Other requests of the printer. : BOOK within the realm, that could neither speak nor write true I. English nor for covetousness-sake would they allow any Anno 1537. learned men at all to oversee and correct what they printed, as formerly it had been printed, but paper, letter, ink and correction would be all naught. Therefore he desired one favour more of the Lord Crumwel; and that was, to obtain for him of the King, that none should print the Bible for three years but himself. And to move him, he said he was sure the Bishop of Canterbury, and other his special friends. would not be unthankful to him. He urged to him, that his whole living lay upon this point. And for the better and quicker sale of his books, he desired also, that, by his commandment in the King's name, every curate might be obliged to have one; that they might learn to know God, and to instruct their parishioners; and that every abbey should have six, to be laid in several places of the convent. He wished some commissions might be issued out to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Bishops of Sarum and Worcester; and they would readily cause this to be done in their dioceses. To which he earnestly added his own arguments to provoke Crumwel to yield to his request. This letter may be found in the Appendix. No. XX. 61 CHAP. XVI. Many Suffragan Bishops made. The feast of IT was now forbidden by the parliament, and, in pursuance &c. forbid.' thereof, by the bishops in their several dioceses, that the feast of St. Thomas a Becket, the pretended martyr, should be celebrated any more; nor of St. Laurence, nor of divers others, the feasts of the twelve Apostles excepted, and of our Lady, St. Michael, and Mary Magdalene. Also the feast of the holy cross was forbid; and commanded, that none should presume to keep those feasts holy; that is, they should ring no bells, nor adorn their churches, nor go in procession, nor do other such-like things as belonged to the celebration of festivals. So when St. Thomas's eve August. Monks' XVI. Anno 1537. 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 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. VII. 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. Godwin asserts of him, that he was once Bishop of Ossory. Bale, in his Centuries, mentions not 62 bert's Hist. 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. Anno 1537. No. XXII. book 2. holy oil of chrism and holy unction; and to perform all CHAP. other things belonging to the office of a bishop. The Bishop's letter to the King, desiring him to appoint him a 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 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, 1. 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. |