of London and immediately dispatched the Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget unto her with a Letter writ from Baynard's-Castle where they now were removed from the Tower In which Letter they beg her Pardon and to remit their former Infirmities and assure her calling God to witness to the same that they were ever in their Hearts her true Subjects since the King's Death but could not utter their Minds before that time without great Destruction and Bloodshed of themselves and others The Copy of this Letter may be read in the Appendix The same day the Council wrote to the Duke of Northumberland their Letters dated from VVestminster sent by an Herald Wherein the Duke was commanded and charged in Q. Mary's Name to disarm and discharge his Souldiers and to forbear his return to the City until the Queen's Pleasure And the same was to be declared to the Marquess of Northampton and all other Gentlemen that were with him The Herald was also by virtue of his Letters from the Council to notify in all Places where he came That if the Duke did not submit himself to the Queen's Highness he should be taken as a Traitor and they of the late King's Council would persecute him to his utter Confusion And thus far our Arch-bishop went For this was signed by him and the Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor the Marquess of VVinchester the Duke of Suffolk the Earls of Bedford Shrewsbury Pembrook the Lord Darcy Sir Richard Cotton Petre and Cecyl Secretaries Sir Iohn Baker Sir Iohn Mason Sir Robert Bowes The Duke saw it in vain to oppose and so submitted to this Order And the Plot that his â—mbition had been framing so long and with so much Art fell on a sudden Very speedily Queen Mary was owned Abroad as well as at Home Dr. VVotton Dean of Canterbury Sir VVilliam Pickering Sir Thomas Chaloner Ambassadors in France writ their Letters to her and the Council acknowledging her and ceasing any further to act as Ambassadors She continued Dr. VVotton and sent for Pickering and Chaloner Home and sent Sir Anthony St. Leger the beginning of August Ambassador thither joined with VVotton This Determination the Council August 12 signified to the said three Ambassadors But now to cast our Eyes upon the State of Religion at this Time Upon this Access of Queen Mary to the Crown whose Interest as well as Education made her a Zealous Papist the good Progress of Religion was quite overthrown and the pious Arch-bishop's Pains and long Endeavours in a great measure frustrated and he himself soon after exercised with great Afflictions The first pretended Occasion of which was this It was reported Abroad soon after King Edward's Death that the Arch-bishop had offered to sing the Mass and Requiem at the Burial of that King either before the Queen or at S. Paul's Church or any where else and that he had said or restored Mass already in Canterbury This indeed had the Suffragan of Dover Dr. Thornton done but without the Arch-bishop's Consent or knowledg But however such good Impressions of Religion had the Arch-bishop left at Canterbury that though Mass was set up there and Priests were through fear forced to say it yet it was utterly contrary to their Wills And about New-years-tide there was a Priest said Mass there one Day and the next came into the Pulpit and desired all the People to forgive him For he said he had betrayed Christ but not as Judas did but Peter And then he made a long Sermon against the Mass. But the aforesaid slanderous report so troubled the Arch-bishop that to stay it he wrote a Letter to a Friend of his that he never made any promise of saying Mass nor that he did set up the Mass in Canterbury but that it was done by a false flattering lying Monk Dr. Thornden such a Character in his just Anger he gave him who was Suffragan of Dover and Vice-dean of that Church in the absence of Dr. Wotton who was then abroad in Embassy This Thornden saith my Manuscript writ but a few Years after by Scory or Becon as I conjecture was A Man having neither Wit Learning nor Honesty And yet his Wit is very ready For he preacheth as well extempore as at a Years warning so learnedly that no Man can tell what he chiefly intendeth or goeth about to prove so aptly that a gross of Points is not sufficient to ty his Sermon together Not unlike to Iodocus a Monk of whom Erasmus maketh mention in his Colloquies who if he were not garnished with these glorious Titles Monk Doctor Vice-dean and Suffragan were worthy to walk openly in the Streets with a Bell and Cocks-comb Besides this Letter the Arch-bishop resolved to do something in a more publick manner in vindication of the Reformation as well as of himself So he devised a Declaration Wherein he both apologized for himself against this false Report and made a brave Challenge with the assistance of Peter Martyr and a few more to maintain by Disputation with any Man the Reformation made under K. Edward This Declaration after a first draught of it he intended to enlarge and then being sealed with his own Seal to set it upon the Doors of S. Paul's Church and other Churches in London This Writing wherein the good Religion and Doctrine practised and taught in the former Reign was so nobly owned and offered to be defended in such a publick manner was not only read by some Body boldly in Cheapside but many Copies thereof were taken and so became dispersed It was also soon after printed in Latin and I suppose in English too Sure I am in the Year 1557 it was printed beyond Sea by the Exiles From which Print I shall here transcribe it being sent from Grindal to Iohn Fox for his use in the writing his History A Declaration of the Reverend Father in God Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury condemning the untrue and slanderous Report of some which have reported That he should set up the Mass at Canterbury at the first coming of the Queen to her Reign 1553. AS the Devil Christ's antient Adversary is a Liar and the Father of Lying even so hath he stirred his Servants and Members to persecute Christ and his true Word and Religion Which he ceaseth not to do most earnestly at this present For whereas the most noble Prince of famous Memory King Henry VIII seeing the great Abuses of the Latin Masses reformed something herein in his Time and also our late Soveraign Lord K. Edward VI took the same whole away for the manifold Errors and Abuses thereof and restored in the place thereof Christ's Holy Supper according to Christ's own Institution and as the Apostles in the Primitive Church used the same in the beginning The Devil goeth about by lying to overthrow the Lord's Holy Supper and to restore the Latin Satisfactory Masses a thing of his own Invention and Device And
Chair tho with as much Reluctancy in You as was in Him Of Your GRACE'S Endowments to qualify You for this most Eminent Station I will be wholly silent knowing how abhorrent Your Generous Nature is from Reading or Hearing Your Own Commendations Nor MY LORD is this my End in this my Dedication But this it is That You would so far Encourage these my Weak and Imperfect Labours done out of a Good Intent as to cast a Favourable Eye upon them for the sake of Your Glorious Predecessor the Subject of this Book and to repute me among the Number May it please Your GRACE Of Your most Humble and most Obedient Servants JOHN STRYPE THE PREFACE I Think it fit by way of Preface to these Memorials to admonish the Reader of a few things preparatory to the Perusal thereof As What it was put me at first upon making these Collections concerning Archbishop Cranmer and the State of the Church in his time What induced me to make them Publick And What Credit may be given to them with some other occasional matters I. As to the first I have been for a long time not a little addicted to read whatsoever I could of the Reformation of this famous Church that I might truly understand for what Reasons it was at first attempted in what Methods it proceeded by what Men it was chiefly managed and carried on and how it stood in truth as to its Doctrine Discipline and Government Reputation Learning Piety and such like in its first Establishment and the Earlier Times of it For which purpose I did not only read over what we have in Print of these Matters but for more satisfaction I was carried on to look into MSS. whether Registers Records Letters Instruments and such like A great sort of which by Providence fell into my hands And besides them I have turned over many more in Libraries and elsewhere from whence I made Transcriptions Extracts and Collections for my own use and satisfaction which swelled to no little bulk And while I was doing this I took always a more curious View into the Lives Manners and Doings Learning Virtues and Abilities of the chief leading men whether Archbishops and Bishops or other Church-men of whom we have but little Account extant tho many of them very Great and Good men little more remaining of some of them than their Names The Reverence I bore in my mind to Archbishop Cranmer the Father of the Reformation here in England and the first of that Ancient Metropolitan See that so bravely shook off the Pope and his Appendages inclined me especially to gather up what Notices I could of him Afterwards as my leisure served me out of my indigested Mass of Notes I compiled into some order Memorials of him and of the Affairs of the Church during his Primacy in which he for the most part was concerned and bore a great share with K. Henry and the Lord Cromwel his Vicegerent in Spirituals After some Years these Memorials lying by me I enlarged considerably and digested them into Annals and had thoughts of making them Publick being excited and encouraged thereunto by my Friends who were privy to these my Doings II. And indeed many Considerations induced me hereunto As in general the great Benefit of reading Histories of former Times which what that is take in the Words of Iohn Fox For the things which be first are to be preferred before those which be later And then is the reading of Histories much necessary in the Church to know what went before and what followed after And therefore not without cause History in old Authors is called The Witness of Times the Light of Verity the Life of Memory the Teacher of Life and Shewer of Antiquity Without the knowledge whereof man's Life is blind and soon may fall into any kind of Error as by manifest experience we have to see in these desolate later Times of the Church whenas the Bishops of Rome under colour of Antiquity have turned Truth into Heresy and brought in such new-found Devices of strange Doctrine and Religion as in the former Ages of the Church were never heard of And all through Ignorance of Times and for lack of True History And therefore the Use of History being so considerable Historians in some Kingdoms have been maintained by Publick Encouragement And so the Writer of the Epistle to K. Edward before Erasmus's Paraphrase Englished propounded once to that King That there should be a Publick Salary allotted to some able Persons to Translate good Books and to Write Chronicles for bestowing so great a Benefit on the Commonwealth But particularly the History of the Church and matters relating to Religion have a more special benefit as being conversant about Spiritual things which are weightier by far and concern us more a great deal than Temporal But the more is the pity in this sort of History there is a greater Defect than in the other I speak of our own Nation for tho the History of the State in the last Age was excellently done by the Pens of the Lord Herbert and Mr. Cambden yet the Matters of the Church they professedly declined or did but touch at the former saying expresly His intention was not in an History to discuss Theological Matters as holding it sufficient to have pointed at the places where they are controverted And the latter in his History as often as he came to matters of the Church tells us That he left his Readers to the Ecclesiastical Historian Which hath made me wonder at and apt to accuse the Slothfulness of that Age that during all the time of K. Henry K. Edward and Q. Mary wherein Religion was so tossed about and took up so much of those Reigns there is no one Ecclesiastical History thereof written except that of the diligent and learned Mr. Fox and during the long Reign of Q. Elizabeth and K. Iames I think none at all Till of late years when by length of time and destruction of many Original MSS. by the Civil Wars divers remarkable Transactions were buried and lost some few Learned Men employed themselves in Collecting and Publishing what Memorials of Religion and the Church they could retrieve as namely Dr. Fuller Dr. Heylin and especially Dr. Burnet now the Right Reverend Bishop of Sarum to whom the English Church must be ever beholden for his great and happy Pains contributed hereunto But yet there be good Gleanings after these Writers and many things of remark there are relating to the Church in those Three busie Reigns of Henry Edward and Mary whereof these Historians are either wholly silent or speak imperfectly or erroneously Some whereof in my Searches I have met with which I have disposed in these Memorials But besides the General Benefit of History especially Ecclesiastical this Particular History now recommended unto the English Nation may produce this good effect To make us value and esteem as we ought our Reformed Religion when we see by
Judg of the Prerogative Court and Counsellor to the Emperor and a Man of deep Learning Who confessed to the said Ambassador that the Marriage was naught but that he durst not say so openly for fear both of the Pope and Emperor Yet he was afterwards cast into Prison where he died for expressing his Mind as was thought somewhat more plainly in this Affair While he was now abroad in Germany he went to Norimberg where Osiander was Pastor And being a Man of Fame and Learning our Ambassador became acquainted with him sending for him sometimes to discourse with him and sometimes he would go to Osiander's House to visit him and his Study This eminent Divine of the German Protestant Church he also gained to favour the King's Cause For he wrote a Book of Incestuous Marriages wherein he determined the King's present Matrimony to be unlawful But this Book was called in by a Prohibition printed at Augsburgh And there was also a Form of a Direction drawn up by the same Osiander how the King's Process should be managed Which was sent over hither Cranmer's Discourse with Osiander at these their Meetings concerning divers Matters relating especially to Christian Doctrine and True Religion were so wise and good that that great Divine stood in admiration of him as though he had been inspired from Above In one of their Conferences Osiander communicated to him certain Papers wherein he had been attempting to harmonize the Gospels but by reason of the Difficulty that often arose had thrown them aside A thing this was which Cranmer declared to him his great Approbation of as he was always a Man greatly studious of the Scripture and earnestly desirous that the right knowledg thereof might be encreased So he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this Study and to finish it with all convenient speed For that it would not only he said be of use to the Church of Christ but adorn it These Admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this Work and at last to bring it to a conclusion In the Year 1537 he published it and dedicated it to Cranmer then Arch-Bishop the great Encourager of the Author In some of these Visits Crâ—nmer saw Osiander's Niece and obtained her for his Wife Whom when he returned from his Embassy he brought not over with him But in the Year 1534. he privately sent for her And kept her with him till the Year 1539 in the severe time of the six Articles when he sent her back in Secret to her Friends in Germany for a time By these Visits and this Affinity there grew a very cordial Love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great Correspondence was maintained by Letters between them long after A parcel of these Letters in Manuscript the Right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation Which he met with in the exquisite Library of Mr. Richard Smith as he told a Friend of mine But notwithstanding my enquiry after them I had not the good fortune to see them nor to find into whose Hands they were come after the selling of that Library by Auction Which Letters if I could have procured a sight of might have served somewhat perhaps in this my Undertaking We are now slipp'd into the Year 1532. And among other Services which he did Abroad besides his promoting the King's great Matrimonial Cause among the German Princes and States as well as others he was employed for the establishing and securing a Traffick between the Merchants of England and the Emperor 's Low Countries Concerning which the former Contract it seems began to shake occasioned by that Luke-warmness of Affection that now grew between these two Monarchs About this Affair our Ambassador had divers Conferences with Monsieur Grandeville the Emperor 's great Minister at Regensburgh The effect of his last Sollicitation was that Grâ—ndeville had told him that the Diet concerning the said Contract was held in Flanders where the Queen of Hungary was Governess and therefore that the Emperor would do nothing therein without her advice and that he would make answer by her rather than by him And so Cranmer desired the King that it would please his Grace no further to look for Answer from him therein but from the Queen unto whom the whole Answer was committed Another Business our Ambassador was now agitating at this Court for the King was about sending Supplies to the Emperor against the Turk Who had now made a formidable Invasion in Hungary with an Army consisting of three hundred thousand Men. The Emperor had lately by virtue of a former League and for the Common Cause of Christianity demanded certain Forces of the King for this purpose Now what measures his Ambassador was to take with the Emperor in this Affair William Paget his Majesty's Servant the same that was afterward Secretary of State was dispatched to him with Instructions Wherein were contained what Answer he should make to the Emperor's Demands Which he reported accordingly to Grandeville The which Answer he delivered to him in writing upon the desire of Grandeville for this Reason as he urged that he might relate the same the more truly to the Emperor He was now in the Month of September drawing towards the Turk from Abagh a Place not far from Regensburgh where our English Ambassador now resided not having yet returned any Reply to him prevented by that hurry of Business that then lay upon the Emperor So that upon Grandeville's intimation to repair unto the Emperor at Lintz which was in his way to Vienna and that there he should have an Answer in Writing again the Ambassador followed thither in Company with the Ambassador of France And so he with the other Ambassador in eight or ten days space furnished themselves with Wagons Horses Ships Tents and other things necessary to the Journey for themselves and their Train But before his departure he informed the King of the News in those Parts As that the Turk resided still in Hungary in the same Place invironed on all parts Of which more at large he had written in his former Letters That King Ferdinando the Emperor's Brother who was then at Regensburgh was to meet the Emperor at Passaw fourteen miles from thence and so both were to pass forth to Lintz which was the mid-way from Regensburgh to Vienna That the Emperor would tarry there to take Counsel what to do and there all the Ambassadors should know his Pleasure He sent the King also the Copy of the Emperor's Proclamation concerning a General Council and a Reformation to be had in Germany for the Controversies of the Faith Which he was constrained to do his Affairs with the Turk pressing him so much The Sum thereof was That his Imperial Majesty declared Peace throughout all Germany Enjoining that none should be molested for the Cause of Religion until the Council should be called or in case there were
must be attributed to his being Abroad that the King gave an Ear to the Arch-bishop and apointed a Set of more moderate Bishops and Divines to prepare Matter for his Allowance and Ratification But VVinchester tho at a distance had Information of these Designs by his Intelligencers and by making the King believe that if he suffered any Innovations in Religion to proceed the Emperor would withdraw his Mediation for a League by these crafty Means of this Man these good Motions proceeded no further So that there were two Abuses in Religion which our Arch-bishop by Time and seasonable Inculcation brought the King off from He had a very great Esteem for Images in Churches and for the Worship used to the Cross. And many Disputations and Discourses happened between the King and the Arch-bishop concerning them Once at the King's Palace at Newhal in Essex Canterbury and Winchester being alone with the King a Talk happened about Images and the Arguments that were used for abolishing them were considered The Arch-bishop who built all his Arguments upon the Word of God produced the second Commandment and thence he raised his Argument But the King discussed it as a Commandment relating only to the Jews and not to us as VVinchester relates in one of his Letters to the Duke of Somerset adding because the reasoning was so much to his own Mind That the King so discussed it that all the Clerks in Christendom could not amend it And when at another time one had used Arguments against the Image of the Trinity whether Cranmer or some else I know not VVinchester heard the King answer them too So possess'd was the King once with an Opinion of retaining them and yet at length by the Arch-bishop's wise and moderate Carriage and Speeches the King was brought to another Opinion and to give his Orders for the abolishing of a great many of them namely of such as had been abused But when he had done this he would not forgo the other but commanded Kneeling and Creeping to the Cross. And gross was the Superstition that was committed in this blind Devotion which the King by the Arch-bishop's means being at length sensible of was prevailed with that this also should no more be used as you heard before There was one thing more this careful Arch-bishop recommended to the King this Year He was troubled for his Cathedral Church of Canterbury observing how the Revenues of it were diminished and made away daily by the Prebendaries thereof to satisfy the insatiable Greediness of the Laity and it may be their own too And the Courtiers and others were hard to be withstood when they were minded to rake from the Church The Practice was that when any were minded to get a Portion of Land from the Church they would first engage the King therein and so the Church was to make it over to him Anâ— then by Gift or for some trifling Consideration as a Sale it was conveyed to them from the King Nay sometimes they would use the King's Name without his knowledg Cranmer had the Honesty and the Courage to make Complaint of this Abuse and Injury done to the Revenues of the Cathedral That those of the Church to their Disquietment and also great Charges did alienate their Lands daily as it was said by the King's Commandment But he was sure he said that others had gotten the best Lands and not his Majesty Therefore he sued that when his Majesty was minded to have any of their Lands that they might have some Letters from him to declare his Pleasure without the which they were sworn to make no Alienation and that the same Alienations might not be made at other Mens Pleasures but only to his Majesty's Use. By which Means it is likely the Prebendaries had more quiet Possession of their Lands for the time to come By this Time the Arch-bishop had compassed two very good Things in order to the furthering the Common People in Knowledg and True Religion The one was that he brought in among the Laity a more common use of the Scriptures and the other that Sermons were more frequently preached than had been before But both these to the Grief of the Arch-bishop were sadly abused For now the Contending of Preachers in their Pulpits one against another grew more and more and became most scandalous So that few preached the Word of God truly and sincerely but ran almost wholly upon Matters controverted and in that railing manner that their Expressions were very provoking So that this came to the sowing of Discord among the People instead of promoting Love Unity and solid Religion The Laity on the other hand some of them railed much on the Bishops and spoke contemptibly of the Priests and taunted the Preachers The Scriptures were much read but the Effect of it appeared too much in their making use of it only for Jangling and Disputation upon Points of Religion and to taunt at the Ignorance or Error of Priests Others on the other hand to be even with the Gospellers made it their Business to derogate from the Scripture to deal with it irreverently and to rhime and sing and make sport with it in Ale-houses and Taverns These things came to King Henry's Ears which made him very earnestly blame both the Laity and Spirituality for it in a Speech which he made at the Dissolution of his Parliament this Year A Bishop Confirmed Anthony Kitchin alias Dunstan D.D. was Elected and Confirmed Bishop of Landaff May 2. The ABp sent his Commissional Letters dated the same Day to Thomas Bishop of Westminster for his Consecration But the Consecration is not entred in the Register His Oath to the King began thus I Anthony Kitchin Elect Bishop of Landaff having now the Vale of Darkness of the Usurped Power Authority and Jurisdiction of the See and Bishop of Rome clearly taken away from mine Eyes do utterly testify and declare in my Heart that neither the See nor the Bishop of Rome nor any Foreign Potestate hath or ought to have c. as before Another Proclamation was set out the next Year which was the last issued out under this King prohibiting again Tindal's and Coverdale's English New Testament or any other than what was permitted by Parliament and also the English Books of Wickliff Frith c. the King being vexed with the Contests and Clamours of the People one against another while they disputed so much of what they read and practised so little A small matter oftentimes creates great Brablings and Contentions in Fraternities Such a small thing now occurred in the Arch-bishop's Church Two of the Prebends were minded to change Houses but the rest it seems made some Opposition as reckoning it contrary to a certain Statute of that Church The Arch-bishop hearing hereof seasonably interposed and interpreted their Statute for them The Preachers also of this Church seem not to have been fairly dealt with by the Prebends
that had the Gift of God and that they pronounced it wicked and abominable and termed it a Doctrine of Devils and the Invention of Antichrist All which Bishop Ponet in the Name of all the Protestants in his Book did utterly deny that ever they said writ or thought so This Book was indeed made by the Bishop of Winchester when he was in the Tower and he borrowed much of it from Albertus Pighius and published about that time Martin being then a Student at the University of Bourges in France it once happened in some Conversation there that Edward the King of England was commended whether it were for his Vertue or Learning or Abilities beyond his Years whereat Martin began as it seemed to eclipse the King's Honour by mentioning the Imprisonment of Winchester saying That there was a Head-Papist Prisoner in England meaning him Upon which several asked him Whether it was not the same Winchester that had set out an Hodgpodg concerning Marriage of Priests He laughing answered It was even he But that no Man ought to marvel for that VVinchester was more meet for Warlike than for Ecclesiastical Disputations Which Passage I have from Bale who was acquainted at that University with Franciscus Baldwin the Learned Professor of Law there Out of this Book Martin framed that which went under his Name with Winchester's Privity And this was well enough known to Bale and others in those Times Ponet said that Martin was abused by others who set him a-work to bear the Name and to desire the Fame of so gay a Book rather than he was the Author of it indeed The said Ponet or Poinet late Bishop of Winchester but now an Exile very learnedly answered this Book in two several Treatises The first was intitled An Apology against Tho. Martin's Blasphemies In this Treatise upon occasion of the Papists prohibition of Marriage to Priests he proved that the said Papists were Hereticks and had taken part in the most principal Parts with all the Hereticks that had corrupted the true Church of Christ. The Second Treatise replenished with great Learning he lived not to finish though some doubt whether he were the Author of this Book but the Copy falling into the Hands of Matthew Parker Arch-bishop of Canterbury he published it in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign with very large and excellent Additions of his own Ponet had thorowly studied this Point and I believe was put upon the Study of it by Arch-bishop Cranmer whose Chaplain he was For before this he put forth two Books upon this Argument viz. Of the Marriage of Ministers And a Defence of that Marriage The last thing I have to say concerning these Orders taken with the Married Clergy is That there were two things thought very Hard which were put upon those that were willing to comply and put away their Wives The one was in relation to the publick Confessions they were to make Which were put into their Mouths by others and drawn up for them in that manner as made them tell horrible Lies They must speak their own Shame in Bills of their Penance lying against themselves most vilely and most shamefully disabling their Credit and Estimation for ever And to give an Instance One such Confession which was much cried out against was made by one Sir Iohn Busby of Windsor Iune 29. in the Year 1555. Which Ponet calleth a goodly Confession of his hearty and earnest Repentance Which saith he was so finely penned and so Catholickly tracted that I warrant you it was none of the smallest Fools that forged it The other thing was that after these poor Men had thus done their Penances and spoke their Confessions the Imposers of these Penalties upon them were not so good as they pretended they would be and as the Queen's Instructions required them to be towards them Not restoring them to their Ministration Some that had been two or three Years parted from their Wives could not be admitted again to Ministration yet they must do open Penance and go by the Cross without any Redemption or Entreaty that could be made CHAP. IX Evils in this Change A Parliament BY this time the face of the Church was perfectly changed and all the Reformation that was made for twenty Years before namely from Cranmer's first ascent to the Archiepiscopal Chair to this time was unravelled in less than a Year and abolished But the Favourers of the Gospel lamented it exceedingly And Bishop Ridley writ a Treatise wherein he shewed what a deplorable Change in Religion this was by setting down at large what Religion was in K. Edward's Days and what it was at that present laying the Cause of this sore Judgment upon the vile and naughty Lives of the People so unsuitable to the good Religion professed The Professors lamented two great Evils lighting upon the People upon this turn of Religion Not only that it brought the People into error and Superstition but involved them universally in the Crime of Perjury The blame of which they laid upon the Popish Clergy For they not only had connived at but allowed and encouraged the casting off the Pope's Supremacy and made both Priests and Laity swear to the King And now they set up the Pope's Authority again in England and required all to swear to that For they compelled not only such as were Priests to perjure themselves but all the Laity Nobility Gentry Magistrates Merchants and others for hardly any were exempted the Oath of Supremacy in the former Reigns For in every Law-day the Keepers of the same were sworn to call all the Young Men of their Hundred even as they came to Years of Discretion to swear never to receive the Bishop of Rome nor no other Foreign Potentate to be Head of the People of England but only the King and his Successors Which Oath if it were unlawful as the Clergy-Men now said then all the Realm had reason of high Displeasure against them that so led them and knew it Such gross Dissembling were the Bishops guilty of to the involving the People in Guilt And this dissembling Quality the Priests still retained in this Queen's Days For when any came to some of them shewing them that his Conscience was not satisfied in the present way of Religion the Priest would tell him that he said the Truth My Conscience would he say is as yours but we must bear for a time and that he himself looked for another Change When another of a contrary Opinion came to the Priests and talked about Religion they would say to him That they had been deceived and thanks be to God said they that ye kept your Conscience all this while And even so was mine but I durst not do any otherwise but trusted that this time would come as is now thanks be to God Nay and sometimes in the same Town they would minister the Service two ways to the People to please both In
H. hath in the H. of Salvation how remission of sins is taken accepted and allowed of God for our perfect Justification The Doctrin of the Parlament teacheth Justification for the fulness and perfection therof to have more parts then Remission of sins as in the same appeareth And tho Remission of sins be a justification yet it is not a full and perfect The Book of H. numbreth the hallowing of bread Palmes and Candles among Papistical superstitions and abuses The Doctrin of the Parlament willeth them to be reverendly used And so do the Injunctions now set forth Which made me think the Printer might thrust in an Homily of his own devise The book of H. hath words of S. Chrâ—sâ—stom aâ—ledged untruly and not after suâ—h a sort as might scape by over sight but of purpose As calling that Faith which Chrysostom calleth Hope And in place of one Sentence putteth another which should better serve the purpose of the Maker of the Homilies Now if one would reason with me that Chrysostom meant this I would deny it him as I may But I may afâ—â—rm that Chrysostom saith Not. It is but a defamation of the trâ—th And under such a Princes name as our Soveraign Lord is whose tongue in this so pure innocency hath not been defiled with any untruth I assure you I thought there was not so great hast in Homilies but they might have tarried the printing even for that only cause Truth is able to â—aintain it self and needeth no help of untrue allegations It serves only for enemies to take advantage All which i. e. Enemies use to be câ—rious to know what they may reprove And now al the eyes and ears of the World be turned towards us And as they shal have cause to talk honorably of your valiantness in the wars so they talk otherwise of that that is done in your absence if any thing be amisâ— Now I shal shew your Grace what author Erâ—smus is to be by name and special Commandment had in credit in this realm If he be to be believed the doctrin of Only Faith justifieth is a very poâ—son And he writeth by expres termes and calleth this another poâ—â—on to dâ—ny punishment in Purgatory after this life And another poison to deny the Invocâ—tion of Saints and worshipping of them And this he cal eth a poison to say We need no satisfactory works for that were to mistrust Christ Erasmus in another place conferring the state of the Church in the beginning and now he concludeth that if S. Paul were alive at this daâ— he would not improve i. e. disallow the present state of the Church but cry out of mens faults This is Erasmus judgment in his Latter daâ—es His Work the Paraphrasis which should be authorized in the Realm Which he wrot above six and twenty years ago when his pen was wanton the matter is so hauled as being abroad in 〈…〉 were able to minister occasion to evil men to subvert with religiâ—n the policy and order of the Realm These be the general words the uttering whereof to your Grace in the place you occupy were a great fault unless I would shew ye good ground and truth why to say so And therefore I am glad I do rather write to you then to have come and spake with you because my words in number might fly away whereas written words remain to be read again First as concerning the Policy and state of the Realm Whersoever Erasmus might take an occasion to speak his pleasure of Princes he payeth home as roundly as Bishops have been of late touched in pleas And such places of Scripture as we have used to allege for the state of Princes he wresteth and windeth them so as if the people read them and believed him they would afterward smaâ— regard that allegation of them And if Erasmus did truly and that the Scripture bound him so to say it were more tolerable For truth must have place but when it is done in some place untruly and in some plâ—ce wantonly to check that estimate it can be no good doctrin among people that should obey And this book of Paraphrasis is not like the other expositions of Scripture where the Author speaketh in his own person For Erasmus taketh upon him the Evangelists persons and Christs person and enterpriseth to fit up Christs tale and his words As for example where the Gospel rehearseth Christs speech when he said Give to the Emperor that is the Emperors By which speech we gather and truly gather that Christ confessed the Emperor to have a duty Erasmus writes it with an IF after this sort IF there be any thing due to them Which condition Christ put not to it but spake plainly Give to Cesar the things which are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods And I write the very words of the Paraphrasis as they be in English for I have the book with me And so shal no man say that I misreport the book The words be these Render therfore unto Cesar if any things appertain unto Cesar. But first of al render unto God the things that appertain unto God Meaning that it is no hurt unto Godlines if a man being dedicate unto God do give tribute unto a prophane prince altho he ought it not These be the words in the book ordered to be set forth Wherin what needeth Erasmus to bring in doubt the duty when God putteth no doubt at al. It were too long to write to your Grace every fault This one I put for example where Erasmus doth corrupt Christs words with a condition which Christ spake not The other places of raylings would encumber your Grace overmuch But as I write your Grace shal find true that whatsoever might be spoke to defame Princes government is not left unspoken Bishops be more gently handled Erasmus maketh them very Kings of the Gospel and calleth the true Kings of the World Profane Kings Bishops have the sword he saith of God given that is to say the Gospel Profane Princes as he calleth them have a sword committed unto them and by Homer he saith be called Pastors of the people This matter is within the compas of the Paraphrasis if it be not left out with a commendation also of Thomas Becket of Canterbury in excommunicating the King of the realm that then was by implication for the manor of Oxford which the King as he rehearseth then withheld It may be the Translator would have left this out But Erasmus pen in those dayes was very light Moreover them Erasmus teacheth that between Christen men is no debt or right but Charity It is a mervailous matter towards the dissolution of laws and duties And therin Erasmus doth violate Gods scripture and saith not true Thus far is the doctrin pernitious for common policy Nevertheles if he had said true let the truth prevail but the truth is not so As touching Religion in this work of Paraphrasis it is so wantonly I
Nicene Creed The beginning of their Acquaintance The Archbishop propounds a weighty matter to Melancthon for the Union of all Protestant Churches The diligence of the Archbishop in forwarding this Design Mâ—lancthon's Judgment and Approbation thereof His Caveat of avoiding ambiguous expressions Renews the same Caution in another Letter Peter Martyr of this judgment What Melancthon thought of the Doctrine of Fate CHAP. XXV The Archbishop corresponds with Calvin The Archbishop breaks his purpose also to Calvin Calvin's Approbation thereof and Commendation of the Archbishop Offers his Service Excites the Archbishop to proceed This excellent purpose frustrated Thinks of drawing up Articles of Religion for the English Church Which he communicates to Calvin And Calvin's Reply and Exhortation Blames him for having not made more Progress in the Reformation But not justly The Clergy preach against Sacrilege The University-men declaim against it in the Schools And the Redress urged upon some at Court Calvin sends Letters and certain of his Books to the King Well taken by the King and Council What the Archbishop told the Messenger hereupon CHAP. XXVI The Archbishop highly valued Peter Martyr P. Martyr and the Archbishop cordial Friends The use the Archbishop made of him Martyr saw the Voluminous Writings and Marginal Notes of the Archbishop Two Letters of Martyr from Oxford An Instance of his love to the Archbishop CHAP. XXVII The Archbishop's favour to John Sleidan the Historian The Archbishop's favour to Iohn Sleidan Procures him a Pension from the King The Payment neglected Sleidan labours with the Archbishop to get the Pension confirmed by Letters-Patents Sends his Commentaries to the King Designs to write the History of the Council of Trent For the King's use Sends the King a Specimen thereof In order to the proceeding with his Commentaries desires Cecyl to send him the whole Action between K. Henry VIII and Pope Clement VII Bucer writes to Cecyl in behalf of Sleidan Iohn Leland CHAP. XXVIII Archbishop Cranmer 's Relations and Chaplains His Wives and Children His Wife survived him Divers Cranmers The Archbishop's stock Aslacton Whatton The Rectories whereof the Archbishop purchased His Chaplains Rowland Taylor His Epitaph A Sermon preached the day after his Burning Wherein the Martyr is grosly slandered Iohn Ponett Thomas Becon Richard Harman CHAP. XXIX Archbishop Cranmer 's Officers Robert Watson the Archbishop's Steward His Secretary Ralph Morice His Parentage Well known to divers eminent Bishops Presents Turner to Chartham And stands by him in his Troubles for his faithful Preaching An Instance of the Archbishop's Kindness to this his Secrerary Morice his Suit to Q. Elizabeth for a Pension His second Suit to the Queen to confirm certain Lands descended to him from his Father He was Register to the Commissioners in K. Edward's Visitation Suffered under Q. Mary Morice supplied Fox with many material Notices in his Book Morice a Cordial Friend to Latimer CHAP. XXX A Prospect of the Archbishop's Qualities Morice's Declaration concerning the Archbishop His Temperance of Nature His Carriage towards his Enemies Severe in his behaviour towards offending Protestants Stout in God's or the King's Cause His great Abilities in answering the King's Doubts Cranmer studied three parts of the Day Would speak to the King when none else durst Lady Mary Q. Katherine Howard His Hospitality Falsly accused of Ill Housekeeping CHAP. XXXI Archbishop Cranmer preserved the Revenues of his See The preserving the Bishops Revenues owing to the Archbishop The Archbishop vindicated about his Leases By long Leases he saved the Revenues Justified from diminishing the Rents of the See Oâ—ford and Knol Curleswood Chislet Park Pasture and Medow Woods Corn. The best Master towards his Servants An Infamy that he was an Hostler CHAP. XXXII Some Observations upon Archbishop Cranmer Observations upon the Archbishop His Learning very profound His Library An excellent Bishop His Care of his own Diocess At the great Towns he preached often Affected not his high Stiles His diligence in reforming Religion Puts K. Henry upon a purpose of reforming many things The King again purposeth a Reformation Hs Influence upon K. Edward CHAP. XXXIII Archbishop Cranmer procures the use of the Scriptures A great Scripturist Procures the publishing the English Bible The Bishops oppose it The first Edition of the Bible The Preface to the Bible made by the Archbishop The Contents thereof The Frontispiece of Cranmer's Edition of the Bible CHAP. XXXIV Archbishop Cranmer compassionate towards Sufferers for Religion His Affection and Compassion towards Professors of the Gospel Particularly for Sir Iohn Cheke a Prisoner And the Lord Russel A Patron to such as preached the Gospel in K. Henry's days His Succour of Afflicted Strangers in K. Edward's days England harborous of Strangers The Archbishop's favour to Foreigners Unjustly charged with Covetousness His Words to Cecyl upon this Charge Reduced as he feared to stark Beggary before his Death CHAP. XXXV Some account of Archbishop Cranmer'â— Housekeeping Some Account of his Housekeeping Retrenches the Clergy's superfluous House-keeping His Pious Design therein Others charged him with Prodigality CHAP. XXXVI Archbishop Cranmer Humble Peaceable Bold in a good Cause Humble and Condescending Peaceable and Mild. His Speech upon the News of Wars abroad Unacquainted with the Arts of Court-Flattery Would never crouch to Northumberland He and Ridley fall under that Duke's displeasure Bold and undaunted in God's Cause Falsly charged with Cowardice and too much Flexibility Of ardent Affections Cranmâ—r compared with Cardinal Wolsey CHAP. XXXVII Osiander 's and Peter Martyr 's Character of the Archbishop Osiander's Character of the Archbishop And Peter Martyr's Bale's Character of the Archbishop The difficult times wherein Cranmer lived CHAP. XXXVIII The Archbishop vindicated from Slanders of Papists A lying Character of this Archbishop by a late French Author Allen's Calumny of the Archbishop Wiped off Cleared from his Charge of Apostacy Saunders Falshoods of the Archbishop Parsons his Complements to the Archbishop Fox in behalf of Cranmer The Conclusion Errata and Emendations belonging to the Memorials Where the Reader finds this mark * after the Figure denoting the Line he is to tell from the bottom PAge 5. Line 21. for At read All. P. 29. l. 11. r. Imprisoned P. 30 31. in the Margent in three places r. 1534. P. 36. l. 8. after Appendix Note That the Dissolution of S. Swithins in Winchester tho laid here under the year 1535. happened not that year but about five years after viz. 1540. But the occasion of the Discourse there which was of the vast Wealth obtained to the King by the Fall of Religious Houses made the Author produce it in this place as an Instance thereof Ibid. l. 20. * r. Diocesan P. 37. Among the Diocesan Bishops Consecrated under the year 1535 place Hugh Latymer Consecrated Bishop of Worcester and Iohn Hildesly or Hilsey a Friar of the Order of Preachers first of Bristow and afterwards of Oxford Consecrated Bishop of Rochester next after Iohn Fisher Executed for Treason These two
lawful for one Brother to marry his Brother's Wife being known of his Brother Of the which Cambridg Doctors Cranmer was appointed for one such was his Fame then in that University for Learning But because he was not then at Cambridg another was chosen in his stead These Learned Men agreed fully with one Consent that it was lawful with the Pope's Dispensation so to do But if Cranmer had been there he would have been of another Mind as we shall see in the Sequel This great Matrimonial Cause gave the first step to Dr. Cranmer's Preferment For when Fox and Gardiner the one the King's Almoner and the other his Secretary lighting by chance in Dr. Cranmer's Company at one Mr. Cressies House situate in Waltham-Abbey Parish in Essex had on design fallen upon Discourse of that Matter purposely to learn his Judgment therein knowing him an eminent noted Reader of Divinity in Cambridg He gave his own Sense of the Cause in words to this effect I have nothing at all studied said he for the Verity of this Cause nor am beaten therein as you have been Howbeit I do think that you go not the next way to work to bring the Matter unto a perfect Conclusion and End especially for the satisfaction of the troubled Conscience of the King's Highness For in observing the common Process and frustratory Delays of these your Courts the Matter will linger long enough and peradventure in the end come to small effect And this is most certain said he there is but one Truth in it Which no Men ought or better can discuss than the Divines Whose Sentence may be soon known and brought so to pass with little Industry and Charges that the King's Conscience may thereby be quieted and pacified Which we all ought to consider and regard in this Question or Doubt and then his Highness in Conscience quieted may determine himself that which shall seem Good before God And let these tumultuary Processes give place unto a certain Truth His Opinion thus unwillingly drawn from him was so much liked of by them to whom he spake it that they thought it worth their acquainting the King with it Which they did within two days after at Greenwich Whereupon the King commanded he should be sent for to the Court. Which was done and he brought into the King's Presence Who having heard him discourse upon the Marriage and well observing the Gravity and Modesty as well as Learning of the Man resolved to cherish and make much of him This was about August 1529 the King having commanded him to digest in Writing what he could say upon the foresaid Argument retained him and committed him unto the Family and Care of the Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond named Sir Thomas Bolen dwelling then at Durham-House Esteeming him a fit Person for Cranmer to reside with who had himself been employed in Embassies to Rome and Germany about the same Matter and so able to instruct our Divine in particular Passages relating thereunto And likewise would be sure to afford him all the Security and Favour and Aid possible from the Prospect that if the King 's former Marriage could be proved unlawful and thereby null and void his own Family would be in a fair probability to be highly advanced by the King 's matching with his Daughter the Lady Ann Bolen Nor was Cranmer unsutably placed here in regard of the Disposition of his Noble Host being accounted one of the learnedest Noblemen in the Land and endued with a Mind enclined to Philosophy Erasmus who had good Intelligence in England and knew this Earl himself gives this Account of him to Damianus à Goes Est enim Vir ut uno ore praedicant omnes unus prope inter Nobiles eruditus animóque planè Philosophico He was also much addicted to the Study and Love of the Holy Scriptures as the same Erasmus in an Epistle to him mentioneth and commendeth him for I do the more congratulate your Happiness when I observe the Sacred Scriptures to be so dear to a Man as you are of Power one of the Laity and a Courtier and that you have such a desire to tha◠Pearl of Price He was also a Patron of Learning and Learned Men. And if there were nothing else to testify this it would be enough to say that he was well-affected to the Great Erasmus and a true valuer of his Studies The World is beholden to this Noble Peer for some of the Labours that proceeded from the Pen of that most Learned Man For upon his desire Erasmus wrote three Tracts One was Enarrations upon the Twenty second Psalm intituled Dominus regit me but more truly the Twenty third Another was an Explication of the Apostles Creed And the third Directions how to prepare for Death And from these Subjects which this Noble-man chose to desire Erasmus his Thoughts of we may conclude also his Pious and Religious Mind At which his vertuous Accomplishments as they rendred his House a sutable Harbour for the Learned and Pious Cranmer so they were not a little encreased by his Converse and Familiarity there For while Cranmer abode here a great Friendship was contracted between him and that Noble Family especially the chief Members of it the Countess and the Lady Ann and the Earl himself who often held serious Conferences with him about the great Matter And in the Earl's absence from Home Letters passed between them Cranmer writing to him of the Affairs of the Court and of the Welfare of his Family as well as of other more weighty Things In one Letter dated from Hampton-Court in the Month of Iune which by Circumstance must be in the Year 1530. he writ to him That the King's Grace my Lady his Wife my Lady Ann his Daughter were in good Health And that the King and my Lady Ann rode the Day before to Windsor from Hampton-Court and that Night they were look'd for again there praying God to be their Guide And I cannot look upon this Pious and Learned Man's placing here in this Family but as guided by a peculiar Hand of Divine Providence Whereby this House became better acquainted with the Knowledg of the Gospel and had the Seeds of true Religion scattered in the Hearts of those Noble Persons that were related to it Particularly of Her who was afterwards to be advanced to that high and publick Station to be Consort to the King And that she became a Favourer and as much as she durst a Promoter of the purer Religion must I think in a great measure be owing thereunto When Cranmer had accomplished the King's Request and finished his Book he himself the Secretary and the Almoner and other Learned Men had in Commission to dispute the Cause in Question in both the Universities Which being first attempted at Cambridg Dr. Cranmer by his Authority Learning and Perswasion brought over divers Learned Men in one Day of the contrary
their Pain But because the Place where they be the Name thereof and kinds of Pain there is to us uncertain by Scripture therefore we remit this with all other things to Almighty God unto whose Mercies it is meet to commend them That such Abuses be put away which under the Name of Purgatory have been advanced As to make Men believe that through the Bishop of Rome's Pardons Souls might clearly be delivered out of Purgatory and the Pains of it or that Masses said at Scala Coeli or otherwise in any Place or before any Image might deliver them from all their Pains and send them streight to Heaven These are the Contents of that memorable Book of Articles There are Reasons added now and then to confirm the respective Tenets there laid down and many Quotations of Holy Scripture which for brevity sake I have omitted Which one may conjecture to have been inserted by the Pen of the Arch-bishop Who was the great Introducer of this Practice of proving or confuting Opinions in Religion by the Word of God instead of the ordinary Custom then used of doing it by School-men and Popish Canons We find indeed many Popish Errors here mixed with Evangelical Truths Which must either be attributed to the Defectiveness of our Prelate's Knowledg as yet in True Religion or being the Principles and Opinions of the King or both Let not any be offended herewith but let him rather take notice what a great deal of Gospel-Doctrine here came to light and not only so but was owned and propounded by Authority to be believed and practised The Sun of Truth was now but rising and breaking through the thick Mists of that Idolatry Superstition and Ignorance that had so long prevailed in this Nation and the rest of the World and was not yet advanced to its Meridian Brightness CHAP. XII Cranmer's Iudgment about some Cases of Matrimony IN this Year then came forth two remarkable Books whereof both the King and the Arch-bishop and Bishops might be said to be joint Composers In as much as they seemed to be devised by the Arch-bishop and some of the Bishops and then Revised Noted Corrected and Enlarged by the King The one of these was the Book of Articles of Religion mentioned before This Book bore this Title Articles devised by the King's Highness to stable Christian Quietness and Vnity among the People c. With a Preface by the King Where the King saith he was constrained to put his own Pen to the Book and to conceive certain Articles Which words I leave to the Conjecture of the Reader whether by them he be enclined to think that the King were the first Writer of them or that being writ and composed by another they were perused considered corrected and augmented by his Pen. The other Book that came out this Year was occasioned by a Piece published by Reginald Pole intituled De Vnione Ecclesiastica Which inveighing much against the King for assuming the Supremacy and extolling the Pope unmeasurably he employed the Arch-bishop and some other Bishops to compile a Treatise shewing the Usurpations of Popes and how late it was e're they took this Superiority upon them some hundred Years passing before they did it And that all Bishops were limited to their own Diocesses by one of the eight Councils to which every Pope did swear And how the Papal Authority was first derived from the Emperor and not from Christ. For this there were good Arguments taken from the Scriptures and the Fathers The Book was signed by both the Arch-bishops and nineteen other Bishops It was called the Bishops Book because devised by them The Lord Crumwel did use to consult with the Arch-bishop in all his Ecclesiastical Matters And there happened now while the Arch-bishop was at Ford a great Case of Marriage Whom it concerned I cannot tell but the King was desirous to be resolved about it by the Arch-bishop and commanded Crumwel to send to him for his Judgment therein The Case was three-fold I. Whether Marriage contracted or solemnized in Lawful Age per Verba de presenti and without carnal Copulation be Matrimony before God or no II. Whether such Matrimony be consummate or no And III. What the Woman may thereupon demand by the Law Civil after the death of her Husband This I suppose was a cause that lay before the King and his Ecclesiastical Vicegerent to make some determination of And I suspect it might relate to Katharine his late divorced Queen The Arch-bishop who was a very good Civilian as well as a Divine but that loved to be wary and modest in all his Decisions made these Answers That as to the first he and his Authors were of Opinion that Matrimony contracted per Verba de presenti was perfect Matrimony before God 2. That such Matrimony is not utterly consummated as that term is commonly used among the School-Divines and Lawyers but by carnal Copulation 3. As to the Woman's Demands by the Law Civil he therein professed his Ignorance And he had no learned Men with him there at Ford to consult with for their Judgments only Dr. Barbar a Civilian that he always retained with him who neither could pronounce his Mind without his Books and some learned Men to confer with upon the Case But he added that he marvelled that the Votes of the Civil Lawyer should be required herein seeing that all manner of Causes of Dower be judged within this Realm by the Common Laws of the same And that there were plenty of well-learned Men in the Civil Law at London that undoubtedly could certify the King's Majesty of the Truth herein as much as appertained unto that Law warily declining to make any positive Judgment in a Matter so ticklish This happened in the month of Ianuary And indeed in these Times there were great Irregularities about Marriage in the Realm many being incestuous and unlawful Which caused the Parliament two or three Years past viz 1533. in one of their Acts to publish a Table of Degrees wherein it was prohibited by God's Law to marry But the Act did not cure this Evil many thought to bear out themselves in their illegal Contracts by getting Dispensations from the Arch-bishop which created him much trouble by his denying to grant them There was one Massy a Courtier who had contracted himself to his deceased Wife's Niece Which needing a Dispensation the Party got the Lord Crumwel to write to the Arch-bishop in his behalf especially because it was thought to be none of the Cases of Prohibition contained in the Act. But such was the Integrity of the Arch-bishop that he refused to do any thing he thought not allowable though it were upon the perswasion of the greatest Men or the best Friends he had But he writ this civil Letter to the Lord Crumwel upon this occasion MY very singular good Lord in my most hearty-wise I commend me unto your Lordship And whereas your
Feast that they should be without it The said Proclamation also set the Price at ten Shillings a Book unbound and well Bound and Clasped not above twelve Shillings And charged all Ordinaries to take care for the seeing this Command of the King the better executed And upon this Boner being now newly Bishop of London set up six Bibles in certain convenient Places of S. Paul's Church together with an Admonition to the Readers fastned upon the Pillars to which the Bibles were chained to this Tenor That whosoever came there to read should prepare himself to be edified and made the better thereby That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the King's Injunctions made in that behalf That he bring with him Discretion honest Intent Charity Reverence and quiet Behaviour That there should no such Number meet together there as to make a Multitude That no Exposition be made thereupon but what is declared in the Book it self That it be not read with Noise in time of Divine Service Or that any Disputation or Contention be used at it But it was not much above two Years after that the Popish Bishops obtained of the King the suppression of the Bible again For after they had taken off the Lord Crumwel they made great complaint to the King their old Complaint of the Translation and of the Prefaces Whereas indeed and in truth it was the Text it self rather than the Prefaces or Translation that disturbed them Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold the Bishops promising the King to amend and correct it but never performed it And Grafton was now so long after summoned and charged with printing Matthews's Bible Which he being timerous made Excuses for Then he was examined about the great Bible and what the Notes were he intâ—nded to set thereto He replied that he added none to his Bible when he perceived the King and the Clergy not willing to have any Yet Grafton was sent to the Fleet and there remained six Weeks and before he came out was bound in three hundred Pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the King and the Clergy should agree upon a Translation And they procured an Order from the King that the falsâ— Translation of Tindal as they called it should not be uttered either by Printer or Bookseller and no other Books to be retained that spoke against the Sacrament of the Altar No Annotations or Preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could Nor the Bible to be read in the Church and nothing to be taught contrary to the King's Instructions And from henceforth the Bible was stopp'd during the remainder of King Henry's Reign But however for some certain Ends the King restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures to comply with the importunate Suits of the Popish Bishops yet his Judgment always was for the free use of them among his Subjects and in order to that for the translating and printing them For proof of which I will recite the words of the Translator of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon S. Luke in his Preface thereunto viz. Nic. Vdal a Man of Eminency in those Days a Canon of Windsor and a Servant unto Q. Katharine the King 's last Wife His most Excellent Majesty from the first day that he wore the Imperial Crown of this Realm foresaw that to the executing the Premisses viz. to destroy counterfeit Religions and to root up all Idolatry done to dead Images it was necessary that his People should be reduced to the sincerity of Christ's Religion by knowing of God's Word He considered that requisite it was his Subjects were nurâ—led in Christ by reading the Scriptures whose Knowledg should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the Slights of the Romish Juggling And therefore as soon as might be his Highness by most wholsome and godly Laws provided that it might be lawful for all his most faithful loving Subjects to read the Word of God and the Rules of Christ's Discipline which they professed He provided that the Holy Bible should be set forth in our own Vulgar Language to the end that England might the better attain to the Sincerity of Christ's Doctrine which they might draw out of the clear Fountain and Spring of the Gospel CHAP. XXII The Arch-bishop retired OUR Arch-bishop after the unhappy Death of the Lord Crumwel so excellent an Instrument in correcting the Abuses of Religion out of sorrow and care of himself betook himself to more Retirement and greater Privacy For in and after this Year 1540 I find nothing in his Register but the Acts of Confirmations and Elections and Consecrations of Bishops as Bishopricks fell vacant the Arch-bishop very seldom Consecrating any himself but commissionating others by his Letters to Confirm and Consecrate And nothing to be found a great way on in the Register concerning giving Ordinances and Injunctions to the Diocess or Province And no wonder for there was now no Vicegerent in Ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the Arch-bishop's Directions and Counsels for reforming Abuses and to see them executed in the Church And his own Sorrows and the Troubles he met with in these Times from his Enemies made him judg it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better Days But before the Death of Crumwel when Boner Bishop Elect of London was to be consecrated the Arch-bishop probably not liking him and seeing through him whatever his Pretences were and therefore declining to have any hand in his Preferment sent his Commission in April to Stephen Bishop of Winchester Richard Bishop of Chichester Robert Bishop of S. Asaph and Iohn Bishop of Hertford i. e. Hereford to consecrate him Which it is said in the Register they did accordingly per Sacri chrismatis unctionem manuum suarum impositionem In this Consecration the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted it seems upon an ancient Privilege of their Church which I do not find in this Register they had at other Consecrations done namely that the Consecration should be celebrated at the Church of Canterbury and at no other Church or Oratory without their Allowance And so in a formal Instrument they gave their Licence and Consent directed to the Arch-bishop to proceed to the Consecration elsewhere The Letter is from Thomas the Prior and the Chapter of Canterbury and it ran thus Licet antiquitus fuerit salubriter ordinatum hactenusque in per totam vestram Provinciam Cantuar ' inconcussè observatum quod quilibet Suffraganâ—us Ecclesiae vestrae Metropoliticae Christi Cantuar ' memoratae in Ecclesia vestra Metropolit ' Cantuar ' non alibi pntialiter consecrari benedici debeat c. Yet they gave their Consent that he might be Consecrated in any other Oratory But yet so that neither they nor the Church received any Prejudice and reserving to
but for his own proper Offences either Actual or Original Which Original Sin every Man hath of his own and is born in it although it came from Adam The principal means viz. God's Favour whereby all Sinners attain their Iustification This Sentence importeth that the Favour and Love of the Father of Heaven towards us is the Means whereby we come to his Favour and Love And so should one thing be the Means to it self And it is not the use of Scripture to call any other the Means and Mediator for us but only Jesus Christ by whom our access is to the Father Having assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy willing to enter into his perfect Faith He that hath assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy hath already entred into a perfect Faith and not only hath a Will to enter into it For perfect Faith is nothing else but assured Hope and Confidence in Christ's Mercy Vpon the Explication of the Tenth Commandment Without due Recompence This Addition agrees not well with the Coveting of another Man's Wife wherein is no Recompensation And in the other things although Recompensation be made yet the Commandment nevertheless is transgrest and broken Vpon another Chapter concerning Obedience to the Civil Power By his Ordinate Power This word Ordinate Power obscureth the Sentence in the understanding of them that be simple and unlearned and among the Learned it gendreth Contention and Disputation rather than it any thing edifieth Therefore methinketh it better and more plain as it is in the print or else to say By his Ordinance For the Scripture speaketh simply and plainly Potestati ejus quis resistit By these few Passages which I have carefully taken out of the Arch-bishop's own Book may be seen of what a Critical and Exact Judgment he was But besides these Adversaria in these Papers of the Arch-bishop's Annotations there be divers large Discourses of his upon several Heads of Religion drawn up as I conceive upon the King's Command to be inserted into his Book above mentioned I have extracted some of these Discourses as upon Faith Justification and Forgiveness of Injuries Wherein may be seen his sound Opinion in those great Doctrines of Christian Religion I took also out of the same Volume some Specimen of three other Discourses of his One with this Title writ by his own Hand De Consolatione Christianorum contra metum mortis Ex Doctoribus Ecclesiasticis Compiled I guess as well for his own use being not inapprehensive of his ticklish Station and Danger from so many and implacable Enemies which he had as to be inserted in the aforesaid Book The others were two Exhortations to take the Pains of Sickness well and Adversity patiently the one taken out of Cyprian the other out of S. Augustin Lib. De visitatione infirmorum The Specimen of them are in the Appendix as also the Discourses of Faith Justification and Forgiveness of Injuries This Year Boner Bishop of London set forth Injunctions for the Clergy of his Diocess containing Directions for their Preaching and Conversation together with a Catalogue of certain Books prohibited Which the Curats were to enquire after in their respective Parishes and to inform their Ordinaries of them and of those in whose possessions they found them Among these Books were the English Testament of Tindal and divers other Pieces of the said godly and learned Man some Prefaces and Marginal Glosses of Thomas Matthews in his English Bible A Book of Friar Barnes The Supplication of Beggars The Practice of Prelates The Revelation of Antichrist The Church of Iohn Rastal The Disputation between the Father and the Son The Preface made in the English Primers by Marshal This Marshal was he I suppose whose Christian Name was Cutbert and was D. D. and Arch-deacon of Nottingham and died about 1549. At this Book I will stop a little being a Book of Eminency and Remark in those Times and that hath such a strain of Truth and serious Piety in it that it seems very probable that the Arch-bishop had a considerable hand it and procured the Publication of it Cum privilegio Regali It was stiled A Goodly Primer or Book of Prayers and called The King's Primer I speak of the second Edition which was about the Year 1535. It began with an Admonition to the Reader containing very sharp and severe Reflections upon the Popish Devotions and praying to Saints And towards the conclusion the Writer professeth That this his Admonition proceded neither of blynde Zele or Affection neyther of Wyll or Purpose to offend or displease any Man moch less than to displease any Saint in Heven and in no wyse than our blessed Lady but evin of very pure Love to the Honour of God and Helth of Mennes Souls Then followeth a pious Exposition of the Ten Commandments and the Creed Then is a general Confession of Sin Which goes according to the Commandments after this manner 1. I have not set my whole Belief Confidence Trust and Hope in thee c. 2. I have divided thy Worship and Honour from Thee and given it to thy Creatures and to dead things imagined of my own fond Fantasy I mean in the misusing of Images 3. I have abased thy Name c. 4. In the Sabbath-day I have not given my self to hearing reading and learning the Holy Scriptures c. Then comes an Exposition upon the Lord's Prayer and the Salutation Some short Prayers Some Graces before and after Meat most of which are Graces still retained in our English Primers after the Catechism And the Method of the Book is the same with our Childrens Primer now in use In this Edition there was a Litany added with a Preface before it directly against praying to Saints and shewing the difference of the Case between presenting our Petitions to God and presenting a Petition to an Earthly King that though this latter cannot be done without the mediation of some Servant of the King yet the former may be done immediately to God in the Name of Christ. Besides he said there were many doubtful Saints that many Saints canonized by the Bishop of Rome whether they were Saints or no he committed to the secret Judgment of God By this taste of the Preface you easily see why Bishop Boner placed it among the prohibited Books to be diligently searched for The Litany the Author added for the sake of many People that thought there could be no right Prayers without they were in the old form of Processions which were by way of Litany or Supplication to Angels and Saints And so he writ in this Preface that it was for the Contentation of such weak Minds and somewhat to bear their Infirmities that he had at this his second Edition of the Primer caused the Litany to be printed In this Litany all doubtful Saints are left out and he addresseth only to the Holy Angels S. Michael S. Raphael c. to pray for us And the Blessed
Apostles S. Peter S. Paul S. Andrew c. The Prayer for the King nameth K. Henry VIII and his gracious Son Prince Edward In the Kalendar Thomas a Becket's Days are still retained in red Letters But I suppose that was done of course by the Printer using the old Kalendar In the same Book is a large and pious Paraphrase on Psalm LI. A Dialogue between the Father and the Son Meditations on Christ's Passion and many other things By somewhat that happened this Year the Arch-bishop proved very instrumental in promoting the Reformation of corrupt Religion in the Neighbouring Nation of Scotland which this Year had received a great Overthrow by the English Army and great Numbers of Scotish Noblemen and Gentlemen were taken Prisoners and brought up to London and after disposed of in the Houses of the English Nobility and Gentry under an easy Restraint The Earl of Cassillis was sent to Lambeth where the good Arch-bishop shewed him all Respects in providing him with Necessaries and Conveniences but especially in taking care of his Soul He detected to him the great Errors of Popery and the Reasons of those Regulations that had been lately made in Religion in England And so successful was the Arch-bishop herein that the Earl went home much enlightned in true Religion which that Nation then had a great aversion to for they highly misliked the Courses King Henry took Which Prejudices the King understanding endeavoured to take off by sending Barlow Bishop of S. Davids to Scotland with the Book of The Institution of a Christian Man Which nevertheless made no great Impression upon that People But this that happened to the Scotish Nobility that were now taken Prisoners and especially this Guest of the Arch-bishop becoming better enclined to Religion by the Knowledg they received while they remained here had a happier Effect and brought on the Reformation that after happened in that Kingdom The Parliament being summoned in Ianuary in order to the King 's making War with France whither he intended to go in Person the Arch-bishop resolved to try this Occasion to do some good Service again for Religion which had of late received a great stop His Endeavour now was to moderate the severe Acts about Religion and to get some Liberty for the Peoples reading of the Scripture Cranmer first made the Motion and four Bishops viz. Worcester Hereford Chichester and Rochester seconded him But Winchester opposed the Arch-bishop's Motion with all earnestness And the Faction combined with so much Violence that these Bishops and all other fell off from the Arch-bishop and two of them endeavoured to perswade the Arch-bishop to desist at present and to stay for a better Opportunity But he refused and followed his Stroke with as much vigour as he could and in fine by his perswasion with the King and the Lords a Bill past And the King was the rather inclined thereunto because he being now to go abroad upon a weighty Expedition thought convenient to leave his Subjects at home as easy as might be So with much struggling an Act was past intituled An Act for the Advancement of True Religion and the Abolishment of the contrary In this Act as Tindal's Translation of the Scriptures was forbidden to be kept or used so other Bibles were allowed to some Persons excepting the Annotations and Preambles which were to be cut or dashed out And the King 's former Proclamations and Injunctions with the Primers and other Books printed in English for the Instruction of the People before the Year 1540 were still to be in force which it seems before were not And that every Nobleman and Gentleman might have the Bible read in their Houses and that Noble Ladies and Gentlewomen and Merchants might read it themselves But no Men or Women under those Degrees That every Person might read and teach in their Houses the Book set out in the Year 1540 which was The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man with the Psalter Primer Pater noster Ave and Creed in English But when Winchester and his Party saw that they could not hinder the Bill from passing they clogged it with Provisoes that it came short of what the Arch-bishop intended it as that the People of all sorts and conditions universally might not read the Scriptures but only some few of the higher Rank And that no Book should be printed about Religion without the King's Allowance And that the Act of the Six Articles should be in the same Force it was before A Bishop Consecrated Iune the 25 th being Sunday Paul Bush Provincial of the Bonhommes was consecrated the first Bishop of Bristol by Nicolas Bishop of Rochester assisted by Thomas Bishop of Westminster and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford This Consecration was celebrated in the Parish-Church of Hampton in the Diocess of Westminster CHAP. XXV Presentments at a Visitation BY the Act above-mentioned the generality of the People were restrained from reading the Holy Scriptures But in lieu of it was set forth by the King and his Clergy in the Year 1543 a Doctrine for all his Subjects to use and follow which was the Book abovesaid and all Books that were contrary to it were by Authority of Parliament condemned It was printed in London by Thomas Barthelet This Book the Arch-bishop enjoined to be made publick in his Diocess as I suppose it was in all other Diocesses throughout the Kingdom and allowed no preaching or arguing against it And when one Mr. Ioseph once a Friar in Canterbury now a learned and earnest Preacher and who was afterward preferred to Bow-Church in London had attempted to preach against some things in the Book the Arch-bishop checked and forbad him For indeed there were some Points therein which the Arch-bishop himself did not approve of foisted into it by Winchester's Means and Interest at that time with the King Which Bishop politickly as well as flatteringly called it The King's Book a Title which the Arch-Bishop did not much like for he knew well enough Winchester's Hand was in it And so he told him plainly in K. Edward's Time when he might speak his Mind telling him in relation thereunto That he had seduced the King But because of the Authority of the Parliament ratifying the Book and the many good and useful Things that were in it the Arch-bishop introduced and countenanced it in his Diocess and would not allow open preaching against it The Arch-bishop about the Month of September held a Visitation in Canterbury chiefly because of the Jangling of the Preachers and the divers Doctrines vented among them according as their Fancies Interests or Judgments led them The Visitation proceeded upon the King's Injunctions and other late Ordinances And here I shall set down before the Reader some of the Presentments as I take them from an Original in a Volume that belonged to this Archbishop Wherein notice may be taken what ignorance was then in some of the Priests what
Passage of the Christmass Sermon hath a Cross struck through it Ridley the Prebendary was charged Sept. 22. 1543 that he preached at S. Stephens in the Rogation Week Anno Reg. 32. that Auricular Confession was but a meer positive Law and ordained as a godly Means for the Sinner to come to the Priest for Counsel but he could not find it in Scripture And that there was no meeter Terms to be given to the Ceremonies of the Church than to call them Beggarly Ceremonies That Te Deum hath been sung commonly in English at Herne where the said Mr. Doctor is Vicar Brooks one of the six Preachers was accused for preaching That all Masters and Mistresses were bound to eat Eggs Butter and Cheese in Lent to give Example to their Housholds to do the same This the Papists thought a breaking of Lent to allow this eating of White-meats whereas Fish only ought to be eaten And he thought that the Ceremonies of the Church were but Beggarly Ceremonies and that was the meetest Term he could give them Thomas Carden Vicar of Lime in a Lenten-Sermon Anno 1543 said He supposed S. Katharine was rather a Devil in Hell than a Saint in Heaven And that the People said naught and that this term was naught to say That they should receive their Maker at Easter but they should say we shall receive our Housel He preached That the Water in the Font is no better than other Water is Drum one of the six Preachers in the Year 1543 preached in a Sermon made in Christ's-Church that we may not pray in an Unknown Tongue for if we do we do but mock with God and of God we be mocked As if a Man do come to a Lord and babble to him words he knoweth not the Lord will but mock him and account him for a Fool. So thy Prayer Man not understood is but babbling and for that before God thou art but a Fool. Your Psalmody and Song in the Church is so taken with God if that you which do occupy your selves therein do not understand it And thou that so babblest dost break the Command of God For it is written Non accipies nomen Dei in vanum And you do call on God vainly when you do call upon him in a Tongue that you understand not Wherefore to such as know not the Latin it must be needful to pray in the Mother-Tongue Item That the Material Church is a thing made and ordained to content the Affections of Men and is not the thing that pleaseth God nor that God requires but is a thing that God doth tolerate for the weakness of Men. For as the Father contenteth his Child with an Apple or a Hobby-horse not because these things do delight the Father but because the Child ruled by Affections is more desirous of these things than the Father is rejoiced in the Deed So Almighty God condescending to the Infirmities of Man and his weakness doth tolerate material Churches gorgeously built and richly decked not because he requires or is pleased with such things This Drum was one of the Cambridg Men that Cardinal Wolsey transplanted into his College at Oxon and who suffered Imprisonment there some time after with Cox and Frith and divers others of the same College for Matters of Religion But however Drum afterwards fell away into Papistry Lancaster Parson of Pluckley useth not in the Church-porch any Hally Water according to the laudable Custom of the Church A great part of his Parish useth not to receive Hally Bread Going on Procession he useth not to rehearse Sancta Maria nor any other Saints Names The Curate of Much Mongam going on Procession refuseth and will in no wise sing nor say the Litany in such manner as all other Curates do All these Collections I have made out of the Original of this Visitation of the Arch-bishop Wherein may be seen the particular Matters in these Times vented and tossed about in the Pulpits the trifling way of Popish Preaching consisting in ridiculous lying Fables and Stories as is used still in the Popish Countries and with how much more Solidity Truth and Reason the Sermons of those who favoured the Gospel were replenished We may observe here also how diligent our Arch-bishop was in his care of his Diocess and the pains he took to come to a perfect Detection of his Clergy in order to their Regulation and divers other things which an ingenious Reader will take notice of The Arch-bishop had all the Prebendaries and Preachers before him in his Consistory at Croydon on Trinity-Sunday was twelve Month where he argued with them instructed rebuked exhorted them according as he saw needful for ever Man with relation unto the Articles above-said He told Serles who had preached in favour of Images in Churches as Representatives of Saints and not Idols That Imago Idolum was one thing but the one was the Latin the other the Greek To which Gardiner a Prebend of the Church replied That he did not think that an Image and an Idol was one but that an Image not abused with Honor is an Image and not an Idol This saying of the Arch-bishop did so gaul them that they took occasion after in their Sermons to confute it And they lyingly reported in Canterbury that the ABp should say He would be even with Gardiner or that Gardiner should repent his reasoning with him Whereas all that Cranmer said was that the Communication that Gardiner had that Day should be repeated again at his Grace's coming to Canterbury The same day the Archbishop told them that he had set in their Church six Preachers three of the old Learning and three of the New Now Gardiner told him he thought that would not be for the most quietness in Preachers The Arch-bishop replied that he had shewed the King's Grace what he had done in that Matter and that the King's Pleasure was that it should be so He then also gave them Warning that none should inveigh against others in their Sermons CHAP. XXVI A black Cloud over the Arch-bishop SOon after this a great and black Cloud hung over our Arch-bishop's Head that threatned to break upon him in Thunder and Lightning The Prebendaries and others of the Church of Canterbury for the most part were addicted to the Pope and the old Superstitions Which the Arch-bishop endeavouring to abolish and to bring in truer knowledg of Religion among them caused them to do what they could to oppose him And indeed they usually carried themselves disobligingly enough to him Which made him say to one of them viz. Gardiner alias Sandwich You and your Company hold me short but I will hold you as short They seemed now to have a fair Advantage against him upon account of the Statute of the Six Articles which the King at this time stood much upon the execution of and did give out that he required Justices and others his Officers in their several Places to give notice of
and several of the Counsellors and the imminent danger the Arch-bishop was in except he himself did interpose it pleased God to turn the King's Heart to him So he put the Book of Articles in his Sleeve and passing one Evening in his Barge by Lambeth-Bridg the Arch-bishop standing at the Stairs to do his Duty to his Majesty he called him into the Barge to him and accosting him with these words O my Chaplain now I know who is the greatest Heretick in Kent communicated to him these Matters shewing him the Book of Articles against him and his Chaplains and bad him peruse it This both surprised and troubled the Arch-bishop not a little that those of his own Church and Justices of the Peace whom he had obliged should deal so treacherously with him He kneeled down to the King and well-knowing how false the Articles were desired him to grant a Commission to whomsoever it pleased him to try the Truth of these Accusations so as from the highest to the lowest they might be well punished if they had done otherwise than became them The King told him He would grant a Commission and that such Affiance and Confidence he had in his Fidelity that he should be the chief Commissioner himself to whom he would wholly commit the Examination with two or three more such as he should chuse When the Arch-bishop replied That it would not seem indifferent to make him a Commissioner who was a Party accused the King told him That he was sure he would not halt with him although he were driven to accuse himself but would speak the Truth of himself if he had offended The King added That he knew partly how the Matter came about namely by Winchester's subtile means and that if he handled the Matter wisely he should find a pretty Conspiracy against him The King named but one viz. Dr. Belhouse to be in the Commission and the Arch-bishop named Dr. Iohn Cocks his Vicar-General and Anthony Hussey his Register The Commissiâ—n was made out of hand and he was commanded to go himself into Kent upon it And the King commanded the Commissioners particularly that it should be sifted out who was the first Occasion of this Accusation Presently every one that had meddled in this Detection shrunk away and gave over their hold The Arch-bishop came to Feversham himself and there as it seems sat upon the Commission and drew up some Interrogatories with his own Hand for some of these Informers and having summoned these Accusers before him argued and expostulated meekly and sometimes earnestly with them chiefly insisting upon their Ingratitude and Disingenuity with him He asked Sentleger if he were at Home on Palm-sunday that was the Day when the Prebendaries signed the Articles Sentleger saying He was then at his Benefice the Archbishop declared the Procession done that Day as he called it and said Whether he and the rest were present that Day they were all knit in a Bond among them which he would break adding in a passionate way of Expression O Mr. Sentleger I had in you and Mr. Parkhurst a good Judgment and especially in you but ye will not leave your old Mumpsimus To which Sentleger boldly replied That he trusted they used no Mumpsimus's but those that were consonant to the Laws of God and the Prince And with Shether one of the busiest Enemies the Arch-bishop had in this Affair the Arch-bishop so fatherly discoursed and argued that Shether could not forbear weeping He and Serles two of the chief Agents were committed to Custody But Shether presently dispatcheth his Servant to the Bishop of VVinchester declaring how he and Serles were in Durance and recommended their Case to him VVinchester went into the Council-Chamber probably to try his Interest with the Council to get them released But it seems he soon perceived how the King stood affected and so there was nothing yet to be done And therefore he told the Servant he could give him no Answer as yet A Day or two after at the Servant's departing he told him That his Master was a Child for weeping to the Arch-bishop when he should have answered and that he should not weep for shame but answer like a Man and that he should take a good Heart for he should have Friends That he would not forget him but he must know of the Council first what to do and so desired the Servant to have him recommended to the Prebendaries all in general bidding him tell them That my Ld of Canterbury could not kill them and that therefore they should bear their Sufferings for all he did was against himself and that he should see what would come of it Ford a Brother-in-law of Shether's and a Party told the Servant That he should tell his Brother that he should never recant for if he did he would never be his Friend while he lived nor none should that he could let and that my Lord of VVinchester should be his Friend But to return to the Arch-bishop's Examination of them When he asked them what the reason was of these their doings they pretended one one thing and another another Gardiner said that which moved him was Because he observed such Jarrings among them and so much Unquietness about Matters of Religion and that he thought it was by the Arch-bishop's Sufferance Which the Arch-bishop convinced him was false Shether pretended that Baker the Chancellor of the Augmentations had willed him to mark the chief Fautors of new Opinions VVilloughby desired Dr. Thornton who was very great with the Arch-bishop but secretly false to him that he would let his Lordship know that he never put up Article against any Man in his Life for that he was charged to have put up or ready to have put up the Articles Thornton bad him stick to it and not be afraid for saith he I have spoken my Mind to the Council therein as I am bound and so be you being the King's Chaplain But the Arch-bishop left the further discovery of this Mischief to the diligence of Cockes and Hussey his Officers this was about August They sat six Weeks saith my Manuscript but being secret Favourers of the Papists handled the Matter so that nothing would be disclosed and espied but every thing colourably was hid The Arch-bishop secretly observed this but Morice his Secretary wrote to Dr. Butts the King's Physicians and Sir Anthony Denny of his Bed-Chamber That if the King sent not some others to assist the Arch-bishop than those that were with him it was not possible any thing should come to light wishing that Dr. Legh or some such other stout Man that had been exercised in the King 's Ecclesiastical Affairs in his Visitation might be sent to him And Dr. Legh was soon dispatched with Instructions from the King into Kent with the King's Ring which he delivered to the Arch-bishop on Alhollow-Even And with Dr. Legh Dr. Rowland Taylor another Civilian a bold and stirring Man was
the University at that Time and of the great Sway the Arch-bishop then carried in the Publick and the marvellous Good-will he was esteemed to bear towards Learning I have therefore placed in the Appendix tho printed before This Favour of having their Privileges confirmed sued for in the forementioned Letter the University then got partly by the Means of their cordial Patron the Arch-bishop and partly by the Intercession and Friendship of Queen Katherine Par a great Favourer of Learning and pure Religion of Wriothesly Lord Chancellor the Earl of Warwick the Marquess of Northampton the Earl of Arundel and Sir William Paget to all whom at that time they addressed their Letters whether it were out of fear of the difficulty of getting the thing done or to take this Opportunity to obtain the Countenance of the great Men of the Court. Some time after upon another Occasion the Heads of the University made another Application to their Patron the Arch-bishop which was to befriend them at Court against the Townsmen their old Enemies who were now wresting from them one of their Ancient undoubted Privileges namely the use of the Prisons of the Toll-booth and Castle The Occasion was this In the time of Sturbridg-Fair the Proctors upon great Complaints made to them going their Rounds one Night had taken certain evil Persons in Houses of Sin and had brought them to the Toll-booth in order to the commitment of them there But having sent to the Mayor for the Keys he absolutely refused to part with them So they were fain to carry their Prisoners to the Castle where they left them in Custody But the Mayor's Son after an Hour or two let them all out to return if they pleased to their former Lewdness to the Breach of Law and Affront of the Magistrate Upon this the University sent their Letters to the Arch-bishop making certain of their grave Members the Bearers to relate the Matter more fully earnestly requiring that such Insolence might be punished and that the King and his Council would make such Men feel what it was to violate Laws and to cherish Impunity and to break their Oaths which they had taken to maintain the University-Privileges They urged to him how serviceable and ready their University had been to him in his pious Labours and Counsels in establishing the true Doctrine in the Church and what fit and worthy Men they had sent him for his Assistance in that good Work In like manner they required and expected of him that their Dignity might be maintained and preserved by his Aid and Authority That the University was then but in a low Condition and that Abroad it scarcely retained the Shadow of its former Glory But if at Home and within it Self the Bonds and Sinews of its Safety should thus be cut as not to have a Power to restrain Vice by Imprisonment what could the Kingdom Religion and the King's Majesty hope for any more from that University They inculcated how Learning and the true Religion rise and fall together and that if it went otherwise than well with the one the other would feel the Smart of it And truly say they no remarkable Dammage can light upon the Studies of Learning which by the same Motion draws not along with it the true Religion into the same Catastrophe And these Considerations they made use of to excite his Grace to assist them in vindicating their Privileges and in having that gross Infringement of them punished Upon the same Occasion they wrote their Letters also to Sir William Paget a great Friend of theirs and eminent Patron of good Learning What the Issue of these Applications was I find not but may conclude they received a Success proportionable to the good Will and Authority of those to whom they were made And as the whole Body of the University knew what Favour our Prelate bore to it so every single ingenious Member confided in him and applied to him in their Needs Roger Ascham the University Orator whom I had occasion to mention before was a Man of a weak Constitution and had contracted more frailty by reason of a long Ague that then hung about him and his Complexion became Melancholy by the Relicts of that stubborn Distemper He had also in his Nature a great averseness to the Fish-diet Upon these Reasons he address'd his Letters to the ABp with an humble Suit very handsomly penned that he might be dispensed with as to abstinence from Flesh-meats Lent and Fish-days being then strictly observed in the Colleges And this Licence he desired might be not only Temporary but perpetual as long as he lived which was somewhat extraordinary But to encline the Arch-bishop to yield to his Suit he told him That it was not to pamper his Flesh nor out of an affectation of doing that which was unusual or against common Custom but only for the preserving his Health and that he might the more freely pursue his Studies He added That the Air of Cambridg was naturally Cold and Moist and so the Fish-diet the more unwholsome He desired therefore That by his Authority he might no longer be tied by that Tradition which forbad the Use of certain Meats at certain Times He said That those who granted this Liberty to none but such as laboured under a desperate Disease did like them who never repaired their Houses but when they were just ready to fall down by Age. Thrifty House-keepers did otherwise So did skilful Physicians who did not use to prescribe their Physick when it was too late but always put a stop to Beginnings That they who never would impart the using of this Liberty of eating Flesh to any but when all Health was despaired of knew not what good a prudent Foresight did in all Common-wealths and did too insolently abuse a good Thing bestowed upon us by God when little or no use at all could be made of it Nay that such a Good was no Good at all being External but in that respect only as there might some use be made of it That we ought not therefore unprofitably to abuse Food to Diseases that are desperate but to accommodate it to the preservation of Health And so did S. Paul command Therefore I exhort you to take some Food for this is for your Health Then he subjoins a Passage of Herodotus in his Euterpe concerning the Egyptian Priests from whom issued originally all kinds of Learning and Arts and who were always conversant in Learned Studies These saith that Author religiously tied themselves ever to abstain from all eating of Flesh. No doubt for this only Cause saith Ascham Nè ignea vis ingenii atque praestantia ullo frigido succo quem esus piscium ingeneraret extingueretur That the Wits of Men that have a noble fiery Quality in them might not be quenched by some cold Juice which the eating of Fish might ingender And that it was somewhat unjust he adds that when so many kinds
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
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
them obliquely therewith And in fine he wrote that He and those with him knew more than they did to whom they writ Probably he meant that he knew that this Anger against the Duke arose from the private Malice of some of them or their Hatred of the Reformation notwithstanding all the fair Pretences of their Care of the King and the Protector 's Misgovernment This Letter the Lords from Ely-house answered Charging and commanding the Arch-bishop and those with him to have a continual earnest watch of the King's Person and that he be not removed from Windsor-Castle as they would answer the same at their utmost Perils They wondred much they said that they would suffer the King's Royal Person to remain in the Guard of the Duke's Men and that Strangers should be Armed with the King's Armour and be nearest about his Person For it seems many of the King's Servants in this Fear were removed away They advised the Arch-bishop and the Lord Paget to come over to their Side and to leave the poor Duke alone Upon this the Arch-bishop and the others wrote a second Letter dated October the 10 th Wherein they assured the Lords that they could whensoever they pleased to require it give such very good Reasons for their so often mentioning Cruelty in their other Letter as they questioned not they would be well satisfied with And so upon the Lord 's propounding a Meeting with the King and them they accorded thereunto in great prudence willing for Peace and Quietness in that dangerous Time so to do These Letters are recorded in the History of the Reformation The Common-Prayer-Book and Administration of the Sacraments by the great care and study of the Arch-bishop was now finished and settled by Act of Parliament which would not down with a great many But upon the taking up of the Duke of Somerset in the Month of October and laying him in the Tower it was generally said that now the old Latin-Service should come in again the common Opinion being that the Common-Prayer was peculiarly of his procuring And that there were such Designs among Somerset's Enemies who were generally favourers of the old Religion it is not improbable The good Arch-bishop thought it now time to interpose in this thing and to obtain from the Privy-Council somewhat to confirm the Book of Common-Prayer So there was in Decemb. 25. a general Letter drawn up to all the Bishops of England Letting them understand That there was no intention of bringing in again Latin-Service conjured Bread and Water nor any such abrogated Ceremonies And that the abolishing of these and the setting forth of the Book of Common-Prayer was done by the whole State of the Realm That the Book was grounded upon the Holy Scripture and was agreeable to the Order of the Primitive Church and much to the edifying of the Subject And therefore that the changing of that for the old Latin-Service would be a preferring of Ignorance to Knowledg Darkness to Light and a preparation to bring in Papistry and Superstition again The Bishops therefore were bid with all speed to command their Deans and Prebendaries and all Parsons Vicars and Curates to bring to such Places as the Bishops should appoint all Antiphoners Missals c. and all other Books of Service and that they be defaced and abolished that they be no let to that Godly and uniform Order set forth And to commit to Ward any stubborn and disobedient Persons that brought not the said Books and to certify the Council of their Misbehaviour That they should make search if any of these Superstitious Books were withdrawn or hid That whereas there were some Persons who refused to contribute to the buying of Bread and Wine for the Communion according to the Order of the Book whereby many-times the Holy Communion was fain to be omitted to convent such Persons before them and admonish them and if they refused to do accordingly to punish them by Suspension Excommunication or other Censure This was signed by the Arch-bishop and the Lord Chancellor Rich and four more CHAP. XIII The Arch-bishop entertains learned Foreigners THE Arch-bishop had now in his Family several Learned Men. Some he sent for from beyond Sea and some in pity he entertained being Exiles for Religion Among the former sort was Martin Bucer a Man of great Learning and Moderation and who bore a great part in the Reformation of Germany While he and the rest abode under his Roof the Arch-bishop still employed them sometimes in learned Conferences and Consultations held with them sometimes in writing their Judgment upon some Subjects in Divinity Here Bucer wrote to the Lady Elizabeth a Letter bearing Date the 6 th of the Calends of September commending her Study in Piety and Learning and exciting her to proceed therein incited so to do I make no doubt by the Arch-bishop whom Bucer in that Letter makes mention of and stileth Patrem suum benignissimum hospitem Hence also he wrote another Letter to the Marquess of Northampton who was a Patron of Learning and a Professor of Religion in the behalf of Sleidan who was promised a Pension by the King to enable him to write the History of the Progress of Religion beginning at Luther A part of the Letter translated into English ran thus Therefore if we should not take care that this so great Act of Divine Goodness towards us viz. the Reformation began in the Year 1517 should be most diligently written and consecrated to Posterity we should lie under the Crime of the neglect of God's Glory and most foul Ingratitude Therefore Iohn Sleidan a very Learned and Eloquent Man five Years ago began to compile an History of this Nature as the Work he had published did witness But after he was much encouraged in this Undertaking and well furnished with Matter the Calamities that befel Germany for our own Deserts intercepted the pious Attempts of this Man so very useful to the Church Nor doth it appear now from whence besides the King's Majesty we may hope that some small Benignity may be obtained for Sleidan since the Salaries which he received for this purpose from the German Princes failed and he was poor That Iohn Alasco Dr. Peter Martyr and he considering these things and weighing how the truly Christian King Edward was even born with a desire of illustrating the Glory of Christ and what need there was to set Sleidan again upon finishing the History of the Gospel restored to us they had therefore presumed to supplicate the King in his behalf and intreated the Marquess to promote and forward their Supplication and to vouchsafe to contribute his Help also We shall hear more of this hereafter I find also Annotations writ by the said Bucer upon S. Matthew reaching as far as the eighth Chapter and there ending in this method There is the Latin Translation with large Notes added in the Margin and at the end of each Chapter common
of old Popish Curats The Letter is dated the 23 d of Iuly and is extant in Fox In London by the Connivance and Remisness of the Bishop many neglected the Divine Service then established and others did in secret Places of the Diocess often frequent the Popish Mass and other Superstitious Rites not allowed by the Laws of England The Sins of Adultery greatly encreased The Churches and particularly the Mother-Church of S. Paul's ran into Dilapidations the Glass was broken and the Ornaments and other Buildings belonging to Churches neglected Many refused to pay Tithes to their Curates probably of both sorts such as were Papists to those Curats as more diligently preached Reformation and obeyed the King's Laws and such as were not so to such Curats as were more backward thereunto Bishop Boner also himself now seldom came to Church seldomer preached and celebrated the English Communion Wherefore the Council sent certain private Injunctions to Boner for the redress of these things That he should preach in his own Person at Paul's Cross and declare certain Articles relating to the before-mentioned Neglects which the Council now sent to him to redress That he should preach once in a Quarter and exhort the People to Obedience and that he should be present at every Sermon at Paul's Cross that he should on the principal Feasts celebrate the Communion and at all times that his Predecessors used to Celebrate and sing High Mass. That he should call before him all such as did not frequent the Church and Common-Prayer and the Holy Communion and punish them as also Adulterers and that he should look to the Reparation of S. Paul's and other Churches and that the People pay their Tithes The Adulteries before hinted which the Council thought fit to recommend to the Bishop to take particular cognizance of makes me add that about this time the Nation grew infamous for this Crime It began among the Nobility and so spread at length among the inferior sort Noblemen would very frequently put away their Wives and marry others if they liked another Woman better or were like to obtain Wealth by her And they would sometimes pretend their former Wives to be false to their Beds and so be divorced and marry again such whom they fancied The first occasion of this seemed to be in the Earl of Northampton divorcing himself from his first Wife Anne Daughter to the Earl of Essex and after marrying Elizabeth Daughter to the Lord Cobham In like manner Henry Son of William Earl of Pembroke put away Katharine Daughter to Henry the Duke of Suffolk and married Mary the Daughter of Sir Henry Sidney These Adulteries and Divorces encreased much yea and marrying again without Divorce which became a great Scandal to the Realm and to the Religion professed in it and gave much Sorrow and Trouble in good Men to see it In so much that they thought it necessary to move for an Act of Parliament to punish Adultery with Death This Latimer in a Sermon preached in the Year 1550 signified to the King For the Love of God saith he take an order for Marriage here in England This is some Account of the Retardation of Religion On the other hand the Endeavors of those that wished well to it were not wanting Now the Protestants began more freely to put forth Books and to disperse such as were formerly printed beyond Sea in the behalf of Religion against Popery and concerning such as had suffered under the Cruelties of the Church of Rome Bale about these Days dispersed his Books One was The Image of both Churches applying the Divine Prophecy of the Revelations to the Apostate Church of Rome Another was a Vindication of the Lady Anne Ascue who suffered the cruel Death of Burning about the end of King Henry's Reign Whose Cause the Papists studiously had rendred bad This Book he intitled The Elucidation of Anne Ascue's Martyrdom Which was this Year exposed publickly to sale at Winchester and the Parts thereabouts as a Reproach to the Bishop of Winchester who was the great Cause of her Death Four of these Books came to that Bishop's own Eyes being then at Winchester they had Leaves put in as Additions to the Book some glewed and some unglewed which probably contained some further Intelligences that the Author had gathered since his first writing of the Book And herein some Reflexions were made freely according to Bale's Talent upon some of the Court not sparing Paget himself though then Secretary of State Another of Bale's Books that went now about was touching the Death of Luther Therein was a Prayer of the Duke of Saxony mentioned which the Bishop of Winchester gladly took hold on Wherein that Duke as to the justness of his Cause remitted himself to God's Judgment to be shewed on him here in this World if the Cause he undertook were not Just concerning Religion and desired God if it were not Good to order him to be taken and spoiled of his Honors and Possessions Since which the Duke was taken Prisoner and at the very time of his taking the Papists made an Observation that the Sun appeared so strangely in England as the like had not been seen before So apt are Men to interpret Events according to their own preconceived Opinions But at this Winchester took much Advantage Whereas indeed the Issues of God's Providence in this World are not favourable always even to the best Causes The keeping of Lent was now called into Controversy and asserted that it was not to be observed upon a religious Account And this was done the rather because the Papists placed so much Religion in the bare Fast. In the Pulpit it began to be cried down Tongue and Ioseph two great Preachers in London said That Lent was one of Christ's Miracles which God ordained not Men to imitate or follow And that it was an insupportable Burden There was a set of Rhimes now made about the burial of Lent which was called Iack of Lent 's Testament and publicly sold in Winchester Market therein Steven Gardiner the Bishop was touched who was a great Man for keeping it For in the Ballad Stephen Stockfish was bequeathed in this Will to Stephen Gardiner Of this he made a long Complaint to the Protector But yet this Neglect of Lent was not encouraged by the Superiors For it was kept at Court and Preparations for the King's Diet were made accordingly this Lent by the Protector The Protestants indeed were for keeping it and an Order was issued out for that purpose tho not upon a Religious but Politick Account But the greater part of the ordinary People would not be brought to it by this Distinction So that the Preachers were fain to be employed Latimer preached That those that regard-not Laws and Statutes were despisers of Magistrates There be Laws made of Diet he said what Meats we shall eat at all times And this Law is made in Policy as I suppose for
him in these things to dispense with him But the Arch-bishop for certain Reasons refused it Then was the Arch-bishop solicited by great Men. The Earl of Warwick afterwards the great Duke of Northumberland wrote to him a Letter dated Iuly 23 the Bearer whereof was Hoper himself that the rather at his Instance he would not charge the Bishop Elect of Gloucester with an Oath burthenous to his Conscience Which was I suppose the Oath of Canonical Obedience And when Hoper had sued to the King either to discharge him of the Bishoprick or that he might be dispensed with in the Ceremonies used in Consecration which he knew the Arch-bishop could not do no more than to dispense with the Laws of the Land whereby he should run into a Premunire the King wrote a Letter to Cranmer dated Aug. 5 therein freeing him of all manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitures that he might incur by omitting those Rites but yet by any thing that appears in the Letter without any urging or perswasion used to the Arch-bishop to omit the said Rites leaving that to his own Discretion But the Arch-bishop thought the King 's bare Letters were not sufficient to secure him against established Laws When this would not do then endeavour was used to satisfy Hoper's Conscience And Ridley Bishop now of London was thought for his great Learning to be a fit Person to confer with him There were long Arguings between them and at last it came to some Heats And Hoper still remained resolved not to comply holding it if not unlawful yet highly inexpedient to use those very Vestments that the Papal Bishops used The Council upon this sent for Hoper and because they would in no wise the stirring up of Controversies between Men of one Profession willed him to cease the Occasion hereof Hoper humbly besought them that for Declaration of his Doings he might put in Writing such Arguments as moved him to be of the Opinion he held Which was granted him These Arguments it seems were communicated to Ridley to answer And October the 6 th the Council being then at Richmond the Arch-bishop present they wrote to the Bishop of London commanding him to be at Court on Sunday next and to bring with him what he should for Answer think convenient In the mean time to bring the Question to more Evidence and Satisfaction the Arch-bishop according to his Custom to consult in Religious Matters with the learnedest Men of other Nations wrote to Cambridg to Martin Bucer for his Judgment Who upon occasion of this Controversy wrote two Epistles one to Hoper and another to the Arch-bishop both de re Vestiariâ That to the latter was in answer to these two Queries which Cranmer had sent for his Resolution about I. Whether without offending of God the Ministers of the Church of England may use those Garments which are now used and prescribed to be used by the Magistrates II. Whether he that affirms it Unlawful or refuseth to use these Garments sinneth against God because he saith that is Unclean which God hath sanctified and against the Magistrate who commandeth a political Order Bucer to both these Questions gave his Resolution in the Affirmative in his Answer to the Arch-bishop dated Decemb. 8. But he thought considering how the Habits had been Occasion to some of Superstition and to others of Contention that it were better at some good Opportunity wholly to take them away Besides Bucer's Letter to Hoper from Cambridg mentioned before P. Martyr from Oxon wrote him a large Letter dated Novemb. 4. For both these good Men were desirous that Hoper should have Satisfaction that so useful a Man might come in place in the Church To both these Hoper had wrote and sent his Arguments against the Episcopal Vestments by a Messenger dispatched on purpose Martyr told him That he took much delight in that singular and ardent Study that appeared in him that Christian Religion might again aspire to a chaste and pure Simplicity That for his part he could be very hardly brought off from that simple and pure Way which he knew they used a great while at Strasburgh where the difference of Garments in Holy Things was taken away And so he prayed God it might continue Thus he said Hoper might see that in the Sum they both agreed together he wishing for that which Hoper endeavoured That in Rites he was for coming as near as possible to the Sacred Scripture and for taking Pattern by the better Times of the Church But yet that he could not be brought by his Arguments to think that the use of Garments was destructive or in their own Nature contrary to the Word of God A Matter which he thought to be altogether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that therefore indifferent Things as they were sometimes to be taken away so might be used And that if he had thought this were wicked he would never have communicated with the Church of England That there might be some great Good follow from the use at present of the Garments namely that if we suffered the Gospel to be first preached and well rooted Men would afterwards better and more easily be perswaded to let go these outward Customs But now when a Change is brought in of the necessary Heads of Religion and that with so great difficulty if we should make those things that are indifferent to be impious so we might alienate the Minds of all that they would not endure to hear solid Doctrine and receive the necessary Ceremonies That there was no doubt England owed much to him for his great pains in Preaching and Teaching And in return he had gained much Favour and Authority in the Realm whereby he was in a Capacity of doing much Good to the Glory of God Only he bad Hoper take heed that by unseasonable and too bitter Sermous he became not an Hindrance to himself Besides that by looking upon these indifferent Things as sinful and destructive we should condemn many Gospel-Churches and too sharply tax very many which anciently were esteemed most famous and celebrated And whereas there were two Arguments that made Hoper ready to charge the use of these Vestments to be not indifferent he proceeded to consider them One was this That this would be to call back again the Priesthood of Aaron The other That they were Inventions of Antichrist and that we ought to be estranged not only from the Pope but from all his Devices But as to the former he shewed him That the Apostles for Peace-sake commanded the Gentiles to abstain from Blood and Fornication which were Aaronical Customs And so are Tithes for the maintenance of the Clergy Psalms and Hymns can scarce be shewn to be commanded in the New Testament to be sung in publick Assemblies which are very manifest to be used in the Old That there are not a few things that our Church hath borrowed from the Mosaical Decrees and that
but that the Heart before God was required and nothing else Such other like warm Disputes there were about Scripture There were likewise such Assemblies now in Kent These were looked upon as dangerous to Church and State And two of the Company were therefore taken and Committed to the Marshalsea and Orders were sent to apprehend the rest viz. to Sir George Norton Sheriff of Essex to apprehend and send up to the Council those Persons that were assembled for Scripture Matters in Bocking Nine of them were named being Cowherds Clothiers and such like mean People The like Order was sent to Sir Edward Wotton and to Sir Thomas Wyat to apprehend others of them seven whereof are named living in Kent February 3. Those that were apprehended for the meeting at Bocking appeared before the Council and confessed the Cause of their Assembly to be For to talk of the Scriptures that they had refused the Communion for above two Years and that as was judged upon very superstitious and erroneous Purposes with divers other evil Opinions worthy of great Punishment Whereupon five of them were committed and seven of them were bound in Recognizance to the King in forty pound each Man The Condition to appear when they should be called upon and to resort to their Ordinaries for resolution of their Opinions in case they had any Doubt in Religion CHAP. XXII Foreigners allowed Churches A Lasco WE shall now shew a remarkable Instance of the ABp's Episcopal Piety in the care he took of the Souls of Foreigners as well as of the Native English For in King Edward's Reign there were great numbers of Stangers in the Realm French Dutch Italians Spaniards who abode here upon divers Occasions some for Trade and Commerce and some no doubt to be secret Spies and Promoters of the Pope's Affairs and to hinder the Propagation of the Religion But the most were such as fled over hither to escape the Persecutions that were in those Times very violently set on foot in their respective Countries and to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences and the free Profession of their Religion Our Prelate had a chief hand in forming these Strangers into distinct Congregations for the Worship of God and in procuring them convenient Churches to meet in and setting Preachers of their own over them to instruct them in the true Religion Cecyl and Cheke joining with him in this pious Design and furthering it at Court with the King and Duke of Somerset And this they did both out of Christian Charity and Christian Policy too this being a probable means to disperse the Reformed Religion into Foreign Parts That when any of these Strangers or their Children should return into their own Country they might carry the tincture of Religion along with them and sow the Seeds of it in the Hearts of their Country-men IOHN A-LASCO POLANDER First Pastor of the DUTCH Church in ENGLAND Regn. Edw. 6. Being arrived at Embden he writ to the Arch-bishop relating all Passages that he knew concerning the State of Affairs and particularly of Religion in those Parts desiring him to impart them to the Protector He write also unto Cecyl his Letter bearing date in April 1549 referring him to the Protector 's Letters and withal acquainting him in what a ticklish and dangerous Condition they were That they certainly expected the Cross that they did mutually exhort one another to bear it with invocation upon God's Holy Name that by Patience and Faith they might overcome all whatsoever God should permit to be done against them to the Glory of his Name or for their Trial. They were sure he had a care of them and that he was so powerful that he could in a moment by a Word of his Mouth dash in pieces all the Forces of their Enemies whatsoever they were And that he was so good that he would not suffer so much as an Hair without cause to fall from their Head altho the whole World should make an Assault upon them And that he could no more wish them Harm than a Mother could her own Infant or any one the Apple of his own Eye yea no more than he himself could not be God Who was to be praised in all things whatsoever happened to them since he permitted nothing to fall out to them but for their Good and so for their Welfare And that therefore they committed themselves wholly to him and did expect with all Toleration whatsoever he should allow to be done to them In this pious manner did A Lasco write to Cecyl and no doubt in the same Tenour to the Arch-bishop This made a very great Impression upon the Godly Hearts of them both and caused them vigorously to use their Interest with the Protector to provide a safe Retreat for him and his Congregation Which was obtained for them soon after His whole Letter in a hansome Latin Stile as some Memorial of him I have reposited in the Appendix Latimer also made way for his Reception who in one of his Sermons before K. Edward made honourable mention of him using an Argument proper for that Audience namely How much it would tend to the bringing down God's Blessing on the Realm to receive him and such pious Exiles as he Iohn a Lasco was here a great Learned Man and as they say a Noble-Man in his Country and is gone his way again If it be for lack of Entertainment the more pity I could wish such Men as he to be in the Realm For the Realm should prosper in receiving them He that receiveth you receiveth me said Christ. And it should be for the King's Honour to receive them and keep them It was but a little after the King had received this Congregation of Foreigners into England and had granted them a Church viz. St. Augustins but great Contest happen'd among them about their Church yielded them for their religious Worship This P. Martyr took notice of with grief to Bucer and addeth That their Minds were so implacable to one another that the Difference was fain to be referred to the Privy-Council to make an end of But not to leave our Superintendent yet A Lasco with his Strangers being settled at London and incorporated by the King's Patents being their chief Pastor and a stirring Man was very industrious to procure and maintain the Liberties and Benefits of his Church The Members thereof had planted themselves chiefly in S. Katharines and in great and little Southwark Here they were now and then called upon by the Church-wardens of their respective Parishes to resort to their Parish Churches though the Ministers themselves did not appear in it In the Month of November Anno 1552 some of these Strangers inhabiting the parts of Southwark were again troubled by their Church-wardens and threatned with Imprisonment unless they would come to Church Whereupon their Superintendent A Lasco applied himself to the Lord Chancellor who then was Goodrich Bishop of
in probability would have turned so much to the Benefit of our Nation It being also an Instance of the pious Care and good Policy that was then taken by the Court for the Relief and Sustentation of poor Fugitives flying hither from their Native Country Friends and Livelihood for Christ's Sake and yet that the Publick might be as little burthened by them as might be Queen Mary's access to the Crown spoiled this good Design For all Strangers being then commanded suddenly to depart the Realm this Congregation accordingly brake up and removed themselves to Frankford in Germany Where the Magistrates kindly entertained them and allowed them a Church And when afterwards viz. 1554. divers of the English Nation fled thither for their Religion the Governors of the Town upon their Petition received them also and all other such English as should resort thither upon the same Account as many did And two Members of this French Congregation mindful undoubtedly of the former Kindness themselves or their Countrymen had received in England assisted them much namely Morellio a Minister and Castalio an Elder The English here made use of the same Church the French did these one Day and the English another and upon Sundays the use of it respectively as themselves could agree And as there were settled here Congregations of French Italians and Dutch Strangers so I am very apt to believe there was also a Church of Spaniards too Indeed I do not find express mention of any such till the beginning of Q. Elizabeth's Reign when Cassiodorus and Anthonius Corranus Hispalensis of Sevil a Member of the Italian Congregation were their Preachers of whom I shall have occasion to say something in my Memorials of Arch-bishop Grindal It is certain that in Queen Mary's Days many of those Spaniards who came over in the Retinue of Philip the Spanish Prince or after forsook Popery and became Professors of the Reformed Religion Which one cannot well tell how it should come to pass unless it were by the hearing of the Gospel preached in their own Language here And it is observable that among these many had been sent for over in that Queen's Time to convert our Nation from Heresy as they termed it and to reduce it to the Roman Church This notable Success and Power which the clear Evidence of Truth had upon these Men was in those Times taken much notice of as it might well be Iames Pilkington the Master of S. Iohn's College in Cambridg and who was afterwards Bishop of Durham makes a Note of it to the University in the Sermon which he preached at the Restitution of Bucer and Fagius in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign after the barbarous Indignities that had been offered them in the former Queen's Reign in raking their dead Bodies out of their Graves and burning them It is much more notable said he that we have seen to come to pass in our Days that the Spaniards sent for into the Realm on purpose to suppress the Gospel as soon as they were returned Home replenish'd many parts of their Country with the same Truth of Religion to the which before they were utter Enemies Nay and not long after this such earnest Professors of the True Religion were found in Spain that many of them indured the fiery Trial and offered up their Bodies to the Flames for Christ's Sake and more were cast into Prisons And yet the Gospel got ground there to admiration as Zanchy gave a Relation thereof to A Lasco in one of his Letters Wherein he spake of the great numbers of true Professors in Italy also The Place being so much to our present purpose I will take leave to lay before the Reader In Calabriae duobus Castellis c. In two Castles of Calabria one belonging to the Duke of Montalto the other to a Nobleman of Naples were found 4000 Brethren being the remainders of those Brethren called Waldenses They were for many Years unknown and lived safely in their Ancestors Possessions For though they approved not of Masses yet they thought the Faithful might go to them with a safe Conscience But being untaught this bad Doctrine they did wholly and universally abstain going any more And so it came to pass that they could not be concealed any longer Therefore a Persecution was raised up against them They writ to the Brethren at Geneva to assist them by their Prayers their Counsel and also by humane Aid We see also in Italy where the Seat of Antichrist is there is a great Harvest but very few to gather it O God have Mercy upon Italy In Spain very many were burnt more cast into Prison Nevertheless in the mean time the Gospel goes forward as we hear wonderfully And in another Letter he writes thus There is a very great Persecution in Italy nor a less in Spain A sign there be many Faithful there that dare confess Christ. CHAP. XXIV The Arch-bishop's Care of the Revenues of the Church Bucer dies I Return now to our Prelate again to take a further view of him acting in his high Function in the English Church It must not be omitted to be ranked among his good Services towards it that he did what in him lay to preserve the Revenues of it in his Time when there were so many hungry Courtiers gaping after them These were again in a new Danger after the Duke of Northumberland and his Party had removed Somerset and made themselves the great Controllers of Publick Affairs It was indeed the Scandal of the Reformation that the Demeans that had been settled long before by our pious Ancestors for the maintenance of God's Ministers as they had been formerly wrongfully appropriated to Monasteries and swallowed up by Lazy Monks so they had not now recurred and been restored to their true Owners but became possest by Lay-men So that in many scores of Parishes there remained not sufficient to buy Bread for the Incumbents and their Families And it was more than suspicious that many Patrons did render the Condition of the Church still worse in these Days by retaining and reserving to themselves whether by Contract or Power the Tithes of the Benefices they presented to And by these means Pluralities and Nonresidences the old Mischief of the Church were not redressed but rather made necessary This Abuse grieved good Men and Lovers of the Reformation both at Home and Abroad because they saw how the preaching of the Gospel was obstructed hereby Concerning this Bucer from Cambridg wrote privately to Calvin in the Year 1550. And this made Calvin address a Letter to our Arch-bishop telling him That for the flourishing State of Religion he thought it highly needful to have fit Pastors that might seriously set themselves to perform the Office of Preaching One great obstacle whereof he makes very truly to be Quod praedae expositi sunt Ecclesiae reditus That the Rents of the Church were exposed to
brought into it These his Thoughts he communicated to Arch-bishop Cranmer which was about the Year 1546. Whereupon they both set to examine it with more than ordinary Care And all the Arguments that Cranmer gathered about it he digested into his Book Nor was the good Arch-bishop ashamed to make a publick Acknowledgment in print of this as well as of his other Popish Errors in his Answer to Smith's Preface who it seems had charged him with Inconstancy This I confess of my self that not long before I wrote the said Catechism I was in that Error of the Real Presence as I was many Years past in many other Errors as of Transubstantiation of the Sacrifice propitiatory of the Priests in the Mass of Pilgrimages of Purgatory c. being brought up from my Youth in them For the which and other the Offences of my Youth I do daily pray unto God for Pardon and Mercy After it pleased God to shew me by his Holy Word a more perfect knowledg of his Son Jesus Christ I put away my former Ignorance As God gave me Light so through his Grace I opened my Eyes to receive it And I trust in God's Mercy for pardon of my former Errors I set this down the more at large to shew the great Ingenuity as well as Piety of this good Man Peter Martyr in the Year following this printed a Book of the Sacrament which was the Sum of what he had read before upon that Point in the University of Oxford Which Book he dedicated to his Patron the Arch-bishop of Canterbury And giving the Reason why he made the Dedication to him said That he knew certainly that Cranmer had so great Skill in this Controversy as one could hardly find in any one besides That there was none of the Fathers which he had not diligently noted no antient or modern Book extant that he Martyr had not with his own Eyes seen noted by the Arch-bishop's Hand Whatsoever belonged to the whole Controversy he said that the Arch-bishop had digested into particular Chapters Councils Canons Popes Decrees pertaining hereunto and that with so great labour that unless he had been an Eye-Witness of it and seen it he could not easily have believed others if they had told him in regard of the infinite Toil Diligence and Exactness wherewith the Arch-bishop had done it He added that the Arch-bishop had not bestowed such kind of Pains and Study in the Matter of the Sacrament only but that he had done the same thing as to all other Doctrines in effect which in that Age were especially under Controversy And this that Learned Man said he had made good Observation of Nor as he went on that he wanted Skill a Method and Industry in defending what he held Which might he said be known by this because he had so often conflicted with his Adversaries both publickly and privately and by a marvellous strength of Learning quickness of Wit and dexterity of Management had asserted what he held to be true from the thorny and intricate Cavils of Sophisters glancing at his Controversies with Winchester who was commonly then called the Sophister and that he wanted not a Will yea a Mind ready to defend Sound and Câ—ristian Doctrines That all Men did sufficiently understand who saw him burn with so great an endeavour of restoring Religion that for this Cause only he had great and heavy Enemies and neglected many Commodities of this Life and underwent horrible Dangers The great and intimate Converse that P. Martyr had with Cranmer gave him opportunity to know him very well and therefore I have chosen to set down this Character that he gave of him and particularly of his Ability in this Controversy of thâ— Eucharist And I am apt to think that the careful perusal of these Authorities collected by the Arch-bishop and his Conversation with this Learned Prelate being much with him at Lambeth was a cause of bringing Martyr to the True Doctrine For at his first coming to Oxon he was a Papist or a Lutheran as to the belief of the Presence And so Feckenham Dean of S. Paul's told Bartlet Green at his Examination and that Martyr perceiving the King's Council as he uncharitably suggested to be of another Opinion he to please them forsook the true Catholick Faith But Mr. Green who had been a hearer of him at Oxon replied That he had heard Martyr say That he had not while he was a Papist read S. Chrysostom upon the tenth to the Corinthians nor many other places of the Doctors But when he had read them and well considered them he was content to yield to them having first humbled himself in Prayer desiring God to illuminate him and bring him to the true understanding of Scripture As to the Authorities the Arch-bishop alledgeth in his Book it was the Conjecture of Iohn Fox that he made use of Frith's Book which he wrote of the Sacrament against More divers Years before and that from the said Author the Arch-bishop seemed to have collected the Testimonies of the Doctors which he produced in his Apology against the Bishop of Winchester and that he gathered the principal and chiefest Helps thence that he leaned to But although he might peruse Frith as he did almost all other Authors that wrote of this Controversy yet he was too well versed in the Ecclesiastical Writers that he needed to go a borrowing to the readings of any others for Sentences and Allegations out of them Cranmer lived to see his Book replied again unto by his Adversary Gardiner in Latin under the fained Name of Marcus Antonius Constantius a Divine of Lovain His Book went under this Title Confutatio cavillationum quibus sacrosanctum Eucharistiae Sacramentum ab impiis Capernaitis impeti solet Printed at Paris 1552. In this Book he spared the Name of the Arch-bishop but reduceth all the Arch-bishop's Book into no less then 255 Objections To each of which one by one the Catholick is brought in making answer Next whereas Cranmer had laid down twelve Rules for the finding out the true Sense of the Fathers in their Writings the Catholick examines them and enervates them Then follows a Confutation of the Solutions whereby the Sectary as he is called that is Cranmer endeavoured to take off the Arguments of the Catholicks And which is the fourth and last part of the Book he defends Catholick Mens Sense of the Allegations out of the Fathers against the Sectaries Gardiner when he compiled this Book was in the Tower a Prisoner but yet he was under so easy restraint that he was furnished there with Workmen and Amanuenses As they of old to the building of the Tabernacle so he to the preparing of his Book a kind of Papistical Tabernacle to use the words of Martyr all sorts contributed something For his Book was Pandora's Box to which all the lesser Gods brought their Presents For every Man were his Learning less or more that had
for there was that which would comfort him when he should be in such a case as he was then in One asked him concerning the Doctrine of the School-Doctors that Bread remained not after Consecration He replied There was none of the School-Doctors knew what Consecratio did mean And pausing a while said It was Tota actio The whole Action in ministring the Sacrament as Christ did institute it After the Conference with him was ended Yong retiring into another Chamber said to Wilks that Dr. Redman so moved him that whereas he was before in such Opinion of certain things that he would have burned and lost his Life for them now he doubted of them But I see said he a Man shall know more and more by process of time and by reading and hearing others And Mr. Dr. Redman's saying shall cause me to look more diligently for them Ellis Lomas Redman's Servant said he knew his Master had declared to King Henry that Faith only justifieth but that he thought that Doctrine was not to be taught the People lest they should be negligent to do good Works All this I have related of this Divine that I may in some measure preserve the Memory of one of the Learnedest Men of his Time and lay up the dying Words of a Papist signifying so plainly his dislike and disallowance of many of their Doctrines The Sweating-sickness breaking out this Year in great violence whereby the two Sons of the Duke of Suffolk were taken off Letters from the Council dated Iuly 18 were sent to all the Bishops to perswade the People to Prayer and to see God better served It being enacted 1549 That the King might during three Years appoint sixteen Spiritual Men and sixteen Temporal to examine the old Ecclesiastical Laws and to compile a Body of Ecclesiastical Laws to be in force in the room of the old this third Year Octob. 6. a Commission was issued out to the same number of Persons authorizing them to reform the Canon Laws that is to say to eight Bishops eight Divines eight Civil Lawyers and eight Common Whose Names as they occur in an Original are as follow BISHOPS The Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Exeter Glocester Bath Rochestre DIVINES Mr. Taylor of Lincoln Cox Almoner Parker of Cambridg Latimer Cook Sir Anthony I suppose Peter Martyr Cheke Ioannes a Laseo CIVILIANS Mr. Peter Cecyl Sir Tho. Smith Taylor of Hadeligh Dr. May Mr. Traheron Dr. Lyel Mr. Skinner LAWYERS Justice Hales Justice Bromly Goodrick Gosnal Stamford Carel Lucas Brook Recorder of London It was so ordered that this number should be divided into four distinct Classes or Companies each to consist of two Bishops two Divines to Civilians and two Common-Lawyers And to each Company were assigned their set parts Which when one Company had finished it was transmitted to the other Companies to be by them all well considered and inspected But out of all the number of two and thirty eight especially were selected from each rank two viz. out of the Bishops the Arch-bishop and the Bishop of Ely out of the Divines Cox and Martyr out of the Civilians Taylor and May out of the Common-Lawyers Lucas and Goodrick To whom a new Commission was made Novemb. 9 for the first forming of the Work and preparation of the Matter And the Arch-bishop supervised the whole Work This Work they plied close this Winter But lest they should be straitned for time the Parliament gave the King three Years longer for accomplishing this Affair So Feb. 2. A Letter was sent from the Council to make a new Commission to the Arch-bishop and to the other Bishops and Learned Men Civilians and Lawyers for the establishment of the Ecclesiastical Laws according to the Act of Parliament made in the last Session This was a very noble Enterprize and well worthy the Thoughts of our excellent Arch-bishop Who with indefatigable Pains had been both in this and the last King's Reign labouring to bring this Matter about and he did his part for he brought the Work to perfection But it wanted the King's Ratification which was delayed partly by Business and partly by Enemies Bishops Consecrated August the 30 th Iohn Scory Ponet being translated to Winchester was consecrated Bishop of Rochester at Croyden by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury assisted by Nicolas Bishop of London and Iohn Suffragan of Bedford Miles Coverdale was at the same time and place Consecrated Bishop of Exon all with their Surplices and Copes and Coverdale so habited also CHAP. XXVII The Articles of Religion OUR Arch-bishop and certain of the Bishops and other Divines but whom by Name I find not were this Year chiefly busied in composing and preparing a Book of Articles of Religion which was to contain what should be publickly owned as the Sum of the Doctrine of the Church of England This the Arch-bishop had long before this bore in his Mind as excellently serviceable for the creating of a Concord and Quietness among Men and for the putting an End to Contentions and Disputes in Matters of Religion These Articles the Arch-bishop was the Penner or at least the great Director of with the assistance as is very probable of Bishop Ridley And so he publickly owned afterwards in his Answer to certain Interrogatories put to him by Queen Mary's Commissioners viz. That the Catechism the Book of Articles and the Book against Winchester were his Doings These Articles were in number Forty two and were agreed to in the Convocation 1552. And in the Year 1553 they were published by the King's Authority both in Latin and English After they were finished he laboured to have the Clergy subscribe them but against their Wills he compelled none though afterwards some charged him falsly to do so Which he utterly denied as he declared before the said Queen's Commissioners But to enter into some Particulars concerning so eminent a Matter Ecclesiastical as this was In the Year 1551 the King and his Privy-Council ordered the Archbishop to frame a Book of Articles of Religion for the preserving and maintaining Peace and Unity of Doctrine in this Church that being finish'd they might be set forth by Publick Authority The Arch-bishop in obedience hereunto drew up a set of Articles which were delivered to certain other Bishops to be inspected and subscribed I suppose by them Before them they lay until this Year 1552. Then May 2. a Letter was sent from the Council to our Arch-bishop to send the Articles that were delivered the last Year to the Bishops and to signify whether the same were set forth by any Publick Authority according to the Minutes The Arch-bishop accordingly sent the Articles and his Answer unto the Lords of the Council In September I find the Articles were again in his Hands Then he set the Book in a better Order and put Titles upon each of the Articles and some Additions for the better perfecting of the Work and supply
probably may not be unacceptable to curious Persons Which Purchases when we consider we might be ready to make a stand to resolve our selves how the Arch-bishop could represent his Condition so mean as he did in the Letter before-mentioned as though he feared he should die a Beggar But it will unriddle this if we think how the Arch-bishoprick had been fleeced by King Henry VIII in ten Years before insomuch that the Rents were less by an hundred and fifty Pounds per Annum than they were before besides the loss of Fines and other accidental Benefits as it is mentioned by the Arch-bishop in his Letter Add those extraordinary Expences he was at in the maintenance of Divines and Scholars Strangers that were Exiles for Religion and the Salaries and Pensions and Gratuities sent to Learned Men abroad besides his great and liberal House-keeping and constant Table and large Retinue But to make appear more particularly in this place how K. Henry pared his Revenue I will give one Instance of what was past away at one clap by Exchange which was indeed so considerable that it was commonly called The great Exchange This way of exchanging Lands was much used in those Times wherein the Princes commonly made good Bargains for themselves and ill Ones for the Bishopricks This Exchange made by Cranmer with the King was on the first day of December in the twenty ninth Year of his Reign being the very Year of the Suppression of the greater Abbies and Religious Convents They were the ancient Demeans belonging to the Arch-bishoprick consisting of many noble Manors whereof some had Palaces annexed to them I shall name only those that lay in the County of Kent as I find them dispersed in Philpot's Book of Kent I. The Manor and Palace of Maidstone Which Palace Lâ—land saith was once a Castle II. The Manor and Palace of Charing III. Wingham IV. Wingham-Bâ—rton in the 〈◊〉 of Alresford But in this Philpot is mistaken for thâ—s was 〈…〉 Edward Bainton for ninety nine Years by means of the King'â— own Solicitation to the Arch-bishop V. Wrotham VI. Saltwood that had in times past a magnificent Castle and Park and many Manors held of it by Knights Service which made it called an Honour VII Tenham VIII Bexley IX Aldington Where was a Seat for the Arch-bishop a Park and a Chase for Deer called Aldington-Frith Besides Clive or Cliff and Malingden a Manor appendant thereunto which King Henry took away from this See and Bishop without any Satisfaction as far as I can find Also Pynner Heyes Harrow Mortlake c. were part of this great Exchange In lieu of these Demeans past over to the Crown by way of Exchange the King conveyed several Manors to the Arch-bishop all which had appertained to the lately dissolved Religious Houses Namely these among others I. Pising a parcel of the Abbey of S. Radigunds II. Brandred another Manor belonging to the said Abbey III. The College of Bredgar IV. Raculver another Abbey suppress'd V. Dudmanscomb belonging to the Priory of S. Martins in Dover One Author viz. Kilburn that hath wrote of Kent makes Cranmer also to have made over to the King the sumptuous Palace of Otford built by Arch-bishop VVarham which cost him thirty three thousand Pounds a vast Sum in those Days as Lambard tells us Philpot another Writer of that County saith That this was incorporated into the Revenue of the Crown by the Builder himself Arch-bishop VVarham about the twelfth Year of that King's Reign together with the Magnificent Seat of Knoll near Sevenoke exchanging both with the King for other Lands to extinguish the Passions of such as looked with regret and desire upon the Patrimony of the Church But it appears by a Writing of Cranmer's own Secretary that this Arch-bishop parted with both Otford and Knoll at once to the King after he had possessed them some Years and not VVarham as Philpot mistakes The World is apt to blame Cranmer for parting with these Revenues of the See But surely it was a true Apology that the Author before-named made for the Arch-bishop's great Exchange namely Because he finding that the spreading Demeans of the Church were in danger to be torn off by the Talons of Avarice and Rapine to mortify the growing Appetites of Sacrilegious Cormorants exchanged them with the Crown Which may be enough to stop any Clamours against this most Reverend Prelat for this his doing Especially considering what I shall add upon this Argument hereafter from his own Secretary His Care and Concern for the Welfare of the English Church made him ever most earnestly to love the King and to have a very tender Regard for the Safety of his Person Who in the Summer of this Year as was hinted before went a Progress accompanied by the Duke of Northumberland brought about probably by him to get more into the King's Affections and to have his own Designs the better to take effect and with the less Opposition and Controll and possibly that the King might be the further off from the Arch-bishop to consult withal But he had now a more especial Concern upon him for his Majesty at this Time as though his Mind had prophetically presaged some Evil to befal the King in that Progress and indeed it was the last Progress that ever he made And so methinks do these Expressions of the Arch-bishop sound in a Letter dated in Iuly to Cecyl then attending the Court Beseeching Almighty God to preserve the King's Majesty with all his Council and Family and send him well to return from his Progress And in a Letter the next Month He thanked Cecyl for his News but especially said he for that ye advertise me that the King's Majesty is in good Health Wherein I beseech God long to continue his Highness And when in the latter end of the following Month the Gests that is the Stages of his Majesty's Progress were altered which looked like some ill Design the Arch-bishop entreated Cecyl to send him the new resolved-upon Gests from that time to the end that he might from time to time know where his Majesty was adding his Prayer again for him That God would preserve and prosper him CHAP. XXX His Care for the Vacancies Falls Sick WHILE the King was thus abroad and the Arch-bishop absent unworthy or disaffected Men were in a fairer probability of getting Promotions in the Church while he was not at hand for to nominate fit Men to the King and to advise him in the bestowing the vacant Dignities and Benefices The Arch-bishop knew very well how much Learning and Sobriety contributed towards the bringing the Nation out of Popery and that nothing tended so effectually to continue it as the contrary This Matter the Arch-bishop seemed to have discoursed at large with Secretary Cecyl at parting Who therefore by a Letter sent to the said Arch-bishop then at his House at Ford desired him to send him up a
corrupt Religion within his Province and Territories But finding the Opposition against him so great and lying under the Excommunication of the Pope for what he had done and being deprived thereupon by the Emperor of his Lands and Function he resigned his Ecclesiastical Honour and betook himself to a retired Life which was done about the Year 1547. But no question in this private Capacity he was not idle in doing what Service he could for the good of that Cause which he had so generously and publickly espoused and for which he had suffered so much I find that in this Year 1552 our Arch-bishop had sent a Message to Secretary Cecyl who accompanied the King in this Summer's Progress desiring him to be mindful of the Bishop of Colen's Letters And in another Letter dated Iuly 21 he thanked the Secretary for the good remembrance he had thereof What the Contents of these Letters of the Arch-bishop of Colen were it appeareth not But I am very apt to think the Purport of them was that Cranmer would solicite some certain Business in the English Court relating to the Affairs of Religion in Germany and for the obtaining some Favour from the King in that Cause But the King being now abroad and the Arch-bishop at a distance from him he procured the Secretary who was ever cordial to the State of Religion to solicit that Arch-bishop's Business for him sending him withal that Arch-bishop's Letters for his better Instruction And this whatever it was seems to have been the last good Office that Arch-bishop Herman did to the Cause of Religion for he died according to Sleidan in the Month of August and our Arch-bishop's Letter wherein that Elector's Letters are mentioned were writ but the Month before And if one may judg of Mens commencing Friendship and Love according to the sutableness of their Tempers and Dispositions our Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Arch-bishop of Colen must have been very intimate Friends It was said of this Man that he often wished That either he might be instrumental to the propagating the Evangelical Doctrine and Reformation of the Churches under his Iurisdiction or to live a private Life And when his Friends had often told him what Envy he would draw upon himself by the changing of Religion he would answer like a true Christian Philosopher That nothing could happen to him unexpectedly and that he had long since fortified his Mind against every Event These two Passages spake the very Spirit and Soul of Cranmer Which they may see that are minded to read what Fox saith of him as to his Undauntedness and Constancy in the maintaining of the Truth against the many Temptations and Dangers that he met with during these three Reigns successively And lastly as our Arch-bishop devoted himself wholly to the reforming of his Church so admirable was the Diligence Pains and Study this Arch-bishop took in contriving the Reformation of his He procured a Book to be writ concerning it called Instauratio Ecclesiarum which contained the Form and Way to be used for the redressing the Errors and Corruptions of his Church It was composed by those great German Divines Bucer and Melancthon which Book was put into English and published here as a good Pattern in the Year 1547. This Book he intended to issue forth through his Jurisdiction by his Authority to be observed But first he thought fit well and seriously to examine it and spent five Hours in the Morning for five Days to deliberate and consult thereupon Calling to him to advise withal in this great Affair his Coadjutor Count Stolberg Husman Ienep Bucer and Melancthon He caused the whole Work to be read before him and as many Places occurred wherein he seemed less satisfied he caused the Matter to be disputed and argued and then spake his own Mind accurately He would patiently hear the Opinions of others for the information of his own Judgment and so ordered things to be either changed or illustrated And so dextrously would he decide many Controversies arising that Melancthon thought that those great Points of Religion had been long weighed and considered by him and that he rightly understood the whole Doctrine of the Church He had always lying by him the Bible of Luther's Version and as Testimonies chanced to be alledged thence he commanded that they should be turned to that he might consider that which is the Fountain of all Truth Insomuch that the said Melancthon could not but admire and talk of his Learning Prudence Piety and Dexterity to such as he conversed with and particularly to Iohn Caesar to whom in a Letter he gave a particular Account of this Affair And it is to be noted by the way that the said Book according to which the Reformation was to be modelled contained only as Melancthon in his Letter suggested a necessary Instruction for all Children and the Sum of the Christian Doctrine and the Appointments for the Colleges and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy were very moderate the Form of the Ecclesiastical Polity being to remain as it was and so were the Colleges with their Dignities Wealth Degrees Ornaments thereunto belonging only great Superstitions should be taken away Which the wise Melancthon aforesaid did so approve of that he professed he had often propounded it in Diets of the German Nation as the best way to Peace And this I add that it might be observed how Arch-bishop Cranmer went by the same Measures in the Reformation of the Church of England maintaining the Hierarchy and the Revenues Dignities and Customs of it against many in those Times that were for the utter abolishing them as Relicks of Popery Such a Correspondence there was between our Arch-bishop and the wisest moderatest and most learned Divines of Germany But let us look nearer Home CHAP. XXXII Troubles of Bishop Tonstal AS the last Year we heard of the Deprivation of two Popish Bishops so this Year another underwent the like Censure I mean Tonstal Bishop of Durham whose Business I shall the rather relate because our Arch-bishop had some Concern in it Septemb. 21. A Commission was issued out to the Lord Chief Justice and his Colleagues to examine and determine the Cause of Tonstal Bishop of Durham and eight Writings touching the same which he is willed to consider and to proceed to the hearing and ordering of the Matter as soon as he may get the rest of his Colleagues to him It was not long after viz. about the midst of October that this Bishop by these Commissioners whose Names besides the Chief Justice do not occur was deprived and his Estate confiscated Octob. ult Sir Iohn Mason was ordered by the Council to deliver to the use of Dr. Tonstal so he is now stiled remaining Prisoner in the Tower such Money as should serve for his Necessities until such time as further Order shall be taken touching his Goods and Money lately appertaining to him Decemb. 6. It was agreed by the Council that Dr.
Pounds Two Mitres in Plate parcel gilt seven hundred and seventy Ounces and gilt Plate eleven hundred fifty seven Ounces One broken Cross of Silver gilt with one Image broken weighing forty six Ounces three Obligations one 37 l. 5 s. 10 d another for 15 l another for 10 l. Sold by the said Markham fivescore Beasts and four hundred Muttons Sold all the Sheep belonging to the Arch-bishop supposed to be two thousand five hundred Moreover he took away two Turky-carpets of Wool as big and as good as any Subject had Also a Chest full of Copes and Vestments of Cloth of Tissue Two very good Beds of Down and six of the best young Horses that were at Cawood Profered to make Sale of all his House-hold-stuff in five Houses three very well furnished and two metely well Sold all his Stores of Household Wheat two hundred Quarters Malt five hundred Quarters Oats sixty Quarters Wine five or six Tun. Fish and Ling six or seven hundred with very much Household Store as Fuel Hay with many other things necessary for Household Horses at Cawood young and old four or five scorce They received Rent of his own Land five hundred Pounds yearly at the least This was done by this Markham upon pretence that he was guilty of Treason or great Crimes He gave to many Persons Money to the value of an hundred Pounds and above that they should give Information against him Besides they took away good Harness and Artillery sufficient for seven score Men. All this Spoil was committed when he was cast in the Tower Of all this Injury he made a Scedule afterwards and complained thereof to the Lords By this one Instance which I have set down at large as I extracted it from a Paper in the Benet-College Library we may judg what Havock was made of the Professors of Religion in their Estates as well as their Persons as this Bishop was served before any Crime was proved against him Thus the other Arch-bishop of York was not to go without Animadversion any more than he of Canterbury The former lay eighteen Months in the Tower and was deposed at last for being Married as well as Cranmer Of this Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in his Sermon at Paul's Cross at which were present King Philip and Cardinal Pole gave as he thought this nipping Gird Thus while we desired to have a Supream Head among us it came to pass that we had no Head at all No not so much as our two Arch-bishops For that on one side the Queen being a Woman could not be Head of the Church and on the other side they were both convicted of one Crime and so deposed This Arch-bishop of York continued in Prison till 1554 when the Queen granted the Request of the new King for the Liberty of a great many Prisoners whereof this Prelate was one He died the next Year through Grief as it is probable and Suffering CHAP. II. Protestant Bishops and Clergy cast into Prisons and deprived INdeed in this first Entrance of Q. Mary's Reign it was a wonder to see that fierceness that it was ushered in with the Papists thinking that this Rigour at first would terrify all out of their former Principles of true Religion and bring them to the Devotion of the Church of Rome again And it was as marvellous to observe the stedfastness of the generality of the Professors This Queen began her Reign after that manner I use the words of one that lived in that Time that it might be conjectured what She was like after to prove Sending up for abundance of People to appear before the Council either upon the Lady Iane's Business or the Business of Religion and committing great numbers into Prisons And indeed She boasted her self a Virgin sent of God to ride and tame the People of England To explain somewhat these Austerities They thought fit to begin with the Protestant Clergy Bishops and others For this purpose a Commission was directed to the Bishops of London Winchester Chichester and Durham Men sufficiently sowred in their Tempers by what befel them in the last Reign These were to discharge the Protestant Bishops and Ministers of their Offices and Places upon pretence either of Treason Heresy or Marriage or the like to make way for their own Men. Thus Iohn Tayler Bishop of Lincoln was deprived because he had a bad Title there being this clause in the Letters Patents whereby he was made Bishop Quamdiu bene se gesserit and because he thought amiss concerning the Eucharist Iohn Hoper was deprived of the Bishoprick of Worcester by the restitution of Nicolas Hethe formerly deprived and removed from the See of Glocester for his Marriage and other Demerits Iohn Harley Bishop of Hereford deprived for Wedlock and Heresy Robert Farrar Bp of S. David's deprived for Wedlock and Heresy William Barlow Bishop of Bath made a voluntary Resignation The Bishoprick of Rochester was void three Years since Scory was translated to Chichester Iohn Bird an old Man Married was deprived of the Bishoprick of Chester Thomas Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury for I do but transcribe now out of the Register of the Church of Canterbury being called into question for high Treason by his own Confession was judged guilty thereof Whence in the Month of December the See of Canterbury became Vacant Robert Holgate Arch-bishop of York was deprived for Wedlock and was cast into the Tower and led a private Life The like happened to Miles Coverdale of Exeter by the restoring Iohn Vayse who out of fear had formerly resigned Cuthbert Bishop of Durham formerly deprived was restored Edmund Bonner Bishop of London restored Nicolas Ridley being removed from the said See and cast into Prison for making an ill Sermon and being noted for heretical Pravity Stephen Gardiner Bp of Winchester restored Iohn Poinet being ejected and Imprisoned and deprived of Episcopacy for being Married To which I must add the See of Bristol resigned by Paul Bush the Bishop thereof How they proceeded with the inferior Clergy in general for being Married may be measured by their proceedings with the Clergy of London and Canterbury which we shall see by and by So that K. Edward's Clergy were now in the very beginning of this Queen very hardly used Some were deprived never convict no â—or never called I use the words of an Author that Lived in that Queen's Reign and felt her Severity Some called that were fast locked in Prison and yet nevertheless deprived immediately Some deprived without the cause of Marriage after their Orders Some induced to resign upon promise of Pension and the Promise as yet never performed Some so deprived that they were spoiled of their Wages for the which they served the half Year before and not ten days before the Receit sequestred from it Some prevented from his half Years Receit after Charges of Tenths and Subsidy paid and yet not deprived six weeks after Some
but according to the Laws then in Force before the Parliament had repealed the Book of Common-Prayer and the rest of K. Edward's Reformation And there were forward Men in most Parishes that were very active and violent for the restoring the old Superstitions For the Queen had set forth a Proclamation which did declare what Religion She did profess in her Youth That She did continue in the same and that She minded therein to end her Life Willing all her Loving Subjects to embrace the same And this they reckoned to be sufficient Warrant to set up Mass and introduce Popish Priests and Popish Usages every-where without staying for Orders and Acts of Parliament Nor was this Change of Religion and these Miseries following it unexpected The Learned and pious Sort in King Edward's Time did reckon upon a great Calamity impending over their Heads Concluding thereupon from two Causes among others One was the corrupt Manners that generally overspred the Nation notwithstanding the Light of the Gospel and the much and earnest preaching up of Sobriety and Vertue The other was the taking off by Death divers most eminent Men the great Stays of Religion So that the Preachers did commonly in their Sermons declare and foretel what afterwards indeed fell out This Becon an Exile in his Epistle to those in England that suffered Persecution for the Testimony of Christ's Gospel spake of in these words Divers Signs had we long before besides the Godly Admonitions of the faithful Preachers which plainly declared unto us an utter subversion of the true Christian Religion to be at Hand except it were prevented by hasty and harty Repentance What shall I speak of that good and mighty Prince Edward Duke of Somerset which in the Time of his Protectorship did so banish Idolatry out of this our Realm and bring in again God's true Religion that it was a wonder so weighty a Matter to be brought to pass in so short a Time Was not the ungentle handling of him and the unrighteous thrusting him out of Office and afterwards the cruel Murthering of him a Man yea a Mirror of true Innocency and Christian Patience an evident token of God's Anger against us The sudden taking away of those most goodly and vertuous young Imps the Duke of Suffolk and his Brother by the sweating Sickness was it not also a manifest Token of God's heavy Displesure against us The Death of those two most worthy and godly Learned Men M. Paulus Fagius and D. Martin Bucer was it not a sure Prognostication some great Mishap concerning Christen Religion to be at Hand But passing over many other to come to that which is most lamentable and can never be remembred of any true English Heart without large Tears I mean the Death of our most Godly Prince and Christen King Edward VI. that true Iosias that earnest destroyer of false Religion that fervent setter up of God's true Honour that most bounteous Patron of the godly Learned that most worthy Maintainer of good Letters and Vertue and that perfect and lovely Mirror of true Nobility and sincere Godliness Was not the taking away of him alas for Sorrow a sure Sign and an evident Token that some great Evil hanged over this Realm of England Who considering these things perceived not a Shipwreck of the Christen Religion to be at Hand CHAP. III. The Arch-bishop adviseth Professors to fly THE Favourers of Religion seeing it was now determined to proceed in all manner of Severity against them began to flee into other Countries for their Safety as fast as they could Indeed there were some that made a Case of Conscience of it Among the rest one Mrs. Wilkinson a Woman of good Quality and a great Reliever of good Men. Her the Arch-bishop out of Prison advised to escape and avoid a Place where She could not truly and rightly serve God He took off with spiritual Arguments the Objections which She or others might make for their stay As their lothness to leave their Friends and Relations and that it might look like a slandering of God's Word if they should thus run away and decline the open and bold Defence of it The Letter of the Arch-bishop deserves to be read as it fell from that Venerable Prelat's own Pen. Which I have therefore put in the Appendix Though Cranmer himself refused to flee being advised by his Friends so to do because of the Reports that were abroad that he should be speedily carried to the Tower For he said It would be no ways fitting for him to go away considering the Post in which he was and to shew that he was not afraid to own all the Changes that were by his means made in Religion in the last Reign But great numbers fled some to Strasburgh some to VVesel some to Embden some to Antwerp some to Duisburgh some to Wormes some to Frankford some to Basil Zuric and Arrow in Switzerland and some to Geneva to the number of eight hundred and upwards And these are the Names of some of these Refugees BISHOPS Poynet of VVinchester Barlow of Bath and Wells Scory of Chichester Coverdale of Exon And Bale of Ossory DEANS Richard Cox Dean of Christ's Church Oxon and of Westminster Iames Haddon Dean of Exeter Robert Horn of Durham William Turner of Wells Thomas Sampson of Chichester ARCH-DEACONS Edmund Cranmer the Arch-bishop's Brother Arch-deacon of Cant. Iohn Aelmer of Stow Bullingham of Lincoln Thomas Young Precenter of S. Davids DOCTORS of Divinity and Preachers Edmund Grindal Robert King Edwin Sands Ios. Iewel Reinolds Pilkingtons two Brothers Iohn Ioseph David Whitehead Iohn Alvey Iohn Pedder Iohn Biddil Thomas Becon Robert and Richard Turner Edmund Allein Levers three Brothers Iohn Pekins Tho. Cottisford Tho. Donel Alex. Nowel with hiâ— Brother Barthol Traheron Iohn Wollock Iohn Old Iohn Medwel Ioh. Rough Iohn Knocks Iohn Appleby Iohn Perkhurst Edward Large Galf. Iones Robert Crowley Robert Wisdome Robert VVatson VVilliam Goodman Ant. Gilby VVill. VVhittingham Iohn Makebrey Hen. Reynolds Iames Perse Iugg Edmunds Cole Mounteyn two Fisher's Da. Simson Iohn Bendal Beaumont Humfrey Bentham Reymiger Bradbridg Saul c. Besides of Noble-men Merchants Trades-men Artificers and Plebeians many hundreds And God provided graciously for them and raised them up Friends in England that made large Contributions from time to time for their Relief and for the maintenance of such as were Scholars and Students in Divinity especially And great was the Favour that the Strangers shewed to their Fugitive Guests Here at home Vengeance was taken upon those that set up the Lady Iane. And the Chief of all the Duke of Northumberland was brought to Towerâ—ill to lose his Head Who indeed was cared for by no Body and was the only Instrument of putting the King upon altering the Succession and who was broadly talked of to have been the shortner of that excellent Prince's Life by Poison to make Room the sooner for his Son's Advancement who
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
so much that the Bishops and Priests grew for this Cause as well as for their Cruelty into great dislike with the People This more at large is shewed in a short Manuscript Treatise I have made by a certain Person nameless imprisoned for Religion intitled thus All sorts of People of England have just Cause of displeasure against the Bishops and Priests of the same There was this Year April 2 a new Parliament that the last Year being dissolved Great was the Sadness that now possessed the Hearts of the English Nation even of Papists themselves the most considerate and wisest part of them seeing the great Slavery the Kingdom was like to be ensnared in by what the Parliament was now in doing that is to say restoring the Pope's Tyranny here in England that had been so long and happily cast out and allowing the Queen's matching with Prince Philip whereby a Spaniard should become King of England Which when P. Martyr had signified in a Letter from Strasburgh to Calvin May 8 he told him Tanta est rerum perturbatio ut nullo pacto explicari queat That it could not be told what a Disturbance there now was and that all good Men that could fled away from their own Country from all Parts of the Land Mentioning three noble Knights to be come lately to Strasburg not less famous for Piety then Learning Morisin Cheke and Cook At this Parliament wherein the Mass was set up and confirmed by an Act all that were suspected to favour the Truth were turned out of the House Which made Hoper out of Prison in one of his Letters write Doubtless there had not been seen before our Time such a Parliament as this that as many as were suspected to be Favourers of God's Word should be banished out of both Houses In this Parliament a strong and certain Report went that the bloody Act of the Six Articles should be revived and put in execution This created abundance of Terror in Mens Hearts There was nothing but Sighs and Lamentations every where and a great many were already fled out of the Realm unto whom this Rumor had reached Iohn Fox a Learned and Pious Man who had an excellent pathetick Stile was now set on work Who took his Pen in his Hand and in the Name of the Protestant Exiles wrote a most earnest expostulatory Letter to the Parliament to disswade them from restoring this Law again He told them they had a Queen who as She was most Noble so She was ready to listen to sound and wholesome Counsel And that they had a Lord Chancellor that as he was Learned so of his own Nature he was not Bad were it not for the Counsels of some But that as among Animals some there were that were born to create Trouble and Destruction to the other so there were among Mankind some by Nature cruel and destructive some to the Church and some to the State The Letter is worthy the Reading Which I have therefore placed in the Appendix as I transcribed it out of a Manuscript Collection of Fox's Letters There was indeed such a Design in the House of Commons of bringing again into force that Act of the Six Articles but whether it were by the importunity of this and other Petitions or that the Court thought it not convenient so much to countenance any of K. Henry's Acts this Business fell And this Parliament was short-liv'd for in May it was dissolved by reason of a Bill for confirming Abby-Lands to the present Possessors which it seems gave offence to the Court. CHAP. X. Arch-bishop Cranmer disputes at Oxon. A Convocation of the Clergy now met in S. Paul's but was adjourned the Prolocutor Dr. Weston Dean of Westminster and some other of the Members being sent to Oxon and it was generally thought the Parliament would remove thither too to dispute certain Points of Religion in Controversy with three of the Heads of the Protestant Party Arch-bishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and old Father Latimer now all Prisoners Who for that purpose in the Month of April were removed from the Tower by the Queen's Warrant to the Lieutenant towards Windsor and there taken into Custody of Sir Iohn afterwards Lord Williams who conveyed them to Oxford there to remain in order to a Disputation The Convocation while they sat at London agreed upon the Questions to be disputed and they resolved that these three pious Men should be baited by both the Universities and therefore that they of Cambridg should be excited to repair to Oxford and engage in this Disputation also The Questions were these I. In Sacramento Altaris virtute verbi divini a Sacerdote prolati praesens est realiter sub speciebus panis vini naturale corpus Christi conceptum de virgine Maria item naturalis ejus sanguis II. Post consecrationem non remanet substantia panis vini neque alia ulla substantia nisi substantia Christi Dei Hominis III. In Missa est vivisicum Ecclesiae Sacrificium pro peccatis tam vivorum quam mortuorum propitiabile These Questions the Convocation sent to the University of Cambridg requiring them seriously to weigh and deliberate upon them and if they contained true Doctrine then to approve of them Accordingly the Senate of that University met and after due deliberation found them agreeable in all things to the Catholick Church and the Scripture and the antient Doctrine taught by the Fathers and so did confirm and ratify them in their said Senate And because Cranmer Ridley and Latimer the Heads of the Hereticks that held contrary to these Articles were formerly Members of their University and being to be disputed withal at Oxford concerning these Points they decreed in the Name of all the University to send seven of their Learned Doctors to Oxford to take their parts in disputing with them and to use all ways possible to reclaim them to the Orthodox Doctrine again And accordingly the said Senate April 10. made a publick Instrument to authorize them in their Names to go to Oxford and dispute Which Instrument may be seen in the Appendix They also wrote a Letter the same Date to the University of Oxford to signify that they had appointed those Persons to repair unto them not so much to dispute Points so professedly Orthodox and agreeable to the Fathers and General Councils and the Word of God as to defend those Truths in their Names and reduce those Patrons of false and corrupt Doctrine if possible unto a sound Mind This Letter is also in the Appendix So that this coming of the Cambridg-Divines to Oxford was to seem a voluntary thing to shew their Zeal for Popery and vindication of their University against liking or approbation of Cranmer and his two Fellow-Prisoners So roundly was the University already come about to the old forsaken Religion This Oxford-Disputation was after this manner Hugh Weston S.T.P. Prolocutor of the
I find in a Supplication made to Queen Elizabeth by Ralph Morice that had been his Secretary for the space of twenty Years During which time he was employed by that most Reverend Father in writing for him about the serious Affairs of the Prince and Realm committed unto him by those most noble and worthy Princes King Henry VIII and King Edward VI concerning as well the Writings of those great and weighty Matrimonial Causes of the said K. Henry VIII as also about the extirpation of the Bishop of Rome his usurped Power and Authority the Reformation of corrupt Religion and Ecclesiastical Laws and Alteration of Divine Service and of divers and sundry Conferences of Learned Men for the Establishing and Advancement of sincere Religion with such like Wherein he said he was most painfully occupied in writing of no small Volumes from time to time CHAP. XXIII The Arch-bishop's Regard to Learned Men. FROM these truly Noble and Useful Exercises of his great Knowledg and Learning let us descend unto the Respect he bare to good Letters Which appeared from his Favour to Places of Learning and Men of Learning We shewed before what were the Applications of the University of Cambridg to him and what a gracious Patron he was to it and its Members Among whose good Offices to that University besides those already mentioned it must not be omitted that he was the great Instrument of placing there those two very Learned Foreign Divines Paulus Fagius and Martin Bucer By his frequent Letters to them then at Strasburg urging them with the distracted and dangerous State of Germany he first brought them over into England in the Year 1548 and having entertained them in his Family the next Year he preferred them both in Cambridg Fagius to be publick Professor of the Hebrew Tongue and Bucer of Divinity And beside the University-Salary he procured for each of them from the King in the third Year of his Reign Patents for an Honorary Stipend of an hundred Pounds per Annum each De gratiâ speciali Domini Regis to be paid by the Hands of the Clerk of the Hanaper or out of the Treasury of the Court of Augmentations Durante beneplacito Domini Regis As I find by King Edward the Sixth's Book of Sales formerly mentioned Which Patents bare date Septemb. 26. Anno 1549. and their Salaries payable from the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin By the way I do not see any where in the said Book of Sales that Peter Martyr placed Professor of Divinity in the other University of Oxon enjoyed any such Royal Salary though he also had been invited over by Canterbury with the King's Knowledg and Allowance and placed there by that Arch-bishop's Means Yet he and his Companion Ochinus had their Annual Allowances from the King and so I suppose had all other Learned Foreigners here Melancthon also who was now expected over was intended some more extraordinary Gratuity Unto this Noble Christian Hospitality and Liberality Latimer the great Court-Preacher excited the King in one of his Sermons before him The Passage may deserve to be repeated I hear say Master Melancthon that great Clerk should come hither I would wish him and such as he is two hundred Pounds a Year The King should never want it in his Coffers at the Year's end There is yet among us two great Learned Men Petrus Martyr and Bernard Ochin which have an hundred Mark a piece I would the King would bestow a thousand Pounds on that Sort. These Matters I doubt not were concerted between Latimer and our Arch-bishop before at whose Palace he now was for the most part As I find by one of his Sermons wherein he speaks of his taking Boat at Lambeth and in another Place he mentioneth a Book he met with in my Lord of Canterbury's Library and elsewhere of many Suitors that applied to him at my Lord of Canterbury's that interrupted his Studies there The use I make of this is that it is a fair Conjecture hence that this and the many other excellent Things so plainly propounded by this Preacher to King Edward happened by the Counsel and Suggestion of the Arch-bishop But to return There was one Dr. William Mowse a Civilian and probably one of his Officers whom for his Merits and Learning our Arch-bishop for many a Year had been a special Benefactor to Sir Iohn Cheke also bare him a very good Will Upon the removal of Dr. Haddon to some other Preferment this Dr. Mowse succeeded Master of Trinity-hall in Cambridg And in the Year 1552 the Arch-bishop valuing his Worth and Integrity was a Suitor at Court for some further Preferment for him whatever it were which the Study of the Civil Law had qualified him for writing his Letters on Mowse's behalf to Secretary Cecyl who was then with the King in his Progress not to forget him And accordingly he was remembred and obtained the Place For which the Arch-bishop afterwards gave him his most hearty Thanks And Dr. Mowse also sent the same Secretary a Letter of Thanks from Cambridg for the Preferment he had obtained by his Means The main Drift thereof was to excuse himself for his Neglect in that he had not sooner paid his Acknowledgments Which as it seems the Secretary had taken some notice of having expected to be thanked for the Kindness he had done him This Letter because there is therein mention made of our Arch-bishop's singular Munificence and Cheke's Affection towards him and Mowse himself once making a Figure in that University I have thought it not amiss to insert in the Appendix Though this Man seemed to be none of the steadiest in his Religion For I find him put out of his Mastership of Trinity-Hall in the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign for having been a Protestant and to make way for the Restoration of Dr. Gardiner Bishop of Winchester who had been outed before Upon whose Death that Mastership falling void and Mowse having complied with the Romish Religion he became Master there again And soon after in Queen Elizabeth's Reign he was deprived by her Commissioners for being a Papist and one Harvey came in his Room Dr. Mowse's Fickleness appeared that upon the first tidings that fled to Cambridg of Queen Mary's Success against the Lady Iane's Party he with several other temporizing University-Men changed his Religion and in four and twenty Hours was both Protestant and Papist The Truth is his Judgment varied according to his worldly Interest And being one of those that came about so roundly he was appointed by the complying Party of the University to be one of the two Dr. Hatcher being the other that should repair unto Dr. Sands then the Vice-Chancellor to demand of him without any colour of Reason or Authority the University-Books the Keys and such other things as were in his keeping And so they did And my Author makes an Observation of his Ingratitude as well as of
his Inconstancy viz. That he that was an earnest Protestant but the day before and one whom Dr. Sands had done much good for was now become a Papist and his great Enemy Thus was our Arch-bishop a Friend to this Man and divers others who went along with him as far as he and the Times favoured them but when these failed them they failed the Arch-bishop through Timorousness in some and worldly Respects in others But onâ—e more of this Dr. Mowse and I have done with him As a Reward of his forwardness at Cambridg before mentioned I find he was soon after incorporated at Oxon together with Andrew Pern D.D. a Man of the same Inconstancy and preferred to be Reader of the Civil Law there in the room of Dr. Aubrey who probably was removed for Incompliance And when the next Change happened under Queen Elizabeth Mowse came about again and in the Year 1560 obtained a Prebend in the Church of York He lived till the Year 1588 leaving some Benefactions to his old College The Arch-bishop was indeed a great Patron to all Learned and Pious Men especially those of the Reformation cherishing those not only of his own Country but Foreigners and Strangers also And as he brought over divers with him when he returned into England from his Embassy in Germany so he sent for more And such as came to him he gave honourable Harbour and Maintenance to keeping them at his own Cost till he had made Provisions for them either in the Church or University For Erasmus our Arch-bishop had a great value whose Worth and Service to the Church he well knew He allowed him an Honorary Pension promising him that he would be no less kind unto him than his Predecessor Warham had been before him Which Arch-bishop was one of Erasmus his best and most extraordinary Friends and Benefactors Of whom he used these words to a Friend of his Qui mihi unus multorum instar erat Soon after the succession of Cranmer into this Arch-bishop's Room Sir Thomas More wrote to Erasmus that he that then filled the See of Canterbury bore no less love to him than Warham had done before and Quo non alius vixit tui amantior That there was no Man living loved him better And Erasmus himself mentioning his great Loss in Arch-bishop VVarham and divers other Patrons of his that were taken off by Death comforted himself that God had made up those Losses to him by raising him up other Friends So saith he in the room of VVarham succeeded the Reverend Thomas Cranmer Professione Theologus Vir integerrimus candidissimisque moribus Qui ultro pollicitus est sese in studio ac beneficentia erga me priori nequaquam cessurum quod sponte pollicitus est sponte praestare coepit ut mihi Vuaramus non ereptus sed in Cranmero renatus videri queat By Profession a Divine a Person of the greatest Integrity and most unblamable Behaviour VVho of his own accord promised That in Favour and Kindness toward me he would be no ways behind his Predecessor And that which he voluntarily promised he hath voluntarily begun to make good So that methinks Warham is not taken away from me but rather Born again to me in Cranmer One Specimen of his Munificence towards this Learned Man I meet with in one of his Letters wherein he acknowledged to have received of Cranmer eighteen Angels when the Bishop of Lincoln sent him also Fifteen and the Lord Crumwel Twenty Alexander Aless was another Learned Stranger whom our Arch-bishop gave Harbour and shewed Favour to A Scotch-Man by Birth but that had long lived and conversed with Melancthon in Germany Who knowing the generous and hospitable Disposition of the Arch-bishop recommended this Aless to him giving a high Character of him for his Learning Probity and Diligence in every good Office In the Year 1535 he brought over from Melancthon a Book to be presented to the Arch-bishop wherein That Learned German laboured as he told the Arch-bishop in his Letter sent at the same time to state diligently and profitably most of the Controversies and as much as he could to mitigate them leaving the Judgment of the whole unto his Grace and such learned and pious Men as He from whose Judgment he said he would never differ in the Church of Christ desiring him also to acquaint Aless what his Grace's own Judgment was of the Book that Aless might signify the same unto him Such was the Deference Melancthon gave unto the Learning and Censure of Cranmer This Book I should suppose to have been his Common Places but that they came out a Year after By the same Messenger he sent another of these Books to be presented in his Name to the King and in case the Arch-bishop approved of what he had wrote he entreated him to introduce the Bringer and to assist him in the presenting of it Upon these Recommendations of Aless and the Arch-bishop's own Satisfaction in the Worth of the Man he retained him with him at Lambeth and much esteemed him This was that Aless that Crumwel probably by Cranmer's means brought with him to the Convocation in the Year 1536 whom he desired to deliver there his Opinion about the Sacrament Who did so and enlarged in a Discourse asserting two Sacraments only instituted by Christ namely Baptism and the Lord's Supper As the Author of the British Antiquities relates ad Ann. 1537. calling him there Virum in Theologia perductum A thorow-paced Divine This Man compiled a useful Treatise against the Schism laid to the Charge of Protestants by those of the Church of Rome The Substance and Arguments of which Book were Melancthon's own Invention but Aless composed and brought it into Method and Words This Book Melancthon sent unto George Prince of Anhalt The Consolations of which as he wrote to that Noble and Religious Man he was wont to inculcate upon himself against those who objected commonly to them the horrible Crime of Schism as he stiles it For saith he their monstrous Cruelty is sufficient to excuse us Which it seems was one of the Arguments whereby they defended themselves against that Charge Esteeming it lawful and necessary to leave the Communion of a Church which countenanced and practised Cruelty a thing so contrary to one of the great and fundamental Laws of Christian Religion namely that of Love and that their abiding in a Church where such bloody and barbarous Practices were would argue their approbation and concurrence And as Melancthon made use of him in composing his Thoughts into a handsom Stile so did another great Light of the same Nation I mean Bucer In King Edward's Days he had wrote a Book in the German that is in his own Country-Language about Ordination to the Ministery in this Kingdom of England intituled Ordinatio Ecclesiae seu Ministerii Eccesiastici in florentissimo Angliae regno This our
not in all Respects according to his Wish And so prayed God to guide him with his Holy Spirit and to bless his Pious Endeavours But the Troubles at Home and Abroad frustrated this excellent Purpose which for two Years he had been labouring to bring to some good Issue His next Resolution was to go as far as he could in this Matter since he could not go as far as he would And he bethought himself of assembling together the Divines of his own Church and that by the King's Authority to confer with them about drawing up a Body of Articles of Religion which Purpose he had likewise communicated to Calvin For which he greatly commended him Telling him That since the Times were such that that could not in the least be hoped for which was so much to be wish'd viz. That the chief Teachers of the divers Churches which embraced the pure Doctrine of the Gospel might meet together and publish to Posterity a certain and clear Confession out of the pure Word of God concerning the Heads of Religion then in Controversy he did extreamly commend that Counsel which he had taken to establish Religion in England lest things remaining any longer in an uncertain State or not so rightly and duly composed and framed as it were convenient the Minds of the People should remain in suspence and wavering And then quickening him told him That this was his part chiefly to do That he himself saw well what that Place required of him or rather what God exacted in respect of that Office he had laid upon him That he was of very powerful Authority which he had not only by the amplitude of his Honour but the long-conceived Opinion that went of his Prudence and Integrity That the Eyes of the Good were cast upon him either to follow his Motions or to remain idle upon the pretence of his Unactiveness He took the freedom also with Cranmer to blame him for not having made more Progress in the Reformation Which he thought he might have done in the three Years space wherein King Edward had already reigned And told him That he feared when so many Autumns had been passed in deliberating only at last the Frost of a perpetual Winter might follow Meaning that the People would grow stark cold in minding a Reformation Then he reminded him of his Age that that called upon him to hasten lest if he should be called out of the World before Matters in Religion were settled the Conscience of his Slowness might create great Anxiety to him He particularly put him in Mind of the great want of Pastors to preach the Gospel and that the Churches Revenues were made such a Prey Which he called An intolerable Evil. And said that this was a plain reason why there was so little Preaching among us That a parcel of Slow-bellies were nourished from the Revenues of the Church to sing Vespers in an unknown Tongue But in the close he excused him in regard of the many and great Difficulties that he wrestled with Which were certainly most true In so much that if he had not been a Man of great Conduct and indefatigable Industry the Reformation had not made so fair a Progress as it did in his Time And one may admire rather that he went so far the Iniquity of the Times considered than that he went no farther For the Great Ones in the Minority of the King took their Opportunity most insatiably to fly upon the Spoils of the Church and Charitable Donations little regarding any thing else than to enrich themselves Very vitious and dissolute they were in their Lives as the soberer Sort in those Days complained and therefore the less to be wondered they were so negligent to provide for the promoting the Reformed Religion and Piety in the Land In the mean time the chief Preachers did what they could to redress these Evils For they plainly and boldly rebuked this Evil Governance and especially the Covetousness of the Courtiers and their small regard to live after the Gospel and sometimes incurred no small Danger by this Freedom Mr. Rogers Vicar of S. Sepulchres and afterwards a Martyr under Queen Mary was one of these Who so freely discoursed once at S. Paul's Cross concerning the Abuse of Abbies and the Churches Goods that he was summoned before the Privy-Council to answer for it And so were divers others upon the same Reason And I am apt to think that these Preachers did what they did by the Counsel and Direction of the Arch-bishop So that the present State of Things and the Endeavours of him and the rest of the Clergy considered he was a little too hastily censured by Calvin in that behalf But Cranmer was of so mild and gracious a Spirit that he did not seem to conceive any Displeasure against Calvin for this his unjust Charge of Negligence but kept up a great Esteem and Value for him But that I may take occasion here to insist a little longer upon this Argument and vindicate the Honesty and Boldness of the English Clergy in speaking their Minds against the Sacrilegious Spirit that reigned in these Times it may not be amiss to give some Account of a Communication that happened about December or Ianuary 1552 at Court between Sir William Cecyl the King's Secretary and one Miles Wilson a grave Divine and Acquaintance of the said Cecyl and a Man of Eminency in the University of Cambridg Discourse happening between them of divers and sundry things relating partly to the propagating Christ's Religion and partly to the preservation and encrease of the Common-Wealth the said Wilson delivered to Cecyl an Oration to read which he had composed De rebus Ecclesiae non diripiendis Concerning not spoiling the Church of her Means and which he once pronounced in the Publick Schools of the University about that Time when those Matters were in agitation above Cecyl being a good and conscientious Man had in this Conference signified to him his earnest desire to hear and see what could be proposed out of the Holy Scripture in so unusual an Argument To shew this and to give also a short view of his said Oration because the Secretary's infinite Business would not allow him to read long Discourses Wilson soon after digested the Contents thereof reducing it into some Syllogisms and Ratiocinations more apt to urge and easier to remember and more accommodate to perswade These with his Letter he sent to the Secretary His Ends herein were to satisfy him in this Point being a Man of great Stroke in the Publick Transactions of those Times who might accordingly use his Interest and Endeavour to retrieve what had been so unjustly taken from the Church that the famous Schools lately dissolved to the great ruine of the University might be re-edified again and that those Livings which were miserably spoiled by covetous Patrons might be restored and enjoy their whole Revenues to the real Honour of the
losing of Promotion nor hope of Gain or winning of Favour could move him to relent or give place unto the Truth of his Conscience As experience thereof well appeared as well in defence of the true Religion against the Six Articles in the Parliament as in that he offered to combate with the Duke of Northumberland in K. Edward's Time speaking then on behalf of his Prince for the staying of the Chauntries until his Highness had come unto lawful Age and that especially for the maintenance of his better State then But if at his Prince's Pleasure in case of Religion at any time he was forced to give place that was done with such humble Protestation and so knit up for the safeguard of his Faith and Conscience that it had been better his Good-will had never been requested than so to relent or give over as he did Which most dangerously besides sundry times else he especially attempted when the Six Articles past by Parliament and when my L. Crumwel was in the Tower At what time the Book of Articles of our Religion was new penned For even at that Season the whole Rabblement which he took to be his Friends being Commissioners with him forsook him and his Opinion and Doctrine And so leaving him Post alone revolted altogether on the part of Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester As by Name Bishop Hethe Shaxton Day and all other of the meaner sort By whom these so named were chiefly advanced and preferred unto Dignities And yet this sudden Inversion notwithstanding God gave him such Favour with his Prince that Book altogether past by his Assertion against all their Minds More to be marvelled at the Time considered than by any Reason to compass how it should come to pass For then would there have been laid thousands of Pounds to Hundreds in London that he should before that Synod had been ended have been shut up in the Tower beside his Friend the Lord Crumwel Howbeit the King's Majesty having an assured and approved affiance of his both deep Knowledg in Religion and Fidelity both to God and Him suspected in that time other Men in their Judgments not to walk uprightly nor sincerely For that some of them swerved from their former Opinions in Doctrine And having great experience of the constancy of the Lord Cranmer it drave him all along to join with the said Lord Cranmer in the confirmation of his Opinion and Doctrin against all the rest to their great Admiration For at all Times when the King's Majesty would be resolved in any Doubt or Question he would but send word to my Lord over Night and by the next Day the King would have in writing brief Notes of the Doctors Minds as well Divines as Lawyers both Old and New with a Conclusion of his own Mind Which he could never get in such a readiness of any no not of all his Chaplains and Clergy about him in so short a Time For being thorowly seen in all kinds of Expositors he could incontinently lay open thirty forty sixty or more some whiles of Authors And so reducing the Notes of them altogether would advertise the King more in one Day than all his Learned Men could do in a Month. And it was no mervail for it was well known that commonly if he had not Business of the Prince's or special urgent Causes before him he spent three parts of the Day in Study as effectually as he had done at Cambridg And therefore it was that the King said on a time to the Bishop of Winchester the King and my said Lord of Winchester defending together that the Canons of the Apostles were of as good Authority as the four Evangelists contrary to my Lord Cranmer's Assertion My Lord of Canterbury said the King is too old a Truant for us twain Again His Estimation was such with his Prince that in Matters of great Importance wherein no Creature durst once move the King for fear of Displeasure or moving the King's Patience or otherwise for troubling his Mind then was my Lord Cranmer most violently by the whole Council obtruded and thrust out to undertake that Danger and Peril in Hand As beside many other times I remember twice he served the Council's Expectation The first time was when he staied the King 's determinate Mind and Sentence in that he fully purposed to send the Lady Mary his Daughter unto the Tower and there to suffer as a Subject because She would not obey the Laws of the Realm in refusing the Bishop of Rome's Authority and Religion Whose stay in that behalf the King then said unto the Lord Cranmer would be to his utter Confusion at the length The other dangerous Attempt was in the disclosing the unlawful Behaviour of Queen Katharine Howard towards the King in keeping unlawful Company with Durrant her Servant For the King's Affection was so mervailously set upon that Gentlewoman as it was never known that he had the like to any Woman So that no Man durst take in Hand to open to him that Wound being in great perplexity how he would take it And then the Council had no other Refuge but unto my Lord Cranmer Who with over-much Importunity gave the Charge which was done with such Circumspection that the King gave over his Affections unto Reason and wrought mervellous colourably for the Trial of the same Now as concerning the Manner and Order of his Hospitality and House-keeping As he was a Man abandoned from all kind of Avarice so was he content to maintain Hospitality both liberally and honourably and yet not surmounting the Limits of his Revenues Having more respect and foresight unto the Iniquity of the Times being inclined to pull and spoil from the Clergy than to his own private Commodity For else if he had not so done he was right sure that his Successors should have had as much Revenues left unto them as were left unto the late Abbies Especially considering that the Lands and Revenues of the said Abbies being now utterly consumed and spread abroad and for that there remained no more Exercise to set on work or no Officers but Surveyors Auditors and Receivers it was high time to shew an Example of liberal Hospitality For although these said Workmen only brought up and practised in subverting of Monastical Possessions had brought that kind of Hospitality unto utter Confusion yet ceased they not to undermine the Prince by divers Perswasions for him also to overthrow the honourable State of the Clergy And because they would lay a sure Foundation to build their Purpose upon they found the Means to put into the King's Head That the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept no Hospitality or House correspondent unto his Revenues and Dignity but sold his Woods and by great Incomes and Fines made Money to purchase Lands for his Wife and Children And to the intent that the King should with the more facility believe this Information Sir Thomas Seymor the
Apostles of Iesus Christ. And wished heartily that the Christian Conversation of the People were the Letters and Seals of their Offices as the Corinthians were to St. Paul who told them that They were his Letters and the Signs of his Apostleship and not Paper Parchment Lead or Wax Great indeed and painful was his Diligence in promoting God's Truth and reforming this Church Insomuch that he raised up against himself the Malice and Hatred of very many thereby These Memorials before related do abundantly evince the same The Words of Thomas Becon in an Epistle Dedicatory deserve here to be transcribed In plucking up the Enemies Tares and in purging the Lord's Field that nothing may grow therein but pure Wheat your most godly and unrestful Pains most Reverend Father are well known in this Church of England and thankfully accepted of all faithful Christen Hearts Insomuch that very many do daily render unto God most humble and hearty Thanks for the singular and great Benefits which they have received of him through your vertuous Travel in attaining the true Knowledg of Justification and of the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood those two things especially he laboured to retrieve and promote a true Knowledg of and such other Holy Mysteries of our Profession And albeit the Devil roar the World rage and the Hypocrites swell at these your most Christian Labours which you willingly take for the Glory of God and the Edifying of his Congregation yet as you have godly begun so without ceasing continue unto the end And so he did to the effusion of his Blood not many Years after For he was very sensible of the gross Abuses and Corruptions into which the Christian Church had sunk Which made him labour much to get it purged and restored to its Primitive Constitution and Beauty And this he ceased not to make King Henry sensible of putting him upon the Reformation of the English Church as he could find Occasion and Convenience serve him to move him thereunto Which found at last that good effect upon the King that towards the latter Years of his Reign he was fully purposed to proceed to a regulating of many more things than he had done But the subtilty of Gardiner Bp of Winton and his own Death prevented his good Designs While the aforesaid Bishop was Ambassador Abroad employed about the League between the Emperor and the English and French Kings our Arch-bishop took the opportunity of his Absence to urge the King much to a Reformation and the King was willing to enter into serious Conference with him about it And at last he prevailed with the King to resolve to have the Roods in every Church pulled down and the accustomed Ringing on Alhallow-Night suppress'd and some other vain Ceremonies And it proceeded so far that upon the Arch-bishop's going into Kent to visit his Diocess the King ordered him to cause two Letters to be drawn up prepared for him to sign The one to be directed to the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the other to the Arch-bishop of York Who were therein to be commanded to issue forth their Precepts to all the Bishops in their respective Provinces to see those Enormities redressed without delay Which our Arch-bishop accordingly appointed his Secretary to do And the Letters so drawn up were sent by the Arch-bishop up to Court But the King upon some Reasons of State suggested to him in a Letter from Gardiner his Ambassador beyond Sea being by some made privy to these Transactions suspended the signing of them And that put a stop to this Business for that time till some time after the King at the Royal Banquet made for Annebault the French King's Ambassador leaning upon him and the Arch-bishop told them both his Resolution of proceeding to a total Reformation of Religion signifying that within half a Year the Mass both in his Kingdom and in that of France should be changed into a Communion and the usurped Power of the Bishop of Rome should be wholly rooted out of both and that both Kings intended to exhort the Emperor to do the same in his Territories or else they would break off the League with him And at that time also he willed the Arch-bishop to draw up a Form of this Reformation to be sent to the French King to consider of This he spake in the Month of August a few Months before his Death This his Purpose he also signified to Dr. Bruno Ambassador here from Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony some little time after saying That if his Master's Quarrel with the Emperor was only concerning Religion he advised him to stand to it strongly and he would take his part But the King's Death prevented all And as for this King 's next Successor King Edward the Arch-bishop had a special Care of his Education Whose Towardliness and zealous Inclination to a Reformation was attributed to the said Arch-bishop and three other Bishops viz. Ridley Hoper and Latimer by Rodulph Gualter of Zurick Who partly by his living sometime in England and partly by his long and intimate Familiarity and Correspondence with many of the best Note here was well acquainted with the Matters relating to this Kingdom Of the great Influence of one of these upon this King viz. the Arch-bishop the former Memorials do sufficiently shew CHAP. XXXIII Arch-bishop Cranmer procures the Use of the Scriptures THE Arch-bishop was a great Scripturist and in those darker Times of Popery was the chief Repairer of the Reputation of the Holy Scriptures Urging them still for the great Standard and Measure in all controverted Matters relating to Religion and the Church By these he disintangled King Henry VIII his great Matrimonial Cause when all his other Divines who had the Pope's Power and Laws too much in their Eyes were so puzzled about it Shewing how no Humane Dispensation could enervate or annul the Word of God And in the Course he took about the Reforming of Religion the Holy Scripture was the only Rule he went by casting by School-men and the Pope's Canons and Decretals and adhering only to the more sure Word of Prophecy and Divine Inspiration And so Roger Ascham in a Letter to Sturmius in the Year 1550 when they were very busy in the Reformation writes Thaâ—â—uch was the Care of their Iosiah meaning King Edward the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the whole Privy-Council for true Religion that they laboured in nothing more than that as well the Doctrine as Discipline of Religion might be most purely drawn out of the Fountain of the Sacred Scriptures and that that Roman Sink whence so many Humane Corruptions abounded in the Church of Christ might be wholly stopped up This his high Value of the Scriptures made him at last the happy Instrument of restoring them to the Common People by getting them after divers Years opposition printed in the English Tongue and set up in Churches for any to read that would for
a firm Purpose to conform himself thereunto and so continue to proceed from time to time shewing himself a sober and fruitful Hearer and Learner This whole Preface for the Antiquity and Usefulness of it and to preserve as much as we can of the Writings of this most Reverend Man I have transcribed and placed in the Appendix The Edition in the Year 1540 had a remarkable Frontispiece before it Which because it is somewhat rare both in regard of the Antiquity and Device of it I will relate In the upper â—art thereof you see King Henry VIII sitting in State guarded on each hand of him with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal holding in his right Hand a Bible closed which he delivered unto Arch-bishop Cranmer being on his Knee in the Name of the rest of the Bishops all which stood at his right Hand bare-headed their Mitres lying up-the Ground in token of their Acknowledgment of the King's Supremacy and this Motto issuing out of the King's Mouth Haec praecipe doce Holding also in his left Hand another Bible stretched towards the Lords Temporal and delivered to one whom I suppose to be intended for the Lord Crumwel at the head of them standing on the left Side and this Word coming out of the King's Mouth towards them Quod justum est judicate and this Ita parvum audietis ut magnum and this A me constitutum est decretum ut in Vniverso Imperio Regno meo homines revereantur paveant Deum Viventem Among these Nobles is the Figure of one on his Knees and these Words issuing out of his Mouth Verbum tuum Lucerna pedibus meis Over the King's Head is the Figure of God Almighty sitting in the Clouds with these Words coming out of his Mouth in a Scrole towards the right Hand Verbum quod egredietur de me non revertetur ad me vacuum sed faciet quaecunque volui And in another Scrole towards the Left with his Hand pointing to the King Ecce servum qui faciet omnes voluntates meas Underneath the Bishops there is another Figure representing Arch-bishop Cranmer his Coat of Arms by him with the distinction of a Crescent He stood with his Mitre on his Head and dress'd in his Pontificalibus his Chaplain behind him and a Priest with a Tonsure kneeling before him in the posture of a Candidate for Priests Orders and having his Hand stretched out to receive the Bible offered him by the Arch-bishop and out of his Mouth this Scrole Pascite qui in vobis est gregem Christi On the other Side opposite to the Arch-bishop and underneath the Lords Temporal stood another Person whom I conjecture to be the Lord Crumwel with his Shield by him blank without any bearing and out of his Mouth came Diverte a malo sequere pacem persequere In the lowest part of this Fronticepiece you have the resemblance of a Priest preaching out of a Pulpit before a great Auditory of Persons of all Ranks Qualities Orders Sexes Ages Men Women Children Nobles Priests Souldiers Tradesmen Countrymen Out of the Mouth of the Preacher went this Verse Obsecro igitur primum omnium fieri obsecrationes orationes postulationes gratiarum actiones pro omnibus hominibus pro regibus c. Implying the Benefit accruing to Princes by the Peoples Knowledg of the Scriptures namely That it taught them to obey and pray for them And out of the Mouths of these Hearers of all sorts issued Vivat Rex Vivat Rex and out of the Mouths of the Children God save the King denoting the great Joy the People conceived for the enjoyment of God's Word and the preaching thereof and their Thankfulness to the King for his Permission of the same In the middle stood the Title of the Bible which was this The Bible in English that is to say The Contents of all the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament with a Prologue thereunto made by the Reverend Father in God Thomas Arch-bishop of Canterbury This is the Bible appointed to the Use of the Churches Printed by Richard Grafton Cum Privilegio ad imprimendum solum An. Dom. MDXL. CHAP. XXXIV Arch-bishop Cranmer compassionate towards Sufferers for Religion AS he had a great Love and Value for the eminent Professors and Patrons of the Gospel so he bare a most compassionate Spirit towards those that suffered for the sake of it It made a very greaâ— Impression upon him when he heard that Sir Iohn Cheke had been taken up and Indicted soon after Queen Mary's access to the Crown namely in the Month of August which was the next Month after And not knowing wherefore he was Indicted whether for his meddling in the Lady Iane's Business or for his Zeal in promoting Religion he earnestly desired Sir William Cecyl to inform him whether If for the former Considering as he said he had been none of the chief Doers in that Matter he hoped he should have been one of them that should have partaken of the Queen's Favour But if it were for the latter viz. his earnestness in Religion if he suffer for that said he Blessed is he of God that suffereth for his sake howsoever the World judg of him For what ought we to care for the Iudgment of the World when God absolves us But wishing most passionately withal That some means might be used for the Relief of him and the Lord Russel who it seems was clap'd up for the same Cause And indeed as our Arch-bishop was in the time of King Edward he was the same under King Henry that is the common Patron as far as he might or dared of such Priests who were drawn into Trouble for professing or preaching that Gospel So he shewed himself to Turner before-mentioned And in the Year 1533 or 1534 I find him in a Commission for the relieving of another that had been most straitly and rigorously handled by Stokesly then Bishop of London and his Chancellor His Name was Thomas Patmore Parson of Hadham in Hertfordshire a Learned and Godly Man who had by them been condemned to Imprisonment for Life together with the loss of his Benefice and Goods because he had perswaded his Curat to marry a Wife and being privy to his Marriage did nevertheless suffer him to officiate in his Church And because he had preached certain Doctrines at Cambridg as laying little stress upon the Pope's Curse and that we are saved only by God's Mercy and that all that are saved are saved by Faith and that it is against God's Law to burn Hereticks This poor Man after three Years close Imprisonment in Lollards-Tower by the Means of his Friends who put up frequent Petitions to the King and the Lady Ann Bolen was at last released and obtained of the King a Commission to our Arch-bishop to whom were joined Audley Lord Chancellor and Crumwel Secretary of State to enquire into his Injuries and unjust handling and to determine
would not be allowed any well-disposed Person to relieve his Necessity nor to give him an Alms a Privilege allowed any Beggar beside And when a Gentleman of Gloucestershire sensible of the Arch-bishop's Need and withal knowing how dangerous it was to give the poor Arch-bishop any Money had conveyed somewhat to the Bailiffs to be by their Hands bestowed on him Boner and Thirleby the two Bishops that degraded him staid this Gentleman intending to send him up to the Council had he not gotten off by the Intercession of some Friends CHAP. XXXV Some Account of Arch-bishop Cranmer's House-keeping BUT the more fully to confute this Calumny it will not be amiss to look more narrowly into his House-keeping His daily custom at Lambeth was to dine in a Room above where all Noble-men and Persons of better Quality that came to dine with him were entertained Here he was very honourably served both with Dishes and Attendants In the Hall the Table was every Day very plentifully furnished both for Houshold-Servants and Strangers with three or four principal head-Messes of Officers Besides the Relief of the Poor at his Gates And which is a very observable Charity as well as Hospitality he appropriated his Mansion-house at Bekesborn in Kent and his Parsonage-Barn for Harbour and Lodgings for the Poor Sick and Maimed Souldiers that came from the Wars of Bulloign and other Parts beyond Seas For these he also appointed an Almoner a Physician and a Chirurgeon to attend on them and to dress and administer Physick to such of them as were not able to resort to their own Countries Having also daily from his Kitchin hot Broth and Meat Besides the common Alms of his Houshold that were bestowed upon the poor People of the Country And when any of these were recovered and were able to travel they had Money given them to bear their Charges according to the number of Miles they were to pass before they got Home I do not know whether some might have taken Advantage thus to slander him from a laudable Endeavour of his to reduce within some Bounds the Provisions of Clergy-mens Tables which in the latter Times of King Henry the Eighth grew to great Excess and Extravagancy so unbecoming Spiritual Men. For in the Year 1541 the Arch-bishop with the Consent of the other Arch-bishop and most of the Bishops and divers other Deans and Arch-Deacons made a Constitution for moderating the Fare of their Tables viz. That Arch-bishops should not exceed six divers kinds of Flesh or as many Dishes of Fish on Fish-days A Bishop not above Five A Dean or Arch-Deacon Four and all under that Degree Three But an Arch-bishop was allowed at second Course to have four Dishes a Bishop Three and all others Two as Custards Tarts Fritters Cheese Apples Pears c. But if any of the inferior Clergy should entertain any Arch-bishop Bishop Dean or Arch-Deacon or any of the Laity of like Degree as Duke Marquess Earl Vicount Baron Lord Knight they might have such Provision as were meet for their Degree Nor was their Diet to be limited when they should receive an Ambassador to recommend I suppose to Foreigners the English Hospitality It was ordered also That of the greater Fish or Fowl as Cranes Swans Turkies Hadocks Pike Tench there should be but one in a Dish Of lesser Sorts than they as Capons Pheasants Conies Woodcocks but Two Of less sorts still as of Partridges an Arch-bishop Three a Bishop and other Degrees under him Two The Number of the Blackbirds were also stinted to Six at an Arch-bishop's Table and to Four for a Bishop And of little Birds as Larks Snytes c. the Number was not to exceed Twelve But so strongly bent were the Clergy in those Days to this sort of Sensuality that these Injunctions of our Arch-bishop were observed but two or three Months and so they returned to their old Superfluity again The Arch-bishop's pious Design hereby was only to curb Intemperance and unnecessary Prodigality in such upon whose Office those Vices cast such just Reflections but it could not reasonably argue any covetous Temper in him for that the Poor might not fare the worse for this Intrenchment of Exorbitant Hospitality but rather the better the Arch-bishop in these aforesaid Orders provided That whatsoever was spared out of the old House-keeping should not be pocketed up but laid out and spent in plain Meats for the Relief of poor People And that this Charge may still appear to be nothing but a meer detraction proceeding from Envy or some other ill Principle others there were that would blame him for the contrary Vice of too much lavishing and unprofitable Expence So hard a matter is it for the best Men to escape the spiteful and venomous Insinuations of the World But he patiently and with an even Mind bore all CHAP. XXXVI Arch-bishop Cranmer Humble Peaceable Bold in a good Cause FOR which is another thing to be remarked in him he was very Humble and Condescending and did not only bear to be reproved but was thankful for it and that even when the Reproof was undeserved Which was the more to be valued in him considering the Height and Dignity of his Calling To give an Instance or two of this When in the Year 1552 Cecyl had charged him with the Imputation of Covetousness as a Report that went of him in the Court and which himself seemed partly to believe begging withal Pardon of his Grace for his freedom with him Our Arch-bishop told him That as for the Admonition he took it very thankfully and that he had ever been most glad to be admonished by his Friends accounting no Man so foolish as he that would not hear friendly Admonishment And when at another time the same Cecyl who would always take the liberty to speak his Mind to his Friends whensoever he thought they wanted Counsel had signified to him the Hazard he incurred in not shewing more Compliance towards the Duke of Northumberland who now swayed all and then apologizing for his Boldness Cranmer was so far from taking this ill that he returned him his very hearty Thanks for his friendly Letter and Advertisements desiring him to be assured that he took the same in such good part and to proceed of such a friendly Mind as he ever looked for at his Hands and whereof he would not be unmindful if Occasion hereafter served to requite the same And this good Temper led him also to Gentleness and Lenity He was no Huffer nor Contender but of an exceeding peaceable and amicable Spirit Whereunto he was moved by the Reason of Policy as well as Religion Because he well saw how a contentious quarrelsome Disposition in great Men would be apt to give an ill Example unto Inferiors There happened once in the Year 1552 a Contest between him and the Lord-Warden of the Cinque-Ports who lived not far from him and so probably it might be about some worldly Matters
it is easy to see from whence this Author had this Character of our Arch-bishop namely from Parsons and Saunders two malicious calumniating Jesuits The former hath these words of him That to the King's Will and Liking he resolved to conform himself as well in Religion as in other things And that when King Henry was large towards the Protestants Cranmer was so also but when the King became more strict and rigorous especially after the Six Articles Cranmer was ready to prosecute the same And therefore Saunders framed a Name for the Arch-bishop calling him Henricianus in the same sense as Herod's Creatures in the Scriptures were called Herodiani A very false Character of this good Arch-bishop to say no worse of it I must here make a Note of one Quality more of our Archbishop Which was this That he was a Man of ardent Affections and of an open and generous Temper and where he loved he thought he could never enough express it An Instance of this I will give in Bishop Thirleby To whom for the good Qualities he supposed were in him he had a most earnest Love An Account of this I will lay down in the words of Morice the Arch-bishop's Secretary who well knew it Besides his special Favour to him saith he that way in recommending him to the King there was no Man living could more friendly esteem any Man of himself as my Lord Cranmer did this Thirleby For there was no kind of Pleasure which my Lord Cranmer was liable to do that was not at this Man's Commandment Whether it were Jewel Plate Instrument Map Horse or any thing else though he had it from the King's Majesty but if this Man did once like or commend it the gentle Arch-bishop would forthwith give it unto him And many times Dr. Thirleby for Civility-sake would instantly refuse the same yet would he send it unto him the next day after to his House Insomuch that it came into a common Proverb That Dr. Thirleby 's commendation of any Thing of my Lord's was a plain winning or obtaining thereof So that some Men thought that if he would have demanded any Finger or other Member of his he would have cut it off to have gratified him therewith such was his ardent Affection towards him This no small sort of honest Men now living can testify that is about the Year 1565 when this was written It may deserve also a Remark that our good Prelat rose upon the Fall of another great Church-man viz. the Cardinal of York For about that very Time the King rejected Wolsey from his Favour and Employment Cranmer succeeded into them It may be also observed That as the King 's great Matter of the Divorce was first moved and managed by Wolsey so it was taken up and vigorously carried on and successfully ended by Cranmer And as the former started it upon an unjust Policy and so in the Issue by God's secret Judgment prospered no better by it it finally proving his Ruin so the latter acting in it out of a better and more honest Principle of Conscience and Religion became thereby advanced to the greatest Honour in the Church Which he held for twenty Years together Though at last indeed it had the same fatal Issue to him by the secret Malice of Queen Mary as it had to the Cardinal before by the secret Displeasure of Queen Ann. But as they were thus parallel in the Cause of their Falls so their Demeanours under their Calamities were very different The Cardinal under his shewed a most abject and desponding Mind but our Arch-bishop's Carriage was much more decent under his remaining Undaunted and Magnanimous having a Soul well fortified by the Principles of solid Vertue and Religion which the other had not And this appeared in him when being brought forth to be baited before Brooks the Pope's Subdelegate and Martin and Story the King 's and Queen's Commissioners at Oxford he gravely and with an unmoved Spirit used these words That he acknowledged God's Goodness to him in all his Gifts and thanked him as heartily for that State wherein he found himself then as ever he did in the Time of his Prosperity and that it was not the loss of his Promotions that grieved him at all CHAP. XXXVII Osiander's and Peter Martyr's Character of the Arch-bishop THE last Thing I shall observe of him is That he always remained the same Man not altered by his Honours and high Advancements As he was a Person of great Piety Goodness Affability and Benignity before he was Arch-bishop and the Sun-shine of Royal Favour so he continued at all Times after For a Witness of this I will set down two Characters given him by two Foreign learned Men both which knew him well The one shall be of Osiander from whom we may take this Account of what he was before he was Bishop while he remained abroad in Germany Osiander that great Divine of Norinberg professed to love him for some excellent Endowments that were common to him with some other good Men but especially for others more extraordinary and peculiar to himself Of the former sort was That he was a Gentleman of good Birth and Quality that he had an Aspect and Presence that carried Dignity with it an incredible sweetness of Manners that he had Learning beyond the common Degrees of it was Benign and Liberal towards all and especially to those that were Studious and of good Literature Of the latter were those more abstruse and heroical Vertues of his Mind rare to be found in the Age wherein he lived viz. his Wisdom Prudence Fortitude Temperance Justice a singular Love towards his Country the highest Faithfulness towards the King a Contempt of earthly Things a Love of Heavenly a most burning study towards the Evangelick Truth sincere Religion and Christ's Glory And this was Cranmer before he was placed in his high and honourable Station The other Character of Cranmer is that of Peter Martyr who thus speaks of him when he was at the Top of all his earthly Honour in the middle of King Edward's Reign That his Godliness Prudence Faithfulness and his singular Vertues were known to all the Kingdom That he was so adorned with the Grace and Favour of Christ as that though all others are the Children of Wrath yet in him Piety and Divine Knowledg and other Vertues might seem to be naturally born and bred such deep Root had they taken in him So that Martyr often wished and professed he should esteem it as a great Benefit vouchsafed him of God that he might come as near as might be to his Vertues which he admired in him as the wonderful Gifts of God And as to himself and others fled into these Quarters for Religion that Cranmer's Kindness and Humanity Merits and Benefits towards them were such that if he should render just Thanks and speak of them as they deserved he must do nothing but tell of them and
my Lord was of Londons own hand For he that copied them out before us was a Gentleman of my L. Winchesters or to him belonging Mr. Londons Copy lying before him This appeareth that this matter was consulted before Serles can tel what the man was and so cannot I that did write them But as I now remember it was German that is German Gardner By me Iohn Willoughby Gardiners penitent letter unto the Archbishop GEntle father Whereas I have not born so good so tender a heart towards you as a true child ought to bear and as you never gave unto me occasion otherwise but rather by benefits provoked me unto the contrary I ask of you with as contrite a heart as ever did David ask of God mercy And I desire you to remember the prodigal Child Which although from his father swarving yet into favour received again to receive me although unkindly now by folly I did forsake you and not born my heart so lovingly so truly towards you as in dutifulness I should have done I am ful sorry for my fault And yet Good father be you wel assured as I opened my conscience unto you at my last communing with you that I never did bear malice against you But the greatest cause that ever occupied my heart against you and for the which I did bear my heart so little towards you was as God shall save the Soul of me that I saw so little quietness among us and so great jars in Christs religion Supposing that by your permission and sufferance which was not so as I do now perceive That it did arise unto the great grief of my conscience I condescended the sooner unto the making of the book against your Grace when I was thereunto moved by that same suggester Willoughby Where and of whom he took occasion to bring his bills unto Canterbury I know not Good father for my setting forth the same book partly by me made heartily confessing my rashness and indeliberate doings I ask of you mercy Requiring of you of your charity to impute the great fault of it unto those which ministred unto me occasion and to remit unto me my lightnes For of truth I was greatly seduced Remember Good father that our Parent was seduced and yet of God forgiven Forgive me Good father By whom I was seduced my Confession doth declare And Father if it shall please you now more of your goodness then of my deserving punishment and that sharp I have deserved to forgive unto me this my fault and unkindness You shal never hereafter perceive in me but that at al times I shal be as obedient and as true unto you as ever was child unto his natural father If otherwise at any time you find of me never trust me never do for me but utterly without al favor cast me into pain as possible is for a wretch to suffer Gentle Father ponder my grief which is at my heart not little And through your goodness remitting unto me my unkindness and granting mercy with liberty I desire your Grace to set me into ease both of heart and body I am yours aud shal be yours and that truly while I live God prosper your Grace per me William Gardiner Good father I have given my self unto you heart body and service and you have taken me unto you Now remember me that I am your true servant Another letter of Gardiner to the Archbishop MOst Honourable Prelate Due commendations premised These be to give thanks unto your Grace for that that you did yesterday so favourably as my sending for unto your presence Whom I thought that I should never pensiveness lay so sore at my heart have seen again And among al your Communications that your Grace had unto me I noted these words of highest comfort Your Grace did note that I did cal you father in my Writings you said unto me yesterday You cal me father In good faith I wil be a Father unto you indeed Words of high comfort unto me Besides this Most honorable Lord you promised that I should have a book of al Articles layd in against me to make answer unto them I beseech your Grace that I may so have For there is nothing that I have done or known to be done but if I can cal it into remembrance I wil truly open it God prosper your Grace By yours and ever shal be William Gardiner Shethers letter of Submission to the Archbishop MY duty always remembred unto your gracious Lordship I most humbly beseech the same to have compassion upon me your prisoner And for as much as I think by the Articles which Mr. Ioseph mentioned that your Grace hath not only the Articles subscribed with the Witnes hands but also other Articles Which I noted since that time as I heard by Mr. Gardiner Coxton Morice and others So that your Gracious Lordship knoweth al that ever I have heard Pleaseth it your Lordship to understand that many of those Articles last noted were of the Book that was presented to my L. of Winchester as unperfect and not proved as indeed many could never be justified as far as ever I heard And therefore my L. of Winchester sent it again as I have said in my first declaration And it was never willed to be shewed as true But Gracious Lord whether I have offended in that that I noted those Articles after that I was willed by Mr. Baker to mark the chiefest fautors of new opinions I refer it to your gracious judgment and whatsoever shal be thought as nothing can be hid nor I would should not of any my life from any of you both that I have offended in I beseech you both of your mercy and favor and to be good to me Instantly and briefly for I am loth to trouble you or to seem to mistrust your goodness desiring you to have in remembrance my weak nature and the long and solatory durance I have suffered with grievous vexation of mind And for refreshing thereof to Licence me to eat and drink at meals with company and being so nigh my chamber that I may remain in the same to the intent I may pas the time with my own Books Heartily desiring your Good Lp. that notwithstanding any thing heretofore done or how ever I have before wandred not conformably to your gracious advertisement or expectation yet Gracious Lord accept a poor heart which would gladly be received into your fatherly favor again to declare his faithful mind he hath conceived towards your Goodness upon such pity as your Gracious Lp. hath shewed and I trust now wil in his extreme need Assuring your Grace that my whole confidence and only trust is reposed in your goodness only and gentle Mr. Doctors Whose native merciful hearts as they have be declared oftentimes towards many so I most meekly beseech you both mercifully to interpretate my acts and declare your pity in releasing my sorrows as shortly as shal seem convenient to your Wisdomes
ostendatis quam ego vestra causa de officio fuerim meo stricte praecipientes ut his nostris constitutionibus vos omnes â—inguli tam in judicijs quam in gymnarijs utamini severè prohibentes ne quisquam vestrum alias praeter has regni nostri leges admittere praesumat Valete NUM XXXV The Bishop of Winchester to Archbishop Cranmer relating to the Reformation of Religion AFter my duty remembred to your Grace Your letters of the third came to my hands the of the same And upon the reading and advised consideration of the matter in them have thought requisite to answer unto them and at length to open my mind frankly in some points of them Tempering my words so as I shal not be seen to have forgotten your place and condition ne such familiarite as hath been between your G. and me The remembrance of which familiarite maketh me speke as frely as on the other side your astate brydeleth me to be more moderate in speech then sum matier I shal herafter speke of wold ells suffre and permit It greveth me moch to rede wryten from your G. in the begynning of your lettres how the King our late Soveraign was seduced and in that he knew by whom he was compassed in that I cal the Kings Majesties Book Which is not his Book bicause I cal it so but bicause it was indede so acknowledged by the hol Parliament and acknowledged so by your G. thenn and al his life which as you afterwards write ye commaunded to be published and red in your Diocese as his book Against which by your G's spech ye commaunded Ioseph he shuld not prech Al which I think your G. would not have doon if ye had not thought the book to have conteyned truth And in the truth can be no seducyng to it as the Kings book conteyneth but from it Which if it had been so I ought to think your G. would not for al the Princes christened being so high a Bishop as ye be have yâ—â—â—â—ed unto For Obedire oportet Dâ—o magis quam hominibus And therfore after your G. hath foure yere continually lyved in agrement of that doctrine under our late Soveraine Lord now so sodenly after his death to wryte to me that his Highness was seduced it is I assure you a very straunge spech Which if your G. shuld bring in to open contention as I know your G. of your Wisedome wyl not But in that case wyl I as an old servaunt of my late Soverayne Much wanting it self so many Calamities besides wherof I have more laysor to think on thenn your G. as my chance is now which I reckon in this respect very good After so many yeres Service and in such trouble without daunger passed over to aryve in this haven of quyetnes without losse of any notable takel as the Marryners say Which is a great matier as the wynds hath blowen And if the present astate in this world wer to be considered I have many times alleged for confirmation of thopinion of some in religion And the Protestants take it for a gret argument to establish ther procedyngs that themperor was ever letted when he went about to enterprize any thing against them as Bucer declareth at gret length in a letter written to the World And whenne Sledanus was here in England he told me the like at Windesore and then Tanquam praedixit of the effect of certain eclypse Adding that I shuld see magnas mutationes And so I have seen and have heard mervelous chaunges synnes that but otherwise than Sledanus toke it and to destroy ther fancies if that were to be regarded But for my self I have seen my Soveraine Lord with whom I consented in opinion make the honourable conquest of Bolen and honorably in his life mainteyne it And after in honorable peace made leave this world over soon to us but that was due by him to be payd to naâ—ure discharged it honoraâ—ly buried honorably with sorrow and lamentation of his servants and subgetts and my self his poor servant with a litel flâ—ebyting of this world conveyed to an easy astâ—te without diminution of my reputation And therfore whenne I hear fondly alleged or rede more fondly wryten the favor toto that is by Bâ—lâ— Ioye and Ioseph or such like newly called the Word of God to be embraced for preservation of the worldly astate I se the clere contrary in experience and conclude with my self that it proveth nought before man and take it before God to be abomination Which causeth me to spend some of my laysor to wryte so long a letter to your G. who hath lesse laysor Wyshing that our laysor gret or litel may be spent otherwyse then to trouble this Realm in the time of our Soveraine Lords Minority with any novelte in mâ—tiers of religion being so many other matiers which for that I was so late a Counsellor cannot out of my memory Requiring the hol endeavour of such as have charge and silence in the people who shuld serve and obey without quarelying among themself for matiers in religion Specially considering it is agreed our late Soverain is receyved to goddes mercy And though some wold say he had his errors and saw not perfitely Gods truth Yet for us it were better to go to heven with oon yie after hym thenne to travayle here for another yie with daungier to lose both There was good humanite in him that said Mâ—lim errare cum Platone quam cum alijs vera sentire Which affection were to the world plausible towching our Soveraine Lord that made us But we christen men may not teach so but esteme God above al and his true divinite In which case nevertheles whenne the divinite pretended is so rejected of many and utterly reproved So doubted of many other as it is suspected and confessed among us it is not necessary For our Soveraine Lord is gone from us to heaven in his way It is a mervelous matier what a certain loss it is aforehand to entreprize to serch which among a very few hath the name of Divinite and of al the rest is so named as I wil not reherse And this I write not because your G. entendeth any such thing soo far For I may not and wil not so think of you But this I take to be true that the way of error is let in at a little gappe The vehemence of novelty wil flow further thenne your G. wold admitte And when men hear of new gere every man maketh his request sum new hose sum new robes sum newe cappes sum new shirtes Like as in religion we have seen attempted where the people thought they might prevayle Which caused the commotion in Germany in bello civili Rusticorum and hath made the same stir there now in bello civili Nobilium It was a notable act of our late Soverain Lord to reform and thenne moderate religion as he did Which he did not without al
deserved Tumults in England Iack Cade Iack Straw In Germany for their Sedition were slain almost in one month about two hundred thousand The Sword by Gods word pertaineth not to Subjects but only to Magistrates Tho the Magistrates be evil and very tyrants against the Common-wealth and enemies to Christs religion yet yee Subjects must obey in all worldly things as the Christians do under the Turk and ought so to do as long as he commandeth them not to do against God How ungodly then is it for our Subjects to take the Sword where there reigneth a most Christian prince most desirous to reform al griefs Subjects ought to make humble suit to their Prince for Reformation of al injuries and not to come with force The Sword of the Subjects at this present cometh not of God nor for the Common wealth of the Realm but of the Devil and destroyeth the Commonweale First For that it is against the word of God Secondly For that they rise so many lies whereof the Devil is ever the Author Quia mendax est Pater ejus Thirdly For that they spoile and rob men and command every man to come to them and to send to them what they please Fourthly For that they let the harvest Which is the chief sustentation of our life and God of his goodness hath sent it abundantly And they by their folly do cause it to be lost and abandoned Fiftly For that they be led by rage and fury without reason have no respect neither of the Kings Authority nor of the Papists in the West Country nor of our affaires in France nor Scotland Which by their Sedition is so much hindred that there could not be imagined so great a dammage to the Realm Sixtly That they give Commandment in the Kings name and in pain of death having none authority so to do Ever against God the Devil hath raised Sedition As appeareth by the Sedition of Dathan and Abiram and al the murmurations of the children of Israel against Moses and Aaron Also of the conspiracy against Zorobabel in the reedifying of the Temple Also against Christ and his Apostles in sundry parts of the World Also In Germany lately and now among us For the Devil can abide no right reformation in religion Civil war is the greatest scourge that can be and most certain argument of Gods indignation against us for our ingratitude that we either wil not receive his true word or that they which receive the same dishonor God in their living when they pretend to honor him with their mouths Which ingratitude and contumely God can in no wise bear at our hands The Remedies to avert Gods Indignation from us is to receive his Word and to live according therunto Returning unto God with prayer and penance Or else surely more grievous afflictions shal follow if more grievous may be then Civil wars among our selves The chief Authors of al these tumults be idle and naughty people Which nothing have nor nothing or little wil labor to have that wil riot in expending but not labor in getting And these tumults first were excitated by the Papists and others which came from the Western Camp To the intent that by sowing division among our selves we should not be able to impeach them NUM XLII The Lady Mary to the Councel justifying her self for using the Mass in K. Edwards Minority IT is no smal greyf to me to parceyve that they whom the Kings Majesty my father whose Soule god pardon made in thys worlde of nothing in respecte of that they be come to now and at hys last ende put in trust to se hys Wyll perfourmed wherunto they were al sworne upon a boke it gryeveth me I say for the Love I beare to theym to se bothe howe they break his wyll and what usurped power they take upon theym in making as they cal it lawes both cleane contrarye to hys procedynges and wyll and also ageyust the coustome of al Crystendome and in my conscyence ageynst the lawe of god and hys chyrche Which passeth al the reste But thoughe you among you have forgotten the Kyng my father yet both gods commandment and nature wyll not suffre me to do so Wherfore with gods helpe I wyll remayne an obedyent chylde to hys lawes as he left theym tylle suche tyme as the Kynges majeste my brother shal have parfayt yers of discrecyon to order the power that god hath sent hym and to be a Judge in theyse matters hymself And I doubte not but he shal then accept my so doing better then theyrs which have taken a pece of his power upon them in his mynoryte I do not a little mervayle that you can find fawte with me for observing of that lawe which was allowed by him that was a kyng not only of power but also of knowledge how to order his power To which lawes al you consented and seemed at that tyme to the outward appearance very wel to lyke the same And more immediately when the Kyng reasons to have his proceedyngs observed Wherfore I do wonder that you can fynde fawte with me and non al thys whyle with some amongst your selves for runnyng halfe a year before that which you now call a lawe ye and before the byshopps cam together Wherin me thynketh you do me very myche wronge if I should not have as mych preemynence to contynew in kepyng a ful authorysed Lawe made without parcyalyte they had both to break the lawe which at that tyme your selves must nedes confesse was of ful power and strengthe and to use alteracyons of theyr own invencyon contrary both to that ye and to your new Lawe as you call it NUM XLIII The Archbishops letter to Martin Bucer inviting him over into England GRatiam pacem Dei in Christo. Legi tuas literas ad Iohannem Halesium in quibus tristissimos Germaniae casus commemorans te in tua urbe verbi ministerio vix diutius praeesse posse scribis Gemens igitur Prophetae illud exclamavi Mirifica misericordias tuas qui Salvos facis sperantes in te a resistentibus dexterae tuae Nec dubito quin Deus hoc similes piorum gemitus exauditurus sit veram doctrinam quae hactenus in vestris Ecclesijs syncere propagata est conservaturus defensurus sit adversus omnes diaboli mundi furores Interim Saevientibus fluctuum procellis in portus confugiendum est ijs qui vela in altum tendere non possunt Tibi igitur mi Bucere portus longe tutissimus erit nostrum regnum in quo Dei beneficio semina verae doctrinae feliciter spargi caeperunt Veni igitur ad nos te nobis operarium praesta in messe Domini Non minus proderis Catholicae Dei Ecclesiae cum apud nos fueris quam si pristinas sedes retineres Adde quod adflictae patriae vulnera absens melius sanare poteris quam nunc possis praesens Omni
Majesty It may like the same to understand that We your most humble faythful and obedient Subjects having alwayes God we take to witnes remayned your Highnes true and humble Subjects in our harts ever sythens the death of our late Soveraign Lord and Master your Highnes brother whom God pardon And seeing hitherto no possibilite to utter our determination herein without great destruction and bludshed both of our selves and others tâ—l this time Have this day proclaimed in your city of London your Majesty to be our true natural Soveraign Liege Lady and Queen Most humbly beseeching your Majesty to pardon and remit our former infirmities and most graciously taccept our meanings which have byn ever to serve your Highnes truly And so shal remain in al our powers and forces to theffusion of our bludds as thies bearers our very good Lords therle of Arundel and L. Paget can and be redy more particularly to declare To whom it may please your Excellent Majesty to give firme credence And thus we do and shal daily pray to Almighty God for the preservation of your most royal person long to reign over us From your Majesties city of London this day of Iuly the first year of your most prosperous Reygne Thus endorsed by the hand of Sir Will. Cecyl Copy of the letter to the Quene from Baynards Castle 20 July 1553. NUM LXXII The Archbishop to Mrs. Wilkinson persuading her to fly THE true Comforter in all distress is only God through his son Iesus Christ. And whosoever hath him hath compaâ—y enough although he were in a wildernes al alone And he that hath twenty thousand in his company if God be absent is in a miserable wilderness and desolation In him is al comfort and without him is none Wherefore I beseech you seek your dwelling there whereas you may truly and rightly serve God and dwel in him and have him ever dwelling in you What can be so heavy a burden as an unquiet conscience to be in such a place as a man cannot be suffered to serve God in Christs religion If you be loth to depart from your kin and friends remember that Christ calleth them his mother sisters and brothers that do his fathers wil. Where we find therfore God truly honored according to his wil there we can lack neither friend nor kin If you be loth to depart for slandering Gods word remember that Christ when his houre was not yet come departed out of his countrey into Samaria to avoyd the malice of the Scribes and Pharisees and commanded his Apostles that if they were pursued in one place they should fly to another And was not Paul let down by a basket out at a window to avoid the persecution of Aretas And what wisdome and policy he used from time to time to escape the malice of his enemies the Acts of the Apostles do declare And after the same sort did the other Apostles Albeit when it came to such a point that they could no longer escape danger of the persecutors of Gods true religion then they shewed themselves that their flying before came not of fear but of godly wisdome to do more good and that they would not rashly without urgent necessity offer themselves to death Which had been but a temptation of God Yea when they were apprehended and could no longer avoid then they stood boldly to the profession of Christ Then they shewed how little they passed of death How much they feared God more then men How much they loved and preferred the eternal life to come above this short and miserable life Wherefore I exhort you as wel by Christs commandment as by the example of him and his Apostles to withdraw your self from the malice of yours and Gods enemies into some place where God is most purely served Which is no slandering of the truth but a preserving of your self to God and the truth and to the society and comfort of Christs little flock And that you wil do do it with speed lest by your own folly you fal into the persecutors hands And the Lord send his holy spirit to lead and guide you whersoever you go And al that be godly wil say Amen NUM LXXIII The words and sayings of John Duke of Northumberland spoken by him unto the people at the Towerhill of London on Tuesday in the forenoon being the 22d day of August immediatly before his death as hereafter followeth GOod people I am come hither for to dy this day for the which al you are come hither to see And that although this is most horrible and detestable yet justly have I deserved the same for that I have been most grievous sinner unto Almighty God and to al the whole world and to the Queens grace In as much as I did presume of my self in the plain field to bear armor against her Grace Wherfore I do acknowledg that I have offended her lawes and that justly she might have put me to death without any Law had she so pleased But of her most clemency hath weighed my death by a law which justly hath condemned me But the more I trust for my Salvation and the more better for me to consider the greatnes of my sins And therfore the better for my Salvation And forasmuch as I am permitted to speak my conscience this I do protest before God the World and al you that this my death hath not been altogether of mine own procuring but hath been incensed by others Whom I pray God to pardon For I wil not name nor accuse any man here And now I shal shew how I have been of a long time led by false Teachers somewhat before the death of K. Henry VIII and ever since Which is a great part of this my death Wherfore good people beware and take heed that you be not led and deceived by these seditious and leud Preachers that have opened the Book and know not how to shut it But return home again to your true religion and Catholick faith which hath been taught you of old For since the time that this new teaching hath come among us God hath given us over unto our selves and hath plagued us sundry and many wayes with wars commotions tumults rebellions pestilence and famine besides many more great and grievous pâ—agues to the great decay of our common wealth Wherfore Good people be obedient unto the Queen her lawes and be content to receive again the true Catholic faith from which of long time you have been led Examples we have of Germany Which in like manner being led and seduced how are they now brought to ruine as wel it is known to the world And also we are taught by our Creed in the latter part of the same Where it is said We believe in the holy Ghost the holy Catholick faith the Communion of Saints Thus you may see the Articles of our belief do teach us the true faith Catholic This is my very faith and
perceive the Emperors Majestyes Counsil hath ever been that her G. in matters of religion and in the renouncing the title of the Supremacy should procede with great moderation and not to be hasty therin until other matters temporal were better settled for this cause beside that what I could do by letters if it were possible as much as was in me to remove his Majesty from the opinion that dilation in this matter would be profitable to her Highnes or the realm as she may perceive by the copy of my letters written to the Emperor sent by Hâ—rry Pyninge I have likewise persuaded his Majesties Confessor whom I found here a man of great sanctity and learning that for the love he beareth towards his Majesty touching his souls wealth and honor of the world beside and affection to her G. that he would personally repair himself to his Majesty and by al means possible attempt to remove this worldly fear And herein I have given him Instructions wherof you have the Copy with you that you may shew the same to her Highnes The third Remedy is that I attempt now by sending you to her Majesty that she may be wel informed of the peril which in mine opinion is now more great then when the Duke of Northumberland did set against her And the same must be overcome with the means that her G then had the victory Which was by putting her hope and trust wholy in God and in the justice of her cause casting away al fear worldly Which doing her Highnes may be sure her cause pertaining to the honor of God and wealth of his Church for the which his Son dyed for that is Lord of al she shal find les difficulty and much readier help then she can now imagine And this now shal be sufficient you inform her G. touching the matter wherin it hath pleased her to ask my advise and counsil Touching the other matter wherin her Highnes seemeth to be offended for the relation made openly in the Consistory by Master Francesco Commendone of those things which her Majesty had told him in secret Of this you may say her G. being enformed of the truth hath more cause to accept that which was done most gratefully then in ony part to be offended therewith And the truth is this he did not open any thing that was told him in secret nor did not make his relation as I thought my self he had done at the beginning as of things heard of her G.'s mouth but that he had heard of other Catholics and devout persons that knew her G.'s mind Which was in general of the devout mind that her Majesty bore to God and the Church and of that particular point that she would have had shewed only the Popes Holines nothing was spoken And al this done to confirm the Cardinals minds touching the approbation of that the Pope had done in making so suddenly his Legate afore any information was given what mind her G. bore to the obedience of the Church Which some did not approve at the first And after this relation made by Master Francesco that had been in England al were wel satisfied So that al turned to the honor of her M. and to corroborate al that was done to her service And that she may the surelier be advertised how all things passed in this matter I have caused to be copied one part of a letter which the Popes Holines wrote unto me upon this Act and the same you may shew unto her Grace And because I do know what great service it might be to her G. to be truly informed in al parts that pertaineth to the return of true obedience to the Church both touching the time and maner and the consequence therof and to discern the crafts and wiles that the enemy of mankind ever useth to make it seem true obedience when it is not wherupon dependeth the whole ground of the maintenance of the State that God hath given her G. And how few there be in the realm al being maculate therin that can or wil indeavour themself to explicate the peril and shew the remedy therfore considering that I in person cannot come so soon to give her Highnes information as I know the necessity of the matters to be concluded doth require you may shew her M. that among those Gentlemen of my company whom I have sent afore to Flaunders there to remain there be two of whom if it wil please the same to take information of and as her G. findeth it to the honor of God and wealth of the realm in this first setling of the obedience of the church so to execute the same I would think that her G. should be well satisfied and satisfy al good men withal these being men of that quality that ye know which have godly prudence and humane joyned both together Of the which one I know by long experience that hath bin many years so conversant with me as no man more familiar Of whom I have ever judged my self to have that treasure that few great Princes hath the like And of the other to have as great pleasure for the time he is content to serve me But whether her Highnes wil serve her self to be informed of them in this first settling of her State this is in her G.'s pleasure This only I would desire her M. willing the same if they should come that they might come to be known to come from me for the causes that I have shewed you Further your Commission here be to expound to her Highnes my whole mind and sentence touching the demand it pleased her G. to make in her gracious Letters dated the xxviij of Ianuary concerning those persons whom for the good opinion her G. had of their Vertue Learning and Catholic good mind she intended to make Bps how that they may be provided for without derogation to the authority of the See Apostolic her G. not intending further to extend the powers of the Crown regal then it was customable in use afore the Schism entered In this poynt wherin her G. demaundeth mine answer you shal make the same conformable to that which by long and often conference with me ye know to be mine utter sentence Wherin yee need not to have any further explication by writing Besides this touching the two Acts of Parlament one of the legitimation of the Matrimony betwixt the most gracious Queen her Mother and the King her Father the other of the Sacraments to be used under the maner that they were used the last year of K. Henry VIII her G.'s father Which both it pleased her M. of her goodnes to send unto me for my satisfaction of mind to know how they were passed by consent of the Parlament you may shew her G. that these two perfectly inacted and concluded be those in truth that of al Acts that could be made to my comfort none could bring me more satisfaction Wherof the only cause is that I
our greatest cros may be to be absent from him and strangers from our home and that we may godly contend more and more to please him Amen c. As for your parts in that it is commonly thought your staff standeth next the door â—ee have the more cause to rejoyce and be glad as they which shal come to their fellowes under the Altar To the which Society God with you bring me also in his mercy when it shall be his good plesure I have received many good things from you my good Lord Master and dear Father N. Ridley Fruits I mean of your good labours Al which I send unto you again by this bringer Augustin Benher one thing except which he can tell I do keep upon your further plesure to be known therin And herewithal I send unto you a little treatise which I have made that you might peruse the same and not only you but also ye my other most dear and reverend Fathers in the Lord for ever to give your Approbation as ye may think good Al the prisoners here about in maner have seen it and read it and as therin they aggre with me nay rather with the truth so they are ready and wil be to signify it as they shal se you give them example The matter may be thought not so necessary as I seem to make it But yet if ye knew the great evil that is like hereafter to come to the posterity by these men as partly this bringer can signify unto you Surely then could ye not but be most willing to put hereto your helping hands The which thing that I might the more occasion you to perceive I have sent you here a writing of Harry Harts own hand Wherby ye may see how Christs glory and grace is like to loose much light if your sheep quondam be not something holpen by them that love God and are able to prove that al good is to be attributed only and wholly to Gods grace and mercy in Christ without other respects of worthines then Christs merits The effects of salvation they so mingle and confound with the cause that if it be not seen to more hurt will come by them than ever came by the Papists in as much as their life commendeth them to the world more then the Papists God is my witnes that I write not this but because I would Gods glory and the good of his peopâ—e In Free wil they are plain Papists yea Pelagians And ye know that Modicum fermenti totam Massam corrumpit They utterly contemn al learning But hereof shal this bringer show you more As to the chief captains therefore of Christs church here I complain of it unto you as truly I must do of you even unto God in the last day if ye wil not as ye can help something Vt veritas doctrinae maneat apud posteros in this behalf as ye have done on the behalf of matters expugned by the Papists God for his mercy in Christ guide you Most dearly beloved Fathers with his holy Spirit here and in al other things as most may make to his glory and the commodity of the Church Amen Al here God therfore be praised prepare themselves willingly to pledg our Captain Christ even when he wil and how he wil. By your good prayers we shal al fare the better and therefore we al pray you to cry to God for us as we God willing do and wil remember you My brethren here with me have thought it their duty to signify this need to be no less then I make it to prevent the plantations which may take root by these men Yours in the Lord Robert Ferrar Rowland Taylor Iohn Bradford Iohn Philpot. NUM LXXXIV The Prisoners for the Gospel their Declaration concerning K. Edward his Reformation To the King and Queens most excellent Majesties with their most honorable high court of Parlament WE poor Prisoners for Christs religion require your Honours in our dear Saviour Christs name earnestly now to repent for that you have consented of late to the unplaceing of so many godly lawes set furth touching the true religion of Christ before by two most Noble Kings being Father and brother to the Queens Highnes and aggreed upon by al your consents not without your great and many deliberations free and open disputations costs and paines taking in that behalf neither without great Consultations and conclusions had by the greatest learned men in the realm at Windsor Cambridg and Oxford neither without the most willing consent and allowing of the same by the whole Realm throughly So that there was not one Parish in al England that ever desired again to have the Romish Superstitions and vaine Service which is now by the Popish proud covetous clergy placed again in contempt not only of God al Heaven and al the holy ghostes lessons in the blessed Bible but also against the honors of the said two most noble Kings against your own Country fore aggreements and against al the godly consciences within this realm of England and elsewhere By reason wherof Gods great plagues must needs follow and great unquietnes of consciences besides al other persecutions and vexations of bodies and goods must needs ensue Moreover we certify your honours that since your said unplaceing of Christs true religion and true service and placing in the room therof Antichristâ— Romish Superstition heresy and idolatry al the true preachers have been removed and punished and that with such open robbery and cruelty as in Turky was never used either to their own Countrimen or to their mortal enemies This therfore our humble suit is now to your honourable estates to desire the same for al the mercies sake of our dear and only Savior Iesus Christ and for the duty you owe to your native Country and to your own souls earnestly to consider from what light to what darknes this realm is now brought and that in the weightiest chief and principal matter of Salvation of al our souls and bodies everlasting and for ever more And even so we desire you at this your assembly to seek some effectual reformation for the afore written most horrible deformation in this church of England And touching your selves we desire you in like maner that we may be called before your Honors and if we be not able both to prove and approve by the Catholic and Canonical rules of Christs true religion the church Homilies and Service set furth in the most innocent K. Edwards days and also to disallow and reprove by the same authorities the Service now set furth since his departing then we offer our bodies either to be immediately burned or else to suffer whatsoever other painful and shameful death that it shal please the King and Queens Majesties to appoint And we think this trial and probation may be now best either in the plain English tongue by Writing or otherwise by disputation in the same tongue Our Lord for his great mercy sake
seen so manifestly of so many in these dayes But here peradventure ye wold know of me what is the truth Sir Gods word is the truth as S. Iohn saith and it is even the same that was heretofore For albeit man doth vary and chaunge as the Moon yet Gods word is stable and abydeth for evermore And of Christ it is truly said Christus heri hodie idem etiam in secula When I was in office al that were esteemed for learned men in Gods word aggreed this to be a truth in Gods word written that the Common prayers of the Church shuld be had in the common tongue You know I have conferred with many and I ensure you I never found man so far as I do remembre neyther old nor new Gospeller or Papist of what judgmâ—nt soever he was in this thing to be of a contrary opinion If then it were a truth of Gods word think you that the Alteration of the world can make it now an untruth If it cannot why do men so many shrink from the confession and maintenance of this truth once received of us al For what is it I pray you else to confes or deny Christ in this world but to confes and maintain the truth taught in Gods word nor for any worldly respect to shrynke from the same This one have I brought but for an example Other things be in like case which now particularly I nede not to rehearse For he that wil forsake wittingly eyther for fear or gain of the world any one open truth of Gods word if he be strayned he wil assuredly forsake God and al his truth rather then he wil endaunger hymself eyther to loose or to leave that he loveth indede better then he doth God and the truth of his word I lyke therin very wel your plain speaking wherin you say I must eyther aggree or dy and I thynk you mean of the bodily death which is common both to good and bad Sir I know I must dy whether I aggree or no. But what folly were it then to make such an aggreement by the which I could never escape this death which is so common to al and also I might incur the guilt of eternal death and damnation Lord graunt that I may utterly abhor and detest this damnable aggreement so long as I lyve And because I dare say you wrot of frendship to me this short ernest advertisement and I think verily wyshing me to lyve and not to dy Therfore bearing you in my hear no less love in God then you do me in the world I say to you In verbo Domini that except you and this I say to you I say to al my frends and lovers in God except ye confes and mainteyn to your power and knowledg thyngs which be grounded upon Gods word but wil eyther for fear or gayn of the world shrynke and play the Apostata indede you shal dy the death You understand what I mean And I beseech you and al my true freynds and lovers in God remembre what I say For this peradventure may be the last time that ever I shal write to you From Bocardo in Oxenford theighth day of April Anno 1554. Yours in Christ Nicolas Rydley NUM LXXXVII John Hopton Bishop of Norwich to the Earl of Sussex giving account of the joy conceived and Te Deum sung for the newes of the Queens being brought to bed of a Noble Prince RIght honorable and my singular good Lord. After mine humble commendations with like thanks for your honorable and gentle letters sent to me touching the behaviour of the Curate of Bokenham and the reformation of other enormities there It may please you to understand that I did send immediatly for the said Curate and the Church-wardens and the Quest-men there And upon their appearance with twelve or fourteen of the most substantial men of the parish and upon due examination I could perceive none other thing but al things to be wel and decently ordered and provided for at this holy time of Easter contrary to the information given to your good Lordship And if there had been any thing amiss they should have been punished according to their demerits Beseeching your good Lordship if any further knowledg come to you either for that Town or any other concerning the Reformation of my jurisdiction or the negligence of mine Officers that I may be advertised therof and have your favorable ayd and assistance And I shal do the best I can for my discharge And wher it pleased your honorable Lordship to wil me to take a dinner or a supper with you in the time of my Visitation I humbly thank you therfore most heartily Beseeching your Lordship when occasion shal serve you to visit this city that ye wil vouchsafe to take this my poor house at your commandment wherunto your Lordship shal be as welcome as unto your own Further I understand that Mr. Mayor here hath certified your Lordship of the sudden good news brought to us by one of the city of the Queens highnes most joyful deliverance of a Noble Prince Wherupon to laud God Te Deum was solemnly songen in the Cathedral church and other places of the city with wonderful joy and much gladnes of al people throughout the whole city and the country therabouts And if ye have any further knowledg therof I beseech your honorable Lordship that I may be partaker of the same by this bringer my servant whom I send purposely therfore as knoweth the Holy Ghost who preserve your Lordship in continual health and honor At Norwich the thred of May 1555. Your Lordships assuredly Iohn Norwich Postscripta I received even now knowledg from a friend of mine of two witnesses more of the good and joyful newes above written as this said bringer can declare to your good Lordship Iohn Norwich NUM LXXXVIII A Proposition in the Convocation against Residence With Reasons for the said Proposition and Remedies against Non-residence Decretum perpetuae Residentiae juxta Canonum Sanctiones optant pij sed multa sunt quae hodie impediunt quo minus suum effectum juxta bonorum virorum vota consequatur The Reasons I. THE Statutes of the Kingdome not disallowed as we hear by the Pope do permit to the Barons and other great men of the kingdome a certain number of Priests having cure of souls II. Not only the Statutes of the kingdom but the Canons do permit Bishops a certain number of fellow workers to assist them III. Bishops and Prelates who by reason of their great learning prudence integrity of life and high faith are chosen to be the Kings Counsillors and whose counsils are very necessary for the restoring of religion ought not as it seems to be compelled to perpetual Residence IV. When the Barons and other great men may be retained in the orthodox faith by the doctrin honesty age and frequent exhortations of Reverend men it seems not convenient that
what just and fair ways it went on and how it prevailed like Christianity at first notwithstanding the great Opposition it met with and what sort of men they were such as Gardiner and Boner who especially set themselves to stop it Moreover Reading the Lives of Exemplary Men and such as were Famous in their Generation hath a great Vertue in it to influence the Manners of men Their wise Saying◠their discreet Behaviour their just Management of Matters committed to their trust their Zeal their Charity their Awe of God their Contempt of the World and such like are not only delightful to read or hear but do insensibly instil into mens minds a secret Approbation thereof and draw them on to an Imitation This Land hath produced many admirable men the Knowledg of whom and the Benefit of whose Examples is utterly lost for want of some Writers to leave their Memory unto the World It was a thing complained of in the last Age That as that Age abounded more in Writers than any Age before it so there were very few that set themselves to Pen the Lives of Excellent men as Samuel the Learned and Worthy Son of Iohn Fox spake But he ever thought it as he said most unjust notwithstanding to deprive the world of the memory of matters done by them by whose Labours and worthy Deeds the common state of the Countrey was so much bettered And if the Use of History as the same Author saith is to form the Lives and Manners of men that being the chief end of History then I add No part of History doth more promote this than the History of the Deeds of Famous men It was another great Inducement to me to let this Work see the light to be grateful to the Memory of this Holy Prelate that hath so well deserved of this Church and to whom under God she oweth that Excellent Constitution and Reformed State in which she is which cost him so dear so many Pensive Thoughts so many long hours Study so many Consultations and Debates with Learned men so much Correspondence abroad so many Speeches Arguments and Strugglings in the Parliament in the Convocation before the King the Clergy the People so much Danger and Trouble and Envy and Reproach and at last his dearest Blood Posterity would be highly injurious to such a Person as this if he should not be recorded with all due Respect and Honour It was a commendable Practice of the Ancient Persians to write in Records the Names and good Deeds of such as had deserved well of the King and Kingdom to remain for ever And these Records Kings themselves did sometimes use to read The King Ahasuerus called one Night for them to be read to him to entertain his waking hours Esther VI. And Xerxes in an Epistle of his to Pausanias extant in Thucidides told him That his Good Deed was upon Record in his Palace for ever For these Records were esteemed so precious that they were kept within the Walls of the Palace And this Custom of Writing up the Remembrance of Men of Merit seemed also to be among the Iews Thus it is said of Iudas Macchabeus That the Remembrance of him was for a blessing for ever To which does I suppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Book of Remembrance or Record allude in Mal. III. 16. that was written for those that feared God and thought on his name And surely it is agreeable to God's Will that this Piece of Gratitude should be shewn to men of singular Vertue deceased to keep their Names and Good Deeds upon Record for Posterity to know and to thank God for And this Office of Love and Duty seems highly convenient to be done towards Archbishop Cranmer that something might appear in the world for his Vindication under those many base Aspersions and lying Insinuations that are and have been Printed by Papists to defame and blacken him to Posterity One of them hath these words which shew that he cared not what he said so he might but throw his dirt upon the chief Lights of the Reformation The very Pillars of this Rank which he names to be Luther Bucer P. Martyr Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Rogers Farrar Taylor Tyndal all Married Priests and Friars but some of them were never Friars and others never Married were men given to their Sensualities both of Women and other like their Commodities after the fashion of other ordinary men Neither is there recounted any one eminent Action in all their Lives that I have read either of chastening their Bodies mortifying their Appetites contemning the World and the Pleasures thereof while they might have and use the same or finally any more excellent Spirit in them above the rest or of any supernatural Concurrence of God with their Actions in any one thing But did he converse so much in Fox as to undertake in one or two Books to answer and confute him and his Martyrs and yet doth he meet with nothing there of none of these men in that Martyrology but what was Ordinary to other men and that shewed not some more excellent Spirit to be in them It is a sign he read but little there or read with a cankered mind This ensuing Book shall effectually confute these Misreports and Slanders of Cranmer one of these Pillars as he calls them and shall abundantly make it appear That he was no Sensualist nor addicted notwithstanding his High Place to the Pleasures and Commodities of this world and that his Life shone bright by his many eminent Actions of Piety Mortification Contempt of the world and that he was of a more excellent Spirit than that of the ordinary rank of men and that for some Ages there scarce arose his Fellow and finally that he must needs have some supernatural Concurrence and mighty Aid of God's Grace with him in many of the Affairs that passed through his hands III. The Third thing remains which is indeed the main matter that makes an History of any account and that is What Credit may be given to what I have writ For if it stand not upon the Foot of Truth it is not History but a Romance a Legend a mere Tale. And here I remember what Iohn Fox said to Alan Cope concerning an History-Controuler which is as true of an History-Writer If you will be a Controuler in Story-matters Diligence is required and great searching out of Books and Authors not only of our time but of all Ages and especially where matters of Religion are touched pertaining to the Church it is not sufficient to say what Fabian or what Hall saith but Records must be sought and Registers must be turned over Letters also and ancient Instruments ought to be perused and Authors with the same compared finally the Writers among themselves one to be compared with another and so with Judgment to be weighed with Diligence to be laboured and with Simplicity pure from all Addiction and Partiality to be uttered