Cause So that now if we look back upon this first Year of the King we may perceive how busy and diligent our Arch-bishop was in redressing Abuses and restoring the Church to its true State of Christian Piety and Devotion by procuring a Royal Visitation over England for inspection into the Manners and Abilities of the Clergy and for taking away of Superstitions by getting a Book of plain Homilies to teach the common People in the composing whereof he himself had a very great hand and Erasmus his Paraphrase in English upon the New Testament for the better furnishing the Clergy and others with a sound and sober understanding of the Scriptures and by encouraging Preachers and such-like means So that if you would particularly know in what forwardness the ABp had already put Religion taking in his Endeavours in the last King's Reign hitherto I recommend to your reading his Homily or Sermon Of Good Works Shewing out of what abundance of Superstitions the Church was now emerged Briefly to pass over the Ungodly and Counterfeit Religion he means of Monks and Friars let us reherse some other kinds of Papistical Superstitions and Abuses as of Beads of Lady-Psalters and Rosaries of fifteen O's of S. Bernard's Verses of S. Agathe's Letters of Purgatory of Masses Satisfactory of Stations and Jubilees of fained Relicks or hallowed Beads Bells Bread Water Psalms Candles Fire and such other Of superstitious Fastings of Fraternities or Brotherhoods of Pardons with such-like Merchandize Which were so esteemed or abused to the great Prejudice of God's Glory and Commandments that they were made most high and most holy Things whereby to obtain to the everlasting Life or Remission of Sins Yea also vain Inventions unfruitful Ceremonies and ungodly Laws Decrees and Conceits of Rome wherein such were advanced that nothing was thought comparable in Authority Wisdom Learning and Godliness unto them So that the Laws of Rome as they said were to be received of all Men as the four Evangelists To the which all the Laws of Princes must give place And the Laws of God also partly were left off and less esteemed that the said Laws Decrees and Councils with their Traditions and Ceremonies might be more duly kept and had in greater Reverence Thus were the People through Ignorance so blinded with the godly Shew and Appearance of those things that they thought the keeping of them to be more Holiness more perfect Service and honouring of God and more pleasing to God than the keeping of God's Commandments Such have been the corrupt Inclinations of Man ever superstitiously given to make new honouring of God of his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's Holy Commandments and to keep them And furthermore to take God's Commandments for Man's Commandments and Man's Commandments for God's Commandments yea and for the highest and most perfect and holiest of all God's Commandments And so was all confused that scant well-learned Men and but a small number of them knew or at the least would know and durst affirm the Truth to separate or sever God's Commandments from the Commandments of Men. Whereupon did grow such Error Superstition and Idolatry vain Religion overthwart Judgment great Contention with all ungodly Living A Bishop Consecrated September the 5 th being Sunday Nicolas Ridley D. D. Prebend of Canterbury was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester by Henry Bishop of Lincoln assisted by Iohn Suffragan of Bedford and Thomas Suffragan of Sidon in the Chappel belonging to the House of May Dean of S. Pauls He was Consecrated according to the old Custom of the Church by the Unction of holy Chrism as well as Imposition of Hands Present among others Iohn Whytwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner Rich. Tayler M. A. Nic. Bullingham Gregory Tod and Tho. Bernard his Chaplains CHAP. VIII The Church's Goods embezelled New Opinions broached AS the Reformation of Abuses in Religion went forward under such a King and such an Arch-bishop so there wanted not for Evils accompanying it as there do commonly the best Things the Profaneness of some and the Covetousness of others giving occasion thereunto Sacred Places set apart for Divine Worship were now greatly profaned and so probably had been before by ill Custom For in many Churches Cathedral as well as other and especially in London many Frays Quarrels Riots Blood-sheddings were committed They used also commonly to bring Horses and Mules into and through Churches and shooting off Hand-guns Making the same which were properly appointed to God's Service and Common-Prayer like a Stable or Common Inn or rather a Den or Sink of all Unchristiness as it was expressed in a Proclamation which the King set forth about this Time as I suppose for I am left to conjecture for the Date by reason of the Insolency of great Numbers using the said evil Demeanours and daily more and more encreasing Therein forbidding any such Quarrelling Shooting or bringing Horses and Mules into or through the Churches or by any other Means irreverently to use the Churches upon pain of his Majesty's Indignation and Imprisonment For it was not thought fit that when Divine Worship was now reforming the Places for the said Worship should remain unreformed Beside the profanation of Churches there prevailed now another Evil relating also to Churches viz. That the Utensils and Ornaments of these Sacred Places were spoiled embezelled and made away partly by the Church-wardens and partly by other Parishioners Whether the Cause were that they would do that themselves which they imagined would e're long be done by others viz. robbing the Churches Which it may be those that bore an Ill-will to the Reformation might give out to render it the more odious But certain it is that it now became more or less practised all the Nation over to sell or take away Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments For the stopping of this in the Month of April the Protector and the Lords of the Council writ to our Arch-bishop this Letter upon the Information and Complaint as it is likely of the said Arch-bishop himself in whose Diocess especially this Sacrilege prevailed AFter our right hearty Commendations Whereas we are informed that the Church-wardens and Parochians of divers Parishes do alienate and sell away their Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments of the Church Which were not given for that purpose to be alienated at their pleasure but either to be used to the Intent they were at first given or to some other necessary and convenient Service of the Church Therefore this is to will and require you immediately upon the sight hereof to give strait Charge and Commandment on the King's Majesty's behalf to every Parish-Church within your Diocess that they do in no wise sell give or otherwise alienate any Bells or other Ornaments or Jewels belonging unto their Parish-Church upon pain of his highest Displeasure as they will answer to the contrary at
dubito quin T. P. jamdudum scripserit ad reginam eique consuluerit quae pro illius regni conservatione regni Christi instauratione facienda judicarit c. That he doubted not he had before now written to the Queen and given her his Advice what he judged fit to be done for the preservation of her Kingdom and for the restoring of the Kingdom of Christ. Yet he would not omit to pray him to do it again and again by his repeated Letters For I know said he how great your Authority is with the English and with the Queen her self Now certainly is the time that you and such as you be should by your Counsels help so pious a Queen and consult for the Safety of so great a Kingdom yea and succour the whole Christian Church every where afflicted and vexed For we know that if Christ's Kingdom be happily introduced into the Kingdom of England no small Aid will thence come to all the other Churches dispersed through Germany Poland and other Countries There is one thing that is wont to be urged against him and which makes him to this Day to be somewhat ill thought of which was that he opposed himself so openly by writing against the Habits prescribed the Clergy and the posture of Kneeling at the Reception of the Holy Sacrament Whereby he incurred the Censure of a meddling Temper and of Ingratitude to that Nation that so kindly had entertained him Concerning the Habits Bucer and he had some Controversy The sum of which on both parts Arch-bishop Parker drew up upon the desire I suppose of Sir William Cecyl about the Year 1565 when that Controversy was hotly renewed again by Humfrey and Sampson This Sum whosoever is minded to see may probably hereafter find it in the Memorialls of that Arch-bishop if God grant Life and Opportunity to me to write them About this time viz. in the Year 1550 or 1551 there was also a Church of Italians constituted in London by the influence and care of our Arch-bishop and Sir William Cecyl under A Lasco's Superintendency This Church consisted of divers Italian Nations as Florentines Genoezes Milanois Venetians and others though several of them joined themselves with this Congregation more out of worldly Ends than Conscience as will appear afterward For they had a kindness for the Mass and could not endure to hear the Pope's Supremacy called in question and inveighed against One Michael Angelo Florio a Florentine by birth was appointed their Preacher probably Brother or Kinsman unto Simon Florio Preacher at the City of Clavenna among the Rhaetii an eminent Professor of the Gospel in those parts who wrote a Letter to Gratalorius an Italian Physician concerning two whole Towns in Calabria utterly destroyed by reason of the rigor of Persecution exercised there and about eight hundred or a thousand of the Inhabitants put to Death because they professed the Gospel Which Letter is extant in Fox in his Table of the Italian Martyrs For the encouragement of this Congregation the Arch-bishop procured the Members of it to be free Denizens to live and traffick here with as much Freedom as natural English Subjects Which they were admitted to by swearing Fidelity and Allegiance For their more easy and convenient dwelling here they often petitioned thâ— King for new Privileges and Immunities as they saw they needed them And such Favour and Countenance was shewn them that they seldom failed of their Suits The Arch-bishop also that their Preacher might be provided for dealt with the Congregation and made them oblige themselves to provide him with all Necessaries as a Dwelling and a competent yearly Salary In the Year 1552 Michael Angelo sued again to our Arch-bishop for some favour to be obtained from the King whether it were for the better establishment of his Church or for some further Immunities to be granted to the Members thereof it doth not appear But this the most Reverend Man readily furthered by writing in that behalf to the Duke of Northumberland from his House at Ford near Canterbury the Duke being I suppose with the King in Progress at this time He likewise dispatched another dated Novemb. 20. the Year abovesaid to the Secretary entreating him to forward that Cause as much as lay in him But however serviceable this their Minister had been unto these Italians in preaching the Gospel to them and soliciting the Arch-bishop for their Benefit yet many of them carried themselves but little obliging to him Whether it were some Misbehaviour or Imprudences in him which he was not altogether void of or his too violent declaiming against the Pope and Popish Doctrines which they were not yet enough ripened in Evangelical Knowledg to receive or that he too roughly charged them with the hardness of their Hearts and backwardness to receive Gospel-Truths as he did use to do but many of them wholly withdrew from him and went to Mass again His Contribution also fell very low not having received above five Pounds in a considerable time from them Hereupon he resorted to the Secretary Making heavy Complaints of his own Poverty that many of his People had forsaken his Assembly spake very slanderously against him and his Ministery and the Gospel which he preached after they saw and heard him in an open manner preaching against the Pope's Doctrines his Tyranny and Hypocrisy and reproving them for their Unbelief and the hardness of their Hearts The too much Vehemency and Passion of this Man and his neglect of informing the Judgments of these Italians in milder and more leisurely Methods I suspect to have been a great cause of this Apostacy But upon this Complaint the Secretary bade the Pastor send him a List of the Names of those that had thus behaved themselves and that he himself would call them before him and discourse with them Accordingly he sent the Names of fourteen in a Letter to the said Secretary withal aggravating to him their Misbehaviour and informing of their daily going to Mass and adding that therefore they being free Denizons and so Subjects to the English Laws ought to be punished as any English-Man would be if he heard Mass. He quoted a place or two in Deuteronomy where those that rebelled against God the Laws and the Judges should be slain without Mercy He subjoined that Elisha by God's Command anointed Iehu to be King for this very purpose that he should wholly root out the House of Ahab and kill all the Priests of Baal And thence makes his uncharitable Conclusion more agreeable to the Religion that he was so hot against that therefore these Italians should be so served since they opposed the Gospel and the King 's Pious Proceedings But it might make one apt not to think over-favourably of this Man a Pastor thus to turn Accuser of his Flock a Professor of the Reformed Religion to require the utmost Rigor of Punishment for differing in Religion I also find
Irenicum published by him from a Manuscript Volume once belonging to Arch-bishop Cranmer In this Convocation the Arch-bishop bore the great Sway and what things were agitated herein were chiefly by his Motion and Direction Some whereof were turned into Laws by the Parliament that was now sitting through his Activeness and Influence As particularly that Repeal of the Statute of the Six Articles and of some other severe Laws decreeing divers things Treason and Felony made in the former King's Reign For when the Arch-bishop in the Convocation had made a Speech to the Clergy exhorting them to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider what Things in the Church needed Reformation that so the Church might be discharged of all Popish Trash not yet thrown out Some told him that as long as the Six Articles remained it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council Upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By his means also another great thing moved in the Convocation was now ratified and made a Law by this Parliament which was for the Administration of the Communion under both Kinds throughout the Kingdom of England and Ireland And upon this the King appointed certain Grave and Learned Bishops and others to assemble at Windsor-Castle there to treat and confer together and to conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order of Communion according to the Rules of Scripture and the Use of the Primitive Church And this being framed it was enjoined to be used throughout the Realm by a Proclamation and all required to receive it with due Reverence I meet with a Writing of the Arch-bishop without Date consisting of Queries concerning the Mass in order to the abolishing it and changing it into a Communion Which I know not where so well to place as here now the Convocation was employed upon this Matter For it seems to have been drawn up by the Arch-bishop on purpose to be laid before the Consideration of this House The Queries were these What or wherein Iohn Fasting giving Alms being Baptized or receiving the Sacrament of the Altar in England doth profit and avail Thomas dwelling in Italy and not knowing what Iohn in England doth Whether it profit them that be in Heaven and wherein Whether it lieth in the Faster Giver of Alms Receiver of the Sacrament him that is Baptized to defraud any Member of Christ's Body of the Benefit of Fasting Alms-Deeds Baptism or Receiving of the Sacrament and to apply the same Benefit to one Person more than to another What thing is the Presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which you call the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ And wherein standeth it in Act Gesture or Word and in what Act Gesture or Word Is there any Rite or Prayer and expressed in the Scripture which Christ used or commanded at the first Institution of the Mass which we be now bound to use and what the same be Whether in the Primitive Church there were any Priests that lived by saying of Mass Mattens and Even-song and praying for Souls only And where any such State of Priesthood be allowed in the Scriptures or be meet to be allowed now For what Cause were it not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in the English Tongue Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution What Time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priests alone should receive the Sacrament Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the Time of the Mass to the understanding of the People being present Whether in the Mass it were convenient to use such Speech as the People may understand To proceed to some other Things wherein our Arch-bishop was this Year concerned In Iune the Church of S. Pauls was hanged with Black and a sumptuous Hearse set up in the Choire and a Dirige there sung for the French King who deceased the March precedent And on the next Day the Arch-bishop assisted with eight Bishops more all in rich Mitres and their other Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem and the Bishop of Rochester preached a Funeral Sermon A nice Matter was now put by the Council to the Arch-bishop having some other Bishops and Learned Men joined with him to the Number of Ten. The Case was Whether a Man divorced from his Wife for her Adultery might not lawfully marry again This was propounded upon the Account of a great Man in those Times namely the Brother of Queen Katherine Par Marquess of Northampton who had gotten a Divorce from his Wife the Daughter of Bourchier Earl of Essex for Adultery The Canon Law would not allow marrying again upon a Divorce making Divorce to be only a Separation from Bed and Board and not a Dissolving the Knot of Marriage This was a great Question depending among the Civilians And it being committed to the Determination of our Arch-bishop and some other Delegates tho the Marquess staid not for their Resolution but in this Interval married Elizabeth Daughter of the Lord Brook he searched so diligently into the Scriptures first and then into the Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that his Collections swelled into a Volume yet remaining in the Hands of a Learned Bishop of this Realm The Sum whereof is digested by the Bishop of Saâ—â—m Cranmer seemed to allow of Marriage in the Innocent Person He was a Means also to the Council of forbidding Processions Wherein the People carried Candles on Candlemass-day Ashes on Ash-wednesday Palms on Palm-sunday because he saw they were used so much to Superstition and looked like Festivals to the Heathen Gods So that this Year on Candlemass-day the old Custom of bearing Candles in the Church and on Ash-wednesday following giving Ashes in the Church was left off through the whole City of London He was a Member of a Committee this Winter appointed to examine all the Offices of the Church and to consider where they needed Reformation and accordingly to reform them Of this Commission were most of the Bishops and several others of the most Learned Divines in the Nation And a new Office for the Communion was by them prepared and by Authority set forth as was observed before and received all over England CHAP. V. The Arch-bishop's Catechism THIS Year the Arch-bishop put forth a very useful Catechism intituled A short Instruction to Christian Religion for the singular Profit of Children and young People This Catechism went not by way of Question and Answer but contained an easy Exposition of the Ten Commandments the Creed the Lord's Prayer and the two Sacraments The first and second Commandments were put together as one and the whole recital
Places collected from thence in the nature of Inferences and Observations Which I conclude the Arch-bishop put him upon doing while he was now with him The Work was looked over and examined by the Arch-bishop Notes and Corrections of his own Hand being here and there inserted Also the Gospel of S. Mark is handled in the same method by another of the Arch-bishop's Guests Which Writing hath this Inscription by Cranmer's Hand Petrus Alexander in Marcum At this time therefore there were at the Arch-bishop's House besides Bucer Alasco Peter Martyr Paulus Phagius Peter Alexander Bernardine Ochin Mat. Negelinus after a Minister of Strasburgh who accompanied Bucer and Fagius into England and others whose Names do not occur Three of these were soon after preferred to publick Places of Reading in the Universities Peter Alexander was of Artois and lived with the Arch-bishop before Bucer came into England He was a Learned Man but had different Sentiments in the Matter of the Eucharist enclining to the belief of a Corporeal Presence with the Lutherans Though some Years after he came over to a righter Judgment as his Companion Peter Martyr signified to Calvin in a Letter wrote from Strasburgh Peter Martyr coming about the beginning of the Year 1549 unto the University of Oxford his first Readings were upon the eleventh Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians In which Chapter is some Discourse of the Lord's Supper The Professor when he came so far took occasion to expatiate more largely upon that Argument and the rather that he might state it aright in the midst of those hot Contests that were then about it among Learned Men. These Lectures on the Sacrament he soon after printed at London for the Benefit of the World as they were two Years after done at Zurick and dedicated them to his Patron the Arch-bishop And that partly to give a publick Testimony of his Sense of the Arch-bishop's great Humanity and Benefits towards him Which were so large that he must do nothing else but tell of them to be sufficiently thankful for them And known it was to all as he said how obligingly he received and how liberally he entertained both himself and many other Strangers of his Rank and Condition And partly that by his Authority he would protect and defend what he should find in his Book to be consonant to the Holy Scriptures and agreeable to the King's Laws For he had he said Skill and Industry enough to do it who had himself often both in Publick and Private conflicted with the Adversaries and with admirable Learning accuracy of Wit and Dexterity vindicated the Truth from the spinous and confused Cavils of Sophisters Nor did he want Will to stand up for Sound and Christian Doctrines as all good Men knew who saw how earnest he was in his Labours of restoring Religion that for that Cause he drew upon himself many Enmities and threatning Dangers The first Occasion of Bucer's Call into England was thus He had wrote to Iohn Hales a learned English-man his Acquaintance the sad Estate of Germany and that he could scarce stay any longer in the Place where he was This Hales acquainted the Arch-bishop with which made a great Impression upon his compassionate Soul and he brake out into those words of the Psalmist Mirifica misericordias tuas qui salvos facis sperantes in te a resistentibus dexterae tuae And forthwith writ to Brucer a Letter in October 1548 to come over to this Realm which should be a most safe Harbour for him urging him to become a Labourer in the Lord's Harvest here begun and using other Arguments with him to move him hereunto in the most obliging Stile possible calling him My Bucer And that he might come over the safer from Harms and Enemies the Arch-bishop recommended him to one Hills an English-Merchant to provide for his Passage The Arch-bishop's Letter may be found in the Appendix To this Letter Bucer wrote an Answer seeming upon some Considerations to decline the Arch-bishop's Invitation This Letter coming to the Arch-bishop's Hands he shewed to Peter Alexander who by the Arch-bishop's Order wrote back to Bucer in the said Arch-bishop's and the Protector 's Name to call him again over which Letter was dated March 24 from Lambeth telling him withal that the good old Man Latimer saluted him Letters I suppose of the same Import were also dispatched to the Learned Fagius Bucer and Fagius who were thus honourably invited into England by repeated Letters of the Lord Protector and Arch-bishop Cranmer were by them also nominated for Publick Professors in the University of Cambridg the one of Divinity the other of the Hebrew Tongue This was looked on by their Friends as a notable piece of God's good Providence that when these two eminent Champions of the true Religion were in so much present Danger in Germany so seasonable a Refuge was provided for them elsewhere They both arrived safe in England in the end of April and abode with the Arch-bishop above a quarter of a Year until towards the end of the long Vacation the Arch-bishop intending they should be at Cambridg when the Term should begin in order to their Reading During this Interval while they continued at Lambeth they were not idle being every day busied in some Study and Exercise agreeable to their Function as was hinted before But the main of their Thoughts were taken up in preparing for their University-Lectures Which of what Subject-Matter they should be the Arch-bishop himself directed As it had been a great while his pious and most earnest Desire that the Holy Bible should come abroad in the greatest Exactness and true Agreement with the original Text. So he laid this Work upon these two Learned Men. First That they should give a clear plain and succinct Interpretation of the Scripture according to the Propriety of the Language And Secondly Illustrate difficult and obscure Places and reconcile those that seemed repugnant to one another And it was his Will and his Advice that to this End and Purpose their publick Readings should tend This pious and good Work by the Arch-bishop assigned to them they most gladly and readily undertook For their more regular carrying on this Business they allotted to each other by consent their distinct Tasks Fagius because his Talent lay in the Hebrew Learning was to undertake the Old Testament and Bucer the New The Leisure they now enjoyed with the Arch-bishop they spent in preparing their respective Lectures Fagius entred upon the Evangelical Prophet Esaias and Bucer upon the Gospel of the Evangelist Iohn And some Chapters in each Book were dispatched by them But it was not long but both of them fell Sick which gave a very unhappy stop to their Studies Fagius his Distemper proved mortal who was seized at first with a very acute Fever And notwithstanding Physick and Attendance remaining very ill he had a great desire to remove to Cambridg to
them either by Writiting or by Disputation in the English Tongue By whom this Declaration was drawn up unless by Iohn Bradford I know not for I meet with it a MS. which contains divers Pieces of that good Man This remarkable Declaration I have reposited in the Appendix This now is the second time a publick Challenge was made to justify K. Edward's Reformation the former the last Year by Cranmer the latter now by divers of the Learned Men in Prison After they had lain fifteen or sixteen Months thus in Prison their Livings Houses and Possessions Goods and Books taken from them they made such another Address unto the King and Queen and the Parliament therein undertaking either by Word or Writing before them or indifferent Arbiters to be appointed by them to prove themselves no Hereticks nor Teachers of Heresy as they were pretended to be nor cut off from the true Catholick Church though by the Popish Clergy excommunicated and Secondly By the Testimony of Christ his Prophets and Apostles and the Godly Fathers of the Church to prove the Doctrine of the Church the Homilies and Service taught and used in K. Edward's Time to be the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable to the Articles of the Christian Faith And this was the third publick Challenge they made This being preserv'd in Fox's Acts I forbear to transcribe it CHAP. XV. The Exiles and their Condition BUT let us now turn our Eyes from the Prisoners which were kept under close Confinement here in England unto the Exiles that by the good Providence of God made their Flight into foreign Countries from these Storms at home These were both of the Clergy and Laity Who though great watch was laid for them and Prohibitions given out against any that should privately attempt to transport themselves yet by taking their Opportunities and the favour of divers Masters of small Vessels at Lee in Essex and upon the Coasts in those Parts they safely got to the other side of the Sea They scattered themselves and took up their Harbours as they could But they found little Hospitality in Saxony and other places in Germany where Lutheranism was professed But on the contrary the Exile English were much hated by those of that Profession because they looked upon them as Sacramentaries and holding as Calvin and Peter Martyr did in the Doctrine of the Sacrament Therefore when any English came among them for Shelter they expelled them out of their Cities And when a grave Pastor of Saxony a Friend of P. Martyr's who though he were a Minister yet was not of their Mind had entertained some of them the rest clamoured against him and hated him for it About this time the Saxon Divines wrote many Books against the Sacramentaries and namely one Ioachim Westphalus wrote a Book against Calvin And he and the rest got these Books printed at Frankford on purpose as Martyr conjectured the more to spight the English and French Churches that abode now there and to provoke them At Wesel the English were under some trouble and the Senate were about to command them to depart thence because of their different Sentiments from the Augustan Confession in some Points But Philip Melancthon interposed and interceded with the Senate on their behalf And when some clamoured against them he took their part saying That their Case ought to be weighed by friendly Disputations and not exploded by Noise and Hissing and declared his judgment to be That these poor Exiles were to be retained and helped not afflicted and vexed by any rough Sentence He wrote also to the Governors of Frankford to the same purpose viz. That the English were not to be oppressed but to be cherished considering their Sentiments were found in the main Articles of the Christian Confession and that whereas they differed in some Points they were to be instructed and informed and not to be rudely thrown out from among them by Force and Violence And indeed it was admirable to observe at this Time the exceeding Heats that were in the Lutherans against all other Protestants only for differing from them in this one Point of the Sacrament There was a Book published in the Year 1555. in favour of their Opinion of the Corporeal Presence which was called Farrago Doctrinae Lutheranae This P. Martyr called Valdè insulsa a very foolish Book It contained a Collection of Sentences out of the Fathers and also out of the Writings of Luther Philip Brentius Pomeran c. They added some out of Bucer Illyricus and Ioachim Westphalus to shew that they agreed together They inserted divers Letters sometime writ against the Sacramentaries Indeed Calvin and Martyr they mentioned not by Name but A Lasco they did In this Book there was a Discourse added under this Title Quod Christi Corqus sit ubique Which was to serve as a Proof of their Doctrine And in the conclusion there was a Common-place De Magistratus officio Which was thought to be put in upon no other reason but to inflame and irritate Princes against the Sacramentaries These Saxon Divines were exceeding hot against those that believed not as they did In their ordinary Discourses they stiled them Hereticks False Prophets Suermeros Sacramentiperdas About this Time they were gathering new Votes against Calvin and as it was thought they intended to attempt some Excommunication against such as differed from them in this Point And this that I have said is enough to explain the Reason of the Inhospitality of the Lutherans to our Exiles But in other Places they were received with much Kindness and had the Liberty of their Religious Worship granted them as in Strasburgh Frankford Embden Doesburge Basil Zurick Arrow Geneva At Zurick they were received into one House with Bullinger and had great Favour and Countenance shewn them by the Towns-men and Magistrates Who offered them by Bullinger to supply them with such a quantity of Bread-corn and Wine as should serve to sustain thirteen or fourteen People But they with Thanks refused it Having I suppose wherewith to subsist otherwise of themselves and being willing to be as little burthensome as might be In these Places some followed their Studies some taught Schools some wrote Books some assisted at the Printing-Presse and grew very dear to the Learned Men in those Places At Embden they â—aving gotten among them by Sir Iohn Cheke's Means as was thought an Original Copy of Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament translated it into Latin and printed it there with a Preface before it And there they preserved the said Original as a most invaluable Treasure Here they printed other good Books in English and conveyed them into England At Geneva a Club of them employed themselves in translating the Holy Bible into English intending to do it with more Correctness than had hitherto been done having the opportunity of consulting with Calvin and Beza in
return to Ionas He had written some Pieces and presented them to the King for which he intended to reward him And being now ready to go to France for the improvement of his Knowledg and so after a time to return into England again for which he had a great Affection he besought Secretary Cecyl in a well-penned Letter That whatsoever the King intended to bestow on him he would do it out of hand for the supply of his travelling Necessity This Letter for the Antiquity of it and the Fame of the Man I have inserted in the Appendix In which is also contained an Extract of part of Ionas the Father's Letter to his Son concerning the Miseries of Germany CHAP. XXIV Melancthon and the Arch-bishop great Friends THESE Occasions of the frequent mention of Melancthon do draw us into a relation of some further Passages between him and our Arch-bishop In the Year 1549 happened several Disputations chiefly concerning the Doctrine of the Lord's Supper before the King's Commissioners in both Universities In Oxford they were managed chiefly by Peter Martyr And in Cambridg Ridley then Bishop of Rochester and a Commissioner was the chief Moderator Soon after Martin Bucer in this University defended three Points one of the Sufficiency of the Scripture another concerning the Erring of Churches and the last concerning Works done before Iustification against Pern Sedgwick and Yong. They on the Popish Side pretended much in their Disputations to have Antiquity and the Fathers for them These Disputations did our most Reverend Prelate together with his own Letter convey to Melancthon by the Hand of one Germanicus a German Who probably might be one of those Learned Strangers that the Arch-bishop hospitably entertained The Reflection that that Divine in an Answer to his Grace in the Year 1550 made upon perusal of these Papers was That he was grieved to see that those who sought so much for the Antient Authorities would not acknowledg the Clearness of them Nor was there any doubt what the sounder Men in the Antient Church thought But that there were new and spurious Opinions foisted into many of their Books Into that of Theophylact most certainly for one And that there was some such Passage in the Copy that Oecolampadius made use of when he translated Theophylact which he liked not of but yet translated it as he found it But this was wholly wanting in the Copy that Melancthon had That the same happened in Bede's Books which he supposed might be found more incorrupt among us Bede being our Country-Man The same Melancthon with this his Letter sent our Arch-bishop a part of his Enarration upon the Nicene Creed for this end that he might pass his Judgment thereon As he also did for the same purpose to A Lasco Bucor and Peter Martyr all then in England The beginning of this Learned German's Acquaintance with our Prelat was very early For the Arch-bishop's Fame soon spred abroad in the World beyond the English Territories Which was the Cause of that Address of Melancthon mentioned before in the Year 1535 and in the Month of August when he sent a Letter and a Book to him by Alexander Aless. In the Letter he signified what a high Character both for Learning and Piety he had heard given of him by many honest and worthy Men and That if the Church had but some more such Bishops it would be no difficult Matter to have it healed and the World restored to Peace congratulating Britain such a Bishop And this seems to have been the first entrance into their Acquaintance and Correspondence PHILIP MELANCTHON In the Year 1548 Cranmer propounded a great and weighty Business to Melancthon and a Matter that was likely to prove highly useful to all the Churches of the Evangelick Profession It was this The ABp was now driving on a Design for the better uniting of all the Protestant Churches viz. by having one common Confession and Harmony of Faith and Doctrine drawn up out of the pure Word of God which they might all own and agree in He had observed what Differences there arose among Protestants in the Doctrine of the Sacrament in the Divine Decrees in the Government of the Church and some other things These Disagreements had rendred the Professors of the Gospel contemptible to those of the Roman Communion Which caused no small grief to the Heart of this good Man nearly touched for the Honour of Christ his Master and his true Church which suffered hereby And like a Person of a truly publick and large Spirit as his Function was seriously debated and deliberated with himself for the remedying this Evil. This made him judg it very adviseable to procure such a Confession And in order to this he thought it necessary for the chief and most Learned Divines of the several Churches to meet together and with all freedom and friendliness to debate the Points of Controversy according to the Rule of Scripture And after mature deliberation by Agreement of all Parties to draw up a Book of Articles and Heads of Christian Faith and Practice Which should serve for the standing Doctrine of Protestants As for the Place of this Assembly he thought England the fittest in respect of Safety as the Affairs of Christendom then stood And communicating this his purpose to the King that Religious Prince was very ready to grant his Allowance and Protection And as Helvetia France and Germany were the chief Countries abroad where the Gospel was prosessed so he sent his Letters to the most eminent Ministers of each namely to Bullinger Calvin and Melancthon disclosing this his pious Design to them and requiring their Counsel and Furtherance Melancthon first of all came acquainted with it by Iustus Ionas junior to whom the Arch-bishop had related the Matter at large and desired him to signify as much in a Letter to the said Melancthon and that it was his Request to him to communicate his Judgment thereupon This Ionas did and Melancthon accordingly writ to our Arch-bishop on the Calends of May this Year to this purpose That if his Judgment and Opinion were required he should be willing both to hear the Sense of other Learned Men and to speak his own and to give his Reasons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Perswading and being perswaded as ought to be in a Conference of good Men letting Truth and the Glory of God and the Safety of the Church not any private Affection ever carry away the Victory Telling him withal That the more he considered of this his Deliberation than which he thought there could be nothing set on foot more Weighty and Necessary the more he wish'd and pressed him to publish such a true and clear Confession of the whole Body of Christian Doctrine according to the Judgment of Learned Men whose Names should be subscribed thereto That among all Nations there might be extant an illustrious Testimony of Doctrine delivered by grave Authority and