425 



CRANMER, THOMAS. 



CRANMER, THOMAS. 



426 



abusing his power. These charges were submitted by the prebendaries 

 to the council, and by the council to the king. Henry immediately 

 caused the accusation to be sifted by a commission, who declared them 

 to be unfounded ; and the authors of the conspiracy afterwards sub- 

 mitted themselves to Cranmer, who refrained from bringing them to 

 punishment. 



In 1544 Cranmer successfully exerted himself in parliament to carry 

 a bill to mitigate the severity of the statute of the Six Articles. He 

 also assisted in compiling an improved English Litany, essentially 

 similar to that which is now in use. Difficulties however were in- 

 creasing around him, and he had the dissatisfaction of seeing the seals, 

 which were now resigned by Lord Audley, his personal and political 

 friend, conferred upou Lord Wriothesley, an adherent of the Roman 

 Catholic party. By this appointment, as well as by the death of the 

 Duke of Suffolk, it was expected that the king's favour towards the 

 reformers might be weakened. Nor indeed was it long after Suffolk 

 was in his grave before Cranmer, who, with three others, had been 

 associated with the queen in the government of England during Henry's 

 temporary absence in France, had reason to feel his loss. The Duke 

 of Norfolk and other members of the privy council accused him of 

 spreading heresies through the land, and prayed the king that, for the 

 safety of hh dominions, the archbishop might immediately be com- 

 mitted to the Tower. Henry, on the same night that the accusation 

 was received, caused Sir Anthony Denny to carry a message to Cranmer, 

 who roe from his bed to attend upon the king at Whitehall. The 

 council aedsmbled on the following morning, and summoned before 

 them the primate, who had been insultingly kept for an hour in a 

 servants' waiting-room. At length sentence of imprisonment was 

 passed upon him, but, to their surprise and confusion, he produced 

 the signet of the king, from whose hands he had received it the night 

 before. The council did not venture to proceed any further in the 

 case. 



After a peace had been concluded with France (1546), Anliault, the 

 French admiral, came to England. A resolution was made by him, 

 and sanctioned by the king, that the Reformation should be proceeded 

 with, and that in both countries the mass should be changed into a 

 communion, the form of which Cranmer was ordered forthwith to draw 

 up. This was the last year of Henry's rei^n. 



The king, who of late had grown so corpulent and unwieldy that 

 he was raided up and let down the stairs by a machine, after an illness 

 of some weeks sank under his disease on the 27th of January, 1547. 

 Cranmer was named one of the executors of his will, and one of the 

 regents of the kingdom. 



On the accession of Edward, who had not yet completed bis tenth 

 year, and the better to establish his supremacy, the bishops received 

 anew their bi.-boprics at his hands. The first public act of the primate 

 was the coronation of the new king (February 20, 1547), and the 

 delivery of a short address which he then substituted for the cus- 

 tomary sermon. No one that heard the expressions of the archbishop 

 could hope for the restoration of papal supremacy ; all things indeed 

 betokened a still further extension of the Reformation. An inquiry 

 into tlie state of religion, by means of a visitation of the whole king- 

 dom, was immediately set on foot : twelve homilies, four of which are 

 ascribed to Cranmer, were drawn up, and ordered to be placed in every 

 church, with the translation of Erasmus's paraphrase of the New 

 Testament, for the instruction of the people. It is true that these 

 measures, though they had many supporters, met with frequent oppo- 

 sition. Gardiner continued to argue, both in person and in writing, 

 against the homilies and the paraphrase, which the Bishop of London 

 also proclaimed to be heretical Nevertheless Cranruer's influence 

 prevailed; and when he produced in convocation an ordinance that 

 the laity as well as the clergy should receive the sacrament in both 

 kinds, the proposition passed unanimously, and soon after obtained the 

 sanction of the legislature. By the same parliament the Act of the 

 Six Articles and other severe statutes were repealed. 



During this winter session of parliament it was proposed to confer 

 upon the king such chapels, chantries, and colleges as bad escaped his 

 father's grap. There were few subjects upon which Cranmer's opinion 

 coincided with that of the Roman Catholic party, but in this case he 

 joined their ranks, and voted in opposition to the bill. He now (1548) 

 revived the proposal for substituting a communion office for the mass, 

 and a service was framed in time to be circulated to the clergy for 

 their use at the following Easter. 



The more considerable labours which occupied the Protestants at 

 this time still n main to be told. An English translation of a cate- 

 chism which had been written in German and in Latin by one Justin 

 Jonas, was published by the archbishop, entitled ' Cranmer's Cate- 

 chism.' In the month of May a commission of twelve divines, with 

 Cranmer at their head, was appointed for the compilation of an English 

 liturgy. Nor were these the only additions to the ordinary duties of 

 the primate : he took charge of a bill, which was passed, permitting 

 marring" among the clergy. By the end of November the Prayer-Book 

 wa finished, and on the 15th of January, 1549, legal sanction was 

 given to it. Great opposition was made to these changes in different 

 parts of V'.ngland, in Wiltshire, Somersetshire, Norfolk, and especially 

 ID the west, where at the instigation of their religious teachers, the 

 people took such weapons as they could procure, an<l mustered in con- 

 siderable force. The legislature, anxious to quell this disturbance, 



Bioo. Div. vol.. it 



desired Cranmer to draw up an answer to fifteen articles of remon- 

 strance which had been framed by the insurgents. A very masterly 

 reply (Strype's ' Cranmer,' Appendix 40) was written, but not com- 

 pleted before the leaders of the insurrection were apprehended and 

 executed, and the rebels had dispersed. It would have been more to 

 the honour of the archbishop if the spirit that pervaded his reply had 

 been carried into a commission at which he presided for the suppression 

 of certain heresies, for he would then have escaped the stain of having 

 condemned two persons to the stake ; but however amiable and for- 

 bearing was his general disposition, no excuse can be offered for him 

 or for his friends Ridley and Goodrich, who, with others, were impli- 

 cated in this affair. Upon the condemnation of Lord Seymour (1549) 

 Cranmer signed the warrant for his execution, notwithstanding the 

 canon law set forth that no churchman should meddle in matters of 

 blood. Whatever may have been the primate's conduct towards 

 Seymour, towards his brother the Protector Somerset it was unexcep- 

 tionable : from the time that his distresses commenced till his execu- 

 tion was effected by the enemies whom the weakness of hia character 

 and elevated station had created, he retained Cranmer's firm and 

 invariable friendship. Bonner, the bishop of London, was now 

 degraded by commissioners, of whom Cranuier was one. When this 

 commission was dissolved, an ordinance was signed by the primate, 

 the chancellor, and four others of the council, for the abolition of 

 Roman Catholic books of devotion ; an addition was also made at this 

 time to the ritual that had been substituted for them, in the shape of 

 a formulary for ordination ; and other steps were taken by the primate 

 in order to diffuse a better knowledge of the creed of the Protestants. 

 At Lambeth he received the most eminent foreign divines, Martin 

 Bucer, Fagius, Peter Martyr, and several more. 



Cranmer was greatly troubled at the discussions of the clergy 

 respecting the removal of altars from the churchea and the placing of 

 communion tables in their stead. This had been done (1550) partly 

 at the recommendation of Hooper, a divine who had been driven from 

 England by the Act of the Six Articles, and who, during his residence 

 abroad, had adopted very scrupulous opinions. In July, Hooper was 

 made bishop of Gloucester : and soon after Cranmer received from 

 him a refusal to wear the usual episcopal habits. This question, upon 

 which the primate himself seems sometimes to have hesitated, was 

 now brought to an issue. If a dignitary of the church had been 

 suffered to discontinue the vestments of his order, such was the state 

 of the lower clergy that they would immediately have obeyed the 

 signal and relinquished the surplice and the gown. Cranmer, upon. 

 consideration, determined to oppose Hooper's intentions, and in case 

 of an obstinate adherence to his scruples, to remove him from his 

 bishopric : a compromise eventually followed, and he adopted some of 

 the usual habits. 



The Bishop of Chichester would not obey the order respecting the 

 removal of altars, and the primate consequently deprived him of his 

 see. The case of Bishop Gardiner, who had now been in prison nearly 

 two years, was also proceeded in. Articles were sent to him touching 

 the king's supremacy the full obedience owed to him notwith- 

 standing his youth that he had power to correct what was amiss in 

 the church, &c. ; and these, with some exceptions, he signed. Other 

 articles were then framed, treating of tho marriage of the clergy, tlie 

 suppression of masses and images, the new book of service, &c. ; to 

 these ho refused to put his name, upon which the commission, con- 

 sisting of the primate, Bishop Ridley, who had succeeded Bonner in 

 London, and six others, eventually deprived him of his bishopric and 

 sent him back to the Tower. The conduct of Cranmer in the cases 

 of Bonuer and Gardiner was a great exception to his usual modera- 

 tion. Gardiner, during his imprisonment, occupied himself in 

 answering a treatise published by Cranmer, entitled the ' Defence of 

 the True Doctrine of the Sacrament.' This controversy was carried 

 on by the archbishop until the end of his life. The subject of it was 

 one which had greatly occupied the mind of his frienH, Bishop Ridley, 

 as well as his own ; he bad more than once changed his opinions, 

 which at length became fixed according to the doctrine maintained in 

 his treatise. (Jenkyns's ' Remains of Cranmer.') His arguments with 

 Gardiner aud Srnythe, his chief opponents, show considerable skill 

 and learning. 



At the close of this year a revision of the Service-book of 1548 

 was commenced by him, with the assistance chiefly of Ridley and 

 Cox, who, with Peter Martyr and Bucer, stated objections and recom- 

 mendations in writing. The undertaking was checked in 1551, by 

 tho death of Bucer, who (Burnet says) was, " by order of Cranmer and 

 Sir John Cheek, buried with the highest solemnities that could be 

 devised." The bishops being now (1551) for the most part divines 

 favourable to the Reformation, the compilation of articles for the 

 greater uniformity of faith was undertaken by them at the suggestion 

 of the king. This additional labour so filled the hands of Craumcr, 

 that his time was nearly always occupied by one or other of the great 

 duties that he had imposed upou himself : scarcely could he be 

 spared to attend at the trial of Bishop Tonstul, a man of moderation 

 and learning, against whom accusations were brought forward in 

 December. The bishop was deprived of his see, a sentence which 

 was so contrary to Cranmer's wishes and opinion, that, together with 

 Lord Stourton, a Roman Catholic, he entered his protest against it. 

 It was not till this year (1552) that Cranmer gave up all hope of 



