The printer

sive of an

edition.

have it licensed under your privy seal, it would be a defence at this present, and in time to come, for all enemies and adversaries of the same. And forasmuch as this request is for the maintenance of the Lord's word, which is to maintain the Lord himself, I fear not but that your lordship will be earnest therein. And I am assured that my lords of Canterbury, Worcester, and Salisbury will give your lordship such thanks as in them lieth. And sure ye may be, that the heavenly Lord will reward you for the establishment of his glorious truth. And what your lordship's pleasure is in this request, if it may please your lordship to inform my servant, I and all that love God heartily are bound to pray for your preservation all the days of our life. At London the xxviiith day of this present month of August, 1537.

"Your orator while he liveth,

"Richard Grafton, Grocers."

And as this printer had addressed to Crumwel for the, apprehen- privy seal, so he apprehended now a further need of the other corroboration of authority upon another account. For some, observing how exceeding acceptable the English Bible was to the common people, were designing to print it in a less volume and smaller letters, whereby it would come to pass that Grafton would be undersold; and so he and his creditors would be undone; and besides, it was like to prove a very ill edition, and very erroneous. Insomuch that Grafton affirmed, they would commit as many faults as there were sentences in the Bible. And it must needs be so, because then the printers were gene

' [i. e. Cranmer, Latimer, and Shaxton.]

["Grafton was a member of the Grocers' Company, in London."]

rally Dutchmen within the realm, that could neither speak nor write true English: nor for covetousness sake would they allow any learned men at all to oversee and correct what they printed, as formerly it had been printed, but paper, letter, ink, and corrections would be all naught. Therefore he desired one favour more of the lord Crum- Other rewel; and that was, to obtain for him of the king, that quests of the printer. none should print the Bible for three years but himself. And to move him, he said he was sure the bishop of Canterbury, and other his special friends, would not be unthankful to him. He urged to him, that his whole living lay upon this point. And for the better and quicker sale of his books, he desired also, that, by his commandment in the king's name, every curate might be obliged to have one; that they might learn to know God, and to instruct their parishioners; and that every abbey should have six, to be laid in several places of the convent. He wished some commissions might be issued out to the archbishop of Canterbury, and the bishops of Sarum and Worcester; and they would readily cause this to be done in their dioceses. To which he earnestly added his own arguments to provoke Crumwel to yield to his request. This letter may be found in the Appendix. No. XX.

61

The feast of

&c. forbid.

August.
Monks'
Journal.

CHAPTER XVI.

MANY SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS MADE.

Ir was now forbidden by the parliament, and, in purSt. Thomas, suance thereof, by the bishops in their several dioceses, that the feast of St. Thomas à Becket, the pretended martyr, should be celebrated any more; nor of St. Laurence, nor of divers others, the feasts of the twelve apostles excepted, and of our lady, St. Michael, and Mary Magdalene. Also the feast of the holy cross was forbid; and commanded, that none should presume to keep those feasts holy; that is, they should ring no bells, nor adorn their churches, nor go in procession, nor do other such like things as belonged to the celebration of festivalsh. So when St. Thomas' eve came, which had used constantly by the archbishops of Canterbury and their domestics, to be celebrated by fasting, archbishop Cranmer took no notice of that eve, but eat flesh, and supped in his parlour with his family. Which created much observation, it having never been seen before; the archbishop thinking it unworthy that a man of that devotion

h ["The same year [1537] was it forbidden by the parliament and by the bishops that the feast of S. Thomas the martyr should not be celebrated, nor of S. Lawrence, nor of divers others, the feast of the xii apostles excepted, and of our lady, S. Michael, and Mary Magdalene. Also the feast of the holy cross

was forbidden to be celebrated, and that none should presume to keep any of these feasts holy, that is, they should ring no bells, nor adorn their churches*. ..procession, nor other such things as belong... .*" Harl. MSS. 419. Plut. lxv. E. fol. 113. British Museum. Original.]

*The MS. has been torn, and the words lost in these places.

to the see of Rome, and disloyalty to his natural prince, should be so religiously commemorated.

BISHOPS DIOCESAN CONSECRATED.

consecra

March the 25th, Robert Holgate, master of the order Robert of Sempringham, was consecrated bishop of Landaffi, Holgate in the chapel of St. Mary in the conventual church of Friars ted bishop. Preachers of the city of London, by John bishop of Rochesterk, by virtue of letters commissional from the archbishop to him; John bishop of Bangor', and Nicholas bishop of Sarum m, assisting. This Holgate was either abbot or prior of St. Mary Watte, an house of Gilbertines, which he held in commendam, and surrendered in the year 1539.

SUFFRAGAN BISHOPS.

June the 24th, John Bird, S. Th. P. provincial of the John Bird. order of Friars Carmelites of the city of London, was consecrated suffragan of the see of Penrith, in Landaff diocese; and

Thomas

Lewis Thomas, formerly Abbot of the monastery of Lewis Kynmer, suffragan bishop of the see of Salop; both consecrated at Lambeth by the archbishop. The assistant bishops at this consecration [are] not mentioned in the register.

count of Bird.

Of Bird, a word or two; I find him in Norwich about Some acthe year 1531, busy with Bilney before his death". He was a person king Henry made use of; for in the

year

white friars. This Bird was a
suffragan in Coventry, and after
bishop of Chester, and was he that
brought apples to Boner, men-
tioned in the story of Hawkes."
Foxe's Acts and Monuments, p.
1008. ed. Lond. 1583.]

1535, he with Fox the almoner, and Bedel, a clerk of the council, were sent to queen Katherine, divorced from the king, to forbear the name of queen: which nevertheless she would not do. He preached certain sermons before the king against the pope's supremacy. Bale, in his exposition upon the Revelations, makes him to be one of the ten horns that shall hate the whore. Godwin asserts of him, that he was once bishop of Ossory P. 62 Bale, in his Centuries, mentions not at all his being an