nec contra praeceptum fierent quae nunc legibus moribus pronuntiant esse contraria Talia inquam constat apud Veteres fuisse usitata nec a bonis quidem viris tunc temporis improbata Quae vel omnia probabunt novi isti homines rerum novarum intro ductores vel aliqua vel nulla Quod si Nulla dicant nobis cur ista admiserunt Si Aliqua quur non reliqua Et praescribant nobis regulam qua sciamus quae sunt admittenda quae vero rejicienda Si Omnia in qua sententia videtur esse Bucerus quaeso te qualem verum faciem quantumque a priore mutatam in ecclesia Videbimus Quam erunt confusa inversa atque praepostera omnia Sed adhuc proprius urgebimus eos interrogabimusque An non tantum quae sub lege facta sunt sed etiam quae ante legem an non tantum quae a Iudaeis sed quae a Gentibus fuerint usitata veluti jure postliminij ad exemplum revocabunt Etsi illa tantum quur non haec aeque atque illa Presertim quae a Sanctioribus Sapientioribus viris ut Socrate Platone Cicerone c. fuerint vel facta vel approbata Quod si utraque concedent concedant nobis Britannis more majorum nostrorum denas duodenasque uxores habere insimul communes maximè fratres cum â—ratribus parentes cum liberis Quod aliquando in hac insula usitatum fuisse Caesar non ignobilis author testatur in Commentarijs Concedant foeminis Christianis quod Solon suis Atheniensibus concesserat ut quae viros parum ad rem Veneream idoneos sortitaâ— fuissent aliquem ex mariti propinquis impune admitterent Concedunt quod Lycurgus coneessit Viris Lacedaemonijs ut qui minus esset ad procreandam prolem idoneus alteri cui vellet suam conjugem impregnandam daret prolem precariò sibi natam ut propriam suo nomine nuncuparet Aut denique quod Romanorum legibus permissum erat ut qui satis liberorum procreasseâ— uxorem suam alteri commodaret prolem desideranti Id quod Cato vir gravissimus sapientissimusque habitus Hortentio amico suo legitur fecisse Talia cum probata fuerint antiquitus viris sapientissimis ac Philosophorum legumque latorum optimis sanctissimis ut Platoni Xenophonti Catoni c. quum eadem fuerint moribus recepta Hebraeorum Graecorum Latinorum quorum populorum Respublicas Politeias constat optimè fuisse constitutas ab omnibus scriptoribus maximè celebratas age faciamus nos si deo placet similia Christianis fratribus permittamus facienda Imo Christus Opt. Max. tam foeda tamque incestuosa connubiorum portenta a sua sancta ecclesia dignetur avertere nunc in diem Domini Amen Haec Ego ad te potissimum Charissime Osiander in presentia scribenda duxi propter eam quae inter nos est jam diu fuit summam necessitudinem familiaritatem quamvis putem atque adeo certo sciam te ab hujusmodi tam absurdis moribus opinionibus quà m alienissimum esse Cum caeteris Vestratibus Doctoribus levior minus arcta michi intercedit amicitia cujus ipsius quoque fateor me multum paeniteret si scirem hos esse fructus novi Evangelij ab ipsis tantopere jactitati a vobis quoque hactenus ut putabamus non temere aliqua ex parte probati Bene vale Dat Lambeth xxvij mo Decembr Tui Amantissimus T. Cantuarien NUM XXX The French Kings Licence to print the English Bible in Paris FRanciscus c. Dilectis nobis Richardo Grafton Edwardo Whitchurch Anglis Civibus Londini Salutem Quia fide digna testimonia accepimus quod carissimus frater noster Anglorum Rex Vobis cujus Subditi estis Sacram Bibliam tam Latinè quam Britannicè sive Anglicè imprimendi imprimi curandi in suum regnum apportandi transferendi libertatem sufficientem legitimam concesserit Et Vos tum propter chartam tum propter alias honestas considerationes animos vestros in hac parte justè moventes dictam Bibliam sic imprimendam Parisijs infra hoc nostrum regnum curaveritis ac in Angliam quamprimum transmittere intenderitis NOS ut haec vobis facere liceat potestatem facientes vobis conjunctim divisim ac Procuratoribus Factoribus Agentibus vestris cujuslibet vestrum ut in regno nostro apud Chalcographum quemcúnque dictam Sacram Bibliam tam Latina quam Anglicana lingua tuto imprimere excudere possitis possint necnon excusa impressa in Angliam duntaxat sine ulla perturbatione aut molestia vel impedimento quocúnque transmittere apportare Dummodo quod sic imprimitis excuditis sincerè purè quantum in Vobis erit citra ullas privatas aut illegitimas opiniones impressum excusum fuerit Et onera ac officia mercatoria nobis ministris nostris debite in hac parte extiterint persoluta licentiam nostram impartimur concedimus specialem per praesentes Dat. c. NUM XXXI Three Discourses of ABp Cranmer occasioned upon his review of the Kings Book intitled The Erudition of a Christian man I. FAITH THIS Book speaks of pure Christian Faith unfeigned which is without colour as wel in heart as in mouth He that hath this Faith converteth from his sin repenteth him that he like Filius prodigus vainly consumed his Wil Reason Wits and other goods which he received of the mere benefit of his heavenly father to his said Fathers displesure and applyeth himself wholy to pleas him again and trusteth assuredly that for Christs sake he wil and doth remit his sins withdraweth his indignation delivereth him from his sin from the power of the Infernal spirits taketh him to his mercy and maketh him his own son and his own heire And he hath also the very Christian Hope that after this life he shal reign ever with Christ in his kingdome For S. Paul saith Si filij sumus haeredes haeredes quidem Dei cohaeredes autem Christi This is the very pure Christian Faith and Hope which every good Christian man ought to profess Believe and Trust and to say of himself even as Iob said Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit c. And as for the other Faith that the Good shal arise unto Glory and the evil unto pain or that those that persevere in Gods precepts and laws so long as they so do they be the right Inheritors of his kingdom this is not the commendation of a Christian his Faith but a most certain proposition which al the Devils believe most certainly And yet they shal never have their sins forgiven by this Faith nor be Inheritors of Gods kingdom Because they lack the very Christian Faith and not trusting to the goodness and mercy of God for their own offences
But they hate God envy his glory and be utterly in dispair For the more large Declaration of the Christian Faith it is to be considered that there is a general Faith which al that be christned as wel good as evil have As to believe that God is that he is the Maker and Creator of al things and that Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and for his sake al penitent sinners shal have remission of their sins And that there shal be a general resurrection at the end of this mortal World At the which Christ shal judge al the Good to joy without end and the Evil to pain without end with such other like thyngs And al these things the Devils also believe and tremble for fear and grievousnes of Gods indignation and torments which they shal endure and ever shal do But they have not the right christen Faith that their own sins by Christs redemption be pardoned and forgiven that themselves by Christ be delivered from Gods wrath and be made his beloved children and heires of his kingdom to come The other Faith have al Devils and wicked christen people that be his Members But this pure christen Faith have none but those that truly belong to Christ and be the very Members of his body and endeavor themselves to persevere in his precepts and lawes altho many pretend to have the same pure Faith which nevertheles have it not but only in their mouths For as there is a ly in the mouth and a ly in the heart even so there is a faith in the mouth and a faith in the heart Examine every man if he Trust in God and Love God above al things And in word he wil answer Yea. But examine every mans acts and deeds and surely in a great number their acts and deeds condemn their words For they walk after their own Wills and plesures and not after Gods commandments And Christ himself saith Qui diligit me mandata mea servat And S. Iohn saith Qui dicit se nosse deum mandata ejus non custodit mendax est And therfore al those that bridle not their own appetites but follow them and accomplish the wil of their own carnal minds they trust in God and trust God no further then the lips And if they persuade themselves that they trust in God and love God in their hearts and be of any estimation before God then be they much deceived and as S. Paul saith they deceive their own hearts Our own flesh and carnal mind is contrary to the Spirit and motion of God And they saith S. Paul that belong unto Christ do crucify their flesh with the affections and lusts therof And contrary he saith They that follow the lusts of the flesh shal not inherit the kingdom of God These be very notable and fearful sentences unto al such as be not repentant but live after their own wills and not after Gods wil neither have the right faith nor Love unto God nor shal be inheriters of his kingdom And though Christ hath payd a sufficient ransome for al the sins in the World and is a sufficient Redeemer and Saviour of al the World yet shal they have no part therof For they belong not unto Christ and Christ utterly refuseth them for his which have Faith and Love only in their mouths and have not the same engraven in their hearts and expressed in their actions and deeds And so he goes on more largely to illustrate this argument of the necessity of more than a mere faith in the mouth Afterwards the Discourse thus procedes If as treacle kept only in the mouth doth not remedy poyson in the whole body but the treacle must enter down into the body and then it altereth the whole body and expells al venome and poyson In like maner he whose profession of his faith is only in his mouth and altereth not his evil life is not forgiven his sins is not delivered from hel nor from the power of Devils is not made the son of God but continueth stil in his poyson of sin in the wrath and indignation of God and in the damnation of the wicked in hell But if the profession of our faith of the remission of our own sinns enter within unto the deepness of our hearts then it must needs kindle a warm fire of Love in our hearts towards God and towards all others for the love of God a fervent mind to seek and procure Gods honor wil and pleasure in al things a good wil and mind to help every man and to do good unto them so far as our Might Wisdome Learning Counsil Health Strength and al other gifts which we have received of God wil extend And in summa a firm intent and purpose to do al that is good and leave al that is evil This is the very right pure perfect lovely christian hearty and justifying Faith which worketh by Love as S. Paul saith and suffereth no venome or poyson of sin to remain within the heart Acts 15. Fide Deus purificans corda But gendreth in the heart a hatred unto al sin and makes a sinner clean a new man and is the Faith which every christen man ought to profess in his Creed And of this Faith runneth al our Paraphrasis upon the same For as for the other fained pretended hypocritical and adulterate Faith in the mouth it is but only a painted visor before men but before God it is hollow within dead rotten and nothing worth II. JUSTIFICATION AND for a further Declaration to know how we obtain our Justification it is expedient to consider first how naughty and sinful we are al that be of Adam's kindred and contrariwise what Mercifulnes is in God which to al faithful and penitent sinners pardoneth al their offences for Christs sake Of these two things no man is lightly ignorant that ever hath heard of the fal of Adam which was to the infection of al his posterity and again of the inexplicable mercy of our heavenly father which sent his only begotten Son to suffer his most grievous passion for us and shed his most precious blood the price of our Redemption But it is greatly to be wished and desired that as al Christen men do know the same so that every man might acknowledg himself a miserable sinner not worthy to be called his son and yet surely trust that to him being repentant Gods mercy is ready to forgive And he that seeth not these two things verified in himself can take no maner of emolument or profit by knowledging and believing the said things to be verified in others But we cannot satisfy our minds settle our conscience that these things be true saving that we do evidently see that Gods word so teacheth us The Commandments of God lay our faults before our eyen which putteth us in fear and dread and maketh us se the wrath of God against our sins As S. Paul saith Per legem agnitio
seen so manifestly of so many in these dayes But here peradventure ye wold know of me what is the truth Sir Gods word is the truth as S. Iohn saith and it is even the same that was heretofore For albeit man doth vary and chaunge as the Moon yet Gods word is stable and abydeth for evermore And of Christ it is truly said Christus heri hodie idem etiam in secula When I was in office al that were esteemed for learned men in Gods word aggreed this to be a truth in Gods word written that the Common prayers of the Church shuld be had in the common tongue You know I have conferred with many and I ensure you I never found man so far as I do remembre neyther old nor new Gospeller or Papist of what judgmâ—nt soever he was in this thing to be of a contrary opinion If then it were a truth of Gods word think you that the Alteration of the world can make it now an untruth If it cannot why do men so many shrink from the confession and maintenance of this truth once received of us al For what is it I pray you else to confes or deny Christ in this world but to confes and maintain the truth taught in Gods word nor for any worldly respect to shrynke from the same This one have I brought but for an example Other things be in like case which now particularly I nede not to rehearse For he that wil forsake wittingly eyther for fear or gain of the world any one open truth of Gods word if he be strayned he wil assuredly forsake God and al his truth rather then he wil endaunger hymself eyther to loose or to leave that he loveth indede better then he doth God and the truth of his word I lyke therin very wel your plain speaking wherin you say I must eyther aggree or dy and I thynk you mean of the bodily death which is common both to good and bad Sir I know I must dy whether I aggree or no. But what folly were it then to make such an aggreement by the which I could never escape this death which is so common to al and also I might incur the guilt of eternal death and damnation Lord graunt that I may utterly abhor and detest this damnable aggreement so long as I lyve And because I dare say you wrot of frendship to me this short ernest advertisement and I think verily wyshing me to lyve and not to dy Therfore bearing you in my hear no less love in God then you do me in the world I say to you In verbo Domini that except you and this I say to you I say to al my frends and lovers in God except ye confes and mainteyn to your power and knowledg thyngs which be grounded upon Gods word but wil eyther for fear or gayn of the world shrynke and play the Apostata indede you shal dy the death You understand what I mean And I beseech you and al my true freynds and lovers in God remembre what I say For this peradventure may be the last time that ever I shal write to you From Bocardo in Oxenford theighth day of April Anno 1554. Yours in Christ Nicolas Rydley NUM LXXXVII John Hopton Bishop of Norwich to the Earl of Sussex giving account of the joy conceived and Te Deum sung for the newes of the Queens being brought to bed of a Noble Prince RIght honorable and my singular good Lord. After mine humble commendations with like thanks for your honorable and gentle letters sent to me touching the behaviour of the Curate of Bokenham and the reformation of other enormities there It may please you to understand that I did send immediatly for the said Curate and the Church-wardens and the Quest-men there And upon their appearance with twelve or fourteen of the most substantial men of the parish and upon due examination I could perceive none other thing but al things to be wel and decently ordered and provided for at this holy time of Easter contrary to the information given to your good Lordship And if there had been any thing amiss they should have been punished according to their demerits Beseeching your good Lordship if any further knowledg come to you either for that Town or any other concerning the Reformation of my jurisdiction or the negligence of mine Officers that I may be advertised therof and have your favorable ayd and assistance And I shal do the best I can for my discharge And wher it pleased your honorable Lordship to wil me to take a dinner or a supper with you in the time of my Visitation I humbly thank you therfore most heartily Beseeching your Lordship when occasion shal serve you to visit this city that ye wil vouchsafe to take this my poor house at your commandment wherunto your Lordship shal be as welcome as unto your own Further I understand that Mr. Mayor here hath certified your Lordship of the sudden good news brought to us by one of the city of the Queens highnes most joyful deliverance of a Noble Prince Wherupon to laud God Te Deum was solemnly songen in the Cathedral church and other places of the city with wonderful joy and much gladnes of al people throughout the whole city and the country therabouts And if ye have any further knowledg therof I beseech your honorable Lordship that I may be partaker of the same by this bringer my servant whom I send purposely therfore as knoweth the Holy Ghost who preserve your Lordship in continual health and honor At Norwich the thred of May 1555. Your Lordships assuredly Iohn Norwich Postscripta I received even now knowledg from a friend of mine of two witnesses more of the good and joyful newes above written as this said bringer can declare to your good Lordship Iohn Norwich NUM LXXXVIII A Proposition in the Convocation against Residence With Reasons for the said Proposition and Remedies against Non-residence Decretum perpetuae Residentiae juxta Canonum Sanctiones optant pij sed multa sunt quae hodie impediunt quo minus suum effectum juxta bonorum virorum vota consequatur The Reasons I. THE Statutes of the Kingdome not disallowed as we hear by the Pope do permit to the Barons and other great men of the kingdome a certain number of Priests having cure of souls II. Not only the Statutes of the kingdom but the Canons do permit Bishops a certain number of fellow workers to assist them III. Bishops and Prelates who by reason of their great learning prudence integrity of life and high faith are chosen to be the Kings Counsillors and whose counsils are very necessary for the restoring of religion ought not as it seems to be compelled to perpetual Residence IV. When the Barons and other great men may be retained in the orthodox faith by the doctrin honesty age and frequent exhortations of Reverend men it seems not convenient that
MEMORIALS OF The Most Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer SOMETIME Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY WHEREIN The HISTORY of the CHURCH and the REFORMATION of it during the Primacy of the said ARCHBISHOP are greatly Illustrated and many singular Matters relating thereunto now First Published In Three Books Collected chiefly from RECORDS REGISTERS Authentick LETTERS and other ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS By IOHN STRYPE M. A. LONDON Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXCIV EFFIGIES VERA REVERENDISSIMI Câ—â—â—MERI ARCHIEPISCOPI CANTUARIENSIS H Holbein pinxit Natus 1489 July 2. Consecratus 1533. Marzo Martyrio Coronatus 1556. Mar 21. pag 179 Printed for Ric Chiswell at the Rose and Crowne in S t Pauls Church yard TO THE Most Reverend Father in God JOHN By the DIVINE PROVIDENCE Lord Archbishop of CANTERBVRY Primate of all England and Metropolitan AND One of Their Majesties most Honourable Privy Council May it please Your Grace TO pardon the Presumption of the Obscure Person that dedicates this Book to Your GRACE for the sake of the Renowned Man it treats of Viz. One of your Illustrious Predecessors an Archbishop of Canterbury that hath deserved so eminently of that See nay and of the whole British Church I may say that deserved Best of any Archbishop before him that wore that Mitre To whose solid Learning Deliberation and indefatigable Pains both the Kings and People of this Realm owe their Deliverance from the long and cruel Bondage of Rome For it is true what the Romanists say in Obloquy of this Archbishop and we Protestants say it to his Eternal Fame That he was the first of all the Archbishops of Canterbury that made a Defection from the Papal Chair Thereby vindicating this Crown from a base Dependance upon a Foreign Jurisdiction But whereas Parsons saith That this was the first Change of Religion in any Archbishop of Canterbury from the beginning unto his days this is not so true For sundry of Archbishop Cranmer's Predecessors to look no further than Two or Three hundred Years backward were of different Judgments from the Church of Rome in some Points His immediate Predecessor Warbam approved of the King's Title of Supreme Head of the Church under Christ in his own Kingdom against the Doctrine of the Pope's Universal Authority And a Century of Years before him Archbishop Chichely tho he were made the Pope's Legate refused to exercise his Power Legantine further than he should be authorized thereunto by the King And Archbishop Islip as long before him disliked of Dissolving those Marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single Life For tho he laid a Punishment upon a Countess of Kent who being a Widow and then Professed afterwards secretly married to a certain Knight named Abrincourt yet he divorced them not but permitted them to live together And the Judgment of Archbishop Arundel who lived in K. Richard the Second's Reign was for the Translation of the Scriptures into the Vulgar Tongue and for the Laities use thereof For He preaching the Funeral Sermon of Queen Anne the beloved Wife of that King after she deceased at Sheen in the Year 1392. commended her as for her other Vertuous Accomplishments so particularly for her Study of the Holy Scriptures and of the Sense of them and for having them in the Vulgar Tongue as I find by an Ancient MS. Fragment writ near Three hundred Years ago formerly belonging to the Church of Worcester in these Words following Also the Bushop of Caunterbury Thomas of Arundel that now is sey a Sermon at Westminster thereas was many an hundred of people at the buryeng of quene Anne of whose Sowle God have mercy And in his commendation of her he seyd That it was more joy of her than of any woman that ever he knew For notwithstanding that she was Alien born being the Daughter of the Emperor Charles IV. she had on English al the iiij gospels with the Doctors upon hem And he seyd that she sent them unto him And he seyd that they were good and true and commended her in that she was so great a Lady and also an Alyan and wolde study so holy so vertuouse bokes And he blamed in his Sermon sharply the negligence of the Prelates and other men c. So that it is not true what Parsons saith if he mean That no Archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the Church of Rome in any of her Doctrines But true it is tho not so much to their Credits that none of them however sensible they were of the Roman Errors and Superstitions did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this Church free of them before our abovenamed Archbishop being the sixty eighth from Augustine the Monk resolutely and bravely undertook and effected it Indeed they spent not their Zeal their Treasure and their Interest this way so much as in contending about Superiority and their Prerogatives in exempting their Clergy from the Cognizance of the Temporal Magistrate in Applications to and Courting of the Bishops of Rome in Persecuting those they called Hereticks in Eternizing their own Names by founding Religious Houses and building Stately Palaces and Shrines and in exhibiting themselves in great Worldly Pomp and Appearance But blessed be God for Archbishop Cranmer by means of whose Reformation succeeded a Series of better tho not so splendid Archbishops Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high Vocation and the Spiritual Trust committed to them Men that regarded little or nothing the vain shews of exterior Grandeur and Glory nor sought Great Things for themselves but with their great Predecessor St. Paul on whom lay the Care of all the Churches spent and wore out themselves in the Restoration of the Kingdom of Christ so happily begun by the said Archbishop Cranmer in this Island Such were Parker Grindal Whitgift the Three first Protestant Archbishops next after him what he planted they watered and God gave a Blessed Increase to Whose most excellent Lives and Conducts in the Government of this Church as well as in their own more private and Domestick Conversation their rare Piety Prudence Patience Courage and Activity I can scarcely temper my Pen from making excursions into Of which I could fill even Volumes had I Leisure Favour and Countenance from those Large Collections which I have for divers Years been storing up with great delight partly out of their own Original Letters and partly from other MSS. in their times But besides these first Archbishops during the Long Reign of Q. Elizabeth who by their Care and Diligence established and settled that Reformation of which Archbishop Cranmer laid the first Stones we are beholden unto the same Archbishop for all the rest of the Worthy and Painful Prelates of that Metropolitical See who have taken Care of this Excellently Reformed Church even unto Your GRACE Whose Deserts towards this Church and the Reformation have raised you to sit in Archbishop Cranmer's
Chair tho with as much Reluctancy in You as was in Him Of Your GRACE'S Endowments to qualify You for this most Eminent Station I will be wholly silent knowing how abhorrent Your Generous Nature is from Reading or Hearing Your Own Commendations Nor MY LORD is this my End in this my Dedication But this it is That You would so far Encourage these my Weak and Imperfect Labours done out of a Good Intent as to cast a Favourable Eye upon them for the sake of Your Glorious Predecessor the Subject of this Book and to repute me among the Number May it please Your GRACE Of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servants JOHN STRYPE THE PREFACE I Think it fit by way of Preface to these Memorials to admonish the Reader of a few things preparatory to the Perusal thereof As What it was put me at first upon making these Collections concerning Archbishop Cranmer and the State of the Church in his time What induced me to make them Publick And What Credit may be given to them with some other occasional matters I. As to the first I have been for a long time not a little addicted to read whatsoever I could of the Reformation of this famous Church that I might truly understand for what Reasons it was at first attempted in what Methods it proceeded by what Men it was chiefly managed and carried on and how it stood in truth as to its Doctrine Discipline and Government Reputation Learning Piety and such like in its first Establishment and the Earlier Times of it For which purpose I did not only read over what we have in Print of these Matters but for more satisfaction I was carried on to look into MSS. whether Registers Records Letters Instruments and such like A great sort of which by Providence fell into my hands And besides them I have turned over many more in Libraries and elsewhere from whence I made Transcriptions Extracts and Collections for my own use and satisfaction which swelled to no little bulk And while I was doing this I took always a more curious View into the Lives Manners and Doings Learning Virtues and Abilities of the chief leading men whether Archbishops and Bishops or other Church-men of whom we have but little Account extant tho many of them very Great and Good men little more remaining of some of them than their Names The Reverence I bore in my mind to Archbishop Cranmer the Father of the Reformation here in England and the first of that Ancient Metropolitan See that so bravely shook off the Pope and his Appendages inclined me especially to gather up what Notices I could of him Afterwards as my leisure served me out of my indigested Mass of Notes I compiled into some order Memorials of him and of the Affairs of the Church during his Primacy in which he for the most part was concerned and bore a great share with K. Henry and the Lord Cromwel his Vicegerent in Spirituals After some Years these Memorials lying by me I enlarged considerably and digested them into Annals and had thoughts of making them Publick being excited and encouraged thereunto by my Friends who were privy to these my Doings II. And indeed many Considerations induced me hereunto As in general the great Benefit of reading Histories of former Times which what that is take in the Words of Iohn Fox For the things which be first are to be preferred before those which be later And then is the reading of Histories much necessary in the Church to know what went before and what followed after And therefore not without cause History in old Authors is called The Witness of Times the Light of Verity the Life of Memory the Teacher of Life and Shewer of Antiquity Without the knowledge whereof man's Life is blind and soon may fall into any kind of Error as by manifest experience we have to see in these desolate later Times of the Church whenas the Bishops of Rome under colour of Antiquity have turned Truth into Heresy and brought in such new-found Devices of strange Doctrine and Religion as in the former Ages of the Church were never heard of And all through Ignorance of Times and for lack of True History And therefore the Use of History being so considerable Historians in some Kingdoms have been maintained by Publick Encouragement And so the Writer of the Epistle to K. Edward before Erasmus's Paraphrase Englished propounded once to that King That there should be a Publick Salary allotted to some able Persons to Translate good Books and to Write Chronicles for bestowing so great a Benefit on the Commonwealth But particularly the History of the Church and matters relating to Religion have a more special benefit as being conversant about Spiritual things which are weightier by far and concern us more a great deal than Temporal But the more is the pity in this sort of History there is a greater Defect than in the other I speak of our own Nation for tho the History of the State in the last Age was excellently done by the Pens of the Lord Herbert and Mr. Cambden yet the Matters of the Church they professedly declined or did but touch at the former saying expresly His intention was not in an History to discuss Theological Matters as holding it sufficient to have pointed at the places where they are controverted And the latter in his History as often as he came to matters of the Church tells us That he left his Readers to the Ecclesiastical Historian Which hath made me wonder at and apt to accuse the Slothfulness of that Age that during all the time of K. Henry K. Edward and Q. Mary wherein Religion was so tossed about and took up so much of those Reigns there is no one Ecclesiastical History thereof written except that of the diligent and learned Mr. Fox and during the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames I think none at all Till of late years when by length of time and destruction of many Original MSS. by the Civil Wars divers remarkable Transactions were buried and lost some few Learned Men employed themselves in Collecting and Publishing what Memorials of Religion and the Church they could retrieve as namely Dr. Fuller Dr. Heylin and especially Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum to whom the English Church must be ever beholden for his great and happy Pains contributed hereunto But yet there be good Gleanings after these Writers and many things of remark there are relating to the Church in those Three busie Reigns of Henry Edward and Mary whereof these Historians are either wholly silent or speak imperfectly or erroneously Some whereof in my Searches I have met with which I have disposed in these Memorials But besides the General Benefit of History especially Ecclesiastical this Particular History now recommended unto the English Nation may produce this good effect To make us value and esteem as we ought our Reformed Religion when we see by
what just and fair ways it went on and how it prevailed like Christianity at first notwithstanding the great Opposition it met with and what sort of men they were such as Gardiner and Boner who especially set themselves to stop it Moreover Reading the Lives of Exemplary Men and such as were Famous in their Generation hath a great Vertue in it to influence the Manners of men Their wise Saying◠their discreet Behaviour their just Management of Matters committed to their trust their Zeal their Charity their Awe of God their Contempt of the World and such like are not only delightful to read or hear but do insensibly instil into mens minds a secret Approbation thereof and draw them on to an Imitation This Land hath produced many admirable men the Knowledg of whom and the Benefit of whose Examples is utterly lost for want of some Writers to leave their Memory unto the World It was a thing complained of in the last Age That as that Age abounded more in Writers than any Age before it so there were very few that set themselves to Pen the Lives of Excellent men as Samuel the Learned and Worthy Son of Iohn Fox spake But he ever thought it as he said most unjust notwithstanding to deprive the world of the memory of matters done by them by whose Labours and worthy Deeds the common state of the Countrey was so much bettered And if the Use of History as the same Author saith is to form the Lives and Manners of men that being the chief end of History then I add No part of History doth more promote this than the History of the Deeds of Famous men It was another great Inducement to me to let this Work see the light to be grateful to the Memory of this Holy Prelate that hath so well deserved of this Church and to whom under God she oweth that Excellent Constitution and Reformed State in which she is which cost him so dear so many Pensive Thoughts so many long hours Study so many Consultations and Debates with Learned men so much Correspondence abroad so many Speeches Arguments and Strugglings in the Parliament in the Convocation before the King the Clergy the People so much Danger and Trouble and Envy and Reproach and at last his dearest Blood Posterity would be highly injurious to such a Person as this if he should not be recorded with all due Respect and Honour It was a commendable Practice of the Ancient Persians to write in Records the Names and good Deeds of such as had deserved well of the King and Kingdom to remain for ever And these Records Kings themselves did sometimes use to read The King Ahasuerus called one Night for them to be read to him to entertain his waking hours Esther VI. And Xerxes in an Epistle of his to Pausanias extant in Thucidides told him That his Good Deed was upon Record in his Palace for ever For these Records were esteemed so precious that they were kept within the Walls of the Palace And this Custom of Writing up the Remembrance of Men of Merit seemed also to be among the Iews Thus it is said of Iudas Macchabeus That the Remembrance of him was for a blessing for ever To which does I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Book of Remembrance or Record allude in Mal. III. 16. that was written for those that feared God and thought on his name And surely it is agreeable to God's Will that this Piece of Gratitude should be shewn to men of singular Vertue deceased to keep their Names and Good Deeds upon Record for Posterity to know and to thank God for And this Office of Love and Duty seems highly convenient to be done towards Archbishop Cranmer that something might appear in the world for his Vindication under those many base Aspersions and lying Insinuations that are and have been Printed by Papists to defame and blacken him to Posterity One of them hath these words which shew that he cared not what he said so he might but throw his dirt upon the chief Lights of the Reformation The very Pillars of this Rank which he names to be Luther Bucer P. Martyr Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Rogers Farrar Taylor Tyndal all Married Priests and Friars but some of them were never Friars and others never Married were men given to their Sensualities both of Women and other like their Commodities after the fashion of other ordinary men Neither is there recounted any one eminent Action in all their Lives that I have read either of chastening their Bodies mortifying their Appetites contemning the World and the Pleasures thereof while they might have and use the same or finally any more excellent Spirit in them above the rest or of any supernatural Concurrence of God with their Actions in any one thing But did he converse so much in Fox as to undertake in one or two Books to answer and confute him and his Martyrs and yet doth he meet with nothing there of none of these men in that Martyrology but what was Ordinary to other men and that shewed not some more excellent Spirit to be in them It is a sign he read but little there or read with a cankered mind This ensuing Book shall effectually confute these Misreports and Slanders of Cranmer one of these Pillars as he calls them and shall abundantly make it appear That he was no Sensualist nor addicted notwithstanding his High Place to the Pleasures and Commodities of this world and that his Life shone bright by his many eminent Actions of Piety Mortification Contempt of the world and that he was of a more excellent Spirit than that of the ordinary rank of men and that for some Ages there scarce arose his Fellow and finally that he must needs have some supernatural Concurrence and mighty Aid of God's Grace with him in many of the Affairs that passed through his hands III. The Third thing remains which is indeed the main matter that makes an History of any account and that is What Credit may be given to what I have writ For if it stand not upon the Foot of Truth it is not History but a Romance a Legend a mere Tale. And here I remember what Iohn Fox said to Alan Cope concerning an History-Controuler which is as true of an History-Writer If you will be a Controuler in Story-matters Diligence is required and great searching out of Books and Authors not only of our time but of all Ages and especially where matters of Religion are touched pertaining to the Church it is not sufficient to say what Fabian or what Hall saith but Records must be sought and Registers must be turned over Letters also and ancient Instruments ought to be perused and Authors with the same compared finally the Writers among themselves one to be compared with another and so with Judgment to be weighed with Diligence to be laboured and with Simplicity pure from all Addiction and Partiality to be uttered
stuff their Histories with strange Prophecies and Falshoods mixed with some Truth And I suppose the Matter might be no more than this This grave and sober Arch-Bishop was sensible of the gross Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon the Authority of the Kings of this Realm in their own Dominions and his Judgment stood for the restoring of this Imperial Crown to its antient Right and Soveraignty and for the abridging the Papal Power And knowing how learned a Man Dr. Thomas Cranmer was and perceiving what an able Instrument he was like to prove in vindicating the King 's Right to the Supremacy in his own Kingdoms the Arch-Bishop upon these Accounts might think him the fittest to succeed in the Archiepiscopal Chair and might have some reason to believe that the King intended him thereunto And that Arch-Bishop Warham was of this Judgment it may appear if we trace some Footsteps of him In the Year 1530 when all the Clergy were under a Praemunire and a Petition was drawing up in the Convocation for that Cause the King in the said Petition was addressed to by the Title of Supream Head of the Church and Clergy of England At this Title when the Arch-Bishop found some of the Clergy to boggle who were yet afraid openly to declare their disallowance of it he took the opportunity of their Silence to pass the Title by saying That Silence was to be taken for their Consent In the last Synod wherein this Arch-Bishop was a Member and the main Director many things were debated about Abolishing the Papacy This Synod was prorogued from April 26 to October 5. In the mean time he died But had he lived and been well unto the next Sessions some further Steps had been made in evacuating the Bishop of Rome's Usurpations as may be guessed by what was done under his influence the last Sessions when the Supremacy of that foreign Prelate was rejected Something more of this Arch-Bishop's Endeavours of restoring the King to his Supremacy appears by what Arch-Bishop Cranmer said to Brooks Bishop of Glocester before a great Assembly not long before his Burning Brooks had charged him for first setting up the King's Supremacy To which Cranmer replied That it was Warham gave the Supremacy to Henry VIII and that he had said he ought to have it before the Bishop of Rome and that God's Word would bear it And that upon this the Universities of Cambridg and Oxford were sent to to know what the Word of God would allow touching the Supremacy Where it was reasoned and argued upon at length and at last both agreed and and set to their Seals and sent it to the King That he ought to be Supreme Head and not the Pope All which was in Arch-Bishop Warham's Time and while he was alive three quarters of a Year before ever Cranmer had the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury as he also added in that Audience So that these things considered we may conclude that Warham did think that none would be so fit to come after him as Cranmer a Learned and diligent Man to carry on this Cause which he before him had begun and so might speak of him as the properest Person to be advanced to this See To this I will add the Sense of an Ingenious and Learned Friend of mine concerning this Passage in Harpsfield's History Which the Author also of the Athenae Oxonienses hath made use of to the good Arch-Bishop's Discredit and which Somner also had unluckily selected though without design to hurt his good Name and is all he writes of him But may it not be considered saith he that the pretended Martyr Thomas Becket though he died in vindication of the Privileges of the Church yet he was the first betrayer of the Rights of his See He made the greatest Breach upon the Authority of the Primacy of Canterbury by resigning the Arch-Bishoprick into the Pope's Hands and receiving it again from him as the Pope's Donation But it is the Honour of the blessed Martyr Thomas Cranmer that he was the first who began to claim the Primacy and retrieve the Rights of his See from being slavishly subjected to the Roman Power Indeed little credit is to be given to the Author who first published this Story considering what a Violent Man he was and how much prejudiced against Cranmer and interessed in the Popish Cause and coming into the Arch-Deaconry of Canterbury by the deprivation of the Arch-Bishop's Brother Cranmer Noluit Episcopari had no mind to be Arch-Bishop He loved his Studies and affected Retirement and well knew the Dangers and Temptations of a publick Station But especially he could not induce his Mind to take his Office from the Pope and to swear Fidelity to him as well as to the King whereby he should ensnare himself in two contrary Oaths Wherefore when the King sent for him home from his Embassy in Germany with a design to lay that honourable Burden upon him he guessing the Reason first endeavoured to delay his coming by signifying to the King some Matters of Importance that would require his tarrying there somewhat longer for the King's Service Hoping in that while the King might have bestowed the Place upon some other In fine our Historians say he stayed abroad one half Year longer But I find him in England in the Month of November which was not much more than a quarter of a Year after Warham's Death Then the King was married to the Marchioness of Pembroke and Cranmer was present So that the King must have sent for him home in Iune two or three Months before the Arch-Bishop's Death probably while he was in a declining dying Condition But after when that which Cranmer seemed to suspect of certain Emergences in those parts wherein the English State might be concerned fell not out the King again commanded his return Home Now more perfectly knowing by some of his Friends the King's Intentions to make him Arch-Bishop he made means by divers of his Friends to shift it off desiring rather some smaller Living At length the King brake his Mind to him that it was his full Purpose to bestow that Dignity upon him for his Service and for the good Opinion he conceived of him But his long disabling himself nothing disswaded the King till at last he humbly craved the King's Pardon for that he should declare to him and that was That if he should accept it he must receive it at the Pope's Hand which he neither would nor could do for that his Highness was the only Supream Governour of the Church of England as well in Causes Ecclesiastical as Temporal and that the full Right of Donation of all manner of Benefices and Bishopricks as well as any other temporal Dignities and Promotions appertained to him and not to any other Foreign Authority And therefore if he might serve God him and his Countrey in that Vocation he would accept it of his Majesty and of no Stranger
Serenissimam Catharinam necessario esse faciendum The twelfth and concluding Article is this We think that the pretended Matrimony of Henry King of England and Catharine the Queen hath been and is none at all being prohibited both by the Law of God and Nature CHAP. V. The Arch-Bishop visits his Diocess AFter his Sentence against Q. Katharine and confirmation of Q. Ann's Marriage one thing he did which looked as if he was not like to prove any great Friend to a Reformation For he forbad all Preaching throughout his Diocess and warned the rest of the Bishops throughout England to do the same as I have it from an old Journal made by a Monk of St. Augustine's Canterbury But this was only for a time till Orders for Preachers and the Beads could be finished it being thought convenient that Preaching at this Juncture should be restrained because now the Matter of Sermons chiefly consisted in tossing about the King's Marriage with the Lady Anne and condemning so publickly and boldly his doings against Q. Katharine the Priests being set on work by her Friends and Faction In October or November the Arch-bishop went down to Canterbury in order to a Visitation The third day of December the Arch-bishop received the Pontifical Seat in the Monastery of the Holy Trinity And soon after viz. the Ninth of the same Month began to go on Visitation throughout all his Diocess that he might have finished that Work before the Sessions of the Parliament This same Year a remarkable Delusion was discovered in the Arch-bishop's Diocess and even under his Nose the Scene being chiefly laid in Canterbury by some belonging to the Cathedral Church For a certain Nun called Elizabeth Barton by marvellous Hypocrisy mocked all Kent and almost all England For which Cause she was put in Prison in London Where she confessed many horrible things against the King and the Queen This forenamed Elizabeth had many Adherents but especially Dr. Bocking Monk of Christ's-Church in Canterbury who was her chief Author in her Dissimulation All of them at the last were accused of Treason Heresy and Conspiracy And so stood in Penance before the open Cross of S. Paul's in London and in Canterbury in the Church-yard of the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at the Sermon time they stood over the high Seat where of the Preacher they were grievously rebuked for their horrible Fact And in April the next Year she with Bocking and Dering another Monk of Canterbury were led out of Prison through all the Streets of London unto Tyburn where she and these Monks and also two Brothers of the Minors suffered with the rest upon the Gallows for Treason and Heresy In the Month of November the Arch-bishop sent a Letter to Bonner the King's Ambassador at Marseilles together with his Appeal from the Pope to be there signified as was hinted before The reason whereof was this Upon the King's Divorce from Q. Katharine the Pope had by a publick Instrument declared the Divorce to be null and void and threatned him with Excommunication unless he would revoke all that he had done Gardiner Bishop of Winton about this time and upon this occasion was sent Ambassador to the French King and Bonner soon after followed him to Marseilles Where Gardiner at the interview between the French King and the Pope now was For the King and the Council apprehended some Mischief to be hatching against the Kingdom by the Pope who was now inciting the Emperor and other Princes to make War upon us And indeed he had vaunted as the Ld Herbert declares that he would set all Christendom against the King And the Emperor in discourse had averred that by the means of Scotland he would avenge his Aunt 's Quarrel The Arch-bishop in this Juncture had secret intimation of a Design to excommunicate him and interdict his Church Whereupon as the King by Bonner Novemb 7 had made his Appeal from the Pope to the next General Council lawfully called so by the King and Council's Advice the Arch-bishop soon after did the same sending his Appeal with his Proxy under his Seal to Bonner desiring him together with Gardiner to consult together and to intimate his Appeal in the best manner they could think expedient for him And this Letter he wrote by the King 's own Commandment It was not the Hand of the Arch-bishop nor of his Secretary So I suppose it was drawn up by some of his own Lawyers and is as followeth In my right hearty manner I commend me to you So it is as you know right well I stand in dread lest our Holy Father the Pope do intend to make some manner of prejudicial Process against me and my Church And therefore having probable Conjectures thereof I have appeal'd from his Holiness to the General Council accordingly as his Highness and his Council have advised me to do Which my Appeal and Procuracie under my Seal I do send unto you herewith desiring you right-heartily to have me commended to my Ld of Winchester and with his Advice and Counsel to intimate the said Provocation after the best manner that his Lordship and you shall think most expedient for me I am the bolder thus to write unto you because the King's Highness commandeth me this to do as you shall I trust further perceive by his Grace's Letter Nothing doubting in your Goodness but at this mine own desire you will be contented to take this Pains though his Highness shall percase forget to write unto you therein Which your Pains and Kindness if it shall lie in me in time to come to recompense I wol not forget it with God's Grace Who preserve you as my self From Lambeth the xxvii th day of November Thomas Cantuar. Cranmer being now placed at the Head of the Church of England next under God and the King and the chief care of it devolved upon him his great study was conscientiously to discharge this high Vocation And one of the first things wherein he shewed his good Service to the Church was done in the Parliament in the latter end of this Year 1533. When the Supremacy came under debate and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome was propounded then the old Collections of the new Arch-bishop did him good service for the chief and in a manner the whole burden of this weighty Cause was laid upon his Shoulders Insomuch that he was forced to answer to all that ever the whole Rabble of the Papists could say for the defence of the Pope's Supremacy And he answered so plainly directly and truly to all their Arguments and proved so evidently and stoutly both by the Word of God and Consent of the Primitive Church that this usurped Power of the Pope is a meer Tyranny and directly against the Law of God and that the Power of Emperors and Kings is the highest Power here upon Earth Unto which Bishops Priests Popes and Cardinals ought to submit
themselves and are as much bound to obey as their Temporal Subjects or Lay-men as the Priests call them that the Issue was the abolishing of that Foreign Papal Power and the expulsion of it out of this Realm by the full consent of Parliament A Licence dated Feb. 13. this Year was granted by the Arch-Bishop to Mary the Relict of Sir Henry Guilford Kt. to have the Eucharist Matrimony and Baptism ministred in any Chappel or Oratory within her Mannors where she should reside during her Life And such a Licence dated also Feb. 13. the next Year was granted by him to Margaret Marchioness of Dorset Whether indulged to them by the Arch-Bishop the rather to free them from danger for not frequenting their Parish-Churches and for the avoiding the Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship there performed and that there might be some private Places for purer worshipping God and administration of the Sacraments or only for the Convenience of those Ladies the Reader hath liberty to judg CHAP. VI. The Arch-bishop presseth the Translation of the Bible THIS Rub of the Papal Power being now taken out of the way and the King's Supremacy settled in the next Sessions of Parliament in Novemb. 1534. a Way was opened for a Reformation of Errors and Abuses in Religion So that as the Arch-bishop judged it a thing impossible to make any amendment of Religion under the Pope's Dominion so he thought it now the same being dispatched out of the Realm a meeâ— time to restore the true Doctrine of Christ according to the Word of God and the old Primitive Church within his Jurisdiction and Cure and with the said Pope to abolish also all false Doctrine Errors and Heresies by him brought into the Church for the accomplishing of which he let pass no Opportunities A Convocation now afforded him one Our Arch-bishop from his first entrance upon his Dignity had it much in his mind to get the Holy Scriptures put into the Vulgar Language and a Liberty for all to read them The Convocation now was so well disposed by the influence of the Arch-bishop and his Friends that they did petition the King that the Bible might be translated by some Learned Men of his Highnesses nomination And as this good Motion was briefly made in the House by the Arch-bishop so they agreed upon him to carry their Petition But they clogged it with another which the Arch-bishop did not so well approve of For about the Month of December they pass'd this Order of Convocation The Bishops Abbots Priors of this Upper House of Convocation of the Province of Canterbury met together in the Chapter-House of St. Paul unanimously did consent that the most Reverend Father the Arch-bishop should make instance in their Names to the King that his Majesty would vouchsafe for the encrease of the Faith of his Subjects to decree and command That all his Subjects in whose possession any Books of suspect Doctrine were especially in the Vulgar Language imprinted beyond or on this side the Sea should be warned within three Months to bring them in before Persons to be appointed by the King under a certain Pain to be limited by the King And that moreover his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree that the Scriptures should be translated into the Vulgar Tongue by some honest and learned Men to be nominated by the King and to be delivered unto the People according to their Learning This was resolved in the Convocation Decemb. 19. Accordingly the King issued out soon after his Proclamation What this Proclamation was I do not know unless it were one I meet with about this time against bringing in or printing seditious Books of Anabaptists and Sacramentaries who were said to be lately come into the Realm and against some of his own Subjects who publickly disputed in Taverns and other open Places upon those Points of Religion which the King was offended withal For the Correction and Regulating of which the King in the said Proclamation commanded sundry Articles to be observed which for the length of them I have put into the Appendix Unless perhaps this Proclamation may belong to the Year 1538. About the month of Iune this Year was a Book drawn up for Bishops and Priests wherein was an Order for preaching and in the same were Forms devised for the Beads as well for Preachers as Curates In which Forms the King's Title of Supream Head was specified In this Book was commandment given by the King that â—very Preacher should before Easter once in solemn Audience deâ—â—are the usurped Jurisdiction within this Realm of the Bishop of â—ome and the King 's just Cause to decline from the same and also to open and declare such things as might avow and justify the King's refusal of Marriage with the Princess Dowager and his contract anew with Queen Ann. And also in the same Book an Order was given for the suppression of the General Sentence or Curse This Book the Arch-bishop who we may well suppose had a great hand in it sent by the King's Commandment to all the Bishops and to the Arch-bishop of York though out of his Province that Arch-bishop lying under some Jealousy as it seems with the King Therefore after the receit of the Book the said Arch-bishop of York the next Sunday which was the second Sunday after Trinity went from Cawood to York and there in his own Person declared as well the King's Cause touching the Matrimony as his refusal of the Pope's Jurisdiction so fully that nothing that needed to be opened was left unspoken as that Arch-bishop wrote himself to the King in his own Vindication And that the Auditory might be the greater he sent to York forthwith upon the receit of the Book to publish there that he would be there the next Sunday following and caused the Churches to make an end of their Service in such time as every Man might have opportunity to be at the Sermon and especially required the Mayor and his Brethren and one Mr. Magnus and Sir George Lawson his Majesty's Chaplains to be there And a very great Confluence there was Then the Arch-bishop preached from that Text Vxorem duxi c. Whence he took occasion to utter and declare both his foresaid Matters and the Injury done to the King's Highness by Pope Clement As the Convocation this Year had declared the Pope to have no Jurisdiction in this Kingdom so this would not serve the King till all the Learned and Spiritual Men in England had subscribed to it with their Hands The Arch-bishop's Church of Canterbury began For the Prior and Convent thereof moved and influenced not a little by their Diocesan solemnly subscribed an Instrument for abolishing the Pope's Supremacy and for acknowledgment of the King Supream Head of the Church of England under this Position Quod Romanus Episcopus non habet majorem aliqâ—am jurisdictionem a Deo sibi collatam in hoc regno
it a Matter of Conscience and Sin to abandon their Titles Also that it might tend to stop the Emperor's Mouth and the Mouths of other their Friends when Fisher and More who had stickled so much for them should now own that Succession which would be in effect a disowning of them Secondly That it might be a means to resolve and quiet also many others in the Realm that were in doubt when such great Men should affirm by Oath and Subscription that the Succession mentioned in the said Act was good and according to God's Laws And he thought that after two such had sworn there would be scarce one in the Kingdom would reclaim against it And thirdly That though a great many in the Realm could not be brought to alter from their Opinions of the Validity of the King 's former Marriage and of the Bishop of Rome's Authority that it would be a great Point gained if all with one accord would own and acknowledg the Succession Weaver the Author of the Funeral Monuments transcribed this Letter out of the Cotton Library and inserted it into his said Book and the thing he takes notice of therein is the Wisdom and Policy of the prudent Arch-bishop I shall take notice of another thing and which I suppose was the great Cause that employed his Pen at this time namely his tender Heart and abhorrence from Blood-shedding Propounding these Politick Considerations to the Secretary which were the properest Arguments to be used with a Statesman and for him to use and urge before the King that so he might be an Instrument of saving the Lives of these Men however they differed from him and it may be were none of his very good Friends This Letter of the Arch-bishop's as I my self took it from the Original I thought worthy depositing among Cranmer's Monuments in the Appendix But this Offer of theirs notwithstanding the Arch-bishop's Arguments and Endeavours would not be accepted The King would not be satisfied with this Swearing by halves CHAP. VII The Arch-bishop visits the Diocess of Norwich THE Popish Bishops were now at a low ebb and being under the Frowns of their Prince other Men took the opportunities upon their Slips to get them punished A Storm now fell upon Richard Nix Bishop of Norwich a vitious and dissolute Man as Godwin writes Against him was a Premunire this Year 25 of Hen. VIII brought That De tout temps there had been a Custom in the Town of Thetford in the County of Norfolk that no Inhabitant of the same Town should be drawn in Plea in any Court Christian for any Spiritual Causes but before the Dean in the said Town And there was a Presentment in the King's Court before the Mayor of the Town by twelve Jurors that there was such a Custom And beside that whosoever should draw any Man out of the said Town in any Spiritual Court should forfeit six shillings and eight pence The Bishop nevertheless cited the Mayor to appear before him pro Salute animae And upon his appearance libelled for that Cause and enjoined him upon pain of Excommunication not to admit the said Presentment And whenas the Bishop could not deny his Fact Judgment was given that he should be out of the King's Protection his Goods and Chattels forfeited and his Body in Prison during the King's Pleasure For which he had the King's Pardon Which was afterwards confirmed in Parliament This Bishop's Diocess was now in such disorder that the Arch-bishop instituted a Visitation of that See wherein William May LL. D. was the Arch-bishop's Commissary The 28 th of Iuly the Bishop was called and summoned to appear but appeared not And so was pronounced Contumax But at another meeting he sent Dr. Cap his Proctor by whom he made a Protestation against their Doings and Jurisdiction and that it was not decent for that Reverend Father to appear before him the Arch-bishop's Official However at another meeting the Bishop not appearing at the Time and Place appointed Dr. May declared him obstinate and to incur the Penalty of Obstinacy After this the Bishop by his Proctor was willing to submit to obey Law and to stand to the Command of the Church and to do Penance for his said Contumacy to be enjoined by the Arch-bishop or his Commissary At another Court the Bishop appeared in Person and then shewed himself willing to take the said Commissary for Visitor or any other in the Name of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury This Bishop was now fourscore Years old and blind as appears by a Writing of his sent by his Proctor dated Septemb. 1534. He died two Years after and came in to be Bishop in the Year 1500. This Bishop seems to have made himself very odious in his Diocess by his Fierceness and Rigors against such as were willing to be better informed in Religion whom he would stile Men savouring of the Frying-pan He seized such Books as were brought from beyond-Sea of which sort there were now many which tended to lay open the Corruptions of the Church and especially the New Testament which he could not endure should be read And when some of these commonly gave out that it was the King's Pleasure that such Books should be read he sent up studiously by the Abbot of Hyde to have this shewed to the King and begged his Letters under his Seal to be directed to him or any body else whom the King pleased in his Diocess to declare it was not his Pleasure such Books should be among his Subjects and to punish such as reported it was He sent also a Letter to Warham then Arch-bishop of Canterbury making his Complaint and Information to him desiring him to send for the said Abbot who should tell him what his Thoughts were for the suppression of these Men and intreating the Arch-bishop to inform the King against these erroneous Men as he called them Some part of his Diocess was bounded with the Sea and Ipswich and Yarmouth and other Places of considerable Traffick were under his Jurisdiction And so there happened many Merchants and Mariners who by Converse from Abroad had received knowledg of the Truth and brought in divers good Books This mightily angred the zealous Bishop and he used all the Severity he could to stop the Progress of Evangelical Truth and wished for more Authority from the King to punish it for his Opinion was that if they continued any time he thought they would undo them all as he wrote to the Arch-bishop This Letter is in the Appendix Bishops Consecrated April the 19 th the Arch-bishop of Canterbury invested in his Pontificals consecrated Thomas Goodrick Doctor of Decrees Bishop of Ely in his Chappel at Croydon together with Rowland Lee Doctor of Law Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry and Iohn Salcot alias Capon Doctor of Law Bishop of Bangor being assisted by Iohn Bishop of Lincoln and Christopher Bishop of Sidon CHAP. VIII The Arch-bishop preacheth
at Canterbury IN order to the bettering the State of Religion in the Nation the Arch-bishop's Endeavours both with the King and the Clergy were not wanting from time to time And something soon after fell out which afforded him a fair opportunity which was this The King resolving to vindicate his own Right of Supremacy against the Encroachments of Popes in his Dominions especially now the Parliament had restored it to him being at Winchester sent for his Bishops thither about Michaelmas ordering them to go down to their respective Diocesses and there in their own Persons to preach up the Regal Authority and to explain to the People the Reason of excluding the Pope from all Jurisdiction in these Realms Our Arch-bishop according to this Command speeds down into his Diocess to promote this Service for the King and the Church too He went not into the neerer parts of Kent about Otford and Knol where his most frequent Residence used to be because his Influence had a good effect for the Instruction of the People thereabouts in this as well as in other Points of sound Religion But he repaired into the East parts of his Diocess where he preached up and down upon the two Articles of the Pope's Usurpations and the King's Supremacy But the People of Canterbury being less perswaded of these Points than all his Diocess besides there in his Cathedral Church he preached two Sermons wherein he insisted upon three things I. That the Bishop of Rome was not God's Vicar upon Earth as he was taken Here he declared by what Crafts the Bishop of Rome had obtained his usurped Authority II. That the Holiness that See so much boasted of and by which Name Popes affected to be stiled was but a Holiness in Name and that there was no such Holiness at Rome And here he launched out into the Vices and profligate kind of living there III. He inveighed against the Bishop of Rome's Laws Which were miscalled Divinae Leges and Sacri Canones He said that those of his Laws which were good the King had commanded to be observed And so they were to be kept out of obedience to him And here he descended to speak of the Ceremonies of the Church that they ought not to be rejected nor yet to be observed with an Opinion that of themselves they make Men holy or remit their Sins seeing our Sins are remitted by the Death of our Saviour Christ. But that they were observed for a common Commodity and for good Order and Quietness as the Common Laws of the Kingdom were And for this Cause Ceremonies were instituted in the Church and for a remembrance of many good things as the King's Laws dispose Men unto Justice and unto Peace And therefore he made it a general Rule that Ceremonies were to be observed as the Laws of the Land were These Sermons of the Arch-bishop it seems as they were new Doctrines to them so they were received by them at first with much gladness But the Friars did not at all like these Discourses They thought such Doctrines laid open the Truth too much and might prove prejudicial unto their Gains And therefore by a Combination among themselves they thought it convenient that the Arch-bishop's Sermons should be by some of their Party confuted and in the same place where he preached them So soon after came up the Prior of the black Friars in Canterbury levelling his Discourse against the three things that the Arch-bishop had preached He asserted the Church of Christ never erred that he would not slander the Bishops of Rome and that the Laws of the Church were equal with the Laws of God This angry Prior also told the Arch-bishop to his Face in a good Audience concerning what he had preached of the Bishop of Rome's Vices that he knew no Vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And whereas the Arch-bishop had said in his Sermon to the People that he had prayed many Years that we might be separated from that See and that he might see the Power of Rome destroyed because it wrought so many things contrary to the Honour of God and the Wealth of the Realm and because he saw no hopes of amendment and that he thanked God he had now seen it in this Realm for this the Prior cried out against him that he preached uncharitably The Arch-bishop not suffering his Authority to be thus affronted nor the King's Service to be thus hindred convented the Prior before him before Christmass At his first examination he denied that he preached against the Arch-bishop and confessed that his Grace had not preached any thing amiss But sometime afterward being got free from the mild Arch-bishop and being secretly upheld by some Persons in the Combination he then said he had preached amiss in many things and that he purposely preached against him This created the Arch-bishop abundance of Slander in those parts The Business came to the King's Ears who seemed to require the Arch-bishop to censure him in his own Court But upon occasion of this the Arch-bishop wrote his whole Cause in a Letter to the King dated from his House at Ford 1535. Declaring what he had preached and what the other had preached in contradiction to him And withal entreated his Majesty that he the Arch-bishop might not have the judging of him lest he might seem partial but that he would commit the hearing unto the Lord Privy Seal who was Crumwel or else to assign unto him other Persons whom his Majesty pleased that the Cause might be jointly heard together He appealed to the King and his Council If the Prior did not defend the Bishop of Rome though he had said nothing else than that the Church never erred For then they were no Errors as he inferred that were taught of the Pope's Power and that he was Christ's Vicar in Earth and by God's Law Head of all the World Spiritual and Temporal and that all People must believe that de necessitate Salutis and that whosoever did any thing against the See of Rome is an Heretick But if these be no Errors then your Grace's Laws said he be Erroneous that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more Power than other Bishops and them to be Traitors that defend the contrary In fine in the stomach of an Arch-bishop and finding it necessary to put a stop to the ill designs of these Friars he concluded That if that Man who had so highly offended the King and openly preached against him being his Ordinary and Metropolitan of the Province and that in such Matters as concerned the Authority Mis-living and Laws of the Bishop of Rome and that also within his own Church if he were not looked upon he left it to the King's Prudence to expend what Example it might prove unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome's Authority and of what estimation he the Arch-bishop should be reputed hereafter and what Credence would be
Apostles S. Peter S. Paul S. Andrew c. The Prayer for the King nameth K. Henry VIII and his gracious Son Prince Edward In the Kalendar Thomas a Becket's Days are still retained in red Letters But I suppose that was done of course by the Printer using the old Kalendar In the same Book is a large and pious Paraphrase on Psalm LI. A Dialogue between the Father and the Son Meditations on Christ's Passion and many other things By somewhat that happened this Year the Arch-bishop proved very instrumental in promoting the Reformation of corrupt Religion in the Neighbouring Nation of Scotland which this Year had received a great Overthrow by the English Army and great Numbers of Scotish Noblemen and Gentlemen were taken Prisoners and brought up to London and after disposed of in the Houses of the English Nobility and Gentry under an easy Restraint The Earl of Cassillis was sent to Lambeth where the good Arch-bishop shewed him all Respects in providing him with Necessaries and Conveniences but especially in taking care of his Soul He detected to him the great Errors of Popery and the Reasons of those Regulations that had been lately made in Religion in England And so successful was the Arch-bishop herein that the Earl went home much enlightned in true Religion which that Nation then had a great aversion to for they highly misliked the Courses King Henry took Which Prejudices the King understanding endeavoured to take off by sending Barlow Bishop of S. Davids to Scotland with the Book of The Institution of a Christian Man Which nevertheless made no great Impression upon that People But this that happened to the Scotish Nobility that were now taken Prisoners and especially this Guest of the Arch-bishop becoming better enclined to Religion by the Knowledg they received while they remained here had a happier Effect and brought on the Reformation that after happened in that Kingdom The Parliament being summoned in Ianuary in order to the King 's making War with France whither he intended to go in Person the Arch-bishop resolved to try this Occasion to do some good Service again for Religion which had of late received a great stop His Endeavour now was to moderate the severe Acts about Religion and to get some Liberty for the Peoples reading of the Scripture Cranmer first made the Motion and four Bishops viz. Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester seconded him But Winchester opposed the Arch-bishop's Motion with all earnestness And the Faction combined with so much Violence that these Bishops and all other fell off from the Arch-bishop and two of them endeavoured to perswade the Arch-bishop to desist at present and to stay for a better Opportunity But he refused and followed his Stroke with as much vigour as he could and in fine by his perswasion with the King and the Lords a Bill past And the King was the rather inclined thereunto because he being now to go abroad upon a weighty Expedition thought convenient to leave his Subjects at home as easy as might be So with much struggling an Act was past intituled An Act for the Advancement of True Religion and the Abolishment of the contrary In this Act as Tindal's Translation of the Scriptures was forbidden to be kept or used so other Bibles were allowed to some Persons excepting the Annotations and Preambles which were to be cut or dashed out And the King 's former Proclamations and Injunctions with the Primers and other Books printed in English for the Instruction of the People before the Year 1540 were still to be in force which it seems before were not And that every Nobleman and Gentleman might have the Bible read in their Houses and that Noble Ladies and Gentlewomen and Merchants might read it themselves But no Men or Women under those Degrees That every Person might read and teach in their Houses the Book set out in the Year 1540 which was The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man with the Psalter Primer Pater noster Ave and Creed in English But when Winchester and his Party saw that they could not hinder the Bill from passing they clogged it with Provisoes that it came short of what the Arch-bishop intended it as that the People of all sorts and conditions universally might not read the Scriptures but only some few of the higher Rank And that no Book should be printed about Religion without the King's Allowance And that the Act of the Six Articles should be in the same Force it was before A Bishop Consecrated Iune the 25 th being Sunday Paul Bush Provincial of the Bonhommes was consecrated the first Bishop of Bristol by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester assisted by Thomas Bishop of Westminster and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford This Consecration was celebrated in the Parish-Church of Hampton in the Diocess of Westminster CHAP. XXV Presentments at a Visitation BY the Act above-mentioned the generality of the People were restrained from reading the Holy Scriptures But in lieu of it was set forth by the King and his Clergy in the Year 1543 a Doctrine for all his Subjects to use and follow which was the Book abovesaid and all Books that were contrary to it were by Authority of Parliament condemned It was printed in London by Thomas Barthelet This Book the Arch-bishop enjoined to be made publick in his Diocess as I suppose it was in all other Diocesses throughout the Kingdom and allowed no preaching or arguing against it And when one Mr. Ioseph once a Friar in Canterbury now a learned and earnest Preacher and who was afterward preferred to Bow-Church in London had attempted to preach against some things in the Book the Arch-bishop checked and forbad him For indeed there were some Points therein which the Arch-bishop himself did not approve of foisted into it by Winchester's Means and Interest at that time with the King Which Bishop politickly as well as flatteringly called it The King's Book a Title which the Arch-Bishop did not much like for he knew well enough Winchester's Hand was in it And so he told him plainly in K. Edward's Time when he might speak his Mind telling him in relation thereunto That he had seduced the King But because of the Authority of the Parliament ratifying the Book and the many good and useful Things that were in it the Arch-bishop introduced and countenanced it in his Diocess and would not allow open preaching against it The Arch-bishop about the Month of September held a Visitation in Canterbury chiefly because of the Jangling of the Preachers and the divers Doctrines vented among them according as their Fancies Interests or Judgments led them The Visitation proceeded upon the King's Injunctions and other late Ordinances And here I shall set down before the Reader some of the Presentments as I take them from an Original in a Volume that belonged to this Archbishop Wherein notice may be taken what ignorance was then in some of the Priests what
both as to their Lodgings and Benefits But at a late Chapter they had obtained an Order in their behalf This the Arch-bishop now who favoured Preaching reminded them speedily to make good Concerning both these Affairs he wrote this Letter to them for the preserving Quietness Peace and good Order in his Church AFter my hearty Commendations Whereas I am informed that you be in doubt whether any Prebendary of that my Church may exchange his House or Garden with another Prebend of the same Church-Living and that you be moved by this Statute so to think which here followeth Statuimus ut Canonicus de novo Electus demissus in demortui aut resignantis aut quovismodo cedentis aedes succedat These be to signify unto you that neither this Statute nor any other Reason that I know maketh any thing against the Exchange between two Prebends Living but that they may change House Orchard or Garden during their Life this Statute or any other Reason contrary notwithstanding And whereas you have appointed your Preachers at your last Chapter their Chambers and Commodities I require you that they may be indelayedly admitted thereunto according to that your Order Thus fare you well From my Mannor of Croyden the 12 th of December 1546. Th. Cantuariens To my loving Friends the Vice-dean and Prebendaries of my Church in Canterbury This was the last Year of King Henry And the two last things the Arch-bishop was concerned in by the King were these The King commanded him to pen a Form for the Alteration of the Mass into a Communion For a Peace being concluded between Henry and the French King while that King's Ambassador Dr. Annebault was here a notable Treaty was in hand by both Kings for the promoting that good Piece of Reformation in the Churches of both Kingdoms of abolishing the Mass. The Kings seemed to be firmly resolved thereon intending to exhort the Emperor to do the same The Work our King committed to the Arch-bishop who no question undertook it very gladly But the Death of the King prevented this taking Effect The last Office the Arch-bishop did for the King his Master was to visit him in his last Sickness whom of all his Bishops and Chaplains he chose to have with him at that needful Hour to receive his last Comfort and Counsel But the King was void of Speech when he came though not of Sense and Apprehension For when the King took him by the Hand the Arch-bishop speaking comfortably to him desired him to give him some Token that he put his Trust in God through Iesus Christ according as he had advised him and thereat the King presently wrung hard the Arch-bishop's Hand and soon after departed viz. Ianuary the 28 th The End of the First Book MEMORIALS OF Arch-Bishop CRANMER BOOK II. CHAPTER I. He Crowns King Edward OUR Arch-bishop having lost his old Master was not so sorrowful but the Hopefulness of the new One did as much revive and solace him because he concluded that the Matters requisite for the Reformation of the Church were like now to go on more roundly and with less Impediment One of the very first Things that was done in young King Edward the Sixth's Reign in relation to the Church was that the Bishops who had the Care of Ecclesiastical Matters and the Souls of Men should be made to depend intirely upon the King and his Council and to be subject to suspension from their Office and to have their whole Episcopal Power taken from them at his Pleasure which might serve as a Bridle in case they should oppose the Proceedings of a Reformation In this I suppose the Arch-bishop had his Hand For it was his Judgment that the Exercise of all Episcopal Jurisdiction depended upon the Prince And that as he gave it so he might restrain it at his Pleasure And therefore he began this Matter with himself Petitioning That as he had exercised the Authority of an Arch-bishop during the Reign of the former King so that Authority ending with his Life it would please the present King Edward to commit unto him that Power again For it seemed that he would not act as Arch-bishop till he had a new Commission from the new King for so doing And that this was his Judgment appeared in the first words of that Commission granted to him In the composing of which I make no question he had his Hand Quandoquidem omnis juris dicendi autoritas atque etiam jurisdictio omnimoda tam illa quae Ecclesiastica dicitur quam Secularis à Regia potestate velut à supremo capite ac omnium Magistratuum infra Regnum nostrum fonte scaturigine primitus emanaverit c. That is Since all Authority of exercising Jurisdiction and also all kind of Jurisdiction as well that which is called Ecclesiastical as Secular originally hath flowed from the King's Power as from the Supream Head and the Fountain and Source of all Magistracy within our Kingdom We therefore in this part yielding to your humble Supplications and consulting for the Good of our Subjects have determined to commit our Place to you under the Manner and Form hereunder described And the King then licenseth him to ordain within his Diocess and to promote and present to Ecclesiastical Benefices and to institute and invest and if occasion required to deprive to prove Testaments and the rest of the Business of his Courts And so all the rest of his Offices were reckoned This was dated Feb. 7. 1546. But yet all these things were committed to him with a Power of Revocation of the Exercise of this Authority reserved in the King durante beneplacito Thus a formal Commission was made to him I do not transcribe it because the Bishop of Sarum hath saved me that Pains And hence I find that the Arch-bishop in some of his Writings is stiled The Commissary of our dread Soveraign Lord King Edward One of the first Exercises of his Episcopal Power was the Coronation of young King Edward Which was celebrated February the 20 th at the Abbey of Westminster the Arch-bishop assisting now at his Coronation as he had done about nine Years before at his Christening when he stood his Godfather The Form and Solemnity of it and wherein the Arch-bishop bore so great a part was in this manner as I collect and transcribe out of a Manuscript in Benet College First There was a goodly Stage richly hanged with Cloth of Gold and Cloth of Arras and the Steps from the Choire contained two and twenty Steps of height and down to the high Altar but fifteen Steps goodly carpetted where the King's Grace should tread with his Nobles Secondly The high Altar richly garnished with divers and costly Jewels and Ornaments of much Estimation and Value And also the Tombs on each side the high Altar richly hanged with fine Gold Arras Thirdly In the midst of the Stage was a goodly thing
Irenicum published by him from a Manuscript Volume once belonging to Arch-bishop Cranmer In this Convocation the Arch-bishop bore the great Sway and what things were agitated herein were chiefly by his Motion and Direction Some whereof were turned into Laws by the Parliament that was now sitting through his Activeness and Influence As particularly that Repeal of the Statute of the Six Articles and of some other severe Laws decreeing divers things Treason and Felony made in the former King's Reign For when the Arch-bishop in the Convocation had made a Speech to the Clergy exhorting them to give themselves to the study of the Scriptures and to consider what Things in the Church needed Reformation that so the Church might be discharged of all Popish Trash not yet thrown out Some told him that as long as the Six Articles remained it was not safe for them to deliver their Opinions This he reported to the Council Upon which they ordered this Act of Repeal By his means also another great thing moved in the Convocation was now ratified and made a Law by this Parliament which was for the Administration of the Communion under both Kinds throughout the Kingdom of England and Ireland And upon this the King appointed certain Grave and Learned Bishops and others to assemble at Windsor-Castle there to treat and confer together and to conclude upon and set forth one perfect and uniform Order of Communion according to the Rules of Scripture and the Use of the Primitive Church And this being framed it was enjoined to be used throughout the Realm by a Proclamation and all required to receive it with due Reverence I meet with a Writing of the Arch-bishop without Date consisting of Queries concerning the Mass in order to the abolishing it and changing it into a Communion Which I know not where so well to place as here now the Convocation was employed upon this Matter For it seems to have been drawn up by the Arch-bishop on purpose to be laid before the Consideration of this House The Queries were these What or wherein Iohn Fasting giving Alms being Baptized or receiving the Sacrament of the Altar in England doth profit and avail Thomas dwelling in Italy and not knowing what Iohn in England doth Whether it profit them that be in Heaven and wherein Whether it lieth in the Faster Giver of Alms Receiver of the Sacrament him that is Baptized to defraud any Member of Christ's Body of the Benefit of Fasting Alms-Deeds Baptism or Receiving of the Sacrament and to apply the same Benefit to one Person more than to another What thing is the Presentation of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Mass which you call the Oblation and Sacrifice of Christ And wherein standeth it in Act Gesture or Word and in what Act Gesture or Word Is there any Rite or Prayer and expressed in the Scripture which Christ used or commanded at the first Institution of the Mass which we be now bound to use and what the same be Whether in the Primitive Church there were any Priests that lived by saying of Mass Mattens and Even-song and praying for Souls only And where any such State of Priesthood be allowed in the Scriptures or be meet to be allowed now For what Cause were it not expedient nor convenient to have the whole Mass in the English Tongue Wherein consisteth the Mass by Christ's Institution What Time the accustomed Order began first in the Church that the Priests alone should receive the Sacrament Whether it be convenient that the same Custom continue still within this Realm Whether it be convenient that Masses Satisfactory should continue that is to say Priests hired to sing for Souls departed Whether the Gospel ought to be taught at the Time of the Mass to the understanding of the People being present Whether in the Mass it were convenient to use such Speech as the People may understand To proceed to some other Things wherein our Arch-bishop was this Year concerned In Iune the Church of S. Pauls was hanged with Black and a sumptuous Hearse set up in the Choire and a Dirige there sung for the French King who deceased the March precedent And on the next Day the Arch-bishop assisted with eight Bishops more all in rich Mitres and their other Pontificals did sing a Mass of Requiem and the Bishop of Rochester preached a Funeral Sermon A nice Matter was now put by the Council to the Arch-bishop having some other Bishops and Learned Men joined with him to the Number of Ten. The Case was Whether a Man divorced from his Wife for her Adultery might not lawfully marry again This was propounded upon the Account of a great Man in those Times namely the Brother of Queen Katherine Par Marquess of Northampton who had gotten a Divorce from his Wife the Daughter of Bourchier Earl of Essex for Adultery The Canon Law would not allow marrying again upon a Divorce making Divorce to be only a Separation from Bed and Board and not a Dissolving the Knot of Marriage This was a great Question depending among the Civilians And it being committed to the Determination of our Arch-bishop and some other Delegates tho the Marquess staid not for their Resolution but in this Interval married Elizabeth Daughter of the Lord Brook he searched so diligently into the Scriptures first and then into the Opinions of Fathers and Doctors that his Collections swelled into a Volume yet remaining in the Hands of a Learned Bishop of this Realm The Sum whereof is digested by the Bishop of 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
the University at that Time and of the great Sway the Arch-bishop then carried in the Publick and the marvellous Good-will he was esteemed to bear towards Learning I have therefore placed in the Appendix tho printed before This Favour of having their Privileges confirmed sued for in the forementioned Letter the University then got partly by the Means of their cordial Patron the Arch-bishop and partly by the Intercession and Friendship of Queen Katherine Par a great Favourer of Learning and pure Religion of Wriothesly Lord Chancellor the Earl of Warwick the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Paget to all whom at that time they addressed their Letters whether it were out of fear of the difficulty of getting the thing done or to take this Opportunity to obtain the Countenance of the great Men of the Court. Some time after upon another Occasion the Heads of the University made another Application to their Patron the Arch-bishop which was to befriend them at Court against the Townsmen their old Enemies who were now wresting from them one of their Ancient undoubted Privileges namely the use of the Prisons of the Toll-booth and Castle The Occasion was this In the time of Sturbridg-Fair the Proctors upon great Complaints made to them going their Rounds one Night had taken certain evil Persons in Houses of Sin and had brought them to the Toll-booth in order to the commitment of them there But having sent to the Mayor for the Keys he absolutely refused to part with them So they were fain to carry their Prisoners to the Castle where they left them in Custody But the Mayor's Son after an Hour or two let them all out to return if they pleased to their former Lewdness to the Breach of Law and Affront of the Magistrate Upon this the University sent their Letters to the Arch-bishop making certain of their grave Members the Bearers to relate the Matter more fully earnestly requiring that such Insolence might be punished and that the King and his Council would make such Men feel what it was to violate Laws and to cherish Impunity and to break their Oaths which they had taken to maintain the University-Privileges They urged to him how serviceable and ready their University had been to him in his pious Labours and Counsels in establishing the true Doctrine in the Church and what fit and worthy Men they had sent him for his Assistance in that good Work In like manner they required and expected of him that their Dignity might be maintained and preserved by his Aid and Authority That the University was then but in a low Condition and that Abroad it scarcely retained the Shadow of its former Glory But if at Home and within it Self the Bonds and Sinews of its Safety should thus be cut as not to have a Power to restrain Vice by Imprisonment what could the Kingdom Religion and the King's Majesty hope for any more from that University They inculcated how Learning and the true Religion rise and fall together and that if it went otherwise than well with the one the other would feel the Smart of it And truly say they no remarkable Dammage can light upon the Studies of Learning which by the same Motion draws not along with it the true Religion into the same Catastrophe And these Considerations they made use of to excite his Grace to assist them in vindicating their Privileges and in having that gross Infringement of them punished Upon the same Occasion they wrote their Letters also to Sir William Paget a great Friend of theirs and eminent Patron of good Learning What the Issue of these Applications was I find not but may conclude they received a Success proportionable to the good Will and Authority of those to whom they were made And as the whole Body of the University knew what Favour our Prelate bore to it so every single ingenious Member confided in him and applied to him in their Needs Roger Ascham the University Orator whom I had occasion to mention before was a Man of a weak Constitution and had contracted more frailty by reason of a long Ague that then hung about him and his Complexion became Melancholy by the Relicts of that stubborn Distemper He had also in his Nature a great averseness to the Fish-diet Upon these Reasons he address'd his Letters to the ABp with an humble Suit very handsomly penned that he might be dispensed with as to abstinence from Flesh-meats Lent and Fish-days being then strictly observed in the Colleges And this Licence he desired might be not only Temporary but perpetual as long as he lived which was somewhat extraordinary But to encline the Arch-bishop to yield to his Suit he told him That it was not to pamper his Flesh nor out of an affectation of doing that which was unusual or against common Custom but only for the preserving his Health and that he might the more freely pursue his Studies He added That the Air of Cambridg was naturally Cold and Moist and so the Fish-diet the more unwholsome He desired therefore That by his Authority he might no longer be tied by that Tradition which forbad the Use of certain Meats at certain Times He said That those who granted this Liberty to none but such as laboured under a desperate Disease did like them who never repaired their Houses but when they were just ready to fall down by Age. Thrifty House-keepers did otherwise So did skilful Physicians who did not use to prescribe their Physick when it was too late but always put a stop to Beginnings That they who never would impart the using of this Liberty of eating Flesh to any but when all Health was despaired of knew not what good a prudent Foresight did in all Common-wealths and did too insolently abuse a good Thing bestowed upon us by God when little or no use at all could be made of it Nay that such a Good was no Good at all being External but in that respect only as there might some use be made of it That we ought not therefore unprofitably to abuse Food to Diseases that are desperate but to accommodate it to the preservation of Health And so did S. Paul command Therefore I exhort you to take some Food for this is for your Health Then he subjoins a Passage of Herodotus in his Euterpe concerning the Egyptian Priests from whom issued originally all kinds of Learning and Arts and who were always conversant in Learned Studies These saith that Author religiously tied themselves ever to abstain from all eating of Flesh. No doubt for this only Cause saith Ascham Nè ignea vis ingenii atque praestantia ullo frigido succo quem esus piscium ingeneraret extingueretur That the Wits of Men that have a noble fiery Quality in them might not be quenched by some cold Juice which the eating of Fish might ingender And that it was somewhat unjust he adds that when so many kinds
Oriel College Moreman was beneficed in Cornwal in King Henry's Time and seemed to go along with that King in his steps of Reformation and was observed to be the first that taught his Parishioners the Lord's Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments in English yet shewing himself in the next King's Reign a Zealot for the old Superstitions Hence we perceive the Reason why the Arch-bishop charged him to be a Man full of Craft and Hypocrisy In Q. Mary's Time he was for his Popish Merits preferred to be Dean of Exeter and was Coadjutor to the Bishop of that Diocess probably then superannuated and died in that Queen's Reign Besides these two there was another Clergy-man the Rebels spent another Article in speaking for namely Cardinal Pole Whom they would have sent for Home and to be preferred to be of the Privy-Council But Cranmer told them his Judgment first in general of Cardinals that they never did Good to this Realm but always Hurt And then in particular of this Cardinal that he had read once a virulent Book of his writing against King Henry exciting the Pope the Emperor the French King and all other Princes to invade this Realm And therefore that he was so far from deserving to be called Home and to live in England that he deserved not to live at all In fine in this excellent Composition of the Arch-bishop his Design was to expose the Abuses and Corruptions of Popery and to convince the Nation what need there was that such Matters should be abolished as the Pope's Decrees Solitary Masses Latin Service hanging the Host over the Altar Sacrament in one Kind Holy Bread and Holy Water Palms Ashes Images the old Service-Book praying for Souls in Purgatory And to vindicate the English Service the use of the Holy Scriptures in the Vulgar Tongue and other Matters relating to the Reformation made in King Edward's Time Which he doth all along with that strain of happy Perspicuity and Easiness that one shall scarcely meet with elsewhere mixed every where with great Gravity Seriousness and Compassion The Arch-bishop thought it highly convenient in these Commotions round about to do his Endeavour to keep those People that were still and quiet as yet in their Duty And for this Purpose had Sermons composed to be now read by the Curats to the People in their Churches to preserve them in their Obedience and to set out the Evil and Mischief of the present Disturbances I find in the same Volume where Cranmer's Answers aforesaid are a Sermon against the Seditions arising now every where with the Arch-bishop's Interlinings and marginal Notes and Corrections This Sermon was first wrote in Latin by Peter Martyr as a Note of Arch-bishop Parker's Hand testifieth at Arch-bishop Cranmer's Request to the said Learned Man no question and so by his Order translated into English and printed I suppose for the common Use in those Times It begins thus The common Sorrow of this present Time dear beloved Brethren in Christ if I should be more led thereby than by Reason and Zeal to my Country would move me rather to hold my Peace than to speak For the great Evils which we now suffer are to be bewailed with Tears and Silence rather than with Words And hereunto I might allege for me the Example of Iob who when he came to his extream Misery he lying upon a Dunghil and three of his Friends sitting upon the Ground by him for the space of seven Days for great Sorrow not one of them opened his Mouth to speak a word to another If then the miserable Estate of Iob like a hard and sharp Bit stopped his Mouth from speaking and the lamentable Case of their Friend staid these three Men being of Speech most Eloquent that they could not utter their words surely it seems that I have a much more cause to be still and hold my peace For there was the piteous Lamentation of no more but one Man or one Houshold and that only concerning temporal and worldly Substance but we have cause to bewail a whole Realm and that most Noble which lately being in that State that all other Realms envied our Wealth and feared our Force is now so troubled so vexed so tossed and deformed and that by Sedition among our selves of such as be Members of the same that nothing is left unattempted to the utter Ruin and Subversion thereof And besides this the everlasting Punishment of God threatneth as well the Authors and Procurers of these Seditions as all other that join themselves unto them c. Besides this Sermon of P. Martyr's there is another Discourse pen'd by him under his own hand on the same occasion designed as it seems to be translated into English and sent to the Rebels thus beginning Tantum voluit Deus vim charitatis amoris magnitudinem inter populum magistratum intercedere ut per Hieremiam admonuerit plebem Israeliticam quod pro Rege Nebuchadnezar orarent qui corum Rempub. everterat illosque adhuc captivitate Babylonica premebat Dominus tametsi voluit suos instar columbarum simplices degere idem nihilominus admonuit ut serpentum prudentiam imitarentur qua suas actiones Literarum Sacrarum praeceptâ—s regerent moderarentur caverentque ne aliena consilia ut Papistarum vel Seditiosorum se in transversum auferrent Si potuissetis quod est prudentium in longinquum prospicere omnino vidissetis caeteros hostes uti nunc res ipsa declarat fretos vestris tumultibus in vestrum Regnum arma sumpturos ausuros impunè qui nunquam si in officio mansissetis tentassent c. This last Paragraph respected the French King who taking occasion from these Broils at Home brake out into open Hostility against the Kingdom recalling his Ambassador and on a sudden brought his Ships against the Isles of Iersey and Guernsey with an intent to have conquered them But by the Valour of the Inhabitants and some of the King's Ships he was beaten off with great Loss This was in the Month of August Martin Bucer also wrote a Discourse against this Sedition as well as Martyr Both of them were now I suppose under the Arch-bishop's Roof entertained by him And he thought it convenient that these learned Foreigners should give some publick Testimony of their Dislike of these Doings Bucer's Discourse subjoined to Martyr's began in this Tenor Quae dici possunt ad sedandos animos plebis ab omni conatu seditioso absterrendos quod ad rem ipsam attinet inscripta sunt omnia in Reverendissimi D. N. M. Ven. Collegae nostri Pet. Martyris Schedis ut nostra adjectione nulla sit opus tamen ut consensum spiritus testemur haâ— subjecta libuit annotare c. An Office of Fasting was composed for this Rebellion which being allayed in the West grew more formidable in Norfolk and Yorkshire For I find a Prayer composed by the Arch-bishop with
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
great Moment and that he would not be wanting to him in any Matters of that sort being a Person of that Knowledg in Sacred Prophane Learning of that Prudence Circumspection and Dexterity in managing Business And so finally joined him with Pope to perform all this piously and catholickly according to the Rule of Evangelick Religion and the Exigency of the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom And deputed him his Vice-gerent This Letter was dated at Croydon the 20 th of August This Commission seemed to be somewhat extraordinary The occasion whereof might be because the Arch-bishop did not confide in this Chancellor of the Church suspecting his Religion and Compliance with the King's Proceedings therefore he thought good to associate him with Taylor the Dean of whom he was well assured The Church of Worcester became also Vacant by the Deprivation of Hethe the Bishop The Arch-bishop committed the Spiritualties thereof to Iohn Barlo Dean of the said Church and Roland Taylor LL. D. his Domestick Chaplain These he constituted his Officials to exercise all Episcopal Jurisdiction This Commission was dated at Lambeth Ian. 10. 1554 by an Error of the Scribe for 1551. as appears by a Certificate sent from the Church to that Arch-bishop signifying the Vacation of it Upon the Vacancy of the Church of Chichester by the Deprivation of Day the Arch-bishop made Iohn Worthial Arch-deacon of Chichester and Robert Taylor LL. B. Dean of the Deanery of South-Malling his Officials This Commission to them dated Novemb. 3 1551 was to Visit c. Upon the Vacancy of the Church of Hereford by the Death of Skip late Bishop there the Spiritualties were committed to Hugh Coren LL. D. Dean of that Church and Rich. Cheny D.D. Arch-deacon of Hereford Their Commission was to Visit c. Upon the Vacancy of the Bishoprick of Bangor either by the Death of Bulkly the Bishop or his Resignation upon his blindness the Arch-bishop made his Commissaries Griffin Leyson his principal Chancellor and Official Rowland Merick a Canon of S. David's and Geofrey Glynn L L. D D. The Church of Rochester also became this Year Vacant by the Translation of Scory to Chichester In these Vacancies the Bishopricks were lamentably pilled by hungry Courtiers of the Revenues belonging to them This Year Bishop Hoper was by the Council dispatched down as was said before into his Diocess where things were much out of order and Popery had great footing and therefore it wanted such a stirring Man as he was That he might do the more Good he had the Authority of the Lords of the Council to back him by a Commission granted to him and others He brought most of the Parish-Priests and Curates from their old Superstitions and Errors concerning the Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The Recantation of one of them of more note named Phelps the Incumbent of Ciciter which he made publickly and subscribed may be seen in the Appendix This Year there happened two learned Conferences in Latin privately managed about the Corporeal Presence in the Sacrament The one on the 25 th of November in the House of Sir William Cecyl Secretary of State performed by the said Cecyl Sir Iohn Cheke Horne Dean of Durham Whitehead and Grindal on the Protestant side and Feckenham and Yong on the Popish But first before they began Cecyl under his solemn Protestation assured them that every Man should have free Liberty to speak his Mind and that none should receive any Dammage or incurr any Danger Cheke began by propounding this question Quis esset verus germanus sensus verborum Coenae Hoc est corpus meum Num quem verba sensu grammatico accepta prae se ferebant an aliud quiddam To whom Feckenham answered There were present besides those that disputed these noble and learned Persons The Lord Russel Sir Anthony Coke Mr. Hales Mr. Wroth Mr. Frogmartin Mr. Knolles Mr. Harrington The second Disputation was Decemb. 3. following in Mr. Morisin's House where were present the Marq. of Northampton the Earl of Rutland the Lord Russel and those above named and Watson added on the Papists side Then Cheke again propounded the Question Whether the words of the Supper are to be understood in a grammatical or in a figurative Sense To which Watson Responded Both these Disputations are too large for this place but they are set down in one of the Manuscript Volumes of the Benet-Library In November died Dr. Iohn Redman Master of Trinity-College in Cambridg and one of the great Lights of that University for the bringing in solid Learning among the Students a Prebendary of the Church of Westminster and who in the Year 1549 assisted in the compiling the English Book of Common-Prayer and preached a Sermon upon the Learned Bucer's Death the day following his Funeral He was a Person of extraordinary Reputation among all for his great Learning and Reading and profound Knowledg in Divinity So that the greatest Divines gave a mighty Deference to his Judgment And therefore when he lay sick at Westminster many learned Men repaired to him desiring to know his last Judgment of several Points then so much controverted And he was very ready to give them Satisfaction Among the rest that came were Richard Wilks Master of Christ's College Cambridg Alexander Noel afterwards Dean of Paul's and Yong a Man of Fame in Cambridg for his disputing against Bucer about Justification In these Conferences with these learned Man he called the See of Rome Sentina Malorum A Sink of Evils he said That Purgatory as the Schoolmen taught it was ungodly and that there was no such kind of Purgatory as they fancied That the offering up the Sacrament in Masses and Trentals for the Sins of the Dead was ungodly That the Wicked are not partakers of the Body of Christ but receive the outward Sacrament only That it ought not to be carried about in Procession That nothing that is seen in the Sacrament or perceived with the outward Sense is to be worshipped That we receive not Christ's Body Corporaliter grosly like other Meats but so Spiritualiter that nevertheless Verè truly That there was not any good ground in the old Doctors for Transubstantiation as ever he could perceive nor could he see what could be answered to the Objections against it That Priests might by the Law of God marry Wives That this Proposition Faith only justifies so that this Faith signify a true lively Faith resting in Christ and embracing him is a true godly sweet and comfortable Doctrine That our Works cannot deserve the Kingdom of God And he said that it troubled him that he had so much strove against Justification by Faith only A Treatise whereof he composed which was printed at Antwerp after his Death in the Year 1555. He said also to Yong That Consensus Ecclesiae was but a weak Staff to lean to and exhorted him to read the Scriptures
first complained of to the King And being brought up the Arch-bishop and other Ecclesiastical Commissioners were commanded to examine him upon certain Articles But by the secret Favour of the Arch-bishop and his own prudent Answers he was then discharged Soon after upon some false Reports told of him King Henry was so offended that he sent for the Arch-bishop willing him to have him whipt out of the Country But the Arch-bishop pacified the King and sent him Home the second time Afterwards a third time his old Enemies the Popish Clergy got him convented before the Privy-Council and committed for Doctrines preached by him before he came into Kent The Arch-bishop being then down in his Diocess Turner was sent back to him with an Order to recant To whom when his fast Friend and Patron Mr. Morice had applied himself in his behalf the Arch-bishop himself being now under some Cloud dared not to interpose because as he then said it had been put into the King's Head that he was the great Favourer and Maintainer of all the Hereticks in the Kingdom Morice then that he might prevent this Recantation if possible which would have been such a Reflection to the Doctrine he before had preached addrest his Letters to Sir Anthony Denny Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber and Sir William Butts his Physician relating at large Turner's Casâ— And by their means the King became better informed of the Man and in fine commanded him to be retained as a faithful Subject This Story is at large related by Fox And this I judg to be that Turner whom the Arch-bishop nominated for Ireland having lived long in his Diocess and so well known to him and whom he had I suppose removed to Canterbury to a Prebend or some other Preferment there Here he did this remarkable and bold piece of Service that when about three Years past the Rebels were up in Kent he then preached twice in the Camp near Canterbury for which the Rebels were going to hang him But God preserved him In Queen Mary's time he fled to Basil where he expounded upon S. Iames the Hebrews and the Ephesians to the Exiles there when Iames Pilkington expounded Ecclesiastes and both Epistles of of Peter and the Galatians And Bentham the Acts of the Apostles Thomas Rosse or Rose was also as memorable a Man very eminent both for his Preachings and Sufferings He was a West-country Man but by Providence was removed into Suffolk And at Hadley had preached against Purgatory and worshipping Images about the time that Bilney and Latimer did the like in Cambridg which was five and twenty or thirty Years past whereby he had brought many to the knowledg of the Truth in that Town About the Year 1532 when certain Persons out of their Zeal against Idolatry had stolen by Night the Rood out of the Church at Dover-court in Essex for which being found guilty of Felony they were hanged Rose seemed to have been privy hereunto For with the Rood they conveyed away the Slippers the Coat and the Tapers belonging to it which Coat Rose burnt Whether for this or some other thing he was complained of to the Council and brought before them and by the Bishop of Lincoln was committed to Prison Where he lay for some Days and Nights with both his Legs in an high pair of Stocks his Body lying along on the Ground Thence he was removed to Lambeth in the Year that Cranmer was Consecrated which was 1533 who set him at liberty Afterward he was admitted by Crumwel to be his Chaplain that thereby he might get a Licence to preach After various tossings from Place to Place for safety of his Life he fled into Flanders and Germany and came to Zurick and remained with Bullinger and to Basil where he was entertained by Grineus After some time he returned back into England But was glad to fly beyond Sea again Three Years after in his Voyage back to his own Country again he was taken Prisoner by some French and carried into Diep where he was spoiled of all he had His Ransom was soon after paid by a well-disposed Person who also brought him over into England Then the Earl of Sussex received him and his Wife and Child privately into his House But when this was known the Earl sent him a secret Letter to be gone And so he lurked in London till the Death of King Henry VIII King Edward gave him the Living of VVest-Ham near London in Essex Being deprived upon Queen Mary's coming to the Crown he was sometime Preacher to a Congregation in London But was taken at one of their Meetings in Bow-Church-yard Which I suppose was in the Year 1555. For then he was in the Tower and thence in the Month of May by the Council's Letters he was delivered to the Sheriff of Norfolk to be conveyed and delivered to the Bishop of Norwich and he either to reduce him to recant or to proceed against him according to Law Much Imprisonment and many Examinations he underwent both from the Bishops of Winchester and Norwich but escaped at last by a great Providence beyond Sea where he tarried till the Death of Queen Mary And after these his Harassings up and down in the World he was at last in Queen Elizabeth's happy Reign quietly settled at Luton in Bedfordshire where he was Preacher and lived to a very great Age. The fourth was Robert Wisdome a Man eminent as the rest both for his exemplary Conversation and for his Preaching together with his Sufferings attending thereon In Henry the Eighth his Reign he was a Person of Fame among the Professors of the Gospel in the South Parts of the Nation whence after many painful Labours and Persecutions he fled into the North as did divers other Preachers of the pure Religion in those Times There in Staffordshire he was one of those that were entertained by Iohn Old a pious Professor and Harbourer of good Men and Thomas Becon was another who was taken up with Bradford in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign and committed to the Tower Of this Old the said Becon in a Treatise of his printed in Edward the sixth his Reign gives this Character That he was to him and VVisdom as Iason was to Paul and Silas He received us joyfully into his House and liberally for the Lord's Sake ministred to our Necessities And as he begun so did he continue a right hearty Friend and dearly loving Brother so long as we remained in the Country While VVisdom was here he was ever vertuously occupied and suffered no Hour to pass without some good Fruit employing himself now in Writing as he had before in Preaching Besides other Books formerly writ by him he penned here a very godly and fruitful Exposition upon certain Psalms of David Of the which he translated some into English Metre There is one of them and I think no more still remaining in our ordinary singing Psalms namely the hundred twenty fifth
Synodal Authority unto them committed And moreover he desired the Prolocutor would be a Means unto the Lords that some of those that were Learned and the publishers of this Book might be brought into the House to shew their Learning that moved them to set forth the same and that Dr. Ridley and Rogers and two or three more might be Licensed to be present at this Disputation and be associate with them But this would not be allowed The last thing we hear of concerning our Arch-bishop in this King's Reign was his denial to comply with the new Settlement of the Crown devised and carried on by the domineering Duke of Northumberland for the Succession of Iane Daughter to Gray Duke of Suffolk whom he had married to one of his Sons This he did both oppose and when he could not hinder refused to have any hand in it First he did his endeavour to stop this Act of the King He took the boldness to argue much with the King about it once when the Marquess of Northampton and the Lord Darcy Lord Chamberlain were present And moreover he signified his desire to speak with the King alone that so he might be more free and large with him But that would not be suffered But if it had he thought he should have brought off the King from his Purpose as he said afterward But for what he had said to the King the Duke of Northumberland soon after told him at the Council-Table That it became him not to speak to the King as he had done when he went about to disswade him from his Will To the Council the Arch-bishop urged the entailing of the Crown by K. Henry upon his two Daughters and used many grave and pithy Reasons to them for the Lady Mary's Legitimation when they argued against it But the Council replied That it was the Opinion of the Judges and the King 's Learned Counsel in the Law that that Entailing could not be prejudicial unto the King and that he being in possession of the Crown might dispose of it as he would This seemed strange unto the Arch-bishop Yet considering it was the Judgment of the Lawyers and he himself unlearned in the Law he thought it not seemly to oppose this Matter further But he refused to sign Till the King himself required him to set his Hand to his Will and saying That he hoped he alone would not stand out and be more repugnant to his Will than all the rest of the Council were Which words made a great Impression upon the Arch-bishop's tender Heart and grieved him very sore out of the dear Love he had to that King and so he subscribed And when he did it he did it unfeignedly All this he wrote unto Queen Mary To which I will add what I meet with in one of my Manuscripts When the Council and the chief Judges had set their Hands to the King's Will last of all they sent for the Arch-bishop who had all this while stood off requiring him also to subscribe the same Will as they had done Who answered That he might not without Perjury For so much as he was before sworn to my Lady Mary by King Henry's Will To whom the Council answered That they had Consciences as well as he and were also as well sworn to the King's Will as he was The Arch-bishop answered I am not judg over any Man's Conscience but mine own only For as I will not condemn their Fact no more will I stay my Fact upon your Conscience seeing that every Man shall answer to God for his own Deeds and not for other Mens And so he refused to subscribe till he had spoken with the King herein And being with the King he told the Abp that the Judges had informed him that he might lawfully bequeath his Crown to the Lady Iane and his Subjects receive her as Queen notwithstanding their former Oath to King Henry's Will Then the Arch-bishop desired the King that he might first speak with the Judges Which the King gently granted And he spake with so many of them as were at that time at the Court and with the King's Attorney also Who all agreed in one that he might lawfully subscribe to the King's Will by the Laws of the Realm Whereupon he returning to the King by his Commandment granted at last to set his Hand From the whole Relation of this Affair we may note as the Honesty so the Stoutness and Courage of the Arch-bishop in the management of himself in this Cause against Northumberland who hated him and had of a long time sought his Ruin and the Ingratitude of Q. Mary or at least the Implacableness of Cranmer's Enemies that the Queen soon yielded her Pardon to so many of the former King's Council that were so deep and so forward in this Business but would not grant it him who could not obtain it till after much and long suit And that it should be put into two Acts of her Parliament to make him infamous for a Traitor to Posterity that he and the Duke of Northumberland were the Devisers of this Succession to deprive Q. Mary of her Right Which was so palpably false and untrue on the Arch-bishop's part But this was no question Winchester's doing through whose Hands being now Lord Chancellor all these Acts of Parliament past and the wording of them Finally I have only one thing more to add concerning this matter Which is that besides the Instrument of Succession drawn up by the King's Council Learned in the Law signed by himself and 32 Counsellors and dated Iune 21 according to the History of the Reformation there was another Writing which was also signed by 24 of the Council And to this I find our Arch-bishop's Name Herein they promised by their Oaths and Honours being commanded so to do by the King to observe all and every Article contained in a Writing of the King 's own Hand touching the said Succession and after copied out and delivered to certain Judges and Learned Men to be written in Order This Writing thus signed with the other Writing of the King being his Devise for the Succession may be seen in the Appendix as I drew them out of an Original CHAP. XXXV The King dies THE good King made his most Christian departure Iuly the 6 th to the ineffable loss of Religion and the Kingdom being in aâ—â— likelihood by his early Beginnings to prove an incomparable Prince to the English Nation It was more than whispered that he died by Poison And however secretly this was managed it was very remarkable that this Rumour ran not only after his Death but even a Month or two before it Reports spred that he was dead For which as being rash Speeches against the King they studiously took up many People and punished them Before his Father K. Henry had him his only Son lawfully begotten it was 28 Years from his first entrance upon his Kingdom And
this day the Duke of Somerset was called again to Council and 15. At the Star-Chamber May 16. At Westminster May 28 Iune 5. At Greenwich June 8 11 13 20 22. At Westminster Iune 28 29 30. and Iuly 1. About which time the Arch-bishop seemed to depart into his Diocess and there to remain that Summer Octob. 11. There was an Order of Council for a Letter to be writ to him in answer to his of complaint against the Vicar of Dertford to imprison him for his Disobedience unto him and in Prison to endure until the said Arch-bishop should come to Court Octob. 18. Was another Order of Council for three Letters to be writ The One to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury another to the Bishop of Ely and another to thâ— Bishop of Lincoln Because as the Words run the Parliament draweth near Before which time his Majesty thinketh it expedient to have some Matters there to be consulted Their Lordships were required immediately to repair to the Court where they shall understand his Majesty's further Pleasure And that Day his Grace was sent for November 11. He was present at Council At Westminster November 16 17 18 26. December 4. When the Archbishop and Bishop of Ely answered the Bishop of Chichester then before the Council as to the Texts by him produced in behalf of Altars Decemb. 5 9 11 13. On which Day a Letter was sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower to bring the Bishop of Winchester to Lambeth before the Arch-bishop Ianuary 13. He was present at the Council at Greenwich when Hoper was ordered to be committed to the Arch-bishop's Custody Present again at Council at Greenwich Febr. 8. At Westminster the 16 18. Then upon the Report of the Arch-bishop made of one Young a Learned Man I suppose he of Cambridg that was Bucer's Antagonist viz. That he had preached seditiously against the King's Proceedings in Religion it was ordered that the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely should examine him and thereupon order him as they should think good He was present at Council still at Westminster March 4 8. When he was appointed to receive a Sum of Money in respect of his Charges and Pains in his Process against the late Bishop of Winchester now deprived 9 11 12 22 24. Anno 1551. March 26 31. At Greenwich April the 8 9 11 26. May 4 10 24 25. Iune 4 14. when a Letter was given to the Arch-bishop to send to the Lieutenant of the Tower for the bringing White Warden of New-College in VVinchester and delivering him to the Arch-bishop to remain with him till he might reclaim him 15 21 22. At Richmond August 9. At Hampton-Court Octob. 1. When a Licence was granted to VVolf under the King's Privilege to print the Arch-bishop's Book At VVestminster Octob. 17 19 22 28. Novemb. 2 5 9 10 15 17 21 26. Decemb. 11 12. 13. A Letter was sent from the Council to the Arch-bishop to send them a Book touching Religion sent out of Ireland 17 18 19. Ian. 24 31. Febr. 8 16 22 28. March 22. Anno 1552. He was present at the Council now sitting at VVestminster March 30. April 4 5 8 9 11 18 19 24. From which time till the Month of Octob. he was not at the Council and yet seems to have been at Home Octob. 7. The Council sent to him to stay his going into Kent till Tuesday because the Lords would confer with him that is till Octob. 11. when he was again present at Council The Arch-bishop now retired into his Diocess and was at his House at Ford. Whither several Messages and Letters were sent to him from the Council as Nov. 20. They sent him the Articles of Religion framed chiefly by him and reviewed by the King's Chaplains for his last Review in order to the putting them into due Execution Nov. 24. Another sent him according to the Minute of some Business unknown Decemb. 2. Another Letter to him for the installing of Hoper without paying any Fees And another Feb. 2. in favour of Mr. Knox to be by him collated to the Living of Alhallows This Month he returned and was at the Council at Westminster Likewise Febr. 21 22 2â— 27 28. Anno 1553. March 25. April 1 7. At Greenwich Iune 2 3 6 8. And that was the last time mentioned in the Council-Book ending at Iune 17. Nor cared he to come afterwards the Business then in transaction not pleasing him A Bishop Consecrated May 26. Iohn Harley S. T. P. was Consecrated and was the last that was Consecrated in this King's Reign Bishop of Hereford upon the Death of Skip by the Arch-bishop at Croyden Chappel Nicolas Bishop of London and Robert Bishop of Carlile assisting This Harley was one of the King 's Six Chaplains Bill Bradford Grindal Pern and Knox being the other five that were appointed to be Itineraries to preach sound Doctrine in all the remotest Parts of the Kingdom for the Instruction of the Ignorant in right Religion to God and Obedience to the King The End of the Second Book MEMORIALS OF Arch-Bishop CRANMER BOOK III. CHAPTER I. Queen Mary soon recognized The Arch-bishop Slandered and Imprisoned I Find the Arch-bishop present among Queen Iane's Counsellors Whose Party seemed to be resolute for her until the 19 th of Iuly All these Persons of Quality were with her in the Tower consulting of Affairs for her Service Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor the Earl of Winchester Lord Treasurer the Dukes of Suffolk and Northumberland the Earls of Bedford Arundel Shrewsbury Pembroke the Lords Darcy and Paget Sir Thomas Cheiney Sir Richard Cotton Sir VVilliam Petre Sir Iohn Cheke Sir Iohn Baker Sir Robert Bowes being all of her Council All which excepting Northumberland signed a Letter dated Iuly 19. to the Lord Rich Lord Lieutenant of the County of Essex who had signified to them that the Earl of Oxford was fled to the Lady Mary In their Letter they exhorted him to stand true and tight to Q. Iane as they said they did and would do It was penned by Cheke for Secretary Cecyl was absent and Petre the other Secretary though present did it not though he signed it The Letter is in the Appendix The Day before this Letter was sent viz Iuly 18 there being a Rising in Buckinghamshire and the Parts thereabouts Queen Iane her self thinking her self sure of Sir Iohn Bridges and Sir Nicolas Poyntz signed a Letter to them therein ordering them to raise with speed all the Power they could of their Servants Tenants Officers and Friends to allay that Tumult And so She had written to other Gentlemen in those Parts to do This Letter also I have put in the Appendix And yet to see the vicissitude of Mens Minds and uncertainty of human Affairs Iuly 20. Divers of those very Counsellors that but the Day before set their Hands resolvedly to stand by Q. Iane proclaimed Q. Mary in the City
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
the Romish Pox and the Leprosy shewing afterward the Remedies against these Diseases For being a very facetious Man he delivered his Reproofs and Counsels under witty and pleasant Discourse He wrote also The hunting of the Romish Fox Iohn Iuel afterwards Bishop of Salisbury assisted Peter Martyr at Strasburgh in setting out his Commentaries upon the Book of Iudges Who being publick Reader of Divinity there had first read those Commentaries and had many Learned English-Men for his Auditors as Poynet Grindal Sands Sir Iohn Cheke Sir Anthony Cook and divers other Knights and Gentlemen as well as Divines And when he was removed to Zurick to succeed Pelican he took Iuel with him thither In Frankford there happening as was said before unhappy Contentions about Ceremonies and Matters of Discipline and it was feared that these Dissensions might spread themselves into the other Fraternities in Zurick and other places Iuel's great Business was to allay these Animosities partly by Letters and partly by his own verbal Exhortations That they should as Brethren lay aside Strife and Emulation especially for such small Matters That they would hereby offend the Minds of all good Men which things they ought to have a special heed of Some who seemed more complaining and uneasy at these things he exhorted to Patience admonishing That we ought not to leap from the Smoke into the Fire and that we ought to bear a part in Christ's Cross and to consider how much better it was with them than with their poor Brethren that endured Tortures in England And he would often repeat to them Bear a while then things will not endure an Age. Thomas Becon formerly a Minister in Canterbury and well known to the Arch-bishop wrote an Epistle in his Exile and sent it to certain Godly Brethren in England Declaring in it the Causes of all the Miseries and Calamities that were fallen upon England How they might be redrest and what a merciful Lord our God is to all faithful penitent Sinners that unfeignedly turn to him This Epistle was brought into England and read of the Brethren in their Religious Meetings not without Fruit. In this Epistle he added a Supplication to God at good length for the restoring of his Holy Word to the Church of England Wherein the devout Christian complaineth his Grief and Sorrow to his Lord for taking away the Light of Christ's Gospel and humbly acknowledging his Fault and worthy Punishment most heartily wisheth the Subversion of Anti-christ's Kingdom and the Restitution of Christ's most Glorious Kingdom in this Realm He wrote also an Epistle to the Massing Priests wherein he shewed what a wicked Idol the Mass was and what a Difference there was between the Lord's-Supper and that and what Popes brought in every part of the Mass and put them together as it was then used Laurence Humfrey while he was in exile wrote a Book in Latin intituled Optimates being Instructions for Noble-men in three Books It was printed at Basil by Oporinus and dedicated to Q. Elizabeth soon after her entrance upon her Kingdom The Reason of this his Discourse was out of an universal Love to Mankind and desire to better the Condition of the World whose Welfare depended so much upon the Sobriety and Vertue of those of Noble Rank and Quality Since Nobility as he wrote widely spread it self through all the Regions and Coasts of Christendom and was preferred to Places of Trust and Honour in all Princes Courts and was the very Nerve and Strength of Commonwealths and since from it issued the greatest Helps or Hindrances to the Publick Safety Pure Religion the Lives and Maners of Men Therefore he thought the Gentry and Nobility being imbued with Right and Christian Opinions not formed to the corrupt Rules of Antiquity Kings would govern better the Ministers of Ecclesiastical Matters would more faithfully perform their Functions and the common Sort would more diligently discharge all necessary Offices and the whole Common-weal might seem more healthfully to breath to live and to recover and persist in a good Constitution Beside this excellent Book both for the Matter and Elegancy of the Latin Stile he printed two or three other things at Basil and he wrote while he was abroad a Commentary upon the Prophet Isaiah But I know not whether it were published Bartholomew Traheron Library-Keeper to K. Edward and Dean of Chichester made divers Readings to the English Congregation upon the beginning of St. Iohn's Gospel and after printed them against the wicked Enterprizes of the new start-up Arians in England Iohn Fox famous to Posterity for his immense Labours in his Acts and Monuments was received by the Accurate and Learned Printer Oporinus of Basil for the Corrector of his Press He published and which I think was the first thing he published and his first-fruits a Chronological History of the Church The first Part from the first Times unto Martin Luther This Book he presented unto Oporinus with an handsom Epistle Wherein he desired to be received by him into his Service and that he would vouchsafe to be his Learned Patron under whom he might follow his Studies being one that would be content with a small Salary Promising him that if he would employ him either there at Basil or at Argentine or some University which he should rather chuse Aut me said he destituent omnia aut efficiam Christo opitulante ut omnes politioris literaturae homines intelligant quantum Operiano nomini officinae debeant While he was here employed by Oporinus at spare Hours he began his History of the Acts of the Church in Latin Which he drew out more briefly at first and before his return home into England well near finished Having here compleated the Copy which was but the first Part of what he intended but making a just Volume in Folio he sent this Work to Basil to be printed And so it was in the Year 155 It remained many Years after in those Parts in great Request and was read by Foreign Nations although hardly known at all by our own Being now in Peace and Safety at Home Fox reviewed this his Work and in the Year 1566 first published it in English very Voluminous because of those many Relations of the Persecutions in Q. Mary's Days that came to his Hands All this Work he did himself without the help of any Amanuensis nor had he any Servant to do his necessary Domestick Business being fain to be often diverted by his own private Occasions from his Work He afterwards enlarged these his Labours into three large Volumes which have since undergone many Editions But to look back to what he published in his Exile There came to his Hand all the Trials and Examinations of the Learned Martyr Ioh. Philpot Arch-deacon of Winchester drawn up by himself and finally his Death being burnt in Smithfield 1555. These things Fox put into Latin as he had an excellent Latin Stile
would deal sincerely with him without Fraud or Craft and use him as they would wish to be used in the like case themselves Bidding them remember that with what Measure they meet it should be measured to them again Therefore to make himself some amends for all this foul Dealing his last Refuge was an Appeal Whereof he seriously bethought himself when and in what manner to make it The Causes for his resolving upon it besides those already mentioned were because he remembred Luther once did so in such a Case and that he might not seem rashly to cast away his own Life and because he was bound by his Oath never to receive the Pope's Authority in this Realm and because the Commissioners had broken their Promise with him as above was said and because he thought the Bishop of Rome was not an indifferent Judg in this Cause which was his own Cause for all the Arch-bishop's Troubles came upon him for departing from him He therefore wrote privately to a trusty Friend and Learned in the Law then in the University to instruct him in the Order and Form of an Appeal and whether he should first Appeal from the Judg-Delegate to the Pope or else from that Judg immediately to a General Council And so earnestly entreated him to lay aside all other Studies and to take this in Hand presently because he was summoned to make his Answer at Rome the sixteenth Day of this Month that is of February There was one reason more moved him to Appeal which must not be omitted namely that he might gain Time to finish his Answer to Marcus Antonius He feared after all they would not admit his Appeal But he did not much pass and desired God's Will might be done So that God might be glorified by his Life or Death He thought it much better to die in Christ's Quarrel than to be shut in the Prison of the Body unless it were for the advancement of God's Glory and the Profit of his Brethren This Letter of the Arch-bishop being writ with so much Strength and Presence of Mind and shewing so much Prudence and Wit is happily preserved in Fox's Monuments where it may be read This Appeal when the Arch-bishop had produced and preferred to the Bishop of Ely he told him That they could not admit of it because their Commission was to proceed against him Omni Appellatione remota Cranmer replied That this Cause was not every private Man's Cause but that it was between the Pope and him immediately and none otherwise and that no Man ought to be Judg in his own Cause And therefore they did him the more Wrong So at last Thirlby received it of him and said If it might be admitted it should And so after this Interruption they proceeded to degrade him taking off the rest of his Habits And then put him on a poor Yeoman-Beadle's Gown threadbare and a Towns-man's Cap. And Boner told him He was no Lord any more and so was sent to Prison CHAP. XX. Cranmer Writes to the Queen AND now having undergone these Brunts with all this Gravity Discretion Learning and Courage he next resolved to give the Queen a true and impartial Account of these Transactions to prevent Misreports and to justify himself in what he had said and done Two Letters therefore he wrote to her but thought not fit to entrust them with the Commissioners since Weston had served him such a Trick in the like Case before In these Letters he related the reason of his refusing the Bishop of Glocester for his Judg and of his Appeal For as he thought it his Duty at that juncture to declare himself in that publick manner against the Bishop of Rome so he reckoned he ought to declare himself also to the Supream Magistrate And therefore before the Bishop of Glocester and the Commissioners he said That as he had thus discharged his own Conscience towards the World so he would also write his Mind to her Grace touching this Matter He wrote to her That the twelfth Day of that Month he was cited to appear at Rome the eightieth Day after And that it could not but grieve the Heart of a natural Subject to be accused by the King and Queen of his own Country and before any outward Judg as if the King and Queen were Subjects within their own Realm and were fain to complain and require Justice at a Stranger 's Hand against their own Subject being already condemned to Death by their own Laws As though the King and Queen could not have or do Justice within their own Realm against their own Subjects but they must seek it at a Stranger 's Hand in a strange Land Then he proceeded to shew her why he refused the Pope's Authority when Brooks Bishop of Glocester came to try him namely Because he was sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have or exercise any Authority or Jurisdiction in the Realm of England Another reason why he denied his Authority was Because his Authority repugned to the Crown Imperial of this Realm and to the Laws of the same For the Pope saith all manner of Power both Temporal and Spiritual is given unto him of God and that Temporal Power is given to Kings and Emperors to use it under him Whereas contrary to this Claim said the Arch-bishop the Imperial Crown of this Realm is taken immediately from God to be used under him only and is subject to none but God alone Moreover to the Imperial Laws of this Realm all the Kings in their Coronations and all Justices when they receive their Offices are sworn and all the whole Realm bound to defend them But contrary hereunto the Pope he said made void and commanded to blot out of our Books all Laws and Customs repugnant to his Laws Then he proceeded to shew how contrary the Laws of the Realm and the Pope's Laws were And therefore that the Kings of this Realm had provided for their Laws by the Premunire So that if any Man let the execution of the Law by any Authority from the See of Rome he fell into the Premunire And to meet with this the Popes had provided for their Law by Cursing He supposed that these things were not fully opened in the Parliament-house when the Pope's Authority was received again For if they were he could not believe that the King and Queen the Nobles and Commons would again receive a Foreign Authority so hurtful and prejudicial to the Crown and to the Laws and State of this Realm He rebuked the Clergy who were the main Movers of this at the Parliament for their own Ends. For they desired to have the Pope their chief Head to the intent that they might have as it were a Kingdom and Laws within themselves distinct from the Laws of the Crown and live in this Realm like Lords and Kings without damage or fear of any Man And then he glanced at some of the Clergy probably
Commentaries which he then was busy about and as it seems encouraged by Cranmer to take in Hand and prosecute And when Dr. Bruno a Learned Man and Father-in-Law to Sleidan departed out of England which was about the Time before mentioned being the Agent of the Duke of Saxony the Arch-bishop informed him of this Stipend by the King granted unto his Son-in-Law confirming the same to him in the King's Name and encouraging the Commentator hereby to proceed cheerfully in his useful Undertaking But upon the Stirs at Court the paiment of this Pension was neglected a great while Which caused Sleidan to call upon the Arch-bishop more than once as also upon his Friends Cheke and Cecyl entreating them to remind the Arch-bishop of him and to communicate to his Lordship the Letters he had writ to them But alas he needed not to have been excited to things of this Nature bearing so good a Will to them and being of his own Nature so forward to favour Learned and honest Men and useful Designs Nor was his good Will to Sleidan any whit abated but his Interest at Court was now towards the declension of King Edward's Reign But because his Pension depended only upon a verbal Promise of the King and the getting it under his Seal might contribute to the paiment of it in better sort hereafter he laboured with our Prelate and the two other Persons mentioned that it might be confirmed by Letters Patents He urged to them That he could have employed himself in other Business that would have redounded more to his Profit as many others did But he reckoned himself called to this Work from Heaven and that he could take no rest in his Mind till he had brought the History down to that present Time it being then the Year 1553 That he had hope that they according to their Humanity and Prudence who well understood things would take some Pains that the Arrears of his promised Stipend might be paid and that some further Care might be taken for the due Paiment of it hereafter that so he might the more conveniently and freely follow that Matter Leaving it to them to consider how much that Labour cost him as to the Charges he means of Correspondence for the getting particular and faithful Accounts of things that past in all Parts And lastly That it belonged properly to Kings to cherish such Labours as would be Ornaments to Religion and Learning and of Use to the Common-Good And in another Address to Secretary Cecyl he desired That he would plead in his behalf with the most Reverend the Arch-bishop adding That he did wholly give up himself to this Work and was in a diligent pursuit of all Matters in order to the compiling a compleat History Though I have said so much already of Sleidan yet I will take this occasion to add somewhat more that I may retrieve as much as I can of this honest Man and excellent Writer In the Month of September Anno 1552 he sent to the King together with a Letter his Commentaries of the German Wars brought down to that very Time being a short Draught of that he intended afterwards more largely and fully to write And Cheke and Cecyl were the Men that presented them to his Majesty With this kind of Writing the King declared himself much pleased as Cecyl wrote him back and so he and Cheke also were This Encouragement put our Author upon another Design resolving to write the whole Actions of the Council of Trent wherein he himself had been a part having been Agent there for five Months from the City of Strasburg This he intended to do for the King 's own Sake That he might thorowly understand the Form of Councils and might then make his Judgment of the rest of the History of the Reformation of Religion which he was then writing The Spring after he presented the King with a Specimen of his Writing concerning the Council of Trent It was the beginning and entrance into that Treatise he intended to write of that Subject This he desired might be kept in the King's Study and communicated to no other Hand and that no Copy of it might be taken it being but a small part of a future Work and so imperfect He had now in the Ides of March compleated his Commentaries from the Year 1517 to the Year 1536 and was resolved by God's Grace to go on with it in the same Method In order to which in the Month of December before he had desired of Cecyl that he would procure him the whole Action between King Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII when that King vindicated his own Liberty and that of his Kingdom from Papal Pretences of Supremacy over each This Matter between the King and the Pope he called Locus illustris memorabilis and judged it very worthy for Posterity to know Adding that though he had in his own Hands some Matters relating thereto yet they were not so exact and certain as he could wish because he desired to describe every thing properly and most exactly according to Truth He entreated also that if either he or Cheke had any other Matters of that Nature to impart they would oblige him with them Which Passages make me conclude that in relation to the English Affairs he made great use of Intelligences from Cecyl and Cheke and probably our Arch-bishop too Which consideration may add a great Reputation unto the Credit of his Book Now to preserve as much as we can of this excellent Historian Iohn Sleidan I have thought good to insert divers of his Letters in the Appendix and likewise because mention is often therein made of our Arch-bishop To which I have subjoined a Letter of Martin Bucer a great Name wrote to Cecyl in behalf of the said Sleidan For he did not only importune those Courtiers before mentioned but when no Answer came from them he made Bucer also his Solicitor from Cambridg Who Anno 1551 Feb. 18. wrote to Cecyl to further Sleidan's Business and to dispatch the Paiment of his Stipend and that Sleidan might be resolved one way or other giving Cecyl this Memento That this would well become the Administration of a Kingdom so much adorned as with other things so with the Benefit of Religion By the way the Date of this Letter would deserve well to be noted serving to judg of the true Date of Bucer's Death Which by Historians is variously set down if we may believe Fuller in his History of the University of Cambridg It is certain Bucer was ill when he wrote that Letter to Cecyl for he mentions therein an Epistle which he sent to Dr. Iohn Quercetanus the Physician upon the said Cecyl's Desire the which he said he was hardly able to dictate This Letter to Cecyl I take to be writ in his last Sickness nine Days before the Date which Sleidan his Friend assigned for the Day of his Death To
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for