XXII. Anno 1540. 89 ment of ad to the the cathe As Foxii MSS. erection were present Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop; the CHAP. Lord Rich, Chancellor of the court of the augmentation of. the revenues of the crown; Sir Christopher Hales, Knight, the King's attorney; Sir Anthony Sentleger, Knight; with Archbidivers other commissioners. And nominating and electing shop's judgsuch convenient and fit persons, as should serve for the fur- mission of niture of the said cathedral church, according to the new scholars infoundation, it came to pass, that when they should elect the school bechildren of the grammar-school, there were of the commis- longing to sioners more than one or two, who would have none ad- dral. mitted but sons, or younger brethren, of gentlemen. for other husbandmen's children, they were more meet, they said, for the plough, and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the learned sort. So that they wished none else to be put to school, but only gentlemen's children. Whereunto the most reverend father the Archbishop, being of a contrary mind, said, “That he thought it not indif"ferent so to order the matter: for," said he, " poor men's "children are many times endued with more singular gifts "of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as with eloquence, "memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and "also commonly more apt to apply their study, than is the gentleman's son delicately educated." Hereunto it was on the other part replied, "That it was meet for the plough"man's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to "apply the trade of his parent's vocation; and the gentle"man's children are meet to have the knowledge of govern"ment and rule in the commonwealth. For we have," said they," as much need of ploughmen as any other state: and "all sorts of men may not go to school." "I grant," replied the Archbishop, "much of your meaning herein as "needful in a commonwealth: but yet utterly to exclude "the ploughman's son and the poor man's son from the "benefit of learning, as though they were unworthy to have "the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them, as well "as upon others, is as much to say, as that Almighty "God should not be at liberty to bestow his great gifts of 66 66 grace upon any person, nor no where else, but as we and "other men shall appoint them to be employed, according "to our fancy, and not according to his most godly will I. BOOK "and pleasure: who giveth his gifts both of learning, and "other perfections in all sciences, unto all kinds and states Anno 1540. " of people indifferently. Even so doth he many times Edmond 66 "withdraw from them and their posterity again those bene"ficial gifts, if they be not thankful. If we should shut up "into a strait corner the bountiful grace of the Holy Ghost, "and thereupon attempt to build our fancies, we should "make as perfect a work thereof as those that took upon "them to build the tower of Babel: for God would so "provide, that the offspring of our best-born children should "peradventure become most unapt to learn, and very dolts, "as I myself have seen no small number of them very dull, " and without all manner of capacity. And to say the truth, “I take it, that none of us all here being gentlemen born (as I think) but had our beginning that way, from a low "and base parentage: and through the benefit of learning, "and other civil knowledge, for the most part all gentle66 men ascend to their estate." Then it was again answered, 90" That the most part of the nobility came up by feats of arms, "and martial acts." "As though," said the Archbishop, "that the noble captain was always unfurnished of good learning and knowledge to persuade and dissuade his 'army rhetorically: who rather that way is brought unto authority, than else his manly looks. To conclude, the "poor man's son, by pains-taking, will for the most part be "learned, when the gentleman's son will not take the pains "to get it. And we are taught by the Scriptures, that Almighty God raiseth up from the dunghill, and setteth "him in high authority. And whensoever it pleaseth him "of his divine providence, he deposeth Princes unto a right "humble and poor estate. Wherefore if the gentleman's 66 66 66 66 66 son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, "let the poor man's child that is apt enter his room." With words to the like effect. Such a seasonable patron of poor men was the Archbishop. Bishops consecrated. April the 4th, Edmond Boner, LL. D. Bishop of Hereford, consecrated Bishop of London, and Nicholas Hethe, consecrated Bishop of Rochester, in a chapel in St. Paul's, on XXII. the north side of the nave, by Stephen Bishop of Winton, CHAP. assisted by Richard Bishop of Chichester, Robert Bishop of St. Asaph, and John Bishop of Hereford; by virtue of com- Anno 1540. missional letters from the Archbishop. Cranm. Regist. December the 29th, Thomas Thirlby, consecrated the Thomas Thirlby. first Bishop of Westminster in St. Saviour's chapel, near the sepulchre of Henry VIII. in the church of Westminster, by the Bishop of London; assisted by Nicholas Bishop of Rochester, and John Suffragan of Bedford, by letters commissional from the Archbishop. count of Dr. Butts, the King's physician, first moved him to take some acDr. Thirlby into his service; for that the said Thirlby was Thirlby's accounted a favourer of all such as favoured sincere religion. rise. The Archbishop soon became acquainted with him, and liked his learning and his qualities so well, that he became his good lord towards the King's Majesty, and commended him to him, to be a man worthy to serve a prince, for such singular qualities as were in him. And indeed the King soon employed him in embassies in France and elsewhere: so that he grew in the King's favour by the means of the Archbishop; who had a very extraordinary love for him, and thought nothing too much to give him, or to do for him. And we may conclude it was by his means that, after the dissolution of the bishopric of Westminster, he was preferred to Norwich, in the year 1550. He complied with King Edward's proceedings all his reign; and so he did with Queen Mary's during hers, being then translated to Ely: and was then made use of to be one of the bishops (Boner being the other) that were sent to Oxon to degrade the Archbishop, which he did with tears. If this Bishop "did not, to his uttermost endeavour, practise to save the In a letter "Archbishop's life, he not only did him much wrong, but to Day the "also abused his singular benevolence with overmuch in- 1565. gratitude.” I use the words of Morice, the Archbishop's secretary, as though he suspected he did not. 66 printer, an. BOOK Anno 1541. 91 Abp. Cranm. Regist. CHAP. XXIII. All-Souls College visited. The Arch- THE following year, the college of All-Souls, Oxon, unbishop visits All-Souls derwent the Archbishop's visitation, by virtue of a commisCollege. sion, May 12, to John Cocks, the Archbishop's Vicar-general in spirituals, John Rokesby, LL. D. of the Arches, Walter Wright, LL. D. Public Notary, and John Warner, M. D. Warden of the college. This visitation was occasioned upon a complaint of the very ill and loose behaviour of the members of that house. The college grew scandalous for their factions, dissensions, and combinations one against another; for their compotations, ingurgitations, surfeitings, drunkennesses, enormous and excessive comessations. They kept boys in the college, under pretence of poor scholars. They entered not into orders, and became not priests after they were masters of art: nor observed their times of disputations. Their habit and apparel was gaudy. And other things there were among them contrary to the statutes of the college. This visitation was prorogued, and all the visitors were reduced to one, viz. Dr. Wright. And in conclusion, the Archbishop gave them a set of injunctions, declarations, and interpretations of their statutes, to the number of four and twenty. One was for the better frequenting chapel, and singing the service. Another for the residence of the Warden, not to be absent above sixty days in a year. The rest were, to observe, at the Dean's command, the solemn times of disputation. That such bachelors of arts that were fellows, should take their degrees of masters of arts, when they were standing for it. That several of them, being masters of arts, should take priests' orders. That the Master and the rest, fellows and scholars, should wear long gowns to their heels, plain shirts, and not gathered about the neck and arms, and adorned with silk; and the rest should wear decent garments. Concerning keeping boys, beside such as were servants; that if any of the fellows, scholars, or servants of the college, shall keep any poor scholars, boy, or youth, to lodge with him in his CHAP. chamber, or within the college, to nourish him with the XXIII. fragments of the college, after such a day, that he be then Anno 1541. admonished by the Warden or Sub-warden, &c. and such boys to be expelled the college. time. But it seems this visitation did not effect the good ends Visits it a intended by it for not long after another commission for second the visitation of this college was given by the Archbishop to John Barbar, LL. D. Official of his court of Canterbury. order about In the month of October, there issued out the King's The Archletters to our Archbishop for taking away superstitious bishop gives shrines. Which I suppose the Archbishop himself procured, shrines. having complained to the King how little effect former orders from his Majesty had taken, (and particularly in his own Church,) for the images and bones of supposed saints, with all the monuments of their pretended miracles, to be taken away and defaced: and how his injunctions were 92 illuded, which commanded, that there should be no offerings nor setting up candles to them in any church, and specially in the cathedral church of Canterbury; which once before had been scoured of these superstitions, when Thomas a Becket's tomb, and the riches thereof, were taken away. The King in this letter commanded him to cause due search to be made in his cathedral church for shrines, and coverings of shrines, &c. and to take them away, that there remain no memory thereof; and to command all the curates and incumbents of livings to do the like. 66 The King's letters were as follow. "By the KING. after "MOST reverend father in God, right trusty, and right The King to the Archintirely well-beloved, we greet you well: Letting you wit, bishop for "that whereas heretofore, upon the zeal and remembrance searching "which we had to our bounden duty towards Almighty shrines. "God, perceiving sundry superstitions and abuses to be used Abp. "and embraced by our people, whereby they grievously Regist. "offended him and his word; we did not only cause the 66 images and bones of such as they resorted and offered "unto, with the ornaments of the same; and all such writ Cranm. |