[1212] Parl. Hist. I. 540.
There is a story current that soon after the passage of the Act, the Duke of Norfolk, who had had so much to do with it, on meeting a former chaplain of his named Lawney, jocularly said to him “O, my Lawney (knowing him of old much to favor priests’ matrimony), whether may priests now have wives or no?” “If it please your grace,” replied he, “I cannot well tell whether priests may have wives or no; but well I wot, and am sure of it, for all your act, that wives will have priests.”—Strvpe’s Memorials of Cranmer, Book I. Chap. viii.
[1213] Dr. London chronicles the troubles of this class. “I perceyve many of the other sortt, monkes and chanons, whiche be yonge lustie men, allways fatt fedde, lyving in ydelnes and at rest, be sore perplexide that now being prestes they may nott retorn and marye” (Suppression of Monasteries, p. 215).
Nicander Nucius asserts that many did marry openly—“ἂλλους δδὲ γυναῖκας ἐννόμως συνεύνους εἰσαγομένους” (Op. cit. p. 71).
[1214] His first marriage was entered into while he was still quite young, and before he had taken orders. The second, however, shows that he acted with some independence, for it took place in 1531, before Henry’s open rupture with Rome, and while he was ambassador to the Emperor. At that time he was King’s chaplain and archdeacon of Taunton, and his nuptials therefore were plainly an indication of heresy.—Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer, Book I. Chap. iii., Book III. Chap. xxvii.
[1215] Burnet I. 256-7. It was not until 1543 that he ventured to confess this to the king (Ibid. p. 328). At his trial in 1556 his two marriages were one of the points of accusation against him (Ibid. II. 339).
Sanders, in commenting upon Cranmer’s time-serving disposition, which enabled him to accommodate himself to Henry’s capricious opinions, and yet to enter fully into the reformatory ideas predominant under Edward VI., does not fail to satirize his connubial propensities. “Unum illud molestissime tamen ferens, quod meretricem quandam suam non poterat palam uxoris loco libere habere, quia id non laturum Henricum sciebat, sed partim domi eam occultare, partim cum foras prodiret, cista quadam ad id affabre facta inclusam, secum una circumferre cogeretur. Iste ergo jam desiit esse Henricianus, et tam ex immatura regis Edouardi ætate quam ex Protectoris in sectas summa propensione, suæ statim simul et libidini et hæresi habenas laxandas statuit; nam et scorto suo mox est publice pro uxore usus, et catechismum Edouardo dedicatum, falsæ impiæque doctrinæ plenum, in lucem edidit.”—De Orig. et Prog. Schismatis Anglicani, p. 193 (Ed. 1586).
[1216] Melanchthon. Epist. Ed. 1565 p. 34.
[1217] 2-3 Edw. VI. c. 21 (Parl. Hist. I. 586).
[1218] 32 Hen. VIII. c. 10.—Burnet I. 282.—Parl. Hist. I. 575.