[226] Joseph. Antiq. lib. xviii. § 6, p. 807.
[227] Contemplations, lib. xii.
[228] The Querist, § 198. A work containing perhaps as much genuine humour, as many sagacious guesses at the real causes of various social and political evils affecting commonwealths, Ireland in particular (for it is written for the benefit of that country), and as many shrewd and practical hints for the removal of them, as any in our language.
[229] Burnet, Hist. Reform. lib. i. 125. fol.
[230] Dr. Lingard asserts that there were few instances of the see of Canterbury being filled so soon after a vacancy. Yet Archbishop Bredwardin died August 26, 1349, and Islip was appointed his successor by a papal bull, dated October 7, 1349, and was consecrated December 20th. Archbishop Arundel died February 19 or 20, 1413; Chichelè succeeded March 4, and received his pall in July. Chichelè died April 12, 1443; Stafford succeeded him by a bull dated May 15, and was consecrated in August. Stafford died in June or July 1452; Kemp succeeded by bull dated July 21, and on September 22, received his cross. Kemp died March 22, 1543, Bourchier was elected April 22, and received the bull of confirmation August 22. Langton died January 27, 1500; Dean was elected in April, and confirmed May 26.
See Mr. Todd’s Introduction to Cranmer’s Defence of the Sacrament, p. xxxvii.
[231] Mr. Ellis remarks, (Original Letters, vol. ii. p. 47,) that upon Wolsey’s fall, Henry pressed the chancellorship upon Cranmer, more than once, before he offered it to Sir Thomas More. Had it been so, the refusal would but have been of a piece with the rest of Cranmer’s private history; and, accordingly, we had once adduced this fact as a further argument of his unambitious spirit—but it has been pointed out to us by a high authority in ecclesiastical history, that Mr. Ellis has here mistaken Warham for Cranmer. Both the words of Erasmus’s letter (which is the reference, Epist. lib. xxvi. 55,) and its date prove this to be the case. It is there said, that the chancellorship was offered more than once to the Archbishop of Canterbury, and that he excused himself on the plea of age. Now, the date of the letter being January 1531, Cranmer was not then Archbishop, but Warham who died in August 1532; moreover, Cranmer was at that time only in his 42d year, and therefore could not possibly consider himself too old for the office. We notice a solitary error, for the sake of having an opportunity of expressing our thanks to Mr. Ellis, for the invaluable materials for English history which his researches have brought to light and the very instructive notes with which they are accompanied.
[232] Strype’s Cranmer, 456.
[233] The publicity of this proceeding is clearly proved in Mr. Todd’s Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 65. It is so far of importance, as it shows that the three Bishops—Lincoln, Exeter, and St. Asaph, (the last of them, Dr. Standish, a most zealous catholic,)—who were fixed upon to consecrate Cranmer, had the opportunity of refusing him consecration had they thought proper.
[234] Id. p. 17.