Further

stitution"

CHAP In July 1537, Fox, Bishop of Hereford, who VIII seems to have taken a forward part in the compilaA.D. 1537 tion of the book, wrote to Cromwell about printing history of it, saying that the MS. is not yet complete, some "The In- notes to the Creed which had been agreed upon not being yet copied out. On July 21st, Archbishop Cranmer also wrote to Cromwell from Lambeth, saying that the commission assembled there had nearly finished their work, having "already subscribed unto the declarations of the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, and there remaineth no more but certain notes of the Creed, unto the which we be agreed to subscribe on Monday next." He then begs that they may have the King's license to dissolve and leave London, where the plague was carrying off people at his very gate." Latimer writes to the same effect, adding that he believes the book would have been finished that day had it not been for the illness of Bishop Fox, "to whom surely we owe great thanks for his great diligence in all our proceedings." He also wrote on August 25th, saying that the printing had been delayed by the death of Fox,' who had been carried off in the interval by the plague.

One lucid glimpse we get from Latimer also at the proceedings of the Commission. He hopes that when the book

"is done it will be well and sufficiently done, so that we shall not need to have any more such doings, for verily for

* State Papers, i. 555.

Jenkyns Cranmer, i. 189. A strong contrast this to Wolsey, whom no persuasions, even from the King himself, could induce to

leave London during the dreadful sweating sickness of some years before, though the court and nearly all officials had fled.

7 State Papers, i. 559.

VIII

my part, I had lever be poor parson of poor Kynton again CHAP than to continue thus Bishop of Worcester; not for any thing that I have had to do therein or can do, but yet forsooth A.D. 1537 it is a troublous thing to agree upon a doctrine in things of such controversy, with judgments of such diversity, every man, I trust, meaning well, and yet not all meaning one way. But I doubt not now in the end we shall agree both one with another, and all with the truth, though some will then marvel." Poor Latimer's homely and untheological mind was not made for taking part in such a work as this; and the evident sigh of relief with which he looks forward to getting away from a troublous scene, in which exact learning and logic were wanted more than good stories and rough-and-ready language, is very amusing.

The "Institution of a Christian Man" was, however, completed, and sent to the King as the work of the whole commission. He sent it back with the order to have it printed, saying that he had not time to read it, but trusted to them for its being according to Scripture. It was accordingly printed, with a royal command that all who had cure of souls should read a portion of it every Sunday and holyday for three years, and preach conformably thereto. On September 10, 1537, Archbishop Cranmer issued a mandate to his clergy, through the Dean of Bocking, enforcing this order, "vobis mandamus, uti omnes et singulos clericos, quibus cura animarum committitur, moneatis ut voluminis prædicti partem, sub pœna prædicta, ordine singulis diebus dominicis clara apertaque voce et suggesto populo legant." Archbishop Lee also issued an injunction to the same effect for the province of York. The book • Wilkins' Concil., iii. 827.

Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 188, n.

VIII

book was

was much disliked by the anti-Church party, as indeed any true statement of Church-of-England A.D. 1538 doctrine as a whole must always be disliked by them; and some of the Conservative party made its publication an opportunity for indecorous triumph over the favourers of the new learning:1 but there is How the no reason to think that it was less unanimously received by the peaceable clergy and laity than it had been adopted by the whole body of the bishops and other divines who formed the commission. It probably went through several editions, and a beautiful duodecimo copy has come down to our age, which seems to show that it was circulated very generally among the laity, as well as officially among the clergy.

received

Preparations for a

tion

The volume had not been long in print before the revised edi. King found time to read it, and also to make annotations upon its contents-his annotated copy being still preserved in the Bodleian Library. The royal theologian sent this copy to Cranmer, who began to heap annotations on annotations in the same volume, but eventually recorded his criticisms in a separate MS., which is preserved in the Library of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. In returning the volume and these to the King by Cromwell, on January 25, 1538, Cranmer trusts the King's Highness will pardon his presumption that he has been "so scrupulous, and as it were a picker of quarrels to his Grace's book, making a great matter of every light fault, or

1 See Letters from and to Cranmer, Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 208, 216, 221.

2

Tanner, 71. It is singular that this little volume is dated 1534 on the ornamental border of the title

page. The colophon is destroyed, but there can be hardly a doubt that the date was originally used for some earlier, as it afterwards was for a later voluine.

3 Rawl., 245,

VIII

rather where no fault is at all; which I do only for this CHAP intent, that because the book now shall be set forth by his Grace's censure and judgment, I would have nothing therein A.D. 1538 that Momus could reprehend: and yet I refer all mine annotations to his Grace's most exact judgment; and I have ordered my annotations so by numbers that his Grace may readily turn to every place; and in the lower margin of this book, next to the binding, he may find the numbers which shall direct him to the words whereupon I make the annotations and all those his Grace's castigations which I have made none annotation upon, I like them very well: and in divers places also I have made annotations, which places nevertheless I mislike not, as it shall appear by the same annotations."

of "the In.

From this it appears that a corrected edition was Latin projected in 1538, but it does not appear that the translation design was carried out. The book was used in its stitution" original form for about seven years, and was translated into Latin by direction of the King. This fact we learn from a letter written by the Privy Council to Dr. Wotton, when he was sent on a mission to the Diet of Spires. The letter is dated March 6, 1543-4, and contains the following passage:

"Furthermore, ye shall receive herewith four books of the Institution of a Christian, set forth first in English by the King's Majesty, with the advice of his learned men, for the establishment of Christian religion amongst his Highness' subjects, and now lately by his Majesty's commandment translated into Latin. And forasmuch as it is thought that at this Assembly matters of religion shall be diversely debated of sundry men, his Majesty hath thought convenient to send the said books unto you, to the intent it might appear to the Emperor how conformable to Christ's doctrine, the institution of His holy Church, the learning is which his Majesty hath ordained to be taught to his Highness' people. For the which Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 228.

CHAP purpose his Majesty's pleasure is you shall, on his behalf, VIII present one or two of them to Mons Granvele with his A.D. 1543 Majesty's hearty commendations, and in the delivery of the

The "Necessary

same so to handle the matter as it may appear to Granvele that you desire, as of yourself, and would wish that it would like the Emperor to take one of the books out of his hands: wherein you may say (and say the truth) he shall see a sincere and upright judgment touching Christian religion, and a doctrine conformable to Holy Scripture and the Catholic Church of Christ."5

Shortly after this, however (and perhaps in conseDoctrine quence of the review of the "Institution" entailed by and Erudi- its translation into Latin), it was determined to issue vision of a new edition. One chief reason for this appears to tution" have been that it was inconvenient to have the

tion" a re

"the Insti

exposition of the Creed divided and printed in two separate parts of the volume, partly in the form of a paraphrase, and partly in that of notes and observations. These were, therefore, combined into one commentary on the Creed, and had, of course, to undergo much alteration before the process of combination could produce a satisfactory result. It was then natural that other revisions should be suggested and adopted, and the articles on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist, as well as those on Penance and Holy Orders, were much extended.

This work of revision was undertaken by Convocation, which sat between April 4 and May 12, 1543; but they plainly adopted the annotations made by Cranmer, here and there one made by the King, and perhaps some from other quarters. The revised work was in print by May 29, 1543, and was published in English under the new name of "A NecesState Papers ix. 615.