Chapter VII: The Last Efforts of Diplomacy (4)

The commissioners sate at the archbishop's palace at Lambeth; and at the end of April, Sir Thomas More received a summons to appear before them.[714] He was at his house at Chelsea, where for the last two years he had lived in deep retirement, making ready for evil times. Those times at length were come. On the morning on which he was to present himself, he confessed and received the sacrament in Chelsea church; and "whereas," says his great-grandson, "at other times, before he parted from his wife and children, they used to bring him to his boat, and he there kissing them bade them farewell, at this time he suffered none of them to follow him forth of his gate, but pulled the wicket after him, and with a heavy heart he took boat with his son Roper."[715] He was leaving his home for the last time, and he knew it. He sat silent for some minutes, and then, with a sudden start, said, "I thank our Lord, the field is won." Lambeth Palace was crowded with people who had come on the same errand with himself. More was called in early, and found Cromwell present with the four commissioners, and also the Abbot of Westminster. The oath was read to him. It implied that he should keep the statute of succession in all its parts, and he desired to see the statute itself. He read it through, and at once replied that others might do as they pleased; he would blame no one for taking the oath; but for himself it was impossible. He would swear willingly to the part of it which secured the succession to the children of Queen Anne.[716] That was a matter on which parliament was competent to decide, and he had no right to make objections. If he might be allowed to take an oath to this portion of the statute in language of his own, he would do it; but as the words stood, he would "peril his soul" by using them. The Lord Chancellor desired him to re-consider his answer. He retired to the garden, and in his absence others were called in; among them the Bishop of Rochester, who refused in the same terms. More was then recalled. He was asked if he persisted in his resolution; and when he replied that he did, he was requested to state his reasons. He said that he was afraid of increasing the king's displeasure, but if he could be assured that he might explain himself safely he was ready to do so. If his objection could then be answered to his satisfaction, he would swear; in the meantime, he repeated, very explicitly, that he judged no one--he spoke only for himself.

An opening seemed to be offered in these expressions which was caught at by Cranmer's kind-hearted casuistry. If Sir Thomas More could not condemn others for taking the oath, the archbishop said, Sir Thomas More could not be sure that it was sin to take it; while his duty to his king and to the parliament was open and unquestioned.

More hesitated for an instant, but he speedily recovered his firmness. He had considered what he ought to do, he said; his conscience was clear about it, and he could say no more than he had said already. They continued to argue with him, but without effect; he had made up his mind; the victory, as he said, had been won.

Cromwell was deeply affected. In his passionate regret, he exclaimed, that he had rather his only son had lost his head than that More should have refused the oath. No one knew better than Cromwell that intercession would be of no further use; that he could not himself advise the king to give way. The parliament, after grave consideration, had passed a law which they held necessary to secure the peace of the country; and two persons of high rank refused obedience to it, whose example would tell in every English household. Either, therefore, the act was not worth the parchment on which it was written, or the penalties of it must be enforced: no middle way, no compromise, no acquiescent reservations, could in such a case be admitted. The law must have its way.

The recusants were committed for four days to the keeping of the Abbot of Westminster; and the council met to determine on the course to be pursued. Their offence, by the act, was misprision of treason. On the other hand, they had both offered to acknowledge the Princess Elizabeth as the lawful heir to the throne; and the question was raised whether this offer should be accepted. It was equivalent to a demand that the form should be altered, not for them only, but for every man. If persons of their rank and notoriety were permitted to swear with a qualification, the same privilege must be conceded to all. But there was so much anxiety to avoid extremities, and so warm a regard was personally felt for Sir Thomas More, that this objection was not allowed to be fatal. It was thought that possibly an exception might be made, yet kept a secret from the world; and the fact that they had sworn under any form might go far to silence objectors and reconcile the better class of the disaffected.[717] This view was particularly urged by Cranmer, always gentle, hoping, and illogical.[718] But, in fact, secresy was impossible. If More's discretion could have been relied upon, Fisher's babbling tongue would have trumpeted his victory to all the winds. Nor would the government consent to pass censure on its own conduct by evading the question whether the act was or was not just. If it was not just, it ought not to be: maintained at all; if it was just, there must be no respect of persons.

The clauses to which the bishop and the ex-chancellor declined to bind themselves were those which declared illegal the marriage of the king with Catherine, and the marriage legal between the king and Queen Anne. To refuse these was to declare Mary legitimate, to declare Elizabeth illegitimate, and would do more to strengthen Mary's claims than could be undone by a thousand oaths. However large might be More's estimate of the power of parliament, he could have given no clear answer--and far less could Fisher have given a clear answer--if they had been required to say the part which they would take, should the emperor invade the kingdom under the pope's sanction. The emperor would come to execute a sentence which in their consciences they believed to be just; how could they retain their allegiance to Henry, when their convictions must be with the invading army?

What ought to have been done let those say who disapprove of what was actually done. The high character of the prisoners, while it increased the desire, increased the difficulty of sparing them; and to have given way would have been a confession of a doubtful cause, which at such a time would not have been dangerous, but would have been fatal. Anne Boleyn is said to have urged the king to remain peremptory;[719] but the following letter of Cromwell's explains the ultimate resolution of the council in a very reasonable manner. It was written to Cranmer in reply to his arguments for concession.

"My Lord, after mine humble commendation, it may please your Grace to be advertised that I have received your letter, and showed the same to the King's Highness; who, perceiving that your mind and opinion is, that it were good that the Bishop of Rochester and Master More should be sworn to the act of the king's succession, and not to the preamble of the same, thinketh that if their oaths should be taken, it were an occasion to all men to refuse the whole, or at least the like. For, in case they be sworn to the succession, and not to the preamble, it is to be thought that it might be taken not only as a confirmation of the Bishop of Rome's authority, but also as a reprobation of the king's second marriage. Wherefore, to the intent that no such things should be brought into the heads of the people, by the example of the said Bishop of Rochester and Master More, the King's Highness in no wise willeth but that they shall be sworn as well to the preamble as to the act. Wherefore his Grace specially trusteth that ye will in no wise attempt to move him to the contrary; for as his Grace supposeth, that manner of swearing, if it shall be suffered, may be an utter destruction to his whole cause, and also to the effect of the law made for the same."[720]

Thus, therefore, with much regret the council decided--and, in fact, why should they have decided otherwise? They were satisfied that they were right in requiring the oath; and their duty to the English nation obliged them to persevere. They must go their way; and those who thought them wrong must go theirs; and the great God would judge between them. It was a hard thing to suffer for an opinion; but there are times when opinions are as dangerous as acts; and liberty of conscience was a plea which could be urged with a bad grace for men who, while in power, had fed the stake with heretics. They were summoned for a last time, to return the same answer as they had returned before; and nothing remained but to pronounce against them the penalties of the statute, imprisonment at the king's pleasure, and forfeiture. The latter part of the sentence was not enforced. More's family were left in the enjoyment of his property. Fisher's bishoprick was not taken from him. They were sent to the Tower, where for the present we leave them.

Meanwhile, in accordance with the resolution taken in council on the and of December,[721] but which seems to have been suspended till the issue of the trial at Rome was decided, the bishops, who had been examined severally on the nature of the papal authority, and whose answers had been embodied in the last act of parliament, were now required to instruct the clergy throughout their dioceses--and the clergy in turn to instruct the people--in the nature of the changes which had taken place. A bishop was to preach each Sunday at Paul's Cross, on the pope's usurpation. Every secular priest was directed to preach on the same subject week after week, in his parish church. Abbots and priors were to teach their convents; noblemen and gentlemen their families and servants; mayors and aldermen the boroughs. In town and country, in all houses, at all dinner-tables, the conduct of the pope and the causes of the separation from Rome were to be the one subject of conversation; that the whole nation might be informed accurately and faithfully of the grounds on which the government had acted. No wiser method could have been adopted. The imperial agents would be busy under the surface; and the mendicant friars, and all the missionaries of insurrection. The machinery of order was set in force to counteract the machinery of sedition.

Further, every bishop, in addition to the oath of allegiance, had sworn obedience to the king as Supreme Head of the Church;[722] and this was the title under which he was to be spoken of in all churches of the realm. A royal order had been issued, "that all manner of prayers, rubrics, canons of Mass books, and all other books in the churches wherein the Bishop of Rome was named, or his presumptuous and proud pomp and authority preferred, should utterly be abolished, eradicated, and rased out, and his name and memory should be never more, except to his contumely and reproach, remembered; but perpetually be suppressed and obscured."[723]

Nor were these mere idle sounds, like the bellow of unshotted cannon; but words with a sharp, prompt meaning, which the king intended to be obeyed. He had addressed his orders to the clergy, because the clergy were the officials who had possession of the pulpits from which the people were to be taught; but he knew their nature too well to trust them. They were too well schooled in the tricks of reservation; and, for the nonce, it was necessary to reverse the posture of the priest and of his flock, and to set the honest laymen to overlook their pastors.

With the instructions to the bishops circulars went round to the sheriffs of the counties, containing a full account of these instructions, and an appeal to their loyalty to see that the royal orders were obeyed. "We," the king wrote to them, "seeing, esteeming, and reputing you to be of such singular and vehement zeal and affection towards the glory of Almighty God, and of so faithful, loving, and obedient heart towards us, as you will accomplish, with all power, diligence, and labour, whatsoever shall be to the preferment and setting forth of God's word, have thought good, not only to signify unto you by these our letters, the particulars of the charge given by us to the bishops, but also to require and straitly charge you, upon pain of your allegiance, and as ye shall avoid our high indignation and displeasure, [that] at your uttermost peril, laying aside all vain affections, respects, and other carnal considerations, and setting only before your eyes the mirrour of the truth, the glory of God, the dignity of your Sovereign Lord and King, and the great concord and unity, and inestimable profit and utility, that shall by the due execution of the premises ensue to yourselves and to all other faithful and loving subjects, ye make or cause to be made diligent search and wait, whether the said bishops do truly and sincerely, without all manner of cloke, colour, or dissimulation, execute and accomplish our will and commandment, as is aforesaid. And in case ye shall hear that the said bishops, or any other ecclesiastical person, do omit and leave undone any part or parcel of the premises, or else in the execution and setting forth of the same, do coldly and feignedly use any manner of sinister addition, wrong interpretation, or painted colour, then we straitly charge and command you that you do make, undelayedly, and with all speed and diligence, declaration and advertisement to us and to our council of the said default.

"And forasmuch as we upon the singular trust which we have in you, and for the special love which we suppose you bear towards us, and the weal and tranquillity of this our realm, have specially elected and chosen you among so many for this purpose, and have reputed you such men as unto whose wisdom and fidelity we might commit a matter of such great weight and importance: if ye should, contrary to our expectation and trust which we have in you, and against your duty and allegiance towards us, neglect, or omit to do with all your diligence, whatsoever shall be in your power for the due performance of our pleasure to you declared, or halt or stumble at any part or specialty of the same; Be ye assured that we, like a prince of justice, will so extremely punish you for the same, that all the world beside shall take by you example, and beware contrary to their allegiance to disobey the lawful commandment of their Sovereign Lord and Prince.

"Given under our signet, at our Palace of Westminster, the 9th day of June, 1534."[724]

So Henry spoke at last. There was no place any more for nice distinctions and care of tender consciences. The general, when the shot is flying, cannot qualify his orders with dainty periods. Swift command and swift obedience can alone be tolerated; and martial law for those who hesitate.

This chapter has brought many things to a close. Before ending it we will leap over three months, to the termination of the career of the pope who has been so far our companion. Not any more was the distracted Clement to twist his handkerchief, or weep, or flatter, or wildly wave his arms in angry impotence; he was to lie down in his long rest, and vex the world no more. He had lived to set England free--an exploit which, in the face of so persevering an anxiety to escape a separation, required a rare genius and a combination of singular qualities. He had finished his work, and now he was allowed to depart.

In him, infinite insincerity was accompanied with a grace of manner which regained confidence as rapidly as it was forfeited. Desiring sincerely, so far as he could be sincere in anything, to please every one by turns, and reckless of truth to a degree in which he was without a rival in the world, he sought only to escape his difficulties by inactivity, and he trusted to provide himself with a refuge against all contingencies by waiting upon time. Even when at length he was compelled to act, and to act in a distinct direction, his plausibility long enabled him to explain away his conduct; and, honest in the excess of his dishonesty, he wore his falsehood with so easy a grace that it assumed the character of truth. He was false, deceitful, treacherous; yet he had the virtue of not pretending to be virtuous. He was a real man, though but an indifferent one; and we can refuse to no one, however grave his faults, a certain ambiguous sympathy, when in his perplexities he shows us features so truly human in their weakness as those of Clement VII.

* * * * *

NOTES.

[1] Printed in FOXE, vol. iv. p. 659, Townsend's edition.

[2] 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 4.

[3] Bishop Latimer, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, suggested another purpose which this act might answer. One of his audience, writing to the Mayor of Plymouth, after describing the exceedingly disrespectful language in which he spoke of the high church dignitaries, continues, "The king," quoth he, "made a marvellous good act of parliament that certain men should sow every of them two acres of hemp; but it were all too little were it so much more to hang the thieves that be in England."--_Suppression of the Monasteries_, Camden Society's publications, p. 38.

[4] 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

[5] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

[6] _Antiquities of Hengrave_, by Sir T. GAGE.

[7] See especially 2 Hen. VII. capp. 16 and 19.

[8] 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

[9] See especially the 4th of the 5th of Elizabeth.

[10] 10 Ed. III. cap. 3.

[11] Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. (edit. 1817), pp. 227-8.

[12] "The artificers and husbandmen make most account of such meat as they may soonest come by and have it quickliest ready. Their food consisteth principally in beef, and such meat as the butcher selleth, that is to say, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, whereof the one findeth great store in the markets adjoining; besides souse, brawn, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit, fowls of sundry sorts, as the other wanteth it not at home by his own provision, which is at the best hand and commonly least charge. In feasting, this latter sort--I mean the husbandmen--do exceed after their manner, especially at bridals and such odd meetings, where it is incredible to tell what meat is consumed and spent."--HARRISON'S _Description of England_, p. 282.

The Spanish nobles who came into England with Philip were astonished at the diet which they found among the poor.

"These English," said one of them, "have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king."--Ibid. p. 313.

[13] _State Papers_, Hen. VIII. vol. ii. p. 10.

[14] HALL, p. 646.

[15] 25 Ed. III. cap. I.

[16] _Statutes of the Realm_, vol. i. p. 199.

[17] 3 Ed. IV. cap. 2.

[18] 10 Hen. VI. cap. 2.

[19] STOW'S _Chronicle._

[20] _Statutes of Philip and Mary._

[21] From 1565 to 1575 there was a rapid and violent rise in the prices of all kinds of grain. Wheat stood at four and five times its earlier rates; and in 1576, when Harrison wrote, was entirely beyond the reach of the labouring classes. "The poor in some shires," he says, "are enforced to content themselves with rye or barley, yea, and in time of dearth many with bread made either of peas, beans, or oats, or of all together and some acorns among, of which scourge the poorest do soonest taste, sith they are least able to provide themselves of better. I will not say that this extremity is oft so well seen in time of plenty as of dearth, but if I should I could easily bring my trial. For, albeit that there be much more ground eared now almost in every place than hath been of late years, yet such a price of corn continues in each town and market, that the artificer and poor labouring man is not able to reach to it, but is driven to content himself with beans, peas, oats, tares, and lentils."--HARRISON, p. 283. The condition of the labourer was at this period deteriorating rapidly. The causes will be described in the progress of this history.

[22] _Chronicle_, p.568.

[23] 33 Hen. VIII. cap. II. The change in the prices of such articles commenced in the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., and continued till the close of the century. A discussion upon the subject, written in 1581 by Mr. Edward Stafford, and containing the clearest detailed account of the alteration, is printed in the _Harleian Miscellany_, vol. ix. p.139, etc.

[24] Leland, _Itin._, vol. vi. p.17. In large households beef used to be salted in great quantities for winter consumption. The art of fatting cattle in the stall was imperfectly understood, and the loss of substance in the destruction of fibre by salt was less than in the falling off of flesh on the failure of fresh grass. The Northumberland Household Book describes the storing of salted provision for the earl's establishment at Michaelmas; and men now living can remember the array of salting tubs in old-fashioned country houses. So long as pigs, poultry, and other articles of food, however, remained cheap and abundant, the salt diet could not, as Hume imagines, have been carried to an extent injurious to health; and fresh meat, beef as well as mutton, was undoubtedly sold in all markets the whole year round in the reign of Henry VIII., and sold at a uniform price, which it could not have been if there had been so much difficulty in procuring it. Latimer (_Letters_, p.412), writing to Cromwell on Christmas Eve, 1538, speaks of his winter stock of "beeves" and muttons as a thing of course.

[25] STAFFORD'S _Discourse on the State of the Realm_. It is to be understood, however, that these rates applied only to articles of ordinary consumption. Capons fatted for the dinners of the London companies were sometimes provided at a shilling apiece. Fresh fish was also extravagantly dear, and when two days a week were observed strictly as fasting days, it becomes a curious question to know how the supply was kept up. The inland counties were dependent entirely on ponds and rivers. London was provided either from the Thames or from the coast of Sussex. An officer of the Fishmongers' Company resided at each of the Cinque Ports whose business it was to buy the fish wholesale from the boats and to forward it on horseback. Three hundred horses were kept for this service at Rye alone. And when an adventurous fisherman, taking advantage of a fair wind, sailed up the Thames with his catch and sold it first hand at London Bridge, the innovation was considered dangerous, and the Mayor of Rye petitioned against it.

Salmon, sturgeon, porpoise, roach, dace, flounders, eels, etc., were caught in considerable quantities in the Thames, below London Bridge, and further up, pike and trout. The fishermen had great nets that stretched all across Limehouse-reach four fathoms deep.

Fresh fish, however, remained the luxury of the rich, and the poor were left to the salt cod, ling, and herring brought in annually by the Iceland fleet.

Fresh herrings sold for five or six a penny in the time of Henry VIII., and were never cheaper. Fresh salmon five and six shillings apiece. Roach, dace, and flounders from two to four shillings a hundred. Pike and barbel varied with their length. The barbel a foot long sold for five-pence, and twopence was added for each additional inch: a pike a foot long sold for sixteen pence, and increased a penny an inch.--_Guildhall MSS. Journals_ 12, 13, 14, 15.

[26] "When the brewer buyeth a quarter of malt for two shillings, then he shall sell a gallon of the best ale for two farthings; when he buyeth a quarter malt for four shillings, the gallon shall be four farthings, and so forth... and that he sell a quart of ale upon his table for a farthing."-- Assize of Brewers: from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford.

By an order of the Lord Mayor and Council of the City of London, in September, 1529, the price of a kilderkin of single beer was fixed at a shilling, the kilderkin of double beer at two shillings; but this included the cask; and the London brewers replied with a remonstrance, saying that the casks were often destroyed or made away with, and that an allowance had to be made for bad debts. "Your beseechers," they said, "have many city debtors, for many of them which have taken much beer into their houses suddenly goeth to the sanctuary, some keep their houses--some purchase the king's protection, and some, when they die, be reckoned poor, and of no value, and many of your said beseechers be for the most part against such debtors remediless and suffer great losses."

They offered to supply then: customers with sixteen gallon casks of single beer for eleven pence, and the same quantity of double beer for a shilling, the cask included. And this offer was accepted.

The corporation, however, returned two years after to their original order. _Guildhall Records_, MS. Journal 13, pp. 210, 236.

[27] 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 14.

The prices assessed, being a maximum, applied to the best wines of each class. In 1531, the mayor and corporation "did straitly charge and command that all such persons as sold wines by retail within the city and liberties of the same, should from henceforth sell two gallons of the best red wine for eightpence, and not above; the gallon of the best white wine for eightpence, and not above; the pottle, quart, and pint after the same rate, upon pain of imprisonment."

The quality of the wine sold was looked into from time to time, and when found tainted, or unwholesome, "according to the antient customs of the city," the heads of the vessels were broken up, and the wines in them put forth open into the kennels, in example of all other offenders. _Guildhall MS._ Journals 12 and 13.

[28] _Sermons_, p.101.

[29] See HARRISON, p. 318. At the beginning of the century farms let for four pounds a year, which in 1576 had been raised to forty, fifty, or a hundred. The price of produce kept pace with the rent. The large farmers prospered; the poor forfeited their tenures.

[30] The wages were fixed at a maximum, showing that labour was scarce, and that its natural tendency was towards a higher rate of remuneration. Persons not possessed of other means of subsistence were punishable if they refused to work at the statutable rate of payment; and a clause in the act of Hen. VIII. directed that where the practice had been to give lower wages, lower wages should be taken. This provision was owing to a difference in the value of money in different parts of England. The price of bread at Stratford, for instance, was permanently twenty-five per cent. below the price in London. (Assize of Bread in England: _Balliol MS_.) The statute, therefore, may be taken as a guide sufficiently conclusive as to the practical scale. It is of course uncertain how far work was constant. The ascending tendency of wages is an evidence, so far as it goes, in the labourer's favour; and the proportion between the wages of the household farm servant and those of the day labourer, which furnishes a further guide, was much the same as at present. By the same statute of Henry VIII. the common servant of husbandry, who was boarded and lodged at his master's house, received 16s. 8d. a year in money, with 4s. for his clothes; while the wages of the out-door labourer, supposing his work constant, would have been L5 a year. Among ourselves, on an average of different counties, the labourer's wages are L25 to L30 a year, supposing his work constant. The farm servant, unless in the neighbourhood of large towns, receives about L6, or from that to L8.

Where meat and drink was allowed it was calculated at 2d. a day, or 1s. 2d. a week. In the household of the Earl of Northumberland the allowance was 2-1/2d. Here, again, we observe an approach to modern proportions. The estimated cost of the board and lodging of a man servant in an English gentleman's family is now about L25 a year.

[31] Mowers, for instance, were paid 8d. a day.--_Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII._

[32] In 1581 the agricultural labourer, as he now exists, was only beginning to appear. "There be such in the realm," says Stafford, "as live only by the labour of their hands and the profit which they can make upon the commons."--STAFFORD'S _Discourse_. This novel class had been called into being by the general raising of rents, and the wholesale evictions of the smaller tenantry which followed the Reformation. The progress of the causes which led to the change can be traced from the beginning of the century. Harrison says he knew old men who, comparing things present with things past, spoke of two things grown to be very grievous--to wit, "the enhancing of rents, and the daily oppression of copyholders, whose lords seek to bring their poor tenants almost into plain servitude and misery, daily devising new means, and seeking up all the old, how to cut them shorter and shorter; doubling, trebling, and now and then seven times increasing their fines; driving them also for every trifle to lose and forfeit their tenures, by whom the greatest part of the realm doth stand and is maintained, to the end they may fleece them yet more: which is a lamentable hearing."--_Description of England_, p.318.

[33] HALL, p. 581. Nor was the act in fact observed even in London itself, or towards workmen employed by the Government. In 1538, the Corporation of London, "for certain reasonable and necessary considerations," assessed the wages of common labourers at 7d. and 8d. the day, classing them with carpenters and masons.--_Guildhall MSS. Journal_ 14, fol. 10. Labourers employed on Government works in the reign of Hen. VIII. never received less than 6d. a day, and frequently more.--_Chronicle of Calais_, p. 197, etc. Sixpence a day is the usual sum entered as the wages of a day's labour in the innumerable lists of accounts in the Record Office. And 6d. a day again was the lowest pay of the common soldier, not only on exceptional service in the field, but when regularly employed in garrison duty. Those who doubt whether this was really the practice, may easily satisfy themselves by referring to the accounts of the expenses of Berwick, or of Dover, Deal, or Walmer Castles, to be found in the Record Office in great numbers. The daily wages of the soldier are among the very best criteria for determining the average value of the unskilled labourer's work. No government gives higher wages than it is compelled to give by the market rate.

[34] The wages of the day labourer in London, under this act of Elizabeth, were fixed at 9d. the day, and this, after the restoration of the depreciated currency.--_Guildhall MSS. Journal_ 18, fol. 157, etc.

[35] 4 Hen. VII. cap. 16. By the same parliament these provisions were extended to the rest of England. 4 Hen. VII. cap. 19.

[36] HALL, p. 863.

[37] 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 22.

[38] There is a cause of difficulty "peculiar to England, the increase of pasture, by which sheep may be now said to devour men and unpeople not only villages but towns. For wherever it is found that the sheep yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture.... One shepherd can look after a flock which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands if it were ploughed and reaped. And this likewise in many places raises the price of corn. The price of wool is also risen ... since, though sheep cannot be called a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person; yet they are in so few hands, and these are so rich, that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till they have raised the price as high as possible."--Sir THOMAS MORE'S _Utopia_, Burnet's Translation, pp. 17-19.

[39] I find scattered among the _State Papers_ many loose memoranda, apparently of privy councillors, written on the backs of letters, or on such loose scraps as might be at hand. The following fragment on the present subject is curious. I do not recognise the hand:--

"Mem. That an act may be made that merchants shall employ their goods continually in the traffic of merchandise, and not in the purchasing of lands; and that craftsmen, also, shall continually use their crafts in cities and towns, and not leave the same and take farms in the country; and that no merchant shall hereafter purchase above L40 lands by the year."--_Cotton MS._ Titus, b. i. 160.

[40] When the enclosing system was carried on with greatest activity and provoked insurrection. In expressing a sympathy with the social policy of the Tudor government, I have exposed myself to a charge of opposing the received and ascertained conclusions of political economy. I disclaim entirely an intention so foolish; but I believe that the science of political economy came into being with the state of things to which alone it is applicable. It ought to be evident that principles which answer admirably when a manufacturing system capable of indefinite expansion multiplies employment at home--when the soil of England is but a fraction of its empire, and the sea is a highway to emigration--would have produced far different effects, in a condition of things which habit had petrified into form, when manufactures could not provide work for one additional hand, when the first colony was yet unthought of, and where those who were thrown out of the occupation to which they had been bred could find no other. The tenants evicted, the labourers thrown out of employ, when the tillage lands were converted into pastures, had scarcely an alternative offered them except to beg, to rob, or to starve.

[41] _Lansdowne MS._ No. I. fol. 26.

[42] GIUSTINIANI'S _Letters from the Court of Henry VIII_.

[43] Ibid.

[44] 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

[45] Under Hen. VI. the household expenses were L23,000 a year--Cf. _Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council_, vol. vi. p. 35. The particulars of the expenses of the household of Hen. VIII. are in an MS. in the Rolls House. They cover the entire outlay except the personal expenditure of the king, and the sum total amounts to L14,365 10s. 7d. This would leave above L5000 a year for the privy purse, not, perhaps, sufficient to cover Henry's gambling extravagances in his early life. Curious particulars of his excesses in this matter will be found in a publication wrongly called _The Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Eighth_. It is a diary of general payments, as much for purposes of state as for the king himself. The high play was confined for the most part to Christmas or other times of festivity, when the statutes against unlawful games were dispensed with for all classes.

[46] 18 Hen. VI. cap. 11.

[47] 4 Hen. VII. cap. 12.

[48] During the quarter sessions time they were allowed 4s. a day.--Ric. II. xii. 10.

[49] The rudeness of the furniture in English country houses has been dwelt upon with much emphasis by Hume and others. An authentic inventory of the goods and chattels in a parsonage in Kent proves that there has been much exaggeration in this matter. It is from an MS. in the Rolls House.

_The Inventory of the Goods and Catales of Richd. Master, Clerk, Parson of Aldington, being in his Parsonage on the 20th Day of April, in the 25th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Henry VIII._

_Plate_
Silver spoons, twelve.

_In the Hall_
Two tables and two forms.
Item, a painted cloth hanging at the upper part of the hall.
Item, a green banker hung on the bench in the hall.
Item, a laver of laten.

_In the Parlour_
A hanging of old red and green saye.
Item, a banker of woven carpet of divers colours.
Item, two cushions.
Item, one table, two forms, one cupboard, one chair.
Item, two painted pictures and a picture of the names of kings of England
pinned on the said hanging.

_In the Chamber on the North Side of the said Parlour_
A painted hanging.
Item, a bedstedyll with a feather bed, one bolster, two pillows, one
blanket,
one roulett of rough tapestry, a testner of green and red saye.
Item, two forms.
Item, one jack to set a basin on.

_In the Chamber over the Parlour_
Two bedsteads.
Item, another testner of painted cloth.
Item, a painted cloth.
Item, two forms.

_At the Stairs' Hed beside the Parson's Bedchamber_
One table, two trestylls, four beehives.

_In the Parson's Lodging-chamber_
A bedstedyll and a feather bed, two blankets, one payr of sheets, one
coverlet of tapestry lined with canvas, one bolster, one pillow with
a pillocote.
Item, one gown of violet cloth lined with red saye.
Item, a gown of black cloth, furred with lamb.
Item, two hoods of violet cloth, whereof one is lined with green
sarsenet.
Item, one jerkyn of tawny camlet.
Item, a jerkyn of cloth furred with white.
Item, a jacket of cloth furred.
Item, a sheet to put in cloth.
Item, one press.
Item, a leather mail.
Item, one table, two forms, four chairs, two trestylls.
Item, a tester of painted cloth.
Item, a pair of hangings of green saye, with two pictures thereupon.
Item, one cupboard, two chests.
Item, a little flock bed, with a bolster and a coverlet.
Item, one cushion, one mantell, one towel, and, by estimation, a pound
of wax candles.
Item, Greek books covered with boards, 42.
Item, small books covered with boards, 33.
Item, books covered with leather and parchment, 38.

_In the said Chest in the said Chamber_
Three pieces of red saye and green.
Item, one tyke for a bolster, two tykes for pillows.
Item, a typpett of cloth.
Item, diaper napkins, 4, diaper towels, 2.
Item, four pairs of sheets, and one shete, two tablecloths.

_In the other Chest in the same Chamber_
One typpett of sarsenett.
Item, two cotes belonging to the crosse of Underbill, whereupon hang
thirty-three pieces of money, rings, and other things, and three
crystal stones closed in silver.

_In the Study_
Two old boxes, a wicker hamper full of papers.

_In the Chamber behind the Chimney_
One seam and a half of old malt.
Item, a trap for rats.
Item, a board of three yards length.

_In the Chamber next adjoining westwards_
One bedstedyll, one flock bed, one bolster.
One form, two shelf boards, one little table, two trestylls, two awgyes,
one
nett, called a stalker, a well rope, five quarters of hemp.

_In the Buttery_
Three basins of pewter, five candlesticks, one ewer of lateen, one
chafing
dish, two platters, one dish, one salter, three podingers [?
porringer],
a saltseller of pewter, seven kilderkyns, three keelers, one form,
five
shelves, one byn, one table, one glasse bottell.

_In the Priest's Chamber_
One bedstedyll, one feather bed, two forms, one press.

_In the Woman's Keeping_
Two tablecloths, two pairs of sheets.

_In the Servant's Chamber_
One painted hanging, a bedstedyll, one feather bed, a press, and a shelf.

_In the Kitchen_
Eight bacon flitches, a little brewing lead, three brass pots, three
kettles,
one posnett, one frying-pan, a dripping-pan, a great pan, two
trivetts,
a chopping knife, a skimmer, one fire rake, a pothanger, one
pothooke,
one andiron, three spits, one gridiron, one firepan, a coal rake of
iron,
two bolts [? butts], three wooden platters, six boldishes, three
forms,
two stools, seven platters, two pewter dishes, four saucers, a
covering
of a saltseller, a podynger, seven tubbs, a caldron, two syffs, a
capon
cope, a mustard quern, a ladder, two pails, one beehive.

_In the Mill-house_
Seven butts, two cheeses, an old sheet, an old brass pan, three
podyngers,
a pewter dish.

_In the Boulting-house_
One brass pan, one quern, a boulting hutch, a boulting tub, three little
tubbys, two keelers, a tolvett, two boulters, one tonnell.

_In the Larder_
One sieve, one bacon trough, a cheese press, one little tub, eight
shelves,
one graper for a well.

_Wood_
Of tall wood ten load, of ash wood a load and a half.

_Poultry_
Nine hens, eight capons, one cock, sixteen young chickens, three old
geese, seventeen goslings, four ducks.

_Cattle_
Five young hoggs, two red kyne, one red heifer two years old, one bay
gelding lame of spavins, one old grey mare having a mare colt.

_In the Entries_
Two tubbs, one trough, one ring to bear water and towel, a chest to keep
cornes.

_In the same House_
Five seams of lime.

_In the Woman's Chamber_
One bedstedyll of hempen yarn, by estimation 20 lbs.

_Without the House_
Of tyles, ----, of bricks, ----, seven planks, three rafters, one ladder.

_In the Gate-house_
One form, a leather sack, three bushels of wheat.

_In the Still beside the Gate_
Two old road saddles, one bridle, a horse-cloth.

_In the Barn next the Gate_
Of wheat unthrashed, by estimation, thirty quarters, of barley
unthrashed,
by estimation, five quarters.

_In the Cartlage_
One weene with two whyles, one dung-cart without whyles, two shod-whyles,
two yokes, one sledge.

_In the Barn next the Church_
Of oats unthrashed, by estimation, one quarter.

_In the Garden-house_
Of oats, by estimation, three seams four bushels.

_In the Court_
Two racks, one ladder.

[50] Two hundred poor were fed daily at the house of Tomas Cromwell. This fact is perfectly authenticated. Stowe the historian, who did not like Cromwell, lived in an adjoining house, and reports it as an eye witness.--_See_ STOWE'S _Survey of London._

[51] HARRISON'S _Description of Britain_.

[52] The Earl and Countess of Northumberland breakfasted together alone at seven. The meal consisted of a quart of ale, a quart of wine, and a chine of beef: a loaf of bread is not mentioned, but we hope it may be presumed. On fast days the beef was exchanged for a dish of sprats or herrings, fresh or salt.--_Northumberland Household Book_, quoted by Hume.

[53] Some notice of the style of living sometimes witnessed in England in the old times may be gathered from the details of a feast given at the installation of George Neville, brother of Warwick the King Maker, when made Archbishop of York.

The number of persons present including servants was about 3500.

The provisions were as follow--

Wheat, 300 quarters.
Ale, 300 tuns.
Wine, 104 tuns.
Ipocras, 1 pipe.
Oxen, 80.
Wild bulls, 6.
Muttons, 1004.
Veal, 300.
Porkers, 300.
Geese, 3000.
Capons, 2300.
Pigs, 2000.
Peacocks, 100.
Cranes, 200.
Kids, 200.
Chickens, 2000.
Pigeons, 4000.
Conies, 4000.
Bitterns, 204.
Mallards and teals, 4000.
Heronshaws, 4000.
Fesants, 200.
Partridges, 500.
Woodcocks, 400.
Plovers, 400.
Curlews, 100.
Quails, 100.
Egrets, 1000
Rees, 200.
Harts, bucks, and roes, 400 and odd.
Pasties of venison, cold, 4000.
Pasties of venison, hot, 1506.
Dishes of jelly, pasted, 1000.
Plain dishes of jelly, 4000.
Cold tarts, baken, 4000.
Cold custards, 4000.
Custards, hot, 2000.
Pikes, 300.
Breams, 300.
Seals, 8.
Porpoises, 4.

[54] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 64.

[55] _Statutes of the Realm_, 1 Ed. VI. cap. 12.

[56] HOOKER'S _Life of Sir Peter Carew_.

[57] In a subsequent letter he is described as learning French, etymology, casting of accounts, playing at weapons, and other such exercises.--ELLIS, third series, vol. i. p. 342-3.

[58] It has been objected that inasmuch as the Statute Book gives evidence of extensive practices of adulteration, the guild system was useless, nay, it has been even said that it was the cause of the evil. Cessante causa cessat effectus;--when the companies lost their authority, the adulteration ought to have ceased, which in the face of recent exposures will be scarcely maintained. It would be as reasonable to say that the police are useless because we have still burglars and pickpockets among us.

[59] Throughout the old legislation, morality went along with politics and economics, and formed the life and spirit of them. The fruiterers in the streets were prohibited from selling plums and apples, because the apprentices played dice with them for their wares, or because the temptation induced children and servants to steal money to buy. When Parliament came to be held regularly in London, an order of Council fixed the rates which the hotel-keeper might charge for dinners. Messes were served for four at twopence per head; the bill of fare providing bread, fish, salt and fresh, two courses of meat, ale, with fire and candles. And the care of the Government did not cease with their meals, and in an anxiety that neither the burgesses nor their servants should be led into sin, stringent orders were issued against street-walkers coming near their quarters.--_Guildhall MSS. Journals_ 12 and 15.

The sanitary regulations for the city are peculiarly interesting. The scavengers, constables and officers of the wards were ordered, "on pain of death," to see all streets and yards kept clear of dung and rubbish and all other filthy and corrupt things. Carts went round every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, to carry off the litter from the houses, and on each of those days twelve buckets of water were drawn for "every person," and used in cleaning their rooms and passages.

Particular pains were taken to keep the Thames clean, and at the mouth of every sewer or watercourse there was a strong iron grating two feet deep.--_Guildhall MSS. Journal_ 15.

[60] And not in England alone, but throughout Europe.

[61] 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 25.

[62] Ibid.

[63] Ibid.

[64] 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 4; 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 5.

[65] _Statut. Winton._ 13 Edw. I. cap. 6.

[66] 12 Rich. II. cap. 6: 11 Hen. IV. cap. 4.

[67] ELLIS'S _Original Letters_, first series, vol. i. p. 226.

[68] It has been stated again and again that the policy of Henry the Eighth was to make the crown despotic by destroying the remnants of the feudal power of the nobility. How is such a theory to be reconciled with statutes the only object of which was the arming and training of the country population, whose natural leaders were the peers, knights, and gentlemen? We have heard too much of this random declamation.

[69] 33 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

[70] From my experience of modern archery I found difficulty in believing that these figures were accurately given. Few living men could send the lightest arrow 220 yards, even with the greatest elevation, and for effective use it must be delivered nearly point blank. A passage in HOLINSHED'S _Description of Britain_, however, prevents me from doubting that the words of the statute are correct. In his own time, he says that the strength of the English archers had so notoriously declined that the French soldiers were in the habit of disrespectfully turning their backs, at long range, "bidding them shoot," whereas, says Holinshed, "had the archers been what they were wont to be, these fellows would have had their breeches nailed unto their buttocks." In an order for bowstaves, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, I find this direction: "Each bowstave ought to be _three fingers thick_ and squared, and _seven feet long_: to be got up well polished and without knots."--Butler to Bullinger: _Zurich Letters_.

[71] Page 735, quarto edition.

[72] The Personages, Dresses, and Properties of a Mystery Play, acted at Greenwich, by command of Henry VIII. _Rolls House MS._

[73] Hall says "collar of the _garter_ of St. Michael," which, however, I venture to correct.

[74] Rich. II. 12, cap. 7, 8, 9; Rich. II. 15, cap. 6.

[75] _Lansdowne MSS._ 1, fol. 26.

[76] Injunctions to the Monasteries: BURNET'S _Collect._ pp. 77-8.

[77] Letter of Thomas Dorset to the Mayor of Plymouth: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 36.

[78] "Divers of your noble predecessors, kings of this realm, have given lands to monasteries, to give a certain sum of money yearly to the poor people, whereof for the ancienty of the time they never give one penny. Wherefore, if your Grace will build to your poor bedemen a sure hospital that shall never fail, take from them these things.... Tie the holy idle thieves to the cart to be whipped, naked, till they fall to labour, that they, by their importunate begging take not away the alms that the good charitable people would give unto us sore, impotent, miserable people, your bedemen."--FISH'S _Supplication_: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 664.

[79] 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 25.

[80] Roads, harbours, embankments, fortifications at Dover and at Berwick, etc.--STRYPE's _Memorials_, vol. 1. p. 326 and 419.

[81] It is to be remembered that the criminal law was checked on one side by the sanctuary system, on the other by the practice of benefit of clergy. Habit was too strong for legislation, and these privileges continued to protect criminals long after they were abolished by statute. There is abundant evidence that the execution of justice was as lax in practice as it was severe in theory.

[82] 27 Ed. III. stat. 1; 38 Ed. III. stat. 2; 16 Rich. cap. 5.

[83] 25 Ed. III. stat. 4; stat. 5, cap. 22; 13 Rich. II. stat. 2, cap. 2; 2 Hen. IV. cap. 3; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.

[84] See p. 42.

[85] _Lansdowne MS._ 1, fol. 26; STOW'S _Chron._ ed. 1630, p. 338.

[86] 2 Hen. IV. cap. 3; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.

[87] 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15.

[88] Hen. VII. cap. 4. Among the miscellaneous publications of the Record Commission, there is a complaint presented during this reign, by the gentlemen and the farmers of Carnarvonshire, accusing the clergy of systematic seduction of their wives and daughters.

[89] Hen. IV. cap. 15.

[90] MORTON'S _Register_, MS. Lambeth. See vol. ii. cap. 10, of the second edition of this work for the results of Morton's investigation.

[91] MORTON'S _Register_; and see WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol. iii. pp. 618-621.

[92] Quibus Dominus intimavit qualis infamia super illos in dicta civitate crescit quod complures eorundem tabernas pandoxatorias, sive caupones indies exerceant ibidem expectando fere per totum diem. Quare Dominus consuluit et monuit eosdem quod in posterum talia dimittant, et quod dimittant suos longos crines et induantur togis non per totum apertis.

[93] The expression is remarkable. They were not to dwell on the offences of their brethren coram laicis qui semper clericis sunt infesti.--WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 618.

[94] Johannes permissione divina Cantuar. episcop. totius Angliae primas cum in praesenti convocatione pie et salubriter consideratum fuit quod nonnulli sacerdotes et alii clerici ejusdem nostrae provinciae in sacris ordinibus constituti honestatem clericalem in tantum abjecerint ac in coma tonsuraque et superindumentis suis quae in anteriori sui parte totaliter aperta existere dignoscuntur, sic sunt dissoluti et adeo insolescant quod inter eos et alios laicos et saeculares viros nulla vel modica comae vel habituum sive vestimentorum distinctio esse videatur quo fiet in brevi ut a multis verisimiliter formidatur quod sicut populus ita et sacerdos erit, et nisi celeriori remedio tantae lasciviae ecclesiasticarum personarum quanto ocyus obviemus et clericorum mores hujusmodi maturius compescamus, _Ecclesia Anglicana quae superioribus diebus vita fama et compositis moribus floruisse dignoscitur nostris temporibus quod Deus avertat, praecipitanter ruet_;

Desiring, therefore, to find some remedy for these disorders, lest the blood of those committed to him should be required at his hands, the archbishop decrees and ordains,--

Ne aliquis sacerdos vel clericus in sacris ordinibus constitutus togam gerat nisi clausam a parte anteriori et non totaliter apertam neque utatur ense nec sica nec zona aut marcipio deaurato vel auri ornatum habente. Incedent etiam omnes et singuli presbyteri et clerici ejusdem nostrae provinciae coronas et tonsuras gerentes aures patentes ostendendo juxta canonicas sanctiones.--WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 619.

[95] See WARHAM'S _Register_, MS. Lambeth.

[96] 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.