Search York

ledge of the King, who then made use of him, as a fit man

to assist in his assuming his supremacy. In this letter we

may note the boldness of this reverend man, in opposing

the prelates, and in so plain an address to so haughty a

Prince, whom it was so dangerous to gainsay ; and how he

adventured his life in a frank discharge of his conscience.

Latymer to The other letter was wrote, as it seems, after he had re-

Vntienian s ig ne d ms bishopric, and lived privately in Warwickshire,

whom he to a gentleman and a justice of the peace of the county;

proved" whom he had so offended by reproving him freely for a cer-

tain fault, that the gentleman sent him a very threatening

letter, telling him, that he would not bear it at his hand,

though he were the best bishop in England. To whom

Latymer replied, " that, as to the admonitions he had given

227 " him, he used to commit such trespasses many a time in

" a year with his betters by two or three degrees, both lords

" and ladies of the best rank, and yet had not heard that

" any of them had said in their displeasure, that they would

" not bear it at his hand. He asked the gentleman, if he

" were to be taught, what the office, liberty, and privilege

" of a preacher was, namely, to reprove the world of sin,

" without respect of persons. He told him, he would flatter

" no man, nor yet claw his back in his folly, but esteem all

" men as he found them, allowing what was good, and dis-

" allowing what was bad."
The case was this ; this gentleman's brother had wronged

a poor man, Latymer's neighbour, in detaining some of his

goods. Whom therefore Latymer sent for, and required

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 383

him to do the wronged man right. He pretended he was CHAP,

willing to refer the cause to his brother, a justice: who Xj _

made an award, and promised that satisfaction should be Anno 1555.

made by his brother unto the poor man ; but neither the

award nor promise was performed : and he rather main-

tained his brother's iniquity by falsehood and shifting. La-

tymer told him plainly, " that he would not his awardship

" should take place ; he shewed himself nothing inclinable

" to the redress of his brother's unright dealing; with an

" honest poor man ; who had been ready, at his request, to

" do him pleasure with his things, or else he had never

" come into the wrangle for his own goods with his brother ."

The gentleman had told Latymer, (as in his own vindi-

cation,) that the justices in the country thought it unnatural

that he should take part with him before his own brother.

To which Latymer makes this reply, asking, with some

wonder, " what a sentence that was to come out of his

' mouth ? for partaking was one thing, and ministering

* justice another ; and a worthy minister of justice would

' be no partaker, but of indifference between party and

' party. He asked him, whether ever he required him to

f take any part ? No, he required him to minister justice

f between his brother and the poor man, without any par-

1 taking with either. And then he asked what manner of

'justices were they, that would have this gentleman to

' take part naturally with his brother, when as he ought

' and should amend his brother. What ! justices ? No,

'jugglers, he thought such might more worthily be called.

' Finally, he told him, that there was neither archbishop

' nor bishop, nor any learned man in either University, or

' elsewhere, that he was acquainted withal, but they should

' write unto him, and confute him by their learning. No

' godly man of the law in the realm, that he was acquainted

' with, but should write unto him, and confute him by the

' law. No lord nor lady, nor yet any noble personage of the

' realm, that he was acquainted with, but should write unto

' him, and threaten him with their authority. I will, said

he, do all this, yea, and kneel upon my knees before the

384 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP. " King's Majesty, and all his honourable Council, with

" most humble petition for your reformation, rather than

Anno 1555. « the Devil shall possess you still to your final damnation.

This was his love of justice, and care for relieving poor men

from their oppressors.

Two letters There be two letters of this eminent servant of God which

sent onTof ' * nave % me in manuscript, penned in his captivity, and, I

prison. think, never printed : which I therefore publish, by laying

228 them in the Catalogue ; and the rather, because among all

his letters in Fox's Martyrology there is only one very short

letter, written out of prison, which was a thankful acknow-

ledgment to Mrs. Wilkinson for sending him some relief.

And Fox speaks somewhere, that he found very few or

none written by him to his friends abroad ; he means, out of

prison.

The former The former was written to a certain prisoner for the gos-

^isonfor P e * unname d- This person was offered for money to be

the gospel, delivered out of his captivity, but he refused to give any,

thinking it not lawful to do so ; namely, to buy off the cross

that Christ laid upon him for a price. For which, the old

good father, in this letter, approves and commends him;

and states the case, whether it be lawful for the prisoners of

Christ to buy their liberty : quoting St. Paul's expression

to the Philippians, that it is given to us, not to believe only,

but to suffer for his name. " If suffering then," said he,

" be the gift of God, how can we sell the gift of God, and

" give money to be rid of it ?" And another place of St.

Paul he allegeth, where that Apostle bids a man to abide in

the vocation wherein he is called. " But," saith he, " to

" suffer for the truth is God's calling; and therefore we

N°.XXXV." must abide in this calling. 1 " But I refer the reader to the

letter itself.
The other The latter was written by him out of Bocardo, the prison
lessor's un- °^ Oxford, to tne professors of religion under sufferings and
der persecu- persecutions. Herein he tells them, " that now was the
" time in which the Lord's ground would be known, namely,
" who had received God's gospel in their hearts, to the
" taking good root therein :" alluding to the good ground,

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 385

and the good and honest heart in the parable; " for such CHAP.
" would not shrink for a little heat, or burning weather. XXIX -
"He exhorted them to go forward after their master, Anno 1 555.
" Christ ; not sticking at the foul way or stormy weather ;
" being certain that the end of their storm would be plea-
" sant and joyful, and such a perpetual rest and blessedness,
" as would swallow up the storms they now felt : that they
" were not alone, but many of their brethren and sisters
" pressed on the same way. He exhorted them to pray to God,
" that he would make both himself and them meet to suffer
" with good consciences. Die once they must ; and happy
" they whom God gave to pay nature's debt, that is, to die
" for God's sake. Here was not their home. He bade them
" to have always before their eyes the heavenly Jerusalem,
" the way thereunto ever being persecution. Let us fol-
" low the footsteps of Christ and his friends," said he,
" even to the gallows, if God's will be so." This and a
great deal more of such warm counsel and comfort will be
read in the letter itself. xxxvi.
At the same stake, with this reverend father Latymer, Bishop Rid-

was also burnt another holy father, and very learned man, £^ r ^ om

Dr. Ridley, bishop of London: of whom, to all that I else- r Doctor t

where, and others, have writ concerning him, I will here letter to

add a little more, which shall be nothing but some relation Fox -

of the place of his birth, and of his qualities, set down by

one that was his countryman, collegian, and contemporary ;

I mean Dr. Turner, dean of Wells, in a letter which he

wrote to Mr. Fox : De RidlcEo plura dicere possum, &c. I Fox's MS.

shall transcribe it into our vulgar lancruaae. " Concerning"

" Ridley, I am able to say things more, and more certain

" than you have in your book set down, as being born in

" the same country with him, and for many years his col- 229

" legian in Pembroke hall, and his opponent in theological

" exercises. He was born in my native county of Nor-

" thumberland, and sprung of the genteel pedigree of the

" Ridley s. One of his uncles was a knight, and another

" was doctor of divinity, who by the name of Robert Ridley

" was famous, not only at Cambridge, but at Paris, where
VOL. III. c c

386

MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP.

XXIX.

u

Anno 1555. it

His memo-

ry and ma-

nifold

knowledge.

Courteous.

Charitable, it

he long studied, and throughout Europe by the writings

of Polydore Virgil. At the charges of this doctor was

our Nicolas long maintained at Cambridge, afterwards at

Paris, and lastly at Louvain. After his return from the

schools beyond the seas, he lived with us for many years in

Pembroke hall ; but at length was called away from us

to the Bishop of Canterbury, whom he served faithfully.

And lastly, was raised to the dignity of a bishop. The

town where he was born was called Wilowmontiswick,

now Willowmont, in the Northumbrian language signi-

fying the duck of the rocks, or the rock duck ; and wick

signified vicus, or town, as appears in the words Anwic,

and Berwic, and Crowic.

" Concerning his memory, and his manifold knowledge

of tongues and arts, although I am able to be an ample

witness, (for he first instructed me in a further knowledge

of the Greek tongue,) yet, without my testimony, almost

all Cantabrigians, to whom he was sufficiently known,

will and can testify. How able he was in confuting or

overthrowing any thing, yet without any boasting or

noise of arms, not only I, but all with whom he disputed,

easily perceived ; unless he understood that they thirsted

more after glory than was fit; for this he used to set

himself more vigorously to crush. His behaviour was

very obliging and very pious, without hypocrisy or monk-

ish austerity ; for very often he would shoot in the bow

and play at tennis with me. If there were no other wit-

ness of his beneficence to the poor, I will testify this to

all, that before he was advanced to any ecclesiastical pre-

ferment, he carried me along in company with him to the

next hospital, and when I had nothing to give to the

poor, besides what he himself according to his estate libe-

rally gave, he often supplied me, that I might give too.

While he was himself in prison, what aid he sent out of

England to us in our exile in Germany, that learned man,

his faithful Achates, Dr. Edmund Grindal, now bishop

of London, can testify ; and many others, who were as-

sisted by his liberality. When therefore he was such a

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 387

" man, so learned, so chaste, and in all respects so holy; CHAP.

" what unmerciful, fierce, and cruel kings and bishops had XXIX -

" England then, who by their joint counsels conspired his Anno 1555.

" death, and delivered him to the executioners to be burnt

" alive, for no other crime, than that he asserted that Christ ,

" being true man, had a fixed, and not uncertain seat in

" heaven ; and attributed to him the supreme government

" on earth against the Roman Antichrist. Mighty impie-

" ties indeed ! for which so illustrious a prophet of Christ,

" and bishop, should be so heavily punished. O ! you, who

" joined in conspiring his death, while ye are yet alive, re-

" pent and confess, and acknowledge your tyranny before

" all, and with many prayers earnestly beg pardon of Al-

" mighty God, lest for this your horrible wickedness the

" whole kingdom be severely plagued. - " Thus Dr. Tur-

ner.
Dorman, an Oxford man, (who wrote certain books for 230

Popery, learnedly answered by Dean Noel,) was present at Latymer's

the burning of these two reverend fathers, and took notice llsinggun-

how they had gunpowder given them to apply to their bo-P owdercen "

dies, the sooner to be out of their pain : which he made a Disproof,

great matter of, as not at all agreeable to God's martyrs, by ' 19 "

any such acts to shorten their lives. " A kind of practice

" among Christ's martyrs never, I trow, heard of, the sooner

" to despatch themselves, as with my own eyes I saw Ridley

" and Latymer burned." And in the margin thus writ,

" This agreeth not with the martyrdom of Po^'carpus."

To which Noel made this answer, " That he [Dorman] Confuta-

" might justly lament, that he did see that wicked cruelty 1011 ' p '

" executed most unworthily upon so worthy men of learn-

" ing and virtue, and so reverend in age as the one, and in

" office and calling as they were both. But the more he

" might lament, that he reported that horrible wickedness

" and cruelty without lamenting therefore, yea, rather re-

" joicing highly therein." He added, " that Ignatius, that

" holy martyr, said, he would provoke and anger the beasts,

" that they might the more speedily tear him in pieces, and

" greedily devour him. And why may not the heat of fire

388

MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP.

XXIX.

Anno 1555.

be provoked, as well as the heat and fury of beasts?

Why may you," as he went on, " devise instruments and

means of long afflicting and tormenting of innocent and

true Christians, [as the Papists did by slack and lingering

fire made of green fuel, as in many places was done,] and

why may not they accept speedy means offered unto

them, whereby they might the sooner be rid from such

tyrants as you are, and be with Christ ? What opinion

soever you have of that use of gunpowder, you may

justly lay the cause thereof unto your own tyranny, and

long terrible roasting of some quick ; which, being heard of,

might cause some others, considering the infirmity of the

flesh, and loathing that kind of death, so dreadful to

man's nature, and fearing your most horrible cruelty, not

to refuse such helps of speedy death, to rid them the

rather from your tyranny, and bring them unto everlast-

ing refreshing."

CHAP. XXX.

Archbishop Cranmer burnt. His character. His subscrip-

tions : revoked.

c[anmer° P ArCHBISHOP Cranmer followed Ridley and Latymer

not long after, being burnt in the same place. It was

greatly desired that he might have lived, that by his excel-

lent pen and learning he might have still more exposed

Bishop Gardiner's book, that he wrote in defence of tran-

substantiation. " Transubstantiation, that bird of the De-

" vil," said a sharp pen in those days, " hatched by Pope

" Nicolas, and sith that time fostered and nourished by all

" his children, priests, friars, monks, &c. and in these last
" days chiefly by Steph. Gardiner, and his black brood
" God put wisdom in the tongues of his ministers and mes-

23 1 " sengers, to utter that vain vanity ; and especially gave

" such strength to the pen of that reverend father in God,

" Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, to cut the

" knots of devilish sophistry, linked and knit by the Devil's

burnt.

Knox's Ad

monition.

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 389

" Gardiner and his blind buzzards, to hold the verity of CHAP.

" God under bondage; that rather, I think, they shall xxx -

"condemn his works, (which notwithstanding shall conti- Anno 1555.

" nue and remain to their confusion,) than enterprise to

" answer the same. 1 '

Enough hath been said elsewhere, to recommend the me- TheArehte-

mory of this Archbishop. But not to let him pass here preacher?*

without some character as well as the rest, I shall, in a few

words, relate how he was accounted of in the reign of King

Henry VIII. and that from the pen of a person of eminence Sir Rich,

and public character that lived in those times. " He used A maxis

" to preach often, and was a minister of the heavenly doc-

** trine. The subject of his sermons for the most part were,

" from whence salvation was to be fetched, and on whom

" the confidence of man ought to lean. He insisted much

" upon the doctrines of faith and works, and taught what

" the fruits of faith were, and what place was to be given

" to works. He instructed men in the duties they ought

" their neighbours, and that every one was our neighbour,

" whom we might profit. He declared what it was fit men

" should think of themselves when they had done all : and

" lastly, what promises Christ had made, and who they

" were to whom he would make them good. And these his

" holy doctrines he strengthened with plenty of quotations

" out of the holy Scriptures, not out of the schoolmen's

" decrees, or later councils : and he recommended them

" with great integrity of life. Thus he brought in the true

" preaching of the gospel, altogether different from the or-

" dinary way of preaching in those days ; which was to treat

" concerning the saints, and to tell legendary tales of them,

" and to report miracles wrought for the confirmation of

" transubstantiation, and other Popish corruptions. And,

" that such a heat and conviction accompanied the Arch-

" bishop's sermons, that the people departed from them with

" minds possessed with a great hatred of vice, and burn-

" ing with a desire of virtue. And as for the endowments Hls excel *
„ , . , , lent endnw-
" of his mind, such was his singular modesty, rare pru-, ne nts.

" dence, exemplary piety and innocence, that it even eclipsed

q c3

390 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAT. " that extraordinary learning that all acknowledged to be
1 ' " in him : insomuch that my author, at last, breaks out into
Anno 1555. " this expression ; that he could not but most heartily bless
" God, and congratulate his native country, that piety so
"• strove in this most reverend man with learning, that one
" might say more truly, that both, rather than either, had
" the victory."
Alex. Ales, Or if you will rather hear what a very learned foreigner,
terofhim. »*£• Alexander Ales, a Scotchman, but professor at Leip-
sich, spake of this Archbishop, one who was well acquainted
with him in the days of King Henry. He thus described
him in a letter to a friend : " That he could not but love
" him, and that the admiration of his excellent learning and
" most accurate judgment did wonderfully increase that
" love in him ; as also his constant indefatigable study in
" searching for and finding out the truth of difficult ques-
" tions in divinity, from the most ancient and approved
" writers ; his munificence and liberality in inquiring after
" and cherishing learned men of all nations ; his benignity,
232 " affability, goodness in treating, favouring, and defending,
" as all good and pious men, so especially strangers, toge-
" ther with the rest of his worthy and heroic virtues : a
" catalogue of which, as it would require a long work to
" draw up, so there would be no need of it, since they were
" so well known, not only all England over, but to Britany
" in Scotland, also France, Germany, and other realms.
" But one thing, in short, he would add, that in his whole
" life, and through all his long travels, in which he had
" acquainted himself with the places and customs of the
" world, he never saw a more learned bishop, more grave,
M more prudent, more pious, courteous, affable, nor more
" beneficent. And this he was wont to speak of to all
*' wheresoever he had any familiar converse."
He M,b- Other historians speak of this Archbishop's recantation,
divers re- which he made upon the incessant solicitations and tempta-
cantations. t \ onfi f tne p pi s h zealots at Oxford. Which unworthy
compliance he was at last prevailed with to submit to,
partly by the flattery and terror suggested to him, and

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 391

partly by the hardship of his own strait imprisonment in CHAP.

Bocardo. Our writers mention only one recantation, and '__

that Fox hath set down, wherein they follow him. But this Anno 1555.

is but an imperfect relation of this good man's frailty : I

shall therefore endeavour here to set down this piece of his

history more distinctly. There were several recanting writ-

ings, to which Cranmer subscribed one after another : for

after the unhappy Bishop, by over-persuasion, wrote one

paper with his subscription set to it, which he thought to

pen so favourably and dexterously for himself, that he

might evade both the danger from the State, and the dan-

ger of his conscience too ; that would not serve, but another

was required as explanatory of that. And when he had

complied with that, yet either because writ too briefly or

too ambiguously, neither would that serve, but drew on a

third, yet fuller and more expressive than the former. Nor

could he escape so, but still a fourth and a fifth paper of

recantation was demanded of him, to be more large and

more particular: nay, and lastly, a sixth, which was very

prolix, containing an acknowledgment of all the forsaken

and detested errors and superstitions of Rome, an abhor-

rence of his own books, and a vilifying of himself as a per-

secutor, a blasphemer, a mischiefmaker ; nay, and as the

wickedest wretch that lived. And this was not all ; but

after they had thus humbled and mortified the miserable

man with recantations and subscriptions, submissions and

abjurations, putting words into his mouth which his heart

abhorred ; by all this drudgery they would not permit him