whom, if you please, he will show the whole effect of his mind; which known, you may do as you shall think good. Thus our Lord have you in his most blessed preservation. From my manor of Lamehyth, the xiii. day of March. Your lordship's assured, To my singular good lord, my Lord T. Cantuarien. CLXXXI. TO CRUMWELL. House, Crumwell's spondence. Original, My very singular good Lord, after most hearty recom- Mss. mendations unto your good lordship: this shall be to desire Chapter and heartily to pray you, that my Lord Cobehame may be Westminput in the commission f, not concerning Canterbury but ster; only for Rochester, because he lieth within three or four Corremiles of Rochester. I know no benefit that can come to my lord thereby, but only that I think it should be a plea- Holograph. sure for him, and to me surely your lordship shall do a very great pleasure therein; wherefore I entirely beseech your lordship to put him in the said commission. thus Almighty God have your lordship ever in his preservation. From Croydon, this last day of March. Your own assured ever, And To my very good lord, my Lord Crumwel, Lord Privy Seal. T. Cantuarien. CLXXXII. To CRUMWELL. After most hearty commendations unto your lordship : Chapter Whereas within the diocese of Norwiche there is one named House, M. Gounthrop, Parson of Wretyng, whom of long time, ster; Westmin Crumwell's [George Brooke, Lord Cobham, afterwards Lord Deputy of Calais. spondence. His brother Thomas married Cranmer's niece. See Letters CLXXIII. Original. CCLXIII.] f[Probably the commission for the collection of the subsidy to the King. See above, Letter CXLI; and below, Letter cxcu.] above twenty years past, I have known not only for a great clerk, but also of such singular judgment, sobriety, and conversation of living, that in all those qualities I have known very few like unto him; and yet, this notwithstanding, as I am informed, he cannot in that diocese be accepted ne allowed, as he ought to be, by reason that one named Dale, (whom also I knew in Cambridge, without all learning and discretion, now chaplain unto the Bishop of Norwiches,) preacheth not only against the said Master Gounthorpe, but also, as it is reported, publisheth no good doctrine himself; and forasmuch as I know the said Mr. Gounthorpe to be a very meet personage to preach unto the people in this time, and of such soberness and discretion, that he is not like to be author of any discord or dissension; and forasmuch also that he the Bishop of Norwiche, doth approve none to preach in his diocese that be of right judgment, as I do hear reported of credible persons; these shall be to desire and pray you, my lord, to be so good unto the said Mr. Gunthorpe, at this my request, as to grant him as well the King's license to preach within this realm, as also that he may from time to time have recourse unto your lordship for your favourable aid and assistance in his right, in case the said Dale promote causes against him before the Bishop of Norwiche. I know also three or four grave men and substantially learned within Norwiche diocese, and of very good conversation, to whom, if your lordship would give the King's license, I doubt not but you should do a deed very acceptable unto God. For it were great pity that the diocese of Norwiche should not be continued in the 8 [William Rugge, alias Reps, was elected Bishop of Norwich the 31st of May, 1536. He resigned the see in 1542, to make way for Thirlby. His support of the Act of the Six Articles, and his opposition to the measures of Edw. VI., furnish sufficient evidence of his being an enemy to the reformation. His predecessor, Richard Nix, was also at one time a zealous partisan on the same side; but a conviction in a præmunire, and a visitation by the Archbishop in 1534, seem to have cooled his ardour, and to have enabled " the right knowledge of God," as Cranmer expresses it, to make considerable progress in his diocese during the latter years of his life. See Strype, Cranmer, p. 29; Burnet, Ref. vol. ii. p. 309, and vol. iii. p. 272.] right knowledge of God which is begun amongst them. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Lambeth, the 26th day of Maye. Your lordship's own assured, T. Cantuarien. To my very singular good lord, my Lord Privy Seal. CLXXXIII. TO CRUMWELL. Chapter ence. Ori My very singular good Lord, in most hearty wise I com- MSS. mend me unto you. And whereas my suit hath been unto House you for my friend Henry Stoketh to have a lease of the Westmindemesne lands of the Charter House in the Isle of Axholme, well's Corster; CrumI have sent my servant, this bearer, to put your lordship in respondremembrance of the same, desiring you heartily to move the ginal. King's Highness in the said suit, so that he may have it either by lease, or else that he may purchase the said demesne lands, according as other have done; and in so doing your lordship shall do unto me a very singular pleasure; as knoweth Almighty God, who have your good lordship in his tuition. At Lambeth, the 20th of July. Your own ever assured, To my singular good lord, my Lord T. Cantuarien. CLXXXIV. To CRUMWELL. After most hearty commendations unto your Lordship: Cotton. these shall be to signify unto you, that I, with other bishops MSS. Cleop. E. and learned men here assembled by the King's command- v. fol. 52. ment, have almost made an end of our determinations i; for Original. h [Strype refers to this Letter, (Cranmer, p. 55;) but he has not printed it.] 1 [These" determinations" were published shortly afterwards under the title of The Institution of a Christian Man. See Preface to the reprint of it at Oxford in 1825, and the works there referred to. See we have already subscribed unto the declarations of the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, the Creed and the Ten also in the State Papers some interesting letters respecting it, addressed to Crumwell by Bishops Fox and Latymer, two of the Commissioners employed in its compilation. It appears from these, that there was great difficulty in coming to an agreement. Latymer prays God, that when it is done, it will be well and sufficiently done, so that “ we shall not need to have any more such doings; for verily for my << part, I had lever be poor Parson of poor Kynton again, than to con"tinue thus Bishop of Worcester; not for any thing that I have had to "do therein or can do, but yet forsooth it is a troublous thing to agree upon a doctrine in things of such controversy, with judgments of "such diversity, every man, I trust, meaning well, and yet not all 66 meaning one way. But I doubt not but now in the end we shall agree both one with another, and all with the truth, though some "will then marvel." And Bishop Fox also says, with reference probably to the heat of their debates, that they "wanted much "Crumwell's presence." Cranmer and Fox are represented to have taken the lead in the discussions; and the latter, when the book was completed, undertook to superintend the printing of it. "This "day," says Latymer, we had finished, I trow, the rest of our book, "if my Lord of Hereford had not been diseased; to whom surely we owe great thanks for his great diligence in all our proceedings. Upon "Monday I think it will be done altogether, and then my Lord of Canterbury will send it unto your Lordship with all speed: to whom "also, if any thing be praiseworthy, bona pars laudis optimo jure de"betur." When their determinations were thus concluded, an important question arose respecting the authority by which they should be issued. And accordingly Fox beseeches Crumwell "to know the King's pleasure for the Prefaces which shall be put unto the said book, and "whether his Highness will that the book shall go forth in his name, according to such device as I once moved unto your lordship, or in "the name of the bishops." State Papers, vol. i. pp. 556. 562. 563. 66 Fox's "device" perhaps may have been, that the Commissioners should send a letter to the King, reporting their proceedings, and praying for his Majesty's sanction; that the King should return a gracious answer, complying with their request; and that both these documents should be printed by way of Introduction to the new book. Such a letter from the Commissioners was actually prefixed to The Institution; and a minute of an answer from the King is preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster, Theological Tracts, vol. ix. p. 73; though it does not seem to have been noticed by the historians. In this he informs the prelates, that although he had not had time to overlook their work, he trusted to them for its being according to Scripture; that he permitted it to be printed, and commanded all who had care of souls to read a portion of it every Sunday and holyday for three years, and to preach conformably thereto. But it would appear, that, cautiously as this reply was worded, Hen. VIII. did not choose to commit himself by its publication; for The Institution came out with no other Preface than the abovenamed letter of the prelate's, and with no farther claim to royal authority, than was implied by its issuing from the press of the King's printer. It rested therefore on very different grounds from the Articles of Religion which preceded, and the Necessary Doctrine Commandments, and there remaineth no more but certain notes of the Creed, unto the which we be agreed to subscribe on Monday next; which all, when they shall be subscribed, I pray you that I may know your mind and pleasure, whether I shall send them incontinently unto you, or leave them in my Lord of Herteforde'sk hands, to be delivered by him when he cometh next unto the Court: beseeching you, my lord, to be intercessor unto the King's Highness for us all, that we may have his Grace's license to depart for this time, until his Grace's further pleasure be known; for they die almost every where in London, Westminster, and in Lambeth they die at my gate even at the next house to me. I would fain see the King's Highness at my departing, but I fear me that I shall not, by cause that I shall come from this smoky air; yet I would gladly know the King's pleasure herein. Also, where you granted unto me license to visit my diocese this year, I beseech you that I may have your letters to Doctor Peterm to put that in my commission. Moreover I beseech your lordship not to forget to be a suitor for me unto the King's Highness concerning mine exchange", and specially for the remission of such debts as are yet behind unpaid, which I owe unto his Grace. Thus, which followed it. For both of those Formularies of Faith were first approved in Convocation, and were then provided with a Preface by the King, and declared in the title page to be set forth by his authority. Thus it was not a distinction without a difference, that The Institution was called the Bishops', and the Necessary Doctrine the King's Book. This statement has been given at some length, because if correct, it will solve some difficulties in the subsequent letters, and because there are several conflicting accounts of the matter in our ecclesiastical writers. See Preface.] * [It is clear from the preceding note, that Cranmer is speaking of Fox, Bishop of Hereford.] [Latymer gives a similar account: "Sir, we be here not without all "peril, for beside two [that] hath died of my keeper's folks out of my gate house, three be yet there with raw sores; and even now Master "Nevell cometh and telleth me, that my under cook is fallen sick, and "like to be of the plague."] m [See Letter CLX. Strype, Cranm. p. 55.] [The great exchange between Hen. VIII. and Cranmer, was concluded at the latter end of this year. See Letter cxc111. Strype, Cranm. p. 282.] |