66 XII. "endowed with a mind worthy of an Archbishop and Pri- CHAP. "mate of so great a kingdom, and so disposed to the glory "of Christ. That he had so attained to this high estate in Anno 1536. "Christ by his spiritual wisdom, holiness of life, and most "ardent zeal to render Christ's glory more illustrious; that, "gathering together the humble, and taking pity upon the 'sheepfold, being indeed dispersed and scattered abroad, he "always sought and saved that which was lost, and brought 50 "back Christ's poor sheep to his fold, and the pastures of "everlasting life, when they had been before most misera"bly harassed by the servants of superstition, and the emis"saries of the Roman tyranny." And after, speaking of the King's rooting out the usurpation of the Pope, and his pretended jurisdiction, by taking to himself the supremacy, the said learned man excited Cranmer to a further reformation, by telling him, "how easy now it would be for him, and "the other archbishops and bishops, who were endued with the spirit and zeal of Christ, from the remainders of the "ecclesiastical administration, to retain what might con"tribute to the true edifying of consciences, the saving in"struction of youth, and to the just discipline and polity of "the whole Christian people. For when the enemies were "once removed out of the way, there could not then happen among us any extraordinary great concussion of religion "and ecclesiastical discipline, or any dashing one against "another, as among them in Germany of necessity came to "pass: striving so many years, for the Church of Christ, "against such obstinate enemies." 66 The consecrations this year were these, June Diocesan Bishops. Bishops consecrated. Regist. June the 10th, Richard Sampson, doctor of decrees, and Richard Dean of the King's chapel, was elected and confirmed Bi- Sampson. shop of Chichester, by resignation of Robert Sherburn, who Cran. was now very old. No consecration set down in the register. William Rugg, a monk, was consecrated Bi- william shop of Norwich. This is omitted also, if I mistake not, in Rugg the register. Probably he was consecrated with Sampson. Catal. July the 2d, Robert Warton, Abbot of Bermondsey, was Robert consecrated Bishop of St. Asaph, at Lambeth, by the Arch- Cran. F 4 Godwin's Warton. Regist. BOOK bishop, John Bishop of Bangor, and William Bishop of I. Norwich, assisting. Anno 1536. Suffragan Bishops. October 20, William More, B. D. consecrated Suffragan of Colchester, by John Bishop of Rochester, by virtue of the Archbishop's letters commissional to him, assisted by Robert Bishop of St. Asaph, and Thomas Bishop of Sidon. This More held the monastery of Walden in Essex, an house of Benedictines, in commendam, (where Audley-end now stands,) and surrendered it to the King 1539. CHAP. XIII. The Bishops' Book. Anno 1537. THE pious Archbishop thought it highly conducible to The Bishops' look by the Archbishop's means. the christian growth of the common people, in knowledge and religion, and to disentangle them from gross ignorance and superstition, in which they had been nursled up by their popish guides; that the Ten Commandments, the Lord's 51 Prayer, and the Creed, and the grounds of religion, should be explained soundly and orthodoxly, and recommended unto their reading. Wherefore he consulting with the Lord Crumwel, his constant associate and assistant in such matters; and by his and other his friends, importuning the King, a commission was issued out from him, in the year 1537, to the Archbishop, to Stokesly Bishop of London, Gardiner of Winchester, Sampson of Chichester, Repps of Norwich, Goodrick of Ely, Latimer of Worcester, Shaxton of Salisbury, Fox of Hereford, Barlow of St. David's, and other bishops and learned divines, to meet together, and to devise an wholesome and plain exposition upon those subjects, and to set forth a truth of religion purged of errors and heresies. Accordingly they met at the Archbishop's house at Lambeth. Their course was, that after they had drawn up their expositions upon each head, and agreed thereto, they all subscribed their hands, declaring their consent and approbation. XIII. Winchester's op Fox MS. In the disputations which happened among them in this CHAP. work, Winchester, the Pope's chief champion, with three or four other of the bishops, went about with all subtil Anno 1537. sophistry, to maintain all idolatry, heresy, and superstition, written in the canon law, or used in the church under the position. Pope's tyranny. But at the last, whether overpowered with Life of number, or convinced by the word of God, and consent of Cranmer. ancient authors, and the primitive church, they all agreed upon, and set their hands to a godly book of religion: which they finished by the end of July, and staid for nothing but the Vicar-general's order, whether to send it immediately to him, or that the Bishop of Hereford should bring it with him, at his next coming to the court. But the plague now raging in Lambeth, and people dying even at the palace-doors, the Archbishop desired Crumwel for the King's license to the bishops to depart for their own safety, their business being now in effect drawn to a conclusion. Soon after the bishops and divines parted, and the Archbishop hastened to his house at Ford near Canterbury. makes it. The book was delivered by Crumwel to the King; which The King he at his leisure diligently perused, corrected, and augment- animadvered. And then, after five or six months, assigned Crumwel sions upon to dispatch it unto the Archbishop, that he might give his judgment upon the King's animadversions. A pursuivant brought it to Ford. The Archbishop advisedly read and considered what the King had writ; and, disliking some things, made his own annotations upon some of the royal corrections: there especially, we may well imagine, where the King had altered the book in favour of some of the old doctrines and corruptions. And, when he sent it back again with those annotations, he wrote these lines to Crumwel therewith, on the 25th day of January. "My very singular good Lord: After most hearty com- Cleopatra "mendations unto your Lordship, these shall be to adver- E. 5. "tise the same, that as concerning the book lately devised "by me, and other bishops of this realm which you sent unto me, corrected by the King's highness; your Lord"ship shall receive the same again by this bearer, the pur"suivant, with certain annotations of mine own concerning 52 "the same: wherein I trust the King's highness will par I. BOOK "don my presumption, that I have been so scrupulous, and "as it were a picker of quarrels to his Grace's book, Anuo 1537.“ making a great matter of every little fault, or rather "where no fault is at all. Which I do only for this intent; Published. How that because now the book shall be set forth by his Grace's "censure and judgment, I would have nothing therein that "Momus could reprehend. And I refer all mine annota"tions again to his Grace's most exact judgment. And I "have ordered my annotations so by numbers, that his "Grace may readily turn to every place. And in the lower "margin of this book, next to the binding, he may find "the numbers, which shall direct him to the words, where66 upon I make the annotations. And all those his Grace's "castigations, which I have made none annotations upon, "I like them very well. And in divers places I have made "annotations; which places nevertheless I mislike not, as "shall appear by the same annotations." At length this book came forth, printed by Barthelet, in the year 1537, and was commonly called The Bishops' Book, because the bishops were the composers of it. It was intituled, The Godly and Pious Institution of a Christian Man; and consisted of a declaration of the Lord's Prayer, and of the Ave Mary, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the seven Sacraments. It was established by act of parliament, having been signed by the two archbishops, nineteen bishops, eight archdeacons, and seventeen doctors of divinity and law. The opinion that the favourers of the Gospel had of this esteemed. book in those times, may appear by what I find in a manuscript of the life of this Archbishop, by an unknown author, Inter Foxii that wrote it soon after the said Archbishop's death: "A godly book of religion, not much unlike the book set "forth by King Edward VI. except in two points. The MSS. 66 66 one was the real presence of Christ's body in the sacra"ment of the altar of the which opinion the Archbishop "was at that time, and the most part of the other bishops "and learned men. The other error was of praying, kissing, "and kneeling before images: which, saith he, was added "by the King, after the bishops had set their hands to the "contrary." XIII. and re Hist. p. 418. But this book came forth again two years after, viz. CHAP. 1540, (unless my manuscript mistake this year for 1543,) very much enlarged, and reduced into another form, and Anno 1537. bearing another name, A necessary Doctrine and Erudition of any Christian Man. And because the King had put it printed. forth by his own authority, it was called now The King's Book, as before it was called The Bishops'. But that none might be confounded in these books, he may know that there was, in the year 1536, another book also called The Bishops' Book, Lord Herb. upon the same reason that this was so called, because the archbishops and bishops had the making thereof. It was a declaration against the papal supremacy, written upon occasion of Pole's book of Ecclesiastical Union, mentioned before. And in the year 1533, there came forth another Ibid. p. book in Latin, called The King's Book, intituled, The Diffe- 408. rence between the Kingly and Ecclesiastical Power: reported 53 to be made, as Bale writes, by Fox, the King's almoner. Bale's Cent. Which was translated into English, and put forth by Henry Lord Stafford in King Edward's days. The King affecting to be thought learned, affected also to have books called by his name; not that he was always the author of them, but that they came out by his authority, and had undergone his corrections and emendations. count of But before we pass away from hence, it may be convenient Some acto give the reader a little taste of so famous a treatise as that the foresaid Bishops' book was in those days. And I will do it, not in book. my own words, but in the words of a very learned and eminent man, the answerer to Dr. Martin's book against priests' marriage, not far from the beginning of Queen Mary, supposed to be Ponet Bishop of Winchester, then in exile. Applying himself, in his preface, unto the Queen's prelates, he told them; "That in their book, intituled, The "Institution of a Christian Man, presented by their whole "authorities to the King of famous memory, King Henry “VIII., in the preface thereof they affirmed to his High"ness, with one assent, by all their learnings, that the said “treatise was in all points concordant and agreeable to holy Scripture: yea, such doctrine, that they would and desired "to have it taught by all the spiritual pastors to all the "King's loving subjects, to be doctrine of faith. And there 66 |