death: how much they feared God more than men: how much they loved and preferred the eternal life to come, above this short and miserable life.

Wherefore I exhort you, as well by Christ's commandment as by the example of Him and his Apostles, to withdraw yourself from the malice of your and God's enemies, into some place where God is most purely served. Which is no slandering of the truth, but a preserving of yourself to God and the truth, and to the society and comfort of Christ's little flock. And that you will do, do it with speed, lest by your own folly you fall into the persecutors' hands. And the Lord send his holy Spirit to lead and guide you, wheresoever you go. And all that be godly will say, Amen.

T. Cranmer.

CCXCVII. TO THE LORds of the COUNCIL f.

MSS.

In most humble wise sueth unto your right honourable lordships Thomas Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canter- Emman. bury ; beseeching the same to be a means for me unto the

f [In this and the preceding Letter, the manuscript copies in the Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, have been followed in printing. In the present case the Emmanuel copy differs considerably from those in Foxe and Strype, but agrees, excepting a few words, with that in the Letters of the Martyrs.]

8 [According to Foxe, Cranmer was now released from his action of treason, and accused only of heresy; but Strype states, and his statement is supported by this Letter, that "so little favour could he find at "Court, that he had not yet this pardon absolutely granted him.” However this might be," it had been determined by the Queen and "the Council, that he should be removed from the Tower, where he 66 was prisoner, to Oxford, there to dispute with the doctors and divines. "And although the Queen and the bishops had concluded before what "should become of him, yet it pleased them that the matter should be "debated with arguments, that under some honest show of disputation "the murder of the man might be covered." Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 648. For this Disputation, which ended in his condemnation for heresy on the 20th of April 1554, see vol. iv. pp. 4, 77. "On Monday next "ensuing, after these things done and past, being the 23rd of the said "month of April, Dr. Weston, Prolocutor, took his journey up to Lon"don, by whom the Archbishop of Canterbury directed his letters supplicatory unto the Council. The which letters after the Prolocutor "had received, and had carried them well near half way to London, by

Coll. Camb.

Coverdale's Queen's Highness for her mercy and pardon. Some of you Letters of know by what means I was brought and trained unto the tyrs, p. 16. will of our late Sovereign Lord King Edward VI, and Foxe, Acts, what I spake against the same; wherein I refer me to the reports of your honours b.

the Mar

&c. vol. iii.

p. 92. Strype, Cranm.

App. No. 79.

to him

Furthermore, this is to signify unto your lordships, that upon Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday last past, were open disputations here in Oxford, against me, Master Ridley, and They put Master Latymer, in three matters concerning the sacrathree ques- ment. First, of the real presence. Secondly, of transubtions, but stantiation. And thirdly, of the sacrifice of the mass. How they suffered him not the other two were used I cannot tell; for we were sepato answer rated: so that none of us knew what the other said, nor fully in one. [Cover- how they were ordered. But as concerning myself, I can dale.] report, that I never knew nor heard of a more confused disputation in all my life. For albeit there was one appointed to dispute against me, yet every man spake his mind, and brought forth what him liked without order. And such haste was made, that no answer could be suffered to be given fully to any argument, before another brought a new argument. And in such weighty and large matters there was no remedy, but the disputations must needs be ended in one day, which can scantly well be ended in three months. And when we had answered them, then they would not appoint us one day to bring forth our proofs, that they might answer us again, being required of me thereunto: whereas I myself have more to say, than can be well discussed in twenty days. The means to resolve the truth had been, to have suffered us to answer fully to all that they could say, and then they again to answer to all that we could say. But why they would not answer us, what other cause can there be, but that either they feared the matter, that they were not able to answer us; or else (as by their haste might well appear) they came, not to speak

"the way he opened the same, and seeing the contents thereof, sent "them back again, refusing to carry them." Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. p. 92. The Letter here printed seems to be that which Weston thus refused to deliver.]

h [See Letter ccxcv.]

eth not.

Thus Their cruel

desire to

you revenge

the truth, but to condemn us in post haste, before the truth Behold Samight be thoroughly tried and heard? for in all haste we tan sleepwere all three condemned of heresy upon Friday. much I thought good to signify unto your lordships, that may know the indifferent handling of matters, leaving the could abide no delay. judgment thereof unto your wisdoms. And I beseech your [Coverlordships to remember me, a poor prisoner, unto the Queen's dale.] Majesty; and I shall pray, as I do daily, unto God for the long preservation of your good lordships in all godliness and felicity. April 23. [1554.]

CCXCVIII. TO MARTYN AND STORY.

Letters to

Foxe, Acts,

&c. vol. iii.

I have me commended unto you; and, as I promised, I Certain have sent my letters unto the Queen's Majesty unsigned, the Queen, praying you to sign them, and deliver them with all speed. &c. I might have sent them by the carrier sooner, but not surer: but hearing Master Bailiff say, that he would go to the p. 676. Court on Friday, I thought him a meeter messenger to send my letters by; for better is later and surer, than sooner and never to be delivered. Yet one thing I have written to the Queen's Majesty enclosed and sealed, which I require you may be so delivered without delay, and not be opened

i [The sentence mentioned in the last Letter" was void in law; because the authority of the Pope was not yet received:" therefore "there was a new commission sent from Rome for the conviction of "Cranmer. Brokes, Bishop of Gloucester, was the Pope's subdelegate "under Cardinal de Puteo, and Martyn and Story, doctors of the civil "law, were the Queen's commissioners." Strype, Cranm. p. 371. For their proceedings, see vol. iv. p. 79, &c. The present Letter was obviously written after these proceedings were terminated, and was accompanied by a report drawn up by Cranmer for the perusal of the Queen, of the arguments which he had used on the occasion. See note (k).]

k [There is a strong presumption that the Letters here described are the two which follow, Nos. ccxcix, ccc. For the one contains a full report of Cranmer's argument at his Examination before Brokes, which might well be left unsealed; and the other touches upon what he considered a contradiction between the Queen's oath to the Pope and that to her realm; a matter which might be reasonably thought of too delicate a nature to be submitted to any other eyes than her Majesty's. This conjecture, however, is not without serious objection. In the Letter sent open to Martyn and Story, Cranmer, as he states, did not

until it be delivered unto her Grace's own hands. I have written all that I remember I said, except that which I spake against the Bishop of Gloucester's own person, which I thought not meet to write. And in some places I have written more than I said, which I would have answered to the Bishop, if you would have suffered me.

You promised I should see mine Answers to the Sixteen Articles, that I might correct, amend, and change them, where I thought good; which your promise you kept not. And mine answer was not made upon my oath, nor repeated; nor made in judicio, but extra judicium, as I protested; nor to the Bishop of Gloucester as judge, but to you the King's and Queen's proctors. I trust you deal sincerely with me, without fraud or craft, and use me as you would wish to be used in like case yourselves. Remember, that Qua mensura mensi fueritis, eadem remetietur vobis, i. What measure you mete, the same shall be measured to you again. Thus fare you well, and God send you his Spirit to induce you into all truth. [Sept. 1555.]

think it meet to write what he had spoken against the Bishop of Gloucester's own person. Can it then be the same with Letter ccxcix, in which he describes him as doubly perjured and as an 66 enemy to "the laws and state of this realm?" Yet if it is not the same, it still remains to be explained, how it was "meet" to insert personal reflections in one address to the Queen, which it was not meet" to insert in another. And it is possible, that the personal reflections, which he chose to suppress, were distinct from these charges of perjury and treason, which he seems to have had no scruple in repeating. Again it may be said, that any conjecture which rests on Cranmer's supposed delicacy towards her Majesty, is completely overturned by his public declaration before Brokes, that she "must needs be for"sworn" either to the Pope, or to the state of England. But perhaps he might then have been led to such an assertion by the heat of debate, and might subsequently, on reflection, and when communicating directly with the Queen herself, have seen the propriety of omitting the subject in his open letter, and reserving it for one which was sealed. See Letters ccxcix, ccc; and Examination before Brokes, vol. iv. pp. 84, 111.] [See the Articles and Answers, vol. iv. p. 99, &c. and Cranmer's Appeal, ibid. p. 124.]

CCXCIX. TO QUEEN MARY m.

Letters to

&c. Cover

Martyrs,

It may please your Majesty to pardon my presumption, Certain that I dare be so bold to write to your Highness, but very the Queen, necessity constraineth that me, your Majesty may know my mind, rather by mine own writing, than by other men's re- dale's Letports. So it is, that upon Saturday", being the seventh day ters of the of this month, I was cited to appear at Rome the eightieth p. 3. day after, there to make answer to such matters as should be Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. iii. objected against me upon the behalf of the King and your p. 672. most excellent Majesty: which matters the Thursday following were objected against me by Dr. Martin and Dr. Storie, your Majesty's proctors, before the Bishop of Gloucester, sitting in judgment by commission from Rome. But, alas! it cannot but grieve the heart of any natural subject, to be accused of the King and Queen of his own realm, and specially The King before an outward judge, or by authority coming from any and person out of this realm: where the King and Queen, as if themselves they were subjects within their own realm, shall complain, than suband require justice at a stranger's hands against their own jects incomplaining of subject, being already condemned to death by their own their own

m [This and the following Letter, as may be proved from their contents, were addressed by Cranmer to Queen Mary in Sept. 1555, soon after his Examination before Brokes. It is strange therefore, that Strype should mention them, as if they were written subsequently to his degradation, in the beginning of the next year; especially as at the distance of a few pages he assigns the correct date of November the 6th to Cardinal Pole's answer to them. Strype also states, that the Archbishop "thought not fit to entrust them with the commis"sioners, since Weston had served him such a trick in the case be"fore." But this assertion again is not well founded, for these were probably the very letters which accompanied the preceding note to Martyn and Story; and even if they were not, it is clear from the expressions there used, that distrust was not the cause of their being sent by another conveyance. See Letter CCXCVIII; Examination before Brokes, (vol. iv. p. 79, &c.) Strype, Cranm. pp. 377. 381.]

n

["Saturday being the seventh." This is the reading in Certain Letters to the Queen, in Coverdale's Letters of the Martyrs, and in the first edition of Foxe's Acts, and is undoubtedly the true one. In some later editions of Foxe it has been altered to "Wednesday being the "twelfth;" but the 12th of Sept. 1555, fell on a Thursday, and was the day on which Cranmer, as he says just below, was brought before Brokes at St. Mary's. See Processus contra Cranmerum, in Strype, Cranm. Add. p. 1073. Oxford, 1812; Wordsworth, Eccles. Biogr. vol. iii. p. 570.]

and Queen

make

no better