Notice of Books

( 339 ) NOTICES OE BOOKS. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Beign of Henry VIII. Arranged and Catalogued by JAMES GAIBDNEE, C.B., LL.D., and E. H. BBODIE. Vol. XVIIL, Part 2. 1902. WE draw attention to the above volume, inasmuch as it contains a condensed abstract of a MS.—No. 128—in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, relating to Archbishop Cranmer and the " Heretics of Kent." Strype, who made considerable use of this MS. in his Memorials of Oranmer, states that it is inscribed " Accusatio Cranmer," and it appears to contain various depositions, answers to visitorial questions, etc., many in the hand of the Archbishop himself, which were used by Cranmer in defending the charges which, in the year 1543, were preferred against him by certain members of the newly appointed Capitular body of his own Cathedral. The Cathedral foundation at Canterbury was altered by patent on April 8th, 1541, when the Prior and twenty-six monks were pensioned off, and seven monks were made Prebendaries, together with five other persons not on the old foundation. In the same year six Preachers were appointed, of whom three were of the old and three of the new learning, to the intent, as Cranmer (who no doubt had great influence in the appointments) said, " That matters then in controversy might be reasoned among themselves, and not preached among the people to engender strife." This arrangement, however, did not work well in practice, for the- Prebendaries and Preachers were by no means reticent in the pulpit, and doctrines of a very contradictory nature were preached, sometimes in the same church, upon consecutive Sundays, e.g.: On All Hallows' Day, 1541, one Sir Eobert a Stotte, Curate of Davington, in the pulpit of Lenham Church said, " That there was heresy sung in the Church that present day." On the next Sunday Mr. Searles, Vicar of Charing, and one of the newly-appointed Preachers who favoured the " old learning,." came to Lenham " and 340 NOTICES OE BOOKS. preached to our judgment" (i.e., in the judgment of the depqnent who favoured the same views) " a good sermon there, and the said Sir Eobert hearing thereof came from Davington to Lenham on the Sunday following, and after evensong the same day there was an Anthem sung of Our Lady, and he said openly in the Church that it was heresy, and incontinent he went unto the Bible and turned to the same Gospel that Mr. Searles had preached the next Sunday before, and expounded the Contrary to Mr. Searles in every word with threatening words towards him, saying, All pickpurses' ears are not set on the pillory as yet." Neither did the newly-appointed Prebendaries agree in their preaching. When Bishop Gardiner of Winchester was returning from the Diet of Eatisbon in the same year (1541) he heard mass in Christ Church Cathedral, Canterbury, and inquired as to the state of religion, and whether there was general quietness amongthe newly-appointed Prebendaries. His namesake, William Gardiner, replied " that sometimes they do not agree in preaching," and complained that he himself was " much marked in my sermons," and asked for the Bishop's advice. The Bishop told him to write his sermon in a book, every word as he should preach it. " And when you go into the pulpit deliver your book unto the chiefest man there that can read, and let him take heed of your book while you do preach, and say no more but that you have written and studied for, aud I warrant you shall do well enough. And when you do hear any man preach otherwise than well, hold you contented and meddle not; so shall you do best." This sound advice by the Bishop of Winchester was very imperfectly acted upon, and the diversity of opinions which the Act of the Six Articles was framed to abolish, under the favouring eye of Cranmer, were more than ever prevalent in his diocese. At the same time the Archbishop strained his authority in other matters to satisfy new modes of thinking. Images still existed in most of the churches, if not in all. The King's order (October 1541) for the destruction of shrines and images had hitherto been directed only against those which had been " abused with pilgrimages or offerings." Cranmer, however, and his Commissary, Dr. Nevinson, who had married his niece, seem to have exceeded their instructions, and to have destroyed many images which had never been the object of pilgrimages or offerings. At St. George's Church in the city of Canterbury the Commissary declared that it was the King's pleasure to have the patron saint of the church not only pulled down but destroyed. The image had hitherto been carried in procession on NOTICES OE BOOKS. 34 1 St. George's Day through the streets. One citizen remonstrated, thinking the order could not come from the King, but the Commissary was resolute. "Why not," he said, "as well as the Crucifix ? We have no patron but Christ." " If you pull down the Crucifix," answered the other, " then pull all down." In 1543 Eobert Howe, Vicar of Newington-next-Sittingbourne, was presented at the Visitation for pulling down many images in his church, e.g., " Our Lady of Pity, patroness of the church, the Trinity, St. Stephen, of Our Lady, of Christ, of St. Thomas the Apostle, the which two he sent to London, and they were set up there." He also " scraped off the gilding of divers other images." Thomas Dawby, sometime Curate of Lenham, " took down eight or more images in the said Church that were never abused by pilgrimages, contrary to the King's injunctions. He induced Sir John Abbey, Curate of Lenham, to take the key of the Church door secretly from the Sexton's house, and go privily into the Church, and take down one image more of Our Lady of Pity and brake her in pieces, which is the fairest image in the Church and never abused. . . . He said at Sittingbourne, 4 August 34 Hen. VIIL, to one Alexander Plott, who had observed to him, ' Images stand in our Church,' ' Your Curate is more knave.' ' Why do they stand in Cranbrook then ?' said Alexander Plott, ' seeing that there dwelleth worshipful men, the King's Justices, and as I think some of them to be of the King's Council.* And by that they are now building of a goodly roodlof t.' ' They are,' said the parson, ' Popeholy knaves, and I would that the roodloft were money in my pocket.' " At Chilham.Dr. Willoughby, the Vicar, and one of the King's Chaplains, was questioned by the Commissary why, " He having special commandment by the King's letters from Hull doth yet keep in his Church a certain shrine gilted named St. Austin's Shrine, which shrine was conveyed from St. Austin's in Canterbury into the parish church of Chilham at the suppression of the Monastery of St. Austin's. 2. A rood there which had shoes of silver, being a monument of pilgrimage or offering, standeth yet, being only spoiled of the monument." Of the shrine Dr. Willoughby said: ' " I had never commandment to pull it down, and also hit his bot anente thenke [an empty thing], bot Master Th wattes had it at Sente Astens and gave hit to' the Cherche.' * Sir John Baker of Sissinghurst. 342 NOTICES OE BOOKS. Was commanded to pull down the rood, but could not do it alone, so he went the next morning with the parish priest to some parishioners and shewed them the order, & they said the King's book was to the contrary, except where oblations were made to it, & by & by cassyd [caused] thet same artekell to be redde, and then all sayde ther scholde none be pollyd downe ther, & by & by caused a loke to be sett of the dore. Part of ther names be thes, Master' Pettet, Wylzam Amys, Goodman Macstaly, holde fader Baker, and alle the holle paryche. And this was of a Sonday in the morning; & the nexte Sonday after and I ham avyssed Master Thomas Twhattes was mared; and ther Master Pettyt broke the matter to Master Moylle, and he did asche wherever ther wor one oblacion ther or no, and he said Nay, and then said Master Moylle, Then 1 warrant you let him stande." This Dr. Willoughby was the chief agent in what Burnet and Strype describe as the conspiracy formed against Archbishop Cranmer in the year 1543. The learned Editors of the Calendar, in their Preface, elucidate the matter, which is also dealt with at some length by Strype. It will be sufficient here to state that this attempt to discredit Cranmer in the eyes of the King was abortive, and that all who joined in drawing up the Articles (including Prebendaries Gardiner and Milles and Preachers Searles and Shether) were imprisoned and brought to submission. This interesting MS., which is now printed practically in its entirety for the first time, occupies no less than eighty-seven closely printed pages of the Calendar, and should be consulted not only by Church historians, but by those who are engaged in the humbler task of collecting materials for the history of their own parishes. The Begisters of Boughton-under-Blean, co. Kent: Baptisms, 1558—1624; Marriages, 1558—1626; Burials, 1558—1625. Transcribed by the Vicar, the Eev. J. A. BOODLE, M.A. (London: Privately printed for the Parish Eegister Society. 1903.) THE Parish Eegister Society began its useful work in 1896, and in spite of the fact that its subscribers are not very numerous, and its rules to insure the accuracy of transcripts somewhat stringent, the Society has. already issued forty-nine volumes. The above is the second Kentish register hook printed by the Society, Newenden having been issued in 1897. NOTICES OE BOOKS. 343 Mr. Boodle has prefixed to the transcript of the registers an excellent list of the Eectors and Vicars of Boughton Blean from June 1207, when one Waluinus, " Clericus Comitis Flandrice," was collated to the Eectory by Archbishop Langton, down to the present day. Before the year 1340 the Archbishop appointed the Eector of Boughton, and the Eector appointed a Vicar; but on April 3rd, 1340, the rectorial tithes and the Eectory House were exchanged by Archbishop Stratford with the Abbey of Faversham for other lands. At the Dissolution of Eeligious Houses in 1538 these tithes were settled upon the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The Vicarage of Boughton was, however, retained by Archbishop Stratford, and still remains in tbe patronage of the Archbishop of Cantei'bury. Our Society having made a grant of £5 towards the cost of printing, Mr. Boodle has deposited a copy of the transcript in our Library at Maidstone.