As soon as Cranmer reached London, he waited upon the king, being quite engrossed in thinking of what was about to take place between his sovereign and himself. Henry went straight to the point: he told him that he had nominated him Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer objected, but the king would take no refusal. In vain did the divine urge his reasons: the monarch was firm. It was no slight matter to contend with Henry VIII. Cranmer was alarmed at the effect produced by his resistance. ‘Your Highness,’ he said, ‘I most humbly implore your Grace’s pardon.’[[242]]
When he left the king, he hurried off to his friends, particularly to Cromwell. The burden which Henry was laying upon him seemed more insupportable than ever. Knowing how difficult it is to resist a prince of despotic character, he foresaw conflicts and perhaps compromises, which would embitter his life, and he could not make up his mind to sacrifice his happiness to the imperious will of the monarch. ‘Take care,’ said his friends, ‘it is as dangerous to refuse a favor from so absolute a prince as to insult him.’ But Cranmer’s conscience was concerned in his refusal. ‘I feel something within me,’ he said,[[243]] ‘which rebels against the supremacy of the pope, and all the superstitions to which I should have to submit as primate of England. No, I will not be a bishop!’ He might sacrifice his repose and his happiness, expose himself to painful struggles; but to recognize the pope and submit to his jurisdiction was an insurmountable obstacle. His friends shook their heads. ‘Your nolo episcopari,’ they said, ‘will not hold against our master’s volo te episcopum esse.[[244]] And after all, what is it? Permitting the king to place you at the summit of honors and power.... You refuse all that men desire.’ ‘I would sooner forfeit my life,’ answered Cranmer, ‘than do anything against my conscience to gratify my ambition.’[[245]]
Henry vexed at these delays, again summoned Cranmer to the palace, and bade him speak without fear. ‘If I accept this office,’ replied that sincere man, ‘I must receive it from the hands of the pope, and this my conscience will not permit me to do.... Neither the pope nor any other foreign prince has authority in this realm.’[[246]] Such a reason as this had great weight with Henry. He was silent for a little while as if reflecting,[[247]] and then said to Cranmer: ‘Can you prove what you have just said?’ ‘Certainly I can,’ answered the doctor; ‘Holy Scripture and the Fathers support the supreme authority of kings in their kingdoms, and thus prove the claims of the pope to be a miserable usurpation.’
Such a statement bound Henry to take another step in his reforms. As he had not yet thought of establishing bishops and archbishops without the pope, he sent for some learned lawyers, and asked them how he could confer the episcopal dignity on Cranmer without wounding the conscience of the future primate. The lawyers proposed, that as Cranmer refused to submit to the Roman primacy, some one should be sent to Rome to do in his stead all that the law required. ‘Let another do it if he likes,’ said Cranmer, ‘but super animam suam, at the risk of his soul. As for me I declare I will not acknowledge the authority of the pope any further than it agrees with the Word of God; and that I reserve the right of speaking against him and of attacking his errors.’
The lawyers found bad precedents to justify a bad measure. ‘Archbishop Warham,’ they said, ‘while preserving the advantages he derived from the state, protested against everything the state did prejudicial to Rome. If the deceased archbishop preserved the rights of the papacy, why should not the new one preserve those of the kingdom?... Besides (they added) the pope knows very well that when they make oath to him, every bishop does so salvo ordine meo, without prejudice to the rights of his order.’[[248]]
It having been conceded that in the act of consecration ‘the rights of the word of God’ should be reserved, Cranmer consented to become primate of England. Henry VIII., who was less advanced in practice than in theory, all the same demanded of Clement VII. the bulls necessary for the inauguration of the new archbishop. The pontiff only too happy to have still something to say to England, hastened to dispatch them, addressing them directly to Cranmer himself. But the latter who would accept nothing from the pope, sent them to the king, declaring that he would not receive his appointment from Rome.[[249]]
Cranmer’s Protest.
By accepting the call that was addressed to him, Cranmer meant to break with the order of the Middle Ages, and re-establish, so far as was in his power, that of the Gospel. But he would not conceal his intentions: all must be done in the light of day. On the 30th of March, 1533, he summoned to the chapter-house of Westminster Watkins, the king’s prothonotary, with other dignitaries of the Church and State. On entering, he took up a paper, and read aloud and distinctly: ‘I, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, protest openly, publicly, and expressly,[[250]] that I will not bind myself by oath to anything contrary to the law of God, the rights of the King of England, and the laws of the realm; and that I will not be bound in aught that concerns liberty of speech, the government of the Church of England, and the reformation of all things that may seem to be necessary to be reformed therein. If my representative with the pope has taken in my name an oath contrary to my duty, I declare that he has done so without my knowledge, and that the said oath shall be null. I desire this protest to be repeated at each period of the present ceremony.’[[251]] Then turning to the prothonotary: ‘I beg you to prepare as many copies as may be necessary of this my protest.’
Cranmer left the chapter-house and entered the abbey, where the clergy and a numerous crowd awaited him. He was not satisfied with once declaring his independence of the papacy; he desired to do it several times. The greater the antiquity of the Romish power in Britain, the more he felt the necessity of proclaiming the supremacy of the divine Word. Having put on his sacerdotal robes, Cranmer stood at the top of the steps of the high altar, and said, turning towards the assembly: ‘I declare that I take the oath required of me only under the reserve contained in the protest I have made this day in the chapter-house.’ Then bending his knees before the altar, he read it a second time in presence of the bishops, priests, and people;[[252]] after which the bishops of Lincoln, Exeter, and St. Asaph consecrated him to the episcopate.
The archbishop, standing before the altar, prepared to receive the pallium, but first he had a duty to fulfil: if he sacrificed his repose, he did not intend to sacrifice his convictions. For the third time he took up the protest, and again read it[[253]] before the immense crowd that filled the cathedral.[[254]] The accustomed order of the ceremony having been twice interrupted by an extraordinary declaration, all were at liberty to praise or blame the action of the prelate as they pleased. Cranmer having thus thrice published his reserves, read at last the oath which the Archbishops of Canterbury were accustomed to make to St. Peter and to the holy apostolic Church of Rome, with the usual protest: salvo meo ordine (without prejudice to my order).