my life, if it might be; that is; all such bills or papers which I have written and signed with my hand since "my degradation, wherein I have written many things "untrue. And for as much as my hand offended, writ"ing contrary to my heart, my hands shall first be pu"nished: For, may I come to the fire, it shall be first "burned. As for the pope, I refuse him as Christ's enemy ❝ and antichrist, with all his false doctrine: And as for "the sacrament, I believe as I have taught in my book "against the bishop of Winchester."-Thunder-struck, as it were, with this unexpected declaration, the enraged popish crowd admonished him not to dissemble: « Ah, "replied he, with tears, since I have lived hitherto, I

have been a hater of falsehood, and a lover of simplicity, "and never before this time have dissembled." Upon which they pulled him off the stage with the utmost fury, and hurried him to the place of his martyrdom over against Baliol-College: Where he put of his clothes with haste, and, standing in his shirt and without his shoes, was fastened with a chain to the stake. Some pressing him to agree to his former recantation, he answered, shewing his hand, "This is the hand that wrote, and therefore it shall "first suffer punishment." Fire being applied to him, he stretched out his right hand into the flame, and held it there unmoved, except that once he wiped his face with it, till it was consumed; crying with a loud voice, "This

hand hath offended;" and often repeating, "This un"worthy right hand." At last, the fire getting up, he soon expired, never stirring or crying out all the while; only keeping his eyes fixed to heaven, and repeating more than once; "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." He died in the sixty-seventh year of his age...

He was an open, generous, honest man ; a lover of truth, and an enemy of falsehood and superstition. He was gentle and moderate in his temper; and though heartily zealous in the cause of the Reformation, yet a friend to the persons of those who most strenuously opposed it. Thus in the year 1534, he endeavoured to save the lives of bishop Fisher, and Sir Thomas More; and afterwards, when Tonstall bishop of Durham came into trouble, a bill was brought into the house of lords for attainting him, Cranmer spoke freely, nay protested against it. He was a great patron of learning and the universities, and extended his care also to those protestant foreigners, who fled to England from the troubles in Germany; such as Martin Bucer, made professor of divinity, and Paulus Fagius, professor of the Hebrew tongue at Cambridge; Peter Martyr, professor

of

of divinity at Oxford; John à Lasco, Bernardine Ochinus, Emmanuel Tremellius, &c. He was a very learned man himself, and author of several works, printed and unprinted.

His printed works are, 1. An account of Mr. Pole's book, concerning king Henry the VIIIth's marriage. 2. Letters to divers persons; to king Henry VIII. secretary Cromwell, Sir William Cecil, and to foreign divines. 3. Three discourses upon his review of the king's book, entitled, The erudition of a Christian man. 4. Other discourses of his. 5. The bishop's book, in which he had a part. 6. Answers to the fifteen articles of the Rebels in Devonshire in 1549. 7. The examination of most points of religion. 8. A form for the alteration of the mass into a communion. 9. Some of the homilies. 10. A catechism, entitled, A short instruction to Christian religion, for the singular profit of children and young people. 11. Against unwritten verities. 12. A defence of the true and catholic doctrine of the sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, &c. 13. An answer to Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who wrote against the defence, &c. Lond. 1551, reprinted 1580. It was translated into Latin by Sir John Cheke. Gardiner answered, and Cranmer went through three parts of a reply, but did not live to finish it: However it was published. 14. Preface to the English translation of the bible. 15. A speech in the house of lords, concerning a general council. 16. Letter to king Henry VIII. in justification of Ann Boleyn, May 3, 1535. 17. The reasons, that led him to oppose the six articles. 18. Resolution of some questions concerning the sacrament. 19. Injunctions given at his visitation within the diocese of Hereford. 20. A collection of passages out of the canon law, to shew the necessity of reforming it. 21. Some queries in order to the correcting of several abuses. 22. Concerning a further Reformation, and against sacrilege. 23. Answers to some queries concerning confirmation. 24. Some considerations offered to king Edward VI. to induce him to proceed to a further Reformation. 25. Answer to the privy council. 26. Manifesto against the mass.

Those works of Cranmer's, which still remain in manuscript, are, 1. Two large volumes of collections out of the holy scripture, the ancient fathers, and later doctors and schoolmen. These are in the king's library. When they were offered to sale, they were valued at a hundred pounds: But bishop Beveridge and doctor Juae, appraisers for the king, brought down the price to fifty pounds. 2. The lord Burleigh had six or seven volumes more of his

writing.

writing. 3. Doctor Burnet mentions two volumes more that he had seen. 4. There are also several letters of his in the Cotton library.

JOHN PONET, OR POYNET,

BISHOP OF WINCHESTER.

THOUGH the life of this excellent man was but

short, and the memorials of that life are handed down to us but in fragments; he was of eminent importance in his time, and was a burning and a shining light in the church of God. Bishop Godwin, in his book de prasulibus Anglia, says of him, that he was born in the county of Kent, in or about the year 1516, and received his academical education in King's College, Cambridge. He must have obtained the knowledge of the gospel pretty early in life; for he was in so much confidence with the great Reformers, that, so soon as the beginning of king Edward's reign [June 26, 1550.] when Ponet could not have been more than three and thirty years bishop of Rochester; and, upon the depravation of Gardiner, was within a year afterwards, translated to the see of Winchester. The reason of his preferment does as much honour to the admirable young king Edward, as it could reflect credit upon the bishop; for, we are told, that it was, by the king's own motion, on account of some very excellent sermons which Ponet had preached before him.-A ladder of episcopal advancement, which is but too rarely ascended!

of age, he was consecrated

He was a man of very great learning, as well as grace; and possessed the knowledge, not only of the Latin and Greek, but (what is not a frequent attainment among divines) a thorough acquaintance with the Dutch and Italian tongues. He was, in particular, a very great Grecian, and had engaged his mind, probably when quite a young man, very deeply in mathematical learning. To such a proficiency had he arrived in the mechanical branch of the mathematics, that he constructed a clock, by the effort of his own genius, which pointed both to the hours of the day, the day of the month, the sign of the Zodiac, the lunar variations, and the tides. This was presented to Henry the VIII. and was received very graciously, for (what indeed it was in those days) a wonderful piece of mechanism. Besides all this variety, as well as extent, of knowledge, in so young a man; Heylyn, who was by no means partial

partial to the principles of our Reformers, informs us, that he was well-studied with the ancient fathers.

Thus fraught with human knowledge and with divine grace, we cannot wonder, that Dr Ponet was so soon and so much taken notice of. Above all, God gave him the desire to devote his great abilities to the cause and service of the gospel. He not only preached much, but is said to have written much for the truth, both in Latin and English. But the piece, for which he is most remembered, is the composition called, "King Edward's catechism," which was approved and passed by the synod, which passed the book of articles, under the king's warrant. Fuller says, that this catechism was first compiled (as appears by the king's patent prefixed) by a single divine, characterised pious and learned; but afterwards perused and allowed by the bishops, and other learned men, &c. and by royal authority commanded to all schoolmasters to teach it their scholars.' Some have supposed that this pious and learned divine was Dr Alexander Nowel, dean of St Paul's, but others, upon better warrant, have given it to Dr Ponet, then bishop of Winchester. However, all the great Reformers revised it, and particularly archbishop Cranmer, without whom nothing was undertaken or set forth in religion, during king Edward's reign.

This catechism is highly calvinistic, and perfectly correspondent with the articles, which were published about the same time. It came out in the year 1553, in two editions, the one Latin and the other English, with the royal privilege. Indeed, the pious king himself prefaced this catechism by a letter, dated at Greenwich, May the twentieth, in which he charges and commands all schoolmasters whatsoever, within his dominions, as they did reverence his authority, and as they would avoid his royal displeasure, to teach this catechism, diligently and carefully, in all and every their schools; that so, the youth of the kingdom might be settled in the grounds of true religion, and furthered in God's worship.'-At that time, and afterwards in the reign of queen Elizabeth, the catechizing children and servants was thought to be of so much importance to posterity, that the neglect of it was entitled to some very severe penalties *—But we are grown wiser

in

*The care of fending their children and fervants is by the rubric faid upon fathers, mothers, miftreffes, and dames, who are to caufe them to come to church at the time appointed, and obediently to bear, and be ordered. by the curate, until fuch time as they have learned all that is here [in the catechifm] appointed for them to learn. The fame is required by the 59th canon of the church, which farther orders, that if any of thefe

neglect