The State of England and assumed a Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Affairs The Nobility and Gentry were generally well satisfied with the Change but the Body of the People was more under the Power of the Priests and they studied to infuse in them great Fears of a Change in Religion It was said the King was now joyning himself to Hereticks that both the Queen Cranmer and Cromwell favoured them It was left free to dispute what were Articles of Faith and what were only the Decrees of Popes and Changes would be made under this Pretence that they only rejected those Opinions which were supported by the Papal Authority The Monks and Friars saw themselves left at the King's Mercy Their Bulls could be no longer useful to them The trade of new Saints or Indulgences was near an end they had also some Intimations that Cromwell was forming a Project for suppressing them so they thought it necessary for their own Preservation to imbroil the King's Affairs as much as was possible therefore both in Confessions and Discourses they were infusing into the People a dislike of the King's Proceedings and this did so far work on them that if the Emperour's Affairs had been in such a condition that he could have made War on the King he might have done it with great Advantage and found a strong Party in England on his side But the Practices of the Clergy at home and of Cardinal Pool abroad the Libels that were published and the Rebellions that were afterwards raised in England wrought so much on the King's Temper that was naturally imperious and boisterous that he became too apt to commit Acts of the highest Severity and to bring his Subjects into Trouble upon the slightest Grounds and his new Title of Head of the Church seemed to have encreased his former Vanity and made him fancy that all his Subjects were bound to regulate their Belief by the measures he set them He had now raigned 25 Years in all which time none had suffered for Crimes against the State but Pool Earl of Suffolk and Stafford Duke of Buckingham the former was executed in Obedience to his Father's last Commands the latter fell by Cardinal Wolsey's Malice he had also been inveigled by a Priest to imagine he had a Right to the Crown but in the last ten Years of his Life Instances of Severity returned more frequently The Bishops and Abbots did what they could to free the King of any Jealousies that might be raised in him concerning them and of their own accord before any Law was made about it they swore to maintain the King's Supremacy The first Act of it was the making Cromwell Vicar General and Visitor of all the Monasteries and Churches of England with a Delegation of the King's Supremacy to him he was also empowered to give Commissions subaltern to himself and all Wills where the Estate was in value above 200 l. were to be proved in his Court This was afterwards enlarged and he was made the King's Vicegerent in Ecclesiastical Matters and had the Precedence of all next the Royal Family and his Authority was in all Points the same that the Legates had in time of Popery for as the King 's came in the Popes room so the Vicegerent was what the Legates had been Pains was taken to engage all the Clergy to declare for the Supreamacy At Oxford a publick Determination was made to which every Member assented that the Pope had no more Authority in England than any other Forreign Bishop The Franciscans at Richmond made some more Opposition they said by the Rule of St. Francis they were bound to obey the Holy See The Bishop of Litchfield told them that all the Bishops in England all the Heads of Houses and the most learned Divines had signed that Proposition St. Francis made his Rule in Italy where the Bishop of Rome was Metropolitan but that ought not to extend to England and it was shewed that the Chapter cited by them was not written by him but added since yet they continued positive in their refusal to sign it It was well known that all the Monks and Friars A general Visitation proposed tho they complied with the Time yet they hated this new Power of the King 's the People were also startled at it so one Dr. Leighton that had been in the Cardinal's Service with Cromwell proposed a General Visitation of all the Religious Houses in England and thought that nothing would reconcile the Nation so much to the King's Supremacy as to see some good Effect flow from it Others thought this was too hardy a Step and that it would provoke the Religious Orders too much Yet it was known that they were guilty of such Disorders that nothing could so effectually keep them in awe as the enquiring into these Cranmer led the way to this by a Metropolitical Visitation for which he obtained the King's Licence he took care to see that the Pope's Name was struck out of all the Offices of the Church and that the King's Supremacy was generally acknowledged In October the General Visitation of the Monasteries was begun Instructions and Injunctions for it which was cast into several Precincts Instructions were given them directing them what things to enquire after as whether the Houses had the full number according to their Foundation and if they performed Divine Worship in the appointed Hours what Exemptions they had what were their Statutes how their Heads were chosen and how their Vows were observed Whether they lived according to the Severities of their Orders how the Master and other Officers did their Duties how their Lands and their Revenues were managed what Hospitality was kept and what care was taken of the Novices what Benefices were in their Gift and how they disposed of them how the Inclosures of the Nunneries were kept whether the Nuns went abroad or if Men were admitted to come to them how they imploied their time and what Priests they had for their Confessors They were also ordered to give them some Injunctions in the King's Name That they should acknowledge his Supremacy and maintain the Act of Succession and declare all to be absolved from any Rules or Oaths that bound them to obey the Pope and that all their Statutes tending to that should be razed out of their Books That the Abbots should not have choice Dishes but plain Tables for Hospitality and that the Scriptures shoul be read at Meals that they should have daily Lectures of Divinity and maintain some of every House at the University The Abbot was required to instruct the Monks in true Religion and to shew them that it did not consist in outward Ceremonies but in Cleanness of Heart and Purity of Life and the worshiping of God in Spirit and Truth Rules were given about their Revenues and against admitting any under 20 Years of Age. The Visitors were empower'd to punish Offenders or to bring them to answer before the Visitor General What the Ancient
could never gain much Ground after this and indeed many hoped that he should be quickly sent after Cromwell some complained of him in the House of Commons and Informations were brought the King that the chief Encouragement that the Hereticks had came from him The Ecclesiastical Committees imployed by the King A Book of Religion set out by Bishops were now at work and gave the last finishing to a Book formerly prepared but at this time corrected and explained in many Particulars They began with the Explanation of Faith which according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome was thought an implicit believing whatever the Church proposed But the Reformers made it the chief Subject of their Books and Sermons to perswade People to believe in Christ and not in the Church and made great use of those Places in which it was said That Christians are justified by Faith only tho some explained this in such a manner that it gave their Adversaries Advantages to charge them that they denied the necessity of Good Works but they all taught that tho they were not necessary to Justification yet they were necessary to Salvation They differed also in their Notion of Good Works The Church of Rome taught that the Honour done to God in his Images or to the Saints in their Shrines and Relicks or to the Priests were the best sort of Good Works Whereas the Reformers prest Justice and Mercy most and discovered the Superstition of the other The Opinion of the Merit of Good Works was also so highly raised that many thought they purchased Heaven by them This the Reformers did also correct and taught the People to depend meerly upon the Death and Intercession of Christ Others moved subtiller Questions As whether Obedience was an essential part of Faith or only a Consequent of it This was a Nicety scarce becoming Divines that built only on the Simplicity of the Scriptures and condemned the Subtilties of the Schools and it was said that Men of ill Lives abused this Doctrine and thought that if they could but assure themselves that Christ died for them they were safe enough So now when they settled the Notion of Faith The Explanation of Faith they divided it into two sorts The one was a Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel but the other carried with it a Submission to the Will of God and both Hope Love and Obedience belonged to it which was the Faith professed in Baptism and so much extoll'd by St. Paul It was not to be so understood as if it were a Certainty of our being predestinated which may be only a Presumption since all God's Promises are made to us on Conditions but it was an entire receiving the whole Gospel according to our Baptismal Vows Cranmer took great Pains to state this matter right and made a large Collection of many places all written with his own Hand both out of Antient and Modern Authors concerning Faith Justification and the Merit of Good Works and concluded with this That our Justification was to be ascribed only to the Merits of Christ and that those who are justified must have Charity as well as Faith but that neither of these was the meritorious Cause of Justification After this was stated they made next a large and full Explanation of the Apostles Creed with great Judgment and many excellent practical Inferences the Definition they gave of the Catholick Church runs thus It comprehended all Assemblies of Men in the whole World that received the Faith of Christ who ought to hold an Unity of Love and Brotherly Agreement together by which they became Members of the Catholick Church After this they explained the seven Sacraments In opening these there were great Debates for as was formerly mentioned the method used was to open the Point enquired into by proposing many Queries And of the Sacramenss and every one was to give in his Answer to these with the Reasons of it and then others were appointed to make an Abstract of those things in which they all either agreed or differed The Original Papers relating to these Points are yet preserved which shew with how great Consideration they proceeded in the Changes that were then made Cranmer had at this time some particular Opinions concerning Ecclesiastical Offices That they were delivered from the King as other Civil Offices were and that Ordination was not indispensibly necessary and was only a Ceremony that might be used or laid aside but that the Authority was conveyed to Church-men only by the King's Commission yet he delivered his Opinion in this matter with great Modesty and he not only subscribed the Book in which the contrary Doctrine was established but afterwards published it in a Book which he writ in King Edward's days from whence it appears that he changed his Mind in this Particular Baptism was explained as had been done formerly Penance was made to consist in the Absolution of the Priests which had been formerly declared only to be desirable where it could be had In the Communion both Transubstantiation Private Masses and Communion in one kind were asserted They asserted the Obligation of the Levitical Law about the Degrees of Marriage and the Indissolubleness of that Bond. They set out the Divine Institution of Priests and Deacons and that no Bishop had Authority over another they made a long Excursion against the Pope's Pretensions and for justifying the King's Supremacy They said Confirmation was instituted by the Apostles and was profitable but not necessary to Salvation and they asserted extream Unction to have been commanded by the Apostles for the Health both of Soul and Body Then were the Ten Commandments explained the second was added to the first but the Words For I am the Lord thy God c. were left out It was declared that no Godly Honour was to be done unto Images and that they ought only to be reverenced for their sakes whom they represented therefore the preferring of one Image to another and the making Pilgrimages and Offerings to them was condemned but the censing them or kneeling before them was permitted yet the People were to be taught that these things were done only to the Honour of God Invocation of Saints as Intercessors was allowed but immediate Addresses to them for the Blessings that were prayed for was condemned The strict rest from Labour on the seventh day was declared to be Ceremonial but it was necessary to rest from Sin and Carnal Pleasure and to follow Holy Duties The other Commandments were explained in a very plain and practical way Then was the Lord's Prayer explained and it was asserted that the People ought only to pray in their Vulgar Tongues for exciting their Devotion the more The Angels Salutation to the Virgin was also paraphrased They handled Free-will and defined it to be a Power by which the Will guided by Reason did without constraint discern and choose Good and Evil the former by the help of God's Spirit and
but magnified his Conversion much and ascribed it wholly to the workings of God's Spirit he gave him great hopes of Heaven and promised him all the relief that Diriges and Masses could give him in another state All this while Cranmer was observed to be in great Confusion and Floods of Tears run from his Eyes at last when he was called on to speak he began with a Prayer in which he expressed much inward remorse and horrour then after he had exhorted the People to good Life Obedience and Charity he in most pathetick expressions confessed his sin that the hopes of Life had made him sign a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience and he had therefore resolved that the hand that signed it should be burnt first he also declared that he had the same belief concerning the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a great Consternation on the whole Assembly but they resolved to make an end of him suddenly so without suffering him to go further they hurried him away to the Stake and gave him all the disturbance they could by their reproaches and clamours But he made them no answer having now turned his thoughts wholly towards God When the Fire was kindled he held his right Hand towards the Flame till it was consumed and often said that unworthy hand he was soon after quite burnt only his heart was found entire among the ashes from which his Friends made this Inference that though his Hand had erred yet it appeared his Heart had continued true They did not make a Miracle of it though they said the Papists would have made a great matter of it if such a thing had fallen out in any that had dyed for their Religion Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days His Character in the LXVII Year of his Age He was a Man of great Candor and a firm Friend which appeared signally in the misfortunes of Anne Boleyn Cromwell and the Duke of Somerset He rather excelled in great Industry and good Judgment than in a quickness of apprehension or a closeness of stile He employed his Revenues on pious and charitable uses and in his Table he was truly hospitable for he entertained great numbers of his poor Neighbours often at it The Gentleness and Humility of his deportment were very singular His last fall was the greatest blemish of his Life yet that was expiated by a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom and those that compared Ancient and Modern times did not stick to compare him not only to the Chrysostomes the Ambroses and the Austins that were the chief Glories of the Church in the fourth and fifth Centuries but to those of the first Ages that immediately followed the Apostles and came nearest to the Patterns which they had left the World to the Ignatius's the Policarps and the Cyprians And it seemed necessary that the Reformation of the Church being the restoring of the Primitive and Apostolical Doctrine should have been chiefly carried on by a Man thus Eminent for Primitive and Apostolical Vertues More burnings In January five Men and two Women were burnt at one Stake in Smithfield and one Man and four Women were burnt at Canterbury In March two Women were burnt at Ipswich and three Men at Salisbury In April six Men of Essex were burnt in Smithfield a Man and a Woman were burnt at Rochester and another at Canterbury and six who were sent from Colchester were condemned by Bonner without giving them longer time to consider whether they would recant than till the Afternoon for he was now so hardned in his Cruelty that he grew weary of keeping his Prisoners some time and of taking pains on them to make them recant he sent them back to Colchester where they were burnt He condemned also both a blind Man and an aged Criple and they were both burnt in the same Fire at Stratford In May three Women were burnt in Smithfield the day after that two were burnt at Glocester one of them being blind Three were burnt at Beckles in Suffolk five were burnt at Lewis and one at Leicester But on the 27th of June Bonner gave the signallest Instance of his Cruelty that England ever saw for 11. Men and two Women were burnt in the same Fire at Stratford The horror of this Action it seems had some Operation on himself for he burnt none till April next year In June three were burnt at Saint Edmondsbury and three were afterwards burnt at Newbury This cruelty was not kept within England but it extended as far as to the adjacent Islands In Guernsey a Mother and her two Daughters were burnt at the same stake one of them was a married Woman and big with Child The violence of the Fire bursting her Belly the Child that proved to be a Boy fell out into the Flame He was snatched out of it by one that was more merciful than the rest but the other barbarous Spectators after a little Consultation threw it back again into the Fire This was Murder without question for no Sentence against the Mother could excuse this Inhumane piece of Butchery which was thought the more odious because the Dean of Guernsey was a Complice in it yet so merciful was the Government under Queen Elizabeth that he and Nine others that were accused for it had their Pardons Two were after this burnt at Greenstead and a blind Woman at Darby Four were burnt at Bristoll and as many at Mayfield in Sussex and one at Nottingham so that in all LXXXV were this Year burnt without any regard had either to Age or Sex to young or old or the Lame and the Blind which raised so extream an aversion in this Nation to that Religion that it is no wonder if the apprehensions of being again brought under so Tyrannical a Yoke break out into most Violent and Convulsive Symptoms By these means the Reformation was so far from being extinguished that it spread daily more and more and the Zeal of those that professed it grew quicker The Reformed increase upon this They had frequent Meetings and several Teachers that instructed them and their Friends that went beyond Sea and setled in Strasburg Frankfort Embden and some other places in Germany took care to send over many Books for their Instruction and Comfort An unhappy difference was begun at Frankford The troubles at Frankford which has had since that time great and fatal Consequences some of the English thought it was better to use a Liturgy agreeing with the Geneva forms whereas the rest thought that since they were a part of the Church of England that fled thither they ought to adhere to the English Liturgy and that the rather since those who had compiled it were now sealing it with their Blood This raised much heat but Doctor Cox that lived in Strasburg being held in great esteem went thither and procured an Order from the Senate that