BOOK for this opposition of his Archbishop, in the discharge of his commands.

I.

Anno 1535.

A provin

tion.

But to speak a little of a provincial visitation, jure mecial visita tropolitico, which the Archbishop had begun the last year, viz. 1534, being his first visitation. It was somewhat extraordinary; for such a visitation had not been in an hundred years before. For this he got the King's license to countenance his doings, knowing what oppositions he should meet with. In the month of May we find him at his house at Otford about this business; the main end whereof was to promote the King's supremacy, and, as opportunity served, to correct the superstitions of this Church, and to inspect even Bishops and Cathedrals themselves.

Winchester

poseth him.

In April 1535, Cranmer had sent his monition to Stephen herein op- Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, that he would visit his diocese. The Bishop, who never loved the Archbishop, and being a great upholder of the old popish superstitions, was the more jealous of this visitation, opposing himself as much as he could against it; and would have picked an hole in Cranmer's coat, for styling himself, in the instrument of the process, Totius Anglia Primas; as though this had been an high reflection upon the King, and detracted much from his supremacy. Of this therefore he went and made a complaint to the King himself: and, taking it in some indignation that the Archbishop should visit his diocese, he pretended to the King, that the Clergy of his diocese would be driven to great straits, and mightily oppressed, if it should be now visited again, having been visited but five years ago by his predecessor Warham; especially being also to pay a new duty, enjoined by the parliament, namely, their tenths; hoping hereby to evade the Archbishop's inspection into the corruptions of the diocese of Winchester.

of Primate.

The Arch- All this Crumwel, his friend, certified him of, by his chapbishop's vindication lain, one Champion. Winchester indeed, whatsoever he preof his title tended, tendered not so much the King's cause, as his own, that he might not be visited. For otherwise he would have complained to the King of this matter before Cranmer's signification to him of a visitation, since he always bare the title of Primate of all England, as being the common style of

CHAP.

the Archbishop. And if this style of primacy was a diminution to the King, it would have been so to the Pope, when VIII. Winchester held him, as he did once, for Supreme Head of Anno 1535. the Church: but then he never made any complaint against those Archbishops that styled themselves Primates. The Pope's supreme authority was not less thought of because he had such primates under him, but rather more. And the King might therefore have such as were primates under him, without any derogation to his authority. Nor did Cranmer value at all names and titles; and if he thought it any thing interfering with the King's honour, he would himself have been the first to sue for the taking it wholly away. This he signified in a letter to secretary Crumwel; which, because it hath many excellent things declarative of the good temper and spirit of Cranmer, I have presented it to the reader's eye in the Appendix, being an original in the No. XIV. Cotton library.

refuseth his

And as Winchester had picked a quarrel with him for The Bishop one part of his archiepiscopal style; so Stokesly Bishop of of London London, a man of the same inveterate temper against Cran- visitation. mer, refused his visitation, because he styled himself in his monitions, Apostolica Sedis Legatus. For under that title he convented that Bishop, with the Abbots, Priors, and Archdeacon of London, to appear before him at a visitation, which he intended to hold at the chapter-house in St. Paul's Church, London. But the Bishop of London, and the chapter, warned him of assuming that title, as making against the King's prerogative. And at the visitation itself in St. Paul's, they made a protestation; which was openly read: the import whereof was, that they would not accept him as such a legate, and neither admit nor submit to his visitation under that name; and required the Archbishop's register to enter their protestation: and, upon his refusal thereof, delivered a certificate of what they had done. Stokesly also contended with him for suspending all the jurisdiction of the Bishop, Dean, and Archdeacon, during his visitation. To which the Archbishop answered, it was no more than his predecessors had usually done in those cases. In fine, they appealed, in their own justification, unto the King, and desired his license to defend themselves against him by the

BOOK laws, and as the parliament had provided. Thus they shewed I. before their secret malice and violent opposition against the Anno 1535. good Archbishop, and how afraid they were of his visita

No. XV.

And pro

tion; glad to catch any thing to enervate his authority. The sum of which appeal, drawn up by Stokesly, being somewhat too long to be subjoined here, may be read in the Appendix.

Finally, upon the Archbishop's visiting of his diocese, he tests against entered three protestations against it (as may appear in Stokesly's register) for preserving his privileges.

him.

Cranmer

sends him

the New Testament to translate. And his

This man ever carried himself perversely to the Archbi a part of shop. It was not long after this time, that the Archbishop, whose mind ran very much upon bringing in the free use of the holy Scripture in English among the people, put on vigorously a translation of it. And, that it might not come to be prohibited, as it had been, upon pretence of the ignorance or unfaithfulness of the translators, he proceeded in Foxii MSS. this method. First, he began with the translation of the

answer.

New Testament; taking an old English translation thereof, which he divided into nine or ten parts; causing each part to be written at large in a paper book, and then to be sent to the best learned Bishops, and others; to the intent they should make a perfect correction thereof. And when they had done, he required them to send back their parts, so corrected, unto him at Lambeth, by a day limited for that purpose and the same course, no question, he took with the Old Testament. It chanced that the Acts of the Apostles were sent to Bishop Stokesly to oversee and correct. When the day came, every man had sent to Lambeth their parts corrected, only Stokesly's portion was wanting. My Lord of Canterbury wrote to the Bishop a letter for his part, requiring him to deliver them unto the bringer his secretary. He received the Archbishop's letter at Fulham: unto which he made this answer; "I marvel what my "Lord of Canterbury meaneth, that thus abuseth the people, "in giving them liberty to read the Scriptures: which doth "nothing else but infect them with heresy. I have bestow"ed never an hour upon my portion, nor never will. And "therefore my Lord shall have this book again, for I will "never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error."

VIII.

My Lord of Canterbury's servant took the book, and CHAP. brought the same to Lambeth unto my Lord, declaring my Lord of London's answer. When the Archbishop had per- Anno 1535. ceived that the Bishop had done nothing therein, "I marvel,"

said he, "that my Lord of London is so froward that he "will not do as other men do." One Mr. Thomas Lawney Lawney's jest upon stood by; and, hearing my Lord speak so much of the Bi- Stokesly. shop's untowardness, said, I can tell your Grace why my Lord of London will not bestow any labour or pains this 35 way. Your Grace knoweth well, that his portion is a piece of New Testament. But he, being persuaded that Christ had bequeathed him nothing in his Testament, thought it mere madness to bestow any labour or pain, where no gain was to be gotten. And besides this, it is the Acts of the Apostles; which were simple poor fellows, and therefore my Lord of London disdained to have to do with any of them. Whereat my Lord of Canterbury, and others that stood by, could not forbear from laughter.

was.

This Lawney was a witty man, and chaplain to the old Who this Lawney Duke of Norfolk, and had been one of the scholars placed by the Cardinal in his new college at Oxon: where he was chaplain of the house, and prisoner there with Frith, another of the scholars. In the time of the six articles he was a minister in Kent, placed there, I suppose, by the Archbishop. When that severe act was passed, more by the authority of a parliament than by the authority of the word of God, it chanced that my Lord of Norfolk, mecting with this his chaplain, said, O, my Lawney, (knowing him of old much to favour priests' matrimony,) whether may priests now have wives or no? If it please your Grace, replied he, I cannot well tell whether priests may have wives or no : but well I wot, and am sure of it, for all your act, that wives will have priests. Hearken, masters, said the Duke, how this knave scorneth our act, and maketh it not worth a fly. Well, I see by it that thou wilt never forget thy old tricks. And so the Duke, and such gentlemen as were with him, went away merrily, laughing at Lawney's sudden and apt answer. The reader will excuse this digression.

BOOK
I.

Anno 1535.

ries visited. The

for their

dissolution.

CHAP. IX.

Monasteries visited.

Monaste. THIS year the monasteries were visited by Crumwel, chief visitor who appointed Leighton, Legh, Petre, London, Archbishop his deputies, with injunctions given them to be observed in their visitation. Indeed the King now had thoughts of dissolving them, as well as visiting them: whose ends herein were, partly because he saw the monks and friars so untoward towards him, and so bent to the Pope; and partly to enrich himself with the spoils. Archbishop Cranmer is said also to have counselled and pressed the King to it: but for other ends, viz. That out of the revenues of these monasteries the King might found more bishoprics; and that, dioceses being reduced into less compass, the diocesans might the better discharge their office, according to the Scripture and primitive rules: and because the Archbishop saw how inconsistent these foundations were with the reformation of religion; purgatory, masses, pilgrimages, worship of saints and images, being effectual to their constitution, Hist. Ref. as the Bishop of Sarum hath observed. And the Archbishop P. i. p. 189, hoped that from these ruins there would be new foundations 190. in every cathedral erected, to be nurseries of learning, for 36 the use of the whole diocese. But however short our Archbishop fell of his ends, desired and hoped for by these dissolutions, the King obtained his. For the vast riches that the religious houses brought in to the King may be guessed by what was found in one, namely, St. Swithin's, Winchester: an account of the treasures whereof I having once observed from a manuscript in the Benet library, thought not amiss here to lay before the reader; which he may find in the No. XVI. Appendix a.

a Note, that the dissolution of St. Swithin's in Winchester, (though laid here under the year 1535,) happened not that 'year, but about five years after, viz. 1540. But the occasion of the discourse there, which was of the vast wealth obtained to the King by the fall of religious houses, made the author produce it in this place, as an instance thereof. From the Errata and Emendations to the first Edition.