ture of the confusion, we might almost say, the anarchy, which marked the interregnum between the dominion of the Romish Church and the establishment of a better system. We may, likewise, read there, a very intelligible history of the protracted martyrdom to be undergone by those patient spirits, who had to conduct the public mind through this vexed abyss, and to buffet their way through the embroilment of its "surging fires" and conflicting atoms. And, surely, our gratitude is due to that gracious Providence, which enabled them to form, as they advanced, a solid and substantial mole, on which they might be followed, with confidence, until the people could plant their foot upon the broad and firm ground, and could lift their eyes steadily to the pure light of heaven.

CHAPTER XI.

1548-1549.

Cranmer's Translation of Justus Jonas's Catechism-The question, Whether Cranmer ever was a Consubstantialist ?—His rejection of Transubstantiation—The English Liturgy—Aversion of the Romanists for the New Service-Book-The rebellion of Devonshire and Cornwall-Cranmer's answer to the rebels-Boner's opposition to the recent changes-His degradation and imprisonment-Variety of pernicious DoctrinesBurning of Joan Bocher-Cranmer's share in it-His conduct considered.

Cranmer's Trans

Jonas's

chism.

Cate

THE labours of the Archbishop were incessant, both in firmly preparing the way before the face of the people, and in furnishing them with instruction which should enable them steadily to walk in it. The present year was remarkable for a lation of Justus publication which bore his name, and which is of considerable importance in his personal history. The book in question is known by the title of Cranmer's Catechism. The composition, however, was not his own. The work was originally written in German, by Justus Jonas, the father of a Protestant of the same name, who, with others, had fled from the persecution of the Interim, and was received by Cranmer with his usual courtesy and hospitality. The elder Jonas was in

timate with Melancthon; a circumstance which, of itself, would be a sufficient introduction of his son to the kind offices of the Primate. But the younger Jonas came with a still stronger recommendation to Cranmer, as the bearer of a Latin version of his father's volume1: and the Archbishop's attention was so deeply engaged by the performance, that he either translated it into English himself, or else caused it to be translated under his own supervision 2. In the course of the year 1548, this version was published with a Dedication to the King, and with a title, professing that it had been "set forth, overseen, and corrected," by the Archbishop. Some observations are to be found in it, to which there is nothing that corresponds in the Latin original, and which may, therefore, be reasonably ascribed to the Archbishop himself.

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It must be observed, that the work is not in the form of Question and Answer, as its shorter title would seem to imply. It is, what its longer title denotes, an Instruction into the Christian Religion, for the singular commodity and profit of Young People." It consists of elementary expositions of the Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Sacrament of Baptism, the authority of the Keys,

1 This Latin version is generally supposed to have been executed by Jonas the younger. Dr. Burton, the Reg. Prof. of Divin. at Oxford, conjectures that the author of it was himself the translator also. See Todd's Cranmer, vol. ii. p. 44, 45.

2 Strype's Cranmer, vol. ii. c. 5, who erroneously dates it in 1547.

and the Lord's Supper. In this book, the Commandments are arranged conformably to the Romish practice. The two first coalesce into one, and the tenth is divided into two. But then, in the discourse on Idolatry, introduced by Cranmer into the Exposition, he remarks, that this arrangement is the work of later interpreters; and that, according to the more ancient interpretation, the words relating to images form the second commandment. The translation is, also, true to the original, in retaining, without qualification, the three Sacraments of Baptism, Penance, and the Eucharist; a circumstance which leaves it somewhat doubtful, whether Cranmer had, at that time, finally resolved on the rejection of all the Sacraments but two. In the Exposition of the Eucharist, the English version exhibits one variation from the Latin original, which can scarcely have been accidental and undesigned; for it speaks of our receiving the body and blood of Christ; whereas the Latin describes them as being present1.

1 It is scarcely worth while to mention a silly and malicious charge, afterwards raised against Cranmer out of his edition of this Catechism, on his final examination at Oxford, in 1555. It seems that two printers were employed by him on two several impressions of the work; and Martin, the King's Proctor, accused him of ordering one of them to insert the word "not" in the passage declaring that Christ is really present; in order that the affirmative, which appeared in one impression, might, in the other, be converted into a negative,-" whereby it came to pass that Christ's body was clean conveyed out of the Sacrament." They who have patience for any thing so superfluous as a vindication of Cranmer against a charge like this, may see the

7

The question, whether Cranmer

ever was a Con

substantialist?

The translation of a Lutheran Catechism, is, doubtless, to be numbered among the circumstances which have given birth to the surmise, that Cranmer, at one time, adopted the Lutheran notions of the Eucharist. The question, whether he did so or not, is surely of very diminutive importance. The doctrine of Consubstantiation seems to lie, not unnaturally, in the way of an honest inquirer, on his passage from the Romish Belief to that of the Anglican Church: and, being recommended by the sanction of names, deeply pledged to the conflict with Papal superstition, it might, for a time, retain its hold upon his mind. But that Cranmer had renounced all notions of the bodily and local presence, whether Romish or Lutheran, previously to the publication of this Catechism, seems tolerably clear from the language used by him on the subject, in his answers to the ten Questions propounded in 1547; where he affirms, that the sacrifice of Christ in the Mass was so called,

calumny demolished by Mr. Todd, in his Life of Cranmer, vol. ii. c. 3. But, surely, it is sufficient to state, that the Archbishop, when charged by Martin with this knavish literary juggle, positively denied all knowledge of the fact. Eccl. Biog. vol. iii.

p. 551. What must have been the malice of Cranmer's enemies, when it magnified a typographical blunder (if any such blunder existed) into an act of deliberate fraud! Or, what must have been their stupidity, if they really believed that he would designedly send into the world, almost at the same time, two impressions of the same work, in direct contradiction to each other, upon a question of such importance as that of the Sacrament!