Marginalia1549. Moreouer at what tyme as they began to enter the Iudiciall prosecuting of their Commission, and had called forth the denoūcers to propound such matter as they had to obiect agaynst hym,MarginaliaBoner falleth to scorning and taunting of hys denouncers. he hearyng them speake, fell to scornyng and tauntyng of them, saying to the one, that he spake lyke a Goose, and to the other, that he spake like a Woodcocke, vtterly denying their accusations to be true. Wherupon the Archbyshop (seyng his peuish malice agaynst the denouncers) asked him if he would not beleue them, whether he would credit the people there present: and therewithall (because many of them were also at the Byshops Sermon at Paules) he stode vp and read the Article of the kynges authoritie duryng his young age, saying vnto them: how say you my Maisters, did my Lord of London preach this Article? Whereunto they aunswered: no, no.MarginaliaBoners iudgement of the people. At which wordes the Byshop turnyng himselfe about, deridyngly sayd: will you beleue this fond people?

Besides this, at all his appearynges he vsed many irreuerent, vncomely, obstinate and froward wordes and behauiours towardes the Commissioners and others (in defacing their authoritie with the termes of pretensed Commissioners, pretensed witnesses and vniust, vnlawfull and pretensed proceedynges, with recusation of some,MarginaliaBoner full of his pretenses, Dawes, Woodcockes, Fooles, and such lyke. and termyng others Dawes, Woodcockes, fooles, and suche lyke) whiche I wyll here omitte, for that they doe more manifestly appeare in the sequele of the story in the tyme and place, as they happened: Adding yet thus much by the way, that although such stoutnes of hart and will (if it had bene in a cause true and rightfull) might haue perchaunce seemed in some mens iudgement to be somwhat sufferable: yet to say the truth, in what cause soeuer it be, beyng immoderate, as this shall appeare, it beseemed no wise man, and therfore much lesse one of his callyng.MarginaliaBoners demeanour not tolerable for hys calling though meete for his byrth. For if his cause had bene good, why did he not take the wrong paciently and meekely, as the true Canon law of the Gospell doth teach him? If it were (as it it was in deede) naught and wrong, wherto serued so bold sturdy stoutnesse, but to shew the impudency of the person and to make the cause worse whiche was bad enough before? But bylike he was disposed to declare, if neede were, what he was able to do in the law, in shiftyng of the matter by subtill delatories, and friuolous cauilling about the law.MarginaliaBoners friuolous Mistes And if that would not helpe, yet with facyng and brasing, and rayling vpon the denouncers, with furious wordes and irreuerent behauiour towardes the Kynges Commissioners, he thought to countenaunce out the matter before the people, that some thyng might seeme yet to be in him, what soeuer was in the cause. For to conclude, for all his craftie cauteles and tergiuersations alledged out of the law, yet neither his cause could be so defended, nor his behauiour so excused, but that he was therfore both iustly imprisoned, and also in the end most lawfully depriued: as by the sequele of this processe may well appeare, the manner whereof is as followeth.

MarginaliaThe first appearaunce of Boner before the kinges Commissioners the x. day of September. VPpn Wedensday, the x. day of September in the yeare of our Lord. 1549. and in the thyrd yeare of the reigne of kyng Edward the vj.MarginaliaThe Iudges delegate the Archbishop of Cāterburye, the Byshop of Rochester, Syr W. Peter, Doct. Mey Deane of Paules. Thomas Cranmer Archbyshop of Canterbury, Metropolitane and Primate of all England, associate with Nicholas Ridley then Byshop of Rochester, sir Wiliam Peter Knight one of the kynges two principall Secretaries, and William May Doctor of the Ciuill law and Deane of Paules, by vertue of the kynges Commission sat Iudicially vpon the examination of Edmund Boner Byshop of London within the Archbishops chamber of presence at his house in Lambeth, before whom there then also personally appeared the sayd Byshop: at which tyme the Commissioners first shewyng forth their Commission, requested sir William Peter that hee would openly publish and read the same. Which done the Archbyshop in the name of the rest declared vnto the Byshop that a greuous complaint had bene thertofore made & exhibited agaynst hym in writyng vnto the kyngs Maiestie and his honorable Coūsaile, and that therfore his hyghnes, with their aduise, had committed the examination therof vnto him and other his Colleges there present,MarginaliaSyr Thomas Smyth then absent. as also vnto sir Thomas Smith Knight the other of his Maiesties two principall Secretaries though then absent, and therewithall shewed also forth a Bill of cōplaynt exhibited vnto the kyng by William Latimer and Iohn Hoper Ministers, which they likewise requested sir William Peter to read. These thyngs ended, the Byshop like a subtill Lawyer, hauyng most like some secret intelligence before of these matters, (what soeuer he pretended to the contrary) pulled out of his bosome a solemne Protestation ready written: which he then exhibited vnto the Commissioners, requestyng that the same might be there openly read: the copy wherof is this in tenour and forme as foloweth.

MarginaliaThe forme and copie of Boners Protestation. E Dmundus Lond. Episcopus primò & ante omnia protestor quòd per hanc meam comparitionem seu per aliqua per me hic dicta seu dicenda, allegata seu alleganda, proposita seu proponenda, exhibita seu exhibenda, gesta seu gerēda, obiecta seu obijcienda, exercita seu exercenda, facta seu fienda, petita seu petenda, non intendo in vos dominos Iudices præsentes tanquam in iudices mihi in hac parte competentes & idoneos aliquò modo consentire vestram iurisdictionem præsentem in hac parte aliquatenus prorogare, nisi prout ac quatenus de iure ad hoc tenear & astringar rationiq; consonum videatur: & sub protestatione prædicta et ea semper mihi salua (a qua recedere non intendo, sed eandem in omnibus et singulis deinceps in hoc negotio prætenso per me agendis, pro repetita haberi volo) dico et allego quòd literæ commissionales pretensæ vobis (vt dicitur) in hac parte directæ, seu earum vera et legitima copia nunquam ante hac mihi ostensæ aut monstratæ fuerunt, nec a me aliquo modo visæ, lectæ aut cognitæ, vel mihi traditæ. Itaq; contra formam et tenorem earundem, vel contra personas aliquorum vestrum, ea quæ de iure ac naturali ratione mihi competunt in hac parte, cum reuerentia (qua decet) obijcere ac in debita iuris forma proponere non possum in præsenti vt deberem. Quare vt defensio congrua quæ nulli hominū deneganda est, mihi reseruetur liquidoq; sciam cuiusmodi exceptiones mihi in hac parte cōpetere possint ac debeant, vtq̀ eas suis loco et tempore iuxta iuris exigentiam, pro necessaria defensione mea proponam contra vel pretenas literas commissionales huiusmodi, vel contra personas aliquorum vestrum, quatenus liceta et expediat sub protestatione prædicta, facultatem dictas prætensas litteras commissionales in forma originali inspiciendi, ac earum veram, integram, et fidelem copiam debitè exinde mihi fieri humiliter peto et postulo prout iuris est in hac parte, tenore præsentium: nihilominus testatum manifestè relinques, quòd obseruantiam et reuerentiam, ac obedientiam et honorem, ac cætera quæcunq̀ serenissimæ Regiæ Maiest. Domino meo supremo has literas prætensas vobis (vt dicitur) committenti qualitercumq̀ decet in omnibus et per omnia perpetuò humillimè recogniturus sum, habitaturus et præstiturus, et his exceptionibus, et defensionibus legitimis mihi de iure et natura competentibus ad defensionem meam necessariam et legitimam ac non aliter in hac parte vsurus.

This Protestation being read, he requested the Commissioners that hee might haue the Bill of complaynt deliuered him: whiche when he had well perused, he sayd that the same was very generall, and so generall, as that hee could not directly aunswere thereunto. Whereunto the Archbyshop aunswered, that the speciall cause of the complaynt agaynst him was, for that he had transgressed the kynges commaūdement, geuen vnto him by his Counsaile, in that he in his late Sermon made at Paules crosse, dyd not set forth vnto the people the kynges hyghnes Royall power in his minoritie, accordyng to the tenour of the Article deliuered vnto him by them for that purpose: & for proofe therof called forth William Latimer and Iohn Hoper preachers, who before that tyme had put vp the Bill of cōplaynt vnto the kyng agaynst him.

Vpon whom when the Byshop had earnestly looked (and well beheld them) he sayd:MarginaliaBoner inueyeth agaynst his denouncers. as for this Marchaūt Latimer, I know him very wel, and haue borne with him, and winked at his euill doynges a great while, but I haue more to say to him hereafter. But as touchyng this other Marchaunt Hooper, I haue not sene him before, howbeit I haue heard much of his noughty preachyng: & then turnyng him selfe agayne to the Archbyshoppe (of purpose most like to make his frendes thinke that he was not called thether to aunswere his contemptuous disobedience, but for matters of Religion) sayd vnto hym: Ah my Lord, now I see that the cause of my trouble is not for the matter that you pretend agaynst me,MarginaliaBoner translateth his cause to the matter of the Sacrament. but it is for that I did preach and set forth in my late Sermon, the true presence of the most blessed body and bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ to be in the Sacrament of the aulter.MarginaliaBoner maketh exception of his accusers. For, as these my accusers, as they be euill, infamed, and notorious criminous persons, so are they manifest and notable heretickes, and seducers of the people, especially touching the Sacrament of the aultar: and most of all this Hooper.

MarginaliaBoners grosse opinion of the sacrament of the Altar. For where in my late Sermon at Paules crosse I preached that in the blessed Sacrament of the aultar, after the wordes of consecration, there is the true body and bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ, the selfe same in substaunce