would have them; the Prior, craftily leaving out the name of the Bishop of Rome, preached, that the laws of the Church be equal with God's laws. These things he preached, as it is proved both by sufficient witness and also by his own confession. I leave the judgment hereof unto your Grace and to your Council, whether this were a defence of the Bishop of Rome, or not. And I only, according to my bounden duty, have reported the truth of the fact. But in mine opinion, if he had spoken nothing else, yet whosoever sayeth, that the Church never erred, maintaineth the Bishop of Rome his power. For if that were not erroneous that was taught of his power, That he is Christ's vicar in earth, and by God's law head of all the world, spiritual and temporal; and that all people must believe that de necessitate salutis; and that whosoever doeth any thing against the see of Rome is an heretic; and that he hath authority also in purgatory; with such other many false things, which were taught in times past to be articles of our faith: if these things were not erroneous, yea, and errors in the faith, then must needs Grace's laws be erroneous, that pronounce the Bishop of Rome to be of no more power by God's law than other bishops; and them to be traitors that defend the contrary. This is certain, that whosoever saith that the Church never erred, must either deny that the Church ever taught any such errors of the Bishop of Rome his power, and then they speak against that which all the world knoweth, and all books written of that matter these three or four hundred years do testify; or else they must say, that the said errors be none errors, but truths. And then it is both treason and heresy. your At my first examination of him, which was before Christmas, he said, that he preached not against me, nor that I had preached any thing amiss. But now he saith, that I preached amiss in very many things, and that he purposely preached against me P; and this he reporteth openly: by P [This change may have arisen from the execution of Anne Boleyn in the preceding May, which tended greatly to raise the spirits of the which words I am marvellously slandered in these parts. And for this cause I beseech your Grace, that I may not have the judgment of the cause, for so much as he taketh me for a party; but that your Grace would commit the hearing thereof unto my Lord Privy Seal, or else to associate unto me some other persons at your Grace's pleasure, that we may hear the case jointly together. If this man, who hath so highly offended your Grace, and preached against me openly, being Ordinary and Metropolitan of this province; and that in such matters as concern the misliving and the laws of the Bishop of Rome; and that also within mine own church; if he, I say, be not looked upon, I leave unto your Grace's prudence to expend what example this may be unto others with like colour to maintain the Bishop of Rome his authority; and also of what estimation I shall be reputed hereafter, and what credence shall be given unto my preaching, whatsoever I shall say hereafter. if I beseech your Grace to pardon me of my long and tedious writing; for I could not otherwise set the matter forth plain. And I most heartily thank your Grace for the stag which your Grace sent unto me from Wyndsor forest: which, your Grace knew for how many causes it was welcome unto me, and how many ways it did me service, I am sure you would think it much the better bestowed. Thus our Lord have your Highness always in his preservation and governance. From Forde, the xxvi. day of August. [1536.] Your Grace's most humble chaplain and beadsman, T. Cantuarien. Cotton Cleop. CLXXII. TO CRUMWELL. My very singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I commend me unto your good lordship. And whereas your E. v. p. 102. popish party. It would seem however from Letter CLXVIII. that they Original. had been gaining ground before that event.] 9 [Crumwell, appointed Lord Privy Seal the second of July, 1536.] Cranm. p. 46. lordship writeth to me in the favour of this bearer, Massey, Strype, an old servant to the King's Highness, that being contracted to his sister's daughter of his late wife deceased, he might enjoy the benefit of a dispensation in that behalf; specially, considering it is none of the cases of prohibition contained in the statute; surely, my lord, I would gladly accomplish your request herein, if the word of God would permit the same. And where you require me, that if I think this license may not be granted by the law of God, then I should write unto you the reasons and authorities that move me so to think; that upon the declaration unto the King's Highness, you may confer thereupon with some other learned men, and so advertise me of the King's farther resolution in the same accordingly: for shortness of time, I shall show you one reason, which is this: by the law of God many persons be prohibited, which be not expressed, but be understand by like prohibition in equal degree. As St. Ambrose saith, that the niece is forbid by the law of God, although it be not expressed in Leviticus that the uncle shall not marry his niece. But where the nephew is forbid there, that he shall not marry his aunt, by the same is understand that the niece shall not be married unto her uncle. Likewise, as the daughter is not there plainly expressed, yet where the son is forbid to marry his mother, it is understand that the daughter may not be married to her father, by cause they be of like degree. Even so it is in this case and many other; for where it is there expressed that the nephew shall not marry his uncle's wife, it must needs be understand that the niece shall not be married unto the aunt's husband, by cause that all is one equality of degree. And although I could allege many reasons and authorities mo for this purpose, yet I trust this one reason shall satisfy all that be learned and of judgment. [Stat. 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 7, "For the establishment of the suc❝cession of the imperial crown of this realm." It was passed a few months before, on the King's marriage to Jane Seymour. The prohibited degrees were expressed in it in nearly the same terms as in the former Act of succession, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22, but were extended to cases of carnal knowledge.] And as touching the Act of Parliament concerning the degrees prohibited by God's law, they be not so plainly set forth as I would they were. Wherein I somewhat spake my mind at the making of the said law, but it was not then accepted. I required then, that there must be expressed mother, and mother-in-law, daughter, and daughter-in-law ; and so in further degrees directly upward and downward, in linea recta; also sister and sister-in-law, aunt and auntin-law, niece and niece-in-law. And this limitation, in my judgment, would have contained all degrees prohibited by God's law, expressed and not expresseds: and should have satisfied this man, and such other which would marry their nieces-in-law. My lord, I have no news to send you from these parties, but I much long to hear such news as be occurrent with you. And therefore if you have any good news, I pray you to send me some. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Forde, the viith day of September. Your Lordship's own, T. Cantuarien. MSS. ster; Crum CLXXIII. To CRUMWell. My singular good Lord, in my most hearty wise I comChapter mend me unto your lordship. And whereas I perceive House, Westmin- that your lordship, not without urgent and godly considerwell's Corations, hath suppressed already divers friars' houses, and bestowed them upon honest men as I am informed, which your godly proceeding I trust shall as well extend unto Canterbury as in other places, to the intent that the irreligious religion there may be extincted with other; and forasmuch as the Gray Friarst in Canterbury lieth very commodiously respondence. Original. [The same opinion is expressed in his 36th Annotation on the King's Book. See vol. ii. p. 77.] t [Hasted states that the House of the Gray Friars in Canterbury was suppressed in 1534; yet this Letter, being addressed to Crumwell as Lord Privy Seal, could not have been written earlier than 1536. Hasted probably may not have attended to the division of the Gray Friars or for this bearer Thomas Cobham, brother unto my lord Cobham and my servant", specially by cause the same is not only in his native country, but also nigh unto his friends; these shall be to beseech your lordship to be so good lord unto him as to help him unto the said house of the Gray Friars; for having already some land of his own, he shall be the more able to maintain the house in an honest state. And in thus doing, your lordship shall both do for the preferment of an honest man, and also make him more able to dothe King's Grace service, and your lordship such pleasure as shall lie in him during his life. Thus, my lord, right heartily fare you well. At Lambeth, the vth day of October. Your own ever assured, To my very singular good lord, my T. Cantuarien. Lord Privy Seal. CLXXIV. To KING HENRY VIIIX. Pleaseth it your Grace to be advertised, that I have re- Harl. MSS. 787. fol. ceived news out of Rome, from one named John Bianket, 787 Franciscans, into the Observants and Conventuals. The Observants, as Stow relates, were put down in August 1534, and Augustine friars set in their places for the time; but the Conventuals do not then appear to have been disturbed. On the contrary, Parkinson in his Antiquities of English Franciscans asserts, that "many of the Observants were sent "into the houses of the Conventuals;" and in some instances perhaps the latter may have been substituted for the former. The Act 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 28, for the suppression of the smaller religious houses in general, was passed in the Parliament which met on the 4th of Feb. 1536; but it does not seem to have been carried into execution immediately, and 1539 is mentioned as the year, when "all the Franciscan "convents in the nation were taken into the King's hands, and the "friars turned out of doors to shift for themselves." See Hasted, Hist. of Kent, vol. iv. p. 446. Stow, Annals. Parkinson, Collectan. Anglo-Minorit. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxon.] "[He was also a connexion, having married the Archbishop's niece. See Genealogical Table in Todd, Life of Cranmer. This application in his favour appears to have failed, for the site of the Gray Friars was granted, 31 Hen. VIII. to Thomas Spilman. Hasted, Hist. of Kent, ibid.] X [Mr. Todd has assigned this Letter to 1533; Mr. Ellis has given it |