: it which they did within two days after at Greenwich. Whereupon the king commanded he should be sent for to the court. Which was done, and he brought into the king's presence. Who, having heard him discourse upon the marriage, and well observing the gravity and modesty, as well as learning of the man, resolved to cherish and make much of him. This was about August 1529, the Anno 1529. king having commanded him to digest in writing what he could say upon the foresaid argument; retained him, and committed him unto the family and care of the earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, named sir Thomas Bolen, dwelling then at Durham house: esteeming him a fit person for Cranmer to reside with, who had himself been employed in embassies to Rome and Germany about the same matter; and so able to instruct our divine in particular passages relating thereunto: and likewise would be sure to afford him all the security and favour and aid possible, from the prospect, that if the king's former marriage could be proved unlawful, and thereby null and void, his own family would be in a fair probability to be highly advanced, by the king's matching with his daughter the lady Ann Bolen. Nor was Cranmer unsuitably placed here in regard of Suitably placed with the disposition of his noble host; being accounted one the earl of of the learnedest noblemen in the land, and endued with Ormond. a mind inclined to philosophy. Erasmus, who had good 5 intelligence in England, and knew this earl himself, gives this account of him to Damianus à Goes: Est enim vir, Epist. 19. ut uno ore prædicant omnes, unus prope inter nobiles eruditus, animoque plane philosophicoc. He was also much addicted to the study and love of the holy scriptures, as the same Erasmus in an epistle to him mentioneth, and commendeth c [Erasmi Epist. Opus. lib. 27. Epist. 19. p. 1524. ed. Lond. 1642.] lib. 27. Impensius him for. I do the more congratulate your happiness, when gratulor tuæ fœlici. I observe the sacred scriptures to be so dear to a man, as tati, quod you are, of power, one of the laity, and a courtier; and that tenti, laico, you have such a desire to that pearl of price. He was also homini po et aulico, perspiciam a patron of learning and learned men: and if there were etiam iam sacras nothing else to testify this, it would be enough to say, literas esse nobilis illius desiderio teneri. Epist. 34. lib. 29. d cordi, teque that he was well affected to the great Erasmus, and a true margarite valuer of his studies. The world is beholden to this noble peer for some of the labours that proceeded from the pen of that most learned man. For upon his desire Erasmus wrote three tracts; one was, Enarrations upon the twentysecond Psalm, intituled, Dominus regit me; but more truly the twenty-third. Another was an Explication of the Apostles' Creed. And the third, Directions how to prepare for Death. And from these subjects, which this nobleman chose to desire Erasmus' thoughts of, we may conclude also his pious and religious mind. All which his virtuous accomplishments, as they rendered his house a suitable harbour for the learned and pious Cranmer, so they were not a little increased by his converse and familiarity there. For while Cranmer abode here, a great friendship was and corre- contracted between him and that noble family; especially spondence between the the chief members of it, the countess, and the lady Ann, Cranmer. and the earl himself; who often held serious conferences Friendship earl and with him about the great matter. And in the earl's absence from home, letters passed between them; Cranmer writing to him of the affairs of the court, and of the welfare of his family, as well as of other more weighty things. In one letter, dated from Hampton-Court, in the month of June, (which by circumstance must be in the year Anno 1530. 1530,) he writ to him, "That the king's grace, my lady his wife, my lady Ann his daughter, were in good health: d [Id. lib. 29. Epist. 34. p. 1754.] and that the king, and my lady Ann, rode the day before to Windsor from Hampton-Court, and that night they were looked for again there; praying God to be their guidee." dence in his And I cannot look upon this pious and learned man's A proviplacing here in this family, but as guided by a peculiar being placed hand of divine providence. Whereby this house became here. better acquainted with the knowledge of the gospel; and had the seeds of true religion scattered in the hearts of those noble persons that were related to it; particularly of her, who was afterwards to be advanced to that high and public station, to be consort to the king. And that she became a favourer, and, as much as she durst, a promoter of the purer religion, must, I think, in a great measure be owing thereunto. disputes at Cranmer. 6 When Cranmer had accomplished the king's request, Cranmer and finished his book, he himself, the secretary, and the Cambridge. almoner, and other learned men, had in commission to dispute the cause in question in both the universities. Which being first attempted at Cambridge, Dr. Cranmer, MS. life of by his authority, learning, and persuasion, brought over divers learned men in one day, of the contrary part and opinion, to be on his part. For being now, after some absence, returned to Cambridge, divers of the university, and some of those doctors that before had given in their judgments to the king for the validity of the pope's dispensation, repaired to him, to know his opinion: and, after long reasoning, he changed the minds of five of the six. Then almost in every disputation, both in private houses, and in the common schools, this was one question, Whether the pope might dispense with the brother to marry the e [See Appendix, and abp. Cranmer's Works. Park. Soc. ed. Letter I. vol. ii. p. 231.] Grows dear to the king and his court. Life of Henr. VIII. P. 375.8 brother's wife, after carnal knowledge? And it was of many openly defended, that he might not. The secretary, when he came home, acquainted the king with what they had done, and how Dr. Cranmer had changed the minds of five of the said learned men of Cambridge, and of many others besidef. Afterward this university, as well as the other, determined the king's cause against the pope's dispensation. From an academic, our doctor being now become a courtier, he so prudently demeaned himself, that he was not only dear to the earl of Wiltshire's family, but grew much favoured by the nobility in general; as the lord Herbert collects from the historians of those times; and especially by the king himself. He was very much about him, the king holding frequent communication with him, and seemed unwilling to have him absent. Which may appear from hence; that when Cranmer was minded for some reason to resort to the earl of Wiltshire, who was then from Hampton-Court, and as it seems at London, upon some occasions of his own, he doubted whether the king would let him go. And so he writ to him, that he would come the next day to him, if the king's grace let him not. f [Harl. MSS. 417. Plut. lxiv. F. fol. 90. British Museum. Original.] [Ed. Lond. 1672.] CHAPTER II. POLE'S BOOK ABOUT THE KING'S MATRIMONYh. ABOUT this time a book of Reginald Pole, afterwards Ann. 1530. cardinal, earnestly persuading the king to continue his Pole's book marriage with his queen, fell into Dr. Cranmer's hands. against the king's disI do not find mention of this book in any historian, that solving his marriage. hath come to my hands. No, not in his life published by Bacatellus, bishop of Ragusa, though he hath there given us a catalogue of his books. But in likelihood the reason was, because this was some private discourse, or letter, chiefly intended for the king's own use; as appears from some words of Cranmer concerning it, viz. "That it was writ with that eloquence, that if it were set forth, and known to the common people, [an evidence it was a more private writing,] it were not possible to persuade them to the contrary." It was penned about the year 1530, as may be collected from another passage in the said writing, wherein he mentioneth the king's living in wedlock with [This was the book, which Pole some years afterwards declared he had delivered to Henry VIII. "with secretness." Vid. Burnet's Hist. of the Reformat. vol. iii. pt. 2. Appendix. book 3. No. 51. pp. 159–163. ed. Oxon. 1829. Beccatelli, who wrote the life of cardinal Pole, and other authors, having made no reference to this book, led Anthony à Wood to doubt whether it had ever been written. Vid. Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. col. 293. ed. Bliss, Lond. 1813-20. Philips (life of Reginald Pole, pp. 66-68. ed. [See Appendix, and abp. Cran- |