tion of the Archbishop. The Bill met with such vigorous opposition, that it must inevitably have been thrown out, had not HENRY HIMSELF entered the house, and peremptorily commanded the Lords to pass it. At the third reading, the Archbishop was requested by the King to retire; but he did not leave the assembly till he had given his vote against the Bill's passing into a law.

HENRY knew the integrity of CRANMER; and was too generous to be displeased with him for opposing a measure, which though not defensible in itself, was thought necessary for political purposes. After the act was passed, the King sent for him to console him under this mortification, and to assure him of his favor. He likewise directed Cromwell, with the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, to dine with the Archbishop at Lambeth, and to acquaint him with the high regard the king had for him. At this dinner an unfortunate, and, as I conceive, an unpremeditated quarrel took place hetween the Lord Cromwell and the Duke of Norfolk and though it was suppressed at the time by the interference of the Archbishop, yet it continued to rankle in the breast of Norfolk, whose vengeance seems to have been appeased only by the destruction of his adversary *.

* This quarrel furnishes an additional reason for the future enmity of the Duke of Norfolk towards Cromwell. In the conversation at table, a comparison was made between the principles and manners of Cranmer and Wolsey, with a view to compliment the Archbishop at the expense of the Cardinal; in the course of which, Norfolk among other opprobrious accusations, taxed Cromwell with having consented, in case Wolsey should obtain the pontifical chair, to become his Admiral. This charge Cromwell not only denied, but retorted, declaring that, as secretary to Wolsey, he knew that Norfolk had agreed to accept this office; and specifying the precise sum which he had stipulated to receive as the terms of his acceptance of it. And it seems probable that Norfolk was aware that this dishonourable engagement could be effectually concealed only by Cromwell's death. (Parker's Antiq. Brit. Fox, Burnet, &c.)

The Act of the Six Articles, Protestant writers have entitled the bloody Bill, and the whip with six thongs. It obliged the Archbishop to dismiss his wife *, who was sent to her friends in Germany. It compelled honest Latimer to resign his Bishopric, which he exchanged for a prison †. The penalty for denying the first of the six articles, the corporal presence in the Eucharist, was death by fire, with the forfeiture of all real and personal estates. Whoever wrote, preached, or spoke against it, was to be burnt without the privilege of abjuration. Such a severity had not hitherto been exercised in England, and a proceeding so sanguinary has rarely disgraced the Inquisition. Rigorous as this act was, it still afforded one consolation to the Reformers. Their lives and property were not left at the mercy of the Clergy, and of the Ecclesiastical courts. Their trial, as Bishop Burnet has remarked, was by a jury S, from which they might expect more candid and liberal treatment.

And, indeed, while Cromwell lived, though he was unable to preserve all, yet few perished by this law. But after he was put to death ||, and Gardiner and Norfolk were in

* She was the niece of Osiander, a celebrated Protestant divine of Nuremberg, with whom Cranmer became acquainted while he was employed on the embassy to the Emperor on the subject of Henry's first divorce. During his attendance on the Emperor's court, Cranmer had an opportunity of satisfying many of the council and learned Germans, of the illegality of the marriage. It was probably at his instigation, that Osiander wrote a treatise on incestuous Marriages, the object of which was to prove Henry's marriage with Catherine unlawful. ↑ He remained in the Tower till the death of Henry, more than six years.

Book I. part III. page 260.

§ That is, by Commissioners nominated by the King, of whom the Archbishop or Bishop of the diocese was to be one.

||He was arrested at the council-board by Norfolk, in June, 1540, on an accusation of high treason; and the House of Peers thought pro

vested with the direction of the King's councils, a furious per secution was carried on against the protestants, under this act" and the land was defiled with their blood*." But "the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church;" and it is the observation of the first English infidel of notorietyt, that

der, without trial, examination or evidence, to condemn to death the man whom they a few days before had declared worthy to be Vicar-general of the universe. That Cromwell was a heretic, (i. e. a Protestant) had protected heretics from punishment, written to Sheriffs to set them at liberty, checked informers, favoured the new preachers, and procured many heretical books to be translated into English, were the principal of the crimes enumerated in the act of attainder of which his enemies could prove him guilty. The story about his treasonable words and the dagger, is ridiculous; and were it true, Cromwell was entitled to a situation, not in the Tower but in the hospital of St. Mary of Bethlem, which was purchased about this period for the reception of lunatics. From the well-known capriciousness of Henry, Cromwell was prepared for a diminution of the royal favour; but the plot of Gardiner and Norfolk was conducted with such secrecy, that the tempest by which he was overwhelmed, burst unexpectedly upon him.

After his arrest, Cromwell was forsaken by all his friends except Cranmer; who had the honesty and boldness to represent to the King the innocence and fidelity of a fallen favourite. Cromwell was executed in July 1540; and for this act of flagrant injustice, Henry is said to have expressed remorse. (Herbert, Burnet, Collier, Hume, &c.) The following are the words of Parker, the second Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury. "Cromwellus pontificiorum odiis capitis accusatus, sine sui defensione primus præter exemplum condemnatus est. Quo non fuit aut religione erga Deum, aut fidelitate in Regum, aut prudentia in Rempublicam, aut in bene meritos gratitudine, aut in omnes pietate, charitate ac benevolentia major tunc in Anglia quisquam." (Antiq. Brit. p. 334. Ed. Han. 1605.)

* The horrid massacre committed from day to day under this act, was more particularly confined within' the precincts of the diocese of London; of which See, Bonner, or as he is frequently called, the bloody Butcher, was then Bishop.

+ Lord Herbert of Cherbury, author of the Life of Henry VIII. and of a work entitled, De veritate, &c. The object of the latter was to shew the sufficiency of natural religion, and to discredit all revelation. Yet the author solemnly tells us, that the book was published in con

"the persecution of the protestants did but advance their religion; and it was thought that they had some assistance from above, it being impossible otherwise that they should so rejoice in the midst of their torments, and triumph over the most cruel death."

In 1543, about six years after its first publication, the Bishops' Book, or the Institution of a Christian Man, underwent a Review by a Committee of Divines appointed by the King. At this Review, several Alterations and many considerable Additions were made. The book thus reformed and enlarged was approved by a majority in both Houses of Parliament, and published by the King's authority, under the title of A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man. Of the Institution I have already given an abstract. The account of the Erudition I shall confine principally to those points in which it differs from the Institution.

To the Erudition are prefixed two prefaces; one by the Compilers, and another by the King. The former sets forth the care with which the Commissioners had examined the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient Doctors, from which, it says, they had collected the present Exposition of Christian faith. His majesty states, that since he had allowed the publication of the Scriptures in English, some, by wresting the holy text, had occasioned disputes and diversity of opinions: that therefore several ranks were prohibited by the legislature from reading the Bible and that to recover the people to orthodoxy and unity, he had set forth this summary of religion. The preface then proceeds to the subject of the Erudition, enumerates the articles it contains, and assigns reasons for the mode of their arrangement.

sequence of his receiving a something, which he took for an extraordinary revelation, and for the truth of which, however improbable, we have only his own unsupported assertion.

The Erudition begins with the article of Faith; it being thought proper that the exposition of Christian belief should be preceded by a declaration of the meaning of faith in general. That is declared to be saving faith which is professed by Christians at Baptism, (viz.) "such a belief, as begets submission to the will of God, and hath Hope, Love, and Obedience to God's commandments joined to it. This was Abrahaim's faith.-We may not think that we are justified by Faith, as it is a virtue separate from Hope, Charity, Fear of God and Repentance. It (faith that justifies) contains obedience to the whole doctrine and religion of Christ.”— To prevent too much reliance on bare belief or confident persuasion, and to preserve men from the extremes of presumption and despair, the authors declare that "for the definition of faith which some proposed, as if it was a certainty that one was predestinated, they found nothing of this in either Scriptures or Doctors, and they thought it could not be known." It is added "though God never fails in his promises to men, yet such is the frailty of men, that they often fail in their promises to God, and thus forfeit their right to the promises, which are all made on conditions that depend on us *."

Besides the treatise on Faith we find in the Erudition two other distinct discourses, on Free will, and Good works. In the Institution, none of these three subjects is expressly treated of, nor indeed mentioned except incidentally; we must therefore, in these articles consider the Erudition as a supple→ ment to the Institution.

In the exposition of the Creed, under the article of Christ's descent into Hell, the design of his going thither is handled more briefly and in more general terms: yet in both books the word is used to signify the place of torment.

* This treatise on Faith was composed by Dr. Redman, one of the Compilers of our English Liturgy, and one of the most learned and judicious Divines of the age.