22.1. ¶ A letter of bishop Boner to car|dinall Poole.
¶ A letter of bishop Boner to car|dinall Poole.
Bishop Bo| [...]ers letter to cardinall Poole, concer| [...]ing the two [...]nd twentie prisoners a|foresaid.MAy it please your good grace with my most humble obedience, reuerence and dutie, to vnderstand that going to Lon|don vpon thursdaie last, and thinking to be troubled with maister Germains matter one|lie, and such other common matters as are accusto|med, inough to werie a right strong bodie, I had the daie following to comfort my stomach withall, let|ters from Colchester, that either that day, or the day following I should haue sent thense two and twen|tie heretikes, indicted before the commissioners, and in déed so I had, and compelled to beare their char|ges as I did of the other, which both stood me in aboue twentie nobles, a summe of monie that I thought full euill bestowed. And these heretikes, notwith|standing they had honest catholike kéepers to con|duct and bring them vp to me, and in all the waie from Colchester to Stratford of the bow, did go qui|etlie, and obedientlie, yet comming to Stratford, they began to take heart of grace, & to doo as plea|sed themselues, for there they began to haue their gard, which generallie increased till they came to Al|gate, where they were lodged fridaie night.
And albeit I tooke order, that the said heretikes should be with me verie earlie on saturdaie mor|ning, to the intent they might quietlie come and be examined by me: yet it was betwéene ten and e|leuen of the clocke before they would come, and no waie would they take, but through Cheapside, so that they were brought to my house with about a thousand persons. Which thing I tooke verie strange, and spake to sir Iohn Gresham then being with me, to tell the maior and the shiriffes that this thing was not well suffered in the citie. These naughtie here|tikes all the waie they came through Cheapside, both exhorted the people to their part, and had much com|fort A promis [...]ua plebe, and being entred into my house and talked withall, they shewed themselues despe|rat and verie obstinat: yet I vsed all the honest meanes I could, both by my selfe and other, to haue woone them, causing diuerse learned men to talke with them: and finding nothing in them but pride & wilfulnesse, I thought to haue had them all hither to Fulham, and here to giue sentence against them. Neuerthelesse, perceiuing by my last dooing that your grace was offended, I thought it my dutie be|fore I anie thing further procéeded herein, to aduer|tise first your grace hereof, and know your good plea|sure, which I beséech your grace I may doo by this trustie bearer. And thus most humblie I take my leaue of your good grace, beseeching almightie God alwaies to preserue the same. At Fulham, Postridie Natiu. 1556.
Your graces most bounden bedesman and seruant Edmund Boner.
By this letter of bishop Boner to the cardinall (saith maister Fox) is to be vnderstood, what goodwill was in this bishop, to haue the bloud of these men, and to haue past with sentence of condemnation a|gainst them,Bishop Bo|ners crueltie somewhat [...] by the cardinall. had not the cardinall somewhat (as it seemed) haue staied his feruent headinesse. Con|cerning the which cardinall, although it can not be|denied by his acts and writings, but that he was a professed enimie, and no otherwise to be reputed but for a papist: yet againe it is to be supposed, that he was none of the bloudie and cruell sort of papists,Cardinall Poole [...] papist but no bloudie papist. as may appeare, not by staieng the rage of this bishop: but also by his solicitous writing, and long letters written to Cranmer, also by the complaints of cer|teine papists, accusing him to the pope to be a bea|rer with the heretikes, and by the popes letters sent to him vpon the same, calling him vp to Rome, and setting frier Peto in his place, had not queene Ma|rie by speciall intreatie made, kept him out of the popes danger. All which letters I haue (if néed be) to shew: besides also, that it is thought of him that toward his latter end, a little before his comming from Rome to England, he began somewhat to sa|uour the doctrine of Luther,Cardinall Poole halfe suspected for a Lutheran at Rome. and was no lesse suspec|ted at Rome: yea, and furthermore did there at Rome conuert a certeine learned Spaniard from papisme to Luthers side: notwithstanding the pompe and glorie of the world afterward caried him awaie to plaie the papist thus as he did.]
¶And sith I haue waded thus far in portraieng the said cardinall, Ab. Fl. ex concione Cut. Tunstalli [...]oram Hen. 8. I am willing to make you commu|nicants of a report concerning him, vttered by Cut|bert Tunstall bishop of Duresine, in a sermon which he made vpon Palmesundaie, in the yeare of our Lord 1539, before king Henrie the eight, trea|ting vpon these words of saint Paule to the Philip|pians, Cap. 2. Hoc sentite in vobis, quod & in Christ [...] Iesu, &c: See the same mind be in you, that was in Iesu Christ, &c. The ground of whose sermon stan|ding vpon obedience and disobedience, after he had discoursed at large thervpon, he fell into these words in presence of the king, the nobles, and people.