ence many popish priests were rejected, and others rendered much
improved.

He was strongly solicited by Dr. Capon to be one of the fellows on the
foundation of Cardinal Wolsey's college, Oxford, of which he hazarded
the refusal. While he continued in Cambridge, the question of Henry
VIII.'s divorce with Catharine was agitated. At that time, on account of
the plague, Dr. Cranmer removed to the house of a Mr. Cressy, at Waltham
Abbey, whose two sons were then educating under him. The affair of
divorce, contrary to the king's approbation, had remained undecided
above two or three years, from the intrigues of the canonists and
civilians, and though the cardinals Campeius and Wolsey were
commissioned from Rome to decide the question, they purposely protracted
the sentence. It happened that Dr. Gardiner (secretary) and Dr. Fox,
defenders of the king in the above suit, came to the house of Mr. Cressy
to lodge, while the king removed to Greenwich. At supper, a conversation
ensued with Dr. Cranmer, who suggested that the question, whether a man
may marry his brother's wife or not, could be easily and speedily
decided by the word of God, and this as well in the English courts as
in those of any foreign nation. The king, uneasy at the delay, sent for
Dr. Gardiner and Dr. Foxe, to consult them, regretting that a new
commission must be sent to Rome, and the suit be endlessly protracted.
Upon relating to the king the conversation which had passed on the
previous evening with Dr. Cranmer, his majesty sent for him, and opened
the tenderness of conscience upon the near affinity of the queen. Dr.
Cranmer advised that the matter should be referred to the most learned
divines of Cambridge and Oxford, as he was unwilling to meddle in an
affair of such weight; but the king enjoined him to deliver his
sentiments in writing, and to repair for that purpose to the Earl of
Wiltshire's, who would accommodate him with books, and every thing
requisite for the occasion. This Dr. Cranmer immediately did, and in his
declaration, not only quoted the authority of the Scriptures, of general
councils and the ancient writers, but maintained that the bishop of Rome
had no authority whatever to dispense with the word of God. The king
asked him if he would stand by this bold declaration; to which replying
in the affirmative, he was deputed ambassador to Rome, in conjunction
with the Earl of Wiltshire, Dr. Stokesley, Dr. Carne, Dr. Bennet, and
others, previous