In his twenty-third year he forfeited his fellowship by marriage. His wife was a gentleman's daughter related to the wife of the keeper of the Dolphin Inn at Cambridge. The inns of that day supplied the place of the modern club, and there was nothing incongruous in the Fellow of a college finding his wife there. His enemies in later years made this the subject of jest and malice, and called him "an innkeeper" or "an ostler"1 who had been raised to great dignity and power. As Mrs. Cranmer died within twelve months, her husband was reelected Fellow and shortly afterwards ordained. During his short married life he supported himself as commonreader at Buckingham (Magdalene) College. The years passed uneventfully for the young student, and yet he grew in knowledge and university reputation. In 1526 he became D.D., and subsequently was appointed examiner for the same degree and lecturer in divinity at his own college. It is said that as early as 1525 he

66

1 An ignorant northern priest said of Cranmer: "What make you of him? He was but an hoseler and hath no more learning than the goslings that go yonder on the green." Some one reported this to Thomas Cromwell, who sent the priest to the Fleet prison and left him there for some time. The Archbishop, hearing of it, sent for the man, who denied having ever spoken the words. The accuser, who was present, called him a dastardly dolt and varlet, whereupon the priest fell on his knees and besought the Archbishop to forgive him, as he was drunk when he spoke the words. Ah," said Cranmer, "this is somewhat, and yet it is no good excuse, for drunkenness evermore uttereth that which hath hid in the heart of man when he is sober." The Archbishop then asked him about his own learning, and found he could not say who was David's father or Solomon's father. The priest pleaded that his only study had been to service and mass, which he could do as well as any priest in the North. He was then dismissed with words of reproof and advice, released from prison and sent to his parish: "God amend you, forgive you and send you better minds." This story is a very characteristic one of the Archbishop, who always found it hard to bear any resentment. For this he has been called weak, and perhaps he was, but he had before him the words, "Pray for those that despitefully use you and persecute you." In some greater matters his gentleness became weakness and led him into acts of moral cowardice. It became a common saying, "Do unto my Lord of Canterbury displeasure or a shrewd turn, and then you may be sure to have him your friend whiles he liveth."

F

began to pray in private for the abolition of the papal power in England.

One of Cranmer's bitterest enemies,1 describing his character, says: "He had in his favour a dignified presence adorned with a semblance of goodness, considerable reputation for learning and manners so courteous, kindly, and pleasant that he seemed like an old friend to those whom he encountered for the first time. He gave signs of modesty, seriousness, and application."

Cranmer sought no office and aspired to no dignity. His quiet routine of study and teaching satisfied all his ambitions, and he probably desired nothing more than to remain all his days in the tranquil round of academic life, when one of those events which we sometimes call accidents occurred, which brought him unwillingly into public life, and led him through all the eventful years of his stirring episcopate to the stake at Oxford.

We are now to trace in outline what he did and how he served the Church from 1530 to 1556.

Cranmer's Entry upon Public Life.

In July 1529 Campeggio, to avoid a decision, suspended the marriage question over the vacation. In August Henry VIII arranged for summoning the Parliament which has become known as the Reformation Parliament, and which sat without prorogation for seven years. He then went on a hunting expedition to Waltham. Two heads of Cambridge Houses, Fox, Provost of King's, and Gardiner, Master of Trinity Hall, were with Henry VIII as members of his household. They were quartered for convenience in Cressy's house. In the same month the plague broke out at Cambridge, and Cranmer, who was tutor to Cressy's sons, took them home for refuge from danger. The three Cambridge scholars naturally spoke of the great national question, and Cranmer expressed the opinion that the Universities were the proper authorities to decide the matter. He said he was no lawyer, but a theologian, and thought

1 Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, Ed. Gardiner, p. 3.

the question should be taken out of the hands of lawyers and submitted to the divines.1 The suggestion contained the germ from which all subsequent action grew. To contemplate any other authority than that of Rome. in a matter of marriage was to raise a standard of revolt. When the conversation was repeated to the King he "commanded them to send for Dr. Cranmer, and so by and by, being sent for, he came to the King's presence at Greenwich." 2 The result of the interview was that Cranmer was ordered by Henry VIII to write his mind on the divorcement, and was sent to the house of the Earl of Wiltshire, Anne Boleyn's father, for the purpose. Cranmer's work was circulated in manuscript. Dr. Croke was sent to search the libraries in Italy, and to secure the adhesion of the learned men in the universities there. The King secured in 1530, under circumstances highly unworthy, a vote in his favour from the University of Cambridge.3 Gardiner and Fox engineered this vote, and Cranmer took no personal part in it, because at the end of 1529 he had been sent to Italy to negotiate terms with Clement VII. The Pope received him with graciousness and compliments, and appointed him "Penitentiary," an office of much money value. He returned, however, to England in September 1530, without having accomplished anything of value.

From this time Henry VIII took matters into his own hands. Cranmer was in England until January 1532, but he seems to have taken no public part in Convocation or Parliamentary proceedings. At this time he was

1 "We must recollect that the Universities were then regarded not only as establishments for education, but as supreme tribunals for the decisions of scientific questions." (Ranke's History of the Reformation.)

2 A report, resting on no contemporary authority, states that Cranmer added "neither Pope nor any other Potentate, neither in cases civil or ecclesiastical, had anything to do with the King or any of his actions within his own realm and dominion," and that the King's words in hearing the advice were, "Mother of God, that man has the right sow by the ear." Both statements are extremely probable, and if not spoken at the time, may have been uttered later.

3 See History of Cambridge, by J. Bass Mullinger, vol. i., p. 618.

sent abroad as ambassador of the Emperor Charles V, and remained in Germany for about a year, until he was recalled to occupy the vacant see of Canterbury. Before his return and under the primacy of Archbishop Warham various steps were taken towards separation from Rome. Warham was more than eighty years of age, and too enfeebled in health to resist the King's wish. Reginald Pole, after refusing the bribe of York or Winchester, was in disgrace.1 Gardiner was now made. Bishop of Winchester, and, with his eyes on Canterbury, was complacent and yielding whilst making a show of resistance.

In 1531 the King compelled the reluctant Convocation to pass a declaration and subscribe in this form: "We acknowledge his Majesty to be the singular Protector only and Supreme Head, and so far as the laws of Christ allow, even Supreme Head of the English Church and Clergy." This was only part of what the King demanded. The Court of King's Bench had convicted the whole body of the clergy, under the Statutes of Provisors and Praemunire (1393) as guilty for having

2

1 66 'I requested my brother to sound the King's mind," wres Pole, "as he did. . . having found an opportunity for conversing with the King in a privy garden where he chanced to walk with him, he related the whole circumstance. On hearing him, and after remaining a long while thoughtful and silent, Henry exclaimed that he had read my writing and that I had spoken the truth, nor could its perusal make him feel any anger against me, as, although the writing was very contrary to his wish, he nevertheless recognized in it my love for him and the sincerity with which I had written it; but that, in conclusion, my opinion did not please him, and that he much wished me to change it, in which case he would then prove how dear I was to him."Cardinal Pole to Protector Somerset, September 1549.

2 Warham presided over Canterbury Convocation, and when the moment of the fateful vote came, said, "Whoever is silent seems to consent." One voice replied, "Then we are all silent," and so the clause passed the Upper House and was agreed to by the Lower. In York Convocation, Tunstall of Durham, a great and learned Bishop, and Kite of Carlisle, were alone in the Upper House, as Lee was not yet installed at York. Tunstall protested in a letter to Henry, which called forth a reply from the King. The phrase, said Tunstall, was capable of being distorted by the weak or the malignant.