ter; upon which Luther declared he wrote it to gratify his Friends; in particular Christern, King of Denmark, the Duke of Saxony, and Erafmus, who thought his Stile too fevere, and wifhed him to foften it; give one another. Befides, if it be not difagreeable to your Majefty, that I fhould pub · would have it, who abused your Majesty's Title, without any Apprehenfion of the Pre what I have rafhly advanced, and pay due Refpect to your • Majefty's Name, be graciously pleased to fignify it to me; then I fhall without Delay moft willingly comply. Though I am as nothing, comparatively 'to your Highnefs, yet no fmail Fruit may by this Means be hoped for, both to the Gofpel and the Glory of God, if Leave be granted me to write in Defence of the Gospel to the King of England. cipice they prepared for them-lickly retract in another Book, felves, by incurring your Indignation, particularly that Monster, that Object of the publick Hatred both of GoD and Man, that Peft of your Kingdom, the Cardinal of York: I am now in the greatest Confufion, and even afraid to raife my Eyes before your Majeity, after having fuffered myfelf, by the Levity of those malignant Operators, to be provoked againft fo great a King; I, who am but a Dreg, or a Reptile, and deferve to be ⚫ cloathed with nothing but Contempt or Neglect. I must add to thefe Confiderations, that which feriously compels me, to mean to write, which is, that your Majefty has began to favour the Gospel, and to be not a little obnoxious to thefe Sort of loft Men. This was News truly Evangelick, and joyful to me. Wherefore, with this Letter, I do in the most humble Manner I am 6 In the mean Time, the Lord ⚫ continue to encrease your Zeal, that you may, with the Fulnefs of the Spirit, both obey and favour the Gospel, and not fuffer your royal Ears or Mind to be prejudiced by the 'peftilential Voices of the Mermaids, who breathe nothing elfe but That Luther is an Here tick! Your Majefty may weigh with yourself, what unfound • Doctrine I am capable of broaching, who teach no other than Faith in Jefus Chrift the Son of GoD, through the Merits of whofe Paffion and Refurrection we are to be faved, as the Gospel and the Epiftles of the Apostles teftify. This is the Bafis and Foundation of my • Doctrine, on which I after 6 wards build and teach Chari ty it; he therefore refolved to take another Course : "For it was a foolish Thing (fays he) to look for "Religion among Courtiers, or to expect that we "fhould find in royal Palaces the Spirit of John the Baptift." Notwithstanding his Sarcasm, there have been many truly religious Courtiers. It has been pretty generally acknowledged, that Luther ought to have been more calm in his Polemical Pieces; and not doubted by any, that his intemperate Zeal did often Differvice to his Defigns of Reformation. ty towards our Neighbours, • Obedience to the Civil Magiftrates, and to mortify the Fleth, as the Chriftian Doctrine prescribes. What Evil can there be in this Doctrine? Let it be tried, heard, and judged firft. Why am I declared guilty, or convicted without a Hearing? Is it because I tax the Abuse and Tyranny of the Popes, who teach a Doctrine quite different and contrary to the aforefaid Heads? Do not ⚫ they indulge themfelves with Pomp and Luxury? Do not they gripe at Kingdoms, Principalities, and the Riches of all? Do not the Vulgar both feel and condemn the fame ? And are not they themselves compelled to acknowledge it? Why do not they reform themfelves and teach true Doctrine, if they defire to be free from Hatred and Reproach? Your Majefty may fee how many German Princes, and learned Men join with me; and, thank God, with me Success. To which Number I defire that Jefus may add your Ma L 2 Lutber thofe Tyrants of Souls. But 'what wonder is it, if the Emperor and other Princes rage against me? Do not, as the fecond Pfalm tells us, the Heathens roar against the Lord and his Anointed, the People confpire against him, and the Kings and Princes of the Earth combine together? So that it is to be admired, if any King or • Prince fhould favour the jefty, and diffever you from Wirtemberg, Sept. 1, 1525." Luther and Calvin were not the only Zealots who had fet up for reforming the Church: For there sprung in Germany another Sect, whofe Leader was Thomas Muncer, once a Prieft and Follower of Luther; who, falling off from him, fet up a new Opinion of his own; and, pretending to a more refined Revelation, drew after him no lefs than 30,000 of the Peafantry, even promifing to exempt them from paying Taxes to their Sovereigns, or Rent to their Landlords; which Multitude, in feveral Bodies, plundered the Country, and made great Havock; but at laft many of them were, in feveral Battles, routed and cut to Pieces by the General of the League of Suabia. At first these were called Muncerians, after the Name of their Leader; fuch of them as were taken Prifoners were publickly executed, in order to deter others from following their Examples; yet they were not totally deftroyed, fince there are at this Day a great many who were derived from them, in different Parts of England, tho' they follow not their Extravagances. Further Account of Erafmus. We find Erafmus* was in England in the Beginning of the Year 1518, and in May, 1519, at Antwerp; and that, in one of his Letters to a young Nobleman at Brabant, *We apprehend, now we are fpeaking of Erafmus, it will not be amifs, for Brevity's Sake, here to annex what we propofe further to fay of him, in mentioning his learned Friends; which feads us fit to take notice of another of the Rev. Dr. Knight's Mifreprefentations of the Car dinal, given in thefe Words: Leaving then thefe Foreigners, I proceed to fpeak of an Engglish Friend and Patron of Eraf mus's, viz. John Yonge, L.L.D. Dean of York, and Master of the Rolls. This Perfon was a Publick Minifter, and had 'been employed in feveral Embaffies to foreign Courts with good Succefs; though, it feems, he was no Favourite of Cardinal Wolfey's, and therefore charged by him with ill Management, in his Negotiations in the Court of France, where he was fent on a monitory Meffage to King Lewis, requiring him to defift from the War Brabant, he tells him, "He began now to repent, "that he had ever denied the earneft Sollicitations "of Cardinal Wolfey, and his Patron the Lord Mont 66 joy, who would have had him entered himself a "Courtier, and acknowledges he little thought our "Court would ever have arrived to fo great Repu"tation for its being the Seat of Learning; but "adds, it was now too late for him, Age and In"firmities having made him uncapable of any fuch Happiness." He alfo wrote two most elegant Epiftles to Cardinal Wolfey and the Lord Montjoy, upon the fame Subject, wherein he particularly acknowledges the Favours they had severally conferred on him. Thomas Hanibal, one of the King's Ambaffadors at Rome, in a Letter dated the 13th of December, 1522, informs Cardinal Wolfey, "That the Pope "had fent for Erafmus under a fair Colour by his Brief, and if he come not, I think the Pope will not be content." However Erafmus declined going, and as fome Authors fay, his Reafon for it was, that he well knew fome of his Writings would bear a double Interpretation, and therefore it might poffibly bring him into Trouble. Upon this Eraf mus, more close than before, kept up his friendly Corref War against the Pope; the 'Cardinal giving no better Cha⚫racter of his Management than this, Never Man had worfe Chear than he in France, and that he • had done nothing touching the Matter wherewith he was charged. This was another of Erafmus's Friends under the Frowns of the Cardinal, though he had from others a very good Character, as an able Man, and 'great Encourager of learned ⚫ Men; an Inftance of this we a refpondence with his Patrons in England, to whom, in feveral Epistles, he often recounts the Kindneffes hé had received from them; many of whom were in the Cardinal's Service. But notwithstanding Erafmus declined going to Rome, yet fuch was his Opinion of the geat Learning of Pope Leo, that he infcribed his Work of the New Teftament to him. This Work was fo ill received by Negotiations in the Court of France, (Herb. p. 18, 19) where he was fent on a mo-nitory Embaffage to Lewis, requiring him to defift from the War against the Pope. He writes, (that is, Dr. Yonge) Never Man had worfe Chear than he in France, and that * he had done nothing touching the Matter wherewith he was charged. So that, according to Fiddes, Dr. Yonge wrote in that Manner to Wolfey, and not that Wolfey had given Yonge that Character to Fox: Nay, Fiddes corrects himself, in his Collection, (affixed to his Life of Wolfey, p. 7.) by giving us the Cardinal's own Words, The Mafter of the Rolls is coming to Dover: We look for him daily. He • hath written hither, That never Man had worfe Chear than he in France. Nothing has been • done further than I wrote on to you in my last Letters, as touching his Charge.' ༤ And further, in fupport of what we have faid, it fo falls out, Dr. Yonge was fo far from being at Variance with Cardinal Wolfey, that, after the Doctor returned from his Ambaffy, he was, by Wolfey's Recommendation, in the Year 1513, preferred to the Rectory of Therfield, in the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon; who died in the Year 1516, and by his Will bequeathed to the Cardinal a weighty Silver Cup, as a grateful Memento of the many Favours he had received from him. Whether therefore to place Dr. Knight's Charge against Wolfey to Defign, or Inaccuracy, we leave to the Publick. Dr. Yonge was buried in the Chapel of the Rolls in ChanceryLane, where a Monument is erected to his Memory, against the North Wall, with his Effigies in a fcarlet Robe, his Head covered with a four-cornered Cap, and beneath it this Epitaph. DOMINUS FIRMAMENTUM MEUM The |