this realm of England at this present, if it please your Highness to license me, I would gladly write my mind unto your Majesty. I will never, God willing, be author of sedition, to move subjects from the obedience of their beads and rulers: which is an offence most detestable. If I have uttered my mind to your Majesty, being a Christian queen and governor of this realm, (of whom I am most assuredly persuaded, that your gracious intent is, above all other regards, to prefer God's true word, his honour and glory,) if I have uttered, I say, my mind unto your Majesty, then I shall think myself discharged. For it lieth not in me, but in your Grace only, to see the reformation of things that be amiss. To private subjects it appertaineth not to reform things, but quietly to suffer that they cannot amend. Yet nevertheless to show your Majesty my mind in things appertaining unto God, methink it my duty, knowing that I do, and considering the place which in times past I have occupied. Yet will I not presume thereunto without your Grace's pleasure first known, and your license obtained whereof I most humbly prostrate to the ground do beseech your Majesty; and I shall not cease daily to pray to Almighty God for the good preservation of your Majesty from all enemies bodily and ghostly, and for the increase of all goodness heavenly and earthly, during my life, as I do and will do, whatsoever come of me. CCXCVI. To MRS. WILKINSON c. The true comforter in all distress is only God, through MSS. ["The favourers of religion, seeing it was now determined to pro"ceed in all manner of severity against them, began to flee into other "countries for their safety as fast as they could. Indeed there were "some that made a case of conscience of it: among the rest, one Mrs. "Wilkinson, a woman of good quality, and a great reliever of good Her the Archbishop out of prison advised to escape, and "avoid a place where she could not truly and rightly serve God." Strype, Cranm. p. 313. A letter to her from Bishop Hoper, and two or three from Bradford, will be found in the Letters of the Martyrs, and in Foxe. In the Preface to the Embden edition of Cranmer's Defence, "men. Emmanuel Cover dale's Let ters of the Martyrs, p. 23. Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 677. Strype, Cranm. his Son Jesus Christ, and whosoever hath Him, hath company enough, although he were in a wilderness all alone. And he that hath twenty thousand in his company, if God be absent, he is in a miserable wilderness and desolation. In Him is all comfort, and without Him is none. Wherefore I beseech you, seek your dwelling there, whereas you may truly and rightly serve God, and dwell in Him, and App. No. have Him ever dwelling in you. What can be so heavy a burden as an unquiet conscience, to be in such a place as a man cannot be suffered to serve God in Christ's true religion? If you be loth to part from your kin and friends, remember, that Christ calleth them his mother, sisters, and brothers, that do his Father's will. Where we find therefore God truly honoured according to his will, there we can lack neither friend nor kin. 72. If you be loth to depart for slandering of God's word, remember, that Christ, when his hour was not yet come, departed out of his country into Samaria, to avoid the malice of the Scribes and Pharisees; and commanded his Apostles, that if they were pursued in one place, they should fly to another. And was not Paul let down by a basket out at a window, to avoid the persecution of Aretas? And what wisdom and policy he used from time to time, to escape the malice of his enemies, the Acts of the Apostles do declare. And after the same sort did the other Apostles. Mary, when it came to such a point, that they could no longer escape danger of the persecutors of God's true religion, then they showed themselves, that their flying before came not of fear, but of godly wisdom to do more good, and that they would not rashly, without urgent necessity, offer themselves to death; which had been but a temptation of God. Yet, when they were apprehended, and could no longer avoid, then they stood boldly to the profession of Christ then they showed, how little they passed of she and the Duchess of Suffolk are mentioned as women deserving of an everlasting name, who had left their country for conscience sake. Foxe states that she died in exile at Frankfort. Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 164.] death: how much they feared God more than men: how much they loved and preferred the eternal life to come, above this short and miserable life. Wherefore I exhort you, as well by Christ's commandment as by the example of Him and his Apostles, to withdraw yourself from the malice of your and God's enemies, into some place where God is most purely served. Which is no slandering of the truth, but a preserving of yourself to God and the truth, and to the society and comfort of Christ's little flock. And that you will do, do it with speed, lest by your own folly you fall into the persecutors' hands. And the Lord send his holy Spirit to lead and guide you, wheresoever you go. And all that be godly will say, Amen. T. Cranmer. CCXCVII. TO THE LORds of the COUNCIL f. In most humble wise sueth unto your right honourable MSS. lordships Thomas Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canter- Emman. bury 5; beseeching the same to be a means for me unto the [In this and the preceding Letter, the manuscript copies in the Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, have been followed in printing. In the present case the Emmanuel copy differs considerably from those in Foxe and Strype, but agrees, excepting a few words, with that in the Letters of the Martyrs.] 8 [According to Foxe, Cranmer was now released from his action of treason, and accused only of heresy; but Strype states, and his statement is supported by this Letter, that "so little favour could he find at "Court, that he had not yet this pardon absolutely granted him." However this might be," it had been determined by the Queen and "the Council, that he should be removed from the Tower, where he "was prisoner, to Oxford, there to dispute with the doctors and divines. "And although the Queen and the bishops had concluded before what "should become of him, yet it pleased them that the matter should be "debated with arguments, that under some honest show of disputation "the murder of the man might be covered." Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 648. For this Disputation, which ended in his condemnation for heresy on the 20th of April 1554, see vol. iv. pp. 4, 77. "On Monday next "ensuing, after these things done and past, being the 23rd of the said "month of April, Dr. Weston, Prolocutor, took his journey up to Lon"don, by whom the Archbishop of Canterbury directed his letters sup"plicatory unto the Council. The which letters after the Prolocutor "had received, and had carried them well near half way to London, by Coll. Camb. Coverdale's Queen's Highness for her mercy and pardon. Some of you Letters of know by what means I was brought and trained unto the tyrs, p. 16. will of our late Sovereign Lord King Edward VI, and Foxe, Acts, what I spake against the same; wherein I refer me to the reports of your honours b. the Mar &c. vol. iii. p. 92. 79. to him three ques ed him not to answer fully in one. [Coverdale.] How Furthermore, this is to signify unto your lordships, that upon Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last past, were open disputations here in Oxford, against me, Master Ridley, and They put Master Latymer, in three matters concerning the sacrament. First, of the real presence. Secondly, of transubtions, but stantiation. And thirdly, of the sacrifice of the mass. they sufferthe other two were used I cannot tell; for we were separated: so that none of us knew what the other said, nor how they were ordered. But as concerning myself, I can report, that I never knew nor heard of a more confused disputation in all my life. For albeit there was one appointed to dispute against me, yet every man spake his mind, and brought forth what him liked without order. And such haste was made, that no answer could be suffered to be given fully to any argument, before another brought a new argument. And in such weighty and large matters there was no remedy, but the disputations must needs be ended in one day, which can scantly well be ended in three months. And when we had answered them, then they would not appoint us one day to bring forth our proofs, that they might answer us again, being required of me thereunto: whereas I myself have more to say, than can be well discussed in twenty days. The means to resolve the truth had been, to have suffered us to answer fully to all that they could say, and then they again to answer to all that we could say. But why they would not answer us, what other cause can there be, but that either they feared the matter, that they were not able to answer us; or else (as by their haste might well appear) they came, not to speak "the way he opened the same, and seeing the contents thereof, sent "them back again, refusing to carry them." Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 92. The Letter here printed seems to be that which Weston thus refused to deliver.] h [See Letter ccxcv.] eth not. Thus Their cruel desire to you revenge the truth, but to condemn us in post haste, before the truth Behold Samight be thoroughly tried and heard? for in all haste we tan sleepwere all three condemned of heresy upon Friday. much I thought good to signify unto your lordships, that may know the indifferent handling of matters, leaving the could abide no delay. judgment thereof unto your wisdoms. And I beseech your [Coverlordships to remember me, a poor prisoner, unto the Queen's dule.] Majesty; and I shall pray, as I do daily, unto God for the long preservation of your good lordships in all godliness and felicity. April 23. [1554.] CCXCVIII. TO MARTYN AND STORY. Letters to I have me commended unto you; and, as I promised, I Certain have sent my letters unto the Queen's Majesty unsigned, the Queen, praying you to sign them, and deliver them with all speed. &c. I might have sent them by the carrier sooner, but not surer: Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. but hearing Master Bailiff say, that he would go to the p. 676. Court on Friday, I thought him a meeter messenger to send my letters by; for better is later and surer, than sooner and never to be delivered. Yet one thing I have written to the Queen's Majesty enclosed and sealed, which I require you may be so delivered without delay, and not be opened [The sentence mentioned in the last Letter" was void in law; be"cause the authority of the Pope was not yet received:" therefore "there was a new commission sent from Rome for the conviction of "Cranmer. Brokes, Bishop of Gloucester, was the Pope's subdelegate "under Cardinal de Puteo, and Martyn and Story, doctors of the civil "law, were the Queen's commissioners." Strype, Cranm. p. 371. For their proceedings, see vol. iv. p. 79, &c. The present Letter was obviously written after these proceedings were terminated, and was accompanied by a report drawn up by Cranmer for the perusal of the Queen, of the arguments which he had used on the occasion. See note (k).] [There is a strong presumption that the Letters here described are the two which follow, Nos. ccxcix, ccc. For the one contains a full report of Cranmer's argument at his Examination before Brokes, which might well be left unsealed; and the other touches upon what he considered a contradiction between the Queen's oath to the Pope and that to her realm; a matter which might be reasonably thought of too delicate a nature to be submitted to any other eyes than her Majesty's. This conjecture, however, is not without serious objection. In the Letter sent open to Martyn and Story, Cranmer, as he states, did not |