From the first the author purposed to write a History of the Reformation in Europe, which he indicated in the title of his work. Of all the acts of the Reformation only one belongs to him; he broke with the pope.
CONTENTS
Motives of Henry VIII.— Congress at Bologna — Henry sends an Embassy — Cranmer added to the Embassy — The Pope’s Embarrassment and Alarm — Clement grants the Englishmen an Audience — The Pope’s Foot — Threats — Wiltshire received and checked by Charles — Discontent of the English — Wiltshire’s Departure — Cranmer remains. Parties at Cambridge — A noisy Assembly — Murmurs against the Evangelicals — A Meeting declares for the King — Honor paid to Scripture — The King’s severe Letter to Oxford — Opposition of the younger Members of the University — The King’s Anger.
SUPPORTED IN FRANCE AND ITALY BY THE CATHOLICS, AND BLAMED IN GERMANY BY THE
Another royal Mission to Oxford- The University decides for the Divorce — Evangelical Courage of Chaplain Latimer — The King and the Chancellor of Cambridge. Character of Thomas Cromwell — Abolition of First-Fruits — The Clergy bend before the King — Two contradictory Oaths.
ATTACKS THE PARTISANS OF THE POPE AND OF THE REFORMATION
Evangelicals ask for a Church — Farel visits the Father Superior — The Pope, the Beast of the Apocalypse. Erasmians and Politicians — The Moderate Evangelicals — Effect of the Placards — The King tries to excuse himself.
THE NATION AND ITS PARTIES
Two opposing elements — the reforming liberalism of the people, and the almost absolute power of the king — combined in England to accomplish the legal reformation. In the interval between the issuing of the writs and the meeting of parliament, the most antagonistic opinions came out.
PARLIAMENT AND ITS GRIEVANCES
And also many of your said subjects, and specially those that be of the poorest sort, be daily called before the said spiritual. Against these, if judgment has been exercised according to the laws of the Church, we be without blame.
REFORMS
Immediately the king informed them of the complaint made by the Commons, their hearts sank, and they lost courage. On returning to their residences the bishops could not conceal their anguish at the danger of the Church.
ANNE BOLEYN’S FATHER BEFORE THE EMPEROR AND THE POPE
The essential thing,” he said, “is to know what the Word of God teaches on the matter in question.” “Show me that,” exclaimed the king. Whatever he was,” said an Englishman, “he taught us that a pope’s foot was more meet to be bitten by dogs than kissed by Christian men.” The pope, recovering from his emotion, prepared to listen, and the count, regaining his.
DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING THE DIVORCE AT OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE
The younger members of the Senate were enthusiastic for Catherine, the Church, and the pope. They immediately drew up the statute in the name of the university, and sent it to the king.
SUPPORTED IN FRANCE AND ITALY BY THE CATHOLICS, AND BLAMED IN GERMANY
BY THE PROTESTANTS
Meanwhile the ambassadors of the King of England were walking up and down an adjoining gallery, waiting for the division. The university of Bologna, in the states of the Church, was, after Paris, the most important in the Catholic world.
LATIMER AT COURT
The king found it convenient to keep a great number of horses in abbeys founded for the support of the poor. Abbeys were ordained for the comfort of the poor, and not for kings’ horses to be kept in them.’ fj86. Latimer knowing, like Calvin, that ‘the ears of the princes of this world are accustomed to be pampered and flattered,’.
THE KING SEEKS AFTER TYNDALE
I have written certain books,’ he said, ‘to warn your Majesty of the subtle demeanor of the clergy of your realm towards your person, in which doing I showed the heart of a true subject; to the intent that your Grace might prepare your remedies against their subtle dreams. If his Majesty,’ he said, ‘would condescend to permit the Holy Scriptures to circulate among the people in all their purity, as they do in the states of the emperor and in other Christian countries, I would bind myself never to write again. This marriage,’ he wrote to the king, ‘may by chance hinder my persuasion.’ fj108 This was not all: Fryth was boldly printing, at Amsterdam, Tyndale’s answer to Sir Thomas More.
THE KING OF ENGLAND RECOGNIZED AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH
This was the subject of the meditations of the sagacious Cromwell, who, gradually rising in the king’s confidence to the place formerly held by Wolsey, made a different use of it. To recognize the king as head of the Church would be to overthrow the catholic faith. A little later an attempt was made to limit the power of the king in religious matters.
SEPARATION OF THE KING AND QUEEN
Reginald, invested with the Roman purple, rose to be president of the council and primate of all England under Queen Mary. If the branch of which he was the representative was ever to recover the crown, it could only be by the help of the Roman pontiffs. Pole received the permission he had asked to leave England, with the promise of the continued payment of his pension.
THE BISHOPS PLUNDER THE CLERGY, AND PERSECUTE THE PROTESTANTS
Having no need of the king’s pardon we have no desire to pay.’ These words were drowned in applause. No,’ exclaimed the crowd, which was getting noisy again, ‘we will pay nothing.’ The bishop’s officers grew angry, and came to high words; the priests returned abuse for abuse; and the citizens, delighted to see their ‘masters’. The king did not wish to withdraw England from the papal jurisdiction without the assent of the clergy.
THE MARTYRS
Latimer, surrounded by the favors of the king and the luxury of the great, watched his friend from afar. There was at that time a pious evangelist in the dungeons of the Bishop of London. John Tewkesbury, one of the most respected merchants in London, whom the bishops had put twice to the rack already, and whose limbs they had.
THE KING DESPOILS THE POPE AND THE CLERGY
The monks, during the visits they made in their daily rounds, raved against the encroachments made on the power of the pope. The great question of the bishop’s oath warned him that he could not serve both the king and the pope. He was wrong in keeping the catholic doctrine; he was Wrong in establishing the jurisdiction of the prince in the church.
LIBERTY OF INQUIRY AND OF PREACHING IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Lambert, during his residence on the Continent, had become thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Reformation. He believed that it was only by entire freedom of inquiry that men could be convinced of the truth. Some tapestry hung down over it, and the table round which the judges sat was in the middle of the room.
ATTACKS THE PARTISANS OF THE POPE AND THE REFORMATION
Henry having thus made war on the partisans of the pope, turned to those of the Reformation. The restoration of conscience to all its rights was the foremost work of the Reformation. On the eve of the execution four distinguished men, one of whom was Latimer, were dining together in London.
THE NEW PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND
On the 30th of March, 1533, he summoned to the chapter-house of Westminster Watkins, the king’s prothonotary, with other dignitaries of the Church and State. Before there were Christian princes, it was the people,’ he said, ‘who generally elected the bishops and priests.’ Cranmer was not the only man who professed these principles, which make of the episcopalian and the. To them the spirit and the life were in the ministry of the Word of God, and not in rites and ceremonies.
QUEEN CATHERINE DESCENDS FROM THE THRONE, AND QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN ASCENDS IT
There would then be a great stir, and the voice of the people would be heard. The king and queen passed the whole of the next day (Friday) at the Tower. The king, who had informed Catherine through Lord Mountjoy of the archiepiscopal sentence, officially communicated his divorce and marriage to the various crowned heads of Europe, and particularly to the King of France, the emperor, and the pope.
A REFORMER IN PRISON
Although he had returned the seals to the king in May, he continued to hold office until the end of the year. These new men, who seemed to have more piety than himself — he an old follower of the old papacy. As he was groaning over the captivity of the young and noble reformer, Fryth appeared.
A REFORMER CHOOSES RATHER TO LOSE HIS LIFE THAN TO SAVE IT
Your plan pleases me,’ he answered; ‘now go and tell the prisoner, for we are already at the foot of the hill.’. Fryth trod a calm eye and cheerful look, and the rest of the journey was accomplished. When they reached Croydon, he was delivered to the officers of the episcopal court, and passed the night in the lodge of the primate’s porter.
ENGLAND SEPARATES GRADUALLY FROM THE PAPACY
A council would set itself above the pope; a council might perhaps say that the Germans and the King of England were right. Bonner, who had not lost sight of the two speakers, remarked that at this moment the king and the pope ‘laughed merrily together,’ and appeared to be the best friends in the world. The king having withdrawn, Bonner, again approached the pope and the datary finished the reading.
PARLIAMENT ABOLISHES THE USURPATIONS OF THE POPES IN ENGLAND
It was the best of the people who wanted protestantism in England, and not the king. We have looked in the Holy Scriptures for the rights of the papacy,’ said the members of the. At the same time new and loud complaints of the Romish exactions were heard in parliament.
THE BISHOP ESCAPES FROM GENEVA, NEVER TO RETURN
An extraordinary agitation prevailed in men’s minds, and several huguenots proceeded to the shore of the lake. A rumor of his approaching departure having got abroad, some of the canons hurried to the palace to dissuade him. The bishop took care not to leave the palace either by the principal entrance or by the ordinary gates of the city.
TWO REFORMERS
AND A DOMINICAN IN GENEVA
On the morning of Sunday, the 30th of November, a certain number of priests and laymen armed themselves; and the zealous Furbity, taking his place in the middle of the band, proceeded to the cathedral. We must believe that he is there as much as he was in the Blessed Virgin’s womb, or on the wood of the true cross. There was a momentary pause, when Froment rose, and standing in the middle of the church, motioned them with his hand to he silent.
FAREL, MAISONNEUVE, AND FURBITY IN GENEVA
