Chapter VII: The Last Efforts of Diplomacy (7)

[436] Ibid. p. 801. Hall was most likely an eye-witness, and may be thoroughly trusted in these descriptions. Whenever we are able to test him, which sometimes happens, by independent contemporary accounts, he proves faithful in the most minute particulars.

[437] FOXE, vol. v. p. III.

[438] Northumberland to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. iv. pp. 598-9.

[439] Hawkins to Henry VIII.: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 488.

[440] BURNET. vol. iii. p. 115.

[441] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 398.

[442] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[443] ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 43.

[444] _Cotton M.S._ Otho X, p. 199. _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 397.

[445] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 403.

[446] Cromwell had endeavoured to save Frith, or at least had been interested for him. Sir Edmund Walsingham, writing to him about the prisoners in the Tower, says:--"Two of them wear irons, and Frith weareth none. Although he lacketh irons, he lacketh not wit nor pleasant tongue. His learning passeth my judgment. Sir, as ye said, it were great pity to lose him if he may be reconciled."--Walsingham to Cromwell: _M.S. State Paper Office_, second series, vol. xlvi.

[447] ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 40.

[448] "The natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here, it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places than one." The argument and the words in which it is expressed were Frith's.--See FOXE, vol. v. p. 6.

[449] The origin of the word Lollards has been always a disputed question. I conceive it to be from Lolium. They were the "tares" in the corn of Catholicism.

[450] 35 Ed. I.; Statutes of Carlisle, cap. 1-4.

[451] Ibid.

[452] 25 Ed. III. stat. 4. A clause in the preamble of this act bears a significantly Erastian complexion: _come seinte Eglise estoit founde en estat de prelacie deins le royaulme Dengleterre par le dit Roi et ses progenitours, et countes, barons, et nobles de ce Royaulme et lours ancestres, pour eux et le poeple enfourmer de la lei Dieu._ If the Church of England was held to have been, founded not by the successors of the Apostles, but by the king and the nobles, the claim of Henry VIII. to the supremacy was precisely in the spirit of the constitution.

[453] 38 Ed. III. stat. 2; 3 Ric. II. cap. 3; 12 Ric. II. cap. 15; 13 Ric. II. stat. 2. The first of these acts contains a paragraph which shifts the blame from the popes themselves to the officials of the Roman courts. The statute is said to have been enacted en eide et confort du pape qui moult sovent a estee trublez par tieles et semblables clamours et impetracions, et qui y meist voluntiers covenable remedie, si sa seyntetee estoit sur ces choses enfournee. I had regarded this passage as a fiction of courtesy like that of the Long Parliament who levied troops in the name of Charles I. The suspicious omission of the clause, however, in the translation of the statutes which was made in the later years of Henry VIII. justifies an interpretation more favourable to the intentions of the popes.

[454] The abbots and bishops decently protested. Their protest was read in parliament, and entered on the Rolls. _Rot. Parl._ iii. [264] quoted by Lingard, who has given a full account of these transactions.

[455] 13 Ric. II. stat. 2.

[456] See 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.

[457] This it will be remembered was the course which was afterwards followed by the parliament under Henry VIII. before abolishing the payment of first-fruits.

[458] Lingard says, that "there were rumours that if the prelates executed the decree of the king's courts, they would be excommunicated."--Vol. iii. p. 172. The language of the act of parliament, 16 Ric. II. cap. 5, is explicit that the sentence was pronounced.

[459] 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.

[460] Ibid.

[461] Ibid.

[462] LEWIS, _Life of Wycliffe_.

[463] If such _scientia media_ might be allowed to man, which is beneath certainty and above conjecture, such should I call our persuasion that he was born in Durham.--FULLER'S _Worthies_, vol. i. p. 479.

[464] _The Last Age of the Church_ was written in 1356. See LEWIS, p. 3.

[465] LELAND.

[466] LEWIS, p. 287.

[467] 1 Ric. II. cap. 13.

[468] WALSINGHAM, 206-7, apud LINGARD. It is to be observed, however, that Wycliffe himself limited his arguments strictly to the property of the clergy. See MILMAN'S _History of Latin Christianity_, vol. v. p. 508.

[469] WALSINGHAM, p. 275, apud LINGARD.

[470] 5 Ric. II. cap. 5.

[471] WILKINS, _Concilia_, iii. 160-167.

[472] _De Heretico comburendo._ 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15.

[473] STOW, 330, 338.

[474] _Rot. Parl._ iv. 24, 108, apud LINGARD; RYMER, ix. 89, 119, 129, 170, 193; MILMAN, Vol. v. p. 520-535.

[475] 2 Hen. V. stat. 1, cap. 7.

[476] There is no better test of the popular opinion of a man than the character assigned to him on the stage; and till the close of the sixteenth century Sir John Oldcastle remained the profligate buffoon of English comedy. Whether in life he bore the character so assigned to him, I am unable to say. The popularity of Henry V., and the splendour of his French wars, served no doubt to colour all who had opposed him with a blacker shade than they deserved: but it is almost certain that Shakspeare, though not intending Falstaff as a portrait of Oldcastle, thought of him as he was designing the character; and it is altogether certain that by the London public Falstaff was supposed to represent Oldcastle. We can hardly suppose that such an expression as "my old lad of the castle," should be accidental; and in the epilogue to the Second Part of _Henry the Fourth_, when promising to reintroduce Falstaff once more, Shakspeare says, "where for anything I know he shall die of the sweat, for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." He had, therefore, certainly been supposed to _be the man_, and Falstaff represented the English conception of the character of the Lollard hero. I should add, however, that Dean Milman, who has examined the records which remain to throw light on the character of this remarkable person with elaborate care and ability, concludes emphatically in his favour.

[477] Two curious letters of Henry VI. upon the Lollards, written in 1431, are printed in the _Archaeologia_, vol. xxiii. p. 339, etc. "As God knoweth," he says of them, "never would they be subject to his laws nor to man's, but would be loose and free to rob, reve, and dispoil, slay and destroy all men of thrift and worship, as they proposed to have done in our father's days; and of lads and lurdains would make lords."

[478] Proceedings of an organised Society in London called the Christian Brethren, supported by voluntary contributions, for the dispersion of tracts against the doctrines of the Church: _Rolls House MS._

[479] HALE'S _Precedents_. The London and Lincoln Registers, in FOXE, vol. iv.; and the MS. Registers of Archbishops Morton and Warham, at Lambeth.

[480] KNOX'S _History of the Reformation in Scotland_.

[481] Also we object to you that divers times, and specially in Robert Durdant's house, of Iver Court, near unto Staines, you erroneously and damnably read in a great book of heresy, all [one] night, certain chapters of the Evangelists, in English, containing in them divers erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of heresy, in the presence of divers suspected persons.--Articles objected against Richard Butler--London Register: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 178.

[482] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 176.

[483] MICHELET, _Life of Luther_, p. 71.

[484] Ibid.

[485] Ibid. p. 41.

[486] WOOD'S _Athenae Oxonienses_.

[487] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 618.

[488] The suspicious eyes of the Bishops discovered Tyndal's visit, and the result which was to be expected from it.

On Dec. 2nd, 1525, Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, then king's almoner, and on a mission into Spain, wrote from Bordeaux to warn Henry. The letter is instructive:

"Please your Highness to understand that I am certainly informed as I passed in this country, that an Englishman, your subject, at the solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated the New Testament into English; and within few days intendeth to return with the same imprinted into England. I need not to advertise your Grace what infection and danger may ensue hereby if it be not withstanded. This is the next way to fulfil your realm with Lutherians. For all Luther's perverse opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not well taken, ne understanded, which your Grace hath opened in sundry places of your royal book. All our forefathers, governors of the Church of England, hath with all diligence forbid and eschewed publication of English Bibles, as appeareth in constitutions provincial of the Church of England. Nowe, sure, as God hath endued your Grace with Christian courage to sett forth the standard against these Philistines and to vanquish them, so I doubt not but that he will assist your Grace to prosecute and perform the same--that is, to undertread them that they shall not now lift up their heads; which they endeavour by means of English Bibles. They know what hurt such books hath done in your realm in times past."--Edward Lee to Henry VIII.: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 71.

[489] Answer of the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ See cap. 3.

[490] Answer of the Bishops, vol. i. cap. 3.

[491] See, particularly, _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 302.

[492] Proceedings of the Christian Brethren: _Rolls House MS._

[493] See the letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey: STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i. Appendix.

[494] Particulars of Persons who had dispersed Anabaptist and Lutheran Tracts: _Rolls House MS._

[495] Dr. Taylor to Wolsey: _Rolls House MS._ Clark to Wolsey: _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 80, 81.

[496] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 189.

[497] Memoirs of Latimer prefixed to _Sermons_, pp. 3, 4; and see STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i.

[498] FOXE, vol. v. p. 416.

[499] Tunstall, Bishop of London, has had the credit hitherto of this ingenious folly, the effect of which, as Sir Thomas More warned him, could only be to supply Tyndal with money.--HALL, 762, 763. The following letter from the Bishop of Norwich to Warham shows that Tunstall was only acting in canonical obedience to the resolution of his metropolitan:--

"In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lordship, doing the same to understand that I lately received your letters, dated at your manor of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do perceive that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the books of the New Testament, translated into English, and printed beyond the sea; as well those with the glosses joined unto them as those without the glosses.

"Surely, in myn opinion, you have done therein a gracious and a blessed deed; and God, I doubt not, shall highly reward you therefore. And when, in your said letters, ye write that, insomuch as this matter and the danger thereof, if remedy had not been provided, should not only have touched you, but all the bishops within your province; and that it is no reason that the holle charge and cost thereof should rest only in you; but that they and every of them, for their part, should advance and contribute certain sums of money towards the same: I for my part will be contented to advance in this behalf, and to make payment thereof unto your servant, Master William Potkyn.

"Pleaseth it you to understand, I am well contented to give and advance in this behalf ten marks, and shall cause the same to be delivered shortly; the which sum I think sufficient for my part, if every bishop within your province make like contribution, after the rate and substance of their benefices. Nevertheless, if your Grace think this sum not sufficient for my part in this matter, your further pleasure known, I shall be as glad to conform myself thereunto in this, or any other matter concerning the church, as any your subject within your province; as knows Almighty God, who long preserve you. At Hoxne in Suffolk, the 14th day of June, 1527. Your humble obedience and bedeman,

"R. NORWICEN."

[500] FOXE, vol. iv.

[501] The papal bull, and the king's licence to proceed upon it, are printed in _Rymer_, vol. vi. part ii. pp. 8 and 17. The latter is explicit on Wolsey's personal liberality in establishing this foundation. Ultro et ex propria liberalitate et munificentia, nec sine gravissimo suo sumptu et impensis, collegium fundare conatur.

[502] Would God my Lord his Grace had never been motioned to call any Cambridge man to his most towardly college. It were a gracious deed if they were tried and purged and restored unto their mother from whence they came, if they be worthy to come thither again. We were clear without blot or suspicion till they came, and some of them, as Master Dean hath known a long time, hath had a shrewd name.--Dr. London to Archbishop Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[503] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[504] DALABER'S _Narrative._

[505] Clark seems to have taken pupils in the long vacation. Dalaber at least read with him all one summer in the country.--Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[506] The Vicar of Bristol to the Master of Lincoln College, Oxford: _Rolls House MS._

[507] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[508] Radley himself was one of the singers at Christchurch: London to Warham. _MS._

[509] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[510] On the site of the present Worcester College. It lay beyond the walls of the town, and was then some distance from it across the fields.

[511] Christchurch, where Dalaber occasionally sung in the quire. Vide infra.

[512] Some part of which let us read with him. "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

[513] Rector of Lincoln.

[514] Warden of New College.

[515] The last prayer.

[516] Dr. Maitland, who has an indifferent opinion of the early Protestants, especially on the point of veracity, brings forward this assertion of Dalaber as an illustration of what he considers their recklessness. It seems obvious, however, that a falsehood of this kind is something different in kind from what we commonly mean by unveracity, and has no affinity with it. I do not see my way to a conclusion; but I am satisfied that Dr. Maitland's strictures are unjust. If Garret was taken, he was in danger of a cruel death, and his escape could only be made possible by throwing the bloodhounds off the scent. A refusal to answer would not have been sufficient; and the general laws by which our conduct is ordinarily to be directed, cannot be made so universal in their application as to meet all contingencies. It is a law that we may not strike or kill other men, but occasions rise in which we may innocently do both. I may kill a man in defence of my own life or my friend's life, or even of my friend's property; and surely the circumstances which dispense with obedience to one law may dispense equally with obedience to another. _If_ I may kill a man to prevent him from robbing my friend, why may I not deceive a man to save my friend from being barbarously murdered? It is possible that the highest morality would forbid me to do either. I am unable to see why, if the first be permissible, the second should be a crime. Rahab of Jericho did the same thing which Dalaber did, and on that very ground was placed in the catalogue of saints.

[517] A cell in the Tower, the nature of which we need not inquire into.

[518] FOXE, vol. v. p. 421.

[519] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[520] Ibid.

[521] Dr. Forman, rector of All Hallows, who had himself been in trouble for heterodoxy.

[522] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln, Feb. 20, 1528: _Rolls House MS._

[523] Now Cokethorpe Park, three miles from Stanton Harcourt, and about twelve from Oxford. The village has disappeared.

[524] Vicar of All Saints, Bristol, to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[525] The Vicar of All Saints to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[526] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._

[527] Long extracts from it are printed in FOXE, vol. iv.

[528] Another of the brethren, afterwards Bishop of St. David's, and one of the Marian victims.

[529] Bishop of Lincoln to Wolsey, March 5, 1527-8: _Rolls House MS._: and see ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.

[530] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.

[531] With some others he "was cast into a prison where the saltfish lay, through the stink whereof the most part of them were infected; and the said Clark, being a tender young man, died in the same prison."--FOXE, vol. iv. p. 615.

[532] London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._

[533] Petition of the Commons, vol. i. cap. 3.

[534] Ibid. And, as we saw in the bishops' reply, they considered their practice in these respects wholly defensible.--See _Reply of the Bishops_, cap. 3.

[535] Petition of the Commons, cap. 3.

[536] Hen. V. stat. 1.

[537] He had been "troublesome to heretics," he said, and he had "done it with a little ambition;" for "he so hated this kind of men, that he would fie the sorest enemy that they could have, if they would not repent."--MORE'S _Life of More_, p. 211.

[538] See FOXE:, vol. iv. pp. 689, 698, 705.

[539] 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.

[540] John Stokesley.

[541] Petition of Thomas Philips to the House of Commons: _Rolls House MS._

[542] Ibid.

[543] FOXE, vol. v. pp. 29, 30.

[544] The circumstances are curious. Philips begged that he might have the benefit of the king's writ of corpus cum causa, and be brought to the bar of the House of Commons, where the Bishop of London should be subpoenaed to meet him. [Petition of Thomas Philips: _Rolls House MS._] The Commons did not venture on so strong a measure; but a digest of the petition was sent to the Upper House, that the bishop might have an opportunity of reply. The Lords refused to receive or consider the case: they replied that it was too "frivolous an affair" for so grave an assembly, and that they could not discuss it. [_Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 66.] A deputation of the Commons then waited privately upon the bishop, and being of course anxious to ascertain whether Philips had given a true version of what had passed, they begged him to give some written explanation of his conduct, which might be read in the Commons' House. [_Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 71.] The request was reasonable, and we cannot doubt that, if explanation had been possible, the bishop would not have failed to offer it; but he preferred to shield himself behind the judgment of the Lords. The Lords, he said, had decided that the matter was too frivolous for their own consideration; and without their permission, he might not set a precedent of responsibility to the Commons by answering their questions.

This conduct met with the unanimous approval of the Peers. [_Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 71. Omnes proceres tam spirituales quam temporales una, voce dicebant, quod non consentaneum fuit aliquem procerum praedictorum alicui in eo loco responsurum.] The demand for explanation was treated as a breach of privilege, and the bishop was allowed to remain silent. But the time was passed for conduct of this kind to be allowed to triumph. If the bishop could not or would not justify himself, his victim might at least be released from unjust imprisonment. The case was referred to the king: and by the king and the House of Commons Philips was set at liberty.

[545] Petition of John Field: _Rolls House MS._

[546] Jan. 1529-30.

[547] Illegal. See 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.

[548] Seventh Sermon before King Edward. First Sermon before the Duchess of Suffolk.

[549] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 649.

[550] Articles against James Bainham: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 703.

[551] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 702.

[552] Ibid. vol. iv. p. 705.

[553] Ibid. vol. iv. p. 694.

[554] HALL, p. 806; and see FOXE, vol iv. p. 705.

[555] Instructions given by the Bishop of Salisbury: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 493.

[556] From a Letter of Robert Gardiner: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 706.

[557] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 101.

[558] Latimer speaks of sons and daughters.--Ibid. p. 101.

[559] Ibid.

[560] Where the Cornish rebels came to an end in 1497.--BACON'S _History of Henry the Seventh_.

[561] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 197.

[562] On which occasion, old relations perhaps shook their heads, and made objection to the expense. Some such feeling is indicated in the following glimpse behind the veil of Latimer's private history:--

"I was once called to one of my kinsfolk," he says ("it was at that time when I had taken my degree at Cambridge); I was called, I say, to one of my kinsfolk which was very sick, and died immediately after my coming. Now, there was an old cousin of mine, which, after the man was dead, gave me a wax candle in my hand, and commanded me to make certain crosses over him that was dead; for she thought the devil should run away by and bye. Now, I took the candle, but I could not cross him as she would have me to do; for I had never seen it before. She, perceiving I could not do it, with great anger took the candle out of my hand, saying, 'It is pity that thy father spendeth so much money upon thee;' and so she took the candle, and crossed and blessed him; so that he was sure enough."--LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 499.

[563] "I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, insomuch that, when I should be made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and his opinions."--LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 334.

[564] _Jewel of Joy_, p. 224, et seq.: Parker Society's edition. LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 3.

[565] LATIMER'S _Remains_, pp. 27-31.

[566] Ibid. pp. 308-9.

[567] LATIMER to Sir Edward Baynton: _Letters_, p. 329.

[568] _Letters_, p. 323.

[569] He thought of going abroad. "I have trust that God will help me," he wrote to a friend; "if I had not, I think the ocean sea should have divided my Lord of London and me by this day."--_Remains_, p. 334.

[570] Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton.

[571] See Latimer's two letters to Sir Edward Baynton: _Remains_, pp. 322-351.

[572] "As ye say, the matter is weighty, and ought substantially to be looked upon, even as weighty as my life is worth; but how to look substantially upon it otherwise know not I, than to pray my Lord God, day and night, that, as he hath emboldened me to preach his truth, so he will strengthen me to suffer for it.

"I pray you pardon me that I write no more distinctly, for my head is [so] out of frame, that it would be too painful for me to write it again. If I be not prevented shortly, I intend to make merry with my parishioners, this Christmas, for all the sorrow, _lest perchance I never return to them again_; and I have heard say that a doe is as good in winter as a buck in summer."--Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton, p. 334.

[573] LATIMER'S _Remains_, p. 334.

[574] Ibid. p. 350.

[575] "I pray you, in God's name, what did you, so great fathers, so many, so long season, so oft assembled together? What went you about? What would ye have brought to pass? Two things taken away--the one that ye (which I heard) burned a dead man,--the other, that ye (which I felt) went about to burn one being alive. Take away these two noble acts, and there is nothing else left that ye went about that I know," etc., etc.--Sermon preached before the Convocation: LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 46.

[576] "My affair had some bounds assigned to it by him who sent for me up, but is now protracted by intricate and wily examinations, as if it would never find a period; while sometimes one person, sometimes another, ask me questions, without limit and without end."--Latimer to the Archbishop of Canterbury: _Remains_, p. 352.

[577] _Remains_, p. 222.

[578] _Sermons_, p. 294.

[579] The process lasted through January, February, and March.

[580] _Sermons_, p. 294.

[581] He subscribed all except two--one apparently on the power of the pope, the other I am unable to conjecture. Compare the Articles themselves--printed in LATIMER'S _Remains_, p. 466--with the Sermon before the Convocation.--_Sermons_, p. 46; and BURNET, vol. iii. p. 116.

[582] Nicholas Glossop to Cromwell: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 237.

[583] Where he was known among the English of the day as Master Frisky-all.

[584] See FOXE. vol. v. p. 392.

[585] Eustace Chappuys to Chancellor Granvelle: _MS. Archiv. Brussels: Pilgrim_, p. 106.

[586] See Cromwell's will in an appendix to this chapter. This document, lately found in the Rolls House, furnishes a clue at last to the connections of the Cromwell family.

[587] Are we to believe Foxe's story that Cromwell was with the Duke of Bourbon at the storming of Rome in May, 1527? See FOXE, vol. v. p. 365. He was with Wolsey in January, 1527. See ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 117. And he was again with him early in 1528. Is it likely that he was in Italy on such an occasion in the interval? Foxe speaks of it as one of the random exploits of Cromwell's youth, which is obviously untrue; and the natural impression which we gather is, that he was confusing the expedition of the Duke of Bourbon with some earlier campaign. On the other hand Foxe's authority was Cranmer, who was likely to know the truth; and it is not impossible that, in the critical state of Italian politics, the English government might have desired to have some confidential agent in the Duke of Bourbon's camp. Cromwell, with his knowledge of Italy and Italian, and his adventurous ability, was a likely man to have been sent on such an employment; and the story gains additional probability from another legend about him, that he once saved the life of Sir John Russell, in some secret affair at Bologna. See FOXE, vol. v. p. 367. Now, although Sir John Russell had been in Italy several times before (he was at the Battle of Pavia, and had been employed in various diplomatic missions), and Cromwell might thus have rendered him the service in question on an earlier occasion, yet he certainly was in the Papal States, on a most secret and dangerous mission, in the months preceding the capture of Rome. _State Papers_, vol. vi. p. 560, etc. The probabilities may pass for what they are worth till further discovery.

[588] A damp, unfurnished house belonging to Wolsey, where he was ordered to remain till the government had determined upon their course towards him. See CAVENDISH.

[589] CAVENDISH, pp. 269-70.

[590] Ibid. p. 276.

[591] Chappuys says, that a quarrel with Sir John Wallop first introduced Cromwell to Henry. Cromwell, "not knowing how else to defend himself, contrived with presents and entreaties to obtain an audience of the king, whom he promised to make the richest sovereign that ever reigned in England."--Chappuys to Granvelle: _The Pilgrim_, p. 107.

[592] Or Willyams. The words are used indifferently.

[593] The clause enclosed between brackets is struck through.

[594] Struck through.

[595] Mary, widow of Louis of Hungary, sister of the emperor, and Regent of the Netherlands.

[596] She was much affected when the first intimation of the marriage reached her. "I am informed of a secret friend of mine," wrote Sir John Hacket, "that when the queen here had read the letters which she received of late out of England, the tears came to her eyes with very sad countenance. But indeed this day when I spake to her she showed me not such countenance, but told me that she was not well pleased.

"At her setting forward to ride at hunting, her Grace asked me if I had heard of late any tidings out of England. I told her Grace, as it is true, that I had none. She gave me a look as that she should marvel thereof, and said to me, 'Jay des nouvelles qui ne me semblent point trop bonnes,' and told me touching the King's Highness's marriage. To the which I answered her Grace and said, 'Madame, je ne me doute point syl est faict, et quand le veult prendre et entendre de bonne part et au sain chemyn, sans porter faveur parentelle que ung le trouvera tout lente et bien raysonnable par layde de Dieu et de bonne conscience.' Her Grace said to me again, 'Monsieur l'ambassadeur, c'est Dieu qui le scait que je vouldroye que le tout allysse bien, mais ne scaye comment l'empereur et le roy mon frere entendront l'affaire car il touche a eulx tant que a moy.' I answered and said, 'Madame, il me semble estre assuree que l'empereur et le roy vostre frere qui sont deux Prinssys tres prudens et sayges, quant ilz auront considere indifferentement tout l'affaire qu ilz ne le deveroyent prendre que de bonne part.' And hereunto her Grace made me answer, saying, 'Da quant de le prendre de bonne part ce la, ne sayge M. l'ambassadeur.'"--Hacket to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 452.

[597] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 457.

[598] Sir Gregory Cassalis to the Duke of Norfolk. Ad pontificem accessi et mei sermonis illa summa fuit, vellet id praestare ut serenissimum regem nostrum certiorem facere possemus, in sua causa nihil innovatum iri. Hic ille, sicut solet, respondit, nescire se quo pacto possit Caesarianis obsistere,--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 461.

[599] Bennet to Henry: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 462.

[600] Ibid.

[601] Letter undated, but written about the middle of June: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 474

[602] Of the Archbishop of York, not of Canterbury: which provokes a question. Conjectures are of little value in history, but inasmuch as there must have been some grave reason for the substitution, a suggestion of a possible reason may not be wholly out of place. The appeal in itself was strictly legal; and it was of the highest importance to avoid any illegality of form. Cranmer, by transgressing the inhibition which Clement had issued in the winter, might be construed by the papal party to have virtually incurred the censures threatened, and an escape might thus have been furnished from the difficulty in which the appeal placed them.

[603] Publico ecclesiae judicio.

[604] RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 188.

[605] The French king did write unto Cardinal Tournon (not, however, of his own will, but under pressure from the Duke of Norfolk), very instantly, that he should desire the pope, in the said French king's name, that his Holyness would not innovate anything against your Highness any wise till the congress: adding, withal, that if his Holyness, notwithstanding his said desire, would proceed, he could not less do, considering the great and indissoluble amity betwixt your Highnesses, notorious to all the world, but take and recognise such proceeding for a fresh injury.--Bennet to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 468.

[606] Ibid. p. 469.

[607] Ibid. p. 469.

[608] Ibid. p. 470.

[609] Ibid. p. 467, note, and p. 470.

[610] BURNET, vol. i. p. 221.

[611] We only desire and pray you to endeavour yourselves in the execution of that your charge--easting utterly away and banishing from you such fear and timorousness, or rather despair, as by your said letters we perceive ye have conceived--reducing to your memories in the lieu and stead thereof, as a thing continually lying before your eyes and incessantly sounded in your ears, the justice of our cause, which cannot at length be shadowed, but shall shine and shew itself to the confusion of our adversaries. And we having, as is said, truth for us, with the help and assistance of God, author of the same, shall at all times be able to maintain you.--Henry VIII. to Bonner: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 485.

[612] Bonner to Cromwell: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 481.

[613] The proclamation ordering that Catherine should be called not queen, but Princess Dowager.

[614] Catherine de Medici.

[615] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 493.

[616] Sir John Racket, writing from Ghent on the 6th of September, describes as the general impression that the Pope's "trust was to assure his alliance on both sides." "He trusts to bring about that his Majesty the French king and he shall become and remain in good, fast, and sure alliance together; and so ensuring that they three (the Pope, Francis, and Charles V.) shall be able to reform and set good order in the rest of Christendom. But whether his Unhappiness's--I mean his Holiness's--intention, is set for the welfare and utility of Christendom, or for his own insincerity and singular purpose, I remit that to God and to them that know more of the world than I do."--Hacket to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 506.

[617] John the Magnanimous, son of John the Steadfast, and nephew of the Elector Frederick, Luther's first protector.

[618] _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 499-501.

[619] Princeps Elector ducit se imparem ut Regiae Celsitudinis vel aliorum regum oratores ea lege in aula sua degerent; vereturque ne ob id apud Caesaream majestatem unicum ejus Dominum et alios male audiret, possetque sinistre tale institutum interpretari.--Reply of the Elector: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 503.

[620] Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol vii. p. 509.

[621] I consider the man, with other two--that is to say, the Landgrave von Hesse and the Duke of Lunenberg--to be the chief and principal defenders and maintainers of the Lutheran sect: who considering the same with no small difficulty to be defended, as well against the emperor and the bishops of Germany, his nigh and shrewd neighbours, as against the most opinion of all Christian men, feareth to raise any other new matter whereby they should take a larger and peradventure a better occasion to revenge the same. The King's Highness seeketh to have intelligence with them, as they conjecture to have them confederate with him; yea, and that against the emperor, if he would anything pretend against the king.--Here is the thing which I think feareth the duke.--Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 509-10.

[622] HALL, p. 805.

[623] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 512.

[624] The Duke of Albany, during the minority of James V., had headed the party in Scotland most opposed to the English. He expelled the queen-mother, Margaret, sister of Henry; he seized the persons of the two young princes, whom he shut up in Stirling, where the younger brother died under suspicion of foul play (_Despatches of_ GIUSTINIANI, vol. i. p. 157); and subsequently, in his genius for intrigue, he gained over the queen dowager herself in a manner which touched her honour.--Lord Thomas Dacre to Queen Margaret: ELLIS, second series, vol. i. p. 279.

[625] Ex his tamen, qui haec a Pontifice, audierunt, intelligo regem vehementissime instare, ut vestrae majestatis expectatione satisfiat Pontifex.--Peter Vannes to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 518.

[626] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 520.

[627] Hoc dico quod video inter regem et pontificem conjunctissime et amicissime hic agi.--Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid.

[628] Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid. pp. 522-3.

[629] BURNET, _Collectanea_, p. 436.

[630] Letter of the King of France: LEGRAND, vol. iii. Reply of Henry: FOXE, vol. v. p. 110.

[631] Commission of the Bishop of Paris: LEGRAND, vol. iii; BURNET, vol. iii. p. 128; FOXE, vol. v. p. 106-111. The commission of the Bishop of Bayonne is not explicit on the extent to which the pope had bound himself with respect to the sentence. Yet either in some other despatch, or verbally through the Bishop, Francis certainly informed Henry that the Pope had promised that sentence should be given in his favour. We shall find Henry assuming this in his reply; and the Archbishop of York declared to Catherine that the pope "said at Marseilles, that if his Grace would send a proxy thither he would give sentence for his Highness against her, because that he knew his cause to be good and just."--_State Papers_, vol. i. p. 421.

[632] MS. Bibl. Imper. Paris.--_The Pilgrim_, pp. 97, 98. Cf. FOXE, vol. v. p. 110.

[633] I hear of a number of Gelders which be lately reared; and the opinion of the people here is that they shall go into England. All men there speak evil of England, and threaten it in their foolish manner.--Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 511.

[634] RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 189.

[635] Parties were so divided in England that lookers-on who reported any one sentiment as general there, reported in fact by their own wishes and sympathies. D'Inteville, the French ambassador, a strong Catholic, declares the feeling to have been against the revolt. Chastillon, on the other hand, writing at the same time from the same place (for he had returned from France, and was present with d'Inteville at the last interview), says, "The King has made up his mind to a complete separation from Rome; and the lords and the majority of the people go along with him."--Chastillon to the Bishop of Paris: _The Pilgrim_, p. 99.

[636] STRYPE, _Eccles. Memor._, vol. i. p. 224.

[637] Instructions to the Earls of Oxford, Essex, and Sussex, to remonstrate with the Lady Mary: _Rolls House MS._

[638] Ibid.

[639] On the 15th of November, Queen Catherine wrote to the Emperor, and after congratulating him on his successes against the Turks, she continued,

"And as our Lord in his mercy has worked so great a good for Christendom by your Highness's hands, so has he enlightened also his Holiness; and I and all this realm have now a sure hope that, with the grace of God, his Holiness will slay this second Turk, this affair between the King my Lord and me. Second Turk, I call it, from the misfortunes which, through his Holiness's long delay, have grown out of it, and are now so vast and of so ill example that I know not whether this or the Turk be the worst. Sorry am I to have been compelled to importune your Majesty so often in this matter, for sure I am you do not need my pressing. But I see delay to be so calamitous, my own life is so unquiet and so painful, and the opportunity to make an end now so convenient, that it seems as if God of his goodness had brought his Holiness and your Majesty together to bring about so great a good. I am forced to be importunate, and I implore your Highness for the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in return for the signal benefits which God each day is heaping on you, you will accomplish for me this great blessing, and bring his Holiness to a decision. Let him remember what he promised you at Bologna. The truth here is known, and he will thus destroy the hopes of those who persuade the King my Lord that he will never pass judgment."--Queen Catherine to Charles V.: _MS. Simancas_, November 15, 1533.

[640] Letter to the King, giving an account of certain Friars Observants who had been about the Princess Dowager: _Rolls House MS._

[641] We remember the northern prophecy, "In England shall be slain the decorate Rose in his mother's belly," which the monks of Furness interpreted as meaning that "the King's Grace should die by the hands of priests."--Vol. i. cap. 4.

[642] Statutes of the Realm, 25 Henry VIII. cap. 12. State Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._ Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 20.

[643] Thus Cromwell writes to Fisher: "My Lord, [the outward evidences that she was speaking truth] moved you not to give credence to her, but only the very matter whereupon she made her false prophecies, to which matter ye were so affected--as ye be noted to be on all matters which ye once enter into--that nothing could come amiss that made for that purpose."--_Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 30.

[644] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[645] Ibid.

[646] Ibid.

[647] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

[648] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._ 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12. The "many" nobles are not more particularly designated in the official papers. It was not desirable to mention names when the offence was to be passed over.

[649] Report of the Commissioners--Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[650] Goold, says the Act of the Nun's attainder, travelled to Bugden, "to animate the said Lady Princess to make commotion in the realm against our sovereign lord; surmitting that the said Nun should hear by revelation of God that the said Lady Catherine should prosper and do well, and that her issue, the Lady Mary, should prosper and reign in the realm."--25 Henry VIII. cap. 13.

[651] Report of the Proceedings of the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._

[652] MS. Bibliot. Imper., Paris. The letter is undated. It was apparently written in the autumn of 1533.

[653] Il a des nouvelles amours. In a paper at Simancas, containing Nuevas de Inglaterra, written about this time, is a similar account of the dislike of Anne and her family, as well as of the king's altered feelings towards her. Dicano anchora che la Anna e mal voluta degli Si. di Inghilterra si per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia e mali portamenti che fanno nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna; e che per questo il Re non la porta la affezione que soleva per che il Re festeggia una altra Donna della quale se mostra esser inamorato, e molti Si. di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel seguir el predito amor per deviar questo Re dalla pratica di Anna.

[654] HALL.

[655] "I, dame Elizabeth Barton," she said, "do confess that I, most miserable and wretched person, have been the original of all this mischief, and by my falsehood I have deceived all these persons (the monks who were her accomplices), and many more; whereby I have most grievously offended Almighty God, and my most noble sovereign the King's Grace. Wherefore I humbly, and with heart most sorrowful, desire you to pray to Almighty God for my miserable sins, and make supplication for me to my sovereign for his gracious mercy and pardon."--Confession of Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._

[656] Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: Ibid.

[657] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 415.

[658] A curious trait in Mary's character may be mentioned in connection with this transfer. She had a voracious appetite; and in Elizabeth's household expenses an extra charge was made necessary of L26 a year for the meat breakfasts and meat suppers "served into the Lady Mary's chamber."--Statement of the expenses of the Household of the Princess Elizabeth: _Rolls House MS._

[659] He is called _frater consobrinus_. See FULLER'S _Worthies_, vol. iii. p. 128.

[660] He was killed at the battle of Pavia.

[661] Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, married Catherine, daughter of Edward.

[662] Believe me, my lord, there are some here, and those of the greatest in the land, who will be indignant if the Pope confirm the sentence against the late Queen.--D'Inteville to Montmorency: _The Pilgrim_, p. 97.

[663] She once rode to Canterbury, disguised as a servant, with only a young girl for a companion.--Depositions of Sir Geoffrey Pole: _Rolls House MS._

[664] Confession of Sir William Neville: _Rolls House MS._

[665] Confession of Sir George Neville: Ibid.

[666] Confession of the Oxford Wizard: Ibid.

[667] Queen Anne Boleyn to Gardiner: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 355. Office for the Consecration of Cramp Rings: Ibid.

[668] So at least the Oxford Wizard said that Sir William Neville had told him.--Confession of the Wizard: _Rolls House MS._ But the authority is not good.

[669] Henry alone never listened seriously to the Nun of Kent.

[670] John of Transylvania, the rival of Ferdinand. His designation by the title of king in an English state paper was a menace that, if driven to extremities, Henry would support him against the empire.

[671] Acts of Council: _State Papers_, vol. i. pp. 414-15.

[672] Henry VIII. to Sir John Wallop: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 524.

[673] Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 517. Vaughan describes Peto with Shakespearian raciness. "Peto is an ipocrite knave, as the most part of his brethren be; a wolf; a tiger clad in a sheep's skin. It is a perilous knave--a raiser of sedition--an evil reporter of the King's Highness--a prophecyer of mischief--a fellow I would wish to be in the king's hands, and to be shamefully punished. Would God I could get him by any policy--I will work what I can. Be sure he shall do nothing, nor pretend to do nothing, in these parts, that I will not find means to cause the King's Highness to know. I have laid a bait for him. He is not able to wear the clokys and cucullys that be sent him out of England, they be so many."

[674] Hacket to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 528.

[675] Ibid. p. 530.

[676] Hacket to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 531.

[677] So at least Henry supposed, if we may judge by the resolutions of the Council "for the fortification of all the frontiers of the realm, as well upon the coasts of the sea as the frontiers foreanenst Scotland." The fortresses and havens were to be "fortefyed and munited;" and money to be sent to York to be in readiness "if any business should happen."--Ibid. vol. i. p. 411.

[678] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 19.

[679] A design which unfortunately was not put in effect. In the hurry of the time it was allowed to drop.

[680] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 14.

[681] 23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.

[682] At this very time Campeggio was Bishop of Salisbury, and Ghinucci, who had been acting for Henry at Rome, was Bishop of Worcester. The Act by which they were deprived speaks of these two appointments as _nominations_ by the king.--25 Henry VIII. cap. 27.

[683] Wolsey held three bishoprics and one archbishopric, besides the abbey of St. Albans.

[684] Thus when Wolsey was presented, in 1514, to the See of Lincoln, Leo X. writes to his beloved son Thomas Wolsey how that in his great care for the interests of the Church, "Nos hodie Ecclesiae Lincolniensi, te in episcopum et pastorem praeficere intendimus." He then informs the Chapter of Lincoln of the appointment; and the king, in granting the temporalities, continues the fiction without seeming to recognise it:--"Cum dominus summus Pontifex nuper vacante Ecclesia cathedrali personam fidelis clerici nostri Thomae Wolsey, in ipsius Ecclesiae episcopum praefecerit, nos," etc.--See the Acts in RYMER, vol. vi. part 1, pp. 55-7.

[685] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 20. The pre-existing, unrealities with respect to the election of bishops explain the unreality of the new arrangement, and divest it of the character of wanton tyranny with which it appeared _prima facie_ to press upon the Chapters. The history of this statute is curious, and perhaps explains the intentions with which it was originally passed. It was repealed by the 2nd of the 1st of Edward VI. on the ground that the liberty of election was merely nominal, and that the Chapters ought to be relieved of responsibility when they had no power of choice. Direct nomination by the crown was substituted for the _conge d'elire_, and remained the practice till the reaction under Mary, when the indefinite system was resumed which had existed before the Reformation. On the accession of Elizabeth, the statute of 25 Henry VIII. was again enacted. The more complicated process of Henry was preferred to the more simple one of Edward, and we are naturally led to ask the reason of so singular a preference. I cannot but think that it was this. The Council of Regency under Edward VI. treated the Church as an institution of the State, while Henry and Elizabeth endeavoured (under difficulties) to regard it under its more Catholic aspect of an organic body. So long as the Reformation was in progress, it was necessary to prevent the intrusion upon the bench of bishops of Romanising tendencies, and the deans and chapters were therefore protected by a strong hand from their own possible mistakes. But the form of liberty was conceded to them, not, I hope, to place deliberately a body of clergymen in a degrading position, but in the belief that at no distant time the Church might be allowed without danger to resume some degree of self-government.

[686] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 21.

[687] I sent you no heavy words, but words of great comfort; willing your brother to shew you how benign and merciful the prince was; and that I thought it expedient for you to write unto his Highness, and to recognise your offence and to desire his pardon, which his Grace would not deny you how in your age and sickness.--Cromwell to Fisher: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 27.

[688] Sir Thomas More to Cromwell: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 350.

[689] Ibid.

[690] Ibid.

[691] More to Cromwell: STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i. Appendix, p. 195.

[692] More to the King: ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 47.

[693] Cromwell to Fisher: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 27, et seq.

[694] _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 27, et seq.

[695] John Fisher to the Lords in Parliament: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 289.

[696] _Lords' Journals_, p. 72.

[697] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

[698] In a tract written by a Dr. Moryson in defence of the government, three years later, I find evidence that a distinction was made among the prisoners, and that Dr. Bocking was executed with peculiar cruelty. "Solus in crucem actus est Bockingus," are Moryson's words, though I feel uncertain of the nature of the punishment which he meant to designate. "Crucifixion" was unknown to the English law; and an event so peculiar as the "crucifixion" of a monk would hardly have escaped the notice of the contemporary chroniclers. In a careful diary kept by a London merchant during these years, which is in MS. in the Library of Balliol College, Oxford, the whole party are said to have been hanged.--See, however, _Morysini Apomaxis_, printed by Berthelet, 1537.

[699] HALL, p. 814.] The inferior confederates were committed to their prisons with the exception only of Fisher, who, though sentenced, found mercy thrust upon him, till by fresh provocation the miserable old man forced himself upon his fate.[700

[700] LORD HERBERT says he was pardoned; I do not find, however, on what authority: but he was certainly not imprisoned, nor was the sentence of forfeiture enforced against him.

[701] This is the substance of the provisions, which are, of course, much abridged.