1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 2110 
Marginalia1556. March.shall be measured to you agayne. Thus fare you well, and God send you his spirite to induce you into truth.
Ye heard before how the Archbyshop Doct. Cranmer, in þe moneth of February was cited vp to Rome, and in the moneth of March next followyng was degraded by the Byshop of Eley, and Byshop Boner. In the tyme of which his degradration hee put vppe his Appellation. In thys his Appellation, because hee neded the helpe of some good and godly lawyer, he writeth to a certeine frend of his, about the same: the copy of which letter in Latine is before expressed in the old booke of Actes there to be read pag. 1492. The English of the same I thought here to inserte, as vnder ensueth.
[Back to Top]
CloseThis English translation of Cranmer's appeal was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 21-23 and then in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. It replaced the original Latin letter. For a discussion of this appeal see MacCulloch, Cranmer, pp. 592-93.
MarginaliaAnother letter of the Archb. to a certayne learned Lawyer, his frend, about his appeale.THe law of nature requireth of all men, that so farre forth as it may be done without offence to God, euery one should seeke to defend and preserue his owne life. Which thyng, when I about three dayes ago bethought my selfe of, and therewithall remembred how that Martin Luther appealed in his time from Pope Leo the tenth, in a generall Councell (lest I should seeme rashly and vnaduisedly to cast away my selfe) I determined to appeale in like sort to some lawful and free generall Councell. But seyng the order and forme of an Appeale perteineth to the Lawyers, wherof I me selfe am ignoraunt, and seeyng that Luthers Appeale cōmeth not to my hand: I purposed to breake my mynde in this matter to some faithfull frend & skilfull in the law, whose helpe I might vse in this behalfe, and you onely among other, came to my remembrance, as a man most meete in this Vniuersitie for that purpose. But this is a matter that requireth great silence, so that no man know of it before it be done. It is so that I am summoned to make myne aunswere at Rome, the xvj. day of this moneth: before the which day I thinke it good, after sentence pronounced, to make mine Appeale. But whether I should first appeal from the iudge delegate to the Pope, and so afterward to the generall Councel, or els leauyng the Pope, I should appeale immediatly to the Councell: herein I stand in nede of your Counsell.
[Back to Top]Many causes there be for the which I thinke good to appeale. First bicause I am by an oth bound, neuer to cōsent to the receiuyng of the Byshop of Romes authoritie into this Realme. Besides this, where as I vtterly refused to make aunswere to the Articles obiected vnto me by the Byshop of Glocester appointed by the Pope to be my iudge, yet I was content to aunswere Martin and Story, with this protestation, that mine aunswere should not be taken as made before a iudge, nor yet in place of iudgement, but as pertainyng nothyng to iudgement at all: and moreouer, after I had made mine aūswere, I required to haue a copy of the same, that I might, either by addyng therunto, or by alteryng or takyng frō it, correct and amend it, as I thought good. The which, though both the Byshop of Glocester and also the Kyng and Queenes Proctours promised me, yet haue they altogether broken promise with me, and haue not permitted me to correct my sayd aunsweres accordyng to my request, & yet notwithstandyng haue (as I vnderstand) registred the same as Actes formally done in place of iudgemēt. Finally for asmuch as all this my trouble commeth vpon my departing from the Byshop of Rome and from the Popish Religion, so that now the quarell is betwixt the Pope him selfe and me, and no man can be a lawfull and indifferent iudge in his owne cause: it seemeth (me thinke) good reason, that I should be suffered to appeale to some generall Councell in this matter: specially seyng the law of nature (as they say) denieth no man, the remedy of appeale in such cases.
[Back to Top]Now, since it is very requisite that this matter should be kept as close as may be, if perhaps for lacke of perfect skill herein you shall haue neede of further aduise: then I besech you euen for the fidelitie and loue you beare to me in CHRIST, that you wil open to no creature aliue, whose the case is. And for asmuch as the time is now at hand, and the matter requireth great expeditiō, let me obteine this much of you, I besech you, that laying aside al other your studies and busines for the time, you will apply this my matter onely, till you haue brought it to passe. The chiefest cause in very deede (to tell you the truth) of this
[Back to Top]myne Appeale is, that I might gayne tyme (if it shall so please God) to lyue vntill I haue finished mine aūswere agaynst Marcus Antonius Constantius,MarginaliaThis Constantius was Stephen Gardner, as constant in deede as a wether cock. Who thus named himself, writing against this good Archbyshop. which I haue now in hand.
CloseFoxe had prepared a Latin translation of part of Cranmer's rebuttal during his exile, but he had been unable to find a protestant printer on the Continent willing to publish a work on the bitterly divisive subject of the eucharist (see J. F. Mozley, John Foxe and his Book [London: 1940], pp. 46 and 56).
[Back to Top]There is also yet an other cause why I thinke good to appeale, that where as I am cited to goe to Rome to aunswere there for my selfe, I am notwithstandyng kept here fast in prison, that I can not there appeare at the tyme appointed. And moreouer, for asmuch as the state I stand in is a matter of lyfe and death, so that I haue great neede of learned counsell for my defence in this behalfe: yet when I made my earnest request for the same, all maner of counsell and helpe of the Proctours, Aduocates, and Lawyers was vtterly denyed me.
[Back to Top]Your louyng frend Thomas Cranmer.
CloseThis letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 23-24. ECL 262, fo. 214r-v is a copy of this letter.
MarginaliaAn other letter of the Archb. to Mistres Wilkinson.THe true comforter in all distresse, is onely God thorow his sonne IESVS CHRIST, and who so euer hath him, hath company enough, although he were in a wyldernes all alone: and he that hath. xx. thousand in his cōpany, if God be absent, is in a miserable wyldernes and desolation. In hym is all comfort, and without hym is none. Wherefore I besech you seeke your dwelling there as you may truly and rightly serue God, and dwell in him, and haue him euer dwelling in you. What can bee so heauy a burden as an vnquiet conscience, to be in such a place as a man can not bee suffered to serue God in CHRISTES true religion? If you be loth to depart from your kynne and frendes, MarginaliaMath. 3.remember that CHRIST calleth them his mother, sisters, and brothers that do his fathers wyll. Where we finde therfore God truly honoured according to his wyl, there we cā lacke neither frend nor kinne.
[Back to Top]If you bee loth to depart for sclaunderyng of Gods word, remember that CHRIST, when his houre was not yet come, departed out of hys countrey into Samaria,MarginaliaIohn. 4. to auoid the malice of the Scribes and Phariseis: and MarginaliaMath. 5.commaunded his Apostles that if they were pursued in one place, they should flye to an other. And was not PauleMarginalia2. Cor. 12. let down by a basket out at a window, to auoyd the persecution of Aretas? And what wysdome and policie he vsed from tyme to tyme to escape the malice of his enemies, the Actes of the Apostles do declare. And after the same sort dyd the other Apostles: albeit when it came to such a point, that they could not longer escape daunger of the Persecutors of Gods true religion, then they shewed them selues, that their flying before came not of feare, but of godly wysdome to do more good: and that they would not rashly without vrgent necessity, offer them selues to death, which had bene but a temptation of God. Yea, when they were apprehēded and could no longer auoid, then they stoode boldly to the profession of CHRIST: then they shewed how litle they passed of death: how much they feared God more then men: how much they loued and preferred the eternall lyfe to come, aboue this short and miserable lyfe. Wherefore, I exhort you, aswell by CHRISTES commaundement,as by the example of hym and hys Apostels, to withdraw your selfe from the malice of yours and Gods enemies, into some place where God is most purely serued: which is no sclaunderyng of the truth, but a preseruing of your selfe to God and the truth, and to the societie and comfort of CHRISTES lytle flocke. And that you wyll do, do it with speede, lest by your own folly you fal into the persecutors handes. And the Lord send his holy spirit to leade & guyde you where soeuer you go, and all that be godly, wyll say, Amen.
[Back to Top]¶ Vnto these former letters of D. Cranmer Archbishop, writtē by hym vnto others, it seemeth to me not much out of place to annexe withal a certein letter also of Doct. Taylour written to hym and his felow prisoners: the tenour of which letter here foloweth.