and the lives of Christians." After he had taken this commission, Bonner might have been well called one of the king's bishops. The true reason of this profound compliance was, that the popish party apprehended that Cranmer's great interest with the king was chiefly grounded on some opinions he had, of the ecclesiastical officers being as much subject to the king's power as all other civil officers were. And this having endeared him so much to the king, therefore they resolved to outdo him in that point. But there was this difference-that Cranmer was once of that opinion, and, if he followed it at all, it was out of conscience: but Bonner, against his conscience (if he had any) complied with it.

Now followed the final dissolution of the abbeys; there are fifty-seven surrenders upon record this year. The originals of about thirty of these are yet to be seen. Thirtyseven of them were abbeys, or priories, and twenty nunneries. The good house of Godstow now fell with the rest, though among the last of them. Now the great parliament abbots surrendered apace; as those of Westminster, St. Alban's, St. Edmundsbury, Canterbury, St. Mary in York, Selby, St. Peter's in Gloucester, Cirencester, Waltham, Winchcombe, Malmesbury, and Battel. Three others were attainted; Glastenbury, Reading, and Colchester. The deeds of the rest are lost. Here it will not be unacceptable to the reader, to know who were the parliamentary abbots. There were in all twenty-eight, as they were commonly given: Fuller has given a catalogue of them in three places of his History of Abbeys; but as every one of these differs from the others, so none of them are according to the Journals of parliament: the Lord Herbert is also mistaken in his account. I shall not rise higher in my inquiry than this reign, for anciently many more abbots and priors sat in parliament, beside other clergy, that had likewise their writs; and of whose right to sit in the house of commons there was a question moved in Edward the Sixth's reign, as shall be opened in its proper place. Much less will I presume to determine so great a point in law, Whether they sat in the house of lords, as being a part of the ecclesiastical state, or as holding their lands of the king by baronage ? I am only to observe the matter of fact, which is, that, in the Journals of parliament in this reign, these twentyeight abbots had their writs; Abington, St. Alban's, St. Austin's Canterbury, Battel, St. Bennet's in the Holm, Berdeney, Cirencester, Colchester, Coventry, Croyland, St. Edmundsbury, Evesham, Glastenbury, Gloucester, Hide, Malmesbury, St. Mary's in York, Peterborough, Ramsey,

Reading, Selby, Shrewsbury, Tavenstock, Tewksbury, Thorney, Waltham, Westminster, and Winchelcombe; to whom also the prior of St. John's may be added. But besides all these, I find that in the twenty-eighth year of this king, the abbot of Burton upon Trent sat in parliament. Generally Coventry and Burton were held by the same man, as one bishop held both Coventry and Litchfield; but in that year they were held by two different persons, and both had their writs to that parliament. The method used in the suppression of these houses will appear by one complete report made of the suppression of the abbey of Tewksbury, which, out of many I copied, is in the Collection (No. iii, Sect. 5.) From it the reader will see, what provision was made for the abbot, the prior, the other officers, and the monks and other servants of the house; and what buildings they ordered to be defaced and what to remain; and how they did estimate the jewels, plate, and other ornaments. But monasteries were not sufficient to stop the appetite of some that were about the king; for hospitals were next looked after. One of these was this year surrendered by Thomas Thirleby, with two other priests; he was master of St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, and was designed bishop of Westminster, to which he made his way by that resignation. He was a learned and modest man; but of so fickle or cowardly a temper, that he turned always with the stream in every change that was made, till Queen Elizabeth came to the crown: but then, being ashamed of so many turns, he resolved to show he could once be firm to somewhat.

Now were all the monasteries of England suppressed, and the king had then in his hand the greatest opportunity of making royal and noble foundations that ever king of England had. But, whether out of policy, to give a general content to the gentry by selling to them at low rates, or out of easiness to his courtiers, or out of an unmeasured lavishness in his expense, it came far short of what he had given out he would do, and what himself seemed once to have designed. The clear yearly value of all the suppressed houses is cast up, in an account then stated to be, viz. £131,607 6s. 4d. as the rents were then rated; but was at least ten times so much in true value. Of which he designed to convert £18,000 into a revenue for eighteen bishoprics and cathedrals. But of these he only erected six, as shall be afterwards shown. Great sums were indeed laid out on building and fortifying many ports in the Channel, and other parts of England, which were raised by the sale of abbey lands.

At this time many were offering projects for noble foundations, on which the king seemed very earnest : but it is very likely, that, before he was aware of it, he had so outrun himself in his bounty, that it was not possible for him to bring these to any effect. Yet I shall set down one of the projects, which shows the greatness of his mind that designed it; that is, of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was afterwards one of the wisest ministers that ever this nation bred. The king designed to found a house for the study of the civil law, and the purity of the Latin and French tongues: so he ordered Sir Nicholas Bacon, and two others, Thomas Denton, and Robert Cary, to make a full project of the nature and orders of such a house; who brought it to him in writing: the original whereof is yet extant*. The design of it was, that there should be frequent pleadings, and other exercises in the Latin and French tongues: and when the king's students were brought to some ripeness, they should be sent with his ambassadors to foreign parts, and trained up in the knowledge of foreign affairs; and so the house should be the nursery for ambassadors. Some were also to be appointed to write the history of all embassies, treaties, and other foreign transactions: as also of all arraignments, and public trials at home. But, before any of them might write on these subjects, the lord chancellor was to give them an oath, that they should do it truly, without respect of persons, or any other corrupt affection. This noble design miscarried. But, if it had been well laid and regulated, it is easy to gather what great and public advantages might have flowed from it. Among which, it it not inconsiderable, that we should have been delivered from a rabble of ill writers of history, who have, without due care or inquiry, delivered to us the transactions of that time so imperfectly, that there is still need of inquiring into registers and papers for these matters: which, in such a house, had been more certainly and clearly conveyed to posterity than can be now expected, at such a distance of time, and after such a razure of records, and other confusions, in which many of these papers have been lost. And this help was the more necessary after the suppression of religious houses: in most of which a chronicle of the times was kept, and still filled up as new transactions came to their knowledge. It is true, most of these were written by men of weak judgments, who were more punctual in delivering fables and trifles than in opening observable transactions. Yet some of them were men of better understandings; and it is like were directed by

* In Biblioth. Nob. D. D. Guil, Pierpoint.

their abbots, who, being lords of parliament, understood affairs well only an invincible humour of lying, when it might raise the credit of their religion, or order, or house, runs through all their manuscripts.

One thing was very remarkable, which was this year granted at Cranmer's intercession. There was nothing could so much recover reformation, that was declining so fast, as the free use of the Scriptures; and though these had been set up in the churches a year ago, yet he pressed, and now procured leave, for private persons to buy Bibles, and keep them in their houses. So this was granted by letters patents directed to Cromwell, bearing date the 13th of November (Collect. No. xv); the substance of which was, "That the king was desirous to have his subjects attain the knowledge of God's word; which could not be effected by any means so well, as by granting them the free and liberal use of the Bible in the English tongue; which, to avoid dissension, he intended should pass among them only by one translation. Therefore Cromwell was charged to take care, that for the space of five years there should be no impression of the Bible, or any part of it, but only by such as should be assigned by him." But Gardiner opposed this all he could: and one day, in a conference before the king, he provoked Cranmer to show any difference between the authority of the Scriptures, and of the apostolical canons, which he pretended were equal to the other writings of the apostles. Upon which they disputed for some time: but the king perceived solid learning tempered with great modesty in what Cranmer said; and nothing but vanity and affectation in Gardiner's reasonings. So he took him up sharply, and told him, that Cranmer was an old and experienced captain, and was not to be troubled by freshmen and novices.

The great matter of the king's marriage came on at this time. Many reports were brought the king of the beauty of Anne of Cleves, so that he inclined to ally himself with that family. Both the emperor and the king of France had courted him to matches which they had projected. The emperor proposed the duchess of Milan, his kinswoman, and daughter to the king of Denmark. He was then designing to break the league of Smalcald, and to make himself master of Germany: and therefore he took much pains with the king, to divide him from the princes there; which was in great part effected by the statute of the six articles: upon which the ambassadors of the princes had complained, and said, That whereas the king had been in so fair a way of union with them, he had now broke it off, and made so severe a law about communion in one kind, private masses, VOL. I, PART I.

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and the celibate of the clergy, which differed so much from their doctrine, that they could entertain no further correspondence with him, if that law was not mitigated. But Gardiner wrought much on the king's vanity and passions; and told him, that it was below his dignity, and high learning, to have a company of dull Germans and small princes dictate to him in matters of religion. There was also another thing which he oft made use of (though it argues somewhere a great ignorance of the constitution of the empire), that the king could not expect these princes would ever be for his supremacy; since, if they acknowledged that in him, they must likewise yield it to the emperor. This was a great mistake; for as the princes of Germany never acknowledged the emperor to have a sovereignty in their dominions; so they did acknowledge the diet, in which the sovereignty of the empire lies, to have a power of making or changing what laws they pleased about religion. And in things that were not determined by the diet, every prince pretended to it as highly in his own dominions as the king could do in England. But, as untrue as this allegation was, it served Gardiner's turn: for the king was sufficiently irritated with it against the princes; so that there was now a great coldness in their correspondence. Yet the project of a match with the duchess of Milan failing, and those proposed by France not being acceptable, Cromwell moved the king about an alliance with the duke of Cleves; who, as he was the emperor's neighbour in Flanders, had also a pretension to the duchy of Gueldre, and his eldest daughter was married to the duke of Saxony. So that the king, having then some apprehensions of a war with the emperor, this seemed a very proper alliance to give him a diversion.

There had been a treaty between her father and the duke of Lorrain, in order to a match between the duke of Lorrain's son and her; but they both being under age, it went no further than a contract between their fathers. Hans Holbein, having taken her picture, sent it over to the king. But in that he bestowed the common compliment of his art somewhat too liberally on a lady that was in a way to be queen. The king liked the picture better than the original, when he had the occasion afterwards to compare them. The duke of Saxony, who was very zealous for the Augsburg confession, finding the king had declined so much from it, dissuaded the match. But Cromwell set it on mightily, expecting a great support from a queen of his own making, whose friends being all Lutherans, it tended also to bring down the popish party at court, and again to recover the ground they had now lost. Those that had seen the lady did much commend