SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
30d
during the king's pleasure:" — ^in consequence of which great derastation was made eren in useful literature. The visitors who were appointed to superintend these literarj conflagrations are not nained, but they were to deliver the garniture of the books, being either gold or silver, to sir Anthony Aucher; many of them being plated and clasped with gold and silver, and cunously embossed, and consequently were destroyed for the sake of their rich bindings and ornaments; many of astronomy were supposed to be magical, and destroyed on that account; while the mem- bers of the universitv, unable to put a stop to these ravages, trembled for their own safety. Popular lage exhausted itself on illuminateid books and manuscripts, and any that had red letters in the title pages, or otherwise decomted, was sure to be tnrown into the flames as a snpentitions one; and were sure marks of being papistical and diabolical.
At Oxford, a large fire was kindled in the market-place, when some of the members of the oniversity deagnating the conflagration by the appellation of " Seotui his funeral." And thus an almost inestimable collection both for number and value were either thrown away, or used for the vilest purposes, or else were turned into bon- fires, or given to bookbinders and tailors for the use of their trade. We still find such volumes mutilated of their valuable bindings, gilt letters, and el^ant initials. Many have been found eDcIosecTin walls,* buried underground, or left neglected in cellars or garrets, having been for- gotten; what escaped the flames were obliterated by the damp; such is the deplorable fate of books during a persecution.
The dnice of Somerset, who was protector of the king, had long been reckoned a secret parti- 9U1 of the reformers; and, immediately on his devation to this high dignity, began to express his intentions of reforming the abuses of the
- Ike two Qreek venlans of the OM Te$lttwt«mt, which
(M(ca published in hi* Hampta, and nombered fiv* and <ir,- be fooiid preierved in an earthen vesael.
A fiiailar mode of | «« tnl ng writinga was adopted bjr flie propliet Jeremiah, (ch. zzxiL l4.)
The Roman liistoriana alllnn, that the book* of Noma, wUch had been buried more than 500 yeara, looked when taken op, aa if perfectlj new, from having lieen eloaely nuroiiDded with wax candles I wax cloth bong then proba- klr unknown.
Matthew Paris, in his HUttrrf of ike Mief of St. iUtaw, relato, that during the abbacj of Eamner, the ninth alibot, a nomber of workmen being employed to oeet a chmch on the aite of the ancient ei^ Verolaimlnm, aa ttiey were digging the foundation, they diacovered the itmaina of an ancient palace, and foond in a hollow part of one of the walla, several small books and lOlls, one of wliich, written in a langnmge not understood, was most beautifally ornamented with the title and Inscriptions in letters of fiold. It was covered with oaken boards, and tied with aQken bands, and in a great measure retained its jcistine strength and beauty, nnii^ured either in its form «r wriUng bythe length of time It had lain ondiscovered.
Leiand. in his CoUtetanea, (Tom. ill. p. 137,) has the following notioe: "A wrtten booke of a twenty leres foonde in a bolow stone kyvered with a stone in digging far a foundation at Yvy chirch by Sarisbyri."
A cartons manuscript original of the New Testament, Cone gospd, St. Metrk, wanting,; found walltd in Loddlng- ton duireh, in Northamptonshire, was in the possession efUshop More, who had borrowed it from the Rev. Q. Tew, Ike rector, but never returned it ) and is (uppoaed to be in the public library at Cambridge.
ancient religion. Under his direction, and that of Cranmer, therefore, the reformation was car- ried forward and completed. The only person of consequence who opposed the reformers was Stephen Gardiner,* bishop of Winchester; and, to toe eternal disgrace oi their own principles, the reformers now showed that they could per- secute as severely as their opponents bad formerly persecuted them. Gardiner was committed to the Fleet prison, where he was treated with greut seventy. He was afterwards sent to the tower; and having continued there two years, he was commandea to subscribe several articles, among which was one confessing the justice of his imprisonment. To all the articles but the last he agreed to subscribe; but that he would not agree to. He was then committed to close custody, and remained a prisoner during the reign of Edward VI.; his books and papen were seized; all company was denied him, and he was not even permitted the use of pen and ink. The bishops of Chichester, Worcester, and Exe- ter, were in like manner deprived of their offices; but the bishops of Landan, Salisbury, and Co- ventry, escaped by sacrificing the most consider- able share of their revenues. The reformers, however, were not contented with these severi- ties. A commission was granted to the primate and others, to seareh after all anabaptists, heretics, or contemners of the new liturgy. Among the numbers who were found guilty upon this occa- sion, was Joan Boucher,t and some time after. Van Paris, a Dutchmtui, was condemned to death igt Arianism. He suffered with so much forti- tude, that be carressed the fagots that were consuming him. About uiis time, a rebellion was raised by the
- Stephen Gardiner, was born at Burr St. Edmund's, In
SofTolk, in the year 1483. He was the Illegitimate son of Dr. WoodvUle, bishop of Salisbury, and brother of Elixa- beth, queen of Edward IV. Be was educated at Cam- bridge; was secretary to cardinal Wolsey, and acquired the confidence of Henry VIII. He wrote a work entitled De Venm ObtHentia^ ill defence of Henry's supremacy, for which he was promoted to the see of Wlncheater. He was chancellor of England daring Mary's reign. His con- duct towards the Protestants was cruel and sanguinary. He was a learned man, but of littn principle, crsfty and ambitions. A biographer of a singular cast, who wrote about a century after Gardiner's death, gives as a part of that prelates original character, in the following original terms: — " His reservedness was such, that he never did what he aimed at, never aimed at what he intended, never intended what he said, and never said what he thought i whereby he carried it so, that others should do his busi- ness when they opposed It, and he should undermine theirs when he seemed to promote it. A man that was to lie traced like the fox, and read like Hebrew, backward; if yon would know what he did, you must observe what be did not."
f Joan Boucher, generally called the IfoU of Kent, was burnt at the stake for heresy, .May t, iSM, by those who had narrowly eaosped a similar death in the preceding reign, and actually suffered under the sway of Mary. She was a great disperser of TiniiUPt New TeatamaU, and was a great reader of scripture herself. She used for the more secrecy, to tie the books with strings under her apparel, and BO pass with them Into the court, at London, and so became known to several ladlea of quality, and particu- larly with Anne Askew. Her death, and that of George Van Parts, a Dutchman, fonn a very heavy accusation against archbishop Cranmer, for whom no excuse can be pleaded. It Is related that king Bdwaid refused to sign the warrant, and actually shed tears when compelled by the impottunities of Cranmer.
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