so similar, that either both must be excluded, or the former be admitted. Of a religious and good prince it was the duty not to regard the regular lineage, where the glory of God and the good of his subjects might be endangered; nor could he be able, if he acted otherwise, to answer it before God. The three daughters of the duke of Suffolk, after his royal sisters, were the next of kin to him. Their virtues, as well as their birth, commended them. From them neither the violation of religion, nor the danger of a foreign yoke by any match, was to be feared. They had been educated in that faith and worship which his Majesty had happily established, and were united to husbands as zealous Protestants as themselves. These he would advise to be named successively as heirs to the throne.

So spake the false 'dissembler; and the instrument of succession was accordingly prepared. The lady Frances, the mother of Jane Grey, was at first intended by Edward as his successor. But the transfer of the right to her eldest daughter, though right it cannot be called, was readily made. The way for the young queen was thus illegally secured, not without a moral violation in those whom Northumberland induced to

At his death he professed himself a Roman Catholic, but "indeed he was known, in Edward's reign, to have no other religion than interest." Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. vii. 175.

sanction it; most of whom had sworn to preserve the order of succession directed by the will of Henry. Cranmer in vain opposed it. He argued repeatedly, but ineffectually, with his young sovereign, in the presence of others, against a proceeding so ill-advised and so illegal. He desired to converse with him indeed alone, and said afterwards, we shall find, that if this had been permitted, he had saved the king from his weakness, and Northumberland from his disgrace. Northumberland not only prevented such an interview, so honourable as the consequences of it might have been in giving a just direction to Edward's mind, and in preserving the firmness of Cranmer himself; but, 'before the Council, with his accustomed haughtiness, exclaimed, that it became not the archbishop to speak to the king, even as he had already done, so as to dissuade him from the present purpose.

Cranmer at last gave his assent to this purpose; so reluctantly, however, as to elicit, even from his enemies, the admission that he was, as it were, compelled to it. Nor during the remaining days of obloquy and suffering, that soon were his, did they add to their reproaches his share in this transaction. The transaction is related by the recent historian of our country, with questioning the veracity of the archbishop's own

statement of it, which, however, neither while he lived, nor from that to the present time, has ever been before impugned. Dr. Lingard has suppressed what he ought to have published; has insinuated, where he might have been candid. We will hear them both.

"Among the privy councillors," says the historian, "there were some, who, though apprised of the illegality and apprehensive of the consequences of the measure, suffered themselves to be seduced by the threats and promises of Northumberland, and their objection to the succession of a princess, who would probably re-establish the ancient faith, and compel them to restore the property which they had torn from the Church. The archbishop, if we may believe his own statement, had requested a private interview with the king, but he was accompanied by the marquess of Northampton and the lord Darcy, in whose presence Edward solicited him to subscribe the new settlement, expressed a hope that he would not refuse his sovereign a favour which had been granted by every other councillor, and assured him, that according to the decision of the judges, a king in actual possession had a power to limit the descent of the Crown after his decease. Cranmer confesses he had the weakness to yield against his own conviction, and that, having once

'Lingard, Hist. Eng. 8vo. edit. vii. 140.

yielded, he resolved to support the cause with all the influence of his station."

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Cranmer had neither been won by the promises, nor awed by the threats, of Northumberland. He tells us plainly how he was over-ruled, in the letter which he afterwards addressed to Mary; and his statement, which, if it had not been entitled to entire belief, must have been immediately contradicted, thus materially alters the representation that has been cited. "1 I ask mercy and pardon," he says, for my heinous folly and offence in consenting to, and following, the testament and last will of our late sovereign lord, king Edward VI. your Grace's brother; which, well God he knoweth, I never liked, nor any thing grieved me so much that your Grace's brother did. And if by any means it had been in me to have letted the making of that will, I would have done it. And what I said therein, as well to the Council, as to himself, divers of your Majesty's Council can report: but none so well as the marquess of Northampton, and the lord Darcy, then lord-chamberlain to the king's Majesty, which two were present at the communication between the king's Majesty and me. I desired to talk with the king's Majesty alone, but I could not be suffered and so I failed of my purpose. For if I might have communed with the king alone,

1 From the Letters of the Martyrs. Strype, Append. No. 74.

and at good leisure, my trust was, that I should have altered him from his purpose; but, they being present, my labour was in vain.

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Then, when I could not dissuade him from the said will, and both he and his Privy Council also informed me, that the judges and his learned counsel said, that the Act of entailing the Crown, made by his father, could not be prejudicial to him; but that he being in possession of the Crown, might make his will thereof; this seemed very strange unto me. But being the sentence of the judges, and other his learned counsel in the laws of this realm, (as both he and his Council informed me) methought it became not me, being unlearned in the law, to stand against my prince therein. And so at length I was required by the king's Majesty himself to set my hand to his will; saying, that he trusted, that I alone would not be more repugnant to his will than the rest of the Council were. Which words surely grieved my heart very sore and so I granted him to subscribe his will, and to follow the same. Which when I had set my hand unto, I did it unfeignedly and without dissimulation.

"For the which I submit myself most humbly unto your Majesty, acknowledging mine offence with most grievous and sorrowful heart, and beseeching your mercy and pardon; which my heart giveth me shall not be denied unto me, being granted before to so many, who travailed not so