forth in a new edition, and had a very extensive circulation. Such a manual could not fail to have very great influence in advancing the growth of reforming opinions.

§ 31. Nor must we forget to take into consideration that, up to the time of her disgrace, Queen Anne was a considerable power in forwarding reforming views. She and all her connections took up the position of strong favourers of the Reformation. Certain bishops were called "her bishops;" the clergy who were of the more pronounced type found in her a patroness and encourager. Thus many sources of influence united to produce during this period a very rapid advance of the "new learning."

1 "A goodly primer, newly corrected and printed, with certain godly meditations and prayers, and imprinted at London by John Byddell for William Marshall, June 16, 1535." See Lathbury, Hist. Prayer Book, p. 2; Procter, Hist. Prayer Book, p. 16; Collier, Ch. Hist. iv. 311; and the reprint of the primer in Dr. Burton's Three Primers.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

1531.

JAMES BAINHAM, a gentleman of the Temple, was accused of heresy, and brought before the Chancellor. He abjured, but was afterwards so tortured in mind that he stood up publicly in the church of St. Augustine, holding Tyndale's Testament in his hand, and declared his belief in those doctrines which he had been induced by fear to abjure. He was then regarded as relapsed, and was burned April 1532.

(A) REFORMERS BURNED DURING | people that his judges had borne him SIR T. MORE'S CHANCELLORSHIP. wrong in hand." (Works, p. 348.) TewkesBesides those mentioned in the text, bury was burned at Smithfield, December there are others spoken of by Sir T. More himself in his works. His over-abounding zeal led him not only to bring men judged to be heretical, to their death, but to attack their memories also. Thus he speaks of Thomas Hilton, a priest of Kent, as the "devil's stinking martyr," etc. (Works, p. 346). Mr. Hilton's heresy consisted (so far as appears from More's statement) in denying the five so-called sacraments which had been added to the sacraments of the Gospel. Sir T. More accuses him of perjury and lying, because he would not take the oath proffered to him (the ex officio oath); alleging that oaths were illegal. Hilton or Hilten had been curate of Maidstone, and was much concerned in bringing over the reforming books which were prohibited. He suffered a long imprisonment, and was tried by Warham and Fisher, who handed him over to the secular arm. He was burned at Gravesend about the end of the

year 1530.

RICHARD BAYFIELD, a monk and priest of Bury St. Edmunds, also convicted of introducing the prohibited books, is accused by Sir T. More of having had two wives, one in England the other in Brabant. Sir Thomas, however, immediately afterwards acknowledges that he knew nothing definite about the matter, but only reported vague rumours. (Works, p. 346.) Bayfield was burned at Smithfield, Nov. 11, 1531, suffering with wonderful constancy.

THOMAS TEWKESBURY, a leather-seller, was brought before the bishops for heresy, and is said to have disputed so vigorously that he put them to silence. He, however, recanted, but afterwards relapsed to his former opinions. He was condemned to the stake by Stokesley and More. Sir T. More accuses him of dying in bitter malice with his judges, and supports this assertion by alleging the fact that Tewkesbury after his condemnation had never spoken of his heresies to any one, but carefully concealed them, because "he would fain leave an opinion among the

(B) MEDIEVAL PRYMERS.

It

vices shorter than those in the Breviary, English versions of the Hours (i.e. serdrawn up to be used privately at the seven the Litany or Procession, the Dirge (i.e. canonical hours), Occasional Devotions, funeral had taken place, sometimes called the order for Vespers and Matins when a the Placebo and Dirge, one of the anthems in Vespers, beginning with Placebo, and one in Matins with Dirige), and certain Psalms, were brought together in one book, which may be traced to the fourteenth century. This book was called The Prymer. Various additions were made to it from time to time-expositions of the Ten Commandinents, the Seven Works of Mercy, the Seven Sacraments, etc. was partly in English and partly in Latin, and was a recognised manual of devotion and instruction for the people, at least 150 years before the Reformation. was made of this well-known name by the Reformers, who were busy in printing books abroad, to endeavour to spread their doctrines. Thus "The Prymer translated by George Jaye, with the Litany and Dirge omitted," is put by Sir T. More in his list of books to be refuted and condemned. The first reforming Prymer printed in England was probably 1534. This was reprinted in 1535 by Marshall, was suppressed on complaint of Convocation, but was nevertheless extensively known. (Procter's Hist. of Prayer Book; Lathbury's Hist. of Prayer Book; Sir T. More's Works, p. 341.)

Use

CHAPTER VII.

THE SUPREMACY-ITS OPPONENTS AND DEFENDERS.

1534-1536.

§ 1. Elizabeth Barton, the Canterbury nun. § 2. Bill of attainder against her and her confederates. § 3. Some executed, others found guilty of misprision of treason. § 4. The succession oath. § 5. More and Fisher refuse to swear. § 6. Their committal to the Tower. § 7. Nature of their objections to the oath. § 8. The legislation of the autumn of 1534. § 9. The Carthusians put to death. § 10. More and Fisher examined as to the Supremacy. § 11. Their trial at Westminster. § 12. Execution of Fisher. § 13. Of More. § 14. Public opinion in Europe. § 15. The Bull of Paul III. § 16. Measures to check the general feeling. § 17. Reginald Pole. § 18. Writings of Gardiner, Bonner, and Sampson. § 19. Designs of the King and Crumwell to humble the Church. § 20. Crumwell's appointment as Vicar-General. § 21. Bishops suspended and restored under license. § 22. Character of these proceedings.

As

§ 1. So great a revolution as the withdrawal from the pope of all allegiance on the part of the Church of England, and the investing the king with a power which was altogether new and strange to the minds of most of his subjects, could not fail to produce much disturbance and invite strong opposition. The first opposition which showed itself on the part of those who upheld the old system of things came from a somewhat singular source. early as 1528 we find Archbishop Warham writing to Cardinal Wolsey about one Elizabeth Barton, a religious woman professed in St. Sepulchre's, Canterbury, who had strange visions, and who had a great desire to speak with the cardinal. This nun, whom the archbishop describes as very virtuous, had been known to the archbishop before her profession at St. Sepulchre's. While a servant in the house of one Thomas Cobbe of Aldington, she had been subject to hysterical fits or trances, in which she uttered many strange words. The parson of the parish, Richard Master, had told the archbishop about this singular case, and had been ordered by him to observe her closely. He had also informed concerning it Dr. Bocking, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury. By these two, Masters and Bocking, a public exhibition of the trances of Elizabeth Barton was arranged. This took place at the chapel of Courte-at-Strete, in the presence of nearly 2000 people. Elizabeth was seen in fits which passed into a trance, during which she declared herself healed by the intercession of the Virgin. She

handed to Sir

then was professed at St. Sepulchre's, and Bocking became her confessor. The idea had evidently been conceived by Masters and Bocking of making the pretended trance-utterances of this poor girl a source of profit. Two other monks, Dering and Hawkshaw, were admitted into the plot, and Thwaites and Lawrence, the latter secretary to the archbishop, became the "secretaries to the prophetess," writing out her sayings on sheets of paper for the use of those who consulted her. It appears that the king had had some of these “revelations" sent to him, which he Thomas More to read and give him his opinion upon. Wolsey also had received a "revelation" from her as to "three swords" which God had put in his hand, and which he was to use aright.1 When the king's divorce had taken place, and the rupture with Rome was proceeding, the monks and friars who were in league with the nun, conceived the idea of making her revelations serve to counteract the prevailing influences. For this purpose they endeavoured to enlist Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher among the number of her adherents. Sir Thomas saw the nun, talked with her, and thought well of her character, but refused to hear any of her "revelations" touching the king, and wrote to her advising her not to meddle with any matters of state.2 He afterwards fully acknowledged that she was guilty of "detestable hypocrisy, and devilish dissembled falsehood," and that she was under the influence of evil spirits.3 Bishop Fisher, however, appears to have accepted and credited her as a prophetess. Her "revelations" against the king's marriage, and proceedings against Rome, being much talked of, about midsummer 1533 Cranmer took the matter up, and, going down to Canterbury, caused the nun to be brought before him. Apparently not able to make much of her, Cranmer sent her to Crumwell, under whose severe questioning she acknowledged that she had never had any real visions, but had only pretended to have them for the purposes of gain.4

§ 2. It was supposed or assumed that the nun and her accomplices had entertained a plot for the murder of the king, and a bill of attainder was brought into Parliament against them. Into this bill the king insisted that the names of More and Fisher should be inserted. The absence of all complicity on the part of

1 More's Letter to Crumwell; Roper's More, Appendix ii. The three swords were-1. The ordering of the clergy as legate. 2. The ordering the temporalty as chancellor. 3. The conduct of the divorce case.

2 His letter is given in Roper's Life, Appendix ii.

3 More's Letters to Crumwell; Roper's Life, Appendix ii.

4 Cranmer's Remains, p. 276 (Park. Soc.) Strype's Memorials of

Henry VIII., Appendix No. xlviii.