Note 1215 — XXVI. THE ANGLICAN CHURCH.
Reading edition
Burnet I. 256-7. It was not until 1543 that he ventured to confess this to the king (Ibid. p. 328). At his trial in 1556 his two marriages were one of the points of accusation against him (Ibid. II. 339).
Sanders, in commenting upon Cranmer’s time-serving disposition, which enabled him to accommodate himself to Henry’s capricious opinions, and yet to enter fully into the reformatory ideas predominant under Edward VI., does not fail to satirize his connubial propensities. “Unum illud molestissime tamen ferens, quod meretricem quandam suam non poterat palam uxoris loco libere habere, quia id non laturum Henricum sciebat, sed partim domi eam occultare, partim cum foras prodiret, cista quadam ad id affabre facta inclusam, secum una circumferre cogeretur. Iste ergo jam desiit esse Henricianus, et tam ex immatura regis Edouardi ætate quam ex Protectoris in sectas summa propensione, suæ statim simul et libidini et hæresi habenas laxandas statuit; nam et scorto suo mox est publice pro uxore usus, et catechismum Edouardo dedicatum, falsæ impiæque doctrinæ plenum, in lucem edidit.”—De Orig. et Prog. Schismatis Anglicani, p. 193 (Ed. 1586).