And his success therein. sented another book wherein were divers amendments of theirs. After much arguing and disputing, nor could the archbishop be brought off, Hethe and Skyp, with a friend or two more, walked down with him into his garden. at Lambeth, and there used all the persuasion they could; urging to him that the king was resolved to have it so, and the danger therefore of opposing it. But he honestly persisted in his constancy; telling them, "that there was but one truth in the articles to be concluded upon, which if they hid from his majesty, by consenting unto a contrary doctrine, his highness would in process of time perceive the truth, and see how colourably they had dealt with him. And he knew, he said, his grace's nature so well, that he would never after credit and trust them. 77 And they being both his friends, he bade them beware in time and discharge their consciences in maintenance of the truth." But though nothing of all this could stir them, yet what he said sufficiently confirmed the archbishop to persist in his resolution". The archbishop standing thus alone, went himself to the king, and so wrought with him, that his majesty joined with him against all the rest of them; and the book of articles passed on his side. When indeed this stiffness of Canterbury was the very thing his enemies desired; thinking that for this opposition the king would certainly have thrown him into the Tower; and many wagers were laid in London about it. So that this ended in two good issues; that the archbishop's enemies were clothed with shame and disappointment, and a very good book, chiefly of the archbishop's composing, came forth for the instruction of the people, known by the name of "A Necessary Erudition of any Christian Man:" a particular account [See Foxe's Acts and Monuments, pp. 1865, 66. ed. Lond. 1583.] whereof may be read in the History of the Reformation". Hist. Ref. P. i. p. 286. This vexed Winchester to the heart, that his plot took no better effect: but he put it up, till he should find other opportunities to attack him, which after happened, as we shall see in the sequel of this story. divines by command. But this matter deserves to be a little more particularly Questions of religion treated of the king had, as was said before, appointed to be disseveral of the eminent divines of his realm to deliberate cussed by about sundry points of religion then in controversy, and the king's to give in their sentences distinctly. And that in regard of the Germans, who the last year had sent over in writing the judgment of their divines respecting some articles of religion; and had offered his majesty to appoint some of their divines to meet some others of the king's, in any place he should assign; or to come over into England to confer together. And also in regard of a more exact review of the "Institution of a Christian Man," put forth about two or three years before, and now intended to be published again, as a more perfect piece of religious instruction for the people. The king therefore, being minded thoroughly to sift divers points of religion, then started and much controverted, commanded a particular number of bishops, and other his learned chaplains and dignitaries, to compare the rites and ceremonies and tenets of the present church, by the Scriptures, and by the most ancient writers; and to see how far the Scripture, or good antiquity, did allow of the same. And this I suppose he did by the instigation of archbishop Cranmer. of the commissioners. The names of the commissioners were these; Cranmer The names archbishop of Canterbury, Lee archbishop of York, Boner bishop of London, Tunstal bishop of Durham, Barlow bishop of St. David's, Aldrich bishop of Carlisle, Skyp W [See Burnet's Hist. Ref. vol. i. pp. 572 et sqq. ed. Oxon. 1829.] bishop of Hereford, Hethe bishop of Rochester, Thirlby bishop elect of Westminster; doctors Cox, Robinson, Day, Oglethorp, Redman, Edgeworth, Symonds, Tresham, Leighton, Curwen, Crayford; where we may wonder not to see the name of the bishop of Winton*: but if we consider the reason the king gave why he left him out of the number of his executors, viz. because, (as he told several noblemen then about him), that bishop was a turbulent wilful man; and if he were joined with them, 78 they should have no quiet in their consultations; the same reason we may conclude moved the king now, in these deliberations about religion, to lay him aside. These persons were generally learned and moderate men, and such as we may conjecture the archbishop had the nomination of to the king: however, we may be sure Winchester was not idle at this time. Seventeen questions And first the doctrine of the sacraments was examined, upon the by propounding seventeen distinct questions, drawn up, sacrament. as I have reason to conclude, by the archbishop, on which the divines were to consult: but each one was to set down in writing his sense of every of these questions singly and succinctly. These questions are the same with those Part i. Col- in the History of the Reformationy. The right reverend lect. xxi. p. 201. Hist. Re form. vol. y [Abp. Cranmer's answers to these seventeen questions are inserted in the Appendix of this edition, being taken from Cotton MSS. Cleopat. E. v. fol. 63. Bri tish Museum. Original, and the Stillingfleet MSS. 1108. fol. 69. Original, preserved in the Lambeth archiepiscopal library.] * Whereas I had said, that the bishop of Winchester was not in a commission there specified; it appears by Crumwel's speech, set down by the bishop of Sarum, that that bishop was then indeed a commissioner. Here my MS. deceived me. But be it noted what the lord Paget testified before the Acts and Mon. first commissioners at that bishop's trial in 1549; namely, that because he was edit. p. 816. so wilful in his opinion, and addicted to the popish part, the king left him out of the commission for compiling the last book of religion. And what that book was I know not, unless the " Necessary Erudition."-From the Errata and Emendations to the first Edition. + [See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. p. 550. ed. Oxon. 1829.] E. 5. P. XXVII. author hath set down there the several answers that those bishops and divines, that he met with in bishop Stillingfleet's manuscript, made to each question; which I shall not now repeat after him2. But I find in a Cot- Cleopatra ton book a few pages that deserve, (according to my poor 36.8 judgment), to be transcribed, of something which is not in that history, being the answers of other bishops and divines in the same commission. The first is nameless; but for some reasons I believe him to be the bishop of Durhamb. Each page consisteth of three columns; the middle column contains the questions. On one sidecolumn is writ his answer to each question; on the other side-column are the king's notes upon the answer, wrote by his own hand. I refer the reader to the Appendix Numb. for this. There follow in the Cotton book, solutions of each of these questions by another, omitted by the bishop of Sarum in his History. He is nameless also, but appears to have been some popishly affected bishop, but yet one that conversed much with the archbishop, the bishop of St David's, and Dr. Cox, and was, I suppose, Thirlby, elect of Westminster: for in many places in the margin of his paper are set the names of those men; for what purpose I do not know, unless to signify their judgments as agreeable with his; though in these very places sometimes their minds and his differ. This man's answer also was perused by the king, who sometimes writ his own objections in the margin. This also I have cast into the Appendix. Numb. The arch In the conclusion of this famous consultation upon these seventeen articles concerning the sacraments, (their bishop's judgment upon these questions 3. Collect xxi. resolutions being drawn up in writing under their own hands), the archbishop, having these discourses given into his hand for the king's use, drew up a summary of each man's judgment; which together with his own he caused to be written fairly out by his secretary, and so presented Vol. i. book to the king. The bishop of Sarum hath saved me the trouble of writing them out in this work, having presented Cleopatra. them already to the world in his History, from another manuscript than the Cotton book which I make use of, which is a true original. The archbishop's summary may be found among the collections in the said History, against the word "Agreement" in the margin, and the archbishop's own judgment against his name in the margin. At the conclusion of his paper, which he sent to the king, he subscribed thus, most warily and modestly, with his own hand; E. 5.e 79 The judg ments of ed men "T. Cantuarien. This is mine opinion and sentence at this present; which nevertheless I do not temerariously define, but refer the judgment thereof unto your majestyf." Besides these seventeen questions, there are in this other learn- choice Cottonian manuscripts divers others propounded to another combination of bishops and divines, perhaps other about this time, or rather, I conceive, three years before, points. with their answers under their hands thereunto, being concerning e [Cotton MSS. Cleopat. E. v. fol. 53.] f [This passage, with the signature of the archbishop, is in his own handwriting, both in the Cotton and Stillingfleet MSS.] extracted from the Cotton MSS. and inserted in the Appendix of this edition. The entire paper will be found in the Appendix to the author's Ecclesiastical Memorials; see also Burnet's Hist. of 8 [Cotton MSS. Cleopat. E. v. Reformat. vol. i. pt. ii. Addenda, fol. 73. 'The judgment of abp. No. iii. pp. 479, 80.] Cranmer" upon this subject is 66 |