I.

BOOK letter being in haste: promising the next day to come to the Earl, to whom he wrote all this, and relate the rest to Anno 1530. him by word of mouth. These means in short were (as I

Cranmer's

censure

thereof.

Num. 1.

collect from some other passages of this letter) to refer the matter wholly to the Pope, and to reject the thoughts of matching with the Lady Ann. The which was now much talked of; for the King and she were very great, and about this very time they both rode together from Hampton-Court to Windsor: though she were yet no more than the Lady Ann, without any other title.

66

The censure which our divine gave of this book, and the writer, was this; (wherein his modesty and candour, as well as judgment, appeared:) "that Pole had shewed himself both witty and eloquent; and that, for his wisdom, he might "have been of counsel to the King: and such his rhetoric, "that if his book should have been set forth, and known to "the common people, he believed it were not possible to per"suade them to the contrary." Concerning that which he chiefly drove at, namely, that the King should commit his great matter to the Pope's judgment, Cranmer gave his opinion, "that he seemed therein to lack much judgment: and that "though he pressed it with such goodly eloquence, both of "words and sentence, that he were likely to persuade many, "yet him," he said, "he persuaded in that point nothing at "all." No, Cranmer had too well studied the point, to leave such a case of conscience to the Pope's decision. But in many other things in this discourse of Pole, he professed, he was much satisfied. I have placed this whole letter in the Appendix at the end of these Memorials, as I shall do many other letters and papers of value, partly for the satisfaction of more curious readers, that love to see originals, and partly for the preservation of many choice monuments relating to this man and these times, and for the transferring them to posterity.

CHAP. III.

Cranmer's Embassies.

IN the year 1530, Dr. Cranmer was sent by the King into Anno 1530. France, Italy, and Germany, with the Earl of Wiltshire, He is employed in chief ambassador, Dr. Lee, elect Archbishop of York, Dr. embassies. Stokesly, elect of London, divines; Trigonel, Karn, and Benet, doctors of the law; to dispute these matrimonial matters of his Majesty at Paris, Rome, and other places: carrying the book he had made upon that subject with him. From France they took their journey to the Pope; where Cran-To the mer's book was delivered to him, and he ready to justify it, Pope. and to offer a dispute against the marriage openly, upon Offers him these two points, which his book chiefly consisted of, viz.

a dispute in favour of the King's

I. That no man, jure divino, could, or ought to marry cause. his brother's wife.

II. That the Bishop of Rome by no means ought to dispense to the contrary.

But after sundry promises and appointments made, there was no man found to oppose him, and publicly to dispute these matters with him. Yet in more private argumentations with them that were about the Pope, he so forced them, that at last they openly granted, even in the Pope's chief court of the Rota, that the said marriage was against God's law. But as for the Pope's power of dispensing with the laws of God, it was too advantageous a tenet to be parted with. But Dr. Cranmer boldly and honestly denied it utterly before them all.

The King's ambassadors from the Pope repaired to the Emperor Charles V. Cranmer only being left behind at Rome, to make good his challenge, and withal, more privately to get the judgments and subscriptions of the learned men there in the King's case: which was one of his businesses also in Germany after. What he did in this latter affair, he signified by a letter to Crook, another of the King's agents Hist. Refor. for that purpose in Italy: namely, "That his success there P. i. p. 89.

BOOK

:

"at Rome was but little and that they dared not to atI. "tempt to know any man's mind, because of the Pope, who Anno 1530. «had said, that friars should not discuss his power. And 66 added, that he looked for little favour in that court, but "to have the Pope and all his cardinals declare against "them."

To the

Life of Cranmer inter Foxii MSS.

Luther

Here at Rome Cranmer abode for some months. But in Emperor. all the journey he behaved himself so learnedly, soberly, and wittily, that the Earl of Wilts gave him such commendations to the King by his letters, that the rest coming home, he sent him a commission with instructions to be his sole ambassador to the Emperor in his said great cause. Which commissional letters of the King to him bare date January Anno 1531. 24, 1531, wherein he was stiled Consiliarius Regius et ad Hist. Cæsarem Orator. By this opportunity of travelling through per Secken-Germany, following the Emperor's court, by his conferences dorf. he fully satisfied many learned Germans, which afore were of a contrary judgment; and divers in the Emperor's own court and council also. One of the chiefest of these, and Cornelius who suffered severely for it, was Cornelius Agrippa, Kt. Agrippa gained by doctor of both laws, judge of the prerogative court, and Cranmer to counsellor to the Emperor, and a man of deep learning: who confessed to the said ambassador, that the marriage was naught, but that he durst not say so openly, for fear both of the Pope and Emperor. Yet he was afterwards cast into prison, where he died, for expressing his mind, as was thought, somewhat more plainly in this affair.

the King's

cause.

Becomes

with Osiander.

While he was now abroad in Germany, he went to Noacquainted rimberg, where Osiander was pastor. And being a man of fame and learning, our ambassador became acquainted with him; sending for him sometimes to discourse with him: and sometimes he would go to Osiander's house, to visit him and his study. This eminent divine of the German protestant church he also gained to favour the King's cause. For he wrote a book of incestuous marriages, wherein he determined the King's present matrimony to be unlawful. But this book was called in by a prohibition, printed at Augsburgh. And there was also a form of a direction, drawn up by the same Osiander, how the King's process should be managed: which was sent over hither. Cranmer's discourse with Osi

III.

Anno 1531.

viter, multa

sapienter,

vinitus de

vera reli

ander, at these their meetings, concerning divers matters re- CHAP. lating especially to Christian doctrine, and true religion, were so wise and good that that great divine stood in admiration of him as though he had been inspired from above. In one Multa graof their conferences, Osiander communicated to him certain ve papers, wherein he had been attempting to harmonize the ac plane Gospels, but, by reason of the difficulties that often arose, had Christiana thrown them aside. A thing this was which Cranmer de- doctrina, ac clared to him his great approbation of; as he was always a gione disman greatly studious of the Scripture, and earnestly desirous putares. In that the right knowledge thereof might be increased. So cat. ante he vehemently exhorted him to go forward in this study, and Evangel. to finish it with all convenient speed: for that it would not only, he said, be of use to the church of Christ, but adorn it. These admonitions gave new strength to Osiander to fall afresh about this work, and at last to bring it to a conclusion. In the year 1537, he published it, and dedicated it to Cranmer, then archbishop, the great encourager of the author.

Ep. Dedi

Harmon.

ries his

In some of these visits Cranmer saw Osiander's niece, and And marobtained her for his wife; whom, when he returned from kinswohis embassy he brought not over with him: but in the year man. 1534 he privately sent for her; and kept her with him till the year 1539, in the severe time of the six articles; when he sent her back in secret to her friends in Germany for a time. By these visits, and this affinity, there grew a very cordial love between Cranmer and Osiander and a great correspondence was maintained by letters between them long after. A parcel of these letters in manuscript, the Right Reverend the Bishop of Sarum mentioned in his History of the Reformation; which he met with in the exquisite library of Mr. Richard Smith, as he told a friend of mine. But notwithstanding my inquiry after them, I had not the good fortune to see them, nor to find into whose hands they were come, after the selling of that library by auction. Which letters, if I could have procured a sight of, might have served somewhat perhaps in this my undertaking.

Treats with

We are now slipped into the year 1532. And among Anno 1532. other services which he did abroad, (besides his promoting the Emthe King's great matrimonial cause among the German peror about princes and states, as well as others,) he was employed for of traffic.

the contract

I.

BOOK the establishing and securing a traffic between the merchants of England, and the Emperor's Low Countries. Concerning Anno 1532. which the former contract, it seems, began to shake, occasioned by that lukewarmness of affection, that now grew between these two monarchs. About this affair our ambassador had divers conferences with Monsieur Grandeville, the Emperor's great minister at Regensburgh. The effect of his last solicitation was, that Grandeville had told him that the diet concerning the said contract was held in Flanders, where the Queen of Hungary was governess; and therefore that the Emperor would do nothing therein without her advice; and that he would make answer by her, rather than by him. And so Cranmer desired the King, that it would please his grace no further to look for answer from him therein, but from the Queen, unto whom the whole answer was committed.

And about sending supplies against the

Turk.

Another business our ambassador was now agitating at this court for the King, was, about sending supplies to the Emperor against the Turk; who had now made a formidable invasion in Hungary, with an army consisting of three hundred thousand men. The Emperor had lately, by virtue of a former league, and for the common cause of christianity, demanded certain forces of the King for this purpose. Now what measures his ambassador was to take with the Emperor in this affair, William Paget, his Majesty's servant, (the same that was afterward secretary of state,) was dispatched to him with instructions: wherein were contained what answer he should make to the Emperor's demands. Which he reported accordingly to Grandeville. The which answer he delivered to him in writing, upon the desire of Grandeville, for this reason, as he urged, that he might relate the same the more truly to the Emperor. He was now, in the month of September, drawing towards the Turk from Abagh, a place not far from Regensburgh, where our English ambassador now resided; not yet having returned any reply to him, prevented by that hurry of business that then lay upon the Emperor. So that upon Grandeville's intimation to repair unto the Emperor at Lintz, which was in his way to Vienna, and that there he should have an answer in writing again, the ambassador followed thither, in company with