"That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the CHAP. ،، King's injunctions made in that behalf. That he bring XXI. "with him discretion, honest intent, charity, reverence, and Anno 1540. ،، quiet behaviour. That there should no such number meet "together there, as to make a multitude. That no ex"position be made thereupon, but what is declared in the "book itself. That it be not read with noise in time of "divine service: or that any disputation or contention be "used at it." But it was not much above two years after that the The Bible popish bishops obtained of the King the suppression of the suppressed again, Bible again. For after they had taken off the Lord Crum- an. 154}. wel, they made great complaint to the King (their old complaint) of the translation, and of the prefaces: whereas indeed and in truth it was the text itself, rather than the 85 prefaces or translation, that disturbed them. Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold, the bishops promising the King to amend and correct it, but never performed it. And Grafton was now, so long after, summoned and charged with printing Matthews's Bible: which he, being timorous, made excuses for. Then he was examined about the great Bible, and what the notes were he intended to set thereto. He replied, that he added none to his Bible, when he perceived the King and the clergy not willing to have any. Yet Grafton was sent to the Fleet, and there remained six weeks; and, before he came out, was bound in three hundred pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the King and the clergy should agree upon a translation. And they procured an order from the King that the false translation of Tyndal, as they called it, should not be uttered either by printer or bookseller; and no other books to be retained that spoke against the sacrament of the altar: no annotations or preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English, (that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could :) nor the Bible to be read in the church, and nothing to be taught contrary to the King's instructions. And from henceforth the Bible was stopped during the remainder of King Henry's reign. But however, for some certain ends, the King restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures, to comply with the Henry's for the use of the Bible. BOOK importunate suits of the popish bishops; yet his judgment I. always was for the free use of them among his subjects, Auno 1540. and (in order to that) for the translating and printing them. King For proof of which, I will recite the words of the translator judgment of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon St. Luke, in his preface thereunto, viz. Nic. Udal, a man of eminency in those days, a Canon of Windsor, and a servant unto Queen Katharine, the King's last wife: "His most excellent Majesty, from the "first day that he wore the imperial crown of this realm, "foresaw that, to the executing the premises, [viz. to destroy "counterfeit religions, and to root up all idolatry done to "dead images,] it was necessary that his people should be "reduced to the sincerity of Christ's religion by knowing of "God's word. He considered, that requisite it was his "subjects were nursled in Christ by reading the Scriptures, "whose knowledge should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the sleights of the Romish juggling. And "therefore, as soon as might be, his Highness, by most "wholesome and godly laws, provided that it might be "lawful for all his most faithful loving subjects to read the "word of God, and the rules of Christ's discipline, which "they professed. He provided that the Holy Bible should "be set forth in our own vulgar language, to the end that England might the better attain to the sincerity of "Christ's doctrine, which they might draw out of the clear "fountain and spring of the Gospel." The Arch- OUR Archbishop, after the unhappy death of the Lord keeps him. Crumwel, so excellent an instrument in correcting the abuses bishop self more retired. of religion, out of sorrow and care of himself, betook himself to more retirement, and greater privacy. For in and after this year 1540, I find nothing in his register but the acts of confirmations, and elections, and consecrations of bishops, as bishoprics fell vacant; the Archbishop very XXII. seldom consecrating any himself, but commissionating others CHAP. by his letters to confirm and consecrate: and nothing to be found a great way on in the register concerning giving Anno 1540. ordinances and injunctions to the diocese or province. And no wonder, for there was now no Vicegerent in ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the Archbishop's directions and counsels for reforming abuses, and to see them executed in the church. And his own sorrows, and the troubles he met with in these times from his enemies, made him judge it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better days. mission for Boner. But before the death of Crumwel, when Boner, Bishop The Archbishop elect of London, was to be consecrated, the Archbishop probably not liking him, and seeing through him, whatever his comhis pretences were; and therefore declining to have any the conhand in his preferment; sent his commission in April to secrating of Stephen Bishop of Winchester, Richard Bishop of Chichester, Robert Bishop of St. Asaph, and John Bishop of Hertford, [i. e Hereford] to consecrate him. Which, it is said in the register, they did accordingly, per sacri chrismatis unctionem, et manuum suarum impositionem. In this consecration, the Prior and Chapter of Canterbury insisted, it seems, upon an ancient privilege of their church, which I do not find in this register they had at other consecrations done; namely, that the consecration should be celebrated at the church of Canterbury, and at no other church or oratory, without their allowance. And so, in a formal instrument, they gave their license and consent, directed to the Archbishop, to proceed to the consecration elsewhere. The letter is Cranm. Regist. from Thomas the Prior, and the Chapter of Canterbury; and it ran thus: Licet antiquitus fuerit salubriter ordinatum,ha ctenusque in et per totam vestram Provinciam Cantuar inconcusse obsercatum, quod quilibet Suffraganeus Ecclesiæ vestræ Metropolitica Christi Cantuar memoratæ in Ecclesia vestra Metropolit Cantuar et non alibi, pntialiter consecrari et benedici debeat, &c. "Yet they gave their consent that he might "be consecrated in any other oratory: but yet so that "neither they nor the church received any prejudice, and "reserving to themselves a decent cope, as every suffragan BOOK I. 66 "of the church of Canterbury, according as his profession was, ought to give to the same church by right and Anno 1540. ancient custom; and the rights, liberties, privileges, and "other customs of the said church always, and in all things, Boner's oath of fidelity. 66 being safe." The renewing of this their old pretended privilege looked like some check to the Archbishop, and as 87 though they required of him a sort of dependence on them now more than before: and it shewed some secret ill-will towards him, which brake out more openly not long after, as we shall shew in the process of our story. The Arch makes a In the register is also recorded Boner's oath of fidelity to the King against the Bishop of Rome: which I will add here, that men may see with what little affection to the Pope this man was let into the bishopric, which he afterwards made so much use of for him and his usurpations; though thereby he stands upon record for ever for perjury. But the oath was this: "Ye shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of "Rome shall practise, exercise, or have any manner of "authority, jurisdiction, or power, within this realm, or "any other the King's dominions, but that ye shall resist "the same at all times to the uttermost of your power: "and that from henceforth ye shall accept, repute, and "take the King's Majesty to be the only supreme head in "earth of the Church of England, &c. So help you God, "and all saints, and the holy evangelists." Signed thus, + In fidem præmissorum Ego Edm. Boner Elect. et Confirmat. Londoniens. huic præsenti chartæ subscripsi. By the Archbishop's letters, bearing date May 20, he bishop made Robert Harvey, B. LL. his commissary in Calais, and commissary in all the other neighbouring places in France, being his in Calais. diocese. A man surely wherein the good Archbishop was Fox, P. 1120. mistaken, or else he would never have ventured to set such a substitute, of such bigoted cruel principles, in that place. This Harvey condemned a poor labouring man of Calais, who said he would never believe that any priest could make the Lord's body at his pleasure. Whereupon he was XXII. Anno 1540. accused before the commissary, who roundly condemned CHAP. him to be burnt, inveighing against him, and saying, he was an heretic, and should die a vile death. The poor man said, he should die a viler shortly. And so it came to pass; for half a year after, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered for treason. better com missary. He seemed to have succeeded in the room of a man of Butler a better principles, called Sir John Butler: who was deprived of his commissaryship by some bishops, commissioners from the King for the examining several persons suspect of religion in Calais. The council there had, about the year 1539, complained of him as a maintainer of Damplip, a learned and pious preacher there. So he was sent for into England, and charged to favour Damplip, because he preached so long there, and was not restrained nor punished by him. He answered warily and prudently, that the Lord Lisle, Lord Deputy, and his council, entertained and friendly used him, and countenanced him by hearing him preach; so that he could not do otherwise than he did. After long attendance upon the King's commissioners, he was discharged, and returned home, but discharged also of his commissary's place too. 66 88 bles. And having been an officer of the Archbishop's, I will His trou add a word or two more concerning him. About the year 1536, he was apprehended in Calais, and bound by sureties not to pass the gates of that town, upon the accusation of two soldiers, that he should have said, in contempt of the corporal presence, that "if the sacrament of the altar be flesh, blood, and bone, then there is good aqua vitae at "John Spicer's:" where probably was very bad. This Butler, and one Smith, were soon after brought by pursuivants into England; and there brought before the privy-council in the Star-Chamber for sedition and heresy, (which were charges ordinarily laid against the professors of the Gospel in those times,) and thence sent to the Fleet: and brought soon after to Bath-place, there sitting Clark Bishop of Bath, Sampson Bishop of Chichester, and Reps Bishop of Norwich, the King's commissioners. And no wonder he met with these troubles: for he had raised up the hatred of the friars of Calais against him by |