haue taken me for your fellow in the work of the Lord continew in that holy vocation wayting for the rewarde promised in that great day wherin those that haue instructed many to righteousnes shall shyne lyke stars God hath preserued the greatest part of you whole and sound so well that ye haue not ben at all apprehended or els ye haue gotten out of the enemyes handes without any thing done that might séeme vnworthy the conscience of a Christian man A fewe are fallen and bent ageynst the Gospell and I miserable wretch was the first in that small numbre I haue darkned and defaced the beuty and excellency of that heauenly doctrine that I had my selfe sometyme preached But ye know the assured foundation wheroÌ„ it is grounded Accursed be he that shall announce any coÌ„trary thing yea were he an Angell in heauen O ye happy and blessed of God that haue in your harts the testimony of an vnspotted conscience to haue walked in sincerity and playnnes blessed that shal heare at the later daye enter into the ioye of thy Lord thow good and faythfull seruant for that thou hast increased the talents committed to thée whereas I haue not onely buried in the earth the talent that I had but haue employed the same in making warre ageynst the trewth God graunt you the grace to coÌ„tinew and gyue a happy successe to your godly trauells Assist me with your prayers that the heauenly father may receyue me now that I returne to him after this horrible sliding and reuolt and pardon me my so grieuous enormity O Lord almighty and wholy wise how easy is it for thée to entrappe the crafty in their deceypte O how thy iudgements be iust and righteous Who knowest ech one of all our works And seest what we doe To good to pure to cleane of harte Thou shewest thy goodnes to To thy beloued and electe Thy loue thow doest reserue And thow doest vse the wicked men As wicked men deserue Euen so hast thou drawen out of the bottome of my hart that which was ther hyd not suffering that I should beguylé the world any lenger For hauing determined to abandoÌ„ my charge and to slipps thens couertly for certeyne doubts and difficulties that I had in my mynd to the end to continew as it were a neutre touching thy outward professioÌ„ thou hast iustly cast me of to myne owne sens By that meanes gyuing more force to myne owne illusions theÌ„ reuereÌ„ce to thy word I am fallen where I well deserued For in steade of being but a forsaker of the charge where thow haddest placed me I became a formall enemy reproouing and coÌ„demning it of the other syde being willing to authoryse and alowe the vocation of them that doe teache popish scysmes and errors thow diddest cause me to come so neare it that I was driuen to be better acquaynted with them then I desyred Such was the punishment that thou diddest cast vppon thy people in tymes past who when they wold not kéepe them selues pure froÌ„ idolatry after long sufferance thou diddest in the end deliuer theÌ„ vp into thy enemyes hand who brought them into Babilon where they were lothed with the fight of false Gods. But the same did serue this people to take these idoles in such disdayne and horror that they neuer fell into that faute ageyne after their returne into Ierusalem Euen so my GOD graunt me this grace that the displeasure grief that I haue of so greate a faute doe engendre in my soule such a hate and detestation of the euill that I haue committed that I may bestowe my whole lyfe in lamenting and bewayling the same crauing thy mercy to the end that thou mayest forgyue it me Thou hast brought me meruelous lowe punishing the pryde wherwith I was fully infected and the conceyte that I had of my self as thou art accustomed to take from him that hath nothing eueÌ„ that which he thinketh to haue To thée be all glory and to me confusion of face Notwithstandinge my God who hast put in my harte the affectioÌ„ to acknowledge the danger of the horrible and euerlasting perditioÌ„ where into I did throw my self hedlong restore me thy spirite that may comfort me and gyue me hope of mercy And in this tyme of extreame affliction graunt me the grace to follow the exaumple of thy seruaunt Moyses who chose rather to be afflicted with thy people then to enioye for a time the pleasures of sinne estéeming the reproch of Christ to be greater ryches then the treasors of Egypte Thy Church is at this day straungely oppressed and threatned with an vtter and perpetuall ruyne and destruction but by thy ayde and assistance I doe mind to accompany her and to drinke my parte of her afflictions praying thée to this ende O Lord to make me féele in what miserable estate they be that doe withdraw them selues towards the enemyes of thy trewth euen then when they thinke themselues most in thy fauour Strengthen maynteine this desyre in me to the end that if I be once more called to the profession of thy name I doe abandon my selfe in sacrifyce for that godly quarrell as I am bound Take compassion of thy poore and desolate Church and mollefy the strypes wherewithall at this day thou hast stroken her Appease thy wrath towards thy people for whom thy deare sonne hath shead his bloud and with thy spirite fortify those that are at this day vnder the Crosse for thy sacred trewth giuing them hope ageynst all hope and making them inuincible ageynst all the assaults and violent enforcements of thy aduersaryes Amen FINIS Cranmer The white Crâ—sse Heidelberg ¶ Imprinted at London by Thomas East for Lucas Harison and George Byshop
frustrate of myne intent knowing that I muste now play a part on the greatest stage in all Fraunce to confesse and defend infinite things which I had heretofore by word of mouth and writing condemned yea and did yet condemne in my hart Notwithstanding hauing already made the first breach into my coÌ„science by the which Sathan had made his entrey I left him the full peaceable possession of the whole minding now to doe al thinges wholy to the lyking of men laying asyde the reuerence of God and the respect of his glory Being brought to Paris and presented before the King I declared the selfe same abouesayd auowing the Romish church to be the trew church and sundry dayes together in the presence of the king of Nauarra and the prince of Conde I maynteyned the same cause agreing with the Sorbonists in that point principally and refelling that which some of the king of Nauarra his officers men fearing God did alledge to the contrarie that the Reformed church was the trew church and their religion the trew religion Furthermore touching the controuersies and points of doctrine commenly debated in some I spake lewdly and against myne owne conscience euen as they are taught in popery of other some as principally of the Masse the oblation and the presence of Christs body I made some doubt and contradiction being vrged therto by the force of the trewth but immediatly I let go and abandoned all that euer I had truely spoken by a false collusion I suffered them to coÌ„clude as they wold them selues hauing beside that serued therin ageinst myne owne coÌ„science for a miserable instrument to lead those young Princes to goe to Masse by that means to worship a false God to tread vnder their féete the only sacrifice of Christ his death And sithens I haue fallen in hand with this conference and disputation I wil giue you good aduertisement of an edict published in the name of the king of Nauarra for that they haue not bene contented ther to Chronycle my name calling but they haue followed therin the custome of the Papists who can not simply recyte that which is happened without some addition For there it is sayed that ther were certeyne other ministers of the Citie of Orleance that dyd ioyntly confesse with me them selues to be vanquished by the force of the Popishe Doctors argumentes in so muche that they should renounce and forsake the doctrine before tyme preached to the reformed Churches in Fraunce Which I doe testify and maynteyne to you to be false for there was neuer any but my self The other Ministers of the sayd congregation were better assisted of God then to haue committed such an offence Being then these twoo Princes through my false perswasions drawen in a short space to the profession of Poperye with the submissions to the same required I abode a certeine tyme at Paris during the which I was lead vp and downe as a byrde to the call to certeyne noble Ladyes and Gentlewomen of the religion who not long before had hard me preache the word of God or els had knowen mée in particuler communication to haue exhorted theÌ„ to perseuer in the doctryne of the gospel who were al maruelously abashed to sée me thus transformed into an other shape they could not be perswaded that in that which they vnderstoode of mée I spake as I thought Neuerthelesse I tolde them all indifferently that I spake euen as I did beléeue in my hart touching the opinion so stifly maynteyned of me that the Romish Church was the Catholyke Church beside other poyntes the do depend therof And not coÌ„tent to serue their turn at all assayes that did thus employe mée here and there I went of myne owne accord to diuers of myne acquayntance or els to those that them selues did séeke me or by fortune mette with mée to whom generally I gaue this counsel to acknowledge this Church albeit that I did grauÌ„t her to be full of superstitions and errors so that shée had more then néede of a reformation with sundry such other counselles of false Nicodemites and Temporizers or to speake vprightly of ypocrits and enemyes to God by outward profession And when I founde any displeased with them selues for the faute that they had commited to their great grief I dyd by and by laye before them the foresayde reasons lulling them a sléepe therwithall and laying Pillows vnder their elbows as sayeth the Prophet Ezechiel Namely I went one day of purpose to a certeyne good and vertuous Lady fearing god and to her daughter boothe nobly descended To conclude I left no body with whoÌ„ I might talke familiarly that I did not corrupt with this pernicious counsell saying that albeit the body of the Lord be not in that which is shewed at the masse yet notwithstanding that on might lawfully knele downe to it because there is a certeyne remnant and trace of the trewe Sacrament of that precious body and that in beholding the Sacrament although it differ farre from the institution of Christ the administratioÌ„ of the auncient church it suffiseth to lift vp our hatts to heauen in which place only is the trewe liuing body where our Lord â—deth reigne sitteth at the right hand of God his father Thus in this place did I moderate al absurdities and went about to playster this old ruinous buylding of popery to make there appeare a certeine likelyhoode of a goodly tabernacle And so I did entyce ageinst my conscience al those that I could to goe to masse the very heape of all Idolatry and renouncing of Iesus Christ yea I wrote letters to Madame de Buillon at Sodan by the commaundement of the Duke Montpensier her father to drawe her to the same opinion making her a sorowfull and simple recompence â–ª for the curtisy liberality receiued at hir hands as wel by me as by diuers others during the troubles of the yeare of our Lord God 1568. And albeit that I felt in my selfe the condemnation of myne owne conscience for the poynts now a dayes in controuersie and that no reasons could content me to approue the doctrine ceremonyes and exercise of the popish religion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that diuers persons had ben so bolde to reprooue me of my faultes to represent the iudgements of God before myne eyes to cyte me before the tribunall seate of Iesus Christ where all men must appeare yet notwithstaÌ„ding I was therwith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sléepe that I mynded not to make my abode any wher but at Paris now and then ther came vppon me a certeyne grief of mynd to thinke of that which was past with the remeÌ„brauÌ„ce of the inuocation and seruice of God of the pure administratioÌ„ of the sacraments the preachyng of the word and diligent practise of discipline and I made comparison therof with the life coÌ„uersation and exercyse of the Priests and Monkes But I was so wholy in the possession of the Prince of this world
and frinds praysing god who had done them this honour to suffer for his name Now are they grieuously tempted to mistrust the vprightnesse of the cause because they can not bée resolued on the opiniō that men ought to haue of the honorable death that so many godly Martyrs haue abiden through the crueltie of Antichrist his Supposts Héere behold an inestimable iniury done to the dead of whom the memory ought to be blessed for euer to the liuing to Christ him self for whose treuth they haue shead their blud And if I had long abidden emprisonment honger darkenes and rough handeling that to conclude this frayle flesh ouerwhelmed with so many miseries had made the spirit to yelde stoupe to such persecution it might wel haue sauered of some humane fraylty to haue moued compassion thereof But I at the very first rumour of the slaughter resolued to saue this myserable lyfe to dissemble yea to renounce the treuth Trew it is that not long before my minde was something disquieted touching the personall succession of the Church In so much that I stode in doubte whether it were not a dangerous matter to depart frō the church of Rome in the which I founde this succession Neuerthelesse this is the trewth that as sone as I had intelligence of that which was bruted the feare of death the loue of this lyfe and commodities therof seruing their turne of this my trouble of mind caused me to yeld more force thervnto then the thing required Insomuch that I was cleane out of tast with that doctryne in generall which for al that I neither did nor could doubt of But I lost all will and inclination to confesse and maynteine the same And albeit that I had rather haue escaped out of the Realme as in déede I had prepared my selfe ther vnto thā to haue stayed ther any longer that of myne own méere disposition without any maner of cōpulsion I had neuer the affection to bend my selfe against the doctryne Yet notwithstanding I was vtterly discouraged to take in hande the defence of the same I rather tooke this resolution to doe what soeuer was offered me at the instant to cleare me of al suspectiō euery wher wher I shuld passe So the great and righteous Iudge did not fayle on his part to handle me thereafter For hauing ben so many yeares together taught by him the nature of the Gospell of his sonne which is called the word of the crosse it had ben my part to haue ben the more and more assured of my vocation and of the trewth of his Church because I sawe the crosse continew still and the persecutions to grow dayly more violent But perceyuing the affliction to excéede the measure that I would haue prescribed to GOD I fell to doubte not of the doctryne in it selfe but of the Church in the respect of the personall succession For this cause GOD did iustly deliuer me to the desyer of myne owne harte to committe a faulte not onely foule and detestable but also cleane sounding ageynst reason and mans iudgement that is to say to immagine I had some reason not to confesse a trewth whereof I was fully perswaded Others that fal by infirmity doe acknowledge that they doe ageynst that they ought to do in inpugning deniyng a knowen and vndoubted trewth but I toke it to be a pointe requisite in my self to speake ageynst mine owne conscience and ageinst the assured knowledge of mine owne harte Thus in the iudgement of God those that thinke them selues wyse are prooued fooles neither did god in this beginning suffer mée to scape awaye so lightly but sithens I would néedes dally with him thinking that I should be easely set at liberty he payed me the iust reward of my first leudnes and treachery punishing the former offense by later enormities as ye haue vnderstoode The first prancke of my deloyaulty was that I did shewe my selfe not a hyreling that doeth Abandon hys charge when hée séeth the Woulphe come but I was my selfe a Woulphe yea a rauening Woulphe scatering and dissipating mine own propre flock For I wrote immediatly to the principalls of that assembly where I had ben admonishing them to acknowledge follow the church of Rome I dyd the lyke to myne owne famyly which I had before instructed in the feare of God and my little children consecrated to Iesus Christ were by this meanes plonged in the popish filthy polutions to prostrate them selues before the Idole of Idoles Being thus foundred in this first quagmyre I ceased not to wade from euill to worsse and after I had betrayed myne owne flocke myne owne flesh and bones and the little young imps that God had geuen me no maruell if I played so lamentable parts towards others Neyther then did this false dealing of myne kéepe it selfe within these bounds For I was brought to Paris to be tyed as a carthorse to the Charet wher Sathan sate in triumph ageinst the mēbers of Iesu Christ bringing them after him conquered and captiues These two young princes buds of the flower de Luce royall vertuously and faythfully instructed in the doctrine of the trewth consecrated to the glory of God called to be nurces of the Church of whome she might one day hope for some comfort perfection wer by me diuerted from the trew reformed Church brought as touching their persōs to go to Masse and consequently to set vp ageyne restablish that cursed Idolatry within the places and lymits of their dominion seigneury To be short they were by me deliuered vp as it wer to the tyrannical clutches grypes of Antichrist to sweare obedience to him and to make war ageinst the children of god For although they had great occasions to shrink considering the murders that they sawe committed the practises that wer vsed to terrefy thē and although that the brute was already spread that they went to Masse yet had they continewed pure and constant vntil my arriuall Wherfore ther is no doubt but that my tongue trayterous vntrew to my God did more preuayle with them then all the threates dangers and horrible slaughters which they hard and sawe dayly before theyr eyes whereof also if they be now wholly changed with a willing mynde to persecute the Gospell which God forbid I am alas the principal cause If they do that which they do ageynst their will they may chiefly laye the faute in me for that payne and anguish of mynde wherewith they be tormented Touching this poynte be ye aduertysed ye that reade this to praye to GOD for those personages that it will please him to take pytie vpon them and when he séeth good to repayre that inestimable losse In the meane season I was not without remorse and trouble in my conscience séeinge the pytteous woorke that was a building whereof I was an instrument or rather seing the ruine and subuersion of the Churche where I my selfe gaue the greatest blowes to
ouerthrowe it And manye tymes there came to my memory a verse of a certeyn poet alleadged by Tertulian Vsque ad eòne morj miserum est I felt my selfe mooued with heauenly inspirations to mainteyn gods trewth I dyd after a sorte consider of the wounde that was made by my meanes some tymes the force of reason and trewth did pricke me forewarde to speake against the doctors of Sorbona in certeyne points but the same vanished away immediatly because that I had already passed furth to the chiefest difficultie hauing a vowed theirs for the trewe Church And certenly I remember that being often pressed with my selfe féeling a kinde of conuiction in that I dyd let passe so many false things ageinst the trewth at night I prayed to God that he would not suffer me to liue to the day folowing forséeing that the morrow after I should yet be driuen to consent and agrée to many things which I thought and knew to be false but this was not a well ordered prayer because I should rather haue craued his spirit of strength magnanimitie to susteyne and defende that which he had reuealed to me to be trewe referre to him the issue and falling out of the whole Neyther was I hard of him but was still abyding in the middest of the enemies of his poore afflicted Church being forced to heare the scoffes and iestes that they did spewe out laughing at the present affliction as dyd the Idâ—means when they reioysed at the destruction of Ierusalem Thus went I cleane depriued of all sens féeling to enure my selfe lyke a brute beast with this most mischeuous accursed hauÌ„t The murderers haue killed the bodies with their most cruel haÌ„d â–ª but in the meane tyme the soules are escaped and passed from trauel to rest But I haue ben a murderer of soules subuerting the fayth of many through my word and taking from their vnderstanding the iudgemeÌ„t knowledge of the euill which they went about to doe And besyde those that haue hard me speak with myne own propre mouth there are infinite others that may haue read that which I had sundry tymes written touching the same the copies wherof were spread all abroade amplyfied with prety gloses and additions wher I had not written playn enough to the contenting of the papists as I my self haue both séene and perceyued And those that haue not read them might therof be informed by others In such sort that I can not expresse nor coÌ„prehend how great a ruine and decay hath ensued of this my fal â–ª From al the which mishaps one only death had at one instant preserued me if I had abyden it after the example of so many poore shéepe of Iesus Christ layed furth to the slaughter without mercie Such a death had béen precious before God honorable for me and myne and of a good sauour to the congregation of the Lorde And yet for any thing that I haue done I shall not escape death which shall come at the houre and in the maner that God hath appoynted it after I haue lyued in ignomyny in the sight of all good men Wherfore when I consider all the circumstances I can hardlye pycke out an example to be ballanced with this acte of myne Sainct Peter did renounce Christ but it was in his first weaknesse before he was yet fortyfied whereas I ought to haue ben a leader and a captain considering how long I had ben called to the seruice of god Saint Peter at the instant withdrew him selfe and went out to wéepe as for me I was in a good way to haue continewed all my lyfe long in the botomlesse pitte of perdition Sainct Paule did persecute the Church of God but it was in ignoraunce and through an vnaduised zeale hauing not the fayth wheras I did put my helping hand to the réedifying of that which before I had pulled downe declaring my selfe a sinfull transgressour Iohn Marke left of his labour and the voyage that he hadde in hands for the which Sainct Paul did not thinke it reasonable that hée should be afterwarde employed Demas forsoke his vocation for the loue and desyre of this present worlde But none of these did for all that persecute the trewth as I haue done Touching the facte I finde but one comparable to my selfe and that is he that layed his head together with the sacryficers and tooke money of them to be traye and make sale of the innocent blud as he confessed himself Euen so did I acquainte my selfe with such kinde of people the very successors of the Pharyseyes sweare my selfe into the hands of the byshop and receyued the hyre of vntrewth as did Balaam with a promise of a yearely pension in time to come Briefly I sée my self paynted out in that which Sainct Peter sayeth that this man hath ben the leader of theÌ„ that haue taken Iesus who sayth hée was accompted in the numbre of vs and had receyued his parte of the administration of his word â–ª Sée here then my brethren on part of those enormities that I do note in mi reuolt I did not only giue occasioÌ„ to men to yelde to the infirmitie of the flesh but more then that I did fill the consciences of the well affectioned with scrupelous vexatioÌ„s of the weake with troublesome offences to make them fall neuer to ryse ageyne to the ypocrites I did serue for a maske and cloke to couer them selues in assisting to those things that they condemned to the open enemyes I gaue occasion to boast and glorify them selues in exercysing cruelty ageynst the members of Iesu Christ and to confirme theÌ„ selues in an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they haue that they doe God good seâ—â—â—…ce that they aduaunce hys honor that they mayneteyne the trewe Church when they kill and murder the innocent I haue offended God almighty condemned the cause of his sonne Christ resisted the holy ghost made sorowful the Aungels of heaueÌ„ ben a stumbling block to the Church in earth boldened and hardened the wicked in their fury defiled my mouth with blasphemy which was before honored with preaching of the Gospel Sainct Cyprian excusing him self for that he had séemed to haue somewhat lightlye established Aurelius reader in the Church giueth a good reason that it was very méete séemely the the mouth which had confessed Christ in time of persecution should be employed to reade his word in the Church Contrariwise I by myne infidelity haue stopped mine own mouth that I might not hereafter speake in the holy assemblyes â–ª I beséech you brethren that euery one of you doe adde what yée can to this that I haue sayed which is not hard to doe in so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a case And all you that maye any wayes make mée vnderstand it spare me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pulle mee downe according to the desert of so haynous a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spurne at the féete that salte that hath lost his sauor see how iustly my candlestick is taken from his place Alas I