1

3

of another translation by Sir John Cheke. Other services of Aless as a Reformer are recorded. In 1535 he read lectures on divinity at Cambridge, but, being there opposed by the Roman Catholic party, returned to London, studied medicine, and then repaired again to Germany, whither he had fled before from persecution in his own country. He had published in 1533 a 2 letter against the decree of those bishops in Scotland, who prohibited the use of the New Testament in the vernacular tongue; and afterwards a treatise "of the authority of the Word of God against the bishop of London, (Stokesley,) wherein are contained. certain disputations had in the parliament house between the bishops, about the number of the sacraments, and other things very necessary to be known." His skill in composition must have been of very high character, if, as Strype represents it, "Melancthon made use of him in composing his thoughts into a handsome style, as did another great light of the same nation, I mean Bucer." And yet Melancthon has been celebrated for the purity of his diction, as well as his acquaintance with all kinds of learning. The belief of this literary aid may have been hastily formed from 1 See vol. i. p. 149.

2 Ames, 574. Alex. Alesii Epistola contra decretum quoddam episcoporum in Scotia, quod prohibet legere Novi Testamenti libros lingua vernacula. Uncertain where printed.

3 Wordsworth, Ecc. Biog. ii. 303.

218 THE LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.

1

the circumstance of Melancthon having furnished Aless, for a treatise which he wrote to vindicate Protestants from the charge of schism brought against them by Romanists, both with matter and argument, which Aless would adapt to his own manner of writing. Then as to Bucer, Strype offers no other proof of the assistance alleged, than that the professor had written a book in German about the ordination to the ministry in this kingdom, which Aless turned into Latin, and published" for the consolation of the Churches every where in those sad times," as it ran in the title; but Bucer wrote no such work. Had Strype looked beyond the title of the treatise, "1he could not have fallen into so unaccountable an error. Among the Scripta Anglicana of Bucer, occurs the following Ordinatio Ecclesiæ, seu Ministerii Ecclesiastici, in florentissimo regno Angliæ, conscripta sermone patrio, et in Latinam linguam bona fide conversa, et ad consolationem Ecclesiarum Christi ubicunque locorum ac gentium, his tristibus temporibus, edita ab Alex. Alessio.' This is no other than a translation of our own Common Prayer Book, as originally compiled into Latin; a translation which Bucer, who was unacquainted with English, used in the observations which he made upon it, previously to its revision by a committee of bishops and divines in the latter part of Edward's reign."

CHAPTER IX.

1549 to 1551.

Cranmer's foreign correspondence-Design of a general union among the Protestant Churches-Cranmer's endeavours to this purpose-Writes to Melancthon, Calvin, and Bullinger, on the subject-Bullinger's address to Edward VI.—Character of Bullinger's sermons Character of Cranmer's sermons- -Bucer on the concord of the Protestant ChurchesCranmer resolves on a national confession of faith-Hooper promoted to the see of Gloucester-refuses at first to be consecrated in the usual episcopal dress-Conduct of Cranmer on this occasion―The controversy as to the habits-Hooper submits-The controversy as to the altars-The bishops Day and Heath deprived in consequence of that controversy.

1

A correspondence with other great Reformers, and with most of the learned men in Europe, Cranmer had now long held. It was so extensive, that at Canterbury he had fixed an agent to forward and receive the communications.

From

many foreign dependants on his bounty too, in Germany more especially, he would obtain frequent intelligence. There he had assigned to many scholars, in the reign of Henry, an annual salary to aid their studies in the cause of Protestantism. The celebrated John Sleidan, of that country, he was now prompting to proceed with his history of the Reformation, and soon procured for him the encouragement of a considerable pension from the sovereign of our own country.

The design of a general union among the Protestant Churches had now been suggested. The foreign Reformers had beheld with great satisfaction the opening of Edward's reign, and are 'said to have soon afterwards addressed him upon the projected alliance, offering to place him at the head of it, and to adopt our form of episcopal government. Calvin, Bullinger, and others, are 2 stated as the framers of this plan, and to have thus excited the fears of the Romish hierarchy, that the success of it would lead to her fall. lancthon had long before repeatedly expressed the wish, that an authoritative standard of doctrine and discipline might be established by a general

1

Me

Strype, Life of Cranm. B. 2, ch. 15, where he merely refers to Foxes and Firebrands, Part II., in which the information is gathered from a letter preserved by Sir Henry Sidney, which he had met with in Queen Elizabeth's closet, among other papers that had belonged to queen Mary.

2 Foxes and Firebrands, &c. edit. 1682, P. II. p. 12.

congress of Reformed divines. Such was also the union that Cranmer, from 1548 to 1550, in vain laboured to effect. To Melancthon he first frankly stated his belief, that the wide differences among Protestants, in regard to the sacraments, the divine decrees, and ecclesiastical government, were to their enemies the cause of censure, and to their friends of sorrow. He therefore trusted that a friendly debate, by learned theologians of the several Churches, upon the points of controversy, might lead to the desired coalition. To Calvin, and to Bullinger, he afterwards applied with similar earnestness, proposing England as a place where the consultations might be held with greatest safety.

Melancthon answered, If my judgment and opinion were required, on such an occasion, I should be willing to hear both the sense of other learned men, and to speak my own, giving my reasons, persuading and being persuaded, as it ought to be in a conference of good men ; allowing truth, and the glory of God, and the safety of the Church, not any private affection, to bear away the palm. The more I consider your proposal, he continued, the more I wish you to publish, in conformity to the judgment of learned men, a clear Confession of Christian doctrine, to which their names should be subscribed. The Confession, which we of

· Τὰ μὲν πείθων, τὰ δὲ πειθόμενος. Melanth. Εpist. Strype.