CHAPTER XIV. 55 THE ARCHBISHOP VISITS HIS DIOCESE. into his As soon as this business was over with the archbishop Goes down and bishops at Lambeth, no parliament sitting this year, diocese. and a plague being in London and Westminster, he went down, as was said before, into his dioceset. But before he went, he expressed a great desire to wait upon the king, being then, I suppose, at Hampton-Court, or Windsor; but he feared he should not be permitted, coming out of the smoky air, as he wrote to the lord Crumwel, in that time of infection. Yet he desired to know the king's pleasure by him. He had a mind indeed to leave some good impressions upon the king's mind in behalf of the book, that he and the rest had taken such pains about, and but newly made an end of. But whether he saw the king now or no, he had his commission, and took it down with him. Which he advisedly did, the better to warrant and bear him out in what he intended to do in his diocese, which he purposed to visit. license to This was a year of visitation. For there was a new Gets a visitation now again appointed throughout all England; visit. to see how the people stood affected to the king, to discover cheats and impostures, either in images, relics, or such like. The archbishop also thinking good now to visit his diocese, procured the license of the vicegerent, lord Crumwel, so to do; because, I suppose, all other visitations were to cease, to give way to the king's visitation. And to render his power of visiting the more unquestionable and void of scruple, he desired the vicegerent, [See above, p. 108.] that, in drawing up of his commission, his license to visit might be put into it by Dr. Peter; who was then, if I mistake not, master of the faculties to the said vicegerent, and afterwards secretary of state". And because he would not do any thing without the counsel and allowance of the vicegerent, he asked his advice, how he should order in his visitation such persons as had transgressed the king's Injunctions. Which came out the year before under Crumwel's name: whereof some were for the restraint of the number of holy-days, a great cause of superstition, and of the continuance of it. And afterwards other Injunctions came out: whereof the first was, that u ["Also where you granted unto me licence to visit my diocese this year, I beseech you that I may have your letters to Dr. Peter, to put that in my commission."-Letter to Crumwel (cxc.) -abp. Cranmer's Works. Park. Soc. ed. vol. ii. p. 338. "This was sir William Petre, a master of chancery, whom Crumwel appointed to visit the monasteries with Leighton, Legh, and London as his deputies, Oct. 1535, (see above p. 73.) and who with Cranmer and others had been appointed to draw up a bill for the enactment of the Six Articles (A. D. 1539), which was not adopted. He was a great friend of the archbishop, was made secretary of state, and in conjunction with the queen, Cranmer, lord Wriothesley, (the newly appointed lord chancellor), and the earl of Hartford, had the government of the kingdom intrusted to him by the king, when he departed for France, A.D. 1544. In 1545 he was sent as ambassador to Germany. He was also one of the privy council appointed by Henry VIIIth's will to assist his executors, and afterwards became a member of Edward VIth's privy council. He signed Edward VIth's limitation of the crown, as well as the letter to Mary, acquainting her that the lady Jane Grey had been proclaimed sovereign according to the ancient laws of the land;' but with the other members of the council afterwards declared for queen Mary, and, A.D. 1556, was appointed one of the select committee for regulating the affairs of the kingdom during the absence of Philip, queen Mary's husband, and became one of queen Elizabeth's first privy councillors. See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. pp. 517, 663; vol. ii. pp. 7, 36, 471, 478, 9, 752; vol. iii. pp. 317, 490, part ii. pp. 281, 342. ed. Oxon. 1829." Id. p. 315. n. 4. in all parishes, once every Sunday, for a quarter of a year together, the supremacy should be taught, and the laws to that intent read. These Injunctions were in number eleven, as they are set down in the lord Herbert's history". ["In sequence of which, the same year he (i. e. Henry VIII.) commanded (under the name of Crumwell his vicegerent) these Injunctions following to be observed of the deans, parsons, vicars, curates, and stipendiaries resident, or having care of souls elsewhere: "1. And first, that in all parishes and places of preaching, once every Sunday for a quarter of a year together, the doctrine of supremacy should be taught, and the laws to that purpose read, and that the bishop of Rome's authority, having no establishment by the law of God, was justly taken away. "2. That in the king's Articles, lately set forth, the real doctrine of salvation should be distinguished from the rites and ceremonies of the church, and so taught the people as they might know, what was necessary in religion, and what was instituted for the decent and politic order of the church, according to such a commandment given heretofore in that point. "3. That the late order concerning abrogating of certain superstitious holy-days should be read to the people, and they persuaded to keep it. 66 4. That they should not extol, or set forth images, relics, or miracles, or allure people to pilgrimages otherwise than as permitted in the late Articles, but rather exhort them to keep God's commandments, and provide for their families, and what they can give to bestow it rather on the poor, than upon the said images or relics. “5. That in their sermons, they admonish fathers to teach their children the Pater Noster, Articles of our faith, and Commandments in their mother tongue; which also should be often repeated by the said youth, and to bring them up in learning, or some honest occupation or trade, whereby to avoid idleness, and get their living. "6. That sacraments and sacramentals be duly and reverently administered by the parsons, vicars, and curates; and if any be absent from their benefices by licence, that learned curates be left in their place. "7. That every parson or proprietary of a church should provide a Bible in Latin and English, and lay the same in the quire for every man to read, exhorting them thereunto, as being the word of God, teaching them withal to Pag. 472. The vicar of The vicar of Croydon, under the archbishop's nose, had Croydon. been guilty of certain misdemeanours: which, I suppose, were speaking or preaching to the disparagement of the king's supremacy, and in favour of the pope. Now before he went into the country, and having as yet divers bishops and learned men with him at Lambeth, he thought it advisable to call this man before them at this time. But before he would do it, he thought it best to consult with Crumwel, and take his advice, whether he should now do avoid controversy amongst themselves in the places they understood not, but to refer themselves therein to the better learned. "8. That the said deans, parsons, vicars and curates should not haunt taverns nor ale-houses, or use tables, cards, or any unlawful games, but rather at their leisure that they should read the holy Scriptures, and be example to others in purity of life. "9. That because the goods of the church are the goods of the poor, and yet the needy in these days not sustained with the same, therefore all parsons, vicars, and prebendaries, and other beneficed men, which may dispend twenty pounds yearly, or above, should distribute amongst the poor parishioners in the presence of the churchwardens the fortieth part of the revenue of their benefices, lest they should be noted of ingratitude, as receiving thirty-nine parts, and yet not vouchsafing to bestow the fortieth. able to dispend in benefices or promotions of the church £100 yearly, or more, shall, for one or every of the said £100 yearly, give a competent exhibition to maintain one scholar, or more, either in grammar schools, or the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who, when they have profited in learning, may be partners in their patrons' cure and charge, in preaching and otherwise, or else profit the commonwealth with their counsel and wisdom. "II.That all parsons, vicars, and clerks, having churches, chapels, or mansions, shall bestow yearly upon the said mansions or chancels of their churches, (being in decay,) the fifth part of their benefices, till they had fully repaired the same. "That all these Injunctions should be observed, under pain of suspension and sequestration of the benefices until they were done."-Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII. pp. 472-474. ed. Lond. 1672.] it, and before these bishops or notw: so ticklish a thing 56 then was it for the bishops to do any things of themselves without the privity and order of this great vicegerent. Cranmer was aware of it, and therefore required direction from him in every thing. diocese. But whatsoever was done with this vicar, the archbi- The archbishop shop was soon down in his diocese; and, having taken an visits his account of the people and clergy, what conformity they bare to the king's laws and injunctions; he found them superstitiously set upon the observation of their old holydays. Some whereof he punished, and others he admonished, according to the degree of their crimes. And he discovered the chief cause to lie in the curates and priests, who did animate the people to what they did indeed their interest and gain was concerned. The great inconvenience of these holy-days lay partly in the numerousness of them; so that the attendance upon them hindered dispatching and doing justice in Westminster Hall, in the terms, and the gathering in harvest in the country; partly in the superstitions that these holy-days maintained, in the idolatrous worship of supposed saints, and partly in the riot, debauchery, and drunkenness, that these times were celebrated with among the common people; and lastly, the poverty it brought upon the meaner sort, being detained from going about their ordinary labours and callings to provide for themselves and families. For the prevention of these superstitions for the future, What w ["I beseech your lordship to send me word, whether I shall examine the vicar of Croyden in this presence of the bishops, and other learned men of our assembly, or otherwise how I shall order him."-Letter to Crumwell, (cxc.), abp. Cranmer's Works, course he |