air means reform, they are willed to deliver
unto the ordinary, to be by him charitably travelled withal, and
removed, if it may be, from their naughty opinions; or else, if they
continue obstinate, to be ordered according to the laws provided in
that behalf: understanding now, to our no little marvel, that divers
of the said misordered persons, being, by the justices of the peace,
for their contempt and obstinacy, brought to the ordinary, to be used
as is aforesaid, are either refused to be received at their hands, or,
if they be received, are neither so travelled with as Christian
charity requireth, nor yet proceeded withal according to the order of
justice, but are suffered to continue in their errors, to the
dishonour of Almighty God, and dangerous example of others; like as we
find this matter very strange, so have we thought convenient both to
signify this our knowledge, and therewithal also to admonish you to
have in this behalf such regard henceforth unto the office of a good
pastor and bishop, as where any such offenders shall be, by the said
justices of the peace, brought unto you, ye do use your good wisdom
and discretion in procuring to remove them from their errors if it may
be, or else in proceeding against them, if they continue obstinate,
according to the order of the laws, so as, through your good
furtherance, both God's glory may be the better advanced, and the
commonwealth more quietly governed."[476]

[Footnote 476: Burnet's _Collectanea_. This letter
is addressed to Bonner, and was taken from Bonner's
_Register_; but, from the form, it was evidently a
circular. The Bishop of London had not deserved to
be singled out to be especially admonished for want
of energy.]

Under the fresh impulse of this letter, fifty persons were put to
death at the stake in the three ensuing months,--in the diocese of
London, under Bonner; in the diocese of Rochester, under Maurice
Griffin; in the diocese of Canterbury, where Pole, the archbishop
designate, so soon as Cranmer should be despatched, governed through
Harpsfeld, the archdeacon, and Thornton, the suffragan bishop of
Dover. Of these sacrifices, which were distinguished all of them by a
uniformity of quiet heroism in the {p.213} sufferers, that of
Cardmaker, prebendary of Wells, calls most for notice.

The people, whom the cruelty of the Catholic