the Commissioners
This I do profess as touching my faith, and make my protestation, which I desire you to note. I will never consent that the bishop of Rome shall have any jurisdiction within this realm.’
Story:—Take a note thereof. ’
Martin:—Mark, M. Cranmer, how you answer for yourself. You refuse and deny him, by whose laws ye yet do remain in life, being otherwise attainted of high treason, and but a dead man by the laws of this realm.
Cranmer:— protest before God I was no traitor; but indeed I confessed more at my arraignment than was true.
Martin:—That is not to be reasoned at this present. You know ye were con-
[[’ The examination of Archbishop Cranmer is specialiter deputatus.” Strype’s Mem. of Abp.]
[printed from Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, pp. 1872 Cranmer. “Todd’s Addenda, No. 2. Vol. II. p. 1069.]
[—1881. Ed. Lond. 1583. The Processus contra Ed. Oxon. 1840.]]
[Cranmerum,” which contains the official report of [^ Other editions read, “that at the coming]
[the examination, sent by Brokes to Cardinal James down.”]]
[de Puteo, will be found in the Appendix. See [^ Vid. the Archbishop’s letters to queen Mary,]
[Cranmer’s second Letter to Queen Mary, Sept. and to a Lawyer, Sept. 1555, and his Appeal to a]
[1555. Burnet’s Hist. of Reformat. Vol. II. p. 664. General Council, infra p. 224.]
[et seq. Ed. Oxon. 1829. ] [5 Vid. the Archbishop’s letters to queen Mary, [2 Other editions read, Given against them.”’] Sept. 1555. Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, p. 1871. [? Subdelegate to the Cardinal de Puteo, whois Ed. Lond. 1583. Burnet’s Hist. of Reformat. Vol.]
[called in the Processus cont. Cranm. “Judex ac II. p. 664, etseqq. Strype’s Mem. of Abp. Cran-]
[Commissarius a sanctissimo domino nostro papa mer, Vol. II. p. 459. Ed. Oxon. 1840.]]
demned for a traitor, and res judicata pro veritate accipitur. But proceed to your matter.
Cranmer:—1 will never consent to the bishop of Rome; for then should I give myself to the devil: for I have made an oath to the king, and I must obey the king by God’s laws. By the scripture the king is chief, and no foreign person in his own realm above him. There is no subject but to a king. I am a subject, I owe my fidelity to the crown. The pope is contrary to the crown. I cannot obey both: for no man can serve two masters at once, as you in the beginning of your oration declared by the sword and the keys, attributing the keys to the pope, and the sword to the king. But I say the king hath both. Therefore he that is subject to Rome and the laws of Rome, he is perjured; for the pope’s and the judge’s laws are contrary, they are uncertain and confounded.
A priest indebted, by the laws of the realm shall be sued before a temporal judge; by the pope’s laws, contrary”.
The pope doth the king injury, in that he hath his power from the pope. The king is head in his own realm: but the pope claimeth all bishops, priests, curates, &c. So the pope in every realm hath a realm.
Again, by the laws of Rome the benefice must be given by the bishop; ‘by the laws of the realm the patron giveth the benefice. Herein the laws be as contrary as fire and water.
No man can by the laws of Rome proceed in a pramunire; and so is the law of the realm expelled, and the king standeth accursed in maintaining his own laws. Therefore, in consideration that the king and queen take their power of him, as though God should give it to them, there is no true subject, unless he be abrogate, seeing the crown is holden of him, being out of the realm.
The bishop of Rome is contrary to God, and injurious to his laws: for God commanded all men to be diligent in the knowledge of his law; and therefore hath appointed one holy-day in the week at the least, for the people to come to the church, and hear the word of God expounded unto them, and that they might the better understand it, to hear it in their mother tongue, which they know. The pope doth contrary: for he willeth the service to be had in the Latin tongue, which they do not understand. God would have it to be perceived: the pope will not. When the priest giveth thanks, God would that the people should do so too, and God will them to confess all together: the pope will not.
Now as concerning the sacrament, I have taught no false doctrine of the sacrament of the altar: for if it can be proved by any doctor above a thousand years after Christ, that Christ’s body is there really, I will give over. My book was made seven years ago, and no man hath brought any authors against it. I believe, that whoso eateth and drinketh that sacrament, Christ is within them, whole Christ, his nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension, but not that corporally that sitteth in heaven.
Now Christ commanded all to drink of the cup: the pope taketh it away from the laymen: and yet one saith, that if Christ had died for the devil, that he should drink thereof.
Christ biddeth us to obey the king, etiam dyscolo [δυσκόλῳ]: the bishop of Rome biddeth us to obey him. Therefore, unless he be antichrist, I cannot tell what to make of him. Wherefore if I should obey him, I cannot obey Christ.
He is like the devil in his doings, for the devil said to Christ: “If thou wilt fall The down and worship me, I will give thee all the kingdoms of the world.” “Thus he the took upon him to give that which was not his own. Even so the bishop of Rome giveth princes their crowns, being none of his own: for where princes either by election, either by succession, either by inheritage obtain their crown, he saith, that they should have it from him.
Christ saith, that antichrist shall be. And who shall he be? Forsooth, he that The advanceth himself above all other creatures. Now if there be none already that hath ni
[7 Vid Collection of Tenets from the Canon [8 Other editions read, “by inheritance.” ]]
[Law, p. 72, nn. 12, 13.]]
advanced himself after such sort besides the pope, then in the mean time let him be antichrist.
Story:—Pleaseth it you to make an end?
Cranmer:—For he will be the vicar of Christ, he will dispense with the old and new Testament also, yea, and with apostasy.
Now I have declared why I cannot with my conscience obey the pope. I speak not this for hatred I bear to him that now supplieth the room, for I know him not. I pray God give him grace not to follow his ancestors. Neither say I this for my defence, but to declare my conscience, for the zeal that I bear to God’s word, trodden under foot by the bishop of Rome. I cast fear apart; for Christ said to his apostles, that in the latter days they should suffer much sorrow, and be put to death for his name’s sake: Fear them not,” saith he, “but fear him, which, when he hath killed the body, hath power to cast the soul into fire everlasting.” Also Christ saith, that he that will live shall die, and he that loseth his life for my name’s sake, he shall find it again.” Moreover he said: “Confess me before men, and be not afraid; for if you do so, I will stand with you: if you shrink from me, I will shrink from you.” This is a comfortable and a terrible saying: this maketh me to set all fear apart. I say therefore, the bishop of Rome treadeth under foot God’s laws and the king’s.
The pope would give bishopricks; so would the king. But at the last the king