realm. self an enemy to the imperial crown, and to the laws and my to the state of this realm: whereby he declared himself not worthy to sit as a judge within this realm. And for these considerations I refused to take him for my judge. [Sept. 1555.] X CCC. TO QUEEN MARY. Letters to Letters of tyrs, p. 15. Contradic oaths, . I learned by Doctor Martin, that at the day of Certain your Majesty's coronation you took an oath of obedience the Queen, to the Pope of Rome, and the same time you took another &c. oath to this realm, to maintain the laws, liberties, and Coverdale's customs of the same. And if your Majesty did make an the Maroath to the Pope, I think it was according to the other Foxe, Acts, oaths which he useth to minister to princes; which is to be &c. vol. iii. obedient to him, to defend his person, to maintain his aup. 676. thority, honour, laws, lands, and privileges. And if it be so, tion in the (which I know not but by report) then I beseech your Queen's Majesty to look upon your oath made to the Crown and sworn both realm, and to expend and weigh the two oaths together, to realm and see how they do agree, and then to do as your Grace's con- to the Pope science shall give you: for I am surely persuaded that willingly your Majesty will not offend, nor do against your conscience for no thing. But I fear me that there be contradictions in your oaths, and that those which should have informed your Grace throughly, did not their duties therein. And if your Majesty ponder the two oaths diligently, I think you shall perceive you were deceived; and then your Highness may use the matter as God shall put in your heart. Furthermore, I am kept here from company of learned men, from books, from counsel, from pen and ink, saving at this time to write unto your Majesty, which all were necessary for a man being in my case. Wherefore I be * [This is manifestly, as Foxe calls it, only "a piece of another letter "to the Queen;" but no more is contained in any of the authorities referred to. See Letter ccxcvIII. note (k).] to the in one day. [Foxe.] seech your Majesty, that I may have such of these as may stand with your Majesty's pleasure. And as for mine appearance at Romey, if your Majesty will give me leave, I will appear there. And I trust that God shall put in my mouth to defend his truth there as well as here. But I refer it wholly to your Majesty's pleasure 2. [Sept. 1555.] Your poor orator, T. C. Cover dale's Let CCCI. To A LAWYER. Naturæ lex hoc ab omnibus postulat, ut quatenus citra ters of the divini numinis injuriam fieri potest, quisque vitam tueatur Martyrs, suam. Quod cum tribus abhinc diebus mihi in mentem Foxe, Acts, venisset, simulque memoriæ occurrisset appellatio Martini p. 19. &c. ist edit. Lutheri a Leone Decimo ad Concilium Generale, constitui et ipse Concilium Generale legitimum et liberum appellare, ne temere et inconsulto vitam proderem meam. Verum cum appellationis materia ad legisperitos spectet, cujus ego ignarus sum, cumque Lutheri appellatio ad manum mihi non sit: decrevi amico alicui fido et jurisperito, consilium meum hac y [See Letter ccxcix. p. 369.] z" These and other of Cranmer's smart and learned letters no "question made impression upon the Queen, or at least upon those "that read them; for they were delivered by the Queen to no less a 66 person than the holy father Cardinal Pole himself; who was ad"vised to frame an answer to them." Strype, Cranmer, p. 381; in the Appendix to which work, No. 89, the answer, dated St. James's, 6 Nov. 1555, will be found at length. "By comparing of this letter of Pole's "with that of Cranmer's, any one may see a mighty difference; "strength, evidence, and conviction in the Archbishop's, who had "truth on his side; but a flashiness and debility in the Cardinal's, "made up of poor shifts, and weak arguings, and impertinent allega"tions of Scripture, and personal reflections, to help out a weak cause." Strype, ibid. For instance, the Cardinal admitted Cranmer's doctrine on the Eucharist to be the more probable; but,' he answered, 'the 'more probable it is, the more false it is, the great sophister and 'father of lies ever deceiving us by probability of reason.' "The consequence whereof," Strype remarks," one would think should be, "the more improbable any opinion in religion was, the more true." It seems that Pole at the same time sent him another letter, in which he treated the question of the Eucharist more largely. See Strype, ibid. and App. p. 216.] in re pandere, cujus opera in hoc negotio uterer: ac tu quidem unus occurristi, qui mihi in hac Academia visus es ad hoc munus idoneus. Sed summam hæc res taciturnitatem postulat, ut antequam res fiat, nemo resciscat. Dies mihi dictus est ut respondeam Romæ decimo sextoa hujus mensis, ante quem mihi provocandum esse puto, ac post sententiam appellandum. Sed an primum mihi provocandum et appellandum sit a judice delegato ad ipsum Pontificem, ac deinde ad Concilium Generale b, an omisso Pontifice ad Concilium primum appellandum sit, consilio mihi opus est tuo. Porro appellationis causæ mihi multæ sunt. Primo quod juramento astrictus sim, nunquam me consensurum in auctoritatem Romani Pontificis. Deinde cum ego respondere omnino renuerem ad articulos mihi objectos ab Episcopo Gloucestrensi judice delegato, responderam tamen Doctori Martino et Storeo cum hac protestatione, quod responsio mea non daretur judici neque in judicio, sed extrajudicialis esset, et post responsum datum petebam responsionis meæ copiam, ut eandem mihi emendare liceret, vel addendo, vel mutando, vel subtrahendo: quanquam hæc mihi promissa sunt, et a Gloucestrensi et a procuratoribus Regis et Reginæ, omnino tamen fefellerunt fidem, non dantes emendandæ responsionis meæ copiam, et nihilominus (ut audio) inter acta judicialia adscripserunt c. Postremo, cum causa defectionis a Romano Pontifice et papistica religione in jus vocor, ut jam mihi lis sit adversus a [Perhaps vicesimo sexto should be read here; for the citation was delivered on the 7th of September, the 80th day from which is the 26th of November. Strype understands it of the 16th of February, 1556, but Cranmer could not have been summoned to appear at Rome on that day, for the Pope's letters, announcing the definitive sentence of excommunication and deprivation, and granting authority to degrade, and deliver him over to the secular power, were dated on the 14th of the preceding December. Foxe, Acts, &c. 1st edit. p. 1491.] b [Luther appealed first, from the Pope's legate Cardinal Caietan, to the Pope himself, or, as it is expressed in the appeal, a Pontifice "minus edocto ad Pontificem rectius edocendum ;" and secondly, from the Pope to a General Council. Sleidan, De Statu Relig. lib. i.] [See Letters ccxcVIII, ccxcix; and Examination before Brokes, (vol. iv. p. 106.)] с pontificem Romanum, et nemo æquus judex sit in causa propria, æquum mihi videtur ut Concilium appellem, præsertim cum jus naturæ (ut aiunt) appellationis remedium nemini negandum censeat. Jam cum ad hanc rem maxima taciturnitate opus sit, si forsan ob rerum imperitiam aliorum consiliis tibi opus sit, obtestor tum te per Christianam fidem ac charitatem, ut cujus causa sit, nemini significes. Et cum jam instet tempus, et mature opus sit facto, hoc me sinas a te impetrare, ut sepositis aliis studiis atque negotiis, huic uni incumbas quousque perfeceris. Potissima sane appellationis meæ causa est, ut (si ita Deus voluerit) donetur eousque vivendi tempus, quousque cœptum contra Marcum Antonium Constantium responsum absolvero. Quod si veritatis hostes phen Gar- meæ appellationi deferre nolint, (quod existimo,) fiat volunconstant tas Dei, susque deque fero, modo glorificetur Deus, sive weather- per vitam, sive per mortem. Melius est enim multo mori pro Christo et cum illo regnare, quam in hoc carnis ergashimself, tulo concludi, nisi in fratrum utilitatem ad majorem Dei gloriam propagandam liceat aliquamdiu militare; cui sit omnis gloria in ævum. Amen. This Constantius was Ste diner, as indeed as a cock: who thus named writing Est et alia appellationis causa quod cum Romam vocatus sim illic dicturus causam, interim carcere detineor, ut comparere mihi ad dictum diem non liceat. Cum autem de statu et vita mea agitur, et pro defensione mea jurisperitorum consilio mihi opus esset, quum id peterem, negatum est omne advocatorum, procuratorum, et jurisconsultorum consilium et auxilium. Vale. [Nov. 1555 d.] [See note (a). The design mentioned in this Letter was carried into execution; a formal appeal having been drawn up from the Pope to a free General Council, and presented by Cranmer to Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, immediately before his degradation on the 14th of Feb. 1556. It will be found vol. iv. p. 121.] END OF VOL. I. |