Submissions and Recantations, Prayer
… prayer and sayinge of Thomas Cranmer, a litle before his death, all written with his owne hande as foloweth.
GOod chrysten people, my dere beloued brethren, and my systers in Chryst, I besech you most har…ely to praye for me, to almighty god, that he wyl for…yue me all my synnes, and offences, whiche be ma…y wythout number, and greate aboue measure, but …et one thinge greuethe my conscience more then all …he rest, whereof god willing, I intend to speke more …ereafter, But howe manye and howe greate soeuer …hey be, I besech you to pray god of hys mercy to pardon and forgyue me all.
O Father of heauen, o sonne of god redemer of the worlde, o holy ghost, proceding from them both three persones and one God, hauehave mercye vponupon me a most wretched caytife, and miserable synner, I hauehave offended both heauen and earth, more then my tonge can expresse, whyther than may I go? or whither shal I flye for succoure? To heauen I may be ashamed to lyste vp myne eyes, and in earth I fynde no refuge or succoure, what shall I than doo? shal I dyspayre? god forbyd, O god thou art mercyfull, aud refusest none, that commeth vntounto the for succoure. To the therfore do I runne, to the doo I humble my selfe sayinge: O lorde god my synnes be greate, but hauehave mercy vponupon me, for thy greate mercye. God was not made man, for our smal offences. Thou didest not giuegive thy sonne vntounto death, for smale synnes onelyonly, but for all, and the greatest synnes of the worlde, soo that the synner retourne to the in his hart, as I doo here at this presēt: wherefore hauehave mercy on me o lord, for although my synnes be great, yet thy mercy is greater, I craue nothynge, o Lorde for myne owne merytes but for thy name sake, that it may be halowed therby, and for thy deare sonne Jesus Chryst sake, and nowe therefore, O father that art in heauen, hallowed be thy name▪ Thy kyngdome come. &c.
EueryEvery man desireth good people, at the tyme of their death, to gyue some good exhortation that good folkes maye remember after their death, and be the better for the same. So I besech god graunte vntounto me, that I may speake some thinge whereby he maye be glorified and you edyfied. Fyrste it is an heauye case, to see how many folkes be so much doted of this present worlde, and so carefull of it, that for the world to come they seme to care very litle or nothyng. Therefore this shalbe my fyrst exhortation, that you set not ouermuch, by this presēt world, but vponupon the world to come, and vponupon God, and learne to knowe what this lesson meaneth of Saynt Iohn. The louelove of this world (saith he) is hatred vntounto God. The, ii. exhortation is, that next vntounto God, you obey your kyng, and Quene, willingly and gladly, without murmurynge or grudgynge, not for feare of them, but muche more for feare of God, knowing that they be goddes ministers appoynted by god, for to gouerne and rule you, and therefore they that resist them, resist gods ordynaunce. The third exhortation is that you louelove together, like brethren and systerne. But alas pitie it is to see howe faint this louelove is, many taking other not as brother and systers, but rather as straungers, or mor tall enemyes. And yet I pray you learne this one lesson, to doo good vntounto all men, as much as in you lyeth, and to hurte no man, no more then you woulde doo to your naturall louinge brother, and syster. For whosoeuer hateth any person, and goeth about maliciously to hurt him, surely withoute doute god is not with that man, although he thinke himselfe neuer so much in gods fauour. The, iiii, exhrotation shalbe to them that hauehave substaunce and ryches of the worlde, that they well consyder and remember, iii, sayinges, of the scrypture. One is of our Sauiour Christ hymselfe, who sayth, that rych men hardely come into hea uen: a sore saying, and yet spoken of him that knewe the truth. The second is of S. Ihon, who saith thus. He that hath the substaunce of this worlde and seeth his brother in necessitie, and shitteth vppe his mercy from him, howe can he say that he loueth God? The third is of S. Iames, who saythe to couetous ryche men after this maner: Wepe and howle you rich mē for the miserye that shall come vntounto you, your riches do rotte, your clothes be moth eaten, your gold & syluer wax cancre, and rustie, and theyr rust shall beare witnes agaynst you, and consume you lyke fyre, you make a hoorde and treasure of goddes indignation agaynst the last day: let thē that be rych ponder well these. iii. sentences, for yf euer they had occasiō to shew theyr charitie, they hauehave it nowe, the poore people being so many, and victuells so dere.
Here to declare the Quenes iust title to the crowne.
ANd nowe forasmuche as I am come vntounto the last ende of my lyfe wherevpon hangeth all my lyfe passed, and al my life, to come, eyther to liue with my Sauioure Chryste, for euer in ioye, or ells to be in paynes euer, with the wicked deuilles in hell, and I see before my eyes presentlye, eyther heauen redye to receyue me, or ells hell redy to swallowe me vppe, I shall therfore declare vntounto you my very fayth, wythout coloure or dissymulation, for nowe is no tyme to dyssemble, whatsoeuer I hauehave sayde, preached, or written in tyme past. Fyrst I beleue in God ye father almyghty, maker of heauen and earth. &c. And I beleue eueryevery article of the catholike fayth, eueryevery clause worde, and sentence, taught by our sauiour Chryste, his Apostles and prophetes, in the newe and olde testament, and all articles explicate and set fourth in ye generall counselles. And nowe I come to the greate thing that soo much troubleth my conscience more thā any other thing yt euer I did, & that is settinge abroad vntrue bokes, & writings, cōtrary to the truth of goddes word, which nowe I renounce and condempne, and refuse them vtterly as erronyous & for none of myne. But you must know also, what bokes they were that you maye beware of them, or ells my conscyence is not dyscharged. For they be the boo… which I wrote agaynst the Sacrament of the Au…tare syth the death of Kynge Henrye the eyghte. But whatsoeuer I wrote than, nowe is tyme and place, to saye truth, wherefore renouncyng al those bo…s, and whatsoeuer in them is conteyned. I say and beleue that our Sauiour Chryst Iesu is really and sub stancially conteyned in the blessed Sacramente of ye Aultare vnderunder the fourmes of breade and wyne.
Excusum Londini in aedibus Iohannis Cawodi Typographi Regiae Maiestatis. Anno. M. D. LVI. Cum priuilegio.
End of the text · Archishop Thomas Cranmer, Submissions and Recantations (1556)