cometh hurt to all men for it wearieth the stedfast troubleth the doubtful and ensnareth the weak and simple yet because he saith he is not bound to answer your Lordship sitting for the Popes Holyness because of a Premunire and the Word of God as he pretends I think good somewhat to say that all men may see how he runneth out of his race of Reason into the rage of common Talk. And as the King and Queens Majesty will be glad to hear of your most charitable dealing with him so will they be weary to hear the blundering of this stubborn Heretick And where he alledgeth Divinity minling fas nefásque together he should not have been heard For shall it be sufficient for him to alledge the Judge is not competent and shall we dispute contra cum qui negat principia Although there be here a great company of learned men that know it unmeet so to do yet have I here a plain Canon whereby he is convicted ipso facto The Canon is this Sit ergo ruinae suae dolore prostratus quisquis Apostolicis voluerit contraire Decretis nec locum deinceps habeat inter Sacerdotes sed exors à sancto fiat Ministerio c. He hath alledged many matters against the Popes Supremacy but maliciously Ye say that the King in his Realm is Supream Head of the Church Well Sir you will grant me that there was a perfect Catholique Church before any King was Christened Then if it were a perfect Church it must needs have a Head which must needs be before any King was member thereof For you know Constantinus the Emperor was the first Christian King that ever was and although you are bound as St. Paul saith to obey your Rulers and Kings have Rule over the People yet doth it not follow that they have Cure of Souls For à fortiori the Head may do what the Minister cannot do but the Priest may consecrate and the King cannot therefore the King is not Head of the Church And where the Apostles do call upon men to obey their Princes cui Tributum Tributum cui Vectigal Vectigal the Exhortation extendeth only to Temporal matters they perceiving that men were bent to Liberty and Disobedience were enforced to exhort them to Obedience and Payment of their Tribute And again where you say that the Bishop of Rome maketh Laws contrary to the Laws of the Realm that is not true for this is a maxim in the Law Quod in particulari excipitur non facit universale falsum And as touching that monstrous talk of your Conscience that is no Conscience that ye profess it is but privata Scientia and Secta As yet you have not proved for all your glorious Babble that by Gods Laws ye ought not to answer the Popes Holiness The Canons which be received in all Christendom compel you to answer And although this Realm of late time through such Schismatiques as you were hath exiled and banished the Canons yet that cannot make for you for you know your self that pars in totum nihil statuere potest Wherefore this Island being indeed but a member of the whole Church could not determine against the whole And the same Laws that were put away by Parliament are now received again by a Parliament having as full Authority now as they had then And these Laws will now that ye answer to the Popes Holiness Therefore by the Laws of this Realm ye are bound to answer him This was materially replied to Cranmers words that he would never consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction in England Wherefore my good Lord all that this Thomas Cranmer I cannot otherwise term him confidering his Disobedience hath brought for his Defence shall nothing prevail with you Require him therefore to answer directly to your good Lordship command him to set aside his Trifles and to be obedient to the Laws and Ordinances of this Realm take witness here of his stubborn Contempt against the King and Queens Majesties and compel him to answer directly to such Articles as we shall here exhibit against him and in refusal your good Lordship is to excommunicate him Thus Dr. Story Fox page 654 655. NOTE Here his Fidelity to the Laws so long as they serve his turn the King Queen Parliament and Laws were then Popish He was for the Laws made by himself and the Duke of Somerset under the Childhood of Edward 6. A. Did he answer nothing further to the Charge of Heresie B. Nothing but this He pulled an Appeal out of his left Sleeve says Fox which he dellvered to the Court saying I appeal to the next General Council And further I intend to speak nothing against one holy Catholique and Apostolical Church or the Authority thereof the which Authority I have in great Reverence and whom my mind is in all things to obey pag. 663. 3 vol. The very words of his Appeal A. What did he mean by one holy Catholique Church B. His Definition of it you may find in the Thirty nine Articles of the Church of England which Articles were framed as Burnet thinks by him and Ridley and first published anno 1551. p. 166. 2. vol. The visible Church of Christ saith the 19th Article is a Congregation of faithful men in the which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly ministred aceording to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same Now in the year 1556. when Cranmer presented this Appeal there could not be in his opinion any such National or Catholique Church visible on the face of the Earth A. I pray make that appear B. By an Induction of all the Churches in the world that then professed themselves Christians as the Roman the Eastern the Church of England the Lutherans Calvinists Anabaptists c. the Roman in his opinion was but the Synagogue of Antichrist The Greek Church consented with the Roman in most of the Doctrines controverted betwixt Papists and Protestants as the Sacrifice of the Mass Adoration of the Eucharist Veneration of Images Invocation of Saints Prayer for the Dead c. and do consent at this day The Church of England was then newly reconciled to Rome and Catholique Bishops restor'd to their own Sees by Act of Parliament The Lutherans did then and at this day adore a corporal presence in the Sacrament and therefore cannot be said in his opinion to have the pure Word of God preached and the Sacraments duely administred according to Christs Ordinance The Calvinists had no Orders of Priests and Bishops consequently no Church at all A. How no Church at all for want of Priests and Bishops let that appear I pray you B. Read the Church of Englands Preface to the Form appointed by her for making and consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons and there observe these words viz. It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authors that from the Apostles time
inflicted on those that denied the Queens Supremacy ann 1559. but the loss of their Goods and such as refused to take the Oath did only lose their Imployments Whereas to refuse the Oath in King Henrys time brought them into a Premunire and to deny the Supremacy was Treason But against this Bill of Queen Elizabeths first Parliament the Bishops made Speeches in the House of Lords the rest of the Bishops opposed it the rather because they had lately declared so high for the Pope that it had been very indecent for them to have revoked so soon pag. 386 387. 2. vol. The Bishop of Chester said in Parliament that the Bill was against both Faith and Charity meaning the Bill for the new Service that Acts of Parliament were no Foundations for a Churches Belief that it was an insolent thing to pretend that all our Fathers lived in Ignorance That the Prophets oftentimes directed the Israelites to enquire of their Fathers Matters of Religion could not be understood by the Laiety Jeroboam made Israel to sin when he set up a new way of Worship Gallie by the Light of Nature knew that a Civil Judge ought not to meddle with matters of Religion In the Service-Book that was then before them there was no Sacrifice for Sin c. and for these reasons says Burnet he could not agree to it But if any thought he spoke this because of his own concern or pitied him for what he might suffer by it he would answer in the words of our Saviour Weep not for me weep for your selves p. 393. After him spake Fecknam Abbot of Westminster he said There had been great Order and Obedience in Queen Marys Reign but now every where great Insolencies were committed by the people with some very indecent Prophanations of the most holy things He recommended to them in St. Austins words the adhering to the Catholique Church the very name Catholique which Heretiques had not the confidence to assume shewed their Authority The Consent of the whole Church in all Ages with the perpetual Succession of Pastors in St. Peters Chair ought to weigh more with them than a few new Preachers who had of late distracted both Gemany and England Burnet pag. 393. 2. vol. Then see his Appendix to 2. vol. p. 408. where setting down these words of Nicholas Sanders That the Laws concerning Queen Elisabeths Supremacy passed the House of Lords with great difficulty all the Bishops opposing them Burnet answers It is true all the Bishops did oppose them c. But to all the Changes that were made in King Edwards time they submitted c. Why then were they turned out by King Edward and Protestants substituted in their places Thus Reader it appears by Burnets own Confession that the Reformation was not the Act and Deed of the old Clergy or Convocation of England or the major part thereof but impos'd on the Nation by the Power and Interest of a few persons And so I leave you to think what you please of Mas William Kings Confidence the Preacher of St. Warbroughs affirming as you have heard that Cranmer in all he did had the unanimous Consent and Vote of the major part of the Convocation the universal Submission of the Clergy c. Answ p. 25. A. But supposing he had the major Vote of his side as he had not could that have justified his Reformation B. Not at all for being all made Priests after that Form Accipe Potestatem offerre Sacrificium Deo missasque celebrare tam pro vivis quam pro defunctis c. they had no more Authority to abrogate the Mass than the present Archbishop of Canterbury with the major Vote of the Protestant Bishops to abolish the Common Prayer By their Protestant Orders they cannot do it A So much for his Priesthood You said he was consecrated Bishop in the year 1533. what were the Words of his Consecration B. You may find them in the Roman Pontifical First he was interrogated Vis Traditiones orthodoxorum Patrum Decretales sanctae Apostolicae sedis constitutiones veneranter suscipere docere ac servare R. Volo Vis beato Petro Apostolo cui à Deo data est Potestas ligandi ac solvendi ejúsque Vicario Domino nostro N. Papae suisque Successoribus Romanis Pontificibus fidem subjectionem obedientiam secundum Canonicam Auctoritatem per omnia exhibere R. Volo Credis sanctam catholicam Apostolicam unam esse veram Ecclesiam in qua unum datur verum Baptisam vera peccatorum omnium Remissio R. Credo That is Will you reverently receive teach and keep the Traditions of the orthodox Fathers the Decrees and Constitutions of the holy and Apostolique See He answered I will. Will you shew Fidelity Subjection and Obedience to St. Peter the Apostle and his Successors the Bishops of Rome in all things according to the Canons He answered I will. Do you believe one holy Catholique and Apostolique Church in which there is true Baptism and true Remission of Sins He answered I believe After which the Bishop consecrating authorizes him in these Words viz. Accipe Evangelium vade praedica populo tibi commisso Receive thou the Gospel go and preach to the people committed to thy charge R. Amen A. Why by this Consecration he had no more Authority to preach the Doctrine of 39 Articles than the present Archbishop of Canterbury to preach the Doctrine of the Council of Trent B. No more You see how he obliged himself to pay Fidelity Subjection and Obedience to the Bishops of Rome in all things according to the Canons then in force And reverently to receive teach and keep the Constitutions of the holy and Apostolique See. And upon these terms he receiv'd his Commission to go and preach the Gospel A. The matter is plain All his Changes were unwarrantable and his Reformation but a Castle in the air without a Foundation if you set aside Acts of Parliament B. And besides all this he swore that Oath to the Pope which you have heard page 28. of this Catechism Then what if all the Bishops had consented with him they had but violated their Engagements and Vows as he did being all sent and ordained after that Form. Reader I pray look into the Form and Manner appointed by the Church of England for consecrating of Bishops and Archbishops and there observe how Protestant Bishops do oblige themselves to preach Gods Word according to the Authority committed unto them by the Ordinance of this Realm and no otherwise that is to say according to the Doctrine of Thirty nine Articles Then enquire a little further what Commission had Cranmer or Matthew Parker to impose or preach the said Articles A. Enough of Cranmer What is Burnets Character of those few Bishops that were of his Party B. Those were Latimer Shaxton Barlow who were rather Cloggs than Helps to Cranmer says Burnet Latimers Simplicity and Weakness made him be despised Shaxtons proud and litigious
Dublin Castle Oct. 28. 1687. Let this Discourse be printed Tho. Sheridan By the Lords Diae Lunae 3. Januarii 1680. ORdered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled That the Thanks of this House be given to Dr. Burnet for the great Service done by him to this Kingdom and the Protestant Religion in writing the History of the Reformation of the Church of England so truly and exactly And that he be desired to proceed in the perfecting what he further intends therein with all convenient speed Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum By the Commons Jovis 23. Die Decemb. 1680. ORdered That the Thanks of This House be given to Dr. Burnet for the Book Intituled The History of the Reformation of the Church of England Will. Goldesbrough Cleric Dom. Com. Mercurii 5. Die Januarii 1680. ORdered that Dr. Burnet be desired to proceed with and compleat that good Work by him begun in Writing and Publishing The History of the Reformation of the Church of England Will. Goldesbrough Cler. Dom. Com. A REFORMED CATECHISM IN TWO DIALOGUES CONCERNING The ENGLISH REFORMATION COLLECTED For the most part Word for Word out of Dr. Burnet John Fox and other Protestant Historians PUBLISHED For the INFORMATION of the PEOPLE IN REPLY to Mas William Kings ANSWER to D. Manby's Considerations c. The FIRST DIALOGUE By Peter Manby D. of Londonderry Memento dierum antiquorum cogita generationes singulas interroga Patrem tuum annunciabit tibi Majores tuos dicent tibi Deut. 32.7 Printed by Nathaniel Thompson in the Old Spring-Garden 1687. TO THE READER Reader HE that would undertake to shew us a new or better way to Heaven then either we or our Forefathers have been acquainted with ought in all reason to recommend himself as the Apostles did by some other Authority then a bare pretence to Scripture which every body claims as well as he unless we would be tossed too and fro as Saint Paul speaks and carried about with every Wind of Doctrine with the various Lights of all Reformers Cranmer was this new undertaker who had neither Mission from Heaven nor consent of the English Bishops to Authorize his Reformation nor yet any great mind to dye a Martyr for the same as will appear in the ensuing History Now I pray observe these words of Mas William King page 21. of his Answer to Mr. Manby viz. We own what he contends for that both true Doctrine and external and lawful Mission are generally necessary to a regular Preacher of the Gospel and if either of these are wanting the Person is not to be received Here if it can be demonstrated that Cranmer had no Orders either as Priest or Bishop but only to celebrate Mass to preach the Doctrine of the Church of Rome to bind and absolve Sinners there is an end of the Controversie If he had no Mission at all to preach the Doctrine of XXXIX Articles then by Mas William King's own Confession he was not to be received And for this Reader be pleased to read from page 81. of this Catechism to page 91. And where he says page 25 of his Answer that Cranmer in all he did had the unanimous vote and consent of the major part of the Convocation the universal submission of the Clergy and approbation of the People c. And a little after but if the Clergy in a National Council and the people in obedience to them or from their own Inclinations did comply in earnest what an idle question is it for Mr. M. to ask by what Authority Cranmer condemned that Church from whom he received his Mission and Holy Orders when she concurred in all he did and approved nay made all the Alterations in her Liturgy Sacraments and Constitutions that were made Now if it appear that all the English Bishops except a very few during the Reign of Henry VIII were utterly against his pretended Reformation and that almost all the Bishops under Edward VI. were turned out of their Sees for dissenting from it and others substituted in their places what shall we think of Mr. Kings Confidence thus imposing upon his Readers What shall become of his Answer to Mr. M. the whole strength whereof depends upon these words that the major Vote of the Convocation concurred in all he did and approved all the Alterations that were made page 25. Read Burnet relating the concerns of the Church upon King Edward's Succession to the Crown and you shall find all affairs dispatch'd by the Privy Council and two Houses of Parliament the Bishops generally dissenting The Convocation says Heylin ad annum 1547. the first year of King Edward was not impowr'd to act in any publick business for ought appearing on Record Hist Reform p. 50. Third Edition And further Note what he says ad annum 1551. the fifth year of King Edward but notwithstanding the remove of so many Bishops there still remained one rub in the way which did much retard the Progress of the Reformation the Princess Mary having been bred up in the Romish Religion could not be won by any Perswasions to change her Mind c. page 102. Burnet says several of the Bishops under King Edward submitted to the Reformation against their Consciences Which only amounts to what I affirm in this Catechism that the Reformation was not the Act and Deed of the old Clergy but impos'd on the Nation by the Power and Interest of a few persons for their own advantage Let us imagine if the late Duke of Monmouth had prospered and then summoned an Assembly of the English Bishops to reform the Church as he and his Party had designed and they generally dissenting should carry all things by strong hand whether such a Reformation passing with the consent of a few Bishops and a few other Clergymen could be reputed the Act aod Deed of the Church of England But if you would see an Instance of Mr. Kings modest way of writing against the Pope and Church of Rome read pag. 35. of his Answer where he tells you of the Popes wicked Management of the Goods of the Church and giving the Patrimony of the Church to Lay-men to useless and idle Monks and Fryars c. And for an Instance of his Loyalty see page 37. where he excuses Cranmer for subscribing to a Letter for Excluding his lawful Sovereign the Princess Mary from Succession to the Crown It was a point of Law saith he in which Cranmer was not singular Mr. M. takes the liberty to question Queen Elizabeths Title and sure it was no greater fault in Cranmer to question Queen Marys after the Opinion of the Judges given against her mark that There is a great difference between Rebellion against the King of undoubted Title and being engaged on a side where the Title is really doubtful c. that is to say Cranmer was engaged on the side of Lady Jane Grey Queen Marys Title being really doubtful And why was it doubtful Mr. King gives you the
great Dignities and high Truâ—…s yet he had now by a great number of Witnesses persons of Honour found him to be the most corrupt Traitor and Deceiver of the King and the Crown that had ever been known in his whole Reign That he had received several Bribes and for them granted Licenses to carry Mony Corn Horses and other things out of the Kingdom contrary to the King's Proclamations that he being also an Heretick had dispersed many Erroneous Books among the King's Subjects particularly some that were contrary to the belief of the Sacrament and when some had informed him of this and had shewed him these Heresies in Books printed in England he said they were good and that he found no fault in them and said it was as lawful for every Christian Man to be a Minister of the Sacrament as a Priest And whereas the King had constituted him Vice Gerent for the spiritual affairs of the Church he had under the Seal of that Office Licensed many that were suspected of Heresie to Preach over the Kingdom And had both by Word and Writing suggested to several Sheriffs that it was the King's pleasure they should discharge many Prisoners of whom some were indicted others apprehended for Heresie And when many particular Complaints were brought to him of detestable Heresies with the names of the Offenders he not onely defended the Hereticks but severely checkt the Informers And vexed some of them by Imprisonment and otherways And he having entertained many of the King's Subjects about himself whom he had infected with Heresie and imagining he was by force able to defend his Treasons and Heresies on the last of March in the 30th year of the King's Reign in the Parish of St. Peters in London when some of them complained to him of the new Preachers such as Barnes and others he said their Preaching was good and said also among other things that if the King would turn from it yet he would not turn And if the King did turn and all his People with him he would fight in the field in his own Person with his Sword in his Hand against him and all others And then he pulled out his Dagger and held it up and said or else this Dagger thrust Me to the Heart if I would not dye in that quarrel against them all And I trust if I live one year or two it shall not be in the King's power to resist or let it if he would And Swearing a great Oath said I would do so Indeed He had also by Oppression and Bribery made a great Estate to himself and extorted much Money from the King's Subjects and being greatly enriched had treated the Nobility with much Contempt For all which Treasons and Heresies he was attainted to suffer the pains of Death as should please the King and to forfeit all his Estate and Goods to the King's use These are the Words of the Act. Burnet page 278. 279. A. How does the Doctor excuse him B. Most of these things relate to Orders and Directions he had given for which it is very probable he had the King's Warrant And for the matter of Heresie it has appeared how far the King had proceeded towards a Reformation so that what he did that way was most likely done by the King's Orders But the King now falling from these things it was thought they intended to stifle him by such an Attainder that he might not discover the secret Orders or Directions given him for his own justification page 279. NOTE It is very probable it was most likely it was thought is all the Defence which the Doctor makes for him Who having seen all his Papers found it seems none of those Orders or Directions How far the King had proceeded towards a Reformation was then apparent by the Statute of Six Articles made purposely against the insolence of the new Preachers anno 1539. And the King's aversion to Heresie no Man understood better than Cromwell For in his Heart he continued as is confessed by the Doctor addicted to some of the most extravagant Opinions of the Roman Church as Transubstantiation c. so that he was to his Lives end more Papist than Protestant so the Doctor is pleased to express himself Pref. to 1 Vol. A. What Religion did Cromwell dye of B. When he was brought to the Scaffold he acknowledged his Sins against God and his Offences against his Prince who had raised him from a base degree he declared that he dyed in the Catholick Faith not doubting of any Article of Faith or of any Sacrament of the Church he denyed that he had been a Supporter of those who delivered ill Opinions He confessed he had been seduced mark this but now dyed in the Catholick Faith. Burnet page 284. By what he spoke at his Death he lest it much doubted of what Religion he dyed But it is certain he was a Lutheran says Burnet page 285. The term Catholick Faith used by him in his last Speech seemed to make it doubtful but that was then used in England in its true Sence in opposition to the Novelties of the See of Rome page 285. ibid. So that his Profession of the Catholick Faith was strangely perverted says Burnet when some from thence concluded that he dyed in the Communion of the Church of Rome ibid. NOTE He dyed a Lutheran equivocating with the words Catholique Faith he knew Lutheranism was not allowed for Catholique Faith in England King Henry and his Bishops being more Papists than Lutherans He promoted the Reformation vigorously saith the Doctor so that if the truth were known he dyed of Ann Bolens Church and that was a Church yet unborn for in King Henrys time as Burnet observes the English Reformation was rather conceived than brought forth Verily the Reformation seems to me a Riddle from first to last If Cromwell was a Lutheran he was at the same time both Vicar General and Heretique to King Henrys Church as you may find in the Act of Attainder compared with the Statute of Six Articles A. Did he at his Death express any Remorse for destroying the Religious Houses and alienating the Estates of the Church B. Not a word of that I verily believe he thought he did God good Service and perhaps had done himself some Service out of those Estates A What reason have you for that B. It is not unlike says the Doctor that some Presents to the Commissioners or to Cromwell made those Houses outlive this ruin he means some few Houses which K Henry had restor'd to the Monks for I find great trading in Bribes at this time which is not to be wondred at when there was so much to be shared p 224. 1. vol. And the Act of Attainder says that he had by Oppression and Bribery made a great Estate to himself and extorted much Mony from the Kings Subjects and being greatly enriched had treated the Nobility with much Contempt But the Doctor excuses him pag. 279. For
the particulars of Bribery and Extortion they being mentioned in general expressions seem only cast into the heap to defame him And pag. 285. he carried his Greatness with wonderful Temper and Moderation and fell under the weight of popular Odium rather than Guilt for which the Doctor gives this reason the Disorders in the Suppression of Abbies were generally charged on him ibid. With his Fall the progress of the Reformation which had been by his endeavours so far advanced was quite stop'd p. 285. For all that Cranmer could do after this was to keep the ground they had gained but he could never advance much further ibid. With him the Office of the Kings Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical affairs dyed as it rose first in his person And as all the Clergy opposâ—d the setting up a new Officer whose Interest should oblige him to oppose a Reconciliation with Rome so it seems none were sound to succeed in an Office that proved so fatal to him p. 285. NOTE All the Clergy at that time were for a Reconciliation with Rome that was the year 1540. after their Deliverance from the Tyranny of Cromwell By all the Clergy the Doctor means the major part nay all except Cranmer and two or three more as shall appear by and by out of Dr. Burnet Dr. Heylin remarks Histor Reform p. 11. ad annum 1540. King Henry advanceth his great Minister Cromwell by whom he had made such havock of Religious Houses in all parts of the Realm to the Earldom of Essex and sends him headless to his Grave within three months after And Dr. Burnet himself cannot but observe the Judgment of God upon Cromwell anno 1540. viz. His ruin was now decreed and he who had so servilely complied with the Kings Pleasure in procuring some to be attainted the year before without being brought to make their Answer fell now under the same Severity p. 227. 1. vol. A. How did Cromwell govern the Church B. First as King Henrys Vicar General afterwards as Lord Vice-Gerent in Ecclesiastical matters They were two different Places and held by different Commissions By the one he had no Authority over the Bishops nor had he any Precedence but the other as it gave him the Precedence next to the Royal Family so it clothed him with a compleat Delegation of the Kings whole Power in Ecclesiastical matters Burnet p. 181. By virtue of which Authority he sends out his Instructions to the Bishops how to proceed in a Reformation and his Injunctions to the Clergy which the Reader will find in Burnets Collection of Records 1. vol. p. 181. Bock 3. concluding thus All which and singular Injunctions I minister unto you and your Successors by the Kings Highness's Authority to me committed in this part which I charge and command you by the same Authority to observe and keep upon pain of Deprivation Sequestration of your Fruits or such other Coercion as to the Kings Highness or his Vice-Gerent for the time being shall seem convenient This was in the year 1538. One of those Injunctions was this viz. You shall suffer from henceforth no Candles Tapers or Images of Wax to be set before any Image or Picture but only the Light that commonly goeth a cross the Church by the Rood Loft the Light before the Sacrament of the Altar and the Light about the Sepulchre which for the adorning of the Church and Divine Service ye shall suffer to remain still admonishing your Parishioners that Images serve for none other purpose but as the Bocks of unlearned men that ken no Letters whereby they might be otherwise admonished of the Lives and Conversation of them that the said Images do represent Also that you shall expressly provoke stir and exhort every person to read the Bible admonishing them nevertheless to avoid all Contention Altercation therein and to use an honest Sobriety in the inquisition of the true sense of the same and refer the Explication of obscure places to men of higher Judgment in Scripture NOTE Such Admonitions were to no purpose the Bible being once permitted into the rude hands of the Multitude For what say they does he allow us to read the Scripture and then debar us the use of our Vnderstandings Has not every man a Judgment of Discretion to read and interpret the Scripture for himself so as not to pin his Religion on the sleeve of the Church Another of his Injunctions was that you shall in Confessions every Lent examine every person it seems private Confession was then in practice whether they can recite the Articles of our Faith and the Pater noster in English and hear them say the same particularly wherein if they be not perfect ye shall admonish them that every Christian ought to know the same before they receive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar and to learn the same more perfectly by the next year following So you shall declare unto them that you look for other Injunctions mark this from the Kings Highness by that time to stay and repel all such from Gods Board as shall be found ignorant in the premises Coll. p. 181. A. So much for Cromwell whose Religion or Church whatever it was is past my understanding Go on and tell us who is your next Saint of the Reformation B. Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury A. What Signs of an Apostle did appear in him B. Your Question is but rational since Burnet affirms so positively that he was a man raised up by God for great Services p. 335. 2. vol. A. I know he was next to Cromwell the grand Projector of Reformation under Henry 8. but the thing that I expect from Burnet is the proof of that Assertion that he was a man raised up by God in case he would oblige us to esteem the Reformation not to have been the work of Man but of God. Shall Cranmer take upon him to reform that is to pull down the established Religion of the Nation coyn 39 Articles and impose them on the Clergy as if he had thought the Scriptures obscure or insufficient in things necessary the major part of the Christian World protesting against it as new Doctrine and all this by a meer humane Authority an Act of Parliament passed under the Childhood of Edward 6 B. As for the marks of his Apostleship take the History of his Actions compared with Burnets Character and then satisfie your self the best you can Warham Archbishop of Canterbury dying in the year 1533. King H. saw well of how great importance it was to the Designs he was then forming viz his Divorce from Q Katherine c. to fill that See with a learned prudent and resolute Man but finding none in the Episcopal Order that is amongst all the English Bishops that was qualified to his Mind note this and having observed a native simplicity joyned with much Courage and tempered with a great deal of Wisedom in Doctor Cranmer who was then Negotiating his business among the learned Men of Germany
his Consecration what was the first Service he did for the King B. The Parliament then sitting anno 1533. he came and sat in the upper House of Convocation Burnet p. 129. and there says Heylin he propounds two Questions to be disputed and considered by the Bishops and Clergy concerning the Kings Marriage with Queen Katherine both which Questions were answer'd as the King would have have it though not without some opposition in either House especially the upper It was concluded thereupon in the Convocation and not long after in the Parliament also that the King might lawfully proceed to another Marriage But NOTE The King was then privately married to Ann Bolen Heylin proceeds These Preparations being made and the Marriage with Queen Katherine precondemned by Convocation The new Archbishop upon his own desire and motion contained in his Letters of the 11th of April is authorized by the King under his Sign Manual to proceed definitively in the Cause mark the Authority upon which Cranmer proceeds to divorce Queen Katherine who thereupon accompanied by the Bishops of London Winchester Wells and Lincoln and divers other persons to serve as Officers in that Court repaired to Dunstable in the beginning of May and having a convenient place prepared in form of a Consistory they sent a Citation to the Princess Dowager meaning Q Katherine who was then at Ampthill a Mannor House of the Kings about six miles off requiring her to appear before them at the day appointed which day being come and no appearance by her made either in person or by proxy as they knew there would not she is called peremptorily every day fifteen days together and every day there was great posting betwixt them and the Court to certifie the King and Cromwell a principal Stickler in this business how all matters went in one of which from the new Archbishop extant in the Cottonian Library a resolution is signified to Cromwell for coming to a final Sentence on Friday the 18th of that Month but with a vehement Conjuration both to him and the King not to divulge so great a Secret for fear Queen Katherine on the hearing of it either before or on the day of passing Sentence should make her appearance in the Court. For saith he if the Noble Lady Katherine should upon the bruit of this matter either in the mouths of the inhabitants of the Country or by her Friends or Council hearing of it be counselled or perswaded to appear before me at the time or before the time of Sentence I should be thereby greatly staid let in the Process and the Kings Graces Council there present shall be much uncertain what to do therein For a great bruit and voice of the people in this behall might perchance move her to do the thing which peradventure she would not if she hear little of it and therefore I pray you to speak as little of this matter as you may and to move the Kings Highness so to do for consideration above recited Heylin Histor Reform pag. 177 178. NOTE Burnet commends Cranmer for his native Simplicity joyned with Prudence but what sort of Prudence this was let any man judge Thus Heylin sets down the naked truth of this matter which Burnet colours with all his Art not mentioning this Letter to Cromwell p. 130. 1. vol. He proceeds ibid. But so it happened to their wish that the Queen persisting constant in her resolution of standing to the Judgment of no other Court than that of Rome vouchsafed not to take any notice of their proceeding in the Cause and thereupon she was pronounced to be Contumax for defect of Appearance and by the general Consent of all the learned men then present the Sentence of Divorce was passed and her Marriage with the King declared void and of no effect Heylin page 178. Of this more anon A. But if you please I would know of what Church or Religion was Cranmer at the time of his Consecration and afterwards and likewise what were the Words of his Mission and Consecration both as Bishop and Priest B. First as to his Religion I will tell you my own opinion A Papist he could not be at that time because he denied the Popes Supremacy and other Doctrines of the Church of Rome Of the present Church of England he could not be because he went to Mass then and 14 years after so that he must be of King Henry's Church or of none at all In the year 1538. he was says Burnet of Luthers Opinion which he had drunk in from his Friend Osiander pag. 252. 1. vol. And sate upon the Tryal and Condemnation of John Lambert one of the new Preachers for denying the Corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament After the Death of K. Henry of whom he stood in aw he tackt about with the next wind of Doctrine which was Zuinglianism and joyning with King Edwards privy Counsellors he reformed that is subverted the established Religion of the Nation Yet in the first year of King Edward Heylin tells you that he with eight other Bishops all in their rich Mitres and other Pontificals sang a Mass of Requiem for the Soul of Francis the French King then lately deceased History Reform page 40. Notwithstanding that he with the rest of the Privy-Council had a good while before sent out their Injunctions and Commissioners into all parts of the Nation and Preachers to attend them which Preachers were particularly instructed to disswade the people from praying for the Dead from Diriges and Masses c. Heylin p. 34. yet Burnet would perswade you he was a Person of a native simplicity and not for Court Policies vide p. 302. A. And besides all this did he not hold some strange Opinions B. Yes Doctor Burnet says he had some particular Conceits of his own or singular Opinions which he delivered with all possible Modesty page 289. 1 Vol. A. What were those Opinions B. You shall hear them together with the excuse which the Doctor makes for him First That Bishops and Priests were at one time and were not two things but one Office in the beginning of Christs Religion In which Opinion all the Bishops and Clergy of England except two Bishops and two Doctors were against him Burnet Collection Records page 223. 2. A Bishop may make a Priest and so may Princes and Governours also and that by the Authority of God committed to them and the People by their Election For as we read that Bishops have done it so Christian Emperors and Princes usually have done it and the People before Christian Princes were commonly did Elect their Bishops and Priests But all the rest of the Bishops and Clergy except the Bishop of Saint Davids and two or three Doctors said positively that they found no example either in Scripture or the ancient Doctors that any Man beside a Bishop hath Authority to make Priests 3. In the New Testament he that is appointed to be a Bishop or a Priest
needeth no Consecration by the Scripture for Election or Appointing thereunto is sufficient This all the Bishops contradicted except Saint Davids saying that the Apostles made Priests by imposition of Hands with Fasting and Prayer and Dr. Redmayn said the Office of Priesthood is too dangerous a thing to be undertaken to be set upon are his words when one is but appointed only therefore for the Confirmation of their Faith who take in hand such a Charge and for the obtaining of further Grace requisite to the same Consecration was ordained by the holy Ghost and hath been always used from the beginning page 230. 4. To this Question whether a Christian Prince having conquered certain Dominions of Infidels and having none about him but Lay-men He and They may not by the Law of God Preach and Teach God's Word and also make and constitute Priests Cranmer Answers positively It is not against God's Law but contrary they ought indeed so to do and there be Histories that witness that some Christian Princes and other Lay men unconsecrate have done the same Reader The English Bishops perhaps were not aware of his design in proposing this and such like Questions which was to nooze them into a Concession under their Hands that the Prince might Preach himself and Authorize others to preach Reformation in case of necessity that is If his Clergy and Bishops would not comply as Cranmer knew they would not 5. To this Question Whether a Man is bound by the Authority of this Scripture Quorum remiseritis peccata remissa sunt c. to Confess his secret deadly Sins to a Priest He answers point blank that no Man is bound All the Bishops and Clergy three or four excepted honestly affirming that by Authority of those words Christians are bound to Confess their secret as well as open Sins That Priests are bound to give Absolution but no Priest can Absolve from that Sin which he knows not Doctor Tresham answered Such Confession is a thing most Consonant to the Law of God and that it is a wise point and a wholsome thing so to do And God said he provoketh and allureth us thereunto by giving active Power to Priests to Absolve in these words Whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted c. It is also a safer way for Salvation to Confess if we may have a Priest page 238. Collections Doctor Edgeworth answered worthily that to obtain Remission of Sin and Recover the Grace of God a Man is bound by the Law of Nature to take the surer way And because said he we are bound to Love God above all things we ought by the same Bond to seek the best and surest Remedy for the Recovery of his Grace Contrition is one way but because a Man cannot be well assured whether his Contrition Attrition or Displeasure for his Sins be sufficient to satisfie Almighty God or worthy to obtain his Grace therefore it is necessary to take that way that will not fail and by which thou mayest be sure and that is Absolution by the Priest which by Christ's promise will not deceive thee so that thou put no obstacle or bar in the way that is if thou do not then actually Sin inwardly or outwardly but intend to receive what the Church intends to give Thee by that Absolution Now the Priest can give thee no Absolution from that Sin which he knows not therefore thou art bound to confess thy Sin. Thus Doctor Edgeworth page 237. Burnet's Collections I wish Cranmer had half the honesty or piety of this Man. Doctor Leighton answered I think such only as have not the knowledge of the Scripture be bound to confess their secret deadly Sins unto a Priest Howbeit no Man ought to despise such Auricular Confession for I suppose it to be a Tradition Apostolical necessary for the unlearned Multitude Thus he page 238. Collections 6. To this Question Whether only Bishops and Priests may Excommunicate by God's Law he answers a Bishop or a Priest by the Scripture is neither commanded nor forbidden to Excommunicate but where the Laws of any Country giveth him Authority to Excommunicate there they ought to use the same in such Crimes as the Laws have such Authority in and where the Laws of the Region forbiddeth them there they have no Authority at all And they that be no Priests may also Excommunicate if the Law allow thereunto NOTE That in Queen Mary 's days Catholick Religion being restored by Law Cranmer had by his own Confession no Power of the Keys Nay every Constable might Excommunicate as well as he if the Law gave power These were strange Opinions for an Archbishop and Reformer of the Faith he subscribed thus ' Thom. Cantuariens this is my Opinion and Sentence at this present which I do not temerariously define but do remit the Judgment thereof wholly unto your Majesty that was Henry VIII A. How does Burnet excuse him for these Opinions B. Very oddly as a Man would think viz. it seems that afterwards he changed his Opinion for he subscribed the Book that was soon after set out which is directly contrary to these Opinions that is to say in the year 1540. he subscribed to a Book for seven Sacraments for Transubstantiation for the profitable use of Images to put us in mind of the great Blessings we have received by our Saviour for desiring the Prayers of Saints as Intercessors being the Doctrine of the Catholick Church For the use of the Hymn called Ave Maria in Commemoration of Christs Incarnation and to set forth the Praises of the blessed Virgin. Of all which particulars he believed not a syllable though he subscribed with the rest of the Bishops Nay Burnet tells you plainly page 289. that he was then for reducing the seven Sacraments to two but the Popish Party was prevalent at that time So the old number of seven was agreed to anno 1540. that is the major vote of Bishops carried it against him and he durst not but subscribe for fear of King Henry In the year 1536 which was but four years before he gave his subscription to a Book for three Sacraments onely wherein was declared the necessity of Auricular Confession and that it was good to pray unto the Saints to pray for and with us Of which he believed not a tittle See Burnet page 217. so that by what he subscribed it can never be gathered that he quitted those strange Opinions A. But after all this did he not renounce the Protestant Religion in Queen Mary's days B. Yes the Popish Party have but too great advantages against him says Burnet in the last part of his Life The Fears of Death wrought that effect on him that he did recant which he signed thrice Appendix to 2. vol. pag. 400. So for all his Recantation he was led out to be burnt and then he returned back to his former Doctrines mark this and expressed his Repentance for his Apostacy with all the seriousness that was possible
ibid. pag. 400. A. I pray if you have read Foxes Book of Martyrs what is his Character there B. In Causes pertaining to God or his Prince no man more stout or more constant than he 3. vol. p. 633. A. Then let us hear the words of his Recantation set down by Fox which he signed thrice says Burnet B. I Thomas Cranmer late Archbishop of Canterbury do renounce abhor and detest all manner of Heresies and Errors of Luther and Zuinglius and all other Teachings which be contrary to sound and true Doctrine And I believe most constantly in my heart and with my mouth I confess one holy and Catholique Church visible withotu the which there is no Salvation And therefore I acknowledge the Bishop of Rome to be Supream Head on Earth whom I knowledge to be the highest Bishop and Pope and Christs Vicar unto whom all Christian people ought to be Subject And as concerning the Sacraments I believe and worship in the Sacrament of the Altar the very Body and Blood of Christ being contained most truly under the forms of Bread and Wine the Bread through the mighty Power of God being turned into the Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ and the Wine into his Blood. And in the other six Sacraments also like as in this I believe and hold as the Universal Church holdeth and the Church of Rome judgeth and determineth Furthermore I believe that there is a place of Purgatory where Souls departed be punished for a time for whom the Church doth godly and wholsomly pray like as it doth honour Saints and make prayers to them Finally in all things I profess that I do not otherwise believe than the Catholique Church and the Church of Rome holdeth and teacheth I am sorry that ever I held or thought otherwise And I beseech Almighty God that of his Mercy he will vouchsafe to forgive me whatsoever I have offended against God or his Church And also I desire and beseech all Christian people to pray for me And all such as have been deceived either by mine Example or Doctrine I require them by the Blood of Jesus Christ that they will return to the Unity of the Church and the Supream Head thereof So I submit my self unto the most excellent Majesties of Philip and Mary King and Queen of this Realm of England c. and to all other their Laws and Ordinances being ready always as a faithful Subject to obey them And God is my Witness that I have not done this for favour or fear of any Person but willingly and of mine own mind as well to the Discharge of mine own Conscience as to the Instruction of others A. Did he not afterwards retract these words B. Yes when he saw no hopes of his Pardon and being brought to the Stake he made a very good Exhortation to the people saying as Fox relates it It is an heavy case to see that so many Folk so much dote upon the Love of this false World and so careful for it it seems a Spanish Fryar had given him good hopes of his Life but without any Authority from the Queen as Fox confesses that for the Love of God or the World to come they seem to care very little or nothing therefore this shall be my first Exhortation that you set not your minds overmuch upon this glozing world but upon the world to come I wish he had seriously thought upon this when he so obsequiously followed all the Appetites of Henry 8. by divorcing him first from his most vertuous and innocent Wife Q Katherine then from Ann Bolen then from Ann of Cleves and to learn to know what this Lesson meaneth which Saint John teacheth that the Love of this world is enmity against God c. And now for as much as I am come to the last end of my life I shall therefore declare unto you my very Faith how I believe without any colour or dissimulation for now is no time to dissemble whatsoever I have said or written in times past mark that and now I come to the great thing that so much troubleth my Conscience more than any thing that ever I did or said in my life and that is the setting abroad of a Writing he means his Recantation contrary to the Truth which now here I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand contrary to the Truth which I thought in my heart c. And as for the Pope I refuse him as Antichrist c. Fox 3. vol. p. 669 670. A. What further instances have you met with in Fox of his Constancy to his Religion B. He did adventurously oppose himself against the whole Parliament disputing and replying three days together against the Statute of Six Articles pag. 641. that was in the year 1539. A. What was the true Reason of so much Courage at that time in a man of such Prudence that before and after still went along with the Stream B. Dr. Burnet will inform you The third Article of that Statute was this That Priests after the Order of Priesthood might not marry by the Law of God. And if any Priest did still keep any Woman whom he had married and lived familiarly with her as his Wife he was to be judged a Felon c. This says Burnet touched Cranmer to the quick for he was then married p. 257 259. 1. vol. A. Does Fox say nothing of Cranmers Marriage B. He tells you page 647. that the King extended such especial Favour unto him that being not ignorant of his Wife Neece to Osiander whom he had married at Norimberg and of his keeping her all the time of the Six Articles contrary to Law he both permitted the same and kept Cranmers Counsel A. What other particulars have you observed in Fox B. The Lord Cromwell was wont to say unto Cranmer My Lord of Canterbury you are most happy of all men for you may do and speak what you list and say what all men can against you the King will never believe one word to your detriment I am sure I take more pains than all the Council besides and spend more largely on the Kings Affairs as well beyond the Seas as on this side yea I assure you for very Spyes in foreign Realms at Rome and elsewhere it costs me above a Thousand Marks a year and do what I can to bring matters to light for the commodity of the King and the Realm I am every day chidden and many false Tales now and then believed against me and therefore you are most happy for in no point can you be discredited with the King. The Archbishop answered If the Kings Majesty were not good to me I were not able to stand one whole week p. 643. 3. vol. Fox tells you further how certain of the Council declared plainly to the King about that time that the Realm was so infected with Heresies Heretiques that it was dangerous for His Highness further to permit it lest peradventure by long
suffering such Contention should arise and ensue in the Realm amongst his Subjects that thereby might spring horrible Rebellions and Uproars like as in some parts of Germany it happened not long ago the Enormity whereof they could not impute to any so much as to the Archbishop of Canterbury p. 641 642. But the King says Fox most entirely loved him and always stood in his defence whosoever spake against him and once said to some Lords of his Council I protest solemnly laying his hand upon his breast by the Faith which I ow to God I take this man my Lord of Canterbury to be of all other a most saithful Subject to us and one to whom We are much beholding p. 643. A. Wherein had he obliged the King B. Doctor Burnet tells you page 127. that in the year 1533. the King seeing of how great importance it was to the designs he was then forming namely his Divorce from Queen Katherine his advancement to the title of Supream Head of the Church and seizure of Abby lands c. to fill the See of Canterbury with a learned prudent and resolute man but finding none in the Episcopal Order that was qualified to his mind these are Burnets words and having observed a native simplicity joyned with much Courage in Dr. Cranmer he designed to raise him to that Dignity and gave him notice of it ibid. A. Pray what did they lay to his Charge in Queen Marys time and what Defence did he make B. In Saint Mary's Church at Oxford on the 12th of March anno 1556. Doctor Brooks Bishop of Glocester charged him as followeth My Lord at this present we are sent by Commission partly from the Popes Holyness partly from the King and Queens most excellent Majesties not to your utter discomfort but to your comfort if you will your self not to judge you but to put you in Remembrance of what you have been Neither come we to Dispute with you but to Examine you in certain matters which being done to make Relation thereof to him that hath power to judge you And first as Charity doth move us I think good to exhort you by the words of Saint John. Remember from whence you are fallen and do your first works You have fallen from the universal Church of Christ from the very true and received Faith of all Christendom and that by open Heresie You have fallen from your promise to God from your Fidelity and Allegiance and that by open Preaching by Marriage and Adultery You have fallen from your Sovereign Prince and Queen by open Treason c. and although it may be conjectured that in all your time ye were not upright in the Honour and Faith of Christ but rather set up of purpose as a fit instrument note this whereby the Church might be spoiled and brought into ruin yet it may appear by many your doings otherwise and I for my part as it behoveth each one of us shall think the best For who was thought to have more Conscience of observing the Order of the Church More earnest in the defence of the real presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar than yee were Then all things prospered with you your Prince favoured you your Candlestick was set up in the highest place of the Church and the light of your Candle was over all the Church But after ye began to fall by Schism and would stoutly uphold the unlawful requests of King Henry VIII then began you to fancy unlawful liberty When yee had exiled a good Conscience when you had forsaken God God forsook you and gave you over to your own will and suffered you to fall into Schism and Heresie and from that to Perjury and from Perjury to Treason and so in conclusion into the full Indignation of our Sovereign Prince which you may think a just punishment of God for your other abominable Opinions But here peradventure you will say to me what Sir my fall is not so great as you make it I have not yet fallen from the Catholick Church for that is not the Catholick Church that the Pope is Head of there is another Church To which I answer you are as sure of that as the Donatists were for they said they had the true Church and that true Christians remained only in Africa where only their Seditious Sect was preached And as you think so thought Novatus that all who did acknowledge the Supremacy of Rome were out of the Church of Christ Saint Cyprian defending Cornelius Bishop of Rome against this Novatus Lib 2. Epist 6. saith Ecclesia una est quae cum sit una intus foris esse non potest So that if Novatus was in the true Church then was not Cornelius who by lawful Succession succeeded Pope Fabian Here Saint Cyprian intends by the whole process to prove and concludeth thereupon that the true Church was only Rome But you will say perhaps that you fell not by Heresie so said the Arrians alledging Scripture for themselves and going about to perswade their Heresie by Scripture So did the Marcions appeal to Scripture to Scripture not truly interpreted but wrested according to their own Fancies And the Church replyeth against them qui estis vos from whence came you What right have you to the Scriptures which are the Churches Inheritance Also yee will deny that yee have fallen by Apostacy and breaking your Vow and so Vigilantius said and would admit none to his Ministry but such as had their Wives bagg'd with Children What then shall we say that Vigilantius fell not that Donatus and Novatus were no Scismaticks because they pretended Scripture in their own Defence then let every Man believe as he lists and quote Scripture for it So that your denyal will not avail you Therefore I tell you remember from whence you are fallen Age paenitentiam prima opera fac If yee remember how many yee have brought by abominable Heresie into the way of Perdition I doubt not but very Conscience would move you as well for them as for your self to return again qui convertere fecerit peccatorem ab errore vitae suae salvam faciet animam suam a Morte operiet multitudinem peccatorum suorum He that shall convert a Sinner from his Wickedness shall save his Soul from Death and shall cover a multitude of Sins So on the contrary it must needs be true he that perverteth a Soul and teacheth him the way of Perdition must needs be Damn'd Berengarius seemed to fear that danger provided for it in his Life time and did not only repent but recant and not so much for himself as for them whom he had infected by his abominable Heresies For as he lay on his Death-bed upon the day of Epiphany he demanded of them that were present is this the day of Epiphany and appearing of our Lord They answered him Yes then said he this day shall the Lord appear to me either to my
finding that nothing went so near the King's Heart Edward VI as the ruin of Religion which he apprehended would follow upon his Death when his Sister Mary should come to the Crown upon that he and his party took advantage to propose to him to settle the Crown by his Letters Patents on the Lady Jane Grey then newly married to Guilford Dudley Northumberlands fourth Son how they prevailed with him to pass by his Sister Elisabeth who had been always much in his Favour I do not so well understand But the King being wrought over to this on the 11th of June Mountague Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Baker and Bromly two Judges with the King's Attorney and Solicitor were commanded to come to Council There they found the King with some Privy-Councellors about him The King told them he did now apprehend the danger the Kingdom might be in by the Succession of his Sister Mary So he ordered some Articles to be read to them of the way in which he would have the Crown to descend They objected that an Act of Parliament could not be taken away by any such Device yet the King required them to take the Articles and draw a Book according to them They asked a little time to consider of it So having examined the Statute of the first year of his Reign they found that it was Treason not only after the King's Death but in his life time to change the Succession Secretary Petre in the mean time pressed them to make haste When they came again to the Council they declared they could not do any such thing for it was Treason And all the Lords should be Guilty of Treason if they went on in it Upon which the Duke of Northumberland who was not then in the Council Chamber being advertised of this came in great Fury calling Mountague a Traitor But the Judges stood to their Opinion They were again sent for and came on the 15th of June The King was present and somewhat sharply asked them why they had not prepared the Book as he had ordered them They answered that whatever they did would be of no force without a Parliament But the King said he would have it first done and then ratified in Parliament and therefore required them on their Allegiance to go about it and some Councellors told them if they refused to Obey that they were Traytors This put them in a great Consternation and Old Mountague thinking it could not be Treason whatever they did in this matter while the King lived and at worst that a Pardon under the great Seal would secure him consented to set about it if he might have a Commission requiring him to do it and a Pardon when it was done both these being granted him he was satisfyed The other Judges being asked if they would concur did all agree being overcome with fear except Hales But Cranmer still refused to do it after they had all signed it and said he would never consent to the Disinheriting of the Daughters of his late Master Many Consultations were had to perswade him to it but he could not be prevailed on till the King himself set on him who used many Arguments from the danger Religion would otherwise be in together with other Perswasions so that by his Reasons or rather Importunities at last he brought him to it NOTE The Doctors excuse for this unjust Act of Cranmers importunity the same that naughty Women are said to pretend for their Incontinency If he did this only as submitting to his Princes importunity how came he after King Edward 's Death to Subscribe the aforesaid Letter And to do both after he had said he he would never consent to the disinheriting of King Henry 's Children The Reader may now understand the reason why he answered little or nothing to the Treason objected to him by the Bishop of Glocester because there was too much Truth in it And methinks this excuse which Burnet makes for him does him no service namely that he stood off a good while but at last with much a do was perswaded into this Conspiracy against K. Henry 's Children How does this answer the Character which Fox gives of him in causes pertaining to God and his Prince no Man more stout no Man more constant then he But whether he was in reality so unwilling to this Action is a question which the indifferent Reader may easily resolve Since he could not but apprehend that Queen Mary would call him to an account for the troubles he had brought upon her Mother and indeed upon the whole Church and Kingdom of England For amongst all the English Bishops anno 1533. King Henry could not find such another Person as Burnet confesses to serve him in the See of Canterbury Now as for Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Plea's and the rest of the Judges who at last consented to the advancement of Lady Jane Grey you may observe them scrupling the matter not out of Conscience but apprehension of the Law. All that they desired was to be indemnified from the danger of Law. A. Now go on to relate how he acquitted himself of the other particulars laid to his Charge Heresie Perjury Incontinency B. Although he answered nothing to the Bishop of Glocester concerning the point of Treason yet I remember somewhat in Fox which he reply'd to Doctor Martyn the Queen's Proctor viz. I protest before God I was no Traytor but indeed I confessed more at my Arraignment than was true Martyn returns that is not to be reasoned at this present you know you were condemned for a Traytor Fox page 653. 3 Vol. A. Is there no more in Fox as to that point B. Not a word more that I can find A. Then proceed as to the particular of Heresie B. John Foxes words are these As for the matter of Heresie and Schism wherewith he was charged he protested and called God to witness that he knew none that he maintained But if that were an Heresie to deny the Popes Authority and the Religion which the See of Rome hath published to the World these later years then the Apostles and Christ himself taught Heresie and he desired all then present to bear him witness that he took the Traditions and Religion of that usurping Prelate to be most false erroneous and against the Doctrine of the whole Scripture That he is the very Antichrist so often preached of by the Apostles and Prophets For it was most evident that he had advanced himself above all Emperors and Kings of the World whom he affirmeth to hold their Estates and Empires of him as their Chief and to be deposed at his good Will and Pleasure That he hath brought in Gods of his own Framing and invented a new Religion full of Gain and Lucre. This Enemy of God and of our Redemption is so evidently painted out in the Scriptures by such manifest Signs and Tokens that except a man will shut up his Eyes and Heart against the
Light he cannot but know him He is like the Devil in his doings for the Devil said to Christ if thou wilt fall down and worship me I will give thee all the Kingdoms of the World even so the Bishop of Rome giveth Princes their Crowns being none of his own Christ saith that Antichrist shall be and who shall he be Forsooth he that advanceth himself above all other Creatures Now if there be none other that hath advanced himself after such manner besides the Pope he forgot Mahomet then in the mean time let him be Antichrist I say the Bishop of Rome treadeth under Foot God's Laws and the Kings c. Fox 3 Vol. page 653 and 661. A. This was strange stuff coming from the Metropolitan of a Nation B. But Fox admires it and adds this marginal Note the Pope proved Antichrist NOTE Cranmer little thought that in less then one Century after his Death his Protestant Successors in the See of Canterbury should be turn'd out of doors as the Limbs and Feet of that great Antichrist the Pope and that by vertue of his own dear Principle of Reformation the Scripture interpreted according to every Man's Judgment of Discretion I have seen a Book entituled The Souldiers Catechism composed for the Parliaments Army published in the year 1644 where this among other Questions being put What is it that you chiefly aim at in this War against the King The Answer is 1. At the pulling down of Babylon and rewarding her as she hath served us Psal 137.8 2. At the suppression of an Antichristian Prelacy consisting of Archbishops Bishops Deans c. 3. At the Reformation of a most corrupt lazy infamous superstitious soul-murdering Clergy 4. At the advancement of Christ's Kingdom and the purity of his Ordinances 5. At the bringing to Justice the Enemies of our Church and State. 6. At the preservation and continuance of the Gospel to our Posterity And to this Question Is it not a lamentable thing that Christians of the same Nation should thus imbrue their Hands in one anothers Blood The Answer is I confess it is but as the case now stands there is an inevitable and absolute necessity of fighting laid upon the good People of the Land. 2. The whole Church of God calls upon us to come into the help of the Lord and his People against the Mighty 3. We are not now to look at our enemies as Country Men or Kinsmen or fellow Protestants but as the Enemies of God and our Religion and Siders with Antichrist and so our eye is not to pity them nor our Sword to spare them Jerem. 48.10 And to this Question who do you think are the Authors and Occasioners of this unnatural War The Answer is the Jesuites those Fire-brands of mischief with all the Popish Party 2. The Bishops and the rotten Clergy with all the Prelatical Party c. This Book was printed in the year 1644. and licensed by James Cranford a Presbyterian Ringleader of those times In the Title page whereof you shall find these words viz. Written for the Instruction and Encouragement of all that have taken up Arms in the Cause of God and his People c. In which Book the Reader shall find them driving the Nail to the Head and expounding the Scripture against the Protestant Hierarchy just as Cranmer had done against the Pope and Church of Rome For you must know the time when Cranmer answered thus invectively against the Pope was the year 1556. the Parliament the National Church and Clergy of England being then actually reconciled to the Church of Rome as you may find both in Burnet and Fox so that his Authority for saying the Pope had brought in Gods of his own framing was then the very same with that of the Presbyterians anno 1644. for calling the English Bishops Antichrists namely the Scripture inter preted by himself A. It seems Cranmer was then a Schismatique as well from the established Church of England as Rome namely in the year 1556. B. Yes for Catholique Religion was then restored by Act of Parliament with all the Catholique Bishops who had been ejected by the Privy Council of Edward 6. So that I think it no easie matter to resolve you of what Church was Cranmer at that time a Lutheran he was not not yet a Calvinist nor of the Church of England then established by Law. A. His Church was then in Vtopia Go on to the rest of his Story B. Thus you shall find him answering to the Charge of Dr. Martyn viz. I will never consent to the Bishop of Rome so he would never consent to the Disinheriting of King Henrys Children for then should I give my self to the Devil I have made an Oath to the King and must obey the King by Gods Laws By the Scripture the King is Chief and no Foreign person in his own Realm above him There is no Subject but to a King. I am a Subject I ow my Fidelity to the Crown to the Lady Jane Grey the Pope is contrary the Crown I cannot obey both for no man can serve two Masters at once as you in the beginning of your Oration declared by the Sword and the Keys artributing the Sword to the King and the Keys to the Pope but I say the King hath both Therefore he that is subject to Rome and the Laws of Rome he is perjured c. Fox pag. 653. NOTE In his Opinion the King has both the Power of the Sword and of the Keys This must needs be a man after King Henrys own heart but if this Doctrine be true then Queen Mary had the Power of the Keys and our present Sovereign King James II. must have the same Power also He proceeds Now as concerning the Sacrament I have taught no false Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar For if it can be proved by any Doctor above a thousand years after Christ that Christs Body is there really I will give over My Book was made seven years ago and no man hath brought any Authors against it I believe that who so eateth and drinketh that Sacrament Christ is within them whole Christ his Nativity Passion Resurrection and Ascension but not that corporally that sitteth in Heaven Fox ibid. Here Dr. Story another of the Queens Proctors interrupted him saying Pleaseth it you to make an end To which he replyed Now I have declared why I cannot with my Conscience obey the Pope neither say I this for my Defence but to declare my Conscience for the Zeal that I bear to Gods Word trodden under foot by the Bishop of Rome See the rest in Fox pag. 654. Then Doctor Story stood up and said addressing himself to the Bishop of Glocester Pleaseth it your good Lordship because it hath pleased the King and Queens Majesty to appoint my Companion and me to hear the Examination of this man to give me leave somewhat to talk in that behalf although I know that in talk with Hereticks there
there hath been these Orders of Ministers in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons which Offices were evermore had in such reverent estimation that no man by his own private Authority might presume to execute any of them except he were first called c. And Bishop Bramhall affirms with great assurance Among all the Eastern Southern and Northern Christians who make innumerable multitudes there neither is nor ever was one formed Church that wanted Bishops among all the Western Churches and their Colonies there never was one formed Church for 1500 years that wanted Bishops If there be any persons so far possessed with prejudice that they choose rather to follow the private dictates of their own Phrensy than the perpetual and universal practice of the Catholique Church enter not into their Secrets O my Soul. Bishop Bramhall Consecration of Protestant Bishops vindicated p. 431. of his Works printed at Dublin And you know the Church of Englands practice at this day which admits of no Calvinian Ministers into her Clergy without Episcopal Ordination NOTE Thus it appears by an Induction of all the several Denominations of Christians that in Cranmers opinion there could be no such National or Catholique Church extant upon the face of the earth anno 1556. as that which the Church of England defines Article 19th The visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duely administred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same So that his saying I reverence the Authority of the Catholick Church was but an illusion or vain pretence to avoid the Censure of Heresie his Catholique Church at that time being like Terra incognita in our Maps not as yet found out What tolerable excuse Good Reader canst thou invent for this Reformer have Lutherans Papists Calvinists Anabaptists Socinians Greek Church c. all those things that of necessity are requisite to the preaching of Gods pure Word and due Administration of Sacraments according to Christs Ordinance If so then shew me a solid reason if thou canst why a Church of England man should not receive the Sacraments of all or any of these Sects If the Church of Rome have all those things that of necessity are requisite c. how or where shall Cranmer appear at the day of Judgment If she have not then how is she a Member of Christs visible Church as Protestants say she is A corrupt Member perhaps you will call her but if she wants any thing necessary or essential to a Christian Church she is no Member at all If she errs only in matters not Fundamental or non essential as is confessed by very learned Protestants she is secure still but thou art not secured from Schism If she holds all things necessary to Salvation and no Error that destroys the Christian Faith she may be saved and what more wouldst thou have But whether she does or does not hold any Errors destructive of Salvation I pray who shall be Judge Answer that short Question if thou wouldst say any thing to the purpose What Authority had Cranmer to call the Pope Antichrist more than the Pope had to pronounce him an Heretick He swore Obedience to the Pope which the Pope never did to him He divorced Queen Katherine styling himself Legatus a Latere as you may find in Burnet A. But he appealed to a General Council what did he mean by that B. Nothing but to divert the proceedings of the Court for he valued the Authority of General Councils as little as he did that of the Catholick Church A. Pray make that out B. Burnet acquaints you page 176. 1 Vol. He viz. Cranmer said some General Councils had been rejected by others and it was a tender point how much ought to be deferred to a Council And as all God's Promises to the people of Israel had this Condition implyed within them if they kept his Commandments so he thought the Promises to the Christian Church had this Condition in them if they kept the Faith Therefore says Burnet he had much doubting in himself as to General Councils and he thought that only the Word of God was the Rule of Faith which ought to take place in all Controversies of Religion This be said in the year 1534. NOTE The word of God admits of various Interpretations the Question is Who shall determine which is the true Interpretation a General Council or Cranmer 's private Spirit in Opposition to that Council But his Opinion of General Councils appears further from the XXI Article of the Church of England viz. General Councils when they are gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometime have erred in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things Ordained by them as necessary unto Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture NOTE But who shall take upon him to judge of the Decrees of General Councils whether they be Consonant to Scripture or not shall any single Person Or any particular Church Where is the Modesty of that Shall any inferiour Authority take upon it self to contradict or reverse the Decrees of a Superiour If so then why may not any single Minister or Bishop of the Reformed Church protest against the Judgment of a Protestant Convocation If he may not do it without Censure how shall the Church of England being but a particular Church take upon her self to damn and contradict the Faith of all the rest of the Christian World A. Shew me where she assumes any such Authority B. Read her XIX Article viz. as the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith. Then see the third part of her Homily against peril of Idolatry and observe these words So that Laity and Clergy learned and unlearned all Ages Sects and Degrees of Men Women and Children of whole Christendom an horrible and most dreadful thing to think have been at once drowned in abominable Idolatry and that by the space of eight hundred years and more NOTE Here the Doctrine of the Church of England that Christ had no Church upon earth for the space of eight hundred years and more before Cranmer The same Homily teaches further viz. and at the last the learned also were carried away with the publick Error as with a violent stream or flood And at the second Council of Nice the Bishops and Clergy decreed that Images should be worshipped and so by occasion of these stumbling Blocks not only the unlearned and simple but the learned and wise not only the People but the Bishops not the Sheep but also the Shepherds themselves who should have been Guides in the right way
Pseudo-Apostoli false Apostles But how shall we know them Christ teaches us saying ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos by their fruits ye shall know them Why what be their fruits St. Paul declareth Post carnem in concupiscentia immunditie ambulant Potestates contemnunt c. they walk after the flesh in concupiscence and uncleanness they contemn Dominions Again in diebus novissimis erunt periculosa tempora erunt seipsos amantes cupidi elati immorigeri Parentibus Proditores c. in the later days there shall be perilous times men lovers of themselves covetous proud disobedient to Parents Treason-workers c. Whether these be not the Fruits of your Gospel I refer me unto this worshipful Audience whether the said Gospel began not with Perjury proceeded with Adultery was maintained with Heresie and ended in Conspiracy Now Sir two points more I marked in your raging discourse that you made here the one against the holy Sacrament the other against the Popes Jurisdiction and Authority of the See Apostolique Touching the first you say you have Gods Word yea and all the Doctors I would here ask but one Question of you whether Gods Word be contrary to it self and whether the Doctors teach Doctrine contrary to themselves for you Master Cranmer have taught concerning this high Sacrament of the Altar three contrary Doctrines and for every one ye pretended Verbum Domini Cranmer Nay I taught but two contrary Doctrines in the same Martyn What Doctrine taught you when you condemned Lambert the Sacramentary in the Kings presence at Whitehall Cranm. I maintained then the Papists Doctrine Martyn That is to say the Catholique and Universal Doctrine of Christs Church And how when K. Henry died did you not translate Justus Jonas's Book Cranm. I did so Martyn There you defended another Doctrine touching the Sacrament by the same token that you sent to Lynne your Printer that whereas in the first Print there was an Affirmative that is to say Christs Body really in the Sacrament you sent then to your Printer to put in a not wherby it came miraculously to pass that Christs Body was clean conveyed out of the Sacrament Cranm. I remember there were two Printers of my said Book but whether the same not was put in I cannot tell Martyn Then from a Lutheran ye became a Zwinglian which is the vilest Heresie of all concerning the high Mystery of the Sacrament and for the same Heresie you did help to burn Lambert the Sacramentary which you now call the Catholique Faith and Gods Word Cranm. I grant that then I believed otherwise than I do now and so I did until my Lord of London Dr. Ridley did confer with me and by sundry Persuasions and Authorities of Doctors drew me quite from my Opinion Martyn Now Sir as touching the last part of your Oration you denied the Popes Holiness was Supream Head of the Church of Christ Cranm. I did so Mart. Who say you then is Supream Head Cranm. Christ Mart. But whom hath Christ left here on Earth his Vicar and Head of his Church Cranm. No body Mart. Ah why told you not King Henry this when you made him Supream Head and now no body is This is Treason against his own Person as you then made him Cranm. I mean not but that every King in his own Realm and Dominion is Supream Head and so was he Supream Head of the Church of Christ Reader Observe here how he makes the Catholique Church an Hydra of many Heads instead of that one holy Society which he pretended to believe in the two Creeds Martyn Is this always true and was it ever so in Christ's Church Cranm. It was so Martyn Then what say you to Nero was he Head of Christs Church Cranm. Nero was Peters Head. Martyn I ask whether Nero was Head of the Church or no If he were not it is false that you said before that all Princes be and ever were Heads of the Church within their Realms Cranm. Nay it is true for Nero was Head of the Church that is in respect of the temporal Bodies of Men of whom the Church consisteth for so he beheaded Peter and the Apostles And the Turk too is Head of the Church in Turky Martyn Then he that beheaded the Heads of the Church and crucified the Apostles was Head of Christs Church and he that was never Member of the Church is Head of the Church by your new-found understanding of Gods Word Fox pag. 655 656 3. vol. NOTE If the Turk be Head of the Church under Christ he must be so in all Spiritual things or causes as well as temporal according to the Oath of Supremacy contrived by Cromwell and Cranmer and at this day sworn by Protestants A. What is Foxes opinion of this Dialogue B. It is not to be supposed otherwise but much other matter passed in this Communication between them especially on the Archbishops behalf whose Answers I do not think to be so slender nor altogether in the same form of words framed if the truth as it was might be known But so it pleased the Notary thereof being too partially addicted to his Mother See of Rome in favour of his Faction to diminish and drive down the other side either in not shewing all or in reporting the thing otherwise than it was as the common Guise is of most Writers and of Fox himself to what side their Affection most weigheth their Oration commonly inclineth Fox p. 657. 3. vol. A. It seems then Fox likes not these Answers given by Cranmer and therefore suspects the Pen-man or Notary of partiality in reporting the same B. But I believe it a true Report for two reasons first the cause would admit of no satisfactory answers 2. Let the Reader see the Contents of Cranmers Appeal set down by Fox and there observe these words viz. And when I refused the Bp. of Glocester to be my Judge for most just causes which I then declared he nevertheless went on still and made Process against me contrary to the Rules of Appealing which say A Judge that is refused ought not to proceed in the cause c. And with this my Protestation made and admitted I made answer but mine Answer was sudden and unprovided note this and therefore I desired to have a Copy of mine Answers that I might put to take away change and amend them and this was also permitted me nevertheless contrary to his promise made unto me no respect had to my Protestation nor license given to amend mine Answer the said reverend Father Bishop of Glocester as I hear commanded mine Answers to be enacted contrary to the equity of the Law in which thing again I feel my self much grieved Fox p 664. NOTE Here he excuses the weakness of his own Answers by saying they were sudden and unprovided But let the Reader imagine what better Answers in brief could be returned to the Questions of Dr. Martin Cranmer having sworn that the King was Supream
his Disciples Feet saying Si ego lavi pedes vestrâ—s c. If I being your Lord and Master have washed your feet ye also ought to wash the feet of one another This was a Precept yet hath the Church altered it lest the simple people should think a Re-baptization in it Why do not Protestants observe Christs Institution of washing one anothers feet before they receive the Sacrament So because the Apostle saith Accepi a Domino quod tradidi vobis c. I have received of the Lord the same which I delivered unto you that our Lord the same night that he was betrayed c. notwithstanding Christs Precept that the Sacrament should be administred after Supper the Church hath commanded it to be received fasting and Protestants do receive it before dinner And where Christ did break the Bread we receive the whole Host Christ ministred sitting at the Table we standing at the Altar Likewise it is commanded in the Acts that Christians should abstain à suffocato sanguine from things strangled and from blood but the Church hath altered it nor do Protestants observe it God commanded the Sabbath or Seventh day to be kept holy the Church hath altered it to the Sunday If then the Church may change things so expresly appointed in Scripture she may also change the form of the Laitys receiving under both kinds and that for divers reasons First That in carrying it to the Sick the Blood may not be shed lost or misused Next That no occasion might be given to Heretiques to think that there is not so much under one kind as under both But why would you have it under both kinds only to pervert and contradict the Practice of the Church For when you have it under both kinds ye believed in neither meaning a real presence in neither Now Sir as concerning the Sacrament of the Altar where you say you have a number of Doctors on your side and we none of ours indeed one to stop your mouth I think it not possible to find Nevertheless whereas your desire is to have one shewed you and then you will recant I will shew you two Ferebatur manibus suis saith St. Austin super Psal 33. I find not how this is true in David saith he literally that he was born in his own hands but in Christ I find it true literally when he gave his Body to his Apostles at his last Supper Again St. Cyprian de Coena Domini saith Panis quem Dominus Discipulis porrigebat non effigie sed natura mutatus Omnipotentia Verbi factus est Caro. What can be more plain than this yet to you it is not plain enough But give me your figurative significative and such other like terms and I will defend that Christ hath not yet ascended no nor yet that he was incarnate Wherefore I can only put you in the number of those whom S. Chrysostom speaks of Audi homo fidelis qui contra Haereticum contendis c. Hear O thou Christian canst thou hope to do more than Christ Christ confuted the Pharesees yet could not put them to silence Et tu fortior es Christo Wilt thou go about to silence him that will receive no Answer Thus much have I said not for you Mr. Cranmer for my hope that I conceived of you is now past and gone but somewhat to satisfie the rude unlearned people that they perceiving your Arrogancy may the better eschew your detestable and abominable Schism Fox pag. 658 659. Thus spake the Bishop of Glocester like a Catholique understanding Prelate After whom Dr. Story saith Fox thus inferred in words Master Cranmer you have made a goodly Process concerning your Heretical Oath made to the King but you forget your Oath made to the See Apostolique As concerning your Oath to the King if you made it to him only it took an end by his Death and so it is released if to his Successors well Sir the true Successors have the Empire now and they will have you to dissolve the same and become a member of Christs Church again it was no Oath for it lacked the three points of an Oath that is to say Justiciam Judicium Veritatem Thus Dr Story ibid. p. 659. Protestants will needs swear the King to be Supream in all Spiritual things or causes whether the King will or no and when they have sworn it they will obey him in such matters so far as they think good when he happens to be a Papist A. What followed after this B. After all this Cranmer made that Recantation which you have heard and retracted it again when he saw no hopes of his Pardon He had this reason to rejoyce says Fox that dying in such a Cause he was to be numbered amongst Christs Martyrs although he had no mind to be a Martyr much more worthy the Name of Saint Thomas of Canterbury than he whom the Pope had falsly canoniz'd meaning Thomas Becker p. 672. A. Of what Church dyed he a Member B. I cannot tell the Church of England being then abolished and Catholique Religion restored by Act of Parliament A. One Question you have not answered what were the Words of his Mission and Consecration both as Priest and Bishop B. That you shall hear by and by Give me leave to observe one or two passages more out of Dr. Burnet A. As to what Point B. As to that Candour and Simplicity which Burnet admires in him page 172. 1. vol. The Story is thus Burnet p. 172. second volume viz. In the year 1551. the fifth year of Edward the Sixth the business of the Lady Mary was taken up with more heat than formerly The Emperors earnest Suit that she might have Mass said in her House was long rejected Yet the State of England making his Friendship at that time necessary to the King and he refusing to continue in his League unless his Kinswoman obtained that Favour it was promised that for some time in hope she would reform there should be a Forbearance granted The Emperors Ambassador pressed to have a License for it under the great Seal it was answered that being against Law it could not be done The two grounds she went upon were that she would follow the ancient and universal way of Worship and not a new Invention that lay within the Four Seas these were her words and that she would continue in that Religion in which her Father King Henry had instructed her To this the King sent an Answer he was then scarce 14 years of age telling her that she was a part of this Church and Nation and so must conform her self to the Laws of it the Laws made by Cranmer Sommerset Dudley c. and that the way of Worship now set up was no other than what was clearly consonant to the pure Word of God that was King Edwards first Common Prayer Book which expresly commanded Prayers for the dead After this she was sent for to Court and
the Preacher of St. Warbroughs A Fool may ask more Questions than a Wise man can easily answer Answer to D. M's Latin Questions pag. 99. A. Yes and I remember what he says moreover p. 25. He viz. Cranmer in all he did had the unanimous Consent and Vote of the major part of the Convocation c. B. You must excuse him for that mistake He has enough to do and perhaps more than an ingenious man would desire to undertake to satisfie the itching Ears of his Congregation with a spick and span new Sermon every Sunday in the year besides other Parochial Duties and cannot know every thing as he pretends Dr. Burnet informs you how in the year 1534. Cromwell joyning himself to Cranmer in a firm Friendship did promote the Reformation very vigorously but there was another party in Court that wrestled much against it whereof the Duke of Norfold was Head whose great Friend was Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who despised Cranmer and hated all Reformation Longland that had been the Kings Confessor was also managed by them and they had a great Party in Court and mark this almost all the Churchmen were on their side Burnet p. 172. 1. vol. Here almost all the Churchmen were against Cranmer Then in the year 1540. Cranmer says Burnet was for reducing the Seven Sacraments to Two but the Popish Party was then prevalent so the old number of Seven was agreed to pag. 289. 1. vol. and Cranmer subscribed with the rest tho against his own opinon This was far from the unanimous Consent of the Clergy In the Reign of King Edward anno 1547. while the Parliament was sitting they were not idle in the Convocation though the Popish party these are Burnets words was yet so prevalent in both Houses of Convocation that Cranmer had no hopes of doing any thing till they were freed of the trouble which some of the great Bishops gave them p. 47. 2. vol. that is till those Bishops were purged out And reckoning the number of Bishops that were of Cranmers side anno 1547. all he could find were these viz. Holgate of York Holbeach of Lincoln Goodrick of Ely Ridley elect of Rochester and Latimer Others of the Bishops were ignorant and weak men says Burnet who understood Religion little and valued it less meaning his new Reformation and so though they liked the old Superstition best that is Catholique Religion yet they resolved to swim with the stream p. 25. 2 vol. Then anno 1548. of the 8 Bishops who were ordered to draw up the Common Prayer Book four protested against it as Burnet confesses p. 94. 2. vol. And the same year it being brought into the House of Lords the Bishops of London Durham Norwich Carlisle Hereford Worcester Westminster and Chichester protested against it p. 23. 2. vol. That same year there was a Committee of selected Bishops Divines for examining all the Offices of the Church and for reforming them says Burnet The thing they first examined was the Sacrament of the Eucharst and here they managed their Enquiries in the same manner that was used in King Henrys Reign in which when any thing was considered in order to a Change it was put into several Queries to which every one in Commission was to give his Answer in Writing Some of the Queries were these viz. What was the Oblation or Sacrifice of the Mass wherein the Mass consisted c. To these the Bishops made their several Answers by which the Reader will perceive says Burnet how generally the Bishops were addicted to the old Superstition and how few did agree in all things with Cranmer p. 61 62. 2. vol. Dissenters from the Reformation were generally turned out of their Sees For the most part the Prelates were changed says Fox and the dumb Bishops compelled to give place to others that would preach p. 1180 And that all things might be carried with as little opposition and noise as might be saith Heylin it was thougt fit that Bishop Gardiner of Winchester should be kept in Prison till the end of the Session of Parliament and that Bishop Tonstall of Durham a man of a most moderate and even Spirit should be made less in Reputation by being deprived of his place at Council Table History Reformation p. 48. This was anno 1547. the first year of King Edward Heylin adds And though the Parliament consisted of such Members as disagreed amongst themselves in respect of Religion yet they agreed well enough together in one common Principle which was to serve the present Turn and preserve themselves For though a great part of the Nobility and not a few of the Chief Gentry in the House of Commons were Cordially affected to the Church of Rome yet were they willing to give way to all such Acts and Statutes as were made against it out of a fear of losing such Church Lands as they were possessed of if that Religion should prevail and get up again And for the rest who either were to make or improve their Fortunes there is no question to be made but that they came resolved to further such a Reformation as should most visibly conduce to the advancement of their several ends which appears plainly by the strange mixture of the Acts and Results thereof some tending simply to God's Glory and the good of the Church some to the present benefit and enriching of particular Persons And some again being devised of purpose to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine Heylin p. 48. Anno 1551. Poynet was made Bishop of Winchester Gardiner being deprived Doctor Story was made Bishop of Rochester Miles Coverdal Bishop of Exeter Hooper of Glocester So that now says Burnet the Bishopriks were generally filled with men well affected to the Reformation Burnet pag. 166. 2. vol. And now let the Reader observe his following words viz. so now the Bishops being generally addicted to the Purity of Religion most of this year 1551 was spent in preparing Articles which should contain the Doctrine of the Church of England But many thought says he they should have begun 1. with those Articles but Cranmer upon good reasons was of another mind though much pressed by Bucer about it till the Order of Bishops observe were brought to such a model that the far greater part of them would agree to it it was much fitter to let that design of the 39 Articles go on slowly than to set out a Profession of their Belief to which so great a part of the chief Pastors might be obstinately averse Burnet p. 166. 2. vol. In the first year of Queen Elisabeth 1559 the Bill for the Supremacy was past by the Lords on the 18th of March. The Archbishop of York the Earl of Shrewsbury the Bishops of London Winchester Worcester Landaff Coventry and Litcfield Exeter Chester and Carlisle and the Abbot of Westminster dissenting Burnet p. 385. 2. vol. He proceeds p. 386. There was no other punishment
Humour drew hatred on him Barlow was not very discreet Burnet pag. 255. 1. vol. And then it follows Many of the Preachers whom they cherished meaning the new Preachers whether out of an unbridled forwardness of Temper or true Zeal that would not be managed and governed by politick and prudent measures note this were flying at many things not yet abolished See the rest Burnet ibid. This was in the year 1538. A. Give me leave to ask you one Question B. What 's that A. What is your meaning by all this History of Cranmer and his Associates B. Nothing but to shew the unwarrantableness of all the Changes they made in Religion having neither extraordinary nor ordinary Mission to recommend them nor yet the major Vote of the Convocation Ordinary Mission they had none but what you have heard out of the Roman Pontifical Extraordinary things they never pretended to besides what I have told you out of Burnet and Fox Now Reader remember that wonderful Answer of Mas William Kings page 18. viz. Although therefore the first Reformers had their Orders from Bishops in Communion with the Church of Rome Yet it was as Christian Bishops they ordained and as English Bishops that they admitted the first Reformers to their Charges But suppose they the first Reformers had no other Orders but what they received from the Bishop of Rome himself all that can be concluded from thence is that we are obliged to own that the Orders of Priest and Bishop given by Roman Catholicks are valid and capacitate a Man to perform all the Duties belonging to those Offices in a Christian Church which we readily acknowledge observe that and charge the Popish Priests and Bishops not with want of Orders but with abusing the Orders they have to ill intents and purposes by whose Authority do you pass this Censure The Roman Catholick Bishops do not confer Orders as Roman but as Christian Bishops their Orders are Christian Orders Mark Reader what he says Roman Catholick Bishops are Christian Bishops and their Orders Christian Orders why then did the first Reformers so notoriously transgress them And those we hold sufficient to all intents and purposes of the Reformation and must do so till Mr. Manby or some body else prove them insufficient In short a Man is ordained neither a Protestant nor a Papist but a Christian Bishop his Mission is a Christian Mission page 19. Now Roman Catholicks will be apt to ask what needs any more to recommend their Doctrine then Christian Bishops and a Christian Mission Mr. King allows their Mission and denyes their Doctrine They deny both his Mission and his Doctrine When Doctrines are disputed and Scriptures alledged by both Parties how shall a Church prove the verity of her Doctrine but by the certainty of her Mission Did not our blessed Saviour answer that question of the Jews by what Authority doest thou these thing by appealing to the Evidence of his Mission The works that I do testifie of me that I am sent from God A. But Mr. King's meaning is this that Roman Catholicks have exceeded their Commission by teaching false Doctrine B. But I would fain know of him who shall be Judge of that he knows very well that 's as easily deny'd as 't is affirm'd And I appeal to the indifferent Reader which of the two Parties have been the greatest Transgressors of those Orders now mentioned A. But don't you observe one admirable passage in him B. What is that A. Why that Mr. M. proceeds on an ignorant supposition that every Man is ordained to preach the Tenets of his Ordainers Whereas the ordained are no more accountable to their Ordainers upon the account of being ordained by them then a Man is accountable to a Lord Chancellor for the use of his power because he set the Seal to his Patent by which he claims his power page 19. B. Very good then if Mr. King were ordained by the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin or of Tuam he is not accountable to them for his Doctrine because the Ordainers are only instruments but his Power is from Christ A. Mark what he says he is not accountable to his Ordainers upon the account of being ordained by them page 19. What can be the meaning of this but that Ministers are not bound to preach the Tenets or Doctrines of those that sent them although Our Saviour himself says my Doctrine is not mine but his that fent me John 7.16 B. I observe he may prove a shew'd Man if he lives and set up for a new Reformer and then justifie it by saying It s an ignorant supposition to think every man is ordained to preach the Tenets of his Ordainers or else must have no Mission The Ordainers being only instruments but the Power from Christ page 19. Reader May not a Man receive Orders from the Church of England and afterwards make a step to New England and there preach against Common Prayer by vertue of this assertion A. But what say you to that scurrility and uncleanliness of Language wherewith he treats Mr. M. from one end of his Answer to the other B. You must Pardon him he had many Reasons for that first to shew a good example to his Flock 2. To prove himself a Gentleman and a well bred Scholar 3. To entertain his Friends with whom that sort of Language may be more taking perhaps then the most modest Expressions 4. To shew his Zeal for the Church and how much better a Dutiful Child may love a good Foster Mother the Church of Ireland then his own natural Mother the Church of Scotland c. A. Let us adjourn this Discourse till to Morrow And Conclude this first Dialogue with Burnet's Character of those two worthy Persons that dyed for the Catholick Religion under Henry VIII Sir Thomas More and the Bishop of Rochester On the first of July anno 1535. Sir Thomas More was brought to his Tryal The special matter of his Indictment was that on the 7th of May preceding before Cromwell Bedyll and some others that were pressing him concerning the Kings Supremacy he said he would not meddle with any such matter And was fully resolved to serve God and think upon his Passion and his own passage out of this World. That he had also sent divers Messages by one George Gold to Bishop Fisher to encourage him in his obstinacy and said the Act of Supremacy is like a Sword with two Edges for if a man answer one way it will confound his Soul and if he answer another way it will confound his Body That he had said the same thing on the third of June in the hearing of the Lord Chancellor the Duke of Norfolk and others And that he would not be the occasion of the shortening his own Life This and other particulars which passed betwixt him and Rich the Kings Sollicitor were laid together and judged to amount to a Denyal of the Kings Supremacy Judge Spelman writes that More being on
his Tryal pleaded strongly against the Statute that made it Treason to deny the Supremacy and argued that the King could not be Supream Head of the Church When he was brought to the Bar he pleaded Not Guilty but being found Guilty Judgment was given aganst him as a Traitor He received it with an equal Temper of Mind which he had shewed in both conditions of Life and then set himself wholly to prepare for Death He expressed great Contempt of the World and that he was weary of Life and long'd for Death which was so little terrible to him that his ordinary Facetiousness remained with him on the Scaffold It was censured by many as light and undecent but others said that way having been so natural to him on all other occasions it was not at all affected but shewed that Death did no way discompose him nor so much as put him out of his ordinary Humour Yet his rallying every thing on the Scaffold was thought to have more of the Stoick than the Christian in it After some time spent in secret Devotions he was beheaded on the sixth of July Thus dyed Sir Thomas More in the 53d year of his age He was a man of rare Vertues and excellent Parts In his youth he had freer thoughts of things as appears by his Vtopia and his Letters to Erasmus but afterwards he became superstitiously devoted says Burnet to the Interests and Passions of the Popish Clergy and as he served them when he was in Authority even to assist them in all their Cruelties so he employed his Pen in the same Cause both in writing against all the new Opinions in general and in particular against Tindall Frith and Barns He was no Divine at all if you believe Burnet and it is plain to any that reads his Writings that he knew nothing of Antiquity beyond the Quotations he found in the Canon Law and in the Master of the Sentences only he had read some of St. Austins Treatises For upon all points of Controversie he quotes only what he found in those Collections Nor was was he at all conversant in the critical Learning upon the Scriptures he did not care for the new fangled Conceits of the Reformers But his peculiar Excellency in writing was that he had a natural easie Expression and presented all the Opinions of Popery with their fair side to the Reader disguising or concealing the black side of them with great Art that is he did not understand or mistake Popery as Protestants do and was no less dextrous in exposing all the ill consequences that could follow on the Doctrine of the Reformers and had upon all occasions great store of pleasant Tales which he applied wittily to his purpose And in this consists the great strength of his Writings which were designed rather for the Rabble than for learned Men. But for Justice Contempt of Mony Humility and a true Generosity of Mind he was an Example to the Age in which he lived Burnets words pag 356. 1 vol. Second Edition The Bishop of Rochester had been a Prisoner above a year and was very severely used says Burnet he complained in his Letters to Cromwell then Secretary of State that he had neither Clothes nor Fire being then about fourscore years of age If he had kept his Opinion of the Kings Supremacy to himself they could not have proceeded further He would not do that but did upon several occasions speak against it So he was brought to his Tryal on the 17th of June The Lord Chancellor the Duke of Suffolk and some other Lords together with the Judges sate upon him by Commission of Oyer and Terminer He pleaded Not Guilty But being found Guilty Judgment passed on him to dye as a Traytor But he was by a Warrant from the King beheaded Upon the 22d of June being the day of his Execution he dressed himself with more than ordinary care and when his Man took notice of it he told him he was to be that day a Bridegroom As he was led to the place of Execution being stop'd in the way by the croud he opened his New Testament and prayed to this purpose that as that Book had been his Companion and chief Comfort in his Imprisonment so then some place might turn up to him that might comfort him in his last passage This being said he opened the Book at a venture in which these words of St. Johns Gospel turn'd up This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent So he shut the Book with much satisfaction and all the way was reading and meditating on them When he came to the Scaffold he pronounced the Te Deum And after some other Devotions his Head was cut off Thus dyed Jon Fisher Bishop of Rochester in the 80th year of his age He was a learned and devour man says Burnet but much addicted to the Superstitions in which he had been bred up and that led him to great severities against all that opposed them He had been for many years Confessor to the Kings Grandmother the Countess of Richmond And it was believed that he persuaded her to those noble designs fer the Advancement of Learning of founding 2 Colledges in Cambridge St. Johns and Christs Colledge and Divinity Professors in both Universities And in acknowledgement of this he was chosen Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Henry 7. gave him the Bishoprick of Rochester which he following the rule of the primitive Church would never change for a better He used to say his Church was his Wife and he would never part with her because she was poor He continued in great Favour with Henry 8. till the business of the Divorce was set on foot and then he adhered so firmly to the Queens Cause and the Popes Supremacy that he was carried headlong into great Errors So Burnet after his petulant manner is pleased to character this good man pag. 354. 1. vol. But then adds Many thought the King ought to have proceeded against him rather upon that which was a point of State than upon the Supremacy which was matter of Conscienec but the King saith he was resolved to let all his Subjects see there was no Mercy to be expected by any that denyed his being Supreme Head of the Church and therefore made him and Sir Thomas More two Examples for terrifying the rest Burnet ibid. But the Courage and Christian Soul of this Bishop appears in those Speeches which he made in the House of Lords whereof there is no mention in Burnet Which for the primitive Simplicity and Honesty thereof I shall here transcribe out of Dr. Bayly's History The First Speech concerning the Demand of the Smaller Abbies for the Kings Use My Lords I Pray you to take good heed unto what you are doing lest you do you know not what For indeed the things that are demanded at our hands are not ours to grant nor theirs to whom we should bestow them
if we should grant them their Desires But they are the Legacies of those Testators who have given them to the Church for ever under the Penalty of a heavy Curse imposed on all those who shall any way go about to altenate their Property from the Church And besides if we grant the smaller Abbies to the King what should we do otherwise than shew him the way how in time it may be lawful for him to demand the greater Wherefore the manner of these Proceedings puts me in mind of a Fable how the Ax that wanted a Handle came upon a time to the Wood making his moan to the great Trees how he wanted a Handle to work withal and for that cause he was constrained to sit idle Wherefore he made it his request unto them that they would grant him one of their smaller Saplings to make him a Handle They mistrusting no guile granted him one of the smaller Trees so becoming a compleat Ax he so fell to work within the same Wood that in process of time there was neither great nor small Tree to be found there And so my Lords if you grant the King these smaller Monasteries you do but make him a Handle whereby at his own Pleasure he may cut down all the Cedars within your Libanus And then you may thank your selves after ye have incurred the heavy Displeasure of Almighty God. His Speech concerning many severe Objections against the whole Clergy anno 1529. My Lords HEre are certain Bills exhibited against the Clergy and Complaints against the Viciousness Idleness Rapacity and Cruelty of Bishops Abbots Priests and their Officials but my Lords are all vicious all idle all ravenous and cruel Priests or Bishops Are there not Laws already provided against such is there any abuse that cannot be rectified or can there be such a Reformation that there shall be no Abuses are there not Clergymen to rectifie the Abuses of the Clergy or shall men find fault with other mens manners whilst they forget their own or punish where they have no Athority to correct If we be not executive in our Laws let each man suffer for his Delinquency Or if we have not Power aid us with your Assistunce and we shall give you thanks But my Lords I hear there is a Motion made that the smaller Monasteries should be taken into the Kings hands which makes me apprehend it is not so much the good as the Goods of the Church that are aim'd at Truly my Lords how this may sound in your ears I cannot tell but to me it appears no otherwise than as if our Mother the Church were now to be brought into Servility and by little and little to be banished out of those dwelling places which the Piety Liberality of our Ancestors have conferred upon her Otherwise to what end are those portentous and curious Petitions of the Commons To no other intent and purpose than to bring the Clergy into contempt with the Laiety that they may seize their Patrimony But my Lords beware of Your Selves and of Your Countrey Beware of Your Mother the Catholick Church The People are addicted unto Novelties And Lutheranism spreads it self amongst us Remember Germany and Bohemia what Miseries are befallen them already and let our Neighbours Houses that are now on Fire teach us to beware of our own Disasters My Lords I will tell you plainly what I think that except ye resist manfully by your Authorities this violent Stream of Mischiefs offered by the Commons you shall see all respect first withdrawn from the Clergy and secondly from Your * * This Prophecy was fulfilled anno 1649. when the House of Lords was voted useless and dangerous by the Commons Selves But if you search into the true causes of all these Mischiefs that Reign amongst them you shall find that they all arise through want of Faith. His Speech to the Lords concerning the Kings Supremacy My Lords IT is true we are all under the King's Lash and stand in need of the King 's good Favour and Clemency Yet this argues not that we must therefore do that which will render us both ridiculous and contemptible to all the Christian World and hissed out from the Society of Gods Holy Catholick Church What good will it do us to keep the Possession of our Houses Cloysters and Convents and to lose the Society of the Christian World To preserve our Goods and lose our Consciences Therefore My Lords I pray let us consider what we are doing and what it is we are to Grant with the Dangers and Inconveniences that will ensue thereupon Or whether it lyes in Our power to grant what the King requires at our hands Whether the King be an apt person to receive this Power that so we may go groundedly to work and not like Men that had lost all Honesty and Wit together with their Worldly Fortune As concerning the first point viz. What the Supremacy of the Church is which we are to give unto the King. It is to exercise the Spiritual Goverment of the Church in Chief which according to all that ever I have learned both in the Gospel and through the whole course of Divinity mainly consists in these two points First In Binding and Absolving Sinners according to that which our Saviour said unto Saint Peter when he ordained him Head of his Church viz. To thee will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Now My Lords can we say unto the King Tibi to thee will we give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven If ye say I where is your Warrant If you say No then you have answered your Selves that you cannot put such Keys into his hands Secondly The Supream Government of the Church consists in feeding Christ's Sheep and Lambs according to that when our Saviour performed his promise to Saint Peter of making him universal Shepherd by such unlimited Jurisdiction feed my Lambs and not only so but feed those that are the feeders of those Lambs feed my Sheep Now my Lords can any of us say unto the King pasce Oves God hath given unto his Church some to be Apostles some Evangelists some Pastors some Doctors for the Edifying of the Body of Christ So that you must make the King one of these before you can make him Head of the Church He must be such a Head as may edifie the Members of Christ's Body and it is not the sew Ministers of an Island that must constitute a Head over the Universe or at least by such example we must allow as many Heads over the Vniverse as there are Sovereign Powers within Christ's Dominion Every Member must have a Head. Attendite vobis was not said to King's but Bishops 2. Let us consider the Inconveniencies that will arise upon this Grant We cannot grant this unto the King but we must renounce our Unity with the See of Rome And if there were no further matter in it then a renouncing of Clement VII now Pope
thereof then the matter were not so great but in this we do forsake the first four General Councils which none ever forsook We renounce all Canonical and Ecclesiastical Laws of the Church of Christ we renounce all other Christian Princes we renounce the Unity of the Christian World I suppose he means by inventing to our Selves a Church of England divided from all the rest of the Christian World and so by leaping out of Peters Ship to be drowned in the unstable Waters of Heresie Sects Schisms and Confusions For the first General Council of Nice acknowledged Sylvester the Bishop of Rome his Authority to be over them by sending their Decrees to be ratifyed by him The Council of Constantinople did acknowledge Pope Damasus to be their Chief by admitting him to give Sentence against the Hereticks Macedonius Sabellius and Eunomius The Council of Ephesus acknowledged Pope Celestine to be their chief Judge by admitting his Condemnation upon the Heretick Nestorius The Council of Calcedon acknowledged Pope Leo to be their chief Head and all General Councils of the World ever acknowledged the Pope of Rome only to be Supream Head of the Church under Christ And now shall we set up another Head or one Head in England and another in Rome 3. We deny all Ecclesiastical Laws which do wholly depend upon the Authority of the Apostolick See of Rome 4 We renounce the Judgment of all other Christian Princes whether they be Protestants or Catholicks Nay by this argument Nero and Herod must have been Heads of the Church of Christ The Emperour must be Head of the Protestant Church in Germany And the Church of Christ must have never a Head at all till about three hundred years after Christ Fifthly The Kings Majesty is not susceptible of this Donation Ozias for medling with the Priests Office was resisted by Azarias thrust out of the Temple and told that it belongs not to his Office. Now if the Priest spake truth in this then is not the King to meddle in this business if he spake amiss why did God plague the King with Leprosie for this and not the Priest King David when the Ark of God was bringing home did he place himself in the head of the Priests Order did he so much as touch the Ark or execute any the least Office properly belonging to the Priestly Function or did he not rather go before and abase himself amongst the people and say that he would become yet more vile so that God might be glorified All good Christian Emperors have evermore refused Ecclesiastical Authority for at the first General Council of Nice certain Bills were privily brought unto Constantine to be ordered by his Authority but he caused them to be burnt saying Dominus vos constituit c. God hath ordained you Priests and hath given you Power to be Judges over us and therefore by right in these things we are to be judged by you but you are not to be judged by me Valentine the Good Emperor was desired by the Bishops to be present with them to reform the Heresie of the Arrians but he answered Forasmuch as I am one of the Members of the Lay people it is not lawful for me to define such Controversies but let the Priests to whom God hath given the charge thereof assemble where they will in due Order Theodosius writing to the Council of Ephesus saith It is not lawful for him that is not of the holy Order of Bishops to intermeddle with Ecclesiastical matters And now shall we cause our King to be Head of the Church which all good Kings have abhorred the very least thought of and so many wicked Kings have been plagued for so doing Truly my Lords I think they are his best Friends that disswade him from it and he would be the worst enemy to himself if he should obtain it Lastly If this thing be farewel all Unity with Christendom for as that holy and blessed Martyr St. Cyprian saith all Unity depends upon that holy See as upon the Authority of St. Peters Successors for saith the fame holy Father all Heresies Sects Schisms have no other Rise but this that men will not be obedient to the chief Bishop and now for us to shake off our Communion with that Church either we must grant the Church of Rome to be the Church of God or else a Malignant Church If you answer she is a Church of God and a Church where Christ is truly taught his Sacraments rightly administred c. how can we forsake how can we fly from such a Church certainly we ought to be with and not to separate our selves from such a one If we answer The Church of Rome is not of God but a Malignant Church then it will follow that we the Inhabitants of this Land have not as yet received the true Faith of Christ seeing we have not received any other Gospel any other Doctrine any other Sacraments than what we have received from her as most evidently appears by all the Ecclesiastical Histories wherefore if she be a Malignant Church we have been deceived all this while and if to renounce the common Father of Christendom all the General Councils especially the first Four which none renounce all the Countreys of Christendom whether they be Catholique Countreys or Protestant be to forsake the Unity of the Christian World then is the granting of the Supremacy of the Church unto the King a renouncing of this Unity a tearing of the Seamless Coat of Christ in sunder a dividing of the Mystical Body of Christ his Spouse limb from limb and tayl to tayl like Sampsons Foxes to set the Field of Christs holy Church all on fire and this is it which we are about wherefore let it be said unto you in time and not too late Look you to that The End of the First Dialogue containing the History of the First Reformers and Anti-Reformers The Second treats of the Reformation it self and the natural Fruits thereof Jealousy and Distraction amongst the People Decay of Sincerity c. Now Reader wer't thou to choose thy Religion consider which of these two Guides thou wouldst follow Cranmer or the Bishop of Rochester the former having no Mission from Heaven nor major Vote of the Convocation to authorise his Reformation nor yet any great mind to dye a Martyr for the same the later frankly exposing his Life to Stemm that Inundation of Sacriledge Schism and Confusion that was breaking in anno 1535. FINIS