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THE

LIFE

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.

REV. HENRY JOHN TODD, M.A.
CHAPLAIN IS ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY, PREBENDARY OF YORK, AND
RECTOR OF SETTRINGTON, COUNTY OF YORK.

' CRANMER'S MARTYRDOM IS HIS MONUMENT, AND HIS NAME WILL OUTLAST
AN EPITAPH OR A SHRINE." — Strype.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR C. J. G. & F. RIVINGTON,
st. Paul's church-yakd,
and waterloo-place, pall-mall.
1831.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.
EDWARD VI.
1547. PAGE
The accession of Edward — Cranmer's commission as archbishop
from the new sovereign — His speech at the coronation of the
king — He proceeds cautiously to the abandonment of tran
substantiation and the mass — His opinions of Romish cere
monies as resembling those of the heathens — Confirmed by
many of our divines — General visitation of the kingdom — In
junctions — Homilies — The Paraphrase of Erasmus — Queries
preparatory to the first Communion Service — The Answers of
Cranmer — The Order of the Service published . .  1
CHAPTER II.
1547 to 1548.
Proceedings of the convocation — Marriages of priests — Of di
vorces — Cranmer officiates at the obsequy for the French king
— Directs a thanksgiving on account of the battle of Pinkey —
Acts repealed — Bishops appointed by the king's letters patent
— Chantries given to the king — State of the Universities —
Cranmer's care of his diocese — His kindness to papists — His
visitation  25

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
1548.

PAGE

The first Primer in the reign of Edward— The Catechism,
usuaUy caUed Cranmer's Catechism— Translated from the
Latin of Justus Jonas, the elder, as the Latin is from various
German treatises -Mistakes relating to it— Other Cate
chisms, separate, and in our Liturgy 

43

CHAPTER IV.
1548 to 1549.
The first Common Prayer Book in Edward the Sixth's reign-
Opposed by the rebels in Devonshire — Cranmer undertakes
to convince them of their foUy  64

CHAPTER V.
1549.
The Answers of the archbishop to the fifteen Articles of the
Devonshire rebels  ¦ • 7"

CHAPTER VI.
1549.
Deprivation of Bonner — FaU of lord Seymour — Latimer's re
flections on that nobleman — Proceedings against Anabaptists
and other Sectaries — The case of Joan Bocher, commonly
caUed Joan of Kent — The case of Van Paris, a Dutchman —
Cranmer's conduct in regard to both — The faU of the Pro
tector — Cranmer's attachment to him  140

CONTENTS. vii
CHAPTER VII.
1549 to 1550. PAGE
The old missals and other service-books caUed in — The new
form of ordaining bishops, priests, and deacons — Ponet, the
first prelate consecrated by it — Account of him, and of his
work, entitled Defence of the Marriages of Priests — Letter
to Cranmer on the CeUbacy of the Clergy — The Epistles of
Ignatius referred to on the subject — Cranmer's and Ridley's
treatises against Roman Catholic traditions — Treatise of Ber
tram against Transubstantiation — Treatises against the Mass
— The book of Herman, archbishop of Cologne — Destruc
tion of Ubraries — Leland, Bale, and Cranmer  166

CHAPTER VIII.
1549 to 1551.
Learned Foreigners in England — Peter Martyr — Bernardine
Ochin — Martin Bucer — Paul Fagius — and others — Their ap
pointments — Their opinions — Bucer notices the revenues of
the English Church — Cranmer's letter concerning impropri
ations — John a Lasco's recommendation to Cranmer of more
foreigners after tbe death of Bucer  188
CHAPTER IX.
1549 to 1551.
Cranmer's foreign correspondence — Design of a general union
among the Protestant Churches — Cranmer's endeavours to
this purpose — Writes to Melancthon, Calvin, and BulUnger,
on the subject — BulUnger's address to Edward VI. — Charac
ter of BuUinger's sermons — Character of Cranmer's sermons
— Bucer on the concord of the Protestant Churches — Cran
mer resolves on a national confession of faith — Hooper pro-

a 2

iii CONTENTS. PAGE
moted to the see of Gloucester — refuses at first to be conse
crated in the usual episcopal dress — Conduct of Cranmer on
this occasion — The controversy as to the habits — Hooper
submits— The controversy as to the altars— The bishops Day
and Heath deprived in consequence of that controversy .... 219

CHAPTER X.
1550 to 1551.
The archbishop's book upon the sacrament ofthe Lord's Supper
— Frith'sbook upon the same subject — The answers of bishop
Gardiner, now a prisoner in the Tower, and of Dr. Smith, to
the archbishop's book — Proceedings against Gardiner — The
archbishop's reply to him and to Smith — An explanation of
Luther considered — Differently applied by Cranmer  237

CHAPTER XI.
1551 to 1552.
Alienation of lands belonging to the See of Winchester, after
the deprivation of Gardiner — Such spoliations then frequent
— Cranmer desirous to prevent them — Case of Hooper, bi
shop of Worcester— Deprivation of Tunstal, bishop of Dur
ham— Cranmer's exertion in behalf of Tunstal — Cranmer's
recommendation of Coverdale to be bishop of Exeter— Cran
mer's care of Latimer— Latimer's employment at Lambeth—
The lady Mary's refusal to conform to the new liturgy— The
revision of that liturgy— The ill-health of Cranmer  259
CHAPTER XII.
1552.
Designs against church property— Cecil cautions Cranmer on
the subject— Cranmer defends himself against the implication

CONTENTS. ix
PAGE
of being rich, in answer to Cecil — Hints to the Master
of Jesus CoUege, Cambridge, also his lack of wealth — The
forty-two Articles of Religion — The Catechism accompany
ing them — The Articles not Calvinistic  282
CHAPTER XIII.
1552 to 1553.
The Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws  325
CHAPTER XIV.
1552 to 1553.
The archbishop in commission to enquire after certain sectaries
— The Family of Love — The archbishop in another commis
sion, relating to ecclesiastical goods — Avoids acting in it —
His letter respecting it to CecU — Their intimacy — The declin
ing health of the king — Alteration of the succession in favour
of lady Jane Grey — The archbishop's share in the transaction
— The king dies — The lady Jane's brief reign  350

BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
MARY.
1553.
The lady Jane committed to the Tower — Funeral of Edward —
The archbishop reported to have restored the service of the
mass — His pubUc denial of the report — Summoned before the
queen's commissioners and the Council — Committed to the
Tower — Accused and declared guUty of high treason — His
companions in prison, the lady Jane, Ridley, Bradford, and
Latimer — Curious anecdote of the lady  365

x CONTENTS.
CHAPTER II.
1553 to 1554. PAGE
Mary's promise as to religion — Restoration of the Romish ser
vice — Gardiner chanceUor of Cambridge — Mary's letter to
him — Reformed clergy silenced — Hooper and Coverdale sent
to prison — P. Martyr and other Reformers leave the kingdom
— Mary's first parliament — The divorce of her mother set
aside — The shamelessness of Gardiner in accusing Cranmer
as to that divorce — A convocation — Disputes on the corporal
presence — Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, sent to Oxford,
there to dispute on the same subject — Cranmer's letter relat
ing to the disputation  , 383
CHAPTER III.
1554.
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, condemned as heretics — Fur
ther remarks of Cranmer on the Oxford disputation — Disputa
tion at Cambridge intended— Hesitation of the CouncU as to
further proceedings with the three prisoners— The treatment
of the prisoners— The marriage of Philip and Mary— The
consequences of it to Protestantism— Remarks upon it 
Anecdote relating to Elizabeth, by one of the remarkers—
Persecution of the Reformers  ,  400
CHAPTER IV.
1555.
Cranmer's and other books prohibited— The reunion of the
Church of England with that of Rome— Proceedings against
Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, renewed — Cranmer first
brought before the papal commissioners— His condemnation
deferred— Ridley and Latimer condemned and burnt— The
conduct of Cranmer upon that occasion  42 1

CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER V.
1555 to 1556. PAGE
The archbishop deprived and degraded — He recants — His re
cantations  «  462

CHAPTER VI.
1556.
Cranmer retracts his recantations, and is burnt

490

CHAPTER VII.
The archbishop's family at the time of his martyrdom — Seizure
of part of his possessions by queen Mary — The restoration
in blood of his children, by Act of parliament, in the reign
of Elizabeth — Petition of his son Thomas to that sovereign . 512

CHAPTER VIII.
Recapitulation of Cranmer's writings — Review of his character. 519

CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS.

Fage 28. for not of a dissolution read not
a dissolution.
61, The Edinburgh Catechism,
though, like the Necessary Eru
dition, it expounds the seven
sacraments, like the English for
mulary here also, was the last
that exhibited in Scotland the
Romish tenets, and paved the
way to entire Protestantism.
69. for afterwards, revised read of-
terwards revised.
172. after Ponet, in a reply to it,
add, Henry Wharton informed
Strype that Ponet was not the
author of the reply. Strype, in
his Life of Archbishop Parker,

Page vindicates the right of Ponet
toit.
176. after another translation of it,
refer to p. 522 for a further ac
count of this book.
200. for impropriations read impro
priating
253. at the end of the note, add
Strype.
387. read under the great seal.
405. for Item, Bread, read Item,
Butter •
407. note, for pedestination read pre
destination.
420. read insidiously soothed,
454. at the end of the note, read
sake." Strype.

THE LIFE

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.

BOOK II.
CHAPTER I.

EDWARD VI.
1547.
The accession qf Edward — Cranmer's commission as archbishop
from the new sovereign — His speech at the coronation of
the king — He proceeds cautiously to the abandonment of
transubstantiation and the mass — His opinion of Romish
ceremonies as resembling those ofthe heathens — Confirmed by
many of our divines — General visitation of the kingdom —
Injunctions — Homilies — The Paraphrase of Erasmus —
Queries preparatory to the first Communion Service — The
Answers of Cranmer — The Order of the Service published.
By the will of Henry, Cranmer was now placed at
the head of a regency, by which, during the
minority of Edward, the kingdom was to be
governed. Of the sixteen persons, who composed
the regency, the majority inclined to the Pro
testant cause. In ecclesiastical affairs Cranmer
VOL. II. B "J-

2 THE LIFE OF
was indeed the principal agent ; in political, he
was generally guided by his fellow-regents.
It has been 1 said by Strype that one of the
first things now done, in relation to the Church,
by means of Cranmer, was that the bishops should
be made to depend entirely on the king and his
Council; and that from the king they should
take commissions for the exercise of their office
and jurisdiction, which should last only during
the royal pleasure. This, however, was nothing
more than the settled acknowledgment, at this
time, of the royal supremacy. The archbishop
himself and other bishops, in the reign of Henry,
had 2 received, in this form, their commissions.
On the 20th of February, the young king was
crowned by the archbishop. The ceremonies
were abridged, on account of the tender age of
Edward ; and, instead of a sermon, the following
brief address was delivered by Cranmer.
1 LifeofCranm. B. 2. ch. 1.
1 Henry Wharton's Corrections of Strype's Life of Cranmer,
in p. 141. See also his Specimens of Errors in Burnet, 1693,
p. 52. " The order of Council now required the bishops to take
out these new commissions, of the same form with those they
had taken out in the time of Henry ; in obedience to which
order Cranmer took out his commissions." — Cranmer, however,
has been blamed by many writers, as if he had now by innova
tion gone too far. Burnet offers to excuse him by saying that
if the nomination was thus placed in the king's hands, the
episcopal function was still acknowledged to be of divine ap
pointment !

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. li
" ' Most dread and royal sovereign : The pro
mises your Highness hath made here, at your
coronation, to forsake the devil and all his works,
are not to be taken in the bishop of Rome's sense,
when you commit any thing distasteful to that see,
to hit your Majesty in the teeth, as Pope Paul
the third, late bishop of Rome, sent to your royal
father, saying, Didst thou not promise, at our per
mission of thy coronation, to forsake the devil and
all his works, and dost thou run to heresy 9 For
the breach of this thy promise knowest thou not, that
'tis in our power to dispose of thy sword and sceptre
to whom we please ? We, your Majesty's clergy,
do humbly conceive, that this promise reacheth
not at your Highness's sword, spiritual or tem
poral, or in the least at your Highness swaying
the sceptre of this your dominion, as you and
your predecessors have had them from God.
Neither could your ancestors lawfully resign up
their crowns to the bishop of Rome or his legates,
according to their ancient oaths then taken upon
that ceremony.
" The bishops of Canterbury for the most part
have crowned your predecessors, and anointed
them kings of this land. Yet it was not in their
power to receive or reject them, neither did it
1 This speech is printed in Foxes and Firebrands, or, A
Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Sepa
ration, 1682, Part 2, p. 1. It was found among the inestimable
collections of archbishop Usher. Strype.
B 2

4 THE LIFE OF
give them authority to prescribe them conditions
to take or to leave their crowns, although the
bishops of Rome would encroach upon your pre
decessors by their act and oil, that in the end
they might possess those bishops with an interest
to dispose of their crowns at their pleasure. But
the wiser sort will look to their claws and clip
them. " The solemn rites of coronation have their
ends and utility; yet neither direct force or
necessity. They be good admonitions to put
kings in mind of their duty to God, but no in-
creasement of their dignity : for they be God's
anointed; not in respect of the oil which the
bishop useth, but in consideration of their power,
which is ordained ; of the sword, which is autho
rized; of these persons, which are elected by God,
and endued with the gifts of His Spirit for the
better ruling and guiding of his people.
" The oil, if added, is but a ceremony. If it
be wanting, that king is yet a perfect monarch
notwithstanding, and God's anointed, as well as
if he was inoiled. Now for the person or bishop
that doth anoint a king, it is proper to be done
by the chiefest. But if they cannot, or will not,
any bishop may perform this ceremony.
" To condition with monarchs upon these ce
remonies, the bishop of Rome (or other bishops,
owning his supremacy) hath no authority: but
he may faithfully declare what God requires at

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 5
the hands of kings and rulers, that is, religion
and virtue. Therefore not from the bishop of
Rome, but as a messenger from my Saviour Jesus
Christ, I shall most humbly admonish your royal
Majesty what things your Highness is to perform.
" Your Majesty is God's vicegerent, and Christ's
vicar within your own dominions, and to see,
with your predecessor Josiah, God truly wor
shipped, and idolatry destroyed ; the tyranny of
the bishops of Rome banished from your subjects;
and images removed. These acts be signs of a
second Josiah, who reformed the church of God
in his days. You are to reward virtue, to re
venge sin, to justify the innocent, to relieve the
poor, to procure peace, to repress violence, and
tb execute justice throughout your realms. For
precedents on those kings who performed not
these things, the Old Law shews how the Lord
revenged his quarrel; and on those kings who
fulfilled these things, He poured forth his bless
ings in abundance. For example, it is written of
Josiah, in the book of the Kings, thus : Like unto
him there was no king, that turned to ihe Lord with
all his heart, according to all the Law of Moses ;
neither after him arose there any like him. This
was to that prince a perpetual fame of dignity, to
remain to the end of days.
" Being bound by my function to lay these
things before your royal Highness ; the one as a
reward, if you fulfil, the other as a judgment from

6 THE LIFE OF
God, if you neglect them ; yet I openly declare,
before the living God, and before these nobles of
the land, that I have no commission to denounce
your Majesty deprived, if your Highness miss in
part, or in whole, of these performances ; much
less to draw up indentures between God and your
Majesty, or to say you forfeit your crown with a
clause for the bishop of Rome, as have been done
by your Majesty's predecessors, King John, and
his son Henry, of this land. The Almighty God,
of His mercy, let the light of his countenance
shine upon your Majesty, grant you a prosperous
and happy reign, defend you and save you : and
let your subjects say, Amen."
The fall of the lord chancellor Wriothesley,
and the elevation of Lord Hertford as protector
independent of the other regents, almost imme
diately followed the coronation. In the former
the Romish party now lost a powerful champion ;
in the latter Cranmer found a steady friend. To
the views of the archbishop the prelates of 1 York
and 2 Ely, were at this time also serviceable, as
was he of 3 Rochester also now on the eve of
translation to Lincoln. But the greatest aid
which, both now and henceforward, he obtained,
was from the learning, zeal, and prudence of
1 Holgate. » His intimate friend) Goodrich.
3 Holbeach, promoted to the see of Lincoln in Aug. 1547.
Le Neve's Fasti.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 7
Ridley, his chaplain, 'not as yet however the
bishop elect of Rochester, nor designed as such
by Henry, as Burnet erroneously describes him.
Ridley had 2 now abandoned, more than a year,
the doctrine of transubstantiation, and had com
municated to Cranmer his reasons for so doing.
Their conferences, and the researches occasioned
by them, soon convinced the archbishop that this
would be the 3 great and important point of ^he
Reformation in doctrine. But he proceeded with
his usual caution. He did not as yet avow a
complete concurrence in renouncing the belief of
the Romish Church. His answers to queries,
however, preparatory to converting the service
of the mass into a form of communion, clearly
shew that his mind was disencumbered of that
belief. These will presently solicit our notice.
His chaplain, in the Lent of 1547, was also em^
ployed in * preaching against the idolatrous vene
ration of images, holy water, and other super
stitious ceremonies. Of such abuses Cranmer, in
1 Ridley succeeded Holbeach in the see of Rochester, and
was consecrated in Sept. 1547. Le Neve.
2 In 1545. Ridley's Life of Bishop Ridley, 173.
3 Archbishop Parker accordingly describes Cranmer as ad
monishing the clergy, at the opening of the convocation in this
reign, " how to root out the relics of popery, as plants which
our Heavenly Father had not planted ;" the very language
which he afterwards applied to the rooting out of transubstan
tiation and the mass.
* Ridley, ut supr.

8 THE LIFE OF
the preceding reign, had repeatedly urged the
suppression. Ere a year had passed in the pre
sent, he obtained an order of the Council to forbid
the processions with tapers on Candlemas day, the
giving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, and the carry
ing of palms on Palm Sunday; and, almost immedi
ately afterwards, another order for the removal of
images from the churches. The practices, which
were to be abolished, he J considered as resem
bling the festivals to heathen gods. If he has
left us no especial illustration of this point, the
similarity soon began to be traced by our divines,
and by * Polydore Virgil had been allowed in
Cranmer's own time. It is briefly but forcibly
shewn in a sermon, entitled Paganism and Pa
pism paralleled, preached at the Temple Church
in 1623 by T. Ailesbury, student of divinity ; in
his exposition of the Apocalypse by the pro
foundly learned Henry More ; and very 3 largely
1 Strype.
2 Though a rigid Romanist, he freely confesses the origin of
several of their customs to be from the ancient Pagans. Con
formity between Popery and Paganism by T. Seward, M.A.
Rector of Eyam, 1746. p. 4. Baronius and other celebrated
Romanists admitted the fact. Mussard, Les Conformitez,
&c. p. 3. seq.
3 M. Mussard published at Lyons in 1667 a very curious
volume also entitled, Les Conformitez des Ceremonies modernes
avec les anciennes, ou il est prouve par des autoritez incon-
testables que les Ceremonies de l'Eglise Romaine sont em-
pruntees des Payens. This was translated into our language,
two years after Middleton's Letter appeared, by J. Dupre.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 9
by J. Stopford in 1675, afterwards bishop of
Cloyne, in his Parallel between Rome Pagan and
Rome Christian in their doctrines and ceremonies.
The celebrated Letter of Middleton from Rome,
in later times ; and disquisitions which have ' fol
lowed it, upon this interesting subject ; are thus
at least without the charm of novelty.
4 Polydore Virgil endeavoured, as the Romanists always do,
to screen their absurdities under the sanction of Judaism; a
very poor plea, supposing it true, to reduce the Gentile Chris
tians under the bondage of those beggarly elements, from which
the great apostle of the Gentiles, by the directions of the Holy
Spirit, so often hazarded his life to deliver them. Seward, ut
supr. 38. This point has been powerfully considered by a very
learned prelate of the present day. " The parallel traced by
Middleton, in his celebrated Letter from Rome, between the
popish ceremonies and the rites of paganism, includes the
use of oil, aBd of incense, and of holy water for lustration,
the frivolous distinction of meats and of days, votive offerings
suspended in temples, images, garlands, processions, &c. the
burning of lamps and candles before shrines, pretended miracles
and legends, with a multitude of other resemblances, which
indicate beyond a doubt one principal source of the corruptions
of the Church of Rome. It is. remarkable however that Mid-
dleton's chief opponent, the author of the Catholic Christian.
Instructed, contends that he has referred to Paganism what
properly belongs to Judaism ; and he takes great pains to prove
that most of the practices mentioned by Middleton are imita
tions of Jewish ceremonies. Doubtless there is much truth in
the statement of this popish adversary : but his cause gains
little by this mode of defence. He points out indeed. a more
venerable source of error : but his vindication supports the very
argument I am maintaining ; that the Church of Rome, in
fected with the love of this world, artfully palliated the cor-

10 THE LIFE OF
But more extensive declarations of doctrine had
now been formed, entitled : Homilies, which re
main to this day an unaltered system of faith.
They are in number twelve. Of these at least
three, if not a 2 fourth, appear to have been
written by Cranmer himself. If internal evidence
had been wanting in support of this belief, the
authority of nearly contemporary assertion exists.
John Woolton, the nephew of the celebrated
Alexander Nowell, was the author of several the
ological works in the reign of Elizabeth. He
became bishop of Exeter. Not long before he
was advanced to the prelacy, he published, in
ruption by adopting rites once sanctified and established in the
service of the true God, but which being adapted to a temporal
kingdom, and to a carnal and less enlightened dispensation,
are an evidence of a falling away from Christ, and of a decay
of pure religion." Serm. at Chester, Nov. 5, 1826, by E. Co-
pleston, D.D. dean of Chester, (now bishop of Llandaff,)
p. 11.
1 Two printers were employed in the publication of them in
1547, Grafton and Whitchurch ; the first in July, the other
in August.
2 The authority, which follows, for stating that Cranmer
wrote the three homilies on Salvation, Faith, and Good Works,
I first submitted to public notice in the Declarations of our
Reformers, which I published in 1818. Introduct. p. xiii.
Dr. Wordsworth is of opinion that Cranmer wrote also the
homily Of the Misery of all Mankind. Eccl. Biogr. iii. 505.
I should rather attribute to his pen that against the Fear of
Death, there being among the fragments of his composition,
given by Strype, part of a discourse on this subject.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 11
1576, The Christian Manual, in which he says,
" : What we teach and think of Good Works,
those Homilies written in our English tongue of
Salvation, Faith, and Works, by that light and
martyr of Christ's church, Cranmer, archbishop
of Canterbury, do plain testify and testify and
declare ; which are built upon so sure a foun
dation, that no sycophant can deface them, nor
sophister confute them, while the world shall
endure." The dioceses were now divided into six circuits;
and by the royal appointment were to be visited
by distinguished persons both of the laity and
clergy, (in no instance exceeding six,) by whom
abuses were to be rectified, and to whom were
given a book of Injunctions principally renewing
those that had been ordered by Cromwell, and
the book of Homilies that had now been prepared.
Of the former a copy was by them to be delivered
to every incumbent, with a charge of strict atten
tion to them ; and of the latter, for the instruction
of the people, a copy was to be placed in every
parish church. That the New Testament might
be better understood, the 2 Paraphrase of Erasmus,
1 Chr. Man. sign. c. iii.
2 The first volume of the Paraphrase consisted of the four
Gospels and the Acts, and was published in 1548. Malet,
who had already assisted Cranmer in regard to the church-
service, (see before, vol. i. p. 198,) and Udall, a canon of Windsor,
both distinguished scholars and divines, are believed to have

12 THE LIFE OF
translated into English, was also directed to be
deposited in the several churches, as soon as it
should be received. Such were the substitutes
at present for sermons ; restrictions upon preach
ing being now imposed, on account of recent
unprofitable controversies in the pulpit. To the
admission of the Paraphrase and the Homilies
objections were immediately made by Gardiner
and Bonner. The former had been invited by
Cranmer to join in the formation of the Homilies,
and had not only refused, but had cautioned the
archbishop against innovating in religion during
the king's minority. The compilation being now
shewn to him, he at once expressed his dis
approbation of it, and in such a way, as to
occasion his being sent to the Fleet prison ; the
charge against him being disobedience to the
royal injunctions. Cranmer now entreated him
to abandon the pertinacity under which he had
acted, and to concur in the proceedings which by
the members of the Council had been directed.
Gardiner persisted in his opposition. He asserted
that the Homilies contained false doctrine, espe
cially in teaching justification by faith alone
without works; and as he knew that Cranmer
had composed the homily on the salvation of
mankind, he scrupled not to charge him as the
translated the greater part, and to have superintended, with
the aid of Coverdale also, the whole of these paraphrases;
the remainder of which on the Epistles appeared in 1549.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 13
author of the following syllogism : " We are jus
tified by faith without all works of the Law:
Charity is a work of the Law : Therefore we are
justified without charity." But with Strype I
warn the reader to consult the homily itself,
before he pass his judgment upon the pretended
argument of Cranmer. To this homily the re
fractory prelate offered another objection, as
being repugnant, in the point before us, to the
Necessary Erudition of 1543. In vain the arch
bishop told him that his meaning was not " that
justifying faith was ever without charity, and that
even faith did not justify as a meritorious con
dition, but only as it was an * instrument ap
plying to sinners the divine mercy ; that is,
" 1 through which, and not by which, we are jus
tified." The component parts of justifying faith,
he might have added, are in the homily what
they are in the elder formulary ; for the homily
affirms, that faith " 2 does not exclude repentance,
hope, love, dread, and the fear of God," which
are to " be joined with faith in every man that is
justified." Essentially the Erudition is the same.
" 3 No faith is sufficient for salvation, but such a

1 Burnet, iii. 135. And Bishop of Salisbury's Append, to his
Charge, Justification by Faith only, &c. 1828. p. 101.
2 Homily on Salvation, edit. 1548. Later editions alter
exclude into shut out.
3 Nee. Erudit. Art. of Justification.

14 THE LIFE OF
faith as worketh by charity." Hence the ' asser
tion of the venerable and judicious Hooker, " that
they, who affirm that we are justified by faith
only, may yet hold truly that without works we
are not justified;" a position which follows from
the inseparable connection of faith with good
works. The design of our first reformers 2 un
doubtedly was to acquaint the people with the
method of salvation according to the Gospel ; to
bid them not rely with Romanists on external
works and merit, nor with some mistaken Gos
pellers (a party being then so named) on a. mere
inoperative faith. The latter, whom Hooper, in
a tract published in the 3 same year with the
present homilies, denominates " new Evangelists,"
" dream? (said he) " of faith that justifieth, the
which neither repentance precedeth, neither honesty
of Ufe followeth." The former relied " * on the
merit oftheir own works towards justification, such
as pilgrimages to images, kneeling, kissing, and
censing of them, as well as many other hypocri
tical and feigned works in their state of reUgion,
there being marts or markets of merits, full of
holy relics, images, shrines, and works of super-
errogation, ready to be sold ; and all things which
1 Bp. of Salisb. ut supr. 133.
2 Ridley, Life of Bp. Ridley.
3 Abp. Laurence, Bampt. Lect. Serm. Notes, p. 382.
1 Homily of Good Works.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 15
they had were called l holy; holy cowls, holy
girdles, holy pardons, holy beads, holy shoes, holy
rules." The present compilation earnestly incul
cated an active obedience, the acceptance of
which is however to be attributed, as Cranmer in
another discourse on Justification teaches, to the
merits and benefits of Christ alone, on account
of which, " * we being sorry that we cannot do
all things more exquisitely and duly, all our works
shall be accepted and taken of God as most
exquisite, pure, and perfect." If in later times
learned foreigners, or Englishmen, " 3 tinctured
in their exile," contemplated the great subject
upon which Cranmer and Gardiner now differed,
and which since their days to the present has
been the fertile parent of controversy, only in the
sense in which it is applied by the * followers of
Calvin ; it has been powerfully answered, " 5 that
our Reformers entertained no such idea of its
application. They believed it not to be a bless-
1 As in the Morality, already cited. See vol. i. p. 330.
' Strype, Append. No. xxxi.
5 Ridley, Life of Bp. Ridley.
4 Heylin, speaking of the Calvinistic controversies, observes,
that the Reformers allowing the Paraphrases of Erasmus, " a
man of known difference in judgment from Calvin's doctrines,"
to be translated into English, is a proof how much the priest
as well as the people were expected to ascribe to the judgment
of that learned man, and consequently how little unto Calvin,
in those controversies. Introd uct. to Life of Abp. Laud, p. 36.
5 Abp. Laurence's Serm. 107.

16 THE LIFE OF
ing, which we may in vain sigh to behold above
our reach, granted to certain individuals alone,
and always granted irrespectively, by a divine
decree, fixed and immutable ; but one, which we
all possess in our infancy, and of which nothing
but our own folly can deprive us. They never
asserted the total inability of a Christian to per
form a good action, or even think a good thought,
until the arrival of some destined moment, when
it shall please God, without his own endeavours,
to illuminate his understanding, and renovate his
affections. The gift of grace, not to be purchased
by human merit, but always bestowed gratuitously,
they confined not to a selected few the predes
tinated favourites of Heaven, but extended to
all, who neither by wilful perversity oppose its
reception, nor, when received, by actual crime
discard it."
The Paraphrase of Erasmus, bad enough in
itself, said Gardiner, was made still worse by the
English version of it. The original he pronounced
an abomination. He professed to agree with those
who said " a that Erasmus laid the eggs, and
Luther hatched them." We wonder no longer at
his spleen. His objections to the translation were
2 frivolous. His statement of opposition between
the homilies and the paraphrase was disregarded
1 Burnet. Strype. Ridley.
2 Jortin pronounces them also malicious. Erasm. i. 609.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 17
alike by the Reformers themselves, and the people
to whom the books were sent. Le Clerc 1 gives
to Cranmer an answer upon this occasion, which
belongs to one of the translators of the para
phrase ; that, like all other theological books
except the Scriptures, the paraphrase was not
infallible and absolutely faiultless, but that it was
the very best of the kind ; that it was therefore
more expedient to adopt the interpretations of so
learned a man, than to make new ones which
would still be more exposed to censure ; and that
Erasmus, all things considered, was the most
impartial of all expositors. By the royal Injunc
tions the 2 works of Erasmus were now directed
to be placed in the libraries of cathedrals. The
theological pieces of Erasmus indeed had long
been well received in our country ; and numerous
were the English translations of them, which
certainly had contributed to the progress of the
3 Reformation. To the paraphrase Gardiner
1 Remarks on the Works of Erasmus. Jortin, ii. 105. But
Strype assigns the answer rightly to one of the translators,
Nicholas Udall.
2 The dean and chapter of York are enjoined, in 1547, to
have in their library, within one year from that time, St. Au
gustine, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Jerome, Ambrose, Chry-
sostome, Cyprian,Theophylact, Erasmus, and other good writers'
works. MSS. Dean & Ch. fol. 46. a.
3 1. Erasmus on the sacrament, and an exhortation to the
study and reading of the Gospel, lately translated into English,
1522. VOL. II. C

18 THE LIFE OF
could not but object, still further than upon a
theological dissent, when the printed book was
first offered to his view. It contained dedications
to her, whose ruin he is believed to have designed,
the dowager queen Catharine Parr ; and from
such a call to reminiscence he would shrink.
However, his continued opposition reconducted
him to the Fleet, where he was detained during
the session of the parliament. Bonner, less
contumacious, had endured a shorter imprison
ment. In November the parliament was assembled,
and at the same time a convocation of the clergy;
Cranmer then informing them, " ' that it had been
the custom in England, in the first year of the
reign of every prince, to summon a parliament,
and likewise to call a synod ; and that therefore
2. Of the same date, An exhortation to the diligent study of
Scripture, made by Erasmus, and lately translated into English,
which he fixed before the New Testament.
3. Erasmus, Of confession, about the year 1542.
4. Of the great mercy of God, translated by Gentian Hervet
from Erasmus, about 1547.
Many other translations, at a later date, of his useful trea
tises might be added. For the earl of Wiltshire too he had
written several. See before, vol. i. p. 22. In the very year which
elevated the earl's daughter to the throne, an exposition of the
Creed and the Ten Commandments in our native tongue was
" put forth by this famous clarke mayster Erasmus of Rotero-
dame at the request of the earl." Ames.
1 Synodalia MSS. Cantab. Kennet.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 19
it was now the command of the king, and the
expectation of his Council, that the prelates and
clergy should consult among themselves how
rightly to settle the true religion of Christ." On
the 22d of that month the convocation submitted
that the ecclesiastical law might be examined
and promulged, according to the statute in the
reign of Henry ; and that the labours of a com
mittee for examining, reforming, and publishing
the order of divine service, might be produced ;
that the clergy of the lower house might sit, as
in former times, in the lower house of parliament ;
and that the payment of\he first-fruits for bene
fices might be moderated. On the last day of the
month, the form of an ordinance, delivered by the
archbishop, for receiving the body of our Lord
under both kinds, namely, of bread and wine>
was exhibited and read ; and on the second of
December was unanimously adopted.
Before this decision was made, written ques
tions, as in the former reign, were circulated ; and
the answers of several prelates upon the great
subject of the Eucharist have been preserved.
Those of Cranmer, which apparently led to the
production of our first communion service, were
as follow.
1 To the first question, Whether the sacrament
qf the altar was instituted to be received of one man
' Burnet, ii. Rec. No. 25.
c 2

20 THE LIFE OF
for another, or to be received of every man for him
self? Cranmer answers, The sacrament of the
altar was not instituted to be received of one man
for another, but to be received of every man for
himself. To the second, Whether the receiving of the said
sacrament of one man doth avail and profit any
other? he replies, The receiving ofthe said sacra
ment by one man doth avail and profit only him
that receiveth the same.
To the third, What is the oblation and sacrifice
of Christ in the Mass ? his answer is, The oblation
and sacrifice of Christ in the Mass is not so called
because Christ indeed is there offered, and sacri
ficed, by the priest and the people, (for that was
done but once by himself upon the cross ;) but is
so called because it is a ' memory and representa
tion of that very true sacrifice, and immolation,
which before was made upon the cross.
To the fourth, Wherein consisteth the Mass by
Christ's institution? he replies, The Mass by Christ's
institution consisteth in those things which be set
forth in the Evangelists, Matt. 26, Mark 14, Luke
22, 1 Cor. 10 and 11.
To the fifth, What time the accustomed order
began first in the Church, that the priest alone
1 As in our present Communion Service, " a perpetual me
mory (memorial) of that his precious death until his coming
again."

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 21
should receive the sacrament 9 he answers, I think
the use, that the priest alone did receive the
sacrament without the people, began not within
six or seven hundred years after Christ.
To the sixth, Whether it be convenient that the
same custom continue still within this realm ? his
reply is, I think it more agreeable to the Scrip
ture and Primitive Church, that the first usage
should be restored again, that the people should
receive the sacrament with the priest.
To the seventh, Whether it be convenient that
masses satisfactory should continue, that is to say,
priests hired to sing for souls departed? his answer
is, I think it not convenient that satisfactory
masses should continue.
To the eighth, Whether th& Gospel ought to be
taught, at the time of the Mass, to the understand
ing of the people being present ? he replies, I think
it very convenient that the Gospel concerning
the death of Christ, and our redemption, should
be taught to the people in the Mass.
To the ninth, Whether in the Mass it were con
venient to use such speech as the people may under
stand? he answers, I think it convenient to use
the vulgar tongue in the Mass, except in certain
mysteries, whereof I doubt.
To the tenth and last, When the reservation of
the sacrament, and the hanging up of the same be
gan? his reply is, The reservation ofthe sacrament
began, I think, six or seven hundred years after

22 THE LIFE OF
Christ : the J hanging up, I think, began of late
time. The Order ofthe Communion, in March, 1547-8,
now appeared with the royal proclamation, stating
the consent of the lords and commons assembled
in parliament, " that, agreeably to Christ's holy
institution, the most blessed sacrament of the
body and blood of our Saviour Christ should
thenceforth be commonly delivered and ministered
unto all persons within our realm of England and
Ireland, and other our dominions, under both
kinds." The office opened with an exhortation
to be read by the minister on the Sunday or holi
day preceding the administration of the sacra
ment ; and it required those, who might still
make choice of auricular confession to the priest,
not to censure such as thought a general confes
sion to God sufficient, and those, who confessed
only to God, not to be offended with such as ap
plied to auricular confession. The minister, hav
ing himself received the sacrament, was directed
1 Meaning the pix, or little box, in which the consecrated
host was kept, and which was then accustomed to be hung up
above the altar. But see Cranmer's own remarks on this sub
ject in his answer to the fourth article of the Devonshire rebels,
which will presently be before us. Strype tells of a youth of
St. John's College, Cambridge, who, about this time, was re
ported as an offender to the archbishop (by whom however no
punishment appears to have been directed) for having secretly
in hatred to the mass, cut the string by which the box was sus
pended. Life of Cranm. B. 2. ch. 6.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 23
then to address the people in the l form which is
still retained (though not in the same part of the
office) in our present communion service ; after
which the impenitent were entreated by him to
withdraw, the penitent to draw near ; and then
the general confession, as it now stands, followed,
together with the general absolution preceded by
a declaration, which in the entire liturgy that soon
was formed is omitted, of the power of the Church
to absolve penitent sinners. Burnet has contra
dicted himself, and misled later ecclesiastical his
torians, in 2 saying that the Order was received,
throughout the kingdom, without any opposition.
He had, just before, more correctly stated, that
they who were for the old superstition were much
troubled to find private confession thus left indif
ferent ; that a general confession also of sins was
to be used, with which they apprehended that
most would content themselves, and that the
accustomed absolution and indulgences would be
laid aside ; as indeed they soon were. The new
office was therefore not received with general ap
probation. There were 3 prelates too that strength
ened, by their equivocal conduct in respect to it,
the aversion of the Romanists ; and there were
* some of the parochial clergy who hoped to ex-
1 " Dearly beloved in the Lord, ye that mind to come," &c.
2 Hist. Ref. Part II. B. i.
3 Heylin, Hist. Ref. 59. Gardiner of Winchester, Bonner of
London, Veysie of Exeter, and Sampson of Chichester,
" Heylin, 59. 63.

24 THE LIFE OF, &c.
cite, by their account of it, disaffection to the
government. To restrain the folly of 1 such
preachers, to allow none indeed now to preach
who were not licenced by the lord protector, or
the archbishop, a proclamation was immediately
issued. 1 Heylin, 60.

CHAPTER II.

1547 to 1548.
Proceedings of the convocation — Marriages of priests — Of
divorces — Cranmer officiates at the obsequy for the French
king — Directs a thanksgiving on account of the battle of
Pinkey — Acts repealed — Bishops appointed by the king's
letters patent — Chantries given to the king — State of the
Universities — Cranmer's care of his diocese— His kindness to
papists — His visitation.
The session of the convocation in 1547 did not
close without an 1 address to the archbishop, re
questing from him a determinate answer as to the
indemnity and impunity the members might have,
if they treated, in cases forbidden by the statutes
of the realm to be discussed, of matters of reli
gion. The entire repeal of the Six Articles ac
cordingly gave them the freedom that was wished.
To a 2 proposition that all the canons and laws,
which had hitherto forbidden priests to marry, or
had proscribed such as were already married,
should cease and be utterly void, assent was now
1 December 9. 2 December 17,

26 THE LIFE OF
also immediately given by a large majority, of
whom, it is curious to relate, 1 many were then
single, and never afterwards availed themselves
of the right to wed, while several of the oppo
nents to the propositions hastened to enter into
the conjugal state. But the parliamentary con
currence in this proceeding was not obtained be
fore February 1548-9 ; nor then without opposi
tion. The preamble to the Act, however, thus
justified the triumphant measure : " Great filthi
ness of living, with other inconveniences," it
stated, " had followed on the laws that compelled
chastity, and prohibited marriage ; so that it was
better that the clergy should be suffered to marry,
than to be so restrained. Therefore all laws and
canons that had been made against it, being made
only by human authority, are repealed ; so that
all spiritual persons, of what degree soever, might
lawfully marry, if they married according to the
order of the Church." A 2 proviso was added,
that because many divorces of priests had been
made after the Six Articles were enacted, and
that consequently the women might have married
again, all these divorces should be confirmed.
This concession, however, was censured by the*
violent of the Romish party ; but was defended,
with great learning, in books that were written by
1 Strype, from Ponet's Defence of the Marriages of Priests,
p. 268.
2 Burnet. JO

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 27
the most distinguished l divines of our Reformed
Church. Yet their opponents still pronounced
the Act a connivance, rather than a direct allow
ance. About three years afterwards, therefore,
another Act was passed, declaring that as many
took occasion from words in the former, to say
that the marriage of the clergy was only permitted,
as usury and other unlawful things were ; and
thus spake slanderously of such marriages, ac
counting the children begotten in them illegi
timate, to the high dishonour of the king and
parliament, and the learned clergy of the realm,
who had determined that the laws against the
marriages of priests were most unlawful by the
Law of God ; it was enacted that such marriages
should be esteemed good and valid. At that time
also was confirmed the second marriage of a noble
man, which, on the accession of Mary, was how
ever annulled upon the ground that the divorce
from the first had been illegal, whose case at the
beginning of the present reign occasioned a com
mission tobe directed to the archbishop, the bishops
of Durham and Rochester, Dr. 2 Ridley, and six
1 Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury; Ponet,
bishop of Rochester ; Bale, bishop of Ossory ; and many more.
3 Betwixt Ridley, one of the commissioners, . and Hooper,
there appears to have been a controversy upon the subject three
years after, Dr. Ridley says, (Life, &c. p. 208,) which is not
mentioned by our historians. Bucer and Martyr too are said to
have been consulted by Hooper on the occasion, but to have
declined the discussion of divorce. Martyr, however, is re-

28 THE LIFE OF
others, to inquire — Whether a man, divorced from
his wife for her adultery, might not lawfully marry
again. The 1 marquess of Northampton had mar
ried the daughter of Bourchier earl of Essex. She
had been guilty of adultery. For this crime the
canon law allowed a separation from bed and
board, not of a dissolution of the nuptial tie.
The papal power, that might once have been
sought to render such a marriage void, was now
excluded. The question therefore long employed
the consideration both of civilians and divines ;
not one of them, however, so earnestly, it ap
pears, as the archbishop, who first examined the
Scriptures, then the opinions of the Fathers and
other ancient writers upon the subject, and
formed his collections into a large volume which
Burnet had seen, and of which he has given a
peatedly cited upon the point, in a curious work, entitled, " Of
Divorce for Adultery, and Marrying again ; that there is no
sufficient warrant so to do. By Edm. Bunney, B.D. Oxford,
1610." See sections 4 and 7. The work had been written
many years before, and now was dedicated to Archbishop Ban
croft. Martyr appears to have agreed with Erasmus, whose
treatise, Whether dyvorsement betwene man and wyfe standeth
with the lawe of God, with divers causes wherefore it is per
mitted, &c. was published in English, without date, but most
probably about this time, on account of the occurrence which
has been related. The press, from which it issued, gives dates
to books down to 1548 ; but also appears to have put forth
several without date.
1 Burnet. Strype-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 29
brief analysis. The * conclusion of Cranmer is
the allowance of marriage, to the innocent person,
just as in the 2 system of ecclesiastical laws soon
afterwards by him superintended and designed to
be enforced, the bond of marriage is dissolved on
account of adultery, and the right of marrying
again conceded to the injured party. It is im
portant here to state that they, who prepared
this system, are charged by the modern s historian
of our country with having allowed divorces not
only for adultery, but for cruelty, desertion, and
incompatibility of temper. To such a cause as the
last we have already 4 seen the archbishop success
fully opposed. Nor is the assertion as to that point
in the code of laws correct. The eleventh chapter
of them respecting matrimony, and the twelfth
respecting adulteries and divorces, clearly 5 show
the contrary. While the present deliberations,
1 Strype.
2 The offender, it may be added, if the husband, was to
give his wife her dowry, and half what he was worth ; if it was
the wife, she was to forfeit her right of dowry, and whatever
else she might claim of her husband by law or promise ; and,
whether husband or wife, was to be condemned to perpetual
banishment, or perpetual imprisonment : judging the practice
of the canon law unreasonable, and contrary to Scripture, in
destroying the end, duty, and comfort of marriage, but still
retaining the bond of obligation of the contract. Ridley, p. 209.
See the Ref. Legum Eccl. De Adulteriis, &c. Capp. 3, 4, 5, 19.
3 Lingard.
4 See before, vol. i. p. 311.
5 Hallam, Constit. Hist, of England, 8vo. i. 140.

30 THE LIFE OF
however, continued, the marquess decided for
himself, and married the daughter of Brooke lord
Cobham. The delegates resented this precipi
tancy, the former marriage being yet firm in law ;
and they reported it to the Council. The bride,
by an order of Council, was accordingly separated
from her lord, till, after a considerable time, sen
tence was given in favour of this second marriage,
which, as I have observed, was certainly confirmed,
though subsequently annulled, by parliament.
Returning to the earlier part of 1547, we 'find
the archbishop, with other prelates, performing
in St. Paul's cathedral a solemn obsequy for
Francis the first, the friend of the late sovereign ;
and Ridley delivering the funeral discourse. This
was intended as a return of the compliment that
had been paid at Paris, not many weeks before,
upon the death of Henry.
In the autumn of this year the battle of Pinkey,
so fatal to the Scots and so successful to the Eng
lish, occasioned a direction from the archbishop
for a public thanksgiving in celebration of the vic
tory ; " 2 such a victory," he says, " as was almost
above the expectation of man, and such as has
not been heard of in any part of Christendom
these many years ; above the number of 15000
Scots being slain, 2000 taken prisoners, and
among them many noblemen and others of good
1 Burnet. Ridley. s Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 31
reputation, all their ordnance and baggage of
their camp being also won from them."
The archbishop's influence was now such as to
procure not only the repeal, at the suggestion of
the clergy, of the statute of the Six Articles, and
a subsequent one that quaUfied it ; but also for
the sake of those who apprehended that they
might be prosecuted as Lollards, under which
appellation the reformers were by their opponents
invidiously designated, the statutes that had passed
against Lollardism during and since the reign
of Richard the Second. The fear of being ex
posed to the rigour of the laws for doctrinal
offences created under the reign of Henry was at
the same time removed. The use of Scripture
too was now authoritatively unrestrained, as
Cranmer had ever wished and studied that it
should be. In a word, " 1 all Acts of Parliament
concerning doctrine or matters of religion" were
" from henceforth repealed." The New Testament
of Tindal, the Bible of Matthew, of Coverdale, of
Taverner, and of Cranmer, in various forms, and
in abundant editions, were accordingly throughout
the reign of Edward supplied to the public ; and
thus was encouraged as much as possible the spirit
of religious inquiry, the religion op Protestants.
Towards the close of 1547, Cranmer was prin
cipally concerned in the formation of an Act,
1 Heylin. Burnet.

32 THE LIFE OF
which withdrew from deans and chapters the
election of bishops, and admitted the prelates to
their sees by the letters patent of the Crown;
and which declared " all jurisdiction both spiritual
and temporal to be derived from the king," in
whose name therefore all episcopal citations and
processes should now run, and with whose arms,
instead of their own, their official documents
should be sealed. Under their own names and
seals the prelates again 1 acted in the reign of
Mary, and have since continued so to do. The
admission, however, to their sees by the letters
patent has been shewn to be 2 no innovation, but
a recovery to the Crown of its ancient right. The
renewal of it in England has been the wish of
one of our most learned divines. " 3 It would be
much easier," he observes, " if, instead of the
mock elections of bishops by conge d' elire, and
the operose way of suing out so many instru
ments, and going through so many offices, and
there paying so many fees for them, in order to
their full settlements in their preferments, bi
shops were made here in the same manner, as
they are Ireland, by the king's letters patent ; in
Which case there would be nothing further neces
sary than those letters, presenting them to the
benefice, as in the case of all other ecclesiastical
benefices, in the king's gift, and his mandate to
1 Heylin, 51. > Ibic|# 53>
3 Life of Dean Prideaux, p 1 1 3.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 33
the archbishop to consecrate, institute, and instal
them. By these means a great deal of trouble
and expence would be saved, and deans and
chapters delivered from the great danger of a
praemunire, to which they are liable in all such
elections, if they do not within twenty days return
elected the person, whom the king in his letters
missive nominates to them."
About the same time the archbishop strenu
ously opposed the 1 Act which gave to the king
all the colleges, free chapels, and chantries, of
which the late sovereign was not actually pos
sessed, although to him also they had been given,
at a time 2 when Cranmer hoped, as now too it
was expected, that the alienation of monastic
property might be applied to the foundation of
grammar schools, to the improvement of the
Universities, or to the increase of small bene
fices. But he saw the secret motive. For ra
pacious courtiers, not for the young monarch,
or for public good, were the profits intended.
The extraordinary phenomenon, as Gilpin calls
it, accordingly appeared in the house of lords,
— the archbishop of Canterbury at the head
of the popish peers contending eagerly against
the whole force of the protestant interest, but
contending in vain. In the letter of the Act
the two Universities were certainly compre
hended. They were alarmed; and Cambridge
1 Heylin. Burnet. Strype.
s See before, vol. i. p. 271.
VOL. II. D

34 THE LIFE OF
petitioned the archbishop to intercede for a con
firmation of its privileges. From both of them
the revenues of ] obits indeed were now 2 trans
ferred to the king to alter, as he might please, in
favour of the students, which, however, were ap
plied only to feed the avarice of unworthy men.
" 3 If ye had any eyes," said a zealous preacher
to his audience in behalf of these seats of learn
ing, " ye should see and be ashamed that, in the
great abundance of lands and goods taken from
abbies, colleges, and chantries, to serve the king
in all necessaries and charges, especially in provi
sion of relief for the poor, and for maintenance of
learning, the king is so disappointed that both the
poor be spoiled, all maintenance of learning de
cayed, and you only enriched. But for because
you have no eyes to see with, I will declare that
which you may hear with your ears, and so per
ceive and know, that whereas God and the king
have been most liberal to give and bestow, there
you have been most unfaithful to dispose and de_
liver. For according unto God's Word, and the
king's pleasure, the Universities, which be the
schools of all godliness and virtue, should have
been nothing decayed, but much increased and
amended by the reformation of religion."
Of his own University the preacher has drawn
1 Anniversary services in commemoration of the dead.
2 A. Wood, Ann. Univ. Oxon. under the year 1547.
3 Sermon preached by T. Lever in 1550, cited by Wood, ut
supr. He was a fellow of St. John's College.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 35
a picture too interesting to be overpassed : " The
small number of poor godly students now remain
ing in Cambridge," he says, " be not able to tarry,
and continue their study in the University, for
lack of exhibition and help. There be divers
there, which rise daily betwixt four and five of the
clock in the morning, and from five until six of
the clock use common prayer, with an exhortation
of God's Word, in a common chapel, and from six
until ten of the clock use ever either private study
or common lectures. At ten of the clock they go
to dinner, where they be content with a penny
piece of beef among iiij, having a few porridge
made of the broth of the same beef with salt and
oatmeal, and nothing else. After this slender
dinner, they be either teaching or learning until
five of the clock in the evening, when they have
a supper not much better than their dinner. Im
mediately after the which they go either to reason
ing in problems, or unto some other study, until
it be nine or ten of the clock ; and there, being
without fire, are fain to walk or run up and down
half an hour, to get a heat on their feet, when
they go to bed."
In his visitation of 1548, Cranmer, therefore,
inquired whether the encouragement so much
wanted was given by those churchmen, who could
spend a hundred pounds a year, to the mainte
nance of scholars in the Universities ; a direction
o 2

36 THE LIFE OF
which had been given in the royal : Injunctions of
1536, in the first year also of Edward, and was re
peated at the beginning of her reign by Elizabeth ;
and his clergy were now to answer 2 whether those,
who were beneficed, for as many hundred pounds as
every of them might be able to dispend, had
supplied a scholar for each hundred either in
Oxford or Cambridge, orin some grammar school.
There can be no doubt that the archbishop
successfully interested himself with the Protector
not only in regard to the studies, but also to the
revenues and privileges, of both Universities. His
own, by their celebrated orator, Roger Ascham,
had indeed declared, in their address to him at
the beginning of this reign, " that 3 since God had
now raised him on purpose for the restoration of
the Gospel, and had so long reserved him for
that end, they doubted not that he would give all
his pains and authority to preserve the welfare of
learning." Nor were they disappointed. By con
sulting with * Ascham himself, and with Sir John
Cheke, another accomplished scholar of the age,
Cranmer was soon enabled to improve the general
character of Cambridge ; and to support and pa
tronize the classical studies that had there been
neglected; whither also, ere long, he sent the

1 See before, vol. i. p. 172.
2 Articles of Visitation, Sparrow's Collect. 1661. 25, seq.
3 Strype. * Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 37
great protestant divines, Bucer and Fagius, as
professors of divinity and of the Hebrew language ;
as at Oxford he placed in the theological chair,
which had been deserted by Smith, Peter Martyr.
Meanwhile the archbishop was proceeding in
the visitation of his diocese. Upon this occasion
another notable inquiry to his clergy was, 1 whe
ther on every Sunday and holiday they used the
prayer set forth by the king for peace between
England and Scotland. This 2 prayer was pro
bably that which was sent to the archbishop by
the Council on the 6th May, 1548, when the
Scots, entering into new agreements with France,
seemed still to threaten war with England ; and
therefore devout intercessions to God were now
to be made " for victory and peace." The latter
indeed was obtained early in 1550, and in the
interval was inserted in our first Liturgy the su&
frage, " Give peace in our time, O Lord," with
the response, " Because there is none other that
fighteth for us, but only Thou, O God." Another
prayer for peace with Scotland had been issued
in the first year of the king's reign indeed ; but
the archbishop's V-sitation was in the s second year.
Another visitatorial question by the archbishop
was, " Whether his clergy preached, or caused
to be preached, purely and sincerely, the Word
of God, exhorting their parishioners to the works
commanded by Scripture, and not to works
1 Art. of Vis. ut supr. 2 Strype.
3 Bishop Sparrow, Strype,

38 THE LIFE OF
devised by men's fancies besides Scripture, such
as wearing and praying upon beads, and such
like." Here he plainly refers to the larger dis
tinction in his own excellent Homily of Good
Works, just as Ridley, in his Injunctions soon
afterwards, forbids the maintenance of " 1 the
justification of man by his own works, (those which
Cranmer calls the devices of human fancy,) holy
bread, palms, ashes, candles, sepulchre paschal,
creeping to the cross, hallowing of the fire or
altar, or any such-like abuses and superstitions,
now taken away by the king's most godly pro
ceedings." The following was also a very important in
quiry, adopted from the royal Injunctions : 2 Whe
ther his clergy had declared, and to their wits and
power had persuaded the people, that the manner,
and kind, of fasting in Lent and other days in the
year, is a mere positive law ; and that therefore all
persons having just cause of sickness or other ne
cessity, or being licensed by the king, might mo
derately eat all kinds of meat, without grudge or
scruple of conscience. Himself had before 3 rea
dily conceded a licence of this kind to Roger
Ascham, who was a man of delicate health, and
who had written to him a learned epistle on the
subject, seeming to consider the fasting as a po
litical institution rather than as a religious duty.
Yet one more important question, repeated by
1 Burnet, ii. Rec. 206.
2 Art. of Vis. ut supr. 3 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 39
the archbishop to his clergy from the Injunc
tions of the king, must be noticed. It was
1 whether they had diligently exhorted their pa
rishioners, and especially when they made their
wills, to give to the poor men's box, that was
then placed in churches, " what they had been
wont to bestow upon pardons, pilgrimages, tren-
tals, masses satisfactory, decking of images, offer
ing of candles, going to friars, and upon other
like blind devotions."
Among the inquiries, now addressed to the
laity also, the following are of great interest.
They were to answer, 2 whether in the time of the
Litany, or any other part of Common Prayer, or
in the time of the sermon or the homily, any had
departed out of the church without a just and
necessary cause ; or, while the minister was ofiiT
dating, had been used to commune, jangle, talk,
or occasion any disturbance in the service. For
this there had been especial cause. 3 One who
had been an abbot, but was now vicar of Stepney
near London, still addicted to the old supersti
tion, and by his influence as well as example en
couraging others to remain in it, had been accus
tomed to disturb the preachers in his church, (for
he declined to preach in it himself,) by challenging
the subject of their discourses, or by causing the
bells to be rung, while they were in the pulpit.
1 Art. of Vis. ut supr. 2 Ibid. 3 Strype.
VOL. II. D 4 "*—

40 THE LIFE OF
The parishioners at length convened him before
Cranmer, who dismissed him with lenity, and
bade him offend no more. That lenity offended
the accusers, and probably gave occasion to simi
lar disturbances, in order to the suppression
of which the visitatorial articles were probably
formed. There had been no law then (in 1547) by
which to punish such offenders, said Cranmer to
an accuser of the Stepney vicar. The dialogue,
which followed, is interesting. " J No law ?" the
parishioner replied, adding, " If I had your
Grace's authority, I would be bold enough to un-
vicar him, or inflict some sharp punishment upon
him and such others. If it ever come to their turn,
[fhe papists',^ they will shew you no such favour."
— " Well," said Cranmer, " If God so provide,
we must abide it." — This, Strype observes, was
the constant behaviour of the archbishop towards
papists, and such as were his enemies. To these an
author, nearly contemporary with the archbishop,
thus alludes : " 2 Did ever those papists, whose
lives were saved by good bishop Cranmer's means,
who were brought up, who were defended, who
1 Strype.
2 Norton's Warning against the dangerous practice of Pa-
pistes, impr. by J. Day, sign. L. iii. b. This writer alludes to
"a decayed knight" also, who had imposed upon Cranmer's
kindness ; " the archbishop upon a good hope" of his regard
for the reformed religion, " having given him fifty pound yearly
pension." Sign. G. iii. b.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 41
were advanced, who were shielded from harm and
peril by him, once requite him with one drop
pf kindness ? And yet they spake him fair in his
prosperity !"
The laity too were now asked, 1 whether the
clergy had explained to them the true use of cere
monies, namely, that they are not workers nor
works of salvation, but only outward signs and
tokens to put us in remembrance of things of
higher perfection. Thus, when the first service-
book was revised, it was declared that the 2 altera
tions which were made in it proceeded from
curiosity rather than any worthy cause ; meaning
that they related to ceremonies rather than to any
essential point of doctrine.
Another most important question was demanded
of the laity : Whether the churches, pulpits, and
other necessaries appertaining to the same, were
sufficiently repaired. The churches indeed had
been greatly profaned. 3 Horses and mules had
been brought into them, as into a stable or com
mon inn. The bells and other ornaments had
been embezzled. A letter from the Council to
the archbishop, previously to his visitation, de
clared the highest displeasure of the sovereign at
this sacrilege ; and 4 imprisonment also had now
been denounced against those who might con-
1 Art. of Vis. ut supr. ' Wheatly, 27.
3 Strype. ' Ibid.

42 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
tinue to use irreverently the places of divine
worship. The marriage of the clergy, as we have seen,
had occasioned the indignation of the Romanists ;
and they kept up as yet the popular clamour
against it. Cranmer, desirous to remove the un
just prejudice, at the close of his articles accord
ingly asked the laity, " 1 whether any contemned
married priests ; and, because they were married,
would not receive the sacrament at their hands."
1 Art. of Vis. ut supr.

CHAPTER III.

1548.
The first Primer in the reign of Edward — The Catechism,
usually called Cranmer's Catechism — Translated from the
Latin of Justus Jonas, the elder, as the Latin is from various
German treatises — Mistakes relating to it — Other Cate
chisms, separate, and in our Liturgy.
The next religious formulary of the present reign
was an excellent manual of prayers for private
use, suitable to all sorts and conditions of men,
bearing the old title of the Primer ; and was first
published at the close of 1547. In the next year
followed a "¦ Catechism, or Short Instruction into
Christian Religion for the singular commodity
and profit of children and young people ;" which is
usually denominated Cranmer's Catechism. It is
a translation from a Latin work, which was itself
a translation from the German, by Justus Jonas,
the father of him of the same names at this time
resident in Lambeth Palace. The younger Justus
Jonas, and 'three other distinguished persons
among the Reformers, who had fled from Germany
early in 1548, rather than comply with the tem-
1 Gualter, Dryander, and Eusebius Menius.

44 THE LIFE OF
porary rule of faith and worship, entitled the ' In
terim, which the emperor resolved to enforce
by the sword, brought with them from Melanc-
thon recommendatory letters to Cranmer,by whom
they were now courteously received and hospita
bly entertained. The elder Jonas was the friend
of Melancthon ; and Melancthon probably thought
that the translation of the Catechism would be a
proper accompaniment to the epistle, which was
to introduce the son of his friend to the arch
bishop. Or perhaps Osiander might have sent
the volume to the primate, as Gardiner 2 seems
by naming him to insinuate. Certain it is that
the attention of Cranmer, in the 3 year in which
he received the refugees, was earnestly turned to
this book. Strype and many others, down to the
present time, represent the younger Jonas as the
Latin translator. With the regius 4 professor of
divinity at Oxford, who, in his interesting preface
to a new edition of the English translation in
1829, conjectures the elder to have been the
translator, I am proud to agree. I may add to
his reasons for this belief, that in 1525 the
1 There is a letter from the younger Jonas to secretary Cecil
concerning the miseries of Germany, occasioned by the Interim ;
in which he solicits to partake of the king's munificence. Strype,
LifeofCranm. Append. No. xcii.
2 " Justus Jonas hath translated a Catechism out of Dutch
[German] into Latin, taught in the city of Nuremberg, where
Osiander is chief preacher, &c." Gardiner's Explication in
answer to Cranmer, &c. 1551, fol. 5. b.
3 Strype and others mistakingly assign it to the year 1547.
4 Dr. Edward Burton.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 45
1 elder Jonas had been directed by Luther to pre
pare a catechism for young persons ; and that in
1527 he is believed to have published such a form
of instruction in his own language. But the Latin
work, now before us, was not produced till the
year 2 1539. Of the German original, however,
the learned professor has observed that no copy
has as yet been discovered. But while he has
overpassed a real guide to discovery, he nearly
approaches it by conjecture. This Latin cate
chism is a 3 collection of addresses from a minister,
not indeed in the usual catechetical manner, to
the younger members of his flock. These ad
dresses are drawn, it seems, from other elemen
tary instructions with which Germany then
abounded, and from regulations which for the use
of his own territories and of Nuremberg the mar
quis of Brandenburg had before published.
The English translation appeared, before the
close of 1548, with a dedication by the archbishop
to the king, in which he pays a grateful tribute to
the memory of Henry, complains of negligence in
1 Bibliotheca Symbolica Evangelica Lutherana quam collegit
J. W. Feverlinus, Gottingse, 1752, inter Catechismos, p. 372.
2 Published at Wittemberg. Bib. Symb. ut supr. p. 260.
3 After the title of the Latin catechism is copied, the following
note is appended to it. " Sunt conciones illse Catecheticae,
quae in libris Symbolicis Noribergensibus, et ante hos in Ordina-
tionibus Eccl. Brandeburgo-Noribergensi aliisque Germanicae
extiterant." Bib. Symb. ut supr. p. 260.

46 THE LIFE OF
the education of youth, and that the " ancient and
laudable ceremony of confirmation" had been im
properly administered. 1 Two printers were em
ployed upon the impression. The title professes
no more than that by the archbishop, the book
was set forth, overseen, and corrected. " 2 My
lord of Canterbury," said Dr. Rowland Taylor who
had been his chaplain, " made a Catechism to be
translated into English ; which book was not of
his own making ; yet he set it forth in his own
name ; and truly that book for the time did much
good." Gardiner, however, questioned his asser
tion as to the translator, and afterwards referred
to Cranmer's own words in his Defence of the
Sacrament, " in which work he confesses," said
Gardiner, " the translation of the Catechism,
which, one in communication would needs have
me believe, had been his man's doing, and not his.''
Hence perhaps the mistake of Foxe, which has

1 " There were two printers of my said book." Cranmer's
words related by Foxe. Lynne, who printed other books for the
archbishop, employed his own press, and that of Nicholas Hyll
also, on the present occasion. A copy is in the Cracherode
collection, British Museum, with Gualterus Lynne excudebat,
1548. Hyll's impression is with the notice of being printed
" for Lynne," but without the date. In like manner two
printers were employed to print the Articles of 1552, whose
copies of the same edition accordingly exhibit certain verbal
variations. 2 Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 47
been * followed by others, in representing Ridley
as having been employed to this purpose ; the
martyrologist referring to the Catechism what
belongs to the Defence of the Sacrament in the
conference between Ridley, secretary Bourne, and
others, in the Tower. Bourne was weak enough
to believe what the 2 enemies of Cranmer now
insinuated, that the Defence was not written by
the archbishop's pen. — " 3 How can you make but
a figure or a sign of the sacrament, as that book
[does] which is set forth in my lord of Canter
bury's name ?" was the question proposed to
Ridley by Bourne, who added, " I wis, you can
tell who made it : Did not you make it ?" — " Here
was much murmuring of the rest, as though they
would have given me," says Ridley, " the glory of
1 He places in the margin of Ridley's conference in his mar
tyrology, " The Catechism." The learned author of the Life of
Alexander Nowell, p. 154, (Oxf. 1809,) is thus misled by Foxe.
2 Among the witnesses, in the last proceedings at Oxford
against the archbishop, there was one, and but one, prompted
perhaps by the scurrilous proctor Martin, who affected to con
sider Cranmer as not able to have composed the Defence, or
any of the works ascribed to him : " credit prefatum Thomam
vix adeb eruditum ut possit ipse ejus proprio ingenio hujusmodi
libros componere !" This person was Robert Ward, of Merton
College, a violent Romanist, who in 1554 was one of the dis
putants with Ridley at Oxford upon transubstantiation. We
shall presently 6nd Martin idly attempting in like manner to
depreciate the learning of the archbishop.
s Foxe.

48 THE LIFE OF
writing that book ; which yet was said, of some
there, to contain the most heinous heresy that
ever was." The Catechism would not thus be
designated : by a Romanist the Defence would
certainly be so. " Master secretary," Ridley re
plied, " that book was made of a great learned
man, and one who is able to do the like again :
as for me, I assure you, I was never able to do or
write any such like thing ; he passeth me no less
than the learned master his young scholar." Such
was the ingenuous reference of Ridley to Cranmer,
and the hearers evidently submitted to the appli
cation. But to return to the Catechism : With
Strype we may certainly conclude that " it was
by the archbishop himself, or his special order,
turned into English ; and, to fix an authority to
the same, he caused it to be published in his own
name, and owned it for his own book." No
doubt, he revised it ; and introduced into it ob
servations which are not in the Latin original.
The style and the matter, where the interpola
tions occur, certainly indicate his hand.
The work consists of expositions of the Ten
Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer,
the authority of the keys, and the Lord's Supper.
The Commandments are indeed arranged as
they are in the Romish ritual, the first and second
apparently forming only one, and the tenth being
divided into two. A spirited discourse against
idolatry, of which there is no trace in the Latin

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 19
translation, is introduced into the exposition of
theirs* Commandment, which however it effec
tually divides. For after stating the words " ThoU
shalt make thee no graven image, nor any like
ness of any thing which is in heaven above, or in
earth beneath, or in the water under the earth;
thou shalt not bow down unto it, nor worship it ;"
the discourse thus proceeds. " These words by
most interpreters of late time (Xranmer here
means the Romanists^] belong to the first Com
mandment, although after the interpretation of
many ancient authors they be the second Command
ment; in which words it is to be noted, that it is
not without great cause, that God with so plain
and express words doth forbid worshipping of
images. For He saw that man's corrupt nature,
from the first time that he fell from God, hath
ever been inclined and ready to idolatry, and to
bow down to creatures, rather than to look up
to God that made him. Wherefore He inhibit-
eth all occasions of the same. God did also
foresee, that in the latter days men should come
which would maintain worshipping of images, not
only with painted colours, but also with painted
words, saying, We kneel not to the image, but
before the image ; we worship not the image, but
the thing which is represented by the image ; we
worship not the creatures, but the Creator in the
creatures. And such like excuses the greatest
idolaters did always pretend. But to the intent
VOL. II. E

50 THE LIFE OF
they should not so deceive you, God doth often
times in Holy Scripture call upon you, saying,
Thou shalt not make to thee any graven image
or likeness of any creature ; thou shalt not kneel
nor bow thyself down to it. — I will declare unto
you the images that have been so abused : the
which abuses, good children, your own fathers, if
you ask them, can well declare unto you. For they
themselves were greatly seduced by certain famous
and notorious images, as by our J lady of Walsing
ham, our lady of Ipswich, St. Thomas of Canter
bury, St. Anne of Buxton, the rood of grace, and
such like ; whom many of your parents visited
yearly, leaving their own houses and families.
To them they made vows and pilgrimages, think
ing that God would hear their prayers in that
place rather than another place. They kissed
their feet devoutly, and to them they offered
candles and images of wax, rings, beads, gold,
and silver, abundantly. And because they that
so taught them had thereby great commodity,
they maintained the same with feigned miracles
and erroneous doctrine, teaching the people that
God would hear their prayers made before this
image, rather than before another image, or in
another place, whereas the prophet Isaiah saith,
1 " So were we wont to say, Our lady of Walsingham, our
lady of Ipswich, &c. not meaning the things themselves, but
calling their images by the name of the things by them repre
sented." Cranmer, Def. against Gardiner, 2d edit. 267.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 51
that God doth hear those that are penitent in
every place alike."
After this statement, it may excite the surprise
of an attentive reader to find it elsewhere said
of the archbishop, that, " 1 leaning in this Cate
chism more than usually to the ancient doctrines,
he comprises the prohibition of false gods and of
images under one commandment!" The learned
historian, who has been thus eager to misrepresent
the man, could surely never have fairly opened
the book.
The perspicuous exposition of the Creed, which
follows that of the Commandments, is without
addition in the English translation.
But in the discourse upon the Lord's Prayer
the hand of Cranmer again is visible, at the con
clusion of the preface to it, (which exists not in
the Latin,) where he eloquently says, " Where
fore, good children, forasmuch as God hath com
manded us to resort to Him boldly, and to moan
ourselves to Him in all our troubles and adver
sities, and hath promised that He will hear our
prayers, deliver us, and grant us all things neces
sary for our salvation, let us not refuse this
honour that we be called unto, let us not refuse
this remedy, help, aid, and succour, that is freely
offered of our most merciful Father to all his
children that will call upon His Name. For this
1 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 37.
E 2

52 THE LIFE OF
is a sacrifice most acceptable to God, wherewith
He is most highly honoured and pleased. Where
fore, good children, both daily and hourly accus
tom yourselves, even from your tender age, to
pray to your Heavenly Father for all things ne
cessary. Offer up unto Him at your uprising
and downlying, before your meals, and after your
meat, this sacrifice of your lips, the oblation of
praise and thanksgiving ; worship Him at all times
with the frankincense of This Prayer taught unto
you by our Saviour Christ ; the perfume whereof,
if it be cast into the . burning coals of faith and
charity, it pierceth the clouds, and is so sweet
and pleasant unto God, that it vanisheth not
away, until it have obtained that thing that it
was sent for. For it is written, that the prayer
of a just man can do much with God, and the
eyes of the Lord do look upon the righteous, and
his ears be opened to hear their prayers."
The Latin Catechism proceeds with an expla
nation of the three sacraments maintained by the
Lutheran divines, Baptism, The power of the
keys, and The Lord's Supper. In the first and
second discourses the translation follows the ori
ginal very closely. In the last there is a remarkable
variation between them, which strengthens the
opinion I have l already expressed, that Cranmer
at no time entertained the Lutheran doctrine of
1 See before, vol. i. p. 265.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 53
consubstantiation. It is this. Where the Latin
Catechism speaks of the body and blood of Christ
being 1 present in the sacrament, the English
speaks only of our 2 receiving them. The arch
bishop, however, after he had published his De
fence of the Sacrament in 1550, was 3 charged
by bishop Gardiner with gross contradictions upon
this subject in the Catechism, as well by a decla
ration as by a picture. " A book," said the ac
cuser, " set forth in the archbishop of Canterbury's
name, called a Catechism, willeth children to be
taught that they receive with their bodily mouth
the body and blood of Christ." Cranmer replied,
"4Ina Catechism by me translated and set forth
I used [this]] manner of speech, that with our
bodily mouths we receive the body and blood of
Christ. Which my saying divers ignorant persons,
(not used to read old ancient authors, nor ac
quainted with their phrase and manner of speech,)
did carp, and reprehend, for lack of good under
standing. For this speech and others before re
hearsed of Chrysostomej and all other like, are
not understood of the very flesh and blood of our
Saviour Christ, (which, indeed, we neither feel
1 " Quod vere corpus et sanguis ejus sit." Lat. Catech. Dr.
Burton, Pref. to the Oxf. edit. 1829, pp. xviii, xxii.
2 ti Wg receive truly the body and blood of Christ." Eng,
Catech. Dr. Burton, ut supr.
3 Strype.
4 Answ. to Gardiner, 2d edit. 26".

54 THE LIFE OF
nor see,) but that which we do to the bread and
wine, by a figurative speech is spoken to be done
to the flesh and blood, because they are the very
signs, figures, and tokens, instituted of Christ,
to represent unto us his very flesh and blood.
And yet as with our corporal eyes, corporal hands
and mouths, we do corporally see, feel, taste, and
eat the bread and drink the wine, (being the sign
and sacraments of Christ's body,) even so with
our spiritual eyes, hands, and mouths, we do
spiritually see, feel, taste, and eat his very flesh,
and drink his very blood." — Gardiner replies in
anger to the archbishop, " * that the original of
his translated Catechism confutes him in few words,
being printed in Germany, wherein, besides the
matter written, is set forth in picture the manner
of the ministring of this sacrament, where is the
altar with candle-light set forth, the priest appa
relled after the old sort, and the man to receive
kneeling, barehead, and holding up his hands,
while the priest ministers the host to his mouth ;
a matter as clear contrary to the matter of this
book, as is light and darkness." The archbishop
answers, with an admirable retort, " 2 it may
appear to them that have any judgment what
pithy arguments you make, and what dexterity
you have in gathering of authors' minds, that
would gather my mind, and make an argument
1 Answ. to Gardiner, 2d edit. 268.
2 Ibid. 269.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 55
here of a picture, neither put in my book, nor by
me devised, but invented by some fond painter
or carver, who paint and grave whatsoever their
idle heads can fancy ! You should rather have
gathered your argument upon the other side ;
that I mislike the matter, because I left out of my
book the picture that was in the original before.
And I marvel you are not ashamed to allege so
vain a matter against me, which indeed is not in
my book ; and if it were, yet were it nothing to
the purpose. And in that Catechism I teach not, as
you do, that the body and blood of Christ is con
tained in the sacrament being reserved, but that in
the ministration thereof we receive the body and
blood of Christ, whereunto if it may please you to
add, or understand, this word ' spiritually, then is
the doctrine of my Catechism sound and good in all
men's ears, who know the true doctrine of the sa
craments." Such too was his answer to Dr. Richard Smith,
1 This assertion of Cranmer is more powerfully enforced by
him in his Preface to the Defence of the Lord's Supper, which
is repeated in his Defence against Gardiner, where he says that
his meaning " of the body of Christ being present with them
that worthily receive the sacrament, is, that the force, the
grace, the virtue, and benefit of Christ's body that was cruci
fied for us, be really and effectually present with all them that
duly receive the sacraments ; but all this is to be understood of
his spiritual presence." The Catechism before us distinguishes
also this " eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ
spiritually.''

56 THE LIFE OF
who had also written against his Defence of the
Sacrament ; " who reporteth untruly of me," says
the archbishop, " that I in my book of the Cate
chism did set forth the real presence of Christ's
body in the sacrament. Unto which false report
I have answered in my fourth book, the eighth
chapter." With his accustomed ingenuousness
he then says, " but this I confess of myself, that,
1 not long before I wrote the said Catechism, I was
in that error of the real presence, as I was many
years past in divers other errors, as of transub
stantiation, of the sacrifice propitiatory of the
priests in the mass, of pilgrimages, purgatory,
pardons, and many other superstitions and errors
that came from Rome."
To this Catechism the enemies of Cranmer,
when he was in their power, referred with a
pretence, as base as it was vain, of shewing in its
pages that, to maintain a point, he had falsified
an important passage in a second impression of
the book. Martin, the proctor of Mary, in the
last proceedings against him at Oxford, thus pre
ferred the accusation.
" 2 Martin. When king Henry died, did you
not translate Justus Jonas's book ?
" Cranmer. I did so.
1 He therefore admits that before the Catechism was trans
lated into English, he had relinquished the error of the real
presence. See also before, vol. i. p. 266.
2 Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 57
" Martin. Then there you defended another
doctrine touching the sacraments, by the same
token that you sent to Lynne your printer, that
whereas in the first print there was an affirmative,
that is to say, Christ's body really in the sacra
ment, you sent then to your printer to put in a
not, whereby it came miraculously to pass that
Christ's body was clean conveyed out of the
sacrament. " Cranmer. I remember there were two
printers of my said book, but where the same not
was put in, I cannot tell."
Of such dishonesty the archbishop was uncon
scious. If indeed there had been such an inser
tion, it must have been made without his know
ledge. But " 1 if the reader will look to all the
places in the discourse on the Lord's Supper in
the Catechism, which appear to favour the doc
trine of the real presence, he will find it almost
impossible for the word not to have been inserted."
Nor is the word 2 really to be found throughout
the whole of it. In vain also is the 3 copy, which
a second printer furnished, examined in support
1 Dr. Burton, ut supr. Pref. p. xxiv.
2 Ibid.
3 In consequence of two printers being employed at the same
time upon the work, as Cranmer admits. A list of errata is
not found in all the copies ; but some desire the word not to
be inserted after is, in the following passage, which has no re
ference to the disputed point before us : " the name of God
is hallowed also, &c." See Dr. Burton, ut supr. p. xxiv.

58 THE LIFE OF
of Martin's charge, which therefore we may con
clude, especially when we consider the character
of the accuser, as altogether unfounded. Strype
has unadvisedly said indeed, " that in a second
edition of the Catechism the word not was in
serted in a certain place of the book to alter the
doctrine of the real presence, which was asserted
in the first edition." Ere he thus proceeded to
stain the memory of Cranmer, he ought to have
cited the certain place, he ought to have minutely
described the peccant edition; neither of which,
however, it was in his power to do. It has been
pleaded for him that he was misled by the dia
logue, which has been cited, between the arch
bishop and Martin. It has been suggested also,
that Martin himself remembering a passage in
the Answer of Gardiner to Cranmer's Defence,
where the version of a sentence by Cranmer from
Theodoret is thus challenged, " I ween the printer
left out a not, and should have said, not changed
into the godly substance," confounded the Cate
chism with the Defence. But Martin was a man
ready to advance any charge against the arch
bishop that might please Gardiner. He was one,
said bishop Ponet, " who could put off all shame,
and put on all impudence." He could dare to
assert that Cranmer's Answer to Gardiner, one of
the noblest pieces of controversial theology that
1 By Dr. Burton.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 59
ever was penned, was merely replying, " * our
Lord knoweth how, to my lord of Winchester ;"
that perhaps " some other in the archbishop's
name was the author of it ;" that " he was loth to
think it all to be his, and therefore (said he) when
I name the bishop of Canterbury, I mean the
maker and author of his book!" Before I quit this
vindication of Cranmer, let me gratify the reader
with his triumph over the charge of Gardiner's
not, as we have already found him triumphing
over that of Martin. " 2 Where you say that I
by oversight, or the printer by negligence, have
left out a not, if I should have put in that not of
mine own head contrary to the original in Greek,
and to all the translators in Latin, and the trans
lator of Peter Martyr also, I should have been as
far overseen as you be, who, as it seemeth of pur
pose, confound and corrupt you care not whether any
authors' words, or their meaning."
Of this Catechism, which has occasioned so
much illustration, several erroneous descriptions
have been given. Burnet, 3 summing up the cha
racter of it, observes that hence it will appear that,
from the beginning of our Reformation, the prac
tice in the Church of Rome in regard to images
was held idolatrous; that Cranmer was zealous
1 See his Treatise of Priests' Unlawful Marriages, 1554, sign.
F.ij. 2 Def. against Gardiner, 2d ed.
3 Hist. Ref. P. II. B. i.
2

60 THE LIFE OF
for restoring the penitentiary canons ; and that
he had laid aside those singular opinions, which
he had formerly expressed of the ecclesiastical
functions ; " for now, in a work which was wholly
his own, without the concurrence of any others, he
fully sets forth their divine institution." Misled
perhaps by the authority of Burnet, archbishop
Wake seems to have 1 considered this translated
Catechism " as drawn up by Cranmer himself."
Strype has confounded it, by saying that it was
reprinted towards the end of Edward's reign, with
the Short Catechism for all schoolmasters to
teach, which was pubhshed in 1553, a few days
only before the decease of the young king. In a
recent Life of Cranmer, the Nuremberg formulary
also has been mistakenly eulogized as the purer
Catechism which now adorns our Liturgy.
But the translated Catechism soon gave place
to a native English one, which was probably
ordered by Cranmer. It was inserted into the
first Liturgy of Edward, (1549), in the office
of Confirmation, and continued in the second.
With our present Church-Catechism it agreed
almost word for word, as far as it went, which
was to the explanation of the Lord's Prayer.
Every sixth week at the least the curate of each
parish was enjoined to teach it. The same ex
cellent method of instruction was soon adopted,
1 Brief Comm. upon the Church Catechism, 3d edit. Dedica
tion.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 61
by those who favoured the Reformation, in Scot^
land. In January 1551-2, it was agreed at a
provincial meeting of the clergy in Edinburgh,
that a Catechism, containing an explanation of
the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and
the Creed, as " 1 ane commone and catholick
instruction" for the people, should be published,
and by the ministers be diligently taught. Im
mediately after the publication of our Articles of
Religion in 1553, the Short Catechism, already
mentioned, was printed in English as well as
Latin ; although archbishop 2 Wake speaks of it
as being only in the latter language ; and the
Articles were subjoined to it. It has been by
some ascribed to Ponet, or Poinet, afterwards
bishop of Rochester and finally of Winchester ;
by others to Nowell, dean of St. Paul's. Ridley
was also charged as the compiler of it, but 3 unr
1 Ames, Hist, of Printing, 578.
2 Comm. on the Ch. Catechism, 3d edit. Dedication. Strype,
in his Life of Cranmer, B. 2. ch. 34, commits the same mistake,
but in his Ecclesiastical Memorials, ii. 368, admits the Latin
impression. 3 Ridley was charged to be the author and publisher of it]by
Ward and Weston, in their disputation with him at Oxford ;
who falsely told him that Cranmer had said so. Ridley told
him that he was not, and that Cranmer would not say so : but
he confessed that he saw the book, perused it after it was madei
noted many things in it, and so at the synod of the clergy
consented to it. Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 368.

62 THE LIFE OF
justly. But " ' whoever was the author, the arch
bishop we may conclude to be the furtherer and
recommender of it to the king ; it being Cran
mer's great design by Catechisms, and Articles of
Religion, and plain Expositions of fundamental
truths, to instil right principles into the minds of
the youth, and common people, for the more
effectual rooting out of popery that had been so
long entertained by the industrious nursling up
the nation in ignorance." Cranmer indeed, pub
licly 2 owned in his answers to the commissioners
of Mary, in the last proceedings against him at
Oxford, that it was begun by his advice and di
gested under his inspection. Some of the wit
nesses against him, in these proceedings, 3 testified
the same. Of this Catechism the very learned
and excellent archbishop Wake has again spoken
not very accurately, it has been 4 observed, when
1 Life of Cranm. B. 2. ch. 34. But Strype positively asserts
Nowell to be the author of it, Ecc. Mem. ii. 368. The learned
biographer of Nowell, (archdeacon Churton,) in 1809, seems to
consider Poinet as entitled to the authorship of this Catechism,
from which Nowell at a later period adopted parts in his Cate
chism. Life of Nowell, 403-407.
3 " Quoad Catechismum et Articulos in eodem fatetur se
adhibuisse ejus concilium circa editionem ejusdem," &c. Proc.
Lambeth MSS. ut supr. No. 1136.
" Dr. Tresham and Dr. Smith, canons of Christ-Church,
Oxford ; Dr. Marshall, dean of the same ; Curtop, dean of
Peterborough, and others. Proc. ut supr.
4 Churton, Life of Alex. Nowell, p. 157. See the Abp's
Pref. to his Commentary on the Church-Catechism.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 63
he says, " Here I take the complete model of our
Church Catechism to have been first laid : to
the explication of the Creed, the Commandments,
and the Lord's Prayer, was added a short account
of the two sacraments." * The sacraments do
not, as is here implied, constitute a separate and
the last part of the work ; but are introduced,
under the ninth article of the Creed, as some of
the external parts of religion, or cultus Dei ; and
the mode of administration and design of them
are delivered, chiefly in the words of Scripture,
but not their appropriate nature, as outward
signs of inward grace. The Catechism, as it now
stands in our Liturgy, received not the present
explanation of the sacraments 2 till the reign of
James the First.
1 Churton, 158.
2 Wheatly. See also the Hampton Court Conference,
1603, p. 44. " Dr. Reinolds complained that the Catechism in
the Common Prayer Book was too brief, for which one by
Nowell, late dean of St. Paul's was added, and that too long
for young novices to learn by heart : he requested therefore
that one uniform Catechism might be made, which, and none
other, might be generally received : It was demanded of him,
whether, if to the short Catechism in the Communion- Book
something were added for the doctrine of the sacraments, it
would not serve 1 His Majesty thought the doctor's request
very reasonable ; but yet so that he would have a Catechism in
the fewest and plainest affirmative terms that may be." This
was accordingly done by bishop Overal, then dean of St. Paul's,
and approved by the bishops.

CHAPTER IV.

1.548 to 1549.
The first Common Prayer Book in Edward the Sixth's reign —
Opposed by the rebels in Devonshire— Cranmer undertakes
to convince them of their folly .
The Catechism of 1548 was the precursor of a
greater work, the first service-book of Edward
the sixth. Cranmer, who had presided at the
committee of prelates and divines by whom the
Order for the Communion was formed, was now
the chief director of l twelve of those learned and
pious men to whom we owe this Liturgy. Of
the distinct parts supplied by each no evidence
1 These were Goodrich, bishop of Ely, Skyp, of Hereford,
Thirlby, of Westminster, Day, of Chichester, Holbeach, of
Lincoln, Ridley, of Rochester ; Dr. May, dean of St. Paul's,
Dr. Taylor, dean of Lincoln, Dr. Haynes, dean of Exeter, Dr.
Redmayn, dean of Westminster, Dr. Cox, almoner to the king,
and Dr. Robertson, archdeacon of Leicester — In the former
committee were also the archbishop of York, the bishops of
Durham, Worcester, Norwich, St. Asaph, Lichfield, Salisbury,.
Carlisle, Bristol, and St. David's.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 65
has descended to us. But by the care and di
rection principally of Cranmer the work was
finished, 2 passed in convocation, and 3 confirmed
though not without opposition in parliament.
Burnet says that the bishops of Norwich, Here
ford, Chichester, and Westminster, protested
against it, although employed in the production
of it. But the bishop of Norwich was not one of
the compilers. From the entire compilation,
however, these prelates "dissented, only because
with some 4 few particulars of it they were dis
satisfied. Four other prelates, but not of the
committee which composed the book, as a 5 late
historian has asserted, also voted against it.
These were Bonner, Tunstal, Aldrich, and Heath,
whose prejudices in favour of the old superstitions
were now not to be removed. By others of their
opinion the service, as might be expected, was
much censured ; by multitudes, however, on the
other hand, it was received with approbation,
1 " The book was probably compiled by only a few of the
commissioners, discussed and assented to by others." Ridley,
223. Besides Cranmer, perhaps Goodrich and Ridley were
the principal compilers. The two admirable summaries of our
duty to God and to our neighbour, which are in the Catechism,
and are inscribed on a part of the episcopal palace at Ely by
Goodrich, are supposed to have been drawn up by that prelate.
See Churton's Life of Nowell, 155.
2 November 24, 1548.
3 January 15, 1548-9.
* Burnet. 5 Lingard, 8vo. vii. 39.
VOL. II. F

66 THE LIFE OF
joy, and thankfulness. But an especial cavil
against the Act for the uniformity of divine ser
vice, which now gave the book to the public, was
raised, on account of the assertion in it, that the
book was framed " by the aid of the Holy Ghost."
The expression was maintained as just. It was
to be Understood not as if the compilers had
been inspired by extraordinary assistance, for
then there had been no room for any correction
of what was now done ; but in the sense of every
good motion and consultation being directed, or
assisted, by the secret influences of divine grace,
which even in their imperfect actions often help
the virtuous. While 2 Romanists, down to the
present day, appear to censure this expression,
they are silent as to the confident declaration
of one whom they often exalt to undue respect,
bishop Stephen Gardiner; who, writing to the
vice-chancellor of Cambridge a few days before
the publication of the Necessary Erudition, said,
that " 3 the king's Majesty, by the inspiration of
the Holy Ghost, hath componed all matters of
rehgion." The first care for the new service was, that the
1 Burnet. Ridley, in like manner, defends it. Life of
Ridley, 249.
2 Bossuet, Hist, des Variat. vii. 343. Dodd, Church Hist.
Milner, End of Religious Controversy, Lett. 43. Lingard,
Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 39, 119.
3 Strype, Ecc. Mem. i. 328. This letter of Gardiner is also
given in Ellis's second series of original letters, ii. 209.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 67
whole of it should be in English ; as a completion
of what the Primer at the close of Henry's reign
had begun, that is, " 1 a form of public prayer
in the mother-tongue." The service 2 com
menced, at morning and evening, with the Lord's
Prayer; the previous exhortation, confession,
and absolution, which we now have, not being as
yet supplied. The Psalms were regulated as in
the present daily order ; the Lessons, with a little
variation from the directions now belonging to
them. After the first Lesson the noble hymn
Te Deum followed ; after the second, the Bene-
dictus. The Apostles' Creed, which formerly was
wont to be whispered by the officiating priest
alone, was then to be publicly recited. Suffrages,
translated from the Latin breviary, were the next
in order, followed by Collects, adopted from
similar ancient forms, in most of which the 3 su
periority in the language of our Liturgy is indeed
very striking. The Communion service, which
contained almost all that had been directed in
the office of the preceding year, together with
large additions, then presents itself; but the
4 absolution in it no longer began with proclaim-
1 See before, vol. 1. 373.
2 Heylin. Burnet. Collier. Ridley.
3 Archbishop Laurence has given some forcible proofs of this
in the notes to his Bampton Lectures.
4 See the form itself. Collier has reprinted it, Ecc. Hist. ii.
Records, No. 59. The precatory absolution is precisely the
same as in our present communion-service. Ibid. p. 69.
F 2

68 THE LIFE OF
ing the power of the keys ; it was then, as it is
now, only precatory. After this service came
the Litany ; then the office of Baptism, in which,
and in the subsequent ones of Confirmation,
Matrimony, Visiting the Sick, Burial, and Church
ing, there were ceremonies at that time to be
observed, which have been since abolished. To
ceremonies the people had long been accustomed.
Reasons were therefore given, which still keep
their place at the beginning of our Common
Prayer Book, " Why some are abolished, and
some retained." In the Act a provision was
added, authorizing the singing of psalms " at any
time." Whether this provision now introduced
into the service English versions of the Psalms
in metre, is uncertain. But as in 1549 a portion
of the Psalms thus translated by Sternhold was
published, and by him dedicated to Edward, it
leads us to suppose that they were admitted.
The same year indeed was fertile of these metrical
versions. By Wyatt, Coverdale, and Crowley,
such at that time were published : before it the
pen of the accomplished Surrey had been thus
employed. It has been sometimes said that the labour of
our Reformers, in this liturgical production, was
but small. In answer to those who have thus
unjustly depreciated it, Dr. Ridley has replied,
that they who represent them as doing little,
may observe ten material differences of the Re-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 69
formed Common Prayer as it was now framed,
and soon afterwards, revised from the Romish.
1 1. The service in the language which the people
know. II. Scripture lessons instead of legends.
III. The Scriptures orderly read through, instead
of a broken and interrupted course. IV. The
Creed more properly disposed. V. The Lord's
Prayer, more agreeable to Christ's appointment,
before reading and prayer. VI. Repeated aloud,
instead of secretly. VII. The Ave Mary and
commemoration of the Virgin omitted. VIII. The
monkish metrical hymns rejected. IX. As also
prayers for the dead. X. And addresses to saints,
together with the superstitious consecrating and
exorcising salt, water, bread, incense, candles,
palms, leaves of flowers, grapes, fire, bells,
images, altars, crosses, vessels, and garments.
Our service-book has been accordingly pro
nounced " 2 a compilation of ancient forms, selected
with prudence, corrected with judgment, and ar
ranged with simplicity." The copy of the first im
pression of it, 3 printed by Grafton in March
1548-9, Cranmer then presented to Edward. It was
reprinted in the following June, if not also before
1 Life of Ridley. 233.
2 Abp. Laurence, Bampt. Lect. 197.
3 Ames. Herbert. The price of the book unbound, which
is a folio, was " straitly charged" to be no more than two shil
lings and twopence ; bound in forel (a kind of parchment) to
be not above two shillings and tenpence ; in sheepskin to be at
three shillings and fourpence ; and in calfskin at four shillings.

70 THE LIFE OF
that time. In these distinct copies some verbal
variations, or arrangements, of the contents,
which however are unimportant, 1 have been
found. Almost immediately after the publication
of it, a 2 proclamation was made for the mass to
be put down throughout the whole realm ; al
though in the contents of the book the words,
" 3 commonly called the mass," as yet had not
been removed from the title of the Lord's Supper.
But Cranmer had removed it, in his 4 manuscript
remarks, from the king's Injunctions. What Jewell
afterwards eloquently observed to his Romish op
ponent, was now effected. " 5 The mass of itself
fell down, and fled away before the holy commu
nion, even as the darkness before the hght, and as
the idol Dagon fell down at the presence ofthe ark
of the God of Israel."
The new service-book was directed to come
into general use on the Whitsunday of 1549. But
by many of the clergy, who had received it im
mediately after its publication, it began to be
used at Easter ; and with the liveliest satisfaction
congregations now attended to intelligible devo
tions in the vernacular language. In appearance
1 Dr. Dibdin says, " it is rarely that three copies are found
alike." Typograph. Antiq. iii. 464.
2 April 6. Stow, 1005.
3 Grafton's Edit. March, 1549.
4 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 46.
5 Bishop Jewell's Reply to Hardinge, &c. 1565, p. 481.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 71
nearly the whole clergy conformed to it. But
some there were who waited only for an oppor
tunity to express, and to instigate, resistance to
it. , Among these we shall presently find the
worthless Bonner, who was slow to disperse the
book, and to enjoin the use of it, throughout his
diocese. He was watching the issue of the com
motions that soon were raised in several parts of
the kingdom. To the influence of refractory
priests one of the greatest of these commotions is
ascribed. After the first reading of this liturgy in
the church of Sampford Courtney, in Devon
shire, some of the parishioners insisted that on the
1 following day the rector should use, as in former
times, the Latin mass. To this apparent compul
sion the parish-priest himself is 2 supposed to
have invited them. Discontented because of in
closures that were made of what was once mo
nastic property, insurgents indeed were now
shewing themselves in other parts as well as the
west of England. The insurrection of the men
of Devonshire and Cornwall, however, which
began under the pretence of throwing open the
inclosures, was soon 3 found to have been chiefly
raised in maintenance of the old religion, and in
especial hostility to the new liturgy. Their own
proposals to the government exemplify this. San
ders himself admits it. In great numbers under
' 1 Whitmonday, June 10.
2 Heylin, 75. 3 Ibid.

72 THE LIFE OF
the command of a gentleman of Cornwall, and
under the encouragement of Romish priests, they
besieged but were unable to take the city of
Exeter. The commotion might at first have
been easily crushed. But the timidity and in
decision of government served to increase it.
Some of the 1 proclamations by the Protector,
in opposition to the Council, as they regarded
the inclosures, are believed to have encouraged
the rebellion. If instead of furnishing the lord
Russel, who was sent against them, with pro
clamations, the government had supplied him
with a force sufficient to awe a rude and mis
guided multitude, forty days and more would not
have elapsed ere a close, less sanguinary than it
really proved, was brought to this rebellion. To
convince these defeated insurgents of their errors,
Cranmer now undertook to answer at large the
preposterous demands which they had vainly
expected to be granted. This master-piece of
reasoning, as the work has rightly been 2 called,
while it exhibits consummate judgment, as well
as a perfect 'knowledge of the manners of the
lower people, exhibits also a large extent of
learning. But its greatest recommendation is,
that, " 4 in a narrow compass, it contains most of

1 Heylin, 75.
2 Brit. Crit. Jan. 1830. p. 57.
3 Gilpin, 141.
4 Brit. Crit. ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 73
the leading arguments which have since been
expanded, and variously diversified, by later di
vines ; and may be considered as the very essence
of Protestantism." Concurring with the learned
writer of this remark, I have thought it due to
the memory of the archbishop, and to the reli
gious establishment of our country, to copy into
these pages the whole of the answers. Admi
rably adapted as they are to the capacity of those
to whom they are addressed, and therefore to all
ranks of men, they may be a welcome novelty
to many, who are unacquainted with the work in
which they first appeared. Dr. Lingard has be
stowed upon them the title of * elaborate ; but,
at the same time, in order to depreciate them,
he observes, " 2 that one of the [[rebels')] articles
seems to have embarrassed the archbishop. The
Cornish men complained that they did not under
stand the English service ; he replied, that they
did not understand the Latin. But this was an eva
sion. Certainly on the same principle, on which he
contended that the English ought to have an Eng
hsh liturgy, the Irish, Welsh, and Cornish had a
right to a service in their own languages." All
this is adopted by Dr. Lingard from Sanders.
However, if the Cornish men had made such a
demand, and the archbishop had denied the pro-
1 Hist, of Eng. 8vo. viii. 61. s Ibid.

74 THE LIFE OF
priety of it, the censure would have been just. But
they ask only for the Latin service ; " the mass in
Latin, without any man or woman communicat
ing." Again, " we will not receive the new ser
vice," say they, " because it is but like a Christmas
game ; but we will have the old service of matins,
mass, even-song, and processions in Latin, as it
was before : and so we, the Cornish men, whereof
certain of us understand no English, utterly refuse
this new English." How can Cranmer be said to
be " embarrassed," or where is " evasion" when
his answer to their third article evidently implies,
by the admission that various nations have the
service in their own language, that to the Cornish
he would have given such a liturgy, if they had
required it, and if it could have been then pro
vided ; and when his answer to their eighth
article " 1 puts down not only the rebels, but their
modern advocate also, where the words are, As
concerning the having the service in the Latin
tongue, it is sufficiently spoken of in the answer
to the third article. But I would gladly know
the reason why the Cornish men refuse utterly
the new English as you call it, because certain of
you understand it not ; and yet you will have the
service in Latin which almost none of you under
stand. If this be a sufficient cause for Cornwall
to refuse the English service, because some of you
1 Brit. Crit. ut supr. 59.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 75
understand no English, a much greater cause have
they both of Cornwall and Devonshire to refuse
the late service, forasmuch as fewer of them
know the Latin tongue than they of Cornwall
the English tongue !"
The demands of the rebels, to which an inef
fectual " * message was sent by the king's Ma
jesty," were signed by Arundel, Underhill, Slo-
man, and Segar, who described themselves " 2 chief
captaynes;" and by John Thompson, priest,
Bray, mayor of Bodmin, Lee, mayor of Tor
rington, and Barret another priest, whose desig
nation was that of " the four governours of the
campes." Cranmer gave his answers in the fol
lowing words.
1 Ames, 207. 2 Ibid.

CHAPTER V.

1549.
The Answers of the Archbishop to the fifteen Articles of the
Devonshire rebels.
'When I first read your requests, O ignorant
men of Devonshire and Cornwall, straightway
came to my mind a request, which James and
John made unto Christ ; to whom Christ an
swered, You ask you wot not what. Even so
thought I of you as soon as ever I heard your
Articles, that you were deceived by some crafty
papist, which devised those Articles for you, to
make you ask you wist not what.
As for the devisers of your Articles, if they
understand them, I may not call them ignorant
persons, but, as they be indeed, most rank
papists, and wilful traitors and adversaries both
to God and our sovereign lord the king, and to
the whole realm. But I cannot be persuaded so
to think of you, that in your hearts willingly you
be papists and traitors ; but that those that be
1 From the MSS. C.C.C. Camb. Strype. Append. No. xl.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 77
such have craftily seduced you, being simple and
unlearned people, to ask you wot not what.
Wherefore my duty unto God, and the pity
that I have of your ignorance, move me now at
this time to open plainly and particularly your
own Articles unto you, that you may understand
them, and no longer be deceived.
In your first Article you require, that all the
general councils and holy decrees of our fore
fathers may be observed and kept, and whosoever
shall gainsay them to be holden as heretics.
This you all ask, but what you ask I dare say
very few, or none of you understand. For how
many of you, I pray you, do know certainly
which be called the 1 general councils, and holy
decrees of the Fathers, and what is in them con
tained ? The holy decrees, as they call them, be
nothing else but the laws and ordinances of the
bishop of Rome. Whereof the most part be
made for his own advancement, glory, and lucre ;
and to make him and his clergy governors ofthe
whole world; and to be exempted from all
princes' laws, and to do what they list. And
would you ask, if you knew what you asked, that
we should put away the laws of our own realm,
and be governed by the bishop of Rome's laws ?
If you mean this, then be ye traitors to the king,
1 See the archbishop's speech upon the subject of general
councils, vol. i. p, 120, seq.

78 THE LIFE OF
and enemies to your own realm. And if you
mean it not, consider what persons they be, and
how they have deceived you, that make you ask
you wot not what.
And as for the general councils, you say you
will have them all kept : but you be not so des
titute of all reason, that you would have spoken
such words, if you had known what you had said.
For a greater number of councils repugn one
against another. How should they then be all
kept, when one is contrary to another, and the
keeping of one is the breaking of another ? And
among your own Articles you say, you will have
divers things observed, which be not only con
trary to the general councils, but also contrary
to the laws of this realm, and also to God's laws,
as it shall be plainly declared, when we come to
the Articles.
And all reason is contrary that you should
have asked such things, if you had known what
you had asked. I have this opinion of the greater
number of you, that you would fain walk in the
right way, if you could find it. And forasmuch
as I perceive, that wicked and false guides, under
pretence to bring you to the high way, have
brought you clean out of it, my good will shall
be, seeing you so far wandering out of the way,
and so blind-folded with ill persuasions that you
cannot see where you go, to open your eyes that
you may see, and to set you again into the right

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 79
way. And when your eyes be so opened that
you may see, and the right way be shewed unto
you wherein you should walk ; then if you will
still wink, and not see, and run headlong into
error, and not come to the right way, you may
no longer be called simple and ignorant people,
but perverse, froward, and wicked papists and
traitors, enemies to God and your own realm.
But now I will come to your Articles, particu
larly opening every one of them by himself, that
you may see the bowels thereof, and what is con
tained in the same ; that when you shall under
stand the whole, you may judge whether you
knew before what you asked, or you were de
ceived by subtil and wily papistical traitors.
I. Your First Article is this. We will have
all the general councils and holy decrees of our fore
fathers observed, kept, and performed : and whoso
ever shall gainsay them, we hold them as heretics.
First, to begin with the manner of your phrase.
Is this the fashion of subjects to speak unto their
prince ; we will have ? Was this manner of speech
at any time used of the subjects to their prince,
since the beginning of the world ? Have not all
true subjects ever used to their sovereign lord
this form of speaking, Most humbly beseecheth
your faithful and obedient subjects ? Although the
papists have abused your ignorance in propound
ing such Articles, which you understand not, yet
you should not have suffered yourselves so much
1

80 THE LIFE OF
to be led by the nose, and bridled by them, that
you should clearly forget your duty of allegiance
unto your sovereign lord, saying unto him, This
we will have ; and saying that with armour upon
your backs and swords in your hands. Would
any of you, that be householders, be content,
that your servants should come upon you with
harness unto their backs, and swords in their
hands, and say unto you, This we will have? If
then you would abhor and detest this in your ser
vants towards yourselves, how can you allow your
fact ? With what conscience can you, being but
subjects, do to your king that thing, which you
would condemn in your servants towards your
selves ? But answer me this, Be you subjects or
no ? If you be subjects, then I admonish you,
as St. Paul taught Titus, saying, " Warn them to
be subject to princes, and rulers, obeying them at
a word." But tell me again, Pertaineth this to
subjection and obedience to say, This we will
have ? St. Peter saith, " Be subject unto kings,
as unto chief heads, and to other rulers sent by
them. For so is the will of God." God's will is,
that you should be ruled by your princes. But
whether this is to be ruled by your king, or to
rule your king, to say, Thus we will have the realm
governed? Your servants be by the Scripture
commanded, as they fear God, to be obedient to
their masters, whether their masters be good or
evil. And can you think it meet and lawful for

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 81
you to disobey your undoubted king, being a
prince most innocent, most godly, and most care
ful for your sorrow and wealth? If any thing
can declare disobedience, what can declare it more
than subjects to come with force of arms to their
natural king and prince, and say, This we will
have ?
But now, leaving your rude and unhandsome
manner of speech to your most sovereign lord, I will
come to the point, and join with you in the effect
of your first Article. You say, you will have all
the holy decrees observed and kept. But do you
know what they be ? The holy decrees, as I told
you before, be called the bishop of Rome's ordi
nances and laws. Which how holy and godly so
ever they be called, they be indeed so wicked, so
ungodly, so full of tyranny and so partial, that
since the beginning of the world, were never
devised or invented the like. I shall rehearse
certain of them, that yourselves may see how
holy they be, and may say your minds, whether
you would have them kept or no. And at the
hearing of them, if you shall not think them meet
to be kept here in this realm, then you may see
how they deceived you, that moved you to ask
this Article. And if you like them, and would
have them kept, after you know what they be,
then I say assuredly, that you be not only wicked
papists, but also heretics, and most heinous trai
tors to the king and this his realm. And yet how
VOL. II. G

82 THE LIFE OF
an absolute papist varieth from a heretic or
traitor, I know not ; but that a papist is also both
a heretic and a traitor withal.
One decree saith, " That whosoever doth not
acknowledge himself to be under the obedience
of the bishop of Rome is a heretic." Now an
swer me to this question, Whether be you under
the obedience of the bishop of Rome, or not ? If
you say that you be under his obedience, then be
you traitors by the laws of this realm. And if
you deny it, then be you heretics by this decree.
And shift there is none to save you from treason,
but to renounce this decree, that commandeth
you to be under the bishop of Rome ; and so to
confess contrary to your own first Article, That
all decrees are not to be kept.
Yet a great ' many other decrees be as evil, and
worse than this. One saith, " That all princes'
laws, which be against a decree of the bishop of
Rome, be void, and of no strength." Another
decree saith, " That all the decrees of the bishop
of Rome ought for ever to be kept of all men, as
God's Word." Another decree there is, " That
whosoever receiveth not the law of the bishop of
Rome, neither availeth him the catholic faith, nor
the four Evangelists : for his sin shall never be
forgiven." Yet there is a worse and more detest
able decree, " That all kings and princes, that
1 See also vol. i. p. 358.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 83
suffer the bishop of Rome's decrees to be broken
in any point, are to be taken as infidels." Another
is there also, " That the bishop of Rome is bound
to no manner of decrees, but he may constrain
all other persons, both spiritual and temporal, to
receive all his decrees and canons." Another is
yet more devilish than any before rehearsed,
" That although the bishop of Rome neither re
gard his own salvation, nor any man's else, but
put down with himself headlong innumerable
people by heaps unto hell, yet may no mortal
man presume to reprove him therefore." But
what should I tarry, and make you weary in re
hearsing a number ? For a thousand other like
canons and decrees there be, to the advancement
of the bishop of Rome's usurped power and
authority. I cannot think of you, that you be so far from
all godliness, from all wit and discretion, that you
would have these decrees observed within this
realm, which be so blasphemous to God, so in
jurious to all princes and realms, and so far from
all equity and reason. But here you may easily
perceive what wily foxes you met withal, which
persuaded you to arm yourselves, to make sedition
in your own country, to stand against your
princes, and the laws of your realm, for such Ar
ticles as you understand not, and to ask you wist
not what. For I dare say for you, that the subtil
papists, when they moved you to stand in this
g 2

84 THE LIFE OF
Article, that all the holy decrees should be ob
served, they shewed you nothing of these decrees,
that they would have taken for holy decrees. For
if they had, they knew right well, that you would
never have consented unto this Article ; but would
have taken them for traitors, that first moved you
thereto. For now shall I shew you what miserable case
you should bring yourselves unto, if the king's
Majesty should assent unto this first Article, that
all the decrees should be kept and observed. For
among other partial decrees made in favour of the
clergy, this is one, " That none of the clergy
shall be called, or sued, before any temporal
judge, for any manner of cause, either for debt,
suit of lands, felony, murder, or for any other
cause or crime ; nor shall have any other judge,
but his bishop only." Another is, " That a spiri
tual man may sue a temporal man before a tem
poral or spiritual judge at his pleasure ; but a
temporal man cannot sue a spiritual, but only be
fore his ordinary." I cannot deny, but these
piave^ been good and beneficial laws for the
liberty of the clergy ! But for your own part, I
suppose you do not think it any indifferent law,
that a priest shall sue you where he list with the
licence of his ordinary; and you shall sue him
for no manner of cause, but only before his own
ordinary : or if a priest had slain one of your
sons or brother, that you should have no remedy

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 85
against him, but only before the bishop. What
mean those papistical priests, that stirred you to
ask and will such decrees and laws to be observed
in this realm, but covertly and craftily to bring
you under their subjection ? And that you your
selves ignorantly asking you wist not what, should
put your own heads under their girdles ?
For surely if you had known these decrees, when
you consented to this Article, you would have torn
the Article in pieces, and they that moved you
thereto also. For these decrees be not only par
tial, and against all equity an:l reason, made only
for the favour of the clergy, and the suppression
of the laity; but also they be, and ever have
been, clearly contrary to the laws and customs of
this realm. And yet by this Article you will have
the old ancient laws and customs of this realm
(which have ever been used in all kings' times
hitherto) to be void and to cease, and these de
crees to come in their place, and be observed of
all men, and gainsaid of no man. For whosoever
speaketh against them, you will hold them for
heretics. And in so saying look what sentence
you give of yourselves, although your Article say
it, yet I am sure you be not so much enemies to
your own realm, that you would have the old an
cient laws and customs of this realm (for the de
fence whereof all the noble kings of this realm
have so valiantly and so justly stood against the
bishops of Rome) now to be taken away and give

86 THE LIFE OF
place unto Romish decrees. And then by your
own Article you hold and condemn yourselves to
be heretics.
How be you bewitched by these false papists !
Why do you suffer them to abuse you by their
subtilty, to make you condemn yourselves of he
resy ? Why do you not send them unto the
king's Majesty, like arrant traitors, as indeed they
be, saying unto him, " Most mighty prince, and
most dread sovereign lord, we present here unto
you most heinous traitors against your Majesty
and realm, and greatest dissemblers and falsest
deceivers of us, your simple and ignorant people,
and yet in our own hearts your true and faithful
subjects. We have erred, we have grievously
offended your Majesty : but by ignorance being
so seduced, and provoked by the crafty persua
sions of these most heinous traitors, that we wist
not what we did. But pardon us, sovereign lord,
have pity upon our simplicity and ignorance ; and
these abominable traitors punish, according to
their deservings. Have mercy, most merciful
prince, of us, your poor flock, which were igno-
rantly led out of the way, and strike with the
swords those malicious guides, that purposely
would have led us to our utter destruction."
If you did thus, then would you do the parts of
true, faithful, and loyal subjects ; and should de
clare to the world, that all that you have hitherto
done was done by error and ignorance. And I

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 87
would nothing doubt of the king's Majesty's cle
mency and mercy towards you.
But yet, to the intent that you may further
know how unreasonable your first Article is, I will
yet rehearse another sort of the holy laws and
decrees. One is, " That no layman may have a
benefice to farm." Another is, " That none of
the clergy may give any thing to the relief of the
common weal and necessity of their own realm,
without the consent of the bishop of Rome."
Another is, " That no layman may meddle with
election, or any other thing that pertaineth unto
any of the clergy." Another is, " That none of
the clergy ought to give any oath of fidelity to
their princes, except they have temporal lands of
them." Another is, " That princes ought to obey
the bishops, and the decrees of the Church, and
to submit their heads unto their bishops, and not
to be judges over the bishops." Another is, " Who^
soever offendeth the liberties of the church, or
doth break any interdiction that cometh from
Rome, or conspireth against the person or estate
of the bishop or see of Rome, or by any manner
offendeth, disobeyeth, or rebelleth against the
same bishop or see, or that killeth a priest, or
offendeth personally against a bishop or other
prelate, or invadeth, spoileth, withholdeth, or
wasteth lands belonging the church of Rome, or
to any other church, immediately subject unto
Rome, or whosoever invadeth any pilgrims that go
1

88 THE LIFE OF
to Rome, or any suitors to the court of Rome, or
that let the devolution of causes unto that court,
or that put any new charges or impositions, real
or personal, upon a church, or ecclesiastical per
son ;" and generally, " all others that offend in
the cases contained in the bull," which is usually
published by the bishop of Rome upon Maundy
Thursday ; all these can be assoiled by no priest,
bishop, archbishop, nor by any other, but only
by the bishop of Rome, or by his express licence.
These, with an infinite number of like sort, be
the godly and holy decrees, which you long so
sore for, and so much desire.
Now would I know, whether you think that
these decrees were made for the commonwealth
of all realms, or only for the private weal of the
bishop of Rome, and of his bishops and clergy ?
And whether you like and long for these laws ;
or now, at the hearing of them, your longing is
done 1 If you like them, well, for my part, I
would you had them practised among you for a
while, so that the rest of the realm were not
troubled, neither with you, nor with your de
crees, unless you repented yourselves of your
foolish demands. I think within a year you would
kneel on your knees to the king's Majesty, de
siring him to take from your necks the yokes and
halters which you had made for yourselves.
But to conclude the sum of the first Article in
few words. It is nothing else but a clear subver-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 89
sion of the whole state and laws of this realm ;
and to make this realm to be whole governed by
Romish laws, and to crown the idol and antichrist
of Rome king of this realm, and to make our most
undoubted and natural king his vile subject and
slave. O ! what was in your minds to ask such
a thing, and so presumptuously to say, that you
will have ! I trust there be not in you so much
malice and devilishness, as the Article containeth ;
but that you were craftily suborned by subtil pa
pists to ask and demand you wist not what.
If you had asked, that the Word of God might
be duly observed and kept every where within this
realm; and whosoever would gainsay God's Word,
to be holden as a heretic : If you had declared
yourselves to be godly men ; all that be godly
would have commended and furthered your re
quests: But forasmuch as you ask Romish canons
and decrees to be observed and kept here in Eng
land, and whosoever shall gainsay them, to be
holden as heretics, there is neither godly nor
truly English man that will allow you, or consent
to your Articles. But clean contrary to your Ar
ticles, a great number of godly persons within
this realm, for the very love they have to God,
that His Name may be glorified above all things,
be daily humble suitors to the king's Majesty, that
he, following the steps of his father, will study
and travail to weed out of this his realm all popish
decrees, laws and canons, and whatsoever else is

90 THE LIFE OF
contrary to God's Word ; and that the speakers
against God's Word may be taken, as they be in
deed, for heretics. And is any of you so far from
reason, that bethinketh the king's Majesty ought
to hearken to you, that by force and stubbornness
say, you will have Romish laws and decrees kept
in this realm, and to turn his ears from them that
with all humility be suitors for God's Word 1
But now will I come to your other Articles,
wherein I will be brief, forasmuch as in the first
I have been long and tedious.
II. Your Second Article is this. We will have
the law of oar sovereign lord king Henry VIII.
concerning the Six Articles, to be used again, as in
his time they were.
Letting pass your rude style, nothing becoming
subjects to say, you will have, First, I examine
you of the cause of your wilful will, wherefore
you will have these Six Articles, which never were
laws in any region, but this ; nor in this realm
also, until the 31st year of king Henry VIII. ;
and in some things so enforced by the evil counsel
of certain papists against the truth, and common
judgment, both of divines and lawyers, that if the
king's Majesty himself had not come personally
into the parliament house, those laws had never
passed. And yet within a year, or little more,
the same most noble prince was fain to temper
his said laws, and moderate them in divers points.
So that the statute of Six Articles continued in

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 91
force little above the space of one year. Is this
then so great a matter to make these uproars, and
to arise against the whole realm ? Will you take
away the present laws of this realm, which be and
ever have been the laws of all other countries
also, and set up new laws, which never were, but
in this realm only, and were here in force not
fully thirteen months ? And how chanceth it, that
you be so earnest in this Article, which is directly
contrary to your first Article, but that you know
not what either of the Articles meaneth ; but be
persuaded by papists to ask you wot not what ?
But now here is the repugnance of the two Arti
cles : By your First you will have all general
councils and decrees observed and kept ; and by
your Second Article you will have the Six Articles
used again. Then let us compare the general
councils and decrees with the Six Articles ; and
you shall see them agree as well together, as black
and white.
First, it is contained in the canons of the Apos
tles that a priest under no pretence of hohness may
put away his wife ; and if he do, he shall be ex
communicate. And the Six Articles say, that if
any priest put not away his wife, he shall be taken
for a felon. If he keep her not still, he must be
excommunicate by the canons of the Apostles.
And if he keep her still, he must suffer death by
the Six Articles. You be cunning men, if you
can set these together. Also the Council of Nice,

92 THE LIFE OF
which was the chief of all the general councils,
and was celebrated more than twelve hundred
years past, 1 decreed clean contrary to the Six
Articles. For where the Six Articles command
all priests to be separate from their wives, the
Nicene Council determined clean contrary, that
they should not be separated, confessing such
conjunction to be holy and godly. And the
Council of Gangrense, which was about the same
time, so much allowed the marriage of priests,
that they accursed them that would abstain from
the ministration of priests, because they were
married. These councils vary so far from the
Six Articles, that either you must put the general
councils out of your book, or else the Six Ar
ticles. Likewise, concerning private masses, the law
of Six Articles far differeth from the canon of
the Apostles, and from the councils, Nicene and
Antioch, as shall be declared in the next Article.
Other things there be divers also in the Six
Articles, which cannot stand with sundry old
canons, decrees, and councils. So that if you will
stand to the canons, decrees, and councils, you
must of force be constrained utterly to put out of
your book your second Article, which requireth
the usage of the Six Articles. But now for
shortness of time I will come to your third
Article.
1 See before as to the marriage of priests, vol. i. p. 267.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 93
III. Your Third Article is this. We will have the
mass in Latin, as was before, and celebrated by the
priest, without any man or woman communicating
with him.
Forasmuch as there is nothing with you but
will, let your will be conferred with reason and
God's Word ; and then you shall see how far your
will differeth from them both : First, as touching
the Latin masses, Whatsoever the priest saith in
the old masses, whether he pray and ask any
thing of God, or give thanks to God, or make
the true profession of the faith, or whatsoever he
doth besides, all he doth in your persons and in
your names ; and you answer unto that, which
he saith, sometimes Amen, sometimes, Et cum
spiritu tuo ; and sometimes other things, as the
matter serveth. For all the whole that is done
should be the act of the people, and pertain to
the people, as well as to the priest. And stand
eth it with reason, that the priest should speak
for you, and in your name, and you answer him
again in your own persons ; and yet you under
stand never a word, neither what he saith, nor
what you say yourselves ? The priest prayeth to
God for you, and you answer Amen you wot not
whereto. Is there any reason herein ? Will you
not understand what the priest prayeth for you ?
What thanks he giveth for you ? What he asketh
for you ? Will you neither understand what he
saith, nor let your hearts understand what your

94 THE LIFE OF
own tongues answer ? Then must you needs con
fess yourselves to be such people as Christ spake
of, when he said, " These people honour me with
their lips, but their hearts be far from me." Had
you rather be like pies or parrots that be taught
to speak, and yet understand not one word what
they say, than be true Christian men that pray
unto God in heart and in faith ? The priest is
your proctor and attorney, to plead your cause,
and to speak for you all ; and had you rather
not know, than know, what he saith for you ? I
have heard suitors murmur at the bar, because
their attornies have pleaded their cases in the
French tongue, which they understood not. Why
then be you offended, that the priests which plead
your cause before God, should speak such lan
guage as you may understand? If you were
before the king's Highness, and should choose
one to speak for you all, I am sure you would
not choose one that should speak Greek or He
brew, French or Italian ; no, nor one that should
speak Latin neither. But you would be glad to
provide such one, as should speak your own
language, and speak so loud, that you might both
hear him, and understand him ; that you might
allow or disallow that which he said in your
names. Why do you then refuse to do the like
unto God ?
When the priest desireth any thing of God for
you, or giveth thanks for you, how can you in

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 95
your heart confirm his sayings, when you know
not one word what he saith ? For the heart is
not moved with words that be not understood.
But if reason will not persuade you, I will
prove what God's Word will do unto you. St.
Paul, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, saith,
that whosoever shall speak to the people in the
church to their edification, must speak such lan
guage as the people may understand : or else he
willeth him to hold his peace, and speak softly
to himself and to God. For he which speaketh
in a strange language, which the people under
stand not, doth not edify them, as St. Paul saith.
And he giveth an example of the trumpet in the
field, which when it giveth such a sound, that
the soldier understandeth, it availeth much. For
every soldier thereby knoweth what to do. But
if such a blast be blown as no man understand
eth, then the blast is utterly in vain. For no
man knoweth thereby whether the horsemen shall
make them ready, or leap upon horseback, or go
to their standard ; or whether the footmen shall
make ready, or set themselves in array, or set
upon the enemy, or retire to the standard. Even
so should the priest be God's trump in his church.
So that if he blow such a certain blast, that the
people may understand, they be much edified
thereby. But if he give such a sound, as is to
the people unknown, it is clearly in vain, saith

96 THE LIFE OF
St. Paul. For he speaks to the air, but no man
is the better or edified thereby; nor knoweth
what he should do by that he heareth. Further
more in the same place St. Paul saith, that if a
man giveth thanks to God in a language to the
people unknown, how can they say Amen to that
they understand not? He doth well in giving
thanks to God ; but that nothing availeth or
edifieth the people, that know not what he saith.
And St. Paul in one brief sentence concludeth his
whole disputation of that matter, saying, " I had
rather have five words spoken in the church to the
instruction and edifying of the people, than ten
thousand in a language unknown, that edifieth
not." And for this purpose allegeth the prophet
Esay, who saith, that " God will speak to his people
in other languages." Meaning thereby that He
would speak to every country in their own lan
guage. So have the Greeks the mass in the Greek
tongue, the Syrians in the Syriac tongue, the Ar
menians in their tongue, and the Indians in their
own tongue. And be you so much addicted to the
Romish tongue, which is the Latin tongue, that
ye will have 'your mass in none other language,
but the Romish language ? Christ himself used
among the Jews the Jews' language ; and willeth
his Apostles to do the like in every country
wheresoever they came. And be you such enemies
to your own country, that you will not suffer us

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 97 .
to laud God, to thank him, and to use his sacraments
in our own tongue ; but will inforce us contrary, as
well to all reason, as to the Word of God ?
So many as be godly, or have reason, will be
satisfied with this. But the mere papists will be
satisfied with nothing. Wherefore I will no
longer tarry to satisfy them that never will be
satisfied, but will proceed to the second part of
the Article, wherein you say, that you will have
neither men nor women communicate with the
priest. Alas! good simple souls, how be you
blinded with the papists ! How contrary be your
Articles to one another ! You say in your first
Article, that you will have all general councils
and decrees observed, and now you go from them
yourselves. You say, you will have nobody to
communicate with the priest. Hear then what
divers canons, decrees, and general councils say
clean against you. There is one decree which
saith thus, " When the consecration is done, let
all the people receive the communion, except
they will be put out of the church." And in the
canons of the Apostles, in the eighth chapter, is
contained, " That whensoever there is any mass,
or communion, if any bishop, priest, deacon, or
any other of the clergy, being there present, do
not communicate, (except he can shew some rea
sonable cause to the contrary,) he shall be put
out of the communion, as one that giveth occa
sion to the people to think evil of the ministers."
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98 THE LIFE OF
And in the ninth chapter of the same canons of
the Apostles, and in the general council held at
Antioch, is thus written, " That all Christian
people that come into the Church, and hear the
Holy Scriptures read, and after will not tarry to
pray, and to receive the holy communion, with
the rest of the people ; but for some misordering of
themselves, will abstain therefrom, let them be put
out of the Church, until by humble acknowledg
ing of their fault, and by the fruits of penance
and prayers they obtain pardon and forgiveness."
And the council of Nicene also sheweth the order,
how men should sit in receiving the communion,
and who should receive first. All these decrees
and general councils utterly condemn your third
Article, wherein you will that the priest shall re
ceive the communion alone, without any man or
woman communicating with him. And the whole
Church of Christ also, both Greeks and Latins,
many hundred years after Christ, and the Apos
tles, do all condemn this your Article; which
ever received communion in flocks and numbers
together, and not the priest alone.
And besides this, the very words of the mass,
as it is called, shew plainly, that it is ordained not
only for the priest, but for others also to commu
nicate with the priest. For in the very canon,
which they so much extol, and which is so holy,
that no man may know what it is, (and therefore
is read so softly that no man can hear it,) in that
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 99
same canon, I say, is a prayer concerning this ;
" that not only the priest, but also as many beside
as communicate with him, may be fulfilled with
grace and heavenly benediction." How agreeth
this prayer with your Article, wherein you say,
that neither man nor woman shall communicate
with the priest ? In another place also ofthe said
canon, the priest prayeth for himself, and " for all
that receive the communion with him, that it may
be a preparation for them unto everlasting life."
Which prayer were but a very fond prayer, and a
very mocking with God, if nobody should com
municate with the priest. And the communion
concludes with two prayers in the name of the
priest, and them that communicate with him,
wherein they pray thus : " O Lord, that thing
which we have taken in our mouth, let us take it
also with pure minds, that this communion may
purge us from our sins, and make us partakers of
heavenly remedy." And besides all this, there be
an infinite sort of post-communions in the mass-
books. Which all do evidently shew that in the
masses the people did communicate with the
priest. And although I would exhort every good Chris
tian man often to receive the holy communion ;
yet I do not recite all these things to the intent,
that I would in this corrupt world, (when men live
so ungodly as they do,) that the old canons should
be restored again, which command every man
h 2

100 THE LIFE OF
present to receive the communion with the priest.
Which canons, if they were now used, I fear that
many would receive it unworthily. But I speak
them to condemn your Articles, which would have
nobody, neither man nor woman, to be commu
nicated with the priest. Which your Article con
demneth the old decrees, canons, and general
councils, condemneth all the old primitive church,
all the old, ancient, holy doctors and martyrs,
and all the forms and manner of masses, that ever
were made, both new and old. Therefore eat
again this Article, if you will not be condemned
of the whole world, and of yourselves also by your
first Article : wherein you will all decrees and
general councils to be observed. But forasmuch
as I have been so tedious in this Article, I will
endeavour myself to be shorter in the next.
IV. Your Fourth Article is this. We will
have the sacrament hang over the high altar, and
there to be worshipped, as it was wont to be ; and
they which will not thereto consent, we will have
them die like heretics against the holy catholic faith.
What say you, O ignorant people, in things
pertaining to God ? Is this the holy catholic faith,
that the sacrament should be hanged over the
altar and worshipped ? And be they heretics that
will not consent thereto ? I pray you, who made
this faith ? Any other but the bishops of Rome ?
And that after more than a thousand years after
the faith of Christ was full and perfect. Innocent

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 101
III. about 1215 years after Christ did ordain, that
the sacrament and chrism should be kept under
lock and key. But yet no mention he made of
1 hanging the sacrament over the high altar, nor
of the worshipping it. After him came Honorius
III. and he added further, commanding that the
sacrament should be devoutly kept in a clean
place, and sealed, and that the priest should often
teach the people reverently to bow down to the
host when it is lifted up in the mass time, and
when the priests should carry it to the sick folks.
And although this Honorius added the worship
ping of the sacrament, yet he made no mention
of the hanging thereof over the high altar, as
your Article proposeth. Nor how long after, or by
what means, that came first up into this realm, I
think no man can tell. And in Italy it is not yet
used until this day. And in the beginning of the
Church it was not only not used to be hanged up,
but also it was utterly forbid to be kept.
And will you have all them that will not con
sent to your Article to die like heretics, that hold
against the catholic faith ? Were the Apostles
and Evangelists heretics ? Were the martyrs and
confessors heretics ? Were all the old doctors of
the church heretics ? Were all Christian people
heretics, until within three or four hundred years
last past, that the bishops of Rome taught them
1 See before, in the present volume, p. 22.

102 THE LIFE OF
what they should do and believe ? All they, be
fore rehearsed, neither hanged the sacrament
over the altar, nor worshipped it ; and not one of
them all spake any one word either of the hang
ing up, or worshipping of the sacrament. Marry,
they speak very much of the worshipping of
Christ himself, sitting in heaven at the right hand
of his Father. And no man doth duly receive the
sacrament, except he so, after that manner, do
worship Christ, whom he spiritually receiveth,
spiritually feedeth and nourisheth upon, and by
whom spiritually he liveth, and continueth that
life that is towards God. And this the sacrament
teacheth us.
Now to knit up this Article shortly. Here is
the issue of this matter ; that you must either
condemn of heresy the Apostles, martyrs, con
fessors, doctors, and all the holy Church of Christ,
until the time of Innocentius and Honorius, be
cause they hanged not the sacrament over the
altar to be worshipped ; or else you must be con
demned yourselves, by your own Article, to die
like heretics against the holy catholic faith. Now
to your fifth Article.
V. Your Fifth Article is this. We will have
the sacrament of the altar but at Easter delivered
to the lay people, and then but in one kind.
Methinks you be like a man that was brought
up in a dark dungeon, that never saw light, and
knew nothing that is abroad in the world; and

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 103
if a friend of his, pitying his ignorance and state,
would bring him out of his dungeon, that he might
see the light and come to knowledge, he, being
from his youth used to darkness, could not abide
the hght, but would wilfully shut his eyes, and be
offended both with the light, and with his friend
also. A most godly prince, of famous memory, king
Henry VIII. our late sovereign lord, pitying to
see his subjects many years so brought up in
darkness, and ignorance of God, by the erroneous
doctrines and superstitions ofthe bishop of Rome,
with the counsel of all his nobles and learned
men, studied by all means, and that to his no
little danger and charges, to bring you out of
your said ignorance and darkness unto the true
light and knowledge of God's Word. And our
most dread sovereign lord that now is, succeed
ing his father, as well in this godly intent, as in
his realms and dominions, hath, with no less care
and diligence, studied to perform his father's godly
intent and purpose. And you, like men that wil
fully shut their own eyes, refuse to receive the
hght, saying you will remain in your darkness.
Or rather you be like men that be so far wan
dered out of the right way, that they can never
come to it again without good and expert guides ;
and yet when the guides would tell you the truth,
they would not be ordered by them, but would
say unto them, We will have, and follow, our own
ways.

104 THE LIFE OF
And that you may understand how far you be
wandered from the right way in this one Article,
wherein you will have the sacrament of the altar
delivered to the lay people but once in the year,
and then but under one kind, be you assured
that there was never such a law, nor such request,
made among Christian people until this day.
What injury do you to many godly persons, which
would devoutly receive it many times, and you
command the priest to deliver it them but at
Easter ! All learned men and godly have exhorted
Christian people, (although they have not com
manded them,) often to receive the communion.
And, in the Apostles' time, the people at Jerusa
lem received it every day, as it appears by the
manifest word of the Scripture. And, after, they
received it in some places every day ; in some
places four times in the week: in some three
times ; some twice ; commonly every where at the
least once in the week. In the beginning, when
men were most godly and fervent in the Holy Spi
rit, then they received the communion daily. But
when the Spirit of God began to be more cold in
men's hearts, and they waxed more worldly than
godly, then their desire was not so hot to receive
the communion, as it was before. And ever from
time to time, as the world waxed more wicked,
the more the people withdrew themselves from
the holy communion. For it was so holy a thing ;
and the threatenings of God be so sore against

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 105
them that come thereto unworthily, that an un
godly man abhorreth it, and not without cause
dare in no wise approach thereunto. But, to them
that live godly, it is the greatest comfort that in
this world can be imagined. And the more godly
a man, the more sweetness, and spiritual pleasure,
and desire, he shall have often to receive it. And
will you be so ungodly to command the priest,
that he shall not deliver it to him but at Easter ;
and then but only in one kind ; when Christ or
dained both the kinds, as well for the laymen as
for the priests, and that to be eaten and drunken
at all times ?
What enemies be you to all laymen, and to
yourselves also, to refuse to drink of Christ's cup,
which he commanded all men to drink, upon say
ing, " Take and divide this among you ; and,
" Drink ye all of it!"
But need any more be brought for the reprov
ing of this Article than your own first Article,
where you will have kept all decrees and councils ?
Now in the decrees De Consecrat. Di. 2. there is
one decree that commandeth all men to receive
the communion at the least thrice in the year, at
Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. Another
commandeth every man to receive the same upon
1 Shere- Thursday. The council Agathense saith,
1 The Thursday before Easter, formerly so called. See Dr.
Wordsworth's Ecc. Biogr. i. 295, and Nares's Glossary under
the phrase.

106 THE LIFE OF
that all laymen which receive not the communion
at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, shall not
be taken for catholics. And the decree of Gela
sius, that the receiving under one kind is great
sacrilege. Then by your first Article you do not
only condemn your fifth Article, but also you
shew yourselves not to be catholics, except you
receive the communion at the least three times in
the year ; and that under both kinds. Which is
clean repugnant to this Article. And yet I pray
God, you receive it worthily once in your life ;
which you shall never do, except you wonderfully
repent this your misbehaviour ; and all your life
time study to amend and redress that you have
now offended. Now to your sixth Article.
VI. Your Sixth Article is this. We will that
our curates shall minister the sacrament of baptism
at all times', as well in the week day, as on the holy
day. Who letteth your ministers to baptize your child
every day, if any case of necessity so do require ?
But commonly it is more convenient that Baptism
should not be ministered but upon the holiday,
when the most number of people be together ; as
well for that the whole church there present may
rejoice together at the receiving of new members
of Christ into the same church, as also, that all
men, being present, may remember, and the better
know, what they promised themselves by their god
fathers and godmothers in their own baptism ; and

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 107
be the more earnestly stirred in their hearts to
perform the same ; and also may altogether pray
for them that be baptized, that they may have
grace to perform their profession. St. Gregory
Nazianzene, as great a clerk as ever was in Christ's
Church, and master to St. Hierom, counselled that
children should not be christened until they came
to three years of age, or thereabouts, except they
were in danger of life. And it was thought suffi
cient to our forefathers to be done twice in the
year, at Easter and Whitsuntide, as it appeareth
by divers of their councils, and decrees, which
forbid baptism to be ministered at any other time
than Easter and Whitsuntide, except in case of
necessity. And there remained lately divers signs
and tokens thereof. For every Easter and Whitsun-
even, until this time, the fonts were hallowed in
every church, and many collects and other prayers
were read for them that were baptized. But
alas! in vain, and as it were a mocking with
God. For at those times, except it were by
chance, none were baptized, but all were baptized
before. For as vigils, otherwise called watchings,
remain in the calendars upon certain saints' evens,
because in old times the people watched all those
nights; and Vigilantius, because he speaketh
against these watchings, was condemned of he
resy ; but now these many years those vigils re
mained in vain in the books, for no man did watch :

108 THE LIFE OF
even so, until this day, the order and form of chris
tening was read and kept every year at Easter and
Whitsuntide, but none was then christened.
Wherein it appeareth how far we be swerved from
our forefathers.
And, to conclude this Article shortly, if you
will needs have Baptism ministered no more at
one time than another, then must you needs re
nounce your first Article ; which willeth the coun
cils and decrees of the forefathers to be observed
and kept. And this briefly sufficeth for the sixth
Article. VII. Your Seventh Article is this. We will
have holy bread and holy water every Sunday, palms
and ashes at the time accustomed ; images to be set
up again in every church ; and all other ancient,
old ceremonies, used heretofore by our mother holy
Church. O superstition and idolatry, how they prevail
among you ! The very true, heavenly bread of
life, the food of everlasting life, offered unto you
in the sacrament of the holy communion, you re
fuse to eat, but only at Easter. And the cup of
the most holy blood, wherewith you were re
deemed and washed from your sins, you refuse
utterly to drink of at any time. And yet in the
stead of these you will eat often of the unsavoury
and poisoned bread of the bishop of Rome, and
drink o£ his stinking puddles, which he nameth

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 109
holy bread and holy water. Consider, O ignorant
people, the authors and intents of the makers of
them both. The water of baptism, and the holy
bread and wine of the holy communion, none
other person did ordain but Christ himself. The
other that is called ' holy bread, holy water, holy
ashes, holy palms, and all other like ceremonies,
ordained the bishops of Rome, adversaries to
Christ, and therefore rightly called antichrist.
And Christ ordained his bread, and his wine, and
his water, to our great comfort, to instruct us,
and teach us what things we have only by him.
But antichrist, on the other side, hath set up his
superstitions, under the name of holiness, to none
other intent, but as the devil seeketh all means to
draw us from Christ, so doth antichrist advance
his holy superstitions, to the intent that we should
take him in the stead of Christ, and believe that
we have by him such things, as we have only by
Christ : that is to say, spiritual food, remission of
our sins, and salvation.
First, Our Saviour Christ ordained the water
of Baptism to signify unto us, that as the water
washeth our bodies outwardly, so we be spiri
tually within washed by Christ from all our sins.
And as the water is called water of regeneration,
or new birth, so it declareth unto us, that through
Christ we be born anew, and begin a new life
1 See before, vol. i. p. 330, and the present vol. p. 15.

110 THE LIFE OF
towards God ; and that Christ is the beginning of
this new life. And as the body that is new born,
although it have life within it, yet can it not con
tinue in the spiritual life towards God, except we
be continually nourished with spiritual food ; and
that spiritual food is Christ also. For as he is
the first beginning of our spiritual life, so is he
the continuance and ending thereof. And for this
cause did Christ ordain in the holy communion to
be eaten bread and drunken wine, that we should
surely believe, that as our bodies be fed with
bread and wine in these holy mysteries, so be we
out of doubt, that our souls be fed ' spiritually
with the lively food of Christ's body and blood ;
whereby we have remission of our sins and salva
tion. But the bishop of Rome invented new de
vices of his own making, and by them promised
remission of sins and salvation, that he might be
set up and honoured for a saviour equal to Christ ;
and so to be esteemed above creatures, and to
sit in the temple of God, that is in the Church of
Christ, as he were God.
And to bring this to pass he hath horribly
abused holy Scriptures, altering them to his pur
pose, in the stead of Christ's most holy blood,
putting in his holy water. As it appeareth evi
dently in this sentence of St. Paul, written in the
ninth chapter of the Hebrews : " If the blood of
1 See before, in the present vol. p. 55.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. Ill
oxen and goats," saith St. Paul, " and the ashes
of a young cow purified the unclean, as touching
the purifying of the flesh, how much more the
blood of Christ (which through the Eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot unto God) shall
purge your consciences from dead works, to serve
the Living God : and for this cause he is the Me
diator of the new covenant." Consider well this
sentence of Paul, and you shall find two purify-
ings, one of the body, and another of the soul, or
conscience. You shall find also two Mediators ;
one was the priest of Moses' law, and the other
is Christ. The priests of the old law, with the
blood of oxen and goats, and other their sacri
fices, purged only the bodies of them that were
defiled ; but the soul, or conscience, they could
not help. But our Saviour Christ by his own
blood purged both body and soul. And for that
cause he, and none other, is the Mediator of the
new covenant. But the bishop of Rome, to make
himself also a mediator with Christ, hath taken
upon him to purify the soul and conscience with
holy water, holy salt, and other his holy crea
tures of his own devising, to the intolerable in
jury of Christ's blood, which only hath the effect.
And to bring this to pass, he hath most shame
fully changed the words of the Scripture, and
wrested them to his purpose ; some words putting
out, and, only in the stead of Christ's blood,
putting in his own holy water and salt. For

112 THE LIFE OF
whereas St. Paul, " if the blood of oxen and
goats, and the ashes of a cow purified the unclean,
as touching the purifying of the flesh ;" here the
bishop of Rome leaveth out these words, " as
touching the purifying of the flesh." And where
St. Paul, extolling the effect of Christ's blood in
comparison of the blood of oxen and goats, saith,
" How much more the blood of Christ, which
through the Eternal Spirit offered himself, being
without spot, unto God, shall purge your con
sciences ;" here the bishop of Rome, extolling his
water and salt, puts out Christ's blood, and in the
place thereof puts his holy water and salt ; say
ing, " How much more water, which is sprinkled
with salt, and hallowed with godly prayers, shall
sanctify and purify the people !" O intolerable
blasphemy against the most precious blood of
Christ! 0 shameless audacity and boldness, so
to corrupt and pervert God's holy Word ! If he
by his holy water presume to purify our souls, as
Christ did by his blood, what is that else, but to
make himself equal, and another mediator, with
Christ ? And what is it, to tread under foot the
Son of God, and to make the blood of the New
Testament (whereby he was sanctified) like other
common things, and to dishonour the Spirit of
grace, if this be not ? And yet, not contented
with this blaspheming the blood of Christ, he pre-
ferreth his holy creatures far above the blood of
Christ, promising by them many benefits, which

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 113
by the blood of Christ be not promised. For in
the same place he promiseth by his holy ceremo
nies to take away from us dearth and scarcity of
all worldly things, and to multiply and increase
us with the same ; also to defend us from the as
saults of the devil, and all his deceits, and to
give us health both of body and soul. But all
men see him so shamefully to lie in these worldly
things, that no man, that wise is, will trust him
in the rest. And no man, that is godly, will
desire such things to remain still, which so
much have deceived simple people, and disho
noured God, and been contumelious to the blood
of Christ.
But now to your images, which, you say, you
will have set up again in every church. What
moved you to require this Article, but only igno
rance ? For if you had known the Laws of God,
and the use of godly religion, as well before the
Incarnation of Christ, as four or five hundred
years next after, and by whom images were at
first brought into Christ's Church, and how much
idolatry was every where committed by the means
of the same, it could not have been that ever you
would have desired this Article, except you had
more affection to idolatry than to true religion.
For Almighty God among the ten command
ments rehearsed ' this for the second, as one of
1 See the archbishop's addition to the German Catechism, in
this volume, p. 49.
VOL. II. I

114 THE LIFE OF
the chief," Thou shalt not make to thyself any
graven image, nor the likeness of any thing that
is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor
in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not
bow down to them, nor worship them." This com
mandment was diligently kept in the Old Testa
ment, so long as the people pleased God. For in
their tabernacle was not one image, less nor
more, that the people might see. Although upon
the propitiatory were two cherubim of gold, by
the commandment of God. And that was in such
a place as the people never came near, nor saw.
But when the people, forgetting this command
ment, began to make images, and to set them up
in the place of adoration, by and by they pro
voked God's indignation against them, and were
grievously punished therefore.
The Church of Christ likewise in the New
Testament, for the space of four or five hundred
years after Christ's Ascension, utterly refused to
have images in the church, a place of adoration,
as it may plainly appear by all the old, ancient
authors that lived and wrote in that time : inso
much, that about four hundred years after Christ,
when some superstitious and ignorant people, in
some places, began to bring painted images, not
into the church, but to the church-doors, the
great clerk Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, finding
such a painted image of Christ, or some other
saint, hanging at the church-door, in a town called
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 115
Anablatha, he cut it in pieces, saying, " that it
was against the authority of Scripture, that in the
Church of Christ should hang the image of a
man." And the same Epiphanius wrote unto the
bishop of Jerusalem, that he should command the
priests that in no wise they should suffer such
images to be hanged in the Church of Christ, which
were contrary to our religion.
But peradventure you will marvel, and ask me
the question, how it was brought to pass, that of
late years all churches were so full of images, and
so much offering and pilgrimages done unto them,
if it were against the commandment of God,
against the usage of all godly people in the Old
Testament, and also against the custom of Christ's
Church in the New Testament, so long as it was
pure and holy, and kept from idolatry ? Who
was able to bring this to effect, contrary both to
God's express commandment, and the custom of
all godly people from the beginning of the world,
until four or five hundred years after Christ ? No
man surely could have wrought this thing, so
much contrary to God, but antichrist himself,
that is to say, the bishop of Rome ; to whom God
hath given great power to work wonders, to bring
into error those that will not believe the truth.
But by what means did he compass this matter ?
By such means as were most meet for himself,
and as he hath commonly practised in all other
matters ; that is to say, by sedition and murder,
i 2

116 THE LIFE OF
by confederacies and persecutions, by raising the
sons against their fathers, the children against
their mothers, and the subjects against their
rulers ; by deposing of emperors and princes, and
murdering of learned men, saints, and martyrs.
For thus he wrought against the emperor of the
east parts from Gregory the second's time, until
Gregory III. who at length, after this condition
had endured above five hundred years, in a coun
cil held at Lyons, by feigned promises, persuaded
the emperor of the east to condescend to his pur
pose, as well to receive images into the churches,
as to other his requests. But nevertheless the
bishop of Rome failed of his purpose. For yet to
this day the Christian men in the east do not allow
images to stand in their churches ; neither the
Greeks, nor the Armenians, nor the Indians, nor
any other Christian men. And that more is, search
all the world throughout, of what religion soever
they be, whether they be Jews, Turks, Saracens,
Tartars, or Christian people ; and you shall not
find an image in any of their churches, but that
was brought in by the bishop of Rome, and where
the bishop of Rome is, or within these forty years
was, taken for the head of the church, and Christ's
vicar on earth.
And at the beginning the bishops of Rome, to
cloak their idolatry, pretended to have images
set up only for a remembrance to laymen, and to
be, as it were, laymen's books. But after they

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 117
defined plainly that these should be worshipped ;
and so it increased at length that images were
kneeled unto, offered unto, prayed unto, sought
unto, incensed, and pilgrimages done unto them,
and all manner of superstition and idolatry that
could be devised. Almighty God knoweth our cor
rupt nature better than we do ourselves. He
knoweth well the inclinations of man, how much
he is given to worship creatures, and the work of
his own hands : and especially fond women, which
commonly follow superstition rather than true re
ligion. And therefore He utterly forbade the
people the use of graven images ; especially in
places dedicated to the honour of God, knowing
assuredly, that of the having would follow the
worshipping them.
Now, thanks be to God, in this realm we be
clearly deUvered from that kind of idolatry, (which
most highly offended God ;) and we do according
to the council Elibertine, which ordained that no
images should be in churches. And this is so an
cient, that it was about the same year that the
Nicene council was. What should then move
you to ask again your images in the church, be
ing not only against God's commandments, and
the use of God's Church evermore, since the be
ginning of the world, when it was pure from ido
latry ; but also being chargeable to the realm, and
great occasion of heinous idolatry ; but that some
papistical and covetous priests have persuaded

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you hereto, which care neither for God's honour,
nor your damnation, so that they may have any
commodity or profit thereby ?
I have been very long in this Article, and yet
the matter is so large, that it requireth much
more to be spoken therein, which, for shortness
of time, I am constrained to leave until a * more
occasion, and so come to your eighth Article.
VIII. Your Eighth Article is this. We will
not receive the new service, because it is but like a
Christmas game : but we will have our old service
of matins, mass, even-song, and procession, in La
tin, as it was before. And so we, the Cornish men,
whereof certain of us understand no English, utterly
refuse this new English.
As concerning the having of the service in the
Latin tongue," it is sufficiently spoken of in the
answer to the third Article. But I would gladly
know the reason, why the Cornish men refuse
utterly the new English, as you call it, because
certain of you 2 understand it not : and yet you
will have the service in Latin, which almost none
of you understand. If this be a sufficient cause
for Cornwall to refuse the English service, be
cause some of you understand no English, a much
greater cause have they, both of Cornwall and
1 Greater. So more was formerly used. See Acts xix. 32.
" The more part knew not why," &c.
2 See what has been observed upon this pretence in the pre
sent volume, pp. 73, 74. See also pp. 128, 129.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 119
Devonshire, to refuse utterly the late service ; for
asmuch as fewer of them know the Latin tongue,
than they of Cornwall the English tongue. But
where you say, that you will have the old service,
because the new is like a Christmas game, you de
clare yourselves what spirit you be led withal, or
rather what spirit leadeth them, that persuaded
you, that the Word of God is but like a Christmas
game. It is more like a game and a fond play to
be laughed at of all men, to hear the priest speak
aloud to the people in Latin, and the people listen
with their ears to hear ; and some walking up and
down in the church, some saying other prayers
in Latin, and none understandeth other. Neither
the priest nor his parish wot what they say. And
many times the thing that the priest saith in Latin
is so fond of itself, that it is more like a play
than a godly prayer.
But, in the English service appointed to be
read, there is nothing else but the Eternal Word
of God. The New and the Old Testament is read,
that hath power to save your souls : which, as St.
Paul saith, " is the power of God to the salvation
of all that believe ;" the clear light to our eyes,
without the which we cannot see ; and a lantern
unto our feet, without which we should stumble in
darkness. It is in itself the Wisdom of God, and
yet to the Jews it is a stumbling block, and to the
Gentiles it is but foolishness. " But to such as be
called of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles,

120 THE LIFE OF
it is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Then unto you if it be but foolishness and a
Christmas game, you may discern yourselves what
miserable state you be in, and how far you be
from God. For St. Paul saith plainly, that the
Word of God is foolishness only to them that
perish ; but to them that shall be saved it is God's
might and power. To some it is a lively savour
unto life ; and to some it is a deadly savour unto
death. If it be to you but a Christmas game, it
is then a savour of death unto death. And surely
persuade yourselves, that you be not led by the
Spirit of God, so long as the Word of God sa-
voureth no better unto you, but seemeth unto you
a Christmas pastime and foolishness ; and there
fore the old service pleaseth you better, which
in many things is so foolish and so ungodly, that
it seems rather to be old wives' tales and lies, than
to sound to any godliness. The devil is a liar,
and the author of lies : and they may think them
selves governed rather of his spirit, than of God,
when lies delight more than God's most true
Word. But this I judge rather of your leaders than of
yourselves, who by ignorance be carried away by
others, you wot not "whither. For when the ser
vice was in the Latin tongue, which you under
stood not, they might read to you truth or fables,
godly or ungodly things, as they pleased: but
you could not judge that which you understood

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 121
not. And what was the cause why St. Paul would
have such languages spoken in the church as that
people might understand ? That they might learn
and be edified thereby, and judge of that which
should be spoken, whether it were according to
God's Word, or not.
But forasmuch as you understand not the old
Latin service, I shall rehearse some things in
English, that were wont to be read in Latin, that
when you understand them you may judge them,
whether they seem to be true tales or fables : and
whether they, or God's Word, seem to be more
like plays and Christmas games. " The devil en
tered into a certain person, in whose mouth St.
Martin put his finger; and because the devil
could not get out at his mouth, the man blew
him, or cacked him out behind !" — This was one
of the tales that was wont to be read in the Latin
service that you will needs have again. Is this a
grave and godly matter to be read in the church,
or rather a foolish Christmas tale, or an old wife's
fable, worthy to be laughed at, and scorned of
every man that hath either wit or godly judg
ment ? Yet more foolish, erroneous, and super
stitious things be read in the feasts of St. Blase,
St. Valentine, St. Margaret, St. Peter, of the Vi
sitation of our Lady, and the Conception, of the
Transfiguration of Christ, and in the feast of Corpus
Christi, and a great number more ; whereof some
be most vain fables, some very superstitious, some

122 THE LIFE OF
directly against God's Word, and the laws of this
realm ; and altogether be full of error and super
stition. But as Christ commonly excused the
simple people, because of their ignorance, and
justly condemned the scribes and pharisees, which,
by their crafty persuasions led the people out of
the right way: so I think you not so much to be
blamed, as those pharisees and papistical priests,
which, abusing your simplicity, caused you to ask
you wist not what, desiring rather to drink of the
dregs of corrupt error, which you know not, than
of the pure and sweet wine of God's Word, which
you may and ought to understand. But now
have I sufficiently spoke of your eighth Article : I
will go forward unto the ninth.
IX. Your Ninth Article is this. We will have
every preacher in his sermon, and every priest at the
mass, pray especially by name for the souls in pur
gatory, as our forefathers did.
To reason with you by learning, which be un
learned, it were but folly ; therefore I will con
vince your Article with very reason. First, Tell
me I pray, if you can, whether there be a purga
tory, or no : and where or what it is. And if you
cannot tell, then I may tell you, that you ask you
wot not what. The Scripture maketh mention
of two places, where the dead be received after
this life, viz. of heaven, and of hell ; but of pur
gatory is not one word spoken. Purgatory was
wont to be called a fire, as hot as hell, but not so

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 123
long during. But now the defenders of purgatory
within this realm be ashamed so to say : never
theless they say, it is a third place. Where or
what it is, they confess they cannot tell. And of
God's Word they have nothing to shew neither
where it is, nor what it is, nor that it is. But all
is feigned of their own brains, without authority
of Scripture.
I would ask of them then, Wherefore it is,
and to what use it serveth ? For if it be to no
use, then it is a thing frustrate and in vain.
Marry, say they, it is a place of punishment,
whereby they be purged from their sins, that de
part out of this life, not fully purged before. I
cannot tell, whether this saying be more foolish,
or more contumelious to Christ. For what can be
more foolish than to say, that pains can wash sins
out of the soul. I do not deny but that correc
tions and punishments in this life, is a calling of
men to repentance and amendment ; and so to be
purged by the blood of Christ. But correction
without repentance can nothing avail : and they
that be dead be past the time of repentance ; and
so no correction or torments in purgatory can
avail them. And what a contumely and injury is
this to Christ, to affirm that all have not full and
perfect purgation by his blood, that die in his
faith ! Is not all our trust in the blood of Christ,
that we be cleansed, purged and washed thereby ?
And will you have us now to forsake our faith in

124 THE LIFE OF
Christ, and bring us to the pope's purgatory, to
be washed therein ; thinking that Christ's blood is
an imperfect lee or soap, that washeth not clean ?
If he shall die without mercy that treads Christ's
blood under his feet, what is treading of his blood
under our feet, if this be not ? But if according
to the catholic faith, which the Holy Scripture
teacheth, and the Prophets, Apostles, and Mar
tyrs confirmed with their blood, all the faithful
that die in the Lord be pardoned of all their of
fences by Christ, and their sins be clearly spunged
and washed away by his blood, shall they, after,
be cast into another strong and grievous prison of
purgatory, there to be punished again for that
which was pardoned before ? God hath promised
by his Word, that the souls of the Jews be in
God's hand, and no pain shall touch them : and
again he saith, " Blessed be they that die in the
Lord. For the Spirit of God saith, that from
henceforth they shall rest from their pains." And
Christ himself saith, " He that believeth in Him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come to judgment, but shall pass from death unto
life." And is God no truer of His promises, but
to punish that which He promiseth to pardon ?
Consider the matter by your own cases. If the
king's Majesty should pardon your offences, and,
after, would cast you into prison, would you think
that he had well observed his promise ? For what
is to pardon your offences, but to pardon the pu-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 125
nishment for the same ? If the king would punish
you, would you take that for a pardon ? Would
you not allege your pardon, and say, that you
ought not to be punished ? Who can then, that
hath but a crumb of reason in his head, imagine'of
God, that He will after our death punish those
things that He pardoned in our life-time ?
Truth it is, that Scripture maketh mention of
paradise and Abraham's bosom after this life ; but
those be places of joy and consolation, not of
pain and torments. But yet I know what subtil
sophisters use to mutter in men's ears to de
ceive them withal. David, say they, with many
other, were pardoned of their offences, and yet
were they sore punished after, for the same, of
God. And some of them, so long as they lived.
Well, be it were so. Yet, after their lives, they
were not punished in purgatory therefore. But
the end of their lives was the end oftheir punish
ment. And likewise it is of original sin after Bap
tism, which although it be pardoned, yet after
pains thereof continue so long as we live. But
this punishment in this life time is not to revenge
our original sin, which is pardoned in Baptism ;
but to make us humble, penitent, obedient to
God, fearful to offend, to know ourselves, and
ever to stand in fear and awe ; as if a father, that
hath beaten a wilful child for his faults, should
hang the rod continually at the child's girdle, it
should be no small pain and grief to the child,

126 THE LIFE OF
ever hanging by his side ; and yet the father doth
it not to beat the child for that which is past and
forgiven ; but to make him beware hereafter, that
he offend not again, and to be gentle, tractable,
obedient, and loth to do any thing amiss. But
after this life there is no such cause of punish
ment ; where no rod nor whip can force any man
to go any faster or further, being already at the
end of his journey. Likewise a master, that hath
an unthrifty servant, which out of his master's
sight doth nothing but riot and disorder himself,
if he. forgive his servant, and for the love he
beareth to him, and the desire he hath to see him
corrected and reformed, he will command him
never to be out of his sight : this command, al
though indeed it be a great pain to the servant,
yet the master doth it not to punish those faults
which before he had pardoned and forgiven, but
to keep him in stay, that he fall no more to like
disorder. But these examples and cases of punish
ment here in this life, can in no wise be wrested
and drawn to the life to come ; and so in no wise
can serve for purgatory.
And furthermore, seeing that the Scriptures so
often and so diligently teach us, almost in every
place, to relieve all them that be in necessity, to
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the
sick and the prisoner, to comfort the sorrowful ;
and so to all others that have need of our help :
and the same in no place make mention either of

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 127
such pains in purgatory, or what comfort we may
do them ; it is certain that the same is feigned for
lucre, and not grounded upon God's Word. For
else the Scripture in some place would have told
us plainly what case they stood in that be in pur
gatory, and what relief and help we might do unto
them. But as for such as God's Word speaketh
not one word of neither of them both, my counsel
shall be, that you keep not the bishop of Rome's
decrees, that you may come to purgatory, but
keep God's Laws, that you may come to heaven.
Or else I promise you assuredly, that you shall
never escape hell. Now to your next Article.
X. Your Tenth Article is this. We will have
the Bible, and all books of Scripture in English, to
be called in again. For we be informed, that other
wise the clergy shall not of long time confound the
heretics. Alas ! it grieveth me to hear your Articles : and
much I rue and lament your ignorance : praying
God most earnestly once to lighten your eyes,
that you may see the truth. What Christian
heart would not be grieved to see you so ignorant,
(for willingly and wilfully, I trust, you do it not,)
that you refuse Christ, and join yourselves with
antichrist ! You refuse the Holy Bible, and all
Holy Scriptures so much, that you will have them
called in again; and the bishop of Rome's de
crees you will have advanced and observed. I
may well say to you, as Christ said to Peter,

128 THE LIFE OF
" Turn back again, for you savour not godly
things." As many of you as understand no Latin
cannot know God's Word but in English, except
it be the Cornish men, which can understand like
wise none but their own speech. Then you must
be content to have it in English, which you know,
or else you must confess, that you utterly refuse
the knowledge thereof. And wherefore did the
Holy Ghost come down in fiery tongues, and give
them knowledge of all languages, but that all na
tions might hear, speak, and learn, God's Word
in their mother tongue ? And can you name me
any Christians in all the world, but they have,
and ever had, God's Word in their own tongue ?
And the Jews, to whom God gave his Scriptures
in the Hebrew tongue, after their long captivity
among the Chaldees, so that more of them knew
the Chaldee rather than the Hebrew tongue, they
caused the Scripture to be turned into the Chal
dee tongue, that they might understand it ; which
until this day is called Targum. And Ptolomy,
king of Egypt, caused sixty [^seventy]] of the
greatest clerks, that might be gotten, to translate
the Scriptures out of Hebrew into Greek. And
until this day the Greeks have it in the Greek
tongue ; the Latins in the Latin tongue, and all
other nations in their own tongue. And will you
have God further from us, than from all other
countries ; that He shall speak to every man in
his own language that he understandeth, and was

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 129
born in, and to us shall speak a strange language
that we understand not ? And will you, that all
other realms shall laud God in their own speech,
and we shall say to Him we know not what?
Although you savour so little of godliness, that
you wist not to read His Word yourselves, you
ought not to be so malicious and envious to 1 let
them that be more godly, and would gladly read
it to their comfort and edification. And if there
be an English heretic, how will you have him
confuted, but in English ? And whereby else, but
by God's Word ? Then it followeth, that to con
fute English heretics, we must have God's Word
in English, as all other nations have it in their
own native language. St. Paul to the Ephesians
teacheth all men, as well laymen as priests, to
arm themselves, and to fight against all adver
saries with God's Word ; without the which we
cannot be able to prevail, neither against subtil
heretics, puissant, devils, this deceitful world, nor
our own sinful flesh. And therefore, until God's
Word came to light, the bishop of Rome, under
the prince of darkness, reigned quietly in the
world : and his heresies were received and allowed
for the true catholic faith. And it can none other
wise be, but that heresies must reign, where the
light of God's Word driveth not away our
darkness. ' Hinder.
VOL. II. K

130 THE LIFE OF
XI. Your Eleventh Article is this. We will
have Dr. Moreman and Dr. Crispin, which] hold
our opinions, to be safely sent unto us ; and to them
we require the king's Majesty to give some certain
livings, to preach among us our catholic faith.
If you be of 1 Moreman's and Crispin's faith, I
like you much the worse. For like lettice, like lips.
And to declare you plainly the qualities of Crispin
and Moreman, and how unmeet men they be to
be your teachers, they be persons very ignorant
of God's Word ; and yet thereto very wilful, crafty,
and full of dissimulation. For, if they were pro
foundly learned, and of sincere judgments, as they
be not, they might be godly teachers of you. Or
if they were not toto wilful, and standing wholly
in their own conceits, they might learn, and be
1 Of Crispin, Strype says, he could find only that he was
once proctor ofthe university of Oxford, of Oriel College, and
doctor of physic. He appears to have read the Medicine Lec
ture there in 1545. Wood, Ann. Univ. Ox. He died in March
1549-50. Wood, Fasti. Oxon. The archbishop appears to
allude to his earlier profession in this answer. Strype pro
nounces him a divine, but not beneficed. Moreman was an
ecclesiastic, who had obtained preferment in Cornwall, in the
reign of Henry, and at that time seemed zealous in the cause
of the Reformation, teaching his parishioners the Lord's Prayer,
the Creed, and the Commandments, in English. In the pre
sent reign he had returned to the old superstitions ; and hence,
as Strype observes, the archbishop's accusation speaks of. him
as " full of craft and hypocrisy." He now escaped punish
ment, and in the reign of Mary was made dean of Exeter. He
died in 1553.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 131
taught of others. But they be so wilful that they
will not learn, and so ignorant that they cannot
teach, and so full of craft and hypocrisy that they
be able to deceive you all, and to lead you into
error after themselves. So that if you ask them,
you ask your own poison. Now if a man were
in such a sickness that he longed for poison, (as
many diseases desire things most noyful unto
them,) yet it were not the part of a good physi
cian to give it unto them. No more is it the office
of a most godly prince to give you such teachers,
although you long never so sore for them, as he
knoweth would corrupt you ; feeding you rather
with sour and unwholesome leaven of Romish
Pharisaical doctrine, than with the sweet, pure,
and wholesome bread of God's heavenly Word.
Where you would have God's Word in English
destroyed, and Crispin and Moreman delivered
unto you, you do even as the people of the Jews
did ; who cried out that Christ might be crucified,
and that Barabbas, the strong thief, might be de
livered unto them.
XII. Your Twelfth Article is this. We think
it very meet, because the lord Cardinal Pole is of
the king's blood, that he should not only have his
pardon, but also be sent for to Rome, and promoted
to be of the king's Council.
In this Article I will answer no more but this,
if ever cardinal or legate were beneficial unto this
realm, we may have some hope of some other to
k 2

132 THE LIFE OF
follow his steps. But if all that ever were in this
realm were pernicious and hurtful unto the same,
I know not why we should be with child to long
for any more. For by the experience of them
that have been heretofore, we may conjecture of
them that be to come. And I fear me, that car
dinal Pole would follow rather the old race of the
rest, than to begin a better of himself. Surely I
have read a book of his making, which whosoever
shall read, if he have a true heart to our late so
vereign lord king Henry VIII. or to this realm,
he will judge cardinal Pole neither worthy to
dwell in this realm, nor yet to live. For he doth
extend all his wits and 1 eloquence in that book
to persuade the bishop of Rome, the emperor, the
French king, and all other princes, to invade this
realm by force. And sure I am, that if you have
him, you must have the bishop of Rome also.
For the cardinal cannot be a subject, but where
1 Cranmer fairly admits the eloquence of Pole's most trai
torous exhortation, which to the emperor Charles in particular
is very observable. The book is entitled Pro Ecclesiasticce
Unitatis Defensione. It was sent to Henry by the cardinal in
1536. But as yet this was the alarm of words only. It was
not till 1539 that the king was forced to preparations against
the dangers which the traitor and the pontiff threatened. Stow,
974. See also Norton's Warning against the dangerous prac
tices of the Papists, sign. D. iiij. 8. And Sampson's (bishop
of Chichester, an opponent much abused by Pole) Preface to
his Explanation of the first fifty Psalms, in Latin : fol. 1539,
sign, A. 3. a.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 133
the other is his head. This sufficeth briefly to
this Article.
XIII. Your Thirteenth Article is this. We
will that no gentleman shall have any more servants
than one to wait upon him, except he may dispend
one hundred mark land. And for every hundred
mark we think it reasonable he should have a man.
Yet have you not foreseen one thing, you wise
disposers of the commonwealth. For if a gentle
man of an hundred mark land, (who by your order
must have but one servant, except he might spend
two hundred marks,) should send that one servant
to London, you have not provided who shall
wait upon him until his servant come home again.
Nor have you provided where every gentleman
may have one servant, that can do all things
necessary for him. I fear me the most part of
you, that devised this Article, (whom I take to be
loiterers and idle unthrifts,) if they should serve
a gentleman, he should be fain to do all things
himself, for any thing that you could, or would
do for him. For one thing methinks is very
strange ; for where much complaint is made of
divers gentlemen, because they keep not houses,
you provide by your order, that no gentleman
shall keep house ; but all shall sojourn with other
men. For who can keep a household with one
servant, or with two servants, after the rate of
two hundred marks, or with three after the rate of
three hundred, and so upward ? For here it seems
you be very desirous to make gentlemen rich.

134 THE LIFE OF
For after this proportion every gentleman may
lay up clearly in his coffers at the least one half
of his yearly revenues, and much more.
But it was not for good mind that you bare
to the gentlemen, that you devised this Article ;
but it appeareth plainly that you devised it to
diminish their strength, and to take away their
friends, that you might command gentlemen at
your pleasure. But you be much deceived in
your account. For although by your appointment
they lacked household servants, yet shall they
not lack tenants and farmers ; which, if they do
their duties, will be as assured to their lords as
their own household servants. For of these lands,
which they have or hold of their lords, they have
their whole livings for themselves, their wives, chil
dren, and servants. And for all these they attend
their own business, and wait not upon their lords
but when they be called thereto. But the house
hold servant, leaving all his own business, waiteth
daily and continually upon his master's service ;
and for the same hath no more but meat, and
drink, and apparel, for himself only. So that all
tenants and farmers, which know their duties, and
be kind to their lords, will die and live with them,
no less than their own household servants. There
fore I would wish you to put this fantasy out of
your heads, and this Article out of your book, as
well for the unreasonableness, as for the ungod
liness thereof.
For was it ever seen in any country since the

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 135
world began, that commons did appoint the no
bles, and gentlemen, the number of their servants ?
Standeth it with any reason to turn upside down
the good order of the whole world that is every
where, and ever hath been ? That is to say, the
commoners to be governed by the nobles, and
the servants by their masters. Will you now have
the subjects to govern their king, the villains to
rule the gentlemen, and the servants their mas
ters ? If men would suffer this, God will not ;
but, will take vengeance on all them that will
break his order, as he did of Dathan and Abiram :
although for a time He be a God of much suffer
ance, and hideth His indignation under His mercy;
that the evil of themselves may repent, and see
their own folly.
XIV. Your Fourteenth Article is this. We
will that the half part of the abbey lands, and
chantry lands, in every man's possession, howsoever
he came by them, be given again to two places,
where two of the chief abbies were within every
county, where such half part shall be taken out ;
and there to be established a place for devout per
sons, which shall pray for the king and the common
wealth. And to the same we will have all the alms
of the church-box given for these seven years.
At the beginning you pretended, that you
meant nothing against the king's Majesty, but now
you open yourselves plainly to the world, that
you go about to pluck the crown from his head ;

136 THE LIFE OF
and against all justice and equity, not only to take
from him such lands as be annexed unto his
crown, and be parcel of the same ; but also,
against all right and reason, to take from all
other men such lands as they came to by most
just title, by gift, by sale, by exchange, or other
wise. There is no respect, nor difference had
among you, whether they came to them by right
or by wrong. Be you so blind, that you cannot
see how unjustly you proceed, to take the sword
in your hand against your prince, and to dispos
sess just inheritors without any cause ? Christ
would not take upon him to judge the right and
title of lands betwixt two brethren ; and you ar
rogantly presume, not only to judge, but unjustly
to take away, all men's right titles ; yea, even
from the king himself. And do you not tremble
for fear, that the vengeance of God shall fall upon
you, before you have grace to repent ? And yet
you, not contented with this your rebellion, would
have your shameful act celebrated with a perpe
tual memory; as it were to boast and glory of
your iniquity. For, in memory of your fact, you
would have established in every county two places
to pray for the king and the commonwealth :
whereby your abominable behaviour at this pre
sent may never be forgotten, but be remembered
unto the world's end; that when the. king's Ma
jesty was in wars with Scotland and France, you,
under pretence of the commonwealth, rebelled,

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 137
and made so great sedition against him within his
own realm, as never before was heard of; and
therefore must be prayed for, for ever, in every
county of this realm !
It were more fit for you to make humble sup
plication upon your knees to the king's Majesty,
desiring him not only td forgive you this fault,
but also that the same may never be put in chro
nicle nor writing ; and that neither shew nor men
tion may remain to your posterity, that ever sub
jects were so unkind to their prince, and so un
gracious toward God, that contrary to God's Word
they should so use themselves against their sove
reign lord and king. And this I assure you of, that
if all the whole world should pray for you until
doomsday, their prayers should no more avail
you, than they should avail the devils in hell, if
they prayed for them ; unless you be so penitent
and sorry for your disobedience, that you will
ever hereafter, so long as you live, study to 1 re-
dubbe and recompense the same with all true and
faithful obedience ; and not only yourselves, but
also procuring all other, so much as lieth in you ;
and so much detesting such uproars and seditions,
that if you see any man towards any such things,
you will to your power resist him, and open him
unto such governors and rulers as may straight
way repress the same. As for your last Article,
r To make amends for. Low Lat. redebere. Vid. Du Cange
ih Voce.

138 THE LIFE OF
thanks to be God, it needs not to be answered,
which is this.
XV. For the particular griefs of our country,
we will have them so ordered, as Humfrey Arundel,
and Henry Bray, the king's mayor of Bodmin,
shall inform the king's Majesty, if they may have
safe conduct in the king's great seal to pass and
repass with a herald of arms.
Who ever heard such arrogancy in subjects, to
require and will of their princes that their own
particular causes may be ordered, neither accord
ing to reason, nor the laws of the realm, but ac
cording to the information of two most heinous
traitors ? Was it ever heard before this time, that
information should be a judgment, although the
informers were of never so great credit? And
will you have suffice the information of two vil
lainous papistical traitors ? You will deprive the
king of his lands pertaining to his crown, and other
men of their just possessions and inheritances,
and judge your own causes as you list yourselves.
And what can you be called then, but most wicked
judges and most arrant traitors; except only
ignorance or force may excuse you ; that either
you were constrained by your captains against
your wills, or deceived by blind priests, and other
crafty persuaders, to ask you wist not what? How
much then ought you to detest and abhor such
men hereafter, and to beware of all such like, as

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 139
long as you live : and to give most humble and
hearty thanks unto God, who hath made an end
of this Article, and brought 'Arundel and Bray
to that they have deserved; that is, perpetual
shame, confusion, and death? Yet I beseech
God so to extend his grace unto them, that they
may die well which have lived ill. Amen.
1 Humphry Arundel, Esq. the leader of the ten thousand
Devonshire rebels, was commander of St. Michael's Mount :
Bray, the mayor of Bodmin in Cornwall. Both of them were
executed in London. The vicar of St. Thomas, another of the
principal incendiaries, was hanged on the top of his own tower,
" apparelled in his popish weeds, with his beads at his girdle."
Heylin. Strype.

CHAPTER VI.

1549.
Deprivation of Bonner — Fall of lord Seymour — Latimer's re
fections on that nobleman — Proceedings against Anabaptists
< and other sectaries — The case of Joan Bocher, commonly
called Joan of Kent — -The case of Van Paris, a Dutchman
— Cranmer's conduct in regard to both — The fall of the
Protector — Cranmer's attachment to him.
The commotions, which Cranmer thus endea
voured to appease, Bonner had artfully fomented.
Released from his 1 short confinement, after his
concurring with Gardiner in opposition to the
Homilies, he forbore not to impede the subsequent
measures of the Reformers, and executed the
orders of the Council only in a manner which
evinced his contempt of them. His 2 aversion to
circulate through his diocese the new Liturgy, and
his neglect to enjoin the use of it, were well
known. The resort to places, where mass might
still be heard, he countenanced. To the rebels
1 See before, p. 18. 3 Heylin.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 141
this episcopal disloyalty had been no small en
couragement. Before the Council he was accord
ingly summoned, and was 1 enjoined to denounce,
in a public discourse at St. Paul's Cross, the un
lawfulness of taking arms on pretence of religion,
and to assert the power of the sovereign during
his minority. Instead of adhering to the subjects
thus prescribed, he chose to defend the doctrine
of Transubstantiation, and to censure those who
opposed it. Among his auditors were Hooper, af
terwards Bishop of Gloucester, and William Lati-j
mer, a London divine. By them, with the con
currence of many others, informations were laid
against him ; and in consequence, a commission
was issued under the great seal to Cranmer,
Ridley, the two secretaries of state, and the dean
of St. Paul's, to hear the accusations, and, if they
could not be refuted, to suspend, imprison, or de
prive him. Before the commissioners he appeared
on seven separate days of examination ; in each of
which he conducted himself with insolence and
levity, very unsuitable to the occasion, but in uni
son with the rude and brutal manners by which
he was generally known. To the archbishop, who
had been his patron, deceived, indeed, as Crom
well had also been, by his 2 professions of regard
for the circulation of the Scriptures, he thus ad
dressed himself at his first examination, 3 " What,
1 Foxe, Heylin, Strype. s Foxe, 3 Ibid.

142 THE LIFE OF
are you here, my lord? By my troth, I saw you
not." — " You would not see," the archbishop an
swered. — " Well," replied Bonner, " you have
now sent for me hither, what have you to say to
me ?" — The commissioners then told him, We call
you to account for not preaching upon the sub
jects prescribed to you. This charge he affected
not to notice ; but, turning to the archbishop,
observed, " 1 1 would one thing were had in more
reverence than it is." — " What is that ?" said
Cranmer. — " The blessed mass," Bonner an
swered ; " and as you have written well upon the
sacrament, I marvel that you honour it not more."
— Cranmer replied, " If you think well of what
2 1 have written, it is because you understood it
not." — " I understood it, I think, better than you
who wrote it," rejoined the contemptuous prelate.
This interruption was closed, by the archbishop
observing, " I could easily make a child of ten
years old understand therein as much as you;
but what is this to the matter before us ?" The pro
cess no longer halted. Upon the witnesses who
testified against him, and upon the bystanders
who seemed to approve their evidence, Bonner
1 Foxe, Strype.
8 Cranmer's translation of Justus Jonas's Catechism. The
mistakes of others, as well as of Bonner, in regard to the cor
poral presence as maintained by the archbishop, in consequence
of the translations, are noticed, in the present volume, by Cran
mer himself. See before, pp. 53, 54.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 143
now repeatedly bestowed the 1 proverbial appella
tion of woodcocks, or the coarser term of fools.
Against the authority of his judges he disputed,
not without acuteness indeed, but also not with
out disgusting acrimony ; and he appealed from
it to that of the king. By them, however, he was
deprived ; and by the sovereign his repeal was
rejected. After his deprivation, he was still con
sidered too dangerous to be exempted from im
prisonment during the pleasure of the king.
Previously to this proceeding against a distin
guished ecclesiastic, Cranmer had assisted in con
firming the judicial sentence passed upon a high
political personage. In the early part of. this year
fell the brother of the Protector, the lord admiral
Seymour, whose well-known ambition had led him
to proceedings j dangerous to the state ; the war
rant for whose execution was unfeelingly. signed
by the Protector, and uncanonically by Cranmer,
the interference of bishops in a cause of blood
being 2 contrary to the ancient canon laws. The
conduct ofthe former exposed him to much blame;
that of the latter could not escape animadversion.
Burnet says, that Cranmer thought his conscience
was under no tie to the canons, and therefore
judged it not contrary to his function to sign the
1 " Among us in England, this bird is infamous for its sim
plicity or folly; so that a woodcock is proverbially used for a
foolish simple person;" Willoughby's Ornithology.
2 Burnet.

144 THE LIFE OF
warrant. With Latimer, who has often (but not
always judiciously) alluded to the case of Sey
mour, he seems to have agreed in thus admitting
that such an attainder, as that of the admiral had
been, " ' might be done rarely, upon some great
respect to the commonwealth, for avoiding of
greater tumult and peril."
The fate of Seymour, indeed, awakened the zeal
of Cranmer's fellow-labourer, not only to offer a
character of the sufferer, but therewith a reflec
tion also upon sectaries that were now impeding
the progress of the Reformation, and, with others,
had excited, as we shall presently find, the atten
tion of the government. These are the words of
Latimer. " 2 1 have heard say, when that good
queen that is gone, (he means Catharine Parr,
who married Seymour, after the death of Henry,)
had ordained in her house daily prayer, both be
fore noon and after noon, the admiral gets him
out of the way, like a mole digging in the earth.
He shall be Lot's wife to me as long as I live.
He was, I heard say, a covetous man : a covetous
man indeed ; I would there were no more in
England. He was, I heard say, an ambitious man ;
I would there were no more in England. He was,
I heard say, a seditious man, a contemner of com
mon prayer ; I would there were no more in Eng-
1 Sermon before King Edward, April 5, 1549.
2 Sermon before King Edward, April 19, 1549.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 145
land ; well, he is gone, I would he had left none
behind him. Remember you, my lords, that you
pray in your houses to the better mortification of
your flesh. Remember, God must be honoured.
I will you to pray, that God will continue His
Spirit to you. I do not put you in comfort, that
if ye have once the Spirit, ye cannot lose it. There
be new spirits started up now of late, that say,
after we have received the Spirit we cannot sin.
I will make but one argument : St. Paul had
brought the Galatians to the profession of the
faith, and left them in that state : they had re
ceived the Spirit once, but they sinned again, as
he testified of them himself : he saith, Ye did run
well, (ch. v. 7.) ye were once in a right state ;
and again, Received ye the Spirit by the works of
the law, or by the hearing of faith ? Once they
had the Spirit by faith, but false prophets came,
when he was gone from them, and they plucked
them clean away from all that Paul had planted
them in ; and then said Paul unto them, O foolish
Galatians, who hath bewitched you ? If this be
true, we may lose the Spirit that we have once
possessed." With the liberty of the Gospel, many new and
wild opinions indeed had been circulated and de
fended. By foreigners, who were come over into
England, the tenets of Anabaptism also were 1 now
1 See before, vol. i. p. 255. There apppeared in this year
VOL. II. L

146 THE LIFE OF
again industriously disseminated. To the Coun
cil the following : notions of the sectaries were,
therefore, in the Spring of 1549, represented :
that children, baptized in infancy, should after
wards be rebaptized ; that the baptism of infants
was altogether unprofitable ; that all things were
and ought to be in common ; that the elect sinned
not, and could not sin ; that though the out
ward man sinned, the inward man sinned not ;
that upon the divine decree 2 of predestination, the
blame of all sins was to be laid ; that repentance
could not restore sinners to grace ; that there
was no Trinity of persons in the Godhead ; that
Christ was only a holy prophet, and not God ;
and that he was not incarnate of the Virgin Mary.
Against such as were suspected or accused of
these heresies, 3 proceedings, similar to those
against the Anabaptists in 1538, were entrusted
to 4 commissioners ; among whom were the arch
bishop, six other prelates, some inferior divines,
and with other distinguished laymen Cecil and
Sir Thomas Smith. Such too, as should oppose
(1549) " A short instruction for to arme all good Christian
people against the pestiferous errours of the common secte of
Anabaptistes." Translated from the compilation of John Cal
vin, and printed by Day.
' Burnet. Strype. • Heylin, 73.
3 See before, vol. i. p. 256.
4 Burnet, and Collier, vol. ii. Pref. p. 12. where the commis
sion is copied. It is dated April 12. [1549.]

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 147
or defame the new form of Common Prayer, the
commissioners were also required to examine, and
to reclaim or punish.
Before them several persons were immediately
summoned, of whom some were led to abjure their
dangerous opinions, and were sworn not to re
turn to them. But among the accused there was
one, whom neither persuasion nor threat could
induce to depart from the errors that had been
adopted. This was Joan Bocher, or Bourchier,
usually called Joan of Kent, who denied the hu
manity of Christ. She was tried and con
demned. Upon the character of Cranmer this proceeding
has been generally pronounced an indelible
stain. The sentence against her required the
royal signature to confirm it, which is said to have
been obtained, not without the greatest reluc
tance. But, in Edward's own journal of occur
rences, we find no other mention of the proceed
ing, than that " ' on the second of May £1.5503
she was burnt for holding that Christ was not
incarnate of the Virgin Mary ; being condemned
the year before, but kept in hope of conversion ;
and on the 30th of April the bishop of London
£Ridley3 and the bishop of Ely (^Goodrich)] were
to persuade her ; but she withstood them, and
reviled the preacher at her death." Cranmer is
1 Burnet, ii. Rec. p. 12.
L 2

148 THE LIFE OF
not even named. Foxe, however, tells us that
Edward " always spared and favoured the life of
man, as in a certain dissertation of his once ap
peared, had with Master Cheke, in favouring the
life of heretics ; insomuch that, when Joan
Bocher should be burned, all the Council could
not move him to put to his hand, but were fain to
get Dr. Cranmer to persuade with him, and yet
neither could he, with much labour, induce the
king so to do, saying, What, my Lord, will you
have me to send her quick to the devil in her
error ? So that Dr. Cranmer himself confessed,
that he never had so much to do in all his life, as
to cause the king to put to his hand, saying that
he would lay all the charge thereof upon Cranmer
before God." Cranmer is represented as having
argued from the law of Moses, by which blas
phemers were to be stoned, and as having thus
wrested from the young sovereign his consent to
the execution of the 1 fanatical woman. By no
contemporary writer has the narrative of Foxe
been impugned. Sir John Hayward soon after
wards repeated it, affirming that Cranmer was
not only " 2 violent with the king, by persuasions
and entreaties," to seal the fatal warrant, but
" that it might be his importunity of blood, by
1 Burnet considers her as insane. Lewis is of the same opi
nion. Hist, of Eng. Anabaptists, 1738, p. 50.
2 In his Life and Reign of Edw. VL

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 149
which this woman was burnt, that he himself
afterwards felt the smart of fire." Strype has en
deavoured to exculpate the archbishop. " 1 The
character drawn by Hayward," he says, " is ut
terly disagreeable from Cranmer's spirit. For
none was more tender of blood than he ; none
more pitiful and compassionate. Nor was he a
man for rigorous methods and violent courses.
Indeed Foxe mentions, that the Council put
Cranmer upon moving the king to sign the war
rant ; which was a sign he had no forwardness to it
himself. And in obedience to them he did labour
with the king about it, and obtained it. And
though he did this, it neither argued violence nor
importunity of blood. For as he was 2 not present
at her condemnation, as appears by the council-book,
so he may be concluded to have had no desire of
her death, though the warrant by his means was
signed for her execution. His thoughts, I am
apt to think were, that the fear of death which
1 Ecc. Mem. ii. 473.
2 And yet several modern writers have pretended that she told
Cranmer in particular, that he was about to condemn her for a
piece of flesh, as he had condemned Anne Askew for a piece of
bread, at whose condemnation he was also not present. . See
before, vol. i. p. 374. Sanders would not have omitted the per
sonal address of Bocher to the Archbishop, if it had been true :
he relates it, as applied to the whole of the commissioners be
fore whom she appeared, whom in his first edition (1585) he
denominates Calvinisls,'m his second (1586) Zuinglians.

150 THE LIFE OF
she saw so near, might serve to reclaim her from
her error, when his and other learned men's rea
sonings with her, being both ignorant and obstinate,
were ineffectual."
1 The modern historian of the Reformation
contends, " that for the remarkable statement of
Foxe, no voucher is adduced, and, therefore, it
may be nothing more than a report current when
the martyrologist wrote. He was likely to have
felt little hesitation in committing such a report
to paper, because he, no doubt, cordially detested
the unhappy Bocher's heterodoxy, and because
he was probably irritated by the practice of affect
ing to confound Protestants with heretics, which
was general among Romanists. The value of
Foxe's work, which is immense, rests, it should
be observed, upon the vast mass of authentic do
cuments and contemporary testimony which he
has printed. In his unauthenticated relations he
may sometimes have fallen into error. That he
has done so in his account of Edward's conduct
respecting Joan Bocher, is rendered highly pro
bable by the king's silence. Had the extraordi
nary dialogue attributed to him and Cranmer
ever taken place, it is not easy to account for its
omission in the royal diary. Of any such dia
logue Sanders appears to have been ignorant, for
he has not inserted the least allusion to it ; al-
1 Soames, Hist. Ref. iii. 544.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 151
though he has mentioned invidiously, as he was
fairly warranted in doing, the burning of the ' two
heretics, and the taunt which Bocher addressed
to her judges on the score of 2 Anne Askew's case.
Ofthe part which Cranmer really took in the affair
of Joan Bocher, nothing is known beyond the facts,
that he presided judicially at her trial, and that he
endeavoured, in company with Ridley, to shake
her opinion, in several subsequent interviews,
while she was detained at the house in Smithfield,
then occupied by lord Rich, the chancellor, and
lately the priory of St. Bartholomew. His dis
like to the shedding of blood must be inferred
from the mildness of his disposition, and is ren
dered undeniable by 3 known facts. Dr. Lingard,
in mentioning the burning of this woman, says,
that Cranmer was compelled to moot the point
with the young (royal) theologian. He does not,
however, attribute to the king the speeches which
are in Foxe, and in most other histories. The
1 Van Paris is the other heretic here intended, of whom fur
ther mention is presently made.
2 See the account of Askew's case, and what is there said
of the archbishop, in the present Life of him, vol. i. pp. 374,
375. 3 The learned historian refers tQ the archbishop's wish to
have saved Frith from the stake, and to his mildness in the pro
ceedings against Lambert, in the propriety of whose sentence
we have no means of knowing how far Cranmer might have con
curred. Hist. Ref. ii. 333. See also p. 40, in the present
volume.

152 THE LIFE OF
whole account of this mooting is, in fact, unsup
ported by evidence, and when all the known cir
cumstances of the case are considered, it appears
by no means probable."
Gilpin, in his Life of Cranmer, observes, how
ever, that " 1 nothing even plausible can be sug
gested in defence of the archbishop on this occa
sion, except only, that the 2 spirit of popery was
not yet wholly repressed ;" a spirit, the elegant
biographer might have added, which the arch
bishop, in regard to such modes of persecution,
seems in his heart to have disclaimed ; for in
1551 he tells Gardiner, " 3that the truth hath
been hid these many years, and persecuted by
the papists with fire and fagot, and should be so
yet still, if you might have your own will." It is
remarkable too, that Gardiner, who, in his con
troversy with him, denounces " 4 the rude, the
1 Life of Cranmer, p. 132.
2 See Bossuet's Hist, des Variations, &c. who scruples not
thus to describe his own Church, 1. 10. p. 51. ed. Paris, 1740.
" L'exercise de la puissance, &c. viz. As to the exercise and
use ofthe power of the sword in matters of religion and of
conscience, it is a point not to be called in question : — the
right of it is certain. There is no illusion more dangerous than
to consider toleration as a mark and character of the true
Church !" Transl. by Archdeacon Churton, Life of Bishop
Smyth, Pref. 1800, p. 139.
3 Cranmer's Answer to Gardiner, ed. 1580, p. 265.
* Gardiner's Explication of the true catholique fayth, &c.
1551, fol. 28.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 153
pestilent heresy, wherein Joan of Kent obstinately
died," reminds him not either then, or at any sub
sequent time, of his activity in pursuing to the
stake either her or Van Paris. If, however,
as Foxe relates it, he became the vassal of a
bloody Council, in urging their desire to the so
vereign, his constitutional timidity, I am per
suaded, thus misled him. If Edward, too, bade
him notice that unwillingly the signature was
made in submission to his authority, and that
upon him the responsibility of it to heaven should
rest, it is no wonder that he, who had been per
suaded to contend for unjustifiable cruelty, should
" 1 be struck with horror" at the remonstrance,
and that, therefore, " 2 he was very unwilling to
have the sentence executed." It is to be la
mented, that he did not oppose the sentence being
passed. But his enemies, in order to heap redoubled
shame upon his memory, have represented him
as resorting to the king with importunity also for
the punishment of George Van Paris, a Dutch
man, who, in the next year, suffered for denying
the divinity of Christ. The pages also of some of
his friends are stained with this misrepresenta
tion. " 3 The young king," says the Romish
biographer of Cardinal Pole, " shewed a reluc-
1 Burnet. 2 Ibid.
3 Philips, Life of Cardinal Pole, Svo. ed. ii. 209.

154 THE LIFE OF
tance to sign the warrant for the execution of
these wretches," Van Paris and Bocher ; but
" Cranmer solved his scruples, and prevailed on
him to put his hand to it." Nor is this aggrava
tion questioned by a Protestant biographer of
Cranmer, who describes him " ^ot only con
senting to these acts of blood, but even persuad
ing the aversion of the young king into a compli
ance, and thus informing his royal pupil's con
science : Your Majesty must distinguish between
common opinions and such as are essential articles
of faith : These latter we must on no account
suffer to be opposed." A late prelate of the
Church of Rome prefaces the accusation with an
account, as unjust as it is rancorous, of the arch
bishop " 2 being instrumental, during the reign
of Henry, in bringing to the stake 3 Lambert,
4 Askew, 5 Frith, and 6 Allen, besides condemning
1 Gilpin, Life of Cranmer, 131.
2 Dr. Milner, End of Relig. Controversy, Lett. 49.
3 That he addressed Lambert with great mildness, his own
words convince us ; that he wished to atone for his concurrence
in the prosecution of him, we have also his own testimony.
See before, vol. i. pp. 259, 261, 265. See also in the present
vol. p. 40, where his exertions to save the lives of papists are
noticed. 4 In the case of Askew there appears nothing to implicate
Cranmer. See before, vol. i. p. 374.
6 Cranmer was desirous to save Frith. See before, vol. i.
p. 86.
6 Of Allen I know nothing.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 155
a great many others to it, for denying the corporal
presence of Christ in the sacrament ; and of his
continuing during the reign of Edward, to convict
Arians and Anabaptists capitally, and to press for
their execution ; two of whom, Joan Bocher and
Van Paris, he got actually burnt, preventing the
young king from pardoning them, by telling him
that princes, being God's deputies, ought to pu
nish impieties against Him."
Of any especial interference by Cranmer, in
regard to Van Paris, there is, however, no con
temporary statement, no evidence. The legal
process and sentence against the Dutchman were
certainly the same as in the case of Bocher ; and
of those proceedings a certificate, as the law then
required, was delivered to the king, to whose
power and direction the punishment was left, but
whose scruples are not again reported, either by
Foxe or any of our old writers, to have upbraided
the archbishop as forgetful of mercy. But again
he had not courage to swim against the stream.
" ' However we may condemn him for this, as I
do most heartily," a learned divine of our church
has said, " it will still be true, that amidst the
violent prejudices, and cruel principles, derived
chiefly from the old religion, such men on either
side as More or Cranmer, who being placed in the
1 Dr. Sturges's Reflections on Popery, in answer to Dr. Mil-
ner's History of Winchester, second edition, pp. 145, 146.
1

156 THE LIFE OF
most trying circumstances more than compensated
infirmities, then common to all, by virtues almost
peculiar to themselves, should be regarded by us
with indulgence and respect."
The arrest of lord Seymour, we have seen, pre
ceded the trial of Joan Bocher a few weeks. Not
many months after it had elapsed, when the pub
lic saw his ducal brother, the Protector Somerset,
fall also from his high estate. Factions in the
Council had prevailed against him, when he re
moved the king from Hampton Court to Windsor,
and seemed determined there to oppose the con
spiracy to the utmost extremity. By the malcon
tent councillors he was charged as regardless of
their opinion and advice, and therefore as the
author of much public grievance. His ' conduct
in regard to the demands of the rebellious pea
santry as to inclosures ; his introduction of foreign
troops into the king's service; his great wealth
obtained by the spoliation of church property ;
were, with many other accusations now alleged,
to prepare the way for the entire overthrow of his
power. By the Reformers, his measures, in pro
moting their views, were now not remembered as
they deserved. By the Roman Catholic party,
who fondly expected to find in his dissembling and
still more ambitious successor, the earl of War
wick, a friend to their cause, he was detested.
1 See before, p. 72.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 157
In the defection of his fellow-councillors, Cranmer,
Sir William Paget, and Sir Thomas Smith, how
ever, were not joined. They followed him to
Windsor. Hoping to avert his downfall, they
addressed a letter to the rest of the Council,
(in answer to one which from them they had
received,) which is ' believed to have been penned
by Cranmer. It is not printed either by Bur
net or Strype. An address, so mild and wise,
which indeed " 2 breathes all the spirit of Cranmer
in its genuine nature," deserves to be now pro
duced 3 entire from the ancient pages in which it
is recorded. " 4 After our hearty commendations unto your
good lordships. We have received from the same
a letter by Master Hunnings, dated at London
yesterday, whereby you do us to understand the
causes of your assemble there ; and, charging the
lord Protector with the manner of government,
require that he withdraw himself from the king's
Majesty, disperse the force which he hath levied,
and be contented to be ordered according to jus
tice and reason. And so you will gladly commune
with us, as touching the surety of the king's Ma
jesty's person, and the order of all other things,
1 Strype evidently considers the archbishop as the sole writer
of the letter. Life of Cranmer, B. 2, ch. 12.
2 Turner, Hist. Edw. VI. 176.
3 Strype and Turner cite a few lines of it; Burnet, none.
, 4 Stow, Chronicle, 4to. edition, 1009.

158 THE LIFE OF
with such conformity on that behalf as appertain
ed ; and otherwise you must, as you write, make
other account of us than you trust to have cause
and burden of us, if things come to extemities.
" To the first point, we verily believe that, as
bruits, rumours, and reports that your lordships
intended the destruction of the lord Protector
induced his grace to fly to the defence which he
hath assembled, excuse your lordships, hearing
that his grace intended the like destruction to
wards you, having beeri moved to do as you have
done ; so as, for lack of understanding one ano
ther's right meaning, things be grown to such ex
tremities, as if the saving of the king's Majesty's
person, and the common weal, take not more
place in his grace and your lordships than private
respects or affairs, you see, we doubt not, as we
do, that both our king, our country, and also
ourselves, shall, as verily as God is God, be ut
terly destroyed and cast away. Wherefore, might
it please you, for the tender passion of Jesus
Christ, use your wisdom and temper your deter
mination in such sort, as no blood be shed, nor
cruelty used, neither of his grace's part, nor of
your lordships'. For if it come to that point, both
you and we are like to see presently with our
eyes that which every vein of all our hearts will
bleed to behold.
" Wherefore as true subjects to the king's Ma
jesty, as faithful though unworthy councillors to

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 159
his Majesty and the realm, and as lamentable pe
titioners, we beseech your lordships most humbly,
and from the bottom of our hearts, to take pity
of the king, and the realm whereof you are prin
cipal members ; and to set apart summum jus, and
to use at this time turn bonum et cequum. And
think not that this is written for any private fear,
or other respect of ourselves, but for that un
doubtedly we here know ' more of this point (with
your favour) than you there do know. Yea, and
howsoever it shall please you to account of us,
we are true to God, to the king, to the realm,
and so will we hve and die wheresoever we be ;
and, in respect to those three, esteem little any
other person or thing, no, not our own lives ; and
having clear consciences, as to whatsoever ill may
follow upon the use of extremity there, that nei
ther now is nor shall be found fault in us. And,
so quieting ourselves, we rest.
" Now to that you would have the lord Protec
tor to do, for his part his grace and we have com
muned herein, and much to our comforts, and
your's also, if you like to weigh the case. He is
contented, if you will again for your parts use
1 Probably Cranmer meant, says Strype, who merely alludes
to this part of the letter, 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 pre
tences of their care for the king, and of the Protector's mis-
government.

160 THE LIFE OF
equity to put that now in execution, which many
times he hath declared by his words ; that is to
say, so as the king and the realm may be other
wise well served, he ' passeth little for the place
he now hath. Marry, he doth consider that by
the king's Majesty with all your advices, and the
consent of the nobles of the realm, he was called
to the place ; as appeareth in writing under his
Majesty's great seal and sign, whereunto your own
hands also and our's, with all other of the lords of
the upper house in parliament are subscribed*
And therefore in violent sort to be thus thrust
out against his will, he thinketh it not reasonable.
He is here with the king's person, where his place
is to be ; and here we are with him, we trust
in God, for the service of the king, the weal of
the realm, and the good acquitting both of his
grace and your lordships, which we most heartily
desire, and see such hope here thereof, as if you
are not too sore bent upon the extremities, as is
reported, and so as equity can take no place, my
lord's grace may live in quiet, and the king's Ma
jesty's affairs be maintained in such order as by
his Majesty's councillors shall be thought conve
nient. Marry, to put himself simply into your
hands, having heard both as we and he have,
1 Regardeth, careth. This sense of pass is now obsolete.
" As for those silken-coated slaves, I pass not."
Shakspeare, King Henry VI. P. II.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 161
without first knowledge upon what conditions, it
is not reasonable.
" Life is sweet, my lords ; and they say, you
seek his blood and his death : which if you do,
and may have him otherwise conformable to rea
son, and by extremity drive him to seek extremity
again, the blood of him and others that shall die
on both sides innocently shall be by God justly
required at your hands. And when peradventure
you would have him again upon occasion of ser
vice, you shall forethink to have lost him. Where
fore, good my lords, we beseech you again and
again, if you have conceived any such determina
tion, to put it out of your heads, and incline your
hearts to kindness and humanity ; remembering
that he hath never been cruel to any of you, and
why should you be cruel to him, as we trust you
be not, whatsoever hath been said, but will shew
yourselves as conformable for your parts, as his
grace is contented for the zeal he beareth to the
king and the realm to be for his part ; as the bear
er of this, Sir Philip Hoby, will declare unto you,
to whom we pray you to give credit, and to re
turn him hither again with answer hereof. And
thus beseeching the living God to direct your
hearts to the working of a quiet end of these
terrible tumults, we bid your worships most heart
ily well to fare. From the king's Majesty's Castle
of Windsor, the 1 eighth of October, 1549."
1 On this day " a proclamation was set forth by the state
VOL. II. M

162 THE LIFE OF
The answer of the lords, who had deserted So
merset, occasioned the delay of their plan only a
a few days ; for on the twelfth of October they
came to Windsor, and on the fourteenth conducted
him thence a prisoner to the Tower. He acknow
ledged the numerous offences with which he was
charged, and humbly implored a pardon. In the
following February he was indeed released from
his confinement, but deprived of the protectorate ;
and in April was restored to a seat in the Council.
During eighteen months this conciliation lasted.
On new charges he was then again arrested. His
objects, it was stated, were to regain by treason
able means the power he had lost ; and to assassi
nate his successor in that power, Warwick, after
wards advanced to the dukedom of Northumber
land. Of the treasonable accusation he was ac
quitted : of the felonious he was convicted, and
that brought him to the block. While in his first
imprisonment, he appears to have profited by a
little treatise translated from the German, by
Miles Coverdale, the friend of Cranmer, probably
at Cranmer's request, by whom too, we may be
lieve it to have been recommended to his noble
friend. The title of the little volume, which has
often been reprinted, is " A spiritual and precious
pearl, teaching all men to live and embrace the
and bodie of the king's maiesties counsayle, now assembled at
London, conteyning the very trouth of the duke of Somerset's
evel government, and false and detestable proceedinges."

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 163
Cross, as a most sweet and necessary thing unto
the soul ; and what comfort is to be taken thereof,
and also where and how both consolation, and
aid, in all manner of afflictions, is to be sought."
By some writers the duke is said to have pro
cured the translation of the original into English.
Others have attributed to him the whole compo
sition. He certainly wrote a preface to an edi
tion of the book, in the May after he was released :
but therein he appears to admit that the copy of
the work, which he had read, was in our own lan
guage. Of the author thus he speaks, in the true
spirit of a Reformer : " This man, whosoever he
be that was the 1 first author of this book, goeth
the right way to work : he bringeth his ground
from God's Word. — In our great trouble, which
of late did happen unto us, (as all the world doth
know,) when it pleased God for a time to attempt
us with his scourge, and to prove if we loved Him,
in reading this book we did find great comfort. —
And hereupon we have required him, of whom we
had the copy of this book, to set it forth in print."
To this edition, in the year 1550, was subjoined,
" A humble petition to the Lord, practised in the
common prayer of the whole family at Shene,
during the trouble of their lord and master, the
duke of Somerset; gathered and set forth by
1 Otho Wermylierus, a learned German preacher at Zurich.
Ames, 262. Dibdin, iv. 298.
VOL. II. M 2 -§-

164 THE LIFE OF
Thomas Becon, minister there." Becon was ano
ther of Cranmer's friends, and eminent among
our Reformers.
But while the duke was a prisoner in 1549,
Calvin addressed " an epistle of godly consolation"
to him, not because of his misfortune, but " 1 be
fore the time or knowledge had of his trouble, yet
delivered to him during that time," in which he
translated the letter, which was in French, into
Enghsh, and allowed it to be pubhshed in April
1550. The hours of his confinement were also
rendered less irksome by a long 2 consolatory
epistle from Peter Martyr. The Reformers then
trembled indeed for the cause which he had sup
ported. To that cause he continued firm to the last.
When on the scaffold, he reminded the spectators
of the religion, " 3 which so long as I was in autho
rity," said he, " I always diligently set forth and
furthered to my power. Neither repent I of my
doings, but rejoice therein, since now the state
of Christian religion cometh most near unto the
form and order of the Primitive Church ; which
thing I esteem as a great benefit, given of God
both unto you and me, most heartily exhorting
you all that this, which is most purely set forth
unto you, you will with hke thankfulness accept
1 Ames, 207. Dibdin, iii. 495. Calvin's letter is dated
October 22, 1549.
2 Burnet. » Foxe

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 165
and embrace, and set out the same in your
living." Besides Cranmer and those who favoured the
Reformation, the lower classes in general were
warmly attached to Somerset. He was the poor
man's friend. To hear and redress their griev
ances, was one of the honours of his administra
tion. His enemies cavilled even at this good
work. " Great clamour was raised against him,"
as lord Orford ' gathers it from Strype, "for a
merit of ihe most beautiful nature; this was his
setting up a court of requests in his own house,
to hear the petitions and suits of poor men ; and
upon the compassion he took of their oppressions ;
if he ended not their business, he would send his
letters to chancery in their favour."
1 Eccl. Mem. ii. 183. Royal and Noble Authors, i. 285.

CHAPTER VII.

1549 to 1550.
The old missals and other service-books called in — The new
form of ordaining bishops, priests, and deacons — Ponet,
the first prelate consecrated by it — Account of him, and of
his work, entitled Defence of the Marriages of Priests —
Letter to Cranmer on the Celibacy of the Clergy — The Epis
tles of Ignatius referred to on the subject — Cranmer's and
Ridley's treatises against Roman Catholic traditions — Trea
tise of Bertram, against Transubstantiation — Treatises
against the Mass — The Book of Herman, archbishop of
Cologne — Destruction of libraries — Ltfand, Bale, and Cran-

Elated as the Romanists were when the power
of Somerset was first humbled, they were also in
duced to think, that then there would be no im
pediment to the return of services and rituals that
had been forbidden. By his influence only, they
considered the new service-book to have been
enacted. Cranmer immediately prepared to sup
press their hopes ; and occasioned a letter to be
.sent at Christmas, by the king and Council to the

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 167
bishdps, of which ¦ himself, there can be little
doubt, was the author, and which announced the
sovereign's unaltered determination against the
Romish formularies. An Act, at the beginning
of the year 1550, confirmed this proclamation,
with * penalties of disobedience to it ; and secured
the reformed liturgy, during the reign of Edward,
against further opposition by the Roman Catholic
party. Though the Book of Common Prayekwas
commanded to be used of all persons within the
realm, " 3 We are nevertheless informed," Cran-
merjsrites in the name of the king a$id Councilr
" that divers unquiet and_evil-dispb&ed persons,
jincejhe apprehension of the duke of Spmewt
noised and bruit^_abKr^f that "they shoul
againlKeSj^IgajBI service,!

t^water/' ^te «nch-hke Yain_and supeHkjgus
ceremonies, as though the setting forth ofjhe said
Book had been the only act of the said duke : We,
therefore, by the advice of the body and state of
our Privy Council, not only considering the said
Book to be our Act, and the Act of the whole of
our realm assembled together in parliament, but
also the same be grounded upon the Holy Scrip-
1 The letter is in Cranmer's Register, Lamb. Lib. fol. 56.
Heylin calls it " the missive of the archbishop," 78.
2 A fine for the first and second offence in keeping any of
the prohibited books ; imprisonment during the king's pleasure
for the third.
3 Burnet, Rec. ii. B. i. No. 47.

168 THE LIFE OF
ture, agreeable to the order of the Primitive
Church, and much to the re-edifying of our sub
jects ; to put away all such vain expectation of
having the public service, the administration of
the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies,
again in the Latin tongue, which were but a pre
ferment of ignorance to knowledge, and darkness
to light, and a preparation to bring in papistry
and superstition again ; have thought good, by
the advice aforesaid, to require, and nevertheless
straitly do command and charge you, that imme
diately upon the receipt hereof, you do command
the dean and prebendaries of your cathedral
church, and the parson, vicar, or curate, and
churchwardens of every parish within your dio
cese, to bring and deliver unto you, or your de
puty, at such convenient place as you shall ap
point, all Antiphonals, Missals, Grails, Procession
als, Manuals, Legends, Pies, Portasses, Journals,
and Ordinals, after the use of Sarum, Lincoln,
York, or any other private use ; and all other
books of service, the keeping whereof should be
a let to the using of the said Book of Common
Prayers ; and that you take the same books into
your hands, or into the hands of your deputy,
and them so deface and abolish, that they never
after may serve either to any such use as they
were provided for, or be at any time a let to that
godly and uniform Order, which by a common
consent is now set forth. And if you shall find

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 169
any person stubborn, or disobedient, in not bring
ing in the said books according to the tenor of
these our letters, that then ye commit the said
person to ward, until such time as you have cer
tified us of his misbehaviour. And We will and
command you, that you also search, or cause
search to be made, from time to time, whether
any book be withdrawn or hid, contrary to the
tenor of these our letters ; and the same book to
receive into your hands, and to use all such as in
these our letters we have appointed. And further,
whereas it is come unto our knowledge, that divers
froward and obstinate persons do refuse to pay
towards the finding of bread and wine for the holy
communion, according to the Order prescribed in
the said Book, by reason whereof the holy com
munion is many times omitted upon the Sunday ;
these are to will and command you to convent
such obstinate persons before you, and them to
admonish and command to keep the Order pre
scribed in the said Book ; and if any shall refuse
so to do, to punish them by suspension, excom
munication, or other censures of the Church."
The 1 Primer of 1545 was allowed, by the sta
tute which followed this proclamation, still to be
kept and used ; the invocation or prayer to saints
in it being first obliterated. Images yet remain
ing in churches, while respect was paid to the
1 See before, vol; i. p. 373.

170 THE LIFE OF
monumental figures of persons represented not
as saints, the statute ordered to be defaced and
destroyed. After a new form it was now resolved, that
bishops, priests, and deacons, should be ordained.
An Act was accordingly passed, not without op
position to it by the bishops of Durham, Carlisle,
Worcester, Chichester, and Westminster, which
consigned to six prelates and divines the prepara
tion of this ritual. Heath, bishop of Worcester,
one of those appointed to the work, as he had ob
jected to the passing of the statute for this pur
pose, so now he l refused to comply with the di
rections of it ; and for his disobedience, was in
March (1549-50) sent by the Council to the Fleet.
The rest, under the 2 guidance of Cranmer, before
the close of that month, produced the Ordinal,
which then was 3 separately published, and after
wards subjoined to the second liturgy of Edward.
They concluded that the orders of bishop, priest,
and deacon, were those only which are of aposto-
1 Burnet says, that Heath had hitherto opposed every thing
done towards the Reformation in parliament, though he had
given an entire obedience to it when it was enacted ; and that
he was a man of a gentle temper, and great prudence. See
Cranmer's character of him in the present work, vol. i. p. 148.
He is said to have understood affairs of state better than mat
ters of religion.
2 The chief of them, no doubt, was the archbishop. Strype.
3 Printed by Grafton.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 171
lical institution ; and that by the episcopal autho
rity all the three orders are conferred, thus con
forming to the practice of the ancient Church,
which never accounted an ordination valid that
was performed by persons beneath the episcopal
character. They distinguished also the two higher
orders of bishops and priests ; and while they
pronounced the forms of ordination, as mentioned
in Scripture, to be only the imposition of hands
and prayer, they directed that two bishops should
expressly declare, that the person presented is to
be consecrated to their own order ; and to him are
accordingly applied more questions by the arch
bishop, than are mentioned in the office for or
daining priests, implying the superior authority of
one who was to exercise discipline, and to govern
a diocese. They rejected the inferior' orders of
acolyths, sub-deacons, and readers, which had
been the provision of modern ages, and were still
retained in the Church of Rome ; and they dis
continued some unmeaning ceremonies. By this
reformed ritual Ponet was the first prelate 1 con
secrated. He was a scholar of no ordinary charac
ter ; the intimate friend of Ridley and of Ascham ;
as a preacher, and as an author, both in Latin and
Enghsh, eminently promoting the Reformation.
He had now published his Defence of the Mar
riages of Priests ; which in the time of Mary was
1 To the see of Rochester, Ridley being translated to that of
London.

172 THE LIFE OF
abused, in a work that bore the name of ' Martin
in its title-page, but of which Ponet, in a reply to it,
pronounced Gardiner, and Dr. Smith, the deceitful
adversary of Cranmer, if not other Romanists also,
the authors. Smith had written an especial trea
tise, indeed, to maintain the law of celibacy on the
clergy by the Church of Rome, which Peter Martyr
had impugned. He printed it at Louvain, whither
he had fled. Having however 2 recanted, soon
after the accession of Edward, what as a Romanist
he had said of the mass, he now was willing to
retract what he had written on the law of priestly
celibacy ; acknowledging, in a letter to Cranmer,
" 3 his sudden and unadvised departing from his
grace over the sea; and desiring, of his charity
towards them that repent of their ill acts, to for
give him all the wrong he had done, and to obtain
for him the king's pardon, upon the receipt of
which he would return again home, and within
half a year (at the uttermost) afterward write a
book de sacerdotum connubiis, &c. a Latin book (on
the marriage of priests) . that should be a just satis
faction for any that he had written against the same."
To this letter the archbishop paid no regard ;
though Smith threatens in it also to attack his
book on the Sacrament. The writer of it remained
in exile. Burnet has given an 4 account of com-
1 See before, vol. i. p. 5.
2 At Paul's Cross, 15th May, 1547.
3 Letter to Cranmer, printed by Foxe in his Life of Latimer.
4 Hist. Ref. under the year 1551.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 173
plaints having at this time been preferred against
him by the University of Oxford to the Council,
and of his having been imprisoned till he obtained
his release by means of Cranmer, to whom he sent
an acknowledgment of the kindness with a refer
ence also to the connubial topic. But the historian
has here 1 mistakenly introduced Cranmer into a
transaction, which passed only between Smith and
archbishop Parker some years afterwards ; when
Smith, having again returned to Romanism in the
reign of Mary, was at the beginning of Elizabeth's
2 certainly incarcerated, but on giving security for
his good conduct was by Parker restored to liberty,
and presently again fled from his country. Mean
time, with thanks to Parker, he hypocritically
observed " 3 that he had written his book de cceli-
batu sacerdotum to try the truth out, not to the
intent that it should be printed, as it was against
his will. Would to God (he said) I had never
made it ; because I took then for my chief ground,
that the priests of England made a vow (of celibacy)
when they were made (priests,) which now I perceive
is not true." Anthony Wood, in his Life of Smith,
has adopted the mistake of Burnet ; relating that
1 This, and another letter, a learned correspondent of Bur
net assured him, were addressed to Parker, and not to Cran
mer; which, if the historian doubted, he offered to make very
evident. They are among the MSS. C. C. Camb. Hist. Ref.
vol. iii. Corrections.
2 A. Wood, Ath. Ox. Smith.
3 MSS. C. C. Camb. Burnet, ii. Rec. B. i. No. 54, as if to
Cranmer, but it is certainly to Parker.

174 THE LIFE OF
Smith thus wrote to Cranmer, because he had
heard of collections made by the archbishop in
opposition to his book. Such indeed were the
collections of Parker, whose Defence of the Mar
riages of Priests, especially levelled against Martin's
treatise, appeared in 1562. Burnet considers
Cranmer when he should have named Parker, I
must further observe, as " inquiring after a manu
script of the Epistles of Ignatius." But the histo
rian assigns no reason for such an inquiry ; which
however, as it relates to a subject that had so
much engaged the attention of both the archbi
shops, as well as of the foreign Reformers, the
ancient usage of the Christian Church in allowing
the priesthood to marry, claims especial notice.
The charge of these Epistles having been cor
ruptly printed had, perhaps, reached the ears of
Parker. Martin in his treatise, in 1554, brought
such an accusation against the foreign friends of
Cranmer. " 1 The Germans," said he, " corrupting
Ignatius, have put in him St. Paul for a married
man ; whereas I have seen other written books to
the contrary : And that no man may think me to
speak an untruth, I report me to the testimony
of a number of good students that have been
fellows of Magdalen College in Oxford, whether
they have not in their library an old written copy
of Ignatius, 2 except some brother hath of late
1 Treatise, &c. 1554. sign. Z. iii. b.
2 This illiberal insinuation appears to be overthrown by the
statement, long afterwards, of such a manuscript then being
in the library of Magdalen College. See the Catal. Libb. MSS.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 175
years stolen it away, where St. Paul's name is not
written'' This assertion the very learned Dr.
James, in his Introduction to Divinity, published
at Oxford in 1625, has denied. The name of
St. Paul as a married man, " is, or was, extant,"
he says, " in this manuscript." He had thus seen
it also in other manuscripts. The statement is,
that 1 St. Peter and St. Paul, and other Apostles,
were married. " 2 That this passage, was not cor
rupted since the Reformation, appears from various
editions made before that time : And that it is ge
nuine, may be seen in Usher, Dissert, in Ignatium,
c. 17, and Cotelerius, Annot. in locum."
A brief, but important literary labour of the
archbishop had now been circulated, maintaining
the great principle of the Reformation, that the
whole of God's Word is contained in Scripture,
or the Written Word. Tradition, called by Ro
manists the Unwritten Word of God, by them
was held of equal authority with the Written
Word. Cranmer, therefore, collected sufficient
proofs against this elevation of tradition to a level
with inspiration ; and exposed many of the Un-
Ang. et Heb. Ox, 1697, No. 2217, Codices MSS. Coll. S.
Marias Magdalense.
1 Petrus, et Paulus, et reliqui Apostoli, nuptiis fuerunt asso
ciate &c. Ignat. ad Philadelph. edit. Vossii.
Essay on the Law of Celibacy imposed on the Clergy of
the Roman Catholic Church, by the Rev. J. Hawkins, Wor
cester, pp. 9, 10.

176 THE LIFE OF
written Verities, as they were called, which were
pretended to have been left by the Apostles. In
his additional notes upon the subject, he says,
" 1 What things came by traditions from the Apos
tles, no man can tell certainly ; and if we be
bound to receive them as articles of our faith,
then is our faith uncertain, for we are [thus^
bound to believe we know not what." Strype
considers the archbishop's treatise as published
2 first in Latin, about the beginning of Edward's
reign ; as " 3 nibbled at by Smith, in his book of
traditions, which he recanted ;" and as * translated
into English for common use, with the title of
Unwritten Verities, in 1548. In the reign of
Mary, another translation of it appeared, which
is said to have been made by an English exile ;
which also refers to " 5 the trickes of the holy
maide of Lymster, lame woman of St. Alban's,
visions of Mrs. Anne Wentworth, and 6 Elizabeth
Barton, the holy maide of Courtop-street, in Kent."
Ridley had also written a " 7 learned comparison
between the comfortable doctrine of the Gospel,

1 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 138. 2 Ibid. 136.
3 Life of Cranm. B. 2, ch. 5.
* Ecc. Mem. ii. 136. Strype in his Appendix has printed
this translation.
s Ames, 229. 6 See before, vol. i. p. 90.
7 Dibdin, Typogr. Antiq. iv. 286. This posthumous work
of Ridley was printed by W. Powell, in 1566.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 177
and the traditions of the popish religion ;" which,
however, was not published till ten years after
his martyrdom.
In 1549 ' certainly, if not also in 1548, another
remarkable httle treatise appeared, which denied
transubstantiation to be a doctrine of the ancient
Catholic Church. It was the translation of a
Latin work, upon which 2 Ridley had communi
cated his thoughts to Cranmer in 1546 ; " the
boke of Barthram, priest, intreatinge of the bodye
andbloode of Christe, wrytten to great Charles
the emperoure, and set forth seven hundred years
ago." Bertram, or (as he is also called) Ratramnus,
was a monk of the abbey of Corby, in the ninth
century. His book is an answer to Paschasius
Radbert, who had been ofthe same fraternity,
and who asserted a carnal or bodily presence of
Christ in the sacrament. Bertram contends for
a spiritual presence only ; maintaining our doc
trine, 3 Burnet has observed, as expressly as we
Protestants ourselves can do ; delivering it in the
same words, and proving it by many of the same
authorities which we bring. The translation 4 has
1 Ames mentions an edition both in 1548 and 1549 ; the
former printed by T. Raynald, the latter by A. Kitson. Dr.
Dibdin thinks Ames mistaken as to an edition of 1548.
2 See before, vol. i. p. 266.
3 In his exposition of the Twenty-eighth Article of Religion.
4 By the editor of the work, Lat. and Eng. Lond. in 1686.
Ridley in his conference with secretary Bourne in the Tower,
VOL. II. N

178 THE LIFE OF
been supposed to have been made by Ridley,
or by his advice. To the accustomed zeal of
Cranmer for exhibiting, in the vernacular tongue,
the most valuable information, I am rather in
clined to ascribe it. It is royally privileged, and
is printed in a small form, but in types usually
given to books of a larger size ; as if it had been
especially intended to gratify the eye of age, as
well as youth. The foreign Protestants had pub
lished the original at Cologne, in 1532, and at
Geneva in 1541. Often they have since re-printed
it. The Cologne impression so staggered many
learned Romanists abroad, that they affected to
pronounce the work a modern forgery of the Pro
testants. Gardiner, in his controversy with Cran
mer, * resorted to a like suspicion of its credit. It
was in 1549, however, put into the Romish Index
Expurgatorius, among the books that were pro
hibited, as hostile to the doctrines of the Church
of Rome, in that year. Soon afterwards it was
2 ascribed to Oecolampadius, and pronounced
a pernicious book. The next endeavour to in
validate its authenticity, was by imputing it to
in 1554, says " that he had read the work." Foxe. I think he
would have also said, that he had translated it, if such had
been the case.
1 " One Bertram, if the book set forth in his name be his."
Gardiner, see Cranmer's Answer to him, edit. 1580, p. 6.
2 By Sixtus Senensis in the Pref. to his Bibliotheca.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 179
1 John Scotus Erigena, who by some has been
charged with fathering his own work upon his
contemporary Bertram; while others have pre
tended, that 2 Berengarius and his followers might
be the inventors of such an imposture. The ce
lebrated Mabillon, in the seventeenth century,
had seen a manuscript of it, at that time eight
hundred years old ; and allowed it to be the ge
nuine work of Bertram. 3 Other Romanists have
agreed with him. All the objections and pre
tences of the Roman Catholic writers against this
early opponent to transubstantiation, have been
1 Scotus was directed, as well as Bertram, by the emperor
Charles, to answer Radbert, as he distinctly did, with a preci
sion superior to that of his contemporary, but with him declar
ing plainly, that the bread and wine are only the signs and sym
bols of the absent body and blood of Christ. See Mosheim,
cent. ix. § 20.
2 Or Berenger, a French divine, of the eleventh century,
" who left behind him in the minds of the people a deep im
pression of his extraordinary sanctity ; and his followers were
as numerous, as his fame was illustrious. There have been dis
putes among the learned, about the real sentiments of this emi
nent man ; yet, notwithstanding the art which he sometimes
uses to conceal his opinions, and the ambiguity that is often
remarkable in his expressions, whoever examines with impartia
lity and attention such of his writings as are yet extant, will
immediately perceive, that he looked upon the bread and wine
in the sacrament as no more than the signs or symbols of the
body and blood of the Divine Saviour." Mosheim.
3 The Abbe Boileau published two editions of it at Paris, in
1699 and 1712.
N 2

180 THE LIFE OF
acutely and learnedly refuted in the London edi
tion of the Catalogus Testium Veritatis, in 1686,
and in the dissertation prefixed to a new version
of Bertram's treatise, published at Dublin in 1753.
Other translations, procured by means of Cran
mer, had now been of signal service in forward
ing the Reformation. Such were two against the
Mass, of which one had appeared in French, the
other in Latin. But more especially such was the
" simple and religious Consultation of Herman,
archbishop of Cologne, and prince elector, by
what means a Christian Reformation, and founded
on God's Word, of doctrine, administration of the
divine sacraments, of ceremonies, of the whole
cure of souls, and other ecclesiastical ministries,
may be begun among men committed to our
charge, until the Lord grant a better to be ap
pointed either by a free and Christian council,
general or national, or else by the states of the
empire of the nation of Germany gathered toge
ther in the Holy Ghost." Like the book of Eng
lish Homilies, it was divided into separate dis
courses, 1 more numerous, however, than those
in our own formulary ; and is 2 said to have been
compiled by Melancthon and Bucer, not without
the revision of the elector himself, about the year
1 They are in number 57. Strype has printed the titles of
them. Ecc. Mem. ii. 27.
' Strype, ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 181
1543. This attempt to introduce the Reformation
into the diocese of Cologne, had been opposed
by the canons of Herman's own cathedral, who
were supported in their resistance by the emperor
Charles. ' Prohibited by that sovereign to pro
ceed in the good work he meditated, and at length
excommunicated by the pope, this excellent pre
late retired from his archbishopric to a private
life, and died in 1552. To the Reforming party
in our own country his book was so acceptable,
as to pass through 2 two editions in the first and
second years of the reign of Edward ; and both
are now numbered among our volumes of rare
occurrence. While religious information was thus circulated,
and the spirit of inquiry encouraged, general li
terature at this time here sustained irreparable
damage in the plunder, dispersion, or entire de
struction of many libraries, To Edward a re
monstrance was now made by Bale, a very zeal
ous Reformer, (afterwards bishop of Ossory,) upon
this lamentable theme, not without referring to the
similar spoliation in the reign of Henry, when the
monasteries were suppressed. " 3 O that men of
1 Robertson, Charles V.
2 Strype is mistaken in supposing the first edition to be with
out the' name of the printer, Ecc. Mem. ii. 26. " Imprinted by
John Daye, &c." is announced in it.
3 Dedication of Leland's Journey, &c. to Edward, 1549 or
1550.

182 THE LIFE OF
learning and of perfect love to their nation," he
thus addresses the young king, " had been then
appointed to the search of their libraries for the
conservation of those most noble antiquities.
Covetousness was at that time so busy about
private commodity, that public wealth in that
most necessary and godly respect was not any
where regarded. If your most noble father, of
excellent memory, king Henry, had not of a godly
zeal, by special commission, directed Master John
Leland to oversee a number of their said libraries,
we had lost infinite treasure of knowledge, by the
spoil which anon after followed of their due sup
pression." The employment of the accomplished scholar
Leland had commenced before the dissolution of
religious houses. When Cranmer was appointed
archbishop, Leland was nominated, by a commis
sion under the broad seal, the king's antiquary ;
'the first, and indeed the last, that bore this honour
able office. By the commission he was appointed
to search after England's antiquities, and to pe
ruse the libraries of all cathedrals, abbies, priories,
and colleges, as also all places wherein records,
writings, and secrets of antiquity were reposited.
Promoted as he had been by the king, to the rec
tory of Poppeling, in the marches of Calais, which
were a 2 part of Cranmer's diocese, his acquaint-
1 Life of Leland, Oxf. 1772, p. 9.
2 See before, vol. i. p. 174.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 183
ance with the primate, we may suppose, was
soon formed. Returned from his laborious em
ployment, he spent several years in London, me
thodizing his collections, and also presenting to his
sovereign many finished proofs of his zeal and
discernment. Soon after the death of Henry, he
fell into a deep melancholy. l At this time, his
great concern for the preservation of his papers
he expressed in a copy of Latin verses to Cran
mer, whose patronage the 2 accustomed candour
and kindness of the archbishop (as he words it)
naturally led him to expect. He soon after was
totally deprived of his senses ; and by the Coun
cil of Edward, in March 1550, was consigned, with
ample provision for his maintenance, to the cus
tody of his brother. He died in 1552.
It was about the time, when Bale addressed
Edward on the subject of the libraries, that the
young king had consented to the Council's desire
of having his own at Westminster examined, in
order (it was said) to dismiss from it all missals,
legends, and other superstitious books, recited
in the 3 Act that had lately passed. Of such
1 Life, ut supr. p. 22.
2 C ran mere, eximium decus piorum,
Implorare tuam benignitatem
Cogor : fac igitur tuo sueto
Pro candore, meum decus, patronumque,
Ut tantum faveat &c. Strype.
3 See before, p. 167. 1

184 THE LIFE OF
many were curiously embossed with gold and
silver ; and these attractive appendages were di
rected to be 5 delivered to Sir Anthony Aucher,
as the plate and jewels of churches 2 before had
been. The endeavours of Cranmer to stop the
pillage even of 3 brass and lead, as well as gold
and silver, belonging to churches and chapels,
had been ineffectual. Himself and Ridley had
both 4 incurred the displeasure of Northumber
land, for opposing " 5 the spoil of church goods,
taken away only by the command of the higher
powers, without any law or order of justice, and
without any request or consent of them to whom
they belong." The Reformation, however, has
been too hastily vilified, as if it had encouraged
a general destruction of literary treasures ; as if
Cranmer and Ridley, distinguished as they were
for their literary acquirements, and their zeal to
disseminate knowledge, had not exerted them
selves for the interests of science and literature.
On the contrary, from the monastic and other
libraries of their time have descended to our pre-
1 The letter is dated Feb. 25, 1550. Collier, ii. 307.
2 See Proceedings of the Privy Council, Jan. 1547. From
the Archseologia, 1815, p. 11.
See before, p. 41. Churches were stripped of their lead,
and monuments of their brasses.
4 Bishop Ridley's Treatise lamenting the state of England.
Foxe. ' Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 185
sent possession numerous ancient manuscripts of
the utmost importance in the history and the appli
cation of sound learning. Over the loss of legends,
missals, and breviaries, as well as the intricate
works of the schoolmen, often,indeed, we meet with
lamentation. " 1 Many manuscripts,'' says Wood,
deploring the havoc at Oxford, in 1550, " guilty
of no other superstition than red letters in their
fronts or titles, were either condemned to the
fire or the jakes. The works of the schoolmen,
namely of P. Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Duns
Scotus and his followers, with critics also, and
such as had popish scholia in them, they cast out
of 2 all college libraries aud private studies. Not
content with this, they slandered those most noble
authors, as guilty of barbarism, ignorance of the
Scriptures, and much deceit ; and as much as in
them lay, endeavoured to damn their memories
to all eternity. And lest their impiety and fool
ishness in this act should be further wanting, they
brought it so to pass, that certain rude young
men should carry this great spoil of books about
the city on biers ; which being done, to set them
down in the common market-place, and there burn
them ; to the sorrow of many, as well of the
Protestant as of the other party. This was by

1 Annals, Univ. Oxon. under the year 1550.
2 And yet in College and Cathedral libraries innumerable
manuscripts of the schoolmen remain to this day !

186 THE LIFE OF
them styled the funeral 1 of Scotus and Scotists.
So that at this time, and in all this king's reign,
was seldom seen any thing in the University
but books of Poetry, Grammar, idle songs, and
frivolous stuff."
Such was the reflection, more than a century
since, made by the Oxford antiquary upon the
great object of the Reformation, freedom of
thought and investigation of general subjects.
He might have said, if his taste had been equal
to his learning, that in the reign of Edward
there was at least a little good poetry, that there
was some valuable philology, and some useful
translations of classical and philosophical works,
by men who owed their education to Oxford. The
revival of literature, indeed, while it was now strenu
ously encouraged by 2 Cranmer, was also advocated
with his accustomed quaintness by Latimer, who
in a sermon, preached before the king in 1550,
said, " Here now should I speak of Universities,

1 Scotus had met with no better usage in the preceding reign.
" When in 1535 the king's visitors ordered lectures in huma
nity to be founded in those societies at Oxford, where they were
yet wanting, the injunctions were so warmly seconded and ap
proved by the scholars in the largest colleges, that they seized
on the venerable volumes of Duns Scotus, and other irrefraga
ble logicians, and tearing them in pieces, dispersed them in
great triumph about tlieir quadrangles, or gave them away as
useless lumber." Warton's Life of Sir T. Pope, p. 148.
2 See before, p. 36.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 187
and for preferring of schools : but he that preached
the last Sunday, spake very well in it, and sub
stantially, and like one that knew the state and
condition of the Universities and schools very
well. But thus much I say unto you, magistrates;
If ye will not maintain schools and Universities,
ye shall have a brutality :" — in other words,
neither spiritual nor intellectual liberty shall be
youi^s.

CHAPTER VIII.

1549 to 1551.
Learned foreigners in England — Peter Martyr — Bernardine
Ochin — Martin Bucer — Paul Fagius — and others — Their
appointments — Their opinions — Bucer notices the revenues
of the English Church — Cranmer's letter concerning im
propriations — John a Lasco's recommendation to Cranmer
of more foreigners after the death of Bucer.
In the palace of Lambeth had now been assembled
several learned foreigners, of whom some had
been invited thither by the archbishop, some had
been in pity received as persecuted Protestants,
and all were by him generously entertained. Of
these guests the earliest appear to have been the
celebrated Peter Martyr and Bernardine Ochin,
both Italians, highly distinguished at Naples,
where the former, with the dignity of an abbot,
had been also provost of a college, and the latter
the chief director of the friars denominated ca
puchins. The religious sentiments of both, in
favour of the reformed religion, had been ex
pressed with great effect ; and " ' by the blessing
of God on the labours of these individuals, a Re-
1 M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy, &c. 120.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 189
formed Church was established at Naples, which
included persons of the first rank, both male and
female." Martyr afterwards was distinguished by
his zeal at Lucca, as Ochin was by his preaching
at Venice. Of the former, it has been said, that
he " 1 excelled as much in judgment and learning,
as the latter did in popular eloquence." But soon
their efforts were opposed, the papal influence
threatened their labours and even their lives, they
fled from their native country, took shelter first
in Switzerland, and then at Strasburg, z where the
letters of invitation from Cranmer found them.
An 3 account of expences attending their journey
to England has been preserved, which, while it
shews their arrival to have been 4 rather later
than our historians represent it, affords much
curious information both on the manners of the
time, and in regard to provisions for the learned
travellers. The charges of their guide commence
at Basle, on the 4th of November, continuing
" until the 20th of December, that they came to
London ;" and amount to one hundred and twenty
six pounds, of which a very large proportion is
1 M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Italy, &c. 1 19.
2 Burnet, A. Wood, Ann. Univ. Ox. under 1548.
3 Printed in the Archaeologia, vol. xxi. 469, seq. communi
cated by a very acute and diligent antiquary, N. H. Nicolas,
Esq. 4 Burnet and others name their arrival in November, 1547 :
it appears to have been at the latter end of December.

190 THE LIFE OF
for books, especially for Ochin, the bill for which
was delivered to Cranmer, who had probably given
directions for these accompaniments ; while those
for Peter Martyr, were only " the works of St.
Augustine, Cyprian, and Epiphanius." The visit
of these eminent divines is ' supposed to have
been approved, and the charges of their journey
to have been defrayed, by the government.
For Ochin, who was to exercise his eloquent
preaching in London, Cranmer almost immediately
obtained from the Crown a prebend of Can
terbury ; and for Martyr, whose knowledge of
Hebrew and Greek was to stand the test of aca
demical approbation, the professorship of divinity
at Oxford. The appointment of the latter was
greatly resented by the party, who maintained in
that University the doctrine of transubstantia
tion ; whose belief in it the new professor, there
fore, endeavoured to shake by his primary 2 lec
tures upon that part of the eleventh chapter of
the first Epistle to the Corinthians, which refers
to the Lord's Supper. Sanders, the Romish his
torian, pretends, that Martyr now 3 hesitated
between the doctrine of Luther and that of Zuin-
glius, between consubstantiation and a denial of
the corporal presence, as if he waited for instruc-
1 Archeeol. ut supr. 470.
2 Strype.
3 This is not said by Sanders in his first edition of 1585 ;
but in the second of 1586 the fabrication occurs, p. 274.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 191
tions from the archbishop and the government
which to advocate. But Martyr, * before his ar
rival in England, had abandoned the tenet of the
corporal presence ; and before that arrival, Cran
mer, with whom we may be sure the Protector
concurred, had also abandoned it. Heylin relates,
not accurately, upon the authority of Sanders,
2 that the professor at this time declared himself
so much a Zuinglian, as to have given great of
fence to Cranmer and other prelates ; and yet
Cranmer and Ridley at least, if not others of
their mitred brethren, had now espoused the doc
trine of Zuinglius. But the professor is defended
upon this very point by the archbishop himself.
" 3 Of M. Peter Martyr's opinion and judgment in
this matter," Cranmer says, " no man can better
testify than I ; forasmuch, as he lodged within
my house long before he came to Oxford, and I
had with him many conferences in that matter,
and know, that he was then of the same mind that
he is now, and as he defended after openly in Ox
ford, and hath written in his book." By the Ro
manists at Oxford, he was challenged to a public
disputation. He accepted it, with the approba
tion of the Privy Council, by whom, in 1549,
delegates of rank and learning were appointed
to attend it ; and he maintained, 1. That in
1 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 122.
2 Hist. Ref. 79.
3 Answer to Dr. Smith's Pref. 402.

192 THE LIFE OF
the sacrament of the Eucharist 1 there is no tran
substantiation of bread and wine into the body
and blood of Christ. 2. That the body and blood
of Christ are not corporally or carnally in or
under the species of bread and wine. 3. That the
body and blood of Christ are united to the bread
and wine 2 sacramentally. Four days the disputa
tion continued, the professor contending against
three opponents, the doctors Tresham and Ched-
sey, and Mr. Morgan Philips, usually 3 called
Morgan the sophister. Dr. Cox, dean of Christ
church, as moderator, at the close of the business,
addressed the several disputants, not without a
compliment to the skill of each, but with one
more especially gratifying to Martyr " 4 for the
numberless testimonies produced by him in behalf
of the truth. Such as he is, he must obtain favour
and respect from us, and from all good men ; first,
because he has taken such pains in sustaining
even a burden of disputations ; for if not Hercules
himself could withstand two, what shall we think
of Martyr against all ? secondly, because he ac
cepted the challenge, and thus stopped the mouths
1 Burnet, Strype, A. Wood, Ann. Univ. Ox. under the year
1548. 2 That is, as he wrote to Bucer, " he meant it in mind and
faith." 3 A. Wood, ut supr.
* Strype gives a larger extract from Dr. Cox's oration. Life
of Cranm. B. ii. ch. 14.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 193
of vain men, who dispersed envious and odious
accusations against him, as one who was either
afraid or unwilling to maintain his own cause ;
and lastly, that he has so fully answered the ex
pectation of the chief magistrates, and so of the
king himself; while lie has not only recommended
to the University the doctrine of Christ from the
living fountains of the Word of God, but has not
permitted others to obscure or obstruct them." By
Dr. Chedsey, and the Romish party, Martyr was
traduced, as if he had been vanquished. To con
fute their slanders, he afterwards ' published the
whole disputation, and his fidelity was attested by
the subscription to it of the royal delegates who
presided at the disputation. Meantime he sent
to Cranmer by " Julius, his constant 2 companion
and friend," as Strype calls him, an account of the
disputation, and to Bucer, who was then at Lam
beth Palace, an explanation of such passages in
it, as he thought might not accord with that Re
former's judgment, whose sentiments on the cor
poral presence seemed not so far removed from
the Church of Rome, at that time, as his own.
Bucer had been invited by the archbishop to
1 Simler, Vita P. Martyris.
2 In the Archaeologia this person is mistakenly called Mar
tyr's servant. He was an Italian, named Julio Terentiano, and
accompanied Martyr hither. Martyr speaks of him as a friend
in his letters, Gerdesii Miscell. iv. 666, 667.
VOL. II. O

194 THE LIFE OF
England in October 1548, and again in the March
following. He came accompanied with Paul
Fagius, another German, both eminently quali
fied to propagate the doctrines of the Reforma
tion. In the eastern languages Fagius was
profoundly skilled, as Bucer was in the Greek.
To instruct the students at Cambridge they were
therefore designed ; Fagius being directed to
expound the Old Testament, Bucer the New.
To the latter was granted the same honourable
distinction in the University as at Oxford Martyr
enjoyed ; his appointment to which by the king,
at the recommendation of Cranmer, was thus an
nounced to the vice-chancellor and proctors of the
University. " l Trusty and well-beloved, We greet you
well ; letting you to wit, that forasmuch as We
be credibly informed of your good conformity
to all such order as We, by our late visitors, di
rected unto you, and of your industry and diligent
study which you daily take to attain to all kinds
of good learning ; and specially hearing of your
good zeal and affection to God's most holy Word,
not only to understand the tongues wherein the
same was written, whereby you may come to the
true and sincere sense and meaning of the same, but
also in your livings to conform yourselves there
unto, and as it were to transform yourselves into
1 Cole's MSS. Brit. Mus. vol. 42, p. 425.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 195
the manner and shape of God's Word, that you
may be lights to shine to our whole realm ; We
cannot but much rejoice to have this good report
of you, knowing that our two Universities being
the wells and fountains of religion within our
realm, whatsoever pure godliness is among you,
the same must needs flow into the rest of our
realms ; and to the intent, that your godly endea
vours and studies may have the more success, and
for the love that we bear to this our University,
We having at this present within our realm Martin
Bucer, a man of profound learning, and of godly
life and conversation, have thought good, by the
advice of our trusty and well-beloved council
lors, to bestow him upon you to read the Lec
ture of Holy Scripture, which Dr. Madewe lately
read, to the great comfort and condition of all such
as be godly and quietly bent to the pure under
standing of Holy Scripture. Wherefore, We pray
you and require you, and nevertheless command
you, so to entertain and use him with all gentle
ness and humanity, that he be at no time discou
raged in his godly doings, but rather comforted
and encouraged to persevere in the same, as ye
tender our pleasure and your own commodity.
Given at our palace at Westminster, the iiij. of
December, in the third year of our reign."
To the professorship of the Hebrew tongue,
Fagius was, at the same time, appointed. For him,
o 2

196 THE LIFE OF
as for Bucer, Cranmer procured from the king, in
addition to the academical advantages of their
offices, the honorary ' annual stipend of one hun
dred pounds. To Ochin, and to Martyr, and to
other learned foreigners, the royal munificence,
through the same interposition, was also extended.
" 2 1 heard say, Master Melancthon, that great clerk,
should come hither," honest Latimer observed
in a sermon before Edward ; " I would wish him,
and such as he is, to have two hundred pounds a
year ; the king should never want it in his coffers
at the year's end. There are yet among us two
great learned men, Peter Martyr and Bernard
Ochin, which have a hundred marks a piece : I
would the king would bestow a thousand pounds
on that sort." Melancthon, however, never visited
England. The subject of the lectures, to be delivered
by Fagius and Bucer, which Cranmer himself
dictated, was with a view to the production of as
pure and genuine a translation of the Scriptures
as was possible. They were by him 3 required to
give a clear and succinct interpretation of the sa
cred text, according to the propriety of the lan
guage ; to explain difficult and obscure passages ;
and to reconcile those that seemed to differ from
each other. Fagius had begun to illustrate the
1 Strype.
2 Sermon before the king, March 22 1549.
3 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 197
prophecies of Isaiah, and Bucer the Gospel of
St. John, while yet resident in Lambeth Palace,
when sickness attacked them both. The former,
still anxiously desired to ' commence his lectures
in the University, which he reached only 2 there
to die. Ere fifteen months had rolled away, the
latter also at the same place 3 breathed his last.
Of the skill of Fagius in Hebrew and rabbinical
learning the world had received 4 abundant proofs ;
although in England disease suppressed the in
tended exercise of his great abilities. The little
time that was left to Bucer was so employed, as
to obtain at Cambridge all the attention he could
desire, and the 5 highest honour she could bestow.
Upon the Eucharistic question, Cranmer, we
have 6 seen, declared what he knew to be the
judgment of Peter Martyr. An opinion of
Bucer he has also given us. Gardiner . had mis
represented that Reformer. Cranmer thus replied
to him : " 7 Bucer varieth much from your error ;
1 Strype. Some modern writers assert, incorrectly, that he
had begun his lectures at Cambridge.
2 In November, 1549. Not in 1550, as stated in Scott's
History of the Church of Christ, ii. 1 35.
3 In February, 1551.
' Strype gives a list of his numerous publications. Life of
Cranm. Append. No. 44.
5 The degree of doctor in divinity was given to him, as a
peculiar honour, without the usual forms in those cases, except
that he chose to perform the literary exercises for it. Strype,
6 See before, p. 191.
7 Answer to Gardiner, ed. 1580. p. 266.

198 THE LIFE OF
for he denieth utterly that Christ is really and
substantially present in the bread, either by con
version or inclusion, but in the ministration he
affirmeth Christ to be present, and so do I also,
but J not to be eaten and drunken of them that
be wicked and members of the devil, whom Christ
neither feedeth, nor hath any communion with
them. And, to conclude in few words the doc
trine of M. Bucer in the place by you alleged, he
dissenteth in no thing from Oecolampadius and
Zuinglius." To Cranmer, therefore, Bucer appears
to have expressed himself, on this grand tenet,
without reserve. To others he spoke or wrote
with less simplicity, but with a view to conciliate,
in the sacramental controversy, as his 2 manner
was in other religious disputes, the opposers and
maintainers of it. Melancthon alluded to this
1 If Christ's body is corporally present in the sacrament,
then all persons, good or bad, who receive the sacrament, do
also receive Christ. On the other hand, if Christ is present
only in a spiritual manner, and if the mean that receives Christ
is faith, then such as believe not do not receive him. So that
to prove that the wicked do not receive Christ's body and blood,
is upon the matter the same thing with proving that he is not
corporally present. And it is a very considerable branch of our
argument, by which we prove that the Fathers did not believe
the corporal presence, because they very often say, that the
wicked do not receive Christ in the sacrament. Burnet on the
29th Article.
a Bucer, like Erasmus, endeavoured to pacify religious dispu
tants, and bring things to an accommodation ; and, like Eras
mus, he was insulted by both parties. Jortin, Erasm. i, 430.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 199
kind of concession without adopting it ; for it was
his constant maxim, that " ' ambiguous terms
only generate new controversies ;" and a friend of
Melancthon, to whom the Reformed Church of
Italy was much indebted, Ceho Secundo Curio,
in his 2 humorous strictures upon the errors ofthe
Church of Rome, notices the concession of Bucer,
in order to deny so seeming a dereliction of the
Protestant cause.
The impoverished revenues of the English
Church escaped not the observation of Bucer.
From Cambridge he wrote to Calvin on this impor
tant topic. Calvin sent a letter, in consequence, to
the archbishop : 3 the rents of the Church, said he,
being exposed to be a prey, fit persons might not
perhaps be found, at least would not be encouraged,
to perform the ministerial duties. The archbishop
now seems to have planned a design of recovering,
1 Strype.
2 Pasquillus Ecstaticus, 12mo. without date or place of
printing. Oporinus, however, is believed to have printed it at
Basle. " Ita Bucerus sermonem temperavit, verbaque pondera-
vit, ut nemo quid sibi in ea re (ccena Domini) velit intelligere
possit, &c." p. 150. This little volume of Curio is of extreme
rarity, and is one of the various very powerful and satirical works
against the pope, monks, &c. which at the beginning of the
Reformation in Italy were by him, by Hutten, and others, cir
culated, and which, from the circumstance of their being burnt
wherever they were seized by the papal orders, became scarce.
3 Quod praedae expositi sunt Ecclesiae reditus. Calvini Ep.
127. Strype.

200 THE LIFE OF
from the hands of laymen, the inpropriations which
had been granted to them at the dissolution of
the monasteries ; and to assign the lands and
tithes of benefices, as they were originally intended,
to the maintenance of incumbents. The follow
ing letter, addressed to the bishop of Exeter, was
probably sent to all the prelates ; but the impro
priations have remained to the present time.
" x After my hearty commendations, the king's
Majesty's pleasure and high commandment to me
is, that I shall will and charge you to ascertain
me the names of all such benefices within your
diocese, as at any time have been or yet be im-
propried, in whose hands and possession the same
have been, either in his Majesty's, or any his
Grace's subjects ; with your true certificate also
of all vicarages endowed within your said diocese,
and of all other churches impropried having no
vicarages endowed, being either served by a ma
nual priest, or destitute of a curate ; with the
several values of such vicarages and benefices, as
nigh as you may. Fail you not this to do with
all celerity, as you tender the accomplishment of
his Grace's pleasure. Fare you well. From my
Manor of Lambeth, this xx. of April, 1550.
" Your loving brother,
" T. Cantuar."
' Wilkins, Concil. iv. 62.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 201
Bucer and Fagius had been accompanied to
England by Matthew Regelius, afterwards a
minister at Strasburg, who was also received
under Cranmer's hospitable roof, now open,
indeed, to the Reformers of various countries.
There, from Artois, was Peter Alexander,
whom the archbishop employed as his secretary ;
who had been ' inclined to the Lutheran tenet of
consubstantiation, but had relinquished it, as
Martyr informed Calvin, to whom, having sub
scribed to an agreement upon this point with
Zuinglius, the notice would give pleasure. Like
Bucer and Fagius, this learned secretary appears
to have written at Lambeth expositions of Scrip
ture. There had now been also, in the palace, Justus
Jonas the younger, and his three companions,
from Germany, whose arrival has 2 already been
noticed. The recommendation of Melancthon
had introduced them. Young as Justus Jonas
was, Strype calls him a " great divine." Cran
mer appears to have placed entire confidence in
him, and to have consulted him on important
points. He imparted to him, first, his wish for
the union of all Protestant Churches, and then
desired him to communicate it to Melancthon,
with a request for his judgment upon it, which
presently will be before us. Eusebius Menius,
another of these visitors, was the son of Justus
1 Strype. See the present vol. p. 43.

202 THE LIFE OF
Menius, an eminent preacher at Saxe^Gotha.
He was described as worthy the notice of the
archbishop, not only as the son of one who had
deserved well of the Reformed Church, but as a
man of distinguished learning, especially in that
branch of it, which might render him 1 acceptable
to the University of Cambridge, mathematics.
He had good preferment in Germany, Melancthon
further said of him, but he could not endure to
behold the calamities of his country, and there
fore sought in a foreign land a maintenance.
The next of these foreigners was Francis Dryan-
der, whose real name was Enzinas, a Spaniard of
noble birth, who had visited Germany, and been
long acquainted with Melancthon. Of him the
great Reformer reported to Cranmer, that he had
found him endowed with excellent abilities, that
his theological opinions, like his conduct, were
correct, and that he was worthy to be preferred
in either of our Universities. Strype supposes
that he was sent to Oxford, and continued there
till the reign of Mary ; but by the great historian
of that University his name is unnoticed. Peter
Martyr, however, 2 appears to have invited him
1 Strype.
2 P. Martyris Epist. ad Utenhovium. " Veniat (Dry ander)
cum voluerit, experiri poterit; si fortuna placebit, utetur;
sin minus, semper redire poterit, quocunque voluerit. Nee
eum, ut arbitror, pcenitebit hanc urbem et universitatem semel
vidisse. Oxonii, 9 Maii, 1549." Gerdesii Miscell. iv. 666.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 203
thither. The third companion of Justus Jonas,
was Rodolph Gualter, of Zurich, a relation of
Zuinglius, and afterwards the successor of Bul-
linger in the pastorship of his native place.
A more distinguished guest, at this time, was
John a Lasco, a nobleman of Poland, the nephew
of an archbishop of that name. The present
friend of Cranmer has been described by some,
inaccurately, as having at first been a Roman
Cathohc prelate. To that communion, indeed,
he belonged, when, more than twenty years be
fore, he l lived and boarded with Erasmus, by
whose conversation and writings he was led into
the reformed systems, though Erasmus himself
did not go so far. In his heart Erasmus cer
tainly approved the Reformation, but dared not
openly express himself a Reformer ; a character,
notwithstanding, which his works, however guard
ed, often confer upon him, and justify the zeal with
which Cranmer 2 studied them, as they excited also
the concurrence of Gardiner in the well-known
3 sarcasm, " Erasmus laid the eggs, and Luther
hatched them." John a Lasco had now embraced
the Reformation, had forsaken his country, and had
become preacher to a Protestant congregation at
Embden. His present visit was with a view to
establish this congregation in London ; which
1 Jortin, i. 379, 2 See before, vol. i. p. 4. 10
3 See the present vol, p. 16.
1

204 THE LIFE OF
afterwards Cranmer was instrumental in effecting.
The dissolved convent of the Augustine friars,
and some political privileges, were granted them.
Into our country were thus introduced many
useful hands for arts and manufactures, which
she lost when the ministry of the noble Pole was
suppressed at the accession of Mary, and himself,
with most of the foreign Protestants, left the king
dom. Eminent alike for piety and learning, he
had been appointed superintendent over other
congregations also of the reformed aliens in Lon
don, Italian and French. Possessed of sufficient
means, he was ever ready to assist such of them
as asked his aid. In the controversies of our own
Church he interfered, injudiciously, as some have
contended ; and his 1 long address to Cranmer, in
which he objects to the clerical habits, and kneel
ing at the reception of the sacrament, certainly be
speaks a violent but mistaken opinion of the
subjects. To his foreign friends he repeatedly
mentions his obligations to Cranmer. He was at
Embden, when the news of Cranmer's conviction
arrived, which he 2 communicated to a corres
pondent, accompanied with information attending
it, not recorded by any of the archbishop's bio-

1 See it in Gerdesii Miscell. torn. ii. 656-670.
2 Cranmer was convicted of treason in November, 1553.
The letter of a Lasco is dated in December. Gerdesii Miscell.
ii. 695.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 205
graphers ; that, after his conviction, Cranmer was
publicly led through London ; that the grief ofthe
spectators was general ; that he was unshaken, and
even cheerful ; that he prayed there might be no
tumults ; and that eight days only were to elapse
before he should suffer, which perhaps was at first
the intention of Mary and her Council.
To the patronage of Cranmer, in great mea
sure, may be also ascribed the establishment of
another " x church of strangers," consisting chiefly
of French and Walloons, at Glastonbury, in
Somersetshire. Of these Valeran Pullan, who
had been a preacher at Strasburg, was the super
intendent ; and Strype believes him to have been
one of the foreign divines entertained in his house
by the archbishop. Their petition, which was
granted, was, 2 that they might be permitted to
form themselves into a church for the free exer
cise of religion, and to follow peaceably their
trade of weaving, which would be advantageous
to the realm ; in order to which, they asked for
the tenements of some dissolved monastery, and
the venerable abbey of Glastonbury was thus con
verted into a manufactory. At Canterbury, Nor
wich, and other places in the kingdom, French
and Walloon congregations were soon afterwards
formed. These refugees were commanded to
leave the realm at the accession of Mary. Most
1 Strype. 2 Ibid.

206 > THE LIFE OF
of them repaired to Frankfort, whither the exiles
from our own country in that persecuting reign
soon afterwards fled, and there experienced a re
turn of the kindness and liberality that had been
shewn in England, by being allowed to preach
their own doctrines, and to practise their own
discipline. There was another learned divine who was
welcomed at Lambeth, of whom no notice has
been taken by Burnet, Strype, or any English
writer who has treated of the Reformation ; Simon
Alexius, a : Frenchman. Gerdes of Groningen,
whose abundant collections so powerfully illus
trate the history of the Reformation, both in our
own and other countries, has 2 given an account
of a work left by him in manuscript, which he
had written at the 3 command of Cranmer, while
living under his roof, in defence of the true doc
trine of the sacrament, and in refutation of the
Romish mass. It consists of seven dialogues, to
1 The editor of Simon Alexius's work, who was a Frenchman,
calls him " vir, cui propter insignem ministerii Verbi Dei func-
tionem, atque ob amicitiam et communis quoque patrice memo-
riam, plurimum tribuendum existimo." Prsef.
2 In his Florilegium Hist. Crit. Libb. Rar. cui multa adsper-
guntur historiam Reformationis ecclesiasticam illustrantia, &c.
Ed. 1763, p. 13.
" Hos (dialogos) non edendi causa olim Londini scripserat,
sed ut illustrissimi viri et Christo fldelissimi martyris, Thomce
Cranmeri, apud quem turn agebat, mandato satisfaceret." Preef.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 207
which the editor, Crispin of Arras, a printer at
Geneva, affixed a title, and published them there
after the death of the author, in ' 1557. The
title contains a 2 reflection on the revival in En
gland of the mass in the reign of Mary, and the
preface relates how greatly the subject of the
work had interested Cranmer, and how fit he
thought Alexius to discuss it. The dialogues
display much spirit as well as sound argument.
Emanuel Tremellio, of Italy, 3 now also partook
of the archiepiscopal hospitality, and has left a
grateful character of it, in which he 4 alludes to
Cranmer's general acquaintance with languages.
The travels as well as the studies ofthe archbishop
had rendered the German, Italian, and French, as
familiar to him as the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.
Tremellio was the son of a Jew, born at Ferrara,
1 Such is the date, in manuscript, affixed to a copy of the
work, which I have inspected in the public library at Cam
bridge. Gerdes describes it as printed a year later.
2 It is thus : " De origine novi dei missatici, quondam in
Anglia mortui, nunc denub ab inferis excitati, Dialogi VII..
In quibus purissimi Sacrae Scripturae fontes, ad iinpurissimas
scholastics doctrinae lacunas collati, non tantum verum Ccense
Dominicae usum ostendunt, sed etiam impium missse papisticae
abusum patefaciunt. Simone Alexio authore. Genevae."
3 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 206.
4 " Archiepiscopi domus publicum erat doctis et piis omni
bus hospitium ; quod ipse hospes, Mecsenas et pater, talibus
semper patere voluit, quoad vixit, aut potuit ; homo ipiXofcvoe,
nee minus fikoXoyog."

208 THE LIFE OF
and eminent not only as an oriental but as a gene
ral scholar. At first a convert to Christianity in
the palace of cardinal Pole, at Viterbo, he after
wards embraced the opinions of the Reformers,
and became an assistant to Peter Martyr, at
Lucca, in promoting the study of sacred literature,
giving instructions in Hebrew. To England he
followed his great countryman, and at length was
appointed, through the recommendation of Cran
mer, to supply the loss at Cambridge of the He
brew professor Fagius. In his lectures there,
another stranger, Ralph Cavalier, a Frenchman,
was his coadjutor, and for his services was re
warded with a prebend in Cranmer's cathedral, as
Tremellio himself was with the same distinction
in the church of Carlisle. The labours of this
learned Italian appear to have obtained the
hearty ' approbation of the University. To bi
blical scholars his Latin translation of the Scrip
tures is familiar, but his valuable Hebrew catechism
is little known.
Martyr, and Ochin, and Tremellio would pro
bably often converse with Cranmer upon the
spread of the reformed opinions in their own
country, and upon the measures adopted to sup
press them. The two former would not fail to
mention with gratitude him who had 2 encou
raged their labours at Naples, and in many parti-
1 See the Letter respecting him from Bishop Goodrich. Strype,
Ecc. Mem. ii. 387. a M'Crie.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 209
culars embraced their tenets, the celebrated Marc
Antonio Flaminio, whose amiable character must
have been well known to Cranmer ; and the cir
cumstance of whose residence with cardinal ' Pole
in the latter part of his life, till he died in 1550,
would excite additional attention to the remem
brance of him. For it might now be rumoured in
England, (as it had been abroad,) by the Roman
Catholics, that the cardinal had brought him to
an acknowledgement of his pretended heresy,
although his writings prove him a sound adherent
to almost every Protestant position. To the
poetical studies also of Flaminio, for his 2 name
was no less dear to the Muses than to virtue,
Cranmer and his guests might' advert ; to bis
metrical paraphrases of the Psalms, or to his other
elegant poems. Nor would the Italian Reformers
now forget another poet of their country, as he
had sharply lashed the corruptions of the Church
of Rome, the sublime, but extravagant Dante ;
and to 3 Chaucer, the venerable bard of England,
who soon after Dante spared not those corruptions,
Cranmer might thence be led to refer, and to tell
that while the bard studied at Oxford, he was 4said
1 Cardinal Caraffa complained of Pole's countenancing
Flaminio. 2 See Fifty of his select poems, excellently translated by the
late Rev. E. W. Barnard, M.A. of Trin. Coll. Camb. 1829,
and the Memoir prefixed, p. v.
3 See what is said of Chaucer and Cranmer, vol. i. p. 329.
1 A. Wood.
VOL. II. P

210 THE LIFE OF
to be a pupil of Wicliffe. Wicliffe they would
acknowledge as the father of the Reformation,
being the first in Europe who had rendered acces
sible to all his countrymen, by a translation of
them into the vulgar tongue, the Old and New
Testaments. Nor might his memory as a trans
lator of the Scriptures alone command their atten
tion. His opinion respecting the Eucharist might
not be overpassed. To him Cranmer might now
point as the supporter of his own belief, that in
that sacrament the body and blood of Christ are
not essentially, nor substantially, nor bodily, but
1 figuratively ; a statement, by which I venture to
correct the recent assertion of a learned historian,
that " 2 Wicliffe's opinion respecting the Lord's
Supper, is supposed to have nearly resembled that
peculiar to Luther and his followers." On the
contrary, it was that adopted by Zuinglius, and by
Oecolampadius, to both of whom, in the sacra
mental doctrine, Luther and his followers were
vehemently opposed. Gardiner, in his contro
versy with Cranmer, thus arranged the opponents
to the doctrine ofthe corporal presence : " 3 First
was Bertram, then Berengarius, then Wicliffe;
1 The accusers of Wicliffe at Oxford, thus stated his opinion,
" Qudd Eucharistia in altari post consecrationem non est verum
corpus Christi, sed ejus figura." Wood, Ann. Ox. under the
year 1377.
2 Sir James Mackintosh's Hist. Eng. under the year 1382.
3 Gardiner's Explication, &c. 1551, fol. 74. b.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 211
and in our time Oecolampadius, Zuinglius, and
Joachim Vadianus."
With Ochin also, as with Dryander, the dis
course of Cranmer might now have often turned
on the great point of justification by faith in
Christ ; that being the favourite subject of the
former, and to the latter had been the cause of
an extended imprisonment : and to both the
archbishop might urge, what our homilies and
liturgy abundantly teach, the necessity of some
thing more, in order to justification, " ' than
a bare persuasion of faith." Dryander had pub
lished, in 1543, a 2 Spanish version of the New
Testament, which he dedicated to the emperor
Charles, but which saved him not from being cast
into prison by the Inquisition ; and the printer of
it at Antwerp 3 having distinguished the twenty-
eighth verse of the third chapter of the Epistle to
the Romans in capital letters, " man is justified
by faith, without the deeds of the law," the dis
tinction, though not directed by the translator,
afforded pretence to his enemies for a longer be
reavement bf his liberty.
Martyr having arrived in England at the time
when our liturgy was first in preparation, and
1 Abp. Laurence, Bampton Lect. 134.
2 Of this translation, which is extremely rare, some account
is given, together with the dedication of it, in the Bibliotheca
Espanola, Madrid, 1781, p. 449-453.
' Gerdes, Hist. Ref. et Florileg. ut supr. 1 10.
p2

212 THE LIFE OF
Bucer when it was first published, Latin versions
of it were submitted to their judgment. Always
at Lambeth, when not engaged in their profes
sorial duties at Oxford and Cambridge, they would
then confer with Cranmer upon subjects connected
with the formulary, and upon the revision of it
that was meditated. The successful attacks of
the former, as of Ochin also, in their own country,
upon the tenet of purgatory, Cranmer too would
notice, not without hearty congratulation. Against
this fundamental doctrine of popery himself had
argued before his sovereign, 1 soon after his ad
vancement to the primacy. The notions of Ochin,
however, respecting predestination, were not those
of the archbishop, who yet hindered not the pub
lication of them, consonant although they were
with those of Calvin, in 2 bur own language. The
best way to arrive at truth, Cranmer considered
to be in hearing what men of acknowledged piety
and learning might advance upon doctrines now
generally taught, although strange inferences were
drawn from them. The character of Ochin was
1 See vol. i. p. 117.
2 " Sermons of Bernardine Ochyne, concerning the predes^.
tination and election of God, &c. Translated out of Italian
into our native tongue, by A. C." This A. C. was Anne Cook,
one of the learned daughters of Sir Anthony Cook, married
after to sir Nicholas Bacon, lord-keeper of the great seal. The
translation is dedicated to her mother. Day is the printer of it,
in 1548, it is supposed.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 213
then unexceptionable, and so continued while he
was in England : long afterwards he appeared, in
his dialogues, an advocate of polygamy as well
as an anti-trinitarian, and closed his days with
the loss of that esteem, which his former labours
had won. Not such was the end of his fellow-
traveller to this country, the modest, and the
eminently learned, Peter Martyr, who spent his
last years, beloved and respected, at Zurich ; and
left behind him a name of exalted and unble
mished character, both in the annals of the Re
formed Church, and of literature. Gardiner, in
deed, who had listened to his brethren of the Ro
mish party at Oxford, affected to question his
learning, because of his disputation there on the
sacrament. Cranmer thus vindicated him. " * Con-
cerning him that told you," he replied to Gar
diner, " that Peter Martyr was not learned, I
would wish you to leave (this old rooted fault in
you) to be light of credit. For I suppose, that if
his learning that told you that lie, and your's also,
were set 2 both together, you should be far behind
M. Peter Martyr. Marry, in words I think that
you alone would overlay two Peter Martyrs, he
1 Answer to Gardiner, ed. 1580, p. 232.
2 Not unlike the reply, in our own times, of the celebrated
musician Mozart, to one who meant to compliment his compo
sitions at the expence of his great professional contemporary,
Haydn : " If you and 1, Sir, were melted down together, we
should not furnish materials for one Haydn."

214 THE LIFE OF
is so sober a man, and delighteth not in wasting
words in vain. And none do say, that he is not
learned, but such as know him not, or be not
learned themselves, or else be so malicious or
envious, that they wittingly speak against their
own conscience. And, no doubt, that man bring
eth himself out of the estimation of a learned man,
who hath heard him reason and read, and saith
that he is not learned. And, whosoever mis-re-
porteth him, and hath never heard him, may not
be called so well Momus, as Sycophanta, whose
property is to misreport them whom they nei
ther see nor know."
It has been ' generally stated, that, when Bucer
died, Melancthon was immediately intended by
Cranmer for the chair of divinity at Cambridge.
Certainly Melancthon was then, as he had been
before, invited hither. But the archbishop also
appears to have consulted, at this time, with John
a Lasco, upon introducing into England other
continental divines of the Reformed Church ; and
that the noble Pole accordingly 2 recommended
men who have been highly celebrated for their
1 By Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 244. By archbishop Laurence,
Bampton Lect. 188.
2 " Quo mortuo, (M. Bucero,) communicavit mecum D.
Cantuariensis consilium de advocandis hue aliquot viris doctis.
Proposui itaque Musculum, Bibliandrum vestrum, et Casta-
lionem." Epist. a Lasco ad Bullingerum, Londini, x. Apr.
1551. Gerdesii Miscell. iv. 470. 1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 215
illustrious talents ; Sebastian Castalio, whose ex
tensive learning and elegant taste, whose opposi
tion also to the predestinarian dogma of Calvin,
as well as his Latin version of the Bible, are well
known ; Wolfgang Musculus, who had been the
deceased professor's friend, an excellent commen
tator on the Scriptures, and a translator of several
works of the Greek Fathers ; and Theodore Bib-
liander, distinguished not only by his expositions
of the sacred volume, but by his version of the
Koran, with discourses in refutation of it. To
these * Cranmer himself subjoined the name of
Brentius, an eminent theologian of Germany, to
whom a Lasco objected as 2 differing from the
archbishop and himself in the doctrine of the Eu
charist, alluding perhaps to the sacramental con
troversy that now was revived with acrimony, in
which Brentius sided with the followers of Luther.
To the three former, however, invitations were
sent by a Lasco ; but they were not accepted.
Castalio was a 3 second time invited ; and with
him the ingenious and learned Italian, 4 Celio
1 " Ipse vero (Cranmerus) addebat et Brentium." Ibid.
2 " Cum ilium in caussa sacramentaria non consentire nobis
cum dicerem, respondit Cranmerus, ilium de hac re jam admo-
nitum esse." Ibid.
3 Ibid. 474.
4 Of this distinguished Reformer see what is said, p. 1 99. It
has been related of him, that when pursued by the familiars of
the Inquisition at Rome, " he was sitting at dinner in an inn ; and

216 THE LIFE OF
Secundo Curio. The cost of their journey hither
was a offered to be defrayed, and preferment was
promised to follow their arrival ; but they came
not. Alexander Aless, of Scotland, has been 2 repre
sented as now among Cranmer's guests. But,
though patronized by the archbishop many years
3 before, and then distinguished so highly by his
learning, as to obtain the title of the king's scholar,
he had long since returned to Germany, and been
appointed a professor in the University of Leipsic.
4 He had now translated our first service-book
into Latin, of which 5 Bucer made use in the in
tended review of that book, as Peter Martyr did
that a captain of the papal band, called in Italy Barisello, sud
denly making his appearance, commanded him in the pope's
name to yield himself as a prisoner. Curio, despairing of es
cape, rose to deliver himself up, unconsciously retaining in his
hand the knife with which he had been carving. The Barisello
seeing an athletic figure approaching him with a large carving
knife, was seized with a sudden panic, and retreated to a corner
of the room ; upon which Curio, who possessed great presence
of mind, walked deliberately out, passed without interruption
through the midst of the armed men who were stationed at the
door, took his horse from the stable, and made good his flight."
M'Crie, Hist. Ref. in Italy, 200.
1 Epist. a Lasco, ut supr. 474.
2 By Gilpin, Life of Cranmer, 133.
3 In 1535. See vol. i. p. 149.
4 This translation has by some modern writers been inaccu
rately ascribed to John a Lasco.
5 Burnet. Strype. Wheatly.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 217
of another translation by Sir John Cheke. Other
services of Aless as a Reformer are recorded. In
1535 he read lectures on divinity at Cambridge,
but, being there opposed by the Roman Catholic
party, returned to London, studied medicine, and
then repaired again to Germany, whither he had
fled * before from persecution in his own country.
He had pubhshed in 1533 a 2 letter against the
decree of those bishops in Scotland, who prohi
bited the use of the New Testament in the ver
nacular tongue ; and afterwards a 3 treatise "ofthe
authority of the Word of God against the bishop
of London, (Stokesley,) wherein are contained
certain disputations had in the parliament house
between the bishops, about the 4 number of the
sacraments, and other things very necessary to be
known." His skill in composition must have been
of very high character, if, as Strype represents it,
" Melancthon made use of him in composing his
thoughts into a handsome style, as did another
great light of the same nation, I mean Bucer."
And yet Melancthon bas been celebrated for the
purity of his diction, as well as his acquaintance
with all kinds of learning. The behef of this
literary aid may have been hastily formed from
1 See vol. i. p. 149.
2 Ames, 574. Alex. Alesii Epistola contra decretum quod-
dam episcoporum in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Novi Testa-
menti libros lingua vernacula. Uncertain where printed.
3 Wordsworth, Ecc. Biog. ii. 303.
4 See vol. i. p. 162.

218 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
the circumstance of Melancthon having furnished
Aless, for a treatise which he wrote to vindicate
Protestants from the charge of schism brought
against them by Romanists, both with matter and
argument, which Aless would adapt to his own
manner of writing. Then as to Bucer, Strype
offers no other proof of the assistance alleged,
than that the professor had written a book in
German about the ordination to the ministry in
this kingdom, which Aless turned into Latin, and
published " for the consolation of the Churches
every where in those sad times," as it ran in the
title ; but Bucer wrote no such work. Had Strype
looked beyond the title of the treatise, " J he could
not have fallen into so unaccountable an error.
Among the Scripta Anglicana of Bucer, occurs the
following : ' Ordinatio Ecclesiae, seu Ministerii
Ecclesiastici, in florentissimo regno Angliae, con-
scripta sermone patrio, et in Latinam linguam
bona fide conversa, et ad consolationem Eccle-
siarum Christi ubicunque locorum ac gentium,
his tristibus temporibus, edita ab Alex. Alessio.'
This is no other than a translation of our own
Common Prayer Book, as originally compiled into
Latin ; a translation which Bucer, who was un
acquainted with English, used in the observations
which he made upon it, previously to its revision
by a committee of bishops and divines in the
latter part of Edward's reign."
1 Abp. Laurence, Bampton Lect. 218;

CHAPTER IX.

1549 to 1551.
Cranmer's foreign correspondence — Design of a general union
among the Protestant Churches — Cranmer's endeavours to
this purpose — Writes to Melancthon, Calvin, and Bullinger,
on the subject — Bullinger 's address to Edward VI. — Cha
racter of Bullinger's sermons — Character of Cranmer's
sermons — Bucer on the concord of the Protestant Churches —
Cranmer resolves on a national confession of faith — Hooper
promoted to the see of Gloucester — refuses at first to be con
secrated in the usual episcopal dress — Conduct of Cranmer.
on this occasion — The controversy as to the habits — Hooper
submits — The controversy as to the altars — The bishops
Day and Heath deprived in consequence of that controversy.
A correspondence with other great Reformers,
and with most of the learned men in Europe,
Cranmer had now long held. It was so ' exten
sive, that at Canterbury he had fixed an agent to
forward and receive the communications. From
1 Strype.

220 THE LIFE OF
many foreign dependants on his bounty too, in
Germany more especially, he would obtain fre
quent intelligence. There he had assigned to
many scholars, in the reign of Henry, an annual
salary to aid their studies in the cause of Protes
tantism. The celebrated John Sleidan, of that
country, he was now prompting to proceed with
his history of the Reformation, and soon procured
for him the encouragement of a considerable pen
sion from the sovereign of our own country.
The design of a general union among the Pro
testant Churches had now been suggested. The
foreign Reformers had beheld with great satisfac
tion the opening of Edward's reign, and are * said
to have soon afterwards addressed him upon the
projected alliance, offering to place him at the
head of it, and to adopt our form of episcopal
government. Calvin, Bullinger, and others, are
2 stated as the framers of this plan, and to have
thus excited the fears of the Romish hierarchy,
that the success of it would lead to her fall. Me
lancthon had long before repeatedly expressed the
wish, that an authoritative standard of doctrine
and discipline might be established by a general
1 Strype, Life of Cranm. B. 2, ch. 15, where he merely
refers to Foxes and Firebrands, Part II. , in which the informa
tion is gathered from a letter preserved by Sir Henry Sidney,
which he had met with in Queen Elizabeth's closet, among
other papers that had belonged to queen Mary.
2 Foxes and Firebrands, &c. edit. 1682, P. II. p. 12.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 221
congress of Reformed divines. Such was also the
union that Cranmer, from 1548 to 1550, in vain
laboured to effect. To Melancthon he first frankly
stated his belief, that the wide differences among
Protestants, in regard to the sacraments, the di
vine decrees, and ecclesiastical government, were
to their enemies the cause of censure, and to their
friends of sorrow. He therefore trusted that a
friendly debate, by learned theologians of the
several Churches, upon the points of controversy,
might lead to the desired coalition. To Calvin,
and to Bullinger, he afterwards applied with simi
lar earnestness, proposing England as a place
where the consultations might be held with great
est safety.
Melancthon answered, If my judgment and opit
nion were required, on such an occasion, I should
be willing to hear both the sense of other learned
men, and to speak my own, giving my reasons,
1 persuading and being persuaded, as it ought to be
in a conference of good men ; allowing truth, and
the glory of God, and the safety of the Church,
not any private affection, to bear away the palm.
The more I consider your proposal, he continued,
the more I wish you to publish, in conformity to
the judgment of learned men, a clear Confession
of Christian doctrine, to which their names should
be subscribed. The Confession, which we of
1 Ta ficv irddaiv, ra Se 7rti66/xevoQ. Melancth. Epist. Strype.

222 THE LIFE OF
Germany signed at Augsburg, may be your model;
some ambiguous expressions in it being avoided :
Ambiguities might hereafter occasion new differ
ences : In the Church it is best to call a spade a
spade, and not to cast an apple of contention be
fore posterity. — In a second letter, Melancthon
reminded the archbishop, that perspicuity of mean
ing, and precision of language, instead of suffer
ing controverted points to pass under dubious ex
pressions, were absolutely requisite in order to the
attainment of the proposed agreement. The Coun
cil of Trent, he said, made decrees which allowed
them to defend their errors by things ambiguously
spoken : But far from the true Church should be
such sophistry : In truth rightly propounded there
is no absurdity ; on the contrary? there is every
thing that can attract and gratify ingenuous minds.
The invitation to England, however, Melancthon
acknowledged only by words.
Nor did Calvin assent to the propriety of
Cranmer's scheme any further than in prayers
for its success. He J wished for a meeting, he
said, of the heads of the Reformed Churches.
For himself, if he might be thought of any use,
he would readily, were he able, pass over ten seas
to join them ; but his personal weakness must
plead for his absence.
The answer of Bullinger to Cranmer, upon this
1 Calvini Epist. Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 223
occasion, is not preserved. Bullinger, however,
about this time, distinguished himself in the cause
of the English Reformation by dedicating to the
young sovereign the third and fourth decades of
his Latin sermons, published at Zurich in 1550,
and by earnestly entreating him to proceed in
" x reforming the Church of Christ in his most
happy England, by the true and absolute instru
ment of truth, the Book of God's Holy Word." He
reminded Edward, that, about twelve years before,
he had dedicated to his father Henry " 2 a book
touching the authority of the Holy Scripture, and
the institution and function of bishops, against the
pontifical chuffs of the Romish superstition and
tyranny," a labour, he says, which had now brought
forth no small fruit within his realm. He spoke
of the efficacy of preaching in promoting the
Reformation : I handle not, he says, the least and
lowest points of Christian religion ; I handle the
Law, the Gospel, sin, grace, and repentance, to
further the cause of true religion, which now
beginneth to bud in England, to the great rejoicing
of all good people. I have therefore so enlarged
these sermons, that of one more may be formed,
as the discretion of pastors shall judge expedient
1 Transl. of his Sermons, p. 603.
2 Ibid. 258. It appears to have been well received by the
king. Cranmer presented it to him. See Epist. de Primordiis
Reform. Eccles. inter Dudithii Orationes, Epistolas, &c. Offen-
bachii, 1610, p. 223. 1

224 THE LIFE OF
for their respective congregations. — These ser
mons of Bullinger, let me add, if not in the reign
of Edward, were in that of Elizabeth, translated ;
and by archbishop Whitgift were ' directed to
be studied by the clergy ; the energy, as well as
the perspicuity, which so often distinguishes them,
being considered a model, that the preacher might
serviceably follow. Had the discourses of Cran
mer been printed, the same public distinction
would doubtless have attended them. The cha
racter of them, which has descended to us, for
utility cannot be exceeded. " The subjects of
his sermons," a frequent 2 auditor of them has
told us, " for the most part were from whence
salvation is to be fetched, and on whom the con
fidence of man ought to lean. They insisted much
on doctrines of faith and works; and taught what
the fruits of faith were, and what place was to be
given to works. They instructed men in the
duties they owed their neighbour ; and that every
one was our neighbour, to whom we might any
way do good. They declared what men ought to
think of themselves, after they had done all ; and,
lastly, what promises Christ hath made, and who
they are to whom he will make them good. Thus
he brought in the true preaching of the Gospel,
altogether different from the ordinary way of
preaching in those days, which was to treat con-
1 Strype's Life of Abp. Whitgift. Append. B. 3. No. 32.
2 Sir Richard Morison. Gilpin, 161.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 225
cerning saints, to tell legendary tales of them,
and to report miracles wrought for the confirma
tion of transubstantiation and other popish cor
ruptions. And such a heat of conviction accom
panied his sermons, that the people departed from
them with minds possessed of a great hatred of
vice, and burning with a desire of virtue." — Thus
also bishop Burnet, who had seen the greatest
part of a sermon, which, in 1549, Cranmer had
preached at court, pronounced it " a very plain,
impartial discourse, without any shew of learning
or conceits of wit. He severely expostulates in
the Name of God, with his hearers, for their ill
fives, their blasphemies, adulteries, mutual hatred,
oppression, and contempt of the Gospel ; and
complains of the slackness of government in pu
nishing these sins, by which it became, in some
sort, guilty of them."
The wish of Cranmer for the general union
among the Protestant Churches had been com
municated, there can be no doubt, to all the
foreign Reformers who visited him. Than Bucer,
in particular, these Churches possessed no friend
more strenuous for their concord. The subject,
indeed, had often 5 employed his pen. But with
1 As in his letters. His labour also, to this purpose, is con
tained in a little volume of extreme rarity, printed at Paris in
1607, entitled, " P. Melancthonis, M. Buceri, et Casp. He-
dionis, aliorumque in Germania theologorum, de pace Ecclesiae
sententiae." Gerdesii Floril. 248. Caspar Hedio was a Reformer
who had distinguished himself at Mentz and at Strasburg.
VOL. II. Q

226 THE LIFE OF
whatever persons the archbishop consulted upon
the point he had so much at heart, the * perplexi
ties of the times occasioned the intention to be
abandoned soon after it had been imparted. The
resolution, however, of assembling the divines of
his own Church, and of preparing with them a
national confession of faith, w^s the consequence
of this disappointment. Again he, therefore,
2 wrote to Calvin, who replied, that since the
times were adverse to the accomplishment of his
more extensive design, that which respected only
his own country was judicious, and, when com
pleted, might preserve the minds of the people
from wavering in religion ; that such employment,
indeed, was worthy of him, the eyes of good men
being fixed upon his example, either to follow his
exertions, or to remain idle on the plea of his
inactivity. But before the book of Articles, now
designed by Cranmer for preserving the peace
and unity of our own Church, was completed,
there was a considerable lapse of time. Mean
while a schism occurred within it, occasioned by
the promotion of Hooper, afterwards the martyr,
to the see of Gloucester.
Hooper was one of those who at Oxford, in the
reign of Henry, had opposed the papal doctrines.
To avoid the tyranny of the Six Articles, he fled
from his country, and fixed himself at Zurich till
1 The Interim. See before, p. 44. 2 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 227
the accession of Edward. Returning then to
England, he became popular as a preacher, and
with the approbation of Cranmer was advanced
to the episcopal dignity. But, like most of the
Helvetic divines, Hooper objected to the episco
pal dress. He scrupled also, as ' some assert, to
take the oath of canonical obedience to the arch
bishop ; of supremacy to the sovereign, according
to 2 others. Without submission to these forms
Cranmer refused to consecrate him. The earl
of Warwick in vain apphed to the primate,
" 3 desiring a forbearance of those things, which
the bishop elect of Gloucester craved to be for
borne at his hands, and not to charge him with
any oath that seemed burdenous to his con
science." Warwick added, that such was also
the king's desire. Cranmer persisted in his de
nial ; and more than two months had passed since
the new prelate was nominated, when the king
himself was prevailed upon thus to address the
archbishop, and thus justly to characterize
Hooper. " 4 Right reverend father, We greet you well.
Whereas, by the advice of our Council, We have
called and chosen our right well-beloved and
well-worthy Mr. John Hooper, professor of divi
nity, to be our bishop of Gloucester1, as well for
1 Heylin. 2 A. Wood.
3 Heylin. 4 Ibid.
Q 2

228 THE LIFE OF
his great learning, deep judgment, and long study,
both in the Scriptures and other profound learn
ing ; as also for his good discretion, ready utter
ance, and honest life for that kind of vocation ;
from consecrating whom We understand you do
stay, because he would have you omit and let
pass certain rites and ceremonies offensive to his
conscience, whereby you think you should fall in
premunire of our laws : We have therefore thought
good, by the advice aforesaid, to dispense, and
discharge you of all manner of dangers, penalties,
and forfeitures, you should run into and be in, in
any manner of way, by omitting any ofthe same.
And this our letter shall be your sufficient war
rant. Given at our Castle of Windsor the 5th
day of August, in the fourth year of our reign."
Ridley advised Cranmer to request, in answer
to this gracious letter, that he might not now
obey his sovereign against his own laws. The
request was granted. But Hooper continued in
flexible. He now entered into controversy on
the subject with Ridley ; and the Privy Council
interfered. On the 6th of October," 1550, the
lords of the Council 1 wrote to Ridley, stating
their wish that there might not be disputes
between men of the same profession, and desiring
him to forbear the present. The influence of
Warwick had occasioned this direction to the
1 Council-book. Hen. Wharton, 94.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 229
bishop of London, who replied that he requested to
submit to the lords the arguments he had formed
upon the subject. To this they agreed. Hooper
now sought the advice of Peter Martyr and Bucer ;
and to the latter, who was then at Cambridge,
Cranmer also, still unwilling to proceed upon his
own judgment, thus referred the question.
" * After my hearty salutations, right well-
beloved Master Bucer. I have read that book
which you have sent to doctor Peter Alexander,
concerning the controversy betwixt Master Hooper
and the bishop of London. In which book many
things are learnedly declared, and largely handled.
Wherefore now I pray you, that you would send
unto me your judgment of these questions, ex
pressed with as short brevity of words as you
can. " Whether, without the offence of God, it may
be lawful to the ministers of the Church of Eng
land, to use those vestures which at these days
they wear, and so are prescribed of the magis
trate ?
" Whether he that shall affirm that it is unlaw-
1 This is a translation of Cranmer's Latin epistle to Bucer,
and is copied from a curious pamphlet, printed in 1564, en
titled " A brief Examination for the time of a certain declara
tion lately put in print, in the name and defence of certain
ministers of London refusing to wear the apparel prescribed by
the laws ofthe realm."

230 THE LIFE OF
ful, or ' shall refuse to wear this apparel, offend
eth against God, for that he sayeth that thing to
be unclean that God hath sanctified ; and offend
eth against the magistrate, for that he disturbeth
the politic order ?
" To these questions, if you will make most
brief answer, and send unto me your judgment
as soon as you may possibly, you shall do me
great pleasure. God be with you. From Lam
beth, the second of December, £ 1550.3"
The answer of Bucer, 2 dated the tenth of that
month, affirmed that the habits might be lawfully
worn, " forasmuch as it is thought good to the
king's Majesty, and to the chief Council of the
realm, to retain the use of these vestures for the
present ; and that they who deny the use of such
apparel to be lawful, are in error, as they deny all
things to be holy to them that are sanctified ; —
that the use of them here is received neither
upon superstitious nor light cause, and that they
who resisted the direction of the magistrate dis
turbed the public order." Bucer too, on this
occasion, 3 remonstrated with John a Lasco, who
1 Burnet omits these words or shall refuse. The original,
however, has aut recusarit. H. Wharton, 93.
2 A brief Examination, ut supr. This letter also, and that of
P. Martyr which is presently cited, as well as Cranmer's, are
translations. 3 A brief Examination, ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 231
applauded the resistance of Hooper not without
severe reflections upon those of a contrary opi
nion. Bucer argued " that the use of bells was
a mark of antichristianity in our churches, when
the people by them were called to masses, and
when they were rung against tempests, but now
they were a token of Christianity, the people by
them being gathered together to the Gospel of
Christ and other holy actions. Why may it not
then be that the self-same garments may serve
godlily with godly men, that was of wicked signi
fication with the ungodly ? Truly, I know very
many ministers of Christ, most godly men, who
have used godlily these vestures, and at this day
do yet use them ; so that I dare- not for this
cause ascribe unto them any fault at all."
To the objections of Hooper against the vest
ments as relics of Judaism, and as having been
used in the service of the Romish mass, Martyr
also largely replied from Oxford. Though he
wished that the garments might be " ' laid aside,"
(himself also appears to have been 2 unwilling at
Oxford to wear them,) still, until " better may be,
we ought," he said, " to bear them." Nor did he
scruple to caution Hooper " 3 not to bring the
1 A brief Examination, ut supr.
2 " Nunquam uti volui." Epist. Mart. Heylin, 92.
3 A brief Examination, ut supr. Bullinger declared it lawful
also for the ministers of the Church of England to wear the
apparel prescribed. His treatise to this purpose was published
VOL. II. Q 4 "*~

232 THE LIFE OF
Church of Christ into such bondage, that it may
not use any thing that the pope used." The autho
rity of Martyr, and of Bucer also, I may add, for
the distinct use of ministerial apparel, is repeatedly
enforced against the non-conformists, in the reign
of James the first, by Moreton, bishop of Chester,
in his valuable "x defence of the innocency of the
ceremonies of the Church of England."
But to the arguments of Bucer and Martyr as
to those of Cranmer and Ridley, Hooper would
not as yet in any point submit. For we find,
that on the 13th of January, 1551, " 2 Mr. Hooper,
bishop elect of Gloucester, appeared before the
Council touching his old matter of denying to
wear such apparel as other bishops wear ; and
having been before commanded to keep his house,
unless it were to go to the archbishop of Canter
bury, the bishops of Ely, London, or Lincoln, for
satisfaction or counsel of his conscience in that
matter ; and further, neither to preach, nor read,
until he had licence from the Council ; it appeared
both that he had not kept his house, and that he
had also written and printed a book wherein was
contained matter that he should not have written.
For the which, and for that also he persevered in
his former opinion of not wearing the bishops'
apparel, he was now committed to the archbishop
in Latin and English in 1566, when the controversy as to the
habits was violent.
1 A Defence, &c. ut supr. Lond. 1618. pp. 205—213.
2 Council-book, ut supr. H. Wharton, 94.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 233
of Canterbury's custody, either there to be reformed,
or further to be punished, as the obstinacy of his
case required." Even the gentleness of Cranmer
continued to be ineffectual. The proceedings of
the Council state, that " on the 27th of January
a letter from the archbishop of Canterbury ac
quainted them, that Mr. Hooper cannot be
brdught to any conformity, but rather, persever
ing in his obstinacy, coveteth to prescribe orders
and necessary laws of his own head ; and it was
therefore agreed that he should be committed to
the Fleet, and that the warden of the prison
should keep him from conference of any person,
except the minister of that house."
Ere six weeks more had passed, the matter was
brought to a compromise ; and he was conse
crated on the 8th of March, in the l rochet and
chimere, the usual vestments of a bishop, which
had been so obnoxious to him, and which he now
consented to wear in his cathedral, and upon pub
lic occasions. The square cap, as well as other
clerical habits, had given rise, at this time also, to
abundant controversy. To the cap, however,
Hooper in like manner occasionally submitted.
1 The rochet is the white linen garment, which had been the
episcopal dress of the early ages, and is still continued. The
chimere is the robe to which the lawn sleeves are generally sewed,
and was, when Hooper started at it, of scarlet silk. In the
reign of Elizabeth the scarlet silk was changed to black satin,
which is the present robe of a bishop.

234 THE LIFE OF
In the early part of the year, which had been
thus distinguished by Hooper's objections to dress,
he had been more successful in the choice of
another subject for his preaching, which, however,
gave rise to another controversy. He declared
before the court, " ' that it would be well if the
government would turn altars into tables, accord
ing to the first institution of Christ, in order to
take away the false persuasion of the people,
which they have of sacrifice to be done upon
altars ; for, as long as altars remain, both the
ignorant people and the ignorant and ill-persuaded
priest will always dream of sacrifices." Herein
Ridley agreed with him ; and accordingly, in
June, 1550, when he held his primary visitation,
he 2 enjoined the altars to be taken down in his
diocese of London, and tables to be placed in
their stead, " to turn the simple from the old
superstitions of the popish mass, and to the right
use of the Lord's Supper." To such an injunc
tion the Romish party naturally excited all the
opposition in their power. The Council then
interfered ; and in a letter to Ridley in the follow
ing November, signed by Cranmer and others,
corroborated what he had directed, and to the
other prelates issued a mandate for their confor
mity to his example. But the order was not by
all of them obeyed. In particular, Day, bishop
1 Heylin. ». Burnet.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 235
of Chichester, who had publicly declared his resist
ance to such a change, when Hooper's discourse
and Ridley's precept became generally known,
now resolved to disobey it. Nor could the con
ference of Cranmer and other prelates with him,
conquer his non-conformity. In the month of
December, he was therefore committed to the
Fleet, and before the next year ended was de
prived of his bishopric ; to which he was restored
on the accession of Mary, in whose reign his
actions proved, that while in earher days he had
professed to be a Reformer, he was in reality a
zealous Roman Catholic.
Heath, bishop of Worcester, who was still im
prisoned for his ' disobedience in regard to the
Ordinal, was at the same time deprived of his see.
To that pubhc formulary he now again declined
his assent, and added, that " 2 if he were de
manded to take down altars and set up tables,
he would refuse." He too, in the reign of
Mary, recovered his rank, and was advanced to
the archbishopric of York. Thus to the opinion,
that an altar was necessary for the celebration of
mass, two prelates now sacrificed their possessions ;
the Reformers judging the removal of the altar
to be necessary for abolishing the Romish opinion,
and the substitution of a table to be more in con
formity to primitive practice. Nor was the posi-
1 See before, p. 170. 2 Council-book.
1

236 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
tion of the table now always where the altar
stood, which was at the east end of the chancel ;
in some churches the middle of the chancel being
chosen for it. Through the reign of Edward
other diversity of usage in this respect obtained.
The accession of Mary restored the altars which
had been removed ; that of Elizabeth prudently
constituted little difference between the altar and
the table, and thus checked the undiscerning fury
of the people, again freed from the shackles of
Rome, in their demolition of what had acquired
in the time of Edward an anti-protestant designa
tion. Her injunction declared it to be " no mat
ter of great moment, whether there were altars
or tables, so that the sacrament was duly and
reverently administered ;" and ordered, " that
where an altar was taken down, a holy table
should be decently made, and set in the place
where the altar stood." The altar-controversy,
however, was afterwards revived, and lasted till
the Great Rebellion.

CHAPTER X.

1550 to 1551.
The archbishop's book upon tke sacrament of the Lord's Sup
per — Frith's book upon the same subject — The answers of
bishop Gardiner, now a prisoner in the Tower, and of Dr.
Smith, to the archbishop's book — Proceedings against Gar
diner — The archbishop's reply to him and to Smith — An
explanation of Luther considered — Differently applied by
Cranmer.
While the preceding controversies were agitated,
Cranmer was employed upon a labour of loftier
character and of more important effect, his " De
fence of the true and catholic Doctrine of the Sa
crament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour
Christ ; with a confutation of sundry errors con
cerning the same ; grounded and established upon
God's Holy Word, and approved by the consent
of the most ancient doctors of the Church." It
was first published in 1550. So eager was the
demand for the work, that in the same year
1 three impressions of it appeared ; and many,
who had hitherto opposed, were soon led by this
invaluable book to embrace, the Protestant doc
trine. 1 Herbert. See Dibdin's Typograph. Antiq. iv. 13.

238 THE LIFE OF
In the preface the archbishop refers to what
" was of late years the face of religion within this
realm of England, and yet remaineth in divers
realms ;" the indulgences, beads, pardons, and pil
grimages ; hypocrisy and superstition instead of
true and sincere religion. " But thanks be to
Almighty God," he continues, " and to the king's
Majesty with his father, a prince of most famous
memory, the superstitious sects of monks and
friars that were in this realm be clean taken
away; the Scripture is restored unto the proper
and true understanding; the people may daily
read and hear God's heavenly Word, and pray in
their own language which they understand, so
that their hearts and mouths may go together,
and they be none of those people of whom Christ
complained, saying, These people honour me with
their lips, but their hearts be far from me. Thanks
be to God, many corrupt weeds be plucked up,
which were wont to rot the flock of Christ, and
to let the growing of the Lord's harvest. But
what availeth it to take away beads, pardons, pil
grimages, and such other like popery, so long as
the chief roots remain unpulled up, whereof, so
long as they remain, will spring again all former
impediments of the Lord's harvest, and corrup
tions of his flock ? The rest is but branches and
leaves, the cutting away whereof is but like top
ping and lopping of a tree, or cutting down of
weeds, leaving the body standing, and the roots

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 239
in the ground : but the very body of the tree, or
rather the roots of the weeds, is the popish doctrine
of transubstantiation, of the real presence of Christ's
flesh and blood in the sacrament of the altar (as
they call it,) and of the sacrifice and oblation of
Christ, made by the priest for the salvation of the
quick and tlie dead. Which roots, if they be suf
fered to grow in the Lord's vineyard, they will
overspread all the ground again with the old
errors and superstitions. These injuries to Christ
are so intolerable, that no Christian heart can
willingly bear them. Wherefore seeing that many
have set to their hands, and whetted their tools,
to pluck up the weeds, and to cut down the tree
of error, I, not knowing otherwise how to excuse
myself at the last day, have in this book set to my
hand and axe with the rest to cut down this
tree, and to pluck up the weeds and plants by
the roots, which our heavenly Father never
planted, but were grafted and sown in His vine
yard by His adversary the devil, and antichrist
his minister. The Lord grant that this my tra
vail and labour in His vineyard be not in vain,
but tbat it may prosper and bring forth good
fruits to His honour and glory. For when I see
His vineyard overgrown with thorns, brambles,
and weeds, I know that everlasting woe apper-
taineth to me if I hold my peace, and put not to
my hands and tongue to labour in purging His
vineyard. God I take to witness, who seeth the

240 THE LIFE OF
hearts of all men truly unto the bottom, that I
take this labour for none other consideration but
for the glory of His Name, and the discharge of
my duty, and the zeal that I bear toward the
flock of Christ. I know in what office God hath
placed me, and to what purpose ; that is to say,
to set forth His Word truly unto His people, to
the uttermost of my power, without respect of
person, or regard of any thing in the world, but of
Him alone. I know what account I shall make
to Him hereof at the last day, when every
man shall answer for his vocation, and receive
for the same good or ill, according as he hath
done." This book is divided into five parts. The first
treats of the abuse of the Lord's Supper, and then
gives an account of the true Eucharistic doctrine ;
briefly referring to the Romish errors which are
subjects of the following parts, transubstantiation,
the presence of Christ in the sacrament, that evil
men eat and drink the very body and blood of
Christ, and that Christ is offered every day for
remission of sins.
The second, therefore, proceeds to confute at
large the error of transubstantiation, shewing that
it is contrary to God's Word, to reason, to our
senses, and to the belief of the Fathers ; with a
luminous account of writings wrested against their
meaning in support of the doctrine, and with an
exposure of absurdities that the doctrine maintains.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 241
" What Christian ears," he exclaims, " can pa
tiently hear this doctrine, that Christ is every day
made anew, and made of another substance than
he was made of in his mother's womb. For
whereas, at his incarnation he was made of the
nature and substance of his Blessed Mother, now
by these papists' opinion, he is made every day of
the nature and substance of bread and wine,
which, as they say, are turned into the substance
of his body and blood."
The third part teaches the manner how Christ
is present in his Holy Supper ; that corporally he
is ascended into heaven ; that, at onetime, one
body cannot be in divers places ; that Christ call
ing bread his body, and wine his blood, are figu
rative speeches ; that to eat his flesh and drink
his blood, are the same ; that the bread repre
sents his body, and the wine his blood ; that
figurative speeches are not strange ; and that
Christ himself uses them. When, in the follow
ing year, Cranmer reprinted his book, he thus
perspicuously, in an additional preface, that his
meaning might not be mistaken, condensed the
reasonings that are urged in this third part of the
Defence. " Where I use to speak sometimes as
the old authors do, that Christ is in the sacra
ments, I mean the same as they did understand
the matter ; that is to say, not of Christ's carnal
presence in the outward sacrament, but sometimes
of his sacramental presence. And sometimes by
VOL. II. R

242 THE LIFE OF
this word, sacrament, I mean the whole ministra
tion and receiving of the sacraments, either of
Baptism or of the Lord's Supper. And so the old
writers many times do say, that Christ and the
Holy Ghost be present in the sacraments, not
meaning by that manner of speech that Christ
and the Holy Ghost be present in the water,-
bread, or wine, which be only the outward visible
sacraments ; but that in the due ministration of
the sacraments, according to Christ's ordinance
and institution, Christ and his Holy Spirit be
truly and indeed present by their mighty and
sanctifying power, virtue, and grace, in all them
that worthily receive the same. Moreover, when
I say and repeat many times in my book, that the
body of Christ is present in them that worthily
receive the sacrament, lest any man should mis
take my words, and think that I mean, that al
though Christ be not corporally in the outward
visible signs, yet he is corporally in the persons
that duly receive them ; this is to advertise the
reader, that I mean no such thing ; but my mean
ing is, that the force, the grace, the virtue, and
benefit of Christ's body that was crucified for us,
and of his blood that was shed for us, be really
and effectually present with all them that duly
receive the sacraments. But all this I understand
of his spiritual presence, of the which he saith,
/ will be with you unto the world's end; and Where
soever two or three be gathered together in my

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 243
name, there am I in the midst of them ; and He
that eateth my fiesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth
in me, and I in him. And no more truly is he
corporally or really present in the due ministration
of the Lord's Supper, than he is in the due minis
tration of Baptism."
The fourth part denies, in opposition to the
Romish tenet, that evil men partake of the body
and blood of Christ ; and proceeds to combat
another papistical error, when " in the stead of
Christ himself, the sacrament is worshipped : For
as his humanity, joined to his divinity, and exalted
to the right hand of his Father, is to be worship
ped of all creatures in heaven, in earth, and under
the earth ; even so, if in the stead thereof we
worship the signs and sacraments, we commit as
great idolatry as ever was, or shall be, to the
world's end."
The fifth and last part attacks the sacrifice of
the Romish mass ; declares that in the Primitive
Church there were no such masses ; that " such
priests as pretend to be Christ's successors, in
making a sacrifice of him, are his most heinous
adversaries, for no person ever made a sacrifice of
Christ, but himself only;" that the death of
Christ is the only oblation and sacrifice, whereby
our sins are pardoned ; that the Fathers of the
Church, when they " called the mass, or supper
of the Lord, a sacrifice, they meant that it was a
sacrifice of laud and thanksgiving, (and so as well
r2

244 THE LIFE OF
the people as the priest do sacrifice,) or else that
it was a remembrance of the very true sacrifice
propitiatory of Christ ; but they meant it in no
wise that it is a very true sacrifice for sin, and
applicable by the priest to the quick and dead ;"
and that therefore " wicked are the inventions of
a purgatory to torment souls after this life, and
oblations of masses said by the priests to deliver
them from the said torments."
Written as this book was by Cranmer in his
mature age, after all his great reading, and all
his diligent study of the Fathers and ecclesiastical
writers, with whose judgments and opinions in the
doctrine he thus became intimately acquainted ;
it is, as Strype has justly concluded, the more
to be valued. With that ingenuousness, how
ever, which was so distinguishing a part of his
character, he ' acknowledged that from the
" Book made in 1533, by John Frith, prisoner in
the Tower of London, in answer to Sir Thomas
More, concerning the sacrament of the body and
blood of Christ," he had received great light,
and derived several arguments, upon the subject.
The answer of Frith to the illustrious champion
of the Romish party, is indeed, to a small extent,
an anticipation, as it were, of the archbishop's
book ; and is to be admired for its prudence and
moderation, as well as for its acuteness and learn-
1 Burnet. See also before, vol. i. p. 86.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 245
ing. It is no wonder, therefore, awakening also,
as it must have done, the remembrance that in
former days he had 1 endeavoured to draw the
author from his belief, it should have engaged,
amongst the numerous writings on the point be
fore him, the attention of the archbishop. Frith,
like Cranmer, admitted not the Lutheran tenet
of consubstantiation ; which indeed, in England,
never made much progress. It is obvious,
throughout his answer, that with Bertram, and
Wicliffe, and Oecolampadius, and Zuinglius, not
with those " 2 Germans who think that the na
tural body of Christ is present in the sacrament,
and take the words fleshly, as Martin Luther
taught them," he concurred.
The discourse of the archbishop upon the
sacrament was no sooner published, than it was
attacked by bishop Gardiner, then a prisoner in
the Tower, and by Dr. Smith, then a fugitive at
Louvain. Gardiner had now been confined two
years. Still he refused submission to what the
Council required of him, and still they denied a
legal trial which he of them demanded. Com
missioners were at length appointed to examine
him. These were the archbishop, the bishops of
London, Ely, and Lincoln, secretary Petre, judge
Hales, two civilians, and two masters of chancery,
1 See before, vol. i. p. 86.
' Frith's Answer to Sir T. More.

246 THE LIFE OF
He had been allowed by the Council three months
to consider whether he would subscribe, as the
king had commanded ; the deprivation of his
bishopric being resolved on, if within that time he
did not submit. He was required to approve of
the new service-book ; the ordinal ; the marriage
of the clergy ; the homilies which he had ' im
pugned ; the paraphrase which he had 2 con
demned ; the demolition of images ; the prohibi
tion of the mass ; and, what himself indeed 3 pro
moted in the former reign, the dissolution of
monasteries. But his obstinacy was not thus to
be subdued. Before the commissioners he was
now to appear ; and, " 4 after a great deal of
pains and patience" on their part, " he was by
the archbishop and the rest of the commissioners
deprived, after no less than two and twenty sessions
held at divers places, that is, from the 15th of
December, 1550, to the 14th of February, 1551 ;
though Stow falsely names but seven." He who
reads the account of this examination only in
Dr. Lingard's recent history of our country,
1 See before, in the present vol. p. 12.
2 Ibid. p. 16.
3 See before, vol. i. p. 272. Burnet tells us, that bishop
Gardiner was remarkably vehement in declaiming against the
monasteries ; and that in many of his sermons he commended
the king for suppressing them. Warton, Life of Sir T.
Pope, p. 40.
1 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 247
might imagine that the proceedings were those
but of a single session, since he says, omitting to
name the many days on which Gardiner was
heard in his defence, that " * Cranmer cut short
the proceedings, and pronounced him contuma
cious." However, at one of these meetings, " 2 to
make his cause more plausible, as though he were
at this time the public defender of the Roman
Catholic cause in England," he alleged that he was
now persecuted for his defence of the corporal
presence in the sacrament; and that the arch
bishop in his recent work had named him with
no friendly view. He therefore, in open court,
defivered to the commissioners his reply to that
work, which a press in France had finished for
him, as relating to his present case.
This was a disingenuous proceeding, which
Cranmer doubtless would immediately expose ;
and which, in his formal answer to Gardiner's
book, he soon unveiled to the public. " The
3 beginning of your book," said the archbishop to
this crafty antagonist, " is framed with such
1 Hist. Eng. 8vo. ed. vii. 87.
2 Strype.
3 It was thus entitled, " An explication and assertion of the
true catholique fayth, touchyng the moost blessed sacrament of
the aulter, with confutacion of a booke written agaynst the same.
Made by Steven, by shop of Wynchester, and exhibited by his
owne hande for his defence to the kynges maiesties commis
sioners at Lambeth. Anno 1551."

248 THE LIFE OF
sleight and subtilty, that it may deceive the
reader notably in two things. The one, that he
should think you were called into judgment before
the King's Majesty's commissioners at Lambeth
for your catholic faith in the sacrament : the
other, that you made your book for your defence
therein. Both which are utterly untrue. For
your book was made or ever you were called be
fore the commissioners ; and after you were called,
then you altered two lines in the beginning of your
book, and made that beginning which it hath
now. This I am able to prove, as well otherwise
as by a book which I have of your own hand
writing, wherein appeareth plainly the alteration
of the beginning. And as concerning the cause
wherefore you were called before the commis
sioners, where by your own importune, suit, and
procurement, and as it were enforcing the matter,
you were called to justice for your manifest con
tempt and continual disobediences from time
to time, or rather rebellion against the king's
Majesty, and were justly deprived of your estate
for the same ; you would turn it now to a matter
of the sacrament, that the world should think your
trouble rose for your faith in the sacrament, which
was no matter nor occasion thereof, nor was any such
matter objected against you. And where you
would make that matter the occasion of your
worthy deprivation and punishment, which was
no cause thereof; and cloke your wilful obstinacy

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 249
and disobedience, which was the only cause
thereof; all men of judgment may well perceive,
that you could mean no goodness thereby either
to the king's Majesty, or to his realm."
Gardiner, as " * he had at all times before the
judges of his cause used himself irreverently to
the king, and slanderously towards the Coun
cil," so, in his book, he spared not, instead of
argument, offensive reflections upon Cranmer.
He was an able politician ; he was " to be num
bered among good lawyers," as Foxe describes
him, " but to be reckoned also among ignorant
and gross divines." In order to the present con
troversy with the archbishop, he was supplied
with weapons from the armoury of his brother-
champion, Dr. Smith. Cranmer, in his answer
to him, reminded him of these supplies : " Dr.
Smith," said he, " informed me, that you had of
him all the authorities that be in your book." Again,
" I neither willingly go about to deceive the
reader in the searching of St. Augustine, as you
use to do in every place ; nor have I trusted my
man or friend therein, as it seemeth you have done
overmuch, but I have diligently expended and
weighed the matter myself. In such weighty
matters of Scripture, and ancient authors, you
must needs trust your men, without whom I know
you can do very little, being brought up from your
1 Council-Book. Strype.

250 THE LIFE OF
tender age in other kinds of study." He bids him
remember too a conversation that had lately
passed : " As for the word corporal," he says, "you
openly confessed your own ignorance in the open
audience of all the people at Lambeth, when I
asked you what corporal body Christ hath in the
sacrament, and whether he had distinction of
members or no : Your answer was, in effect, that
you could not tell. And yet that was a wiser
saying than you spoke before in Cyril, where you
said, that Christ hath only a spiritual body, and a
spiritual presence, and now you say he hath a
corporal presence ; and so you confound corporal
and spiritual, as if you knew not what either of
them meant, or wist not, or cared not, what you
said." Often the archbishop also convicts his
opponent of " ignorance as great in logic and
philosophy, as in ] divinity ;" in stating, too, from
" the school-authors," as evidences of their sober
ness and devotion, what were gross absurdities ;
and of making " such divinity as he could dream
in his sleep, or devise in his own brain, or draw
out of the papistical laws and decrees, and for lack
of arguments furnishing his book with pretty toys,
with glorious boasting, and with scornful taunts."
Having, with Ridley, espoused the doctrine of
Zuinglius, in rejecting all corporal and local pre-
1 Gardiner acknowledged himself to Henry as " not learned
in divinity." Strype, Ecc. Mem. i. 148.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 251
sence in the Eucharist, Cranmer had been careful,
however, like his learned friend, not to fail in
expression, (as the Swiss Reformer is 1 thought
to have failed, rather than in real meaning,) con
cerning a 2 spiritual presence and spiritual graces.
Gardiner, although with two-fold evidence of
Cranmer's real sentiments upon these graces
and this presence before him, repeatedly misre
presented them. " This ignorant lawyer," Cran
mer therefore says, " either will not, or cannot, or
at least doth not understand what is meant in the
3 Book of Common Prayer, and in my Book also,
by the receiving and feeding upon Christ spiri
tually." What the meaning in both the books is,
he therefore repeats in the following words to
Gardiner. " 4 I mean not that Christ is spiritually
either in the table, or in the bread and wine that
are set upon the table, but I mean that he is pre
sent in the ministration and receiving of that holy
sacrament, according to his own institution and
1 Abp. Wake, Discourse on the Eucharist, p. 83. Water-
land, Rev. of the Doctrine of the Eucharist, ch. 7.
2 If there be a spiritual grace present to the symbols, that
seemed to Erasmus, approving the opinion of Oecolampadius
touching the Eucharist, to be sufficient. For I discern not,
said he, what good an invisible substance can do there, or how
it can profit any one, if it were discernible. Jortin, Erasm.
i. 408. 3 Communion Service, passim,
4 Answer to Gardiner, 172.

252 THE LIFE OF
ordinance. Like as in J baptism Christ and the Holy
Ghost are not in the water or font, but are given
in the ministration, or to them that are duly bap
tized in the water. And although the sacramental
tokens are only significations and figures, yet doth
Almighty God effectually work in them, that duly
receive His sacraments, those divine and celestial
operations which He hath promised, and by the
sacraments are signified. For else they were vain
and unfruitful sacraments as well to the godly, as
to the ungodly.. And therefore I never said of
the whole Supper, that it is but a signification, or
a bare memory, of Christ's death, but I teach
that it is a spiritual 2 refreshing, wherein our souls
are fed and nourished with Christ's very flesh and
blood to eternal life."
Luther has often, and justly, been censured
for pretending to explain his doctrine of the real
presence, absurd and contradictory as it was, by
the statement of two distinct substances in red-hot
iron, namely, iron and fire united : so with the
bread in the Eucharist, said he, is joined the body
of Christ. Maclaine, in his notes upon Mosheim,
1 So Bucer : " Pane enim et vino non aliter utitur hie
Dominus, quam aqua in baptismate. Quare haec symbola
(Eucharistica) in sua natura manent immutata, sicut aqua in
baptismate." Gerdesii Miscell. iv. 700. So bishop Ponet, in
his Diallacticon, who cites Cyprian, Ambrose, and others, in
confirmation of this tenet. See also before, p. 242.
2 As in our Church Catechism.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 253
mentions " this miserable comparison, to shew
into what absurdities the towering pride of system
will often betray men of deep sense and true
genius." Cranmer in his Defence of the true
doctrine, it is curious to observe, has however in
geniously propounded the illustration of " ' hot
and burning iron, which is iron still," he says,
" and yet hath the force of fire ; — so the sacra
mental bread and wine remain still in their proper
kinds, and yet to them that worthily eat and
drink them, they are turned, not into the corporal
presence," as Luther taught, " but into the virtue
of Christ's flesh and blood."
The archbishop's reply to Gardiner, " 2 as occa
sion serves, answers such places of Dr. Richard
Smith, as may seem any thing worthy the answer
ing." Smith, although a learned, was a weak as
well as a 3 perfidious man. In the animadversions
upon Gardiner often he is therefore incorporated,
and sometimes is exposed as contradicting the
champion with whom he sided. But the preface
to his book receives a distinct answer from the
1 B. iii. Of the Presence of Christ.
2 Part of the title of the book.
3 See before, p. 173. He deserted the Church of Rome,
and then returned to it. He was so famous for his repeated
inconstancy, private and public, that an opponent, with whom
he desired a conference, replied, / will know whether you will
recant any more, ere I talk with you, or believe you.

254 THE LIFE OF
archbishop, after the closing page of the contro
versy with Gardiner.
It was 1 late in the year 1551, when the arch
bishop's reply to these opponents was allowed to
be published. Again it was printed in the follow
ing year. And as a proof, not only of the welcome
which it had experienced, but of the high cha
racter which it maintained, it was re-published in
1580. Archbishop Parker, indeed, has 2 said of
it, that no controversy against Romanists was ever
handled more accurately ; and upon the language
as well as the spirit of it, upon its acuteness, as
well as its zeal, succeeding writers of distinction
have bestowed their eulogy. Nothing could be
more fair and candid, than the order in which it
was formed. In it was 3 incorporated the whole
of his Defence of the true doctrine, and of his

1 His letter, requesting from Secretary Cecil the requisite
licence to publish it, is dated Sept. 29, 1551. Strype.
2 In his Antiq. Brit.
3 In this way Crowley's Answer, in 1548, to Miles Hoggard's
Ballad in favour of transubstantiation, was given. The ballad
was introduced in parcels, and so confuted. Hoggard was a
hosier in London, the first trader or mechanic, Anthony Wood
says, that appeared in print for the Roman Catholic cause ;
and his coarseness was tbe natural consequence of his ignorance.
An opponent frankly told him,
" You can better skill to eat a pudding, and make a hose,
" Than in Scripture either to answer, or oppose."

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 255
adversary's reply to it. Distinct paragraphs from
his own book were first presented to the reader,
which were followed by the animadversions of
Gardiner, as those were by the archiepiscopal con
futations of them. Gardiner returned an answer,
while yet in prison, under the feigned name of
M. A. Constantius ; supplied still more largely than
he had been before, with materials for his work, by
the industry of others. His new book was accord
ingly denominated " ' Pandora's box, to which
all the lesser gods brought their presents : for
every man, were his learning less or more, that
had any arguments for the Romish doctrine,
brought them all to him, (many of which were
windy and trivial enough,) and out of the heap
he made his collections as he thought good."
It was published at Louvain in 1552 ; afterwards
it appeared in 1554, with the triumphant 2 addi
tion of Gardiner's real name, Mary being then
the sovereign, and himself her chancellor. Cran
mer, when he also was in prison, vindicated what
had been thus attacked to a very great extent,
and intended some addition to that vindication,
if it might have been, " before his life," as he
1 Translation of the Preface to Peter Martyr's book in
defence of Cranmer. Strype.
2 Confutatio cavillationum quibus sacrosanctum Eucharistiaa
sacramentum ab impiis Capharnaitis impeti solet. Authore
Stephano Winton. Episcopo, Angliae Cancellario. Editio
altera, cui index accedit locupletissimus. 8vo. Lovanii. 1544.

256 THE LIFE OF
said, " were taken away, which he saw was likely
to be within a very short space." After that event,
Peter Martyr, indeed, appeared as his l acute and
elaborate defender. His own vindication is 2 sup
posed to be lost.
But as Gardiner, under the assumed title of M.
A. Constantius, had so unfairly proceeded with
Cranmer's book as to 3 confound the method of
it, and to disjoin and mangle passages in subser
viency only to his own objections ; the archbishop
was of opinion, that if learned foreigners saw his
Defence of the true doctrine translated into the
Latin tongue, (as the second attack of Gardiner
was written in that language,) it would sufficiently
vindicate him in their judgment and esteem. Sir
John Cheke elegantly performed this service for
the archbishop ; and the Defence in Latin, with
1 Simler, in his Life of P. Martyr, reports the admiration
bestowed on this defence by men of learning. Martyr himself,
in a letter to Utenhovius, tells him, that he has sent him the
book in which he has confuted the fallacies and the tricks of
Gardiner, in this Eucharistic controversy. Gerdesii Miscell.
iv. 675.
2 " He lived long enough to finish three parts, whereof two
unhappily perished at Oxford, and the third fell into John
Foxe's hands, and, for aught I know, that by this time is pe
rished also." Strype.
3 " Constantius argumenta mea — saepe truncata, saepe inversa,
saepe disjecta, sic introducit, ut non magis a me agnosci potue-
rint, qukm Medeae liberi in multa membra disjecti et deformati."
Cranmer's Letter to Edward.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 257
some additions, appeared in 1553 ; as it also again
appeared in 1557, with observations which had
been made upon a review of this translation by
the archbishop himself in prison, and which had
fallen into the hands of the ' English exiles at
Embden, who offered in this publication their
grateful sense of duty to the memory of the mar
tyred primate. Prefixed to this translation is a
Latin epistle from Cranmer to King Edward VI.,
dated in March, 1553, in which he says, that " it
was his care of the Lord's flock committed to him,
which induced him to renew and restore the
Lord's Supper according to the institution of
Christ : which was the reason that, about three
years before, he had set forth a book in English
against the principal abuses of the papistical
mass." Collections of Cranmer upon this great subject,
all of which were probably made before the De -
fence was formed, yet remain in the 2 libraries of
1 " Ut ne autem de hujus Iibelli vel fide, vel autore, dubites,
amice lector, autographon ejus in nostra apud Emdanos eccle
sia pro thesauro quodam et clarissimi viri sanctique Christi
martyris mnemosyno servamus." Preface by the Exiles, sign.
A. 5. b.
2 Many of them have been copied by Burnet, Strype, and
Collier, from the two volumes of his collections in the Lambeth
library, No. 1107, No. 1108; and Strype refers to a manu
script in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, De
re Sacramentaria, which he believes to have been compiled by
Cranmer. In the State-Paper Office are also yet to be seen,
VOL. II. S

258 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
Lambeth Palace, and of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, and in the State-Paper Office of the
realm. It is remarkable that Sanders, the Romish his
torian, who is so hostile to the memory of Cran
mer, and has written ' two treatises on Transub
stantiation and the Eucharist, refers in neither of
them, to the controversy we have witnessed, with
his accustomed vituperation of the archbishop.
what he collected or indited, a paper, De Sacramento Eu-
charistice ; another, De Missa privata ; and in a thin folio
(among discussions on other points) De Eucharistia, De Sacra-
mentorum usu, and in English, What a Sacrament is. In the
same repository, it may be added, are preserved Articuli
Buceri de Eucharistia.
1 N. Sanderi, S. T. P. Orat. de Transubstantiatione, &c.
Antverpise, 1566. De Eucharistia, &c. Antv. 1570.

CHAPTER XI.

1551 to 1552.
Alienation of lands belonging to the See of Winchester, after
the deprivation of Gardiner — Such spoliations then fre
quent — Cranmer desirous to prevent them — Case of Hooper,
bishop of Worcester — Deprivation of Tunstal, bishop of
Durham — Cranmer's exertion in behalf of Tunstal — Cran
mer's recommendation of Coverdale to be bishop of Exeter
— Cranmer's care of Latimer — Latimer's employment at
Lambeth — The lady Mary's refusal to conform to the new
liturgy — The revision of that liturgy — The ill-health of
Cranmer.
The deprivation of Gardiner, like that of Bonner,
1 excited the murmurs of some who merely ob
jected to arbitrary measures, and the louder cen
sures of others who were friends to the Church of
Rome. Nor did the promotion of the learned
Ponet to the see of Winchester, vacated by Gar
diner, tend to soften them. To the eyes of some
distinguished courtiers, much of the property
belonging to that see appeared desirable ; and to
them the new possessor was led to alienate it. In
1 Burnet. Heylin.
s 2

260 THE LIFE OF
the reign of Edward, ecclesiastical vacancies were
often thus turned to the advantage of laymen in
power ; and it has been rightly considered as most
1 discreditable to the memory of the young sove
reign's successive administrations, that such va
cancies should have been so constantly used by
the members of them, as opportunities of provid
ing for themselves and their friends. When
Hooper received, in addition to the see of Glou
cester, that of Worcester, Heylin thinks that he
was to enjoy only a short allowance from the
wealth ofthe latter. " 2 The pirates ofthe court,"
the historian says, " were too intent on all advan
tages to let such a vessel pass untouched, in which
they might both find enough to enrich themselves,
and yet leave that which was sufficient to content
the merchant." These causes of offence Cranmer
is 3 believed to have been very desirous of remov
ing, for indeed the possessions of his own see
are 4 said to have then suffered more than in the
5 time of Henry.
The deprivation of another distinguished pre
late was now meditated. Tunstal, bishop of
Durham, the politest scholar of the age, as well
as a man of exemplary moderation, still retaining
his early attachment to the Church of Rome,

Soames, Hist. Ref. iii. 611. 2 Heylin, 101.
Strype. * H. Wharton, 101.
See vol. i. 364.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 261
although he concurred in some proceedings of
the Reformers, was accused of being privy to a
plot for exciting an insurrection in the North.
The letter which he had received upon the sub
ject, he had not only concealed from the govern
ment, but had answered ; and his correspondent
then turned his accuser. He was committed to
the Tower. At the close of 1551, a bill was
introduced into the house of lords, charging him
with heinous offences, and proposing to deprive
him of his bishopric. Cranmer rose and objected
to the proceeding. No accusers appeared to
substantiate the charge. Written depositions
alone were produced ; but the archbishop found
himself mistaken, if he expected that Tunstal
would obtain in the case of deprivation that indul
gence, which in the case of treason was allowed
by a recent public enactment ; namely, ' that no
person should be arraigned, indicted, convicted,
or attainted, of any manner of treason, unless on
the oath of two lawful accusers, who should be
brought before him at the time of his arraignment,
and there should openly avow and maintain their
1 Dr. Lingard, who gives the abstract of this law, eloquently
observes, that " thus was laid the foundation of a most import
ant improvement in the administration of justice ; and a maxim
was introduced, which has proved the best shield of innocence
against the jealousy, the arts, and the vengeance of superior
power." Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 122.

262 THE LIFE OF
charges against him. The bill was passed by the
lords : but Cranmer resolutely entered his pro
test against it, although supported in his dissent
only by a ' single peer, who was a zealous
Roman Catholic. What the peers approved,
however, the commons resisted. They voted, in
the spirit of the new law, that, before the attain
der was confirmed, the accusers and the accused
should be heard face to face. Their resolution
they submitted to the king, who returned no
answer ; and thus the bill proceeded no further.
But afterwards a commission directed to the lord
chief justice and others, instead of a public trial,
effected what was desired; the commissioners
being satisfied with written documents, and the
prelate being accordingly by them deprived of
his see before the end of 1552. In the reign of
Mary he was restored to it, in that of Elizabeth
again deprived of it, and ended his days, nomi
nally as a prisoner at Lambeth Palace, in 1559.
In filling up the vacant sees in his province,
the advice of Cranmer was generally followed.
While the preceding transactions were leading
to the removal of prelates, an opportunity offered
of advancing, through his interest, to the episco
pal rank, his unassuming friend, Miles Coverdale,
dear to him as a man of learning, still more so as
1 Lord Stourton. Journals of the H. of Lords.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 263
a constant preacher of the Gospel, and an able
1 translator of the Scriptures. Coverdale had
accompanied lord 2 Russel, in his expedition
against the Devonshire rebels, as his chaplain.
Veysey, bishop of Exeter, in 1551 resigned that
see. A successor more fit than Coverdale could
hardly be found ; in the autumn of that year he
was accordingly so consecrated. Scarcely two
years had witnessed him a prelate, when Mary
hurled him from his dignity, to which Elizabeth
would gladly have restored him, if he had not
preferred the acceptance of a parochial benefice.
To him, as to Latimer, the quiet of a private life
was infinitely more valuable than the wealth, with
the cares, of a mitre. Like him, Latimer also
might have again possessed the bishopric which
he had 3 formerly resigned ; but finding in Lam
beth palace, where for many years he was the
guest of Cranmer, the supply of all his wishes, he
declined it, equally honoured, however, " 4 by
all sorts of people, never losing the name of lord,
and still looked on as a bishop, though without a
bishopric." What wonder, when his principal
employment there was to be of service to others,
to be the almoner of the archbishop, and espe
cially to procure redress for those who complained
1 See his correspondence concerning the translations of the
Bible, vol. i. p. 229, seq.
2 See before, in the present vol. p. 72.
3 See before, vol. i. p. 279. 4 Heylin, 102.

264 THE LIFE OF
of the law's delay or partiality. " Poor folks
come unto me," so he told the king and the
protector in one of his sermons, " desiring me
that I will speak that their matters may be heard.
I trouble my lord of Canterbury ; and being in
his house, now and then I walk in the garden
looking in my book, as I can do but little good
at it. But something I must needs do^ to satisfy
this place. I am no sooner in the garden, and
have read awhile, but by and by cometh there
some or other knocking at the gate. Anon
cometh my man, and saith, Sir, there is one at
the gate would speak with you. When I come
there, then it is some or other that desireth me
that I will speak that his matter might be heard,
that he hath lain thus long at a great cost and
charges, and cannot once have his matter come
to the hearing." What suitor in the court of
chancery, even in this our day, would not be glad
of such an advocate before his sovereign ?
The refusal of the lady Mary to conform to
the new liturgy, and the connivance at her use
of the mass, had now long continued. Her dis
obedience grieved the young king ; and at the
beginning of 1551 he sought the advice of Cran
mer, Ridley, and Ponet, in order to suffer it no
longer. They replied, that " ' to give licence to
sin, was sin ; but to suffer and wink at it for a
1 March 20, 1551. K. Edward's Journal. Burnet.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 265
time might be borne, so all possible haste might
be used ;" which the biographer of bishop Ridley
interprets, ' that it was always a sin in a prince
to give licence to sin, but not always so to forbear
or remit the punishment for a time, in hopes of
amendment ; and that sometimes a less evil, con
nived at, might prevent a greater. In truth,
from her kinsman, the emperor of Germany,
Mary had obtained protection ; and from Edward's
Council Charles had obtained a promise in her
favour. That promise was now said to have been
only of a temporary connivance. After five
months more, the king himself wrote to her, and
she then answered him, " 2 that although your
Majesty hath far more knowledge and greater gifts
than others of your years, yet it is not possible
that your Highness can at these years be a judge in
matters of religion. And, therefore, I take it that
the matter in your letter proceedeth from such as
do wish those things to take place, which be most
agreeable to themselves ; by whose doings (your
Majesty not offended) I intend not to rule my
conscience." The Council, four days after the
date of this epistle, informed her, in the king's
name, of his sorrow " 3 to perceive no amend
ment in her, of that which for God's cause, her
1 Ridley, 332.
2 Foxe. And Council-Book, Archaeol. vol. xviii. The letter
is dated August 19, [1551.]
3 Council-Book, Archaeol. ut supr.

266 THE LIFE OF
soul's health, and the common tranquillity of the
realm, he had so long desired; assuring her that his
sufferance had much more demonstration of na
tural love, than contentation of his conscience
and foresight of his safety ; that although she
gave him great occasion to diminish his natural
love, yet he was loth to feel it decay, and meant
not to be so careless of her as he was provoked ;
and therefore he sent the lord chancellor Riche,
Sir Anthony Wingfield, and Sir William Petre, to
regulate her household." These commissioners
proceeded to her residence in Essex. They re
ported to her the king's pleasure, that the Romish
service must be discontinued in her house ; and
to her chaplains, and servants, the prohibition
also was announced. By them, but not by her,
obedience was now promised. Dr. Malet, who
1 formerly assisted Cranmer in a revision of the
service-book to which Mary adhered, had already
endured imprisonment for using the ancient ritual,
in her absence, as her chaplain. Aware that the
emperor had threatened to dissolve the friendship
between England and his dominions, if the liberty
of worship was still denied her, Mary, there
fore, rather scornfully observed, that if her chap
lains should say no mass, she could hear none ;
that they might do as they pleased ; that still
" 2 she would be the true subject and sister of
1 See before, vol. i. p. 198.
2 Council-Book, Archaeol. ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 267
the king, and would obey his commandments in
all things, except in these matters of religion touch
ing the mass and the new service." No further
communications ensued ; and prudence or policy
again submitted " to wink at" the violation of
legitimate command.
The service, which the heir presumptive to the
crown now scorned, was at this time passing
through a revisal. Some exceptions had been
taken at parts of it, which were thought not to
be free from superstition. Calvin was one of
the earliest objectors to the book. In a letter to
the protector, late in 1549, he commenced his
strictures upon it. In his correspondence after
wards with Bullinger, and with Cranmer, he dis
approved not only of the book, but of the whole
English Reformation. He had projected for this
country a submission to his own code ; and to
this purpose he ' employed agents in the court,
the country, and the two Universities. Mosheim
has accordingly assumed it as a fact, 2 that by
the industrious zeal of the Genevan reformer and
his disciples, more especially Peter Martyr, the
cause of Lutheranism in England lost ground
considerably ; and the Universities, schools, and
churches became the oracles of Calvinism, which
also acquired new votaries among the people
1 Heylin, 107.
2 Ecc. Hist. cent, xvi, sect. 16.

268 THE LIFE OF
from day to day : Hence, he adds, it happened,
that when it was proposed, under the reign of
Edward, to give a fixed and stable form to the
doctrine and discipline of the Church, Geneva
was acknowledged as a sister Church; and the
theological system, there established by Calvin,
was adopted and rendered the public rule of faith
in England. — Our national rule of faith, however,
first formed almost wholly by Cranmer, little
altered in the reign of Elizabeth, and from that
time still maintained by us, is in its most material
points opposed to the Calvinistic system. But of
this hereafter ; for the completion of Edward's
second liturgy preceded the publication of the
articles of religion ; and that liturgy is now before
us. In the convocation of 1550 some doubts, ex
cited perhaps by the reflections of Calvin and his
party, certainly l appear to have been expressed
relating to passages and rubrics in the first service-
book ; and to have occasioned in the upper house,
among the prelates, debates upon the points ; in
the lower, among the inferior clergy, the promise
of their consideration of them. In the acts of
that convocation 2 thus much has been left on
record ; and in the course of that year a review
of the book was determined. Cranmer, solicitous
to obtain every help to the completion of it, re-
1 Heylin, 107. 2 Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 269
quired, after the * resolution of altering several
points had passed, the written opinions of those
distinguished foreigners, with whom he had perhaps
before 2 conversed upon the subject, Bucer and
Peter Martyr. Bucer delivered what he thought
in a 3 treatise consisting of no less than twenty-
eight chapters ; and communicated it, first, to
Martyr. In all the animadversions, Martyr ac
knowledged his concurrence ; informing him, at
the same time, that the archbishop had told him
of the conclusion of our own divines to make many
alterations in the book, but 4 what they were he
neither knew, nor dared of Cranmer to inquire.
Bucer admitted, in his prefatory address to Cran
mer, that he had found nothing in the book, which,
if fairly considered, was repugnant to the Word of
God and to the practice of the ancient Churches.
In the act of parliament that confirmed its revisal,
the same character of it is given, with the addition,
" that such doubts, as had been raised in the use
and exercise of it, proceeded rather from the
curiosity of the minister and mistakers, than of
any other worthy cause ;" that therefore " it was
found expedient, that the said book should be
1 Martyr to Bucer. See the letter, Strype, Append. No. 61.
1 See before, p. 212.
3 See his Scripta Anglicana. A comparison of his remarks
with the first and second liturgies will shew how far they might
have contributed to the revision.
4 Martyr to Bucer, ut supr.

270 THE LIFE OF
faithfully perused, explained, and made fully per
fect in all such places, in which it was necessary
to be made more earnest and fit for the stirring
up of all Christian people to the true honouring of
Almighty God." To this completion the observa
tions of Bucer, and consequently of Martyr, were
certainly in some parts auxiliary, but also in
some ineffectual ; the exception being not always
well-grounded, and the proffered substitution not
always well-chosen. The cool judgment of Cran
mer, and Ridley, and Cox, who were : among the
reviewers of the book, could not be mistaken in
what they received, or dechned, from these helpers
of their task.
Yet to foreigners principally it might be thought
that we have been indebted for the amendments,
and that the English clergy were induced to an
admission rather than to a share in the formation
of them by a royal threat, when we read the
following passage in the recent history of our

1 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 366. " In October, 1552, Cox wrote
to Bullinger, that they had already altered the rites of the public
prayers, and framed them according to the rules of God's Word ;
and had intended a restoration of ecclesiastical discipline." Dr.
Cox was one of the committee who formed the Order for the
Communion, and also the first Liturgy. He was at this time
almoner to the king, and in the reign of Elizabeth, bishop of Ely.
The other persons, engaged in the review of the book, are
supposed to be the same who first compiled it. Ridley, 334. See
before, in the present vol. p. 64.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 271
country. " It was about three years," says the
historian, with an apparent sneer, " since the com
position of the Book of Common Prayer had been
attributed by the unanimous assent of the legisla
ture to 1 the aid of the Holy Ghost. But this
solemn declaration had not convinced the scepti
cism of the foreign teachers. They examined the
book with a jealous eye ; they detected passages,
which in their estimation savoured of superstition,
or led to idolatry ; their complaints were echoed
and re-echoed by their English disciples ; and
Edward, at the suggestion .of his favourite instruc
tors, affirmed that, 2 if the prelates did not un
dertake the task, the new service should be freed
from these blemishes without their assistance.
Cranmer submitted the book in a Latin translation
to the consideration of Bucer and Peter Martyr,
whose judgment or prejudice recommended several
omissions, and explanations, and improvements ;
a committee of bishops and divines acquiesced in
most of the animadversions of these foreign teach
ers ; and the book in its amended form received
the assent of the convocation."
Nearly two years had elapsed after the death of
1 See before, in the present volume, what is said of this
expression, p. 66.
2 Martyr says, that Sir John Cheke told him this. Martyr
to Bucer, Epist. Strype, Append. No. 61. Some writers have
incorrectly stated the archbishop as the reporter of the royal
threat.

272 THE LIFE OF
Bucer, before the revised liturgy appeared. So
determined was Cranmer to proceed, in his usual
manner, gradually and with moderation ; notwith
standing the alleged impatience of the sovereign,
and the pretended echoes of it by his subjects.
In the month of August, 1552, this second service-
book, which is very near the same with that we
now use, was : finished at the press ; but the
printer, in the following month, was directed
2 not to publish it till some corrections, and an
addition concerning the posture of kneeling at the
communion were made. Late in October, the
3 Council ordered this addition ; and on the first
of November the service came into general use,
not without especial solemnity in the metropolis.
Ridley, in the morning of that day, read it in his
cathedral, and preached, without the embroidered
cope or vestment, in his rochet only ; and, in the
afternoon, again preached at 4 Paul's Cross, when
1 Herbert.
2 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 366.
3 Burnet. Strype.
4 Paul's Cross was a pulpit cross of timber, mounted upon
steps of stone, and covered with lead, in which were sermons
preached by eminent divines, and around which were covered
galleries for the reception of distinguished auditors, other per
sons standing exposed to the open air. It was a place also of
general resort, proclamations and other public matters being
there notified. Jane Shore there did penance. The rood of
grace was there exposed, and broken to pieces. See before,
vol. i. p. 247. It has been said by Shepherd, Introducf. to the

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 273
" ' the lord mayor, aldermen, and crafts, in their
best liveries were present, and the sermon tended
to the setting forth the late-made Book of Com
mon Prayer, which continued till almost five of
the clock at night ; so that the mayor, aldermen,
and companies entered not into St. Paul's Church,
as had been accustomed, but departed home by
torch-light." Ridley, in his rochet only, was conforming to
a new rubric in the amended service-book re
specting the ministerial dress. A bishop was to
be so habited in his ministration of divine offices ;
the inferior clergy, without alb, cope, or vestment,
in a surplice. In agreement with Bucer, another
rubric directed the service to be sung or said in
such part of the church or chancel, as the people
might best hear ; and the minister was so to turn
himself, as he might be heard most conveniently
by the people. In opposition to this Reformer,
who loudly censured the separation of the chancel
from the church, the rubric that in the former
book respected the chancels was confirmed by an
addition, that they should remain as they had
done in times past. Another rubric enjoined the
Elucidation of the Common Prayer, that the last sermon there
preached was in Lent, 1620. Mr. Zouch, in his notes on
Walton's Lives, mentions a drawing of it, in the library of
Magdalen College, in Cambridge, as it appeared in 1621.
1 Stow, 1028.
VOL II. T

274 THE LIFE OF
1 table to be placed in the body of the church or
in the chancel, but altar-wise, that is, north and
south, the minister being directed to stand at the
north side of it. In some churches it had been
placed east and west. To the communion office
was added the rubric, which explained, that, by
the posture of kneeling at the time of receiving
the sacrament, no adoration was intended " either
unto the sacramental bread or wine there bodily
received, or unto any real and essential presence
there being of Christ's natural flesh and blood ;" a
copy from Cranmer's own treatise upon the subject.
The mixing of water with wine in the celebration
of the sacrament ; the use of oil in baptism, and
of the cross in confirmation ; the unction of the
sick, and the prayers for the dead ; were also no
longer retained.
The service itself 2 now commenced with a se
lection of sentences from the Scripture, and with
the minister's exhortation to his auditors of con
fession to God and self-examination : The general
confession and absolution followed. These were
also adapted to private use in the Primer, which,
at the 3 beginning of Edward's reign, having been
enjoined "to be taught, learned, and read, and none
other to be used throughout all his dominions,"
1 See before, p. 236.
2 Differently from the first service. See before, p. 67.
3 Printed by Grafton, in November, 1547. See before, p. 43.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 275
had since that time received important alterations,
containing devotions " 1 agreeable and according
to the Book of Common Prayers ;" 2 uniformity
even of daily private prayer being now publicly
directed as requisite ; and the sentences were thus
commended to the supplicant. "At the beginning
of morning and evening private prayer, thou shalt
daily read, meditate, weigh, and deeply consider
out of these sentences of Holy Scripture that
follow ; and then from the bottom of thine heart
add the confession of thy sins, and the prayer
following," which is no other than our condi
tional form of absolution. Thus " the Dirige, or
An Office in times of mourning," consists, in the
little volume, chiefly of sublime as well as pathetic
orisons, which are in our impressive funeral ser
vice, and in our formulary for visiting the sick.
The two prayers for the king, which are now in
the communion service, are also found in this
Primer. To the communion service in the revised liturgy,
were now prefixed the Lord's Prayer and the
collect for purity ; followed by the Ten Com
mandments with the petition annexed to each of
them. This introduction of the decalogue into
the service, has been considered by Wheatly, and
others, as peculiar to the English Church. But it
1 So expressed in the licence to the printer, dated in March
1553. Strype.
2 Preamble to the edition of 1553. Ecc. Mem. ii. 378.
T 2

276 THE LIFE OF
is 1 found in the Strasburg liturgy of 1551. The
placing of it afterwards, together with the Apostles'
Creed, over the altar, has been also 2 thought an
Anglican religious peculiarity. The former intro
duction was chosen to remind the people, that as
the Divine precepts of the moral law were as
obligatory upon Christians as upon the Jews, they
should for past offences against them implore
pardon, and grace in future to observe them.
The latter was 3 intended as a symbolical repre
sentation of the doctrine, which should be exhi
bited always before the eyes of the people, that
good works as well as faith are the conditions
of salvation, the Ten Commandments represent
ing the former, and the Creed the latter.
The Athanasian Creed was now directed to be
read upon more days, than had been prescribed
in the first service-book. The age, which brought
on the Reformation, was suspected of Arianism.
This form of faith especially asserts the doctrine
of the Trinity, as maintained in the two first
general councils against Arius and Macedonius ;
and of the Incarnation, as explained in the two
following councils against Nestorius and Eutyches.
Cranmer, therefore, judged the more frequent
repetition of this ancient formulary to be neces
sary, as a caution against the anti-trinitarian
1 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 242.
2 Dean Tucker, Letters to Dr. Kippis, p. 101.
8 Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 277
notions not only of those already mentioned, but
against the heresies also of Sabellius, who con
founded the three persons in the Godhead, and of
Apollinarius, who denied that Christ was a perfect
man. The singing of psalms or hymns was sanctioned
by the 1 Act that confirmed the first liturgy. In
the interval, before the revision, the practice seems
to have become popular, I mean the plain con
gregational singing in parish churches of psalms
in metre, as distinguished from the choral service
in cathedrals and collegiate chapels, which was
of the prosaic, but infinitely more solemn, form.
Cranmer appears to have paid attention, 2 long
before, to the subject of religious song. The
translation of the psalms into French rhymes by
Clement Marot, groom of the bed-chamber to
Francis the First, was now well known in England.
The translator, too, was a friend to the Reforma
tion. His psalms had been also introduced by
Calvin into his congregation at Geneva, after
having been in France sung by the king and his
courtiers upon ordinary occasions, not in churches,
to some 3 favourite or fashionable tune. Him it
1 See before, in the present vol. p. 68.
2 See vol. i. p. 356.
3 " The dauphin prince Henry, who delighted in hunting,
was fond of Ainsi qu' on oit le cerfbruire, or, Like as the hart
desireth the water-brooks, which he constantly sung in going
out to the chace. Madame de Valentinois, between whom and

278 THE LIFE OF
had been the object of Sternhold, groom of the
robes to the English sovereign, to imitate ; hoping
that the courtiers here would sing his versions,
instead of their own sonnets ; " * but," says An
thony Wood, " they did not, only some few ex
cepted." A 2 second edition of his psalms, how
ever, with a few more by his coadjutor Hopkins,
was published in 1551 ; and in the following year
a third ; a sign that they were very acceptable, when
the liturgy was reviewed, to the common people,
and that, like Luther and Calvin, the reviewers
considered such labours as useful in familiarizing
Scriptural information.
As of the first liturgy there had been a French
translation for the use of our sovereign's subjects
at 3 Calais and its dependencies, so now of the
second a version was made by a learned French
divine. This employment had been 4 sought by
the young prince there was an attachment, took Dufond de ma
pensee, or, From the depth of my heart, 0 Lord. The queen's
favourite was, Ne vueilles pas, O Sire, that is, 0 Lord, rebuke
me not, which she sung to a fashionable jig. Anthony, king of
Navarre sung, Revenge moy, pren le querelle, or, Stand up, 0
Lord, to revenge my quarrel, to the air of a dance of Poitou."
Warton, Hist, of Eng. Poetry, sect. 45.
1 Ath. Ox. i. 76.
3 The first edition consisted of thirty-seven psalms, and was
published in 1549. The version of all the psalms, by Sternhold
and his friends, appeared not till the year 1562.
3 Belonging to Cranmer's diocese. See vol. i. p. 174.
1 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 279
others, who proposed to print it, for the use of
the isles of Jersey and Guernsey. The secretary
Cecil was entreated to procure a royal licence to
this purpose. He communicated the request to
Cranmer, who returned the following answer.
" 1 After my very hearty commendations, I
thank you for your news, but specially for that
you advertise me that the king's Majesty is in
good health, wherein I beseech God long to con
tinue his Highness, as He hath twice, as I trust,
restored me to the same.
(e It seemeth by your letters, that a 2 peace
should be concluded betwixt the emperor and
duke Maurice, which, whether it be according to
the articles that afore you sent unto me, or other
wise, I would gladly understand.
" The commodity that might arise by printing
the Book of Common Prayer and Administration
1 Strype, Append. No. 106.
2 " The memorable treaty of Passau, that overturned the
vast fabric, in erecting which Charles had employed so many
years, and had exerted the utmost efforts of his power and
policy ; that annulled all his regulations with regard to religion,
defeated all his hopes of rendering the imperial authority abso
lute and hereditary in his family, and established the Protestant
Church, which had hitherto subsisted precariously in Germany,
through connivance, or by expedients, upon a firm and secure
basis. Maurice reaped all the glory of having concerted and
completed this unexpected revolution." Robertson, Charles V.
This treaty of peace was signed, Aug. 2, 1552. The conditions
varied little from former propositions made by Maurice.
VOL. II. T 4 -§-

280 THE LIFE OF
of the Sacraments in the French tongue, if any be,
I reckon it were meet that it should come to them
who have already taken pains in translating the
same ; which was first done by : Sir Hugh Paulet's
commandment, and overseen by my lord chancellor
and others at his appointment ; and now altered
according to that which must be put in execution
at the 2 feast of All Saints next, at the appointment
of my lord chancellor, by a learned Frenchman,
a doctor in divinity ; and therefore needless of
any other to be travailed in. Aug. 26, 1552."
A Greek and Latin version of the Common
Prayer, it may be added, appeared in 1553
In the preceding letter the archbishop speaks
of recovery from two fits of illness. One of these
is described in a 3 letter to Cecil, dated the day
only before the last, in which he recommends to
the secretary's consideration four eminent divines
as fit to adorn the Irish prelacy. He then en
treats Cecil to inform Sir John Cheke, the friend
of both, that " a quotidian, or double tertian ague
(his physicians not determining which it was) had
left him two days, but that, if it returned that
night, it would probably become a quartan ; yet,
that, however it might be, his greatest grief was
that he could not proceed, as he desired, in such
matters as he had in hand, this terrenum domici-
1 Governor of Calais.
2 The first day appointed for the use of the second liturgy.
See before, p. 272. * Strype, Append. No. 65.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 281
Hum being such an obstacle to all good purposes."
In this letter he also wisely stated how the Protest
ant preacher might benefit Ireland. One of those,
whom he now recommended to fill the see of
Armagh, hesitated to accept it, because his preach
ing, he had said, to persons who understood not
the Enghsh language, would be useless. " True,"
Cranmer observes to Cecil, " but if they do not,
then I say, that if he will take the pains to learn
the Irish tongue — then both Iris person and doc
trine shall be more acceptable not only unto his
diocese, but also throughout all l Ireland."
In the preceding year too the archbishop had
been disordered in his health, as John a Lasco
2 informed his friend Albert Hardenberg. At that
time he was resident in his palace at Croydon,
when an earthquake threw all the books from
their shelves, and broke all the windows, in it,
without further injury ; while in the town some
houses fell. Of another malady he had been in
danger, the sweating sickness (as it was called)
being in the autumn of the same year prevalent,
and a Lasco and his wife, who were then his
visitors at Croydon, being both attacked by it.
1 Among the Carew MSS. in Lambeth Library, (No. 602.)
there are several curious letters addressed to Cranmer's friend
Cromwell, respecting the civil affairs of Ireland, and one from
the archbishop of Dublin concerning its ecclesiastical state.
2 Epist. Joh. a Lasco, Maji. 31, 1551. Gerdesii Miscell.
ii. 676—679. 1

CHAPTER XII.

1552.
Designs against church property — Cecil cautions Cranmer on
the subject— Cranmer defends himself against the implica
tion of being rich, in answer to Cecil — Hints to the Master
of Jesus College, Cambridge, also his lack of wealth — The
forty-two Articles of Religion — The Catechism accompany
ing them — The Articles not Calvinistic.
While the young sovereign was making an ex
cursion, and the archbishop was resident at Croy
don, in the summer of 1552, the enemies of the
latter are believed to have been active in malicious
designs, both against himself and others of his
order. The prelates, it was pretended, were ex
tremely rich, avaricious, inhospitable, careful only
for themselves and their posterity. To these re
ports the secretary Cecil had listened. Of church
property himself had 1 already received some
grants. Others, more greedy perhaps of ecclesias-
1 Henry Wharton charges Cecil with very rapacious pro
ceedings of this kind in the reign of Elizabeth. Notes on
Strype's Life of Cranmer, folio edit. p. 261. Against such
charges Dr. Nares, in his extensive and truly valuable Memoirs
of him, defends this great statesman. Vol. i. 384.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 283
tical prey, he knew. He affected, therefore, to
caution the archbishop in the words of St. Paul,
that they, who will be rich, fall into temptation and
a snare. Cranmer, in the following answer to
him, invalidated the reports, not without glancing
at the plunder that had already been allowed.
" 1 After my most hearty commendations and
thanks as well for your 2 genteel letters, as for the
3 Pacification, and for your good remembrance
of the two matters which I desired you not to
forget, the one concerning the 4 bishop of Co
logne's letters, and the other 5 Mr. Mowse ; for
whom eftsoons I give you my most hearty
thanks. " As for your admonition, I take it most thank
fully, as I have ever been most glad to be ad
monished by my friends, accounting no man so
foolish as he that will not hear friendly admonish
ments. But as for the saying of St. Paul, Qui
volunt ditescere, incidunt in tentationem, I fear it
not half so much as I do stark beggary. For I
took not half so much care for my living, when I
was a scholar of Cambridge, as I do at this pre-
1 Strype, Append. No. 67. 2 See before, vol. i. p. 250.
3 The conditions offered to Maurice by the emperor Charles,
and accepted. See before, p. 279.
4 Herman. See before, p. 180.
5 Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1552, a man of
learning, but not of steady religious principles. Strype, Life
of Cranm. B. 3. ch. 23.

284 THE LIFE OF
sent. For although I have now much more re
venue, yet I have much more to do withal ; and
have more care to live now as an archbishop,
than I had at that time to live like a scholar. I
have not so much as I had within ten years past
by one hundred and fifty pounds of certain rent,
beside casualties. I pay double for every thing
that I buy. If a good auditor have this account,
he shall find no great surplusage to wax rich
upon. And if I knew any bishop that was covet
ous, I would surely admonish him ; but I know
none but all beggars, except it be ' one, and yet
I 2 dare well say, he is not very rich. If you
know any, I beseech you to advertise me, for
peradventure I may advise him better than you.
" To be short, I am not so doted to set my
mind upon things here, which neither I can carry
away with me, nor tarry long with them. If
time would have served, I would have written of

1 Strype thinks this one to have been Holgate, archbishop of
York. His riches are said to have been seized by Mary, and
himself to have been committed in her reign to the Tower. He
still possessed, however, sufficient wealth to endow three free-
schools : one at York, one at Old Malton, and another at
Hemsworth, in the county of York. He died in retirement in
1556. Drake's York, 453.
2 Cranmer knew of the numerous estates which Holgate had
been forced to surrender, as he himself had been of many that
belonged to the see of Canterbury to Henry. Strype gives a
list of those transferred by Cranmer, Drake of those by Hol
gate.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 285
other things unto you ; but your servant making
haste compelleth me here to cut the thread, be
seeching Almighty God to preserve the king's
Majesty with all his Council and family, and send
him well to return from his progress. From my
Manor of Croydon, the xxi. of July, [[1552.3
" Your own ever,
" T. Cantuar."
It was probably in the preceding month of
this year, that to the master of the college in
which he had been educated he acknowledges
with pleasantry, what to Cecil he explains with
spirit, his lack of wealth. We have 1 before re
peatedly witnessed him in pecuniary difficulty.
He scruples not again thus to confess it.
" 2 In my right hearty wise I commend me
unto you, and so certify you that I send you here
a buck to be bestowed among your company
within your college. And forasmuch as you have
more store of money, and also less need, than I
at this season ; therefore I bequeath a noble of
your purse towards the baking and seasoning of
him. And whensoever I have so much money
before hand, as. I am now behind hand, I shall
repay you your noble again. And thus fare you well.
1 See vol. i. pp. 99, 148. 2 Harl. MSS. No. 6148.

286 THE LIFE OF
From my Manor of Croydon, the xxvj. day of
June." The design of Cranmer to promote uniformity
among the clergy had now been deliberately car-.
ried on ; and to this purpose were framed the
forty-two Articles of Religion. In the month of
1 May, 1552, the first copy of them was laid be
fore the Privy Council, by whom, in the preced
ing year, Cranmer was empowered to compose the
formulary. We have before noticed him intent
upon such a plan. It has been said, that " when
interrogated on this very point by his relentless
persecutors, not long before his death, he 2 un
equivocally avowed himself to have been the
author of these articles. It has nevertheless
been usually conceived, that he derived much
assistance from Ridley, who, as far as the paucity
of his writings enables us to judge, seems to have
no less excelled in perspicuity than in solidity of
argument, in manliness of conception than in
energy of expression. Latimer likewise has been
1 Strype.
2 Laurence, Serm. p. 29, and notes, p. 215, where Foxe's
authority is cited, " As for the Catechism, the book of Articles,
with the other book against Winchester, &c. he (Cranmer)
granted the same to be his doings." Cranmer's own words, how
ever, are " Quoad Catechismum et Articulos in eodem fatetur
se adhibuisse ejus consilium circa editionem ejusdem." Proc.
MSS. Lambeth, No. 1136.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 287
considered as his coadjutor in the same undertak
ing. That each of these respectable bishops was
consulted on the occason appears highly probable.
Ridley,if an anecdote 'recorded of him be accurate,
expressly stated, that he both perused the produc
tion before its publication, and noted many things
for it ; that he thus consented to it, but that he
was not the author of it. The venerable Latimer,
who had resigned his bishopric in the reign of
Henry, declining a reinstatement in it, then dwelt
under the roof of the archbishop, by whom, for
his virtues and integrity, he was sincerely respect
ed and cordially beloved. To a divine of this
description, so pecuharly circumstanced, it is im
possible to suppose a design of such importance
not to have been communicated ; to one who had
acquired the proud title of the apostle of England,
who had long been the primate's fellow-labourer
in the work of reformation, and who was capable
not only of improving it by his wisdom and ex
perience, but of conferring upon it an old man's
benediction. But although we allow this, and
even more than this ; although we admit, that
Cranmer held in the highest esteem the mascu
line mind of Ridley, and the plain but strong
sense as well as unshaken probity of Latimer ;
men, who bore able testimony to the truth, while
in prosperity, and in adversity sealed it with their
1 By Foxe.

288 THE LIFE OF
blood ; yet it appears not that, from any con
sciousness of personal inferiority, he ever beheld
them with an obsequious eye. He indeed ought
alone to be considered as the real and ostensible
author of the production; although collecting
the sentiments of others, yet in all cases exercising
the privilege of accepting or rejecting what may
have been offered to him at pleasure, and regu
lating his decisions by a judgment, to which all
with submission bowed ; which, matured by the
most extensive reading, and formed upon the
purest principles, his adversaries respected and
his friends revered."
To ' other prelates, besides Ridley and Lati
mer ; to the six royal chaplains, 2 Harley, Bill,
Horn, Grindal, Perne, and Knox ; to his fellow-
labourer in various transactions to promote the
Reformation, Dr. Cox ; and to the distinguished
laymen, Cecil and Sir John Cheke ; the Articles
were indeed submitted. The wish to be guided
by the judgment of others, was the result of that
modest opinion which Cranmer constantly enter
tained of his own, however excellent it was. After
the Articles had been first shewn to Cecil and to
Cheke, and had been returned with some remarks,
he in the month of September amended the com-
1 Strype.
2 Ibid. A copy of the Articles in Latin, with copies of their
names subscribed, is now in the State-Paper Office.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 289,
pilation, but still earnestly entreated the further
consideration of both the learned courtiers. " * I
have sent," he writes to Cecil, " the book of
Articles for Religion unto Mr. Cheke, set in a
better order than it was, and the titles upon
every matter, adding thereto that which lacked.
I pray you, consider well the Articles with Mr.
Cheke ; and, whether you think best to move the
king's Majesty therein before my coming, I refer
that unto your two wisdoms."
The Articles were immediately laid before the
king ; at the beginning of the next month the
royal chaplains, already mentioned, were required
to overlook them ; and the Privy Council, a few
weeks afterwards, dispatched the book to the
archbishop, for " the last corrections of his judg
ment and his pen," at his residence in Kent,
whence he returned it to them with the following
letter. " 2 After my very humble recommendations
unto your good lordships, I have sent unto the
same the book of Articles, which yesterday I re
ceived from your lordships. I have sent also a
cedule enclosed, declaring briefly my mind upon
the said book ; beseeching your lordships to be
means unto the king's Majesty, that all the bishops
may have authority from him to cause all their
1 Strype, Append. No. 66. 2 Ibid. No. 67.
VOL. II. U

-290 THE LIFE OF
preachers, archdeacons, deans, prebendaries, par
sons, vicars, curates, with all their clergy, to sub
scribe the said Articles. And then I trust, that
such a concord and quietness in religion shall
shortly follow thereof, as else is not to be looked
for, many years. God shall thereby be glorified,
His truth shall be advanced, and your lordships
shall be rewarded of Him as the setters forward
of His true Word and Gospel. Unto whom is
my daily prayer, without ceasing, to preserve the
king's Majesty, with all your honourable lordships.
From my house at Ford, the xxiv. of this present
month of November, [[1552.3
" Your lordships' ever to command,
" T. Cantuar."
The mandate of the king, to cause the required
subscription, was issued not many days before his
death. What occasioned this delay of publica
tion more than six months, after the examination
which the Articles thus had undergone, and after
the last corrections of the principal composer's
pen, it is impossible now to affirm. But it is
probable they were, in that interval, submitted to
the two houses of convocation, and that out of
both a committee was 1 chosen who might assent
1 As the preface to ihe Latin edition of the Articles seems to
imply. Dr. Nares, Mem. of Lord Burghley, i. 369.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 291
to them in the name of the whole. Burnet
1 contends that they were not thus offered alike
to the prelates and the inferior clergy ; but admits
the probability of their having been brought into
the upper house only.
The first impression of the x\rticles, it has been
2 said, presented a Catechism before them. It is
true that such an edition of the Articles was pub
lished. But the king's printer published them
separately, and with a title in spirit indeed, but
not in the letter, agreeing with that which Burnet
asserts to be the first appearance of them. It was
as follows : " Articles agreed on by the bishops
and other learned men in the synod at London,
in the year of our Lord God, 1552, for the avoid*
ing of controversy in opinions, and the establishment
of a godly concord in certain matters of religion.
Published by the king's Majesty's commandment
in the month of May, 1553. Rich. Graftonus,
typographus regius excudebat. Lond. mense
Junii, 1553." The copy to which Burnet alludes,
coupled with the Catechism, was thus entitled :
" A 3 short Catechism, or plain instruction, con
taining the sum of Christian learning, set forth
by the king's Majesty's authority, for all school-
1 Hist. Ref. iii. ann. 1552. 2 By Burnet, ibid.
3 So the Catechism of 1548 was entitled a short instruction ;
but in size it far surpassed the present, amounting to not less
than 500 pages.
u2

292 THE LIFE OF
masters to teach. To this Catechism are ad
joined the Articles agreed upon by the bishops,
and other learned and godly men, in the last con
vocation at London, in 1552, for to root out the
discord of opinions, and stablish the agreement of
true religion. Likewise published by the king's
authority, 1553. Imprinted by John Day." Pre
fixed to it is the royal injunction to all school
masters, and teachers of youth, dated May 20,
1553, truly and diligently to teach this Catechism
in their schools, immediately after the other brief
Catechism, which had been already set forth.
The same publication in Latin issued from the
press, at the same time, of 1 Reynold Wolfe. " We
committed the debating and diligent examination
of it," the king in his injunction says, " to certain
bishops and other learned men, whose judgment
we have in great estimation. And because it
seemed agreeable with the Scriptures, and the
ordinances of our realm, We have commanded
it to be published." This implies that the Cate
chism, like the Articles, had been sanctioned by a
committee. To Cranmer the royal mandate was directed
for the circulation of the Articles, in order to
their being subscribed. Before their admission to
1 Wolfe had a privilege for printing all Latin books. Cran
mer appears to have written to Cecil upon this subject. Strype,
Life of Cranm. Append. No. 66.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 293
any benefice or cure, the clergy in every diocese ;
and before their admission to degrees in divinity
as well as to the highest in arts, the members in
both Universities; were required thus to give
their assent. Burnet notices the letter of the
Cambridge visitors to this purpose, but refrains
to mention their assertion in it of the Articles
having been agreed upon in the synod, so anxious
he seems to maintain that " 1 by a variety of evi
dences it appears that these Articles were not
passed in convocation, nor so much as offered to
it;" forgetting his former opinion, that to the
upper house they had been submitted. He had
asserted thus much in a publication also, previous
to the third volume of his History of the Refor
mation. The freethinker Collins eagerly availed
himself of such authority, and said " 2that although
by several of our ecclesiastical writers, and by
the title ofthe first book of Articles, those Articles
are constantly attributed to the synod of 1552,
they never passed that synod, but were an im
position of some of the clergy and others of those
times upon it." The charge was thus imme
diately answered by one whom Burnet might,
at least, have condescended to notice, when he

1 Burnet, Hist. Ref. iii. ut supr.
2 In his tract, entitled Priestcraft in perfection, relating to
the 20th Article ofthe Ch. of Eng. 1710, p. 29.

294 THE LIFE OF
repeated his synodical incredulity. " 1 The pre
tence of Collins," says Edmund Chishull, " is as
false as it is frivolous. For this book of Articles,
being first framed by archbishop Cranmer, was by
him communicated to the king, to certain bishops,
and other learned persons of that age ; after
which, it was brought into the synod then sitting,
and there agreed to, and subscribed by the hands
of the clergy. Of which latter circumstance there
happens to be a clear though accidental proof, in
that the subscription of 1552 was soon after
objected on one side, and acknowledged on the
other, by some of that very clergy, as had been
shewn from a 2 printed controversy of that time."
The Articles thus seem to have been intro
duced, not indeed for the discussion, but only for
the subscription, of the members, into the convo
cation. The enemies of Cranmer, in their final
proceedings against him, accused him of having
compelled many against their wills to subscribe
them. " I exhorted such as were willing to sub
scribe," he replied ; " but against their wills I
compelled none." The terms, upon which sub-
1 Sermon by E. Chishull, B.D. entitled The Orthodoxy of
an English Clergyman, preached at an archidiaconal visitation,
and published in 1711, p. 14. Chishull is well known, both as
an eastern traveller, and a very learned divine.
2 See the Bishop of Lincoln's (Wake) State of the Church
and Clergy, p. 599. And the close of this chapter.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 295
scription was required, are contained in the in
structions of the king to 1 Thirlby, bishop of
Norwich, and to 2 Ridley, bishop of London :
" We will and exhort, that when and as often as
you shall have any manner of person presented
unto you to be admitted by you, as the ordinary,
to any ecclesiastical order, ministry, office, or
cure, within your diocese, that you shall, before
you admit him, confer with him in every [[of)]
these Articles ; and, finding him thereto consent
ing, to cause him to subscribe the same in one
ledger-book, to be formed for that purpose, which
may remain as a register for a record, and to let
him have a copy of the same Articles. And if
any man in that case shall refuse to consent to any
of the said Articles, and to subscribe the same,
then We will and command you, that neither you,
nor any of you, or by your procuracy in any wise,
shall admit him, or allow him as sufficient and
meet to take any order, ministry, or ecclesiasti
cal cure. For which your so doing We shall dis
charge you from all manner of penalties, or dan
gers of actions, suits, or pleas oi premunire, quare
impedit, or such like. And yet our meaning is,
if any party refuse to subscribe any of these Ar
ticles, for lack of learning and knowledge of the
truth, you shall in that case by teaching, confer
ence, and proof of the same by the Scriptures,
1 Burnet. 2 Strype.

296 THE LIFE OF
reasonably and discreetly move and persuade him
thereto, before you shall peremptorily judge him
as unable and recusant. And for the trial of his
conformity you shall, according to your discretion,
prefix a time and space convenient to deliberate,
and give his consent, so that it be betwixt three
weeks and six weeks from the time of his first
access unto you. And if after six weeks he will
not consent and agree willingly to subscribe, then
you may, and lawfully shall, in any wise refuse to
admit or enable him."
The observance of the Catechism was at the
same time thus directed. " And where there is
of late set forth by our authority a Catechism for
the instruction of young scholars in the fear of
God, and the true knowledge of His holy religion,
with express commandment from us to all school
masters to teach and instruct their scholars the
said Catechism, making it the beginning and first
foundation of their teaching in their schools ; our
pleasure is, that, for the better execution of our
said commandment, you shall yearly at the least
once visit, or cause to be visited, every school
within your said diocese, in which visitation it shall
be inquired both how the schoolmaster of every
such school hath used himself in the teaching of
the said Catechism, and also how the scholars do
receive and follow the same ; making plain and
full certificate of the offenders contrary to this our
order, and of their several offences, to the arch-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 297
bishop of the province within three months, from
time to time, after every such offence."
Upon these formularies, now circulated some
times in conjunction, as upon the earlier produc
tions of his fellow-reformers, Ridley, not long
before he was led from prison to the stake, thus
bestowed his commendation, cheering his last
hours with the recollection of his share in framing
them. " ' This Church of England had of late,
through the infinite goodness and abundant grace
of Almighty God, great substance, great riches of
heavenly treasure, great plenty of God's true and
sincere Word, the true and wholesome adminis
tration of Christ's holy sacraments, the whole
profession of Christ's religion truly and plainly
set forth in baptism, the plain declaration and
understanding of the same taught in the holy
Catechism to have been learned of all true Christ
ians. The Church had also a true and sincere
form and manner of the Lord's Supper, wherein
according to Jesus Christ's own ordinance and
holy institution, Christ's commandments were
executed and done. For upon the bread and
wine, set upon the Lord's table, thanks were given,
the commemoration of Christ's death was had, the
remembrance of Christ's body torn upon the cross
was broken, and the cup in the remembrance of
Christ's blood shed was distributed, and both com
municated unto all that were present and would
1 Foxe.

298 THE LIFE OF
receive them ; and also they were exhorted of the
minister so to do. All was openly done in the vulgar
tongue, so that every thing might be most easily
heard, and plainly understood, of all the people,
to God's high glory and the edification of the
whole Church. This Church had of late the whole
divine service, all common and public prayers
ordained to be said and heard in the common con
gregation, not only framed and fashioned to the
true vein of holy Scripture, but also set forth
according to the commandment of the Lord, and
St. Paul's doctrine for the people's edification in
their vulgar tongue. It had also holy and whole
some homilies in commendation of the principal
virtues which are commended in Scripture, and
likewise other homilies against the most pernicious
and capital vices that use, alas, to reign in this
realm of England. This Church had, in matters
of controversy, Articles so penned and framed
after the holy Scripture, and grounded upon the
true understanding of God's Word, that in short
time, if they had been universally received, they
should have been able to have set in Christ's
Church much concord and unity in Christ's true
religion, and to have expelled many false errors,
and heresies, wherewith this Church, alas, was
almost overgone."
It has been asserted in a recent history of our
Church, that this Catechism of 1553 was enjoined
to be taught in schools, as a sequel to the other

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 299
brief Catechism set forth in the beginning of Ed
ward's reign ; and the translation of the German
formulary, usually called the first Catechism of
king Edward, is represented as that to which the
present was to be, as it were, the succeeding part.
But the translated Catechism is, in the first place,
not a brief but an 1 extensive statement of Lu
theran doctrines, from some of which the Church
of England now expressly dissented. Instructions
that must clash, would therefore certainly not be
enjoined. But a prefix to the present Catechism,
in the next place, plainly shews what was intended.
It is the king's injunction, which commands all
masters of schools " truly and diligently to teach
the same, after the other brief Catechism already
set forth," which in the royal letters patent that
follow, is called " the little Catechism," and which
undoubtedly is no other than what had been
placed in the service book, and was now declared
a preparative for understanding the new form of
instruction. Like the little Catechism, the present
accordingly is in question and answer, not as the
first formulary in this reign, which consists merely
of treatises, or expositions, and directions. In
this new dialogue the 2 Ten Commandments are
first explained. The Creed is then illustrated.
1 See an account of it in the present vol. chap. iii.
2 As in the small German Catechisms of that time. See
Biblioth. Symb. Evang. Lutherana, Gottingee, 1752, pp. 376,
377.

300 THE LIFE OF
The sacraments are next accounted only two,
Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; not, as in the
Catechism of 1548, with the addition of The power
of the keys ; and the Lord's Prayer is paraphrased.
Of this Catechism I have already stated the opinion
most prevalent, that bishop 1 Ponet was the author.
Now because this prelate had written a work in
defence of the marriage of priests, a learned
writer of the Church of Rome has disgraced his
pages in bestowing, for no other reason, upon this
plain and excellent instruction, the virulent name
of " 2 Ponet's wanton Catechism."
From such kind of abuse the first Articles of
our Religion have escaped ; although misrepre
sentation has not scrupled to assail as well their
doctrine as their history. Hence, as they differ
very little from our present Thirty-nine Articles,
the charges which have been often brought against
the latter by some of the sons, as well as the foes,
of the Church of England, are applied to these ;
in particular, that they are Calvinistical. It seems
a novelty in our ecclesiastical annals, however,
1 See before, in the present vol. p. 61. Ames, in his Hist.
of Printing, mentions it, however, as assigned also to Becon,
one of Cranmer's chaplains. Others name Nowell as the author.
There is a Catechism of the former, little known ; those of the
latter are well known. Erasmus, Luther, Melancthon, Bren
tius, Calvin, and others, wrote Catechisms.
2 Stapleton, Fortress of the Faith, &c. Antwerp, 1565,
fol. 115. b.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 301
that by Calvin they had been inspected in their
earliest shape. " * The testimony of Calvin him
self," it has lately been said, " must not be sup
pressed. The Articles were prepared by Cranmer,
in the summer of 1551, and Bucer died in the
succeeding February. Before his death, Calvin
appears to have obtained a copy of the first draft,
or at least an accurate account of it ; and he
attributed the formation of it to Bucer." But
Bucer died in the February * preceding the summer
of 1551, and before that time there is no evidence
of the Articles having been drawn into any form
whatever. It is usually said, that Cranmer de
clined the offered assistance of Calvin in the
present labour ; that he knew the man, that is,
he knew the violence of his opinions. But to the
Genevan Reformer he certainly 3 appears to have
communicated his design of the Articles. From
the candour and moderation of Melancthon, how
ever, he had 4 already derived advantage to his
proceedings in the cause of the Reformation. To
the Confession of Augsburg, principally the work
of Melancthon, again he therefore directed his at
tention as to the basis, upon which the structure
he was ordered to build should stand. That Con
fession is 5 decidedly Anti-Calvinistical.
1 Review of Abp. Laurence's Sermons, Brit. Crit. vol. xxvii.
p. 412. 2 See before, p. 197.
3 See vol. i. p. 336. 4 See before, p. 226.
5 Bp. Tomline, Refut. of Calvinism.

302 THE LIFE OF
" 1 It is certain," a very convincing writer has
said, " that archbishop Cranmer was one of the
chief composers of our Articles, and whoever were
besides, they had more respect to the Confession
of Augsburg than to any other, as appears by the
very 2 identity of many of the Articles. And the
principal of our churchmen at that time had more
familiarity with Melancthon and Erasmus than
any other divines, singularly approving their ex
positions of the sacred Scriptures, and of the
principal articles of the Christian faith ; insomuch
that they caused to be translated into Enghsh
Erasmus's Paraphrase on the Gospels, and en
joined it to be studied by priests, and to he
ready in 3 churches for all men to read, and as it

1 Plaifere, Cambridge Tracts, 1719, p. 16.
2 See the Agreement of the Lutheran Churches with the
Church of England, 1715, p. 1 — 12. And Examen Harmo-
niae Religionis Ecclesiae Lutheranae et Anglicanae, &c. & Jac.
Serenio, Ecc. Suec. Lond. Pastore, Ludg. Bat. 1726, p. 1 — 88.
3 Our Reformers placed in churches " for the purposes of
instructing both clergy and laity in the true sense of Scrip
ture, and in the just principles ofthe Reformation, not Luther's
Commentary on the Galatians, though that had been published
twenty-three years before ; nor yet Calvin's Institutes, though
that was likewise in being ; but the Paraphrase of that very
man Erasmus, who had confuted them both. And can you
wish or desire a stronger proof that our Reformers were not
Calvinists as to the Calvinistical five-point controversy, than
this now before us?" Dean Tucker, Lett, to Dr. Kippis,
1773, p. 99.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 303
were to drink in the doctrine of the Scriptures
according to Erasmus's interpretation."
But the seventeenth Article, Of Predestination
and Election, has been especially cited as a signal
proof of submission by our Reformers, in the
reign of Edward, to the doctrine of Calvin. ' What
does the Article, however, profess ? Dr. Water-
land, whom no one yet has been able to confute,
thus informs us. " 1 The Article of Predestina
tion has been vainly enough urged in favour of
the Calvinistical tenets. For, not to mention the
saving clause in the conclusion, or its saying
nothing at all of reprobation, and nothing in
favour of absolute predestination to life, there
seems to be a plain distinction, (as Plaifere has
well observed,) in the Article itself, of two kinds
of predestination, one which is recommended to
us, the other condemned. Predestination, rightly
and piously considered, that is, considered (not
irrespectively, not absolutely, but) with respect to
faith in Christ, faith working by love, and perse
vering : such a predestination is a sweet and
comfortable doctrine. But the sentence of God's
predestination, (it is not here said in Christ as
before,) that sentence, simply or absolutely con
sidered, (as curious and carnal persons are apt to
consider it,) is a most dangerous downfall, lead-
1 Cited by Dr. Winchester in his Tract on our seventeenth
Article, 1773, p. 26.

304 THE LIFE OF
ing either to security or desperation, as having no
respect to foreseen faith and a good life, but ante
cedent in order to it. The Article then seems to
speak of two subjects ; first, of predestination
soberly understood with respect to faith in Christ,
which is wholesome doctrine ; secondly, of pre
destination simply considered, which is a dan
gerous doctrine. And the latter part seems to be
intended against those gospellers, of whom bishop
1 Burnet speaks. Nor is it imaginable that any
true and sound doctrine of the Gospel should, of
itself, have any aptness to become a downfall even
to carnal persons : but carnal persons are apt to
1 " The doctrine of Predestination, having been generally
taught by the Reformers, many of this sect (the gospellers)
began to make strange inferences from it ; reckoning that
since every thing was decreed, and the decrees of God could
not be frustrated, therefore men were to leave themselves to be
carried by those decrees. This drew some into great impiety
of life, and others into desperation. The Germans soon saw
the ill effects of this doctrine. Luther changed his mind about
it, and Melancthon openly wrote against it. And since that
time the whole stream of the Lutheran Church has run the
other way. But both Calvin and Bucer were still for main
taining the doctrine of these decrees ; only they warned the
people not to think much of them, since they were secrets which
men could not penetrate into. But they did not so clearly
shew how these consequences did not flow from such opinions.
Hooper and many other good writers, did often dehort the
people from entering into these curiosities ; and a caveat to
the same purpose was put afterwards into the Article of the
Church about Predestination." Burnet, Hist. Ref. ii. 113.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 305
corrupt a sound doctrine, and suit it to their own
lusts and passions, thereby falsifying the truth.
This doctrine, so depraved and mistaken, our Church
condemns ; that is, she condemns absolute, irre
spective predestination, not the other."
The latter part of this Article, twice noticed
in the preceding extract, is indeed in perfect ac
cordance, first, with Melancthon's smaller state
ment in the Augsburg formulary ; and, afterwards,
with the more extensive illustration of the -point
in the Confession of Saxony by him also framed.
The agreement, so decisive against Calvinism,
shall be shewn.
I. We must receive God's promises in such
wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy
Scripture ; and, in our doings, that will of God
is to be followed, which we have expressly de
clared to us in the Word of God. Article XVII.
1552. II. There is no need here of disputing con
cerning predestination, and the like ; for the pro
mise is general, and detracts nothing from our
doings, but rather stirs us up to faith and truly
good works. Augsb. Confession. Of Faith.
III. Because we propose to administer conso
lation to the consciences of the penitent, we for
bear any questions about predestination or elec
tion. We lead all our readers to the Word of
God, and desire them to learn His will from His
own Word ; — and not to search after other spe-
VOL. II. x

306 THE LIFE OF
culations. Most certainly as the preaching of
repentance relates to all men, and implies an ac
cusation against all, so the promise is universal ;
and the offer of forgiveness is made to all, accord
ing to those general declarations of Holy Writ,
Come unto me, all ye that travel and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest : Whosoever be
lieveth in him shall not perish, but have everlast
ing life : The same Lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon Him : God hath concluded all in
unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. In
these universal promises let each person believe
that he himself is included, and not give way to
despair. Let every one strive to obey the Word
of God, and follow the suggestions of His Holy
Spirit, praying earnestly for assistance, according
to that saying of the Evangelist St. Luke, How
much more will He give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him. Sax. Confess. Of the Remission
of Sins, and of Justification.
Again let us witness Cranmer and Melancthon,
in judicious harmony upon a point that Calvin
would refuse to yield them.
I. They are to be condemned which say, They
can no more sin as long as they live here, or deny
the place for penitents to such as truly repent
and amend their lives. Article XV. 1552.
II. They condemn those, who contend that
some arrive at such perfection in this life, as
that they can sin no more : They condemn the
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 307
Novatians, who refuse to absolve those, who,
having fallen after baptism, return to repentance.
Augsb. Confess. Article XI.
Again, in the admission of universal redemp
tion, excluded from the narrow creed of Calvin.
I. The offering of Christ, made once for ever,
is the perfect redemption, the pacifying of God's
displeasure, and satisfaction for all the sins of the
whole world, both original and actual ; and there
is none other satisfaction for sin but that alone.
Wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in the which
it was commonly said, that the priest did offer
Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remis
sion of pain or sin, were forged fables and dan
gerous deceits. Article XXX. 1552.
II. The passion of Christ was that oblation and
satisfaction not only for original guilt, but for all
other sins. And by this one oblation hath he
perfected for ever them that are sanctified. We
therefore teach that the opinion, that the Supper
of the Lord is a work which, being applied for
others, whether living or dead, merits for them the
remission of pain and guilt, is false and impious.
Augsb. Confess. Of Abuses.
" l Consistently with this doctrine," a learned
divine of our Church has powerfully observed,
" I cannot possibly interpret the Article concern
ing Predestination, so as to exclude any person
1 Charge relative to the Articles, &c. by Archdeacon Tottie
&c. Sermons, &c. Oxf. 1775, p. 375, seq.
x 2

308 THE LIFE OF
whatsoever from the benefits of this expiatory
sacrifice by a supposed absolute, unconditional,
irreversible decree of God, subsisting from all
eternity. Not a single person is excluded by
the Article of Christ's Oblation from the be
nefit of Christ's redemption : that of Predesti
nation therefore does not only not require, but
will not allow, me to receive it in a sense, which of
necessity shuts out the greater part of the world
from a possibility of salvation. The notion of
universal redemption runs through all the offices
of our Liturgy, which may be considered, in general,
as the best comment upon the Articles, and a sure
criterion of the sense of the compilers of them ; and
wherein we do not find the least countenance
given in any one instance to the rigid notions of
Calvinism. The point of universal redemption is
the chief article of the dispute betwixt the Armi
nians and Calvinists, and (as the learned Dr.
Whitby observes) draws all the rest after it. The
Church, therefore, in this leading and fundamental
point of all, opposes in direct terms the doctrine
of Calvin."
This opinion of universal redemption, the great
father of our Church uniformly maintains, from
the time that the last public formulary in the
reign of Henry appeared, till the moment when he
poured forth his final prayer as a martyr. " God
is naturally good, and willeth all men to be saved,
and careth for them, and provideth all things by

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 309
which they may be saved, except by their own
malice they will be evil, and so by righteous judg
ment of God perish and be lost. For truly men
are to themselves the authors of sin and damnation.
God is neither author of sin, nor the cause of
damnation." So Cranmer wrote in 1543. At the
same time he directed "all fantastical imagination,
and curious reasoning, and vain trust of predes
tination, to be laid apart. And according to the
plain manner of speaking and teaching of Scrip
ture, in innumerable instances, we ought evermore
to be in dread of our own frailty, and natural
pronity to fall into sin, and not to assure ourselves
that we are elected any otherwise than by feeling
of spiritual motions in our heart, and by the tokens
of good and virtuous living, in following the grace
of God, and persevering in the same to the end."
Thus in his Doctrine of the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper, in 1550, explaining at large the
sacrifice of Christ, he says, " Now we may look
for none other priest, nor sacrifice, to take away
our sins, but only him and his sacrifice. And
as he, dying once, was offered for all, so, as
much as pertained to him, he took all men's sins
unto himself. So that now there remaineth no
more sacrifices for sin, but extreme judgment at
the last day, when he shall appear to us again.
Thus too, at his last hour, he exclaimed, " The
great mystery that God became man was not
wrought for little or few offences. Thou didst
not give Thy Son, O heavenly Father, unto death

310 THE LIFE OF
for small sins only, but for all the greatest sins of
the world, so that the sinner return to Thee with
his whole heart, as I do here at this present."
But the doctrine of unconditional decrees is by
some supposed to be maintained in his Article of
Free- Will. As Cranmer framed it, and as Me
lancthon also in his formulary suggested it, these
are the words :
I. We have no power to do good works, plea
sant and acceptable to God, without the grace of
God by Christ * preventing us, that we may have
a good will, and 2 working in us when we have
that good will. Article IX. 1552.
II. We confess there is a free-will in all men,
having the judgment of reason, but not that which
is sufficient for those things which pertain to
God, so as without God either to begin them, or
rightly to perform them. — In these there is a
necessity of our being governed and assisted by the
Holy Spirit, as St. Paul saith, " The Spirit helpeth
our infirmity." Augsb. Conf. Article XVIII.
1 Preceding as a guide. " Let thy grace, O Lord, always
prevent and follow us." Collect.
2 Burnet reads " working with us," and so the Article of
1571. " Working in us,'' is from Phil. ii. 13. where Whitby
says, all the Greek interpreters observe that St. Paul describes
God working in us not as denying our free-will, or constraining
the unwilling, but because, finding a readiness of mind, He
increaseth it by His grace ; and because He works together, co
operates, with those who work out their own salvation with fear
and trembling.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 311
The English Article indeed is but a repetition of
what Cranmer long before had taught, " ' As many
things are in the Scripture/' he said, " which do
shew free-will to be in man ; so there are no fewer
places in Scripture, which declare the grace of
God to be so necessary, that if by it free-will be
not prevented and holpen, it can neither do nor
will any thing good and godly. Of which sort
are three Scriptures following : Without me ye can
do nothing. No man cometh to me, except it be
given him of my Father. We are not sufficient of
ourselves, as of ourselves, to think any good thing.
According unto which Scriptures, and such other
like, it followeth, that free-will, before it may will
or think any godly thing, must be holpen by the
grace of Christ, and by his Spirit be prevented
and inspired, that it may be able thereto ; and,
being so made able, may from thenceforth work
together with grace ; and by the same sustained,
holpen, and maintained, may do and accomplish
good works, and avoid sin, and persevere also and
increase in grace. It is surely of the grace of
God only, that first we are inspired and moved to
any good thing ; but to resist temptations, and to
persist in goodness and go forward, it is both of
the grace of God, and of our free-will and endea
vour. And finally, after we have persevered to

1 Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man, 1543. The
Article of Free- Will.

312 THE LIFE OF
the end, to be crowned with glory therefore, is
the gift and mercy of God ; who, of His bountiful
goodness hath ordained that reward to be given,
after this life, according to such good works as
are done in this life by His grace."
This may be called an anticipatory exposition,
as it were, of the Article before us ; an exposition
clear, animated, and " perfectly agreeable," as
the Article itself has been pronounced, " to the
doctrine of St. Paul, who does not make the
operation ofthe Divine grace to be a reason for our
doing nothing for ourselves, but on the contrary,
it is the very reason given why we should work out
our own salvation. For though our own strength
is not sufficient, yet our weakness will be made
strong by the grace of God disposing us to begin,
and enabling us to perform, the work. When I
allow, therefore, that a man cannot by his own
natural powers, make either a beginning, or pro
gress, in the Christian life without the grace of
God preventing or disposing him, and co-operating
or working with him ; as it is evident by the word
co-operating (or working in or with) that the Article
does not reject the use and effect of men's natural
powers in the case, so neither does it restrain the
influence of God's grace to any particular persons,
but leaves all men under a capacity of receiving
it in such measure as it shall please God to bestow
it. The nice scholastic distinctions concerning
the metaphysical nature, kinds, and operations of

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 313
grace, the Article has no concern with ; nor have
they any concern with the faith of a Christian."
The point of justification, and the sense in
which Cranmer meant that it should be under
stood, have in these pages already been briefly no
ticed, where the 'last public formulary of Henry, and
the 2 first of Edward, are described. The Article
ofthe archbishop upon this subject is concise, but
refers to a very comprehensive statement of it in
one of the homilies, of which 3 himself was the
author ; a statement, which maintains other doc
trine than the Calvinistic, of salvation through
faith alone. The Augsburg Confession pro
nounces that " by faith we believe, that for the
sake of Christ are granted to us remission of sins
and justification ; a doctrine that brings sure com
fort to troubled minds." Thus the English Article,
of which an ample exposition from the homily
shall also be cited.
I. Justification by only faith in Jesus Christ,
in that sense as it is declared in the Homily
of * Justification, is a most certain and whole
some doctrine for Christian men. Article XI.
1552. II. The Homily accordingly tells us, "that
1 See vol. i. p. 340. a See the present vol. p. 13.
3 Ibid. p. 10.
4 The Homily is not precisely so entitled, but is called "An
Homily of the Salvation of Mankind, by only Christ our Sa
viour from sin and death everlasting."

314 THE LIFE OF
this sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is
not so meant of the Fathers and other ancient
authors, that the said justifying faith is alone in
man, without true repentance, hope, charity,
dread, and the fear of God, at any time and season.
Nor when they say that we are justified freely,
they mean not that we should or might afterward
be idle, and that nothing should be required on
our parts afterward : neither mean they that we
are so to be justified without our good works,
that we should do no good works at all. But
this saying, that we are justified by faith only,
freely, and without works, is spoken for to take
away clearly all merit of our works, as being in
sufficient to deserve our justification at God's
hands, and thereby most plainly to express the
weakness of man, and the goodness of God ; the
great infirmity of ourselves, and the might and
power of God ; the imperfectness of our own works,
and the most abundant grace of our Saviour
Christ ; and, therefore, wholly to ascribe the
merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ
only, and his most precious blood-shedding."
Again, " The true understanding of this doctrine,
We are justified freely by faith without works, or
that we are justified by faith in Christ only, is
not, that this our own act to believe in Christ, or
this our faith in Christ, which is within us, doth
justify us, and deserve our justification unto us ;
(for that were to count ourselves to be justified

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 315
by some act, or virtue, that is within ourselves ;)
but the true understanding and meaning thereof
is, that, although we hear God's Word, and be
lieve it, although we have faith, hope, charity,
repentance, dread, and fear of God, within us,
and do never so many works thereunto ; yet we
must renounce the merit of all our said virtues,
of faith, hope, charity, and all other virtues, and
good deeds, which we either have done, shall do,
or can do, as things that are far too weak, and
insufficient, and imperfect, to deserve remission of
our sins, and justification. And, therefore, we
must trust only in God's mercy, and that sacrifice
which our High Priest and Saviour, Christ Jesus,
the Son of God, once offered for us upon the
cross, to obtain thereby God's grace, and remis
sion as well of our original sin in baptism, as of
all actual sins committed by us after baptism, if
we truly repent, and unfeignedly turn to Him again.
So that as great and as godly a virtue as the lively
faith is, yet it putteth us from itself, and remitteth
or appointeth us unto Christ for to have, only by
him, remission of our sins or justification. So that
our faith in Christ saith'unto us thus, It is not I
that take away your sins, but it is Christ only ;
and to him only I send you for that purpose,
1 renouncing therein all your good virtues, words,
1 That is, renouncing the pretended merit of all your good
works, &c. Cranmer's early editions of the homily here read
renouncing; later, forsaking.

316 THE LIFE OF
thoughts, and works, and only putting your trust
in Christ. Thus you see, that the very true
sense of this proposition or saying, We are justi
fied by faith, in Christ only, according to the
meaning of the ancient authors, is this : We put
our faith in Christ, that we are justified by him
only, that we are justified by God's free mercy,
and the merits of our Saviour Christ only, and by
no virtue or good work of our own that is in us,
or that we can be able to have, or to do, for to
deserve the same ; Christ himself being the only
cause meritorious thereof."
Cranmer thus supposed, it has hence been
1 argued, not only the possibility of the existence
of good works prior to our justification, (which a
Calvinist can neverdo, consistently with his genuine
principles,) but also he required the actual pre-
existence of them, as necessary conditions, though
he excluded them as meritorious causes. Pro
ceeding in the renunciation of merit, "he equally
renounces the supposed merit of pre-existent faith
with that of pre-existent works. Indeed, he calls
faith itself a virtue, and a good work ; both which
it certainly is ; and the opposition which he in
tended was not between faith and works, which
is the Calvinistical system, but between Christ and
works; that is, he asserts, that there was no human
merit of any kind, either of congruity or condig-
1 By Dean Tucker, Letter to Dr. Kippis, p. 111.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 317
nity, to obtain justification from the hands of
God ; but that Christ alone was the meritorious
cause." In opposition to the Romish doctrine of
human merit, as well as to the solifidianism of cer
tain Protestants, this homily was therefore written
by Cranmer. How it was regarded, in the latter
of these applications, by the acutest and closest
disputant of his times, I mean the author of The
Religion of Protestants a safe way to Salvation,
the following brief, but most impressive observa
tion will shew : " 1 The faith which is alone, and
unaccompanied with sincere and universal obe
dience, is to be esteemed not faith, but presump
tion, and is at no hand sufficient unto justification ;
and though charity be not imputed unto justifica
tion, yet it is required as a necessary disposition
in the person to be justified ; and though, in
regard of the imperfection of it, no man can be
justified by it, yet, on the other side, no man can
be justified without it."
While Cranmer had been employed upon this
important subject, his kinsman Osiander, then
professor of divinity at Konigsberg, had been
engaged in controversy relating to it with many
of the Lutheran divines. His notions were very
different from those of the archbishop. Mosheim
represents them often as obscure and contradic
tory. Bellarmine, indeed, has observed, that the
1 Chillingworth, chap. vii. sect. 32.

318 THE LIFE OF
professor mentions twenty differences of opinion
upon the point of justification. John a Lasco, at
this time resident at Croydon with Cranmer,
laments in a ' letter to his friend Hardenberg the
disputes thus excited by the 2 publications of
Osiander ; and there can be little doubt that, in
conversation with his host, he had found him also
deeply vexed by the injudicious conduct of his
German relation.
I have thus endeavoured to shew, in opposition
to the 3 assertion of Mosheim, the rule of our na
tional faith to be not Calvinistical. How that rule
has rejected also the principal errors and corrup
tions of the Church of Rome, we may now briefly
observe. With the Confession of Augsburg 4 it has
condemned the invocation of saints, and the sa
crifices of masses, in which it was commonly said,
that the priest did offer Christ for the quick and
the dead, to have remission of pain or sin.
With the same formulary it has allowed, what the
Romish Church rejects, the marriage ofthe clergy.
Transubstantiation 5 it has denied, as being incapa
ble of proof by Holy Writ; and twice has it affirmed,
1 Gerdesii Miscell. ii. 678.
2 They occasioned numerous answers, both in German and
Lai in, from 1550 to 1553.
3 See before, p. 267.
4 Art. xxiii. 1552, and Art. xxx. Ibid. Of Abuses, &c.
and, Of the Marriage of Priests. Augsb. Conf.
5 Art. xxix. 1552.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 319
after having stated the sacraments to be only those
of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, that " the sacra
ments of Christ were not ordained of Christ to be
gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we
should duly use them ;" and that, in particular,
" ' the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was uot
by Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about,
lifted up, or worshipped." These were points
upon which Cranmer had long before given his
opinion, and upon which in his Defence of the
true doctrine of the Sacrament he thus expa
tiated : " 2 What need the people to run from their
seats to the altar, and from altar to altar, and
from sacring (as they called it) to sacring, peeping,
3 tooting, and gazing at that thing which the priest
held up in his hands, if they thought not to
honour that thing which they saw ? What moved
the priests to lift up the sacrament so high over
their heads 1 Or the people to cry to the priest,
Hold up, hold up ; and one man to say to another,
Stoop down before ; or to say, This day I have seen
my Maker ; and, I cannot be quiet, except I see my
Maker once a day ? What was the cause of all
these, and that as well the priest as the people so
devoutly did knock, and kneel, at every sight of
the sacrament, but that they worshipped, that
1 Art. xxix. 1552.
2 Def. edit. 1550. fol. 101.
3 Looking about. A word frequent in our old authors, and
still a provincial one.

320 THE LIFE OF
visible thing which they saw with their eyes, and
and took it for very God ?" In ' other Articles,
the archbishop also guards against the celebration
of mass, and the elevation of the host, enacting,
that no rite or ceremony, no mode or form of
worship whatever, was to be retained, or appointed,
if contrary to the written Word of God.
The doctrine of the schoolmen also concerning
purgatory, pardons, worshipping and adoration
as well of images as of relics, against which he
had often contended, was 2 now declared a fond
thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no war
ranty of Scripture, but rather perniciously repug
nant to the Word of God.
It was not till the fifth year of Elizabeth's
reign, that these Articles of Edward received any
alteration. They were then submitted to a 3 com
mittee of the lower house of convocation for
such addition, or correction, as might be thought
convenient. Very few were the amendments,
but the * number of them was reduced to thirty-
nine. They are recited, it must be added, as
having been 5 agreed upon by the synod of 1552 ;
1 Art. xxi. and xxxiii. 1552. 2 Art. xxiii. 1552.
3 Regist. Convoc. Bennet, Ess. on the Thirty-nine Articles,
p. 167.
' Burnet and Collier have printed the whole of the two com
pilations, stating the differences between them.
i Regist. Convoc. ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 321
an assumption, which archbishop Parker would
hardly have allowed, if they had not possessed
the authority which their title records. But this
authority has been rendered questionable by what
Foxe relates of Cranmer in his disputation at
Oxford, when a prisoner, with Dr. Weston.
" ' Weston. You have set forth a Catechism
in the name of the synod of London, and yet
there be fifty, which, witnessing that they were
of the number of the convocation, never heard
one word of this Catechism.
" Cranmer. I was ignorant of the setting to
of that title ; and, as soon as I had knowledge
thereof, I did not like it. Therefore when I com
plained thereof to the Council, it was answered me
by them, that the book was so entitled, because it
was set forth in the time of the convocation."
This answer elicits from Collins the remark,
that " out of respect to the excellent martyr," he
copies it, as " clearly shewing his honesty and
integrity in the whole affair." Neal, in his His
tory of the Puritans, also quotes it ; and bishop
Maddox, in answer to him, 2 considers the Cate
chism only, and not the Articles, as intended by
the archbishop ; there not being indeed annexed
to the Catechism that assertion of convocational
1 Foxe, Acts and Mon. 1440.
2 Vindication ofthe Ch. of Eng. 1733, p. 309.
VOL. II. Y "*""

322 THE LIFE OF
approbation which accompanied the Articles,
though both were sometimes printed together,
and both were sanctioned by royal authority.
The Articles are, however, included under the
appellation of the Catechism in Cranmer's own
admission before his enemies, when he said " * that
he gave his advice as to the setting forth the
Catechism and the Articles with it, that he com
pelled none of the clergy to subscribe them, but
that many in the province of Canterbury had
voluntarily subscribed." At this final and elabo
rate examination of him, no charge is adduced of
a false statement in the title of the Articles by
any of the witnesses against him ; one of whom,
when Ridley at Oxford disputed immediately after
Cranmer, appears at once to allow the synodical
authority so repeatedly assumed for the Articles,
whose words Foxe has recorded without any
remark, notwithstanding what he had just before
related, as seeming to impugn that authority.
2 Ward, the opponent to Ridley, was the bitter
and ungenerous enemy of Cranmer ; but he brings
1 Process. Lambeth MSS. No. 1136. " Quod attinet ad
Catechismum, &c." See before, p. 62, note 2. Dr. Smith, one
of the witnesses against Cranmer, describes the union of the
Catechism and Articles thus, " Quod attinet ad Catechismum
et Articulos annexos, &c."
2 See what is said of him in the present vol. p. 47, note 2,
and p. 61, note 3.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 323
no accusation against him, as Weston is said to
have done, on the present point. He thus ad
dresses Ridley also without such censure.
" ' Ward. You, being brought into the briars,
seemed to doubt of Christ's presence on the earth :
to the proof of which matter I will bring nothing
else than that which was agreed upon in the Cate
chism of the synod of London, set out not long
ago by you.
"Ridley. Sir, I give you to wit, before you
go any further, that I did set out no Catechism.
" Weston. Yes, you made me subscribe to it,
when you were a bishop in your ruff,
" Ridley. I compelled no man to subscribe.
"Ward. Yes, by the rood, you are the very
author of that heresy.
" Ridley. I put forth no Catechism.
" Cole. Did you never consent to the setting
out of those things which you allowed ?
" Ridley. I grant that I saw the book ; but I
deny that I wrote it. I perused it after it was
made, and I noted many things for it : so I con
sented to the book : I was not the author of it.
" The Judges. The Catechism is so set forth,
as though the 2 whole convocation-house had
1 Acts and Mon. 1449,
2 The Articles certainly have not the title worded in such
terms of extent and comprehension, as these judges pretend.
They profess only to have been agreed upon in the synod by the
bishops and certain other learned men ; whence it seems pro-
Y 2

324 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
agreed to it. Cranmer said yesterday that you
made it.
" Ridley. I think surely that he would not
say so.
" Ward. The Catechism hath this clause :
Si visibiliter, et in terra, etc.
" Ridley. I answer, that those Articles were
set out, I both willing and consenting to them.
Mine own hand will testify the same ; and M.
Cranmer put his hand to them likewise, and gave
them to others afterwards."
Whatever, lastly, maybe thought, of the syno
dical authority of these our first Articles, it cannot
be denied, that to almost every decision or regu
lation of Cranmer, to his learning, his zeal, and
his discretion, it is still that unfeigned assent is
the indispensable condition of qualifying for their
ministry, and their preferment, the clergy of the
Church of England.
bable, as I have observed, that the Articles might be passed
by a committee. See before, p. 290, and Collier, ii. 325.
Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 368.

CHAPTER XIII.

1552 to 1553.
The Reformation of Ecclesiastical Laws.
The Liturgy was under revision, and the Articles
were in preparation, when the attention of Cran
mer was also again employed upon the design of
establishing a code of canon law, which appears to
have been ' first proposed, immediately after the
abolition of the papal power in this country.
Towards the close of Henry's days a 2 scheme of
it was drawn up. In the present reign, the sub
ject had been revived at the beginning of it, and
the promulgation of the code was expected in the
last year of it. Whether, by the death of Henry,
or some other cause, the plan in his time had been

1 See vol. i. p. 104.
2 The book itself was required to be seen by Henry, and
Cranmer promised it should be immediately sent. See before,
vol. i. pp. 359, 360. See also Strype's Life of Cranmer. B.
i. ch. 30.

326 THE LIFE OF
rendered abortive, is uncertain. That by the
death of Edward it now was, is the frequent
assertion of historical writers. Some, however,
have thought 1 that the severity of the code would
never have been endured in this country, and that
this is the true reason why it was laid aside.
Others, 2 that in that age of licentiousness, which
ill could brook restraint, some art was employed
to prevent the confirmation of it. The observa
tion of Cox, who was one of the eight commis
sioners chosen to finish it for publication, has
been cited in aid of this opinion. Only a few
days before the meeting, for the accomplishment
of what had so often been talked of, and of which
the substance must have been generally known,
he wrote to Bullinger, at Zurich, telling him that
the liturgy had been revised, " 3 but we hate,"
said he, " the bitter institutions of Christian dis
cipline ;" and he therefore entreated Bullinger to
exert 4 his interest with the nobihty, and other
distinguished persons, in behalf of spiritual juris
diction ; considering it, no doubt, when " 5 aided
by the civil power, as the best safeguard of a
1 Hallam, Constit. Hist, of Eng. 2d edit. i. 139.
2 Ridley, Life of Ridley, p. 352.
3 Strype, Ecc. Mem. ii. 366.
4 Bullinger was much attached to England. See before, p.
223. To our Universities he sent several of his young coun
trymen. By our Reformers he was greatly regarded.
5 Hallam, ut supr. 1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 327
Christian commonwealth against vice." In fact,
the prelates of the realm had long before occa
sioned the legislative nomination of the 1 thirty-
two commissioners for the accomplishment of the
present work, by their complaint, to the house of
lords, of the great increase of immorality, and by
their desire to be supplied with laws which should
enable them to suppress it. In November, 1551,'
Edward nominated eight of these thirty-two com
missioners to lay first before the remainder of
them, afterwards before himself and his Privy
Council, the intended code. At the head of these
eight persons was the archbishop, to whom the
subject was so familiar, an abler canonist than
him not being easily to be found within the realm.
The book was ready for the inspection of the
king some months before he died, but there is no
evidence that he ever saw it. His commission
indeed, as that of Henry had also been, was pre
pared to introduce this body of laws to the public ;
and both are prefixed to the edition of the book,
published in 1571 under the direction of arch
bishop Parker, by Foxe the martyrologist, with
the title of Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum.
The compilation is supposed to have been origi
nally made in English, and to have received from
Haddon, the king's professor of civil law at Cam
bridge, with the assistance of Sir John Cheke,
1 Collier, ii. 287.

328 THE LIFE OF
the elegant Latin shape, " ' the correct and beau
tiful style," that distinguishes it. It was distri
buted into fifty-one titles, to bring it near to the
number of those in Justinian's celebrated digest
of the Roman civil law ; besides an appendix, De
regulis juris, in imitation of the same addition to
printed copies of the pandects. In the name of
'the king the whole law runs. The supremacy,
acknowledged in his father, is * thought to have
occasioned this form. The authority of Edward,
however, for its establishment, as I have said, was
not obtained. But the project did not die with
him, as some modern writers have asserted. The
reign of Elizabeth witnessed not merely the pub
lication of it, which we have just noticed, but be
fore that time an s attempt to establish such a
work, and in the very year of the publication
another to obtain, for what Cranmer had so long
before compiled, the sanction of the legislature.
At the commencement of the parliamentary ses
sion, in 1571, the puritan members in the house
of commons, who were desirous of assuming
every thing to themselves, claimed this sanction
1 Collier. ' ibid.
3 " Petition is to be made to the queen's Majesty and the
parliament, that, according to a statute, anno 25 Hen. VIII.
thirty-two persons may be appointed to collect and gather eccle
siastical laws, and to view those that were gathered by com
missioners in king Edward's time." Strype, Annal. Ref. Eliz.
uqder 1562. ch. 27.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 329
for it. Elizabeth, jealous of their encroachment
upon her supremacy, checked the wish, it has
been said, by a message to them, " 1 that she
approved their good endeavours, but would not
suffer these things to be ordered by parliament."
Nor was the designed revival of the code further
agitated. In that year, however, " 2 a book of
certain canons, concerning some part of the dis
cipline ofthe Church of England," was subscribed
in convocation, by the bishops, and printed first
in English, afterwards in Latin ; the latter form
being sometimes an accompaniment to editions of
the thirty-nine Articles in that language, as they
were pubhshed in 1571.
Cranmer's Reformatio Legum, although unpos
sessed of public authority, has often been appealed
to as a record of very great importance. In our
senate, and in our courts of law, it has been cited
to illustrate points of ecclesiastical jurisprudence.
By our divines it is frequently brought forward as
a comment on the Articles of Religion. But it
has incurred deep censure, as retaining the pon
tifical law of death.
The first two titles relate to Christian doctrine,
and are, 1. Of the Trinity and the Catholic Faith.
2. Of Heresies. It is under the first of these,
that the penalty of death is absolutely declared
against such as should deny the Christian religion.
1 Collier. " Printed by John Day.

330 THE LIFE OF
In cases of heresy also, it has been asserted by
Collier and Dr. Lingard, that the code, in the
third chapter, directs the obstinate heretic to be
delivered to the civil magistrate, that he may
suffer death according to law. Burnet, on the
other hand, affirms, that capital punishments for
heretical offences are not retained in it. The
words of the code are, that after all endeavours of
reclaiming the heretic have failed, then he is to be
sent to the civil magistrate to be punished; " con-
sumptis omnibus aliis remediis, ad extremum ad
civiles magistratus ablegetur puniendus." Hence it
has been powerfully observed, " that a infamy and
civil disability seem to be the only punishments
intended to be kept up, except in case of the
denial of the Christian religion ; for if a heretic
were, as a matter of course, to be burned, it seems
needless to provide, as in this chapter, that he
should be incapable of being a witness, or of
making a will." Still the learned author of this
remark hesitates to pronounce Dr. Lingard mis
taken, but omits not the observation of the latter
" that, within a short time (from the final prepara
tion of this code) Cranmer and his associates
perished in the flames, which they had prepared to
kindle for the destruction of their opponents." In
the same spirit Mr. Butler has asserted, that the
archbishop and his fellow-reformers 2 wished Mary
1 Hallam, ut supr. 2 Book of the Rom. Cath. Church.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 331
and her associates to be exposed to their projected
persecutions. A strange assertion, if we call to
mind only that Cranmer and Ridley had ' recom
mended a connivance at Mary's adherence to her
religious opinions, and that in the reign of her
father Cranmer had 2 saved her from his indig
nation, which threatened her life ; an assertion
too that perhaps would not have been made, if the
writer of it had seen the corrected copy, which
was Cranmer's, of the laws to which he alludes.
But of this anon. Ridley and Cranmer, however,
had consented to " 3 burning the anabaptist," and
therefore they have been denounced as " pre
paring to burn the Roman Cathohc" also. " The
former, by the existing law," Dr. Lingard observes,
" was already liable to the penalty of death."
True ; (such had been a law enacted in the time
of Henry, not in that of Edward,) and upon Joan
of Kent and Van Paris it was inflicted. Almost
immediately afterwards, as if averse to such
methods of persecution, Cranmer scruples not to
4 tell Gardiner, as I had occasion before to relate,
" that the truth hath been hid these many years,
and persecuted by the papists with fire andfagot^
and should be so yet still, if you might have your
own will." These are words, which surely indicate
1 See before, p. 264.
2 Burnet ii. 241. " Cranmer is said to have persuaded
Henry not to put his daughter Mary to death, which we must
in charity hope she did not know." Hallam. 2nd ed. i. 131.
3 Lingard, 8vo. edit. vii. 258. 4 See before, p. 152.

332 THE LIFE OF
a wish to suppress, rather than to countenance,
the penalty of death. We shall presently read
other words that seem to confirm the wish. Mean
time let all be heard against the archbishop. "By
the new canon ofthe law metropolitan," Dr. Lin
gard continues, " to believe in transubstantiation,
to admit the papal supremacy, and to deny justifica
tion by faith only, were severally made heresy; and
it was ordained that individuals accused of hold
ing heretical opinions should be arraigned before
the spiritual courts ; should be excommunicated
on conviction ; and after a respite of sixteen days,
should, if they continued obstinate, be delivered
to the civil magistrate to suffer the punishment
provided by law. Fortunately for the professors
of the ancient faith, Edward died before this code
had obtained the sanction of the legislature ; and
by the accession of Mary, the power of the sword
passed from the hands of one religious party to
those of the other." Indeed that power, which
had been exercised in the miserable instances only
of Van Paris and Joan of Kent, during the reign
of Edward, was soon found in that of Mary to be
the " sword going through the land." Hence it
has been justly observed, "' that as no religion
can expiate, so no provocation can justify, no re
sentment can excuse, that uninterrupted series
of deliberate barbarity which marks every page
of her unprosperous annals with martyrdom,
1 Warton's life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 60.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 333
hardly to be paralleled in the pagan persecutions
of primitive Christianity." But we are not yet
arrived at her reign. Thus much also might be
said for Cranmer and his associates, that at least
they were in no haste to display the persecuting
spirit of which they are accused. Ere the code
should be produced for legislative confirmation,
three years, it was resolved in 1549, should from
that time elapse. The milder punishments than
that of death, as awaiting even the most obstinate
cases of heresy, we are now to behold its evident
intention of ordaining. And who will not be gra
tified to find " ' Cranmer and his associates" thus
repelling the accusation that sanguinary purposes
were theirs, that for the destruction of their he
retical opponents they were ready to light the
flames ?
There is a manuscript copy 2 of this code, which
belonged to Cranmer, in the British Museum. It
contains several additions and corrections, which,
had Cranmer published the compilation, would
doubtless have been made by the press as well
as the pen. They were probably the final revi
sions of the code, when the sanction of the le-
1 See before, p. 330.
2 Harl. MSS.. 426. entitled, " the eleventh volume of Mr.
John Foxe's papers, bought of Mr. Strype ; which also Mr.
Strype described in the following words, Reformatio legum ec-
clesiasticarum ab archiepiscopo Cantuar. aliisque selectis viris
composita : This was Cranmer's own book, with his own hand,
and Peter Martyr's, in several places."

334 THE LIFE OF
gislature for it was expected. That sanction not
being obtained, copies of the code were however
preserved ; and from one of them, ] said to be
compared with this of Cranmer's, which had been
transcribed by his secretary, but by his own and
the hand of Peter Martyr amended, Foxe pub
lished it in 1571. The archiepiscopal manuscript
had also become 2 his property; it next was
Strype's ; it is now the nation's. But neither by
Strype, nor by Foxe, was observed the important
addition, which follows puniendus in the chapter
of the code that has been cited. The addition is
first exilio vel ceterno carcere, (the punishment of
exile or perpetual imprisonment,) through which
the pen being drawn, these penalties of incarce
ration and banishment are more precisely de
clared ; and such a prudent infliction by the
magistrates is also prescribed, as might help to
reclaim the heretic from his error : " vel ut in
perpetuum pellatur exilium, vel ad asternas car-
ceris deprimatur tenebras, aut alioquin magistra
tus prudenticonsideratione plectendus, ut maxime
illius conversioni expedire videbitur." I consider
the hand-writing here as that of Martyr.
Thus much for the process against heretics,
which the third title of the code intended to direct.
In the second it is imagined that predestination is
noticed " s with a shade more of Calvinism than

1 By Strype, Life of Cranm. B. i. ch. 30.
2 See the penultimate note. " Hallam, 8vo. i. 139.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 335
in the Articles." In the description of the Articles
the subject has already been fully considered. I
will only produce a brief defence of the present
formulary also against Calvinism. It not only
guards against that mistaken notion of predesti
nation, in which men seek a cover for their wick
edness, and by which they are led either into des
pair or a dissolute life, charging all their guilt upon
God ; but goes further than the Article, " ' which
takes no notice of reprobation ; and here our Re
formers condemn it as pleaded by the 2 gospellers,
whose opinion concerning the doctrine itself could
not be stronger than what Calvin had taught."
Burnet and Collier have given considerable ex
tracts, in their histories, from the code before us.
From these, and from the book itself, I may gather
information, to some readers perhaps new ; and
therefore, I proceed to the remaining titles, in one
or two of which a simplicity will be found, that
probably may call up a passing smile.
The fourth title treats of blasphemy, and assigns
to it the same punishment as to heresy.
The fifth relates to Baptism and the Lord's
Supper, to the consecration of bishops and the
ordination of priests and deacons, to the solemniz
ation of marriage in the face of the congregation,1'
to directions for those who are to be confirmed,
and to the pastoral visitation of the sick.
1 Dr. Winchester on the 17th Article, p. 53.
2 See before, p. 304. n.

336 THE LIFE OF
The sixth denounces not only idolatry, but also
magic, witchcraft, consultation with conjurers,
and divination by lots. If those, who offended in
these points, submitted, they were to be punished
at the discretion of the ecclesiastical judge ; if
they were obstinate, excommunication was to be
the consequence. It may be added, that in the
first Injunctions of queen Elizabeth, a similar pro
hibition was issued : " 1 Item, that no person shall
use charms, sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, or
any such-like devilish device, nor shall resort at
any time to the same for counsel or help." Still
more curious it is to observe, that in the reign of
James the First, sorcery, or divination by lots, was
made a felony ; and that, at a much later period,
our explanatory law-books continued to offer nice
distinctions between conjuration and witchcraft,
assigning however to both the character of per
sonal conferences with the devil, but to charms
that of ceremonial words alone, without such con
ferences. The seventh provides for the due qualification
of preachers ; and that without episcopal autho
rity none should exercise the function.
The eighth relates to marriage, which is left free
to all, but which was not to be celebrated till after
banns thrice pubhshed, and not to be esteemed
lawful, if celebrated otherwise than directed by
the Book of Common Prayer. The man, who
1 Injunct. 1559. No. 32.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 337
seduced the unsuspecting female, was to be ex
communicated, unless he married her ; and, if
that could not be done, he was to assign to her
a third part of his property ; but if such satisfac
tion was impracticable also, other arbitrary punish
ments were to be inflicted. Marriages without
the consent of parents or guardians, are declared
null. Yet when the guardian, or parent, might
be thought too severe in respect to the nuptial
proposal, the young persons might apply to the
ecclesiastical judge for their relief. Below the
age of twelve no forward nymph, below that of
fourteen no impatient swain, could claim this re
dress. Impediments of wedlock are then enume
rated. Disparity of years, in the parties contract
ing it, is dissuaded. Polygamy is condemned.
Marriages made by force are pronounced void ;
and the chapter closes with a censure upon wo
men who refused to suckle their children, directing
the preachers also to exhort them against a prac
tice so falsely delicate and inhuman.
The ninth details the prohibited degrees of
marriage, those in the Levitical law, or those
that are reciprocal to them.
The tenth treats of adultery and divorce. The
former crime it states to have been capitally
punished both by the Mosaic and the Civil law.
If a clergyman was convicted of it, to his wife and
children he was to forfeit all his goods and estate,
to lose his benefice, and to be banished or impri-
VOL II. z

338 THE LIFE OF
soned for life : if he had no such relations, to
pious uses his property was to be assigned. A
layman, it has been l before observed, was to give
his wife her fortune, and also half his own ; and to
perpetual exile, or imprisonment, he is moreover
Condemned. In a similar manner the wife also
is to be punished. But the innocent party might
marry again ; although reconciliation is recom
mended, in case there are any hopes of future
good conduct ; while the offending party, if there
be no reconciliation, is debarred from any other
marriage. Without a sentence of divorce, how
ever, no marriage was to be dissolved. Deser
tion ; long absence, that of two or three years
being named ; capital enmities, where one party
might attempt the destruction of the other ; the
savage behaviour of the husband towards the wife,
when not reclaimed by judicial admonition or the
discipline of a prison; these might induce a regular
divorce. To frailties of temper the legal separation
was not allowed. The chapter proposes no more
than that, if smaller quarrels or offences arise, the
reconciliation of the parties should be urged by
every method of persuasion as well as threat, or
that they should form no new connubial alliance.
An appeal to the ecclesiastical judge in such cases
for a divorce, if the effect of these perpetual con
tentions were not the deadly enmity or cruel
1 See the present vol. p. 29.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 339
usage already noticed, is certainly not directed.
He who prosecuted his wife for adultery, or
for attempting his life, if he failed in evidence,
was to forfeit half his estate to her, and to be
debarred from alienating that moiety without her
consent. She who, in like manner, accused with
out proof her husband, was neither to have her
fortune returned, nor to receive any advantage
which otherwise by him might accrue to her. In
neither case was the marriage to be dissolved.
He who should be pander to the dishonour of his
wife, is subjected to punishment, but is not released
from his adulterous partner. Upon either party,
convicted of adultery, that might prove tbe same
against the party impeaching, the same penalty is
to fall, but to neither is divorce to be allowed.
The encouragers of adultery, who to such pur
pose conveyed letters and messages, or lent their
houses, are also to be punished at the discretion
of the ecclesiastical judge. The customary sepa
ration from bed and board, the marriage remain
ing firm in other respects, is declared unreason
able, contrary to the Scriptures, introductive of
great disorders, and therefore to be abolished. A
very learned divine, who says that the doctrine of
divorce may be called the cradle of the English
Reformation, objects to the present code as " ' at
1 The Doctrine and Law of Marriage, Adultery, and Divorce,
by H. D. Morgan, M.A. Oxf. 1826, vol. ii. p. 229.
Z 2

340 THE LIFE OF
variance with itself in contemplating the recon
ciliation of the parties in one case, their continued
connexion in other cases, and the entire separa
tion of one with a restriction upon the other in a
third case, and that the whole doctrine proceeds
on the assumption of two very questionable pro
positions, 1. that adultery is a dissolution of the
bond of marriage ; and 2. that adultery is meant
in our Lord's clause of exception from the general
indissolubility of marriage." Decisive was the
opinion of one of our old theologians, whom I
have 1 before noticed, in regard to these points,
and who has written an extensive and very
interesting treatise in support of it ; premising,
" 2 that whereas divers persons were persuaded,
that for adultery they might sue the divorce,
and marry again, and some accordingly did . so ;
if the matter were well examined, that liberty
would not, in my judgment, be found to have
any undoubted warrant at all in the Word of
God." He was opposed to an author of a con
trary belief. But to epitomize their arguments
is not required in such a work as the present.
One more reference to Cranmer and his associates
shall close the subject. " 3 Whatever was the
1 See the present vol. p. 28.
2 Of Divorce for Adultery, &c. by E. Bunney, B.D. Oxf.
1610. Adv. to the Reader.
3 Rev. H. D. Morgan, ut supr. 232.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 341
private disposition of the chief Reformers, in
favour of a new theory of divorce, and however
their disposition might be influenced by the
conduct of the king, there was not in the reigns
of Henry, Edward, or Mary, any effectual or
decided opposition to the doctrine of the indisso
lubility of marriage, or any permanent or gene
ral abolition of the restricted nature of the
divorce which was granted upon proof of adul
tery. The Reformers themselves, in the revised
ritual of marriage, continued to affirm the ancient
doctrine, that the parties should live together till
death should 1 depart them."
The eleventh treats of admission to ecclesiasti
cal benefices. The patron was to present no clerk,
who was not duly qualified. If he reserved any
of the profits of the living, he forfeited for that
turn the presentation to it. The clerk presented,
before he was admitted to the benefice, was to be
examined by the archdeacon, and other 2 triers
appointed by the bishop, in regard to the principal
parts of religion, and to controversies respecting
them. If he discovered ignorance in the Scrip
tures, or the maintenance of heretical opinions,
he was inadmissible to the cure. Pluralities were

1 Separate. Our old writers constantly use depart in this
sense. 2 Collier, not perceiving the rather ludicrous error of his
printer, reads friers, and repeats it in his account of this title.

342 THE LIFE OF
for the future disallowed ; but the present posses
sors of them were not to be disturbed. Non-
residence was not to be suffered, except age, sick
ness, or some other sufficient cause might justify
it. Prebendaries, who had no particular cure,
were to preach in neighbouring churches. Bas
tards, unless eminent for learning and good con
duct, might not be admitted into holy orders.
But the bastards of patrons, if presented by them,
were to be dispossessed of the benefice, and the
patronage of such turns to be lost to the owners.
Personal defects, as blindness, stammering so as
not to be understood, a distorted visage, and a
breath so rank as not to be endured, are enume
rated as disabilities for the ministerial office. A
disclaimer upon oath of simoniacal contracts, and
a promise in hke manner, that they would do
nothing to the prejudice of the Church, were also
required of those who were to be admitted to
benefices. The twelfth and thirteenth titles relate merely
to cessions, resignations, and exchanges of bene
fices. The fourteenth states the method of clearing
from imputation of guilt upon common report,
or when a person was accused for any crime in
completely proved, or only by presumption. Such
were to swear themselves innocent, and to be
supported in their statement by four compurgators
of their own rank, who upon their oath were to

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 343
affirm that they believed the statement to be true.
To their reputation the judge was then to restore
them. The purgations of the duel, of heated iron,
and of scalding water, are forbidden. The public
combat of the accuser and the accused, in the age
of superstition, is well known ; the other strange
methods of repelling accusation, here mentioned,
had been to touch a red-hot iron, either by taking
up a bar, or by putting the hand into a heated
gauntlet, or by walking blindfold over hot bars
of iron ; and if no mark of burning appeared in
the hand or foot of the accused, he was acquitted ;
otherwise, he was pronounced guilty. With
similar consequences drawn from it, the hand was
also plunged into boiling water. These had been
considered as divine judgments. The present code
denounced them as insulting the Almighty, as
well as not affording any means of ascertaining
truth. The fifteenth treats of dilapidations, and of the
measures for repairing ecclesiastical houses.
The sixteenth relates to alienations of church-
lands, and allows no leases of farms, made by
ecclesiastics, either to exceed the term of ten
years, or to bind the successor.
The seventeenth concerns elections in colleges
and cathedrals : The eighteenth, collations to
benefices and simoniacal contracts.
Divine service is the subject of the nineteenth.

344 THE LIFE OF
In cathedrals and colleges the Common Prayer
is to be used every morning, with the Litany on
Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Gommunion
Office on holidays. In cathedrals, the sermon is
to be only in the afternoon, that the people may
not be drawn from the preacher in the morning
at their own parish-churches. In cathedrals also,
both on holidays and Sundays, the communion is
to be administered. In parish-churches there are
to be sermons in the morning, but, except in large
parishes, none in the afternoon, an hour in ex
plaining the catechism being the general direction
for this part of the day ; after which service, the
money given to charitable uses was to be distri
buted, and ecclesiastical discipline in regard to
admonition, penance, or excommunication, to be
put in practice. In singing the psalms, the clergy
are required so to regulate their voice as to excite
devotion, to confine themselves, as Cranmer x else
where has expressed it, to u a song not full of
notes," especially to forbear the practice of the
musical shake, which, it is said, would render the
words unintelligible. In this plain psalmody the
congregation too might join. In private chapels
or houses, except in those of peers, and other
persons of great quality, whose households were
large, divine offices are not to be performed, lest
1 See before, vol. i. p. 356.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 345
under that pretence the parish-church might be
deserted, and errors be more easily disseminated^
To the sick, and to those who were very infirm,
the Lord's Supper might be also administered at
home. But, in these exceptions, all things were
to be done according to the Book of Common
Prayer. Ecclesiastical offices are considered in the twen
tieth title ; beginning with that of parish-clerk,
not, as Burnet states it, of sexton, the person
here intended by the Reformers being not the
man of the " pick-axe and a spade," but he who
is to teach the children of the parish the alphabet
and the catechism, as well as to take care of the
vestments, of tbe Bible and other books belonging
to the church, to toll the bells, and to attend the
minister in the celebration of the sacred offices ;
and if he neglected to give this instruction, is to
be dismissed from the charge. His stipend is to
be provided by the parish. The clergy are next
especially noticed. If they are unmarried, they
are to entertain in their houses no woman under
the age of sixty, except their mothers, aunts, or
sisters. To every rural deanery is to be appointed
by the bishop a dean, who is to report to his dioce
san, half-yearly, an account of his district as it res
pected both the laity and the clergy, and from the
diocesan to signify his commands to the latter.
Superior to them in rank, are the archdeacons,
who are enjoined to reside within their jurisdiction,

346 THE LIFE OF
and to visit the parochial clergy twice in the year.
The visitations of bishops are to be once in three
years, or oftener, and to be conducted at their
own charge. To preach frequently in their ca
thedrals, to ordain none rashly or for rewards, to
hold an annual synod, to bring up in their family
persons designed for the ministry, to entertain no
extravagant or fantastical guests, not to suffer
their wives to be too gaily dressed or too triflingly
employed ; there also are directions to prelates.
When sick or infirm, they were to be allowed a
coadjutor. Once, during their incumbency, the
two archbishops are to visit their respective pro
vinces, to inquire of their suffragans as to the
state of their dioceses, and upon any great occa
sion to call provincial l synods. The deans of
cathedrals are to take care that every thing within
their jurisdiction be carefully managed, and not
without leave of the bishop to be non-resident.
Thrice in the week, the prebendaries, or their
deputies, are to expound some portion of the
Scriptures. The twenty-first title bestows a single chapter
on the duties of churchwardens, a second on dis
tinguishing the boundaries of parishes, and ten
more on cathedral schools, the qualifications of
the master, and the admission of the scholars.

1 These, Burnet thinks, were to be composed only of the
bishops of their provinces. Hist. Ref. iii, ann. 1553.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 347
The twenty-second relates entirely to the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and directs
that the governors of colleges thenceforward
should be priests; allows upon insufficiency of
the annual income, or any extraordinary necessity,
a diminution of the number of students in any
faculty, except that of theology; forbids those
who have the cure of souls to remain in college ;
grants to them, if they were fellows, however, the
income of a year, the year of grace, (as this cus
tom, now existing in the colleges both at Oxford
and Cambridge, is called ;) and finally proffers
assistance to poorer academics, especially if they
studied divinity.
Tithes, and exemptions from the payment of
them, are the subject of the twenty-third title ;
visitations, of the twenty-fourth.
Married women ; slaves ; children under four
teen years of age ; persons of unsound mind,
unless in their lucid intervals ; the deaf and
dumb, unless it is sufficiently proved that by signs
they can intelligibly express their minds ; they
who wrote libels to destroy the credit of their
neighbours ; the strumpet, and the pander ;
he who refused to part with his concubine, till
death appeared to threaten the separation ;
heretics, and they who were sentenced to death,
or to perpetual banishment or imprisonment ;
and, lastly, usurers; are all in the twenty-fifth

348 THE LIFE OF
title of this code, debarred from the . privilege
of making a will. Yet, though not allowed
the customary freedom of a testament, several
of these persons might bequeath money to dis
charge the prisoner for debt ; or to relieve the
orphan, or widow, or any that had no helper ;
or to furnish the indigent maiden with a mar
riage-portion ; or to maintain a scholar in one
of our Universities ; or to repair the highways.
The twenty-sixth title prescribes ecclesiastical
censures. On extraordinary occasions, commu
tation of penance for money is allowed, the
money being then bestowed upon the poor of
the place, in which the offender lived. On the
offender's relapse into transgression, the tortur
ing hour of the penance itself is to be endured
without remission.
The twenty-seventh, and the two following,
dilate upon suspension, sequestration, and depri
vation : the thirtieth, largely, upon excommuni
cation ; which, as it is asserted to cut off the
offender from Christian society, is to be inflicted
only in cases of extremity, where the crime makes
a breach in morality, or strikes at the root of
religion. Never ought this rigorous expedient to
be used, says Collier, except when persons are
hardened in their wickedness, that is, when they
either make a jest of reproof, take no notice of a
citation, or refuse to stand to the judgment of the

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 349
ecclesiastical court. The manner of restoring the
penitent offender to the privileges he had lost con
cludes the chapter.
The regulations of the ecclesiastical courts are
the subjects of the remaining titles ; defining judg
ment, the office of the judge, crimes, quarrels,
scandal, proofs, presumptions, witnesses, perjury,
delays, exceptions, and appeals ; in the midst of
which are two chapters relating to the personal
safety of the clergy.
Such is the unauthoritative code, often 1 altered,
it appears, in its progress through the reigns of
Henry and Edward ; in vain 2 endeavoured to be
brought into use in that of Elizabeth ; merely
reprinted in that of Charles the first ; and, lastly,
ineffectually 3 suggested to public notice with a
view to its estabhshment by bishop Burnet.
1 Strype had seen the first copy of it, with Cranmer's own
amendments, and with those which long afterwards Peter
Martyr made. Life of Cranm. B. i. ch. 30.
2 See before, p. 329.
3 History of his Own Times, at the Conclusion.

CHAPTER XIV.

1552 to 1553.
The archbishop in commission to enquire after certain sectaries
— The Family of Love — The archbishop in another commis
sion, relating to ecclesiastical goods — Avoids acting in it —
His letter respecting it to Cecil — Their intimacy — The de
clining health of the king — Alteration of the succession in
favour of lady Jane Grey — The archbishop's share in the
transaction- — The king dies — Tke lady Jane's brief reign.
The autumn of 1552, we have seen, witnessed
Cranmer in his residence at * Ford, near Canter
bury. At the close of September, the Council had
directed a letter to him there, for the purpose of
examining a sect 2 newly sprung up in the county.
Of this sect, neither the name, nor character, is
recorded. All that appears is, that the archbishop
was required to prevent the dissemination of its
tenets, whatever they were. It could not be that
of the Anabaptists, says Strype ; for against them
a commission, still in force, had been issued some
years before. It was, perhaps, he adds, a branch
1 See before, p. 289.
2 Council-Book. Strype.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 351
of the Family of Love, or " * the sect of David
George, who made himself sometimes Christ, and
sometimes the Holy Ghost." But it was Henry
Nicholas, the constant companion of that enthu
siast, who was the founder of^this Family. The
doctrine of George and Nicholas, however, was
much the same ; though the title of their disci
ples, first in Holland, the native country of 2 both
the teachers, was not known before 1555, or 1556,
when the former died. But the principles of the
sect had probably been introduced into England, be
fore that time ; as the following passage in a treatise
by Becon, the learned chaplain of Cranmer, seems
to prove : " 3 What wicked and ungodly opinions
are there sown now-days of the Anabaptists, Da-
vidians, Libertines, and such other pestilent sects
in the hearts of the people, to the great disquiet-
ness of Christ's Church, moving rather to sedition
than to pure religion, to heresy than to things
godly!" It is related also in the Displaying of
the Family of Love, that " 4 there had been many
1 Strype.
2 Mosheim inaccurately describes Nicholas as a Westphalian.
He was a native of Amsterdam, and was usually called Henry
qf Amsterdam. Displaying of the secte, &c. 1579, sign.
A. iiij.
3 Strype.
4 A Displaying of the horrible secte of grosse and wicked
heretiques, naming themselves, The Family of Love, set forth
by J. R. (John Rogers,) 1579, sign. A. iii. b.
1

352 THE LIFE OF
of our Englishmen, in Flanders, to confer with
this Henry Nicholas, their author, of whom, in their
return, they speak great good of his wisdom, of his
mild nature, of his humility, andof hispatience ; yea,
and they vainly boast that he knew of their secret
messages, which they account to be miraculous."
His directions for belonging to this Family, it is
curious to : observe, were these : " 1 They must
pass four most terrible castles, full of cumber
some enemies, before they come to the house of
love ; the first is, of John Calvin, the second
the Papists, the third Martin Luther, the fourth
the Anabaptists ; and, passing these dangers, they
may be of the Family, else not." That is, other
theological tenets than his own he considered of
no moment. Of these several were blasphemous
as well as absurd ; and it is no wonder that his
pretensions led his followers into laxity of morals.
If we find no other allusion to this sect, or at
least none of any importance, in the present or
succeeding reign, our ecclesiastical history in that
of Elizabeth describes it as then widely prevail
ing, and occasioning no small confusion in the
kingdom. To a business of political inquiry also the arch
bishop was commissioned, before he left his
Kentish retirement. It was to ascertain who they
were that had embezzled the plate and goods be-
1 Displaying of the secte, &c. A. iiij. b.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 353
longing to churches and chantries, which had
been given to the king, and which they had con
verted to their own use. He has been 1 described
as slow to enter upon this business, because he
thought that whatever the inquiry of himself and
other commissioners might recover, would pass,
not into the hands of his sovereign, but into
those of the rapacious duke of Northumberland
and his friends. He was 2 charged as neglecting
the royal order. He foresaw the further spolia
tion of church property now intended. Instead
of remonstrating zealously and publicly, however,
as he 3had done at the beginning of Edward's
reign, against the disposal of the chantries and
religious houses ; instead of now offering to com
bat with the duke, as upon this very point he has
been 4 represented in the height of his indignation
then challenging him ; he cautiously excuses him
self, as Cecil appears to have advised him, in
stating to the duke the absence of those who
were appointed to be his fellow-commissioners.
Thus he wrote to Cecil.

1 Strype. 2 Ibid. a See before, p. 33.
* Ralph Morice, Cranmer's secretary, relating the stoutness
of the archbishop in any weighty matter concerning God or his
prince, exemplifies it " in his offering to combat with the duke,
speaking then, on behalf of his prince, for the staying of the
chantries, till his Highness had come unto lawful age." Strype.
So Abp. Parker writes of Cranmer, " ad duellum provocaret."
Ant. Brit. 341.
VOL. II. A a

354 THE LIFE OF
" ' After my very hearty recommendations, and
no less thanks for your friendly letters and adver
tisements, be you assured that I take the same
in such part, and to proceed of such a friendly
mind, as I have ever looked for at your hands*
Whereof I shall not be unmindful, if occasion
hereafter shall serve to requite the same.
" I have written letters unto my lord of North
umberland, declaring unto him the cause of my
stay in the commission ; which is, because that
all the gentlemen and justices of the peace in
Kent, which be in commission with me, be now
in London; before whose coming home, if I
should proceed without them, I might perchance
travel in vain, and take more pains than I should
do good. I have written also unto him in the
favour of 2 Michael Angelo, whose cause I pray
you to help so much as lieth in you.
" The 3 Sophi and the Turk, the emperor and
the French king, (not much better in religion
than they,) rolling the stone, or turning the
wheel of fortune up and down, I pray God send
us peace and quietness with all realms, as well as
among ourselves, and to preserve the king's Ma-

1 Strype's Append. No. 107.
' The minister of the Italian Protestant Church in London.
3 Alluding to the contests then existing between the empe
rors of Persia and the Turks, between Charles V. of Germany
and Henry II. of France,

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 355
jesty with all his Council. Thus fare you well.
From my house of Ford, the xx. day of Novem
ber, 1552. " Your assured, " T. Cantuar."
The intimacy of Cranmer with Cecil, (so
strongly indeed expressed in the preceding letter,)
has been considered, from the disparity of their
ages, as reflecting no small credit on the latter,
Cranmer being the elder by thirty-one years.
" ' The particular communications between them,"
the biographer of Cecil justly adds, " during the
last moments of the king's short hfe, especially
such as took place while the progress lasted,
plainly point out the anxiety with which Cecil,
as well as Cranmer, beheld the proceedings of
Northumberland^ and such persons as the latter
had placed about the king. It is not, indeed,
certain that Cecil was free from apprehensions of
the king's personal safety, as well as Cranmer,
since in one of the letters of the latter to the
secretary, after thanking him for his communica
tions generally, he adds, 2 but especially that you
advertise me that the king's Majesty is in good
health ; wherein I beseech God long to continue his
Highness: and after entreating Cecil in another
1 Life of Lord Burghley,. by Dr. Nares, vol. i. 391.
2 Strype, Life of Cranm. B. 2. ch. 30.
VOL. II. A a 2

356 THE LIFE OF
letter, and upon some alteration of the king's
route, to inform him of all such changes, that he
might, from time to time, know where his Majesty
was, he concludes with his usual earnest prayer,
1 that God would preserve and prosper him."
Edward had now long suffered under declining
health ; and the commission, which we have just
noticed, as well as his authority for the Catechism
and Articles, were signed, when it was evident
that beyond a few weeks his life could not last.
It was at this time too, that Northumberland
married his fourth son, lord Guildford Dudley,
to the lady Jane Grey, daughter of the duke of
Suffolk, and grand-daughter of Mary, sister to
Henry VIII., under the hope of excluding from
the throne, after Edward's death, both Mary and
Elizabeth, upon the plea of unrepealed illegiti
macy ; and of placing the crown upon the head of
his son's wife. To this project he obtained the
consent of the dying sovereign. The insidious
statesman is described by Godwin, as suggesting
to his royal master the danger, in which the
Church would be, if he appointed not a successor
who would maintain the established religion.
2 How the lady Mary stood affected, he said, was
well known. Of the lady Elizabeth there might,
perhaps, be better hopes. But their cases were
1 Strype.
2 Godwin, Ann. 1630, p. 255. And Lansdowne MSS.
No. 198, p. 11.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 357
so similar, that either both must be excluded, or
the former be admitted. Of a religious and good
prince it was the duty not to regard the regular
lineage, where the glory of God and the good of
his subjects might be endangered ; nor could he
be able, if he acted otherwise, to answer it before
God. The three daughters of the duke of Suffolk,
after his royal sisters, were the next of kin to him.
Their virtues, as well as their birth, commended
them. From them neither the violation of reli
gion, nor the danger of a foreign yoke by any
match, was to be feared. They had been educated
in that faith and worship which his Majesty had
happily established, and were united to husbands
as zealous Protestants as themselves. These he
would advise to be named successively as heirs to
the throne.
So spake the false 1 dissembler ; and the instru
ment of succession was accordingly prepared.:
The lady Frances, the mother of Jane Grey, was
at first intended by Edward as his successor.
But the transfer of the right to her eldest
daughter, though right it cannot be called, was
readily made. The way for the young queen was
thus illegally secured, not without a moral viola
tion in those whom Northumberland induced to

1 At his death he professed himself a Roman Catholic, but'
" indeed he was known, in Edward's reign, to have no other
religion than interest.'' Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 175.

358 THE LIFE OF
sanction it ; most of whom had sworn to preserve
the order of succession directed by the will of
Henry. Cranmer in vain opposed it. He argued
repeatedly, but ineffectually, with his young
sovereign, in the presence of others, against a
proceeding so ill-advised and so illegal. He de
sired to converse with him indeed alone, and said
afterwards, we shall find, that if this had been
permitted, he had saved the king from his weak
ness, and Northumberland from his disgrace.
Northumberland not only prevented such an
interview, so honourable as the consequences of
it might have been in giving a just direction to
Edward's mind, and in preserving the firmness of
Cranmer himself ; but, 'before the Council, with
his accustomed haughtiness, exclaimed, that
it became not the archbishop to speak to the
king, even as he had already done, so as to dis
suade him from the present purpose.
Cranmer at last gave his assent to this purpose ;
so reluctantly, however, as to elicit, even from
his enemies, the admission that he was, as it
were, compelled to it. Nor during the remaining
days of obloquy and suffering, that soon were
his, did they add to their reproaches his share in
this transaction. The transaction is related by
the recent historian of our country, with ques
tioning the veracity of the archbishop's own
' Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 359
statement of it, which, however, neither while he
lived, nor from that to the present time, has ever
been before impugned. Dr. Lingard has sup
pressed what he ought to have published ; has
insinuated, where he might have been candid.
We will hear them both.
" 1 Among the privy councillors," says the his
torian, " there were some, who, though apprised
of the illegality and apprehensive of the conse
quences of the measure, suffered themselves to be
seduced by the threats and promises of Northumber
land, and their objection to the succession of a
princess, who would probably re-establish the
ancient faith, and compel them to restore the
property which they had torn from the Church.
The archbishop, if we may believe his own statement,
had requested a private interview with the king,
but he was accompanied by the marquess of
Northampton and the lord Darcy, in whose pre
sence Edward solicited him to subscribe the new
settlement, expressed a hope that he would not
refuse his sovereign a favour which had been
granted by every other councillor, and assured
him, that according to the decision of the judges,
a king in actual possession had a power to limit
the descent of the Crown after his decease.
Cranmer confesses he had the weakness to yield
against his own conviction, and that, having once
1 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. edit. vii. 140.

360 THE LIFE OF
yielded, he resolved to support the cause with all
the influence of his station."
Cranmer had neither been won by the promises,
nor awed by the threats, of Northumberland. He
tells us plainly how he was over-ruled, in the
letter which he afterwards addressed to Mary ;
and his statement, which, if it had not been
entitled to entire belief, must have been imme
diately contradicted, thus materially alters the
representation that has been cited. " 1 I ask
mercy and pardon," he says, " for my heinous
folly and offence in consenting to, and following,
the testament and last will of our late sovereign
lord, king Edward VI. your Grace's brother; which,
well God he knoweth, I never liked, nor any thing
grieved me so much that your Grace's brother
did. And if by any means it had been in me to
have letted the making of that will, I would have
done it. And what I said therein, as well to the
Council, as to himself, divers of your Majesty's
Council can report : but none so well as the
marquess of Northampton, and the lord Darcy,
then lord-chamberlain to the king's Majesty,
which two were present at the communication
between the king's Majesty and me. I desired to
talk with the king's Majesty alone, but I could
not be suffered : and so I failed of my purpose.
For if I might have communed with the king alone,
1 From the Letters ofthe Martyrs. Strype, Append. No. 74.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 361
and at good leisure, my trust was, that I should
have altered him from his purpose ; but, they being
present, my labour was in vain.
" Then, when I could not dissuade him from the
said will, and both he and his Privy Council also
informed me, that the judges and his learned
counsel said, that the Act of entailing the Crown,
made by his father, could not be prejudicial to
him ; but that he being in possession of the Crown,
might make his will thereof; this seemed very
strange unto me. But being the sentence of the
judges, and other his learned counsel in the laws
of this realm, (as both he and his Council informed
me) methought it became not me, being unlearned
in the law, to stand against my prince therein.
And so at length I was required by the king's
Majesty himself to set my hand to his will ; saying,
that he trusted, that I alone would not be more
repugnant to his will than the rest of the Council
were. Which words surely grieved my heart very
sore : and so I granted him to subscribe his will,
and to follow the same. Which when I had set
my hand unto, I did it unfeignedly and without
dissimulation. " For the which I submit myself most humbly
unto your Majesty, acknowledging mine offence
with most grievous and sorrowful heart, and be
seeching your mercy and pardon ; which my heart
giveth me shall not be denied unto me, being
granted before to so many, who travailed not so

362 THE LIFE OF
much to dissuade both the king and his Council,
as I did.
" And whereas it is contained in two Acts of
Parliament, as I understand, that I, with the duke
of Northumberland, should devise and compass the
deprivation of your Majesty from your royal Crown,
surely it is untrue. For the duke never opened
his mouth to me, to move me Zt<f\ any suc^ matter.
Nor his heart was not such toward me, (seeking long
time my destruction,) that he would ever trust me in
such a matter, or think that I would be persuaded by
him. It was other of the Council that moved me,
and the king himself, the duke of Northumber
land not being present. Neither before, neither
after, had I ever any privy communication with the
duke of that matter, saving that openly, at the
council-table, the duke said unto me, that it became
not me to say to the king, as I did, when I went
about to dissuade him from his said will."
After his disputation too at Oxford, imploring
the lords of the Council to intercede for him
with the queen, he says, " 1 some of you know
by what means I was brought and 2 trained unto
the will of our late sovereign lord, king Edward
VI., and what I spake against the same ; wherein
1 His letter to the Council. Foxe.
2 Drawn by persuasion, namely, of the king. Shakspeare and
Milton, both use train in this sense.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 363
I refer me to the reports of your honours and
worships." And was this appeal to living wit
nesses answered by any confutation of the veracity
of his statement ? No, not even by a solitary
witness, although in that Council were assembled
some of his bitterest and acutest enemies. It
remained for an historian of our own days to
challenge it ; but it is beyond his power to destroy
it. In truth, the archbishop was well aware of
the injustice, and seems to have expected the
failure, of placing Jane upon the throne, although
he wanted sufficient firmness altogether to reject
the proposition.
The days of Edward now closed, not without
the suspicion, Strype and others relate, that
poison shortened them. But the letter of the
Council, two days after his death, to Sir Philip
Hoby, the ambassador at the court of the emperor
Charles, describes the consumptive disease that
overcame him. Cranmer probably wrote it. " 1 We
must tell you," the writer says, " a great heap of
infelicity ;" (to none greater, indeed, than to
Cranmer himself;) " God hath called out of this
world our sovereign lord the sixth of this month,
(July) towards night, whose manner of death was
such towards God as assureth us that his soul is
in place of eternal joy. The disease whereof he
1 Cotton. MSS. Galba. B. xii. 249. b.

364 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
died was of the putrefaction of the lungs, being
utterly uncurable."
The temporary accession of the lady Jane, and
the ineffectual attempts of her partisans to prolong
it, now followed. In vain did Cranmer and his
fellow-councillors call upon Mary to recognise the
sovereignty, which had been forced upon her
young rival. In vain did he join the 1 decreased
number of the lords, in calling upon others to
remain firm in the allegiance which had been pro
mised to Jane. Eleven days only witnessed the
sceptre in her hands ; the Council that had placed
it in them then agreed to acknowledge, that they
had placed it erroneously, and to Mary tendered
their loyalty. The dethroned lady, and the mis
guided primate, we shall soon find within the
walls of the same prison.
1 Their number was now only sixteen ; it had been twenty-
four.

BOOK III.
CHAPTER I.
MARY. 1553.
The lady Jane committed to the Tower — Funeral of Edward
— The archbishop reported to have restored the service, of
the mass — His public denial of the report — Summoned before
the queen's commissioners and the Council — Committed to
the Tower — Accused and declared guilty of high treason — -
His companions in prison, the lady Jane, Ridley, Bradford,
and Latimer — Curious anecdote ofthe lady.
Mart was no sooner seated on the throne, than
the lady Jane was committed a prisoner to the
Tower. There, till more than a month after the
ceremony of the former's coronation, the latter
remained without a trial. Meantime Edward was
buried, " x Mary suffering the archbishop to
officiate," Dr. Lingard says, " according to the
Protestant form at the funeral in Westminster
Abbey, while a solemn dirge and high mass were
chanted for him, at the same time, in the chapel
1 Hist. Eng. 8vo.vii. 181.

366 THE LIFE OF
of the Tower, in the presence of the * nobility
and courtiers, to the number of three hundred
persons." But there is no authority for the asser
tion which is, from 2 Burnet, that Cranmer thus
officiated. Foxe would not have failed to record
so memorable a circumstance. The chroniclers,
Holinshed and Stow, are also silent respecting it.
We must consider Day, at this time, restored by
Mary to his bishopric, as Godwin relates it, as
having performed the solemn service : " 3 The
exequies of the king," says the old historian,
" were celebrated, Day, bishop of Chichester,
preaching, executing in English, and administering
the sacrament, according to the manner and form
received in the reign of Edward : for as yet,
nothing had been determined concerning any
change in point of religion." It had been reported
indeed, of the archbishop, that he had offered
not only to chant the mass and requiem at the
royal funeral, but that, in his cathedral at Canter
bury, he had already restored thus much of the
Romish ritual. The mass certainly appears to
have been now renewed in that church by the vice-
dean of it, Dr. Thornden, who was also suffragan
1 Stow relates only, that " the queen held an obsequy in the
Tower for Edward, the dirge being sung in Latin ; and on the
morrow a mass of requiem, whereat the queen with her ladies
offered." 1038.
2 Strype with hesitation follows Burnet, Ecc. Mem. ii. 432.
3 Annals, ed. 1630. 276.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 367
bishop of Dover, whom Cranmer, hastening to
refute the charges against himself, pronounces " a
false, flattering, lying monk." The archbishop
with a " boldness that does honour to his cour
age," but, " betrays by its asperity the bitterness
of his feelings," as Dr. Lingard describes it, drew
up a declaration, with a view to public use, in
defence of the Reformation as well as himself.
And who wonders at the " bitterness of his feel
ings," when he is unjustly charged with restoring
what had cost him the labour of many years to
abolish ; and when he, whom he had trusted as
his own familiar friend, (for Thornden had lived
with him,) had dared to give occasion for the
charge. This paper Cranmer submitted first to
Scory, now deprived of the bishopric of Chi
chester, for the advantage of his private and
friendly consideration. Scory indiscreetly gave
copies of it, while as yet it was considered by
Cranmer incomplete. Of these, one was read in
Cheapside, and others were dispersed, but with
out the knowledge or consent, on the contrary, to
the great mortification, of the archbishop. Some
of these copies were brought to the lords of the
Council, by whom, when he was asked if he was
the author of the declaration, he answered, ' that
certainly he was ; but that he was very sorry to
1 It has been supposed by some, that, " the intemperance of
the style bespeaks the hand of Peter Martyr, rather than of
Cranmer himself." Martyr, who was now resident with the

368 THE LIFE OF
find the paper had gone from him in such a
manner, as he had resolved to enlarge it in many
respects, and to affix it, with his hand and seal
to it, to the doors of the churches in London.
As it was, the following copy has been preserved.
" 1 A Declaration of the reverend father in God,
Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, con
demning 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 ancient 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 sovereign
lord king 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
archbishop, at Lambeth, prompted him, most probably, to this
kind of defence. But we are to remember, not only the man
ners of the times, but also that some of the strong terms, which
here are used, are taken from the Scriptures.
1 Foxe. Burnet. Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 369
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 to bring the
same more easily to pass, some have abused the
name of me, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury,
bruiting abroad, that I have set up the mass at
Canterbury, and that I offered to say mass before
the queen's Highness, and at Paul's church,
and I wot not where. I have been well exercised
these twenty years, to suffer and bear evil reports
and lies ; and have not been much grieved thereat,
and have borne all things quietly. Yet when
untrue reports and lies turn to the hindrance of
God's truth, they be in no wise to be tolerated
and suffered. Wherefore these be to signify to the
world, that it was not I that did set up the mass
at Canterbury, but it was a false, flattering, lying,
and dissembling monk which caused the mass to
be set up there, without my advice or counsel.
" And as for offering myself to say mass before
the queen's Highness, or in any other place, I
never did, as her Grace knoweth well. But if
her Grace will give me leave, I shall be ready to
prove against all that will say the contrary ;
and that the Communion-Book, set forth by the
most innocent and godly prince, king Edward VI.,
in his high court of parliament, is conformable to .
the order which our Saviour Christ did both ob
serve and command to be observed, and which
vol. n. B b

370 THE LIFE OF
his Apostles and Primitive Church used many
years. Whereas the mass, in many things, not
only hath no foundation of Christ, his Apostles,
nor the Primitive Church, but also is manifestly
contrary to the same ; and containeth many hor
rible blasphemies in it. And although many,
either unlearned, or maliciously, do report, that
Mr. Peter Martyr is 1 unlearned ; yet if the
queen's Highness will grant thereunto, I, with the
said Mr. Peter Martyr, and other four or five
which I shall choose, will, by God's grace, 2 take
upon us to defend, that not only our Common
Prayers of the churches, ministration of the sa
craments, and other rites and ceremonies, but
also that all the doctrine and religion, by our said
sovereign lord king Edward VI., is more pure, and
according to God's Word, than any that hath been
used in England these thousand years ; so that
God's Word may be the judge, and that the
reason and proofs may be set out in writing. To
the intent as well all the world may examine
and judge them, as that no man shall start back
from their writing. And what faith hath been in
the Church these fifteen hundred years, we will
join with them in this point ; and that the doc
trine and usage is to be followed, which was in

1 See Cranmer's defence of Martyr's learning before, p. 213.
' Hammond notices, with approbation, this challenge in de
fence of our excellent liturgy. Works, vol. i. 366.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 371
the Church fifteen hundred years past. And we
shall prove, that the Order of the Church, set out
at this present in this Church of England by Act
of parliament, is the same that was used in the
Church fifteen hundred years past. And so shall
they never be able to prove theirs."
While this manifesto was in circulation, Cran
mer was summoned to appear before the queen's
commissioners, and to bring with him an inven
tory of his goods. He had already appeared
before the Council. On both occasions his share
in the usurpation of the lady Jane was the x cause.
The first was at the beginning of August, when
he was ordered not to depart from his palace, and
to be forth-coming when called. To Cecil, who
was also a partner in the usurpation, but was at
liberty, he now wrote, requesting from him a
visit to Lambeth, that he might converse with him
upon a subject of such deep concern to his friends,
as well as himself.
" 2 After my very hearty recommendations ;
yesternight I heard reported, that Mr. Cheke is
indicted. I pray you heartily, if you know any
thing thereof, to send me knowledge, and where-
1 Strype supposes that the commissioners intended now " to
lay to his charge heresy and his marriage." It was too early,
Henry Wharton rightly observes, to object to him either.
. 2 Strype, Append. No. 109.
Bb 2

372 THE LIFE OF
upon he is indicted. I had great trust that he
should be one of them that should feel the queen's
great mercy and pardon, as one who hath been
none of the great doers in this matter against her ;
and my trust is not yet gone, except it be for his
earnestness in religion ; for the which, if he suffer,
blessed is he of God that suffereth for His sake,
howsoever the world judge of him. For what
ought we to care for the judgment of the world,
when God absolveth us ? But alas, if any means
could be made for him, or for my lord Russel, it
were not to be omitted, nor in any wise neglected.
But I am utterly destitute both of counsel in this
matter, and of power, being in the same condemn
ation that they be.
" But that only thing, which I can do, I shall
not cease to do ; and that is, only to pray for
them, and for myself, with all others that be now
in adversity. When I saw you at the Court, I
would fain have talked with you ; but I durst not.
Nevertheless, if you could find a time to come
over to me, I would gladly commune with you.
Thus fare you heartily well, with my lady your
wife. From Lambeth, this 14th day of this month
of August, [1553.;] " Your own assured,
" T. Cantuar."
Cranmer would not talk with Cecil, Strype
supposes, in the presence ofthe Court, or Council,

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 373
lest it might impede the grant of pardon which
the statesman now expected. And, indeed, Cecil
played most dexterously for it. He " J misliked
the matter," he says, "when he first heard it
secretly" proposed. He intended " to stand
against the matter," he continues, " as Mr. Petre
and Mr. Cheke are witnesses." He " refused to
be at the drawing of the proclamation," he pro
ceeds, " for the publishing of the usurper's title,
and eschewed the writing of Mary bastard." He
" determined to flee from the rest of Jane's
Council, if the consultation had not taken effect,
as Mr. Petre can tell, who 2 meant the like." He
" proposed to have stolen down to the queen's
Highness, and had his horses ready at Lambeth
for the purpose." Not to mention his other adroit
apologies, I will add only the twenty-first as a
very curious one : " When this conspiracy was
first opened to me, I did fully set me to flee the
realm, and was dissuaded by Mr. Cheke, who
willed me for my satisfaction, to read a dialogue
of Plato, where Socrates, being in prison, was
offered to escape and flee, and yet he would
not. I read the dialogue, whose reasons did indeed
stay me." He solicited pardon, therefore, as
1 Lansdowne MSS. 104. fol. 1. Entitled by Cecil, " A
brief note of my submission and declaration of my doings."
2 And yet Petre subscribed his name to the second order of
Jane's Council for maintaining allegiance to her. Cecil certainly
did not, although he did to the first.

374 THE LIFE OF
" differing from others that had more plainly
offended," as " differing from them whom he
served ;" and he obtained it. The similar plea of
Cranmer was in * mockery, we shall presently
find, not disregarded.
As yet we behold the archbishop confined only
to the precincts of his own palace ; and he might
have followed the earnest advice of his friends to
fly, as others now had fled, from the persecutions
at hand. He nobly resolved not to desert his
post. " 2 Were I accused," said he to those who
were anxious for his safety, " of theft, parricide,
or some other crime, although I were innocent, I
might, peradventure, be induced so to shift for
myself; but being questioned for my allegiance
not to men, but to God, the truth of whose Holy
Word is to be asserted against the errors of
popery, I have, at this time, with a constancy
befitting a Christian prelate, resolved rather to
leave my life than the kingdom." Others, how
ever, he entreated to follow the counsel which
himself had declined ; and to one of them thus
urged his arguments.
" 3 The true comforter in all distress is only
1 By pardoning him for the treason, only in order to burn him
for alleged heresy.
2 Godwin, Ann. 1630, p. 280.
3 Strype from Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 375
God, through his Son Jesus Christ. And who
soever hath Him, hath company enough, although
he were in a wilderness all alone. And he that
hath twenty thousand in his company, if God be
absent, is in a miserable wilderness and desola
tion. In Him is all comfort, and without Him
is none. Wherefore I beseech you, seek your
dwelling there, where you may truly and rightly
serve God, and dwell 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 Christ's
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
Father's will. Where we find, therefore, God
truly honoured according to His will, there we can
lack neither friend nor kin.
" If you be loth to depart for slandering God's
Word, remember, that Christ, when his hour was
not yet come, departed out of his country into
Samaria, to avoid 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 wisdom 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.

376 THE IJFE OF
Albeit, when it came to such a point, that they
could no longer escape danger of the persecutors
of God's true religion, then they shewed them
selves, that their flying before came not of fear,
but of godly wisdom, 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 ap
prehended, 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 than men ; how
much they loved, and preferred, the eternal life to
come above this short and miserable life.
" Wherefore I exhort you, as well by Christ's
commandment as by the example of him and his
Apostles, to withdraw yourself, from the malice
of your's and God's 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 Christ's little flock.. And that you
will do, do it with speed, lest by your own folly
you fall into the persecutors' hands. And the
Lord send His Holy Spirit to lead and guide you,
wheresoever you go. And all that be godly will
say, Amen."
By the settlement of his own affairs, and the
payment of all his debts, the archbishop prepared

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 377
himself for the worst even with cheerfulness, ex
claiming, says Foxe, that he was nowhis own man, and
with the help of God was ready to meet any adversity.
His resolution had no sooner been formed, than
he was a ' second time brought before the lords of
the Council, who sent him to the Tower, " 2 as
well for the treason committed by him against the
queen's Majesty, as for aggravating of the same
his offence, by spreading about seditious bills,
moving tumults to the disquietness of the present
State." And yet not a single bill, or declaration,
is Cranmer known to have dispersed. To the
injudicious zeal of his friend the alleged mischief
is to be attributed. At the 3 close of the Latin
version of the declaration by Valeran Pullan, pub
lished in 1554, the surreptitious circulation of it
is rightly stated.
However, the archbishop was now entirely
deprived of his hberty ; yet till the thirteenth of
November, when he was escorted from the ToWer
with the lady Jane and her husband, to a public
4 trial, he was not adjudged guilty ofthe treason.
But as others more deeply implicated in the accu-
1 On the 8th of September. Council-Book. Archseol.
vol. xviii.
2 Council-Book.
3 Viz. sign. d. 7. b. " Lecta publice Londini in vico mer-
catorum ab amico, qui clam autographum surripuerat, 5 Sept.
Anno Dom. 1 553." See also Burnet, ii. Rec. p. 250.
1 See what John a, Lasco has said of Cranmer's trial in the
present vol. p. 204.

378 THE LIFE OF
sation of adherence to Jane had already been
pardoned, to him also was afterwards forgiven the
crime of a traitor, while for that of a heretic it was
determined that still he should suffer. He was now
remanded, with the young couple, to the prison ;
and though Jane, on her return, was forbidden by
the savage cruelty of Mary to see again her hus
band, (before the last day of their lives,) convicted
like herself; it does not appear that the archbishop
was prohibited from visiting her. It should seem '
rather, by a letter to the lieutenant of the Tower,
that they were allowed to meet. That officer
was " x to suffer the late duke of Northumber
land's children to have the liberty of walking
within the garden of the Tower ; and also to
minister the like favours to the lady Jane and doc
tor Cranmer." The archbishop, no doubt, would
strengthen her resistance to the frequent efforts
which Mary made to convert her to the Romish
faith ; a resistance indeed, which from the begin
ning of her confinement seems to have been her
inviolable determination, as we learn from a con
ference between herself and a visitor in the house
of the warder of the Tower, (whose name was
Partridge,) in which she was lodged ; part of which
I copy as an interesting relic. " 2 On Tuesday,
1 Council-Book, ut supr.
2 The Primitive Practice for preserving Truth, or, An His
torical Narration, &c. by Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Lond. 1645,
p. 13, where he cites the above, and more, from a manuscript
history of queen Mary's time.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 379
the 29th of August," says the visitor, "' I dined
at Partridge's house with my lady Jane. After
that we fell in discourse of matters of religion."
She adverted to " the sudden conversion of the
late duke [of Northumberland,^ saying, who
would have thought he would have so done ? It
was answered her, perchance he thereby ' hoped
to have had his pardon." She replied, " who can
judge that he should hope for pardon, whose life
was odious to all men 1 Like as his life was
wicked and full of dissimulation, so was his end
thereafter: I pray God that neither I, nor any
friend of mine, die so. Should I who am young,
and in the flower of my years, forsake my faith for
love of life ? Nay, God forbid. Much more he
should not, whose fatal course, although he had
lived his just number of years, could not have
long continued."
The lady Jane found Ridley and Latimer, as
well as Cranmer, the supporters of her perilous
elevation. Their preaching in favour of her
sovereignty, the Council of Mary considered as
sufficient ground for sending them to prison ;
whence they were led to be questioned, we shall
presently find, not for that offence, but upon a
charge of heresy, in order that they might be
brought to the stake. Ridley's committal had
1 See also bishop Godwin, Ann. 278. And the note respect
ing the duke before, in this vol. p. 357.

380 THE LIFE OF
1 preceded that of Cranmer several weeks.
Bradford, another of the Marian martyrs, had
been 2 soon after him conducted to the same
confinement : Latimer, who was summoned from
the country, 3 five days after Cranmer. With
other victims this prison was soon crowded ; and
the four arrested Protestants, to each of whom,
at the first, a separate apartment was allotted,
were now placed together in a single room. La
timer forbore not to remind the queen's commis
sioners, at Oxford, of the circumstance as pro
ductive of consolation, though apparently intended
as a slight, to them. " 4 Mr. Cranmer, archbishop
of Canterbury," said he, " Mr. Ridley, bishop of
London, that holy man Mr. Bradford, and I, old
Hugh Latimer, were imprisoned in the Tower of
London for Christ's Gospel preaching ; and for
because we would not go a * massing, every one
1 July 26. 2 Aug. 14. 3 Sept. 13.
4 Protestation of Mr. Hugh Latimer rendered in writing to
Dr. Weston, and others of the queen's commissioners, &c.
April 20, 1554. Faithfully translated out of Latin int Eng
lish. Strype, Ecc. Mem. iii. 92.
s Ridley is supposed to have been treated with more indul
gence than other prisoners in the Tower. This was probably
soon after his committal to it. And it is said to have been
granted, to see whether he would voluntarily be present at the
mass or not. Foxe relates, that he was once there ; but upon
Bradford's writing to him what offence might thus be given, he
went no more. Dr. Lingard fails not to adorn the old narra
tive : " There (in the Tower) Ridley had the weakness to be-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 381
in close prison from other, the same Tower being
so full of other prisoners, we four were thrust into
one chamber, as men not to be accounted of. But,
tray his conscience by conforming to the ancient worship : but
his apostacy was severely lashed by the pen of Bradford ; and
Ridley, by his speedy repentance and subsequent resolution,
consoled and edified his afflicted brethren !" Hist. Eng. 8vo.
vii. 269. Then let us hear Ridley himself upon this very point ;
in a conference, too, with Latimer, and in the very precincts in
which he is said to have " betrayed his conscience," while
both of them were prisoners. It is objected as if by bishop
Gardiner to Ridley, " all men marvel greatly, why you, after
the liberty which you have granted unto you more than the rest,
do not go to mass, which is a thing, as you know, much esteemed
of all men, yea of the queen herself: — What is it that offendeth
you so greatly in the mass, that you will not vouchsafe ¦ once
either to hear or see it ? From whence cometh this new reli
gion upon you ? Have not you used in times past to say mass
yourself? M. Ridley's Answer. I confess unto you my fault
and ignorance ; but know you that for these matters I have
done penance long ago, both at Paul's Cross, and also
openly in the pulpit at Cambridge, and I trust God hath for
given me this mine offence ; for I did it upon ignorance. But
if you be desirous to know, and will vouchsafe to hear, what
things offend me in the mass, I will rehearse unto you those
things which be most clear, and seem to repugn most manifestly
against God's Word ; and they be these, the strange tongue,
the want of shewing ofthe Lord's death, &c." Dr. Ridley, the
biographer of the martyr, argues from this narrative of Foxe,
that, in regard to the story of Bradford, the martyrologist had
been misinformed. Life, &c. p. 434. Dr. Wordsworth agrees
with the biographer, and observes in addition, that Foxe relates
precisely the same particulars respecting Bradford and bishop
Farrar. Ecc. Biog. iii. 322.

382 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
God be thanked, to our great joy and comfort,
there did we together read over the New Testa
ment with great deliberation, and painful study ;
and I assure you, as I will answer before the tri
bunal of God's Majesty, we could find, in the Tes
tament, of Christ's body and blood none other
presence but a spiritual presence, nor that the mass
was any sacrifice for sin. But in that Heavenly
Book it appeared, that the sacrifice, which Christ
Jesus our Redeemer did upon the cross, was per
fect, holy, and good ; that God the Heavenly
Father did require none other, nor that ever again
to be done."

CHAPTER II.

1553 to 1554.
Mary's promise as to religion — Restoration of the Romish
service — Gardiner chancellor of Cambridge — Mary's letter
to him — Reformed clergy silenced — Hooper and Coverdale
sent to prison — P. Martyr and other Reformers leave the
kingdom — Mary's first parliament — The divorce of her mo
ther set aside — The shamelessness of Gardiner in accusing
Cranmer as to that divorce — A convocation — Disputes on
the corporal presence — Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, sent
to Oxford, there to dispute on the same subject — Cranmer's
letter relating to the disputation.
The service, estabhshed in the reign of Edward,
it has been already observed, did not immediately
cease on the accession of Mary. In a speech to
the lord mayor of London, in the early part
of August, she said, that " l she meaned gra
ciously not to compel or strain other men's
consciences, otherwise than God should, as she
trusted, put in their hearts a persuasion of the
truth through the opening of His Word unto
them." But on the eighteenth of that month,
1 Council-Book. Archaeol. xviii. 173.

384 THE LIFE OF
she published a proclamation, in which the artful
repetition of this concession is followed by the
words, " l until such time as further order, by
common consent, may be taken therein." That they
should not be molested in the exercise of their
religion, the Protestants of Suffolk at the open
ing of her reign, are said to have been also by her
royal word assured. Foxe first related this ac
count. Dr. Lingard has been pleased to 2 deny
his authority ; and Mr. Butler follows him, with
a compliment to his research, in " 3 having suffi
ciently shewn that no such promise was made,"
and in referring, by way of. corroboration, to her
address to the men of Suffolk in July, which
contains no such promise, but which, indeed, is
nothing more than a brief notification that Ed
ward was dead, that herself was queen, and that
she had not fled the realm, as some had surmised.
It is the statement of Foxe alone, which both
these learned writers, therefore, have impugned.
They might have turned to other authorities,
which perhaps their ingenuity may fail to silence.
He, who with Cranmer had been led to espouse
the cause of the lady Jane, but now was medi
tating to be active in that of Mary, the earl of
Arundel, thus addressed some of his fellow-coun
cillors : " 4 How doth it appear, that Mary intends
Wilkin's, Council, iv. 86.
5 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 493.
J Book of the Rom. Cath. Church, 1825, p. 210.
1 Godwin, Annals, ed. 1630, p. 270.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 385
any alteration in religion ? Certainly, having been
lately petitioned unto this point by the Suffolk men,
she gave them (and that was true) a very hopeful
answer" The words and that was true are the
assertion of bishop Godwin himself. Another
writer, still nearer to the time than Godwin, bids
Protestants " ' remember the policies of Charles
used with 2 Maurice and others, for assurance of
religion, against the confederates of Smalcald.
Let them remember the Fremlingham (the Suffolk)
promises for not altering religion." Sir Simonds
D'Ewes, one of our most learned and accurate
antiquaries, in Charles the First's reign, would
hardly have asserted, if he had not been convinced
of its truth, what follows. " 3 Mary entered her
reign," he writes, " with the breach of her public
faith. For whereas the crown was set on her
head, by the gentry and commons of Suffolk,
although they knew her to be a papist ; — yet she
m one of her first acts of Council, took order for
their restraint, long before the mass and Latin
service were generally received in London itself,
and caused that diocese to taste the sharpest in
quisition and persecution that raged during her
1 Norton's Warning against the dangerous practices of Papists,
&c. s. d. temp. Eliz. sign. N. iij.
2 See before, what Cranmer says of Maurice, in the present
volume, p. 279.
3 The Primitive Practice for preserving Truth, or, an Histo
rical Narration, &c. By Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 1645, p. 29.
VOL. II. C C

386 THE LIFE OF
reign, which was happily shortened by her hus
band's contemning her person, and her enemies
conquering her dominions ; neither of which she
ever had power to revenge, or recover; so, as
though the cause of her death proceeded from no
outward violence, yet was her end as inglorious
and miserable, as her reign had been turbulent
and bloody."
But it was not till near the close ofthe year, that
the restoration of the Romish service was declared
by an Act of Parliament ; " ' by which was at once
rased to the ground," so Dr. Lingard writes, " that
fabric which the ingenuity and perseverance of
archbishop Cranmer had erected in the last reign."
The historian might have added, that soon was
the goodly fabric re-edified, and from the days of
Mary's successor has stood the admiration of
other Protestant countries, the pride and support
of its own ; for " 2 liberty constitutes the founda
tion of all the greatness of Britain, and the source
of her liberty was the Reformation."
Gardiner had now succeeded the duke of Nor
thumberland as chancellor of the University of
Cambridge. Two days 3 only had passed since
this exaltation, when Mary 4 directed him to revive,
1 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 192.
2 Mackray's Essay on the Effect of the Reformation on Civil
Society in Europe, 1829. p. 67.
3 The duke was beheaded Aug. 18, 1553.
4 Aug. 20. Ellis, Orig. Lett, second ser. ii. 246.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 387
among. the students of Cambridge, the ancient
worship and ceremonies, " ' wishing the examples,"
of her intention to abrogate the religion esta
blished by Edward, " first to begin in the Univer
sities." Three days a afterwards the kingdom
also beheld Gardiner its chancellbr. To him was
granted in the following week a commission to
license, under the great seal such preachers only,
as he should judge of sufficient gravity, and dis
cretion, to promote the views of his sovereign and
himself. The reformed clergy were thus to be
silenced. By Gardiner they could not expect
their ministry to be tolerated. Many of them,
therefore, read to their congregations the Common
Prayer only, which as yet was not prohibited ;
others gave instruction in private conferences ;
and some considered themselves still at liberty by
law, as well as obliged in conscience, to continue
their public discourses. The authority of Gardiner
was considered to be thus disobeyed. Several
distinguished prelates and clergy were accordingly
cited to appear before the Council. Hooper,
afterwards the martyr, was immediately committed
to the Fleet prison. Coverdale was 3 long detained,
but soon deprived of the see of Exeter. And
Latimer, we have seen, was sent, as soon as he
1 Ellis, 245. 2 Aug. 23. Stow.
3 He was allowed to depart to Denmark, Feb. 19, 1554.
Council-Book. Archaeol. He had been deprived of his bishop
ric in Sept. 1553. Le Neve.
C C2

388 THE LIFE OF
had reached London, to the Tower. By th«
Reformers safety was now to be sought in flight*
Strype reckons the ecclesiastical emigrants eight
hundred ; those of rank, (among whom soon after
wards was the duchess of Suffolk, the queen's
cousin,) merchants, tradesmen, and others, * many
hundreds. They betook themselves chiefly to
Frankfort, Embden, Zurich, Antwerp, Strasburg,
and Geneva. Foreign Protestants, that were now
in England, were suffered quietly to depart.
Peter Martyr, however, the friend of Cranmer,
yet lingered in London, after the archbishop had
been imprisoned, under the deepest anxiety for
the issue. When .Edward died, the learned Flo
rentine had been immediately confined to his
house in Oxford ; but was soon permitted to visit
London, having relinquished his professorship.
Upon his departure from the University, " 2 many
scholars left it, and went beyond the seas." Him
self repaired to Lambeth Palace, where he found
the sanctuary only of a few days. The fate of
his patron had nearly been his own. It was 3 long
argued by Mary's Council, whether, as he had
written and acted so vigorously against the doc
trines of the Church of Rome, it were fit that he
should be proceeded against as a heretic. But it
1 Chiliades. Pref. to the Latin translation of Cranmer's
Defence. Strype.
2 A. Wood, Annals Univ. Ox. under the year 1554.
3 Godwin, Ann. 1630.281.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 389
pvas determined, that as he came to England
upon public encouragement, and under public
protection, he was at liberty to depart with his
family. His wife had died at Oxford not long
before he left it, and was buried in the cathedral
of Christ Church ; yet, ere the reign of Mary
closed, her * remains, as being those of a pretended
heretic, were disinterred and thrown into a dung
hill, but again were honourably consigned to the
tomb, which had been violated, by the direction
of archbishop Parker, when Ehzabeth was queen.
Ochin is 2 said to have accompanied Martyr in
quitting our shores. John a Lasco had departed
before them. Their congregations were now also
commanded to leave the country ; and England
thus 3 lost in them many ingenious artists. Mar
tyr no sooner arrived at Strasburg in November,
than he 4 informed Calvin of the state in which
he had left England, and of the imprisonment of
Cranmer, Hooper, Coverdale, and others ; of the
weakness with which some had conformed to the
altered state ; of the constancy with which far
more than he could have thought had renounced
it ; of his consequent belief, that numerous would
be the martyrs, if Gardiner might have his will ;
and of the general opinion, that the present cala
mity would not be long. He wrote 5 soon after-
1 Strype. A.Wood. 2 Godwin, Ann. 281.
3 See before, p. 204. * Strype.
5 Decemb. 1553. Gerdesii Misc. iv. 669.

390 THE LIFE OF
wards to Bullinger, and told him that many En
glish youths from our two Universities were now
at Strasburg, the expense of whose studies was
paid by the pious merchants of the place, under
the hope that, on the return of Protestantism to
England, the Church of England might then be
served by their acquirements.
Mary had * now assembled her first parliament,
in which one of the earliest Acts that passed was
a confirmation of her legitimacy, and a declara
tion that the sentence of divorce between Henry
and Catharine was void. The preamble to it
maliciously stated, as if he had been the sole
agent in the business, " that Thomas Cranmer,
late archbishop of Canterbury, did most ungod-
lily, and against law, judge the divorce upon his
own unadvised understanding of the Scriptures, and
upon the testimony of the Universities, and some
bare and most untrue conjectures." There can
be no doubt that Gardiner, as Burnet relates it,
framed the statute. Nor can there be any hesi
tation to pronounce, with the historian, Mary's
chancellor as " past all shame." He was at
the 2 time thus reminded of what he wished to
forget, or hoped was forgotten, his own 3 activity
in promoting the affair which now was charged
1 Octob. 5.
2 In a Translation of his De Vera Obedientia, by Michael
Wood, published in 1553, with the date of Oct. 26.
3 See vol. i. p. 13, p. 16.
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 391
upon Cranmer alone ; his employment in it long
before Cranmer was even known to Henry.
" ' Then he published the king's divorce, and
second marriage, to be done by the undoubted
Word of God, the censures of the most famous
Universities of the world, the judgment of the
Church of England, and by Act of parliament,
whereof he himself was the procurer in the Uni
versities, and in all points the principal doer.
NOW he layeth all the fault to the archbishop of
Canterbury, as though it had been the archbishop's
only deed. Then he brake the queen's head,
in procuring and affirming her to be illegitimate.
NOW he giveth her a plaster twith recanting and
saying she is legitimate."
The legitimacy of the queen being thus esta
blished; and her title of supreme head of the
Church being still retained, not without 2 alarm,
1 M. Wood's Transl. ut supr. Pref. sign. A. 5.
2 In the Advice given by the bishops assembled at Bononia
to Julius III. dated Oct. 20, 1553, they tell the pontiff, " As
for England, upon which you value yourself sb much, as if it
were to be ascribed to your good fortune, that that queen takes
care to extirpate heresy out of the kingdom", you have certainly
no share in that praise. Then we fear, lest that sudden felicity
should not be lasting. Besides the queen styles herself supreme
head of that kingdom, next and immediately after Christ ; so
that, though the old worship and ceremonies were never so much
restored, your power and authority is not to be retrieved." The
State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began,

392 THE LIFE OF
however, to the zealous friends ofthe pope; the
repeal of all the laws that had been made concern
ing religion, in the time of Edward, was the next
Act of the parliament, which enjoined, that after
the twentieth of December, no other form of
divine service should be used than that with which
the reign of Henry concluded.
The convocation, which, according to custom,
met at the same time with the parliament, was
summoned by Bonner, now restored to the see
of London, and who in this instance was exer
cising the duty of him who was then in the
Tower, the primate of all England ; to whose
approaching imprisonment he had, not many days
before, adverted with the usual insolence of vulgar
minds : " ' Mr. Canterbury must be placed where
is meet for him." In the lower house of convo
cation, while the principal labours of Cranmer,
the liturgy and articles of the last reign, were
denounced as heretical, the subject chosen for
disputation, at the desire of the queen, had been
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The prolo
cutor, Dr. Weston, and all the rest of the assem
bly, except five or six, maintained the corporal
presence in that sacrament. Among the dissen-
&c. published by Dr. Clagett, Preacher of Gray's Inn, 1688.
p. 33. The papal supremacy, however, was soon afterwards
conceded by Mary.
1 Burnet, ii. Rec. P. II. B. II. No. 7.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 393
tients was one, who afterwards confirmed his
arguments with the testimony of his blood, Phil
pot, archdeacon of Winchester. He required
that Ridley, and other Protestant prelates, might
be also allowed to dispute upon the controverted
points. As yet to those in prison such permission
was not granted. Meanwhile another day was
fixed for a public disputation, when, as Godwin
tells us, " ] the truth was oppressed by multitude,
not reason ;" and when the prolocutor, unable to
deny the force of this remark, upon the Protest
ants exclaiming, "We have the Word," (meaning
that the Scriptures were on their side,) could only
reply " But we have the Sword." These debates
led the way, however, to the removal of Cranmer,
and Ridley, and Latimer, from their prison to
Oxford. The complaints of the unfairness exhi
bited as well in the preceding disputation, as in
the exclusion of the ablest among the Reformers
from a share in it, awakened the Romish party
to a sense of shame, and occasioned the contro
versy to be renewed in the University, the
management of it being entrusted to a committee
formed both of Cambridge and Oxford divines.
On the 8th of March, 1554, the lieutenant of the
Tower was directed " 2 to deliver to Sir John
Wilhams, the bodies of the late archbishop of
Canterbury, Dr. Ridley, and Mr. Latimer, to be
1 Ann. 282. 2 Council-Book, Archaeol. xviii.

394 THE LIFE OF
by him conveyed to Oxford." Foxe relates, that
it was about the tenth of April, when these vene
rable prisoners arrived at Windsor on their way
to the University. It was on the fourteenth of
that month, when they were led from the common
prison in Oxford, called Bocardo, to meet their
opponents in the church of St. Mary. To the
prisoners on that day were submitted the questions
that were to be agitated ; which were these.
I. Whether the natural body of Christ was
really in the sacrament.
II. Whether any other substance did remain,
after the words of consecration, than the body of
Christ. III. Whether in the mass there was a propitia
tory sacrifice for the sins of the dead and living.
Cranmer had already given the ' negative to
all these propositions in his book on the Lord's
Supper. He was now required to abandon what
he had asserted, and to return to the unity of the
Church. The advantages of unity he acknow
ledged, if the unity professed was in agreement
with the words of Christ. Pondering a moment
on the propositions before him, he asked whether
by a natural body they meant an organical sensi
ble body ? They replied, the same that was born
ofthe Virgin. He directly denied it ; and assert-
1 See the account of his book on the Lord's Supper in the
present vol. chap. x.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 395
ing the other questions also to be in opposition to
the Scriptures, declined admission to the proffered
concord. The prolocutor then required him to
draw up a written x opinion upon all the points, on
the sixteenth to be ready personally to answer
the maintainers of them, and till then remanded
him to his confinement.
To Ridley was assigned the seventeenth day of
the month, and to Latimer the following day, for
their share in the contest. Throughout it the
three champions of the Reformation were not only
often interrupted by rude clamours, not only
scoffed at and reviled, but distracted by various
opponents, all urging and demanding answer at
the same time. " 2 Yet they forced their adver
saries to admire them. Cranmer did learnedly ;
and, according to the dignity wherein he so many
years had flourished, gravely : Ridley, acutely and
readily : Latimer, with a pleasant tartness, and
more solidly than could be expected of a man so
near the age of fourscore." It has been, however,
said of Cranmer, on this occasion, by Dr. Lingard,
that " 3 he was severely pressed with passages from
the Fathers;" as Gilpin had 4 ventured, many
years before, to say of Ridley as well as the
1 Collier has printed this opinion, which is in Latin, from a
manuscript copy in his own possession. Vol. ii. Rec. No. 71.
Foxe has given an English copy.
2 Godwin, Ann, 301. 3 Hist. Eng. Svo. vii. 271.
' In his Life of Latimer.

396 THE LIFE OF
archbishop; unjustly lowering them in their defence
to the character only of schoolmen ; pronounc
ing that of Cranmer also to have been noways ex
traordinary, and that his modesty seemed to have
been over-awed by his audience. Then neither
Gilpin nor Dr. Lingard, I am persuaded, had care
fully perused the long account which Foxe has pre
served of Cranmer's disputation. Instead of being
" severely pressed" by his opponents " with pas
sages from the Fathers," it was his easy task, it
was to his honour, it was to their shame, that in
their citations of such authorities he convicted
them repeatedly of blunders that depreciated their
learning, of falsehoods that disgraced their honesty.
Oglethorpe had no sooner commenced his argu
ment, than Cranmer bade him mend his incorrect
Latin. The prolocutor, attempting to falsify a
sentence in Chrysostome, was checked by the
archbishop, who told him that he never heard so
vain an inference as that which he drew from the
passage ; and, while exposing to the people the
misinterpretation of the eloquent Father, Cranmer
was answered only at the instigation of the prolo
cutor, and by the signal of his outstretched hand,
with hisses and clamour. Again, when his oppo
nent, in return, charged him also with altering a
word in Hilary, and that opponent appealed to
Dr. Smith, the well-known enemy of Cranmer,
for the truth of what he alleged, that enemy was
astonished at the ignorant appeal, and was silent.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 397
Cranmer, with his usual meekness, replied, that
he had not with him the book, which at once
would prove or deny the charge. After the dis
putation one of his academical auditors, however,
incensed at the malicious proceeding, carried to
him inthe prison " 1 a book to shew that he was
right concerning the aforesaid matter." The ge
nerous student was seized by the bailiffs, carried
to the prolocutor and his colleagues, and for his
pains was himself imprisoned. Yet once more :
Bishop Jewell, who had been one of the notaries
on the present occasion, in his controversy after
wards with Hardinge, 2 reminds him of Cranmer
then citing an authority from Theodoret, which,
because it was decisive against his opponents,
was utterly refused. Was such a man likely to
be overcome in discussions, of which the Fathers
were the topic ? Let Cranmer himself tell us
how he was used, and we shall then better judge
of the controversy and its issue. Thus he wrote
to the lords of the Council.
" s In right humble wise sheweth unto your
1 A. Wood relates the whole of this anecdote respecting , the
student. Ann. Univ. Ox. under the year 1554. Foxe details
through many pages the disputation in English. In the Uni
versity Library at Cambridge, are preserved copies of it in
Latin. 2 Jewell's Reply to Hardinge, 1564. p. 429.
3 Foxe. Strype.

398 THE LIFE OF
honourable lordships, Thomas Cranmer, late arch
bishop of Canterbury, beseeching the same to be
a means for me unto the queen's Highness for her
mercy and pardon. Some of you know by what
means I was brought and trained unto the will of
our late sovereign lord, king Edward VI. and what
I spake against the same ; wherein I refer me to the
reports of your honours and worships. Further
more, this is to signify to your lordships, that
upon Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last
past, were open disputations here in Oxford,
against me, Mr. Ridley, and Mr. Latimer, in
three matters concerning the sacrament. First,
ofthe real presence. Secondly, of transubstantia
tion. And, thirdly, of the sacrifice of the mass.
Upon Monday against me ; upon Tuesday against
Dr. Ridley; and upon Wednesday against Mr.
Latimer. How the other two were ordered I
know not ; for we were separated : so that none
of us knoweth what the other said ; nor how
they were ordered. But as concerning myself I
can report. Dr. Chedsey was appointed to dis
pute against me. But the disputation was so
confused, that I never knew the like : every man
bringing forth what he liked, without order : and
such haste was made, that no answer could be
suffered to be taken fully to any argument, be
fore another brought a new argument. And
in such weighty matters, the disputation must
needs be ended in one day, which can scantly be

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 399
ended in three months. And when we had an
swered them, they would not appoint us one day
to bring forth our proofs, that they might answer
us ; being required by me thereunto. Whereas I
myself have more to say, than can be well dis
cussed, as I suppose, in twenty days. The means
to resolve the truth had been to have suffered us
to answer fully to all that they could say ; and
then they again to answer us fully to all that we
can say. But why they would not answer us,
what other cause can there be, but that either
they feared their matter, or that they were not
able to answer us ? Or else for some considera
tion they made such haste, not to seek the truth,
but to condemn us : that it must be done in post
haste, before the matters could be thoroughly
heard. For in all haste we were all three con
demned of heresy. Thus much I thought good
to signify to your lordships, that you may know
the indifferent handling of matters : leaving the
judgment thereof unto your wisdoms. And I
beseech your lordships to remember me, a poor
prisoner, unto the queen's Majesty ; and I shall
pray, as I do daily,' unto God, for the long pre
servation of your good lordships in all godliness
and felicity. April 23, £1554.;]"

CHAPTER III.

1554.
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, condemned as heretics — Fur
ther remarks of Cranmer on the Oxford disputation — Dis
putation at Cambridge intended — Hesitation of the Council
as to further proceedings with the three prisoners — The
treatment of the prisoners — The marriage of Philip and
Mary — The consequence of it to Protestantism — Remarks
upon it — Anecdote relating to Elizabeth, by one of the
remarkers — Persecution of the Reformers.
The preceding letter of Cranmer to the lords of
the Council, had been entrusted by him to the
prolocutor Weston, who was immediately proceed
ing to London. On his journey, Weston was
base enough to open it ; and, careless of shame,
as he had been also in the disputation, returned
it to the archbishop. By J other means, no doubt,
it was afterwards conveyed to the Council.
Among the Letters of the Martyrs in Emanuel
College, Cambridge, it is still preserved.
1 By the carrier perhaps ; as he speaks of such conveyance
in another letter, at the same time, to Martin and Story, the
proctors at his trial. Foxe.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 401
It had been on the 20th of April, that Cran
mer, Ridley, and Latimer, " were condemned of
heresy." It was then, that Weston contempt
uously said to Cranmer, he had been overcome
in disputation. Not so, replied the archbishop,
1 for I was not suffered to oppose as I would,
nor could answer as I required, unless with four
or five at once continually interrupting me I
would, like them, have " brawled." The sentence
of condemnation was now read. From this judg
ment Cranmer 2 then appealed to the Almighty
Power only : we shall presently find him appeal
ing also to an earthly one. To the Bocardo
prison he was immediately re-conducted, while
Latimer and Ridley were consigned, at present,
to the houses of Oxford 3 citizens. On the following
day, the mass with a general procession was cele
brated. Cranmer, from the darker abode of his
prison, was insultingly 4 summoned to behold it ;
and from the house in which he was lodged, in
Hke manner, was brought the venerable Latimer,
who supposing that to the stake he was now to
be led, but finding that he was only to witness a
ceremony that he abhorred, 5 hid his face from
the passing pomp.
The Oxford disputations had no sooner closed,
than similar proceedings at Cambridge were me
ditated. With the ignorance and ridiculous con-

Ibid.

. ' Foxe.

2 Ibid.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

VOL. II.

Dd

402 THE LIFE OF
duct of l Weston the prolocutor, with the insults
instead of arguments to which the adversaries of
Cranmer in general had recourse, the sister
University was now to be amused ; while Hooper,
Bradford, Taylor, Philpot, and other learned Pro
testants, all whose names are enrolled among the
Marian martyrs, were designed, as they expressed
it, to be "baited." Of this project, as well as
of the disgraceful treatment of Cranmer, Latimer,
and Ridley, Hooper had heard. He therefore
2 advised his fellow-prisoners not to agree to any
other than a disputation in writing, except before
the queen and her Council, or before either of
the houses of parliament. They might then be
fairly heard. On the other hand, our adversa
ries, said he, would at Cambridge so determine
the matter beforehand, after the Oxford example,
as to cry out 3 victory, when " false allegations,
1 " Prolocutor, qui maxime sobrius et omnium sapientissimus
esse debuerat, ineptit maxime, nunc cachinnans, nunc minitans,
nunc blandiens, nunc innocentissimis patribus insultans, nunc
poculum manu tenens, et egregie potans, et exclamans, Urge
hoc !" Laur. Humfredi Vita Juelli, Episc. Sar. 1573, p. 105,
See also before, p. 396.
2 Foxe, and Strype, Ecc. Mem. iii. 119.
3 Dr. Humphry observes, that when Weston, at the close of
the disputation with Cranmer, shouted, " vicit Veritas," he
should have said, " vicit vanitas." Vit. Juel. ut supr. This
learned biographer also reports the behaviour of the auditors at
the disputation, as in disgraceful conformity with the conduct
of the prolocutor : " Non erat quietum auditorium, ut iste
(Weston) significavit, sed plenum tumultibus ; ubi, prseter

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 403
mocks, and taunts," would warrant no other ex
clamation than vanity. It is not only in Cranmer's
own letter, it is not only in Foxe's account, it is
in the contemporary powerful narrative also of
Laurence Humphry, afterwards president of Mag
dalen College, Oxford, that we find a detail of
these mockeries in disputation that had induced
Hooper to protest against a repetition of them.
The protestation accordingly of himself, and of
those whom he addressed, put a stop to the in
tention of the oral debate at Cambridge.
The sentence upon the silenced prisoners at
Oxford remained to be confirmed by Mary and
her Council. On the 3d of May, " ' it was or
dered by the lords of the Council, that the mayor
of Oxford should bring in his bill of allowances
for the charges of doctor Cranmer, doctor Ridley,
and Mr. Latimer, and should have a warrant for
the same ; and further, it was resolved by their
lordships, that the judges and the queen's counsel
learned should be called together, and their opi
nions demanded what they think in law her
Highness may do touching the said Cranmer,
Ridley, and Latimer, being already, by both the
Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, judged to
be obstinate heretics ; which matter is the rather
clainores, supplosiones pedum, sputa, screatus, et hujusmodi,
nihil fere audires !"
1 Council- Book, Archaeol. ut supr.
Dd 2

404 THE LIFE OF
to be consulted upon, for that the said Cranmer
is already attainted."
The hesitation, thus evinced, continued many
months. Meantime the prisoners were deprived
of their own servants, and by those who attended
them appear to have been little regarded. " * The
manner of [^our] entreating," said Ridley, " doth
change, as sour ale in summer." Sometimes they
were prohibited from communicating with each
other ; sometimes were charged with absurd at
tempts to escape from their confinement. By no
friendly visits of the academics were they consoled*
By the townsmen of Oxford, however, as by
many persons also in the metropolis, they were
supplied with various necessaries; yet money,
which had been sent for their use, 2 appears to have
been embezzled. The s government did indeed
order for them both food and raiment, although,
to its shame, they who obeyed the order * appear
to have sought in vain from that government the
payment of what they had 5 expended in conse-
1 Ridley to Bradford, Lett, of the Martyrs, 58.
2 Strype.
* Ridley to Bradford, Lett, of the Martyrs, 69.
* Strype.
6 Dr. Humphry wrote to archbishop Parker on this occasion,
and mentions the debt as " due for the table of Cranmer, by
the queen's majesty's appointment." MSS. Corp. Chr. Coll.
Camb. Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 405
quence of it. To the bailiffs of Oxford this order
had been given. In the early part of Elizabeth's
reign, these officers presented a memorial to arch
bishop Parker, in which they state, " l that, in the
second and third years of king Philip and queen
Mary, archbishop Cranmer, bishop Latimer, and
bishop Ridley, were by order of the Council com
mitted to the custody of them, and so continued
a certain time ; and that for them they disbursed
the sum of 63/. 10s. 2d. whereof but 20/. was
paid to them. Therefore, they pray his grace,
and the rest of the bishops, to be a means among
themselves, that the remaining sum may be paid
to them, being 43/. 10s. 2d. or some part thereof;
otherwise, they and their poor wives and children
should be utterly undone." Strype had seen a
2 book, in which the diet of the three prisoners,
when they were allowed to eat together, is men
tioned ; and he copies from it a dinner on the first
of October, (1554), viz. :
Bread and Ale, . . iid. Item, Ling, . . viiiJ-
Item, Oysters, • • id. Fresh Salmon, • • xd.
Item, Bread, .... iid. Wine  iiid.
Item, Eggs, .... iid. Cheese & Pears, iid.
It is added, that they constantly ate suppers as
well as dinners ; that their meals usually amounted
to three or four shillings, never exceeding four ;
that, at both meals, cheese and pears were the
1 Strype. 2 MSS. Corp. C. C. C. ut supr.

406 THE LIFE OF
last dish ; and that they had always wine, of
which the price was ever three-pence, and no
more. Ere three months of their imprisonment, sub
sequent to their condemnation, had passed, the
queen gave her hand to Philip of Spain. The
complete restoration of England to Romanism
was the immediate consequence. But Roman
Catholics, as well as Protestants, had not scrupled
to express their dissatisfaction at the prospect of
a foreign prince on the throne of England. It
might be supposed, from the ' narrative of Burnet,
that this subject of almost universal sorrow had
called forth the public indignation also of the
imprisoned Reformers. For the historian says,
" that there was a very abusive libel printed in
the form of a letter, as written by Bradford to
the queen, in which it was said, that it was
believed her Majesty intended to give the crown
to the king, hoping, that he then would keep
company with her more, and live more chaste,
contrary to his nature, &c." Strype rescues the
martyr Bradford from the imputation of such a
proceeding, by 2 informing us, that the writer of
the letter, was indeed a John Bradford, but one
who had been a servant to Sir William Skipwith,
and afterwards to a privy councillor in Spain, with

1 Hist. Ref. vol. iii. under the year 1554.
2 Ecc. Mem. iii. 250.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 407
whom he had lived two or three years. Bradford,
the prisoner, now employed himself in writing
consolatory ' letters to his friends, or in commu
nicating to Cranmer and his companions, from
whom in another prison he was now separated,
thoughts upon religious topics of the 2 deepest
importance. But as Strype has copied what has
been related of the other Bradford, apparently
too the whole of his hbel from a manuscript of
Foxe, and as if addressed (as Burnet also says),
only to the queen ; it may amuse the reader to be
informed, that the printed little volume is" 3 An
1 Foxe has printed many of them ; and they are said to have
rendered essential service to the progress ofthe Reformation.
2 Upon " the holy election and predestination of God." His
treatise on this subject he submitted to Cranmer, Latimer, and
Ridley, at Oxford, observing, that if they approved of it, " the
rest of the eminent ministers in and about London were willing
to sign it also." Strype. Bradford was a predestinarian. Of
any answer from Cranmer to him on this occasion, there is no
account known. Of Cranmer's Opposition to the doctrine of
absolute pedestination there are several evidences in these
volumes. See vol. i. p. 201. Vol. ii. p. 302-305.
3 This rare book is in the Lambeth Library. It concludes
with a rude poem of twelve stanzas, entitled, " A tragicall blast
of the papisticall trompetre for maintenance of the pope's
kingdome in Englande." The trumpeter in the first stanza
proclaims, " England is our's both far and near,
" No king shall reign if we say nay :
" Now all shaven crowns to the standard ;
" Make room, pulldown, for the Spaniard !"

408 THE LIFE OF
Adnjonicion to all Englishe men," while it also
addresses by name certain of the nobility ; that
it contains other matter than Strype has given ;
that it lashes the low amorous propensities of
Philip still more severely than the little extract
selected by Burnet ; and that it records an anec
dote relating to Elizabeth in a manner so solemn,
as to arrest especial attention. " ' I call God for
a true and just witness," the writer says, " that I
have heard with mine ears, and seen the same
persons with mine eyes, that have said, if ever
the king (Philip) might have a just title to the
crown, and obtain it, he would make that most
virtuous lady Elizabeth's Grace sure for ever
coming to inherit the same, or any other of our
cursed nation. For they say, if they could keep
England, in subjection, they could do more with
England and Flanders, than all the rest of the
king's kingdoms. Remember, if this warning be
not sufficient to cause noble men to take heed that
so virtuous a lady, so beautiful, and so comely a
princess, should £nof] first of all, beside all the
great number that should follow afterwards, be
either banished the island, or else put to death
miserably for that which should be her own
right by just and lawful descent."
But if the English Reformers were silent upon
the subject of the Spanish match, their foreign
' Sign. E. iii. and iiii.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 409
friends were not so. John a Lasco ' foretold the
fate of it ; that it would be unhappy. Peter
Martyr to his a friends communicated an account
of the general disturbance occasioned by the
queen's intending to marry Philip. These Re
formers were now beyond the reach of the perse
cution, which in England was pressing forward
its deadly step. Our own reformed preachers,
now immured in the metropolis, are said to have
been " s alarmed;" and alarmed because of the
revival of the ancient statutes against heretics.
?' To ward off the impending danger," Dr. Lingard
says, " they composed and forwarded petitions,
including a confession of their faith, both to the
king and queen, and to the lords and commons
assembled in parliament." But this historian for
bears to relate, that what he calls petitions, were
in fact 4 challenges to justify the Reformation,
after the example which Cranmer had afforded ;
that, without any reference to " the impending
danger" of the sanguinary statutes, the challenge
of our preachers had been made, for it bears the
date of May, and the revival of those statutes
that of December, 1554 ; and that, after the un
popular marriage of Philip and Mary, they repeated
the declaration that had preceded it. They were
1 Letter to his friend Hardenberg. Gerdes. Misc. ii. 697.
2 To Calvin; Strype. To Utenhovius; Gerdes. Misc. iv. 668.
3 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 261.
4 As Burnet and Strype rightly call them*

410 THE LIFE OF
ready 1 to maintain against any opponents, they
said, the conformity to God's Word of the homi
lies and service of Edward's reign ; they were
ready to vindicate the right of marriage to the
clergy ; they were ready to confute the tenets of
communion under one kind, of transubstantiation,
of the sacrifice of the mass, of the invocation of
saints, and of a liturgy in an unknown tongue.
They warned all men not to assent to any kind of
rebellion or sedition against the queen ; and bade
them, where they could not obey without disobe
dience to God, with all patience and humihty to
suffer as the will and pleasure of the higher powers
might adjudge.
Such had been the lesson taught them by
Cranmer. For thus he had addressed the sove
reign, whose heart, however, was steeled against
him, as now it also was against his followers.
" 2 As concerning the state of religion, as it is
used in this realm at present, if it please your
Majesty to license me, I would gladly write my
mind unto your Majesty. I will never, God will
ing, be author of sedition, to move subjects from
the obedience to their heads and rulers ; which is
an offence most detestable. If I have uttered my
mind to your Majesty, being a Christian queen

1 Burnet. Strype.
2 The remainder of his letter to the queen, before cited.
See p. 360-362.

ARCHBISHOP; CRANMER. 411
and governor of this realm, (of whom I am most
assuredly persuaded that your gracious intent is,
above all other regards, to prefer God's true word,
His honour and glory,) if I have uttered, I say,
my mind unto your Majesty, then I shall think
myself discharged. For it lies not in me, but in
your Grace only, to see the reformation of things
that be amiss. To private subjects it appertaineth
not to reform things, but quietly to suffer that
they cannot amend. Yet nevertheless, to shew
your Majesty my mind in things appertaining
unto God, methink it my duty ; knowing that I
do, and considering the place which in time past
I have occupied. Yet will I not presume there
unto, without your Grace's pleasure first known,
and your licence obtained." To the disputation at
Oxford, but upon the solitary subject of the cor
pora] presence only, Cranmer was indeed referred ;
and then was left in prison, where the review of
his answer on the sacrament to Gardiner, but no
permitted discussion of religious topics for the
queen, employed the hours of his solitude.
The application also of the other preachers in
each instance was refused. It was after the first
of these, that the hated nuptials were celebrated,
and that the revival of the ancient laws against
heretics soon followed the nuptials. Neither the
lady sovereign, nor her foreign spouse, was in
clined to abolish in this respect the cruelty of the
papal church. On the contrary, as Dr. Lingard

412 THE LIFE OF
himself asserts, " ' the foulest blot on the cha
racter of this queen is her long and cruel per
secution of the Reformers. The sufferings of the
victims naturally begat an antipathy to the woman,
by whose authority they were inflicted." But
the writer adds, " it is, however, but fair to re
collect what I have already noticed, that the
extirpation of erroneous doctrine was inculcated
as a duty by the leaders of every religious party.
Mary only practised what they taught." Now by
such, as are not well acquainted with the history
of Mary's reign, it might hence be supposed that
by our Reformers she had been instructed in the
lesson of persecution ; and the words of a recent
noble writer might hence be thought to derive
support, where he says, that " it would appear
to be little known, that the statutes, which enabled
Mary to burn those who had conformed to the
Church of her father and brother, were Protestant
statutes." But Dr. Lingard shall rectify this
assertion. " 2 Though it had been held in the
last reign," the historian observes, " that by the
common law of the land, heresy was a crime
punishable with death, it was [[now]] deemed advisa
ble to revive the statutes which had formerly been
enacted to suppress the doctrines of the lollards.
Gardiner apprised the chief of the prisoners

1 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 330.
2 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 260.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. . 413
of the statutes Cthus]] enacted, and put them in
mind of the punishment which awaited their dis
obedience." In other words, he reminded them
of the lesson that for ages past had been taught
by the Church of Rome ; but he ventured not to
charge them as having followed it with her eager
ness, or as having announced their intention of
consigning to the flames all who might maintain
religious tenets at variance with their own. It
was reserved for the learned historian, whom we
have just cited, to accuse our Reformers of an
intention, which by other writers is believed not
to have existed, and which in the corrected copy
of the code of laws that they had formed, it has
1 already been shewn, is at once denied. " 2 The
statutes," which now were to kindle the flames,
" had been repealed," as another learned writer
of the Church of Rome admits," in the late reign."
A third, however, pronounces Mary's, revival
of them, in a spirit of the bitterest intolerance,
as an enactment 3 exalting the character of a
Christian sovereign.
1 See before, B. II. chap. 13.
2 Phillips, Life of Card. Pole, 8vo. ii. 217.
3 " Legibus enim antiquis de puniendis haereticis, iterilm
zelo principe Christians dignissimo renovatis, non solum ille,
(Cranmerus,) sed et aliquot pseudo-prophetarum centuriae sunt
sublatae." Sanders, De Schism. Angl. ed. 1586. This inhuman
remark is not in the first edition of Sanders's book. It was
probably added by Rishton, the suspicious editor of the second
edition.

414 THE LIFE OF
" l With whom the persecution under Mary
originated," Dr. Lingard further remarks, " is a
matter of uncertainty. By the reformed writers
the infamy of the measure is usually allotted to
Gardiner, more, as far as I can judge, from con
jecture and prejudice, than from real information.
The charge is not supported by any authentic
document : it is weakened by the general tenor
ofthe chancellor's conduct. All that we know
with certainty, is, that after the queen's marriage
this question was frequently debated by the lords
of the council ; and that their final resolution was
not communicated to her before the beginning
of November." Mary certainly replied, " that
the punishment of heretics ought to be done
without rashness," but concluded her answer with
saying, that " especially within London, she
would wish none to be burnt without some of
the Council's presence, and that both there and
every where there should be good sermons at the
same time."
The signal was now given for punishments that
in 2 no age of the same religion, in no country,
were ever executed with so many circumstances
of cruelty. He who will turn to the 3 remon
strance of bishop Jewell, who had been one of
Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 259.
2 See Warton, Life of Sir Thomas Pope, p. 60.
3 Replieto M. Hardinge's Answer, &c. 1565, pp. 573, 574.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 415
Cranmer's secretaries at the Oxford disputation,
in his reply to Hardinge, who is said to have been
the chaplain of the lady Jane Grey, but had be
come a Romish convert, will find that it is not in
the narrative of Foxe alone, but by the solemn
assertions also of one of the most pious and
learned persons of the time, that the various
agonizing tortures to which the reformed were
led, are but too true, and that extenuations
therefore of Mary's conduct, which from her
own to the present time have indeed though
rarely been offered, are at least injudicious, if not
insidious. The Six Articles, "the sanguinary
stain of Henry's reign, and the production J chiefly
of Gardiner, were now expected to be also re
vived. An inquisition too, as in the country of
Philip, was dreaded. It was enough however
to destroy the confidence of her subjects, it was
enough to confirm their aversion to herself and
her husband, that the heretic laws, without further
enactments, were now compelling them to papal
subjection, or daily leading them to the stake.
In February, 1555, the distinguished Reformers,
Rogers, Hooper, and Taylor, preceded their nu
merous brethren at the funeral pyre. Cranmer,
Latimer, and Ridley, were as yet unsummoned to
it. Meantime the queen imagined herself about
to present an heir to the kingdom. Her mis-
1 See before, vol. i. p. 272, seq.
1

416 THE LIFE OF
taken belief was converted by the public voice
into a matter of fact. The ' Muses only antici
pated the birth. But in more than one 2 cathe
dral, and in other churches, a solemn celebration,
as of a real delivery, was observed. The Romanists
appealed to the expectation, rather than the
reality of such an event, as a 3 proof of the divine
favour towards their doctrine. In her imaginary
situation, however, Mary appears to have been, as
it were, like lady Macbeth, " without compunc
tious visitings of nature to shake her fell purpose."
For Strype tells us, twice, of a letter from Peter
Martyr, in which it is asserted that she thought
and said, " she could not happily be delivered, nor
that any thing could proceed prosperously with
her, unless all the heretics were burnt to a man."
1 A ballad of joy was published : It began,
" Now singe, nowe springe, our care is exil'd,
" Our vertuous quene is quickned with child !
" And yet since her Hignes was planted in peace,
" Her subjects were dubtful of her Highnes' increse ;
" But now the recomfort, their murmur doth cease,
" They have their own wyshynge," &c.
See Dibdin, Typogr. Antiq. iv. 407. A ballad which had
been addressed to Philip and Mary on their marriage, is also
printed. Ib. 409.
2 Norwich. Strype. But Stow gives a long account also
of this celebration at St. Paul's Cathedral in London. 4to.
ed. 1060.
3 Bradford relates this in a letter to his fellow-sufferers.
Lett, of the Mart. 439. And the ballad, already cited, abun
dantly thus presumes upon it.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 417
Burnet, however, only says, that on the 18th of
June a letter was written from London to P.
Martyr, ' telling him that it was given out that
the queen had said, she could not be happily
delivered till all the heretics then in prison were
burned. Hence perhaps the communication of
Martyr to his friend 2 Alexander, as repeatedly
cited by Strype. We might hope, that this was
rumour only, if the whole tenor of Mary's con
duct did not countenance the truth of it. Her
deep malignity towards those who differed from
her rehgious profession, brought indeed 3 two
hundred and eighty-eight fellow-creatures to the
stake, while in various prisons it left to the des
troying hand of famine many others. Rogers,
the protomartyr, supposed her to have been
misled in her eagerness for persecution by Gar
diner. No, said that prelate, in answer to the
supposition, " 4 The queen went before me, and
it was her own motion."
But the queen well knew the temper and the
proceedings of her chancellor. Him, who had
i Burnet, Hist. Ref. iii. under the year 1555, where he refers
to Martyr's Loci Com. 1626, fol. 769.
2 Pet. Martyr ad Alexand. Strype Life of Cranm. B. iii. ch.
17. Again, B. iii. ch. 26. Alexander had been Cranmer's
secretary, and was at this time a prebendary of Canterbury.
3 Lord Burghley's Account. Strype, Ecc. Mem. iii. 474,
and Rec. p. 29 1 .
* Foxe.
VOL. II. e e

418 THE LIFE OF
with so much zeal * contributed to the enactment
of the sanguinary Six Articles in her father's
reign, she could direct without fear of remon
strance, and with the belief of entire co-operation
in the cruelties of her own. The reprinting of
his book at Strasburg, De vera obedientia, which
he had first published in 1534, and to which
Bonner had prefixed a laudatory preface; the
translation of it also by Michael Wood into Eng
lish, which, in 1553 was printed at Rouen, and
sent over into England ; now tended not a little
to augment his harshness. The books exposed
his fellow-tyrant and himself to just ridicule and
censure. The first reformed preachers that were
brought before him, scrupled not to remind him
of that which, in the time of Henry, both he and
Bonner had there taught with such pretended
loyalty, but now disclaimed with such consummate
impudence. " 2 You wrote truly against the pope,
and were sworn against him," said Dr. Rowland
Taylor to Gardiner examining him. " I tell
thee," was the reply, " it was Herod's oath, un
lawful ; and, therefore, ought to be broken and
not kept ; and our holy father the pope hath
discharged me of it." So, when Bradford re
minded him of his inconsistency, again he resorted
to his former plea, " Tush, Herod's oaths a man
should make no conscience at." — " But, my lord,
1 See before, vol. i. p. 272, seq. 2 Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 419
these are no Herod's oaths, no unlawful oaths,"
said Bradford, " but oaths according to God's
Word, as you yourself have well affirrried in your
book, De vera obedientia." He was now intent
upon urging capital punishments ; and, notwith
standing he was so notoriously known to be the
great instrument of burning and destroying so
many Protestants, a ' Jesuit has represented him
" as mild and merciful." Of a Jesuit alone this
is the assertion. And yet there was 2 hardly an
arrest, an examination, or a punishment, in which
Gardiner was not active. " Mark the marvellous
confidence of his panegyrist," says Strype, " in
endeavouring to face out a thing, the contrary to
which was most notoriously known, and severely
felt." It was upon heretics of distinction, who
were said to have misled their inferiors, that
Gardiner 3 advised those punishments first to be
inflicted. Against the reformed prelates, Cranmer,
Ridley, Latimer, and Hooper, this advice was
evidently levelled. Hooper soon suffered in con-
1 Father Parsons, or Persons, a convert from the Church of
England to that of Rome, and a traitor to his country. Vindic.
of Cranmer by the present writer, 8vo. xcii. 12mo. 105. By
a writer of his own communion, his mind has been described,
as his numerous writings were, " dark, imposing, problematical,
seditious." Mem. of Panzani, by the Rev. J. Berrington,
Introd. p. 28.
2 See Turners Reign of Mary, 282.
3 Collier.
E e 2

420 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
sequence of it ; Latimer and Ridley ere long
followed ; and Cranmer was awhile reserved, only
first to be brutally insulted and then to be insi
diously soothed for martyrdom at the same stake
where those twoiriends expired.

CHAPTER IV.

1555.
Cranmer's and other books prohibited — The reunion of the
Church of England with that of Rome — Proceedings against
Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, renewed — Cranmer first
brought before the papal commissioners — His condemnation
deferred — Ridley and Latimer condemned and burnt — The
conduct of Cranmer upon that occasion.
The convocation in the preceding year had
1 petitioned the king and queen, that Cranmer's
treatise of the sacrament, the late service-books,
and others which they named heretical, should
be burnt ; that all who possessed them should be
required to bring them in, or else be treated, as the
favourers of heresy ; and that upon books hence
forward printed, or to be sold, a vigilant teye
should be kept. Accordingly the royal 2 pro
clamation did prohibit, though it consigned not
to the flames, all the writings not only of Cran
mer, and of our countrymen, Tindal, Hooper,
1 Burnet. Strype. 2 Ames, 518.

422 THE LIFE OF
Latimer, Coverdale, Barnes, Turner, Becon,
Frith, Bale, and even Hall, the chronicler ; but
those also of the distinguished foreigners, Oeco-
lampadius, Zuinglius, Calvin, Pomerane, John a
Lasco, Bullinger, Bucer, Melancthon, Ochin,
Erasmus, and Peter Martyr.
Before the close also of 1554, Pole, the legate
of the, papal see, had reached this country, in
order to reunite the Church of England with that
of Rome. The palace, of which Cranmer had
been dispossessed, was prepared for his residence.
The distinction of supreme head now no longer
accompanied the regal title ; and the power of
the pontiff would again have here been absolute,
if he had been able to withhold his assurance of
the abbey lands to the new owners, the lords and
gentlemen by whom they had been obtained.
Even the Roman Catholic prelates and clergy
petitioned, that he would not insist on a restitu
tion of these revenues. But lest he might, an
Act of Parliament was passed, which gave to the
present proprietors the security they required;
while, in return, the pontiff, ' although most
essentially weakened by the alienation of that
wealth on which his power so much depended,
was reinstated in his supremacy.
The new year opened to Cranmer, and his
fellow-prisoners, with no alleviation of their me-
1 Warton, Life of Sir T. Pope, 43.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 423
lancholy state. Nearly nine months had passed
when the condemnation, which Weston had pro
nounced upon them, was considered necessary to
be repeated by commissioners who should de
rive their authority from Rome. When Weston
was their judge, that authority had not been
received in England; nor by any law then in
force was his sentence justifiable. By the legate
therefore a commission was issued to examine,
absolve, or degrade, or deliver to the secular arm,
Latimer and Ridley. In regard to Cranmer, ano
ther was sent by the pope himself. To Brookes,
bishop of Gloucester, on this occasion the delegate
of the cardinal de Puteo, who was the principal
commissioner named by the pontiff, for the sake of
form ; and to the civilians Martin and Story, who
were the royal proctors ; was deputed the cogni
zance of the crimes alleged against the archbishop.
On the ' 9th of September they opened their
commission in the church of St. Mary at Oxford,
and settled other preliminaries as to the proceed7
ing. It was not till the 12th that all things were
ready for the renovated trial. Brookes then was
seated on a lofty scaffold, erected over the high
altar ; beneath him were the proctors, with other
civilians ; and around them a numerous auditory.
From his prison guarded, Cranmer then was intro-
1 Processus contra Cranmerum. MSS. Lambeth. Lib.
No. 1136.

424 THE LIFE OF *
duced. His dress was that of a black gown,
with his doctor's hood over it. His head was
as yet covered. Nor, when he saw the papal
representative on his throne, did he " vail his
bonnet," but stood silent till the charge against
him was proclaimed, which was, " Thomas, arch
bishop of Canterbury, appear here, and make
answer to that which shall be laid to thy charge ;
that is to say, for blasphemy, incontinency, and
heresy ; and make answer here to the bishop of
Gloucester, representing the pope's person."
Being now brought nearer to the scaffold, and
observing the regal proctors, to them, as the re
presentatives of the sovereign, he respectfully
bowed, and pulled off his cap. To Brookes he
still refused this tribute ; when the mitred com
missioner, resenting the slight, told him, it might
beseem him well, considering the authority that
was represented, not to withhold from him the
same courteous acknowledgment. The arch
bishop answered, 'That once he had taken a
solemn oath, never to consent to the readmission,
into the realm of England, of the papal authority ;
that still he would keep that oath ; and that
therefore no sign or token, which might argue
his consent to receiving the same, would he give :
Not for any contempt of the commissioner's per
son, he continued, did he thus act ; for if his
1 Foxe. Burnet. Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 425
commission had been regal, like that of the proc
tors, instead of papal, he would not have failed
immediately to respect it.
Brookes then addressed him in a long speech,
no less distinguished by ! absurdity than by abuse,
in which he reminded him of the charges pro
claimed against him ; urged him to repent of his
apostasy ; bade him consider in his own case the
tender mercies of Mary, by pretending that yet she
spared him, under the hope of amendment ; and
condescended to be the first of those treacherous
advisers, who, in order to make him " unsay what
he had said," resorted to the gullery with which
the poor archbishop was afterwards befooled and
cheated, saying, " As for the loss of your estima
tion, it is ten to one that when you were arch
bishop of Canterbury, and metropolitan of Eng
land, it is ten to one, I say, that you shall be as
well still, yea, and rather better."
The proctor Martin followed the delegate in
an oration, condensing the insolence of the latter
1 Brookes republished in 1555 the sermon which he had
preached late in 1553 before Mary, and had then printed, on the
subject of Jairus's speech to Christ, " My daughter is even now
dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live."
These words he applied to the kingdom and church of England
upon the late defection from the pope, even dead before Mary
came to reign, but then reviving and living again. The Protes
tants rightly censured him as making himself Jairus, England
his daughter, and the queen Christ. Strype. Ecc. Mem. iii. 74.

426 THE LIFE OF
into a smaller compass ; after which he exhibited
the instrument that empowered him and Story to
act as the royal proctors, as well as the articles of
accusation against the prisoner. His oration
being ended, the archbishop said, " Shall I now
make my answer ?" Martin replied, " As you
think good : no man shall hinder you."
The archbishop, then kneeling down, said first
the Lord's Prayer ; then, rising up, recited the
articles of the Creed ; and afterwards * thus de
clared his protestation against the proceedings.
" Cranmer. This I do profess as touching my
faith, and make my protestation, which I desire
you to note. I will never consent that the bishop
of Rome shall have any jurisdiction within this
realm. " Story. Take a note thereof.
" Martin. Mark, D. Cranmer, how you answer
for yourself. You refuse and deny him, by whose
laws you do remain in life, being otherwise at
tainted of high treason, and but a dead man by
the laws of this realm.
" Cranmer. I protest before God I was no
traitor ; but indeed I confessed more at my ar
raignment than was true.
" Martin. That is not to be reasoned at this
present. You know you were condemned for a
1 Strype omits this curious part of the process, merely re
ferring his reader to the martyrology of Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 427
traitor, and res judicata pro veritate accipitur.
But proceed to your matter.
" Cranmer. My lord," addressing the bishop
of Gloucester, " you have very learnedly and
eloquently in your oration put me in remem
brance of many things touching myself, wherein
I do not mean to spend the time in answering of
them. I acknowledge God's goodness to me in
all His gifts, and thank Him as heartily for this
state wherein I find myself now, as ever I did for
the time of my prosperity ; and it is not the loss
of my promotions that grieveth me. The greatest
grief I have at this time, and one of the greatest
that ever I had in all my life, is, to see the king
and queen's Majesties by their proctors here to
become my accusers, and that in their own realm,
and country, before a foreign power. If I have
transgressed the laws of the land, their Majesties
have sufficient authority and power, both from
God, and by the ordinance of this realm, to
punish me, whereunto I both have been, and
at all time shall be, content to submit myself.
" Alas, what has the pope to do in England,
whose jurisdiction is so far different from the
jurisdiction of this realm, that it is impossible to
be true to the one, and true to the other ? The
laws also are so diverse, that whosoever sweareth
to both, must needs incur perjury to the one.
Which as oft as I remember, even for the love
that I bear to her Grace, I cannot but be heartily

428 THE LIFE OF
sorry to think upon it, how that her Highness the
day of her coronation, at which time she took a
solemn oath to observe all the laws and liberties
of this realm of England, at the same time also
took an oath to the bishop of Rome, and pro
mised to maintain that see. The state of Eng
land being so repugnant to the supremacy of the
pope, it is impossible, but she must needs be
forsworn to the one. Wherein if her Grace had
been faithfully advertised by her Council, then
surely she would never have done it.
" The laws of this realm are, that the king of
England is the supreme and sole governor of all
his countries and dominions ; and that he holdeth
his crown and sceptre of himself, by the ancient
laws, customs, and descents, of the kings of the
realm, and of none other. The pope saith, that
all emperors and kings hold their crowns and re
galities of him, and that he may depose them
when he list ; which is high treason for any man
to affirm or think, being born within the king's
dominions. " The laws of England are, that all bishops
and priests, offending in cases of felony or treason,
are to be judged and tried by the laws and cus
toms of the realm. The pope's laws are, that
the secular power cannot judge the spiritual
power, and that they are not under their juris
diction ; which robbeth the king of the one part
of his people.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 429
" The laws also of England are, that whosoever
hindereth the execution or proceeding of the laws
of England for any other foreign laws, ecclesiastical
or temporal, incurreth the danger of a premunire.
The pope's laws are, that whosoever hindereth
the proceedings or executions of his laws for
any other laws of any other king or country, both
the prince himself, his Council, all his officers,
scribes, clerks, and whosoever give consent or
aid to the making or executing of any such laws,
stand accursed. A heavy case, if his curse
were any thing worth, that the king and queen
cannot use their own laws, but they and all their's
must stand accursed.
" And as for the matter of heresy and schism,
wherewith I am charged, I protest and call God
to witness, that I know none that I have main
tained. But if that were a heresy to deny the
pope's authority, and the rehgion which the see of
Rome hath published to the world these latter
years, then all the ancient Fathers of the Primi
tive Church, the Apostles, and Christ himself,
taught heresy ; and I desire all present to bear
me witness, that I take the traditions and religion
of that usurping prelate to be most erroneous,
false, and against the doctrine of the whole Scrip
ture; which oftentimes I have well proved by
writing, and the author of the same to be, very
antichrist, so often preached of by the Apostles
and Prophets, in whom did most evidently concur

430 THE LIFE OF
all signs and tokens whereby he was pointed out
to the world to be known."
The archbishop then exposed other arrogant
pretensions of the pontiff, not without alluding to
his own unjustly condemned opinion as to the
doctrine of the sacrament ofthe altar; " for if it
can be proved," said he, " by any Doctor above
a thousand years after Christ, that Christ's body
is there really, I will give over. My book was
made seven years ago, and no man hath brought
any authors against it." He concluded this unin
terrupted defence, by expressing his hope, that
the king and queen, if they were rightly informed,
would do well. This observation awakened the
zeal of Martin.
" Martin. As you understand then, if they
maintain the supremacy of Rome, they cannot
maintain England too.
" Cranmer. I desire you to declare to the
king and queen what I have said, and how their
oaths do stand with the realm and the pope. St.
Gregory saith, he that taketh upon him to be head
of the Universal Church, is worse than the antii
christ. If any man can shew me, that it is not
against God's Word to hold his stirrup when he
taketh his horse, or kiss his feet, as kings do,
then I will kiss his feet also. And you, for your
part, my lord, are perjured; for now you sit
judge for the pope, and yet you did receive your
bishopric of the king. You have taken an oath

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 431
to be adversary to the realm ; for the pope's laws
are contrary to the laws ofthe realm.
" Bp. of Gloucester. You were the cause that
I did forsake the pope, and did swear that he
ought not to be supreme head, and gave it to king
Henry the Eighth, that he ought to be it ; and
this you made me to do.
" Cranmer. To this I answer, you report me
ill, and say not the truth ; and I will prove it
here before you all. The truth is, that my * pre
decessor, archbishop Warham, gave the supre
macy to king Henry the Eighth, and said that he
ought to have it before the bishop of Rome, and
that God's Word would bear him. And upon the
same was there sent to both the Universities,
Oxford and Cambridge, to know what the Word
of God would do touching the supremacy ; and it
was reasoned upon, aud argued, at length. So at
the last both Universities agreed, and set to their
seals, and sent it to king Henry, that he ought to
be supreme head, and not the pope. You were
then doctor of divinity, and your consent was
thereunto as your hand doth appear. Therefore
you misreport me, that I was the cause of your
falling away from the pope ; but it was yourself.
All this was in bishop Warham's time, and whilst
he was alive ; so that it was three quarters of a
1 See before, vol. i. p. 69. .
1

432 THE LIFE OF
year after, ere I had the archbishopric of Canter
bury in my hands, and before I might do any
thing. So that here you have reported of me
that, which you cannot prove ; which is evil
done." The self-convicted judge could only meanly
reply : " We come to examine you ; and you,
methink, examine us."
After Story had next interposed an oration in
behalf of the papal supremacy, Martin again ad
dressed the archbishop ; whose words, together
with the replies to them, Foxe resolved not to
overpass, although the Romish reporter, employed
to note them, had been extremely partial, omit
ting nothing that might promote the object
of the accuser, but much that was favourable
to that of the accused. Such as the dialogue
was, even thus unfairly described, it is too im
portant not to be copied. The proctor Mar
tin opens it.
" Master Cranmer, you have told here a long
glorious tale, pretending some matter of conse
quence in appearance, but in verity you have no
conscience at all. You say that you have sworn
once unto king Henry the Eighth against the
pope's jurisdiction, and, therefore, you may never
forswear the same ; and so you make a great
matter of conscience in the breach of the said
oath. Here will I ask you a question or two.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 433
What if you made an oath to a harlot to live
with her in continual adultery, ought you to
keep it ?
" Cranmer. I think not.
" Martin. What if you did swear never to
lend a poor man one penny, ought you to keep
it? " Cranmer. I think not.
" Martin. Herod did swear whatsoever his
harlot asked of him he would give her, and he
gave her John Baptist's head. Did he well in
keeping his oath ?
" Cranmer. I think not.
" Martin. Jephthah, one of the judges of
Israel, did swear unto God, that if he would give
him victory over his enemies, he would offer unto
God the first soul that came forth of his house.
It happened, that his own daughter came first ;
and he slew her to save his oath. Did he well ?
" Cranmer. I think not.
" Martin. So saith St. Ambrose de officiis : It
is a miserable necessity, which is paid with par
ricide. Then, master Cranmer, you can no less
confess, by the premises, but that you ought not
to have conscience of every oath but if it be just,
lawful, and advisedly taken.
" Cranmer. So was ' that oath.
' His oath against the authority of the pope.
VOL. II. F f

434 THE LIFE OF
ff Martin. That is not so. For, first, it was
unjust ; for it tended to the taking away of an
other man's right. It was not lawful ; for the laws
of God and the Church are against it. Besides,
it was not voluntary ; for every man and woman
were compelled to take it.
" Cranmer. It pleaseth you to say so.
" Martin. Let all the world be judge. But,
Sir, you that pretend to have such a conscience
to break an oath, I pray you did you never swear
and break the same ?
" Cranmer. I remember not.
" Martin. I will help your memory. Did you
never swear obedience to the see of Rome ?
" Cranmer. Indeed I did once swear unto the
same. " Martin. Yea, that you did twice, as ap
peareth by records and writings here ready to be
shewn. " Cranmer. But, I remember, I saved all by
protestation that I made by the counsel of the
best-learned men I could get at that time.
" Martin. Hearken, good people, what this
man saith. He made a protestation, one day, to
keep never a whit of that, which he would swear,
the next day. Was this the part of a Christian
man ? If a Christian man would hargain with a
Turk, and, before he maketh his bargain solemnly,
before witness readeth in his paper that he holdeth

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 435
secretly in his hand, or peradventure protesteth
before 1 one or two, that he mindeth not to
perform whatsoever he shall promise to the Turk ;
I say, if a Christian man would serve a Turk in
this manner, that the Christian man were worse
than the Turk. What would you then say to
this man, that made a solemn oath and promise
unto God and His Church, and made protestation
before quite contrary ?
" Cranmer. That which I did, I did by the
best-learned men's advice I could get at that
time. " Martin. I protest before all the learned men
here, that there is no learning will save your
perjury herein. For there be two rules of the
civil law against you :" (which he produced, and
then turning to the andience said :) " But will
you have the truth of the matter ? King Henry
even then meant the lamentable change, which
after, you see, came to pass ; and to further his
pitiful proceedings, from the divorcement of his
most lawful wife to the detestable departing from
the blessed unity of Christ's Church, this man
made the foresaid protestation ; and, on the other
side, he letted not to make 2 two solemn oaths quite
contrary, and why ? For otherwise, by the laws
1 Not so. See the publicity of this transaction already re
lated, vol. i. p. 60, seq.
2 See before, vol. i. p. 62, seq.
F f 2

436 THE LIFE OF
and canons of this realm, he could not aspire to
the archbishopric of Canterbury.
" Cranmer. I protest before you all, there
was never man came more unwilling to a bishop
ric, than I did to that. Insomuch that, when
king Henry did send for me in post that I should
1 come over, I prolonged my journey by seven
weeks at the least, thinking that he would be
forgetful of me in the mean time.
" Martin. You declare well by the way, that
the king took you to be a man of good conscience,
who could not find within all his realm 2 any men
that would set forth his strange attempts, but was
enforced to send for you in post to come out of
Germany. What may we 3 conjecture hereby, but
that there was a compact beween you, being then
queen Anne (Boleyn's) chaplain, and the king :
Give me the archbishopric of Canterbury, and I
will give you licence to live in adultery.
" Cranmer. You say not true.
" Martin. Let your protestation, joined with
the rest Of your talk, give judgment. Hinc prima
mali labes. Of that your execrable perjury, and
his coloured and too shamefully suffered adultery,
came heresy and all mischief to this realm. And
thus have I spoken as touching the conscience
you make for breaking your heretical oath to the
king. But to break your former oath, made at
1 From Germany. 2 See before, vol. i. p. 48.
* Ibid. n.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 437
two sundry times both to God and His Church,
you have no conscience at all. And now to an
swer another part of your oration, wherein you
bring in God's Word that you have it on your side,
and no man else, and that the pope hath devised
a new scripture contrary to the Scriptures of
God ; you play herein as the Pharisees did, which
cried always, Verbum Domini, Verbum Domini,
the Word of the Lord, the Word of the Lord,
when they meant nothing so. This bettereth
not your cause, because you say you have God's
Word for you ; for so Basilides and Photinus the
heretics said, that thev had God's Word to main-
tain their heresy. So Nestorius, so Macedonius,
so Pelagius, and, briefly, all the heretics that ever
were, pretended that they had God's Word for
them ; yea, and so the devil, being the father of
heresies, alleged God's Word for himself, saying,
Scriptum est, It is written. So said he to Christ,
Mitte te deorsum, Cast thyself downward, which
you applied most falsely against the pope. But
if you mark the 1 devil's language well, it agreed
with your proceedings most truly. For Mitte te
deorsum, cast thyself downward, said he, and so
1 .Either this diabolical eloquence of casting down was
assumed by Martin in compliment to Gardiner, or Gardiner
himself, unwilling to lose the merit of it, had desired the proctor
now to introduce it ; for it is almost word for word the same
as Gardiner preached, and wished to apply in a similar manner,
in 1539. See before, vol. i. p. 270.

438 THE LIFE OF
taught you to cast all things downward; down
with the sacrament, down with the mass, down
with the altars, down with the arms of Christ,
and up with a * lion and a dog ; down with the
abbies, down with chantries, down with hospitals
and colleges, down with fasting and prayer, yea,
down with all that good and godly is. All your
proceeding, and preachings, tended to no other
but to fulfil the devil's request, Mitte te deorsum.
And therefore tell us not that you have God's
Word. I would here ask but one question of
you : Whether God's Word be contrary to itself,
or no ? For you, master Cranmer, have taught
in this high sacrament of the altar three contrary
doctrines, and yet you pretend in every one
Verbum Domini.
" Cranmer. Nay, I taught but 2 two contrary
doctrines in the same.
" Martin. What doctrine taught you, when
you condemned Lambert the sacramentary in the
king's presence in Whitehall ?
" Cranmer. I maintained then the papists'
doctrine. " Martin. That is to say, the catholic and
universal doctrine of Christ's Church. And how,
when king Henry died ? Did you not translate
Justus Jonas' book ?
1 The king's arms, placed where the roods and roodlofts had
been used to be.
2 See before, vol. i. p. 266.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 439
" Cranmer. x I did so.
" Martin. Then there you defended another
doctrine touching the sacrament, by the same
token that you sent to Lynne your printer, that
whereas in the first print there was an affirmative,
that is to say, Christ's body really in the sacra
ment, you sent then to your printer to put in a
not, whereby it came miraculously to pass, that
Christ's body was clean conveyed out of the sa
crament. " Cranmer. 2 I remember there were two
printers of my said book, but where the same not
was put in, I cannot tell.
" Martin. Then from a 3 Lutheran you be
came a 4 Zuinglian, which is the vilest heresy of
all in the mystery of the sacrament ; and for the
same heresy you did help to burn Lambert the
sacramentary, which you now call the Catholic
faith and God's Word.
" Cranmer. I grant, that then I believed
otherwise than I do now ; and so I did, until my
lord of London, Dr. Ridley, did confer with me,
and by sundry persuasions and authorities of
Doctors drew me quite from my opinion.
" Martin. Now, Sir, as touching the last part
1 See before, vol. ii. p. 56. 2 Ibid. p. 57.
3 See the various passages, which lead me to think that
Cranmer never embraced the Lutheran doctrine of consubstan
tiation, in vol. i. pp. 265, 266. and vol. ii. pp. 52, 253, &c.
* As a Zuinglian, see what is said of him, vol. ii. p. 250, seq.
1

440 THE LIFE OF
of your oration, you denied that the pope's holi
ness was the supreme head of the Church of
Christ. " Cranmer. I did so.
" Martin. Who, say you then, is supreme
head? " Cranmer. Christ.
" Martin. But whom hath Christ left here on
earth his vicar and head of his Church ?
" Cranmer. Nobody.
" Martin. Ah, why told you not king Henry
this when you made him supreme head, and now
nobody is ? This is treason against his own per
son, as you then made him.
" Cranmer. I mean not but every king in his
own realm and dominion is supreme head ; and
so was he supreme head of the Church of Christ
in England.
" Martin. Is this always true ? And was it
ever so in Christ's Church ?
" Cranmer. It was.
" Martin. Then what say you by Nero 1 He
was the mightiest prince of the earth after Christ
was ascended. Was he head of Christ's Church I
" Cranmer. Nero was Peter's head.
" Martin. I ask whether Nero was head of
the Church or no ? If he were not, it is false
that you said before that all princes be, and ever
were, heads of the Church within their realms.
" Cranmer. Nay, it is true. For Nero was

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 441
head of the Church, that is, in worldly respect
of the temporal bodies of men, of whom the
Church consisteth ; for so he beheaded Peter and
the Apostles. And the * Turk too is head of the
Church in Turkey.
" Martin. Then he that beheaded the heads
of the Church, and crucified the Apostles, was
head of Christ's Church ; and he, that was never
member of the Church, is head of the Church by
your new-found understanding of God's Word."
The impatience of the archbishop's adversaries,
vexed as they must have been by some of his
replies, now appears to have immediately de
manded from him an answer to the formal inter
rogatories articulated against him. By the Romish
reporter, as Foxe has copied them, these ques
tions, together with the answers to them, were
preserved, as they were delivered, in our own
language. The official account of them to the
cardinal de Puteo is in Latin ; agreeing, in sub
stance, with what the martyrologist has printed.
Any material variation I have inserted in the
notes below. The articles are in number sixteen.
I. 2 First it was objected, that he, being yet
1 The official report sent to Rome, recites what here is said
of Nero and the Turk.
2 The proctor Martin's first article in the official report,
after desiring it to be understood as the prefix to each question,

442 THE LIFE OF
free, and before he entered into holy orders,
married one Joan, surnamed Black, or Brown,
dwelling at the sign of the dolphin in Cambridge.
Answer. Whereunto he answered, that whether
she was called Black or Brown, he knew not, but
that he married there one Joan, 1 that he granted.
II. That after the death of the foresaid wife,
he entered into holy orders, and after that was
made archbishop by the pope.
Answer. He received, he said, a certain bull of
the pope, which he delivered unto the king, and
was remade]] archbishop by him.
III. That he, being in holy orders, married
another woman as his second wife, named Anne,
and so was twice married.
Answer. This he granted.
IV. In the time of king Henry, he kept the
said wife secretly, and had 2 children by her.
Answer. This he also granted ; affirming, that
it was better for him to have his own, than to do
like other priests, holding and keeping other men's
wives. V. In the time of king Edward, he brought out
the said wife openly, affirming and professing
publicly the same to be his wife.
is, that Cranmer had been advanced to the see of Canterbury
by the pope, and still considered himself archbishop. The
first marriage of Cranmer is then connected with this article.
1 See before, vol. i. p. 6.
2 The proctor says, many children : there were three only.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 443
Answer. He denied not but so he did, and law
fully might do the same, forasmuch as the laws
of the realm did so permit him.
VI. That he shamed not openly to glory him
self to have had his wife in secret many years.
Answer. And though he did so, he said, there
was no cause why he should be ashamed thereof.
VII. That, falling afterwards into the deep
bottom of errors, he did fly and accuse the autho
rity of the Church; did hold and follow the heresy
concerning the sacrament ofthe altar; and also did
compile, and cause so be set abroad, * divers books.
Answer. When the names of the books were
recited to him, he denied not such books of which
he was the true author. As touching the treatise
of Peter Martyr upon the sacrament, he denied
that he ever saw it before it was abroad, yet did
approve and well like of the same. As for the
Catechism, the book of Articles, with the other
book against Winchester, he granted the same to
2 be his doings.
1 The proctor thus recites them : " A defence of the true and
catholic doctrine of the sacrament of the body and blood _ of
our Saviour Christ, &c. A discourse upon the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper, solemnly handled at the University of
Oxford, by doctor Peter Martyr, &c. Catechismus brevis
Christianas disciplinse, &c. Articuli de quibus in Synodo
Londinensi, 1552, &c. An answer unto a crafty and sophisti
cal cavillation devised by Stephen Gardiner," &c.
2 In the official report, he admits the defence &c. to be his ;
denies the discourse, &c. tobe so, but highly approves of it;

444 THE LIFE OF
VIII. That he compelled many against their
wills to subscribe to the same Articles.
Answer. He exhorted, he said, such as were
willing to subscribe ; but against their wills he
1 compelled none.
IX. Forasmuch as he surceased not to per
petrate 2 enorm and inordinate crimes, he was
therefore cast into the Tower, and from thence
was brought to Oxford, at what time it was com
monly thought that the parliament there should
be holden.
Answer. To this he said, that he knew no such
enorm and inordinate crimes that ever he com
mitted. X. That in the said 3 city of Oxford he did
openly maintain his heresy, and there was con
victed upon the same.
Answer. He defended, he said, there the cause
of the sacrament ; but to be convicted in the
same, that he denied.
as to the Catechism and Articles states only that he gave his
advice as to the publishing them : " Quoad Catechismum et
Articulos in eodem fatetur se adhibuisse ejus consilium circa
editionem ejusdem ;" and lastly owns the answer to Gardiner.
1 " Ad octavum respondet se nunquam coegisse aliquos
hujusmodi Articulis subscribere, tamen dicit quod plur es cler i-
corum provinciae Cantuar' eisdem Articulis voluntary subscrip-
serunt, quorum subscriptiones recepit, ut dicit." Proc. ut supr.
2 " Enormia, nefandaque crimina, &c. (as alleged in tha
preceding articles.) The proctor's words, &c." Proc. ut supr.
3 University. Proc. ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 445
XI. When he persevered still in the same, he
was by the public censure of the University pro
nounced a heretic, and his books to be heretical.
Answer. That he was so denounced, he denied
not ; but that he was a heretic, or his books
heretical, that he denied.
XII. That he was, and is, notoriously infamed
with the note of schism, as Cone] who not only
himself receded from the Catholic Church and
see of Rome, but also moved the king and sub
jects of the realm to the same.
Answer. As touching the receding, that he
well granted; but that receding or departing,
said he, was only from the see of Rome, and had
in it no matter of any schism.
XIII. That he had been twice sworn to the
pope ; (and Dr. Martin then brought out the : in
strument of the public notary, wherein was con
tained his protestation, made when he should be
consecrated, asking -if he had any thing else
protested.) Answer. Whereunto he answered, that he 2 did
nothing but by the laws of the realm.
XIV. That he did not only offend in the pre-
1 See before, vol. i. p. 65, seq.
2 The official report thus states the answer : " Fatetur se
preestitisse juramentum obedientiae prout continetur in scedula
huic articulo annexa, tamen hoc fecit, ut asseruit, sub protes-
tatione in instrumento publico, ut prefertur, in hac parte exhi-
bito, contenta ; et non aliter." Proc. ut supr.

446 THE LIFE OF
mises, but also in taking upon him the authority
of the see of Rome, in that without leave or
licence from the said see he consecrated bishops
and priests.
Answer. He granted that he did execute such
things as were wont to be referred to the pope,
at what time it was l permitted to him by the
public laws and determination of the realm.
XV. That when the whole realm had sub
scribed to the authority of the pope, he only
still persisted in his error.
Answer. 2 That he did not admit the pope's
authority, he confessed to be true : but that he
erred in the same, that he denied.
XVI. That all and singular the premises are
true.
1 " Fatetur se recessisse ab auctoritate Romani pontificis,
et aliis sic recedere persuasit ; boc tamen, ut dicit, non fecit
ante legem inde factam auctoritate parliamenti Anglia ; et
etiam dicit, qubd post leges hujusmodi et earum auctoritate
consecravit episcopos, et cetera fecit, quae ante legem hujus
modi factam ad Romanum pontificem pertinebant, et quas per
ipsum Romanum pontificem fieri solebant.'' Proc. ut supr.
2 The official report states that he courageously added,
that before the late re-acknowledgment of the papal power the
kingdom flourished, that he wished his country had not yielded
to it, and that himself never would : " Ante reconciliationem
nuperrime in hoc Angliae regno factam hoc regnum in bono
statu remansit, atque maxime optat qubd modo in eodem statu
remaneret ; et fatebatur, ut prius, se recessisse ab auctoritate
Romani pontificis, et quod non intendit ad illam auctoritatem
redire, vel eandem aliquo modo adrnittere." Proc. ut supr.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 447
Answer. That likewise, he granted, excepting
those things whereunto he had now answered.
The proctor Martin had procured eight wit
nesses to maintain the truth of these articles. But
1 before their depositions were given, other ques
tions appear to have been urged, which drew
from the archbishop a repetition of his unwilling
ness to accept the see of Canterbury, and, when
the king had over-ruled it, of his determination
not to receive the honour from the pontiff's
hand ; of his having made the protestation, which
the king's civilians had recommended, against the
papal authority, and of having caused that public
act to be 2 enrolled in his archiepiscopal register.
Martin then seized the opportunity of introduc
ing a subject which had recently been discussed
in his name, the marriage of the clergy. He had
published a book, of which 3 Gardiner was the
principal writer, in order to render contemptible
the married clergy, and to commend the royal
4 expulsion of them from their benefices. The
1 Foxe. 2 See before, vol. i. p. 68.
3 Ibid. p. 5. n. See also Burnet and Strype.
4 Some thousands of men, women, and children, were thus
reduced to beggary. The married priests, now expelled, have
been reckoned by archbishop Parker at 12,000 ; he must have
intended, perhaps, in so large a number, to include tHeir fami
lies. Burnet enumerates the priests themselves at 3,000, Henry
Wharton at about 1500.

448 THE LIFE OF
marriage of Cranmer he now treated with new
scorn. His children, 1 said he, were bondmen
to the see of Canterbury. The remark called up
a smile from the archbishop ; who asked him if
a priest at his benefice kept a concubine, and
by her had bastards, whether they were bondmen
to the benefice or no, sarcastically adding, " 2 1
trust you will make my children's causes no
worse." Other fond and foolish objections, says
Foxe, were offered against bim, with the repe
tition of which the martyrologist forbears to
trouble the reader. Another tedious oration
of Brookes, and a brief insulting address from
Story to Cranmer, he copies however from the
Romish reporter, who admits that Cranmer an
swered the man of office, but has suppressed his
words. The witnesses were then sworn to declare on
the following day what they knew, or could re
member, in regard to the present allegations.
Their names were as follow, and their 3 deposi
tions in the official report are according to this
order ofthe names. Dr. Croke, Mr. Ward, Mr.
Series, Dr. Tresham, Mr. Curtopp, Mr. London,
Dr. Smith, and Dr. Marshall. The substance of
1 Foxe. 2 Foxe.
3 These depositions were unknown to Foxe and Strype, and
were first published from the Lambeth MS. at the close of
Strype's Life of Cranmer, reprinted at the Clarendon Press,
Oxford, in 1812, from the copy which I supplied.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 449
these depositions I have gathered from the Latin
report, as follows.
1 Richard Croke, doctor of divinity, of Cam
bridge, deposes that he had known Cranmer
about thirty-six years ; that the first nine articles
he believes to be true upon general report ; that
he asserts the tenth to be true, as he was present
at the disputation. Of the eleventh he says the
same. The twelfth he admits to be true, except
that he cannot affirm of his own knowledge,
though he had heard it said, that Cranmer com
pelled any to renounce the papal authority. He
had heard Cranmer say, what the thirteenth
alleges, that at his consecration he had taken
the oath of obedience to the pope, but he offers
nothing as to the protestation, " aliter nescit de-
ponere in articulo predicto." That Cranmer conse
crated bishops, as Ponet, Coverdale, Hooper,
Ridley, &c. which is the substance of the four
teenth article, he affirms ; and, in regard to the
fifteenth, that he had heard Cranmer publicly
speaking in detestation of the papal authority.
The last article he, and the rest of the witnesses,
consider as the general opinion.
2 Robert Ward, master of arts, of Merton
1 He who had been public orator, and succeeded Erasmus as
Greek professor at Cambridge, (as it should seem,) but now
resided at Oxford. See A. Wood, Ath. Ox.
2 See before, in this vol. p. 47.
VOL. II. G g

450 THE LIFE OF
College, Oxford, had known the archbishop about
twelve years. To the first six articles he deposes,
that he believes them upon general report to be
true ; that as to the seventh, he considers Cran
mer of himself not sufficiently learned to have
composed the books in question, although he
knows that the archbishop avowed and circulated
all or most of them as his own, and had defended
at the public disputations in Oxford the heresies
contained in them. The eighth he believes to be
true upon report. The ninth he affirms in part
to be so, because he saw the archbishop when he
was brought from the Tower to Oxford ; and the
rest he believes to be so. The tenth and the eleventh
he knows to be true, being present on both oc
casions. To the twelfth he assents upon report.
To the thirteenth absolutely, as he saw the pubhc
instrument or protestation. The fourteenth he
affirms to be true, adding Taylor and Holbeach
to the other prelates consecrated by Cranmer;
and the fifteenth also to be so, because no later
than the day before this deposition he had heard
the archbishop disdaining the authority of the
pontiff, and declaring he would on no account
acknowledge it.
1 Robert Serles, bachelor of divinity, of Oxford,
1 " The same, I suppose, who belonged to the church of
Canterbury, and had been among the number of the conspira
tors against him in king Henry's days." Strype. See before,
vol. i. p. 348. 1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 451
had known the archbishop about twenty years.
He believes the first nine articles to be true, be
cause he had heard they were so. The tenth
and eleventh too he believes, not because he was
present on the occasions, but because others told
him so. As to the twelfth, he considers the
archbishop a notorious schismatic and heretic,
because he had often heard him uttering and de
fending heresies ; and that, when the Church of
England renounced the papal authority, himself
as vicar of Lenham in Cranmer's diocese was led
or rather forced to renounce it; that from his
office in the cathedral of Canterbury as one of
the six preachers he had been expelled, because
he affirmed the corporal presence, and had refused
to subscribe to certain articles made public by the
archbishop ; and that by his order he had been
twice imprisoned. The thirteenth article he be
heves on report. He says that Cranmer acted
as the fourteenth describes him. To the fifteenth
he deposes, that on the preceding day, he had
heard the archbishop so disclaiming the power of
the pope.
1 William Tresham, doctor of divinity, canon
of Christ Church, Oxford, had known the arch
bishop twenty years. The first six articles he
1 He had been one of the disputants against Cranmer, and
in. his zeal absurdly pretended that in Cranmer's book on the
sacrament were 600 errors. Foxe. Strype
Gg 2

452 THE LIFE OF
believes upon report to be true. To the seventh
he deposes, that Cranmer published his defence
of the true doctrine, &c. and his answer to Gardi
ner ; and that he ' advised the publication of the
book called the Catechism. To the eighth he
offers no deposition. The ninth he simply affirms,
of his own knowledge, to be true. To the tenth
and eleventh he deposes, that he was present on
both occasions, that the archbishop was confuted
in the disputations, and convicted of heresy. The
twelfth he considers to be true, except that he
knows of no compulsion used by the archbishop.
The thirteenth he asserts to be true, and that
he had heard the archbishop confess before the
delegate bishop Brookes that he had taken the
oath of obedience to the pope, but also with the
protestation recited in the public instrument. To
the fourteenth and fifteenth he deposes, that
those articles he believes to be true, with a repeti
tion of his exception that Cranmer used no com
pulsion in obtaining assent to them.
2 James Curtopp, master of arts, and dean of
Peterborough, who does not say how long he had
known the archbishop, deposes that the first and
second articles, as he had heard, were correct;
1 " Atque etiam deponit qu6d idem Thomas Cranmerus ejus
consilium adhibuit circa editionem libri vocat' Catechism ?"
Proc. ut supr.
2 " He had been formerly a great hearer of Peter Martyr."
Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 453
that, in regard to the third, he had also heard it
said that Cranmer had married a second wife,
but that he knew not whether he was really mar
ried to the lady ; that, however, he had seen her
at the archbishop's table, acknowledged in her
matronly character ; to the fourth and fifth also
deposing that he had heard of the archbishop's
concealment of her in the time of Mary ; but
that he knew of her being publicly acknowledged
in the time of Edward. The sixth he beheves to
be true, and adds that Cranmer told him, Osian
der married them. Of his own knowledge, as to
the seventh article, he affirms that Cranmer pub
lished his defence, &c. the Catechism, the Articles
with the Catechism, and the answer to Gardiner.
To the eighth he offers nothing. To the ninth,
tenth, and eleventh, he deposes, he had heard
that the allegations were correct : To the twelfth,
that he knows it to be so, except that he releases
the archbishop from the charge of using compul
sion. The thirteenth he affirms to be true, and
that he had heard Cranmer admitting before
Brookes his oath of obedience to the pope. Of
the fourteenth and fifteenth he also admits the
truth, except again that he knew of no compul
sion employed by the archbishop.
1 George London, bachelor of divinity, of Glou
cester Hall, Oxford, had known the archbishop
1 " A' relation, I suppose, of Dr. London, who came to
shame for his false accusation of Cranmer and others in king

454 THE LIFE OF
fifteen years. He affirms the first six articles to
be true upon Cranmer's own admission in effect,
as he says, before Brookes, and upon general
belief. To the seventh he deposes that Cranmer
published the defence, kc. and the answer to Gar
diner, and advised (as before the delegate also
he confessed) the publication of the Catechism.
As to the eighth, he is silent. The ninth, tenth,
and eleventh, he believes to be true, but was not
present when the archbishop was pronounced a
heretic, and his books heretical. In conformity
to the twelfth he pronounces him a schismatic,
and says that the archbishop also advised king
Henry, as well as many other persons, to recede
from the papal authority. The fourteenth and
fifteenth he affirms, of his own knowledge, to be
true. 1 Richard Smith, doctor of divinity, canon of
Christ Church, Oxford, and now again the regius
professor of divinity in the University, had known
Cranmer about eighteen years. The first six
articles he affirms to be true, partly, as he had
often heard from others, partly as he knew
Henry's reign ; and now was willing, 'tis like, to be even with
Cranmer, for his relation's sake.
1 Now restored to the professorship he had " deserted," as
A. Wood informs us, Ann. Univ. Ox. See also before, in the
present vol. p. 172. Cranmer had in former days accepted his
recantation, and been a friend to him. He has been already
often noticed in this Life of Cranmer.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 455
himself. To the seventh he deposes, that Cran
mer published the defence of the true and catholic
doctrine of the sacrament, &c. and that himself
answered it in a book, entitled a confutation of
the true and catholic doctrine, &c. and as to the
Catechism, and the Articles annexed to it, as well
as to the answer of the archbishop to Gardiner,
Cranmer's own admission,he says, as well as public
belief, attests the truth of this article. To the
eighth and ninth he deposes nothing. The tenth
and eleventh he affirms to be true, as having been
present at the disputation, and at the conviction
of the archbishop. The rest of the articles he
beheves, upon the report of others, to be true.
1 Richard Marshall, doctor of divinity, and
dean of Christ Church, Oxford, had known
Cranmer about sixteen years. The first six arti
cles he considers to be true from the archbishop's
own admission, as he says, on the preceding day.
In regard to the seventh, this witness pronounces
Peter Martyr's discourse of the true and catholic
faith, as well as the answer to Gardiner, and the
Catechism with the annexed Articles, to be the
works of the archbishop, by himself admitted,
(this witness ought to have said, by himself denied,)
1 A most furious man now against the Reformation, as Strype
records him ; but, like Smith, he changed his religion two or
three times, yet at the beginning of Elizabeth's reign was, in
consequence of indiscreet behaviour, deprived of his deanery.
A. Wood, Ann. Univ. Ox.

456 THE LIFE OF
and generally received, as such. The eighth and
ninth he believes to be true, because it was said
by some that their subscription was not voluntary,
and that such was common report. The tenth
and eleventh, being present on the occasions,
(as the preceding witness was,) he pronounces
correct. The rest partly upon report, partly
upon the archbishop's own admission, he believes
to be true.
The proctor Story, who on the preceding day
had ' haughtily interrupted him in his defence,
now told the archbishop, that he might offer his
exceptions against any of the witnesses. Cranmer
replied, 2 that he excepted against all of them, as
persons who were perjured, who had before sworn
against the pope, and now acknowledged and de
fended him. The contradictions in some of the
1 Foxe. Story, it may be added, appears to have been a
man of savage character. " He was a great instrument," says
Heylin, (Hist. Ref. Eliz. 107.) " of Bonner's butcheries ; and,
being questioned for the cruelty of his executions, appeared so far
from being sensible of any error which he then committed, as to
declare himself to be sorry for nothing more, than that instead of
lopping off some few boughs and branches, he did not lay his axe
to the root ofthe tree; and though it was not hard to guess at how
high a mark the wretch's malice seemed to aim, and what he
meant by laying his axe to the root of the tree, yet passed he
unpunished 'for the present, though divine vengeance brought
him in conclusion to his just reward." — He had, in Mary's time,
advised " the cutting off of queen Elizabeth." Burnet. He
was executed as a traitor in 1571. Burnet. Heylin. A.Wood.
2 Foxe. Burnet. Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 457
depositions, he forbore to censure, and the ses
sion closed. Nor was it re-opened, till after the
sentence against him was received from Rome.
" ' The provisions of the canon law," Dr. Lingard
says, " were scrupulously observed ; Cranmer un
derwent two examinations, and was 2 then served,
as a matter of form, with a citation to answer
before the pontiff in the course of eighty days :
He owed this distinction to his dignity of arch
bishop, and to his ordination, which had been
performed according to the ancient pontifical."
The reader will be at no loss to appreciate the
distinction, and this narrative of the scrupulous
bestowal of it, when he is assured, that notwith
standing the archbishop professed his readiness to
go to Rome, it had been resolved that he should
never more behold any other city than that in
which he was confined. This 3 mockery the his
torian has prudently concealed.
To the same scrupulosity the inferior rank of
his companions, Latimer and Ridley, did not enti
tle them. On the 30th of September having been
re-examined before Brookes and other' commis-
1 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 272.
2 But he was first served with the citation on the opening of
. the commission, Sept. 9.
s " Their holy one of Rome, (the pope,) burnt that most
reverend father Dr. Cranmer at Rome in a mummery, before he
ever saw him, or heard him speak, &c." Bishop Jewell, Repl.
to Hardinge, 1565, p. 482.

458 THE LIFE OF
sioners, and in vain pressed to recant their opi
nions, they were therefore on the next day con
demned, and fifteen days after led to the stake,
where Latimer cheered his fellow-sufferer in the
memorable words, " Be of good comfort ; we shall
this day light such a candle in England, as I trust,
by God's grace, will never be put out." In then-
way to it, they passed near Bocardo, Cranmer's
prison, when Ridley looked up to the window of
it, says Foxe, under the hope of seeing him there,
and of receiving his last farewell ; " but Cranmer
was then busy with friar Soto and his fellows, dis
puting together, so that he could not see him
through that occasion." Other writers relate,
that Cranmer from the top of his prison beheld
the execution of his friends ; that he prayed for
strength from heaven to support their faith and
hope ; and that when his end, like their's, which
he expected, should arrive, for similar succour to
his own. Archbishop Parker is the first that
mentions this historical variation, and is followed
by Godwin, Heylin, and Burnet ; by Wood the
Oxford antiquary also, not without some local
particulars of the martyrdom. " * Ridley and
Latimer were brought to the place," he says,
" where they were to be burnt, that is to say, over
against Balliol College, where now [namely, when
the Oxford antiquary wrote, more than a century
1 Annals, Univ. Ox. under the year 1555.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 459
since,3 stand a row of poor cottages, a little be
hind which, before this time, ran so clear a stream
under the town-wall, that it gave the- name of
Canditch (candida fossa) to the way leading by it,
and by that name it is known to this day ; there,
I say, being brought, they suffered death with
courage for the religion they professed, in the
presence ofthe chief magistrates of the University
and City, with multitudes of scholars and laics.
Cranmer, at that time being in Bocardo, * as
cended to the top thereof to see the spectacle,
and kneeling down prayed to God to strengthen
them." Dr. Lingard augments the preceding narratives.
He tells us, that at the dismal sight " 2 Cranmer's
resolution began to waver, and he let fall some hints
of a willingness to relent, and of a desire to confer
with the legate," cardinal Pole. These hints, how
ever, are nothing more than a communication of
the cardinal to Philip, 3 that Cranmer was less per
tinacious than usual, and had expressed a wish to
speak with him ; that 4 great hope was entertained
1 The Bocardo prison was over the north gate of the city,
and at a very little distance from the place ofthe execution. It
was taken down in the year 1771.
2 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 273.
* " Is non ita se pertinacem ostendit, aitque se cupere mecum
loqui." Pole to Philip, v. 47. Lingard.
' " Magnam spem initio dederat, eique veniam Polus ab

460 THE LIFE OF
of his recantation, according to a biographer of
Pole, and that the queen allowed the conference
which he- sought. But with the cardinal Cranmer
did not converse ; nor in letters is there any evi
dence of this pretended wavering. The archbishop
as yet was firm. He had written, in his defence, a
long 'letter to the queen, (recapitulating his former
arguments both against the papal supremacy and
the papal doctrine,) which Pole was desired by
Mary to answer ; and his reply, ere three weeks
had passed since the martyrdom of Ridley and
Latimer, abundantly contradicts the belief, and
the hope, of the archbishop's willingness now to
relent. The cardinal still 2 reproaches him as
grossly ignorant as well as incurably obstinate,
and insolently bids him have recourse to self-
condemnation. The cardinal had been misin
formed, when he wrote to Philip, by persons who
chose to represent the general mildness of Cran
mer as a submission to their views. It was in the
same spirit, but with the same disappointment,
ipsa regina impetraverat." Dudith. inter ep. Poli, i. 143.
Lingard.
1 First printed by Foxe.
2 The letter is dated Nov. 6. Strype, Append. No. 89.
Pole had before written a very insulting letter to Cranmer,
which Burnet has noticed, and Le Grand translated into
French, but by the former historian was deemed too worthless
to be copied.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 461
that Bonner, when Cranmer was first summoned
before Mary's Council, said, " 1 Mr. Canterbury
is become very humble, and ready to submit him
self in all things."
1 Burnet, ii. Rec. P. ii. B. 2. No. 7.

CHAPTER V.

1555 to 1556.
The archbishop deprived and degraded — He recants — His
recantations.
The eighty days, which had been allowed for
Cranmer's appearance at Rome, had no sooner
elapsed, than cardinal de Puteo bade the royal
proctors of the pontifical court demand judg
ment. ' On the 4th of December, the pope
accordingly pronounced and decreed him to be
found guilty of the crime of heresy and other ex
cesses, as Brookes had detailed them in his official
report ; of having opposed the traditions of the
Church of Rome and the rites she used, especially
in regard to the sacrament of the body and blood
of Christ, and to holy orders ; of having forbidden
processions that were wont to be celebrated by the
pontiff's predecessors ; of having denied the papal
authority ; of having espoused the false and here
tical doctrines of Wicliffe and Luther ; of having,
1 Foxe. Strype. Burnet.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 463
in defence of those doctrines, printed several books,
and maintained public disputations ; and therefore
sentenced him to be excommunicated and de
prived, to be degraded and delivered up to the
secular power. Bonner, bishop of London, and
Thirlby, bishop of Ely, were appointed to execute
this decree ; the former had been long his enemy,
the latter his friend and chaplain.
The papal condemnation was dated December
the fourteenth, and transmitted to England. On
the 14th of February Thirlby and Bonner, who
had come down to Oxford, cited the archbishop
before them in the choir of the cathedral of Christ-
Church, and there stated, according to the tenor
of their commission, that he had 1 taken no care
to appear at Rome, that witnesses and counsel
however as well for as against him had been there
heard and examined, and that he had wanted
nothing necessary to his defence, but that having
refused to be present at those proceedings he was
pronounced contumacious. The archbishop could
not hear such a recital without indignantly reply
ing, that 2 when he was continually in prison,
and could never be suffered even in his own
country to have the advantage of a public advo
cate, how false it was to aver that at Rome he
1 " Comparere non curaret," are the words in the papal in
strument, intended to signify, as Strype observes, an aggravation
of his crime. Wilkins, Cone. iv. 133.
2 Foxe. Strype.

464 THE LIFE OF
should have produced witnesses and appointed
counsel. " God must needs punish," he added,
" this open and shameless lying."
The form of degradation now proceeded. The
dresses of the clergy of the Church of Rome,
through all their ranks from ordination to the
prelatical dignity, were produced. Attired in each
of the subordinate habiliments for a moment, he
was 1 successively degraded from the character
which each of them distinguished. The archie
piscopal robes, however, were in derision, made of
2 canvass ; the mitre, and the pall, of materials as
worthless ; and what seemed a crosier was placed
in his hand. Bonner, when he saw him treated
with this last indignity, thus exultingly bade the
audience observe him. " 3 This is the man," said
he, " who has ever despised the pope's holiness,
and now is to be judged by him. This is the man
who hath pulled down so many churches, and
now is come to be judged in a church. This is
the man that contemned the blessed sacrament
of the altar, and now is come to be condemned
before that blessed sacrament hanging over the
altar. This is the man that hke Lucifer sate in
the place of Christ upon an altar to judge another,
and now is come before an altar to be judged
himself." Cranmer here interrupted the orator,
1 Wilkins, Cone. iv. 135, seq.
2 Foxe. Strype. ' Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 465
denying generally his charges, but answering in
particular the last which he thus explained ;
" That which you here mean was in the church
of St. Paul, where I came to sit in commission,
a scaffold being prepared for me and others by you
and your officers ; but whether under it there was
an altar I neither perceived, nor once suspected ;
and therefore you unjustly accuse me." Bonner
then returned to his railing, till at length all were
weary of it. Repeatedly by his fellow-commis
sioner Thirlby was he gently interrupted as he
scolded, and afterwards reproached with having
violated the promise he had made of treating the
archbishop at least with, common respect. The
staff was now about to be taken from Cranmer's
hands, according to the form of degradation. He
refused as yet to part with it. Drawing from his
sleeve a written appeal, after the example of
Luther who had appealed first to the papal dele
gate, next to the pontiff himself, and afterwards
to a general council, he then handed up his paper
to Thirlby, and desired the by-standers to be
witnesses, that to the next general council he
also appealed. He assigned ' six reasons for so
doing. 1. Being cited to Rome, he says, he was
kept in most strict confinement, so that he could
in no wise be suffered to go thither, nor to come
out of prison ; that, in so important causes con-
1 Foxe.
VOL. II. H h

466 THE LIFE OF
cerning estate and life, no man is bound to send a
proctor ; that though he would never so fain have
sent his proctor, yet by reason of his poverty he
was not able, (for all that ever he had, with which
he might bear a proctor's costs, was taken from
him ;) and that whether he appeared or not, the
cardinal de Puteo had declared the intention to
proceed in judgment against him. 2. That being
cited to appear at home before the cardinal's de
legate, bishop Brookes, he had been denied what
was necessary for his defence, the aid of counsel.
3. That he had not received from the royal proc
tors, as it was promised that he should, copies of
his answers for amendment, if requisite, to the
charges produced against him. 4. That he dis
owned the papal authority, as well in consequence
of his oath against it, as of its discordance with
the English constitution. 5. That the usurped
authority of the pontiff had consumed the riches
and substance of the realm. 6. That it had not
only caused the national laws and customs to be
trodden under foot, but also to the decrees of
councils and to the precepts of the Gospel was
repugnant. He concluded with solemnly declar
ing, " that in all his doctrine and preaching, both
qf the sacrament and whatever else it might be, he
meant and judged those things, as the Catholic
Church and the most holy Fathers of old with
one accord have meant and judged."
Such was the substance of his appeal, not

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 467
indeed recited by him before the commissioners,
but as it was received in writing by Thirlby,
after l having the power of proceeding without
such benignant attention. Mindful of the kind
nesses received in former days from Cranmer,
this prelate also now assured him, that if he would
recant, he would be a suitor for him to the king
and queen, whose express command had imposed
upon him the present melancholy office. Thirlby's
heart indeed appears to have been wrung with
distress at the scene before him, and he wept.
The gentle spirit of the archbishop was gratified ;
and he bade his friend suppress his sorrow, as
himself suppressed concern. The 2 degradation
proceeded. The vesture, representing the archi
episcopal pall, was next to be stripped off. Then,
indeed, correctly implying that inferior prelates
could not degrade an archbishop, he said, " Which
of you hath a pall, to take off my pall ?" They
answered, that as the pontiff's delegates, not as
bishops, they were competent to the ceremony ;
which being performed, a barber then clipped the
1 " Our commission is to proceed against you," said Thirlby
to Cranmer, " omni appellatione remota : — but, if it may be
admitted, it shall ; and so received it of him." Foxe. But the
admission was of no service to the archbishop.
2 The minute and long account of Cranmer's degradation,
directed by the papal bull, and another account of this Romish
form in the instance of Dr. Castellane, Foxe has printed.
Wilkins has copied the former. Concil. iv. 134, seq.
h h2

468 THE LIFE OF
hair round his head, and Bonner scraped the tops
of his fingers where they had been anointed, again
conducting himself with studied insolence, while
Thirlby apparently was all compassion. The
pageant of the degradation ended with exhibiting
the archbishop only in his jacket, over which was
then thrown the threadbare gown of a yeoman
bedel, and on his head was placed a townsman's
cap. " Now you are no longer a lord," exclaimed
Bonner sarcastically to the victim ; and to the
beholders, " See here this gentleman ?"
In this garb he was led, pitied by all but Bonner,
to his prison. On his way thither he was attended
by a gentleman of Gloucestershire, who, on be
holding him deprived of his clerical gown, had
managed to obtain that part of his dress, and now
wished to deliver it to him. The stranger seems
to have been indebted to 1 Thirlby for this power
of restitution. He alluded^ in the conversation
with the archbishop, to the friendship that Thirlby
had expressed ; when Cranmer replied, " He
might have used a great deal more, and never
have been the worse thought of; for I have
2 well deserved it." Arrived at the prison, the

1 a

He (the gentleman) standing by, and being thought to
be toward one of the bishops, had it delivered to bim ; who, by
the way talking with Cranmer, said, " The bishop of Ely pro
tested his friendship with tears." Foxe.
Thirlby had been promoted through his means. See before,
vol. i. p. 167. Morice, the archbishop's secretary, has left, a

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 469
stranger took not leave of the archbishop without
asking him if he wished for any assistance or
refreshment. " I would willingly eat something,"
was the reply ; " for, having been troubled with
the prospect of that day's business, I had little
inclination to eat till all might be over ; but all
is over now, and my heart is quieted." The
stranger's purse was then offered, for in that of
Cranmer not a single penny remained. It was
offered, however, with caution. The gentleman
was not ignorant of proceedings against such,
as had formerly afforded pecuniary relief to here
tics. He consigned to the bailiffs, therefore, his
kind supply for the archbishop ; expressed his
behef, that as good men they would carefully
bestow it on him ; and then bade the prisoner
farewell, commending to his prayers himself and
all his friends. Ere night approached, his charity
however became known to Thirlby and Bonner.
He was in consequence reprimanded, and with
difficulty escaped being sent in custody to Mary's
Council ; " such was the cruelty and iniquity of
letter relating almost wholly to " the gentill archbyshop's libe
rality in various respects" to this prelate, " whether it were juell,
plate, instrument, mapps, horse, or any thing else, &c.'' Harl.
MSS. 416. fol. 183. " Wherefore," he adds, " if D. Thirlby
did not to his uttermost power practize to have saved his lyfe,
he not onlie did him moche wronge, but also abused his singular
benevolence with overmoche ingratitude."

470 THE LIFE OF
the^ time," says Foxe, " that men could not do
good without punishment."
It was of no avail that Cranmer had addressed
a ' letter to the queen, stating the same objec
tions to the proceedings in September, as were
now contained in his appeal. The resolution of
Mary was not to be changed. In vain had a
printed 2 petition from abroad been sent to her,
in 1555, to implore her order to discontinue per
secution ; in vain did it remind her, that in her
father's time Cranmer had 3 preserved her, and
that to him therefore her mercy was a debt of
gratitude. The sentence of the ecclesiastical court now
remained to be executed by the secular power.
But ere the order was issued to this purpose,
(and 4 few days only passed before it was issued,)
another trial of his constancy was made, and he
sunk under it. With expressions of pity for his
situation, but with the design of leading him to
recant, some of the principal academics seem to
have immediately visited him in prison. He,
whose deposition is the last of those who were
1 Foxe. 2 Strype.
3 See before, p. 331.
* The royal order for the writ to burn him was dated Febru
ary 24. Burnet and Wilkins. Concil. iv. 140. The mayor
and bailiffs of Oxford, to whom it was directed, would receive it
perhaps, two or three days afterwards.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 471
1 witnesses against him, is now said to have invited
the archbishop to his deanery at Christ-Church ;
but the invitation could not have been accepted
till after the 16th of February, as on that day
one of his recantations is signed, which appears
to have been delivered, as a preceding recantation
was, to Bonner personally in the Bocardo prison.
These, in Bonner's narrative of all the submissions
that Cranmer made, are the third and fourth.
The first and second will shew how the arclv
bishop hesitated ere he fell. Perhaps they were
proposed by Thirlby. Before the proceedings
on the 14th had ended, they could not have
been made. The language of Cranmer we have
seen, was then undauntedly opposed to them.
He probably listened, at the close of that day,
to the persuasions of his friend, and signed what
by him was hoped might propitiate the queen, of
which the copy being seen by others, after it had
been dispatched, it was considered not sufficiently
explicit, and therefore was followed by the second,
without delay we may suppose, retracting what
is said in the first. It is remarkable, however,
1 Dr. Marshall. See before, p. 455. He had been em
ployed, in his younger days, to seduce our celebrated bishop
Jewell, into a temporary submission to the Romish Church.
Humphry, Vit. Juelli, 1573. p. 81. Anthony Wood, as well as
Dr. Humphry, give a miserable character of this distinguished
ecclesiastic. 1

472 THE LIFE OF
that neither of them is dated. They are in Bon
ner's narrative thus given.
I. " * The true copy of the first submission of
Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Canterbury,
which afterward by inconstancy and unstableness he
the said Thomas Cranmer did cancel, the original
whereof was sent to the queen's Majesty and her
Privy Council, as followeth.
" Forasmuch as the king and queen's Majesties,
by consent of their parliament, have received the
pope's authority within this realm, I am content
to submit myself to their laws herein, and to take
the pope to be the chief head of this Church of
England, so far as God's laws and the laws and
customs of this realm will permit.
" Thomas Cranmer."
II. " 2 The true copy of the second submission of
the said Thomas Cranmer, which he the said Tho
mas did advisedly subscribe with his own hand, and
did not afterwards revoke it, the original whereof
was also sent up to the queen's Majesty and her said
Council, as before.
1 " All the submyssyons and recantations of Thomas Cranmer,
late archbyshop of Canterburye, truely set forth both in Latyn
and Englysh, agreable to the originalles, wrytten and subscribed
with his own handes. Visum et examinatum per reverendum
patrem et dominum, dominum Edmundum episcopum London.
Anno 1556." Sign. A. 2. a. 2 Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 473
" I Thomas Cranmer, doctor in divinity, do
submit myself to the Catholic Church of Christ,
and to the pope, supreme head ofthe same Church,
and unto the king and the queen's Majesties, and
unto all their laws and ordinances. " Thomas Cranmer."
The third and fourth submissions are pre
ceded by a l Latin notification, that they were
presented to Bonner by Cranmer in Bocardo. Of
these the first is not dated ; and the second,
which wants not such a mark of genuineness, can
hardly be named a recantation, being no more
than an avowal that in his religious belief he was
guided by antiquity.
III. " I am content to submit myself to the king
and queen's Majesties, and to all their laws and
ordinances, as well concerning the pope's supre
macy as others. And I shall from time to time
move and stir all other to do the like, to the utter
most of my power ; and to live in quietness and
obedience unto their Majesties, most humbly,
without murmur or grudging against any of their
godly proceedings. And for my book which I
have written, I am contented to submit me to the

1 Viz. " Tertium scriptum Cranmeri sua ipsius manu exara-
tum, et per eum in Buccardo exhibitum London, episcppo.''
The prefix to the fourth is the same. Sign. A. 2. b.

474 THE LIFE OF
judgment of the Catholic Church, and of the next
general council. " Thomas Cranmer.
IV. " 1 Be it known by these presents, that I
Thomas Cranmer, doctor in divinity, and late
archbishop of Canterbury, do firmly, stedfastly, and
assuredly, believe in all articles and points of the
Christian religion and Catholic faith, as the Ca
tholic Church doth believe, and hath ever believed
from the beginning. Moreover, as concerning the
sacraments of the Church, I believe unfeignedly
in all points as the said Catholic Church doth and
hath believed from the beginning of Christian
rehgion. In witness whereof I have humbly sub
scribed my hand unto these presents, the 16th
day of February, 1555-6. " Thomas Cranmer."
These papers, as might be expected, were not
sufficient to satisfy the Romish party. Other
concessions must be obtained from their great
opponent, they said, by intimidation as well as
by artful proposals, and by insidious suggestions.
It was immediately after the fourth recantation,
I have no doubt, that to the deanery of Christ
Church he was conducted for the visit of a few
days to partake of a treacherous hospitality;
that there the Spanish friar, John de Villa Gar-
cina, then the regius professor of divinity at
1 Ibid.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 475
Oxford, and l Henry Sydall, a canon in the dean's
cathedral, were the principal managers of the
allurements, and the threats, by which themselves
and other Romanists at length subdued him to
their purpose. To the king and queen his abso
lute recantation, these egregious tempters urged,
would be highly acceptable. Nor to the lords of
1 " A very inconstant man in religion," says Anthony Wood,
who is never very friendly, however, to Cranmer's memory.
He is speaking of De Villa Garcina as the person who, " with
Sydall," whom he characterises, " endeavoured to persuade
archbishop Cranmer to recant when he was condemned to be
burnt." Ann. Univ. Ox. Divinity Professors. Foxe was not
the sole authority for this assertion. The old chronicler Grafton
also tells that " by the persuasion of friar John, and by the
counsel of certain others that put him in hope of life and pardon,
Cranmer subscribed a recantation, &c." Dr. Humphry gives
a similar account. But because the archbishop, when in his
last speech he revoked his recantations, declared that he had
signed them from a wish to save his life if it might be ; there
fore some have denied that he had been seduced, or persuaded,
by others so to do. Let such call to mind how Brookes at the
trial opened the battery of seduction against him ; (see before,
p. 425.) " you need not to doubt," he added, to the then un
shaken prisoner, that " after your return" to the Church of
Rome, " you shall be as well still, yea, and rather better" than
when you were archbishop. The particulars related by the
archbishop's contemporaries, Dr. Humphry, Foxe, and Grafton
the chronicler, are admitted by the antiquary Wood, by the
historian Collier, by the biographer Strype, all of whom be
lieved the endeavours used by his tempters to excite in him the
hope of life, although they could not promise the fulfilment of
the hope.

476 THE LIFE OF
the Council and other noblemen, they added, who
much respected him, could it be less so. They
put him in hope that not only his life might be
spared, but that his former dignity might be re
stored ; saying that for such boons it was but a
small and easy matter they required of him, his
subscription only to a few words in " J a little
leaf of paper," with his own hand ; and that then,
whether he would have rank and wealth, or would
prefer the quietness of private life, his choice
might be secured by the regal power ; but that,
if he refused, of pardon there was no hope ; for
the queen was so purposed that she would have
Cranmer a Roman Catholic, or else no Cranmer
at all.
To these artifices he yielded ; and to the words,
on the little leaf of paper which they brought,
subscribed, as it should seem, in their presence.
" This recantation," says Foxe, " was not so soon
conceived, but the doctors and prelates, without
delay, caused the same to be imprinted and set
abroad in all men's hands. Whereunto, for better
credit, first was added the name of Thomas
Cranmer, with a solemn subscription ; then fol
lowed the witnesses, Henry Sydall, and John de
Villa Garcina." The Privy Council were dis
pleased at the hasty publication of this paper,
and the two printers of it were commanded to
1 Foxe.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 477
deliver all the copies to be burned. It was re
served to be the fifth recantation in Bonner's
account, where it appears in Latin, bearing how
ever an Enghsh title, and has been translated by
Foxe as follows.
V. " ' The true copy of a fifth submission of the
said Thomas Cranmer, written and subscribed with
his own hand, in the presence of master Henry Sydall,
and of one called Fraler Johannes de Villa Garcina,
a notable learned man, as followeth.
" I Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Can
terbury, do renounce, abhor, and detest, all mari
ner of heresies and errors of Luther and Zuinglius,
and all other teachings which are contrary to
sound and true doctrines. And I beheve most
constantly in my heart, and with my mouth I
confess, one holy and Catholic Church visible,
without the which there is no salvation, and
thereof I acknowledge the bishop of Rome to be
supreme head in earth, whom I acknowledge to
be the highest bishop and pope, and Christ's vicar,
unto whom all Christian people ought to be sub
ject. And as concerning the sacraments, I be
lieve and worship in the sacrament of the altar
the very body and blood of Christ, being con
tained most truly under the forms of bread and
wine, the bread through the mighty power of God
1 All the submyssyons, ut supr. sign. A. 3. a.

478 THE LIFE OF
being turned into the body of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, and the wine into his blood. And in the
other six sacraments also, like as in this, I be
lieve and hold as the Universal Church holdeth,
and the Church of Rome judgeth and determineth.
Furthermore, I believe that there is a place of
purgatory, where souls departed are punished for
a time, for whom the Church doth godlily and
wholesomely pray, like as it doth honour saints
and maketh prayers to them. Finally, in all
things I profess, that I do not otherwise believe
than the Catholic Church, and the Church of
Rome, holdeth and teacheth. I am sorry that I
ever held or thought otherwise. And I beseech
Almighty God, that of His mercy He will vouch
safe to forgive me whatsoever I have offended
against God or His Church ; and also I desire
and beseech all Christian people to pray for me.
And all such as have been deceived either by my
example or doctrine, I require them by the blood
of Jesus Christ that they will return to the unity
of the Church, that we may be all of one mind
without schism or division. And to conclude, as
I submit myself to the Catholic Church of Christ,
and to the supreme head thereof, so I submit
myself unto the most excellent majesties of Philip
and Mary, king and queen of this realm of Eng
land, &c. and to all their laws and ordinances,
being ready always as a faithful subject ever to
obey them. And God is my witness, that I have

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 479
not done this for favour or fear of any person,
but willingly, and of my own mind, as well to the
discharge of my own conscience as to the instruc
tion of others. " Per me Thomam Cranmer.
" Witnesses^ to this
subscription)" H^NRICUS SYDALL."

1" Frater Johannes de Villa Garcina.

To this recantation there is no date. But it
was probably made immediately after the writ for
burning him had been sent to Oxford, as Noailles,
the French ambassador to Mary, (whose charac
ter for veracity however is not spotless,) mentions
to his court, ] that with this fifth paper Cranmer
sent a letter to Pole, begging the respite of a few
days, that he might yet give to the world a more
convincing proof of his repentance. Mary is said
to have " 2 cheerfully" granted what Cranmer
asked ; but, determined not to spare him, she only
ordered the day of his approaching fate to be con
cealed from him. Meantime the sixth recantation
was prepared. To a more laboured disavowal
(more complete it could not be than what the fifth
recites) of tenets he had maintained, to louder
cries for mercy, to deeper expressions of self-
abasement, he was now to be earnestly pressed
under the fallacious persuasion that from the
terror of the stake he might be wholly freed.
1 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 276. J Ibid.

480 THE LIFE OF
That this outrageous composition was drawn up
by Pole, Strype long since assumed by comparing
it with the tedious prolixity and style of the re
cantation, which the cardinal prepared for the
friend of Cranmer, Sir John Cheke. That there
is further reason to believe Pole the composer,
the recent author of the History of the Reforma
tion collects from " ! the identity of the ideas,
and even of the language, with those which we
read in his letter to Cranmer, of which the origi
nal is among the Harleian manuscripts, and a
French translation in Le Grand, and in Pole's
epistles." It was printed in Latin, with the sig
nature indeed of the archbishop, but not with
that of witnesses. Strype has thus translated it.
But to this as to the preceding recantation, which
is very remarkable, is prefixed an English title.
" 2 The true copy of a sixth submission of the
said Thomas Cranmer, written and subscribed with
his own hand, as followeth.
" I Thomas Cranmer, late archbishop of Can-

1 Soames, iv. 525. n. In another letter from Pole to the
archbishop there are sentiments according with parts of this
submission. The sermon also of Cole,, which, by the desire of
the cardinal, he preached at Cranmer's execution, is in concert,
it should seem, with this paper, noticing, among other resem
blances, the allusion (repeated, as it also is in the paper) to the
thief upon the cross.
2 All the submyssyons, ut supr. sign. A. 3. b.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 481
terbury, confess, and grieve from my heart, that
I have most grievously sinned against heaven and
the English realm; yea, against the Universal
Church of Christ, which I have more cruelly per
secuted than Paul did of old, who have been a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and contumelious. And
I wish that I, who have exceeded Saul in malice
and wickedness, might with Paul make amends
for the honour which I have detracted from Christ,
and the benefit of which I have deprived the
Church. But yet that thief in the Gospel com
forts my mind. For then at last he repented
from his heart, then it irked him of his theft,
when he might steal no more. And I who, abus
ing my office and authority, purloined Christ of
his honour, and the realm of faith and religion,
now by the great mercy of God returned to myself,
acknowledge myself the greatest of all sinners,
and to every one as well as I can, to God first,
then to the Church and its supreme head, and to
the king and queen, and lastly to the realm of
England, to render worthy satisfaction. But as
that happy thief, when he was not able to pay the
money and wealth which he had taken away,
when neither his feet nor his hands fastened to
the cross could do their office ; by heart only
and tongue, which were not bound, he testified
what the rest of his members would do, if they
enjoyed the same liberty that his tongue did. By
that he confessed Christ to be innocent ; by that
vol. n. i i

482 THE LIFE OF
he reproved the impudence of his fellow ; by that
he detested his former life, and obtained the par
don of his sins, and as it were by a kind of key
opened the gates of paradise. By the example of
this man I do conceive no small hopes of Christ's
mercy ; that he will pardon my sins. I want
hands and feet, by which I might build up again
that which I have destroyed ; for the hps of my
mouth are only left me. But he will receive the
calves of our lips, who is merciful beyond all belief.
By this hope conceived, therefore I choose to
offer this calf, to sacrifice this very small part of
my body and life.
" I confess, in the first place, my unthankful-
ness against the great God. I acknowledge my
self unworthy of all favour and pity, but most
worthy not only of human and temporal, but
divine and eternal punishment ; that I exceedingly
offended against king Henry VIII. and especially
against queen Catharine his wife, when I was the
cause and author of the divorce. Which fault
indeed was the seminary of all the evils and cala
mities of this realm. Hence so many slaughters
of good men ; hence the schism of the whole king
dom ; hence heresies ; hence the destruction of so
many souls and bodies sprang, that I can scarce
comprehend with reason. But when these are so
great beginnings of grief, I acknowledge I opened
a great window to all heresies, whereof myself
acted the chief doctor and leader ; but first of all,

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 483
which most vehemently torments my mind, that
I affected the holy sacrament of the Eucharist
with so many blasphemies and reproaches, deny
ing Christ's body and blood to be truly and really
contained under the species of bread and wine.
By setting forth also books, I did impugn the
truth with all my might. In this respect indeed
not only worse than Saul and the thief, but the
most wicked of all which the earth ever bore.
JLord, I have sinned against heaven, and before
Thee. Against heaven, as I am the cause it hath
been deprived of so many saints, denying most
impudently that heavenly benefit exhibited to us.
And I have sinned against the earth, which so long
hath miserably wanted this sacrament. Against
men, whom I have called from this supersubstan-
tial morsel ; the slayer of so many men as have
perished for want of food. I have defrauded the
souls of the dead of this daily and most celebrious
sacrifice. " And from all these things it is manifest, how
greatly after Christ I have been injurious to his
vicar, whom I have deprived of his power by
books set forth. Wherefore I do most earnestly
and ardently beseech the pope, that he, for the
mercy of Christ, forgive me the things I have com
mitted against him and the apostolical see. And
I humbly beseech the most serette sovereign's of
England, Spain, &c. Philip and Mary, that by
their royal mercy they would pardon me. I ask
ii 2

484 THE LIFE OF
and beseech the whole realm, yea, the Universal
Church, that they take pity of this wretched
being, to whom, besides a tongue, nothing is left,
whereby to make amends for the injuries and
damages I have brought in. But especially, be
cause against Thee only I have sinned, I beseech
Thee, most merciful Father, who desirest and
commandest all to come to Thee, however wicked,
vouchsafe to look upon me nearly, and under Thy
hand, as Thou lookedst upon Magdalen and Peter;
or certainly as Thou, looking upon the thief on
the cross, didst vouchsafe by the promise of Thy
grace and glory to comfort a fearful and trembling
mind ; so, by Thy wonted and natural pity, turn
the eyes of Thy mercy to me, and vouchsafe me
worthy to have that Word of Thine spoken to
me, / am thy salvation ; and in the day of death,
To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
" Per me Thomam Cranmer."
" Written this year of
our Lord, 1555-6, the
18tk day of March."
For what purpose, it may be asked, were this
and the preceding instrument formed in a lan
guage known only to the learned ? Were they to
be detailed only so far, in our own, to the common
people, as not to lead them to a belief that other
words than Cranmer's were recited ? But what
ever was the intention, and admitting the contents

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 485
of both the instruments, though paltering in a
double tongue, to be universally known, numbers
still disbelieved that Cranmer was entirely lost,
that yet he would not redeem himself. When he
ascended the platform at St. Mary's on the morn
ing of his martyrdom, numbers wept, says the
Roman Catholic who witnessed the scene, having
indeed " 1 conceived an assured hope of his convert
sion and repentance," which, ere a few minutes had
elapsed, was disappointed. But again, when the
fallen prelate began to pray, this honest spectator
divides the listening audience into " those that
hated him before, [the Romanists]] who now loved
him for his [[fancied]] conversion and hope of con
tinuance," — and " those that loved him before,
[[the Protestants]] who could not suddenly hate
him, having hope of his confession again of his fall."
Why, also, was the fifth recantation, published by
prelates and divines immediately after it was made,.
suppressed by an order ofthe Privy Council ?
Was it because a suspicion was believed to exist,
that Cranmer's assent to it was incapable of
proof? No, says the apologist for this question
able proceeding : " 2 Perhaps it was incorrectly
printed ; perhaps they waited for that which he said
God would inspire him to make." What the Privy
• Strype. The whole evidence of this spectator will presently
be given.
2 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 276. n.

486 THE LIFE OF
Council are thus conjectured as expecting from
the archbishop, is nothing more than what is
flippantly ' pretended as his expression by the
French ambassador ; not a shadow of authority
for which is any where to be found. That it was
incorrectly printed, is probable enough. But Pole
and Bonner intended not merely to correct it, but
to reprint it with the four preceding papers, and
with the production of a sixth. Indeed this is
the only recantation, to which historians formerly
drew the attention of their readers. Hence Collier,
after Foxe, relates, that on the day of Cranmer's
execution, the Spanish friar, "who was a witness to
his recantation, proposed the reading his 2 recanta-
1 " II (Cranmer) envoya prier M. le cardinal Polus de differer
pour quelques jours son execution, esperant que Dieu I'inspire-
roit cependant." Noailles. Lingard, ut supr.
1 Foxe calls it "a paper with articles, which Cranmer should
openly profess in his recantation before the people, earnestly
desiring him that he would write the said instrument with his
own hand, and sign it with his name ; which when he had done,
the said friar desired that he would write another copy thereof,
which should remain with him, and that he did also." Hence
the interpretation of Burnet : " He was (now) dealt with to
renew his subscription, and to write the whole over again."
But the most curious, and I believe hitherto unnoticed, mention
in regard to this fifth recantation, and what was selected from
it for Cranmer to avow before the people at his execution,
occurs in the continuation of The Chronicles of Fabian, Lond.
1559. vol. 2. p. 564. " In this year (1556) in Lent, Thomas
Cranmer, archbishoppe of Canterbury, after that he had re
canted his supposed recantation, was brent at Oxford."

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 487
tion to a public audience, and to this purpose desired
him to subscribe the instrument with his own hand
and sign it." Of any new submission on the fatal
morning this historian seems to have entertained
no belief. Burnet is alike siletit. Thus too the
Romish biographer of Pole, with the printed sub
missions of the archbishop at his service, speaks
apparently of none but that which is numbered
the fifth by Bonner, and after noticing the writ
for burning him, says, " Cranmer had again re
newed his subscription, and transcribed a fair copy
of the whole ; but, having some misgivings of his
approaching punishment, he secretly wrote another
declaration, which contradicted, in every point,
the doctrine he had before signed/' What here
is called a renewed subscription, is affirmed, how
ever, in the recent history of our country, to be
nothing less than the copy of a " ' seventh instru
ment of abjuration." Is it improbable, however,
that what the friar proposed, was merely the
fifth recantation more correctly written than the
hastily printed copy had given it? To this the
signature of Cranmer was requisite, and it was
made, together with that of the friar ; but, it is
especially to be observed, is undated. It would
now be ready for Bonner's publication, as the fifth
instrument ; while a written abbreviation of the
material parts of it would be sufficient for Cranmer
1 Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 274.

488 THE LIFE OF
" openly to profess before the people ;" and ac
cordingly Bonner, without the statement of its
being a new subscription, without the pretence of
its being a seventh recantation, prints only what
the martyr was to have spoken, but basely conceals
the fact that he did not speak it. The faith that
he was to assert was thus worded for him.
" ] First, I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, &c. And I believe
every article of the catholic faith, every clause,
word, and sentence, taught by our Saviour Christ
and his Apostles, and Prophets, in the New and
Old Testament, and all articles explicate and set
forth in general councils. And now I come to
the great thing that so much troubleth my con
science more than any other thing that ever I did,
that is, setting abroad untrue books and writings,
contrary to the truth of God's Word, which
now I renounce and condemn, and refuse them
utterly as erroneous and for none of mine. But
you must know also what books they were, that
you may beware of them, or else my conscience
is not discharged. For they be the books which
I wrote against the sacrament of the altar, since
the death of king Henry the Eighth. But what
soever I wrote then, now is time and place to
say truth. Wherefore renouncing all those books,
and whatsoever in them is contained, I say, and
1 All the submyssyons, ut supr. sign. B. 2. a.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 489
believe, that our Saviour Christ Jesus is really
and substantially contained in the blessed sacra
ment of the altar under the forms of bread and
wine." So ends the tract, affirmed in the titlerpage
" to have been seen and examined by Bonner." Upon
him, therefore, rests the responsibility of the com
pilation, even if by any other hand than his own
it had been compiled ; upon him the shame also,
which if not to other parts of it, at least to the
conclusion, belongs, where what the sufferer
really spoke is concealed, but what was prepared
for him to have spoken is related, and by many of
the compiler's party was afterwards reported, as if
indeed he did speak it.
To Cranmer's own words in abhorrence of his
weakness, and to the 1 brightening of his charac
ter in the flame that consumed him, we will now
attend. 1 Hallam, 8vo. i. 136.

CHAPTER VI.

1556.
Cranmer retracts his recantations, and is burnt.
The last humihating paper, which bore the date
of the 18th of March, served only to expedite the
execution of Cranmer. It had all along been re
solved that he should suffer. The fatal morning
was now fixed for the 21st of the month. Against
that day Dr. Cole, provost of Eton College, had
before been ' secretly commanded by the queen to
prepare a sermon. Nobility and gentry, residing
near Oxford, had been also desired at the same
time to attend, not without their servants and re
tinue, lest the death of the archbishop should
excite a tumult. On the 20th, Dr. Cole visited
the prisoner ; and there can be little doubt that
Cranmer found by his discourse, what was not
however distinctly named, that his last hour was
fixed. Have you continued, said Cole, in the
catholic faith, wherein before I left you ? — By
1 Foxe. Burnet. Strype.

THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 491
God's grace, replied the archbishop, I would be
more confirmed in the catholic faith. Other
conversation, we may be sure, would afford hints
that could not be mistaken. I agree with * ano
ther of his biographers in believing, that after
Cole had left the prison, Cranmer drew up his
prayer, his exhortation, his repentant speech. On
the morning of the 21st, Cole is again des
cribed as visiting him, at a very early hour, as it
should seem, when he asked him if he had any
money ; and, being answered that he had none,
supplied him with fifteen crowns ; an intimation
that at his death might be distributed, what then
at funerals was not infrequent, the dole or distri
bution of alms to the poor. Dr. Cole then left
him. The Spanish friar is represented as next
approaching him, and offering " 2 a paper with
articles which he should openly profess in his re
cantation before the people." The paper is thus
described, by two eloquent historians of our coun
try ; the first of whom can hardly in any respect
be contradicted, while the other must allow us a
review of his narrative. " The court," says Hume,
" equally perfidious and cruel, were determined
that his recantation should avail him nothing ; and
they sent him orders that he should be required
to acknowledge his errors in church before the whole
people, and that he should thence be immediately
1 Gilpin. 2 Foxe.

492 THE LIFE OF
carried to execution. Cranmer, whether that he
had received a secret intimation of their design,
or had repented of his weakness, surprised the
audience by a contrary declaration." Dr. Lingard
relates, that the friar " came, not to announce
a pardon, but to comfort and prepare the prisoner
for the last trial. Entertaining no suspicion of
sincerity, Garcina submitted to his consideration
a paper, which he advised him to read at the
stake as a public testimony (of his repentance. '
It consisted of five parts ; a request that the
spectators would pray with him ; a form of prayer
for himself; an exhortation to others to lead a
virtuous hfe ; a declaration of the queen's right to
the crown ; and a confession of faith, with a re
tractation of the doctrine in his book on the Eu
charist. Cranmer, having dissembled so long, re
solved to carry on the deception. He transcribed
and signed the paper ; and giving one copy to the
Spaniard, retained the other for his own use. But
when the friar was gone, he appears to have made
a second copy, in which entirely omitting the fourth
article, the assertion of the queen's title, he sub
stituted in lieu of the confession contained in the
fifth, a disavowal of the six retractations, which
he had already made. Of his motives we can judge
only from his conduct. Probably he now con
sidered himself doubly armed?.? If a pardon were
now announced, he might take the benefit of it,
and read the original paper ; if not, by reading

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 493
the copy, he would disappoint the expectations of
his adversaries, and repair the scandal which he
had given to his brethren." We must first observe
what Cranmer himself said, in order to bestow
upon these assertions a fair examination. A
Roman Cathohc spectator of the martyrdom shall
tell us what he heard and saw ; whose evidence
is the more to be trusted, inasmuch as he conceals
not his religious prejudices against the martyr,
while he frankly admits the self-possession, and
honours the fortitude, that graced his last mo
ments. About the hour of nine the procession.
received him at the prison-gate, and set forward.
From the spectator's letter to his friend we learn
the rest. It was as follows.
" * But that I know for our great friendships
and long-continued love, you look even of duty,
that I should signify to you of the truth of. such
things as here chanceth among us, I would not at
this time have written to you the unfortunate end
and doubtful tragedy of Thomas Cranmer, late
bishop of Canterbury, because I little pleasure
take in beholding of such heavy sights. And when
they are once overpassed, I like not to. rehearse
them again ; being but a renewing of my woe,
and doubling my grief. . For although hjs former
life, and wretched end, deserves a greater misery,
1 First printed entire by Strype from Foxe's manuscripts.

494 THE LIFE OF
(if any greater might have chanced than chanced
unto him,) yet setting aside his offences to God
and his country, and beholding the man without
his faults, I think there was none that pitied not
his case, and bewailed his fortune, and feared not
his own chance, to see so noble a prelate, so grave
a councillor, of so long-continued honour, after so
many dignities, in his old years to be deprived of
his estate, adjudged to die, and in so painful a
death to end his life. I have no delight to in
crease it. Alas, it is too much of itself, that ever
so heavy a case should betide to man, and man to
deserve it.
" But to come to the matter : On Saturday
last, being the 21st of March, was his day ap
pointed to die. And because the morning was
much rainy, the sermon, appointed by Mr. Dr.
Cole to be made at the stake, was made in St.
Mary's Church. Whither Dr. Cranmer was
brought by the Mayor and Aldermen, and my
Lord Williams. With whom came divers gentle
men of the shire, Sir T. A. Bridges, Sir John
Browne, and others. Where was prepared, over
against the pulpit, a high place for him, that all
the people might see him. And when he had
ascended it, he kneeled down and prayed, weeping
tenderly ; which moved a great number to tears,
that had conceived an assured hope of his conversion
and repentance.
" Then Mr. Cole began his sermon. The sum

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 495
whereof was this. First, he declared causes why
it was expedient that he should suffer, notwith
standing his reconciliation. The chief are these :
One was, for that he had been a great cause of
all this alteration in this realm of England. And
when the matter of the divorce, between king
Henry VIII. and queen Catharine, was com
menced in the court of Rome, he, having nothing
to do with it, sate upon it as judge, which was the
entry to all the inconveniences that followed.
Yet in that he excused him, that he thought he
did it not of malice, but by the persuasions and
advice of certain learned men. Another was,
that he had been the great setter forth of all this
heresy received into the church in this last time ;
had written in it, had disputed, had continued it,
even to the last hour ; and that it had never been
seen in this realm, (but in the time of schism,)
that any man continuing so long hath been par
doned : and that it was not to be remitted for
en sample's sake. Other causes he alleged ; but
these were the chief, why it was not thought good
to pardon him. Other causes beside, he said,
moved the queen and the council thereto, which
were not meet and convenient for every one to
understand them.
" The second part touched the audience, how
they should consider this thing ; that they should
hereby take example to fear God ; and that there
was no power against the Lord ; having before

496 THE LIFE OF
their eyes a man of so high degree,, sometime one
of the chiefest prelates of the church, an arch
bishop, the chief of the Council, the second peer
of the realm of long time : a man, as might be
thought, in greatest assurance, a king of his side^
notwithstanding all his authority and defence to
be debased from a high estate to a low degree ;
of a councillor to be a caitiff ; and to be set in so
wretched estate, that the poorest wretch would
not change conditions with him.
" The last and end appertained unto him.
Whom he comforted and encouraged to take his
death well, by many places of Scripture. And
with these, and such, bidding him nothing mis
trust but he should incontinently receive that the
thief did : to whom Christ said, Hodie mecum eris in
paradiso. And out of St. Paul armed him against
the terrors of the fire, by this, Dominus fidelis est :
Non sinet nos tentari ultra quam ferre potestis ; by
the example of the three children, to whom God
made the flame seem like a pleasant dew. He
added hereunto the rejoicing of St. Andrew in
his cross ; the patience of St. Laurence on the
fire ; ascertaining him, that God, if he called on
Him, and to such as die in His faith, either will
abate the fury of the flame, or give him strength
to abide it. He glorified God much in his con
version ; because it appeared to be only His
work : declaring what travel and conference had
been used with him to convert him, and all pre-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 497
vailed not, till it pleased God of his mercy to re
claim him, and call him home. In discoursing of
which place, he much commended Cranmer, and
qualified his former doing.
" And I had almost forgotten to tell you, that
Mr. Cole promised him, that he should be prayed
for in every church in Oxford, and should have
Mass and Dirige sung for him ; and spake to all
the priests present to say mass for his soul.
" When he had ended his sermon, he desired
all the people to pray for him : Mr. Cranmer
kneeling down with them, and praying for him
self. I think there never was such a number sb
earnestly praying together. For they that hated
him before, now loved him for his conversion,
and hope of continuance. They that loved him
before could not suddenly hate him, having hope
of his confession again of his fall. So love and hope
encreased devotion on every side.
" I shall not need, for the time of sermon, to
describe his behaviour, his sorrowful countenance,
his heavy cheer, his face bedewed with tears ;
sometime lifting his eyes to heaven in hope, some
time casting them down to the earth for shame ;
to be brief, an image of sorrow ; the dolour of
his heart bursting out at his eyes in plenty of
tears ; retaining ever a quiet ahd grave behaviour.
Which increased the pity in men's hearts, that
they unfeignedly loved him, hoping it had been
his repentance for his transgression and error. I
vol. n. k k

498 THE LIFE OF
shall not need, I say, to point it out unto you ;
you can much better imagine it yourself.
" When praying was done, he stood up, and
having leave to speak, said, ' Good people, I had
intended indeed to desire you to pray for me ;
which because Mr. Doctor hath desired, and you
have done already, I thank you most heartily for it.
And now will I pray for myself, as I could best de
vise for mine own comfort, and say the prayer, word
for word, as I have here written it.' And he read it
standing : and after kneeled down, and said the
Lord's Prayer ; and all the people on their knees
devoutly praying with him. His prayer was thus :
" O Father of heaven ; O Son of God, Re
deemer of the world ; O Holy Ghost, proceeding
from them both, three persons and one God, have
mercy upon me most wretched caitiff, and miser
able sinner. I who have offended both heaven
and earth, and more grievously than any tongue
can express, whither then may I go, or whither
should I fly for succour ? To heaven I may be
ashamed to lift up mine eyes ; and in earth I find
no refuge. What shall I then do ? Shall I des
pair ? God forbid. O good God, Thou art mer
ciful, and refusest none that come unto Thee for
succour. To Thee therefore do I run. To Thee
do I humble myself : saying, O Lord God, my sins
be great, but yet have mercy upon me for Thy
great mercy. O God the Son, thou wast not
made man, this great mystery was not wrought,

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 499
for few or small offences. Nor thou didst not
give thy Son unto death, O God the Father, for
our little and small sins only, but for all the great
est sins of the world ; so that the sinner return
unto thee with a penitent heart ; as I do here at
this present. Wherefore have mercy uppn me,
O Lord, whose property is always to have mercy.
For although my sins be great, yet Thy mercy is
greater. I crave nothing, O Lord, for mine own
merits, but for Thy Name's sake, that it may be
glorified thereby : and for thy dear Son Jesus
Christ's sake. And now therefore, Our Father,
which art in heaven, &c.' —
" Then rising, he said, ' Every man desireth,
good people, at the time of their deaths, to give
some good exhortation, that others may remember
after their deaths, and be the better thereby. So
I beseech God grant me grace, that I may speak
something at this my departing, whereby God
may be glorified, and you edified.
" ' First, it is a heavy case to see, that many
folks be so much doted upon the love of this false
world, and so careful for it, that of the love of
God, or the love of the world to come, they seem
to care very little or nothing therefore. This shall
be my first exhortation : That you set not over
much by this false glosing world, but upon God
and the world to come. And learn to know what
this lesson meaneth, which St. John teacheth,
that the love of this world is hatred against God.
Kk2

500 THE LIFE OF
" ' The second exhortation is, that next unto
God, you obey your king and queen, willingly and
gladly, without murmur or grudging. And not
for fear of them only, but much more for the fear
of God : Knowing, that they be God's ministers,
appointed by God to rule and govern you. And
therefore whoso resisteth them, resisteth God's
ordinance. " ' The third exhortation is, that you love all
together like brethren and sisters. For alas, pity
it is to see, what contention and hatred one
Christian man hath to another ; not taking each
other, as sisters and brothers ; but rather as
strangers and mortal enemies. But I pray you
learn and bear well away this one lesson, To do
good to all men as much as in you heth, and
to hurt no man, no more than you would hurt
your own natural and loving brother or sister.
For this you may be sure of, that whosoever
hateth any person, and goeth about maliciously
to hinder or hurt him, surely, and without all
doubt, God is not with that man, although he
think himself never so much in God's favour.
" ' The fourth exhortation shall be to them that
have great substance and riches of this world, that
they will well consider and weigh those sayings of
the Scripture. , One is of our Saviour Christ
himself, who saith, It is hard for a rich man to
enter into heaven ; a sore saying, and yet spoke
by him, that knew the truth. The second is of

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 501
St. John, whose saying is this, He that hath the
substance of this world, and seeth his brother in
necessity, and shutteth up his mercy from him, how
can he say, he loveth God? Much more might I
speak of every part ; but time sufficeth not. I
do but put you in remembrance of things. Let
all them that be rich, ponder well those sen
tences ; for if ever they had any occasion to shew
their charity, they have now at this present, the
poor people being so many, and 1 victuals so dear.
For though I have been long in prison, yet I have
heard of the great penury of the poor. - Consider,
that that which is given to the poor, is given to
God ; whom we have not otherwise present cor
porally with us, but in the poor.
'" And now forsomuch as I am come to the last
end of my life, whereupon hangeth all my life
passed, and my hfe to come, either to live with my
Saviour Christ in heaven, in joy, or else to be in
pain ever with wicked devils in hell ; and I see
before mine eyes presently either heaven ready to
receive me, or hell ready to swallow me up ; I
shall therefore declare unto you my very faith,
1 The scarcity at Oxford now " was so great, that several
societies, being scarce able to live, had leave from their governors
to go into the country to their respective homes, to remain
there till such time as bread-corn was more plentiful." Wood,
Ann. Univ. Ox. under the year 1555, at the close of it, which
according to the computation of that time would be, then, within
four days of Cranmer's death.

502 THE LIFE OF
how I believe, without colour or dissimulation*
For now is no time to dissemble, whatsoever I
have written in times past.
" ' First, I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, &c. and every article
of the Catholic faith, every word and sentence
taught by our Saviour Christ, his Apostles and
Prophets, in the Old and New Testament.
" ' And now I come to the great thing that trou-
bleth my conscience more than any other thing
that ever I said or did in my life : and that is, the
setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth.
Which here now I renounce, and refuse, as things
written with my hand contrary to the truth which I
thought in my heart, and writ for fear of death, and
to save my life, if it might be : and that is, all such
bills, which I have written or signed with mine own
hand, since my degradation ; wherein I have written
many things untrue. And forasmuch as my hand
offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore
my hand shall first be punished. For if I may come
to the fire, it shall be first burned. And as for the
pope, I refuse him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist,
with all his false doctrine.'
" And here being admonished of his recantation,
and dissembling, he said, Alas, my lord, I have
been a man, that all my life loved plainness, and
never dissembled till now against the truth ; which
I am most sorry for. He added hereunto, that
for the sacrament, he believed as he had taught
1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 503
in his book against the bishop of Winchester.
And here he was suffered to speak no more.
" So that his speech contained chiefly three
points ; love to God, love to the king, and love
to the neighbour. In the which talk he held men
very suspense, which all depended upon the con
clusion ; where he so far deceived all men's ex
pectations, that at the hearing thereat, they were
much amazed; and let him go on awhile, till
my lord Williams bade him play the Christian
man, and remember himself. To whom he an
swered, that he so did ; for now he spake truth.
" Then he was carried away ; and a great
number, that did run to see him go so wickedly
to his death, ran after him, exhorting him, while
time was, to remember himself. And one friar
John, a godly and well-learned man, all the way
travelled with him to reduce him. But it would
not be. What they said in particular I cannot
tell, but the effect appeared in the end. For at
the stake he professed, that he died in all such
opinions as he had taught, and oft repented him of
his recantation.
" Coming to the stake with a cheerful coun
tenance, and willing mind, he put off his garments
with haste, and stood upright in his shirt : and a
bachelor of divinity named Elye, of Brasen-Nose
College, laboured to convert him to his former
recantation, with the two Spanish friars. But when
the friars saw his constancy, they said in Latin

504 THE LIFE OF
one to another, Let us go from him; we ought not
to be nigh him ; for the devil is with him. But
the bachelor in divinity was more earnest with
him. Unto whom he answered, ' That as concern
ing his recantation, he repented it right sore, because
he knew it was against the truth ;' with other words
more.. Whereupon the lord Williams cried,
Make short, make short. Then the bishop took
certain of his friends by the hand. But the bache
lor of divinity refused to take him by the hand,
and blamed all others that so did, and said, he
was sorry that ever he came in his company.
And yet again he required him to agree to his
former recantation. And the bishop answered,
(shewing his hand,) ' This is the hand that wrote
it, and therefore shall it suffer first punishment.' —
" Fire being now put to him, he stretched out
his right hand, and thrust it into the flame, and
held it there a good space, before the fire came
to any other part of his body ; where his hand
was seen of every man sensibly burning, crying
with a loud voice, ' This hand hath offended.' As
soon as the fire got up, he was very soon dead,
never stirring or crying all the while.
" His patience in the torment, his courage in
dying, if it had been taken either for the glory of
God, the wealth of his country, or the testimony
of truth, as it was for a pernicious error and sub
version of true religion, I could worthily have
commended the example, and matched it with

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 505
the fame of any Father of ancient time : but see
ing that not the death, but the cause and quarrel
thereof, commendeth the sufferer, I cannot but
much dispraise his obstinate stubbornness and
sturdiness in dying, and specially in so evil a
cause. Surely his death much grieved every man ;
but not after one sort. Some pitied to see his
body so tormented with the fire raging upon the
silly carcass, that counted not ofthe folly. Others
that passed not much of the body, lamented to
see him spill his soul, wretchedly, without re
demption, to be plagued for ever. His friends
sorrowed for love : his enemies for pity : strangers
for a common kind of humanity, whereby we are
bound one to another. Thus I have enforced
myself, for your sake, to discourse this heavy
narration, contrary to my mind : and being more
than half weary, I make a short end, wishing you
a quieter life, with less honour ; and easier death,
with more praise. The 23d of March, [1555-6.;]
"Yours, J. A."
After this testimony of the spectator, that the
archbishop said " he would pray for himself, as
he could best devise for his own comfort, and say
the prayer, word for word, as he had written it,"
we cannot suppose, with the historian, that the
" friar's paper" supplied it. That the prayer
was his own composition, which at this moment
he took from his bosom, we may believe from

506 THE LIFE OF
its identity also with what as a Protestant he had
been accustomed so earnestly to assert of Christ's
oblation. Whither, he says in this impressive
orison, wretched caitiff as I am, shall I fly for
succour? He returns answer to himself, that
God gave not his Son unto death for small sins
only, but for all the greatest sins of the world,
so that the sinner returns to Him in heart. So
in his admirable book on the sacrament he wrote,
" J Come to our Redeemer and Saviour Christ,
who refresheth all that truly come ' unto him,
be their anguish and heaviness never so great :"
So in his answer to Gardiner, who opposed his
doctrine of the sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice,
" 2 What ought to be more certain and known
to all Christian people, than that Christ died once,
and but once, for the redemption of the world ?
And what can be more true, than that his only
death is our life ? And what can be more com
fortable to a penitent sinner that is sorry for his
sin, and returneth to God in his heart and whole
mind, than to know that Christ dischargeth him
of the heavy load of his sin ?"
Then as to the exhortation, again we disbelieve
the friar to" have submitted to him the words.
Again we trace in them the archbishop's former
sentiments and language. It is a heavy case, he
says, to see how many folks be so much doted of
1 Pref. to the work. 2 Conclusion of the answer.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 507
this present world, and so careful of it, that for
the world to come they seem to care very little or
nothing. The very repetition of what three years
before he had written to Cecil, " 1 1 am not so
doted to set my mind upon things here, which
neither I can carry away with me, nor tarry long
with them." It is remarkable that in Bonner's
tract the conclusion of the archbishop's exhorta
tion, where he alludes to his long imprisonment,
is suppressed. But Garcina is said to have proffered, and the
archbishop to have copied, what is called a decla
ration of the queen's right to the crown. In regard
to such a declaration the attentive and impartial
spectator offers not a syllable. Dr. Lingard says,
that the archbishop entirely omitted it " in a
second copy of the articles which he appears to
have made, after the friar had left him." Has the
historian, then, seen the friar's own or any other
copy of the articles, which at once verifies the
charge of omission in Cranmer's ? Not so. For
even Bonner's tract here pretends no distinct arti
cle, but gives only this direction, " Here to declare
the queen's just title to the crown" which is the
preliminary to the renunciation, or th'e words that
were prepared for him to speak, which, as it was
" 2 notoriously known to hundreds of persons pre
sent" at the martyrdom, he did not speak, and
which Bonner dared not print as either signed by
1 See before, p. 284. 2 Strype.

508 THE LIFE OF
Cranmer himself, or as attested by the Spanish
friar, or by any other person. It was the fifth re
cantation, I cannot then but conclude, that had
been hastily printed and immediately ordered to
be burnt, which Garcina on the fatal morning
brought newly written, requiring and obtaining
from Cranmer, who could not deny what it con
tained, his signature to it ; and suggesting an
abbreviated admission of it before the people.
The public would be anxious to possess what had
been suspiciously withdrawn from them. The
Privy Council, who had been " 1 concerned" at
the first appearance of this recantation, could not
but be desirous to supply the information. Nor
would the friar, we may suppose, conceal from
Cranmer that his four preceding recantations,
with this and the sixth, were intended for publi
cation. This indeed, the only complete one, was
then the general theme, while the sixth had been
sent to the court only three days before, and by
few even there perhaps as yet had been seen. It
is to this fifth paper, that the man of Brasen-Nose
College must have referred, when, insulting Cran
mer on his way to the stake, he, " with 2 the two
1 On the 13th of March, " when they heard that Cranmer's
paper of recantation was published." Burnet. On the 1 6th
the printers entered into a recognizance that the recantations
should be burnt. Lansdowne MSS. No. 980. p. 189.
2 Foxe calls them friar Richard, and friar John. The latter
was Garcina ; the former is not known. There were several
Spanish ecclesiastics who had accompanied Philip to England.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 509
Spanish friars, laboured to convert him to his
former recantation." It could be this paper only
that one of the friars, (Garcina we may suppose,)
" raging and foaming, almost out of his wits,"
forced upon the notice of the victim, with the
words, " Nonne fecisti ? Didst thou it not ?"
Foxe, in his further account of the dying hour,
adds to the Roman Catholic's narrative a personal
description of the sufferer that may not here be
overpassed. " His head," says the martyrologist,
" when both his caps were off, was so bare that
one hair could not be seen upon it : his 1 beard
was long and thick : such a countenance of gravity
moved the hearts both of his friends and of his
enemies." After noticing yet one more vain at
tempt of the Spanish friars to shake the arch
bishop's resolution, and the uncharitable refusal of
the academic to accept his hand, Foxe exhibits
him bound with an iron chain to the stake, and
the flames kindled ; next, as the fire began to burn
near him, not only thrusting his right hand into
the flame, but holding it so that all men might
see it consumed before his body was touched ;
and then, when enveloped in flames, enduring the
torment with such heroism as apparently to move
no more than the stake to which he was bound,
while his eyes were lifted up to heaven, and his
1 It had been suffered, probably, thus to grow, while he was
in prison.

510 THE LIFE OF
tongue was repeatedly exclaiming, so long as it
would suffer him, That unworthy hand, and Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.
" His sufferings were x short," Dr. Lingard says ;
as if holding the hand in the flame " a good space
before the fire came to any other part of his body,"
nor flinching while it was reduced to ashes, were
a brief torment ; as if such fortitude, which even
from Voltaire has elicited the commendation of
being more intrepid than the similar act of Mutius
Scasvola, deserved no encomium in a history of
our country. But the learned historian, if he has
not lauded, at least has not dispraised, the deed.
Alan Cope, however, not only 2 contemptuously
and almost immediately forbade the comparison
of it with that of Scaevola, but also pointed to
another example, as still more valuable than the
patriot's, in the history of a martyr of the Church
of Rome, whose hand the fire could not injure !
For the flames that consumed the archbishop
these were the charges :
3 For a hundred of wood fagots,  0 6 0
For a hundred and a half of furze fagots, 0 3 4
For the carriage of them,  0 0 8
To two labourers  0 1 4

1 Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii.
2 Dialogi Sex, etc. contra Pseudomartyres, &c. Antverpiae,
1573, p. 547.
3 Strype.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 511
We have now seen " the end of this learned
archbishop," (to use the judicious words of Foxe,)
" whom, lest by evil subscribing he should have
perished, by well recanting God preserved ; and,
lest he should have hved longer with shame and
reproof, it pleased God rather to take him away,
to the glory of His Name and the profit of His
Church." He suffered in the sixty-seventh year of his
age, and had presided over the Church of England
above twenty years.

CHAPTER VII.

The archbishop's family at, the time of his martyrdom — Sei
zure of part of his possessions by queen Mary — The restora
tion in blood of his children, by Act of parliament, in the
reign of Elizabeth — Petition of his son Thomas to that
sovereign.
During his imprisonment, and at his closing scene,
we find not, in the biographies of the archbishop,
any mention of wife, or child, or other relative,
attending or contributing to console and support
him. Fear perhaps, if not the injunction of
authority, restrained their interference. Or pro
bably the committal of their great kinsman to
the Tower had been to them the warning, not
unheeded, for voluntary exile or careful conceal
ment. His younger brother, Edmund, the arch
deacon of Canterbury, had been deprived indeed
of all his preferments by the ] Marian order
against the married clergy. But his elder brother,
1 See before, p. 447.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 513
John, was still possessed of the patrimonial manors
at Aslacton and Whatton ; to whose son, Thomas,
the archbishop had 1 assigned the rectories also
of those places, which, in the first year of Edward,
he had purchased, of that sovereign, and which'
had belonged to the dissolved monastery of Wel-
beck. To this nephew they had been probably
assigned under a condition that the archbishop's
wife, if she survived him, should enjoy the re
venues, and that after her death the rectories and
manors should be the united property of the head
of the Cranmer family. Possessed of both this
nephew died, and to his heir they descended ;
but, before the sixteenth century closed, the pro
perty changed hands, being purchased by an
ancestor of the duke of Portland, in whose family
it remained till about half a century since, when
the demesnes were sold in three allotments to
others. That this rectorial property, and 2 not an abbey
in Nottinghamshire, was the subsistence for the
archbishop's widow, I have little doubt, as I can
find no mention ofthe grant of any religious house
either to her or to Cranmer, distinct from annexa-
1 Strype.
2 Strype and others have imagined an abbey in Nottinghamshire
to have been settled upon her by Henry ; and some have pro
nounced it to have been Welbeck ; misled by the circumstance
perhaps of the rectories having belonged to that religious
house. ,
VOL. II. L 1

514 THE LIFE OF
tion to the see of Canterbury, except the monas
tery of Kirkstall in the county of York, to which
the nunnery of Arthington also belonged. These
had been granted and confirmed to the archbishop
both by * Henry and Edward ; and, in the book
of royal sales by the latter, a reference to other
property in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and Kent,
conveyed with them, is also made ; among which
we may conclude the rectories of Aslacton and
Whatton to have been named. The settlement of
these minor possessions was now undisturbed. The
immediate heir of Cranmer was not concerned in
them. But the rich demesnes of Kirkstall Mary
seized as her right upon the archbishop's attaint-
ure as a traitor, although she had pardoned the
treason ! His son appears to have long suffered
by the loss, as his petition to Elizabeth will pre
sently shew. Meantime let us revert to the arch
bishop's widow. Strype says, that she was living
toward the latter end of archbishop Parker's time ;
Ames, upon what authority I know not, says that
she married Edward Whitchurch, the celebrated
printer in the reign of Edward, who had been a
merchant, who had been well known to the arch-
1 Strype mentions them as granted only by Edward, and
further mistakes the bestowal as if for especial services. The
grant of it was by Henry in the 34th year of his reign, con
firmed in the 1st and 4th of Edward's, in exchange for archi
episcopal possessions. See also Tanner under Kirkstall and
Arthington. 1

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 515
bishop, and who smarted also under the severities
of Mary.
Four sisters of Cranmer, x married to persons
of distinction, I may add, lived to hear of his
martyrdom. His son Thomas, and his daughter Margaret,
his only surviving children, were restored in blood
by an 2 Act of Parliament, Feb. 27, 1562-3. Some
years afterwards this son awakened Elizabeth's
remembrance of his father, and detailed to her
his own losses, in the following petition.
" 3 To the Queen's most excellent Majesty.
" In most humble and loyal wise sheweth unto
your Majesty your poor and hapless subject,
Thomas Cranmer, son unto Thomas Cranmer,
late archbishop of Canterbury, That whereas your
said subject's father having purchased of your
Highness's father and brother of famous memory
the Monastery of Kirkstall, and the Nunnery of
Arthington, and divers woods to them belonging,
to him and his heirs in fee simple ; and, intending
to leave the same to your poor subject and sup
plicant, made two several feoffments thereof, the
one of the Manor of Kirkstall and the demesnes,
the other of the Nunnery of Arthington and the
woods, both of them to the use of himself for
1 See the genealogical table prefixed to this Life.
2 Strype, andSir Simons D'Ewes, Journ. of the House of Lords.
3 Original MS. Lansdowne MSS. No. 107. art. 72.
Ll 2

516 THE LIFE OF
life and after his decease to his executors for the
term of twenty years, the remainder to Thomas
Cranmer his son, your Highness's said supplicant,
and his heirs of his body lawfully begotten, the
remainder in fee to the said archbishop and his
heirs for ever: So it is, most dread sovereign,
that the said archbishop being attainted of high
treason in the first year of queen Mary, she entered
upon the aforesaid Monastery of Kirkstall and the
Nunnery of Arthington and the woods, and demised
or let them in lease to one Gawin and others for
the term of 21 years, reserving the yearly rent
of 511. which your Majesty received until the
14th year of your Highness's reign, being of
the yearly value of 200/. whereby your Majesty's
poor suppliant was indemnified to the value of
4000/. to the great impoverishing of your Majesty's
subject, although by the laws of the realm the
said lands were your Highness's poor subject's,
immediately after the decease of the said arch
bishop his father, as it is upon the most charge
able suit of your subject adjudged by your High
ness's Court of Common Pleas.
" And likewise, may it please your most ex
cellent Majesty, your poor suppliant and subject
aforesaid, by reason of the concealment of the
said deed of Arthington and the woods, was con
strained to buy the said Arthington Nunnery of
your Highness, and paid to your Highness for the
same 108/. besides much money spent in the com-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 517
passing thereof, and bought two great woods
called Hawkesworth and Westwood of the earl
of Warwick, to whom your Highness had given
them as concealed lands, which cost your poor
supphant and subject  , and yet did not enjoy
them, for that the woods were not sufficiently
conveyed to the earl of Warwick, whereupon
the estate of your poor suppliant depended ; so
that coming to your Majesty's hands again, by
defect of the said patent, you exchanged them .
with Sir Henry Darcy, whereby your Highness's
poor subject did not only lose the said woods, but
also forfeited a bond of 2000/. and 400/. to Sir
Thomas Danby, to whom your Highness's poor
suppliant was forced to sell them with general
warranty, whereby your poor suppliant's lands
were extended by force of the said bond of 2000/.
and 400/. and presently after the said extent were
bought of Sir Thomas Danby, by one who bought
your Majesty's patent of exchange of the said
Sir Henry Darcy, whereby your Majesty's poor
subject was constrained to sell all his lands to the
said party far under the value they were worth.
All which said troubles, and miseries, happened
unto your Majesty's said subject, for that the said
subject's evidence was either of mahce, or of
sinister policy, detained and concealed, which now
too late (without your Majesty's mercy) are come
to his hands.
" May it therefore please your Highness, the

518 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.
premises weighed, and in consideration of your
subject's poor estate, and in regard of the true and
loyal service of his said father done unto your
Majesty's father and brother of famous memory, to
give unto your said poor subject forty pounds per
annum in fee-farm, or a lease in reversion of
fourscore years, paying your Majesty the accus
tomed rent of fourscore pounds yearly, or other
wise what best shall please your Majesty. And
your subject during life shall prostrate himself to
your most gracious pleasure."
With what success this application was attended,
I am unable to state.

CHAPTER VIII.

Recapitulation of Cranmer's writings — Review of his
character.
The writings ofthe archbishop which have been
printed, entire or in part, I will now recapitulate
in chronological order.
A ] long speech in the house of lords, in 1534,
discussing the propriety of a general council, and
denouncing the authority of the pontiff. Burnet
describes it as existing among the- manuscripts
that were bishop Stillingfleet's. In the two
volumes of those manuscripts, which now are in
the hbrary at Lambeth palace, it is not to be
found. In one of them, however, is a 2 paper
in "which the intent of general councils, and the
power of princes in their own realms to assemble
them, are briefly declared ; and which is signed
by Cranmer, by Tunstal bishop of Durham, by
1 Burnet, Hist. Ref. Copied in the present work, vol. i.
p. 120, seq.
2 No. 1107. fol. 163. Copied by Burnet, and described by
him as a resolution of the subscribing prelates to call a general
council.

520 THE LIFE OF
1 Clerk bishop of Bath and Wells, and by Good
rich bishop of Ely.
A 2 speech in convocation, in 1536, defending
the opinion of Alexander Aless concerning the
sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
3 Answers to questions concerning Confirma
tion, 1537.
4 Considerations submitted to king Henry in
order to a further reformation, 1537.
5 Injunctions given at his visitation of the see
of Hereford, 1538.
c Preface to the Translation of the Bible, in
1539, first printed in 1540.
7 Articles intended to be the doctrine of the
Church of England, 1540.
1 Clerk had been Henry's ambassador to Rome, carrying with
him the monarch's book against Luther; afterwards to the
ducal brother of Anne of Cleves, with the apology from his
fickle sovereign for the divorce. On his way home from this
last employment he died. Leland records him as a man of
great learning. Of Cranmer's copy of the king's Anti-Luthe
ran book with a few manuscript notes, now the property of a
private gentleman, an account was given, not long since, in
the Christian Remembrancer.
2 Foxe, in the Life of Latimer. Copied in the present work,
vol. i. p. 162, seq.
3 Burnet. Copied in the present work, vol. i. p. 188.
¦' Noticed, ibid. 189.
8 Burnet. See the first vol. of the present work, p. 226.
6 See the first vol. ofthe present work, p. 238, seq. and the
Appendix to that volume.
7 Ibid. 298, 336. These articles are copied in part by

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 521
1 Answers to seventeen questions concerning
the sacraments, previously to the publication of
the Necessary Doctrine, in 1543.
2 Three brief discourses on his review of the
Necessary Doctrine, entitled faith, justification,
and forgiveness of injuries.
s Other annotations on this review.
* Parts of three other discourses against the
fear of death, and on patience in sickness and
adversity.
6 Collection of passages from the canon law to
shew the necessity of reforming it, about the year
1544.
6 Speech to Edward the Sixth at his coronation,
1546-7.

Strype from the British Museum manuscript, Cleop. E. 5. ¦ In
the State-Paper Office there is also a copy of these articles.
1 Burnet. Collier. Strype. In the British Museum, and
in the Lambeth library, are manuscript copies of these answers.
Transcribed, so far as they concern Cranmer, in the present
work, vol. i. p. 299, seq.
2 Strype, Life of Cranmer. Append. No. 31. MSS. C. C.
Camb. 3 First printed in the Fathers of the English Church, vol. iii.
1809, p. 77. seq.
* Ibid. No. 32.
5 Burnet. See the first vol. of the present work, p. 358.
From the Lambeth MS. No. 1107. fol. 76, seq. Burnet's
copy seems to have been made.
6 Strype. Copied in the present work, vol. ii. p. 3, seq.

522 THE LIFE OF
1 Speech in convocation to the clergy, 1547.
2 The Homilies on salvation, faith, and good
works, 1547.
3 Answers to questions concerning the mass,
1547. i Additions to the translation of Justus Jonas's
Catechism, 1548. Henry Wharton rightly ob
serves, " that Cranmer added a large discourse
of his own to the exposition of the second com
mandment, and inserted some few sentences else
where." 5 Against Unwritten Verities, 1548. Strype
mentions also another volume of Cranmer's col
lections, relating to this subject, which he had
seen. (Ecc. Mem. iii. 137.) In his Life of Cran
mer, he appears to consider what Ames has pro
nounced a republication of the Unwritten Verities
of 1548 to be no more than a miscellaneous com
pilation, of which probably little was furnished
from Cranmer's publication. (See the present
vol. p. 176.)
1 See the present vol. p. 19, p. 25. and the Lambeth MS.
No. 1 108. fol. 2. where the petition of the clergy is thus stated,
Whether the clergie of the convocation may liberally speake
their myndes without dawnger of statute or law."
2 See the present vol. p. 1 0, seq.
3 Burnet. Copied in the present vol. p. 19, seq.
4 See the present vol. p, 48, seq.
5 Strype, Ecc. Mem. iii. Append. A. A. See also the pre
sent vol. p. 175.

*'

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 523
1 Articles to be inquired into at his visitation,
1548. 2 Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, en
titled, Concerning the Service of the Church,
1548-9. 3 Answers to the fifteen articles of the Devon
shire rebels, 1549.
* Notes for a homily on the subject of rebellion,
1549. 5 Defence of the true and catholic doctrine of
the sacrament of the body and blood of our Sa
viour Christ, (his principal work,) 1550.
6 Vindication ofthe Defence in answer to bishop
Gardiner and Dr. Smith, 1551.
7 Pious Prayers, supposed by Strype to be
translations made by the archbishop in 1552 from
the Orarium, seu libellus precationum, put forth
by the king and clergy, he says, in 1545. The
Orarium, however, is only the Latin form of
English prayers with the litany, bearing the name
of the Primer, pubhshed in 1544 ; devotions in
the vernacular tongue being then directed to be
1 Bishop Sparrow's collection 1661, p. 25, seq. Wilkins,
Concil. Strype. See the present vol. p. 35, seq.
2 Strype, from the account given by Bale of Cranmer's
writings. , 3 Strype. Copied in the present vol. p. 76, seq.
* Strype, Append. Life of Cranmer, No. 41.
5 See the present vol. p. 347, seq.
8 Ibid. p. 254. 7 Ibid. p. 274, seq.

524 THE LIFE OF
generally used, of which some were probably the
compositions of Cranmer ; and, in successive
editions of this manual, the last of which was in
1553, there are certainly traces of his hand.
1 Declaration against the mass, 1553. The
copies that then were printed were probably
called in, as many as might be, and destroyed.
One, however, was sent by Grindal to the English
exiles, who reprinted it 1557. Valeran Pullan,
(or Poullain,) the preacher to the French Pro
testants, who late in 1553 left the kingdom,
appears to have taken another of the first copies
away with him, and to have translated it into
Latin in 1554. Peter Martyr also probably de
parted not from England without a copy ; for he
is 2 said by Julius, his friend, to have told the
archbishop, that he should have advised such a
declaration, if it had not been already done. But
Julius seems not to have been aware of the im
perfect state of the declaration.
3 Disputation at Oxford, 1554.
4 Speech before the papal commissioners, 1555.
5 Appeal to a general council, 1555-6.
6 Speech at his martyrdom, 1555-6.
1 Strype. Copied in the present vol. p. 368, seq.
2 Epist. Helvet. Ref. 76.
3 Foxe. Strype. See the present vol. p. 394, seq. See a
curious attested copy of it also, Harl. MSS. 3642.
4 Foxe. Copied in the present vol. p. 427, seq.
s Ibid. 465. « Ibid_ 498; seq_

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 525
His share in the production of the Articles, the
Institution, and the Necessary Doctrine, in the
reign of Henry ; of our Homilies, (besides three
of them wholly his own,) our Liturgy and Arti
cles in that of Edward ; and of the Reformation of
Ecclesiastical Laws in both ; has, in the account
of these respective formularies, been noticed. A
great part of his own and other original papers,
as well as his collection of printed books, were
either embezzled during his imprisonment, or fell
into the hands of his enemies, and were dispersed.
Of the former archbishop Parker recovered ' se
veral. To men of letters his library had been
always open; and appears to have possessed
treasures, which entirely to have replaced would
have exercised, perhaps for many years, the keen
est diligence of persons best acquainted with
literary history. " I meet with authors, here,"
said his friend, the learned Ascham, to the arch
bishop, " which the two Universities cannot fur
nish." Some of the tracts at the opening of the
Reformation, among the printed books in the
Lambeth hbrary, were probably his : a few larger
1 Those in the library of Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. and
some that are in the British Museum among Foxe's MSS. both
often referred to by Burnet and Strype. His manuscripts un
doubtedly were numerous. Morice, who was his secretary
during twenty years, says, " he was most painfully occupied in
writing of no small volumes for him from time to time," histo
rical as well as theological.

526 THE LIFE OF
volumes that bear his autograph, obtained from
other hands, are certainly there. Of those, whicli
the British Museum possesses, two at least are
very observable, as they relate to the writings of
Erasmus ; the one containing ' seven tracts upon
the dispute between the illustrious man of Rot
terdam and Lee, afterwards archbishop of York,
who had attacked the first edition of his annota
tions upon the New Testament ; the other, the
Hyper aspistes, or Erasmus's reply to the Servum
Arbitrium of Luther, of which 2 several striking
passages are underscored by Cranmer with red ink.
Of his papers, which have been saved, 3 some
1 Jortin, Erasm. ii. 495.
2 Dean Tucker, Lett, to Dr. Kippis, 97.
3 These are known by the name of the Stillingfleet manu
scripts. Their contents, which relate to the history of our
Reformation, I will briefly mention.
No. 1107. Extracts of passages relating to the laws of the
bishop of Rome, fol. 76. De Sacramentis. fol. 84, fol. 95.
Confutatio articulorum quorundam quos pretendunt anabaptistae.
fol. 97. De sanctorum veneratione. fol. 116. De imaginibus,
and of the right use of images, fol. 121. b. fol. 133. De justifi
catione, (D. Redman,) fol. 137. De bonis operibus et perse-
verantia. fol. 147. For the general council, fol. 163. Ceremo
nies to be used in the Church, fol. 167. (Another copy inthe
Cotton MSS. Cleop. E. 5. printed in Strype's Ecc. Mem. i.
Rec. No. 109.)
No. 1108. Petitions of the clergy to the archbishop, fol. 2.
Answers to the questions concerning the sacraments, fol. 6, seq.
Again, fol. 75, seq. De auctoritate excommunicandi. fol. 46.
De auctoritate episcopali in corrigendis vitiis, &c. fol. 49.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 527
are in the library at Lambeth palace, more in
that of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge ; some
in that of the State-Paper Office of the realm,
with several of his letters ; more, of the latter
description especially, in the British Museum ; a
large collection of his letters also in the ' Chapter
House at Westminster ; 2 some at Geneva and at
Zurich ; 3 some that were in possession of the late
Dr. Gloucester Ridley ; 4 and some in the library
Merita sanctorum, fol. 52. Oratio efficacior propter meritum
orantis. fol. 57. De fide, fol 58. De divortio. fol. 144. ad fin.
viz. fol. 181. Burnet mentions a large volume of Cranmer's
collections on this subject among the Stillingfleet manuscripts,
which he had seen. Whether he means these less than forty
leaves as such, I know not. (See the present vol. p. 28.) Some
of these leaves are in Cranmer's hand-wiiting. The questions,
and arguments, on the subject, are in various hand-writings.
Numerous passages are collected from the Fathers.
1 Anthony Wood relates, that he had seen, " in the Palace-
Treasury at Westminster, a bundle of books, written, as is
supposed, by Cranmer, and by Dr. Clerk, bishop of Bath and
Wells, on Henry's divorce, on the regal supremacy, and against
cardinal Pole." Ath. Ox. W. Knight. These were probably
removed at a later period. Many entire papers on the first two
subjects, and the drafts of several others relating to them, are
now in the State-Paper Office.
2 Gerdesii Miscell. ii. 647.
3 Pref. to the Life of Ridley, p. vii. and the Life, B. v. p. 10.
* Among the Letters of the Martyrs. Given to the College
by Sir Walter Mildmay. Catalog. MSS. Angl. et Heb. 1697.
Foxe has printed many of them. Coverdale, more, in a sepa
rate volume, 4to. 1564. Some are also added to the edition
of his Answer to Gardiner in 1580.

528 THE LIFE OF *|
of Emanuel College, Cambridge. ' It is probable
that in the book-rooms of other societies, foreign
as well as domestic, letters written by him may
yet be found. Bale mentions indeed among the
published writings of the archbishop, one book of
letters to learned men. But, as the inquisitive and
accurate Henry Wharton has observed, " 1 the
archbishop's letters to learned men were never
either by himself or others collected into one or
more books, especially at that time : but it was
Bale's foolish way to account to every great man
whom he hath placed in his rhapsody of writers,
one book of epistles."
Of other works, ascribed to him by Bale, which
we know not where to find, the following is a
list. 2 Concerning not marrying the brother's wife,
two books ; the task that must have been imposed
upon him by Henry, and completed in order to
the divorce from Catharine.
3 The reasons that led him to oppose the Six
Articles. Twelve books of theological common-places.
Perhaps, however, these are no other than the
Lambeth volumes mentioned in the preceding
notes, and those which are presently mentioned
as recovered by archbishop Parker.
1 Corrections of Strype in p. 398.
2 See the first vol. of the present work, p. 21.
3 Ibid. 280.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 529
One book concerning the Eucharist with Luther.
1 Against the purgatory of the Church of Rome,
two books.
8 Concerning justification, two books.
3 Against the pope's supremacy.
4 Against the sacrifice of the mass, and against
the adoration of the bread, one book.
Confutation of eighty-eight articles devised and
proposed by a convocation in Henry's reign.
Other writings, mentioned by Bale as Cran
mer's, are merely the repetitions, with some varia
tions in the titles, of what have already been
described. Burnet mentions a speech of the archbishop on
the power of Christian bishops, in 1534, which
he supposes to be lost. In the State-Paper Office
there exists, however, a paper, De sacerdotum et
1 Strype supposes, that this and the next article may mean
no other than the two treatises on purgatory, and justification,
at the end of the Institution.
2 In the State-Paper Office there is a valuable paper De
justificatione. I have copied part of it in the first vol. of the
present work, p. 341. n.
3 " This was the declaration against the papal supremacy,
said to be put forth by the bishops, in 1536, upon occasion of
Pole's book of Ecclesiastical Union." Strype. In the State-
Paper Office, De potestate et primatu papce, is one of the
Cranmer remains.
4 Supposed by Strype to have been what Cranmer had written,
while in prison, in reply to Gardiner. See the present vol, pp.
255, 256.
VOL. II. m m

530 THE LIFE OF
episcoporum ordine ac ministerio. The historian
of the Reformation also speaks of Cranmer's
letters to Osiander. These he had seen ; but
Strype inquired after them in vain. Strype was
more successful in obtaining the original letter of
lord Burghley, in which the statesman acknow
ledged that he possessed ' five or six volumes of
Cranmer's writings. Two of these are supposed
to be the volumes in the Lambeth library, of
which I have given an account : Two more, to
be the collection of common-places from the
Fathers, which archbishop Parker 2 recovered
and caused to be copied, and which are now in
the Royal collection in the British Museum.
The rest, of which the loss cannot but be deeply
deplored, while they would probably have illus
trated many incidents hitherto insufficiently ex
plained, might also have presented to fresh ad
miration the character of the archbishop.
To his labours the debt of gratitude from this
country is indeed already immense. When we
look back to the difficulties with which he had to
contend, " 3 we admire him for doing so much,"
it has been well observed, " rather than censure
1 Burghley's letter is printed in Strype's Life of Parker, B.
2. ch. 15.
2 Strype, Life of Abp. Parker, B. 2. ch. 15. The biographer
has given the heads of these common places, in his Append, to
the Life, B. 2. No. 23.
3 Ess. on Church Reform. 1828. p. 5.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 531
him for not doing more ;" we honour him, as
the guide that led the way to " ' the admira
tion of ancient authors, the hate of the school
men, the exact study of languages, the efficacy
of preaching," the establishment of our civil
liberty, and our improvement in science and
morals. For to the Reformation, although it has
been said to be left incomplete, at least we attri
bute these blessings and advantages; while to
him, the father of it, our Church also, we have
seen, principally owes the foundation of her doc
trine and discipline.
The character of the archbishop, personal and
intellectual, as drawn by two of his contempora
ries, deserves especial attention. " 2 He was a
gentleman," says Osiander, " of good birth and
quality ; had an aspect and presence that carried
dignity with it, an incredible sweetness of man
ners, and learning beyond the common degrees of
it ; was benign and liberal towards all, and espe
cially to those that were studious and of good
literature. Rarely to be found in the age, in which
he lived, were his wisdom, prudence, fortitude,
temperance, justice ; a singular love towards his
country, the highest faithfulness to his sovereign,
a contempt of earthly things, a love of heavenly,
and a most ardent study towards the evangelic
1 Lord Bacon.
2 Osiand. Epist. Ded. ante Harmon. Evang. Strype.
M m 2

532 THE LIFE OF
truth, sincere religion, and Christ's glory." Such
was Cranmer about the time he attained his high
station in the Church. Behold him now, when
exercising the duties of that station in the reign
of Edward, as represented to us next by Peter
Martyr. " ' To all the kingdom his godliness,
prudence, faithfulness, and singular virtues, were
known. With the grace and favour of Christ he
was so well adorned, as that, though others are
the children of wrath, yet in him piety, and divine
knowledge, and other virtues, might seem to be
naturally born and bred, such deep root in him
they had taken ; so that I often wished and pro
fessed," says this learned foreigner, " that I should
esteem it, as a great benefit vouchsafed by God,
to come as near as might be to his virtues, which
in him I admired as the wonderful gifts of God.
Towards myself and others, that fled into Eng-*
land for religion, the kindness and humanity of
the archbishop were such, that if I should render
just thanks, and speak of them as they deserved,
I must do nothing but tell of them."
Indefatigable, from his earliest days, in the
pursuit of knowledge, Cranmer soon acquired, at
Cambridge, the proud 2 distinction that ranked
him amongst the most learned of his society. Of
1 P. Martyris Ep. Ded. ante librum de Eucharist. Strype.
2 " Ex isto inquam Collegio Jesu, viros doctissimos novi, et
in primis Thomam Cranmerum." Bale, cent. 8, cap. lvii.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 533
an acute and vigorous understanding, he was pro
bably indebted more to his own application, than
to the assistance of his academical tutor ; for " ' the
scholar of such an one I was," he tells us, " who
when he came to any hard chapter which he well
understood not, would find some pretty toy to
shift it off, and to skip over to another chapter of
which he could better skill !" Of the Greek and
Hebrew, the new objects of study at the beginning
ofthe sixteenth century, he became a master.
The Scriptures were thus Critically opened to him ;
and he proclaimed their truths with a voice, of
which " the sound immediately went throughout
the land," and was heard with rapture ; for, with
the glad tidings of salvation, it put to flight tbe
many terrors of a fearful ignorance. Deeply
learned himself, he became the zealous patron of
learning. Of his influence with Henry he accord
ingly availed himself, in suggesting the establish
ment of the regius professorships in Oxford and
Cambridge. His wish to encourage in both the
Universities that especial knowledge, and spirit of
inquiry, which distinguished the foreign Reformers,
consigned Peter Martyr to the one, Bucer and
Fagius tp the other, probably more to both.
When Edward had ascended the throne, one of
his first designs was to found numerous free-
schools ; a purpose, we may be sure, that was
1 His Answer to Gardiner. 367,

534 THE LIFE OF
forwarded by Cranmer, who ever was a zealous
advocate for the education of youth. To impart
spiritual instruction also, where our own language
was little understood, Cranmer then also recom
mended the measure, which bishop Bedell after
wards attempted with success, for the clergy in
Ireland to learn the Irish language. In a word,
he left no means untried that might diffuse among
the people the benefits of knowledge, and the
blessings of religion.
From Erasmus he appears to have derived not
only his taste for sound learning, but that inde
pendence of thinking which first led him to con
temn superstition. Both of them, in particular, in
veighed against the papal indulgences, and against
the pernicious influence of the papal festivals.
Both of them maintained the freedom of the
human will. Cranmer was to Erasmus, I may
add, what Warham had been ; a kind and steady
friend, as soon as he became archbishop ; and
Erasmus acknowledged the obligation, not with
out allusion to the integrity for which Henry, and
to the moderation for which the people, loved the
primate. As a writer, Cranmer may be pro
nounced usually clear and perspicuous, often ani
mated, sometimes pathetic, reminding us occa
sionally, in his style, of the elegance, as well as
vigour, which distinguishes the venerable Book,
in forming which his share was very large, our
Common Prayer.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 535
It has been usually said of his learning, that to
his profession it was chiefly confined; that he
was the best-read theologian of his time, nor less
distinguished for his skill in the canon and civil
law, and for his opinions as a casuist. Yet
among his biographers there are some, who relate
that he was eminent also for his attainments
" ' in the liberal arts and sciences, though more
for divinity, which, when as one of the three
censors he examined candidates, he said he ex
pected not in the difficult trifles of Lombard,
but in the sacred sense of the Scripture, the an
cient doctrine of the Fathers, the grave canons of
Councils, the solid politeness of the Greek and
Hebrew learning ; and which he believed, as well
as taught, in his temperance, his meekness, (so
placable, so courteous, that to offend him was
the way to ingratiate with him,) his discreet mo^
deration, and his grave resolution, equally above
the smiles and frowns of fortune."
The same pens inform us, " that he spake
little to others, and conferred much within him
self. Three words of his could do more than
three hours of others : he would say, as Victori-
nus did, There is a time to say nothing, there is a

1 Lives of famous men at the University of Cambridge, by
Morris Drake Morris, MSS. Brit. Mus. vol. i. 77, seq. What
he here says of Cranmer is borrowed, however, almost word for
word, from Lloyd's State Worthies. 7

536 ' THE LIFE OF
time to say something, but there never is a time
to say all things. That king, who awed all others,
feared him." — Indeed the cautious exercise of his
influence over the tyrannical and capricious
Henry, as well as the temper and judgment with
which, amid the intrigues and the contentions in
Edward's reign, he founded the great system of
benefaction to his country, decisively attest in him
higher capacities of understanding than those of
Ridley and his other coadjutors.
" One thing he commonly used," says his
affectionate secretary, " wherein many did Qhenl
discommend him, which was this : He always
bare a good face and countenance unto the
Papists ; and would, both in word and deed, do
very much for them, pardoning their offences :
On the. other side, somewhat over-severe against
the Protestants. Which being perceived not to
be done but upon some purpose, on a time a
friend of his declared unto him, that therein he
did very much harm, thus encouraging the for
mer, and also discouraging the latter. He an
swered, What will ye have a man do to him
who is not yet come to the knowledge of the
truth of the Gospel, nor perchance as yet called,
and whose vocation is to me uncertain ? ShaU
we, perhaps in his journey coming toward us, by
severity and cruel behaviour overthrow him, and
as it were in his voyage stop him ? I take not
this the way to allure men to embrace the doc-

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 537
trine of the Gospel. And if it be a true rule of
our Saviour Christ to do good for evil, then let
such, as are not yet come to favour our religion,
learn to follow the doctrine of the Gospel by our
example in using them friendly and charitably."
I have copied with pleasure this illustration of his
uniting with a most comprehensive intellect a
liberal and ingenuous heart. In maintaining his
opinions indeed he was always candid, and open
to conviction ; not ashamed to acknowledge mis
take ; exemplifying the truth, that with men of
the noblest natures humility is ever found to dwell.
Hence, in the settlement of our church-gOvern-
ment, he renounced the Erastian opinions to
which he had appeared to incline ; hence in his
last reply to his adversaries, as in a former one to
bishop Gardiner, he denied not the errors of his
earlier days.
The engaging affability of his manners contri
buted also not a little to the completion of his
designs. His kind and prudent conduct as a dio
cesan, still more. It was his study to place in
towns where the inhabitants were numerous, and
the salaries small, able ministers with sufficient
stipends : It was his delight often to preach in
them himself. " It is indeed surprising," as Gilpin
remarks, " how much he was beloved and how
few enemies he made, when we consider that his
whole life was a constant opposition to the opi
nions and prejudices of the times. Those, whom

538 THE LIFE OF
he could not persuade, he never disobliged ; and
a harsh measure he considered only as another
name for an imprudent one." Even Pole ac
knowledged to him, that he was no stranger to
the high esteem which he enjoyed for gentleness
and clemency.
Severe only to himself, he was as unwearied in
his attention to business, as in his pursuit of learn
ing. His time was thus employed : At five o'clock
he usually rose, and till nine continued in his study.
After breakfast, part ofthe morning was spent in
business public or private; at eleven was the
chapel-hour ; at twelve, the call to dinner, after
which he devoted an hour to conversation with
his friends, or to the amusement of the chess
board. Again to his study he then resorted, until
the evening chapel-bell rang at five ; and after the
service he usually walked till six, which was the
hour of supper, when he took little, often no re
freshment, then from seven to eight again walked,
gave the next hour to his books, and at nine re
tired to his bed. Foxe relates, 1 that the arch
bishop always accustomed himself to read and
write in a standing posture ; esteeming constant
sitting very pernicious to a studious man.
Of his domestic habits, and private character,
all that we know is amiable. As a master, he was
much beloved. " His hospitality and charities
1 Copied by Gilpin.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 539
were great and noble, equal to his station ; greater
often than his abilities." We have witnessed him
almost always poor ; for his generosity to stran
gers, as well as his countrymen, was boundless.
His hospitality indeed we have seen suspected:
but we have also seen it vindicated. Among
other instances of his charity, ' he is said to have
fitted up his manor-house at Bekesbourne in Kent
for the use of wounded soldiers, who should be
landed on the southern coast of the island ; sup
plying it with a physician, a surgeon, nurses, and
every thing proper as well for food as medicine \
and the patients, on their recovery, with money
to convey them to their homes. To the establish
ment of hospitals indeed, as well as of grammar-
schools, his was the noble wish to have seen a
very extensive appropriation of the alienated mor
nastic revenues.
But, to use the words of Strype, " I intend not
these collections for such a panegyric of the
archbishop, as to make the world believe him void
of all faults or frailties, the condition of human
nature. He lived in such critical times and under
such princes, and was necessarily involved in such
affairs, as exposed him to greater temptations than
ordinary. And if any blemishes shall by curious
observers be espied in him, he may therefore seem
the more pardonable ; and his great exemplary
1 Gilpin.

540 THE LIFE OF
goodness and usefulness in the Church of God,
may make ample amends for some errors."
The general objection, as Gilpin adds, that
seems to bear the heaviest upon him, is founded
on the pliancy of his temper. If he means his
submissions to Henry, it ought to be considered
that had he acted otherwise, at least in some
respects, he would not only have forfeited his life,
but perhaps have entirely ruined the glorious
cause of which he was the leader and supporter.
In great trials too we have beheld him certainly
evincing the dauntless spirit of resolution. By
many writers, however, constitutional timidity, or
defect of firmness, has been pronounced a charac
teristic of the archbishop. By his faithful secre
tary Morice, indeed, has been mentioned what
seems to imply that himself was conscious of this
infirmity, of which he did not consider nature, but
the cruelty of his earliest teacher, to have been
the cause. I cannot close these memorials of
him, without copying so remarkable a statement.
Such was the tyranny of the pedagogue, ' that
the tender and fine wits of his scholars were
appalled, and driven to an abhorrence, instead of
being encouraged to the cultivation, of learning ;
" s their memories also were thereby so mutilated
and wounded, that for his part," said Cranmer
himself to the secretary, " he lost much of that
1 See vol. i. p. 2. 2 MSS. C. C. C. Camb.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 541
benefit of memory, and audacity in his youth that
by nature was given to him, which he never could
recover, as he divers times reported." Self-exami
nation, of which we believe him to have been a
fervent practiser, often perhaps awakened this
melancholy thought, but not without unmurmur
ing submission to the will of God. To know God
and ourselves was his motto :
" NOSCE TEIPSUM ET DEUM."

THE END.

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GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.

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