seen so manifestly of so many in these dayes But here peradventure ye wold know of me what is the truth Sir Gods word is the truth as S. Iohn saith and it is even the same that was heretofore For albeit man doth vary and chaunge as the Moon yet Gods word is stable and abydeth for evermore And of Christ it is truly said Christus heri hodie idem etiam in secula When I was in office al that were esteemed for learned men in Gods word aggreed this to be a truth in Gods word written that the Common prayers of the Church shuld be had in the common tongue You know I have conferred with many and I ensure you I never found man so far as I do remembre neyther old nor new Gospeller or Papist of what judgmâ—nt soever he was in this thing to be of a contrary opinion If then it were a truth of Gods word think you that the Alteration of the world can make it now an untruth If it cannot why do men so many shrink from the confession and maintenance of this truth once received of us al For what is it I pray you else to confes or deny Christ in this world but to confes and maintain the truth taught in Gods word nor for any worldly respect to shrynke from the same This one have I brought but for an example Other things be in like case which now particularly I nede not to rehearse For he that wil forsake wittingly eyther for fear or gain of the world any one open truth of Gods word if he be strayned he wil assuredly forsake God and al his truth rather then he wil endaunger hymself eyther to loose or to leave that he loveth indede better then he doth God and the truth of his word I lyke therin very wel your plain speaking wherin you say I must eyther aggree or dy and I thynk you mean of the bodily death which is common both to good and bad Sir I know I must dy whether I aggree or no. But what folly were it then to make such an aggreement by the which I could never escape this death which is so common to al and also I might incur the guilt of eternal death and damnation Lord graunt that I may utterly abhor and detest this damnable aggreement so long as I lyve And because I dare say you wrot of frendship to me this short ernest advertisement and I think verily wyshing me to lyve and not to dy Therfore bearing you in my hear no less love in God then you do me in the world I say to you In verbo Domini that except you and this I say to you I say to al my frends and lovers in God except ye confes and mainteyn to your power and knowledg thyngs which be grounded upon Gods word but wil eyther for fear or gayn of the world shrynke and play the Apostata indede you shal dy the death You understand what I mean And I beseech you and al my true freynds and lovers in God remembre what I say For this peradventure may be the last time that ever I shal write to you From Bocardo in Oxenford theighth day of April Anno 1554. Yours in Christ Nicolas Rydley NUM LXXXVII John Hopton Bishop of Norwich to the Earl of Sussex giving account of the joy conceived and Te Deum sung for the newes of the Queens being brought to bed of a Noble Prince RIght honorable and my singular good Lord. After mine humble commendations with like thanks for your honorable and gentle letters sent to me touching the behaviour of the Curate of Bokenham and the reformation of other enormities there It may please you to understand that I did send immediatly for the said Curate and the Church-wardens and the Quest-men there And upon their appearance with twelve or fourteen of the most substantial men of the parish and upon due examination I could perceive none other thing but al things to be wel and decently ordered and provided for at this holy time of Easter contrary to the information given to your good Lordship And if there had been any thing amiss they should have been punished according to their demerits Beseeching your good Lordship if any further knowledg come to you either for that Town or any other concerning the Reformation of my jurisdiction or the negligence of mine Officers that I may be advertised therof and have your favorable ayd and assistance And I shal do the best I can for my discharge And wher it pleased your honorable Lordship to wil me to take a dinner or a supper with you in the time of my Visitation I humbly thank you therfore most heartily Beseeching your Lordship when occasion shal serve you to visit this city that ye wil vouchsafe to take this my poor house at your commandment wherunto your Lordship shal be as welcome as unto your own Further I understand that Mr. Mayor here hath certified your Lordship of the sudden good news brought to us by one of the city of the Queens highnes most joyful deliverance of a Noble Prince Wherupon to laud God Te Deum was solemnly songen in the Cathedral church and other places of the city with wonderful joy and much gladnes of al people throughout the whole city and the country therabouts And if ye have any further knowledg therof I beseech your honorable Lordship that I may be partaker of the same by this bringer my servant whom I send purposely therfore as knoweth the Holy Ghost who preserve your Lordship in continual health and honor At Norwich the thred of May 1555. Your Lordships assuredly Iohn Norwich Postscripta I received even now knowledg from a friend of mine of two witnesses more of the good and joyful newes above written as this said bringer can declare to your good Lordship Iohn Norwich NUM LXXXVIII A Proposition in the Convocation against Residence With Reasons for the said Proposition and Remedies against Non-residence Decretum perpetuae Residentiae juxta Canonum Sanctiones optant pij sed multa sunt quae hodie impediunt quo minus suum effectum juxta bonorum virorum vota consequatur The Reasons I. THE Statutes of the Kingdome not disallowed as we hear by the Pope do permit to the Barons and other great men of the kingdome a certain number of Priests having cure of souls II. Not only the Statutes of the kingdom but the Canons do permit Bishops a certain number of fellow workers to assist them III. Bishops and Prelates who by reason of their great learning prudence integrity of life and high faith are chosen to be the Kings Counsillors and whose counsils are very necessary for the restoring of religion ought not as it seems to be compelled to perpetual Residence IV. When the Barons and other great men may be retained in the orthodox faith by the doctrin honesty age and frequent exhortations of Reverend men it seems not convenient that
what just and fair ways it went on and how it prevailed like Christianity at first notwithstanding the great Opposition it met with and what sort of men they were such as Gardiner and Boner who especially set themselves to stop it Moreover Reading the Lives of Exemplary Men and such as were Famous in their Generation hath a great Vertue in it to influence the Manners of men Their wise Saying◠their discreet Behaviour their just Management of Matters committed to their trust their Zeal their Charity their Awe of God their Contempt of the World and such like are not only delightful to read or hear but do insensibly instil into mens minds a secret Approbation thereof and draw them on to an Imitation This Land hath produced many admirable men the Knowledg of whom and the Benefit of whose Examples is utterly lost for want of some Writers to leave their Memory unto the World It was a thing complained of in the last Age That as that Age abounded more in Writers than any Age before it so there were very few that set themselves to Pen the Lives of Excellent men as Samuel the Learned and Worthy Son of Iohn Fox spake But he ever thought it as he said most unjust notwithstanding to deprive the world of the memory of matters done by them by whose Labours and worthy Deeds the common state of the Countrey was so much bettered And if the Use of History as the same Author saith is to form the Lives and Manners of men that being the chief end of History then I add No part of History doth more promote this than the History of the Deeds of Famous men It was another great Inducement to me to let this Work see the light to be grateful to the Memory of this Holy Prelate that hath so well deserved of this Church and to whom under God she oweth that Excellent Constitution and Reformed State in which she is which cost him so dear so many Pensive Thoughts so many long hours Study so many Consultations and Debates with Learned men so much Correspondence abroad so many Speeches Arguments and Strugglings in the Parliament in the Convocation before the King the Clergy the People so much Danger and Trouble and Envy and Reproach and at last his dearest Blood Posterity would be highly injurious to such a Person as this if he should not be recorded with all due Respect and Honour It was a commendable Practice of the Ancient Persians to write in Records the Names and good Deeds of such as had deserved well of the King and Kingdom to remain for ever And these Records Kings themselves did sometimes use to read The King Ahasuerus called one Night for them to be read to him to entertain his waking hours Esther VI. And Xerxes in an Epistle of his to Pausanias extant in Thucidides told him That his Good Deed was upon Record in his Palace for ever For these Records were esteemed so precious that they were kept within the Walls of the Palace And this Custom of Writing up the Remembrance of Men of Merit seemed also to be among the Iews Thus it is said of Iudas Macchabeus That the Remembrance of him was for a blessing for ever To which does I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Book of Remembrance or Record allude in Mal. III. 16. that was written for those that feared God and thought on his name And surely it is agreeable to God's Will that this Piece of Gratitude should be shewn to men of singular Vertue deceased to keep their Names and Good Deeds upon Record for Posterity to know and to thank God for And this Office of Love and Duty seems highly convenient to be done towards Archbishop Cranmer that something might appear in the world for his Vindication under those many base Aspersions and lying Insinuations that are and have been Printed by Papists to defame and blacken him to Posterity One of them hath these words which shew that he cared not what he said so he might but throw his dirt upon the chief Lights of the Reformation The very Pillars of this Rank which he names to be Luther Bucer P. Martyr Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Rogers Farrar Taylor Tyndal all Married Priests and Friars but some of them were never Friars and others never Married were men given to their Sensualities both of Women and other like their Commodities after the fashion of other ordinary men Neither is there recounted any one eminent Action in all their Lives that I have read either of chastening their Bodies mortifying their Appetites contemning the World and the Pleasures thereof while they might have and use the same or finally any more excellent Spirit in them above the rest or of any supernatural Concurrence of God with their Actions in any one thing But did he converse so much in Fox as to undertake in one or two Books to answer and confute him and his Martyrs and yet doth he meet with nothing there of none of these men in that Martyrology but what was Ordinary to other men and that shewed not some more excellent Spirit to be in them It is a sign he read but little there or read with a cankered mind This ensuing Book shall effectually confute these Misreports and Slanders of Cranmer one of these Pillars as he calls them and shall abundantly make it appear That he was no Sensualist nor addicted notwithstanding his High Place to the Pleasures and Commodities of this world and that his Life shone bright by his many eminent Actions of Piety Mortification Contempt of the world and that he was of a more excellent Spirit than that of the ordinary rank of men and that for some Ages there scarce arose his Fellow and finally that he must needs have some supernatural Concurrence and mighty Aid of God's Grace with him in many of the Affairs that passed through his hands III. The Third thing remains which is indeed the main matter that makes an History of any account and that is What Credit may be given to what I have writ For if it stand not upon the Foot of Truth it is not History but a Romance a Legend a mere Tale. And here I remember what Iohn Fox said to Alan Cope concerning an History-Controuler which is as true of an history-History-Writer If you will be a Controuler in Story-matters Diligence is required and great searching out of Books and Authors not only of our time but of all Ages and especially where matters of Religion are touched pertaining to the Church it is not sufficient to say what Fabian or what Hall saith but Records must be sought and Registers must be turned over Letters also and ancient Instruments ought to be perused and Authors with the same compared finally the Writers among themselves one to be compared with another and so with Judgment to be weighed with Diligence to be laboured and with Simplicity pure from all Addiction and Partiality to be uttered
silent in some things more fully and largely treated of elsewhere But here are numberless Notices given concerning the Archbishop some which are no where else others very imperfectly observed besides the Narrations of the State and History of the Church which are every where interposed in most of which the Archbishop bore a part The Cathedral Church of Canterbury now called Christ-Church I have in some places stiled Trinity Church because I so find it named in those particular Records I make use of in those places and it seems in some of the first years of our Archbishop it ordinarily went by that old Name My Stile may seem rough and unpolished and the Phrases here and there uncouth the reason of which is because I confess I have often taken the very Expressions and Words of the Papers I have used and so may fall sometimes into obsolete Terms and a Style not so acceptable to the present Age whose Language is refined from what it was an Hundred and fifty or forty years ago But I have chosen to do this that I might keep the nearer Truth and lest that by varying of the Language I might perhaps sometimes vary from the true meaning of my Writer And in truth he that is a Lover of Antiquity loves the very Language and Phrases of Antiquity The Reader will find some few things here which are already published in the late Specimen put forth by Anthony Harmer he and I it seems lighting unwittingly upon the same Records to wit K. Edward's Council-Book and the Register of Christ-Church Cant. Nor could I strike out of my Book what I found published in the said Specimen having fully finished it and the Copy being under the Press some Weeks before that Book came forth and the matters there related interwoven into the Contexture of my History And now after all this Pains that I have taken in fulfilling this Task which I assure the Readers have not been small nor of a few Years let me not for every little slip fall under their Censure and Reproach but rather let them use me with Gentleness and Charity considering how few tho much abler will trouble themselves to Labour and Drudge and take Journeys and be at Expences in making such Collections for the Publick Good It calls to mind what happened upon the Death of the Laborious Antiquary Iohn Stow who had been a Collector of Matters for the English History Seven and forty years and dyed 1605. and had all the Collections of Reiner Wolf another Historian and a Printer in K. Edward the Sixth's days and if he had lived but one year longer intended to have published his long Labours But after his death there was not a man to be found to take the small Pains to review his Papers and fit them for the Press Many indeed were talked of to do it both Persons of Quality among the Laity and Clergy For the World had great and earnest expectation to see Stow in Print But when they were spoke to to take the good Work in hand some of them said That they thought the giving out of their Names was rather done by secret Enemies on purpose to draw them into Capital Displeasure and to bring their Names and Lives into a general question Others said That they who did such a Work must flatter which they could not neither wilfully would they leave a Scandal unto their Posterity Another said he could not see how in any Civil action a man should spend his Travel Time and Money worse than in that which acquires no Regard or Reward except Backbiting and Detraction And one among the rest swore an Oath and said He thanked God that he was not yet mad to waste his Time spend Two hundred Pounds a Year which it seems Stow had done trouble himself and all his Friends only to gain assurance of endless Reproach loss of Liberty and bring all his days in question Yet at last one Edward Howes undertook it and effected it But it happened just so to him having been intolerably abused and scandalized for his Labour So slothful and backward are most to take Pains in Works of this nature and so apt to censure those that do I hope I shall meet if not with Thanks at least with more candid men and better usage But whatever happens I shall arm my self with Patience to undergo it since I intend nothing hereby but to be serviceable unto my Countrey and God's Church and to Justify the excellent Reformation of it in these Kingdoms and finally to do Right unto the Memory of that truly Great and Good Archbishop of Canterbury And thus recommending the Success of this Work unto God's Blessing I here make an End J. STRYPE Sept. 29. 1693. Low-Leyton I desire the Reader to take Notice That when I quote Fox's Acts and Monuments it is the Edition in the Year 1610. And when the Life of K. Henry VIII by the L. Herbert it is the Edition of 1672. And when the History of the Reformation by Bishop Burnet it is that of the Year 1681. Farewel A TABLE OF THE Books Chapters and Contents OF THESE MEMORIALS OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER BOOK I. CHAP. I. Cranmer 's Birth Education and Rise A Worthy Work to revive his Memory His Family Account of his younger years Sent to Cambridge An. 1503. Sets himself to study the Scripture Is made Doctor of Divinity Marries Refuses to go to Wolsey's College Oxon. He is made one of the University-Examiners The King 's great Cause first proposed to the Universities The occasion of his Rise His Opinion of the King's Cause The King sends for him Suitably placed with the Earl of Ormond Friendship and Correspondence between the Earl and Cranmer A Providence in his being placed here Cranmer disputes at Cambridge Grows dear to the King and his Court. CHAP. II. Pole 's Book about the King's Matrimony Pole's Book against the King's dissolving his Marriage Cranmer peruses it His Account of it His Censure thereof CHAP. III. Cranmer 's Embassies He is employed in Embassies To the Pope Offers him a Dispute in favour of the King's Cause To the Emperor Cornel. Agrippa gained by Cranmer to the King's Cause Becomes acquainted with Osiander and marries his Kinswoman Treats with the Emperor about the Contract of Traffick and about sending Supplies against the Turk Sends the King the News in those Parts And the Proclamation for a General Council And the Tax of the States of the Empire He goes in an Embassy to the Duke of Saxony and other Protestant Princes CHAP. IV. Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury Made Archbishop of Canterbury His Dignities before he was Archbishop Archbishop Warham foretels a Thomas to succeed him Archbishop Warham for the King's Supremacy Cranmer's Testimony of Warham A Reflection upon a Passage relating to Cranmer in Harpsfields History Cranmer tries to evade the Archbishoprick Declares the reason thereof to the King The Archbishop's Brother is made Archdeacon of Canterbury
their Pain But because the Place where they be the Name thereof and kinds of Pain there is to us uncertain by Scripture therefore we remit this with all other things to Almighty God unto whose Mercies it is meet to commend them That such Abuses be put away which under the Name of Purgatory have been advanced As to make Men believe that through the Bishop of Rome's Pardons Souls might clearly be delivered out of Purgatory and the Pains of it or that Masses said at Scala Coeli or otherwise in any Place or before any Image might deliver them from all their Pains and send them streight to Heaven These are the Contents of that memorable Book of Articles There are Reasons added now and then to confirm the respective Tenets there laid down and many Quotations of Holy Scripture which for brevity sake I have omitted Which one may conjecture to have been inserted by the Pen of the Arch-bishop Who was the great Introducer of this Practice of proving or confuting Opinions in Religion by the Word of God instead of the ordinary Custom then used of doing it by School-men and Popish Canons We find indeed many Popish Errors here mixed with Evangelical Truths Which must either be attributed to the Defectiveness of our Prelate's Knowledg as yet in True Religion or being the Principles and Opinions of the King or both Let not any be offended herewith but let him rather take notice what a great deal of Gospel-Doctrine here came to light and not only so but was owned and propounded by Authority to be believed and practised The Sun of Truth was now but rising and breaking through the thick Mists of that Idolatry Superstition and Ignorance that had so long prevailed in this Nation and the rest of the World and was not yet advanced to its Meridian Brightness CHAP. XII Cranmer's Iudgment about some Cases of Matrimony IN this Year then came forth two remarkable Books whereof both the King and the Arch-bishop and Bishops might be said to be joint Composers In as much as they seemed to be devised by the Arch-bishop and some of the Bishops and then Revised Noted Corrected and Enlarged by the King The one of these was the Book of Articles of Religion mentioned before This Book bore this Title Articles devised by the King's Highness to stable Christian Quietness and Vnity among the People c. With a Preface by the King Where the King saith he was constrained to put his own Pen to the Book and to conceive certain Articles Which words I leave to the Conjecture of the Reader whether by them he be enclined to think that the King were the first Writer of them or that being writ and composed by another they were perused considered corrected and augmented by his Pen. The other Book that came out this Year was occasioned by a Piece published by Reginald Pole intituled De Vnione Ecclesiastica Which inveighing much against the King for assuming the Supremacy and extolling the Pope unmeasurably he employed the Arch-bishop and some other Bishops to compile a Treatise shewing the Usurpations of Popes and how late it was e're they took this Superiority upon them some hundred Years passing before they did it And that all Bishops were limited to their own Diocesses by one of the eight Councils to which every Pope did swear And how the Papal Authority was first derived from the Emperor and not from Christ. For this there were good Arguments taken from the Scriptures and the Fathers The Book was signed by both the Arch-bishops and nineteen other Bishops It was called the Bishops Book because devised by them The Lord Crumwel did use to consult with the Arch-bishop in all his Ecclesiastical Matters And there happened now while the Arch-bishop was at Ford a great Case of Marriage Whom it concerned I cannot tell but the King was desirous to be resolved about it by the Arch-bishop and commanded Crumwel to send to him for his Judgment therein The Case was three-fold I. Whether Marriage contracted or solemnized in Lawful Age per Verba de presenti and without carnal Copulation be Matrimony before God or no II. Whether such Matrimony be consummate or no And III. What the Woman may thereupon demand by the Law Civil after the death of her Husband This I suppose was a cause that lay before the King and his Ecclesiastical Vicegerent to make some determination of And I suspect it might relate to Katharine his late divorced Queen The Arch-bishop who was a very good Civilian as well as a Divine but that loved to be wary and modest in all his Decisions made these Answers That as to the first he and his Authors were of Opinion that Matrimony contracted per Verba de presenti was perfect Matrimony before God 2. That such Matrimony is not utterly consummated as that term is commonly used among the School-Divines and Lawyers but by carnal Copulation 3. As to the Woman's Demands by the Law Civil he therein professed his Ignorance And he had no learned Men with him there at Ford to consult with for their Judgments only Dr. Barbar a Civilian that he always retained with him who neither could pronounce his Mind without his Books and some learned Men to confer with upon the Case But he added that he marvelled that the Votes of the Civil Lawyer should be required herein seeing that all manner of Causes of Dower be judged within this Realm by the Common Laws of the same And that there were plenty of well-learned Men in the Civil Law at London that undoubtedly could certify the King's Majesty of the Truth herein as much as appertained unto that Law warily declining to make any positive Judgment in a Matter so ticklish This happened in the month of Ianuary And indeed in these Times there were great Irregularities about Marriage in the Realm many being incestuous and unlawful Which caused the Parliament two or three Years past viz 1533. in one of their Acts to publish a Table of Degrees wherein it was prohibited by God's Law to marry But the Act did not cure this Evil many thought to bear out themselves in their illegal Contracts by getting Dispensations from the Arch-bishop which created him much trouble by his denying to grant them There was one Massy a Courtier who had contracted himself to his deceased Wife's Niece Which needing a Dispensation the Party got the Lord Crumwel to write to the Arch-bishop in his behalf especially because it was thought to be none of the Cases of Prohibition contained in the Act. But such was the Integrity of the Arch-bishop that he refused to do any thing he thought not allowable though it were upon the perswasion of the greatest Men or the best Friends he had But he writ this civil Letter to the Lord Crumwel upon this occasion MY very singular good Lord in my most hearty-wise I commend me unto your Lordship And whereas your
Mannor was not given to Christ-Church till after the Year 1400. Thomas Goldstone a Prior of that Church and a great Builder built the Mannor-house for a Mansion for the Priors and a Chappel annexed and a new Hall adjoining to the Dormitory and divers other Edifices there as we learn from the History of the Priors of Canterbury lately published To which we may add a Record in that Church to direct us in the Computation of the Time Viz. Anno Dom. 1508. In vigiliis S. Marci Capella dedicatur in Manerio de Lyvyngsborn procurante Thoma Goldston At the Dissolution this was alienated and given to Gage and from him it came to Arch-bishop Cranmer and his Successors And the Bargain was confirmed by Act of Parliament Anno Henr. 34. The Arch-bishop as he had opportunity preferred Learned and Pious Men in his Diocess in the Benefices of his Church and such who freely preached against the Pope and his Superstitions against Images and the Worship of them The chief of these were Nic. Ridley afterwards Bishop of London whom he made Vicar of Herne and Prebend of Canterbury and Iohn Scory afterwards Bishop of Chichester whom he made one of the six Preachers Michael Drum and Lancelot Ridley worthy Men were two more of the Six These he preferred and divers others about through his Diocess that set the Abuses of Popery open before the Peoples Eyes in their Sermons This so angred the Men of the old Religion and particularly some of his own Church in Canterbury that they detected them to the Arch-bishop by articling against them for their Doctrine This they did this Year when the Arch-bishop visited his Church And about two Years after they did so again as shall be taken notice of in due Season About this time it was that Serles and Shether two of the Six Preachers of Canterbury were by the Arch-bishop's Censure put to Recantation for some unsound Passages they had preached Which made them such Enemies to the Arch-bishop and such Contrivers of his Ruin by devising and drawing up a great number of Articles against him if they could have accomplished their Design as shall be seen hereafter under the Year 1543. It was observed of Shether at this time that after the pronouncing his Recantation or Declaration he added these words Good Christians I take God to record that I never preached any thing to you in my Life but the Truth And so in short gave himself the Lie and overthrew all the Recantation he had made before The latter end of the Year there was a Convocation Wherein one of the Matters before them was concerning the procuring a true Translation of the New Testament Which was indeed intended not so much to do such a good Work as to hinder it For having decried the present Translation on purpose to make it unlawful for any to use it they pretended to set themselves about a new One But it was merely to delay and put off the People from the common use of the Scripture As appeared plainly enough in that the Bishops themselves undertook it And so having it in their own Hands they might make what delays they pleased For in the third Session a Proposition was made for the Translation and an Assignation to each Bishop of his Task As Matthew to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Mark to the Bishop of Lincoln Luke to Winton Iohn to Ely and so of the rest But the Arch-bishop saw through all this And therefore in a Sessions that followed after told the House from the King to whom I suppose he had discovered this Intrigue that the Translation should be left to the Learned of both Universities This was a Surprize to the Bishops who all except Ely and S. David's protested against it and began to undervalue the Sufficiency of the Universities as much decayed of late and that they were but young Men and that the greatest Learning lay in the Convocation-men But the Arch-bishop roundly said that he would stick by his Master's Will and Pleasure and that the Vniversities should examine the Translation Bishops Consecrated May 29 being Sunday William Knight was Consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester by Virtue of the Arch-bishop's Letters to him assisted by Richard Suffragan of Dover and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford in the Chappel of the said Bishop of Bath's House situate in the Minories without Aldgate September the 25 th Iohn Wakeman late Abbot of Teuksbury was Consecrated the first Bishop of Glocester by the Arch-bishop Edmond Bishop of London and Thomas Bishop of Westminster assisting Iohn Chambre B. D. was Consecrated first Bishop of Peterburgh Octob. 23. in the Cathedral Church of Peterburgh in the Presbytery there by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Bishop of Ely and William Bishop of Norwich by Commission from the Arch-bishop February the 19 th Arthur Bulkeley in the Chappel of Iohn Incent LL. D. Dean of St. Paul's by Iohn Bishop of Sarum by virtue of Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop William Bishop of St. David's and Iohn Bishop of Glocester assisting Robert King another Abbot and Titular Bishop Reonen Suffragan to the Bishop of Lincoln was this Year Consecrated Bishop of Oxford The Date or his Consecrators I cannot assign the Act being omitted in the Arch-bishop's Register He was first a Monk of Rewly a Priory without Oxford of the Cistertian Order Then Abbot of Bruerne in Oxfordshire After Abbot of Thame of which he was also called Bishop and lastly of Oseney Both which he surrendred to the King at the dissolution of Monasteries This Man when Suffragan preached at S. Mary's in Stamford where he most fiercely inveighed against such as used the New Testament In Q. Mary's Reign he was a persecutor of the Protestants and died 1557. CHAP. XXIV The King's Book revised THE Arch-bishop was this Year among other things employed in the King's Book as it now was called that is The Erudition of any Christian Man spoken of before For the King was minded now to have it well reviewed and if there were any Errors and less proper Expressions to have them corrected and amended And so to have it recommended unto the People as a compleat Book of Christian Principles in the stead of the Scripture which upon pretence of their abuse of the King would not allow longer to be read Accordingly a Correction was made throughout the Book and the correct Copy sent to Cranmer to peruse Which he did and added his own Annotations upon various Passages in it at good length And had it not been too long I had transcribed it wholly out of a Volume in the Benet-College Library But for a taste take this that follows In the Title under his own Hand was this written Animadversions upon the King's Book Vpon the Chapter of Original Sin For the first Offence of our Father Adam No Man shall be damned for the Offences of Adam
there would be none to take him up For Smith they say smelt out some crafty Device taken against him and so appeared not at the Dispute And then indeed few thought convenient to be there their Plot of making a Rout and Confusion being spoiled Indeed Smith conscious to himself of making this Tumult fled before the Day came and went into Scotland But Dr. Tresham a zealous Man that this Cause might not fall was desirous to undertake the Disputation and did so with Dr. Chedsey and Mr. Morgan before the King's Visitors who were Henry Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Cox Chancellor of that University Dr. Simon Haines Dean of Exeter Richard Morison Esq Christopher Nevison Doctor of Civil Law Before these honourable Umpires who came with the King's Letters Patents the Disputation concerning Transubstantiation and the Carnal Presence in the Sacrament lasted four days wherein P. Martyr the Respondent did acquit himself very sufficiently both from Scripture and Fathers The Sum of which may be seen in Fox's Monuments and the whole in Martyr's Works in that part thereof intituled De Eucharistia Disputatio The first day of the Disputation was May the 28 th It was managed between Martyr and Tresham Dr. Cox the Chancellor began with a Speech Then Martyr made his Proemial Oration and Prayer Then Tresham succeeded with another Oration bestowing some Praises upon Martyr Which he replying upon and briefly and modestly declining began his Argument The next Disputation on May 29 was between Martyr and Chedzey after Martyr had made a short Speech and Prayer and Chedzey his Preface The third Action was between Morgan Tresham and Martyr The Disputation of the fourth day Iune 1 was again between Chedzey and Martyr And then all was concluded by another Speech uttered by the said Chancellor Wherein he had these words Peter and a Peter indeed for his steady Constancy Martyr and rightly called Martyr for the numberless Testimonies by him produced in the behalf of Truth must needs obtain much Favour and Respect from us and all good Men First That he hath taken such vast pains in standing under even a Burden of Disputations For iâ— Not Hercules himself against two what shall we think of Peter alone against all Secondly That he hath undertook the Challenge of a Disputation And so stopped the vain Speeches of vain Men who dispersed envious and odious Insinuations concerning him as that either he would not or dared not to maintain his own Tenets And lastly that he hath so excellently well answered the Expectation of the chief Magistrates and so of the King himself while he hath not only recommended to the University the Doctrine of Christ from God's lively Fountains but also hath not permitted any as much as lay in him to muddy or obstruct them But I refer the Reader for the rest to Dr. Cox's own Oration The Professor drew up the whole four days Disputation soon after and sent it by his constant Friend and Companion Iulius to his Patron the Arch-bishop And with the same Messenger he conveyed a Letter dated Iune 15 to Bucer then at the Arch-bishop's House concerning his said Disputation Therein he signified the Obstinacy and Boldness of his Opponents and that he feared That his Doctrines he then maintained might not altogether square with Bucer's Judgment But he said in his own Justification That he granted the Body of Christ was present to us by Faith and that we are incorporated into him by Communication He confessed here that we do partake of the Matter of the Sacrament namely the Body and Blood of Christ but he meant it in Mind and Faith And in the mean time he granted that the Holy Ghost is Efficacious in the Sacraments by virtue of the Lord's Institution But that which he especially endeavoured to assert was That they mixed not the Body and Blood of Christ carnally with the Bread and Wine by any Corporeal Presence Nor yet would he have the Sacrament to be Symbols without Honour and Reverence Another thing he asserted which he thought might offend Bucer was That it was not agreeable to the Body of Christ however glorified to be in many Places at once But for this he wrote Bucer as he urged in the Disputation that the Scripture obliged to no such belief How the reason of an humane Body reclaimed against it and the Fathers affirmed that such a Quality was granted to no Creature but belonged to God alone And so inviting him and Fagius and Alexander to Oxford concluded his Letter But when the Papists dispersed vain Stories and many Falshoods concerning this Business he was forced his Friends also urging him thereunto to publish an Account hereof And with what Fidelity and Diligence he drew up his Book the Testimonies of two of the King's Counsellors Ear-Witnesses added thereto sufficiently confirmed In the Preface to his Relation of these Disputes he assigned two Reasons that made him publish them The one was the Calumnies of evil Men the other the Desires of his Friends Under the former he complained how he was by his Adversaries bespattered among all sorts of People Princes Nobles Commons Citizens Clowns And that all Corners Streets Houses Shops Taverns sounded their Triumphs over him and he doubted not that it was dispersed by them into other Nations Upon these Considerations his great Patron the Arch-bishop of Canterbury to whom he dared to deny nothing and the King's Visitors besides others of his Friends had advised and desired him to put forth these his Disputations in his own Vindication and in the Vindication of the Truth These he professed to write with all Fidelity And that he might be the more exact he had compared his own Collections with the Relations that were drawn up by the Adversaries and that having read theirs what he could recal that he had before omitted which was of any moment he restored out of their Writings But Tresham the chief Disputant pretending himself aggrieved with this Book as tho Martyr had therein misrepresented him and expressed some Indignation against him and added some things that were not spoken wrote himself another Account of this Disputation in justification of himself against the Professor and set a Preface before it by way of Epistle to the King's Privy-Council Wherein he most angrily bespattered this Reverend Man calling him Pseudo-Martyr a doting old Man Subverted Impudent and the famous Master of Errors And that he fled into Germany to obtain the more Licence for his Lust and that he might enjoy his Adultery meaning his Wife The Disputation it self is too long to be transcribed it is extant among the Foxian Manuscripts But the Epistle Dedicatory or Preface before it I will not omit that the Reader may there observe the malicious Spirit of Martyr's Adversaries and collect some further Account of this Disputation But the Reader must remember that it was an angry Antagonist that wrote it Dr. Smith who had done his best to cause a
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
Lord and again rejoice and be glad Your assured in Christ Rowland Taylor Ridley knowing their Tricks and suspecting they would publish hi◠〈◊〉 unfairly and to their own advantage prudently took 〈…〉 gave an account of it with the greatest exactness as he 〈…〉 it in his Memory He was promised by the Prolocutor â—hat he should have a view of the Dispute as it was taken by the Notaries that he might supply and amend and alter as he should see any Error or Mistake in the Notes He promised him likewise and that in the Face and hearing of the rest of the Commissioners and the whole Schools that he should have a Time and Place allowed him wherein he might produce what he had more to say for the confirmation of his Answers But nothing was performed Ridley never found Language more ready to him nor such a Presence of Mind in any Business he had to do as he had in this Disputation Which he took particular notice of and thanked God for Of this Relation as he himself had penned it he wrote to Grindal then at Frankford That except he had that he gathered himself after his Disputation done he could not think that he had it truly but if he had that then he had therewithal the whole manner after the which he was used in that Disputation This whole Disputation between these three excellent Men and the Oxford-Divines was under the Seal of the University and the Subscription of Notaries exhibited into the House of Convocation by Hugh VVeston and some Lawyers This Iohn Fox had found some Years after writ in the Register of a certain Church in London Whereupon for the sight hereof he applied himself to Dr. Incent that had been Actuary But he put him off telling him the Writings were in Boner's Hand or in the custody of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and that he had them not probably not being minded they should come to light Fox when his Pains succeeded not wrote to the ArchBp and the Bp of London Parker and Grindal about 1567 acquainting them with this and desired their assistance and the rather because perhaps there might have been other things met with there not unworthy knowledg under the same Seal And so he left the Arch-bishop and Bishop to consult as they thought fit for the finding out these Writings of the Disputations Fox by his diligence procured many and divers Copies of them Which I have seen and that which he printed in his Acts and Monuments was I suppose from a Copy which he reckoned the largest and truest Ridley apprehended there would many Copies of these Disputations fly about as there were whereby they might be wronged Therefore to prevent Misrepresenting as I said before he wrote a brief Account of what he had said at his Disputation This whether he writ it in English or Latin originally I cannot tell I suppose in Latin as it was lately in the Year 1688 published at Oxon. Among Fox's Manuscripts I meet with a better Copy than that which by comparing both I find faulty in many things besides Ridley's Epilogue to the Reader which is there placed as a Preface before the Book the true place being at the end of it CHAP. XI Cranmer condemned for an Heretick WIthin two days after these Disputations were ended that is on Friday April 20 Cranmer with his two Fellows were brought again to S. Mary's before the Commissioners VVeston disswaded them from their Opinions and asked them Whether they would subscribe and required them to answer directly and peremptorily and told the Arch-bishop that he was overcome in Disputation with more words to that purpose To whom the Arch-bishop boldly replied That whereas VVeston said that he had answered and opposed and could neither maintain his own Error nor impugn the Truth he said All that was false For he was not suffered to oppose as he would nor could answer as he was required unless he would have brawled with them and ever four or five interrupting him Latimer and Ridley being asked what they would do said They would stand to that which they had said Then being called together Sentence was read over them That they were no Members of the Church and therefore they were condemned as Hereticks And while this was reading they were asked if they would turn They bad them read on in the Name of God for they were not minded to turn And so the Sentence of Condemnation was awarded against them Then the Arch-bishop said From this your Judgment and Sentence I appeal to the just Judgment of the Almighty trusting to be present with him in Heaven For whose Presence in the Altar I am thus condemned And so Cranmer was returned to Bocardo and the other two to other Places as they were kept apart almost all the while they were in Oxon. VVeston after this ingrateful Business done went up the next week to London And Cranmer wrote to the Lords of the Council a Letter containing two Points One was to desire the Queen's Pardon as to his Treason for so little Favour could he find at Court that he had not yet this absolutely granted him And the other was an account of the Disputation Weston being desired by the ABp to carry the Letter But after he had carried it half way reading the Contents he liked them so ill that he sent back the Letter most churlishly to Cranmer again Indeed he cared not to carry Complaints of himself to the Court But because it gives further light into these Matters I have inserted it in the Appendix It was such an imaginary Victory as they had now got at Oxford that they intended also to obtain at Cambridg And much talk at this time arose that Hoper Rogers Crome and Bradford whom they had in Prisons at London were to be had to this Universiâ—y to be baited as Cranmer Ridley and Latimer newly had been at Oxford and several of the Doctors of Oxford should be sent in likewise to Cambridg for this purpose But Hoper Farrar Taylor Philpot Bradford and the others having an inkling of it consulted among themselves what to do and resolved to decline it unless they might have indifferent Judges And for this purpose Bradford sent a private and trusty Messenger to Oxford to Ridley to have his and his two Fellows their Judgments concerning this Matter They were at this time all separated from one another So though Ridley signified this in a Letter to Cranmer yet he could only give his own Sense He misliked not he said what they were minded to do For he looked for none other but that if they answered before the same Commissioners that he and his Fellows had done they should be served and handled as they were though ye were as well Learned said he as ever was either Peter or Paul Yet he thought occasion might afterward be given them and the consideration of the profit of their Auditory might perchance move
be excused from taking the Archbishoprick of Canterbury because this Promotion would so much interrupt his beloved Studies Desiring rather some smaller Living that he might more quietly follow his Book And as he had been an hard Student so he was a very great Writer both in respect of the number of Books and Treatises he compiled as of the Learning Judgment and Moment of them The first Treatise he wrote was that which was done at the Command of Henry VIII viz. Concerning the Unlawfulness of his Marriage with his Brother Arthur's Widow Which he made appear to be both against the Word of God and against the Judgment of the Antient Fathers of the Church and therefore a Case indispensable by the Pope And so well had he studied the Point and so well was assured of what he had wrote that he undertook before the King to maintain the Truth of it at Rome in the presence of the Pope himself The King accordingly dismissed him to the Pope in joint Embassy with the Earl of Wiltshire and some others for that purpose He presented his Book to the Pope offering to stand by it against any whomsoever that should attempt to gainsay it But the Pope thought not fit to suffer so tender a Point to be disputed wherein his Prerogative was so much touched When he had finished thâ—s Discourse it was sent to Cambridg and had the Approbation and Subscription of the eminentest Doctors there viz. Sâ—lcot Repps Câ—me and divers others Among which I suppose were Heines Litiner Shaxton Skip Goodrick Hethe who were then Gremials After this Book â—e was much employed in writing more at various Times and â—pon various Occasions Fox mentioneth Cranmer's Book of the â—eformation which I suppose was that of the Publick Service the Catechism the Book of Homilies which was part by him contrâ—ed and part by his Procurement and by him approved and pubished Likewise the Confutation of eighty eight Articles devised and propounded by a Convocation in King Henry's Reign and laboâ—red to be received and enjoined though they were not But his Discoâ—rse wherein he stated the Doctrine of the Sacrament in five â—ooks must especially be remembred Which he wrote on purpose for the publick Instruction of the Church of England And it â—s the more to be valued as being writ by him in his mature Age after all his great Readings and Studies and most diligent and serioâ—s perusals of all the Ecclesiastical Writers whereby he became throughly acquainted with their Judgments and Opinions in that Doctrine And in it are contained his last and ripest Thoughts on â—hat Argument This Book displayeth the great Weakness of that â—istinguishing Doctrine of the Church of Rome that asserts Transubstantiation Besides these many other Writings and Discourses were made by him Which we are beholden to the Bishop of Sarum for retrieving the Memory of and preserving the Substance of divers of them in his excellent History viz. A Learned Speech made to the Lords concerning the Pope and a general Council Which that Right Reverend Author thinks was made about the Year 1534 which was soon after his being made Arch-bishop Some Queries in order to the correcting of several Abuses in Religion whereby the People had been deceived Some Queries concerning Confirmation With the Answers which were given to them by Arch-bishop Cranmer Some Considerations to induce the King to proceed to a further Reformation These three last were presented by the Arch-bishop to the King about the Year 1536 as the Bishop of Sarum supposeth And having seen the Originals thereof in the Cotton-Library hath transcribed them to us in the Addenda to the Collections His Resolution of seventeen Questions concerning the Sacraments Anno 1540. A Collection of Passages out of the Canon Law to shew the necessity of Reforming it Anno 1542. His Letters to Osiander and Letters of Osiander to him concerning the Proceedings of the German Divines Whose Violence the Arch-bishop disliked A Speech made in the Convocation Wherein he exhorted the Clergy to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider seriously what things in the Church neeâ—ed Reformation Anno 1547. His Answer to the Demands of the Rebels in the West drawn up by him by Order of the Council Anno 1549. His Declaration to vindicate himself from an Aspersion That he had caused Mass to be sung in Canterbury Aâ—d offering therein a publick Dispute to maintain the Reformation Anno 1553. Besides two Volumes in Folio writ by Cranmer own Hand upon all the Heads of Religion Consisting of Allegtions of Texts of Scripture and of antient Fathers and later Doctos and School-men upon each Subject There were also six or seveâ— Volumes of his Writings which were in the Lord Burleigh's Iâ—ssession as appeared by a Letter of the said Lord which the Bishop of Sarum saw But he thought these may now be lost Most of tâ—e forementioned Writings are preserved in the Cotton-Library or iâ— that of Corpus-Christi Cambridg or among the Manuscripts of the Right Reverend Bishop Stillingsleet To which we must add the mention of a bundle of Books lying in the Palace-Treasury in Westminster in defence of the King's Title of Supream Head and concerning the Divorce and seveal other Matters with a Pâ—eface against Cardinal Pole Which aâ—e supposed to be written partly by Dr. Clark Bishop of Bath and Wels and partly by our Arch-bishop Several other Letters Speeches and Arguments of our Arch-bishop may be found in these Memorials which I omit here rehersing But I will add to these divers Pieces besides of this Prelat's writing as they are set down by Melchior Adam at the End of Cranmer's Life Who indeed did but transcribe them from Gesner and he from Iohn Bale's Centuries I. A Preface to the English Translation of the Bible This is transcribed in the Appendix II. A Catechism of Christian Doctrine printed by Gualter Lynn Anno 1548. This Catechism was first framed in Germany and by the Arch-bishop himself or his special Order turned into English And to fix an Authority to the same he caused it to be published in his own Name and owned it for his own Book This Dr. Rowland Taylor who lived in the Arch-bishop's Family declared before Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor at his Examination before him And in this sense we must understand the Author of the History of the Reformation when speaking of this Catechism he stiles it A Work that was wholly his own It was said before that Iustus Ionas he I suppose that dwelt with the Arch-bishop was the Translator of it into Latin It treated of the Sacrament after the Lutheran way Which Way the Arch-bishop embraced next after his rejection of the gross Papal Transubstantiation This Catechism was printed first by the Arch-bishop's Order about the Time of King Henry's Death or soon after In a second Edition tâ—e word
how much soever he should extol them the greatness of the Matter would over-reach his Speech And that it was well known to all how humanely he received not him only but many other Strangers of his Order and how kindly he treated them To both these I will subjoin the Judgment of another who I cannot but conclude was well-acquainted with the Arch-bishop and a long and diligent Observer of his Demeanour in his Superintendency over the Church and that was Iohn Bale sometime Bishop of Ossory He never placed said he the Function of a Bishop in the Administration of secular Things but in a most faithful Dispensation of God's Word In the midst of wicked Babylon he always performed the part of a good Guide of Israel And among Papists that tyrannized against the Truth of Christ he governed the People of God with an admirable Prudence No Man ever so happily and steddily persisted with Christ himself in the Defence of the Truth in the midst of falsly learned Men in such imminent hazard of his Life and yet without receiving any Harm No Man did more prudently bear with some false Apostles for a time although with St. Paul he knew what most pestilent Men they were that so they might not be provoked to run into greater Rage and Madness All this that I have before written concerning this our venerable Prelate cannot but redound to his high Praise and Commendation And it is very fit such Vertues and Accomplishments should be celebrated and recorded to Posterity Yet I do not intend these my Collections for such a Panegyrick of him as to make the World believe him void of all Faults or Frailties the Condition of human Nature He lived in such critical Times and under such Princes and was necessarily involved in such Affairs as exposed him to greater Temptations than ordinary And if any Blemishes shall by curious Observers be espied in him he may therefore seem the more pardonable and his great exemplary Goodness and Usefulness in the Church of God may make ample Amends for some Errors CHAP. XXXVIII The Arch-bishop vindicated from Slanders of Papists I Have given I hope a just though imperfect Account from undoubted Records and authentick Manuscripts as well as the best published Books of the excellent Endowments of this great Prelat and of his innocent prudential and useful Behaviour in his high Place and Station So that none who impartially weighs the Premisses can conclude otherwise of him than that he was a very rare Person and one that deserves to be reckoned among the brightest Lights that ever shone in this English Church And this all the sober unprejudiced part of Posterity will believe notwithstanding the unjust Calumnies some hot-spirited Papists have cast upon his Memory I shall pass over the unhandsome Name that Feckenham gave him calling him Dolt as he did also his two other Brethren in Tribulation Ridley and Latimer Prisoners then in Oxford Men by far more Learned than himself upon occasion of Mr. Hawks esteeming them deservedly Godly and Learned Men. I shall also pass by what Bishop Boner then said of him viz. That he dared to say that Cranmer would Recant so he might have his Living As though he were a Man of a prostituted Conscience and would do any thing upon worldly Considerations But there is a late French Writer whom I cannot but take notice of with some Indignation who to shew his bigotted Zeal to the Roman Church hath bestowed this most defamatory Character upon this our Arch-bishop That he was one of the profligatest Men of England that had nothing of Christianity in him but the outward Appearances being Ambitious Voluptuous Turbulent and capable of all sorts of Intrigues Of which all that I have written is an abundant Confutation besides the severe Chastisements the right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum hath lately bestowed upon this Author Who questionless was well versed in those famous Popish Calumniators of our Reformation and of this our Arch-bishop the great Instaurator thereof and had a mind to out-do them in their Talent of throwing Dirt. Those I mean who living in the Age past did most bitterly and virulently as it fell in their way fly upon Cranmer's Memory and Fame to eclipse it to Posterity if they could namely Saunders Allen and Parsons and some others But those who reade these Memorials will be able easily to confute them and will perceive that these Men sought not so much to say what was true as what might serve the Ends of their Anger and Spight their Reports being made up for the most part of nothing but Lies and Slanders illy patched together Allen if he were the Answerer of the Execution of English Iusâ—ice saith That Cranmer was a notorious perjured and often relapsed Apostata recanting swearing and forswearing at every turn A heavy Charge but we are left to guess what these Perjuries these so often Swearings and Forswearings these Relapses and Recantations be But it is enough for them to roar out Notorious Perjuries c. But let us see what Oaths Cranmer took that might occasion his Perjuries He swore at his Consecration the usual Oath to the Pope and in his future Doings laboured to restore the King's Supremacy against the Pope's Usurpations and to promote a Reformation against the Popâ—'s Superstitions Was this one of his notorious Perjuries It is pity the doing so good a Thing should fall under so bad a Name But at the taking of that Oath did he not make a solemn Protestation openly before Publick Notaries and that entred down into Record That he intended not by the said Oath to do any thing against the Law of God the King or the Realm and their Laws and Prerogatives nor to be abridged thereby from consulting for the Reformation of Religion In which way the best Civilians then put him and assured him that by this Means he might safely without any Guilt take the Oath to the Pope Which otherwise he would not have done And truly for my part I think there was no other way to escape that Perjury that all other Bishops Elect in those Times were intangled in by swearing two contrary Oaths one to the Pope and another to the King Cranmer sware also at receiving Orders to live Chastely But he afterwards married a Wife Surely hereby he brake not his Oath but rather kept it He did likewise swear to the Succession of Q. Ann But would Allen have all that submitted to that Act of Parliament to be perjured That would reflect upon the Wisdom of the three Estates at that Time in making such an ensnaring Law and involve all sorts of People both Clergy Nobility and Gentry and all other Persons of Age in Perjury as well as the Arch-bishop excepting only two Persons More and Fisher who would not submit to this Act. And even they themselves offered to swear to the Succession it self and refused only to swear to the Preamble of
H. hath in the H. of Salvation how remission of sins is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect Justification The Doctrin of the Parlament teacheth Justification for the fulness and perfection therof to have more parts then Remission of sins as in the same appeareth And tho Remission of sins be a justification yet it is not a full and perfect The Book of H. numbreth the hallowing of bread Palmes and Candles among Papistical superstitions and abuses The Doctrin of the Parlament willeth them to be reverendly used And so do the Injunctions now set forth Which made me think the Printer might thrust in an Homily of his own devise The book of H. hath words of S. Chrâ—sâ—stom aâ—ledged untruly and not after suâ—h a sort as might scape by over sight but of purpose As calling that Faith which Chrysostom calleth Hope And in place of one Sentence putteth another which should better serve the purpose of the Maker of the Homilies Now if one would reason with me that Chrysostom meant this I would deny it him as I may But I may afâ—â—rm that Chrysostom saith Not. It is but a defamation of the trâ—th And under such a Princes name as our Soveraign Lord is whose tongue in this so pure innocency hath not been defiled with any untruth I assure you I thought there was not so great hast in Homilies but they might have tarried the printing even for that only cause Truth is able to â—aintain it self and needeth no help of untrue allegations It serves only for enemies to take advantage All which i. e. Enemies use to be câ—rious to know what they may reprove And now al the eyes and ears of the World be turned towards us And as they shal have cause to talk honorably of your valiantness in the wars so they talk otherwise of that that is done in your absence if any thing be amisâ— Now I shal shew your Grace what author Erâ—smus is to be by name and special Commandment had in credit in this realm If he be to be believed the doctrin of Only Faith justifieth is a very poâ—son And he writeth by expres termes and calleth this another poâ—â—on to dâ—ny punishment in Purgatory after this life And another poison to deny the Invocâ—tion of Saints and worshipping of them And this he cal eth a poison to say We need no satisfactory works for that were to mistrust Christ Erasmus in another place conferring the state of the Church in the beginning and now he concludeth that if S. Paul were alive at this daâ— he would not improve i. e. disallow the present state of the Church but cry out of mens faults This is Erasmus judgment in his Latter daâ—es His Work the Paraphrasis which should be authorized in the Realm Which he wrot above six and twenty years ago when his pen was wanton the matter is so hauled as being abroad in 〈…〉 were able to minister occasion to evil men to subvert with religiâ—n the policy and order of the Realm These be the general words the uttering whereof to your Grace in the place you occupy were a great fault unless I would shew ye good ground and truth why to say so And therefore I am glad I do rather write to you then to have come and spake with you because my words in number might fly away whereas written words remain to be read again First as concerning the Policy and state of the Realm Whersoever Erasmus might take an occasion to speak his pleasure of Princes he payeth home as roundly as Bishops have been of late touched in pleas And such places of Scripture as we have used to allege for the state of Princes he wresteth and windeth them so as if the people read them and believed him they would afterward smaâ— regard that allegation of them And if Erasmus did truly and that the Scripture bound him so to say it were more tolerable For truth must have place but when it is done in some place untruly and in some plâ—ce wantonly to check that estimate it can be no good doctrin among people that should obey And this book of Paraphrasis is not like the other expositions of Scripture where the Author speaketh in his own person For Erasmus taketh upon him the Evangelists persons and Christs person and enterpriseth to fit up Christs tale and his words As for example where the Gospel rehearseth Christs speech when he said Give to the Emperor that is the Emperors By which speech we gather and truly gather that Christ confessed the Emperor to have a duty Erasmus writes it with an IF after this sort IF there be any thing due to them Which condition Christ put not to it but spake plainly Give to Cesar the things which are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods And I write the very words of the Paraphrasis as they be in English for I have the book with me And so shal no man say that I misreport the book The words be these Render therfore unto Cesar if any things appertain unto Cesar. But first of al render unto God the things that appertain unto God Meaning that it is no hurt unto Godlines if a man being dedicate unto God do give tribute unto a prophane prince altho he ought it not These be the words in the book ordered to be set forth Wherin what needeth Erasmus to bring in doubt the duty when God putteth no doubt at al. It were too long to write to your Grace every fault This one I put for example where Erasmus doth corrupt Christs words with a condition which Christ spake not The other places of raylings would encumber your Grace overmuch But as I write your Grace shal find true that whatsoever might be spoke to defame Princes government is not left unspoken Bishops be more gently handled Erasmus maketh them very Kings of the Gospel and calleth the true Kings of the World Profane Kings Bishops have the sword he saith of God given that is to say the Gospel Profane Princes as he calleth them have a sword committed unto them and by Homer he saith be called Pastors of the people This matter is within the compas of the Paraphrasis if it be not left out with a commendation also of Thomas Becket of Canterbury in excommunicating the King of the realm that then was by implication for the manor of Oxford which the King as he rehearseth then withheld It may be the Translator would have left this out But Erasmus pen in those dayes was very light Moreover them Erasmus teacheth that between Christen men is no debt or right but Charity It is a mervailous matter towards the dissolution of laws and duties And therin Erasmus doth violate Gods scripture and saith not true Thus far is the doctrin pernitious for common policy Nevertheles if he had said true let the truth prevail but the truth is not so As touching Religion in this work of Paraphrasis it is so wantonly I
things ascribed to the Apostles and called Traditions deduced from the time of the Apostles and read in the name of old Authors and set forth under the pretensed title of their name which be both feigned forged and nothing true ful of superstition and untrueth fayned by them which would magnify their power and authority as is the Epistles of Clemens Anacletus Evaristus and Fabianâ—s and other which are set forth by the Bp. of Rome and his complices which be forged fayned and of no authority nor to be beleved but counterfeited by them who by the colour of antiquity would magnify that usurped power of the Bp. of Rome And now concerning another book which I made of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Wher the most chief and principal article of our faith and most directly pertaining to the redemption of our sins and to our Salvation is That our Savior Christ Iesu by his most precious death and effusion of his most precious blood upon the cros did redeme mankind taking away our sins pacifying the indignation of his Father and cancelling the obligation that was against us In which Sacrifice-making unto his Father our said Savior Jesus Christ as S. Paul saith plainly to the Hebrews was not a Priest after the order of Aaron forasmuch as he was of another tribe and also that Priesthood was imperfect and unprofitable bringing nothing to perfection But our Savior Christ made his Sacrifice upon the Cross perfectly absolutely and with the most highest perfection that could be so much that after that one oblation and sacrifice for sin made by him but once only neither he nor any other creature should at any time after make any mo oblations for the same And for that S. Paul saith he was called an eternal Priest after the order of Melchizedec and not of Aaron This faith ought every man and woman undoubtedly to beleve and openly to profess upon pain of everlasting damnation and also to dy in this profession if case shal so require The which most wholsome and most necessary doctrin of our Faith I not diligently considering as many times to right great Clerks and learned men in much writing in like matters it hath chaunced to say too far the infirmity and weakness of men being such that seldome in many words error hath escaped So in my Book of the Sacrifice of the Mass I did incircumspectly and rashly write and set forth to the people that Christ was not a Priest after the order of Melchizedec when he offered himself upon the cross to his Father for our sins but was a Priest after the order of Aaron And that when Christ did offer his own body to his father after the order of Melchizedec to appease his wrath it may not be understand of the Sacrifice of the Cros but of the Sacrifice that Christ made at his Maundy in form of bread and wine To the which indede S. Pauls doctrin is contrary both in other places and in the Epistle Ad Hebraeos very manifestly Against whom who without doubt had the very Spirit of God neither it becometh nor I wil not willingâ—y teach or defend any thing Wherfore ye shal impute that Good Audience to the frailty of mans nature and to my negligent marking having at that time rather a respect to a fantasy that I then had in my mind than to the true and infallible doctrin of scripture And moreover in the same my book I said not only that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the self same substaunce of Christ but also the self same oblation or offering of our Savior Christs very flesh and bloud which himself once offered to his Father on the Cross to appease his wrath And that the Priests do continually and daily in the Mass offer not only the self same body of Christ but also to the same effect that Christ did offer himself to his Father at his Maundy Of the which words and doctrin if they be not very warily and circumspectly read and more favorably taken then the words as they ly may wel bear it might be gathered that Priests herein be equal with Christ. Priests of the order of Melchizedec appeasing the wrath and indignation of the Father of heaven crucifying or offering Christ to the same effect that Christ in his own person did upon the cross is a blasphemy intolerable to be heard of Christen ears For Christ as S. Paul saith was but once offered once gave up himself for the Redemption of our sins on Good-Friday upon the Cross nor never before nor after was offered for us but in a Sacrament and as a commemoration of the same And so of the Maundy or Supper of the Lord Christ himself saith Haec quotiescunque feceritis in meam commemorationem facietis Once he dyed for our sins and once again he rose for our justification He dyeth no more And his Sacrifice was so good so ful so pleasaunt so precious to God that her neded no more oblations to appease God not only for the sins past but also for al the sins to the day of doom There nede no more Sacrifices no more Offerers but as having a respect and a remembrance of that most holy most perfect and most entier Lamb then and for ever offered up for us But these things aforesaid I cannot deny but they were spoken of me and written And as I do not now like them so at â—he example of S. Austin and other good Doctors I am not ashamed to retract them and cal them again and condemn them For when I followed mine own invention not directed by Scripture I began as the nature of man is to wander and at the last went clean contrary to Gods Word wherfore I heartily exhort every man as touching matters of Faith to found the same upon Gods certain true and infallible word lest by doing the contrary they fal into Superstition Idolatry and other manifold errors as my self and many other have done Wherfore these my two books the one of the Sacrifice of the Mas and the other of the Traditions unwritten in those poynts before rehersed and al other wherin they be not ful consonant to Scripture I forsake and renounce as false erroneous and against the true word of God requiring thee good Christian Reader whosoever shal read them to give no further credence to them then I would my self That is not to take as undoubted truth all that is therin written but as written of a man that some time falleth to be so far true as they be consonant to Scripture wher they be not against Scripture to be humane persuasion which may either be so or not so as the greater reason shal lead where they be not consonant to Scripture to be erroneous and false And that I much lament and am sorry that I wrote them in those poynts And I desire every man that hath any of the said books to beware of them and to give no credence to them in al
not led by the spirit of God so long as the word of God Savoureth no better unto you but seemeth unto you a Christmas pastime and foolishnes And therfore the old Service pleaseth you better Which in many things is so foolish and so ungodly that it seems rather to be old wives tales and lies then to sound to any godlines The Devil is a lyar and the Author of lyes and they may think themselves governed rather of his spirit then of God when lyes delight more then Gods most true word But this I judge rather of your Leaders then of your selves who by ignorance be carried away by others you wot not whether For when the Service was in the Latine tongue which you understood not they might read to you truth or fables godly or ungodly things as they pleased But you could not judge that you understood not And what was the cause why S. Paul would have such languages spoken in the Church as that people might understand That they might learn and be edified therby and judge of that which should be spoken whether it were according to Gods word or not But forasmuch as you understand not the old Latine Service I shal rehearse some things in English that were wont to be read in Latine that when you understand them you may judge them whether they seem to be true tales or fables and whether they or Gods word seem to be more like playes and Christmas games The Devil entred into a certain person in whose mouth S. Martin put his finger And because the Devil could not get out at his mouth the man blew him or cacked him out behind This was one of the tales that was wont to be read in the Latine service that you wil needs have again As tho the Devil had a body and that so crass that he could not pas out by the smal pores of the flesh but must needs have a wide hole to go out at Is this a grave and godly matter to be read in the Church or rather a foolish Christmas tale or an old wives fable worthy to be laughed at and scorned of every man that hath either wit or godly judgment Yet more foolish erroneous and superstitious things be read in the feasts of S. Blase S. Valentine S. Margaret S. Peter of the Visitation of our Lady and the Conception of the Transfiguration of Christ and in the feast of Corpus Christi and a great number mo Wherof some be most vain fables some very superstitious some directly against Gods word and the Lawes of this realm and altogether be ful of error and superstition But as Christ commonly excused the simple people because of their ignorance and justly condemned the Scribes and Pharisees which by their crafty persuasions led the people out of the right way So I think not you so much to be blamed as those Pharisees and Papistical Priests which abusing your simplicity caused you to ask you wist not what desiring rather to drink of the dregs of corrupt error which you know not then of the pure and sweet wine of Gods word which you may and ought to understand But now have I sufficiently spoke of your eighth Article I wil go forward unto the ninth IX Your ninth Article is this WE wil have every preacher in his Sermon and every Priest at the Mass pray especially by name for the souls in Purgatory as our forefathers did To reason with you by learning which be unlearned it were but folly Therfore I wil convince your Article with very reason First Tell me I pray if you can whether there be a Purgatory or no and Where or What it is And if you cannot tel then I may tel you that you ask you wot not what The Scripture maketh mention of two places where the Dead be received after this life Viz. of Heaven and of Hel but of Purgatory is not one word spoken Purgatory was wont to be called a Fire as hot as Hel but not so long during But now the Defenders of Purgatory within this Realm be ashamed so to say Nevertheles they say it is a third place Where or What it is they confes themselves they can no tel And of Gods word they have nothing to shew neither Where it is nor What it is nor That it is But al is fained of their own brains without authority of Scripture I would ask of them then Wherfore it is and to what use it serveth For if it be to none use then it is a thing frustrate and in vain Mary say they it is a place of punishment wherby they be purged from their sins that depart out of this life not fully purged before I cannot tel whether this saying be more foolish or more contumelious to Christ. For what can be more foolish then to say that paines can wash sins out of the Soul I do not deny but that corrections and punishments in this life is a calling of men to repentance and amendment and so to be purged by the bloud of Christ. But correction without repentance can nothing avail and they that be dead be past the time of repentance and so no correction or torments in Purgatory can avail them And what a contumely and injury is this to Christ to affirm that al have not ful and perfect purgation by his bloud that dy in his faith Is not al our trust in the bloud of Christ that we be cleansed purged and washed therby And wil you have us now to forsake our faith in Christ and bring us to the Popes Purgatory to be washed theriâ— Thinking that Christs bloud is an imperfect Lee or Sope that washeth not clean If he shal dy without mercy that treads Christs bloud under his feet what is treading of his bloud under our feet if this be not But if according to the Catholic faith which the holy Scripture teacheth and the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs confirmed with their bloud al the faithful that dy in the Lord be pardoned of al their offences by Christ and their sins be clearly spunged and washed away by his bloud shal they after be cast into another strong and grievous prison of Purgatory there to be punished again for that which was pardoned before God hath promised by his word that the Souls of the Iews be in Gods hand and no pain shal touch them And again he saith Blessed be they that dy in the Lord. For the spirit of God saith that from henceforth they shal rest from their pains And Christ himself saith He that believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shal not come to judgment but shal pas from death unto life And is God no truer of his promises but to punish that which he promiseth to pardon Consider the matter by your own cases If the Kings Majesty should pardon your offences and after would cast you into prison would you think that he had wel observed his promis For what is to pardon your
hardly kepe our selves in such things that the scripture do speake of the heavens and of Christes sytting in heaven 28. I have a conscience in so high misteries to allow such kinde of speaking as is not taught in the scripture though such be much used yea and that by the authority of the holy fathers for to what point through such speakyng the devyll and antychrist hath brought us we all lamentably complayne 29. Wherfore with reverence and in a true meanyng I wyll understand the sayinges of the holy fathers as touching the mutation of the sygnes I wyll never graunt their sayings so to be taken as to mutch straunge from gods worde and after such sort as men myght now a daies be overthrowen with Antichristes doctrine into the idolatrye which of all other is most detestable 30. So likewyse if any thing may be found that the holy fathers have wrytten of Christ placed in heaven more then the scripture doth certaynely teach I wyll not without reverence refuse it nor yet wyth any man contend therin for I have nothing to say that such writyng is contrary to any place of scripture I do but only desyre that no necessary doctrine be made therof and that I may be suffered to abyde in the playnes of Gods written word 31. But they will say that a man well expert in saith when he heareth that Christ is present in the holy supper and is geven receyved and had with the bread cannot refraine but imagine such a presence of Christ in the bread as is there placed or els like to such a thing as hath a place 32. I cannot se how the wordes of the Holy Ghost ought to be refourmed because of the weakenes of our understanding either that we should allow such utteraunce of wordes wherby it might appeare that the Holy Ghost had not uttered the matter circumspectly and strongly inough yea and that most aptly and effectually as well to the edefying of faith as to the putting away of all errours 33. These now be the wordes of Christ Where two or three be gathered in my name ther am I in the mydst of them In the name of Christ we assemble together at the Lords Supper rightly ministred In the world we be yea and somewhere placed and whersoever we be Christ is among us which notwithstanding is not in the world and also dwelleth in our hartes But we cannot perseâ—ve nor attaine it neyther by our sense nor by reason but by faith For how can the head be away from his body Wherfore I defyne or determine Christes presence howsoever we perceive it either by the sacraments or by the word of the gospell to be onely the attainyng and perceyving of the commodities we have by Christ both God and man which is our head raignyng in heaven dwelling and lyving in us Which presence we have by no worldly meanes but we have it by faith and take the fruit therof when it is offered us in the word and in the sacraments But the force therof we feele in all our parties and powers what tyme by the spirit of Christ they be sanctifyed and renewed unto obedience and godly lyfe 34. He is called present by some knowledge of perceyvyng him even as one may be called present with an other and so we do say that they be here present whom we know by hearing or by syght to be present but now the thing which we know by faith is much more certaine then any thing we can know by sence or reason Why may not we then say that Christ our head is present with his members when we know by faith that he both liveth and dwelleth in us 35. They say that the holy fathers expound the scriptures recording the Lords presence that Christ by his Godhead by his majesty and by his providence is present with us yet lyving in this world Truth it is but the Lord saith I am with you unto the worldes end and Paule affirmeth that Christ lyveth and dwelleth in our hartes Yea and the holy fathers themselves declare that we have Christ present in the sacrament of baptisme and in the meate and drink of the aulter which call that presence carnall that is knowen by our senses and is set over against the presence which we have by faith 36. Faith truly embraceth Christ both God and man and kepeth him present which by his Godhead is not onely present in the congregation of his saintes and in his members but is also present in every place But some cannot be contented unles we graunt that we have his body and bloud really carnally and substantially present in the supper 37. Wyse and good men will eschew all uncertaine wordes in every talk and speaking how much more are they to be avoyded in Christes sacramentes Moreover in the treatyse of Christes sacraments we may justly refuse such straunge wordes as be not used in the scripture unles they may be perfectly applied for the declaration of Christes truth For such uncertaine wordes doth more darken the true doctrine and therfore we must not medle with them except ther be some consideration of the using of them 38. I would wysh these wordes realiter and substantialiter to be altogether refused neither to be allowed in reasonyng to or fro because we shall seme to graunt their contraries and to say that Christ is receyved counterfeâ—tlye and accydenâ—ly if we deny him to be received in the supper really and substantiallye 39. If the matter so require that these words be brought into reâ—sonyng I would for the maintenance of Christes truth against the adversaries among the children of God defyne these wordes realiter and substantialiter as if one would understand by the presence of the Lord really and substantially that he is received verely in dede by faith and his substaunce is geven in the sacrament but if he would enterlace any worldly presence with these words I will deny it because the Lord is departed this world 40. I can never admyt or allow these words carnally and naturally because they bring in a meanyng that he is receyved with our sences 41. Hereby I thinke it evydent agreeable to the holy scripture and according to the reverence we owe to God and his scripture and toward the auncient church that we should frame our selves to the words of the Lord of his Apostles and of the auncient Church and to say that ther is geven and receyved the body and bloud of the Lord that is to say very Christ himselfe both God and man but he is geven with the word and the signes but received with true faith and that he is geven and received to the end that we may move and lyve more parfectly in him and he in us 42. And I thinke it an easy thing to make answer when they say that the thing which is already cannot be received and that he which cometh to the Lords supper and hath not Christ in himselfe receiveth not Christ
rowe Now God sped thee wel And I wil no more mell The Answer to the Enemy A rope is a fytt reward for such rysshe repers As have strowed this Church ageinst the Kings prechers THE Pulpits are now replenished with them that prech the truthe And Popish traitors banished which seemed to you great ruthe But yf you and the Freers were clean owt of this land This realme to the last years ful firme and sure should stand When such as with you trust shal al ly in the dust And ryse thereout agayne unto perpetual payne With them that laugh and scorne eyther at hye or lowe Had better not been borne such evil seeds to sowe Yee pray God spede them wel and ye wil no more mell Forsothe ye have said wel But if ye may be knowen Ye are like for to be taken and quartered like a baken And of your frends forsaken for these sedis ye have sowen Like as the last yere Traitors were knowen By standing in the felds with weapon and swordes So this year their treason is sowen In traiterous bills and railing words Some of their carcases standith on the gates And their heads most fyttely on London bridge Therefore ye Traytors beware your pates For yf ye be founde the same way must ye tridge God save the Kings Majestie long for to reigne To suppresse al rebells and truthe to maynteyne An old Song of John Nobody I. IN December when the dayes draw to be be short After November when the nights wax noysome and Long As I past by a place privily at a port I saw one sit by himself making a song His last talk of trifles who told with his tongue That few were fast i' th' faith I feyned that freake Whether he wanted wit or some had done him wrong He said he was little Iohn Nobody that durst not speak II. Iohn Nobody quoth I What news thou soon note and tell What maner men thou mean that are so mad He said These gay gallants that wil construe the gospel As Solomon the sage with semblance ful sad To discus divinity they nought adread More meet it were for them to milk kye at a fleyke Thou lyest quoth I thou Losel like a leud lad He said he was little Iohn Nobody that durst not speak III. It s meet for every man on this matter to talk And the glorious gospel ghostly to have in mind It is sothe said that Sect but much unseemly scalk As boyes babble in books that in Scripture are blind Yet to their fancy soon a cause wil find As to live in lust in lechery to leyke Such Caitives count to be come of Cains kind But that I little Iohn Nobody durst not speak IV. For our Reverend Father hath set forth an order Our service to be said in our Seignours tongue As Solomon the sage set forth the Scripture Our suffrages and service with many a sweet song With Homilies and godly books us among That no stiff stubborn stomacks we should freyke But wretches nere worse to do poor men wrong But that I little Iohn Nobody dare not speak V. For Bribery was never so great since born was our Lord And Whoredom was never les hated sith Christ harrowed Hel And poor men are so sore punished commonly through the world Thus would it grieve any one that good is to hear tel For al the homilies and good books yet their hearts be so quel That if a man do amiss with mischefe they wil him wreake The fashion of these new fellows it is so vile and fell But that I little Iohn Nobody dare not speake VI. Thus to live after their lust that life would they have And in letchery to lyke al their long life For al the preaching of Paul yet many a proud knave Wil move mischiefe in their mind both to maid and wife To bring them in advoutry or else they wil strife And in brawling about baudery Gods Commandments break But of these frantic il fellowes few of them do thrife Though I little Iohn Nobody dare not speak VII If thou company with them they wil currishly carp and not care According to their foolish fantacy but fast wil they naught Prayer with them is but prating Therefore they it forbear Both Almes deeds and holiness they hate it in their thought Therefore pray we to that Prince that with his bloud us bought That he wil mend that is amiss For many a man ful freyke Is sorry for these Sects though they say little or nought And that I little Iohn Nobody dare not once speake VIII Thus in no place this Nobody in no time I met Where no man then nought was nor nothing did appear Though the sound of a Synagogue for sorrow I swett That Hercules through the eccho did cause me to hear Then I drew me down into a dale wheras the dumb deer Did shiver for a shower but I shunted from a freyke For I would no wight in this world wist who I were But little Iohn Nobody that dare not once speake NUM L. John a Lasco's Letter from Embden signifying the dangerous condition they were in and the Persecutions they expected Clarissimo viro Domino Sicilio a consilijs libellis sâ—pplicibus Illustrissimi Domini Protectoris Domino fratri meo observandissimo S. Cum mihi ad alios scribendum istuc esset facere non potui quin ad te quoque scriberem Vir Clarissime memor videlicet illius quòd te mihi istic delegerim cui mea omnia nota prae alijs esse velim Volui itaque tibi de meo huc reditu significare nempe me felicissimo itinere gratia Domino usum me ex Anglia in Frisiam Orientalem intra triduum trajecisse Navis praesectum a Domino Protectore nobis additum habebamus virum optimum fidelissimum qui Dominum Comitem Bremam usque est sequutus ut certi aliquid opinor ab illo vobis adferat Ego quae scio ad Dominum Cantuariensem omnia perscripsi ut Illustriâ—â—imo Domino Protectori exponat quae tibi quoque incognita non fore puto Scripturus alioqui eadem ad te omnia si non id parum necessarium adeoque supervacaneum esse judicarem Nos hic crucem certissimam expectamus ad eam perferendam mutuo nos in Domino cohortamur cum invocatione nominis sancti sui ut per patientiam fidem ferendo superemus omnia quaeâ—únque in nos permittere ille volet ad nominis sui gloriam nostri probationem Certi illum curam nostri habere ita potentem esse ut â—mnes omnium hostium phalanges quicunque sint tandem illi unico oris sui verbo sternat momento uno rursum ita bonâ—m ut ne pilum quidem temerè e nostro capite detrahi patiatur etiamsi nos totus mundus impetere conetur Támque nobis malè velle non possit unquam quà m mater infanti
augmentation of Gods mercy and gracious promise to al men that receive it in the Faith of Christ Jesu with hatred of sin and intent purpose and mind to live always a vertuous life And that is the very Transubstantiation and change that God delighteth in in the use of the Sacraments most that we should earnestly and from the bottome of our hearts be converted into Christ and Christs holy commandments to live a christen life and to dy from sin as he gave us example both by his life and doctrin and meaneth not that the bread and wine should in substance be turned or converted into the substance of his body and bloud or that the substance of the bread should be taken away and in the place therof to be the substance matter and corporal presence of Christs corporal holy humane and natural body Item That the same holy word of God doth confess hold defend acknowledg and maintain that the very natural substantial real and corporal body of Christ concerning his humanity is only and soly in heaven and not in the Sacrament and Communion of his precious body and bloud But whosoever worthily with true repentance and lively faith in the promise of God receiveth that holy Sacrament receiveth Sacramentally by faith al the mercies riches merits and deservings that Christ hath deserved and paid for in his holy bloud and passion And that is to eat Christ and to drink Christ in the holy Sacrament to confirm and Seal Sacramentally in our Souls Gods promises of eternal Salvation that Christ deserved for us not in or by his body eaten but by and for his body slain and killed upon the Cross for our Sinns as S. Paul saith Col. 1. Eph. 1.3 Ebru 2.7 8 9 10. As for eating of his flesh and drinking of his bloud really corporally materially and substantially it is but a carnal and gross opinion of man besides and contrary to the word of God and the articles of our faith and christen religion that affirmeth his corporal departure from th earth placeth it in heaven above at the right hand of God the father Almighty and keepeth retaineth holdeth and preserveth the same corporal body of Christ there til the general day of judgment as the word declareth From thence he shal come to judge the quick and the dead And that heretofore I have been in the contrary opinion and believed my self and also have taught other to believe the same that there remained no substance of bread and wine in the Sacrament but the very self same body and bloud of Christ Jesu that was born of the blessed Virgin Mary and hanged upon the Cross I am with al my heart sorry for mine error and false opinion detesting and forsaking the same from the bottome of my heart and desire God most heartily in and for the merits of his dear sons passion to forgive me and al them that have erred in the same false opinion by and through my means Praying them in the tender compassion and great mercies of God now to follow me in truth verite and singleness of Gods most true word as they were contented to follow me in error superstition and blindness and be no more ashamed to turn to the truth then they were ready to be corrupted by falshood If the holy Apostle S. Paul and the great Clerk S. Augustine with many mo Noble and vertuous members of Christs church were not ashamed to returne acknowledge and confess their error and evil opinions what am I miserable creature of the world inferior unto them both in knowledg holines and learning that should be ashamed to do the same Nay I do in this part thank God and rejoyce from the bottome of my heart that God hath revealed unto me the truth of his word and geven me leave to live so long to acknowledg my fault and error and do here before you protest that from henceforth I will with al diligence and labor study to set forth this mine amended knowledg and reconciled truth as long as I live by the help of God in the holy Ghost through the merits of Jesus Christ our only Mediator and Advocate To whom be al honor for ever and ever Amen Subscribed and confirmed 29 of April 1551. in the presence of John Bp. of Gloucester and divers other ther present NUM LXIV The Archbishop to the Lords of the Councel concerning the Book of Articles of Religion AFter my veray humble recommendations unto your good Lordeships I have sent unto the same the boke of Articles which yesterday I receyved from your Lordeships I have sent also a Cedule inclosed declarynge briefly my minde upon the said boke besechynge your Lordeshipps to be means unto the Kyngs Majestie that al the Bushops may have authority from hym to cause all their Prechers Archdecons Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates with al their Clergie to subscribe to the said articles And than I trust that such a concorde and quyetness in religion shal shortely follow therof as ells is not to be loked for many years God shal therby be glorified his truth shal be avaunced and your Lordeships shal be rewarded of hym as the setters forward of his true word and gospel Unto whom is my dayly prayer without ceasynge to preserve the Kynges Majestie with al your honorable Lordeships From my house at Forde the 24 of this present month of November Your Lordeshipps ever to commaunde T. Cant. To my veray good Lordes of the Kinges Majestie his most honor able Councel NUM LXV The Archbishop nominates certain persons for an Irish Archbishoprick To my veray Lovinge friende Sir William Cecyl Knight one of the Kinges Majesties principal Secretaries THough in England there be many meete men for the Archbushopricks of Ireland yet I knowe veraye fewe that wil gladlie be perswaded to go thither Nevertheless I have sent unto you the names of iiij Viz. Mr. Whiteheade of Hadley Mr. Tourner of Caunturbury Sir Thomas Rosse and Sir Robert Wisdome Which being ordinarily called I thincke for conscience sake wil not refuse to bestowe the talent committed unto theim wheresoever it shal please the Kinges Majestie to appoincte theim Among whom I take Mr. Whiteheade for his good knowledge special honestie fervent zeale and politick wisdome to be most meete And next him Mr. Tourner who besides that hee is merry and witty withal nihil appetit nihil ardet nihil somniat nisi Iesum Christum and in the lively preaching of him and his wourde declareth such diligence faithfulness and wisdom as for the same deservithe much commendation There is also one Mr. Whitacre a man both wise and wel learned Chaplain to the Bushopp of Winchester veray meet for that office if he might be perswaded to take it upon him I pray you commend me unto Mr. Cheke and declare unto him that myn ague whither it were a quotidian or a double tertian wherof my Physitions doubted hath left me these two dayes and so I
pro Martyribus deprecatur fit ipse Martyr NUM LXXXVI Dr. Ridley late Bishop of London to West formerly his Steward who had complyed with the Romish religion I Wish you grace in God and love of the trueth Without the which truly established in mans heart by the mighty hand of Almighty God it is no more possible to stand by the truth in Christs cause in the time of tribulation then it is for wax to abide the heat of the fire Sir know you this that I am blessed be God persuaded that this world is but transitory as S. Iohn saith Mundus transit concupiscentia ejus I am persuaded Christs words to be true Qui me confessus fuerit coram hominibus I wil confes him before my father which is in heaven And I believe that no earthly creature shal be saved whom the Redeemer and Savior of the world shal before his Father deny This the Lord grant that it may be so grafted established and fixed in my heart that neither things present or to come high or low life or death be able to remove It is a godly wish that yee wish me depely to considre things perteinyng to Gods honor and glory But if ye had wished also that neither fear of death or hope of worldly prosperity shuld let me to maintein gods word and his truth which is his glory and true honour it wold have liked me very wel You desire me for Gods sake to remembre my self Indeed Sir now it is time for me so to do For so far as I can perceyve it standeth me of no les daunger then of the los both of body and soule And I trow then it is time for a man to awake if any thing wil awake him He that wil not fear him that threatneth to cast body and soule into everlasting fire whom wil he fear Oh Lord fasten thou together our frayl flesh that we never swarve from thy Lawes You say you have made much sute for me Sir God gâ—aunt that you have not in sueing for my worldly deliveraâ—ce empaired or hindred the furtheraunce of Gods word and his â—ruth You have knowen me long indede in the which time it hath chaunced me to mislyke some things It is true I graunte For sodeine chaunges without substantial aud necessary causes and the heady setting furth of extremities I did never love Confession to the minister which is able to instruct correct comfort and enform the weak and ignorant consciences I have ever thought might do much good in Christs Congregation And so I assure you I do think even at this day My doctrin and my preaching you say you have heard oft and after your judgment have thought it godly saving of the Sacrament Which thing although it was of me reverendly handled and a great deal better than of the rest as you say yet in the margent you write warily and in this world wysely thus And yet methought not al soundly Wel Sir but I see so many chaunges in the world and so much alteration or els at this your saying I wold not a litle mervayl I have taken you for my trustie freynd and a man whom I fantasied for plainness and faithfulnes as much I ensure you as for your learning And have you kept this so close in your heart from me unto this day Sir I considre mo things than one and wil not say al that I think But what need you to care what I thynke for any thing that I shal be able to do unto you either good or harm You geve me good lessons to stand in nothing against my learning and to beware of vain glory Truly Sir herein I like your counsel very wel and by Gods grace I intend to follow it unto my lyves end To write to them whom you name I cannot se what it wil avayle me For this I wold now have you know it I esteme nothing avaylabâ—e for me which also wil not set furth the glory of God And now because I perceive you have an entyre zeal and desire of my deliverance out of this captivitie and worldly misery if I shuld not bear you a good heart in God again methynk I were to blame Sir how nigh the day of my dissolution and departure hence out of this world is at hand I cannot tel The Lords wil be fulfilled How soon soever it shal come I know the Lords words must be verified on me that I shal appear before the uncorrupt Judge and be countable to him of al my former lyfe Although the hope of his mercy is my shote ankor of eternal Salvation yet am I persuaded that whosoever wittingly neglecteth and regardeth not to clear his conscience he cannot have peace with God nor a lyvely faith in his mercy Conscience moveth me considering you were one of my family and of my household of whom then I thynke I had a special cure and of all them which were in my house which indede ought to have been an example of godlines to al the rest of my cure not only in godly life but also in promoting of Gods word to thuttermost of their power But now alas when the trial doth separate the corn from the chaff how smal a deyl it is God knoweth which the wynde doth not blow away This conscience I say doth move me to have fear lest the lightnes of my family shal be layd unto me for lack of more earnest and diligent instructions which shuld have been doon But blessed be God which hath geven me grace to se my default and to lament it from the bottome of my heart before my departure hence This Conscience also doth move me now to require both you and my freynd Dr. Harvy to remembre your promises made to me in time past of the pure setting furth and preaching of Gods word and his truth These promises although you shal not nede to fear to be charged with them of me hereafter before the world Yet look for none other I exhort you as my freynds but to be charged with them at Gods hand This Conscience and the love that I bear unto you byddeth me now say to you both in Gods name Fear God and love not the world for God is able to cast both body and soul into hel fire Cum exarserit in brevi ira ejus beati omnes saith the Psalme qui confidunt in eo And the saying of S. Iohn is true Quicquid est in mundo veluti concupiscentia carnis concupiscentia oculorum fastus vitae non ex patre sed ex mundo est Et mundus transit concupiscentia ejus Qui autem facit voluntatem Dei manet in aeternum If these gifts of grace which undoubtedly are necessarily required unto eternal salvation were truly and unfeignedly grafted and firmely stablished in mens hearts they wold not be so light so sodaynly to shrink from the maintenance and confession of the truth as it is now alas