BOOK I CHAP. I. Close of Ed by Christ's blood, avaunce themselves to be of the number of those which are predestinate unto eternal life. But how far do theyr life differ from true Christianity! They are. puffed up with al kynd of pride; they swel with al kynd of envy, malice, hatred, and enmity against theyr neighbour; they brenne (burn) with unquenchable lusts of carnal concupiscense; they walow and tumble in al kynd of beastly pleasures; theyr greedy, covetous effects (affections) are insatiable; the enlarging of theyr lordships, the increasing of theyr substance, the scraping together of theyr worldly possessions, infynite, and knoweth no end. In fyne, all theyr endeavours tend unto thys end, to shew themselves very ethyncks, (heathens) and utterly estranged from God in theyr conversation, although in words they otherwise pretend. As for theyr alms-dedes, theyr praying, theyr watching, theyr fasting, and such other godly exercises of the Spirit, they are utterly banished from these rude and gross gospellers. All theyr religion consisteth in words and disputations; in Christian acts and godly dedes, nothing at all."* In 1553, Cranmer obtained letters from King Edward, to secure the subscription of the clergy to the Book of Articles, and to require the use of the Latin catechism in schools. The last thing recorded of Cranmer in Edward's reign, ward's reign. is his refusal to comply with the new settlement of the crown on the Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, and wife of Lord Guildford Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland. In this refusal he persisted, arguing strongly against it, till the King himself overcame his reluctance by saying, “I hope you alone will not stand out, and be more repugnant to my will than all the rest of the council." After the King's death, he was one of the counsellors of the unfortunate Queen Jane, who reigned only eleven days,— his name appearing, with that of several nobles, to a document sent to Mary, declaring her illegitimate and unherit * Preface to the Jewel of Joy, by Thomas Becon. Becon's works, in three volumes folio, were published by himself, and dedicated to the archbishops and bishops of the realm in 1564, the year in which he was deprived of his living, with other Puritans, by Archbishop Parker, the first Protestant primate in Elizabeth's reign. Strype speaks of Becon as mighty tossed about, as famous for his great learning and frequent preaching, and manifold sufferings under four successive reigns of reforming monarchs. Strype's Life of Cranmer, p. 602. able, and calling upon her to recognise as sovereign, the Lady Queen Jane.* BOOK I. CHAP. I. Queen Mary. committed to When Mary ascended the throne it was reported that Cranmer had offered to say the mass and requiem at the Accession of burial of King Edward, before the Queen, and that he had restored the mass at Canterbury; which report induced him to publish a declaration to the contrary. Some copies of this declaration falling into the hands of certain bishops who laid it before the Council, Cranmer was called before the Queen's Commissioners, and severely reprimanded for sundry parts of that declaration; and, soon after this, committed to the Tower, partly for the hand he had taken in Cranmer Lady Jane's succession, and partly for openly justifying the the Tower. reforming proceedings of the late King. His imprisonment was soon followed by a general deprivation of the Protestant bishops and clergy, of whom not a few were cast into prison; as Strype quaintly expresses it, "they came into the Marshalsea, thick and threefold, for religion, sent thither by Gardiner." Peter Martyr, who had been allowed to escape to Germany, gives this account of the state of things in a letter to Calvin:-"Although the infirmity of some betrayed them, yet great was the constancy of far more than I could have thought; so that, I doubt not, England will have many famous martyrs, if Winchester, (Gardiner) who now does all, begins to rage according to his will." In another letter to a friend, he says, "I had many scholars in England, students in divinity not to be ashamed of, whose harvest was almost ripe, whom I have been forced to see, either wandering about in uncertain stations, or remaining at home, unhappily subverted. There are in that kingdom many holy as well as learned bishops, that are now in hard confinement, and soon to be dragged to the extremest punishments, as if they were robbers. Here is the foundation of the gospel, and of a noble church, laid; and, by the labours of some years, the holy building had well gone forward, and, daily, better things were hoped for; but, unless God from above come to the succour of it, I think there will not be a footstep of godliness left at last, as to the outward profession."+ Gardiner, advanced from being a prisoner in the Tower Gardiner Heylin, 158. Nicholas, 50. App. P. Martyr's Epistles. created Lord Chancellor. BOOK I Cranmer, to be Lord Chancellor of England, ruled both Parliament CHAP. I. and people.* From the proclamation of pardon at the Queen's coronation the Protestants were omitted. The Protestants that were at liberty were urged by Cranmer to flee from the rising storm of persecution, though he himself resolved to remain at his post. Cranmer sued for pardon of the treason of which he, together with Lady Jane Grey, Guildford her husband, and others, was accused by Parliament, and with great difficulty he at last obtained it; but the Queen, being resolved on his death for the part he had taken in her mother's divorce, and Gardiner and the Council being equally bent on his destruction, he was called before a commission from the convocation at Oxford, along with Ridley and Latimer, to dispute certain points of religion. The convocation met with all the pomp of the restored religion, the celebration of masses, and processions. Coming before them, Cranmer gave them great reverence, and stood with his staff in his hand. They offered him a stool to sit, but he refused. The prolocutor, Weston, opened the charges against him, and requiring his answer. Cranmer replied to the general question relating to the unity of the Church, read the articles over three or four times, and, being asked whether he would subscribe to them, he answered:-"In the form of words in which they are conceived, they are all false, and against God's Word, and therefore I cannot agree in this unity with you. Nevertheless, if you will give me a copy of the articles, and time to consider them, I will by to-morrow send an answer." The prolocutor granted his request, desiring him to write his judgment of the articles that night: agreeing with him, that if he dissented from them in any respect, they should hold a public disputation on them in Latin, and promising him whatever books he might ask for. Cranmer's reply. On Monday Cranmer produced his written answer, bringing with him two notaries, to take notes of what he said. Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, and Mounton, disputed for *See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Lord Chancellors, vol. ii. ↑ Strype, (in his Life of Cranmer, 449,) gives a list of five bishops, five deans, four archdeacons, and about sixty doctors of divinity and preachers, besides of noblemen, merchants, tradesmen, artificers, and plebeians, many hundreds, who escaped to Strasburg, Wesel, Embden, Antwerp, Worms, Frankfort, Basle. Zurich, Geneva, and other places, and "great was the favour that the strangers showed to their fugitive guests." CHAP. I. six hours; demanded more time for going through all the BOOK I. points in dispute, and also permission to oppose the doctrines of the Romanists, as well as respond to their questions; but these demands were not complied with. as a heretic. Two days after the disputation Cranmer was condemned Condemned as a heretic. "From this your judgment," he said, when he heard his sentence, "I appeal to the just judgment of the Almighty, trusting to be present with him in heaven, for whose presence in the altar I am thus condemned." In his prison he occupied himself with writing his last reply to Gardiner on the Sacrament. His archbishopric was given to Cardinal Pole. Some of the exiles abroad petitioned the Queen, reminding her how Cranmer had once preserved her life in her father's time, by his earnest intercessions with the King in her behalf. From his prison window he saw Ridley and Latimer brought forth to the stake; and, looking after them, he devoutly fell upon his knees, praying to God to strengthen their faith and patience in that their last, but painful passage. Besides writing, his time during his confinement in the Bocardo, a city prison of Oxford, he was much engaged in discourses with learned men of the opposite persuasion, who laboured to bring him over to their doctrines. The Pope's authority being now restored in England, a commission was sent from Rome for the conviction of Cranmer. In obedience to the papal decree, Cranmer was brought out of prison, habited in a plain black gown, and his badge of doctor of divinity on both shoulders. He ren dered due honour to the Queen's commissioners, but none to the representative of the Pope. After answering certain questions, he was cited to appear at Rome within eighty days, Cited to ap to make his answer to the Pope in person; which he said he pear at Rome. was contented to do if the King and Queen would send him. But he was remanded to prison, and the account of the proceedings was sent to the Pope, who returned his "letters executory" to the King and Queen, and to the Bishops of Ely and London, to degrade and deprive him. At the end of the eighty days, (he being kept in prison,) he was declared a contumacious heretic. On a fixed day, the Pope's delegates came to Oxford to execute the sentence. They His degradaappareled Cranmer in all the garments and ornaments of tion. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Bonner's triumph. an archbishop; only, in mockery, every thing was of canvass, and old clouts; and the crosier was put into his hand. Then he was, piece by piece, stripped of all again. When they began to take away his pall, he asked them, "Which of you has a pall, to take away my pall? They answered, acknowledging they were his inferiors as bishops; but as they were the Pope's delegates, they might take away his pall. While they were thus stripping him of his garments, he told them that it needed not, for that he had done with this gear long ago." While this was doing, Bonner made a triumphant speech against the poor archbishop. But when they came to take away his crosier, he held it fast, and would not deliver it, but pulled out an appeal from under his left sleeve, under his wrist, and said, "I appeal unto the next General Council; and herein I have comprehended my cause, and the form of it, which I desire may be admitted;" and he prayed divers times to the standers-by to be witnesses, naming them by their names. * The Bishop of Ely told him that they were commissioned to proceed against him "without appeal." They proceeded in the degradation, at the end of which Bonner said to him, "You are now no more a lord!" He had been denied the use of proctors, advocates, and lawyers, though he was tried for his life. The commissioners had broken their promise to let him correct his answers to the sixteen articles they had brought against him. These were partly his reasons for appealing to a General Council. He seems also to have been influenced by the example of Luther in a similar case. He had further inducements in the fact, that he was bound by his oath never to acknowledge the Pope's authority in this realm; and, in the conviction that the Bishop of Rome was not an impartial judge in this cause, since he was himself the interested party. But, probably, his principal reason was to gain time, as he was His letters to eager to finish his last reply to Gardiner. After his return to prison, he wrote two letters to the Queen, in which he stated his reasons for refusing the Pope's delegate as his judge, and entered at length into the constitutional question of the supremacy of the independent kingdom of England, and into the religious objections to the authority of the the Queen. This appeal is given at length by Fox, in his Acts and Monuments |