two several times that is to say the Sundays next following Easterday and St. Michael the Arch-Angel or on some other Sunday within one month after those Feasts immediately after the Gospel FOrasmuch as it appertaineth to all Christian Men but especially to the Ministers and the Pastors of the Church being Teachers and Instructers of others to be ready to give a Reason of their Faith when they shall be thereunto required I for my part now appointed your Parson Vicar or Curat having before my Eyes the Fear of God and the Testimony of my Conscience do acknowledg for my self and require you to assent to the same I. First That there is but one living and true God of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness the maker and preserver of all Things And that in Unity of this God-head there be three Persons of one Substance of equal Power and Eternity the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost II. I believe also whatsoever is contained in the Holy Canonical Scriptures In the which Scriptures are contained all things necessary to Salvation by the which also all Errors and Heresies may sufficiently be reproved and convicted and all Doctrine and Articles necessary to Salvation established I do also most firmly believe and confess all the Articles contained in the Three Creeds The Nicene Creed Athanasius Creed and our Common Creed called the Apostles Creed for these do briefly contain the principal Articles of our Faith which are at large set forth in the Holy Scriptures III. I do acknowledg also that Church to be the Spouse of Christ wherein the Word of God is truly taught the Sacraments orderly ministred according to Christ's Institution and the Authority of the Keys duly used And that every such particular Church hath authority to institute to change clean to put away Ceremonies and other Ecclesiastical Rites as they be superfluous or be abused and to constitute other making more to Seemliness to Order or Edification IV. Moreover I confess That it is not lawful for any Man to take upon him any Office or Ministry either Ecclesiastical or Secular but such only as are lawfully thereunto called by their High Authorities according to the Ordinances of this Realm V. Furthermore I do acknowledg the Queen's Majesty's Prerogative and Superiority of Government of all Estates and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal within this Realm and other her Dominions and Countries to be agreable to God's Word and of right to appertain to her Highness in such sort as is in the late Act of Parliament expressed and sithence by her Majesty's Injunctions declared and expounded VI. Moreover touching the Bishop of Rome I do acknowledg and confess that by the Scriptures and Word of God he hath no more Authority than other Bishops have in their Provinces and Diocesses And therefore the Power which he now challengeth that is to be the Supream Head of the Universal Church of Christ and so to be above all Emperors Kings and Princes is an usurped Power contrary to the Scriptures and Word of God and contrary to the Example of the Primitive Church and therefore is for most just Causes taken away and abolished in this Realm VII Furthermore I do grant and confess That the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Holy Sacraments set sorth by the Authority of Parliament is agreeable to the Scriptures and that it is Catholick Apostolick and most for the advancing of God's Glory and the edifying of God's People both for that it is in a Tongue that may be understanded of the People and also for the Doctrine and Form of ministration contained in the same VIII And although in the Administration of Baptism there is neither Exorcism Oil Salt Spittle or hallowing of the Water now used and for that they were of late Years abused and esteemed necessary Where they pertain not to the substance and necessity of the Sacrament they be reasonably abolished and yet the Sacrament full and perfectly ministred to all intents and purposes agreeable to the Institution of our Saviour Christ IX Moreover I do not only acknowledg that Privat Masses were never used amongst the Fathers of the Primitive Church I mean publick Ministration and receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest alone without a just number of Communicants according to Christ's saying Take ye and eat ye c. But also that the Doctrine that maintaineth the Mass to be a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead and a mean to deliver Souls out of Purgatory is neither agreeable to Christ's Ordinance nor grounded upon Doctrine Apostolick But contrary-wise most ungodly and most injurious to the precious Redemption of our Saviour Christ and his only-sufficient Sacrifice offered once for ever upon the Altar of the Cross X. I am of that mind also That the Holy Communion or Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ for the due obedience to Christ's Institution and to express the vertue of the same ought to be ministred unto the People under both kinds And that it is avouched by certain Fathers of the Church to be a plain Sacrilege to rob them of the Mystical Cup for whom Christ hath shed his most precious Blood seeing he himself hath said Drink ye all of this Considering also That in the time of the Ancient Doctors of the Church as Cyprian Hierom Augustine Gelasius and others six hundred Years after Christ and more both the Parts of the Sacrament were ministred to the People Last of all As I do utterly disallow the extolling of Images Reliques and feigned Miracles and also all kind of expressing God Invisible in the form of an Old Man or the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove and all other vain worshipping of God devised by Man's fantasy besides or contrary to the Scriptures As wandering on Pilgrimages setting up of Candles praying upon Beads and such-like Superstition which kind of Works have no promise of Reward in Scripture but contrary-wise Threatnings and Maledictions So I do exhort all Men to the Obedience of God's Law and to the Works of Faith as Charity Mercy Pity Alms devout and fervent Prayer with the affection of the Heart and not with the Mouth only Godly Abstinence and Fasting Chastity Obedience to the Rulers and Superior Powers with such-like Works and godliness of Life commanded by God in his Word which as St. Paul saith hath Promises both of this Life and of the Life to come and are Works only acceptable in God's sight These things above-rehearsed though they be appointed by common Order yet do I without all compulsion with freedom of Mind and Conscience from the bottom of my Heart and upon most sure persuasion acknowledg to be true and agreeable to God's Word And therefore I exhort you all of whom I have Cure heartily and obediently to embrace and receive the same That we all joining together in unity of Spirit Faith and Charity may also at length be joined together in the Kingdom of God and that
mutual Love and to relieve the Poor according to their abundance Then he came to that on which he said all his past Life and that which was to come did hang being now to enter either into the joys of Heaven or the pains of Hell He repeated the Apostles Creed and declared his belief of the Scriptures and then he spake to that which he said troubled his Conscience more than any thing he had ever done in his whole Life which was the subscribing a Paper contrary to the Truth and against his Conscience out of the fear of Death and the love of Life and when he came to the Fire he was resolved that Hand that had signed it should burn first He rejected the Pope as Christ's enemy and Antichrist and said he had the same belief of the Sacrament which he had published in the Book he writ about it Upon this there was a wonderful Confusion in the Assembly Those who hoped to have gained a great Victory that day seeing it turning another way were in much disorder They called to him to dissemble no more He said he had ever loved Simplicity and before that time had never dissembled in his whole Life And going on in his discourse with abundance of tears they pulled him down and led him away to the Stake which was set in the same place where Ridley and Latimer were burnt All the way the Priests upbraided him for his changing but he was minding another thing When he came to the Stake he first prayed He suffers Myrtyrdome with great constancy of Mind and then undressed himself and being tied to it as the Fire was kindling he stretched forth his Right-Hand towards the Flame never moving it save that once he wiped his Face with it till it was burnt away which was consumed before the Fire reached his Body He expressed no disorder for the pain he was in sometimes saying that unworthy Hand and oft crying out Lord Jesus receive my Spirit He was soon after quite burnt But it was no small matter of Astonishment to find his Heart entire and not consumed among the Ashes which tho the Reformed would not carry so far as to make a Miracle of it and a clear proof that his Heart had continued true tho his Hand had erred yet they objected it to the Papists that it was certainly such a thing that if it had fallen out in any of their Church they had made it a Miracle Thus did Thomas Cranmer end his days in the sixty seventh year of his Age. He was a Man raised of God for great Services His Character and well fitted for them He was naturally of a milde and gentle temper not soon heated nor apt to give his Opinion rashly of things or persons and yet his Gentleness tho it oft exposed him to his Enemies who took advantages from it to use him ill knowing he would readily forgive them did not lead him into such a weakness of Spirit as to consent to every thing that was uppermost for as he stood firmly against the six Articles in K. Henry's time notwithstanding all his heat for them so he also opposed the Duke of Somerset in the matter of the sale and alienation of the Chantry Lands and the Duke of Northumberland during his whole Government and now resisted unto Blood so that his meekness was really a vertue in him and not a pusillanimity in his temper He was a Man of great Candor He never dissembled his Opinion nor disowned his Friend two rare qualities in that Age in which there was a continued course of dissimulation almost in the whole English Clergy and Nation they going backward and forward as the Court turned But this had got him that esteem with King Henry that it always preserv'd him in his days He knew what Complaints soever were brought against him he would freely tell him the truth so instead of asking it from other hands he began at himself He neither disowned his esteem of Queen Anne nor his friendship to Cromwel and the Duke of Somerset in their misfortunes but owned he had the same thoughts of them in their lowest Condition that he had in their greatest State He being thus prepared by a candid and good nature for the searches into Truth added to these a most wonderful diligence for he drew out of all the Authors that he read every thing that was remarkable digesting these Quotations into Common-places This begat in King Henry an admiration of him for he had often tried it to bid him bring the Opinions of the Fathers and Doctors upon several questions which he commonly did in two or three dayes time This flowed from the copiousness of his common place Books He had a good judgment but no great quickness of apprehension not closeness of Stile which was diffused and unconnected therefore when any thing was to be penned that required more Nerves he made use of Ridley He laid out all his Wealth on the poor and pious uses He had Hospitals and Surgeons in his House for the King's Seamen He gave Pensions to many of those that fled out of Germany into England and kept up that which is Hospitality indeed at his Table where great numbers of the honest and poor neighbours were always invited instead of the Luxury and Extravagance of great Entertainments which the vanity and excess of the Age we live in has honoured with the name of Hospitality to which too many are led by the Authority of Custom to comply too far He was so humble and affable that he carried himself in all conditions at the same rate His last Fall was the only blemish of his life but he expiated it with a sincere repentance and a patient Martyrdom He had been the chief advancer of the Reformation in his Life and God so ordered it that his death should bear a proportion to the former parts of his life which was no small Confirmation to all that received his Doctrine when they heard how constantly he had at last sealed it with his Blood And tho it is not to be fancied that King Henry was a Prophet yet he discovered such things in Cranmers temper as made him conclude he was to die a Martyr for his Religion and therefore he ordered him to change his Coat of Arms and to give Pelicans instead of Cranes which were formerly the Arms of his Family Intimating withal that as it is reported of the Pelican that she gives her Blood to feed her young ones so he was to give his Blood for the good of the Church That King's kindness to him subjected him too much to him for great Obligations do often prove the greatest snares to generous and noble minds And he was so much over-born by his respects to him and was so affected with King Henry's Death that he never after that shaved his Beard but let it grow to a great length which I the rather mention because the Pictures that were afterwards made for
accidents that struck terror in them In July Thunder broke near Nottingham with such violence that it beat down two little Towns with all the Houses and Churches in them the Bells were carried a good way from the Steeples and the Lead that covered the Churches was cast 400 Foot from them strangely wreathed The River of Trent as it is apt upon Deluges of Rain to swell and over-run the Country so it broke out this Year with extraordinary violence many Trees were plucked up by the Roots and with it there was such a Wind that carried several Men and Children a great way and dashed them against Trees or Houses so that they died Hail-stones fell that were fifteen Inches about in other Places and which was much more terrible a contagious intermitting Feaver not unlike the Plague raged every where so that three parts of four of the whole Nation were infected with it So many Priests died of it that in many Places there were none to be had for the performing of the Offices Many Bishops died also of it so that there were many vacancies made by the Hand of Heaven against Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown and it spreading most violently in August there were not Men enough in many Counties to reap the Harvest so that much Corn was lost All these Symptoms concurred to encrease the aversion the People had to the Government which made the Queen very willing to consent to a Treaty of Peace that was opened at Cambray in October to which she sent the Earl of Arundel the Bishop of Ely and Dr. Wotton as her Plenipotentiaries A Treaty of Peace between England France and Spain The occasion of the Peace was from a meeting that the Bishop of Arras had with the Cardinal of Lorrain at Peronne in which he proposed to him how much Philip was troubled at the continuance of the War their Forces being so much engaged in it that they could make no resistance to the Turk and the mean while Heresie encreasing and spreading in their own Dominions while they were so taken up that they could not look carefully to their Affairs at home but must connive at many things therefore he pressed the Cardinal to perswade the King of France to an Accommodation The Cardinal was easily induced to this since besides his own zeal for Religion he saw that he might thereby bear down the Constables greatness whose Friends chiefly his two Nephews the Admiral and Dandelot who went then among the best Captains in France were both suspect of being Protestants upon which the latter was shortly after put in Prison so he used all his endeavours to draw the King to consent to it in which he had the less opposition since the Court was now filled with his Dependants and his four Brothers who had got all the great Officers of France into their Hands and the Constable and Admiral being Prisoners there was none to oppose their Councils The King thinking that by the recovery of Calais and the Places about it he had gained enough to ballance the loss of St. Quintin was very willing to hearken to a Treaty and he was in an ill state to continue the War being much weakned both by the loss he suffered last Year and the blow that he received in July last The Battel of Graveling the Marshal de Thermes being enclosed by the Count of Egmont near Graveling where the French Army being set on by the Count and galled with the English Ordnance from their Ships that lay near the Land was defeated 5000 killed the Marshal and the other chief Officers being taken Prisoners These losses made him sensible that his Affairs were in so ill a condition that he could not gain much by the War The Number of the Protestants growing in France The Cardinal was the more earnest to bring on a Peace because the Protestants did not only encrease in their Numbers but they came so openly to avow their Religion that in the publick Walks without the Suburbs of St. Germain they began to sing Davids Psalms in French Verse The newness of the thing amused many the devotion of it wrought on others the Musick drew in the rest so that the Multitudes that used to divert themselves in those Fields in stead of their ordinary sports did now nothing for many nights but go about singing Psalms and that which made it more remarkable was that the King and Queen of Navarre came and joyned with them That King besides the Honour of a Crowned Head with the small part of that Kingdom that was yet left in their Hands was the first Prince of the Blood He was a soft and weak Man but his Queen in whose right he had that Title was one of the most extraordinary Women that any Age hath produced both for knowledge far above her Sex for a great judgment in Affairs an Heroical Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues joyned to a high measure of Devotion and true Piety all which except the last she derived to her Son Henry the Great When the King of France heard of this Psalmody he made an Edict against it and ordered the doers of it to be punished but the Numbers of them and the respect to those Crowned Heads made the business to go no further On the 24th of April was the Dolphin married to the Queen of Scotland The Dolphin marries the Queen of Scotland Four Cardinals Bourbon Lorrain Chastilion and Bertrand with many of the Princes of the Blood and the other great Men of France and the Commissioners sent from Scotland were present But scarce any thing adorned it more than the Epithalamium written upon it by Buchanan which was accounted one of the perfectest Pieces of Latin Poetry After the Marriage was over the Scotch Commissioners were desired to offer the Dolphin the Ensigns of the Regality of Scotland and to acknowledge him their King but they excused themselves since that was beyond their Commission which only empow'red them to treat concerning the Articles of the Marriage and to carry an account back to those that sent them Then it was desired that they would promote the business at their return to their Country but some of them had expressed their aversion to those Propositions so plainly that it was believed they were poisoned by the Brethren of the House of Guise Four of them died in France the Bishop of Orkney and the Earls of Rothes and Cassils and the Lord Fleeming The Prior of St. Andrews was also very sick and though he recovered at that time yet he had never any perfect health after it When the other four returned into Scotland a Convention of the Estates was called to consult about the Propositions they brought This Assembly consists of all those Members that make up a Parliament who were then the Bishops and Abbots and Priors A Convention of Estates in Scotland who made the first Estate the Noblemen that were the second Estate and the