66 ་་ sent to her Majestie, if I had not been more assured, that CHAP. XIV. my man's sicknes was not of the plague. And if I su"spected any such thing now, I would not keep my howse- Anno 1569. The Bishop further concerned in Corranus's business. The ground of the French Church's complaint against him. The Bishop of Ross, Milerus, and Hare, Papists, committed to the Bishop's custody. His care for St. John's college. suspends A DISTURBANCE in the French Church in London, oc- Anno 1570. casioned by Corranus, a Spanish preacher, was touched on The Bishop before. We then left the cause between them, referred by Corranus. Beza to our Bishop. I proceed to some further relation of this affair. Upon complaint therefore made by the Ministers and seniors of the said French Church, that Corranus had unjustly defamed and slandered them, (as was said before,) the Bishop, with certain other Commissioners, took cognizance of it. And after sundry judicial hearings, the fault was by sentence pronounced to be in Corranus. And he for his punishment was suspended from preaching and reading. At the time of hearing, and before and after sentence, he used many contemptuous and contumelious words against the Commissioners; and since, touching his state. For these, or words of like effect, he then uttered: Apparet vos Anglos, non solum civile, sed et ecclesiasticum bellum gerere contra Hispanos: civile, capiendo ipsorum naves et pecunias; ecclesiasticum, in persona mea: i. e. "It is evi"dent that the Englishmen do not only wage civil war BOOK 1. " against the Spaniards, but ecclesiastical also: civil, in taking their ships and money; ecclesiastical, in my person." Anno 1570. It was not long after, that he found considerable friends to the Bi- at Court, (whom his learning and abilities seemed to have shop in his procured him,) and among the rest, Secretary Cecil; who Cecil writes behalf. to com pound Corranus's cause. thought him perhaps somewhat too hardly dealt with. He in a letter to the Bishop commended his learning, and hinted as though too hard terms were put upon him; and prayed the Bishop to compound and finish the controversy between Corranus and the French preachers, as soon as possibly he could. The Bishop had already made some steps herein, and had offered some terms to him for his restoration. But they consisted of such submissions and acknowledgments which he would not comply with: which shewed his high stomach. But there was another impediment, viz. a jealousy of the soundness of his doctrines: whereof the Italian preacher Hieronymus had taken notice, out of a late tract of his printed, entitled, De Operibus Dei, and required him to answer the same before the Church, viz. the said Hieronymus and the elders; as was mentioned before. 148 But however, the Bishop promised the Secretary, that, Endeavours according to his request, he would labour to compound and finish the business as soon as possibly he could. But that there were some impediments of expedition at that present: partly, because he could not well finish it, except himself remained at London two or three days; whither he was somewhat loath to go hastily, the plague being most stirring near his house there: and because the French preacher had buried one out of his house of the plague but a few days before. But to put the business in some forwardness, he would send for Corranus, and talk with him first, and after with the other parties. He added, that if any thing had been offered to Corranus on his part, that had been too hard, he was well contented to refer the moderation thereof to the Secretary's judgment. He acknowledged that Corranus had good learning: "but I have no good liking," said the Bishop," of his spirit and of his dealings;" whereof XV. 1 he had had good experience. Lastly, the Bishop let the CHAP. Secretary know, that if the controversy with the French (which was only about offence in manners) were com- Anno 1570. pounded, he could not see but his restitution to reading or preaching must be deferred, till he had cleared himself before the governors of his own Church in matters of doctrine: which was a matter of far greater moment. He as yet knew not the particular matters, but he had willed Hieronymus to translate the table of the Works of God [i. e. Corranus's book] into Latin, and to send him a copy, that some conference might be used in it. the Secretary with of the quar and the This then was the ground of the quarrel of the Italian Acquaints Church against him: the beginning and rise of the controversy between him and the French Church was not so plain the ground to the Secretary. Of which therefore the Bishop sent him rel between this account, viz. Anno Dom. 1563 a packet of letters was Corranus directed to a French merchant of London, being a mem- French. ber of the French Church: and under the direction were written words to this or like effect; For matters of great importance touching the Church of God. In the said packet was found a letter from Antonius Corranus, the Spanish preacher, then being in France, written to one Cassiodorus, another Spanish preacher, not long before remaining in London. The said Cassiodorus being accused a little before de peccato sodomitico, fled the realm upon the accusation, no man knew whither. The said packet directed as above was brought to the Minister and seniors of the French Church, who after some consultation, considering that the title was, For matters of God's Church, concluded to open the said packet, and also to break up the letter directed to Cassiodorus. And finding no public matter in it, but only for the impression of the Spanish Bible, they wrote answer to Corranus, that Cassiodorus was departed out of this realm, and, as they thought, was gone into Germany. And by chance, (as should seem,) rather than of any purpose, they kept still Corranus's said letter in their custody. After the great troubles in Antwerp, Corranus came to London, and de BOOK sired to be admitted into the French Church. The Con I. sistory called him before them, and burdened him with the Anno 1570. said letters; which ministered great occasion of suspicion, 149 (as they thought,) that the said Corranus did not think well in some principal articles of Christian religion. He answered, that his letter was written by way of questioning, and not of affirmation. They replied, that such kind of questioning was not meet in these times for a Minister of God's Church; but in the end offered, that if he would subscribe to true doctrine, and acknowledge that those letters were imprudenter scriptæ, he should be received into the Church. Corranus answered, that the letters were written in good and lawful manner; and that he did not repent the writing of them; and that he would (if need were) set them out in print, with a defence or apology annexed. Whereupon the Minister and seniors of the French Church would not receive him. Corranus thinking himself injured herewith, and offended with certain speeches uttered by some of the French Church in Lombard-street, [where merchants met before the Exchange was built,] and at tables in London, (as he often declared unto the Bishop, who always advised him to contemn them,) wrote a pamCorranus's phlet, which he called an Apology, but indeed a sharp inApology. vective, containing many slanders against the Ministers and seniors of the French Church, and also sundry untruths of the Bishop's own knowledge. Which Apology was communicated unto divers, and a copy thereof sent to Beza, to Geneva. It was long and tedious; and the principal points of it were contained and answered in a letter of Beza to Corranus; which is published among his epistles. Whereupon the Ministers and elders complained against Corranus, before the Bishop and Commissioners Ecclesiastical, for defamation, as was said before. The conclusion of Corranus. But, to make an end concerning this Spaniard: at length, by the favour chiefly of the Earl of Leicester it was not long, (but not before Grindal was removed to York,) Corranus brake through these clouds. For in the year 1571 Reads at the he was preferred to be Reader of Divinity in Latin at the Temple ; XV. Temple; and some years after he read Divinity at Oxford, CHAP. having first purged himself of certain doctrines formerly charged upon him. And becoming a member of the Church Anno 1570. of England, obtained a prebend of St. Paul's church, Lon- and at Oxdon; and having published several tracts, died, and was buried in London about the year 1591. ford. sent dan gers, the behaviour. The nation was now in a great ferment, and the Queen's In the prehands were full. The power of Spain threatened her. The Queen of Scots, that pretended a right to this crown, had Bishop's many friends in England, and endeavours were used to set her at liberty, and to make a marriage between her and the Duke of Norfolk, without Queen Elizabeth's knowledge: jealousies of Papists every where: a rebellion brake out in the north, wherein two earls, and most of the eminent families in those parts were concerned: upon the Queen's compassion to the miserable and almost desperate case of the French Protestants, she permitted some of her subjects to go into France to defend the common cause of religion. Hence she drew the French King upon her, who, together with the Spaniard and the Pope, complotted against her peace and life and in Scotland the French raised disturbances against her. Lastly, in Munster, in her kingdom of 150 Ireland, some of the chiefest nobility rebelled. This present condition, wherein England now stood, employed all the wise heads of her Counsellors. Those who in this juncture had a concern for the Queen and religion, had their eyes upon the counsels of the Court, and hearts full of trembling, what would be the issues of these matters. Bishop Grindal was among this number. In this interval Secretary Cecil sent him a kind letter in October, to know how he did, and to hear of his health, fearing some indisposition or sickness, because he had not heard from him of late. The good Bishop soon answered him, "That he was well, "pro more suo, [that is, according to his constitution, "which was none of the best,] and so was his household "also. And that he had not written to him of late, be"cause he would not trouble him, being otherwise occupied "in affairs of greatest importance. That he, and such poor |