CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BR375 .BeTi'ser""' '""^ "*'miJIIII?IJIllSki™,){r^"'*='^ °^ England, ft oljn 3 1924 029 245 467 DATE DUE JUl ? b 7m 1 GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.SA Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029245467 THE REFORMATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND [A.D. 1514—1547] The reformation OF THE Church of England [A.D. I 5 14— 1547] Rev. JOHN HENRY BLUNT, M.A., F.S.A. VICAR OF KENNINGTON, OXFORD EDITOR OF THE "ANNOTATED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER" AUTHOR OF "DIRECTORIUM PASTORALE," ETC. ETC. *' . . . Boni niedici est ab infirino morbum tollere et noil infinmim corpus destriiere" J. B. LIPPINCOTT AND CO. LONDON, OXFORD, AND CAMBRIDGE: RIVINGTONS 1869 ® /cA/ '-n \ CORNELL Ur^^iVERS'TY, yUBRARV^ 'Id^^io-Jh X CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE REFORMATION Contimious Vitality of Church of England Its system readjusted Degeneracy of the Fifteenth century Oxford's early plea for a Reformation Anglican Memorial to the Council of Pisa An English Divine at Council of Constance Royal pleadings for a Reformation Ximenes reforming the Church of Spain Dean Colet on Abuses in the Church of England MediaevaHsm wearing out Characteristics of the early Sixteenth century The Church could not stand still Abuses of Non-residence Vast growth of Pluralities English call for reform at Basle Scheme for checking Pluralities The Evil of Appropriations Condition of Clergy under these abuses Alienation of Laity from Church Doctrinal abuses which needed Reformation Superstitious customs which needed Reformation Abuses tolerated and encouraged through party feeling 10 18 19 20 21 23 24: 25 26 27 28 29 36 40 Yl CONTENTS CHAPTEE II WOLSEY S INITIATION OF THE REFORMATION [A.D. 1514—1629] Personal history of Wolsey His greatness and influence His relations with Henry VITI Influences at work on "Wolsey His ideal of a Reformation Grandeur of liis plans His Ecclesiastical position His bold policy towards Rome . Full powers of reformation given to him He calls an English Council Endeavours to reform the monasteries . Revives learning at Oxford Founds "Regius" Professorships Contemporary Cambridge Founds Christ Church . And Ipswich College Is urged to check Heresy Warham and Longland on Oxford Heretics Luther's early writings suppressed Politic burning of books and sparing of men 'Wolsey summons a Reformation Synod . Aims at being a Reforming Pope Practically patriarch of English and French Churches His last Reformation project Alienation from the King Last days as a Statesman His aims and policy PAGE 42 44 46 48 49 50 51 54 66 69 60 62 64 65 66 71 73 74 80 82 85 87 88 90 91 94 97 CHAPTER III THE DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII. FROM CATHERINE OF ARRAGON [a.d. 1527—1533] Queen Catherine's first marriage Her early mamed life with Henry VIII First shadows falling 102 104 106 CONTENTS VU Death of her six Children Henry VIII. and Elizabeth Bhmt Their son, The Duke of Kichmond First idea of a Divorce . Not suggested hy Wolsey The King's Conscience, and mixed motives Anne Boleyn's girlhood . Story of her betrothal to Lord Percy Correspondence between her and Henry VIII First steps taken towards a Divorce Consultation of learned men Doubts as to character of opinions given Pope directly applied to Kefuses to decree nullity of Maniage Appoints Legates to hear the cause Henry publicly discloses his intentions Tries to get sanction for two wives at once The Legates and their Court The Queen will not recognise it . Henry's apology for himself Opposition of Fisher and Ridley "Wolsey's disapproval of the business The Pope inhibits a new Marriage Petition of Lords and Commons to the Pope University opinions received The Cambridge opinion . The Oxford opinion Relation of Anne Boleyn to the King The Pope prohibits any divorce . He cites the King and Queen to Rome . He forbids the marriage with Anne Bolejn The King marries her Cranmer is made Archbishop His judgment of the Divorce cause He pronounces sentence . The Pope annuls it . . Queen Catherine's righteous indignation Dignified close of her public life Last days of the two Queens Anue Boleyn and the Reformation VUl CONTENTS CHAPTER IV TPIE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE EOYAL SUPREMACY [a.d. 1529—1534] Wolsey and the PrEemiinire Tlie whole Kation involved Henry VIII. pardoning Clergy and Laity Title of Supreme Head of the Church . Accusation of Clergy by House of Commons Convocation's reply and defence The King's threatening attitude The Decision of Convocation Act of " Submission" Act of Supremacy Act making Denial of Supremacy treason Tyrannical enforcement of these Natui^e of Koyal Supremacy PAGE . 200 . 201 • 202 204 . 212 . 221 * 226 • 227 ■ . • 229 230 • 231 232 . 233 CHAPTEE V THE REPUDIATION OF PAPAL JURISDICTION [A.D. 1531—1534] English treatment of the Pope . Morale of the Papacy English Contempt for it Long struggle between Rome and England Its Jurisdiction threatened Prohibition of Papal Bulls Clergy petition against Annates They suggest extinction of Papal Supremacy The Annates Act Abolition of Appeals to Rome . The Statute of Appeals . Statutory settlement of nominations to Bishoprics Transfer of Pope's Jurisdiction to Primate of All England No Separation from Catholic Church by these Statutes , Theological Repudiation of Papal Jurisdiction . Summary of the whole process . 23S 242 245 247 248 249 250 253 255 257 258 262 268 270 273 276 CONTENTS IX CHAPTEE VI THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES [A.D. 1535— A.D. 15-15] Monastic system originally admirable . But outgrew tlie wants of the Chm-ch . Growth of monastic possessions Attacks and Legislative restraints Monastic reformation necessary Constitutional justification of Henry VIII First Visitation of the Monasteries Plunder instead of investigation "Worrying the Monks First Act of Dissolution . Amount of property taken under it Large Monasteries in danger An Abbot defending his monastery Encouragement of informers, and subornation of General prostration of monks Popular Anger aroused in their favour . The Pilgrimage of Grace Second Visitation of Monasteries Attempts to buy off destruction Preparations for a fiery trial Acts of SmTcnder Unsparing expulsion of Monks . Their real feelings The process of destruction and confiscation Last days of the Abbot of Glastonbury . The second Act of Dissolution . Moral condition of the Monasteries Fate of the Expelled Monks Fate of the Monastic property . Social results of the Dissolution PAGE 280 281 282 284 289 290 295 298 299 302 308 309 310 314 318 320 321 327 330 331 333 336 338 340 346 352 354 364 369 380 CHAPTEE VII REFORMATIOIT OF LAY GRIEVAITCES AGAINST THE CLERGY [A.D. 1529— A.D. 1535] Agitation about alleged extortions of the Clergy . . . 391 Exemption of Clergy from secular Jurisdiction .... 396 X CONTENTS The grievance of Fees , Clerical Incomes grudged Benefit of Cler^ abolished The Clergy and the Succession to the Crown The Clergy and the Nun of Kent The attainder of Fisher and others The Oath of Succession . Execution of Bishop Fisher Execution of Sir Thomas More . Reactionary feeling excited PAGE 400 403 406 411 413 415 417 420 423 425 CHAPTEE YIII AUTHOmTATIVE BEALIKGS WITH DOCTRmE IN THE REIGllT OF HENRY THE EIGHTH [A.D. 1536— A.D. 1547] Need of intellectual Reformation . , , . . 427 Influence of Erasmus .,.,... 428 Rise of a spirit of Inquiry ...... 429 Method of reviewing Church Doctrines .... 430 Obedience of Church of England to Catholic Church . , .432 Its doctrines reviewed by a National Synod .... 433 The Ten Articles of Religion ...... 436 The " Institution of a Christian Man " . . . . .444 The "Erudition of a Christian Man" . . . . ,468 Attempt to unite with the Lutheran Protestants . , , 470 The Act of Six Articles ....... 472 Doctrinal close of Henry's reign ..... 479 CHAPTEE IX MODIFICATION OF THE DEVOTIONAL SYSTEM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH [A.D. 1535— A.D. 1544] Changes foreshadowed . . . . , 481 Ceremonies regulated by the "Ten Ai-ticles " . . , . 483 Abrogation of certain Holy-days ..... 488 Ceremonies explained by an olEcial "Rationale " . . 492 Revision of Service Books ... . 494 CONTENTS XI CHAPTER X THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE BIBLE [A.D. 1535— A.D. 1542] Mediaeval knowledge of Scripture Early English Bibles Private English versions in Heniy VIII.'s reign Progress towards an authorized version "Cranraer's" Bible .... The *' Great Bibles" .... The Authorized Version begun . PAQE . 501 502 , 506 508 , 514 , , 516 . 518 CHAPTEE XI THE RISE OF PROTESTANT DISSENT Growth of an anti-Church party . 523 The ' ' Christian Brethren " . 525 Oxford and Cambridge Innovators . 526 The Laws against Heresy . 628 Bilney ..... . 534 Bayfield ..... . 535 Bainham, Frith, and Hewett . 536 John Lambert, alias Nicholson . . 637 Anne Askew's story ' . . 538 Character of so-called Martyrs , . 541 Legislation of Henry VIII. respecting Heresy . . 542 Principles of anti-Church party 645 "William Tyndale and his influence . 646 The foreign Anabaptists in England . . . 550 Spread of anti-Church party . 554 CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE REFORMATION CHARACTER, free-will, and the accidents of life chap have their place in the corporate existence of the ..^^..^.^^ Church as in that of human nature, and the integral constitution of each is capable of great variety and great change, without any destruction of its integrity. The strength and beauty of the human body and An intro- the human mind may be developed or they may analog be cramped, but in either case the body and the mind still constitute a nature that is human; while it is evident that education, climate^ and other physical or moral influences always exercise great power in determining the particular character of nations and of individual persons, both as regards body and mind : so that the strength and beauty of one place or one age may be quite different from that of another. It is also evident that vice, violence, and disease may bring about great moral and physical degeneracy ; and that yet it may be possible for the degenerated race or individual to be restored to its normal condition by curative processes and influences from within and from without. But, come what may, the integral constitution of human nature remains under all these influences and changes of A 2 CONTINUOUS VITALITY OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHAP condition : and though at one time it exists in a s — v-^^^ naturally normal^ at another in a degenerate or abnormal, at a third in a restored condition ; though now in the form of an ancient Greeks and now in that of a modern Englishman, it is still human nature in its integrity until death effects the work of dissolu- tion. Variety A similar constancy as to vital characteristics, and and change . ., . *^ y ^ in the a Similar variety as to modes of existence, may be Church; oi3served in the Church. Certain Divine principles constitute its life, and the expulsion of these from a religious community brings about its dissolution as a church : but the existence of them is consistent with great variety of external character, with a degenerated constitution, and with processes of restoration. Thus the Divine principles of Baptism, the Holy Eucharist, and the Ministry, are unchange- able ; but there is much variety in the Liturgical forms by which these principles are exhibited and have ai- developed. Thus the Church has presented a very ways ex- t • rin x «/ isted, different aspect at different times and in different places, and yet has always been the same in its integ- ral characteristics. Thus political, social, and moral and some- influences have sometimes o-athered disease and de- times been -,,, * , i . . •, ^ -,-,.. veryneces- geueracy arouud the vital principles of the Divme m- ^^^^ stitution, and reformation has then become necessary. In bringing these considerations to bear on that complex series of events which we comprehensively include, for convenience, under one general name as the Eeformation of the Church of England, two axioms may be laid down for the future guidance of both author and readers in the course of the fol- lowing history : — Eng" 1- The Church of England has had a continuous ITS SYSTEM READJUSTED 3 and never-ceasing vitality in every stage of its chap ancient and modern existence. .^-3-^ 2. Such variations as are apparent between the continu- ancient and modern Church of England do not neces- °"^ ' sarily indicate error in either, but must be judged on donor^^^ their respective merits, and with reference to the IJ^^df^fJ'-^ circumstances of the periods to which they belong. '^'^^^^ ^^- The English Reformation must be properly defined, after indeed, as a readjustment of the Constitutional, ^\^^ ^^^^ T-v '1 T T-.' 1 n r^ ' Reform a- JJoctrmal, and Ritual system of the Church of Eng- tion reaiiy land. The idea that it was the foundation of a new ^^^ Church, or that it was intended to be so by the Reformers, is wholly unjustified by history, and may be dismissed, for the present at least, as an absurd error. How far, on the other hand, such a readjust- ment was necessary, what mistakes were made, or whether any were made in carrying it out, and what are the advantages or disadvantages which have ensued, are questions which it will be the object of the following pages to elucidate. The most familiar aspect under which the Refor- mation presents itself to Englishmen is as a breach between England and Rome. This is, however, only one side of a history which has many other sides to be exhibited. Good men of that period wanted to free the Church of England from other tyrannies besides that of the Pope, and to effect changes which, standing by themselves, would probably have been accepted by him with little or no opposition. For many years before the breach with Rome Veaming occurred there had been a widespread consciousness mel°^ery. that abuses had spruner up in our ecclesiastical ^^^^^ ^°^ . , ^ -L reforma- system, that the religious institutions of the country tion were not fulfilling their vocation to their due extent, 4 DEGENERACY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY CHAP and that, as the inevitable consequence, practical ^^J^^^ holiness was growing more and more rare. Not that this was the case in England alone. The clergy and laity throughout Europe were conspicuously degenerated in the age before the Reformation. Unsaintli- « The fifteenth century is eminently barren in saints ; men period pre^ ^^'^^ occupied with the fresh surging of political thought, and ceding it, the sensual glories of heathendom ; the classic authors for the scholar, and the pagan sculptures for the artist, really possessed men's souls. The real leaders of European thought were no longer the pupils of Aquinas or Buonaventura, but Politian, and Marsilius Ficinus, and the Medici. The higher intellects sneered at those ceremonies and behefs which they as princes and prelates were paid to maintain. Among the baser sort 'the love of the many had waxed cold/ but they were in general sedulous in the external profession of religion. Dimmed as their spiritual perceptions were, the beHef in the great objective truths of religion remained unimpaired. They continued to place great faith in the external ordinances of rehgion, while divorcing them from their end as means of grace. And so they went on through hfe in an infructuous round of barren observances, till they came to the close of a life of alternate sacrament and sin. And if the deep instincts of the regenerate soul, never entirely faithless to the grace of baptism, did from time to time acknowledge the hollowness of this condition of things, they were softened by an application of the coarsest form of the power of the keys, by the indul- gences of Tetzel and his companions."^ Conse- From convictions which good men felt that such a hurt's of^ state of unspirituality vi^as growing in the Church, fanatic zeal ^ Forbes, Bp. of Brechin, on almost an enthe abandonment of XXXIX. Articles, i. 170. Cardinal equity in the ecclesiastical jiidg- Bellarmine spoke in equaUy strong ments, in morals no discipline, in language in the sixteenth century: sacred Hterature no erudition, in " Some years before the rise of the divine things no reverence : reli- Lutheran and Calvinistic heresy, gion was almost extinct." [Concio according to the testimony of those xxviii. 0pp. vi. 296 : ed. 1617.1 who were then livincr, there was OXFORD'S EARLY PLEA FOR A REFORMATION 5 there sprung those loud cries for reformation which chap were raised in so many quarters at home and .^^^.^^ abroad. Even the wild follies of Wickcliffe^ Huss, Jerome of Prague, and many others of their class were but the exaggerated outcome of these con- victions, and much of these men s wildness and folly was provoked by the stolid opposition with which their better aspirations were met by those in autho- rity. But there are still more trustworthy witnesses than these to the necessity of a reformation of the Church, men equally zealous, but against whom no such follies can be charged ; and it may be well to give at the outset some specimens of their testimony. So far back as the Council of Pisa, held in the year 1409, orthodox Englishmen had spoken out boldly respecting this necessity : and they continued to do so whenever opportunity Avas offered. But opportunities for speaking out boldly were not fre- quent ; nor were they of any great value as regarded the wide diffusion of opinion before the days of the printing press. In these early days Oxford took a prominent lead Reforma- in the demand for a reformation of the Church of gestedby England. The Council of Pisa was summoned to divines at meet in 1409 for the purpose of putting an end to^^®^°^"; the miseries caused by the rival Popes, Benedict a. d. 1409 XIII. and Gregory XII. Among the English deputies to that Council were the two bishops of Salisbury and St. David's, the former, Robert Hal- lam, being the spokesman and head of the deputation, as he was of a similar embassy sent a few years after- wards to the Council of Constance. When appointed to this duty, Hallam (who had himself been Chancel- lor of Oxford) at once took ad^dce in the University 6 ANGLICAN MEMORIAL TO THE COUNCIL OF PISA CHAP as to the course he should pursue, and the document __^^^_ which resulted, sent in the form of a memorial from Dr. Richard Ullerston, then or recently Chancellor, is still in existence.^ This memorial appears to have been used by the Bishop of Salisbury as a kind of brief from which to state before the Council of Pisa the necessities and the wishes of the Church of Eng- land. Among other abuses to which it refers we may particularly notice that the prelates are accused of heaping together many benefices : and of being often so entirely aliens to the Church of England as not to know the vulgar tongue of the people among Avhom they ought to have ministered. The exemp- tion of monastic bodies from episcopal control, the dispensations given for non- residence and plurahties, are strongly dwelt upon ; and it is shown that appeals to Rome are a source of many evils from the facilities which they oifer for bribery and evasion of justice. Erom a constitutional point of view, this important document is strongly adverse to Roman supremacy in England ; and the grave wisdom with- which it is written ranks it far above any of the Lollard or Wickliffite passionate appeals for reformation. Dr. Aben- Of an equally grave character is a sermon which Council of was preached at the Council of Constance, by ?T^l^^r?' another Oxford doctor, Hottric Abendon, on Sun- \.D. 14*5 ' day, October 27, 1415.^ This sermon was one long cry for a reformation of the Church of England ; ^ Several MSS. of it remain in ^ This name is not to be traced the library of Trinity College, and in the ordinary sources of infor- elsewhere at Cambridge. Copies mation respecting Oxford men ; were made by order of Henry IV., but the name is so strange for an and no doubt it had a wide circula- Englishman, that it looks like a tion. Van der Hardt prints it from mistake ; . and perhaps Rrnry Aben- a Cambridge MS. in his history of don, Warden of Merton in 1421, the Council of Constance, i. 1126. was the preacher. AN ENGLISH DIVINE AT COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE 7 and the preacher says that the Bishop of Lincoln chap had preached before the Pope in the same strain. ^^..^.^^.^ He protests especially against exemptions, quoting St. Bernard and Peter of Blois in support of his argument^ and declaring that the pastoral work of the Anglican Church was greatly hindered by them. On the bishops Abendon is very severe, alleging that many busied themselves in litigious and lucrative pursuits to the neglect of their proper studies. Harping upon his text, ^^ Be ye filled with the fruits of righteousness/' he accuses the bishops of being very profound and subtle as to the best ways of seeking the fruits of prebends, but, on the other hand, of knowing little or nothing about the science of morals or that of theology. With a quaint, grave humour, Abendon applies to the non-resident clergy of all grades the words a. d. 1415 of Prov. vii. 19 : "The good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey. He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the full moon." [Vulg.] When the harvest moon comes, says the preacher, and the barns are full, then these beneficed men will be at home. At other times they live far enough off from their parishes, going even to the gate of the Pope himself, and not for- getting to carry their bags of money, which they spend in luxurious living and bribery, or, still worse, in usury. ^'0 bishops of Christ!" he goes on to say, with no little eloquence, ^^ princes of the Church, shepherds of shepherds, arise, for the love of Jesus, and bring them back to their pas- tures, each one to his own ecclesiastical fold. Ac- cording to the secular laws fugitive servants may be brought back to obedience even with stripes. 8 ROYAL PLEADINGS FOR A REFORMATION ^^j^P Stretc'i forth, therefore the rod of discipline, if it ^ — v^-^ be necessary j . . . compel all who have care of souls to return to their flocks, to visit their sheep, to live among them, to feed and to teach the people of God." Then he tells the bishops plainly that this matter rests in their hands to be done or to be left undone ; that the honour of God, the health of the Church, and the good of all Christian people, de- pends on their action or inaction, and that he trusts the reform he desires may be one of many benefits arising by the grace of God from the gathering of the Council of Constance.* The hopes of this wise and religious class of reformers were set upon the authoritative action of a general council of the Church, in which they rightly looked for the highest gift of Divine guid- mSior" ^^^^- -^^^ ^^^ ^^1 ^^^^ ^*^* merely a few ascetic aReforma- or crotchety clorgy who had such opinions about 1425 * the necessity for a reformation is shown by an official document sent from the Kings of France and England to the Pope in the year 1425, before the' assembly of the Council of Basle, and by the in- structions given to the English deputies who at- tended there by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and other leading men of the King's Council/ Both these documents urge the great need that existed for the consideration of the Ee- formation question by the Council about to assemble. When it did actually meet, however, as it did in 1431, it became engrossed by another question, the dispute between itself and the Pope as to which had \ WalcMus : Monumenta medii vi., x. Convocation sent delegates £cvi, u. 183. -vvitli similar demands, as men- ^Browns Fasciculus, voL I. tioned in a subsequent page. XIMENES REFORMING THE CHURCH OF SPAIN 9 supreme authority in the Church, and a great oppor- chap tunity was lost for ever. s^^^*^-^*^ The great Cardinal Ximenes effected some im- ximenes a portant reforms in the Church of Spain at the close of the^^^ of the fifteenth century. Queen Isabella obtained g^^^^^ *^^ a bull from the Pope in 1494 for the reformation of a.d. 1497 monasteries^ and she acted, of course, on the advice of Ximenes, to whom its practical administration fell. The Cardinal was himself an Observant Friar, that is, a strict Franciscan, who observed his rule as distinguished from the Conventuals, who lived in great luxury and managed to secure great estates. He set to work to reform his own order first, and then the diocese of Toledo (of which he was archbishop) in general. But opposition met him at the outset. An agent was sent secretly by the clergy to the Papal court, and it was only by the vigorous act of sending a quick sailing ship to overtake him that Ximenes prevented the appeal from being lodged at Kome. In the end a thousand Franciscans emigrated to Barbary rather than sub- mit to the reforms he proposed, and Alexander VI. issued a brief on November 9, 1496, forbidding all further interference, which, however, was withdrawn in the following year, when full powers of reforma- tion were given by another bull to Ximenes and the papal legate.® At this time there was so close an intercourse WoUey a between Spain and England as to make it very ""^ "^^^"^ probable that "Wolsey was consciously following in the steps of Ximenes when he undertook the work ^ Prescott's Perclinand and Isa- to have "been the precedent for a hella, ii. 481, ed. 1838. The bull similar one i^^-ned to Wolsey twenty issued tn Ximenes in 1497 seems years afterwards. 10 DEAN COLET ON ABUSES CHAP of reforming the Church of England. But about .^.^-i^ the time when Wolsey was coming into the full Dean Co- tide of powcr, in the year 1511, a memorable ser- locldon " mon was preached before the Convocation of Canter- Refoi^^a-" bury, in St. Paul's Cathedral, by Colet, then Dean tion, A.D. of St. Paul's. He was a man of some eccentricity, over-confident in argument, and not so deeply learned in theology as some writers have taken for granted. But of his truthfulness and earnest desire to pro- mote holy living there can be no doubt : and his testimony to the need of reformation in the Church of England is that of a witness whose character makes it worth while to give his words in some detail. The sermon was prea,ched on the text, Romans xii. 2 : "Be not conformed to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." '' I am about," he said, — " To exhort you reverend fathers to the endeavour of refor- mation of the Church's estate ; because that nothing hath so disfigured the face of the Church as hath the fashion of secular and worldly living in clerks and priests/' After quoting St. Paul against conformity to the world, and also St. John against the '' lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," he goes on to say : — Clergy " And, first, for to speak of pride of hfe, how much greedi- ^er better ^^^^ ^^*^ appetite of honour and dignity is now-a-days in men prefer- of the Church. How run they, yea, almost out of hreath, nients; f^m one benefice to another, from the less to the more, from the lower to the higher. Who seeth not this ? who seeing this, sorroweth not ? Moreover, these that are in the same dignities, the most part of them do go with so stately a IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 11 countenance and with so high looks, that they seem not to be CHAP put in the humble bishopric of Christ, but rather in the high ^ lordship and power of the world, not knowing nor advertising what Christ, the master of all meekness, said to His disciples, stately in whom He called to be bishops and priests, — ' the Son of man their ways came not to be ministered unto, but to minister;' by which words our Saviour doth plainly teach that the mastery in the Church is none other thing than a ministration, and the high dignity in a man of the Church to be none other thing than a meek service. " The second secular evil is carnal concupiscence. Hath They are not this vice so grown and waxen in the Church as a flood of L^°uxur- ' their lust ? so that there is nothing looked for more diligently rious, in this most busy time, of the most part of priests, than that that doth delight and please the senses. They give them- selves to feasts and banqueting, they spend themselves in vain babbling, they give themselves to sports and plays, they apply themselves to hunting and hawking, they drown them- selves in the delights of the world. Procurers and finders of lusts they set by. Against which kind of men Jude the apostle crieth out, in his Epistle, ' Woe unto them which have gone the way of Cain,' &c. '' Covetousness is the third secular evil, which St. John and covet- calls ' concupiscence of the eyes ;' St. Paul calleth it idolatry. °"^ This abominable pestilence hath so entered in the mind almost of all priests, and so hath blinded the eyes of the mind, that we are blind to all things but only those which seem to bring unto us some gains. For what other thing seek we now-a- days in the Church than fat benefices and high promotions ? yea, and in the same promotions, of what other thing do we pass upon than of our titles and rents ? That we care not Excess of how many, how chargeful, how great benefices we take, so P^'^^^^^^^^s. that they be of great value. covetousness ! St. Paul justly called thee the root of all evil. Of thee cometh this heaping of benefices upon benefices ; of thee so great pensions assigned of many benefices resigned ; of thee all the sueing for tithes. Too much for offerings, for mortuaries, for dilapidations, by the right and standing title of the Church ; for which thing we strive no less than ^011^)! for our own life. covetousness ! of thee cometh the cor- "S^ts 12 DEAN CO LET ON ABUSES CHAP ruptions of courts, and these daily new inventions wherewith ^ the silly people are so sore vexed — of thee come these charge- ful visitations of bishops. Of thee cometh this fervent study of ordinaries to dilate their jurisdictions ; of thee cometh this raging contention in ordinaries, of the insinuation of testa- ments ; of thee cometh the undue sequestration of fruits ; of thee cometh the superstitious observing of all those laws that sound to any lucre, setting aside and despising those that concern the amendment of manners. Why should I rehearse the rest ? To be short, and to conclude at one word ; all the corruptness, all the decay of the Church, all the offences of the world, come of the covetousness of priests. Clergy too " The fourth secular evil, that spotteth and maketh evil- "lo*^e/ili" *"^^oured the face of the Church, is the continual secular occu- secuiar pation wherein priests and bishops now-a-days do busy them- offices selves, the servants rather of men than of God — the warriors rather of this world than of Christ. For the Apostle Paul writeth to Timothy : ' No man being God's soldier, turmoils himself with secular business.' The wamng of them is not carnal, but spiritual. For our warring is to pray, to read and study the scriptures, to preach the Avord of God, to minister the sacraments of health, to do sacrifice for the people, and to offer hosts for their sins. . . . Without doubt, of this secu- larity, and that clerks and priests (leaving all spiritualities) do turmoil themselves with earthly occupations, many evils do foUow. First, the dignity of priesthood is dishonoured, which is greater than either the king's or emperor's — it is equal with the dignity of angels. But the brightness of this great dignity is sore shadowed, when priests are occupied in earthly thiags, whose conversation ought to be in heaven. " Secondarily, priesthood is despised when there is no differ- ence betwixt such priests and lay people. "Thirdly, the beautiful order and holy dignity in the Church is confused, when the highest in the Church do meddle with vile and earthly things, and in their stead vile and abject persons do exercise high and heavenly things. " Fourthly, the lay people have great occasion of evils and cause to fall, when those men whose duty it is to draw men from their affection of this world by their continual conversa- IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 13 tion in this -world, teach men to love this world, and of the cHAP love of the world cast them down headlong to heU. ^ " Moreover, in such priests that are so busied there must needs follow hypocrisy. For when they be so mixed and confused with the lay people, under the garment and habit of a priest, they live plainly after the lay fashion, ... at last ignorance and blindness; when they are blinded with the darloiess of this world they see nothing but earthly things." To these causes^ Viz., the secularity of the priests and their conformity to the world, the preacher attributes all the evils which have come upon the Church, and the exclusion from it of that charity which is the root of all spiritual life. He, therefore, earnestly calls the attention of convocation to the necessity of reforniation. " This reformation and restoring ot the Church's estate must Refonna needa begin of you our fathers, and so follow in us vour J^^^^. "^"^^ 1 • 11 ,1 1 IT begin witli priests, and m ail the clergy — you are our heads — you are an thebisliovs example of living unto us. Unto you we look as unto marks of our direction. In you, and in your lives, we desire to read as in lively books, how and after what fashion we may hve. Wherefore, if you wHl ponder and look upon our motes, first take away the blocks out of your eyes. You spiritual physi- cians, first taste this medicine of purgation of manners, and then after offer us the same to taste. " The way whereby the Church may be reformed into New laws better fashion is not for to make new laws, for there be laws "?* ^^""^^ many, enough, and out of number, as Solomon saith, ' Nothing is new under the sun.' Eor the evils that are now in the Church were before in time past, and there is no fault but that the fathers have provided very good remedies for it. There are no trespasses but that there be laws against them in the body of the canon law; therefore it is no need that new laws and but en- constitutions be made, but that those that are made already be oTdJ^^"^ kept. Wlierefore, in this your assembly, let tliose laws that existing 14 DEAN COLET ON ABUSES As against ordination of men without proper in- quiry; against nepotism and prefer- ment of in- SLifficient priests ; against simony ; against non -resi- dence ; against clerical secularity ; are made be called before you and rehearsed, — those laws (I say) that restrain vice and those that further virtue. "First, Let those laws be rehearsed that do warn you fathers that you put not over soon your hands on every man, or admit unto holy orders. For there is the well of evils, that the broad gate of holy orda?s opened, every man that offereth himself is admitted without pulling back. Thereof springeth and Cometh out the people that are in the Church, both of unlearned and evil priests. It is not enough for a priest (after my judgment) to construe a coUect, to put forth a question, or to answer to a sophism ; but much more a good, a pure, and a holy life, approved manners, meet learning of Holy Scripture, some knowledge of the sacraments ; — chiefly, and above all tilings, the fear of Grod and love of the heavenly Hfe. '' Let the laws be rehearsed that command that benefices of the Church be given to those that are worthy ; and that pro- motion be made in the Church by the right balance of virtue, not by carnal affection — not by the acceptance of persons ; whereby it happeneth now-a-days that boys for old men, fools for wise men, evil for good, do reign and rule. " Let the laws be rehearsed that war against the spot of simony — which corruption, which infection, which cruel and odious pestilence, so creepeth now abroad, as the canker evil in the minds of priests, that many of them are not afraid now-a-days, both by prayer and service, rewards and promises, to get them great dignities. "Let the laws be rehearsed that command the personal residence of curates in their churches. For of this many evils grow, because all things now-a-days are done by vicars and parish priests ; yea, and those foolish also and unmeet, and oftentimes wicked ; that seek none other thing in the people than foul lucre, whereof cometh occasion of evil heresies and ill Christianity in the people. " Let be rehearsed the laws and holy rules given of fathers, of the life and honesty of clerks. That forbid that a clerk be no merchant, that he be no usurer, that he be no hunter, that he be no common player, that he bear no weapon; the laws that forbid clerks to haunt taverns; that forbid them to have suspected familiarity with women ; the IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 15 laws that command soberness, and a measurableness in apparel, CHAP and temperance in adorning of the body. ■'■ " Let be rehearsed also to my lords, these monks, canons, against and religious men, the laws that command them to go the similar strait way that leadeth unto heaven, leaving the broad way of ^^^^ monks the world ; that command them not to turmoil themselves in business, neither secular nor other ; that command that they sow not in princes' courts for earthly things ; for it is in the Council of Chalcedon, that monks ought only to give them- selves to prayer and fasting, and to the chastising of their flesh and observing of their rules. " Above all things, let the laws be rehearsed that pertain The bis- to and concern you, my reverend fathers and lord bishops, ^^^ ^ laws of your just and canonical election, in the chapters of their own your churches with the calling of the Holy Ghost. For because that is not done now-a-days, and because prelates are chosen oftentimes more by favour of men than by the grace of God, therefore truly have we not a few times bishops full Some of little spiritual, men rather worldly than heavenly, savouring Jo^jiy . more the spirit of this world than the spirit of Christ. " Let the laws be rehearsed of the residence of bishops in others non- their dioceses ; that command that they look diligently and ^^^^ ^^^^ succeeded by that of the later Church of England. It is well known that when the laity received the Commu- Holy Communion in the age immediately preceding on°e kind the Reformation^ they received it only in " one kind;" that is, they received only the consecrated bread. It was^ indeed^ the custom to give them some wine in a chalice after thev had received the consecrated Bread, but this wine was not consecrated, and a special notice was given to the communicants warning them of the fact.^ It is not so generally known, however, that this ^' withdrawal of the cup " from the laity was a recent custom, and one which met with great resistance in the Church of England. Its recent ine custom oi communion m one kmd wastionin adopted by the early Church, in cases where the ^'^s^and Holy Eucharist was reserved, though perhaps in some ^ cases even then both elements were reserved and administered. But a century before the Reforma- tion period the Council of Constance [a.d. 1415] gave the force of ecclesiastical law to a novel custom which had sprung up, in some countries, of with- holding the consecrated wine altogether from the laity. This was done on the pleas that (1) one element was sufficient for the perfect reception of » " Good men and women y ys no thyng ells but wyne and charge yow by the auctoryte of water, for to dense yowr mowthys holy churche, that no man nother of the holy sacrament. ^^ Anno- woman that tliis day proposyth tated Book of Common Prayer, here to be comenyd (communi- p. 178. So also in John Myrk's cated) that he go note to Godds " Instructions for Parish Priests," bord, lase than he byleue stedfast- edited for the Early English Text lych, that the sacrament that he Society by Mr. Peacock. ys avysyd here to reseue, that yt ys Godds body flesche and blode, " Teche hem thenue, neuer the later, vn thp fnrmP nf brPfl • -md tliat That in the chalys ys but wyn s y-hroken." *• Baronius, A.D. 1118,xYiii.; a.d. 1127, v. ^ WHkins' Concilia, ii. 154 38 EXTRA VACANT REVERENCE FOR SAINTS CHAP This traffic was reorganized in the time of Leo .^^.-^^ X. for the purpose of getting money towards the building of St. Peter's ; but the shamelessness of Tetzel and others aroused the utmost indignation, not only on the part of Luther, but on that of all thoughtful and honourable men. Such indignation had^ in fact, produced some measure of reformation in England already as regarded indulgences^ and the sale of them dwindled away even before they were finally condemned and swept away as foolish things, vainly invented, and contrary to the Word of God.^ Images Image-worship was a widespread popular folly, from which it may be hoped that educated persons were always free. The latter, doubtless, worshipped Christ while they knelt before the crucifix, but the other, it is much to be feared, worshipped the crucifix itself; the one paid its reverential devotion in a greater or lesser degree to the Blessed Virgin and to the saints who were represented by images and pictures ; the other paid the same devotion to the images and pictures. So also as regards relics, frag- Reiics raents of saints' bodies, or articles of attire, &c., which had belonged to them. The shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury, that of St. Cuthbert at Durham, the images of Our Lady at Walsingham and elsewhere, might be associated, and were associated, with an imaginative form of devotion in the minds of educated persons that did them no harm, and perhaps supplied a want that needed to be supplied. Bat among the ignorant classes they superseded and thrust aside the worship of our Lord : the real Saviour became to them little more than a name — the saint was looked upon by them as their saviour. ^ Bishop Gardiner called the sale of indulgences "the devil's craft." THEIR IMAGES AND RELICS 39 In the case of images^ so deeply seated was the chap popular idea of reality which was associated with ^^.^^ thetrij that they were actually believed to move their eyes and mouths by some miraculous vital power, when the movements were^ of course, contrived by mechanism. None but godless or infatuated men could have wished to perpetuate such habits as these among the people of England. All who were desirous for the revival of true religion must have striven earnestly for their suppression. The catalogue of superstitious customs might be easily extended. It might be shown — as, for example, from the " Mirror of our Lady" already quoted — that ManoiaiQ the exaggerated veneration of the most blessed and holy Mother of our Lord had been developed into habits and language which could not clearly be distinguished from Divine worship of her;^ that the invocation of saints had extended to so extravagant a length as to invade the intercession of Christ ; that saints had been recognised by the Church as the workers of miracles, which they themselves would have been the first to repudiate ; that many most ridiculous legends about saints were authoritatively Foolish circulated ; that many old religious customs — such ^^sends as pilgrimages — had degenerated into silly and vicious habits ; and that practical religion was very generally overlaid with imaginative. But enough has been said to show that there was that in the ^ Sir Thomas More, writing to a The parish priest wamed'his people monk, gives an account of a visit against this doctrine, but was which he had recently paid to his abused as an impious enemy of the sister at Coventry. A Franciscan Blessed Virgin ; and More found friar had been preaching there to the city in a great state of excite- the effect that whoever repeated ment on the subject. [Jortin's daily the Psalter of the yirgiu Erasmus, iii. 365.] would escape etemni dninrn^ion, 40 ABUSES TOLERATED AND ENCOURAGED CHAP religious system of pre-Reformation times which ^^^.^.^^. really called for a change, which could not stand the test of intelligent inquiry, and which proved one great and just provocative of the Reformation. And thus, to sum up, we may trace the origin of the Reformation to other causes as well as to the more-than-half political breach between England and National Romo. Our iusular feelings tempt us, perhaps, to bliuy^for throw too much of the responsibility of the evils Sese^^ °^ of the mediseval Church of England upon our foreign abuses connectious, and to take too little to our own share as a Church and a nation. But a survey of the religious condition into which England had fallen at the end of the mediaeval period shows that there was much of what may be called native degeneration, and that we cannot justly burden the back of Rome with all our ecclesiastical sins. Much evil, no doubt, had fallen around our uncatholic and unpatriotic submis- sion to the Roman yoke, but the prime cause of that evil was our national folly in submitting to it at all. It is to be feared, however, that the constitutional, doc- trinal, and ritual mistakes which have been indicated, owed their growth, and sometimes their origin, to causes which were perfectly within the control of the Church of England, the kings of England, and the people of England, if they had chosen to control them. That attempts had been made to check the growth of some of these errors will be shown in subsequent chapters of this work ; but it cannot unfortunately be shown that these attempts extended much beyond the political part of the question, so far as the ruling powers and the national will were concerned. Men here and there, good and farseeing THROUGH PARTY-FEELING 41 men, called out for a reformation of the Church of chap I England, but the people at large were content to .^^^.^-^ settle down on their lees, and did not support the National call. When reformation came, it carried the sove- nesTto^b^e reign and the people with it, rather against their will ^^^*^™^ than otherwise ; and there has been always too great a disposition, from that time to this, to throw on others the blame of those sins and errors which made it necessary, instead of crying out honestly, "We have sinned, both we and our fathers." Protestantism has, in fact, been the great hindrance to reforma- tion from the sixteenth century downwards, just as Romanism was the great hindrance to reformation i in preceding centuries. It has dealt ostentatiously with mere surface evils, but left untouched thost^ which were more deeply-rooted ; it has diverted men's minds from essential principles, and fixed them upon comparative trifles \ and it has tended as much as Romanism itself to the substitution of foreign for native elements in the Church of England. OHAPTEE II wolsey's initiation of the reformation [A.D. 1514—1529] CHAP rpHE first effective impulse was given to the _^_^^^ X Reformation as an orderly ecclesiastical work by the great Cardinal Wolsey^ whose services to the Church of England have been almost ignored by the ordinary historians^ and whose acts were grossly misrepresented by most writers who had to deal with the events of his age, until the publication of the A^oisey State Papers revealed their true character. We now "pre-"^^" know that it was Wolsey who broke up the mediaeval en Led system and laid the broad foundations on which later statesmanship built up our national indepen- dence and greatness. And we know also that nearly every class of measures undertaken for the purpose of establishing the independence and re-settlement of the Church of England were initiated by this great statesman. When he fell, England received so great a shock in her domestic and foreign relations, that she did not recover from it until the time of Queen Elizabeth : and it may be reasonably thought that if the Reformation- had beeen fully developed under his continued guidance, many of the miserable divisions which ensued would have been avoided by rise to power PERSONAL HISTORY OF WOLSEY 43 his astute statesmanship, and the barbarities of each chap side checked by his humane poHcy. s-^-v-^ It is not necessary, for the purposes of this work^ to give many particulars respecting the personal history of this unrivalled statesman. When it has been said that he was born at Ipswich, in March 1471; that he was the son of a poor gentleman/ that he became a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, Master of Magdalen School, and Bursar of his College, nothing further need be told respecting his life previous to the year 1509. When Henry VIII. came to the throne, he found Woisey's Wolsey (who had already gained the good opinion of Henry VII. as a promising public man) Dean of Lincoln, he being then about forty years of age, and the King only eighteen. Six months afterwards Wolsey is heard of as Almoner, and his preferments henceforth all came from the Crown, until they culmi- nated in the Archbishopric of York [1514], and the Chancellorship, to the latter of which offices he was appointed on December 22, 1515. He had been made Cardinal by the Pope about three months before the latter date ; and long before that honour was con- ferred on him, he had risen from a confidential posi- tion, which was practically that of a Secretary of State, to the still higher position which is known in modem times as that of Prime Minister. The latter was his position from about the year 1513 to the year 1529. A shrewd observer who was ambassador from the ^ The tradition that he was the " butcher's dog.'' But the Em- son of a butcher originated in a peror evidently meant that Henry saying of Charles V., when told of VlII. was a butcher, and Wolsey the Duke of Buckingham's exe- his obsequious servant. It was a cutiouj that the best "Buck" in . mof likely to spread. England had been slain by a 44 HIS TRUE GREATNESS CHAP II republic of Venice while Wolsey was at the height , of his power, has left us a description of him which enables us to form a good idea as to what kind of man he appeared to a foreigner well acquainted with the English courts and with the aflfairs of England : — Venetian " He is about forty-six years old, very handsome, learned, imbas- extremely eloquent, of vast ability, and indefatigable. He opinion of alone transacts the same business as that which occupies all ■^*"^ the magistrates, offices and councils of Venice, both civil and criminal ; and all state affairs Hkewise are managed by him, let their nature be what it may. He is pensive, and has the reputation of being extremely just. He favours the people exceedingly, and especially the poor, hearing their suits and seeking to despatch them instantly. He also makes the lawyers plead gratis for all paupers. He is in very great repute, seven times more so than if he were Pope. He is the person who rules both the King and the entire kingdom. On the ambassador's first arrival in England, he used to say, ' His Majesty will do so and so;* subsequently by degrees he went on forgetting himself, and commenced saying, ' We shall do so and so/ At this present he has reached such a pitch that he says ' I shall do so and so.'"'' This was written some years after Henry VIII. had become king, but it doubless applies equally to the earlier part of his reign, for Cavendish, Wolsey 's own confidential attendant durinsr all the time of his ^ Giustiniani's Despatches, ii. 314. Wolaey's pohcy, courage, and integrity, eventnally won for hiin the respect and confidence of European sovereigns to an extent ■which has only found a parallel in the case of the Duke of Wellington. The Popes, Charles V., Francis I., the Doge of Venice, and Margaret of Savoy, followed his advice when- ever he chose to give it. Charles V. even wrote letters at his dictation, and re-wrote them when not copied closely enough from Wolsey's mi- nutes. [Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. 1788, 1808. See also 1737, 1798, 1829, 1906, 2999, &c., &c.] That proud princess, Margaret of Savoy, actually wished Wolsey to caU her motlier because of the love she bore him, hoping, as she q[uaintly adds, that she shall one day be mother of her father, "that is, of our holy father." [Ibid, 1804.] EXTENT OF HIS INFLUENCE high station and power, says that he rose to favour chap with the young king, and consequently to great ^^^.^^^^-^^ eminence^ almost immediately after the accession of the latter. " Such was his policy and wit, and so he Business brought all things to pass that who was now in high ment°^^^" favour but Mr. Almoner ? and who ruled all under ^g^nd? the King but Mr. Almoner ? ... no man was of that estimation of the King as he was for his wisdom and other witty qualities."^ Thus when there was a great disinclination for public business on the part of all the great men of the time, it is not surprising that the principal weight of it should soon fall on the shoulders of one who was beginning to display a special competency for bearing the burden, and a ready willingness to accept the responsibility. Fox, Bishop of Winchester, and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, were both of them glad to get rid of these burdens and responsibilities, and soon threw them nearly all, not by compulsion (as has been sometimes said) but of their own free choice^ into Wolsey's hands. There had seldom been a greater position for an ambitious subject to occupy, and seldom so great a man to occupy it. The influence which Wolsey had with the king, was, however, far from being so paramount as has been commonly represented. In his early life, Conve- Henry naturally disliked to burden himself with the \^^\l^^ details of government, and among all his servants he J^^ ^^""^^ found none whom he could so thoroughly trust- for relieving him from them and carrying on the work of government successfully as Wolsey. At a later period, the king's personal feelings and interests were so much involved in the public business of the ^ Cavendish, in WorclsArortli's Eccl. Biog., i. 335. 46 WOLSEV'S RELATION TO HENRY VIIL CHAP country that he was as eager to take part in the .^^.^.^ labours of state management as he had previously- been anxious to avoid them. Wolsey had been in full power for ten years before the king was thirty years of age^ and it was not until then that the latter began to take any special interest in public affairs : but from that time, and during the remaining eight years of Wolsey's government, Henry was gradually becoming more and more competent to take a full share iu the practical oversight of the state ; and as his abilities thus developed, so he became less willing to occupy the position of a pageant-king. Wolsey's influence with him in the preceding period had been that which naturally belonged to his position as the great M^orking viceroy of the king- dom,^ and Henry seems to have had a feeling of private friendship towards him as well as of official dependency. But at thirty, the king's character began to undergo that great moral deterioration which makes so striking a contrast between his promising youth and his maturer years. As the force of his character strengthened, the baser ele- ments of it developed themselves, and thus his strong will became associated with an intense and most selfish jealousy for his personal interests. From First signs this time we find evidence that his reliance upon tion^oTtiie Wolsey was much less confiding than formerly : part of the ^hile Wolsey himself often shows signs of doubt as to the kings support and co-operation. There are instances on record of Henry's vigorous opposition to the plans of his prime minister : and the state * The Cardinars actiial position ister acting constitntionally for the may be best understood by inia- Sovereign, but almost entirely free ginmg that of a modem prime min- from the control of Parliament. ITS PRECARIOUS CHARACTER 4:7 papers show that the king often required Wolsey to chap state and re-state the grounds on which he had .^,-./^. advised any particular course, not unfrequently refusing to agree to it after all.^ Cavendish also relates several anecdotes which show how violent and obstinate the king had become towards Wolsey seif-wiu while the divorce business was being carried on : and ym^'"^ the Cardinal himself declared on his deathbed, " He is a prince of royal courage^ and hath a princely heart, and rather than he will miss or want any part of his will or pleasure, he will endanger the loss of the one-half of his realm. For I assure you, I have often kneeled before him, the space sometimes of three hours, to persuade him from his will and appetite ; but I could never dissuade him there- from."^ In still later days, Henry was known to have boxed the ears of Lord Cromwell ; and the passionate wilfulness which had then developed into such an extreme form was at work, long before, in the days of Wolsey's government. These particular are mentioned here to show that woisey's Wolsey was tar from having everything his own p^^"^ ''"'l^^ way ; and that, at least during his latter years, he was much thwarted by the king. It thus becomes extremely probable that he was obliged to modify his course in several important matters from a con- viction that it would be impossible to gain the king's 5 It is worth, notice that, even as Erasmus, and afterwards the great early as 1518, the King overruled supi^orter of Queen Catharine. Wolsey's wishes about the appoint- « Cavendish, in Wordsworth's ment to a hishopric. Wolsey Eccl. Biog., i. 543. The dyino- wished Bolton, the Prior of St. Cardinal's words will be stripped Bartholomew's, to be nominated of all appearance of exaggeration Bishop of St. Asaph, but the King by the recollection that kneeling refused his consent, and appointed was the attitude in which ministers mstead Standish, Provincial of the had official audience of the sove- Friars Observants, the great foe of reign up to a much later period. 48 INFLUENCES A7 WORK ON WOLSEY CHAP acquiescence to his plans ; and in some other cases ^^^-^^^^^ to take a line different from that pointed out by his own judgment, for the sake of reconciling the king to his continuance in office. Such appears to have been the case with regard to Wolsey's plans for the Reformation of the Church, his condemnation of " Lutheran" books, and his treatment of the divorce question ; and even his astute policy could not prevent the shipwreck of his fortunes and happiness. Similarity The political positiou accorded to Wolsey was no posidon^to^ doubt Suggested by that which Cardinal Ximenes was ximen s ^ccupying in the kingdom of Spain, and which he occupied for nearly twenty years, almost up to the time of his death in 1 5 1 7. It is also probable that Wolsey s ideas on the subject of Church Reform were derived in some degree from the course taken by his great Spanish contemporary, who founded an university, made vigorous efforts to revive a better discipline among the clergy and monks, and encouraged with a noble liberality the establishment of a sound scrip- tural school of theology/ But the necessity for such reforms was evident to all good and observant men of that time : and we have already seen how vigor- ously Dean Colet urged it upon the bishops at the opening of the Convocation of Canterbury in 1512. Possibly Wolsey, being then Dean of Lincohi and Canon of Windsor, was present at this Convocation, and if so, the earnest words of one with whom he had some personal acquaintance, if not friendship, may have had their effect in consolidating his own opinions on the subject.^ His own great mind was, ^ See also page 9. some indication of private friencl- 8 Colet and Wolsey were con- ship, in the fact that Colet j)reaclied temporaries at Magdalen College, at Westminster Abbey on the oc- Oxford : and there seems to be casion of Wolsey's installation as WOLSEY'S IDEAL OF A REFORMATION 49 however^ of too original a cast to make it necessary chap for us to look mucli elsewhere for the origin of his .^^..^..^ ideas^ and what those ideas were we may gather from his subsequent acts. That which we shall thus gather it will be con- venient to state in a summary form at the outset ; and, supposing that Wolsey had, in the early part of his public life, formed a complete and definite plan of his intentions as to the Reformation of the Church of England, we might imagine him to have condensed them into the following plan.^ 1. To provide a better educated class of clergy by His pro- founding professorships at the Universities, by build- scheme for ing new colleges, and by establishing schools similar Ji^^'^"^''' to Winchester and Eton as feeders for them, 2. To have a general visitation of the clergy and the monks by a central and supreme authority, which could not be resisted, for the purpose of restoring sound discipline as to morals, and for enforcing strict performance of duties. 3. To found new bishoprics in the large towns out of the great monasteries already existing there. 4. To conciliate the king, the old - fashioned Cardinal, Warham and Mslier death, he wrote to Wolsey asking being the chief oflGiciating Bishops. for preferment for Eightwise, and Wolsey took, at least, so much ends his letter with some anxious interest in St. Paul's school as to remarks about the Cardinal's failing go and see the play of Dido acted, health. [Ellis' Orig. Letters, III., i which Rightwise, the second 190.] After his fall, "Wolsey retired master, had written. He also to the house which Colet had built adopted the grammar written by at Sheen for his own retirement. Lily, the headmaster, for his col- All these circumstances seem to lege at Ipswich, writing a preface show that there was some degree of for it himseK. Lupset, another intimacy between them, of Colet's friends, was tutor to ^ This summary may be com- Wolsey's son, Wynter, and also his pared with the constitutions issued first professor of rhetoric and hu- for the Northern Province by manity, and afterwards of Greek, W^olsey as Archbishop of York. at Oxford. Just before Colet's [See Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 662.] 50 GRANDEUR OF HIS PLANS CHAP bishops, and the obstructive party generally, by ^^^.^^ opposing the importation of foreign elements, such as Lutheranism, into the Universities or elsewhere. 5. To practise toleration as far as possible towards hot-headed reformers, and to give employment in the new colleores to the best and most learned of them. o 6. To promote theological learning by encouraging the study of Greek, and by enriching the libraries of the Universities. 7. To obtain the fullest authority possible from the Pope and the King for carrying out these reformS; and to seek the Popedom itself, that they might be extended to the Church at large. Its com- The splendour of this noble programme is not character^ lessened by the consideration that it was very un- likely Wolsey would form so full and definite a plan at the outset of his career. Even if we extend it over fifteen years, from 1514 to 1529, and allow that it formed only a portion of the great schemes which passed through the brain of one who v/as far the greatest political ruler England had yet seen, we must still acknowledge that it was the most com- prehensive view of Church reform that was ever contemplated, and one before which the actual Refor- mation shrinks into a confused mass of half accom- plished good and unobstructed evil. Perhaps the very magnitude of Wolsey's plans was one element in their failure ; and with all his far-sightedness, he had not made sufficient allowance for human weakness.^ 1 There is a touching letter from business after business has come Wolsey to the University of Ox- upon me of the most important forcl, dated October 22, 1522, in kind, so that I have never found which he says, " I have often ap- sufficient leisure for devoting my- plied my thoughts to arranging the self entirely to this object." [Fiddes' affairs of your University, but Wolsey, Collect., No. 63.] WOLSEV'S ECCLESIASTICAL POSITION 51 In the year 1514, Wolsey was appointed to the chap See of Lincoln, that being the first English Bishopric ,^^^^ that had fallen vacant since Henry VIII. 's accession Appointed to the throne, five years before.^ He was consecrated LiniX^^ at Lambeth on March 26, but held the see only a few months, being advanced to that of York on the death of Cardinal Bainbridge, which occurred on July 14, 1514, and a new Bishop of Lincoln being consecrated in the beginning of November. At this time ecclesiastical benefices were used by the Eng- lish sovereigns as a means by which to provide salaries for their great oflScers, and several others of lower degree were held by Wolsey to enable him to keep up the state and expense incident to his position. Immediately on hearing of the death of Cardinal Ardi- Bainbridge, the King wrote to the Pope requesting vork^and him to appoint Wolsey, now to be Archbishop of ^^^^^^"^^ York, to the vacant English Cardinalate ; ^ and in September of the same year, Pace wrote from Eome to Wolsey telling him that Leo X. had been making secret inquiries respecting the Archbishop's character, and himself suggesting how much good service the latter could render to the King if resident as Car- dinal at the Court of Eome.* It was possibly the knowledge that Wolsey would not reside there, ^ Rutlml, the King's secretary, entitled "Anglise Regis ad Leonem was consecrated Bishop of Durham X. pro Episcopo Lincolniensi ad on June 24, 1509, two months after Cardinalatus honorem promo- the accession of Henry VIII., but vendo," is among the Vatican the see had been vacated, by Car- Transcripts, Brit. Mus. Add MSS dmal Bambridge's appointment to No. 15,387, page 449. It is dated Vorfe, m the previous year, and from Greenwich, August 12 1514 probably Buthars consecration Ellis' Orig. Letters III i 178 was delayed by Henry VIL's Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i.' 5455* ^tV Wf f TT .7TT. ' Ellis'Orig. Letters, III. i. 178;. ^ The letter of Henry VIII., 52 IS MADE CARDINAL CHAP which led the Pope to delay his appointment so ^...^^long, for a year later^ in July 1515, Henry is found importuning Leo on the same subject. He begs that the Pope will pay the same regard to what Wolsey may say in correspondence as if it came from the King himself; returns him ^' huge thanks" for his intended regard for the dignity of his minister ; and expresses his extreme anxiety for the Cardinalate to be given him. The King concludes his letter by urging Wolsey 's genius, learning, and many other admirable qualities, and presses the Pope to make the appointment as soon as possible.^ At the same time^ Wolsey him- self wrote to the Bishop of Worcester, the English ambassador at Rome, expressing his surprise that the Pope should make such frequent promises and yet delay so long ; and he hints that delay is damaging the Pope's influence with the King, while refusal would be really dangerous. A few days afterwards he writes again to the Bishop, enclosing a very important letter to the Pope, which was not to be delivered until his appointment as Cardinal was Applies to secure. In this letter Wolsey asks to be made Le^te, or Legate as well as Cardinal : and De Gigliis is powS'to privately instructed that if the Pope refuses this, he Im\^mo- ^^ *^ ^^ pressed for a faculty empowering Wolsey to nasteries visit those English monasteries which are exempted from Episcopal jurisdiction, and subject to the Pope s own authority only. If this latter request is skilfully put, Wolsey thinks it will not be refused.® His actual election to the Cardinalate took place on Sep- tember 10, 1515, and he was invested or installed, with immense state, in Westminster Abbey on November 18. But the Pope declined to make him » Marteue Vet. Scrii:)t. iii. 1296. « Brewer's Calencl. St Pap.,ii. 763, 780. NEGOTIATIONS FOR MAKING HIM LEGATE 53 Legate at present, and left the visitatorial question chap undecided/ >_-— ^-^ The letter of Wolsey to De Gigliis shows that, at this early age of his government, he had already ia view a most important part of those reformation plans Forpur- which have been conjecturally sketched out. lie forming wished for the full powers of Legate a latere, and in ^^''^"^ the event of not being able to obtain them, he desired at once to have authority to carry out part of what he had intended to do had he been invested with them. If he could not get authority to inquire into and reform the condition of the whole Church of England, he would begin at what was notoriously the most corrupted part of it, the exempt monasteries, which had grown to what they were through want of proper supervision. The Pope had his own reasons for so decidedly why the refusing Wolsey's requests, although they were ^ated doubtless known, unofficially, to be backed by the King. Probably the Cardinal's determination to remain in England, and his well-known nationalism, made Leo averse to giving him any extraordinary powers, though he dared not any longer refuse the dignity (for it was nothing more under the circum- stances) of the Cardinalate. The subject of the legateship was curiously revived, Legates however, about two years afterwards. At the for^anotLr end of March 1518, the King received a despatch ^"^"'^ from De Gigliis stating that the Pope had, on the 4th instant, created four legates to four European sovereigns, for the purpose of arranging an expedi- tion against the Turks ; and that Cardinal Campeggio had been appointed Legate to the King of England. ^ Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., Vi. 967. 54 BOLD POLICY TOWARDS ROME CHAP Wolsey was not with the King at the time, and the ^^^^.^^^ despatch was sent on to him, with a message from the latter, to the effect that it was not the rule of his realm to admit legates de latere^ If, however, he had nothing else to treat of except the expedition against the Turks, he might be admitted.^ But a Wolsey re- despatch of a much stronger character was eventually t^ain^condV- Sent, no doubt after consultation between the King thTpoT ^^^ ^^^ minister. This is dated April 11, and in it Wolsey instructs the English Ambassador to say that the King has been informed of the Pope's intention to send a legate to each of the great princes of Christendom for the purpose of consulting about the Turk's aggressions, and understands that Cardinal Campeggio has been appointed to execute this office in England. That although it is not usual to admit any foreign cardinal to exercise legatine authority in England, yet the King is willing to waive his objection, provided that all those faculties are suspended which are conceded, de jure, to legates^ and provided that Wolsey be joined with Campeggio, and have equal authority given him by the Papal mandate. Then the despatch goes on to say that the King is very strictly bound to obey the municipal laws of his realm, which strictly forbid the admission of a foreign legate de latere, and that unless these conditions are complied with, he will not permit Campeggio to enter his kingdom.^ Appointed A month after this stout despatch, on May 17, gate with 1518 (which was probably as soon as possible after campeg- ^^iQ Bishop of Worccstor had communicated its con- ^ The Arch'bisliop of Canterbiuy » Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. ■vvas always Legatus natv^j or Legate 4034. ex officio. 1 Ibid., ii. 4073. CAMPEGGIO POLITELY LGNORED 55 tents to the Pope), Wolsey was nominated principal chap legate, and Campeggio second legate, the latter ^^.^-^-^^ setting out on his journey. He was detained for nearly three months at Calais, evidently out of policy, to show that he was received at all only as a favour ; and although he was ultimately carried from Canterbury to London with much state, AVolsey carefully avoided jmying him any attention in person until his arrival there. Afterwards, when the business for which he had come was being transacted, Campeggio was placed in a conspicuously subordinate position, and the mis- sion was treated (according to Giustiniani) with a good deal of contempt. Campeggio was made to feel that he was a mere pageant-legate, and that the real busi- ness was kept in the hands of Wolsey and the King.^ The fact is that neither the King nor Wolsey felt any hearty interest in the question on which alone Campeggio was allowed to speak ; while having obtained for Wolsey the visitatorial powers which had previously been sought, they were rather anxious to get rid of the foreign legate than otherwise. By what clever negotiations Leo had been persuaded to grant that which he had before refused cannot now be known, but it is certain that, on August 27, 1518, the Ambassador of England at the Court of Rome wrote a despatch, with which he forwarded the necessary authority for the visitation of the monas- visita- teries, adding that the clergy were not included, as p^ow'e^ the bishops already had power to visit them for the b°Tiie ""'^ reformation of abuses.^ It is observable that the^^P^ "^ Brewer's Calencl. St. Pap., ii. of York. In these constitutions 4194, 4371, 4243. [Wilkins' Cone, iii., 662] there 3 This power Wolsey had already may be found something more than exercised by issuing a set of con- the germ of his plans for general stitutions, not for ius oAvn diocese reformation, only, but for the whole province 56 FULL POWERS OF REFORMATION CHAP Bisliop of Worcester adds in his private despatch .^y-^^ that lie has often been struck with the need in Avhich monasteries stood of reformation^ and that great care will be required in dealing with nunneries^ as many abuses would be found in them. Speaking for his own diocese^ De Gigliis thinks the visitation will probably lead to much discontent.* This shows that Wolsey's intentions were known to be of a sweeping character ; that the Pope's delegation of his authority went to the extent of empowering a complete visita- tion and reform of all English monasteries ; and that for the present he left Wolsey to deal as he could with the clergy who were not monks by means of powers already existing.^ The authority thus con- centrated in Wolsey's hands was similar to that afterwards given to Cromwell when he was made vicar-general, but this was founded on the then received principles of the Constitution, while Crom- well's was altogether an innovation. Appointed On the departure of Campeggio from England, sole Legate "^Q^gey ^^^ appointed sole legate a latere, by a bull dated June 10, 1519,^ his exercise of the office being limited to one year from that date. Before this bull had arrived in England, Wolsey wrote to De Gigliis, giving reasons against such a limitation, saying that the Pope could revoke his commission at any time, and that his only motive in wishing to continue legate was that he might iise his office in the service of God.^ Campeggio advised the Pope to grant Wolsey's request, and declared that the Car- * Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. ** Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. 4399. 475; Fiddes' Wolsey, Collect., p. 3 In the Biill of 1521, tlie power 96. of visitation is expressly extended to ^ Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. " Scculares Ecclesiasticas personas." 406. GIVEN TO WOLSEY 57 dinal had no regard whatever to his OAvn interests, chap but to the Tuore authoritative reformation of the .^^^^ monks and clergy} After some months, Leo X. yielded to these requests so far as to extend Wol- sey's legatine authority to three years instead of one. The bull for this extension is dated January 6, 1520-1.^ It had no sooner arrived in England than Henry YIII. ^vrote to the Pope expressing his extreme satisfaction at the- favour shown to Wolsey by his Holiness ; but while expressly thank- ing him for extending the legatine authority of the Cardinal to three years, adds, that he should have been better pleased had it been prolonged for an indefinite period, as it would have enabled him to proceed with greater vigour in the reformation of the clergy.^ This letter shows how entirely Henry consented to and approved of the appointment, in spite of all that was afterwards alleged by "Wolsey 's enemies and traducers. The King s remonstrance with the Pope led him Hispowers tp grant a still further extension of the legateship ; and Leo issued another bull on April 1^ 1521, in which, after rehearsing that he had granted to Wolsey and Campeggio the right of visiting mon- asteries, exempt and non-exempt, that on Cam- peggio's departure from England he had granted the same powers to Wolsey alone for a year, and after that for two years further, he now extends the privilegPi for two years more, with some addi- tional powers, stating that the grant is made ^' inter- cessione etiain prefati Henrici Regis!' ^ s Brewer's Calend. St. Pap.,iii.533. ^Brewer*s Calend. St. Pap., iii 9Il)id., 557, 1123, 1124; Rymer, 600. xiii. 734. ^Voi^., 1216 ; Eymer, xiii. 739. 58 THIS DONE WITH THE KING'S SANCTION CHAP On the death of Leo X., the duration of Wolsey's ^.^^.^-^^ legateship was still further prolonged^ Adrian VI. issuing a bull on January 12^ 1523, extending it for five years, dating from the termination of the preceding term, but declining to grant it for life.^ It was eventually renewed for life by Clement VII. No ground One of the charges brought against Wolsey at ingWoisey his attainder was, that he had exercised his legatine iiwaract office contrary to the laws, and without the sanction of the King ; and this was the pretence on which he, and afterwards the whole of the clergy, were brought under the terrible law of prcemunire. The Cardinal declared to the judges who were sent to examine him, that ^'he had the King's license in his coffer, under his hand and broad seal, for exer- cising the office of legate." He had written, so long ago as 1518, in a letter to Warham, respecting the Reformation of the Church ; " being legate a latere, to me chiefly it appertaineth to see the re- formation of the premises, though hitherto, nor in time coming, I have nor will execute any jurisdiction as legate a latere, but only as shall stand with the King's pleasure."^ In after years. Bishop Gardiner also stated, that ^^ my old master the Cardinal ob- tained his legateship by our late sovereign lord's request at Rome ; and in his sight and knowledge occupied the same with his two crosses and maces borne before him manyyears."^ Both these declara- tions are distinctly confirmed by the correspondence cited, and still existing in manuscript ; and there can- not be a shadow of doubt that Henry VIII. gave his 3 Brewer's Calend. St, Pap., iii. latter part of Gardiner's assertion is 2766, 2891 ; Rynier, xiii. "795. confirmed hj Dr. Barnes' invective * Wilkins' Concil., iii. 660. against Wolsey's "pillars," &c. ; also = Petyt, Jus Pari., p. 200. The by Polydore Vergil, and Skelton. JVOLSEV CALLS AN ENGLISH COUNCIL 59 fullest assent to the procuring and the exercise of chap the legatine powers of Wolsey at the time they .^^.^^^ were asked for, and afterwards. It may, indeed, be doubted whether this assent and license sufficed teclmically to override the law, which forbade the admission of any legate a latere into England. But, considering what the power of the crown was in those days, and that the Kings license for the evasion of the act held good in other cases, there is really no reason for saj^ing that Wolsey tampered with the rights of the crown and with the laws of the land when he ventured to act as legate. No ah parties doubt, he and the King, and others also, considered goo^d faith that the royal license gave him full legal permission to do so ; and what was done in the matter, whether by the Pope, the King, or Wolsey himself, was done in good faith, and on what were believed to be constitutional principles. Shortly after Wolsey had been made joint-legate, Council with sole authority respecting visitation of the mon- ^^^^^ asteries, he called together a council of the English '5i9 bishops and some abbots, which met at Westminster on the Monday after Ash- Wednesday, in the year 1519, it having been postponed from September 9 of the previous year, in consequence of the plague. At this council, some constitutions for the reforma- tion of the Church were agreed upon, which were afterwards published to the clergy at diocesan synods, summoned for the purpose by each bishop.^ Very little, unfortunately, is known about thi.s council, nor is it certain that the constitutions attributed to it are really of that date.^ Perhaps « Wilkins' Cone, iiL 660, 661, ^ InStrype'sEcc. Meni., 1.11.25, 681, 682. there Is au Interesting letter from or Westmiii- A.D. GO ENDEAVOURS TO REFORM CHAP it was not to be expected that much, should be ^^.^^^^_^ effected at this first step^ and Wolsey may have summoned the bishops chiefly for the purpose of making them officially acquainted with his newly acquired authority and his intentions. Attempt at But as soou as tliose intentions became known, l^fmma? they began to meet with oppos* *on. "I perceive tion ^^J your letters/' wrote John Penny^ Bishop of Carlisle^ " your desire to repress the vices and errors which are beginning to spread through Christendom. Though a hard task, it will be to your glory."^ The opposition came partly from the old-fashioned clergy, who were disposed to set up Archbishop Warham as their champion.^ But it took the most tangible form in the hands of the Friars Observants or Fran- ciscans, who refused altogether to recognise the Cardinals visitatorial authority, and took a certain method of delay, that of an appeal to the Pope.^ Wolsey seems, however, to have entered into amicable arrangements with other orders, and there is an interesting account among the State Papers of Someac- the formal submission to him of the Augustinians, Sle^move- ^^ the purpose of reformation at his hands.^ On "^^'^*^ June 16, 1518, the canons of that order, to the number of 170, of whom 36 were prelatij met at the Abbey of St. Mary, Leicester, and after the pro- cessions, or litany, had been sung, listened to a the aged Fox, Bishop of Winches- ^ Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. ter, written on Dec. 31, 1518, and 77 congratulating the Cardinal on his ^ Ibid. iii. 77 (6). detenninationto reform the Church. ^ They seem eventnally to have He considers that such a reforma- submitted, Leo X, ^v^iting to that tion -would abate the calumnies of effect to Wolsey. [Ibid. iii. 569.] the laity in general, and reconcile ^ Ibid, ii., App, 48. the King and nobility to the cIcvl^v. THE MONASTIC ESTABLISHMENTS 61 sermon preached by Dr. Bell, from tlie significant chap text, "Wisdom hath builded her house." Returning ^^^.J^,^ to the chapter-house, a discussion took place on the reformation of the order. On Monday, an elegant sermon was preached by Peter Hardyng, Prior of Bridlington, on the text, " Egredere de terra tua;" and after various business a letter was read from the Cardinal, dated Beaconsfield, June 12, 1518, in which the writer insisted on the importance of learning as the greatest preservative of the Catholic faith, and the great distinction between men and brutes. He could not, he said, observe without regret, that so few men of that religious Especially order applied themselves to study, and he expressed tuilan"^'^^ his determination to found a college for the order, the members of which shoidd give themselves ex- clusively to learning. On the Wednesday reports of the visitors were received, and thanks given to the Cardinal for his letter, his Grace being admitted as a confrere of the chapter, and commissioned to reform the statutes of the college at Oxford, under the general authority of the order. Visitors were re- appointed, and the next chapter ordered to be held at St. Frideswide's, Oxford. This was communicated to Wolsey the same day; the chapter writing to ac- quaint him that he was appointed a brother of the order and a participator of all its benefits, and sub- mitting themselves entirely to his authority as a reformer. It is very significant to find this record But they end with a statement that the reason why the discip-^^^^*^,^^^^^^ line of the order was so bad was, that the superiors were afraid of the statute of prcemimire being brought to bear upon them if they should correct oflfending brethren. On March 22, 1519-20, Wolsey 62 AND THE UNIVERSITIES CHAP issued new statutes for the Augustinians, in which ^^..^^^^^he endeavoured to bring them back to a stricter observance of their rule^ to a more ascetic life, and to the cultivation of learning.^ At the same time that Wolsey was thus drawing the monastic orders into a friendly acquiescence with his plans for their reformation, he was also getting into his hands the supreme control of the Hispopu- universities for the same purpose. Each of them CMnbridgebad long before given him special tokens of their and Oxford j.^gpg^^^ for as early as May 1514 (when Erasmus was Margaret Professor of Divinity), Cambridge had offered him the chancellorship, which he declined;^ and in 1515, Oxford had sent him an official intima- tion that his name was for the future to be men- tioned in the Bidding Prayer by preachers of that university.^ Perhaps there was something of grati- tude for benefits expected in these rather eager tokens of university respect ; but there seems to have been a feeling of mutual affection between Wolsey and Oxford which made him seek her re- formation by many noble acts of munificence, cul- minating in the foundation of Christ Church. Wolsey seems to have taken the opportunity of a royal visit to Oxford for first broaching the subject of his intentions. About Easter, 1518, the King and Queen were at Abingdon, and Wolsey with them. The Queen paid a visit to the University, and was accompanied by the Cardinal, addresses being made 3 Wilkins' Concilia, iii., 683. attention given to discipline is It is curious to find that wliile illustrated by one wliich regulates permitting the use of organs, these the access of laimdresses to the statutes of Wolsey forhid "prick monastery. song," or elaborate singing, and en- ^ Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. i. 168. joined " plain song." The minute ^ Brewer's Oalend. St. Pap., i. 934. REVIVES LEARNING AT OXFORD G3 to them both by the pubhc orator. In reply to that chap addressed to himself, Wolsey declared that he had ,^1,^^^ the welfare of Oxford very much at heart, and pro- posed to show his great interest in the University by founding several professorships and by reforming the statutes. This proposition was received with gratitude by the University at large ; but Arch- bishop Warham, who was chancellor, objected at first to throw so much power into the hands of one person, and seems to have given up his own opinion in deference to that of the University when he con- sented, in the end, that Wolsey's proposal should be complied with. He, however, signified his assent in a letter to the University, dated at Oxford, May 22, 1518 ;^ and it is no slight evidence of the Car- dinal's popularity there that a vote of convocation placed the University statutes entirely in his power, for the purpose of reformation, within about a week afterwards, — the document being dated June Ist."^ The first use which Wolsey made of the power Founds thus placed in his hands, was to establish the pro- fesTo^-shrs iessorships which he had promised. These were ^^ Oxford seven in number, namely, those of Theology, Civil Law, Medicine, Rhetoric, Mathematics, and Greek.^ All the endowments of these were forfeited to the King on the Cardinal's fall, and the professorships dropped in consequence. But a few years later four ^ Fiddes' Wolsey, Collect., p. 34. Oxford owes so much, for its im- Ibid., 29. provements in leamiag and dis- ^A year later, on July 14tli, cipline. "Ac prorsus," lie writes 1519, tlie University wrote to Wol- to Lord Mountjoy, " heroicum ani- sey, saying that the students had mum Thomse Cardinalis Ebora- much profited by the Eeaderships censis cujus prudentia schola Ox- which he had founded. [Fiddes, oniensis, non solum omni lingua- Ibid.] About the same time Eras- rum ac studiarum genere, verum et mus nighly commends the heroic moribus qui deceant optima studia, courage of the Cardinal, to whom condecorabitur." Erasm. Ep.vi.27. fi4 FOUNDED ^'REGIUS'' PROFESSORSHIPS CHAP out of the number were recreated, under the name of ^^^^.^^Regius professorships. Henry VIII. did not, how- ever^ refund the endowments, but^ characteristically appropriating the honour of the foundation, char- acteristically also made somebody else — in this case the Dean and Chapter of Westminster — pay the stipends of the professors.® Wolsey set much value upon the study of Greek, having been an intimate friend of Linacre, the first president of the College of Physicians (another of Wolsey 's noble institutions), who was fellow of All Souls as early as 1484, and taught Greek to Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, His first theological professor was Thomas Brynk- nell. His first Greek professor was Calphurnius^ a native of Greece, who introduced the pronunciation now generally used by English scholars, but which was for some time a matter of bitter controversy at Oxford.^ His first professor of rhetoric was the famous Ludovicus Vivos. In 1521 Wolsey appointed, as successor of Calphurnius, Lupset^ who had been brought into notice by Dean Colet, and had been tutor to Thomas Wynter, the Cardinal's son, a great friend of Linacre, More, and Erasmus.^ By thus pro- moting the study of Greek^ Theology^ and other branches of learning, Wolsey was taking an impor- 9 The charge was transferred, in ten by Eohert Wakefield, Canon of later days, to Christ Church. King's College, Oxford, and printed ^ Ecc. Mem. i. 194. Strype in 1524 by W>Tikyn de Worde. quotes Dr. Caius "de pronuncia- These characters are evidently cut tione Grseceeac Latinse Ltingu0e"as in wood, and very roughly cut. his authority. The author complains that he was ^ Probably the first instance of obliged to omit the whole of the any language being printed in third part of his treatise because other than English type, by an the printer had no Hebrew types. English printer, is in the case of a It was this Wakefield who first few Arabic and Hebrew letters, suggested that the European mind pnnted in a book on the study of should be consulted as to the Arabic, Chaldee, and Hebrew, writ- Divorce. CONTEMPORARY CAMBRIDGE G.5 tant step towards elevating the standard of education, chap especially among the clergy ; and showed himself in .^^^^.^^ this as in most other things to be a man in advance of his generation. His efforts as to Greek met with very great opposition frona the young Oxford of the Greek at day — those junior members of common rooms whose versities opinions are mostly very worthy of veneration in their own eyes ; but by the aid of Sir Thomas More, Wolsey was able to overcome this opposition, and Oxford learned Greek in spite of its teeth. Whether or not Wolsey had anything to do with the introduc- tion of Greek into Cambridge is uncertain. Erasmus was invited there by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, who was chancellor of the University from 1504 till his death. That great scholar, but graceless man, was also appointed to the Greek professorship by Fishers influence./ But the successor of Erasmus was the learned Dr. Croke (otherwise Blunt), who was employed in very important State affairs during the rule of Wolsey. Cambridge, however, was being well provided for by the splendid benefactions of Henry VI. and the Lady Margaret, and by the zeal of its chancellor, Bishop Fisher, and did not stand in so much need of Wolsey's fostering care. Woisey Nor did Cambridge follow the example of surrender- ^a^f^n of^'' ino' its statutes to him for reformation until April 15, J^f^^^ics in ^ , ^ ^ -*■ ^ hxs own 1524.^ In the year previous (1523) a visitation of hands Cambridge University, for the purpose of eradicating "Lutheran" opinions, had been projected; Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and West, Bishop of Ely, being the visitors proposed. But Wolsey set his foot upon this plan, superseding the two bishops by Dr. Shorten, Master of Pembroke Hall, Wolsey s com- 3 Fiddes' Wolsey, Collect., p. 40. E 6G WOLSEY FOUNDS CHRIST CHURCH CHAP missary for the selection of Cambridge students of ^^..^.^^^ mark for Christ Church, and a well-known favourer of the proscribed opinions.^ It was probably some agitation arising out of this which led Cambridge to follow the example of Oxford^ and commit its fortunes to the care of the great Cardinal. Prepares About the year 1520, Wolsey began to make pre- chHst^^ parations for founding his great college at Oxford. Church Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, and confessor to the King, was his principal agent ; and in the choice of one so closely associated with his Sovereign, Wolsey showed already the intention of connecting the foun- dation itself with the Crown, which he indicated in letters to the King, by calling it liis college. In corresponding with Wolsey on the subject, Longland A,D. 1520 speaks strongly of the great satisfaction which Wolsey's plans were giving to Henry, and was evidently very zealous in the work himself, showing the King how " great good would ensue from this noble foundation, as well in the bringing up of youth in virtue, as in exceedingly tending to the main- tenance of Christ's Church and His faith, to the King's honour and that of all the realm \ and that many should be brought up there which would be TheKing's able to do His Grace honourable service." The King sood-wiii inade Longland explain Wolsey 's purpose to Queen to the plan Catherine, and the Bishop had evidently caught up some of Wolsey 's own enthusiasm on the subject, when he " showed to the Queen s Grace the effect of all, and what great good should come of the same, as well to the conservation of Christ's Church and faith, as to the realm ; where all good learning and letters should be, whereby resort should be out of all * Fiddes' Wolsey, Collect., p. 212. IVOLSEV FOUNDS CHRIST CHURCH 6/ parts of Christendom to the same for learning and chap virtue ; and showed her of the notable lectures that .^.^-^-^^ should be tliere^ and of the exercitations of learnings and how the students should be limited by the readers to the same ; likewise in the exposition of the Bible, and expressed to Her Grace the number of your house, the divine service of your college, and of the great suffrages of prayer ye have made her participant of."^ The success of this great plan was henceforth one Woise/s of the principal objects of Wolsey's life. It has been Meeting his usual to speak of it as if the Cardinal had proposed Colleges it to himself simply as a costly monument of his ambition ; and if any measure of praise has been accorded to his memory in respect to it, the praise has generally been accompanied by some deprecia- tory expressions, implying that if his work was good at any rate his motive was bad. This is most unworthy treatment of the great founder's memory. There is not one word of his on record to show that personal ambition had anything to do with this noble undertaking ; and even if there were, it would be far more generous and just to look upon such an ambi- tion as one of the weaknesses to which even the greatest minds may be subject, than to treat it as if it were a proof of criminal baseness. But the real truth is, that Wolsey had as honourable motives in founding Christ Church as Dr. Merton, Waynfleet, or William of Wykeham had in founding Merton, Magdalen, and New Colleges ; and, above all, the gratitude that Oxford and England at large owe to such promoters of sound learning, there is this due to Wolsey from the Church of England, that she ■" EUis' Orig. Letters, I. I 181. 68 WOLSEY FOUNDS CHRIST CHURCH CHAP owes him grateful remembrance for an honest and ^^J^J^,,,^ energetic attempt to guide the course of the Refor- mation by means of a vast educational institution, whose influence should be deeply impressed upon that and succeeding generations. The foundation of this great college — an univer- sity within an university, as it was called by some — was a fragment of a plan for carrying out an object that the hearts of many wise men were at that time set on — that of extending the pastoral and educa- tional portion of the Church's system, and compress- ing the monastic part. Another mighty fragment was the establishment of a college or university (as Proposed Stow calls it) in London, where the Canon and Civil oTrcoi^^ Law should be made as prominent objects of study lege for ^g Mathematics are at Cambrida^e. And, consider- Law in, "^ London mg the closo. ailianco between the clergy and the art of healing in those days, it is scarcely too much to College of say that the College of Physicians (which was Physicians fQ^j^^j^^^j chiefly by Wolsey) was another portion.'^ As it was clearly impossible for such a vast scheme to be carried out by private funds, so it was natural Woisey's for Wolsoy to look to the monastic foundations for siipp/es'- them, the diminishing of their number being thought sionoftiie beneficial rather than iniurious to the Churcli and smaller n>i tiii -\ c* monas- kmgdom. It had long been foreseen that, in reform- ing the monasteries, a large number of them must be extinguished as useless sinecures ; and this idea of utilizing their property for educational objects, and for promoting Church extension among the growing population of the country, was one worthy of a great 6 Linacre, the first president, was phen in Wcstuiinstor Palace. When in priest's orders, Rector of Wigan he resigned the latter he was suc- and Prebendary of Wells, and of ceeded by another clerical phy- the Collegiate Chapel of yt. tite- sician, Edward Fynche. IVOLSEV FOUNDS CHRIST CHURCH 69 statesman. One can only marvel at the perverseness chap of party spirit, which has looked with so much dis- ^^^.^^^ favour on Wolsey's scheme for the appropriation of monastic property, and with so much toleration on that of the King. When, therefore, the Cardmal By autiio- obtained bulls from the Pope, and letters patent from [he Khi^ the Crown for the suppression of twenty small mon-p^*^^^^ asteries, and the appropriation of their lands to the foundation of Christ Church, he was really carrying out a very wise reform of the monastic system.^ In continuation of it he afterwards obtained similar authority for suppressing all monasteries which had fewer than twelve inmates, and sending these to the larger establishments, — Tnaking as many bishoprics as he considered necessary out of the large town rnonas- teries by means of the funds thus acquired. "What a grand educational and diocesan system would Wolsey have developed in the Church of England had his plans been permitted to prosper ! The nucleus of the great college at Oxford was found ready to hand by Wolsey in the Benedictine priory of St. Frideswide, the largest of all the twenty religious houses appropriated for the purpose, and the adjoining Canterbury Hall. From the trans- Probable actions already mentioned between Wolsey and the cencHf AuOTstinians, it is probable that the monks as-™°"^p"^ , 1-1 IT ^ r^ T dissolution sented to his plans, and that the Chapter adjourned from St. Mary's, Leicester, to St. Frideswide's Oxford had some reference to them. It was calcu- lated to smooth the way for an agreement between them that the new college would be so large as to be ^ It may be added that lie waa dalen, — Wolsey's omti college, — in following in the steps of Bishop the same manner ; as well as in Waynfieet, who founded Mag- those of other good men. 70 IVOLSEY FOUNDS CHRIST CHURCH CHAP capable of providing for most of those displaced by ..^^.^^.^^ the dissolution of the twenty small monasteries. For Wolsey's plans were so extensive as to require one hundred and eiglity-six officials for the college, including a dean, sub- dean, sixty senior canons, forty junior canons, thirteen chaplains, &c., with an endow- ment for hospitality towards strangers and the relief of the poor, which would entail a further addition to the number. The number of students calculated for must have been at least five hundred, but probably many more, for even the attenuated plan carried out by the King provided for one hundred. Grandeur Somo trace stiU remains of the grandeur Avhich sey's de- would havo characterized the buildings, had they been traceable fi^^i^hed accordiug to Wolsey's designs. The first stage of the ^^ Tom" tower is his work, and so is the plan of the great quadrangle. What the tower would have been may be imagined by comparing the dimensions of its existing portion with Wolsey's other Oxford tower, that of Magdalen College ; and what the quadrangle would have been, may be partly under- stood by observing the arches on the walls, which still indicate the magnificent cloister for which they were prepared. The latter was omitted altogether in the subsequent foundation, and the tower remained a ruin until Sir Christopher Wren surmounted the fragment with the octagon turret, now so familiar to all who know Oxford. But the confiscation of Wolsey's possessions extinguished the grandeur of these plans. The King appropriated to his private use the monastic lands and revenues which had been, without any sacrilege, appropriated to a public and sacred purpose by Wolsey ; and out of these confis- cated revenues he doled out sufficient for carrying on AND IPSWICH COLLEGE Tl as cheaply as possible the work which had been so chap nobly begun. The arches in the walls and the lower ^^^.^-^ stage of the projected tower remain as melancholy monuments^ which testify alike to the defeated mag- nificence of the subject and the victorious meanness of the King.^ As a feeder to this great college, Wolsey founded begins the another on a smaller scale at Ipswich, his native ipswich place, where he proposed to prepare boys for Oxford, 1326*^ ^'^' as in Wykeham s College at Winchester. This was commenced some years after Christ Church, but may be mentioned here as it was part of the same great scheme. Gardiner, Lee, and Cromwell were his principal agents in establishing the Ipswich College, and William Capon was appointed to be Dean in 1529. In September of that year, the three former carried to Ipswich a large portion of the Cardinal's ''stuff," including copes, vestments, altar-cloths, plate, and other furniture for the chapel, together with hangings and all other things neces- sary for furnishing the great hall.^ The foundation- stone was laid, and the college dedicated in the name of St. Mary, after some progress had been made with the buildings; and the stone itself was discovered in a wall about a hundred years ago, with an inscription to the effect that it was laid by John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, on June 15, 1528.^ 8 The Priory of Canwell, in Lei- » This was aU appropriated by cestershire, was one of those appro- the King. See a letter of Capon's priated by Wolsey to the fonndation Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. ii. 231. of the college. On his fall, Henry ^ It is now inserted in the wall of VIII. appropriated it instead to tbeanteroomleadingtothechapter- the purpose of compounding mth houseof Christ Church, Oxford, the an old creditor of the Cro\vn, who foUowinj;- being the inscription, had received a pension of 500 marks " Anno ChristiMDXxviii. et Regni yearly under a grant of Edward III. Henrici Octavi Eegis Anglia; xx. Collier's Ecc Hist, iv. 120. mensis vero Junii xv. Positum . 72 IVOLSEV FOUhWS IPSWICH COLLEGE CHAP Some particulars of the dedication festival are given ,^ ^.^^ in a letter from Capon to "Wolsey. The corporation (who had given up some public lands for the use of Ipswich the college)^ the townspeople, and ^' all the honour- weicomed ^^^ gentlemen of the shire " were present, a,nd forty by towns- copes worc wom by those who took part in the pro- people -"- . *^ , ■*■ ■*■ ceedings. The foundation seems to have been very acceptable to Wolsey's fellow-townsmen, and its sudden ruin must have disappointed them greatly. Capons letter ends with the significant statement that 171 tons of Caen stone are on the way to the college, and that he has made a contract for 1000 tons more to be delivered before Easter.^ For the foundation of this college Wolsey obtained a bull and letters patent to appropriate ten more small monasteries. The site occupied six acres, and was granted by Henry VIII. to Thomas Alverde. James I. granted it to Richard Perceval and Edmund Duffield ; and there is now only a gate- way remaining to show for a work which would certainly have been equal, at least, to Winchester or Eton.^ But Wolsey had only just commenced the grand educational foundations by which he proposed to secure a more intellectual clergy for the rising gen- eration, and thus to counteract the growth of an ignorant and heretical " party of progress," when he was importuned by the King and some of the per Johan. Epm. Lincolnen." Thus 3 "Wolsey took so much iiileix^st it lias been preserved as fresh as in the practical work of his school on the day it "was sculptured to that he Avrote an exact set of rules offer a melancholy meniorial of the for the classes, and elited a fresh destruction wrou,nht, not by time, Lily's Latin Grammar, -writing a but by the wickedness of selfish jireface to it hinisLdf. It will be iiien. retnendieivd that lie beyun life as 2 Ellis' Orig. Letters, ]. i. Ls5. ]\1 aster of Ma-dalen School. IVOLSEV URGED TO CHECK ''HERESY'' 73 bishops to adopt more immediate and vigorous mea- chap sures for its suppression. v.^^^!-^ Wolsey himself was always extremely lenient in Woisey's dealing with those who were accused of heresy, towards Erasmus, who was not too ready to speak well of"^^^^^*^" him, has some special words of praise for his gentle and kind courtesy/ and this seems to have been very conspicuous when such persons were brought before him.^ Not even Foxe, who would certainly have accused him of severity if he could have done so, has any real charge of the kind to bring against him ; nor is there one capital punishment for religion registered against Wolsey in the pages of that bitter historian and unscrupulous romancer. The King had lately, however, taken up a prominent position in the contest between Luther and the Pope by writing a book in defence of the received doctrine of the sacraments expressly against the German reformer. This was so ultra-Roman in its colouring, as shortly after to receive the highest approval of the Pope, and to win the title of " De- fender of the Faith " from him for its author. But Wolsey was far from being so ultra-Roman as the Did not King was/ and had openly expressed his disapproval fhi^K[nfi;''s of the royal treatise. On June 24, 1518, Secretary ^°°^ , •/ ^ , *^ against Pace had written to the Cardinal that the King was Luther pleased with some signs of commendation which Wolsey had at length shown. '' He is very glad to ^ Epp., xxix. 50. Sir Thomas that he was " only a musician."' ]\lore once used similar language. Athen Cantab., i. 338. State Papers, i. 142. ^ No doubt it was Wolsey, ^ See the case of Dr. Barnes, amongst others, that Erasmus further on. Taverner, the organist nieont when he wrote to Luther, of St. Friduswide's, wiis accused of " Habes in Anglia qui de tuis heresy before Wolsey, but he set scriptis o])time sen tiant, et sunt hi him free with the politic excuse maximi." Epp. vi. 4. 74 WARN AM WRITES TO IVOLSEY CHAP have noted in your Grace's letters that his reasons ^^^.^^^^ be called inevitable, considering your Grace was some time his adversary herein and of contrary opinion."^ And the subject is again referred to four days later, as if the King was making all he could of Wolsey's least word of approval. But of course the minister's public policy could not be openly separated from that of the King, and when, by the presentation of the book to Leo X., and the reward of the new title, Henry was committed to an extreme line of opposition to " Lutheranism/' the Cardinal w^as obliged to curb his own feelings in some degree, and give effect to the wishes of his Sovereign. Is urged to Morcover, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the ^llnsT Bishop of Lincoln, the latter of whom was confessor heretics ^q -fche King, woro pressing Wolsey to the utmost for a vigorous exercise of his supreme authority against the " Lutheran heretics," and there can be little doubt they were doing so either under private mstructions from the King, or in accordance with his expressed wishes. Warham was chancellor of the University of Oxford, and Avrote to Wolsey on March 8, 1521, as follows :— ^f^Luth^er " Hcase it your good Grace to understand that now lately at Oxford I received letters from the University of Oxford, and in these same certain news which I am very sorry to hear. For I am informed that divers of that University he infected with tlie heresies of Luther and of others of that sort, having among them a great number of books of the said perverse doctrine, which were forbidden by your Grace's authority as Legate de latere of the See Apostolic, and also by me as chancellor of the said University, to be had, kept, or read by any persoii of the same, except such as were licensed to have them to impugn ' Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. 202. ABOUT OXFORD HERETICS 75 and convince the erroneoiis opinions contained in theno, Ent cHAP it is a sorrowful thing to see how greedily inconstant men, and ^^ especially inexpert youtli, falleth to new doctrines, be they ^^"""^^^^ never so pestilent ; and how prone they be to attempt that thing that they be forbidden of their superiors for their own a grief to wealth. I would I had suffered great pain, in condition this ^^^^^"^ had not fortuned there where I was brought up in learning, and now am chancellor, albeit unworthy. And I doubt not but it is to your good Grace right pensiful hearing, seeing your Grace is the most honourable member that ever was of that University. " And whereas the said University hath instantly desired me, by their letters, to be a mean and suitor unto your Grace for them, that it might please the same to decree such order 'to be taken touching the examination of the said persons suspected of heresy, that the said University run in as little infamy thereby, through your Grace's favour and justice, as may be after the quality of the offence. a.d. 152c " If this matter concerned not the cause of God and His Church, I would entirely beseech your Grace to tender the infamy of the University as it might please your incomparable ' wisdom and goodness to tliink best. For pity it were that through the lewdness of one or two cankered members, Avhich, I as I understand, have induced no small number of young and ' incircumspect folks to give ear unto them, the whole ' Univer- sity should run in the infamy of so heinous a crime, the hear- ing whereof should be right delectable and pleasant to the open Lutherans beyond the sea, and secret behither, whereof they would take heart and confidence that their pestilent doctrines should increase and multiply, seeing both the Uni- versities of England infected therewith, whereof the one hath Heresy a many years been void of all heresies, and the other hath afore q^^^'I "^ now taken upon her the praise that she was never defiled, and nevertheless now she is thought to be the original occasion and cause of the fall in Oxford.^ " By this my writing I intend in nowise to move, but that the captains of the said erroneous doctrine be punished to the ^ Wolsey's own importations from hut AVarham scarcely ventured be- Canibridge were in fact the culprits, yond a hint that such was the case. 76 WARHAM ON OXFORD HERETICS CHAP fearful example of all other. But if all the whole number of IT young scholars suspected in this cause (which, as the Univer- ""^^"^^ sity writeth to me, be marvellous sorry and repentant that And had ever they had any such books, or read or heard any of Luther's better not opinions) should be called up to London, it should engender public great obloquy and slander to the University, both behither the scandal ^^^ ^^^ beyond, to the sorrow of all good men and the pleasure of heretics, desiring to have many followers of their mischief; and (as it is thought) the less bruit the better, for the avoid- ing whereof the said University hath desired me to move your Grace to be so good and gracious unto them, to give in com- mission to some sad father which was brought up in the said University of Oxford, to sit there and examine, not the heads (which it may please your Grace to reserve to your own examination), but the novices which be not yet .thoroughly cankered in the said errors, and to put them to such correction as the quality of their transgTession shall require, and shall be thought [to have deserved from your] Grace. " Item, The said University hath desired me to move yoiu? good Grace to . . . my Lord of Eochester or my Lord of Heretical London to note out beside . . . works of Luther con- demned already, the names of all other such n[ames] of writers, Luther's adherents, and repugnant to Catholic faith, and those names described . . . table send down to the University of Oxford, commanding them that no man, without express license, have, keep, or read any of the same books under pain of excommunication. Which, in mine opinion, should be a meritorious deed, whereby should be taken away the great occasion of falling hereafter into such inconveniences, for I understand there be many of those new writers as ill as Luther. And therefore it needeth this great provision to be made for stopping of them, as of Luther's."^ Wolsey replied to this letter by sending Warham some splendid offering for the Cathedral Church of Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. i. 239. treasonable conduct. Brewer's On June 16th following, "Wailiaiu Calend. St. Pap., iii. 1353. So sent a priust before AVolsey for that the Archbishop was very ac- suj^porting Lutheranism, and for tive on the subject. books in circulation LONGLAND ON OXFORD HERETICS "71 Canterbury^ in token of his continued orthodox sup- chap port of the ancient order of things ; but accompanied .^^.^-^^ by a parcel of books relating to the modern heresies woisey's which had so excited the old Archbishop's indigna- thTaian^- tion. In this double present we have a good illus- ^^^^"^^ tration of the astute concihatory policy by which Wolsey hoped gradually to draw such good but pre- judiced men as Warham to a more reasonable and intelligent appreciation of the great movement which was going on in younger minds. Lutheranism was as repugnant to Warham's tastes and habits as ritualism would have been to an Archbishop of the Georgian era ; but Wolsey saw that it could not be '^ put down" and " stamped out" by such means as Warham proposed, and sent his parcel of books to the good old man in the hope that they would lead a.d. 1521 him to study the question, and judge more prudently of its bearings. At the same time Longland (who was bishop of Lincoln, the diocese in which Oxford was then com- prehended) wrote to urge on Wolsey in the same direction which Warham wished him to take. " I have two Lutherans in my house," he writes, " the one is the priest that wrote the letter which I de- livered to your Grace, the other is he that he wrote it unto. The priest is a very heretic, as appeareth His opin- by his confessions, and hath, as he durst, done hurt subjeS of^ in my diocese ; the other is ill, but not so ill. . . . cutioi?^^" I purpose, unless your Grace command contrary, to^^i^^^^^^ abjure them both and put them to open penance, and afterward to remain in two monasteries in pen- ance till your pleasure be known. And in the honour of God beseech your honourable Grace, amongst all your godly labours and pains ye take 78 LONGLAND ON OXFORD HERETICS CHAP for the common wealthy to remember the infected ^^.^.^^.^ persons in Oxford, some order and pmiishment to be taken with them ; for if sharpness be not now in this land many one shall be right bold to do ill. Heretical And, no doubt, there are more in Oxford as ap- sheets'at p^areth by such famous libels and bills as be set Oxford ^p Iyi night times upon church doors. I have two of them^ and delivered the third to my Lord of London. I trust your Grace hath seen it, whereby ye may perceive the corrupt minds, and if it may stand with your pleasure, forasmuch as they are in this case de grege meo, and I have charge of their souls, I shall as soon as my strength will serve me (which I think will be Michaelmas or it will come any thing), I shall be glad having your instructions. And knowing your pleasure in that behalf, to ride to Oxford myself for the ordering thereof, if it so shall stand with your honourable pleasure."^ But this letter of Longland's as Bishop of Lincoln was apparently written to refresh Wolsey's memory, and edge on his reluctant mind. Another epistle of Longland's is extant, which he seems to have written immediately after an interview with the Henry King, and in this he follows up his account of the Sested^in Satisfaction given to the King and Queen by tj^e "^^*^t^^ Wolsey's plan for the foundation of Christ Church, land "^ by a counterbalance of the promises he has made re- specting Wolsey's future proceedings against heretics. " I ascertained him," he writes, " over this your pleasure concerning the secret search ye would this term make in divers places, naming the same unto him, and that at one time. And that ye would be at the Cross, having the clergy with you, and there to have a notable clerk to preach afore you 1 Elhs' Orig. Letters, III. i. 253. LONGLAND ON OXFORD HERETICS I'd a sermon contra Luthenim, Liitherianos, fantoresque eorum, chap contra opera eomm et libros, et contra inducentes eadem ^^ opera in regnum ; and then to have a proclamation to give notice that every person having any works of Lnther or of his fautor's making by a limited day, to bring them in sub poena excommiinicationis majoris, and that day limited, to fulminate the sentence against the contrary doers, and that if, after that day, any such works be known, or found with any person, the same to be convicted by abjuration ; and if they will contumaciter persist in their contumacy, then to pursue them by the law ad ignem, as against an heretic. And that ye purpose over this to bind the said merchants and stationers King in recognizances never to bring into this realm any such thinks books, scrolls, or writings ; which your godly purpose His ie°s fear Highness marvellously well alloweth, and doth much hold *^"^s ^^^^'^ with that recognizance, for that some, and most part, will communi- more fear that than excommunication. And His Grace thinks cation my Lord of Eochester to be the most meet to make that sermon afore you, both ^propter auctoritatem, gravitatem, et doctrinam ;personcG. His Highness is as good and gracious in this quarrel of God as can be thought, wished, or desired, and for the furtherance of tliis godly purpose as fervent in this cause of Christ His Church, and maintenance of the same as ever noble prince was." Now, it might seem at first as if all this was really said by direction of Wolsey. But it is clear that Longland (whose severity against the real heretics he had in his own diocese had been very conspicuous) was, in reality, trying to urge on both the King and Wolsey. " I declared unto him (he goes on to say) what high power and name he hath obtained by his notable work made against Luther, and in what estimation he is in throughout Christen- dom, and that now in this suppression of Luther, his adherents and disciples should get much more laud, praise, and honour, and immortal name, besides 80 LUTHER'S EARLY WRITINGS SUPPRESSED CHAP the honour and wealth of his realm, and high merit . ., — , of his so ... he is most gracious toward and ready A.D. 1521 in this cause of God . . . your Grace shall well perceive when ye shall speak with him." But Longland was evidently far from certain that Wolsey would endorse all his fervent speeches and engagements, for he goes on to give him an earnest exhortation that he will carry on the proposed work. " It may please your Grace of your merciful good- ness, among all these great affairs to remember this matter to His Highness, to animate him in this cause of Christ, of Christ and His Church, for the depression of the enemies of God. The world is marvellously bent against . . . [severity] . . . and it is the King's Grace and you that must remedy the same. God hath sent your Grace amongst us to advance His honour and maintain His Church and Faith, for whom we all are most bound to pray, and for your most noble prosperous estate long to endure."^ TheKing's Luthor s principal, or at least his most voluminous versy°with works wore written during the quarter of a century Luther "which followed. Up to the date of this letter he had written a few trenchant pamphlets and the volume to which Henry VIII. had replied, "The Babylonish Captivity of the Church." It was this book, no doubt, which the King and Longland were anxious to suppress, and it had been brought into so much notoriety by having a king for its opponent that large numbers had in the nature of things found their way into England^ every one being ^ Ellis' Orig. Letters, I. i. 181. proposed proclamation is plainly Tlie editor of "Original Letters" that wliicli was issued on May 14, follows Anthony Wood in giving 1521. The letter was written on this letter to the year 1523, but the January 5th. CONDEMNATION OF HERETICAL BOOKS 81 curious to see what the arch-heretic had written to chap deserve the notice of so exalted an antagonist. For ^^^^^-..^^^ although the Kings book was not yet published to ^•°- ^5^1 the world at large^ its existence was perfectly well known^ especially at the universities, and it was printed by Pynson in the early part of 1521. It was impossible for Wolsey to have resisted an appeal in which the King's literary and theological honour was so much concerned \ and although he probably knew too much of the world to suppose that opinions could be suppressed by making them more notorious, yet he could have had no objection to condemn a book like the " Babylonish Captivity/' which is full of most reckless and irreverent state- ments respecting the Sacraments. Nor could he have any respect, nor ought he to have had any, for the vile and ribald tracts which were beginning to be circulated by the rising Puritans, and which were the works of Luther's " fautors," referred to by the Bishop of Lincoln. On May 14, 1521, Wolsey Lutheran therefore issued a commission or proclamation ad- h"i5^te/'"°^ monishing all persons, ecclesiastical or secular, to bring in to their bishop or his commissary, all pam- phlets and books written by Luther or his supporters, ' ' whether in Latin, English, or German. This ''com- mission" first recites the Pope's bull of June 19, 1520,^ condemning the errors of Luther and seques- trating his writings, and then states that it has been " Wolsey had declined to act on of Luther's book, declaring that this bull, alleging that it did not not the hooh hut the author ought to he give him power to bum Lutheran condemned to the flames. [Brewer's books m England. This led the Calend. St. Pap., iii. 1210, 1234.] Pope, tlirough Cardinal Medici, to The Cardinal's " mandate," with send another copy of the bull, re- the list of fortv-two Lutheran en-ors questmg Wolsey to publish it in condemned, is in Wilkins' ConciL, England. He also sends a copy iii. 690. 82 THE POLITIC POMP USED CHAP issued with the consent and hy the express will and ^^_^„^^^ commandment of the King, as also after consultation A.D. 1521 -^ith the Archbishop of Canterbury and some other venerable prelates. It seems as if Wolsey had taken particular care to throw the responsibility of but not by an act of which he did not wholly approve on the sole amho- shouldors of the Pope^ the King, and the elder "*y bishops, and to make it plain that he exercised his legatine authority ministerially, rather than of his own will, in using it on this occasion. However, the bishops were to require all publishers, stationers, and booksellers, as well as all other persons, to bring in the prohibited books and pamphlets by the 1st of August, and when thus collected they were to be sent up to the Cardinal himself. A list of forty-two Lutheran errors, condemned by the Pope, was also set forth at the end of the document ; and was ordered to be set up on the doors of churches for the sake of publicity. The subsequent sermon, sug- gested by Longland, was preached at Paul's Cross, by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, the prelate de- signated by the King, and the collected books were Heretical bumed with great ceremony. For the account of burned at "v^h^t took place at St. Paul's, we are indebted to St. Paul's Foxe, who gives it in his " story of Dr. Barnes and others;" and one may, perhaps, believe that he has not very much misrepresented the facts. with great " In the moming they were aU ready, by their hour ap- ceremony pointed, in Paiil's Church, the Church being so full that no man could get in,^ The Cardinal had a scaffold made on the top of the stairs/' that is on the space above the altar-steps, * Old St. Paul's was 230 feet dral of largest area that we now longer than the present building, possess in England. The crowd- or about half as large again aa ing of such a building shows how York Minster, which is the cathe- great an excitement existed. IN BURNING BOOKS AND SPARING MEN 83 "for himself, with six-and-thixty abbots, mitred priors, and cHAP bishops; and he, in his whole pomp, mitred (which Barnes ^l spake against), sat there enthronised, his chaplains and spir- .^^^^^^i' itual doctors in gowns of damask and satin, and he himself in purple; even like a bloody antichrist. And there was a new Foxe'akiea pulpit erected on the top of the stairs also, for the Bishop of °f ^ scarlet Kochester to preach against Luther and Dr. Barnes ;^ and great baskets full of books standing before them witliin the rails, which were commanded after the great fire was made before the rood of Northen, there to be burned ; and these heretics " [Dr. Barnes and four others], " after the sermon, to go thrice about the fire, and to cast in their faggots. Kow, while the sermon was a doing, Dr. Barnes and the Still-yard men were commanded to kneel down, and ask forgiveness of God, of the Catholic Chiirch, and of the Cardinal's Grace : and after that, he was commanded at the end of the sermon to declare that he was more charitably handled than he deserved or was worthy ; his heresies were so horrible and so detest^ able. And once again, he kneeled down on his knees, desiring of the people forgiveness, and to pray for him. And so the Cardinal departed under a canopy, with all his mitred men with him, till he came to the second gate of Paul's ; and then he took liis mule, and the mitred men came back again. Then these poor men, being commanded to come down from the stage (whereon the sweepers use to stand when they sweep the Church), the bishops sat them down again, and commanded the Knight Marshal, and the Warden of the rieet, with their company, to carry them about the fire. And so they were brought to the bishops, and there, for absolution, kneeled down ; where Eochester stood up and The here- declared unto the people how many days of pardon and for- *^*^ ^^"^ giveness of sins they had, for being at that sermon : and harmed there did he assoil Dr. Barnes with the others, and showed the people that they were received into the Church again."® ^ Dr. Barnes was a mere fanatic, Fisher's sermon was translated into and Foxe has done him an honour Latin hj the Dean of St. Paul's, which was not intended for him and published with a very mo- \>j the preacher, in. coupling hhn derate and sensible preface, written with Luther. by Nicholas Wilson, 6 Foxe, V. 418, Ed, 1838. Bishop 84 WOLSEY'S POLICY TOWARDS HERETICS CHAP II Wolsey protected offenders "With this ostentatious pageant of orthodoxy^ .Wolsey staved off more severe measures for the present, in the hope that they could be avoided altogether. Burning hooks was not a very serious matter, and he did not object to make the most of any advantage that might be gained by conceding so much to the King's party. But burning men was of much more importance, and although Long- land suggested pursuing the heretics " ad ignem,'' Wolsey preferred dealing with them in his own way, marking their errors but sparing their persons. He adopted a similar humane policy when he was forced to deal with such conceited and self-opiniated men individually. Bilney and Barnes were both brought before him, and examined by him per- sonally, and both were suffered to go free during his life-time, notwithstanding the reckless and abusive tone which Barnes, at least, adopted towards him.'^ ^ Foxe gives a not unamnsing account of an examination to which Barnes was subjected before the Cardinal, who was, it must be re- membered, the reformer of tlie order of Augustines, of whose house in Cambridge this fanatic monk was prior. "What, Master Doctor," said the Cardinal, " had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach tlie people, but that my golden shoes, my pole-axes, my pillars, my golden cushions, my crosses, did so offend you that you must make us 'ridiciilum caput' amongst the people? AVe were jollily that day laughed to scorn. Veiily, it was a sermon more fit to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit : for at the last you said I did wear a pair of red gloves (* I should say bloody gloves,' quoth you) that I should not be cold hi the midst of my ceremonies." Barnes alleged that all this was according to the Scriptures, and that he would stand by what he had said ; on which the Cardinal told him he would ask him one question, " Whether do you think it more necessary that I shoidd have all this royalty, because I represent the King's majesty's per- son in all the high courts of this realm ... or to be as simple as you would have us, to sell all these aforesaid things, and to give it to the poor, who shortly will cast it against the walls, and to pull away this majesty of a princely dignity Avhich is a terror to all the wicked ?" Barnes' reply shows the stnpid unpracticableness of such fanatics : " I think it necessary to be sold and given to the poor. For this is not comely for your calling, nor is the King's majesty maintained by your pomp and SUMMONS A REFORMATION SYNOD 85 But both these^ and many others, were sent to the chap stake afterwards, when his forbearance and merciful ^^.^^.^^^^ pohcy were superseded by the iron hand of the King himself, whose savagery was restrained neither by Cromwell nor Cranmer. Wolsey caused them to carry a faofSfot to the fire, or made them ero about wiio were afterwards the world wearing one embroidered on the coat- again sleeve : Henry placed them in the midst of actual ^^ecuted faggots, which he kindled without scruple. Indeed, one important clause of the indictment against Wolsey was, that he had been " the impeacher and disturber of due and dkect correction of heresies, being highly to the danger and peril of the whole body, and good Christian people of this realm."^ Meanwhile Wolsey endeavoured to use the autho- Woisey rity and influence given him by his office as legate, to^ho^l for the purpose of effecting a reformation among the ^y"°^_ clergy and laity. The Convocation of Canterbury Reforma- was summoned to meet on April 20, 1523, in the a.d. 1523 usual manner, at St. Paul's. Wolsey, as Archbishop of York, summoned the Northern Convocation to Westminster, and he endeavoured to do what has been so often wished for since by many, to unite the two Convocations in one synod, by ordering that of Canterbury to join his own on April 22. This, he by uniting, thought, might be done without difficulty under exist- convoca- ing circumstances, by calling on the members of^^°^ Convocation to sit in a legatine synod, a course which would have preserved their identity as pro- pole-axes : but, l>y God, -who saitli selected for the Cardinars college, 'Per Me reges regnant,' 'kings and were "cast into prison for siis- their majesties reign and stand by picion of lieresy ; and divers Me.''' [Ibid., 417.] throiTgh the bardsbip thereof died.'' ^ Strype remarks that all the Strype's Cranmer, i. 4. Ecc. Hist. cliief Cambridge scholars who were Soc. ed. 86 PERSEVERES NOTWITHSTANDING OPPOSITION CHAP vincial convocations, and have superadded the ^^-^^^ supreme authority of the Legate's office. The Con- A.D. 1523 Yocation of Canterbury objected to this arrangement, asserting that they acted under the King's writ, and that this precluded them from acting as part of a legatine synod. Although, therefore, Wolsey had summoned the latter ^^Ad tractandum de Eefor- matione turn Laicorum, tum Ecclesiasticorum," the Is thwart- two Separate Convocations could only, or did only, time take into consideration the subsidies which they were required to pay to the Crown. The Cardinal then summoned another synod to meet on June 8, the Octave of the Ascension, ordering the Convocation of Canterbury to come, provided with requisite but after- powcrs, but of this, uo rocord whatever remains.^ A ceeds graphic letter of some member of the House of Commons, written to the Earl of Surrey, gives us a slight sketch of the complications that arose out of this experiment, but, unfortunately, it is dated on Ascension Day itself, and so a Aveek before the Contem- Logatinc Synod was to meet. ^' Also the convoca- coun7or' 'ti'^^ among the priests," says the writer, "the first the matter ^g^y of their appearance, as soon as mass of the Holy Ghost at Paul's was done, my Lord Cardinal acited also them to appear before him in his Convoca- tion at Westminster : which so did ; and there was another mass of the Holy Ghost. And within six or seven days the priests proved that all that my Lord Cardinal's convocation should do, it should be void, because that their summons was to appear before my Lord of Canterbury. Which thing so espied, my Lord Cardinal hath addressed a new citation into every country, commanding the priests to appear ^ Willuns' Concil., iii. 700. AIMS AT BEING A REFORM Ii\G POPE 87 before him eight days after the Ascension chap I do tremble to remember the end of all these high .^^-^-^^ and new enterprises. For oftentimes it hath been ^■°" ^523 seen that to a new enterprise^ there foUoweth a new manner and strange sequel. God of His mercy- send His grace unto such fashion, that it may be for the best."^ Many others, no doubt, both among the clergy Woiseybe- and the laity, trembled to think of the reforms which ^'^ ^"^^ Wolsey wished to effect : and the experience of later ages teaches us that those who look on "trembling," can most effectively hinder the progress of those who are prepared to advance. Men before their age, such as Wolsey, are generally confident as to "the end" of their high and "new enterprises," but they find it difficult to carry them out in their complete- ness when standing almost alone in their courageous onslaught upon the established order of things : and stolid resistance to a really great reformer may end in the "new manner and strange sequel" of an uprooting revolution instead of a wholesome reforma- tion. The destruction of official records has left us in the dark as to the actual transactions of Wolsey 's legatine synods for the reformation of the Church, but the above letter affords us a slight glimpse of the difficulties which he had to encounter, difficulties too great to be sui'mounted by constitutional methods, and only to be mowed down by the supreme tyranny of the Tudor sceptre, wielded by the hands of the less scrupulous Cromwell and the King himself Wolsey had longing visions of the great work that is a can- might be effected if he could become pope : and it ule^papai can scarcely be doubted that an English Pope, ^^^^^ 2 Eccl. Mem., i. 77 ; and Bre-vver's Calend. St. Pap., iii. 3024. IS PRACTICALLY PATRIARCH OF CHAP trained as Wolsey had been to English modes of ^^^^^.^^ thought and habits of government, might, at any A.D. 1527 time during the last 400 years, have changed the face of Christendom. But England has ever been carefully excluded from the papal throne, and even Wolsey could not command quite influence enough to ensure his election, though he was a candidate on tAvo occasions, and was supported by the Emperor, the French king, and Henry VI 11.^ Towards the close of his career, in 1527, he occupied for a short time Becomes the post of vicar-geucral to the Pope, and was em- Gen^eVai to powered to exercise the papal authority to its full the Pope extent in England, while Clement VII. was im- prisoned by Charles V.* But the transactions con- nected with the divorce show that this authority was more verbal than real, and perhaps the only import- ant result of the appointment was that referred to by Lord Herbert :^ it showed the King that it was possible to carry on the ecclesiastical government of England without the intervention of the Pope. A far more important movement was initiated at this time, which Avould have had a vast influence upon the course of the Reformation had it ever been ^ In a letter dated March 14, a single line of the CardinaFs to 1519, Sir Thomas Boleyn writes show that he would willingly have from the Coitrt of France that left England for Rome, or that he Francis " promised, on the word of felt any regret at his non-election, a king, that if Wolsey aspired to be He would rather " continue in the head of the Church, he would se- King^s service," he said on one oc- enre him on the first opportunity casion, " than he ten popes," only the voices of tourteen cardinals, he knew how much the King the whole company of the Ursyns wished that he should he at the at Rome, and the help of one head of the Church. [Brewer's Mark Antony di Colonna, whom Calend. St. Paj)., iii. 3372, 3377, he calls a valiant man, and of 3609.] So singularly has this great great reputation there." [Brewer's man been misrepresented in popu- Calend. St. Pap., iii. 122.] lar histories. Boleyn writes doubtingly as to ^ Eccl. Mem., i. 107. Wolsey 's acceptance of the oiler, ^ life of Henry VIIL, p. 209. and there is not, indeed, on recui-d. THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH CHURCHES 89 carried out. Wolsey himself, in a letter to the King, chap "written in 1527, had glanced at the possibility of a ,,^^^^ separation of the Churches of England and France ^■^- ^527 from the Pope, suggesting that a continuance of Roman policy would end in this, that '^ the Churches of England and France, to his perpetual rebuke and ignominy, should decline from, the obedience of the Pope."^ The two Kings, Henry and Francis, had Holds a also agreed to a convocation of all the Cardinals then cardinaif at liberty to meet Wolsey in France and consult ^^ -^^^"^^ about the condition of the Church, and the imprison- ment of Clement •? and the French Kino* received him with so much honour that, in July, Francis actually sent him a commission to pardon and set at liberty all prisoners on his journey through France to Paris.^ It was a noble feature in the Cardinal's character that he could then write to Henry, ^4br your sake, here, and in my receiving into this town, there hath been showed me the greatest honour that they could devise."^ The French King was, in fact, treating Wolsey as his equal, and telling him that he should look upon bim as his chief adviser, as he was that of Henry.^ The great and honoured statesman wished to make this council of Cardinals a final court of appeal in the matter of the divorce : and he also proposed to them that they should administer the affairs of the Church during the Pope s captivity. But they refused to is thwart- co-operate with him, fearing with true Italian ous^^ol^''^* jealousy that the papal throne might be again trans- ^'^^^^^'^ ferred to Avignon.^ Then Francis began to open "^^ '" 6 State Papers, i. 274. s gt^^g Papers, i. 223. ' Ibid., 230. ^ Ibid., 238. ^ Rymer, xiv. 202. ** Ibid., 230, 270. 90 H'OLSEV'S LAST REFORMATION PROJECT CHAP negotiations with Henry for separating the Churches ,,^_^.^ of England and France altogether from the papal A union jurisdiction^ and establi>shing them as a great western churches Patriarchate under Wolsey.^ The escape of the Pope of France probably put an end to the negotiation. land pro- And now the miserable complications arising out ^°^^ , of the divorce question were fast brinofinor to an end Wolsey s ■'■ . o o ^ hifluence Wolsey's power and prosperity^ and swallowing up ^ ^^^^ all other questions, even including that of Church Reform, for several years. His private influence with the Kinof had beofun to diminish in 1525, when misunderstandings had arisen respecting several matters of patronage. A similar misunderstanding occurred in 1528, but Anne Boleyn was soon after- wards, if not at that time, established as the Kings mistress, and as soon as she found reason to suspect Wolsey was disinclined to her marriage with Henry, she speedily brought about his ruin. The last mark that Wolsey left on the Reformation was nevertheless Proposes a conspicuous one. He applied in the King s name o" bishop!^ for papal bulls authorizing the dissolution of a number ^'^^^ of monasteries for the purpose of founding Episcopal sees, of endowing King's College, Cambridge (the lands left for which, Henry had appropriated for himself), and for adding to the College at Windsor.* A memorandum in the Kind's handwritino^ is still in existence, in which twenty-one new bishoprics are designated.^ Of these, only six were ever erected. Comparing the original design for Christ Church with its minimized execution, it is reasonable to sup- ^ Ellia' Grig. Letters, III. ii. 98. Secretary Paget in State Papers, There were semi-official overtures xi. 323. for the nnion of the French Church ^ That is the Chapel Royal. Ry- with the English in October 1546. mer, xiv. 270, 273. See a letter from Dr. Wotton to ^ Eccl. Mem., ii. 406. DECLINE OF HIS POWER 91 pose that the twenty-one projected bishoprics also chap represent Wolsey's plan, the six established ones .^^^..^^^-^^ Henry s execution of it when in the hands of Crom- ^■^' ^529 well and Cranmer.® It might seem that we should here part with the great Cardinal, since we have come to the end of his plans as they looked to the Reformation of the Church of England. But though this is not the place in which to write his hfe, the history of his work would hardly be complete without some account of its break-down. The first indication that Henry's confidence in his Early minister was diminishing, is given by a letter of the [he King's latter written on February 2, 1525, in which he ^^^^^^f "^^ '^^ ' against deprecates the king s anger in respect to two transac- Woisey tions, about which he had expressed strong displeasure through Sir Thomas More. The first was associated with some municipal privileges which Woisey had claimed for the monastery of St. Albans, and he justi- fies himself by precedent, on apparently very good and honourable grounds. The other was ^^ some misorder supposed to be used by Dr. Allen and other my ofiicers," in suppressing some poverty-struck monas- teries for the purpose of annexation of their estates to "your intended college at Oxford."^ It is pro- 6 T\yo Bulls of Clement VII. for passed. [Ibid, iii. V17-724.] The suppressing monasteries and erect- subject was continued in the Con- ing cathedrals were issued to Wol- vocation of 1531, although tlirown sey in the years 1528 aud 1529. into the shade by the question of [Wilkins' Concil., iii. 715 ; Rymer, the Prsemunire. [Ibid, iii. 725, xiv. 273, 291.] In the latter year, 726.] Convocation had been consulted '^ So the Cardinal used to date about projeGted reformations of the his letters to the King from " your Church [WiLkins' Concil., iii. 717], Manor of the More," and from and a provincial synod had been "your Manor of Hampton Court." held for the same purpose, at which State Pap., i. 150, 163. some important constitutions were 92 MISUNDERSTANDINGS WITH HENRY VIIL CHAP bable that there was more reason than Wolsey knew ^^^^.^ of for the latter complaint ; for two years later, Secre- A-i>. 1529 tary Knight wrote to him (Aug. 19, 1527), "I have heard the King and noblemen speak things incredible of the acts of M. Allen and Cromwell, a great part whereof ye shall know not only by me, but by other of your faithful and loving servants."^ If there was any more foundation for this, however, than the rising dissatisfaction of the King and the noblemen at the prospect of losing the monastic lands, it is certain that Wolsey sanctioned no unjust acts on the part of His desire his ageuts. " For, sir," he wrote to the King, " Al- justiy^with mighty God 1 take to my record, I have not meant, teries hT^ intended, or gone about, nor also have willed my dissolved officers to do anything concerning the said suppres- sions but under such form and manner as is and hath largely been to the full satisfaction, recomjDence, and joyous contentation of any person which hath had, or could pretend to have, right or interest in the same. . . . Verily, sir, I would be loath to be noted that I should intend such a virtuous foundation for the increase of your Highness' merit, profit of your subjects, the advancement of good learning, and for the weal of my poor soul, to be established or acquired ex rapinis!''^ A similar misunderstanding arose in July 1528, about the appointment of an Abbess to Wilton. Wolsey intended to have given it to Dame Eleanor Gary, but Anne Boleyn wanted it for some on*e else, and it formed the subject of some of the love-letters which passed between her and the King at this time.^ ® state Pap., i. 261. on this subject, "the King would " Ibid., 155. not have had Gary's eldest sister." ^ Ibid., 314,316. "Of all "women," The reason of this is not very- says one of Wolsey's correspondents evident, but it seems to be as- FINAL ALIENATION OF KING AND CARDINAL 93 Henry wrote a reassuring letter to Wolsey, of which chap Heneaofe writes to the latter, " This mornino^ .the ^^^ King's Highness, after the wiiting of his letter to ^■^- ^5^9 your Grace^ called Mr, Russell and me, to whom it pleased him to read the same ; and said to us that he dealt with you as one entire friend and master should do to another, with many kind words of your Grace, Wherefore, in the honour of God, be of good comfort, and take not this matter to your heaviness, but of the kind intent of his Highness ; and so he said he was sure ye would do, hke a wise man." Wolsey replied to this letter of the King, calhng it a gracious, loving letter, whereby he perceives that no spark of displeasure remaineth in the King's noble heart. ^ But from this correspondence it is evident that His muni- Henry was displeased mth Wolsey for expending so pfeTsed"^'^ large a sum in the foundation of Christ Church. ^*^"0' sociated witli the marriage of Gary and living in concubinage witli her, to Mary Boleyn, the King's former for some time, and urging this paramour. In 1520 the Lord-Lieu- as an aggravation of his sin in tenant and Council of Ireland pro- marrying her sister Aime. " Quid posed to Wolsey that the Earl of ea, quam tute tihi in repudiate Ormonde's son should marry Sir locum consociasti, cujiis-modi tan- Thomas Boleyii's daughter, for the dem est ? An non soror ejus purpose of adjusting disputes re- est, quam tu et violasti primum, specting titles to land in Ireland. et diu postea concubinse loco [State Pap,, ii. 50.] Henry agreed apud te habuisti ? Ilia ipsa est.'' to this proposal, but Wolsey's de- Reg. Pole ad Henry VIII. Brit. spatch sanctioning it is dated a year Begem pro Eccles. Unitatis defen- later, November 1521, long after sione, Libri iv. fol. Bom. lib. iii., Mary Boleyn's marriage to Gary. fol. ixxvii. 6. This quotation is [State Pap., ii. 57.] Neither letter given in Ellis' Orig. Letters, II. ii. mentions the name of the daughter. 43, and so experienced and cautious While on this subject it may be an historian as Sir Henry Ellis noted that Sanders' story about believes the charge to be true be- Henry's successive profligate al- yond a doubt. There is other liances with Lady Boleyn and both presumptive evidence so strong as her daughters, Mary and Anne, is to outweigh all contradictions yet not without foundation, Cardinal offered. Pole accusing him of seducing Mary ^ State Pap., i. 316, 317. 94 WOLSEY'S LAST DAYS AS A STATESMAN CHAP Probably he looked upon it as so mucb deducted .^---v-.^ from his own chance. Had the dissolved monasteries Ar>- 1529 been dissolved into the royal treasury there would have been no complaint. This view is confirmed by the diminution of the project when it fell into the King's hands. The alienation seems to have been complete on the part of the King when, in September 1529, The King Wolsey wToto dcsiriug an audience, that he might hold inter- commuuicate some matters of state, which he was him^^ ^^^^ unwilling to put in writing. The King replied by Gardiner, requiring Wolsey to state the heads of what he had to say^ a proceeding so different from his usual habits as regarded the Cardinal, that Ave must conclude he wished to put an end to the confidential terms which had so long existed between them.^ "When Campeggio, the legate sent over to act with Wolsey in adjudicating on the divorce, had an audience of the King to take his leave^ a week or two afterwards, Wolsey accompanied him, but was insulted by the careful omission of any preparation for his stay near the King. This was the last time he and Henry ever met, for when the King showed some signs of wishing for another interview with his faithful old minister, the new mistress who had got possession of him hurried him away by her per- suasions so as to make it impossible. and super- Wolsey opoued the Michaelmas term as Lord >edes him as chan- cellor 3 State Papers, i. 344. This may at Greenwicli, and Thomas Alward possibly have been a daring act of writes to Cromwell that he never Gardiner, but it is scarcely pro- saw the King behave more kindly bable that he would have ventured to Wolsey, and that, " whatever so far, even had he wished to shut they bare in their hearts," Suffolk, Wolsey out from the King's pru- Rochford, Tuke, and Master Ste- sence. On September 23, WoJsey vens (Gardiner) were as humble to- had been admitted to an audience wards him as ever. EUis, I. i 309. HIS CONDUCT AS ARCHBISHOP Chancellor, but on the foUowiiig daj^ the Dukes of chap Norfolk and Suffolk came to him with a verbal mes- ^^.^^ sage from the King, requiring him to give up the ^■^- ^529 great seal. This was a most unconstitutional pro- ceeding, as the great seal is always delivered to the chancellor by the sovereign in person, and received back in the same manner. Wolsey therefore refused to give up its custody without some further author- ity. This was given under letters patent (though how they could be confirmed without the great seal itself it is difficult to see), and on the following day Wolsey ceased to be chancellor and prime minister, remaining simply Archbishop of York so far as regarded his constitutional position. He was ordered to retire to Esher, the King's officers taking such Woisey's complete possession of all his goods that when there to^EsheT^ he found the greatest difficulty in securing even food for himself and his attendants ; and was deprived of such simple luxuries as household linen and plate. Some months later, about February, the King sent him some such necessaries, and permitted him to remove to the house built by Dean Colet at Sheen, near Richmond, where Wolsey spent most of his time in religious conversation with one of the old brethren of the charterhouse there, a gallery com- municating between his residence and the monasterv. In Passion Week he started for the north, spending and after- Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter at Peter- York' *° borough ; and nearly all the rest of his days he spent at Cawood, near York, which was then the Archi- episcopal residence. Here he won universal respect, his true character being all the more conspicuous now that he was freed from cares of state. A con- temporary writer on the Puritan side, quoted by 96 HIS ARREST AND DEATH CHAP Burnet, speaks of him in high terms of commenda- ^^.^.^^^ tion, within four or five years of his death : — A.D. 1530 " E"one was better beloved than he, after he had been there His exem- a "while. He gave bishops a good example, how they might piaiy life ^jj^ men's hearts. There was few holy-days but he would ride five or six miles from his house; now to this parish church, now to that ; and there cause one of his doctors to make a sermon unto the people : he sate among them, and said mass before all the parish. He saw why churches were made, and began to restore them to their right and proper use. If our bishops had done so, we should have seen, that preach- ing the gospel is not the cause of sedition ; but rather lack of preaching it. He brought his dinner with him, and bacle- divers of the parish to it. He inqiured if there was any debate or grudge between any of them ; if there were, after dinner he sent for the parties to the church, and made them all one.'' But this happy life of retirement was of very short duration. Before November he was arrested for high-treason by the Earl of Northumberland (the Lord Percy to whom Anne Boleyn had been at- tached) and Sir Walter Welsh (a cousin of Elizabeth Talbois, Anne Boleyn's predecessor)^ who seem to have been chosen for some purpose of special in- His death dignity. He died at Leicester Abbey^ heart-broken at the fate of his colleges and the King's ingratitude, on November 29^ 1530, when, even after so eventful a life, he was not quite sixty years of age. So passed away the greatest statesman that Eng- land had as yet ever seen, and the ]'eal leader of the Reformation. It is not necessary to say anything here of his personal character, as no attempt has been made to review his history, except so far as it is part of that of the Church and country at the period. But it may be said in passing that he has been WOLSEY'S AIMS AND POLICY 97 grossly and malevolently misrepresented, and that chap few English statesmen have really been so worthy ,^^^.^.^. the respect and gratitude of posterity/ Whether or not Wolsey was moved to take the Woisey's course he did by ambition is a question of very little n^ crime t Dnsequence. Ambition leaves an odious mark upon history only when it has been accompanied by wrong and bloodshed ; but not a single public act of this great man can be proved to have been unjust, while the gentleness and humanity of his government is conspicuous almost beyond belief when a sifting con- trast comes to be drawn between it and that of his contemporaries or successors. He sought power with great ends in view, and his ambition was the honourable ambition of a patriotic statesman. As regards the Church, he knew perfectly well that all ^ Among such misrepresentations it will be as well to refer in a note to the charge of immorality brought against him. As to his son and daughter, there can be little doubt that he (like Cardinal Campeggio, whose son was knighted by Henry VIII.) had been married, perhaps secretly, as Archbishop Craniner was. A supposed attack of sweat- ing sickness referred to in the in- dictment against him, as placing the King in danger of infection, is vilely misinterpreted by Bishop Burnet. It occurred when every one who could leave London had done so, on account of the same epidemic of which Dean Colet died. Wolsey refused to leave even at the entreaty of the King, and although several times prostrated by the sickness. At this time Pace writes from WalHngford in language that fully explains that of the indict- ment : " They do die in thesej)arts in every place, not only of the small pokl^es and measels, but also of the great sickness.'' Brewer's Calend. yt. Pap., ii. 4320. Further proofs might be given as. to what was meant and what was not meant, hut they are unfit for these pages. It may also be added that the fa- mous saying put into the mouth of Wolsey by Cavendish [Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., i 542] and Shakespeare [Henry VIII., Act III., Scene 2], " Had I but served my Gocl," etc., is traceable to an earlier date than that of Wolsey. "If," said De Berghes to Lady Margaret, " I and Benner had served God as we have served the King, we might have hoped for a good place in Paradise." [Brewer's St. Pap., III. xi.] Very similar words were also spoken by the Duke of Buckingham at the time of Ms condemnation in 1521, *' An he had not offended no more unto God than he had done to the Crown, he should die as true man as ever was in the world." [Ibid., 1356.] 98 THE OPPOSITION HE MET WITH CHAP the power and authority he could accumulate would ^_.^^^, not be too much (in the end it proved too little) to effect the reformations which he proposed. It would His con- have been utterly useless to attempt the task without of'power" it, when Pope, King, many of the clergy^ most of the and autho- nobilitv, and multitudes of the laity, would have rity neces- saryforhis opposed him. The event showed how matters stood. Few cared for reformation ; many cared for destruc- tion. Wolsey saw in what imminent peril the revenues of the Church were from the exhaustive squandering and grasping covetousness of the Court. The clergy declared, through Archbishop Warham, that no king of England had ever extorted such heavy taxes from them, and it was only by a somewhat subtle policy that Wolsey and Warham could stave off a fatal resistance to his further demands. But Wolsey hoped to save the revenues of the Church by admin- istering them more wisely than they had been managed hitherto ; hence his transference to colleges of monastic property that was lying comparatively useless, and his projected transformation of the larger town monasteries into bishoprics. No sooner, how- ever, was it seen that it was possible to dissolve monasteries and appropriate their revenues to other uses, than the covetousness of the King and his But proved courtiers sought to make a profit out of the discovery, mTst's an ^^^ Wolsey must be ruined as the first step in the example iniquitous course of spoliation. " These noble lords imagine that the Cardinal once dead or ruined," says the French ambassador of the day, '' they will incon- tinently plunder the Church, and strip it of all its wealth," and this was the common talk of London which he was writing down.^ Wolsey strove to be- ' Le Grand's Histoire du Divorce, iii. 374. HIS CONSTITUTIONAL MISTAKE 99 come quasi-pope of England that he might reform the chap clergy, turn some useless monasteries into useful .^^ — ^ bishoprics, colleges, and schools, revive learning, and Contrast make the Church more efficient and more suited for woTsey" its work in the coming order of things. Henry vnL^^"'^ VIII. made himself quasi-pope of England that he might lay his grasping hand upon the property of the Church, and have his own will — no matter whither it tended — in the control of aU its concerns. But, looking from the highest ground, and re- membering that there is a Divine Providence to assist and to restrain the actions of men, we cannot fail to ask the question, Why, if Wolsey had such excellent objects in view, why was it that he failed ? It has been so, often, before and since. The better man fails in doing the good he seeks to do in the better way : the worse man steps in and does it to a partial extent in a worse way. There are secret springs concealing the machinery of events which the historian cannot always touch ; and that machinery must often still lie hidden. But Wolsey s failure — woisey so far as it was a failure — is to be partly explained [trough by the fact that he tried to work out his ffood ends usingPapai , ,, , ,. ^.^^ . authority by means oi an external authority which essentially invaded the rights of the Church, instead of by the inherent authority which the Church of England and every other national Church possesses for re- forming itself There is some reason to believe — as will be shown in a later chapter^ — that he saw the better way but chose the worse. He was only Archbishop of York, and the northern Archbishops have little constitutional power. It was simply im- possible, so it must have seemed, to attempt a reformation of the Church when possessed of so 100 JVHV HIS CHURCH PLANS FAILED CHAP little general authority : and so he sought to be, ^.^./-^^ and became legate a latere, the Pope's Vicar in England^ wielding^ as others had done before him, an authority which he had no just right to wield, because, on no principle of ecclesiastical justice had He might the Pope any right to confer it. Had Wolsey ceeded had knowu better how to wait, he might have carried more m- ^^^ ^^^ plaus to their full extent by means of an tient authority which had just claims upon the obedience of the Church and people. He chose instead to attempt the attainment of the same good and noble ends by means of an authority delegated to him by the Pope ; consequently his plans broke down, a great opportunity was lost, and the Reformation never became in the hands of others what it had given fair promise of becoming in those of the most honest, the noblest, and the wisest of our Church reformers. CHAPTEE III THE DIVORCE OP HENRY VIII. FROM CATHERINE OV ARRAGON [A.D. 1527—1533] THE great and engrossing subject of discussion chap between the Courts of England and Rome, and .^^^ — indeed^ throughout every rank of Enghsh society also, from the year 1528 to the year 1533, was the divorce of Henry VIII. from Catherine of Arragon, the first of his six wives. It was in connection with this unhappy scandal that steps were taken by the King on the one hand^ and the Pope on the other^ which led to the final repudiation of the papal juris- diction by the Church and State of England, The narrative of all the events connected with this di- vorce must ever, therefore, form an important chapter of reformation history, and must necessarily be set forth at considerable length. The marriage of Henry and Catherine had been originally arranged purely as a matter of political expediency; and, appatently, without any regard whatever to the wishes of either of the persons prin- pally concerned. Even the measure of happiness which attended it for the first few years was more than could be expected from the circumstances of the 102 QUEEN CATHERINE'S FIRST MARRIAGE CHAP case ; and both the Kiner and the Queen must be TTT ,^.^.^^.,^, considered as victims of a statecraft which seems to have had no better motive than avarice to plead in its favour on one hand and convenience on the other. Catherine's Catherine of Arragon was the fourth daughter of to^Pi^ce Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain^ or^ according to Arthur their proper style, of Castile and Arragon. She was born in 1483; and at the age of eighteen was sent into England to become the wife of Arthur, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Henry VII., who was three years her junior, having been born on Septem- ber 20, 1486. This youth of fifteen was married to the Spanish Princess at St. Paul's Cathedral, on November 14, 1501, and he died in a little more than three months afterwards, on April 2, 1502, being even then seven months under sixteen years Her state- ^^ ^g®- ^^ later yoars Catherine asserted that this ment as to ^^.^ ^ marriae^e only in form, for that she and Arthur its consum- ^ ^ ^ . . mation had uovor become husband and wife in the full sense of the word.-^ This she declared in the most solemn terms, and in the presence of the King, whose silence appeared to give assent to her declaration. On the other hand, there were those who deposed that Prince Arthur had given reason to believe the con- trary, and Henry himself writes, in his ^^ Glass of Truth," that he was not called Prince for "a month and more" after his brothers death, because Catherine had an expectation that there might be a posthumous son born to her deceased boy-husband.^ The amount of Catherine's dower (about £40,000 1 West, Bishop of Ely, stated ten in 1527, and shown to the Pope before the Legates, in 1529, that in March 1528. The Queen's dis- the Queen had often sw6 testimonio tinct asseveration to the contrary conscientiw sucBj said this to him. of the statement contained in it 2 This book was probably writ- was publicly made in 1529. POLICY OF HENRY VII. AS TO HER SECOND 103 of the money of that day), and the advantages at- chap tending a family alliance with Ferdinand and Isabella, ..^..^-^^^ induced Henry VII. to look forward to a marriage between his widowed daughter-in-law and his younger son Henry, who was under eleven years of age at the time of Arthur s death, and was, therefore, eight years younger than Catherine. Such a marriage Her mar- being within the forbidden degrees, there was much H^i^ry op^- discussion as to its lawfulness or expediency under P°^^.^^^^y any circumstances whatever ; and Archbishop War- ham boldly set himself at the head of those who pro- tested altogether against its taking place. It was decided in the end that the Pope could grant a dis- pensation even for the marriage of a brother and. sister-in-law. This dispensation was applied for, and- given by Julius II., in the form of a bull, dated tut per- December 26, 1503. There can be very little doubt ^^^^^f,^ that the Pope acted thus for political reasons, hop- J^iii^s ii ing to strengthen his hands for the wars in which he had resolved to engage ; and that he legalised a marriage which would have b een disap proved of by almost alLtheJiest. divines of the period. Submis- sion to this highest form of a Pope's judicial utter- ances being then, however^ the rule of the Church, Warham and the opposing party which he headed, gave way. The betrothal was solemnized at once, but Henry being only twelve years of age, the mar- riage itself was not celebrated. Yet although he had gone so far, Henry VII. change oi seems afterwards to have changed his mind about g^""^"^ °^ the marriage : either by Warham's persuasions/'* or ^^i- for a reason which he had why he should secure a mode of withdrawing from the contract of it should '' Herbert's Hen. VIIL, p. 271. 104 EARLY MARRIED LIFE OF CHAP it ultimately seem desirable to do so. Tor on June ^^5-^^27, 1505 — the eve of his fourteenth birth-day — the young Prince signed a long protestation before Fox, Bishop of Winchester, that he did not intend to con- firm the contract made in his minority/ This formal Who protest indicates nothing as to the feelings of Henry fomd pro- himself, and being attested by Bishop Ruthal test against (amoug othors), the Secretary of State, it is plainly signed by a documont prepared in obedience to the wish of the King, and not at the desire of a lad only fourteen years of age.^ As soon as he was likely to have any feelings on the subject, Henry showed what was the nature of them by marrying his betrothed. His father dying, Henry YIII. came to the thi'one on April 21, 1509. There is no record of any further discussion respecting bis marriage, and it was cele- brated as soon as it possibly could be (within six weeks of the old kings death), on June 3, 1509. Henry was at this time eighteen, and Catherine twenty-six years of age. This discrepancy of age was most unfortunate, as it could not fail to lead to The mar- futuro unhappinoss. But from the records remain- ifeTr^at^ ing in Henry s own handwriting, it is evident that first happy ]^g lovod Catherine very heartily in -the early days of their wedded life, and that no trace of reluctance or aversion appeared at that time. Three weeks after the wedding be wrote to his father-in-law, saying that the love he bore to Catherine was so ^ . . . . Ea propter, Ego Henri- .... Protestorq. quod per nul- cusWalli3ePrincepspr0eclictus,jam lum dictum, factum, actum proximus pubertati existens, et volo aut intendo in prsefatum con- annos pubertatis attingens, Pro- tractum matrimonialem, aut in dic- testor, quod non intendo eundera tam Dominam Catherinam tan- prjetensum contractum per quae- quam Sponsam aut Uxorem meam cunque per me dicta sen dicenda, consentire." facta aut facienda, in aliquo appro- ^ So Bishop Fox aflirmed in 1527. liare, validare, seu ratum habere. Herbert's Hen. VIII., p. 274. HENRY VIII. AND QUEEN CATHERINE 105 great, that if he were free he should still choose her chap for his wife in preference to all others.® And on the ,^.^.^^-^^ next day he writes in a similar strain to Margaret of Savoy, singularly enough nullifying the words of the protest just quoted, by adding, that as it was his father s wish he should marry Catherine, so he had no desire to disobey now that he was of full age.^ And althou2i"h there was so sreat a difference in the Reasons ages of Henry and Catherine, the latter seems to ^^J^^ i- J^be have been very attractive at this time, and well ^^ calculated to win the affection of her young husband, brought up as he had been. She had good talents, and was highly educated, so that Erasmus wrote of her in 1518, that she was a miracle of learning. Perhaps her beauty was not of the most dazzling kind, yet a correspondent of Margaret of Savoy writes that she had '^ a very beautiful complexion/'^ which by no means indicates plainness ] and then, testifies the same writer, *^ she has a lively and gracious disposition," a buoyancy of spirits which doubtless forsook her in the troublous days of her later life. Her love for Henry was most tender from first to last. '' With his health and life," she writes to Wolsey in 1513, ^^ nothing can come amiss to me : without them, I see no manner of good thing shall fall afterwards." During the King's absence from her, she begs Wolsey to write to her often about him, and her own letters to Henry are gentle, affectionate, and spirited. In short, her affection for him seems to have been very deeply rooted : " Her, tliat loves him with, that excellence That angels love good men with."^ ^ Brewer's Calencl. St. Pap., i. 338. coronation on St. John Baptist's 7 Ibid., 224. In this letter Day. Henry states that the marriage ^ Brewei''sCalend.St.Pap.,i.5203. tuok place on June 11, and the ^ Henry VIII., Act ii. Scene 2. 106 FIRST SHADOWS FALLING CHAP ISTor could any ill-treatment alienate her heart from TTT • ^^..^.^^^^ him, for her touching words as she was dying were, ^' Lastly, I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things."^ When the shadows first began to fall on this sunny life, it is not hard to see. They had not long been married before the natural results of a discrepancy of age on the wrong side began to show themselves. Catherine's In the Spring of 1510, when an heir to the throne was expected, there happened instead the first of those disappointments which so evidently preyed on Henry's mind, " Her male issue Or died where they were made, or shortly after This world had air'd them." ^ Her second A few mouths later the hopes of an heir were revived by the birth of a son, on January 1, 1511. Great rejoicings accompanied his birth, a state household was appointed for him^ and in documents appointing the officers belonging to it, he is already called Henry, Prince of Wales. But these preparations for the future gathered round a poor sickly infant, who did not live to be two months old. He died on Tebruary 22, 1511, and the last touching record of him is a warrant assigning an annuity of £20, from Easter of that year, to Elizabeth Pointes, '^ate nurse unto our dearest son the Prince." Her third lu Novombor 1513, another prince was born, who and fourth ^-^^ immediately. ' In December 1514, there was a premature birth of another son, still-born, to the gi^eat grief, the Venetian ambassador writes, of the whole nation. If a letter of Peter Martyr (dated December 31, 1514) is to be believed, this occurred in conse ^ Herbert's Hen. VIIL, p. 432. ^ jjeii. VIIL, Act ii. Scene 4. ^ Linixard, iv. 290. DEATH OF THEIR CHILDREN 107 quence of ill-treatment whicli Catherine had received chap from Henry on the occasion of a quarrel between .^^^.^-^^ himself and his father-in-law^ Ferdinand.* Stowe and HoUinshed both refer to the birth of this child, but no official documents remain respecting it^ nor any further record : neither have we anything but Peter Martyr's rumour for the story of the ill-treat- mentj which one may wish to disbelieve^ but which seems only too likely to be true. In 1515 it is supposed that a similar event again Birth of disappointed the King and the nation : ^ but on Mary February 18, 1516, a daughter was born, who lived to grow up. She was christened by the name of Mary two days afterwards, Cardinal Wolsey being her godfather.^ Another daughter was born on November 1 0, 1 5 1 8, The after long and anxious pubhc expectation in the hope ^^enai of a prince. How the event was looked forward to in ^^^^ this case is shown by the State Papers, and probably they only indicate the feeling on former occasions. " It is secretly said," wrote Pace to Wolsey, on April 12, 1518, "that the Queen is with child."^ The Venetian ambassador wrote to the Doge, on June 6, 1518, that a report has prevailed for some time of the Queen's pregnancy, '^an event most earnestly desired by the whole kingdom," and the report has been confirmed to him by a trustworthy person.® The King himself wrote privately to Wolsey, in July, " I trust the Queen, my wife, be with child."^ A few days afterwards a Te Deum was ordered to be - Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. the King's sister, and mother of ^' IS- Lady Jane Grey. 5 Giustiniani's Despatches, i. 81. ? Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., 6 He was also godfather to Heniy VIIL,i. 4074. Frances, daughter of Suffolk and ^ i^{^^^ 4213, 9 'xbi^. l 1 108 CONSEQUENT DISAPPOINTMENT CHAP sung in St. Paul's to celebrate the auspicious event/ .^.-^,^ and so naucli interest was felt in tlie matter, even abroad, that his ambassador at Rome wrote to Henry, A prince on August 27^ that the Pope had inquired if such was looked for the case, and he'had replied in the affirmative.^ The Venetian ambassador was always forward with intel- ligence, and in his despatch of October 25^ he writes that the Queen is near her delivery, which is most anxiously looked for, and prays that she may have a son •} but on November 10, he communicates to his Government the fact that ^' This night the Queen was delivered of a daughter, to the vexation of as many as know it." Why there was so much public anxiety and so great disappointment, is shown by his suc- ceeding words, in which he says, '^The entire nation looked for a prince," and if the event had occurred before the betrothal of the Princess Mary to the Dauj)hin of France, the latter would probably have been stopped.^ A prince would have secured an English succession, but the betrothal of Mary to a French prince seemed to place the kingdom in danger of being handed over to its ancient enemy, "the sole fear of this kingdom being that it may pass into the power of the French King through this marriage.^ Thus ended all hopes of a son of Catherine suc- ceeding to the Crown of England, and there can be no doubt that the disappointment was a bitter one both to the King and the nation. Henceforth she was only the state partner of his throne, for he ceased to consort with her, and carried his affections to another quarter. To what extent there really had been any previous 1 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. 2. ^ It had taken place on October 2 Ibid., 4398. 5th, five wc^eks before. ^ IbKl., 4529. r- Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., 4568. HENRY VIII, AND ELIZABETH BLUNT 109 alienation from Catherine on the part of her husband^ we have no evidence, although he seems to have ac- quired libertine habits some years before. Balthasar, the French ambassador^ writing home in 1515, ^^He is a youngling, cares for nothing but girls and hunt- ing, and wastes his father's patrimony."^ But we have his own words in proof that about this time he forsook the Queen altogether, putting upon her the greatest indignity that a husband could/ The settled character of his alienation is shown by the intimacy which now arose between the King and Elizabeth, the widow of Sir Gilbert Talbois. This lady belong^ed His con- 1 1 1 p -1 1 • 1 section to a very anciently ennobled family; being the with Lady daughter of Sir John Blunt, and Catherine, third TaTbois daughter of Sir Thomas Peshall ; the former of whom was closely related to the great Lord Mount- joy, and like him, a direct descendant (by a different wife) of Sir Walter Blunt of Rock and Sodington [1272-1315], in the reigns of Edward I. and II. Her dishonourable connection with the King resulted, sometime in the year 1519, in the birth of a son, who a.d. 1519 was christened Henry Fitz-Roy, and created Earl of Nottingham, and Duke of Richmond and Somerset on June 17, 1526. Lord Herbert says that this youth '"''was equally like to both parents," his mother Henry " being thought, for her rare ornaments of nature ^ ^ ^^ and education, to be the beauty and mistress piece of the time."^ He became the bosom friend of the brave and polished Earl of Surrey, who lamented his 6 Brewer's Calcnd. St. Pap,, 1105. a bull (in his capacity as Legate) ^ " The King declared to Simon against marriages within the pro- Grinceus" (as the latter writes to habited degrees. This mw^ have Bucer, September 10, 1531) "thatfor suggested to the King the way of seven years he had abstained from escape from a bondage which he the Queen." It is observable that already hated. Burnet's Ref., i. 78. in the year 1524 Wolsey published ^ Herbert's Henry VIIL, p. 165. 110 THEIR SON, THE DUKE OF RICHMOND death as if he had lost a brother. It is alleged by- several writers of the period that the King intended to appoint this son heir to the crown at a time when he had no legitimate male issue : and all accounts of him speak so highly of his capacities and disposi- tion, as to indicate that, but for his illegitimacy, he would have been quite worthy of the position thus destined for him by his father.^ No records show how long Elizabeth Talbois (more commonly spoken of by her maiden name) retained her hold upon the King's affections : but it is singular to observe that she survived all the King's six: wives, and after his death married Lord Clinton, who was subsequently created Earl of Lincoln by Queen Elizabeth.^ And ^ This assertion is founded on a clause in the Act of Snccession passed a few months before the yonng Duke's death. It enacted " That for lack of lawful heirs of the King's body to be procreated or begotten, as is afore limited by this Act, it shall and may be lawful for him to confer the same on any such person or persons, in posses- sion and remainder, as should please bis Plighness, and according to such estate, and after such man- ner, form, fashion, order, and con- dition as should be expressed, de- clared, named, and limited, in his said letters patent or by, his last will : the Crown to be enjoyed by such person or persons so to be nominated & appointed in as large & ample a manner as if such per- son or persons had been his Hij^h- ness' lawful heirs to the imperial Crown of this realm." [28 Hen. VIIL c. 7.] The King conferred the highest honours he could on Henry Fitz- Roy, short of making him Prince of Wales, and this latter title seems to have been forestalled by the creation of Mary Princess of Wales in 1518, [Burnet, i. 76.] He was made Earl Marshal, Knight of the Garter, and Lord High Admiral. He was also married, by the King's own management, to Mary, daugh- ter of the Duke of Norfolk, the highest match to be found among the subjects of the Crown. This marriage took place in 1533, and the Duke died, at tlie age of seven- teen, on July 22, 1536. His widow was recognised as Duchess of Rich- mond, and had a dower from the Crown for her second marriage. Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 84, 226 ; Ellis' Orig. Letters, 11. cxx. ; State Pa- pers, i. 577. 1 Queen Elizabeth was bom about the time of the Duke of Richmond's marriage, Cranmer mentioning both events together in the letter re- ferred to in the previous notes. The Duke being in such high favour with his lather, and being all but made heir to the Cro"v\Ti, it is scarcely likely but that liis mo- ther was also ; and it is possible that her name was given to the infant princess just born ; though, of course, it must be remembered that Elizabeth was the name of tlie ALIEN A TION OF HENR V FROM THE QUEEN 111 for however short a time her actual association with chap the King may have continued, one can see that the ..^^-^^ influence of a young, well-bom, well-educated, clever, and beautiful woman such as she was, must have tended much to draw him away more entirely from the Queen. For the time had now arrived when the discrep- other ancy of age between Henry and Catherine was {he King's beginning to grow very conspicuous. In the year f^om^^^^" / 1518 the one was thirty-five and the other only Catherine twenty-seven years of age. Under the best of cir- r stances such a difference tells greatly ; but in case Catherine was older even than her years^ for her health was much broken, and she had been seven times a mother under circumstances of peculiar trial. Her beauty had faded away, her sprightly buoyancy had gone, and she had become, as her daughter Mary became afterwards, somewhat austere in her religious practices. Had her husband been eight years older than herself, with the cares of state upon him, all this would have been of little conse- quence, as the fervour of youthful passion would have diminished, and the Queen was still a person to be loved and esteemed in a very high degree. But Henry Avas now at the full tide of life as regarded his passions, and under their influence as a nature such as his was likely to be. The Venetian ambas- Contem- sador describes the kind of man he was a few years sc^ripaonof before, writing home to his court in 1515 a glowing ^^^^^^ description of the King's general flvysiqiie : — ■ person child's two grandmothers. That leyn, daughter of Thomas Blunt, there was some family connection Esqre, as being buried in the between the Boleyns and the Blunts Apostles' chapel of the Grey Friars seems indicated by the fact that (Christ's Hospital), the old Blunt Stow mentions an Elizabeth Bo- burial-place. 112 HENRY VII I. DESCRIBED BY A FOREIGNER " His Majesty is the handsomest potentate I ever set eyes on : above the usual height, with an extremely fine calf to his leg; his complexion very fair and bright, with auburn hair combed straight and short in the French fashion, and a round face, so very beautiful, that it would become a pretty woman, his throat being rather long and thick." ^ Four years later a similar account is given, which goes more into detail, and speaks of his habits as well as his person, as they appeared to an observant foreigner : — " His Majesty is twenty-nine years old, and extremely hand- some. Nature could not have done more for him. He is much handsomer than any other sovereign in Cliristendom ; a great deal handsomer than the King of France ; very fair, and his whole frame admirably proportioned. On hearing that Francis I. wore a beard, he allowed his own to grow, and as it is reddish, he has now got a beard that looks like gold. He is very accomplished; a good musician, composes well; is a most capital horseman; a fine j ouster; speaks good French, Latin, and Spanish ; is very religious ; hears three masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days. He hears the office every day in the Queen's chamber, that is to say, vesper and compline. He is very fond of hunting, and never takes his diversion without tiring eight or ten horses, which he causes to be stationed beforehand along the line of country he means to take ; and when one is tired he mounts another, and before he gets home they are all exhausted. He is extremely fond of tennis, at which game it is the prettiest thing in the world to see him play, his fair skin glowing through a shirt of the finest texture."^ 2 Ginstiniani's Despatches, i. 86. silver breastplates, who * were aU ^ Ibid., ii. 312. From the same as big as giants.' ' He wore a cap source we have a vivid description of crimson velvet in the French of the King's dress at a " solemn fashion, and the brim was looped reception," which will help the ut> all roimd with lacets and gold reader to fill up the picture of enamelled tags. His doublet was Henry's appearance at about the in the Swiss fashion, striped al- age of thirty: — "His bodyguard temately with white and crimson consisted of 300 halberdiers with satin; and his hose were scarlet, FIRST IDEA OF A DIVORCE 113 A man of tliis kind would find little satisfaction in chap the society of an invalid wife, whose charms had been ^^^^^^^ ripened early under a southern sky, and had faded early under the trial of adverse circumstances and a northern climate.^ It is not surprising, therefore, to find the shades of her great trouble already beginning to come over her, to deepen more and more until they were lost in the deeper shadow of death itself. When, in what manner, and by whose suggestion, the idea of a divorce from Catherine first i)resented itself to the King has been the subject of much con- troversy ; but no writer has brought forward any evidence to show that it was entertained earlier than the beginning of 1527. The coming event casts forward its shadow at first in the shape of revived doubts respecting the legality Revived of Henry s marriage with his brother's widow. That th^iegaiity such doubts had at one time been strongly felt is ^^^^'^^nitr- evident. The Archbishop of Canterbury had only ^^i^ge given up his opposition in deference to the dispen- sation issued by the Pope : and in his evidence and all slashed from the knee np- of cloth of gold, which covered a wards. Very close round his neck dagger, and his fingers were one he had a gold collar, from which mass of jewelled rings." there hnng a rough cnt diamond, ^ Among the instructions sent to the size of the largest walnut I ever Cassilis for his guidance in corn- saw, and to this was suspended a municating with the Pope, there is most beautiful and very large round the following, dated January 1 528 : pearl. His mantle was of purple — " In hac deinde re secreta insunt velvet lined with white satin, the nonnulla, secreto Sanctissimo Do- sleeves open, -with a train more than mino nostro exponenda, et non cre- four Venetian yards long. This denda Uteris, quas oh causas, mor- mantle was girt in front like a bosque nonnullos, quibus absque gown, with a thick cord, from which remedio Regina laborat, et ob aninai there hung large golden acorns like etiam conceptum scrupulum, Regia those suspended from a cardinal's Majestas nee potest, nee vnlt ullo hat ; over this mantle was a very unquam posthac tempore, ea uti, handsome gold collar, with a pend- vel ut Uxorem admittere, quod- ant !St. George entirely of diamonds, cunque evenerit." — Burnet, iv. 55, Beneath the mantle he wore a pouch Pocock's Ed. 114 FRENCH ENVOY ON ILLEGALITY OF MARRIAGE CHAP, before the legates he speaks of popular discontent, ,^^-^,^^^ " the murmurings of the people/' which was only A.D. 1526 quieted by the same deference to what was thought a sufficient sanction and authority.^ And although the protest of Henry himself indicates nothing so far as he himself was concerned^ it shows that his politic father considered the legality of the proposed mar- riage extremely doubtful^ even after it had received the Papal license. But after the marriage had taken place we hear nothing further of these doubts respecting its lawful- ness for about eighteen years. At the end of the year 1526^ negotiations were in progress with refer- ence to a contemplated marriage between the Princess Mary and one of the two sons of the King of France.^ Pi-incess The Bishop of Tarbes (afterwards Cardinal Gram- kgTdmacy ^lout) was the envoy to whom these negotiations suggested -^ere entrusted ; and he raised an objection against it that the Pope had exceeded his powers in granting a dispensation for the marriage of Henry to Cath- erine, for that such an union was forbidden by the law of God, not only by the law of the Church; and that, therefore, the marriage was not in fact valid, nor the Princess Mary a lawful daughter of the King. Such diplomatic doubts rather suggested nullity of marriage than divorce ; and the latter is said to have been proposed to the King originally by his confessor, Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, who did so at the bidding of Cardinal Wolsey. But this story, although it was adopted by Lord Herbert and 5 Herliert's Hen. VIII., 271. of, and then his yonnger brother. « From December 24, 1526, to Maiy had hecn espoused to the March 2, \:yli},^Tl. Em] .(.-ror Charles V.Avhen an infant, ^ The Dauphin was first talked tmd ended by marrying liis son. EXCULPATION OF WOLSEY 115 Bishop Burnet, arose out of the prejudices which chap were entertained by so many against Wolsey in his ..^.^-^-^^ later years, and has no other foundation. It was distinctly contradicted by the King, and by Bishop Longland :® the fact being that divorce was first Divorce mentioned to both Wolsey and Longland by the tioned b"y King himselfj whose account of the matter is given ^^^ ^^'"S" by Cavendish as it was spoken in his hearing before the two legates : — " ' Sir/ said "Wolsey, * I most humbly require your Higlmeps Contem- _ to declare before all this audience, whether I have been the Senc7on'^ chief and first mover of this matter unto your JMajesty, or no ; the sub- for I am greatly suspected of all men herein/ ' My Lord ^^^ Cardinal,' quoth the King, ' I can well excuse you in this matter. Marry (quoth he), ye have been rather against me in the attempting hereof than a setter forth, or a mover of the same. Tlie special cause that moA^ed me unto tliis matter was, a certain scrupulosity that pricked my conscience, upon cer- tain words spoken at a time by the Bishop of Bayon, the French ambassador, who had been hither sent upon the debat- ing of a marriage to be concluded between the Princess, our daughter, the Lady Mary, and the Duke of Orleans, second son to the King of France. And upon the consultation and determination of the same, he desired respite to advertise the King his master thereof, whether our daughter Mary should be legitimate, in respect of this my marriage wdth this woman, being sometimes my brother's wife. Which words, once con- ceived in the secret bottom of my conscience, engendered such a scrupulous doubt, that my conscience was incontinently ^ A Life of Sir Thomas More, the matter after that sort as is said ; Avritten shortly after Longland's but the King brake the matter to death, contains the following pas- him first ; and never left urging sage : — " I have heard Dr. Dray- him until he had won him to give cot, that was his [Longland's] chap- his consent. Of which his doings, lain and chancellor, say, that he he did sore forethink himself, and once told the Bishop what rumour repented afterward, &c." — MS. ran ; and desired to know of him Coll. Eman. Cant., quoted in Bur- the very trnth. Wlio ansAvered, net. Pocock's Ed., i. 77. that in very deed he did not break 116 THE KING'S CONSCIENCE CHAP accumbred, vexed, and disquieted ; whereby I thought myself i^^ to be in great danger of God's indignation ; which appeared to me, as me seemed, the rather for that he sent us no issue male ; and aU such issues male, as my said wife had by me, died incontinent after they came into the world ; so that I doubted the great displeasure of God in that behalf Thus my conscience being tossed in the waves of scrupulous doubts, and partly in despair to have any other issue than I had already by this Lady now my wife, it behoved me further to consider the state of this realm, and the danger it stood in for lack of a Prince to succeed me. I thought it good, therefore, in release of the weighty burden of my weak conscience, and also the quiet state of this worthy realm, to attempt the law therein, whether I may lawfully take another wife more law- full, without spot of carnal concupiscence, by whom God may send me more issue, in case this my first copulation was not good : and not for any displeasure or misliking of the Queen's person and age, with whom I could be as well contented to continue, if our marriage may stand with the laws of God, as with any woman alive/ "^ .... As Henry had no object to serve by throwing a responsibility on "VVolsey which the latter wished to disclaim, we may conclude that this evidence is clear as far as the Cardinal is concerned^ and that the idea of a divorce from Catherine did not originate with him. As to its origination in conscientious scruples on the part of the King, the world has always been very incredulous on account of the circumstances connected with his second marriage. The general Contem- opiuion of the time^ and of subsequent ages also, was mon onXe oxpressed by Shakespeare, and that at a time when subject -^ would have been extremely dangerous to express such an opinion if it had not represented that of society at large -} — 8 Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog., i. 426. seems to have thought that the less ^ But Queen Elizabeth always said about her mother the better. HIS MIXED MO TIVES 11^ Buffollc. How is tlie King employed ] CHAP Chamherlain. I left him private. Ill Full of sad thoughts and troubles. >--'^v^^^ Norfolk. What's the cause ? Chambm-Iain. It seems the marriage with his brother's wife Has crept too near his conscience. Suffolk. No, his conscience Has crept too near another lady. Norfolk. 'Tisso.' Those who study the springs of human actions know well, however, that unmixed motives are extremely rare ; and as Henry was one of those men of strong Probably passions in whom the religious instinct coexists, to a scmpieria certain extent, with habits of sensual indulgence, it l^f^^^^'"^'^ would probably be unjust to suppose that these scruples of conscience were altogether feigned. In- clination, policy, and conscientious scruple, each had their influence on the Kings mind in suggesting the expediency of a divorce from Catherine, and which of these mixed motives took precedence of the others is beyond the power of the historian to determine. In the very earliest stages of this unhappy busi- Anne ness, the " other lady" was, nevertheless, in corre- ead^on spondence with the King on the subject of marriage ; ^^^ ^^^"^ and Cardinal Pole did not hesitate to tell the King (at a later date), as if it was a fact known to them both, that the divorce was first suggested by her, and that she found certain priests and doctors who conveyed her suggestions to him.^ At what date Anne Boleyn first took her place in ^ Hen. VIII., actii. scene 2. quod punctum ullum temporis earn ^ " Ilia ipsa sacerdotes siio graves retinere, ac nisi continvio repudi- theologos, quasi pignora prompts ares, gravissimam Dei oflensionem voluntatis, niisit, qui non mode tibi denunciarent. Hie primus totius licereaffinuarentuxoremdimittere, fabulse exorsus f uit." Poli. Epp., f. sed graviter etiam peccare dicerent, Ixxvi. 118 ANNE BOLEYN'S GIRLHOOD CHAP III Her first experien- ces of a Court Early en- gagement to Lord Percy the court of which, she was afterwards to be Queen is not at all clearly made out. She had spent a good portion of her girlish days previous to the year 1522 (when she was sixteen years of age) at the court of France, as maid of honour to the French queen. In that year, her father, Sir Thomas Boleyn^ returned to England, bringing his daughter with him, and at the end of the year her name occurs as attached to the royal wardrobe. It is altogether improbable that she spent any part of the next five years in France. Yet the first we hear of her at the court of Queen Catherine, beyond the fact of her becoming one of her maids of honour, is in a romantic story of her early attachment to the young Lord Percy, which is told by Cavendish, gentleman usher to Cardinal Wolsey, and which he narrates as one intimately acquainted (as he was from his office likely to be) with all the circumstances '} — died in 1527] "]^ow was at that time" — he says, but leaving the date [This Earl altogether uncertain — " the Lord Percy, son and heir of the Earl of Northumberland, attending upon my Lord Cardinal, and was his servant; and when it chanced the said Lord Car- dinal at any time to repair unto the court, the Lord Percy would resort then for his pastime into Queen Katharine's chamber, and there would he fall in dalliance among the maids, being at the last more conversant with ]\Irs. Anne Bullen than any other, so that there grew such a secret love ^ The same defect as to date he- longs to another interesting fact stated hy Cavendish. " The long hid and secret love that was hc- tween the King and Mistress Anne Bullen brake now out, and the matter was by the King disclosed unto my Lord Cardinal, whose per- suasion upon his knees long time before to the King to the contrary would not serve : the King was so affectioned that will bare place, and discretion was banished clean for the time." ["Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. i. 416.] There is a, letter from Wolsey to the King respect- ing the divorce in the State Papers, i. 195. ItisdatedJulyl,1527,and in it AVolsey advises his master to " handle her both gently and douce- ly," as he says he had previously advised in a message by Sampson. STOR V OF HER BETRO THAL 119 between them, that at the length, they were insured together, ciiAP intending to marry. The which thing when it came to the ^^^ King's knowledge, he, was therewith mightily otl'ended. Where- fore lie could no longer hide his secret affection, but he revealed his whole displeasure and secrets unto the Cardinal in that behalf; and willed him to infringe the assurance, made then between the said Lord Percy and Mrs. Anne BuUen. Inso- much as. the Cardinal, after his return home from the co\^Tt to his house in Westminster, being ;n his gallery, not forgetting the King's commandment, called then the said Lord Percy unto his presence, and before us his servants, then attending upon him, said unto him thus : ' I marvel not a little/ quoth he, ' of thy folly, that thou wouldest thus entangle and ensure thyself with a foolish girl yonder in the court, Anne Bullen. Doest thou not consider the estate that God hath called thee unto in this world ? For after thy father's death, thou art most like to inherit aud enjoy one of the noblest earldoms of this region. Therefore it had been most convenient for thee, to have sued for the consent of thy fatlier in that case, and to have also made the King's Highness privy thereof, requiring therein his princely favour, submitting thy proceeding in aU such matters unto his Highness, who would not only thank- fully have accepted thy submission, but would, 1 am assured, have provided so for thy purpose tlierein, that he would have advanced thee much more nobly, and have matched thee according to thine estate and honour, whereby thou mightesfc have grown so by thy wise behaviour in the King's high esti- mation, that it should have been much thine advancement. But now see what ye have done, through your willfulness. You have not only offended your father, but also your loving Sovereign Lord, and matched yourself with one, such as neither tlie King nor your father will be agreeable to the match. And hereof I put thee out of doubt, that 1 will send for thy father, and at his coming he shall either break this unadvised bargain or else disinherit thee for ever. The King's Majesty himself will complain to thy father on thee, and require no less tlian I have said ; whose Highness intending to have preferred Aime Bullen unto another person, wherein the Kiug hath already travelled, and being almost at a point with the same person 120 ALLEGED BETROTHAL OF CHAP for liGr, altliough she knoweth not it, yet hath the King, most ^11 like a politic and prudent Prince conveyed the matter in such sort, that she, upon his Grace's motion, will be, I doubt not, right glad, and agreeable to the same.' ' Sir,' quoth the -Lord Percy, all weeping, ' I know nothing of the King's pleasure herein, for the which I am very sorry. I consider I am of good years, and thought myself sufficient to provide me a convenient wife, whereas my fancy served me best, not doubting but that my lord my father would have been right well contented. And although she be but a simple maid, having but a knight to her father, yet she is descended of right noble blood and parentage. As for her mother, she is nigh of the Norfolk's blood ; and as for her father he is de- scended of the Earl of Ormond, being one of the Earl's heirs general. Why should I then, Sir, be anything scrupulous to match with her, whose estate and descent is equal with mine, even when I shall be in most dignity ? Therefore I most humbly require your Grace of your favour herein ; and also to entreat the King's Majesty most humbly on my behalf, for his princely favour in this matter, the which I cannot forsake/ ' Lo, sirs,' quoth the Cardinal unto us, 'ye may see what wisdom is in this wilful boy's head. I thought when thou heardest me declare the King's pleasure and intendment herein, that thou wouldest have relented, and put thyself and thy voluptuous act wholly to the King's wiU and pleasure, and by liim to have been ordered as his Grace should have thought good.' ' Sir,' quoth the Lord Percy, ' so I would, but in this matter I have gone so far, before many worthy witnesses, that I know not how to discharge mys'.df and- my conscience.' 'Why thinkest thou,' said the Cardinal, ' that the King and I know not what we have to do in as weighty a matter as this ? Yes (quoth he), I warrant thee. But I can see in thee no submission to the purpose.' ' Eorsooth, my Lord/ quoth the Lord Percy, ' if it please your Grace I wiU submit myself wholly unto the King's Majesty and your Grace in this matter, my conscience being discharged of the weighty biu-den thereof/ ' Well then,' quoth the Cardinal, ' I will send for your father out of the north parts, and he and we shall take such order in this matter as shall ANNE BOLEYN AND LORD PERCY 121 be thought by the King most convenient. And in the mean cHAP season, I charge that thou resort no more into her company, ^^^ as thou wilt abide the King's indignation/ And therewith he rose up, and went his way into his chamber. Then was the Earl of Northumberland sent for in the King's name, who, upon receipt of the l&ig's letters, made all the speed that he coul(i unto the King out of the north. At his coming first he made his resort unto my Lord Cardinal, as most commonly did all other noble personages, that were sent for in such sort, at whose hands they were advertised of the cause of their sending for. But when the Earl was come to my Lord, he was brought incontinent unto In'm in his gallery. After whose meeting my Lord Cardinal and he were in secret com- munication a long space. And after their long talk and drinking of a cup of wine, the Earl departed. And in going his way, he sat down at the galleries end, in the half place, upon a form that was standing there for the waiter's ease. And being there set called his son unto him, we standing before him, and said thus in effect unto him : — ' Son,* quoth he, ' even as thou art, and always hast been, a proud, licen- tious, disdainful, and a very unthrifty waster, so hast thou now declared thyself. Wherefore what joy, what comfort, what pleasure, or solace shall I conceive of thee, that thus without discretion hast misused thyself, having neither regard unto me, thy natural father, nor ujito thy natural sovereign Lord, to whom all subjects loyal bear faithful obedience ; nor yet to the wealth of thine own estate, but hast so unadvisedly assured thyself unto her, for whom thou hast purchased the King's high displeasure, intolerable for any subject to sustain. And but that his Grace doth consider the lightness of thy head, and wilful qualities of thy person, his displeasure and indignation were sufficient to cast me and all my posterity into utter ruin and destruction. But he, being my singular good and favourable Prince, and my Lord Cardinal my good Lord, hath and doth clearly excuse me in thy lewd fact, and doth rather lament thy lightness than malign me for the same ; and hath devised an order to be taken for thee ; to whom both thou and I be more bound than we be able weU to consider. I pray to God that this may be unto thee a sufficient admoni- 122 LORD PERCY'S CONTRADICTION C:hap tion to use thyself more wisely hereaffcer ; for that I assure ^^^ thee, if thou dost not amend thy prodigality, thou wilt be the last Earl of our house ; for of thy natural inclination thou art [He was disposed to be wasteful and prodigal, and to consume all that "Vhe un- '^ progenitors have with great travail gathered and kept thiifty together with honour. But having the King's Majesty my ' ^^ ^ singular good and gracious Lord, I trust, I assure thee,, so to order my succession that you shall consume thereof but a little. For I do not intend, I tell the truth, to make thee mine heir ; for thanks be to God, I have more boys, that I trust will prove much better, and use themselves more hke unto wise and honest men, of whom I will chuse the most likely to succeed me. !N"ow good masters and gentlemen' (quoth he unto us), ' it may be your chances hereafter, when I am dead, to see these things that I have spoken to my son prove as true as I spake them. Yet in the mean season I desire you all to be his friends, and to tell him his fault, when he doeth amiss, wherein you shall show yourselves friendly unto him. And here,' quoth he, ' I take my leave of you. And, son, go your ways into my Lord, your master, and attend upon him according to thy duty.' And so he departed, and went his way down the hall into his barge. " Then after long consultation and debating in this the Lord Percy's late assurance, it was devised that the same should be infringed and dissolved, and that the Lord Percy should marry one of the Earl of Sln-ewsbury's daughters. And so he did after all this ; by means whereof the former contract was dis- solved ; wherewith Mistress Anne Bullen was greatly offended, promising if it ever lay in her power she woidd work much displeasure to the Cardinal ; as after she did indeed. And yet was he not in blame altogether ; for he did nothing but by the King's devised commandment. And even as my Lord Percy was commanded to avoid her company, so she was discharged of the Court, and sent home to her father for a season, whereat she smoked ; for all this time she knew nothing of the King's intended purpose."^ At a later period Lord Percy, then Eai"! of ^ Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog., i. there exists a, contemporary ver- 363. Among the Vatican MSS. sion of the story in verse. SOME EVIDENCE THE OTHER WAY 123 Northumberland, denied that there had been any chap pre-contract between him and Anne Boleyn, and it ,^_J^^ is possible that the matter had not gone so far as a formal betrothal.^ Yet there exists a letter from some person whose name was not attached to it, which seems to show clearly enough that she was formally betrothed, and not merely " engaged" to the writer ; and remembering that Cavendish was an eye and ear witness of the interview between Lord Percy and his father, and that he has always been regarded, as a most honest and truthful historian, it is very difficult to suppose that the letter could be written by any one except Lord Percy. It is as follows : — " Mr. Malton, this shall be to advertise you that Mistress Anne is changed from that she was at when we three were last together. Wherefore^ I pray you, that ye be no devil's sack, but according to the truth ever justify, as ye shall make answer before God, and do not suffer her in my absence to be married to any otlier man. I must go to my master, -where- soever he be, for the Lord Privy Seal desireth much to speak with me, whom if I should speak with in my master's absence it would cause ae lose my head; and yet, I know myself as true a man to my prince as hveth ; whom (a-s my friends in- formeth me), the Lord Privy Seal saith, I have offended 6 This denial is repeated in'the Highness' Comicil Learned in the following letter to CromAvellj print- Spiritual Law ; assuring you, Mr. ed by Bishop Burnet from the Cot- Secretary, by the said Oath, and tonian Lib. Otho. C. 10 : — " Mr. Blessed Body which afore I re- Secretary, This shall he to signify ceived, and hereafter intend to re- unto you, that I perceive hy tSir ceive, that the same may be to my Eaynold Carnaby, that there is sup- Damnation, if ever there were any posed a Precontract between the contract or promise of marriage Queen and me ; whereupon I was between Her and Me. At New- not only heretofore examined upon ington-Green, the xiiith Day of my Oath before the Archbishops of May, in the 28th Year of the Reign Canterbury and York, but also of our Sovereign Lord King Henry received the Blessed Sacrament the Vlllth.— Your assiu'ed, Nor- upon the same before the Duke of thumberland." The Earl died Norfolk, and other the King's shortly afterwards. 124 CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CITAP grievously in my words. Ko more to you, but to have me ^^^ commended unto Mistress Anne ; and bid lier remember her promise, which none can loose but God only, to whom I shall daily, during my life, with my prayer commend."^ TheKing^s Whenever this affair occurred, it was almost cer- inchna- , ■ t i n t' tions tain to have led to some disclosure of the King's An^n™ ° feelings^ though it is said by Cavendish that slae A°D^i527 ^l"ways had a ^'grudge against my Lord Cardinal for breaking of the contract made between my Lord Percy and her, supposing that it had been his de- vised will and none other." But he states that she was soon recalled to court, and that she was not long in knowing the King's inclination towards her, if she did not know it before. It was probably, in fact, during her absence from court on this occasion that she received from Henry the earUer letters of a series, the date of which has been assigned with tolerable certainty to the years 1527 and 1528, be- ginning with the earlier half of the former year.® "^ Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. ii. 131. been married to William Carey There is, however, a letter from the year before. Wolsey to the King in the State ^ These letters are too remark- Papers, in which he writes respect- able to be passed over without ing a son of Sir Piers Butler (Lord some further notice than the text Ormond, whose title of Ormond admits of. The originals are seven- was taken away and given to Sir teen in number, some in French, Thomas Boleyn). " And I shall, and* others in English, and are at my rettirn to your presence, de- preserved in the Vatican Library, vise with your Grace, how the where they are numbered among marriage betwixt him and Sir the MSS. as 3731. They are all Thomas Bolain his daughter may printed at length in the Harleian be brought to pass." . . . This Miscellany^ iii. 47-60, and in vols, letter is supposed, by the editor of 21 and 22 of the Pamphleteer, in the State Papers, to have been which latter publication there are written in November 1521. He facsimile specimens of the writing also supposes that Mary Boleyn and signatures. Bishop Burnet must be the daughter meant because sawthem, and says, " I, that knew Anne was then in France, and his hand well, saw clearly that they only fourteen years of age ; but were no forgeries." [Travels, Letter this is no evidence whatever ; and iv. p. 37.] it is certain that Marj'- Boleyn had Lord Herbert states [Hemy HENRY VIIL AND ANNE BOLEYN 126 In these he always lavishes the most tender terms chap of affection upon her ; and sometimes writes in such .^.^-^-^ free language of their longed-for union as shows ^•^- ^527 that he had then, at least, learned that such Ian- t^nce^ofiS guage, however gross, would not be offensive to her. advances They also supply evidence that neither warmth of feeling nor warmth of expression were all on one side. Even in the earlier letters, and when he is addressing her as '^mistress and friend," he hopes that absence will not diminish her affection for him, and speaks of the demonstration of it which she has already made towards him. About October 1528, he is assuring her that the divorce business is going on as quickly as it can. " There shall be no time Her impa- lost," he says in one letter, and in another, "there about de- can be no more done, nor more diligence ^sed ; " j^y ^ *^^^^ while in a third, he rejoices that she has been brought round to a reasonable patience, "the sup- pressing of your inutile and vain thoughts and fan- tasies with the bridle of reason." The replies of Anne Boleyn to these letters of the King are not known to exist, but several letters which she wrote to Cardinal Wolsey are extant, and these show how eager this young lady of nineteen or twenty years old was for the settlement of that divorce which would enable her to supplant her elder VIII., p. 288] that the recovery were all written to her by the of these letters was one object of King, and were not likely to have the search made among the lug- been preserved by him if they had gage of Cardinal Campeggio when been returned into his hands. he was embarking for Rome in Some parts of the King's lan- 1529, but that they had previously guage in these letters are too indeli- been sent to Rome. He also says cate to be put into a volume in- that they had been stolen from tended for general reading ; it can the King's cabinet, but the editor only be said that they contain dis- of the Harleian Jliscellany thinks tmct allusions to licentious inter- they must have come from Anne course between himseU* and his Boleyn's cabinet, as the letters correspondent 126 FIRST STEPS TAKEN CHAP rival of twenty years' honourable and virtuous stand- ^^..^^^^^^ ing as wife and Queen.^ Hitherto we have been looking at this question, from what may be said to be the domestic point of ^ Two are in tlie Harleian Mis- cellany, iii. 60. " 'My Lord, in my most humblest Avise that my heart can think, I desire you to pardon me that I am so bold to trouble you with my siinple and rude writing, esteeming it to proceed from her that is much desirous to know that your Grace does well, as I perceive by this bearer that you do. The which I pray God long to continue, as I am most bound to pray ; for I do know the great pains and troubles that you have taken for me, both day and night, is never like to be recompensed on my part, but alonely in loving you, next unto the King's grace, above all creatures living. And I do not doubt but the daily proofs of my deeds shall manifestly declare and affirm my writing to be true ; and I do trust you do think the same. My Lord, I do assure you I do long to hear from you news of the Legate : for I do hope and they come from you tlity shall be very good ; and I am sure you desire it as much as I, and more and it were possible, as I know it is not ; and thus remaining in a stedfast hope, I make an end of tliis letter written with the hand of her that is most bound to be. "jThe -wi'iter of this letter would not cease till she had caused me likewise to set to my hand ; de- siring you, though it be short, to take it in good part. I ensure yoxi there is neither of us but that greatly desireth to see you, and much more joyous to hear that you have escaped this plague so well, trusting the fury thereof to be passed, specially with them that keepeth good diet, as I trust you do. The not hearinj;; of the Legate's arrival in France, causeth us somewhat to muse ; notwith- standing we trust by your dili- gence and vigilancy (with the assistance of Almighty God) shortly to be eased out of that trouble. No more to you at this time ; but that I pray Gud send you as good health and prosperity as the writer would. " By your loving sovereign and Iriend, Henry K. "Your humble servant, Anne BOLETN." "My Lord, in my most humble wise that my poor heart can think, I do thank your Grace for youi* kind letter, and for your rich and goodly present, the which I shall never be able to deserve without your help ; of the which I have hitherto had so great plenty, that all the days of my life I am most bound of all creatures, next the King's grace, to love and serve your Grace : of the which I beseech you never to doubt that CA^er I shall vary from this thought as long as any breath is in my body. And as touching your Grace's trouble ^vith the sweat, I thank our Lord, that them that I desired and prayed for are scaped, and that is the King and you ; not doubting but that God has pre- seiwed you both for great causes known alonely of his high wisdom. And as for the coming of the Legate, I desire that much ; and if it be God's pleasure, I pray him to send this matter shortly to a good end, and then I trust, my Lord, to recompense part of your great pains : in the which I must require you in the mean time to accept my good will in the stead of the power, the which must proceed partly from TOWARDS A DIVORCE 12V yiew, but as soon as the King and Anne Boleyn had made up their minds as to the course to be pursued for the attainment of their wish^ the former sought the advice of his chief minister as to the best means of bringing^ about the intended divorce. Wolsey resolutely declined to give any individual opinion or advice, and recommended the King to give him his authority ^^to ask counsel of men of ancient study^ and famous learning, both in the divine and civil laws ;"^ and thus we pass from the more domestic to the political and national aspect of the divorce. The first step was taken by summoning some of the bishops to Westminster that they might hold a con- sultation on the subject. This was done by the CHAP III A.D. 1527 Wolsey re- fuses to de- cide as to the legal- ity of the King's marria'>;e you, as our Lord knoweth ; to whom I beseech thee to send you long life, with continuance in honour. Written with the hand of her that is most "bound to be "Youj humble and obedient servant, Anne Boleyn." A third is in Fiddes' Wolsey, Collect, p. 256j as follows : — " My Lord after my most hum- ble recommendations this shall be to give unto your Grace as I am most bound my humble thanks for the great pain and travail that your Grace doth take in studying by your msdom and great diligence how to bring to pass honourably the greatest wealth that is pos- sible to come to any creature living and in especial remembering how wretched and umvorthy I am in comparing to his Highness. And for you I do know myself never to have deserved by my deserts that you should take this great pain for me 3"et daily of your goodness I do perceive by all my friends and though that I had not knowledge by them the daily proof of your deeds doth declare your words and writing toward me to be true. Now good my Lord your discretion may consider as yet how little it is in my power to recompence you, but all only with my good will the which I assure you that after this matter is brought to pass you shall find me as I am. Bound in the meantime to owe you my service, and then look what thing in this world I can imagine to do you pleasure in you shall find me the gladdest woman in the world to do it. And next unto the King's Grace of one thing I make yon full promise to be assured to have it, and that is my hearty love, un- feigned during my life. And being fitUy determined with God's grace never to change this purpose I make an end of this my rude and true meaning letter praying our Lord to send you much increase of honour with long life. Written with the hand of her that be- seeches your Grace to accept this letter as proceeding from one that is most bound to be, your bumble and obedient servant, " Ani^je Boleyn." ^ Cavendish, Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., i. 416. 128 CONSULTATION OF LEARNED MEN CHAP Cardinal under his authority as legate^ and Caven- .^.^.^^ dish says that all the bishops who were learned in A.D. 1527 divinity or in the civil law were required to attend the council.^ " Then was the matter of the King s case Summons debated, reasoned, argued, and consulted of from day assembly ^^ ^ay, and time to time/' from which it appears to discuss \^^i there was a prolonged deliberation : and it also appears to have been in some degree a public discus- sion, for he adds " that it was to the learned a goodly hearing." The King is stated by Foxe and Lord Herbert to have said in the following year that ^'all the clerks of his kingdom, except two, had lately declared for him,"^ and also produced before the legatine court an instrument in his favour, signed and sealed by all the bishops (of which mention will be made hereafter) ; but he must have referred to some other assembly than that summoned by Wolsey. For Cavendish, who is also the authority for what the King said before the legates, declares that no decision was, on this occasion, arrived at. ^* In the conclusion, as it seemed to me and other, the ancient fathers of both the laws, by my small estimation at their departure, departed with one judgement con- trary to the principal expectation. I heard then the opinion of some of the most famous persons among But no decision given ^ In an early Life of Archbishop Cranraer, of which the MS. [Harl., 417, fol. 90] was used hy Foxe, it is said that when the King's doubts arose, he " sent for six of the best learned men of Cambridge, and six of Oxford, to debate this question, whether it were lawful for one brother to marry his brother's wife, being known of his brother ; of the which twelve doctors Cranmer was appointed for one, but because be was not then at Cambridge there was another chosen in his stead : which twelve learned men agreed fully, with one consent, that it was lawful, with the Pope's dispensa- tion, so to do" [Nichol's Narra- tives of the Reformation, p. 219]. This may have been done before the Bishops were called together, for it is plain that the decision would lead the King to seek for other counsel, 3 Herbert's Hen. VIII., 245. Foxe, i. 49, Cattley's Ed. OPINIONS OF UNIVERSITIES TO BE TAKEN 129 that sort report that the King's case was too obscure chap for any learned man to discuss, the points thereof . ^^ were so doubtful to have any true understanding or^-^- ^527 intelligence. And therefore they departed without any resolution or judgement." This seems to show that the King called one assembly after another until he obtained opinions favourable to his wishes. Cavendish goes on to state (but not now as of his King pre- own knowledge as one present) that this assembly of consult^ Bishops recommended the King to take the opinions ^j"^^^^^' of all the universities in Christendom, and that com- missions were at once drawn up for the purpose of doing so. The usual story is that this plan was suggested by story of Cranmer in the year 1529, but although this story improba- comes to us on the authority of Cranmer s secreta,ry, ^^^ Ralph Morice^ it was not written down by him until many years later, and he does not say, as he does of some of his anecdotes, that he had it from the Archbishop himself.^ It is certain that this impor- tant suggestion was made to the King in the year 1527, as the following letter, written in that year, will show:^ — ■ * This story is- " dressed up/' mation, p. 240. Poxe's romarLcing after his fashion, hy !Poxe, "who version of it is to be found in vol. winds it up with a coarse expres- viii. p. 6, Cattley's Ed. Burnet, sion of the King's, to the effect that of course, repeats Foxe. if he had known this device two ^ The writer of it was at the time years before he could have saved a monk of Sion, but was afterwards much money, and rid himself of appointed the Regius Professor of much dis^uietness. But it is quite Hebrew at Oxford. The letter was clear that the King did know of sent to the King by Pace, then this device two years before 1529, Dean of St. Paul's, accompanied by from the letter of Wakefield, if not " a book," and also by a manuscript from the advice of the bishops. Hebrew alphabet, which was to The original narrative of Morice enable Archbishop Warham so to is still in the Library of Corpus master the language in a month, as Christi College, Cambridge [MS. to see how far the original text of 128, f. 405], and is printed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy agreed Nichol's Narratives of the Befor- with the Septuagint and the Yul- 130 OPINIONS OF UNIVERSITIES TO BE TAKEN CHAP "Please it your Grace, I, as your true and faithful subject, ^^^ will, and can defend your cause or question in all the univer- A.n. 1527 sities in Christendona against all men, by good and sufficient Wake- authority of tlie Scripture of God, and the words of the best iiet'es^Uon 1^^^^^^ ^"^^ rao^i excellent authors of the interpreters of the of such a Hebrews, and the Holy Doctors, both Greeks and Latins, in course Christ's faith: Humbly beseeching your Grace to keep the thing secret from all persons living, both man and woman, unto such time as I shall show unto you the time of publication thereof, or else Master Paice, signifjdng unto your Highness that it shall make much for the furtherance of your cause, and that otherwise I neither will nor can do anything therein, for if the people should know that I, which began to defend the Queen s cause, not knowing that she was carnally known of Prince Arthur, your brother, should now write against it, surely I should be stoned of them to death, or else have such a slander and obloquy raised upon me that I had rather to die a thousand times or suffer it. I have and will, in such manner, answer to the Bishop of Eochester's book that I trust he shall be ashamed to wade or meddle any further in the matter. The thing which I am making will be ingens volumen, and T shall take no rest till I have brought it, by the grace of God, who always helpeth the truth, to a good and perfect end. I have showed somewhat of my book to Master Paice, and I trust he will confirm the same unto your Grace. No more to your Highness at this time, but Jesu preserve you. From Syon this present morning, " By your Graces Faithful " Subject and Scholar, " E. Wakfelde." Whether Wakefield or the bishops first suggested this course to the King, it may be considered as certain that the idea of consulting the English and foreign universities was entertained two years earlier gate. On the following day, Pace ferring to the divorce, and dated ■wrote to the King again on the 1527. They are also printed in subject. Both letters were, pub- Knight's Lite of Erasmus, App. p. lished hjr Berthelet, the King's xxviii. ; and by Le Grand, iii. 1. printer, with other clociunents re- DOUBTS ABOUT THEIR CHARACTER 131 ^ CHAP than lias commonly been stated, altliougli not ini- ^ mediately acted upon.^ And when it is remembered a.d. 1527 that the object in vioAV was that of repudiating the authority of a papal bull, which was looked upon as the highest possible expression of the Pope's authority, the delay in taking so decided a step will not seem very surprising. But the Kings applications to the learned men of The King his realm, and especially to those of Oxford and Cambridge, had been anything but encouraging, and he seems to have then thought (though his mind changed afterwards) that there was no probability of getting such support from those or any other uni- versities as would be a sufficient justification for his setting aside the dispensation of Julius II., and acting as if his marriage with Catherine was null and void ah initio. He therefore resolved to seek the Pope's and com- co-operation, and request the same authority which with the had declared the marriage lawful with one stroke of ^°p^ the pen to declare it unlawful with another/ The time seemed propitious for such an application on 6 There is a remarkaMe passage quod Regina fratria sui uterini in tlie first despatcli sent to Cas- uxor antea extiterit, valida et silis, whicli seems to show that sulEciens foret, necne ; demumque some consultation of foreign as a variis multisque ex his Doc- well as English divines had al- toribus asseritur, quod Papa non ready taken place when it was potest dispensare in primo gradu written, which was on December affinitatis, tanquam ex jure Divino, 5, 1527. The passage is thi^,— moraliter, naturaliterque prohibito, "... super qua re maturum sau- ac si potest, omnes affinnant et umque judicium consuluit claris- consentiunt quod hoc non potest, simoriun celeberrimorumque Doc- nisi ex urgentissimis et arduis cau- torum aliorumque complurium in sis, quales non subfuerunt." Bur- omni eruditionis genere excellen- net, iv. 21, Pocock's Ed. tiorum virorum ac PrEelatorum, ^ Lord Herbert states that Wol- partim Theologorum, partim Juris- sey warned the King there would peritorum, timi in suo regno, tv/fii be a certainty of the Queen's ajo- alihi existentiumj ut aperte vereq\ie pealing to the Pope if the cause cognosceret, an dispensatio antea were tried in England, and went concessa pro se et Regina, ex eo against her. 132 THE POPE APPLIED TO DIRECTLY Charles V. at war CHAP his part, for the Emperor (who must necessarily be ,.^^5-^ looked on as the chief opponent of it, on behalf of A.D. 1527 Catherine, who was his aunt) was engaged in a strife with the Pope, which ended in Clement's capti- vity and a fearful slaughter of the citizens of Eome. Pope and Yet, such is the consciousness of vitality which always upholds the Holy See, that even in its hour of greatest depression and weakness it can afford to assume the appearance of authority and independ- ence ; and the King found that he could not depend upon so early and complete a settlement of his case as he expected. The first communication on the subject between Henry and the Pope took place in the autumn of ^ 1527, and the business went on almost unceasingly from that time for nearly six weary years following. The history of these negotiations is a tangled web of intrigue, selfishness, hypocrisy, and double dealing. We may spare ourselves the more minute details, and be content to take a general view of the whole business as it is to be elucidated from State Papers, and from contemporary or nearly contemporary ac- counts which have been handed down to us. Beginning Sir Gregory Cassilis, one of the three brothers gotiations engaged in the diplomatic affairs of England and Italy, being the King's regular agent at the Roman court, a special agent was sent out between July and September of the year 1527 to co-operate with him on this particular matter. This was the King's secretary. Dr. Knight, an old and infirm man, but one in whom Henry seems to have placed implicit confidence. At his arrival in Eome, on November 25th, he found that the Pope was im- prisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo, in company with ClC' ment VII. FOR NECESSARY AUTHORITY 133 with a small body of cardinals, the city having been chap ta\en and sacked by the Duke of Bourbon on May ..^J.^^^ 7th of that year. Although he contrived to hold ^'^- ^527 some immediate communication with the Pope by letter^ Knight was not able to obtain an interview with him until after his escape from Rome^ which was effected on December 9th. He then followed Clement to Orvieto^ where Cassilis and himself had Ambassa- an audience, at which some preliminary discussion of h°m at"or- the case took place^ the Pope appearing to be willing ^^^^^ to grant what was requested, and writing to that effect himself to the King.® They also communicated their business to the Cardinal Secretary of State, who seemed open to conviction when he heard their arguments, accompanied as they were by liberal promises of a " competent reward " at the King's hands.^ The ambassadors had been instructed to ask for Authority two documents at first. The one was a commission t^^he c'lse empowering Cardinal Wolsey or (in case he should j^ ^ng- be thought too much interested) Cardinal Staphileeus to hear and determine the cause as between the King and the Queen in England. The other was a dispensation by which the King was to be per- or for King mitted, in case the divorce was decreed, to contract a^second" another marriage, the children of both marriages ^^"^^ being declared legitimate. The drafts of these in- struments were sent out by Dr. Knight, and in that of the dispensation there was actually a clause which authorized marriage with any lady, even in the first degree of affinity, provided she were not the widow of his brother. To sign these documents ^ State Papers, vii. 27. crowns as soon as the bulls were ^ Dr. Knight paid hini 2000 signed. 134 REFUSES TO DECREE NULLITY OF MARRIAGE CHAP would be to make a still worse enemy of the Em- ^^J^^^^ peror^ and it was by no means certain that the A.D. lavish promises of support and assistance sent by Henry were likely to be fulfilled. It was only^ therefore, after much persuasion that the Pope Pope signs agreed to do so, and it is evident that his signing mlnil °^^ them was considered to add much to his dangers and difficulties both by himself and by the King's own agent, Secretary Knight,-^ While the courier whom Knight despatched with these important documents was still on the road, Gardiner (afterwards Bishop of Winchester) and Fox (afterwards Bishop of Hereford) appeared before the Pope with a request for farther concessions. No confidence was felt as to his ratification of any act which was not made very binding, and he was now desired to grant another bull, by Avhich he should (1) Is then declare the marriage of Henry and Catherine null amuu mar- ^^^ void, provided certain questions of fact were Cafhedne established bcforo the legates ; and (2) give a solemn promise never to admit an appeal from the and to for- decisiou SO prouounced, nor to revoke the cause to peluo ''^' Rome for investigation before himself This bull, of himsuif which also a draft had been sent out ready j^repared from England, the Pope utterly refused to sign. Arguments, persuasions, and threats were all used in 1 To Wolsey, Knight -svrote on in execution at this time tlie Pope January 1st, that the Pope " was is utterly undone, and so he saith content to put himself into evident himself;. . . wherefore he puts his ruin and utter undoing" rather honour and health wholly into than be thought ungrateful hy the your Highness' power and disposi- King or the Cardinal. To the tion." Burnet, iv. 36, 39, Pocock's King himself Knight also wrote Ed. EvenwhilethePopewasinSt. his own oiiiuion tliu5. ''But albeit Angelo, the General of the Spanish that everylhing is passed according Observants had been sent to re- unto your Highness' pleasure,! can- quire him not to giant any such not see, but in case the sanle be put requests. GARDINER'S SARCASTIC THREATS 135 succession. It was shown how great danger might chap ensue to England if Henry should die without a son ,^^-„.^ to succeed him, and the Pope acknowledo^ed the ^^'^^ force of this reasonmg^ but yet was not moved by it to do that which was requested. He was reminded of the friendship which Henry had always shown to the Holy See^ and of the special service he had done by writing his book against Luther. Gardiner even proceeded to taunt the Pope in sarcastic language Boidkn- while in the midst of his cardinals. " If the King s E^^iish^ Majesty and the nobility of England/' he said, ^s^^^s ^' being persuaded of your good will to answer, if you can do so, shall be brought to doubt your ability, they will be forced to a harder conclusion respecting the See, namely, that God has taken from it the key of knowledge. And they will begin to give better ear to that opinion of some persons to which they have as yet refused to listen, that those papal laws, which neither the Pope himself nor his council can interpret, deserve only to be committed to the flames." But neither argument, persuasion, nor threat could But the move the Pope to commit himself so entirely as he not^con- would have done by signing this instrument ; and it ^'^"'^ may be hoped that he was prevented from doing so as much by a sense of justice and determination not to prejudge the cause, as by fear that ruin would follow an act so hostile to the Queen, and therefore to her nephew the Emperor. But it cannot be doubted that Clement also desired^ if possible, to let the case settle itself; or at least to prevent it from coming immediately before himself as the judge of ultimate appeal for Christendom. He even sug- and fails gested that Henry should marry a second wife, if his the pre- conscience would permit him so to do, and then let ^^^"^^ ^^'^^^ 13G LEGATES APPOINTED TO HEAR THE CAUSE CHAP the cause be brought before Wolsey, that he might ^^i^^^^give sentence upon it in his ordinary jurisdiction as A.D. 1528 legate a latere. But he felt that a dangerous chapter of events had opened. ^^ It would be for the wealth of Christendom/' he said to Gardiner, " if the Queen were in her grave, .... like as the Emperor has destroyed the temporalities of the Church, so shall she be the destruction of the spiritu- alities." And it is not surprising that he should wish to commit himself as little as possible with respect to that future of which he took so gloomy a view, vvoisey The end of these, and of other similar embassies and Cam- « , ^ ' n -ttt i i peggio ap- for the present, was the appomtment ot Wolsey and legates to Campcggio as legates for the purpose of hearing the hear the cause in Euo^land. The Pope had at first offered to cavise o ^ r join the Archbishop of Canterbury, or any other English bishop, in commission with Wolsey, and a bull was signed on April 13, 1528, to this effect,^ but it seems to have been thought that no English bishop was to be trusted. Cardinal Campeggio was old, miserably infirm with the gout, and in charge at Rome during the Pope's absence. But five of the Cardinals were detained as hostages by the Emperor, others had gone to their cures, disgusted with the state of affairs in Italy, and only five remained with the Pope at Orvieto to assist him with their counsel, and to conduct official business. There was, besides Reasons this ncccssity, a fitness in the choice of Campeggio, ^\on%r' for he had already been in England, and was thus Campeg- \q^^ ^f ^ straugor than any other cardinal would have been ; and he was also, nominally. Bishop of Salis- bury^. 2 Xlymer, xiv. 237. CARDINAL CAMPEGGiaS ARRIVAL 137 The Italian legate received his commission on chap June 8, 1528, but either owing to his infirmities or ^^^^^^.^^ to intentional delays he did not reach England until -^•°- ^528 October 1st. A public reception was intended^ but he declined the honour on account of his gout, not He de- perhaps without accompanying recollections of the pilyfc re- broken coffers, whose emptiness had excited so much *=^p*^o° merriment among the spectators on his former state passage through the streets of London. He went quietly to a house of Wolsey's, Bath Place, outside Temple Bar, and after a few days' rest proceeded in company with his brother legate to present himself to the King, and afterwards to the Queen, in his official capacity. The interview with the King was of a formal and complimentary character, Latin speeches being made by the secretary to the legates and by Fox, then King s almoner, and afterwards Bishop of Hereford,^ the latter urging in the King's favour Has audi- what he was never tired of having proclaimed, the the King great services he had rendered to the Holy See. At a private audience which followed, Campeggio gave Henry to understand that the Pope had every wish to see the course of events follow in the direction of the King s intentions and inclination. It may be doubted, however, whether either side believed in the sincerity of the other : the King was trying to Neither entrap the Pope, that he might get his own Avay, and cere^^^" the Pope was trying to deceive the King, that he might secure safety out of procrastination. 3 It is singular how small a space world, — " Tlie surest way to peace in history is occupied by Edward is a constant preparedness for war." FoXj and yet how great a man he Both universities are indebted to seems to have been. One of his him, for he influenced much the many sententious sayings has be- foundaLion of Christ Church and of come very familiar to the modern King's College. 138 HENRY VIIL DISCLOSES HIS CHAP At the audience which was granted to the legates ^^r^^ ^y "tli^ Queen, they evidently endeavoured, probably A. D. 1528 according to their instructions, to compromise the Legates niatter between her and the King. It had been enceonh'e^l^^^^y suggcstcd by the latter, in a despatch to his Queen ambassadors at Rome,^ that the King and Queen should each take the vow of chastity, and that when the latter was thus effectually disposed of, the former should be absolved from his vow by the Pope. It is to be hoped that the second part of this proposition was not known to Campeggio when he suggested to her that she should solve the difficulty in which they were all placed, and restore peace to Christendom by King'ssug- '' entering into religion ;" that is, retiring into a con- fetaing the vent under the obligations of '' rdigio fara," which business ^ould ouly restrict her to residence and perpetual widow^hood. The Queen's duty to herself as a wife, and to her child as a mother, required that she should decline acceding to this request, and there is reason to think that she did so in language similar in substance to that which she used before the legates, associating with her refusal a denial of their juris- diction and authority over her.^ The pro- The King now thought fit to state his case before io'lcemade the uatiou at large ; for it must be remembered that P''^^'^ all that had taken place hitherto was of at least a private character, while some of the transactions were conducted with scrupulous secrecy. But on November 8, 1528, a large number of nobility and gentlemen — perhaps members of the Privy Council, 4 state Papers, yii. 136. spoken at the fust sitting of the 5 This inference may be drawn conrt, and Hall that it preceded from the fact that of the early the opening of the commission- historians who report her speech, The two accounts are reconcileable Cavendish and Stow say it was as above. INTENTIONS TO THE NATION 139 •with the Lord Mayor — were assembled at his Black- chap friars palace of Bridewell^ and the King disclosed his ^^^ purpose to them in a speech which the chronicler a.d, 1528 Hall reports in words that are probably in the main authentic : — "Our trusty and well-beloved subjects, both you of the x^e King's nobility, and you of tbe meaner sort, it is not unknown to you speech at how that we, both by God's provision, and true and lawful inheritance, have reigned over this realm of England almost the term of twenty years, during which time we have so ordered us, thanked be God, that no outward enemy hath oppressed you, nor taken anything from us ; nor we have invaded no realm but we have had victory and honour; so that we think that you, nor none of your predecessors, ever hved more quietly, more wealthy, nor in more estimation, under any of our noble progenitors. But when we remember our mortality, and that we must die, then we think that aU our doings in our lifetime are clearly defaced, and worthy of no memory, if we leave you in trouble at the time of our death. For if our true heir be not known at the time of our death, see what mischief and trouble shall succeed to you and your children ; the experience thereof some of you have seen, after the death of our noble grandfather, King Edward IV., and some have heard what mischief and manslaughter continued in this realm between tlie houses of York and Lancaster, by the which dissension this realm was like to have been clearly des- troyed. And though it has pleased Ahnighty God to send us a fair daughter, of a noble woman and me begotten, to our great comfort and joy, )^et it hath been told us by divers great clerks, that neither she is our lawful daughter nor her mother our lawful wife, biit that we live together abominably and detest- ably in open adultery ; insomuch that, when our ambassage was last in France, and motion was made that the Duke of Orleans should marry our said daughter, one of the chief counsellors to the French King said, it were well done to know whether she be the King of England's lawful daughter or not : for weh knoAvn it is that he begat her on his brother's wife, which is directly against God's law and his precept. 140 HIS STATEMENT OF THE CASE CHAP Think you, my lords, that these words touch not my body and ^^^ soiil ? Think you that these doings do not daily and hourly A.D. 1528 trouble my conscience and vex my spirits ? Yes, we doubt not but, and if it were your own cause, every man would seek remedy, when the peril of your soul and the loss of your inheritance is openly laid to you. For this only cause, I protest before God, and in the word of a prince, I have asked counsel of the greatest clerks in Christendom ; and for this cause I have sent for this legate, as a man indifferent, only to know the truth, and to settle my conscience, and for none other cause, as God can judge. And as touching the Queen, if it be adjudged by the law of God that she is my lawful wife, there was never thing more pleasant nor more acceptable to me in my life, both for the discharge and clearing of my conscience, as also for the good qualities and conditions, the which I know to be in her. For I assure you all that, beside her noble parentage, of the which she is descended, as you all know, she is a woman of most gentleness, of most humility, and buxomness, yea, and of all good qualities appertaining to nobility ; she is without comparison, as I, these twenty years almost, have had the true experiment ; so that, if I were to marry again, if the marriage might be good, I would surely choose her above all other women. But if it be determined by judgment that our marriage was against God's law, and clearly void, then I shall not only sorrow the departing from so good a lady and loving companion, but much more lament and bewail my unfortunate chance, that I have so long lived in adultery, to God's great displeasure, and have no trae heir of my body to inherit this realm. These be the sores that vex my mind, these be the pangs that trouble my conscience, and for these griefs I seek a remedy. Therefore I require of you all, as our trust and confidence is in you, to declare to our subjects our mind and intent, according to our true mean- ing, and desire them to pray with us that the very truth may be known for the discharge of our conscience and saving of our soul ; and for the declaration hereof I have assembled you together, and now you may depart."*^ « Hall's Henry VIIL, fol. 180, p. 754, Etl. 1809. TRIES TO GET SANCTION FOR TWO WIVES 141 After this public declaration of the King s mind, chap there was a delay of about six months before the ^^.^^^.^^ court of the legates was opened for the purpose of ^^•^■ hearing the cause. Some little time would no doubt be occupied in arranging the order of proceeding, and in giving instructions to the counsel on both sides ; but the substantial cause of the delay appears to have lain in further negotiations between the King and the Pope7 The King's representativQs Attempt to at Rome were directed to apply for a license to the fulhod?y^ legates, to exhibit their commission before the Lords ^'^^ legates of the Privy Council ; an attempt was made to obtain more complete powers for the legates, so that their decision should be final ; and the Pope was again sounded as to the possibility of shelving the whole business by permitting Henry to have Scheme fot two wives at the same time, which would render it stlu per-^ unnecessary to declare the marriage with Catherine ^^^'^^^ ^^ unlawful. During this interval Wolsey seems to have grown more and more awake to the importance of the crisis, and to have foreseen that it could hardly end other- wise than in a renunciation, more or less, of the Woisey Pope's jurisdiction in England. In the despatch coming which recalled Gardiner he bids him set this strongly ^"^^^ before the Pope, in reference to a report that he was about (at the request of the Emperor) to undo all that he had done : — " Ye shall therefore," he says, " look suLstantiaUy by all pohtick means to withstand, that no such thing be granted; assuring the Pope and aU the Cardinals, and such others as 7 And in waiting for the retiirn vins," writes Wolsey, " the King's of Gardiner, who was to appear for Highness wonld have entered into the King. " For i±" it had not been process here before this Whitsun- for the absence of you, Mr. Ste- tide." Bnmet,iv. 95; Pocock'sEd. 142 THE POPE'S TROUBLES AND TEARS CHAP ^^"^6 respect to the weal of the See Apostolick, that if he III should do such an high injury to the King and his Eealm, and ^^[■^7^7^ an act so contumelious to us his Legates, and so contrarious to his Faith and Promise, he should thereby not fail so higlily to irritate the King and all the Nobles of this Eealm, that Danger of undoubtedly they should decline from the obedience of the See canin^''the Apostolick, and conseq^uently all other Eealms should do the cau'ie to semblable, forasmuch as they should iind in the Head of the same, neither justness, uprightness, nor truth ; and this shall be necessary, as the case shall require, well to be inculked and put in his head, to the intent his Holiness by the same may be preserved from grantiag, passing, or condescending to any such thing." ^ About the same time, also (April 6th), the King himself wrote to his ambassadors, urging them to use all means possible to prevent the Pope from revoking the cause from the legates' court in Eng- land to his own in Rome, which it was now strongly suspected was his Holiness' intention ; and that they did not measure their language too nicely in acting on the King's instructions is shown by Dr. Benet's graphic description of the Pope's demeanour on the occasion : — ■ " To this his Holiness most heavily, and with tears, answered and said, That now he saw the destruction of Christendom, and lamented that his fortune was such to live to this day, and not to be able to remedy it (saying these The Pope words), for God is my judge, I would do as gladly for the between King, as I would for my self; and to that I knowledge my Emperor sclf most bouudeu, but in this case I cannot satisfie his de- sire, but that I should do manifestly against justice to the charge of my conscience, to my rebuke, and to the dishonour of the See Apostolick ; affirming, that his counsel shews him, that seeing the Csesarians have a mandate or proxy of the Queen, to ask the advocation in her name, he cannot of justice 8 Burnet, iv. 110, Pocock's Ed- CHARLES V. TAKES THE QUEEN'S SIDE 143 deny it^ and the whole signatiire be in that same opinion; so chap that though he would most gladly do that thing that might ^^,^^,^^ he to the King's pleasure; yet he cannot do it, seeing that a. d. 1529 signature would be against him whensoever the supplication should be up there : and so being late, we took our leave of his Holiness, and departed, seeing that we could obtain no- thing of the Pope for stopping the advocation."^ . . . During all these proceedings there appears to have been no official communication between the Emperor and the King on the great subject in which Fii-stcom- the honour of each was so much concerned. But tion of Ghinucci, Bishop of Worcester, and Dr. Lee, who ,^fe"Xns were the Kings's ambasssdors to the court of Charles, ^othe Em- communicated with the latter respecting it on April 5, 1529. There could only be one reply, and that was to the Qffect that the Emperor regretted very much the course Henry was taking, and that he would defend the Queen's cause. He also suggested a reference to the Pope, or to a General Council. This was followed up by a formal protest on his His rccep- part against any proceedings being taken in Eng- land. To the Earl of Wiltshire he would scarcely listen, rightly considering it an insult to the Queen that Anne Boleyn's father should have been sent on such an errand. But the Emperor damaged Catherine's cause, in the hearts of the English peo- ^ Dr. Beuet^s letter to Wolsey. dociunents "were conceded after Burnet, iv. 123, Pocock's Ed. The miicli hesitation, at the urgent re- letter is dated July 9th \ the delay quest of Wolsey, and are said to having heen caused hy the Pope's have heen in the form transmitted illness. Notwithstanding all these from England. But they were not tears and protestations, it seems to intrusted to Wolsey's hands. They be a fact, that the Pope had sent were to he read to the King, and hy Campeggio a "decretal biill," then destroyed. The King Paid in which all that Henry desired they were sho^vn to him, and then was granted, and also a written "embezzled hy the said cardinals." promise that he would not avo- If the bull did really ever exist it cnte the cause to Borne, or reverse was probably destroyed, as no trace the ' all men for his wisdom to be a second Solomon. And WILL NOT RECOGNISE THE COURT li7 tlie King of Spain, my father Ferdinand, was reckoned to be chap one of the wisest princes that reigned in Spain, many years ^^^ before his days : and so they were both wise men and noble a.d. 1529 kings. It is not therefore to be doubted, but that they had gathered together as wise counsellors unto them of every realm, as to their wisdoms they thought meet. And as me seemeth, there were in those days as wise and well learned men in both realms as be now at this day, who thought the marriage between you and me good and lawful Therefore it is a wonder to hear what new inventions are now invented and refuses against me, that never intended but honesty. And now to^°^fH^^?^ ^ ' ^ part in the cause me to stand to the order and judgment of this court, it tricii of the should, as seemeth me, do me much wrong, for ye may con- ^^"^^ demn me for lack of answer, having no counsel but such as you have assigned me ; ye must consider that they cannot be indifferent on my part, when they be your own subjects, and such as ye have taken and chosen out of your own counsel, whereunto they are privy, and dare not disclose your will and intent. " Therefore I humbly desire you, in the way of charity to spare me, until I may know what counsel and advice my friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if you will not, then your pleasure be fulfilled.'*^ All chivalry must have died out of the men of that day if they could listen to the ^'broken English" of this poor^ persecuted, virtuous, and highspirited wife without being moved. ■ She herself was animated by a consciousness of right, and a proud Castilian spirit, which made her quite equal to the occasion. As Catherine soon as she had ended her speech, she bowed a low "^IH^ ^"^^^ courtesy to the King, and while the spectators were watching her, supposing she would return to her seat, she took the arm of her one attendant, a Mr. Griffith, and went straight out of the court. Observing what she intended to do, the King commanded her to be ■* Cavendish in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog., i. 424. 148 HENRY'S TESTIMONY TO HER VIRTUES CHAP III A.D. 1529 not recog- nising its authority Henry seems proud of her bear- called again by the crier, who called once and again, ^* Catherine, Queen of England, come into court/' On this, her attendant said to her, '^ Madam, you are called again." "On, on," said the Queen, "it makes no matter, this is no impartial court for me, therefore I will not tarry. Go on your way." And so her womanly dignity made her even greater than a queen. Such brave resolution, straightforwardness, and modest self-assertion, probably did touch some ol those who were present to the quick, for the King thought it expedient to make a sort of apology for his conduct towards her. '' Forasmuch as the Queen is gone," he said, " I will, in her absence, declare unto you all that she hath been to me as true, as obedient, and as conformable a wife as I could wish or desire. She hath all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a woman of her dignity, or in any other of baser estate. She is also a noble woman born, her conditions will well declare the same." For the moment he seems even proud of her, but it was not the sort of pride that could contend successfully against the showy charms that had now so long enchanted him, and he went on ruthlessly in the course he had marked out for her and for himself'* ^ Henry's own accouiit of the transactions of this day is containecl in a letter to his ambassadors at Rome, Dr. Benet, Sir Gregory Cassilis, and Mr. Peter Vannes. It is dated June 23, 1529. "Since that time, ensuing the delilieration taken in that behalf, the said Le- gates, all due Ceremonies first ob- served, have directed Citations botli to us and to the Queen, for our and her appearing before them the 18th day of this month : which appear- ance was duly on either party kept. performed, and all requisite solem- nities accomplished : At which time tlie Queen trusting more in the power of the Imperialists, than in any justness of her cause, and thinking of likelihood, by frus- tratory allegations and delays, to tract and put over the matter to her advantage, did protest at the said day, putting in libels, recusa- tories of the Judges ; and also made a Provocation, ailedging the cause to be avoked by the Pope's Holi- ness, et litis pendentiavi coram HIS APOLOGY FOR HIMSELF 149 After such a scene, neither the King nor the chap legates would have desired to go on further with the .^.J^^ business in hand at that sitting. But another scene ^-d- ^529 was to take place before they adjourned. Wolsey made that appeal to the King for exculpation from The King the charge of originating the idea of a divorce^ which \voUey^^' has already been quoted, and to which the greater part of the King's answer has also been given.^ In concluding his reply, the King added the following words : — ^' Wherein after I perceived my conscience so doubtful, I moved it in confession to you, my Lord of Lincoln, then my ghostly father. And foi'asmuch as then you yourself were in some doubt, you moved me to ask counsel of all you my lords : and states whereupon I moved it to you, my Lord of Canter- he\^°d ^^^ bury, first to have your license (insomuch as ye were t^^^cn in metropolitan) to put this matter in question ; and so I did of you all, my lords, to which all ye granted under all your seals, and that I have here to be showed." eodem; desiring to be admitted for or might be by them admitted: probation thereof, and to bare a yet she nevertheless persisting in term competent for the same. her former wilfulness, laid in her Whereupon day was given by the appeal, which also by the said Judges till the 21st of the same Judges was likewise recused. And month, for declaration of their they minding to proceed further minds and intentions thereunto ; in the cause, the Queen would no The Queen in person, and we by longer make her abode to hear our Proctor enjoined to appear the what the said Judges would fully same day, to hear what the said discern, but incontinently departed Judges should determine in and out of the court ; wherefore she upon the same. At which time was thxice precognisate, and called both we and the Queen appeared eft-soons to return and appear ; in person ; and notwithstanding which she refusing to do, was tliat the said Judges amply and denounced by the Judges contu- sufficiently declared, as well the max, and a citation decerned for sincerity of their minds directly her appearance on Friday next, to and justly to proceed without make answer to such articles and favour, dread, affection, or par- positions as should be objected tiality; as also that no such r^cu- unto her." BuTnet,iv.ll8,Pocock's sation, appellation, or term for Ed. proving of litis 'pendentiam^ could ^ See jjage 115, 150 BISHOP FISHER'S OPPOSITION CHAP The Arclibishop of Canterbury gave an immediate ^J^i^^.^ assent to the King's declaration, and turning to the A.D. 1529 bishops, added that he had no doubt they would all acknowledge the same. But the good old Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, had always felt, and expressed him self, strongly against the divorce, maintaining Fisher de- that whatover mistake had been made as to the consenting marriage, it could not now be undone. He, there- to the fore, disclaimed at once having any part in the taken by cousensus to which the Xing referred. " No, sir, not bishops SO under your correction, for you have not mine, no." "Ah !" said the King, "look here, is not tliis your hand and your seal?" and produced the instrument itself " No, forsooth," replied the old Bishop. "How say you to that?" asked the King, turning to Warham, whose answer was, " Sir, it is his hand and his seal." Fishers explanation was then given. " No, my Lord. Indeed you were in hand with me to have both my hand and my seal, as other of my lords have done ; but then I said again to you I would never consent to any such act, for it was much against my conscience, and therefore my hand and seal shall never be set to any such instrument, God willing : with much more matter touching the same communication between us." The Arclibishop con- Misunder- firmed Fisher s words so far. '^ You say truth," he to^h?rsub- s^id^ ^' s^^^ words you had unto me ; but you were scription rcsolved at last that I should subscribe your name and put to your seal myself, and you would allow the same." This again Fisher denied, saying, " All which under your correction, my lord, is not true."^ And so this unhappy misunderstanding was left, like many others of the same kind, unsettled, for the ^ Cavendish in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog., i. 428. IS SUPPORTED B Y DR. RIDLE V 151 King declared Fisher was but one man against many, ciiAi* and so the question was not worth arguing ; having , .^.^^ said which; he left the courts and another adjourn- ^■^- '529 ment took place. It is not certainly known what instrument it was Doubtful that the King produced. Some writers have supposed J^^^ft ^^^^ it to be only a license to open the question. Probably ^^^"s: •^ . . spoke 01 when it was found that the bishops would not give an united opinion in favour of the divorce^ they were persuaded to give the King tlieir signatures to a document which acknowledged the question to be so doubtful as to need further investigation/ Even to this Fisher could not have agreed^ for at the next sitting of the legates a personal controversy arose between him and Wolsey, in which he plainly declared "forasmuch as this marriage was joined and made by God to a good intent^ I say that I know the truths and that men cannot breaks upon any wilful occasion that which God hath made and constituted." He would not allow that it was an open question^ the truth of which no one could decide, but rested on the distinct words of our Lord^ '^and God saith ^quos Deus conjunxit, homo non separet/" Dr. Ridley spoke as strongly, and even more boldly, declaring indignantly that the grounds alleged for the divorce were too abominable to be entertained. The sittings of the court were adjourned from Evidence day to day, many documents being given in evidence, contum- ^° and many witnesses examined, the latter being ^J'^^ion of brought forward chiefly for the purpose of disproving Arthur's the Queen's allegation that she had been a wife in "'^'''^^^^ name only to the Kings brother Arthur. From the '^ Burnet iii. 108, Pocock's Ed. 152 WOLSEY'S DIFFICULT POSITION CHAP circumstances of the case no evidence could be so .^_^„^^ good on this point as the word of an honourable and A.D. 1529 religious woman like Catherine ; nor was the evidence of any of the witnesses of such a character as to weigh down her word even had she been otherwise. Meanwhile^ the Pope received the formal appeal of The court the Quceu^ supported by that of the Emperor, and for*the^^^ — liis promises to the contrary notwithstanding — he Roman avocatcd the cause before himself by a brief simed vacation rm ■ • on July 15, 1529. This was not, however, received in England until August 4th, and the court was pro- rogued (for the vacation customary in Roman courts) on July 23d, not to sit again until October Ist.^ Campeg- There is some foundation for supposing that Cam- ImuiatTon poggio was aware of the coming avocation of the cause all the while he was professing to hold the court, and that the whole proceeding was a device to gain time. Wolsey had thrown the responsibility of the business as much as he could on his brother legate, and seems never to have taken an active part as long as the court was sitting. He was placed in Woisey a most painful and difficult position ; for whatever sponttbi[-^ may ht^ve been his opinion respecting the matter ity of the iiixder examination, it is certain that he was extremely averse to what he foresaw would be the termination of their sittings ; and his position as a judge was extremely hampered by his position as the chief adviser and minister of the King ; for Henry's ideas of justice were not of a kind that prevented him from trying to overawe his judges. Cavendish relates that '^at a certain day of their session the King sent for my Lord Cardinal to come to him to ^ Cardinal Campeggio considered himself bound to observe this custom strictly. case HIS DISAPPROVAL OF THE BUSINESS 153 Bridewell ; who to accomplish his commandment chap went to him, and being there with him in communi- ,^3^5^^. cation in his privy chamber from eleven until twelve ^•^' ^529 of the clock at noon and past^ my Lord departed from the King, and took his barge at the Blackfriars, and went to his house at Westminster. The Bishop of Carlisle being in his barge at that time said unto him (winding^ of his face)^ 'It is a very hot day.' wasabus- ' Yea^ .my Lord/ quoth the Cardinal, ' if ye had been ^^l^ ^''^ as well chafed as I have been within this hour, ye would say it were very hot/"-^ The same day he told Lord Wiltshire, the father of Anne Boleyn, '^ ^ Ye, and other, my Lords of the Council, are not a little misadvised to put any such fantasy into the King's head, whereby you do trouble all the realm : His pro- and at length get you small thanks for your labours, ^or^s to both of God and the world ;' with many other vehe- ^oiey" ment words and reasons, which caused my Lord of Wiltshire to weep." Gardiner wrote to the ambas- sadors at Rome on June 25th, that if the avocation was issued it would utterly rain the Cardinal, and alienate both King and nobles from the Holy See.^ On the day of the adjournment for the vacation, the King himself was again present. Campeggio caused the records of all their proceedings to be read over, and then declared that the cause was so doubt- ful in itself, and had been so much further embar- rassed by the defendant's contumacy, and her appeal to the Pope, that he would not act in it any further until he had consulted his Holiness ; and that there- fore he adjourned the further hearing, according to the custom of the ^^rota," or consistory of Rome, ^ "Fanning/' ^ Cavencl, inWordsw. Eccl. Biog., i 430. 2 EUis' Oiig. Lett., III. ii. 158. 154 THE FOREIGN UNI VERS I TIES CHAP until the day already mentioned. He was also care- ^^i^J^^ful to say tliat he would not speak for favour or A.D. 1529 clread of any person alive, be he king or otherwise : he was an old man, both weak and sickly, looking daily for death, and he would not endanger his soul for any prince or high estate in the world. ^ Thus ended the proceedings of this strange court, for the The court Pope's avocatiou of the cause put an end to its juris- soiver^the ^i*^^^^^- ^^ ^^^ dissolved before the day appointed cause being fQj^ j^g next sossiou had arrived, and. -shortly after- recalled to ^ rs -\' -\ r~i • T-r» Rome wards Cardinal Campeggio returned to Rome. From this time there was no friendly communica- tion between Henry and the Pope on this subject. He had already threatened several times that if his case was not settled by the Pope, he would find some other way of obtaining a decision that would justify him in dissolving his union with Catherine, and seems, when making the threat, to have liad in view that reference to the Universities which had been suggested two years before, and to obtain the opinions of which active measures were now taken, by send- ing agents first to the Continent and afterwards to Oxford and Cambridge. The conti- It would appear that the King s plan at first was ve"s\ties"^ to get the subscriptions of individual members of the consulted XJuiA^ersitics to an opinion on the question, ^' Whe- ther marriage with a brother s widow is forbidden by the law of God, and whether the Pope has authority 3 It ia lamentaljle to find Burnet near the Pope, and mentions fii'st writing of Campeggio that " He " The Cardinal Campegius con- led at this time a very dissolute tinueth in Rome, sore vexed with lile in England, htmting and gam- the gout ; " and in one of King ing all tlie day long, and following Henry's letters to Anne Boleyn, whores all the night." [Burnet, i. he speaks of " the unfeigned sick- 124] On January 10, 1528, Dr. ness of this well-willing legate." Knight had written to Wolsey the Erasmus had a great respect for names of all the cardinals then him. THE POPE INHIBITS A NEW MARRIAGE 155 to give a dispensation for such a marriage." Dr. Croke^ tutor to the Duke of Richmond/ was sent into Italy for this purpose^ being directed to obtain opinions on the question in its abstract form, without appearing to be engaged on behalf of the King. He was furnished with large sums of money, and from his correspondence (which is still preserved among and paid the MSS. of the British Museum) it appears that he %^^l^ distributed these to the persons who subscribed the opinion in a manner which cannot justly be described otherwise than as bribery. He visited Venice, Padua, Bologna, Milan, Vicenza, Naples, Ferrara, and Rome, sometimes passing under the pseudonym of Johannes Flandriensis, and incurring some danger from the suspicions which his mission excited.^ His success with individual divines encouraged the de- velopment of the plan into that originally suggested by Dr. Wakefield, and by the bishops ; and while Croke was authorized to consult the Italian univer- sities, other agents were sent to do the same in France and Germany, Cranmer and Dr. Barnes being of the number. Meanwhile the Pope had advanced one step fur- The Pope*s ther, by issuing an inhibition, signed March 7, direct op-" 1530, by which Henry was interdicted from marry- P*^^^^^°^^ ing while his divorce from Catherine was yet under adjudication^ or from associating with any -woman under pretext of marriage having been celebrated ^ His name was Croke, alias " Bm-net says that "In all Croke Blunt, and ke belonged to a branck sent over by Stokesley an kundred of tke same family of wkick tke several books, papers, and sub- Duke of Richmond's motker was a scriptions, and tkere were many member. He was tke greatest kands subscribed to many of tkese Greek sckolar of kis age at Cam- papers." bridge, a friend of Erasmus, and a A^ery unprincipled man. 156 LORDS AND COMMONS TUNED CHAP between them before the mhibition was issued. ^^.^-^.-^^ This document does not appear to have been sent A-D. 1530 officially into England, but was considered to be legally exhibited by being affixed to the doors of the cathedrals of Bruges, Tournay, and Dunkirk ; the King having issued a proclamation that no decree from Rome should be published, or even received, by any of his subjects ; open hostility being thus declared on both sides. The favourable opinions of foreign divines being communicated to the King, he entertained sanguine Oxford and expectations of receiving the support of the Univer- so^ded ^^ sities as corporate bodies. Croke had already sounded Oxford doctors on the subject,'^ and Cranmer had done the same at Cambridge ;''' and there were hopes that by judicious pressure of "influence" in some quarters, direct patronage and money payments in others, both foreign and English universities might be brought to contribute official support to the King s views. Lords and At the samo time Parliament was being tuned to suppmtthe ^ li^e uuisou with the King's opinions, although no KJng direct communication had yet been made to that august assembly on the subject. On July 13, 1530, a large body of Lords and Commons were persuaded to sign, outside the walls of Parliament, the following extraordinary petition to the Pope, the signature of Wolsey (now no longer in power) ap- pearing among the rest ;^ — " To the most holy Lord, our Lord and Father in Christ, " Ellis' Orjg. Letters, III. ii. 197. earla, twenty-five barons, twenty- ^ Nicliors Narr. of Eeform., 242. two abbots, with eleven commoners ^ The petition was signed by the and divines — eighty-one in all! two archbishops, four bishops, two Tor the original Latin see Collier, diikes, two marqnesses, thirteen ix. 86. THEY PETITION THE POPE 157 Clement, by Divine Providence the seventh of that name, we chap desire perpetual happiness in our Lord Jesus Christ. ^^ "Most blessed Father, albeit the cause concerning the mar- a.d. 1530 riage of the most invincible Prince, our Sovereign Lord, the King of England and of France, Defender of the Faith, and Lord of Ireland, does for sundry great and weighty reasons requu^e and demand the aid of your Holiness, that it may be brought to that brief end and determination which we with so great and earnest desire have expected, and which we have been contented hitherto to expect though so far vainly, at your Holiness's hands ; we have been unable nevertheless, to keep longer silence herein, seeing that this kingdom and the Danger to affairs of it are brought into so high peril through the un- fj.o"i^^°™ t seasonable delay of sentence. His Majesty who is our head, of heir to and by consequence the life of us all, and we through him as ^^°"^ subject members by a just union annexed to the head have with great earnestness entreated your Holiness for judgment ; we have however entreated in vain : we are by the greatness of our grief therefore forced separately and distinctly by these our letters most humbly to demand a speedy determination. There ought, indeed, to have been no need of this request on our part. The justice of the cause itself, approved to be just by the sentence of so many learned men, by the suffrage of the most famous universities in England, France, and Italy, should have suf&ced alone to have induced your Holiness to confirm the sentence given by others j especially when the interests of a king and kingdom are at stake, which in so many Justice of ways have deserved well of the apostolic see. This we say ^au^^ ought to have been motive sufficient with you without need of petition on our part ; and if we had added our entreaties, it should have been but as men yielding to a causeless anxiety, and wasting words for which there was no occasion. Since however, neither the merit of the cause nor the recollection of the benefits which you have received, nor the assiduous and diligent supplications of our prince, have availed any thing with your Holiness ; since we cannot obtain from you what it is your duty as a Father to grant ; the load of our grief increased as it is .beyond measure by the remembrance of the past miseries and calamities which have befallen this 158 ADDRESS TO THE POPE CHAP III A.D. 1530 The King's services to the Pope uroed Threat of departing; from the Pope's obedience nation, makes vocal every member of our commonwealth, and compels ns by word and letter to utter our complaints. Tor what a misfortune is this, — that a sentence which our own two universities, which the University of Paris, and many other universities in France, which men of the highest learning and probity everywhere, at home and abroad are ready to defend with word and pen, that such sentence, we say, cannot be ob- tained from the apostolic see, by a prince to whom that see owes its present existence. Amidst the attacks of so many and so powerful enemies, the King of England ever has stood by that see with sword and pen, with voice and with authority. Yet he alone is to reap no benefit from his labours. He has saved the papacy from ruin, that others might enjoy the fruits of the life which he has preserved for it. We see not what answer can be made to this ; and meanwhile we perceive a flood of miseries impending over the commonwealth threaten- ing to bring back upon us the ancient controversy on the succession which had been extinguished only with so much blood and slaughter. We have now a Idng most eminent for his virtues, and reigning by unchallenged title, who will secure assured tranqnillity to the realm if he leaves a son born of his body to succeed him. The sole hope that such a son may be born to Mm lies in the being found for him some lawful marriage into which he may enter ; and to such marriage the only obstacle lies with your Holiness. It cannot be until you shall confirm the sentence of so many learned men on the character of his former connexion. This if you will not do, if you who ought to be our father have determined to leave us orphans, and to treat ns as castaways, we shall interpret such conduct to mean only that we are left to care for ourselves, and to seek our remedy elsewhere. We do not desire to be driven to this extremity, and therefore we beseech your Holi- ness without further delay to assist his Majesty's just and reasonable desires. We entreat you to confirm the judgment of these learned men ; and for the sake of that love and fatherly affection which your office requires you to show towards us, not to close your bowels of compassion against ns, your most dntiful, most loving, most obedient children. The cause of his Majesty is the cause of each of ourselves; the REPLY OF THE POPE 159 head cannot suffer but the members must bear a part. We chap have all common share in the pain and in the injury; and as ^^^ the remedy is wholly in the power of your Holiness so does a.d. 1530 the duty of your fatherly office require you to administer it. If, however your Holiness will not do this, or if you choose longer to delay to do it, our condition liitherto wiU have been so much the more wretched, that we have so long laboured fruitlessly and in vain. But it will not be whoUy irremediable ; Remedies extreme remedies are ever harsh of application; but he that ^j^^^^j^^^^^^^""' is sick will by any means be rid of his distemper; and there Ronic is hope in the exchange of miseries, when, if we cannot obtain what is good we may obtain a lesser evil, and trust that time may enable us to endure it. "These things we beseech your Holiness, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to consider with yourself You profess that on earth you are His vicar. Endeavour then, to show yourself so to be, by pronouncing your sentence to the glory and praise of God, and giving your sanction to that truth which has been examined, approved, and after much delibera- tion confirmed by the most learned men of all nations. AVe meanwhile will pray the all-good God, whom we know by most sure testimony to be truth itself, that He will deign so to inform and direct the counsels of your Holiness, that we, obtain- ing by your authority "\Aliat is holy, just and true, may be spared from seeking it by other more painful methods.'"^ The Pope answered this appeal to his compassion The rope and his fears on September 27, 1530. He blamed ^'^^^'^J tht the tone of the document, justified himself as acting petition according to law and conscience, said the opinions of the nniversities had not come officially before him, expressed his wishes for a settled succession, and ended by setting it aside with charjicteristic calm- ness. It was with a touch of satire that his final ^ In 1533, a minute of council had done to England ; but a mar- was made for a letter of a similar ginal note in Cromwell's writing kind to the above to be set forth, says that this cannot be done until in which Parliament was to declare Parliament meets, to the Pope the wrongs which he 160 M^OLSEY PASSES FROM THE SCENE CHAP words expressed a doubt whether so good and bene- ._^^,^,^ ficent a king as Henry could have known of the A D. 1530 remonstrance which they had forwarded to him, and which, he felt sure, would be read by His Majesty with regret.-^ And now the scene closes upon one who had been unwillingly, yet of necessity, mixed up with nearly all the steps of this painful business; for on November 29, 1530, England saw the last of her greatest Woisey's Statesman. He had long foreseen the personal dan- Mrown ° g^^ iiito which the transactions connected with the danger divorco wcre leading him ; and had, apparently, little hope of surmounting them. In his last days, Wolsey expressed his conviction to Sir William Kingston, that Henry would endanger one half of his kingdom rather than miss any part of his will. " I do assure you," were among his dying words, ^^ I have often kneeled before him, sometimes three hours together, to persuade him from his will and What he appetite, but could not prevail." It had been the desire'd^ Cardinal's earliest wish to make, for the good of the nation, the wisest and least unjust settlement that could be made of that miserable business, to guide the Church into a safe road of reformation, and then laying aside his greatness and his worldly cares, to retire into the peaceful rest of some monastic house. But the course of events passed beyond his control, and the ambitious courtesan who now ruled the Thwarted King had been too strong for him. She had come to BoieyT^ consider Wolsey as the cause of all the delay which had occurred in promoting her from the King's arms to his throne ; and with unscrupulous tact she gave the impetus to that rapid descent of the great 1 Onllier, ix. 89. UNIVERSITY OPINIONS RECEIVED 161 minister, which, but for the kindly hand of mortal chap sickness, would have ended only at the block. v.^J^!L^ The official opinions of the foreign universities a-°- ^53° were received in England during the summer of this year, and being collected together were pub- ^^}^^^ lished in a small volume, with an appendix Avhichreadin summed up the arguments used against the validity of the marriage and in favour of the divorce. In the following session of Parliament [January 16- March 30, 1530-1] this book was read in the House of Lords and Commons with as much ceremony as if it had been a king's speech, and Sir Thomas More, the Lord Chancellor, exhorted both Lords and Commons to go down to their sevei"al counties and report what they had heard and seen. This was, doubtless, the most effective way, except the pulpit, of tuning public opinion in days when news- papers did not yet exist. In these days it would seem absurd to most Eng- lishmen, that their sovereign should profess to guide his conduct in any degree by the opinions of foreign universities, but no one seems to have thought it so then ; nor does it appear that a single smile was caused by the production of these opinions in solemn form by the Lord Chancellor and twelve other lords, spiritual and temporal, before the House of Commons, for the information of their cou.ntry constituents. Ridiculous, however, as such a pro- Abadpie- ceeding seems to us, it initiated a practice which ggf^^l-gj^^^ was very important and mischievous in its effects during the succeeding half century. Englishmen got into a habit of looking abroad for their opinions instead of thinking them out at home; and deference to foreign thinkers went far towards changing the 162 THE CAMBRIDGE OPINION CHAP Reformation of the Churcli of England into its de- ^^^.^-..^^^^ struction. A.D. 1530 jt js Qf y^ry little importance to us, historically or otherwise^ what were the opinions or alleged opinions of these foreign universities as to marriage These with a brother s widow. Had they been given una- °^\"g^°"f^°f nimously and without pressure we should have portance scarcely any means of judging of their value, be- cause we know so little as to the character of the bodies by which they were given. But they were in reality given under the influence of circumstances which make them utterly worthless. Fear, faction, and bribery, were the controlling powers by which these opinions were extracted ; and sometimes, as in the Sorbonne, the best men declined to have any- thing to do with the question, while a small majority was secured after several days' discussion by the use of strong external pressure on the part of the crown. Opinions It appears much more reasonable that Henry Univeref- should have sent to Oxford and Cambridge to ask *^^^ their opinions on the subject; but in both univer- sities the same kind of manipulation was used as had been used abroad, and with very similar conse- quences. Cambridge Cambridge was the first to yield under the pres- managed ^ure from above, its grace being passed on March 9, 1530. But Cambridge gave little trouble, having been treated to the process of manipulation for some time previously, and having not a few within its colleges who had begun to take a side in respect to the new learning, and looked to the King's new favourite as its future patroness. Latimer was the leader of the latter party, and Cranmer was associ- ated with Gardiner and Fox in bringing the Univer- CRANMER HAD PREPARED THE GROUND 163 sity round to the desired opinion. In the previous chap year Cranmer had, by some means/ been introduced ._^Ji^^ to the Kings notice^ and had been commissioned to ^•^- ^53° write an argument in favour of the divorce^ which he did in the house of Lord Wiltshire, the father of Cranmer the lady who was to profit by it.^ " And when Dr. fj^to'notice Cranmer had accomplished the King's request in this behalf, he, with the secretary and almoner, and other learned men, had in commission to dispute that cause in question at both the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford ; which being first attempted at Cambridge, Dr. Cranmer by his authority and persuasion brought six or seven learned men in one day of the contrary part and opinion on his part."* Such is the account given by Morice, Archbishop Cranmer's secretary in later days. Another con- temporary biographer also mentions the same fact, and states that his zeal in thus converting Cam- Brought bridge doctors brought him under Gardiner's notice, GlTdTna^^ and that he was then introduced by Gardiner to the King.^ It was a soil thus prepared beforehand that Gar- diner and Fox had to cultivate further for the ^ The groundlessness of the usual p. 1133 of Ames' Typographical story has heen shown before, at History, page 129. ^ NichoFs Narratives of the Ee- ^ A letter is extant from Cranmer formationj p. 242. to the Earl of Wiltshire, in which ^ ^\^,^ p. 22O. The dates at he gives the latter a summary of which the universities signed these Pole's hook against the divorce. several determinations are as fol- See Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 1. His lows : — book on the divorce is entitled by Cambridge, March 9, 1530. Bale " De non diicende Fratrici," 8xS' ' * l^rii s' ^^^^' and the substance of it is sup- AngS-s' .*..'. M^iy r,'i53o " posed to form the introduction Paris (Canon Law faculty). May 23, 1530. tn tbp hnnlr of tlip l^pfprTninn Bourges, June 10, 1530. to ine DooK 01 tne _ ijetermma- Bologna, June lo, 1530. tions 01 the Universities. Some Padua, .... July i, 1530. have identified it with the article Paris (Divinity faculty, or ^ , ^ __ ., rA ' ' )) j_ . Sorbonne), July 2, 1530. •■ GraviS3mi0e . . . censurBe/' at Toulouse, Oct. l, 1530. 164 TIVO PARTIES IN THE SENATE CHAP production of an actual grace of the senate. It so ,_J5^^ happens that an interesting letter has been pre- A.D. 1530 served which tells us exactly how they went to work; and puts into our possession a life-like picture of the Cambridge Senate on a Sunday and Monday in February 152.9-30. The letter was written to the King, and is as follows : — Gardiner " Pleaseth it your Highness to be advertised, That arriving ^^ h^'d^^ ^^^^^ ^^ Cambridge upon Saturday last past at noon, that same night, and Sunday in the morning, we devised with the Vice Chancellor, and such other as favoureth your Grace's cause, how and in what sort to compass and attain your Grace's pur- pose and intent : wherein we assure your Grace, we found much towardness, good will, and diligence, in the Yice-Chan- cellor and Dr. Edmunds, being as studious to serve your Grace as we could wish or desire : !N"evertheless there was not so much care, labour, study, and diligence employed on oui* party, by them, ourself, and other, for attaining your Grace's purpose, but there was as much done by others for the lett and em- peachment of the same ; and as we assembled, they assembled, as we made friends they made friends, to lett that nothing should pass as in the Universities name ; wherein the first day they were superiors, for they had put in the ears of them, by whose voices such things do pass, multas fdbulas, too tedious to write unto your Grace. Upon Sunday at afternoon were assembled, after the manner of the University, all the Doctors, Bachelors of Divinity, and Masters of Arts, being in number almost two hundred : In that congregation we delivered your Question Grace's Letters, which were read openly by the Vice-Chancellor. the Senate -^^^ ^^^ answer to be made unto them, first the Yice-Chancellor calling apart the doctors, asked their advice and opinion; whereunto they answered severally, as their affections led them, et res erat in multa confusione. Tandem they were con- tent Answer should be made to the questions by indifferent men : But then they came to Exceptions against the Abbot of St. Benets, who seemed to come for that purpose ; and hke- wise against Dr. Eeppes, and Dr. Crome ; and also generally DEBATES AND DIVISIONS 165 against all such as had allowed Dr. Cranmer's book, inasmuch chap as already they had declared their opinion. We said there- m unto, That by that reason they might except against all; for ^-^ jc-^o it was lightly, that in a question so notable as this is, every man learned hath said to his friend as he thinketh in it for the time ; but we ought not to judge of any man, that he set- teth more to defend that which he hath once said, than truth afterward known. Finally the Yice-Chancellor, because the day was much spent in those altercations, commanding every man to resort to his seat apart, as the manner is in those assemblies, wiUed every man's mind to be known secretly, whether they would be content with such an Order as he had conceived for answer to be made by the University to your Grace's Letters ; whereunto that night they would in no wise agree. And forasmuch as it was then dark night, the Yice- Senate ad- ChanceUor continued the Congregation till the next day at J^^^"^'^ ^^^^ one of the clock ; at which time the Yice-Chancellor proponed a Grace after the form herein closed ; and, it was first denied : "When it was asked again, it was even on both parties, to be denied or granted ; and at last, by labour of friends to cause some to depart the house which were against it, it was ob- tained in such form as the Schedule hereui enclosed purport- eth ; wherein be two points which we would have left out ; but considering by putting in of them, Ave allured many, and that indeed they shaU not hurt the Determination for your Grace's part, we were finally content therewith. The one point is that where it was first, that quicquid major ^ars of them that be named decreverit, should be taken for the Deter- mination of the University. Now it referred ad duas partes, wherein we suppose shaU be no dif&culty. The other point A disputa- is. That your Grace's question shaU be openly disputed, which {J°," ^° ^^ we think to be very honourable ; and it is agreed amongst us. That in that disputation shall answer the Abbot of St. Benet's, Dr. Eeppes, and I, and Mr. Fox, to aU such as wHl object any thing or reason against the conclusion to be sus- tained for your Grace's part. And because Mr. Doctor Clyfi'e hath said that he has somewhat to say concerning the Canon Lav/, I, your Secretary, shall be adjoined unto them for answer to be made therein. 166 MANCEUVRING OF THE KINGS AGENTS CHA.P "In the schedule which we send unto your Grace here- ^^^ with, containing the names of those who shall determine your \.D. 1530 Grace's question, all marked with A. be already of your Grace's opinion; by which we trust, and with other good means, to induce and attain a great part of the rest. Thus we beseech Almighty God to preserve your most noble and royal estate. From Cambridge, the day of February. — Your Highness' most humble subjects and servants,^ " Stephen Gardiner, " Edward Foxe/' /V majority The result of this good management was, that in about a fortnight the delegates came to an agree- ment, — or as many of them as were sufficient to make the necessary two-thirds, — and j^assed *' deter- mination," which was sent to the King by Dr. Buck- master, the vice-chancellor, in the name of the whole University/ The learned man Avent prepared with «BTimet,iv.l32,Pocock'sE(l. The partes eorum prEesentium inter se grace obtained for these delegates is decreverint, respondendi dictis li- given thus by Gardiner : — "Placet teris, et definierint ac determina- vobis lit [A] Vicecancellarius ; verint super qusestione proposita, Doctores, [A] Salcot, the Abbot of in iisdem habeatiir, et repntetnr St. Benet's, Watson, [A] Keps, pro responsione, definitione et Tomson, A^enetns, de isto bene sper- determinatione totins Universita- atur ; [A] Edmunds, Downes, [A] tis, et quod liceat Vicecancellario, Crome, [A] Wygan, [A] Boston. Prociiratoribus et Scrutatoribus, Magistri in Tlieologia, Myddelton, Uteris super dictaruni dnarimi par- [A] Heynes, Mylsent, de isto bene tium definitione et determinatione .^iperatiir; [A] Shaxton, [A] Lati- concipiendasigillum commune Uni- mer, [A] Simon, Longford, de isto versitatis apponere : sic quod dis- bene speratur ; Thyxtel, Nicole, putetur quEjestio piiblice et antea Hutton, [A] Skip, [A] Goodrich, legatur coram Universitate absque [A] Heth, Pladwey, de isto bene ulteriori gratia desnper petenda aut speratur; Dey, Bayne, [AA] Duo obtinenda. Procuratores. "Your Highness may perceive " Habeant plenam facultatem et by the notes, that we be already Auctoritatem, nomine totius Uni- sure of as many as be requisite, versitatis, respondendi Literis Re- wanting only three ; and we have gi^MajestatisinhacCongrc,L,^atione good hope of' four; of which four lectis, ac nomine totius Univer- if we get two, and obtain of another sitatis definiendi et determinandi to be absent, it is siifhcient for our qurestionem in dictis literis pro- piirposL',." posilam: ita quod quicquid duse ^ The 'determination" of Cam- DECISION AT LAST OBTAINED 167 a speechj which he has left to posterity among the chap MSS. of Corpus Christi College, but he appears not ..^^-^^ to have been very happy during the one Sunday ■^■^- ^53° afternoon that he spent at Court : and the King evidently supposed that he, at least, had given his support unwillingly, although Gardiner had marked his name with the favourable ''A." Of the manner The deter- ,.TT .n ipi-' ■ mination m which he was received, and oi his impressions sent to the respecting the Court, he has left also an amusing ■^^'''^ account, in a letter which he wrote to Dr. Edmonds^ vicar of Alborne, in Wiltshire : — bridge is as follows : — "Nos Uni- versitas studentium AcademiseCan- tabrigiensis, omnibus infra scripta lecturis auditurisve salutem. Cnm occasione causse Matrimonialis, in- ter Invictissimum et Potentissi- mum Principem et Dominum nog- tnim Henricum octavum Dei gratia Anglise Francieeque Re^em, Fidei Defensorem, ac Doniiuum Hiber- nise, et lUustrissimam Dominam Catharinani E,eginam controversse de ilia qiTsestione nostra rogaretnr sententia : videlicet, An sit jure Divino et nat^^rali probibitum, ne Frater ducat in uxorem Relictam fratris mortui sine liberis ? Nos de ea re deliberaturi more solito convenientes ; atque communicatis consiUis, matura consultatione trac- tantes quo modo, quo ordiae ad investigationem veritatis certius j>rocederetuT, ac omnium tandem sufFragiis, selectis quibusdam ex doctissimis Sacrse Theologiae Pro- fessoribus, Bachalauriis, ac aliis Magistris ea cura demandata, ut scrutatis diligentissime Sacrse Scrip- tufse locis, illisque coUatis refer- rent ac renunciarent, quid ipsi dictse qusestioni respondendum pu- tarent. Quoniam auditis, perpen- sis, ac post publicam super dicta quffistione disputationem matura deliberatioiie discussis liiis, quee in qusestione prsedicta alterutram par- tem statuere et convellere possint ; lUa nobis probabiliora, validioraj veriora, etiam et certiora, ac genu- inum et syncenim Sacrse Scrip- turoe intellectum prse se ferentia, Interpretum etiam sententiis magis consona visa sunt, quae confinnant et probant, jure divino et naturali prohibitum esse, ne Frater uxorem fratris mortui sine Uberis accipiat in conjugem : IlKs igitur persuasi, etinxmam opinionem convenientes, ad qusestionem prsedictam ita re- spondendum decrevimus, et in biis scriptis, nomine totius universitatia respondemus, ac pro conclusione nobis solidissimis rationibus et validissimis argumentis comproba- ta aflfirmamus, quod ducere uxorem fratris mortui sine liberis, cogni- tam k priori viro per camalem copulam, nobis Christianis bodie est prohibitum Jure Divino ac na- turali. Atque in fidem et testi- monium hujusmodi nostree respon- sionis et affirmationis, hiis Literis sigillum nostrum commune cura- vimus apponi. Datum in congre- gatione nostra Cantabrigi0e,dienono Martii Anno Domini Millesimo quingentesimo vicesimo nono." Lamb's Corpus Christi Documents, p. 21. 168 THE VICE-CHANCELLOR AT COURT CHAP III A.D. 1530 Dr. Buck- master be- fore the King Royal sar- casms A second interview " My duty remembered, I heartily commend me unto you, and I let you understand that Dominica Secunda^ at afternoon I came to "Windsor, and also to part of Mr. Latimer's sermon : and after the end of the same I spake with Mr. Secretary and also with Mr. Provost ; and so after Evensong I delivered our letters in the Chamber of Presence, all the court beholding. The King with Mr. Secretary did there read them, but not the letters of determination, notwithstanding that I did there also deliver them, with a proposition. His Highness gave me there great thanks, and talked with me a good while. He much lauded our wisdoms and good conveyance in the mat- ter, with the great quietness in the same. He shewed me also what he had in his hands for our university, according unto that that Mr Secretary did express unto us, &c. So he de- parted. But by and by, he greatly praised Mr. Latimer's Ser- mon, and in so praising said on this wise, This displeaseth greatly, Mr. Yicechancellor yonder. Yon same, said he unto the Duke of ISTorfolk, is Mr. Yicechancellor of Cambridge, and so pointed unto me. Then he spake secretly unto the Duke, which after the King's departure came unto me, and welcomed me, saying amongst other things, that the King would speak with me on the next day. And here is the first act. On the next day, I waited until it was dinner time ; and so at the last Dr. Butts came unto me, and brought a reward, twenty ISTobles for me, and ^yq Marks for the younger Proctor, which was with me ; saying that I should take that for a resolute answer, and that I might depart from the Court, when I woiild. Then came Mr. Provost, and when I had shewed him of our answer, he said, I should speak with the King at after Dinner for all that, and so brought me into a ^^rixj place, where as he would have me to wait at after Dinner. I came thither and he both, and by one of the clock, the King entered in. It was in a Gallery. There were Mr. Secretary, Mr. Provost, Mr. Latimer, Mr. Proctor, and I, and no more : The King there talked with us, until five of the clock. I assure you, he was scarce contented with Mr. Secretary and Mr. Provost, that this was not also determined. An Papa possit di^ioensare, &c. I made the best, and confirmed the same that ^ Second Sunday m Lent. THE KING DISSATISFIED 169 they had shewed his Grace before, and how it would never chap have been so obtained. He opened his mind, saying, that he ^ would have it determined after Easter, and of the same we a. p. i-^o counsailed a while. " I pray you therefore study for us, for our business is not yet at an end, An Papa potest dispensare cum Jure Divino, &c. Much other communication we had, which were too long here to recite. Thus his Highness departed, casting a little holy Avater of the court : and I shortly after took my leave of Mr. Secretary and Mr. Provost, with whom I did not drink, nor yet was bidden : and on the morrow departed from thence, thinking more than I did say, and being glad that I was out of the Court, where many men as I did both hear and per- ceive, did wonder on me. And here shall be an end for this time of this fable. " All the world almost crieth out of Cambridge for this The Uni- act, and specially on me, but I must bear it as well as I may.^^^^^^J'^jj 1 have lost a benefice by it, which I should have had within censured this ten days. For there hath one fallen in Mr. Throck- morton's gift, which he hath faithfully promised unto me many a time, but now his mind is turned and aHenate from me. If ye go to the Court after Easter, I pray you have me in remembrance there as ye shall think best. But of this no more. . . . Mr. Latimer preacheth stUl, Quod cemuli ejus graviter fcrunt. I am informed that Oxford hath now elected certain persons to determine the King's question. I hear say also that Mr. Provost ^vas here in great jeopardy. Other tidings I have none at this time, but that all the company be in good health, and heartily saluteth you. And thus fare you heartily well. At Cambridge, in Crastino Dominicce Palmarum. Your own to his power, "William Buckmaster. " The King willed me to send unto you, and to give you word of his pleasure in the said question." ^ From this letter it would appear that the King required another ''determination" to be obtained, but there is no record of any further steps being taken on the question at Cambridge. ^ Lamb's Corpus Christi Doaiinents, p. 23. A, 170 OXFORD VERY UNMANAGEABLE CHAP At the other University there was much more III • ... . ^^^.r-^^ difficulty in obtaining a satisfactory verdict, Oxford^ ^- ^530 especially young Oxford, was giving, in fact, as much trouble as it could, and made a bold struggle for freedom and the rights of conscience. Warham, who Question was chaucellor of the University, had laid before it, to Oxfo^rd by direction of the King, the same question which had been submitted to the rest \ but so little was done in the matter, that Dr. Bell, and Longland, the King's confessor, and Bishop of Lincoln (in which diocese Oxford was then included), were sent with a let- up there with a letter from Henry himself. This the i5?g epistle stated, that having '^ consulted many and substantial well-learned men within our realm and without^ for certain considerations our conscience moving," he thought it convenient ^^ to feel the minds" of those who were erudite in the faculty of divinity at Oxford. Much was said about the virtue of not leaning to '^ wilful and sinister opinions," and about the filial duty that was owing by the Univer- sity to so good a King, and how great things might be hoped for the University from his favour. All this was, of course, intended to bias the minds of members of convocation : but, in addition, a significant warning enjoining was added, — ^' In case you do not upriofhtly according: all to vote 4. -rw- • • -U J 11- 1 as he to Divme learning hand yourselves herem, ye may be them"^ assured that we, not without great cause, shall so quickly and sharply look to your unnatural misde- meanour herein, that it shall not be to your quietness and ease hereafter." It was also added, that those who accommodated themselves to the mere truth, as it be- came true subjects to do, should be " esteemed and set foi^h," while those who saw truth without this qualify- ing medium, should be ^'neglected and little set by." THE KING PERSUADES AND THREATENS VJ\ Such a letter was calculated to produce a definite chap result. There were some who were likely to be in- ^^^-^-^ fluenced by the gratitude which remembers tlie ^•^- *53o past : many more by the gratitude which looks for- ward to the future. Among the doctors of divinity of mature standing, there was a clear filial majority a minority for the King. Expectant bishops and deans were fo"r^bie all ready to vote in the sunshine : and those who walked boldly to the shady side of the convocation house^ were all either divines with inconvenient con- sciences^ or those troublesome masters of arts who would persist in thinking for themselves. It being evident that there was so large a majority for truth which was of the '^ unnatural misdemeanour" kind, it was thought better for the convocation to break up without coming to a vote. This led the King to write once more to his '' trusty and well-beloved/' but not very docile, University. In this second The King epistle he calls the malcontents the '' youth " of the youthful University, and charges them with contentious fac- ^'^''^ tions and manner, daily combining together, neither regarding their duty to us their Sovereign Lord, nor yet conforming themselves to the opinions and orders of the virtuous, wise, sage, and profound learned men of that University." These youths, the masters of arts, were wilfully striking upon the opinion to have a great number of regents and non- regents associated in convocation with the divines, and the King regards it as an unheard of thing, that men of right small learning should thus stay their seniors, — " A^^lich as we think should be no small dishonour to our University there, but most especially to you the Seniors and hulers of the same, assuring you that this their unnatural 172 YOUNG OXFORD STILL RESISTS CHAP and unkind demeanour is not only right mncli to our dis- ^^^ pleasure, but much to be marvelled of, upon what ground A.D. 1530 and occasion they being our mere subjects, should shew them- selves more unkind and wilful in this matter, than all other Universities, both in this and all other regions do. EinaUy, trusts the We trusting in the dexterity and wisdom of you and other the briir^them ®^^*^ discreet and substantial learned men of that University, round be in perfect hope, that ye will conduce and frame the said young persons unto good order and conformity, as it becometh you to do. Wherefore we be desirous to hear with incon- tinent diligence, and doubt you not we shall regard the demean- our of every one of the University, according to their merits and deserts. And if the youth of the University will play masteries, as they begin to do, We doubt not but that they shall well perceive, that non est homom irritare Crahrones" Young Oxford was proof, however^ even against the royal threat of a plague of hornets^ and further writes a measures had to be taken. So that the King wrote ^ '"' a third letter, and sent it by the hands of one who had already been found useful in manipulating the Cambridge senate. In this third letter the King reproaches the "young persons" with ingratitude, and sets before them the excellent example of compliance shown by and urges the sister Univeisity : — ^^ Our University of Cam- exampie bridge hath within far shorter time not only agreed Cambridge ^V^^ ^^^ fashiou and manner to make answer to us effectually, and with diligence following the same, but hath also eight days since sent unto us their answer under common seal, plainly determining, Prohibitionem esse Divini et naturalis juris, ne frater Uxorem fratris etiam mortui sine liberis ducat Ux- orem." But unwilling to show his displeasure at present, he has sent them his trusty and right well- beloved clerk and counsellor, Mr. Edward Fox, DIPLOMACY OF FOX PREVAILS 173 trusting that the ^^ heads" and "rulers" will "so chap order and accommodate the fashion and passing," ^^iJJ,^ &c., &c., "as that the number of the private suffrages ■^•^- ^53o given without reason prevail not against the heads^ rulers, and sage fathers to the detriment, hindrance, and inconvenience of the whole." Under the guid- victory of ance of so experienced a diplomatist/ the heads of houses succeeded, thus saving themselves and the other " seniors" from the anguish of appearing to possess any fragment of a corporate conscience which dissented from that of the reigning powers. By a clever manoeuvre convocation was called together late in the evening of a tempestuous day, so that its meeting was known to few. Here and there a zealous and wakeful master of arts discovered the ruse, and one fellow of Balliol, in the haste of his zeal, was seen rushing through Broad Street and the Turl with a pair of scarlet breeches round his neck instead of his hood. But zeal cannot stand against Zeai and diplomacy^ and the question was at last decided by ^^t'^^^^^y the votes of thirty-three doctors and bachelors of divinity in such a manner as to satisfy the King.^ 1 state Papers, i. 377. est fide, doctrina et scientii. Cum ^ The following is the decree, or igitur nos ssepius rogati, et requisiti Act of Convocation, as given by sumus, ut an nobis jure divino, Anthony Wood, in Antiq. Oxon., pariter ac natural!, prohibitum p. 255 : — " Omnibus fidelibus ad videretur, ne quis Christianus re- quos scriptum prgesens pervenerit, lictam fratris sui morientis sine Nos, universitas doctorum et magis- liberis duceret uxorem, nostram trorum, tam regentiam quam non sententiam explicaremus : quoniam regentium, omnium et singularum examinatis et discussis, cum omni facultatum, almre universitatis fide, diligentid, et sinceritate, sacree Oxon, salutem in eo qui est vera scripturselocis,etsanctorunipatnim salus. Professionis nostras debi- sententiis ac interpretationibus, . tum, pariter et Ghristianse chari- quae ad eruendam in hac quzestione tatis of&cium, illud a nobis efflagi- veritatem facere et pertinere judi- tat, ut parati ac faciles semper cavimus, tum etiam audita gravis- simus de nostrse cognitionis luce simormn et eruditissimorum doc- aliis libenter impartiri et satisfacere torum, et baccalaureorum sacrte omni poscenti de eS, quae in nobis theologire, quibus illud ne^^otii 174 VALUE OF OPINIONS SO OBTAINED CHAP What would have been the result if any other sort ^^3JJ^ of " mere truth" than that which he wished for had A-t>. 1530 been incorporated in the Act of Convocation it is not difficult to conjecture, and the politic prudence of the minority probably saved the University of Oxford from a wholesale confiscation. Thus ended that singular episode of the divorce business, — the consultation of the Universities. Opinions were ostensibly given by about half the learned bodies of Europe in favour of Henry's wishes/ and some on the opposite side. But the former were extracted in a manner which takes away from any weight they might possess if they had been given freely ; and, so far as those published by the King are concerned, they are little better than sonorous echoes of his strongly declared pre-judg- ment of his own case. As far as regards the settle- ment of the point under discussion during all those demandatum est, opinione et sen- bati, affirmamus, quod ducere ux- tentia super dicti qusestione, post orem fratris, mortui sine liberis, multas, frequentes, et pnblicas dis- cognitam a j)riori viro per camalem pntationes ab illis pronuntiati, et copidam, nobis christianis est de declarata, invenimus et judicavi- jnre divino pariter ac natural! pro- mus, ilia longe probabiliora, vali- hibitum. Atque in fidem, et testi- diora, veriora, et certiora esse, turn monium bujusmodi nostrse respon- etiam genuinum et sincerum sacrse sionis et atfirmationis, hiis Uteris scripturse sensum prseferentia, et sigillum nostrum curavimus ap- interpretmn denique sententiis ma- poni. Datum in congregatione gis consona, quae confirmant et nostri Oxonii die 8 Aprilis, 1530." probant jure divino, pariter et Antiq. Oxon., 256. naturali, prohibitum esse Chris- ^ Calvinist opinions were also ob- tianis, ne quis frater relictam ger- tained by Henry, but they are even mani fratris morientis sine liberis, more worthless, from a judicial point et ab eodem carnaliter cognitam, of view (to say nothing of the theo- accipiat in uxorem. Nos igitur, logical) than those of the Catholic universitas Oxoniensis antedicta, Universities. Underneath all such ad quEestionem prcedictam ita re- verdicts, there lay the primary as- spondendum decrevimus, et in his sumption that this was a struggle sc.riptis ex totius iiniversitatis sen- between the Papacy and its enemies, tentia respondemus, ac pro conclu- and that the latter were to be sup- sione nobis solidissimis rationibus ported, whatever the truth might et vaUdissimis argumentis compro- be. RELATION OF ANNE BOLEYN TO THE KING 175 years, the opinions given are of the least possible chap judicial value ; and when the manner in which they ^J^t-^^ were obtained has been recorded^ that is all that a-^- ^53° needs to be known about them. The further transactions connected with the divorce extend over two years of time, but they do not occupy a large space in history. The position of the persons concerned was now practically settled. Anne Boleyn Anne Bo- was living in the Kings palace in the same manner, t^on^^*^^^ to all outward appearance, that any other acknow- ledged mistresses of kings have lived, going wherever he went, and exercising the usual powers of favourite courtesans over their royal masters. The principal dijQference was that she looked forward with unblush- iier unre- ing effrontery to the occupation of a position which sumpUoii was still filled by the Queen, and took it for granted, ^^ ^° ^^^^ without the smallest particle of feminine reserve, that the question on which so many learned men were unable to make up their minds, was already practi- cally decided in such a manner as to enable her to thrust Catherine from the King s side and usurp her place. It has been assumed that Anne Boleyn did not actually yield up her virtue to the King before marriage; but she gave every reason to contem- poraries and to the historian to believe the contrary : and it would take very strong and direct evidence to convince any judicial mind that so sensual a man asimpi-oba- Henry proved himself to be, would have accepted Sin?"' her society for so long a time on any other terms, henry's No one would have believed that George IV., when separated from his Queen, was likely to keep a young marchioness, with whom he was " in love/' under his roof and at his table for several years on an innocent footing : and it is quite as unlikely that 176 FRESH PRESSURE ON THE POPE CHAP Henry VIII. should have done so. But, although .^^J:^^^^ the King and Anne Boleyn were thus living together, A.D. 1530 ]2e had a sincere desire to leave behind him a son whose claims to the succession should be recognised as legitimate ; and he therefore continued his endeavours to obtain such a sentence of divorce from his wife Catherine as would enable him to marry Anne. While there was no actual prospect of the latter having a child, he could still afford to be deliberate and formal in the steps which he was taking, and they were only hurried on when there was a certainty that she was about to become a mother, which was not until after December 1532. Final ne- Notwithstanding, therefore, the unfriendly terms of thiic^ng which now existed between Henry and the Pope, the Po V^^ former still continued to press for a decision by some competent tribunal appointed by the Pope, but which should not sit out of England. During the summer of 1530, letters were sent to his ambassadors at Rome, Dr. Benet, the Bishop of Worcester, and Sir Gregory Cassilis, in which he made further pro- posals ; and the Bishop of Tarb^s (now Cardinal Grammont) was instructed by Francis, the French king, to assist the English ambassadors in promoting their sovereign s cause. On October 8th of that year the Pope gave them an audience, when these pro- posals were set before him by Grammont ; and a long account of the interview was written by Dr. Nature of ^euet to the King.^ These proposals were three proposals in number, and each of them was brought forward by itself with great caution, and urged as far as possible before its successor was mentioned. The first was that the Pope should issue a commission to * See the Letter in Dod's Church History, Tiemey's Ed., 1839, 1. 384 , I ? HE DECLINES ALL PROPOSALS the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Lin- chap coin, and the Bishop of London, to try the cause .^ij^^ anew.^ This the Pope firmly declined, saying that ^•^- ^Si^ he had refused already to grant such a commission, on the ground that the Queen had appealed to him, and that justice to her required him to hear the cause himself ; and that for the same reason he still refused to entertain the proposal. " Then my Lord of Tarbes descended to the second degree, which was for the commission to the clergy of the province of Canterbury." This also the Pope refused, saying as before that the proposal had been often made before and as often rejected by him. Finally, Grammont Cardinal proposed that the King should be left to follow his ^'^"!" *-' mont s own course conformably to the opinions given by the mediation universities. This last proposal was read to the Pope by Grammont in Henry s own words ; and, perhaps on that account, his Holiness declined to give a reply to it until he had consulted with the con- sistory. Then a threat that had been used by other ambassadors was again used by the French envoy. '' Monsieur de Tarbes said that it was very necessary that his Holiness should study to satisfy your high- ness in some of these degrees, or else, he said, that his Holiness should see a greater ruin in Christen- dom than he hath seen hitherto, as he might clearly perceive by the latter end of the instructions." To which the Pope replied that come what might, he clement must proceed in this matter according to justice and ^^^^"^ojus- the order of the law, and that neither the Kings of lessi/^'" England nor France, on the one hand, nor the Em- peror, should move him to " transgress one hair of justice." It was a brave resolve, but based on those The two first and tLe Bistop of Exeter had been proposed before. M wives 1 5^8 AND PROHIBITS ANY DIVORCE CHAP narrow ideas respecting tlie dependence of sovereigns ,. .^.^^ on the Pope^ which had already become almost A-D. 1530 obsolete, and to maintain which still greater injustice had to be committed. These proposals were urged upon the Pope again and again with the like result. The only appearance of yielding was when the Pope suggested to Dr. Benet that he might possibly grant the request for The dis- a dispensation to have two wives. This was opposed, foTtwo°" however, by the consistory^ and the Pope himself seems scarcely to have been serious in suggesting it.^ To meet the decrees of the Universities^ which the King had thus brought officially before him, the • Pope issued a bull on January 5, 1530-1, by which he inhibited any person or court from pronouncing sentence of divorce between Henry and Catherine. thus finally and publicly declaring his intention of " Dr. Benet states this strange pense in the same case ? Then his affair in the following "words : — Holiness showed me, No : hut said " Sir, shortly after my coming that a great divine showed him hither, the Pope moved nnto me of that he thought, for avoiding of a a dispensation for two AAdves, which greater inconvenience, his Holiness he spake at the same time so doubt- might dispense in the same case, fully that I suspected that he spake Howbeit, he said he would counsel it for one of these two purposes : further about it with liis council, the one was that I should have set And now of late, the Pope showed it forward to your highness to the me that his council showed him intent that if your highness would plainly that he could not do it." have accepted thereby, he should Dod, i. 391. The same, or a simi- have gotten a mean to bring your lar conversation is mentioned in a highness to grant that, if he might letter from Sir Gregory Cassilis to dispense in this case, which is of no the King. Collier, ix. 93. Luther's less force than your case is, conse- idea as to his j)Owers of "dispen- quently he might dispense in your sation" were on a less modest scale highness' case. The other wag, than those of the Pope and liis con- that I conjectured that it should sistory, for he gave permission (a be a thing purposed to entertain few years later) to Philip, Lande- yoxir highness in some hope, grave of Hesse, to do that which whereby he might defer your cause, the Pope declared he had no autho- to the intent your grace should rity to sanction in Henry VIII. trust upon the same. Then I The Protestant Grinosus had al- asked his Holiness whether he was ready suggested this course to the fully resolved that he might dis- King. See Burnet, i. 160. PERSUASION TRIED WITH THE QUEEN 179 accepting the appeal of the latter, and of permitting chap the cause to be determined only by himself. He ..^^^^.^ seems to have done nothing further in the matter a-°- ^53i during the whole of the year 1531, and certainly — assuming his right to act as judge in the case — so long a delay was a just ground of complaint as regards the persons chiefly interested. It was also bad policy as regards the relations between England and Rome, for the interval gave time for further alienation to take place. It was during this year also that the final separa- The King tion between the King and Queen took place. To paratL^^ whatever extent they had been living apart for the q^^^^^^^ last six or seven years, they had yet been residing in the same palaces, sometimes dining at the same table, and appearing together occasionally in public. But the King had now resolved to bring Anne Boleyn more forward even than he had already done, and the inconvenience of having the Queen under the same roof with her supplanter was beginning to grow greater. In June, therefore, some of the Lords of the Council were deputed to go to Greenwich, for the purpose of laying before the Queen the opinions of the Universities, in the hope that the strong case thus made out against her union with the King might be an argument with her that the Pope him- self was likely to go against her, and that she would be wise to withdraw the appeal she had made to him. But Catherine was strong in the strength of feminine logic. She was the Kings wife by decree of the Pope and lawful ceremonies, and until the Pope declared against her marriage, nothing should move her one step from the maintenance of her rights as a 180 THE POPE CITES KING AND QUEEN TO ROME CHAP wife. Shortly after this interview, at midsummer^ ,^J5-^she left Greenwich with the King, and remained ^•D. 1531 with him at Windsor until July 14th. On that day the final separation took place, the King departing from Windsor, and never again living under the same roof with, or even seeing her who had been his wife, and a good wife, for twenty-two years. She removed first to the More^ a manor of the Arch- bishops of York, in Hertfordshire, and then to Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, one of the King's houses, where she spent most of her time during the re- mainder of her life. Henceforth Anne Boleyn s position at Court ceased to be accompanied by the least public restraint. Perhaps a report reached the Pope that she was already married to the King ; for he wrote to Henry The Pope's ou January 25, 1 532, remonstrating against the strance scaudal of having her to live with him as his wife ; Anne^^^"^ and it is certain that the Popes have not been Boleyn accustomed to restrain Kings in respect to their feminine associates when the association has been notoriously a dishonourable one. This remonstrance produced no further effect than a renewal of the weary missions to Rome, which seem to have tired out to the last degree the patience of all immediately engaged in them, for they were always declaring to the King how utterly hopeless they were, and how immoveable was the Pope. Even while such importunities were being used King of towards Clement, he issued citations for the King summoned ^ud Queeu to appear at Rome. When it had been 1° Rome^ proposed to do this three years before, Wolsey had replied that his master, the King, could only appear at Rome with 20,000 soldiers at his back; but FORBIDS MARRIAGE WITH ANNE BOLEYN 181 instead of meeting the citation with any such reply, chap the King sent to his special ambassador, Sir Edward , ^..^^ Karne, who was at Rome, under the name of an a.d. 1532 ^' excusator" (and with him Dr. Bonner), to decline entering an appearance ; first on grounds taken from the canon law, and secondly, by alleging the inde- pendence of the English crown. They appeared before the consistory, and a long debate of many days followed, the question assuming more of a political than any other form, and Ilenry's envoys being opposed by those cardinals who Avere, politi- cally, of the Emperor's party. The debate ended almost where it began, an urgent message being sent is urged by to the King to the effect that if he would not himself to^endV appear at Rome, he would at least send a proxy to P^°^y plead in his name, and represent him at the trial. But now the King was preparing to take the matter into his own hands and follow his own course, a proceeding to which the Pope would probably have offered little or no objection some time before, but which would interfere with the dignity and authority of the Holy See now that so much had been said and done on both sides. In September , " Mistress Anne " was created Marchioness of Pem- a royal broke — a title not hitherto borne by a subject ; and ferr^edTn in October, she accompanied the King to Calais on ^""^ ^°- the occasion of his second state interview with the King of France. In the following month the Pope signed a brief forbidding the marriage of Henry with Anne Boleyn, and declaring him ex- communicated ipso facto^ if it had taken place, or should take place thereafter ; but this brief was not published until the following February ; and before that time came the marriage had taken place. 182 THE KING MARRIES ANNE BOLEYN CHAP For whether or not Anne Boleyn had withstood ^J^^^^ the King's advances for any time at first, it is cer- ^-^- tain that they were living together at the end of 1532 as man and wife, Queen Elizabeth being born on September 7, 1533. Finding that his companion was likely to become a mother^ he doubtless hoped and expected that she would give him a son^ and in his anxiety to make that son a legitimate heir to Her mar- his throue, the King pressed on the marriage in iSng ^ ^ spite of the unremoved obstacles of a wife not yet divorced, and of the papal opposition. A letter of Archbishop Cranmer record^ that the marriage was celebrated ^^much about St. Paul's day last/'^ i.e, January 25, 1533, and the same date is given by Stow. An earlier day, the festival of St. Erkenwald, November 14th, was named by some subsequent writers ; and it is considered probable that reports were circulated of the marriage having taken place at that time, for the purpose of deceiving the Court of Rome, and conceahng the fact of Anne's immo- rality. Cranmer was not present at the marriage, and did not know of it for a fortnight after it had taken place. It is supposed that the ceremony was performed by Dr. Rowland Lee, who was afterwards Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and that only the The per- Earl and Countess of Wiltshire, Lord Rochford, and sent at the the Duke of Norfolk (Lady Wiltshire's brother) ceremony ^^-^^ prosont. Nothing remains to show us in what light so singular a marriage was regarded by the relatives of Anne Boleyn \ but such gross adulation was paid to the King, that they probably considered it perfectly legitimate and unexceptionable. Parliament met on February 4, 1533, and passed "■ Cranmer to Archdeacon Hawkyns (Jenkyns' Cranmer), i. 31. CRANMER BECOMES ARCHBISHOP 183 the famous Statute of Appeals. This will be noticed chap at length in another chapter, and it is only neces- .^^^^^^. sary to mention it here as shutting the door against ^•°- '533 all further hope that Catherine might entertain as to the King submitting to have her cause tried at Rome. On February 21st the bulls were issued for the Cranmer consG" consecration of Cranmer as Archbishop of Canter- crated bury, and his consecration took place almost imme- diately after their arrival in England, that is, on March 30, 1533. The convocation which was then sitting^ had been Opinion of convoca- elected in 1529, but how many sessions it had held tion in the cannot be known, as the records of convocation at ^"^scase that period have been destroyed. Among its many important discussions and acts there had, during some of these sessions, been one respecting the divorce, — ^the same questions having been submitted to both the convocations as had been laid before the Universities. On April 5, 1533, the acts of the convocation of Canterbury were searched by com- mand of the King, and an entry was found relating to this debate. The first question put before the houses had been, Whether marriage with'a brothers widow, supposing the brother to have consummated his marriage, was forbidden by the law of God, and so beyond the power of the Pope to allow. After a long debate of several days, this proposition was voted in the affirmative by 263 (66 present, and 197 proxies), in the negative by 19. The second question was, Whether the consummation of the marriage between Prince Arthur and the Princess Catherine was sufficiently proved. This was debated only by doctors of the civil law, of whom 47 were present, 184 CI^ANMER'S COLLUSION WITH THE KING CHAP and 3 sent proxies : of this number 41 decided in ..J^r^^ the affirmative. The aged Bishop of Rochester, and AD. 1533 the Bishop of Llandaff, were in the minority on both occasions^ and on the second question they were joined by the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Five weeks later, May 13th, a similar official search was made in the acts of the convocation of York, and the report stated that there also a decision of both questions was found to the same effect. In looking at the steps which were then taken by Culpable Archbishop Cranmer, it is impossible to exonerate Cranmer him from coUusion with the King. But the votes of convocation in both provinces gave such large majorities, that the former may, not very unfairly, have supposed that they justified him in giving effect to his own opinion, and in carrying out the King's wishes. In doing this he gave himself too much the appearance of obeying orders, instead of sitting in the seat of judgment : but Cranmer was not a man of exalted mind or manner ; and it is most likely that his conscience and his subserviency (disgusting as the latter now seems) were really in agreement with each other. His first step was taken when he hkd been Archbishop a little more than a week^ and looks extremely like the fulfilment of a contract with the King. On April 1 1th, he pre- Appiiesfor sented a petition or memorial to Henry, setting forth a^icense o ^^ difficulties and dangers which beset the country for want of a son as heir-apparent to the Crown, and asking, in terms that cannot, be characterized otherwise than as abject, for license to exercise his office in bringing the divorce suit to an end.^ The ^ State Papers, i. 390. There tlie second — more abject, even, in are two, but varying copies of this tone than the first — was the one letter (both sent to the King), and chosen by Henry. OPENS HIS COURT AT DUNSTABLE 185 King replied in a lofty tone, reiterating with some chap exaggeration the ^^most humble supplication" of the .^^^^^^^^ Archbishop, declaring that he recognised no superior ^•^- ^533 on earth but God, and that he was not subject to the laws of any earthly creature^ but condescending " not to refuse " the ^' humble request^ offer, and towardness" to make an end *^ in our said great cause of matrimony, which hath so long depended undetermined, to our great and grievous unquiet- ness, and burden of our conscience."^ The license is therefore granted^ under the sign manual^ for the The King's Archbishop to proceed in the examination and deter- ^^-^^^ mination of the cause ; the letter concluding with a P^^^^f^^ solemn exhortation to Cranmer, that he take care not to have regard to any earthly or worldly affec- tion therein ; '' for assuredly the thing that we most covet in the worlds is so to pi-oceed in all our acts and doings, as may be the most acceptable to the pleasure of Almighty God our Creator," &c. &c. Such solemn asseverations were by no means neces- sary in the document, and cannot be taken as a mere technicality. They were inserted with deliberate and audacious mendacity, in the face of a fact which at once shows that the King had now no conscience in the matter, — the fact being, that he had gone through the ceremony of marriage with Anne Boleyn eleven weeks before he thus professed to seek a just and impartial decision as to the lawfulness or unlaw- fulness of his yet undissolved union with Catherine. The Archbishop opened his court in the monastery cranmer's at Dunstable, in the neighbourhood of Ampthill, the ^nh^'c^se Queen s present residence. A monition was served upon her, by Dr. Lee, to appear there on May 10th; » State Papers, i. 392. 186 THE QUEEN WILL NOT APPEAR CHAP but '^she utterly refused the same^ saying that inas- ^^^....^^^^ much as her cause was before the Pope she would ^•^' 1533 have none other judge ; and therefore would not take me for her judge."^ She persevered throughout in this refusal to recognise the court, so that ^Hhere came not so much as a servant of hers to Dunstable, save such as were brought in as witnesses ;" aud^ in Gather- fact, sliO opculy declared that Cranmer was a mate of " shadow" and his court a "mockery/' plainly con- ^^™ sidering that the Archbishop was simply carrying out pro formd the foregone intention of the King. This " shadow" of a judge sat at Dunstable for seven days^ or at least on some of the days from the 10th to the 17th of May, with Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, for his assessor ; Gardiner, Bishop of Win- chester, Dr. Bell, Dr. Claybrook, Dr. Tregonnell, Dr. Hewis, Dr. Oliver, Dr. Britton, and Mr. Bedell, with divers other learned in the law, being counsel- lors for the King's part." Witnesses were examined Course of to show that the Queen had been lawfully cited to appear, and as she did not appear she was pronounced contumax on the very first day of the sitting, Satur- day, May 10th; and on the following Monday the Archbishop "pronounced her vere et Tnanifeste con- tumacem, so that she is (as the counsel informeth me) precluded from farther monition to appear."^ Thus, The judge Cranmer told the Kiner, he was able to make more to the . . ® plaintiff expedition than he had expected; and on the 17th of the month he wrote again to say that he had fixed the following Friday, the earliest possible day, for declaring the final sentence of divorce. On the same day he wrote a most unworthy letter to Cromwell, ^ Craiimer to Archdeacon Haw- ^ State Papers, i. 394 kyns (Jenkyns^ Cranmer), i. 27. CRANMER PRONOUNCES HIS SENTENCE 185^ desiring that his intention might be kept strictly secret, chap *' For if the noble Lady Catherine should, by the ,^3^^,.^ bruit of this matter in the mouths of the inhabitants ^°- ^^'^'^ of the country, or by her friends or counsel hearing of this bruit, be moved, stirred, counselled, or persuaded to appear afore me in the time, or afore the time of Fears Ca- sentence, I should be thereby greatly stayed and let may ap- in the process, and the King s Grace's counsel here ^^^inder present shall be much uncertain what shall be then the pro- cess further done therein."^ There seems to have been a thorough understanding between Henry and Cranmer as to the character of " the process" which the Arch- bishop was thus to smuggle through its rapid stages. And so on the earliest possible day — ^the first day after the 1 7th, which was open for the sitting of law courts — the Archbishop writes to the King, " Please it your Highness to be advertised, that this 23d day of this month of May I have given sentence in your Grace's great and weighty cause, the copy whereof I have sent unto your Highness by this bearer, Richard Watkyns."^ In a private letter to Archdeacon Hawkyns, written a few weeks later, he says that he proceeded '' in the said cause against her in pcenam Convicts contuniacice as the process of the law thereunto ^u^adous' belongeth, which continued fifteen days after our^°^^°^ . , ^ appealing commg thither. And the morrow after Ascension Day I gave final sentence therein, how that it was indispensable for the Pope to license any such marriages."^ Five days afterwards Cran- mer was at Lambeth, where he pronounced his de- cision confirming the marriage of Henry with Anne Boleyn. 3 Jenkyns' Crajimer, i. 26. e Jenkyns' Cranmer, L 28, * State Papers, L 396. " ANNE BOLEYN CROWNED CHAP The substance of the sentence thus pronounced by .,^_^.^^ the Archbishop is, that having examined all the evi- AD- 1533 dence that had been given, the opinions of the uni- versities, the decision of convocation, and all other documents throwing light on the case, he had found Decrees it his duty to prouounco a final decree and sentence, marriage ^^ ^^e ofFect that the marriage between Henry and t^lfc^^T Catherine was null and invalid, and being contracted divorce and Consummated contrary to the law of God, was of no force or obligation ; that it was not lawful for Henry and Catherine to continue in such a pretended marriage, and that they were accordingly separated and divorced the one from the other.*^ Six days after Cranmer had pronounced the sen- tence in his court at Dunstable, Anne Boleyn was conducted in great state from Greenwich Palace to Anne Bo- the Tower, whore it was customary for the Queens Tower of England to spend a few days before their corona- tions/ It was a bright and beautiful day in May, and all the pageant that could be devised was ex- hibited on the river and in the streets to do her honour. On another bright and beautiful day in May, three years afterwards, she was brought again to the same royal apartments, but a prisoner ; and before the three years had passed away, she was beheaded on the very spot over which her She be- litter was now carried in triumph. The coronation Q^en to*^k place at Westminster on Whitsun-Day, June 1, 1533. But although Henry had attained his wish so far, " Burnet iv. 189, PococVs Ed. that it was on " the Thursday next Rymer, xiv. 462. Herbert's Henry before the feast of Pentecost," VIII. 375. which makes the date May 29, ^ Cranmer, in his letter to Arch- 1533. Mr. JFroude has May deacon Hawkyns, says distinctly 19th. THE POPE ANNULS CRANMER'S SENTENCE 189 he was by no means clear of all the difficulties which chap • TTT had been raised up by this long-protracted business. ^^^^^^^, His own subjects were discontented at the course ^'^- ^^'i'^ which things had taken, and there had even been a movement in the House of Commons towards peti- Public tioning him that he would restore the Queen. This specti^ng"^^ was before he had openly taken the matter of the*^^^^^™^^- divorce into his own hands : but when Cranmer had pronounced sentence, there were fears of an interdict on the part of the Pope, and of an invasion on the part of the Emperor : and the country had not yet learned its own independent strength, either in reli- gious or military affairs. Sir Nicholas Hawkins was directed to communicate to the Emperor the final steps which Henry had taken, and to do this in lan- guage so apologetic that it may almost be called Apology humble : and, among other things of the sort, he charies^v was to say, " Suits must have an end, si possis recte, si non, qiiocunque modo." The Emperor replied in ambiguous language, declaring that he wished to remain on friendly terms with the King, but that Queen Catherine's rights had been violated, and that "he must see for her, and for her daughter his cousin." He seems to have intended, at first, to take up arms in her cause, but he waited and waited until a favourable opportunity should arise for doing so, until at last the poor Queen had passed beyond the reach of his championship. When the news of Cranmer's sentence of divorce ThePope's reached Eome, it was at once declared null and^'^^^^'' void (by a brief dated July 12th), on the ground that the cause was pending before the Pope himself, and that therefore it was beyond the power of any other person to decide it. The King was declared 190 POPE GIVES A CONTRARY SENTENCE CHAP excommunicate if he persisted in recognising Cran- ^^.^^^^...^ mer's sentence, and the end of September was fixed A.D. 1533 g^g -t]^^. time for the excommunication to come into The King force. Henrv had appealed to a general council, appeals to . .- • ,• p i , t a General lu anticipation oi such a sentence, on June 29, 1533^ Council ^^^ Cranmer also did the same. This appeal from the Pope to a higher authority need not be noticed further in connection with the divorce, but there are some points of interest about it which will bring it under observation in a future section of this history. When the Pope's intentions were known, Henry endeavoured to appease him through the mediation of the King of France, who sent the Bishop of Paris to Rome with fresh proposals, and communications between the two courts were partly re-opened. But there was no sincerity in these proposals. They were so far accepted by the Pope and his consistory that a messenger was despatched to England for the King's ratification of them : but when, after long waiting, no reply was received, and, on the other hand, accounts reached Home of a gross insult offered to the Pope and cardinals by the acting of a comedy in which they were ridiculed before the King, the patience of the Roman court could hold out no longer. On March 24, 1534, a The Pope's bull was published giving a final sentence in the confirming divorce, declaring the marriage of Henry and of Gather- Catherine valid, and commanding him to restore Hafle"^^"^' ^^^ *^ ^^^ rights, on pain of excommunication. On the 26th of the same month a messenger reached Eome from the King, with his consent to ratify the proposals made by the Bishop of Paris, and appear before the Pope by proxy : but the Pope and con- sistory decided that what was done should not be nage QUEEN CATHERINE AT AMPTHILL 191 undone, and thus the ahenation of Henry from the chap • TTT Pope was effectually completed.^ ' v^-^-^^ A few words respecting the personal history of a.d. 1533 Queen Catherine and Anne Boleyn, subsequent to the divorce of the former^ will complete this sad and humiliating story. Some weeks after the sentence of divorce had been passed^ . Lord Mountjoy (who remained at Ampthillj in charge of Catherine^ much in the same position as Sir Hudson Lowe was placed in charge of Napoleon at St. Helena) was directed to have an interview with her, and to introduce to her presence Queen a deputation of the Privy Council, who had been sent i^te^l^w ^ with some special instructions. She refused for ^^^^ "^^^ some time to hold any communication with them^ Council but was persuaded at last to admit them to an inter- view on July 3rd. Their instructions were to be read to her, and a verbal message delivered. At the first words, in which she was called the Princess- Dowager, her feelings as a queen and a wife were outraged, and she declared that she was not Prin- cess-Dowager, but Queen, and the King's true wife ; that she had been only nominally married to his Dedara- brother, and that she had borne him lawful issue, ^ghtf *'^' Queen she was, and Queen she would be while she lived. As the commissioners proceeded, Catherine commented upon the declarations contained in their paper. It was might, not right, which had put her 8 Henry made great efforts in Elizabeth to the Duke of Angou- 1535 to persuade Paul III. to re- leme. Francis agreed to these verse the decree of his predecessor, terms, and there exists a draft of The King promised the King of a declaration to he subscribed by France that if he would prevail on him, which was sent from England the Pope to do this he would by Lord Eochford. [See State renounce his title_ to the kingdom Papers, vii. 587, 592, 602.1 of France and give the Princess 192 HER RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION CHAP in the position she occupied ; the King s learned ^^..^.^.-^^ men were learned heretics ; the opinions of the A-D- 1533 Universities had been obtained by force and bribery: and^ finallyj she acknowledged no other judge now than the Pope, to whom she had appealed. Then Arguments the commissionors used all the arguments they could persuade think of, — obedicnco to the King, her own advan- ^^^ tage, that of the Princess Mary, threats of public exposure, and taunts of vanity, — to induce her to lay aside the title of Queen : but all their arguments were unavailing, the ill-used lady having one answer to each — that she was the King's wife, and that until the Pope made her otherwise she would main- tain her right and title. She afterwards desired to see the report which they had prepared to send to the Privy Council, and finding they had written of her as the Princess-Dowager, she dashed out the name wherever it occurred, the marks of her pen being still to be seen on the document.^ Her last words of righteous anger are recorded in the same document : — Her last " I would rather/' she said " be a poor beggar's wife, and be words^^ sure of heaven, than queen of all the world, and stand in doubt thereof by reason of my own consent. I stick not so for vain glory but because I know myself the king's true wife, and while you call me the king's subject, I was his subject while he took me for his wife. But if he take me not for liis wife, I came not into this reahn for merchandize, nor to be married to any merchant ; nor do I continue in the same but as his lawful wife, and not as a subject to live under his domin- ion otherwise. I have always demeaned myself well and truly towards the king — and if it can proved that either in writing to the pope or any other, I have either sthred or procured » It is ill the British Museum 199, and is printed ia the State Librarj' : Cotton. MS. Otho. x. p. Papers. See i. 397 and 402. DIGNIFIED CLOSE OF HER PUBLIC LIFE 193 anything against his Grace, or have been the means to any chap person to make any motion which might be prejudicial to his ^^^ Grace or to his realm, I am content to suffer for it. I a.d, 1533 have done England little good, and I should be sorry to do it any harm. But if I should agree to your motions and per- suasions, I should slander myself, and confess to have been the king's harlot these twenty-four years. The cause, I cannot tell by what subtle means, has been determined here within the king's realms, before a man of his maldng, the Bishop of Canterbury, no person indifferent I think in that behalf ; and for the indifference of the place, I think the place had been more indifferent to have been judged in hell; for no truth can be suffered here whereas the devils themselves I suppose do tremble to see the truth in this cause so sore oppressed." This pathetic and womanly speech may be regarded Character as marking the close of Queen Catherine's public Catherine career : a dignified close, consistent with the public life of one over whom neither truth nor slander ever cast the shadow of a personal orpolitical crime. She was a true king's wife ; never stepping beyond the boundaries of her position to influence her husband, yet always maintaining the dignity of his crown. Her virtues have been universally allowed, even by those partisan writers who have been unable to see the living force and truth of her piety. There are few English wives who will not consider that the latter years of her life were such as almost to entitle her to the rank of a confessor; and few English gentlemen who will not remember with pain and shame the treatment which she received.^ ' ? i' ^^^ ^? the memory of the most manly and honourable letter great Lord Mountjoy who was which he wrote to that most un- thus so painMly mixed up with manly and dishonourahle tool, the Queens snifenngs, to add that Cromwell, and which is a reply to he resented the mdigmties thrust one conveying to him a rebuke for upon her almost as keenly as she permitting some of Catherine's did herself. There is on record a houseliold still to call her Queen 194 LAST DAYS OF THE TWO QUEENS CHAP There is not much to record of the life of Anne ^^j:!^.^^ Boleyn during the three years which followed the AD. IS33 fulfilment of her ambition. She appears to have Anne Bo- accepted her position; before marriage and after mar- al^Queen ^iage, witliout being pained by any womanly thoughts in respect to herself or to the Queen whom she had supplanted. Her daughter Elizabeth was born on the 7th of September, 1533 ; and after that she gave no further promise of an heir for more than two years ;^ but she is said to have borne a dead son prematurely in February 1536, very soon after the death of Catherine. During the years of her mar- ried life she was not on happy terms with the King, there being great jealousy, apparently well founded, on both sides. In her last letter to the King, written from the Tower ,^ she told him that she had long observed his passion for her maid of honour, Jane Seymour; and in her last conversation with Sir William Kingston she said sufficient to give colour of great probability to the charges of un- faithfulness brought against her by the King. If either ever enjoyed happiness in their intercourse with each other marriage seems to have taken off the edge of the enjoyment on both sides. Death of The health of Queen Catherine gave way finally Catherine in the autumn of 1535.^ She then removed from instead of Princess. He desires to some other capacity. [State be removed from his office of Papers, i. 408.] chamberlain, for he neither has the ^ This fact shonld be xemem- power nor the will to enforce the bered in association with her posi- king's commands. Several times tion at Court before her marriage. he has been humiliated by contests ^ Harl. Misc., iii. 62. with the Queen on this subject, * Bediugfield Avrote respecting and he will no longer vex or her dangerous illness on Dec. 31, unquiet one so thoroughly loyal 1535. He and Sir E. Chamberlain to the King as Catherine is. He gave notice of her death on Jan. 7th •would rather serve his Majesty in following. [State Papers, i. 451.] LAST DAYS OF THE TWO QUEENS 195 Ampthill to Kimbolton, and in the beginning of chap January she wrote her last touching letter to her ..^.-^^ husband as follows : — ^^^^^ " My most dear Lord, King, and Husband, The hour of my Her last death now approaching I cannot choose but, out of the love ™5lus° I bear you, advise you of your soul's health, which you ought band to prefer before all considerations of the world or flesh what- soever; for wliich yet you have cast me into many calamities, and yourself into many troubles. But I forgive you all, and pray God to do so likewise. Tor the rest, I commend unto you Mary our daughter, beseeching you to be a good father to her, as I have heretofore desired. I must entreat you also to respect my maids, and give them in marriage, which is not much, they being but three ; and to all my other servants a year's pay besides their due, lest otherwise they should be unprovided for. Lastly I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things. Farewell."^ It was not only the same hand, but the same heart as that which had addressed him in her letters as "My Henry/' in the happy days of their early married life, twenty years before. She died on January 7, 1536, being fifty-two years of age. The Court went into mourning for her as the Princess-Dowager, and she was buried in the south aisle of the nave of Peterborough Abbey. When Anne the Court dressed in violet, Anne Boleyn dressed in ^^^^, yellow, and this has generally been construed as a refusal to wear mourning. But yellow was the colour for royal mourning at the court of Prance, and though there may have been something of evasion in her conduct, it must be remembered that the new Queen had worn this colour, and perhaps this only, on previous occasions when she was in the service of the French Queen at the time of the King's ^ Herbert's Henry VIII., p. 188. ing 196 LAST DA YS OF THE TWO QUEENS Anne Bole}Ti's alleged adultery CHAP death.^ The Kins' is said to have shed tears — and IIT • ^^^..^^.^^not without reason — when he heard of Catherine's A.D. 1536 death. Four months later Anne herself followed Catherine to the grave : but there were no tears shed for her, no funereal pomp at her burial, no mourning worn as a tribute of respect to her memory. The Kings doubts about her conduct began to reach their climax at the very time when his first and faithful wife departed from her troubles ; and his inclination — one can hardly call it affection — towards Jane Seymour was working the same alienation from Anne that had in her own case caused his a'lienation from Catherine. The Privy Council investigated the evidence of Anne's adultery which was laid before them, and on April 24th an order was issued for a commission (including her father, the Earl of Wiltshire) which was to bring her, and her supposed accomplices — for her loose manners had implicated her with five — to trial. On May 2d she was arrested; on the 11th she was indicted by the grand jiiry on five separate charges of adultery (the first occasion named being on the 6th of October, 1533, a month after the birth of Queen Elizabeth), and on the 12th four of her accomplices were found guilty by an ordinary jury. She herself and her brother. Lord Eochford, were tried by twenty-seven peers on the 15th, found guilty, and condemned. The sentence passed upon her was that she should be burned or beheaded, as should please the King : it pleased him that she should be beheaded. Before she died, Anne con- Her trial and con- demnation ^ It is a strange coincidence that she was beheaded according to French custom, and by a French execntionerj the headsman of Ca- lais, with a sword instead of an ANNE BOLEYN AND THE REFORMATION 197 fessed sometliing to Archbishop Cranmer which he chap considered to be a conclusive proof that her marriage .^ ^^^ Avith the King was not vahd.' This confession being ^•°- '536 repeated by her before the Archbishop, sitting in his court at Lambeth on the 17th, Cranmer pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void. Thus divorced, as if her first great crime Avas to come back Her di- upon her own head in vengeance, she returned to the [he xing"^ Tower for a few hours, and at noon the next day, May 19, 1536, gave her neck to the headsman — let us reverently hope, hi part expiation of her sins — on Tower Green, commending her soul to a merciful God.^ So little honour was paid to her, or so great Her death haste was used, that nothing better than an empty ^^nS"^' arrow chest was provided to receive her body and ^^^"^^ the dissevered head, which was then carried a few yards to St. Peter ad Vincula, and there buried in the chancel. Next day Henry married a new wife, with whom he had already had an intrigue of some standing. The miserable fate of Anne Boleyn wins our com- Estimate passion, and the greatness to which her daughter g^^^^*^^^' attained has been in some degree reflected back upon herself. Had she died a natural death, and had she not been the mother of Queen Elizabeth, we should have estimated her character at a very low value in- deed. Protestantism might still, with its usual unhis- torical partizanship,have gilded over her immoralities ; but tlie Church of England must ever look upon Anne ^ It is thought (hy some writers) a rpj^g young Duke of Riclunond to be almost certain that this con- was one of the four peers present fession related to the King's illicit at her death. He had married the intercourse with her sister, Mary daughter of the Duke of Norlolk, Boleyn, which would, according to whom she speaks of as always her law, have vitiated the marriage of enemy. Doubtless there were herself to the King. jealousies about the succession. acter 198 ANNE BOLEYN AND THE REFORMATION CHAP Boleyn with downcast eyes full of sorrow and shame. ^^.^-^-^^ By the influence of her charms, Henry was induced to take those steps which ended in setting the Church of England free from an uncatholic yoke : but that such a result should be produced by such an influ- ence is a fact which must constrain us to think that the land was guilty of many sins, and that it was these national sins which prevented better instru- ments from being raised up for so righteous an object. I CHAPTEE lY THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROYAL SUPREMACY [A.D. 1529—1534] N tracing out to its end the subject of the divorce chap we have been obhged to pass a few years be- .^^^..^-^^ yond the straight course of our story ; and it will now be necessary to go back to the time immediately succeeding the fall of Wolsey^ that we may follow out the details of some very important transactions relating to the internal economy of the Church. The principal charge made against the Cardinal Wolsey was, that he had transgressed against the Statute p^lmunire 16, Richard II., cap. 5, by acting as legate a latere, ■^•°- ^^29 and had thus incurred the penalty of ^' prgemunire." The statute in question was enacted for the purpose of checking the extravagant assumptions of the Popes, chiefly as regarded the exercise of patronage and interference with decisions on ecclesiastical sub- jects which had been given in the Kings court. There is nothing about legates in it ; but the enact- ing clause ordains, " That if any purchase or pursue, what the or cause to be purchased or pursued in the court of nir^^JJ"^' Rome, or elsewhere, by any such translations, pro- cesses, and sentences of excommunications^ bulls, 200 WOLSEY AND THE PR.^MUNIRE CHAP instruments, or any other things whatsoever, which ...--^^ touch the Kingj against him, his crown, and his regality, or his realm, as is aforesaid, and they which bring within the realm, or them receive, or make thereof notification, or any other execution whatso- ever within the same realm or without, that they, their notaries, procurators, maintainers, abettors. And pen- fautors, and counsellors, shall be put out of the tilty incur- , , ■*■ red under it King s protection, and their lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeit to our lord the King; and that they be attached by their bodies, if they may be found; and brought before the King and his council, there to answer to the cases aforesaid ; or that process be made against him by prcBmunire facias, in manner as it is ordained in other statutes or provisos ; and other which do sue in any court in derogation of the regality of our lord the King." No one ever pretended that this shut out the person incurring the penalty from the King's pardon, al- though, until that pardon was obtained, any one convicted of praemunire wore, in legal language, *^a wolfs head," and might have been slain with im- punity till the reign of Elizabeth.^ This pardon was substantially, and perhaps verbally, granted to Wolsey when he began to exercise the office of legate^ in the form of a license under the great seal, which was amply sufficient, one would suppose, Injustice to cover any technical transgression of the statute. fngmisey Houry, moroovor, gave a legal recognition to Wolsey mukr u"^ ^s legate : for he appeared before him in his judi- cial character (derived from the Pope and confirmed by the King) on October 16, 1518, and entered into a formal engagement to perform the contract made * Amos, Statutes of Henry YIII., 69. THE GUILT OF THE NATION 201 respecting the marriage of the Princess Mary with chap the Dauphin^ asking that if he failed to perform his ^^^l-^^. promise, Wolsey should excommunicate him, and pass sentence of interdict on his kingdom.^ Wolsey Hisiegate- nobly declined, however, to plead these distinct acts tionecfby of sanction and recognition, saying, ^^ Because / will "^^^ ^^s not here stand to contend with his Majesty in his oivn case, I will here presently before you confess the indictment, and put myself wholly to the mercy and grace of the King, trusting that he hath a con- science, and reason to consider the truth, and my humble submission and obedience, wherein I niiofht well stand to my trial with justice."^ As is well known, the King met this generous submission by appropriating Wolsey's goods down to the last penny and the last blanket,^ including the colleges which were in progress at Oxford and Ipswich, He then issued a pardon again to his fallen minister, and restored a small portion of his goods and in- come. It might have been supposed that the penalty of AUEng- the Prcemunire would at least end here. But the voWed^in King discovered that a further ingenious use might ^°J^^y'^ be made of it, and a still further and more splendid spoil still be raked into the yawning gulf of his ever greedy coffers. For the Act of Parhament not only imposed the penal consequences of forfeiture and possible death upon the principal offenders, but upon "then- notaries, procurators, maintainors, abettors, 2 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. * A similar forfeiture toot place 4504. J^or tiirther particulars in the cases of Sir Thomas More about the legateship of Wolsey, and Bishop Fisher. The latter see pages 52-9. _ had not clothes left to keep him ^ Cavendish m Wordsw. Ecc. warm when in the Tower Eiog., i. 463. 202 HENRY VIII. AND HIS FAITHFUL COMMONS CHAP fautors, and counsellors." These were comprehensive ^^^..^^^^ terms^ and the King was determined to give full A.D. 1530 force to them : so the whole clergy of the land^ and eventually the whole laity of the land also, were declared to be " maintainers, abettors, fautors, and counsellors" of the great criminal; with the mon- strous consequence that all their possessions and their very lives were at the disposal of the King until he issued his pardon ! The laity To pardou a whole people was sufficiently absurd, pardoned but to havo attempted to enforce the penalty would ^i3t have been still more ridiculous. As regards the goodness laity, therefore, the mercy of this very " sharp prac tising" tjnrant was obtained on easy terms ; and since the forgiveness of the clergy occupies a larger space in history, the solemn farce of the more general pardon may be first narrated as it has come down to us in the pages of Hall. '^ When the Bill for the pardon of the clergy was read in the House of Com- mons, many froward persons would in nowise consent to vote for it, unless that all men might be included, arguing that every man who had anything to do with the Cardinal was in the same case." This servile fear determined the House to send a deputa- tion to the King, with the speaker Audley at their head, to tell ^^ His Majesty that his faithful Com- mons sore lamented and bewailed their chance in Servility of having occasiou to think or imae^ine themselves out their reprC" sentatives of his favour, bccause he had granted his most gra- cious pardon to his spiritual subjects for the Pt(2- munirey and not to them ; wherefore they most humbly besought his Majesty, out of his wonted goodness and clemency, to include them in the same pardon." This abject petition met with a rough HIS INDICTMENT OF THE CLERGY 203 reception from the King^ wlio told them that he was chap their Prince and Sovereign Lord^ and that they .^-.^-^ ought ndt to restrain him of his hberty^ nor to com- ^■^* ^530 pel him to show his mercy," So for a few days Henry declined to relieve his subjects from the penalties which they had incurred ; but eventually he sent his pardon to the House of Commons by the hands of the attorney-general^ and was thanked for it in as grovelling a manner as he had been asked for it by his '^sorrowful and penitent" Commons. The clergy were by no means to get off so easily. In December 1530, an indictment was brought against them in the King's Bench, and no one doubted for a moment that in the King's cause, and at the King's wish, a conviction would follow, even though the venerable Sir John More was chief justice of that court. Before the day of trial, there- fore, the convocations of Canterbury and York had decided to compound with the King on terms which he offered them. The clergy of the southern The clergy province were required to redeem themselves outrL^omed"^ of the King's merciful talons by a ransom of°"^?^^^^ •/ royal dis- £100,044, 8s. 8d., and those of York by a similar pleasure payment of £18,840, Os. lOd., each sum to be handed in to the royal coffers in instalments, stretching over five years. In modern money this amounts to £1,500,000, an enormous fine, imposed by the royal prerogative alone, for a fictitious offence, and then called the King's mercy ! As his Majesty had al- ready seized the whole of Wolsey's property, York Place the palace of the see, and the two colleges, with all the monastic manors settled on them, it may be fairly computed that these, making the first 204 THE TITLE OF SUPREME CHAP IV A.D. 1530-1 New title demanded for the King morsel of his ecclesiastical spoils, amounted to about , two millions of pounds.^ The pardon was not, of course, issued until the convocations had officially ensured the payment of this great fine, and until then the clergy were en- tirely at the mercy of the King : so that he might, however unjustly, by this overstrained law, have seized the property of any number of them, as he had that of Wolsey, and even put them to death without trial. Having them so completely under his hand, Henry determined to use the opportunity for the purpose of exacting from them a definite declaration of the royal supremacy, with a view to securing their ready submission, when the question of the divorce should be brought before them, as it was shortly afterwards. This was attempted by the introduction of a new form for the King's title in the preamble of the Act of Convocation by which the money was to be voted. This is said to have been done at the suggestion of Cromwell and Cranmer.^ ^ The wealth of the Crown at this period was enormous. Heavy taxes Avere levied during the whole of Henry's reign, much money had been "borrowed and i/te d.ebU to the lenders rejjudiated hy act of Parliament; and ^1,800,000 (in money of that day, some 20 millions in that of ours,) had been inherited from his father. 6 The a\ithor of the book which. Eoes by the name of "Baily's" ife of Fisher [probably by Dr. Hall of Christ's Coll. Cambridge, wlio died Canon of St. Omer in 1604] attributes the suggestion to Cran- mer, on the occasion when he is said to have proposed to Gardiner and Fox the submission of the divorce case to the consideration of the Universities. Cranmer is said to have spoken to them in the following words, — "Gentlemen, if the King knew but his own power so rightly as he might be given to understand the same, there would be no cause left him for discontent- ment, but rather a way paved unto him for all manner of satisfaction. For if the King riglitly understood his own office, neither Pope nor any other potentate whatsoever, neither in causes civil nor ecclesi- astical, hath anything to do with him, or any of his actions, witliin liis own realm and dominion ; but he himself, under God, hath the supi'eme govermnent of this land in all causes whatsoever." Baily's Life of Bp. Fisher, p. 89. Cardinal Pole records, on the autliority of Cromwell and others HEAD OF THE CHURCH 205 The words introduced were, ^^ of the Ensflish Church chap . . IV and clergy, of which the King alone is protector and ^^-v-^ supreme head;"^ words startling enough as they -^^.-i stood, and easily capable of being strained into a meaning that would perpetuate that relation between King and clergy which had been brought about by the Praemunire. When, therefore, this document was placed before the Convocation of Canterbury on February 7th, it led to a discussion which continued until the 10th, and which ended in both houses de- clining to accept such a preamble^ on the ground and re- that after a lapse of time, terms of so general a conv(xa- nature as those which had been inserted in it mi"ht *^°^ _ c be wrested to an improper sense/ The King had been very urgent in seeking the title of " Defender of the Faith" from the Pope ten years before, and he seems to have been as deter- mined in his resolve to get that of '' Head of the Church" from the Convocation. But he gave way rule modi- to the arguments that were used as to the profanity ^uesfo?" of such an assumption, and agreed to allow the inser- ^^^^sy tion of the words ''after God" — ''cujus protector et who were present, that the day propriiun Regii nomioig, ut sis lollowing that on which CromweU caput in tuo regno, et solum Ca- lelt Wolsey, after saymg to Caven- put." Pole's Apologia, pp. 121-123. dish, I intend, God willing- this The Cardinal declares that Crom- atternoon,_when my Lord hath well was immediately made Priyv dmed, to ride to London, and so to Councillor the court, where I will either make " "Ecclesi^ et cleri Anglican! Z Xfdll 'T' ^^^"^W^" ^PP'^'- '^j^^ P^^^^^tor et supremum Caput ed before the King, and then made is solus est." WiUdns' Cone, iii 725 he suggestion m question « As- « Atterbury quotes the Act of sert therefore," he is declared to Convocation {which have since have ended a long speech, "that been destroyed) as foUows- «Ne I^'p /v^''^^ YTf *" *^'^ ^°^« P«^t iW^^ tempTris trac! Telfobe S'a.Htf'KT^" '^^^' termini In eodem^ artSo vn.r nwn ^.^^VH'°l^ f-f^^^^i generaliterpositiinsensumimpro- your own kingdom," Pole's quo- bum traherentur." Ri-hts of Con- tation IS " Vmdices ergo quod est vocation, p. 82 ° 206 THE TITLE OF SUPREME CHAP supremum caput post Deum is solus est" — in the ^^^.-^^ hope that this form might be accepted. Such a ^•^- qualification was not, however, considered sufficient, as it still left the words in a form which was capable of being interpreted to contain a recognition of spiritual authority in the King. The Convocation Bold stand stood out boldlj agaiust any such claims^ and showed cier^ that they were willing to risk the Prsemunire rather than open a door to their admission then or at any future day. Upon this the King tried a little conciliation. He sent for a number of the bishops and other members of Convocation^ and pledged himself to them that if they gaA''e him the title he asked for^ it should be little more than honoris causd, for he would not assume any other powers or jurisdiction than had been exercised by previous sovereigns. The deputa- tion retired and went back to the Convocation, each house taking separately into consideration the offer made by the King. Bishop Fisher was not yet so infirm as to be unable to attend the meetings of Con- vocation, and to him the other bishops looked for advice, which the good old prelate gave in the form rishei-'s of a parable. " Thus stands the case, my masters. Tboufthe The heart, upon a time, said unto the members of ^i/Jf°f the body, let me also be your head, and I will "Supreme . . . Head" promiso you that I will neither see, nor hear^ nor smell, nor speak ; but I will close shut anine eyes, and ears, and mouth, and nostrils, and will execute none other offices than a mere heart should." Then the two houses united in consultation, and while some of the other bishops were endeavouring to per- suade the clergy to comply with the King's wish, Fisher again spoke, saying (with much else to the HEAD OF THE CHURCH 207 same purpose), "What if the King should alter his chap mind, where is our remedy ? What if the King will execute the supremacy ? Must we sue unto the head to forbear being head ?" He also showed how strange the position of the Church would be if a woman or a child should come to be accounted its head, because sovereign of England ; thus looking forward almost with prophetic foresight, for neither Elizabeth nor Edward were yet born, and Mary was, in effect, disinherited already. At this crisis Archbishop Warham was authorized Compro- , /vi Pi • mise to oner a further compromise on the part of the offered King. He would accept the words of the preamble if they ran thus : '' of the English Church and clergy, whereof we recognise his Majesty as the sole protector, the only and supreme governor, and even, so far as the lata of Christ will allow, the supreme head."^ To this Fisher said he would con- sent, on condition that what the King had promised was also inserted in the document, viz., that he would never assume any more jurisdiction than his prede- cessor, on the strength of the title thus recognised.^ This being reported to the King, he went into a furious passion, and required an unconditional sur- but after- render to his original terms : " he would have no 7^ltl^ quantums or tantums in the business ; let it be » Ecclesi^ et cleri Anglicani, ing and loosing, and (2) the duty cnjus singularem protectorem uni- and privilege of feeding Christ's cnm et suprenium donimnm, et flock. " Can any of ns lay to the qimntum per Olinsh legem licet, King Pasce ovesr Whether he etiam snpremum caput, ipsius .vonld have assented more readily ri^CorTf^r"""" ^'^~ had he niore clearly understood Lms Cone, in. 725 ^hat the King ^rofLed, to claim tht thpT^PT*°^'^'*^'°\^^* is another question.' Sanders (p^ Lp did f?. l! t^Tf' T"^ *^"? ^^' ^^) '^y' '^^' Fisl^e^ took the he did for he stated m his speech subsequent oath of supremacy, hut thatthe headship of the church afterwards regi-etted he had done consisted of (1) the power of bind- so. 208 THE TITLE OF SUPREME CHAP done."^ The lower house of Convocation, however, ..^^^^J^,^ resolved unanimously that they neither would nor ^•^- could grant the supremacy, without the qualifying clause "quantum per Christi legem licet;'' so the King was obliged once more to give way. Convoca- The matter had been so much discussed, that every tion stands , . . , ^ • i_ . • i i out one s opinion was imown, and it was not considered necessary to take a vote of Convocation. " Whoso- ever is silent/' said the Archbishop,^ "gives con- sent." "Then we are all silent," was the reply; and by Avhomsoever it was made, it doubtless ex- pressed the general sense of the Convocation, for no voice was heard to contradict the assent thus signi- fied. The King, however, was not satisfied with a silent assent, and required a definite vote of the two houses : so the Convocation met again in the after- noon to take it. Nine bishops, sixty-two abbots and and ac- priors, with thirty-six members of the lower house ccots the limited who wero present, and forty-eight proxies, made up " SHipreme *^^^ hundred and fifty-five votes in favour of the Head" preamble as it had been modified ; and no dissen- tients are named. Thus the Convocation of Canter- bury, by adopting these words in a document of so 2 Baily's Life of Fislier, pp. 122- the same was there sent iinto both 124. the universities, Oxford and Cam- 3 When Cranmer was replying bridge, to know what the word of to an attack made upon him at God would do touching the supre- the examination preceding his macy, and it was reasoned and degradation at Oxford "by Brookes, argued at length. So at the last Bishop of Gloucester, he seemed to both Universities agreed and set say that Warham showed some to their seals, and sent it to King zeal in furthering the matter. Henry the Eighth to the court that "The truth, is," said Cranmer, he ought to be supreme head, and " that my predecessor, Archbishop not the pope." [Jenlcyns' Cran- Warham, gave the supremacy to mer, iv. 88.] It is fair to add King Henry the Eighth, and said that Dr. Jenkyns doubts the accn- that he ought to have it before the racy of the report in which this Bishop of Rome, and that God's examination of Cranmer is con- word would bear him. And uj^on tained. HEAD OF THE CHURCH 209 much importance, officially " recognised " the supre- chap macy of the Crown over all persons, ecclesiastical as .^.^-^-^ well as secular, on February 11, 1531. The same ^'^- '^^'^^ thing has been better expressed in later times in such terms as " supreme governor in these his realms, and all other his dominions and countries, over all per- sons, in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as temporal."^ The Convocation of York assented less willingly to this important clause of the preamble ; probably because it came under discussion some weeks after it had passed the Southern Convocation, and in the interval circumstances had arisen which showed that even its modified form was capable of a mischievous interpretation. They at last agreed to adopt it on May 4, 1531, but Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, who presided over that Convocation during the vacancy of the See of York, left on record a protest which is of great historical value, as showing in detail what were the objections entertained by the clergy to the assumption of such a title by the King. " This clause seemed," said the Bishop, " to have an inoffen- Xunstal's sive appearance at the first view ; but considering that some P^'o^est _ persons lately prosecuted upon suspicion of heresy, have ^^^"^ interpreted these words to an iU sense, questioned the juris- diction of their ordinaries, and endeavoured to shelter them- selves from the censures of the Church: for this reason I conceive this recognition ought to be couched in terms more precise and distinguishing. For if the words hold forth no more than this meaning, that the King is, under Christ, supreme head in his dominions, and particularly of the Enghsh clergy in temporal matters ; this, as it is nothing more than we are all willing to acknowledge, so to prevent aU mis- constructions from heretics, the clause should be put in clear and decisive language. But on the other hand, if we are to * Canon Iv., the " Bidding Prayer." A.D. I53I 210 THE TITLE OF SUPREME CHAP understand that the Ki^"^; is supreme head of the Church, both IV in spirituals and temporals, and that this supremacy is con- ferred on him by the laws of the Gospel — for thus some heterodos and malevolent persons construe the proviso, ' quan- tum per Christi legem licet' — then this construction being repugnant, as I conceive, to the doctrine of the CathoUc Church, I must dissent from it. And notwithstanding the clause of 'quantum per Christi legem licet' may be taken by way of limitation and restriction, yet because the proposition is still somewhat involved, I think it ought to be further discharged from ambiguity. For * supreme head of the Church' carries a complicated and mysterious meaning: for this title may either relate to spirituals or temporals, or both. Now when a proposition is thus comprehensive and big with several meanings, there is no returning a smgle and categorical answer. And therefore, that we may not give scandal to weak brethren, I conceive this acknowledgment of the King's supreme headship should be so carefully ex- pressed as to point wholly upon civil and secular jurisdiction. And, with this explanation^ the English clergy j and particularly myself, are ivilling to go the utmost length in the recognition. But since the clause is not at present thus guarded and explained, I must declare my dissent ; and desire my protes- tation may be entered upon the journal of the Convocation."^ TheKing's A paper of the King's is in existence^ which is a Timstai^^ reply to some of these arguments, and was, perhaps, written in answer to Tunstals protest. In this the King labours chiefly to prove that bishops and priests are only not answerable to their sovereign in respect to their sacerdotal functions, "but when their embassy is over they lessen into a private condition ] their public character sleeps, and they acknowledge the civil magistrate for their sover- eign:" the clergy being subject to him in regard to -" Wilkiiis' Cone, iii. 745. « Cabala, p. 227. Atterbury's Rights, &c., 519. HEAD OF THE CHURCH 211 homage and allegiance, their estates, and their gen- chap eral submission to laws enacted for the punishment .^^^-^-^^. of crime. What Tunstal required, and what was ^■^' ^53^ wished for by the Southern Convocation at large was, that the clause itself might be so worded as clearly to express the principles which are thus enunciated by the King. That it did not do so is sufficiently evident from the contemporary and subsequent mis- interpretations given to the title '^ Head of the Church." When these Acts of Convocation had been passed, and the money thus voted to the King as '' Head of the Church and Clergy, so far as the law of Christ will allow," the King's pardon was em- bodied in two Acts of Parliament,^ a third being passed for the pardon of the laity,^ and thus the whole nation was happily delivered (at the cost of a Cost of the million and a half of money to the clergy) from "tender their danger, through the "tender eye, mercy, and ^JJ^' ^'^^_^y compassion," the ''tender pity, love, and compas- passion" sion," the " benignity, special grace, pity, and liberality," which the documents declared to be so characteristic of his Highness. These pardons have been well called '' prodigies of legislation," the writer who so calls them adding not unjustly that 'Hhey disclose, through the veil of mercy, Henry's injustice, rapacity, violence, and deceit."^ This incidental recognition of the royal supremacy thus made in 1531, was followed in 1532 by a more 7 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 15 ; 23 in 1848 by Lord RnsseU when Hen. VIII. cap. 19. Dean Merewether refused to elect 8 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 15. Dr. Hampden Bishop of Hereford. 9 Amos' ' Statutes of Hen. VIIL Loud talkers ahout the liberty of p. 57. The revival of the mon- subjects in the gross often deal strous penalty of the Prsemunire very tyrannically with subjects in was characteristically threatened detail. 212 ACCUSATION OF THE CLERGY CHAP definite acknowledgment of it, wliicli is generally ^^^-^.^ called the '^ Submission of the Clergy/' and which A.D, 1532 -^r^g afterwards embodied in an Act of Parliament. The "sub- As soon as Wolsey had left London after his fall, mission of • 1 , • • i j i i t • theciergy" an agitation against the clergy was commenced m the House of Commons. It was led on by Audley, who succeeded Sir Thomas More as speaker, and by Cromwell, both of whom profited enormously by every step that was taken in depressing the Church, and both of whom were among the most servile instruments of the King in a House of Commons which was always extremely ready to act under his orders. This agitation was brought to a focus in an address presented to the King by the House of Commons on March 18, 1532.^ The acts of the Lower House were at this time so much the acts of the King,^ that we are not likely to be far from the truth in considering it as founded upon his instruc- tions, conveyed through Cromwell or Audley, or both. The address is a long and wordy document, but it is worth printing at length, as it probably shows, and that in extreme language, the worst that the opponents of the bishops could venture ojBficially to say against them in respect to their relations with the laity :^ — Address of " ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ *^^^ SOVEKEIGN LOEt). of^Com"^^ " ^^ ^^s^ humble wise show unto your Highness and your mons most piudcnt wisdom your faithful, loving, and most ohedient Ordinaries Servants the Commons in this your present parliament as- semhled; that of late, as weU through new fantastical and ^ Herbert's Henry VIIL, p. 3 It has been printed in Fronde's 357. History of England, i. 189, but 2 See Amos' Statutes of Hen. with the date Nov. 5, 1529, two VIII.^ p. 2. and a half years too early. BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 213 erroneous opinions groim by occasion of frantic seditious chap books compiled, imprinted, published, and made in the English ^^ tongue, contrary and against the very true Catholic and a.d. 1532 Christian faith ; as also by the extreme and uncharitable be- haviour and dealing of divers ordinaries, their commissaries and sumners, which have heretofore had, and yet have the examination in and upon the said errours and heretical opinions ; mu.ch discord, variance, and debate hath risen, and more and more daily is like to increase and ensue amongst the universal sort of your said subjects, as well spiritual as temporal, each against the other — in most uncharitable man- ner, to the great inquietation, vexation, and breach of your peace within this your most Catholic Eealm : " The special particular gxiefs whereof, which most princi- pally concern your Commons and lay subjects, and which are, as they undoubtedly suppose, the very cliief fountains, occa- sions, and causes that dally breedeth and nourisheth the said seditious factions, deadly hatred, and most uncharitable part taking, of either part of said subjects spiritual and temporal against the other, foUowingly do ensue.' — " I. First the prelates and spiritual ordinaries of this your Canons most excellent Eealm of England, and the clergy of the same ^nadewith- have in their convocations heretofore made or caused to be of Crow'n made, and also daily do make many and divers fashions of ^^^ ^^^^y laws, constitutions, and ordinances, without your knowledge or most Eoyal assent, and without the assent' and consent of any of your lay subjects ; unto the which laws your said lay sub- jects have not only heretofore been and daily be constrained to obey, in their bodies, goods, and possessions ; but have also been compelled to incur daily into the censures of the same, and been continually put to importable charges and expenses' against all equity, right, and good conscience. And vet your said humble subjects ne their predecessors could ever be privy to the said laws ; ne any of the said laws have been declared unto them in the English tongue, or otherwise published by knowledge whereof they might have eschewed the penalties dangers, or censures of the same ; which laws so made your said most humble and obedient servants, under the supportation of your ]\lajesty, suppose to be not only to the diminution A.D. 1532 214 ACCUSATION OF THE CLERGY and derogation of your imperial jurisdiction and prerogative CHAP ^^l^y ^^^ ^^^ ^0 ^^® great prejudice, inquietation, and dam- IV age of your said subjects. ■ II. Also, now of late there hath been devised by the Most Eeverend Father in God, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, that in the courts which he calleth his Courts of the Arches Dimin- ^^^ Audience, shall only be ten proctors at his deputation, ished num- which be sworn to preserve and promote the only jurisdiction proctors of his Said courts ; by reason whereof, if any of your lay sub- jects should have any lawful cause against the judges of the said courts, or any doctors or proctors of the same, or any of their friends and adherents, they can ne may in nowise have indifferent counsel : and also all the causes depending in any of the said courts may by the confederacy of the said few proc- tors be in such wise tracted and delayed, as your subjects suing in the same shall be put to importable charges, costs, and ex- pence. And further, in case that any matter there being pre- ferred should touch your crown, your regal jurisdiction, and prerogative Eoyal, yet the same shall not be disclosed by any of the said proctors for fear of the loss of their offices. Your most obedient subjects do therefore, under protection of your Majesty, suppose that your Highness should have the nomi- nation of some convenient number of proctors to be always attendant upon the said Courts of Arches and Audience, there to be sworn to the preferment of your jurisdiction and prero- gative, and to the expedition of the causes of your lay subjects repairing and suing to the same. " III. And also many of your said most humble and obedient Too strict subjects, and specially those that be of the poorest sort, with- ^^'h ^^^if ^^ ^^ ^^^ JOV.T Eealm, be daily convented and called before the discipline said Spiritual ordinaries, their commissaries and substitutes, ex ojftcio ; sometimes, at the pleasure of the said ordinaries, for malice without any cause ; and sometimes at the only promo- tion and accusement of their summoners and apparitors, being light and undiscreet persons ; without any lawful cause of ac- cusation, or credible fame proved against them, and without any presentment in the visitation : and your said poor sub- jects be thus inquieted, disturbed, vexed, troubled, and put to excessive and importable charges for them to bear^ — and many BV THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 215 times be suspended and excommnnicate for small and light chap causes upon the only certificate of the proctors of the adver- ^^,,^3-^ saries, made under a feigned seal which every proctor hath in a.d. 1532 his keeping; whereas the party suspended or excommunicate many times never had any warning ; and yet when he shall be absolved, if it be out of court, he shall be compelled to pay to his own proctor twenty pence; to the proctor which is against him other twenty pence, and twenty pence to the scribe, besides a privy reward that the judge shall have, to the great impoverishing of your said poor lay subjects. " IV. Also your said most humble and obedient servants Excessive find themselves grieved with the great and excessive fees taken gcdesias- in the said spiritual courts, and especially in the said Courts of tical courts the Arches and Audience ; where they take for every citation two shillings and sixpence ; for every inhibition six shilUngs and eightpence ; for every proxy sixteen pence ; for every cer- tificate sixteen pence ; for every libel three shillings and four- pence ; for every answer for every libel three shillings and four- pence ; for every act, if it be but two words according to the register, fourpence ; for every personal citation or decree three shillings and fourpence ; for every sentence or judgment, to the judge twenty-six shilHngs and eightpence ; for every tes- tament upon such sentence or judgment twenty-six shillings and eightpence; for every significavit twelve shillings; for every commission to examine witnesses twelve shillings, which charges be thought importable to be borne by your said sub- jects, and very necessary to be reformed. " y. And also the said prelates and ordinaries daily do per- Fees re- mit and suffer the parsons, vicars, curates, parish priests, and cUr^^?r other spiritual persons having cure of souls within this your "occasion- Eealm, to exact and take of your humble servants divers sums ^^ '^"^^" of money for the sacraments and sacramentals of Holy Church, sometimes denying the same without they be first paid the said sums of money, which sacraments and sacramentals your said most humble and obedient subjects, under protection of your Highness, do suppose and think ought to be in mo^t reverend charitable and godly wise freely ministered unto them at all times requisite, without denial, or exaction of any manner of sums of money to be demanded or asked for the same. 216 ACCUSATION OF THE CLERGY CHAP " VI. And also in tlie spiritual conxts of the said prelates ^^ and ordinaries there be limited and appointed so many A.D. 1532 judges, scribes, apparitors, summoners, appraysers, and other Trouble ministers for the approbation of testaments, which covet so and fees in nxuch their own private lucres, and the satisfaction and ing of wills appetites of the said prelates and ordinaries, that when any of your said loving subjects do repair to any of the said courts for the probate of any testaments, they do in such wise make so long delays, or excessively do take of them so large fees and rewards for the same as is importable for them to bear, directly against all justice, law, equity, and good conscience. Therefore your most humble and obedient subjects do, under your gracious correction and supportation, suppose it were very necessary that the said ordinaries in their deputation of judges should be bound to appoint and assign such discreet, gTacious, and honest persons, having sufficient learning, wit, discretion, and understanding; and also being endowed with such spiritual promotion, stipend, and salary ; as they being judges in their said courts might and may minister to every person repairing to the same, justice — without taking any manner of fee or reward for any manner of sentence or judgment to be given before them. Fees for " VII. And also divers spiritual persons being presented and Indue. '^"^ ^^^ ^^ JOMT Highucss as othcrs within this your Eealm tion to divers benefices or other spiritual promotions, the said ordinaries and their ministers do not only take of them for their letters of institution and induction many large sums of money and rewards ; but also do pact and covenant with the same, taking sure bonds for their indemnity to answer to the said ordinaries for the firstfruits of their said benefices after their institution — so as they, being once presented or promoted, as aforesaid, are by the said ordinaries very uncharitably handled to their no little hindrance and ini- j)0verishment ; which your said subjects suppose not only to be agauist all laws, right, and good conscience, but also to be simony, and contrary to the laws of God. Nepotism "VIII. And also the said spirituEil ordinaries do daily ofdigni- confer and give sundry benefices unto certain young folks, calling them their nephews or kinsfolk, being in their BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 217 minority and witliin age, not apt ne able to serve the cure of chap any such benefice ; whereby the said ordinaries do keep and ^^ detain the fruits and profits of the same benefices in their a.d. 1532 own hands, and thereby accumulate to themselves right great and large sums of money and yearly profits to the most per- nicious example of your said lay subjects — and so the cures and promotions given unto such infants be only employed to the enriching of the said ordinaries ; and the poor silly souls of your people, which should be taught in the parishes given as aforesaid, for lack of good curates to perish without doctrine or any good teaching. " IX. Also, a great number of holydays now at this present Excessive time, with very small devotion, be solemnised and kept Holydays throughout this your Eealm, upon the which many great, abominable, and execrable vices, idle and wanton sports, be used and exercised, which holydays, if it may stand with your Grace's pleasure, and specially such as fall in the harvest might, by your Majesty, with the advice of your most honourable council, prelates, and ordinaries, be made fewer in number ; and those that shaU be hereafter ordained to stand and continue, might and may be the more devoutly, reli- giously, and reverendly observed to the laud of Almighty God, and to the increase of your high honour and favour. " X. And furthermore the said spiritual ordinaries, their Unjust ac- commissaries and substitutes, sometimes for their own ancT^mmi- pleasure, sometimes by the sinister procurement of other sonmems spiritual persons, use to make out process against divers of your said subjects, and thereby compel them to appear before themselves, to answer at a certain day and place to such articles as by them shall be, ex officio, then proposed; and that secretly and not in open places ; and forth^vith upon their appearance without any declaration made or showed, commit and send them to ward, sometimes for [half] a year, sometimes for a whole year or more before they may in any wise know either the cause of their imprisonment or the name of their accuser ; and finally after their great costs and charges therein, when all is examined and nothing can be proved against them, but they clearly innocent for any fault or crime that can be laid unto them, they be again set at 218 ACCUSATION OF THE CLERGY CHAP lai^ge without any recompence or amends in that behalf to be l^ towards them adjudged. A.D. 1532 "XL And also if percase upon the said process and appearance any party be upon the said matter, cause, or examination, brought forth and named, either as party or witness, and then upon the proof and trial thereof be not able to prove and verify the said accusation and testimony against the party accused, then the person so accused is for the more part without any remedy for his charges and wrongful vexation to be towards him adjudged and recovered. Unfair " ^^I- ^^^ upon the examination of the said accusation, treatment if heresy be ordinarily laid unto the charge of the parties so charged"^ accuscd, then the said ordinaries or their ministers use to put with to them such subtle interrogatories concerning the high eresy mysteries of our faith; as are able quickly to trap a simple unlearned, or yet a well-witted layman without learning, and bring them by such sinister introductions soon to their own confusion. And further, if their chance any heresy to be by such subtle policy, by any person confessed in words, and yet never committed neither in thought nor deed, then put they, without further favour, the said person either to make his purgation, and so thereby to loose his honesty and credence for ever ; or else as some simple silly soul [may do] the said person may stand precisely to the testimony of his own well- known conscience, rather than confess his innocent truth in that behalf [to be other than he knows it to be], and so be utterly destroyed. And if it fortune the said party so accused to deny the said accusation, and to put his adver- saries to prove the same as being untrue, forged and imagined against him, then for the most part such witnesses as are brought forth for the same, be they but two in number, never so sore diffamed, of little truth or credence, they shall be allowed and enabled, only by discretion of the said ordinaries, their commissaries or substitutes; and thereupon sufficient cause be found to proceed to judgment, to deliver the party so accused either to secular hands, after abjuration, without remedy ; or afore if he submit himself, as best happeneth, he shall have to make his purgation and bear a faggot, to his extreme shame and undoing. BV THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 219 " In consideration of all these things, most gracious chap Sovereign Lord, and forasmuch as there is at this present ^^ time, and by a few years past hath been outrageous violence a.d. 1532 on the one part and much default and lack of patient suffer- ance, charity, and good will on the other part ; and conse- quently a marvellous disorder of the godly quiet, peace, and tranquillity in which this your Eealm heretofore, ever hitherto, has been through your politic wisdom, most honour- able fame, and catholic faith inviolably preserved; it may therefore, most benign Sovereign Lord, like your excellent The King ffoodness for the tender and universally indifferent zeal, p^sought *= "^ ' to remedy benign love and favour which your Highness beareth towards these evils both the said parties, that the said articles (if they shall be by your most clear and perfect judgment, thought any instru- ment of the said disorders and factions), being deeply and weightily after your accustomed ways and manner, searched and considered ; graciously to pro"\ride (all violence on both sides utterly and clearly set apart) some such necessary and behoveful remedies as may effectually reconcile and bring in jerpetual unity, your said subjects, spiritual and temporal; and for the establishment thereof, to make and ordain on both sides such strait laws against transgressors and offenders as shall be too heavy, dangerous, and weighty for them, or any of them, to bear, suffer, and sustain. " Whereunto your said Commons most humbly and By doing entirely beseech your Grace, as the only Head, Sovereign wiirmerit Lord, and Protector of both the said parties, in whom and by eternal whom the only and sole redress, reformation, and remedy herein absolutely resteth [of your goodness to consent]. By occasion whereof all your Commons in their conscience surely account that, beside the marvellous fervent love that your Highness shall thereby engender tu their hearts towards your Grace, ye shall do the most princely feat, and show the most honourable and charitable precedent and mirrour that ever did sovereign lord upon his subjects; and tberewithal merit and deserve of our merciful God eternal bliss — whose goodness grant your Grace ia goodly, princely, and honourable estate long to reign, prosper, and continue as the Sovereign Lord over all your said most humble and obedient servants." 220 ACCUSATION OF THE CLERGY CHAP When the Convocation of Canterbury met in the ^^^.^.^^ Chapter House of Westminster^ on April 12, 1532, A.D. 1532 ti^is memorial of the House of Commons (which had The Com- been placed in the hands of Archbishop Warham dlesssent ^^^^ time before, and had, doubtless, been talted to Convo- over by the Bishops) was handed down to the Prolo- cation ^ ^ . cutor with a direction to the lower house to take it into immediate consideration, as the King required a reply as soon as possible. Analysis It wiU be observed, by carefully analyzing the address complaints here made respecting the bishops and their subordinates, that they may all be reduced to a few principal heads, notwithstanding the length to which the verbose document is spun out. 1, There is a great deal of discord among the Kings subjects in regard to religion. 2. The Convocations make canons without the consent of the King and the laity, and these canons are not so published as that the laity may become acquainted with them. 3. There is much vexation, trouble, and expense connected with the bishops' courts, and especially too few proc- tors and too many fees. 4 The clergy take fees for ^* occasional duty," and some of them fill secular offices in the establishments of the bishops. 5. The bishops make simoniacal contracts in presenting to benefices, and fill too many with their relatives. 6. There are too many holydays. Familiar as we Its charges are in these days with the reports of royal commis- fo^i^dabie sioi^s on the army, the navy, and other national institutions, this address of the Commons — or ^^accu- sation of the clergy," as it has been called — does not seem more formidable than any hostile representa- tion of supposed Church abuses might be made at the jDresent day, or in any church througliout the world. CONVOCATION'S REPLY AND DEFENCE 221 A commission of subalterns reporting on the practice chap of promotion in the army could doubtless make out .,^^.^^ a case that would look very bad^ until it was met by ^°- ^532 explanations from the War Office ; and a commission of suitors would probably report very unfavourably respecting the fees taken by officers of the Court of Chancery. If such commissions were pledged, more- over, to foregone conclusions by pressure from above to which they were willing to yield, we should not attach much weight to their reports. Convocation, however, felt it necessary to take the Accusa- report before us into their deliberate consideration^ swered^y and it was answered clause by clause. Probably the Convoca- •^ '^ tion bishops had already prepared the draft of an answer, and on this the reply of Convocation was founded. This reply was addressed to the King, and was agreed to in the upper house of Convocation on April 15th, in the lower on April 19th. It was pre- sented to the King, who forwarded it to Speaker Audley with a significant notification that it was not to be accepted as satisfactory. ^' We think this an- swer/' wrote the King, '^ will smally please you, for it seemeth to us very slender. You be a great sort of wise men ; I doubt not you will look circumspectly on the matter, and we will be indifierent between you." And yet, the address of Convocation was a very in an ad- fair reply to the charges brought against the bishops c^wn and clergy. It was quite as long as the address of the Commons, necessarily recapitulating a great deal of what they had said. Instead of further bur- dening these pages, its substance only, therefore, may be given, especially as its text does not oflfer any further illustration of the abuses alleged against the Church. 822 CONVOCATION'S REPLY CHAP As regards the " discords^ variance^ and debate " ^..^^^^,^^ about religion, wbicli the bishops and ordinaries are A-D. 1532 said to have caused, they reply that it is a mistake to charge them with these, since it is sufficiently evident that they have been caused by '^ evil dis- posed persons infected with the pestilent poison of heresy," and that when any of these have been dealt with by the bishops, the latter have only ad- ministered the laws they were obliged to administer, Analysis of and against those with whom to be at peace would t eiepy ^^ ^^ forcgo their duty. As to the canons ecclesias- tical, the authority of the Convocation to make these is grounded on Holy Scripture and the authority of the Church, and these are the basis also of the laws which have been made. They do not believe that any canons can be found which can- not be justified by this rule and square, if honestly interpreted according to the sense of their imposers : but, if such are to be found, they will not be remiss in reforming them according to the determination of Scripture and the Church. So, also, they hope in God, and will daily pray that the King will, if like cause appear, advise with his Parliament for the purpose of tempering secular laws to the same standard of Scripture and the Church \ " whereby shall ensue a most sure and hearty conjunction and agreement ; God being lajyis angularis''^ In such * It is impossible to pass by the the wished for unif onnity by alter- wanton manner in which this is ing the laws of the Realm ; and perverted by Mr. Fronde, who although the Bishops might not represents that the bishops called submit their laws to his Majesty's upon the king to remove any dis- approval, they would be happy, crepancies between the civil and they told him, to consider such ecclesiastical laws by altering the suggestions as he might think former till they agreed with the proper to make." Fronde's History lattLT. "His Majesty," says this of England, i. 225. historian, " was desired to produce AND DEFENCE 223 things as specially belong to their duty as certainly chap prescribed to them by God they cannot waive their ^^^^^^^^^ responsibility : yet^ they humbly desire the King ^.d. 1532 to state to them his '' mind and opinion" as he has hitherto done, and they will most gladly give effect to his wishes and directions if it should please God to inspire them to do so. The last expression is used with reference^ it need hardly be said^ to the recognised princi]3le^ that a synod of bishops^ or of bishops and clergy, solemnly and lawfully assembled, is under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. In respect to the extortions alleged against them, the reply states that no cases are known to them in which there has been any deviation from the law. But they desire it to be remembered that though ^^ God of His spiritual goodness assisteth His Church, and inspireth by the Holy Ghost, as we verily trust, such rules and laws as tend to the wealth of His elect folk ; yet upon considerations to man unknown, His infinite wisdom leaveth or permitteth men to walk in their infirmity and frailty ; so that we cannot, nor will not, arrogantly presume of ourselves, as though being in name spiritual men, we were also in all our acts and doings clean and void from all temporal affections and carnality of this world ; or that the laws of the Church made for spiritual and ghostly purpose be not some- time apphed to worldly intent." Nevertheless, the offenders and offences should be specified \ '' for though in multis offendimus omiies, as St. James saith, yet not in omnibus offendimus omnes, and the whole number can neither justify nor condemn parti- cular acts to them unknown but thus." s See Act of Uniformity [2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. i.] for its recognition. 224 CONVOCA TION'S REPL V CHAP Respecting heresy^ the bishops and clergy reply^ .^— v-*^ that they are thankful to say no notable cases have A.D. 1532 a^j-iggj^ [j^ their time, in which the person or the cir- cumstances could have given any ground for a charge of unfairness. It is true, that some far from respect- able foreigners, '^ certain apostates, friars, monks, lewd priests, bankrupt merchants, vagabonds, and lewd, idle fellows of corrupt intent, have embraced the abominable and erroneous opinions lately sprung in Germany, and by them some have been seduced in simplicity and ignorance." If any wrong has been done to those so seduced, or if, on the other hand, the bishops themselves have been remiss in doing their duty, right ought to be done ; but no cases had been specified by the Commons, and mere general charges were difficult to answer. Of one thing the clergy are certain, that there is no necessity for making " the more dreadful and terrible laws " against heresy, which the House of Commons de- sires : for the statutes are quite sufficient as they stand. ^ Archbishop Warham makes his own reply to the charges respecting extortion in his courts, and says that he had sometime ago reduced some of the fees of the officers by half and two-thirds, and others he had extinguished altogether. But he reminds the King that the civil lawyers are constantly employed on public business, with reference to treaties, truces, confederations, and leagues devised and concluded with foreign courts : and that, if their profession is ^ It is curious to ol)serve that the fact will be found in what is persecuting measures have so fre- said respecting the " Act of the quenlly been initiated by the Six Articles" in this and in Queen laity. Further illustrations of Mary's reign. AND DEFENCE 225 discouraged^ the want of such learned men would be chap a great national loss. .^^-v-^_> To all the other charges the Convocation replies a. d. 1532 substantially by saying, that if they could be proved no doubt the wrong-doers ought to be punished ; but they imply that in their opinion the Commons have much exaggerated their grievances^ and have made their charges general because they could not prove them against any particular persons^ or in any definite instances. This reply of the Convocation to the attack thus The Com- made upon the clergy by a dominant faction in the ^swer^ed^ House of Commons, bears abundant marks of being framed by just-minded men, who had a keen sense of their responsibility to God for the due execution of their offices. It explained some of the charges, and showed that they were made on mistaken grounds : it justified others on the plea that the law enjoined and compelled the ordinaries to do that of which complaints were made ; and it claimed for the clergy, equally with the Commons, a desire for justice to be done on any proved offenders. It was such a reply as should have met with respectful attention, and have led to further inquiry. But it was not at all But the what the King wanted, so he sent it down to the utteTf/dis- speaker with the contemptuous message previously •'egarded given, and then acted as if it had never been written. What the King did want was that the Convoca- tion should commit itself to so entire a subjugation of its authority to the control of the Crown that there should be no possibility of its maintaining the free- dom of the Church against the tyranny of the King. The King's He therefore caused a form of "submission" to be l^^^if'^^"'" ^ . to the set before the Convocation, through Tos^ Bishop of clergy 22G THE KING'S THREATENING ATTITUDE CHAP Hereford (who was then Almoner to the King), as a ,^ ...^ YvcAoi ultimatum. This contained three ^^ Articles :" A.D. 1532 j^irstly. That no canon should be passed in future without the royal authority, assent, advice, and favour sought and obtained. Secondly, That many of the canons interfering with the royal prerogative, and being onerous to the King's subjects, a commis- sion of thirty-two persons, equally taken from Par- liament and Convocation, should be selected by the King, and appointed to examine them, and repeal as many as they thought proper. Thirdly, That other canons should stand good only when they had been endorsed with the royal assent. Debate re- Those three articles were laid before both Houses sjiecting it on May 10, 1532, and the debate arising upon them ended in the appointment of a deputation, consisting of the Bishops of Lincoln and Bath, the Abbots of Westminster and St. Bennet's (Norwich), with four doctors of divinity and two of civil law from the Lower House, who were to consult the aged Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, on the subject. On hearing of this Henry was highly offended, and sending again for the pliant Audley (still speaker of the House of Commons until this business was completed), the King told him that he saw the clergy were but half his subjects. To make his meaning and his object plain, he ordered Audley to read to the House of Commons the two oaths taken to himself and the Pope respectively by the clergy ; no doubt with the intention of forcing the latter to submission through Confer- ^^^^ ^^ auothcr praemunire. enceof Duriug the two or three days following there tion and was much debate in both houses, several messages Council from the King, and a conference between the Upper THE DECISION OF CONVOCATION 227 House and six lay peers (the Duke of Norfolk, tlie chap Marquis of Exeter^ the Earl of Oxford, Lord Sands, ^^^^t^^ Lord Boleyn, and Lord Rochford) sent to them from ^^- ^532 the King. The object of this conference was to compel the Convocation to give up all the existing canons of the Church into the ha"tids of the King, Extrava- so that none of them could be valid in future unless m^nds of they had received his assent. This pointed simply '^^^ ^^^"^ to an entire confiscation of all the existing Church Laws, and the bishops resolutely declined, whatever might be the consequences, to consent to such terms. Obstinate and tyrannical as the King was he could not enforce his will against such an united front as this, and he sent back the six lords with a message to the effect that the obnoxious clause effectually would not be insisted on. Some technical confusion by union Qow arose between the two houses, and two forms ?n^^ ^ bishops of submission were subscribed by them, slightly differing in the concluding paragraph. That sub- scribed by the Upper House was the one presented to the King, and it is to be supposed that the signatures of the Lower House were either taken for granted, or considered unnecessary, for they were not laid before him. The document itself, which is of much importance, The Act as defining the relations between the Crown and cltkT™ Convocation, is as follows, — omitting the Latin pre- ^pecting o i. canons amble and the subscriptions. It is entitled ^'Instru- mentum super Sithmissione Cleri coram Domino Rege quoad celehrationem Conciliorum Frovmcialiimi" " We, your most humble subjects, daily orators, and beads- men of your clergy of England, having one special trust and confidence in your most excellent wisdom, your princely goodness, and fervent zeal to the promotion of God's honour 228 THE DECISION OF CONVOCATION CHAP IV A.D. 1532 Royal li- cense ne- cessary for Convoca- tion to act and Christian religion, and also in your learning, far exceed- ing in our judgment the learning of all other kings and princes that we have read of, and doubting nothing, but that the same shall continue and daily increase in your Majesty : " First, Do offer and promise, in verbo sacerdotii, here unto your Highness, submitting ourselves most humbly to the same, that we will never from henceforth, enact, put in ure, promulge, or execute any new canons, or constitutions pro- vincial, or any new ordinance, provincial or synodal, in our convocation, or synod, in time coming (which convocation is, always hath been, and must be assembled only by your high commandment of writ), only your Highness, by your royal assent shall license us to assemble our convocation, and to make, promulge, and execute such constitutions and ordina- ments as shall be made in the same ; and thereto give your royal assent and authority. Secondarily, That whereas divers of the constitiitions, or- dinaments, and canons, provincial or synodal, which hath been heretofore enacted, be thought to be not only much prejudicial to your prerogative royal, but also overmiich onerous to your Higbness's subjects, your clergy aforesaid is contented, if it may stand so with your Higbness's pleasure, that it be com- mitted to the examination and judgment of your Grace and of thirty-two persons, whereof sixteen to be of the upper and nether house of the temporalty, and other sixteen of the clergy ; all to be chosen and appointed by your most noble Grace ; so that, finally, which soever of the said constitutions, ordinaments, or canons, provincial or synodal, shall be thought and determined by your Grace, and by the most part of the said thirty-two persons, not to stand with God's laws and the laws of your realm, the same to be abrogated, and taken away by your Grace and the clergy. And such of them as shall be seen by your Grace and by the most part of the said thirty- two persons, to stand with God's laws and the laws of your realm, to stand in full strength and power, your Grace's most royal assent and authority once impetrate, and fully given to the same."'' This form of ^^ Submission " was subscribed on 7 Wilkina' Cone, iii. 754. THE ''ACT OF SUBMISSION" 229 May 15, 1532, and was embodied in the ^^ Act of chap SubmissioD/' 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 19, passed at the ^^^^.^-^^ end of the year 1533, of which it forms the pre- ■^•^' ^533 amble : the enacting clause being in agreement with it. The Act further enacted that all canons ecclesi- Act of -, , . , • r ^ ' ' 1 Convoca- astical which were m force at the time it was passed, tion em- should continue in force (provided they did not clash A°ct^of ^" with the laws of the realm or the King's preroga- ^^^^iiarnent tive) until further legislation abolished them. That further legislation never took place, and conse- quently, the ancient Canon Law of the Church of England still holds good where it is not contrary to the Statute Law. and does not interfere with the rights of the Crown. ^ Although the power to ap- point the thirty -two commissioners was renewed two years afterwards, again by 27 Hen. VIII., cap. 15, and again in 1544, the King seems to have shrunk from actual interference with the Canon Law, contented probably with the power of vetoing any part of it when it became obnoxious to him, and caring nothing for its reformation on any other grounds. The commission was ultimately appointed by Edward VI. in 1551, but the number of com- missioners was afterwards reduced to eight. The result of their labours, happily, never received any But canon confirmation from higher authority, and has no legal ^^6^^"^ force; but it is well known to the historical student as a volume entitled " Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasti- arum J' Perhaps the secular power has ever since been willing rather to leave the Ecclesiastical Law in an indefinite form, than to bind itself down to the execution of a body of canons plainly authorized by the Church and the Crown. ^ The Roman Canon Law never ran in England. 230 THE ACT OF SUPREMACY CHAP IV A.D. 1534 The Act of Supre- macy passed Prayers for the Pope for- bidden The final step towards the re-establishment/ or statutory enactment, of the royal supremacy, was taken in the autumn session of Parliament, 1534. The King had hitherto been content with the '^re- cognition" of it which had been passed by the Con- vocations of Canterbury and York in 1532. But the Pope had now acted on the appeal of Queen Catherine, thus coming into direct collision with the law against appeals to him which had been passed in the previous year, and had exasperated the King by reversing Cranmer's sentence of divorce. On June 9th following, a royal proclamation was issued, ordering the Pope's name to be removed from all the Service Books, and forbidding the mention of it in any prayers. Parliament -met on November 3rd, and hurriedly passed the Act of Supremacy, 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 1, giving force to the recognition of the title " Supreme Head, under Christ, of the Church of England :" and defining, with terrible comprehensiveness, what the King, at least, meant it to mean. This famous Act recites that — "Albeit the King's Majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and so is recognised by the clergy of this realm in their convoca- ^ Gardiner, Bishop of Winches- ter, in his book Z)e Vera Obedien- tia says " that no new thing was introduced when the King was declared to be Supreme Head ; only the bishops, nobles, and clergy of England determined that a power which of Divine right belongs to their prince should be more clearly asserted by adopting a more significant expression." [Brown's Fasciculus, ii. 806.] In 1568 a long letter was printed which Tunstal acknowledged to Archbishop Parker fourteen days before his death had been written by him (when Bishop of Durham) and by Stokesley, Bishop of Lon- don, to Cardinal Pole while at Rome. This letter [See Knight's Life of Erasmus, App. pp. Ixvi. xcvi.] is a vigorous defence of the royal supremacy, and disproves the papal supremacy from Scrip- ture and ecclesiastical history ACT MAKING DENIAL OF SUPREMACY TREASON 231 tion/ yet nevertheless, for corroboration and confirmation chap thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion -within ^^ this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errours, a.u. 1534 heresies, and other enormities and abuses heretofore used in the same ; be it enacted, by authority of this present parlia- ment, that the King our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and suc- cessors, kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and The new reputed the only Supreme Head in earth of the Church of actecr^ England, called Anglicana JEeclesia, and shall have and enjoy annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof as all the honours, dignities, pre-eminences, jurisdictions, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities, to the said dignity belonging and apper- taining; and that our said Sovereign Lord, his heirs aud successors, kings of this realm, shall < have full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, re- strain, and amend all such errours, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may laA\'fully be reformed — most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm — any usage, cus- tom, foreign laws, foreign authority, prescription, or any other thing or things to the contrary hereof notwithstanding." The enormous power thus given to the King was Supple not^ however, sufficient to gratify his lust of tyranny ; AcreTtab- and a second Act [26 Hen. VIII. cap. 13] was l^'^^"^^^"^^^' L ^ ^ JT J treasons passed by Parliament immediately afterwards^ which made it high treason to '^ imagine^ invent, practise, or attempt any bodily harm to be done or committed to the King's most royal person, the Queen s, or their heirs-apparent, or to deprive them or any of them of the dignity, tithy or name of their royal estates, . . . and that all such persons, their aiders, counsellors, concertors, or abettors, being thereof lawfully con- ^ It will be observed that the turn per Cbristi legem hcet" is important hmitation clause " qiian- dishonestly ignored. 232 TYRANNICAL ENFORCEMENT OF THESE ACTS CHAP vict^ according to the laws and customs of the realm, ^^^t-^^ shall be adjudged traitors, and that every such offence A.D. 1534 \^ a,ny of the premises, shall be adjudged high treason." Notwithstanding all the abject servility Disgrace- ^ith which the House of Commons laid itself at the of House ^ feet of Henry VIII., it certainly does excite sur- mons"'"^ prise that such an Act could be allowed to pass : and it can scarcely be explained in any other way than by supposing Cromwell to have gained over a large party to vote as the King wished, by disclosing his shrewd plans for enriching the lay courtiers at the expense of the clergy. It disgraced the Statute Book only until the unscrupulous tyranny of Henry's reign had passed away, and was repealed immediately on the accession of his son, by 1 Edw. VI. cap. 12. While it stood there, many were dragged under its operation in the most unjust manner ; and the land was deluged with the blood of good men who thought they would be doing dishonour to the true Head of the Church if they recognised the extrava- gant interpretations which were put upon the King's claim. For a time it formed the one great article of Henry's creed, and it was not difficult for him to find sordid men like Cromwell who were willing to assist him in compelling every one to bow down before the idol that had been set up, or else to die a death not less cruel than that of the Babylonian furnace. Results The effect of all the transactions relating to the oftransac- i ii'x' 'jti'ii tions re- royal supremacy, and culmmatmg m the highly Inacfment P^^^^l statute by wHch the Act of Supremacy was of Royal euforced, may be stated in a few words before closing: Supremacy ^ this chapter. NATURE OF ROYAL SUPREMACY 233 1. The Convocations of both, provinces had given chap synodal recognition to a principle always practically .^.^.^-^^ recognised in England^ though much encroached An ancient upon by the usurped jurisdiction of the Popes. Sir the Eng- Edward Coke, speaking of the acts of Henry VIII., i-^^^^^^^'" says that ^^ all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, though usurped, was now restored to the Crown :"^ Black- stone, that the Crown was '' restored to its supremacy over spiritual men and causes,"^ and that ^^ the Statute 25 Hen. VIII." (that of appeals) "was but declaratory of the ancient law of the realm." ^ The ancient lawyer, Bracton^ to whom all deference was paid until Lord Coke's more modern authority super- seded him, goes so far as to say, even in the thir- teenth century, that " Rex est vicarius et minister Dei in terra : omnis quidem sub eo est, et ipse sub nuUo, nisi tantum sub Deo." ..." Sub Deo et sub lege, quia lex facit regem." ..." Dei vicarius tam in spiritualibus quam in temporalibus."^ 2. But althousrh the royal supremacy is part of^hecon- , T . , ^ , . "^ . , . ■'^ *^ ^ , ^ stitutional the sovereigns prerogative it is no more without limitations limitation than other parts of the prerogative. Even premlcy by the Statute 26 Hen. VIII. cap. l,it is only made a corrective jurisdiction, and nothing is said about the directive jurisdiction by which the ordinary functions of the Church, when unaffected by offence or dis- pute, are discharged. Henry VIII., however, cast aside all such limitations whenever it suited him to do so, and especially by the unprecedented appoint- ^ ^ Comyns' Digest, art. Preroga- » Book i. ch. 8. The Act 33 tive, D. 11, 13. Edw. III. declares that the spirit- 3 Blackstone's Comment., IV. iml jurisdiction of kings is derived 33, IV. _ from a priestly character given to ■* Id. III. 5, vi. them by their unction at" corona- tion 234 NATURE OF ROYAL SUPREMACY CHAP ment of a lay ^^ vicegerent/' who was practically a ,^^^.-,^-,^ lay Pope of England. Repeal of 3. The Act of Suprerr -^cy remained in force only vn"[^ until 1553, being repealed by 1 and 2 Philip and Statute Mary, cap. 8, and not revived by Queen Elizabeth, who, indeed, had a personal dislike to even a modi- fied form of the title which it conferred on the sovereign. Better ea- 4. The corrective jurisdiction of the Crown was under Q. re-ostablished by Queen Elizabeth with a definite form of limitation which brought it into agreement with the ancient common law, and left no such loop- hole open for extreme tyranny as was provided by the undefined powers enumerated in the Act of Supremacy, , And this is the more conspicuous since some of the wording of that Act is reproduced in the new Statute. The later Act is 1 Elizabeth, cap. 1, which provides (in section 17), — " That such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities, and pre- eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been or may lawfully be exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesi- astical state and persons, and for reformation, order, and cor- rectioTL of the same, and of all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, shall for ever, by authority of this present Parliament, be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." The oath ^he nineteenth section of the same Act provided of supre- -T macy also an oath of supremacy, to be taken by all ecclesi- astical persons, which begins with the following clause : — ■ " I, A. B., do utterly testify and declare in my conscience that the Queen's Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her Highnesses dominions and NATURE OF ROYAL SUPREMACY 235 countries, as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things or chap causes, as temporal" ^^ But this clause was struck out by 1 "William and Mary^ cap. 8, and the repudiation of the supremacy of the Pope was alone retained. Thus it will be seen that the claims subsequently Later in- made by the Crown were verbally of a much more uon of the limited character than those made by Henry VIII., p^emLy^ while the title " Supreme Head of the Church of England " was entirely dropped after being used for about a quarter of a century.^ But the limitation in practice was far greater. Henry VIII. gave commissions to the bishops, and made his Vicegerent Cromwell the head of the Convocation of Canter- bury, but no such outrages upon the Church were perpetrated by Elizabeth or any subsequent sove- reigns of England. Henry's later view of the royal supremacy appears to have been that it contained within itself all the rights which had been claimed for the papal supremacy ; but such a view was never recognised by any statute. Subsequent prac- An execu- tice, as well as law^ entirely restricts it to the le^siaUve restoration of ancient regal jurisdiction \ that right authority by which the sovereign is the supreme administrator of the law over ecclesiastical as well as over secular persons. The ^' constitutions and canons ecclesias- tical" of 1603 were decreed and ordained by the Convocation of Canterbury, and the Crown claimed 6 The titles of the Sovereign are ment [2 & 3 Anne, cap. 11], the prefixed to the Statutes in the Queen Anne's Bounty Act, and Bolls of Barliament. This title was probably copied in thouglit- appears among the rest from the lessly from the Acts of Henry year 1534 to the year 1553, and VIIL, which would need to be is never found there after that frequently referred to in drafting date. It appears once afterwards the act in (question, in the body of an Act of Parlia- 236 NATURE OF ROYAL SUPREMACY IV no further power respecting them than that of ' — ^ ' assent and execution, -leaving the right of legislation entirely in the hands of the clergy/ Assent to " We/' Say the letters patent which publish these canons, and pro- » q£ q^^ princely inclination and royal care for the mainten- nmlgation r j .; p i r^n i . of canons ance of the present estate and government of the Church of i6o^^' England, by the laws of this our realm now settled and estab- lished, having diligently, with great contentment and comfort, read and considered of all these their said canons, orders, ordinances, and constitutions, agreed upon, as is before ex- pressed ; and finding the same such as we are persuaded will be very profitable, not only to our clergy, but to the whole Church of this our kingdom, and to all the true members of it, if they be well observed ; have therefore for us, our heirs, and lawful successors, of our especial grace, certain know- ledge, and mere motion, given, and by these presents do give our royal assent, according to the form of the said Statute or Act of Parhament aforesaid,** to all and every of the said canons, orders, ordinances, and constitutions, and to all and every thing in them contained, as they are before written. '' Mr. Gladstone has well pointed that assent is given. Again the out the distinction between the E-oyal assent is given to canons in Sovereign's relation to the Parlia- the gross, to hills one hy one, ment and to Convocation. " The which weU illustrates the diJffer- Eeformation Statiites did not leave ence between the control in the the Convocation in the same con- one case and the actuating and dition relatively to the Crown as moving power in the other. But the Parliament. It was under the language of these instruments more control ; but its inherent and respectively affords the clearest independent power was thereby and the highest proof. In the more directly recognised. The Canons (Canon 1) we find the King was not the head of Convo- words * We decree and ordain/ cation ; it was not merely his that is we the members of the two council. The Archbishop was its houses of Convocation. But in our head, and summoned and pro- laAvs, * Be it enacted hy the King's rogued it. It was not power, hut most excellent majesty, with the leave, that this body had to seek advice and consent oi the lords, from the Crown to make canons. spiritual and temporal, and com- A canon without the royal assent mons,*" &c., &c. [Gladstone on was already a canon, though -with- the Royal Supremacy, p. 31.] out the force of law ; hut a biU « 25 Henry VIII. 19, the "Act which has passed the two houses is of Appeals." without a force of any kind, until NATURE OF ROYAL SUPREMACY 237 " And furthermore, we do not only by our said prerogative cHAP royal, and supreme authority in causes ecclesiastical ratify, I V confirm, and establish, by these our letters patent, the said ^^^^"''^^ canons, orders, ordinances, and constitutions, and all and every thing in them contained, as is aforesaid ; but do like- wise propound, publish, and straightway enjoin and command by our said authority, and by these our letters patent, the same to be diligently observed, executed, and equally kept by all our loving subjects of this our kingdom both within the provinces of Canterbury and York, in all points wherein they do or may concern every or any of them, according to this our will and pleasure hereby signified and expressed." The consideration and construction of canons is, Existing therefore, even under the laws of Henry VIII., ^^^^^^^^Q'" 1-11-1 1 1 •!• T Convoca- decided by precedent to be witnm the ordinary tion and power of Convocation^ sitting by the sovereigns license ; but their legal status is given by the assent of the Crown, which also publishes^ promulgates, and enjoins their observance by the same letters patent in which that assent is given. The power of refusing assent gives to the Crown, of course, a veto respecting Acts of Convocation similar to that which it possesses in respect to Acts of Parliament. The four years of the Reformation period which have been considered in this chapter, were thus very eventful years as regards the relations of the Crown of England to the Church of England : but, after all, the courage of the clergy in Convocation secured, under God's providence, the future freedom of the Church, even though it was obliged to bow for a few years to the yoke of Henry VIII. 's illegal tyranny. CHAPTEE y THE REPUDIATION OF PAPAL JURISDICTION [A.D. 1531—1534] CHAP T\ TIRING the progress of the divorce business it .^.^^^.^^ aJ had gradually been growing upon men's minds that whether the King was right or wrong in his endeavours to put away an old wife and take a young one in her place, the Pope was assuredly claiming a more than usually extravagant authority by the course which he was pursuing : and there began to be a freedom of thought and a freedom of speech about the matter, which foreshadowed a great change. Wise men who knew the history of preceding times, The old foil the approach of a climax in that standing quarrel between bctwecn England and Rome which had been crop- and Rome pmg up lu a moTO OT Icss couspicuous dcgrcc during several centuries. But few, even of the wise, could see their way clearly to a new order of things. The authority of Rome might be repudiated by the English Church and nation, but what was to be substituted in its place ? Were there any true and jtist principles of ecclesiastical independence, such as would allow freedom to the English Church, and yet maintain its Catholic position undamaged ? The ENGLISH TREATMENT OF THE POPE 239 problem was settled by what men call an accident, ckap as many other problems have been settled before .^^..^^ and since ; and one can hardly wonder, considering the hold which the papal theory had gained on the world by the constant bold persistence of Italian statesmen, that it was settled in no more direct manner. During the whole time of Wolsey's government, there had been a growing disposition to deal with the court of Rome on more independent terms than had been customary. Frequent complaints had come from Rome that the Pope of the day thougrht }^'oisey's ■*■ , */ o fi-ee treat himself slighted, and the complaints seem to havementof had a foundation in facts. In October, 1514, the °^^^ Bishop of Worcester wrote to Wolsey that Leo X. had expressed displeasure at an arrangement made between England and France for the marriage of the Princess Mary to the Dauphin, without any notice whatever being given to his Holiness of the negoti- ations that had been going on.^ Nor was a word said to h^m officially of Suffolk's marriage with the King's sister. And even while Wolsey, about the same time, was making interest at Rome for the cardinalate, he boldly remonstrated against the papal exaction of "two annates" in one year from the see of Lincoln, and urges that restitution must be made.^ Remonstrances from the Pope respecting the treat- Papal ment he was receiving from England seem, indeed, strances to have abounded about this time. The sub-collector of Peter s pence wrote to the Bishop of Bath on March 3, 1515, saying that the people refused to pay them until some dispute then in hand was settled. The letter was intercepted, and its language was of so 1 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., i. 5543. ^ Ibid., 5465. 240 ENGLISH TREATMENT OF THE POPE CHAP disrespectful a character, that Leo X. thought it worth ^^!^|^^ while to write to the King himself on the subject.^ Strong But at about the same time Henry was writing used uf^ one sharp letter to the Pope respecting an unaccept- ^^"^ able appointment of a Scotch bishop as legate^ and Wolsey was writing another respecting the hesitation shown by his Holiness in forwarding his election to the cardinalate ; and though Leo wrote quite humble replies/ both King and minister seem to have punished him by their silence, for in November he writes that he has not heard from England for three He gets no months.^ The same. complaint about want of news is England"^ thrice made within a few months afterwards, and a little later his Holiness ventures so far in his remon- strances as to say at one time that he considers the excuses made very unsatisfactory : and at another^ that he has not heard from England for six months, and never did hear except when people wanted to beg and too Something !^ Constant complaints are also sent over money about the manner in which the papal taxes are with- held by the King and the English people. The Pope "is greatly displeased, and his quiet nature much exasperated" at the refusal of a tenth in 1516 '1 Lord Mountjoy prohibits the sale of indulgences in Tournay '} and the English ambassador tells the Pope they cannot be sold in England, unless the King's consent is sought, and a fourth or a third of differences the procecds handed over to his Majesty.^ At last, become ^^ Bishop of WoTCCster writes to Wolsey, on April 1 0, 1 5 1 8, that the state of affairs between England and Rome is becoming very serious, and that the Pope "* Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. ^ Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. 215. 1928, 3352, 5353, iii. 791. 4 Ibid., 365, 366, 374. 7 \y^^^^ -^^ X312, 1417. * Ibid., 1224. 8 Ibid., 1259. » Ibid., App. 35 senous ENGLISH TREATMENT OF THE POPE 241 complains ^^ every day" how little lie hears from chap England.^ At this time^ disregard for the Pope ^^^^-.^.^-^^ was so openly shown, that Giustiniani, the Venetian Disregard ODeiilv ex- ambassador, notices it in his despatch, narrating hibited the reception of Cardinal Campeggio. The legates went to court on August 3, 1518, he says, when mass was celebrated and a sumptuous banquet pro- vided, but ^^ little respect was shown to the See Apostolic."^ Before the divorce business came on, some com- munication had been made by Wolsey, which the Bishop of Bath calls "sharp, though affectionate letters;" and h-e adds an amusing sentence, which gives a pretty good idea of the Cardinal's tone : — *'His Holiness hath taken this sour sauce, sweetly Anglican powdered, as I trust, to his edification."^ While for the the divorce business was going on, a remarkably bold °^^ tone was taken by the English ambassadors, espe- cially by Gardiner and Bonner, in their interviews with the Pope : and whence it received its inspiration is shown by one of Wolsey's last despatches, written on July 27, 1529, in which he bids the ambassadors to tell the Pope, who had signified his intention of summoning the King and Queen before him, '^ that if his Grace should come at anytime to the court of How the Rome, he would do the same with such a main and would at- army royal as should be formidable to the Pope and Pope's^^ all Italy."^ summons Thus, it is evident, there was a growing disregard for the papacy : and the relations of England and Rome were becoming so shaken, that we must con- 1 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iL ^ gt^te Pap., vi. 402 n. Pel). 3781, 4068. 1525. 2 Giustin. Despatches, ii. 206. * Ibid., vii. 193. 242 MORALE OF THE PAPACY CHAP elude nothing could have staved off for long a virtual, .^^Zr-^ if not an actual, repudiation of the Pope's jurisdiction in England. It cannot but have been, indeed, that the papal office was brought into great disrepute by the miser- able vices and secularity of those who occupied it : and for sixty years (to say no more) before the final breach was made, there had not been a pope, except The bad Clement VII., who could be called even a decent characters Qj^j-ig^^^j^^ This fact must be looked in the face, for Popes -^ gQgg £j^-(, ^Q explain the feelings which stimulated such men as Savonarola and Luther to such ex- treme and bitter hostility towards the Popes : and there can be no reasonable doubt that the schisms of Europe, though not the reformation of its churches, would have been greatly hindered if there had been men of personal holiness on the papal throne. But what were the popes of that fifty years ? For Sixtusiv one decade and more, there was Sixtus lY., an accomplice in the attempted assassination of the Medici at Florence, when Giuliano de Medici was stabbed to the heart before the altar, and his brother Lorenzo just escaped. In this vile conspiracy, the Archbishop of Pisa (who was hung in his robes on the instant) was the Pope's agent and deputy, and gave the signal to the assassins by elevating the Blessed Sacrament at the altar ! For nearly a Innocent socoud docado lunocont VIII. was Pope, whose one object seems to have been to found a family by heaping benefices upon his children and other rela- tives : and who had so little moral sense, not to say spirituality, that he made a boy of fourteen a. cardinal, and tried to get a French archbishopric VIII MORALE OF THE PAPACY 243 conferred on him. For a third decade^ the episcopal chap head of Western Christendom was Alexander ,,^„Zr^^ VI. ^ a monster of iniquity, whose crimes were too vile to name^ and too many to number. For a fourth decade, we have Jvilius II., command er-in->iiusii chief of the papal army before his election to the papacy itself, and nothing more like a Christian bishop during the whole of his reign. The fifth decade takes in the reign of Leo X., the boy cardinal Leo x above-mentioned.^ All the good that has ever been said of him amounts to this, that he was '' a munifi- cent patron of the arts," though his patronage was neither more nor less than the encouragement of Pagan instead of Christian art. He was as secular in his tastes as any emperor of Rome, and his episcopal office was treated by him merely as one of the accidents of his position. During the last decade of the period (except for the short reign of the good Adrian VI. ^) ^ During these early years of Clermont. [Audin's Histoire de Leo X. the boy cardinal -was also, Leon X., i. 25.] according to Audin, canon of ^ This was the only one of these the Cathedral of Florence, of Popes who saw the greatness of Fiesole, and of Arezzo ; rector of the moral crisis, and really wished Carmignano, of Giogoli, of San for reformation. He told liis Casciano, of San GioA^anni in Val nnncio Chieregati to declare at the d'Arno, of San Pietro di Casale, of imi^erialdietoi Nuremberg in 1522, San Marcellino di Cacchiano ; "We know that for a long time prior of Monte Varchi ; precentor there have existed many abomtu- of S. Antonio, at Florence ; pro- ations is this holy see, abuses of vost of Prato ; Abbot of Monte spiritual things, excesses in the Cassino, of San Giovanni di Passig- exercise of jurisdiction : all things nano, of Sta. Maria di Morimondo, in short changed and perverted, of St. Martin de Font-Douce, of S. Nor need we wonder that cor- Salvadore at Vajano, of S. Barto- ruption has descended from tlie lommeo d'Anghiari, of S. Lorenzo head to the members, from the di Coltibuono, of Sta. Maria di supreme pontiff to the inferior Monte Piano, of St. Julien de prelates. We have all, prelates Tours, of S. Giusto and S. Cle- and ecclesiastics, turned aside each mente at Volterra, of S. Stefano at one to his own way : for none of Bologna, of S. Michele at Arezzo, us have done well, no, not one.'' of Cliiaravalle near Milan, of Pin [Rainald, AnnaL Ecc, vol. xx., in Poitou, of Chaise-Dieu near year 1522, note 66.] 244 MORALE OF THE PAPACY CHAP Clement VII. was Pope, and the official duplicity of ..^-^.^^ the transactions carried on in his name were a prin- ciement cipal reason why the papal office was treated with tim 'of 7iis so little respect by "Wolsey and Henry VIII. But predeces- j^-^ pg^g^j^^]^ character was very different from that of his immediate predecessors^ and his adversities, like those of many other well-meaning rulers, were brought upon him chiefly as the result of their iniquities and worldliness. Nor may we leave out the condition of Rome and the Roman Church, when enumerating the causes which led Englishmen to despise the papacy. The The profli- Italy of that day was sunk in the very deeps of Rome and profligacy, and the clergy had been dragged down ^^^ into the mire. There were, doubtless^ many excep- tions, but they are not conspicuous in history. The many who are conspicuous exhibit themselves as secular, intriguing, and even criminal ; for what else can be said of a clerical community which could so readily provide assassins and conspirators ? Luther spent a fortnight at Rome in 1510, and the recollection of what he saw and heard used to make him shudder. Among other things that he records, is the conversation of priests about the mysteries of religion, and this is so awfully profane, that one can come to no other conclusion than this, that Rome then abounded with profligate infidels even among Luther's Jts clereTV'.'^ " I would not have missed seeing: Rome," saying re- ^*^ -, . ^ specting it he uscd to Say, ^' for a thousand florins. At Rome, one may be anything save a good man." And Luther was very far from being the only one who ^ The very cele'bration of the of the words of consecration. Wors- Eucharist was vitiated by a parody ley's Liie of Luther, i. 61. BROUGHT ABOUT CONTEMPT FOR IT 245 looked with horror and contempt on the condition of chap the great centre of Christendom. .^^3-^- Thus the moral weight of the papacy was reduced to its lowest point. The character of these popes was well known to the two generations during which they lived ; and we may venture firmly to say that such a character had no parallel among English bishops, No eccie- such as might have led to its being excused orparaikUn leniently thought of. Ambassadors^ moreover, lay ^^s^^^*^ and clerical, were continually being sent from Eng- land to Rome ; they saw the corruptions of the Roman court and the Roman Church, and they came home despising the clergy both as courtiers and as priests. The consequence was, that when the imperious will of Henry VIII. was set against the court of Rome, no one cared to apologize for or defend it : and when the principle of papal jurisdiction came to be called in question, there came no voice raised to plead that if the principle was bad, the lives and rule of the popes were such as to claim respect even for an usurped office. And thus the jurisdiction of the papal see over the Papal Church of England was already rotting away before £ngfaiid ^' Henry VIII. laid the axe to its roots : and it was'^^^^^^s 1 T • 1 1 ■ 1 • away moral rottenness which made its destruction so com- paratively easy. It is far from improbable that the spirit thus growing up would have led to euf;ij:e alienation before long, even without the momeijfcum given to events by Henry's pride and passion 3. Such an idea was evidently in the mind of Sir Thomas More ; and, no doubt, in that of the still more astute and far-seeing Wolsey. When More was about to be sent to the Tower, he was examined before Cranmer, Cromwell, and Lord Chancellor 246 S/B T. MORE ON PAPAL SUPREMACY CHAP Audley ; and among otlier accusations which were ,^^3^ brought against him was that of having put a sword into the King's " enemy, the Pope's hands, by in- ducing the King to make a book for the maintenance of the Pope s authority and the seven sacraments." More replies that when the King showed him the MS. after it was completed, he found ''the Pope's More fore- authority highly advanced, and with many good between reasous mightily defended/' and that he offered a Ind Henry I'^i^onstrance on the subject. '''T must put your ^^^^ Grace in mind of one thing/" he reports himself to have said, "'and that is this, the Pope, as your Grace knoweth, is a great prince as you are. It may here- after fall out that your Grace and he may vary on some points, whereupon may grow breach of amity and war between you both. I think it therefore best, in my simple judgment, that this place be mended, and his authority more slenderly touched.' The King's ' Nay (quoth his grace), that shall not be. We and ofpapaisu- all Christians are so much bound to the See of premac) j^Qmc that we cannot do it too much honour.' Then I put him in mind of a statute of prcemunire, made in the time of Richard the Second, by which a part of the Pope's pastoral cure here in England Avas pared away. To that his Highness answered, ' Whatsoever impediment be to the contrary, we will set forth, for our parts, his authority to the utmost as it deserved ; for from that See we first received our faith, and after our ixnj^erial crown and sceptre,' which, till his Grace with his own mouth More'ssar- told me," adds More sarcastically, " I never heard of spewing it beforc."^ It is amusing to find what a change thirteen years had made in the King's opinions ^ Wordsw. Eccl. Biog., ii. 169. LONG STRUGGLE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND ROME 247 respecting his relations with the Pope ; but it is also chap instructive to find that his new opinions were those .^^^..^-^^ which wiser men had long entertained. In fact it may be said that when Henry finally established his independence of the Court of Rome, he was but giving the last effective stroke to a policy which had been maintained — as far as it could be without royal support — for many years of Wolsey s administration. Final We may even go further back^ and say with a once of Pap°a" zealous writer of the English Church, who in l^^ter {J^JJ^^'^J^^J life became titular archbishop of the Roman sect in cUmax of -n 1 1 j-i J TT J ( Tin r» * T • a Standing xijngland, that JbLenry s act was but the nnisnmg contest stroke to a work that had been going on for centuries.^ ^^ If any man will look down along the line of early English history, he will see a standing contest between the rulers of this land and the bishops of Rome. The Crown and Church of England, with a steady opposition, resisted the entrance and encroach- ment of the secularized ecclesiastical power of the Pope in England. The last rejection of it was no more than a successful effort after many a failure in struggles of the like kind/* ?)i After the advocation of the divorce cause to Provoked Rome, it became clear that this long-threatened divorce ^ separation of England from the jurisdiction of the^^^^"^^^ popes was now becoming imminent : and looking back on the steps taken by Clement and the King, we may say that no such outrageous provocation having ever been offered before to an independent 9 In 1512 there iiad been a Wolsey. [Ellis' Orig. Lett., ni. movement in France for tlirowing ii. 98.] See page 88. oif tlie papal jurisdiction : and in ^ Manning on the Unity of tlio 1525 Francis I. proposed a Patri- Church, p. 3fii archate of France and England to 248 THE PAPAL JURISDICTION THREATENED CHAP sovereign^ it was met in the first instance very tem- ^^.^,^;^ perately. A.D. 1530 jj^ 2530 Dr. Benet was endeavouring to obtain a commission for three Enghsh bishops^ or for Con- vocation^ to take up and decide the cause; and a long despatch exists which he wrote on October 27th of that year^ giving the King an account of his inter- views with the Pope. Against Clement's advoca- Engiish tion of the cause to Rome, the envoys alleged the leged custom of the realm of England, which forbad any paHudg^^ Englishman being called out of the country to plead msat of the before a foreisrn tribunal : and that for this reason cause '^ appeals made to Rome were always sent back to England. This custom the Pope questioned, and the ambassador began to retort, by hinting some doubts as to the grounds of the Papal authority itself. "Then we said, that if his Hohness would examine this custom so exqiiisitely, and seek the reason of it, which hath been used by time out of mind, and now is certain, he should not do well. Eor bis Hohness should consider how dangerous it is to search for the reason of such things as hath been used long, and so taken for certain, lest those things which are Hint as to taken now for certain should be subverted: and also lioio lu-Tofpapal g'^''i^'^ously JiG would take it if a man should ask of him the rea- jurisdiction son lohy, he being Bishop of Rome^ should have jurisdiction in all other churches and Mshops. To that he answered and said, that he perceived to what end this matter would grow : and said he would prove better his jurisdiction than your Highness could prove your custom, adding, in a great fume, that he would not give us further audience in this cause of matrimony, but in presence of his council."^ It was evidently not without reason that Sir John 2 Dod's Ch. History, Tierney's ed., i. 392. PROHIBITION OF PAPAL BULLS 249 Hacket ventured, in one of his despatches^ to call chap this Pope ''The Unclement Bishop."^ , ^.^^ Meanwhile, although the Pope could not yet have ^■^- ^53° heard of this, the King had taken a first decided step in the direction to which Clement saw events were tending. Apprehensive that the Queen would procure, or had procured, some bull from Rome condemning his conduct or restraining his authority, Henry had set forth a proclamation on September 19, 1530, inhibiting the publication of any such mis- sives in the terms following : — " The King's Highness straitly chargeth and commandeth Proclama- that no manner of person of what estate^ degreCj or condition ^^^ °^/ soever, he or they be of, do purchase or attempt to pnrchase mission of from the court of Eome or elsewhere, nor use and put in exe- cution, divulge or publish anything heretofore within this year passed purchased, or to be purchased hereafter, containing matter prejudicial to the high authority, jurisdiction and pre- rogative royal of this his said realm, or to the let, hindrance, or impeachment of his Grace's noble and virtuous intended purposes in the premisses : upon pain of incurring his High- ness' indignation, and imprisonment, and further punishment of tlieir bodies, for their so doing, at his Grace's pleasme, to the dreadful example of all other."* By this politic stroke, the official voice of the Pope was at once silenced as far as England was concerned : and though Henry's proclamation was only the reassertion of a right claimed and exercised lon^ An ancient before by his predecessors, it was issued at a crisis vived^^ which gave it a peculiar significance. 3 State Pap., i. 545. stantially taken from the Act of ^ Herbert's H. VIII. 330. The Richard 11. ^vords of the proclamation are sub- 250 CLERGY PETITION AGAINST ANNATES ^^,^^ S 1. Withdrawal of Tribute and Obedience from - — ^^ THE See of Rome. A.D. I53I After this events marched quickly. The discus- Growing sions of Convocation respecting the royal supremacy of truth as had thrown much light upon the relations of the to supre- Church to the Pope as well as to the Crown, and macy ^ \ ^ the clergy began to see clearly the false position in which they and the nation at large were placed by the mediaeval system of papal jurisdiction which they had inherited. They therefore took a step which was of the utmost importance to the course of the E^eformation, but which is almost entirely un- noticed by historians. In petitioning the King to abolish one of the many payments exacted bythePope^ the Convocation also prayed that in case his Holi- ness should persist in requiring such payments^ the obedience of England should be withdrawn altogether from the See of Home. This is the first appearance of such an idea in any public document : so that the first official proposal to repudiate the jurisdiction of the Pope over the English Church proceeded from the English Church itself through its representative body^ the Convocation of the clergy. Convoca- This petition of Convocation is so important an nat"s°'^ ^ historical document, that it is worth while to give it at length :^ — " Whereas the Court of Eome hath a long season exacted of such as have been named or elected to be archbishops or bishops of this reahri; the annates, that is to say, the first fruits of their bishoprics, before they could obtain their bulls out of the said s The original stUl remains in the British Museum, MS. Cleop. E. 6, p. 263. CLERG y PE Tin ON A GAINS T ANNA TES 251 court : by reason whereof, the treasure of this realm hath been chap had and conveyed to Eome, to no smaU decay of this land, ^^ and to the great impoverishing of bishops; which, if they a.d. 1531 should die within two or three years after their promotion, should die in such debts as should be to the undoing of their friends and creditors : and by the same exaction of annates, bishops have beeiD so extenuate, that they have not been able in ^^^h pay- a great part of their lives to repair their churches, houses, and pered the manors ; which, by reason thereof, have fallen into much decay : bishops and besides, that the bishops have not been able to bestow the goods of the Church in hospitality and alms, and other deeds of charity, which, by the law and by the minds of the donors of their possessions temporal, they were bound to do. '' In consideration whereof, forasmuch as it is to be accounted Nothing as simony by the Pope's own law, to take or give any money simonv for the collation, or for the consenting to the collation of a bishopric, or of any other spiritual promotion : and to say that the said amiates be taken for the vacation, as touching the temporalities, pertaineth of right to the King's Grace ; and as touching the spirituality to the Archbishop of Canterbury : and it is not to be allowed, if it should be alleged, that the said court exacteth these annates for parchment and lead, and writing of the bulls. For so shoidd parchment and lead be very dear merchandize at Eome, and in some cases an hundred times more worth than the weight or counterpoise of fine gold. " In consideration also, that it is no reason that the first Temporal fruits of such temporal lands as the King's most noble pro- of bfshopt genitors, and other noblemen of this realm, have given to the to crown Church of England, upon high respects, causes, and conditions, should be applied to the court of Eome : which continually getteth by this means, and many other, much goods and profits out of this realm, and never departeth with any portion thereof hither again. Tor touching the same temporal lands, the bishops be subjects only to the King's Grace, and not to the court of Rome : neither by reason of those possessions ought to pay these annates as a tribute to the said court. "Wherefore if there were just cause, as there is none, why any sums of money, besides the competent charges of the wiiting and sealing, should be demanded for bishops' buUs, the court 252 CLERGY PETITION AGAINST ANNATES CHAP of Eome might be contented with the annates of the spir- ^- itiialities alone, without exaction of the first fruits of the A.D. 153 1 temporalities: in which they have none interest, right, or superiority. Annates " And further, in consideration that the bishops be sworn at jury their consecration, that they shall not alienate the immovable or precious movable goods of their bishopric : seeing the pay- ment of these annates be an alienation of the first fruits, being precious movables : by the alienation whereof, the bishop should fall into perjury : " And over this, forasmuch as it was ordained, determined, and concluded in the 21st session at the General Council of Basle, that from time ever after, for and in the confirmation of elections for admission of postulations or presentations, in or for provisions, collations, dispositions, elections, postulations, presentations, though it be made by a layman, in or for the forbidden institutions, installations, investitures of churches, cathedral, of Basie^^^^ metropolitan, monasteries, dignities, benefices, or ecclesiastical offices, whatever they be : also in or for orders, holy bene- diction, or palls, nothing at all before or after should be exacted in the court of Kome, by the reason of letters, bulls, seals, annates, common or minute service, first fruits, or depor- tates, or by whatsoever other title, colour, or name they be called, under the pretext that of any custom, privilege, or statute, or prerogative, or any other cause or occasion, directly or indirectly : excepted only to the writers, abbreviators, and registers of the letters, minutes, and bulls, thereto belonging, a competent salary for their labour : whose salary cannot be extended reasonably to the twentieth part of the annates, which be exacted and continually augmented: contrary to which ordinance, determination and canon, made in the said council, if any man exacting, giving, or promising, would pre- sume to do, he should fall into some great pains, as in the said council be expressed : Convoca- " It may please the King's most noble Grace, having tender f"o°"theh-^^ compassion to the wealth of this his realm, which hath been abolition SO greatly extenuate and hindered by the payments of the said annates, and by other exactions and slights, by which the treasure of this land hath been carried arid conveyed beyond SUGGEST EXTINCTION OF PAPAL SUPREMACY 258 the mountains to the court of Eome, that the subjects of this CHAP realm be brought to great penury, and by necessity be forced to ^ make their most humble complaint for stopping and restrain- ^ ^ ing the said annat.es, and other exactions and expilations, taken for indulgences and dispensations, legacies, and delegacies, and others feats, which were too long to remember : " Eirst, to cause the said injust exactions of annates to cease, and to be foredone for ever, by this act of his Grace's high court of Parliament. And in case the Pope would make any process against this realm for the attaining those annates, or else would retain bishops' bulls, till the annates be paid, forasmuch suggests as the exaction of the said annates is against the law of God, ^i ^f q^^,' and the Pope's own laws, forbidding the buying or selling of dience spiritual gifts or promotions; and forasmuch as all good Christian men be more bound to obey God than any man ; and forasmuch as St. Paul willeth us to withdraw ourselves from all such as walk inordinately ; it may please the King's most noble Grace to ordain in this present parliament, that then the obedience of him and the people be withdrawn from the See of Eome: as in like case, the French king with- drew his obedience of him and his subjects from Pope Bene- dict the XIIL of that name ; and arrested, by authority of his parliament, all such annates, as it appeareth by good writing ready to be shewed." In consequence of the petition of the Convocation, Pariiamenc a bill was introduced into the House of Lords f or the sugges- the purpose of carrying out the request of the clergy, ^^lelgy con- It eventually passed the House of Commons, and diuonaiiy received the royal assent; but in accordance with the last clause^ its operation was suspended until July 9, 1533, when the King made it effective by means of letters patent of that date, ratifying and confirming it/ The Act [23 Hen. VIII. c. 20] opens with a 6 This extraordinary course of document itself, which is affixed to legislation is still illustrated by the the act in the Rolls of Parhament. 254 THEIR PETITION FRAMED INTO CHAP preamble substantially reciting the petition on which v^,^-^-,^ it was grounded, and then states that since the second A.D. 1531 yearof Henry VII. [a.d. 1486] the enormous amount of £160,000^ had been paid, '' beside other great and Enomious intolerable sums which have yearly been conveyed to to^ome^^*^ ^■'^^ said court of Rome by many other ways and means^ to the great impoverishment of this realm." It then proceeds to say, that although the King and his subjects are obedient children of Holy Church, yet the said exactions being intolerable, the estates have represented that the King is bound to repress them, especially now when several of the prelates are in extreme old age, and great sums of money likely otherwise to be soon sent to Rome under this Payment Unreasonable system. It is enacted, therefore, that to cease m g^l^ such payments shall cease, and that if, in con- sequence of their cessation the Pope refuses to grant his bulls for the consecration of any bishop, he shall (having been nominated by the King) be consecrated by the archbishop of the province, or by Provision bisliops to bo named by the King, " according and withouuhe^^ like manner as divers other archbishops and Pope bishops have been heretofore in ancient time by sundry the King's most noble progenitors made, consecrated, and invested within this realm." Pro- vision is, however, made for a payment to the Pope for his bulls at the rate of five per cent, on the one year's value of the see for which they are desired. The latter portion of the Act shows how strong a desire there was to carry out such necessary reforms on amicable terms if it were possible to do so. The Parliament, it says, is unwilling to go to extremities without urgent cause, and so have empowered the ^ About ^4'5,000 a year in modern money. THE ANNATES ACT 255 King to make an equitable compromise with tlie chap conrt of Rome, and the Act is only to be accounted ^ a statute of the realm when the King has so de- a.d. 1531 clared it be (after any modifications ihat such com- position with the Pope may make necessary) by his letters patent. The determination of the clergy and nation no longer to be overridden by the Bishop of Rome is however shown at the same time by a con- cluding provision. If no redress can be secured by His ad- amicable negotiation, and the Pope should endea- Jion^to^be vour to enforce the payment of annates by excom- ^^^T -, . *^ gardea munications, interdicts, &c.^ in such case these papal instruments are to be disregarded, and there shall be no interruption whatever of divine service or the administration of the sacraments.^ Thus the last Act of the Session of 1531 em- Practically bodied the suggestions of Convocation ; and the ao^n o^^" principal tribute which Rome had exacted from the i^^epen- . dcncc Church of England was abolished, with an under- standing that the Church was henceforth independent of the Roman See, though not in any way separated from communion with it, except by some future act of the Pope himself Let it be repeated — for the point is of the highest which on- importance — that this declaration of independence on with the the part of the Church of England originated with*'^'''"^ the clergy in the Convocation of 1531, and not with the King or the Parliament. All that the clergy could do by themselves towards securing such inde- ^ III the Session 1533, when this contained this claixse was in reality Act came into operation, a supple- one for transferring the jurisdic- mentary one was passed [25 Hen. tion of the Pope to the Archbishop VIII. cap. 21] hy which all other of Canterbury, where it was not obligatory payments to the Pope inherent in his suffragans, and in were abolished. The Act wliich those of the Archbishop of York. 25G CONVOCATION LED THE REFORMATION CHAP pendence they did; what they could not do they ,^_^,^ petitioned the King to do in the proper constitutional A.i^. 1531 manner, by the aid of his Parliament. Let it also be remembered that the Convocation which thus re-established the independence of the Church of England was composed of the old-fashioned bishops, abbots, and proctors, with Archbishop Warham still notwitii- for their president. There was undoubtedly a re- subsequent action a few years afterwards, when the subserviency of Cranmer, the gross assumption and tyranny of Cromwell, the cruel deaths of Fisher and More, and the reckless confiscation and waste of Church pro- perty, had produced their effect upon the minds of the clergy; and the reaction (under Providence) saved the Church of England. But in 1531 the true leaders of the Reformation were the clergy ; and they did their best to lead it in the course pointed out by the well-marked lines of the Constitution. They abolished at the outset the tribute and obe- dience which had been hitherto paid to a foreign prince and bishop ; and they thus placed the Church of England in a position of freedom which would Convoca- enable it to carry on further reformations in a con- advam;eT stitutional manner. That the operation of the Act of Parliament was suspended for two or three years longer was not their fault. The mind of Convocation was made up on the subject, but that of Parliament was still hesitating and undecided. The utmost responsibility the latter would undertake at present was that of passing a conditional statute embodying, for possible use at a future day, the principles so clearly and incisively set forth by the former. than I'ar- liament THE STATUTE OF APPEALS 257 CHAP V § 2. Abolition of Appeals to the See of Rome > — ^^^^ A.D. I ^'^2-'^ But while the statutory enforcement of those prin- ciples was still in abeyance, the Parliament was required by Henry VIII. to strengthen the hands of the executive by passing an act which should confirm and give general force to the principles on which, in his own particular cause, he liad refused to acknowledge the final judicial authority of the Pojdo. This Act [24 Hen. VIII. c. 12] is known as the "Act for the restraint of Appeals." The appellate jurisdiction of the bishops of Rome ongin of originated in the just respect which was felt in early ^^^^^l^ ^" ages for their position as the first bishops of the Roman Empire and of Christendom itself. But appeals were then of a voluntary kind, having the nature of applications for advice rather than that of applications for judicial decisions. Under the medi- aeval system of the Church, a much higher kind of authority was claimed, conceded, and exercised \ and the Pope became ex officio the ecclesiastical judge in the highest resort for all the nations whose churches acknowledged obedience to him. Attempts were made to introduce this system into introduc- England soon after the Conquest, but were vigor- fem fnto"^ ously withstood until the reign of Stephen. The ^"2^^"^ bishops and barons told St. Anselm that it was a thing unheard of for any one to carry their cause to Rome without the King's leave ; and one of the popes who was contemporary with Henry I. com- plained that the English sovereigns would sufier no appeals to be carried to him. Even Henry II. recalled for a time the concession made by Stephen, R 258 THE STATUTE OF APPEALS CHAP one of the Constitutions of Clarendon ordaining that ^<^Z'^^ no appeals should be made to Rome without his ^■^- leave: but after the murder of i^rchbishop Becket, the point was once more conceded, with the single limitation that such appeals should not concern any injury to the King or kingdom.^ Its great And, whatever may be said in favour of such an Sdol?^^' appellate jurisdiction on the ground of learning, independence, and sense of responsibility, it is plainly extravagant that it should be exercised with- out, or against, the consent of the sovereign whose subjects wish to appeal. Such an exercise of juris- diction is contrary to the first principles of national independence ; and let it be carried on with what wisdom and justice it might, must be regarded as a badge of, to say the least, moral servitude. But in mediseval times the decisions of the papacy were not always characterized by wisdom and justice, and appeals to the Pope as the final ecclesiastical autho- rity became too frequently nothing better than an evasion of justice. At the best they involved enor- mous expense and delay, and tended to the great deterioration of our own ecclesiastical courts. Abolished In Consolidating and re-establishing, therefore, the of Appeds authority of the English Church and the English Crown, it became absolutely necessary to cut off the stream of judicial appeals which flowed so freely towards Rome : and if the jurisdiction of the Pope was to be repudiated in any matter at all it certainly must be in this. The Act for the restraint of Appeals was accordingly devised with this very legitimate object in view : and although, no doubt, it was in part suggested by the appeal of Queen Catherine in the ** Gibson's Codex, Tit. III. cap. iii. n. THE STATUTE OF APPEALS 259 divorce cause^ it is equally certain that the whole chap V A.D. 1532-3 subject of appeals was fairly considered and taken into account^ and that this accidental origin of the Act did not interfere with the justice of its enact- ments. The preamble of the ^^ Act for restraining Appeals" well sets forth the grounds on which it was passed. It first of all declares that England is an independent ( empire^ composed of a '^spirituality" and a "tempo- > rality/' or Church and State^ of which each is com- petent to take judicial cognizance of all causes within its own sphere, the Church of spiritual, the State of temporal causes. '' Whereas/' it alleges, " by divers sundry old autlientic England histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed ^" ^^^K . .1 pendent that this realm of England is an empire^ and so hath been Empire accepted in the world; governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal, estate of the imperial crown of the same ; nnto whom a body politic compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty, be bound and ought to bear, next to God, a natural and humble obedience : he being also insti- tute and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty its sove- God Math plenary, whole, and entire power, pre-eminence, ^^}^^ '"^^ authority, prerogative and jurisdiction, to render and yield earthly iustice and final determination to all manner of folk, residents foui?tain of justice or subjects within this his realm, . . . without restraint, or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world : The the body spiritual whereof having power when any cause of ^^^^^^^^J^ the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual nizance tS learning, then it was declared, interpreted, and shewed by that sp""^^^^^ part of the body politic called the spiritualty, now usually called the English church ; which always hath been reported and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity, and sufficiency of number, it hath been always thought, and ^ See Freeman's Norman Conc[uest, p. 145. 260 THE STATUTE OF APPEALS CHAP is also at this hour sufficient and meet of itself, without the ^ intermeddling of any exterior person or persons, to declare A.D. and determine all such doubts, and to administer all such ^532-3 ofBces and duties as to their rooms spiritual doth apper- tain. . . . And the laws temporal, for trial of property of lands and goods, and for the conservation of the people of and secular |;|;^ig realm iu unity and peace, . . . was and yet is adminis- juclges of 1 1 - T T \ T T T - n 1 • ■ J. temporal tcred, adjudged, and executed by sundry judges and mmisters causes of the other part of the said body politic called the temporalty: and both their authorities and jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of justice, the one to help the other." Notwithstanding, tlie Act proceeds to say, that ■laws were made in the time of the Kings Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV., and other Injustice kings, for preserving the rights of the Crown, appeals venienceofhad stiU been made to the court of Rome "in causes Rome^ ^° testamentary, causes of matrimony and divorces, oblations, and obventions,'' to the great vexation and expense of many of the King's subjects, and to the great hindrance of justice, ^^ forasmuch as the parties appealing to the said court of Rome commonly do the same for the delay of justice." The distance, it adds, is so great, that documents and witnesses can- not easily be forwarded to Rome, " so that the parties grieved by the said appeals be most times without remedy." Hence- Such being the rights of the Crown in the matter causes^to of justice, and such the inconveniences and injustice cated with ^t't^^diug the systcm of appeals to the Pope, it is in the euacted that all causes testamentary, matrimonial, of divorces, of tithes, oblations, and obventions, shall be finally determined within the King's jurisdiction, any inhibitions, excommunications, interdicts, &c., from the Pope notwithstanding. In all such cases, it is THE STATUTE OF APPEALS 261 further enacted, as have hitherto admitted of appeal chap to Rome, the appeals shall be from the archdeacon's ^^2.^-^^ court to that of the bishop, from the bishop s court ^•^- to that of the archbishop of the province, ''there to be definitely and finally ordered, decreed, and adjudged, according to justice, without any other appellation or provocation to any other person or persons, court or courts/'^^ This latter clause was modified by the "Act of Submission" [25 Hen. VIII. c. 19], which enacted that appeals go from the archbishop to the Court of Chancery, which was to issue a commission under the great seal for dele- gates named by the Crown to re-hear the cause, as in appeals from the Court of Admiralty. Thus the judicial authority of the Pope over Eng- The prin- land was altogether extinguished. It was revived A?t of Ap*^ during Queen Mary's reign, but the 1 Eliz. cap. 1 re- P^^^sin stored the jurisdiction of the Crown to the position since in which the Act of Appeals had left it : and though the court has been changed, the Privy Council being substituted for the delegates, the principle of the law has remained untouched to the present day. That principle is simply that the Church of Eng- land contains within itself a sufficient authority for the final determination of all ecclesiastical questions : the sovereign being (under God) the supreme foun- tain of justice in matters connected with the Church, as well as in matters of a purely secular description. ^ An exception is made as to By tlie next mentioned act also any case -whicli touches tlie Crown, exempt monasteries were allowed when an appeal is allowed to the to go direct to the Court of Chan- Upper House of Convocation, the eery and the delegates, decision of which is to be final. 262 STATUTORY SETTLEMENT OF CHAP V - — V — . § 3. Abolition of Papal Authority in the Appoint- ''^■^' ^^"^-^ ment op Bishops Ancient Durinff the mediseval period, the See of Rome had mode of , -^ . . -^ . appointing exerciscd an authority m the appointments to Eng- bishops lish sees which had always been a fruitful source of disagreement and discord. The bishops in England holding lands of the Crown^ and sitting in Parliament as barons in right of their tenure^ it was only natural that the Crown should feel an interest in appoint- ments to the episcopal office, over and above such interest as the ruler of a kingdom must feel in the nomination of official persons exercising such great power. It was so necessary that men so powerful in the kingdom should not be enemies of the king, that even in Anglo-Saxon times the latter reserved the nomination of bishops to himself. The episcopal ring and crosier being associated with essential rites in the ceremony of consecration, were given into the custody of the king immediately upon the death of any prelate, and the investiture of any person with these gave him a title to the see as successor to the deceased bishop.^ In a few exceptional cases, the royal nomination was resisted, and the ancient prac- tice of election by the clergy (through their represen- tatives the cathedral chapter) appears to have been successfully substituted. Some evils lu the liands of the Norman kings much scandal attended it ^^g sometiuies causod by their exercise of this power. Sometimes they appointed such men as Flambard ^ The practice of returning the who has worn them was doubtless insignia of the Garter to the sove- copied from this custom, reign on the death of the knight NOMINATIONS TO BISHOPRICS 263 Bishop of Durham in the reign of William Rufus : chap at others, they kept sees vacant for years (as did ,^.,^3-^ Queen Elizabeth) that they might take the profits of ^•^- ^533 the lands belonging to them. Thus a handle was Papal in- given to the Bishops of Rome, who already began to witi?ap-^ urge, in practice, the ultramontane claim to be the ^°\^fg sole source on earth from which all episcopal autho- rity flows. After ..bitter contests between Henry I., Pascal IL, and Archbishop Anselm^ the ceremony of investiture was given up to the Pope^ ■ and the rio^it of nomination still claimed was exercised only in the modified form of a license empowering the chapter to elect — a '' conge d'elire.'' This The conge license was, in a very short time, again modified by the accompaniment of letters patent, in which a par- ticular person was named for election by the chapter. Tins practice was also successfully contested by Innocent III., and ''free'" election was again intro- duced. But it was introduced only in name, for the popes set up a claim to nominate or " provide for" episcopal sees in England, and the monks yielding to the papal claims, these ''provisions" left as little freedom of election as the nominations by the Crown. The Statute of Provisors made in the 25th year of |^^^ Edward III. [a. d. 1351] was intended to prevent Provisors this assumption ; declaring that " the King and other lords shall present unto benefices of their own or their ancestors' foundation, and not the Bishop of Rome." This was confirmed by a subsequent act — 13th Richard II., Statute ii. cap. 2 [a. d. 1389], — and henceforth the Bishops of Rome were only able to exercise their influence in this matter indirectly, o\ else by asking the kings of England to appoint papal candidates. 264 ST A J UTOR V SE TTLEMENT OF CHAP The popes still, however, retained much indirect _^3-^ power over appointments to English sees by means A.D. 1533 of the bulls which had been made necessary before any bishop could be consecrated. In the case of Archbishops of Canterbury, these bulls were eleven in number^ each of which had to be paid for with a large sum of money. To withhold these bulls was to delay the consecration : and the long continued vacancies in the French and Italian sees in modern times through such hindrance shows how important a power this is. English Setting aside this indirect veto of the Pope, the always modc of appointments to English sees for many years appointe/ before the Reformation was precisely similar to what by English \^ jig ^^ present. The chapter of the diocese nominally sovereigns ^ ■*• . . elected to the see, the sovereign practically ap- pointed to it/ The conge d'elire nominally left the chapter perfectly free to elect whom they would, but the royal will was expressed in some way which rendered it as much a legal fiction as it is in our own time. It is well sometimes to retain such legal fictions, even when their character is offensive, for they may mark, as in this case, the non-abolition of rights to the revival of which a change of times might point as a matter of political and ecclesiastical expediency. System It was to give statutory consolidation to the sys- by the tem of appointments indicated in the last paragraph ^ Cranmer's is a notorious case Salisbury) worried Wolsey and of an archbishop nominated by tlie King for an English bishopric, the Crown. Warham, Dean, and evidently taking it for granted Morton had all held high judicial that the King's and the minister's or other offices before becoming nomination was substantially the archbishops, and were nndonbt- appointment. Numerous other edly promoted to the highest ec- cases might be alleged in confir- clesiastical office by the Crown. mation of the statement in the Campeggio (eventually Bishop of text. NOMINATIONS TO BISHOPPJLJ 265 that an act was passed in the year 1533 [25 Hen. chap VIII. cap. 20], entitled an Act for the non-payment ..^--^.^^ of First-fruits to the Bishops of Rome ; which was, ^■^- ^533 in reahty^ an act for regulating the manner ^^f^^V^"^^"" appointing to bishoprics. First-fruits This act begins by reciting the act against the to Rome payment of annates, which had been passed two years before, but had only just come into operation. The sequel of the Annates Act is then stated in the second clause :^ — " And albeit the Bishop of Eome, otherwise caUed the Pope, hath been informed and certified of the effectual contents of the said act, to the intent that by some gentle ways the said exactions might have been redressed and reformed, yet never- theless the said Bishop of Ptome hitherto hath made none answer of his mind therein to the King's highness, nor devised nor required any reasonable ways to and with our sover- eign Lord for the same : Avherefore his most royal majesty, of his most excellent goodness, for the wealth and profit of this his realm and subjects of the same, hath not only put his most gracious and royal assent to the foresaid act, but also hath ratified and confirmed the same, and every clause and article therein contained, as by his letters patents under his great seal enrohed in the Parliament Poll of this present Parliament, more at large is contained." The enacting clauses then state that as it was not A compie- plainly expressed in the Annates Act how arch- Annatls^^ bishops were to be elected^ presented, invested, and ^^^ ^ The King's last letter to Cle- -nnth. " We have already," lie ment VIL was written in the enci adds, "taken such order with our of tlie year 1532. Early in Decern- nobles and subjects as we shall ber 1533 he writes to Wallo]), shortly be able to ■^ive unto the ambassador at the court of Pope such a buffet i:h he never had France, setting forth the provo- before." [State Pap., vii. 526.] cations which he had received The series of acts referred to in from the Pope, and ordering hhn the text was no doubt the "buffet" to acq^uaint the Frencl:t King there- alluded to. d'elire to continue 266 STA TUTOR V SE TTLEiMENT OF CHAP consecrated (in the event of the Pope refusing the .^^.^.^^^ comj^romise offered), therefore it is enacted (1) That ^'^' 1533 wo person shall henceforth be presented to the Bishop of Rome, nor apply for bulls from him. (2) That the King and his successors, on the avoid- The conge an ce of any see, ^^may grant" to the chapter '^a license under the great seal, as of old time hath been accustomed, to proceed to election of an archbishop or bishop of the see so void/' This license contained no restriction as to the person to be elected, but with a let- (3) it was to be issued " with a letter missive con- na'ti'on^"^^" Gaining the name of the person which they shall elect and choose : by virtue of which license the said dean and chapter, or prior and convent, to whom any such license and letters missive shall be directed, shall with all speed and celerity, in due form elect and choose the same person named in the said letters mis- sive to the dignity and office of the archbishopric or bishopric so being void, and none other." (4) That Absolute if the chapter delay or defer the election above nomnia- ^ i i i • tion by twelve days, the king may nominate a bishop to the ^^^^ see by letters patent under his great seal, directed to the metropolitan of that or any other province, or (in case of an archiepiscopal see) to two bishops of the province, and an archbishop of anotlier province, or to four bishops of any sees within the realm. (5) That when any such royal nomination, or a cer- cibhops to tificate of due election, sio-ned by the dean and consecrate under chapter, is conveyed to the archbishop or bishops, hKUcTted ^^1 ^htall at once proceed to consecrate the person nominated, giving and using to him "pall and all other benedictions, ceremonies, and requisites/' with- out applying for them to the See of Rome. (6) Lastly, if the chapter refuse or delay beyond twelve NOMINATIONS TO BISHOPRICS 26^ days to elect the person named in the letters missive, chap or if the archbishop or bishops refuse to consecrate v.^^-^^^. such person within twenty days, they " shall run into ^•^' ^5^3 the dangers, pains, and penalties, of the Statute of ^j. jj^^ur the Provision and Praemunire made in the five-and- P^^^^^y of breaking twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the the Act Third, and in the sixteenth year of King Richard the Second."^ The above statute is that under which bishops are The Act still appointed. For a few years the conge d'elire force was altogether abolished, as being a mere pretence, by Edward VI. [1 Edw. VI. cap. 2] : but both the Act of Henry and that of Edward having been repealed by Queen Mary [1 Mar. cap. 2 ; and ^ This Statute was supplemented by 26 Henry VIII. cap. 14, "For Nomination of Suffragans and Con- secration of them." It stated that the preceding Act had omitted to provide for the appointment and consecration of suffragan bishops such as had been " accustomed to be had" for the assistance of dioce- san bishops : and it therefore enacts — (1) That thefoUowingtowns shall be accounted suffragan sees : — Theitord, Shrewsbury, Ipswich, Bristol, Colchester, Penrith, Dover, Bridge water, "] Guiiatord, Nottingham, Southampton, Grantham, Taunton, Hull, Shaftesbury, Huntingdon, JVIolton, Cambridge, Marlljorough, Perth, Bedford. Berwick, Leicester, St. Germains, Gloucester, The Isle of Wight. (2) That every archbishop or bishop desiring to have a suffragan bishop is to name two persons to the Oro^vn. (3) That the one selected by the Crown shall be consecrated by the archbishop of the pro^Tnce. (4) That suffragan bishops so appointed shall only act under the commission of the bishop Avhom they were appointed to assist, and not on their own authority. Only about fourteen suffragan bishops have been appointed under this act ; but it is still in force. Why the bishops have availed themselves of it to so small an extent is inexplicable. They were a regular part of our Church sys- tem in earlier days, the names being on record of 296 of these assistant bishops in England be- tween the years a.d. 1016 and 1605. Of these— 34 were in diocese of Canterbury, 1044-1597 29 „ London, 1312-1605 29 „ Worcester, 1207-1541 28 „ Salisbury 1316-1537 28 „ Exeter, 1275-1550 26 „ York, 1310-1537 20 „ Wells, 1385-1552 There is also evidence that the archbishops of Canterbury had a succession of Chorepiscopi dwelling at St. Martin's for nearly 400 years before the Conq^uest. A.D I 268 TRANSFER OF SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION CHAP 1, 2 Phil. & Mar. cap. 8]/ that of Henry only was . ^.-^^ revived by Queen Elizabeth [1 Eliz. cap. 1 J in the szz act restoring its '^ ancient jurisdiction" to the Crown. The settlement thus made has not been disturbed by any subsequent legislation^ and the license to elect is still counterbalanced and nullified by the letters mis- sive naming the one and only person whose election the Crown will accept. § 4. Spiritual Jurisdiction Transferred from the Pope to the Archbishop op Canterbury It will be observed that the abolition of the Pope's power in respect to episcopal apj^ointments was kept No inter- quite clear of the Act of Consecration^ no change witTautho- whatever being made in the customs and ceremonies rity given g^-, fgj^p ^^ thcv Were associatcd with the spiritual to bishops *^ , ^ by conse- phase of the episcopal office. But there were some functions that had been exercised by the Pope which were of a more directly spiritual nature than his interference with episcopal appointments had been, the granting, namely, of Dispensations, by which laws of the Church might be set aside, or licenses for doing that which the Cliurch had for But some bidden. It is a remarkable evidence of the caution tmnsWd ^i^l^ which the legislative part of the Reformation f: to arch' rom popes ^as Carried out, that this dispensing power, when bi.hopsof taken away from the Pope, was not vested in the burV""' King, but in the highest ecclesiastical person of the ^ Tliis act was altogether re- Act was thus revived, but the pealed by 1 Jac. I. cap. 25, § 48, judges decided that this was not and a committee of Lords and the cnso, and that elections must Commons endeavoured three years still take place, afterwards to prove that Edward's Avas CHAP cap. V and 16; A.D. 1533-4 Act but TO THE PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND 269 realm, the Archbishop of Canterbury. This done by an Act of Parliament [25 Hen. VIII. 21] in 1533-4; which again was confirmed extended by a later Act [28 Hen. YIII. cap passed in 1536. The first of these Acts is entitled, "The concerning Peter-Pence and Dispensations ;" Peter s-Pence had already ceased to be paid, and so little is said about them in the Act that the pro- minence given to them in its title must arise from the accident of their being mentioned in the intro- ductory words. The Act does, in fact, sweep away 4^^*^^^- all that remained of accustomed payments to the See Rome of Rome, but the enactment respecting them only^°^^^^ occupies one-twentieth part of the enacting clauses, and nineteen-twentieths are enactments respecting Dispensations and other instruments of a like nature. A large proportion of these are technical, but the earlier part is very important. It enacts (1) That Appiica- neither the sovereign nor the subjects of this realm Rome for shall ever thereafter sue to the Pope, or to any of his dL^pciiS- deputies, for " Licenses, Dispensations, Compositions, f °|^i^^^* Faculties, Grants, Rescripts, Delegacies, or any other Instruments or Writings, of what kind, name, nature, or quality soever they be of," for any cause whatever. (2) That such Dispensations, Faculties, Suchdocu- &c., shall be henceforth granted to the sovereign and hen^ceforth his subjects by the Archbishop of Canterbury, pro- ^^^^^^^^ vided that nothing shall be so granted which is Arch- repugnant to the law of God, or has not been ''''°^' customarily granted formerly by the Bishop of Rome. (3) In case any such Dispensations, &c., should be required which were of a novel kind, they are not to be granted by the Archbishop until he has obtained 270 NO SEPARATION FROM CATHOLIC CHURCH CHAP a license for the purpose from the Kmg or the v^^^.3-^ Council. (4) All Dispensations, &c., so obtained A.D. from the Archbishop of Canterbury shall be as valid 1533-4 ^ *^ as if they had been obtained from the Bishop of Kome ; the more important ones being confirmed Past acts Tinder the great seal, and enrolled in Chancery. The Tegaiiz^d^^ second Act was for the purpose of confirming all Papal Dispensations that were not contrary to law, and of establishing in their offices those ecclesiastics who had received them under authority from the See of Rome, The nineteenth clause of this Act about ecclesias- tical jurisdiction is of great importance, containing a statutory declaration that it is not intended to force the Church of England into an uncatholic position, or to change its character as a sound branch of the Church. It as follows : — Church of " Provided always, that this Act, nor any thing or things dedared therein contained, shall be hereafter interpreted or expounded to be that your grace, yonr nobles and subjects intend by the same tholic to decline or vary from the Congregation of Christ's Church in any things concerning the very articles of the Catholick faith of Christendom, or in any other things declared by Holy Scrip- ture and the Word of God, necessary for your and their Salva- tions, but only to make an ordinance by poKcies necessary and convenient to repress vice, and for good conservation of this realm in peace, unity, and tranqu.illity, from rapine and spoil, ensuing much the old ancient customs of this realm in that behalf: not minding to seek for any rehef, succou.rs, or remedies for any worldly things and human laws, in any cause of neces- sity, but within this realm, at the hands of your highness, your heirs and successors, kings of this realm, which have, and ought to have, an imperial power and authority in the same, and not obliged in any worldly causes to any other superior." This clause and the general tenor of this Act, a^s BY THE FOREGOING STATUTES 271 well as of the Act of Appeals^ make it clear that the chap intention of the Reformation was to transfer all ^^J-,,,-^^ jurisdiction that was of a spiritual kind to spiritual ^-^^ persons within the realm, and not to the Crown. It was a difficult undertaking, and possibly some over- .Difficulty sights may have occurred which left open a door for °ng^Iws the entrance of abuses in later days ; but a great ^^^ effort was made to legislate effectually on the subject, and in a Catholic spirit. § 5. Education of Public OrmiON Meanwhile measures were being taken for gaining the goodwill of the people at large towards the great constitutional reformation involved in the repudiation of the Papal jurisdiction. Some Privy Council memoranda of the year 1533 are preserved among the State Papers, which contain some curious evidence of the manner in which the pulpit was used for this purpose, and show what a powerful engine it was in the hands of those who could gain the clergy to their side on any great national question. The Tuning the bishops were to be sent for and spoken with^^^^^^^ separately as to their opinions, the crucial question being put to them whether the Pope was above a General Council, or the Council above him. Then those who could be persuaded to do so were to set forth, preach, and cause to be preached, that the Pope ought to be subordinate to a General Council, and that he had no legitimate jurisdiction in Eng- land. The "Pauls Cross" sermons are specially ^ to ^^^^ named, and so also are the four orders of friars ; and question it is particularly mentioned respecting the Friars 272 PUBLIC OPINION ENLISTED CHAP Observants, that they are not to preach at all if they ,^^3-.^ refuse to preach as the Privy Council directs, the ^■^- same rule being applied, indeed, to all other monks, and to parish priests, but the Franciscans seeming to offer special reasons for doubt.® Circuia- It was also ordered tliat the Act of Appeals should tion of . .- iT'i'i Act of be set up m every parish church, and beside it the ppeas f'pj>QYocations and ajDpellations" which the King had made from the Pope to a General Council. The same documents were to be circulated widely abroad, especially in Flanders, on account of the Emperor's influence there. And, lest it should be thought that this opposition to the See of Rome emanated from the King alone, a letter was ^^to be con,ceived from all the nobles, as well spiritual as temporal, of this realm, unto the Bishop of Rome, declaring the wrongs, injuries, and usurpations used against the King's Highness and this realm. "^ Another minute, Sociaipoii- apparently of the same date, orders that a strict hTmade* commandment be given to the mayor, aldermen, and common council of London, to " liberally speak at their boards" on the same subject, and to teach their servants to declare the same. A similar order to be issued to all country mayors, &c., and also to the nobility, who were to command their families to ^ The Observants (Franciscans, yet done, nor can well be done, Minors, or Grey Friars) were at before the Parliament." But the one time great favourites "vvith Acts of Council of Dec. 2nd [State Henry VIII. He wrote in their Pap., i. 414] order a draft of a favour to Leo X. on March 12, letter to be prepared, the Coun- 1513, giving them the hii^hest cil lirst examining an old letter of possible character for Cliristian a similar kind written in tlie time poverty, sincerity, charity and of Edward I. ; and also the last devotion. [Ellis' Orig. Letters, letter which had been sent to the III i. 166]. Pope. Such a letter will be found ^ Against this minute Cromwell in the chapter treating of the has written in the margin, "Not divorce, page 157. IN FAVOUR OF THESE MEASURES 273 bruit the »i CHAP V same in all places where they shall come/" Such a "tuning" of pulpits and official houses, a.d. 1534 and of the dining-tables of the great, has been succeeded in later days by the influence of the press^ and by public meetings : but perhaps Henry VIII. and Cromwell must be considered as the first Eng- lish rulers who recognised so fully the immense Force of power which is wielded by public opinion, and the opinion first who took such definite and extensive measures n^^ed ^^°^' for winning it over to their own side of a question,^ § 6. Theological Repudiation of the Papal Jurisdiction It will have been observed that the legislative acts by which the jurisdiction of the Pope was 1 State Pap., i. 411. ^ At a later period of liis min- istry Cromwell used this power still more extensively, and in a far less justifiable manner, for he catised baUads and tracts to be circulated of the most ribald and false character, and encouraged the Puritans to act blasphemous plays in the churches dedicated to the service of God. " This valiant soldier and captain of Christ, the aforesaid Lord Cromwell, as he was most studious of himself in a fla- grant zeal to set forward the truth of the Gospel, seeking all means and ways to beat down false reli- gion and to advance the true, so he always retained unto him and had aboiit him such as could be found helpers and furtherers of the same ; in the niunber of whom were sundry fresh and quick wits, pertaining to his family ; by whose industry and ingenious la- bours, divers excellent ballads and books were contrived and set abroad concerning the suppression of the Pope and all j)opish idolatry." [Foxe, V. 403, ed. 1838.] These ballads are of the most abominable kind, full of immorality and obscenity. Burnet also says that " the political men of that party" made gi-eat use of stage-plays and interludes, Avliich were often acted in churches, " encouraging them all they could :'' and that these plays represented " the immoralities and disorders of the clergy," and the " pageantry of their worship." [Burnet's Reform., i. 502, Po- cock's ed.] The horrible coarseness of such representations of immo- rality, and the blasphemy of paro- dying the Holy Eucharist in the very house of God itself, seem not to have struck these writers ! 274 THE THEOLOGICAL QUESTION REVIEWED CHAP renounced deal exclusively with tlie administrative .^.3-^> ^ii* Cone. Lateran, 1123, Canons tions was also made at tlie Council 17, 18 ; Cone. Lateran. 1179, of Trent, but the Pope would not Canon 9 ; Gone. Lateran, 1215, give wa5^ Canon 12. A vigorous atte?npt 288 EXTERNAL TO THE CHURCH SYSTEM CHAP friars became very generally freed from the jurisdic- ^^..^.^^ diction of their bishops, and subjected only to that of the Pope. Many abbots, although only priests, were allowed to use the mitre and crosier, and to exercise the same jurisdiction within their monas- teries as the bishops themselves did outside their walls, and even to confer the minor orders. And Discipline thus the disciplinary system of the Church — a system thus much whicli must be regarded as of Divine institution — was relaxed ^^ ^ great extent subverted ; and the more monks and friars there were in holy orders the more clergy there were freed from the proper jurisdiction of their proper bishop who was within reach, and subject only to that of the Bishop of Rome, who (at the best) could exercise his usurped jurisdiction only by a deputy. The consequence was that monasteries were practically placed outside of the system of the Church ; and every English bishop had a large number of clergy within his diocese over whom he had no control,^ either in person, or by his arch- deacons. The very first principle of the Divine system of episcopacy was perverted ; and, in effect, disregarded altogether. And when it is remembered and its first that by meaus of their appropriations, the monks perver^ted ^ad bccome responsible for a large proportion of the parochial duty in every diocese, it will be evident that the integrity of the Church system was very seriously invaded by the upgrowth of this wrong custom in the monastic system. When Wolsey was preparing for the Reformation of the Church, it was his first care to undermine the vast obstacle which ^ Some fragmentary relics of whicli are exempt from episcopal, this system of exemption still exist and " Peculiars/^ which arc exempt in the shape of " Donatives," from archidiaconal jurisdiction. MONASTIC REFORM A TION RE ALL Y NECESSAR K 28 9 such exemptions from diocesan jurisdiction offered to chap all progress in that direction ; and by persevering . ^,^ application at Rome, he obtained an authority over all monasteries as legate a latere , which he would doubtless have used as a lever for the restoration of proper jurisdiction to every bishop. It will thus be seen that the increase of monas- Such evils teries in England had been accompanied by two important very serious evils, the suppression of which would gffect^^^ have been perfectly lawful^ since they interfered with the general welfare of the body politic and the body ecclesiastic. How far excessive wealth and excessive liberty led to other evils is a question upon which no certain verdict can be given, through the unsatisfactory nature of the evidence which has come down to us. This subject will^ however^ be • brought before the reader again in a subsequent page. But even supposing there was no extra- ordinary wickedness among the monks of the six- teenth century, it must be admitted that there were strong arguments for reforming the monastic sys- and quite tem ; that it had wandered into wrong principles as p^nsfor regards its relations both to the Church and the [^q^'^'^"^^" State; and that it is extremely probable these devi- ations in principle had led to practical abuses which contemporary lookers-on saw very clearly, and which we too should see clearly if we had more perfect records of those distant times.^ 8 Wolsey issued a commission nances and slanderous living.^' (as legate a latere) to the Bishop Nuns so transgressing were to be of Sarum, empowering him to removed to other religious houses, visit the nunneries of his diocese, [Piddes* Wolsey, Coll. No. 65.] and proceed against such as were One at least of such nunneries was guilty of " enormities, misgover- suppressed in consequence, that of T tion 290 PRECEDENTS OF WOLSEY CHAP If, however, these constitutional errors of the ^^^^^-^^ monastic system were to be re23resented as influenc- ing Henry VIII. in respect to his project of disso- lution, we should be fairly open to the charge of though no making a fine-drawn apology for a fallen angel oniemy^^ whose de-uigration is beyond the power of an im- ^^^y^ partial historian. The accomplishment of his will connsca- -■• . . -*■ tions and the furtherance of his interests were the only objects which Henry set before himself, and the only apology that can justly be made for him is that he was not wholly without constitutional authority and precedent in taking the course which he did. The dissolution was immediately suggested to him, no doubt, by the steps which Wolsey had taken towards Suggested Converting many monasteries into colleges and sJy'sdis- bishoprics, and amalgamating the smaller ones with reir*^^!?u °^ ^^ larger. To do this it was necessary that the houses monasteries to be converted should first be dissolved, and the Cardinal had proceeded so far with his plans as to have actually dissolved the thirty or forty whose revenues were applied to the foundation of Christ Church and Ipswich Colleges. Thus a path- way had been made, and the machinery had been of which constructed; and Cromwell, Henry's chief agent in had b^en^ dissolving the monasteries, had already learned in an agent what direction to go, and how to use the machinery of dissolution, while in the service of his old master the Cardinal. Other pre- There werc also royal precedents for dissolution, the knowledge of which would doubtless weigh with Henry when the project was once entertained. The Bromeliall, in the year 1621, and 64. Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., iii. its possessions given to St. John's 2080, 2630.] College, Gaml:)ridge. [ll»id., No. AND OF HENRY VII i:S PREDECESSORS 291 Knights Templars had been dissolved in the time of chap Edward II.; and by a bull dated November 22, .^.^^^^ 1307; Clement V. had given the custody of their Templars ' lands in England to the King until further orders a! D^i^ao; were sent from the Apostolic See. The ultimate disposition of these lands was, however, taken into consideration by Parliament, and an Act was passed [17 Edw. II. cap. 3] in 1324, which declared as fol- lows : — (1) That the King and other lords of the fees might well and lawfully, by the laws of the realm, retain the lands as their escheats in regard of the dis- solution of the order. (2) But because the lands had been given for the defence of Christians, and the Holy Land against Pagans and Saracens and other enemies of Christ and the Church, it is enacted that neither King nor any other person shall retain those lands, notwithstanding any law or custom of the realm. (3) Wherefore the King with the assent of his Parliament assigns them to the Brethren of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.*' More than a century later, Henry V. dissolved a number of " alien and alien priories," cells of French monasteries whose inmates a"d"T4i6 seemed likely to be dangerous while he was carrying on his war with France. But with some of their lands he founded the noble monasteries of Sheen and Sion, and others he gave to New College and Win- chester. It does not appear, therefore, that either but pro- of these kmgs was so bold as actually to appropriate ^^^^^ to secular use the whole of the property which had chm-ch^ once been set apart for sacred objects : and thus s Johnstone's Assurance of Ab- on Nov. 28, 1313 : but that, not- bey Lands, p. 40. Rymer states withstanding, the latter gave some that Clement granted these lands, of them away to laymen. Rymer and the King confirmed the grant iii. 7,9X 292 SOME CONSTITUTIONAL JUSTIFICATION CHAP these royal precedents were far from justifying the ^.^^Zt-^^ course taken by Henry VIII. ^ On the other hand, there were certain principles of the English law which seem to have been well established^ and well known. (1) The Crown had a right to all ownerless lands, and to all confiscated lands, as ultimate lord of Yet the ^he fee. (2) " According: to the most ancient laws law per- . -^ ^ mitted of the kingdom, whatever possessions or revenues ation were conferred on the Church or a religious house, under terms and conditions, or for a certain and determined use, if the receivers neglected to observe, fulfil, or execute, the use, cause, condition, or terms of the primary donation, then the collators or their heirs by reason of such defect or failure might re-enter, and possess the said lands and revenues."^ Hence Though there is no evidence whatever that Henry viiL^had VIII. desired anything else than to increase his k^ar^' po"^®^ ^^d replenish his treasury by the suppression ground to of religious houses, yet it is clear that he wished to keep up a semblance of constitutional justice, and these principles and precedents may thus be taken for what they are worth, and as far as they will go, in his justification. The personal character of this monarch is far from being of paramount importance as a matter of research in the history of the Refor- mation : but having asserted that the true faults of the monastic system formed no part of Henry's real reasons for opposing and destroying it, there seemed a necessity for pointing out the probable grounds ^ To these royal precedents may by the advice of Luther : hy whose be added that of Henry's contem- advice also he married a second porary, Philip, Landegrave of Hesse, wife while his first was living, who confiscated monasteries in ^ Kennett on Appropriations, 1526, and with some of their en- p. 114. See 13 Edw. I. cap. 61 ; dowments founded the University Gibson's Codex, 686; Kymer, iii. of Marburg. Probably he did this 135. EXTRAVAGANCE OF HENRY VIII. 293 upon which he did proceed. And these ante- chap cedent considerations being brought to a close^ we .^^^-^ may now resume the thread of the history, and follow out in detail the course of the dissolution. The steps which had been taken by Cardinal Woisey dissolved Wolsey towards the suppression of a large number religious of monasteries^ were taken with the object of making good^of"' their estates and possessions more practically useful ^^^^^^^ii to the Churchy and so long as he was in power^ the King was not able to lay his all-grasping hands upon any portion of those possessions. On the ruin of Wolsey, Henry immediately swept them all into his coffers as if they had been the private property of the Cardinal^ and were so forfeited to the crown. He doled out, indeed, some fragmentary scraps of what he had appropriated, towards the meagre com- pletion of Christ Church ; but the far greater part he used for his own purposes. The spoil thus acquired, from this and other sources, by the destruc- Hemy tion of his great minister, sufficed to eke out the meet'his King's vast expenditure for a year or two ; but he ^^^^^^^- soon began to be pinched again for a revenue pro- penditure portionate to his extravagance. He had, indeed, passed through a kind of parliamentary insolvent court in 1530, and added to his many extortionate acts that of repudiating all his debts.^ He had also appropriated the annates and first-fruits which used 3 Bj an Act of Pai'liament [21 These loans (e(iuivalent to our Hen. VIII. u. 26], entitled "an Act "Funds" in principle) were se- for tlie releasing unto tlie King's cured to tlie unfortunate lenders Highness of such sums of money under a deed of " promise hy these as was to be required of him by presents, truly to content and any of his subjects for any manner repay," and sealed with the Privy of Loan, by his letters missive, or Seal. Amos' Statutes of Hen. other ways or manners whatsoever." YIII. p, 69 294 THE DISSOLUTION A MONEY QUESTION CHAP previously to the repudiation of the papal supremacy ^^r^^ to be paid to the Pope. Furthermorej he had the £24,000 a-year fine which the clergy paid to him as a composition for his pardon on account of a crime which they had never committed, and this sum His great probably amounted to nearly a quarter of a million fram"the ^f ^^^ mouoy.^ But notwithstanding these estra- churchai- ordinary windfalls, and the ordinary immense wealth ready -^ '^ ^ ^ ^ of the crown during his reign, the King began to feel about for further augmentations of his revenue as soon as the exhaustion of the five years' extortion drew near. insufficient Siuce the fall of Wolsey, his former secretary, up t^e'^"^ Thomas Cromwell, had been the King's chief adviser, qiiired ^" ^^^ ^^ attack upon the monasteries was suggested by him as a means of overcoming the principal diffi- culty of his government, that of providing funds to meet the unbounded- and licentious extravagance of the court. The precedent set by Wolsey was tech- nically adhered to, though with a totally different object. Wolsey had caused a visitation of the monasteries to be made, with the view of ascertain- ing their real condition and devising measures for their reformation. Out of this visitation, no doubt, arose his plans for the dissolution of small monas- teries, that they might be converted into colleges and bishoprics. Acting on this precedent, the smaller Woisey's monasteries were first attacked by Henry VIII. and orvisita'^ his obsequious tool, Cromwell ; the dissolution being preceded by a general visitation, that it might not seem so much an act of mere tyrannical violence as it really was. ^ In the fiist Act of Suppression still " in debt " to the King on [1535-6] the clergy are said to be account of this fine. tion FIRST VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES 295 By the 20th clause of an act of 1533, " concerning chap Peter's-pence and Dispensations" [25 Hen. VIII. c. .^Z^^, 21], the right of visitation had been transferred from a.^- ^535 the Pope to the King, wKo was thus empowered to Act under issue commissions under the Great Seal for visiting monaster- '* monasteries, colleges, hospitals, priories, houses, ^^^ ^'^^^'^^'^ and places religious^ exempt." Commissioners thus appointed were intended to occupy the same legal position as those who bad acted under the authority of Wolsey when he himself was acting with the King's license as legate a latere of the Pope ; and it is not unlikely that Cromwell had gone round the country in this capacity, as well as to Ipswich, when in the service of Wolsey. If so, he thus acquii-ed much information respecting the condition of the religious houses, which would well qualify him for taking the lead in their destruction. The first royal commissions under this act were for Earliest the visitation of the Charter House monks in London, "^'^^^^^1°"^ and the Observants at Richmond and Greenwich, all of whom had been accused of complicity in the treason of '' the Maid of Kent," and of opposing the King and his divorce, and in his assumption of the supremacy. But the commission for a general visi- General tation of all the monasteries was not issued, or at ^^^itation least not put in force until the autumn of 1535.^ No copy of the commission itself is known to be in existence, but the "Articles of Enquiry," and the "Injunctions" which the commissioners carried with them, may still be seen in the British Museum library,^ The names of the commissioners can be ^ Lord Herbert (p. 424) gives cussions of tlie Privy Council on two speeches for and against the the subject. dissolution which appear to be ^ Cotton. MSS. Cleop. E. 4, fol. intended as representing the dis- 13, 21. 296 FIRST VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES CHAP partly gathered from their letters, of which a large .^^^.^.^^ number remain, and of which many have been printed A.D. 1535 ijj recent times/ They appear to have been Dr. Names of John London, Dr. Thomas Legh, John Ap Rice, Thomas Bedyll, Henry Foisted, John Anthony, Dr. Richard Layton, Edmond Knyghtley, John Lane, George Gyifard, Robert Burgoyn, John Williams, Richard Pollard, Philip Paris, John Smyth, William Ilendle, Richard Bellasys, Richard Watkyns, Wil- liam Parr, Robert Southwell, Thomas Mildmay, William Pet re, and Richard Yngworth, Suffragan Bishop of Dover. But these were probably put into the commission at various dates between 1535 and 1538, and the most active all along appear to have been London, Legh, Layton, Ap Rice, and the Bishop of Dover : all of whom had, as well as some of the others, been employed already by Cromwell in some or other of the unclean transactions which he had to manage.^ Character What these men were is sufficiently evident from of visitors -t * ^ ip it r* t n their letters, and irom the disgraceful facts that are known respecting several of them. Fuller sums up their character in a few pithy words, ^^ They were men who well understood the message they went on, and would not come back without a satisfactory answer to him that sent them, knowing themselves were likely to be no losers thereby."^ The general impression of contemporaries was that they were men of no principle, sent out with certain nominal objects 7 In Ellis* Orig. Lett, III. iii., sionera sent to interrogate Bishop and Wright's Letters relating to Fisher and Sir Thomas More when the Suppression of the Monasteries, in the Tower, June 14, 1535. St. a Camden Society volume. Pap., i. 431. s Layton and Ap Rice (Notary » Fuller's Ch. History, ii. 214, Puhlic) are among the Commis- ed. 1837. FIRST VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES 297 in view, but really pledged to foregone conclusions^ chap and to the accomplishment of as much confiscation as ,.^J3^ they could manage. a.d. 1535 These commissioners went to their work armed instm- with the most complete authority, although they which they themselves continued in the most servile dependence ^^*^^ upon Cromwell. They were furnished with (1) a set of eighty-six Articles of Enquiry, (2) with twenty-five Injunctions to which they had authority to add with- out limit in any cases in which they thought fit to do so ; and (3) for fear the bishops should interfere with them, all episcopal authority was suspended Episcopal during their visitation by an inhibition which wasuonsus- issued by Cranmer, under the King s command, at cranmer ^ the outset of their expedition.^ Both the Articles of Sept. 18,' T e 5 f* Enquiry and the Injunctions were of a vexatious character, and it is evident from the revelations of the commissioners themselves that they were intended to bear so hardly upon the inmates of the religious houses as to compel them immediately or eventually to resign and depart quietly, or to be expelled as contumacious and incapable of reformation.^ " Sir," says Ap Rice, writing to Cromwell, ^'although I Vohmtary reckon it well done if all were out, yet I think it en^ou-'""'' were best that at their own instant suit they miglit ""^^^"^ be dismissed to avoid calumniation and envy. And S3 compelling them to observe these injunctions^ ye shall have them all to do so shortly. And the people shall know it the better that it cometh upon their suit, if they be not straight discharged while we are here. For then the people would say that we ^ 1 Collier, iv. 294, ed. 1852. The 2 rp^g Articles of Enquiry and Inhibition itself, from Bp. Stokes- the Injunctions are printed in ley's Begister, is in liis Records, WiLkins' Concilia, iii. 786. No. xxxi. 298 PLUNDER INSTEAD OF INVESTIGATION CHAP went for no other cause about than to expel them, VI • ^^..^.^^ though the truth were contrary. For they judge all A.i>- ^sis things of the effects that foUoweth, and not always of Visitors the truth." ^ But the visitors had other means also made it impossible which do uot appear upon the face of the Injunctions the mon- for making the lives of the monks intolerable under For the first thing they did was to take possession of all the most valuable goods of the monasteries and pack them oif to London. ^' Please it your good Lordship to be advertised/' writes Sir Piers Dutton to Cromwell, '' Mr. Combes and Mr. Bolles, the King s commissioners within this county of Chester, were lately at Norton, within the same county, for Jwa'""ii ^'^^ suppressing of the abbey there. And when they valuable had packed up such jewels and stuff as they had therCy property ^^^ thought upou the morrow after to depart thence, the abbot gathered a great company together, to the number of two or three hundred persons, so that the said commissioners were in fear of their lives,"^ and shutting themselves up in one of the towers of the abbey, sent for the knight to come and rescue them. ^' I have crosses of silver and gold," writes the filthy and execrable- Layton, ^' some which I send you not now, because I have more that shall be delivered me this night by the prior of Maiden Bradley himself To-morrow early in the morning I shall bring you the rest, when I have received all, and perchance I shall find something here. ... At Bruton and Glastonbury there is nothing notable ; the brethren be so strait kept that they cannot offend, but fain they would if they might, as they confess, and so the •* Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 119. ^ Ibid., p. 42. WORR ] 7NG THE MONKS 299 fault is not in them/'^ To desolate the houses and chap churches of the monks and nuns by such plunder .^.^.^.^.^ seems to have been the first care of the commis- ^*^- ^535 sioners ; and what goods were thus obtained went straightway to the King without any process of law whatever^ and simply by the authority of irresistible tyranny. By such plunder of all valuable things tying up that could be taken away^ and by tying up the hands was left of the monks as to control over what remained^ some houses^ and perhaps not a few, were unable to pro- vide means for sustaining existence ; and not only their alms and hospitality were obliged to be discon- tinuedj but they themselves were brought to the verge of starvation.^ Another means by which the monks were starved starving out of their houses, was by the strictest enforcement; monks^ in its most rigid sense, of one of the Injunctions, — " That no monk, or brother of this monastery, by any means go forth of the precinct of the same ; " a '^ porter specially appointed'' being placed at the only entrance allowed to secure the efficiency of the imprisonment thus enjoined. This was called ^^ en- closing" the monks ; and the circumstances of the seclusion seem to have been so severely felt that many gave way, unable to endure the hardships which it entailed. If any one of the monks thus virtually imprisoned ventured outside the walls of the monas- tery, Fuller says they were not allowed to enter the gateway again, the "porter specially appointed" having instructions to exclude them altogether from their houses. At the same time their numbers were vigor- Thinning ously thinned by an injunction, which ordered thatb^r^'' ''''"'' ^ Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc, p. 59. ^ i}^i^^^ p. 67. 300 WORRYING THE MONKS CHAP no man was to be suffered to profess^ or to wear the ^^J^^^ habit of religion, unless he were twenty -four years of A.D. 1535 age/ As early as November 18, 1535, doubts had begun to arise as to the proper application of this injunction ; and disputes arose at the visitation of Christ Church, Canterbury, which led Archbishop Cranmer to write to Cromwell for the purpose of by a ascertaining its real meaning. From this it appears interpreta- ^^^ ^^^ visitors worc Sending away all monks under tionofthe twenty-four years of as'e, even thouefh they had not injunctions pn-ip ii professed until after twenty, and also that the money given to them was limited to their travelling ex- penses, all money sent them by their friends being taken away. This shows that the visitors were anxious to thin the number of the monks ; and it is not extravagant to suppose (especially as there is no trace of an answer to Cranmer s appeal) that they had secret instructions to do so. But they went even further than this, for one of the visitors, Ap Rice, wrote to Cromwell respecting Dr. Legh, that and send- ^^ he sottoth a clausc in his injunctions that all they L"vay who ^^^ ^'^> of what ago soever they be, may go abroad, could be which I heard not of your instructions."® And though Ap Rice had suddenly become scrupulous, because he had a quarrel with Legh, in which he was trying to secure Cromwell on his own side, there ■^ This Injunction is th.tis given alii sub vicesimo quarto anno by Archbishop Cranmer. " Item, existentes discedere veluit, iUam qiiod nullus deinceps permittatur quam primum se exuant. Et ma- profiteri regularem observantiam, gister hujus domus suo sumptu aut vestean suscipere religionis per vestibns secnlaribus et honestis confratres hujus domus gestari ad prassens ornet, et ad amicos solitam, niyi vicesimum suae getatis sues chariores cum viaticis corn- annum compleverit. Et si qui petentibus transmittendos ciiret." jam sub vicesimo anno completo Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 156. in veste hujusmodi inl'ra banc ^ Ellis' Grig. Letters, III. ii. domum jam inducti sunt, et si qui 358. WORRYING THE MONKS 301 can be no doubt this was the course taken by the chap VI visitors in general, Stow recording that they '^put .^..-.^-^^^ forth all religious persons that would go, and all that ^•^- ^535 were under the age of twenty-and-four years;" the abbot or prior being required to give each monk so driven out " a priest's gown, and forty shilhngs of money ; the nuns to have such apparel as secular women wear, and to go where they will" The ejBfect, perhaps it would be more correct to say xhusmany the instant effect, therefore, of the visitation was to [^eder thin the monasteries of their inmates, to place those ^l^'^'^'^ "p ' S- at once who remained in them under a yoke of unbearable tyranny, hardship, and espionage, and to confiscate all the most valuable part of the property belonging to their establishments. The case was so hard that some monasteries gave way altogether, and there is reason to think^ that only 123 of those which had been doomed for confiscation were able to hold out until the Act of Suppression rendered any further holding out impossible. The commissioners had entered on what (if it had been properly conducted) ought to have been a labour of many months, in the autumn of 1535. But they seem to have finished their labours in fewer weeks than they ought to have spent months upon them : so that it is clear the visitation itself must have been a mere 'pro formd business, the packing visitation up and conveyance of the plate, jewels and other ^^^''-^'"'^^'^ valuables (which they abstracted solely under autho- rity of the King's comma,nd) being the work that • occupied their time. Meanwhile a bill was preparing which was to legalize these acts of plunder, and to ^ From a paper printed by Stevens in his History of Monasteries, ii. App. 17. 302 FIRST ACT OF DISSOLUTION CHAP complete the suppression of those monasteries which ^^.^^^^ could be brought to the ground without danger. ^A.D.^ This first Act of Dissolution [27 Hen. VIII. cap. ActofDis-28] was passed about the end of February 1535-6, solution some four or five months from the time at which the important inquiry into the condition of the monastic institutions was begun. In what manner, and by what channel it found its way into Parliament, is not on record, but of course it was a " Government bill," and bills of this kind were sometimes initiated, or forwarded a stage, by very significant impulses. The King's Which among the "faithful Commons" could hesitate the House ^'^^^^^^ as to his vote when ^^the Kinof's Grace came in of Com- amoncf the bureresses of Parliament, and delivered mons O ^ ® , ^ them a bill and bade them look upon it, and weigh it in conscience," departing out of the House of Commons with a promise that he would be there again on the following Wednesday to hear their minds ! Whether or not this was so presented, the King afterwards spoke to them of it as " my bill," and it bears strong marks of royal authorship. It is entitled ^' an Act whereby religious houses of monks, canons, and nuns, which may dispend manors, lands, tenements, and heredita- ments above the clear value of two hundred pounds, are given to the King's highness, his heirs, and successors for ever." Statements In the preamble of this Act, it is first stated that preamble "manifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abominable living is daily used and committed commonly" in religious houses whose inmates do not exceed twelve in num- ber, ^'whereby" the heads of those houses spoil, destroy, and waste their churches, monasteries, lands, and other possessions, as well as the ^' ornaments of their churches," to the high displeasure of God, and FIRST ACT OF DISSOLUTION 303 to the great infamy of the King's highness and the chap realm. Thus two important charges are at the out- .^^.^..J^, set made asrainst a certain class of monasteries, those ^•^• 1535-6 in which the number of persons was less than twelve. The allegation is, of course, so far as the number is Absurdity concerned, ridiculous ; as, if there had been a plague them of immorality and wickedness pervading monastic houses to so great an extent, it would not have been limited to the "hard and fast line" of those whose inmates amounted to one dozen only.^ The state- ment of the preamble is, therefore, to this extent weakened in its force as a probably truthful accu- sation, though even this absurdity may not be in- consistent with the truthfulness of other portions. But it is further weakened by the charge that the untruth of heads of these monasteries containing twelve persons °^^^^"^ or fewer wasted the '^ ornaments'' as well as the other possessions of their churches and monasteries. It is indisputable that the visitors dispossessed them of these, laying their hands upon all the gold and silver plate that they could find, and also on all ^^ relics" which were adorned with the precious metals or precious stones. This accusation seems to have no seem other obiect than to cover the fact that the disap- ^"^^""^.^^ **^ pearance of such " ornaments from the monasteries acts of and churches arose from their appropriation by the ^ ^" ^'^ King. The visitors " hadde packed up such joells & stuffe as the monks had," the '' crosses of silver & golde," of which Layton wrote " I shall bring you the reste^ whan I have recevide all" and the ^ The nuiaber twelve was really the moniis or ntins to the larger suggested hy the Bull of 1528, monasteries; the dissolved houses which empowered Wolsey and being to be used for endowing new Campeggio to suppress any houses bishoprics, &c. See page 90. under .that niunber, and transfer 304 FIRST ACT OF DISSOLUTION CHAP King's privy purse ultimately received them : but ._J^^ the Act of Parliament, at the King s bidding, stated itcie ^^^* *^®y ^^^ heen ''wasted" by the monks. It is then further stated in this preamble that Allegation there had been '' many continual visitations" of the as to many . , . -. . ill previous monasteries during the preceding two hundred years ; but from the extreme difficulty which Wolsey (with all his unprecedented power) found in obtaining authority to visit them, this must be a great exag- geration, except so far as it may be meant to apply to the few cases in which archbishops and bishops could visit without special license from Rome. The allegation was plainly introduced for the sake of the following assertion : — that '' without such small Professed houses be utterly suppressed, and the religious per- re?om^Sie SOUS therein committed to great and honourable monks monasteries of this realm, where they may be com- pelled to live religiously, for reformation of their lives, there shall else be no redress nor reformation in this behalf." This professed desire to reform the inmates of these houses was shown in practice, not by thus transferring them to larger monasteries, but by giving them each forty shillings and a layman's or priest's gown, out of the plunder of their houses, and then sending them about their business. This provision of the Act was copied from the papal bull of 1528, and there can be no doubt whatever that it originated with Wolsey ; but the intention of its but no ' original framer was not carried out by the King and whlTever Parliament who adopted his words ; and the monks made to eiccted from the lesser monasteries were mostly sent do so .•^ . . . into the world, and sent there with forty shillings, a little fortune on which to begin life again. Yet this portion of the preamble is reiterated a few lines FIRST ACT OF DISSOLUTION 305 further on in the Act^ in the words, ^^ considering chap also that divers and great solemn monasteries of^^.,^^^ this realm, wherein (thanks be to God) religion is ^•^■g right well kept and observed, be destitute of such full number of religious persons, aa they ought and may keep ;" which words could hardly be inserted for any other purpose than that of conciliating the parliamentary representatives of the great solemn monasteries, whose opposition to the suppression of the "little and small abbeys'' would be very trouble- some, and might be thus prevented. Respecting this preamble, it is to be observed (1) Untruth- that there are some manifest falsehoods in its allega- this Act tions ; (2) that there is gross absurdity in its state- ment that the monasteries containing only twelve inmates^ were past reformation, while those contain- ing more than twelve were respectable ; and (3) that no attempt was made at the reformation which is said to be impossible, the Act being passed within six months of the time when the inquiry on which it was founded had been commenced. During that six months many of the monasteries had been extinguished instead of an attempt being made to reform them. The injunctions respecting reforma- tion were, indeed, given to the remainder, but no further inquiry was made as to whether or not those injunctions had been observed. It is worth noting these circumstances in case any future historian should revive the allegation that the King and his ministers were conspicuous for their honesty in Q^l^^^oiHs. , -^ . "^ contrivers the transactions connected with the dissolution. Honesty is just the virtue of all others which is most certainly proved to have been wanting in them. 2 It is observable that this limit is ignored in the enacting clauses. U 306 SUBSTANCE OF THE ACT CHAP Of the enacting clauses, which go into great detail, ^^_J^^ only two or three particulars require to be noticed. ^•^' (1.) In the first place all monasteries, priories, &c., which have not an income exceeding two hundred pounds a year are given to the King and his heirs, because it is ^* much more to the pleasure of Al- mighty God, and for the honour of this his realm," that their revenues ^^ should he used and committed to better uses " and the '^unthrifty religious persons" made to reform their lives. (2.) The possessions of every kind which belonged to these monasteries were invested in the King " in as large and ample manner as the abbots, priors, abbesses, prioresses, and other governors of such monasteries, priories, and other religious houses, noiv have, or ought to have, the same in the right of their houses ;" not as in their own right, for their own use, but as trustees. (3.) The Act is an ex post facto piece of legislation, giving to the King all monasteries that had been handed over to him during the year preceding by the resignation of their inmates, or that have other- wise been suppressed or dissolved. (4.) All sites, tithes, or monastic goods which had been given away by the King were confirmed to those on whom he had already bestowed them. (5.) It was enacted that the King should have and enjoy the actual and real possession of all the dis- solved monasteries for a particular object, ''so that his Highness may lawfully give, grant, and dispose them, or any of them, at his will and pleasure, to the honour of God and the loealth of this realm" No doubt there is a certain vagueness about this expres- sion, but it can scarcely be considered as honestly OPPOSITION OFFERED TO IT 307 consistent with the reckless manner in which the pos- chap sessions of the monasteries were afterwards, and had ^^-^-^^ been already^ squandered on secular and evil objects. ^'^■^ (6.) It was further enacted that the King should provide occupation and pensions for those monks who were not transferred to the greater houses : and that on the site of every dissolved monastery or priory a mansion should be erected where liberal hospitality should be obsei"ved, as in the religious foundations which they had superseded. But although the tone of this Act was very far some of above the infamous transactions which it sheltered, mons^ op- and although it bears clear evidence of being con- p°^^ ^"^ cocted under royal superintendence, some vigorous opposition to it was offered by members of the House of Commons, and it was only passed after the King had thrown some of his usual threats at their heads. '^When the bill/' says Sir Henry Spelman, "had stuck long in the Lower House, and could get no passage, he commanded the Commons to attend him in the forenoon in his gallery^ where he let them wait till late in the afternoon^ and then coming out of his chamber, walking a turn or two amongst them^ and looking angrily on them, first on the one side and then on the other, at last — ^ I hear/ saith he, ' that MY Bill will not pass ; but I will have it pass, or I will have some of your heads:' and without Their other rhetoric or persuasion returned to his chamber. JhTeltened Enough was said, the bill passed, and all was given ^^^^ him as he desired."^ The first words of the Act state that the adminis- tration of monastic property by the monks was '^to the high displeasure of Almighty God, slander of 3 Spelman's Hist, of Sacrilege, p. 206, ed. 1853. 308 AMOUNT OF PROPERTY TAKEN A.D. I 535-6 Spoils of the small monas- teries CHAP good religion^ and to the great infamy of the King's ,^^^-^^^ highness and the realm." It may safely be alleged that the case was not improved^ however bad it might be, by the operation of the Act itself. But some evidence as to the new uses which were made of monastic property will be found at a subsequent page.^ It is enough to say here that 376 religious houses were ruined and despoiled, and that no por- tion of their property returned to the Church, Lord Herbert and other historians estimate the annual revenue of this first spoliation at £30,000, and th§ ready money value of the "jewels and stuff" which the visitors "packed up" and sent to Cromwell, at £100,000, These sums represent quite a quarter of a million, and a million, of modern money, and there are good reasons for thinking that they are much below the real value of the property confiscated.^ 'Vi^ared ^^^ ^^ spoils wero uot likely to last long when for remain- the oxpouse of the King and his court was so enor- tS''''''' mously prodigal : and the first Act of Suppression was no sooner passed than Cromwell and his master prepared for a new campaign. Even while the bill was passing through Parliament, the voice of the destructive party was heard boldly declaring that the measure was only a beginning. " Even at that time one said in the Parliament House/' says Grafton in * No importance attaches to the fact that some of the monasteries resigned into his hands were "re- founded" by Henrj. The "re- foundation" or non-dissolution only amounted to a reprieve of a few months. ^ The Court of Augmentations was established for the purpose of receiving and managing the funds of the dissolved monasteries. As it consisted of twenty-four officers, including ten auditors and seven- teen receivers, it must have been provided Math a view to the subse- quent dissolution of the greater monasteries. LARGE MONASTERIES IN DANGER 309 his Chronicle/' that these were as thorns^ but the chap great abbots were putrified old oaks, and they must ^^^^^-^^ needs follow. ^ And so will other do in Christendom/ ^^-^-^ quoth Doctor Stokesley^ Bishop of London^ ^ or many years be passed/" Cromwell seems not to have hesitated for a steady moment in the career of spoliation on which he had anceTn^ entered ; for a letter has come down to us which is ^po^iation a reply to one he had written on the 8th of March 1535-6 (about the very time when the act was xeceiving the royal assent)^ in which he demanded the resignation of one of these ^^putinfied old oaks/' John Shepey or Castleoak^ the Abbot of Faversham in Kent. This letter gives us some light respecting the transactions which were then going on between the crown and the monasteries^ and is well worth. perusal. " Eight worshipful Sir^ after humble recommendations accord- The Abbot ing to my most hounden duty, "with hke thanks for your bene- °^ F^ver- volent mind always shewed towards me and my poor house to defence your goodness had and used ; it may please you to be adver- tised, that I lately received your loving letters dated the viiitli day of tliis present month concerning a resignation to be had of the poor house which I under God and the King's highness my sovereign lord of long time (though unworthy such a cure) have had ministration and rule of, and that by cause of the age and debihty which are reported to be in me. So it is right worshipfull sir, I trust I am not yet now so far enfeebled or decayed, neither in body nor in remembrance, either by any extremity of age whom debility lightly for the most part always accompanies either by any immoderate pas- Old as he sion of any great continual infirmity, but that I may as well gtiiTmie (high thanks be unto God thereof!) accommodate myseK to the his housp good order, rule, and governance of my poor house and mon- astery as ever I might since my first promotion to the same, 310 THE ABBOT OF FA VERSHAM CHAP though I may not so well percase ride and journey ahroad as ^^ I might have done in time past. But admit the peculiar A.D. office of an abbot to consist, as I must needs refeU for we '535-6 profess a rule much diverse thereunto, in journeying forth and surveying of the possessions of his house, in which case agility and patience of labour in journeying were much required in- deed, though I myself be not so well able to take pains there- in as I have been in my young years, at which time I trust I took such pains that I need less surveying of the same at this present time, yet have I such faithful approved servants whom I have brought up in my poor house from their tender years, and those of such wit and good discretion joined with the long experience of the trade of such worldly things, that they are able to furnish and supply those parts, I know right weU, in According all points much better, than ever I myself could or than it had duties o7^ ^^^^ expedient or decent for me to have done. Again, on an abbot that other side, if the chief office and profession of an abbot be (as I have ever taken it) to live chaste and solitarily, to be separate from the intermeddling of worldly things, to serve God quietly, to distribute his faculties in refreshing of poor indigent persons, to have a vigilant eye to the good order and rule of his house and the flock to him commited in God, I trust your favour and benevolence obtained (whereof I right humbly require you), I myself may and am as well able yet now to supply and continue those parts as ever I was in aU my life, as concerning the sufficiency of my own person. Yet doubt- less much more ease and quiet might it be unto me as ye in your said letters right friendly and vehemently have persuad- ed, for to make resignation of my said office upon the provi- sion of such a reasonable pension as your good mastership should think meet and convenient, wherein surely I would Would nothing doubt your worship and conscience, but in the same gladly be j^ave much affiance, not only for the great goodness and good as personal indifference which I hear everywhere commonly reported by ease goes y^^^ \^^\^ ^^^^ fQ^ ^^^^ great favour and benevolence which I have always found in you. And percase in my own mind I could right well be contented and fully persuaded for as much as concerneth my own part so to do, for the satisfaction and contentation of your loving motion, for I am notliing less than DEFENDS HIS MONA S TER V 311 ambitious; but I do more esteem in this thins the miserable CHAP ■ • VI state and condition that our poor house should stand in, if ,_,_^.^^ such thing should come to pass, than I do my own private a.d. office and dignity, the administration whereof though it be ^^^^' somewhat more painful unto me than it hath been accustomed heretofore, yet God forbid that it should seem unto me hirke- fidl or tedious. Moreover I (pray) your good mastership, to whom I would all these things were as openly and manifest- But the ly known as to myself, our said poor house and monastery by ^^^^^^[gj^^J meane and occasion of diverse and many importable costs and by taxes charges which we have sustained as well towards the King's highness as otherwise; partly by reason of divers great sums of money which it was left indebted in, in the time of my last predecessor there (which as it is well known in the country was but a right slender husband to the house) : partly by means of divers and many great reparations, as well of the edifices of our church as of other houssing, which were suffered to fall in great ruin and decay, insomuch that some of them were in manner likely to fall clean down to the ground, as in the repairs and innyns of divers marshes belonfriu*^ to our said monastery i"eclaiming J ir> ^ T - 1 1 1 IT marshes which the violent rages and surges of the implacable sea had won and occupied, being now since my time well and suffi- ciently repaired and fully amended, as the thing itself may sufficiently declare, to the inestimable cost and charges of our poor house : partly again by the means of the great cost, charges, and expenses, which we have had and sustained by and through the occasion of divers and many sundry suits and actions which we have been compelled to use and pursue against divers of our tenants for the recovery of divers rights of our said monastery of long time unjustly detained and by the same tenants obstinately denied; and partly also by mean of divers and many great sums of money by ^^2000 which we have paid and lent unto the King's highness, as "lent" to well in dysmes and subsidies as otherwise amounting in all to ^ ^^^ the sum of ii m. li. and above to our great impoverishing, and is yet now at this present time indebted to divers of our friends and creditors above the sum of cccc li. as ye shall be further instructed of the particulars thereof whensoever it shall please you to demand a further and more exact declar- difficulties 312 THE ABBOT OF FA VERS HAM CHAP ation tlierein. Wliicli sums if it might please Almighty God ^^ that I might live and with your good favour continue in my A.D. said of&ce by the space of six or seven years at the furthest, I ^535-6 doubt not but I should see them well repaid and contented again. Eut if I should now at this present time resign my said office (the case standing as it doth) undoubtedly our poor house, being now so far indebted already by means of the And he occasions before remembered (the important charges of the first would like pj^^^^g ^^^ tenth which would be due unto the Kiaff's highness to see it _ & t) out of its now immediately upon the same resignation had thereunto added and accumulate), should be clearly impoverished and utterly decayed and undone for ever in my mind, which I am right well assured your goodness would ne coveteth not to bring to pass. And therefore Christ forbid that ever I should so heinously offend and commit against Almighty G-od and the King's highness and sovereign lord, that by my mean Claims of OT conscnt, SO godly and ancient a foundation bmlt and dedi- the^Kme^ cated in the honour of Saint Saviour of so noble and victorious a prince and one of the King's most noble progenitors, whose very body, together with the bodies of his dear and well-beloved queen and also the prince his son there lieth buried in hon- ourable sepulture, and are had all three in perpetual memory with continual suffrages and commendations of prayers, should be utterly and irrecuperably decayed and undone, as it must needs of very necessity follow if any such resignation shoidd now be had. Wherefore the whole premysses tenderly con- sidered and deliberately perpended, right worshipfuU sir, I doubt not but ye will continue your accustomed favour and benevolence which ye have always borne towards our poor monastery, and so doing ye shall not only please and content Almighty God our Saviour, but also bynde us to be your continual bedemen and pray to God durmg our lives for the prosperous estate of your good mastership long to endure with much increase of honour. Dated at our poor monastery afore- said the xvj^^ day of this present month of March anno Domini 1535. " By your bedeman and daily oratour, " John, Abbot of Eaversham."^ " Snpp of Monast., Camd. Soc, p. 103. FURTHER WORRYING OF THE MONKS 313 Impoverished as their houses had been by the chap extortion of the King, and hardly as they were pressed ^^^..^.^ by the persecuting course which had lately been taken, ^_ ^- ^ there were doubtless many like this steadfast old Abbot of Faversham, who were determined to stand firm to the end, and not to give way before anything less than compulsory legislation. When the crash "^Vas at . , last driver- came at last this good old man was driven out of the out monastery which he had ruled for forty years, and in which he had most likely spent the whole of his adult life. But Cromwell and the King had other methods of worrying the monks and nuns of the greater houses into resignation, and some of these have been obscurely recorded in the traditions even of a Puritan age. The vexatious Injunctions were strictly imposed on all monasteries without exception by the visitors, who indeed were so rapid in their movements that they could have had little time for more than pack- ing up plate and jewels, and leaving these Injunctions behind them. But the visitors, says Puller, — " Were succeeded "with a second sort of public agents, but Spies sent working in a more private way, encoura.ging the members j° ^^^ in monasteries to impeach one another : for seeing there was monas- seldom such general agreement in any great convent, but that *^^^^^ factions were found, and parties did appear therein, these emissaries made an advantageous use thereof. No abbey could have been so soon destroyed, but by cujining setting it against itself, and secret fomenting of their own divisions. Whereupon, many, being accused, did recriminate their accusers ; and hopeless to recover their own innocency, pleased themselves by plunging others ta the like guiltiness. Others, Self-accu- being conscious to themselves, prevented accusing by con- ^^^^^^^ fessing their faults, and those very foul ones. Insomuch that some have so much charity as to conceive that they made by these measures 314 ENCOURAGEMENT OF INFORMERS CHAP themselves worse than they were, though it was a needless ^^ work for a Black-Moor to besoot his own face. Yea, some A.D. 1536 l^olti that as witches, long tortured with watching and fasting, and pinched when but ready to nod, are contented causelessly to accuse themselves to be eased of the present pain ; so some of those poor souls, frighted with menaces, and fearing what might be the success, acknowledged all, and more than aU, against themselves: the truth whereof none on earth can decide." 7 Strife and How succGSsful the secret assents were in stirrinof ill-feeling . it •■ ... . .- stirred up Up internal disorganization^ m kindling animosities^ in exaggerating grievances^ and generally setting brother against brother^ is shown by some of the letters written to Cromwell by discontented monks. The informers mostly betray themselves as men who are making accusations in the hope of reward : and the accusations themselves are of a kind which does not carry conviction of their truth, reminding the reader of documents strangely common in those days, such documents as the confessedly false indictments drawn up against Wolsey. Men seem to have felt that they ran a risk like that of the Spartan legis- lators, that if they failed the rope was already round their necks ready for use, and that they must provide against failure by heaping charge upon charge in the hope that some, at least, would be incapable of posi- tive disproof It is melancholy to think that human nature is capable of such treachery and untruth, and it adds to our sadness to find it among those whose duty and special call it was to live in a loving and peaceful brotherhood. But weak and treacherous inventors of scandal are to be found at all times ; and they were to be found among the monks of the 7 Puller's CL Hist., ii. 215, ed. 1837. SUBORNA TION OF CRIME 315 sixteenth century, as they were found among the chap laity of the same period, and of our own.^ .^^3^ Another still more serious charge against Crom- a-^- ^53^ well and the King is that they had agents who ^j^ked went amon^ nuns with the express purpose oftempta- seducmg them^ and thus givmg ground for their fered to expulsion from the nunneries. This charge is also ^^^ ^"^^ recorded by Fuller in the following words : — " The papists do heavily complain (how justly God alone knoweth) that a third sort of agents were employed, to prac- tise on the chastity of the nuns, so to surprise them into wantonness. Some young gallants were on design sent to some convents, with fair faces, flattering tongues, store of gold, and good clothes, youth, wit, wantonness, and what else might work on the weaker sex. These having with much craft screwed themselves into the affections of nuns, and brought them to their lure, accused them afterwards to the king's com- missioners for their incontinence : a damnable act, if true. . But still the papists go further, complaining of false returns, that many of these inveiglers of nuns met with impregnable pieces of chastity, neither to be battered by force, nor under- mined by fraud, who despairing to lie with their bodies, did lie on their reputations, making their fames to suffer in those false reports which they returned to the king's commissioners. ^ Among such " approvers" may " though he had never been consc- be mentioned the Abbot of War- crated bishop" fp. 85]. If the den, [Suppn. of Men., p. 53], Rich- abbot did steal the jewels it was ard Zouche [Id. 51], Richard very wicked of him to do so, biit Beerley, monk of Pershore [Id. it is possible that this part of Mr. 133], and a monk of Wigmore, Fronde's charge against him is as whose articles of indictment against weak as that of conferring holy his abbot are printed by Mr. orders without being a bishoi^ ; Froude in " Short Studies of Great for John Smart, the abbot in Subjects," vol. ii. p. 78, With his question, was Bishop of Pavada usual amusing haste Mr. Froude {in partibus), acting as suffragan settles one article of this indict- to the Bishops of Hereford and ment in his own way by saying Worcester, between the years 1526 that the abbot had stolen jewels and 1535, i.e. for ten years before from his own convent to buy a the accusation was made ; and per- faculty for conlerring holy orders, fectly entitled to confer orders. 316 SUBORNATION OF CRIME CHAP And the following story is, I assure yon, traditioned with very ^^ much credit amongst our English Catholics :— A,D. 1536 " Two young gentlemen, whose names for just cause I for- bear, went to a nunnery within twelve miles of Cambridge, in the nature of travellers on the highway ; who being handsomely habited, and late at night, were admitted into some out-lodgings of that nunnery, l^ext day their civil addresses to the abbess were received with such entertainment as became the laws of hospitality. Afterwards producing or pretending a commission to visit their convent, they abode there certain days ; and how bad soever they were, met with no counterpart to embrace their wanton proffers. However, at the return they gave it out, that nothing but their weariness bounded their wantonness, and that they enjoyed those nuns at their own command. ** One of the aforesaid gentlemen, with great grief and remorse of heart, did in private confess the same to Sir William Stanley, kniglit, afterwards employed in the Low Countries ; avowing that nothing in all his life lay more heavy on his conscience than this false accusation of those innocents : and the said Sir Wilham told tliis passage to a noble Catholic still aHve."^ This ac- This story has been discredited^ chiefly because it from\m-^ rests Oil the authority of " Papists" and " Catholics ;" probable ^^^^ FuUer himself adds that if this was the Sir Wil- liam Stanley "who gave up the city of Daventer to the Spaniards^ its credit may be justly suspected^ as " one so faithless in his deeds may be presumed false in his words." But the story has too much vrai^em- hlance to be set aside in this curt manner : and in addition to this^ the tone of Layton's letters to Cromwell are of such a kind as to make one fear that some nuns were indeed thus wickedly seduced^ and others not less wickedly accused falsely. Those^ however, who duly appreciate the character of their countrywomen^ will also believe that among these evil-intreated ^^ innocents/' there were not a few who 9 Fuller's Church Hist., ii. 216, eel. 1837. PUBLIC OPINION INFLUENCED 317 passed through the scorching fire of temptation chap scatheless under the protection of their Heavenly ..^^-^.^.^ Bridegroom; for the English daughters of the nine- ^•^- ^53^ teenth century whom we see around us are sisters to the Enghsh nuns of the sixteenth of whom we know only by vague tradition. It was a great object with the King and Cromwell to obtain voluntary surrenders of the monasteries (or surrenders which should appear to be voluntary) from those in whom they were vested : and also to gain over the secular clergy and the laity to an approval of such surrenders. The great Reformation weapon Pulpits of ^^pulpit-tuning" was efficiently used by Cromwell a^aLst for securing the lower ranks of the laity^ ''^^^terler' preachers who were sent about the country to assert the royal supremacy constantly representing the monks as disloyal to the crown and useless to the people at large : and just as ^' leading newspapers" can convince large numbers in the present day even against the evidence of their reason and almost of their senses, so the preachers moulded public opinion pretty much to any form that they would when they preached hard enough. For the higher ranks of the Laity laity there was the temptation of sharing in the con- with large fiscated lands, a temptation which had astonishing gpoJf" °^ influence upon them/ and which became all the stronger when the appetite of the courtiers had been whetted by gifts from the lands of the lesser monas- teries. The secular clergy were promised a general restoration to their hands of the rectorial tithes which had been ''appropriated" by the monastic houses; although, in the end, most of these monastic " appro- priations" were turned into lay ''impropriations," and ^ Dugdale's History of "Warwickshire, p. 802. 318 MONKS BRIBED WITH PROMISES PensionSj &c. pro- mised to monks CHAP the secular clergy gained nothing whatever. As for ^^^3-^ ^^ monasteries themselves^ Cromwell had promises A.D. 1536 to offer them also, immunity from dissolution for those who were unwilling to be dissolved, and large pensions or preferments for those who would sur- render willingly.^ When such measures were taken, and when, as Bishop Burnet says, " all the abbots were now placed by the King, and were generally picked out to serve his turn," it is not to be supposed that any very strong power of resistance remained in the monasteries which were left standing after the first svippression. The clean sweep which had been made of so many ancient rights, did, in fact, throw the clergy and the monks into an utter panic; and the great body of the latter, especially, were ready to go down like unarmed peasantry before a troop of Cos- sacks. There are periods when stupendous changes Little power left to resist ^ "After my hearty commen- dations. Albeit I doulit not, but having \o\v^ since received the King's Highness' letters wherein his Majesty signified unto you that using yourselves like his good and faithful subjects, his Grace would not in any wise interrupt you in your state and kind of living : and that his pleasure was, in case any man should declare anything to the contrary, you should cause him to be apprehen- ded and kept in sure custody till further knowledge of his Grace's pleasure ; you would so firmly repose yourselves in the tenor of his said letters as now his words ; nor any voluntary surrender made by any governor and company of any religious house since that time shall put you in any doubt or fear of suppression or change of your kind of nfe and policy. Yet his most excellent Majesty know- ing as well that on the one side fear may enter upon a contrary appearance where the ground and original is not known, as on the other side, that in such cases there cannot Avant some malicious and cankered hearts that upon a volun- tary and frank surrender would persuade and blow abroad a general and a violent suppression ; to the intent you should safely adhere to the sense of the said letters by his Highness already addressed unto you, and like good subjects ensue the purport of the same in the apprehension and detention of all such persons that had brought or would instil the contrary : where- as certain governors and companies of few religious houses have lately made free and voluntary surren- ders into his Grace's hands : hath commanded me for your reposes, THEIR GENERAL PROSTRATION 319 rush onward in their course with whirlwind rapidity, chap and enervate the mind with amazement as a sirocco .^^^..^i^ prostrates the body. So were the old ecclesiastical a-^- ^53^ establishments of England prostrated with amaze- Most ment in the time of Cromwells odious vicegerency^ an amazed and perfectly unable to offer an effective resistance, ^^^p°^ whether for evil or for good. Notwithstanding this general prostration, there were, .however, some energetic attempts to stop the progress of destruction, and Cromwell was not with- out good reason for the caution with which he pre- pared the country for a second great spoliation. For several months, the northern counties of England were in a chronic state of rebellion, and very serious danger to the King and his government ensued. The movement, eventually called the " Pilgrimage Rebellion of Grace," began at Louth in Lincolnshire, on Mon- ^^rth quiets, and for the causes specified of the same ; without consumption on liis Grace's behalf to advertise and wilful waste and spoil of you, that unless there had been things, which hath been lately overtures made by the said houses made in many abbeys ; as though that have resigned, his Grace would the governors of them minded only never have received the same ; their dissolution ; you may be and that his Majesty intendeth sure that you shall not be impeach- not in any wise to trouble you, or ed by his Majesty ; but that his to devise for the suppression of Grace will be your shield or any religous house that standeth ; defence against all other that except they shall either desire of would minister unto you any themselves with one whole con- injury or displeasure. And if any sent to resign or forsake the same man, of what degree soever he or else misuse themselves contrary be, shall pronounce any tiling to to their allegiance. In which case the contrary hereof, fail you not, they shall deserve the loss of much either to apprehend him, if you more than their houses and pos- shall be able, or if he be such a sessions ; that is, the loss also of personage that you shall not dare their lives. Wherefore in this to meddle with, to write to his you may repose yourselves, giving Majesty's Highness their name or yourselves to serve God devoutly, names ; and report that he or to live like true and faithful sub- they, so rude behaving themselves, jects to his Majesty, and to pro- may be punished for the same as vide honestly for the sustentation shall appertain." Strype's Ecc. of your houses, and the relieving Mem., voL i. pt. ii. 214. of poor people with the hospitality 320 POPULAR ANGER AROUSED CHAP day^ October % 1536, and arose directly out of the ,^,..^.^^.,^ visitation which had again been ordered by Crom- A.D. 1536 ^^]j ^^ vicegerent of the King in ecclesiastical mat- ters. One of the commissioners was expected at Louth on the above day^ and preparations were made which show plainly what the object of his visit was known to be. On the evening before his arrival^ It begins after the Sunday services were over, the silver pro- at LoMth sessional cross belonging to their noble church was carried on to the town green, and there used as a rallying standard for those town's-people who were prepared to resist his authority. They collected in force, and returning to the church gathered all its riches — chalices, vestments, jewels — into the nave, where an armed guard was set over them until day- break. When the commissioner appeared early in the morning he was received with the ringing of the alarm bell, and this was the first note of a religious rebellion which well-nigh thrust Henry VIII. from but fails his throne. This first rising failed, indeed, for want o^a^ieader ^f ^ leader, but Sir William Fitzwilliam, who was sent to report respecting it, wrote home to Cromwell that in every place from London to Lincoln all the people, old and young alike, were heard wishing God- speed to the rebellion in Lincolnshire, while not a voice among the common people was heard on the other side. Without a leader all the zeal in the world could not, however, prevent disintegration ; and when the Duke of Suffolk arrived with his troops he found that the rebellion had worn itself to pieces in a fortnight, so that there was no force to oppose. But the fire soon broke out again in Yorkshire, and this time a leader was found, though one too gentle and irresolute to ensure continued success. A THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE 321 country squire named Robert Aske^ of Howdon chap in Yorkshire, was at the head of this rising, and he .^^-..^-,^, had around him many of the northern gentry, some a.d. 1536 zealous as himself, others only half-hearted ; among whom were Lord Darcy, Lee, Archbishop of York, Lord Hussey, Sir Robert Constable, and Sir Chris- topher Danby. The objects of this outbreak were stated in a proclamation which was issued by Aske and his friends at the outset in the following terms : — " JMasters, all men to be ready to-morrow, and this night, Aske's and in the morning to ring your bells in every town, and to [Jq^ ™^' assemble yourselves upon Skipwith moor, and there appoint your captains, Master Hussey, Master Babthorp, and Master Gascoygn, and other gentlemen : and to give warning to all beyond the water to be ready, upon pain of death, for the commonwealth ; and make your proclamation every man to be true to the King's issue and the noble blood ; to preserve the Church of God from spoiling, and to be true to the Commons and the wealths. And ye shall have to-morrow the articles and causes of your assembly and petition to the King, and place of our meeting, and all other of power and common wealth. In haste, &c." Almost all Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the bishop- ric of Durham, gathered round Aske at this call, and he began his march southward, headed by some of the monks bearing, as banner of the " Pilgrimage of Grace," a standard marked with the five wounds of Christ. The demands made were, as before, for Demands the restoration of the dissolved monasteries, the ""^^^^^ remission of the heavy burdens imposed on the clergy, the repeal of the statute of uses, the expulsion from office of Cromwell, and '^ other villein blood," and the deprivation of Archbishop Cranmer, Arch- 322 THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE CHAP bishop Brown ^ (of Dublin), Hilsey, Bisbop of Ro- ..^^•^^^ Chester, and Longland, Bishop of Lincoln. Those AD. 1536 -yvbo were thus banded together had the badge of the five wounds on their sleeves ; and declared them- selves to be entering on their pilgrimage neither for slaughter nor profit, but for the restoration of the Provoca- Qhurch to its ancient position. Nor was it only the tions . . , which led sight of the ruins by which they were already sur- beihon ^" roundod which provoked their resistance to the new visitation, for reports were rife about further changes ; as for instance that no two churches were to be left standing within five miles of each other (a terrible prospect in a county so abounding in churches as Lincolnshire) \ that nothing more valuable than tin chalices were to be allowed them ; and that the King was about to impose a tax of six and eightpence upon every wedding, burial, or christening.* ^ This ArchToishop carried his 1539, Sir Piers Edgcomb -writes arrogance to such an extent tliat that there is dangerous discontent the King himseK wrote a letter of about these in Devonshire and severe rebuke to him on July 31, Cornwall, and that the general 1537, threatening to remove him imposition of them by CromwelFs from his office if he did not con- Injunctions to the Clergy in 1538 duct himself better. [State Papers, was supposed to portend fresh tax- ii. 480.] His clergy refused to ation. [Ibid., 612.] Such a tax was preach at aU rather than preach actually levied by 6 & 7 Wil- up the Royal Supremacy as liam III. cap. 6, when an arch- ordered [Ibid., 539] : but as Lord bishop was obliged to pay a duty Butler wrote a despatch highly of £20 on his marriage, and commending Archbishop Brown £\% 10s. annuallv afterwards ; on March 31, 1538 [Ibid., 564], he while a similar tax" of £50 was . may have mended his manners and imposed on his burial, and £10 on become more gentle with them. the burial of his wife \ other ^ State Papers, i. 482. There is members of society paying in pro- a ring of probability about these portion. By 23 Geo. III. cap. 67, reports, considering what devasta- a stamp duty was also imposed tions really took place, what extor- upon the registration of baptisms, tions were made, and how many &c. " tinnen pottes " replaced the silver Parish Registers originated and gold chalices inlateryears. The in the monasteries, and on the latter one was probably connected suppression of the latter it was with some injunction respecting necessary to issue injunctions for parish registers; for on April 20, their maintenance by the clergy. THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE 323 This experience of recent spoliations and prospect chap of others coming upon them was a strong stimulus ^^^.^^^^^ to those who had not yet been convinced that ^-o- ^536 splendid churches and hospitable abbeys were a dis- advantage to the populations among which they were situated. Badly generalled as they were^ some xempo- notable successes were achieved by the rebel forces ; ce^of the York and Hull, the two most important towns in ^^^^^^ Yorkshire, being occupied, while Scarborough and Skipton castles were besieged for some weeks, with good hope that they would ultimately be taken. Across the Humber they advanced as far south as Doncaster ; and in the north-west of the great county, they passed beyond the Tees into Durham and West- moreland. As far as circumstances would permit, they restored all the monasteries on their march ; but the few monks who were free to return to them Sad at- found nothing but empty ruins, the destruction of ^^^J^e^^i^g the roofs for the sake of the lead beins^ always a^^.'^^^- ^ "^ tenes principal object of the commissioners.^ The King collected his forces from the midland All monasteries kept their obit- date. Prohably they gained nary books, as did also the Col- ground very slowly, for besides leges at Oxford and Cambridge. Cromwell's order of September In these were entered the deaths 1538, later ones were issued in of all connected with the house, 1547, 1555, 1557 and 1559. Forty and probably with its dependent registers contain entries earlier churches. Actual parish registers than 1538. existed in Erance as early as 1308, '^ " The lead by estimation is but it is imcertain to what extent valued at m", the bells at iiij" or in Avhat form. Cardinal Xi- viii"." Supp. of Mon., Camd. menes instituted them in Spain in Soc, 163. "I have taken down 1497. The antiquarian Cole all the lead of Jervaulx:, and made mentions an English parish regis- it in pieces of half fothers, which ter of Hormead Magna beginning lead amounteth to the number of in 1537, "thirty-seven years after eighteen score and five fothers, their first ihstitution in 1501, 16 with thirty and four fothers and Henry VII." [Cole's MSS., Br. a half that were there before." Mus.] ; and copies of entries as early Ibid., 164. as 1528. exist in registers of later 324 THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE CHAP counties under the Earl of Shrewsbury, the lieu- VI ... .^^~,^.^., tenant-general of the northern district ; and with A.D. 1536 these, and other troops under the Earl of Derby, the Earls of Huntingdon and Rutland, and the Marquis of Exeter, endeavoured to strengthen the small army which the Duke of Suffolk had already marched into The King Lincolnshire to quell the first risino- at Louth. But treats with ^ tip i ■ the rebels the rebel Torces were so strong that it was thought expedient to treat with them by Lancaster Herald, who was sent to Aske at Pomfret Castle with a royal proclamation, requiring him and his followers to lay down their arms, and submit themselves to the Kings mercy. Aske received the herald in the midst of a kind of court, the Archbishop of York standing on one hand and Lord Darcy on the other ; and he at once and boldly refused to obey the pro- Their clamation, declaring that he and his people were "all ^_e^rmina- ^^ ^^^ accord with the points of our articles, clearly intending to see a reformation, or else to die in those causes." Lancaster Herald (who, poor man ! was afterwards put to death at York for parleying with Aske) has left in writing a long account of this inter- view, and he states what the requirements of Aske and his followers were : — "And then I demanded of him what his articles were. And he said one was that he and his company would go to London of pilgrimage to the King's highness, and there to have all vile blood of his Council put from him, and all noble blood set up again; and also the Faith of Christ and Fis laws to be kept, and full restitution of Christ's Church of all wrongs done unto it ; and also the Commonalty to be used as they should be : and bade me trust to this, for it should be done, or he would die for it."^ ^ State Papers, i. 486. THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE 325 These "articles" were then put in writing, and cha? sent to the King by the hands of the herald, the ..^.^-v— . Duke of Norfolk going up to Court with the pro- a.d. 1536 fessed object of seconding the petition^ but the real one of gaining time for the King s forces to be gathered. And now it is well worthy of being remarked that Emptiness notwithstanding the great spoils of which the King exchlper had possessed himself, he was absolutely without means of paying his soldiers. At first he wished Cromwell to provide money by following up the policy of his whole reign, and bade him " taste the fat priests." But the fat priests were growing very lean, and the danger already in hand through " tast- ing" them was too great to allow of his savage com- mand being carried out. Then a warrant was actually issued for the sale of the crown plate out of the jewel-house in the Tower, the very last resource to which a poverty-struck monarch could be driven ; Cromwell adding at the end of the warrant, '' His Maj esty appeareth to fear much this matter, especially if he should want money." It was probably this want of money which made Suppres- Henry agree to a general pardon of Aske and his rebellion companions, and to the holding of a parliament at York. Aske and Lord Darcy were then invited to court, the former by a letter from the King himself, written on December 15, 1536, and Lord Darcy by another epistle on January 6th.^ Aske accepted the invitation, but Lord Darcy declined to risk such a visit : the former endeavouring, but quite inef- fectually, to persuade the King to keep the promises which he had made. The people of the north ^ State Papers, i. 523. 326 THE PILGRIMAGE OF GRACE CHAP country finding themselves duped, again broke out ^^^!^^ into insurrection^ but this time the forces of the A-D. 1537 King were better prepared^ and the ^'Pilgrimage of Grace" was finally extinguished in the summer of 1537. The leaders of the former act of the Pilgrimage were now treated as if no pardon had been issued : Lord Darcy was beheaded on Tower Hill, Lord Hussey at Lincoln, and the brave Aske was hanged Execution at York Castle. A heavy vengeance, of course, fell TeadTrs ^po^ all the clergy and monks who had in any way compromised themselves in the rebellion, and the trees groaned with their ghastly burdens. Twelve abbots were hung, drawn, and quartered, and the Archbishop of York himself only escaped by pleading that he had acted under a compulsion which he was powerless to resist.® This vigorous attempt to resist any further spolia- tion of the monasteries having thus been so signally defeated, the visitors were able to go on their way 8 Among these was the Abbot of left his mark in the Beauchamp Jervanlx, who was executed at Tower in the Tower of London, Tyburn in June 1537. He has where may be seen inscribed SECOND VISITATION OF MONASTERIES 327 once more, stimulated, no doubt, afresh by the chap exhausted condition of the royal treasury. ^ ^3^ They appear to have acted under their former com- ■^■"* ^537 mission, and it must be remembered that no powers visitation were added to it by the act which had legalized the mo^^S-^ suppression of the smaller monasteries. Short as the ^^^^^^ time had been — for it was only about eighteen months since the commissioners had begun to move — all those smaller monasteries were now institutions of the pastj and nothing remained to witness to their former condition but a few broken walls and the roofless^ unglazed churches on which the moss was already. beginning to grow. A few more years and the broken walls had so multiplied^ the moss so grown^ that men began to persuade themselves picturesque decay was a better condition for churches than one of stability and beauty. But much was to be done yet before irreligion could gain this triumph. So the visitors went forth again, armed with moral and physical powers of destruction ; their way being already smoothed by spies, tempters, treacherous hypocrites, and a blood-stricken panic. In their previous visitation of 1535-36, the com- missioners had made a show of reforming the reli- gious houses : but in the following years they seem no pre- to have nearly cast off even this thin veil of reforming n^^'of intentions, and to have proceeded steadily onwards, reforming taking possession at once of all they could lay their hands on, and where they could not immediately gain the resignation of a monastery or nunnery (for they had no legal power to suppress), setting a train which miust be certain to end in the desired explosion at a future day. The monks knew well what must come, and in the VI A.D, 328 SECOND VISITATION OF MONASTERIES CHAP general panic there were many endeavours to meet^ and^ if possible^ to ward off the extreme violence of ^^537 the anticipated storm. A few of the heads of the Conceal- religious houses concealed their valuables in the hope t?easu?es ^^ better times, but the visitors seldom failed to by monks ferret out the hidden stores. Layton and Legh, for example, wrote to Cromwell respecting the Abbot of Fountains, ^^ six days before our access to his called theft monastery he committed theft and sacrilege, con- fessing the same. At midnight caused his chaplain to steal the sexton's keys, and took out a jewel, a cross of gold with stones. One "Warren, a goldsmith of the Cheap, was with him at that hour, and there they stole out a great emerald with a ruby ; the said Warren made the Abbot believe the ruby to be but a garnet, and so for that he paid nothing, for the emerald but twenty pounds. He sold him also their plate without weight or ounces."^ , It is evident the abbot was endeavouring to secure the property of the house : but he was deprived, and shortly after- wards executed, for complicity in Aske's rebellion, while the visitors recommend as his successor a monk of the house, who offered to give Cromwell six hundred marks directly after his appointment, and a thousand pounds to the King within three years by way of first-fruits. Property Othors, again, made over their lands and houses to kymen to laymen, in the hope of receiving them back from by monks i]^q^ wlicn the storm had blown over ; but the legal 8 Supp. Monast., Camd. Soc, p. about among tlie monasteries ofFer- 100. Fromaletterof Thomas Parry ing to buy their precious stones, to Crom-well [Ellis' Orig. Letters, From the above it wotild appear III. iii. 235] it appears that " one that this Bestyan was not the only Bestyan, a jeweller, who as I heard shrewd diamond merchant who did say is in London in some family this, of the Strangers there," went SECOND VISITATION OF MONASTERIES 329 subtleties by which such conveyance xras effected chap could not stand in the face of an Act of Parliament, v^--^-^^ and all such bargains were annulled, unless made a-^- ^537 under the King s license, by the Act of Suppression of 1539 : the Abbey of Sibton, sold to the Duke of Norfolk in 1536 ; and that of Cobbam, sold to Lord Cobham, being the only exceptions allowed by the Act. But the character of Cromwell seems to have Bribery of been well known to the head officers of the religious by°moTtks houses, and there was a s^eneral feelinef that the lastf^^"^"^ ' o ^ ... to save hope offered them was an appeal to his inordinate their avarice. The Prior of Durham writes a grave letter to him, saying, that whereas the Monastery of St. Cuthbert had hitherto paid him an annuity oi Jive pounds, he and his brethren would now increase it to ten pounds.'^ The Prioress of Catesby tells him, that if he can persuade the King to spare that house for the sake of two thousand marks, which she offered through the Queen, and at the same time to get her interest for the money (by way of stipend), he shall have a hundred marks to buy him a gelding, and the prayers of herself and her sisters.^ Richard, Abbot of Leicester, was '^informed it should be your pleasure that I should send forty pounds to your mastership. The said forty pounds I have sent you by money, this bearer."^ John, his successor, sends his '' right sheep honourable and most assured good lord" a brace of fat oxen, and a score of fat wethers.^ He had ac- cepted office subject to a yearly tax of two hundred and forty -two pounds, and was a thousand pounds in debt, so this present of fat oxen and sheep was a 1 Ellis' Grig. Letters, III. iii. 44. =* EUis' Grig. Letters, III. ii. 313. ' Ibid., 50. ^ Ibid., 320. 330 ATTEMPTS TO BUY OFF DESTRUCTION CHAP liberal one. The Abbot of Michelney is importuned ^^^:^^ by Cromwell for forty pounds promised to him, and ^■D. 1537 replies that he had already paid him a hundred Advow- pounds through a commissioner, Dr. Lee.^ Poor rod' ^and "^^^^"'^ Whiting of Glastonbury sends the same in- rangersiiip exorable oxtortioner an advowson, and a corrody of five pounds a year,^ together with some appoint- ments, that of Master of the Game, and Keeper of the Park of Northwood.'^ The Abbess of Godstow offers her ^^poor little fee/'^ and makes him Steward of the Abbey for life/ and uses all womanly arts to conciliate the dreadful devastator, but in vain after all. The Abbess of Shaftesbury tries to ransom her house by a payment of five hundred marks to the King and one hundred pounds to his vicegerent;^ and her neighbour, the Abbot of Cerne, follows suit with a similar offer.^ Cranmer offers unto *' his grace the King two or three hundred pounds on behalf of the brethren of Christ Church, Canter- bury,^ gave Cromwell the same profitable appoint- ments that he held from the Abbot of Glastonbury,^ and sent him periodical ^^ fees " of twenty^ and forty pounds,^ the see of Canterbury itself not being powerful enough to contend against this covetous mans extortionate demands. The bribes Such are a few of the instances in which the d vino- taken, but , 1 1 • ./ rt nothing monasteries endeavoured to buy life for a short time ^^^^^ longer at the hands of as ruthless and imperturbable a statesman as ever carried out a policy of confisca- ^ Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. ii. 334. = Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 231. « Ibid., 350. 3 Jenkyns' Life of Cranmer, i. 7 Ibid., iii. 6. 77. 8 Ibid., 116. * Ibid., 277, 280. 9 Ibid., 232. ' Ibid., 179. 1 Ibid., 230. » Ibid., 298. PREPARATIONS FOR A FIERY TRIAL 331 tion. But the endeavours were hopeless. He ac- vi cepted the gifts, appointments, money, cattle, every- ^""^""C^ thing that he could get, but went on unchangeably in the course originally marked out until the last scrap of monastic property had been gathered into the King's coffers, or appropriated to himself, his relatives, and the courtiers who formed his party/ But let it not be supposed that because such appeals were made to the covetousness of Henry and his chief minister, there were no thoughts of a higher kind in these religious houses. Solemn forebodings solemn came upon some of their inmates, such as flight [^^g^^f^'^j^^ naturally arise in the minds of men whose field of "^^nks vision wa,s not a wide one, whose reading was chiefly associated with Holy Scripture, and to whose quiet lives the disturbances of the visitation must have seemed like the powers of evil let loose upon them. Then the stronger souled men betook them- selves to preparation for violent deaths, if death should so come, as it did to many of them : and they tried to calm the agitated and unsettled minds of their weaker brethren by special devotional exercises suited to times of trouble. The curtain is lifted from an interior where this was going on after that fearful slaughter and starvation by which the breth- ren of the Charter House, to the number of about forty resolute and uncompromising men, had been exterminated. It is lifted by unfriendly and treacher- 7 Among Cromwell's o-vvn mem- Kingsmill for Wliarwell. John oranda is one relating to such Freeman ior Spalding. Myself for appropriations: — "Item, to re- Lannd. Item, to rememher John member Warner for a monastery. Godsalve for something, for he Item, Dr. Carne. The Lord Grey hath need. Item, to rememher my Wilton. Ralph Sadler. Nicholas Lord Ferrars." EUis* Orig. Letters, Rusticus, Mountgrace. Mr. Gost- II. ii. 123 n. wick for one monastery. Mr. 332 AN ABBEY INTERIOR CHAP VI ous hands, and therefoz'e the scene revealed is not likely to be represented in too good colours. It is A.D. 1537 ^^ 'vVoburn in 1535, two years before the end. The Abbot of Wo- btirn's ex- hortation to his brethren " At the time that the monks of the Charter House, with other traitors, did suffer death, the abbot did call us into the Chapter House, and said these words : — ' Brethren, this is a perilous time ; such a scourge was never heard since Christ's passion. Ye hear how good men suffer the death. Brethren, this is undoubted for our offences. Ye read, so long as the children of Israel kept the commandments of God, so long their enemies had no power over them, but God took vengeance of their enemies. But when they broke God's commandments, then they were subdued by their enemies, and so be we. Therefore let us be sorry for our offences. Undoubted He will take vengeance of our enemies; I mean those heretics that causeth so many good men to suffer thus. Also it is a piteous case that so much Christian blood should be shed. Therefore, good brethren, for the reverence of God, every one of you devoutly pray, and say this psalm, " Oh God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance ; Thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem a heap of stones. The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat to the fowls of the air, and the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the field. Their blood have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem, and there was no man to bury them. We are become an open scorn unto our enemies, a very scorn and derision unto them that are round about us. Oh remember not our old sins, but have mercy upon us, and that soon, for we are come to great misery. Help us, oh God of our salva- tion, for the glory of Thy name. Oh be merciful unto our sins for Thy name's sake. Wherefore do the heathen say, Where is now their God ? " Ye shall say this psalm every Friday after the Litany, prostrate, when ye lie upon the high altar, and undoubtedly God will cease this extreme scourge.''^ A little later, when the suppression of the small Froude's Short Studies on Great Subjects, ii. 96. ACTS OF SURRENDER 383 monasteries liad been legalized by Act of Parliament, chap the good abbot called another chapter, enjoining the , ^^^ monks to sing '^Let God arise and let His enemies ^■°- ^537 be scattered," and to say at every mass the collect of the Sarummass, '^pro tribulatione cordis/' "0 God, merciful Father, that despisest not the sighing of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as be sorrow- ful," as it stands in our Litany. Thus we hear the dying throbs of that sad devotion which ascended to a righteous Judge from altars that were about to be hewn down, and out of the stalls which were soon to be burnt for firewood. But long* before the severed limbs of this grood Visitors P . Q , . . tried to get abbot were set up as those oi a traitor,^ the visitors "voiun- had been doing their work effectually in many of the reSdere^^ monasteries which remained after the first Act of Suppression. Their first object was to obtain " sur- renders" of the monasteries into the hands of the King, by which means he became the owner of the buildings, lands, sacred vessels, jewels, and every- thing else that had hitherto been held in trust by the responsible members of each religious house. When this had been secured, the whole community was turned adrift, the church and other buildings dis- mantled, and all portable articles of value carried up to London. The commissioners had not (as has been having no mentioned before) any legal power to do all this p^f^fej. to against the will of the monks, but an act of surrender suppress signed by the head of the house and a majority of its members placed everything at their disposal. These surrenders were obtained from a large number of the monastic corporations during the years 1537, 1538, 9 The Altbot and the Prior of mutilated as traitors in 1537, when Wobnm were both hung and so many other abbots stifFered. to 334 ACTS OF SURRENDER CHAP and 1539, and they were all legalized by the second ,^^J!j^ Act of Suppression passed in the latter year. A.D. 1537 ^ fe-^ words further about these ^^ surrenders/' What many of which still exist among our records. In these sur- j^iost of these documents it is alleged that the houses, renders ^ ~ ^ really come lands, and goods are voluntarily surrendered to the King, with all titles and interests that the monks possessed in them : and that this surrender is made under the conviction that they have been guilty of crimes and vices which make them no longer deserving of their estates and possessions. But there is evidence to show that the voluntary character given to these documents was a legal — or illegal — fiction, and this evidence is corroborated by the tone of the documents themselves. It is exceedingly im- probable that any but a ready-made instrument of surrender would be couched in such words as these : That of " Forasmuch as we, the warden and friars of the house of the Stam- g^^ Francis in Stamford, commonly called the Grey Friars in lord Grey- '^ -^ iiiars Stamford, m the county of Lincoln, do profoundly consider that the perfection of Christian living doth not consist in the * dome' ceremonies, wearing of the grey coat, disguising our- selves after strange fashions, docking and becking, in girding ourselves with a girdle full of knots, and other like papistical ceremonies, wherein we have been most principally practised and misled in times past ; but the very true way to please God, and to hve a true Christian man without all hypocrisy and feigned dissimulation, is sincerely declared unto us by our Master, Christ, His Evangelists and Apostles. Being minded therefore to follow the same; conforming ourselves unto the will and pleasure of our supreme head under God in earth, the King's majesty, and not to follow henceforth the superstitious traditions of any ' forincyall' potentate or power, with mutual assent and consent, do submit ourselves unto the mercy of our said sovereign head. And with like ACTS OF SURRENDER 335 mutual assent and consent, do surrender and yield up unto chap the hands of the same all our said house of Saint Francis ^^ in Stamford, commonly called the Grey Eriars in Stamford, a.d. 1537 with all lands, tenements, gardens, most humbly beseeching his most noble Grace to dispose of us and of the same as best shall stand with his most gracious pleasure. And farther, freely to grant unto every one of us his license under writing and seal, to change our habits into secular fashion, and to receive such manner of livings as other secular priests commonly be preferred unto," &c., &c. ^ Still more wanting in probability is it that the members of any monastery* would knowingly and voluntarily put their hands to a document in which the Prior and Convent of St. Andrew of Northampton are made to confess themselves guilty of evil living in such terms as the following : — '' But as well we as others our predecessors, called religious That of persons within your said monastery, taking on us the habit of ?^" ^^" outward vesture of the said rule, only to the intent to lead our Priory, hves in the idle quietness, and not in virtuous exercise, in a ^°^"^^^" •'■ ' ' amptou stately estimation and not in obedient humility, have under the shadow or colour of the said rule and habit vainly, detes- tably, and also ungodly employed, rather devoured, the yearly revenues issuing and coming of the said possession in continual ingnrgitations and farcings of our carrion bodies, and of others the supporters of our voluptuous and carnal appetite, with other vain and ungodly expenses : to the manifest subversion of devotion and cleanness of hving. . . . Which our most horrible abominations^ and execrable persuasions of your Grace's people to detestable errors, and our long covered hypocrisy cloaked with feigned sanctity : we revolving daily, and continually pondering in our sorrowful hearts, and thereby perceiving the bottomless gulf of everlasting fire ready to devour us if, persisting in this state of hving, we should depart ' Fuller's Ch. Hist, ii. 223, ed. be misinterpreted, it should be 1837. ^ added that it relates to "dead 2 Lest the omitted passage should images and counterfeit relics." 336 UNSPARING EXPULSION OF MONKS CHAP from this Tincertain and transitory life, constrained hy the ^^ intolerable anguish of our consciencCj called as we trust hy the A.D. 1537 g'^'ctce of God who would have no 'man to perish in sin: with hearts most contrite and repentant, prostrate at the nohle feet of your most royal Majesty, most lamentably do crave of your Highness of your abundant mercy, to grant unto us most grievous against God, and your Highness, your most gracious pardon for our said offences, omissions, and negligences, com- mitted as before by us is confessed, against your Highness, and your most nohle progenitors" After which follows the resignation itself, signed by the prior, sub-prior, and. eleven brethren.^ Suchdocu- Credulous writers have actually taken such over- Transpa- doue documents as true confessions of the enormities worthless ^^^g^d against the monks ; and not only have sup- as evidence posed them to be unanswerable as to the criminality of the persons signing, but also to be irrefutable evidence as to the utter impurity and rottenness of the system for many previous generations. But one who wrote almost at the time of the sup- pression, and from the account of relatives who had witnessed it, tells us how the visitors made their ap- pearance at Roche Abbey, and it will be seen that the statement is, at least in this instance, wholly inconsistent with such confessions as the above, such servile aspirations after the King s pardon, and such earnest desire to be released from the monastic life. Contem- " So soon," he says, " as the visitors were entered within the porary gates, they called the abbot and other of&cers of the house, view 01 a "surren- and caused them to deliver up to them all their keys, and *^^^" took an inventory of- all their goods; and when they had so done, turned the abbot ^^ith all his convent and household forth of the doors. Which thing was not a little grief to the convent, and especially such as with their conscience could '^ Fuller's Ch. Hist., ii. 225, ed. 1837. UNSPARING EXPULSION OF MONKS 33/ not brealv their profession ; for it would have made a heart of chap flint to have melted and "wept to have seen the breaking up ^^ of the house and their sorrowful departing."* a.d. 1537 And even one of the visitors bears witness to the same effect : — " Divers of the friars are very loath to forsake their houses, and yet they be not able to hve ; for I think, for the more part of them, if all their debts should be paid, all that is in their houses is not able to do it." ..." There was an Anchoress with whom I had not a little business to have her grant to come out, but out she is."^ The real fact is, that these contemptible docu- characie-a ments are cut-and-dried forms which were placed r^ndeiV* before the monks for signature without any regard to their knowledge of the contents. It is quite prob- able that some^ in their utter despair^ grew indifferent to everything, as old people will, and when they were told to sign their names to a document did so. Those also who had already charged their brethren with vice and crime^ at the instigation of Croinwell and the visitors, and in the hope of reward^ would, of course^ do so without any scruple. But many houses would have nothing to do with the surrender, and gave the visitors much trouble : some refusing to the last. The difficulty thus created was some- times got over by displacing a refractory abbot, and Refractory abbots substituting one who would be pliant enough for the ^yj-,^^^ visitors' purpose, as in the case of the monastery of Evesham, from .which Abbot Lichfield was thrust out to make room for Abbot Hawford, a young monk, who surrendered the house directly, and thus obtained a pension of two hundred and forty pounds ^ Elhs' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 32. ^ ^hl^.^ 190. Y out 338 SOME PROTESTATIONS MADE CHAP a year^ and was afterwards made Dean of Worcester.^ .^^^^^^.^ Sometimes pliant bishops were made abbots for A.D. 1537 tbe same object^ or abbots rewarded with bishop- abtas re- ^^^'^ *^^ their engagement to surrender^ as it is plain warded from the dates was the case with More, Bishop of Colchester; Holgate, Bishop of LlandafF; Hilsey, Bishop of Rochester ; Holbeach, Bishop of Bristol ; and Barlow^ Bishop of St. David's. Where actual disloyalty could be directly or constructively proved, the Crown made short shrift about surrenders, as in the case of those houses which were implicated in the Pilgrimage of Grace : the monks were tied up to the nearest beam, the abbots condemned to the halter and the butcher's knife (on what Cromwell called ^^ sorted" evidence), and the property at once confis- cated. But after all the care taken by the visitors to make it appear that these surrenders were voluntary, there were bold men who sent up their protest to head- quarters, and so left it on record for posterity as strong evidence of the falsehood by which the com- missioners' proceedings were characterized. Such a protest is that of the Abbot of Vale Royal. ^^ My good Lord," he wrote to Cxx)mwell, '' the truth is, I nor my said brethren have never consented to sur- render our monastery, nor yet do, nor never will do by our good wills, unless it shall please the King s grace to give us commandment so to do, which I cannot perceive in the commission of Master Hol- Faisified croft SO to be. And if any information be given surrenders ^^^^ j^g Majesty, Or uuto your good Lordship, that we should consent to surrender, as is above said, I assure your good Lordship upon my fidelity and » EUis' Grig. Letters, III. iii. 249. REAL FEELING OF MONKS 339 truth, there was never none such consent made by me, chap nor my brethren ; nor no person nor persons had ..^ — ^^^ authority so to do in our names." ^ ^'^' ^^^' Let it not be supposed then that the documents called surrenders really speak the truth as to the spirit in which the monks quitted their monasteries. A. judicial mind, otherwise well-informed as to the history of the transactions they profess to represent, must reject them at once, and will have little hesita- Surrenders tion in saying that they have the nature of malicious f nreiiabfe forgeries, got up by such profligate and unscrupulous documents men as London, Layton, and Legh. Much more historical vralsemblance is there in the letter which a Somersetshire prior, the Prior of Hinton, wrote to his brother Alan Horde of the Middle Temple, announcing that at last he and his brethren Avere ready to give way. His letter is pre- served among the Cottonian Manuscripts, and is as follows : — "Jlaus. " In our Lord Jhesu shall be yoiir salutation. And where ye marvel that I and my brethren do not freely aud voluntarily give and surrender up our house at the motion of the King's A pv'ic.r'-, commissioners, but stand stiffly, and, as ye think, obstinately ^^>=^"|ss in our opinion ; truly, brother, I marvel greatly that ye think renderiuy; so ; but rather that ye would have thought us hght and hasty in giving up that thing which is not ours to give, but dedicate to Almighty God for service to be done to his honour con- tinually, with other many good deeds of charity which daily be done in this house to our Christian neighbours. And con- sidering that there is no cause given by us why the house shall be put down, but that the service of God, religious con- 7 SiTjjp. of Monasteries, Camd. forged Act of Surrender, profess- Soc, p. 244. This letter was ing to the signed hy the abbot an I ■wi'itten on Sept. 9, 1539. The fourteen monks, is dated Sept. 7th. 340 SPOLIATION OF MONASTIC TREASURIES CHAP versation of the brethren, hospitality, alms-deeds, with all ^^ other our duties, be as well observed iu this poor house as in A.D. 1537 any religious house in this realm or in France ; which we have trusted that the King's grace woidd consider. But because that ye write of the King s high displeasure, and my lord privy seal's, who ever hath been my especial good lord, and I trust yet will be, I will endeavour myself, as much as I may, to persuade my brethren to a conformity in this matter ; so that the King's highness nor my said goocj lord shall have any cause to be displeased with us, trusting that my poor brethren, which know not where to have their living, shall be charitably looked upon. Thus our Lord Jliesu preserve you in grace. "E. HOEB." Such was the real character of the acts by which the commissioners obtained possession of the monas- teries. It can hardly be considered that the " sur- renders" "were more satisfactory^ as regards justice Parallel of and Constitutional law, than would be the uncondi- modenr^ tioual Surrender of all the rectories, their churches, surrender their lands, titheS; secular and ecclesiastical furniture, into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for the use of the present sovereign of England. But comparatively few of the monasteries were able to hold out against the various influences which were brought to bear upon them; and although some still remained to be disposed of when the second Act of Suppression was passed in the year 1539-40, most of them^had by that time succumbed. What foi- And after the '' surrender came the razing," iuTrentos ^hich must havo left a very conspicuous trail of material desolation along the course of the commis- sioners' travels. Piteous as it is to think upon their stones and to see them in the dust, even when we forget how Fountains, or Whitby, or Tynemouth, or Valle Crucis, or Tintern, or Glastonbury, or Read- NINE TONS OF GOLD AND SIL VER PLA TE TAKEN 341 ingj or Bury St. Edmund's came to be what tliey chap are, it is still more piteous when we come to see that .^.^-v-^^ but for wanton waste and lawless avarice they might ^'^' ^^^^ still be what Westminster, or Beverley, or Chester, or Peterborough are at the present day. Wherever the visitors came they first packed up and sent away Taidng all the valuables which they could find, Cromwell's of vaiu-°" piivate instructions being evidently in agreement ^^^^ with one of his memoranda still preserved. " Item, to remember all the jewels of all the monasteries in England, and specially for the cross at Paul's, of emeralds. Item, to remember my Lord of Canter- bury, his hest mtre to be demanded in the lieu of the King's legacy." ^ Scarcely a letter of the visitors but contains some such announcements as '^ I have of these three houses 800 ounces of plate." ^ . . . ^^ We have taken in the said monastery" (Bury St. Edmund's) ^* in gold and silver 5000 marks, and above, over and besides a well and rich cross with emeralds, as also divers and sundry stones of great value." ^ . . . " The household stuff and ornaments of the church " (Leicester), " which amount unto 228 pounds. The plate ... is valued at by weight 190 pounds."^ In the account-roll of the King's Amount of jewel-keeper, the quantity of plate thus set down is proprSed 14,531 ounces of gold, 207,635 of silver-gilt, and k^JJ^ 67,000 ounces of silver, or about nine tons of gold and silver plate. In the same document is entered about £80,000 which had been received in money for other goods belonging to the monasteries.^ 8 Ellis' Grig. Letters, 11. ii. 120, ^ g^^pp^ ^f Monast, Camd. Soc, from Cotton. MS., Titus, b. i. p. 163. fl Ibid., III. iii. 185. ^ pointed for the Abbotsford 1 Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc, Club by Mr. TumbuU p. 144. 342 BELLS, LEAD, AND CHAP After the jewels and plate, the next things to ..^.^-^^ which the visitors turned their attention were the v.u. 1538 jgp^^j ^^^ ^^ bells, respecting which there are also many entries in the letters and accounts of the visitors. Sometimes they appear to have been either too busy or too indifferent to go further in the work of destruction, but there were many cases in which nothing more was done, simply because the buildings were too massive to be destroyed, except at the cost of more money than the materials could be sold for. Destnic- " It may please yonr good Lordship to understand," "writes tionofthe joiin Freeman to Cromwell, "that the Kinej's Commission buildings ° commandeth me to pull down to the ground all the walls of the churches, steeples, cloisters, frater-houses, dormitories, chapter-houses, with all other houses, saving them that be necessary for a farmer. Sir, there be more of great houses in Lincolnshire than be in England beside suppressed of their values, with thick. walls, and most part of them vaulted, and few buyers of either stone, glass, or slate, which might help the charges of plucking down of them. Wherefore, I certify your Lordship that it will be chargeable to the King, the down-pulling of them, if I should follow the commission, by the least 1000 pounds within the shire. Therefore, I think it Bjllsar.d were best to avoid this charge, to take first down the bells and lead, which I am about to do ; for I had both a plumber and finer from London with me with all necessaries to them appertaining; which bells and lead will rise well and to a great sum, by the least six or seven thousand marks : and this done, to pull down the roofs, battlements, and stairs, and let the walls stand, and charge some with them as a quarry of stone to make sales of, as they that hath need will fetch." ^ Thus was the utter ruin of the monks' dwellings * Elhs' Orig. Letters, III. iii. blown up portions of the priory 268. The present writer remem- church, there with gunpowder, to hers an old sexton of Tynemouth sell the stones ; and that houses who told him that he had often were built with them. BUILDING MATERIALS 343 and offices, and of the Houses of God, brouis^ht about chap VT as it might have been brought about by a company .^^.^^^ of Mahometans or Pagans. In some accounts which ^•°- ^53S are preserved are such entries as these : — "Sold to Ealph Sheldon, Esqre., and Mr. Markliam, the iron and glass in the windows of the north side of the cloister. , . . TUm^ received of the same Mr. Greville for a little table and the paving stone there. . . . Item, sold to j\Ir. ^^1^^"| Markham the paving tile of the north side of the cloister. . . . glass, cai-v- Itcm, the pavement of the east side of the cloister sold to a ^^^ ^^^^^' servant of the Bishops of Worcester [Latimer]. . . . lU)n,\XiQ glass of the east side of the cloister sold to Mr. Morgan. . . . Item, sold to Thomas Korton a buttress at the east end of the church. . . . Itm%, the pavement in the choir, sold to j\Ir. Streets. . . . lUw., the friars seats in the choir, sold to John Laughton. . . . Item, the roof of the church, sold to Sir Thomas Gilbert and Edmund Wetherins of Chekeley parish . . . Item., the glass and iron in the windows of Saint Michael's chapel, sold to John Eorman. . . . Item, the timber of the said chapel, sold to Wilham Loghtonhouse. . . . Item, the shingle of the same chapel, sold to AVilliam Bagnall."^ Almost more sad than this spirit of merchandize is the wanton sacrilege recorded of himself by the infamous Dr. London : — " At Eeading I did only deface the church : all the windows Dr. Lon- being full of friars ; and left the roof and walls whole to the (jefLces ^ King's use. ... At Aylesbury . . . I only sold the glass churches Avindows and their ornaments with their utensils. I left the house wliole, and only defaced the church. ... At Warwick ... I defaced the church windows and the cells of the dor- mitory as I did in every place, saving in Bedford and Ayles- bury, where were few buyers."*^ But when it began to be fully understood that this 5 Supp. of Monast., Camd. Soc, '' EUis' Grig. Letters, III. iii, pp. 266-27S. 131. 344 POOR PEOPLE AND OTHERS JOIN CHAP utter ruin was to be effected^ even the starving monks .^^..^.^^ and their secular neighbours assisted in the work of .\.D. 1538 spohation. In Scarborough the Bishop of Dover unHcensed fouud the black, white^ and grey friars ^' so poor that plunder tbev have sold the stalls and parcloses in the church, ensues '^ . , -*■ . ' so that nothing is left but the stone and glass, yet there is meetly good lead in these three places." In Warwickshire, writes London — " The poor people thoroughly in every place be so greedy upon these houses when tliey be suppressed, that by night and day, not only of the towns, but also of the country, they do continually resort as long as any door, window, hon, or glass, or loose lead remaineth in any of them. And if it were so done only where I go, the more blame might be laid to me, hut it is universally that the people he thus greedy for irony windows, doors, and lead."^ Which testimony of the visitors themselves is curi- ously corroborated in the case of Roche Abbey by a subsequent writer, who says : — ■ Contem- " I demanded of my father, thirty years after the Suppression, porary ac- -^}^ici^ ^^d boucrht part of the timber of the church, and all count of . . reasons for the timber in the steeple, with the bell-frame, with others his plundering pa^^^tners therein (in the which steeple hung eight, yea, nine bells, whereof the least but one could not be bought at this day for twenty pounds ; which bells I did see hang there my- self more than a year after the Suppression), whether he thought well of the religious persons and of the religion then used. And he told me, Yea : for, he said, I did see no cause to the contrary. Well, said I, then, how came it to pass, you was so ready to destroy and spoil the thing that you thought well of ? Wliat should I do ? said he. Might I not, as well as others, have some profit of the spoil of the abbey ? for I did see all would away, and therefore I did as others did. Thus you may see that as well they who thought well of the religion then used, as they which thought otherwise could agree well ^ EUis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 188. s ibi^l^^ 139^ INFLUENCE OF MITRED ABBOTS BROKEN 345 enough, and too well, to spoil them. Such a devil is cove- chap tousness and mammon ! and such is the providence of God to ^^ punish sinners in making themselves instruments to punish ^.d. 1539 themselves and all their posterity from generation to genera- tion. For no doubt there hath been millions that have repented the thing since; but all too late."^ County after county was thus desolated^ yet some a few of the more powerful monasteries, and especially ^o°s|g those whose mitred abbots sat in Parliament. ^°^f °^^ ^ ^ to the last still remained comparatively untouched. It became necessary, therefore, to break down the force of their active resistance and, scarcely less, of their ^^dead-weight" by some signal example. Two suc- cessive Abbots of Colcbester^ were executed in the year 1539, and also the Abbot of Reading, all three being Lords of Parliament : and perhaps these were not all who suffered at that time in terroreni. But the final act of the tragedy was ushered in by a deed of horrible atrocity, which has left its mark in Somer- setshire hearts to the present day, and which may be classed with such detestable acts as the execution of the aged Countess of Salisbury, Bishop Fisher, and Sir Thomas More. The last Abbot of Glastonbury was Richard Execution Whiting. Why he was singled out for an example ^ot^of ^''' is not clear : but probably to show forcibly the over- piaston- , t/ bury powering character of the royal will by destroying an ecclesiastic of immense moral weight and territorial influence. To adopt the language used ten years before respecting his friend Wolsey, the Abbot of Glastonbury was probably considered to be the '' bell-wether" of the mitred abbots, and when he had ** Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. ^ Thomas Marshall in January, 34. and John Beach in Deceniher. y46 LAST DA YS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT CHAP fallen the others would be without hope, and an easy ,^.^3^ W^l' He was an old man, about eighty years of AD. 1539 age, and had been long known for his practical piety and his great-souled hospitality. Every Wednesday and Friday the poor of the neighbourhood came in crowds to his gate, and as many as five hundred of His high the county gentry sometimes sat down at his table ; and^^nflu^- while he had the sons of the latter living in the monas- ence tery, to the number of three hundred, for the purpose of an education such as is now given at Eton or Win- chester, besides many other youths of a lower rank whom he gratuitously supported with the same object as a preparation for Oxford and Cambridge. The visitors (or inquisitors, as Englishmen would call them elsewhere than in England) came suddenly to Glastonbury, at ten o'clock one morning at the end of September 1539, and found that the Abbot was at an outlying residence called Sharpham, about a mile distant from the abbey. Thither they hur- ried as quickly as they could, and finding the old Thevisi- abbot in his study, began to examine him on sub- tors GX" • amine him, jects of wliicli he appears to have known nothing, hS^house^^ and therefore could confess nothing : '' and for that his answer was not then to our purpose, we advised him to call to his remembrance that which he had as then forgotten/ and so declare the truth." They brought him back to the abbey ; and when the old man had gone to bed at night, began '^ to search his study for letters and books : and found in his study secretly laid, as well a written book of arguments against the divorce of his King's Majesty and the lady-dowager, lolvich %ve take to he a great uiatters^^ (though poor Catherine had been dead four years !), '^as also, divers pardons, copies of bulls, and the LAST DAYS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT 347 counterfeit life of Thomas Becket in print ; but we chap • • VT could not find any letter that was material." Having .^^.^-^^ thus found an old pamphlet among the litter of the ^•^- ^539 abbot's study, ^ and a life of Becket in his " Golden Legend/' they considered themselves provided with what they ample materials for a charge of treason, but thought prove him proper to put him through another examination, his ^ *^"^^^°^ answers, they write to Cromiwell, clearly making '^ appear his cankered and traiterous heart and mind against the King's Majesty and his succession." Then they sent him up to London to the Tower, apologizing to Cromwell for their leniency^ by ex- plaining that the abbot is " a very weak man and sickly." This apology is succeeded by a significant statement, which shows what the real object of the commissioners was : — " As yet we have neither discharged servant nor monk ; but Their ti-ue now tlu abhot being gone, we will, with as much celerity as we qJ^^o^-^^ may, proceed to the dispatching of them. We have in money bury £300 and above ; but the certainty of plate and other stuff there as yet we know not, for we have not had opportunity for the same, but shortly we intend (God willing) to proceed to the same ; whereof we shall ascertain your Lordship so shortly as we may. This is also to advertise your Lordship that we have found a fair chaliee of gold, and divers other IKtrccls of 'plaie, whicJi the Allot had hid secretly from all such commissioners as have leen there in times past ; and as yet he knoweth not that we have found the same ; whereby we thinlc that he thought to make his hand, by his untruth to his Eang's majesty." 3 A week later they write — " We have daily found and tried out both money and plate 2 In Stevens* History of ]\Ion- vorce "witliout Whiting's kaow- asteiies, i. 452, it is asserted that ledge. Nothing more iSiely. the searchers themselves brought ^ gij^pp^ Qf Mon., Camd. Soc, p. ill this little book agaiast the di- 256. U8 LAST DAYS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT CHAP liid and mured up in walls, vaults, and other secret places, as VI well by the abbot as other of the convent, and also conveyed ^]^Z^^c^ to divers places in the country. ... At our first entry into the treasure house and vestry also we neither found jewels. They rifle plate, nor ornaments sufficient to serve a poor parish church, the abbey ^j^ereof we could not a little marvel : and thereupon immedi- ately made so diligent enquiry and search, that with vigilant labour we much improved the same, and have recovered again into our hands both money, plate, and ornaments of the church. How much plate we know not, for we had no leisure yet to weigh the same ; but we think it of a great value, and we increase it more every day, and shall do as we suppose, for our time here being. We assure your Lordship that the abbot and the monks aforesaid had embezzled and stolen as much plate and adornments as would have sufficed to have begun a new abbey : what they meant thereby, we leave it to your judgment. Whether the King's pleasure shall be to execute his laws upon the said four persons, and to minister justice, according to their desert, or to extend his mercy toward them, and wliat his majesty's pleasure is, it may please your Lordship to advertise us thereof."* On the 2nd of October the same commissioners^ Pollard, Moyle, and Layton, write that they have discovered divers and sundry treasons committed by the abbot, which they have noted in a book accom- panying their letter. Theab- The real "treason" committed by the abbot and crfmeTn^ his brethren was that of endeavom^ng to save the their eyes treasm'es dedicated to God from the hands of the King and courtiers by concealing them. The same thing is said to have been done in other places ; and at Durham there is a tradition (known also on the Continent), that the jewels and plate of the cathe- dral still remain in their place of concealment.^ This * Supp. of Mon., Camd. Soc, p. made to discover this place of coii- 258. cealment in the year 1867. ^ Two official attempts were LAST DAYS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT 349 was a kind of treason which was unpardonable, and chap provision was made for trying the abbot at Wells. .^.^-v-^^ What kind of provision was thus made is indicated ^•^- ^539 by some private memoranda of Cromwell's which still exist in his handwriting : — "Item, Certain persons to be sent to the Tower for the Crom- further examination of the Abbot of Glaston. Ilem, The ?^'^^''^. idea of a Abbot of Glaston to he tried at Glaston, and also to he executed "trial," there with his accompUces. Counsellors to give evidence ^"^ °^ ^''''' ^ o dence against the Abbot of Glaston, Eichard Pollard, Lewis Forscen, Thomas Moyle. Item, To see that the evidence he well sorted, and the indictments well drawn against the said Abbot and their accomplices." So the grand old abbot, much broken in mind with sickness and imprisonment, was taken to Wells, to go through the formality of a trial by jury, his condemnation having been already insured by a ^^ sorting" of the evidence, and his execution having been already determined upon. When he arrived at Wells, the old man was in- How the formed that there was an assembly of the gentry condiTc^eci and nobility, and that he was summoned to it : on which he proceeded to take his seat among them, the habits of a long and honourable life clinging to him even after his imprisonment. Upon this the crier of the court called him to the bar to answer a charge of high treason. " What does it all mean ?" he asked of his attendant, his memory, and probably his sight and hearing, having failed. His servant replied that they were only trying to alarm him into submission, and probably this was the opinion of most who attended the court, as well as of the jurors, "as worshipful a jury," writes Lord Eussel to Cromwell, 6 Ellis' Grig. Letters, II. ii. 120, from Cotton. MS., Titus, b. i. 350 LAST DA YS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT CHAP ^^ as was charged here tliis many years. And there ,_^..^-,^ was never seen in these parts so great an appearance A-^- 1539 as were at this present time, and never better willing The aged to serve the King." He was soon condemned, demned though he appears not to have understood . what had happened; and the next day, November 15, 1539, he was taken to Glastonbury in his horse-litter. It was only when a priest came to receive his con- fession as he lay that he comprehended the state of things ; then he begged that he might be allowed to take leave of his monks before going to. execution, and also to have a few hours to prepare for his death. andtreated But uo delay was permitted, and the old man was ton cruelty thrust out of the litter on to a hurdle, upon which he was rudely dragged through the town to the top of the hill which overlooks the monastery/ What fol- lowed may be told in the words of Lord Russel : — " My Lord, this shall be to ascertain that on Tlmrsday the 14th day of this present month the Abbot of Glastonbury was arraigned, and the next day put to execution with two other of his monks, /(9r tlu robbing of G-lastonlury ChitrcJi, on the Torr HiU next unto the town of Glaston, the said Abbot's body being divided in four parts, and head stricken off, whereof one quarter standeth at Wells, another at Bath, and at Ilchester and Bridgewater the rest, and his head upon the abbey gate at Glaston.^ .... J. Eussel." His gentle- While he was waiting for the hangman, he was questioned again by Pollard as to the concealment of plate, but he had nothing more to say, and would accuse neither himself nor others/ but ^^ thereupon took his death very patiently." Popular What impression this piteous trasfedy made upon feelinsf on o »/ i the subject the people of the West Country is partly shown by ^Stevens' History of Monas- ^ Supp. of Monast.,Camd.Soc.,260. teries, i. 452. ILid., 262. ness and patience LAST DA YS OF A VENERABLE ABBOT 351 CHAP VI two verses of a Somersetsliire ballad belonging to the succeeding century ; in which a countryman on his way to London by Glastonbury is made to sing as ^^- ^539 follows : — " Ice azked whose tooke downe the leads an tlie beels, And they tould me a doctar that lived about Wels : In the 7th of Jozhua pray hid them goe looke, Chill be hanged if thick same chaptar be not out of his bookc. Yor thare you may reade about Achan's "wedge, How thick zame goolden thing did zettz teeth an edge, *Tis an ominous thing how this church is abused, Remember how poor Abbott "Whitting was used."^ It was probably but one tragedy among many, but Not the the age of the victim, his venerable character, and tragedy probably other circumstances of which the memory is lost, helped to give this a detailed place in the history of the dissolution when others have only left a name and a date.^ So, if such days should come '' Halliwell's Collection of Pieces in the Dialect of Zummerzet, p. 4. 2 There is, it seems probable, another slight memorial of event in the inscription — - tliis which still remains upon the walls of the Beauchamp Tower in the Tower of London : for this is pro- bably the handiwork of Hugh Cook, Abbot of Reading, who was imprisoned with Abbot Whiting, and respecting whom also Crom- well made the memorandum. SlOll 352 LEGALIZING THE CONFISCATIONS CHAP again, the fate of some mucli-venerated dean maybe ..^..^^^told to future centuries, and that of his brother A.D. 1540 (ieans be scarcely noticed. Second And so at last the way "was cleared for the Second SuppL- ^ct of Suppression [31 Hen. VIII. cap. 13], by which the devastation; sacrilege, and rapacity of the last four years was to be legalized. The way had been so well cleared that^ as far as can be made out, no further resistance was offered in Parliament or elsewhere. Despair had taken hold upon all who were yet left to represent the so lately widespread and influential communities of monks, and the last of them melted away before the giant power of Tudor will and tyranny. Enough is told of the Act itself when it is said the object of it was not to suppress monasteries, but to invest in the Crown all which had been surrendered, or should be thereafter sur- simpiyfor rendered. As the abbots and brethren were only monastic trustees of their houses and estates, having nothing the aown ii^ore than a life-interest in them, they could only surrender the life-interest which they possessed. The Act of Parliament was therefore necessary to place all their property permanently in the hands of the King and his successors. It does not, like the Act of 1535, allege any reasons for doing this, but simply states that " sundry abbots, priors, abbesses, prior- esses, and other ecclesiastical governors and gover- nesses of divers monasteries ... of their own free and voluntary minds, good wills, and assents, " liem, the Ahbot of Reading to be " The Prior of Beading . . . was sent down to he tried and executed removed . . . irnto Beatcham at Reading with his accomjDlices." Tower, accompanyed with the A further record of the im- parson of Honey Lane and Xrofer prisonment C the last - named Coo, to he convertede." Ellis' Ahhot is contained in a letter of Orig. Letters, III. ii. 163. John Whalley to Cromwell, — BV SECOND ACT OF DISSOLUTION 353 without constraint^ coaction, or compulsion of any chap manner of person or persons/' have resigned and ,^^_^,.^^ granted to the King all their houses, estates, and ^•°- '54o privileges, and therefore it is enacted that the King shall have, hold, possess, and enjoy them to himself and to his successors for ever. An Act of the fol- ^^^'s^^l^ ^^ lowing year suppressed the Knights of St. John of supprLi,scd Jerusalem; and in 1545-6 one was passed [37 Hen. VIII. cap. 4] which placed the endowments of the universities, of all colleges of priests, and of all chantries, at the mercy of the King. Commissioners Further in- were appointed under the latter Act to take posses- Hen^viu sion of the institutions confiscated ; but before they were able to do this Henry's death took place, and another Act became necessaay in the next reign.^ Thus we come to the end of this vast scheme of spoliation. But before gathering up some of the results which followed, there is one important question which remains yet untouched. It may be said thatM^ii'y^ although there was much fraud, cruelty, and wanton of monks destruction of Church property associated with the dissolution of the monasteries, yet the general wicked- ness and the useless lives of their inmates was such as fully to justify their suppression. One may regret, it may be added, that so much Church property should have been diverted from Church uses, and that so many sacred buildings should have been 3 It is somewhat singular that year income : in 1540 completed Henry VIII.'s great financial at- the dissolution of the greater mon- tacks on the Church occurred in asteries : in 1545 he attacked the regular succession, and at regular universities and chantry chapels, intervals of about five years. In Before another lustre had passed, 1530 he imposed an enormous fine the King was caUed to his ae- on the clergy ; in 1535 dissolved count, the naonasteries imder £200 a 354 EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE MORAL CHAP desecrated and ruined ; but the blame of tlus rests, -.^Jt-^^ i^ the first instancej on those who had so abused the system to which they belonged as to provoke their own dowmfall^ and in their downfall to drag down a great deal besides themselves, which but for them might have stood to this day. Some truth That there is some truth in such a statement has statements been showu already in the opening pages of this chapter ; but, as has been there remarked, the evi- dence that remains to us as to the condition of the monasteries is too incomplete, and too one-sided to permit the impartial historian to endorse fully the opinion above expressed. No doubt there are many censures of the lives of monks which were written by friendly hands in various ages : but it is to be observed that such censures were generally aimed at something very different from what we understand by immorality or irreligion. When ascetic censors complained that the monks were wanting in religion, Exaggera- it was the " rcligio " of the monastery and the rule as^cetic of the fouudcr that they had in view : when that they were wanting in devotion, it was in that exalted devotion of saints to which few persons in ordinary life ever attain : when that they were self-indulgent, it was in such self-indulgence as failing to wake for the choir service of the night-hours, or taking a morsel of meat during lon^ bread-and-water fasts : when that luxury was overwnelming the monastic' system, it was because the guest house was too sumptuous in its hospitality, or the straw mattresses of the monks' cells made somewhat less hard than formerly/ The censures of ascetic writers must, ■* Ammonius wrote to Erasmus, his visit to England, che beds being advising him not to put up at any so very ' hard, and the fare so of the London monasteries duri::;; meagre. Erasmus took the hint. censors visitationi= CONDITION OF THE MONASTERIES 355 tlierefore, be understood according to their original chap intention, and laxity in respect to ascetic discipline ^^^-^ must not be confounded with what is understood by the Christian world at large as luxury or laxity of morals. "Bloated monks'' are a common Protestant ideal, but they to whom the term was applied were probably no more commonly degenerated as monks than the " the bloated aristocracy " of a republican ideal are commonly degenerated as gentlemen : and this Protestant ideal was as far as possible from the minds of the friendly censors who are so often brought forward as witnesses in support of it. But there is another class of witnesses upon whose Official re- testimony much reliance has been placed, the com- auife'''''^^ missioners or visitors who inspected or professed to ^ inspect all the monasteries in England during the five years which preceded the last Act of Suppres- sion, and who sent up reports of what they professed to observe as to the moral condition of the monks and nuns. Supposing these to have been high- minded men, we might take their veracity for granted, and when they reported cases of immorality we should consider their report as settling the ques- tion. Were they such? We do not find much information as to the character of these visitors, but let us see what it is that we do find. It is certain that the King himself had a very ciiaracter poor opinion as to the trustworthiness of those whom Kill's he used as his instruments in the dissolution. A^^^^^"^^"* Mr. George Paulet, whose duties kept him much in the King's gallery at Whitehall, declared that the King frequently boxed Cromwell's ears— that he called him villain, knave, and other contemptuous names ; and the same Paulet added — what is pretty 356 EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE MORAL CHAP well proved by documentary evidence — that the -^.r-.^ vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters was the greatest briber and taker of bribes in England/ The King suspected him of fraud on a large scale, and although his last piteous and undignified letter from the Tower denies this, it is impossible to doubt that the King's suspicions were correct, for John Gostwicke, one of Cromwell's agents, acquaints his ^' excellent Majestie" that he has in hand £10,000 which he had retained unknown to the Earl of Essex, that the latter might not order him to disburse it without warrant, that is to appropriate it to Cromwell's own use in some kind of investment.^ From another source^ we learn that a miserable set of ribald ballad writers were kept in his pay — in his family as Foxe says — for the purpose of vilifying with their hack pens those whom he was opposing in ecclesiastical matters. All which, and much more to the same effect might be added as regards Cromwell, shows that he was a most unscrupulous man, and known to be so ; and if his agents wrote him false ribaldry under the pretence that it was just and true evidence, they would only have been acting according to his policy, and possibly in obedience to his orders. Henry VIII. certainly called his chief adviser of those days a "knave" and a ''villain" with very good reason. The King's But the Kiug's opinion as to the trustworthiness his visitors of the visitors themselves is also on record : — " Sir/' writes Giffard, one of the best of them, to Cromwell, "forasmuch as of late my fellows and I did write unto Mr. 5 State Papers, ii. 551. This « Ellis' Ori.^. Letters, II. ii. was said in 1539, before Crom- 162, well's disgrace. ? Foxe's Acts and Mon., v. 403. CONDITION OF THE MONASTERIES 357 Chancellor of the augmentations in the favour of the abbey of cHAP St James, and the nunnery of Catesby in Northamptonshire, ^^ which letter he showed unto the King's Highness in the favour of those houses, where the King's Highness was dis- pleased : as he said to my servant Thomas Harper : saying that it was like that we had received rewards which caused us to vjrite as we did. . . "^ Yet four commissioners had made this favourable report of Catesby nunnery. It is thus shown that the King had selected men for visitors whom he considered capable of being bribed^ and of telling falsehoods if they were paid for doing so : and also that he had them sent out to make unfavourable^ not favourable reports. The luxury, vanity^ and venality of Dr. Legh are Evidence reported to Cromwell by one of his fellow commis- character sionerS; John ap Rice : — °^ ^^s^ "In his going he is too insolent an d pompatique ; ... he handleth the fathers where he cometh very roughly, and many times for small causes, as the Abbots of Bruton and Stanley, and LP of Edington for not meeting of him at the door where they had no warning of his coming. . . . The man is young and of intolerable elation of mind. . . . Also in his visitation he refuseth many times his reward though it be competent, for that they offer him so httle, and maketh them to send after him such rewards as may please him. Sir, surely religious men were never so afraid of Dr. Allen as they be of him, he useth such rough fashion with them. He hath twelve men waiting on him in a livery, beside his own brother, which must be rewarded specially beside his other servants. . . ."^ This Legh was one of the chief revilers of the monks and nuns : but it is not of such stuff that credible witnesses are made. Supp. of Monast., Camden " Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. ii Soc, p. 136. 356. 358 EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE MORAL CHAP Dr. London was a dignitary of the Churchy ._Z^ Warden of New College from 1526 to 1542, Canon of Windsor, Dean of Osney, and Dean of Walling- ford : holding other preferments besides. Here is his character written by the strongly Protestant Archdeacon Louth, and in connection with quite other matters than the visitation of the monasteries : Evidence " But to what open shame Doctor London was afterwards character P^*' y^\\h Open penance with two smocks on his shoulders, for of London Mrs. Thykked and Mrs. Jennynges, the mother and the daughter, and how he was taken with one of them by Henry Plankney in his gallery, being his sister's son — as it was then known to a number in Oxford and elsewhere ; so I think that some yet hving hath it in remembrance, as well as the penner of this history."^ This visitor of the monasteries was removed from New College to the Fleet in London^ on a charge of perj}A']'yy and there he died miserably in 1543. Bishop Burnet, who probably had not seen Archdeacon Louth's reminiscences, says, " I have seen complaints of Dr. London's soliciting the jiuns, yet I do not find Dr. Lee complained of."^ Fuller says ^Hhat when convicted of perjury, this Dr. London was punished by being made to ride with his face to his horse's tail through Windsor." Such again, a dean twice detected in immorality and put to open penance for it; and afterwards convicted of perjury, is not the stuff of which credible witnesses are made. Evidence Dr. Laytou sccms to have been one of Cromwell's character favouritcs. He also was in holy orders, and was, or ofLegh j^^^ been, clerk of the council. Anthony Wood records of him that " he did much to please the ^ Narratives of the Reformation, ^ Buraet's Hist. Reform., i. ^pp. Caniil. tioc, p. 35. par. 85. CONDITION OF THE MONASTERIES 359 unlimited desire of the King/' that is^ he pandered vi to the King s gross immoralities. On several occa- ^--'•^''^^ sions Layton's letters exhibit him as a furious icono- clast, and worse : and the evident gratification with which he tells tales about immorality is in itself an evidence that he was familiar with vice. He gloats over them with a filthy leer^ and tells Cromwell that here is something " to make him laugh/' with an air that makes one doubt whether the story was not invented^ or at least much dressed up, to please his patron.^ In one of his letters to Cromwell, he says that but for him he should have been nothing but a '* basket-bearer/' but he rose to great preferments, being Dean of Chester-le-Street, Archdeacon of Buckingham, and eventually Dean of York. He bribed Cromwell with £100 to make him Chancellor of Sarum, and when at York pawned the cathedral plate, so that the chapter had to redeem it after his death in 1543/ Neither was this such stuff as credible witnesses are made of. And yet it is chiefly on the testimony of these Reports of men that the charges of immorality made against the n'S^^be monks and nuns must be maintained, and especially tmsted on the testimony of Legh^ London, and Layton. It is not impossible that even such bad men may have told the truth in this matter : but the character of witnesses must always form an important element in estimating the value of their testimony, and the character of such obscene, profligate, and perjured witnesses as Layton and London could not well be worse. These men were not ''just Lots vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked," but " filthy ^ Suppression of Monast., Camd. ^ Cooper's Athence Cantab., L Soc, pp. 58, 75, 91, 96, 97. 84, 535. 360 EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE MORAL CHAP VI The ac- cused monks made bishops, <-Vc. and some certainly good men dreamers" who defiled the flesh, . despised ecclesias- , tical dominion, and spake evil of dignities in the very spirit of the Evil One. Nor is it of small significance that the very persons against whom some of the worst charges were made received pensions, and were appointed to benefices, as if the charges were not believed. In the ^^ Com- pendium Compertorum" Prior Wingfield of West Acre and twelve of his monks are accused of most flagrant acts of incontinency. Yet he received a pension of £40 a-year, and became Rector of Bum- ham Thorpe in Norfolk, when Cranmer was at the head of ecclesiastical affairs, in the reign of Edward VI. Perhaps the secret of such charges made against him and others lay in the fact that they were married.^ When the enormities of the abbots ^^ were first read in Parliament," says Latimer, in a sermon before Edward VI., ^Hhey were so great and abominable, that there was nothing but down with them. But within a while after, the same abbots were made bishops, as there be some of them still alive, to save and redeem their pensions."^ The names of a few so promoted, which are given in the note below, are the names of men against whom this charge of im- morality (which in their cases, Latimer was evidently willing to believe) cannot be sustained for a moment : nor is it probable that it ever had a grain of truth in it, so far as they are concerned. And so it is that the more these accusers are brought into the day- 5 Ellis' Oiig. Letters, III. iii. 159. 6 Latimer's Sermonp, i. 107, ed. 1824. Among those who were tlius preferred may be named the following : — Salcot, At), of Hydo, made Bishop of Ban^'or Kitchin, Prior of Eynshanij Bp. More, Prior of Waldeii, Holgate, Pr. of Sempringhain, Hllsey, Pr.of BristolDomin.,' Rugg, Abbot of Hulme, Holbeacli, Pr. of Worcester,* Chaml>ers, Ab. of Peterbro', Barlow, Prior of Bishara, Buyh, Prov. of Bonshommes, Pait'cw, Ab. of Bermondsey, ofLlandaff Colchester Llandaff Rochester Norwich Bristol Peterbro' St. David's Bristol St. Asaph CONDITION OF THE MONASTERIES 361 light and confronted with the accused the less and chap less trustworthy their accusations appear/ .^-^^-^^ To sum up in a very few words : As it is quite certain, beyond all manner of doubt, that Henry VIII. was impelled to dissolve the monasteries by motives which had originally nothing whatever to do with their morality or immorality, so there is no trustworthy evidence whatever that their moral con- dition was greatly depraved. The true facts are that qJ^J^^^""^ the Kino- wanted money, that Wolsey's attempted facts as to o • • the disso- reformation suggested an easy way of getting it, that lution his agents were chosen because they were evidently fitted for carrying out an unscrupulous business ; and that partizan historians have looked up to the testimony of these false and profligate agents as if it was that of good and true men. It would probably have been for the interest of the Church of England and of the people at large, that the overgrown mo- nastic system should be very much condensed, com- pressed, and reformed; but Henry YI 1 1, had no intention whatever oi reforming it. His only object was to quarry gold and silver out of the monastic treasuries as others afterwards quarried stones out of monastic walls ; and the details of the process were dexterously managed by him and his agents ^ This is a subject respecting of which. Fuller speaks, of which which evidence cannot be given in every antiquarian knows some- detail in the pages of a work meant thing, and which (adds Fuller) for general readers. It can only " are confuted by the situation of be remarked further that the stories the place, through rocks improbably, extant are most of them as untrust- and under rivers impossible to he worthy in character as the visitors conveyed. . . . Such vaults extant who rej)orted them, and would not at this day in many abbeys extend be relied on by any judicial- but a few paces, generally used for minded historian. They are gene- the conveyance of water, or sewers rally like the " underground vaults to carry away the filth of the con- leading from pnoiies to nunneries" vent." Fuller's Ch. Hist., ii. 220. 362 EVIDENCE RESPECTING THE MORAL CHAP with a view to overcoming resistance and ensuring .^.^-^^ success in the attainment of that object. At the same time it cannot be doubted that the as"eiSs by niouasterics had long been in danger of dissolution. iio means \^ some wav, which it is not very easy now to see blameless *^ ^ j j clearly^ the system was worn out ; and abuses had arisen^ as they do arise in all worn-out systen s, which called for reformation, and which were greatly ex- aggerated by those who were hungering for the lands and goods that belonged to monks. Soon after he came to his see, West, Bishop of Ely, wrote to Wolsey (the letter is dated April 4, 1516) com- plaining of the disorder which he found in the mo- nastery associated with his cathedral. He gave his opinion that but for his visitation the community could not have held together for four years longer, and he appointed new officers throughout the estab- lishment.^ There is reason to think that the " rule" in many monasteries had fallen much into abeyance, and that the monks were living easy and sinecure, though not luxurious and vicious, lives. The men- dicant orders had done much mischief to the secular clergy, and to the regular monks of the Benedictine and other rules, and they, perhaps, more than any others, had grown into disrepute with wise and far- seeing men, through their servile devotion to Rome. Their_ ^ Houce, for many years, those who wished to apply foreseen their Wealth to Church uses had founded colleges and schools rather than monasteries ; and men like Wykeham, Chicheley, Waynfleet, and Wolsey, had not hesitated to convert monastic into educational institutions.^ In 1516 Fox, Wolsey's great patron, 8 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. ^ It may be useful to point out 1 733. some cases in which monastic CONDITION OF THE MONASTERIES 363 tlie Bishop of Winchester, founded Corpus Christi chap College at Oxford, intending it as a foundation for ,^1^-,^ monks and secular scholars. "What, my Lord/' said the aged Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, " shall we build houses, and provide livelihoods for a company of monks whose end and fall we ourselves may live to see ? Nay, nay, more meet is it that we should And ex- use care to provide for the increase of learning, and X^f^^^^ of for such who by their learninof shall do erood to the f.*^''^^: ,. church and commonwealth." And, so advised. Fox tutions made the college what it now is. In later days, when Wolsey was taking the first steps towards the Reformation of the Church, Fox wrote to him that for three years he had been giving all his study, labour, and attention towards that object, and espe- cially towards a revival of the primitive intention of the monastic life. Of Wolsey's actual plans respect- ing the monasteries, some account has already been given in a preceding chapter. property was used for foimding and Selebume in Hampshire. Some colleges, — A.D. 1390. William of hospitals was afterwards added Wykeham abolished the alien in 1481 and 1484. — a.d. 1497. priories of Hornchurch and Writtle Bishop Alcock converted St. in Essex, and settled their re- Rhadegund's Nunnery at Cam- venues on New College ; as he bridge into Jesus College. — a.d. also did with two others (and one 1505. Margaret, Coiintessof Rich- which he appropriated to Win- mond, obtained Creyke Abbey in Chester College) on the suppression Norfolk for Christ's College in ofalienpriories.— A.D. 1437. Arch- Cambridge; and in 1508 she bishop Chicheley settled on All began to follow Alcock's example Souls College the lands and pro- by converting St. John's Hospital perty of the alien priories Romney, into St. John's College. Bishop Wcedon, Pinckney, St. Clare, Fisher followed up her plan by Llangenith, and Abberbury. He appropriating to it the nunneries also converted St. Bernard's Mon- of Heyham in Kent, Broomhall astery, Oxford, into what is now in Berkshire, and the Hospital St. John's College,— A.D. 1441. of Ospreng.— a.d. 1515. Smith, Henry VI. endowed Eton and Bishop of Lincoln, bought the King's Colleges chiefly with the Priory of Cold-Norton, and used property of alien priories.— a.d. it as the foundation of Brasenose 1459. Bishop Waynfleet endowed College. — There were probably Magdalen College with the re- many other similar cases in the M- venues of Sele Priory in Sussex teenth and sixteenth centuries. 864 FATE OF THE EXPELLED MONKS CHAP When wise and good men of that day had these ..^^-^.^ opinions and plans respecting the monasteries and their reformation^ it is not for us of three centuries and a half later to say that there was no good reason why they should not have remained in statu qtw. They^ at least, are reliable witnesses, who saw what we cannot see, and who desired^ as much as we can desire, that the Church and her institutions should be developed to the utmost for the promotion of God's glory and man's good. Destmc- Perhaps the true explanation of the great catas- Nemesisoftrophe wliich ensued during these eventful ten years maUon°^ is, that reformation such as these good and wise men saw to be needed was put off too long. As in many other cases, the Church failed to reconstruct and purify her own ancillary institutions^ and then another power was suffered to come in like a flood and sweep them away. Before concluding this chapter, the reader will naturally ask for some information as to the immedi- ate and proximate consequences which followed upon a social change of so much importance as that involved in the dissolution of many monasteries in to re ■dt''^ every county. What became of the monks ? What of Dissoiu- became of their property? What changes were effected in the general aspect of the Church and kingdom? 1. What became of the monhs, whose number is supposed to have amounted to 100,000, a very large proportion of the population when it numbered not many more than three millions altogether. Whatever their number Avas, it diminished a ffood deal during the years occupied by the Dissolution FATE OF THE EXPELLED MONKS 365 by the help of the executioner. Every opportunity cpiap was taken by Cromwell of bringing them under the .,^Z^ operation of laws which involved the penalty of Great death, and it seems more than probable that the "J^^^^'j^'^ passion for blood with which he and his master were p^^^Jo possessed; endeavoured to satiate itself upon this doomed class. Many, no doubt, enlisted in the Pilgrimage of Grace, of whom, certainly, not one escaped who survived it and came within reach of Cromwell's vengeance. We have detailed records only respecting the more prominent men, STich as the abbots and priors • but, after Wolsey's fall, every week of Henry's reign was stained with the blood of his subjects, and a class so odious to him as the monks had become must have suffered most severely.^ Their numbers, doubtless, went to swell largely the army of 80,000 alleged "thieves" and other '^ crimi- nals" who were hanged during this dreadful reign.^ Many lay monks, especially those who were quite others en- young, were no doubt able to turn to secular employ- fefuia"^ ments. Here and there one comes across floating P"^'^"^*^ traditions of their labours after the Dissolution, as in the building of East Dereham Church tower, and others in Suffolk. As the ecclesiastical style of art utterly died out within a generation after the Dis- 1 The wholesale cliaracter of by the Queens Catherine, Mary of Henry's executions is often illus- France, and Margaret of Scotland, trated by the State Papers. A that he consented to conntermand band of robbers, for example, their execution. Brewer's Calend. attacked some of his waggons and St. Pap., i. 4096. then fled to sanctuary. He caught 2 That this supposition respect- 80 and hanged them all After ing the monks is no exaggeration "Evil May Day" 400 riotous men is proved by Henry's despatch to and boys, and 11 women, were the Duke of Norfolk after the brought before him in Westmin- latter had subdued the insurrec- ster Hall, with halters round their tion : " Our pleasure is that Ijefore necks ; and it was only after the you shall close up our banner long entreaty of Wolsey, supported again, you shall cause such dread- 366 FATE OF THE EXPELLED MONKS CHAP solution^ so it is not unlikely that its lingering for a ^^.^..^^^ few years was owing to the fact that monastic tradi- tions and monastic hands were still having their influence for a short time^ and still stemming the influx of that miserable and soulless torrent which, under the name of the " revival of letters/' was crushing out the life of our national arts^ and marring all their beauty. Some in Two kiuds of provisious were contemplated by the employed^ ofScial documcuts couuected with the Dissolution m Church ^^^ those mouks who were in holy orders^ and who seem to have formed a large majority in the latter days of the monasteries. The one was the pension for every one who willingly surrendered to the visitors, and was desirous of receiving such a pro- vision ; the other was employment as chantry priests, that is, to say private masses for the de- parted, which were paid for sometimes by endow- ments and sometimes by fees. Their employment as clergy seems to have been discouraged by those in ecclesiastical authority. It was objected that they came to churches as perfect strangers — poor, haggard, and half-starved tramps, probably — and that none could be sure whether or not they were in holy orders. The Archbishop of M execution to be done upon a toothers. Finally, forasmuch as all good numher of the inhabitants of these troubles have ensued by the every town, village, and hamlet solicitation and traitorous con- that have offended, as they may spiracies of the monks and canons be a fearful spectacle to all others of these parts, we desire you, at hereafter that would practise any such places as they have conspired like matter, remembering that it and kept their houses with force should be much better that these since the appointment at Doncaster, traitors should perish in their you shall, without pity or circum- unkind and traitorous follies, than stance, cause all the monks and that so slender puaiishmeuts should canons that be in any wise faulty be done upon them, as the dread to be tied up without further thereof should not be a warning delay or ceremony," FATE OF THE EXPELLED MONKS 367 York required that every monk should show his chap letters of orders before he was allowed to officiate in ..^-^.^^ any churchy but, writes one of the visitors to Crom- well, " Some must go an hundred miles to seek them, The diffi- and when they come there the charges of searching ^J^^^![^^j the register is so great that they be not able to pay ^^"^^^ ^^^^ it, and so they come home again confounded."^ And though the visitor told the Archbishop that when the houses were surrendered, due inquiry had been made who were priests and who were not, and that the certificate then given should suffice, it is easy to see that no wise bishop would allow such dangers of promiscuous playing with the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist if he could possibly prevent it. And, at the bestj what a miserable spectacle must it have been to see men who were considered to be fitted for the highest duties of the altar thus sent about the country to beg that the laity and the clergy would put them '' into one of the priest's offices for a piece of bread !" This very circumstance seems to show that either the pensions were wretchedly insufficient for main- tenance, or that they were not duly paid. The bestowal of these "pensions" was left by the Act of Parliament entirely to the discretion of the King. In the vast majority of cases they amounted to a Pensions single payment of forty shillings and the gift of a anHuns priest's gown on dismissal from the gate of the mon- astery. Those monks or nuns who had been in the house for a long time before the dissolution ((liii antea is the expression used in the patents), had small annual sums of from £2 to £8 granted to them; while abbots and friars were entitled to receive from 3 EHis' Orig. Letters, III. iii. 187. 368 FATE OF THE EXPELLED MONKS CHAP £20 to £60 a year^ when not provided with benefices. ^^^^.^^^ To get rid of these payments many were appointed to benefices, as has been shown by a quotation made topLyment ^^m Latimer's sermon in a previous page. Where of these ^he amount was small^ and came within the range of regular unnoticeable payments to be made by subor- dinate officials, it is, perhaps, possible that they were honestly paid, especially after the deaths of Cromwell and Henry VIII. Fuller gives two stories in illustration of this, — one of a prioress of Clerkenwell, who lived until 1571 (but of the pay- ment of whose pension he adds nothing), and the other of an anonymous monk or nun, he knows not which, who received the last payment in 1608. Al- lowing the fullest force to every argument respecting these pensions, it is to be feared that few except the more compliant dignitaries, the abbots and priors, received anything like a sufficient maintenance ; and that if they had no better resource even the pensioned monks and nuns must have been reduced to a condi- tion of abject poverty and misery. Summary The general answer to the question, What became of monks of the mouks ? must be that large numbers perished by the halter, and by the miseries immediately attendant on the dissolution ;* that a good proportion turned to secular employments; that a few were fairly pensioned ; and that the rest lived on as mere paupers, to whom one can only hope the world at large was more just and feeling than those who took an active part in the dissolution. 2, The next question which we have set ourselves ^ Fuller instances Sir William after liis house was dissolved. Old Weston, Prior of the Knights Hos- men of strong feelings were very pitnllers, who died of grief the day likely to comesoontotheirendthus. FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY 369 shortly to answer is^ What became of the onoiiastic cpiap property ? .^-^-v-^-^ The amount of this property has been variously Annual estimated from the documentary evidence "which lands, &c. exists as to the annual value of the various houses, the icin| and from an account of the jewels and plate received by the keeper of the King's jewel house. Speed reckoned the annual value at £171 ,3 12, 4s. 3^d. Nasmith, in his edition of Tanner's Notitia, com- puted that of the larger houses at £142,914, 12s. 9^d,, which, with £30,000 added for the smaller houses, would be altogether £172,914, 12s. 9^d., or nearly the same total sum as that given by Speed. Two valuations were made by order of Henry VIII,, one before, the other after, the visitation, and the second being on an average one-third higher than the first, it can easily be believed that they were both much below the true amount, either through haste or through design. It is not, therefore, at all unreasonable to suppose that the annual value of the 1130 monasteries and hospitals of which the King took possession, was at the least £200,000. And, taking the penny of Henry VIII. to represent the shilling of Queen Victoria, this will come in modern money to the great revenue of £2,400,000.^ In a previous page an extract was given from an Value of account roll of the King's jewel keeper, from which goiTsdzt it appears that the plate received from the monasteries w^as 14,531 ounces of gold, 207,635 ounces of silver gilt, and 67,000 of plain silver; to which is added £80,000 in money, equal to £960,000 in modern coin. " This sum seems large, but it dukes and one marqnis (made up is generally understood that the in a large XDroportion of ahhej united annual revenues of three lands) exceeds it. 2 A 370 FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY CHAP According again to the modern value of the precious ^^^^^.^^^ metals^ this gold and silver plate, even when melted down, would be worth £126,883 ; which, added to the Untold coin, would amount to £1,086,883. But no account Tweis°^ is here taken of the vast number of precious stones which were taken by the visitors, and which had been used in the decoration of shrines, altar-vessels, reliquaries, book-covers, and crosses. These Crom- well had more in his view almost than the plate, and their worth must have been enormous. Some notion of it may be formed by the account given to us of the pillage of Becket s shrine, by Cromwells special memorandum of the great emerald altar cross of St. Paul's Cathedral, and by the contemporary account which is extant of the jewels belonging to St. Cuth- bert's shrine at Durham. How many hundreds of thousands of pounds these precious stones may have been worth no one now can tell. Leaving these out of our estimate, the modern value of the plate, w^ith the produce of lead and glass turned into coin, will thus stand at £1,086,883, the modern represen- tative of what was, practically, the ready money carried to the King s private coffers. Permanent A further Calculation may be made as to the per- the^iands i^anent value of the monastic estates, the annual value of which we have already seen. This may be made, not upon any conjectural basis, but upon that of an actual transaction between the King and Sir Richard Gresham, father of the astute merchant Sir Thomas Gresham, and a good authority on such a point. '^ May it please you to be advertised," he writes to Cromwell, "that where I have moved the King's Majesty to purchase of his grace certain lands belonging the House of Fountains, to the FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY 371 value of £350 by year, after the rate of twenty years cpiap lourcliase, the sum of the money amounteth to £7000."^ , ,^ ^^ From the original letters patent it appears that this Contem- great financier and merchant ultimately bought the valuation lands for the sum of £11,137, lis. 8d., so that he in ^f^^"'^^ reality paid at a still higher rate, or more than thirty years' purchase. Taking then this actual transac- tion, or rather Sir Kichard Gresham's first offer, as the basis of our calculation, the £2,400,000 of mon- astic income which came into the King's hands, represents a capital amount of £48,000,000. Thus the property which the King confiscated Total amounted in value (taking estates, money, plate, property and jewels) to at least fifty millions of pounds the King (£50,000,000), this being probably much below the real state of the case. This then is the sum we have to deal with in considering the question, What be- came of the monastic property ? It is fair to say that some found its way back to Howmuch the Church. As Heniy VIII. had carried out (on a fX""^ much diminished scale indeed) Wolsey's great-minded Church plans at Oxford, so he also did the plans which that true reformer had laid for the increase of the English episcopate. Six new bishoprics were founded by the King, at Westminster, Oxford, Chester, Gloucester, • Bristol, and Peterborough : the endowments of which, and of their chapters,'^ amounted to nearly £100,000 of modern money. Some of the old monasteries were also suffered to remain in something of their former 6 Ellis' Orig. Lett, III. iii. 270. wich, and Worcester. These thir- 7 Adding also seven other chap- teen cathedrals are therefore called ters in cathedral churches which those of the " New Poundation." had heen hitherto served by monks. The remaining cathedrals had pre- They were Canterbiiry, Durham, viously been served by secular Winchester, Ely, Carlisle, Nor- canons, not monks. 372 FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY CHAP splendour as collegiate churches ; of which Beverley, .^^-.^^ Southwell, Manchester, Wolverhampton, and Ripon may be mentioned as examples. Some forbearance also was shown in some cases by not destroying the fabrics of churches, such as St. Alban's, Sherborne, Shrewsbury, Hexham, and others. It is possible that the intercessions of Cranmer, who wished that many monasteries should be turned into colleges, of Latimer, who desired to see at least one retained as a place of holy retirement in each county, and of persons in the neighbourhood of dissolved monas- teries who wished to have the use of the chui-ches, may have saved these few from destruction : and it is to the credit of the King in the midst of all his rapacity and sacrilege, that he did not turn a deaf ear to such appeals. With them must also be classed the successful appeal of Sir Richard Gresham in favour of St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's Hos- pitals ; and a few grammar-schools which were founded by Henry VIII. may likewise be considered as fragments rescued from the millions of spoil which he took from religious uses. But after all such deductions are made, the amount of that spoil still remains at an enormous figure. The new bishoprics and chapters lessen it by a tenth of a million \ but even one whole million deducted from the fifty would have been but a poor amount of restitu- tion. The King The prodigality of Henry VIII. was so extrava- oThiT^ gant that, accumulate what he would of lands and spoils treasure, he was always in need of money ; but there can be little doubt that, in spite of a sharp, avari- cious watchfulness on his part, much of the monastic property passed only nominally into his hands. FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY 373 There is a letter from Cranmer to the King, dated cpiap January 24^ 1546, which strongly illustrates this — ._.Z^ " I beseech your Majesty," writes the Archbishop, " that I may be a suitor unto the same for your Cathedral Church of Canterbury ; who, to their great unquietness, and also great charges, do alienate their lands daily, and, as it is said, by your Majesty's commandment. Bat this T am sure, that otlur men have gotten their test lands^ and not your Majesty. Where- fore this is mine only suit, that when your Majesty's pleasure shall be to have any of their lands, that they may have some letters from your Majesty to declare your Majesty's pleasui^e, without the which they be sworn that they shall make no ahenatiou ; and that the same ahenation be not made at other men's pleasures, but only to your Majesty's use. For now every man that list to have any of theh lands, makes suit to get it into your Majesty's hands ; not tho.t your Majesty should keep the same, hut by sale or gift from your Majesty, to translate it from your Grace's Cathedral Church unto themselves. *'T. Cantuakian."s But, on the other hand, significant stories have been handed down which show that what had been so easily acquired by the King was very easily parted with by him. Fuller says that the produce of the first confiscation, that of the lesser monasteries, was disposed of at once by grant, sale, and exchange, for the purpose of reconciling the upper classes to the further dissolution which was contemplated ; and that " this was done by the politic counsel of the wise Lord Cromwell ; not hoping that these small morsels to so many mouths should satisfy their hunger, but only intending to give them a taste of the sweetness of abbey-lands."^ ... '^ If ever the poet's fiction of a golden shower rained into Danae's lap found a moral or real performance, it was now at ^ Jeukyns' Cranmer, i. 319. » FuUer's Ch. Hist., ii. 211, ed. 1837. 374 FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY CHAP the dissipation of abbey -lands. . . . It is certain that; _^^_,.^^ in this age^ small merits of courtiers met with a pro- digious recompence for their service. Not only all the cooksj but the meanest turn-broach in the King s kitchen did lick his fingers." ^ He also gives the following illustrations of the reckless manner in which Henry VIII. made away with this property, which was professedly taken into his hands only that it might be put to better uses than it had been by the the monks themselves : — "First. By free gift. — Herein take one story of many: Master John Champernoun, son and heh-apparent of Sir Pliilip Champernoun, of Modbury in Devon, followed the court ; and by his pleasant conceits won good grace with the King. It happened two or three gentlemen, the King's ser- vants, and Mr. Champernoun's acquaintance, waited at a door where the King was to pass forth, with purpose to beg of his Highness a large parcel of abbey -lands, specified ia their peti tion, Champernoun was very inquisitive to know their suit, but they would not impart the nature thereof. This while out comes the King ; they kneel down, so doth Mr, Champernoun, being assured by an imphcit faith that courtiers would beg nothing hurtful to themselves; they prefer their petition, the King grants it ; they render him humble thanks, and so doth Mr. Champernoun. Afterwards he requires his share, they deny it ; he appeals to tlie King, the King avows his equal meaning in the largess. Whereupon his companions were fain to allot this gentleman the priory of St. Germain's in Cornwall (valued at two hundred forty-three pounds and eight shillings of yearly rent ; since, by him or his heirs, sold to Mr. Eliot) for his partage. Here a dumb beggar met with a bhnd giver : the one as little knowing what he asked, as the other what he granted. Thus King Henry made cursory charters, and i% transitu transacted abbey-lands. I could add how he gave a rehgious house of some value to Mistress for pre- senting him with a dish of puddings which pleased his palate. ^ FuUer's Ohiirch Hist., ii. 2-19, ed. 1837. FATE OF THE- MONASTIC PROPERTY 375 "Secondly. By play. — "Whereat he lost many a thousand chap pounds 'per annum. Once, being at dice, he played Sir Miles ^ ^ Partridge (staldng an hundred pounds against them) for Jesus's bells, hanging in a steeple not far from St. Panl's in London, and as great and tunable as any in the city, and lost them at a cast. I will not (with some) heighten the guilt of this act, equal to that which 'cast lots on Christ's garments;' but sure, it is no sin to say, that such things deserved more serious and deliberate disposal. " Thirdly. By exchange. — To make these chops, none were frighted with the King's power, but flattered into them by the apprehension of their own profit. For many lands of subjects either naturally bald, or newly shaven of their woods, were commuted for granges of abbeys, which like satyrs or savages, were all overgrown with trees and timber ; beside other disad- vantages, both for quantity and quality of ground, as enhanced for old rent. ! here was the Eoyal Exchange ! " Lastly. By sale at under-rates. — Indeed, it is beneath a prince (enough to break his state, to stoop to each virgate and rod of ground), pedlar-like, to higgle for a toy by retail ; and all tenants and chapmen, which contract with kings, expect good bargains. Yet of&cers, entrusted to manage the revenue of the crown, ought not to behold it abused out of all distance in such under-valuations. Except any wiU say, ' He is not deceived who woidd be deceived, and King Henry, for the reason aforesaid, connived at such bargains; wherein rich meadow was sold for barren heath ; great oaks for fuel ; and farms for revenue passed for cottages in reputation.' But, for farther instruction, we remit the reader to that information, presented to Queen Elizabeth, by a man in authority (though nameless) of the several frauds and receipts offered the crown in this kind. But the motion rather drew odium on the author, than brought advantage to the crown ; partly, because of the number and quality of persons concerned therein ; and partly because, after thirty years, the owners of abbeys were often altered. And though the chamber be the same, yet, if the guests be a new company, it is hard for the host from them to recover his old arrearages. Yea, by this time, when the aforesaid information was given in, the present possessors of 376 FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY CHAP niiich abbey-land were as little allied to those to whom King ^^ Henry granted them, as they to "whom the King first passed them were of kin to the first founders of those monasteries." 2 Some lands A less unjust and reckless disposition of the lands given to "was the bestowal of them upon the representatives of those who had originally given them to the use of the monasteries. By ancient custom^ as asserted by Edward III, to the Pope/ it was lawful for the families of founders to resume all lands bestowed for charitable and religious uses^ if they were not ap- plied to the purposes for which they were given. This seems to have been well known to the English gentry^ and there are many letters which were writ- ten to Cromwell, claiming as gifts from the King, or as purchases on easy terms, the demesnes of monas- teries founded by their ancestors. Fuller says that very few were thus disposed of; and that as so many of them had been originally founded before the Con- quest^ the descendants of the founders could not be discovered. But there is reason to think the prin- ciple was more recognised than he supposes. Much of the great possessions of the Percy family thus came to them — as the lands of Tynemouth Priory, founded by Robert de Mowbray, Earl of Northum- berland — and this page is written close to the site of Breamore Priory, founded by Baldwin de Rivers about 1118, and granted to his descendant Edward, first Marquis of Exeter, in 1537. Many other similar cases could undoubtedly be found ; though, how far this kind of " restoration" differed morally from less illegal spoliation may be an open question. With a few illustrations of the manner in which Henry's ministers and others accumulated estates ^ Puller's Church History, ii. 249, ed. 1837. ^ Rymex, iii. 135. FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY 377 out of the confiscated lands we may conclude this chap part of the subject. ..^--^■^ Cromwell appropriated to his own share the rich Crom- Priory of Lewes in Sussex (including its cell of^^reof Melton-Mowbray in Leicestershire), the Priory of^^^^P°^^^ Michelham in the same county, that of Modenham in Kent, of St. Osythe in Essex, Alceter in War- wickshire, Yarmouth in Norfolk, and Laund in Leicestershire.^ Sir Richard Cromwell, his nephew, one of the visitors, and great-grandfather of Oliver, received Ramsey Abbey, Hinchinbrooke Nunnery, Sawtry Abbey, St. Neot's Priory, and a house of Austin canons in Huntingdonshire, with Neath Abbey in Glamorganshire, and St. Helen's Nunnery in London. Lord Audley, Chancellor during the twelve most \^''^ ^' lawless years of Henry's reign, received eight priories and abbeys for his share, and then wrote to Crom- well asking to be allowed to purchase, at a nominal price, the Abbey of Walden in Essex, out of which his descendant in the reign of James I. built the magnificent palace, of which one wing, still mao-ni- ficent, forms the present mansion of Audley End.^ ^ Among CromweUs private he acquired a good acquaintance memoranda was one " To remem- with the revenue of Laund when her . . . myself for Laimde." staying there, and made up his Illustrating this IS a cringing letter mind that "myself" should pos- from Thomas Pryshy, a canon of sess it. that ahhey, accompanying a pre- 5 In Lord Oamphell's Lives of sent of six cheeses, with a message the Chancellors he asserts that that Cromwell need not thank the Audley asked for Walden "because abbot for them, and the following : he " had sustained great dama^re — "Pleaseth it )'uur good Master- and infamy'' in the Kind's sen^i^e ship to call to your remembrance The words of the original letter when ye lay here with us at appear to be "damage and i^nur^/." Launde Abbey some time ye Dugdale says the house had no would take the pam to walk with equal except Hampton Court in me or my brethren about our busi- all England, no.ss. . ." It is pretty clear that 378 FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY CHAP Lord Clinton, who afterwards married the mis- ^^.^-..^.^ treas whom Henry had cast off for Anne Boleyn, Lord Clin- received thirteen abbeys, includinsr the rich ones of ton s share , . Croyland and Barking. Cranmer Archbishop Cranmer e^ave way to the sreneral not guilt- . , . less temptation, begging to have the Priory of Shelford for his brother-in-law, clerk of his kitchen, the Grey Friars in Canterbury for Thomas Cobham, another relative, the Priory of Pontefract for John Wakefield, controller of his household, Croxden or Koucester for his '^servant," Francis Basset, and Newstead for one Markham. He himself also became the possessor of Kirkstall Abbey, Arthington and Mailing nun- neries.® s^H^polis Lord Russell, afterwards first Earl of Bedford, re- ceived the rich abbeys of Tavistock in Devonshire, Wo- burn in Bedfordshire, and Thorney in Cambridgeshire. The Parr Lord Parr, afterwards Marquis of Northampton, appropriated the four priories of Edith Weston, Halsted, St. Mary du Pre, and Pipewell. The How- The Duke of Norfolk laid his hands upon as many as thirteen abbeys, nunneries, and colleges. The Nor- The Duke of Northumberland, at one time and land spoils another, swept into his estates the lands of eighteen monastic establishments. The Som- The Dukc of Somerset emulated the example of erset spoils ■'■ the Duke of Norfolk, by appropriating the same number of houses, viz., thirteen. JfSu?o"k^s -^^^ *^^ -^^^^ astonishing of all such appropriations thirty mon- was made by the Kinsr's brother-in-law, and brother asteries «/ o ? in profligacy, Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. This man, whose life was one scene of shameless living, became « Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 161, 174, 233, 263, 272. FATE OF THE MONASTIC PROPERTY 379 the proprietor of no fewer than thirty monasteries^ chap chiefly in Lincolnshire and Warwickshire/ v.^JlJ^^ ' Such an enumeration of a few of those who profited by the dissolution of the monasteries reveals some- thing of the rapacity which accompanied this national tragedy. If the new owners of the estates had endeavoured to promote in any degree the religious objects for which they had originally been intended, some excuses might have been offered for them, and their good deeds would have stood, perhaps, in the Hght of a condonation for what, if it was not sacri- lege, was the very nearest approach possible to that crime.* But no good deeds are to be told of these None of men. They simply tried to build for themselves q^^^^^xa houses out of the property once dedicated to God's \^^ ^''^^' service ; and if God s service was neglected any- wealth where it was upon the estates thus acquired. The original grantees of the lands seldom, indeed, pros- pered, and their estates either passed into other families or to distant branches of their own. Crom- weirs property was wasted by his son ; the Duke of Suffolk's last heirs died, not long after himself, both 7 The Duke of Suffolk (so igno- « The ahsolute inalienableness rant that he could barely write his of Church property was not recog- name) was as extravagant in his nised by the medieval Church : tastes as Henry himself, and pro- but on their election the heads of bably impoverished himself like monastic and capitular bodies took others of those named above at the an oath never to alienate the goods "Field of Cloth of Gold." Shake- of which they were made trustees, speare has a few pointed words on The Council of Carthage [a.d. 398] this subject, — prohibited alienations except with -. , , the consent of the bishops, and Ao&rgavenny. I do know ^,,1,^ t. n t ^^^^ f Kinsmenofmine, three at the least, that SUbseq^uent Canon Law Still fur- iiave tner restricted alienations. But By tliis so siekonedtheir estates, that never thp fltripfpqt Inw nn fr^a amTno/^f They shaU abound as formerly. Uie smccest law on tUe subject Bucidngham. Oh, many ^^^.t was ever passed is that laid Have^broke their backs withlaying manors down in an English Act of Parlia- FoTtlSs great journey. ment, 1 James I. i., which incapaci- Eenry VIII. i. 1. tates bishops from alienating their lands even to the Crown. 880 SOCIAL RESULTS OF THE DISSOLUTION CHAP in one day ; the Russell family has been notorious for ^^^^^ its misfortunes ; as was, for a long time, that of the Dukes of Norfolk ; while the great estates of SrTdwith ^^^ Northumberland house have passed from one their fa- branch to another, ever begging an heir from the female line, and very rarely continuing the inher- itance by a direct line of sons. It is only within the limits of the present genera- tion that the ancient Church lands confiscated by Henry VIII. have again begun to bear any important share in Church duties : but in the restitutions that are being made of their revenues to sacred objects — tardy and comparatively small as those restitutions are — ^lies the best ground of hope that the cloud which hangs over their possession is passing away. It may be that the nineteenth century may yet wash away the stains which came upon those lands by the bloodshed and profane lawlessness which attended their alienation from the Church in the sixteenth. Some so- The social results which followed up so great a ofthe'dis-^ convulsion as the suppression of 1100 monasteries in solutions ^ population not much over three millions, were too important not to be noticed. Most conspicuous of all such results were the increase of poverty, and the decay of learning ; both of which are witnessed by bold contemporaries such as Latimer, and by the less partial of historical writers who lived near the time. Increase The impoverishment first of the bishops and pare- can'iy'' " chial clorgy, and afterwards the total ruin of the monks, created a vast number of beggars, partly through drying up the springs from which chaiity had hitherto floAved, and partly by throwing many labourers and artizans out of work. The monastic SOCIAL RESULTS OF THE DLSSOLUTION 881 establishments maintained a laro^e number of ser- chap VI vants, labourers^ workmen, and tradesmen, all of v^,^^^-^ whom would be partly, and some wholly deprived of their accustomed industry and its reward. The effect on many districts was the same in its degree as if all the colleges in Oxford or Cambridge were to be suddenly ruined, the fellows and undergraduates turned adrift without money or goods, and the buildings half-destroyed. A large monastery was a Numbers market for much produce, and an employer of labour ers^th^own in many necessary branches of industry. Althousrh °"^°^ J J ./ o work it was the rule of all monks that labour should accompany prayer, their labours were most frequently (at least in later times) the labours of the cloister, not those of the workshop and the field. They studied much, supplied the country with books when printing was yet unknown, composed laborious works on Holy Scripture, theological and secular treatises, and spent their time generally in that kind of brain work which the ignorant put down as unproductive idleness. Many a modern artizan or tradesman, moving in a narrow circle, and used to much muscu- lar exertion, would certainly set down the work of writing these pages as little better than idleness, and claim for themselves the special designation of ''working-men." Such was, doubtless, the founda- tion of those charges of idleness brought against a studious, brain-working class of monks : and it was not considered that they who thus held large endow- ments were by that very brain-work providing manual Monks labourers with the employment which brought them Sade ^^"^^ bread. The brain workers T/ere scattered to the^^^^^""^ winds without books, money, or means of carry h)g on their work; and the manual workers who had 382 SOCIAL RESULTS OF THE DISSOLUTION CHAP hitherto supplied their wants were no longer required. .^^-v-^^ Thus it is fair to l;hink that if only half the monks were students, and the other half a kind of cloistered labourer, even fifty thousand gentlemen of some means and refinement cast into sudden beggary must have dragged down with them not a few thousands of those who had provided for their needs. The cniei _^s ^ fact, it is fouud that the vagrant laws, which laws that form SO couspicuous a feature of Henry's reign, were ° °^^^ exactly contemporaneous with the impoverishment of the secular and regular clergy : and a few words on these acts will not be out of place here. The first of them [22 Hen. VIII. c. 12] was passed in 1531, and the second [27 Hen, VIII. c. 25] in 1536 ; and there is good reason to think that, like some other acts of this reign, they were principally drawn up by the King's own hand. In the first of these justices of the peace, mayors, &c., are enjoined to " make diligent search and inquiry of all aged, poor, and impotent persons which live, or of neces- sity be compelled to live, by alms of the charity of Aged men- the pcople." All such pcrsous are to be licensed to be'^iiilnseci beg withiu certain appointed districts, and if found withse- beersfine: in any other place than that to which they vere re- oo o i/ jl ™''" its jurisdiction from a foreign authority,^ an action at once overruled by the judges, the spiritual court being declared to have full cognizance of the ques- tion. Hunn had been imprisoned by the bishop (in the ordinary course of his jurisdiction) in one of the towers of old St. Paul's, commonly used for such a purpose, and invidiously called the "Lollard's" Tower. The adverse decision of the Westminster judges, the total failure of his litigious schemes, and probably some shame at the position into which he had brought Commits himself preyed upon the mind of the man, and he '"''''''^ hung himself from a beam of the chamber in which he was confined. The coroner s jury returned a mar- vellous verdict, which extends over several pages of Foxe's volume, and which is more like a French act d'accusation than a verdict, and the upshot of which Factious is a finding of wilful murder against the judge— the ' Bishop of London's chancellor, and the officers in^ 1 Bishop Burnet represents this sey was neither cardinal nor legate case to have been carried into until many months later, on Sep- fKoZsej/s court as legate: but Wol- tember 10 1515 verdict of coroner's 394 AGITATIONS AND DISTURBANCES ABOUT CHAP charge of Hunn during his temporary imprisonment. .^.^^^^ One of these officers or constables considering his own life to be in danger made a ^' confession/' in which he supported the accusation against the chancellor^ Dr. Horsey :^ but there was clear evidence that Hunn had expressed a determination to kill himself^ and that the confession of the officer in question was extorted after repeated assertions to the contrary^ as well as under the influence of fear and (apparently) torture, for the bishop writes that it was ^^made by pain and durance." The chancellor being committed for trial, an appeal was made by the bishop to Wolsey, for his interest towards obtaining the removal of the trial from London to some more im- Unfaimess partial placo ; "for assured am I/' he adds, "if any towards chancellor be tried by any twelve men in London, the clergy they be so maliciously set, 4n favorem hsereticse pravitatis/ that they will condemn any clerk though he were as innocent as Abel." The matter came before Parliament and before the King, and the entire innocence of Dr. Horsey was so clearly made out that the attorney-general was directed to withdraw the indictment, and to make a public acknowledgment when Dr. Horsey was called on to plead to it in the court of King's Bench, that there was no true ground for the charge laid against him.''* Strange ^q doubt the Spirit shown towards the clersry by excitability ^ . , i i p - ^J J of Lou- the Citizens may be accounted tor m a great degree ■ by that singular excitability for which Londoners as a body have always been so conspicuous. It seems as if the mere cry of a foolish apprentice was enough ^ " Otherwise called William diet, apparently joking over a Heresie," says this atrociotis ver- matter of life and death. 8 Mora's Works, p. 297. ALLEGED EXTORTIONS OF THE CLERGY 395 to arouse the whole city to a state of rebellion against chap order and authority, notwithstanding the bitter ex- ^^^.^^-^^ periences which such irritability had brought. A short time after the agitation against the clergy, on account of Hunn's death, the same restless spirit which had stimulated the proceediners aarainst Dr. '^^^^r 11PT1 .. attack on Horsey, and the bad feelmg oy which it was accom- foreigners panied towards the clergy in general, was excited against the foreign residents in the city. The Vene- tian ambassador Giustiniani gives a graphic account of the attack made on the foreigners on " Evil May Day," 1517,* and none seem to have considered them- selves safe. It was led on by a tradesman named Lincoln, and a mendicant friar of St. Mary Spital, named Beale, both of whom were afterwards hung for the crime, with eleven other citizens. Yet there seems to have been no real cause for the ill-feeling against the foreign residents in the metropolis, and no justification whatever for the lawlessness of the citizens in this case more than for their disregard of reason and justice in the case of Dr. Horsey. This excitability seems to have been much stimu- Agitation lated by the sermons at Paul's Cross, as will often sT'iw'f be observed in the history of the period. A very ^^^^^ important controversy, indeed, arose out of one oi^'^' '^^^ these sermons about the very time that Dr. Horsey was liberated from his imprisonment, and consider- able influence was exercised by it on the subsequent course of the Keformation. Some time while Par- liament was sitting, in the year 1515, the Abbot of Winchelcombe^ preached a political sermon at the ''Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. named Winchelcombe, Twynync 5 r^v T ^ . . 1 , Kederminster and Moxslow : per- The last four abbots were haps it was the first of the four: 396 EXEMPTION OF CLERGY CHAP Cross against an Act of Parliament recently expired .^.^^^■^^^ (after beiag law for about a year) by which the secular courts had been enabled to pass judgment bot^ot^ upon all persons in orders^ except those in the three winchei- holy ordors of bishop^ priest, and deacon^ without cxti-ava- the intervention of any ecclesiastical court. Although gance ^^ ^^^ j^^^ expired, the Abbot thought proper to declare that it had been contrary to the laws of the Church, for that the minor orders were holy orders as well as the three higher grades of the ministry and that all alike were exempted by decree of the Church from the cognizance of temporal courts in criminal causes. He further added that all who had assented to that Act had incurred the censures of the Church, a reckless condemnation of the three estates of the realm. This sermon was pubhshed, and naturally gave great offence in Parliament, and the secular members of both Houses petitioned the King to repudiate the principle contended for by the Abbot. Henry accordingly held a special council at the Palace of Blackfriars, that the subject might be argued before him and his advisers. Some doctor brought (not named in the only contemporary report handed King by down to us,^ but Said by later writers to have been Parliament ^^ abbot himself) defended the position taken up by the extreme party, whose principles were repre- sented in the Paul's Cross sermon \ while Dr. Stan- dish," Warden of the Franciscans in London, and provincial of the order, took up the other side. The Abbot, or his representative, claimed to have a con- Keilway'e Reports, not ■written Erasmus ridicules him with great until sixty or eighty years after- bitterness, having had some theo- wards. logical discussion with him about 7 Afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, the Greek of the New Testament, and one of the three bishops by Knight's Erasmus, 267-285. whom Cranmer was consecrated. FROM SECULAR JURISDICTION 397 ciliar decree on his side, and also quoted from Holy chap Scripture the words ^' Touch not mine anointed" ,.^_^,^ [Ps. cv. 15] as a Divine sanction of the principle he was defending.^ Standish maintained that all such decrees were not practically observed, nor morally binding when they went against the general good of the whole nation, and dismissed the argument from " Nolite tangere Christos meos," by saying that they were not the words of Christ, and referred to God's people at large in the midst of a wicked and perse- cuting world. When the discussion was brought to a conclusion, the Lords present desired certain bishops to compel the abbot to recant his opinions publicly, which they declined to do, declaring them- selves unconvinced by the arguments of Dr. Standish, and fearing to go against a conciliar decree. Some time afterwards it was alleged that Convo- Convoca- cation had called Standish to account for what he charged had said before the King, which was of course ]^^^i„^^" privileged. Their official reply to this serious accusa- standish tion — a reply made to the King himself at Bay- nard's Castle — is of sufficient importance to be given in detail, as it was the foreshadowing of that discus- sion respecting the royal prerogative which ended in the "Act of Submission :" — " 1. They deny the charge, but say they summoned Stan- Substance dish for that ' long since the time of his said counsel given to ff^"-^ the King's Grace, as weU in open lectures as in other open A.a ?5i6 places, he read, taught, affirmed, and published divers matters which were thought not to stand with the laws of God and the determination of Holy Church,' by which it was thought he had fallen into the suspicion of heresy. ^ 8 Precisely the same apphcation in 1511. See ™ctp i7 nf v\.^^ of this text is found in DeauColet's volume. ^^ ^' Sermon before the Convocation, 398 EXEMPTION OF CLERGY CHAP " 2. To the charge of having ministered in the Convocation "^l^ to Dr. Standish certain articles contrary to the King's preroga- tive, they answer that they neither said, nor did, nor intended to do any prejudice to the Crown, and they trust the King will not punish them on any such sinister information. " 3. They affirm that no articles were delivered to Standish in writing, although they were conceived in writing. " 4. As to the charge that articles were ministered to him in the Convocation House, specially that clerks should not be convented before lay judges, they never held any such com- munication with him, ' for if it were the thing that needed any reformation, yet the said prelates well perceive that it could neither be holpen nor hurted by the said friar ; and so they should have but lost their time in ministering any such article or matter to him. And they say that they think the said friar, examined upon his oath, will not say that there was any such matter moved unto him in the said Convocation House. And if he would so say, yet the said prelates trust that the King's Grace will give more and better credence to ah their sayings, in serho sacerdotiij than to the only saying of one friar. And if the said prelates had said in the Convocation House that the conventing or punifcion of clerks should not appertain to secular judges (as they said not, nor in any wise intended to treat of that matter), yet they think themselves, though they had so done, not to have fallen thereby into any penalty of any law, statute, or act, forasmuch as at sundry times, divers of the parliament speak divers and many things not only against men of the Church, and against the laws of the Church, but also sometimes against the King's laws, for the which neither the King nor the prelates of the Church have punished them, nor yet desire any punishment for their so speaking.* " Wherefore the said prelates think that it may be as lawful to them in the Convocation House to common and treat of things concerning both laymen, and also the laws of the land (though they so do not), without falling into any penalty of any statute or act, or yet any other punishment in that behalf, as it is for them of the parliament to common or treat of any causes against the clergy and laws of the Church. FROM SECULAR JURISDICTION 399 " 5. They are bound on their oaths to make investigation of chap heresy, and for that cause alone Standish was summoned ^^^ before them. "6. That the demanding of such a question as this, 'An exemptio clericorum sit de jure divino, an non,' affirms neither one nor the other, and cannot therefore be contrary to the King's laws. " 7. In conclusion, they beseech the King, as they have ever been loyal subjects, nor impeached nor intended to impeach his prerogative, not to credit any sinister information against them, but suffer them to keep their Convocation as his prede- cessors have done." 9 After further argument, in which Dr. Voysey^ took part with Standish, it is alleged that the King wound up the discussion with the following short oration : — " By the permission and ordinance of God we are King of An alleged England, and the Kings of England in times past had never ^^^^ °^ any superior, but God only. Therefore know you well that VIII we will maintain the right of our crown, and of our tem- q^' ^|^^ poral jurisdiction as well in this, as in all other points, in as ample manner as any of our progenitors have done before our time. And as for your decrees, we are well assured that you of the spirituality go expressly against the words of divers of them, as hath been shewed you by some of our council; and you interpret your decrees at your pleasure; but-we will not agree to them more than our progenitors have done in former times." But these royal words appear to be the rlietorical effort of an historian, though fairly enough repre- senting what might have been said on the occasion. Long as this narrative may have seemed, it was desirable not to curtail it, as we have thus given to » Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. Voysey was another of Cranmer's 1314. consecrators. ' It is somewhat singular that 400 THE GRIEVANCE OF FEES CHAP US SO full an illustration of the relations which existed _.^.,^ between the clergy and the rising middle classes at the early dawn of the Reformation.^ .The bitterness was not of a temporary or transient kind, and it is probable that it existed as strongly at any period during the next fifteen years as it is^ again, clear that it did when the Church legislation of Henry's reign began in 1529. At the same time it cannot fail to be observed that much unfairness was exhibiteij on the part of the laity — much of that unfairness to- wards the clergy which the middle classes as a body have so often since shown. dlil^Tob- "^^^ payment of fees and other dues to the clergy ject to fees and to the officers of ecclesiastical courts was indeed a standing grievance with the mercantile classes, and it became the first subject of legislation in that remarkable tide of law-making for the Church which set in after Wolsey's fall.^ A complaint of the House of Commons on this subject has been given in the fourth chapter of this volume, and also the reply of Convocation and of Archbishop Warham.^ A modem historian, who has done his best to ^ Tke follomng note respecting mine Standiscb. omnium maloriun tliese transactions exists as a colo- ministro ac stiniulatore/' Brewer's phon to the Journals of tlie House Calend. St. Pap., ii. 1312. of Lords, Doctor Taylor being ^ In the fifteen years between Clerk of the Parliament as well 1529 and 1545, as many as 113 as Prolocutor of the Convoca- Statxites relating to the Church tion. It is in his handwriting. passed through Parliament. For " Dissoluta fuit hasc convocatio, twenty years before 1529 there xxi DecemLris 1515, Johannse Tay- had only been three slight legis- lor juris pontificii doctore prolocu- lative references to the clergy ; and tore, et eodem tempore clerico j)ar- in the fifty years after 1545 only liamentorum domini Regis. In ninety-six such Acts were passed, hac convocatione et parliamento even including the numerous stat- periculosissimse seditiones exortse utes of repeal and revival and sunt inter clerum et ssecularem many of a kind affecting secular potestatem super libertatibus ccclo- interests only eiasticis, quodam fratre minore no- "* See ])ages 215, 224. THE GRIEVANCE OF FEES 401 exaggerate everything that would tell against the chap clergy"; says that — .^ — v--^ " In six weeks, for so long only the session lasted, the Pictur- ^ astonished Church authorities saw 'bill after hill hurried up ^^^^ ^^' before the Lords, by "which successively the pleasant fountains of their incomes would be dried up to flow no longer; or would flow only in modest rivulets along the beds of the once abundant torrents."^ Picturesque history is seldom to be trusted, and an examination of the Statute Book will show that the "bill after bill" which were so "hurried up before the Lords/' amounted m number to three, viz., one regulating the fees for proving wills^ a second regul- ating the payment of mortuaries, and a third for checking pluralities and clerical farming. As very The true few of the clergy received any fees for proving wills, faclr^'^^^ and as pluralities flourished and abounded down to our own century with as much vigour as ever, and as mortuaries were only an occasional and by no means abundant " fountain of income" to the clergy ; and above all, as there is no historical ground what- ever for supposing the '' Church authorities" to have been "astonished" at such legislation, it is evident that tliis historian's imagination provides a very " abundant torrent" for the supply of his history. The real facts may be shortly stated : — 1. An Act was passed [21 Hen. VIII. cap. 5] Probate declaring " what fees ought to be taken for the pro- ^""^ bate of testaments." After reciting some reforms made in this matter in the reigns of Edward III. and Henry V., this statute enacts that after April 1, 1530, no fees shall be taken for administration where ' Froude'a History of England, i. 226. 2 c • A.D. 1530 402 THE GRIEVANCE OF FEES CHAP the property of the deceased was under thevalueof 100 ^^^..^.^^ shillings f three shillings and sixpence only for pro- bates where the value was above that sum and under £40 ; and five shillings where the goods were above this latter value. As a provision is inserted permit- ting those bishops and their officers who had been accustomed to take smaller fees than these to con- tinue to do so^ it does not seem as if the grievance was one that bore very hardly upon the laity. Mortuaries 2. An Act was also passed [21 Hen. VIII. cap. A.D. 1530 6] declaring '^ where mortuaries ought to be paid, for what persons, and how much ; and in what case none is due.'' The preamble of this Act alleges as the reason for passing it, that ambiguity and doubt had arisen as to ^^the order, manner, and form of demanding, receiving, and claiming of mortuaries, otherwise called corse presents," and that the great- ness and value of some that had been lately taken was '' thought over-excessive to the poor people and other persons of this realm." Its enacting clauses simply regulate the amounts to be paid, and declare that they shall only be claimed where the custom is already established. But after these there is a clause permitting the clergy to receive any amount of money or goods bequeathed to them by the deceased for their own use or that of the Church. It was one of those statutes which have sometimes been passed for the purpose of soothing agitation or putting an end to discord : but it may be seriously doubted from its terms whether there was really any general grievance that required it, or whether any one bene- fited by its addition to the Statute Book. ^ A constitution of Archbishop precisely the same thing. See Meopham, 200 years before, enacts Lyndewood, p. 170. CLERICAL INCOMES GRUDGED 403 3. The Pluralities Act [21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13], chap passed in the same session, Avas chiefly aimed at the ^^^-^-^^ dispensations for pluralities granted by the Pope. Little attempt was made actually to put an end to Act the evil system of pluralities^ for provision was made ^'^' '^^° respecting the purchase of licenses from the King, which were to have precisely the same effect as those from the Pope. The exceptional cases in which such licenses might be granted amount to the number of some hundred, and royal chaplains were allowed to hold any number of benefices. These licenses pro- vided a new source of revenue for the Crown ; but, perhaps, the real object of the Act was that of pre- venting the Pope from conferring English benefices on non-resident foreigners. It cannot be said that any of these Statutes were These Acts of such a character, as to indicate that much was^'^?^'^ mucn. taken from the ''riches" of the clergy by means of^ff^^tin- their operation, or much added by them to the wealth de?^ ° of the laity. What they do indicate is, that there was a large class of the latter who were hankering after Church property, as the King himself was, and that when the ''great bell-wether" of the flock — as More (tiwimming with the tide) shamefully called his old friend and patron — was down, it was hoped that the confiscation might be safely and effectually carried on. Bishop Fisher is said to have read the signs of the times with a prescient eye, and when he com- plained that such attempts at spoliation showed how '^ the faith" was " lacking" in the country, he declared also that he believed these to be only the beginnings of a spoliation which would eventually leave the Church shorn of nearly all her pos'sessions. The spirit of the times is also strongly illustrated 404 CLERICAL INCOMES GRUDGED ciiAP by the refusal of many persons to pay tithes. This ^^-.^-^_. practice grew to such a head as to necessitate an Act Act con- of Parhament on the subject. As this was passed paymeutof ill "^^ Same year, 1535, in which the King began to Tithes make his assault upon tlie monasteries, there can be A.D, 1535 J- - ' little doubt that the people at large were encouraged by his measures to think that Chui'ch property in general was to be abolished : but however this might be, the preamble of the Act [27 Hen. VIII. cap. 20] shows that many were trying to confiscate it on their own account. ^^ Forasmuch," it alleges, ''as divers numbers of evil-disposed persons inhabited in sundry counties, cities, towns, and places of this realnij having no respect to their duties to Almighty God, but against right and good conscience, have attempted to subtract and withhold, in some places the whole, and in some places great parts of their tithes and oblations, as well personal as predial, due unto God and Holy Church ; and, pursuing such their detestable enormities and injuries, have at- tempted in late times past to disobey, contemn, and despise the process, laws, and decrees of the ecclesias- tical court of this realm in more temerous and large manner than before this time hath been seen ;" that, therefore, it is enacted that any member of the privy council, or any two justices of the peace, shall have power on proof of such contempt of the ecclesiastical court to commit the offender to prison without bail until he obey the decree of that court.^ ^ In an Irish Act to the same hitherto stood recover in a court purport, but passed seven years of la>y. This is a significant in- later [a.d. 1542], the preamble goes dication of the feeling of the day : on to say that the tithe-payers since lay tithe-holders only cam*"^ have been encouraged in their con- into existenceAvith the dissolution of duct by the fact that Zay tithe- the monasteries. Till familiar, they holders could not as the law had must have seemed monstrosities. CLERICAL INCOMES GRUDGED 405 Such an act in support of the rights of the clergy chap (for lay tithe-holders were not yet known) must be . — . — . balanced against others of the same period, which seem to the superficial reader of history to prove extortionate habits on their part. It shows how great difficulty they had in asserting their just rights, and how some of the laity were endeavouring to defraud them of their very livelihood for their own profit. In short, we may conclude that this charp-e of *^^"^^'^V extortion brought against the clergy of the sixteenth extortion 1 -,. I • • p 1 1 • p i^ot proved and preceding centuries is lounaed. on very msut- against ficient data. Here and there a single black sheep ^^"^'"s^^ among them has been taken as a type of the whole flock ; and if one priest caused the velvet cloak of a deceased person to be seized as his mortuary fee, prejudiced historians have written as if all the clergy were laying violent hands upon all the velvet cloaks of all deceased laymen. It was a time of discontent, a time too when all were suffering from the taxation rendered necessary by the selfish wars and extrava- gance of the Crown, Men were easily irritated ; the clergy are always a good mark, and a comparatively easy prey. The King had set an example of making all that could be made out of them, and the subject was only too ready to follow the royal lead. Thus Their men willingly laid hold of every pretext they could J^XtTan to stint the clergy of their just and reasonable money ^^^y prey rights, and the more unprincipled of men exagger- ated all the faults that they could find in their priests for the sake of justifying their own injustice. It was not the last time that such a course of con- duct Avas exhibited by a large class of half-hearted churchmen : and until the clergy can live on air. 406 BENEFIT OF CLERGY ABOLISHED CHAP they will always have to suffer this kind of annoy- ^^J^^^^ ance in time of any great ecclesiastical crisis. § 2. The Benefit oe Clekgy A constitutional change of great importance was, however^ made at this time in regard to Church discipline^ and one which was of advantage to the clergy^ by abolishing, to a certain extent, a legal fiction which had often brought an unnecessary and unjust odium upon them as a class. This was the modification of the law respecting " Benefit of Clergy." Principle It had been a principle of English law, time out system of mind, that the persons of the clergy were sacred, and (so long as they remained clergy) punishable only by ecclesiastical law. If they were to suffer death they must previously be degraded from their orders and suffer as laymen ; and under no circum- stances were they to go without just punishment for any offences of which they were convicted.^ Its expan- This principle was extended in the Middle Ages, so as to be brought to bear on a large number of persons who were not in holy orders, nor even in any of the minor orders, such as those of sub-deacon, reader, &c. At first this extension took place by permitting persons accused of crime (perhaps very unjustly) to come under the shield of the Church by taking minor orders, thus making these orders answer the purpose of a city of refuge. Eventually the walls of this city of refuge were so extended as to embrace all who, being able to read Latin (a sign 8 Gibson's Codex, Tit. xlix. cap. 5. sion and perversion BENEFIT OF CLERGY ABOLISHED 407 of clerical or " clerkly" accomplishment)^ were claimed chap by the Church as clerks.^ It Avas a custom not ..^^-^.-^ unlike that of " sanctuary/' by which every criminal was safe from death at the hand of the law so long pi-ovi^^on^^ as he continued in a consecrated place. There were f°^ ^'^^ , . . • ■! benent oi times in history when such ecclesiastical privileges the laity were a great bulwark of liberty for the laity as well as for the clergy ; and when, if the keys of mercy bad not been held by the Church, few would ever have found the door opened to them. But it was a system capable of very ready abuse. Laymen gradually enlarged their claims to the Benefit of Clergy, and as the ability to read a verse or two of the Latin Scriptures became more common^ so the number of criminals who claimed to be clerks was vastly increased. Hence arose three great evils to the clerscY and to the Church at larofe. (1) First, Too great p*^ . . o \ / ^ J leniency of The ecclesiastical courts exercised too great leniency ecciesias- towards those who were brought before them, partly ^^^ '^^"^ ^ because of their naturally merciful rule, and partly because they were overburdened and encumbered ^ This privilege of escape from days, when few were bred to liter- civil punishment by "reading" ature bnt who were actually in was only entirely disused and orders or educated for that end, abolished by a statute originated the allomng clergy to a layman by Sir Robert Peel. The following that could rzad. seemed very much is a note on the aiibject by the in favour of the clergy in pre- leamed Bishop Gibson. " At the serving its succession by exempting common law at first (saith Hobart) such who were capable of receivinc the Benefit of Clergy was not al- any orders when there was occa- lowed but to clerks in orders : but &ion for their service, which favour- afterwards (as appears from 4 Hen. able construction of the Statutes, in VII. cap. 13, which speaks of it as not confining the Benefit of Cleri^y commonly allowed to others) it was to those who were actually m extended to aU that could read ; orders but who were capable of and therefore Hobart calls it a them, received constant approlja- ' refuge provided by common law tion and allowance.'" A full view in favour of learning to save the of post-Eeformation law and prac- life of an offender literate, in cer- tice respecting the Benefit of Cleri^'y tain cases.' And Keyling, in the is given by Blackstone in the 2Sth case of Lisle, adds, ' That in those chapter of his fourth book. 408 BENEFIT OF CLERGY ABOLISHED CHAP with cases in which full investigation was beyond the ,.^^.^,.^ power of the legal machinery that was placed in Escape of the hands of ecclesiastical judges. (2) Secondly, from^con- Criminals escaped too easily^ in many cases simply viction because the bishops had neither sufficient prison room in which to confine their prisoners, nor sufficient funds with which to maintain them. For all who received the Benefit of Clergy were to be imprisoned —perhaps for life — at the cost of the bishop instead of at the public charge, an extravagant burden to throw upon a judge, and one likely to lead to the easy " purgation" or acquittal condemned in statutes Wght r^l^ting to the subject. (3) Great scandal was scandal on brought upou the Church by this easy escape of criminals, and it seemed as if crime was thus encour- aged by the clergy. Still further scandal was caused by the unjust assumption (made to some extent by contemporaries, and to a much greater extent by historians) that the great body of criminal " clerks," under this system, were clergymen, the fact being that they were laymen. ^/Benefit '^^^^ custom was first really regulated by statute of Clergy in the year 1350, although it had been confirmed by A.D. 1350 g^^g^^^ p^.g^-^^g Acts.^ In that year an Act was passed [25 Edw. III. St. iii. cap. 4] which enacted that (with the exception of those convicted of treasons and felonies which concern the Crown) all convicted clerks shall be delivered up on demand to their ordinaries. Thus the privilege could not be pleaded in bar of trial, but only in bar of secular punishment, that is, after conviction. In the year 1488 another Act was passed [4 Hen. VII. cap. 13], which re- ^ 52 Hen. III. c. 27 [a.d. 1267], 11. c. 16 [a.d. 1315], 18 Edw. III. 3 Edw. I. c. 2 [A.D. 1275], 9 Edw. c. 1, 2 [a.d. 1344]. BENEFIT OF CLERGY ABOLISHED 409 strained the privilege still further, enacting that it chap should only be used once by those who were not ^^.^..^r-^^ actually in holy orders ; that clergymen pleading it should produce their letters of orders or an equi- valent certificate \ and that persons not in orders yet gaining the Benefit of Clergy should be branded, on the brawn of the left thumb with the letter T for theft or M for murder. The Reformation Statutes respecting Benefit of Restnc- Clergy are those of the years 1531 and 1536 [23 formation Hen. VIII. cap. 1 ; 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 1], the^^'" latter of which, being a temporary Act, was con- firmed and made permanent by a later one of 1541 [32 Hen. VIII. cap. 3]. The first of these Statutes enacted that no person convicted of petit treason, wilful murder, sacrilege, burglary, highway robbery, or arson, should hence- forth be allowed to plead the Benefit of Clergy in bar of judgment, but should suffer death as if they were no clerks. A special exce^Dtion was, however, made in favour of all persons who were actually in holy orders, " that is to say of subdeacons or above." These were not to suffer until the bishop to whose cus- tody they had been committed should see fit to degrade them from their orders, and deliver them over to the King's Bench for sentence of death to be passed upon them as laymen. By a clause in a subsequent Act of the same year [23 Hen. VIII. cap. 9], mur- derers who were in holy orders, and were not de- graded by the ordinary, were to be kept by him in perpetual imprisonment. The Statutes of 1536 and 1541 abolished this dis- tinction between clergymen and laymen, and enacted ''that such as be within holy orders shall from 410 BENEFIT OF CLERGY ABOLISHED CHAP henceforth stand and be under the same pains and v^^v-*^ dangers for the offences contained in any of the said statutes^ and be used and ordered to all intents and purposes^ as other persons not being within holy- orders."^ rboUtiSi This ancient privilege of the clergy was, therefore, of Benefit aboHshed in the year 1536, and has never been prac- A.D. 1536 tically revived in their favour. It does not appear that they thought it worth their while to offer any resistance to its abolition^ or at any time to press for its revival. The fact is that it was a privilege by which those actually in holy orders gained nothing ; and, as far as they were concerned, its abolition was a mere technicality. The number of priests who committed murder or highway robbery was infini- tesimal ; and the only reason why the Church should interpose between them and their just punishment was that they might be degraded from their sacer- Quietiy dotal offico bofore sufferin^^ for their crime. The sen iiiGscc(i ^^ in by the clergy did not wish clerical murderers (when there ^ ^^^ were such) to escape from the gallows because they were priests any more than the laity so wished ; and there is no evidence to show that any such ever did so escape. The privilege accorded by the custom of Benefit of Clergy was one which concerned the laity in a far greater degree than it concerned bishops, priests, and deacons. Its practical abolition was effected for the purpose of securing the efficient punishment of laymen's crimes rather than those of 2 Blackstone says that the dis- of the judges on the trial of the tinction was revived "by 1 Edw. Duchess of Kingston. The ques- VI. cap. 12, an act wliich relates tion is of no historical importance to the Benefit of Peerage, " equiva- as the revival was never _ acted lent to that of clergy : " and tliis upon in any case of a criminal appears to have heen the opinion clergyman. THE SUCCESSION TO THE CROWN 411 clergymen : and instead of that abolition bearing chap upon the latter as if a large proportion of them had .^^^.^.^ been possible or actual criminals coveting its shelter, and being resisted accordingly, it was quietly ac- quiesced in by them as the abolition of a worn out privilege which Avas of no value to themselves, and which they did not think it right to retain for others even on the ground of mercy.^ 5 3. The Succession to the Crown When Henry VIII. had succeeded (by means of pnncess Archbishop Cranmer's most reprehensible conniv- ^^^^^f''' ance) in substituting Anne Boleyn for Queen Cathe- from sue- • • . cession rme, a question immediately arose respecting the succession to the Crown of his daughter by the Queen, or of the child which he had in prospect (even before his marriage to her) by the Queen's supplanter. The divorce pronounced by Cranmer had the effect at once of bastardizing the Princess Mary ; and there can be no doubt that the insults and her and provocations which she received at this time and embiuered for twenty years afterwards embittered her disposi- ^^ ^"^^^^ tion, and further developed in her that Tudor merci- lessness which she inherited. At the time when the divorce of her mother and father was pronounced, the Princess Mary was seventeen years of age, old enough to take in the circumstances of the case, and also to see that her 3 The abolition of Sanctuary been defended on high grounds, was a measure of the same charac- [See Gibson's Codex, Tit. 1. cap. i ter as the abolition of Benefit of for a valuable note on the subiectl Clergy. The privilege of « Sane- but it had been too much abused tuary" was indeed a custom of to be preserved in its mediseval very sacred origin, and might have form. 412 ILL- TREA TMENT OF PRINCESS MAR Y CHAP interest as "vvell as her sympathies were all bound up ^-^"^-^ with her mother's side. Of course she became what a young girl must have become under such circum- stanceSj a loving partizan. What mother^ and what daughter, does not feel that this is what the daugh- ter of so good and injured a mother ought to have been % Could a father or a brother wish that a girl of seventeen should have been otherwise ? Declared The Princcss had been separated from her mother, gitimate and told that for the future she would be considered as a natural daughter of the King, and must only use the name and style of " the Lady Mary/' instead of that which she had hitherto used. To this she had boldly replied that she would not consent unless the King himself wrote to her to that effect ; and she maintained her resolution until the year 1536, in spite of threats and humiliations.^ Among the latter may be mentioned that of abolishing her separate establishment, and obliging her to find a home in that of her infant sister Elizabeth, the off- spring of her mother's supplanter. Her trou- It was uot Surprising that the harshness and in- symfa-''^'^ justice showu towards one who had so long been the thi^ers acknowledged heir to the Crown should raise up many sympathizers and partizans. It helped to consolidate a strong feeling of reaction that had been aroused by the miserable divorce business which had just been concluded, and the onslaught upon-the monasteries which was just beginning. That feeling of reaction was exhibited in various ways, and was * Strype's Ecc. Mem. i. 224. 455, 457. Her signature appears See also her letter asking the separately to the illegitimacy arti- King's forgiveness, abjuring the cle as if extorted by much per- Pope and acknowledging her o\vn suasion. illegitimacy, in State Papers, i. CONSPIRACY OF THE NUN OF KENT 413 hencefortli irrepressible^ notwithstanding the unspar- chap ing vengeance with which it was visited by Crom- .^^^-^-^ well and the King. Its first manifestation was, however, unfortunate for the credit of all concerned The Nun in it, being the superstitious or dishonest affair asso- comes into ciated with the name of Elizabeth Barton, the nun ^^"^^'^^ of Kent. This young woman had been attracting attention for some years. She was subject to epileptic fits, and while under their influence gave utterance to some of those strange and solemn sounds which are often heard from persons so afflicted, and which might easily be mistaken for supernatural utterances by ignorant and superstitious bystanders. The clergyman of the parish,^ Eichard Masters, had been put in to farm the souls of it cheaply for Erasmus, and was too inferior a man to deal properly with such an outbreak of superstition as ensued. He eventually consulted Dr. Booking, one of the canons of the Cathedral, and it appears as if the two entered into a conspiracy to make political and pe- cuniary capital out of the poor epileptic girl. It was Made a made to appear, or did appear, that she was cured of *°°^.°^-^^ her disease while kneeling before an image of the men^'"^ Blessed Vhgin : and those who had made pilgri- mages to see the supposed prophetess, now made them to see the wonderful image, the girl herself being received as a nun into the convent of St. Sepulchre at Canterbury. This was about the year 1528, shortly after which Booking endeavoured (through Archbishop Warham), to bring her under 5 Aldington in Kent, to which accepting only a pecuniary charge Erasmus had heen presented by upon it in the form of a pension Archbishop Warhani,butthe spirit- paid to him by the actual incum- ual charge of which he declined, bent. 414 NUMBER OF PERSONS IMPLICATED CHAP VII Her pro- phecies become treason- able the notice of Wolsey.^ Not succeeding in attracting , the attention of the Cardinal, Warham (himself a believer in the nun) placed some of her ^^ prophecies" in the hands of the King, who referred them to Sir Thomas More : but More had no higher opinion of them than had Wolsey. From this time the nun s prophecies began to take a more serious turn, and the results were ultimately of a very tragic kind. ^^ After she had been at Canterbury awhile, and had heard this said Dr. Booking rail like a frantic person against the King's Grace's purposed marriage, against his Acts of Par- liament^ and against the maintenance of heresies within his realm," she began to have visions and revelations respecting the King, the Cardinal (alive and dead), the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the public affairs with which they were associated. These drew to her persons who ought to have known better : — Numbers resort to her " Divers and many, as well great men of the realm as mean men, and many learned men, but specially divers and many religious men, had great confidence in lier, and often resorted unto her and communed with her, to the intent they might. by her know the will of God; and chiefly concerning the King's marriage, the great heresies and schisms within the realm, and the taking away the liberties of the Church ; for in these three points standeth the great number of her visions, which were so many that her ghostly father could scantly write them in three or four quires of paper." "^ About midsummer in the year 1533, Archbishop Cranmer continues to write, he " sent for this holy maid to examine her ; and from me she was had to Master Cromwell to be further examined there. And now" [Christmas of the same year] "she hath 6 Elhs' Ori^^ Li.'tters, III. ii. 137. '^ Jenkvns' Cranmer, i. 81 and note x. MORE, FISHER, AND OTHERS ATTAINTED 415 confessed all, and uttered the very truth, which is chap this : that she never had vision in all her life, but , ^^^^ all that ever she said was feigned of her own imagin- ation, only to satisfy the minds of them the which ^sTio^n of resorted unto her, and to obtain worldly praise."^ i^^posture After this disclosure the nun and five monks — Bocking, Rich, Rysby, Dering, and Goold — were sent to the Tower, where some or all of them were tortured ; their extorted confessions unravelling a real or imaginary conspiracy for the death of the King, and for placing the Princess Mary on the throne. The Countess of Salisbury, and others of the nobility near to the royal blood, were implicated, and so also were Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Shortly after the meeting of Parliament on January More and 15, 1533-4, a bill of attainder was introduced against ^\^^^^^^^'^' the nun, the five monks. More, Fisher, Abel (the ^^^^^ ^^^ Queens confessor), and others. It was passed on"^'^'^^^"^ March 21st, and on April 21st, the nun, Masters, Bockhig, and the other four monks, were all executed at Tyburn, Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were the only other persons towards whom Cromwell and the King seem to have wished to show any great severity, and it is not unlikely, therefore, that the supposed Doubt as plot against the Kings life was a political fiction, for ^^''^ '^^^^^^ neither King nor minister ever showed mercy to those ° ^'^ ^ °^ whom they considered guilty of treason. ^^ Fisher and -> More were, in fact, marked for destruction, and their '^ condemnation was only a question of time.' ' They were leading men, the one in the world of thought, and the otlier in that of religion, and both had shown ^ Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 82. 416 THE BILL OF ATTAINDER CHAP enough independence to render them dangerous in _^~^.^ the eyes of Henry and Cromwell. They escaped for a time^ because nothing could be really proved More against them.® Sir Thomas More wrote to the a time King claiming the fulfilment of a promise made him on his resignation of the chancellorship, that the King would stand his friend in any trouble : and he was pardoned. Bishop Fisher stoutly denied the charges of treason that were made against him, but was condemned to forfeit all his goods, and to be imprisoned.-^ Then Fisher knew that his time was ^ This is sho'RTi by the earnest endeavour of Audley and the House of Commons to persuade the King to omit More's name from the Bill of Attainder. Nothing could he brought against him, they saidj as regarded the nun, and they doubted not some other char^^e might soon be contrived that would suit the King's purpose. Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., ii 175, ed. 1810. ^ The same sentence was passed upon Abel, Confessor to Queen Catherine. He was confined in the Tower, where he has left his mark on the wall of the Beau- champ Tower in the form of the following rebus. He was event- ually executed in Smithfield, in 1540, with Barnes, Gerard, Jerome, Fetherstone, and PowelL THE OATH OF SUCCESSION 417 come^ and he retired for his last few days of liberty Chap to his house at Rochester. v^^i-^^^*^ Meanwhile an Act was passing through Parlia- a-^- ^534 ment, in the meshes of which both More and Fisher were destined to be fatally entangled. This was " An Act concerning the King's Succession" [25 Hen. VIII. cap. 22], which was passed on March 30, 1534, nine days after the Act of A.ttainder by which Fisher and the rest had been condemned, and sixteen before he was sent to the Tower. This Statute enacted that the Kind's marriage ^"ne . Boleyn s with Queen Catherine being invalid, and that with children Queen Anne being established, his children by the ^fted latter should be the lawful successors to the Crown. Perhaps there would have been little practical diffi- culty in gaining a general acquiescence in the Act so far : but there was a sting in its last clause but one in the shape of an enactment that any and every person whatever among the subjects might be called upon to swear that they would ^Hruly, firmly, aird constantly, without fraud or guile, observe, fulfil, maintain, defend, and keep, to their cunning, wit, and uttermost of their powers, the whole effects and contents of this present Act." Even this might have been borne, but beyond this a form of oath was contrived which had no legislative authority what- ever, which is not in the Act, and which must have been framed at a subsequent date. This form of oath was as follows '} — " Ye shall swear to bear your faith, tmtli, and obedience The form only to the King's Majesty, and to the heirs of his body, °^^^^^^^^^ ^ This oath is entered in the session — a most strange after- Joiimals of the House of Lords at thoiightj and creating a suspicion the close of the proceedings of the of dishonesty. 2 D 418 THE OATH OF SUCCESSION CHAP according to the limitation and rehearsal within this Statute ^^^ of succession above specified ; and not to any other within this A.D. 1535 realm, nor foreign authority, prince or potentate; and in case any oath be made or hath been made by you to any other person or persons, that then you do repute the same as vain and annihilate : and that to your cunning, wit, and utmost of your power, without guile, fraud, or other undue means, ye shall observe, keep, maintain, and defend this Act above speci- fied, and all the whole contents and effects thereof, and aU other acts and statutes made since the beginning of this present Parliament, in confirmation or for due execution of the same, or of anything therein contained. And thus ye shall do against all manner of persons, of what estate, dignity, degree, or condition soever -they be; and in no wise do or attempt, nor to your power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly, any thing or things, privily or apertly, to the let, hindrance, damage, or derogation thereof, by any manner of means, or for any pretence or cause, So help you God and aU Saints." More's Conimlssions were appointed at once to tender view of the . • m r» Oath this oath, m all parts of the country, and one sat at the Archbishop's palace at Lanabeth, before which both the Bishop and Sir Thomas More were called, on Monday the fifteenth of April.^ For a time the ex-chancellor's legal knowledge foiled the King. The oath was not in the Statute, was different in tenor from that substantially given there : he would swear simply to the succession but not to the new oath now tendered to him^ and which he considered to be unlawful. He would not prejudice the mind of any other person, but for his own mind it was made up and nothing should change it. He also intimated that he had certain secret reasons for not taking the oath, which he would disclose only to the King himself What these were never transpired, 3 See Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., ii. 182, ed. 1814 THE OATH OF SUCCESSION 419 but More was sure to have had good reason for chap what he said. And so, while many came and went; ^^^.^^..^^ taking the oath readily, More walked in the garden a-^* ^535 of Lambeth palace till the evening, when he was given into the charge of the Abbot of Westminster. Fisher meanwhile had also come to Lambeth, had \l^'^^'^ ^""^ ' More sent refused the oath, and had been sent straight to to the the Tower, whither, four days after, More followed him. There the two continued for a year, not seeing each other, but occasionally corresponding. On May 4, 1535, More looking out of his prison window saAv some of the Charterhouse monks being led to their execution, and wrote to his daughter how much he longed to be of their company : antici- pating no doubt that he had but a little while longer to wait. Examinations and persuasions could not win over either of these two great "criminals." And as no other way could be found to master the ex-chancel- lor s law, a fresh Statute was passed [26 Hen. VIII. cap. 2] declaring that the oath tendered was the oath intended by the statute of the previous year ! By this ex post facto legislation a show of lawfulness was found for the oath, and it was once more formally tendered to More and Fisher, before a special com- mission sitting in Westminster Hall, on Thursday June 17, 1535. Of course they refused again, and finally, and were finally declared guilty. On the Tuesday following, the Bishop of Ro- Bishop Chester ended his life on Tower Hill, a life of much il^fhours holiness, much service to the crown and country, and of which nothing is known but what is honour- able. The good old man's death was worthy of him and of the Master in whose footsteps he was humbly 420 EXECUTION OF BISHOP FISHER CHAP treading^ while lie felt for a LigM whose brightness .,_ ,, . he did not altogether see on this side the grave. AD. 1535 Late at night — even in the middle of the night it seems — the lieutenant of the Tower came to him with the warrant for his execution on the following day. "At what hour ?" asked the aged Bishop, and the reply was "at nine o'clock." On hearing this he said he would sleep for two or three hours, and begged to be called at six in the morning, explaining that he wished to have some sleep, because being so very old and infirm (he was seventy-six), he thought it would be hardly possible otherwise to go b/avely through his trial. At that hour he was aroused, spent most of the interval in devotion, and then took a slight breakfast. When the time drew near, and the lieutenant had again made his appearance, " Reach me hither," said the old man, " my furred tippet, to Fisher's put about my neck."** Sir William Kingston remon- Ib^ut ^ strated with him for thinking of such a trifle when shTp^of life ^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ minutes to live : but he was rebuked by the answer, that it was one's duty to keep to the last minute, by all reasonable means and ways, the life given in trust to us by God, even though there may be no fear whatever of death. So the aged Bishop wore his amess until it was taken ofi*by the headsman. As soon as he had received it, he put a New Testament into his pocket, made the sign of the cross upon his forehead, in remembrance of his Master's dying hour, and then tottered down-stairs. But as it was impossible for him to walk so far as Tower Hill, they seated him in a chair, and carried him as far as the gate of the Tower, to wait there * This " furred tippet" is a con- like portrait at St. John's College, spicuous object in Holbein's life- Cambridge. l^XECUTION OF BISHOP FISHER 421 for the sheriffs, whose duty it was to receive him chap ' -^ VII A. I). 1535 thence into their custody. As they waited, he rose from his chair, leaned against the wall, and taking the little New Testament out of his pocket, lifted up his eyes to Heaven, and prayed, ^' O Lord, this is the last time that ever I shall open this book, let some comfortable place now chance unto me, whereby I Thy poor servant may glorify Thee in this my last hour/' Looking into the book as he FisKer opened it, the first words that met his eyes were, the execu- ^' This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, ^^^^^"^ the only tiue God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the earth : I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, Father, glorify Thou Me, with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the Avorld was."^ When he had read thus far, he shut the book, saying, " Here is even learn- ing enough for me to my life's end." The sheriffs came, the procession moved on, and when it came to " the scaffold on Tower Hill, otherwise called East Smithfield,"^ the Bishop once more tottered up the steps that lay between him and his rest, saying, '^ Accedite ad Eum, et illuminamini, et facies vestrse non confundentur ;" ^Hhey had an eye unto Him, and were lightened : and their faces were not ashamed."^ Then he said Te Deum, and the psalm ^^ In Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust,"® remembering that his compline hour had come, and gave himself up to be disrobed by the executioner. When the crowd H's emaci- saw what a poor withered skeleton of humanity was ^ *^^^ ^ John xvii. 3-5. Churcli comer of Trinity Square, '' The Tower HiU scaffold was a within the space now railed in for few yards north of the great "bond- a lawn. ed wareliouses at the All-Hallows ^ Ps. xxxiv. 5. ^ Ps. xxxi. 1--6. 422 EXECUTION OF BISHOP FISHER CHAP being robbed of its few proper hours of life^ there ^^J;!^^ Avas a general wail of misery and indignation ; and A.D. 1535 as for his shrivelled neck it seemed as if there was nothing left for the axe to pass through. Anecdote As soon as the head of the aged Bishop was Boieynand severed from his body^ it was put into a bag by the Fishers executioner^ for the purpose of being carried to the head bridge^ there to be put upon a pole. But a message came for him to carry it to Anne Boleyn^ who wished to see it before it was set up. We need not be too hard upon her ; she was a graceless woman, and her wantonness had brought her into brutal company. As she looked on her victim's dead face^ she said contemptuously, " Is this the head that so often exclaimed against me ? I trust it shall never do no more harm."^ Then to suit her action to her words, she cuffed the poor speechless lips with the back of her hand, but so hard, that a projecting tooth hurt her finger, and caused a sore that did not soon heal. ni-treat- But the indignity shown to the old Bishop's head decapita-^^ was uot greater than that which was shown to his ted body jj^^-^Qg^-ted body. It was stripped naked and left on the scaffold (guarded by soldiers) until eight o'clock in the evening. One Christian hand cast a decent veil of straw upon his middle, and that was all the care shown, until the King's order came for its re- moval \ then the body was carried away swinging across a couple of halberds, to be tumbled headfore- most and naked into a grave on the north side of All- Hallows Churchyard, where it awaits the re- 9 Tliere ia a long letter from and More with having been an Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell, accomplice. He also says that written from Antwerp in August another much larger book is being 1533 in which he charges Fisher printed, which he supposes to be with 'having written and published also by them. [St. Pap., vii. 489.] a book against the King s matter. EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS MORE 423 surrection of the just.^ The day of his death was chap that of the martyrdom of St. Alban (then observed .^.Z^l^, on the 22nd of June), the year 1535. Before it a.d. 1535 came round again the Queen who had insulted him when dead had shared his fate within a few yards of the same spot, on the Tower Green, within the Tower walls. More had spoken words to his daughter on More's this subject which were almost like a prophecy, about^^^^" Once on cominef home after some absence, he asked ^^J"^ * . T Boleyn after many acquaintances, and among others after Queen Anne. " ^ In faith, father,' said his daughter, ' never better. There is nothing else at the court but dancing and sporting.' ^ Never better?' said he, * alas ! Meg, alas ! it pitieth me to remember unto what misery she will shortly come. These dances of hers will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like foot-balls ; but it will not be long ere her head will dance the like dance.' "^ More's own head followed that of Fisher after a sir Tho- fortnight's interval, on July 6th. Nothing could sur- Sst wf pass the self-possession with which he met his fate, but there was an affectation about his last acts and words which makes it seem studied, and as if he was striving to emulate the philosopher of classical ages rather than the martyr of Christian times./ f He did himself injustice, for notwithstanding the persistence of his jesting habits, he had prepared for death like one who well-knew and keenly felt what he was pre- 1 Baily's Life of Fisher, 206-^16, river. So, calling his servants, he Baily also tells an anecdote, that said, "Let us truss up our baggage while Fisher was in his study in and be gone, this is no place for us his house at Lambeth Marsh, a to abide in." This is said to have cannon-shot passed right thi-ough. happened shortly after the poison- On inquiry, he was told that it had ing by Rouse. Ibid., p. 101. come ftom the Ewrl of Wiltshire's ^ More's Life of More, p. 244. house on the opposite side of the 424 EXECUTION OF SIR THOMAS MORE CHAP paring for : and no martyr ever displayed a more .^-.^^^ thorough spirit of forgiveness towards all who were A'D. 1535 instrumental in his condemnation. He went forth to Tower Hill^ a hale man (but for his imprisonment) of fifty-six years of age^ on Tuesday, the octave of St. Peter and the eve of St. Thomas of Canterbury (as he himself noticed), July 6, 1635 '} — " Immediately after the execution, word was brought thereof to the Eliiig ; who being then at dice when it was told him, at the hearing thereof seemed to be wonderfully amazed. ' And is it true' (quoth the King) ; 'is Sir Thomas More, my chan- cellor, dead?' The messenger answered, 'Yea, if it may please your Majesty' He turned to Queen Anne, who then stood by, and, wistfully looking upon her, said, ' Thou, thou art the cause of this man's death/ So presently went to his chamher, and there wept full bitterly" Anecdote A good portrait of Sir Thomas More^ by Holbein, Boieyn and is now in the Louvro, which the first art critic of ^rtrait ^^^ day thinks may be the same as that of which Baldinucci^ in his " Lives of Painters," tells the fol- lowing story : — King Henry had a fine portrait of the cliancellor, which hung in a certain apartment with those of other eminent men. On the day of More's execution, after the King had reproached her with being the cause of his death, Queen Anne Boieyn, casting her eyes on the portrait, fancied that its gaze was fixed on her reproachfully, and seized with a sudden terror of remorse, she flung the pic- ture out of the window, exclaiming, " Oh me ! the man seems to be still alive."* 3 In Foxe's Acts and Monu- where in Baldinucci's time it still ments it is curious to find the remained, though not now to he author placing More in his Galen- found there. For further particu- dar of Martyrs on June 19fch. lars see some account of the *' Life ^ It was picked up hj a passer- and "Works of Hans Holbein/' by by, and eventually carried to Rome, Ralph Nicholson Wornum. nEACTIONARY FEELING EXCITED 425 In this manner passed away two great and good chap men^ one whose work was done, the other still ^^^..^^^ capable of many years' good service to his country. ■^•^- '535 /y^Neither of them did much either in advancing or retarding the Reformation, and yet the names of both are so closely bound up with the transactions of the time that it is impossible to omit this account of their latter days. Their deaths mark, moreover, an epoch of reaction, especially among the clergy. There was a degree of reckless tyranny in those deaths which exhibited in strong colours the intensely cruel disposition of the King and his minister, Crom- well. It was felt that no one was safe when men so thoroughly guiltless of any real crime could thus be sacrificed. Still more was it felt that religion had very little to do with the course which the King was taking, and that there was great danger of religion itself being shipwrecked and the Church destroyed if that course were not checked. The reaction thus started went on gaining strength until it overthrew the Reformation for a time, and ended at last by founding the Roman Catholic schism in England. CHAPTER VIII AUTHORITATIVE DEALINGS WITH DOCTRINE IN THE REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH ![a.d. 1536— A.I). 1547] CHAP TTTHEN King Henry the Eighth had estabhshed .^^^.^.^^.^^ V V his own authority in the Church of England, his ideas on the subject of its reformation were very nearly exhausted. Those ideas were chiefly confined to the gratification of his wishes in the matter of the divorce, to the acquisition of power in that of the supremacy, and to the resuscitation of his attenu- ated treasury by the dissolution of the monasteries. There was, however, a great power at work of which the King had not taken an estimate, and that was the power of national thought, deriving its impulse from no visible quarter, but moving forward with an irresistible force. Narrow- But, pcrhaps, oue great stimulating element in the oider° development of national thought was the persistence ciei^gy with which many of the older clergy adhered to an exceedingly narrow interpretation of the schoolmen, and of the mediaeval system of the Church in general. The schoolmen were mental giants, whose works could scarcely be despised by any one who has made NEED OF INTELLECTUAL REFORMATION 427 himself acquainted with, them/ And so also the chap religious system of the Middle Ages was grand as the ..J^JJ^ old cathedrals which still record its memory. Intel- lect and saintliness had full ' ""ope in the Mediseval Church of England^ as full scope as in any age from Constantino to the present time. But great systems require great living exponents if their grandeur is to continue to be an effective force^ and the absence of such exponents causes a loss of significance which is next door to a loss of life. Now^ it is beyond all manner of doubt that the fifteenth century failed to produce any class of theologians who could properly use the weapons which the twelfth and thirteenth had forged for them. There were as few great Paucity of scholars and theologians as there were great saints^ and theo- and intellect as well as holiness had sunk down to a ^°sia°s level of low mediocrity. The cruel wars of the fif- teenth century — especially, as regards our own coun- try, the wars of the Roses — had gone far towards eating out the heart of religion; and it was only when they ceased that men seemed to have time and inclination to think again. The great yet vain and petulant Erasmus un- influence doubtedly deserves the credit of having aroused the mus"^^^" educated world of Europe, and especially of our own country, from this torpor. It is an absurd mistake to suppose that he originated the study of Greek in England, for it was at Cambridge that he learned that language ; but his enthusiastic love of it stirred up the languid scholarship of both our universities, and his enterprise in printing the text of the New ^ The contempt which iised to few, even among learned men, tak- "be expressed for the schoolmen ing the trouble to read the school- was, in reality, contempt for the men themselves, way in which they had been used ; 428 THE INFLUENCE OF ERASMUS CHAP Testament led many to study the original who would ^^^.^.^^ otherwise have been content with the Vulgate. The mind of Erasmus was^ too^ of a decidedly independent and original character : and to him we must trace the growth of that disposition to search deep into the foundations of received dogmas which had so great an effect upon the theology of the Church of England. Men were in the habit of settling down on a rather superficial tradition, and the habit became so strong that a spirit of inquiry began to be looked upon as identical with a spirit of heresy. Erasmus taught his generation the habit of looking below the surface ; and^ notwithstanding the tone of irreverence and scornfulness with which his own writings are too much adulterated, and which his followers too often caught up, this habit of research and spirit of inquiry proved a gain to the theological world as well as to the world of thought at large. It may be concluded that although it is difficult to point out any definite work by which Erasmus influenced the English Reformation beyond the pub- lication of his Greek New Testament, he really did influence it in two particulars ; first, by the revival of scholarship ; and secondly, by stimulating men to the use of their reasoning powers. His influence was directly exerted only upon the higher clergy, and a few of the higher laity ; but it was of a kind which would soon extend downwards by these inter- mediate channels, and thus the results of it were spread over a much wider area than that traversed by the great scholar himself. Dean Colet has been already mentioned in a previous chapter as the preacher of a famous Refor- mation sermon before the Convocation, and as a RISE OF A SPIRIT OF INQUIRY 429 lecturer on Holy Scripture. He also wrote a treatise chap on the seven Sacraments/ whicli indicates a very .^.^..^^_ decided inclination to break away from ordinary habits of thought. But the treatise was never printed by Colet ; and its only historical value is that of illustrating this growing tendency of educated men to strike out new lines rather than to walk servilely on those already chalked out by their predecessors.^ But the spirit of inquiry soon extended itself to Theoiogi- J- y J cal discus- the uneducated as well as to the educated classes ; sionamon- and as it descended in the social scale^ it stirred up much ignorant and irreverent controversy^ ill-feeling, and even violence. At the one extreme was the habitual superstition and ^^ ultramontanism" which the sixteenth century inherited from the fifteenth, at the other the wild and infidel principles of the foreign Anabaptists now finding a home among the lower classes of Englishmen. *' Too many there be/' says one of the Homilies a few years later, " which, upon the ale-benches or other places, dehght to set forth certain questions not so much pertaining to edification as to yain-glory, and showing forth of their cunning, and so un- soberly to reason and dispute, that when neither part will give place to other, they fall to chiding and contention, and sometime from hot words to further inconvenience. St. Paul could not abide to hear among the Corinthians these words of discord or dissension, ' I hold of Paul, I of Cephas, and I of Apollos.' What would he then say if he heard these words of contention which be now almost in every man's mouth? 'He is a Pharisee/ " Printed for the first time in sertio Septem Sacramentorum,'' is 1867, when it was edited, with an an example of exactly the opposite introduction, by the Bev. J. H. disposition, that of adhering strictly Lnpton, M.A., Sur-Master of St. to received tradition. It has no Paul's School. particular merit, literary or theo- ^ Henrj' VIII/s Treatise, "As- lotjical. 430 METHOD OF REVIEWING CHAP ' he is a Gospeller/ ' he is of the new sort/ ' he is of the old ^^^^ faith/ * he is a new-broached brother/ 'he is a good Cathohc father/ 'he is a papist/ 'he is an heretic/"* The Acts of Parliament and proclamations use similar language^ and that it is not at all exaggerated is shown by many of the narratives contained in Foxe's ^^ Acts and Monuments." The spirit of in- quiry was^ in fact^ developing into a spirit of doubt and unbelief — a rapid and dangerous recoil from the blind dogmatism and superstition which had been allowed to grow up during several preceding genera- tions. Such a general unsettlement of religious opinion showed that the time had fully come for the Church to act, and that the great question of papal jurisdic- tion having been disposed of, the official representa- tives of the Church of England must now undertake the responsibility of reforming the doctrines and devotional customs which had been handed down by the Middle Ages. Review of And here something must be said as to the autho- thework rity by which this work was undertaken by the derg^ in Church of England ; for it has often been alleged by synods the oppoueuts of her independence, that independent action on such subjects was contrary to the law and practice of the Catholic Church. Such an opinion is contradicted, however, by history ; and the course taken by the Anglican reformers can be fully justified by Catholic precedents. For the Church was ordinarily governed and directed in all things by local synods down to the time of the first General Council, a.d. 325, and sub- stantially so after the time of the sixth General * " First part of Sermon against Contention and Brawling." CHURCH DOCTRINES 431 Council, A.D. 681. Even during those exceptional chap three centuries and a half, General Councils were ..^^.^-^.^^ only called in very special cases, and the ordinary affairs of particular churches were still left to their own local synods. Archbishop Laud has shown that this freedom extended even to matters of faith, local synods sometimes anticipating the decrees of General Councils : — ■ " For the council at Eome," he says, " under Pope Sylvester, Laud on anno 324, condemned Photinus and Sabellius (and their Xl^^^ ^^ heresies were of high nature against the faith). The Council synods of Gangra about the same time [between 325 and 380] condemned Eustatliius for his condemning of marriage as unlawful. The first council at Carthage, being a provincial, condemned rebaptization, much about the year 348. The provincial council at Aquileia, in the year 381, in which St. Ambrose was present, condemned PaUadius and Secundinus for embracing the Arian heresy. The second council of Carthage handled and decreed the behef and preaching of the Trinity; and this a httle after the year 424. The Council of Milevis in Africa, in which St. Augustine was present, con- demned the whole course of the heresy of Pelagius, that great and bewitching heresy, in the year 416. The second council of Orange, a provincial too, handled the great controversies about grace and free-will, and set the Church right in them in the year 444. The third council of Toledo (a national one), in the year 689, determined many things against the Arian heresy, about the very prime articles of faith, under fourteen several anathemas. The fourth council of Toledo did not only handle matters of faith, for the reformation of that people, but even added also some things to the creed which were not exfpressly dehvered ia former creeds. Nay, the bishops did not only practise this to condemn heresies in national and provin- cial synods, and so reform these several places and the Church itself by parts, but they did openly challenge this as their right and due, and that without any leave asked of the see of Eome ; for in this fourth council of Toledo they decree, ' That 432 OBEDIENCE OF CHURCH OF ENGLAND CHAP if there happen a cause of faith to be settled, a general, that ^^■'■^ is a national synod of all Spain and Galicia shall he held thereon ;' and this in the year 643 : where you see it was then catholic doctrine in all Spain that a national synod might he a competent judge in a cause of faith. And I would fain know what article of faith doth more concern all Christians in general than that of Filioque ? and yet the Church of Eome herself made that addition to the creed without a general council. . . And if this were practised so often and in so many places, why may not a national council of the Church of Eng- land do the Hke."^ These arguments and illustrations might indeed be strengthened^ in the case of the Church of Eng- land, by showing that it stood from the first in a peculiar position of independence^ from the fact that the country never formed any part of the later empire, and had never therefore been thoroughly assimilated in habits with the Southern Churches ol Europe : that the Roman canon law never prevailed to any extent in this country, which had always a canon law of its own : and that its liturgy was always essentially national. Decrees of Jt is woU-known, howover, that as far as matters erai Coun- of faith are concerned, the later Church of England accepted^^ has as coustautly received the decrees of the first Church of ^^^ General Councils (the only six which have been England auiversally accepted by Christendom) as the Church of Rome itself has done ; and neither her provincial synods nor her convocations have ever attempted to meddle with primary articles of faith except by way of solemn acceptance and confirmation. Nor has the Church of England ever manifested the least reluctance to take part in any General Council. Henry VIII. and Cranmer both made formal appeals « Laud against Fisher, §24, 126, 127, ed. 1839. MODE OF REVIEWING ITS DOCTRINES 433 to such a council, and neerotiations were on foot in chap • VIII Elizabetlis reign for the representation of England at ^^.^.^^^ the Council of Trent. But no council can ever be ^•'^- '53^ generally acknowledged as oecumenical by Christen- dom at large in which the Pope claims to be more than a presiding moderator : and until a free council is properly constituted, England^ at least, must look to its national synods for spiritual guidance, even in matters of faith. It has been already shown that the repudiation of the papal jurisdiction and other matters of discipli- nary reform were practical enunciations of the prin- ciples indicated in the preceding pages : and it will now be shown how the same principles were brought to bear on the reformation of doctrine in the Church of England. The convocation which was opened at St. Paul's The Con- on June 9, 1536, with a sermon by Bishop Latimer, 1536 ^°" ^ was evidently expected to do some important work. It was the critical time of the northern rebellion, and the dissolution of the lesser monasteries : the full effects of renouncing the Pope's authority were just beginning to be felt, the seething spirit of con- troversy was reaching its climax, and a general feel- ing pervaded society that further great changes were at hand. No session was held for business until June 21st. On that day Cromwell (who appeared in the anoma- lous position of the King's Vicar-GeneraP) brought ^ Cromwell had tried to carry Elizabeth inclusivej and including his assumption still further by Lady Jane Grey. The Convoca- sending a deputy to take his place lion indignantly refused to permit in the Convocation. This was Pctre's presence; and after a few Dr., afterwards Sir AVilliam Petre, days' delay, Cromwell appeared who kept in office under every himself. [WiLkins'Concil., iii. 803.] sovereign from Henry VIII. to His conduct was ecLually presump- 2 E 434 MODE OF REVIEWING ITS DOCTRINES CHAP a message from his Majesty expressing the desire v,,..^ ^ which he felt for the termination of religious discord. A.D, 1536 "Ye be not ignorant/' it said, "that ye be called hither to Royal mes- determine certain controversies which at this time be moved specting concerning the Christian religion and faith, not only in this religious realm, but also in all nations thronghoiit the world, for the Q IS cords King studieth day and night to set a quietness in the Church, and he cannot rest until aU such controversies be fully- debated and ended, through the determination of you and of his whole Parhament. For although his special desire is to set a stay for the unlearned people, whose consciences are in doubt what they may believe, and he himself, by his excellent learning, knoweth these controversies weU enough, yet he will suffer no common alteration, but by the consent of you and of his whole Parliament."^ As soon as the message^ of which this is the most important part, had been delivered by Cromwell, ^^ all the bishops did rise up and gare thanks to the King's Majesty for his fervent study and desire toward an unity, and for this virtuous exhortation most worthy of a Christian king." The discussion which followed comes dov^n to us through the Scotch intruder, Aless or Allen, whom Cromwell had taken with him, and the terms in which he writes make his narration unreliable. We can gather generally from it that the debate turned chiefly upon the doctrine of the sacraments, and that Stokesley, Bishop of London, and Archbishop Cran- tuous in inviting the Scotch refugee against the Bishop of London, hy Aless to go with him to the Oonvo- Alexander Alane, Scot." Foxe cation ; hut after the first time emhodies the accoimt in his Acts the Archhishop -would not allow and Mon., v. 379-384, ed. 1838. him to take any part in the de- Allen calls the authors quoted bates. [Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. iii. " stinking glosses and lousy old 196-202]. Avriters." Perhaps his nationality '' Jn a hook entitled " Of the furnished him with his epithets. Authority of the Word of God BY A NATIONAL SYNOD OF CLERGY 435 mer were the leaders of the two opposing schools of chap theology that were represented among the bishops. ._^^.^^^ While the debate was going on in the Upper '^°- ^53^ House^ on June 23d the clergy of the Lower House presented a " Protestation" to their Lordships against certain errors and abuses which they declare that they believe in their consciences *'to have been and now to be within this realm causes of dissension, worthy special information." This '^protestation" consists of sixty-eight short articles, in which are stated some of the opinions and ribald sayings of the Anabap- tists and the rising class of English Dissenters. Among the chief of them are the following :^ — " It is commonly preached, thought, and spoken, to the Protest of slander of this noble realm, disqnietness of the people, damage clergy of Christian souls, not without fear of many other incon- current veniences and perils, that the sacrament of the altar is not to ^^^°^ be esteemed. For divers Hght and lewd persons be not ashamed or afraid to say. Why should I see the sacring of the high mass ? Is it anything else but a piece of bread, or a little pretty round robin ? "Priests have no more authority to minister sacraments than the laymen have. " All ceremonies accustomed in the Church, which are not clearly expressed in Scripture, must be taken away, because they are men's inventions. " A man hath no free will. " God never gave graae nor knowledge of Holy Scripture to any great estate of rich men, and they in no wise follow the same. " It is preached and taught that aU things ought to be common. " It is idolatry to make any oblations. " It is as lawful at ah times to confess to a layman as to a priest. " Bishops, ordinaries, and ecclesiastical judges have no 3 They will be found at length StrjqDe's Memorials, ii. 266, ed. in Wilkins' Concil., hi. 137, or 1822. 436 THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION CHAP authority to give any sentence of excommunication or censure, ^^^^ ne yet to absolve or loose any man from the same. A.D. 1536 "All sins, after the sinner be once converted, are made, by the merits of Christ's passion, venial sins — that is to say, sins clean forgiven. " The singing or saying of mass, mattens, or evensong is but a roaring, howling, whistling, murmuring, tomring, and jug- gling, and the playing at the organs a foolish vanity. " It is sufficient and enough to believe, though a man do no good work at all. " ISTo human constitutions or laws do bind any Christian man but such as be in the gospels, Paul's epistles, or the New Testament; and that a man may break them without any offence at all." The document concludes with a statement that there are many slanderous and erroneous books abroad which ignorant people suppose to be official because they have ciityi privilegio upon them;^ that some of these books which had been condemned by a committee of Convocation were not yet condemned by the bishops ; and^ finally, that apostates and infamous persons took upon themselves to preach slanderously without either royal or episcopal license. Convoca- This protostatiou of the Lower House doubtless to°Te? Ar- ^^^^^^^ ^he discussiou that was going on in the tides of Upper;- but as the records of Convocation are unfortunately destroyed, we can only judge of it by the result, which is foand in the Ten Articles of 1536, the first of that series which culminated in the present Thirty-nine Articles. The exact course of proceeding by which these came into the form in which they are now on record cannot be traced. But the action of Convocation, like that of Parliament, is very uniform, and it is not "* It was forbidden by proclamation, shortly after, to use these words without authority. THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION 437 difficult to imagine what took place. There were chap . VIII debates and rough drafts of resolutions : at first ..^^^^^ many high words^ then a gradual approximation ^•^- '536 of parties and an unwilling compromise ; and as light ^^^ ^^^^ beo^an to dawn, a committee, that final resource of ^^.^^^^^^^^y ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ to be agreed all assemblies^ would be appointed to draw up a upon series of propositions on which the largest number was likely to agree ; these propositions would be submitted to the bishops, and perhaps to the Lower House, and would thus be gradually moulded into their eventual form. During the progress of these proceedings there were, no doubt, what we now call ^^ communications with the Government," probably through Cranmer and Cromwell with the King him- self, so that all parties concerned might be brought to a general agreement before the document under construction officially saw the light.^ By the time all this had been done the month of June and part of the succeeding month had worn away, and it was July 10th before the Articles were ready for the final step, which was that of subscription by the two Houses of Convocation which had brought them into being. They were subscribed on that day by the Subscnp- vicar-general, the two archbishops, and sixteen them by bishops (including the Bishop of Durham^), forty *^^ ^^^^^ abbots and priors, and fifty archdeacons, deans, and proctors of the Lower House. And as, by the con- cordat lately entered into between the King and the Convocation, no canons were to become law without they were assented to and published by the crown, ^ There is reason to think the acted for the Northern Convoca- King made some alterations in the tion, as Bishop Cosin and others draft with his own hand. See were commissioned to do when the Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. p. 15. Prayer Book was revised in 1661. 2 The Archbishop of York and See Kennett's Register, 563, 565. tlie Bishop of Durham probably 438 THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION CHAP the Articles were finally issued under the Kinsf's VIII • • . * .^^.^^^^^ authority^ and with a preface or declaration prefixed A.D. 1536 in a similar manner to that in which the Thirty-nine Articles of religion and the Canons are now set forth. These Articles form so conspicuous a feature in the history of the Reformation that it is desirable to insert a summary of them, the text itself occupying too much space.^ t^orof^^^" The original title of the Articles as they left the them by CouYocation (and as it still exists in the MS.) was, ^^ Articles about Religion set out by the Convoca- tion, and published by the King's authority ;" but it got into print in the following form — ^^ Articles devised by the King's Highness' Majesty, to establish Christian quietness and unity among us, and to avoid contentious opinions ; which Articles be also approved by the consent and determination of the whole clergy of this realm. Anno mdxxxvi." Such an alteration was very characteristic of Henry, and is a parallel to his suppression of the clause " quan- tum per Christi legem licet" in the Convocation document respecting his supremacy. Contents of The declaration, or preface, consists of three para- mu[|ation graphs, in which the King states, that it being his duty to see that God's word and commandments are believed by his subjects, and also to secure unity and concord in opinion in such things as concern religion, and having heard what unbelief and con- troversy there is among them, his Majesty has not only taken great pains himself, but also has ^^ caused 3 They are correctly printed at the clergy is the British Museum length in Bishop Lloyd's " Formu- MS. Cleop. E. v. 59. A fac-simile lariesofFaith in the reign of Henry of their signatures is printed in VIII.," and in Archdeacon Hard- Tiemey's edition of Dod's Church wicke's " History of the Articles." History, vol. i. The copy originally suhscribed hy THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION 439 our bishops, and other the most discreet and best chap learned men of our clergy of this our whole realm, v^Zi^^^ to be assembled in our Convocation for the full ^.d. 1536 debatement and quiet determination of the same." The Articles, which ^'finally they have concluded and agreed upon," are now, with their assent and agreement set forth in two parts : the first part relating to such things as are directly commanded by God, and are necessary to salvation ; the second part to such things as have been of long continuance, and have been prudently instituted by the Church, and are therefore to be observed, although not ordained expressly by God, nor necessary to salvation. Each of the tAvo divisions thus characterized con- contents tains five Articles — the first five relating to articles ^^rSfes of faith, baptism, penance, the Holy Eucharist, and tiiemseives justification ; the second division treating of images, the honour to be given to saints, prayers to saints^ rites and ceremonies, and purgatory. [I.] The first Article enjoins the bishops and o^ the preachers to teach that all those things are true which are contained in the Bible and the three Creeds, and that these are to be interpreted accord- ing to their plain meaning. It must be held and taught that these are "the most holy, most sure, the most certain, and infallible words of God/' which cannot be altered by any authority : that the articles of the Creeds are "necessary to be believed for mans salvation;" that those who obstinately con- tradict them are very infidels and heretics who will not be saved ; that they must therefore be reverently and religiously kept and observed ; and that all con- trary opinions, as condemned by the first four holy councils, must be utterly refused and condemned. 440 THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION CKAP riI-1 The Sacrament of Baptism is declared to ..^^.^^ have been ^' instituted and ordained by our Saviour A.i>. 1536 Jesus Christ as a thing necessary for the attaining On Bap- ^f everlasting life. It is oifered to infants as well ^^^^^ as adults, that all may have remission of sins, and the promise of grace and everlasting life belongs to infants, innocents, and children, as well as to adults. " Insomuch as infants and children dying iu their infancy shall undoubtedly be saved thereby, and else not."^ Infants must be baptized, because they are born in original sin, which cannot be remitted except by baptism, wherein the Holy Ghost cleanses and purifies them by His most secret virtue and operation. Having been once baptized they cannot, nor ought not, to be baptized again, and Anabaptist and Pelagian opinions to the contrary are detestable heresies. But remission of sins in baptism is only given to adults when they come to the Sacrament with penitence, with belief in all the articles of the faith, and with full trust in the promise of God adjoined to the said Sacrament. On Pen- rill.1 The Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Christ ^^ as a thing so necessary for man's salva- tion, that no man which after his baptism is fallen again, and hath committed deadly sin, can without the same be saved, or attain everlasting life." When sinners convert themselves from their naughty life, and do such penance as Christ requires, they shall attain remission of sins, that penance consisting of the three pa.rts — contrition, confession, and amend- ment ; which must also bring forth worthy fruits of * This statement is transferred certain, by God's Word, that child- to the Prayer Book, in the form of ran which are baptized, dying be- a rubric at the end of the Office for fore they commit actual sin, are Public Baptism of Infants, " It is undoubtedly saved." ance THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION 441 penance. Contrition is defined as consisting of true chap and sorrowing fear, shame, and abomination of sin, .^^^..^-^ and a certain faith, trust, and confidence of the ^•^- ^53^ mercy and goodness pf God. To attain this confes- sion is necessary, and absolution pronounced by the priest being given according to the very word and promise of God, and spoken by the authority of Christ, '^auricular confession" is a very expedient and necessary mean whereby they may require and ask this absolution at the priest's hands/ After which the fruits of true repentance must show them- selves by works of charity, which God requires of every penitent man, and which abate the temporal consequences of sin to the sinner, though Christ and His death alone can remit the eternal conse- quences."^ On the [IV.] " Fourthly, As touching the Sacrament of EucLiiit THE Altar, we will, that all bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that they ought and must constantly believe that under the form and figure of bread and wine, which we there presently do see and perceive by outward senses, is verily, substantially, and really contained and comprehended the very self- same body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which was born of the Virgin Mary, and suffered upon the cross for our redemption, and that under the same form and figure of bread and wine, the very self-same body and blood of Christ is corporally, I'eally, and in the very substance exhibited, distri- s In a sermon preached in 1553 ^ The phrase used is "although Latimer shows what a high value Christ he the sufficient oblation, he set upon confession. " To speak sacrifice^ satisfaction^ and recom- of right and true confession, I would pence, . . ," which is reproduced to God it were kept in England, in the Consecration Prayer of our for it is a good thing." Sermons, Commuidon Service, ii 390, ed. 1824. 442 THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION CHAP buted and received of all them which receive the .^^.^.^^ said sacrament ; and that therefore the said sacra- A.D. 1536. ment is to be used with all due reverence and honour, and that every man ought first to prove and examine himself, and religiously to try and search his own conscience, before he shall receive the same ; accord- ing to the saying of St. Paul, Quisqitis ederit partem hiinc aut hiherit de poculo Domini indigne, reus erit corporis et sanguinis Domini; prohet aiitem seipsum homOy et sic de pane illo edat et de poculo illo hihat ; nam qui edit aut hihit indigne, judicium sihi ijm man- ducat et hihit y non dijudicans corpus Domini : that is to say, whosoever eateth this body of Christ un- worthily, or drinketh of this blood of Christ un- worthily, shall be guilty of the very body and blood of Christ ; wherefore let every man first prove him- self, and so let him eat of this bread, and drink of this drink. For whosoever eateth it or drinketh it unworthily, he eateth and drinketh it to his own dam- nation ; because he putteth no difference between the very body of Christ and other kinds of meat." It will be observed that this is a full and firm assertion of the doctrine of the Real Presence as it is, and always has been, held by High Church divines in the Church of England : and that nothing what- ever is said about transubstantiation or the annihila- tion of the natural elements, which was at a later period made the leading feature of their doctrine by the Romanist party. In the ^^ Bishop's Book" — " The Institution of a Christian Man" — this article is reproduced without any addition whatever : in the ^^ King's Book," on the other hand — '' The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man" — there is a long exposition of the doctrine of the Eucharist, in which transubstantiation is practically asserted. THE TEN ARTICLES OF RELIGION 443 [V.] Justification is defined in the fifth article as chap ^' remission of our sins^ and our acceptation or recon- . „,,^^ cihation into the grace and favour of God^ that is to ^•^- ^53^ say, our perfect renovation in Christ:" and it is on justifi- declared to be attained by contrition and faith, joined ^^^^^^ with charity. ^^The only mercy and grace of the Father, promised freely unto us for His Son s sake, Jesu Christ, and the merits of His blood and passion" being " the only sufficient and worthy causes thereof." The remaining^ five ^^ articles concernins^ the laud- On the . . ceremonies able ceremonies used in the Church, will be found of the noticed at length in the next chapter, and need not be further mentioned here than by a reference to the titles already given. From the preceding summary it Avill be observed that the clergy were now feeling their way to a sound theological basis for the reformation of doc- trine. Existing manuscripts show that a great deal of careful labour was expended on the construction of the articles, and that both sides gave way in some particulars, for the sake of coming to a common standing-ground. ^ Shortly after they had been printed, the Kinginjunc- issued a set of eight injunctions to the clergy, in the speTting second of which they were directed to make the^^^^'^^^f articles known to the laity by declaring them in their Articles sermons. Some printed copies, and the original manuscript, were sent down to the north of England to convince the discontented insurgents there that they were the work of the Church, and not of the King. A royal letter was also sent to each of the bishops on November 19, 1536,^ enjoining them to make the articles more widely known, and prevent ^ Jenkyns' Craimier, i. p. 15. ^ Wilkins' ConciL, iii. 825. 444 THE INSTITUTION CHAP or punish the resistance which was beina^ offered to VIII . . . ..^.-^^ them in some of their dioceses by both clergy and A.D. 1537 laity. It is evident, therefore, that the King entirely adopted the theological statements thus set forth by Convocation, and endeavoured to enforce them vigorously on the nation. The Tnsti- The Ten Articles of 1536 were shortly followed Christian up by a book called " The Institution of a Christian ^ Man/' which was indeed an expansion of the state- ments which they contained. It was imitated on a larger scale thirty years afterwards by the Church of Rome, which put forth upon precisely a similar plan the " Catechism of the Council of Trent." But at the time when the " Institution " was published by the Church of England no work of the kind Its plan an existod, though the germ of such a work had indeed °^^ been extant for ages in the expositions of the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Ten Commandments, which were habitually given from the pulpits of parish churches.^ This book was a noble endeavour on the part of 9 The title " iTistitution of a "A Plain and Godly Exposition or Christian Man " may have been Declaration of the Common Creed taken from a rudimentary tract of (which in the Latin tongue is called Latin verses, consisting of seven Symbolum Apostolorum) and of pages, and explaining the Creed, tlie X. Commandments of God's the Sacraments, the deadly sins, Law, newly made and put forth by &c., which Erasmus wrote at the re- the famous Clerk, Master Erasmus quest of Colet for St. Paul's School. of Rotterdam, at the request of the It is printed under the title " Chris- most honourable Lord Thomas, tiani Hominis Institutio," ia a col- Earl of Wiltshire, Eather to the lection of " Opuscula Moralia," most gracious and virtuous Queen published by Frobenius in 1520, Anne, Wife to our most gracious but bad probably been often before Sovereign Lord King Henry the printed. The word " Institution,'' VIIL Cum privilegio." as sjmonymous with " Instruction," It is a larger work than the " In- was so used down to the last cen- stitution" of 1536, and in many tury. respects a very admirable work ; At first sight Erasmus would but there appears to be no trace of seem to have had a still closer con- any iniluence exercised by it on the nection with the " Institution" of divines who composed the authori- 1536 : for in 1533 was published a tative volume, work with the following title : — OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 445 CHAP VIII the bishops to promote unity, and to instruct the people in Church doctrine. It was the work — as ,_ ^ _ the preface tells us — of a commission appointed by ^•^' ^537 the King for the purpose of searching and perusing Holy Scripture, and setting forth a plain and sincere doctrine concerning the whole sum of all those things which appertain unto the profession of a Christian man, that errors and superstitions might be removed, and unity and concord established. The commission consisted of all the bishops, eight archdeacon s^ and seventeen other doctors of divinity, making forty-six in number altogether.^ The " Institution of a Christian Man " is a volume Contents of which would occupy nearly 200 pages of the work [ution"^^*^^" now before the reader s eyes, and consists of a para- phrase and exposition of the Creed and the Lord's ^ The list of names contains those of the divines afterwards engaged on the translation of the Bible [see Chap. X.] and on the compilation of the Prayer Book ; and is of so much interest that it is here subjoined : Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury Edward Lee, )] York John Stokesley, . : Bishop of Loudon Cuthbert Tunstal, ii Durham Stephen Gardiner, ;> Winchester Eobert Aldrich, . i) Carlisle John Voysey, IT Exeter John Longland, . J) Lincoln John Clerk, li Bath Rowland Lee, II Coventry and Thomas Goodrich, II Ely [Lichfield Nicholas ShaxtoD, II Salisbury John Bird, . II Bangor Edward Fox, II Hereford Hugh Latimer, . Worcester John Hilsey, >i Rochester Richard Sampson, i> Chichester William Repps, . >t Norwich William Barlow, II St. David's Robert Parfew, . II St. Asaph Robert Holgate, II Llandatf Richd. Wolman, Archdeacon of Sudbury William Knight, Richmond John Bell, Gloucester Edmund Bonner, Leicester WiUiam Skip, . Dorset Nicolas Heath, . Staiiord Cuthbert Marshalj Nottingham Eiehard CxuTen, Oxford William Cliffe, . Canon of York WiUiam Downes, . . ,» »> Robert Oking. Ralph Bradford. Richard Smith, Regius Prof, of Div., Oxford Simon Matthew. John Pryn. Wm. Buckmaster, Ylce-Chan. of Cambridge William May. Nicolas Wotton. Richard Coxe. Jn, Edmunds, Mast, of Peter House, Camb. Thomas Robertson. John Baker, Thomas Barrett. John Hase. Jolm, Tyson This Commission has often been spoken of as Convocation ; but there seems no good reason for be- lieving that Convocation had any- thing to do with the book. Nor is there any meeting of Convocation recorded in the year 1537. Wake and Atterbury make out a National Synod of the two provinces in that year, but all that they attribute to it was certainly done by the Con- vocation which composed the Ten Articles, and they were certainly issued in 1536. M6 THE INSTITUTION CHAP VIII A.D. 1537 A general consensus of the Bishops and other divmes Their theo- logy that of the Church Prayer^ witli an exposition of the Ten Command- ments^ the Sacraments, and the Ave Maria^ the whole of the five doctrinal Articles of 1536 being incorporated with the various portions of the work to which they relate. It may interest the reader to see the proportions of space which the several ex- positions occupy : — Exposition of the Creed, ... 53 pages. Exposition of the Sacraments, . . 47 „ Exposition of the Ten Commandments, 46 „ Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, . . 24 „ Exposition of the Ave Maria, . . 5 „ That so large a work should be written on such subjects^ in times of active controversy, and yet in such a manner as to be adopted as their own by forty-six learned divines of different schools^ is a proof that there was an earnest desire to come to an agreement on matters of religion, and that there were not those irreconcileable differences which have been imagined among the learned clergy so long as the spirit of charity was suffered to actuate them. Cranmer, Lee, Gardiner, Latimer, and Bonner, all agreed to this book, and agreed to it, apparently, with sincerity. The fact is that the spirit of re- actionary ultramontanism had not then been im- ported into English affairs^ as it afterwards was by the provocations of Edward VI. and his courtiers ; nor had the spirit of Continental Protestantism as yet made its way to any extent among divines. There were differences of opinion, but those dif- ferences were not so antagonistic as to be irrecon- cileable. All could still meet on one common ground of theological statement, and say, This is the doctrine of the Church of England. And, perhaps. OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 447 no book was ever "written which did really set forth chap so concisely^ and so completely the true theological ,^^-^^^^ tenets of the Church of England^ as those tenets ^•^- ^537 stand free from the compromises, vaguenesses, and ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ parinofs down which they have suffered in later times a school or under pressure of endeavours to conciliate dissenters, viduai Like the Book of Common Prayer, it represented a general consensus of doctrine, and was not coloured by the opinions of any particular school, or of any individual divine ; while at the same time its uncon- troversial tone was such as to make it acceptable to those who loved to learn and practise their religion in peace. It has been already said that this noble' book was mainly an expansion of the Ten Articles ; but some further account of its theology, where it goes beyond the limited range of those short standards of opinion, may be acceptable to the reader. The first division of the Institution is a paraphrase Tjie "in- of each Article of the Creed, which extends to about on the thirty-two pages, and is followed by an exposition of ^^^ the Creed, under the title of ^' Notes and Observa- tions," occupying twenty-one pages. The character of this paraphrase may be seen from the following paragraph, which concludes '^ The sense and inter- pretation of the second Article," and which would have been worthy the pen of Bishop Andrewes : — " Finally, I beheve assuredly, and also profess, that this re- demption and justification of mankind could not have been wrought nor brought to pass by any other means in the ^ The ahsence of verl>osity is a of Hooker, are so verbose as to be very remarkable feature of the imintelligible to any person not book. Many excellent works of well skilled in readmg authors of later times, such as the great work that particular age. 448 THE INSTITUTION CHAP world, but by the means of this Jesu Christ, God's only Son; ^'^^^ and never man could yet, nor ever will be, able to come unto 2^^^^ God the Father, or to believe in Him, or to attain His favour by his own wit or reason, or by his own science and learning, or by any his own works, or by whatsoever may be named in heaven or in earth, but by the faith in the Name and power of Jesu Christ, and by the gifts and graces of His Holy Spirit. And therefore since He is my Jesu Christ, and my Lord, I will put my whole trust and confidence in Him, and will have the self-same faith and affiance in Him in all points, which I have in God the Father. And I will acknowledge Him for my only Lord, and will obey all His commandments all my life without any grudging. And I am sure that while He is my Lord and Governor, and I under His protection, neither sin, neither the Devil, nor yet death, nor Hell, can do me any hurt." The "In- The Same devotional form of paraphrastic exposi- on the tion is adopted throughout the commentary on the Prayer Lord's Prayer : and is of so beautiful a character that an even longer extract than the preceding will not be thought too long as an illustration of the spirit of the book. It is about one fourth of '' the sense and interpretation of the fourth petition." " our heavenly Father, we beseech Thee give us this day our daily bread. Give us meat, drink, and clothing for our bodies. Send us increEise of corn, fruit and cattle. Give us health and strength, rest and peace, that we may lead a peace- able life in all godliness and honesty. Grant us good success in all our business, and help in adversity and peril. Grant us, we beseech Thee, aU things convenient for our necessity in this temporal hfe. And to them to whom thou dost vouch- safe to give more than their own portion necessary for their vocation and degree, give thy grace, that they may be thy dihgent and true dispensators and stewards, to distribute that they have (over and above that is necessaiy, considering their estate and degree) to them that have need of it. For so (good Lord) thou dost provide for thy poor people that have nothing, by them which have of thy gift sufficient OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 449 to relieve themselves and others. And give also Thy grace to chap us, that we have not too much solicitude and care for these ^^^^ transitory and unstable things ; but that our hearts may be a.d. 1557 fixed in things which be eternal, and in Thy kingdom, which is everlasting. And yet moreover (good Lord) not only give us our necessaries, but also conserve what Thou dost give us, and cause that it may come to our use, and by us to the poor people, for whom by us Thou hast provided. Give us grace, that we may be fed and nourished with all the life of Christ, that is to say, both His words and works ; and that they may be to us an effectual example and spectacle of all virtues. Grant that all they that preach Thy word may profitably and godly preach Thee and Thy Son Jesu Christ through aU the world ; and that all we which hear Thy word preached may so be fed therewith, that not only we may outwardly receive the same, but also digest it within our hearts; and that it may so work and feed every part of us, that it may appear in all the acts and deeds of our life. Grant that the holy Sacrament of the altar, which is the bread of life, and the very flesh and blood of Thy Son Jesu Christ, may be purely ministered and distributed, to the comfort and benefit of all us Thy people ; and that we also may receive the same with a right faith and perfect charity at all times when we ought to receive the same; and specially against OUT death, and departing out of this world, so that we may be then spiritually fed with the same to our salvation, and thereby enjoy the life everlasting. Give us an inward hunger and thrist to have Thy word, and the righteous living taught in the same. Grant this also, merciful Father, that all false doctrines, contrary to Thy word, which feed not, but poison and kiU the soul, may be utterly extinct and cast away out of Thy Church, so, that we may be fed as well with the true doctrine of Thy word as with all other things necessary for us in this life." This is the true-metal ring of the Book of Common Prayer itself ; and it cannot but be regretted that the book containing such profitable instruction was not more widely used in moulding the tone of 2 F 450 THE INSTITUTION CHAP thought among clei'gy and people in that and suc- ^^.^.,^,.^ ceeding ages. AD. 1537 jj^ ^^ paraphrase of the Creed, the portion which ^itutiln" treats of the ninth article, given in the form "And Church ■'■ believe that there is one Holy Catholic and univer- sal Church/' is especially noteworthy, as embodying a clear and full statement of Anglican theology respect- ing national churches, the Church of Rome, and the unity of the Church. The extract given is a long one, but it has an historical importance as illustrating the firm and definite position which the Church of England took up, even so soon as the year 1537, and within so short a time after the formal renunciation of papal jurisdiction : — " I beheve assuredly in my heart, and with my mouth I do profess and acknowledge that there is and hath been ever from the beginning of the world, and so shall endure and continue for ever, one certain number, society, communion or company of the elect and faithful people of God : of which number our Saviour Jesu Christ is the only Head and Governor : and the members of the same be all those holy saints A\liich be now in heaven, and also all the faithful people of God which be now in life, or that ever heretofore have lived, or shall live here in this world, from the beginning unto the end of the same, and he ordained for their true faith, and obedience unto the will of God, to be saved, and to enjoy everlasting life in heaven." Then follows a statement respecting the union of members of the Church, "'all united and incorporated by the Holy Spirit of Christ into one body, and that they do live there all in one faith, one hope, one charity, and one perfect unity, consent and agree- ment, not only in the true doctrine of Christ, but also in the right use and ministration of His Sacra- ments," and that being made holy by '' Christ's most precious blood, and also by the godly presence, OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 451 governance, and assistance of His Holy Spirit/' chap neither sin nor false doctrine, nor heresy, nor the gates ..^Z^J^, of hell shall be able finally to prevail against it. But, ^•^- '537 notwithstanding this, the exposition goes on to say, " there have been ever, and yet be, and ever shall be joined and mingled together in this holy Church and with the members of the same, an infinite num- ber of the evil and wicked people," who, although they are weeds and chaff, yet because they are out- wardly members of the Church's fellowship, are to be accounted '^very members of Christ's mystical Body, so long as they be not by open sentence of excommunication cut off and excluded from the same." Not indeed because they are so in deed, but because the certain judgment and knowledge of their state is known only to God. This, it may be ob- served, is a principle that pervades the Prayer Book from beginning to end, and is especially conspicuous in the tone of the burial service. The exposition then goes on to state what is meant by particular churches, and what is their relation to the Church of Rome : — " And I beheve tliat this Holy Church is Cathohc : that is to say, that it cannot be coarcted or restrained Avithin the limits or bounds of any one town, city, province, region, or country; but that it is dispersed and spread universally throughout all the whole world. Insomuch that in what part soever of the world, be it in Africa, Asia, or Europe, there may be found any number of people, of what sort, state, or condition soever they be which do beheve in one God the Father, Creator of all things, and in one Lord Jesu Christ His Son, and in one Holy Ghost, and do also profess and have all one faith, one hope, and one charity, according as is prescribed in holy scriptures, and do all consent in the true interpretation of the same scripture, and in the right use of 45:2 THE INSTITUTION CHAP the sacraments of Christ; we may boldly pronoimce and say, "^^11 that there is this Holy Church, the very espouse and body '^^dT^SSt' of Christ, the very kingdom of Christ, and the very temple of God. " And T believe that these particular churches in what place of the world soever they be congregated, be the very- parts, portions, or members of this catholic and universal Church. And that between them there is indeed no differ- ence in superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, neither that any one of them is head or sovereign over the other ; but that they be all equal in power and dignity, and be all grounded and builded upon one foundation, and be all called unto like and unto the same purity, cleanness, honour and glory, and be all subject unto one God, one Lord, one Head, Jesu Christ, and be all governed with one Holy Spirit, And The "In- therefore I do believe that the Church of Eome is not, nor on the*^ cannot worthily be called the Catholic Church, but only a Roman particular member thereof, and cannot challenge or vindicate upremacy ^^ yi^\,^ and by the word of God, to be head of this universal Church, or to have any superiority over the other churches of Christ which be in England, France, Spain, or in any other realm, but that they be all free from any subjection unto the said Church of Eome, or unto the minister or bishop of the same. " And I believe also that the said Church of Eome, with aU the other particular churches in the world, compacted and united together, do make and constitute but one catholic church or body. And that like as our Saviour Christ is one person, and the only head of His mystical body, so this whole catholic church, Christ's mystical body, is but one body under this one head Christ. And that the unity of this one catholic church is a mere spiritual unity, con- sisting in the points before rehearsed, that is to say, in the unity of Christ's faith, hope, and charity, and in the unity of the right doctrine of Christ, and in the unity and uniform using of the sacraments consonant unto the same doctrine. And therefore although the said particular churches and the members of the same do much differ, and be discrepant OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 453 the one from the other, not only in the diversity of nations chap and countries, and in the diversity, dignity, and excellency ^^^^ of certain such gifts of the Holy Ghost as they be endued ^.d. 1537 with, but also in the divers using and observation of such out- ward rites, ceremonies, traditions, and ordinances, as be insti- tuted by their governors, and received and approved among them ; yet I believe assuredly, that the unity of this catholic church cannot therefore, or for that cause, be any thing hurted, impeached, or infringed in any pointy but that all the said churches do and shall continue still in the unity of this catholic church, notwithstanding any such diversity ; nor that any of them ought to be reputed as a member divided or cut oft' from the same, for any such cause of diversity or difference used by them or any of them in the said points. " And I believe that aU the particular churches in the world, which be members of this catholic church, may all be called apostolical churches, as well as the Church of Eome, or any other church, wherein the apostles themselves were sometime resident : forasmuch as they have received and be all founded upon the same faith and doctrine that the true apostles of Christ did teach and profess. And I believe and trust assur- edly, that I am one of the members of this catholic church, and that God of His only mercy hath not only chosen and called me thereunto by His Holy Spirit, and by the efficacy of His word and sacraments, and hath inserted and united me into this universal body or flock, and hath made me His son and inheritor of His kingdom ; but also that He shall of His like goodness, and by the operation of the Holy Ghost, justify me here in this world and finally glorify me in heaven. And therefore I protest and acknowledge, that in my heart I abhor and detest all heresies and schisms, whereby the true interpre- tation and sense of scripture is or may be perverted. And do promise, by the help of God, to endure unto my life's end in the right profession of the faith and doctrine of the catholic church." The commandments are expounded in a very clear The *'in- and intelligible manner; and at the beginning of the tT^tT^x, exposition they are set forth exactly according to meSr'''^'^" 454 THE INSTITUTION CHAP our modern division of tliem^ and not according to. .^.,-^-^tlie Roman method.^ The chief interest of this A.D. 1537 exposition in connection with the history of the Reformation is in the treatment of the second com- mandment as regards the ecclesiastical use of images. '^ By these words/' it says, ^' we be utterly for- bidden to make or to have any similitude or image to the intent to bow down to it or worship it." In former days the fathers of the Church had suffered the picture of God the Father to be set up in Churches to teach the people ^^ that there is a Father in Heaven^ and that He is a distinct person from the Son and the Holy Ghost." But it would be " more seemly for Christian people to be without all such images of the Father, than to have them." Though, however, images may not be made to be bowed down to or worshipped, "Yet they be not so prohibited, but that they may be had and set up iu churches, so it be for none other purpose but only to the intent that we (in beholding and looking upon them, as in certain books, and seeing represented in them the manifold examples of virtues which were in the saints repre- sented by the said images) may the rather be provoked, kindled, and stirred to yield thanks to our Lord, and to praise Him in His said saints, and to remember and lament our sins and offences, and to pray God that we may have grace to follow their goodness and holy hving. As for an example. The image of our Saviour, as an open book, hangeth on the cross in the rood, or is painted in cloths, walls, or windows, to the intent that beside the examples of virtues which we may learn at Christ, we may be also many ways provoked to re- member his painful and cruel passion, and also to consider 3 This is, of course, adopted in Lord thy God in vain" is given the Eoman " Institution of a Chris- as the Second Commandment : our tian Man," the Catechism of the tenth being there the "ninth and Council of Trent ; where " Thou tenth." shalt not take the Name of the OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 455 ourselves, when we behold the said image, and to condemn chap and abhor our sins which was the cause of his so cruel death, ^^^^ and thereby to profess that we will no more sin. And further- a.d. 1537 more, considering what high charity was in Him that would die for us His enemies, and what great dangers we have escaped, and what high benefits we receive by His redemption, we may be provoked in all our distresses and troubles to run for comfort unto Him. All these lessons, with many more, we may learn in this book of the rood, if we will entirely and earnestly look upon it. And as the life of our Saviour Christ is represented by this image, even so the lives of the holy saints which followed Him be represented unto us by their images. And therefore the said images may well be set up in churches, to be as books for unlearned people, to learn therein examples of humility, charity, patience, temperance, contempt of the world, the llesh, and the Devil, and to learn example of all other virtues, and for the other causes above rehearsed. For which causes only images be to be set in the churches, and not for any honour to be done unto them. For although we use to cense the said images, and to kneel before them, and to offer unto them, and to kiss their feet, and such other things ; yet we must know and understand, that such things be not nor ought to be done to the image's self, but only to God, and in His honour, or in the honour of the holy saint or saints which be represented by the said images." But although this use of images in churches is thus explained and justified, the superstitions which had gathered around some images during mediaeval times, and which was about to be put down by law (as will be shown in the next chapter), is condemned in unsparing language. The clergy are enjoined to teach — " That all they do greatly err which put difference between image and image, trusting more in one than another. . . iVnd the^^ also that be more ready with their substance to deck dead images gorgeously and gloriously, than with the same to help poor Christian people, the q^uick and lively 456 THE INSTITUTION CHAP images of God, . . . and they also that so dote in this ^^^^ behalf that they make vows and go on -pilgrimages even to the A.D. 1537 images, and there do call upon the same images for aid and help, fancying that either the image will work, or else some other thing in the image, or God for the image's sake; as though God wrought by images carved, engraven, or painted, brought once i6to churches, as He doth work by other His creatures. In which things if any person heretofore hath, or yet doth offend, all good and well learned men have great cause to lament such error and rudeness, and to put their studies and diligence for the reformation of the same." It would be difficult to find more prudent and measured language than this for tlie purpose of setting forth tlie right and the wrong use of sculp- ture or painting for devotional purposes ; and the tone adopted is happily in contrast with the fanatic language of the Puritan iconoclastSj whose foolish and wicked deeds have lost to the Church so many monuments of art^ beauty, and devotional love. In connection with this subject of idolatry it may be mentioned that the few pages which are given to an explanation of the ^^Ave Maria" end as follows : — The "In- "We tliink it convenient that aU hishops and preachers on^the°^" ^^ instruct and teach the people committed to their spiritual "Ave charge, that this Ave Maria is not properly a prayer, as the ^laria Patcmoster is. For a prayer properly hath words of petition, supplication, request, and suit, but this Ave Maria hath no such. Nevertheless the Church hath used to adjoin it to the end of the Paternoster, as an hymn, laud, and praise, partly of our Lord and Saviour Jesu Christ for our redemption, and partly of the Blessed Virgin, for her humble consent given and expressed to the angel at this salutation. Lauds, praises, and thanhs be in this Ave Maria, principally given and yielded to our Lord as to the author of our said redemption : but here- with also the Virgin lacketh not her lauds, praise, and thanks, for her exceheut and singular virtues ; and chiefly for that OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 457 she humbly consented, according to the saying of the holy chap matron St. Elizabeth, when she said unto this Virgin, Blessed "^lll g,rt thou that diddest give trust and credence to the angel's I^^T^^ words ; for all things that have been spoken' to thee shall be performed." Before concluding this notice of the '^ Institution The ;'in- of a Christian Man" (which may be regarded as the ontheSa- great dogmatical document of the Reformation, and ^^^"^^^^^ is therefore reviewed at such great length), it will be necessary to show in what manner it deals with the doctrine of the Sacraments. The ancient classification of seven is retained, but three (those previously expounded in the Ten Articles of 1536) are distinguished from the other four as being of more dignity and general necessity, in the following terms :* — *' Although the Sacraments of Matrimony, of Confirmation, of Holy Orders, and of Extreme Unction, have been of long time past received and approved by the common consent of the Catholic Church, to have the name and dignity of sacra- ments, as indeed they be well worthy to have (forasmuch as they be holy and godly signs, whereby, and by the prayer of the minister, be not only signified and represented, but also given and conferred some certain and special gifts of the Holy Ghost, necessary for Christian men to have for one godly pur- pose or other, like as it hath been before declared) ; yet there is a diiference in dignity and necessity between tliem and the other three Sacraments, that is to say, the Sacraments of Baptism, of Penance, and of the Altar, and that for divers causes. Fii-st, because these three Sacraments be instituted of Christ, to be as certain instruments or remedies necessary for our salvation, and the attaining of everlasting Hfe. Second, because they be also commanded by Christ to be ministered ^ St. Thomas Ac^uinas also dis- system they are Baptism, Penance, tinguishes tliree of the seven Sac- and Holy Order. [Sxunm. Theol., laments from the others, hnt in his Qnrest. Ixv. Ai-t. iv.j 458 THE INSTITUTION CHAP and received in their outward visible signs. Thirdly, because ^^^.^^^ they have annexed and conjoined unto their said visible signs A.D. 1537 such spiritual graces as whereby our sins be remitted and for- given, and we be perfectly renewed, regenerated, piirified, justified, and made the very members of Christ's mystical body, so oft as we worthily and dulj- receive the same." The expositions of the three principal Sacraments thus distinguished from the other four are simply a reprint of the second^ third, and fourth of the Ten Articles, without any addition whatever : and these having been already reviewed in a previous part of this chapter, nothing more need be said about them. To go on, then, to what the " Institution" says about the other four, Matrimony comes first in order. This is declared to have been originally instituted by Almighty God in Paradise ; the institution of it being repeated and renewed, and sanctified and blessed with His holy word, immediately after Noah's flood; and subse- quently accepted, approved, and allowed by Christ Himself, with words and works testifying the same. The outward part of the Sacrament is stated to be the ''contract, made by express words, or other signs equivalent, declaring the consent between such per- sons as may lawfully and by the order of God's law be joined together in marriage." The spiritual and invisible graces received by virtue of it are said to be several, of which one is that the matrimonial act is taken out of the category of things in themselves sinful, and made pure and honourable, so as to be "acceptable afore God." A second grace is that '' whereby the persons conjoined in matrimony do attain everlasting life if they bring up their children in the true faith and observance of Christ's religion/' OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 459 The general tone of the exposition given of Holy chap Matrimony is very similar to that of the two exhor- ..^.^-^.-^^ tations in our Marriage Service, the first of which '^•^- ^537 was itself constructed out of a medioeval original ; and there is no substantial difference between what is taught in it and what would be taught by English theologians of the present day. Confirmation is declared to be a modified form of the apostolic imposition of hands. By the latter was conveyed not only the ordinary, but also the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost : and the *^holy fathers of the Primitive Church" ordained that the imposition of hands on all baptized persons should be continued for the purpose of conveying to them the ordinary gifts for the purpose of ordinary Christian life. Confirmation by the bishops, there- fore, that is by their prayers, laying on of hands, and consignation with holy chrism, corroborates and establishes in the gifts and graces before received in baptism, and enables the confirmed to retain them firmly, to persevere therein, to become strong and hardy Christians, to confess their faith boldly and manfully, to resist and fight against their spiritual enemies, patiently to bear the Cross of Christ, and to attain increase and abundance of all other gifts of the Holy Ghost. The exposition ends with the declaration perpetuated in the rubric at the end of our Baptismal Office, that baptized infants, even if unconfirmed, are saved by their baptism if they die before committing actual sin. Holy Orders are declared to have been instituted by Christ and His apostles in the New Testament, that in addition to the civil powers of the world, the potestas gladii, there might be ^' continually in the 460 THE INSTITUTION CHAP Church militant certain ministers who should have ^^^.^.^^ special power^ authority, and commission, under '^■D. IS37 Christ, to preach and teach the Woul of God unto His people, to dispense and administer the sacra- ments of God unto them, and by the same to confer and give the graces of the Holy Ghost," to conse- crate the blessed body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar, to absolve and to excommunicate, to ordain and consecrate others to the ministerial offices, and generally ^^ to feed Christ s people like good pastors and rectors (as the apostle calleth them) with their wholesome doctrine." This sacerdotal power and authority is not an un- limited one, but restrained to the ends for which God ordained it, as before rehearsed. It is to be retained for three special and principal causes : (1) Because God has clearly commanded so in Holy Scripture ; (2) because He has given no other ordi- nary means by which men can partake of the recon- ciliation of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit except His Word and Sacraments administered by those in holy orders ; (3) because a ministry so or- dained is the means or instrument which God uses for the administration of everlasting life to those who believe in and obey Him. The visible and outward sign of holy orders is defined as ^^ the prayer and imposition of the bishop's hands upon the person which receiveth " the grace of the sacrament. The gift or grace itself is said to be ^^ nothing else but the power, the office, and the authority before mentioned." The exposition then goes on to elaborate an argu- ment as to the efiicacy of sacraments received at the hands of unworthy ministers, which is represented OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 461 by the statement contained in the 26th of the Thirty- chap nine Articles of Eeligion : after which follows an . ^ — _. excellent statement on the subject of jurisdiction. ^■°- ^537 This is declared to consist of three special parts. (1.) First is that by which obstinate sinners are excommunicated or absolved, — a jurisdiction extend- ing only to the soul^ and not carrying with it any power of '^ violence or constraint corporal." (2.) Secondly is the jurisdiction by which holy orders are conferred. In respect to this a distinction is made between the presentation and nomination and the transmission of the spiritual gifts of the ministry. The former are a human ordinance, and must be regulated by the law and custom of the country. ''As for an example^ within this realm the presenta- tion and nomination to the bishoprics appertaineth unto the kings of this realm ; and of other lesser cures and personages some unto the King's highness^ some unto other noble men, some unto bishops, and some unto other persons whom we call the patrons of the benefices, according as it is provided by the orders of the laws and ordinances of this realm." (3.) The third part of jurisdiction is that of making and ordaining all rules relating to the observance of holy days, the ministrations of the sacraments, the customs of Divine service, the ornaments of ministers, and all other rites and ceremonies of the Church. The subject of jurisdiction naturally leads on to that of the claims made by the Pope ; and the exposition concludes with one of the best condensed arguments against them that was ever written. It is shown that these claims had no foundation in Holy Scripture \ that the bishops of Rome gradually acquired their power, partly by the necessities of 462 THE INSTITUTION CHAP special times, partly by usurpation ; and that it was .^^-^.^^ opposed to the true constitution of the Catholic A-^- 1 537 Church. ^ituti'n" Finally, the Royal Supremacy is defined in the on the following clear terms, which may be taken as es- Supremacy pi'Gssing in 1537 the very same principles that are still held three centuries and a half afterwards by the Church of England : — "Moreover, the truth is, that God constituted aud ordained the authority of Christian kings and princes to be the most high and supreme above all other powers and offices in the regiment and governance of his people ; and committed unto them, as unto the chief heads of their commonwealths, the cure and oversight of all the people which be within their realms and dominions, without any exception. And imto them of right, and by God's commandment, belongeth, not only to prohibit unlawful violence, to correct offenders by corporal death or other punishment, to conserve moral honesty among their subjects, according to the laws of their realms, to defend justice, and to procure the public weal, and the com- mon peace and tranquillity in outward and earthly things ; but specially and principally to defend the faith of Christ and His rehgion, to conserve and maintain the true doctrine of Christ, and ah such as be true preachers and setters forth thereof, and to abolish all abuses, heresies, and idolatries, which be brought in by heretics and evil preachers, and to punish with corporal pains such as of mahce be occasioners of the same; and finally to oversee and cause that the said priests and bishops do execute their said power, office and jurisdiction truly, faithfuUy, and according in aU points as it was given and committed unto them by Christ and His Apostles ; which notwithstanding, we may not think that it doth appertain unto the office of kings and princes to preach and teach, to administer the sacrament, to absoyle, to excom- municate, aud such other things belonging to the office and administration of bishops and priests ; but we must think and believe, that God hath constituted Christian kings and princes OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 463 to be as the chief heads and overlookers over the said priests chap and bishops, to cause them to administer their office and VIII power committed unto them purely and sincerely; and in ^^^ j^^^ case they shall be negligent in any part thereof, to cause them to supply and repair the same again. And God hath also commanded the said priests and bishops to obey, with all humbleness and reverence, all the hiws made by the said princes, being not contrary to the laws of God, whatsoever they be ; and that not only propter iram, but also propter con- scientiam." "What the *^ Institution of a Christian Man" says respecting Extreme Unction may be summed up in a few words. (1) The Apostles were sent forth by Christ to heal the sick, anointing them with oil. (2) St. Jame^^ endued with the Holy Spirit of Christ, commanded that the sick should be anointed with oil in the name of the Lord, adding the promise that if this unction was done in faith the sick man should be " set on foot again" by God, and his sins forgiven him. (3) That the holy fathers of the Church had seen fit to continue this custom as a means for the alleviation and mitigation of the diseases and maladies that attack both the souls and bodies of Christian men. (4) That thus the inward grace of anointing is partly bodily, partly spiritual healing. Some superstitions of the common people are then de- nounced, and it is recommended that Extreme Unc- tion should not be delayed to the last, and that it should be followed by administration of the Holy- Eucharist to the anointed sick person. Having thus glanced at the contents of this im- portant book, we may now return to its history, of which, unfortunately, we possess a very meagre account. 4(54 THE INSTITUTION CHAP In July 1537, Fox, Bishop of Hereford, who .^^.^^^^^ seems to have taken a forward part in the compila- ^■i^. 1537 tion of the book, wrote to Cromwell about printing Msto^y'^of ^^> saying that the MS. is not yet complete, some stitution" ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ Creed which had been agreed upon not being yet copied out.^ On July 21st, Archbishop Cranmer also wrote to Cromwell from Lambeth, saying that the commission assembled there had nearly finished theh work, having "already sub- scribed unto the declarations of the Paternoster and the Ave Maria, the Creed, and the Ten Command- ments, and there remaineth no more but certain notes of the Creed, unto the which we be agreed to subscribe on Monday next." He then begs that they may have the King's license to dissolve and leave London, where the plague was carrying off people at his very gate.^ Latimer writes to the same effect, adding that he believes the book would have been finished that day had it not been for the illness of Bishop Fox, ^^to whom surely we owe great thanks for his great diligence in all our proceedings." He also wrote on August 25th, saying that the printing had been delayed by the death of Fox,^ who had been carried off in the interval by the plague. One lucid glimpse we get from Latimer also at the proceedings of the Commission. He hopes that when the book " is done it will be well and sufficiently done, so that we shall not need to have any more such doings, for verily for ^ State Papers, i. 555. leave London during the dreadful ^ Jenkyns' Cranmer^ i. 189. A sweating sickness of some years strong contrast this to Wolsey, before, though the court and nearly whom no persuasions, even from aU officials had fled, the King himself, could induce to '' State Papers, i. 559. OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 465 ray part, I had lever be poor parson of poor Kynton again chap than to continue thus Bishop of Worcester; not for any "^^^^ thing that I have had to do therein or can do, but yet forsooth a.d. 1537 it is a troublous thing to agree upon a doctrine in things of such controversy, with judgments of such diversity, every man, I trust, meaning well, and yet not all meaning one way. But I doubt not now in the end we shall agree both one with another, and all with the truth, though some will then marvel." Poor Latimer's homely and untheological mind was not made for taking part in such a work as this ; and the evident sigh of relief with which he looks for- ward to getting away from a troublous scene, in which exact learning and logic were wanted more than good stories and rough-and-ready language, is very amusing. The ^^ Institution of a Christian Man" was, how- ever, completed, and sent to the King as the work of the whole commission. He sent it back with the order to have it printed, saying that he had not time to read it, but trusted to them for its being accord- ing to Scripture. It was accordingly printed, with a royal command that all who had cure of souls should read a portion of it every Sunday and holy- day for three years, and preach conformably thereto.^ On September 10, 1537, Archbishop Cranmer issued a mandate to his clergy, through the Dean of Bock- ing, enforcing this order, "vobis mandamus, uti omnes et singulos clericos, quibus cura animarum committitur, moneatis ut voluminis prsedicti partem, sub poena prsedicta, ordine singuhs diebus dominicis clara apertaque voce et suggesto populo legant."^ Archbishop Lee also issued an injunction to the same effect for the province of York. The book « Jenkyns' Cranmer, i 188, n. Wilkins' Concil., iii. 827. 2 G 466 THE INSTITUTION CHAP was mucli disliked by the anti-Church party, as ^J^^[J^ indeed any true statement of Church-of- England A.D. 1538 doctrine as a whole must always be disliked by them ; and some of the Conservative party made its publication an opportunity for indecorous triumph over the favourers of the new learning •} but there is How the no reason to think that it was less unanimously receivrcr received by the peaceable clergy and laity than it had been adopted by the whole body of the bishops and other divines who formed the commission. It probably went through several editions^ and a beauti- ful duodecimo copy has come down to our age^ which seems to show that it was circulated very generally among the laity ^ as well as officially among the clergy.^ Prepara- The volume had not been loner in print before the tions for a. . ^•'■ revised edi- King louud time to read it^ and also to make annota- tions upon its contents — his annotated copy being still preserved in the Bodleian Library.^ The royal theologian sent this copy to Cranmer, who began to heap annotations on annotations in the same volume, but eventually recorded his criticisms in a separate MS., which is preserved in the Library of Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. In returning the volume and these to the King by Cromwell, on pJanuary 25, 1538, Cranmer trusts the King's High- ness will pardon his presumption that he has been " so scrupulous, and as it were a picker of quarrels to Ms Grace's book, making a great matter of every hght fault, or ^ See Letters from and to Cran- page. The coloplion is destroyed, mer, Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 208, but there can be hardly a doubt 216, 221. that the date was originally used 2 Tanner, 71. It is singular that for some earlier, as it afterwards this little volume is dated 1534 on was for a later volume, the oniamental border of the title- ^ RawL, 245. OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 467 rather where no fault is at all; which I do only for this CHAP intent, that because the book now shall be set forth by his ^^^^ Grace's censure and judgment, I would have nothing therein ^.d. 1538 that Momus could reprehend : and yet I refer all mine annotations to his Grace's most exact judgment ; and I have ordered my annotations so by numbers that his Grace may readily turn to every place ; and in the lower margin of this book, next to the binding, he may find the numbers which shall direct him to the words whereupon I make the annota- tions: and aU those his Grace's castigations which I have made none annotation upon, I like them very well : and in divers places also I have made annotations, which places nevertheless I mislike not, as it shall appear by the same annotations.""^ From this it appears that a corrected edition was Latin projected in 1538, but it does not appear that the ^^P^^^^^;!^, design was carried out. The book was used in its^tit^tion" original form for about seven years, and was trans- lated into Latin by direction of the King. This fact we learn from a letter written by the Privy Council to Dr. Wotton, when he was sent on a mission to the Diet of Spires. The letter is dated March 6, 1543-4, and contains the following passage : '' Furthermore, ye shall receive herewith four books of the Institution of a Christian, set forth first in Enghsh by the King's Majesty, with the advice of liis learned men, for the estabhshment of Christian religion amongst his Highness' subjects, and now lately by his Majesty's commandment translated into Latin. And forasmuch as it is thought that at this Assembly matters of rehgion shaU be diversely debated of sundry men, his Majesty hath thought convenient to send the said books unto you, to the intent it might appear to the Emperor how conformable to Christ's doctrine, the institution of His holy Church, the learning is which his Majesty hath ordained to be taught to his Highness' people. For the which ^ Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 228. 468 THE ERUDITION CHAP purpose his Majesty's pleasure is you shall, on his behalf, ^^^^ present one or two of them to Mons^' Granvele with his A.D. 1543 Majesty's hearty commendations, and in the delivery of the same so to handle the matter as it may appear to Granvele that you desire, as of yourself, and would wish that it would like the Emperor to take one of the books out of his hands : Avherein you may say (and say the truth) he shall see a sincere and upright judgment touching Christian religion, and a doctrine conformable to Holy Scripture and the Catholic Church of Christ." s The "Ne- Shortly after this^ ho"W"ever (and perhaps in conse- Doctrme queiice of the review of the " Institution" entailed by tSn''^rre- i^® translation into Latin), it was determined to issue yjsjo" °^ a xiQ^ edition. One chief reason for this appears to tution" have been that it was inconvenient to have the exposition of the Creed divided and printed in two separate parts of the volume, partly in the form of a paraphrase, and partly in that of notes and observa- tions. These were, therefore, combined into one commentary on the Creed, and had, of course, to un- dergo much alteration before the process of combina- tion could produce a satisfactory rasult. It was then natural that other revisions should be suggested and adopted, and the articles on the Sacraments of Bap- tism and the Holy Eucharist, as well as those on Penance and Holy Orders, were much extended. This work of revision was undertaken by Convoca- tion, which sat between April 4 and May 12, 1543 ; but they plainly adopted the annotations made by Cranmer, here and there one made by the King, and perhaps some from other quarters. The revised work was in print by May 29, 1543, and was pub- lished in English under the new name of *^ A Neces- ^ State Papera ix. 615. OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 469 sary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man/' chap with a preface or letters patent from the King^^ZJ^ appended.® A Latin translation under the old title, a.d. 1544 *' Pia et Catholica Christiani Hominis Institutio," was printed by Berthelet in the following year, being completed, as appears from the colophon, on February 18, 1544-5. It was substantially identical with the " Institution of a Christian Man/' and was evidently intended to be so, but in some parts that work has been condensed, and in others expanded, in its passage through the revising hands of the Convocation. Perhaps the revision was an impolitic step, for the ^^ Erudition" seems to have been little known and little used ; while, at the same time, the issue of a revised work would naturally diminish the credit and authority of that of which it was a revision/ But the revised publication just noticed marks the other im- last, or nearly the last, action of this reign in the doctrhiai matter of doctrine : and before it was issued, two ^^^T ' ' ments important steps had been taken, the one to promote doctrinal union between Continental and English reformers, the other to enforce uniformity of doctrine in England. The first was attempted by means of a conference with Lutheran divines, the second by the Statute known as the Act of the Six Articles : which, in fact, arose out of the conference in question. 6 Hence called tlie "King's Botli it and the "Institution" were Book," but this name was given to reprinted by Bishop Lloyd in 1825 seA^eral other volumes, includiiig (with the Ten Articles), under the the " Institution." title " Formularies of Faith in the 7 There are extant, hovp-ever, Eeign of Henry VIII." See also three English editions of the "Eru- "The Doctrine of the Church of dition," printed in 1543 and Dec. England," 1868. 1545, and one Latin in Feb. 1545. 470 ATTEMPT TO UNITE WITH CHAP An attempt had been made, as early as 1535, to ,__^^,^ establish some common action between the German ■^•D. 1535 reformers and the English Church. Dr. Barnes (at Early con- that time resident in Ens^land asfain under the patro- iGrcnccs o o j. with the nage of Anne Boleyn) was sent to the princes of the Pro™sTant^ Augsburg Confcssion with a communication from the King; and was joined^ not long afterwards, by Fox, Bishop of Hereford^ and Heath, Archdeacon of Stafford, and afterwards Archbishop of York. Barnes had become acquainted with Luther, Melanc- thon, Justus Jonas, and other leading reformers, during his exile, and had also been in favour with the Duke of Saxony : and he was doubtless chosen for the embassy because of these qualifications. But the "Smalcaldic League" of Protestant princes and states would only agree to receive the King's pro- posals of a treaty on condition that, among other things, he would accept the title of "Patron and Protector of the League," defend it against foes, and subscribe to the Confession of Augsburg.^ The King declined to subscribe to this as it stood, and requested that '' orators," and some learned men with them, might be sent to England by the German Pro- testant states to confer, talk, and commune upon the same. Some theological conferences took place at Wittenberg between Bishop Fox, Heath, and Barnes on the one side, and Luther, Melancthon, The thir- with several other German divines, on the other : ciesof ' and these resulted in thirteen articles of religion, religion y^\^Y(h. woro drawu up as a basis of union.^ But nothing came of these negotiations at the time, and 8 Lord Herbert's Life of Henry the State Paper Office. They are VIIT., p. 441. largely borrowed from the Confes- ** These are printed in Jenkyns' sion of Augsburg. Cranmerj iv. 273, from a copy in THE LUTHERAN PROTESTANTS 471 they dropped altogether until 1538. In that year, chap Henry again wished to strengthen his hands against .Z^X^^ a foreign invasion by gaining over the princes of -a-^- '53^ Germany to his side : and he sent a confidential agent to them when they were assembled at Bruns- wick, with protestations of his zeal against the Bishop of Rome. He again urged them to send over Melancthon and other divines to England that a conference might be held, and they agreed to do so. The chief persons selected for this embassy were Francis Burckhardt, vice-chancellor to the Elector of Saxony, George \ Boyneberg, a doctor of laws and nobleman of Hesse, and Frederic Myconius, formerly a Franciscan, but now a follower of Luther. Melanc- thon s gentle spirit might have had a good effect in this conference, but he could not be spared from political and university duties which required his presence at Wittenberg. The embassy reached England in June 1538, Last at- Burckhardt, its leader, bearing a letter to the King S with in which he was earnestly requested to promote tJ]^^.^^3" union among the reformers. Henry appointed a commission of divines to confer with them, consisting of Archbishop Cranmer, two other bishops, and four doctors. These German "orators" remained in Eng- land until September 1538, discussing with their English associates all the subjects of faith which were then in controversy. The King himself took part in the discussion, which seems to have been of a hopeful character so long as it was confined to the principal doctrines of the Creed, but broke down as soon as the Sacraments were taken into consideration. The thir- teen articles partly agreed upon in 1535 were again brought forward, but these did not embrace the 472 THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES CHAV points on which most difficulty was likely to arise : ^.^.^^..^ and on these the ^'Ten Articles" of 1536 and the A.D. 1538 " Institution of a Christian Man" had expressed a decided and authoritative opinion. The Lutheran envoys departed in some haste^ returning indeed for a short time in the following year, and returning with power to make important concessions, but the attempt to unite the Lutherans in one common doc- trine with the Church of England altogether failed as soon as the Sacraments came under consideration, and union proved to be hopeless.^ Much labour and learning was expended over the negotiations, and a large body of MSS. connected with them still remains among the State Papers : but it is not diffi- cult now to see that they were hopeless from the first, as neither the King nor the English divines were prepared to give .up the theology lately elabo- rated in the Institution of a Christian Man, while the Germans had almost as great a respect for the Con- fession of Augsburg as they had for the Holy Bible. The reac- The effect of the conference was, indeed, of a re- ofSi?Ar- actionary character; for the special subjects on tides which the two parties of theologians had been unable to come to an agreement were brought so prominently forward, and such strong views upon them had been suggested to the mind of the King,^ that he was de- termined to have a more distinct statement of them drawn up and imposed upon all by statute as the 1 A long account of these trans- times supposed) were used in tlie actions is given in Strype's Eccl. compilation of tlie Articles of Be- Mem.j i.j chaps. 32 and 34, with ligion in Edward Vl.'s time, documents in the Appendix. His ^ It must also be remembered chief authority is Seckendorf^s that the public disputation with *' Commentarius Historicus et Apo- Lambert on the subject of the Real logeticus de Lutheranismo." Tlie Presence had lately bean held be- Thirteen Articles (and not tlie fore the King in Westminster HaU. Augsburg Confession, as is some- See Chaj?. XI. THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES 473 standard of doctrine in those special particulars, chap The result was the enactment of the Statute of the ..^^-v-*^ Six Articles, by which the King strove to make his ^'^' '539 subjects measure their religion by the royal foot^ if he could not compel the foreign Lutherans to do so. This Statute [31 Henry VIII. cap. 14] was en- History of titled ^^ an Act for abolishing of diversity of opinions six Ar- in certain articles concerning Christian religion." Its ^^'^ ^^ popular name was derived from the six "articles" or ■ theological statements which it contained relating to the Holy Eucharist, vows of celibacy and confession : but from the severity of its penal clauses it acquired the still more popular sarcastic title of the " whip with six strings." The history of this Act is as follows. In the Parliament of 1539 the Lord Chan- cellor Audley, in making the customary opening speech on behalf of the sovereign, announced that it was the King's wish to quiet all controversies, and bring his subjects to an uniformity of belief in all matters of religion. He then suggested that a com- mittee should be appointed for the purpose of con- sidering those questions about which there was especial disagreement, and of drawing up articles of uniformity to be laid before Parliament with a view to their statutory enactment. This conmiittee, ap- pointed on May 5th, 1539, consisted of the vicar- general and twelve bishops, as follows : — Lord CromweU. Cranmer, Archbishop of Oanterbmy. Lee, Archbishop of York. Tunstal, Bishop of Durham. G ardiner, „ Winchestei Clerk, „ Bath and Wells, Bird, „ Bangor. 474 THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES CHAP Aldrich, " Bishop of Carlisle. VIII Baiiow, » St. David's. A.D. 1539 Goodrich ) ?? Ely. HHsey, )) Eochester. Shaxton, » Salisbury. Latimer, )) Worcester. Six questions were submitted to this committee by the King, which are stated in the preamble of the Act, and which are simply the six articles in an interrogatory instead of in the affirmative form. It is believed that these questions were drawn up by the King himself, and under these circumstances they must be looked upon as foregone conclusions to which he required the assent of the bishops for the sake of giving them an ecclesiastical colour. For eleven days these questions were discussed by the bishops, who, it is alleged, were divided into two equal parties, led respectively by the two arch- bishops, Cranmer and Lee. Whether this was the case or not, at the end of the eleven days it was announced by Cranmer that the committee was unable to come to any conclusion respecting the business intrusted to them. Thus it may be said to have lapsed into the hands of the civil power, as perhaps was intended by the King. On May 16th, therefore, the six questions were put into the hands of the House of Lords by the Duke of Norfolk. They were discussed by the bishops — the lay lords accepting them at once — for three days, on one of which the King himself was present, and is said to have taken part in the debate, as he sometimes did on other occasions. A committee of the bishops was again appointed, on May 23rd, to confer with the King during the short prorogation of a week which THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES 475 then took place: and on the 31st, when Parliament chap VTir met again, the Lord Chancellor brought down a^^-^.^ message from the King, stating that he and the ^-^^ ^^39 bishops had come to an unanimous conclusion. An odd way of giving force to this conclusion was then contrived, two committees being appointed to draw up two drafts of a statute, of which one was to be selected for enactment by Parhament. Neither of The Act these was chosen, and the form of statute ultimately the King adopted was drawn up by the King himself, who had ^^^^^ large experience in making such drafts. Meanwhile the six questions had been submitted, on Jane 2nd, to Sbproformd meeting of Convocation, in which the pro- locutor was the only member of the Lower House pre- sent, and they were all answered in the affirmative.^ The Bill framed on these questions was introduced Cranmer into the House of Lords on Jime 7th by Archbishop theTct*^ Lee, Archbishop Cranmer being present and voting for it. On the 9th and 10th of June it was read a second and third. time, Cranmer still voting for it. After some amendments made in the House of Commons, the Bill eventually received the royal assent on June 24, 1539, and became operative on July 12th. From these circumstances it is clear that the opposition which Cranmer had undoubtedly ofiered to this enactment in its preliminary stages had been withdrawn, probably in deference to the King, when it came formally before the House of Lords.^ We now come to the substance of the Act itself as it finally became law. ^ Wilkins' Goncil., iii. 845, 848. 46. Foxe says that "in tMs Par- ^ This IS made almost a certainty liament, Synod, or Convocation" by Dean Hook, in his Life of Cran- as if all three were alike—" certain mer. Lives of the Archbishops of ai-ticles . . . weie decreed hy certain Canterbury, 2nd series, vol. ii. p. prelates!" 476 THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES CHAP The preamble begins with stating the great advan- ,tages of unity, and the mischiefs that result fom A.D. 1539 (Jiversity of opinion. That such an unity might bo omrAct charitably established throughout the kingdom, the ticiel''^'^' ^i^g ^^^^ caused Parliament and Convocation to be svimmoned. And forasmuch as in the said Parlia- ment, Synod, and Convocation, there were certain articles, matters, and questions proposed and set forth touching Christian religion (the six questions are then stated), the King caused these articles to be considered, and ^^ most graciously vouchsafed in his own princely person to descend and come into his High Court of Parliament and Council, and there, like a prince of most high prudence and no less learnings opened and declared many things of great learning and high knowledge touching the said Articles," whereupon they were resolved and agreed upon in manner and form following ; that is to say : — The Six » First, That in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar by Articles . themselves the strength and efficacy of Christ's mighty word (it being spoken by the priest), is present really, under the form of bread and wine, the natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary ; and that after the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread or wine, nor any other substance, but the substance of Christ, God and Man. " Secondly, That the communion in both kinds is not neces- sary ' ad salutem,' by the law of God, to all persons : and that it is to be beheved, and not doubted of, but that in the flesh, under form of bread, is the very Blood, and with the Blood, under form of wine, is the very Mesh as well apart, as though they were both together. " Thirdly, That priests, after the order of priesthood received, as before, may not marry by the law of God. " Fourthly, That vows of chastity or widowhood, by man 01 woman made to God advisedly, ought -to be observed by the THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES 477 law of God ; and that it exempeth them from other liberties CHAP of Christian people, which, without that, they might enjoy. _J^IiL ''Fifthly, That this is meet and necessary, that private a.d. 1539 Masses be continued and admitted in the King's English Chm-ch and Congregation; as whereby good Christian people, ordering themselves accordingly, do receive both godly and goodly consolations and benefits ; and it is agreeable also to God's law. ''Sixthly, That auricular confession is expedient and neces- sary to be retained and continued, used and frequented, in the church of God." The Act then goes on to say that Parhament gives great thanks to his Majesty for his godly pains and travail ; and desiring that the said Articles may be established^ enacts that offenders against the first shall be adjudged heretics, and shall be burned, and shall forfeit their goods as in cases of high treason ; while offenders against the other five shall suffer and forfeit as in cases of felony. In the remaining clauses provision is made for the appointment of commissioners in every shire to meet four times a year for inquiry concerning heresies ; which are also to be inquired into by the ordinarieS; the justices of the peace^ and stewards of hundreds. Every clergyman having cure of souls is also required to read the Act in his parish church four times every year. The last clause enacts that vows are only to be binding when taken by persons above twenty-one years of age. The Act of the Six Articles justly acquired a bad Results of name for its penal clauses, which (although of the the six ° same character as those in other Acts against heresy) '^'^^'^^^^ were made more severe by the exactness with which the theological statements were made, an exactness precluding evasion. Yet, strange to say, all extant 478 THE ACT OF SIX ARTICLES CHAP evidence tends to show that the labour and pains ,_<^.,^^^ expended on it were mere state-craft, and its penal ^•D. 1539 clauses little more than sound and fury ! Historians commonly follow Lord Herbert in saying that per- sons ^'suffered daily" under this Act; but Lord Herbert's authority was Foxe, and Foxe says only, '^ What unity thereof followed, the groaning hearts of a great number, and also the cruel death of divers, both in the days of King Henry and of Queen Mary, can so well declare, I pray God never the like be felt hereafter."^ Now the Act of Six Articles was repealed by 1 Edw. VI. cap. 12, and was never revived, so that none of those condemned in Queen Mary's days could have been condemned under this cruel statute. It simply has nothing whatever to do with the '' days of Queen Mary." Moreover, it was in operation for eight years during the reign of Henry VI 1 1., and out of the twenty-eight persons executed during those years on account of their religion, very few indeed, if any, were condemned under this statute. It may have been that some were imprisoned under it, and that many were driven out of the country through fear of it, but such cases are not recorded ; and when Ave consider the great industry of Foxe and Strype in collecting reports of such cases, the absence of them in this particular instance is an evidence of some importance,^ In spite, therefore, of the obloquy which has always been associated with the name of this Act, we are absolutely driven to the conclusion that it was only intended to strike terror into the hearts of the people, ^ Foxe's Acts and Mon,, y. 262, ])y Parliament, and did not suffer ed. 1837. under tliis statute. ^ Even Dr. Barnes was attainted DOCTRINAL CLOSE OF HENRY'S REIGN 479 which it did very effectually. Possibly some know- chap ledge of such an intention had been conveyed to ^^^^^^.^^ Cranmer, and had overcome his opposition : for it is a.^^- '543 certain he did not oppose it (as stated by Foxe) in Parliament. But whatever the explanation of it^ the fact is beyond dispute that the most cruel act against heretics that disgraced our Statute Book, so far as words go^ was so administered or so neglected that it was practically inoperative.^ The key of its prac- tical operation was, indeed, the appointment of com- missioners for searching out and trying heretics : but the appointment was suspended for a year, at least in London, and probably elsew^here, so that for a while the Act remained all but a dead letter. In the beginning of 1543, another Act was passed [35 Hen. VIII. cap. 5] ^^ concerning the qualification of the Statute of the Six Articles," and this (which much lessened the power of the executive, and made secret information or trial illegal) appears to have been passed because the Statute which it modified had in some cases been brought into operation. The Act of Six Articles was certainly a dead letter in one respect. It produced no real uni- formity of opinion. So far was it from doing so that it caused a rapid under-current of reaction against the very doctrines it was intended to uphold : and when the strong hand of the King ceased to hold it in check, this reaction broke forth at once in a manner that would have astonished him if he could have witnessed it. During the remainder of Henry s reign there were no further direct dealings with doctrine, and what 7 It would be very pleasant to eqnallyinoperative as to their worst find that the mendicancy acts were penal clauses. 480 DOCTRINAL CLOSE OF HENRY'S REIGN CHAP was done respecting changes in divine service^ reli- ..^..^^^^^ gious customs^ and the translation of the Holy Scriptures, is noticed in other chapters. We may, therefore, conclude our review of the doctrinal refor- mation of this reign with the remark that its impor- tance has been very much underrated ; and that, so far as it was an ecclesiastical movement, it settled the doctrine of the Church of England on very nearly its present footing. This was done by means of the two works which have been reviewed at length in the preceding pages, the '^ Institution of a Christian Man," and the '^Necessary Doctrine and Erudition" which was afterwards compiled from its contents. Tt is also worthy of remark that this settlement of doctrine was entirely the work of the clergy. CHAPTER IX MODIFICATION OF THE DEVOTIONAL SYSTEM OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH [A.D. 1535— A. D. 1544] THE same influences which led to a re-construction chap of the doctrinal system of the Church of Eng- .^^-^<^ land, and which were glanced at in the opening of the last chapter, were also leading to a re-construc- tion of its devotional system. In mediseval times most persons had been disposed to take everything for granted which came to them on respectable authority. When a reaction from this submissive- ness of intellect arose, many went to the opposite extreme, and were disposed to take nothing for granted however respectable the authority on which it came, and to disbelieve all that had been previously Extremes believed. Under the first influence men grew and^lncie^ superstitious in their belief, under the second they ^^^'^^y became superstitious in their incredulity : the one unreasonably afraid of believing too little, the other quite as unreasonable in the fear of believing too much. The conflict between these two schools of thought influenced the minds of sensible and judicious men very conspicuously in the earlier portion of the Refor- 2 H 482 CHANGES FORESHADOWED CHAP mation epochs and even the most conservative were ^^^.^ convinced that the time had come when much which had been received without doubt^ and practised without question^ must cease to form any part of the theory and practice of religion. Hence there was a growing tendency to look upon many customs which had sprung up in the Church of England as supersti- tious^ and a growing desire that they should be abolished : with this feeling there was also aroused another that customs which were not superstitious might yet be obsolete and inexpedient ; and that in respect to these also a change was required. Abundant evidence that these three schools of thought existed is extant in the publications of the period : and^ as might be expected, there is no want of evidence to show that those who felt the responsi- bility of their position as leading men in the Church, belonged generally to the intermediate class, who were influenced by both sides so far as each had good sense to support it, and who had no sympathy with the fanaticism of either.-^ Such a state of opinion on the part of leading men in the Church would naturally lead to a grave review of our devotional system, and under the circum- stances a review of it would be the last step on the way towards a reformation of it. The rest of The first decided movement in this direction was Articles ^^^do by the Ten Articles of 1536, the latter five of ^ Lord Chancellor Audley writes to Cromwell from Old Ford, on Sept. 13, 1535, and among many- other matters of lousiness mentions a printed Look aljout the taking away of Images, which he sends. He says that m the parts where he has been he has fonnd much dis- cord on the subject of worshipping saints and images, creeping to the cross, and such like ceremonies, and thinks it would be advisable to silence all such controversies until the King gave some final order respecting them. State Papers, i. 447. THE " TEN ARTICLES'' ON CEREMONIES 483 which were put forth under the title of " Articles chap concerning the laudable ceremonies used in the .^^^-^-^^ Church." These treat respectively of the subjects of^-^- ^53^ images, the honour due to saints, the invocation of saints, rites and ceremonies, and purgatory : and the weighty character of the authority under which they were issued makes it desirable to give them at full length ; taking up the document where it was dropped in the last chapter.^ ryi.! " And FUiSX of Images. — As touching images, truth The eccie- siastical it is that the same have been used in the Old Testanient, ^ge of and also for the great abuses of them sometimes destroyed images and put down ; and in the New Testament they have been also allowed, as good authors do declare. Wherefore we will that all bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us to their spiritual charge, how they ought and may use them. And first, that there may be attri- buted unto them, that they be representers of virtue and good example, and that they also be by occasion the kindlers and stirrers of men's minds, and make men often remember and lament their sins and offences, especially the images of Christ and our lady ; and that therefore it is meet that they should stand in the churches, and none otherwise to be esteemed • and to the intent the rude people should not from henceforth take such superstition, as in time past it is thought that the same hath used to do, we will that our bishops and preachers dihgently shall teach them, and according to this doctrine reform their abuses, for else there might fortune idolatry to ensue, which God forbid. And as for censing of them, and kneehng and offering unto them, with other like worshipping, although the same hath entered by devotion, and fallen to custom ; yet the people ought to be dihgently taught that they in no ways do it, nor think it meet to be done to the same images, but only to be done to God, and in His honour, although it be done before the images, whether it be of Christ, of the cross, or of our lady, or of any other saint beside. ^ See page 443. 484 THE ''TEN ARTICLES'' ON CEREMONIES CHAP [yil-] " 0^ HoNOUEiNG OF Saixts. — As touching the hon- i^ ouring of saints, we will that all bishops and preachers shaU A.D. 1356 instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that saints now being with Christ in heaven Reverence "be to be honoured of Christian people in earth ; but not with the saints 'tbat contidence and honour which are only due unto God, trusting to attain at their hands that which must be had only of God ; but that they be thus to be honoured, because they be known the elect jpersons of Christ, because they be passed in godly life out of this transitory world, because they already do reign in glory with Christ ; and most specially to laud and praise Christ in them for their excellent virtues which He planted in them, for example, of and by them to such as are yet in this world to live in virtue and goodness, and also not to fear to die for Christ and His cause, as some of them did ; and finally to take them, in that they may, to be the advan- cers of our prayers and demands unto Christ. By these ways, and such like, be saints to be honoured and had in reverence, and by none other. Invocation [VHI-] " Of Pkaying TO Saints. — As touching praying to °^.^^^^ saints, we wiU that aU bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that albeit grace, remission of sin, and salvation, can- not be obtained but of God only by the mediation of our Saviour Christ, which is only suf&cient Mediator for our sins ; yet it is very laudable to pray to saints in heaven everlastingly living, whose charity is ever permanent, to be intercessors, and to pray for us and with us, unto Almighty God after this manner: All holy angels and saints in heaven pray for us and with us unto the Father, that for His dear Son Jesus Christ's sake we may have grace of Him, and remission of our sins, with an earnest purpose (not wanting ghostly strength), to observe and keep His holy commandments, and never to decline from the same again unto our lives' end : and in this manner we may pray to our blessed lady, to St. John Baptist, to all and every of the apostles or any other saint particularly, as our devotion doth serve us ; so that it be done without any vain superstition, as to think that any saint is more merciful, or will hear us sooner than Christ, or that any saint doth THE " TEN ARTICLES'' ON CEREMONIES 485 serve for one tiling more than other, or is patron of the same. CHAP And likewise we mnst keep holydays unto God, in memory of ^_^^.^„^ Him and His saints, upon such days as the church hath a.i>. 1536 ordained their memories to be celebrated; except they be mitigated and moderated by the assent or commandment of us the supreme head, to the ordinaries, and then the subjects ought to obey it. [IX.] " Of Eites and Ceremonies. — As concerning the rites Ritual and ceremonies of Christ's church, as to have such vestments H^^f^,^ *^^, . the Church in domg God service, as be and have been most part used, as sprinkhng o£ holy water to put us in remembrance of our baptism, and the blood of Christ sprinkled for our redemption upon the cross ;^ giving of holy bread, to put us in remembrance of the sacrament of the altar, that all Christian men be one body mystical of Christ as the bread is made of many grains, and yet but one loaf, and to put us in remembrance of the receiving the holy sacrament and body of Christ, the which we ought to recei"s^e in right charity; which in the beginning of Christ's church, men did more often receive than they use nowadays to do; bearing of candles on Candlemas-day, in An interesting discovery has off worlds. So be hytt. By the recently been made in connection wyche." ■with these words which shows that This has been submitted to the j)hraseology had long been several experts, who agree in I'timiliar. A magnificent Sariim dating it about 1450, though some Breviary now in the possession of think it as early as 1435. Similar the Dean and Chapter of SaHshury words have been attributed to contains the following Anthem, Latimer, on the authority of Foxe noted, or set to music. It is evi- [vol. vii. p. 461, ed. 1837]: but dently an "Aspersio" used at the they are evidently a century older sprinkling of holy water, " Re- than Latimer's episcopate. Foxe member youre pmys made yu however gives the following addi- baptym. And chrystys mercy- tional words to be used at giving fidl bloudsbedyng. By the wyche the eulogia, or blessed bread : most holy spryklvng. Off' all »r,P^u - 4.. x. , ^x.- . J r J J & "Of Christ's body this is a token youre syns youe haue fre perdm. Which on the cross for our sins was broken, Haue mercy uppo me 00 god. Whereforeof ynursinsyoumusthetorsakersl Affter thy gra.t mercy. Reme- ^^ o±ciinst'sdeathye wiubepariakei-s." ber t&c. And acordyng to the From the music there can be no multytude of the mercys. Do doubt it was sung while the priest awey my wyckydnes. Remeber was going round the Church sprink- &c. Glory be to the father and to liiig the people with the blessed the sun, and to the holy goost. water : and it is thus of additional As hyt was yn the begynyng so interest as an early iilustratiou of now and ever and yn the world ritual vernacular. 486 THE '' TEN ARTICLES'' ON CEREMONIES CHAP memoiy of Clij-ist the spiritual Light, of whom Simeon did ■^-^ prophesy, as is read in the church that day: giving of ashes on A.D. 1536 Ash- Wednesday, to put in remembrance every Christian man in the beginning of Lent and penance, that he is but ashes and earth, and thereto shall return ; which is right necessary to be uttered from henceforth in our mother tongue always on the same day : bearing of palms on Palm Sunday, in memory of receiving of Christ into Jerusalem, a little before His death, that we may have the same desire to receive Him into our hearts : creeping to the cross, and humbling ourselves to Christ on Good Friday before the cross, and offering thereunto Christ before the same, and kissing of it in memory of our redemption by Christ made upon the cross ; setting up the sepulture of Christ, whose body after His death was buried ; the hallowing of the font, and other like exorcisms and benedictions by the ministers of Christ's church : and all other like laudable cus- toms, rites, and ceremonies be not to be contemned and cast away, but to be used and continued as things good and laud- able, to put us in remembrance of those spiritual things that they do signify ; not suffering them to be forgotten, or to be put in oblivion, but reoewing them in our memories from time to time : but none of these ceremonies have power to remit sin, but only to stir and lift up our minds mito God, by whom only our sins be forgiven. Prayers for [ X.] " Of Puhgatory. — Forasmuch as due order of charity the dead requireth, and the Book of Maccabees, and divers ancient doc- tors plainly shew, that it is a very good and charitable deed to pray for souls departed, and forasmuch also as such usage hath contiuued in the church so many years, even from the beginning, we will that all bishops and preachers shall instruct and teach our people committed by us unto their spiritual charge, that no man ought to be grieved with the continuance of the same, and that it standeth with the very due order of charity, a Christian man to pray for souls departed, and to commit them in our prayers to God's mercy, and also to cause others to pray for them in masses and exequies, and to give alms to others to pray for them, whereby they may be relieved, and holpen, of some part of their pain : but forasmuch as the place where they be, the name thereof, and kind of pains THE " TEN ARTICLES'' ON CEREMONIES 487 there, also be to us uncertain by scripture; therefore this with ci-iAP all other things we remit to Almighty Godj unto whose mercy ^^ it is meet and convenient for us to commend them, trusting a.d. 1536 that God accepteth our prayers for them, referring the rest wholly to God, to whom is known their estate and con- dition ; wherefore it is mucli necessary that such abuses Roman be clearly put away, which under the name of purgatory hath ^^^^ °^ ^ been advanced, as to make men believe that through the repudiated bishop of Eome*s pardon souls might clearly be delivered out of purgatory, and all the pains of it, or that masses said at scala cml% or otherwhere, in any place, or before any image, might Hkewise deliver them from all their pain, and send them straight to heaven ; and other like abuses."* These five were substantially embodied in the '' Institution of a Christian Man/' as were the five on the principal articles of faith which formed the first part of them. That on images is worked up into the exposition of the Second Commandment, that on rites and ceremonies is entirely reproduced in the exposition of the Fourth Commandment, and that on purgatory is printed by itself at the end of the volume. It need hardly be pointed out that, whatever These five mediaeval opinions and practices may have been, ^nistent there is not one word of these articles which is incon- v '^^' A"^" ... 'nn .., „ ^ i\Z2LXi llieo- sistent with the prmciples of the Church of England ^osy as interpreted in modern times by her most learned divines. It has been considered expedient to disuse such ceremonies as ''creeping" to the Cross, and the use of blessed ashes and palms ; but their use or disuse is purely a question of expediency and not of principle. ^ "Some men make their cracks,'^ to pray for dead folks? This is preached Latimer before the Coai- not found, for it was never lost vocation on June 9th in this year, How can that be found that was ''that they, maugre of aU men's not lost? O subtle finders that can heads, have found pur-atory. I find things (and Gud will) ere they c:uinot teU what is found. This, be lost!" Serm. i., 48, ed lb24 488 ABROGATION OF CERTAIN HOLY-DAYS CHAP At the end of the eighth of these articles, it -will ,^/^ be noticed that a hint is given respecting some pro- A.D. 1536 posed mitigation or moderation of the observance of Grievance bolj-dajs. There was a standing grievance on this of forbid- subject among the labouring classes, there being (on work on the average) one holy-day, and perhaps one even, to ^o y f ays 1^^ observed in every week, and an Act of Parliament [6 Hen. VI. cap. 3] was passed in 1427 forbidding them from taking wages for festivals or half-day's wages for their evens. This grievance was forcibly stated by Latimer in the sermon which he preached at the opening of Convocation : — " Do ye see nothing in our hohdays ? Of the which, very- few were made at the first, and they to set forth goodness, virtue, and honesty. But sithens, in some places there is neither mean nor measure in making new hohdays, as who should say, this one thing is serving of God, to make this law, that no man may work. But what doth the people on these hohdays ? Do they give themselves to godhness, or else ungodliness ? See ye nothing, brethren ? If you see not, yet God seeth. God seeth ah the Avhole holidays to be spent miserably in drunkenness, in glossing, in strife, iu envy, in dancing, dicing, idleness, and gluttony He seeth all this, and threateneth punishment for it. He seeth it, which neither is deceived in seeing, nor deceiveth when He threat- eneth. "Thus men serve the devil, for God is not thus served; albeit ye say, ye serve God. E"o, the devil hath more service done unto him on one hohday than on many working days. Let all these abuses be counted as nothing, who is he that is not sorry to see in so many hohdays rich and wealthy persons to flow in delicates, and men that live by their travail, poor men, to lack necessary meat and drink for their wives and their clnldren, and that they cannot labour upon the hohdays, except they will be cited, and brought before our officials ? Were it not the office of good prelates to consult upon these ABROGATION OF CERTAIN HOL Y-DA YS 489 matters, and to seek some remedy for them ? Ye shall see, chap my brethren, ye shall see once what ■will come of this our ^^ winking/'^ ^^^^ 1336 The fact is that a definite rule on the sub] ect '^^^ '',''■ . "^ cient law existed, m the shape of a canon passed in the year of the 1362, during the time that Meopham was Arch- England^ bishop of Canterbury ; but that in later times (as the Convocation before us states in a document to be noticed immediately) '' the number of holy-days" had '' excessively grown, and yet daily more and more, by men's devotion, yea rather superstition, was like further to increase/' Private and local observances of such days had been added to those enjoined by the Church, and these were the real cause of the hardships complained of The rule of the Church of England was to be found (as already stated) in the canon of 1362, which named forty-four days that were to be kept holy by all persons,^ the observance including abstinence from labour. To these forty-four must be added the evens of some of the festivals, and St. George's day, the observance of which was enjoined by a subsequent canon of a.d. 1415, thus making an average of, at the utmost, one holy-day and one even in each week. On July 19, 1536, the Convocation modified this This old rule by a new canon, which was afterwards assented re-^'enacted to and published by the crown. It seems to have Sionf '' been practically a re-enactment of the canon of 1362 in a difierent form, for the purpose of cutting off all ^ Sermons, i. 50, ed. 1824. distinguished in the Calendar of \ The forty-fonr days so ap- the Prayer Book, most of the re- pointed to be kept holy included maining twelve being now " black- tlie thirty-two days which are so letter" days. 490 ABROGA TION OF CERTAIN HOL Y-DA YS CHAP the supplementary holy-days which had crept into .^.^..^^ observance as above stated. It provided that : — A.D. 1536 \ The festival of the dedication of each parish church should be kept on a Sunday instead of a week day — the first Sunday in October. 2. That the festival of the saint in whose name any parish church was dedicated, should not be observed as a day of compulsory cessation from labour, unless otherwise a holy- day. 3. That no festivals in harvest time (that is^ between July 1st and September 29th) should be observed with compulsory cessation of labour, except feasts of the Apostles, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the feast of St. George.^ TheCaicn- This cauou was published under the title of ''The aUered*^ Abrogation of Certain Holy-days," which was cor- rupted into '^ The Abrogation of the Holy-days," or '^ of Holy-days," without any other Avord preceding : and thus it has been commonly supposed to have abolished most of the Holy-days in the Calendar ! But it did not even touch the Calendar, merely giving permission to the laity to work at their ordinary calling on certain of the days in the Calen- dar on which they had been previously forbidden to do so ; and leaving untouched also the canons and Act of Parliament which forbad work on the festi- vals and evens not excepted by this new law. Whether such a measure of relief was enough to satisfy those who thought themselves aggrieved may be doubted ; but an Act of Parliament alone could repeal the Act [6 Hen. VI. cap. 3] previously referred to, and probably Convocation did all that legally lay Avithin the power of the clergy to do. In the reign 7 Wilkins' Concil., iii. 823. A BRO GA TION OF CER TAIN HOL Y-DA YS 491 of Edward VI. an Act of Parliament was passed on chap the subject [5 & 6 Edw. VI. cap. 13], which is still ^^ in force.^ By this Statute twenty-six holy-days and ^■^- ^^'^^ seventeen evens were directed to be observed as days '^on which Christians should cease from all other kinds of labours^ and should apply themselves only and wholly unto holy works properly pertain- ing unto true religion \ but all persons were to be permitted to labour on these days in harvest^ or at other times if necessity should require. The canon of 1536 was sent into every diocese with The canon a royal letter/ and was also enforced by the third of by the the royal Injunctions issued in the same year/ its ^°^" publication or promulgation by the crown being in accordance with the agreement lately made between the Convocations and the King ; but it is quite a mistake to suppose that this canon came out originally in the form of a royal injunction/ Shortly after the Convocation had been prorogued, i^oyai i"- two sets of Injunctions had been issued by the King enforcing and by Cromwell in his capacity as Vicegerent, in vLce^^'^ which the Ten Articles and the preceding canon are enforced upon the clergy. They also contain the following direction to the clergy in respect to some of the customs which were now under consideration : "That they should not lay out their rhetoric in flourishing upon uuages, rehcs, or miracles upon any motive of supersti- tion or covetousness : that they ought not to persuade their people to pilgrimages, contrary to the intendment of the late articles, but rather exhort them to serve God and make pro- "S'ision for their famihes. Ajid if they have anything to spare, ^ It was repealed by 1 Mary, ^ Ibid., 813. It was also printed Sess. ii. cap. 2, but carefully re- in Bisbop Hilsey's Primer of 1539. vived by 1 James I. i. cap. 25. ^ As Collier says, for instance, iv. ^ Wilkins' Concil., iii. 824. 363, ed. 1852. 492 THE ''RATIONALE'' OF CEREMONIES CHAP they are to inform them that the bestowing it on the poor ^_^^J^ will be more acceptable to God Almighty than making a A.D. 1538 present to images and relics." Cromweirs Injunctions also forbid the clergy to alter any fasts or the '^ order and manner of any prayer^ or divine service^ otherwise than is specified in the Injunctions/' but no alteration at all is specified, unless that indicated in the seventeenth and last injunction, which is as follows : — " lizm. Where in times past men have used in divers places in their processions to sing ' Ora pro nobis' to so many saints that they had no time to sing the good suf- frages following, as * Parce nobis Domme, et Libera nos Domine ; ' that it must be taught and preached that better it were to omit ' Ora pro nobis/ and to sing the other suf- rages." About this time an attempt was made to bring out an authoritative exposition of the devotional system of the Church, of a similar character with that of its doctrinal system, which had been published as the '^ Institution of a Christian Man/' This work remains in MS. in the British Museum,^ and is entitled ^' Ceremonies to be used in the Church of England, together with an explanation of the mean- ing and significancy of them." It was probably written by Malet (one of Cromwell's chaplains, and afterwards Dean of Lincoln) in the year 1538, and under the eye of Cranmer, in whose house, at Ford, he was staying for the purpose.^ This very able *^ Rationale" of the ancient devotional system is said 3 Cle )patra, E. v. 259. Tt is forasmuch as this bearer, 3'^our printed in Colher's Eccl. Hist., v, trusty chaplain, Mr. Malet, at this 104-122, ed. 1852 j and in Strype's his return towards London from Eccl. Memor., I. ii. 411, ed. Ford (whereas I left him, accord- 1822. ing to your Lordship's assignment, -i " My very singular good Lord: occupied in the affairs of our THE ''RATIONALE'' OF CEREMONIES 493 by Strype to have been placed before Convocation, chap but rejected through the influence of Cranmer.^ But ^ ^^^^ this is improbable, as Cranmer was decidedly in ^•^- ^538 favour of continuing the ceremonies of the Church, and explaining them in this manner. And, indeed^ a letter of his to a justice of the peace, written about this time, seems almost to refer to this book, though no contemporary copy of it is known in print.® The Contents tract itself would occupy about thirty pages of this "Ration- volume, and is, therefore, too long to be printed here. It consists of separate articles on the follow- ing subjects, which are all dealt with in the spirit of the "Ten Articles" and the " Institution :" — The Church— The Chiu^chyard— The Eites and Cere- monies observed about the Sacrament of Baptism — Ministers — Service of tlie Church — Ceremonies used in the Mass — The observance of Sundays and Holy-days — Bells — The dress of the Clergy — The saying of the daily Of&ces — Candles on Candlemas Day — Fasting — Ashes on Ash- Wednesday, and other ceremonies of Lent — The Ceremonies of Maundy Thurs- day, Good Friday, and Easter — Processions or Litanies — Bene- dictions by Bishops and Priests — Holy water and Holy bread. That this '' Book of Ceremonies" had some official Church Service, and now at the restored to their late abused usages, writing up of so much as he had to for the old usage was in the Primi- do), came hy me here at Croydon tive Church, and nigh thereunto to know my further pleasure and when the Church was most purest, commandment in that behalf. ..." ... And if men will indifferently Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 241. read these late declarations, they ^ Memorials of Cranmer, i. 168. shall well perceive that purgatory, Eng. Hist. Soc. ed. pilgrimages, praying to saints, ^ "And whereas your servants images,holybread,holy water, holy report that all things are restored days, merits, works, ceremonies, and by this new book to their old use, such other, be not restored to their both of ceremonies, pilgrimages, late accustomed abuses, but shall purgatory, and such other, . . . evidently perceiA'e that the word truly you and your servants be so of God hath gotten the upper hand blinded that you call old that is of them all, and bath set them in new, and new that is old. . . . their right use and estimation." But in very deed the people be re- [Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 210.] There stored by this book to their old is nothing elsewhere extant to good usages, although they be not wluch this language so well applies. 494 REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS CHAP weight is evident from a proclamation on the same .,^^:^^ subject which was issued by the Crown on February A.D. 1538 26, 1538.^ This proclamation travels over the same ground in a more condensed way, and in some cases uses the very expressions of the " Rationale." It commands that the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England shall all be used as heretofore until some new orders respecting them are issued ; but enjoins upon the clergy the duty of explaining them to the people^ indicating the kind of explana- tions to be given in several cases, and doing so in language that was evidently used by a writer who had the " Book of Ceremonies" before him. Growing The revisiou of the usages of divine service was a omrver- i3iost delicate and difficult business to be undertaken, naciiiar ^^^ Q^e which was felt to be necessary by the leading clergy, and the necessity of which the King himself seems reluctantly to have acknowledged. There was, especially, a general feeling that the divine service used in the Church of England should be used in the vernacular, and not in Latin. There was not now, as there would have been a century or two before, any difficulty in deciding what the ver- nacular really was ; for Anglo-Saxon, and Norman- French, and Latin, and the several dialects of the fens and the hills had been gradually amalgamating into the noble English of the sixteenth century, and though peculiar dialects were still to be heard in remote parts of the country, there was now a real and definite language spoken by the great majority.® ^ Wilkins' Concil., iii. 842. could gain two lumdred converts ^ It is amiising to find Giraldiis at a sermon in French or Latin Cambrensis saying, that "when he though they understood not a word preached the Crusades to the of it. [Wharton's Anglia Sacra, Welshmen oi' Haverfordwest, he ii. 491.] RE VISION OF SER VICE BOOKS 495 Latin, therefore, had no longer the advantage of chap being the most comprehensive language in a country .^^-^.^^ of mixed dialects, nor was it so generally understood ^•^- ^53^ as formerly even by the educated classes. Vernacular prayer books had, indeed, been long Use of known in England, and several portions of divine Divine service which especially concerned the people had ^^^^^^^ been said in English, as will be shown when we come to deal with the subject more fully in the next volume. The English Primer was in use at least during the whole of the fifteenth century, and had been in print from the opening of the sixteenth.^ Homilies in English for the Festivals were printed (from older MSS.) by Caxton in 1483; and con- venient indexes had long been common, by means of which those who were able to read could turn to the Lessons, the Epistles and Gospels, in their English New Testaments. In short, a gradual approxima- tion to the use of the vernacular in divine service had been making for a long time past, and Latimer found a very hearty response in the minds of the clergy when, speaking of baptism in his sermon before the Convocation of 1586, he exclaimed, ''Shall we evermore in ministering it speak Latin, and not English rather, that the people may know what is said and done T'^ The first attempts in the direction of ritual refor- Reforma- mation were, of course, associated with the ancient Sin Ser- Latin service books. The Breviary, or Portiforium, ^^^^ '^^ov^ had been revised in the time of Warham and Wolsey, ^ Coyerdale and Grafton "write to corrector. They say that he has Cromwell, on Sept. 12, 1538, ask- printed Primers in English, among ing permission for Eegnanlt, the other books, for forty years past. Paris printer, to sell what books he [State Papers, i. 589.] has in stock, bnt not to paint more ^ Sermons, i. 52, ed. 1824. in Endish withont an English 496 REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS CHAP and a reformed edition published in the year 1516. ,^_^^.^,^^ In this the rubrics were much simplified : Holy A.D. 1542 Scripture was directed to be read in order, without omission, and the Lessons were restored to their original length, which was about double of what they had been reduced to in some previous editions. This reformed Portuis was reprinted in 1531, and in 1533 the Missal was reformed on the same principles. The Psalter had also been in use for some time, on a system very nearly similar to our own, and much less difficult to use and follow than the old arrange- ment. It had also been translated into English as early, at least, as 1530, and was sometimes printed with the Latin and English in parallel columns, as Prayer Books are printed in Welsh and English to this day in Wales. In 1541 a still further reformed edition of the Portuis or Breviary was printed, and directed by Convocation to be used throughout the whole of the province of Canterbury. But further measures of ritual reformation were already con- templated, and no more Service Books were now al- lowed to be printed than were absolutely necessary. Le-^sonsto The Couvocatiou of 1542-3 took the first decided Kh^m/^ steps towards that revision of the ancient devotional system which ended in our existing Book of Common Prayer. In sending forth the revised Breviary, they also passed a canon ordering "that every Sunday and Holy-day throughout the year, the curate of every parish church, after the Te Deum and Magni- ficat, shall openly read unto the people one chapter of the New Testament in English without exposi- tion; and when the New Testament is read over then to begin the Old."^ Archbishop Lee had ordered some years before (probably in 1536) that all curates ' Wilkins' CuiLiiii^, iii. 863 REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS 497 and heads of congregations^ religious and other, chap privileged and other, shall every holy-day read the ^^-^-^--^ gospel and epistle of that day out of the English ^'^- ^^^^ Bible, plainly and distinctly : and they that have grace shall make some declaration either of the one or of both (if the time may serve) every holy-day ;^ and there can be little doubt that this had also become the custom in the Southern Province. So that a very decided advance had been made in the direction of the Prayer Book system.^ In the same session^ a committee was appointed First Ap- for the revision of the ancient service books on a of Prayer more extended plan than had been adopted in the mtttee ^'^^ editions of 1516, 1531, and 1541. The President informed the Convocation that it was the wish of his Majesty — " That all Mass-books, Antiphoners, Portuises, in the Church of England should be newly examined, corrected, reformed, ^ Injunctions in Burnet, vol. iii. mean space the Deacon goeth into part ii. p. 182, eel. 1816. the pulpit and readeth aloud the ^ It is most likely that the Gospel in the Almaigne tongue. Gospels and Epistles, &c., were read Mr. Cranmer saith it was shewed to in Latin first and then in English. him that in the Epistles and Gos- There is an interesting anonymous pels they kept not the order that we letter to the Duke of Norfolk, which do, but do peruse every day one shows that Cranmer had become chapter of the New Testament, acquainted with this plan in Ger- Afterwards the Priest and the many : — " Although I had a chap- quire do sing the Gredo as we do ; lain yet could I not be suffered to the secret and preface they omit, have him sing Mass, but was con- and the Priest singeth with a high strained to hear their Mass, which voicethe words of the Consecration, is but one in a Church, and that And after the Levation the Deacon is celebrated in form following. turneth to the people, telling to The Priest, in vestments after our them in Almaigne tongue a long manner, singeth everything in process how they should prepare Latin, as we use, omitting suffrages. themselves to the Communion of the The iSpistle he readeth in Latin. FleshandBloodofCluist. Andthen In the mean time the sub-deacon may every man come that listeth, goeth into the pulpit and readeth to withoutgoing to Confession." This the peopletheepistleintheirvulgar; letter was written from Nuremberg after they peruse other things as our about 1530. [Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. priests do. Then the Priest readeth ii. 192.] softly the Gospel in Latin. In the 2 I 498 REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS The Eng- lish Litany revised by Convoca- tion CHAP and castigated from all manner of mention of the Bishop of ^-^ Eonie's name, from all apocryphas, feigned legends, supersti- A.D. 1543 tions, orations, collects, versicles, and responses; that the names and memories of all saints which be not mentioned in the Scripture or authentical doctors should be abolished and put out of the same books and calendars, and that the service should be made out of the Scripture and other authentic doctors." ^ The Convocation at once set to work on the busi- ness thus formally placed before them by the Crown ; and so important was it considered, that no member was allowed to absent himself from their meetings without special leave of absence. A committee was appointed for carrying out the details of this work, which consisted originally of the Bishops of Salisbury and Ely (Shaxton and Goodrich, the former being ex officio Precentor of the Province of Canterbury) and six members of the Lower House : but there is reason to think that this arrangement was not adhered to at the time^ the whole body of Convocation taking the work in hand. The imme- diate result of their labours appeared in the English Litany, which received the final sanction of Convo- cation in March 1543-4/ and was promulgated by the Crown on June 11, 1544.^ It was the service best known to and b.est liked by the people, and had been in the primers in their own tongue for at least a century and a half, though not exactly in the form now set forth. Hence, perhaps, the reason why this was chosen as the first instalment of the new Service Books. Other ''Processions" or Litanies were also translated from the ancient Processionals of the Church of England, and were sent to the King by and pro- mulgated by the Crown Other English litanies prepared Wilkins' ConciL, iii. 863. Ibid., 868. ^ Ibid., 870. REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS 499 Archbishop Cranmer on October 7th of the same chap year,^ but they were never published, and the MS. of ^..^^.^-^ them does not appear to have come down to our ■^•^- ^544 time. But with the Litany in English the change of the Further services from Latin to the vernacular tongue ceased deJed by' as long as Henry lived. A committee of divines ^^ continued the work of translation and adaptation, but their labours appear to have been in some way hindered by Henry, as he had contrived to hinder the Convocation in their translation of the Bible some years previously. It was not, therefore, until the accession of Edward VI. that their work was brought to light again : and the manner in which it then developed into the Book of Common Prayer must be narrated in a future chapter. It seems almost certain, from the evidence extant, that the Prayer Book was substantially arranged in the reign of Henry, and that little remained to be done when his death made it possible again to bring it forward. To sum up in a few words the amount of refer- Summaiy mation which took place in the devotional system of donar' the Church in this reign, it may be said that three Je\^"^of ^^^ points were thoroughly established. It was deter- ^e^ry mined [1] That the Church had authority to settle her own mode of divine worship : [2] That many changes were necessary in the devotional habits and customs of the country : and [3] That it was expe- dient, in future, to have divine service in the vulgar tongue. The progress made in carrying out these principles was very considerable. Many superstitious visages were abolished ; the Scriptures used in divine ^ Jenkyns' Cramuer, i. 315. 500 REVISION OF SERVICE BOOKS CHAP service were read to the people in English ; the v.^^^-^^ Litany was used entirely in English, almost exactly as we now use it ; and the material was prepared for the formation of our Prayer Book system. Had it not been for the strong prejudices of Henry the Eighth s later years, it is most probable that the "First Prayer Book of Edward the Sixth"— that of 1549 — would have been in use for some years before that young prince ascended his fathers throne. In which case it would undoubtedly have gained a stronger hold upon the country than it did in the midst of the miserable religious divisions that charac- terized Edward the Sixth's reign. CHAPTEE X THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE BIBLE [A. D. 1535— A. D. 1542] THERE has been much wild and foolish writing chap about the scarcity of the Bible in the ages s^^-v^.^ preceding the Reformation. It has been taken for granted that Holy Scripture was almost a sealed book to clergy and laity^ until it was printed in English by Tyndale and Coverdale, and that the only real source of knowledge respecting it before then was the translation made by Wickliffe. The facts are that the clergj'- and monks were Medieval daily reading large portions of the Bible, and had of iToiy^^^ them stored up in their memory by constant recita- Scripture tion : that they made very free use of Holy Scrip- ture in preaching, so that even a modem Bible- reader is astonished at the number of quotations and references contained in mediaeval sermons : that count- less copies of the Bible were written out by the surprising industry of cloistered scribes : that many glosses or commentaries were written which are still seen to be full of pious and wise thoughts : and that all laymen who could read were, as a rule, provided with their gospels, their psalter, or other devotional 502 EARLY ENGLISH BIBLES CHAP portions of the Bible. Men did, in fact^ take a vast ^.^.^.^^ amount of "personal trouble with respect to the pro- duction of copies of the Holy Scriptures : and accomplished by head, hands, and heart, what is now chiefly done by paid workmen and machinery. The clergy studied the Word of God, and made it known to the laity : and those few among the laity who could read had abundant opportunity of reading the Bible either in Latin or in English up to the Refor- mation period. While, therefore, full justice is done to the men of the Reformation for their zeal in disseminating a knowledge of the Bible, let us be equally just towards those of preceding ages. Fair historical research will convince any investigator who is open to con- viction that God has always had a large army of faithful servants engaged in making known — some in one way, some in another — the Word which He has revealed.-^ The translation of the Bible is a work in which English divines have always shown an interest that does not seem to have been so keenly felt by those of other European nations, although it was evidently felt also in the East, judging by the vernacular trans- lations that exist there. The great libraries of England contain many memorials of this zeal and interest, and further evidence respecting it is found in our histories. Notwithstanding the vast destruc- tion of manuscripts by the Puritans/ there still exist 1 Perhaps there is some ground for in England at first: and printed reproach in the fact that the Holy books were largly imported from Bible had been beautifully printed France and Germany, in Latin, abroad, eighty years ^ "Yea, many an ancient MS. before any attempt was made to Bible/' says Fuller, " cut in pieces print it either in Latin or English to cover filthy pamphlets." Chiu'ch in our country. But the art of History, ii. 246, ed. 1837. printing made rather slow advance EA RL Y ENGLISH BIBLES 503 many vernacular gospels^ psalters, and complete chap Bibles of dates ranging from the ninth to the six- ..^...-^-.^ teenth century, relics that bear witness to extensive ^^^.j^ ^^^d labours of which devourinof time and fanatic iofno- Med=-evai ranee have spared but a representative portion. Bibles The earliest of these translations known to us now is one of the Psalter by Aldhelm, Bishop of Sher- borne [a.b. 656-709]. The Venerable Bede [a.d. 672-735] made a translation, the extent of which is not recorded ; but on the evening of his death he was engaged in finishing the gospel of St. John by the aid of an amanuensis. King Alfred [a.d. 849-941] is said to have translated the whole Bible ; and it is certain that he executed some portions of such a translation. In the British Museum there is a magnificent English copy of the Gospels^ called the Durham Book^ which is not more recent than the time of King Alfred, and there is another of the same age in the Bodleian Library at Oxford : a Psalter of the same period is in the Chapter Library at Salisbury (in Latin and Anglo-Saxon), and a Book of the Gospels, of rather later date, in Corpus Christi Library, Cambridge. Doubtless there are many more known to those familiar with our manuscript treasures. Although these facts have been much lost sight of cranmer during the last three centuries by all except anti- ^^ ^^J^^ quarians, they were well-known at the period of the tions Reformation, and are placed on record by Arch- bishop Cranmer in his preface to the ^' Great Bible" in the following words, with which he supports his arguments in favour of vernacular Bibles : — ■ "If the matter should be tried by custom, we might also aUege custom for the reading of the Scripture in the 504 EARLY ENGLISH BIBLES CHAP vulgar tongue, and prescribe the more ancient custom. For ^"^ it is not much above one hundred years ago since Scripture hath not been accustomed to be read in the vulgar tongue within this realm. And many hundred years before that, it was translated and read in the Saxons' tongue, which at that time was our mother's tongue : whereof there remaineth yet divers copies, found lately in old abbeys, of such antique manners of writing and speaking, that few men now been able to read and understand them. And when this language waxed old and out of common usage because folk should not lack the fruit of reading, it was again translated into the newer language, whereof yet also many copies remain, and be daily found." ^ Similar testimony is borne likewise by Fose, who writes^ — " If histories be well examined, we shall find both before the Conquest and after, as well before John Wickliffe was born as since, the whole body of the Scriptures by sundry men translated into this our country tongue."^ Perverted The lawless political principles of Wickliffe, and vernacular the stiU more lawloss ones of his followers, created a strong prejudice against vernacular translations of the Scriptures on the part of the rulers of England both in Church and State. The Bible was quoted in support of rebellion and of the wildest heresy : and even Archbishop Cranmer refers to and con- demns a class of persons who thus "slandered and hindered the Word of God/' in his preface just quoted. We can easily see, now, that the best remedy for 3 Jenkyns' Cranmer, ii. 105. A tlieyear 1260,whenNormanFrenc]i part of a Norman French Bible, was the vemacnlar of the higher beginning with Ezra and ending classes in England. It is an illu- with Micah, exists in the library of minated foho, bound in oak. E.AyshfordSanford,Esq.,atNyne- ^ Eoxe*s Saxon Gospels, Dedi- head Court, Somersetshire. Sir cation. Frederick Madden dates it about EA RL Y ENGLISH BIBLES 505 t]ie evils which thus attended the use of Bibles CHAr translated by private men was the issue of an ^^^^^..^ authorized version. Probably this was contemplated much earher than is commonly supposed, for there is ^p'^^^nV a reference to it even in the Constitution of Arch- ^ei and • T . -I T . -I English bishop Arundel, by which he prohibited the circula- Bibles tion of Wickliffe's translation. This famous Con- stitution is the seventh of thirteen which were set forth by a Provincial Synod of Canterbury, held. at Oxford in 1408. After stating, on the authority of St. Jerome, the risk which was incurred in translat- ing the Bible, lest the sense of the inspired writers should not be really given, it goes on to enact as follows : — " AVe therefore decree and ordain, that from henceforward no unauthorized person shall translate any portion of Holy Scripture into English, or any other language, under any form of book or treatise : neither shall any such book or treatise, or version made either in "Wickliffe's time or since, be read either in whole or in part, pubhcly or privately, under the penalty of the greater excommunication, till the said translation shall be approved eitker by the bishop of the diocese, or if necessary by a provincial council."^ '' Wilkins'Concil.,iii. 317. This long before Wickliffe's days, by constitution has been much misre- virtuous and well learned men presented. It was interpreted by translated into the English tongue, Lyndewood ia the following words. and by good and godly people " Ex hoc quod dicitur * noviter with devotion and soberness well compositxis,' apparet quod lihros, and reverently read :" and "this libeUos, vel tractatus in Anglicis order neither forbad the transla- A'el alio idiomate prius translatos tions to be read that were done of de textu Scripturae legere non est old before Wickliffe's days, nor prohibitum." This was written condemned his because it was new, about A.D. 1430, and the words of but because it was naught." so cautious a lawyer and so learned On another occasion the same a divine as Bishop Lyndewood are learned and well-informed ^-riter clear evidence as to the existence says, " I have shewed you that the of vernacular Bibles earlier than clergy keep no Bibles from the that of Wickliffe. Another great laity that can no more but their lawyer, Sir Thomas More, also mother tongue, but such transla- \vTites : " The whole Bible was, tions as be either not yet approved 506 PRIVATE ENGLISH VERSIONS CHAP From Sir Thomas More's "svords, quoted in a note ^^J^_,^ beloWj it is evident that vernacular Bibles of other translations than that of "VVickliffe were thus autho- rized by bishops^ for the use of laymen and women in their own dioceses, down to the time when the free use of the printing-press, and a new influx of private translators,^ suggested again the necessity of a pro- perly authorized version of the whole of Holy Scripture. Tyndaie's As is Well kuown, Tyndalo's translation of the o?the^^°^New Testament was printed in 1525 at Cologne, umlnT^^ and the first edition obtained some circulation ; but A.D. 1525 the whole of the second edition was bought up by Archbishop Warham, through Tunstal, Bishop of London, in 1529, before it had reached England/ There was much justification for this in the "pro- logues," the " glosses," and the false renderings of Tyndale's translation (the first alone occupying as much space as the translation itself) ; but no doubt Warham was one of those for whom the excuse should be made which Cranmer wrote in his preface to the ^^ Great Bible," "therefore I can well think them worthy pardon, which at the coming abroad of Scrij)ture doubted and drew back." In 1530 Henry VIII. called together an assembly, for good, or such as be already complains of translations made by reproved for naught as Wicklilfe's the Lutheran faction, "instilling was. For as for old ones that were pernicious and scandalous heresies before Wickliffe's days they re- into the minds of the simple, and main, lawful, and be in some folks profaning the hitherto iinsullied hands." " Myself have seen and majesty of the Holy Scriptures by can shew you Bibles fair and old nefarioiis and distorted comments." which have been known and seen [Wilkins' Concil., iii. 706.] by the bishop of the diocese, and ^ He paid £64 9s. 4d. [£800 of left in laymen's hands and women's, modern money] for the copies, and to such as be knew for good and some of the other bishops contri- catholick folk that used it with buted towards the expense. See soberness and devotion.'' Ellis' Orig. Lett., III. ii. 87. ^ In 1526 Archbishop Warltam IN HENRY THE EIGHTH'S REIGN 507 consisting of the two archbishops^ ^^and also a chap sufHcient number of discreet^ virtuous, and well- s.^-^-^ learned personages in divinity, as well of either of ^^^^^^^.^^^ the universities, Oxford and Cambridge, as also Version chosen and taken out of other parts of his realm, ^0.^*^5^30 giving unto them liberty to speak and declare plainly their advices, judgments, and determinations," re- specting books imported from abroad, and containing doctrine contrary to that of the Church of England ; and also as to " the admission and divulgation of the Old and New Testaments translated into English." This commission was called, says the subsequent proclamation, because it had — " Come to the hearing of our said sovereign Lord the King, that report is made by divers and many of his subjects, that it were to all men not only expedient, but also necessary to have in the Enghsh tongue both the New Testament and the Old." It was decided — " By them all, that it is not necessary the said Scripture to Reasons be in the English tongue, and in the hands of the common o°nce mv^ people ; . . . and that having respect to the malignity of this dertaking present time, with the inclination of the people to erroneous ^* opinions, the translation of the !N"ew Testament and the Old into the vulgar tongue of EngHsh should rather be the occasion of continuance or increase of errors among the said people, than any benefit or commodity towards the w^ealth of their souls." But the document continues to the effect that ^^hen the dangers arising from these heretical opinions have passed away — " His Highness intendeth to provide that the Holy Scrip- ture shall be by great, learned, and Catholic persons, translated into the English tongue, if it shall then seem to His Grace convenient to be."^ ** Wilkins' Concil., iiL 740. 508 PROGRESS TOWARDS AN CHAP Immediately after this proclamation Archbishop ,.^_^^^^ Warham set forth a paper stating in detail what had been determined, and the particular errors con- demned in '^The Wicked Mammon/' ^^The Revela- tion of Antichrist/' the "Sum of Scripture/' "The Supplication of Beggars/' and some other books; which end^d with a " bill in English to be published by the preachers/' a kind of homily in which the clergy were made to endorse the royal proclamation. In this are words confirming the intention expressed in the proclamation, as follows : — *' Exhorting and moving you, that in consideration his Highness did there openly say and protest that he -woiild cause the Kew Testament to be by learned men faithfully and purely translated into the English tongue, to the intent he might have it in his hands ready to be given to his people, as he might see their manners and beha-viaur meet, apt, and convenient to receive the same, that ye will so detest these pernicious books, so abhor these heresies," &c. &c. Members Prom this last document and the one preceding it Commis- appears that the commission consisted of — sion of -*- -^ A.D. 1530 Sir Thomas More. Archbishop Warham. „ Lee. Bishop Tunstal. Dr. WiUiam Gardiner. „ Eichard Sampson. „ Eichard Wolman, Master of Eeq^uests. „ John Bell, councillor. „ Nicolas Wilson, the King's confessor. „ Eichard Dorke, Archdeacon of Wiltshire. „ John Oliver. „ Edward Steward. „ Eichard Mawdley. „ WiUiam Mortimer. „ Edward Crome. AUTHORIZED VERSION 509 Mr. Eobert Carter. CHAP „ EdAvard Leighfcoa ^ ,^ Hugh Latimer. „ John Thixtm. „ William Latimer. „ Eoger Tilson. " With many more learned men of the said universities in great number assembled then and there together." ^ The signatures of so many grave and wise men to such a document (not forgetting that Bishop Latimer and his reforming relative, William Latimer; the friend of Bilney, were among them), show that it was promulgated in good faith, under a conviction that at the moment it was desirable to delay the publication of an English authorized version, but that it would be shortly undertaken. The matter was officially revived at the end of the Convoca- tion rGvivGS year 1534, when — on December 19th — Convocation the project presented an address to the King petitioning him to ^'°' ^^^^^ exercise a censorship over the noxious publications which were streaming out from the abundant foun- tain established by the printing-press. They also petitioned him '' that his Majesty would vouchsafe to decree, that the Scriptures should be translated into the vulgar tongue by some honest and learned men, to be nominated by the King, and to be delivered to the people according to their learning."^ Whetlier the King granted this petition is uncertain, but it is known that, with or without the royal license, the Cranmer Archbishop shortly after took measures for comply- the work ing with the earnest wish of the clergy. What ^^^o|g^^^ measures he took are recorded by his secretary, Ralph Morrice : — " Wilkins' ConcU., iii. 737. ^ Ibid., 770. 510 PROGRESS TOWARDS AN CHAP " Eirst, he began with the translation of the New Testa- X ^^,_^.,,^ ment; taldng an old English translation thereof, which he .v.B. 1534 divided into nine or ten parts, causing each part to be written at large in a paper book, and then to be sent to the best learned bishops and others, to the intent that they should make a perfect correction thereof. And when they had done, he required them to send back their parts so corrected unto him at Lambeth, by a day limited for that purpose ; and the same course, no question, he took with the Old Testament."^ As early as June 10, 1535, Gardiner^ Bishop of Winchester, writes to Cromwell that he has trans- lated St. Luke and St. John for his portion of the work, and that he has expended great labour upon them.^ Stokesley, Bishop of London, refused to co- operate, and sent his " paper-book" — the Acts of the Apostles — back to Cranmer, with an uncivil message. With that one exception the bishops all complied with the wishes of Cranmer, and '^when the day came," says Morrice, ^^ every man sent to Lambeth their parts corrected." Cover- The King's proclamation and promise had, how- transiation ^^^^7 tempted private speculators ; and at the very A-iJ- 1535 time the bishops were engaged on their work, an English Bible was being printed abroad from the translation in which Tyndale, Coverdale, and Rogers had each had a share.^ It was published on Octo- ber 4, 1535, with a dedication to the King, and is probably that referred to in one of the Injunctions issued by Cromwell in 1536, which ordered that English there should be provided '^one book of the whole upin^^^ Bible, of the largest volume, in English, and the churches^ Same Set up in some convenient place within the ^ Nicholls' Narratives of the Re- ^ It is almost impossiltle to dis- formation, Camel. Soc, p. 277. tinguish their respective shares. 2 State Papers, i. 430. AUTHORIZED VERSION 511 said Church that ye have care of, whereas your chap parishioners may most commodiously resort to the .^^-^-^ same and read it."^ Another such bookseller s speculation appeared in Matthew's the following year under the name of Thomas a.d.^is37 Matthew, which is suppposed to be an '^ alias" of John Rogers. This was printed by Grafton and "Whit- church, the King's printers, from whose press the Re- formed Breviary also proceeded about the same time. Some letters of Cranmer's are extant, in the first of which he writes to Cromwell to the effect that this is '^ both of a new translation and a new print," and requests the King's license " that the same may be sold and read of every person, \vithout danger of any act, proclamation, or ordinance heretofore granted to the contrary, until such time that we the bishops shall set forth a better translation, which I think will not be till a day after doomsday."^ These rather impatient words do not explain the delay in the publication of the Bishops' translation, but it was probably .under- going repeated revision : and in his sanguine way the Archbishop thought it best to adopt the one ready to hand as one not likely to be improved upon by the bishops. He changed his opinion about this as he did about many other novelties which he was san- guine about at their first appearance. The letter just quoted was written to Cromwell on August 4, 1537. On the 13th the Archbishop wrote another telling Cromwell that he understood his request had been granted;^ and on the 28th he sends him ''the most hearty thanks that any heart can think, and that in the name of them all which favoureth God's Word, for your diligence at this ' WilMiis' Concil., iii. 815. e State Papers, i. 561. ^ JerLkyns' Cranmer, i. 199. 512 PROGRESS TOWARDS AN CHAP time in procuring the King's highness to set forth . •-^ the said God's Word^ and His gospel by his Grace's authority."® Thus the royal license was obtained for placing the first complete edition of the English Bible in churches (for general reading by lay people) in 1536 : and a similar license for allowing the second edition to be BiWe for ^ised without hindrance by every one at their own useinpri homos, in 1537. For a time the result was what vate A.D. 1537 had been anticipated by the great assembly of learned men whom the King had consulted on the subject. So irreverent and factious an use was made of the Bible, that a proclamation was shortly issued de- claring how much the King was disappointed at the way in which many were abusing the privilege. It appears that over-zealous Bible readers were accustomed to interrupt divine service and the cele- Misuseof bration of the Holy Eucharist by shouting out byPuri- chapters of the Bible in ^'loud and high voices/' ^^^^ instead of 'Spraying with peace and silence as good Christian men ought to do ;" and the King enjoins those who wish to read it in the Enoflish tong-ue to read the Bible "quietly and reverently by them- selves secretly at all times and places convenient^ for their own instruction and edification to increase thereby godliness and virtuous living."^ Cromwell's Injunctions of 1536 show that those most favourable to the dissemination of Holy Scripture could not blind themselves to this exhibition of lawless zeal, for while the third Injunction forbids any one to discourage Bible reading, it also exhorts strongly to the avoidance of contention and altercation ;^ so con- ^ Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 200. from Cranmer to Lord Lisle on the ® WiUdns' Concil., iii. 811. same subject in Jenkyns' Cranmer, ^ Ibid., 815. See also a letter i. 284. AUTHORIZED VERSION 513 troversial and irreverent was the spirit of the chap times. «,^^v-^ The facts recorded will show that the experiment ''•^- ^^'^^ was now being made of allowing the Holy Scrip- tureSj as translated by private men^ to be issued under the sanction of the Crown. About twenty-five Great editions of printed English New Testaments were English already in circulation^ and to these were added the ^^i^s^n^' Old Testament, as translated by Coverdale and circulation others. But it was specially enjoined that none should print or circulate any of these^ whether pro- duced abroad or in England, ^'unless the same be first viewed, examined, and admitted by the King's highness, or one of his privy council, or one bishop within the realm, whose names shall be therein expressed."^ Such precautions, however, were soon found to be insufficient to secure a really good version of the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular. These early printed New Testaments and Old Testaments were hasty translations made from secondary sources, instead of the original Hebrew and Greek, and were Private by no means such as would be likely to command the t^ons not confidence of scholars. Coverdale states on his title- ^ortiiy page that his Bible was '^ translated out of Douche and Latyn," that is from Luther's version and the Vulgate : and in his letters he adds the information that his critical scrupulousness had secured the use of five editions of German and Latin Bibles " to help ^ Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 847. printer. It is printed with tlie Among several editions of Tyn- same type and the same orna- dale's New Testament which were mental title-page that were used printed in 1536, there is one small for the " Institution of a Christian folio which was undoubtedly Man." The only copy known is in printed by Berthelet the King^s the Bodleian Library. 2 K 514 '' CRANMERS'' BIBLE CHAP him therein." It is quite clear that such an infini- ^..^.^„^^ tesimal collection of authorities, and those of no A.D. 1538 more weight than the Vulgate and Luther s transla- tioUj would not produce an English version that could be approved of by learned and critical men.^ So much discussion, indeed, arose on the subject, not only among learned and critical men, but among Cranmer's othors also, that Craumer was obliged to indite a ^spectfncT cautionary declaration respecting it, which was issued ignorant ^g ^ Roval Proclamation in 1538, and accompanied contro- , , ■*■ versy by au ordor that it should be read publicly by all the parochial clergy : — " If at any time," this declaration said, " by reading, any doubt shall come to any of you touching the sense and mean- ing of any part thereof; that then, not giving too much to your own minds, fantasies, and opinions, nor having thereof any open reasoning in your open taverns or ale-houses, ye shall have recourse to such learned men as be or shall be authorized to preach and declare the same."* It appears to have become more and more evident for these and similar reasons that a properly autho- rized version must be set forth, which should com- mand the respect of the learned, and offer itself as a trustworthy guide to the ignorant. In April 1539, therefore, a new translation was printed, of which the following is the title : — ^ In Bome editions of Tyndale's sent of him. . . ." Here the -words New Testament there is what must " whether it he nnto the king, as be regarded as a wilful omission of chief head," which appear in other the gravest possible, character, for editions, are altogether left out. it appears in several editions, and Such an error was quite enough has no shadow of justification in justification for the suppression of the Greek or Latin of the passage. Tyndale's translation. [See edd. of It is, in the printing of 1 Peter 1531 and 1534, Douce B. 226, 237, ii. 13, 14, " Submit yourselves unto Bodl. Lib., the first an extremely all manner of ordinance of man rare copy.] for the Lord's sake, whether it be ^ Jenkyns' Cranmer, iv. 272. unto rulers as unto them that are '' CRANMER'S'' BIBLE 515 " The Bible in English, that is to say, the content of all the CHAP Holy Scripture, both of the Old and !N"ew Testament, truly ^ translated after the verity of the Hebrew and Greek texts, by the diligent study of divers excellent learned men, expert in j-iz^ed Ver- the foresaid tongues. Printed by Eichard Grafton and Edward sion of Whitchurch. Cum Privilegio ad imprimendum solum." ^'^^ ^^^^ It cannot be reasonably doubted that the ^^ divers excellent learned men" who made this translation from the Hebrew and Greek texts, were those who had "sent to Lambeth their parts corrected" in 1535. The long interval between then and 1539 was probably occupied in revision of their work ; though, of course, many months must be allowed for that of the printer/ This Bible was reprinted by Edward Whitchurch Reprinted inA. u. in April 1540, with a "prologue" or preface by 1540, with Archbishop Cranmer.^ In this preface Cranmer cranmer^ warns the people against the "inordinate reading, indiscreet speaking, contentious disputing," and "licentious living," by which some did " slander and hinder the Word of God most of all other, whereof they would seem to be greatest furtherers."^ It is thus again made evident that there was much which might make good men shrink and hesitate before they sowed the vernacular scriptures broadcast among the people. It was determined, however, ^^^ }^^^ '^^ fully to supply the parish churches, and several churciaes " St John's College, Cambridge, has on the fly-leaf the following possesses a fine copy of this Bible, inscription : — " This book is pre- printed on vellum, lUnminated, and sented unto your most excellent having Cromwell's arms on the Highness by your loving, faithful, frontispiece. and obedient subject and daily ^ A magnificent copy of this, orator, Anthony Marler of London, also printed on vellum and illu- Haberdasher." minated, is in the British Museum. '' Jenkyns* Cranmer, ii. 104. It is bound in three volumes, and 516 THE " GREA T " BIBLES CHAP printers were employed for the purpose of quick .^^.^.^^^^ multiplication of copies. In the very same month, April 1540, another printed In ^^ition was printed "by Thomas Petyt and Robert A.D. 1540 Redman, for Thomas Berthelet, printer unto the Kings Grace;" and about the same time another edited by Richard Taverner, a student or canon of Cardinal College. In July of the same year appeared another printed by Richard Grafton, and also having on the title-page ^^This is the Bible appointed to the use of the Churches." In November of the same year there was printed by Whitchurch (but not published for some months) another edition " Overseen and perused at the com- mandment of the King's Highness, by the Right Reverend Fathers in God, Cuthbert, Bishop of Duresme, and Nicolas, Bishop of Rochester;" that is, Tunstal and Heath. The title-page of this calls it " The Bible in English of the largest and greatest volume authorized and appointed by the commandnient of our most redoubted Prince and Sovereign Lord King Henry the YIIL, supreme head of this his Church and realm of England: to be frequented and used in every church in this his said realm, according to the tenor of his former injunctions given in that behalf" In May 1541 there was another edition of Cran- mer's volume printed by Whitchurch ; in November of the same year a second edition by Grafton of that "overseen" by Bishops Tunstal and Heath : and in December another edition, also printed by Grafton, of Cranmer's, This large supply of nine editions of " Great," or folio, Bibles (some being nearly identical with others) THE " GREA T'' BIBLES 517 was partly placed in the hands of the " haberdasher/' chap Anthony Marler, referred to in a note on a previous .^^^.^^^ page, who appears to have been what we should now ^•^- ^54i call the "publisher" officially appointed for their sale. At a Privy Council held at Greenwich on April 25, 1541, ''It was aOTeed that Anthony Marler, ofLicensefor sale of London, merchant^ might sell the Bibles of the Great Great Bible unbound for ten shillings sterling ; and fixecTpdce bound, being trimmed with bullions, for twelve shillings sterling:"^ sums equal to £6 and £7 of modern money. But shortly afterwards Marler writes to the council complaining that the books remain unsold, and that he shall be ''undone" if the parishioners are not compelled to provide them- selves with copies of the Bible for use in every parish church in the kingdom.^ A proclamation to this effect was, therefore, issued on May 6, 1541, im- posing a fine on those who failed to comply with the order before November 1st of the same year.^ Cran- cranmer mer, like other learned men, was, however, still dis- forlnlS^ satisfied with the version provided. On January 27, p^^ed 11 1/-^ . translation 1541-2, he addressed the newly-elected Convocation on the general question of reformation, and ended by declaring "that in the translations both of the Old and New Testaments there were many points which required correction, and that it was, therefore, his wish that the prolocutor and clergy should retire to the Lower House, and come to an agreement on the proper method for examining the books mentioned."^ After this the business was vigorously carried on for some weeks, and there seemed good hope that an authorized version of the Scriptures would be pro- ^ Acts of the Privv Council, p. -^ Wilkins* Concil., iii. 856. 181. s Ibid., p. 186. 2 Iljicl., 860. 518 A UTHORIZED VERSION BEG UN CHAP vided such, as would meet all requirements. As soon .^^^s,^ as the Archbishop had committed it to the consideir- i54i*-2 ^^10^ ^f ^^ Lower House of Convocation, he laid it also before the Upper House, taking a vote whether or not the " Great Bible" of the previous year could be retained without scandal to the learning of the Great clergj. It was decided by a majority of the bishops corrected that it should uot be retained, but that it should be examined and amended ^'according to that Bible which is usually read in the English Church," that is, the Yulgate, as it stood in the Sarum Breviary and Missal, where nearly the whole of it was to be found in the Lessons, Gospels, and Epistles, &c.^ Eventually it was decided to distribute the New Testament first among fifteen bishops^ for '' perusal," the Old Testament being put into the hands of the members of the Lower House. Commit- About ten days afterwards, on February 13th, the tees ap- '^ ^ ^ J ^ pointed for Lower Housc of Convocation sent up to the arch- thorough bishop and bishops a list of passages which they revision considered to require better translation : and the Upper House having generally come to a similar conclusion,^ joint committees of the two houses were appointed to consult as to the best means to be 3 It was not until later than Gaiatians -j tjois that the clergy were directed f gmppians'. ! '. r to read Lessons in English during Coiossians ... .) this that the clergy were directed fhiiSpians' ' ' j-^^^lo^' Bp. of St. David's the time of Divine service, though \^\ TiSh ' '\^^^^' ^^' ^^ ^°^°^^*^'' probably the Epistles and Gospels Titus..!T./.^ Iparfew, Bp. of St. Asaph had been so read for some years. Philemon j 4 Fnllpr rnnipd froin thp "RppnTflq 1& 2 Peter Holgate, Bp. ofLlandaff r .1 ^ COpiea irom T;ne Itecoras Hebrews Slcyp, Bp. of Hereford 01 the (convocation (since destroyed) St. James ) the order of distribution : — l,2&;3St.John ^Thirlby, Bp. of Westminster Jude ) "Rpvplntinn i "Wakeman, Bp. of Gloucester St. Matthew. . , .Archbishop Cranmer xvuveiuLion. .. . -^ Chambers, Bp. of Peterbro' St. Mark Longland, Bp. of Lincoln rTr',,!!^^) rw. i tt- i. ■■ ^/^^^ i St. Luke Gardiner, Bp of Winchester lEuJlers Church Hlst., 11. 107, cd. St. John Gooflrich, Bp. of Ely 1837J Actsof ApostlesHeath, Bp. of Rochester 5 f?ic1ini-i OflrflinPT- Tinnflpfl in a Romans Sampson, Bp. of Chichester ,. ^ ^ ^ 5 ^^^ramer nanaea in a i&2CorinthiaiisCapon, Bp. ofSamm iist 01 Latin words which he had A UTHORIZED VERSION BEGUN 519 pursued for a searching examination of the whole chap Enghsh Bible, with a view to improvement of the ..^..^^^ translation. The two committees consisted of the ^^-f- following members :^ — Old Testament Committee. Lee, Archbishop of York. *Goodricli, Bishop of Ely. *Eedmayne, afterwards Master of Trinity College, Cam- bridge. *Taylor, afterwards Bishop of LincoM. *Heynes, „ Dean of Exeter. *Eobertson, „ Dean of Durham. *Cox, „ Bishop of Ely. And others. New Testament Committee. Tunstal, Bishop of Durham. Gardiner, „ Winchester. *Slr7p, „ Hereford. collected, and "whicli he thought tola, Magnifico, Oriena, Subditns, should be transferred into English. Didrachma, Hospitalitas, Episcopus, in their idiomatic form. The Gratia, Charitas, Tyrannus, Con- following is his list ; — " Ecclesia, cnpiscentia, Cisera, Apostolus, Poenitentia, Pontifex, Ancilla, Con- Apostolatus, Egenus, Stater, Soci- tritus, Holocausta, Justitia, Justi- etas, Zizania, Christus, Conversari, iicare, Idiota, Elementa, Baptizare, Profiteer, Impositio manuuni, Ido- Martyr, Adorare, Dignus, Sanda- lolatria, Dominus, Sanctus, Cun- lium, Simplex, Tetrarcha, Sacra- fessio, Imitator, Pascha, Innumer- mentum, Simulacrum, Gloria, Con- abiUs, Inenarrabilis, Infidelis, Paga- flictationes, Ceremonia, Mysterium, nns, Conunilito, Virtutes, Dondna- Eeligio, Spiritus Sanctus, Spiritus, tiones, Throni, Potestates, Hostia." Merces, Confiteor Tibi Pater, Panis [Ibid., p. 108.] It wiU be observed praepositionis, Communio, Perse- that Gardiner's principle was largely verare, Dilectus, Sapientia, Pietas, carried out in our present transla- Presbyter, Lites, Servus, Opera, tion, where many words are kept Sacrificium, Benedictio, Humilis, in a Latin form, as Redeemer, Humilitas, Scientia, Gentilis, Syna- Regeneration, Reconcile, Resurrec- goga, Ejicere, Misericordia, Com- tion, Ascended, "which were pre- placui, Increpare, Distribneretur ferred to the old English Again- orbis, Inculpatxis, Senior, Apoca- buyer, New-birth, At-one-makLag, lypsis, Satisfactio, Contentio, Con- Again-rising, Steighed. scientia, Peccatmn, Peccator, Ido- ^ Wilkins' Concilia, iii. 861. Inm, Prudentia, Prudent er, Para- 520 AUTHORIZED VERSION BEGUN CHAP Heath, Bit3hop of Eocliester. X *Tliirlby „ Westminster, "■^^^^^^ Dr. Wotton, afterwards Dean of Canterbury. 1541-2 * „ Day, afterwards Bishop of Chichester. „ Coren, Archdeacon of Oxford. „ Wilson. „ Leighton. * „ May, Dean of St. Paul's. And others. Compe- These committees contain the names of men ing of thoroughly competent, from their acquaintance with mftte^s^"^ Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and other languages, to undertake the work: and a majority of the divines named (those distinguished by asterisks), were after- wards employed in the translation and revision of the Services for the Book of Common Prayer.^ Henry g^t ^^ labours of thcse learned men were inter- VlII. stops the good rupted before much progress had been made. The ^^"^ King sent a message to Convocation on March 10, 1541-2, by Archbishop Cranmer, to the effect that it was his will and pleasure for the translations of the Scriptures to be submitted to the two universities. The members of the committees represented to Cran- mer that this was highly inexpedient, as the learning of the universities was then at a very low ebb, and the control of everything both at Oxford and Cam- bridge in the hands of young men, whose judgment was not to be relied on for so important an object. Cranmer, however, placed the will of his Sovereign before everything, and this remonstrance had no effect. No steps w^ere taken to appoint translators from the universities, and thus a most promising plan fell to the ground for more than sixty years through ^ See Annotated Book of Common Prayer, p. xxii. ed, 1866. AUTHORIZED VERSION BEGUN 521 the obstructive interference of the King^. The chap Epistles to the Corinthians are known to have been ..^.-^-^ finished, and there can be no doubt that many other ^^-^-^ portions also were in a forward state. What has been narrated will show that the eccle- Persever- siastical rulers and guides of the Church of England Bishops in were fully awake to the importance of providing an ^^^^"s: to •^ _ -L ^ ^ ~ secure a accurate translation of the Holy Bible at an early good trans- period of the Reformation ; that they persevered for - some years in their endeavours to obtain one ; that their matured plans were substantially identical with those afterwards carried out for the production of our present noble authorized version : and that what was done in 1611 by a royal commission must have been done in 1541 by a proper synod of the Church, if it had not been for the weakness of Cranmer in yielding to the interference of Henry the Eighth. The consequence of that interference was that the " Great Bible" of 1539 (well-known to us still by our Prayer Book Psalms) continued to be the authorized version of the Church of England until 1568, when it was superseded by that made under the direction of Archbishop Parker : which was to be superseded in its turn, after forty years, by that since used for two centuries and a half. The history of these later translations must be followed up in subsequent chapters. CnAPTEE XI THE RISE OF PROTESTANT DISSENT CHAP rpHE Reformation of the Church of England was, ^^^I,^-^.^ -L in the main^ effected upon conservative and constitutional principles : and especial care was taken at all times to avoid anything that would break into Prudence the Continuity of its life. This principle did, in fact, tk)n^ot' deeply influence all the official movements of the Re- best Re- formation. All the more solid, learned, and thoue^htful fonners ^ ; ? & reformers said to themselves — " If we break off from the Old Church of England, we cut away the ground from under our feet. We must continue the line of the episcopate, and hand it on unbroken to our descendants ; we must provide a true priesthood the same in every respect as has been provided hitherto ; we must guard the ancient sacraments of the Church, and take care that no essentials shall be wanting to their due administration, recte and ritS, as to princi- ples and ritual ; we must see that whatever changes may be expedient in our Liturgy and other services, nothing is taken away, nothing added, which shall cut them off from the fellowship of primitive offices : we must maintain the creeds intact ; and, whatever special formularies may be needed for our special GROWTH OF AN ANTI-CHURCH PARTY 523 position^ we must in all things be sure that the chap Catholic faith is still held by the Church of England, .^.^-v-,^ Let Rome treat us how she will, be it ours so still to hold our place in the one body of Christ, that we may still claim union with her, and with all living branches of the one true Vine." But there was a large and increasing body ofojJ?ersofa Englishmen in whose eyes such orderly principles class were of no value ; men who knew very little of his- tory or theology, who lived in a narrow circle of present interests, who were not scrupulous as to national or individual honour, who had strong hankerings after novelties, and who, above all, were saturated with self-confidence. These men laid the founda- tions of that sectarian spirit which has been known for three centuries by the names of Protestantism,^ Puritanism, Nonconformity, and Dissent ; and which is, in reality, as strongly antagonistic to the funda- mental principles of the Church of England as to those of the Church of Rome. English Protestants generally trace up their origin wickiiffe to Wickiiffe and the Lollards : and those who over- Refo^rSa- look the orderly character of the Church of England *^^ Reformation identify the two movements and con- sider "Wickiiffe as the father of both. But, as it is remarked by Archdeacon Hardwick, '^the rise, the ^ The name of " Protestant" wag gradually assumed by the extreme originally imported from Germany, opponents of Eome in general. In the year 1529 the Diet of Spires Foxe says that those who were passed a decree forbidding un- called by this name in his day authorized interference with the were in Henry VTII/s time " noted doctrines or worship of the Church, and termed among themselves by and this was protested against by the name of * known-men' or 'just- some of the petty German dukes fast-men"' [Acts and Mon., iv. 213], at the instigation of Luther. These a curious early instance of the and their adherents were called " slang" terms so prevalent at all Protestants, and the name Avas times among them. tion 624 GROWTH OF AN ANTI-CHURCH PARTY CHAP progress, and the final triumphs of the English .^^^..^^ Reformation were not sensibly affected by his prin- ciples."^ The influence of Wicklifie passed away, indeed, at his death^ so far as it was an influence for good. His followers were unworthy to be called religious reformers, their opposition to the estab- lished order of things in the Church being only part of that opposition which they offered to established order in general. But the spirit which had arisen among Wickliffe's followers was never laid : and when the bright light of a true Reformation began to dawn, it was at once obscured by the clouds of sectarianism which were already floating in its pathway. woisey During the time of Wolsey's rule, these rising ^'heretics" oppououts of the Church were so far tolerated that none of them ever suffered severe punishment. They were required to abjure their heresies, and did abjure them readily enough, being, however, quite as ready to take .them up again as they had been to lay them down;^ sometimes they were made to bear faggots in a public procession by way of penance,^ and to wear a faggot embroidered on the sleeve of the coat ; 2 Hardwick's Hist, of the Chris- England during the same time, tian Church during the Keforma- but he is uncertain about some of tion, p. 180, ed. 1865. these, and very vague about all of ^ Those who recanted, or " ab- them. [See Acts & Mon., book vii.] jured," are spoken of as suffering ^ This penance was continued in confessors by Foxe " the Martyr- the time of Edward VI. On Low ologist." A great number recanted Sunday 1549, a man named Champ- (some of fearfully blasphemous neys bore a faggot at the PauPs language) in the immense diocese Cross Sermon, Coverdale being the of Lincoln under Longland : but preacher. On the following Sun- it is singular to observe that even day a Colchester farmer named Foxe could only discover seventeen Putto did the same, repeating the such abjurers during the sixteen penance afterwards at Colchester, years, 1512-1527, in the diocese of [StoVs Chronicle of the Grey London. He reckons about twelve Friars, London, p. 58.] as burnt for heresy throughout THE " CHRISTIAN BRETHREN" 525 in aggravated cases they were put in tlie stocks^ and chap imprisoned. But the character of the Cardinal was ..^.^.^^^ too mild and gentle to impose the penalties which the law enjoined upon them^ and his influence extended so widely that few, if any, authentic cases can be produced in which those penalties were in- flicted with his knowledge or concurrence from the time of his advent to power to that of his fall. As has been said in the second chapter, one charge in the indictment brought against him after his fall was that he had endangered the Christian religion by his extreme leniency towards heretics, and some illustra- tions of that leniency will be found in the same chapter. His tolerance was not that of a good- p^*^}^"*^^ ^^ ■t ^ ^ _ ^ o ^ his toler- natured man indifferent to religion, but the patient ance spirit of a large-hearted one who could bear the revilings of foolish ^'doctrinaires" without retorting upon them with severity ; and who, with all his strong feelings as to orthodoxy, would rather win them from their follies by wise remonstrances than give them a false glare of martyrdom by punishment. And in this he was far in advance of all other men of his age, whether they belonged to the conservative party, as did Sir Thomas More, or to the party of progress, as did Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Latimer. The anti- Church party seems to have possessed organized some degree of organization under the name of '' The Church Christian Brethren," and to have made its first efforts ^^^^^ at proselytism by circulating books in which the principles and practices of the Church of England were strongly denounced. One of its agents obtained a footing at Oxford as early as the year 1527. This was Thomas Garrett, then Curate, and ten years afterwards Eector of All-Hallows, Honey Lane (now 52(\ OXFORD INNOVATORS CHAP united to St. Mary-le-Bow) and formerly Fellow of ,,^^1^..,^ Magdalen. At Easter and Christmas, in the year A.D, 1527 named; he visited Oxford ; and on his second visit he Garrett's ^remained for several weeks^ gathering a number of visit to Ox- the younPf men around him in meetinsfs which were ford with ^ in in- 1 i anti- supposed to be secret, and sellmg them books which boo'kr ^^ had brought with him.^ Wolsey knew of his visit, and did not at first interfere ; but eventually found it necessary, in deference to a letter from Bishop Longland, in whose diocese Oxford was^ to send down commissioners to search for the books, which were forbidden by the King and the Pope.^ It seems, however, that he contrived means for the escape of Garrett, for a warning was given to the latter by Cole, one of the Proctors of the University, who was known to Wolsey and shortly after be- came his cross-bearer. Garrett left Oxford accord- ingly on February 18, 1527-8, but was eventually taken at Bedminster, near Bristol, and carried before Wolsey, who imprisoned him for a time^ and then Coramis- dismissed him after a ready abjuration/ The corn- search for missioners at Oxford (the chief of whom were Dr. Cottesford, Master of Lincoln, Dr. London, Warden sion to search his asso- ciates ^ Stryp^ names the following : — distinguished divines. Strype'sEcc. "Delaber of Alhan Hall ; Clark, Mem., i. 569, ed. 1822. Sumner, Bets, Taverner, Eadley, ^ Ellis' Grig. Lett, III. ii. 77. Frith, Cox, Drum and others, of '' Either he got into trouble St. Frideswide's, or the Cardinal's again, or his rector was also impli- CoUege, now Christ's Church ; cated : for John Whalley writes Udal and Diet and others of Corpus to Cromwell in 1529, "As touching Christi; Eden of Magdalen College; the Prior of Reading, one of the others of Gloster College ; two prisoners in the Tower, within monksof St. Austin's of Canterbury, three days after your Mastership named Lungport ; and John Salis- departed, was removed from Fryth bury of St. Edmund's Bury ; two and his fellows into Beauchamp white monks of Bernard College ; Tower, accompanied with the par- two canons of St. Mary's College, so7h of Hoiiey Lane, ajid Chvistofhex one whereof was Robert Farrar, Coo, to he converted" Ellis' Orig. afterwards a bishop and a martyr ; Lett., IIL ii. 163. and divers more." None bcaime CAMBRIDGE INNOVATORS 527 of New College — a visitor of the monasteries after- chap wards — and Dr. Higdon, Dean of St. Frideswide) .^...^-,^ proceeded with their search, and discovering a num- ber of young men, as already stated, who had bought Garrett's books, and more or less sympathized with their contents, they caused them to bear faggots at Oxford, and there the matter ended.® Some four years before this, a theological party of The much greater importance was forming at Cambridge, H^^^e"^ the members of which, says Strype, "flocked to- ^^i^ines of ,•,-1111. Cambridge getner m open streets, m the schools, and at sermons a.d. 1523 iu St. Mary's and at St. Austin's, and at other disputations." The names given by him are those of Dr. Barnes, Stafford, a divinity reader, Bilney, Latimer, Dr. Thixtel, Thomas Allen, of Pembroke, Dr. Farman, President of Queen s, Mr. Took, Mr. Loude, of Bennet, Mr. Cambridge, Field, Colman, Coverdale, Bachelors of Divinity, Parnel, of St. Austin s, Thomas Arthur, Dr. Warner, Segar Nichol- son, Eodolph Bradford, of King's, and Dr. Smith, Fellow of Trinity Hall. "These, and a great many more, met often at a house called the White Horse, to confer together with others, in mockery called Germans, because they conversed much in the books of the divines of Germany brought thence. This house was chosen because those of King's Col- lege, Queen's College, and St. John's might come in at the back-side, and so be the more private and undiscovered."^ At the time this party was first _ ^ There is a long-winded narra- talked loudly about " the. Truth.'' tive of these transactions in Foxe, He escaped all punishment and written by one Anthony Delaber. was living in 1562. From his own account he was a ^ Strype's Ecc. Mem., i. 568, ed. very -unscrupulous undergraduate, 1822. who set no value on traXh though he 528 LAJ4^S AGAINST HERESY CHAP forming at Cambridge, in the year 1523, Wolsey had ^.^.^^^^^^ refused to interfere when his legatine authority was A.D. 1527 invoked, the refusal being made the forty-third charge in his indictment seven years afterwards. But when Oxford was called to account, it was necessary also to take some steps respecting Cam- Woisey's bridge. Bilney and Arthur were accordingly towardJ summoned before the Cardinal and his synod at va?olr°" Westminster, on November 27, 1527, when both of them readily abjured, and were dismissed, doubtless with an admonition as to future conduct. Barnes was also brought before the Cardinal, as has been before narrated. Latimer too was summoned, but dismissed by Wolsey with very kindly words and a general preaching license, which gave him authority to preach in any part of England. Such was the character of the ^^ persecution"^ which the anti- Church party underwent at the hands of Wolsey. Some who escaped so easily then, received a very different treatment afterwards at the hands of others. Severe en- Yox after the influence of Wolsey had passed away, of heresy the laws against heresy began to be enforced with Woisey's great rigour, such as had, indeed, never been used successors before, a severity which continued in force for a third of a century, and gives a miserable character to the period. History of ^ short historv of these laws will not be unaccept- neresylaws -y -y -y tip • able to the reader before entering upon the account of their practical application and subsequent modi- fication in the last twenty years of the reign of Henry VIII. The correction of misbelievers was originally part = Woisey's persecution." — Fronde's Hist. Eng., i. 71. LA WS AGAINST HERESY 529 of the ordinary jurisdiction of every bishop : and it chap remained on this footing by the common law of Eng- .^^.^^^^ land until the year 1381. The punishments awarded were mostly of a spiritual nature, penance and excom- '^^f^^J munication ; but penance mostly included some against bodily infliction, and excommunication entailed civil ^^^^^ pains and penalties. In very serious cases of heresy, the bishops appear to have made a practice of carry- ing them from their own jurisdiction to that of a provincial synod :^ as was done in the notorious cases of Sawtrey, Badby, and Barton, in the years 1400^ 1409, and 1416, and of Latimer in 1530. The dreadful sentence of burning alive was for- Punish- merly a familiar one, being always passed on men tliming for certain unnatural crimes, and on women for all capital crimes, down to the year 1790.^ Blackstone says, however, that " the humanity of the English nation has authorized, by a tacit consent, an almost general mitigation of such parts of these judgments as savour of cruelty, . . . there being very few instances (and those accidental or by negligence) of any person being embowelled or burned till pre- viously deprived of sensation by strangling."^ This mode of punishment was first adopted for heresy in Spain, in the time, and (as is commonly alleged) by the instigation of the founder of the Dominican order, who died a.d. 1221. The third of the Constitutions of Innocent III. (commonly called the Canons of the fourth Council of Lateran, a.d. 1216) decrees that ^ See Bishop Gibson's elaborate cribed by an eyewitness in Notes note on 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15, in Tit. and Queries, 1st Series, ii. 260. xvi. cap Ij of bis Codex Juris Ecc. Deatb by banging was substituted Anglican. by 30 Geo. III. cap. 48. See also the The last female criminal was Anniial Register for 1789, p. 203. burned, for coining, on March 18, ^ Blackstone's Comment., Book 1789, and the execution is des- IV. ch. xxix. 2 L 530 LAIVS AGAINST HERESY CHAP convicted heretics shall be given up for punishment ,^^_^.,^ to the secular arm^ and burning was undoubtedly- introduced about that time as the recognised punish- ment to be awarded. But in England no person is known to have been burned for heresy before the beginning of the fifteenth century^ that of the priest Sawtrey being the first on record : nor does any severe bodily punish- ment appear to have been inflicted until about twenty years before that date^ when the first statute on the subject was passed by a parliament held in the fifth year of Richard the Second.^ First This Act of Parliament [5 Rich. II. cap. 51 was statute . . i- J against levelled against unlicensed preachers, who, without A^r)^*^i38i sufficient authority, were accustomed to preach in markets, fairs, and other public places, as well as in churches and churchyards, their sermons ^^contain- ing heresies and notorious errors to the great em- blemishing of the Christian faith, and destruction of the laws and of the estate of Holy Church, to the great peril of the souls of the people, and of all the realm of England." These preachers are charged with engendering "discord and dissension between divers estates of the said realm, as well spiritual as temporal, in exciting the people, to the great peril of all the realm." And, since they will not obey the summons or commandment of the ordinaries, '^nor care for their monitions, nor censures of the Holy Church, but expressly despise them/' it is enacted that sheriffs and other officers of the King shall arrest such preachers as are proceeded against in ® The common idea that this proved by Bp. Gibson : Codex, act never received the assent of Tit. xvi. cap. 1. the House of Commons is dis- LAIVS AGAINST HERESY 531 Chancery by the bishops, and shall *^hold them in chap arrest and strong prison, till they will justify them ^^^^...^^^ according to the law and reason of Holy Church." The effect of this Act was that when a bishop laid an information in Chancery against any of these seditious preachers, the chancellor issued his warrant to the sheriff, who took the accused into custody, and kept him until judgment was passed after a proper legal trial. Another Act of a similar kind, but much more statute for severe, was passed in the year 1400. This is theher^t^iJI famous Statute de hcereticis comhurendis [2 Hen. ^-^-'^oo IV. cap. 15], by which the English Parliament, not the English Church, introduced into our country the punishment of burning heretics. The preamble of the Act charges the unauthorized preachers with making unlawful conventicles and confederacies, holding schools and writing books in which " they do wickedly instruct and inform people, and, as much as they may, excite and stir them to sedition and insurrection," with subverting the Catholic faith, diminishmg God's honour in the land, and destroying 'Hhe estate, rights, and liberties of the Church of England." It repeats the declaration of the previous Act that the authority of the bishops is set aside and despised. It then enacts that none shall preach without his bishop s license except in their own churches ; that none shall teach or write, either in churches, schools, or conventicles, anything contrary to the Catholic faith; that all existing books of an heretical nature shall be delivered up to the diocesans within forty days, under pain of imprisonment : and that any person convicted of teaching such errors may be imprisoned at the dis- 532 LA WS AGAINST HERESY CHAP cretion of tlie bishop, as well as fined by a secular ,^^^^^ court. Finally, it enacts that obstinate heretics who refuse to renounce their heresies shall be given up by the bishop to the mayor or sheriff of the place or county, who " them shall receive : and them before the people in an high place do to be burnt, that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others," &c. &c. diafdr^^ In the following reign, another Act was passed D. 1414 [2 Hen. Y. cap. 7] for the reformation of heresy and LoUardy, in which the statements of the last are repeated, with the addition that the Lollards and heretics had combined for the destruction of the King.® This Act imposed an oath on all judges, sheriffs, and officers of the King to extirpate LoUardy to the utmost of their power :^ and declared the ^ The Advanced ■ Republicanism of the age preceding the Reforma- tion (considering how it slumbered afterwards) is very surprising. Lord Cobhara, known also as Sir John Oldca^tli.', was a companion of Henry V. in his boisterous youth, and though known among Protes- tants as an early Protestant martyr, seems to have been the original of the profligate characters introduced into plays under his name long before the time of Shakespeare, and by the great dramatist himself in Henry V. [though for some reason he altered Oldcastle to Falstaff in the later representations and edi- tions of the play. (See Collier's Shakespeare, Introduc. to Henry IV.) But traces of the former name yet remain, esj. when Prince Henry calls Sir John 'my oldj lad of the caBilo' (I. ii.)l. On his mar- riage with Lady Cobham he took up the line of opposition to his sovereign which her previous hus- band had taken towards Richard II. Whether he was ever reaUy religious or not is far from clear. Immediately on the ascension of Henry V., Lord Cobham endea- voured to make the LoUardism of the (^ay a stepping-stone to the advancement of his own ambition, probably thinking (as his prototype Sir John Falstaff"e is represented as thinking) that Henry was a weak youth, and might easily be set aside. Cobham's ambition must have been large, for he contem- plated nothing less than a sort of Red Republic with himself for its bead. He caused anonymous papers to be posted on the doors of the London churches, in which it was declared that if any revival of the laws against heresy took place under the new reign (invent- ing the report that such a revival was intended), 100,000 men would rise in rebellion against such a mea- sure. It is this movement which is referred to in the preamble cited. '^ This oath was continued until the reign of Charles L, when Sir Edward Coke refusing to take it as sheriff of Buckingham, the judges decided that it had become obsolete. LAWS AGAINST HERESY 533 goods of all convicted heretics to be forfeited to the xi Crown. This was the last Act on the subject until "-^ — ^^^ the year 1533, and the only addition to the ordinary course of law during the interval was in the earlier part of the reign of Henry VIII., when, on October 20, 1521, ho issued a proclamation to mayors, sheriffs, &c., requiring them to assist Bishop Long- land in extirpating the ^^ no small number of heretics," for. which the diocese of Lincoln was at that time distinguished.^ Of the leniency with which the laws against heretics were administered under the rule of Car- dinal Wolsey enough has been said already. It may, however, be added, that there is no sound evidence of their severe administration at any time until after his fall, the stories given by Foxe being generally reducible to evidence of the weakest and most untrustworthy character that is possible. In the year 1529 the House of Commons, always House of on the side of severity at this time, gave a neWonhSes"^ impulse to the execution of the laws under review. ^'^' ^^^^ In their memorial to the King against the ordin- aries, their first complaint is that the laws against new fantastical and erroneous opinions grown by occasion of frantic seditious books compiled, im- printed, published, and made in the English tongue, contrary and against the true Catholic and Christian faith," are badly administered by them, and require more strict laws to be made. That there certainly was some unwillingness to press them closely is evident from their reply : — " Item where they desire that by assent of your Highness (if the laws heretofore made be not sufficient for the repression " Wilkins' Concil., iii. 698. a 534 BILNEY CHAP of lieresy) more dreadful and terrible laws may be made ; tiis ^l we think is undoubtedly a more charitable request than as we trust necessary, considering that by the aid of your Highness, and the pains of your G-race's statutes freely executed, your realm may be in short time clean purged from the few small dregs that do remain, if any do remain." It is not unlikely that Sir Thomas More had some hand in this memorial, and his severity to- wards heretics is evident not only from doubtful records of his acts but from his words that he had been '^ troublesome to heretics,"^ and from the in- scription composed with his own hand for his tomb at Chelsea, ^^furibus autem et homicidis, hereticis- que^ molestus." " He so hated this kind of men/' his son records, " that he would be the sorest enemy that they could have, if they would not repent." The first of those who, suffered under the aroused energy of the law was Bilney, who had been in con- ^531 troversy with Sir Thomas More, and had recanted under Wolsey's wise guidance in 1527. He was an eccentric, melancholy man, and it is specially re- corded of him that he had an unconquerable aver- sion to music. Latimer says respecting him and his recantation, — " I knew a man myself, Bilney, httle Bilney, that blessed martyr of God, who, what time he had borne his faggot, and was come agaia to Cambridge, had such conflicts within hin- self (beholdiag this image of death) that his friends were afraid to let him be alone. They were fain to be with him day and night, and comfort hun as they could, but no comfort would serve. And as for the comfortable places of Scripture, to bring them unto him, it was as though a man should run him through with a sword." ^ ^ More's Life of More, p. 211. ^ Latimer's Sermons, i. 200. He ^ This word was not engraved mentions other cases of despondency on the stone, a blank space being which seem like Bilney's to have left for it. been caused by ill-balanced minds BAYFIELD 535 This depression so worked upon his mind that at chap the end of two years he went into Norfolk (pro- .^.^.^^-.^ fanely comparing himself to our Lord " setting His face to go up to Jerusalem")^ and by ostentatious preaching against the Church and equally ostenta- tious circulation of books forbidden by law, he brought down upon himself the necessary conse- quences of such acts. He was apprehended, and being condemned as a relapsed heretiC; suffered the penalty of the law at Norwich^ on August 31, 1531.^ It is a pleasing feature in the otherwise painful scene of his death that the monks and clergy came around him, and that they exchanged affec- tionate words with him to the last, Bilney telling the crowd that they were not the cause of his death. They had, in fact, no differences of opinion, Bilney bringing about his condemnation and death by a kind of recklessness in sowing religious discontent and sedition, which came within the then current definition of heresy. The same cause led to the same fate Bayfield, a The monk monk of Bury St. Edmund's, who was burned in bumed for Smithfield at the end of November 1531. He had^'Hsai been a very busy disseminator of such ribald books as Tyndale's \ and although it is convenient for party historians to class all such books with ''Tyn- dwelling too much upon the points destination in a Bible lying open of palyinistic controversy now before him. Of course Poxe sug- getting into popular notice. Foxe gests that the young man was mentions a similar case of religious hanged by his tutor ! [Acts and suicidal mania, that of his own Mon., iv. 694, ed. 1837.] relative _ John Randallj a scholar ^ This is the date given by of Christ's College, Cambridge, Collier from the Norwich register, who hanged himself in his cham- Foxe says it was the day after St. her, and when found had his dead Magnus' day, which would be finger still pointing, and his face August 20th, turned, towards a passage on Pre- 536 BAIN HAM, FRITH, AND HEWETT CHAP dale's New Testament/' they were works which .^^,^-^,^ deserved to be forbidden in the then state of re- ligious opinion^ leading as much to sedition as to novelty in religion. Bainham ^ third instanco of the same kind was that of burned for heresy Jamos Bainham^ a barrister of the Middle Temple, whose association with the extreme members- of the anti-Church party is shown by the fact of his mar- riage to the widow of Simon Fish, who had written and published the vile and slanderous libel which is known as the '^ Supplication of the Beggars." He also was burnt as a relapsed heretic in Smithfield, on April 30, 1532. Frith and Another notorious case is that of John Frith, a Hewett , Till P r-\ • burned for young priost who had been brought from Cambridge rD!T533 to Oxford by Wolsey on account of his promise as a scholar. He was involved in the affair of Garrett and Delaber^ but was released from confinement on condition of not going ten miles from Oxford. Frith, however, broke this condition, and went abroad, w^here he remained for two years. He was in some way connected with the Prior of Reading, having been imprisoned with him in the Tower in 1527. On his return from abroad Frith is first heard of as being put in the stocks at Reading under the hard vagrant laws described in a former page. Eventually he was again apprehended and sent to the Tower : and after much controversy between him and Sir Thomas More, he was re- quired to justify his opinions before Archbishop Cranmer, and afterwards before a commission ap- pointed by the King. Archbishop Cranmer writes about him in the following cold-blooded style in a gossipping letter to Archdeacon Hawkins^ — JOHN LAMBERT, ALIAS NICHOLSON 53T "Other news have we none notable, but that one Frith, cHAP which was in the Tower in prison, was appointed by the ^^ King's Grace to be examined before me, my Lord of London, my Lord of Winchester, my Lord of Suffolk, my Lord Chan- cellor" [Audley], " and my Lord of Wiltshire, whose opinion was so notably erroneous that we could not despatch him, but was fain to leave him to the determination of his ordinary, which is the Bishop of London. His said opinion is of such a nature, that he thought it not necessary to be believed as an article of our faith, that there is the very corporal presence of Christ within the host and sacrament of the altar; and holdeth of this point most after the opinion of CEcolampadius. And surely I myself sent for him three or four times to per- suade him to leave that his imagination ; but for all that we could do therein, he would not apply to any counsel. Not- withstanding, now he is at a final end with all examinations, for my Lord of London hath given sentence, and delivered him to the secular power, where he looketh every day to go unto the fire. And there is also condemned with him one Andrew" [Hewett] "a tailor" ['s apprentice] "of London, for the self-same opinion."^ Both Frith, and Hewett were burned a few days afterwards, on July 4, 1533, in Smithfield. Two other such victims of the cruel Statute de hcereticis comhurendis in this reign will be men- tioned, though they suffered at a later date, as they add further illustration with respect to the character of the anti-Church party. The first is John Lambert, alias Nicholson, who Lambert was burned in Smithfield in the year 1538. This for'heresy Lambert was a friend of Bilney, being a young ^■^* '538 priest of Cambridge. He had been in prison under Archbishop Warham, and had shown a wonderfully contentious and self-conceited spirit in the contro- ^ Jenkyns' Craiimer, i. 32. Frith himself -was the son of a tavern- keeper at Sevenoaka. 538 ANNE ASKEW S STORY CHAP versy which had arisen out of that imprisonment. ^^.^-^^^^ Being set free he voluntarily gave up all clergy- man s work and wandered about on the Continent. Returning to England he took pupils, but could not keep them, and thus they not keeping him he turned grocer. In 1538 his old odium theologicum was revived by a sermon which he heard preached by Dr. Rowland Taylor, who, with Dr. Barnes, informed the Archbishop of Lambert's heretical opinions.^ Cranmer tried to reclaim Lambert, but the young priest was far too self-opinionated to yield to argument. He wrote a book on the subject of the Eucharist, which he sent to the King, and this led to the public trial before Henry in person. His opinions were simply those held by modern anti-Sacramentarians, and were, of course, intoler- able to the King. Lambert was sentenced to death by Cromwell in the presence of the King, Cranmer, and the court, and suffered shortly afterwards. Anne ^lie other victim to be mentioned is the lady burned kuowu as Anuo Askew, who was .burned in the year A.D. 154 Y5iQ, at the close of Henrys reign. She was the daughter of Sir William Askew or Ayscough of South Kelsey, in Lincolnshire. Although always spoken of by her maiden name she was, in reality, the wife of a country squire named Kyme, whom and her two children she deserted, and whose name she dropped. Her sister had previously been married to him, so that the whole business was one of a disgraceful character^ which no party apologies can make respectable. When brought before the Council this was the Taylor, Barnes, and Cranmer were all afterwards put to death in the same manner as Lambert. ANNE ASKEW S STORY 539 XI first matter about which she was questioned. She chap dechned — as these people almost always did — to , give a straightforward answer, but told the Chan- cellor that he already knew her mind on the subject. On further demands for her explanation of such conduct, she said that she would explain to the King ; and when told that the King could not be personally troubled with her cause — a most reason- able reply — she quoted Scripture about the wisest king hearing two poor women, &c. &c. In the register of the Privy Council this examination is recorded as follows : — "At Greenwich, June 19tli, 1546. — Thomas Keyme; of Lincolnsliire, who had married one Anne Ascne; called hither, and likewise his wife, who refused him to be her husband without any honest allegation, was appointed to return to his country till he should be eftesoones sent for, and for that she was very obstinate and heady in reasoning of matters of rehgion wherein she showed herself to be of a naughty opinion. Seeing no persuasion of good reason could take place, she was sent to Newgate to remain there to answer to the law. like as also one [Christopher] White, who attempted to make an erroneous book, was sent to Newgate, after debating with him of the matter, who showed himself of a wrong opinion con- cerning the blessed sacrament." Mrs. Kyme^ alias Askew^ seems to have had secret comnrunications with Queen Catherine Parr, the Duchess of Suflfolk (Catherine Baroness Wil- loughby d'Eresby, not the King s sister), the Coun- tess of Sussex (herself also separated from her husband, and charged with endeavouring to marry Sir Edmund Knyvett while her husband was liv- ing)/ the Duchess of Somerset, and other ladies of * Id. Edward VI/s reign (1552) prisoned with Anne Hartlepool on this (Jountess of Sussex was im- a charge of sorcery and of asserting 540 ANNE ASKEW S STORY CHAP tlie court. These communications she deniedj but ^^_^,^ Henry VIII. had evidence of them, and supposing them to be of a treasonable nature, had her examined (some say with torture, but on no very good evi- dence)" in the Tower, for the purpose of eUciting all she knew on the subject. There was, no doubt, something mysterious about Queen Catherine Parr's conduct towards the close of Henry's life, and that astute head of hers may have been scheming to countermine by some plot Henry's usual treatment of his wives. Whether Anne Askew was really guilty of the treason alleged against her, it is impossible to say certainly. By dragging in her religious opinions, which were Anabaptist, she diverted in some degree the charge of treason, and acquired a claim to the veneration of those who then and afterwards craned up all the misbelievers of this period to the dignity of witnesses for the truth. She was burned in Smith- field, in June 1546, with John Lascelles,® a gentle- man of the court, and two others. Extreme In Considering these cases of execution for alleged ^nry ° heresy it must be remembered that they took place VIII. in {^ j^Q^^ pg^rt of Kin2f Henry VIII/s reim which was these years .■•- ® , ^^ . , . t otherwise so fearfully stained with judicial slaughter. Foxe narrates twenty-six such executions between 1533 and 1546. During those thirteen years the King sent to the scaffold an infinite number of the that a son of Edward IV. was yet ? See it summed up in NidioUs' living, [See State Papers, Edward Narratives of tlie Reformation, VI., Dom. xiv. 33.] Philpot speaks pp. 303-309. of Anne Hartlepool as harbouring ^ This name is mixed up witfi Anne Askew in her house, and as the proceedings in the Privj Coun- herself giving a good and godly oil against Queen Catherine How- example, but falling from the sin- ard. cerity of the Gospel. CHARACTER OF SO-CALLED MARTYRS 541 nobility, clergy, country gentry, and persons of all chap other classes. His own queens, Sir Thomas More, ^.^-^^^ Bishop Fisher, Cromwell, the good old Abbot of Glastonbury, all the other victims of the Dissolu- tion, all those of the Pilgrimage of Grace ; these, and a vast number of others, were all sacrificed, justly or unjustly, during this time : and thus, even the burning of twenty-six ^'heretics" was but one pain- ful episode among many of this fearful slaughter. The instances given above are those of the persons The "mar- about whom most is known ; and they have been loveabie or given for the purpose of showing what kind of^^"^^^'^^^ persons they were who set themselves up in opposi- tion to the Church and its authorities. The his- torian, however much he may try to be impartial, is tempted to write tenderly about them because of their piteous fate, or rather because of the manner of it. But dissociated from this, there is little to love, or to respect in the so-called '^martyrs" of this reign. They were harsh, ungentle persons \ disloyal to all that Englishmen loved and venerated; contentious to the last degree ; strong partizans in religion, but giv- ing evidence of little practical holiness : and, in short, persons who, if they had not suifered the cruel deaths they did, would have had no claims to the respect or sympathy of posterity. All that can be said in their favour is that they were among the best of their party, and that wrongheaded as they were, nothing which we should now call criminal was alleged against them. They were representatives of the anti- Church party, and circumstances brought forward some of the least odious of that party to represent it.^ ^ A prominent memlter of the Master of Eton. He wag made party was Nicolas Udal, Head- Canon of Windsor and Rector of 542 LEGISLATION OF HENRY VIII CHAP As to tlie actual principles of the anti-Churcli ^^^.^^ party sometliing more must be said further on. It is sufficient now to remark that they fully justified the name here given to them by the abusive terms in which they almost invariably spoke of the doctrines and government of the Church of England, and by the continual and virulent hostility which they exhibited towards it. Altera- The laws against heresy underwent some modifi- heresy catious (as was mentioned in the beginning of this chapter) during the latter years of Henry VIII/s reign. Until the year 1533, they continued on the footing on which they had been left by the Act [2 Hen. V. cap. 7] passed in 1414. But at the time when Henry VIII. was remodelling the laws which were associated with the Pope's jurisdiction, he caused the original Statute de hcereticis comhurendis to be repealed and a new one to be passed through Parlia- ment. This new Statute [25 Hen. VIII. cap. 14] of the year 1533, confirmed those of 1382 and 1414, and re-enacted the punishment of burning. The preamble seems to intimate an intention of softening CollDorne, and otherwise preferred have been an accomplice in the in the reign of Edward VI., and robbery. The youth was bailed was a leading man among the off by his father, but a few months exiles at Frankfort, Yet the Acts afterwards actually accused that of the Privy Council show beyond father to the Privy Council of trea- doubt that he had been deprived son ! On examination the charge of his mastership at Eton in March proved to be founded on the fact 1541 for unmentionable crimes of of Sir Thomas Cheyney having the worst possible kind, which he images in his chapel; and it is sat- had acknowledged. Thomas Chey- isfactory toread of the young vUlain ney, the scholar with whom his and would-be parricide — " For that name is associated, was also con- it was thought this accusation pro- victed of stealing ** certain images ceeded rather of pride than of any of silver and other plate" belong- just matter, for an example he was ing to the College chapel, which committed to the Tower." he had sold to a London gold- These facts are drawn from the smith named William Emlar : Acts of the Privy CounciL, pp. 152, and Udal was all but proved to 153, 273. RESPECTING HERESY 543 the law respecting heretics, and in the fashion of the chap times accuses the ordinaries of having entangled ^^...^-^^ men by "captious interrogatories:" declaring also that heresy had never been defined by Statute, and that many things were declared heresy as being against canons of the Church which were only human laws. The only attempt at definition in this Pretence Act is, however, of a negative kind, the sixth tion^^ ^^^ clause declaring that it shall no longer be heresy to speak against the power of the Bishop of Rome. Certainly no one had ever been hurned for speaking against the Bishop of Rome hitherto, so that no practical amelioration of the law was introduced. Nor indeed was the effect of this Act of 1533 at all of an ameliorating character, for- it much enlarged the class of informers, reducing the qualification of such persons from an income of 100 shillings a year to an income of 40 shillings a year, and much facilitating the legal process by which the informers were to carry their charges against heretics before the ordinaries. It may well be doubted whether this Statute had any other object than that of strengthen- ing the King s hands against the Pope : and the merciful intentions which seem to be implied in the preamble are altogether missed in the enacting clauses. The "Act of the Six Articles" [31 Hen. VIII, Heresy cap. 14] was passed in the year 1539, and was the fine/by strictest law ever passed respecting Protestant Dis- ''^'^^'^^^ senters.^ So much has been said about this in the eighth Chapter of this volume, that it is not neces- sary to go into details respecting it here. It may be repeated, however, that it was the first Statute It was somewhat modified by 35 Hen. VIII. cap. 5. 544 LEGISLA TION OF HENR Y VIIL CHAP that really attempted to define what the law meant ^^^^^^J^^by heresy, and that it imposed the punishment of burning as strictly as previous Acts. It was an Act with which the bishops had no sympathy^ and when the House of Commons wished to reimpose it in Queen Mary's reign, their endeavours were defeated by the House of Lords under episcopal influence. This Act was never^ therefore, enforced with any strictness proportionate to its terms ; and of the persons who suffered for their Protestantism during the remaining eight years of Henry's hfe (about twenty -six in number) scarcely any, if any, can be proved to have suffered under it.^ Three years later, in 1542-3, the last Act of Henry VIII. against heretics was passed [34 & 35 Hen. VIII. cap. 1], under the title of a Statute "for the advancement of the true religion, and for the abolishment of the contrary." Its preamble states that great error and blindness in religion still con- tinue, notwithstanding the doctrines set forth by the King, and the liberty allowed as to the reading of the Bible : that the latter is perverted by false expositions, and thus fresh schisms originated, 'Ho the great inquietation of his Majesty's people, the great displeasure of his Majesty, and contrary to his true meaning and purpose," in permitting the free circulation of Holy Scripture. It forbids Tyndale's translation and other prohibited books, and requires that the annotations shall be blotted out from all other Bibles and New Testaments.^ It also forbids ^ Lord Herbert says persons Acts of a similar kind, during the suffered under it daily. He had whole time it was in force, "whicli no authority but Foxe, and Foxe was about three thousand days, only records twenty-eigilt sufferers ^ There is a special clause ex- attheutmostjUnderattainderandall eluding from the operation of this PRINCIPLES OF ANTI^CHURCH PARTY 545 any unlicensed person to read Scriptures allowed in chap the churches/ and the lower orders having so much .^^..^.^^ abused the privilege of reading them in private^ are no longer allowed it except under a license from the King. Such was the legislation of this period respecting irreligious those who dissented from the established Church, ofiegis- It was a clumsy legislation^ which utterly failed to agab!st prevent the spread of dissent ; and it deserved to heretics fail, for from beginning to end the first principle of it was to uphold the established religion of the country, because it was the religion of the King, and the religion which the King commanded his subjects to believe and observe. From beginning to end there is scarcely a trace of interest in that religion as the truth of God : and these Acts of Parliament respecting it were rather a defence of Tudor tyranny than of the Church of England. Returning to the history of the Dissenters them- indefinite selves, it may be observed that, in the earlier part of of th^anti- the period under review, there was little among them ^^^"""^ of anything like positive theology. They began with disbelieving everything, or nearly everything, that was asserted by the Church, and the orthodox party found it difficult to distinguish this '■ negative theology " from positive infidelity. Luther's writings had some influence upon the least extreme and least ignorant of the schismatics, the Augsburg Confession Act, the King's Injunctions, &c. to be prefixed to every printed Translations of the Pater Noster, work. Ave Maria and Creed, Psalters, ^ The Lord Chancellor, generals, Primers, Prayers, Statutes and laws and other officials are permitted to of the realm, " Chronicles, Canter- read it in their speeches, &c., the bury Tales, Chaucer's bookSjGower's gentry to their families, and mer- book, and stories of men's lives," chants to themselves. and requiring the printer's name 2 M 540 PRINCIPLES OF ANTI^CHURCH PARTY CHAP of 1530 offered the more learned some standpoints ^^,.^^3-^ fc)^ ^ system^ and Calvin's Institutes^ published in 1536, still more formalized their ideas towards the establishment of an anti- Church theology. But what they called '^the Gospel" was at the best a cloudy^ ill-defined budget of negations by which they reduced the doctrines of the Sacraments and of the ministry to nothing, and substituted in their place tedious verbosities about faith and election, out of which little or no practical meaning could be drawn. The marvellous facility which the anti-Church party possessed of saying much about nothing — a facility ever since conspicuous among Scotch Presbyterians and English Dissenters — earned for them a credit for learning among the uncritical and the ignorant : while their outrageous and unscrupulous spirit of self-assertion was a trick that demagogues have always found successful. They were also great adepts at abuse, every priest was called ^^ a Judas," every bishop "an Antichrist," every one who de- clined to side with them a "fleshly-minded hypo- crite;" and the foulest language that filthy imagi- nations could invent was heaped upon the opponents of " the Gospel" by them in the same breath with unc- tuous commendation of themselves and their friends. Tyndaie The leading spirit of this early anti- Church party tenets was William Tyndaie, and he may be very fairly taken as a type of the class. To the popular imagi- nation Tyndaie is a martyr who was burned at the stake for daring to translate the New Testament into English, in which language it is supposed to have been hitherto altogether unknown. In the pre- ceding chapter it has been shown that English Bibles were very far from being unknown at any time since WILLIAM TYNDALE AND HIS INFLUENCE 547 XI the English language had existed. Tyndale was, in chap fact, thrusting himself forward as a translator for party purposes, and rather hindering than otherwise the progress of that Authorized Version, which alone was ever likely to win its way with a people naturally respecting authority. It should also be added that Tyndale was executed (by strangling, his dead body being afterwards burned) at Vilvorden, in the Netherlands, by the order of the Emperor Charles V. ; and that his death had nothing to do with his translation of the New Testament. Tyndale had been a Franciscan friar, one of the Greenwich Observants, but cast off his obligations in early life, and being disappointed in his efforts to obtain permanent homes in rich men's families, went abroad about 1524. Little is known of his life while living abroad, but all his works appear to have been written during the ten years which elapsed between his leaving England and his death in 1535; and from these it is evident that he spent his time in attacking the doctrines and the spiritual rulers of the Church which he had forsaken. His principal works were the '' Practice of Prelates,"^ the '' Obedience of a Christian Man," the "Parable of the Wicked Mammon," a book on the Sacraments, and his pro- logues, or prefaces, to the several books of the Pentateuch, the prophet Jonah, and the books of the New Testament. These works all show the marks of a keen and clever, but extremely self-sujfBcient man, with enough knowledge of languages to make such a man suppose ^ It must be mentioned to Tyn- the King's divorce from Queen dales credit tliat in this work, Catherine, printed in 1530, he wi'ote acjainst 548 WILLIAM TYNDALE AND HIS INFLUENCE CHAP himself learned, but without any real depth of _^.,,.^^ learning, and with enough facility of expression to lead him to argue, but without any argumentative power. He was also of a very cankered and bitter temper/ which led him to fill his pages with abusive language, even when writing of the most sacred subjects. His language respecting the latter was often so shocking, and at the same time so utterly illogical, that it led Sir Thomas More to stigmatize him as a "blasphemous fool." It is certainly a strong evidence of the extent to which party feeling will lead that Tyndale should ever have been re- spected as a theological writer. A few extracts from Tyndale's writings will show what the early dissenters from the doctrine and dis- cipline of the Church of England had to say for their principles : and probably no other writer among them stated these principles with more vigour. Respecting the ministerial office, he writes thus in the " Obedience of a Christian Man :" — " Sub-deacon, deacon, priest, bishop, cardinal, patriarch, and pope, be names of offices and service, or should be, and not sacraments. There is no promise coupled therewith. If they minister their offices truly, it is a sign that Christ's Spirit is in them ; if not, that the devil is in them. ... dreamers and natural beasts, without the seal of the Spirit of God ; hut " Tyndale quarrelled with both and bade liun farewell for our two his assistant-translators, Joye and lives, and (as men say) a day Eoye ; and writes of the latter in longer." He speaks against an- his preface to the *' Wicked Mam- other friend, Jerome (who like nion" that he was the most crafty Roye and himself was an Observant) man he had ever known with a in similar terms, calling him Judas; tongue, able to make fools stark and, insinuating that they were mad, and only a friend so long as both Antichrists, he quotes St. he wanted money. He says that Paul's words about Antichrist he could not do without Roye's against them. Roye was burned help in the translation, but "when in Portugal in 1531, ibur years be- that was ended, I took my lca"\'o, fore T^Tidale himself suffered. WILLIAM TYNDALE AND HIS INFLUENCE 549 sealed with the mark of the beast and with cankered con- cHAP sciences. ... By a priest understand nothing but an xi elder to teach the younger, and to bring them unto the full "^""^ " knowledge and understanding of Christ, and to minister the sacraments which Christ ordained, which is also nothing but to preach Christ's promises. . . . According, therefore, as every man believeth God's promises, longeth for them, and is diligent to pray unto God to fulfil them, so is his prayer heard ; and as good is the prayer of a cobbler as of a cardinal, and of a butcher as of a bishop, and the blessing of a baker that knoweth the truth is as good as the blessing of our most holy father the Pope. . . . JSTeither is there any other manner or ceremony at all required in making of our spiritual officers than to choose an able person, and then to rehearse him his duty, and give him his charge, and so put him in his room."'' What were his principles respecting the Sacra- ments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist may bef y judged from the foregoing quotations ; as to Confir- ' i^ mation and other rites of the Church it is enough to say that he spoke of the laying on of hands as a perfectly unnecessary ceremony, and of anointing with the sign of the Cross as '' the bishop buttering the child in the forehead." This will be recognised by all who are familiar with Puritan writings as the ordinary style of their controversial theology, and Tyndale may be looked upon as its originator. The marvel is that such a man could ever have been supposed to represent the principles of the Church of England, or to be a martyr for the sake of her re- formation.^ That his writings had great influence and were widely circulated there cannot be a doubt. They established a form of '^religious opinion" among the rising middle class, who were socially ^ Tyndale's Doctrinal Treatises, » Ibid., p. 277. Parker Soc. ecL, pp. 254-259. 550 FOREIGN ANABAPTISTS IN ENGLAND CHAP opposed to the clergy, and being very imperfectly _,,.^.^.^^ educated; were easily seduced by the racy English of a Reformation Cobbett : and the form of religious opinion so established has been the atmosphere in which all subsequent plantations of unbelief have spread abroad their branches, and lustily thriven in their unfruitful leafiness. Low social The social status of the early anti- Church party the early is indicated by Tyndale's contrast of a cobbler with a Dissenters (.^j.(jij^g^;[^ ^ butcher with a bishop, and a baker with our holy father the Pope ; which is very much con- firmed by the narratives of Foxe, whose '^martyrs'' are mostly of a low social class : and it may be re- marked that the classes thus indicated are not placed in a high light as to morals, intelligence, or piety by Shakespeare. They seemed to have been especially unsavoury to the nostrils of the bishops so long ago as 1529, for these said in their reply to the charges of the House of Commons, '^ Truth it is that certain apostates, friars, monks, lewd priests, bankrupt mer- chants, vagabonds, and lewd, idle felloAvs of corrupt intent, have embraced the abominable and erroneous opinions lately sprung in Germany :"^ and certainly, as far as one can judge, it does seem as if the ranks of those who "believed not" had been largely re- cruited from ^'certain lewd fellows of the baser sort" taken out of several classes. But the dissenting faction was to be made still more repulsive to the importa- conservative and gentle part of society by the inroad Anabap- of Auabaptists from abroad, driven thence by the a!d. 1534 severities which their rebellion and folly had brought upon them. These foreign Anabaptists were the fathers of » Fronde's Hist, of Eng., i. 211. FOREIGN ANABAPTISTS IN ENGLAND 551 the modern English Baptists. They had been cfiAP driven out of Lutheran Saxony, and put under the ^^ . ban of capital punishment in Calvinistic Zurich ; ^'^- ^5o4 but were rehabilitated for a time in Northern Ger- many under the leadership of John Bockhold^ better known as John of Ley den. In 1533 this absurd and savage infidel organized a large body of insur- gents at Munster^ with the object of sacking that city and taking possession of Amsterdam and other places of importance. The religion of this new prophet and his followers consisted chiefly in anathe- matizing the Church, running naked in a state of frenzy about the streets, and marrying a number of wives instead of one only. There was nothing to be done with these primitive Baptists but to put them down ; and this Charles V. did with a stem and merciless hand that left no room for them in the Netherlands, or in any other part of his do- minions. Those who were neither burned nor hanged fled to the universal asylum of all unsuccessful re- volutionists, and being somewhat toned down in the course of their transportation were not so out- rageously extravagant when they settled in England but that they could find sympathizers among the anti-Church party. These " Anabaptist strangers " are first distinctly noticed in a proclamation of 1534^ when they were already beginning to give trouble. In this pro- clamation it is stated that many strangers are come into this realm who, although they were baptized in their infancy, yet have, in contempt of the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, "rebaptized themselves." They also deny the reality of Christ's presence in ^ Wilkins' Concil., iii. 779. 552 FOREIGN ANABAPTISTS IN ENGLAND CHAP the Holy Sacrament of the altar^ and are guilty of ^^^.^^.^ other pestiferous heresies. They are ordered to de- A-D. 1535 part out of the realm in twelve days^ under pain of death. But to depart was as dangerous as to stay ; and some at least remained, for in the same year Cromwell's famous pocket-book has the memoran- dum^ "■' First, touching the Anabaptists^ and what the King will do with them."^ Stowe says, in his Anabap- Chronicle, that nineteen men and six women, born tists burned in Holland, were examined in St. Paul's, on May 25, 1535, and that fourteen were condemned, of whom a man and a woman were burned in Smith- field, and the other twelve sent for execution to other towns.^ These were probably the persons respecting whom Cromwell had made his memor- andum : and considering the cruel custom of the age one cannot wonder that persons so utterly heretical should have been condemned, however much the cruelty of the law may be lamented. A.D. 1538 Fresh immigrations of the sect took place, how- ever, and they again became so troublesome that a commission was issued to Archbishop Cranmer and others, on October 1, 1538, in which their principles are described as pestiferous and heretical, and in which the Archbishop and the other bishops are enjoined to take stringent measures for their sup- pression.^ This resulted in a set of Injunctions which were issued in 1539, restraining the importa- tion of books, condemning the tenets of the Ana- " Ellis* Orig. Lett., II. ii. 120. tism of infants ia useless. [6.] 3 He gives their opinions ; [1.] That the Sacrament of Christ's That Clirist was only God. [2.] Body is only bread. [6.J That That he did not take flesh and none can be saved who sin after blood of the Virgin Mary. [3.] Baptism. Stowej p. 571. That children of persons not Chris- *" Willdns' Concu., iii. 836. tian may be saved. [4.] That Bap- FOREIGN ANABAPTISTS IN ENGLAND 553 baptists, and forbidding disputations about the chap Blessed Sacrament or unauthorized abolition of ..^.Jl^-^^ ceremonies.^ Some of the Anabaptists were made. ^-d. 1540 to bear faggots in token of recantation, and on April 29, 1540, there appear to have been some more of these unhappy people burned.® It is these latter, probably, of whom Latimer spoke in a sermon preached before Edward VI. : — " The Anabaptists/' he says, '' that were burnt here in divers towns in England (as I heard of credible men, I saw them not myself) went to their death even intre^pidej as ye will say, without any fear in the world, cheerfuUy, WeU, let them go. There was in the old doctors' times another kind of poisoned heretics, that were caUed Donatists ; and these heretics went to their execution, as though they should have gone to some jolly recreation or banquet, to some belly cheer or a play. And will ye argue then, he goeth to his death boldly or cheerfully, ergo, he dieth in a just cause ? Nay, that sequel foUoweth no more than this, * a man seems to be afraid of death, ergo, he dieth evil.' And yet our Saviour Christ was afraid of death Himself I warn you, therefore, and charge you, not to judge them that be in authority, but to pray for them."' In the beginning of the same sermon Latimer Their speaks of " a certain sect of heretics that will have feTe^r°''' no magistrates or judges on the earth," five of whom he has heard of in one town ; and it is evidently the Anabaptists that he is here also referring to. They were, in fact, becoming very dangerous by the contagious rapidity with which their socialist and infidel principles spread among the lower classes, ^ "Wilkins' Concil., iii. 847. religious offenders up to Fehruary " Stowe, p. 579. Yet at the end 23rd of that year, of a proclaination about ceremonies ^ Latimer's Sermons,!. 144, ed. issued in 1 538. a general pardon was 1824. given to all Anabaptists and other 554 SPREAD OF ANTI-CHURCH PARTY CHAP and did much towards alienating the latter still -^.■^^^ further from the Church. Poor Bishop Fishers words to the Convocation in his speech on the Supremacy seemed as if they were going to be realized, and the nation had " leaped out of Peter s ship to be drowned in the waves of all heresies, sects, schisms, and divisions." During the remainder of Henry the Eighth's reign the anti- Church party went on gaining strength in spite of the aversion which the King bore to them. They had the secret support of Cromwell until his death, and no small encouragement from the Eras- tianism of Cranmer -, while the profligate Duke of Suffolk, the King's brother-in-law, was altogether on their side. The restraint which the King placed on the actual Reformation in his latter years was much in their favour, for there was a widely-spread desire for its completion, and in the absence of an official re-settlement of the Church, men were tempted to innovate and to give way to innovators ; and thus to go into wild extremes for want of wise and authoritative guidance. The end was that when, in the next reign, attempts were made to carry on the Reformation in the direction in which it had been begun, a large party had been consoli- dated whose obj ect was to destroy the ancient Church of England, and to found a new community in the place of it, from which the distinctive princi- ples of the Church of England should be eliminated. INDEX ABDEY interior before the Dissolutioii, 332 Abbot of Reading, Ms iiLScription in Beauchamp Tower, 351 Abbot of Vale Eoyal protests against forged surrender, 338 Abljot of Glastonbury, tbe, 345 Abbots of Colchester executed, 345 Abbots, twelve, executed as traitors, 326 ; refractory, turned out, 337 ; pliant ones put in, 338 ; accused, made bishops, 338, 360 ; mitred, influence of broken, 345 Abel, Thomas, his attainder, 415 ; rebus in the Tower, 416; execution, 416, n. Abendon, Dr., at Council of Constance, 6 Abuses in Church of England, 10; con- stitutional, 21 ; doctrinal, 29 Abusive habits of Dissenters, 546 Acts of Parliament, Praemunire, 16 Rich. TI. c. 5, 199 ; pardon of clergy, 22 Hen. VIII. c. 15, 23 Hen. VIII. c. 19, 21i n. ; Uniformity, 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. i. 223, n. ; Submission, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, 229 ; renewing commission to review canons, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 15, 229; Supremacy, 26 Hen. VIII. c. 1, 230, 233 ; making denial of Supremacy trea- son, 26 Hen. VIII. c. 13, 231 ; repeal of Treason Act, 1 Edw. VI. c. 12, 232 ; early one on Supremacy, 33 Edw. III., 233, n. ; existing Act of Supremacy, 1 Eliz. c. 1, 234 ; repeal of Act of Supre- macy, 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary c. 8, 234 ; jurisdiction of Crown, 1 Eliz. c. 1, 234 ; Mortmam, 9 Hen. III. c. 36, 285 ; dis- i::olution of monasteries, 31 Hen. VIII. c. 13, 352 ; annates, 23 Hen. VIII. c. 20, 253; confiscating university and chantry property, 37 pen. VIII. c. 4, 353 ; ecclesiastical jurisdiction, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, 255, n. ; appeals, 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, 257 ; submission of clergy, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, 261 ; provisors, 25 Edw. Ill,, 13 Rich. II., 263; first- fruits [appointment of bishops], 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, 265 ; suffragan bis- hops, 26 Hen. VIH. c. 14, 267, n. ; eccle- siastical jurisdiction [Peter's Pence], 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, 28 Hen. VIII. c. 16, 269 ; annates, 23 Hen, VIII. c. 20, 277; appointment of bishops, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, 277 ; authority of papal bulls, &c., annulled, 25 Hen. VIII, c. 21, 277 ; 17 Edw. II. c. 3, Templars' lands, 291 ; 21 Hen. VIII. c, 26, repudiation of Hen. VIII.'s debts, 293, n. ; Peter's pence, &c., 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21, 295; dissolution of monasteries, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 20, 302; vagrants, 22 Hen. VIII. c. 12, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 25, 382 ; great number relating to Churcb in Henry VIII.'s ruign, 400, n. ; fees for wills, 21 Hen. VIII. c. 5, 401 ; mor- tuary fees, 21 Hen. VIII. c. 6, 402 ; pluralities, 21 Hen. VIII. c. 13, 403; tithes, 27 Hen. VIII. c. 20, 404; re- straining benefit of clergy, 25 Edw. III., iii. c. 4, 4 Hen. VII. c. 13, 408; 23 Hen. VIII. c. 1 ; 23 Hen. VIII. c. 9 ; 28 Hen. VIII. c. 1 ; 32 Hen. VIII. 0. 3, 409; succession, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22, 417 ; legalizing Oatb of Succes- sion, 26 Hen. VIII. c, 2, 419; Six Articles, 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14, 473 ; re- pealing Six Ai'ticles, 1 Edw, VI. c. 12, 478 ; qualifying Act of Six Articles, 35 Hen. VIII. c. 5, 479 ; forbidding work on holy-days, 6 Hen. VI. c. 3, 488, 490 ; regulating labour on holy-days, 5 & 6 Edw, VI. c. 13, 491 ; against here- tics, 5 Rich. II. c. 5, 530 ; de hcer. cornb., 2 Hen. IV. c. 15, 531 ; against heretics, 2 Hen. V. c. 7, 532 ; against heresy, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 14, 542 ; Six Articles against heresy, 543; against heretics, 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 1, 544 Act of Dissolution, first, summary of, 306 Act of Six Articles drafted by Henry VIII., 475; contents of, 476; re-action caused by it, 479 ; results of, 478 Adrian VI. wished for reformation, 243, n. Aldhehn, Bishop, a translator of Scrip- ture, 503 556 INDEX Alesa, Alexander, 434 Alfred, King, a translator of Scripture, 503 Alien priories dissolved, 291 Alienation of laity from Cliurch, 28 Amraonius, his advice to "Erasmus, 354, n. Anabaptists, foreign, in England, 429 \ protested af^ainst by clergy, 435 ; im- portation of, 550 ; bui-ning of, 652 Anglican memorial to Council of Pisa, 6 ; sermon at Council of Constance, 7 Annates Act, 254 ; sequel of stated, 265 Annates, compensation offered for, 254 ; great amount of, 254 Anti-Church party, growth of, 524; not persecuted by Wolsey, 528 ; consoli- dated, 545 ; indefinite principles of, 546 Apparent variations not necessarily er- rors, 3 Appeals, Statute of, 182 Appeals to Kome, origin of, 257 ; abo- lished, 258; injustice and inconvenience of, 260 "Appropriations," meaning of, 25, n. ; evil of, 26 Ap Rice, Jolm, 296, 297 ; against Dr. Legh, 300 Aquinas, his classification of sacraments, 457 Arthur, Prince, married as a boy, 102 ; died at fifteen, 102 Arthur released by Wolsey, 528 Articles, the Six, 476 Articles, the Ten, framed by clergy, 436 ; promulgated by crown, 438 ; on the creeds, 4S9 ; baptism, 440 ; on penance, 440, eucharist, 440 ; justification, 443 ; to be preached by clergy, 443 ; on cere- monies, 483 Ariicles, the Thirteen, 470, 472, n. Arundel, Archbishop, and the English Bible, 505 Aske, Sir Robert, heads Pilgrimage of Grace, 321 ; receives Lancaster Herald in state, 324 ; invited to court, 325 ; and hanged at York, 326 Askew, Anne, and her story, 538 " Aspersio," an ancient English, 485, n. Audley, Lord, his share of monastic spoils, 377 ; on discussions about ceremonies, 482, n. ; and Act of Six Articles, 473 Augmentations, Court of, 308 Augsburg, Confession of, 470, 472; influ- ence on early Dissenters, 454 AuthorizedVersion, early attempts at one, 505, 507, 509 ; begun by bishops, 518 ; hindered by H«nry VIIL, 520 "Ave Maria," the. Church of England doctrine about, 456 Bainham burned for heresy, 536 Bale on destruction of libraries, 387 Baltbasar on character of Henry VHI., 109 Baptism, Ten Articles on, 440 Barnes, Dr., his penance at St. Paul's, 83 ; his interview with Wolsey, 84, n. ' sent to confer with German Protestants, 470 ; attainted by Parliament, 478, n. informs against Lambert for heresv 538 ^' Barton, Elizabeth, 413 Bayfield burned for heresy, 535 Beauchamp Tower, 326, 351, 416, 528 Bede a translator of Scripture, 503 Bellarmime on Fifteenth century, 4 Benefices used to pay state salaries, 24 51 Benefit of clergy, 406 ; restrained by early Acts, 408; abolished by Reformation Acts, 409 Bible, mediseval knowledge of, 501 ; early printed in Latin, 502, n. ; Norman l>ench of Thirteenth century, 504, n. ; authorized version of projected in 1408 and 1530, 605 ; commission of 1530 for translating, 508; set up in churches, 510 ; English, allowed to be read in private, 512; private translations un- trustworthy, 513 ; large number early circulated, 513 Bibles, early English, 503 ; English, in Henry VlII.'s reign, 506 Bidding Prayer on royal Supremacy, 209 Bilney released by Wolsey, 84, 528 ; burned for heresy, 534 Bishops, mediseval, litigious, 7; non-re- sident, 22 ; accused by House of Com- mons, 212 ; effectually resist Henry VIIL 's tyranny by union, 227 ; to he consecrated without buUs, 254; who had been abbots and priors, 360; an- cient English mode of appointing, 262, 264; papal interference with their ap- pointment, 263, 264; statutory settle- ment of their mode of appointment, 265 ; suffragan, 267, n. ; obliged to maintain *' benefit of clergy" convicts, 408, 409 ; English, and English Bibles, 521 Blackstone on mitigation of cruel punish- ments, 529 Blasphemous parodies authorized by Cromwell, 273, n. "Bloated monks," 355 Blunt, Elizabeth, and Henry VIIL, 109 ; her last husband's share of monastic spoils, 378 Bodleian Library, copies of the " Institu- tion " in, 46G Boleyn, Anne, and the abbess of Wilton, 92 ; her alleged suggestion of Cathe- rine's divorce, 117 ; her girlhood in France, 118 ; her engagement to Lord Percy, 118 ; letter respecting her be- trothal, 123 ; her eagerness for the divorce, 125; her letters to Wolsey, 126, n. ; tliwai-ts Wolsey, 160 ; her INDEX 557 HcandaloTis lite witli Henry VIII., 175, 180; made Marchioness of Pembroke, 181 ; married to Henry VIII., 182 ; attlie Tower for her coronation, 188; becomes Queen, ] 88 ; her life as Queen, 194 ; her yellow mourning, 195; alleged adultery of, 196 ; her trial, divorce, and execu- tion, 196, 197; Bishop Fibber's head, 422 ; Sir T. More's picture, 424 Boleyn, Mary, and Henry VIII., 93, 197, n, ; her marriage, 124 Boleyn, Sir Thomas, ambassador to France, 118 ; sent to Germany about the divorce, 143 ; weeps under Wolsey's re- buke about the divorce business, 153 Boleyns and Blunts connected, 110, n. Bonner, Bishop, employed at Home on divorce business, 181 Book of Ceremonies, 492 Books, destruction of, at Reformation, 387 Bockin-:;, Dr., and the Nun of Kent, 4l3 Breviary, Anglican, reformed, 496 Bribes taken by Cromwell, 329 Brown, Archbishop, his arrogance, 322, n. Buckmaster, Dr., at court, 168 Bulls, admission of, prohibited, 249 Burckhardt, agent lor Lutherans to Eng- lish court, 471 BuiTiing alive, 629 " Butcher's dog," origin of this saying, 43 Caiphurnius, first Greek professor at Oxford, 64 Calvin, his influence on early Dissenters, 546 Cambridge, visitation of it for heresy pre- vented by Wolsey, 65 ; and the divorce question, 162; senate debating the di- vorce question, 164 ; list of delegates on divorce business, l66, n, ; its decree on divorce business, 167, n. ; the vice- chancellor at court, 168 ; innovators, 527 Campeggio made legate, 53 ; detained at Calais, 55 : leaves England, 56 ; on Wolsey's objects, 57 ; takes leave of Henry VIII., 94; a married cardinal, 97, n. ; his luggage searched for Henry VIII.'s letters to Anne Boleyn, 125, n. ; his second visit to England, 137 ; sus- pected of double dealing, 152 ; adjourns the court of legates, 152, 154 ; sends the divorce cause to the Pope for ad- judication, 154 Canon abrogating certain holy-days, 490 Canons, Henry VIII.'s extravagant de- mands respecting them, 227 ; Convoca- tion's decision respecting them, 227 Canon Law never properly revised, 229 Cajon, William, Dean of Ipswich College, Cardinal, Wolsey made, 43, .S2 Cathedrals of new foundation, 371 Catherine, Queen, interested in Wolsey's colleges, 67, 79 ; and her first husband, 102 ; married to Henry VIII., 104 ; . discrepancy of age between her and Henry VIII., 104, 106, 111 ; her love for Henry VIIL, 105, 195 ; her seven children, 106 ; doubts as to legality of her marriage, 113 ; suggested to her to go into a convent, 138 ; declares herself to have been a maiden at her marriage with Henry, 146; refuses to recognise court of the legates, 146 ; appeals from legates to the King himself, 146 ; her proud exit from the legates' court, 148; appeals to the Pope, 152 ; finally dis- missed by Henry VIII., 179; her opinion of Cranmer and his court at Dunstable, 186 ; divorced from Henry VIIL by sentence of Cranmer, 188 ; movement to promote her restoration, 189 ; her marriage to Henry VIIL declared valid by Clement VII., 190 ; her last days, 191, 194 Catholicity of Church of England, 270, 522 Caxton's " Festivale" 495 Censors of monks, ascetic, 354 Ceremonies, Reformation " Rationale " of, 492 Champernowu, Mr., how he got a priory, Changes in Church lawful, 1, 19 Chantries, growth of, 31 ; property given to Henry VIIL, 353 Characteristics of early sixteenth cen- tury, 19 Charles V., his confidence in Wolsey, 41, n. ; his saying about Wolsey, 43, n. ; at war with Pope, 132; and divorce, question, 143, 189 ; his foolisb boast about the divorce business, 144; supports Queen Catherine's appeal to the Pope, 152 Christ Church founded by Wolsey, QQ ; its original dimensions, 70 " Christian brethren," 525 " Christiani Hominis Institutio" of Eras- mus, 444, n. Church, attacks on its property, 284; in- jured by monasteries, 286 ; property, inalienableness of, 379 ; ordinarily gov- erned by local synods, 430; the "In- stitution " on, 450 Churches, abominable use of, by Puritans, 273 Church of England, independence of, achieved by clergy, 255 ; principle of its independence, 261 ; declared to be still Catholic, 270 ; linaUyrejected papal jurisdiction, 278 ; receives decrees of General Councils, 432 ; union with Ger- man Lutherans, 469 ; doctrine, settle- ment of in Henry VIII.'s reign, 480; law 01 aboiit holy-days, 489 558 INDEX Clement V. and lands of Knights Tem- plars, 291 Clement VII. victim of Ids predecessors, 244 ; his great provocation of England, 247 ; an "nnclement bishop," 249 Clergy indicted in King's Bench, 203; pardoned by mercy and compassion of Henry VIIL, 211; "submission" of, 2l2, 227 ; intellectual narrowness of at Reformation, 426; protest against re- ligious error;:>, 435 ; their courage saved the liberties of the Church, 237, 255 ; petition of against annates, 250 ; sug- fest extinction of papal supremacy, 53 ; caiises of reaction among, 256 ; general repudiation of papal authority by, 275, 276, 278 ; alleged extortions of, 391 ; their exemption from secular jurisdiction, 396 ; their income grudged by laity, 404 ; extortion not proved against, 405 ; their money rights an easy prey, 405 ; benefit of, 406 ; did not oppose abolition of it, 410 ; ordered to preach from the Ten Articles, 443 Clermont, Council of, 34 Clinton, Lord, his share of monastic spoils, 378 Coke refuses oath against Lollardy, 532, n. Colchester, two abbots of, executed in one year, 345 Colet, his Convocation sermon, 10 ; a friend of Wolsey, 48 ; his reformation sermon, probably Wolsey present, 48 ; his treatise on Seven Sacraments, 429 College of Physicians founded by Wolsey, 68 Colleges founded out of monasteries, 363, n. Colleges of clergy, property given to Henry VIII., 353 ; pleas for, 372 Colonies, rise of, 20, n. Commandments, the ** Institution" on the Ten, 453 Commission of 1530 about translating Bible, 508 Committee for discussion of Six Articles, 473 Commons, House of, its servility to Henry VIII., 202, 203 ; their accusation of the clergy, 212 ; threatened by Henry VIII., 307 ; Act of Dissolution opposed in, 307 ; on heresy, 533 Communicants, medigeval, address to, 33 Communion in one kind only, 33 ; in both kinds, mediaeval continuance of, 34 ; rare in pre -Reformation times, 35 ; in both kinds restored after death of Henry VIIL, 36 Confession, Latimer on, 441, n. Conferences with German Protestants, 470 Confirmation, Church of England doctrine about, 459 Cong6 d'61ire, the, 263, 264, 266 ; abo- lished for a time, 267 Consensus of bishops, 446 Constance, Council of, 6, 33 Continuity of Church of England, 2, 270 Constitution of Archbishop Anmdel re- specting English Bibles, 505 Constitutions of Wolsey for general re- formation, 59 ; for the Augustinian order, 62 Constitutional abuses, 21 Controversy on pronunciation of Greek, 64 Convicts, benefit of clergy, chiefly laymen, 408 Convocation on divorce question, 183 ; re- plies to accusation of House of Com- mons, 221 ; answer to Commons utterly disregarded, 225 ; its existing relation to the Crown, 237 ; leading the Refor- mation, 250 ; repudiated papal autho- rity, 275 ; and Dr. Standish, 397 ; re- buked by Henry VIII. in 1516, 399 ; refuses to receive Cromwell's deputy, 433, n. Convocation of York represented in that of Canterbury, 437, n. Convocations, the two united by Wolsey 85, 86 Cook, Abbot of Reading, his inscription, 351, n. Corpse presents, 402 Correspondence between Henry VIIL and Anne Boleyn, 124 Corruption of judges, 21 Court holy water, 169 Coverdale's English Bible, 510 ; imperfect character of his Bible, 513 Cranmer and the divorce business, 128, n ; works the divorce business at Cam- bridge, 162 ; and marriage of Anne Boleyn, 182; becomes Archbishop, 183; opens his court at Dunstable, 185 ; is licensed to hear the divorce cause, 185 ; collusion with Henry VIIL, 184, 187; decrees nullity of man-iage between Henry VIII. and Catherine, 188; di- vorces Henry VIIL from Anne Boleyn, 197 ; said to have suggested title of su- preme head, 204, n. ; alleged speech of his respecting Warham and the Royal Supremacy, 208, n. ; suspends episcopal jurisdiction, 297 ; on conduct of monastic visitors, 300; sends gifts to conciliate Cromwell, 330 ; pleads for clerical col- leges, 372 ; on frauds connected with dis- solution, 37'-i; dealings with monastic spoils, 378 ; and the Nun of Kent, 415 ; appeals to general council, 432; and the ** Institution of a Christian Man," 464; mandate about reading "Institution," 4Gj ; annotated copy of "Institution," 466, 468; confers with German Protes- tants, 471 ; and Act of Six Articles, 475 ; and the "Rationale" of ceremonies, 492, n. ; on early English Bibles, 503 ; on those who brouglit scandal on the English INDEX 559 Bible, 504 ; excuses those who opposed translation of Bible, 506 ; prepares for an authorized version, 509 ; thanks Cromwell for setting up Bible in churches, 511 ; his Bible, 514 ; his in- difference about burning a heretic, 537 ; his Erastianism encouraged anti-Church party, 554 Creeds, Ten Articles on the, 439 ; "Insti- tution" on, 447 Croke, Dr., alias Blunt, hischaracter, 155, n. ; Professor of Greek at Cambridge, 65 ; sent to get university opinions on the divorce, 155 Cromwell, his ears boxed by Henry VIII., 47 ; said to have suggested title of supreme head, 204, n. ; his staff of ribalds, 273, n. ; agent in dissolving monasteries for Wolsey, 290 ; suggests attack on monasteries, 294 ; his steady perseverance in spoliation, 309 ; en- courages discontented monks, 314, 315 ; his letter promising security to monas- teries, 318, n. ; his avarice well-known, 329 ; his memoranda about monastic property, 331, n., 341 ; his idea of a trial and of evidence, 349 ; character of, 355 ; bribes nobility with grants from monastic spoils, 373; his share of monastic spoils, 377; his assumption in convocation, 433, n. ; sentences a heretic to be burned, 538 ; supported anti-Church party, 554 Crown plate, order of Henry VIII. to sell, 325 Cup, the, withheld from laity, 33 Darcy, Lord, and Pilgrimage of Grace, 321 ; declines invitation to Court, 325 ; be- headed on Tower Hill, 326 Degeneracy of fifteenth century, 4 Delaber, Anthony, 527, n. Devotional changes in reign of Henry V J -i^-Li^ ^yy Dishonesty of Henry VIII., 305 Dispensations, &;c., from Rome abolished, 269 Dissent, rise of, 522 Dissenters adepts at verbiage, 546 Dissolution, first Act of, 302; second, 352 Divines, list of those engaged on "Insti- tution," 445, n. Divorce of Henry VIII. and Catherine, first suggestions of, 117, 149 ; Bishops consult respecting, 128 ; imiversity opinions suggested, 129 ; supposed conference of foreign divines, 131, n. ; the legates open their court, 144 ; peti- tion of Lords and Commons to the Pope, 156 ; Clement VII. forbids any sentence except his own, 178 Doctrinal abuses, 29 Doctrine, dealings with under Henry VIII., 426, 480 ; review of work of clergy in synod, 430 Donatives and Peculiars, 288, n. Doubt and unbelief at Reformation, 430 Durham, Prior of, doubles Cromwell's "pension," 329; treasures of concealed, 348 ; its chapter library, 388 ; book of gospels, 503 Ecclesiastical Courts, leniency of too great, 407 Edward III., commission respecting plu- ralities, 23 Edward IV., alleged son of, 540, n. Election of bishops, 262, 263 Elizabeth, Queen, birth of, 182 England and Rome, the old quarrel be- tween, 238, 247; an independent empire, 259 English call for reform at Council of Basle, 24 ; treatment of Popes, 239, 240, 241 Englishmen carefully excluded from Pajjal throne, 88 ; not to plead at foreign tri- bunals, 248 Enquiry, spirit of, aroused, 429 Episcopate, extension of by Wolsey, 49, 69, 90 Erasmus and John Watson, 27 ; his com- mendation of Wolsey, 63 ; invited to Cambridge by Fisher, 65 ; seems to class Wolsey among Luther's admirers, 73 ; on Wolsey's gentle courtesy, 73 ; his opinion of Queen Catheiine, 105 ; a sinecure English rector, 413, n. ; influ- ence of on Reformation, 427 ; wrote an "Institution of a Christian Man," 444, n. ; his exposition of the Creed, &c., 444, n. Errors protested against by clergy in 1536, 435 "Erudition of any Christian Man," the, 468 ; editions of, 469, n. Eucharist, unconsecrated wine at, 33 ; unbalanced mediaeval theories of, 35 ; Roman parody of its consecration, 244, n. ; Protestant parodies of, 273, n. ; Ten Articles on, 441 "Evil May-Day," 365, n., 395 Exemption of monasteries from episcopal control, 287 Extortions of clergy, 391 Extremes of credulity and incredulity, 481 Faggot bearers and wearers, 83, 84, 85 ; bearing in Edward VI. 's reign, 524 Falstaff and Lord Cobham, 532, n. Fanaticism of Puritans, 84, n. Faversham, the Abbot of, 309 Fees, the grievance of, 401 Feudal system, end of, 19 Fisher, his sermon at St. Paul's, 83 ; ]iis strong opposition to the divorce, loO ; left in Tower without sutlicientclothing, 201, n, ; his parable about a supreme 560 INDEX head, 206 ; consulted by Convocation "when too infirm to be present, 226 ; counsel for Queen Catherine, 145 ; his prescience of events, 403 ; his attainder, 415 ; and the Oath of Succession, 419 ; last hours and execution, 419 ; shot at from Sir. T. Boleyn's house, 423 Fitz-Roy, Henry, Duke of Richmond, 109, 110, n. ; present at Anne Boleyn's exe- cution, 197 Fitzwilliam on state of popular feeling at dissolutions, 320 Forbes, Bishop, on fifteenth century, 4 Foreigners, wanton attack of Londoners on, 395 Founders, monastic lands restored to, 376 Fountains, Abbot of, conceals church plate and jewels, 328 Fox, Bishop of Hereforc?, 137, n. ; helps to manipulate Cambridge on divorce question, 166; and the "Institution," 464 ; sent to confer with German Pro- testants, 470 Fox, Bishop of Winchester, glad to give up office, 45 ; on reformation of Church, 59, n. ; on reformation of monks, 363 Foxe has no real charge of severity against Wolsey, 73 ; idea of a scarlet robe, 83 ; misstatement about effect of Six Ar- ticles, 478 ; on early English Bibles, 504 Francis I. wished Wolsey to be Pope, 88, n. ; his great respect for Wolsey, 89 Frith and others put in Beauchamp Tower to be converted, 528 ; burned for heresy, 536 Froude's misrepresentation of a document, 222, n. ; amusing mistake of, 315, n. ; compares "Supplication of Beggars" and Vagrant Acts, 384, n. ; exaggerated statements of, 401 ; misstatement of, 528, n. Fuller on grants of monastic spoils, 374 ; on cutting up Bibles, 502, n. Gardiner and the divorce business, 134 ; threatens the Pope, 135 ; secretary to legates, 14;j ; foresees alienation of Eng- land from See of Rome, 153 ; agent for the divorce business at Cambridge, 163 ; on Royal Supremacy, 230, n. Gardiner, Bishop, his list of Latin words to be retained in English Bibles, 519, n. Garrett, Thomas, visiting Oxford, 526 Gennan Mass in 1530, 497, n. Giraldus Cambrensis preaching to the Welsh, 494, n. Giustiniani's description of Wolsey, 44; on English contempt for papacy, 55 ; on anxiety of England for a royal heir, 107 ; description of Henry VIII., Ill ; on Evil May-Day, 395 Gladstone on relation of convocation to the Crown, 236, n. Glastonbury, Abbot of, sends gifts to con- ciliate Cromwell, 330 ; tried and exe- cuted, 345 ; impression made hy his execution, 351 ; treasures of abbey con- cealed, 348 Gospels andEpistlesreadin English, 497, n. Grammont suggests illegality of marriage between Hemy and Catlierine, lU ; tries to mediate between Henry VIII and Clement VIL, 177 "Great Bibles," 516 Greek first printed with English "tjrpe, 64, n. ; at the universities, 65 ; learned at Cambridge by Erasmus, 427 Gresham, Sir Richard, buying Fountains Abbey, 371 ; pleads for hospitals, 372. Grinceus suggests to Henry VIII. to have two wives, 178, n. Hallam, Dr., at Coimcil of Pisa, 5 Hardwicke on influence of Wicldiffe, 523 Heath, afterwards Archbishop, sent to confer with German Protestants, 470 Henry V. dissolved alien priories, 291 Henry VII. 'a policy in marrying his sons to Catherine of Arragon, 103 Henry VIII. 's treatment of Cromwell, 47, 355 ; Wolsey's influence with, 45 ; his opposition to Wolsey, 46, 47, n. ; asks for Wolsey to be made cardinal, 51 ; his huge thanks to the Pope, 52; thanks Pope for making Wolsey legate, 57 ; his entire assent to Wolsey's legateship, 58 ; confiscates Wolsey's endowments, 64, 70; his treatise on Seven Sacraments, 73, 81, 429, n. ; interested in Wolsey's colleges, 78 ; thinks heretical book- sellers fear fines more than excommuni- cation, 79 ; his controversy with Luther, 80 ; misunderstandingswith Wolsey, 90; and Mary Boleyn, 93, n., 197, n. ; dis- likes Wolsey's munificence, 93; alienated from Wolsey, 94 ; betrothed at twelve years of age, 103; married to Catherine, 104 ; protestation against betrothal, 104 ; forsakes Catherine, 108 ; intrigue with Elizabeth Blunt, 110 ; alienation from Catherine, 111 ; his person de- scribed, 112; alleged cause of ahenation from Catherine, 113, n. ; divorce from Catherine said to be suggested by Anne Boleyn, 117 ; probable motives foi" divorce from Catherine, 117 ; Corre- spondence with Anne Boleyn, 124 ; wants to have two wives at once, 133, 135, 141, 178, n. ; proposes to take a vow of chastity, 1 38 ; makes public the divorce business, 139 ; before the two legates, 145 ; his account of the legates' court, 148, n. ; openly declares the Queen's virtues, 148 ; scolds Oxford M.A.'s, 171 ; threatens Oxford with a plague of hornets, 172; finally separates INDEX 561 ' from Catlierine, 179 ; appeals to General Council, 190, 432 ; marries Jane Sey- mour the day after Anne Boleyn's exe- cution, 197 ; graciously pardons his people, 202 ; his first ecclesiastical spoUs, 203 ; claims title of the Supreme Head of the Church, 205 ; his view of the Royal Supremacy, 210; his uUi- Tnatum to the clergy, 225 ; how to at- tend the Pope's summons, 241 ; early idea of papal jurisdiction, 246 ; his last letter to the Pope, 265, n. ; his praise of the Ohservants, 272, n. ; his probable grounds of law in dissolving m onasteries, 292 ; pecuniary wants of, 293, 325 ; re- pudiates his debts by Act of Parliament, 293 ; visits the House of Commons, 302 ; intends to sell Crown plate, 325 ; conduct towards leaders of Pilgrimage of Grace, 326 ; cruelty of, 340, 365, n. ; financial operations on the Church, 353, n. ; own estimate of his agents, 356 ; orders monks and canons to be "tied up" wholesale, 365, n. ; bishoprics formed by, 371 ; received fifty millions from monastic spoils, 371 ; prodigality of, 372 ; grants of monastic property made by, 374 ; cruelty of his vagrant laws, 383 ; charges Anne Boleynwith SirT. More's death, 424; message to Convocation about religious discords, 434; and Ten Articles, 437, n. ; and the "Institution," 465; annotated copy of "Institution," 466; sends "Institution" to Diet of Spires, 467 ; takes part in conferences with German Protestants, 471 ; drafted Act of Six Articles, 475 ; hindered refor- mation of Service Books, 499 ; hinders translation of Bible, 520 ; legislation against heresy, 542 Heresy, laws against, 528 Heretical books at Oxford, 67, 68 Hewett burned for heresy, 536 Holy-days, abrogation of some, 488 Homilies in English, 495 Horsey, Dr., and Richard Hunn, 394 Hord, Edward, Prior of Hinton, 340 Hunn's case, 392 Image- Worship, 38, 454, 483 Imaginative devotion in England, 36 "Impropriations," meaning of, 25, n. Indulgences, traffic in, 37 Innocent VIII., character of, 242 Intellectual reformation, need of, 427 Institution of a Christian Man, 444 ; con- tents of, 445 ; on the Creed, 447 ; on the Lord's Prayer, 448 ; on the Sacra- ments, 457 ; revised edition contem- templated, 466; disiaed by anti-Church party, 466 ; Latin translation of, 467 : republication of, 469, n. Investiture, 262 Ipswich CoHege, foundation-stone of, 71, 2n n. ; dedication festival of, 72 ; demo- lished by Henry VIIL, 72 Irish Church in sixteenth century, 28, n. Italian jealousy of Wolsey, 88 Italy, profligacy of, 244 Jewel keeper's accounts, 369 Judges, corruption of, 21, n. Julius II., dispensation for second mar- riage of Queen Catherine, 103, 131 ; character of, 243 Jurisdiction, ecclesiastical, transfer of from Pope to Archbishop of Canterbury, 268; the "Institution" on, 461 Justification, the Ten Articles on, 443 Ejent, Nun of, 413 ; confessed her impos- ture, 415 ; executed, 415 "King's Book," 469, n. Kneeling at royal audiences, 47, n. Knight, Dr., sent to the Pope about the divorce, 132 Knights Templars dissolved, 291 Knights of St. John suppressed, 353 Kyme, Mrs., alias Anne Askew, 638 Labour on holy-days regulated, 489 ; present law respecting, 491 Laity alienated from mediseval Church, 28 ; deprived of the Cup, 33 ; infre- quent communions of, 35 ; persecuting spirit of, 224, n. ; and dissolution of monasteries, 317 Lambert's disputation in Westminster Hall, 472, n. ; burned for heresy, 537 Lancaster Herald's parley with Aske, 324 Lands of dissolved monasteries, 370 Lansdo^vne MS. account of attack on Church property, 284, n. Lascelles, Jolm, burnt, 540 Lateness of communion in one kind in England, 33 Latimer on accusations against monks, 360 ; pleads for clerical colleges, 372 ; on poverty resulting from dissolution, 385 ; on decay of learning, 386 ; preached to reforming Convocation, 433 ; on con- fession, 441, n. ; and the "Institution of a Christian Man," 464; Aspersio wrongly attributed to him, 485, n. ; on antiquity of prayers for the dead, 487, n. ; on ceasing from labour on holy- days, 488 ; on using English in divine service, 495 ; licensed as general preacher by "Wolsey, 528 ; on brave deaths of heretics, 553 Latinized words retained in English Bibles, 519, n. Laud, Archbishop, on powers of local synods, 431 Lascelles, John, burned, 540 Laws, projected college of, 68 Laws respecting heresy, 528 ; their iirrel - gious character, 545 562 INDEX Lay "bishop of modem times, 22 Lay ton, Dr. , 296, 298 ; an active packer up of plunder, 303, 328 ; character of, 358 Learning, decay of, after dissolution, 386 Lee, Archbishop, and Pilgrimage of Grace, 321, 324, 326 ; injunction for reading Institution, 465 ; injunction for reading Bpistles and Gospels in English, 497 Lee, Dr. Rowland, married Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, 182 Legates a latere^ foreign, inadmissible, 54 Legends, absurdity of some, 39 Legh, Dr., character of, 357 Leo X., character of, 243; his preferments, 248, n. Lessons read in English, 496 Life, Bishop Fisher on stewardship of, 420 Linacre a friend of Wolsey, 64 ; first president of College of Physicians, a clergyman, 68 Lincoln, Wolsey Bishop of, 51 List of medlceval pluralists, 24, u. Litany publicly used in English, 498 Lollard's Tower at St. Paul's, 393 London, Dr., only defaces churches, 343 ; character of, 358 Londoners, excitability of, 394 Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, Wolsey's agent in founding Christ Cnurch, 66 : urges Wolsey to severity with heretics, 77 ; not original suggestor of divorce, 114, 115, n, ; urges on Wolsey against Oxford heretics, 526 Louth, reception of a commissioner at, 320 Lupset, tutor to Wolsey's son, 64 Luther's " Babylonish captivity," 80 ; his early writings suppressed, 80 ; gives dispensation for two wives to Philip of Hesse, 178, n. ; his sayings about Rome, 244 ; influence on early Dissenters, 545 Lutheran errors, forty-two condemned by Wolsey, 81 Lutherans and union with Church of England, 469 Lyndewood on early English Bibles, 505, Malet, writer of Reformation " Ration- ale," 492, n. Manning on struggle between England and Rome, 247 Margaret of Savoy called Wolsey her father, 44, n, Mariolairy, 32 Marler, Anthony, licensed to sell Great Bibles, 515, n., 5l7 Martyrs, character of so-called, 541 Mary, Pi'incess, birth of, 107 ; provoca- cations she underwent for twenty years, 411 Masses for souls, tacrease of, 31 ; bought and sold, 31, 32 ; Masters, Richard, and the Nun of Kent, 413 Matthew's English Bible, 511 Matrimony, Church of England doctrine about, 458 Medisevalism worn out, 18 Mediseval abuses continued to modem times, 18 ; exhortation to communi- cants, 33 Melancthon invited to England, 471 Mendicancy increased by dissolution of monasteries, 380 Meopham, Archbishop, Ms canon about holy-days, 489 Middle classes, rise of, 19 ; object to pay fees to clergy, 400 " Mirror of our Lady," 35, n., 39 "Mistress " gets a monastic manor for her puddings, 374 Monasteries, Wolsey's reformation of, 53, 68, 91, n. ; dissolution of many neces- sary, 278 ; original excellence of system, 280 ; periods of their foundation in England, 281 ; outgrew wants of the Church, 281 ; absorbing all the land, 282 ; how their wealth accumulated, 282, 284 ; attacked by Commons in 1410, 284, n. ; restraints on acquisition of property, 285 ; their wealth invited spoliation, 286 ; too independent of Church system, 287 ; necessity for refor- mation, 289 ; dissolution suggested by precedent of Wolsey, 290 ; novelty of alienating property from Church, 291 lands reverting to founders, 291, 292 first visitation of, 295 ; the visitors, 296 ; starving out the monks, 299 visitations only ^o forma, 301, 327 , first Act of Dissolution, 302 ; second Act, 353 ; their reformation not really attempted by Henry VIII., 304, 327 ; Act of 1536 declares the larger ones weU ordered, 305 ; amount of property taken in first dissolution, 308 ; spies sent to them, 313 ; subornation of crime at visitation, 315 ; promised security by Cromwell, 318 ; general prostration of monks by audacity of Cromwell's acts, 318 ; attempt to restore them, 323 ; second visitation of, 327 ; treasures of concealed, 328, 348 ; lands made over to laymen in hope of saving them, 3"' attempts made to buy off destruction. 330; solemn forebodings' of their in- mates, 331; character of "■ surrenders," 337, 339 ; forgery of surrenders, 338 real feeling of monks about surrender- ing, 339 ; a parallel modem surrender supposed, 340; plate, jewels, &c., taken by the King, 342 ; walls to become stone quarries, 342 ; unlicensed plunder of, 344 ; evidence as to moral condition of, 354 ; summary of facts as to their dissolution, 361 ; not blameless, 362 ; INDEX 563 their abolition foreseen, 362 ; destroyed tliroTigh. non-reformation, 364 ; general amount and fate of property, 369 ; grants of tlielr manors by Henry VIII., 374 ; fate of some who received their property, 379 ; social results of their dissohition, 380 ; poverty following their dissolution, 386 ; their dissolution a national tragedy, 390 Monks, allowance to, going willingly, 301 ; kept registers, 322, n. ; "voluntary" surrenders, 334, 337 ; their fate at the Reformation, 364 ; their slaughter by Henry VXII., 365 ; buUding after Re- formation, 365 ; employed as chantry priests, 366 ; clerical, their difficulties after the Reformation, 367 ; their pen- sions, 367 ; made beggars by dissolution, 381 Morality of monasteries, 354 ; character of evidence against, 361, n. More, Sir Thomas, on purgatory, 30 ; on Mariolatry at Coventry, 39, n. ; helped Wolsey to introduce Greek into Oxford, 65 ; reads opinions of universities in Parliament, 161 ; on papal jurisdiction, 246 ; on Hunn's case, 392 ; his attainder and pardon, 4l5 ; and the Oath of Suc- cession, 4l8 ; execution of, 423 ; on Anne Boleyn, 423 ; his death charged on Anne Boleyn by Henry VIII., 424 ; his portrait thrown out of window by her, 424 ; on early English Bibles, 505, n. ; his severity towards heretics, 534 Morrice, Ralph, on 1534 translation of Bible, 510 Mortmain, Statutes of, 285 Mortuary fees regulated, 402 Mountjoy, Lord, in charge of Queen Catherine, 191 ; his indignant resigna- tion, 193, n. Myrk's instructions to parish priests, 33 n., 35, n. National independence springing up, 19 ; responsibility for religious abuses, 40 New influences working in Henry VIII. 's reign, 19 Non-residence, mediaeval, 7, 21 Non-resident bishops, 29, n. Norfolk, Duke of, his share of monastic spoils, 378 Norman-French Bible of thirteenth cen- tury, 504, n. Northampton Priory, Act of Surrender, 335 Northumberland, Duke of, Ms share of monastic spoils, 378 Nun of Kent, 413 Nuns, shameful temptations offered to, 315 Nuremberg, mass at in 1530, 497, n. Oath of Supremacy, 234 ; of Succession, 417 Obedience of Church of England to Catho- lic Church, 432 Official demands for reformation at Coun- cil of Basle, 8 Oldcastle, Sir John, 532, n. Oldham, Bishop, on founding new monas- teries, 363 ** Orapro nobis" thrusting aside ^^ Libera nos JDomine" 492 Orders, Holy, Church of England doctrine about, 459 Oxford suggestions for reformation at Pisa, 5 ; Wolsey's professorships, object of, 49 ; letter of Wolsey to, 50, n. ; Wol- sey's good will to, 63 ; heretics, 74, 78 ; broadsheets in 1521, 78 ; pressed by letters from Henry VIII. on divorce business, 170 ; unmanageable on divorce business, 170 ; its decree respecting the divorce question, 171, 173, n. ; inno- vators, 526 Panic among the monies, 3l9, 327 Papal Supremacy, the "Institution" on, 452 Papal remonstrances on disregard shown by England, 239 Papacy, morale of, 242, 243, 244; why despised by Englishmen, 244, 245 Papal jurisdiction rotting away before Henry VIIL, 245 Papal supremacy, withdrawal from sug- gested by clergy, 253 Pardoners a despicable class, 37 "Parish priests," old meaning of, 27 Parish registers, their origin, &c., 322, n. Parliament tuned to opinions of Henry VIIJ., 156 Parliament. See Acts of Parr, Lord, his share of monastic spoils, 378 Parr, Queen Catherine, probably plotted against Henry VIII., 639 Partridge, Sir Miles, wins church bells at play, 375 Patriarch of England and France in- tended, 88, 247, n. Paul's, old St., great size of, 82, n. Paul's Cross sermous used tor agitation, '305 Peace, the way to by preparedness for war : origin of saying, 137, n. Penance, Ten Articles on, 440 Penny, Bishop of Carlisle, on Wolsey's reformation plans, 60 Percy, Lord, and Anne Boleyn, 118 ; de- nies betrothal to her, 123 Peter Martyr alleges cruelty of Henry to Catherine, 107 Petre, Sir William, 433, n. Philip of Hesse had two wives at once, 178 ; his confiscation of monasteries, 292 Picturcsijue history, 401 564 INDEX Piers PloTigliman on indulgences, 37 Pilgrimage of Grace, 320 ; demands of the rebels, 321 ; danger from, 325 ; tempo- rary success of, 323 ; the King treats ■with rebels, 324 ; suppression of, 325 riiiralities, mediseval, 6, 23, 24 ; proposed plan for checking them, 25 ; licensed by Crown instead of Pope, 403 Plumpton, Gilbert de, 21, n. Pule, Cardinal, on connection between Henry VIII. and Mary Boleyn, 93, n. ; accuses Anne Boleyn of suggesting Catherine's divorce, 117 ; on Cranmer and Cromwell, 204, n. Pope thinks Luther should be burned, 81, n. ; asked to divorce Henry VIII. and Queen Catherine, 131 ; refuses to annul marriage of Henry VIII. and Catherine, 134; and question of two wives for Henry VIII., 135, 141, 178; inhibits Henry from marrying while his cause is pending, 155 ; threatened by Gardiner, 135 ; his prevision of calamities coming on the Church, 136, 142; and advoca- tion of divorce cause to Rome, 142 ; double dealing of in divorce cause, 143, n. : receives appeal of Queen Catherine, 152 ; and Henry VIII. cease to hold friendly communications, 154 ; peti- tioned by the Lords and Commons, 156 ; his reply to petition of Lords and Com- mons, 159 ; is resolved to do justice in divorce cause, 177 ; inliibits any sen- tence of divorce between Henry and Catherine, 178 ; forbids marriage of Henry VIII. to Anne Boleyn, 180 ; re- monstrates with Henry VIII. respecting Anne Boleyn, 180 ; annuls Cranmer's sentence of divorce, 189 ; declares mar- riage of Henry VIII. and Catherine valid, 190 ; prayers for forbidden, 230; Wolsey's free treatment of, 239 ; threat- ened by Dr. Benet, 248 ; practically silenced in England, 249 ; amount of tribute paid to ia annates, 254 ; judicial power of in England abolished, 261 Popes, bad character of, 242, 243 Popular anger aroused by dissolutions, 320 Portiforium reformed, 496 Praemunire feared by Augustinians in 1519, 61 ; what it meant, 199 ; all Eng- land involved in, 201 ; and pardoned, 202 ; clergy ransom themselves from its penalty, 203 ; Lord Eussel's revival of, 211, n. ; for refusing to elect or con- secrate bishops, 267 Prayer-Book committee, 497 Prayer-Book divines translators of Bible, 520 Prayers for the dead. Reformation teach- ing about, 486 : Latimer on, 487, n. Prayer, the Lords, expounded in "Insti- tution," 548 Precedents for dissolution of monasteries, 290 Prick song forbidden by Wolsey, 62, n. Primers in English, 495 Printing, its influence, 20 Printed Bibles late in England, 502, n. Prior of Hinton on feelings of monks, 339 Processions translated by direction of Cranmer, 498 Programme of Wolsey's reformation plans, 49 Protestation of clergy against errors, 434 " Protestant," origin, of word, 523, n. Protestantism a hindrance to true refor- mation, 41 Psalter, early English, 496 Public opinion, influence of, used, 272, 317 Pulpits tuned to supremacy question, 271 Purgatory, medieval notions of, 29 ; effects of belief in penal, 283 ; Refor- mation teaching about, 486 Puritan style, 549 Puritan misuse of Bible in church, 512 Puritans diverted men from true reforms, 25 ; their ribald tracts, 81 ; their blas- phemies, 273, n. Ranulph de Glanville, 21, n, ^^ RatioTiale" a Reformation, on cere- monies, 492 "Razing" the monasteries, 340, 343 Reaction caused by cruel Act of Six Articles, 479 Reading, Abbot of, sent to Tower to be converted and executed, 352 Reading, the test of a "clerk," 407 Real presence. Church of England on the, 442 Reformation, a readjustment of system, 3 ; suggested at Pisa by Oxford, 5 ; set on foot by Wolsey, 42 ; Council of Westminster held by Wolsey, 59 ; Fox, Bishop of Winchester, on, 59, n, ; synod held by Wolsey, 85 ; and Anne Boleyn, 197 Reformers, true prudence of, 622 Reformatio legum Ecclesiastiarum, 229 " Regius" professorships founded by Wolsey, 64 Regnault, printer of English primers, 495 Relics and shrines misused, 38 "Religion" of monasteries, 354 Republicanisminfifteenth century, 532, u. Ridley, Dr., 145, 151 Ritual, Reformation principles about, 485 Roche Abbey, contemporary account of its surrender, 336 : visitation of, 336 ; de- struction of, 344 Roman Catholic schism in England a reaction, 425 Rome, policy of Wolsey towards, 54 ; profligacy of, 244 ; taxation of England by abolished, 269 INDEX 565 Eoyal Supremacy confirmed by Act of Parliament, 230 ; denial of made treason, 231 ; an ancient right of the Crown, 233 ; its limitations, 233 ; an executive authority, 235 ; its nature as set forth by James I., 236 ; the *' Insti- tution" on, 462 Russel, Lord, and the Abbot of Glaston- bury, 350 ; his share of monastic spoils, 378 Ruthal made Bishop of Durham, 51, u. Sedbar, Adam, Abbot of Jervaulx, 326 ; his inscription in the Tower, 326, n. Sacraments, the ** Seven," Church of Eng- land doctrine about, 457 Saints, Invocation of, Reformation princi- ples about, 484 Sanctuary abolished, 411, n. Sawtrey burned for heresy, 529 Scheme for checking pluralities, 25 Schoolmen, foUy of contempt for, 427, n. Schools, diminution of their number at Reformation, 386 Scottish Churchin sixteenth century,28,n. Seduction of Nuns attempted, 316 Sees founded by Henry VIII., 371 Service books, revision of, 494 Seymour, Jane, her hasty marriage with Henry VIII., 197 Shakespeare and Wolsey'fl dying words, 97, n. ; on death of Catherine's children, 106 ; on conscience of Henry VIII., 116 ; on Queen Catherine's affection for Henry VIII., 105; on impoverishment of nobility, 379 Sherborne, Bishop of Chichester, 276 Sixtus IV., character of, 242 Smalcaldic League, 470 Social results of dissolution, 380, 389 ; status of early Dissenters, 550 "Sorting" evidence against the monks, 349 "Sour sauce" for the Pope, 241 Spain invented burning for heresy, 529 Spelman, Sir H. on growth of monastic property, 282, n. Spies and informers sent to monasteries, 314 Spires, Diet of, the "Institution" sent to, 467 Stamford Greyfriars, their act of surren- der, 334 Standi.sh, Dr. counsel for Queen Catherine, 145 ; and the Abbot of "Winchelcombe, 396 ; and Convocation, 397 Statute of Appeals, 257 ; widely circulated, 272 ; principle of still in force, 261 Statutes of Provisors, 263 Stokesley, Bishop, refuses to translate the Acts 510 " Submission of the Clergy," 212, 227 Subscription to Ten Articles, 437 Succession settled in early sixteenth cen- tuiy, 19 ; Act, 417 ; Oath, 417 Suffolk, Duke of, sent to suppress northern rebellion, 320; his share of monastic spoils, 378 ; his extravagance, 379, n. ; supported anti-Church party, 554 Suffragan Bishops, 23, 267, n., 315, n. Summary of steps by which papal juris- diction abolished, 277 "Supplication of souls," 30 Supremacy, Royal, recognised by Convo- cation, 208 ; alleged early assertion of by Henry VIII., 399 "Supreme Head of the Church,*' 204, 207, 235, n. Superstition of belief and imbelief, 481 Superstitious customs, 36 Surrender, Acts of, necessary, 333 ; their character, 334, 337 Suicidal religious mania, 534, n. Synods reviewing doctrine, 430 Talbois, Elizabeth, 109 Tarbgs, Bishop of [see Grammont] " Tasting fat priests," 325 Tavemer set free by Wolsey, 73 ; his Bible, 516 Taxes -on marriages, &c., 322, n. Taj lor, Prolocutor, his note in House of Lords Journal, 400, n. Taylor, Rowland, informs against Lambert for^eresy, 538 Tetzel and his indulgences, 38 Theological repudiation of papal jurisdic- tion, 273 ; discussions accompanying Reformation, 429 Theologians, paucity of at Reformation, 427 Tithes, refusal to pay them, 404 Tower Hill scaffold, place of, 421, n. Tower of London, inscriptions in illus- trated, 326, 351, 416 Translation of Bible by English Divines, 502 Treasures concealed by monks at dissolu- tion, 328 ; appropriated by Henry VIII. from monasteries, 341 Trent, Catechism of, 444, 454, n. Tuning the pulpits, 271, 273, 317 Tunstal, Bishop, protests against title of supreme head, 209 ; buys up Tyndale's Testament for Warham, 506 ; and Heath's Bible, 516 Tyndale's English New Testament, 506 ; New Testament printed by King's printer, 513 ; disloyal omission in, 514, n. ; writings, their character, 536, 548 ; his tenets, 546; his unchristian disposition, 548 Udal, Nicolas, his vile character, 541, n. UUerston, Dr., to the Council of Piya, 6 Ultramontane Christianity in England, 36 " Unclement Bishop," 249. Unction, extreme, the "Institution" on, 463 566 INDEX Union of English and French Churches projected, 89 Universities opinions as to divorce, 130 ; dates of, 163, n. ; foreign, opinions of 155, 161, 162 ; Oxford and Cambridge, opinions of, 162, 170 ; repudiated papal authority, 275 ; their endowments given to Henry VIII., 353 Unsaintliness of fifteenth century, 4 Untruthfulness of Act dissolving small monasteries, 305 Vagrant laws of Henry VIII., 382 Valuations of monastic property, 369 Variety of customs lawful, 2 Vernacular "Aspersio," 485, n. ; growing influence of, 494; use of in Divine Service, 495 ; psalters, &c., of early date, 496, 503 ; Litany, 498 ; Bibles common before Wicldiffe, 505 Verses about Abbot of Glastonbury, 351 ' ' Villain blood, " aversion of common people for, 321 Visitation of the clergy by Wolsey, 56 Visitationof monasteries, first, 295, second, 327 Visitors, their reports, 355, 359 ; their names and characters, 296, 356, 357, 358, 359 Voysey, Dr., 399 Wakefield, Eobert, first prints in Greek, 64 ; suggests obtaining university opin- ions as to the divorce, 129, n., 130 Warham on condition of his clergy, 27 ; willing to give up office to Wolsey, 45 ; objects to put Oxford in Wolsey'a hands for reform, 63 ; urges Wolsey to severity with heretics, 74; opposed to marriage of Henry and Catherine, 103 ; and the royal Supremacy, 207, 208, n. ; replies to charges made against him, 224 ; complains of distorted comments on Bible, 506, n. Wealth of the Crown in Henry VIII. 's time, 204, n. West, Bishop, on abuses at Ely, 362 Weston, Prior, dying of grief, 368, n. *' Whip with six strings," 473 White Horse divines, 527 Whiting, Abbot, of Glastonbury, 345 Wicldiffe, why his Bible opposed, 504 ; and the Reformation, 523 Winchelcombe, Abbot of, and Dr. Standish 395 Wine, unconsecrated given with Eucharist, 33 Wingfield, Prior, 360 Wittenberg, conferences at, 470 Wobum, Abbot of, exhorting his monlts, 332 ; executed as traitor, 333, n. Wolsey followed lead of Ximenes, 9, 48 ; liis many preferments, 43 ; why given, 22; person^ history of, 43; his just and humane government, 44, 97 ; cause of his influence with Henry VIII., 45 ; prime minister without a parlia- ment, 46, n. ; often opposed by Henry VIII., 47 ; and Colet, 48 ; influences at work on, 48 ; his constitutions for pro- vince of York, 49, 65 ; his probable scheme of reformation, 49, 53 ; concen- trated power for good objects, 50, 98, 99; his toleration, 50, 65, 73, 525, 526, 528 ; made bishop and arch- bishop, 51; asks to be made legate, 52 ; made cardinal, 52 ; and reformation of monasteries, 53, 55, ^^^ 60, 61, 68 ; his nationalism, 53 ; made joint legate, 54 ; becomes sole legate, 56 ; his legate- ship extended by request of Henry VIII., 57, 58 ; made legate for life, 58 ; opposed by the Franciscans, 60 ; and the Augustinians, 61 ; his friendly relations with the universities, 62; founds profes- sorships at Oxford, 63 ; encourages study of Greek, 64; founding Christ Church, 66 ; his motives in founding colleges, 67 ; providing for exposition of the Bible at Christ Church, 67 ; designed a College of Laws, 68 ; founded College of Phy- sicians, 68 ; founds Ipswich College, 71 ; his preface to the Latin grammar, 72, n. ; probably sympathized with Luther, 73, n. ; imports reformers into Oxford, 75, n., 85, n. ; bums books to spare theii' writers, 83 ; his treatment of Dr. Barnes, 84, n. ; a candidate for pope- dom, 87 ; becomes vicar-general to the Pope, 88 ; would rather be prime minis- ter of England than ten popes, 88, n. ; his influence failing, 90 ; extortion of his subordinates, 92; retires to Eslier and Sheen, 95 ; death of, 96 ; much be- loved as a bishop, 96 ; alleged dying words of, 97, n. ; his alleged immo- rality, 97, n. ; honourable ambition of, 97 ; considered a bulwark against church plunder by contemporaries, 98 ; his constitutional mistake, 99 ; why he failed, 99, 100 ; becomes godfather to Princess Mary, 107 ; did not suggest divorce, 115 ; advises Henry to use Catherine gently, 118, n. ; shrinks from divorce business, 127, 152; foresees re- nunciation of Pope's jurisdiction, \\\ ; a hot day with Henry VIII., 153 ; re- bukes Boleyn and others about the di- vorce business, 153; his earnest en- treaties with Henry VIII., 160 ; declares how the King of England would appear before Pope, 180; and the Praamunire, 199 ; confiscation of his colleges, 201, 203 ; his noble submission to the King, 201 ; recognised as legate by Henry VIII,, 201 ; free treatment of popes, 239 ; sour sauce for the Pope, 241 ; INDEX 567 threatens Clement VII., 241 ; dissolved monasteries for good of Churcli, 293 ; his courage respecting the plague, 464 ; licenses Latimer as general preacher, 528 Women bumed for felony till 1789, 529 "Working men," 381 Womura on a portrait of Sir T. More, 424 Worrying the monks, 299, 313 Wotton, Dr., at Diet of Spires, 467 XiMENES reforming Church of Spain, 9 Ximenes and Wolsey, 48 Yearnings for reformation, 3, 40 York, Wolsey Archbishop of, 51 York, Wolsey'a reforming constitutions for, 49, 55, n. Zeal and scarlet breechep. 173 MUIR AND PATERSON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. '^t'-^- ; , ' , 4 , ij^i.'.''-' 'W''