1

acknowledgment of the sovereign's right to exercise every office in the church. But in these answers he met with little support. In the ninth only 1 one commissioner agreed with him. In the tenth four indeed of the commissioners thought with him, that the offices of bishops and priests were at first one and the same. But thrice the number, while some of them differed merely as to the priority of the two offices, agreed that at no time they were one and the same. And yet it has been confidently affirmed, in defiance of this de

swer is, Making of bishops hath two parts, appointment and ordering appointment, which the Apostles by necessity made by common election, and sometimes by their own several assignment, could not then be done by Christian princes, because at that time they were not; and now at these days appertaineth to Christian princes and rulers. But in the ordering, wherein grace is conferred, the Apostles did follow the rule taught by the Holy Ghost, per manuum impositionem cum oratione et jejunio. The king's note is, "Where is this distinction? Now since you confess that the Apostles did occupate the one part, which you now confess belongeth to princes, how can you prove that ordering is only committed to you bishops?" Burnet, iii. Rec. No. 70. Strype, Life of Cranm. Append. No. xxviii. Henry wished to absorb in himself all authority, sacred as well as civil. See Brit. Crit. ut supr.

1

The bishop of St. David's, Barlow. The other commissioners, besides Cranmer, were Lee, archbishop of York, Bonner, bishop of London, Aldrich, of Carlisle, Skyp, of Hereford, Heath, of Rochester, Thirlby, bishop elect of Westminster, and the doctors Cox, Robinson, Day, Oglethorp, Redmayn, Edgeworth, Symmons, Tresham, Leighton, Curwen, and Crawford. Gardiner was not one of them. Burnet. Strype.

cision, in defiance also of the distinction between bishops and priests in the Ordinal of Edward, confirmed by the authority of Parliament as well as of the Church that "Cranmer and most of the original founders of the Anglican church, so far from maintaining the divine and indispensable right of episcopal government, held bishops and priests to be the same order." The archbishop again, in his eleventh answer, finds only a single adherent to his opinion: The rest of the commissioners declare, that a bishop hath authority by Scripture to make a priest; and that any other ever made a priest since Christ's time, they read not. The twelfth answer, has one commissioner in entire agreement with Cranmer; a second half-assenting, that by Scripture there is no consecration required, but only appointment to the office cum impositione manuum; and a third, after admitting that the Scripture speaks of this laying on of hands, saying that of other manner of consecration he finds no mention in the New Testament expressly, but that old authors make mention also of inunctions. The rest agree that ordination or consecration is necessary.

1 Hallam, Constit. Hist. of England, 2nd ed. i. 541.

CHAPTER XV.

1540 to 1541.

The Act against divorces-Speech of Cranmer in behalf of poor children at the grammar-school in Canterbury-Catharine Howard the king's fifth wife-Her incontinency-Discovery of it to the king-Cranmer sent to talk with her in the Tower-Delusive promise of mercy to her by Henry -- Cranmer's letter to this purpose-Another negociation with the Protestant princes after her death.

BEFORE the year 1540 closed, an important law was enacted by parliament, in order to stop an evil that had long prevailed; namely, the frequency of divorces. Upon the mere pretence of dislike, the frivolous plea of Milton in after-times; and upon that of precontract or affinity, now forbidden by the papal law; marriages had been accustomed to be annulled. The best interests of society required interposition. To Cranmer these divorces were odious; and by him the inconveniences and the scandal of them were reported to the king. The king took especial care to 2 revise the bill that was to pass into a law,

1 Strype.

2 Ibid.

two copies of which, corrected by the royal pen, Strype had seen. Upon this subject the archbishop had written to his friend Osiander at Nuremberg, probably at this time. To him Cranmer complained of the frequency of divorces also in Germany, and of the miserable consequences attending them. Nor did he omit to reprehend the 'polygamy and concubinage, which also disgraced a country for whose happiness and character he was alike concerned.

To the year 1540 the alteration of the cathedral church of Canterbury from its conventual state is assigned by Strype and others. But the charter of foundation for a dean, prebendaries, and other members, is dated in the early part of the following year. The grammar-school, an appendage to the new foundation, immediately engaged the attention of Cranmer in a manner, which in the present day will be regarded with fresh honour to his memory, as in his own it was received with gratitude. The sons of gentlemen only were proposed to be admitted into the school.

The whole letter (Latin) is given by Strype, Append. No. xxix. Cranmer seems to allude also to the case of Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, who married a second wife, while the first was living; and to the circumstance of Melancthon having been present at the unlawful ceremony.

2 The letters of incorporation are dated April 8, 1541. MSS. Chapter-House at Canterbury. See also Ridley's Life of Bishop Ridley, 144.

No, said the archbishop, "I think it not just so to order the matter; for poor men's children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God; as eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, and such like; and also commonly more apt to apply their study, than is the gentleman's son delicately educated." It was by others replied, "that it was meet for the ploughman's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to apply the trade of his father's vocation: and the gentleman's children are meet to have the knowledge of government and rule in the commonwealth; for we have as much need of ploughmen, as of any other state; and all sorts of men may not go to school."-" I grant," the archbishop answered," much of your meaning herein as needful in a commonwealth. But yet utterly to exclude the ploughman's son, and the poor man's son, from the benefit of learning, as though they were unworthy to have the gifts of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them, as well as upon others, is as much as to say, as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow His great gifts of grace upon any person, nor any where else, but as we and other men shall appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not according to His most godly will and pleasure, who giveth his gifts both of learning, and

1 Strype.