because by this means all hope of ripe and compleated Learning was immaturely cut off in the very Bud and also all the Expectations of the poorer sort whose whole Time was spent in good Studies was eluded by these Drones occupying those Places and Preferments which more properly belonged unto them For Parts Learning Poverty and Election were of no strength at Home where Favour and Countenance and the Letters of Noblemen and such-like extraordinary and illegal Courses from Abroad bore all the Sway. CHAP. VII Dr. Smith and others recant AND now before I conclude this Year let me pass from more publick Matters and present the Reader with two or three Passages wherein the Arch-bishop had to do with private Men. May the 15 th Richard Smith D. D. Master of Whittington College and Reader of Divinity in Oxford a hot turbulent Man made his Recantation at Pauls Cross convinced and moved thereunto by the Pains of the Arch-bishop What his Errors were that he had publickly vented in the University and in his Writings may be known by the words of his Recantation which were these I do confess and acknowledg that the Authority as well of the Bishop of Rome whose Authority is justly and lawfully abolished in this Realm as of other Bishops and others called the Ministers of the Church consisteth in the Dispensation and Ministration of God's Word and not in making Laws Ordinances and Decrees over the People besides God's Word without the Consent and Authority of the Prince and People I say and affirm that within this Realm of England and other the King's Dominions there is no Law Decree Ordinance or Constitution Ecclesiastical in force and available by any Man's Authority but only by the King's Majesty's Authority or of his Parliament This Man had wrote two Books in favour of Popish Doctrine and those he also now disclaimed viz. A Book of Traditions and another of the Sacrifice of the Mass. In the former of which he maintained That Christ and his Apostles taught and left to the Church many things without writing which he asserted were stedfastly to be believed and obediently fulfilled under pain of Damnation In the other Book he maintained That Christ was not a Priest after the Order of Melchizedeck when he offered himself upon the Cross for our Sins but after the Order of Aaron and that when Christ did offer his Body to his Father after the Order of Melchizedek to appease his Wrath it was to be understood not of the Sacrifice of the Cross but of the Sacrifice that he made at his Maundy in form of Bread and Wine In which Book were other Errors He that is minded to see his Recantation of these his Books may have it in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of an old Book made by Becon intituled Reports of certain Men. This Recantation he not long after made at Oxon viz. in August following Where he also protested openly That he would abide in the sincere and pure Doctrine of Christ's Gospel all humane trifling Traditions set apart even unto Death though it should cost him his Life And this Recantation he also printed for further Satisfaction to the World Bishop Gardiner who was now at Winchester was very uneasy at the News of this Recantation which some took care to bring down to him He signified to the Protector That Smith was a Man with whom he had no Familiarity nor cared for his Acquaintance That he had not seen him in three Years nor talked with him in Seven He was greatly displeased with the first words of his Recantation which yet were but the words of Scripture Omnis Homo mendax Making all the Doctors in the Church as he inferred to be Liars with himself How it argued his Pride for he that sought for such Company in Lying had small Humility and that he would hide himself by that Number that his depraving of Man's Nature in that sort was not the setting out of the Authority of Scripture He said he neither liked his Tractation nor yet his Retractation That he was mad to say in his Book of Vnwritten Verities that Bishops in this Realm could make Laws wherein he said he lied loudly About this time Chadsey Standish Yong Oglethorp and divers others recanted whose Recantations Fox had by him to shew as well as Smith whom we have now before us After this Recantation he carried not himself according to it but favoured the Old Errors And in the Year 1549 offered some Affront unto Arch-bishop Cranmer opposing him in the Doctrine of the Lawfulness of Priests Marriage and endeavoured to make a Rout in Oxford to the endangering P. Martyr's Life and printed a Book the same Year against him De Votis Monasticis Whereupon incurring as he apprehended some Danger he fled into Scotland But weary of being there and willing to have his Peace made in England he wrote two Letters to the Arch-bishop from thence professing that he would out of hand by open Writing in the Latin Tongue revoke all that erroneous Doctrine which he had before taught and published and set forth the pure Doctrine of Christ. And for a Proof hereof he would straight after his return into England set forth a Book in Latin in defence of the most lawful Marriage of Priests In the Year 1550 he wrote certain Treatises against P. Martyr printed at Lovain And the same Year came out his Book against the Arch-bishop's Treatise of the Sacrament This Man was of a most inconstant as well as turbulent Spirit For in the Reign of Queen Mary he turned to the Religion then professed and was great with Bishop Boner in those Times but greatly despised for his Fickleness He once attempted to discourse with Hawks in Boner's House in London Hawks threw in his Dish his Recantation To which when he said it was no Recantation but a Declaration the other gave him this Rub To be short I will know whether you will Recant any more ere ever I talk with you or believe you and so departed from him We shall hear of him again in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when he again complied and submitted himself to Arch-bishop Parker And last of all returned to his old Opinions and fled to Lovain Pass we from this Man to another of the same Strain with whom the Arch-bishop had to do As the Popish Clergy in the former King's Reign had made all the rudest and eagerest Opposition they dared against the Steps that were then made towards a Reformation so they ceased not to do in this King 's nay and more hoping to shelter themselves under a milder Government One Instance of this appeared in what was done by the Quondam Abbot of Tower-hill London Who for some Recompence of the loss of his Abby was made Vicar of Stepney-Church succeeding I suppose Mr. Hierom burnt to death in the Year 1540 with Dr. Barnes and Garret He being a bold Man and
Part and Opinion to be on his Part. For being now after some absence returned to Cambridg divers of the University and some of those Doctors that before had given in their Judgments to the King for the Validity of the Pope's Dispensation repaired to him to know his Opinion And after long Reasoning he changed the Minds of Five of the Six Then almost in every Disputation both in Private Houses and in the Common Schools this was one Question Whether the Pope might dispense with the Brother to marry the Brother's Wife after Carnal Knowledg And it was of many openly defended that he might not The Secretary when he came Home acquainted the King with what they had done and how Dr. Cranmer had changed the Minds of Five of the said Learned Men of Cambridg and of many others beside Afterward this University as well as the other determined the King's Cause against the Pope's Dispensation From an Academic our Doctor being now become a Courtier he so prudently demeaned himself that he was not only dear to the Earl of Wiltshire's Family but grew much favoured by the Nobility in general as the Lord Herbert collects from the Historians of those Times and especially by the King himself He was very much about him the King holding frequent Communication with him and seemed unwilling to have him absent Which may appear from hence that when Cranmer was minded for some reason to resort to the Earl of Wiltshire who was then from Hampton-Court and as it seems at London upon some Occasions of his own he doubted whether the King would let him go And so he writ to him that he would come the next Day to him If the King's Grace let him not CHAP. II. Pole's Book about the King's Matrimony ABout this time a Book of Reginald Pole afterwards Cardinal earnestly perswading the King to continue his Marriage with his Queen fell into Dr. Cranmer's Hands I do not find mention of this Book in any Historian that hath come to my Hands No not in his Life published by Bacatellus Bishop of Ragusa though he hath there given us a Catalogue of his Books But in likelihood the Reason was because this was some private Discourse or Letter chiefly intended for the King 's own Use as appears from some words of Cranmer concerning it Viz. That it was writ with that Eloquence that if it were set forth and known to the common People an evidence it was a more private Writing it were not possible to perswade them to the contrary It was penned about the Year 1530 as may be collected from another Passage in the said Writing wherein he mentioneth the King's living in Wedlock with Queen Katherine twenty Years the expiration of which fell in about that Time What induced Pole to write on this Subject is to me uncertain for he avoided as much as could be to meddle in this Affair out of Fear of the King's Displeasure which was the Reason of his departing Abroad Probably it was at the King's Command like as some Years after he commanded him to write his Judgment of the Title of Supream Head which he had lately assumed Which occasioned Pole's four Books of Ecclesiastical Vnity For some about the King had told him it would have a great Influence upon the People especially the Nobility if he could bring Pole over to allow and approve of his Marriage Who was a Person tho then but Young yet highly valued in the Nation for his Piety and Learning and great Descent The Book was soon delivered whether by the Earl of Wiltshire or the King himself unto the Examination and Consideration of Cranmer now the great Court-Divine Who after he had greedily perused it sent the Contents of it in a Letter to his Friend and Patron the Earl being then absent from Court The Book though the Argument of it chiefly depended upon Divinity proceeded more on Political Principles than Divine Take the following account of it as Cranmer gave it in his said Letter First Pole treated of the Danger of Diversity of Titles to the Crown Which might follow if the present Marriage with Queen Katherine were rejected in which there was an Heir and another consummated As appeared by the Titles and Pretensions of the two Houses of Lancaster and York And that the King ought to provide against the Miseries that might be brought upon his Realm by the People if he should reject his Daughter whom they took for his Lawful Heir and should perswade them to take another Then he urged the Danger of incurring the Emperor's Displeasure the Queen being his Aunt and the Princess his Cousin Then he proceeded to consider the Reasons that moved the King to his present Resolutions Namely That God's Law forbad marrying the Brother's Wife And that the People however averse at first besides that it belongâ—d not to them to judg of such Matters would be content in the King's Doings when they should know how the ancient Doctors of the Church and so many great Universities were on the King's Side And that however the Emperor might fall out with the King for this Matter yet God would never fail those that stood on his part and refused to transgress his Commandments and that England might depend on the French King's Aid by virtue of the League which he had entred into with the King and the old Grudg which he bore towards the Emperor Afterwards Pole goes on to review these Reasons And first his Judgment was that Scripture might be brought to justify this Marriage and that there was as good ground of Scripture for that as for the part which the King then took namely the unlawfulness of it That if indeed he thought the King's Part was just and that his Marriage were undoubtedly against God's Pleasure then he could not deny but that it should be well done for the King to refuse it and take another Wife Yet he confessed that for his own part he could not find in his Heart to have any Hand or be any furtherer or abetter in it Acknowledging however that he had no good Reason for it but only out of Affection and Duty to the King's Person Because he would not disannul the Princess his Daughter's Title nor accuse the most part of the King's Life as the Books written on the King's part did As though he had lived in a Matrimony Shameful Abominable Bestial and against Nature This seemed an high Complement of Pole's indeed that he would rather chuse to let the King live and die in an habitual Breach of God's Law than be guilty of something that might argue a want of civil Affection and Duty in him And as concerning the People his Judgment was That neither by Learning nor Preaching would they ever be brought into an ill Conceit of the King 's former Marriage and to think so dishonourably of their King as to live so many Years in Matrimony so abominable But as they had
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
and put forth by Henry Lord Stafford in King Edward's Days The King affecting to be thought Learned affected also to have Books called by his Name not that he was always the Author of them but that they came out by his Authority and had undergone his Corrections and Emendations But before we pass away from hence it may be convenient to give the Reader a little taste of so famous a Treatise as that Bishop's Book was in those Days And I will do it not in my own words but in the words of a very Learned and Eminent Man the Answerer to Dr. Martin's Book against Priests Marriage not far from the beginning of Q Mary supposed to be Ponet Bishop of Winchester then in Exile Applying himself in his Preface unto the Queen's Prelats he told them That in their Book intituled The Institution of a Christian Man presented by their whole Authorities to the King of famous Memory K. Henry VIII In the Preface thereof they affirmed to his Highness with one assent by all their Learnings that the said Treatise was in all Points concordant and agreeable to Holy Scripture yea such Doctrine that they would and desired to have it taught by all the Spiritual Pastors to all the King 's loving Subjects to be Doctrine of Faith And there intreating of the Sacrament of Orders they desired to have it taught that we be in no subjection to the Bishop of Rome and his Statutes but meerly subject to the King's Laws under his only Territory and Jurisdiction And that the Canons and Rules of the Church were therefore allowable in the Realm because the Assent of the King and of the People accepted the same And that Priests and Bishops whatsoever never had any Authority by the Gospel in Matters Civil and Moral but by the Grant and Gift of Princes and that it was alway and ever shall be lawful unto Kings and Princes and to their Successors with the Consent of their Parliaments to revoke and call again into their own Hands or otherwise to restrain all their Power and Jurisdiction given and permitted by their Authority Assent or Sufferance c. Without the which if the Bishop of Rome or any other Bishop whatsoever should take upon them any Authority or Jurisdiction in such Matters as be Civil No doubt said they that Bishop is not worthy to be called a Bishop but rather a Tyrant and an Usurper of other Mens Rights contrary to the Laws of God and is to be reputed a Subverter of the Kingdom of Christ. Yea besides these things and many other as he added they put in our Creed or Belief as an Article of Salvation or Damnation that the Church of England is as well to be named a Catholick and Apostolick Church as Rome Church or any other Church where the Apostles were resident And that they willed us to believe in our Faith that there is no difference in Superiority Preeminence or Authority one over the other but be all of equal Power and Dignity and that all Churches be free from the Subjection and Jurisdiction of the Church of Rome And that no Church is to be called Schismatical as varying from the Unity of the Church of Christ if it persist in the Unity of Christ's Faith Hope and Charity and Unity of Christ's Doctrine and Sacraments agreeable to the same Doctrine And that it appertained to Christen Kings and Princes in the discharge of their Duty to God to reform and reduce again the Laws to their old Limits and pristine State of their Power and Jurisdiction which was given them by Christ and used in the Primitive Church For it is say they out of all doubt that Christ's Faith was then most firm and pure and the Scriptures of God were then best understood and Vertue did then most abound and excel And therefore the Customs and Ordinances then used and made must needs be more conform and agreeable unto the true Doctrine of Christ and more conducing to the edifying and benefit of the Church of Christ than any Custom or Laws used or made since that Time This he collected out of their Exposition of the Sacrament of Orders The said Learned Author observed that this Doctrine was set forth by the whole Authority of the Bishops in those Days presented by the Subscription of all their Names And since the time of their presenting thereof by the space almost of twenty Years that is to the middle of Queen Mary never revoked but continually from time to time taught by this Book and by such other Declarations And that one more Particular relating to this Book may be known namely who the Bishops and other Divines were that composed it and that were commissioned so to do I shall record their Names as they were found writ by the Hand of Dr. Sam. Ward in his own Book now in the possession of N. B. a Reverend Friend of mine who hath well deserved of this History Thomas Cant. Io. Lond. Steph. Winton Io. Exon. Io. Lincoln Io. Bathon Roland Coven Litch Tho. Elien Nic. Sarum Io. Bang Edward Heref. Hugo Wigorn. Io. Roffen Ric. Cicestr Guilielm Norv Guilielm Menevens Rob. Assav Rob. Landav Edoard Ebor. Cuthb Dunelm Rob. Carliolen Richard Wolman Archidiac Sudbur Guil. Knight Archid. Richmon Io. Bell Archid. Gloc. Edmund Bonner Archid. Leicestr Iohn Skip Archid. Dorset Nic. Hethe Archid. Stafford Cuthb Marshal Archid. Nottingham Rich. Curren Archid. Oxon. Gulielm Cliff Galfridus Downes Robertus Oking Radul Bradford Richardus Smith Simon Matthew Ioannes Pryn Guliel Buckmaster Guliel May Nic. Wotton Ric. Coxe Ioannes Edmunds Thomas Robertson Ioannes Baker Thomas Barret Ioannes Hase Ioannes Tyson Sacrae Theologiae Juris Ecclesiastici Civilis Professores In the Year 1543. The same Book was printed again amended much both in Sense and Language yet not having any step in the Progress of the Reformation more than the former each Edition express positively the Corporal Presence in the Sacrament But in this is much added about Free-Will which it asserts and Good Works In 1544 the same was printed again at London in Latin intituled Pia Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio CHAP. XIV The Arch-bishop visits his Diocess AS soon as this Business was over with the Arch-bishop and Bishops at Lambeth no Parliament sitting this Year and a Plague being in London and Westminster he went down as was said before into his Diocess But before he went he expressed a great desire to wait upon the King being then I suppose at Hampton-Court or Windsor but he feared he should not be permitted coming out of the smoaky Air as he wrote to the Lord Crumwel in that time of Infection Yet he desired to know the King's Pleasure by him He had a mind indeed to leave some good Impressions upon the King's Mind in the behalf of the Book that he and the rest had taken such Pains about and but newly made an end of But whether he saw the King now or no
of Superstition flowed in such a plentiful measure from the Egyptians as might easily be proved and thence derived themselves first to the Greeks then to the Romans and afterwards to our Times through that Sink of Popery that that single worthy Counsel and Remedy of those most Learned Men enjoined for the enlarging and spreading of Learning should be debarred us to follow and that by such as were either unlearned themselves or superstitious Men Whereby the best Wits received so great Prejudice and Dammage That none knew better than his Lordship whence this Custom arose by whom cherished and by what kind of Men brought down to us And lastly how unwholsome and unfit all eating of Flesh was in the Spring-time And that he might obtain this Favour he would use it without giving Offence or making any common Speech of it with Quietness and Silence with Abstinence and Thanksgiving This Letter he got his Friend Poinet the Arch-bishop's Chaplain the same I suppose who after was Bishop of Winchester to put into his Grace's Hand and to further his Request what he could The Issue whereof was to his Heart's desire For though the Arch-bishop knew him not nor was easily drawn to dispence with the Church's Ancient Discipline and Rites yet he received his Suit with all Humanity and such he found to be the Modesty and Ingenuity of the Man and what he requested to be grounded upon such reasonable and just Causes that he readily yielded to it And whether he thought it out of his Power to grant a Licence of that Latitude to discharge a Person for all Time to come from the Obligation of keeping Lent or to avert the Censure he might incur if he should have done it by his own Authority or reckoning it a Matter of Law rather than Religion he put himself to the trouble of procuring the King's Licence under the Privy Seal for this Man And when he had done that considering an Academick's Poverty he released him of the whole Charges of taking it out paying all the Fees himself and so conveyed it to him by Dr. Tayler the Master of his College And indeed the Arch-bishop's Opinion concerning Lent made way for his more ready yielding to Ascham's Request For he held the keeping of Lent as founded in a Positive Law rather than as a Religious Duty and thought it necessary that so the People should be taught and instructed As appears by his Articles of Visitation in the second Year of King Edward One whereof ran thus That enquiry should be made whether the Curats had declared and to their Wit and Power had perswaded the People that the manner and kind of Fasting in Lent and other Days in the Year was but a meer positive Law And that therefore all Persons having just Cause of Sickness or other Necessity or being licensed by the King's Majesty may moderately eat all kind of Meat without grudg or scruple of Conscience The same Ascham knowing well how the Arch-bishop's Mind stood affected to Cambridg his old Nurse and how well he wish'd it for the sake of Religion acquainted him with the State of the University about the beginning of King Edward's Reign and the Course of the Studies that were then used That there were very many began to affect the Study of Divinity A new Study it seems then the Pope's Laws and the School-men having before employed the Heads of almost all That the Doctrines of Original Sin and Predestination were much canvased But many went rather according to Pighius highly applauding him than according to S. Augustin though he exceeded all others that either went before or followed after him for the excellency of his Wit and Learning and the greatness of his Industry and Opportunities That others among them made the reading of God's Word their daily Exercise And for the helping their Understandings in the sense of it they made use of and adhered to the Judgment of S. Augustin chiefly and studied hard the Tongues The Knowledg of Languages began to be affected And such as studied them were reckoned the best Masters as qualifying them best for teaching of others or understanding themselves That for Oratory they plied Plato and Aristotle from whose Fountains among the Greeks Loquens illa prudentia as he stiled Oratory that speaking Prudence might be fetched And to these among the Latins they added Cicero They conversed also in Herodotus Thucididâ—s and Xenophon the three Lights of Chronology Truth and Greek Eloquence and which brought a great Lustre to their other Studies The Greek Poets which they took delight in were Homer Sophocles and Euripides the one the Fountain the two others the Streams of all Eloquence and Learned Poetry Which they were of Opinion did more largely water their other Studies than Terence or Virgil which in some former Years were chiefly read Thus was the Method of University-Studies altered so much for the better from reading the Schoolmen and Metaphysical Niceties the Pope's Canons and Decretals to converse in politer and more manly Learning which tended so much to solid Knowledg and preparation of Mens Minds to the Entertainment of the Gospel The great setter on foot of this ingenuous Learning in the University was Sir Iohn Cheke of S. Iohn's College now preferred to be the King's Tutor a Person for whom the Arch-bishop had a very tender Love and affectionate Kindness For so Ascham writ to him in his former Letter That many had addicted themselves to this course of Study by the Aid and Conduct Example and Counsel of that excellent Man And that they bore the better his going from them to the Court who had brought them on in so good a Course because they knew their Disprofit was abundantly recompensed by the Profit and Safety that would accrue to the whole Common-wealth by him Applying that of Plato to him Plurimum Reip. interesse ut unus aliquis existat semper praestans excellensque Vir ad cujus virtutis imitationem caeteri voluntate industria studio spe erecti totos sese effingant accommodent Afterwards he acquainted the most Reverend Person to whom he wrote with those things which proved great Hindrances to the flourishing Estate of the University that by his Counsel and Authority if possible they might be redressed And they were two The one was That they wanted elderly Men very few such remaining among them by whose Example the younger Sort might be excited to study and by whose Authority the Manners of the rest might be rightly formed and fashioned The other Impediment was occasioned by such as were admitted Who were for the most part only the Sons of Rich Men and such as never intended to pursue their Studies to that degree as to arrive at any eminent Proficiency and Perfection in Learning but only the better to qualify themselves for some Places in the State by a slighter and more superficial Knowledg The Injury accruing thence to the University was double both
Year when Ridley was translated thither as we shall see by and by Indeed this was the most plausible Pretence the Papists had and which they made much use of Which Boner and Gardiner had cunningly invented viz. That though the King were to be obeyed and all were bound to submit to his Laws yet not to the Orders and Placits of his Counsellors who made what Innovations they pleased in his Name and were none of his Laws and that therefore things should remain in the State wherein the former King left them till the King now a Child came to Years of Discretion to make Laws himself This the Rebels in Devon made use of And this also the Lady Mary urged very boldly to the Lords of the Council for her incompliance with the Communion-Book and for continuance of the use of the Mass telling them in a Letter That she was resolved to remain obedient to her Father's Laws till the King her Brother should have perfect Years of Discretion to order that Power that God had given him Which Letter whereof I have the Original may be seen in the Appendix For the satisfying therefore of the People in this the Preachers were fain to do their Endeavours in the Pulpits Shewing them that those that were in Office under the King were by the Word of God to be obeyed as the King himself There be some Men that say as Latimer in one of his Sermons in these Days when the King's Majesty himself commandeth me so to do then I will do it not afore This is a wicked Saying and damnable For we may not so be excused Scripture is plain in it and sheweth us that we ought to obey his Officers having Authority from the King as well as unto the King himself Therefore this Excuse will not nor cannot serve afore God Yet let the Magistrates take heed to their Office and Duty This Year the Arch-bishop celebrated a great Ordination consisting of such chiefly as shewed themselves Favourers of the King's Proceedings to be sent abroad to preach the Gospel and to serve in the Ministry of the Church At this Ordination Bishop Ridley also assisted the Arch-bishop The old Popish Order of conferring of Holy Orders was yet in force the new Office as yet not being prepared and established But this Ordination nevertheless was celebrated after that Order that was soon after established At this Ordination great Favour was shewn and Connivance to such who otherwise being well qualified for Piety and Learning scrupled wearing the Habits used by the Popish Priests I meet with two famous Men now ordained The one was Robert Drakes who was Deacon to Dr. Tayler Parson of Hadley at the Commandment of Arch-bishop Cranmer afterwards Parson of Thundersley in Essex and in the Year 1556 burnt to death in Smithfield for his constant Profession of Christ's Religion The other was Thomas Sampson Parson of Breadstreet London and successively Dean of Chichester and Christ's-Church Oxon. Who in a Letter of his written to Secretary Cecyl in Q. Elizabeth's Reign said That at his Ordination he excepted against the Apparel and by the Arch-bishop and Bishop Ridley he was nevertheless permitted and admitted All the Divine Offices were now reformed but only that for Ordination of Ministers Therefore for the doing of this the Council appointed Twelve Learned Men consisting half of Bishops and half of other inferior Divines Whose Names I do not meet with excepting Hethe Bp of Worcester Who because he would not assist in this Work was sent to Prison The chief of them no doubt was the Arch-bishop After mature deliberation this Office was agreed upon and finished And Ponet was the first Bishop Consecrated after this new Form And that I suppose may be the reason that it is set down at length in the Arch-bishop's Register in that manner as it is there to be seen as we shall see under the next Year Upon the Vacancy of Cathedral Churches the Arch-bishop used to visit So now the Church of S. Davids being vacant upon the remove of Barlow to Bath and Wells the Arch-bishop issued out a Commission to Eliseus Price to visit that Church And upon the Vacancy of Glocester by the Death of Wakeman there was a Commission to I. Williams LL. D. and Prebendary there to be his Commissary and to visit that Church and to be Keeper of the Spiritualties of the City and Diocess of Glocester in this third Year of the King This Year also the Church of Norwich being become Vacant by the Resignation of Repps the Arch-bishop granted a Commission to Iohn Bishop Suffragan of Thetford and Dean of the Church of the Holy Trinity Norwich to be his Deputy and Commissary for Visitation and Jurisdiction But somewhat before this he constituted Roland Taylor LL.D. and Will. Wakefeld D. D. to be Keepers of the Spiritualties of Norwich From whose Jurisdiction he protested not to derogate by those his Commissional Letters to the Suffragan nor to withdraw from them any Authority of Jurisdiction This was dated February 15. Also the Church of London being Vacant by the Deprivation and Destitution of Boner the Arch-bishop constituted Gabriel Donne Residentiary of S. Pauls to be his Official and Keeper of the Spiritualties to exercise all manner of Episcopal Jurisdiction in the said City and Diocess This Year he made Griffin Leyson LL.D. Dean of the Arches CHAP. XII Duke of Somerset's Troubles The Common-Prayer Ratified WHEN most of the Council had combined together in the Month of October against the Protector of the King's Person the Duke of Somerset and had withdrawn themselves to Ely-House the King then being at Hampton-Court and suddenly conveyed by the said Duke to Windsor upon the fear of Tumult then I find the Arch-bishop and but two Privy-Counsellors more with the King and the Protector there Being here the good Arch-bishop though he would not forsake his Friend the Duke nor the King his Master yet he did what lay in him to appease and pacify these Heats And so he with the Lord Paget and Secretary Smith in their own and the King's Name wrote an earnest Letter to the Separating Counsellors and sent it by Sir Philip Hoby Wherein as appears by their Answer They were charged by the Arch-bishop with creating much Care and Sorrow to the King and that he thought they had not that Care that beseemed them of pacifying the present Uproars and for the preservation of the State from Danger That they forgat the Benefits they had received from the King's Father nor were mindful of their Duty of Allegiance That their Doings bespake Wilfulness and that the Protector meant nothing but the Safety and Protection of the King in what he had done and that he had that consideration of his Duty to God that the Promise and Oath he made required They were advised to do as they would be done unto And mention was made of Cruelty more than once charging
Riot in the University and thereby to endanger the King's Professor and was therefore got away into Scotland conscious likewise to himself of Calumnies and Wrongs done by him against the Arch-bishop some time after wrote to the Arch-bishop a submissive Letter praying him to forgive all the Injuries he had done his Grace and to obtain the King's Pardon for him that he might return Home again And he promised to write a Book for the Marriage of Priests as he had done before against it That he was the more desirous to come Home into England because otherwise he should be put upon writing against his Grace's Book of the Sacrament and all his Proceedings in Religion being then harboured as he would make it believed by such as required it at his Hands But in Q. Mary's Days he revolted again and was a most zealous Papist and then did that indeed which he gave some Hints of before for he wrote vehemently against Cranmer's Book But from Oxford let us look over to Cambridg Where Disputations likewise were held in the Month of Iune before the King's Commissioners who were Ridley Bishop of Rochester Thomas Bishop of Ely Mr. Cheke Dr. May and Dr. Wendy the King's Physician The Questions were That Transubstantiation could not be proved by Scripture nor be confirmed by the Consent of Antient Fathers for a thousand Years past And that the Lord's Supper is no Oblation or Sacrifice otherwise than a Remembrance of Christ's Death There were three Solemn Disputations In the first Dr. Madew was Respondent and Glyn Langdale Sedgwick and Yong Opponents In the Second Dr. Glyn was Respondent on the Popish side Opponents Pern Grindal Guest Pilkington In the third Dr. Pern was Respondent Parker Pollard Vavasor Yong Opponents After these Disputations were ended the Bishop of Rochester determined the Truth of these Questions ad placitum suum as a Papist wrote out of whose Notes I transcribe the Names of these Disputants Besides these Disputations when Bucer came to Cambridg he was engaged in another with Sedgwick Pern and Yong upon these Questions I. That the Canonical Books of Scripture alone do teach sufficiently all things necessary to Salvation II. That there is no Church in Earth that erreth not as well in Faith as Manners III. That we are so freely justified of God that before our Justification whatsoever good Works we seem to do have the Nature of Sin Concerning this last he and Yong had several Combates Which are set down in his English Works As to Bucer's Opinion of the Presence in the Sacrament the great Controversy of this Time it may not be amiss to consider what so great a Professor thought herein and especially by what we saw before that Martyr and he did somewhat differ in this Point For as he would not admit those words Carnally and Naturally so neither did he like Realiter and Substantialiter Bucer's Judgment drawn up by himself sententiously in 54 Aphorisms may be seen in the Appendix as I meet with it among Fox's Papers It is extant in Latin among his Scripta Anglicana and intitled Concessio D. M. Buc. de Sancta Eucharistia in Anglia Aphoristicos scripta Anno 1550. And so we take our leave of Bucer for this Year We shall hear of him again in the next CHAP. XV. Matters of the Church and its State now LET me now crave a little room to set down some Matters that relate to the Church coming within the compass of this Year which will shew what mean Advances Religion as yet had made in the Nation Divers Relicks of Popery still continued in the Nation by means partly of the Bishops partly of the Justices of Peace Popishly affected In London Bishop Boner drove on but heavily in the King's Proceedings though he outwardly complied In his Cathedral Church there remained still the Apostles Mass and our Lady's Mass and other Masses under the Defence and Nomination of our Lady's Communion used in the private Chappels and other remote places of the same Church tho not in the Chancel contrary to the King's Proceedings Therefore the Lord Protector and others of the Council wrote to the Bishop Iune 24. Complaining of this and ordering that no such Masses should be used in S. Paul's Church any longer and that the Holy Communion according to the Act of Parliament should be ministred at the high Altar of the Church and in no other place of the same and only at such times as the high Masses were wont to be used except some number of People for their necessary Business desired to have a Communion in the Morning and yet the same to be exercised in the Chancel at the high Altar as was appointed in the Book of Publick Service Accordingly Boner directed his Letters to the Dean and Chapter of Paul's to call together those that were resident and to declare these Matters As it was thus in London so in the Countries too many of the Justices were slack in seeing to the execution of the King's Laws relating not only to Religion but to other Affairs And in some Shires that were further distant the People had never so much as heard of the King's Proclamation by the Default of the Justices who winked at the Peoples neglect thereof For the quickening of the Justices of Peace at this time when a Foreign Invasion was daily expected and Foreign Power was come into Scotland to aid that Nation against England the Lord Protector and the Privy-Council assembled at the Star-Chamber and called before them all the Justices which was a thing accustomed sometimes to be done for the Justices to appear before the King and Council there to have Admonitions and Warnings given them for the discharge of their Duty And then the Lord Chancellor Rich made a Speech to them That they should repair down into their several Countries with speed and give warning to other Gentlemen to go down to their Houses and there to see good Order and Rule kept that their Sessions of Goal-delivery and Quarter-Sessions be well observed that Vagabonds and seditious Tale-bearers of the King or his Council and such as preached without Licence be repress'd and punished That if there should be any Uproars or Routs and Riots of lewd Fellows or privy Traitors they should appease them And that if any Enemy should chance to arise in any Place of England they should fire the Beacons as had been wrote to them before and repulse the same in as good Array as they could And that for that purpose they should see diligently that Men have Horse Harness and other Furniture of Weapon ready And to the Bishops the Council now sent Letters again for Redress of the Contempt and Neglect of the Book of Common-Prayer which to this time long after the publishing thereof was either not known at all to many or very irreverently used Occasioned especially by the winking of the Bishops and the stubborn Disobedience
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
Not was inserted in a certain place of the Book to alter the Doctrine of the Real Presence which was asserted in the first Edition This Dr. Martin one of Queen Mary's Commissioners threw in his Dish at his Examination in Oxford But the Arch-bishop professed his Ignorance concerning the foisting in of that Word The addition of which Word indeed he thought was needless still holding the Body and Blood truly present in the Holy Supper though after a spiritual manner III. The Ordinances or Appointments of the Reformed Church This was the Book of Common-Prayer with the Preface before it beginning There was never any thing c. as I learn out of Bale IV. One Book of Ordaining Ministers Which I suppose was the Form of Ordination published in the Year 1550. V. One Book concerning the Eucharist with Luther With whom Cranmer once consented in the Doctrine of the Presence VI. A Defence of the Catholick Doctrine in five Books Which was his excellent Work in vindication of himself against Bishop Gardiner and Dr. Richard Smith Whereof much hath been said before VII Ecclesiastical Laws in the Time of King Edward This was the Book of the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws the management of which was by the King's Letters committed to eight whereof Cranmer was the chief VIII The Doctrine of the Lord's Supper against Gardiner's Sermon This Sermon is the same I suppose with that Book of his intituled A Detection of the Devil's Sophistry wherewith he robbeth the unlearned People of the true Belief of the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar Which gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's first writing upon this Argument IX One Book against the Error of Transubstantiation X. One Book How Christ is present in the Supper XI One Book Concerning eating the Lord's Supper XII One Book Concerning the offering up of Christ. These five Books last mentioned are nothing else but the five Parts of his Book of the Holy Sacrament mentioned before XIII One Book of Christian Homilies Which must be the first Part of our Book of Homilies published under King Edward XIV One Book in answer to the Calumnies of Richard Smith For this Man had writ against Cranmer's Book of the Sacrament as well as Gardiner but done so scurrilously that Cranmer calls it his Calumnies XV. Confutations of Unwritten Verities Written against a Book of the same Smith intituled De veritatibus non scriptis Which he afterward recanted XVI Twelve Books of Common-Places taken out of the Doctors Those Volumes mentioned by Bishop Burnet I suppose were some of these Common-Place Books XVII Concerning not marrying the Brother's Wife Two Books Which must be those drawn up for the Use and by the Command of King Henry XVIII Against the Pope's Supremacy Two Books This was the Declaration against the Papal Supremacy said to be put forth by the Bishops in the Year 1536 upon occasion of Pole's Book of Ecclesiastical Vnion XIX Against the Pope's Purgatory Two Books XX. Concerning Justification Two Books I cannot trace these two last-mentioned Books unless by them be meant those two Treatises of Justification and Purgatory that are set at the end of the Institution XXI Pious Prayers One Book This Book I suppose was the Orarium seu libellus precationum put forth by the King and Clergy 1545. From whence a Book of Prayers was translated into English Anno 1552. XXII Letters to Learned Men One Book This I cannot hear any tidings of XXIII Against the Sacrifice of the Mass and against the Adoration of the Bread One Book Said to be writ while he was a Prisoner Which makes me conclude it to be part of his Reply to Gardiner's second Assault of him under the Name of Constantius XXIV To Queen Mary One Book or rather one Letter which was that he writ after his Examinations before her Commissioners and the Pope's Sub-delegate If some body of Leisure and that had the Opportunity of Libraries would take the pains to collect together all these Books and other Writings of this Arch-bishop and publish them it would be a worthy Work as both retrieving the Memory of this extraordinary Man who deserved so well of this Church and serving also much to illustrate the History of its Reformation But I know nothing of this nature done since the industrious Iohn Day in the Year 1580 printed a Book in Folio containing our Arch-bishop's Answer unto Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester against the true Doctrine of the Sacrament Also to Richard Smith Also a true Copy of the Book writ by Stephen Gardiner Also The Life and Martyrdom of Cranmer extracted out of the Book of Martyrs And now we are mentioning this great Prelat's Writings it may not be unworthy to take notice of what I meet with in a Letter of Arch-bishop Parker to Secretary Cecyl in the Year 1563 his Grace being then at Canterbury Where he spake of the Great notable written Books as he stiles them of his Predecessor Dr. Cranmer which he had left behind him at some of his Houses at or near Canterbury whether Ford or Bekesborn or both or with some Friends in those Parts These Manuscripts it seems were embezeled and surreptitiously taken away by private Hands probably during his restraint in Queen Mary's Days and now studiously concealed by some that were minded it may be to stifle them being chiefly levelled against the Roman Church and Bishop Parker who was a great and painful Searcher after Antient and Learned Manuscripts and a diligent Retriever of eminent Mens Writings had by credible Information learn'd in what Hands many of those Books were and had sent either for the Persons concerned or to them to demand the said Books But they denied them Whereupon knowing no other way to recover them he desired the Secretary by some Power from the Queen's Council to authorize him to enquire and search for those Books and such-like Monuments by all Ways as by the said Parker's Discretion should be thought good whether giving the Parties an Oath or viewing their Studies Wishing he might recover them to be afterwards at the Queen's Commandment Adding that he should be as glad to win them as he would be to restore an old Chancel to Reparation This Letter of Arch-bishop Parker I have inserted in the Appendix But whether after all his diligence he succeeded in the recovery of those Manuscripts I know not I am apt to think he did and that these Writings of Cranmer that were in his Possession and afterwards bequeathed unto the Library of Benet-College and those other divers Volumes which were as was before-said in the keeping of the Lord Burghley might be some at least of them An inquisitive Man would be glad to know what the Matter and Contents of these numerous Writings of our Arch-bishop were and that seeing so many of them are perished the knowledg of the various Subjects of them at least might be preserved This besides what hath been shewn already may be gathered by what
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-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
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
he had his Commission and took it down with him Which he advisedly did the better to warrant and bear him out in what he intended to do in his Diocess which he purposed to visit This was a Year of Visitation For there was a new Visitation now again appointed throughout all England to see how the People stood affected to the King to discover Cheats and Impostures either in Images Relicks or such like The Arch-bishop also thinking good now to visit his Diocess procured the Licence of the Vice-Gerent Lord Crumwel so to do Because I suppose all other Visitations were to cease to give way to the King's Visitation And to render his Power of Visiting the more unquestionable and void of scruple he desired the Vice-gerent that in drawing up of his Commission his Licence to visit might be put into it by Dr. Peter who was then if I mistake not Master of the Faculties to the said Vice-gerent and afterwards Secretary of State And because he would not do any thing without the Counsel and Allowance of the Vice-gerent he asked his Advice how he should order in his Visitation such Persons as had transgressed the King's Injunctions Which came out the Year before under Crumwel's Name Whereof some were for the restraint of the Number of Holy Days a great cause of Superstition and of the continuance of it And afterwards other Injunctions came out whereof the first was that in all Parishes once every Sunday for a quarter of a Year together the Supremacy should be taught and the Laws to that intent read These Injunctions were in number Eleven as they are set down in the Lord Herbert's History The Vicar of Croydon under the ABp's Nose had been guilty of certain Misdemeanors Which I suppose were speaking or preaching to the disparagement of the King's Supremacy and in favour of the Pope Now before he went into the Countrey and having as yet divers Bishops and Learned Men with him at Lambeth he thought it advisable to call this Man before them at this time But before he would do it he thought it best to consult with Crumwel and take his Advice whether he should now do it and before these Bishops or not So ticklish a thing then was it for the Bishops to do any things of themselves without the privity and order of this great Vice-gerent Cranmer was aware of it and therefore required Direction from him in every thing But whatsoever was done with this Vicar the Arch-bishop was soon down in his Diocess and having taken an Account of the People and Clergy what Conformity they bare to the King's Laws and Injunctions he found them superstitiously set upon the observation of their old Holy Days Some whereof he punished and others he admonished according to the degree of their Crimes And he discovered the chief Cause to lie in the Curates and Priests who did animatâ— the People to what they did indeed their Interest and Gain was concerned The great inconvenience of these Holy Days lay partly in the numerousness of them so that the attendance upon them hindred dispatching and doing Justice in Westminster-hall in the Terms and the gathering in Harvest in the Countrey partly in the Superstitions that these Holy Days maintained in the idolatrous Worship of supposed Saints and partly in the Riot Debauchery and Drunkenness that these Times were celebrated with among the common People and lastly the Poverty it brought upon the meaner sort being detained from going about their ordinary Labours and Callings to provide for themselves and Families For the prevention of these Superstitions for the Future and to make the People more obedient to the King's Laws he gave out strict Orders to all Parsons of Parishes upon pain of Deprivation that they should cause the abrogated Holy Days not to be observed for the future and to present to the Arch-bishop all Persons in their respective Parishes as should do contrary to any of the King's Ordinances already set forth or that should be hereafter by his Authority relating to the Doctrine and Ceremonies of the Church And this course he conceived so good an Expedient that he counselled the Lord Vice-gerent that all Bishops in their several Diocesses might be commanded to do the same for the avoiding of Disobedience and Contention in the Realm By which means he said The Evil-Will of the People might be conveyed from the King and his Council upon the Ordinaries And so the Love and Obedience of the People better secured to their Soveraign Such was his care of his Prince to preserve him in the Affections of his People that he was willing to take upon himself their Enmity that it might not light upon the King But Cranmer had observed these Holy Days were kept by many even in the Court under the King's Eye which he well knew was an Example and Encouragement to the whole Nation And therefore he signified to the Lord Crumwel that they could never perswade the People to cease from keeping them when the King 's own Houshold were an Example unto the rest to break his own Ordinances See his Letter to Crumwel in the Appendix CHAP. XV. The Bible printed HE was now at Ford and it was in the Month of August when something fell out that gave the good Arch-bishop as much Joy as ever happened to him in all the time of his Prelacy It was the printing of the Holy Bible in the English Tongue in the great Volume Which was now finished by the great Pains and Charges of Richard Grafton the Printer Osiander who knew the Arch-bishop well when he was the King's Ambassador in Germany saith of him that he was Sacrarum Literarum Studiossimum Indeed he always had a great value for the Scriptures because they were the Word of God and extraordinary desirous he was from the very first entrance upon his Bishoprick that the People might have the liberty of reading it and for that purpose to have it interpreted into the Vulgar Language And so by Crumwel's means he got leave from the King that it might be translated and printed The care of the Translation lay wholly upon him assigning little Portions of this Holy Book to divers Bishops and Learned Men to do and being dispatched to be sent back to him And to his inexpressible Satisfaction he saw the Work finished in this Year about Iuly or August As soon as some of the Copies came to his Hand one he sent to Crumwel entreating him that he would present it from him to the King and no question he thought it the noblest Present that ever he made him and withal to intercede with his Majesty that the said Book might by his Authority be both bought and used by all indifferently Both which Crumwel did For which the Arch-bishop was full of Gladness and Gratitude and wrote two Letters to him soon after one another wherein he thanked him most heartily telling him How he had hereby made
Cause So that now if we look back upon this first Year of the King we may perceive how busy and diligent our Arch-bishop was in redressing Abuses and restoring the Church to its true State of Christian Piety and Devotion by procuring a Royal Visitation over England for inspection into the Manners and Abilities of the Clergy and for taking away of Superstitions by getting a Book of plain Homilies to teach the common People in the composing whereof he himself had a very great hand and Erasmus his Paraphrase in English upon the New Testament for the better furnishing the Clergy and others with a sound and sober understanding of the Scriptures and by encouraging Preachers and such-like means So that if you would particularly know in what forwardness the ABp had already put Religion taking in his Endeavours in the last King's Reign hitherto I recommend to your reading his Homily or Sermon Of Good Works Shewing out of what abundance of Superstitions the Church was now emerged Briefly to pass over the Ungodly and Counterfeit Religion he means of Monks and Friars let us reherse some other kinds of Papistical Superstitions and Abuses as of Beads of Lady-Psalters and Rosaries of fifteen O's of S. Bernard's Verses of S. Agathe's Letters of Purgatory of Masses Satisfactory of Stations and Jubilees of fained Relicks or hallowed Beads Bells Bread Water Psalms Candles Fire and such other Of superstitious Fastings of Fraternities or Brotherhoods of Pardons with such-like Merchandize Which were so esteemed or abused to the great Prejudice of God's Glory and Commandments that they were made most high and most holy Things whereby to obtain to the everlasting Life or Remission of Sins Yea also vain Inventions unfruitful Ceremonies and ungodly Laws Decrees and Conceits of Rome wherein such were advanced that nothing was thought comparable in Authority Wisdom Learning and Godliness unto them So that the Laws of Rome as they said were to be received of all Men as the four Evangelists To the which all the Laws of Princes must give place And the Laws of God also partly were left off and less esteemed that the said Laws Decrees and Councils with their Traditions and Ceremonies might be more duly kept and had in greater Reverence Thus were the People through Ignorance so blinded with the godly Shew and Appearance of those things that they thought the keeping of them to be more Holiness more perfect Service and honouring of God and more pleasing to God than the keeping of God's Commandments Such have been the corrupt Inclinations of Man ever superstitiously given to make new honouring of God of his own Head and then to have more Affection and Devotion to keep that than to search out God's Holy Commandments and to keep them And furthermore to take God's Commandments for Man's Commandments and Man's Commandments for God's Commandments yea and for the highest and most perfect and holiest of all God's Commandments And so was all confused that scant well-learned Men and but a small number of them knew or at the least would know and durst affirm the Truth to separate or sever God's Commandments from the Commandments of Men. Whereupon did grow such Error Superstition and Idolatry vain Religion overthwart Judgment great Contention with all ungodly Living A Bishop Consecrated September the 5 th being Sunday Nicolas Ridley D. D. Prebend of Canterbury was Consecrated Bishop of Rochester by Henry Bishop of Lincoln assisted by Iohn Suffragan of Bedford and Thomas Suffragan of Sidon in the Chappel belonging to the House of May Dean of S. Pauls He was Consecrated according to the old Custom of the Church by the Unction of holy Chrism as well as Imposition of Hands Present among others Iohn Whytwel the Arch-bishop's Almoner Rich. Tayler M. A. Nic. Bullingham Gregory Tod and Tho. Bernard his Chaplains CHAP. VIII The Church's Goods embezelled New Opinions broached AS the Reformation of Abuses in Religion went forward under such a King and such an Arch-bishop so there wanted not for Evils accompanying it as there do commonly the best Things the Profaneness of some and the Covetousness of others giving occasion thereunto Sacred Places set apart for Divine Worship were now greatly profaned and so probably had been before by ill Custom For in many Churches Cathedral as well as other and especially in London many Frays Quarrels Riots Blood-sheddings were committed They used also commonly to bring Horses and Mules into and through Churches and shooting off Hand-guns Making the same which were properly appointed to God's Service and Common-Prayer like a Stable or Common Inn or rather a Den or Sink of all Unchristiness as it was expressed in a Proclamation which the King set forth about this Time as I suppose for I am left to conjecture for the Date by reason of the Insolency of great Numbers using the said evil Demeanours and daily more and more encreasing Therein forbidding any such Quarrelling Shooting or bringing Horses and Mules into or through the Churches or by any other Means irreverently to use the Churches upon pain of his Majesty's Indignation and Imprisonment For it was not thought fit that when Divine Worship was now reforming the Places for the said Worship should remain unreformed Beside the profanation of Churches there prevailed now another Evil relating also to Churches viz. That the Utensils and Ornaments of these Sacred Places were spoiled embezelled and made away partly by the Church-wardens and partly by other Parishioners Whether the Cause were that they would do that themselves which they imagined would e're long be done by others viz. robbing the Churches Which it may be those that bore an Ill-will to the Reformation might give out to render it the more odious But certain it is that it now became more or less practised all the Nation over to sell or take away Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments For the stopping of this in the Month of April the Protector and the Lords of the Council writ to our Arch-bishop this Letter upon the Information and Complaint as it is likely of the said Arch-bishop himself in whose Diocess especially this Sacrilege prevailed AFter our right hearty Commendations Whereas we are informed that the Church-wardens and Parochians of divers Parishes do alienate and sell away their Chalices Crosses of Silver Bells and other Ornaments of the Church Which were not given for that purpose to be alienated at their pleasure but either to be used to the Intent they were at first given or to some other necessary and convenient Service of the Church Therefore this is to will and require you immediately upon the sight hereof to give strait Charge and Commandment on the King's Majesty's behalf to every Parish-Church within your Diocess that they do in no wise sell give or otherwise alienate any Bells or other Ornaments or Jewels belonging unto their Parish-Church upon pain of his highest Displeasure as they will answer to the contrary at
Victual's sake that Fish might be uttered as well as other Meat Now as long as it goeth so politickly we ought to keep it Therefore all except those that be dispensed withal as sick impotent Persons Women with Child old Folk c. ought to live in an ordinary obedience to those Laws and not to do against the same in any wise Gardiner urged the great Inconvenience these Rhimes against Lent might occasion That they could serve for nothing but to learn the People to rail and to make others forbear to make their usual Provisions of Fish against the ensuing Year fearing Lent to be sick as the Rhime purported and like to die About these Times there arose much talk of the King 's matching The Protestants were much afraid of his marrying with some Foreign Princess Abroad that might turn his Heart from Religion But the Popishly-affected did their endeavours to perswade him to please himself with some Lady Abroad as best agreeable with Politick Ends as the enlarging of his Dominions and the Surety and Defence of his Countries Some therefore put Latimer upon giving the King Counsel in this Matter from the Pulpit So he advised the King to chuse him one that is of God that is which is of the Houshold of Faith and such an one as the King can find in his Heart to love and lead his Life in pure and chaste Espousage with Let him chuse a Wife that fears God Let him not chuse a Proud Wanton and one full only of rich Treasures and worldly Pomp. The Sentiments of the Protestant Foreigners concerning the present English State deserves a particular Remark They took such great Joy and Satisfaction in this good King and his Establishment of Religion that the Heads of them Bullinger Calvin and others in a Letter to him offered to make him their Defender and to have Bishops in their Churches as there were in England with the tender of their Service to assist and unite together This netled the Learned at the Council of Trent who came to the knowledg of it by some of their private Intelligencers and they verily thought that all the Hereticks as they called them would now unite among themselves and become one Body receiving the same Discipline exercised in England Which if it should happen and that they should have Heretical Bishops near them in those Parts they concluded that Rome and her Clergy would utterly fall Whereupon were sent two of their Emissaries from Rotterdam into England who were to pretend themselves Anabaptists and preach against baptizing Infants and preach up Rebaptizing and a Fifth Monarchy upon Earth And besides this one D. G. authorized by these Learned Men dispatched a Letter written in May 1549 from Delf in Holland to two Bishops whereof Winchester was one signifying the coming of these pretended Anabaptists and that they should receive them and cherish them and take their Parts if they should chance to receive any Checks Telling them that it was left to them to assist in this Cause and to some others whom they knew to be well-affected to the Mother-Church This Letter is lately put in print Sir Henry Sydney first met with it in Queen Elizabeth's Closet among some Papers of Queen Mary's He transcribed it into a Book of his called The Romish Policies It came afterwards into the Hands of ABp Vsher and was transcribed thence by Sir Iames Ware Let it be remembred here and noted that about this time Winchester was appointed with Ridley Bishop of Rochester to examine certain Anabaptists in Kent I find no Bishops Consecrated this Year CHAP. XVI Ridley made Bishop of London The Communion-Book reviewed RIdley Bishop of Rochester was designed to succeed Boner lately deprived in the Bishoprick of London and April 3. took his Oath an half Year being almost spent before he entred upon the Care of that See after Boner's Deprivation At his entrance he was exceeding wary not to do his Predecessor the least Injury in Goods that belonged to him He had not one Penny-worth of his moveable Goods for if any were found and known to be his he had Licence to convey them away otherwise they were safely preserved for him There was some quantity of Lead lay in the House which he used about it and the Church but Ridley paid for it as Boner's own Officers knew He continued Boner's Receiver one Staunton in his Place He paid fifty three or fifty five Pounds for Boner's own Servants common Liveries and Wages which was Boner's own Debt remaining unpaid after his Deposition He frequently sent for old Mrs. Boner his Predecessor's Mother calling her his Mother and caused her to sit in the uppermost Seat at his own Table as also for his Sister one Mrs. Mongey It was observed how Ridley welcomed the old Gentlewoman and made as much of her as though she had been his own Mother And though sometimes the Lords of the Council dined with him he would not let her be displaced but would say By your Lordships favour this Place of Right and Custom is for my Mother Boner But to see the base Ingratitude of Boner when he was restored again in Q. Mary's Reign he used Ridley far otherwise than Ridley had used him For he would not allow the Leases which Ridley had made which was in danger to redound to the utter Ruin and Decay of many poor Men. He had a Sister with three Children whom he married to one Shipside a Servant of his and provided for them This Sister Boner turned out of all and endeavoured the Destruction of Shipside had not Bishop Hethe delivered him Ridley in his Offices and in an Iron Chest in his Bed-Chamber had much Plate and considerable Quantities of other Goods all which Boner seized upon Insomuch that Ridley but a little before his Burning wrote a Supplicatory Letter to the Queen to take this into her Consideration That the poor Men might enjoy their Leases and Years renewed for that they were made without Fraud or Covin either for their Parts or his and the old Rents always reserved to the See without any kind of Dammage thereof Or at least that they might be restored to their former Leases and Years and might have rendred to them again such Sums of Money as they paid him and the Chapter as Fines for their Leases and Years taken from them Which Fines he desired the Queen would command might be made good out of the Plate and other Things he left in his House half whereof would disburse those Fines This did so much run in the good Man's Mind that at the time of his Burning he desired the Lord Williams then present to remember this his Suit to the Queen Which he promised him he would do But what Effect it had I cannot tell In the Vacancy of the Church of Rochester by the remove of Ridley the Arch-bishop committed the Spiritualities to William Cook LL. D. April 18. The Nobility and Gentry
was much offended that he was named in the Book and pretended this to be one Reason why he did write against it to vindicate himself as well as the Papal Church hereby so dangerously struck at This Book of Cranmer's was turned into Latin by Iohn Yong who complied afterwards with the old Religion under Queen Mary and was Master of Pembroke-Hall Cambridg At this Book the Defenders of Popery were so nettled that in the same Year 1550 Winchester then in the Tower and fickle Dr. Smith then at Lovain printed Answers Of Smith's Book I shall only note by the way that March 8. 1550. there was an Order of Council to examine the bringer over of his Book against Cranmer Such a Countenance did the State give to the Arch-bishop and his Book Gardiner's Book made the greatest noise Which was printed in France and intituled An Explication and Assertion of the true Catholick Faith touching the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar with the Confutation of a Book written against the same In the Beginning of his Book he wrote That his Sermon before the King on St. Peter's Day touching the Sacrament of the Altar gave occasion to the Arch-bishop's Book against it and that he was called before the King's Commissioners at Lambeth for his Catholick Faith in the Sacrament Whereas indeed this was not the Cause of his Troubles nor had some former Copies of his Book these words But after the Commission was issued forth against him to make his Cause appear the more specious as if it were the Cause of the Church he thought fit to make an Alteration in the beginning of his Book in the manner abovesaid And to carry on the Scene he in open Court offered his Book before the King's Commissioners To this Book of Gardiners our Arch-bishop studied and composed an Answer holding himself bound for the Vindication of the Evangelical Truth as well as of his own Writing and for the Satisfaction of the People not to suffer it to lie untaken notice of When it was known the Arch-bishop was preparing an Answer against Gardiner the People were in very great expectation and conceived an earnest desire to see and read it Having therefore dispatched his Copy and sent it to Rainold Wolf his Printer it was printed off in the Month of September 1551. But there was some stop put to the publishing of it occasioned by a Proclamation issued out from the King whereby for some political Ends both the printing and selling of English Books without the Allowance of the King's Majesty or six of his Privy-Council was forbidden The Arch-bishop being desirous that his Book might come abroad the next Term for the Contentation of many who had long expected the same sent to Secretary Cecyl and Sir Iohn Cheke to procure either from the King or Council a Licence to the said Wolf for printing and selling his Book Which was obtained and the Book published accordingly This Letter of the ABp's dated Sept. 29. I have thought not amiss to reposit in the Appendix Octob. 1. A Licence was granted to Wolf to publish the Book under the King's Privilege the Court then being at Hampton-Court and the Arch-bishop himself present The Title this second Book of the Arch-bishop's bore was An Answer by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan unto a crafty and sophistical Cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner Doctor of Law late Bishop of Winchester against the true and godly Doctrine of the most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ. Wherein is also as occasion serveth answered such Places of the Book of Dr. Richard Smith as may seem any thing worthy the answering Also a true Copy of the Book written and in open Court delivered by Dr. Stephen Gardiner not one Word added or diminished but faithfully in all Points agreeing with the Original This Book of Arch-bishop Cranmer's was printed again at London 1580 with his Life and some other things His Reply to Gardiner was in the most fair and candid Method that could be devised For he first set down his own Treatise Piece by Piece then Gardiner's Reply thereunto Word for Word leaving not one Paragraph without a full Answer His Reply to Smith was only of some things most worthy to be taken notice of the rest of Smith's Book being meer Trifles This Reply to Smith he inserted in the Body of his Answer to Gardiner as occasion served Only at the end he made a particular Reply to Smith's Preface It seemed to be a very compleat Exercitation upon that Subject The Book was stored with so great Learning and Plenty of Arguments Vt ea Controversia saith one of his Successors a nemine unquam contra Pontificios accuratius tractata esse videatur That no one Controversy was by any ever handled against the Papists more accurately It may not be amiss to mention here the Opinion that Cranmer himself had of his Book in that famous and renowned Confession he made of his Faith in S. Mary's Church Oxon immediately before he was led away to his Burning Where he expressed his full Approbation and great Confidence of the Doctrine contained therein saying That as for the Sacrament he believed as he had taught in his Book against the Bishop of VVinchester The which Book he said taught so true a Doctrine of the Sacrament that it should stand at the last Day before the Judgment of God where the Papistical Doctrine contrary thereto should be ashamed to shew her Face The Papists spake as much against this Book being much galled by it Dr. Tresham in his Disputation with Latimer said There were six hundred Errors in the Book Weston thinking to invalidate the Book by the pretended Novelty of the Doctrine asked the same Father How long he had been of that Opinion He said Not past seven Years that is about the Year 1547 and that Arch-bishop Cranmer's Book confirmed his Judgment therein and added That if he could but remember all therein contained he would not fear to answer any Man in this Matter The Arch-bishop had acknowledged to the Queen's Commissioners at Oxford that Ridley had first begun to enlighten him as to the true Notion of the Presence as he had maintained it in his Book Hereupon one of them took occasion to try to baffle the true Doctrine by making the whole stress of it to depend upon the Authority of single Ridley Latimer said he leaned upon Cranmer and Cranmer leaned upon Ridley Whereas the truth of this was no more but that Ridley reading Bertram's Book of the Body and Blood of Christ was sharpened to examine the old Opinion more accurately of the Presence of Christ's Flesh and Blood and looking into Ecclesiastical Authors he found it greatly controverted in the ninth Century and learnedly writ against Which made him begin to conclude it none of the ancient Doctrines of the Church but more lately
Oxford But with much ado For at first he was not only forbid to read his Lectures but not to stir a Foot out of the City of Oxon nor to convey any of his Goods away He obeyed and afterwards was permitted by the Council to depart He came first to Lambeth to the Arch-bishop but when he was committed to Prison Martyr went to London where he remained in great Danger both for his Religion and for his great Familiarity with the Arch-bishop and other pious Protestant Bishops However he thought not fit to transport himself without leave from the Government He signified to them that he came not hither on his own Head but that he was sent for by K. Edward and sent from the Town of Strasburgh And produced his Broad-seals from both And so since there was no further need of him he desired leave to depart Which he obtained by Letters from the Queen her self But the Papists his fatal Enemies cried out That such an Enemy of the Popish Religion ought not to be dismist but to be fetched out of the Ship and carried to Prison and punished He understood also by his Friends that when he was got over the Sea the Danger was not past For there were Snares for him in Flanders and Brabant whereby they made no doubt to take him But he used his Wits to save himself For when other Congregations of Protestant Strangers went straight some for Freezland and some for Denmark by Vessels they had hired among which was Iohn a Lasco's Congregation he procured an honest and godly Ship-master who kept him fourteen Days in his own House that so all might think he was gone with the other Strangers and his Enemies cease making search for him in the Vessels that were bound for Foreign Parts And then the Master sailed away with P. Martyr to Antwerp going into that Place by Night for the more privacy And by him he was brought to his Friends and by them before Day conveyed in a Waggon out of Town and so travelled safely through Countries that hated him unto Strasburgh And by God's Goodness and his own Celerity he arrived safe among his Friends who received him with the greatest Joy And the Senate conferred upon him his old Place which he enjoyed before he went for England And Martyr needed not to be discontented that he was gotten out of England considering how insufferably he was affronted undermined belied by the Popish Party in Oxon Who one would think might have better intreated a Man of Quality by Birth a Man besides of great Learning Integrity and Reverence and whom the King had thought good for his great Parts to place for his Professor of Divinity in that University and a Man who also had always carried himself inoffensively unto all The blame of this inhospitable Usage might lie upon the English Nation and be a Reflection upon the Natives were it not more truly to be laid to the furious Spirit that Popish Principles inspire Men with This Peter Martyr did resent and took notice of to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in his Epistle Dedicatory before his Book of the Eucharist There he writes That he could not have thought there were any in the World unless he had found it that with such crafty Wiles deceitful Tricks and bitter Slanders would rage so against a Man that deserved no manner of Evil of them nor ever hurt any one of them either in Word or Deed. And yet they tore his Name with most shameless Lies and would never make an end And if they did thus rudely carry themselves towards him in K. Edward's Time what then may we conclude they would do when the Government favoured them In this first Year of Q. Mary a very foul Scandal was blown about of her that She was with Child by her Chancellor Bishop Gardiner however it was raised whether of her Enemies to render her odious or of some Zealots of Popish Religion to shew the desire they had of her Matching with him or some other round Roman Catholick as he was and for whom She carried a very great Reverence A great Reflection upon her Chastity and might have spoiled her Marriage It fled as far as Norfolk and there spred it self But such an infamous Report not being fit to be put up Henry Earl of Sussex being Lord Lieutenant of that County took upon him to examine this Scandal and to search it to the very first Reporter And so I find a Bill drawn in the Cotton-Library subscribed by that Earl's own Hand which set forth that Laurence Hunt of Disse in Norfolk came to Robert Lowdal Chief Constable and told him That he did hear say that the Queen's Majesty was with Child by the said Bishop and that his Wife did tell him so And when his Wife was examined She said She had it of one Sheldrake's Wife And when Sheldrake's Wife was examined She said She had it of her Husband And when he was examined he said he had it of one Wilby of Diss. And Wilby examined said he had it of one Iohn Smith of Cockstreet And Iohn Smith said he heard it of one Widow Miles And She being examined said she had it of two Men but what they were she could not tell nor where they dwelt And then after this Bill follow all their Examinations distinctly Which I suppose was drawn up for the Council signed with Sussex's Hand And what followed of this I know not Only in another Manuscript there is a Memorial of one Iohn Albone of Trunch in Norfolk who in the first of the Queen was indicted for saying that the Queen was with Child by Winchester A Parliament met this Year in the Month of October The Queen knew how difficult it would be to obtain her Purpose to overthrow all that had been established concerning Religion in her Brother's Days And therefore when this Parliament was to be summoned She impeached the free Election of Members by dispatching abroad into the several Counties her Letters directing the choice And such Knights and Burgesses were chosen by Force and Threatning for many Places as were judged fit to serve her Turn And divers that were duly chosen and lawfully returned were thrust out and others without any Order or Law put in their Places For the People were aware what the Queen intended this Parliament should do and therefore did bestir themselves in most Places to return honest Men. In the Upper House Taylor Bishop of Lincoln was in his Robes violently thrust out of the House In the House of Commons Alexander Nowel and two more chosen Burgesses lawfully chosen returned and admitted were so served Which according to the Judgment of some made the Parliament actually void as by a Precedent of the Parliament holden at Coventry in the 38 o of H. VI. it appeareth As also her third Parliament was reckoned by many to be void because in the Writs from Philip and Mary part of the Title of the
Petition that some of those that were abroad had sent over to the Queen this Year to disswade her from these Persecutions that were now so rigorously set on foot in England they interceded for Cranmer putting her in mind how he had once preserved her in her Father's Time by his earnest Intercessions with him for her So that they said she had more reason to believe he loved her and would speak the Truth to her than she had of all the rest of the Clergy But alas this did little good In October Ridley and Latimer were brought forth to their Burning and passing by Cranmer's Prison Ridley looked up to have seen him and to have taken his Farewel of him but he was not then at the Window being engaged in Dispute with a Spanish Friar But he looked after them and devoutly falling upon his Knees prayed to God to strengthen their Faith and Patience in that their last but painful Passage HUGH LATIMER Bishop of WORCESTER Martyr'd 16 Octob. 1555 The Writer of all this said He knew certain Men which through the perswasion of their Friends went unto his Sermons swelling blown full and puft up like Esop's Frogs with Envy and Malice against him but when they returned his Sermon being done and demanded how they liked him and his Doctrine they answered with the Bishops and Pharisees Servants There was never Man spake like unto this Man He would also speak freely against buying and selling of Benefices against promoting such to the Livings of Spiritual Ministers which were unlearned and ignorant in the Law of God against Popish Pardons against the reposing our Hope in our own Works or in other Mens Merits He was also a charitable Man when he was at Cambridg according to his Ability to poor Scholars and other needy People So conformable was his Life to his Doctrine Insomuch that there was a common Saying in that University When Mr. Stafford read and Latimer preached then was Cambridg blessed But to return to our ABp in his Prison Where he divided his melancholy Time partly in Disputings and Discourses with Learned Men of the contrary Perswasion who laboured to bring him over thinking thereby to obtain a great Glory to their Church and partly in preparing an Answer to Bishop Gardiner under the name of Marcus Antonius in vindication of his own Book concerning the Sacrament And he finished three Parts in Prison Two whereof were lost in Oxford and one came into the Hands of Iohn Fox as he tells us himself which he said was ready to be seen and set forth as the Lord should see good Bishop Ridley also in his Confinement wrote Marginal Annotations on the side of Gardiner's said Book with the Lead of a Window for want of Pen and Ink. Great pity it is that these last Studies of the Arch-bishop are lost For even that part which was once in Fox's Custody is gone with his Fellows for ought that I can find among his Papers It was some time before this that there was a Report spred that the Queen was Dead The Rumor presently extended it self over the Seas Which occasioned the Death of one pious Professor of the Gospel namely Bartlet Green a Lawyer For Christopher Goodman having writ to him his former Acquaintance in Oxford to certify him of the Truth thereof he in a Letter in answer wrote thus The Queen is not yet Dead This and divers other Letters that were given to a Bearer to carry beyond Sea to the Exiles there were intercepted and being read at the Council some would have it to amount to Treason as though there had been a Plot carrying on against the Queen's Life But the Law not making those words Treason he after long lying in the Tower was sent by the Council to Bishop Boner Who upon examination found him too firm to be moved from the Doctrine of the Gospel and so condemned him to the Fire CHAP. XIX The last Proceedings with Cranmer AFter Ridley and Latimer were dispatched and had sealed their Doctrine with their Blood at Oxford the said Course was resolved to be taken with Cranmer late Arch-bishop but now the Arch-Heretick as he was esteemed by them They had been all three condemned and adjudged Hereticks by Dr. Weston in the University of Oxford after their Disputations But that Sentence was void in Law because the Authority of the Pope was not yet received Therefore they were tried and judged upon new Commissions The Commission for judging the two former was from Pole the Cardinal Lord Legate Wherein the Commissioners constituted were White Bishop of Lincoln Brooks Bishop of Glocester and Holiman Bishop of Bristow But there was a new Commission sent from Rome for the Conviction of Cranmer Brooks of Glocester was the Pope's Sub-delegate under Cardinal Puteo to whom the Pope had committed this Process and Martin and Story Doctors of the Civil Law were the Queen's Commissioners The former of which was now or soon after for his good Services made one of the Masters in Chancery and was much employed in these Trials of poor Men. Notwithstanding this Man complied in Q. Elizabeth's Reign and took his Oath against the Pope now a second Time In this Commission from the Pope he decreed in a formality of Words That the ABp should have Charity and Justice shewed to him and that he should have the Laws in most ample manner to answer in his behalf He decreed also That the said Arch-bishop should come before the Bishop of Glocester as high Commissioner from his Holiness for the examination of such Articles as should be produced against him and that Martin and Story should require in the King and Queen's Name the Examination of him In pursuance of this Command from the Pope and in Obedience to the King and Queen they came down to Oxon upon this Commission and Septemb. 12. which was seven days before the Condemnation of Latimer and Ridley sat in S. Mary's Church accompanied with many other Doctors and such-like and among the rest the Pope's Collector The Arch-bishop was brought forth out of Prison habited in a fair black Gown and his Hood of Doctor of Divinity on both Shoulders Then some Proctor said aloud Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury appear here and make answer to that which shall be laid to thy Charge for Blasphemy Incontinency and Heresy What due Honour the Arch-bishop gave unto the Queen's Commissioners as representing the Supream Authority of the Nation and how he gave none to Brooks the Pope's Representative keeping on his Cap and the Speeches that the said Brookes and the other two made unto him with the Arch-bishop's discreet and excellent Answers still interposing his Protestation against Brooks his Authority may be seen at large in Fox's Monuments Only it may not be amiss here briefly to mention for the better understanding of the Form of the Process that after the Archbishop was cited as before was said into the Court the Bishop of Glocester
meaning Thirlby Hethe Tonstal c. that they held their Peace for this Consideration though they knew this well enough Who if they had done their Duty to the Crown and Realm should have opened their Mouths at this Time and shewn the Peril and Danger that might insue to the Crown hereby Another Cause he urged to the Queen why he could not allow the Pope's Authority was Because he subverted not only the Laws of the Nation but the Laws of God So that whosoever be under his Authority he suffered them not to be under Christ's Religion purely For proof of which he gave these Instances God's Will and Commandment is that when the People be gathered together to serve God the Ministers should use such a Language as the People might understand and take profit thereby For God said by the Mouth of S. Paul As a Harp or Lute if it give no certain sound that Men may know what is stricken who can dance after it it is put in vain So it is in vain profiteth nothing if the Priest speak to the People in a Language they know not And whereas when he urged this to the Commissioners they told him That that Place respected Preaching only He told the Queen That S. Paul's words meant it not only of Preaching for that he spake expresly of Praying Singing and giving Thanks and of all other things which the Priests say in the Churches And so he said all Interpreters Greek and Latin Old and New School-Authors and others that he had read understood it Till about thirty Years past Eckius and others of his Sort began to invent this new Exposition And so he said all the best Learned Divines that met at Windsor 1549 for the Reformation of the Church both of the New Learning and the Old agreed without Controversy not one opposing that the Service of the Church ought to be in the Mother-Tongue and that that Place of S. Paul was so to be understood Again Christ ordained the Sacrament to be received of Christian People under both Forms of Bread and Wine and said Drink ye all of this The Pope gives a clean contrary Command That no Lay-man shall drink of the Cup of their Salvation So that if he should obey the Pope in these things he must needs disobey his Saviour Again He instanced in the Pope's taking upon him to give the Temporal Sword to Kings and Princes and to depose them from their Imperial States if they were disobedient to him and in commanding Subjects to disobey their Princes Assoiling them as well from their Obedience as their lawful Oaths made unto them directly contrary to God's Commandment that commandeth all Subjects to obey their Kings and their Rulers under them Then he spake of the Superiority the Pope claimed above Kings and Emperors and making himself Universal Bishop And how his Flatterers told him he might dispense against God's Word both against the Old and New Testament and that whatsoever he did tho he drew innumerable People by heaps with himself to Hell yet might no mortal Man reprove him because he is the Judg of all Men and might be judged by no Man And thus he sat in the Temple of God as he were a God and named himself God and dispensed against God If this were not he said to play Antichrist's part he knew not what Antichrist was that is Christ's Enemy and Adversary Now added he until the time that such a Person may be found Men might easily conjecture where to find Antichrist He took God to record that what he spake against the Power and Authority of the Pope he spake it not for any Malice he ought to the Pope's Person whom he knew not nor for fear of Punishment or to avoid the same thinking it rather an Occasion to aggravate than to diminish the same but for his most bounden Duty to the Crown Liberty Laws and Customs of this Realm of England and most especially to discharge his Conscience in uttering the Truth to God's Glory casting away all Fear by the Comfort which he had in Christ who saith Fear not them that kill the Body As touching the Sacrament he said That forasmuch as the whole Matter stood in the understanding those words of Christ This is my Body This is my Blood He told the Commissioners That Christ in those words made demonstration of the Bread and Wine and spake figuratively calling Bread his Body and Wine his Blood because he ordained them to be Sacraments of his Body and Blood And he told them He would be judged by the old Church which Doctrine could be proved Elder and that he would stand to And that forasmuch as he had urged in his Book Greek and Latin Authors which above a thousand Years continually taught as he did if they could bring forth but one old Author that said in these two Points as they said he offered six or seven Years ago and offered so still that he would give place Then he shewed her how fond and uncomfortable the Papists Doctrine of the Sacrament is For of one Body of Christ is made two Bodies One natural having distance of Members with Form and Proportion of Man's perfect Body and this Body is in Heaven But the Body of Christ in the Sacrament by their own Doctrine must needs be a monstrous Body having neither distance of Members nor Form Fashion or Proportion of a Man's natural Body And such a Body is in the Sacrament teach they as goes into the Mouth with the Form of Bread and entreth no further than the Form of Bread goes nor tarrieth no longer than the Form of Bread is by natural Heat digesting So that when the Form of Bread is digested the Body of Christ is gone And what Comfort said he can be herein to any Christian Man to receive Christ's unshapen Body and it to enter no further than the Stomach and depart by and by as soon as the Bread is consumed It seemed to him a more sound and comfortable Doctrine that Christ hath but one Body and that hath Form and Fashion of a Man's true Body Which Body spiritually entreth into the whole Man Body and Soul And though the Sacrament be consumed yet whole Christ remaineth and feedeth the Receiver unto eternal Life if he continue in Godliness and never departeth until the Receiver forsaketh him That if it could be shewed him that the Pope's Authority be not prejudicial to the things before-mentioned or that his Doctrine of the Sacrament be erroneous then he would never stand perversly in his own Opinion but with all humility submit himself to the Pope not only to kiss his Feet but another Part also For all these Reasons he could not take the Bishop of Gloucester for his Judg representing as he did this Pope But another Reason was in respect of his own Person being more than once perjured having been divers times sworn never to consent that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction within this Realm
how much soever he should extol them the greatness of the Matter would over-reach his Speech And that it was well known to all how humanely he received not him only but many other Strangers of his Order and how kindly he treated them To both these I will subjoin the Judgment of another who I cannot but conclude was well-acquainted with the Arch-bishop and a long and diligent Observer of his Demeanour in his Superintendency over the Church and that was Iohn Bale sometime Bishop of Ossory He never placed said he the Function of a Bishop in the Administration of secular Things but in a most faithful Dispensation of God's Word In the midst of wicked Babylon he always performed the part of a good Guide of Israel And among Papists that tyrannized against the Truth of Christ he governed the People of God with an admirable Prudence No Man ever so happily and steddily persisted with Christ himself in the Defence of the Truth in the midst of falsly learned Men in such imminent hazard of his Life and yet without receiving any Harm No Man did more prudently bear with some false Apostles for a time although with St. Paul he knew what most pestilent Men they were that so they might not be provoked to run into greater Rage and Madness All this that I have before written concerning this our venerable Prelate cannot but redound to his high Praise and Commendation And it is very fit such Vertues and Accomplishments should be celebrated and recorded to Posterity Yet I do not intend these my Collections for such a Panegyrick of him as to make the World believe him void of all Faults or Frailties the Condition of human Nature He lived in such critical Times and under such Princes and was necessarily involved in such Affairs as exposed him to greater Temptations than ordinary And if any Blemishes shall by curious Observers be espied in him he may therefore seem the more pardonable and his great exemplary Goodness and Usefulness in the Church of God may make ample Amends for some Errors CHAP. XXXVIII The Arch-bishop vindicated from Slanders of Papists I Have given I hope a just though imperfect Account from undoubted Records and authentick Manuscripts as well as the best published Books of the excellent Endowments of this great Prelat and of his innocent prudential and useful Behaviour in his high Place and Station So that none who impartially weighs the Premisses can conclude otherwise of him than that he was a very rare Person and one that deserves to be reckoned among the brightest Lights that ever shone in this English Church And this all the sober unprejudiced part of Posterity will believe notwithstanding the unjust Calumnies some hot-spirited Papists have cast upon his Memory I shall pass over the unhandsome Name that Feckenham gave him calling him Dolt as he did also his two other Brethren in Tribulation Ridley and Latimer Prisoners then in Oxford Men by far more Learned than himself upon occasion of Mr. Hawks esteeming them deservedly Godly and Learned Men. I shall also pass by what Bishop Boner then said of him viz. That he dared to say that Cranmer would Recant so he might have his Living As though he were a Man of a prostituted Conscience and would do any thing upon worldly Considerations But there is a late French Writer whom I cannot but take notice of with some Indignation who to shew his bigotted Zeal to the Roman Church hath bestowed this most defamatory Character upon this our Arch-bishop That he was one of the profligatest Men of England that had nothing of Christianity in him but the outward Appearances being Ambitious Voluptuous Turbulent and capable of all sorts of Intrigues Of which all that I have written is an abundant Confutation besides the severe Chastisements the right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum hath lately bestowed upon this Author Who questionless was well versed in those famous Popish Calumniators of our Reformation and of this our Arch-bishop the great Instaurator thereof and had a mind to out-do them in their Talent of throwing Dirt. Those I mean who living in the Age past did most bitterly and virulently as it fell in their way fly upon Cranmer's Memory and Fame to eclipse it to Posterity if they could namely Saunders Allen and Parsons and some others But those who reade these Memorials will be able easily to confute them and will perceive that these Men sought not so much to say what was true as what might serve the Ends of their Anger and Spight their Reports being made up for the most part of nothing but Lies and Slanders illy patched together Allen if he were the Answerer of the Execution of English Iusâ—ice saith That Cranmer was a notorious perjured and often relapsed Apostata recanting swearing and forswearing at every turn A heavy Charge but we are left to guess what these Perjuries these so often Swearings and Forswearings these Relapses and Recantations be But it is enough for them to roar out Notorious Perjuries c. But let us see what Oaths Cranmer took that might occasion his Perjuries He swore at his Consecration the usual Oath to the Pope and in his future Doings laboured to restore the King's Supremacy against the Pope's Usurpations and to promote a Reformation against the Popâ—'s Superstitions Was this one of his notorious Perjuries It is pity the doing so good a Thing should fall under so bad a Name But at the taking of that Oath did he not make a solemn Protestation openly before Publick Notaries and that entred down into Record That he intended not by the said Oath to do any thing against the Law of God the King or the Realm and their Laws and Prerogatives nor to be abridged thereby from consulting for the Reformation of Religion In which way the best Civilians then put him and assured him that by this Means he might safely without any Guilt take the Oath to the Pope Which otherwise he would not have done And truly for my part I think there was no other way to escape that Perjury that all other Bishops Elect in those Times were intangled in by swearing two contrary Oaths one to the Pope and another to the King Cranmer sware also at receiving Orders to live Chastely But he afterwards married a Wife Surely hereby he brake not his Oath but rather kept it He did likewise swear to the Succession of Q. Ann But would Allen have all that submitted to that Act of Parliament to be perjured That would reflect upon the Wisdom of the three Estates at that Time in making such an ensnaring Law and involve all sorts of People both Clergy Nobility and Gentry and all other Persons of Age in Perjury as well as the Arch-bishop excepting only two Persons More and Fisher who would not submit to this Act. And even they themselves offered to swear to the Succession it self and refused only to swear to the Preamble of
Carnal Presence For a Conclusion let the Reader not hear me but another speak for our Arch-bishop against one of these Calumniators and he a Portugal Bishop After Cranmer by hearing of the Gospel began to savour of Christian Profession what Wickedness was ever reported of him With what outrage of Lust was he enflamed What Murders what seditious Tumults what secret Conspiracies were ever seen or suspected so much to proceed from him Unless ye account him blame-worthy for this that when King Henry Father to Mary upon great Displeasure conceived was for some secret Causes determined to strike off her Head this Reverend Arch-bishop did pacify the Wrath of the Father and with mild continual Intercession preserved the Life of the Daughter Who for Life preserved acquitted her Patron with Death As concerning his Marriage if you reproachfully impute that to Lust which Paul doth dignify with so honourable a Title I do answer That he was the Husband of one Wife with whom he continued many Years more chastly and holily than Osorius in that his stinking sole and single Life peradventure one Month tho he flee never so often to his Catholick Confessions And I see no Cause why the Name of a Wife shall not be accounted in each respect as Holy with the true Professors of the Gospel as the Name of a Concubine with the Papists Thus Fox And so I have at last by God's favourable Concurrence finished this my Work and have compiled an imperfect History yet with the best Diligence I could of this singular Arch-bishop and blessed Martyr and in the conclusion have briefly vindicated him from those many false Surmises and Imputations that his implacable Enemies of the Roman Faction have reported and published abroad against him Not contented with the shedding of his Blood unless they stigmatized his Name and Memory and formed the World into a belief that he was one of the vilest Wretches that lived who in Reality and Truth appeareth to have been one of the holiest Bishops and one of the best Men that Age produced THE END THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer THE APPENDIX TO THE MEMORIALS OF Archbishop Cranmer NUM I. Account of Mr. Pool's Book by Dr. Cranmer To the Ryght honorable and my syngular good Lorde my Lorde of Wylshire IT may please your Lordeshipe to bee advertised that the Kynge his grace my Lady your wyfe my Lady Anne your doughter be in good helth whereof thankes be to God As concernynge the Kinge hys cause Mayster Raynolde Poole hath wrytten a booke moch contrary to the kinge hys purpose wyth such wytte that it appereth that he myght be for hys wysedome of the cownsel to the kinge hys grace And of such eloquence that if it were set forth and knowne to the commen people I suppose yt were not possible to persuade them to the contrary The pryncypal intent whereof ys that the kinge hys grace sholde be contente to commyt hys grete cause to the jugement of the pope wherein me semeth he lacketh moch jugement But he swadeth that with such goodly eloquence both of words and sentence that he were lyke to persuade many but me hee persuadeth in that poynt no thynge at al. But in many other thynges he satysfyeth me very wel The som wherof I shal shortly reherse Furst he sheweth the cause wherfore he had never pleasure to intromytte hymself in this cause And that was the trouble which was lyke to ensue to this realme therof by dyversitie of tytles Wherof what hurte myght come we have had exsample in our fathers dayes by the tytles of Lancaster and Yorke And where os god hath gyven many noble gyfts unto the kinge hys grace as wel of body and mynde os also of fortune yet this excedeth al other that in hym al tytles do mete and come togyder and this Realme ys restored to tranquillitie and peace so oweth he to provide that this londe fal not agayne to the forsaide mysery and troble which may come aswel by the people within this realme which thynke surely that they have an hayre lawful alâ—â—ady with whom they al be wel contente and wolde be sory to have any other And yt wolde be harde to persuade thaym to take any other levynge her os also by the Emperour whych ys a man of so grete power the quene beying hys awnt the Princes hys nece whome he so moch doth and ever hath favored And where he harde reasons for the kynge hys party that he was moved of god hys lawe which doth straytly forbed and that with many gret thretts that no man shal mary hys brother hys wife And os for the people yt longeth not to thayr judgement and yet yt ys to be thought that thay wil be contente whan thay shal knowe that the awncyente Doctores of the Chyrch and the determinations of so many grete vniversities be of the kynge hys sentence And os concernynge the Emperour if he be so unryghtful that he wyl mayntene an unjust cause yet god wil never fayl thaym that stonde opon his party and for any thynge wyl not transgresse hys commawndments And besyde that we shal not lacke the ayde of the Frenshe kynge whyche partely for the Lege whych he hath made with us and partly for the dyspleasure and olde grutch which he bereth toward the Emperour wolde be glad to have occasion to be avenged Thies reasons he bryngeth for the kyngs party agaynst hys owne opynyon To which he maketh answer in this maner Fyrst os towchynge the Lawe of god he thynketh that yf the kinge were pleased to take the contrary parte he myght os wel justifie that and have os good grownde of the scripture therfore os for that parte which he now taketh And yet if he thought the kyngs party never so juste and that this his mariage were undowtedly agaynst godds pleasure than he cowde not deny but yt sholde be wel done for the kynge to refuse this mariage and to take another wyfe but that he sholde be a doar therin and a setter forwarde therof he cowde never fynde in hys harte And yet he grawnteth that he hath no good reason therfore but only affection which he bereth and of dewty oweth unto the kyngs parson For in so doing he sholde not only wayke ye and utterly take away the Princes Title but also he must neds accuse the most and cheife parte of al the kyngs lyfe hiderto which hath bene so infortunate to lyve more than xx yers in a matrimony so shameful so abominable so bestial and agaynst nature yf it be so os the books which do defend the kyngs party do say that the abomination therof ys naturally wrytten and graven in every mans harte so that none excusation can be made by ignorance And thus to accuse the noble nature of the kyngs grace and to take away the title of hys succession he cowde never fynd in hys harte were the kyngs cause never so
sins or that the veray bare observation of theym in it self is a holines before God Although they be remembrances of many holy things or a disposition unto goodness And evyn so do the lawes of your G's realm dispose men unto justice unto peace and other true and perfect holines Wherfore I did conclude for a general rule that the people ought to observe theym as they do the laws of your G's realm and with no more opinion of holines or remission of sin then the other common Laws of your G's realm Though my two Sermons were long yet I have written briefly unto your Highness the sum of theym both And I was informed by sundry reports that the people were glad that they heard so much as they did until such time as the Prior of the black frears at Canterbury preached a sermon as it was thought and reported clean contrary unto al the three things which I had preached before For as touching the first part which I had preached against the erroneous doctrin of the Bp. of R. his power which error was that by God's Law he should be Gods Vicar here in earth the Prior would not name the Bp. of R. but under color spake generally That the Church of Christ never erred And as touching the second part where I spake of the Vices of the Bishops of R. And there to the Prior said that he would not sclawnder the Bishops of Rome And he said openly to me in a good Audience that he knew no vices by none of the Bishops of Rome And he said also openly that I preached uncharitably whan I said that these many years I had daily prayed unto God that I might see the power of Rome destroyed and that I thanked God that I had now seen it in this realm And yet in my sermon I declared the cause wherfore I so prayed For I said that I perceived the See of Rome work so many things contrary to Gods honor and the wealth of this realm and I saw no hope of amendment so long as that See reigned over us And for this cause onely I had prayed unto God continually that we might be separated from that See and for no private malice or displesure that I had either to the Bp. or See of Rome But this seemed an uncharitable prayer to the Prior that the power of Rome should be destroyed And as for the third part where I preached against the Laws of the Bp. of Rome that they ought not to be taken as Gods Lawes nor to be esteemed so highly as he would have them the Prior craftily leaving out the name of the Bp. of Rome preached that the Lawes of the Church be equal with Gods lawes These things he preached as it is proved both by sufficient witnes and also by his own confession I leave the judgment hereof unto your G. and to your Councel whether this were a defence of the Bp. of Rome or not And I onely according to my bounden duty have reported the truth of the Fact But in mine opinion if he had spoken nothing else yet whosoever saith that the Church never erred maintaineth the Bp. of Rome his power For if that were not erroneous that was taught of his power That he is Christs Vicar in earth and by Gods law Head of al the World spiritual and temporal and that al people must believe that De necessitate Salutis and that whosoever doth any thing against the See of Rome is an heretick and that he hath authority also in Purgatory with such other many false things which were taught in times past to be Articles of our Faith if these things were not erroneous yea and errors in the Faith then must nedis your G's Laws be erroneous that pronounce the Bp. of Rome to be of no more power by Gods Law than other Bishops and theym to be Traitors that defend the contrary This is certain that whosoever saith that the Church never erred must either deny that the church ever taught any such errors of the Bp. of Rome his power and then they speak against that which al the world knoweth and al books written of that matter these three or four hundred years do testifie or else they must say that the said errors be none errors but truths And then it is both treason and heresy At my first Examination of him which was before Christmas he said that he preached not against me nor that I had preached any thing amiss But now he saith that I preached amiss in very many things and that he purposely preached against me And this he reporteth openly By which words I am marvellously sclawndered in these parts And for this cause I beseech your G. that I may not have the judgment of the cause for so moch as he taketh me for a party but that your G. would commit the hearing therof unto my L. Privy Seal or else to associate unto me some other persons at your G's plesure that we may hear the case joyntly together If this man who hath so highly offended your G. and preached against me openly being Ordinary and Metropolitane of this Province and that in soch matters as concerne the misliving and the laws of the Bp. of Rome and that also within mine own church if he I say be not looked upon I leave unto your G's prudence to expend what example this may be unto others with like colour to maintain the Bp. of Rome his authority and also of what estimation I shal be reputed hereafter and what credence shal be given unto my preaching whatsoever I shal say hereafter I beseech your G. to pardon me of my long and tedious writing For I could not otherwise set the matter forth plaine And I most heartily thank your G. for the Stag which your G. sent unto me from Wyndsor Forest. Which if your G. knew for how many causes it was welcome unto me and how many ways it did me service I am sure you would think it moch the better bestowed Thus our Lord have you Highness alwayes in his preservation and governance From Ford the xxvj day of August Your Graces most humble Chaplain and bedisman T. Cantuarien NUM XIV The Archbishop to Mr. Secretary Crumwel concerning his styling himself Primate of al England RIght worshipful in my most harty wise I commend me unto you Most hartily thanking you for that you have signified unto me by my Chaplain Mr. Champion the complaint of the Bp. of Winchester unto the Kings Highnes in two things concerning my Visitation The one is that in my style I am written Totius Angliae Primas to the derogation and prejudice of the Kings high power and authority being Supreme Head of the Church The other is that his Dioces not past five years agone was visited by my Predecessor and must from henceforth pay the tenth part of the Spiritualties according to the Act granted in the last Sessions of Parlament Wherfore he thinketh that his
Visitationem Archiep. Cant. FIrst That the Archbp. of Canterbury in al his Monitions and Writings sent to the Bp. Abbots Prior and Archdeacon of London concerning this his Visitation called himself Apostolicae Sedis Legatum and that therefore the Bp. of London with the Chapter did not only advertise the Archbp. therof by their Letters before the day of Visitation But also the same day of the Commencement thâ—reof in the Chapter house of Powles the said Bp. and Chapter before the delivery of the Certificate to the ABp made there openly a â—rotestation reading it in writing signifying that they would neither accept him as such a Legate or admit or obey his Visitation jurisdiction or any thing that he would attempt by the pretext or color of that name of Legate or otherwise against the Crown of our Soveraign his Regality Statutes or customes of his realm And required the said Archbp. to command his Register there present to enact the said Protestation Which he refused utterly to do shewing himself not willing to admit the said Protestation Item That the Archbp. in his said Monition to the Bp. did expresly intimate and signify to him that he would in his Visitation suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bp. the Dean and Archdeacons from the beginning thereof to the ending In such wise that the Bp. nor his Officers Dean nor Archdeacon should or might at that time which he would not determine how long it should endure use no jurisdiction whatsoever causes or necessities should chance of correction institutions of benefices Confirmations of Election Consecrations of Churches Celebrations of Orders or Probation of Testaments with many other things mo appertaining ad forum contentiosum But al and every of these the Archbp. and his Officers would have and suffer none other to use and exercise the same unto the end of his Visitation Which he hath now continued until the first day of December pretending that then he may likewise continue it other six months and so forth without end at his plesure during his life from time to time So that by this means he only and none other should be Bp. but Titularis in all his Province during his life but at his plesure Which were an inconvenience intolerable and such as never was read nor heard of that ever any Metropolitan private Legate or Bp. of Rome in the most Tyranny had usurped the semblable Item That al men learned and Books of the Canon Law doth aggree that no Metropolitan or Primate may thus by any law written suspend al the jurisdiction of the Bishops for the time of their Visitations or exercise the premises during the same Iure Metropolitico And this the Councel of the Archbishop doth not deny nor cannot Item Where the said AB doth pretend that his Predecessors times past hath put in use and exercise al the premises And so though the Common law doth not favor him yet he may lean to prescription First it is to be considered and remembred that the suspension of al jurisdiction of al the Bishops in maner aforesaid seemeth to be against holy scripture and the authority given unto them by God and as it was said before that Suspension were a thing pernitious not read nor heard of to have bee attempted by the most tyranny of al the Bishops of R. without the great offence of the Bishop And as for the rest considering that none of his Predecessors this hundred years did visit thus his Province and therfore no man Living can know this by experience it had been necessary for the Archbp. to have shewed books for the proof of these his sayings and pretences Which he and his Officers being therunto desired as wel before the Visitation as sithence ever did refuse and deferr to do Item It is to be remembred that in case it shal appear in any Book of the AB that his Predecessors have attempted any of the Premisses First that his Predecessors were Legates and though they did visit jure Metropolitico yet they might peradventure as Legates attempt some things which they had had no right nor colour to do if they had be only Metropolitans and Primates Secondarily In this behalf and case it is to be remembred that many of those Archbps. of Canterbury were not only Legates but also Chancellors of England By the which authority they peradventure did enforce and maintain many things attempted against the Law as the late Cardinal did And therfore it is to be dissevered what they did as Legates and what as Metropolitans and what by force after repealed and what by right peaceably enjoyed And not to now jure Metropolitico such things as were done by his Predecessors as Legates nor to chalenge prescription now the authority of the See of Rome is repealed and here extinguished in such things as were attempted only by the pretext of the authority of that See or else after were appealed repealed or resisted Thirdly In This cause it is to be remembred that it appears by the ancient Registers of the Bishops and their Churches that when the Predecessors of the AB did attempt any of these causes aforesaid the Bishops and their Clergies did appeal to the See of Rome And divers times they obtained sentences and executions against him and some remained undecided by the reason of the death of the AB or Bp. complainant for remedy and redress of the same In like maner as we your faithful Subjects have now for this our grief appeled unto your Majesty Item It is to be considered Whether any Metropolitan in other Christen realmes being now Legate doth exercise the premisses after the form now here pretended in his Visitation And in case they do not as it is said they do not attempt any such things but only in their Visitations Provincial useth that the Common Law giveth them then here to be repealed and extinguished for ever To the intent that the Bishops of R. hereafter shal have no color to maintain and justify that they keep here yet and continue the possession of their authority and of our subjection by their Legate Saying that although the AB doth relinquish the name of a Legate yet nevertheless he exerciseth such jurisdiction as the Laws never gave to Metropolitans nor no AB in Christendome doth exercise Legates of the See of R. only excepted And therfore it is to be provided that no sparks remain wherby he might suscitate any such flame if the matter should come in question Finally It is to be remembred that the Bishops nor their Clergies do not refuse to accept and obey the Visitation of the AB as Metropolitan and to pay to him proxies due and accustomed But where the Bishops hath not only the common Laws but also Bulls and Sentences executed against his Predecessors and that long before the making of the Statutes against Provisions declaring what sums he shal not pass for the Proxies of their Churches the Officers of the AB demandeth much more
the next IV. Your fourth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament hang over the high Altar and there to be worshipped as it was wont to be and they which wil not therto consent we wil have them dy like Heretics against the holy Catholic faith What say you O ignorant people in things pertaining to God Is this the holy Catholic faith that the Sacrament should be hanged over the Altar and worshipped And be they Heretics that wil not consent therto I pray you who made this Faith Any other but the Bishops of Rome And that after more then a thousand years after the Faith of Christ was ful and perfect Innocent III. about 1215 years after Christ did ordain that the Sacrament and Chrism should be kept under lock and key But yet no motion he made of hanging the Sacrament over the high Altar nor of the worshiping of it After him came Honorius III. and he added further commanding that the Sacrament should be devoutly kept in a clean place and sealed and that the priest should often teach the people reverendly to bow down to the host when it is lifted up in the Mass time and when the priests should cary it to the sick folkes And altho this Honorius added the worshipping of the Sacrament yet he made no mention of the hanging therof over the high Altar as your Article proporteth Nor how long after or by what means that came first up into this realm I think no man can tel And in Italy it is not yet used until this day And in the beginning of the Church it was not only not used to be hanged up but also it was utterly forbid to be kept And wil you have al them that wil not consent to your Article to dy like heretics that hold against the Catholic faith Were the Apostles and Evangelists heretics Were the Martyrs and Confessors heretics Were al the old Doctors of the Church heretics Were al christen people heretics until within three or four hundred years last past that the Bishops of Rome taught them what they should do and believe All they before rehearsed neither hanged the Sacrament over the Altar nor worshiped it nor not one of them al spake any one word either of the hanging up or worshiping of the Sacrament Mary they speak very much of the worshiping of Christ himself setting in heaven at the right hand of his Father And no man doth duely receive the Sacrament except he so after that maner do worship Christ whom he spiritually receiveth spiritually feedeth and nourisheth upon and by whom spiritually he liveth and continueth that life that is towards God And this the Sacrament teacheth us Now to knit up this Article shortly Here is the issue of this matter that you must either condemn of heresy the Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors and al the holy Church of Christ until the time of Innocentius and Honorius because they hanged not the Sacrament over the Altar to be worshiped or else you must be condemned your selves by your own Article to dy like heretics against the holy Catholic faith Now to your fifth Article V. Your fifth Article is this WE wil have the Sacrament of the Altar but at Easter delivered to the Lay-people and then but in one kind Methinks you be like a man that were brought up in a dark dungeon that never saw light nor knew nothing that is abroad in the world And if a friend of his pitying his ignorance and state would bring him out of his dungeon that he might se the light and come to knowledg he being from his youth used to darknes could not abide the light but would wilfully shut his eyes and be offended both with the light and with his friend also A most godly Prince of famous memory K. Henry VIII our late Soveraign Lord pitying to se his Subjects many years so brought up in darknes and ignorance of God by the erroneous doctrines and superstitions of the Bp. of Rome with the counsil of al his Nobles and learned men studied by al means and that to his no little danger and charges to bring you out of your said ignorance and darknes unto the true light and knowledg of Gods word And our most dread Soveraign Lord that now is succeding his father as wel in this godly intent as in his realmes and dominions hath with no less care and diligence studied to perform his fathers godly intent and purpose And you like men that wilfully shut their own eyes refuse to receive the light saying you wil remain in your darknes Or rather you be like men that be so far wandred out of the right way that they can never come to it again without good and expert guides and yet when the guides would tel you the truth they would not be ordered by them but would say unto them Wee wil have and follow our own wayes And that you may understand how far you be wandred from the â—ight way in this one Article wherin you wil have the Sacrament of the Altar delivered to the Lay-people but once in the year and then but under one kind be you assured that there was never such law nor such request made among christen people until this day What injury do you to many godly persons which would devoutly receive it many times and you command the priest to deliver it them but at Easter Al learned men and godly have exhorted christen people altho they have not commanded them often to receive the Communion And in the Apostles time the people at Ierusalem received it every day as it appeares by the manifest word of the Scripture And after they received it in some places every day In some places four times in the week in some three times some twice commonly every where at the least once in the week In the beginning when men were most godly and fervent in the holy Spirit then they received the Communion daily But when the Spirit of God began to be more cold in mens hearts and they waxed more worldly than godly then their desire was not so hot to receive the Communion as it was before And ever from time to time as the world waxed more wicked the more the people withdrew themselves from the holy Communion For it was so holy a thing and the threatnings of God be so sore against them that come therto unworthily that an ungodly man abhorreth it and not without cause dare in no wise approch therunto But to them that live godly it is the greatest comfort that in this world can be imagined And the more godly a man is the more sweetnes and spiritual plesure and desire he shal have often to receive it And wil you be so ungodly to command the Priest that he shal not deliver it to him but at Easter and then but only in one kind When Christ ordained both the kinds as wel for the Lay-men as for the Priests and that to be eaten and drunken at
not led by the spirit of God so long as the word of God Savoureth no better unto you but seemeth unto you a Christmas pastime and foolishnes And therfore the old Service pleaseth you better Which in many things is so foolish and so ungodly that it seems rather to be old wives tales and lies then to sound to any godlines The Devil is a lyar and the Author of lyes and they may think themselves governed rather of his spirit then of God when lyes delight more then Gods most true word But this I judge rather of your Leaders then of your selves who by ignorance be carried away by others you wot not whether For when the Service was in the Latine tongue which you understood not they might read to you truth or fables godly or ungodly things as they pleased But you could not judge that you understood not And what was the cause why S. Paul would have such languages spoken in the Church as that people might understand That they might learn and be edified therby and judge of that which should be spoken whether it were according to Gods word or not But forasmuch as you understand not the old Latine Service I shal rehearse some things in English that were wont to be read in Latine that when you understand them you may judge them whether they seem to be true tales or fables and whether they or Gods word seem to be more like playes and Christmas games The Devil entred into a certain person in whose mouth S. Martin put his finger And because the Devil could not get out at his mouth the man blew him or cacked him out behind This was one of the tales that was wont to be read in the Latine service that you wil needs have again As tho the Devil had a body and that so crass that he could not pas out by the smal pores of the flesh but must needs have a wide hole to go out at Is this a grave and godly matter to be read in the Church or rather a foolish Christmas tale or an old wives fable worthy to be laughed at and scorned of every man that hath either wit or godly judgment Yet more foolish erroneous and superstitious things be read in the feasts of S. Blase S. Valentine S. Margaret S. Peter of the Visitation of our Lady and the Conception of the Transfiguration of Christ and in the feast of Corpus Christi and a great number mo Wherof some be most vain fables some very superstitious some directly against Gods word and the Lawes of this realm and altogether be ful of error and superstition But as Christ commonly excused the simple people because of their ignorance and justly condemned the Scribes and Pharisees which by their crafty persuasions led the people out of the right way So I think not you so much to be blamed as those Pharisees and Papistical Priests which abusing your simplicity caused you to ask you wist not what desiring rather to drink of the dregs of corrupt error which you know not then of the pure and sweet wine of Gods word which you may and ought to understand But now have I sufficiently spoke of your eighth Article I wil go forward unto the ninth IX Your ninth Article is this WE wil have every preacher in his Sermon and every Priest at the Mass pray especially by name for the souls in Purgatory as our forefathers did To reason with you by learning which be unlearned it were but folly Therfore I wil convince your Article with very reason First Tell me I pray if you can whether there be a Purgatory or no and Where or What it is And if you cannot tel then I may tel you that you ask you wot not what The Scripture maketh mention of two places where the Dead be received after this life Viz. of Heaven and of Hel but of Purgatory is not one word spoken Purgatory was wont to be called a Fire as hot as Hel but not so long during But now the Defenders of Purgatory within this Realm be ashamed so to say Nevertheles they say it is a third place Where or What it is they confes themselves they can no tel And of Gods word they have nothing to shew neither Where it is nor What it is nor That it is But al is fained of their own brains without authority of Scripture I would ask of them then Wherfore it is and to what use it serveth For if it be to none use then it is a thing frustrate and in vain Mary say they it is a place of punishment wherby they be purged from their sins that depart out of this life not fully purged before I cannot tel whether this saying be more foolish or more contumelious to Christ. For what can be more foolish then to say that paines can wash sins out of the Soul I do not deny but that corrections and punishments in this life is a calling of men to repentance and amendment and so to be purged by the bloud of Christ. But correction without repentance can nothing avail and they that be dead be past the time of repentance and so no correction or torments in Purgatory can avail them And what a contumely and injury is this to Christ to affirm that al have not ful and perfect purgation by his bloud that dy in his faith Is not al our trust in the bloud of Christ that we be cleansed purged and washed therby And wil you have us now to forsake our faith in Christ and bring us to the Popes Purgatory to be washed theriâ— Thinking that Christs bloud is an imperfect Lee or Sope that washeth not clean If he shal dy without mercy that treads Christs bloud under his feet what is treading of his bloud under our feet if this be not But if according to the Catholic faith which the holy Scripture teacheth and the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs confirmed with their bloud al the faithful that dy in the Lord be pardoned of al their offences by Christ and their sins be clearly spunged and washed away by his bloud shal they after be cast into another strong and grievous prison of Purgatory there to be punished again for that which was pardoned before God hath promised by his word that the Souls of the Iews be in Gods hand and no pain shal touch them And again he saith Blessed be they that dy in the Lord. For the spirit of God saith that from henceforth they shal rest from their pains And Christ himself saith He that believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shal not come to judgment but shal pas from death unto life And is God no truer of his promises but to punish that which he promiseth to pardon Consider the matter by your own cases If the Kings Majesty should pardon your offences and after would cast you into prison would you think that he had wel observed his promis For what is to pardon your
what comfort could your flock loke for to have by yow But that which Christ saith to follow of those Qui non intrant per ostium â—ed aliunde to be stealers and thieffs Qui non intrant nisi ut mactent perdant as the effect hath shewed by yow But here yow deceive your self again and wold deceive other makeng your defence of your simulate oth that yow dyd the same so for the more service of God haveng in your mynd then to reform the church to the which being no way but to make that oth for a countenance this yow thought for such a purpose might be acceptable afore god and also entreng by the authoritie of the Pope called by hym that had authoritie to name yow then yow think it cannot be justlie of onie man objected unto yow that yow did not entre by the dore And this trulie if you could have kept your own counsil toucheng me I durst not object the same unto yow seeyng nothing outwardlie but as that yow were lawfullie called and institute Busshop And of your inward I woâ—d not make my self judge More wanting here and see as is the furst poyncte in your lettres Where yow make a great mervayle sayng it to be a thing that was never seen in the realme that to condempne any subject thereof justice shuld be sought of a forreyn power as is the Popes How this is to be called a Forreyn power I wil declare afterward For this I do not mervel if yow do not wel know not being so open to them that lacketh spiritual doctrine nor of that ignoraunce I do not speak now but of that outward light and knowledge which is open to every man by experience The which yow not knoweng it may be wel said yow be cast In tenebras exteriores and that yow have lost both interiour and exteriour knowledge of things For so yow show in this case where yow say it was never seen in the realm that to condemne ony subject thereof to death shuld be required ony other sentence then that comyth from the Imperial Crowne of the realm and their temporal lawes Wherein that which I note furst is this that in that place yow seme to lament that being condempned alredie as yow say by the lawes of the realme of high treason this dilation is geven to your death not to suffre afore al such things as be layd to your charge were furst known at Rome this being natural unto al that be in jeopardie of liffe if they cannot hope by ony just deâ—eance to extue the same at the least to have tyme al desire followeng that proverb In space comyth grace The which natural affect being extinct in yow this followeth withal natural knowledge to be extinct as in the proheme of your lettre is more declared And now to come neerer to that yow say was never seen that onye subject to be condempned had nede of ony outward Iustice calleng owtward justice the Canon lawes that come from the Pope To this I say the experience and use of the lawes and justice in this realme doith show clene contrarie to your mervel that it was never seen in the realm afore the tyme of your malicious oth that there was ever ony man condempned for the crime of heresies by the mere justice that comyth from the temporal lawes but al were first declared to be such by the spiritual lawes of the Canons which yow call forreyne lawes And this beside I say afore that same tyme of al other crimes as treason and other there was never spiritual man put to execution accordeng to the ordre of the lawes of the realm but he were furst by the Canon Laws condempned disgraded and then gyven to the temporal hondes Wherof there be as menye examples afore the tyme of breakeng the old ordre of the realm thise last years as hath bene delinquents Let al the records be sene and speciallie this is notable of the Busshop of which being emprisoned here for high treason the king wold not procede to his condempnation and ponnishment afore he had the Popes bull geveng hym And this is the trade of justice which the King and Qwene use with yow at this tyme beyng condempned of treason being consecrate Busshop to have the Popes sentence from Rome afore yow suffre Which maner of proceding you say was never afore in the Realm and the practise and experience in like cases doith show never to have bene otherwise afore the tyme of your notable perjurie And so Catholick Kings as it pertayneth to the privilege of the See of Rome when they be crowned doith sweare And now look what ignorance is this to think that the like was never sene in the realme when it was never seen otherwise amongst those princes that were counted to be in the obedience of the Lawes of Christ and of the Church But now to come to that yow speak of the Popes law and power Which after a seditious maner of speakeng yow call A forreyne power this stondeth under such a fashion if God leave yow so moch sence to understond what I say that the Popes power can no more be called Forreyn power comyng not of man alone but of hym that is god and man that was secundus homâ— de coelo coelestis then may be called a Forreyn power that the sowle of man comyng from heaven hath in the body generate in earth And so it is in the poâ—itick body of this realme ruled with politick lawes founded by mâ—ns reason that be called Temporal lawes To them comyng the Popes laws spiritual doith no other but that the sowle in the body to gyve liffe to the same to confirme and strengthen the same And this is it the Aungel speakeng in Christes conception and declareng what his authoritie shuld be signifyed saing he shuld sytt Super Domum Davyd which was a temporal reigne ut confirmet illud corroboret And so doith the spiritual lawes procedynge of his Spirit As be the lawes of the Church and canon lawes Which wheresoever thei be wel observed doith this effect ever to confirme and stablish the temporal lawes of the realm as no realm hath had more experience then this ever sâ—neth the tyme they received the faith and obedience of the Pope from whom came theyr doctrine of the faith There was never notable trouble in the realm of ony kynd if it dured ony space but it was ever lightly eased and the realm established by some Legate sent from the Pope and the See of Rome following the prescript of the Canons and the Spiritual Law Without the which no realme can wel be governed but al be like to the Thornbush Whereof it is written In libro Iudicum when the Sichimites had chosen a Tyrannie over them against the law of God then it was prophesied unto them what shuld come thereof which was that fire shuld come furth of that thorne which was their King that shuld devoure
the people and from the people to burne hym as it was and ever shal be where mere temporal lawes without spiritual doith rule Which state may be compared to be like such a thorne whereof fire doith come furth to the destruction both of the governour and the people And how the lawes of the realme might be wel likened to such a thorne after that the spiritual authoritie was cast furth the destruction of such a sort of men of al degrees both great and smal the great spoyles that were taken may geve sufficient proff to al them that hath ony sence or remembraunce of things so lately done And now comyng again to the spiritual authoritie and Law to joyn it self with the Temporal this is like to the fyer that Moyes saw In rubo which gave liâ—ht and dyd not burne nor never doith when it is wel used And if it be not wel used the faute is in the persons and not in the thing as the faute is not in the Temporal lawes when the Prynce doith abuse them howbeit of their nature they be tanquam sâ—inae as was also Moyes law sharp to which was mitigateâ— and so shal be in every when they be joyned with the spirituall ought not to be called Forreyne Lawes More here wanting Non in probabilibus humanae sapientiae verbis ne evacuetur crux Christi As it shuld be in this case For if this probabilitie were followed the sklaunder of the cross shold be voyd For this were no sklaunder to the Iewes to hear Christ honoured in a figure thei being ever used to the same Nor it wold seem so moch folyshe to the Gentiles and infidelles after we had accepted Christ for God to honour him in a figurative maner But this being the counsel of Christ to utter his great misterie in forme that he should have it sklander to both the Iews that seke signes and were used to be taught by figures and also the Gentiles that styck upon the judgment of reason The more probable you make it the further you swarve from the trew doctrin of Christ and verie trew maner to teach it And here may no new maner be taught What a haynous pride is this this doctrine passeng a thousand yeare and as menye hundred beside as hath bene syneth this Sacrement was instituted by the myddest of the Iewes and Gentiles with this sklaunder and appearaunce of folyshnes never being founâ— fawtie in ony one of the Busshops and preachers of the word of God that they confessed the real presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrement of the aulter but al found fautie and condemned of heresie which denyed the same And ever the doctrine of the presence prevayling and triumpheng above mans reason or sence may be capace of the same Which both God wil have mortified and dye utterlie when this mistery and meate of liâ—se is spoken and taken For as that was the beginneng of the destruction of man when followeng the probabilitie of reason he wold feade hymself with meate prohibite unto hym So the counsil of God hath ordeyned this to be the begynneng of the liffe of man to take a sensible meat wherein nother reason nor sense can find ony probabilitie or make any judgment thereof But because I have entreated this part more largely in another epistle that I send unto yow wherein I show that stondeng as yow do without repentance of the maner of your entrie to the service of the church yow could never be nother good schoâ—ar of this doctrine and moche less a Master I wil now procede no further to reason with you herein knoweng al to be in vaine and no healp nor meane to recover yow but only prayer Which with al my hart as I wold for mine own sowle I wyl not fayle to use for yow to hym whom yow have so greatlie offended as I never redd of ony Busshop that ever was in the church But the founteyne of his mercie is never closed to them that wyl cal for it as myne own entier prayer is to the infinite mercy of God that yow may have the grace so to do sendeng yow for obteynyng of that his holy Spiriâ— Qui condemnat mundum de peccato de judicio de justitia that seeing furst your sore condempnation yow maye therewith be sturred with al humilitie and contrite hart to demaund some comfort Which cannot be hoped of without your former condempnation of your self Wherunto to bryng yow it hath cawsed me by wryting to set furth so earnestly some part of your grievous offences afore yow Wylleng yow no less comfort then I wold to myne own sowle And the same I say concludeng and eandeng as I began It may please the paternal love that God beareth unto al synners for his sake that being his only Son God and man dyed to pay their ransome for to forgeve yow and to deliver yow ex Ore Leonis which hath so devowred yow that if you be not plucked out as theProphet Amos saith of Israel Quomodo si eruat Pastor duo crura aut extremum auriculae I say if you be not plucked out by the eare yow be utterlie undone both body and sowle Which yet again and ever the infinite mercy of God may defeande yow from Wrytten in the coorte at St. Iames the vj. of Novembre 1555. Yowr very trew coumfortore in God yow not refuseng hys grace R. Pole Car. Leg. NUM XC Archbishop Parker to the Secretary desiring the Councels letters in order to his discovering of certain Writings of Archbishop Cranmer SYR Being here and wold be loth to be idle and thereupon havyng consideration as wel of these quarters for the common quyet among the people as respecting the common service of the better sort toward the Q. Highnes and her affairs I fynd them al in so good order that I do rejoyce therin As for my ecclesiastical persons I deal with them indifferently that I fynd also obedience in them Now Sir with spying and serching I have found out bi very credible enformation among other things in whose hondes the grete notable wryten bokes of my predecessour Dr. Cranmer shuld remayne the partyes yet denying the same and therupon despayre to discover them except I maye be ayded bi the Councells letters to optayne them I pray your honor to procure ther letters to authorise me to enquire and serch for such Monuments by al wayes as bi mi pore discretion shal be thought good whether it be bi deferryng an othe to the parties or veweng ther studies c. This opportunytie of enformation being suche I wold wyshe I coud recover these bokes to be afterward at the Q. Commandment I wold as moche rejoyce whyle I am in the countreye to wynne them as I wold to restore an old Chancel to reparation Because I am not acqueynted with the stile of the Councels letters in this case I send you no minute trusting that your goodnes wil think the lauber