CHAPTER VIII.

STEPS TAKEN IN ENGLAND FOR THE PROMULGATION OF THE SCRIPTURE.

INJUNCTIONS OF CROMWELL, AS VICAR-GENERAL, FOR THE SETTING UP OF A BIBLE IN EVERY PARISH CHURCH. DECLARATION OF THE KING ΤΟ BE READ BY THE CURATES IN THE CHURCHES, THAT IT WAS HIS MAJESTY'S PLEASURE AND COMMAND, THAT THE BIBLE SHOULD BE SINCERELY TAUGHT AND OPENLY LAID FORTH IN EVERY PARISH CHURCH.- THE BISHOPS PERSUADE THE KING TO TAKE MEASURES AGAINST THE IMPORTATION FROM ABROAD OF REFORMED DOCTRINES. ACT OF THE SIX ARTICLES. FALL OF CROMWELL. CONSEQUENT DECLINE OF THE REFORMED PARTY.

BUT now to turn our attention to the steps that had been taken in England with regard to the promulgation of the Scriptures. Lord Cromwell, as vicar-general, had, in the month of September, 1538," issued certain injunctions to the clergy,' amongst which were the following clauses :

" Stow's Aunals.

Ex reg. Cranm. fol. 99. b. printed in Wilkins' Conc. M. B. They are there improperly classed under the year 1536. These injunctions are also printed in Fox's Acts and Monuments, vol. ii. p. 389.

"Item, that ye shall provyde on this side the feast of. next commyng, one boke of the whole "Bible of the largest volume in Englyshe, and the "same sett up in summe convenyent place within the “said churche that ye have cure of, whereat your parishners may most commodiouslye resort to the same and rede yt; the charges of whiche boke "shal be ratablie born between you the parson, and "the parishners aforsaid, that say, the one half

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ys to

by yowe, and th' other half by them.

"Item, that ye shall discorage no man pryvely or apertly from the readinge or hearing of the same

Bible, but shall expresslye provoke, stere, and ex"horte every parsone to rede the same, as that whyche "ys the verye lively worde of God, that every chris"ten man ys bownde to embrace, beleve, and fol

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lowe, yf he loke to be saved; admony shinge them "neverthelesse, to avoid all contention and alterca"tion therin, and to use an honest sobrietye in the 'inquisition of the true sense of the same, and "referre th' explication of obscure places to men of 'higher jugement in Scripture."

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He also ordered that the Lord's prayer in English should be read, and that they should examine their parishioners therein, and in the creed.

Whether this injunction referred to Matthew's Bible, or to the one that was then printing in Paris, and which, as we have seen, was expected soon to be finished, cannot be ascertained; for as the day is not named in the injunctions, we cannot tell whether it was one sufficiently distant, to have rendered it

probable that the Paris edition would be before then published. The king at the same time, gave out a royal declaration, which the curates were requested to read in their several churches; informing the people, that it had pleased the king's majesty to permit and command the Bible, being translated into their mother tongue, to be sincerely taught by them, and to be openly laid forth in every parish church.

As the following part is somewhat curious, it is given word for word.

"And if at any tyme by reading any Doubt shall "come to any of yo" touching the sense and meanyng "of any pte thereof, That thenne not geving to "moche to yo' owne mynds fantazies and opinions "nor having thereof any open reasonyng in yo' open "Tauernes or Alehowses, ye shall haue Recourse to "suche lerned men as be or shalbe auctorised to "preache and declare the same, Soo that avoyding "all contentions and disputacōns in such Alehowses "and other places vnmete for suche conferencs and submytting yonr opinions to the Judgements of "suche lerned men as shalbe appoynted in this behaulf, His grace may wel pčeyue that yo" vse this most hiegh benefyte quietly and charitably eũy of yo" to the edefying of himself his wief and famylye in al thinges aunswering to his hieghnes good opinion conceyued of yo" in thadvauncemēt "of vtue and suppressing of vice w'out failing to vse "suche discrete quietnes and sober moderatyon in

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MS. Cott. Cleop. E. v. fol. 327, without date, but assigned by Strype, in his Life of Cranmer, to the year 1538.

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the premisses as is aforesaid As ye tender his gracs pleas and intend to avoyde his hiegh indignacōn " and the pill and daunger that may ensue to yo" and eũy of youe for the contrary."

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Cranmer also, who, the see of Hereford being vacant, held a visitation in it in this year, published some injunctions to the parsons, vicars, and curates, commanding them to procure the Bible, or at least the New Testament, in Latin and English, and to study it diligently, and to prevent no one from reading the same; but rather encourage them, to the end that they might reform their lives, and learn their duty."

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But we are told that many of the priests opposed these measures as much as they could. They read "confusedly the word of God, and the injunctions "set forth and commanded by them to be read; humming and hawing, and hauking thereat, that "scarce any could understand them."-" They bad their parishioners, notwithstanding what they read, being compelled so to do, that they should do as they did in times past, to live as their fathers; "and that the old fashion is the best and other crafty and seditious sayings they gave out among "them."

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Notwithstanding, however, Strype tells us, that "it was wonderful to see with what joy this book of "God was received, not only among the learneder

a Stry. Cranm. p. 70.

• Id. ibid. Strype quotes Cott. MS. Cleop. E. vi. p. 222, but there is nothing of the sort there.

"sort, and those that were noted for lovers of the "reformation, but generally all England over, among "all the vulgar and common people; and with what "greediness God's word was read, and what resort "to places where the reading of it was. Every body that could, bought the book, or busily read "it, or got others to read it to them, if they could "not themselves, and divers more elderly persons "learned to read on purpose. "" f

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And with the reading of the Bible, reformed opinions began to spread. Men naturally expected to find, in the commands of the sacred writ, an authority for every part of that religion in which they had been brought up; and when, on the contrary, they found many important ceremonies and tenets, which were not only unsanctioned by, but as the opinion of some went, were perfectly contrary to the spirit of Scripture, they at first murmured, and then openly questioned the propriety of their observing them any longer and this they did, not in private places or meetings, but openly, publicly, in the taverns, and in all their assemblies. These discussions were so disagreeable to the bishops, and so clearly involving, sooner or later, a contempt of their authority, that they made frequent complaints of them to the king; and they alleged that the number of books that were printed abroad, and suffered to be imported into the realm, were the principal cause of them. Henry, who was extremely jealous lest his subjects should

Life of Cranmer, p. 64.