Chapter XVII (3)

The high style of Henry contrasts unfavourably with the more dignified moderation of the answer. The duke wrote himself briefly to the king: he replied through his minister to the ambassador, that "he was sorry for the the chance, and would well have wished it had been otherwise; yet, seeing it was thus, he would not depart from his amity for his Majesty for any such matter. He could have wished that his sister should return to Germany; but, if she was satisfied to remain, he had confidence that the king would act uprightly towards her, and he would not press it." Of the offer of money he took little notice or none.[609] The bishop laboured to persuade him to pay respect to the judgment of the Church; this, however, the duke resolutely refused, altogether ignoring it as of no manner of moment; neither would he allow that the Lady Anne had been treated honourably, although the bishop much pressed for the admission. A cold acquiescence in an affront which he was too weak to resent, and a promise that his private injuries should not cause the dissolution of an alliance which had been useful to the interests of religion, was the most which could be extorted from the Duke of Cleves; and, in calmer moments, Henry could neither have desired nor looked for more. But no one at that crisis was calm in England. The passions roused in the strife of convictions which divided rank from rank, which divided families, which divided every earnest man against himself, extended over all subjects which touched the central question. The impulse of the moment assumed the character of right, and everything was wrong which refused to go along with it.

[Sidenote: The divorce is communicated to Francis,]

Sir Edward Karne made the communication to Francis, prefacing his story with the usual prelude of the succession, and the anxiety of the country that the king should have more children. "Even at that point" Francis started, expecting that something serious was to follow. When Sir Edward went on to say that "the examination of the king's marriage was submitted to the clergy," "What," he said, "the matrimony made with the queen that now is?" Karne assented. "Then he fetched a great sigh, and spake no more" till the conclusion, when he answered, "he could nor would take any other opinion of his Highness but as his loving brother and friend should do;" for the particular matter, "his Highness's conscience must be judge therein."[610]

[Sidenote: And to the Emperor.]

[Sidenote: The king had lost Germany and gained the Empire.]

"The Emperor," wrote the resident Pate, "when I declared my commission, gave me good air, with one gesture and countenance throughout, saving that suddenly, as I touched the pith of the matter, thereupon he steadfastly cast his eye upon me a pretty while, and then interrupting me, demanded what the causes were of the doubts concerning the marriage with the daughter of Cleves." Pate was not commissioned to enter into details; and Charles, at the end, contented himself with sending his hearty recommendations, and expressing his confidence that, as the king was wise, so he was sure he would do nothing "which should not be to the discharge of his conscience and the tranquillity of his realm."[611] In confidence, a few days later, he avowed a hope that all would now go well in England; the enormities of the past had been due to the pernicious influence of Cromwell; or were "beside the king's pleasure or knowledge, being a prince," the Emperor said, "no less godly brought up than endued and imbued with so many virtuous qualities as whom all blasts and storms could never alter nor move, but as vice might alter true virtue."[612] On the whole, the impression left by the affair on the Continent was that Henry "had lost the hearts of the German princes, but had gained the Emperor instead."[613] Both the loss and the gain were alike welcome to the English conservatives. The latter, happy in their victory, and now freed from all impediments, had only to follow up their advantage.

[Sidenote: Bill for the moderation of the Six Articles in favour of incontinence.]

[Sidenote: Appointment of a standing committee of religion, with extraordinary powers.]

On the 12th of July the persecuting bill was passed, and the Tithe Bill also, after having been recast by the Commons.[614] On the 16th the Six Articles Bill was moderated, in favour not of heresy, but of the more venial offence of incontinency. Married clergy and incontinent priests by the Six Articles Bill were, on the first offence, to forfeit their benefices; if they persisted they were to be treated as felons. The King's Highness, graciously considering "that the punishment of death was very sore, and too much extreme," was contented to relax the penalty into three gradations. For the first offence the punishment was to be forfeiture of all benefices but one; for the second, forfeiture of the one remaining; for the third, imprisonment for life.[615] A few days later the extension given to the prerogative, by the Act of Proclamations, was again shortened by communicating to the clergy a share of the powers which had been granted absolutely to the crown; and the parliament at the same time restored into the hands of the spiritualty the control of religious opinion. The Protestants had shifted their ground from purgatory and masses to free-will and justification; and had thus defied the bishops, and left the law behind them. The king's proclamations had failed through general neglect. A committee of religion was now constituted, composed of the archbishops, bishops, and other learned doctors of divinity; and an act, which passed three readings in the House of Lords in a single day, conferred on this body a power to declare absolutely, under the king's sanction, the judgment of the English Church on all questions of theology which might be raised, either at home or on the Continent, and to compel submission to their decrees, under such pains and penalties as they might think proper to impose, limited only by the common law and by the restrictions attached to the Act of Proclamations.[616]

[Sidenote: Bill of attainder against various persons who had conspired to betray Calais,]

[Sidenote: To which are added the names of Barnes, Garret, and Jerome.]

[Sidenote: Declared guilty of heresy.]

One important matter remained. This statute conferred no powers of life and death; and there were certain chosen champions of Protestantism who had resisted authority, had scoffed at recantation, and had insulted the Bishop of Winchester. Although a penal measure could not be extended to comprehend their doctrine by special definition, an omnipotent parliament might, by a stretch of authority, vindicate the bishop's dignity, and make a conspicuous example of the offenders. A case of high treason was before the Houses. At the time when the invasion was impending, a party of conspirators, Sir Gregory Botolph, Clement Philpot, and three others, had contrived a project to betray Calais either to the French or the Spaniards. The plot had been betrayed by a confederate;[617] and the Anglo-Catholics did not intend to repeat the blunder of showing a leaning towards the Romanists, which had wrecked their fortunes in the preceding summer: they sentenced the offenders to death by an attainder; and after so satisfactory a display of loyalty, the friends of the bishops added three more names to the list in the following words:[618] "And whereas Robert Barnes, late of London, clerk, Thomas Garret, late of London, clerk, and William Jerome, late of Stepney, in the county of Middlesex, clerk, being detestable and abominable heretics, and amongst themselves agreed and confederated to set and sow common sedition and variance amongst the king's true and loving subjects within this his realm, not fearing their most bounden duty to God nor yet their allegiance towards his Majesty, have openly preached, taught, set forth, and delivered in divers and sundry places of this realm, a great number of heresies, false, erroneous opinions, doctrines, and sayings; and thinking themselves to be men of learning, have taken upon them most seditiously and heretically to open and declare divers and many texts of Scripture, expounding and applying the same to many perverse and heretical senses, understandings, and purposes, to the intent to induce and lead his Majesty's said subjects to diffidence and refusal of the true, sincere faith and belief which Christian men ought to have in Christian religion, the number whereof were too long here to be rehearsed.... Be it, therefore, enacted that the said persons Robert Barnes, Thomas Garret, and William Jerome, shall be convicted and attainted of heresy, and that they and every of them shall be deemed and adjudged abominable and detestable heretics, and shall have and suffer pains of death by burning or otherwise, as shall please the King's Majesty."

[Sidenote: Dissolution of parliament.]

This was the last measure of consequence in the session. Three days after it closed. On the 24th the king came down to Westminster in person, to thank the parliament for the subsidy. The Speaker of the House of Commons congratulated the country on their sovereign. The chancellor replied, in his Majesty's name, that his only study was for the welfare of his subjects; his only ambition was to govern them by the rule of the Divine law, and the Divine love, to the salvation of their souls and bodies. The bills which had been passed were then presented for the royal assent; and the chancellor, after briefly exhorting the members of both houses to show the same diligence in securing the due execution of these measures as they had displayed in enacting them, declared the parliament dissolved.[619]

[Sidenote: The close of the Cromwell drama.]

[Sidenote: His letters to the king from the Tower.]

[Sidenote: July 28. He goes to execution.]

The curtain now rises on the closing act of the Cromwell tragedy. In the condemned cells in the Tower, the three Catholics for whose sentence he was himself answerable--the three Protestants whom his fall had left exposed to their enemies--were the companions of the broken minister; and there for six weeks he himself, the central figure, whose will had made many women childless, had sat waiting his own unpitied doom. Twice the king had sent to him "honourable persons, to receive such explanations as he could offer. He had been patiently and elaborately heard."[620] Twice he had himself written,--once, by Henry's desire, an account of the Anne of Cleves marriage,--once a letter, which his faithful friend Sir Ralph Sadler carried to Henry for him; and this last the king caused the bearer three times to read over, and "seemed to be moved therewith."[621] Yet what had Cromwell to say? That he had done his best in the interest of the commonwealth? But his best was better than the laws of the commonwealth. He had endeavoured faithfully to serve the king; but he had endeavoured also to serve One higher than the king. He had thrown himself in the breach against king and people where they were wrong. He had used the authority with which he had been so largely trusted to thwart the parliament and suspend statutes of the realm. He might plead his services; but what would his services avail him! An offence in the king's eyes was ever proportioned to the rank, the intellect, the character of the offender. The _via media Anglicana_, on which Henry had planted his foot, prescribed an even justice; and as Cromwell, in this name of the _via media_, had struck down without mercy the adherents of the Church of Rome, there was no alternative but to surrender him to the same equitable rule, or to declare to the world and to himself that he no longer held that middle place which he so vehemently claimed. To sustain the Six Articles and to pardon the vicegerent was impossible. If the consent to the attainder cost the king any pang, we do not know; only this we know, that a passionate appeal for mercy, such as was rarely heard in those days of haughty endurance, found no response; and on the 28th of July the most despotic minister who had ever governed England passed from the Tower to the scaffold.

[Sidenote: A false account of his last words printed by authority.]

A speech was printed by authority, and circulated through Europe, which it was thought desirable that he should have been supposed to have uttered before his death. It was accepted as authentic by Hall, and from Hall's pages has been transferred into English history; and "the Lord Cromwell" is represented to have confessed that he had been seduced into heresy, that he repented, and died in the faith of the holy Catholic Church. Reginald Pole, who, like others, at first accepted the official report as genuine, warned a correspondent, on the authority of persons whose account might be relied upon, that the words which were really spoken were very different, and to Catholic minds were far less satisfactory.[622] The last effort of Cromwell's enemies was to send him out of the world with a lie upon his lips, to call in his dying witness in favour of falsehoods which he gave up his life to overthrow. Clear he was not, as what living man was clear? of all taint of superstition; but a fairer version of his parting faith will be found in words which those who loved him, and who preserved no record of his address to the people, handed down as his last prayer to the Saviour:--

[Sidenote: His prayer on the scaffold.]

[Sidenote: The end.]

"O Lord Jesu, which art the only health of all men living, and the everlasting life of them which die in Thee, I, wretched sinner, do submit myself wholly to thy most blessed will; and, being sure that the thing cannot perish which is submitted to thy mercy, willingly now I leave this frail and wicked flesh, in sure hope that Thou wilt in better wise restore it to me again at the last day in the resurrection of the just. I beseech Thee, most merciful Lord Jesu Christ, that Thou wilt by thy grace make strong my soul against all temptation, and defend me with the buckler of thy mercy against all the assaults of the devil. I see and acknowledge that there is in myself no hope of salvation; but all my confidence, hope, and trust is in thy most merciful goodness. I have no merits nor good works which I may allege before Thee: of sin and evil works, alas! I see a great heap. But yet, through thy mercy, I trust to be in the number of them to whom Thou wilt not impute their sins, but wilt take and accept me for righteous and just, and to be the inheritor of everlasting life. Thou, merciful Lord, wast born for my sake; Thou didst suffer both hunger and thirst for my sake; all thy holy actions and works Thou wroughtest for my sake; Thou sufferedst both grievous pains and torments for my sake; finally, Thou gavest thy most precious body and blood to be shed on the cross for my sake. Now, most merciful Saviour, let all these things profit me that Thou hast freely done for me, which hast given Thyself also for me. Let thy blood cleanse and wash away the spots and foulness of my sins. Let thy righteousness hide and cover my unrighteousness. Let the merits of thy passion and bloodshedding be satisfaction for my sins. Give me, Lord, thy grace, that the faith in my salvation in thy blood waver not, but may ever be firm and constant; that the hope of thy mercy and life everlasting never decay in me; that love wax not cold in me; finally, that the weakness of my flesh be not overcome with fear of death. Grant me, merciful Saviour, that when death hath shut up the eyes of my body, yet the eyes of my soul may still behold and look upon Thee; and when death hath taken away the use of my tongue, yet my heart may cry and say unto Thee, Lord, into thy hands I commend my soul. Lord Jesu, receive my spirit. Amen."[623]

[Sidenote: His character.]

With these words upon his lips perished a statesman whose character will for ever remain a problem.[624] For eight years his influence had been supreme with the king--supreme in parliament--supreme in convocation; the nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by him; and he has left the print of his individual genius stamped indelibly, while the metal was at white heat, into the constitution of the country. Wave after wave has rolled over his work. Romanism flowed back over it under Mary. Puritanism, under another even grander Cromwell, overwhelmed it. But Romanism ebbed again, and Puritanism is dead, and the polity of the Church of England remains as it was left by its creator.

And not in the Church only, but in all departments of the public service, Cromwell was the sovereign guide. In the Foreign Office and the Home Office, in Star Chamber and at council table, in dockyard and law court, Cromwell's intellect presided--Cromwell's hand executed. His gigantic correspondence remains to witness for his varied energy. Whether it was an ambassador or a commissioner of sewers, a warden of a company or a tradesman who was injured by the guild, a bishop or a heretic, a justice of the peace, or a serf crying for emancipation, Cromwell was the universal authority to whom all officials looked for instruction, and all sufferers looked for redress. Hated by all those who had grown old in an earlier system--by the wealthy, whose interests were touched by his reforms--by the superstitious, whose prejudices he wounded--he was the defender of the weak, the defender of the poor, defender of the "fatherless and forsaken"; and for his work, the long maintenance of it has borne witness that it was good--that he did the thing which England's true interests required to be done.

Of the manner in which that work was done it is less easy to speak. Fierce laws fiercely executed--an unflinching resolution which neither danger could daunt nor saintly virtue move to mercy--a long list of solemn tragedies--weigh upon his memory. He had taken upon himself a task beyond the ordinary strength of man. His difficulties could be overcome only by inflexible persistence in the course which he had marked out for himself and for the state; and he supported his weakness by a determination which imitated the unbending fixity of a law of nature. He pursued an object the excellence of which, as his mind saw it, transcended all other considerations--the freedom of England and the destruction of idolatry: and those who from any motive, noble or base, pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed, and passed on over their bodies.

Whether the same end could have been attained by gentler methods is a question which many persons suppose they can easily answer in the affirmative. Some diffidence of judgment, however, ought to be taught by the recollection that the same end was purchased in every other country which had the happiness to attain to it at all, only by years of bloodshed, a single day or week of which caused larger human misery than the whole period of the administration of Cromwell. Be this as it will, his aim was noble. For his actions he paid with his life; and he followed his victims by the same road which they had trodden before him, to the high tribunal, where it may be that great natures who on earth have lived in mortal enmity may learn at last to understand each other.

[Sidenote: July 30. Double execution of Protestants and Romanists.]

Two days after, Barnes, Garret, and Jerome died bravely at the stake, their weakness and want of wisdom all atoned for, and serving their Great Master in their deaths better than they had served Him in their lives. With them perished, not as heretics, but as traitors, the three Romanizing priests. The united executions were designed as an evidence of the even hand of the council. The execution of traitors was not to imply an indulgence of heresy; the punishment of heretics should give no hope to those who were disloyal to their king and country. But scenes of such a kind were not repeated. The effect was to shock, not to edify.[625] The narrow theory could be carried out to both its cruel extremes only where a special purpose was working upon passions specially excited.

END OF VOL. III.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] He told Sir Gregory Cassalis that he had been compelled by external pressure to issue threats, "quæ tamen nunquam in animo habuit ad exitum perducere."--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.

[2] Richard Ebbes to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Vespasian_, B 7, fol. 87.

[3] "There be here both Englishmen and Irishmen many that doth daily invent slander to the realm of England, with as many naughty Popish practices as they can and may do, and specially Irishmen."--Ibid.

[4] "L'Empéreur a deux fois qu'il avoit parlè audit Evesque luy avoit faict un discours long et plein de grande passion de la cruelle guerre qu'il entendoit faire contre le dit Roy d'Angleterre, au cas qu'il ne reprinst et restituast en ses honneurs la Reyne Catherine sa tante, et luy avoit declarè les moyens qu'il avoit executer vivement icelle guerre, et principalement au moyen de la bonne intelligence ce qu'il disoit avoir avec le Roy d'Ecosse." Martin du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 110.

[5] Reginald Pole states that the issue was only prevented by the news of Queen Catherine's death.--Pole to Prioli: _Epistles_, Vol. I. p. 442.

[6] Sleidan.

[7] Du Bellay's _Memoirs_, p. 135.

[8] "The Turks do not compel others to adopt their belief. He who does not attack their religion may profess among them what religion he will; he is safe. But where this pestilent seed is sown, those who do not accept, and those who openly oppose, are in equal peril."--Reginald Pole: _De Unitate Ecclesiæ_. For the arch-enemy of England even the name of heretic was too good. "They err," says the same writer elsewhere, "who call the King of England heretic or schismatic. He has no claims to name so honourable. The heretic and schismatic acknowledge the power and providence of God. He takes God utterly away."--_Apology to Charles the Fifth._

[9] "Sire, je pense que vous avez entendu du supplication que le Roy fit, estant la present luy même allant en ordre apres les reliques me teste portant ung torche en son mayn avecques ses filz, ses evesques, et cardinaulz devant luy, et les ducs, contes, seigneurs, seneschals, esquieres, et aultres nobles gens apres luy; et la Reyne portée par deux hommes avecques la fille du Roy et ses propres. Apres touts les grosses dames et demoiselles suivants a pié. Quant tout ceci fit fayt on brûlait vi. a ung feu. Et le Roy pour sa part remercioit Dieu qu'il avoit donne cognoissance de si grand mal le priant de pardon qu'il avoit pardonne a ung ou deux le en passé; et qu'il na pas este plus diligente en faysant execution; et fit apres serment que dicy en avant il les brulerait tous tous tant qu'il en trouveroit."--Andrew Baynton to Henry VIII.: _MS. State Paper Office_, temp. Henry VIII., second series, Vol. IV.

[10] "The Duke of Orleans is married to the niece of Clement the Seventh If I give him Milan, and he be dependent only on his father, he will be altogether French ... he will be detached wholly from the confederacy of the Empire."--Speech of Charles the Fifth in the Consistory at Rome. _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.

[11] Charles certainly did give a promise, and the date of it is fixed for the middle of the winter of 1535-36 by the protest of the French court, when it was subsequently withdrawn. "Your Majesty," Count de Vigny said, on the 18th of April, 1536, "promised a few months ago that you would give Milan to the Duke of Orleans, and not to his brother the Duke of Angoulesme"--Ibid.: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[12] "Bien estoit d'advis quant au faict d'Angleterre, afin qu'il eust plus de couleur de presser le Roy dudit pays a se condescendre a l'opinion universelle des Chrêtiens, que l'Empereur fist que notre Sainct Pere sommast de ce faire tous les princes et potentats Chrêtiens; et a luy assister, et donner main forte pour faire obeir le dit Roy à la sentence et determination de l'Eglise."--Du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 136.

[13] Du Bellay: _Memoirs._ "Hic palam obloquuntur de morte illius ac verentur de Puellâ regiâ ne brevi sequatur."--"I assure you men speak here tragice of these matters which is not to be touched by letters."--Harval to Starkey, from Venice, Feb. 5, 1535-36: Ellis, second series, Vol. II.

[14] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 442.

[15] "There hath been means made unto us by the Bishop of Rome himself for a reconciliation."--Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476.

[16] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476. Lord Herbert, p. 196. Du Bellay's _Memoirs_.

[17] Du Bellay.

[18] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Pole to Prioli, March, 1536; _Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. I.

[21] Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.

[22] An interesting account of these speeches and of the proceedings in the consistory is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 646. It was probably furnished by Sir Gregory Cassalis.

[23] Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[24] "Omnes qui sollerti judicio ista pensitare solent, ita statuunt aliquid proditionis in Galliâ esse paratum non dissimile Ducis Borboniæ proditioni. Non enim aliud vident quod Caæsarem illuc trahere posset."--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[25] See Cassalis's Correspondence with Cromwell in May, 1536: _State Papers_, Vol VII.

[26] The clearest account which I have seen of the point in dispute between Charles V. and Francis I. is contained in a paper drawn by some English statesman apparently for Henry's use.--_Rolls House MSS._ first series, No. 757.

[27] When the English army was in the Netherlands, in 1543, the Emperor especially admired the disposition of their entrenchments. Sir John Wallop, the commander-in-chief, told him he had learnt that art some years before in a campaign, of which the Emperor himself must remember something, in the south of France.

[28] Pole, in writing to Charles V., says that Henry's cruelties to the Romanists had been attributed wholly to the "Leæna" at his side; and "when he had shed the blood of her whom he had fed with the blood of others," every one expected that he would have recovered his senses.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.

[29] "The news, which some days past were divulged of the queen's case, made a great tragedy, which was celebrated by all men's voices with admiration and great infamy to that woman to have betrayed that noble prince after such a manner, who had exalted her so high, and put himself to peril not without perturbation of all the world for her cause. But God showed Himself a rightful judge to discover such treason and iniquity. All is for the best. And I reckon this to the king's great fortune, that God would give him grace to see and touch with his hand what great enemies and traitors he lived withal."--Harvel to Starkey, from Venice, May 26: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 77.

[30] Pole to Contarini: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 457.

[31] "Dicerem in ipso me adeo bonum animum reperisse ut procul dubio vestra Majestas omnia de ipso sibi polliceri possit."--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.

[32] Neque ea cupiditate laborare ut suas fortunas in immensum augeat aut Pontificales fines propaget unde accidere posset ut ab hâc . . . . institutâ ratione recederet.--Ibid. The MS. has been injured by fire--words and paragraphs are in places wanting. In the present passage it is not clear whether Paul was speaking of the Papal authority generally, or of the Pontifical states in France and Italy.

[33] Causâ vero matrimonii et in consistoriis et publice et privatim apud Clementem VII. se omnia quæ [potuerit pro] vestrâ Majestate egisse; et Bononiæ Imperatori per [horas] quatuor accurate persuadere conatum fuisse.--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.

[34] Ibid.

[35] _State Papers_, Vol. VII., June 5, 1536.

[36] Since Pole, when it suited his convenience, could represent the king's early career in very different colours, it is well to quote some specimens of his more favourable testimony. Addressing Henry himself, he says: "Quid non promittebant præclaræ illæ virtutes quæ primis annis principatûs tui in te maxime elucebant. In quibus primum pietas quæ una omnium aliarum, et totius humanæ felicitatis quasi fundamentum est se proferebat. Cui adjunctæ erant quæ maxime in oculis hominum elucere solent justitia clementia liberalitas, prudentia denique tanta quanta in illâ tenerâ ætate esse potuit. Ut dixit Ezechiel de Rege Assyriorum, in paradiso Dei cedrus te pulcrior non inveniebatur."--_De Unitate Ecclesiæ_, lib. 3.

Again, writing to Charles V., after speaking of the golden splendour of Henry's early reign, his wealth, his moderation, the happiness of the people, and the circle of illustrious men who surrounded his throne, he goes on--

"Hi vero illam indolem sequebantur quam Regi Deus ipsi prius dederat cujus exemplar in Rege suo viderunt. Fuit enim indoles ejus aliquando prorsus regia. Summum in eo pietatis studium apparebat et religionis cultus; magnus amor justitiæ; non abhorrens tamen natura ut tum quidem videbatur a clementiâ."

And the time at which the supposed change took place is also marked distinctly:--

"Satanas in carne adhuc manentem naturâ hominis jam videtur spoliasse . . . . suâ induisse . . . in quâ nihil præter formam videtur reliquisse quod sit hominis; . . . . ne vitia quidem . . . sed cum omni virtute et donis illis Dei cœlestibus quibus cum optimis Regum comparari poterat antequam in vicariatum Filii ejus se ingereret [præditus est] postquam illum honorem impie ambivit et arripuit, non solum virtutibus omnibus privatus est sed etiam," etc.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.

It was "necessary to the position" of Romanist writers to find the promise of evil in Henry's early life, after his separation from the Papacy, and stories like those which we read in Sanders grew like mushrooms in the compost of hatred. But it is certain that so long as he was orthodox he was regarded as a model of a Catholic prince. Cardinal Contarini laments his fall, as a fall like Lucifer's: "Quî fieri potuit per Deum immortalem," he wrote to Pole, "ut animus ille tam mitis tam mansuetus ut ad bene merendum de hominum genere a naturâ factus esse videatur sit adeo immutatus."--_Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. II. p. 31.

[37] Pole to Henry VIII.: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 305.

[38] Pole to the English Council: _Epist._, Vol. I.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Said by Cranmer to have been an able paper: "He suadeth with such goodly eloquence; both of words and sentences, that he is like to persuade many."--Cranmer's _Works_, edit. Jenkyns Vol. I. p. 2.

[41] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_.

[42] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 281.

[43] "Quibus si rem persuadere velis multa preæter rem sunt dicenda multa insinuanda."--_Epist. Reg. Pol._, Vol. I. p. 434. And again: "Illum librum scribo non tam Regis causâ quam gregis Christi qui est universus Regni populus, quem sic deludi vix ferendum est."--Ibid. p. 437. I draw attention to these words, because in a subsequent defence of himself to the English Privy Council, Pole assured them that his book was a private letter privately sent to the king; that he had written as a confessor to a penitent, under the same obligations of secrecy: "Hoc genere dicendi Regem omnibus dedecorosum et probrosum reddo? Quibus tandem illustrissimi Domini? Hisne qui libellum nunquam viderunt? an his ad quos legendum dedi? Quod si hic solus sit Rex ipse, utinam ipse sibi probrosus videretur Ad eum certe solum misi; quocum ita egi ut nemo unquam a confessionibus illi secretior esse potuisset hoc tantum spectans quod confessores ut illi tantum sua peccata ostenderem."--Apologia ad Ang. Parl.: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 181. So considerable an inconsistency might tempt a hasty person to use hard words of Pole.

[44] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 441.

[45] Ibid. p. 442.

[46] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 445.

[47] Tunc statim misi cum ille e medio jam sustulisset illam quæ illi et regno totius hujus calamitatis causa existimabatur.--_Apologia ad Carolum Quintum._

[48] A MS. copy of this book, apparently the original which was sent by Pole, is preserved among the _Records_ in the Rolls House, scored and underlined in various places, perhaps by members of the Privy Council. A comparison of the MS. with the printed version, shows that the whole work was carefully rewritten for publication, and that various calumnies in detail, which have derived their weight from being addressed directly to the king, in what appeared to be a private communication by a credible accuser--which have, therefore, been related without hesitation by late writers as ascertained facts--are not in the first copy. So long as Pole was speaking only to the king, he prudently avoided statements which might be immediately contradicted, and confined himself to general invective. When he gave his book to the world he poured into it the indiscriminate slanders which were floating in popular rumour. See _Appendix_ to the Fourth Volume.

[49] Partus Naturæ laborantis.

[50] Populus enim regem procreat.

[51] In the printed copy the king is here accused of having intrigued with Mary Boleyn before his marriage with Anne. See _Appendix_.

[52] Elsewhere in his letters Pole touches on this string. If England is to be recovered, he is never weary of saying, it must be recovered at once, while the generation survives which has been educated in the Catholic faith. The poison of heresy is instilled with so deadly skill into schools and churches, into every lesson which the English youth are taught, that in a few years the evil will be past cure. He was altogether right. The few years in fact were made to pass before Pole and his friends were able to interfere; and then it _was_ too late; the prophecy was entirely verified. But, indeed, the most successful preachers of the Reformation were neither Cranmer nor Parker, Cromwell nor Burleigh, Henry nor Elizabeth, but Pole himself and the race of traitors who followed him.

[53] These paragraphs are a condensation of five pages of invective.

[54] Reginald Pole to the King, Venice, May 27. MS. _penes me_. Instructions to one whom he sent to King Henry by Reginald Pole.--Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 478.

[55] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.

[56] In his _Apology to Charles the Fifth_, Pole says that Henry in his answer to the book said that he was not displeased with him for what he had written, but that the subject was a grave one, and that he wished to see and speak with him. He, however, remembered the fable of the fox and the sick lion, and would not show himself less sagacious than a brute. Upon this, Lingard and other writers have built a charge of treachery against Henry, and urged it, as might be expected, with much eloquent force. It did not occur to them that if Henry had really said anything so incredible, and had intended treachery, the letters of Tunstall and Starkey would have been in keeping with the king's; they would not have been allowed to betray the secret and show Pole their true opinions. Henry's letter was sent on the 14th of June; the other letters bore the same date, and went by the same post. But, indeed, the king made no mystery of his displeasure. He may have written generally, as knowing only so much of the book as others had communicated to him. That he affected not to be displeased is as absurd in itself as it is contradicted by the terms of the refusal to return, which Pole himself sent in reply.--Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 295.

[57] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.

[58] Tunstall to Pole: _Rolls House MS._, Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 479.

[59] Starkey to Pole: _Rolls House MS._

[60] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_, Vol. I. p. 148. Reginald Pole to Edward VI.: _Epist._ Reg. Pol.

[61] Wordsworth's _Excursion_, Book V.

[62] _Sermons of Bishop Latimer_, Parker Society's edition, p. 33.

[63] In the State Paper Office and the Rolls House there are numerous "depositions" as to language used by the clergy, showing their general temper.

[64] Printed in Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 260. The complaints are not exaggerated. There is not one which could not be illustrated or strengthened from depositions among the _Records_.

[65] This, again, was intended for Latimer. The illustration was said to be his; but he denied it.

[66] Many of the clergy and even of the monks had already taken the permission of their own authority. Cranmer himself was said to be secretly married; and in some cases women, whom we find reported in this letter of Cromwell's visitors as concubines of priests, were really and literally their wives, and had been formally married to them. I have discovered one singular instance of this kind.

Ap Rice, writing to Cromwell in the year 1535 or 6, says:

"As we were of late at Walden, the abbot, then being a man of good learning and right sincere judgment, as I examined him alone, shewed me secretly, upon stipulation of silence, but only unto you, as our judge, that he had contracted matrimony with a certain woman secretly, having present thereat but one trusty witness; because he, not being able, as he said, to contain, though he could not be suffered by the laws of man, saw he might do it lawfully by the laws of God; and for the avoiding of more inconvenience, which before he was provoked unto, he did thus, having confidence in you that this act should not be anything prejudicial unto him."--_MS. State Paper Office_, temp. Henry VIII., second series, Vol. XXXV.

Cromwell acquiesced in the reasonableness of the abbot's proceeding; he wrote to tell him "to use his remedy," but to avoid, as far as possible, creating a scandal.--_MS._ ibid. Vol. XLVI.

The government, however, found generally a difficulty in knowing what to resolve in such cases. The king's first declaration was a reasonable one, that all clergy who had taken wives should forfeit their orders, "and be had and reputed as lay persons to all purposes and intents."--Royal Proclamation: Wilkins's _Concilia_, Vol. III. p. 776.

[67] Luther, by far the greatest man of the sixteenth century, was as rigid a believer in the real presence as Aquinas or St. Bernard.

[68] We were constrained to put our own pen to the book, and to conceive certain articles which were by you, the bishops, and the whole of the clergy of this our realm agreed on as Catholic.--Henry VIII. to the Bishops and Clergy: Wilkins's _Concilia_, Vol. III. p. 825.

[69] Whether marriage and ordination were sacraments was thus left an open question. The sacramental character of confirmation and extreme unction is _implicitly_ denied.

[70] _Formularies of Faith_, temp. Henry VIII., Oxford edition, 1825. Articles devised by the King's Majesty to stablish Christian quietness and unity, and to avoid contentious opinions.

[71] Cromwell's patent as lord privy seal is dated the 2d of July, 1536. On the 9th he was created Baron Cromwell, and in the same month vicegerent _in rebus ecclesiasticis_.

[72] The judgment of the convocation concerning general councils, July 20, 28 Henry VIII: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 88.

[73] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 89.

[74] The Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula was on the 1st of August. These injunctions could hardly have been issued before August, 1536; nor could they have been later than September. The clergy were, therefore, allowed nearly a year to provide themselves.

[75] Lewis's _History of the English Bible_.

[76] Lewis's _History of the English Bible_.

[77] The printing was completed in October, 1535.

[78] There is an excellent copy of this edition in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

[79] Preface to Coverdale's _Bible_.

[80] "The Lord Darcy declared unto me that the custom among the Lords before that time had been that matters touching spiritual authority should always be referred unto the convocation house, and not for the parliament house: and that before this last parliament it was accustomed among the Lords, the first matter they always communed of, after the mass of the Holy Ghost, was to affirm and allow the first chapter of Magna Charta touching the rights and liberties of the church; and it was not so now. Also the Lord Darcy did say that in any matter which toucheth the prerogative of the king's crown, or any matter that touched the prejudice of the same, the custom of the Lords' house was that they should have, upon their requests, a copy of the bill of the same, to the intent that they might have their council learned to scan the same; or if it were betwixt party and party, if the bill were not prejudicial to the commonwealth. And now they could have no such copy upon their suit, or at the least so readily as they were wont to have in parliament before."--Examination of Robert Aske in the Tower: _Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29, p. 197.

[81] "The said Aske saith he well remembereth that the Lord Darcy told him that there were divers great men and lords which before the time of the insurrection had promised to do their best to suppress heresies and the authors and maintainers of them, and he saith they were in number fifteen persons."--_Rolls House Miscellaneous MSS._, first series, 414.

[82] Richard Coren to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.

[83] "The abbeys were one of the beauties of the realm to all strangers passing through."--Examination of Aske: _Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.

[84] Examination of Aske; MS. ibid. I am glad to have discovered this most considerable evidence in favour of some at least of the superiors of the religious houses.

[85] "Strangers and buyers of corn were also greatly refreshed, horse and man, at the abbeys; and merchandize was well carried on through their help."--Examination of Aske: _Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.

[86] 27 Henry VIII. cap. 10.

[87] Among the unarranged MSS. in the State Paper Office is a long and most elaborate explanation of the evils which had been created by the system of uses. It is a paper which ought to find its place in the history of English landed tenure; and when the arrangement of these MSS. now in progress is completed, it will be accessible to any inquirer.

[88] "Masters, there is a statute made whereby all persons be restrained to make their will upon their lands; for now the eldest son must have all his father's lands; and no person, to the payment of his debts, neither to the advancement of his daughters' marriages, can do nothing with their lands, nor cannot give to his youngest son any lands."--Speech of Mr. Sheriff Dymock, at Horncastle: _Rolls House MS._ A 2. 29.

"They want the Statute of Uses qualified, that a man be allowed to bequeath part of his lands by will. It will invade the old accustomed law in many things."--Examination of Aske: MS. ibid. "Divers things should be reformed, and especially the Act of Uses. Younger brothers would none of that in no wise."--Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _Miscellaneous MSS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. I.

[89] The depositions of prisoners taken after the rebellion are full of evidence on this point. George Gisborne says: "We were in mind and will to meet for certain causes, the which concerned the living of the poor people and commons, the which they say be sore oppressed by gentlemen, because their livings is taken away."--_Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, first series, 132.

Wm. Stapleton says: "Among the causes of the insurrection were pulling down of villages and farms, raising of rents, enclosures, intakes of the commons, worshipful men taking yeomen's offices, that is, becoming dealers in farm produce."--_Rolls House MS._

I am tempted to add a petition sent from one of the discontented districts to the crown, which betrays great ignorance of political economy, although it exhibits also a clear understanding both of the petitioners' sufferings and of the immediate causes of those sufferings.

"Please it your noble Grace to consider the great indigence and scarcity of all manner of victual necessary to your subjects within this realm of England, which doth grow daily more and more, by reason of the great and covetous misusages of the farms within this your realm; which misusages and the inconveniences thereof hath not only been begun and risen by divers gentlemen of the same your realm, but also by divers and many merchant adventurers, clothmakers, goldsmiths, butchers, tanners, and other artificers and unreasonable covetous persons, which doth encroach daily many farms more than they can occupy in tilth of corn; ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen farms in one man's hands at once; when in time past there hath been in every farm of them a good house kept, and in some of them three, four, five, or six ploughs kept and daily occupied, to the great comfort and relief of your subjects of your realm, poor and rich. For when every man was contented with one farm, and occupied that well, there was plenty and reasonable price of everything that belonged to man's sustenance by reason of tillage; forasmuch as every acre of land tilled and ploughed bore the straw and the chaff besides the corn, able and sufficient with the help of the shakke in the stubbe to succour and feed as many great beasts (as horses, oxen, and kine) as the land would keep; and further, by reason of the hinderflight of the crops and seeds tried out in cleansing, winnowing, and sifting the corn, there was brought up at every barn-door hens, capons, geese, ducks, swine, and other poultry, to the great comfort of your people. And now, by reason of so many farms engrossed in one man's hands, which cannot till them, the ploughs be decayed, and the farmhouses and other dwelling-houses; so that when there was in a town twenty or thirty dwelling-houses they be now decayed, ploughs and all the people clean gone, and the churches down, and no more parishioners in many parishes, but a neatherd and a shepherd instead of three score or four score persons."--_Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, second series, 854.

[90] Abbot of York to Cromwell--_Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. LII.

[91] See a very remarkable letter of Sir William Parr to Cromwell, dated April 8, 1536, a few months only before the outbreak of the rebellion: _Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XXXI.

[92] It was said that the visitors' servants had made apparel, doublets, yea, even saddle-cloths, of the churches' vestments.--Examination of John Dakyn: _Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, first series, 402.

[93] _Rolls House MS._

[94] Ibid., Miscellaneous, first series, 402.

[95] Aske's Deposition: _Rolls House MS._

[96] Depositions on the Rebellion, _passim_, among the MSS. in the State Paper Office and the Rolls House.

[97] George Lumley, the eldest son of Lord Lumley, said in his evidence that there was not a spiritual man in the whole north of England who had not assisted the rebellion with arms or money.--_Rolls House MS._

[98] The parish priest of Wyley, in Essex, had been absent for three weeks in the north, in the month of August, and on returning, about the 2d of September, said to one of his villagers, Thomas Rogers, "There shall be business shortly in the north, and I trust to help and strengthen my countrymen with ten thousand such as I am myself; and I shall be one of the worst of them all. The king shall not reign long."--Confession of Thomas Rogers: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXX. p. 112.

[99] Deposition of Thomas Brian: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.

[100] We find curious and humorous instances of monastic rage at this time. One monk was seen following a plough, and cursing his day that he should have to work for his bread. Another, a Welshman, "wished he had the king on Snowdon, that he might souse his head against the stones."--Depositions on the Rebellion: _Rolls House MS._

[101] Sir Robert Dighton and Sir Edward Dymmock said they heard many of the priests cry, "Kill the gentlemen." The parson of Cowbridge said that the lords of the council were false harlots; and the worst was Cromwell. "The vicar of Haynton, having a great club in his hand, said that if he had Cromwell there he would beat out his guts." "Robert Brownwhite, one of the parsons of Nether Teynton, was with bow and arrows, sword and buckler by his side, and sallet on his head; and when he was demanded how he did, he said, 'None so well;' and said it was the best world that ever he did see." My story, so far, is taken from the Miscellaneous Depositions, _Rolls MS._ A 2, 28; from the Examination of William Moreland, _MS._ A 2, 29; and from the Confession of John Brown, _Rolls House MS._, first series, 892.

[102] Very opposite stories were told of the behaviour of the gentlemen. On one side it was said that they were the great movers of the insurrection; on the other, that they were forced into it in fear of their lives. There were many, doubtless, of both kinds; but it seems to me as if they had all been taken by surprise. Their conduct was that of men who wished well to the rising, but believed it had exploded inopportunely.

[103] The plough was to encourage the husbandmen; the chalice and host in remembrance of the spoiling of the Church; the five wounds to the couraging of the people to fight in Christ's cause; the horn to signify the taking of Horncastle--Philip Trotter's Examination; _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.

[104] Examination of Brian Staines: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29. In the margin of this document, pointing to the last paragraph, is an ominous finger ☞, drawn either by the king or Cromwell.

[105] Compare the Report of Lancaster Herald to Cromwell, _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIX.: "My especial good lord, so far as I have gone, I have found the most corrupted and malicious spiritualty, inward and partly outward, that any prince of the world hath in his realm; and if the truth be perfectly known, it will be found that they were the greatest corrupters of the temporality, and have given the secret occasion of all this mischief."

[106] Lord Hussey to the Mayor of Lincoln: _Cotton. MS. Vespasian_, F 13.

[107] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 416. Cutler's Confessions MS. ibid. 407. Deposition of Robert Sotheby: Ibid. A 2, 29.

[108] Lord Shrewsbury to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_. Letter to the king and council, Vol. V. Hollinshed tells a foolish story, that Lord Shrewsbury sued out his pardon to the king for moving without orders. As he had done nothing for which to ask pardon, so it is certain, from his correspondence with the king, that he did not ask for any. Let me take this opportunity of saying that neither Hollinshed, nor Stow, nor even Hall, nor any one of the chroniclers, can be trusted in their account of this rebellion.

[109] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series.

[110] "My lord: Hugh Ascue, this bearer, hath shewed me that this day a servant of Sir William Hussey's reported how that in manner, in every place by the way as his master and he came, he hath heard as well old people as young pray God to speed the rebellious persons in Lincolnshire, and wish themselves with them; saying, that if they came that way, that they shall lack nothing that they can help them unto. And the said Hugh asked what persons they were which so reported, and he said _all_; which is a thing as meseemeth greatly to be noted."--Sir William Fitzwilliam to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VI.

[111] Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VII.

[112] "Nothing we lament so much as that they thus fly; for our trust was that we should have used them like as they have deserved; and I for my part am as sorry as if I had lost five hundred pounds. For my lord admiral (Sir John Russell), he is so earnest in the matter, that I dare say he would eat them with salt."--Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_.

[113] Henry VIII. to the Rebels in Lincolnshire: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 463, &c.

[114] Confession of Thos. Mayne: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 432.

[115] Confession of Thos. Mayne: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 432.

[116] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: Ibid. 480.

[117] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 471. Examination of the Prisoners: _Rolls House MS._

[118] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 480.