been subscribed by any of the martyrs that had died. These two writings Bonner took with him on his return to London.* Cranmer, in theologia doctor, nuper Cantuariensis archiepiscopus, firmiter stabiliter, constanterque credo omnibus articulis et punctis Christianæ religionis et catholicæ fidei, ut catholica credit ecclesia, et ut credidit ab initio præterea quod ad Sacramenta ecclesiæ attinet, credo sincere in omnibus punctis ut catholica credit et credidit ecclesia ab initio Christianæ religionis. In cujus rei testimonium, manu mea subscripsi hisce presentibus, xvi Die Februarii, 1555. Thomas Cranmer." p. 74 * All the documents relating to Cranmer's fall, seven in number (of which the first four I have given in the Latin dress supplied to them by the writer of Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons) were printed after his death by Cawood, the Queen's printer, under the authentication of Bonner. They have been reprinted in the Parker Cranmer, Remains, 563, carefully. Of the original publication there is a copy in the Bodleian and another at Lambeth. It is a quarto tract, bearing the title-page, "All the Submissions and Recantations of Thomas Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canterbury, truly set forth both in Latin and English, agreeable to the Originals, written and subscribed with his own hand. Visum et Examinatum per Reverendum Patrem et Dominum Edmundum Episcopum London. Anno MDLVI." Todd, who has reproduced this publication imperfectly (since he gives not the Latin, but an English translation of the Latin portions), is fond of calling it "Bonner's tract," for a reason that will hereafter appear. I shall have to reprint the whole of this publication, piece by piece, in this note and in following notes. In referring to it, I shall call it “All the Submissions." It may be noted, to proceed with the description of this publication or tract, that the English documents therein are printed in blackletter, the Latin in italics: and when the English documents have Latin headings, these headings are in italics. The first two Submissions are on the first page of the tract, all in blackletter, signatures included, of one size and type. The two next are on the next page, also in blackletter, but with headings in italics. The fifth (the woeful one), which is in Latin, reverses this, the heading being in blackletter, the document in italics, with the signatures and all else. The sixth document, Latin, occupies the two next pages, printed like the fifth. In the seventh, "The prayer and saying of Thomas Cranmer," an English document, blackletter returns, and the heading in italics. This occupies three pages: then comes the colophon in italics. As to the first four of these momentous documents, at which we are now arrived, it may be noted that the two latter are not called Submissions, but simply scripta. These four first run thus "1. The true copy of the first Submission of Thomas Cranmer, late Archbishop of Canterbury, which afterward by inconstancy and unstableness he the said Thomas Cranmer did cancel, the original The reply of the Court was ferocious. It was to issue, eight days afterwards, February 24, a writ to the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford to burn Cranmer alive. The secular arm was bidden to exert its utmost against him because he had been condemned by the Pope, as if whereof was sent to the Queen's] majesty and her privy council, as followeth : "Forasmuch as the king and queen's majesties, by consent of their parliament, have received the pope's authority within this realm, I am content to submit myself to their laws herein, and to take the pope for chief head of the Church of England, so far as God's laws and the laws and customs of this realm will permit. THOMAS CRANMER. "2. The true copy of the second submission of the said Thomas Cranmer, which he the said Thomas did advisedly subscribe with his own hand, and did not afterward revoke it, the original whereof was also sent up to the queen's majesty and her said council, as before. I Thomas Cranmer, doctor in divinity, do submit myself to the catholic church of Christ, and to the pope, supreme head of the same church, and unto the king and the queen's majesties, and unto all their laws and ordinances. THOMAS CRANMER. "3. Tertium scriptum Cranmeri sua ipsius manu exaratum, et per eum in Bocardo exhibitum London' Episcopo. I am content to submit myself to the king and queen's majesties, and to all their laws and ordinances, as well concerning the pope's supremacy as others. And I shall from time to time move and stir all other to do the like, to the uttermost of my power, and to live in quietness and obedience unto their majesties, most humbly, without murmur or grudging against any of their godly proceedings. And for my book which I have written, I am contented to submit me to the judgment of the catholic church, and of the next general council. THOMAS CRANMER. "4. Quartum scriptum Cranmeri sua ipsius manu exaratum, et per eum in Bocardo exhibitum London' Episcopo. Be it known by these presents that I, Thomas Cranmer, doctor of divinity and late archbishop of Canterbury, do firmly, stedfastly, and assuredly believe in all articles and points of the Christian religion and catholic faith, as the catholic church doth believe, and hath believed from the beginning of Christian religion. In witness whereof I have humbly subscribed my hand unto these presents, the xvi day of February MDLV. (old style). THOMAS CRANMER." it had been beyond the powers of the realm to relax so high a sentence. "Our holy father the pope," so ran the writ, "has definitely condemned Thomas Cranmer, and deprived Thomas Cranmer: and Thomas Cranmer. has been degraded by the Bishops of London and Ely: and, since mother Church has nothing more that she can or may do against so rotten and detestable a member, those holy fathers have delivered Thomas Cranmer to our secular arm and power, as a damned heretic and heresiarch. We bid you therefore burn him with fire in an open place before the people." * No mention was made of the writings that the archbishop had offered: neither Pole nor Mary affected to be moved by such submissions as they were: and they now showed that they would not be affected by any submission that might be made. They took the position that he was beyond mercy through his condemnation and degradation: though mercy had been offered hitherto even at the fire to ecclesiastics after condemnation and degradation. In his case the sentence had proceeded from the Pope himself. The struggle was immediate and direct between Cranmer and the Pope: it was more of the nature of a single combat than in the instances of others: and they were spectators who might not interfere. In what they did they considered themselves merely instru ments. The writ left the day of execution unfixed: and it was actually suspended for nearly a month, while the *Burnet, Collect. Pt. II. Bk. ii. No. 27: Wilkins, iv. 140. I may observe that Lingard, whose narrative of Cranmer's death is not the most admirable part of his work, says here, "The writ was directed to the mayor and bailiffs of Oxfor 1: the day of his execution was fixed " (v. 94). So also Gilpin, the writer of an obsolete life of Cranmer, “By the purport of the warrant, he was to be executed next day" (p. 208). If Lingard meant that the day was fixed by the writ, it was not so. fixed in any public manner. And it was because it was not fixed that it was delayed for a month. Nor was it uncertain victim, who knew that it had reached Oxford,* expected his doom daily, or conjectured the effect of his concessions, of which he heard nothing. At this time the University, which in the late reign had registered her bachelors of divinity as admitted to read in the Pauline, the Apostolic Epistles,† and set her thrones of theology for the sessions of Peter Martyr, was listening to the voice of doctors whose boast it was to undo all that Peter Martyr had done, and admitting her graduates to read on the book of the Master of the Sentences. The old learning was revived: and mainly by the labours of the band of foreign theologians whom the King had brought to England, and who came to Oxford probably at the bidding of Pole, who next year succeeded Mason as chancellor of the University. Peter de Soto, a Dominican of Salamanca, Confessor of Charles the Emperor, read in Oxford Divinity School on Albert, and on St. Thomas, whose works had been cast out of all the libraries. He was competent also in the study of Hebrew: but above all he held himself ready to instruct and resolve doubts. John de Garcia or de Villa Garcina, known as Joannes Fraterculus, and by the English called Friar John, of the University of Valladolid, not yet of thirty years, very learned in Plato and * But it was a long time in coming, if it only arrived on March 7. "Nuntii perferuntur Oxonium nonis Martiis igni eum esse adjudicatum." Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, p. 75. "Whereas always before this time, whenever any bachelor of divinity was admitted, he was registered ad lecturam Libris Sententiarum, so now, during the reign of King Edward vi, they are registered as admitted ad lecturam Paulinaram Epistolarum: and now this year (1552) they are registered as admitted ad enarrationem Epistolarum Apostolicarum." Wood's Fasti, p. 77. Pole became Chancellor of Oxford on October 26, 1556. Ib. 83. § De Soto was incorporated November 14, 1555, being already a reader in the University, sent "to undo all that Peter Martyr had done." Wood, Fasti, 83; Athen. 141. Aristotle, was reader in divinity at Magdalen College, and became the King's public professor of divinity in the University.* Antonius Rescius or Roscius, another friar, whose name was corrupted by the English into Richard, had studied in Paris, and, like Soto, had the especial charge of clearing the Academy of the tares of Peter Martyr. The unfortunate Friar Bartholemeo Carranza of Miranda, who, according to some authorities held a readership at this time, was a man of great eloquence, a renowned theologian, high in the confidence of Pole. Some of these new teachers we have already seen to have been busy with Cranmer. Friar Soto had a particular request or commission from the Cardinal to labour to convince the Archbishop: he had applied himself to the charge but without success: and at this time he had ceased or relaxed his efforts. Friar John de Garcia had begun to visit Cranmer, as it has been seen, by Cranmer's own invitation. He had continued his ministrations with sedulity, with zeal, or even vehemence, seizing Cranmer by the hand, plying him with protestations and arguments, going the round of the controversy about the papal privilege; and if his labours were unfruitful, he had established with the fallen prelate a certain familiarity and confidence. He was * Garcia was made Bachelor of divinity Nov. 14, 1555, being then reader of Magdalen, and late of Lincoln College. Fasti, 83. + Friar Ant. Rescius "was one of the friars that was appointed by public authority to undo the doctrine that Peter Martyr and others had settled in the University." Ib. p. 87. Carranza was at Oxford "as a stranger: some say he was a reader." lb. p. 83. He was, it is probable, not there long: he was very much employed by Pole in Lambeth. § In several places Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons gives the conferences held between Cranmer and Garcia. The arguments of the latter were not such as would be new or unanswerable to the man who had held his own against Gardiner, against Weston and Harpsfield : and the general result may be set down in the words of the book, "sedulo, sed sine magno fructu," p. 75. |