LII.

A Letter to Pole from the Bishop of Durham, in his own Hand. An Original.

(Cott. Libr. Cleop. E. 6, P. 385.)

RYGHT Honorable, in my humble maner I recommend me unto your Mastership, advertising the same that I have resceived your Letter, datyd at Venice on Corpus Christi Evyn last; by which I do perceyve, that where of late you sent a Boke with a Letter unto the Kyng's Highnes, concernyng your Opinion of the King's Title, and the Power of the Bishop of Rome; and your Desire was in your Letter, as ye write, that I myght see the Boke, to enforme his Grace what I thought theroff. And now ye send to me your said Letter, to informe me of your Meanynge and Purpose in your said longe Boke, wherin I do perceyve, ye fere lest your Vehemency have offended. I do signifie unto you, that I have both well perused your said Letter, to comprise well the Effect theroff in every Point; and also have perused, with odyr, your said longe Boke, unto the Ende theroff. Which made me hevy in my Harte, both whylse I was in Redinge of it, and allso mych more when I had redde it thorow, seinge the Vehemency and Egerness of it in all Partes, dyd sore byte; and yet the hole Thinge ran wyde off the Truthe. For in all your Boke, your Purpose is to bring the King's Grace, by Penance, home unto the Churche again, as a Man clerly seperate from the same alredy. And his Recesse from the Church, ye proffe not otherwise, than by the Fame and comon Opinion of those Parts; who be farr from the Knowlege of the Truth of our Affairs here, and do conjecture every Man as they lyst, (blyndly) of Thinges unknowen unto them. And in Cause of his Retorne, ye promisse to illustrate the King's Name, so to bend your Lernyng therunto, that all Displeasure that may be takyn of your said Boke, shuld be clerly thereby abolysed and takyn away; and all shold redund unto his Glory and Honour. And to comprise in few Wordes the Effecte that is worn off your said Boke, that makes vehemently many Playes, and doth conteyn lyttle or no Salve to hole them. And as it semyth to me, ye wer styrred to sore in your Spirite in all your Wrytings therof, and wer not quiet in your Mynde, whyle ye were in doynge of it. Wold to God ye had rather written to his Grace your Opinion, brevely comprisyd secretly in a Letter, that he shold not have nedyd to have shewed it to other Lernyd Men of his Counsell, than in so longe a Boke to have dilatyd all Thynges as ye have

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done, that he must of Necessitie be constranyd to commytte that to such trusty Persons, as shold please his Grace to know by them the Effecte theroff. What Stupidity was it, to send so long a Boke so longe a way, conteynyng so displesaunt Mater, by one Man, who myght have myscaryed or peryshed in the way, and therby the Boke have comen (as was likely) to the Handes of such as wold have published it to the King's Slaunder, and the Realmes, and most of all to your owne, that shuld be the Author of suche a Boke, made against your Prince and Countre: Wherin all the World shuld repute you to be unkynd unto your Prince and Countre, who evermore so had lovyd you, and brogt yow up in Lernygne, and ye to spend the same to his Redroche. So that surely, who soever not favouryng the King, shold have lykyd the Matter, yet must he nedys have myslyked the Author therof, usinge his Lernyng against hym, in whose Defence he ought to have spent both Lyff and Lernyng. But Laude be to God that the Boke came saffe unto the King's Handys, whereby that Yeperdy ys past. One Thinge made me cold at the Harte, when I red it in your Letter that ye writt of Two Quares; which be not in your Hands to repress. The Residue, ye say, ye can make sure not to come abrode; which, yf ye folow myn Advyse, ye shall do furthwith; burnyng them, for your owne Honour, and the Noble House that ye be come of: that it never came abrode, that ye exercysed your Style or Lernyng against him, whom ye ougth in all Points (by your Wit and Conning) to defende: And yf any Faults wer founde by odyrs, to excuse them by all means, and not to animate by your Penne. And would to God lykewise, that ye wold endevour_your_sel. (by all means to you possible) to gett again those Two Quarys, and lykwise to burn them. For, in all your Boke, ther is not one Queyre without Bytterness, mych more then I wold it were. But to retourne to that Thinge that I said before, that methought your hole Book ran wyde off the Truth. 1 shall, by your Patience, yf ye be contente to here me as your Frende, opyn unto you what I mean therby. Ye presuppose for a Ground, the King's Grace to be swarvyd from the Unite of Christ's Church, and that in takinge upon him the Tytle of Supreme Hede of the Churche of Englande, he intendyth to seperate his Church of Englande from the Unitie of the whole Bodie of Christendome; takyng upon hym the Office belonging to Spirituall Men, grounded in the Scripture, of immediat Cure of Soule, and attribute to hymself that belongith to Presthode, as to prech and teach the Word of God, and to mynyster the Sacraments. And that he doth not know what longeth to a Christen King's

Office, and what unto Presthode; wherin surely both you and al odyr so thinkinge of him, do erre too farre. For there is no Prince in Christendome, that more regardith or better knowith the Office and the Honor of a Christen Prince, nor that more doth esteem Spiritual Men that be gyffen to Lernyng and Vertue, that he doth: And that ye may boldly (without Reproch) avouch to all Men affirming the contrary, whatsoever sinistrously conceived Opinion any Person shall have of hym, in those Partes, or any oder. For, his full Purpose and Intente is, to see the Laws of Almyghty God purly and sincerely prechyd and taugth, and Christ's Fayth without Blot kepte and observed in his Realme; and not to separate hymself, or his Realme, any wyse from the Unitie of Christ's Catholyke Church, but inviolably, at all Tymes, to kepe and observe the same; and to reduce his Church of Englande out of all Captivitie of Foreyn Powers, hertofore usurped therin, into the Christen Estate, that all Churches of all Realmes wer in at the Begynyng; and to abolyshe, and clerly to put away such Usurpations, as hertofore in thys Realme the Bishops of Rome have, by many undue meanes, incresyd to their grete Avantage, and Impoveryshinge of thys Realm, and the Kyng's Subjects of the same. So that no Man therin can justly find any Fawte at the King's so doinge, seinge he reducyth all Thynges to that Estate, that is conformable to those auncient Decres of the Churche, which the Bishop of Rome (at his Creation) solemly doth profess to observe hymself, which be the Eygth Universal Councells. Which yf ye do rede advysedly, and studiously do consyder how the Church of Christ was stablyshed by those, and how far of late Yers the Byshops of Rome have broght this Realme and odyr from those; ye shall manyfestly perceyve the Abuse and Diversitie betuyx the oon and the other. I am sure, at Venice ye may have the sayd Counsels in Greke, lyke as now they be comon abrode in Latyn, translatyd even from the Begyning. Which if they had been comenly knowen and redde hertofore, the Bishop of Rome's Power heretofore usurpyd in many Realmes, had never so farre been avancyd, as of late it hathe. Wold to God ye had ben exercised in Readinge of them, before the Sendinge of your saide Boke, that ye might have knowen from the Begynning, from Age to Age, the Continuaunce and Progresse of the Catholike Churche. By which ye shuld have perceived, that the Church of Rome had never of olde such a Monarchie, as of late it hathe usurped. And if ye will say, that those Places of the Gospell, that ye do allege in your Boke, do prove it, then must ye graunt also, that the Counsel of Nice and others

did erre, which ordeined the contrary. And the Apostels also, in their Canons, did ordeine, That al Ordring of Prests, Consecratynge of Bishops, and all Matirs Spirituall, shuld be fynished within the Diocesse, or at uttermost within the Province wher the Parties dwelte. Which Canons of the Apostels, Damascen doth commemorate for Holy Scriptures. Now it is not lyke, that the Apostels, who were Prechers of the Gospell, wold make Canons contrary to the Gospell; nor that the Four First Cheffe Counsels General wold have ordenyd so as they did, if the Gospell, or the Scripture, had bene to the contrary. And wher ye in your Boke much do stikke to common Custome of the Church, surely after Christe, above a Thousand Yere, the Custome was to the contrary, that now is used by the Bishop of Rome. At that Tyme, in the Primitive Church of Christe, when the Blood of Christe and Martyers was yet freshe, the Scriptures wer best understande, Faith most firme, and Vertue most pregnant; the Customes then used in the Church must nedes be better than any contrary Use sens, eyther by Ambition or Covetousnes, any waies cropen in. And to assure you of my Mind what I do thinke'; suerly who soever shall go about, by the Primatie of Peter, which was in Prechinge the Word of God, to establyshe the worldly Autorite of the Bishop of Rome, which he now claymeth in dyverse Realmes, in worldly thyngs soe perfecte temporall, shall no more couple them to gedyr then lygth and darknes; but shal improve the thinge that he goeth about to prove. Iff ye wolde rede Nicolas Cusa de Concordia Catholica in his Second Boke thorowly, he shold gretly open this Matter unto you. Wherfore sens the King's Grace goeth about to reforme his Realme, and reduce the Church of England unto that State that both thys Realme and all other wer in at the begynnynge off the Faith, and many hundredth yere aftyr; yff any Prince or Realme wyl not folow hym, lat them do as they lyste; he doth no thinge but stablyshyth such Laws as wer in the begynnynge, and such as the Bishop of Rome professeth to observe. Wherefore nidyr the Bishop off Rome hymself, nor odyr Prince, ought off Reason to be miscontent her with. Yff I wer with you but oon day, I wold trust to shew you such grounds in thys Matter, that ye myght chaunge your mynde, oonlesse ye wer totally addite to the contrary opynion, as I pray God ye be not, both for your own and for your friends sake, who shuld take grete discomforth theroff.. Oon thinge yet restith that I thougth convenient to advertise you off wherin I do perceyve ye be ignorant. Which is thys. Ye write in one parte off your Boke, that ye think the Herts off the Subjects off thys Realme greatly offended with

Abolyshinge off the Byshop of Rome's usurped Autorite in this Realme, as yff all the People or moste part off them toke the Matter as ye do. Wherin I do assure you ye be deceivyd. For the People perceyve ryght wel what profite cometh to the Realme therby; and that al such Money as before issuy'd that way, now is kept within the Realme; wheras before al that went that way, which was no small share, but great and excessive, and dayly the sayd Yssue encresyd more and more, never retornyd again hedyr any part theroff. Which was to the great impoveryshinge of thys Realme. So that yff at thys day the King's Grace wold go about to renew in his Realme the sayd abolysh'd Autorite off the Byshop of Rome, grantyng hym lyke Profites as he had before thorow thys his Realme, I thinke he shold fynd mych more diffyculte to brynge it aboute in his Parliament, and to induce his People to agree therunto, then any thinge that ever he purposed in his Parlement sens his first Regne. Wherfore I wyshed that, as many odyr things more to have ben out of the your Boke. Which myght peradventure have engendry'd sum parte off_suspicion in the King's Gracs mynd toward his Subjects, as I trust verayly that dyd not. And wher ye do fynde a faute with me, that I faynted in my hearte, and wold not dye for the Bishop of Rome's authorite; when thys matter was first proposyd unto me, surly it was no faynting that made me agreeable therunto; for I never saw the Day sens I know the progresse and contynuance off Christ's Church from the begynning, and redde such Historyes Ecclesiasticall and Ordinaunces from Age to Age as do manyfestly declare the same, that ever I thought to shede oon droppe off my bloode therfore: for sure I am noon off them that hertofore have had avantage by that authorite, wold have lost oose peny thereoff to have savyd my lyffe, nor wyl not do to save yours, yff ye shold be in such necessite. Which God for his Mercy forbydde, and kepe you from trust off such socoure.

Finally, accordinge to your desire sens your Boke ys Comon unto the King's Hands, and he perceivyth the Effecte off it, I shall help as mych as may lye in my lityl power, that your plain facyon off writinge, as off a sharpe gostly fadyr, may be takyn in best parte according to your Letter and Desire in that behalf; but at the Reverence off Almyghthy God hynder not your selfe in addictynge you to the Opinion off your Boke, towching the Bishop off Rome's Autorite; thinking, that as ye se it now in Italy and diverse Countreys, so it was from the beginning, and ought to be by God's Law. For the forsaid Counsayls do shew plainly.