E Foxii thereunto by the king. And archbishop Islip, as long before him, disliked of dissolving those marriages that were contracted by such as had before vowed the single life. For though he laid a punishment upon a countess of Kent, who being a widow, and then professed, afterwards secretly married to a certain knight, named Abricourt; yet he divorced them not, but permitted them to live togethere. And the judgment of archbishop Arundel, who lived in king Richard the Second's reign, was for the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue, and for the laity's use thereof. For he, preaching the funeral sermon of queen Anne, the beloved wife of that king, after she deceased at Sheen, in the year 1392, commended her, as for her other virtuous accomplishments, so particularly for her study of the Holy Scriptures, and of the sense of them; and for having them in the vulgar tongue'; as I find by an ancient MS. fragment, writ near three hundred years ago, formerly belonging to the church of Worcester, in these words following: "Also the bishop of Canterbury, Thomas of "Arundel, that now is, say a sermon at West 66 66 minster, thereas was many an hundred of people, at the burying of queen Anne, (of "whose soul God have mercy.) And in his "commendation of her he said, That it was f [Id. vol. iii. p. 301.] e [Id. vol. iii. p. 126.] "more joy of her than of any woman that "ever he knew. For, notwithstanding that she “was alien born, [being the daughter of the 66 emperor Charles IV.], she had in English all "the four Gospels, with the doctors upon them. "And he said, that she sent them unto him. 66 And he said, that they were good and true, "and commended her, in that she was so great “a lady, and also an alien, and would study so holy, so virtuous books. And he blamed in "his sermon sharply the negligence of the pre"lates, and other men," &c.g 66 So that it is not true what Parsons saith, if he mean that no archbishops of Canterbury before Cranmer varied from the church of Rome in any of her doctrines. But true it is, though not so much to their credits, that none of them, however sensible they were of the Roman errors and superstitions, did in good earnest bestir themselves to set this church free of them, before our abovenamed archbishop, (being the eighty-sixth from Augustine the monk), resolutely and bravely g [Harl. MSS. 425. fol. 1. wherein is added the following MSS. note in the author's handwriting :-"Abp. Usher in his Dissertatio de Scripturis Sacris Vernaculis, published by Mr. Wharton, at the year 1410 mentions, under Anglus Anonymus, this fragment. I quoted some part of it, beginning at Auditum est a Germano quodam,' and ending at the mention of bishop Arundel's sermon, but without repeating what is here said of it. J. S."] undertook and effected it. Indeed they spent not their zeal, their treasure, and their interest this way so much, as in contending about superiority and their prerogatives, in exempting their clergy from the cognizance of the temporal magistrate, in applications to and courting of the bishops of Rome, in persecuting those they called heretics, in eternizing their own names by founding religious houses, and building stately palaces and shrines, and in exhibiting themselves in great worldly pomp and appearance. But blessed be God for archbishop Cranmer; by means of whose reformation succeeded a series of better, though not so splendid archbishops. Who made conscience of minding things more suitable to their high vocation, and the spiritual trust committed to them: men that regarded little or nothing the vain shows of exterior grandeur and glory, nor sought great things for themselves, but with their great predecessor St. Paul, (on whom lay the care of all the churches), spent and wore out themselves in the restoration of the kingdom of Christ, so happily begun by the said archbishop Cranmer in this Island. Such were Parker, Grindal, Whitgift, the three first protestant archbishops next after him; what he planted they watered, and God gave a blessed increase to. Whose most excellent h [2 Cor. xi. 28.] lives and conducts in the government of this church, as well as in their own more private and domestic conversation; their rare piety, prudence, patience, courage, and activity, I can scarcely temper my pen from making excursions into. Of which I could fill even volumes (had I leisure, favour, and countenance) from those large collections which I have for divers years been storing up with great delight, partly out of their own original letters, and partly from other MSS. in their times. But besides these first archbishops during the long reign of queen Elizabeth, who by their care and diligence established and settled that reformation, of which archbishop Cranmer laid the first stones, we are beholden unto the same archbishop for all the rest of the worthy and painful prelates of that metropolitical see, who have taken care of this excellently reformed church, even unto your grace. Whose deserts towards this church and the reformation, have raised you to sit in archbishop Cranmer's chair; though with as much reluctancy in you as was in him. Of your grace's endowments to qualify you for this most eminent station, I will be wholly silent; knowing how abhorrent your generous nature is from reading or hearing your own commendations. Nor, my lord, is this my end in this my dedib CRANMER, VOL. I. cation but this it is, that you would so far encourage these these my weak and imperfect labours, (done out of a good intent), as to cast a favourable eye upon them, for the sake of your glorious predecessor, the subject of this book; and to repute me among the number, May it please your grace, Of your most humble and most obedient servants, JOHN STRYPE. |