CHAPTER XXIII. ALL SOULS' COLLEGE VISITED. 91 Cranm. The following year, the college of All Souls, Oxon, un- The archbishop visits derwent the archbishop's visitation, by virtue of a com- All Souls' mission, May 12th, to John Cocksw, the archbishop's vicar- College. general in spirituals, John Rokesby, LL.D. of the arches, Walter Wright, LL.D. public notary, and John Warner, M. D. warden of the college. This visitation was occasioned upon a complaint of the very ill and loose behaviour of the members of that house. The college grew scandalous for Abp. their factions, dissensions, and combinations one against Regist. another; for their compotations, ingurgitations, surfeitings, drunkennesses, enormous and excessive comessations. They kept boys in the college, under pretence of poor scholars. They entered not into orders, and became not priests after they were masters of art: nor observed their times of disputations. Their habit and apparel was gaudy. And other things there were among them contrary to the statutes of the college. This visitation was prorogued, and all the visitors were reduced to one, viz. Dr. Wright. And in conclusion the archbishop gave them a set of injunctions, declarations, and interpretations of their statutes, to the number of four and twenty. One was for the better frequenting chapel, and singing the service. Another for the residence of the warden, not to be absent above sixty days in a year. The rest were, to observe, at the dean's command, the solemn times of disputation. That such bachelors of arts that were fellows should take w [See Wood's Fasti, Oxon. vol. ii. pt. i. App. p. 19. ed. Bliss 1813-20.] second time. their degrees of masters of arts, when they were standing for it. That several of them being masters of arts, should take priests' orders. That the master and the rest, fellows and scholars, should wear long gowns to their heels, plain shirts, and not gathered about the neck and arms, and adorned with silk; and the rest should wear decent garments. Concerning keeping boys, beside such as were servants; that if any of the fellows, scholars, or servants of the college, shall keep any poor scholars, boy, or youth, to lodge with him in his chamber, or within the college, to nourish him with the fragments of the college, after such a day, that he be then admonished by the warden, or sub-warden, &c. and such boys to be expelled the college. Visits it a But it seems this visitation did not effect the good ends intended by it: for not long after another commission for the visitation of this college was given by the archbishop to John Barber, LL.D. official of his court of Canterburyx. The arch In the month of October, there issued out the king's bishop gives order about letters to our archbishop for taking away superstitious shrines. shrines. Which I suppose the archbishop himself procured, having complained to the king how little effect x [See above, p. 93.] y [In a letter addressed to Crumwel, preserved in the State Paper Office, (Miscel. Lett. temp. Hen. VIII. third series, vol.ix.) and dated Aug. 18th, [1538.] the archbishop made the following application to him respecting this matter: "Farther, by cause that I have in great suspect that St. Thomas of Canterbury his blood, in Christ's church in Canterbury, is but a feigned thing and made of some red ochre or of such like matter; I beseech your lordship that Dr. Lee and Dr. Barbor, my chaplains, may have the king's commission to try and examine that and all other like things there. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well, praying you to give farther credence unto this bearer. At Lambeth the 18th day of August." "As for shrines, copses, and former orders from his majesty had taken, (and particularly in his own church), for the images and bones of supposed saints, with all the monuments of their pretended miracles, to be taken away and defaced: and how his injunctions were illuded, which commanded, that 92 there should be no offerings nor setting up candles to them in any church, and specially in the cathedral church of Canterbury; which once before had been scoured of these superstitions, when Thomas a Becket's tomb, and the reliquiaries of saints, so called, although the most were nothing less, forasmuch as his highness hath found other idolatry, or detestable superstition used thereabouts, and perceived that they were for the most part feigned things; as the blood of Christ, so called in some place, was but a piece of red silk, inclosed in a piece of thick glass of chrystalline. In another place, oil, coloured of 'sanguinis draconis,'—and other innumerable illusions, superstitions and apparent deceits -His majesty therefore, hath caused the same to be taken away, and the abusive pieces thereof to be brent, the doubtful to be set and hidden honestly away for fear of idolatry." Collier's Eccl. Hist. Appendix, vol. ix. pp. 170, 1. ed. Lond. 1840, 1. There is a curious letter printed in the State Papers, dated Sept. 1, [A. D. 1538.] (vol. i. p. 583.) from Penison to Crumwel, relative to the shewing of the shrine of Thomas a Becket, at Canterbury, to Madame de Montreuil, at the which she was CRANMER, VOL. I. not little marvelled of the great riches thereof; saying to be innumerable, and that if she had not seen it, all the men in the world could never have made her to believe it. Thus overlooking and viewing more than an hour as well the shrine as St. Thomas' head, being at both set cushions to kneel, and the prior opening St. Thomas' head, saying to her three times This is St. Thomas' head,' and offered her to kiss it, but she neither kneeled, nor would kiss it, but still viewing the riches thereof." Soon after this visit, and in the same month, the shrine was despoiled. "The shrine of Thomas Becket [Sept. A.D. 1538.] in the priory of Christ Church was likewise taken to the king's use. This shrine was builded about a man's height, all of stone, then upward of timber plain, within the which was a chest of iron, containing the bones of Thomas Becket, skull and all, with the wound of his death, and the piece cut out of his skull laid in the same wound. These bones, P riches thereof, were taken away. The king in this letter commanded him to cause due search to be made in his cathedral church for shrines, and coverings of shrines, &c. and to take them away, that there remain no memory thereof; and to command all the curates and incumbents of livings to do the like. (by command of the lord Crumwell), were then and there burnt. -The spoil of which shrine in gold and precious stones filled two great chests, such as six or seven strong men could do no more than convey one of them at once out of the church." Stowe's Annals, p. 575, ed. Lond. 1516. The paper above quoted from Collier states, however, (pp. 171, 2.) that "by writings and chronicles of good record yet nevertheless it was arrested, that his shrines and bones should be taken away and bestowed in such place as the same should cause no superstition afterwards, And" (it proceeds) "forasmuch as his head almost whole was found with the rest of his bones, closed within the shrine; and that there was in that church a great skull of another head, but much greater by the three quarter parts than that part which was lacking in the head closed within the shrine, whereby it appeared that the same was but a feigned fiction. If this head was brent, was therefore St. Thomas brent? Assuredly it concludeth not. St. Swythin and other relics, where abuse of hy pocrisy was, be laid safe, and not, as it is untruly surmised, brent, but according to reason collocate secretly, where there shall be no cause of superstition given by them." A proclamation, still preserved, (Cotton. MSS. Titus. B. i. British Museum), was issued, "chiefly concerning Becket," at Westminster, Nov. 16, 30 Hen. VIII. [A. D. 1538] declaring that there appeared "nothing in his life and exterior conversation whereby he should be called a saint, but rather esteemed to have. been a rebel and traitor to his prince," and that from henceforth he should "not be esteemed, named, reputed, nor called a saint; —and that his images and pictures, through the whole realm, should be put down and avoided out of all churches, chapels, and other places; and that-the days used to be festivals in his name should not be observed," &c. See Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol. iii. part ii. Appendix, B. iii. No. 62. pp. 206, 7. ed. Oxon. 1829; abp. Cranmer's Works, Park. Soc. ed. vol. ii. p. 378.] The king's letters were as follow: "BY THE KING. to the arch "Most reverend father in God, right trusty and right The king entirely well-beloved, we greet you well: letting you wit, bishop for that whereas heretofore, upon the zeal and remembrance, searching which we had to our bounden duty toward Almighty shrines. Abp. God, perceiving sundry superstitions and abuses to be Cranm. used and embraced by our people, whereby they grievously offended him and his word; we did not only cause the imagesa 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 altarb it is lately come to our knowledge, that, this our good intent and purpose notwithstanding, the shrines, covering 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 hypocrisy 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, z [Wilkins' Concilia, vol. iii. p. 857. ex Reg. Cranmer, f. 18. a.] a [See another letter from Winchester (i. e. Gardiner) to the lord protector (i. e. Somerset). Foxe's Acts and Monuments, p. 1345, 6. ed. Lond. 1583; in which he relates the subject of a conversation between Henry VIII. and Cran- b [See Injunctions to the Clergy |