Chapter XVII (6)

[454] "Immediate post Billæ lectionem Dominus Cromwell palam ostendit quandam tunicam ex albo serico confectam inventam inter linteamina Comitissæ Sarum, in cujus parte anteriore existebant sola arma Angliæ; in parte vero posteriore insignia illa quibus nuper rebelles in aquilonari parte Angliæ in commotione suâ utebantur."--_Lords Journals_, 31 Henry VIII.

[455] In quoting the preambles of acts of parliament I do not attach to them any peculiar or exceptional authority. But they are contemporary statements of facts and intentions carefully drawn, containing an explanation of the conduct of parliament and of the principal events of the time. The explanation may be false, but it is at least possible that it may be true; and my own conclusion is, that, on the whole, the account to be gathered from this source is truer than any other at which we are likely to arrive; that the story of the Reformation as read by the light of the statute book is more intelligible and consistent than any other version of it, doing less violence to known principles of human nature, and bringing the conduct of the principal actors within the compass of reason and probability. I have to say, further, that the more carefully the enormous mass of contemporary evidence of another kind is studied, documents, private and public letters, proclamations, council records, state trials, and other authorities, the more they will be found to yield to these preambles a steady support.

[456] 31 Henry VIII. cap. 8.

[457] The limitation which ought to have been made was in the time for which these unusual powers should be continued; the bill, however, was repealed duly in connexion with the treason acts and the other irregular measures in this reign, as soon as the crisis had passed away, or when those who were at the head of the state could no longer be trusted with dangerous weapons.--See 1 Edward VI. cap. 7. The temporary character of most of Henry's acts was felt, if it was not avowed. Sir Thomas Wyatt in an address to the Privy Council, admitted to having said of the Act of Supremacy, "that it was a goodly act, the King's Majesty being so virtuous, so wise, so learned, and so good a prince; but if it should fall unto an evil prince it were a sore rod:" and he added, "I suppose I have not mis-said in that; for all powers, namely absolute, are sore rods when they fall into evil men's hands."--Oration to the Council: Nott's _Wyatt_, p. 304.

[458] The same expressions had been used of the Lollards a hundred and fifty years before. The description applied absolutely to the Anabaptists; and Oliver Cromwell had the same disposition to contend against among the Independents. The least irregular of the Protestant sects were tainted more or less with anarchical opinions.

[459] A considerable part of this address is in Henry's own handwriting See Strype's _Memorials,_ Vol. II. p. 434.

[460] See Fuller, Vol. III. p. 411.

[461] 31 Henry VIII. cap. 9

[462] In some instances, if not in all, this was actually the case.--See the Correspondence between Cromwell and the Prior of Christ Church at Canterbury: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series.

[463] Oxford, Peterborough, Bristol, Gloucester, Chester, and Westminster.

[464] Canterbury, Winchester, Ely, Norwich, Worcester, Rochester, Durham, and Carlisle.

[465] "Per Dominum cancellarium declaratum est quod cum non solum proceres spirituales verum etiam regia majestas ad unionem in precedentibus articulis conficiendam multipliciter studuerunt et laboraverunt ita ut nunc unio in eisdem confecta sit regia igitur voluntatis esse ut penale aliquod statutum efficeretur ad coercendum suos subditos, ne contra determinationem in eisdem articulis confectam contradicerent, aut dissentirent, verum ejus majestatem proceribus formam hujusmodi malefactorum hujusmodi committere. Itaque ex eorum communi consensu concordatum est quod Archiepiscopus Cant., Episcopus Elien., Episcopus Menevensis et Doctor Peter, unam formam cujusdam actus, concernentem Punitionem hujusmodi malefactorum dictarent et componerent similiterque quod Archiepisc. Ebor., Episc. Dunelm., Episc. Winton et Doctor Tregonwell alteram ejusmodi effectus dictitarent et componerent formam."--_Lords Journals_, 31 Henry VIII.

[466] Foxe's rhetoric might be suspected, but a letter of Melancthon to Henry VIII. is a more trustworthy evidence: "Oh, cursed bishops!" he exclaims; "oh, wicked Winchester!"--Melancthon to Henry VIII.: printed in Foxe, Vol. V.

[467] "The judge shall be bounden, if it be demanded of him, to deliver in writing to the party called before him, the copy of the matter objected, and the names and depositions of the witnesses ... and in such case, as the party called answereth and denyeth that that is objected, and that no proof can be brought against him but the deposition of one witness only, then and in that case, be that witness never of so great honesty and credit, the same party so called shall be without longer delay absolved and discharged by the judge's sentence freely without further cost or molestation."--The Six Articles Bill as drawn by the King: Wilkins's _Consilia_, Vol. III. p. 848.

[468] Act for Abolishing Diversity of Opinions: 31 Henry VIII. cap. 14.

[469] Printed in Strype's _Cranmer_, Vol. II. p. 743.

[470] Philip Melancthon to Henry VIII., Foxe, Vol. V.

[471] Foxe, Vol. V. p. 265.

[472] Hall's _Chronicle_, p. 828. Hall is a good evidence on this point. He was then a middle-aged man, resident in London, with clear eyes and a shrewd, clear head, and was relating not what others told him, but what he actually saw.

[473] In Latimer's case, against Henry's will, or without his knowledge. Cromwell, either himself deceived or desiring to smooth the storm, told Latimer that the king advised his resignation; "which his Majesty afterwards denied, and pitied his condition."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 849.

[474] Hall.

[475] Notes of Erroneous Doctrines preached at Paul's Cross by the Vicar of Stepney: _MS. Rolls House_.

[476] Henry Dowes to Cromwell: Ellis, third series, Vol. III. p. 258.

[477] Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VII. p. 188.

[478] More's _Utopia_, Burnet's translation, p. 13.

[479] Respectable authorities, as most of my readers are doubtless aware, inform us that seventy-two thousand criminals were executed in England in the reign of Henry VIII. Historians who are accustomed to examine their materials critically, have usually learnt that no statements must be received with so much caution as those which relate to numbers. Grotius gives, in a parallel instance, the number of heretics executed under Charles V. in the Netherlands as a hundred thousand. The Prince of Orange gives them as fifty thousand. The authorities are admirable, though sufficiently inconsistent, while the judicious Mr. Prescott declares both estimates alike immeasurably beyond the truth. The entire number of victims destroyed by Alva in the same provinces by the stake, by the gallows, and by wholesale massacre, amount, when counted carefully in detail, to twenty thousand only. The persecutions under Charles, in a serious form, were confined to the closing years of his reign. Can we believe that wholesale butcheries were passed by comparatively unnoticed by any one at the time of their perpetration, more than doubling the atrocities which startled subsequently the whole world? Laxity of assertion in matters of number is so habitual as to have lost the character of falsehood. Men not remarkably inaccurate will speak of thousands, and, when cross-questioned, will rapidly reduce them to hundreds, while a single cipher inserted by a printer's mistake becomes at once a tenfold exaggeration. Popular impressions on the character of the reign of Henry VIII. have, however, prevented inquiry into any statement which reflects discredit upon this; the enormity of an accusation has passed for an evidence of its truth. Notwithstanding that until the few last years of the king's life no felon who could read was within the grasp of the law, notwithstanding that sanctuaries ceased finally to protect murderers six years only before his death, and that felons of a lighter cast might use their shelter to the last,--even those considerable facts have created no misgiving, and learned and ignorant historians alike have repeated the story of the 72,000 with equal confidence.

I must be permitted to mention the evidence, the single evidence, on which it rests.

The first English witness is Harrison, the author of the _Description of Britain_ prefixed to Hollinshed's _Chronicle_. Harrison, speaking of the manner in which thieves had multiplied in England from laxity of discipline, looks back with a sigh to the golden days of King Hal, and adds, "It appeareth by Cardan, who writeth it upon report of the Bishop of Lexovia, in the geniture of King Edward the Sixth, that his father, executing his laws very severely against great thieves, petty thieves, and rogues, did hang up three score and twelve thousand of them."

I am unable to discover "the Bishop of Lexovia;" but, referring to the _Commentaries_ of Jerome Cardan, p. 412, I find a calculation of the horoscope of Edward VI., containing, of course, the marvellous legend of his birth, and after it this passage:--

"Having spoken of the son, we will add also the scheme of his father, wherein we chiefly observe three points. He married six wives; he divorced two; he put two to death. Venus being in conjunction with Cauda, Lampas partook of the nature of Mars; Luna in occiduo cardine was among the dependencies of Mars; and Mars himself was in the ill-starred constellation Virgo and in the quadrant of Jupiter Infelix. Moreover, he quarrelled with the Pope, owing to the position of Venus and to influences emanating from her. He was affected also by a constellation with schismatic properties, and by certain eclipses, and hence and from other causes, arose a fact related to me by the Bishop of Lexovia, namely, that two years before his death as many as seventy thousand persons were found to have perished by the hand of the executioner in that one island during his reign."

The words of some unknown foreign ecclesiastic discovered imbedded in the midst of this abominable nonsense, and transmitted through a brain capable of conceiving and throwing it into form, have been considered authority sufficient to cast a stigma over one of the most remarkable periods in English history, while the contemporary English Records, the actual reports of the judges on assize, which would have disposed effectually of Cardan and his bishop, have been left unstudied in their dust.

[480] As we saw recently in the complaints of the Marquis of Exeter. But in this general sketch I am giving the result of a body of correspondence too considerable to quote.

[481] In healthier times the Pope had interfered. A bull of Innocent VIII. permitted felons repeating their crimes, or fraudulent creditors, to be taken forcibly out of sanctuary.--Wilkins's _Concilia_, Vol. III. p. 621.

[482] The Magistrates of Frome to Sir Henry Long: _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 102. Mr. Justice Fitzjames to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XI. p. 43.

[483] The letter which I quote is addressed to Cromwell as "My Lord Privy Seal," and dated July 17. Cromwell was created privy seal on the 2d of July, 1536, and Earl of Essex on the 17th of April, 1540. There is no other guide to the date.

[484] The Magistrates of Chichester to my Lord Privy Seal: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. X.

[485] 23 Henry VIII. cap. 1.

[486] Humfrey Wingfield to my Lord Privy Seal: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. LI.

[487] Richard Layton to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XX.

[488] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series.

[489] Correspondence of the Warden and Council of the Welsh Marches with the Lord Privy Seal: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series.

[490] _MS. Rolls House_, first series, 494.

[491] At the execution, Latimer's chaplain, Doctor Tailor, preached a sermon. Among the notes of the proceedings I find a certain Miles Denison called up for disrespectful language.

"The said Miles did say: The bishop sent one yesterday for to preach at the gallows, and there stood upon the vicar's colt and made a foolish sermon of the new learning, looking over the gallows. I would the colt had winced and cast him down."--"Also during the sermon he did say, I would he were gone, and I were at my dinner."--_MS. State Paper Office._

[492] Sir Thomas Willoughby to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 386.

[493] The Sheriff of Hampshire to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. IX.

[494] The traditions of severity connected with this reign are explained by these exceptional efforts of rigour. The years of licence were forgotten; the seasons recurring at long intervals, when the executions might be counted by hundreds, lived in recollection, and when three or four generations had passed, became the measure of the whole period.

[495] "These three abbots had joined in a conspiracy to restore the Pope."--Traherne to Bullinger: _Original Letters on the Reformation_, second series, p. 316.

[496] "Yesterday I was with the Abbot of Colchester, who asked me how the Abbot of St. Osith did as touching his house; for the bruit was the king would have it. To the which I answered, that he did like an honest man, for he saith, I am the king's subject, and I and my house and all is the king's; wherefore, if it be the king's pleasure, I, as a true subject, shall obey without grudge. To the which the abbot answered, the king shall never have my house but against my will and against my heart; for I know, by my learning, he cannot take it by right and law. Wherefore, in my conscience, I cannot be content; nor he shall never have it with my heart and will. To the which I said beware of such learning; for if ye hold such learning as ye learned in Oxenford when ye were young ye will be hanged; and ye are worthy. But I will advise you to confirm yourself as a good subject, or else you shall hinder your brethren and also yourself."--Sir John St. Clair to the Lord Privy Seal: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXXVIII. The abbot did not take the advice, but ventured more dangerous language.

"The Abbot of Colchester did say that the northern men were good men and _mokell_ in the mouth, and 'great crackers' and nothing worth in their deeds." "Further, the said abbot said, at the time of the insurrection, 'I would to Christ that the rebels in the north had the Bishop of Canterbury, the lord chancellor, and the lord privy seal amongst them, and then I trust we should have a merry world again.'"--Deposition of Edmund ----: _Rolls House MS._ second series, No. 27.

But the abbot must have committed himself more deeply, or have refused to retract and make a submission; for I find words of similar purport sworn against other abbots, who suffered no punishment.

[497] _Lords Journals_, 28 Henry VIII.

[498] "The Abbot of Glastonbury appeareth neither then nor now to have known God nor his prince, nor any part of a good Christian man's religion. They be all false, feigned, flattering hypocrite knaves, as undoubtedly there is none other of that sort."--Layton to Cromwell: Ellis, third series, Vol. III. p. 247.

[499] Confession of the Abbot of Barlings: _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.

[500] "And for as much as experience teacheth that many of the heads of such houses, notwithstanding their oaths, taken upon the holy evangelists, to present to such the King's Majesty's commissioners as have been addressed unto them, true and perfect inventories of all things belonging to their monasteries, many things have been left out, embezzled, stolen, and purloined--many rich jewels, much rich plate, great store of precious ornaments, and sundry other things of great value and estimation, to the damage of the King's Majesty, and the great peril and danger of their own souls, by reason of their wilful and detestable perjury; the said commissioners shall not only at every such house examine the head and convent substantially, of all such things so concealed or unlawfully alienated, but also shall give charge to all the ministers and servants of the same houses, and such of the neighbours dwelling near about them as they shall think meet, to detect and open all such things as they have known or heard to have been that way misused, to the intent the truth of all things may the better appear accordingly."--Instructions to the Monastic Commissioners: _MS. Tanner_, 105, _Bodleian Library_.

[501] Pollard, Moyle, and Layton to Cromwell: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 499.

[502] Pollard, Moyle, and Layton to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 619.

[503] Ibid. 621.

[504] Butler, Elliot, and Traherne to Conrad Pellican: _Original Letters_, second series, p. 624.

[505] Thomas Perry to Ralph Vane: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 140.

[506] I should have distrusted the evidence, on such a point, of excited Protestants (see _Original Letters on the Reformation_, p. 626), who could invent and exaggerate as well as their opponents; but the promise of these indulgences was certainly made, and Charles V. prohibited the publication of the brief containing it in Spain or Flanders. "The Emperor," wrote Cromwell to Henry, "hath not consented that the Pope's mandament should be published neither in Spain, neither in any other his dominions, that Englishmen should be destroyed in body, in goods, wheresoever they could be found, as the Pope would they should be."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 608.

[507] _MS. Cotton._

[508] Lord Russell to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.

[509] Ibid.

[510] Pollard to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 261.

[511] Henry Fitz Roy, Duke of Richmond, died July 22, 1536.

[512] "Animadvertens sua clementia quod maxime hoc convenerat parliamentum pro bono totius Regni publico et concordiâ Christianæ religionis stabiliendà non tam cito quam propter rei magnitudinem quæ non solum regnum ipsum Angliæ concernit verum etiam alia regna et universi Christianismi Ecclesias quantumvis diversarum sententiarum quæ in eam rem oculos et animum habebant intentos, sua Majestas putavit tam propriâ suâ regiâ diligentiâ et studio quam etiam episcoporum et cleri sui sedulitate rem maturius consultandam, tractandam et deliberandam."--Speech of the Lord Chancellor at the Prorogation: _Lords Journals_, Vol. I. p. 137.

[513] Brother of Jane Seymour; afterwards Protector.

[514] "I am as glad of the good resolutions of the Duke of Cleves, his mother, and council, as ever I was of anything since the birth of the prince: for I think the King's Highness should not in Christendom marry in no place meet for his Grace's honour that should be less prejudicial to his Majesty's succession."--Hertford to Cromwell: Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 119.

[515] "I find the council willing enough to publish and manifest to the world that by any covenants made by the old Duke of Cleves and the Duke of Lorraine, my Lady Anne is not bounden; but ever hath been and yet is at her free liberty to marry wherever she will."--Wotton to the King: Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 121.

[516] Ellis, first series, Vol. II. p. 121.

[517] "The Duke of Cleves hath a daughter, but I hear no great praise, either of her personage nor beauty."--Hutton to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 5.

[518] Stow.

[519] Butler to Bullinger: _Original Letters on the Reformation_, p. 627.

[520] Partridge to Bullinger: Ibid. 614.

[521] The Elector of Saxony to Henry VIII.: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 437.

[522] See a correspondence between Cranmer and a Justice of the Peace, Jenkins's _Cranmer_, Vol. I.

[523] "I would to Christ I had obeyed your often most gracious grave councils and advertisements. Then it had not been with me as now it is."--Cromwell to the King: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 510.

[524] _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.

[525] He required, probably, no information that his enemies would spare no means, fair or foul, for his destruction. But their plots and proceedings had been related to him two years before by his friend Allen, the Irish Master of the Rolls, in a report of expressions which had been used by George Paulet, brother of the lord treasurer, and one of the English commissioners at Dublin. Cromwell, it seems, had considered that estates in Ireland forfeited for treason, or non-residence, would be disposed of better if granted freely to such families as had remained loyal, than if sold for the benefit of the crown. Speaking of this matter, "The king," Paulet said, "beknaveth Cromwell twice a week, and would sometimes knock him about the pate. He draws every day towards his death, and escaped very hardly at the last insurrection. He is the greatest briber in England, and that is espied well enough. The king has six times as much revenues as ever any of his noble progenitors had, and all is consumed and gone to nought by means of my Lord Privy Seal, who ravens all that he can get. After all the king's charges to recover this land, he is again the only means to cause him to give away his revenues; and it shall be beaten into the king's head how his treasure has been needlessly wasted and consumed, and his profits and revenues given away by sinister means." "Cromwell," Paulet added, "has been so handled and taunted by the council in these matters, as he is weary of them; but I will so work my matter, as the king shall be informed of every penny that he hath spent here; and when that great expence is once in his head, it shall never be forgotten there is one good point. And then I will inform him how he hath given away to one man seven hundred marks by the year. And then will the king swear by God's body, have I spent so much money and now have given away my land? There was never a king so deceived by man. I will hit him by means of my friends."--_State Papers_, Vol. II. p. 551. It is not clear how much is to be believed of Paulet's story so far as relates to the king's treatment of Cromwell. The words were made a subject of an inquiry before Sir Anthony St. Leger; and Paulet meant, it seemed, that the "beknaving and knocking about the pate" took place in private before no witnesses; so that, if true, it could only have been known by the acknowledgments of the king or of Cromwell himself. But the character of the intrigues for Cromwell's destruction is made very plain.

[526] Foxe's _History of Cromwell_.

[527] A paper of ten interrogatories is in the Rolls House, written in Cromwell's hand, addressed to a Mr. John More. More's opinion was required on the supremacy, and among the questions asked him were these:--

What communication hath been between you and the Bishop of Winchester touching the primacy of the Bishop of Rome?

What answers the said Bishop made unto you upon such questions as ye did put to him?

Whether ye have heard the said Bishop at any time in any evil opinion contrary to the statutes of the realm, concerning the primacy of the Bishop of Rome or any other foreign potentate?--_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30, fol. 67.

In another collection I found a paper of Mr. More's answers; but it would seem (unless the MS. is imperfect) that he replied only to the questions which affected himself. The following passage, however, is curious: "The cause why I demanded the questions (on the primacy) of my Lord of Winchester was for that I heard it, as I am now well remembered, much spoken of in the parliament house, and taken among many there to be a doubt as ye, Mr. Secretary, well know. And for so much as I esteemed my lord's wisdom and learning to be such, that I thought I would not be better answered, because I heard you, Mr. Secretary, say he was much affectionate to the Papacy."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 863.

[528] "The Bishop of Winchester was put out of the Privy Council, because my Lord Privy Seal took displeasure with him because he should say it was not meet that Dr. Barnes, being a man defamed of heresy, should be sent ambassador. Touching the Bishop of Chichester there was not heard any cause why he was put forth from the Privy Council."--Depositions of Christopher Chator: _Rolls House MS._ first series.

[529] "Then said Craye to me, there was murmuring and saying by the progress of time that my Lord Privy Seal should be out of favour with his prince. Marry, said I, I heard of such a thing. I heard at Woodstock of one Sir Launcelot Thornton, a chaplain of the Bishop of Durham, who shewed me that the Earl of Hampton, Sir William Kingston, and Sir Anthony Brown were all joined together, and would have had my Lord of Durham to have had rule and chief saying under the King's Highness. Then said Craye to me, It was evil doing of my lord your master that would not take it upon hand, for he might have amended many things that were amiss; for, if the Bishop of Winchester might have had the saying, he would have taken it upon hand. Well, said I, my lord my master is too good a lawyer, knowing by his book the inconstancy of princes, where there is a text that saith: Lubricus est primus locus apud Reges."--_MS._ ibid.

[530] "There was an honest man in London called Dr. Watts, which preacheth much against heresy; and this Dr. Watts was called before my Lord of Canterbury, and Dr. Barnes should be either his judge or his accuser."--_Rolls House MS._, first series.

[531] "There was an alderman in Gracechurch-street that came to my Lord of Canterbury, and one with him, and said to my Lord of Canterbury: Please your Grace that we are informed that your Grace hath our master Watts by hold. And if it be for treason we will not speak for him, but if it be for heresy or debt we will be bound for him in a thousand pound; for there was ten thousand of London coming to your lordship to be bound for him, but that we stayed them."--_MS._ ibid.

[532] Butler to Bullinger: _Original Letters on the Reformation_, p. 627.

[533] "As to the matter concerning the Duchess of Milan, when his Highness had heard it, he paused a good while, and at the last said, smiling, 'Have they remembered themselves now?' To the which I said, 'Sir, we that be your servants are much bound to God, they to woo you whom ye have wooed so long.' He answered coldly: 'They that would not when they might, percase shall not when they would.'"--Southampton to Cromwell, Sept. 17, 1539: _State Papers_, Vol. I.

[534] "There should be three causes why the Emperor should come into these parts--the one for the mutiny of certain cities which were dread in time to allure and stir all or the more part of the other cities to the like; the second, for the alliance which the King's Majesty hath made with the house of Cleves, which he greatly stomacheth; the third, for the confederacy, as they here call it, between his Majesty and the Almayns. The fear which the Emperor hath of these three things hath driven him to covet much the French king's amity."--Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 203.

[535] "There is great suspicion and jealousy to be taken to see these two great princes so familiar together, and to go conjointly in secret practices, in which the Bishop of Rome seemeth to be intelligent, who hath lately sent his nephew, Cardinal Farnese, to be present at the parlement of the said princes in France. The contrary part cannot brook the King's Majesty and the Almains to be united together, which is no small fear and terror as well to Imperials as the Papisticals, and no marvel if they fury, fearing thereby some great ruin."--Harvel to Cromwell from Venice, December 9.

[536] _Epist. Reginaldi Poli_, Vol. V. p. 150. In this paper Pole says that the Duke of Norfolk stated to the king, in a despatch from Doncaster, when a battle seemed imminent, "that his troops could not be trusted, their bodies were with the king, but their minds with the rebels." His information was, perhaps, derived from his brother Geoffrey, who avowed an intention of deserting.

[537] "The said Helyard said to me that the Emperor was come into France, and should marry the king's daughter; and the Duke of Orleans should marry the Duchess of Milan, and all this was by the Bishop of Rome's means; and they were all confedered together, and as for the Scottish king, he was always the French king's man, and we shall all be undone, for we have no help now but the Duke of Cleves, and they are so poor they cannot help us."--Depositions of Christopher Chator: _Rolls House MS._ first series.

[538] Sir Thos. Wyatt to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 219 &c.

[539] Southampton's expressions were unfortunately warm. Mentioning a conversation with the German ambassadors, in which he had spoken of his anxiety for the king's marriage, "so as if God failed us in my Lord Prince, we might have another sprung of like descent and line to reign over us in peace," he went on to speak to them of the other ladies whom the king might have had if he had desired; "but hearing," he said, "great report of the notable virtues of my lady now with her excellent beauty, _such as I well perceive to be no less than was reported, in very deed my mind gave me to lean that way_." These words, which might have passed as unmeaning compliment, had they been spoken merely to the lady's countrymen, he repeated in his letters to the king, who of course construed them by his hopes.

[540] Deposition of Sir Anthony Brown: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 252, &c.

[541] Those who insist that Henry was a licentious person, must explain how it was that, neither in the three years which had elapsed since the death of Jane Seymour, nor during the more trying period which followed, do we hear a word of mistresses, intrigues, or questionable or criminal connexions of any kind. The mistresses of princes are usually visible when they exist, the mistresses, for instance, of Francis I., of Charles V., of James of Scotland. There is a difficulty in this which should be admitted, if it cannot be explained.

[542] Deposition of Sir Anthony Denny: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II.

[543] Cromwell to the King: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 109.

[544] Deposition of the Earl of Southampton: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II.

[545] Questions to be asked of the Lord Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 418.

[546] Compare Cromwell's Letter to the King from the Tower, Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 109, with Questions to be asked of the Lord Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 418. Wyatt's report of his interview and the Emperor's language could not have arrived till the week after. But the fact of Charles's arrival with Brancetor in his train, was already known and was sufficiently alarming.

[547] Cromwell to the King: Burnet's _Collectanea_. The morning after his marriage, and on subsequent occasions, the king made certain depositions to his physicians and to members of the council, which I invite no one to study except under distinct historical obligations. The facts are of great importance. But discomfort made Henry unjust; and when violently irritated he was not careful of his expressions.--See Documents relating to the Marriage with Anne of Cleves: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II.

[548] Hall.

[549] The discharge of heretics from prison by an undue interference formed one of the most violent accusations against Cromwell. He was, perhaps, held responsible for the general pardon in the summer of 1539. The following letter, however, shows something of his own immediate conduct, and of the confidence with which the Protestants looked to him.

"God save the king.

"Thanks immortal from the Father of Heaven unto your most prudent and honourable lordship, for your mercy, and pity, and great charity that your honourable lordship has had on your poor and true orator Henry King, that almost was in prison a whole year, rather of pure malice and false suspicion than of any just offence committed by your said orator, to be so long in prison without any mercy, pity, or succour of meat and drink, and all your said orator's goods taken from him. Moreover, whereas your said orator did of late receive a letter from your most honourable lordship by the hands of the Bishop of Worcester, that your said orator should receive again such goods as was wrongfully taken from your said orator of Mr. George Blunt (the committing magistrate apparently); thereon your said orator went unto the said George Blunt with your most gentle letter, to ask such poor goods as the said George Blunt did detain from your poor orator; and so with great pain and much entreating your said orator, within the space of three weeks, got some part of his goods, but the other part he cannot get. Therefore, except now your most honourable lordship, for Jesus sake, do tender and consider with the eye of pity and mercy the long imprisonment, the extreme poverty of your said orator, your said orator is clean undone in this world. For where your said orator had money, and was full determined to send for his capacity, all is spent in prison, and more. Therefore, in fond humility your said orator meekly, with all obedience, puts himself wholly into the hands of your honourable lordship, desiring you to help your orator to some succour and living now in his extreme necessity and need; the which is not only put out of his house, but also all his goods almost spent in prison, so that now the weary life of your said orator stands only in your discretion. Therefore, _exaudi preces servi tui_, and Almighty God increase your most honourable lordship in virtue and favour as he did merciful Joseph to his high honour Amen. Your unfeigned and true orator _ut supra_. Beatus qui intelligit super egenum et pauperem. In die malâ liberabit eum Dominus."--_MS. State Paper Office_, Vol. IX. first series.

[550] Traheron to Bullinger: _Original Letters_, p. 316; Hall, p. 837.

[551] Foxe, Vol. V. p. 431.

[552] Hall, p. 837.

[553] "The bishop was ably answered by Dr. Barnes on the following Lord's-day, with the most gratifying and all but universal applause."--Traheron to Bullinger: _Original Letters_, p. 317.

[554] Wyatt to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 240, &c.

[555] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 245, &c. Henry held out a further inducement. "If the duke shall see the French king persevere in his good mind and affection towards the King's Highness, he shall yet further of himself say that his opinion is, and in his mind he thinketh undoubtedly that in such a case as that a new strait amity might now be made between the French king and the king his master, his Majesty would be content to remit unto him the one half of his debt to his Highness, the sum whereof is very great; and also the one half of the pensions for term of the said French king's life, so as it may please him to declare what honourable reciproque he could be content to offer again to his Majesty."--_State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 251.

[556] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 318. The Queen of Navarre, who was constant to the English interests, communicated to the secretary of Sir John Wallop (the resident minister at Paris), an account of a conversation between herself and the Papal nuntio.

Ferrara had prayed her "to help and put her good hand and word that the French king might join the Emperor and his master for the wars against the Almayns and the King of England, which king was but a man lost and cast away."

"Why, M. l'Ambassadeur," the queen answered, "what mean you by that? how and after what sort do you take the King of England?"--"Marry," quoth he, "for a heretic and a Lutheryan. Moreover, he doth make himself head of the Church."--"Do you say so?" quoth she. "Now I would to God that your master, the Emperor, and we here, did live after so good and godly a sort as he and his doth." The nuntio answered, "the king had pulled down the abbeys," "trusting by the help of God it should be reformed or it were long." She told him that were easier to say than to do. England had had time to prepare, and to transport an army across the Channel was a difficult affair. Ferrara said, "It could be landed in Scotland."--"The King of Scotland," she replied, "would not stir without permission from France;" and then (if her account was true) she poured out a panegyric upon the Reformation in England, and spoke out plainly on the necessity of the same thing in the Church of Rome. _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 289, &c.

[557] Hall, p. 839. The case broke down, and Sampson was afterwards restored to favour; but his escape was narrow. Sir Ralph Sadler, writing to Cromwell, said, "I declared to the King's Majesty how the Bishop of Chichester was committed to ward to the Tower, and what answer he made to such things as were laid to his charge, which in effect was a plain denial of the chief points that touched him. His Majesty said little thereto, but that he liked him and the matter much the worse because he denied it, seeing his Majesty perceived by the examinations there were witnesses enough to condemn him in that point."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 627.

[558] The Bishop of Chichester to Cromwell: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 381.

[559] Another instance of Tunstall's underhand dealing had come to light. When he accepted the oath of supremacy, and agreed to the divorce of Queen Catherine, he entered a private protest in the Register Book of Durham, which was afterwards cut out by his chancellor. Christopher Chator, whose curious depositions I have more than once quoted, mentions this piece of evasion, and adds a further feature of some interest. Relating a conversation which he had held with a man called Craye, Chator says, "We had in communication the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More attainted of treason. Craye said to me he marvelled that they were put to death for such small trespasses; to whom I answered that their foolish conscience was so to die. Then I shewed him of one Burton, my Lord of Durham's servant, that told me he came to London when the Bishop of Rochester and Thomas More were endangered, and the said More asked Burton, 'Will not thy master come to us and be as we are?' and he said he could not tell. Then said More, 'If he do, no force, for if he live he may do more good than to die with us.'"--_Rolls House MS._ first series.

[560] _Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII.

[561] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 1.

[562] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 2.

[563] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 3. "Many goes oft begging," "and it causeth much robbing."--Deposition of Christopher Chator. Here is a special picture of one of these vagabonds. Gregory Cromwell, writing to his father from Lewes, says, "The day of making hereof came before us a fellow called John Dancy, being apparelled in a frieze coat, a pair of black hose, with fustian slops, having also a sword, a buckler, and a dagger; being a man of such port, fashion, and behaviour that we at first took him only for a vagabond, until such time as he, being examined, confessed himself to have been heretofore a priest, and sometime a monk of this monastery."--_MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VII.

[564] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 12.

[565] _Lords Journals_, 31 Henry VIII.

[566] It was so difficult to calculate at the time the amount likely to be raised by this method of taxation, or the degree in which it would press, that it is impossible at present even to guess reasonably on either of these points. In 1545, two fifteenths and tenths which were granted by parliament are described as extending to "a right small sum of money," and a five per cent. income tax was in consequence added.--37 Henry VIII. cap. 25. Aliens and clergy generally paid double, and on the present occasion the latter granted four shillings in the pound on their incomes, to be paid in two years, or a direct annual tax of ten per cent.--32 Henry VIII. cap. 13. But all estimates based on conjecture ought to be avoided.

[567] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 50.

[568] Ibid. cap. 57. Unprinted _Rolls House MS._

[569] "Hodie lecta est Billa attincturæ Ricardi Fetherstone, etc.; et communi omnium Procerum assensu nemine discrepante expedita."--_Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII.

[570] Stow.

[571] The Ladies Rutland, Rochford, and Edgecombe, all being together with the queen, "they wished her Grace with child, and she answered and said she knew well she was not with child. My Lady Edgecombe said, 'How is it possible for your Grace to know that?' 'I know it well I am not,' said she. Then said my Lady Edgecombe, 'I think your Grace is a maid still.' With that she laughed; 'How can I be a maid,' said she, 'and sleep every night with the king? When he comes to bed he kisses me, and takes me by the hand, and bids me "Good night, sweetheart;" and in the morning kisses me, and bids me "Farewell, darling." Is not this enough?' Then said my Lady Rutland, 'Madame, there must be more than this, or it will be long or we have a Duke of York, which all this realm most desireth.' 'Nay,' said the queen, 'I am contented I know no more.'"--Deposition on the Marriage of the Lady Anne of Cleves: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 462.

[572] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I. p. 556.

[573] Cromwell to the King: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 109.

[574] The Letter sent to Cromwell is printed in _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 628.

[575] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 459.

[576] _MSS. State Paper Office_, second series, 52 volumes.

[577] Lady Elizabeth Burgh's letter to him will show the character of interference which he was called upon to exercise: "My very good lord, most humbly I beseech your goodness to me your poor bounden bedewoman, considering the great trouble I am put unto by my Lord Burgh, who always hath lien in wait to put me to shame and trouble, which he shall never do, God willing, you being my good and gracious lord, as I have found you merciful to me ever hitherto; and so I most humbly beseech you of your good continuance, desiring now your good lordship to remember me, for I am comfortless, and as yet not out of the danger of death through the great travail that I had. For I am as yet as a prisoner comfortless, only trusting to your lordship's goodness and to the King's Grace's most honourable council. For I hear say my Lord Burgh hath complained on me to your lordship and to all the noble council; and has enformed your lordship and them all that the child that I have borne and so dearly bought is none of his son's my husband. As for me, my very good lord, I do protest afore God, and also shall receive him to my eternal damnation, if ever I designed for him with any creature living, but only with my husband; therefore now I most lamentably and humbly desire your lordship of your goodness to stay my Lord Burgh that he do not fulfil his diabolical mind to disinherit my husband's child.

"And thus am I ordered by my Lord Burgh and my husband (who dare do nothing but as his father will have him do), so that I have nothing left to help me now in my great sickness, but am fain to lay all that I have to gage, so that I have nothing left to help myself withal, and might have perished ere this time for lack of succour, but through the goodness of the gentleman and his wife which I am in house withal. Therefore I most humbly desire your lordship to have pity on me, and that through your only goodness ye will cause my husband to use me like his wife, and no otherwise than I have deserved; and to send me money, and to pay such debts as I do owe by reason of my long being sick, and I shall pray for your lordship daily to increase in honour to your noble heart's desire. Scribbled with the hand of your bounden bedewoman, Elizabeth Burgh." _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. XIII.

I should have been glad to have added a more remarkable letter from Lady Hungerford, who was locked up by her husband in a country house for four years, and "would have died for lack of sustenance," "had not," she wrote, "the poor women of the country brought me, to my great window in the night, such poor meat and drink as they had, and gave me for the love of God." But the letter contains other details not desirable to publish.--_MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 397.

[578] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 349.

[579] "His Majesty remembering how men wanting the knowledge of the truth would else speak diversely of it, considering the credit he hath had about his Highness, which might also cause the wisest sort to judge amiss thereof if that his ingratitude and treason should not be fully opened unto them."--Ibid. The opening sentences of the letter (it was evidently a circular) also deserve notice: "These shall be to advertize you that when the King's Majesty hath of long season travelled, and yet most godly travaileth to establish such an order in matters of religion as neither declining on the right hand or on the left hand, God's glory might be advanced, the temerity of such as would either obscure or refuse the truth of his Word refrained, stayed, and in cases of obstinacy duly corrected and punished; so it is that the Lord Privy Seal, to whom the King's Majesty hath been so special good and gracious a lord, hath, only out of his sensual appetite, wrought clean contrary to his Grace's intent, secretly and indirectly advancing the one of the extremes, and leaving the mean, indifferent, true, and virtuous way which his Majesty so entirely desired, but also hath shewed himself so fervently bent to the maintenance of that his outrage, that he hath not spared most privily, most traitorously to devise how to continue the same, and in plain terms to say," &c. Then follow the words in the text.--Ibid.

[580] Hall, p. 838.

[581] "He is committed to the Tower of London, there to remain till it shall please his Majesty to have him tried according to the order of his laws." _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 350.

[582] Act of Attainder of Thomas Lord Cromwell, 32 Henry VIII. The act is not printed in the Statute Book, but it is in very good condition on the parliament roll. Burnet has placed it among his _Collectanea_.

[583] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 500.

[584] "Most Gracious Lord, I never spoke with the chancellor of the augmentation and Throgmorton together at one time. But if I did, I am sure I never spake of any such matter, and your Grace knows what manner of man Throgmorton has ever been towards your Grace's proceedings."--Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 500.

[585] Cranmer to the King: a fragment printed by Lord Herbert.

[586] "The said Privy Seal's intent was to have married my Lady Mary, and the French king and the Cardinal du Bellay had much debated the same matter, reckoning at length by the great favour your Majesty did bear to him he should be made some earl or duke, and therefore presumed your Majesty would give to him in marriage the said Lady Mary your daughter, as beforetime you had done the French queen unto my Lord of Suffolk. These things they gathered of such hints as they had heard of the Privy Seal, before knowing him to be fine witted, in so much as at all times when any marriage was treated of for my said Lady Mary, he did always his best to break the same."--_State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 379, and see p. 362.

[587] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 362.

[588] Pate to the Duke of Norfolk: Ibid. p. 355.

[589] Richard Pate, a priest of high Anglican views, and now minister at the Imperial court, supplied the Emperor's silence by his own enthusiasm. He wrote to Henry an ecstatic letter on the "fall of that wicked man who, by his false doctrines and like disciples, so disturbed his Grace's subjects, that the age was in manner brought to desperation, perceiving a new tradition taught." "What blindness," he exclaimed, "what ingratitude is this of this traitor's, far passing Lucifer's, that, endeavouring to pluck the sword out of his sovereign's hand, hath deserved to feel the power of the same. But lauded be our Lord God that hath delivered your Grace out of the bear's claws, as not long before of a semblable danger of the lioness!"--Pate to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 364.

[590] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 7; _Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII. Session June 22.

[591] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 15; _Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII. July 1.

[592] Communi omnium procerum consensu nemine discrepante.

[593] "Excepted alway all and all manner of heresies and erroneous opinions touching or concerning, plainly, directly, and only the most holy and blessed sacrament of the altar; and these heresies and erroneous opinions hereafter ensuing: that infants ought not to be baptized, and if they be baptized, they ought to be rebaptized when they come to lawful age; that it is not lawful for a Christian man to bear office or rule in the commonwealth; that no man's laws ought to be obeyed; that it is not lawful for a Christian man to take an oath before any judge; that Christ took no bodily substance of our blessed Lady; that sinners, after baptism, cannot be restored by repentance; that every manner of death, with the time and hour thereof, is so certainly prescribed, appointed, and determined to every man of God, that neither any prince by his sword can alter it, nor any man by his own wilfulness prevent or change it; that all things be common and nothing several."--32 Henry VIII. cap. 49.

[594] _Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII. July 6.

[595] "Upon Tuesday, the sixth of this month, our nobles and commons made suit and request unto us to commit the examination of the justness of our matrimony to the clergy; upon which request made we sent incontinently our councillors the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Suffolk, the Bishop of Winchester, &c., advertising the queen what request was made, and in what sort, and thereupon to know what answer she would make unto the same. Whereunto, after divers conferences at good length, and the matter by her thoroughly perceived and considered, she answered plainly and frankly that she was contented that the discussion of the matter should be committed to the clergy as unto judges competent in that behalf."--_State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 404; and see Anne of Cleves to the King; Ibid. Vol. I. p. 637.

[596] Luculentâ Oratione: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I. p. 553.

[597] "Inspectâ hujus negotii veritate ac solum Deum præ oculis habentes, quod verum, quod honestum, quod sanctum est, id nobis, de communi consilio scripto authentico renuncietis et de communi consensu licere diffiniatis. Nempe hoc unum a vobis nostro jure postulamus ut tanquam fida et proba ecclesiæ membra causæ huic ecclesiasticæ quæ maxima est in justitiâ et veritate adesse velitis."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 630.

[598] _MS. Cotton. Otho_, X. 240.

[599] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 404.

[600] "Tum vero quid ecclesia in ejusmodi casibus et possit facere et sæpenumero ante hac fecerit perpendentes."--Judgment of the Convocation: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 632.

[601] Ibid. p. 633.