CCI. TO CRUMWELL. Chapter ster; Crum My singular good Lord, I heartily commend me unto MSS. you. And whereas my trusty servant Master Towker, my House physician, being a man of good learning and conversation, Westminhath exercised the office of a physician of long continuance well's Correspondwith the Prior and Convent of Christ's Church, in Canter- ence. bury, and had the fees, profits, and commodities belonging Original. to the same; the which said office, by the custom of the house, hath always been esteemed a perpetuity, and the Prior promised me, at Christmas last, that my said servant should have a patent thereof during his life; the which his former promise the Prior nothing regarding sithen that time will now in no wise condescend that my said servant shall have any patent of the said office; wherefore, in consideration of the good service he hath done to the said Prior and Convent at all times, I beseech your good lordship to direct your letters to the said Prior and Convent, requiring them without further delay to seal and deliver the said letters patents, whereby ye shall not only do a very good deed, but also bind my said servant to be your daily beadman, and with his poor service to be at all times at your lordship's commandment. And thus heartily fare you well. From Lamehithe, the xith day of this month of November. Your own assured ever, To the Right Honourable and my singular good lord, my Lord Privy Seal. T. Cantuarien. CCII. To CRUMWELL. House, My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I MSS. commend me unto your lordship. And where I have writ- Chapter ten unto the wardens of the goldsmiths, requiring them to Westmintake a view of the pix belonging unto the mint at Canter-well's Cor ster;Crum respond ence. Ori ginal. bury h, as well for my discharge as to the intent the King's Highness may be the more substantially served in his coins there, the said wardens hath sent me word, that they would gladly take pains in that behalf, so that they may have commandment from one of the Council besides me; for so in times past they have accomplished my predecessors' request herein and not else, as they say: these shall be therefore to beseech your lordship to assign this bill herein inclosed, to the intent that the Master and Controller of the said mint, being now in the town at my commandment, may the sooner have expedition in the premises. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Lambeth, the ivth day of December. Your own assured ever, To my very singular good lord, my Lord Privy Seal. T. Cantuarien. MSS. Chapter well's Cor ence. Original. CCIII. To CRUMWELL. My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I commend me unto your lordship. These shall be to signify Westmin unto the same, that at my late being at the Court, forsoster; Crum- much as I failed of you there, I attempted alone to be a respond- suitor unto the King's Majesty for my loving friend Sir John Markeham, knight, declaring unto his Grace not only the old and continual service which the said Sir John Markeham did first unto his Grace's grandame *, and since to his said Grace ever since his coronation, being in all the wars which the King hath had since his most gracious reign, except he had wars in divers places at one time, and then he was ever in one of them, which from time to time hath been great charge unto him: moreover I declared unto his Highhow that the said Sir John, of long season, hath un ness, feignedly favoured the truth of God's word; and so upon these my persuasions I besought his Grace to be good in a suit which your lordship and I should make for the said Sir John, whereof I referred the relation unto your lordship and I found the King's Grace very well minded towards the said Sir John; wherefore I nothing doubt but, if it will please your lordship this present time earnestly to set forward the said suit, the King's Grace is well inclined to hear it; so that I trust you shall easily obtain the same, which I beseech you to do at this my request, and this gentleman shall be ever bound to do you service. And yet one thing I did forget to say unto his Highness, which is this, that the said Sir John Markeham hath been no great craver unto his Grace; for this is the first thing that ever he asked of his Grace. Wherefore, my lord, considering the matter is thus far opened and wholly committed unto you, I shall desire you to promote the same with expedition, and that the rather at this mine instant request; wherein surely you shall not only do for the preferment of a faithful and honest gentleman m, but thereby bind me to be at your lordship's commandment. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Lambeth, the vith day of December. Your lordship's own ever, To my very singular good lord, my T. Cantuarien. CCIV. To CRUMWELL. My very singular good Lord, after most hearty com- Mss. mendations; this shall be to signify unto your lordship, Chapter that I have received both your letters and the book also Westmiu [Sir John Markham was one of Hen. VIII's Visitors for the Deanery of Doncaster. Burnet, Ref. vol. ii. App. B. i. No. 21.] [The site of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Neubo or Newboth, in Lincolnshire, was granted to Sir John Markham, 29 Hen. VIII. Tanner, Notitia Monast.] "[The Institution of a Christian Man. See Letters CLXXXIV. CCV.] House, respond. State Papers, vol. i. part ii. Lett. cv. ster; Crum- lately by us devised, and now overseen and corrected by well's Cor- the King's Majesty, which book, according to his Grace's ence. Ori- pleasure, all other business laid apart, I shall, with all posginal. sible expedition, peruse and oversee within this sevennight, or fortnight at the uttermost, and thereof advertise his Majesty, by your lordship, of my judgment and opinion in such places as are in the same book by his Grace corrected. Todd, Life And as touching your farther advertisement of the King's of Cranm. vol.i.p.184. most gracious pleasure to be resolved in the case of matrimony between the late Duke of Richmond and my Lord of Norfolk's daughter, wherein his Highness willeth me to call my doctors unto me, and to propone the same case amongs them, whether such marriage be matrimony or no; I assure your lordship, that, without farther convocation of doctors, I am fully persuaded that such marriages as be in lawful age contracted per verba de præsenti, are matrimony before God. And the same case is, as I remember, plainly opened and declared in the King's Grace's book of his own cause of matrimony P. Howbeit, I shall eftsoons consult herein with such learned men as at this time be with me present, and send unto your lordship our resolution in the same. And if his Grace will have me farther to consult therein, then I must send for other learned men, or else come to London myself. Thus Almighty God have your lordship in his tuition. At Forde, the 14th day of January. Your own ever assured, To my very singular good lord, my [See p. 84. The Duke of Richmond died on the 22d of July, 1536, aged about seventeen. Stow, Annals; Note to State Papers, vol. i. p. 321.] mar P [Burnet, after giving an account of several books on the King's ma riage, adds: "But all these, and many more, were summed up in a "short book, and printed first in Latin, then in English, with the deter"minations of the Universities before it." This seems to be the book to which Cranmer alludes. It was published by Berthelet in Nov. 1530, and was entitled: The Determinations of the moste famous and mooste excellent Universities of Italy and Fraunce, that it is so unleful for a man to marie his brother's wyfe, that the Pope hath no power to CCV. TO CRUMWELL9. 101. My very singular good Lord', after most hearty commen- MSS. dations unto your lordship; these shall be to advertise Cotton, Cleopatra, the same, that as concerning the book lately devised by me E. v. fol. and other bishops of this realm, which you sent unto me corrected by the King's Highness, your lordship shall receive the same again by this bearer the pursuivant, with certain annotations of mine own concerning the same; wherein I trust the King's Highness will pardon my presumption, that I have been so scrupulous, and as it were a picker of quarrels to his Grace's book, making a great matter of every light fault, or rather where no fault is at all; which I do only for this intent, that because the book now shall be set forth by his Grace's censure and judgments, I would have nothing dispence therewith. Ames, Typ. Antiq. 1132. A copious abstract of [Part of this Letter is printed by Strype, Cranm. p. 51, and the substance of another part is given by him in the same work, p. 45; but it has not hitherto been published entire.] [The date of this and the preceding Letter can scarcely be earlier than 1538: for The Institution, which, on the 21st of July 1537, was announced to be nearly finished, (Letter CLXXXIV.) is here spoken of as "the book lately devised" And it can scarcely be later; because it may be inferred from the question respecting the marriage of the Duke of Richmond, that it was written at no very distant period after his death; and this took place on the 22d of July 1536. Strype, however, and Mr. Todd place it under 1537. But Strype's narrative tends more to shake his own date than to establish it. In 1537, he says, a commission was issued for devising a form of sound doctrine. The commissioners met at Lambeth, and after much debate" set their hands to a "godly book of religion." The book was delivered by Crumwell to the King, who, at his leisure, diligently perused, corrected, and aug"mented it and then after five or six months assigned Crumwell to "dispatch it unto the Archbishop, that he might give his judgment 66 upon the King's animadversions.” The Archbishop "made his "own annotations, . . . . . and when he sent it back again, he wrote "these lines to Crumwell on the 25th of January." No one who is required at this point to add the year, can avoid naming 1538. Yet Strype, after inserting the former part of the letter, proceeds: "at "length this book came forth in the year 1537." It is quite true that "the book came forth in 1537;" but instead of following, it must clearly have preceded these Letters of Cranmer. See Preface; Letter CLXXXIV, and notes; Strype, Cranmer, p. 51; Todd, Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 184.] [It has been observed in note (i) to Letter CLXXXIV. that The Institution, though introduced by a Preface from the prelates, did not bear the same stamp of royal authority as the Articles of Religion pub |