XVI. came, which had used constantly by the Archbishops of CHAP, Canterbury, and their domestics, to be celebrated by fasting, Archbishop Cranmer took no notice of that eve, but eat Anno 1537. flesh, and supped in his parlour with his family. Which created much observation, it having never been seen before; the Archbishop thinking it unworthy that a man of that devotion to the see of Rome, and disloyalty to his natural prince, should be so religiously commemorated. A Bishop Diocesan consecrated. March the 25th, Robert Holgate, Master of the order of Robert Holgate Sempringham, was consecrated Bishop of Landaff, in the consecrated chapel of St. Mary in the conventual church of Friars bishop. Preachers of the city of London, by John Bishop of Rochester, by virtue of letters commissional from the Archbishop to him; John Bishop of Bangor, and Nicholas Bishop of Sarum, assisting. This Holgate was either Abbot or Prior of St. Mary Watte, an house of Gilbertines, which he held in commendam, and surrendered in the year 1539. Suffragan Bishops. June the 24th, John Bird, S. Th. P. Provincial of the John Bird. order of Friars Carmelites of the city of London, was consecrated suffragan of the see of Penrith, in Landaff diocese; and Thomas. Lewis Thomas, formerly Abbot of the monastery of Kyn- Lewis mer, suffragan Bishop of the see of Salop; both consecrated at Lambeth by the Archbishop. The assistant bishops at this consecration not mentioned in the register. count of Of Bird, a word or two; I find him in Norwich about the Some acyear 1531, busy with Bilney before his death. He was a Bird. person King Henry made use of; for in the year 1535, he, with Fox the almoner, and Bedel, a clerk of the council, were sent to Queen Katharine, divorced from the King, to forbear the name of Queen: which nevertheless she would Lord Hernot do. He preached certain sermons before the King Hen. VIII. against the Pope's supremacy. Bale, in his exposition upon the Revelations, makes him to be one of the ten horns that shall hate the whore. once Bishop of Ossory. bert's Hist. Godwin asserts of him, that he was I. BOOK at all his being an Irish bishop; but, naming his preferments, first calls him Episcopus Penricensis: in 1539, made Anno 1537. Bishop of Bangor; and removed to Chester 1541. He was married, and therefore, upon Queen Mary's access to the crown, was deprived of his bishopric; but complied with Fox's Acts. the old religion. I find him alive in the year 1555, being then at Fulham at Bishop Bonner's, and there he lodged. Upon his coming, he brought his present with him, a dish of apples, and a bottle of wine. While he was here, he exhorted Mr. Hawkes, convented for pretended heresy before Bonner, to learn of his elders, and to bear with some things, and be taught by the church, and not to go too far. In that Queen's reign he became Bonner's suffragan, and Vicar of Dunmow in Essex. Thomas Richard November the 4th, Thomas Morley, formerly Abbot of Stanley in Sarum diocese, of the Cistertian order, was consecrated, in the chapel of Lambeth, suffragan of the see of Marlborough, by the Archbishop, assisted by John Bishop of Lincoln, and John Bishop of Rochester. December the first, the Archbishop, according to the Yngworth. direction of the act for suffragan bishops, nominated to the King two persons, out of which he might elect a suffragan for Dover, viz. Richard Yngworth, Prior of the priory of Langley Regis, and John Codenham, both doctors in divinity. December the 8th, the King answered Cranmer's letter by his privy seal: wherein he appointed Yngworth to be consecrated for his said suffragan. And accordingly December the 9th, John Bishop of London, by virtue of commissional letters from the Archbishop, assisted by John Bishop of Rochester, and Robert Bishop of St. Asaph, consecrated the said Yngworth. On the 10th, the Archbishop issued out his commission to the said suffragan, ordaining him his suffragan by those presents, until he should think fit to withdraw his said commission again: signifying, that what he was to do was within his diocese and city of Canterbury, and jurisdiction of Calais, and the marches thereof; to confirm children, to bless altars, chalices, vestments, and other ornaments of the church; to suspend places and churches, and to reconcile them; to consecrate churches and altars new set up; to confer all the lesser orders; to consecrate XVI. book 2. holy oil of chrism and holy unction; and to perform all CHAP. other things belonging to the office of a bishop. The Bi-. shop's letter to the King, desiring him to appoint him a Anno 1537. suffragan out of those two above named, and the Archbishop's commissional letters to suffragan Yngworth, may be seen in the Appendix. And he that is minded to read the No. XXI. form of the King's mandate to the Archbishop for making No. XXII. a suffragan, may find it in the History of the Reformation. vol. i. ColThe reason why the Archbishop all this while, that is, lect. 51. from the first making the act in the year 1534, to this time, had nominated none for suffragan to this see till now, might be, because there seemed to be a suffragan already, even the same that had been in the time of Archbishop Warham, namely, John Thornton, Prior of Dover; who John was one of the witnesses appointed by that Archbishop to suffragan. certify what was found and seen at the opening of St. Dun- See Sumstan's tomb. Richard Thornden seems to have succeeded Yngworth in this office some years after; and was very pend. p. dear to the Archbishop, having been by him preferred to Richard be Prebend of Canterbury; though he proved very false to him, and was among those that made a treacherous combination against him in the year 1543 and in Queen Mary's time became a great persecutor. Thornton ner's Hist. Cant. Ap 423. Thornden. 63 December the 9th, John Hodgkin, professor of divinity, John was consecrated at the same time, and by the same bishops Hodgkin. as above; but to what see is not mentioned. The Bishop of London, together with this Hodgkin, had nominated to the King Robert Struddel, professor of divinity. Both he recommended to the King, by letters, to be made suffragans at large, without mention of any see in his diocese; but only expressing that his diocese wanted the comfort of suffragans, that might bear a part in his cure; and so mentioned those two: adding, that the King might appoint them to some see within the province of Canterbury. Hodgkin, if I mistake not, was consecrated suffragan of Bedford and was afterwards one of those that assisted at the consecration of Archbishop Parker. He was a Black Friar. In the year 1531, he, with Bird, laboured with Bilney at Norwich, a little before his death, to bring him off from the doctrines for which he was condemned. After BOOK wards Hodgkin coming nearer under the Archbishop's eye, I. by his means came to better knowledge in religion, and Anno 1537. married a wife; but in Queen Mary's time put her away. Henry March 24, Henry Holbeach, Prior of the cathedral church of Wigorn, S. T. P. (Hugh Bishop of Wigorn having recommended him to the King for Suffragan Bishop of Bristow,) was accordingly consecrated in the Bishop of London's chapel, in the said Bishop's house, situate in Lambeth-marsh, by the said Bishop; Hugh Bishop of Wigorn, and Robert Bishop of St. Asaph, assisting. The Arch bishop CHAP. XVII. The Bible in English allowed. Anno 1538. THE next year I find the careful Archbishop again at Canterbury, looking after his charge. And here he read reads upon lectures upon the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, half the Lent, in the chapter-house of the monastery of the Holy Trinity. the He brews. A declara tion for Bible. Now, viz. 1538, the holy Bible was divulged, and exreading the posed to common sale; and appointed to be had in every parish-church. And then, that the sacred book might be used with the more benefit, both of the clergy and laypeople, for this reason a declaration was issued out, to be read openly by all curates, upon the publishing of this Bible: shewing the godly ends of his Majesty in permitting it to be in English; and directions how they should read 64 and hear it. Namely, to use it with reverence and great devotion: to conform their lives unto it; and to encourage those that were under them, wives, children, and servants, to live according to the rules thereof: that in doubtful places they should confer with the learned for the sense, who should be appointed to preach and explain the same, and not to contend and dispute about them in alehouses and taverns. They that are minded to read this declaraNo. XXIII. tion may find it in the Appendix. This Bible was of so quick sale, that two years after it was printed again. XVII. The Bible MSS. It was wonderful to see with what joy this book of God CHAP. was received, not only among the learneder sort, and those that were noted for lovers of the reformation, but generally Anno 1538. all England over, among all the vulgar and common people; received and with what greediness God's word was read, and what and read with great resort to places where the reading of it was. Every body joy. that could, bought the book, or busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the holy Scripture read. One William Maldon, happen- Inter Foxii ing in the company of John Fox, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and Fox being very inquisitive after those that suffered for religion in the former reigns, asked him, if he knew any that were persecuted for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that he might add it to his book of martyrs; he told him, he knew one that was whipped by his own father in King Henry's reign for it. And when Fox was very inquisitive who he was, and what was his name, he confessed it was himself: and upon his desire he wrote out all the circumstances. Namely, that when the King had allowed the Bible to be set forth to be read in all churches, immediately several poor men in the town of Chelmsford in Essex, where his father lived and he was born, bought the New Testament, and on Sundays sat reading of it in the lower end of the church: many would flock about them to hear their reading; and he among the rest, being then but fifteen years old, came every Sunday to hear the glad and sweet tidings of the Gospel. But his father observing it, once angrily fetched him away, and would have him to say the Latin mattins with him which grieved him much. And as he returned at other times to hear the Scripture read, his father still would fetch him away. This put him upon the thoughts of learning to read English, that so he might read the New Testament himself: which when he had by diligence effected, he and his father's apprentice bought the New Testament, joining their stocks together; and, to conceal it, laid it under the bed-straw, and read it at convenient times. One night, his father being asleep, he and his mother chanced to discourse : |