CHAPTER III. CRANMER'S EMBASSIES. embassies. In the year 1530, Dr. Cranmer was sent by the king into Ann. 1530. France, Italy, and Germany, with the earl of Wiltshire, He is emchief ambassador, Dr. Lee elect archbishop of York, Dr. ployed in Stokesly, elect of London, divines; Trigonel, Karn, and Benet, doctors of the law, to dispute these matrimonial matters of his majesty at Paris, Rome, and other places: carrying the book he had made upon that subject with him. From France they took their journey to the pope; where Cranmer's book was delivered to him, and he ready To the pope. to justify it, and to offer a dispute against the marriage Offers him openly, upon these two points which his book chiefly con- a dispute in sisted of, viz. I. That no man, jure divino, could, or ought to marry his brother's wife. II. That the bishop of Rome by no means ought to dispense to the contrary. But after sundry promises and appointments made, there was no man found to oppose him, and publicly to dispute these matters with him. Yet in more private argumentations with them that were about the pope, he so forced them, that at last they openly granted, even in the pope's chief court of the Rota, that the said marriage was against God's law. But as for the pope's power of dispensing with the laws of God, it was too advantageous a tenet to be parted with. But Dr. Cranmer boldly and honestly denied it utterly before them all. favour of the king's cause. The king's ambassadors from the pope repaired to the 10 emperor Charles V., Cranmer only being left behind at CRANMER, VOL. I. C Rome to make good his challenge, and withal more privately to get the judgments and subscriptions of the learned men there in the king's case: which was one of his businesses also in Germany after. What he did in Hist. Refor. this latter affair he signified by a letter to Crook, another P. i. p. 89. of the king's agents for that purpose in Italy; namely, "That his success there at Rome was but little: and that they dared not to attempt to know any man's mind, because of the pope, who had said, that friars should not discuss his power. And added, that he looked for little favour in that court, but to have the pope and all his cardinals declare against them"." To the emperor. Life of Cranmer inter Foxii MSSO. Here at Rome Cranmer abode for some months. But in all the journey he behaved himself so learnedly, soberly, and wittily, that the earl of Wilts gave him such commendations to the king by his letters, that the rest coming home, he sent him a commission with instructions to be his sole ambassador to the emperor in his said great cause. Which commissional letters of the king to him Anno 1531. bare date January 24, 1531, wherein he was stiled Consiliarius regius et ad Cæsarem orator". By this opportunity Seckendorf. of travelling through Germany, following the emperor's court, by his conferences he fully satisfied many learned Hist. n [Crooke reports, out of a letter of Cranmer's to him from Rome, these words; "As for our successes here, they be very little, nor dare we attempt to know any man's mind, because of the pope; nor is he content with what you have done; and he says, no friars shall discuss his power: and as for any favour in this court, I look for none, but to have the pope with all his cardinals declare against us." Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. p. 180. ed. Oxon. 1829.] 。 [Harl. MSS. 417. Plut. lxiv. F. fol. 90.] P [Venit d. 14. Julii Norimbergam ad Johannem Fridericum celeberrimus ille Crammerus, postea archiepiscopus Cantuariensis tunc in literis regiis d. 24. Januarii 1531. (stylo Anglicano, sed nostro 1532.) datis D. Thomas Craymer, consiliarius regis, et ad Cæsarem orator, vocatus. Seck Cranmer to Germans, which afore were of a contrary judgment; and divers in the emperor's own court and council also. One of the chiefest of these, and who suffered severely for it, was Cornelius Agrippa, knight, doctor of both laws, Cornelius Agrippa judge of the prerogative court, and counsellor to the em gained by peror, and a man of deep learning: who confessed to the said ambassador, that the marriage was naught, but that cause. he durst not say so openly, for fear both of the pope and emperor. Yet he was afterwards cast into prison, where he died, for expressing his mind, as was thought, somewhat more plainly in this affair. the king's ander. While he was now abroad in Germany, he went to Nu- Becomes acquainted rimberg, where Osiander was pastor. And being a man with Osiof fame and learning, our ambassador became acquainted with him; sending for him sometimes to discourse with him; and sometimes he would go to Osiander's house, to visit him and his study. This eminent divine of the German protestant church he also gained to favour the king's cause. For he wrote a book of incestuous marriages, wherein he determined the king's present matrimony to be unlawful. But this book was called in by a prohibition, printed at Augsburgh. And there was also a form of a direction, drawn up by the same Osiander, how the king's process should be managed: which was sent over hither. Cranmer's discourse with Osiander, at these Multa gratheir meetings, concerning divers matters relating especially to Christian doctrine and true religion, were so ac plane diwise and good, that that great divine stood in admiration Christiana of him, as though he had been inspired from above. In endorf, Comment. Hist. Apol. de Lutheran. lib. iii. sect. 7. § xvi. (12) p. 41. ed. Francof. et Lips. 1692.] format. vol. i. p. 191. ed. Oxon. r [Osiander. Harmon, Evan. In [See Burnet's Hist. of Re viter, multa sapienter, vinitus de doctrina, ac vera reli gione dis mon. Evan one of their conferences, Osiander communicated to him putares. In ep. dedicat, certain papers, wherein he had been attempting to harante Harmonize the gospels, but, by reason of the difficulty that gel. often arose, had thrown them aside. A thing this was which Cranmer declared to him his great approbation of; 11 as he was always a man greatly studious of the scripture, and earnestly desirous that the right knowledge thereof might be increased. So he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this study, and to finish it with all convenient speed for that it would not only, he said, be of use to the church of Christ, but adorn it. These admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this work, and at last to bring it to a conclusion. In the year 1537, he published it, and dedicated it to Cranmer, then archbishop, the great encourager of the author. And mar ries his In some of these visits Cranmer saw Osiander's niece, kinswoman, and obtained her for his wife; whom when he returned from his embassy he brought not over with him: but in the year 1534 he privately sent for her; and kept her with him till the year 1539, in the severe time of the Six Articles; when he sent her back in secret to her friends in Germany for a time. By these visits, and this affinity, there grew a very cordial love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great correspondence was maintained by letters between them long after. A parcel of these letters in manuscript, the right reverend the bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation; which he met with in the exquisite library of Mr. Richard Smith, as he told a friend of mine. But notwithstanding my inquiry after them, I had not the good fortune to see them, nor to find into whose hands they were come, after the selling of that library by auction. Which letters, if I could have procured a sight of, might have served somewhat perhaps in this my undertaking. the emperor traffic. We are now slipped into the year 1532. And among Anno 1532. other services which he did abroad, (besides his promoting Treats with the king's great matrimonial cause among the German about the princes and states, as well as others,) he was employed for contract of the establishing and securing a traffic between the merchants of England and the emperor's Low Countriess. Concerning which, the former contract, it seems, began to shake, occasioned by that lukewarmness of affection that now grew between these two monarchs. About this affair our ambassador had divers conferences with Monsieur Grandeville, the emperor's great minister at Regensburgh. The effect of his last solicitation was, that Grandeville had told him that the diet concerning the said contract was held in Flanders, where the queen of Hungary was governess; and therefore that the emperor would do nothing therein without her advice; and that he would make answer by her rather than by him. And so Cranmer desired the king, that it would please his grace no further to look for answer from him therein, but from the queen, unto whom the whole answer was committed. t gainst the Turk. Another business our ambassador was now agitating at And about sending this court for the king was about sending supplies to the supplies aemperor against the Turk; who had now made a formidable invasion in Hungary, with an army consisting of three hundred thousand men. The emperor had lately, by virtue of a former league, and for the common cause of Christianity, demanded certain forces of the king for this purpose. 12 Now what measures his ambassador was to take with the emperor in this affair, William Paget, his majesty's servant, [The letter from which Strype draws these and the following particulars of Cranmer's embassy will be found in the Appendix, and also in abp. Cranmer's works. Park. Soc. ed. letter ii. vol. ii. pp. t [Mary the sister of Charles V., |