[Appeal at his Degradation.] &c. vol. iii. p. 662. Foxe, Acts, Doctor Thurlby and Doctor Boner coming with a new Commission to sit upon the Archbishop, the 14th day of February. A new sion sent Rome The letter or sentence definitive a of the Pope was dated about the first day of January, and was delivered here in down from England about the midst of February. Upon the receipt against the of which letters, another session was appointed for the Archbishop to appear the fourteenth day of February before certain Commissioners directed down by the Queen, the Dr. Thurl- chief whereof was the Bishop of Ely, Dr. Thurlby. by and Dr. Archbi shop. Boner, sioners. A new sit ting of the Pope's De legates in Christ Church against the With the said Doctor Thurlby, Bishop of Ely, was also Commis- assigned in the same Commission Doctor Boner, Bishop of London; which two coming to Oxford upon St. Valentine's day, as the Pope's Delegates, with a new Commission from Rome, by the virtue thereof commanded the Archbishop aforesaid to come before them, in the choir of Christ Church, before the high altar; where they sitting, accordArchbishop ing to their manner, in their pontificalibus, first began, as bury. the fashion is, to read their Commission; wherein was contained, how that in the Court of Rome all things being indifferently examined, both the articles laid to his charge, with the answers made unto them; and witnesses examined on both parts, and counsel heard, as well on the King and Queen's behalf, his accusers, as on the behalf of Thomas Cranmer, the party guilty; so that he wanted nothing ap of Canter [Cranmer received a citation on the 7th of September, 1555, to appear at Rome within eighty days. Such appearance was of course impossible, as he was closely imprisoned at Oxford. But the cause proceeded, as if his absence had been voluntary. Being pronounced contumacious, he was sentenced by the Pope, to be degraded and delivered over to the secular magistrate. This is the definitive sentence of which Foxe speaks. It may be seen at length in his Acts and Monuments, vol. iii. p. 997.] Commis upon lies. pertaining to his necessary defence, &c. Which foresaid Commission, as it was in reading, Oh, Lord, said the Arch- The Pope's bishop, what lies be these, that I, being continually in pri- sion son, and never could be suffered to have counsel or advo- grounded cate at home, should produce witness and appoint my counsel at Rome! God must needs punish this open and shameless lying. They read on the Commission which came from the Pope, plenitudine potestatis, supplying all manner of defects in law or process, committed in dealing with the Archbishop, and giving them full authority to proceed to deprivation and degradation of him, and so upon excommunication to deliver him up to the secular power, omni appellatione remota. When the Commission was read thus, they, proceeding thereupon to his degradation, first clothed and disguised The order him, putting on him a surplice, and then an albe; after that, the vestment of a subdeacon, and every other furni- gradation. ture, as a priest ready to mass. When they had apparelled him so far, What, said he, I think I shall say mass. Yea, said Cosins, one of Boner's chaplains, my lord, I trust to see you say mass for all this. Do you so? quoth he, that shall you never see, nor will I ever do it. Then they invested him in all manner of robes of a bishop and archbishop, as he is at his installing, saving that as every thing then is most rich and costly, so every thing in this of canvas and old clouts, with a mitre and a pall of the same suit done upon him in mockery, and then the crosier staff was put in his hand. This done after the Pope's pontifical form and manner, Boner, who by the space of many years had borne, as it seemed, no great good will towards him b, and now rejoiced [See an account of Boner's insolent behaviour in 1549 before Cranmer and other Commissioners, in Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. ii. p. 675, &c. On which occasion, "the Archbishop, seeing his inordinate and "intolerable contempt towards them, charged him very sharply, say"ing, 'My lord of London, if I had sitten here only as Archbishop of Canterbury, it had been your part to have used yourself more 'lowly, obediently, and reverently towards me than you have; but 66 6 of the Archbishop's de Bp. Boner's eloquent to see this day, wherein he might triumph over him, and take his pleasure at full, began to stretch out his eloquence, making his oration to the assembly after this manner of sort: This is the man that hath ever despised the Pope's holioration ness, and now is to be judged by him. This is the man against the who hath pulled down so many churches, and now is come Archbishop Cranmer. to be judged in a church. This is the man that contemned Boner taken with an untruth. Unmannerliness of the blessed sacrament of the altar, and now is come to be condemned before that blessed sacrament hanging over the altar. This is the man that, like Lucifer, sat in the place of Christ upon an altar to judge other, and now is come before an altar to be judged himself. Whereunto the Archbishop, interrupting him, said, that in that he belied him, as he did in many other things: for that which he would now seem to charge him withal, was his own fault, if it was any, and none of his. For the thing you mean was in Paul's Church, said he, where I came to sit in commission; and there was a scaffold prepared for me and others, by you and your officers, and whether there were any altar under it, or not, I could not perceive it, nor once suspected it; wherefore you do wittingly evil to charge me with it. But Boner went on still in his rhetorical repetition, Bp. Boner lying and railing against the Archbishop, beginning every to his bro- sentence with "This is the man, this is the man," till at of adver-length there was never a man but was weary of the unman ther in time sity. "seeing that I with my colleagues sit here now as delegates from the "King's Majesty, I must tell you plain, you have behaved yourself "too much inordinately. For at every time that we have sitten in "commission, you have used such unseemly fashions, without all re verence and obedience, giving taunts and checks as well unto us ""with divers of the servants and chaplains, as also unto certain of the ""ancientest that be here, calling them fools and daws, with such "like, as that you have given to the multitude an intolerable example ""of disobedience. And I insure you, my lord, there is you and one "other bishop, whom I could name, that have used yourselves so con'temptuously and disobediently, as the like, I think, hath not before ""been heard of or seen; whereby ye have done much harm."" Foxe, Acts, &c. vol. ii. p. 688.] 66 6 C ["Dog eloquence" is the phrase which Foxe applies to Boner's abuse in his first edition, p. 1491.] nerly usage of him in that time and place; insomuch that the Bishop of Ely aforesaid divers times pulled him by the sleeve to make an end, and said to him afterward, when they went to dinner, that he had broken promise with him; for he had entreated him earnestly to use him with re verence. After all this done and finished, they began then to bustle toward his degrading, and first to take from him his crosier staff out of his hands, which he held fast, and refused to deliver, and withal, imitating the example of Martin Lutherd, pulled an appeal out of his left sleeve, under the wrist, which he there and then delivered unto them, saying, I appeal to the next General Council; and herein I have Archbishop comprehended my cause and form of it, which I desire may appealeth be admitted; and prayed divers of the standers-by, by from the name, to be witnesses. The tenor of the Appeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury from the Pope to the next General Council. Cranmer Pope to a the Pope to In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Challenge or appeal of Holy Ghost. the ArchFirst, my plain protestation made, that I intend to speak bishop from nothing against one holy, catholic, and apostolical Church, a General or the authority thereof, (the which authority I have in Council. great reverence, and to whom my mind is in all things to obey ;) and if any thing peradventure, either by slipperiness of tongue, or by indignation of abuses, or else by the provocation of mine adversaries, be spoken or done otherwise than well, or not with such reverence as becometh me, I am most ready to amend it. Although the Bishop of Rome (whom they call Pope) [Luther first appealed from Cardinal Caietan, the Pope's Delegate, to the Pope himself; and afterwards from the Pope to a General Council. Sleidan, De Statu Relig. lib. i. and ii.] e [Cranmer was probably assisted by a lawyer in drawing up this Appeal. See the last Letter in vol. i.] not uns n nable. hath no power to destruction, but to edify. beareth the room of Christ in earth, and hath authority of The Pope God, yet by that power or authority he is not become unsinnable, neither hath he received that power to destroy, The Fope but to edify the congregation. Therefore, if he shall command any thing that is not right to be done, he ought to take it patiently and in good part, in case he be not therein obeyed. And he must not be obeyed, if he command any thing against the precepts of God: no, rather he may lawfully be resisted, even as Paul withstood Peter. And if he, being aided by help of princes, deceived perchance by false suggestion, or with evil counsel, cannot be resisted, but the remedies of withstanding him be taken away, there is neverRemedy of theless one remedy of appealing, (which no prince can take appealing away,) uttered by the very law of nature; forsomuch as it standeth with the is a certain defence, which is meet for every body, by the law of God, of nature, and of man. law of God and nature. The infe rior cannot forbid to appeal to rior. Council is And whereas the laws do permit a man to appeal, not only from the griefs and injuries done, but also from such as shall be done hereafter, or threatened to be done, insomuch that the inferior cannot make laws of not appealing to a superior power; and since it is openly enough confessed, that a holy General Council, lawfully gathered tothe supe- gether in the Holy Ghost, and representing the holy cathoA General lic Church, is above the Pope, especially in matters consuperior to cerning faith; that he cannot make decrees that men shall the Pope. not appeal from him to a General Council; therefore I, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, or in time past ruler of the metropolitical Church of Canterbury, Doctor in Divinity, do say and publish before you, the public Notary and witnesses here present, with mind and intent to challenge and appeal from the persons and griefs underneath written, and to proffer myself in place and time convenient and meet, to prove the articles that follow. And I openly confess, that I would lawfully have published them before this day, if I might have had either liberty to come abroad myself, or license of a notary and witnesses. But further then I am able to do, I know well is not required of the laws. |