olam ad Melancthonem mitto, qua eum hortor, ut ad nos veniat; quibus meis epistolis si tuæ adhortationes accesserint, non diffido eum persuaderi posse, ut toties iteratam vocationem sequatur c. Nullas, ut arbitror, insidias hostium, nulla itinerum pericula pertimescit, quæ, si qua sunt, minora tamen sunt iis, quibus nunc est. Adde, quod exigui temporis molestiis, multorum annorum quietem sibi, reipub. vero utilitatem adferret æternam. Quod si ei commigrationem ad nos aut inutilem aut injucundam fore prospicerem, nemo certe me dissuaderet vehementius. Nunc vero, cum videam nihil ab eo aut ipsi aut reipub. posse fieri utilius, quam ut hoc tempore ad nos veniat, insto vehementius, teque hortor, ut omnem curam cogitationemque tuam in hoc unice convertas, ut Philippum nostrum plane nostrum facias. Qualis et tua et ipsius futura sit conditio paulo ante ostendi. Ita tamen ostendi, ut experientia vestra potius quam prædicatione mea Angliam vobis placere cupiam. Bene et feliciter Vale. Londini, die IV. Julii MDXLVIII. Tuæ præsentiæ cupidiss. T. Cantuariensis. "1553. CCLXXIII. To ALBERT HARDENBERG d. e Cupimus nostris Ecclesiis veram de Deo doctri- Copia ma The latter circumstance Strype notices in his Ecclesiastical "Memorials: Had not,' he says, 'the King died so soon, the mode"❝rate, learned, and wise Melancthon would have come into England, "and been placed in the University of Cambridge."" Bampton Lect. pp. 186. 227. It will be observed, that all these invitations were subsequent to that which is the subject of this and the following Letter.] C [John a Lasco forwarded Cranmer's Letter to Melancthon by Epinus, as appears from his inquiry to Hardenberg on the 28th of July. "Te rogo ut ad illum [i. e. Melancthonem] per occasionem scribas, "num literas Cantuarienses a me ad se per Epinum transmissas acce"perit, et ut respondeat." Letter from John a Lasco to Hardenberg, 28. July, 1548. in Gerdes, Scrin. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 646.] [Albert Hardenberg, the friend and correspondent of John a Lasco, was educated at the University of Louvain. He commenced his ministerial labours at a monastery in Groningen; from whence he moved to Cologne on the invitation of Archbishop Herman. At the date of this nu Huberti in MSS. vol. ix. p. 36. Scrin. Eccl. Ar gente. nam proponere, nec volumus f cothurnos facere aut ambiguitatibus ludere: sed semota omni prudentia carnis, veram, perspicuam, ac S. Litterarum normæ convenientem doctrinæ formam ad posteros transmittere; ut et apud omnes gentes extet testimonium doctrinæ nostræ gravi doctorum et piorum autoritate traditum, et universa posteritas normam habeat quam sequatur. Ad perficiendam rem totam eruditorum hominum præsentia nobis opus esse judicavimus, qui collatis nobiscum judiciis, doctrinæ controversias tollant, et integrum corpus veræ doctrinæ extruant. Accersivimus igitur plerosque pios et doctos viros, quorum & alios habe Letter he was at the head of the reformed Church at Bremen, over which e [This fragment is printed from a copy, furnished by Mr. Salomon Hess, of a manuscript at Zurich. The reference in the margin is given on the same authority.] f[Cranmer seems here to be replying to a letter from Melancthon, dated the 1st of May in this year. A strong opinion is there expressed against ambiguities in Confessions of Faith, and against the mode attempted by Charles V. in his Interim, of settling controversies by the use of generalities; by which, said Melancthon," cothurnos facit, qui novas "discordias excitabunt." Melancthon, Epist. lib. i. 66. The applicability of the proverb to such articles of faith as each party might interpret according to their own tenets, will be understood from its explanation by Erasmus. "Versatilior cothurno,' dictum est in hominem parum constantem, lubricaque fide, quive incertæ et ancipitis esset "factionis, similitudine ducta à calceamento, quod Græci xólogvov, Latini, "mutata literula, cothurnum vocant. Erat autem quadrangulum et " utrique conveniens pedi, quodque vel dextro vel sinistro pedi potuit "accommodari." Erasmus, Adag. cent. i. 94.] 66 a ["I find divers outlandish learned and godly men this year [1547] "at Canterbury: ainong the rest was John Utenhovius, a person of ho"nourable rank and quality, afterwards elder and assistant to John a "Lasco's church in London. Here was also Valerandus Pollanus, and 66 one Franciscus. There was a loving correspondence held between "the said Utenhovius here, and Peter Martyr now at Lambeth." Strype, Memorials, vol. ii. p. 78. A notice of some other foreigners of less eminence, entertained by the Archbishop about this time, will be found in the same work, p. 404. The following is Archbishop Parker's account of Cranmer's attentions to continental divines. "Cran"merus Archiepiscopus, ut evangelicam doctrinam in Cantebrigiensi 66 atque Oxoniensi Academiis, e quibus ad totius regni institutionem "doctores infiniti prodeunt, firmaret, celeberrimos theologos ab exteris mus jam, alios vero brevi expectamus. Sed de Philippo Melanchthone nihil adhuc certi habemus h. Quare te summopere rogamus, ut illum, si id ullo modo facere possis, ad iter ad nos suscipiendum inducas. Tertiam nunc ad ipsum epistolam misi, qua illum hortor ut ad nos veniat ; quibus epistolis si tuæ adhortationes accesserint, non diffido illum persuaderi posse, ut toties iteratam vocationem sequatur. Nullas, ut arbitror, insidias hostium, nullaque itinerum pericula pertimescit, quæ si quæ sunt, minora tamen sunt iis, in quibus nunc est i. Adde, quod exigui temporis “nationibus in Angliam accersivit, Petrum Martyrem Vermilium, Floren❝tinum, et Martinum Bucerum, Germanum, ex Argentorato profectum: "ille Oxonii docuit, hic Cantebrigiæ. Cum hoc etiam Paulus Fagius "Hebraicas literas Cantebrigiæ professus est. Ac præter hos Imma"nuelem Tremellium, Bernardinum Ochinum, Petrum Alexandrum, “Valerandum Pollanum ; quos omnes cum liberis atque conjugibus "abunde alebat. Philippus etiam Melancthon atque Musculus accer"siti sunt; sed a patriis retenti se per literas excusabant. In hos aliosque doctos theologos tanta beneficentia Cranmerus usus est; ut "collectis quotannis suarum expensarum rationibus, nihil sibi ex redi"tibus residui superesse poterat." Matt. Parker, Antiq. Brit. Eccles. p. 508. It will be observed, that Archbishop Parker, in mentioning these invitations to foreigners, does not hint at any project for effecting a protestant union.] 66 [Three letters from Melancthon to Cranmer in this year have been printed, but none of them contain a positive answer to the invitation to England. The strongest expression on the subject is in the letter of the 1st of May, cited above. He there says: "Si meum judicium ac suffragium flagitabitis, libenter et audiam alios doctos viros, et "dicam ipse sententiam meo loco, et sententiæ causas ostendamı, “rà μèv Teilwv, rà dì Tubóμsvos, ut decet in colloquio piorum." In a subsequent letter he gives much advice respecting drawing up such a sum of necessary doctrine as would leave no nov gidos; but says nothing of coming to England himself. Melancth. Epist. lib. i. 66. lib. iii. 43, 44. Strype, Cranmer, p. 406.] [Cranmer alludes to the attempt of Charles the Vth, in 1548, to force the Interim on the German Protestants. Melancthon's conduct on the occasion so deeply offended the Emperor, that he only escaped the effects of his anger by the refusal of Maurice of Saxony to deliver him into his hands. Yet he afterwards made concessions of sufficient importance, to lay the foundation of the Adiaphoristic controversy and of a serious schism in the Lutheran Church. The following is his own account of the dispersion of many Protestant ministers, and of the principles on which he himself resolved to remain at his post. "Pulsi sunt 66 pastores plures quadringentis in Suevia et ad Rhenum. Tubingæ nunc, pulsis pastoribus et concionatoribus, unicus est sacrificulus, qui " ut libro Augustano satisfiat, oblationem restituit. Mirum est igitur, "cur adhuc ætatem auream promittat Islebius, cum manifeste videat "vastari tam multas ecclesias, pios et doctos viros exulare cum totis "familiis. Tantæ calamitates cum alibi fiant, nos etiam duram servi molestiis, multorum annorum quietem sibi, reipublicæ vero utilitatem adferet æternam. Quod si ei hoc ad nos iter aut inutile aut injucundum fore prospicerem, nemo me certe hoc illi vehementius dissuaderet, sed cum videam nihil ab eo aut ipsi aut reipublicæ posse fieri utilius, quam ut hoc tempore ad nos veniat, opto vehementius, teque oro, ut omnem curam cogationemque tuam in hoc convertas, ut Philippum nostrum plane nostrum facias. Qualis ipsius hic futura sit conditio, jam ostendi. Ita tamen ostendi, ut experientia ipsa potius quam mea prædicatione Angliam nostram ei placere cupiam. Quod si noster Philippus videat, ad quid vocetur, a quibus autem hominibus, certe et ipsius et veræ religionis amantissimis, et quanto studio vocetur simul et exspectetur; profecto non video et nescio an vocationem hanc negligere possit, præsertim cum nullam pene certam se vocationem illic habere videat, quam huic merito opponere queat. Si in simili vocatione deese noluit sanctissimo illi seni Electori k Coloniensi, sane ne nunc quidem illi licebit in causa multo graviore et magis etiam necessaria. Inviti fortasse sui illum dimittunt, et ipse quoque invitus suos dimittet, hoc potissimum tempore; sed interim metuo, ne illum omnes istic pro eo ac vellemus audiant, et ut audiant, non scio an tanto cum fructu illic nunc esse possit, quantum ex sua præsentia in Anglia nostra nunc haberi possit; qui tamen negligendus nobis non est, si 66 tutem, modo sit sine impietate, tolerandam potius existimamus, quam discedendum ab ecclesiis." Melancth. in Melch. Adam, Vita Theolog. Bucer and Fagius took a different view of the matter, and accepted Cranmer's offer of an asylum in England. See Camerarius, Vita Melancth. §. 79; Sleidan. De Statu Relig. book xx. xxi; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. cent. xvi; Mount's Letter in Burnet, Ref. vol. iii. App. book iv. No. 3.] k[Melancthon accepted the invitation of Herman, Archbishop and Elector of Cologne in April 1543, and resided with him at Bonne till August. See some account of the Simplex et pia deliberatio, &c. which he and Bucer then compiled, in Strype, Memorials, vol. ii. p. 26, and of the use made of it in drawing up the English Book of Common Prayer, in Archbishop Lawrence's Bampton Lectures, p. 439. Herman however failed in his attempts at reformation, and being unable to withstand the Pope and the Emperor united, resigned his see in 1547. He died in August 1552. Camerarius, Vita Melancth. §. 59; Melancth. Epist. lib. i. 74. iii. 38. 74, 75, 76. 119; Strype, Cranm. p. 286; Sleidan, De Statu Relig, lib. xxiv.] quidem nobis Christi Domini gloriam vere et ex animo quærendam esse putamus. Utinam semel aliquid statuat, et nos de animo suo certiores faciat, aut ipse mox accurrat, omnesque nuntios prævertat. De sumptu prospiciemus, vel apud te, vel alibi, modo sciamus, quantum et quo loco curari velit. Cantabrigiæ, 28. Julii, 1548. CCLXXIV. To MARTIN BUCER1. Anglic. Strype, App. No. Gratiam et pacem Dei in Christo. Legi tuas literas ad Buceri Johannem Halesium, in quibus tristissimos Germaniæ Scripta casus m commemorans, te in tua urbe verbi ministerio vix diutius præesse posse scribis. Gemens igitur prophetæ illud Cranm. exclamavi, Mirifica misericordias tuas, qui salvos facis 43. sperantes in te a resistentibus dexteræ tuæ. Nec dubito quin Deus hoc et similes piorum gemitus exauditurus sit : et veram doctrinam, quæ hactenus in vestris ecclesiis sincere propagata est, et conservaturus et defensurus sit, adversus omnes diaboli et mundi furores. Interim sævientibus fluctuum procellis, in portus confugiendum est iis, qui vela in altum tendere non possunt. Tibi igitur, mi Bucere, portus longe tutissimus erit nostrum regnum, in quo, Dei beneficio, semina veræ doctrinæ feliciter spargi cœperunt. Veni igitur ad nos; et te nobis operarium præsta in messe Domini. Non minus proderis catholicæ Dei Ecclesiæ cum apud nos fueris, quam si pristinas sedes retineres. Adde, quod adflictæ patriæ vulnera absens melius sanare poteris, quam nunc possis præsens. Omni igitur semota cunctatione, quamprimum ad nos venias. Ostendemus nobis præsentia Buceri nihil gratius aut jucundius esse posse. Sed cave ne quid ex itinere incommodi accipias. Nosti quos habeas vitæ insectatores eorum manibus ne te commiseris. Est istic mercator quidam Anglus Richardus Hils", vir pius et 1 [See Strype, Cranm. p. 196.] See Letter CCLXXIII. note (i.)] "[The same person, from whose long letter Burnet has extracted many interesting particulars, (Ref. vol. iii. p. 275.) He however chose to |