you, ever and if you please, I will come to such place as you shall ap- To my very loving friend, Mr. Se cretary. T. Cantuarien. CLXIX. TO KING HENRY VIII e. fol. 226. Pleaseth it your most noble Grace to be advertised, that Cott. MSS. at your Grace's commandment by Mr. Secretary his letters Otho. C. x. written in your Grace's name, I came to Lamehith yester- Original. Holograph. day, and do there remain to know your Grace's further Burnet, pleasure. And forsomuch as without your Grace's com- Ref. vol. i. mandment I dare not, contrary to the contents of the said P. 402. letters, presume to come unto your Grace's presence; never- of Cruntheless, of my most bounden duty, I can do no less than mer, vol. i. most humbly to desire your Grace, by your great wisdom and by the assistance of God's help, somewhat to suppress the deep sorrows of your Grace's heart, and to take all adversities of God's hands both patiently and thankfully. I cannot deny but your Grace hath great causes many ways of lamentable heaviness; and also, that in the wrongful estimation of the world your Grace's honour of every part is so highly touched, (whether the things that commonly be spoken of be true, or not,) that I remember not that ever Almighty God sent unto your Grace any like occasion to try your Grace's constancy throughout, whether your Highness can be content to take of God's hand as well things displeasant as pleasant. And if He find in your most noble heart such an obedience unto his will, that your e [For the circumstances under which this Letter was written, and for some of the discordant judgments which have been passed on it, see Burnet, Ref. vol. i. p. 402; Lingard, Hist. of Engl. vol. vi. p. 319. 8vo; Turner, Modern Hist. of Engl. vol. ii. pp. 436. 442. 8vo; Mackintosh, Hist. of Engl. in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, vol. ii. p. 194.] Todd, Life p. 154. Grace, without murmuration and overmuch heaviness, do accept all adversities, not less thanking Him than when all things succeeded after your Grace's will and pleasure, nor less procuring his glory and honour; then I suppose your Grace did never thing more acceptable unto Him, since your first governance of this your realm. And moreover, your Grace shall give unto Him occasion to multiply and increase his graces and benefits unto your Highness, as He did unto his most faithful servant Job; unto whom, after his great calamities and heaviness, for his obedient heart and willing acceptation of God's scourge and rod, addidit ei Dominus cuncta duplicia. And if it be true that is openly reported of the Queen's Grace, if men had a right estimation of things, they should not esteem any part of your Grace's honour to be touched thereby, but her honour only to be clearly disparaged. And I am in such a perplexity, that my mind is clean amazed; for I never had better opinion in woman, than I had in her; which maketh me to think, that she should not be culpable. And again, I think your Highness would not have gone so far, except she had surely been culpable. Now I think that your Grace best knoweth, that next unto your Grace I was most bound unto her of all creatures living. Wherefore I most humbly beseech your Grace to suffer me in that, which both God's law, nature, and also her kindness bindeth me unto; that is, that I may with your Grace's favour wish and pray for her, that she may declare herself inculpable and innocent. And if she be found culpable, considering your Grace's goodness towards her, and from what condition your Grace of your only mere goodness took her and set the crown upon her head; I repute him not your Grace's faithful servant and subject, nor true unto the realm, that would not desire the offence without mercy to be punished to the example of all other. And as I loved her not a little for the love which I judged her to bear towards God and his Gospel; so, if she be proved culpable, there is not one that loveth God and his Gospel that ever will favour her, but must hate her above all other; and the more they favour the Gospel, the more they will hate her; for then there was never creature in our time that so much slandered the Gospel. And God hath sent her this punishment, for that she feignedly hath professed his Gospel in her mouth, and not in heart and deed. And though she have offended so, that she hath deserved never to be reconciled unto your Grace's favour; yet Almighty God hath manifoldly declared his goodness towards your Grace, and never offended you. But your Grace, I am sure, knowledgeth, that you have offended Him. Wherefore I trust that your Grace will bear no less entire favour unto the truth of the Gospel, than you did before for so much as your Grace's favour to the Gospel was not led by affection unto her, but by zeal unto the truth. And thus I beseech Almighty God, whose Gospel he hath ordained your Grace to be defender of, ever to preserve your Grace from all evil, and give you at the end the promise of his Gospel. From Lambeth, the third day of May. [1536.] After I had written this letter unto your Grace, my Lord Chancellor, my Lord of Oxford, my Lord of Sussex, and my Lord Chamberlain of your Grace's house, sent for me to come unto the star-chamber; and there declared unto me such things as your Grace's pleasure was they should make me privy unto. For the which I am most bounden unto your Grace. And what communication we had together, I doubt not but they will make the true report thereof unto your Grace. I am exceeding sorry that such faults can be proved by the Queen, as I heard of their relation. But I am and ever shall be your faithful subject. Your Grace's most humble subject and chaplain, T. Cantuariensis. MSS. ster; p. 150. CLXX. To CRUMWELL. My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I commend me unto your lordship. And whereas the bearer Westmin- hereof, Mr. Hambletonf, upon no consideration else, as I Crumwell's understand, is put from his lands and possession in ScotCorres- land, but for that he favoureth the truth of God's word; pondence. Original. and is, besides his birth 5, a man of right good living and Todd, Life honest conversation, and of gentillh behaviour, by whom of Cranmer, vol. i. the word of God in this his exile hath no slander, but is the rather to be had in price and esteemed of other, considering that he so willingly hath borne his adversity: these shall be to desire you, my lord, to be a mediator unto the King's Highness for him, that being of this good judgment, he may have of his Grace some competent living for his degree. Which, in mine opinion, shall not only be a good and an acceptable deed unto God, but also much redound to the King's Grace's honour, so to consider the necessity of a gentleman for God's quarrel; and besides this, your lordship for your part cannot be unrewarded of God for the same. Thus Al f [This was probably James Hamilton, brother of Patrick Hamilton the first martyr of the reformation in Scotland. Foxe, after giving a detailed account of the execution of Patrick Hamilton at St. Andrew's in 1528, relates farther, that some years afterwards his brother James Hamilton, and his sister Catharine the spouse of the Captain of Dunbar, with some others, "were called to the Abbey Church of "Holyrood House in Edinburgh, by James Hay Bishop of Rosse, in "the presence of King James the Fifth. . . . . . James Hamilton was "accused as one that maintained the opinion of Master Patrick his "brother. To whom the King gave counsel to depart, and not to 66 appear, for in case he appeared, he could not help him; because the "bishop had persuaded him that the cause of heresy did in no case "appertain unto him. And so James fled, and was condemned as an "heretic, and all his goods and lands confiscate, and disposed unto "others." Catharine his sister appeared on the scaffold, and supported a long argument with John Spens, a lawyer; but at last the King "called her unto him, and caused her to recant, because she was his "aunt, and she escaped." Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. ii. p. 238.] 8 [This allusion to Mr. Hambleton's birth, agrees well with the supposition that he was the James Hamilton mentioned in the foregoing note, who, as it may be there seen, was nearly related to the King of Scotland.] h [As the meaning of this word is not perfectly expressed either by gentle or genteel, the old orthography has been retained.] mighty God have your good lordship in his blessed tui- To the Right Honourable and my singular good lord, my Lord Privy Seal. T. Cantuarien. CLXXI. TO KING HENRY VIII. Cleop. E.vi. Original. Pleaseth it your Grace to be advertised, that where, as Cotton. well by your Grace's special letters, dated the third day of MSS. Junel in the xxviith year of your Grace's most noble reign, f. 232. as also by mouth in Wynchester at Michaelmas last past m, Holograph. your Grace commanded all the prelates of your realm, that Strype, they with all acceleration and expedition should do their di- Cranmer, App. No. ligence every one in his diocese, fully to persuade your xiii. people of the Bishop of Rome his authority, that it is but a false and unjust usurpation, and that your Grace, of very right and by God's law, is the supreme head of this Church of England, next immediately unto God; I, to accomplish [Near Ashford in Kent," where was a seat for the Archbishop, a "park, and a chase for deer." Strype, Cranm. p. 282. It was included in the great exchange with the King, Nov. 3. 1537. See Letter CXCIII. note.] k [Some writers have named 1534 as the date of this letter. Strype (Cranmer, p. 32.) and Mr. Todd (Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 110.) fix 1535. But the Michaelmas mentioned in the first sentence, as might be supposed from the context, and as is proved beyond question by Letter CLX, was the Michaelmas of 1535; and the letter therefore must have been written in 1536. There can also be no doubt respecting the time, when the King sent his order to the bishops to preach against the papal supremacy; for this order is here positively stated to have been dated the third of June, 27 Hen. VIII. i. e. 1535. Yet both of the abovenamed writers, together with Wilkins, have supposed a proclamation of the 9th of June, which refers to it, to have been issued in 1534. Strype, Memorials, vol. i. p. 168. Todd, Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 110. Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iii. p. 772. This is the more extraordinary, as a document of the 25th of June, of a similar character, printed by Burnet, contains in itself evidence of its date in an allusion to the deaths of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, who suffered on the 22d of June 1535. See Burnet, Ref. vol. iii. p. 188, and Append. book ii. No 32.] 1 [See Letter CL.] [See Letter CLX. note (k).] m |