that house and your affairs there; for my lady is willing to have the same, so that she may have convenient ground thereunto. Wherefore your lordship shall do well to send your determinate mind, what commodities she shall have with the College, and the prices thereof, appointing one to whom she may resort, and commune, and conclude withal in that behalf.

To my very loving lord, my Lord Cobham, Lord Deputy of Calis.

CCLXIV. TO KING HENRY VIII.

part ii.

CXCVI.

It may please your Majesty to be advertised, that ac- State Pacording to your Highness' commandment, sent unto me by pers, your Grace's secretary Mr. Pagett, I have translated into Letter the English tongue, so well as I could in so short time, from the certain processions, to be used upon festival days, if after Original. due correction and amendment of the same, your Highness Eccles. shall think it so convenient. In which translation, foras- Hist. vol. ii.

Collier,

p. 206.

mer, voi.

i. p. 355.

much as many of the processions, in the Latin, were but Todd, Life barren, as me seemed, and little fruitful, I was constrained of Cranto use more than the liberty of a translator: for in some processions I have altered divers words; in some I have added part; in some taken part away; some I have left out whole, either for bycause the matter appeared to me to be little to purpose, or bycause the days be not with us festival days; and some processions I have added whole, because I thought I had better matter for the purpose, than was the procession in Latin: the judgment whereof I refer wholly unto your Majesty; and after your Highness hath corrected it, if your Grace command some devout and solemn note to be made thereunto, (as is to the procession which your Majesty hath already set forth in English,) I trust it will much excitate and stir the hearts of all men unto devotion and godliness but in mine opinion, the song that shall be made thereunto would not be full of notes, but as near as may be, for every syllable a note; so that it may be sung distinctly

and devoutly, as be in the Matins and Evensong, Venite,
the Hymns, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Nunc di-
mittis, and all the Psalms and Versicles; and in the Mass
Gloria in Excelsis, Gloria Patri, the Creed, the Preface,
the Pater noster, and some of the Sanctus and Agnus. As
concerning the Salve festa dies, the Latin note, as I think,
is sober and distinct enough; wherefore I have travailed to
make the verses in English, and have put the Latin note
unto the same. Nevertheless they that be cunning in singing,
can make a much more solemn note thereto. I made them
only for a proof, to see how English would do in song. But
by cause mine English verses lack the grace and facility that
I would wish they had, your Majesty may cause some other
to make them again, that can do the same in more pleasant
English and phrase. As for the sentence, I suppose will
serve well enough. Thus Almighty God preserve your
Majesty in long and prosperous health and felicity. From
Bekisbourne, the 7th of October 5.

Your Grace's most bounden
chaplain and beadsman,

To the King's most excellent Majesty.

T. Cantuarien.

CCLXV.

TO PRINCE EDWARD h.

Foxe, Acts,

&c. vol. ii. p. 786.

Non magis poterat ipsa me [mea] servare salus, fili in Christo charissime, quam salus tua. Mea vita non dicenda est vita,

8 [This Letter is placed in the State Papers under the year 1543. Mr. Todd assigns it to 1544, Collier to 1545. The two latter opinions are nearly equally probable; but perhaps that of Mr. Todd is to be preferred. The prayer of procession, which is referred to as " already set "forth," was authorized by Henry VIII's mandate in June 1544, shortly before his campaign in France. He returned from Boulogne on the 1st of Oct., and being proud of his success, may probably have commanded it to be celebrated by religious processions. See Mandate to Boner in the Appendix; and Stow, Annals.]

h

[Foxe prints the following Letter, as that to which Cranmer's was

an answer.

Prince Edward to Cranmer.

“Etsi puer sum, colendissime susceptor, non tamen immemor sum

absque tua et salute et valetudine. Quapropter cum te incolumem ac salvum intelligo, vitam etiam mihi integram esse et incolumem sentio. Neque certe absentia mea tam est injucunda tibi, quam sunt literæ tuæ perjucundæ mihi. Quæ arguunt tibi juxta adesse et ingenium dignum tanto principe, et præceptorem dignum tanto ingenio. Ex quibus tuis literis te sic literas video colere, ut interim doctrinæ cœlestis tua nequaquam minima sit cura; quæ cuicunque sit curæ, non potest illum quævis cura frangere. Perge igitur qua via incepisti, Princeps illustrissime, et Spartam quam nactus es, hanc orna, ut quam ego per literas video in te virtutis lucem, eadem olim illuminet universam tuam Angliam. Non scribam prolixius, tum quidem ut me intelligas brevitate non nihil affici, tum etiam quod credam, te ætate quidem adhuc parvulum parvo gaudere, et similem simili; tum etiam præterea, ne impolita mea oratio in causa sit, quo generosa illa tua indoles barbariæ vitium contrahat.

CCLXVI. TO KING HENRY VIII.

Eccles.

It may please your Highness to be advertised, that foras-State Paper much as I might not tarry myself at London, because I Office. had appointed the next day after that I departed from your Papers. Majesty to be at Rochester, to meet the next morning all Burnet, Ref. vol. ii. the Commissioners of Kent at Sittingbourn; therefore the App. B. i. same night that I returned from Hampton Court to Lamb. No. 61.

"vel officii erga te mei, vel humanitatis tuæ, quam indies mihi exhibere
"studes. Non exciderunt mihi humanissimæ tuæ literæ pridie divi
"Petri ad me datæ. Quibus antehac respondere nolui, non quod illas
"neglexerim, aut non meminerim, sed ut illarum diuturna meditatione
"fruerer, fidelique memoria reponerem, atque demum bene ruminatis
66 pro mea virili responderem. Proinde affectum erga me tuum vere
paternum, quem in illis expressisti, amplector et veneror, optoque ut
"multos vivas annos, tuoque pio ac salubri consilio pergas esse mihi
"venerandus pater. Nam pietatem ante omnia mihi amplectendam et
"exosculandam esse duco, quoniam divus Paulus dicit, Pietas ad omnia
"utilis est. Optime valeat tua paternitas in plurimos annos.
"fordiæ, 13. Januarii.

Harte

"Tui studiosissimus,

k

hith, I sent for the Bishop of Worcester incontinently, and declared unto him all your Majesty's pleasure, in such things as your Majesty willed me to be done. And first, where your Majesty's pleasure was, to have the names of such persons as your Highness in times passed appointed to make laws ecclesiastical for your Grace's realm 1, the Bishop of Worcester promised me, with all speed to inquire out their names and the book which they made, and to bring the names and also the book unto your Majesty; which I trust he hath done before this time.

And as concerning the ringing of bells upon Alhallowday at night, and covering of images in Lent, and creeping to the cross, he thought it necessary that a letter of your Majesty's pleasure therein should be sent by your Grace unto the two archbishops; and we to send the same to all other prelates within your Grace's realm. And if it be your Majesty's pleasure so to do, I have, for more speed, herein drawn a minute of a letter, which your Majesty may alter at your pleasure. Nevertheless, in my opinion, when such things be altered or taken away there would be set forth some doctrine therewith, which should declare the cause of the abolishing or alteration, for to satisfy the conscience of the people: for if the honouring of the cross, as creeping and kneeling thereunto, be taken away, it shall seem to many that be ignorant, that the honour of Christ is taken away, unless some good teaching be set forth withal to instruct them sufficiently therein which if your Majesty command the Bishops of Worcester and m Chichester with other your Grace's chaplains to make, the people shall obey your Majesty's commandment willingly, giving thanks to your Majesty that they know the truth; which else they would obey with murmuration and grutching. And it shall be a satisfaction unto all other nations, when they shall see your Majesty do nothing but by the authority of God's

k [Nicholas Hethe. See Letter LXXXIX.]

1 [See Preface; Burnet, Ref. vol. i. p. 661. vol. iii. p. 308; Strype, Cranm. p. 133.]

ום

[George Day.]

word, and to the setting forth of God's honour, and not diminishing thereof. And thus Almighty God keep your Majesty in his preservation and governance. From my manor at Bekisbourne, the 24th of January, 45. [1546".] Your Grace's most bounden

chaplain and beadsman.

I beseech your Majesty, that I may be a suitor unto the same for your Cathedral Church of Canterbury; who to their great unquietness and also great charges, do alienate their lands daily, and as it is said, by your Majesty's commandment. But this I am sure, that other men have gotten their best lands, and not your Majesty. Wherefore this is mine only suit, that when your Majesty's pleasure shall be to have any of their lands, that they may have some letter from your Majesty to declare your Majesty's pleasure, without the which they be sworn that they shall make no alienation and that the same alienation be not made at other men's pleasures, but only to your Majesty's use. For now every man that list to have any of their lands, makes suit to get it into your Majesty's hands; not that your Majesty should keep the same, but by sale or gift from your Majesty, to translate it from your Grace's Cathedral Church unto themselves.

T. Cantuarien.

The minute of the King's Majesty's letters to be addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury o.

n

Forasmuch as you, as well in your own name as in the

[Burnet, following the usual practice, interprets this date to be, according to the new style, 1546; Mr. Todd wishes to throw it back to the preceding year. But there seems to be no reason for doing so. On the contrary, if, according to Foxe's statement, foreign negociations prevented the King from acting on Cranmer's suggestions, the earlier date is wholly inadmissible; for in 1545 the contending parties breathed nothing but war, and peace was not concluded till June 1546. See the next note; Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. ii. p. 585; Stow, Annals.]

[This Letter was never sent, in consequence of the interference of Gardyner, who led the King to believe that any farther innovation in