LXXX. TO LORD ABERGAVENNY. 40. My very special good Lord, I commend me heartily unto Harl. MSS. your Lordship: signifying to the same, that my servant John 6148. fol. Creke hath advertised me of your loving mind towards me, how willing you be to accompany me at Canterbury h, wherefore I give unto you most hearty thanks. Nevertheless I will not at this season put you to any pains in this behalf. Notwithstanding, if your lordship do send me some venison, and especially a red deer or two, against Tuesday next, you should do unto me herein singular pleasure, which to requite I would be always ready, God willing; who keep and preserve your good Lordship. From my manor of Ottforde, the xxvii. of November. To my Lord of Burgaveny. LXXXI. TO THE ABBOT OF WESTMINSTER . 39. b. Brother Abbot, in my right hearty wise I commend me Harl. MSS. unto you. And where, of your benevolence, ye promised unto 6148. fol. me the next room which should chance to be void amonges the beadmen of the foundation of King Henry the Eighth [Seventh ?] for one William [John ?] Fyssher, so it is, as I am credibly informed, that there is now one of the said rooms void and in your disposition. I heartily require you therefore, that the said John F. may be preferred thereunto, according to your aforesaid promise. And in so doing I will be at all times ready to requite the same accordingly, God willing; who keep you, &c. The xxix. day of November. brother Abbot, the Abbot Το [Cranmer was installed at Canterbury on the 3rd of Dec. 1533. Lord Abergavenny, who held an office under him, had probably offered to attend him on the occasion. The approaching ceremony explains also the application for venison.] i [William Boston or Benson. See Letter VII.] Harl. MSS. 6148. fol. 3. LXXXII. TO KING HENRY VIII. Pleaseth it your Most Noble Grace to understand, that the feigned revelations and illusions of the false Nunk of St. Sepulcres here at Canterburye, and the other matters contained in them, now after that they have been opened and declared to the people 1, be had in great abomination and detestation unto them. And as far as I can perceive or learn, all your Grace's people here be as glad as any men may be, that the said false and forged matters be come to light. And as concerning the Prior m and Convent of my Church, (whom I have diligently examined,) I find them as conformable and reformable as any number with whom I have communed any time. And I see them greatly sorrow and lament, that any of their congregation n should order himself so, that such [The countenance which she received from such men as Wolsey, Warham, More, and Fisher, the important political character of several of her revelations, and her exaltation by some Roman Catholic writers to the rank of a martyr, have all combined to give celebrity to Elizabeth Barton," the Holy Maid of Kent." A brief account of her impostures is given by Cranmer himself in Letter LXXXIV. Her story is told at length in the preamble to the Act of Parliament for her attainder, (Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 12.) an abstract of which will be found in Burnet. See also some curious particulars in Strype, Memorials, vol. i. p. 177. The Nun herself, Bocking, Dering, Risby and Rich, two observant friars, Richard Master Parson of Aldington, and Henry Golde Parson of Aldermary, were hanged at Tyburn, the 20th of April, 1534. Stow, Annals; Strype, Memorials.] ["All whose detestable facts, as well of idolatry, heresy, and also of "treason, were so wittily and learnedly, by God's word, convinced at "Canterbury by Dr. Hethe, now Chancellor of England, (she being pre"sent and openly confessing the same,) and also by another learned man [Salcot, Bishop of Bangor] at Paul's Cross; that the most part of "them which were before by her seduced, did then utterly abhor her "shameless and abominable facts." Confutation of Unwritten Verities, (vol. iv.) A portion of an address to the people on this imposture, with corrections in Cranmer's handwriting, is still preserved in the Chapter House, Westminster; Theological Tracts, vol. vii. fol. 16. It may perhaps be part of the abovementioned discourse by Hethe, which the Archbishop probably thought proper to submit to the inspection of Crumwell. Some extracts from it have been inserted in the notes.] m [Thomas Goldwell. At the dissolution he had been Prior of Christ's Church twenty-three years, and received a pension of 80l per annum. Somner, Ant. of Cant. by Battely, part iii. p. 116.] n [Dr. Edward Bockyng, the Nun's ghostly father and chief adviser, and John Dering, who had a great share in compiling the books of her revelations, were both monks of Christ's Church, Canterbury. See Letters xc. CLVIII, note.] word and slander should grow of this occasion, or that thereby occasion should be given to your Grace to take displeasure against the whole company, amonges whom few in comparison of their great number appear to be knowing or consenting to the said false revelations or illusions. And almost only such as were Doctor Bokkynge's novices, men of young years, and of less knowledge and experience. The Prior of my Church, a man of great simplicity, and void of malice, as far as I can judge, hath been touched with this matter; but I cannot understand that he hath reported it to any other, but only to my predecessor, then being his ordinary and your Grace's counsellor. Which prior and his brethren, the saddest and seniors of the house, with all the other young sort, considering the matter sounding to your Grace's displeasure, which they regard as greatly as they do any thing else in this world, (as far as I can judge,) be greatly discomforted, dismayed, and sad, and have desired me very instantly to be a mediator for them to your Most Noble Majesty, to be gracious and merciful unto them, offering of their free wills, (besides their fervent prayers for your noble estate long and prosperously to endure) to do some pleasure unto your Highness after their power, to attain your gracious favour, mercy, and pardon. And I suppose they will desire me to offer unto your Grace for a pleasure, ii. or iii. cli. Wherein I dare nothing do, unless your Grace's pleasure be to me first known, assuring your Grace, that as far as I can understand by any means that I can devise, that besides the ornaments of the Church and some plate that the Prior and certain officers hath, this monastery is not aforehand, but in debt divers ways. In consideration whereof and of their good minds, I most humbly beseech your Highness to be gracious and merciful unto them, the rather for my poor intercession; and that they may have some comfortable word or letter from your Grace, for their comfortation in this their great pensiveness and dolour. Thus our Lord have your Grace evermore in his preservation and governance. From my place at Canterburye, the Chapter Westmin LXXXIII. To CRUMWELL. Right Worshipful Mr. Crumwell, in my right hearty wise I commend me unto you: doing you to understand, ster; Crum-that I have received by John Anthony, this bearer, such respond- letters as ye directed to my Lord Elect of Chester o, and to ence. Ori- Mr. Bedill P; by which I do perceive, that it is the King's ginal. well's Cor Grace's pleasure that my said Lord Elect and Master Bedyll, which departed from Canterbury afore the receipt of your said letters, should leave the Parson of Aldington 9, Dering the monk, and Father Laurence behind them in ward and safe keeping, but not as men at liberty. But forasmuch as this bearer showed me, that it was your mind that the said persons should be put to liberty in their own houses upon sufficient surety, I do now stand in doubt, whether I may commit them to ward and safe keeping according to your said letters, or else put them at liberty in their own houses upon sufficient surety, according to such word as the said Anthony brought unto me; whom I do remit unto you at this time with these my letters to ascertain you of the premises, and to bring from you such letters as shall please you to direct unto me of your resolute mind in this behalf. The said three persons shall in the mean time remain in ward and safe keeping, until I may know your mind in this matter. The Parson of Aldington and the monk Dering were this Tuesday at night delivered unto me at my manor at Forde, and the other is not yet come unto me. [Dr. Rowland Lee. See the next Letter.] P See Letter xiv. p. 28.] [Richard Master. He was very instrumental in bringing Eliz. Barton into notice, Aldington being the place where at the commencement of the imposture she was living as a maid servant.] r ["Thomas Lawrence, being register to the Archdeacon of Canter"bury, at the instance of Edw. Bockyng wrote a great book of the "false and feigned miracles and revelations of the said Elizabeth, in a "fair hand, ready to be a copy to the printer." Stat. 25. Hen. VIII. c. 12. "She sent her revelation [to the Pope,] by Silvester Darius and "by one John Anthony Pulleon, the Pope's ambassadors in England; "betwixt the which Nun and Silvester Darius was interpreter this "old man, one Lawrence of Cant. scribe to the Archdeacon of Canter"bury." MS. Chapter House, Westminster, Theol. Tracts, vol. vii.] From my manor at Forde, the xvi. day of December. [1533.] Your assured Thomas Cantuar. To the Right Worshipful and my very loving friend Mr. Crumwell, of the LXXXIV. To ARCHDEACON HAWKYNS. 6148. fol. brancer, Master Archdeacon, I[n] my right hearty wise I commend Harl. MSS. me unto you. These be to ascertain you of such news as be 38. here now in fame amonges us in England. And first ye Christ. shall understand, that at Canterbury within my diocese, Remem about eight years past, there was wrought a great miracle in a Nov. 1820. maid by the power of God and our Lady, named our Lady Todd, Life of Cranof Courteupstret; by reason of the which miracle there is stablished a great pilgrimage, and ever since many devout P. 89. people hath sought to that foresaid Lady of Curte of Strett. The miracle was this: the maid was taken with a grievous and a continual sickness, and in during her said sickness she had divers and many trances, speaking of many high and godly things, telling also wondrously, by the power of the Holy Ghost as it was thought, things done and said in other places, whereas neither she was herself, nor yet heard no report thereof. She had also in her trances many strange visions and revelations, as of heaven, hell, and purgatory, and of the state of certain souls departed $, and [For instance; "that my Lord Cardinal came to his death before "God would have had him by the space of fifteen years, and therefore "Almighty God hath given no sentence upon him, but will defer it till "those years be expired, which it was the will of God he should have "lived in the world." MS. Chapter House, Westminster, Theolog. Tracts, vol. vii. fol. 16. In another of her revelations she described, how she saw the disputations of the devils for Wolsey's soul; and how she was three times lift up and could not see him, neither in heaven, hell, nor purgatory: and at the last where she saw him; and mer, vol. i. |