although it is not so much as I thought, yet I suppose surely it was sufficient to prove a contract with carnal knowledge following, although she think it be no contract, as indeed the words above be not, if carnal knowledge had not followed thereof."-Cranmer then lastly mentions. that he sends " Master Baynton partly to inform his Majesty of her estate, and partly that after my departure she began to excuse and to temper those things which she had spoken unto me, and set her hand thereto : for she saith, that all that Derham did unto her was of his importune forcement and in a manner violence rather than of her free consent and will."

Upon her disgrace, Burnet says that a new negotiation was proposed with the Protestant princes of Germany. Mount, who had been before sent to them, was again dispatched to excuse, as well as he could, the divorce from Anne of Cleves, and to renew the proposition of a league with them. From the princes Henry received an answer, which prescribed conditions to which he could

suggested, she was examined to them all; but though she confessed a lewd commerce with Derham, she positively denied any thing that could infer a pre-contract. Nor did she confess any thing of that sort done after the king married her; which she still denied very positively, even to the last. Burnet, iii. and Records, No. 72.

1

So in her examination by Cranmer she alludes to this dissent. Burnet, iii. Rec. ut supr.

not agree. He replied, however, that he would consider them. Nor did he fail to express his regard for the elector of Saxony, but complained that some of his learned men had both abused and misrepresented him. He was evidently wounded by the just remarks of the Lutheran reformers upon his conduct in the Six Articles. To the elector Cranmer also now wrote in commendation of the king's learning, and of his late proceedings in the abolition of the papal supremacy, of the monastic state, and of the idolatrous worship of images; with the assurance also, that, if in some things his sovereign differed from them, he would not be inattentive to their common interests

CHAPTER XVI.

1541-1543.

The king's Letter to Cranmer concerning shrines, images, and other superstitions—The archbishop's visitation of All Souls College, Oxford-The Bible of 1541-The endeavour of Gardiner to suppress the allowance of the English Scriptures-How far successful-Other books suppressed-Character of Chaucer-The Moralities-Proceedings in the convocation-Cranmer's acquaintance with the earl of Cassilis-The effect of it on the reformation of ScotlandPreparations for the Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man-The book itself.

WHILE the king was on his northern journey with Catharine Howard, the zeal of Cranmer in the work of reformation was not forgotten by him. The orders which had been issued against the veneration of relics and images, and other superstitions, were still by the Romish party occasioned to be slighted; and therefore from the sovereign. the archbishop obtained the following direction.

1 "Most reverend Father in God, right trusty,

VOL. I.

1

Strype, from Cranmer's Register.

Y

and right entirely well-beloved, We greet you well: Letting you to wit, that whereas heretofore, upon the zeal and remembrance which We had to our bounden duty towards Almighty God, perceiving sundry superstitions and abuses to be used and embraced by our people, whereby they grievously offended Him and His Word; We did not only cause the images and bones of such as they resorted and offered unto, with the ornaments of the same, and all such writings and monuments of feigned miracles, wherewith they were illuded, to be taken away in all places of our realm; but also by our Injunctions commanded, that no offering or setting of lights or candles should be suffered in any church, but only to the blessed sacrament of the altar; It is lately come to our knowledge, that this our good intent and purpose notwithstanding, the shrines, coverings of shrines, and monuments of those things, do yet remain in sundry places of our realm, much to the slander of our doings, and to the great displeasure of Almighty God, the same being means to allure our subjects to their former hypocrisies and superstition; and also that our Injunctions be not kept, as appertaineth. For the due and speedy reformation whereof, We have thought meet, by these our letters, expressly to will and command you, that incontinently upon the receipt hereof, you shall not only cause due search to be made in your cathedral church for those things; and if

any shrine, covering of shrine, table, monument of miracles, or other pilgrimage, do there continue, to cause it to be taken away, so as there remain no memory of it; but also that you shall take order with all the curates and others, having charge within your diocese, to do the semblable; and to see that our Injunctions be duly kept, as appertaineth, without failing, as We trust you, and as you will answer to the contrary. Given [under] our signet, at our town of Hull, the iiii. day of October, [1541.]"

To the clergy of his diocese this direction was accordingly communicated by Cranmer before the close of October. Strype is of opinion that to all the bishops the royal letter had been sent, which was regarded however only "as the bishops themselves stood affected."

The concern of Cranmer for the discipline of a society, of which by the will of the founder the archbishop of Canterbury is the visitor, had given occasion not long before the preceding exertion had been made against Romish doctrine, for an inquiry by his commissioners, which produced, in the quaint but sonorous language of the time, an account of "compotations, ingurgitations, and enormous and excessive commessations," at AllSouls College in Oxford. The members of it were