CHAPTER XIV.

1540.

The fall of Cromwell-Cranmer's letter in behalf of himEndeavour to involve Cranmer in his ruin-The king favours Cranmer—Discussions and written opinions in order to the production of the Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man-Those of the archbishop in particular.

THE ill-starred marriage, which Cromwell had advised, precipitated his ruin. Other circumstances indeed contributed to it. By the Romish party he was hated as their greatest enemy; by the Reformed he was not regarded as their constant friend; by the people in general he was unbeloved as imposing upon them heavy burthens of taxation. While Anne of Cleves at this time was unable to obtain the proper regard of Henry, Catharine Howard, the niece of the duke of Norfolk, was effecting by her charms an easy way to the throne, as well as to the downfall of him who had brought Anne to England. On the 13th of June in 1540 the duke preferred against the minister, who but two months before had been

created earl of Essex, a charge of high treason, and he was committed to the Tower. Heresy also was alleged against him. The concern of Cranmer for his useful associate, and beloved friend, was thus expressed to Henry on the day after the arrest; "boldly," as lord Herbert describes it," considering the times," rather than "2 with timidity," as stated by Dr. Lingard.

Though yesterday," said the archbishop to his sovereign," he heard in his Grace's Council that Cromwell is a traitor: yet who cannot but be sorrowful and amazed that he should be a traitor against your Majesty? he, that was so advanced by your Majesty; he, whose surety was only by your Majesty; he, who loved your Majesty, as I ever thought, no less than God; he, who studied always to set forward whatsoever was his Majesty's will and pleasure; he, that cared for no

3

'Hen. VIII. ed. 1549. 457.

2 Hist. of Eng. 8vo. vi. 398.

"Cromwell's ministry was in a constant course of flattery and submission; but by that he did great things that amaze every one who has considered them well. The setting up of the king's supremacy instead of the usurpations of the papacy, and the rooting out the monastic state in England, considering the wealth, the numbers, and the zeal of the monks and friars in all parts of the kingdom, as it was a very bold undertaking, so it was executed with great method, and performed in so short a time, and with so few of the convulsions that might have been expected, that all this shews what a master he was, who could bring such a design to be finished in so few years with so little trouble or danger." Burnet.

man's displeasure to serve your Majesty; he that was such a servant, in my judgment, in wisdom, diligence, faithfulness, and experience, as no prince in this realm ever had; he that was so vigilant to preserve your Majesty from all treasons, that few could be so secretly conceived but he detected the same in the beginning? If the noble princes of memory, king John, Henry the second, and Richard the second, had had such a councillor about them, I suppose they should never have been so traitorously abandoned, and overthrown, as those good princes were. I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be; but I chiefly loved him for the love, which I thought I saw him bear ever towards your Grace singularly above all other. But now, if he be a traitor, I am sorry that ever I loved him, or trusted him, and am very glad that his treason is discovered in time. But yet again I am very sorrowful. For whom shall your Grace trust hereafter, if you might not trust him? Alas, I bewail and lament your Grace's chance herein; I wot not whom your Grace may trust. But I pray God continually, night and day, to send such a councillor in his place whom your Grace may trust, and who will have as much solicitude and care to preserve your Grace from all danger as I ever thought he had."

Five days afterwards, whether convinced, or persuaded, that the purity of the great statesman U 4

VOL. I.

in certain cases had been questionable, Cranmer on the second and third readings of the bill of attainder against him, offered 'no dissent. While he was on his way to the Tower, Cromwell had been treated with unfeeling insolence by his enemies. During the short interval, which Henry's hasty passion for Catharine Howard permitted between his commitment and execution, he was further insulted, according to Warton, 2 in a ballad written by a defender of the declining cause of popery, who certainly shewed more zeal, than courage, in reproaching a disgraced minister and a dying man. This satire, however unseemly, gave rise, it is said, to a religious controversy in verse, which is preserved in the archives of the Antiquarian Society. But the memory of the man to whom, no less than to Cranmer, the dispersion of the Scriptures, with the full liberty to read them, is due, cannot but ever be honourably and gratefully remembered by a Protestant country.

It had been in the early part of this year that, by the advice of Cromwell, several bishops and divines were commissioned by the king to examine religious points; the German reformers being still desirous of further conferences with the English, and the Six Articles being almost universally detested. After the apprehension of

1 Journals of the House of Lords.

Hist. of English Poetry, sect. 44.

Cromwell, however, "the adversaries of the Gospel," says Foxe, "thought all things sure upon their side." Those commissioners, who were of the Romish party, accordingly proposed certain articles of doctrine to be the test of orthodoxy, to which they were well aware the archbishop was wholly averse. The blow, which was thus meditated against the Reformed religion in this country, Cranmer, sole opponent to the adversaries, was however able to turn aside. To the bishops of Rochester and Hereford, who had promised him their support, and who not only withheld it, but were even induced to tempt him to the base desertion themselves had shewn, he thus replied, "You make much ado to have me come to your purpose, alleging that it is the king's pleasure to have the articles in that sort you have devised them to proceed. And now that you perceive his Highness by sinister information to be bent that way, you think it a convenient thing to apply unto his Highness's mind. You are both my friends; especially one of you, whom I did put to his Majesty as of trust. Beware what you do. There is but one truth in our articles to be concluded upon, which if you hide from his Highness by consenting to a contrary doctrine, and then after, in process of time, when the truth cannot be hidden from him, he

Heath, bishop of Rochester. See before, p. 148, the archbishop's character of him.