cometh hurt to all men for it wearieth the stedfast troubleth the doubtful and ensnareth the weak and simple yet because he saith he is not bound to answer your Lordship sitting for the Popes Holyness because of a Premunire and the Word of God as he pretends I think good somewhat to say that all men may see how he runneth out of his race of Reason into the rage of common Talk. And as the King and Queens Majesty will be glad to hear of your most charitable dealing with him so will they be weary to hear the blundering of this stubborn Heretick And where he alledgeth Divinity minling fas nefásque together he should not have been heard For shall it be sufficient for him to alledge the Judge is not competent and shall we dispute contra cum qui negat principia Although there be here a great company of learned men that know it unmeet so to do yet have I here a plain Canon whereby he is convicted ipso facto The Canon is this Sit ergo ruinae suae dolore prostratus quisquis Apostolicis voluerit contraire Decretis nec locum deinceps habeat inter Sacerdotes sed exors à sancto fiat Ministerio c. He hath alledged many matters against the Popes Supremacy but maliciously Ye say that the King in his Realm is Supream Head of the Church Well Sir you will grant me that there was a perfect Catholique Church before any King was Christened Then if it were a perfect Church it must needs have a Head which must needs be before any King was member thereof For you know Constantinus the Emperor was the first Christian King that ever was and although you are bound as St. Paul saith to obey your Rulers and Kings have Rule over the People yet doth it not follow that they have Cure of Souls For à fortiori the Head may do what the Minister cannot do but the Priest may consecrate and the King cannot therefore the King is not Head of the Church And where the Apostles do call upon men to obey their Princes cui Tributum Tributum cui Vectigal Vectigal the Exhortation extendeth only to Temporal matters they perceiving that men were bent to Liberty and Disobedience were enforced to exhort them to Obedience and Payment of their Tribute And again where you say that the Bishop of Rome maketh Laws contrary to the Laws of the Realm that is not true for this is a maxim in the Law Quod in particulari excipitur non facit universale falsum And as touching that monstrous talk of your Conscience that is no Conscience that ye profess it is but privata Scientia and Secta As yet you have not proved for all your glorious Babble that by Gods Laws ye ought not to answer the Popes Holiness The Canons which be received in all Christendom compel you to answer And although this Realm of late time through such Schismatiques as you were hath exiled and banished the Canons yet that cannot make for you for you know your self that pars in totum nihil statuere potest Wherefore this Island being indeed but a member of the whole Church could not determine against the whole And the same Laws that were put away by Parliament are now received again by a Parliament having as full Authority now as they had then And these Laws will now that ye answer to the Popes Holiness Therefore by the Laws of this Realm ye are bound to answer him This was materially replied to Cranmers words that he would never consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction in England Wherefore my good Lord all that this Thomas Cranmer I cannot otherwise term him confidering his Disobedience hath brought for his Defence shall nothing prevail with you Require him therefore to answer directly to your good Lordship command him to set aside his Trifles and to be obedient to the Laws and Ordinances of this Realm take witness here of his stubborn Contempt against the King and Queens Majesties and compel him to answer directly to such Articles as we shall here exhibit against him and in refusal your good Lordship is to excommunicate him Thus Dr. Story Fox page 654 655. NOTE Here his Fidelity to the Laws so long as they serve his turn the King Queen Parliament and Laws were then Popish He was for the Laws made by himself and the Duke of Somerset under the Childhood of Edward 6. A. Did he answer nothing further to the Charge of Heresie B. Nothing but this He pulled an Appeal out of his left Sleeve says Fox which he dellvered to the Court saying I appeal to the next General Council And further I intend to speak nothing against one holy Catholique and Apostolical Church or the Authority thereof the which Authority I have in great Reverence and whom my mind is in all things to obey pag. 663. 3 vol. The very words of his Appeal A. What did he mean by one holy Catholique Church B. His Definition of it you may find in the Thirty nine Articles of the Church of England which Articles were framed as Burnet thinks by him and Ridley and first published anno 1551. p. 166. 2. vol. The visible Church of Christ saith the 19th Article is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly ministred aceording to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Now in the year 1556. when Cranmer presented this Appeal there could not be in his opinion any such National or Catholique Church visible on the face of the Earth A. I pray make that appear B. By an Induction of all the Churches in the world that then professed themselves Christians as the Roman the Eastern the Church of England the Lutherans Calvinists Anabaptists c. the Roman in his opinion was but the Synagogue of Antichrist The Greek Church consented with the Roman in most of the Doctrines controverted betwixt Papists and Protestants as the Sacrifice of the Mass Adoration of the Eucharist Veneration of Images Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead c. and do consent at this day The Church of England was then newly reconciled to Rome and Catholique Bishops restor'd to their own Sees by Act of Parliament The Lutherans did then and at this day adore a corporal presence in the Sacrament and therefore cannot be said in his opinion to have the pure Word of God preached and the Sacraments duely administred according to Christs Ordinance The Calvinists had no Orders of Priests and Bishops consequently no Church at all A. How no Church at all for want of Priests and Bishops let that appear I pray you B. Read the Church of Englands Preface to the Form appointed by her for making and consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons and there observe these words viz. It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time
acknowledge that there was a signal Providence of God in raising up a King of his Temper for clearing the way to that blessed Work that followed and that could hardly have been done but by a man of his Humour So that I may very fit'y apply to him the witty simile of a Writer who compares Luther to a Postilion in his waxed Boots and oiled Coat lashing his Horses through thick and thin and bespattering all about him This Character befits King Henry better saving the Reverence due to his Crown who as the Postilion of Reformation made way for it through a great deal of mire and filth Pref. pag. 6. A. What more B. Whatever Reproaches those of the Church of Rome cast on the Reformation upon the account of this Kings Faults may may be easily turned back on their own Popes Pref. pag. 8. Gregory 7. Boniface 8. Julius 2. Leo 10. Clement 7. Paul 3. and if the Lives of those Popes who have made the greatest advances in their Jurisdiction be examined particularly Gregory 7. Boniface 8. Vices more eminent than any can be charged on Henry 8. will be found in them ibid. p. 8. A. So that all he has to answer for Henry 8. amounts to this that others were as bad as he this is a sort of Apology which we call Recrimination Does that excuse any mans Crimes B. No the blemishing them viz. the Popes will not I confess excuse our Reformers therefore other things are to be considered for their Vindication saith the Doctor pag. 10. Pref. to his first vol. A. What are those other things B. Why may not saith he an ill King do so good a work as to set a Reformation forward Gods ways are a great deep who has often shewed his Power and Wisdom in raising up unpromising instruments to do great Services in the world not always employing the best men in them Jehu did an acceptable Service to God in destroying the Idolatry of Baal though neither the way of doing it is to be imitated being grossly insincere nor was the Reformation compleat since the Worship of the two Calves was still kept up And it is very like his chief design in it was to destroy all the party that favoured Ahabs Family yet the thing was good and was rewarded by God. So whatever this Kings other Faults were and how defective soever the Change he made was and upon what ill motives soever it may seem to have proceeded yet the things themselves being good we ought not to think the worse of them because of the Instrument or manner by which they were wrought Pref. pag. 9. Thus the Doctor thinks he has sufficiently justified the English Reformation against the Objections that may arise from the Impieties or Vices of Henry 8. NOTE Let the Reader observe here how the Doctor takes that for granted which is the matter in question namely that the English Reformation was a good work and that God raised up Henry 8. to set it forward Nay the Doctor knows it is utterly deny'd by the most considerable part of Christendom both Greeks and Latins that God raised him up otherwise than he is said to have hardned Pharaoh's heart when he only gave him up to the Lusts and Cruelties of his own Heart If the Doctors meaning be that Henry 8. was raised up by an impulse or inspiration of Gods Spirit to reform the Church let him make that appear by some other Evidence than this further Character and we will believe him A. What is that further Character B. It will surprise some saith the Doctor concerning his first Volumn to see a Book of this bigness written of the History of our Reformation under the Reign of Henry VIII since the true beginnings of it viz. Reformation are to be reckoned from the Reign of Edward 6. mark the Antiquity of the Protestant Church in which the Articles of our Church and the Forms of our Worship were first compiled and set forth by Authority by what Authority shall appear anon and indeed in King Henrys time the Reformation was rather conceived than brought forth and two Parties were in the last eighteen years of his Reign struggling in the Womb having now and then advantages on either side as the inconstant humour of that King changed and as his Interests and often as his Passions swayed him For being boisterous and impatient naturally which was much heightned by his most extravagant Vanity and high Conceit of his own Learning strange Evidence of a Divine Mission he was one of the most uncounsellable Persons in the World. Pref. pag 5 and 6. A. What was King Henry's Religion to his dying day B. Indeed in the whole Progress of those Changes saith our Historian the King's design seemed to have been to terrifie the Court of Rome and cudgel the Pope into a complyance with what he desired For in his Heart he continued addicted to some of the most extravagant opinions of that Church such as Transubstantiation and the other Corruptions of the Mass so that he was to his Lives end more Papist than Protestant page 7. Preface to 1 Vol. NOTE Reader King Henry went to Mass to his dying day So did all these three Kingdoms to the first or second year of Edward VI. Here is yet no Evidence of God's having raised him up by any Impulse or Inspiration of his Holy Spirit to Reform the Church if that were the Doctors meaning only that God permitted him as he does other Sinners to Act those things for which they shall one day pay dearly That some Popes have been no Saints I shall not dispute it with the Doctor But let him shew if he can that any of the first Reformers Henry VIII Ann Bolen Cranmer Cromwell Somerset Northumberland Ridly c. were sent or raised up by God to reform the Faith or Manners of the Church and there is an end of the Controversie The Doctor instances in David Solomon Jchu who all had their failings but how does that recommend or excuse our Reformers who without any Comission or Inspiration from God presumed to reform that is to say subvert the Church wherein they were Baptized and set up another after their own Fancies who said let us take to our selves the Houses of God in Possession Psal 83.12 Never any Pope had the Wickedness to do such things And therefore to affirm that God raised up such Persons to Plunder the Church under pretence of Reforming it what is it better or worse then to make God the Author of their Sacriledge and Hypocrisy A. But what say you to the Doctors words Pref. page 7. that every National Church is a compleat Body within it self so that the Church of England with the Authority and Concurrence of their Head and King may examine and reform all Errors whether in Doctrine or Worship c. If this be true what needs any special Commission or Inspiration from God to Reform the Church Why may not every National Church do
and she had such different Interests that they could not both subsist together resolved upon that course which Nature and Self-preservation seemed to dictate to her but finding that the Pope was too well intrenched to be dislodged upon the sudden it was advised by Cromwell made Master of the Rolls upon her Commendation to begin with taking in the Outworks first meaning the lesser Monasteries to the number of about 376. which being gained it would be no hard matter to beat him out of his Trenches p. 262. Those Houses were dissolved by Act of Parliament anno 1535. to the passing whereof the Bishops and Mitred Abbots which made the prevalent part of the House of Peers contributed their Votes and Suffrages as others did whether it were out of Pusillanimity as not daring to appear in behalf of their Brethren or out of a weak hope that the Rapacity of the Queen mark this and her Ministers would proceed no further it is hard to say Heylin page 263. Certain it is says he that by their improvident assenting to the present Grant they made a Rod for their own Backs as the saying is with which they were sufficiently scourged within sew years after though the new Queen observe for whose sake Cromwell had contrived the Plot did not live to see it Ibid. page 263. NOTE She makes Cromwell Master of the Rolls and he to serve her Interest advises the King to suppress the Religious Houses Heylin remarks further When she thought her self most safe and free from Danger she became most obnoxious to the Ruin prepared for her It had pleased God on the eighth of January 1535. to put an end unto the Calamities of the Vertuous but unfortunate Queen Katherine into whose Bed she had succeeded The News whereof she entertained with such Contentment that she caused her self to be Apparrell'd in lighter colours than was agreeable to the season or the sad occasion Whereas if she had rightly understood her own Condition she could not but have known that the long Life of Katherine was to be her best preservative against all Changes page 263. A. I pray let us hear Doctor Burnet's Character of Queen Katherine B. She was a devout and pious Princess and led a severe and mortify'd Life In her Greatness she wrought much with her own Hands and kept her Women well employed about her as appeared when the two Legates came once to speak with her She came out to them with a Skein of Silk about her Neck and told them she had been within at work with her Women She was most passionately devoted to the Interests of the Court of Rome and in a word she is Represented as a most wonderful good Woman But Queen Ann did not carry her Death so decently for she expressed too much Joy at it both in her Carriage and Dress Burnet page 192. 1 Vol. When Queen Katherine found her Sickness like to prove Mortal she made one about her write a Letter in her name to the King. In the Title she called him her Dear Lord King and Husband She advised him to look to the Health of his Soul She forgave him all the Troubles he had cast her into and concluded I make this Vow that mine Eyes desire you above all things Ibid. page 192. A. Does he relate nothing further of Queen Katherine B. When her Cause was to be heard before the Legates Anno 1529. the King and she came personally into the Court. When the King and Queen were called on the King answered Here. But the Queen left her Seat and went and kneeled down before him and made a Speech She said ' She was a poor Woman and a Stranger in his Dominions where she could neither expect good Council nor indifferent Judges She had been long his Wife and desired to know wherein she had offended him That she had been his Wife twenty years and more and had born him several Children and had ever studied to please him and protested he had found her a true Maid about which she appealed to his Conscience She said her Lawyers who were his Subjects and assigned by him durst not speak freely for her So she desired to be excused till she heard from Spain ' Then she rose up and made the King a low Reverence and went out of the Court and although they called after her she made no Answer but went away and would never again appear in Court. She being gone the King did publickly declare what a true and obedient Wife she had always been and commended her much for her excellent qualities Burnet page 73. 1 Vol. A. Do you find that Ann Bolen ever repented her Carriage in reference to this good and vertuous Princess B. Not a Syllable of that have I met with in Burnet or Heylin After Queen Ann's Death a Parliament was called to Repeal an Act of a former Parliament concerning the Succession of the Grown to the Issue of the King by her In this Parliament saith the Doctor the Attainder of Queen Ann and her Complices is confirmed In the new Act of Succession she is said to have been inflamed with Pride and Carnal desires of her Body and having confederated her self with her complices to have committed divers Treasons to the danger of the King 's Royal Person for which she had justly suffered Death and is now attainted by Act of Parliament Burnet page 210. 1 Vol. A. I pray of what Church did she dye B. The Doctor says nothing of that the Church of England was not then in being Mass being said at that time in all Churches of the Nation and above ten years after The Church of Romes Authority was then excluded by Act of Parliament and that by her interest So that of what Church she dyed I cannot resolve you unless it were King Henry's Church and that was no Protestant Church the Doctrine of the six Articles being then in request However she dyed 2 Saint if you believe her own words And some think 't is no matter of what Church they Live or Dye provided they be no Papists But King Henry's Church was then scarcely three years old A. Enough of your first Reformer Ann Bolen for whose sake King Henry fell out with the Pope and made a Rupture in the Catholick Church She was not the first nor will be the last Female Incendiary of Mischief and Quarrels in the World. Who was the next Reformer under Henry VIII B. Thomas Cromwell A. What Tokens of an extraordinary Mission does Burnet observe in him B. He was a Man of mean Birth but noble Qualities only he made too much haste to be Great and Rich. He joyned himself in a firm Friendship to Cranmer and did promote the Reformation very vigorously Burnet 1 Vol page 172. The Suppression of the Abbies was wholly laid at his door page 276. He was attainted by Act of Parliament Anno â—540 Wherein it is said expressly that the King having raised Thomas Cromwell from a base degree to
the particulars of Bribery and Extortion they being mentioned in general expressions seem only cast into the heap to defame him And pag. 285. he carried his Greatness with wonderful Temper and Moderation and fell under the weight of popular Odium rather than Guilt for which the Doctor gives this reason the Disorders in the Suppression of Abbies were generally charged on him ibid. With his Fall the progress of the Reformation which had been by his endeavours so far advanced was quite stop'd p. 285. For all that Cranmer could do after this was to keep the ground they had gained but he could never advance much further ibid. With him the Office of the Kings Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs dyed as it rose first in his person And as all the Clergy opposâ—d the setting up a new Officer whose Interest should oblige him to oppose a Reconciliation with Rome so it seems none were sound to succeed in an Office that proved so fatal to him p. 285. NOTE All the Clergy at that time were for a Reconciliation with Rome that was the year 1540. after their Deliverance from the Tyranny of Cromwell By all the Clergy the Doctor means the major part nay all except Cranmer and two or three more as shall appear by and by out of Dr. Burnet Dr. Heylin remarks Histor Reform p. 11. ad annum 1540. King Henry advanceth his great Minister Cromwell by whom he had made such havock of Religious Houses in all parts of the Realm to the Earldom of Essex and sends him headless to his Grave within three months after And Dr. Burnet himself cannot but observe the Judgment of God upon Cromwell anno 1540. viz. His ruin was now decreed and he who had so servilely complied with the Kings Pleasure in procuring some to be attainted the year before without being brought to make their Answer fell now under the same Severity p. 227. 1. vol. A. How did Cromwell govern the Church B. First as King Henrys Vicar General afterwards as Lord Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical matters They were two different Places and held by different Commissions By the one he had no Authority over the Bishops nor had he any Precedence but the other as it gave him the Precedence next to the Royal Family so it clothed him with a compleat Delegation of the Kings whole Power in Ecclesiastical matters Burnet p. 181. By virtue of which Authority he sends out his Instructions to the Bishops how to proceed in a Reformation and his Injunctions to the Clergy which the Reader will find in Burnets Collection of Records 1. vol. p. 181. Bock 3. concluding thus All which and singular Injunctions I minister unto you and your Successors by the Kings Highness's Authority to me committed in this part which I charge and command you by the same Authority to observe and keep upon pain of Deprivation Sequestration of your Fruits or such other Coercion as to the Kings Highness or his Vice-Gerent for the time being shall seem convenient This was in the year 1538. One of those Injunctions was this viz. You shall suffer from henceforth no Candles Tapers or Images of Wax to be set before any Image or Picture but only the Light that commonly goeth a cross the Church by the Rood Loft the Light before the Sacrament of the Altar and the Light about the Sepulchre which for the adorning of the Church and Divine Service ye shall suffer to remain still admonishing your Parishioners that Images serve for none other purpose but as the Bocks of unlearned men that ken no Letters whereby they might be otherwise admonished of the Lives and Conversation of them that the said Images do represent Also that you shall expressly provoke stir and exhort every person to read the Bible admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all Contention Altercation therein and to use an honest Sobriety in the inquisition of the true sense of the same and refer the Explication of obscure places to men of higher Judgment in Scripture NOTE Such Admonitions were to no purpose the Bible being once permitted into the rude hands of the Multitude For what say they does he allow us to read the Scripture and then debar us the use of our Vnderstandings Has not every man a Judgment of Discretion to read and interpret the Scripture for himself so as not to pin his Religion on the sleeve of the Church Another of his Injunctions was that you shall in Confessions every Lent examine every person it seems private Confession was then in practice whether they can recite the Articles of our Faith and the Pater noster in English and hear them say the same particularly wherein if they be not perfect ye shall admonish them that every Christian ought to know the same before they receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and to learn the same more perfectly by the next year following So you shall declare unto them that you look for other Injunctions mark this from the Kings Highness by that time to stay and repel all such from Gods Board as shall be found ignorant in the premises Coll. p. 181. A. So much for Cromwell whose Religion or Church whatever it was is past my understanding Go on and tell us who is your next Saint of the Reformation B. Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury A. What Signs of an Apostle did appear in him B. Your Question is but rational since Burnet affirms so positively that he was a man raised up by God for great Services p. 335. 2. vol. A. I know he was next to Cromwell the grand Projector of Reformation under Henry 8. but the thing that I expect from Burnet is the proof of that Assertion that he was a man raised up by God in case he would oblige us to esteem the Reformation not to have been the work of Man but of God. Shall Cranmer take upon him to reform that is to pull down the established Religion of the Nation coyn 39 Articles and impose them on the Clergy as if he had thought the Scriptures obscure or insufficient in things necessary the major part of the Christian World protesting against it as new Doctrine and all this by a meer humane Authority an Act of Parliament passed under the Childhood of Edward 6 B. As for the marks of his Apostleship take the History of his Actions compared with Burnets Character and then satisfie your self the best you can Warham Archbishop of Canterbury dying in the year 1533. King H. saw well of how great importance it was to the Designs he was then forming viz his Divorce from Q Katherine c. to fill that See with a learned prudent and resolute Man but finding none in the Episcopal Order that is amongst all the English Bishops that was qualified to his Mind note this and having observed a native simplicity joyned with much Courage and tempered with a great deal of Wisedom in Doctor Cranmer who was then Negotiating his business among the learned Men of Germany
ibid. pag. 400. A. I pray if you have read Foxes Book of Martyrs what is his Character there B. In Causes pertaining to God or his Prince no man more stout or more constant than he 3. vol. p. 633. A. Then let us hear the words of his Recantation set down by Fox which he signed thrice says Burnet B. I Thomas Cranmer late Archbishop of Canterbury do renounce abhor and detest all manner of Heresies and Errors of Luther and Zuinglius and all other Teachings which be contrary to sound and true Doctrine And I believe most constantly in my heart and with my mouth I confess one holy and Catholique Church visible withotu the which there is no Salvation And therefore I acknowledge the Bishop of Rome to be Supream Head on Earth whom I knowledge to be the highest Bishop and Pope and Christs Vicar unto whom all Christian people ought to be Subject And as concerning the Sacraments I believe and worship in the Sacrament of the Altar the very Body and Blood of Christ being contained most truly under the forms of Bread and Wine the Bread through the mighty Power of God being turned into the Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Wine into his Blood. And in the other six Sacraments also like as in this I believe and hold as the Universal Church holdeth and the Church of Rome judgeth and determineth Furthermore I believe that there is a place of Purgatory where Souls departed be punished for a time for whom the Church doth godly and wholsomly pray like as it doth honour Saints and make prayers to them Finally in all things I profess that I do not otherwise believe than the Catholique Church and the Church of Rome holdeth and teacheth I am sorry that ever I held or thought otherwise And I beseech Almighty God that of his Mercy he will vouchsafe to forgive me whatsoever I have offended against God or his Church And also I desire and beseech all Christian people to pray for me And all such as have been deceived either by mine Example or Doctrine I require them by the Blood of Jesus Christ that they will return to the Unity of the Church and the Supream Head thereof So I submit my self unto the most excellent Majesties of Philip and Mary King and Queen of this Realm of England c. and to all other their Laws and Ordinances being ready always as a faithful Subject to obey them And God is my Witness that I have not done this for favour or fear of any Person but willingly and of mine own mind as well to the Discharge of mine own Conscience as to the Instruction of others A. Did he not afterwards retract these words B. Yes when he saw no hopes of his Pardon and being brought to the Stake he made a very good Exhortation to the people saying as Fox relates it It is an heavy case to see that so many Folk so much dote upon the Love of this false World and so careful for it it seems a Spanish Fryar had given him good hopes of his Life but without any Authority from the Queen as Fox confesses that for the Love of God or the World to come they seem to care very little or nothing therefore this shall be my first Exhortation that you set not your minds overmuch upon this glozing world but upon the world to come I wish he had seriously thought upon this when he so obsequiously followed all the Appetites of Henry 8. by divorcing him first from his most vertuous and innocent Wife Q Katherine then from Ann Bolen then from Ann of Cleves and to learn to know what this Lesson meaneth which Saint John teacheth that the Love of this world is enmity against God c. And now for as much as I am come to the last end of my life I shall therefore declare unto you my very Faith how I believe without any colour or dissimulation for now is no time to dissemble whatsoever I have said or written in times past mark that and now I come to the great thing that so much troubleth my Conscience more than any thing that ever I did or said in my life and that is the setting abroad of a Writing he means his Recantation contrary to the Truth which now here I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand contrary to the Truth which I thought in my heart c. And as for the Pope I refuse him as Antichrist c. Fox 3. vol. p. 669 670. A. What further instances have you met with in Fox of his Constancy to his Religion B. He did adventurously oppose himself against the whole Parliament disputing and replying three days together against the Statute of Six Articles pag. 641. that was in the year 1539. A. What was the true Reason of so much Courage at that time in a man of such Prudence that before and after still went along with the Stream B. Dr. Burnet will inform you The third Article of that Statute was this That Priests after the Order of Priesthood might not marry by the Law of God. And if any Priest did still keep any Woman whom he had married and lived familiarly with her as his Wife he was to be judged a Felon c. This says Burnet touched Cranmer to the quick for he was then married p. 257 259. 1. vol. A. Does Fox say nothing of Cranmers Marriage B. He tells you page 647. that the King extended such especial Favour unto him that being not ignorant of his Wife Neece to Osiander whom he had married at Norimberg and of his keeping her all the time of the Six Articles contrary to Law he both permitted the same and kept Cranmers Counsel A. What other particulars have you observed in Fox B. The Lord Cromwell was wont to say unto Cranmer My Lord of Canterbury you are most happy of all men for you may do and speak what you list and say what all men can against you the King will never believe one word to your detriment I am sure I take more pains than all the Council besides and spend more largely on the Kings Affairs as well beyond the Seas as on this side yea I assure you for very Spyes in foreign Realms at Rome and elsewhere it costs me above a Thousand Marks a year and do what I can to bring matters to light for the commodity of the King and the Realm I am every day chidden and many false Tales now and then believed against me and therefore you are most happy for in no point can you be discredited with the King. The Archbishop answered If the Kings Majesty were not good to me I were not able to stand one whole week p. 643. 3. vol. Fox tells you further how certain of the Council declared plainly to the King about that time that the Realm was so infected with Heresies Heretiques that it was dangerous for His Highness further to permit it lest peradventure by long
suffering such Contention should arise and ensue in the Realm amongst his Subjects that thereby might spring horrible Rebellions and Uproars like as in some parts of Germany it happened not long ago the Enormity whereof they could not impute to any so much as to the Archbishop of Canterbury p. 641 642. But the King says Fox most entirely loved him and always stood in his defence whosoever spake against him and once said to some Lords of his Council I protest solemnly laying his hand upon his breast by the Faith which I ow to God I take this man my Lord of Canterbury to be of all other a most saithful Subject to us and one to whom We are much beholding p. 643. A. Wherein had he obliged the King B. Doctor Burnet tells you page 127. that in the year 1533. the King seeing of how great importance it was to the designs he was then forming namely his Divorce from Queen Katherine his advancement to the title of Supream Head of the Church and seizure of Abby lands c. to fill the See of Canterbury with a learned prudent and resolute man but finding none in the Episcopal Order that was qualified to his mind these are Burnets words and having observed a native simplicity joyned with much Courage in Dr. Cranmer he designed to raise him to that Dignity and gave him notice of it ibid. A. Pray what did they lay to his Charge in Queen Marys time and what Defence did he make B. In Saint Mary's Church at Oxford on the 12th of March anno 1556. Doctor Brooks Bishop of Glocester charged him as followeth My Lord at this present we are sent by Commission partly from the Popes Holyness partly from the King and Queens most excellent Majesties not to your utter discomfort but to your comfort if you will your self not to judge you but to put you in Remembrance of what you have been Neither come we to Dispute with you but to Examine you in certain matters which being done to make Relation thereof to him that hath power to judge you And first as Charity doth move us I think good to exhort you by the words of Saint John. Remember from whence you are fallen and do your first works You have fallen from the universal Church of Christ from the very true and received Faith of all Christendom and that by open Heresie You have fallen from your promise to God from your Fidelity and Allegiance and that by open Preaching by Marriage and Adultery You have fallen from your Sovereign Prince and Queen by open Treason c. and although it may be conjectured that in all your time ye were not upright in the Honour and Faith of Christ but rather set up of purpose as a fit instrument note this whereby the Church might be spoiled and brought into ruin yet it may appear by many your doings otherwise and I for my part as it behoveth each one of us shall think the best For who was thought to have more Conscience of observing the Order of the Church More earnest in the defence of the real presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar than yee were Then all things prospered with you your Prince favoured you your Candlestick was set up in the highest place of the Church and the light of your Candle was over all the Church But after ye began to fall by Schism and would stoutly uphold the unlawful requests of King Henry VIII then began you to fancy unlawful liberty When yee had exiled a good Conscience when you had forsaken God God forsook you and gave you over to your own will and suffered you to fall into Schism and Heresie and from that to Perjury and from Perjury to Treason and so in conclusion into the full Indignation of our Sovereign Prince which you may think a just punishment of God for your other abominable Opinions But here peradventure you will say to me what Sir my fall is not so great as you make it I have not yet fallen from the Catholick Church for that is not the Catholick Church that the Pope is Head of there is another Church To which I answer you are as sure of that as the Donatists were for they said they had the true Church and that true Christians remained only in Africa where only their Seditious Sect was preached And as you think so thought Novatus that all who did acknowledge the Supremacy of Rome were out of the Church of Christ Saint Cyprian defending Cornelius Bishop of Rome against this Novatus Lib 2. Epist 6. saith Ecclesia una est quae cum sit una intus foris esse non potest So that if Novatus was in the true Church then was not Cornelius who by lawful Succession succeeded Pope Fabian Here Saint Cyprian intends by the whole process to prove and concludeth thereupon that the true Church was only Rome But you will say perhaps that you fell not by Heresie so said the Arrians alledging Scripture for themselves and going about to perswade their Heresie by Scripture So did the Marcions appeal to Scripture to Scripture not truly interpreted but wrested according to their own Fancies And the Church replyeth against them qui estis vos from whence came you What right have you to the Scriptures which are the Churches Inheritance Also yee will deny that yee have fallen by Apostacy and breaking your Vow and so Vigilantius said and would admit none to his Ministry but such as had their Wives bagg'd with Children What then shall we say that Vigilantius fell not that Donatus and Novatus were no Scismaticks because they pretended Scripture in their own Defence then let every Man believe as he lists and quote Scripture for it So that your denyal will not avail you Therefore I tell you remember from whence you are fallen Age paenitentiam prima opera fac If yee remember how many yee have brought by abominable Heresie into the way of Perdition I doubt not but very Conscience would move you as well for them as for your self to return again qui convertere fecerit peccatorem ab errore vitae suae salvam faciet animam suam a Morte operiet multitudinem peccatorum suorum He that shall convert a Sinner from his Wickedness shall save his Soul from Death and shall cover a multitude of Sins So on the contrary it must needs be true he that perverteth a Soul and teacheth him the way of Perdition must needs be Damn'd Berengarius seemed to fear that danger provided for it in his Life time and did not only repent but recant and not so much for himself as for them whom he had infected by his abominable Heresies For as he lay on his Death-bed upon the day of Epiphany he demanded of them that were present is this the day of Epiphany and appearing of our Lord They answered him Yes then said he this day shall the Lord appear to me either to my
under a necessity of either marrying or committing the sin of Fornication notwithstanding his Vow of Coelibate See Fox p. 657. A. So much for his Charge and Defence before the Bishop of Glocester anno 1556. What did the Bishop say upon the upshot of the Tryal B. He made a long Speech the effect whereof was this Master Cranmer I cannot otherwise term you considering your obstinacy I am right heartily sorry to hear such words escape your mouth so unadvisedly I had conceived a right good hope of your amendment I supposed that this obstinacy of yours came not of vain Glory but rather of a corrupt Conscience but now I perceive by your foolish babble that it is far otherwise Ye are so puffed up with Vain Glory there is such a cauterium of Heresie crept into your Conscience that I am clean void of hope God would have you to be saved and you refuse it You have uttered such erroneous talk with such open malice against the Popes Holiness with such open lying against the Church of Rome with such open Blasphemy against the Sacrament of the Altar that no mouth could have expressed more maliciously more lyingly more blasphemously To reason with you although I would of my self to satisfie this Audience yet I may not do so by our Commission neither do I find how I may do it by the Scriptures for the Apostle commandeth Haereticum hominem post unum aut alterum conventum devita c. an heretical person after once or twice conferring shun knowing that he is perverse and sinneth being of his own Judgment condemned Ye have been conferred withal not once or twice but oftentimes ye have oft been lovingly admonished ye have oft been privately disputed with and the last year in the open School in open Disputations ye have been openly convict Your Book which ye bragg ye made seven years ago and no man answered it Marcus Antonius hath sufficiently detected and confuted yet ye persist still in your wonted Heresie Wherefore being so oft admonished conferred withal and convicted if ye deny your self to be the man whom the Apostle noteth hear then what Origen saith who wrote above 1300 years ago and interpreteth that saying of the Apostle in this wise in Apologia Pamphili Haereticus est omnis ille habendus qui Christo se credere profitetur aliter de Christi veritate sentit quam se habet ecclesiastica Traditio Ye rehearsed the Articles of your Faith to what end I pray you but to cloak that Heresie rooted in you and to blind the poor simple and unlearned peoples eyes for unless as Origen saith ye believe all things that the Church hath decreed ye are no Christian man in the which because ye do halt and will come to no Conformity from henceforth ye are to be taken for an Heretique whom we ought to eschew and avoid And first where you accuse me of an Oath taken against the Bp. of Rome I confess it and therefore do say with the rest of this Realm good and Catholique men the words of the Prophet Peccavimus cum Patribus nostris injuste egimus iniquitatem secimus We have sinned with our Fathers we have done unjustly and wickedly Delictâ—… juventutis meae ignorantias meas ne memineris Domine The sins of my youth and my ignorances O Lord do not remember I was then a young man and a young Scholar here in the University I knew not what an Oath did mean. And where you say I took two Oaths the one contrary to the other It is not so for the Oath I made to the Popes Holiness appeartains only to spiritual things the other that I made to the King pertains only to temporal things that is to say that I do acknowledge all my Temporal Livings to proceed only from the King and from none else but all men may see as ye agree in this so ye agree in the rest of your Opinions Now Sir as concerning the Supremacy due to the See of Rome although there be a number of places to prove that Christ appointed Peter Head of the Church yet this place is most evident when Christ demanded of his Apostles Whom do men say that I am They answered Some Elias some one of the Prophets c. but to Peter he said Whom savest thou that I am Peter answered Tu es Christus fiilius Dei c. Christ replied Tu es Petrus super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam The Doctors interpreting this place super hanc Petram expound it id est non solum super Fidem Petri sed super te Petre. And why did Christ change his Name from Simon to Peter but only to declare that he was to be under Christ the Foundation and Head of the Church Again where Christ demanded of Peter being amongst the rest of the Apostles three times Petre amas me he gave him charge over his Sheep Pasce Oves meas pasce Agnos meos pasce Agnos meos three times Which place Saint Chrysostome interpreting saith Pasce hoc est loco mei esto Praepositus caput fratrum tuorum And when they came that required Didrachma of Christ he commanded Peter to cast his Net into the Sea and to take out of the Fishes Mouth stateram hoc est duplex didrachma da inquit pro te me Petre. Which words do signifie that when he had paid for them two he had paid for all the rest So St. Austine in 75 quaest veteris novi Testamenti Salvator inquit quum pro se Petro dari jubebat didrachma pro omnibus dari censuit ipsum enim constituit caput eorum Our Saviour Christ saith St. Austine commanding the Tribute to be given for Him and for Peter meant the same to be given for all the rest For he appointed him Head of the rest what can be more plain then this But I will not tarry upon this matter Now as touching the Popes Laws which be contrary as you say to the Laws of God because the Service is in Latin which ought to be in English I Answer whosoever will take the pains to peruse that Chapter 1 Cor. 14. shall find that his meaning is concerning Preaching and obiter only of Praying Again Where you say that the Popes Holyness takes away one part of the Sacrament from the Laity which Christ commanded to be given under both kinds saying Bibite ex hoc omnes Now if a Man would be so proterve with you he might say that Christ commanded it to be given only to his Apostles into whose places succeeded Priests and not Laymen And admit that Christ commanded it to be received under both kinds So he commanded his Apostles saying Ite praedicate Evangelium omni nationi Baptisantes in nomine Patris Filii spiritus sancti But the Apostles being desirous to publish Christs name every where did Baptise only in Christ's name Again Christ before his last Supper washed
if we should grant them their Desires But they are the Legacies of those Testators who have given them to the Church for ever under the Penalty of a heavy Curse imposed on all those who shall any way go about to altenate their Property from the Church And besides if we grant the smaller Abbies to the King what should we do otherwise than shew him the way how in time it may be lawful for him to demand the greater Wherefore the manner of these Proceedings puts me in mind of a Fable how the Ax that wanted a Handle came upon a time to the Wood making his moan to the great Trees how he wanted a Handle to work withal and for that cause he was constrained to sit idle Wherefore he made it his request unto them that they would grant him one of their smaller Saplings to make him a Handle They mistrusting no guile granted him one of the smaller Trees so becoming a compleat Ax he so fell to work within the same Wood that in process of time there was neither great nor small Tree to be found there And so my Lords if you grant the King these smaller Monasteries you do but make him a Handle whereby at his own Pleasure he may cut down all the Cedars within your Libanus And then you may thank your selves after ye have incurred the heavy Displeasure of Almighty God. His Speech concerning many severe Objections against the whole Clergy anno 1529. My Lords HEre are certain Bills exhibited against the Clergy and Complaints against the Viciousness Idleness Rapacity and Cruelty of Bishops Abbots Priests and their Officials but my Lords are all vicious all idle all ravenous and cruel Priests or Bishops Are there not Laws already provided against such is there any abuse that cannot be rectified or can there be such a Reformation that there shall be no Abuses are there not Clergymen to rectifie the Abuses of the Clergy or shall men find fault with other mens manners whilst they forget their own or punish where they have no Athority to correct If we be not executive in our Laws let each man suffer for his Delinquency Or if we have not Power aid us with your Assistunce and we shall give you thanks But my Lords I hear there is a Motion made that the smaller Monasteries should be taken into the Kings hands which makes me apprehend it is not so much the good as the Goods of the Church that are aim'd at Truly my Lords how this may sound in your ears I cannot tell but to me it appears no otherwise than as if our Mother the Church were now to be brought into Servility and by little and little to be banished out of those dwelling places which the Piety Liberality of our Ancestors have conferred upon her Otherwise to what end are those portentous and curious Petitions of the Commons To no other intent and purpose than to bring the Clergy into contempt with the Laiety that they may seize their Patrimony But my Lords beware of Your Selves and of Your Countrey Beware of Your Mother the Catholick Church The People are addicted unto Novelties And Lutheranism spreads it self amongst us Remember Germany and Bohemia what Miseries are befallen them already and let our Neighbours Houses that are now on Fire teach us to beware of our own Disasters My Lords I will tell you plainly what I think that except ye resist manfully by your Authorities this violent Stream of Mischiefs offered by the Commons you shall see all respect first withdrawn from the Clergy and secondly from Your * * This Prophecy was fulfilled anno 1649. when the House of Lords was voted useless and dangerous by the Commons Selves But if you search into the true causes of all these Mischiefs that Reign amongst them you shall find that they all arise through want of Faith. His Speech to the Lords concerning the Kings Supremacy My Lords IT is true we are all under the King's Lash and stand in need of the King 's good Favour and Clemency Yet this argues not that we must therefore do that which will render us both ridiculous and contemptible to all the Christian World and hissed out from the Society of Gods Holy Catholick Church What good will it do us to keep the Possession of our Houses Cloysters and Convents and to lose the Society of the Christian World To preserve our Goods and lose our Consciences Therefore My Lords I pray let us consider what we are doing and what it is we are to Grant with the Dangers and Inconveniences that will ensue thereupon Or whether it lyes in Our power to grant what the King requires at our hands Whether the King be an apt person to receive this Power that so we may go groundedly to work and not like Men that had lost all Honesty and Wit together with their Worldly Fortune As concerning the first point viz. What the Supremacy of the Church is which we are to give unto the King. It is to exercise the Spiritual Goverment of the Church in Chief which according to all that ever I have learned both in the Gospel and through the whole course of Divinity mainly consists in these two points First In Binding and Absolving Sinners according to that which our Saviour said unto Saint Peter when he ordained him Head of his Church viz. To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Now My Lords can we say unto the King Tibi to thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If ye say I where is your Warrant If you say No then you have answered your Selves that you cannot put such Keys into his hands Secondly The Supream Government of the Church consists in feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs according to that when our Saviour performed his promise to Saint Peter of making him universal Shepherd by such unlimited Jurisdiction feed my Lambs and not only so but feed those that are the feeders of those Lambs feed my Sheep Now my Lords can any of us say unto the King pasce Oves God hath given unto his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the Edifying of the Body of Christ So that you must make the King one of these before you can make him Head of the Church He must be such a Head as may edifie the Members of Christ's Body and it is not the sew Ministers of an Island that must constitute a Head over the Universe or at least by such example we must allow as many Heads over the Vniverse as there are Sovereign Powers within Christ's Dominion Every Member must have a Head. Attendite vobis was not said to King's but Bishops 2. Let us consider the Inconveniencies that will arise upon this Grant We cannot grant this unto the King but we must renounce our Unity with the See of Rome And if there were no further matter in it then a renouncing of Clement VII now Pope