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Dr. Smith i^jg recantation, or (as he rather chose to call it) his retrac-
And"why. ^^^^ after, came up in public, and recanted, as he had done at London. But, it seems, it was done by him by halves : for instead of declaring at length, plainly and fully, the tenor of what he had said at St. Paul's, he insisted much in shewing his auditory, that what he then said was not so much a recantation as a retractation. And then took occa- sion to fall foul upon some that beUeved not the real, that is, the corporeal presence. He wrote also letters to his friends, denying he had made a recantation. This occa- sioned many persons to talk, that Smith still retained his errors, and trod in his old steps : and therefore that the re- cantation he had published, either was not his, or that he was forced to it, and did it unwillingly. Therefore Smith came up again publicly in Oxford, not in August, (as was mistaken in the Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer,) but the 9. of the calends of August, that is, July 24, and then read his whole recantation, verbatim, which he had made before at St. Paul's : having first made a large preface, shewing the reasons of his coming up there again. Therein His preface he acknowledged, " that the distinction he had lately made, cond^ecan- " ^^ ^^^ offencc of many, between recantation and retract- tation. «« ation, was frivolous, both words signifying the very same " thing ; and that the true reason he had affected the word " was to palliate and excuse his own recantation. That it " troubled him, that by that obscurity he should deceive " any. And whereas, after his recantation, he had writ " and scattered his letters, wherein he laboured to ex- " cuse himself to his friends, and dissembled his doings, " seeming more studious to preserve his name and credit, " than openly to avouch the true doctrine ; he now declar- " ed, that all he had afterwards writ in letters, or deli- " vered in his lectures, he renounced and revoked as false
OF KING EDWARD VI. 63 " and erroneous." And then he proceeds to read the whole CHAP. recantation, as he had made it before in London. ^^' Which began thus: " Men and brethren, the holy Pro- Anno 1547. " phet David left it written. Evert/ man is a liar, &c."40 The sum of this recantation may be read in the Appendix to Cranmer's Memorials. The whole of it in Peter Mar- tyr's works. In the conclusion of this his recantation, as he had prefaced something before it, so he subjoined some- thing. And this it was, " that whereas some had been Smith de- " offended with an assertion of his about justification, which s^trabout ' " was, that four things were required therein, God's pro-justifica- " mise, Christ's merits, the worthiness of the person, and *' of the works : taking what he said of the works of a man " already justified, as spoken by him of a man in order to " his justifying. But to satisfy all, this he now said, and " this he affirmed, that this doctrine, that we are justified " by faith in Christ alone, is not new, nor lately found out, Pa. 1642. " but very ancient, taught by the most ancient doctors, 1531.**' " Origen, Basil, Chrysostom, and others. That they se- " eluded all the merits of men, however specious, and " ascribed to Christ alone the glory and merit of our justi- " fication, and to his sacred blood and passion : by which " alone we are sanctified, delivered, justified. And that " this doctrine was delivered by them for this end, that all " glorying might be taken away, and that men should ac- " knowledge their own weakness and infirmity. Yet, that " it is not lawful for a Christian to despise good works, or " that the Christian life should be slothful and destitute of " the fear of God, of hope, repentance, amendment, cha- " rity, prayer, fasts, almsdeeds, and other good works; but " truly to acknowledge, that when we have done all, we are " unprofitable servants, not worthy to have thanks given us " for our works ; but to confess that we are saved by the " mere mercy of God, for the merits of his beloved Son."" And this was the sum of Smith's recantation at Oxford.
moved, and P. Martyr was sent down by the King's au- ^°^'® P^^^^* 64 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK thority, and took the chair. At which Smith conceived a ^' secret indignation, and returned to all the popish doctrines Anno 1547. that he had revoked. But yet for a while frequented Mar- tyr's lectures, and took notes, as though he had been one of his diligent and glad auditors. But all this was but dis- simulation : for it was not long after, that he made a great hubbub in the University, and pubhcly challenged that grave and learned man to a disputation, as hath been related Pa. 199. in the Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer. But before the Lovain! ^^J appointed for it came, he was fled, first to Scotland, as it seems, and soon after to Lovain : where he soon printed his book for the Celibacy of Priests, and Monastic Vows, against P. Martyr ; though it were at first designed to go forth against Martin Luther. Which book Martyr answered learnedly, in a just treatise extant among his works. At the end of which treatise he set down Smith's recantation, and a narration of his fickleness divers years past, when he read in the behalf of justification by faith alone, one day. Bishop Latimer being his auditor, and against it the very next. And two submissive letters writ by him to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury from Scotland. And to At Lovain he could not tarry long, but departed thence Paris, ^Q Paris, where he professed divinity. And here, toward where he , « i -. ^^/^ i • i j ^• printed his the latter end of the year 1550 he prmted a second time a^'ai^ist ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Celibacy of Priests, against Martyr, having Martyr. gall and bitterness in the very title, which ran thus : De- ^^fensio sacri Episcoporum et Sacerdotum cceUbattis contra impias et indoctas Petri Martyris VermUii nugas et ca- lumnias, quce ille Oxonii in Anglia duobus retro annis in sacerdotalium nuptiarum assertionem temere effutivit, &c. That is, A Defence of the holy single Ife of Bishops and Priests, against the impious and unlearned trifles and slanders of P. Martyr Vermilius, which two years ago he rashly uttered at Oxford in England, upon the assertion of Priests'" marriages. By Rich, Smith, an Englishman, formerly for a great while professing Divinity at Oxford, and noxo at Paris. Also a short book by the same author, concerning Monastic Vows, against the same Martyr, and OF KING EDWARD VI. 65 others of this sort. Both 7mw the second time coming forth CHAP. more correct and exact. And in this second edition also 1_ was pretended, by the title-page, to be a refutation of Po- Anno 1547, net, who had writ upon this argument : though there be nothing in the book against him, unless now and then in the margin these and such like words. Hue adverte oculos, Po7iete, et errorem agnosce tuum. This book he dedicated Coiiegii to David Haliburton, the head of a college in Scotland, neusis ?"«¦ (who, I suppose, had entertained him in some of his flights,) pos'to. calhng him his best friend, and to whom he was very much obliged. In this epistle he is ready to die in the quarrel of the Papal religion, which he styled Chrisfs faith. And in his recantation, not long before, he professed himself ready to die for the contrary doctrines. Which was a sign he meant to die for neither. In the said epistle he cried aloud of the troubles of Eng-Observa- land, as caused by the religion; "that the nation was [^"^"'p'?^^*^'' " every where afflicted with so great miseries, shaken with dedicatory. " so many differences of sects, tossed with so many waves '' of divers opinions, as scarcely any country ever before " was. How many and various popular tumults have he- " resies, said he, brought forth in our land ! What miser- " able conspiracies have the sects raised ; the end of which " hath been bloody!" [He means the rebellion in the west, and other countries ; which yet was raised and carried on by no other sect than Papists : but he, being to be read in a foreign country, would charge most falsely these tumults upon the sects and heresies, by which he meant the Gos- pellers.] And then he added, " Are not these evils open " tokens of God's anger ? Doth it not appear hence, that " the newsprung religion is displeasing to God T'' In this epistle he ventured his credit to say, " that there were more " by twenty times, nay, by a hundred times, in England, that " did abhor these sects, and wished for nothing more, than " that all the heresies were totally overthrown, and that the " old religion of Christ, and the ancient rites of worship- " ping God, might be restored." He added, with as much forehead, and with as little care of truth, " that, of the more
66 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK « learned and pious sort in England, none hitherto joined ^' " with the sects ; but all such constantly, and with fervent ^nno 1547." mind and strong resolution, opposed them.'' Lying noto- riously, if in the number of these pious and learned men he reckoned himself and Chedsey, and divers others, that re- canted and complied in this reign, though some of them fell off again soon after, ie caium- And mentioning with extraordinary honour the Bishops ioper's of Winton and London, Wigorn and Chichester, and some ireaching. Qt]^ers who had undergone punishments from the state, he 42closeth up all with a most malicious lying story of that reverend man Mr. Hoper, viz. " That after he began to " preach in London, about one or two years ago, [towards " the beginning of King Edward,] he was so admired by " the people, that they held him for a prophet, nay, they " looked upon him as some deity. But that now he was, by " the impulse of his own spirit, sunk into the depth of error " and ignorance, that he was not content to thunder in his " pulpit against all the doctrines of the ancient and apo- " stolical Church, and to teach his disciples the highest con- " tempt of all the sacraments, to esteem the holy Eucharist " no more than a wheaten loaf, and the holy wine but " what was pressed from the grape ; but he must affirm, " that by one act of fornication, one designation of adultery, " marriage was so dissolved, that he who once had to do " carnally with another man's wife became thereby the " husband of that woman ; as though, said he, one unclean " act alone was the cause of marriage." But as he went on with his story, " to preach these things was not enough for " him, unless he added other things more estranged from '' truth. For which he was called, saith he, before the ma- *' gistrates, and being brought to the bar was found guilty, " and had sentence pronounced upon him. But when cru- " cem commej'uit, he deserved hang'mg^^'' as he charitably said, " he was only silenced ; being so gently dealt with, " because his judges were of the sectaries, as he was." And then our author presently roars out against the injustice of the judges, and how partial they were. So apt was this
OF KING EDWARD VI. 67 man and his party to run away with any silly stories, if CHAP, they were but black enough to represent Protestant mi- nisters as very black men. When as the true reason why Anno 1547 Mr. Hoper was enjoined silence was nothing else but be- cause he had preached against the habits. But Smith will tell you another story of him, that he was guilty of a com- plication of gross heresies. For so he writes somewhere in Pag. 60. b. the margin of his book : Legat hcec Hoperus^ &c. " Let " Hoper read this, who at this time is called into question, " and accused of divers horrid heresies. For they report " that he defends the heresies of the Arians, Anabaptists, " and Libertines." And all this is the entertainment he gave to Mr. Haliburton in his epistle to him. In his epistle to the reader he speaks boastingly of three Observa- books he published about four years before, that in 1546 ^f i,jg ^_ or 47, viz. 1. His Defence of the Eucharist against theP'stieto
3. Of the Traditions of the Church. But he doth not speak a word how he had himself openly recanted the two latter the same year 1547, both at London and Oxon. No, that he thought fit to conceal ; only bragged, that now in four years no man had answered them ; only in pulpits many had ignorantly inveighed against them. But what needed they to be answered, when he himself had done it, by dis- claiming and confuting the two latter of them so publicly : and probably he would so have done the first had he been required. But QEcolampadius's doctrine was not counte- nanced in King Edward's days. He tells his reader, moreover, what he had printed, so what more he had ready for the press, namely, another dis- course against P. Martyr, and such as he ; and another of the Holy FAicharist, and another of Purgatory, and an- other of the Images oj" Christ and the Saints., and another of Pulling dozmi Churches, and another of Talcing away 4^^ Altai's and Wax-candles; besides theological topics; with other things which he promised in a short time to set forth, if his present published work was not ungrateful to his reader. But whether these pieces ever came abroad, I can- 68 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK not tell; and I suppose they did not, notwithstanding this ^' manner of begging the sale of this book, by promising more Anno 1547. tO follow. The book As for the book itself, it consists but of three chapters. itself. rpj^g ^j,g^. ^Q pi-ove the celibacy by Scripture, the second by Fathers, and the third to confute the arguments brought by the adversaries. The whole book is levelled against P. Martyr ; but that he might take in certain others, who had writ for or approved the marriage of priests, as Cranmer, Cox, Ponet, Hoper, he had a very novel way of confuting them, namely, by httle short flings at them, ever and anon, in the margin, after this manner ; Licet aliud impi^ cloceat Thomas Cantuaiieiisis. Lege lioc^ Coxe^ et resipisce. LIuc adverte ocidos, Po7iete, et error em agnosce tiium. Lege, Hopere; vide Hoper e, ut scias quam Jhede lapsus sis in enarrando mandatum Dei septimum : and many such like. But especially he is plentiful in these marginal mementos to P. Martyr: as. Quid ad hcBc mussites, Petre? Dam- natur ergo Petrus. Quid ad hcEc vel hisces, Petre 9 Con- nives ad hcec, Petre f Redde Altissimo vota tua, O Mar- tyr, &c. Reflections I shall take no farther notice of this book, except that the AiJh" towards the conclusion there be base and unmannerly re- i)ishop of flections upon the good Archbishop of Canterbury, relating Canterbury. ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^j^ . where. Speaking of an article in the Council of Nice, pretended to forbid marriage to priests, he thus accosts him ; Cur non lectitas hcEC Synodi hujus sacrosanctcB ve^'ba, Thoma Cantuaj'iensis PrcBsid, &c. " Thomas Bishop of Canterbury, why do you not read " these words of the sacred Council, that you may the " sooner and readier acknowledge how you are detained in " an evident error, while you think a wife is lawful for " you, whom you have so long abused for the fulfilling of " your lust ? Do not drive our countrymen from reading " this [my] book, as lately you have forbid that my Confu- " tation should be read by any, which I lately wrote in " English, against that ungodly book published concerning " the Eucharist. Which plainly sheweth, that you distrust
OF KING EDWARD VI. 69 " your own cause, and fear lest your blindness and wicked CHAP. " ignorance, and theirs by whose labour that book was " patched up, be by any discovered. But what you did, Anno 154 " hath more hurt than helped your purpose. For what " wise man will think your doctrine true, and well defended " and fortified with solid reasons, when he should see you " so earnestly and diligently labouring, and so anxiously " providing, that what is writ against it be not read ? Was " the Gospel of Christ propagated by such arts as ye now " are not ashamed to use ? For with you neither learning " nor any reasons, however solid and enforcing, have any " weight ; with you all the sacred councils lie contemned ; " the judgments of the ancients, however pious and learned, " are thrown by, and the authority of Christ's Church is of " no value. Is it not hence, that daily so many abominable " sects arise up among you ? Whence, I beseech you, are so " many Arians, Anabaptists, Libertines ; whose heresies, '' the report goes, John Hoper, our countryman, defends, " who so long hath been esteemed among you little less " than a prophet ? Doth it not proceed from the contempt " of the Church and the Fathers ? Take heed that God 44 " give you not up to a reprobate mind ; and so by little " and little ye fall into most cursed heresies, and make way " for Antichrist." Thus did this man, without fear or wit, let fly at the Smith's le most reverend Prelate, partly to recommend himself the^^[jfp"^_ more at Paris, where he now was, and partly to revenge mises to himself upon the Archbishop, who, it seems, had not, at his desire and promise of submission, procured him a par- don from the King, and a safe admission into England out of Scotland, whither he had fled. For not long before this, for certain misdemeanours he seemed to have been committed to the Archbishop's custody at Lambeth. Where he was by the gentle Archbishop used with all courtesy, and re- ceived from him many benefits, and particularly satisfaction in the controverted points. But Smith takes his opportu- nity, and on a sudden secretly made his escape, fled beyond
70 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL BOOK sea, and at length comes into Scotland. Thence, after some time, weary of that country, or that country of him, he Anno 1547. addressed to the Archbishop his letters from St. Andrew^s, fn y M^ one writ in January, and two more in February ; " ac- De Vot. " knowledging his sudden and rash departure from him, and J!^654.' " P^^y^"g ^^^^t ^^is Grace would forgive the wrongs he had " done him, repenting his evil deeds, and that he would '* obtain for him the King's pardon in writing, for the " transgression of his laws in all points, that he might re- " turn home again in safety. And promising, that then he " would make a just satisfaction for what he had wrote " against priests' marriage, by writing a book in Latin for " it, and that he would willingly embrace all other doc- " trines lately established. But otherwise, if he continued " there where he was, a quarter of a year longer, he pre- " tended he must be obliged to write against the Archbi- " shop's book of the Sacrament, and to compose a discourse " against all King Edward's proceedings : which, he said, *' he could not with a good conscience do. And then vain- " gloriously added, that he desired to return home, not so " much that he wanted any good livelihood where he was, " as because it would be dishonourable to the King and " realm, if he should tarry there." But I do not find his return into England, nor a pardon procured for him. Whereupon, I suppose, he was as good as his word, and wrote against the Archbishop's book, and inserted those rude and spiteful lines against him in the book above mentioned. Urges justi. Jn fj^e, to take our leave of this man, to shew how sfiddv
LaTimer!"'^ conscience, whom the Papists esteem one of their best champions in those days, I will relate a passage of him, which P. Martyr received from one who was present at the matter. When this public reader of Divinity, about the year 1537, or 1538, had understood that Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, was the next day to pass through Oxford to- wards London, and was hke to be present at his lecture, he OF KING EDWARD VI. 71 laid aside his ordinary reading, and for that day read out of CHAi the iifth chapter to the Romans. And then urged most earn- ^^' estly the doctrine of justification by faith alone, without Anno 15 works, without merits, and termed the faith that justified, soUsslma et unis-nma. The Bishop, who was then one of his auditors, after he had done, thanked him, and told him, he perceived he had been mistaken in him, and promised that he would, as occasion offered, recommend him favour- ably to the King. But when the same day Dr. Cotes, and two abbots named King and Masse, and some other of Ber-45 nard college, had argued with him, and charged him sharply for reading such a lecture ; the next day he, in the same place where he had read before, revoked all he had said, and asserted quite the contrary doctrine ; and acknow- ledged that what he had read the day before was done out And re- of fear, being astonished at the presence of so great a man, [,°e 'Lxt and so unusual a multitude of auditors, and praying, that day. they would attribute it to his youth ; at that time plucking off his cap, whereby every one saw his gray hairs, which caused laughter. England had been largely replenished with bell-metal Beii-meta since the dissolution of the monasteries ; and vast quantities "xported^; Yüklə 12,09 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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