resumed. gain his political objects, or their assent to the lawfulness of his divorce, than to forward the progress of religion and the purification of the Western Church'. In 1538, however, the apprehension of hostilities Negociation from the continent, combining with the earlier causes, induced him to reopen his negociation with the Germans, and to urge the establishment of a religious alliance with corresponding vigour. The princes of the Augsburg Confession had assembled early in the year at Brunswick, whither he dispatched a confidential messenger, with certain preliminary questions. He spoke of his Christian zele and propension of mind towards the Word of God, and of his desire to plant the sound doctrine of Christian religion in his kingdoms, and wholly to take away and abolish the impious ceremonies of the bishop of Rome". As the Germans still persisted in their demand, that all who entered the confederacy should acknowledge their Confession, he begged them to carry out a former promise, and send a legation of divines (including the learned Melancthon3), to confer upon the disputed points with some of the English theologians. To this wish the Lutheran princes appear to have readily assented, except so far as it concerned Melancthon, whose presence was needed at home to direct the counsels of the state, and the affairs of the University of Wittenberg. The chief persons actually chosen for this office were Francis Burckhardt, vice-chancellor to the elector of Saxony; George à Boyneburg, a nobleman of Hesse, and doctor of laws; and Frederic Myconius, superintendent of the reformers at Gotha. A recommendatory letter to the King, bearing date May 12, 15384, was carried by Burckhardt as the head of the legation. It implores the English monarch to reflect on the imminent perils of the Church, and to aid in devising measures which may tend both to 3 Herbert, Life of Henry VIII. Lutheran legation. 1 Strype, ibid. 229, 230. 494. 4 Strype, ibid. App. No. XCIV. establish a firm consent among the promoters of the Reformation, and to dissuade the other European princes from participation in the papal cause. ing s. As soon as the Lutheran embassy arrived, a com- Its proceedmittee was nominated by the King, consisting of three bishops' and four doctors, to act as the representatives of the Church of England. The course of the discussion was regulated by the plan pursued in the Augsburg Confession; and we are told that the points of faith were alone sufficient to engage the interest of the disputants for a period of two months2. It is not easy to trace all the steps of this interesting conference, but it seems that the delegates had gradually come to an understanding upon the fundamental doctrines of the Gospel, and had proceeded to put their articles in writing 3. Strype asserts that the queries of the King were submitted in the first instance to the Orators' (as the German envoys were entitled), and that after the answers had been returned to him, they were examined by the English committee1. Be How far this, however, as it may, the fact of their ultimate agreement on the principal points of the Christian faith is stated in a letter addressed by Myconius to Cromwell, a short time before his departure (Sept. 7, 1538). successful. But their labours in the second field of investiga- when and tion did not lead to a similar issue; and when the 1 Cranmer and Tonstal were of the number, and represented different schools. Herbert, 495. 2 See the 'Brevis Summa' of the Germans, in Strype, App. No. XCVI., where they also inform us that they could not stay for the rest of the disputation concerning abuses;' 261. This account tallies with a letter of Cranmer, (No. ccxxx.; 1. 261, ed. Jenkyns), dated Aug. 18, in which he states that the 'Orators of Germany' durst not tarry, 'forasmuch as they have 3 Cranmer's Letters, ubi sup. 4 Eccles. Memor. 1. 330: cf. Original Letters, ed. P. S. 612, 613. 5 In Strype's Eccles. Memor. 1. Append. No. XCV. why it failed. Reasons of the failure. German reformers took their leave of Henry, he still clung to the ancient abuses against which they had struggled from the first with unrelenting sternness. These abuses were, the prohibition of both kinds in the ministration of the Lord's Supper, the custom of private propitiatory masses, and the absolute injunction of clerical celibacy1. Cranmer had in vain striven to engage the rest of the English committee in this part of the discussion; for in a letter to Cromwell (Aug. 23), he remarks that when the Orators of Germany were anxious to proceed in their book, and entreat of the abuses, so that the same might be set forth in writing as the other articles are,' he had effectiously moved the bishops thereto,' but they made him this answer: That they knew that the King's Grace hath taken upon himself to answer the said Orators in that behalf, and thereof a book is already devised by the King's majesty; and therefore they will not meddle with the abuses, lest they should write therein contrary to that the King shall write.' 'Wherefore,' he continues, they have required me to entreat now of the sacraments of matrimony, orders, confirmation, and extreme unction; wherein they know certainly that the Germans will not agree with us, except it be in matrimony only. So that I perceive that the bishops seek only an occasion to break the concord2.' The 'boke' alluded to by Cranmer in this letter was actually drawn up by Henry, with the assistance of bishop Tonstal3, who was devoted to the ancient learning.' It proves, what the archbishop had indeed suspected, that the anti-reformation party was now gaining a fresh ascendancy at court, and that, however much Henry had been willing to approach the Lutheran standard of doctrine, there was no prospect 1 See the 'Judgment concerning Abuses,' composed by the German envoys on this occasion. Ibid. No. XCVI. 2 Works, I. 263, 264; ed. Jen kyns. 3 In Burnet, 1. Add. Nos. 7, 8. 4 Prof. Blunt's Reform. 189, note (5). of weaning him from the corruptions and abuses which had crept into the practice of the Church. It is true, that on the departure of the German envoys, he invited them to return to England, and resume the discussion of those points in which the conference was divided; and in the letter which Melancthon wrote to him', March 26, 1539, a hope is confidently indulged, that as he had begun to take away 'wicked superstitions,' he would correct those which remained: but the feelings of Henry had in the mean time been still more estranged from the continental reformation; and when Burckhardt and his colleagues renewed their visit in the spring of the following year2, the influence of Gardiner was sufficient not only to baffle all their negociations3, but to carry, both in the convocation and the parliament, an Act for the abolishing of Enactment Diversity of Opinions,' or, as it was not unfrequently Articles, entitled, the bloody Statute of the Six Articles1.' It does not fall in with our object to investigate the origin of those Articles, or to recount the frightful persecutions which accompanied their publication. A more pleasing and congenial inquiry is suggested by the mission of the foreign reformers, which the (3) the sinfulness of marriage of the Six 1539. conference with the Germans still extant. enactment of the 'bloody statute' had so abruptly intercepted. Abundant memorials have survived of the partial disagreement which existed between them and the English committee: yet it is no less certain that union was effected to a very considerable extent, and that a number of Articles were actually compiled as the result of their deliberations on the leading Result of the verities of the faith. A document of this nature must be one of the deepest interest to all who engage in the study of the English Reformation; and it has been for the first time placed within their reach by the researches of a living writer. In looking for remains of Archbishop Cranmer, Dr Jenkyns discovered among a bundle of papers belonging to that prelate, a thin folio manuscript, entitled, 'A Boke conteyning divers Articles de Unitate Dei et Trinitate Personarum, de Peccato Originali,' &c. He informs us, that the documents tied up in the same bundle relate chiefly to the negociations with the Lutheran envoys in the year 1538, and believes that the Articles' were those agreed upon at the conferences which were held in London at that time. 'The "boke" itself is manifestly founded on the Confession of Augsburg, often following it very closely, and departing from it exactly in those instances, where the mixture of English and German theology might have been expected to cause a variation. It is also in Latin, and this circumstance adds to the probability of its having been composed in concert with foreigners for such other Formularies of this reign as were designed for domestic use are in English. And, lastly, the only Article, namely, that on the Lord's Supper, which there is an opportunity of comparing with the conclusions approved by Fox and Hethe in Germany, is word for word the same1.' This argument is further supported by the fact, that the manuscript Articles do not embrace any of those topics on which the English and German delegates had failed to arrive at a perfect understanding; while three 1 Cranmer's Works, I. XXII. XXIII. |