Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/182

 1516, where the main discussion was carried on between himself and the Spaniard Malvenda. After all was over, and when early in 1548 the Interim was about to be laid before the diet, he was summoned to Augsburg by the elector, Joachim II of Brandenburg, who, being desirous for peace at any price, wished to obtain an authoritative opinion in favour of the proposed settlement. He was detained in something like imprisonment for twenty-two days, but proved less pliable than had been expected, and Strassburg, though all but alone in her resolution, declined to sign the Interim. In the resistance against the necessity nf accepting it which Strassburg maintained for more than a year and a half the preachers unanimously took part, with Bucer and Fagius, Capito’s successor, at their head. But it gradually became evident that the city must give way, and that its spiritual leaders must. take their departure. After preparing, as a species of pastoral legacy, a ‘Summary of the religion taught at Strassburg durintglthe last twenty-eight years,’ Bucer, together with Fagius, applied for ‘leave of absence,' and a temporary pension having been granted them, and generous provision made or Bucer’s family during his peregrination, they quitted Strassburg on 6 April 1549. Bucer had been offered hospitality by Melanchthon, Myconius, and Calvin, and hardly had he and his companions departed when they were invited to professorial chairs at Copenhagen; but they had already bent their course to England. With England Bucer had a connection of longstanding, having been consulted by Henry VIII about his divorce, and more lately, in partial cnnsequence perhaps of the hospitality shown to so many English protestant fugitives at Strassburg, having been in frequent correspondence with Cranmer. The primate, who had already bestowed the regius professorship of divinity at Oxford upon Bucer's former colleague, Peter Martyr, now invited Bucer himself to England, doubtless with a view to his receiving a similar appointment at Cambridge (see Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Cramner, ed. J. E. Cox, Parker Society, 1846, 423-4). The travellers set sail from Calais on 23 April, and on the same day reached-hardly Cambridge, as Baum says, but-Canterbury (cf. as to Bucer’s visiting Canterbury about this time,, u.s. . i. 123). Thence they proceeded to London, where they found Cranmer surrounded by foreign refugees (see Bucer’s letter, noting the want of good preachers and teachers in England, cited by, 551). On 1 May they were most graciously received by the young king Edward VI and the great personages around him, among whom the Duchess of Suffolk soon showed special favour to Bucer. In the first instance he and his companion were, by desire of the king and Somerset, employed upon a Latin version of the Scriptures, with explanations and doctrinal notes, the whole to be afterwards translated into English. Bucer also warmly interested himself in the alfairs of the London congregations of French and German refu-fees, and corresponded with Peter Martyr, whose propositions concerning the eucharist he thought bon Zwinglian (cf. the plain-spoken note in, Constitutional History, 10th ed. i. 90). His opinion was constantly asked by Cranmer, notably on the controversy about ecclesiastical vestments raised by Hooper on his appointment to the see of Gloucester (see, Miscellaneous Writings, 428, and note; cf. also , History of England, 12mo, iv. 558-60. Bucer's conciliatory reply, ‘De re vestiariâ in sacris,’ is printed in ‘Scripts Anglioanaf 705-10). At last the arrangements were complete which made it possible to summon Bucer and Fagius to Cambridge, the former as regius professor of divinity, the salary having been raised to 100l. per annum, and Madew having retired in his favour. Fagius, who had arrived at Cambridge in advance, died there on 11 Nov. in the arms of Bucer, who, though himself suffering, had followed his friend as soon as possible. He thus had to begin his new life alone. He was treated with at respect, and soon afterwards created D.D., having been specially recommended by royal letter to the university (, ii. 119). It was on this occasion that he delivered a species of inaugural lecture, in which he modestly preferred a seasonable plea in favour of degrees and examinations (Scripta Anglicana, 184-90). On 10 Jan. 1550 he opened a course of lectures on the Epistle to the Ephesians. Before the end of the winter he was joined by his wife and some of his children and servants. He was frequently visited by Parker, Haddon, Bradford, and others. He continued to be frequently consulted by Cranmer, and was specially commissioned with the revision of the first English book of common prayer, though but a small part of the improvements suggested by him was actually carried out (see the ‘Censura,’ &c., in Scripta Anglicana, 456-503, to which is prefixed the Latin version of the prayer book by Alesius, erroneously described by Strype in a assage cited in this dictionary [art ], which should be corrected accordingly; cf., Bampton Lectures, 221 ; see ib. 246-247 as to the slightness of Bucer's influence upon the English liturgy. His share in the