about these Times the Priests and Curats were very busy Men and would take liberty sometimes to speak against the King's Proceedings or his Arch-bishop with bitterness enough and sometimes to vent fond Opinions so that oftentimes they were fetched up to the Council-board and after an Appearance or two referred to the Arch-bishop to examine and punish as being Matters relating to Religion and so proper for his Cognizance About the latter end of this Year Thomas Sampson was preferred to the Deanery of Chichester having been Parson of Alhallowes-Bredstreet London February the 2 d A Letter was sent from the Privy-Council to the Arch-bishop to bestow the said Living upon Mr. Knox who was one of the King's Chaplains and in good esteem in the Court for his Gift of Preaching This Knox was the Man whose Name was so dashed in the King's Journal where the Names of the King 's six Chaplains were inserted that Bishop Burnet could not read it The Council bare a great favour to him as appears by those several Letters they wrote in his behalf One was mentioned before sent to the Arch-bishop for a Living in London but in that Knox succeeded not the Arch-bishop preferring Laurence Saunders afterwards a Martyr thereunto Knox being sent this Year into the North one of the King 's Itinerary Preachers a Warrant dated Octob. 27 was granted from the Council to four Gentlemen to pay to him his Majesty's Preacher in the North so he is stiled forty Pounds as his Majesty's Reward And again Decemb. 9 a Letter was sent from the Council to the Lord VVharton who was Lord VVarden in the Northern Borders in commendation of Mr. Knox. And the next Year viz. 1553 being returned out of the North and being then in Buckinghamshire that he might find the more acceptance and respect there the
Council wrote a Letter to the great Men in those Parts viz. the Lord Russel Lord Windsor to the Justices of the Peace and the rest of the Gentlemen within that County in favour of the said Knox the Preacher A Bishop Consecrated June 26. Iohn Taylor S. Th. P. Dean of Lincoln a Learned and Pious Man was Consecrated Bishop of Lincoln at Croyden-Chappel by the Arch-bishop assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London and Iohn Bishop of Rochester CHAP. XXXIV A Catechism The Arch-bishop opposeth the Exclusion of the Lady Mary WE are now come to the last Year of good K. Edward's Reign when the Arch-bishop was as commonly at the Council as he used to be before For the Counsellors made great use of him and did not use to conclude any thing in matters relating to the Church without him And if he came not they often sent for him and once the last Year in October when he had fixed his Day of going into Kent they staied him for some Days that they might confer with him about some certain Matter I suppose relating to the Articles of Religion that were then under their Hands To look no further than the latter end of the last Year He was at Council at Westminster in February and this Year in March and April And the Court being at Greenwich where the King lay sick and died the Arch-bishop was there at Council in Iune but not after the eighth Day The reason he came no more we may well conjecture to be because he did no ways like the Methods that were now taking by Northumberland to bring the Crown into his own Family and disenherit the King's Sisters For soon after viz. Iune 11. The Lord Chief Justice Mountagne and some other Judges with the King's Attorny and Solicitor were sent for to the Council to consult about drawing up the Instrument On one of these Council-Days he procured the King's Letters in behalf of the Book of Articles which he had taken such Pains about the two last Years both in composing and in bringing to effect The King had before given order to the Arch-bishop by his Letters to put forth these Articles And now they were put forth he procured the King's Letters also to his own Officers for to see the Clergy of his Diocess to subscribe thereunto So the King's Letters were directed to the Official of the Court of Canterbury and the Dean of the Deanery of the Arches and to their Surrogates Deputies c. Setting forth That whereas he had given order unto Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury in Letters sealed with his Signet for the Honour of God and to take away Dissension of Opinion and confirm Consent of true Religion that he should expound publish denounce and signify some Articles and other things breathing the right Faith of Christ for the Clergy and People within his Jurisdiction the King therefore enjoined them the Arch-bishop's Officers that they should cause all Rectors Vicars Priests Stipendiaries School-masters and all that had any Ecclesiastical Employment to appear in Person before the Arch-bishop in his Hall at Lambeth there further to obey and do on the King's part according as it shall be signified and to receive according to Reason and the Office owing to the King 's Royal Dignity And in obedience hereunto the Official Iohn Gibbon LL. D. Commissary of the Deanery of the Blessed Virgin of the Arches signified by an Instrument dated Iune 2 to the Arch-bishop that he had cited the Clergy I do not find the success of this only that the City-Clergy made their appearance before the Arch-bishop at Lambeth and that he did his endeavor by Perswasion and Argument to bring them to subscribe Which no question very few refused But this Matter afterwards served Q. Mary's Commissioners for one of their Interrogatories to be put to the Arch-bishop as though he had compelled many against their Wills to subscribe Which he denied saying He compelled none but exhorted such to subscribe as were willing first to do it before they did it In the Month of May the King by his Letters Patents commanded a Latin Catechism to be taught by School-masters to their Scholars It was intitled Catechismus brevis Christianae disciplinae summam continens The King in his Letters dated May 20. said It was made by a certain Pious and Learned Man and presented to him and that he committed the diligent examination of it to certain Bishops and other Learned Men whose Judgment was of great Authority with him The same Bishops and Learned Men I suppose that were framing and preparing the Articles of Religion the last Year The Author of this Catechism is not certainly known Some conjecture him to be Ponet the Bishop of Winchester The Learned Dr. Ward one of the English Divines sent to the Synod of Dort having this Catechism in his Library now in the possession of a Friend of mine wrote therein these words A ro N llo autore siquid ego divinare possum Meaning probably Alexander Nowel who was now if I mistake not School-master of Westminster and afterwards Dean of S. Pauls But whosoever was the Author the Arch-bishop we may conclude to be the furtherer and recommender of it unto the King it being that Prelate's great Design by Catechisms and Articles of Religion and plain Expositions of the Fundamentals to instil right Principles into the Minds of the Youth and common People for the more effectual rooting out Popery that had been so long entertained by the industrious nurselling up the Nation in Ignorance There was a Catechism that came forth about this time whether it were this or another I cannot say allowed by the Synod or Convocation In the beginning of Q. Mary the Popish Divines made a great stir about this Catechism and thought they had a great Advantage against it because it was put forth as from the Synod whereas that Synod knew nothing of it Whereupon Wesâ—on the Prolocutor in Q. Mary's first Convocation brought a Bill into the House declaring that Catechism being Pestiferous and full of Heresies to be foisted upon the last Synod fraudulently and therefore that the present Synod disowned it To which he set his own hand and propounded that all the House should do the like Which all but six consented to One whereof was Philpot Arch-deacon of Winchester who stood up and told them in justification of those that published the said Catechism that the Synod under K. Edward had granted to certain Persons to be appointed by the King to make Ecclesiastical Laws And whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided might well be said to be done by the Synod of London although such as were of the House then had no notice thereof before the Promulgation And therefore in this Point he thought the setters forth of the Catechism had nothing slandered the House since they had that
to bring the same more easily to pass some have abused the Name of Me Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury bruting abroad that I have set up the Mass at Canterbury and that I offered to say Mass before the Queen's Highness and at Paul's Church and I wot not where I have been well exercised these twenty Years to suffer and bear evil Reports and Lies and have not been mych grieved thereat and have born all things quietly Yet when untrue Reports and Lies turn to the hindrance of God's Truth they be in no wise to be tolerate and suffered Wherefore these be to signify to the World that it was not I that did set up the Mass at Canterbury but it was a false flattering lying and dissembling Monk which caused the Mass to be set up there without my Advice or Counsel And as for offering my self to say Mass before the Queen's Highness or in any othea Place I never did as her Grace knoweth well But if hâ—r Grace will give me leave I shall be ready to prove against all that will say the contrary and that the Communion-Book set forth by the most innocent and godly Prince K. Edward VI in his High Court of Parliament is conformable to the Order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed and which his Apostles and Primitive Church used many Years Whereas the Mass in many things not only hath no Foundation of Christ his Apostles nor the Primitive Church but also is manifest contrary to the same and containeth many horrible Blasphemies in it And altho many either unlearned or maliciously do report that Mr. Peter Martyr is unlearned yet if the Queen's Highness will graunt thereunto I with the said Mr. Peter Martyr and other four or five which I shall choose will by God's Grace take upon us to defend that not only our Common-Prayers of the Churches Ministration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies but also that all the Doctrine and Religion by our said Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI is more pure and according to God's Word than any that hath been used in England these thousand Years so that God's Word may be the Judg and that the Reason and Profes may be set out in writing To th entent as well all the World may examine and Judg them as that no Man shall start back from their Writing and what Faith hath been in the Church these fifteen hundred Years we will joyne with them in this Point and that the Doctrine and Usage is to be followed which was in the Church fifteen hundred Years past And we shall prove that the Order of the Church set out at this present in this Church of England by Act of Parliament is the same that was used in the Church fifteen hundred Years past And so shall they never be able to prove theirs Some Copies of this Declaration soon fell into the Hands of certain Bishops who brought them to the Council The Council sent a Copy to the Queen's Commissioners Who soon after ordered him to appear before them and to bring in an Inventory of his Goods The reason as is alledged of his being ordered to bring in this Inventory was because it was then intended that he should have a sufficient Living assigned him and to keep his House and not meddle with Religion So on the Day appointed which was August 27 the Arch-bishop together with Sir Thomas Smith Secretary of State to K. Edward and May Dean of S. Pauls came before the Queen's Commissioners in the Consistory of Pauls and the Arch-bishop brought in his Inventory We are left to guess what he was now cited for I suppose it was to lay to his charge Heresy and his Marriage What more was done with him at this time I find not He retired to his House at Lambeth where he seemed to be confined For about the beginning of August as may be collected from a Letter of the Arch-bishop's to Cecyl he was before the Council about the Lady Iane's Business without all question And then with the severe Reprimands he received was charged to keep his House and be forth-coming At that time he espied Cecyl who was in the same Condemnation and would fain have spoken with him but durst not as he told him in a Letter dated August 14 as it seems out of his Love and Care of him lest his very talking with Cecyl might have been prejudicial to that Pardon which he now lay fair for But by Letter he desired him to come over to him to Lambeth because he would gladly commune with him to hear how Matters went and for some other private Causes Cecyl being now at Liâ—erty September 13 following the Arch-bishop was again summoned to appear that Day before the Queen's Council Then he appeared and was dismissed but commanded to be the next Day in the Star-Chamber And so he was The effect of which appearance was that he was committed to the Tower partly for setting his Hrnd to the Instrument of the Lady Iane's Succession and partly for the publick Offer he made a little before of justifying openly the Religious Proceedings of the deceased King But the chief Reason was the inveterate Malice his Enemies conceived against him for the Divorse of K. Henry from the Queen's Mother the blame of which they laid wholly upon him though Bishop Gardiner and other Bishops were concerned in it as deep as he In the Tower we leave the good Arch-bishop a while after we have told you that soon after the Queen coming to the Tower some of the Arch-bishop's Friends made humble suit for his Pardon and that he might have access to her but She would neither hear him nor see him Holgate also the other Arch-bishop about the beginning of October was committed to the Tower upon pretence of Treason or great Crimes but chiefly I suppose because he was Rich. And while he was there they rifled his Houses at Battersea and Cawood At his former House they seized in Gold coined three hundred Pounds in Specialties and good Debts four hundred Pounds more in Plate gilt and Parcel gilt sixteen hundred Ounces A Mitre of fine Gold with two Pendants set round about the sides and midst with very fine pointed Diamonds Saphires and Balists and all the Plain with other good Stones and Pearls and the Pendants in like manner weighing one hundred twenty five Ounces Six or seven great Rings of fine Gold with Stones in them whereof were three fine blew Saphires of the best an Emerald very fine a good Turkeys and a Diamond a Serpent's Tongue set in a Standard of Silver gilt and graven the Arch-bishop's seal in silver his Signet an old Antick in Gold The Counterpane of his Lease of Wotton betwixt the late Duke of Northumberland and him with Letters Patents of his Purchase of Scrowby Taken from Cawood and other Places appertaining to the Arch-bishop by one Ellis Markham First in ready Money nine hundred
that had the Gift of God and that they pronounced it wicked and abominable and termed it a Doctrine of Devils and the Invention of Antichrist All which Bishop Ponet in the Name of all the Protestants in his Book did utterly deny that ever they said writ or thought so This Book was indeed made by the Bishop of Winchester when he was in the Tower and he borrowed much of it from Albertus Pighius and published about that time Martin being then a Student at the University of Bourges in France it once happened in some Conversation there that Edward the King of England was commended whether it were for his Vertue or Learning or Abilities beyond his Years whereat Martin began as it seemed to eclipse the King's Honour by mentioning the Imprisonment of Winchester saying That there was a Head-Papist Prisoner in England meaning him Upon which several asked him Whether it was not the same Winchester that had set out an Hodgpodg concerning Marriage of Priests He laughing answered It was even he But that no Man ought to marvel for that VVinchester was more meet for Warlike than for Ecclesiastical Disputations Which Passage I have from Bale who was acquainted at that University with Franciscus Baldwin the Learned Professor of Law there Out of this Book Martin framed that which went under his Name with Winchester's Privity And this was well enough known to Bale and others in those Times Ponet said that Martin was abused by others who set him a-work to bear the Name and to desire the Fame of so gay a Book rather than he was the Author of it indeed The said Ponet or Poinet late Bishop of Winchester but now an Exile very learnedly answered this Book in two several Treatises The first was intitled An Apology against Tho. Martin's Blasphemies In this Treatise upon occasion of the Papists prohibition of Marriage to Priests he proved that the said Papists were Hereticks and had taken part in the most principal Parts with all the Hereticks that had corrupted the true Church of Christ. The Second Treatise replenished with great Learning he lived not to finish though some doubt whether he were the Author of this Book but the Copy falling into the Hands of Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury he published it in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign with very large and excellent Additions of his own Ponet had thorowly studied this Point and I believe was put upon the Study of it by Arch-bishop Cranmer whose Chaplain he was For before this he put forth two Books upon this Argument viz. Of the Marriage of Ministers And a Defence of that Marriage The last thing I have to say concerning these Orders taken with the Married Clergy is That there were two things thought very Hard which were put upon those that were willing to comply and put away their Wives The one was in relation to the publick Confessions they were to make Which were put into their Mouths by others and drawn up for them in that manner as made them tell horrible Lies They must speak their own Shame in Bills of their Penance lying against themselves most vilely and most shamefully disabling their Credit and Estimation for ever And to give an Instance One such Confession which was much cried out against was made by one Sir Iohn Busby of Windsor Iune 29. in the Year 1555. Which Ponet calleth a goodly Confession of his hearty and earnest Repentance Which saith he was so finely penned and so Catholickly tracted that I warrant you it was none of the smallest Fools that forged it The other thing was that after these poor Men had thus done their Penances and spoke their Confessions the Imposers of these Penalties upon them were not so good as they pretended they would be and as the Queen's Instructions required them to be towards them Not restoring them to their Ministration Some that had been two or three Years parted from their Wives could not be admitted again to Ministration yet they must do open Penance and go by the Cross without any Redemption or Entreaty that could be made CHAP. IX Evils in this Change A Parliament BY this time the face of the Church was perfectly changed and all the Reformation that was made for twenty Years before namely from Cranmer's first ascent to the Archiepiscopal Chair to this time was unravelled in less than a Year and abolished But the Favourers of the Gospel lamented it exceedingly And Bishop Ridley writ a Treatise wherein he shewed what a deplorable Change in Religion this was by setting down at large what Religion was in K. Edward's Days and what it was at that present laying the Cause of this sore Judgment upon the vile and naughty Lives of the People so unsuitable to the good Religion professed The Professors lamented two great Evils lighting upon the People upon this turn of Religion Not only that it brought the People into error and Superstition but involved them universally in the Crime of Perjury The blame of which they laid upon the Popish Clergy For they not only had connived at but allowed and encouraged the casting off the Pope's Supremacy and made both Priests and Laity swear to the King And now they set up the Pope's Authority again in England and required all to swear to that For they compelled not only such as were Priests to perjure themselves but all the Laity Nobility Gentry Magistrates Merchants and others for hardly any were exempted the Oath of Supremacy in the former Reigns For in every Law-day the Keepers of the same were sworn to call all the Young Men of their Hundred even as they came to Years of Discretion to swear never to receive the Bishop of Rome nor no other Foreign Potentate to be Head of the People of England but only the King and his Successors Which Oath if it were unlawful as the Clergy-Men now said then all the Realm had reason of high Displeasure against them that so led them and knew it Such gross Dissembling were the Bishops guilty of to the involving the People in Guilt And this dissembling Quality the Priests still retained in this Queen's Days For when any came to some of them shewing them that his Conscience was not satisfied in the present way of Religion the Priest would tell him that he said the Truth My Conscience would he say is as yours but we must bear for a time and that he himself looked for another Change When another of a contrary Opinion came to the Priests and talked about Religion they would say to him That they had been deceived and thanks be to God said they that ye kept your Conscience all this while And even so was mine but I durst not do any otherwise but trusted that this time would come as is now thanks be to God Nay and sometimes in the same Town they would minister the Service two ways to the People to please both In
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
First the King and Queen sent their Information to the Pope against Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury viz. That he had brought this noble Realm from the Unity of the Catholick Church That he was a Person guilty of Heresy and many other grand Crimes and not worthy to enjoy his Bishoprick and most worthy greater Punishments and they requested that Process might be made against him For the better enquiry into and taking cognizance of the Truth of these Accusations the Pope gave a special Commission signed with his Hand to Iames Puteo Cardinal of S. Mary's and afterwards of S. Simeon to cite the said Thomas before him and all such Witnesses as should be needful to come to a true knowledg of the Arch-bishop's Crimes and accordingly to give the Pope an account of all he should find This he was to do in his own Person or to constitute any dignified Person abiding in these Parts to do the same So the said Cardinal appointed Brookes Bishop of Glocester and some Collegues with him to manage this Commission in his stead This Brookes having been Bishop Gardiner's Chaplain was probably nominated and recommended by the said Gardiner as I do suppose he was the Person that directed the whole managery of this Process against the Arch-bishop And so Brookes being now by this Deputation the Pope's Sub-delegate proceeded in this Cause as was said before In regard of the Arch-bishop's Citation to Rome to answer there and make his personal appearance before the Pope the Letters Executory say Comparere non curaret as an Aggravation of his Crime that he took no care to appear which was false and that therefore as the said Letters ran the King and Queen's Proctors at Rome named Peter Rouilius and Anthony Massa de Gallesio and Alexander Palentarius the Proctor of the Pope's Treasury had sued that Contumacy might be definitively pronounced against the said Thomas Cranmer being cited and not appearing Therefore He Pope Paul IV. sitting in the Throne of Justice and having before his Eyes God alone who is the Righteous Lord and judgeth the World in Righteousness did make this definitive Sentence pronouncing and decreeing the said Thomas Cranmer to be found Guilty of the Crimes of Heresy and other Excesses to be wholly unmindful of the Health of his Soul to go against the Rules and Ecclesiastical Doctrines of the Holy Fathers and against the Apostolical Traditions of the Roman Church and Sacred Councils and the Rites of the Christian Religion hitherto used in the Church especially against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord and Holy Orders by thinking and teaching otherwise than the Holy Mother Church preacheth and observeth and by denying the Primacy and Authority of the Apostolick See and against the Processions which every Year on Corpus Christi Day were wont to be celebrated by the Pope's Predecessors Mention also is made of his Bringing in again the Heresy abjured by Berengarius of his believing the false and heretical Doctrines of Wicklif and Luther those Arch-Hereticks printing of Books of that nature and publishing them and defending those Doctrines in publick Disputations and that before his Sub-delegate and persisting herein with Obstinacy Therefore the Pope excommunicated him and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick and all other Places and Privileges whatsoever and adjudged him to be delivered over to the Secular Court and all his Goods to be confiscate And the Pope absolved all Persons from any Oath of Fidelity given to Cranmer and imposed perpetual Silence upon him And moreover upon the instance of the abovesaid Proctors commanded the Bishops of London and Ely to degrade him and so to deliver him over to the Secular Court This bore date December 14. In obedience to these Letters from Rome the two Bishops the Pope's Delegates came down to Oxford and sitting in the Choire of Christ's-Church before the High Altar the said Commissional Letters were read wherein it was specified That all things were indifferently examined on both Parties and Counsel heard as well on the King 's and Queen's behalf who were Cranmer's Accusers as on the behalf of Cranmer so that he wanted nothing to his necessary Defence Whereat the Arch-bishop could not but exclaim while these things were reading against such manifest Lies That as he said when he was continually in Prison and could never be suffered to have Counsel or Advocate at Home he should produce Witness and appoint his Counsel at Rome God must needs punish added he this open and shameless Lying But this Command of Degrading our Arch-bishop was presently proceeded upon Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Ely his old Friend infinitely before-time obliged by the Arch-bishop shed many Tears at the doing of it So that Cranmer moved at it was fain to comfort him and told him He was well contented with it So they apparelled the Arch-bishop in all the Garments and Ornaments of an Archbishop only in mockery every thing was of Canvas and old Clouts And the Crosier was put into his Hand And then he was piece by piece stript of all again When they began to take away his Pal he asked them Which of them had a Pal to take away his Pal They then answered acknowledging they were his Inferiors as Bishops but as they were the Pope's Delegates they might take away his Pal. While they were thus spoiling him of all his Garments he told them That it needed not for that he had done with this Gear long ago While this was doing Boner made a Triumphant Speech against the poor Arch-bishop But when they came to take away his Crosier he held it fast and would not deliver it but pulled out an Appeal out of his left Sleeve under his Wrist and said I appeal unto the next General Council and herein I have comprehended my Cause and the Form of it which I desire may be admitted And prayed divers times to the standers by to be Witnesses naming them by their Names This Appeal is preserved in Fox which is well worthy the reading The Arch-bishop was all along ill dealt with in divers respects in this his Process which himself was well sensible of One was That he had desired the Court that considering he was upon his Life he might have the use of Proctors Advocates and Lawyers But they would allow him none After the Court wherein Brooks was Sub-delegate had done they promised him that he should see his Answers to Sixteen Articles that they had laid against him that he might correct amend and change them where he thought good And that Promise they performed not And so entred his Answers upon record though his Answer was not made upon Oath nor reserved nor made in judicio but extra judicium Which Cranmer made a Protest of But not to the Bishop of Glocester as Judg whom he would not own but to the King 's and Queen's Proctors Martin and Story To them for these Reasons he wrote a Letter That he trusted they
but to take the King and his Successors for Supream Heads thereof And he was perjured again in taking his Bishoprick both of the Queen and the Pope making to each of them a solemn Oath Which Oaths be so contrary that the one must needs be Perjury And further in swearing to the Pope to maintain his Laws Decrees Constitutions and Ordinances he declared himself an Enemy to the Imperial Crown and to the Laws of the Realm Whereby he shewed himself not worthy to sit as a Judg in this Realm This was the Sum of this excellent Letter of the Arch-bishop to the Queen He wrote another to her soon after wherein he plainly told her That at her Coronation she took an Oath to the Pope to be obedient to him to defend his Person to maintain his Authority Honour Laws and Privileges And at the same time another Oath to the Kingdom to maintain the Laws Liberties and Customs of the same He prayed her to weigh both Oaths and see how they did agree and then to do as her Grace's Conscience should give her For he was sure he said she would not willingly offend He feared there were Contradictions in her Oaths and that those that should have informed her Majesty thoroughly did not their Duties herein He complained that he was now kept from Company of Learned Men from Books from Counsel and from Pen and Ink saving to write to her Majesty at that time and as to his appearance at Rome he said if she would give him leave he would appear there and he trusted God would put in his Mouth to defend his Truth there as well as here These Letters of his one of the Bailiffs of Oxon carried up to the Queen Something else he wrote to her enclosed and sealed which he required Martyn and Story to be delivered without delay and not to be opened until it were delivered unto her own Hands These and other of his smart and learned Letters no question made Impression upon the Queen or at least upon those that read them for they were delivered by the Queen to no less a Person than the Holy Father Cardinal Pole himself who was advised to frame an Answer to them So he wrote to the Arch-bishop in answer to one of them a long Letter dated from St. Iames's Novemb. 6. Wherein he pretended a great deal of Compassion to his Soul which he told him was ready to be lost as well as his Body And that the Condemnation that was lately past on him was so horrible to him to hear that he testified to him before God and upon the Salvation of his Soul that he would rather chuse to be the Means of bringing him to Repentance than to receive the greatest Benefit that could be given him under Heaven in this World Which the Cardinal might say to take off the Odium of the Suspicion as though he hastened Cranmer's Death that he might jump into his Place And so the Cardinal proceeded to attempt to convince him in the two great Points of his Letter viz. concerning the Authority of the Pope and concerning the Sacrament of the Altar Especially because Cranmer had said in his Letter That he would not be perverse to stand wilfully in his own Opinion if any could shew him by Reason that his Doctrines were Erroneous But I refer the Reader to the Appendix if he be minded to read the Cardinal's Letter which I met with among Fox's Manuscripts By comparing of this Letter of Pole's with that of Cranmer's any one may see a mighty difference Strength Evidence and Conviction in the Arch-bishop's who had Truth on his Side but a Flashiness and Debility in the Cardinal 's made up of poor Shifts and weak Arguings and impertinent Allegations of Scripture and personal Reflections to help out a bad Cause To mention some few of this sort He charged the Arch-bishop with Covetousness and Ambition in affecting the Archbishoprick And then by and by not well remembering what he had said before in his Heat against the good Arch-bishop he gives a contrary Reason thereof namely That he might be in a capacity to reform the Church according to his Mind And that it was for the sake of that that he took an Oath to the Pope at his Consecration though he were fain to make a Protestation against the said Oath He said in this Letter That the Arch-bishop's fall into Error was not as the fall of others usually were by Frailty or Curiosity but by deliberate Malice And that the Arch-bishop by his Protestation that he made before he took his Oath to the Pope brake his Oath and was forsworn before he did swear Which methinks is pretty strange And concerning this Protestation he said It was a privy Protestation and that he had privy Witnesses of it Whereas it was done in the most open and publick manner that could be two or three times over before Publick Notaries and by them entred on Record on purpose that all might take notice of it And whereas the Arch-bishop had said That it was much more probable that the Bread and Wine should be a Figure than the real Body and Blood The Cardinal said The more probable it was the more false because the great Sophister and Father of Lies deceived by probability of Reason The Consequence whereof one would think should be the more improbable any Opinion in Religion was the more true But he said the true Doctrine was taught another way He represented the Arch-bishop as challenging them of the other Side to bring any one single Doctor of the Church that ever spake in favour of Transubstantiation leaving out For a thousand Years next after Christ which the Arch-bishop expresly had said And in fine every where he triumphed over the Arch-bishop's wilful Blindness and Ignorance and told him in much Charity That he was under the Vengeance of God a Member of Satan and damned This and a great deal more may be seen in Pole's Letter To which I might have added another Letter of the said Cardinal to the same Arch-bishop concerning the Sacrament a little after the Disputation at Oxford but that it would be too prolix being a just Treatise against Cranmer's Book of that Argument This Treatise bears this Title REGINALDI POLI Cardinalis Legati Apostolici Epistola ad Thomam Cranmerum qui Archiepiscopalem sedem Cantuariensis Ecclesiae tenens novam de Sacramento Eucharistiae Doctrinam contra perpetuum Catholicae Ecclesiae consensum professus est ac tradidit Qua Epistola eum nec Magistrum tanti Mysterii neque Discipulum idoneum esse posse Simulque unde hic ejus Error manarit ostendit Eâ— ad poenitentiam hortatur CHAP. XXI He Recants Repents and is burnt HAving brought the Arch-bishop unto his Degradation and Appeal wherein he shewed so much Christian Courage Wisdom and Fortitude I must now represent him making a great Trip and a sad Fall and mention one of the
as one of the truest Glories of that See Though these three Martyrs Cranmer Ridley and Latimer were parted asunder and placed in separate Lodgings that they might not confer together yet they were suffered sometimes to eat together in the Prison of Bocardo I have seen a Book of their Diet every Dinner and Supper and the Charge thereof Which was at the Expence of Winkle and Wells Bailiffs of the City at that time under whose Custody they were As for example in this Method The first of October Dinner Bread and Ale ii d. Item Oisters i d. Item Butter ii d. Item Eggs ii d. Item Lyng viii d. Item A piece of fresh Salmon x d. Wine iii d. Cheese and Pears ii d.  ii s. vi d. From this Book of their Expences give me leave to make these few Observations They ate constantly Suppers as well as Dinners Their Meals amounted to about three or four Shillings seldom exceeding four Their Bread and Ale commonly came to two pence or three pence They had constantly Cheese and Pears for their last Dish both at Dinner and Supper and always Wine the price whereof was ever three Pence and no more The Prizes of their Provisions it being now an extraordinary dear time were as follow A Goose 14 d. A Pig 12 or 13 d. A Cony 6 d. A Woodcock 3 d. and sometimes 5 d. A couple of Chickens 6 d. Three Plovers 10 d. Half a dozen Larks 3 d. A dozen of Larks and two Plovers 10 d. A Brest of Veal 11 d. A Shoulder of Mutton 10 d. Rost Beef 12 d. The last Disbursements which have Melancholy in the reading were these  s. d. For three Loads of Wood-Fagots to burn Ridley and Latimer 12 0 Item One Load of Furs-Fagots 3 4 For the carriage of these four Loads 2 0 Item A Post 1 4 Item Two Chains 3 4 Item Two Staples 0 6 Item Four Labourers 2 8 Then follow the Charges for burning Cranmer  s. d. For an 100 of Wood-Fagots 06 0 For an 100 and half of Furs-Fagots 03 4 For the carriage of them 0 8 To two Labourers 1 4 It seems the Superiors in those Days were more zealous to send these three good Men to Oxon and there to serve their Ends upon them and afterwards to burn them than they were careful honestly to pay the Charges thereof For Winkle and Wells notwithstanding all their Endeavours to get themselves reimbursed of what they had laid out which came to sixty three Pounds ten Shillings and two Pence could never get but twenty Pounds Which they received by the means of Sir William Petre Secretary of State In so much that in the Year 1566 they put up a Petition to Arch-bishop Parker and the other Bishops That they would among themselves raise and repay that Sum which the said Bailiffs were out of Purse in feeding of these three Reverend Fathers In which Petition they set forth That in the second and third Years of King Philip and Queen Mary Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and Bishop Ridley were by order of Council committed to the Custody of them and so continued a certain Time and for them they disbursed the Sum of 63 l. 10 s. 2 d. Whereof but 20 l. was paid to them Therefore they pray his Grace and the rest of the Bishops to be a means among themselves that the remaining Sum may be paid to them being 43 l. 10 s. 2 d. Or some part thereof Otherwise they and their poor Wives and Children should be utterly undone And to give the better countenance to these Men that were going to carry up their Petition Laurence Humfrey President of Magdalen College and the Queen's Professor wrote this Letter on their behalf to Arch-bishop Parker IEH MY humble Commendations presupposed in the Lord. To be a Suitor in another Man's Case it seemeth Boldness and in a Matter of Money to write to your Grace is more than Sauciness Yet Charity Operiens multitudinem peccatorum doth move me and will perswade you to hear him A Debt is due unto him for the Table of Mr. Dr. Cranmer by the Queen's Majesties Appointment And Mr. Secretary in Oxford wished him at that time of Business in Progress to make some Motion to the Bishops for some Relief The Case is miserable The Debt is just His Charges in the Suit have been great His Honesty I assure your Grace deserves pitiful Consideration And for that my Lord of Sarum writeth to me as here in Oxford he promised That his part shall not be behind what Order soever it please my Lords to take for the dispatch of the same I request your Grace as Successor to that right Reverend Father and chief Patron of such poor Suitors to make by your good Means some Collection for him among the rest of my Lords the Bishops that his good Will shewed to that worthy Martyr may of you be considered And so he bound to your Goodness of his part altogether undeserved Thus recommending the Common Cause of Reformation to you and my self and this poor Man to your good remembrance I leave to trouble you Requesting you once again to hear him and tender his Cause even of Charity for God his Sake To whose Protection I commend your Grace From Oxon November 22 Anno 1566. Your Grace's humble Orator Laur. Humfrey Though I cannot trace this any further yet I make no doubt this Petition was favourably received with the Arch-bishop and Bishops It seems in Cranmer's Life-time Money was sent to Oxford for the sustentation of these Prisoners of Christ but embezzelled For one W. Pantry of Oxford received forty Pounds at Mr. Stonelye's Hand for my Lord Cranmer and the other two in like Case This was declared by the Bailiffs to Thomas Doyley Esquire Steward to Arch-bishop Parker CHAP. XXII Cranmer's Books and Writings HAving brought our History of this singular and extraordinary Light of the Church to this Period we will before we take our leave of him gather up some few Fragments more thinking it pity that any thing should be lost that may either serve to communicate any Knowledg of him to Posterity or to clear and vindicate him from Aspersions or Misrepresentations vulgarly conceived of him And here will fall under our consideration first his Books and Writings after them his Acquaintance with Learned Men and his Favour to them and Learning then some Matters relating to his Family and Officers And lastly we shall conclude with some Observations upon him For the Pen of this great Divine was not idle being employed as earnestly as his Authority and Influence for the furtherance of Religion and rescue of this Church from Popish Superstition and Foreign Jurisdiction He laid a solid Foundation in Learning by his long and serious Studies in the University To which he was much addicted Insomuch that this was one of the Causes which made him so labour by the interest of his Friends with King Henry to
be excused from taking the Archbishoprick of Canterbury because this Promotion would so much interrupt his beloved Studies Desiring rather some smaller Living that he might more quietly follow his Book And as he had been an hard Student so he was a very great Writer both in respect of the number of Books and Treatises he compiled as of the Learning Judgment and Moment of them The first Treatise he wrote was that which was done at the Command of Henry VIII viz. Concerning the Unlawfulness of his Marriage with his Brother Arthur's Widow Which he made appear to be both against the Word of God and against the Judgment of the Antient Fathers of the Church and therefore a Case indispensable by the Pope And so well had he studied the Point and so well was assured of what he had wrote that he undertook before the King to maintain the Truth of it at Rome in the presence of the Pope himself The King accordingly dismissed him to the Pope in joint Embassy with the Earl of Wiltshire and some others for that purpose He presented his Book to the Pope offering to stand by it against any whomsoever that should attempt to gainsay it But the Pope thought not fit to suffer so tender a Point to be disputed wherein his Prerogative was so much touched When he had finished thâ—s Discourse it was sent to Cambridg and had the Approbation and Subscription of the eminentest Doctors there viz. Sâ—lcot Repps Câ—me and divers others Among which I suppose were Heines Litiner Shaxton Skip Goodrick Hethe who were then Gremials After this Book â—e was much employed in writing more at various Times and â—pon various Occasions Fox mentioneth Cranmer's Book of the â—eformation which I suppose was that of the Publick Service the Catechism the Book of Homilies which was part by him contrâ—ed and part by his Procurement and by him approved and pubished Likewise the Confutation of eighty eight Articles devised and propounded by a Convocation in King Henry's Reign and laboâ—red to be received and enjoined though they were not But his Discoâ—rse wherein he stated the Doctrine of the Sacrament in five â—ooks must especially be remembred Which he wrote on purpose for the publick Instruction of the Church of England And it â—s the more to be valued as being writ by him in his mature Age after all his great Readings and Studies and most diligent and serioâ—s perusals of all the Ecclesiastical Writers whereby he became throughly acquainted with their Judgments and Opinions in that Doctrine And in it are contained his last and ripest Thoughts on â—hat Argument This Book displayeth the great Weakness of that â—istinguishing Doctrine of the Church of Rome that asserts Transubstantiation Besides these many other Writings and Discourses were made by him Which we are beholden to the Bishop of Sarum for retrieving the Memory of and preserving the Substance of divers of them in his excellent History viz. A Learned Speech made to the Lords concerning the Pope and a general Council Which that Right Reverend Author thinks was made about the Year 1534 which was soon after his being made Arch-bishop Some Queries in order to the correcting of several Abuses in Religion whereby the People had been deceived Some Queries concerning Confirmation With the Answers which were given to them by Arch-bishop Cranmer Some Considerations to induce the King to proceed to a further Reformation These three last were presented by the Arch-bishop to the King about the Year 1536 as the Bishop of Sarum supposeth And having seen the Originals thereof in the Cotton-Library hath transcribed them to us in the Addenda to the Collections His Resolution of seventeen Questions concerning the Sacraments Anno 1540. A Collection of Passages out of the Canon Law to shew the necessity of Reforming it Anno 1542. His Letters to Osiander and Letters of Osiander to him concerning the Proceedings of the German Divines Whose Violence the Arch-bishop disliked A Speech made in the Convocation Wherein he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider seriously what things in the Church neeâ—ed Reformation Anno 1547. His Answer to the Demands of the Rebels in the West drawn up by him by Order of the Council Anno 1549. His Declaration to vindicate himself from an Aspersion That he had caused Mass to be sung in Canterbury Aâ—d offering therein a publick Dispute to maintain the Reformation Anno 1553. Besides two Volumes in Folio writ by Cranmer own Hand upon all the Heads of Religion Consisting of Allegtions of Texts of Scripture and of antient Fathers and later Doctos and School-men upon each Subject There were also six or seveâ— Volumes of his Writings which were in the Lord Burleigh's Iâ—ssession as appeared by a Letter of the said Lord which the Bishop of Sarum saw But he thought these may now be lost Most of tâ—e forementioned Writings are preserved in the Cotton-Library or iâ— that of Corpus-Christi Cambridg or among the Manuscripts of the Right Reverend Bishop Stillingsleet To which we must add the mention of a bundle of Books lying in the Palace-Treasury in Westminster in defence of the King's Title of Supream Head and concerning the Divorce and seveal other Matters with a Pâ—eface against Cardinal Pole Which aâ—e supposed to be written partly by Dr. Clark Bishop of Bath and Wels and partly by our Arch-bishop Several other Letters Speeches and Arguments of our Arch-bishop may be found in these Memorials which I omit here rehersing But I will add to these divers Pieces besides of this Prelat's writing as they are set down by Melchior Adam at the End of Cranmer's Life Who indeed did but transcribe them from Gesner and he from Iohn Bale's Centuries I. A Preface to the English Translation of the Bible This is transcribed in the Appendix II. A Catechism of Christian Doctrine printed by Gualter Lynn Anno 1548. This Catechism was first framed in Germany and by the Arch-bishop himself or his special Order turned into English And to fix an Authority to the same he caused it to be published in his own Name and owned it for his own Book This Dr. Rowland Taylor who lived in the Arch-bishop's Family declared before Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor at his Examination before him And in this sense we must understand the Author of the History of the Reformation when speaking of this Catechism he stiles it A Work that was wholly his own It was said before that Iustus Ionas he I suppose that dwelt with the Arch-bishop was the Translator of it into Latin It treated of the Sacrament after the Lutheran way Which Way the Arch-bishop embraced next after his rejection of the gross Papal Transubstantiation This Catechism was printed first by the Arch-bishop's Order about the Time of King Henry's Death or soon after In a second Edition tâ—e word
I find in a Supplication made to Queen Elizabeth by Ralph Morice that had been his Secretary for the space of twenty Years During which time he was employed by that most Reverend Father in writing for him about the serious Affairs of the Prince and Realm committed unto him by those most noble and worthy Princes King Henry VIII and King Edward VI concerning as well the Writings of those great and weighty Matrimonial Causes of the said K. Henry VIII as also about the extirpation of the Bishop of Rome his usurped Power and Authority the Reformation of corrupt Religion and Ecclesiastical Laws and Alteration of Divine Service and of divers and sundry Conferences of Learned Men for the Establishing and Advancement of sincere Religion with such like Wherein he said he was most painfully occupied in writing of no small Volumes from time to time CHAP. XXIII The Arch-bishop's Regard to Learned Men. FROM these truly Noble and Useful Exercises of his great Knowledg and Learning let us descend unto the Respect he bare to good Letters Which appeared from his Favour to Places of Learning and Men of Learning We shewed before what were the Applications of the University of Cambridg to him and what a gracious Patron he was to it and its Members Among whose good Offices to that University besides those already mentioned it must not be omitted that he was the great Instrument of placing there those two very Learned Foreign Divines Paulus Fagius and Martin Bucer By his frequent Letters to them then at Strasburg urging them with the distracted and dangerous State of Germany he first brought them over into England in the Year 1548 and having entertained them in his Family the next Year he preferred them both in Cambridg Fagius to be publick Professor of the Hebrew Tongue and Bucer of Divinity And beside the University-Salary he procured for each of them from the King in the third Year of his Reign Patents for an Honorary Stipend of an hundred Pounds per Annum each De gratiâ speciali Domini Regis to be paid by the Hands of the Clerk of the Hanaper or out of the Treasury of the Court of Augmentations Durante beneplacito Domini Regis As I find by King Edward the Sixth's Book of Sales formerly mentioned Which Patents bare date Septemb. 26. Anno 1549. and their Salaries payable from the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin By the way I do not see any where in the said Book of Sales that Peter Martyr placed Professor of Divinity in the other University of Oxon enjoyed any such Royal Salary though he also had been invited over by Canterbury with the King's Knowledg and Allowance and placed there by that Arch-bishop's Means Yet he and his Companion Ochinus had their Annual Allowances from the King and so I suppose had all other Learned Foreigners here Melancthon also who was now expected over was intended some more extraordinary Gratuity Unto this Noble Christian Hospitality and Liberality Latimer the great Court-Preacher excited the King in one of his Sermons before him The Passage may deserve to be repeated I hear say Master Melancthon that great Clerk should come hither I would wish him and such as he is two hundred Pounds a Year The King should never want it in his Coffers at the Year's end There is yet among us two great Learned Men Petrus Martyr and Bernard Ochin which have an hundred Mark a piece I would the King would bestow a thousand Pounds on that Sort. These Matters I doubt not were concerted between Latimer and our Arch-bishop before at whose Palace he now was for the most part As I find by one of his Sermons wherein he speaks of his taking Boat at Lambeth and in another Place he mentioneth a Book he met with in my Lord of Canterbury's Library and elsewhere of many Suitors that applied to him at my Lord of Canterbury's that interrupted his Studies there The use I make of this is that it is a fair Conjecture hence that this and the many other excellent Things so plainly propounded by this Preacher to King Edward happened by the Counsel and Suggestion of the Arch-bishop But to return There was one Dr. William Mowse a Civilian and probably one of his Officers whom for his Merits and Learning our Arch-bishop for many a Year had been a special Benefactor to Sir Iohn Cheke also bare him a very good Will Upon the removal of Dr. Haddon to some other Preferment this Dr. Mowse succeeded Master of Trinity-hall in Cambridg And in the Year 1552 the Arch-bishop valuing his Worth and Integrity was a Suitor at Court for some further Preferment for him whatever it were which the Study of the Civil Law had qualified him for writing his Letters on Mowse's behalf to Secretary Cecyl who was then with the King in his Progress not to forget him And accordingly he was remembred and obtained the Place For which the Arch-bishop afterwards gave him his most hearty Thanks And Dr. Mowse also sent the same Secretary a Letter of Thanks from Cambridg for the Preferment he had obtained by his Means The main Drift thereof was to excuse himself for his Neglect in that he had not sooner paid his Acknowledgments Which as it seems the Secretary had taken some notice of having expected to be thanked for the Kindness he had done him This Letter because there is therein mention made of our Arch-bishop's singular Munificence and Cheke's Affection towards him and Mowse himself once making a Figure in that University I have thought it not amiss to insert in the Appendix Though this Man seemed to be none of the steadiest in his Religion For I find him put out of his Mastership of Trinity-Hall in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign for having been a Protestant and to make way for the Restoration of Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who had been outed before Upon whose Death that Mastership falling void and Mowse having complied with the Romish Religion he became Master there again And soon after in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he was deprived by her Commissioners for being a Papist and one Harvey came in his Room Dr. Mowse's Fickleness appeared that upon the first tidings that fled to Cambridg of Queen Mary's Success against the Lady Iane's Party he with several other temporizing University-Men changed his Religion and in four and twenty Hours was both Protestant and Papist The Truth is his Judgment varied according to his worldly Interest And being one of those that came about so roundly he was appointed by the complying Party of the University to be one of the two Dr. Hatcher being the other that should repair unto Dr. Sands then the Vice-Chancellor to demand of him without any colour of Reason or Authority the University-Books the Keys and such other things as were in his keeping And so they did And my Author makes an Observation of his Ingratitude as well as of
State And lastly that the Hospitals impoverish'd or wholly beggar'd might by his means be remedied and helped by the King's Council that they might revert to their former Condition that is to succour and help the Poor He urged moreover to Cecyl that the destruction of Schools would be the destruction of the Universities and that all Learning would soon cease and Popery and more than Gothic Barbarism would invade all if Learned Men were not better taken care of than they were and if the Rewards of Learning viz. Rectories Prebends and all were taken away from them This Man had also freely discoursed these Matters to two other great and publick-spirited Men viz. Goodrich the Lord Chancellor who was Bishop of Ely and Holgate Arch-bishop of York To both whom he had also given the Names of a great many Schools Parsonages and Hospitals that had undergon this sacrilegious Usage And he particularly mentioned to Cecyl a Town not far from Cambridg called Childerlay where a Gentleman had pulled down all the Houses in the Parish except his own And so there being none to frequent the Church the Inhabitants being gone he used the said Church partly for a Stable for his Horses and partly for a Barn for his Corn and Straw This Letter of Wilson to the Secretary together with his Arguments against pilling the Church subjoined I have thought worthy preserving in the Repository for such Monuments in the Appendix But to return from this Digression which Calvin's Censure of our Arch-bishop occasioned And when in the Year 1551 he dispatched into England one Nicolas that Nicolas Gallasius I suppose who was afterward by Calvin recommended to be Minister to the French Congregation in London at the desire of Grindal Bishop of London that he would send over some honest able Person for that Place with Letters to the Duke of Somerset and likewise to the King to whom he presented also at the same time his Book of Commentaries upon Esay and the Canonical Epistles which he had Dedicated to him both the King's Council and the King himself were much pleased and satisfied with this Message And the Arch-bishop told Nicolas That Calvin could do nothing more profitable to the Church than to write often to the King The substance of what he wrote to the King that was so well taken was to excite and sharpen the generous Parts of the Royal Youth as Calvin hinted in a Letter to Bullinger CHAP. XXVI The Arch-bishop highly valued Peter Martyr AS for the Learned Italian Peter Martyr who is worthy to be mentioned with Melancthon and Calvin there was not only an Acquaintance between him and our Arch-bishop but a great and cordial Intimacy and Friendship For of him he made particular use in the Steps he took in our Reformation And whensoever he might be spared from his Publick Readings in Oxford the Arch-bishop used to send for him to confer with him about the weightiest Matters This Calvin took notice of and signified to him by Letter how much he rejoiced that he made use of the Counsels of that excellent Man And when the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws was in effect wholly devolved upon Cranmer he appointed him and Gualter Haddon and Dr. Rowland Tayler his Chaplain and no more to manage that Business Which shews what an Opinion he had of Martyr's Abilities and how he served himself of him in Matters of the greatest Moment And in that bold and brave Challenge he made in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign to justify against any Man whatsoever every Part of King Edward's Reformation he nominated and made choice of Martyr therein to be one of his Assistants in that Disputation if any would undertake it with him This Divine when he was forced to leave Oxford upon the Change of Religion retreated first to the Arch-bishop at Lambeth and from thence when he had tarried as long as he durst he departed the Realm to Strasburgh This Man was he that saw and reported those voluminous Writings of this Arch-bishop which he had collected out of all the Antient Church-Writers upon all the Heads of Divinity and those Notes of his own Pen that he had inserted in the Margin of his Books Which the Arch-bishop communicated to him when he conversed with him at his House And from these and such-like of the Arch-bishop's Labours he acknowledged he had learned much especially in the Doctrine of the Sacrament as he writ in his Epistle before his Tract of the Encharist The Fame of Peter Martyr and the Desire of preserving all Remains of so Learned a Professor and great an Instrument of the Reformed Religion hath inclined me to put two of his Letters into the Appendix though otherwise not to our present Purpose being Originals writ by his own Hand from Oxon. The one to Iames Haddon a learned Court-Divine and Dean of Exon to procure a Licence from the King or the Council for a Friend and Auditor of his to preach publickly The other to Sir William Cecyl to forward the paiment of a Salary due to him that read the Divinity-Lecture in the Room of Dr. Weston a Papist who had claimed it himself and laboured to detain it from him I cannot forbear mentioning here an Instance of his Love and great Concern for our Arch-bishop his old Friend and Patron after the Iniquity of the Times had parted them the one then in Prison and the other at Strasburgh It was in Iune 1555 when Queen Mary supposing her self with Child was reported to have said in her Zeal That she could never be happily brought to Bed nor succeed well in any other of her Affairs unless she caused all the Hereticks she had in Prison to be burnt without sparing so much as One. Which Opinion very likely the Bishop of Winchester or some other of her Zelotical Chaplains put into her Head This Report coming to Martyr's Ears afflicted him greatly not only for the Destruction that was like suddenly to befal many Holy Professors but more especially for the imminent Hazard he apprehended that great and publick Person the Arch-bishop to be in Which made him express himself in this manner in a Letter to Peter Alexander to whom that most Reverend Father had also formerly been a kind Host and Patron That from those Words of the Queen he might discover that my Lord of Canterbury was then in great Danger CHAP. XXVII The Arch-bishop's Favour to John Sleidan TO all these Learned and religious Outlandish-Men to whom the Arch-bishop was either a Patron or a Friend or both we must not forget to join Iohn Sleidan the renowned Author of those exact Commentaries of the State of Religion and the Common-wealth in Germany in the time of Charles V. About the end of March Anno 1551 He procured for him from King Edward an Honorary Pension of two hundred Crowns a Year as some Aid for the carrying on his
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for
would not be allowed any well-disposed Person to relieve his Necessity nor to give him an Alms a Privilege allowed any Beggar beside And when a Gentleman of Gloucestershire sensible of the Arch-bishop's Need and withal knowing how dangerous it was to give the poor Arch-bishop any Money had conveyed somewhat to the Bailiffs to be by their Hands bestowed on him Boner and Thirleby the two Bishops that degraded him staid this Gentleman intending to send him up to the Council had he not gotten off by the Intercession of some Friends CHAP. XXXV Some Account of Arch-bishop Cranmer's House-keeping BUT the more fully to confute this Calumny it will not be amiss to look more narrowly into his House-keeping His daily custom at Lambeth was to dine in a Room above where all Noble-men and Persons of better Quality that came to dine with him were entertained Here he was very honourably served both with Dishes and Attendants In the Hall the Table was every Day very plentifully furnished both for Houshold-Servants and Strangers with three or four principal head-Messes of Officers Besides the Relief of the Poor at his Gates And which is a very observable Charity as well as Hospitality he appropriated his Mansion-house at Bekesborn in Kent and his Parsonage-Barn for Harbour and Lodgings for the Poor Sick and Maimed Souldiers that came from the Wars of Bulloign and other Parts beyond Seas For these he also appointed an Almoner a Physician and a Chirurgeon to attend on them and to dress and administer Physick to such of them as were not able to resort to their own Countries Having also daily from his Kitchin hot Broth and Meat Besides the common Alms of his Houshold that were bestowed upon the poor People of the Country And when any of these were recovered and were able to travel they had Money given them to bear their Charges according to the number of Miles they were to pass before they got Home I do not know whether some might have taken Advantage thus to slander him from a laudable Endeavour of his to reduce within some Bounds the Provisions of Clergy-mens Tables which in the latter Times of King Henry the Eighth grew to great Excess and Extravagancy so unbecoming Spiritual Men. For in the Year 1541 the Arch-bishop with the Consent of the other Arch-bishop and most of the Bishops and divers other Deans and Arch-Deacons made a Constitution for moderating the Fare of their Tables viz. That Arch-bishops should not exceed six divers kinds of Flesh or as many Dishes of Fish on Fish-days A Bishop not above Five A Dean or Arch-Deacon Four and all under that Degree Three But an Arch-bishop was allowed at second Course to have four Dishes a Bishop Three and all others Two as Custards Tarts Fritters Cheese Apples Pears c. But if any of the inferior Clergy should entertain any Arch-bishop Bishop Dean or Arch-Deacon or any of the Laity of like Degree as Duke Marquess Earl Vicount Baron Lord Knight they might have such Provision as were meet for their Degree Nor was their Diet to be limited when they should receive an Ambassador to recommend I suppose to Foreigners the English Hospitality It was ordered also That of the greater Fish or Fowl as Cranes Swans Turkies Hadocks Pike Tench there should be but one in a Dish Of lesser Sorts than they as Capons Pheasants Conies Woodcocks but Two Of less sorts still as of Partridges an Arch-bishop Three a Bishop and other Degrees under him Two The Number of the Blackbirds were also stinted to Six at an Arch-bishop's Table and to Four for a Bishop And of little Birds as Larks Snytes c. the Number was not to exceed Twelve But so strongly bent were the Clergy in those Days to this sort of Sensuality that these Injunctions of our Arch-bishop were observed but two or three Months and so they returned to their old Superfluity again The Arch-bishop's pious Design hereby was only to curb Intemperance and unnecessary Prodigality in such upon whose Office those Vices cast such just Reflections but it could not reasonably argue any covetous Temper in him for that the Poor might not fare the worse for this Intrenchment of Exorbitant Hospitality but rather the better the Arch-bishop in these aforesaid Orders provided That whatsoever was spared out of the old House-keeping should not be pocketed up but laid out and spent in plain Meats for the Relief of poor People And that this Charge may still appear to be nothing but a meer detraction proceeding from Envy or some other ill Principle others there were that would blame him for the contrary Vice of too much lavishing and unprofitable Expence So hard a matter is it for the best Men to escape the spiteful and venomous Insinuations of the World But he patiently and with an even Mind bore all CHAP. XXXVI Arch-bishop Cranmer Humble Peaceable Bold in a good Cause FOR which is another thing to be remarked in him he was very Humble and Condescending and did not only bear to be reproved but was thankful for it and that even when the Reproof was undeserved Which was the more to be valued in him considering the Height and Dignity of his Calling To give an Instance or two of this When in the Year 1552 Cecyl had charged him with the Imputation of Covetousness as a Report that went of him in the Court and which himself seemed partly to believe begging withal Pardon of his Grace for his freedom with him Our Arch-bishop told him That as for the Admonition he took it very thankfully and that he had ever been most glad to be admonished by his Friends accounting no Man so foolish as he that would not hear friendly Admonishment And when at another time the same Cecyl who would always take the liberty to speak his Mind to his Friends whensoever he thought they wanted Counsel had signified to him the Hazard he incurred in not shewing more Compliance towards the Duke of Northumberland who now swayed all and then apologizing for his Boldness Cranmer was so far from taking this ill that he returned him his very hearty Thanks for his friendly Letter and Advertisements desiring him to be assured that he took the same in such good part and to proceed of such a friendly Mind as he ever looked for at his Hands and whereof he would not be unmindful if Occasion hereafter served to requite the same And this good Temper led him also to Gentleness and Lenity He was no Huffer nor Contender but of an exceeding peaceable and amicable Spirit Whereunto he was moved by the Reason of Policy as well as Religion Because he well saw how a contentious quarrelsome Disposition in great Men would be apt to give an ill Example unto Inferiors There happened once in the Year 1552 a Contest between him and the Lord-Warden of the Cinque-Ports who lived not far from him and so probably it might be about some worldly Matters
it is easy to see from whence this Author had this Character of our Arch-bishop namely from Parsons and Saunders two malicious calumniating Jesuits The former hath these words of him That to the King's Will and Liking he resolved to conform himself as well in Religion as in other things And that when King Henry was large towards the Protestants Cranmer was so also but when the King became more strict and rigorous especially after the Six Articles Cranmer was ready to prosecute the same And therefore Saunders framed a Name for the Arch-bishop calling him Henricianus in the same sense as Herod's Creatures in the Scriptures were called Herodiani A very false Character of this good Arch-bishop to say no worse of it I must here make a Note of one Quality more of our Archbishop Which was this That he was a Man of ardent Affections and of an open and generous Temper and where he loved he thought he could never enough express it An Instance of this I will give in Bishop Thirleby To whom for the good Qualities he supposed were in him he had a most earnest Love An Account of this I will lay down in the words of Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary who well knew it Besides his special Favour to him saith he that way in recommending him to the King there was no Man living could more friendly esteem any Man of himself as my Lord Cranmer did this Thirleby For there was no kind of Pleasure which my Lord Cranmer was liable to do that was not at this Man's Commandment Whether it were Jewel Plate Instrument Map Horse or any thing else though he had it from the King's Majesty but if this Man did once like or commend it the gentle Arch-bishop would forthwith give it unto him And many times Dr. Thirleby for Civility-sake would instantly refuse the same yet would he send it unto him the next day after to his House Insomuch that it came into a common Proverb That Dr. Thirleby 's commendation of any Thing of my Lord's was a plain winning or obtaining thereof So that some Men thought that if he would have demanded any Finger or other Member of his he would have cut it off to have gratified him therewith such was his ardent Affection towards him This no small sort of honest Men now living can testify that is about the Year 1565 when this was written It may deserve also a Remark that our good Prelat rose upon the Fall of another great Church-man viz. the Cardinal of York For about that very Time the King rejected Wolsey from his Favour and Employment Cranmer succeeded into them It may be also observed That as the King 's great Matter of the Divorce was first moved and managed by Wolsey so it was taken up and vigorously carried on and successfully ended by Cranmer And as the former started it upon an unjust Policy and so in the Issue by God's secret Judgment prospered no better by it it finally proving his Ruin so the latter acting in it out of a better and more honest Principle of Conscience and Religion became thereby advanced to the greatest Honour in the Church Which he held for twenty Years together Though at last indeed it had the same fatal Issue to him by the secret Malice of Queen Mary as it had to the Cardinal before by the secret Displeasure of Queen Ann. But as they were thus parallel in the Cause of their Falls so their Demeanours under their Calamities were very different The Cardinal under his shewed a most abject and desponding Mind but our Arch-bishop's Carriage was much more decent under his remaining Undaunted and Magnanimous having a Soul well fortified by the Principles of solid Vertue and Religion which the other had not And this appeared in him when being brought forth to be baited before Brooks the Pope's Subdelegate and Martin and Story the King 's and Queen's Commissioners at Oxford he gravely and with an unmoved Spirit used these words That he acknowledged God's Goodness to him in all his Gifts and thanked him as heartily for that State wherein he found himself then as ever he did in the Time of his Prosperity and that it was not the loss of his Promotions that grieved him at all CHAP. XXXVII Osiander's and Peter Martyr's Character of the Arch-bishop THE last Thing I shall observe of him is That he always remained the same Man not altered by his Honours and high Advancements As he was a Person of great Piety Goodness Affability and Benignity before he was Arch-bishop and the Sun-shine of Royal Favour so he continued at all Times after For a Witness of this I will set down two Characters given him by two Foreign learned Men both which knew him well The one shall be of Osiander from whom we may take this Account of what he was before he was Bishop while he remained abroad in Germany Osiander that great Divine of Norinberg professed to love him for some excellent Endowments that were common to him with some other good Men but especially for others more extraordinary and peculiar to himself Of the former sort was That he was a Gentleman of good Birth and Quality that he had an Aspect and Presence that carried Dignity with it an incredible sweetness of Manners that he had Learning beyond the common Degrees of it was Benign and Liberal towards all and especially to those that were Studious and of good Literature Of the latter were those more abstruse and heroical Vertues of his Mind rare to be found in the Age wherein he lived viz. his Wisdom Prudence Fortitude Temperance Justice a singular Love towards his Country the highest Faithfulness towards the King a Contempt of earthly Things a Love of Heavenly a most burning study towards the Evangelick Truth sincere Religion and Christ's Glory And this was Cranmer before he was placed in his high and honourable Station The other Character of Cranmer is that of Peter Martyr who thus speaks of him when he was at the Top of all his earthly Honour in the middle of King Edward's Reign That his Godliness Prudence Faithfulness and his singular Vertues were known to all the Kingdom That he was so adorned with the Grace and Favour of Christ as that though all others are the Children of Wrath yet in him Piety and Divine Knowledg and other Vertues might seem to be naturally born and bred such deep Root had they taken in him So that Martyr often wished and professed he should esteem it as a great Benefit vouchsafed him of God that he might come as near as might be to his Vertues which he admired in him as the wonderful Gifts of God And as to himself and others fled into these Quarters for Religion that Cranmer's Kindness and Humanity Merits and Benefits towards them were such that if he should render just Thanks and speak of them as they deserved he must do nothing but tell of them and
his own making and by them promised remission of sins and salvation that he might be set up and honored for a Savior equal to Christ. And so to be esteemed above al creatures and to set in the Temple of God that is in the Church of Christ as he were God And to bring this to pas he hath horribly abused holy Scriptures altering them to his purpose in the sted of Christs most holy bloud putting in his holy Water As it appeareth evidently in this Sentence of S. Paul written in the ninth Chap. of the Hebrewes If the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith S. Paul and the ashes of a yong Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh how much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God shal purge your consciences from dead works for to serve the Living God And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New covenant Consider wel this sentence of Paul and you shal find two purifyings one of the body and another of the Soul or Conscience You shal find also two Mediators One was the Priest of Moses law and the other is Christ. The Priests of the old Law with the bloud of Oxen and Goats and other their Sacrifices purged only the bodies of them that were defiled but the Soul or Conscience they could not help But our Savior Christ by his own bloud purged both body anâ— soul. And for that cause he and none other is the Mediator of the New Covenant But the Bp. of Rome to make himself also a Mediator with Christ hath taken upon him to purify the soul and conscience with holy water holy salt and other his holy creatures of his own devising to the intolerable injury of Christs blood which only hâ—th the effect And to bring this to pass hee hath most shamefully changed the words of the Scripture and wrested them to his purpose Some words putting out and only in the sted of Christs bloud putting in his own holy water and salt For wheras S. Paul if the blood of Oxen and Goats and the ashes of a Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh here the Bp. of Rome leaveth out these words As touching the purifying of the flesh And where S. Paul extolling the effect of Christs bloud in comparison of the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith How much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal spirit offered himself being without spot unto God shal purge your consciences Here the Bp. of Rome extolling his water and salt puts out Christs bloud and in the place thereof puts his holy water and salt saying How much more water which is sprinkled with salt and hallowed with godly prayers shal sanctify and purify the people Oh! intolerable blasphemy against the most precious bloud of Christ Oh! shameles audacity and boldnes so to corrupt and pervert Gods holy word If he by his holy water presume to purify our souls as Christ did by his bloud what is that else but to make himself equal and another Mediator with Christ And what is it to Tread under foot the Son of God and to make the bloud of the N. Testament wherby he was Sanctified like other common things and to dishonor the spirit of grace if this be not And yet not contented with this blaspheming the bloud of Christ he preferreth his holy creatures far above the bloud of Christ promising by them many benefits which by the bloud of Christ be not promised For in the same place he promiseth by his holy ceremonies to take away from us dearth and scarcity of al worldly things and to multiply and encrease us with the same Also to defend us from the assaults of the Devil and al his deceits and to give us health both of body and soul. But al men se him so shamefully to ly in these worldly things that no man that wise is wil trust him in the rest Nor no man that is godly wil desire such things to remain stil which so much have deceived simple people and dishonored God and been contumelious to the bloud of Christ. But now to your Images which you say you wil have set up again in every Church What moved you to require this Article but only Ignorance For if you had known the Laws of God and the use of godly religion as wel before the Incarnation of Christ as four or five hundred years next after and by whom Images were at first brought into Christs church and how much Idolatry was every where committed by the means of the same it could not have been that ever you would have desired this Article except you had more affection to Idolatry then to true religion For Almighty God among the ten Commandments rehearsed this for the Second as one of the chief Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likenes of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath nor in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them This Commandment was diligently kept in the old Testament so long as the people pleased God For in their Tabernacle was not one image less nor more that the people might se. Although upon the Propitiatory were two Cherubins of gold by the Commandment of God And that was in such a place as the people never came near nor saw But when the people forgetting this Commandment began to make images and to set them up in the place of Adoration by and by they provoked Gods indignation against them and were grievously punished therfore The Church of Christ likewise in the N. Testament for the space of four or five hundred years after Christ's Ascension utterly refused to have Images in the Church a place of Adoration As it may plainly appear by al the old antient Authors that lived and wrot in that time In so much that above four hundred years after Christ when some Superstitious and ignorant people in some places began to bring painted images not into the Church but to the Church doores the great Clerk Epiphanius Bp. of Cyprus finding such a painted Image of Christ or some other Saint hanging at the Church door in a Town called Anablatha he cutt it in pieces saying that it was against the authority of scripture that in the Church of Christ should hang the Image of a man And the same Epiphanius wrot unto the Bp. of Ierusalem that he should command the Priests that in no wise they shou'd suffer such Images to be hanged in the church of Christ which were contrary to our religion But peradventure you wil mervail and ask me the question how it was brought to pas that of late years al Churches were so ful of Images and so much offering and pilgrimages done unto them if it were against the Commandment of God against the usage of al godly people in the O. Testament and also against the custom
of Christs church in the N. Testament so long as it was pure and holy and kept from Idolatry Who was able to bring this to effect contrary both to Gods expres Commandment and the custom of al godly people from the beginning of the world until four or five hundred years after Christ No man surely could have wrought this thing so much contrary to God but Antichrist himself that is to say the Bp. of Rome To whom God hath given great power to work wonders to bring into error those that wil not believe the truth But by what means did he compas this matter By such means as were most meet for himself and as he hath commonly practised in al other matters that is to say by Sedition and Murder by Confederacies and Persecutions by raising the Sons against their Fathers the childre against their mother and the Subjects against their Ruâ—ers by deposing of Emperors and Princes and murdering of learned men Saints and Martyrs For thus he wrought against the Emperor of the East parties from Gregory II. his time until Gregory III. who at length after this condition had endured above five hundred years in a Councel held at Lions by feigned promises persuaded the Emperor of the East to condescend to his purpose as wel to receive Images into the churches as to other his requests But nevertheles the Bp. of Rome failed of his purpose For yet to this day the Christen men in the East do not allow images to stand in their churches neither the Greeks nor the Armenians nor the Indians nor none other christen men And that more is Search al the world through out of what religion soever they be whether they be Iews Turks Saracens Tartaries or Christen people and you shal not find an image in none of their churches but that was brought in by the Bp. of Rome and where the Bp. of Rome is or with in these forty years was taken for the head of the Church and Christ's Vicar in earth And at the beginning the Bps. of Rome to cloak their Idolatry pretended to have Images set up only for a remembrance to Lay men and to be as it were Lay mens books But after they defined plainly that these should be worshipped And so it encreased at length that Images were kneeled unto offered unto prayed unto sought unto Incensed and Pilgrimages done unto them and al maner of superstition and idolatry that could be devised Almighty God knoweth our corrupt nature better then we do our selves He knoweth wel the inclinations of Man how much he is given to worship creatures and the work of his own hands and especially fond Women which commonly follow superstition rather then true religion And therfore he utterly forbad the people the use of graven images especially in places dedicated to the honor of God knowing assuredly that of the having would follow the worshipping them Now thanks be to God in this Realm we be clearly delivered from that kind of idolatry which most highly offended God and we do according to the Councel Elebertyne which ordained that no Images should be in Churches And this is so antient that it was about the same year that Nicene Councel was What should â—hen move you to ask again your Images in the Church being not only against Gods commandments and the use of Gods Church evermore since the beginning of the world when it was pure from idoâ—atry but also being chargeable to the realm and great occasion of hainous idolatry But that some Papistical and covetous priests have persuaded you hereto Which care neither for Gods honor nor your damnation so that they may have any commodity or profit therby I have been very long in this Article and yet the matter is so large that it requireth much more to be spoken therin which for shortnes of time I am constrained to leave until a more occasion and so come to your eigth Article VIII Your Eighth Article is this WE wil not receive the new Service because it is but like a Christmas game but we wil have our old Service of Mattins Mass Evensong and Procession in Latine as it was before And so ne the Cornish men whâ—rof certain of us understand no English utterly refuse this new English As concerning the having of the Service in the Latine tongue is sufficiently spoken of in the answer to the third Article But I would gladly know the reason why the Cornish men refuse utterly the New English as you cal it because certain of you understand it not and yet you wil have the Service in Latin which almost none of you understand If this be a sufficient cause for Cornwal to refuse the English Service because some of you understand none English a much greaâ—er cause have they both of Cornwal and Devonshire to refuse utterly the late Service for as much as fewer of them know the Latine tongue then they of Cornwal the English tongue But where you say that you wil have the old Service because the new is like a Christmas game you declare your selves what spirit you be â—ed withal or rather what spirit leadeth them that persuaded you that the Word of God is but like a Christmas game It is more like a game and a fond play to be laughed at of al men to hear the Priest speak aloud to the people in Latine and the people listen with their ears to hear and some walking up and down in the Church some saying other prayers in Latin and none understandeth other Neither the Priest nor his parish wot what they say And many times the thing that the Priest saith in Latine is so fond of it self that it is more like a play then a godly prayer But in the English Service appointed to be read there is nothing else but the eternal word of God The New and the Old Testament is read that hath power to save your Souls Which as S. Paul saith is the power of God to the Salvation of all that believe The clear light to our eyes without the which we cannot see and a Lanthorn unto our feet without which we should tumble in darknes It is in it self the Wisdome of God and yet to the Jews it is a stumbâ—ing block and to the Gentiles it is but foolishnes But to such as be called of God whether they be Iewes or Gentiles it is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God Then unto you if it be but foolishness and a Christmas Game you may discern your selves what miserable state you be in and how far you be from God For S. Paul saith plainly that the Word of God is foolishnes only to them that perish but to them that shal be saved it is Gods might and power To some it is a lively savor unto life and to some it is a deadly savor unto death If iâ— be to you but a Christmas game it is then a Savor of death unto death And surely persuade your selves that you be
augmentation of Gods mercy and gracious promise to al men that receive it in the Faith of Christ Jesu with hatred of sin and intent purpose and mind to live always a vertuous life And that is the very Transubstantiation and change that God delighteth in in the use of the Sacraments most that we should earnestly and from the bottome of our hearts be converted into Christ and Christs holy commandments to live a christen life and to dy from sin as he gave us example both by his life and doctrin and meaneth not that the bread and wine should in substance be turned or converted into the substance of his body and bloud or that the substance of the bread should be taken away and in the place therof to be the substance matter and corporal presence of Christs corporal holy humane and natural body Item That the same holy word of God doth confess hold defend acknowledg and maintain that the very natural substantial real and corporal body of Christ concerning his humanity is only and soly in heaven and not in the Sacrament and Communion of his precious body and bloud But whosoever worthily with true repentance and lively faith in the promise of God receiveth that holy Sacrament receiveth Sacramentally by faith al the mercies riches merits and deservings that Christ hath deserved and paid for in his holy bloud and passion And that is to eat Christ and to drink Christ in the holy Sacrament to confirm and Seal Sacramentally in our Souls Gods promises of eternal Salvation that Christ deserved for us not in or by his body eaten but by and for his body slain and killed upon the Cross for our Sinns as S. Paul saith Col. 1. Eph. 1.3 Ebru 2.7 8 9 10. As for eating of his flesh and drinking of his bloud really corporally materially and substantially it is but a carnal and gross opinion of man besides and contrary to the word of God and the articles of our faith and christen religion that affirmeth his corporal departure from th earth placeth it in heaven above at the right hand of God the father Almighty and keepeth retaineth holdeth and preserveth the same corporal body of Christ there til the general day of judgment as the word declareth From thence he shal come to judge the quick and the dead And that heretofore I have been in the contrary opinion and believed my self and also have taught other to believe the same that there remained no substance of bread and wine in the Sacrament but the very self same body and bloud of Christ Jesu that was born of the blessed Virgin Mary and hanged upon the Cross I am with al my heart sorry for mine error and false opinion detesting and forsaking the same from the bottome of my heart and desire God most heartily in and for the merits of his dear sons passion to forgive me and al them that have erred in the same false opinion by and through my means Praying them in the tender compassion and great mercies of God now to follow me in truth verite and singleness of Gods most true word as they were contented to follow me in error superstition and blindness and be no more ashamed to turn to the truth then they were ready to be corrupted by falshood If the holy Apostle S. Paul and the great Clerk S. Augustine with many mo Noble and vertuous members of Christs church were not ashamed to returne acknowledge and confess their error and evil opinions what am I miserable creature of the world inferior unto them both in knowledg holines and learning that should be ashamed to do the same Nay I do in this part thank God and rejoyce from the bottome of my heart that God hath revealed unto me the truth of his word and geven me leave to live so long to acknowledg my fault and error and do here before you protest that from henceforth I will with al diligence and labor study to set forth this mine amended knowledg and reconciled truth as long as I live by the help of God in the holy Ghost through the merits of Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate To whom be al honor for ever and ever Amen Subscribed and confirmed 29 of April 1551. in the presence of John Bp. of Gloucester and divers other ther present NUM LXIV The Archbishop to the Lords of the Councel concerning the Book of Articles of Religion AFter my veray humble recommendations unto your good Lordeships I have sent unto the same the boke of Articles which yesterday I receyved from your Lordeships I have sent also a Cedule inclosed declarynge briefly my minde upon the said boke besechynge your Lordeshipps to be means unto the Kyngs Majestie that al the Bushops may have authority from hym to cause all their Prechers Archdecons Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates with al their Clergie to subscribe to the said articles And than I trust that such a concorde and quyetness in religion shal shortely follow therof as ells is not to be loked for many years God shal therby be glorified his truth shal be avaunced and your Lordeships shal be rewarded of hym as the setters forward of his true word and gospel Unto whom is my dayly prayer without ceasynge to preserve the Kynges Majestie with al your honorable Lordeships From my house at Forde the 24 of this present month of November Your Lordeshipps ever to commaunde T. Cant. To my veray good Lordes of the Kinges Majestie his most honor able Councel NUM LXV The Archbishop nominates certain persons for an Irish Archbishoprick To my veray Lovinge friende Sir William Cecyl Knight one of the Kinges Majesties principal Secretaries THough in England there be many meete men for the Archbushopricks of Ireland yet I knowe veraye fewe that wil gladlie be perswaded to go thither Nevertheless I have sent unto you the names of iiij Viz. Mr. Whiteheade of Hadley Mr. Tourner of Caunturbury Sir Thomas Rosse and Sir Robert Wisdome Which being ordinarily called I thincke for conscience sake wil not refuse to bestowe the talent committed unto theim wheresoever it shal please the Kinges Majestie to appoincte theim Among whom I take Mr. Whiteheade for his good knowledge special honestie fervent zeale and politick wisdome to be most meete And next him Mr. Tourner who besides that hee is merry and witty withal nihil appetit nihil ardet nihil somniat nisi Iesum Christum and in the lively preaching of him and his wourde declareth such diligence faithfulness and wisdom as for the same deservithe much commendation There is also one Mr. Whitacre a man both wise and wel learned Chaplain to the Bushopp of Winchester veray meet for that office if he might be perswaded to take it upon him I pray you commend me unto Mr. Cheke and declare unto him that myn ague whither it were a quotidian or a double tertian wherof my Physitions doubted hath left me these two dayes and so I
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
Judg of the Prerogative Court and Counsellor to the Emperor and a Man of deep Learning Who confessed to the said Ambassador that the Marriage was naught but that he durst not say so openly for fear both of the Pope and Emperor Yet he was afterwards cast into Prison where he died for expressing his Mind as was thought somewhat more plainly in this Affair While he was now abroad in Germany he went to Norimberg where Osiander was Pastor And being a Man of Fame and Learning our Ambassador became acquainted with him sending for him sometimes to discourse with him and sometimes he would go to Osiander's House to visit him and his Study This eminent Divine of the German Protestant Church he also gained to favour the King's Cause For he wrote a Book of Incestuous Marriages wherein he determined the King's present Matrimony to be unlawful But this Book was called in by a Prohibition printed at Augsburgh And there was also a Form of a Direction drawn up by the same Osiander how the King's Process should be managed Which was sent over hither Cranmer's Discourse with Osiander at these their Meetings concerning divers Matters relating especially to Christian Doctrine and True Religion were so wise and good that that great Divine stood in admiration of him as though he had been inspired from Above In one of their Conferences Osiander communicated to him certain Papers wherein he had been attempting to harmonize the Gospels but by reason of the Difficulty that often arose had thrown them aside A thing this was which Cranmer declared to him his great Approbation of as he was always a Man greatly studious of the Scripture and earnestly desirous that the right knowledg thereof might be encreased So he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this Study and to finish it with all convenient speed For that it would not only he said be of use to the Church of Christ but adorn it These Admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this Work and at last to bring it to a conclusion In the Year 1537 he published it and dedicated it to Cranmer then Arch-Bishop the great Encourager of the Author In some of these Visits Crâ—nmer saw Osiander's Niece and obtained her for his Wife Whom when he returned from his Embassy he brought not over with him But in the Year 1534. he privately sent for her And kept her with him till the Year 1539 in the severe time of the six Articles when he sent her back in Secret to her Friends in Germany for a time By these Visits and this Affinity there grew a very cordial Love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great Correspondence was maintained by Letters between them long after A parcel of these Letters in Manuscript the Right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation Which he met with in the exquisite Library of Mr. Richard Smith as he told a Friend of mine But notwithstanding my enquiry after them I had not the good fortune to see them nor to find into whose Hands they were come after the selling of that Library by Auction Which Letters if I could have procured a sight of might have served somewhat perhaps in this my Undertaking We are now slipp'd into the Year 1532. And among other Services which he did Abroad besides his promoting the King's great Matrimonial Cause among the German Princes and States as well as others he was employed for the establishing and securing a Traffick between the Merchants of England and the Emperor 's Low Countries Concerning which the former Contract it seems began to shake occasioned by that Luke-warmness of Affection that now grew between these two Monarchs About this Affair our Ambassador had divers Conferences with Monsieur Grandeville the Emperor 's great Minister at Regensburgh The effect of his last Sollicitation was that Grâ—ndeville had told him that the Diet concerning the said Contract was held in Flanders where the Queen of Hungary was Governess and therefore that the Emperor would do nothing therein without her advice and that he would make answer by her rather than by him And so Cranmer desired the King that it would please his Grace no further to look for Answer from him therein but from the Queen unto whom the whole Answer was committed Another Business our Ambassador was now agitating at this Court for the King was about sending Supplies to the Emperor against the Turk Who had now made a formidable Invasion in Hungary with an Army consisting of three hundred thousand Men. The Emperor had lately by virtue of a former League and for the Common Cause of Christianity demanded certain Forces of the King for this purpose Now what measures his Ambassador was to take with the Emperor in this Affair William Paget his Majesty's Servant the same that was afterward Secretary of State was dispatched to him with Instructions Wherein were contained what Answer he should make to the Emperor's Demands Which he reported accordingly to Grandeville The which Answer he delivered to him in writing upon the desire of Grandeville for this Reason as he urged that he might relate the same the more truly to the Emperor He was now in the Month of September drawing towards the Turk from Abagh a Place not far from Regensburgh where our English Ambassador now resided not having yet returned any Reply to him prevented by that hurry of Business that then lay upon the Emperor So that upon Grandeville's intimation to repair unto the Emperor at Lintz which was in his way to Vienna and that there he should have an Answer in Writing again the Ambassador followed thither in Company with the Ambassador of France And so he with the other Ambassador in eight or ten days space furnished themselves with Wagons Horses Ships Tents and other things necessary to the Journey for themselves and their Train But before his departure he informed the King of the News in those Parts As that the Turk resided still in Hungary in the same Place invironed on all parts Of which more at large he had written in his former Letters That King Ferdinando the Emperor's Brother who was then at Regensburgh was to meet the Emperor at Passaw fourteen miles from thence and so both were to pass forth to Lintz which was the mid-way from Regensburgh to Vienna That the Emperor would tarry there to take Counsel what to do and there all the Ambassadors should know his Pleasure He sent the King also the Copy of the Emperor's Proclamation concerning a General Council and a Reformation to be had in Germany for the Controversies of the Faith Which he was constrained to do his Affairs with the Turk pressing him so much The Sum thereof was That his Imperial Majesty declared Peace throughout all Germany Enjoining that none should be molested for the Cause of Religion until the Council should be called or in case there were
appear there before the Arch-bishop Where Iohn Whitwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner and Thomas Langley both Priests and his Grace's Chaplains exhibited a Schedule of divers Heresies and damned Opinions against the said Assheton Which are recited in the Abjuration which he made The Tenor whereof is as followeth In the Name of God Amen Before you most Learned Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop Primate and Metropolitan of all England Commissary of our most dread Soveraign Lord and excellent Prince Edward VI by the Grace of God c. I Iohn Assheton Priest of my pure Heart Free-will voluntary and sincere Knowledg confess and openly recognize that in Times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say 1. That the Trinity of Persons was established by the Confession of Athanasius declared by a Psalm Quicunque vult c. And that the Holy Ghost is not God but only a certain Power of the Father 2. That Iesus Christ that was conceived of the Virgin Mary was a holy Prophet and especially beloved of God the Father but that he was not the true and living God Forasmuch as he was seen and lived hungred and thirsted 3. That this only is the Fruit of Iesus Christ's Passion that whereas we were strangers from God and had no knowledg of his Testament it pleased God by Christ to bring us to the acknowledging of his holy Power by the Testament Wherefore I the said Iohn Assheton detesting and abhorring all and every my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions willingly and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and his Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and abominable Opinions Granting and confessing now 1. That the blessed Trinity consisteth in Three distinct Persons and one Godhead as God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost coequal in Power and Might 2. That Jesus Christ is both God and Man after his holy Nature eternally begotten of his Father of his own Substance and in his Humanity was conceived by the Holy Ghost incarnate and for our Redemption being very God became Man 3. That by the Death of Iesus Christ we be not only made Partakers of the Testament and so disposed to the Knowledg of his godly Will and Power but also that we have full Redemption and Remission of our Sins in his Blood Then he subscribed his Hand to this Confession before the Arch-bishop exhibiting it for his Act and lifting up his Hand beseeched his Grace to deal mercifully and graciously with him and touching the Gospel gave his Faith that he would faithfully and humbly obey the Commands of the Holy Mother-Church and whatsoever Penance the said most Reverend Father should lay upon him To these erroneous Doctrines we must add others that now also spread themselves As that Christ took not Flesh of the Virgin That the Baptism of Infants was not profitable Of which Error one Michael Thombe of London Butcher recanted the Year following viz. 1549 May 11. having been then convented before the Arch-bishop at Lambeth I Michael Thombe of London Bocher of my pure Heart and free Will voluntarily and sincerely acknowledg and confess and openly recognize that in times past I thought believed said heard and affirmed these Errors and Heresies and damnable Opinions following that is to say That Christ took no Flesh of our Lady and that the Baptism of Infants is not profitable because it goeth before Faith Wherefore I the said Michael Thombe detesting and abhorring all and every such my said Errors Heresies and damned Opinions and with all my Power affecting hereafter firmly to believe in the true and perfect Faith of Christ and of the Holy Church purposing to follow the true and sincere Doctrine of Holy Church with a pure and free Heart voluntarily mind will and intend utterly to forsake relinquish renounce and despise the said detestable Errors Heresies and damnable Opinions granting and confessing now That Christ took Flesh of the Virgin Mary and that the Baptism of Infants is profitable and necessary And by this Submission and Penance doing Thombe escaped But another of the same Opinion more obstinate came to a sadder End and was Burnt namely Ioan Bocher or Ioan of Kent Her Opinion is in the Instrument drawn up against her in the ABp's Register Which ran thus That you believe that the Word was made Flesh in the Virgin 's Belly but that Christ took Flesh of the Virgin you believe not because the Flesh of the Virgin being the outward Man was sinfully gotten and born in Sin But the Word by the Consent of the inward Man of the Virgin was made Flesh. This she stood perversely in So the Arch-bishop himself excommunicated her judicially the Sentence being read by him April 1549 in S. Mary's Chappel within the Cathedral Church of Pauls Sir Thomas Smith William Cook Dean of the Arches Hugh Latimer Richard Lyell LL. D. the King's Commissioners assisting She was committed afterwards to the Secular Arm and certified so to be by an Instrument made by the Commissioners to the King After she was condemned she was a Sevennight in the Lord Chancellor Rich his House and every day the Arch-bishop and Bishop Ridley came and reasoned with her that if possible they might save her from the Fire But nothing would do I will here produce Latimer's Censure of her who well knew her Case being one of the Commissioners that sat upon her She would say saith he in his Sermon on S. Iohn Evangelist's Day That our Saviour was not very Man nor had received Flesh of his Mother Mary And yet she could shew no reason why she should believe so Her Opinion was this The Son of God said she penetrated through her as through a Glass taking no Substance of her This foolish Woman denied the common Creed Natus ex Maria Virgine and said that our Saviour had a fantastical Body A Dutch Man an Arian named George van Paris denying Christ to be true God came to a like End with Ioan namely that of burning to Death being condemned for Heresy that was in the Year 1551. But tho I make some Anticipation in my History yet I do it that I may lay these Heresies here together that started up or rather shewed themselves more visibly in this Reign CHAP. IX The Arch-bishop Visits THE Arch-bishop in this Year held a Visitation in divers Places throughout his Diocess Wherein enquiry was to be made concerning the Behaviour both of the Priests and the People in eighty six Articles Whereby may be seen the Arch-bishop's conscientious Care and Solicitude for the abrogating of Superstition and the promoting of true Religion That he might reduce the Clergy to Learning
Sobriety and Diligence in their Vocation and the People to Loyalty and Obedience to the King and the sincere worshipping of God Concerning the Priests he ordered enquiry to be made Whether they preached four times a Year against the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome and in behalf of the King's Power and Authority within his own Realms Whether in their Common-Prayers they used not the Collects made for the King and mentioned not his Majesty's Name in the same Whether they had destroyed and taken away out of the Churches all Images and Shrines Tables Candlesticks Trindals or Rolls of Wax and all other Monuments of feigned Miracles Idolatry and Superstition and moved their Parishioners to do the same in their own Houses Enquiries were made concerning their due Administration of the Sacraments concerning their preaching God's Word once at least in a Quarter and then exhorting their Parishioners to Works commanded by Scripture and not to Works devised by Mens Fancies as wearing and praying upon Beads and such-like Concerning the plain reciting the Lord's Prayer the Creed and Ten Commandments in English immediately after the Gospel as often as there were no Sermon Concerning the examining of every one that came to Confession in Lent whether they were able to say the Creed the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments in English Concerning the having Learned Curats to be procured by such as were absent from their Benefices Concerning having the whole Bible of the largest Volume in every Church and Erasmus's Paraphrase in English Concerning teaching the People of the Nature of the Fast of Lent and other Days in the Year that it was but a mere positive Law Concerning Residence upon Benefices and keeping Hospitality Concerning finding a Scholar in the Universities oâ— some Grammar-School incumbent on such Priests as had an hundred pounds a Year Concerning moving the Parishioners to pray rather in English than in a Tongue unknown and not to put their Trust in saying over a number of Beads Concerning having the New Testament in Latin and English and Erasmus's Paraphrase which all Priests under the Degree of Batchelors in Divinity were examined about Concerning putting out of the Church-Books the Name of Papa and the Name and Service of Thomas Becket and the Prayers that had Rubricks containing Pardons and Indulgences And many the like Articles Which may be seen by him that will have recourse to them as they are printed in Bishop Sparrow's Collections Those Articles that related to the Laity were Concerning the Letters or Hinderers of the Word of God read in English or preached sincerely Concerning such as went out of the Church in time of the Litany or Common-Prayer or Sermon Concerning ringing Bells at the same time Concerning such as abused the Ceremonies as casting Holy Water upon their Beds bearing about them Holy Bread S. Iohn's Gospel keeping of private Holy-days as Taylors Bakers Brewers Smiths Shoemakers c. did Concerning the misbestowing of Money arising from Cattel or other moveable Stocks of the Church as for finding of Lights Torches Tapers or Lamps and not employed to the poor Man's Chest. Concerning abusing Priests and Ministers Concerning praying upon the English Primer set forth by the King and not the Latin for such as understand not Latin Concerning keeping the Church-Holy-day and the Dedication-day any otherwise or at any other time than was appointed Concerning Commoning and Jangling in the Church at the time of reading the Common-Prayer or Homilies or when there was preaching Concerning maintenance of Error and Heresy Concerning common Swearers Drunkards Blasphemers Adulterers Bawds Enquiries were also to be made after such as were common Brawlers Slanderers such as used Charms Sorceries Inchantments and Witchcraft such as contemned their own Parish-Church and went else-where Concerning Marrying within the Degrees prohibited and without asking the Bannes Concerning the honest discharge of Wills and Testaments in such as were Executors or Administrators Concerning such as contemned married Priests and refused to receive the Communion and other Sacraments at their Hands Concerning such as kept in their own Houses Images Tables Pictures Painting or Monuments of fained Miracles undefaced c. In this Year also the Arch-bishop with the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury granted the Patronage Rectory c. of Riâ—eborough Monachorum in the County of Bucks to the Lord Windsor for fourscore and nineteen Years And in Exchange the said Lord granted to the Arch-bishop the Advouson Patronage and Nomination of Midley in Kent for the same duration of Years September the 9 th being Sunday Robert Farrar D. D. was Consecrated Bishop of S. Davids by Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury endued with his Pontificals and assisted by Henry Bishop of Lincoln and Nicolas Bishop of Rochester at Chertsey in the Diocess of Winton in the Arch-bishop's House there Then certain Hymns Psalms and Prayers being recited together with a Portion of Scripture read in the vulgar Tongue out of S. Paul's Epistles and the Gospel of S. Matthew the Arch-bishop celebrated the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. There communicated the Reverend Fathers Thomas Bishop of Ely Thomas Bishop of Westminster Henry Bishop of Lincoln Nicolas Bishop of Rochester and Farrar the new Bishop together with William May Dean of S. Pauls Simon Hains Dean of Exon Thomas Robertson and Iohn Redman Professors of Divinity and others The Arch-bishop then distributed the Communion in English Words This Bishop as it is writ in the Margin of the Register was the first that was consecrated upon the bare Nomination of the King according to the Statute that for that purpose was published in the first Year of his Reign The Form of the King's Letters Patents whereby he constituted Farrar Bishop is extant in the Register dated from Leghes August 1. in the second Year of his Reign At this Bishop of S. Davids I will stay a little proving unhappy by his Preferment unto a Church whose Corruptions while he endeavoured to correct he sunk under his commendable Endeavours He was an active Man and made much use of in Publick Affairs in K. Henry and K. Edward's Days having been first a Canon of S. Mary's in Oxon. He was with Bp Barlow when he was by K. Henry sent Ambassador to Scotland An. 1535. Another time employed in carrying old Books of great Value from S. Oswalds a dissolved Monastery as it seems unto the Arch-bishop of York And in the Royal Visitation in the beginning of King Edward he was one of the King's Visitors being appointed one of the Preachers for his great Ability in that Faculty And being Chaplain to the Duke of Somerset was by his means advanced to be Bishop and upon his Fall he fell into great Troubles This Bishop not long after his first entrance upon his Bishoprick resolved to visit his Diocess like a careful Pastor hearing of very great Corruptions in it and particularly among those that belonged to the Chapter of the Church of Carmarthen and chiefly Thomas