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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61861	Memorials of the Most Reverend Father in God, Thomas Cranmer sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury wherein the history of the Church, and the reformation of it, during the primacy of the said archbishop, are greatly illustrated : and many singular matters relating thereunto : now first published in three books : collected chiefly from records, registers, authentick letters, and other original manuscripts / by John Strype ...	Strype, John, 1643-1737.	1694 (1694)	Wing S6024; ESTC R17780	820,958	784

no And whether any other but only a Bp. may make a Priest or no 11. Scripture warranteth a Bp. obeying high powers as the Prince christianed to order a Priest per manuum impositionem cum oratione And so it hath been from the beginning of others scripture speaketh not   12. Whether in the N. Testament be required any Consecration of a Bp. or Priest or only appointing to the office be sufficient 12. Manuum Impositio cum oratione is required Which is a Consecration So as only Appointing is not sufficient   13. Whether if it fortune a Prince Chri●stian learned to conquer certain Dominions of Infidels having none but temporal learned men with him it be defended by Gods law that he and they may preach and teach the Word of God there or no and also make and institute Priests or no 13. It is to be thought that God in such cases assisting the perfection of such an enterprize would sometime teach and inspire the Conscience of such a Prince what he should and might do more then is yet openly taught by the Scripture Which in that case were a good warrant to follow For a secret Vocation supplieth where an open wanteth A reason Necessity in things absolutely necessary containeth in it order law and authority   14. Whether it be forefended by Gods law that if it so fortuned that al the Bishops and Priests of a realm were dead and that the Word of God should remain there unpreached the Sacrament of Baptism and others unministred that the King of that Region should make Bps and Priests to supply the same or no 14. This Question is without the compas of Scripture   Since the beginning of Christs church when Christ himself made distinction of Ministers the order hath a determination from one to another per manuum impositionem cum oratione How it should begin again of another fashion where it faileth by a case Scripture telleth not ne Doctors write of it that I have read   15. Whether a man be bound by authority of this Scripture Quorum remiseritis c. and such like to confes his secret deadly sins to a Priest if he may have him or no 15. Bound ordinarily   16. Whether a Bp. or a Priest may excommunicate 16. They may being before of their Prince authorized to minister   For what crime For open public deadly sins   And whether only by Gods Law Of Excommunication by others we read not in the new Testament   17. Whether Unction of the sick with oyl to remit venial sins as it is now used be spoken of in the Scripture or in any ancient authors 17. The thing is in Scripture and in antient Authors according wherunto the use should be How it is indeed used is a matter of fact and not of learning NUM XXVIII The judgment of another Bishop upon the aforesaid Questions I. TO the first Scripture sheweth not what it is but useth the word Sacramentum in Latin for the word Mysterium in Greek II. Sacrament by the Authors is Sacrae rei Signum or Visibile Signaculum Sacrosanctum Signaculum Visibile Verbum Visibilis forma invisibilis gratiae and perfect definition we find none III. In Scripture we find no determine number of Sacraments IV. There be very many in the most general signification and there is no precise or determinate number of Sacraments in the ancient authors V. Not only to the Seven but to many mo We find in old Authors Matrimony holy Communion Baptism Confirmation Order Penance and extreme Unction It is doubted of the number of Sacraments VI. As touching the determine number of Seven only we find neither in the Scripture ne antient authors any such doctrine that should be seven only VII Of Baptism Scripture speaketh that by it sins be remitted Of Eucharistia that we be united by it to Christ and receive spiritual nourishment to the comfort of our souls and remission of our sins Of Matrimony that the act of it is made lawful and without sin and Grace given wherby to direct ordinately the lusts and appetites of the flesh Of Penance that by it we be restored again to the favor of God from which we did fal by sin Of Orders that by it Grace is given to Ministers effectually in preaching of the word of God and Ministration of the Sacraments Of Confirmation which is contained in Scripture speaking De impositione manuum post baptisma it appeareth by Scripture how therby encrease of grace is given Of Inunction of the sick Scripture speaks that by Unction of the sick and prayer of the Priests comfort is given to sick and sins be forgiven him VIII Impositionem manuum post Baptisma which we cal Confirmation we read in the Scripture But that it was done Chrismate we find not in the scripture expressed But in the old Authors we find that Chrisma hath been used in the same Confirmation IX Making of Bps hath two parts Appointment and Ordering Appointment which the Apostles by necessity made by common election and sometime by their own several assignment could not then be done by Christen Princes Because at that time they were not And now at these dayes appertaineth to Christen Princes and Rulers But in the ordering wherin Grace is conferred as afore the Apostles did follow the rule taught by the holy Ghost Per manuum impositionem cum Oratione jeju●io X. Christ made the Apostles first which were of his making both Priests and Bps. But whether at one time some doubt After that the Apostles made both Bps. and Priests The names whereof in the Scripture be confounded XI A Bp. having authority of the Christen Prince to give orders may by his ministery given to him of God in Scripture ordain a Priest And we read not that any other not being a Bp. hath since the beginning of Christs church ordained a Priest XII Onely Appointment is not sufficient but Consecration that is to say Imposition of hands with fasting and prayer is also required For so the Apostles used to order them that were appointed and so have been used continually and we have not read the contrary XIII In that necessity the Prince and his learned men should preach and teach the word of God and baptize But as for making and constituting Priests the Prince shal and may then do as God shal then by inspiration teach him Which God hath promised to do alwayes to his Church in reveling and teaching every necessary knowledg where any doubt requiring discussion doth arise XIV The answer to the other Question next before dissolveth this XV. He that knoweth himself guilty of any secret deadly sins must if he will obtain the benefit of Absolution ministred by the Priest confes the same secret sins unto him Absolution to be ministred by a Priest if a convenient Priest may be had is necessary York Duresm Carelyl Corwen Simon

and put forth by Henry Lord Stafford in King Edward's Days The King affecting to be thought Learned affected also to have Books called by his Name not that he was always the Author of them but that they came out by his Authority and had undergone his Corrections and Emendations But before we pass away from hence it may be convenient to give the Reader a little taste of so famous a Treatise as that Bishop's Book was in those Days And I will do it not in my own words but in the words of a very Learned and Eminent Man the Answerer to Dr. Martin's Book against Priests Marriage not far from the beginning of Q Mary supposed to be Ponet Bishop of Winchester then in Exile Applying himself in his Preface unto the Queen's Prelats he told them That in their Book intituled The Institution of a Christian Man presented by their whole Authorities to the King of famous Memory K. Henry VIII In the Preface thereof they affirmed to his Highness with one assent by all their Learnings that the said Treatise was in all Points concordant and agreeable to Holy Scripture yea such Doctrine that they would and desired to have it taught by all the Spiritual Pastors to all the King 's loving Subjects to be Doctrine of Faith And there intreating of the Sacrament of Orders they desired to have it taught that we be in no subjection to the Bishop of Rome and his Statutes but meerly subject to the King's Laws under his only Territory and Jurisdiction And that the Canons and Rules of the Church were therefore allowable in the Realm because the Assent of the King and of the People accepted the same And that Priests and Bishops whatsoever never had any Authority by the Gospel in Matters Civil and Moral but by the Grant and Gift of Princes and that it was alway and ever shall be lawful unto Kings and Princes and to their Successors with the Consent of their Parliaments to revoke and call again into their own Hands or otherwise to restrain all their Power and Jurisdiction given and permitted by their Authority Assent or Sufferance c. Without the which if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop whatsoever should take upon them any Authority or Jurisdiction in such Matters as be Civil No doubt said they that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and an Usurper of other Mens Rights contrary to the Laws of God and is to be reputed a Subverter of the Kingdom of Christ. Yea besides these things and many other as he added they put in our Creed or Belief as an Article of Salvation or Damnation that the Church of England is as well to be named a Catholick and Apostolick Church as Rome Church or any other Church where the Apostles were resident And that they willed us to believe in our Faith that there is no difference in Superiority Preeminence or Authority one over the other but be all of equal Power and Dignity and that all Churches be free from the Subjection and Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome And that no Church is to be called Schismatical as varying from the Unity of the Church of Christ if it persist in the Unity of Christ's Faith Hope and Charity and Unity of Christ's Doctrine and Sacraments agreeable to the same Doctrine And that it appertained to Christen Kings and Princes in the discharge of their Duty to God to reform and reduce again the Laws to their old Limits and pristine State of their Power and Jurisdiction which was given them by Christ and used in the Primitive Church For it is say they out of all doubt that Christ's Faith was then most firm and pure and the Scriptures of God were then best understood and Vertue did then most abound and excel And therefore the Customs and Ordinances then used and made must needs be more conform and agreeable unto the true Doctrine of Christ and more conducing to the edifying and benefit of the Church of Christ than any Custom or Laws used or made since that Time This he collected out of their Exposition of the Sacrament of Orders The said Learned Author observed that this Doctrine was set forth by the whole Authority of the Bishops in those Days presented by the Subscription of all their Names And since the time of their presenting thereof by the space almost of twenty Years that is to the middle of Queen Mary never revoked but continually from time to time taught by this Book and by such other Declarations And that one more Particular relating to this Book may be known namely who the Bishops and other Divines were that composed it and that were commissioned so to do I shall record their Names as they were found writ by the Hand of Dr. Sam. Ward in his own Book now in the possession of N. B. a Reverend Friend of mine who hath well deserved of this History Thomas Cant. Io. Lond. Steph. Winton Io. Exon. Io. Lincoln Io. Bathon Roland Coven Litch Tho. Elien Nic. Sarum Io. Bang Edward Heref. Hugo Wigorn. Io. Roffen Ric. Cicestr Guilielm Norv Guilielm Menevens Rob. Assav Rob. Landav Edoard Ebor. Cuthb Dunelm Rob. Carliolen Richard Wolman Archidiac Sudbur Guil. Knight Archid. Richmon Io. Bell Archid. Gloc. Edmund Bonner Archid. Leicestr Iohn Skip Archid. Dorset Nic. Hethe Archid. Stafford Cuthb Marshal Archid. Nottingham Rich. Curren Archid. Oxon. Gulielm Cliff Galfridus Downes Robertus Oking Radul Bradford Richardus Smith Simon Matthew Ioannes Pryn Guliel Buckmaster Guliel May Nic. Wotton Ric. Coxe Ioannes Edmunds Thomas Robertson Ioannes Baker Thomas Barret Ioannes Hase Ioannes Tyson Sacrae Theologiae Juris Ecclesiastici Civilis Professores In the Year 1543. The same Book was printed again amended much both in Sense and Language yet not having any step in the Progress of the Reformation more than the former each Edition express positively the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament But in this is much added about Free-Will which it asserts and Good Works In 1544 the same was printed again at London in Latin intituled Pia Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio CHAP. XIV The Arch-bishop visits his Diocess AS soon as this Business was over with the Arch-bishop and Bishops at Lambeth no Parliament sitting this Year and a Plague being in London and Westminster he went down as was said before into his Diocess But before he went he expressed a great desire to wait upon the King being then I suppose at Hampton-Court or Windsor but he feared he should not be permitted coming out of the smoaky Air as he wrote to the Lord Crumwel in that time of Infection Yet he desired to know the King's Pleasure by him He had a mind indeed to leave some good Impressions upon the King's Mind in the behalf of the Book that he and the rest had taken such Pains about and but newly made an end of But whether he saw the King now or no

Apostles S. Peter S. Paul S. Andrew c. The Prayer for the King nameth K. Henry VIII and his gracious Son Prince Edward In the Kalendar Thomas a Becket's Days are still retained in red Letters But I suppose that was done of course by the Printer using the old Kalendar In the same Book is a large and pious Paraphrase on Psalm LI. A Dialogue between the Father and the Son Meditations on Christ's Passion and many other things By somewhat that happened this Year the Arch-bishop proved very instrumental in promoting the Reformation of corrupt Religion in the Neighbouring Nation of Scotland which this Year had received a great Overthrow by the English Army and great Numbers of Scotish Noblemen and Gentlemen were taken Prisoners and brought up to London and after disposed of in the Houses of the English Nobility and Gentry under an easy Restraint The Earl of Cassillis was sent to Lambeth where the good Arch-bishop shewed him all Respects in providing him with Necessaries and Conveniences but especially in taking care of his Soul He detected to him the great Errors of Popery and the Reasons of those Regulations that had been lately made in Religion in England And so successful was the Arch-bishop herein that the Earl went home much enlightned in true Religion which that Nation then had a great aversion to for they highly misliked the Courses King Henry took Which Prejudices the King understanding endeavoured to take off by sending Barlow Bishop of S. Davids to Scotland with the Book of The Institution of a Christian Man Which nevertheless made no great Impression upon that People But this that happened to the Scotish Nobility that were now taken Prisoners and especially this Guest of the Arch-bishop becoming better enclined to Religion by the Knowledg they received while they remained here had a happier Effect and brought on the Reformation that after happened in that Kingdom The Parliament being summoned in Ianuary in order to the King 's making War with France whither he intended to go in Person the Arch-bishop resolved to try this Occasion to do some good Service again for Religion which had of late received a great stop His Endeavour now was to moderate the severe Acts about Religion and to get some Liberty for the Peoples reading of the Scripture Cranmer first made the Motion and four Bishops viz. Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester seconded him But Winchester opposed the Arch-bishop's Motion with all earnestness And the Faction combined with so much Violence that these Bishops and all other fell off from the Arch-bishop and two of them endeavoured to perswade the Arch-bishop to desist at present and to stay for a better Opportunity But he refused and followed his Stroke with as much vigour as he could and in fine by his perswasion with the King and the Lords a Bill past And the King was the rather inclined thereunto because he being now to go abroad upon a weighty Expedition thought convenient to leave his Subjects at home as easy as might be So with much struggling an Act was past intituled An Act for the Advancement of True Religion and the Abolishment of the contrary In this Act as Tindal's Translation of the Scriptures was forbidden to be kept or used so other Bibles were allowed to some Persons excepting the Annotations and Preambles which were to be cut or dashed out And the King 's former Proclamations and Injunctions with the Primers and other Books printed in English for the Instruction of the People before the Year 1540 were still to be in force which it seems before were not And that every Nobleman and Gentleman might have the Bible read in their Houses and that Noble Ladies and Gentlewomen and Merchants might read it themselves But no Men or Women under those Degrees That every Person might read and teach in their Houses the Book set out in the Year 1540 which was The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man with the Psalter Primer Pater noster Ave and Creed in English But when Winchester and his Party saw that they could not hinder the Bill from passing they clogged it with Provisoes that it came short of what the Arch-bishop intended it as that the People of all sorts and conditions universally might not read the Scriptures but only some few of the higher Rank And that no Book should be printed about Religion without the King's Allowance And that the Act of the Six Articles should be in the same Force it was before A Bishop Consecrated Iune the 25 th being Sunday Paul Bush Provincial of the Bonhommes was consecrated the first Bishop of Bristol by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester assisted by Thomas Bishop of Westminster and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford This Consecration was celebrated in the parish-Parish-Church of Hampton in the Diocess of Westminster CHAP. XXV Presentments at a Visitation BY the Act above-mentioned the generality of the People were restrained from reading the Holy Scriptures But in lieu of it was set forth by the King and his Clergy in the Year 1543 a Doctrine for all his Subjects to use and follow which was the Book abovesaid and all Books that were contrary to it were by Authority of Parliament condemned It was printed in London by Thomas Barthelet This Book the Arch-bishop enjoined to be made publick in his Diocess as I suppose it was in all other Diocesses throughout the Kingdom and allowed no preaching or arguing against it And when one Mr. Ioseph once a Friar in Canterbury now a learned and earnest Preacher and who was afterward preferred to Bow-Church in London had attempted to preach against some things in the Book the Arch-bishop checked and forbad him For indeed there were some Points therein which the Arch-bishop himself did not approve of foisted into it by Winchester's Means and Interest at that time with the King Which Bishop politickly as well as flatteringly called it The King's Book a Title which the Arch-Bishop did not much like for he knew well enough Winchester's Hand was in it And so he told him plainly in K. Edward's Time when he might speak his Mind telling him in relation thereunto That he had seduced the King But because of the Authority of the Parliament ratifying the Book and the many good and useful Things that were in it the Arch-bishop introduced and countenanced it in his Diocess and would not allow open preaching against it The Arch-bishop about the Month of September held a Visitation in Canterbury chiefly because of the Jangling of the Preachers and the divers Doctrines vented among them according as their Fancies Interests or Judgments led them The Visitation proceeded upon the King's Injunctions and other late Ordinances And here I shall set down before the Reader some of the Presentments as I take them from an Original in a Volume that belonged to this Archbishop Wherein notice may be taken what ignorance was then in some of the Priests what

because by this means all hope of ripe and compleated Learning was immaturely cut off in the very Bud and also all the Expectations of the poorer sort whose whole Time was spent in good Studies was eluded by these Drones occupying those Places and Preferments which more properly belonged unto them For Parts Learning Poverty and Election were of no strength at Home where Favour and Countenance and the Letters of Noblemen and such-like extraordinary and illegal Courses from Abroad bore all the Sway. CHAP. VII Dr. Smith and others recant AND now before I conclude this Year let me pass from more publick Matters and present the Reader with two or three Passages wherein the Arch-bishop had to do with private Men. May the 15 th Richard Smith D. D. Master of Whittington College and Reader of Divinity in Oxford a hot turbulent Man made his Recantation at Pauls Cross convinced and moved thereunto by the Pains of the Arch-bishop What his Errors were that he had publickly vented in the University and in his Writings may be known by the words of his Recantation which were these I do confess and acknowledg that the Authority as well of the Bishop of Rome whose Authority is justly and lawfully abolished in this Realm as of other Bishops and others called the Ministers of the Church consisteth in the Dispensation and Ministration of God's Word and not in making Laws Ordinances and Decrees over the People besides God's Word without the Consent and Authority of the Prince and People I say and affirm that within this Realm of England and other the King's Dominions there is no Law Decree Ordinance or Constitution Ecclesiastical in force and available by any Man's Authority but only by the King's Majesty's Authority or of his Parliament This Man had wrote two Books in favour of Popish Doctrine and those he also now disclaimed viz. A Book of Traditions and another of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the former of which he maintained That Christ and his Apostles taught and left to the Church many things without writing which he asserted were stedfastly to be believed and obediently fulfilled under pain of Damnation In the other Book he maintained That Christ was not a Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck when he offered himself upon the Cross for our Sins but after the Order of Aaron and that when Christ did offer his Body to his Father after the Order of Melchizedek to appease his Wrath it was to be understood not of the Sacrifice of the Cross but of the Sacrifice that he made at his Maundy in form of Bread and Wine In which Book were other Errors He that is minded to see his Recantation of these his Books may have it in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of an old Book made by Becon intituled Reports of certain Men. This Recantation he not long after made at Oxon viz. in August following Where he also protested openly That he would abide in the sincere and pure Doctrine of Christ's Gospel all humane trifling Traditions set apart even unto Death though it should cost him his Life And this Recantation he also printed for further Satisfaction to the World Bishop Gardiner who was now at Winchester was very uneasy at the News of this Recantation which some took care to bring down to him He signified to the Protector That Smith was a Man with whom he had no Familiarity nor cared for his Acquaintance That he had not seen him in three Years nor talked with him in Seven He was greatly displeased with the first words of his Recantation which yet were but the words of Scripture Omnis Homo mendax Making all the Doctors in the Church as he inferred to be Liars with himself How it argued his Pride for he that sought for such Company in Lying had small Humility and that he would hide himself by that Number that his depraving of Man's Nature in that sort was not the setting out of the Authority of Scripture He said he neither liked his Tractation nor yet his Retractation That he was mad to say in his Book of Vnwritten Verities that Bishops in this Realm could make Laws wherein he said he lied loudly About this time Chadsey Standish Yong Oglethorp and divers others recanted whose Recantations Fox had by him to shew as well as Smith whom we have now before us After this Recantation he carried not himself according to it but favoured the Old Errors And in the Year 1549 offered some Affront unto Arch-bishop Cranmer opposing him in the Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Priests Marriage and endeavoured to make a Rout in Oxford to the endangering P. Martyr's Life and printed a Book the same Year against him De Votis Monasticis Whereupon incurring as he apprehended some Danger he fled into Scotland But weary of being there and willing to have his Peace made in England he wrote two Letters to the Arch-bishop from thence professing that he would out of hand by open Writing in the Latin Tongue revoke all that erroneous Doctrine which he had before taught and published and set forth the pure Doctrine of Christ. And for a Proof hereof he would straight after his return into England set forth a Book in Latin in defence of the most lawful Marriage of Priests In the Year 1550 he wrote certain Treatises against P. Martyr printed at Lovain And the same Year came out his Book against the Arch-bishop's Treatise of the Sacrament This Man was of a most inconstant as well as turbulent Spirit For in the Reign of Queen Mary he turned to the Religion then professed and was great with Bishop Boner in those Times but greatly despised for his Fickleness He once attempted to discourse with Hawks in Boner's House in London Hawks threw in his Dish his Recantation To which when he said it was no Recantation but a Declaration the other gave him this Rub To be short I will know whether you will Recant any more ere ever I talk with you or believe you and so departed from him We shall hear of him again in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when he again complied and submitted himself to Arch-bishop Parker And last of all returned to his old Opinions and fled to Lovain Pass we from this Man to another of the same Strain with whom the Arch-bishop had to do As the Popish Clergy in the former King's Reign had made all the rudest and eagerest Opposition they dared against the Steps that were then made towards a Reformation so they ceased not to do in this King 's nay and more hoping to shelter themselves under a milder Government One Instance of this appeared in what was done by the Quondam Abbot of Tower-hill London Who for some Recompence of the loss of his Abby was made Vicar of Stepney-Church succeeding I suppose Mr. Hierom burnt to death in the Year 1540 with Dr. Barnes and Garret He being a bold Man and

such men should be driven from them provided they do reside a good part of the year upon their Churches V. Since the Dispensation of two or three benefices hath been granted by former Princes to some Priests for the merit of their life and maners they cannot without injury be deprived of them Nor yet can they in al respects reside personally and perpetually VI. When many have designed their sons for the Universities and have been at no smal charges to give them learning because they have entertained good hope that they might hereafter be assistant to their friends and relations this hope being gone their care about this matter wil also grow cold otherwise of it self cold enough For as he said Where there is no honor there is no Art VII The houses of the Rectories in many places are either ruined or none at al or let out by Indentures Going to the Court of Rome Going to a General Councel Going to a Synod or Parlament Violent detaining Remedies That there be a les number of those that follow the Court who heap up benefices upon benefices That they who have many Benefices reside a certain time upon each That a way be found wherby such as live in Towns and Cities may be forced to pay Personal tiths Which being now almost quite taken a way the Benefices in such places are in a great part lessened When some of the Bishops by reason of the slendernes of their possessions cannot afford Stipends to the Priests their fellow laborers that they who serve them reside for a certain time of the year in their own parishes That Rectors who heretofore have payd pensions to Monasteries in ready mony be not now compelled to pay the same in bread-corn to Lay-proprietors That in Woody places where the custome hath alwayes obtained tith may be payd of Sylvae caeduae that is Wood that is cut to grow again especially when there is a great scarcity of corn in such places Parishes are not divided jure divino Whence followeth that as many Benefices may be layd into one so one by reason of the greatnes of it may be divided into two NUM LXXXIX Pole Cardinal Legate to Archbishop Cranmer in answer to the Letter he had sent to the Queen ALmighty God the Father by the grace of his only son god and man that dyed for our sins may geve yow trew and perfect repentance This I daylie pray for my self being a Synner but I thank God never obstinate synner And the same grace the more earnestly I do pray for to be geven to them that be obstinate the more neade they have thereof being otherwise past al mannes cure and admonition to save them As your open sayings in open audience doyth show of yow Which hath cawsed that those judges that hath syt apon the examination of your greviouse fautes seing no lykelod of ony repentaunce in yow hath utterlie cast awaye al hope of your recoverie Whereof doith follow the most horrible sentence of condempnation both of your body and soule both your temporal death and eternal Which is to me so great an horrour to here that if there were ony way or mean or fashion that I might fynd to remove you from errour bryngeng yow to the knowledge of the truth for your Salvation This I testifie to you afore God apon the Salvation of myne owne sowle that I would rather chuse to be that meane that yow might receive this benefyt by me then to receive the greatest benefyt for my self that can be geven under heaven in this world I easteme so moch the salvation of one sowle And becawse it happened to me to see your private lettres directed to the Qwenes Highnes sent by the same unto me wherein you utter and express such appearaunt reasons that cause yow to swarve from the rest of the Church in these Articles of the authoritie of the Pope and of the Sacrament of the aulter Concluding with these words That if ony man can show yow by reason that the authoritie of the Pope be not prejudicyal to the wealth of the realm or that your doctrine in the Sacrement be erroneous then you wold never be so perverse to stond wylfullie in your own opinion but shal with al humilitie submytt your self to the truthe in al things and gladly embrace the same Thise your words written in that lettre geveth me some occasion desyring your wealth not utterly to dispayr thereof but to attempt to recover yow by the same way that yow open unto me Which is by reason to show yow the error of your opinion and withal the light of the treuthe in both causes But whither this may healp yow indede or bring you to revoke the same with trew repentaunce this I know not and I fear moche the contrarie For that I see the ground and begynning how you fel into errour in both thise articles not to be of that sort that maketh men commonly to fall into errours and heresies Which sort and way is by medling with your wyt and discourse natural to examen the Articles of the faith Makeing your reason judge thereof which ought to bee judged and ruled by the tradition of the faith Which abuse causeth men dayly to fall into errours and heresies And the same also is in yow and is joyned with that yow have done But here standeth not the grownde of your errour nor yet in this other common maner of faulling from the trouthe which S. Paul noteth in the Gentiles and is in al me● commonlie that followeth their sensual appetites Qui veritatem D●i in injustitia detinent Which thing also hath been occasion of your ●rrour But yet not this is the very grownde thereof but a further sawte that you geveng your othe to the truthe yow mocked with the same as the Iewes mocked with Christ when thei saluted him saing Ave Rex Iudaeorum and afterwards did crucifie hym For so did yow to the Vicar of Christ Knowledgeng the Pope of Rome by the words of your othe to be so and in mynde entendeng to crucifie the same authoritie Whereof came the plague of deape ignoraunce and blyndnes unto yow Which is now that bringeth you to this greivous peryl to perish both bodie and sowle From which peril no reason can deliver yow But yow discovereng your self touching the entrie when yow shuld make the customable othe of al legitimate Busshops in Christendom which is the dore for you to entre to the service of God in the highest spiritual office withyn this realme and seeing you made the same but for a countenaunce nothing meaneng to observe that yow promised by the othe this is a dore that every thieffe may entre bye This is not the dore that thei entre by that mean earnestlie the service of God Wherein the Prophets sentence is playne askeng this question Quis ascendet in montem Domini aut quis stabit in loco sancto ejus And then answering to the same

MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI C●●●MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's

stuff their Histories with strange Prophecies and Falshoods mixed with some Truth And I suppose the Matter might be no more than this This grave and sober Arch-Bishop was sensible of the gross Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon the Authority of the Kings of this Realm in their own Dominions and his Judgment stood for the restoring of this Imperial Crown to its antient Right and Soveraignty and for the abridging the Papal Power And knowing how learned a Man Dr. Thomas Cranmer was and perceiving what an able Instrument he was like to prove in vindicating the King 's Right to the Supremacy in his own Kingdoms the Arch-Bishop upon these Accounts might think him the fittest to succeed in the Archiepiscopal Chair and might have some reason to believe that the King intended him thereunto And that Arch-Bishop Warham was of this Judgment it may appear if we trace some Footsteps of him In the Year 1530 when all the Clergy were under a Praemunire and a Petition was drawing up in the Convocation for that Cause the King in the said Petition was addressed to by the Title of Supream Head of the Church and Clergy of England At this Title when the Arch-Bishop found some of the Clergy to boggle who were yet afraid openly to declare their disallowance of it he took the opportunity of their Silence to pass the Title by saying That Silence was to be taken for their Consent In the last Synod wherein this Arch-Bishop was a Member and the main Director many things were debated about Abolishing the Papacy This Synod was prorogued from April 26 to October 5. In the mean time he died But had he lived and been well unto the next Sessions some further Steps had been made in evacuating the Bishop of Rome's Usurpations as may be guessed by what was done under his influence the last Sessions when the Supremacy of that foreign Prelate was rejected Something more of this Arch-Bishop's Endeavours of restoring the King to his Supremacy appears by what Arch-Bishop Cranmer said to Brooks Bishop of Glocester before a great Assembly not long before his Burning Brooks had charged him for first setting up the King's Supremacy To which Cranmer replied That it was Warham gave the Supremacy to Henry VIII and that he had said he ought to have it before the Bishop of Rome and that God's Word would bear it And that upon this the Universities of Cambridg and Oxford were sent to to know what the Word of God would allow touching the Supremacy Where it was reasoned and argued upon at length and at last both agreed and and set to their Seals and sent it to the King That he ought to be Supreme Head and not the Pope All which was in Arch-Bishop Warham's Time and while he was alive three quarters of a Year before ever Cranmer had the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury as he also added in that Audience So that these things considered we may conclude that Warham did think that none would be so fit to come after him as Cranmer a Learned and diligent Man to carry on this Cause which he before him had begun and so might speak of him as the properest Person to be advanced to this See To this I will add the Sense of an Ingenious and Learned Friend of mine concerning this Passage in Harpsfield's History Which the Author also of the Athenae Oxonienses hath made use of to the good Arch-Bishop's Discredit and which Somner also had unluckily selected though without design to hurt his good Name and is all he writes of him But may it not be considered saith he that the pretended Martyr Thomas Becket though he died in vindication of the Privileges of the Church yet he was the first betrayer of the Rights of his See He made the greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of Canterbury by resigning the Arch-Bishoprick into the Pope's Hands and receiving it again from him as the Pope's Donation But it is the Honour of the blessed Martyr Thomas Cranmer that he was the first who began to claim the Primacy and retrieve the Rights of his See from being slavishly subjected to the Roman Power Indeed little credit is to be given to the Author who first published this Story considering what a Violent Man he was and how much prejudiced against Cranmer and interessed in the Popish Cause and coming into the Arch-Deaconry of Canterbury by the deprivation of the Arch-Bishop's Brother Cranmer Noluit Episcopari had no mind to be Arch-Bishop He loved his Studies and affected Retirement and well knew the Dangers and Temptations of a publick Station But especially he could not induce his Mind to take his Office from the Pope and to swear Fidelity to him as well as to the King whereby he should ensnare himself in two contrary Oaths Wherefore when the King sent for him home from his Embassy in Germany with a design to lay that honourable Burden upon him he guessing the Reason first endeavoured to delay his coming by signifying to the King some Matters of Importance that would require his tarrying there somewhat longer for the King's Service Hoping in that while the King might have bestowed the Place upon some other In fine our Historians say he stayed abroad one half Year longer But I find him in England in the Month of November which was not much more than a quarter of a Year after Warham's Death Then the King was married to the Marchioness of Pembroke and Cranmer was present So that the King must have sent for him home in Iune two or three Months before the Arch-Bishop's Death probably while he was in a declining dying Condition But after when that which Cranmer seemed to suspect of certain Emergences in those parts wherein the English State might be concerned fell not out the King again commanded his return Home Now more perfectly knowing by some of his Friends the King's Intentions to make him Arch-Bishop he made means by divers of his Friends to shift it off desiring rather some smaller Living At length the King brake his Mind to him that it was his full Purpose to bestow that Dignity upon him for his Service and for the good Opinion he conceived of him But his long disabling himself nothing disswaded the King till at last he humbly craved the King's Pardon for that he should declare to him and that was That if he should accept it he must receive it at the Pope's Hand which he neither would nor could do for that his Highness was the only Supream Governour of the Church of England as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal and that the full Right of Donation of all manner of Benefices and Bishopricks as well as any other temporal Dignities and Promotions appertained to him and not to any other Foreign Authority And therefore if he might serve God him and his Countrey in that Vocation he would accept it of his Majesty and of no Stranger

who had no Authority within this Realm Whereat the King made a Pause and then asked him how he was able to prove it At which time he alledged several Texts out of Scripture and the Fathers proving the Supream Authority of Kings in their own Realms and Dominions and withal shewing the intolerable Usurpations of the Bishops of Rome Of this the King talked several times with him and perceiving that he could not be brought to acknowledg the Pope's Authority the King called one Dr. Oliver an eminent Lawyer and other Civilians and devised ●ith them how he might bestow the Arch-Bishoprick upon him salving his Conscience They said he might do it by way of Protestation and so one to be sent to Rome to take the Oath and do every thing in his Name Cranmer said to this It should be super animam suam and seemed to be satisfied in what the Lawyers told him And accordingly when he was consecrated made his Protestation That he did not admit the Pope's Authority any further than it agreed with the express Word of God And that it might be lawful for him at all times to speak against him and to impugn his Errors when there should be occasion And so he did Whether Warham the Arch-deacon had conceived any Prejudice against our new Arch-Bishop by some warning given him by the former Arch-Bishop as was hinted above or whether he was willing to give place upon Cranmer's Entreaty that he might provide for his Brother so it was that Edmund Cranmer Brother to the Arch-Bishop succeeded Warham in the Arch-deaconry of Canterbury and the Provostship of Wingham Who parted with both these Dignities by Cession And by the Privity and Consent of the Arch-Bishop he had a Stipend or Pension of sixty pounds per Annum allowed him during his Life out of the Arch-deaconary and twenty pounds per Annum out of Wingham by his Successor aforesaid Who continued Arch-deacon until Queen Mary's Days and was then deprived and his Prebend and his Parsonage of Ickham all taken from him in the Year 1554 for being a married Clerk The first was given to Nicholas Harpsfield the second to Robert Collins Bachelour of Law and Commissary of Canterbury and the third to Robert Marsh. The King had before linked him into his great Business about Queen Katharine and the Lady Anne So now when he had nominated him for Arch-Bishop he made him a Party and an Actor in every step almost which he took in that Affair For to fetch the Matter a little backward Not long before the Archiepiscal See was devolved upon Cranmer the King had created the Lady Anne Marchioness of Pembroke and taken her along with him in great State into France when by their mutual Consent there was an Interview appointed between the two Kings At Calais King Henry permitted Francis the French King to take a view of this Lady who then made both Kings a curious and rich Mask where both honoured her by dancing This was in the month of October In the Month before I find a parcel of very rich Jewels were sent from Greenwich to Hampton Court by Mr. Norrys probably he who was Groom of the Stole and executed upon Queen Ann's Business afterwards Which Jewels as some of them might be for the King 's own wearing now he was going into France so in all probability others were either lent or given to the Marchioness to adorn and make her fine when she should appear and give her entertainment to the French King For the sake of such as be curious I have set down in the Appendix a Particular of these most splendid and Royal Jewels from an Original signed with the King 's own Hand in token of his Receit of them Immediately after the King's and ●●e Marchionesses return from France he married her At which Wedding though very private the Arch-Bishop was one that assisted according to the Lord Herbert but according to the Author of the Britannic Antiquities did the Sacred Office When she was crowned Queen which was Whitsontide following the Arch-Bishop performed the Ceremonies When after that the King had a Daughter by her he would have the Arch-Bishop assist at the Christening and be her Godfather And before this when Queen Katharine was to be divorced from the King and the Pope's Dispensation of that Marriage declared Null our Arch-Bishop pronounced the Sentence and made the Declaration solemnly and publickly at Dunstable Priory Thus the King dipped and engaged Cranmer with himself in all his Proceeding in this Cause Now as all these doings had danger in them so especially this last highly provoked the Pope for doing this without his Leave and Authority as being a presumptuous Encroachment upon his Prerogative Insomuch that a publick Act was made at Rome that unless the King undid all that he had done and restored all things in integrum leaving them to his Decision he would excommunicate him And this Sentence was affixed and set up publickly at Dunkirk Which put the King upon an Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council lawfully called The Arch-Bishop also foreseeing the Pope's Threatning hovering likewise over his Head by the King's Advice made his Appeal by the English Ambassador there I have seen the King's Original Letter to Dr. Bonner ordering him to signify to the Pope in Order and Form of Law his Appeal sending him also the Instrument of his Appeal with the Proxy devised for that purpose This bare date August 18 th from his Castle at Windsor I have reposited it in the Appendix Which Order of the King Bonner did accordingly discharge at an Audience he got of the Pope at Marceilles November 7. And that Letter which the Lord Herbert saith he saw of Bonner to the King wherein he signified as much must be his Answer to this of the King to him Dr. Cranmer having now yielded to the King to accept the Arch-Bishoprick it was in the beginning of the next Year viz. 1533. March 30. and in the 24 th of King Henry that he received his Consecration But that ushered in with abundance of Bulls some dated in February and some in March from Pope Clement to the number of Eleven as may be seen at length in the beginning of this Arch-Bishop's Register The first was to King Henry upon his Nomination of Cranmer to him to be Arch-Bishop The Pope alloweth and promoteth him accordingly The second was a Bull to Cranmer himself signifying the same The third Bull absolved him from any Sentences of Excommunication Suspension Interdiction c. It was written from the Pope to him under the Title of Arch-deacon of Taunton in the Church of Wells and Master in Theology and ran thus Nos ne forsan aliquibus sententiis censuris poenis Ecclesiasticis ligatus sis c. Volentes te a quibusvis excommunicationis suspensionis interdicti aliisque Ecclesiasticis sententiis censuris poenis a jure

at Canterbury IN order to the bettering the State of Religion in the Nation the Arch-bishop's Endeavours both with the King and the Clergy were not wanting from time to time And something soon after fell out which afforded him a fair opportunity which was this The King resolving to vindicate his own Right of Supremacy against the Encroachments of Popes in his Dominions especially now the Parliament had restored it to him being at Winchester sent for his Bishops thither about Michaelmas ordering them to go down to their respective Diocesses and there in their own Persons to preach up the Regal Authority and to explain to the People the Reason of excluding the Pope from all Jurisdiction in these Realms Our Arch-bishop according to this Command speeds down into his Diocess to promote this Service for the King and the Church too He went not into the neerer parts of Kent about Otford and Knol where his most frequent Residence used to be because his Influence had a good effect for the Instruction of the People thereabouts in this as well as in other Points of sound Religion But he repaired into the East parts of his Diocess where he preached up and down upon the two Articles of the Pope's Usurpations and the King's Supremacy But the People of Canterbury being less perswaded of these Points than all his Diocess besides there in his Cathedral Church he preached two Sermons wherein he insisted upon three things I. That the Bishop of Rome was not God's Vicar upon Earth as he was taken Here he declared by what Crafts the Bishop of Rome had obtained his usurped Authority II. That the Holiness that See so much boasted of and by which Name Popes affected to be stiled was but a Holiness in Name and that there was no such Holiness at Rome And here he launched out into the Vices and profligate kind of living there III. He inveighed against the Bishop of Rome's Laws Which were miscalled Divinae Leges and Sacri Canones He said that those of his Laws which were good the King had commanded to be observed And so they were to be kept out of obedience to him And here he descended to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church that they ought not to be rejected nor yet to be observed with an Opinion that of themselves they make Men holy or remit their Sins seeing our Sins are remitted by the Death of our Saviour Christ. But that they were observed for a common Commodity and for good Order and Quietness as the Common Laws of the Kingdom were And for this Cause Ceremonies were instituted in the Church and for a remembrance of many good things as the King's Laws dispose Men unto Justice and unto Peace And therefore he made it a general Rule that Ceremonies were to be observed as the Laws of the Land were These Sermons of the Arch-bishop it seems as they were new Doctrines to them so they were received by them at first with much gladness But the Friars did not at all like these Discourses They thought such Doctrines laid open the Truth too much and might prove prejudicial unto their Gains And therefore by a Combination among themselves they thought it convenient that the Arch-bishop's Sermons should be by some of their Party confuted and in the same place where he preached them So soon after came up the Prior of the black Friars in Canterbury levelling his Discourse against the three things that the Arch-bishop had preached He asserted the Church of Christ never erred that he would not slander the Bishops of Rome and that the Laws of the Church were equal with the Laws of God This angry Prior also told the Arch-bishop to his Face in a good Audience concerning what he had preached of the Bishop of Rome's Vices that he knew no Vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And whereas the Arch-bishop had said in his Sermon to the People that he had prayed many Years that we might be separated from that See and that he might see the Power of Rome destroyed because it wrought so many things contrary to the Honour of God and the Wealth of the Realm and because he saw no hopes of amendment and that he thanked God he had now seen it in this Realm for this the Prior cried out against him that he preached uncharitably The Arch-bishop not suffering his Authority to be thus affronted nor the King's Service to be thus hindred convented the Prior before him before Christmass At his first examination he denied that he preached against the Arch-bishop and confessed that his Grace had not preached any thing amiss But sometime afterward being got free from the mild Arch-bishop and being secretly upheld by some Persons in the Combination he then said he had preached amiss in many things and that he purposely preached against him This created the Arch-bishop abundance of Slander in those parts The Business came to the King's Ears who seemed to require the Arch-bishop to censure him in his own Court But upon occasion of this the Arch-bishop wrote his whole Cause in a Letter to the King dated from his House at Ford 1535. Declaring what he had preached and what the other had preached in contradiction to him And withal entreated his Majesty that he the Arch-bishop might not have the judging of him lest he might seem partial but that he would commit the hearing unto the Lord Privy Seal who was Crumwel or else to assign unto him other Persons whom his Majesty pleased that the Cause might be jointly heard together He appealed to the King and his Council If the Prior did not defend the Bishop of Rome though he had said nothing else than that the Church never erred For then they were no Errors as he inferred that were taught of the Pope's Power and that he was Christ's Vicar in Earth and by God's Law Head of all the World Spiritual and Temporal and that all People must believe that de necessitate Salutis and that whosoever did any thing against the See of Rome is an Heretick But if these be no Errors then your Grace's Laws said he be Erroneous that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more Power than other Bishops and them to be Traitors that defend the contrary In fine in the stomach of an Arch-bishop and finding it necessary to put a stop to the ill designs of these Friars he concluded That if that Man who had so highly offended the King and openly preached against him being his Ordinary and Metropolitan of the Province and that in such Matters as concerned the Authority Mis-living and Laws of the Bishop of Rome and that also within his own Church if he were not looked upon he left it to the King's Prudence to expend what Example it might prove unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome's Authority and of what estimation he the Arch-bishop should be reputed hereafter and what Credence would be

given unto his preaching for time to come And he left his Majesty to hear the Testimony of Dr. Leighton one of the King's Visitors who was present at the Sermon the Arch-bishop then made This Letter the Contents whereof I have now set down I have placed in the Appendix as well worthy the preserving among the rest of the Monuments of this Arch-bishop as I transcribed it out of the Cotton Library I do not find what Issue this Business had but I suspect the Black Friars of Canterbury had a black Mark set upon them by the King for this Opposition of his Arch-bishop in the discharge of his Commands But to speak a little of a Provincial Visitation Iure Metropolitico which the Arch-bishop had begun the last Year viz. 1534 being his first Visitation It was somewhat extraordinary for such a Visitation had not been in an hundred Years before For this he got the King's Licence to countenance his doings knowing what oppositions he should meet with In the Month of May we find him at his House at Otford about this Business The main End whereof was to promote the King's Supremacy and as opportunity served to correct the Superstitions of this Church and to inspect even Bishops and Cathedrals themselves In Apr. 1535 Cranmer had sent his Monition to Steph. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester that he would visit his Diocess The Bishop who never loved the Arch-bishop and being a great upholder of the old Popish Superstitions was the more jealous of this Visitation opposing himself as much as he could against it and would have picked an Hole in Cranmer's Coat for stiling himself in the Instrument of the Process Totius Angliae Primas as though this had been an high Reflection upon the King and detracted much from his Supremacy Of this therefore he went and made a Complaint to the King himself and taking it in some Indignation that the Arch-bishop should visit his Diocess he pretended to the King that the Clergy of his Diocess would be driven to great streights and mightily oppress'd if it should be now visited again having been visited but five Years ago by his Predecessor Warham especially being also to pay a new Duty enjoined by the Parliament namely their Tenths hoping hereby to evade the Arch-bishop's inspection into the Corruptions of the Diocess of Winchester All this Crumwel his Friend certified him of by his Chaplain one Champion Winchester indeed whatsoever he pretended tendred not so much the King's Cause as his own that he might not be visited For otherwise he would have complained to the King of this Matter before Cranmer's signification to him of a Visitation since he always bare the Title of Primate of all England as being the common Stile of the Arch-bishop And if this Stile of Primacy was a diminution to the King it would have been so to the Pope when Winchester held him as he did once for Supream Head of the Church but then he never made any complaint against those Arch-bishops that stiled themselves Primats The Pope's Supream Authority was not less thought of because he had such Primates under him but rather more And the King might therefore have such as were Primates under him without any derogation to his Authority Nor did Cranmer value at all Names and Titles and if he thought it any thing interfering with the King's Honour he would himself have been the first to sue for the taking it wholly away This he signified in a Letter to Secretary Crumwel which because it hath many excellent things declarative of the good Temper and Spirit of Cranmer I have presented it to the Reader 's Eye in the Appendix being an Original in the Cotton Library And as Winchester had pick'd a Quarrel with him for one part of his Archiepiscopal Stile so Stokesly Bishop of London a Man of the same inveterate Temper against Cranmer refused his Visitation because he stiled himself in his Monitions Apostolicae Sedis Legatus For under that Title he Convented that Bishop with the Abbots Priors and Arch-deacon of London to appear before him at a Visitation which he intended to hold at the Chapter-house in St. Paul's Church London But the Bishop of London and the Chapter warned him of assuming that Title as making against the King's Prerogative And at the Visitation it self in S. Paul's they made a Protestation which was openly read The import whereof was that they would not accept him as such a Legate and neither admit nor submit to his Visitation under that Name and required the Arch-bishop's Register to enter their Protestation And upon his refusal thereof delivered a Certificate of what they had done Stokesly also contended with him for suspending all the Jurisdiction of the Bishop Dean and Arch-deacon during his Visitation To which the Arch-bishop answered it was no more than his Predecessors had usually done in those Cases In fine they appealed in their own justification unto the King and desired his Licence to defend themselves against him by the Laws and as the Parliament had provided Thus they shewed before their secret Malice and violent Opposition against the good Arch-bishop and how afraid they were of his Visitation glad to catch any thing to enervate his Authority The sum of which Appeal drawn up by Stokesly being somewhat too long to be subjoined here may be read in the Appendix Finally upon the Arch-bishop's visiting of his Diocess he entred three Protestations against it as may appear in Stokesley's Register for preserving his Privileges This Man ever carried himself perversely to the Arch-bishop It was not long after this time that the Arch-bishop whose Mind ran very much upon bringing in the free use of the Holy Scripture in English among the People put on vigorously a Translation of it And that it might not come to be prohibited as it had been upon pretence of the Ignorance or Unfaithfulness of the Translators he proceeded in this method First He began with the Translation of the New Testament taking an old English Translation thereof which he divided into nine or ten Parts causing each Part to be written at large in a paper Book and then to be sent to the best Learned Bishops and others to the intent they should make a perfect Correction thereof And when they had done he required them to send back their Parts so corrected unto him at Lambeth by a day limited for that purpose and the same course no question he took with the Old Testament It chanced that the Acts of the Apostles were sent to Bishop Stokesly to oversee and correct When the Day came every Man had sent to Lambeth their Parts corrected only Stokeslye's Portion was wanting My Lord of Canterbury wrote to the Bishop a Letter for his Part requiring him to deliver them unto the Bringer his Secretary He received the Arch-bishop's Letter at Fulham Unto which he made this Answer I marvel what my Lord of

Canterbury meaneth that thus abuseth the People in giving them liberty to read the Scriptures which doth nothing else but infect them with Heresy I have bestowed never an Hour upon my Portion nor never will And therefore my Lord shall have this Book again for I will never be guilty of bringing the simple People into Error My Lord of Canterbury's Servant took the Book and brought the same to Lambeth unto my Lord declaring my Lord of London's Answer When the Arch-bishop had perceived that the Bishop had done nothing therein I marvel said he that my Lord of London is so froward that he will not do as other Men do One Mr. Thomas Lawney stood by and hearing my Lord speak so much of the Bishop's untowardness said I can tell your Grace why my Lord of London will not bestow any labour or pains this way Your Grace knoweth well that his Portion is a piece of New Testament But he being perswaded that Christ had bequeathed him nothing in his Testament thought it mere madness to bestow any labour or pain where no Gain was to be gotten And besides this it is the Acts of the Apostles which were simple poor Fellows and therefore my Lord of London disdained to have to do with any of them Whereat my Lord of Canterbury and others that stood by could not forbear from laughter This Lawney was a witty Man and Chaplain to the old Duke of Norfolk and had been one of the Scholars placed by the Cardinal in his New College at Oxon. Where he was Chaplain of the House and Prisoner there with Frith another of the Scholars In the Time of the six Articles he was a Minister in Kent placed there I suppose by the Arch-bishop When that severe Act was past more by the Authority of a Parliament than by the Authority of the Word of God it chanced that my Lord of Norfolk meeting with this his Chaplain said O! my Lawney knowing him of old much to favour Priests Matrimony whether may Priests now have Wives or no If it please your Grace replied he I cannot well tell whether Priests may have Wives or no But well I wot and am sure of it for all your Act that Wives will have Priests Hearken Masters said the Duke how this Knave scorneth our Act and maketh it not worth a Fly Well I see by it that thou wilt never forget thy old Tricks And so the Duke and such Gentlemen as were with him went away merrily laughing at Lawney's sudden and apt Answer The Reader will excuse this Digression CHAP. IX Monasteries visited THis Year the Monasteries were visited by Cramwel Chief Visitor Who appointed Leighton Legh Petre London his Deputies with Injunctions given them to be observed in their Visitation Indeed the King now had thoughts of dissolving them as well as visiting them Whose Ends herein were partly because he saw the Monks and Friars so untoward towards him and so bent to the Pope and partly to enrich himself with the Spoils Arch-bishop Cranmer is said also to have counselled and pressed the King to it but for other Ends viz. That out of the Revenues of these Monasteries the King might found more Bishopricks and that Diocesses being reduced into less compass the Diocesans might the better discharge their Office according to the Scripture and Primitive Rules And because the Arch-bishop saw how inconsistent these Foundations were with the Reformation of Religion Purgatory Masses Pilgrimages Worship of Saints and Images being effectual to their Constitution as the Bishop of Sarum hath observed And the Arch-bishop hoped that from these Ruins there would be new Foundations in every Cathedral erected to be Nurseries of Learning for the use of the whole Diocess But however short our Arch-bishop fell of his Ends desired and hoped for by these Dissolutions the King obtained his For the vast Riches that the Religious Houses brought in to the King may be guessed by what was found in one namely S. Swithins Winchester An account of the Treasures whereof I having once observed from a Manuscript in the Benet Library thought not amiss here to lay before the Reader which he may find in the Appendix When these Visitors returned home from their Visitation they came well stock'd with Informations of the loose wicked and abominable Lives and Irregularities of the chief Members of these Houses of Religion having by diligent inquisition throughout all England collected them These Enormities were read publickly in the Parliament-House being brought in by the Visitors When they were first read nothing was done with these unclean Abbots and Priors But within a while saith Latimer in a Sermon before King Edward how bad soever the Rep●●ts of them were some of them were made Bishops and others put into good Dignities in the Church that so the King might save their Pensions which were otherwise to be paid them Now I will at the conclusion of my Collections for this Year set down the Names of the Bishops this Year consecrated both Diocesan and Suffragan there having b●en an Act of Parliament made in the six and twentieth of the King that is the last Year for furnishing the Diocesses with six and twenty Suffragans for the better aid and comfort of the Diocesans The Se●s whereof are all set down in the said Act. But I doubt whether there were ever so many made At least the mention of the Acts of the Consecration of some of the Suffragans in the Province of Canterbury are omitted in the Register Before this Act of Parliament enjoining the number of Suffragans Suffragans were not unusual in the Realm Whom the Bishops Diocesans either for their own ease or because of their necessary absence from their Diocesses in Ambassies abroad or Attendance upon the Court or civil Affairs procured to be consecrated to reside in their steads Thus to give some Instances of them as I have met with them About the Year 1531 I find one Vnderwood Suffragan in Norwich that degraded Bilney before his Martyrdom Certain bearing the Title of Bishops of Sidon assisted the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury One of these was named Thomas Wellys Prior of S. Gregories by Canterbury He being Arch-Bishop Warham's Chaplain was sent by him to Cardinal Wolsey to expostulate with him in his Lord's Name for encroaching upon his Prerogative Court There was afterwards one Christopher that bore that Title and assisted Arch-bishop Cranmer about these Times in Ordinations and another Thomas intitled also of Sidon succeeded Long before these I find one William Bottlesham Espicopus Navatensis Anno 1382 at the Convocation House in London summoned against the Wicklivites that then shewed themselves at Oxford Robert King Abbot of Oseney while Abbot was consecrated titular Bishop and called Episcopus Roannensis a See in the Province of the Arch-bishoprick of Athens This is he that resigned Oseny and Tame under the name of Bishop of Reonen Of which See the Bishop of Sarum

Baptized again That the Opinions of Anabaptists and Pelagians are to be held for detestable Heresies That those who having the use of Reason shall come to Baptism shall obtain the Remission of all their Sins if they come thereunto perfectly and truly repentant confessing and believing all the Articles of the Faith and having firm Credence and Trust in the Promise of God adjoined to the said Sacrament III. The Sacrament of Penance That that Sacrament was instituted of Christ in the New Testament as a thing so necessary for Man's Salvation that no Man that after his Baptism is fallen again and hath committed deadly Sin can without the same be saved That such Penitents shall without doubt attain Remission of their Sins That this Sacrament consists of Contrition Confession and Amendment of Life That Contrition consists first of Acknowledgment of our Sins Unto which the Penitent is brought by hearing and considering the Will of God declared in his Laws and feeling in his own Conscience that God is angry and this joined with Sorrow and Shame and fear of God's Displeasure That secondly it consists of Faith Trust and Confidence in the Mercies and Goodness of God whereby the Penitent must conceive certain Hope and repute himself justified not for any Merit or Work done by him but by the only Merits of the Blood of Iesus Christ. That this Faith is begotten and confirmed by the Application of Christ's Words and Promises That Confession to a Priest the second part of Penance is necessary where it may be had That the Absolution given by the Priest was instituted of Christ to apply the Promises of God's Grace to the Penitent And that the words of Absolution pronounced by the Priest are spoken by the Authority given him by Christ. That Men must give no less Faith and Credence to the Words of Absolution pronounced by the Ministers of the Church than they would give unto the very Words and Voice of God himself And that Men in no wise contemn this Auricular Confession As to the third part of Penance viz. Amendment of Life That all are bound to bring forth the Fruits of Penance that is to say Prayer Fasting and Alms-deeds and to make Restitution and Satisfaction in Will and Deed to their Neighbour and all other good Works or else they shall never be saved That Works of Charity be necessary to Salvation That by Penance and such good Works we do not only obtain Everlasting Life but deserve Remission or Mitigation of these present Pains and Affliction in this World Mark here by the way how the Doctrine of Merits is propounded Our Merits do not extend to Pardon and Everlasting Life but only to the removal or abatement of temporal Afflictions IV. The Sacrament of the Altar That under the Form and Figure of Bread and Wine is verily and substantially contained that very same Body and Blood which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the Cross. And that the self-same Body and Blood of Christ is distributed unto and received by all the Communicants That therefore this Sacrament is to be used with all due reverence and honour And that before any receive it he ought religiously to try and search his own Conscience V. Iustification That the word signifies Remission of Sins and our Acceptation or Reconciliation into the Grace and Favour of God That Sinners attain this Justification by Contrition and Faith joined with Charity That neither our Contrition and Faith nor any Work proceeding thence can merit or deserve the said Justification That the Mercy and Grace of the Father promised freely for Christ's Sake and the Merit of his Blood and Passion be the only sufficient and worthy Causes thereof This was the Sum of the Articles concerning Faith Those concerning Ceremonies followed next which were likewise comprised under five Titles I. Of Images That they be representers of Vertue and good Example That they be stirrers of Mens Minds and make them often to remember and lament their Sins especially the Images of Christ and our Lady That it was meet they should stand in the Churches but be none otherwise esteemed That the Bishops and Preachers diligently teach the People according to this Doctrine lest there might fortune Idolatry to ensue That they be taught also that Censing Kneeling and Offering to Images be by no means to be done although the same had entred by Devotion and fallen to Custom but only to God and in his Honour though it be done before the Images II. Of Honouring Saints That they are to be honoured but not with that Confidence and Honour that is due only unto God trusting to attain at their Hands that which must be had only of God That most especially Christ is to be lauded and praised in them for their excellent Vertues which he planted in them and for their good Example And that they are to be taken wherein they may to be the Advancers of our Prayers and Demands unto Christ. III. Of Praying to Saints That tho Grace and Remission of Sins be to be obtained only of God by the Mediation of Christ yet it is very laudable to pray to Saints in Heaven to be Intercessors and to pray for us and with us unto God after this manner All Holy Angels and Saints in Heaven pray for us and with us unto the Father that for his dear Son Iesus Christ his sake we may have Grace of him and Remission of our Sins with an earnest purpose not wanting ghostly Strength to observe and keep his Holy Commandments and never to decline from the same again unto our lives end That in this manner we may pray to our Blessed Lady Saint Iohn Baptist or any other Saint particularly So that it be done without any vain Superstition as to think that any Saint is more merciful or will hear us sooner than Christ or that any Saint does serve for one thing more than another That Holy Days are to be kept to God in memory of him and his Saints upon such Days as the Church hath ordained but may be mitigated and moderated by the King being Supream Head IV. Of Rites and Ceremonies As Vestments in God's Service Sprinkling Holy Water Giving Holy Bread Bearing Candles on Candlemass-day Giving of Ashes on Ash-wednesday Bearing of Palms on Palm-sunday Creeping to the Cross and kissing it and offering unto Christ before the same on Good-friday Setting up the Sepulchre of Christ Hallowing of the Font and other-like Exorcisms and Benedictions and laudable Customs That these are not to be contemned and cast away but continued to put us in remembrance of Spiritual Things But that none of these Ceremonies have power to remit Sin V. Of Purgatory That Christians are to pray for Souls departed and to commit them in their Prayers to God's Mercy and cause others to pray for them in Masses and Exequies and to give Alms to others to pray for them that they may be relieved and holpen of some part of

his Memory famous to Posterity within the Realm among all such as should hereafter be favourers of God's Word and that he should hear of this good Deed of his at the last Day That for his part it was such a content to his Mind that he could not have done him a greater pleasure if he had given him a thousand Pounds And that such Knowledg would ensue hereupon that it should appear he had done excellent Service both to God and the King He also particularly spake of the Bishop of Worcester how highly obliged he was sure he was to him for this But I refer the Reader to his own Letters which follow MY very singular good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me unto your Lordship And whereas I understand that your Lordship at my Request hath not only exhibited the Bible which I sent unto you to the King's Majesty but also hath obtained of his Grace that the same shall be allowed by his Authority to be bought and read within this Realm My Lord for this your Pains taken in this behalf I give you my most hearty Thanks Assuring your Lordship for the Contentation of my Mind you have shewed me more pleasure here than if you had given me a thousand Pounds and I doubt not but that hereby such Fruit of good Knowledg shall ensue that it shall well appear hereafter what high and excellent Service you have done unto God and the King Which shall so much redound to your Honour that besides God's Reward you shall obtain perpetual Memory for the same within this Realm And as for me you may reckon me your Bondman for the same And I dare be bold to say so may ye do my Lord of Worcester Thus my Lord right hartily fare ye well At Ford the xiii day of August Your own Bound-man ever T. Cantuarien And in another Letter fifteen days after he again renewed his Thanks MY very singular and special good Lord In my most harty wise I commend me to your Lordship These shall be to give you most hearty Thanks that any Heart can think and that in the Name of them which favour God's Word for your diligence at this time in procuring the King's Highness to set forth the said God's Word and his Gospel by his Grace's Authority For the which Act not only the King's Majesty but also you shall have a perpetual Laud and Memory of all them that be now ●or hereafter shall be God's faithful People and the Favourers of his Word And this Deed you shall hear of at the Great Day when all things shall be opened and made manifest For our Saviour Christ saith in the said Gospel that whosoever shrinketh from Him and his Word and is abashed to profess and set it forth before Men in this World he will refuse him at that Day And contrary whosoever constantly doth profess Him and his Word and studieth to set that forward in this World Christ will declare the same at the Last Day before his Father and all his Angels and take upon him the Defence of those Men. Now because by these Letters of the Arch-bishop it appears how instrumental Crumwel was when the Bible was printed to procure the setting it forth by the King's Authority I will here relate more at large what Countenance and Assistance he gave to this pious Work all along and those that were concerned and employed in the doing of it The Bible as Fox speaks had been printed in the Year 1532 and reprinted again three or four Years after The Undertakers and Printers were Grafton and Whitchurch who printed it at Hamburgh The Corrector was Iohn Rogers a Learned Divine afterwards a Canon of St. Paul's in King Edward's Time and the first Martyr in the next Reign The Translator was William Tyndal another Learned Martyr with the help of Miles Coverdale after Bishop of Exeter But before all this second Edition was finish'd Tyndal was taken and put to death for his Religion in Flanders in the Year 1536. And his Name then growing into ignominy as one burnt for an Heretick they thought it might prejudice the Book if he should be named for the Translator thereof and so they used a feigned Name calling it Thomas Matthews Bible though Tyndal before his death had finished all but the Apocrypha which was translated by Rogers abovesaid who added also some Marginal Notes In this Bible were certain Prologues and a special Table collected of the common Places in the Bible and Texts of Scripture for proving the same And chiefly the common Places of the Lord's Supper the Marriage of Priests and the Mass. Of which it was there said that it was not to be found in Scripture This Bible giving the Clergy offence was gotten to be restrained Some Years after came forth the Bible aforesaid wherein Cranmer had the great Hand which as I suppose was nothing but the former corrected the Prologues and Table being left out When Grafton had finished this Work and printed off fifteen hundred Bibles at his great Charge amounting to five hundred Pounds a round Sum in those days the Ld. Crumwel desired to have six of his Books Which he forthwith sent by his Servant a clear Man of all suspicion of any Infection coming that day out of Flanders Grafton not adventuring to come himself with the Books because of the Infection at London where he was These Books therefore he sent together with a Letter of Thanks for being so assistant in the publication which as he writ in his Letter the Arch-bishop said the Tidings of did him more good than the Gift of ten thousand Pounds and for procuring the King's Licence which was thought fit to be signified in the Title Page in red Letters thus Set forth by the King 's most gracious Licence But several would not believe the King had licensed it and therefore he desired further of Crumwel that he would get it licensed under the Privy Seal which would be a Defence for the present and for the future But take the Letter as Grafton himself penned it MOST humbly beseeching your Lordship to understand that according to your Request I have sent your Lordship six Bibles which gladly I would have brought my self but because of the Sickness which remaineth in the City and therefore I have sent them by my Servant which this day came out of Flanders Requiring your Lordship if I may be so bold as to desire you to accept them as my simple Gift given to you for those most godly Pains for which the heavenly Father is bound even of his Justice to reward you with the Everlasting Kingdom of God For your Lordship's moving our most gracious Prince to the Allowance and Licensing of such a Work hath wrought such an Act worthy of Praise as never was mentioned in any Chronicle in this Realm and as my Lord of Canterbury said the Tydings thereof did him more good than the gift of 10000 l.

new Foundation it came to pass that when they should elect the Children of the Grammar-School there were of the Commissioners more than one or two who would have none admitted but Sons or younger Brethren of Gentlemen As for other Husband-mens Children they were more meet they said for the Plough and to be Artificers than to occupy the place of the Learned sort So that they wished none else to be put to School but only Gentlemens Children Whereunto the most Reverend Father the Arch-bishop being of a contrary Mind said That he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter For said he poor Mens Children are many times endued with more singular Gifts of Nature which are also the Gifts of God as with Eloquence Memory apt Pronunciation Sobriety and such like and also commonly more apt to apply their Study than is the Gentleman's Son delicately Educated Hereunto it was on the other part replied That it was meet for the Ploughman's Son to go to Plough and the Artificer's Son to apply the Trade of his Parents Vocation and the Gentleman's Children are meet to have the knowledg of Government and Rule in the Common-Wealth For we have said they as much need of Ploughmen as any other State And all sorts of Men may not go to School I grant replied the Arch-bishop much of your meaning herein as needful in a Common-wealth But yet utterly to exclude the Ploughman's Son and the Poor Man's Son from the benefit of Learning as though they were unworthy to have the Gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them as well as upon others is as much to say as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow his great Gifts of Grace upon any Person nor no where else but as we and other Men shall appoint them to be employed according to our Fancy and not according to his most godly Will and Pleasure Who giveth his Gifts both of Learning and other Perfections in all Sciences unto all Kinds and States of People indifferently Even so doth he many times withdraw from them and their Posterity again those beneficial Gifts if they be not thankful If we should shut up into a strait Corner the bountiful Grace of the Holy Ghost and thereupon attempt to build our Fancies we should make as perfect a Work thereof as those that took upon them to build the Tower of Babel For God would so provide that the Off-spring of our best-born Children should peradventure become most unapt to learn and very Dolts as I my self have seen no small number of them very dull and without all manner of Capacity And to say the truth I take it that none of us all here being Gentlemen born as I think but had our beginning that way from a low and base Parentage And through the benefit of Learning and other Civil Knowledg for the most part all Gentlemen ascend to their Estate Then it was again answered That the most part of the Nobility came up by Feats of Arms and Martial Acts. As though said the Arch-bishop that the noble Captain was always unfurnished of good Learning and Knowledg to perswade and disswade his Army Rhetorically Who rather that way is brought unto Authority than else his manly Looks To conclude the poor Man's Son by pains-taking will for the most part be learned when the Gentleman's Son will not take the pains to get it And we are taught by the Scriptures that Almighty God raiseth up from the Dunghil and setteth him in high Authority And whensoever it pleaseth him of his Divine Providence he deposeth Princes unto a right humble and poor Estate Wherefore if the Gentleman's Son be apt to Learning let him be admitted if not apt let the poor Man's Child that is apt enter his Room With words to the like effect Such a seasonable Patron of poor Men was the Arch-bishop Bishops consecrated April the 4 th Edmond Boner LL. D. Bishop of Hereford consecrated Bishop of London and Nicolas Hethe consecrated Bishop of Rochester in a Chappel in S. Paul's on the North side of the Nave by Stephen Bishop of Winton assisted by Richard Bishop of Chichester Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Iohn Bishop of Hereford by virtue of Commissional Letters from the Arch-bishop December the 29 th Thomas Thirlby consecrated the first Bishop of Westminster in S. Saviours Chappel near the Sepulchre of Henry VIII in the Church of Westminster by the Bishop of London assisted by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford by Letters Commissional from the Arch-bishop Dr. Butts the King's Physician first moved him to take Dr. Thirlby into his Service for that the said Thirleby was accounted a favourer of all such as favoured sincere Religion The Arch-bishop soon became acquainted with him and liked his Learning and his Qualities so well that he became his good Lord towards the King's Majesty and commended him to him to be a Man worthy to serve a Prince for such singular Qualities as were in him And indeed the King soon employed him in Embassies in France and elsewhere So that he grew in the King's Favour by the means of the Arch-bishop who had a very extraordinary Love for him and thought nothing too much to give him or to do for him And we may conclude it was by his means that after the dissolution of the Bishoprick of Westminster he was preferred to Norwich in the Year 1550. He complied with King Edward's Proceedings all his Reign and so he did with Queen Mary's during hers being then translated to Ely And was then made use of to be one of the Bishops Boner being the other that were sent to Oxon to degrade the Arch-bishop which he did with Tears If this Bishop did not to his uttermost endeavour practise to save the Arch-bishop's Life he not only did him much wrong but also abused his singular Benevolence with over-much Ingratitude I use the words of Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary as though he suspected he did not CHAP. XXIII All-Souls College visited THE following Year the College of All-Souls Oxon underwent the Arch-bishop's Visitation by virtue of a Commission May 12. to Iohn Cocks the Arch-bishop's Vicar-general in Spirituals Iohn Rokesby LL. D of the Arches Walter Wright LL. D. Publick Notary and Iohn Warner M. D. Warden of the College This Visitation was occasioned upon a Complaint of the very ill and loose Behaviour of the Members of that House The College grew scandalous for their Factions Dissentions and Combinations one against another for their Compotations Ingurgitations Surfeitings Drunkennesses enormous and excessive Comessations They kept Boys in the College under pretence of poor Scholars They entred not into Orders and became not Priests after they were Masters of Art Nor observed their Times of Disputations Their Habit and Apparel was gaudy And other things there were among them contrary to the Statutes of the College This Visitation was prorogued and all the

your Face No not so my Lord said the King I have better regard unto you than to permit your Enemies so to overthrow you And therefore I will have you to Morrow come to the Council which no doubt will send for you And when they break this Matter unto you require them that being one of them you may have so much Favour as they would have themselves that is to have your Accusers brought before you And if they stand with you without regard of your Allegations and will in no Condition condescend unto your Request but will needs commit you to the Tower then appeal you from them to our Person and give to them this my Ring which he then delivered unto the Arch-bishop by the which said the King they shall well understand that I have taken your Cause into my Hand from them Which Ring they well know that I use it for no other Purpose but to call Matters from the Council into mine own Hands to be ordered and determined And with this good Advice Cranmer after most humble Thanks departed from the King's Majesty The next Morning according to the King's Monition and his own Expectation the Council sent for him by Eight of the Clock in the Morning And when he came to the Council-Chamber-Door he was not permitted to enter into the Council-Chamber but stood without among Serving-men and Lacquies above three quarters of an hour many Counsellors and others going in and out The Matter seemed strange unto his Secretary who then attended upon him which made him slip away to Dr. Butts to whom he related the manner of the thing Who by and by came and kept my Lord Company And yet e're he was called into the Council Dr. Butts went to the King and told him that he had seen a strange Sight What is that said the King Marry said he my Lord of Canterbury is become a Lacquey or a Serving-man For to my knowledg he hath stood among them this hour almost at the Council-Chamber-Door Have they served my Lord so It is well enough said the King I shall talk with them by and by Anon Cranmer was called into the Council there it was declared unto him That a great Complaint was made of him both to the King and to them That he and others by his Permission had infected the whole Realm with Heresy And therefore it was the King's Pleasure that they should commit him to the Tower and there for his Trial to be examined Cranmer required as is before declared with many both Reasons and Perswasions that he might have his Accusers come there before them before they used any further Extremity against him In fine there was no Intreaty could serve but that he must needs depart to the Tower I am sorry my Lords said Cranmer that you drive me unto this Exigent to appeal from you to the King's Majesty who by this Token hath resumed this Matter into his own Hand and dischargeth you thereof And so delivered the King's Ring unto them By and by the Lord Russel swore a great Oath and said Did not I tell you my Lords what would come of this Matter I know right well that the King would never permit my Lord of Canterbury to have such a Blemish as to be imprisoned unless it were for High-Treason And so as the manner was when they had once received that Ring they left off their Matter and went all unto the King's Person both with his Token and the Cause When they came unto his Highness the King said unto them Ah my Lords I thought that I had had a discreet and wise Council but now I perceive that I am deceived How have you handled here my Lord of Canterbury What make ye of him A Slave Shutting him out of the Council-Chamber among Serving-men Would ye be so handled your selves And after such taunting words as these spoken the King added I would you should well understand that I account my Lord of Canterbury as faithful a Man towards me as ever was Prelate in this Realm and one to whom I am many ways beholden by the Faith I owe unto God and so laid his Hand upon his Breast And therefore who loveth me said he will upon that Account regard him And with these words all and especially my Lord of Norfolk answered and said We meant no manner of Hurt unto my Lord of Canterbury that we requested to have him in Durance Which we only did because he might after his Trial be set at Liberty to his greater Glory Well said the King I pray you use not my Friends so I perceive now well enough how the World goeth among you There remaineth Malice among you one to another let it be avoided out of hand I would advise you And so the King departed and the Lords shook Hands every Man with the Arch-bishop Against whom never more after durst any Man spurn during King Henry's Life And because the King would have Love always nourished between the Lords of the Council and the Arch-bishop he would send them divers times to Dinner with him And so he did after this Reconciliation Thus did the King interpose himself divers times between his Arch-bishop and his irreconcileable Enemies the Papists and observing by these Essays against him under what Perils he was like to come hereafter for his Religion about this Time it was as I conjecture that the King changed his Coat of Arms. For unto the Year 1543 he bore his Paternal Coat of Three Cranes Sable as I find by a Date set under his Arms yet remaining in a Window in Lambeth-House For it is to be noted That the King perceiving how much ado Cranmer would have in the Defence of his Religion altered the Three Cranes which were parcel of his Ancestors Arms into Three Pelicans declaring unto him That those Birds should signify unto him that he ought to be ready as the Pelican is to shed his Blood for his young Ones brought up in the Faith of Christ. For said the King you are like to be tasted if you stand to your Tackling at length As in very deed many and sundry times he was shouldered at both in this King's Reign as you have heard and under the two succeding Princes CHAP. XXIX Occasional Prayers and Suffrages OCcasional Prayers and Suffrages to be used throughout all Churches began now to be more usual than formerly For these common Devotions were twice this Year appointed by Authority as they had been once the last which I look upon the Arch-bishop to be the great Instrument in procuring That he might by this means by little and little bring into use Prayer in the English Tongue which he so much desired and that the People by understanding part of their Prayers might be the more desirous to have their whole Service rendred intelligible whereby God might be served with the more Seriousness and true Devotion The last Year there was a plentiful Crop upon the Ground

Possession of Arch-bishop Parker From whence he published the Book in the Year 1571 intituling it Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum c. Which was printed again in the Year 1640. Both these Manuscript Draughts were diligently compared together by Iohn Fox and the main Difference seemed to consist in putting the latter into a new Method and placing the Titles differently For in this Matter Cranmer was much busied in King Edward's Reign also being greatly desirous to bring that good Work to perfection For he thought it greatly inconvenient when the Pope's Power was abrogated that his Laws should remain in Force holding it highly necessary that the Nation might have a Body of wholsome Laws for the good Administration of Justice in the Spiritual Courts Wherefore he procured in the fifth Year of that King Letters Commissional to him and seven more diligently to set about the perusal of the old Church-Laws and then to compile such a Body of Laws as should seem in their Judgments most expedient to be practised in the Ecclesiastical Courts and Jurisdictions These seven were Thomas Goodrick Bishop of Ely Richard Cox the King's Almoner Peter Martyr William May Rowland Taylour Iohn Lucas and Richard Goodrick But the Matter was in effect wholly intrusted by the King to the Arch-bishop who associated to himself in the active part of this Work Taylour Martyr and Haddon The Method they observed in managing this Affair was that after they had finished a Title and drawn it up it was then sent to Dr. Haddon who was a Civilian and an accurate Latinist to peruse And if any thing was less elegantly expressed to correct it So I find at the Title De Decimis these words writ by Cranmer This is finished by us but must be over-seen again by Dr. Haddon Thus for instance I observe these Corrections by Haddon's Pen in the Chapter intituled De Commodis quae perveniunt à Sacris ritibus instead of Gratiarum actionis mulierum a partu he corrected it Levatarum puerperarum And in another place Cuicunque hoc Praerogativum est instead of hoc Praerogativum he put Hoc peculiare jus tribuitur quod Praerogativum vocant But his Corrections are very few and but of words less proper The Work and Words were mainly Cranmer's own But all this great and long Labour of the Arch-bishop came to no effect by reason of the King 's untimely Death and it may be the secret opposition of Papists At the same time that he being at Hampton-Court dealt with the King concerning the Reformation of the Canon-Laws he also gave him an Account of a Business his Majesty had imployed him in and with him also Heth and Day Bps of Worcester and Chichester and some other of his Chaplains and Learned Men whom he had of late appointed with the Arch-bishop to peruse certain Books of Service delivered by the King to them wherein there were many Superstitions fit to be amended Which the Arch-bishop in the Name of the rest at this time acquainted the King with As namely the Vigil and ringing of Bells all the Night long upon Alhallow-Night and the covering of Images in the Church in the time of Lent with the lifting the Vail that covereth the Cross on Palm-Sunday and kneeling to the Cross at the same time He moved the King in his own Name and the Name of the rest that these things might be abolished and the Superstitions and other Enormities and Abuses of the same And that because all other Vigils which in the beginning of the Church were godly used yet for the manifold Superstitions and Abuses which did after grow by means of the same were many Years past taken away throughout Christendom and there remained nothing but the Name of the Vigil in the Calendar saving only upon Alhallow-Day at Night he moved that it might be observed no more And because creeping to the Cross was a greater Abuse than any of the other for there the People said Crucem tuam adoramus Domine And the Ordinal saith Procedant Clerici ad Crucem adorandum nudis pedibus and it followeth in the said Ordinal Ponatur Crux ante aliquod Altare ubi à Populo adoretur Which by the Bishop's Book intituled A necessary Instruction is against the second Commandment therefore he desired of the King that the creeping to the Cross might also cease hereafter These superstitious Usages were allowed in the Articles of Religion put forth Anno 1536. Cranmer then not having Interest enough to procure the laying them aside or thinking it then not a fitting season to attempt it as being in vain to oppose what the King himself at that time approved of But now the King listned to the Arch-bishop and bad him confer with the Bishop of Worcester and send to him their Thoughts what course they would advise him to take for Redress The Arch-bishop accordingly consulted with the said Bishop who then went along with Cranmer in the Reformation The Effect of which was as the Arch-bishop wrote to the King soon after from Bekesbourn That his Majesty should send his Letters to both the Arch-bishops to reform these Superstitions and they to send in the King's Name to all the Prelates within their respective Provinces to the same purpose The Arch-bishop withal sent to the King the Minutes of a Letter to be sent to him the said Arch-bishop to that intent He also advised the King that at the same time that this Alteration was commanded to be made he should set forth some Doctrine which should declare the Cause of the abolishing these Usages for the Satisfaction of the Consciences of the People For he knew well as he wrote that the People would think the Honour of Christ was taken away when this honouring of the Cross was taken away And therefore that they should need some good Instruction herein He nominated the Bishops of Worcester and Chichester and some other his Graces Chaplains for the preparing this And this he said would make the People obey him without murmuring nay be thankful to him for shewing them the Truth And it would be a Satisfaction to other Nations when they should see the King do nothing but by the Authority of God's Word and for the setting forth of God's Honour and not the diminishing thereof This Letter of the Arch-bishop to the King is extant in the Paper-Office whence the Bishop of Sarum extracted a Copy These things were agitated in the Bishop of VVinchester's Absence whom the King had sent Ambassador this Year with the Bishop of VVestminster to Charles the Emperor about the Mediation of a Peace between England and France The Arch-bishop took this occasion to move the King in these good Purposes for a further Reformation of Abuses in Religion towards the which the King appeared to be in so good a Mind VVinchester being absent who if he had been at Home would undoubtedly have done his Endeavour to put a Check to these Attempts But it

both as to their Lodgings and Benefits But at a late Chapter they had obtained an Order in their behalf This the Arch-bishop now who favoured Preaching reminded them speedily to make good Concerning both these Affairs he wrote this Letter to them for the preserving Quietness Peace and good Order in his Church AFter my hearty Commendations Whereas I am informed that you be in doubt whether any Prebendary of that my Church may exchange his House or Garden with another Prebend of the same Church-Living and that you be moved by this Statute so to think which here followeth Statuimus ut Canonicus de novo Electus demissus in demortui aut resignantis aut quovismodo cedentis aedes succedat These be to signify unto you that neither this Statute nor any other Reason that I know maketh any thing against the Exchange between two Prebends Living but that they may change House Orchard or Garden during their Life this Statute or any other Reason contrary notwithstanding And whereas you have appointed your Preachers at your last Chapter their Chambers and Commodities I require you that they may be indelayedly admitted thereunto according to that your Order Thus fare you well From my Mannor of Croyden the 12 th of December 1546. Th. Cantuariens To my loving Friends the Vice-dean and Prebendaries of my Church in Canterbury This was the last Year of King Henry And the two last things the Arch-bishop was concerned in by the King were these The King commanded him to pen a Form for the Alteration of the Mass into a Communion For a Peace being concluded between Henry and the French King while that King's Ambassador Dr. Annebault was here a notable Treaty was in hand by both Kings for the promoting that good Piece of Reformation in the Churches of both Kingdoms of abolishing the Mass. The Kings seemed to be firmly resolved thereon intending to exhort the Emperor to do the same The Work our King committed to the Arch-bishop who no question undertook it very gladly But the Death of the King prevented this taking Effect The last Office the Arch-bishop did for the King his Master was to visit him in his last Sickness whom of all his Bishops and Chaplains he chose to have with him at that needful Hour to receive his last Comfort and Counsel But the King was void of Speech when he came though not of Sense and Apprehension For when the King took him by the Hand the Arch-bishop speaking comfortably to him desired him to give him some Token that he put his Trust in God through Iesus Christ according as he had advised him and thereat the King presently wrung hard the Arch-bishop's Hand and soon after departed viz. Ianuary the 28 th The End of the First Book MEMORIALS OF Arch-Bishop CRANMER BOOK II. CHAPTER I. He Crowns King Edward OUR Arch-bishop having lost his old Master was not so sorrowful but the Hopefulness of the new One did as much revive and solace him because he concluded that the Matters requisite for the Reformation of the Church were like now to go on more roundly and with less Impediment One of the very first Things that was done in young King Edward the Sixth's Reign in relation to the Church was that the Bishops who had the Care of Ecclesiastical Matters and the Souls of Men should be made to depend intirely upon the King and his Council and to be subject to suspension from their Office and to have their whole Episcopal Power taken from them at his Pleasure which might serve as a Bridle in case they should oppose the Proceedings of a Reformation In this I suppose the Arch-bishop had his Hand For it was his Judgment that the Exercise of all Episcopal Jurisdiction depended upon the Prince And that as he gave it so he might restrain it at his Pleasure And therefore he began this Matter with himself Petitioning That as he had exercised the Authority of an Arch-bishop during the Reign of the former King so that Authority ending with his Life it would please the present King Edward to commit unto him that Power again For it seemed that he would not act as Arch-bishop till he had a new Commission from the new King for so doing And that this was his Judgment appeared in the first words of that Commission granted to him In the composing of which I make no question he had his Hand Quandoquidem omnis juris dicendi autoritas atque etiam jurisdictio omnimoda tam illa quae Ecclesiastica dicitur quam Secularis à Regia potestate velut à supremo capite ac omnium Magistratuum infra Regnum nostrum fonte scaturigine primitus emanaverit c. That is Since all Authority of exercising Jurisdiction and also all kind of Jurisdiction as well that which is called Ecclesiastical as Secular originally hath flowed from the King's Power as from the Supream Head and the Fountain and Source of all Magistracy within our Kingdom We therefore in this part yielding to your humble Supplications and consulting for the Good of our Subjects have determined to commit our Place to you under the Manner and Form hereunder described And the King then licenseth him to ordain within his Diocess and to promote and present to Ecclesiastical Benefices and to institute and invest and if occasion required to deprive to prove Testaments and the rest of the Business of his Courts And so all the rest of his Offices were reckoned This was dated Feb. 7. 1546. But yet all these things were committed to him with a Power of Revocation of the Exercise of this Authority reserved in the King durante beneplacito Thus a formal Commission was made to him I do not transcribe it because the Bishop of Sarum hath saved me that Pains And hence I find that the Arch-bishop in some of his Writings is stiled The Commissary of our dread Soveraign Lord King Edward One of the first Exercises of his Episcopal Power was the Coronation of young King Edward Which was celebrated February the 20 th at the Abbey of Westminster the Arch-bishop assisting now at his Coronation as he had done about nine Years before at his Christening when he stood his Godfather The Form and Solemnity of it and wherein the Arch-bishop bore so great a part was in this manner as I collect and transcribe out of a Manuscript in Benet College First There was a goodly Stage richly hanged with Cloth of Gold and Cloth of Arras and the Steps from the Choire contained two and twenty Steps of height and down to the high Altar but fifteen Steps goodly carpetted where the King's Grace should tread with his Nobles Secondly The high Altar richly garnished with divers and costly Jewels and Ornaments of much Estimation and Value And also the Tombs on each side the high Altar richly hanged with fine Gold Arras Thirdly In the midst of the Stage was a goodly thing

Irenicum published by him from a Manuscript Volume once belonging to Arch-bishop Cranmer In this Convocation the Arch-bishop bore the great Sway and what things were agitated herein were chiefly by his Motion and Direction Some whereof were turned into Laws by the Parliament that was now sitting through his Activeness and Influence As particularly that Repeal of the Statute of the Six Articles and of some other severe Laws decreeing divers things Treason and Felony made in the former King's Reign For when the Arch-bishop in the Convocation had made a Speech to the Clergy exhorting them to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider what Things in the Church needed Reformation that so the Church might be discharged of all Popish Trash not yet thrown out Some told him that as long as the Six Articles remained it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council Upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By his means also another great thing moved in the Convocation was now ratified and made a Law by this Parliament which was for the Administration of the Communion under both Kinds throughout the Kingdom of England and Ireland And upon this the King appointed certain Grave and Learned Bishops and others to assemble at Windsor-Castle there to treat and confer together and to conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order of Communion according to the Rules of Scripture and the Use of the Primitive Church And this being framed it was enjoined to be used throughout the Realm by a Proclamation and all required to receive it with due Reverence I meet with a Writing of the Arch-bishop without Date consisting of Queries concerning the Mass in order to the abolishing it and changing it into a Communion Which I know not where so well to place as here now the Convocation was employed upon this Matter For it seems to have been drawn up by the Arch-bishop on purpose to be laid before the Consideration of this House The Queries were these What or wherein Iohn Fasting giving Alms being Baptized or receiving the Sacrament of the Altar in England doth profit and avail Thomas dwelling in Italy and not knowing what Iohn in England doth Whether it profit them that be in Heaven and wherein Whether it lieth in the Faster Giver of Alms Receiver of the Sacrament him that is Baptized to defraud any Member of Christ's Body of the Benefit of Fasting Alms-Deeds Baptism or Receiving of the Sacrament and to apply the same Benefit to one Person more than to another What thing is the Presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which you call the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ And wherein standeth it in Act Gesture or Word and in what Act Gesture or Word Is there any Rite or Prayer and expressed in the Scripture which Christ used or commanded at the first Institution of the Mass which we be now bound to use and what the same be Whether in the Primitive Church there were any Priests that lived by saying of Mass Mattens and Even-song and praying for Souls only And where any such State of Priesthood be allowed in the Scriptures or be meet to be allowed now For what Cause were it not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in the English Tongue Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution What Time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priests alone should receive the Sacrament Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the Time of the Mass to the understanding of the People being present Whether in the Mass it were convenient to use such Speech as the People may understand To proceed to some other Things wherein our Arch-bishop was this Year concerned In Iune the Church of S. Pauls was hanged with Black and a sumptuous Hearse set up in the Choire and a Dirige there sung for the French King who deceased the March precedent And on the next Day the Arch-bishop assisted with eight Bishops more all in rich Mitres and their other Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem and the Bishop of Rochester preached a Funeral Sermon A nice Matter was now put by the Council to the Arch-bishop having some other Bishops and Learned Men joined with him to the Number of Ten. The Case was Whether a Man divorced from his Wife for her Adultery might not lawfully marry again This was propounded upon the Account of a great Man in those Times namely the Brother of Queen Katherine Par Marquess of Northampton who had gotten a Divorce from his Wife the Daughter of Bourchier Earl of Essex for Adultery The Canon Law would not allow marrying again upon a Divorce making Divorce to be only a Separation from Bed and Board and not a Dissolving the Knot of Marriage This was a great Question depending among the Civilians And it being committed to the Determination of our Arch-bishop and some other Delegates tho the Marquess staid not for their Resolution but in this Interval married Elizabeth Daughter of the Lord Brook he searched so diligently into the Scriptures first and then into the Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that his Collections swelled into a Volume yet remaining in the Hands of a Learned Bishop of this Realm The Sum whereof is digested by the Bishop of Sa●●m Cranmer seemed to allow of Marriage in the Innocent Person He was a Means also to the Council of forbidding Processions Wherein the People carried Candles on Candlemass-day Ashes on Ash-wednesday Palms on Palm-sunday because he saw they were used so much to Superstition and looked like Festivals to the Heathen Gods So that this Year on Candlemass-day the old Custom of bearing Candles in the Church and on Ash-wednesday following giving Ashes in the Church was left off through the whole City of London He was a Member of a Committee this Winter appointed to examine all the Offices of the Church and to consider where they needed Reformation and accordingly to reform them Of this Commission were most of the Bishops and several others of the most Learned Divines in the Nation And a new Office for the Communion was by them prepared and by Authority set forth as was observed before and received all over England CHAP. V. The Arch-bishop's Catechism THIS Year the Arch-bishop put forth a very useful Catechism intituled A short Instruction to Christian Religion for the singular Profit of Children and young People This Catechism went not by way of Question and Answer but contained an easy Exposition of the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the two Sacraments The first and second Commandments were put together as one and the whole recital

the University at that Time and of the great Sway the Arch-bishop then carried in the Publick and the marvellous Good-will he was esteemed to bear towards Learning I have therefore placed in the Appendix tho printed before This Favour of having their Privileges confirmed sued for in the forementioned Letter the University then got partly by the Means of their cordial Patron the Arch-bishop and partly by the Intercession and Friendship of Queen Katherine Par a great Favourer of Learning and pure Religion of Wriothesly Lord Chancellor the Earl of Warwick the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Paget to all whom at that time they addressed their Letters whether it were out of fear of the difficulty of getting the thing done or to take this Opportunity to obtain the Countenance of the great Men of the Court. Some time after upon another Occasion the Heads of the University made another Application to their Patron the Arch-bishop which was to befriend them at Court against the Townsmen their old Enemies who were now wresting from them one of their Ancient undoubted Privileges namely the use of the Prisons of the Toll-booth and Castle The Occasion was this In the time of Sturbridg-Fair the Proctors upon great Complaints made to them going their Rounds one Night had taken certain evil Persons in Houses of Sin and had brought them to the Toll-booth in order to the commitment of them there But having sent to the Mayor for the Keys he absolutely refused to part with them So they were fain to carry their Prisoners to the Castle where they left them in Custody But the Mayor's Son after an Hour or two let them all out to return if they pleased to their former Lewdness to the Breach of Law and Affront of the Magistrate Upon this the University sent their Letters to the Arch-bishop making certain of their grave Members the Bearers to relate the Matter more fully earnestly requiring that such Insolence might be punished and that the King and his Council would make such Men feel what it was to violate Laws and to cherish Impunity and to break their Oaths which they had taken to maintain the University-Privileges They urged to him how serviceable and ready their University had been to him in his pious Labours and Counsels in establishing the true Doctrine in the Church and what fit and worthy Men they had sent him for his Assistance in that good Work In like manner they required and expected of him that their Dignity might be maintained and preserved by his Aid and Authority That the University was then but in a low Condition and that Abroad it scarcely retained the Shadow of its former Glory But if at Home and within it Self the Bonds and Sinews of its Safety should thus be cut as not to have a Power to restrain Vice by Imprisonment what could the Kingdom Religion and the King's Majesty hope for any more from that University They inculcated how Learning and the true Religion rise and fall together and that if it went otherwise than well with the one the other would feel the Smart of it And truly say they no remarkable Dammage can light upon the Studies of Learning which by the same Motion draws not along with it the true Religion into the same Catastrophe And these Considerations they made use of to excite his Grace to assist them in vindicating their Privileges and in having that gross Infringement of them punished Upon the same Occasion they wrote their Letters also to Sir William Paget a great Friend of theirs and eminent Patron of good Learning What the Issue of these Applications was I find not but may conclude they received a Success proportionable to the good Will and Authority of those to whom they were made And as the whole Body of the University knew what Favour our Prelate bore to it so every single ingenious Member confided in him and applied to him in their Needs Roger Ascham the University Orator whom I had occasion to mention before was a Man of a weak Constitution and had contracted more frailty by reason of a long Ague that then hung about him and his Complexion became Melancholy by the Relicts of that stubborn Distemper He had also in his Nature a great averseness to the Fish-diet Upon these Reasons he address'd his Letters to the ABp with an humble Suit very handsomly penned that he might be dispensed with as to abstinence from Flesh-meats Lent and Fish-days being then strictly observed in the Colleges And this Licence he desired might be not only Temporary but perpetual as long as he lived which was somewhat extraordinary But to encline the Arch-bishop to yield to his Suit he told him That it was not to pamper his Flesh nor out of an affectation of doing that which was unusual or against common Custom but only for the preserving his Health and that he might the more freely pursue his Studies He added That the Air of Cambridg was naturally Cold and Moist and so the Fish-diet the more unwholsome He desired therefore That by his Authority he might no longer be tied by that Tradition which forbad the Use of certain Meats at certain Times He said That those who granted this Liberty to none but such as laboured under a desperate Disease did like them who never repaired their Houses but when they were just ready to fall down by Age. Thrifty House-keepers did otherwise So did skilful Physicians who did not use to prescribe their Physick when it was too late but always put a stop to Beginnings That they who never would impart the using of this Liberty of eating Flesh to any but when all Health was despaired of knew not what good a prudent Foresight did in all Common-wealths and did too insolently abuse a good Thing bestowed upon us by God when little or no use at all could be made of it Nay that such a Good was no Good at all being External but in that respect only as there might some use be made of it That we ought not therefore unprofitably to abuse Food to Diseases that are desperate but to accommodate it to the preservation of Health And so did S. Paul command Therefore I exhort you to take some Food for this is for your Health Then he subjoins a Passage of Herodotus in his Euterpe concerning the Egyptian Priests from whom issued originally all kinds of Learning and Arts and who were always conversant in Learned Studies These saith that Author religiously tied themselves ever to abstain from all eating of Flesh. No doubt for this only Cause saith Ascham Nè ignea vis ingenii atque praestantia ullo frigido succo quem esus piscium ingeneraret extingueretur That the Wits of Men that have a noble fiery Quality in them might not be quenched by some cold Juice which the eating of Fish might ingender And that it was somewhat unjust he adds that when so many kinds

the Morals of this Man tainted having once made a very foul Slip being guilty of an Act of Uncleanness For which Sir William Cecyl Secretary of State who had been his good Friend was exceedingly displeased with him and withdrew all Favour and Countenance from him calling him Wicked Man and intending to inflict some severe Punishment upon him which seemed to be Banishment out of the Nation or at least turning him out of his Family where he seems to have been entertained Angelo wrote him a very penitent Letter minding him of the frailty of Human Nature and of the Mercy of God to Moses Aaron David Ionas Peter after their Falls And that if he were forced to depart the Kingdom he must either be compelled to renounce the Truth of the Gospel or have his Blood shed by the Enemies thereof This was as I suppose in the Year 1551. In fine he got over this Brunt and recovered mild Cecyl's Favour For I find a Year after our Arch-bishop wrote to him to further a certain Business of Michael Angelo at Court as much as he could This is all I have to say of that Italian Congregation and the Minister thereof For further memory of which I have added in the Appendix two Letters of this Michael Angelo to Secretary Cecyl whence many of the Matters next above mentioned were collected As there was thus a German and Italian Church in London so also there was a third of French Men under A Lasco's Superintendency One Member of which a very honest Man and of sound Religion by the general Testimony of that Church had desired to set up a Printing-house for his Livelihood chiefly for printing the Liturgy and other Books of the Church of England in French for the use of the French Islands under the English Subjection In whose behalf the Superintendent readily interceeded by a Letter with the Secretary to procure the King's Letters Patents for his Licence and Authority so to do The issue of which will be seen in the progress of this History The Letter I have transcribed to accompany two others of A Las●o in the Appendix CHAP. XXIII The Church at Glastenbury IN the same Year viz. 1550. another Church of Strangers and they most what French and Walloons began to settle at Glastenbury in Somersetshire They were Weavers and followed the Manufacture of Kersies and Cloth of that Nature as I conjecture Their great Patrons were the Duke of Somerset and Sir William Cecyl I add and our Arch-bishop though I do not find his Name mentioned in the Papers I make use of relating to this Church For there is no question but that his Counsel and Aid concurred in the settlement of this Church as well as those in London and particularly as to the Preacher whom I suspect to have been one of those Learned Foreign Divines whom he harboured in his own House His Name was Valerandus Pollanus a Man of great worth both for Learning and Integrity who had the Title of Superintendent of the Strangers Church at Glastenbury as Iohn a Lasco had of that at London given to each to fix a Character of Honour and Esteem upon their Persons and perhaps to exempt them and their Churches from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops of those respective Diocesses This Pollanus turned into Latine and printed the Disputations held in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign between the Protestants and Papists at the Convocation Anno 1553. If any desire to know the particular State and Condition of the establishment of these Strangers as to their Trade it stood thus Pollanus in behalf of the rest had preferred a Petition to the Duke of Somerset and the rest of the Lords of the Council to this Effect That they might be permitted to form themselves into a Church for the free Exercise of Religion and to follow peaceably their Calling of Weaving declaring as an Argument to perswade them to allow the same the considerable Benefit that would accrue thence to the Realm And that for Shops and Working-houses and for reception of them and their Families they might enjoy some old dissolved Religious House Their Petition was condescended to And the Duke being a great Cherisher of those of the Religion resolved to be their Patron and to take the managing of this whole Cause upon himself The Duke in the Month of Iune this Year had made an exchange of certain Lands with the King and that probably for the better accommodating of these Strangers He had parted with the Castle and Lordship of Sleford and other Lands and Tenements in the County of Lincoln to the King and the King had granted him in lieu thereof all and singular his Messuages Lands Tenements and Hereditaments with their Appurtenances in the Town of Glastenbury namely what had belonged to the Abby and other Lands and Tenements in Kingston upon Hull to the value of 214 l. 14 s. 5 d. obq as I find in a Manuscript Book mentioning the several Sales that King made Having obtained such Conveniences in Glastenbury he resolved to plant this Manufacture here which he thought would tend so much to the Benefit of the Country himself and these poor Strangers too Conditions were mutually entred into The Conditions on Somerset's part were That he should provide them Houses convenient for their Occupations and to contain themselves and Families that five Acres of Pasture Land or as much as would serve for the feeding of two Cows throughout the Year should be allotted to each of them and until Land were so allotted they should enjoy the Park in common for the said use with some part also of the Gardens They were also to be supplied with Monies from the Duke to buy Wool and defray other Charges necessary to set them on Work They were also empowered to employ both English Men and Women as they should have occasion in Spinning and other Works belonging to their Trade And so accordingly they went down to Gastenbury and fell to work But upon the Troubles and Fall of Somerset which happened about fourteen or fifteen Months after their Affairs were much obstructed His Servants neglected to furnish them with Money according to Contract Nor was he at leisure now to regard them The People among whom they lived took this opportunity to express what little kindness they had for them it being the Temper of the Common-sort to be jealous of Strangers and rude to them So that they were not without their Discontents and Discouragements For they wanted those Conveniences of room for Work-houses and Habitations that were promised them They ran in Debt and were forced to lay to pawn the Clothes they had wove to supply their Wants Cornish one of the chief of their Procurators appointed to oversee them and further their Trade proved very deceitful and false to them Who came to them pretending Letters from the Council and treating them at first with fair Words and after

for there was that which would comfort him when he should be in such a case as he was then in One asked him concerning the Doctrine of the School-Doctors that Bread remained not after Consecration He replied There was none of the School-Doctors knew what Consecratio did mean And pausing a while said It was Tota actio The whole Action in ministring the Sacrament as Christ did institute it After the Conference with him was ended Yong retiring into another Chamber said to Wilks that Dr. Redman so moved him that whereas he was before in such Opinion of certain things that he would have burned and lost his Life for them now he doubted of them But I see said he a Man shall know more and more by process of time and by reading and hearing others And Mr. Dr. Redman's saying shall cause me to look more diligently for them Ellis Lomas Redman's Servant said he knew his Master had declared to King Henry that Faith only justifieth but that he thought that Doctrine was not to be taught the People lest they should be negligent to do good Works All this I have related of this Divine that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest Men of his Time and lay up the dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines The Sweating-sickness breaking out this Year in great violence whereby the two Sons of the Duke of Suffolk were taken off Letters from the Council dated Iuly 18 were sent to all the Bishops to perswade the People to Prayer and to see God better served It being enacted 1549 That the King might during three Years appoint sixteen Spiritual Men and sixteen Temporal to examine the old Ecclesiastical Laws and to compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws to be in force in the room of the old this third Year Octob. 6. a Commission was issued out to the same number of Persons authorizing them to reform the Canon Laws that is to say to eight Bishops eight Divines eight Civil Lawyers and eight Common Whose Names as they occur in an Original are as follow BISHOPS The Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Exeter Glocester Bath Rochestre DIVINES Mr. Taylor of Lincoln Cox Almoner Parker of Cambridg Latimer Cook Sir Anthony I suppose Peter Martyr Cheke Ioannes a Laseo CIVILIANS Mr. Peter Cecyl Sir Tho. Smith Taylor of Hadeligh Dr. May Mr. Traheron Dr. Lyel Mr. Skinner LAWYERS Justice Hales Justice Bromly Goodrick Gosnal Stamford Carel Lucas Brook Recorder of London It was so ordered that this number should be divided into four distinct Classes or Companies each to consist of two Bishops two Divines to Civilians and two Common-Lawyers And to each Company were assigned their set parts Which when one Company had finished it was transmitted to the other Companies to be by them all well considered and inspected But out of all the number of two and thirty eight especially were selected from each rank two viz. out of the Bishops the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely out of the Divines Cox and Martyr out of the Civilians Taylor and May out of the Common-Lawyers Lucas and Goodrick To whom a new Commission was made Novemb. 9 for the first forming of the Work and preparation of the Matter And the Arch-bishop supervised the whole Work This Work they plied close this Winter But lest they should be straitned for time the Parliament gave the King three Years longer for accomplishing this Affair So Feb. 2. A Letter was sent from the Council to make a new Commission to the Arch-bishop and to the other Bishops and Learned Men Civilians and Lawyers for the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws according to the Act of Parliament made in the last Session This was a very noble Enterprize and well worthy the Thoughts of our excellent Arch-bishop Who with indefatigable Pains had been both in this and the last King's Reign labouring to bring this Matter about and he did his part for he brought the Work to perfection But it wanted the King's Ratification which was delayed partly by Business and partly by Enemies Bishops Consecrated August the 30 th Iohn Scory Ponet being translated to Winchester was consecrated Bishop of Rochester at Croyden by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford Miles Coverdale was at the same time and place Consecrated Bishop of Exon all with their Surplices and Copes and Coverdale so habited also CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion OUR Arch-bishop and certain of the Bishops and other Divines but whom by Name I find not were this Year chiefly busied in composing and preparing a Book of Articles of Religion which was to contain what should be publickly owned as the Sum of the Doctrine of the Church of England This the Arch-bishop had long before this bore in his Mind as excellently serviceable for the creating of a Concord and Quietness among Men and for the putting an End to Contentions and Disputes in Matters of Religion These Articles the Arch-bishop was the Penner or at least the great Director of with the assistance as is very probable of Bishop Ridley And so he publickly owned afterwards in his Answer to certain Interrogatories put to him by Queen Mary's Commissioners viz. That the Catechism the Book of Articles and the Book against Winchester were his Doings These Articles were in number Forty two and were agreed to in the Convocation 1552. And in the Year 1553 they were published by the King's Authority both in Latin and English After they were finished he laboured to have the Clergy subscribe them but against their Wills he compelled none though afterwards some charged him falsly to do so Which he utterly denied as he declared before the said Queen's Commissioners But to enter into some Particulars concerning so eminent a Matter Ecclesiastical as this was In the Year 1551 the King and his Privy-Council ordered the Archbishop to frame a Book of Articles of Religion for the preserving and maintaining Peace and Unity of Doctrine in this Church that being finish'd they might be set forth by Publick Authority The Arch-bishop in obedience hereunto drew up a set of Articles which were delivered to certain other Bishops to be inspected and subscribed I suppose by them Before them they lay until this Year 1552. Then May 2. a Letter was sent from the Council to our Arch-bishop to send the Articles that were delivered the last Year to the Bishops and to signify whether the same were set forth by any Publick Authority according to the Minutes The Arch-bishop accordingly sent the Articles and his Answer unto the Lords of the Council In September I find the Articles were again in his Hands Then he set the Book in a better Order and put Titles upon each of the Articles and some Additions for the better perfecting of the Work and supply

corrupt Religion within his Province and Territories But finding the Opposition against him so great and lying under the Excommunication of the Pope for what he had done and being deprived thereupon by the Emperor of his Lands and Function he resigned his Ecclesiastical Honour and betook himself to a retired Life which was done about the Year 1547. But no question in this private Capacity he was not idle in doing what Service he could for the good of that Cause which he had so generously and publickly espoused and for which he had suffered so much I find that in this Year 1552 our Arch-bishop had sent a Message to Secretary Cecyl who accompanied the King in this Summer's Progress desiring him to be mindful of the Bishop of Colen's Letters And in another Letter dated Iuly 21 he thanked the Secretary for the good remembrance he had thereof What the Contents of these Letters of the Arch-bishop of Colen were it appeareth not But I am very apt to think the Purport of them was that Cranmer would solicite some certain Business in the English Court relating to the Affairs of Religion in Germany and for the obtaining some Favour from the King in that Cause But the King being now abroad and the Arch-bishop at a distance from him he procured the Secretary who was ever cordial to the State of Religion to solicit that Arch-bishop's Business for him sending him withal that Arch-bishop's Letters for his better Instruction And this whatever it was seems to have been the last good Office that Arch-bishop Herman did to the Cause of Religion for he died according to Sleidan in the Month of August and our Arch-bishop's Letter wherein that Elector's Letters are mentioned were writ but the Month before And if one may judg of Mens commencing Friendship and Love according to the sutableness of their Tempers and Dispositions our Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Arch-bishop of Colen must have been very intimate Friends It was said of this Man that he often wished That either he might be instrumental to the propagating the Evangelical Doctrine and Reformation of the Churches under his Iurisdiction or to live a private Life And when his Friends had often told him what Envy he would draw upon himself by the changing of Religion he would answer like a true Christian Philosopher That nothing could happen to him unexpectedly and that he had long since fortified his Mind against every Event These two Passages spake the very Spirit and Soul of Cranmer Which they may see that are minded to read what Fox saith of him as to his Undauntedness and Constancy in the maintaining of the Truth against the many Temptations and Dangers that he met with during these three Reigns successively And lastly as our Arch-bishop devoted himself wholly to the reforming of his Church so admirable was the Diligence Pains and Study this Arch-bishop took in contriving the Reformation of his He procured a Book to be writ concerning it called Instauratio Ecclesiarum which contained the Form and Way to be used for the redressing the Errors and Corruptions of his Church It was composed by those great German Divines Bucer and Melancthon which Book was put into English and published here as a good Pattern in the Year 1547. This Book he intended to issue forth through his Jurisdiction by his Authority to be observed But first he thought fit well and seriously to examine it and spent five Hours in the Morning for five Days to deliberate and consult thereupon Calling to him to advise withal in this great Affair his Coadjutor Count Stolberg Husman Ienep Bucer and Melancthon He caused the whole Work to be read before him and as many Places occurred wherein he seemed less satisfied he caused the Matter to be disputed and argued and then spake his own Mind accurately He would patiently hear the Opinions of others for the information of his own Judgment and so ordered things to be either changed or illustrated And so dextrously would he decide many Controversies arising that Melancthon thought that those great Points of Religion had been long weighed and considered by him and that he rightly understood the whole Doctrine of the Church He had always lying by him the Bible of Luther's Version and as Testimonies chanced to be alledged thence he commanded that they should be turned to that he might consider that which is the Fountain of all Truth Insomuch that the said Melancthon could not but admire and talk of his Learning Prudence Piety and Dexterity to such as he conversed with and particularly to Iohn Caesar to whom in a Letter he gave a particular Account of this Affair And it is to be noted by the way that the said Book according to which the Reformation was to be modelled contained only as Melancthon in his Letter suggested a necessary Instruction for all Children and the Sum of the Christian Doctrine and the Appointments for the Colleges and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy were very moderate the Form of the Ecclesiastical Polity being to remain as it was and so were the Colleges with their Dignities Wealth Degrees Ornaments thereunto belonging only great Superstitions should be taken away Which the wise Melancthon aforesaid did so approve of that he professed he had often propounded it in Diets of the German Nation as the best way to Peace And this I add that it might be observed how Arch-bishop Cranmer went by the same Measures in the Reformation of the Church of England maintaining the Hierarchy and the Revenues Dignities and Customs of it against many in those Times that were for the utter abolishing them as Relicks of Popery Such a Correspondence there was between our Arch-bishop and the wisest moderatest and most learned Divines of Germany But let us look nearer Home CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal AS the last Year we heard of the Deprivation of two Popish Bishops so this Year another underwent the like Censure I mean Tonstal Bishop of Durham whose Business I shall the rather relate because our Arch-bishop had some Concern in it Septemb. 21. A Commission was issued out to the Lord Chief Justice and his Colleagues to examine and determine the Cause of Tonstal Bishop of Durham and eight Writings touching the same which he is willed to consider and to proceed to the hearing and ordering of the Matter as soon as he may get the rest of his Colleagues to him It was not long after viz. about the midst of October that this Bishop by these Commissioners whose Names besides the Chief Justice do not occur was deprived and his Estate confiscated Octob. ult Sir Iohn Mason was ordered by the Council to deliver to the use of Dr. Tonstal so he is now stiled remaining Prisoner in the Tower such Money as should serve for his Necessities until such time as further Order shall be taken touching his Goods and Money lately appertaining to him Decemb. 6. It was agreed by the Council that Dr.

Penance and forsaking their Wives Allowing them to minister at the Altar and to serve Cures provided it were out of the Diocesses where they were married The said Bishops by this Commission were also empowered to grant to fit Rectors and Curates a Power to reconcile and absolve their respective Parishes This Commission I have placed in the Appendix as it was transcribed out of the Register of the Church of Canterbury The Lord Legate also for the better discharging of this his mighty Office gave out his Instructions how the Bishops and Officials of the Vacant Sees should perform this Work of the Reconciliation deputed to them by the said Legate together with the Form of Absolution to be pronounced Which Instructions and Form as they were extracted from the said Register may be found in the Appendix Each Bishop was to call before him the Clergy of his respective City and to instruct them in divers things As concerning the Pope's fatherly Love and Charity towards the English Nation in sending Cardinal Pole his Legate hither as soon as he knew the Lady Mary was declared Queen to bring this Kingdom so long separated from the Catholick Church into Union with it and to comfort and restore them to the Grace of God Concerning the joyful coming of the said Legate concerning what was done the last Parliament when the Lords and Commons were Reconciled and concerning the repealing of all the Laws made against the Authority of the Roman See by the two last Kings and restoring Obedience to the Pope and Church of Rome Concerning the Authority restored likewise to the Bishops especially that they might proceed against Hereticks and Schismaticks Then the Bishops were to acquaint their Clergy with the Faculties yielded to them by the Legate which were to be read openly Then all that were lapsed into Error and Schism were to be invited humbly to crave Absolution and Reconciliation and Dispensations as well for their Orders as for their Benefices Next a Day was fixed when the Clergy were to appear and petition for the said Absolutions and Dispensations On which day after they had confessed their Errors and sacramentally promised that they would make Confession of the same to the Bishop himself or some other Catholick Priests and to perform the Penance that should be enjoined them then the Bishop was to reconcile them and to dispense with their Irregularities Always observing a distinction between those that only fell into Schism and Error and those who were the Teachers of them and Leaders of others into Sin The same time was to be appointed another day for a Solemn Festival wherein the Bishops and Curates in their Churches should signify to the People all that the Bishops before had spoken to their Clergy and then should invite them all to confess their Errors and to return into the Bosom of the Church promising them That all their past Crimes should be forgiven if so be they repented of them and renounced them And a certain Term was to be fixed namely the whole Octaves of Easter within which Term all should come and be reconciled But the Time to be reconciled in being lapsed all that remained unreconciled as also all that returned to their Vomit after they had been reconciled were to be most severely proceeded against The said Bishops and Officials where any Sees were Vacant were to name and depute the Rectors of the Parish-Churches and other fit Persons who should absolve the Laity of their Parishes from Heresy and Schism and Censures according to a Form to be given them by the Bishops The Bishops and Officials and Curates were to have each a Book in which were to be writ the Names and Parishes of all that were reconciled That it might afterwards be known who were reconciled and who were not After the Octave of Easter was past the Bishops were to visit first their Cities and then their Diocesses and to summon before them all such as had not been reconciled and to know of them the Cause why they would not depart from their Errors and remaining obstinate in them they were to proceed against them In this Visitation all the Clergy were to be required to shew the Titles of their Orders and Benefices and notice was to be taken if any Defect were therein And now the Bishops were to take care to root out any Errors in their Diocesses and to depute fit Persons to make Sermons and hear Confessions They were also to take care to have the Sacred Canons observed and to have inserted into the Books of Service the Name of S. Thomas the Martyr and of the Pope formerly blotted out and to pray for the Pope according as it was used before the Schism They were advised to insist much upon the great Miseries we were in before and the great Grace that God now had shewed to this People Exhorting them to acknowledg these Mercies and devoutly to pray for the King and Queen that had deserved so exceedingly well of this Kingdom and especially to pray for a happy Off-spring from the Queen In these Instructions there are several Strictures that make it appear Pole was not so gentle towards the Hereticks as the Professors of the Gospel were then stiled as is reported but rather the contrary and that he went hand in hand with the bloody Bishops of these Days For it is plain here that he put the Bishops upon proceeding with them according to the Sanguinary Laws lately revived and put in full Force and Virtue What an Invention was that of his a kind of Inquisition by him set up whereby not a Man might escape that stood not well affected to Popery I mean his ordering Books to be made and kept wherein the Names of all such were to be written that in every Place and Parish in England were reconciled and so whosoever were not found in those Books might be known to be no Friends to the Pope and so to be proceeded against And indeed after Pole's crafty and zealous Management of this Reconciliation all that good Opinion that Men had before conceived of him vanished and they found themselves much mistaken in him especially seeing so many Learned and Pious Gospel-Bishops and Ministers imprisoned and martyred under him and by his Commission Insomuch that now People spake of him as bad as of the Pope himself or the worst of his Cardinals The Gospellers before this did use to talk much among themselves that he did but dissemble at Rome in his present outward Compliances with them and their Superstitions and that he would upon a good Opportunity shew himself an open Professor of the Truth And indeed he often had Conferences before him of Christ and of the Gospel of a living Faith and Justification by Faith alone and he often would wish the true Doctrine might prevail But now the Mask was taken off and he shewed himself what he was A notable Letter to this Purpose was written concerning the Cardinal about

certain of these Men who were said to hold the Error of the Pelagians and Papists concerning Man's Free-will and were then Prisoners with him in the King's-Bench By which Letter it appeared that Bradford had often resorted to them and conferred with them and at his own Charge and Hindrance had done them good But seeing their Obstinacy and Clamours against him he forbore to come at them any more but yet wrote Letters to them and sent them Relief They told him He was a great Slander to the Word of God in respect of his Doctrine in that he believed and affirmed the Salvation of God's Children to be so certain that they should assuredly enjoy the same For they said it hanged partly upon our Perseverance to the end Bradford said it hung upon God's Grace in Christ and not upon our Perseverance in any Point For then were Grace no Grace They charged him that he was not so kind to them as he ought in the Distribution of the Charity-Money that was then sent by well-disposed Persons to the Prisoners in Christ of which Bradford was the Purse-bearer But he assured them he never defrauded them of the Value of a Penny and at that time sent them at once thirteen Shillings and four Pence and if they needed as much more he promised that they should have it But abating these little casual Heats and Peevishnesses there was a good Christian Correspondence maintained among them The fore-mentioned Holy Man advised them That though in some things they agreed not yet let Love bear the Bell away and let us pray said he one for another and be careful one for another He said That he was persuaded of them that they feared the Lord and therefore he loved them I have loved you in him my dear Hearts though you have taken it otherwise without Cause on me given He added That he had not suffered any Copy of his Treatise of Predestination to go abroad because he would suppress all Occasion so far as might be I am going said he before you to my God and your God to my Father and your Father to my Christ and your Christ to my Home and your Home By Bradford's Pains and Diligence he gained some from their Errors and particularly one Skelthorp for whom in a Letter to Careless he thanked God who gave this Man to see the Truth at the length and to give place to it hoping that he would be so heedy in all his Conversation that his old Acquaintance might thereby think themselves gone astray Careless also another eminent Martyr as well as Bradford had much conference with these Men Prisoners with him in the King's-Bench Of whose Contentiousness he complained in a Letter to Philpot. And there is extant an Answer of Philpot to Careless about them Where he writes That he was sorry to hear of the great Trouble which these Schismaticks did daily put him to and wished that he were with him in part to release his Grief He bad him take his Advice and to be patient whatsoever his Adversaries could say or do against him That he should commit the Success of his Labours in rightly informing these Men unto God and not to cease with Charity to do his endeavour in the defence of the Truth against these arrogant and self-willed blinded Scatterers That these Sects were necessary for the trial of our Faith and for the beautifying thereof Not to be perverted with them that were perverse and intractable That he should shew as much Modesty and Humility as he might possible and that then others seeing his modest Conversations among these contentious Bablers should glorify God in the Truth of him and the more abhor them That he should be content that Shimei do rail at David and cast Stones a while That he should desire all the Brethren in the Bowels of Jesus Christ to keep the Bond of Peace which is the Unity of Christ's Church To let no Root of Bitterness spring up which the Devil with all his Diligence seeketh to thrust in among the Children of God To kiss one another with the Kiss of unfeigned Brotherly Love and to take one another by the Hand cheerfully and say Let us take up our Cross together and go to the Mount of Calvary This Contention could not be laid asleep amongst them notwithstanding the grievous Tribulations they endured for the same Cause of Religion They wrote also against one another For in 1556 Careless wrote a Confession of his Faith some Part whereof savour'd absolute Predestination against Free-will This Confession he sent unto the Protestant Prisoners in Newgate from the King's-Bench where he lay Whereunto they generally subscribed and particularly twelve that were a little before condemned to die Hart having gotten a Copy of this Confession on the back-side thereof wrote his Confession in opposition thereunto When they in Newgate had subscribed Careless's Confession this Hart propounded his unto them and he with one Kemp and Gybson would have persuaded them from the former to the latter but prevailed not One Chamberlain also wrote against it I do not meet with this Confession only I find one Article was That the Second Book of Common-Prayer set forth in K. Edward's Days was Good and Godly But that the Church of Christ hath Authority to enlarge and diminish things in the same Book so far forth as it is agreeable to Scripture This Paper of Careless's Confession with the Answer wrote on the backside by Hart fell by some accident into the hands of Dr. Martin a great Papist who took occasion hence to scoff at the Professors of the Gospel because of these Divisions and various Opinions amongst them But Careless before the said Martin disowned Hart and ●aid that he had seduced and beguiled many a simple Soul with his foul Pelagian Opinions both in the Days of K. Edward and since his Departure Besides these Anti-predestinarians there were some few who laid in Prison for the Gospel were Arians and disbelieved the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Two of these lay in the King's-Bench These different Opinions occasioned such unseemly quarrelsom Disputes and Heats among them that the Marshal was ●ain to separate them from one another And in 1556 the Noise of this reached to the Council who the better to know the Matters controverted between them sent Dr. Martin to the King's-Bench to examine it These were some of the Transactions that past among the Prisoners Another Matter concerning them deserves relating which was this They boldly and bravely made a Declaration to the Queen and Parliament that sat this Year taxing them for overthrowing as they had lately done the Laws of K. Henry and K. Edward and the Reformation so maturely and deliberately made and after the Rejection of a Religion which as they said there was not a Parish in England desired to have restored again They offered likewise to maintain the Homilies and Service set forth in K. Edward's Days before

First the King and Queen sent their Information to the Pope against Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury viz. That he had brought this noble Realm from the Unity of the Catholick Church That he was a Person guilty of Heresy and many other grand Crimes and not worthy to enjoy his Bishoprick and most worthy greater Punishments and they requested that Process might be made against him For the better enquiry into and taking cognizance of the Truth of these Accusations the Pope gave a special Commission signed with his Hand to Iames Puteo Cardinal of S. Mary's and afterwards of S. Simeon to cite the said Thomas before him and all such Witnesses as should be needful to come to a true knowledg of the Arch-bishop's Crimes and accordingly to give the Pope an account of all he should find This he was to do in his own Person or to constitute any dignified Person abiding in these Parts to do the same So the said Cardinal appointed Brookes Bishop of Glocester and some Collegues with him to manage this Commission in his stead This Brookes having been Bishop Gardiner's Chaplain was probably nominated and recommended by the said Gardiner as I do suppose he was the Person that directed the whole managery of this Process against the Arch-bishop And so Brookes being now by this Deputation the Pope's Sub-delegate proceeded in this Cause as was said before In regard of the Arch-bishop's Citation to Rome to answer there and make his personal appearance before the Pope the Letters Executory say Comparere non curaret as an Aggravation of his Crime that he took no care to appear which was false and that therefore as the said Letters ran the King and Queen's Proctors at Rome named Peter Rouilius and Anthony Massa de Gallesio and Alexander Palentarius the Proctor of the Pope's Treasury had sued that Contumacy might be definitively pronounced against the said Thomas Cranmer being cited and not appearing Therefore He Pope Paul IV. sitting in the Throne of Justice and having before his Eyes God alone who is the Righteous Lord and judgeth the World in Righteousness did make this definitive Sentence pronouncing and decreeing the said Thomas Cranmer to be found Guilty of the Crimes of Heresy and other Excesses to be wholly unmindful of the Health of his Soul to go against the Rules and Ecclesiastical Doctrines of the Holy Fathers and against the Apostolical Traditions of the Roman Church and Sacred Councils and the Rites of the Christian Religion hitherto used in the Church especially against the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord and Holy Orders by thinking and teaching otherwise than the Holy Mother Church preacheth and observeth and by denying the Primacy and Authority of the Apostolick See and against the Processions which every Year on Corpus Christi Day were wont to be celebrated by the Pope's Predecessors Mention also is made of his Bringing in again the Heresy abjured by Berengarius of his believing the false and heretical Doctrines of Wicklif and Luther those Arch-Hereticks printing of Books of that nature and publishing them and defending those Doctrines in publick Disputations and that before his Sub-delegate and persisting herein with Obstinacy Therefore the Pope excommunicated him and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick and all other Places and Privileges whatsoever and adjudged him to be delivered over to the Secular Court and all his Goods to be confiscate And the Pope absolved all Persons from any Oath of Fidelity given to Cranmer and imposed perpetual Silence upon him And moreover upon the instance of the abovesaid Proctors commanded the Bishops of London and Ely to degrade him and so to deliver him over to the Secular Court This bore date December 14. In obedience to these Letters from Rome the two Bishops the Pope's Delegates came down to Oxford and sitting in the Choire of Christ's-Church before the High Altar the said Commissional Letters were read wherein it was specified That all things were indifferently examined on both Parties and Counsel heard as well on the King 's and Queen's behalf who were Cranmer's Accusers as on the behalf of Cranmer so that he wanted nothing to his necessary Defence Whereat the Arch-bishop could not but exclaim while these things were reading against such manifest Lies That as he said when he was continually in Prison and could never be suffered to have Counsel or Advocate at Home he should produce Witness and appoint his Counsel at Rome God must needs punish added he this open and shameless Lying But this Command of Degrading our Arch-bishop was presently proceeded upon Thomas Thirlby Bishop of Ely his old Friend infinitely before-time obliged by the Arch-bishop shed many Tears at the doing of it So that Cranmer moved at it was fain to comfort him and told him He was well contented with it So they apparelled the Arch-bishop in all the Garments and Ornaments of an Archbishop only in mockery every thing was of Canvas and old Clouts And the Crosier was put into his Hand And then he was piece by piece stript of all again When they began to take away his Pal he asked them Which of them had a Pal to take away his Pal They then answered acknowledging they were his Inferiors as Bishops but as they were the Pope's Delegates they might take away his Pal. While they were thus spoiling him of all his Garments he told them That it needed not for that he had done with this Gear long ago While this was doing Boner made a Triumphant Speech against the poor Arch-bishop But when they came to take away his Crosier he held it fast and would not deliver it but pulled out an Appeal out of his left Sleeve under his Wrist and said I appeal unto the next General Council and herein I have comprehended my Cause and the Form of it which I desire may be admitted And prayed divers times to the standers by to be Witnesses naming them by their Names This Appeal is preserved in Fox which is well worthy the reading The Arch-bishop was all along ill dealt with in divers respects in this his Process which himself was well sensible of One was That he had desired the Court that considering he was upon his Life he might have the use of Proctors Advocates and Lawyers But they would allow him none After the Court wherein Brooks was Sub-delegate had done they promised him that he should see his Answers to Sixteen Articles that they had laid against him that he might correct amend and change them where he thought good And that Promise they performed not And so entred his Answers upon record though his Answer was not made upon Oath nor reserved nor made in judicio but extra judicium Which Cranmer made a Protest of But not to the Bishop of Glocester as Judg whom he would not own but to the King 's and Queen's Proctors Martin and Story To them for these Reasons he wrote a Letter That he trusted they

Advice of certain Learned Men. Another was that he had been the great setter forth of all this Heresy received into the Church in this last Time had written in it had disputed had continued it even to the last Hour and that it had never been seen in this Realm but in the time of Schism that any Man continuing so long hath been pardoned and that it was not to be remitted for Ensamples-sake Other Causes he alledged but these were the chief why it was not thought good to pardon him Other Causes beside he said moved the Queen and the Council thereto which were not meet and convenient for every one to understand them The second Part touched the Audience how they should consider this thing That they should hereby take example to fear God and that there was no Power against the Lord having before their Eyes a Man of so high Degree sometime one of the chiefest Prelates of the Church an Arch-bishop the chief of the Council the second Peer in the Realm of long time a Man as might be thought in greatest assurance a King of his side notwithstanding all his Authority and Defence to be debased from an high Estate to a low Degree of a Counsellor to be a Caitiff and to be set in so wretched Estate that the poorest Wretch would not change Conditions with him The last and End appertained unto him Whom he comforted and encouraged to take his Death well by many places of Scripture And with these and such bidding him nothing mistrust but he should incontinently receive that the Thief did To whom Christ said Hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso And out of S. Paul armed him against the Terrors of the Fire by this Dominus fidelis est Non sinet nos tentari ultra quam ferre potestis By the Example of the three Children to whom God made the Flame seem like a pleasant Dew He added hereunto the Rejoicing of S. Andrew in his Cross the Patience of S. Laurence on the Fire Ascertaining him that God if he called on him and to such as die in his Faith either will abate the fury of the Flame or give him Strength to abide it He glorified God much in his Conversion because it appeared to be only his Work Declaring what Travel and Conference had been used with him to convert him and all prevailed not till it pleased God of his Mercy to reclaim him and call him Home In discouring of which place he much commended Cranmer and qualified his former Doing And I had almost forgotten to tell you that Mr. Cole promised him that he should be prayed for in every Church in Oxford and should have Mass and Dirige Sung for him and spake to all the Priests present to say Mass for his Soul When he had ended his Sermon he desired all the People to pray for him Mr. Cranmer kneeling down with them and praying for himself I think there was never such a number so earnestly praying together For they that hated him before now loved him for his Conversion and hope of Continuance They that loved him before could not sodenly hate him having hope of his Confession again of his Fall So Love and Hope encreased Devotion on every side I shall not need for the time of Sermon to describe his Behaviour his Sorrowful Countenance his heavy Chear his Face bedewed with Tears sometime lifting his Eyes to Heaven in Hope sometime casting them down to the Earth for Shame To be brief an Image of Sorrow the Dolor of his Heart bursting out at his Eyes in plenty of Tears Retaining ever a quiet and grave Behaviour Which encreased the Pity in Mens Hearts that they unfeignedly loved him hoping it had been his Repentance for his Transgression and Error I shall not need I say to point it out unto you you can much better imagine it your self When Praying was done he stood up and having leave to speak said Good People I had intended indeed to desire you to pray for me which because Mr. Doctor hath desired and you have done already I thank you most heartily for it And now will I pray for my self as I could best devise for mine own comfort and say the Prayer word for word as I have here written it And he read it standing and after kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer and all the People on their Knees devoutly praying with him His Prayer was thus O Father of Heaven O Son of God Redeemer of the World O Holy Ghost proceeding from them both Three Persons and one God have Mercy upon me most wretched Caitiff and miserable Sinner I who have offended both Heaven and Earth and more grievously than any Tongue can express whither then may I go or whither should I fly for succor To Heaven I may be ashamed to lift up mine Eyes and in Earth I find no refuge What shall I then do shall I despair God forbid O good God thou art Merciful and refusest none that come unto thee for Succour To thee therefore do I run To thee do I humble my self saying O Lord God my Sins be great but yet have Mercy upon me for thy great Mercy O God the Son thou wast not made Man this great Mystery was not wrought for few or small Offences Nor thou didst not give thy Son unto Death O God the Father for our little and small Sins only but for all the greatest Sins of the World so that the Sinner return unto thee with a penitent Heart as I do here at this present Wherefore have Mercy upon me O Lord whose Property is always to have Mercy For although my Sins be great yet thy Mercy is greater I crave nothing O Lord for mine own Merits but for thy Name 's Sake that it may be glorified thereby and for thy dear Son Jesus Christ's Sake And now therefore Our Father which art in Heaven c. Then rising he said Every Man desireth good People at the time of their Deaths to give some good Exhortation that other may remember after their Deaths and be the better thereby So I beseech God grant me Grace that I may speak something at this my departing whereby God may be glorified and you edified First It is an heavy case to see that many Folks be so much doted upon the Love of this false World and so careful for it that or the Love of God or the Love of the World to come they seem to care very little or nothing therefore This shall be my first Exhortation That you set not over-much by this false glosing World but upon God and the World to come And learn to know what this Lesson meaneth which S. Iohn teacheth That the Love of this World is Hatred against God The Second Exhortation is That next unto God you obey your King and Queen willingly and gladly without murmur or grudging And not for fear of them only but much more for the Fear of God Knowing

not in all Respects according to his Wish And so prayed God to guide him with his Holy Spirit and to bless his Pious Endeavours But the Troubles at Home and Abroad frustrated this excellent Purpose which for two Years he had been labouring to bring to some good Issue His next Resolution was to go as far as he could in this Matter since he could not go as far as he would And he bethought himself of assembling together the Divines of his own Church and that by the King's Authority to confer with them about drawing up a Body of Articles of Religion which Purpose he had likewise communicated to Calvin For which he greatly commended him Telling him That since the Times were such that that could not in the least be hoped for which was so much to be wish'd viz. That the chief Teachers of the divers Churches which embraced the pure Doctrine of the Gospel might meet together and publish to Posterity a certain and clear Confession out of the pure Word of God concerning the Heads of Religion then in Controversy he did extreamly commend that Counsel which he had taken to establish Religion in England lest things remaining any longer in an uncertain State or not so rightly and duly composed and framed as it were convenient the Minds of the People should remain in suspence and wavering And then quickening him told him That this was his part chiefly to do That he himself saw well what that Place required of him or rather what God exacted in respect of that Office he had laid upon him That he was of very powerful Authority which he had not only by the amplitude of his Honour but the long-conceived Opinion that went of his Prudence and Integrity That the Eyes of the Good were cast upon him either to follow his Motions or to remain idle upon the pretence of his Unactiveness He took the freedom also with Cranmer to blame him for not having made more Progress in the Reformation Which he thought he might have done in the three Years space wherein King Edward had already reigned And told him That he feared when so many Autumns had been passed in deliberating only at last the Frost of a perpetual Winter might follow Meaning that the People would grow stark cold in minding a Reformation Then he reminded him of his Age that that called upon him to hasten lest if he should be called out of the World before Matters in Religion were settled the Conscience of his Slowness might create great Anxiety to him He particularly put him in Mind of the great want of Pastors to preach the Gospel and that the Churches Revenues were made such a Prey Which he called An intolerable Evil. And said that this was a plain reason why there was so little Preaching among us That a parcel of Slow-bellies were nourished from the Revenues of the Church to sing Vespers in an unknown Tongue But in the close he excused him in regard of the many and great Difficulties that he wrestled with Which were certainly most true In so much that if he had not been a Man of great Conduct and indefatigable Industry the Reformation had not made so fair a Progress as it did in his Time And one may admire rather that he went so far the Iniquity of the Times considered than that he went no farther For the Great Ones in the Minority of the King took their Opportunity most insatiably to fly upon the Spoils of the Church and Charitable Donations little regarding any thing else than to enrich themselves Very vitious and dissolute they were in their Lives as the soberer Sort in those Days complained and therefore the less to be wondered they were so negligent to provide for the promoting the Reformed Religion and Piety in the Land In the mean time the chief Preachers did what they could to redress these Evils For they plainly and boldly rebuked this Evil Governance and especially the Covetousness of the Courtiers and their small regard to live after the Gospel and sometimes incurred no small Danger by this Freedom Mr. Rogers Vicar of S. Sepulchres and afterwards a Martyr under Queen Mary was one of these Who so freely discoursed once at S. Paul's Cross concerning the Abuse of Abbies and the Churches Goods that he was summoned before the Privy-Council to answer for it And so were divers others upon the same Reason And I am apt to think that these Preachers did what they did by the Counsel and Direction of the Arch-bishop So that the present State of Things and the Endeavours of him and the rest of the Clergy considered he was a little too hastily censured by Calvin in that behalf But Cranmer was of so mild and gracious a Spirit that he did not seem to conceive any Displeasure against Calvin for this his unjust Charge of Negligence but kept up a great Esteem and Value for him But that I may take occasion here to insist a little longer upon this Argument and vindicate the Honesty and Boldness of the English Clergy in speaking their Minds against the Sacrilegious Spirit that reigned in these Times it may not be amiss to give some Account of a Communication that happened about December or Ianuary 1552 at Court between Sir William Cecyl the King's Secretary and one Miles Wilson a grave Divine and Acquaintance of the said Cecyl and a Man of Eminency in the University of Cambridg Discourse happening between them of divers and sundry things relating partly to the propagating Christ's Religion and partly to the preservation and encrease of the Common-Wealth the said Wilson delivered to Cecyl an Oration to read which he had composed De rebus Ecclesiae non diripiendis Concerning not spoiling the Church of her Means and which he once pronounced in the Publick Schools of the University about that Time when those Matters were in agitation above Cecyl being a good and conscientious Man had in this Conference signified to him his earnest desire to hear and see what could be proposed out of the Holy Scripture in so unusual an Argument To shew this and to give also a short view of his said Oration because the Secretary's infinite Business would not allow him to read long Discourses Wilson soon after digested the Contents thereof reducing it into some Syllogisms and Ratiocinations more apt to urge and easier to remember and more accommodate to perswade These with his Letter he sent to the Secretary His Ends herein were to satisfy him in this Point being a Man of great Stroke in the Publick Transactions of those Times who might accordingly use his Interest and Endeavour to retrieve what had been so unjustly taken from the Church that the famous Schools lately dissolved to the great ruine of the University might be re-edified again and that those Livings which were miserably spoiled by covetous Patrons might be restored and enjoy their whole Revenues to the real Honour of the

ultra vero montes singulis biennijs Visitabo aut per-me aut per meum nuntium nisi Apostolica absolvat Licentia Possessiones vero ad mensam mei Archiepiscopatus pertinentes non vendam neque donabo neque impignerabo neque de novo infeudabo vel aliquo modo alienabo inconsulto Romano Pontifice Sic me Deus adjuvet haec Sancta Dei Evangelia NUM VII Cranmer's Oath to the King for his Temporalties I Thomas Cranmer renounce and utterly forsake al such clauses words sentences and grants which I have of the Popes Holines in his Bulls of the Archbishopric of Cant. that in any manner was is or may be hurtful or prejudicial to your highnes your heires Successors Estate or Dignity Royal. Knowing my self to take and hold the said Archbishopric immediately and only of your Highnes and of none other Most lowly beseeching the same for restitution of the Temporalties of the said Archbishopric Professing to be faithful true and obedient subject to your said Highnes your Heires and Successors during my life So help me God and the holy Evangelists NUM VIII The King's Proclamation for bringing in Seditious Books IT set forth that sundry contentions and sinister opinions had by wrong teaching and naughty printed Books encreased among his Subjects contrary to the true faith and reverence and due observation of the Sacraments and Sacramentals rites and ceremonies heretofore used And as the Books are blamed so the additions and Annotations in the margents the Prologues and Kalendars to them made by sundry strange persons called Anabaptists and Sacramentaries lately comen into the Realm and by some other his Majesties Subjects Wherby many of the Kings loving but simple Subjects were induced arrogantly and superstitiously to dispute in open places and tavernes upon Baptism and upon the holy Sacrament of the Altar not only to their own slander but to the reproch of the whole realm and his Graces high discontentation and displesure with the danger of the encrease of the said enormities Therfore the King did streitly charge and command by his present Proclamation as wel al his subjects as al others whatsoever resiant within his Realm that from henceforth they observe and keep these Articles following First That no person shal without his Majesties special leave transport and bring from foreign parts any Books printed in the English tongue nor sel give and publish such books upon pain that the Offenders forfeit al their goods and chattels and have imprisonment during his Majesties plesure Item None to print any book in the English tongue unless upon examination made by some of the privy Councel or other appointed by his Highnes and shal have Licence so to do Nor shal print or bring ●n any books of the holy scripture in the English tongue with any Annotations in the Margin or any Prologue or Addition in the Kalendar or Table except such annotations c. be first duely examined and allowed by the Kings Highnes or such of his Councel as shal please his Majesty to assign therto but only the plain Sentence and Text with a Table or Repertory instructing the Reader to find readily the Chapters contained in the said Book and the effects thereof Nor to print any Book of translations in the English tongue unles the plain name of the translator therof be contained in the same book or else that the Printer wil answer for the same as for his own privy deed and otherwise to make the Translator the Printer to suffer imprisonment and make a fine at the Kings Wil. Item None using the occupation of printing shal print or cause to be published any book of Scripture in the English tongue unles his books be first viewed and examined by the King or one of his Privy Councel or one Bishop of the Realm upon pain to loose and forfeit all their goods and chattels and suffer imprisonment during plesure Item The King declared concerning Anabaptists and other Sacramentaries lately comen into the realm that he abhorred and detested their errors and intended to procede against them that were already apprehended according to their merits to thintent his subjects should take example by their punishments not to adhere to such false and detestable opinions but utterly to forsake and relinquish them And that whersoever any of them be known they be detected and his Majesty or Councel be enformed with al convenient speed with al maner Abetters and printers of the same opinion And his Majesty charged the same Anabaptists and Sacramentaries not apprehended or known that they within eight or ten dayes depart out of the Realm upon pain of los of their life and forfeiture of their goods Item Forasmuch as the holy Sacrament of the Altar is the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and so hath and ought to be taken upon peril of damnation his Majesty minded to continue his Subjects in this true and just Faith and that they be not beguiled away from it charged that none should henceforth reason or dispute upon the said blessed Sacrament or of the Mysteries therof upon pain of los of life and forfeiture of goods Except to learned men in holy scripture instructed and taught in the Universities their Liberties and privileges in their schools and places accustomed concerning the same and otherwise in communication without slaunder of any man for the only confirmation and declaration of the truth therof Item And forasmuch as many brooked divers and many laudable ceremonies and rites heretofore used and accustomed in the Church of England not yet abrogated by the Kings authority Whereby arose different strifes and contentions as for and concerning holy bread holywater processions kneeling and creeping on Good Friday to the Cros and Easter day setting up lights before the Corpus Christi bearing of Candles on the day of Purification Ceremonies used at the Purification of women delivered of child and offering of their Chrysomes Keeping of the four offering dayes Payment of tiths according to the old custom of the Realm and other such like ceremonies 〈◊〉 Majesty charged and commanded al his subjects to observe and keep them so as they shal use and observe the same without superstition and esteem them for good and lawful ceremonies tokens and signes to put us in remembrance of things of high perfection and none otherwise And not to repose any trust of salvation in them but take them for good Instructions until such time as his M. change or abrogate any of them as his Highnes upon reasonable consideration both may and intendeth to do Finally Whereas a few Priests as wel Religious as others have taken Wives and married themselves contrary to the wholsome monitions of S. Paul to Timothy and Titus and to the Corinthians and contrary to the opinion of many of the old Fathers and Expositors of scripture not esteeming also the promise of chastity which they made at the receiving of Holy Orders his Highnes minding in no wise

to the Kinges grace beseching him to send his honorable Lettres under his Seal down to whom he please in my Diocess That they may show and publish that it is not his pleasure that soche bookes should be had or red and also punish soch as saith so I trust before this letter shal come unto you my said L. Abbot hath done so That said Abbot hath the names of some that crakyth in the Kings name that their false opinions shold go forth and wil dy in the quarrel that their ungracious opinions be true and trustyth by Michaelmas day there shal be more that shal beleve of thair opinion than they that beleivyth the contrary If I had known that your Grace had been at London I would have commaunded the said Abbot to have spoken with you But your Grace may send for him when ye please and he shal show you my whole mynd in that matier and how I thought best for the suppression of soch as holdyth these arroneous opinions For if they continue any time I thynk they shal undoe us all The said Abbot departed from me on Monday last and sith that tyme I have had much trouble and business with others in like matters And as they say that whersomever they go they hear say that the Kings pleasure is the N. Testament in English shal go forth and men sholde have it and read it And from that opinion I can no wayes induce them But I had greater authority to punish them then I have Wherfore I beseech your good Lordship to advertise the Kinges grace as I trust the said Abbot hath done before this letter shal come unto your grace that a remedy may be had But now it may be done wel in my Diocess for the Gentlemen and the Communalty be not greatly infected But merchants and soch that hath their abiding not far from the Sea The said Abbot of Hyde can show you of a Curate and well learned in my Diocess that exhorted his Parishioners to believe contrary to the Catholic faith There is a Colledg in Cambridg called Gunnel haule of the foundat●●n of a Bp. of Norwich I hear of no clerk that hath commen out lately of that Colledg but savoryth of the frying pan tho he speak never so holily I beseech your grace to pardon me of my rude and tedious writing to you the zeal and love that I owe to Almighty God cawse me this to do And thus Almighty God long preserve your Grace in good prosperity and health At Hoxne the xiiij th day of May 1530. Your obediensary and dayly Orator NUM XIII Archbishop Cranmer to King Henry Complaining of a Prior in Canterbury that had preached against him PLesyth it your Grace to be advertised That wher as wel by your Graces special letters dated the third day of Iune in the xxvij th year of your Graces most noble reign as also by mouth in Wynchester at Mich. last past your Grace commanded al the Prelates of your Realm that they with al acceleration and expedition shold do their diligence every one in his Diocess fully to persuade your people of the Bp. of Rome his authority that it is but a false and injust Usurpation and that your Grace of veray right and by Gods law is the Supreme Head of this Church of England next immediately unto God I to accomplish your Graces Commandment incontinent upon my return from Wynchester knowing that al the Country about Otford and Knol where my most abode was were sufficiently instructed in those matters already came up into these parts of East Kent onely by preaching to persuade the people in the said two Articles and in mine own church at Canterbury Because I was informed that that Towne in those two points was least perswaded of al my Diocess I preached there two Sermons my self And as it then chaunced Dr. Leighton was present at my first Sermon being then your Graces Visitor Of whom if it so please your Grace you may heare the report what I preached The scope and effect of both my Sermons stood in three things First I declared that the Bp. of Rome was not Gods Vicar in earth as he was taken And although it is so taught these three or four hundred years yet it is done by means of the Bp. of Rome who compelled men by oaths so to teach to the maintenance of his authority contrary to God's word And here I declared by what means and craft the Bp. of R. obtained such usurped authority Seconde Bycause the See of R. was called Sancta Sedes Romana and the Bp. was called Sanctissimus Papa and mennys consciences peradventure could not be quiet to be separated from so holy a place and from Gods most holy Vicar I shewed the people that this thing ought nothing to move theym For it was but a Holines in name For indeed there was no such holines at Rome And hereupon I took occasion to declare his glory and the Pomp of Rome the Covetousnes the unchast living and the maintenance of al vices Thirde I spake against the Bp. of R. his lawes Which he calleth Divinas L●ges and Sacros Canones and makes them equal with Gods Law And here I declared that many of the Laws were veray contrary And some of theym which were good and laudable yet they were not of such holines as he would make theym that is to be taken as Gods laws or to have remission of sins by observing theym And here I sayd that so many of his laws as were good men ought not to contemne or despise them and wilfully to break theym For those that be good your G. hath received as laws of your Realm until such time as others shold be made And therfore as lawes of your realm they must be observed and not contempned And here I spake as wel of the Ceremonies of the Church as of the foresaid lawes that they ought neither to be rejected or despised nor yet to be observed with this opinion that they of themselfes make men holy or that they remit sins For seeing that our sins be remitted by the death of our Savior Christ Jesus I sayd it was too moch injury to Christ to impute the remission of our sins to any Lawes or ceremonies of mans making Nor the Laws and ceremonies of the Church at their first making were ordeined for that intent But as the common lawes of your G's realm be not made to remit sins nor no man doth observe theym for that intent but for a common commodity and for a good order and quietnes to be observed among your Subjects evyn so were the laws and ceremonies first instituted in the Church for a good order and for remembrances of many good things but not for remission of our sinns And though it be good to observe theym wel for that intent they were first ordened yet it is not good but a contumely unto Christ to observe theym with this opinion that they remit

sins or that the veray bare observation of theym in it self is a holines before God Although they be remembrances of many holy things or a disposition unto goodness And evyn so do the lawes of your G's realm dispose men unto justice unto peace and other true and perfect holines Wherfore I did conclude for a general rule that the people ought to observe theym as they do the laws of your G's realm and with no more opinion of holines or remission of sin then the other common Laws of your G's realm Though my two Sermons were long yet I have written briefly unto your Highness the sum of theym both And I was informed by sundry reports that the people were glad that they heard so much as they did until such time as the Prior of the black frears at Canterbury preached a sermon as it was thought and reported clean contrary unto al the three things which I had preached before For as touching the first part which I had preached against the erroneous doctrin of the Bp. of R. his power which error was that by God's Law he should be Gods Vicar here in earth the Prior would not name the Bp. of R. but under color spake generally That the Church of Christ never erred And as touching the second part where I spake of the Vices of the Bishops of R. And there to the Prior said that he would not sclawnder the Bishops of Rome And he said openly to me in a good Audience that he knew no vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And he said also openly that I preached uncharitably whan I said that these many years I had daily prayed unto God that I might see the power of Rome destroyed and that I thanked God that I had now seen it in this realm And yet in my sermon I declared the cause wherfore I so prayed For I said that I perceived the See of Rome work so many things contrary to Gods honor and the wealth of this realm and I saw no hope of amendment so long as that See reigned over us And for this cause onely I had prayed unto God continually that we might be separated from that See and for no private malice or displesure that I had either to the Bp. or See of Rome But this seemed an uncharitable prayer to the Prior that the power of Rome should be destroyed And as for the third part where I preached against the Laws of the Bp. of Rome that they ought not to be taken as Gods Lawes nor to be esteemed so highly as he would have them the Prior craftily leaving out the name of the Bp. of Rome preached that the Lawes of the Church be equal with Gods lawes These things he preached as it is proved both by sufficient witnes and also by his own confession I leave the judgment hereof unto your G. and to your Councel whether this were a defence of the Bp. of Rome or not And I onely according to my bounden duty have reported the truth of the Fact But in mine opinion if he had spoken nothing else yet whosoever saith that the Church never erred maintaineth the Bp. of Rome his power For if that were not erroneous that was taught of his power That he is Christs Vicar in earth and by Gods law Head of al the World spiritual and temporal and that al people must believe that De necessitate Salutis and that whosoever doth any thing against the See of Rome is an heretick and that he hath authority also in Purgatory with such other many false things which were taught in times past to be Articles of our Faith if these things were not erroneous yea and errors in the Faith then must nedis your G's Laws be erroneous that pronounce the Bp. of Rome to be of no more power by Gods Law than other Bishops and theym to be Traitors that defend the contrary This is certain that whosoever saith that the Church never erred must either deny that the church ever taught any such errors of the Bp. of Rome his power and then they speak against that which al the world knoweth and al books written of that matter these three or four hundred years do testifie or else they must say that the said errors be none errors but truths And then it is both treason and heresy At my first Examination of him which was before Christmas he said that he preached not against me nor that I had preached any thing amiss But now he saith that I preached amiss in very many things and that he purposely preached against me And this he reporteth openly By which words I am marvellously sclawndered in these parts And for this cause I beseech your G. that I may not have the judgment of the cause for so moch as he taketh me for a party but that your G. would commit the hearing therof unto my L. Privy Seal or else to associate unto me some other persons at your G's plesure that we may hear the case joyntly together If this man who hath so highly offended your G. and preached against me openly being Ordinary and Metropolitane of this Province and that in soch matters as concerne the misliving and the laws of the Bp. of Rome and that also within mine own church if he I say be not looked upon I leave unto your G's prudence to expend what example this may be unto others with like colour to maintain the Bp. of Rome his authority and also of what estimation I shal be reputed hereafter and what credence shal be given unto my preaching whatsoever I shal say hereafter I beseech your G. to pardon me of my long and tedious writing For I could not otherwise set the matter forth plaine And I most heartily thank your G. for the Stag which your G. sent unto me from Wyndsor Forest. Which if your G. knew for how many causes it was welcome unto me and how many ways it did me service I am sure you would think it moch the better bestowed Thus our Lord have you Highness alwayes in his preservation and governance From Ford the xxvj day of August Your Graces most humble Chaplain and bedisman T. Cantuarien NUM XIV The Archbishop to Mr. Secretary Crumwel concerning his styling himself Primate of al England RIght worshipful in my most harty wise I commend me unto you Most hartily thanking you for that you have signified unto me by my Chaplain Mr. Champion the complaint of the Bp. of Winchester unto the Kings Highnes in two things concerning my Visitation The one is that in my style I am written Totius Angliae Primas to the derogation and prejudice of the Kings high power and authority being Supreme Head of the Church The other is that his Dioces not past five years agone was visited by my Predecessor and must from henceforth pay the tenth part of the Spiritualties according to the Act granted in the last Sessions of Parlament Wherfore he thinketh that his

his own making and by them promised remission of sins and salvation that he might be set up and honored for a Savior equal to Christ. And so to be esteemed above al creatures and to set in the Temple of God that is in the Church of Christ as he were God And to bring this to pas he hath horribly abused holy Scriptures altering them to his purpose in the sted of Christs most holy bloud putting in his holy Water As it appeareth evidently in this Sentence of S. Paul written in the ninth Chap. of the Hebrewes If the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith S. Paul and the ashes of a yong Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh how much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot unto God shal purge your consciences from dead works for to serve the Living God And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New covenant Consider wel this sentence of Paul and you shal find two purifyings one of the body and another of the Soul or Conscience You shal find also two Mediators One was the Priest of Moses law and the other is Christ. The Priests of the old Law with the bloud of Oxen and Goats and other their Sacrifices purged only the bodies of them that were defiled but the Soul or Conscience they could not help But our Savior Christ by his own bloud purged both body an● soul. And for that cause he and none other is the Mediator of the New Covenant But the Bp. of Rome to make himself also a Mediator with Christ hath taken upon him to purify the soul and conscience with holy water holy salt and other his holy creatures of his own devising to the intolerable injury of Christs blood which only h●th the effect And to bring this to pass hee hath most shamefully changed the words of the Scripture and wrested them to his purpose Some words putting out and only in the sted of Christs bloud putting in his own holy water and salt For wheras S. Paul if the blood of Oxen and Goats and the ashes of a Cow purified the unclean as touching the purifying of the flesh here the Bp. of Rome leaveth out these words As touching the purifying of the flesh And where S. Paul extolling the effect of Christs bloud in comparison of the bloud of Oxen and Goats saith How much more the bloud of Christ which through the eternal spirit offered himself being without spot unto God shal purge your consciences Here the Bp. of Rome extolling his water and salt puts out Christs bloud and in the place thereof puts his holy water and salt saying How much more water which is sprinkled with salt and hallowed with godly prayers shal sanctify and purify the people Oh! intolerable blasphemy against the most precious bloud of Christ Oh! shameles audacity and boldnes so to corrupt and pervert Gods holy word If he by his holy water presume to purify our souls as Christ did by his bloud what is that else but to make himself equal and another Mediator with Christ And what is it to Tread under foot the Son of God and to make the bloud of the N. Testament wherby he was Sanctified like other common things and to dishonor the spirit of grace if this be not And yet not contented with this blaspheming the bloud of Christ he preferreth his holy creatures far above the bloud of Christ promising by them many benefits which by the bloud of Christ be not promised For in the same place he promiseth by his holy ceremonies to take away from us dearth and scarcity of al worldly things and to multiply and encrease us with the same Also to defend us from the assaults of the Devil and al his deceits and to give us health both of body and soul. But al men se him so shamefully to ly in these worldly things that no man that wise is wil trust him in the rest Nor no man that is godly wil desire such things to remain stil which so much have deceived simple people and dishonored God and been contumelious to the bloud of Christ. But now to your Images which you say you wil have set up again in every Church What moved you to require this Article but only Ignorance For if you had known the Laws of God and the use of godly religion as wel before the Incarnation of Christ as four or five hundred years next after and by whom Images were at first brought into Christs church and how much Idolatry was every where committed by the means of the same it could not have been that ever you would have desired this Article except you had more affection to Idolatry then to true religion For Almighty God among the ten Commandments rehearsed this for the Second as one of the chief Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image nor the likenes of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath nor in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow to them nor worship them This Commandment was diligently kept in the old Testament so long as the people pleased God For in their Tabernacle was not one image less nor more that the people might se. Although upon the Propitiatory were two Cherubins of gold by the Commandment of God And that was in such a place as the people never came near nor saw But when the people forgetting this Commandment began to make images and to set them up in the place of Adoration by and by they provoked Gods indignation against them and were grievously punished therfore The Church of Christ likewise in the N. Testament for the space of four or five hundred years after Christ's Ascension utterly refused to have Images in the Church a place of Adoration As it may plainly appear by al the old antient Authors that lived and wrot in that time In so much that above four hundred years after Christ when some Superstitious and ignorant people in some places began to bring painted images not into the Church but to the Church doores the great Clerk Epiphanius Bp. of Cyprus finding such a painted Image of Christ or some other Saint hanging at the Church door in a Town called Anablatha he cutt it in pieces saying that it was against the authority of scripture that in the Church of Christ should hang the Image of a man And the same Epiphanius wrot unto the Bp. of Ierusalem that he should command the Priests that in no wise they shou'd suffer such Images to be hanged in the church of Christ which were contrary to our religion But peradventure you wil mervail and ask me the question how it was brought to pas that of late years al Churches were so ful of Images and so much offering and pilgrimages done unto them if it were against the Commandment of God against the usage of al godly people in the O. Testament and also against the custom

hear of the abolishing especially of that law that gave that title of the Supremacy of the Church in the Realm to the Crown Suspecting that to be an introduction of the Popes authority into the Realm Which they cannot gladly hear of And for this cause cannot gladly hear of my Legation in the Popes Name Wherupon her G. in the same letters doth exhort me to stay my voyage until a more opportune time And asketh my counsil in case the lower House make resistance in the renouncing of the title of Supremacy what her G. were best to do and what course she had best to take One other poynt is that her G. desireth in the same letter to be certified by me how it came to pass that a Commission given by her to Mr. Francisco Commendone in secret was published in the Consistory as her Graces Ambassador resident in Venice doth certify her These be the two points wherin her G. requireth my answer And for to obey her demand which to me is a Commandment I do send you not only to present my letters but also my mouth and with these present Instructions for more satisfaction of her G. in al points As touching the first point which is of most weight and so great touching the honor and wealth of her G. both spiritual and temporal as none can be more ye shal shew her G. that my first advise and counsil shal be to obtain of God by prayer that which I pray him to give me writing this Which is to have Spiritum Consilij Fortitudinis And this her G. must now pray for that as in the attaining the Crown his high providence shewed by manifest tokens to have given her these two graces so in the maintaining therof he wil confirm these two gifts in her mind Her Highnes knowes if she had relented at that time for any peril when that both mans counsil and force were against her she had lost So if she for any fear do relent and do not renounce the title of Supremacy which took the name of Princess and Right heire from her she cannot maintain that she hath gotten already by the spirit of Council and Fortitude So that my first counsil is this that obtaining by prayer these two gifts which her G. had at that time to shew her self no less ardent in the leaving of the title of Supremity for to maintain her right then the King her father was in the acquisition therof to the privation of her right Which so much more she ought to do and be more fervent in this then her Father was in that Because that was done against al law both of God and man and this that her Majesty doth now shewing her self most fervent herein doth fulfil both Gods law and mans And that is her very duty if she should loose both state and life withal As she hath known she ought to do by the example of the best men of her realm Which for this cause resisting the Kings unlawful lawes lost both And now the goodnes of God putting no such hard conditions to her G. nor laying afore her eyes only Praemia futura with loss of temporal as he did to those men but praemia coelestia with terrena joyned together That serving to the honor of God which is in this poynt to render the title of Supremacy of the church in earth to whom God hath given it she doth establish her own Crown withal If now she should relent herein for any fear of men being brought to that state that other men should rather fear her then she them especially in so good a cause this afore God and men were most perpetually to be blamed Wherfore what my Counsil is herein on this maner now rehersed you may inform her Highnes Now to come to the execution of the thing After her G. is determined to have it done casting away al fear the same stondeth to have it put forth and causing it to pass by the Parlament this is another council necessarily to be pondered Consisting the whole after my opinion in the proponement of the person that hath to put forth the same that with les difficulty and more favour it may pass Here ye may say that I much pondering the same and considering that it must be a person of Authority that should propone the same if it should take effect When I look in my mind upon al them I know of the Lords both Spiritual and Temporal and persons of the Lower House that might have authority I do see none but that other he hath defended the contrary cause by his Sentence and writing as the Spiritual men have done which taketh away a great part of authority to persuade others when men heareth them accepting that matter that aforetime they have oppugned Or else to speak of the Temporal Lords or others being al intangled with private profit enjoying goods of the Church by rejecting the authority of the same they cannot speak with that freenes of spirit as such a matter requireth Wherfore yee may conclude with her G. mine opinion herein that after long consideration hereof I see no person but one that is able with authority and also favour to propone this matter And that person is her G. her self God having brought it to her hand alone She being in this matter and al other immaculate and without blot ordered of God to defend his cause and her own withal And this ye may say the Counsil that it pleased God to put in my mind is that her G. do in this case as I remember the Emperor did in his own case passing by Rome wheras his mind was to justify his quarrel touching the war betwixt him and the French king afore the Pope and the Cardinals When doubting if onye other person should propose the same it might have contradiction of that party that did favor France he determined without any conference either with his Councel or others to put forth the matter himself And so when nother the Pope nor no other looked for any such thing his Holines and the Cardinals being now congregate he entred in among them in the Consistory and made a long Oration in justifying his cause and obtained that he would without any resistance Underneath this maner my poor advise should be that her Majesty should personally come into the Parlament and put forth the same her self and I dare be bold to say what for her authority and the justnes and the equity of the cause it self she shal have no contradiction And if need were also to shew her self to the Lower house the thing it self so neer toucheth her wealth both godly and temporally that it would be taken rather cum applausu then otherwise Further and jointly with this it shal be necessary her highnes make mention of the Popes Legate in my person to be admitted and sent for Wherin her G. hath this first to entreat that the law of my banishment may be abolished and

know nothing can pass by the Parlament more to the establishment of her Highnes State both afore God and man then the sure establishing of these two And for this cause whatsoever lacketh to the establishing therof me seemeth I am bound to utter plainly to her G. and truly to say what doth not satisfy me in those Acts my whole satisfaction depending of the fruit that may redound to her G. and the realm when they shal be perfectly concluded And therfore herein you shal not let pass to enform her G. pleasing the same to give you benign audience as wel wherin they were not to my utter satisfaction as also wherin they satisfied me and brought me some comfort And first of al how the former Act of the ratifying of the Matrimony seemed unto me much defectuous in that the Parlament taking for chief grou●d the Wisdome and Goodnes of the Parents of both parties in making the Matrimony doth not follow that wisdome in the conclusion and establishing of the same Their wisdome in making it was that they thought not sufficient to conclude the Matrimony notwithstanding the consent of the parties unles by the Popes dispensation and authority of the See Apostolic the impediments of conjunction named in the lawes of the Church were taken away and it so made legitimate And hereof the Act of Parlament that would justify the same with derogation of another Act made to the condemnation of that Matrimony maketh no mention Which me seemeth as great a defect as if one should take a cause to defend which hath divers causes al concurrent to one effect wherof the one dependeth upon the other and one being principal of al the other and would in defence therof name the other causes and leave out the principal For so it is in the case of the Matrimony the consent of the parties and parents depended upon the Dispensation of the church and the See of Rome Without the which the wisdom of the Parents did not think it could be wel justified as the effect did shew in demanding the same and this is that which now is left out in the justification that the Parents have made alledging the wisdome of the two Parents the Kings of England and of Spain And if it be here said as I understand some do say that the Dispensation was asked of those Princes not because it was so necessary that the marriage could not be justified without that but as they say ad majorem cautelam how this answer cannot stand to that effect I have so sufficiently informed you that you of your self I doubt not without further declaration by writing can expound the same Therfore leaving that to your memory and capacity to fly multiplication o● writing this only I wil put you in remembrance of that if the Dispensation of the Pope in that matter was asked of those two Princes ad majorem cautelam which was to stop al mens mouths making pretence of justice that might have been brought forth or objected against the Matrimony unles this Dispensation had been obtained at the least for this cause in this Act should also have been made mention of the Dispensation following the wisdome of those Princes ad majorem cautelam being now more fear of pretenced justice against the Matrimony as the effect hath and doth shew then ever could be imagined by the wit of those Princes when they obtained first the Dispensation As touching the other Act of the Confirmation of the Sacraments ye shal shew also wherin it seems to me defective Which is that wheras the ground of the making therof as the Act doth express is taken to redress the temerity of them who being affected to nuelty of opinion did other take them away or abuse the administration of them against the antient and laudable custom of the Catholick church This being a very necessary and pious cause to make that Act in the prosecuting and concluding of the same I find this great defect that never being approbate by the Church that those persons which remain in Schisma should have the right use of the Sacraments but rather to such is interdict the use of them This Act maketh the gate open to them that be not yet entred into the Unity of the Church to the use of the Sacraments declaring it self how they should be m●nistred with relation to the time and year of that King and nameing him that is known to be the chief author of the Schism What defect this is it seemeth manifest of it self This shewed wherin both these Acts were defectuous and therby not bringing me ful comfort ye shal then expound wherin at the reading of them I took some comfort Which was that the conclusion of both was passed graunted and inacted by the Parlament So that touching the effect there could be no difficulty hereafter in the Parlament the same being now bound to the approving and observance of their own Act. And wherin they were defectuous this ought to be supplyed by the Princes Authority that is to say by her G.'s authority as right Queen To whom it appertaineth as chief head of the Parlament and of the whole realm withal in al Acts that the Parlament doth determe both to interpret that that is obscure and to supply and make perfect that which is defectuous as wel in the time of the Parl●ment as when it is dissolved So that now these both Acts being past by the Parlament they are brought to her G.'s hand to interpret and supply as it shal be judged by her G.'s wisdom how they may best take effect And to do the same other out of the time of Parlament or in another Parlament binding them by their own decre ratifying the mariage and the use of the Sacraments according to the form of the Catholic church to admit the authority of the See of Rome Which not admitted nother the one Act nor the other can take effect And admitting and establishing of the same both those Acts by this one reason wherin is comprized the reduction of the realm to the unity of the Church shal be established and made perfect For conclusion of al this ye shal inform her G. that as I consider daily the wonderful goodnes of God to her Highnes with al paternal care of her soul person and estate and his so manifest protection every day and by so many ways calling her G. to establish this unity of the Church in the realm wherof the breaking hath been cause of so great misery in the realm both spiritual and temporal with travail temporal of her M. and utter jeopardy of loosing her State So also I do consider what wayes the enemy of mankind Satan Qui expetivit cribrare ●cclesiam tanquam triticum hath used and continually us●th to let that her G. cannot put in execution that wherunto God continually doth cal her I dare be bold to say in this particular case that that the Apostle saith generally speaking of Satans

our greatest cros may be to be absent from him and strangers from our home and that we may godly contend more and more to please him Amen c. As for your parts in that it is commonly thought your staff standeth next the door ●ee have the more cause to rejoyce and be glad as they which shal come to their fellowes under the Altar To the which Society God with you bring me also in his mercy when it shall be his good plesure I have received many good things from you my good Lord Master and dear Father N. Ridley Fruits I mean of your good labours Al which I send unto you again by this bringer Augustin Benher one thing except which he can tell I do keep upon your further plesure to be known therin And herewithal I send unto you a little treatise which I have made that you might peruse the same and not only you but also ye my other most dear and reverend Fathers in the Lord for ever to give your Approbation as ye may think good Al the prisoners here about in maner have seen it and read it and as therin they aggre with me nay rather with the truth so they are ready and wil be to signify it as they shal se you give them example The matter may be thought not so necessary as I seem to make it But yet if ye knew the great evil that is like hereafter to come to the posterity by these men as partly this bringer can signify unto you Surely then could ye not but be most willing to put hereto your helping hands The which thing that I might the more occasion you to perceive I have sent you here a writing of Harry Harts own hand Wherby ye may see how Christs glory and grace is like to loose much light if your sheep quondam be not something holpen by them that love God and are able to prove that al good is to be attributed only and wholly to Gods grace and mercy in Christ without other respects of worthines then Christs merits The effects of salvation they so mingle and confound with the cause that if it be not seen to more hurt will come by them than ever came by the Papists in as much as their life commendeth them to the world more then the Papists God is my witnes that I write not this but because I would Gods glory and the good of his peop●e In Free wil they are plain Papists yea Pelagians And ye know that Modicum fermenti totam Massam corrumpit They utterly contemn al learning But hereof shal this bringer show you more As to the chief captains therefore of Christs church here I complain of it unto you as truly I must do of you even unto God in the last day if ye wil not as ye can help something Vt veritas doctrinae maneat apud posteros in this behalf as ye have done on the behalf of matters expugned by the Papists God for his mercy in Christ guide you Most dearly beloved Fathers with his holy Spirit here and in al other things as most may make to his glory and the commodity of the Church Amen Al here God therfore be praised prepare themselves willingly to pledg our Captain Christ even when he wil and how he wil. By your good prayers we shal al fare the better and therefore we al pray you to cry to God for us as we God willing do and wil remember you My brethren here with me have thought it their duty to signify this need to be no less then I make it to prevent the plantations which may take root by these men Yours in the Lord Robert Ferrar Rowland Taylor Iohn Bradford Iohn Philpot. NUM LXXXIV The Prisoners for the Gospel their Declaration concerning K. Edward his Reformation To the King and Queens most excellent Majesties with their most honorable high court of Parlament WE poor Prisoners for Christs religion require your Honours in our dear Saviour Christs name earnestly now to repent for that you have consented of late to the unplaceing of so many godly lawes set furth touching the true religion of Christ before by two most Noble Kings being Father and brother to the Queens Highnes and aggreed upon by al your consents not without your great and many deliberations free and open disputations costs and paines taking in that behalf neither without great Consultations and conclusions had by the greatest learned men in the realm at Windsor Cambridg and Oxford neither without the most willing consent and allowing of the same by the whole Realm throughly So that there was not one Parish in al England that ever desired again to have the Romish Superstitions and vaine Service which is now by the Popish proud covetous clergy placed again in contempt not only of God al Heaven and al the holy ghostes lessons in the blessed Bible but also against the honors of the said two most noble Kings against your own Country fore aggreements and against al the godly consciences within this realm of England and elsewhere By reason wherof Gods great plagues must needs follow and great unquietnes of consciences besides al other persecutions and vexations of bodies and goods must needs ensue Moreover we certify your honours that since your said unplaceing of Christs true religion and true service and placing in the room therof Antichrist● Romish Superstition heresy and idolatry al the true preachers have been removed and punished and that with such open robbery and cruelty as in Turky was never used either to their own Countrimen or to their mortal enemies This therfore our humble suit is now to your honourable estates to desire the same for al the mercies sake of our dear and only Savior Iesus Christ and for the duty you owe to your native Country and to your own souls earnestly to consider from what light to what darknes this realm is now brought and that in the weightiest chief and principal matter of Salvation of al our souls and bodies everlasting and for ever more And even so we desire you at this your assembly to seek some effectual reformation for the afore written most horrible deformation in this church of England And touching your selves we desire you in like maner that we may be called before your Honors and if we be not able both to prove and approve by the Catholic and Canonical rules of Christs true religion the church Homilies and Service set furth in the most innocent K. Edwards days and also to disallow and reprove by the same authorities the Service now set furth since his departing then we offer our bodies either to be immediately burned or else to suffer whatsoever other painful and shameful death that it shal please the King and Queens Majesties to appoint And we think this trial and probation may be now best either in the plain English tongue by Writing or otherwise by disputation in the same tongue Our Lord for his great mercy sake

sayeng Innocens manibus mundo corde qui non accepit in vano animam suam nec juravit in dolo proximo suo Haec est generatio quaerentium Dominum quaerentium faciem Dei Iacob So that yow now entryng to the mownteyne of God which was to that high Archbushoprick and to the Primacie in the realme by a cleane contrary way which is as yow confesse your self by a fayned othe by fraud and dissimulation what more playne sentence can be against yow if yow have a thousand reformations in your mynde then that al this doith not make that this shuld be the way to the trew service of god nor that yow useng a false othe shuld be of that generation which with their hart sought god but utterlye concludeth against yow that if those that absteine from al deceit with their neighbour speciallie in othe be blessed of God he that confesseth to have used such dissimulation in his othe not with one neighbour or twayne but with the hole realme with the hole church what can he receve but the malediction of god What can more evidentlie show that man to be none of that generation that seketh god As if there were none other proffe that followed in your acts such a deceitful and shameful entrie doith manifestly declare and most of al one of the furst acts yow did after this Which was to pluck the rest of the realme of whom yow had chief cure out of the House of God bryngeng them furthwyth into the Schisme And that we see now that the hole realm by the high mercy of God beyng brought into the House of God agayn there to receive his grace and benediction and this to be done by those princes and those ministers Qui non acceperunt in vano animam suam nec jur averunt in dolo proximo suo your person yet remayneng without deprived of the grace graunted to them what doith this showe but that it is the just sentence of god against yow for your deceitful entrie into his service and the mercy of God toward them that not wyllenglie went furth but by your traiterous means were thrust out So that here now I have told yow whither yow heare me or no the very cause of your blyndnes and ignoraunce Which is the vengeaunce of god against yow for your dissimulation and perjurie to him and to the hole church at your ent●eng to the high service thereof Wherby yow have deserved to be cast out of the howse of god which is the church in tenebras exteriores ubi est fletus stridor dentium Which is the place and state wherein I see ●ow now lye and the same I saw so evidently in your lettres from the begynneng to the eand as nothing can be more playne yow showeng your self in the same to be so ignoraunt that you know not those things which be evident to every man which everie man that hath any exteriour light by experience and knowledge of things past doith know Here much is wanting that be once of the church as dead bodies when the spirit is out But to al that be within the body of the Church this geveth comfort and liffe as the spirit doith to the bodie And this shal be sufficient to say for everie mans information of the truthe in this matter that will beleave other that old or late experience or the contynual doctryne of the hole church hath taught in everye christen realm Whereof none ever found this fawte that the Popes Lawes Spiritual were not to be exercised because the same could not aggree with their politick lawes but rather found fawte when the Pope himself or his Ministers did let the course of those lawes which aggreed with everie politick body as the Sowle of man with al complexions and forme of body And when they were stopped then semed to be stopped the breath and liffe of justice as no realme can gyve as I sayd afore greater or surer testimonye than ours For when the authoritie and lawes of the Pope did flourish in the realm al justice florished wythal and that stopped and cast out as it was thise latter yeares al good justice and civil maner of lyvyng was stopped and cast furth withal So that when you came furst to mervayle of a thing never seen nor harde of afore in this realm that a Busshop made by the Popes authority shuld not be deposed without his authoritie what doith this show but a deap blyndnes and ignoraunce of the use of the law in this realme ever continual and never broken of ony just prynce untyl yow your self were made Busshop Which healped them to break al good lawes and customes of the realme and then afterward to make this for a great reason that the Popes lawes shuld not be now agayn admytted for then yow say al the hole realm that cast out his authoritie must nedes knowledg themself accursed Which god yow say forefend And this yow show yow cannot abyde for nothing by ony maner that the realme shuld knowledg themself accursed Which they cannot yow say avoide if thei admyt the Popes law as good This word yow shuld have sayd afore the realm had cast furth the Pope's authoritie for to have let●ed them from their faull into the curse and this had bene the very part of a good Busshop But after that thei were faullen from the lawes which thei had admytted afore and therby ronne into the curse which you say cannot be avoyed of them that hath ones admytted them Then I with al good and catholick men do say god ●ore●end they after this shuld not knowledg their state to be accursed Which if thei dyd not thei could never be absolved from the curse And he that forbeddeth now the knowledge of the same doith in effect procure that being accursed indede thei remayne ever accursed This is your monstrous and blynde love yow pretend to bear to the realme being accursed your self and blynded in the knowledg of your state to have the hole realm remayne styl accursed But the true affection thise two Catholick princes beare to the realm with the bloode of those that resisted th● swarveng from the Popes authoritie hath obteyned of the high mercy of God that the hole realme hath with repentaunce knowledged their evel state thei stode in syneth the leaveng of the authoritie of the Pope in the realme and with repealing of those lawes made contrary have asked absolution and received it and be delivered of al curse received into the grace of go● and brought into the churches lapp again thei onelie left out that doith refuse this grace and hath not so moche grace to accept it Whereof if ony should be deprived none hath deserved it more by the just wrath of God to be deprived then he that was chief doer to make the realm lese it as yow by showeng your self in this to be the verie membre of Satan both then but most of al now Which deprived

of grace of repentaunce hymself wold draw al other to his dampnation and dissuadeth al retorne to grace This your charitie yow now show to your contrie which as I said hitherto is very vengeaunce of God toward yow Of the which this great blyndnes gyveth a great testimonie that yow show in your lettre writeng of thise thynges as though yow had never knowledge what had been done in the realme afore your tyme nor what was the state of your time nor yet what is the state of the realm at this present bryngeng for a great inconvenient that if the Parlament shuld accept the lawes of the Pope thei shuld be constrayned to repeal those that were done against his lawes and authoritie As though this were not so done already And showeng so great ignoraunce both touching the doctrine of the church and in this ●oyncte touching the Popes authoritie and the experience of the custome of the realm yet yow conclude that ignoraunce might excuse other men how prejudicyal the canon lawes be to the wealth of the realm if thei wold accept the same But you cannot be excused by ignoraunce And seeing in this the very trouthe that ignoraunce cannot excuse yow as in trouthe it cannot being of that kynde it is But if that do not excuse you then malice doith condempne yow Which is the very cause to bring you to ignoraunce inexcusable both in this poincte of the authoritie of the Pope as in the doctrine of the Sacrement Wherin it is no lesse monstrous And this yow show most where yow think to speak with lesse obstinacy As where yow say that if thei that follow the Popes doctrine herei● could bryng in but one old auncyent Doctor of the Church of their opinion you have offred afore as yow offer yet to g●ve place unto them and to consent to the same What a proffe is this to show your profound blyndnes If there be no let but this because yow see not of the old Doctors at the least one that were against yowr opinion in the defence of the Popes doctrine other men seeing so many and not one auncient approved doctor that ever dissented what a wonderful blyndnes is this not to see one against yow For this is playne when the Pope showeth his sence and doctrine in this Article he doith not speak thereof as of an Article that he himself hath newly found nor yet ony of his predecessours but that al hath uniformally received one of another of their fathers unto the Apostles tyme and they of Christ. Which argument is so strong so evident to the condempnation of your opinion and confirmatyon of the Popes that manie sage and learned men writing against the opinion yow follow being diverse sortes of arguments to confound the same set apart al form of reasoneng and onelie stick upon the testimony and uniforme consent of al the old Doctors of the Church to this day Which testimonies be so meny that they fyll up great books as amongst other my Lord of Durham at this present in his book written of this matter taketh this way to ground hymself most apon the perpetual consent of the old Doctors continuing unto this age and al against your opinion Which book is abrode and hath been seen of yow Then if yee wil think him of so smal judgment or knowledge that in such a nombre as he bringeth there is not one that maketh to his purpose but al for your purpose whom he entendeth to oppugne other this must prove a wonderful blyndnes in hym and not in hym alone but in so menie learned men that taketh the same way or ells in yow that amongst so menye testimonies som more clerer then som not to see so moche as one alone this is an evydent proff that yee be stark blynd For if yee were not if it were but one brought furth unto yow as is mentioned in that book the condempnation of Berengarius that was of your opinion and that done by a General Councel of all the Nations in Chrystendom growndeng it self upon the uniform doctrine of their forefathers Were not this enough yf yow had yies to see to show that more then one old Doctor were of the Popes doctrin And if this be not sufficyent proff unto yow the same being enough to Berengarius hymself which was converted therby and persuaded to recant his opinion what doth this show but that he was not utterly blynded but that he saw some testimonie against hym yow utterly to have lost al syght that se not so moch as one But of this your monstrous blyndnes I mervell the less the more I see the same to procede of the very justice and wrath of God against yow with whom yow mocking on that maner as yow showed in comyng in such a high place in service of the church as was to be Archbishop and Primate of the Realm as to swere in dolo not onlye Proximo but Vniversae Ecclesiae Wylleng afterward to pervert the old order of the churche which yow called a Reformation me semeth to here the very words and curse of S. Paul that lighted upon the false Prophet Bariesu letting the coorse of the doctrine Evangelical preached by hym when he then curseng hym said O! plene omni malo omni fallaciâ fili diaboli inimice omnis justitiae non desinis pervertere vias Domini rectas Et ecce nunc manus Domini super te eris caecus non videns solem usque ad tempus The effect of this I do see hath lighted upon yow for entreng by deceit to be a chieff Doctour in the church perverteng Vias Domini rectas to be blynded I pray God it be but ad tempus But hitherto I have not known a more deaper blyndnes And if that was ponnyshment of that false prophet to lese his corporal syght for a tyme that being an infidelle for very ignoraunce did put obstacle to the very trew doctrine of the faith never hard of afore to be blynded corporallie for a tyme yow that first knew the doctrine and preached the same which afterward yow do pervert if yow were stricken with a gretter and more notable blyndnes the which yow show now this is evident to come of the verie hond of god which mans hond cannot heale but only the hond of god that justlie ponnyshed yow therewithal And the sorer and more desperate cure is of this your blyndnes the more yow acquyett your self therein as though yow had a great gift of light above al other For so yow show in your lettres persuadeng your self to have found a way in teacheng the doctrine of the Sacrament of the aulter that other hath not seen Which is to take away the absurdity both to the sence and reason of man that is in the catholick doctrine toucheng the Sacrement of the aulter as yow say in that forme of bread and wyne to be the verie trew real presence of the body of Christ and that it is

what comfort could your flock loke for to have by yow But that which Christ saith to follow of those Qui non intrant per ostium ●ed aliunde to be stealers and thieffs Qui non intrant nisi ut mactent perdant as the effect hath shewed by yow But here yow deceive your self again and wold deceive other makeng your defence of your simulate oth that yow dyd the same so for the more service of God haveng in your mynd then to reform the church to the which being no way but to make that oth for a countenance this yow thought for such a purpose might be acceptable afore god and also entreng by the authoritie of the Pope called by hym that had authoritie to name yow then yow think it cannot be justlie of onie man objected unto yow that yow did not entre by the dore And this trulie if you could have kept your own counsil toucheng me I durst not object the same unto yow seeyng nothing outwardlie but as that yow were lawfullie called and institute Busshop And of your inward I wo●d not make my self judge More wanting here and see as is the furst poyncte in your lettres Where yow make a great mervayle sayng it to be a thing that was never seen in the realme that to condempne any subject thereof justice shuld be sought of a forreyn power as is the Popes How this is to be called a Forreyn power I wil declare afterward For this I do not mervel if yow do not wel know not being so open to them that lacketh spiritual doctrine nor of that ignoraunce I do not speak now but of that outward light and knowledge which is open to every man by experience The which yow not knoweng it may be wel said yow be cast In tenebras exteriores and that yow have lost both interiour and exteriour knowledge of things For so yow show in this case where yow say it was never seen in the realm that to condemne ony subject thereof to death shuld be required ony other sentence then that comyth from the Imperial Crowne of the realm and their temporal lawes Wherein that which I note furst is this that in that place yow seme to lament that being condempned alredie as yow say by the lawes of the realme of high treason this dilation is geven to your death not to suffre afore al such things as be layd to your charge were furst known at Rome this being natural unto al that be in jeopardie of liffe if they cannot hope by ony just de●eance to extue the same at the least to have tyme al desire followeng that proverb In space comyth grace The which natural affect being extinct in yow this followeth withal natural knowledge to be extinct as in the proheme of your lettre is more declared And now to come neerer to that yow say was never seen that onye subject to be condempned had nede of ony outward Iustice calleng owtward justice the Canon lawes that come from the Pope To this I say the experience and use of the lawes and justice in this realme doith show clene contrarie to your mervel that it was never seen in the realm afore the tyme of your malicious oth that there was ever ony man condempned for the crime of heresies by the mere justice that comyth from the temporal lawes but al were first declared to be such by the spiritual lawes of the Canons which yow call forreyne lawes And this beside I say afore that same tyme of al other crimes as treason and other there was never spiritual man put to execution accordeng to the ordre of the lawes of the realm but he were furst by the Canon Laws condempned disgraded and then gyven to the temporal hondes Wherof there be as menye examples afore the tyme of breakeng the old ordre of the realm thise last years as hath bene delinquents Let al the records be sene and speciallie this is notable of the Busshop of which being emprisoned here for high treason the king wold not procede to his condempnation and ponnishment afore he had the Popes bull geveng hym And this is the trade of justice which the King and Qwene use with yow at this tyme beyng condempned of treason being consecrate Busshop to have the Popes sentence from Rome afore yow suffre Which maner of proceding you say was never afore in the Realm and the practise and experience in like cases doith show never to have bene otherwise afore the tyme of your notable perjurie And so Catholick Kings as it pertayneth to the privilege of the See of Rome when they be crowned doith sweare And now look what ignorance is this to think that the like was never sene in the realme when it was never seen otherwise amongst those princes that were counted to be in the obedience of the Lawes of Christ and of the Church But now to come to that yow speak of the Popes law and power Which after a seditious maner of speakeng yow call A forreyne power this stondeth under such a fashion if God leave yow so moch sence to understond what I say that the Popes power can no more be called Forreyn power comyng not of man alone but of hym that is god and man that was secundus hom● de coelo coelestis then may be called a Forreyn power that the sowle of man comyng from heaven hath in the body generate in earth And so it is in the po●itick body of this realme ruled with politick lawes founded by m●ns reason that be called Temporal lawes To them comyng the Popes laws spiritual doith no other but that the sowle in the body to gyve liffe to the same to confirme and strengthen the same And this is it the Aungel speakeng in Christes conception and declareng what his authoritie shuld be signifyed saing he shuld sytt Super Domum Davyd which was a temporal reigne ut confirmet illud corroboret And so doith the spiritual lawes procedynge of his Spirit As be the lawes of the Church and canon lawes Which wheresoever thei be wel observed doith this effect ever to confirme and stablish the temporal lawes of the realm as no realm hath had more experience then this ever s●neth the tyme they received the faith and obedience of the Pope from whom came theyr doctrine of the faith There was never notable trouble in the realm of ony kynd if it dured ony space but it was ever lightly eased and the realm established by some Legate sent from the Pope and the See of Rome following the prescript of the Canons and the Spiritual Law Without the which no realme can wel be governed but al be like to the Thornbush Whereof it is written In libro Iudicum when the Sichimites had chosen a Tyrannie over them against the law of God then it was prophesied unto them what shuld come thereof which was that fire shuld come furth of that thorne which was their King that shuld devoure

requite the same I have written lettres unto my Lorde of Northumberlande declarynge unto hym the cause of my staye in the Commission which is bicause that al the gentylmen and Justices of the peace of Kent which be in commission with me be now at London Bifore whos 's comynge home if I sholde procede without them I myght perchaunce travel in vayne and take more payne than I sholde do good I have written also unto hym in the favour of Michael Angelo whose cause I pray you to helpe so moche as lieth in you The Sophy and the Turke themperor and the French kynge not moch better in religion than they rollynge the stone or turnynge the whele of fortune up and downe I pray God send us peace and quyetnes with al realmes as wel as among our selfes and to preserve the Kyngs majestie with al his councill Thus fare you wel From my howse of Forde the xx day of November Anno 1552. Your assured T. Cant. NUM CVIII Signifying his desire to have the good will of the Lord Warden his neighbour To my lovyng frende Sir William Cecill Knyght Secretary to the Kings Majestie Yeve thies AFter my harty commendations and thanks for your letters ther is no man more loth to be in contention with any man than I am specially with my Lorde Warden my nere neighbour dwellynge both in one contray and whose familier and entier frendeshippe I most desier for the quyetnes of the hole contray For the example of the rulers and heades wil the people and membres followe And as towchynge learned men I shal sende you my mynde with as moch expedition as I can which by this poste I can not do evyn in the colde snowe sittynge opon coles untyl he be gone But hartely fare you wel in the Lorde Iesus From Forde the last day of November Your Lovynge frende T. Cant. NUM CIX Desiring Cecyl to enform him of the cause of Chekes indictment To my very Lovynge frende Sir William Cecyl Knight AFter my very harty recommend●tions Yester nyght I harde reported that Mr. Cheke is indited I pray you hartely if you know any thynge therof to sende me knowledge and wheruppon he is indited I had grete trust that he sholde be one of them that sholde fele the Queens grete mercie and pardon as one who hath been none of the grete doers in this matier agaynst her and my trust is not yet gone excepte it be for his ernestnes in religion For the which if he suffre bl●ssed is he of god that suffreth for his sake howsoever the worlde juge of hym For what ought we to care for the jugement of the worlde whan god absolveth us But alas if any means cowde be made for hym or for my Lorde Russel it were not to be omitted nor in any wise neglected But I am utterly destitute both of counseil in this matter and of power being in the same condemnation that they be But that onely thynge which I can do I shal not ceasse to do and that is only to pray from theym and for my selfe with al other that be now in adversity Whan I saw you at the cour●e I wolde fayne have talked with you but I durst not nevertheless if you cowde fynde a tyme to come over to me I wolde gladly commen with you Thus fare you hartely well with my Lady your wife From Lamhith this 14 day of this month of August Your own assured T. Cant. FINIS READER MY Reverend Friend Mr. Wharton as he formerly Encouraged and Assisted me in the Foregoing History hath also further obliged me by the Perusal of it and by communicating to me his Ingenious and Learned Observations and Animadversions thereupon which do highly deserve to be made more Publick and therefore are here gladly added by me together with his Letter as a Supplement to my Book for the Reader 's Benefit To the Reverend Mr. STRYPE SIR AT the Desire of Mr. Chiswell our Common Friend I have perused your Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer not without great Satisfaction being much pleased to see the Actions of that Excellent Prelate and the Affairs of the Reformation of our Church happily begun and carried on in his Time and by his Conduct disposed in so clear a Method I have not been able to make my Observations upon it with that Exactness and Fulness which I desired and you may perhaps expect being at this time placed at a very great distance from all my Papers and Collections and not enjoying the use even of such Printed Books as would be necessary to this Design So that I have been forced to pass by very many Places of your History wherein I have suspected some Error to have been committed but could not either confirm or remove my Suspicion for want of farther present Evidence However I have noted several Places which at first Reading appeared Suspicious and after farther Consideration were judged Erroneous by me altho even in some of those Places I have only Pointed at the Error not being able always to rectify it without the Assistance of Books and Papers whereof I am now wholly destitute Be pleased to accept of my Performance herein with that Candor wherewith I read your Book and made the following Observations since I willingly profess That the commission of Errors in writing any History especially of times past being altogether unavoidable ought not to detract from the Credit of the History or Merit of the Historian unless it be accompanied with Immoderate Ostentation or Vnhandsome Reflections upon the Errors of others from which Imputation that Indifference and Candor which appear throughout your whole Work wholly exempt you altho no History of those Matters or Times which I have seen be wrote with equal Exactness PAGE 16. Line 4. It is the sense of an Ingenious and Learned Friend of mine That the pretended Martyr Thomas Becket tho he died in Vindication of the Privileges of the Church yet he was the First Betrayer of the Rights of his See viz. of Canterbury He made the greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of Canterbury by resigning the Archbishoprick into the Pope's hands and receiving it again from him as the Pope's Donation Thomas Becket was not the First nor the Chief Betrayer of the Rights of the See of Canterbury The first and greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of that See was made by his Predecessor William de Corboil Thirty seven years before who after he had been fully Invested in the Archbishoprick of Canterbury by due Authority solicited and accepted the Bulls of Pope Honorius conferring it upon him as by Papal Gift and other Bulls constituting him the Pope's Legate in England whereby he subjected his own See and the Church of England to the Authority of the See of Rome which were before wholly independent of it Page 21. line 21. The Twelfth Article of Cranmer's Judgment of the Unlawfulness of K. Henry's Marriage is this We think that

Istorum Authorum Maxime Memorabile sit quonam in pretio apud Eruditos seniper Habiti Fuerunt Opera Thomae Pope-Blunt Baron●iti Fol. V. Cl. Gulielmi Camdeni Illustrium V●rorum ad G. Camdenum Epistol●e cum Appendice Varii Argumenti Accesserunt Annalitita Regni Regis Jacobi I. Apparatus Commentarius de Antiquitate Dignitate Officio Comitis Marescali Angliae Praemittitur G Camdeni Vita Scriptore Thoma ●mitho S.T.D. Ecclesiae Anglicanae Presbytero 4to Some Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont By Peter Allix D D Treasurer of Sarum 4to his Remarks upon the Ecclesiastical ●istory of the Ancient Churches of the Albigenses 4to A Vindication of Their Majesties Authority to fill the Sees of the Deprived Bishops in a Letter occasioned by Dr. B 's Refusal of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells 4to A Discourse concerning the Unreasonableness of a New Separation on Account of the O●ths to the Present Government With an Answer to the History of Passive Obedience so far as relates to them 4to A Vindication of the said Discourse concerning the Unre●●●nablen●ss of a New Separation from the Exceptions made against it in a Tract called A Brief Answer to the said Discourse c 4to Geologia Or ● Discourse concerning the Earth before the Deluge wherein the Form and Properties ascribed to it in a Book entituled The Theory of the Earth are expected against and it is made appear That the Dissolution of that Earth was not the Cause of the Universal Flood Also a new Explication of that Flood is attempted By Erasmus Warren Rector of Worlington in Suffolk 4to The Present State of Germany By a Person of Quality 8vo Memoirs relating to the Royal Navy of England for Ten Years determined December 1688. By Samuel P●pys Esq 8 vo Memoirs of what past in Christendom from the War begun 1672. to the Peace concluded 1679. 8vo Disquisitiones Critic● de Variis per Diversa Lo●a tempora Bibliorum Editionibus Quibus Acced●●t Castigati●nes Theologi Cujusdam Parificusis ad Opasculum Is. Vossii de Sybillinis Oraculis Ejusd●m Responsi●●em ad Objectiones n●per●e Critica Sacra 4to A●gl●a Sacra sive Collectio Historiarum Au●●quit●s Scriptarum de Archicpiscopis Episcopis Angliae a prima Fid●i Christianae susceptione ad Annum 1540. in Duobus Volamin●bus per Henricum Whartonum Fol. Jacobi Usserii Armachani Archipiscopi Historia Dogmatica Controversiae inter Orthodoxos Pontificios de scripturis Socris Vernaculis nunc Prim●●n Edita Acc●sserunt ●j●sdem Dissertationes du●e de Pseudo-Dionysii scriptis de Epistola ad Lacdic●os ant●●ac medi●ae Discripsis Dig●ssit noris atq●e A●●lavio Lo●●ple●avit Henricus Wharton A. M. Rev in Christo Pat. ac Dom. Archiepisc. Can 〈◊〉 a sacris Domestic●s 4to 1690. S●●iptorum E●clesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christo nato u●que ad s●●ndran xiv facili methodo 〈…〉 de Vito Illor●●●● as Re●us G. siis de 〈◊〉 Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis Ge●●●●is 〈◊〉 Supposit●tiis meditis Deperduis Fragmentis Deque Varsis Op●rion Editimubus persp●eue Agitur Acc●dunt Scriptores Gentiles Christ●●ae Religionis Oppugnatores Cujusvis S●eculi Brev●arian Inserusit●r sais Lo is V●t●v●m aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta tum Graec●●an Lativa 〈…〉 Praenussa demque Prolegomena q●●bu● plurima ad Antiq●●tatis Ecclesiasticae Studium 〈…〉 Opu● indicibus neces●arus I●structum Authore Gulielmo Cave SS Theol Proj ● Canoni●o Windeso●ensi Accedit ab Alia manu App●ndix ab meunte Secula xiv ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. Rus●worth 's Historical Collections The Third Part in Two Volumes Containing the Principal M●tters which happened from the Meeting of the Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. to the end of the Year 1644. Wherein is a particular Account of the Rise and Progress of the Civil War to that Period Fol. A Discourse of the Pastoral C●re By Gilbert Burn●t Lord Bishop of Sarum 1692. Dr. 〈◊〉 Conant 's Sermons 1693. A Discourse of the Government of the Though●● By Geo. Tully Sub-Dean of York 8vo 1694. Origo 〈◊〉 Or a Treatise of the Origine of Laws and their Obliging Power as also o● their great Variety and why some Laws are immutable and some not but may suffer change or cease to be or be suspended or abrogated In Seven Books By George Dawson Fol. 1694. In his Three Conversions E Foxij MSS. In his Protestation to the whole Church of England Pag. 418. Edit 1672. Life of Iohn Fox 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Mac. III. 7. Parsons Three Conversions Part 3. p. 84. Acts and Mon. Vol. I. p. 532. Edit 1610. In his Antiq. of Canterb. Anno 1489 1503 1511 1516 1523 1529 1530 Anno 1530. Anno 1530 1531 1532. Anno 1532 1533. Anno 1533. Anno. 1534. Anno 1534. Anno 1535. Anno 1535. Anno 1536. Anno 1536. Anno 1536. Anno 1537. Anno 1537. Anno 1537. Anno 1537. Anno 1538. Anno 1538. Anno 1538 1539. Anno 1540. Anno 1540. Anno 1540. Anno 1541. Anno 1542. Anno 1543. Anno 1543. Anno 1543. Anno 1543 1544 Anno 1544. Anno 1545 1546. Anno 1546. Anno 1547. Anno 1547. Anno 1547. Anno 1547. Anno 1547. Anno 1547. Anno 1548. Anno 1548. Anno 1549. Anno 1549. Anno 1549. Anno 1549. Anno 1549. Anno 1549. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1550. Anno 1551. Anno 1551. Anno 1552. Anno 1552. Anno 1552. Anno 1552. Anno 1552. Anno 1552. Ann● 1552. Anno 1553. Ann● 1553. Anno 1553. Anno 1553. Anno 1553. Ann● 1553. Ann● 1553. Anno 1553. Ann● 1553. Anno 1553. Anno 1553. Ann● 1554. Anno 1554. Ann● 1554. Anno 1554. An●● 1554. Anno 1554. Ann● 1554. Anno 1555. Anno 1555. Anno 1555. Ann● 1555. Anno 1555. Hist. Reform Vol. I. p. 274. † Acts and Mon. first Edit p. 815 A worthy Work to revive his Memory His Family Anno 1489. Account of his younger Years Life of Cranm. in the MSS. C.C.C.C. Sent to Cambridg An. 1503. Life of Cranm. inter Foxii MSS. Anno 1511. Anno 1516. Sets himself to study the Scripture Anno 1519. Is made Doctor of Divinity An. 1523. 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 Life of Cranmer in theMSS C.C.C.C. The King sends for him Anno 1529. Sutably placed with the Earl of Ormond Epist. 19. li. 27. Impensius gratulor tuae soelicitati quod homini potenti Lalco Aulico perspiciam etiam sacra● Literas ●sse cordi teque nobili● illius Margaretae desiderio ten●ri Epist. 34. lib. 29. Friendshipand Correspondence between the Earl and Cranmer Anno 1530. A Providence in his being placed here Cranmer Disputes at Cambridg

return to Ionas He had written some Pieces and presented them to the King for which he intended to reward him And being now ready to go to France for the improvement of his Knowledg and so after a time to return into England again for which he had a great Affection he besought Secretary Cecyl in a well-penned Letter That whatsoever the King intended to bestow on him he would do it out of hand for the supply of his travelling Necessity This Letter for the Antiquity of it and the Fame of the Man I have inserted in the Appendix In which is also contained an Extract of part of Ionas the Father's Letter to his Son concerning the Miseries of Germany CHAP. XXIV Melancthon and the Arch-bishop great Friends THESE Occasions of the frequent mention of Melancthon do draw us into a relation of some further Passages between him and our Arch-bishop In the Year 1549 happened several Disputations chiefly concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper before the King's Commissioners in both Universities In Oxford they were managed chiefly by Peter Martyr And in Cambridg Ridley then Bishop of Rochester and a Commissioner was the chief Moderator Soon after Martin Bucer in this University defended three Points one of the Sufficiency of the Scripture another concerning the Erring of Churches and the last concerning Works done before Iustification against Pern Sedgwick and Yong. They on the Popish Side pretended much in their Disputations to have Antiquity and the Fathers for them These Disputations did our most Reverend Prelate together with his own Letter convey to Melancthon by the Hand of one Germanicus a German Who probably might be one of those Learned Strangers that the Arch-bishop hospitably entertained The Reflection that that Divine in an Answer to his Grace in the Year 1550 made upon perusal of these Papers was That he was grieved to see that those who sought so much for the Antient Authorities would not acknowledg the Clearness of them Nor was there any doubt what the sounder Men in the Antient Church thought But that there were new and spurious Opinions foisted into many of their Books Into that of Theophylact most certainly for one And that there was some such Passage in the Copy that Oecolampadius made use of when he translated Theophylact which he liked not of but yet translated it as he found it But this was wholly wanting in the Copy that Melancthon had That the same happened in Bede's Books which he supposed might be found more incorrupt among us Bede being our Country-Man The same Melancthon with this his Letter sent our Arch-bishop a part of his Enarration upon the Nicene Creed for this end that he might pass his Judgment thereon As he also did for the same purpose to A Lasco Bucor and Peter Martyr all then in England The beginning of this Learned German's Acquaintance with our Prelat was very early For the Arch-bishop's Fame soon spred abroad in the World beyond the English Territories Which was the Cause of that Address of Melancthon mentioned before in the Year 1535 and in the Month of August when he sent a Letter and a Book to him by Alexander Aless. In the Letter he signified what a high Character both for Learning and Piety he had heard given of him by many honest and worthy Men and That if the Church had but some more such Bishops it would be no difficult Matter to have it healed and the World restored to Peace congratulating Britain such a Bishop And this seems to have been the first entrance into their Acquaintance and Correspondence PHILIP MELANCTHON In the Year 1548 Cranmer propounded a great and weighty Business to Melancthon and a Matter that was likely to prove highly useful to all the Churches of the Evangelick Profession It was this The ABp was now driving on a Design for the better uniting of all the Protestant Churches viz. by having one common Confession and Harmony of Faith and Doctrine drawn up out of the pure Word of God which they might all own and agree in He had observed what Differences there arose among Protestants in the Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Divine Decrees in the Government of the Church and some other things These Disagreements had rendred the Professors of the Gospel contemptible to those of the Roman Communion Which caused no small grief to the Heart of this good Man nearly touched for the Honour of Christ his Master and his true Church which suffered hereby And like a Person of a truly publick and large Spirit as his Function was seriously debated and deliberated with himself for the remedying this Evil. This made him judg it very adviseable to procure such a Confession And in order to this he thought it necessary for the chief and most Learned Divines of the several Churches to meet together and with all freedom and friendliness to debate the Points of Controversy according to the Rule of Scripture And after mature deliberation by Agreement of all Parties to draw up a Book of Articles and Heads of Christian Faith and Practice Which should serve for the standing Doctrine of Protestants As for the Place of this Assembly he thought England the fittest in respect of Safety as the Affairs of Christendom then stood And communicating this his purpose to the King that Religious Prince was very ready to grant his Allowance and Protection And as Helvetia France and Germany were the chief Countries abroad where the Gospel was prosessed so he sent his Letters to the most eminent Ministers of each namely to Bullinger Calvin and Melancthon disclosing this his pious Design to them and requiring their Counsel and Furtherance Melancthon first of all came acquainted with it by Iustus Ionas junior to whom the Arch-bishop had related the Matter at large and desired him to signify as much in a Letter to the said Melancthon and that it was his Request to him to communicate his Judgment thereupon This Ionas did and Melancthon accordingly writ to our Arch-bishop on the Calends of May this Year to this purpose That if his Judgment and Opinion were required he should be willing both to hear the Sense of other Learned Men and to speak his own and to give his Reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswading and being perswaded as ought to be in a Conference of good Men letting Truth and the Glory of God and the Safety of the Church not any private Affection ever carry away the Victory Telling him withal That the more he considered of this his Deliberation than which he thought there could be nothing set on foot more Weighty and Necessary the more he wish'd and pressed him to publish such a true and clear Confession of the whole Body of Christian Doctrine according to the Judgment of Learned Men whose Names should be subscribed thereto That among all Nations there might be extant an illustrious Testimony of Doctrine delivered by grave Authority and

that Posterity might have a Rule to follow And he was of opinion that this Confession should be much of the nature of their Confession of Augsburgh only that some few Points in Controversy might be in plainer Words delivered than was in that That Ambiguities might not hereafter occasion new Differences And that in the Church it was best to call a Spade a Spade and not to cast ambiguous Words before Posterity as an Apple of Contention And that if in Germany there had been an intire Consent of all the Churches they had not fallen into those Miseries And so concludes earnestly exhorting our Prelat to apply himself vigorously in these his pious Cares and Thoughts for the good Estate of the Churches Not long after he pursued his first Letter with a second Wherein he again reminded our Reverend Father of that Caution viz. That nothing might be left under general Terms but exprest with all the Perspicuity and Distinctness imaginable Which I suppose he said to meet with the Opinion of some who thought it might be more convenient in order to Peace to suffer some difficult and controverted Points to pass under dubious Expressions or in the very words of Scripture without any particular decisive Sense and Explanation imposed on them And concerning this 't is probable our Arch-bishop had desired his Opinion This Melancthon was against saying That for his part he loved not Labyrinths and that therefore all his study was That whatsoever Matters he undertook to treat of they might appear plain and unfolded That it was indeed the Practice of the Council of Trent which therefore made such crafty Decrees that so they might defend their Errors by things ambiguously spoken But that this Sophistry ought to be far from the Church That there is no Absurdity in Truth rightly propounded and that this Goodness and Perspicuity of things is greatly inviting wheresoever there be good Minds And of this very Judgment was Peter Martyr another great Divine For when Bucer in a Discourse with him at Strasburg had advised him when he spake of the Eucharist to use more dark and ambiguous Forms of Speech that might be taken in a larger Acceptation urging to him That this was the course he himself took and that a certain good Man whom I suspect strongly to be our Arch-bishop had perswaded him That by this means the great Controversy concerning the Real Presence in the Sacrament might be at an end and so Peace so long wanted might be restored to the Church Martyr was over-perswaded by his Friend so to do and used for some time the same Form of Speech with him when he had occasion to discourse of that Doctrine But afterward he returned to his former more dilucid Stile as well in the Matter of the Real Presence as in all other Subjects he treated of And that both because he saw this would not suffice them who held a gross and carnal Presence of Christ's Body unless their gross manner of Expression were received and their as gross Interpretation too and because he found that many weaker Brethren were greatly offended with these Ambiguities of Speech and so intangled and confounded that they scarce knew what to think in this Point And so leaving Bucer to pursue his obscurer Phrases he chose to speak more clearly and distinctly And neither did Bucer disallow of Martyr in this Course nor was Martyr ignorant of Bucer's true Sense however doubtful his Expressions were as the Author of his Life tells us This I mention to shew how exactly Martyr accorded with Melancthon in this Opinion of expressing things in clear and perspicuous Terms which the said Melancthon thought it highly necessary now to be inculcated when deliberation was had of drawing up a General Confession of Faith After he had thus declared his Mind in this Matter he particularly descended to the Doctrine of Fate telling the Arch-bishop how the Stoical Disputes of that Subject among them in the beginning were too rough and horrid and such as were prejudicial to Discipline Which I suppose might be occasioned from some Passage in the Arch-bishop's Letter advising with this Learned Man how to propound the Doctrines of Predestination and Free-Will CHAP. XXV The Arch-bishop corresponds with Calvin THESE his Counsels he brake also to Iohn Calvin the chief Guide of the French Churches Who also highly approved of his pious Proposition The Arch-bishop in a Letter to that great Reformer had been lamenting the Differences that were in the Reformed Churches having his Eye I suppose herein upon those of Geneva and Germany and like a true Father of the Church consulting for the making up of the Breaches he thought no fitter Remedy could be used than for pious and wise Men and such as were well exercised in God's School to meet together and profess their Consents in the Doctrine of Godliness This Calvin acknowledged was rightly and prudently advised by him Applauding him that he did not only lead the way in purging the Doctrine of God's Church from Corruption but did so voluntarily exhort and encourage others therein And that he did not only take care of Religion at Home in his own Country but all the World over And as to the Meeting and Converse of Divines for this purpose which Cranmer had told him he had made the King so sensible of the need and usefulness of that he was forward in it and had offered a Place in his Kingdom for them securely to assemble together in that French Divine wished That Learned and Wise Men from the chief Churches would accordingly meet and diligently discussing the chief Heads of Faith would by common Consent deliver to Posterity the certain Doctrine of the Scripture But that among the great Evils of that Age this also was to be reputed that Churches were so divided from one another that Human Society was scarcely kept up among them much less that Sacred Communion of the Members of Christ which all profest with their Mouths but few did sincerely take care to preserve That as to himself if he might be thought to be of any Use he would not grudg to pass over ten Seas if there were need That if it were only to contribute some Assistance to the Kingdom of England he should esteem it a Reason lawful enough but much more he thought he ought to spare no Labour no Trouble to procure a Means whereby the Churches that were so widely divided might unite among themselves But he hoped his Weakness and Insufficiency being such he might be spared and that he would do his part in prosecuting that with his Prayers and Wishes which should be undertaken by others And whereas our Arch-bishop had hinted to him his Jealousy that the Business would hardly find a good Issue by reason of certain Difficulties attending it Calvin not only exhorted and earnestly beseeched him to go forward till it should have some Effect at least though it succeeded

value Item One and twenty pair of Hangings for the Altars of the Church Vestments Albes c. Item Twelve Albes of silk Item Of linnin Albes belonging to the Sextre and other Altars 326. Item Vestments belonging to the Altars and Chauntries are of divers Values and works to the number of twenty six Item Corporows cases and Corporaws thirty six Item Altar cloths of Diaper and linnin One and twenty Item Mas books thirteen belonging to the Sextre and Altars The Inventary of our Ladies Chappel Imprimis Five little shrines of copper and guilt Item Three chalices of silver and gilt Item Two Paxes the one of silver and gilt and the other of silver Item Two pair of Beads and silver and gilt being but of ten stones a piece Item Three chappels of divers suites Item Two Copys of silk Item Thirteen Albes and three of them white silk Item Three Collars for the three Altars of silk garnished with plate of silver and gilt and with stones Item Four Altar cloths of linnin Item Two Altars of silk for the Altar The Inventory of the Priors house Imprimis Six salts with three covers of silver and gilt Item Six spoons of silver and gilt Item Five and twenty other spoons of silver Item Three standing Cups one plain and other two swaged with their Covers of silver and gilt Item Seven bollis of silver and gilt with one Cover Item Six silver cupps with one Cover Item Four nuts with three covers Item Two Masers with one cover Item Two silver Basins with their Ewers Item Two Gallon pots of silver and gilt to serve Peter and Paul Item Two smal silver pots Item Two chalices of silver and gilt The Inventary of the Subpriors house Item Two salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One little salt of silver with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Hordars house Item Two Salts of silver and gilt with a Cover Item One standing Nut with a Cover Item Three silver peeces Item Eighteen silver spoons Item Three old Masers perused The Inventary of the Fratrie Imprimis One standing Cup of mother pearle the foot and Cover being of silver and gilt Item Two great bollys of silver Item One standing Cup of silver and gilt with his Cover Item One standing Massar with a Cover of Wood. Item Three great bollis of Wood with bonds of silver and gilt Item Seven and thirty silver spoons of divers fashions Item Four old Massars perused NUM XVII A Reply to the Archbishop against his Court of Audience TO the first His Protestation sheweth no more but that he is not to be suspected to keep that Court of his Audience by the authority of any Legacy from Rome as by the name of Legate of Rome But forasmuch as no ABp within Christendom hath nor never had any authority to keep any such Court by the reason of the ABric but only Legates of the See of Rome Which Legates what vexations and oppressions they have done by the pretence thereof not only to Ordinaries but also to the Layfee by calling of poor men from the furthest parts of the realm to London for an halfpeny candle or for a little opprobrious word as was declared and proved plainly in this Parliament Which was a great cause of making of a Statute to remedy that before the Statute of the abolishment of the Bishops of Romes authority within this realm Insomuch that this execution of Legacies in other jurisdictions and realms hath been one of the greatest and intolerablest usurpations of the Bp. of Rome these many years among the Commonalty and therfore a thing most necessary of reformation in consideration of the premises no ABp can exercise this authority except he implyeth to al the world tho he speak it not nor write it not that he is a Legate of the See of Rome And in case it shal please the Kings Grace to give like authority notwithstanding so many incommodities to his Graces Subjects by the use therof and not one commodity at al to be abyden by it should seem better to give it to some other by special Commission at his Grace's pleasure Wherby it shal be known certainly to come from his Grace rather than to join it to the ABps See Wherby the old poyson might stil lurk and break out one day again if it should chance some to be ABp of Cant. that would change their copy as hath been in times past And moreover if his Grace should make his Legate it should peradventure derogate the power of his Graces General Vicar And if both should occupy then shall the people so much the rather take occasion to think and say that his Graces Vicar exerciseth the power of a Legate by his Graces authority and the ABp of Canterbury by authority of the Bp. of Rome And where the ABp saith that he seeth no cause why he should not keep that Court at the lest by authority of the Act of Parlament as al others enjoy by that Act al things that they had before from the See of Rome it seems that he never read the said Act nor yet can discern betwixt a thing absolute that may endure without a Dependence and an Advouson in gross and a thing that standeth in a continual Dependence as Service to the Seignory For Exemptions and Dispensations and such others be Absolutes depending nothing of the Grantor after his Grant But Legacies be but respectives And as no longer Lord no longer Service so no longer Bp. of Rome Lord here no longer his Vicar which was but his Servant as appeareth by the text of his Legacy whereof these be the words in the Chapter Quum non ignoretis De officio Legati qui in Provincia sua vices nostras gerere comprobatur And the Act of Parlament which he allegeth is so plain to every Reader that it cannot be drawn with twenty team of Oxen to stretch to the continuance of this Court of his Audience It is in the xxj th Chapter of the Session Anno xxv and in the xxvj th leafe in the latter end The words therof there be these Provided alwayes that this Act or any thing therin contained shal not hereafter be taken nor expounded to the derogation or taking away of any Grants or Confirmations of any Liberties Privileges or Jurisdictions of any Monasteries Abbies Priories or other Houses or Places exempt which before the making of this Act have been obtained at the See of Rome or by the authority thereof Loo this Act speaketh only of Exemptions which is a thing absolute and that only of Houses exempt and of their Jurisdictions Which might be suffered upon their few Parochians and neibours as Prebends have in their Cathedral churches But this Act speaketh not of no jurisdiction universal of Archbishops Bishops or other person Legacy is of that other sort and universal jurisdiction depending on him that usurped an universal

authority through the world And considering that the Bp. of Cant. beside al the Courts within his own Diocess keepeth in London a Court at the Arches sufficiently authorized to hear and to determine al causes and complaints appertaining to a Metropolitane why should he require this other Court of the Audience to keep it in London within the Church and jurisdiction of another Bp. except he m●nded to call other Bps. obedientially out of their jurisdiction contrary to the Act Or else at the lest forasmuch as this Court is kept within the Church and jurisdiction of London and the Arches Court within the city but not within the jurisdiction if he may not vex the Citizens and Diocesans of London at the Arches without an Appele first from the Ordinary immediately because of the Canon Lawes yet he might pul them to his Audience at Pauls as he did heretofore by his Legacy and yet offend not that Act made anno xxiij That no man shall be called out of his own Diocess And where the ABp saith that the Kings Grace bad him continue that Court stil it is to be marvelled that he then hath not in his Citations and other wrirings of that Court expressed or signified the same as he did cal himself in al his Writings Legatum Apostolicae Sedis long after that Act of the Abolishing NUM XVIII Archbishop Cranmers order concerning the Proctors of the Court of Arches shewn to be inconvenient by a Paper presented to the Parlament as followeth ALthough it be expedient that every thing which any way may be noyful unto the common wele be duely reformed yet is there nothing that should be rather looked upon for Reformation than such abuses as may be occasion of not indifferent ministration of justice Wherfore among so many things as heretofore hath been wel and condignely reformed touching other the Spiritualty or the Temporalty there is nothing that requireth speedyer Reformation than a certain Ordinance Lately procured in the Court of the Arches at London by the means of the Proctors there for the advancement of their singular wil only By which may and do come divers abuses in the said Court and occasion not indifferent ministration of justice and chargeable and prolix process there The effect whereof is this The Proctors of the said Court of Arches hath of late upon feigned suggestion surmised unto the most reverend Father in God my Lord Archbp. of Canterbury President and Head of the said Court to have been for the common wele and ease of his Provincialls induced his Grace to make such an Ordinance or Statute in the said Court of the Arches That wher heretofore there were in the same twenty or four and twenty Proctors and my said Lords G. at his liberty alwayes to admit mo or fewer Proctors there as should be seen expedient to his G. for the sufficient attending of the causes there depending for the time there shuld be from thenceforth no mo admitted Proctors there until the said nombre of Proctors than being there were decreased and come down to the nombre of Ten and than the said nombre of Ten Proctors never after to be exceeded And furthermore lest my said Lords G. might be advertised afterwards upon better causes and considerations to dissolve the said Statute as his Predecessors did alike other Statutes made in semblable cause long before the said Proctors knowing that his G. would as alwayes did apply himself to that thing that shuld be most profitable for the Common wele and intending to take away that liberty from him abusing also his G's benignity and good zeal to the restraint of his liberties and ●ulfilling of their covetous intent incontinently upon the obtaining of the said Statute procured the same to be confirmed by the Chapter and Convent of Christ's church in Canterbury So that by reason of the same confirmation my said Lords G. ne his Successors cannot as the said Proctors do pretend though they see never so good a cause therto infringe ne dissolve the same And so therby made in maner an Incorporation among them tho they call it not so Wherin be it considered whether they have first offended the King's Laws which do prohibit such Incorporations to be made without licence had of the King's Highness first thereunto And though all Incorporations in any mystery or faculty be not lightly to be admitted in this case wherupon depends good or evil ministration of justice most of al such Confederacies are to be eschued Also the said Statute is divers wayes noyful to the Commonwele of this Royalm and prejudicial to the King's G. Subjects in the same and occasion of divers abuses in the said Court hereafter to be declared But because the said Proctors are persuaded that my said Lord of Canterbury cannot himself Dissolve the same and seeing that no man wil lighty contend alone with al the said Proctors for the Dissolving thereof For though it touch every man generally no man singularly wil suppose the same to touch him so moche that he should for the impugnation of the same put himself in business against so many and so rich a company as the said Proctors be it were not only expedient but also necessary for the indifferent and speedy ministration of justice in the said Court that his said unreasonable Statute were infringed and dissolved by the authority of this present Parliament where al other abuses and excesses noyeful to the Commonwele ought to be reformed for these causes following First The said Statute is prejudicial unto the Commonwele because it is occasion of prolix sutes and superfluous delayes in the said Court else more necessary to be restrained than augmented For the said nombre of Ten Proctors appointed by the said Statute is unsufficient for the speedy and diligent attending of mens causes in the said Court tho al Ten were procuring there at once as it is not like but that three or four of the same shal bee alwayes impotent or absent For such they account also with the nombre of Ten. And besides that the same Ten or fewer that shal be onely procuring shal serve not onely for the said Court of the Arches but also for my said Lord of Canterburies Audience wherein be as many causes as in the Arches and for the Consistory of the Bp. of London For by the Statutes of both the same Courts of Audience and Consistory there is no man admitted to procure in the same unless he be a Proctor admitted first in the Arches So that so few Proctors appoynted for so many causes as shal be under travayl in al the said Courts can never be able to speed their business without great delayes taking For heretofore when there were in the said Court twenty Proctors continually occupying and more it hath been seen that divers of theym hath been than so overlayd with causes that they were driven to take oft and many delayes and Prorogations ad idem for to bring in their matiers