Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Vol. 1 of 2: Life, Letters to 1535Merriman, Roger Bigelow
History
Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Vol. 1 of 2: Life, Letters to 1535
Merriman, Roger Bigelow
Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex, 1485?-1540
In the spring of 1538, Cranmer heard that there were seven or eight
persons in Calais, who manifestly denied Christ. His Commissary there,
John Butler, asserted that this report was false, but in a later epistle
advised the Archbishop that there were three papists in the town, who
slandered those who applied themselves to God’s word; the letter went on
to suggest that Cromwell be requested to write to Lisle to have them
punished[378]. The minister, however, had heard of the existence of
‘certayn Sacramentaryes’ or deniers of transubstantiation there, before
this report arrived, and had written the Deputy a severe reproof for not
informing him about them[379]. The state of foreign affairs at that
moment was such as to render it indispensable for the King to preserve
the appearance of being zealous for orthodoxy, and he had called on his
efficient minister to aid him in his attempts to extirpate heretical
doctrines. The rebuke which the latter had administered to the Deputy
seems in this case to have been undeserved, for Lisle, who apparently
was more on the watch than usual this time, had certainly sent home
information about the Sacramentaries before he received Cromwell’s
epistle: the two letters perhaps crossed on the way. That of the Deputy
reported the arrival in Calais of a young English priest, lately come
from Germany, who had uttered opinions about the Eucharist which the
King would not tolerate, and which had shocked the good people of Calais
beyond measure. This young priest can have been none other than Adam
Damplip, originally a strong papist, who (according to Foxe) had been
chaplain to Fisher, and at the Cardinal’s execution had left England and
travelled in France, Germany, and Italy. His sojourn in foreign lands
must have altered his opinions completely, for when he came to Calais
his doctrines were so ‘advanced’ and heretical, that as a result of a
warning of Cromwell’s, in his letter to Lisle of May 14[380], a decree
was made out by the Council of the town that Butler, the Commissary who
had given Damplip licence to preach, would be held responsible for any
false opinions that the priest expressed[381].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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