[No. LXVI.] But declines it. 205. glad to go to hanging, (which the rebels three years before were just going to do with him, for his preaching against them in their camp), than he was now to go to Armagh. He urged to the archbishop, "That if he went thither, he should have no auditors, but must preach to the walls and stalls; for the people understood no English." The archbishop, on the other hand, endeavoured to answer all his objections. He told him, "They did understand English in Ireland; though whether they did in the diocese of Armagh, he did indeed doubt. But, to remedy that, he advised him to learn the Irish tongue: which with diligence," he told him, "he might do in a year or two: and that there would this advantage arise thereby, that both his person and doctrine would be more acceptable, not only unto his diocese, but also throughout all Ireland." And so, by a letter to secretary Cecyl, recommended him to his care; entreating, "that he might have as ready a dispatch as might be, because he had but little money '.” This letter of the archbishop is dated Sept. 19th, 1552. So that it must be a mistake in the late excellent historian, when he writes, that Bale and Goodacre were sent over Hist. Ref. into Ireland to be bishops in the month of Augusts: which vol. ii. p. cannot agree with this letter of Cranmer, which makes Turner to be in nomination only for that see a month after. And by certain memorials of king Edward's own hand, which I have, it appears, that as Turner at last got himself off from accepting that bishopric, so by the date thereof it is evident, it was vacant in October following: for the king, under that month, put the providing for that place, which Turner refused, among his matters to be remembered. The archbishop's letters concerning this Irish No. LXV, affair are in the Appendix. made arch So that at last this charge fell upon Hugh Goodacre, Goodacre the last man, as it seems, nominated by the archbishop; bishop of whom he termed "a wise and learned man." He and Armagh. Bale, as they came together out of bishop Poinet's family unto their preferments, so they were consecrated together by Browne, archbishop of Dublin, February 2; assisted by Thomas, bishop of Kildare, and Eugenius, bishop of Down and Connor, which makes me think they were not come over long before. Goodacre died about a quarter of a year after at Dublin, and there buried, not without suspicion of poison, by procurement of certain priests of his diocese, for preaching God's verity, and rebuking their common vices, as Bale writes. He left many writings of 279 great value behind him, as the said Bale, his dear friend, Vocation of relates; but none, as ever I heard of, published. As he Balei was a sober and virtuous man, so he was particularly Centur, u famed for his preaching. He was at first, I suppose, chaplain to the lady Elizabeth; at least to her he had been long known. And for him, about the year 1548, or 1549, she procured a license to preach from the protector; as appears by a letter she wrote from Enfield to Mr. Cecyl, who then attended on him, of which Goodacre himself was the bearer; wherein she gave this testimony of him; "That he had been of long time known unto her t["In the mean time came sorrowful news unto me that M. Hugh Goodacre, the archbishop of Armach, that godly preacher, and virtuous learned man, was poisoned at Dublin, by procurement of certain priests of his diocese, for preaching God's verity and rebuking their common vices. And letters by and by were directed unto me, by my special friends from thence, to beware of the like in my diocese of Ossory, u "Beatæ memoriæ concionato- John Bale. Letters from the commend to be as well of honest conversation, and sober living, as of sufficient learning and judgment in the Scriptures, to preach the word of God. The advancement whereof," as she said, "she so desired, that she wished there were many such to set forth God's glory. She desired him therefore, that as heretofore, at her request, he had obtained license to preach for divers other honest men, so he would recommend this man's case unto my lord, and therewith procure for him the like license as to the other had been granted." And lastly, that Goodacre, and his colleague Bale might council to find the better countenance and authority, when they Ireland, re- should exercise their functions in that country, the privycouncil wrote two letters to the lord deputy and council of Ireland; the one, dated October 27", "in commendation of Bale, elect bishop of Ossory;" and the other, dated November 4, "in commendation of Goodacre, elect bishop of Armachan"." ing the Irish bishops. Council v [MSS. Council Book. Privy Council Office, A.D. 1550-1553. fol. 630.] [Id. fol. 635.] W CHAPTER XXIX. THE ARCHBISHOP CHARGED WITH COVETOUSNESS. of the arch vetousness To divert the king after the loss of his uncle, whom he A rumour dearly loved, Northumberland took him in progress in given out the summer of this year. While he was in this progress, bishop's cosome about his person, that they might the better make and wealth. way for their sacrilegious designs, and to make the king the more inclinable to lay hands on the episcopal demeans, or at least to clip and pare them, buzzed about the court rumours, how rich the archbishop of Canterbury and the other bishops were; and withal, how niggardly and unsuitably they lived to their great incomes, laying up, and scraping together to enrich themselves and their posterities; whereby hospitality was neglected, which was especially required of them. Hereupon sir William Cecyl Which Cecyl sends the secretary, who was now with the king, and took notice him word of these discourses, and saw well the malicious tendency of. thereof, (and moreover thought them perhaps in some measure to be true), laboured to hinder the ill consequence: for he was ever a very great favourer, as of the reformed clergy, so of their estate and honours. This put him upon writing a private letter from court to the archbishop, desiring him favourably to take a piece of good counsel at his hands, as he intended it innocently and out of a good mind, acquainting him with the reports at the 280 court of his riches, and of his covetousness; reminding him withal of that passage of St. Paul, "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare;" meaning probably thereby, the danger that he and the rest of his brethren might expose their revenues to thereby. The archbishop [See above, p. 206. n. o.] X himself and the other bishops. seemed somewhat nettled, and, perceiving the ill designs, The arch- dispatched an answer hereunto, giving a true account of bishop's answer for his own condition, and of the other bishops, as to temporal things, and letting him understand, how much the world was mistaken in him and the rest: "That for himself he feared not that saying of St. Paul half so much as he did stark beggary. That he took not half so much care for his living, when he was a scholar of Cambridge, as he did at that present: for although he had now much more revenue, yet," he said, "he had much more to do withal. That he had more care now to live as an archbishop, than he had at that time to live like a scholar. That he had not now so much as he had within ten years past by an hundred and fifty pounds of certain rent, besides casualties. That he paid double for every thing he bought and that if a good auditor had this account, he should find no great surplusage to grow rich upon." And then, as for the rest of the bishops, he told him, "that they were all beggars, but only one singley man of them and yet he dared well say, that he was not very rich. And that if he knew any bishop that were covetous, he would surely admonish him. Intreating the secretary, that, if he could inform him of any such, he would signify him, and himself would advertise him, thinking he could do it better than the other." Who seemed to have hinted his mind to the archbishop, that he intended to do it. This letter will be found among the rest in the Appendix. No. This very slander : No doubt the archbishop was thus large and earnest on this subject to supply the secretary with arguments to confute that malicious talk at court concerning the bishops, and to prevent the mischiefs hatching against them. Nor indeed was this the first time this archbishop was raised upon thus slandered. For some of his enemies, divers years y He probably was Holgate, archbishop of York. |