there is no such suit made unto me: howbeit if any suit be made, I shall, according to your mind, stay the same, and likewise incontinently send unto mine officers that they on their behalf do the same accordingly. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Canterbury, the vth day of August. Your lordship's own, To my very singular good lord, my T. Cantuarien. MSS. Chapter CXC. TO CRUMWELL. My singular good Lord, in my right hearty wise I comHouse, mend me unto your lordship. These shall be to yield unto Westmin- the same my most hearty thanks for your good advertiseCrumwell's ment unto the King's Majesty touching the tenor of my Corres- letters, which I sent to you by Sir Edward Ryngsley, Original. knight. And as concerning your commendation of the said ster; pondence. Sir Edward, with your effectious request for my favour to be declared towards him in such things as he may have to do with me, I am right glad that you have conceived so good opinion of him; and for my part, though my ability be but small, he shall have such commodity and pleasure as I may do for him. Howbeit I shall desire your lordship so to extend your goodness towards him, that thereby he may have some preferment now in the alteration of these religious houses; wherein surely you shall not only much animate the man to do the King's Majesty his most faithful service, but also bind him to be at your commandment. Thus, my lord, f[If this is the Sir Edw. Ringleis, or Kinslee, mentioned by Foxe, he does not seem to have been valued so highly by the martyrologist, as by Crumwell and Cranmer; for he is spoken of in the Acts and Monuments, &c. vol. ii. p. 562, as “ Controller of the town of Calais, an office "of no small charge, though he knew not a B from a battledore, nor "ever a letter of the book."] right heartily fare you well. At Forde, the viiith day of MSS. Original. My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I Cotton commend me unto your lordship. And whereas I under- Cleop. E. v. stand that your lordship, at my request, hath not only ex- f. 329. b. hibited the Bible which I sent unto you %, to the King's Strype, Majesty, but also hath obtained of his Grace, that the same Cranmer, shall be allowed by his authority to be bought and read P. 57. within this realm; my lord, for this your pain, taken in this behalf, I give unto you my most hearty thanks: assuring your lordship, for the contentation of my mind, you have showed me more pleasure herein, than if you had given me a thousand pound; and I doubt not but that hereby such fruit of good knowledge shall ensue, that it shall well appear hereafter, what high and acceptable service you have done unto God and the King. Which shall so much redound to your honour, that besides God's reward, you shall obtain perpetual memory for the same within this realm. And as for me, you may reckon me your bondman for the same. And I dare be bold to say, so may ye do Lord of Wurceiter h. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare ye well. At Forde, the xiiith day of August. [1537.] Your own boundman ever, my T. Cantuarien. CXCII. TO CRUMWELL. Cotton My very singular and especial good Lord, in my most MSS. hearty wise I commend me to your lordship. These shall Cleop. E. v. [ See Letter CLXXXVIII.] h [Hugh Latymer.] f. 292. Original. No. 19. Strype, be to give you most hearty thanks that any heart can think, Cranmer, and that in the name of them all which favoureth God's P. 58. and App. word, for your diligence at this time in procuring the King's Highness to set forth the said God's word, and his Gospel, by his Grace's authority. For the which act, not only the King's Majesty, but also you shall have a perpetual laud and memory of all them that be now, or hereafter shall be God's faithful people, and the favourers of his [This authority was doubtless not obtained without much difficulty; for we learn from a letter addressed to Crumwell by Grafton the printer, on this same day, the 28th of August 1537, that even after it was granted, some persons were still incredulous. "Your lordship's "moving our most gracious Prince to the allowance and licensing of "such a work, hath wrought such an act worthy of praise, as never was mentioned in any chronicle in this realm: and as my Lord of "Canterbury said, the tidings thereof did him more good than the gift "of ten thousand pounds; yet certain there are, which believe not that "it pleased the King's Grace to license it to go forth. Wherefore if your lordship's pleasure were such, that we might have it licensed "under your privy seal, it would be a defence at this present and in "time to come, for all enemies and adversaries of the same." Grafton to Crumwell, in Strype, Cranm. p. 59. The strong language which both Cranmer and Grafton use on this occasion, cannot well be reconciled with the supposition, that English translations of the Bible had been already placed within the reach of the people by order of the King's Vicegerent. Yet a paragraph is usually printed in Crumwell's Injunctions of the preceding year, 1536, which directs the whole Bible in Latin and English to be laid in every parish church" for every man to read and look therein." See Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. ii. p. 387; Collier, Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 129; Burnet, Reformat. vol. i. App. B. iii. No. 7. (Oxf. 1829.) But this paragraph is not found in the official copy in Cranmer's Register, nor indeed in Wilkins's Concilia, or the folio edition of Burnet; and the fact seems to be, that it is an interpolation, adopted incautiously from a draft which was afterwards altered. It would appear then that no order was issued for placing the English Bible in churches before Crumwell's Injunctions of Sept. 1538; where it is expressed in the following terms. "Item; That ye shall "provide on this side the feast of next coming, one book of the "whole Bible of the largest volume in English, and the same set up in "some convenient place within the said church that ye have cure of, "whereas your parishioners may most commodiously resort to the same "and read it." Burnet, Ref. vol. 1. App. B. iii. No. 11. And accordingly Stow relates, that "this month of September, [1538,] Thomas Crum"well, Lord Privy Seal, &c. sent forth Injunctions to all bishops "and curates through the realm, charging them to see that in every "parish church the Bible of the largest volume printed in English were "placed for all men to read in." Stow, Annals. Wilkins, it may be observed, has placed Crumwell's second set of Injunctions which were issued in 1538, under the same year as the first, namely, 1536. Concilia, vol. iii. p. 815.] word. And this deed you shall hear of at the great day, when all things shall be opened and made manifest. For our Saviour Christ saith in the said Gospel, that whosoever shrinketh from him and his word, and is abashed to profess and set it forth before men in this world, He will refuse him at that day and contrary, whosoever constantly doth profess Him and his word, and studieth to set that forward in this world, Christ will declare the same at the last day before his Father and all his angels, and take upon Him the defence of those men. : These shall be farther to advertise your lordship, that since my last coming from London into Kent *, I have found the people of my diocese very obstinately given to observe and keep with solemnity the holidays lately abrogated 1. Whereupon I have punished divers of the offenders; and to divers I have given gentle monitions to amend. But inasmuch as by examination I have perceived that the people were partly animated thereto by their curates, I have given straight commandment and injunction unto all the parsons and vicars within my diocese, upon pain of deprivation of their benefices, that they shall not only, on their behalf, cause the said holidays so abrogated from time to time, not to be observed within their cures ; but also shall from henceforth present to me such persons of their parishes, as will practise in word or deed contrary to that ordinance or any other, which is, or hereafter shall be set forth by the King's Grace's authority, for the redress or ordering of the doctrine or ceremonies of this Church of England. So that now I suppose, through this means, all disobedience and contempt of the King's Grace's said acts and ordinances in this behalf, shall be clearly avoided in my diocese hereafter: * [He was now engaged in that Visitation, for which he requested a license from Crumwell in Letter CLXXXIV.] 1 [See the Act of Convocation by which they were abrogated, and Hen. VIII.'s Letter to the bishops for enforcing its observance, in Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iii. p. 823. See also, in the Appendix, a mandate issued by Cranmer, by the King's direction, on the 19th of April 1537, for celebrating the feast of St. Mark, notwithstanding the above named not doubting also, but if every bishop in this realm had commandment to do the same in their dioceses, it would avoid both much disobedience and contention in this said realm. I would fain that all the enmity and grudge of the people in this matter should be put from the King and his Council; and that we, who be Ordinaries, should take it upon us: or else I fear lest a grudge against the Prince and his Council, in such causes of religion, should gender in many of the people's hearts a faint subjection and obedi ence. m But, my lord, if in the Court you do keep such holidays and fasting days as be abrogated, when shall we persuade the people to cease from keeping of them? For the King's own house shall be an example unto all the realm to break his own ordinances. Over this, whereas your lordship hath twice written for this poor man, William Gronnowe ", the bearer hereof, to my Lord Deputy of Calice, for him to be restored to his room; as far as I understand, it prevailed nothing at all; for so he can get none answer of my Lord Deputy: so that the poor man despaireth that your request shall do him any good. If your lordship would be so good to him, as to obtain a bill, signed by the King's Grace, to the treasurers and controllers of Calice for the time being, commanding them to pay to the said W. Gronnowe his accustomed wages yearly, and to none other, your lordship should not only not further trouble my Lord Deputy any more, but also do a right meritorious deed. For if the poor man be put thus from his living, he were but utterly undone. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Ford, the xxviii. day of August. [1537.] m Your Lordship's own ever, T. Cantuariens. [This paragraph is inserted by the Archbishop's own hand in the lower margin; the rest of the Letter being written by his secretary.] "[See Letter cc.] |