I. Anno 1537. BOOK and died no more, so would they cease and die to sin, no more to live therein: and as he rose from death to life, that so would they rise to a new life. And without this meditation and purpose, their processions, with the solemnities thereof, was to them but a vain pageant, whereof they had no profit. De obitu II. That cross that Christ died on, was no holier than the crosses which the thieves died on. Resp. Upon Relic Sunday, I declared unto them what were the true reliques which we should worship, and moved them not to put their trust and affiance in the holiness and vertue of mens bonys and cotys, [i. e. bones and coats,] whereof we have no certainty, whether they were the reliques of saints or no. And I said, that be it in case they were so, as we have been made believe; as if we had indeed some pieces of Christ's cross; yet to forget the mystery of Christ's cross, and fall to the worshipping of the tree of his cross, was a superstitious worship, and reproved of Ambrose. Which saith thus: Invenit Helena titulum, regem adoravit, non lignum utique. Nam hic Gentilis est error et vanitas impiorum, si [non] adorent illum, qui pependit in ligno, scriptusque in titulo. Alii, qui sanctiores se ostendere volunt, partem fimbria aut capillorum alligant et suspendunt. O! impietas, majorem sanctitatem in suis vestimentis ostendere volentes quam in carne Christi, ut qui corpus ejus manducans sanatus non fuerit, fimbriæ ejus sanctitatem salvent, ut desperans de misericordia Dei, confidat in vestimentis, &c. III. The King, with the money that he gathered of his Commons, bought peace with other realms. Resp. In the insurrection time, I considered the resort of soldiers, and of divers others, to the town of Clare, being one of the most people in that quarter of Suffolk. And thereupon I thought it then most expedient to go thither to courage their hearts with God's word, to serve their Prince, notwithstanding such traitors as were then risen. And in my sermon I inveighed against sedition, and declared the authority of a Prince, and what commodities every realm III. enjoyed by such authority, instituted by God. And among CHAP. others, I entreated of peace, what a benefit it was, by the means whereof we had the quiet fruits of our life, goods, and Anno 1537. lands: and thereby moved them with good and ready wills to pay their taxes, which was to be levied to some supportation of such charges as our peace was bought with: and 12 said thus: "Think you that our Prince can maintain and ❝ defend us in so long continual peace against foreign realms, "without charges and expenses? And what is this little "which is required of you, compared to the rest of your goods, which ye do peaceably enjoy, or compared to the 66 charges that your Prince is at for your protection and de"fence, &c. ?” What success this answer of Parker found to the dis- The Lord Chancellor charging him of this accusation, we may gather from these satisfied words following, written by the same hand that the forego- therewith. ing were, namely, that of our Matthew Parker: "These "articles objected, were thus answered by M. P. and sent "to the Lord Chancellor: which heard, he blamed the pro"moters, and sent word, that I should go on, and fear not "such enemies." So well did our Dean come off in this cause, by giving this true and fair account of his own sermons, and stripping them of the slanderous representations made of them: and instead of reproof gained encouragement from the Court in his labours. A Prior wich under ker's doc Upon this countenance, the Dean went on in his doctrine, exciting the people every where to obedience to the from NorKing, and informing them out of the word of God about mines Parmany abuses of religion. So that the knowledge of God trine. was happily sown in these quarters by Mr. Parker's means. But this so nettled Nix, the Bishop of Norwich, and the Popish party thereabouts, that to unravel and disappoint these good beginnings, Dr. Stokes, Prior of the Augustins in Norwich, and one of those that were sent to Bilney, a little before his execution, to discourse with him in prison, this man, I say, is sent now to Clare, (the aforesaid town near Stoke,) pretending to settle there, and to preach out of goodwill, and so he told Parker: but indeed, as Parker easily Parker him. BOOK smelt it out, it was to supplant his doctrine, and to reduce I. the people to the old superstitions, and to keep them in their Anno 1537. blindness and Popery. Whereupon our Divine, soon after Stokes's coming, wrote him a letter, dated from Stoke, tellwrites to ing him boldly and plainly, "that if he came to decoy the "truth, which he had preached, or to make invectives, to "the decay of the King's authority and lawful ordinances; "and to sow schism and confusion among the people, he "must and would, according to his duty, give information "above against him. But that if it were his sincere inten❝tion to declare the truth, and edify the King's subjects, " he would promise to join hands with him, and therein their friendship should consist." But the letter being so well Number III. and piously penned, is transferred into the Appendix. He is im 66 But Friar Stokes, it seems, took little warning by this prisoned for sober and sound admonition of Mr. Parker's, but followed Popish preaching. his first purpose of perverting the people by his preaching against the King's proceedings; and so in the end was laid up in prison, for a complaint made against him to the Lord Crumwel by the King's visitors, who had received some informations against him at Clare. Whereupon they left some precepts with him concerning his preaching, which he observed not. Out of prison he sent a letter to the Lord Crumwel, the King's Vicar General, vindicating himself to have preached up the King's authority against the Bishop of Rome; whom, he said, he did detest and abhor, with all his Papistical factions. That whereas he was accused to have preached against the Dean of Stoke, he said, he commended him in his sermon by name, for declaring of certain rites. And whereas some informed, that he preached seditiously, he referred himself to all the audience, and four persons would testify, that he preached the word of God sincerely. He acknowledged indeed, that he had been much addicted to the old ceremonies; but he intended, by God's grace, to reform himself. And at last he desired that the King would permit him to change his habit. But his letter Numb. IV. may be read in the Appendix. About this time, if not before, our Parker was sent for up III. Crumwel summons preach at by the Lord Crumwel to take a turn at Paul's Cross, by a CHAP. letter from the said Lord, appointing him to preach a sermon there," for the honest report (as the letter runs) of Anno 1537. “his learning in holy letters, and incorrupt judgment in the "same.” And having assigned him his particular day, he Parker to added, "preparing in the mean time with such pure sincere-Paul's "ness, truly to open the word of God at the said day, as I Cross. may therefore take occasion to think the report made of "you to be true:" meaning, in respect of his favour to the Gospel. 66 CHAP. IV. Parker created Doctor of Divinity. Parker's good statutes for Stoke college: the Duke of Norfolk sends to him for them. His preferments. Elected Master of Bene't college, by the King's letters recommendatory. His good services to that house. The Bishop of Ely's letter to him, to preach the supremacy. Bishop Boner's letter to him, to procure preachers for Paul's Cross. Benefices conferred on him. 13 &c. IN the year 1588, July 1, Parker was created Doctor in Anno 1538. Divinity: and the next year he was sent for into Prince Ed- Becomes ward's Court, to give him a sermon: and the next, viz. Dr. in Divinity. 1540, he preached before the Lady Elizabeth at Hatfield. Anno 1540. of Norfolk founds a The good statutes mentioned before, which this our Dean of Stoke college had framed for it, added to the original ones, made this a very good and useful foundation. And the fame of it was so great, that about the year 1540, the old The Duke most noble and illustrious Duke of Norfolk sent a letter to our Dean, that he would send him the original foundation of college by that his college of secular priests, being founded, as he heard, of Stoke of an honest sort; and that he would but detain it, till he college. had caused it to be written out, or had taken some notes out C. C. Epist. of it. Because the monastery of Thetford, being now the Princip. &c. King's, upon the Act for Dissolution of Religious Houses, the statutes MSS. C. C. BOOK having been founded by a Duke of Norfolk, the King had I. granted it back to this Duke, to turn it into a college of secuAnno 1540. lar priests; and so he should have occasion to furnish it with good statutes. Here his father and other his ancestors lay, and here he intended himself also to be buried, as he wrote the Dean. Anno 1541. In October 1541 he was installed in the second prebend Made Pre- in the church of Ely, by the collation of his gracious master bend of Ely. King Henry. Thus Dr. Parker continued discharging his duty, sometimes in his colleges, sometimes in his attendances at Court, and not seldom in the pulpit, having no cure of souls as yet, Anno 1542. till the year 1542, when he was presented to the rectory of Presented Ashen in Essex; so conveniently situated both for Cambridge and Stoke, in respect of the easy distance from either, that he might the more frequently be upon his living, and take the better care of his flock. to the rec tory of Ashen. Anno 1544. Made Mas well as December the 4th, 1544, by the King's letters commenter of Bene't datory to the college, dated November 3, he was, in the college. room of the last Master of Bene't, named Sowde, or Sowode, made Head of the said house, and was the fourteenth Master from the first foundation, to the great honour as benefit of it. In the said letter, the King styled him his beloved Chaplain, and declared to the Fellows of the house, "that it was for the zeal and love he bore to the advance"ment of good letters, that he desired to see them furnished Cant. MSS. with such a governor, as in all points might seem worthy "of that room. And that therefore he commended the said "Dr. Parker unto them, both for his approved learning, E Collect. Soc. D. Joh. C. C. C. C. 66 wisdom, and honesty, as for his singular grace and indus"try, in bringing up youth in virtue and learning. And "that he was so apt for the exercise of the said place, that "he thought hard to find his like in all respects. And that "therefore his trust was, that at the contemplation of him, "they would with one assent elect him for their Head, whom "he judged worthy for that office; and finally, that he "doubted not they would have cause to think themselves "furnished with such a Master, as appertained." But the |