monitions Boner's ad- And upon this, Boner, being now newly bishop of for reading London, set up six Bibles in certain convenient places the Bible. of St. Paul's church; together with an admonition to the readers, fastened upon the pillars to which the Bibles were chained, to this tenor: That whosoever came there to read should prepare himself to be edified and made the better thereby. That he should join thereunto his readiness to obey the king's injunctions made in that behalf. That he bring with him discretion, honest intent, charity, reverence, and quiet behaviour. That there should no such number meet together there as to make a multitude. That no exposition be made thereupon, but with high and loud voices, in time 66 provide Bibles of the largest and greatest volume, and cause the same to be set and fixed in every of the said parish churches,-and should lose and forfeit to the king's majesty, for every month that they should lack and want the said Bibles after the same feast of All-saints 40s.," one half to the king, and "the other half to him or them, who should first find and present the same to the ...council;-and ordained and taxed that the sellers of the said Bibles should not take for any unbound more than ten shillings, and for every one well and sufficiently bound, trimmed, and clasped, not above twelve shillings, upon the pain of loss to the seller of four shillings for every Bible thus sold, one moiety to go to the king, and the other to the finder and presenter of the defaulter; &c." Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. i. part ii. B. iii. No. 24. pp. 378, 9. z [See p. 177. n. i.] what is declared in the book itself. That it be not read with noise in time of divine service: or that any disputation or contention be used at it." But it was not much above two years after that the The Bible suppressed popish bishops obtained of the king the suppression of again, the Bible again. For after they had taken off the lord an. 1548Crumwel, they made great complaint to the king (their old complaint) of the translation, and of the prefaces, whereas indeed and in truth it was the text itself, rather than the prefaces or translation, that disturbed them. 85 Whereupon it was forbid again to be sold, the bishops promising the king to amend and correct it, but never performed it. And Grafton was now, so long after, summoned and charged with printing Mathew's Bible: which he, being timorous, made excuses for. Then he was examined about the great Bible, and what the notes were he intended to set thereto. He replied, that he added none to his Bible, when he perceived the king and the clergy not willing to have any. Yet Grafton was a [In the "admonition and advertisement given (A. D. 1542) by Bonner bishop of London," (Regist Bonner), "to all readers of this Bible in the English tongue," it was also advised, "that no number of people be specially congregate therefore to make a multitude; and that no exposition be made thereupon, otherwise than it is declared by the book itself; and that especially regard be First by ["Such public reading had been enjoyed three years before. Crumwel in 1538, then by Henry in May 1540, and now by Boner in 1541, though he very soon not only changed his mind, and bitterly quarrelled with such reading whether in public or private, but persecuted to the death, when the fury and folly of Henry once permitted. See Burnet's Records. [vol. i. part ii.] b. iii. No. 25. compared with No. 11. and [Cotton MSS.] Cleop. E. v. fol. 337." Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii. p. 144. n. 18.] CRANMER, VOL. I. King Henry's judgment for the use of the Bible. sent to the Fleet, and there remained six weeks; and before he came out, was bound in three hundred pounds that he should neither sell nor imprint any more Bibles till the king and the clergy should agree upon a translation. And they procured an order from the king that the false translation of Tindal, as they called it, should not be uttered either by printer or bookseller; and no other books to be retained that spoke against the sacrament of the altar: no annotations or preambles to be in Bibles or New Testaments in English, (that so they might keep Scripture still as obscure as they could): nor the Bible to be read in the church, and nothing to be taught contrary to the king's instructions. And from henceforth the Bible was stopped during the remainder of king Henry's reignb. But however, for some certain ends, the king restrained now and then the use of the Scriptures, to comply with b["After this, the bishops, bringing their purpose to pass, brought the lord Crumwel out of favor, and shortly to his death: and not long after great complaint was made to the king of the translation of the Bible, and of the preface of the same, (i. e. Cranmer's), and then was the sale of the Bible commanded to be staid, the bishops promising to amend and correct it, but never performing the same. Then Grafton was called, and first charged with the printing of Mathews' Bible, but he, being fearful of trouble, made excuses for himself in all things. Then was he examined of the great Bible, and what notes he was purposed to make. To the which he answered that he knew none. For his purpose was to have retained learned men to have made the notes, but when he perceived the king's majesty and his clergy not willing to have any, he proceeded no further. But for all these excuses Grafton was sent to the Fleet, and there remained six weeks, and before he came out was bound in £300 that he should neither sell, nor imprint, or cause to be imprinted, any more Bibles, until the king and the clergy should agree upon a translation. And thus was the Bible from that time staid, during the reign of king Henry the VIII." Foxe's Acts and Monuments, pp. 1191, 2. ed. Lond. 1583. See also Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii. sec. vi. pp. 155. et sqq.] the importunate suits of the popish bishops; yet his judgment always was for the free use of them among his subjects, and (in order to that) for the translating and printing them. For proof of which, I will recite the words of the translator of Erasmus' Paraphrase upon St. Luke, in his preface thereunto, viz. Nic. Udal, a man of eminency in those days, a canon of Windsor, and a servant unto queen Katherine, the king's last wife: "His most excellent majesty, from the first day that he wore the imperial crown of this realm, foresaw that, to the executing the premises, [viz. to destroy counterfeit religions, and to root up all idolatry done to dead images], it was necessary that his people should be reduced to the sincerity of Christ's religion by knowing of God's word. He considered, that requisite it was his subjects were nousled in Christ by reading the Scriptures, whose knowledge should easily induce them to the clear espying of all the sleights of the Romish juggling. And therefore, as soon as might be, his highness, by most wholesome and godly laws, provided that it might be lawful for all his most faithful loving subjects to read the word of God, and the rules of Christ's discipline, which they professed. He provided that the Holy Bible should be set forth in our own vulgar language, to the end that England might the better attain to the sincerity of Christ's doctrine, which they might draw out of the clear fountain and spring of the gospel." [c Translation of Erasmus' paraphrase upon Luke: preface dedicated to queen Katherine, fol. iii. b. ed. London. 1548.] bishop self more retired. 86 CHAPTER XXII. THE ARCHBISHOP RETIRED. The arch- OUR archbishop, after the unhappy death of the lord keeps him- Crumwel, so excellent an instrument in correcting the abuses of religion, out of sorrow and care of himself, betook himself to more retirement, and greater privacy. For in and after this year 1540, I find nothing in his register, but the acts of confirmations, and elections, and consecrations of bishops, as bishoprics fell vacant; the archbishop very seldom consecrating any himself, but commissionating others by his letters to confirm and consecrate and nothing to be found a great way on in the register concerning giving ordinances and injunctions to the diocese or province. And no wonder, for there was now no vicegerent in ecclesiasticals to be ready to hearken to the archbishop's directions and counsels for reforming abuses, and to see them executed in the church. And his own sorrows, and the troubles he met with in these times from his enemies, made him judge it convenient for him now more warily to conceal himself till better days. The archbishop issues out his commission for secrating of Boner. But before the death of Crumwel, when Boner bishop elect of London, was to be consecrated, the archbishop probably not liking him, and seeing through him, whatthe con- ever his pretences were; and therefore declining to have any hand in his preferment; sent his commission in April to Stephen bishop of Winchester, Richard bishop of Chichester, Robert bishop of St. Asaph', and John bishop of Hertford,[ i. e. Hereford], to consecrate [Robert Warton.] [Stephen Gardiner.] e [Richard Sampson.] |