for this bearer Thomas Cobham, brother unto my lord Cobham and my servant", specially by cause the same is not only in his native country, but also nigh unto his friends; these shall be to beseech your lordship to be so good lord unto him as to help him unto the said house of the Gray Friars; for having already some land of his own, he shall be the more able to maintain the house in an honest state. And in thus doing, your lordship shall both do for the preferment of an honest man, and also make him more able to do the King's Grace service, and your lordship such pleasure as shall lie in him during his life. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Lambeth, the vth day of October. Your own ever assured, To my very singular good lord, my T. Cantuarien. Lord Privy Seal. CLXXIV. TO KING HENRY VIIIX. Pleaseth it your Grace to be advertised, that I have re- Harl. MSS. 787. fol. ceived news out of Rome, from one named John Bianket, 187 Franciscans, into the Observants and Conventuals. The Observants, as Stow relates, were put down in August 1534, and Augustine friars set in their places for the time; but the Conventuals do not then appear to have been disturbed. On the contrary, Parkinson in his Antiquities of English Franciscans asserts, that "many of the Observants were sent "into the houses of the Conventuals;" and in some instances perhaps the latter may have been substituted for the former. The Act 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 28, for the suppression of the smaller religious houses in general, was passed in the Parliament which met on the 4th of Feb. 1536; but it does not seem to have been carried into execution immediately, and 1539 is mentioned as the year, when "all the Franciscan "convents in the nation were taken into the King's hands, and the "friars turned out of doors to shift for themselves." See Hasted, Hist. of Kent, vol. iv. p. 446. Stow, Annals. Parkinson, Collectan. Anglo-Minorit. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon.] u [He was also a connexion, having married the Archbishop's niece. See Genealogical Table in Todd, Life of Cranmer. This application in his favour appears to have failed, for the site of the Gray Friars was granted, 31 Hen. VIII. to Thomas Spilman. Hasted, Hist. of Kent, ibid.] * [Mr. Todd has assigned this Letter to 1533; Mr. Ellis has given it p. 66. Lansdown a Bononois born, some time my servant, and now servant MSS. 1045. unto the Cardinaly which was late bishop of Worcester, Ellis, Ori- and more privy with him of all secrets than any other about ginal Letters, him. And among other things thus he writeth: 2nd Series, CXIII. 66 "The Pope has called hither many prelates for matters Todd, Life“ concerning the Council, among whom is Mr. Raynold of Cranm. "Pole made much of and much set by, and received of the vol. i. p. 96. Pope himself very gladly. And because the saying is, that "the King had sent for him home into England, and desired "him, and promised him also great things if he would come, "or at the least if that he would not go to Romea; he "now is come hither, not regarding the King's desire, pro"mise, nor threats. And here men do esteem and think surely that the Pope will make him cardinal, and now he "hath given him lodgings for himself within the palace, "and will have him near him. "And among those great men that be here for this mat"ter, the selfsame Raynold Pole is here truly most esteem"ed and most set by of all. And doubtless they be all b no date, but has placed it among papers of 1535. The historical events which it mentions, sufficiently prove it to have been written in 1536. See the following notes.] [Jerome de Ghinucci, deprived, together with Campegio, by Act of Parliament in 1534. He had been employed by Hen. VIII. in many embassies, and had the reputation of having served him faithfully. Burnet, Reform. vol. i. p. 301.] [Pope Paul III. by a bull issued the 2nd of June 1536, summoned a Council to meet at Mantua on the 23rd of May 1537. As a previous measure, he assembled at Rome "persons of known abilities to con66 cert means of facilitating a happy issue to so necessary and arduous an undertaking." Mosheim, Cent. xvi. Sect. 1. §. 9. Phillips, Life of Pole, p. 135.] a ["Reginald, in obedience to Paul's III's orders, was now set out "from Venice in his way to Rome, when a courier from England over"took him at Verona. The news of his journey had already reached "the King's ears, and the courier came furnished with every argument "to disconcert it. Lord Crumwell expressed himself by nothing but "threats and inventions: Tunstall renewed his objections to the papal "authority: but the other letters were eloquent indeed, being from the "Countess of Salisbury his mother, and his brother Lord Montague; in "which they entreated him, by all the ties of duty and affection, to de"sist from a step which was so displeasing to the King." Phillips, Life of Pole, p. 137.] b [These were doubtless the same distinguished men, who, on the prorogation of the Council, were directed by the Pope to digest a plan of 66 66 singular fellows, and such as ever absented themselves "from the Court, desiring to live holily: as the Bishop of "Verona, the Bishop of Chiete, the Archbishop of Salerne, "the Bishop of Carpentras, otherwise called Sadoletus, and many other that now be here, for... to consult these mat"ters of the Council; the which I cannot see how it can go "forward, as long as the matters of war kindled between the princes are unquenched, without whom it is like that it 66 cannot go forward. Nevertheless there be sent messengers to intimate the Council through Christendom, leav"ing you apart, to whom they will intimate it there in "writing and in citations. Friar Denis, which wrote on "the King's side, being now General of the religion, cometh "as ambassador from the Pope towards the King of Scotts. 66 "The Emperor is now in Genoa, and many princes, specially the Duke of Florenced go to see him, and to "show themselves glad that he is arrived there safe and in "good health; which chanced but to a few gentlemen, which "be almost all sicke. "There is entreaty made for peace all that may be, and "it seemeth that the Frenchmen have good hope therein; " for they have left off war, and have no more men in Italy "now but Guido Rangone his men, and those of Turin; "which as yet they hold, with certain other castles. And "the Pope is fervent and hot in entreating of this peace f.” reformation. They were nine in number. "Pole was in the thirty-sixth "year of his age, and the youngest of all his associates: and though "they were men of the first character for learning and probity, yet he "was the directing mind that governed the whole, and alone drew up "the plan of reformation, the substance of which had been the joint "labours of them all; and when it was printed some years after, it appeared in his name, without any mention of his colleagues." Phillips, Life of Pole. The names of the Commissioners and an abstract of their plan may be seen in Sleidan, De Statu Religionis, lib. xii.] [Charles V. went to Genoa on his return from his disastrous campaign in Provence. "As he could not bear to expose himself to the 66 scorn of the Italians after such a sad reverse of fortune, he embarked directly for Spain," in Nov. 1536. Robertson, Hist. of Charles V. b. vi.] d [Alexander de Medici, who was assassinated in the beginning of 1537 by his nearest kinsman, Lorenzo. Robertson, ibid.] e [Charles V. had lost one half of his troops by disease or famine. Robertson, ibid.] "["The Pope made it his business to procure a cessation of arms in Here have I written the very words of the letter, as I did translate them out of Italian into English, as near as I could word for word, which I can do no less than signify unto your Highness, forsomuch as there be some things concerning the General Council and Mr. Raynold Pole, whereof I thought it my duty to give notice unto your Grace. And thus I beseech the mighty Lord of lords to strengthen and preserve your Grace ever, and to resist and suppress all your Highness's adversaries with your rebel and untrue subjects. At Knoll, the 18th day of November. [1536.] Your Grace's most humble To the King's Highness. T. Cantuarien. MSS. House, well's Cor ence. Original. CLXXV. To CRUMWELL. My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I Chapter commend me unto your lordship. And whereas your Westmin. lordship was so good lord unto James Arnold my servant, ster; Crumthis bearer, as to direct (besides the King's gracious letters) respond- your favourable letters unto Sir John Champenes, knight, then Lord Mayor of London, and to his brethren, in the preferment of my said servant to the room and office of the swordbearer of London k, when it should chance next to be void; by means whereof there was a record in writing made of their grant unto my said servant: and forsomuch as I now understand that the swordbearer is in danger of "Italy and other places. First therefore the truce was agreed upon for "a certain time; when that was expired, it was continued for another; "till at last a peace was made. Now the Pope's design in reconciling "these princes, was to persuade them to join their forces against his "mortal enemy the King of England, and against the Lutherans." Sleidan, b. xi. This peace, or rather truce for ten years between Charles and Francis, was concluded in June 1538. Sleidan, b. xii.] i [The rising in Lincolnshire had been put down, but the formidable rebellion in Yorkshire under Aske, was still raging in Nov. 1536. See Lord Herbert, Life of Hen. VIII, and State Papers, vol. i. p. 511, &c.] * [See Letter CLII.] death, and not like to escape: these shall be to beseech Your own ever assured, To the Right Honourable and my singular good lord, my Lord Privy Seal. Thomas Cantuarien. CLXXVI. To CRUMWELL. My very especial and singular good Lord, these shall be MSS. Chapter to signify unto your good lordship, that I have sent unto House, you by Richard Nevell my servant, the bringer hereof, xxli. Westminfor your feep of this year, desiring your good lordship, in all Crumwell's ster; Corre spondence. [Cranmer had been associated with the Earl of Wiltshire and Original. others in an embassy to the Pope in 1530, when he presented to his Holiness his book on the King's divorce. In 1532 he was ambassador in Germany to the Emperor Charles V. See Letters I. II. III.] m[Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford, was one of the chief diplomatists of this reign. He was employed at Rome on the divorce cause as early as 1527, and in December, 1535, he was at the head of the embassy to the protestant princes at Smalcald. On the latter occasion he incurred the suspicion of duplicity, being charged with representing Henry VIII.'s inclination to Lutheranism to be greater than was the fact. Seckendorf, Comment. de Luth. lib. iii. §. xxxix. Strype, Memorials, vol. i. p. 89. 226. 230. Letter LXXXIX.] [See Letter CLII.] •See Letters LXXXIX. CLII.] P Crumwell afterwards held office under Cranmer, and seems in |