his attack. CHAP. VI. Reformers in the lines,-the most contemptible of his extant compositions, whereby he sought to second the terrors of the law by the lash of satire. In his 'Replycacion against certain yong Scholers abjured of late,' dedicated to his former patron, we meet neither with the poetic fancies of the 'Garlande of Laurell' nor the vigorous irony of 'Colyn Clout' or of 'Why Coarseness of come ye nat to Courte?' but a mere outpouring of coarse invective and rancorous spite. He grudges the poor scholars the exhibitions which their talents and industry had gained for them at the universities'; declares,-a singular charge for a theologian of the old school to prefer, that they so 'cobble and clout' the Gospels and Epistles, that the laity are thrown into the utmost mental perplexity; and reviles them in unmeasured terms for their rejection of pilgrimages, Mariolatry, and image worship3. Death of It does not appear that Bilney on his return to Cambridge was regarded with less esteem by his friends, but he was a humiliated and saddened man, and his sufferings from selfreproach were such, that it was for some time feared that his reason would give way. It is certain that he no longer assumed the part of a leader; while, in the same year that he returned, his party sustained another serious blow in the death of the eloquent and highminded Stafford. It was in the generous discharge of the offices of Christian charity that the latter met his end. During the prevalence of the plague he had the courage to visit one of the infected, a master of arts of Clement's hostel. This man, whose name was Henry, although a priest, was known under the designation of 'the Conjuror,' owing to his reported addiction to the study of necromancy. His malady, therefore, 1 'Some of you had ten pounde Therewith for to be founde Employed whiche might have Moche better other wayes.' 2 Ibid. 1 216. It may be noted pellers.' 3 Ibid. 1 217-S. It will be observed that these are precisely the practices against which Bilney directed his attacks. There can be no doubt that it is to Bilney's trial that More in his Dialogue (wristen 1528) refers; for the same heretical tenets are there animadverted upon in connexion with a recent and important conviction for heresy. See his English Works (ed. 1557), p. 113. not improbably, was regarded as a special judgement; and CHAP. VI. Stafford, seizing the opportunity, urged upon him the unlawful nature of his studies with such effect, that before he left the 'conjuring books' had been consigned to the flames. His purpose accomplished, Stafford went home, and was himself attacked by the plague and carried off in a few hours'. Sermons on Dec. 1529. With Stafford dead, Bilney discredited, and Barnes in Latimer's prison, the Cambridge Reformers might have lacked a leader, the Card, had not Latimer at this juncture begun to assume that prominent part whereby he became not only the foremost man of the party in the university but 'the Apostle of the Reformation' in England. His 'Sermons on the Card,'— two celebrated discourses at St. Edward's Church in December, 1529,-are a notable illustration of the freedom of simile and quaintness of fancy that characterise the pulpit oratory of his age. Delivered moreover on the Sunday before Christmas, they had a special relevancy to the approaching season. It was customary in those days for almost every Card-playing household to indulge in card-playing at Christmas time. Christmas Even the austere Fisher, while strictly prohibiting such recreation at all other times of the year, conceded per- Permitted by mission to the fellows of Christ's and St. John's thus to fellows of St. divert themselves at this season of general rejoicing. 1 Fuller-Prickett & Wright, p. 206. Cooper's conjecture (Annals, 1 327 n. 5), that the conjurer was perhaps only a mathematician, seeins scarcely compatible with what we know of the estimation in which mathematical studies were held at this time; nearly a century before, John Holbrook, master of Peterhouse, had compiled and bequeathed to that society a complete set of astronomical tables; while Melanchthon, as we have already seen (supra, p. 592), had openly commended the study of astrology. For Holbrook's labours, the Tabula Cantabrigienses,—which belong to the history of mathematical studies in the university,-see Mr. Halliwell's Catalogue of the Contents of the Codex Holbrookianus, 1840. 2 The scholars were forbidden to play even at Christmas time. 'Ad By hæc nemo sociorum tesseris, aleis, of a general diversion. Fisher to the John's at this season. CHAP. VI. having recourse to a series of similes drawn from the rules of primero and 'trump',' Latimer accordingly illustrated his subject in a manner that for some weeks after caused his pithy sentences to be recalled at well nigh every social gathering; and his Card Sermons became the talk of both town and university. It need hardly be added that his similes were skilfully converted to enforce the new doctrines he had embraced; more especially, he dwelt with particular emphasis on the far greater obligation imposed on Christians to perform works of charity and mercy than to go on pilgrimages or make costly offerings to the Church. The novelty of his method of treatment made it a complete success; and it was felt, throughout the university, that his shafts had told with more than ordinary effect. Among those who regarded his preaching with especial disfavour, was Buckenham Buckenham, the prior of the Dominican foundation at Cambridge, who resolved on an endeavour to answer him in like vein. As Latimer had drawn his illustrations from cards, the prior took his from dice; and as the burden of the former's discourses had been the authority of Scripture and an implied assumption of the people's right to study the Bible for themselves, so the latter proceeded to instruct his audience how to throw cinque and quatre to the confusion of Lutheran doctrines-the quatre being taken to denote the four doctors' of the Church, the cinque five passages in the New Testament, selected by the preacher for the occasion. attempts a reply to Latimer. Spread of the controversy sity. But an imitation is rarely as happy as the original, nor in the univer- was Buckenham in any respect a match for the most popular and powerful preacher of the day; and his effort at reply only served to call forth another and eminently effective of Playing Cards, pp. 249-88, for the 1 From the French triomphe : so called the triumph, which, if it be well played at, he that dealeth shall win; the players shall likewise win; and the standers and lookers upon shall do the same.' Latimer, Sermons (ed. Corrie), p. 8. For the game of La Triomphe, see Taylor, p. 372-3; it is, he says, the parent of écarté.' 2 Demaus, Life of Latimer, p. 97. sermon, by way of retort, from Latimer. Others thereupon CHAP. VI. engaged in the controversy. The duel became a battle; and the whole university was divided into two fiercely hostile parties. West again entered the lists against the Reformer, at Barnwell. John Venetus, a learned foreigner, preached against him from the pulpit of St. Mary's'. St. John's College, it was rumored under Fisher's influence, distinguished itself by a peculiarly bitter hostility; and it was not The contest until the arrival of the following missive from the royal royal interalmoner to Dr. Buckmaster, the vice-chancellor, that peace, at least in outward observance, was restored to the university: 'Mr. Vice-chancellor, I hastily commend me unto you, advertising the same that it hath been greatly complained unto the kinges highnes of the shamefull contentions used now of late in sermons made betweene Mr Latymer and certayne of St. John's College, insomuch his grace intendeth to set some ordre therein, which shulde not be greatly to yours and other the heades of the universities worship. Wherefore I prey you to use all your wisdom and authoritie ye can to appease the same, so that no further complaints be made thereof. It is not unlikely that they of St. John's proceedeth of some private malice towards Mr. Latymer, and that also thei be anymated so to do by their master, Mr Watson, and soche other my Lorde of Rochester's freendes. Which malice also, peradventure, cometh partly for that Mr. Latymer favoureth the king's cause, and I assure you that it is so reported to the kinge. And contrary, peradventure, Mr Latymer being by them exasperated, is more vehemente than becometh the very evangeliste of Christe, and de industria, speaketh in his sermons certen paradoxa to offende and sklaunder the people, which I assure you in my mynde is neither wisely donne ut nunc sunt tempora, neither like a goode evangeliste. Ye shall therefore, in my opynyon do well to commaunde both of them to silence, and that neither of them from henceforth preche untyll ye know farther of the kinge's pleasure, or elles by some other waies to reduce them in concordance, the wayes how to ordre the same I remyt to your wysdom and Mr. Edmondes, to whom I praye you have me heartily commended, trustinge to see you shortly. At London, the xxiiiith day of January. Your lovinge freende, EDWARD FOXE.' stopped by 1 Cooper, Athenæ, 1 40. 2 Lamb, Cambridge Documents, p. 14. CHAP. VI. DIVORCE. Thomas Cranmer. b. 1489. d. 1556. The allusion in the foregoing letter to 'the king's cause' THE ROYAL refers to another important controversy then dividing the sympathies of the English nation, and in connexion with which the universities played a prominent though little honorable part, the question of the Royal Divorce. When Wolsey, in the year 1524, was holding out inducements to the ablest scholars in Cambridge to transfer themselves to his new foundation at Oxford, there were some who, doubtless from good and sufficient reasons, declined his tempting offers; and, characteristically enough, among this number was the wary and sagacious Cranmer. Cranmer was at that time in his thirty-fifth year and a fellow of Jesus College. The circumstances under which he had been elected were peculiar, inasmuch as he was a widower and had vacated a former fellowship by marriage. At the Bridge Street end of All Saints' Passage there stood in those days a tavern of good repute known by the sign of the Dolphin. From its proximity to Jesus Lane it was probably especially patronised by Jesus men; and Cranmer in his visits fell in love with the landlady's niece, to whom his enemies in after years were wont to refer under the designation of 'black Joan'.' His Cranmer's marriage soon after he had been elected in 1515 a fellow of Jesus College, involved of course the resignation of his fellowship, and for a time Cranmer maintained himself by officiating as 'common reader' at Buckingham College. But within a twelvemonth his wife died; and it may be looked upon as satisfactory proof both of the estimation in which his abilities were held and that no discredit attached to the connexion he had formed, that he was again elected to a fellowship by the authorities at Jesus'. The 'Dolphin.' marriage. His wife's death. A second time elected fellow of Jesus College. 1 Cooper, Athena, 1145. According to Fuller, Cranmer's 'frequent repair' to the Dolphin 'gave occasion to that impudent lie of the papists that he was an ostler.' FullerPrickett & Wright, p. 203; Morice, Anecdotes of Archbp. Cranmer, in Nichols, Narratives of the Reformation, p. 269. 2 I know the statutes of some houses run thus: Nolumus socios nostros esse maritos vel maritatos. It seems this last barbarous word was not, or was not taken notice of, in Jesus College statutes. Cranmer herein is a precedent by himself, if that may be a precedent which hath none to follow it.' Ibid. p. 203. A recent election, to a fellowship on the foundation of the college of the same name at the sister university, has falsified Fuller's last words. |