CHAPTER IV.

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1555.

Cranmer's and other books prohibited—The reunion of the Church of England with that of Rome-Proceedings against Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, renewed-Cranmer first brought before the papal commissioners-His condemnation deferred-Ridley and Latimer condemned and burnt-The conduct of Cranmer upon that occasion.

THE Convocation in the preceding year had petitioned the king and queen, that Cranmer's treatise of the sacrament, the late service-books, and others which they named heretical, should be burnt; that all who possessed them should be required to bring them in, or else be treated as the favourers of heresy; and that upon books henceforward printed, or to be sold, a vigilant eye should be kept. Accordingly the royal 2 proclamation did prohibit, though it consigned not to the flames, all the writings not only of Cranmer, and of our countrymen, Tindal, Hooper,

1 Burnet. Strype.

2 Ames, 518.

Latimer, Coverdale, Barnes, Turner, Becon, Frith, Bale, and even Hall, the chronicler; but those also of the distinguished foreigners, Oecolampadius, Zuinglius, Calvin, Pomerane, John à Lasco, Bullinger, Bucer, Melancthon, Ochin, Erasmus, and Peter Martyr.

Before the close also of 1554, Pole, the legate of the papal see, had reached this country, in order to reunite the Church of England with that of Rome. The palace, of which Cranmer had been dispossessed, was prepared for his residence. The distinction of supreme head now no longer accompanied the regal title; and the power of the pontiff would again have here been absolute, if he had been able to withhold his assurance of the abbey lands to the new owners, the lords and gentlemen by whom they had been obtained. Even the Roman Catholic prelates and clergy petitioned, that he would not insist on a restitution of these revenues. But lest he might, an Act of Parliament was passed, which gave to the present proprietors the security they required; while, in return, the pontiff, although most essentially weakened by the alienation of that wealth on which his power so much depended, was reinstated in his supremacy.

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The new year opened to Cranmer, and his fellow-prisoners, with no alleviation of their me

"Warton, Life of Sir T. Pope, 43.

lancholy state. Nearly nine months had passed when the condemnation, which Weston had pronounced upon them, was considered necessary to be repeated by commissioners who should derive their authority from Rome. When Weston was their judge, that authority had not been received in England; nor by any law then in force was his sentence justifiable. By the legate therefore a commission was issued to examine, absolve, or degrade, or deliver to the secular arm, Latimer and Ridley. In regard to Cranmer, another was sent by the pope himself. To Brookes, bishop of Gloucester, on this occasion the delegate of the cardinal de Puteo, who was the principal commissioner named by the pontiff, for the sake of form; and to the civilians Martin and Story, who were the royal proctors; was deputed the cognizance of the crimes alleged against the archbishop. On the 19th of September they opened their commission in the church of St. Mary at Oxford, and settled other preliminaries as to the proceeding. It was not till the 12th that all things were ready for the renovated trial. Brookes then was seated on a lofty scaffold, erected over the high altar; beneath him were the proctors, with other civilians; and around them a numerous auditory. From his prison guarded, Cranmer then was intro

1 Processus contra Cranmerum. MSS. Lambeth. Lib. No. 1136.

duced. His dress was that of a black gown, with his doctor's hood over it. His head was as yet covered. Nor, when he saw the papal representative on his throne, did he "vail his bonnet," but stood silent till the charge against him was proclaimed, which was, "Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, appear here, and make answer to that which shall be laid to thy charge; that is to say, for blasphemy, incontinency, and heresy; and make answer here to the bishop of Gloucester, representing the pope's person."

Being now brought nearer to the scaffold, and observing the regal proctors, to them, as the representatives of the sovereign, he respectfully bowed, and pulled off his cap. To Brookes he still refused this tribute; when the mitred commissioner, resenting the slight, told him, it might beseem him well, considering the authority that was represented, not to withhold from him the same courteous acknowledgment. The archbishop answered, 'That once he had taken a solemn oath, never to consent to the readmission, into the realm of England, of the papal authority; that still he would keep that oath; and that therefore no sign or token, which might argue his consent to receiving the same, would he give: Not for any contempt of the commissioner's person, he continued, did he thus act; for if his

1 Foxe. Burnet. Strype.

proc

commission had been regal, like that of the tors, instead of papal, he would not have failed immediately to respect it.

Brookes then addressed him in a long speech, no less distinguished by 'absurdity than by abuse, in which he reminded him of the charges proclaimed against him; urged him to repent of his apostasy; bade him consider in his own case the tender mercies of Mary, by pretending that yet she spared him, under the hope of amendment; and condescended to be the first of those treacherous advisers, who, in order to make him " unsay what he had said," resorted to the gullery with which the poor archbishop was afterwards befooled and cheated, saying, " As for the loss of your estimation, it is ten to one that when you were archbishop of Canterbury, and metropolitan of England, it is ten to one, I say, that you shall be as well still, yea, and rather better."

The proctor Martin followed the delegate in an oration, condensing the insolence of the latter

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Brookes republished in 1555 the sermon which he had preached late in 1553 before Mary, and had then printed, on the subject of Jairus's speech to Christ, "My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.” These words he applied to the kingdom and church of England upon the late defection from the pope, even dead before Mary came to reign, but then reviving and living again. The Protestants rightly censured him as making himself Jairus, England his daughter, and the queen Christ. Strype. Ecc. Mem. iii. 74.