vide one of them by the next All-hallowtide, under the penalty of forty shillings a month, till they had got one. The people were also charged not to dispute about, nor to disturb divine service by reading it during the mass; but to read it humbly and reverently for their instruction. Six of these were set up in several parts of St Paul's; but Bonner, afraid of the effect, posted up near them an admonition, that none should read them with vain glory and corrupt affections, or draw multitudes about them when they read them.' But such was the eager desire of the people after this new-old treasure (if I might so speak) that great numbers gathered about those who read; and such as had good voices used to read them aloud, in succession, almost all day long. Many sent their children to school, and when they had learned to read, they carried them to church to read the bible. In short, the eyes of the people being opened, they began boldly to speak against these doctrines of the church of Rome, which either contradicted' or could not be found in the Bible; insomuch that Bonner set up a new advertisement, threatening to take away the Bibles, if this use were made of them. And upon the complaints he and his brethren presented upon this subject, the free use of the scriptures was afterwards much restrained.

After the fall of the lord Cromwell, archbishop Cranmer, observing the restless spirit of his adversaries, and how they lay upon the watch for an opportunity to bring him into trouble; thought it prudent to retire for a season, and to live in as great privacy as the duties of his station would permit him. Notwithstanding which, his implacable enemy, bishop Gardiner, was daily contriving his ruin; and he having procured one Sir John Gostwicke to accuse the archbishop in parliament, of encouraging novel opinions, and making his family a nursery of heresy and sedition; divers lords of the privy council moved the king to commit the archbishop to the Tower, till enquiry should be made into the truth of this charge.

The king, who perceived that there was more malice than truth in these clamours against Cranmer, one evening, under pretence of diverting himself on the water, ordered his barge to be rowed to Lambeth side. The archbishop's servants acquainting their lord of his majesty's being so near, the archbishop came to the water-side, to pay his respects to the king, and to invite him into his palace. The king commanded the archbishop to come into the barge, and made him sit down close by him; having so done, the king began to complain to him, of the nation's

being over-run with heresy and new notions of divinity, which he had reason to fear might be of dangerous consequence, and that the faction might in time break out into a civil war, and be the cause of much blood-shed, and the total ruin of many of his honest and peaceable subjects. To prevent which, his majesty told him, he was resolved to seek after the grand incendiary, and to take him off by some exemplary punishment: And then proceeded to ask the archbishop, what his opinion was of such a resolution. Though Cranmer soon smelt the meaning of that question, yet he freely, and without the least appearance of concern, replied, that his majesty's resolution was greatly to be commended; and that not only the prime incendiary, but also the rest of the factious heretics. ought to be made public examples to the terror of others: But then he cautioned the king, not to charge those with heresy, who made the divinely-inspired scriptures the rule of their faith, and could prove their doctrines by clear testimonies from the word of God. Upon this, the king came closer, and plainly told him, he had been informed by many, that he was the grand heresiarch, who encouraged all this heterodoxy, and that his authority had occasioned the six articles to be contested so publicly in his province. The archbishop modestly replied, that he could not acknowledge himself to be of the same opinion, in respect of those articles, as he had declared himself of, when the bill was passing; but that notwithstanding he was not conscious to himself, of having offended against the act. Then the king, putting on an air of pleasantry, asked him, whether his bed-chamber would stand the test of those articles; the archbishop gravely and ingenuously confessed, that he was married in Germany during his embassy at the emperor's court, before his promotion to the see of Canterbury; but, at the same time, assured the king, that on the passing that act, he had parted with his wife, and sent her abroad to her friends. His answering thus, without evasion or reserve, so pleased the king, that he now pulied off the mask, and assured him of his favour; and then freely told him of the information preferred against him, and who they were that pretended to make it good. The archbishop said, that he was not afraid of the strictest scrutiny; and therefore was willing to submit himself to a legal trial. The king assured him, he would put the cause into his own hands, and trust him entirely with the management of it. This, the archbishop remonstrated, would be censured as partiality, and the king's justice called in question: But his majesty had so strong

an

an opinion of Cranmer's integrity, that he was resolved to leave it to his conduct; and having farther assured him of the entire confidence he reposed in him, dismissed him.

The archbishop immediatley sent down his vicar-general, and principal register, to Canterbury, to make a thorough enquiry into the affair, and trace the progress of this plot against him. In the mean time his adversaries importunately pressed the king to send him to prison, and oblige him to answer to the charge of heresy. At length his majesty resigned so far to their solicitations, as to consent, that if the archbishop could fairly be proved guilty of any one crime against either church or state, he should be sent to prison: In this the king acted the politician, intending, by, thus seemingly giving countenance to the prosecution, to discover who were Cranmer's chief adversaries, and what was the length of their design against him. At midnight he sent a gentleman of his privy-chamber to Lambeth, to fetch the archbishop; and, when he was come, told him, how he had been daily importuned to commit him to prison, as a favourer of heresy; and how far he had complied. The archbishop thanked his majesty for this timely notice, and declared himself willing to go to prison, and stand a trial; for being conscious that he was not guilty of any offence, he thought that the best way to clear his innocence, and remove all unreasonable and groundless suspicions.

The king, admiring his simplicity, told him, he was in the wrong to rely so much on his innocence; for if he were once under a cloud, and hurried to prison, there would be villains enough to swear any thing against him; but while he was at liberty, and his character entire, it would not be so easy to suborn witnesses against him. And therefore, continued he, since your own unguarded simplicity makes you less cautious than you ought to be, I will suggest to you the means of your preservation. To-morrow you will be sent for to the privycouncil, and ordered to prison; upon this you are to request, that since you have the honour to be one of the board, you may be admitted unto the council, and the ⚫ informers against you brought face to face; and then, if you cannot clear yourself, you are willing to go to prison: If this reasonable request is denied you, appeal to me, and give them this sign, that you have my authority for so doing.' Then the king took a ring of great value off his finger, gave it to the archbishop, and dismissed him.

The next morning, the archbishop was summoned to the privy-council; and, when he came there,, was denied. admittance into the council-chamber. When Di Butts, one of the king's physicians, heard of this, he came to the archbishop, who was waiting in the lobby amongst the footmen, to shew his respect, and to protect him from insults. The king soon after sending for the doctor, he acquainted his majesty with the shameful indignity put upon the archbishop. The king, incensed, that the PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND should be used in so contumelious a manner, immediately sent to command them to admit the archbishop into the council chamber. At his entrance he was saluted with an heavy accusation, of having infected the whole realm with heresy; and commanded to the Tower, till the whole of this charge was thoroughly examined. The archbishop desired to see the informers against him, and to have the liberty of defending himself before the council, and not to be sent to prison on bare suspicion. But when this was absolutely denied him, and finding that neither arguments nor intre ties would prevail, he appealed to the king; and producing the ring he had given him, put a stop to their proceedings. When they came before the king, he severely reprimanded them, expatiated on his obligations to Cranmer for his fidelity and integrity, and charged them, if they had any affection for him, to express it, by their love and kindness to the archbishop. Cranmer, having escaped the snare, never shewed the least resentment for the injuries done him; and, from this time forwards, had so great a share in the king's favour, that nothing farther was attempted against him.

These troubles of the good archbishop are somewhat differently related by doctor Burnet and Mr Strype; but I rather chuse to follow archbishop Parker's account, who, living in those times, must be allowed to be a much better authority in things of this nature, than any who lived at so great a distance.

The archbishop's vicar-general and register, being found negligent and dilatory, the king sent doctor Lee privately to Canterbury, to examine into this conspiracy against the archbishop, and make his report of what he could discover. Cn a strict et quiry, he found letters from bishop Gardiner's secretary, by which it appeared, that that prelate had been the principal promoter of this prosecution against Cranmer. When the bishop of Winchester perceived, that his designs against the archbishop were detected, fearing the consequence, he wrote him a very penitent letter, in

which he acknowledged himself to have been guilty of great folly in giving credit to those slanderous reports, which were raised against the archbishop, as if he had been a favourer of heresy and false doctrines; declaring, that he was now entirely satisfied, that these accusations were wholly false and groundless; asking pardon in most submissive and affectionate terms, for his great rashness and undutifulness, and promising all future obedience and fidelity to the archbishop, whom he stiled his good and gentle father. On the reception of this letter, the archbishop, laying aside all resentment against him, resolved to forget what was past; and said, since Gardiner called him father, he would prove a father to him indeed: And when the king would have laid the bishop of Winchester's letter before the house of lords, Cranmer prevailed with him, not to give the bishop any trouble about it, but to let the matter drop.

The same lenity he shewed towards doctor Thornton, the suffragan of Dover, and doctor Barbar; who, though entertained in his family, and entrusted with his secrets, and indebted to him for many favours, had ungratefully conspired, with Gardiner, to take away his life. When he first discovered their treachery, he took them aside into his study, and telling them that he had been basely and falsely abused by some, in whom he had always reposed the greatest confidence, desired them to advise him, how he should behave himself towards them. They, not suspecting to be concerned in the question, replied, that such vile abandoned villains ought to be prosecuted with the utmost rigour; nay, deserved to die without mercy. At this the archbishop, lifting up his hands to heaven, cried out, "Merciful God, whom may a man trust!" And then pulling out of his bosom the letters, by which he had discovered their treachery, asked them if they knew those papers. When they saw their own letters produced against them, they were in the utmost confusion, and, falling down on their knees, humbly sued for forgiveness. The archbishop told them, that he forgave them, and would pray for them; but that they must not expect him ever to trust them for the future.

And now I am upon this subject of the archbishop's readiness to forgive and forget injuries, I cannot but take notice of a pleasant story which happened some time before this: The archbishop's first wife, whom he married at Cambridge, lived at the Dolphin-inn; and he often resorting thither on that account, the popish party had raised 2 story, that he was hostler of that inn, and never had the

benefit