DISGRACE AND DEATH OF CROMWELL, EARL OF ESSEX.
(1540.)
Eight days after the imprisonment of Barnes and his two friends (April
12, 1540), parliament opened for the first time without abbots or
priors. Cromwell was thoughtful and uneasy; he saw everywhere occasions
of alarm; he felt his position insecure. The statute of the Six
Articles, the conviction which possessed his mind that the doctrines
of the Middle Ages were regaining an indisputable ascendency over the
king, the wrath of Norfolk, and Henry's ill-will on account of the
queen whom Cromwell had chosen for him--these were the dark points
which threatened his future. His friends were scattered or persecuted;
his enemies were gathered about the throne. Henry, however, made no
sign, but secretly meditated a violent blow. He concealed the game he
was playing so that others, and especially Cromwell himself, should
have no perception of it. The powerful minister, therefore, appeared
in parliament, assuming a confident air, as the ever-powerful organ
of the supreme will of the king. Henry VIII., the man of extremes,
thought proper at this time to exhibit himself as an advocate of a
middle course. The country is agitated by religious dissensions, said
the vicegerent, his representative; and in his speech to the House
he set forth on the one hand the rooted superstition and obstinate
clinging to popery, and on the other thoughtless and impertinent and
culpable rashness (referring doubtless to Barnes): that the king
desired a union of the two parties; that he leaned to neither side;
that he would equally repress the license of heretics and that of the
papists, and that he 'set the pure and sincere doctrine of Christ
before his eyes.'[329] These words of Cromwell were wise. Union in
the truth is the great want of all ages. But Henry added his comment.
He refused to turn to the right or to the left. He would not himself
hold, nor did he intend to permit England to hold, any other doctrine
than that prescribed by his own sovereign authority, sword in hand.
Cromwell did not fail to let it be known by what method the king
meant to bring about this union; he insisted on penalties against all
who did not submit to the Bible and against those who put upon it a
wrong interpretation. Henry intended to strike right and left with
his vigorous lance. To carry out the scheme of union a commission was
appointed, the result of which, after two years' labors, was a confused
medley of truths and errors.[330]
[Sidenote: CROMWELL'S HONORS AND WEALTH.]
Strange to say, although Cromwell was now on the brink of an abyss,
the king still heaped favors upon him. He was already chancellor of
the Exchequer, first secretary of state, vicegerent and vicar-general
of England in spiritual affairs, lord privy seal, and knight of
the Garter; but he was now to see fresh honors added to all these.
The earl of Essex had just died, and a week later died the earl of
Oxford, who had been lord chamberlain. Hereupon Henry made Cromwell,
'the blacksmith's son,' whom Norfolk and the other nobles despised
so heartily, earl of Essex and lord chamberlain, and had his name
placed at the head of the roll of peers. Wealth was no more wanting to
him than honors. He received a large portion of the property of the
deceased lord Essex; the king conferred on him thirty manors taken from
the suppressed monasteries; he owned great estates in eight counties;
and he still continued to superintend the business of the crown. We
might well ask how it came to pass that such a profusion of favors fell
to his lot just at the time when the king was angry with him as the
man who had given him Anne of Cleves for a wife; when the imprisonment
of Barnes, his friend and confidential agent, greatly compromised him,
and when, in addition to these things, Norfolk, Gardiner, and the whole
Catholic party were striving to put down this _parvenu_, who offended
them and stood in their way. Two answers may be given to this question.
Henry was desirous that Cromwell should make a great effort to secure
the assent of parliament to bills of a very extraordinary character
but very advantageous to the king; and it was his hope that the titles
under which Cromwell would appear before the houses would make success
easier. Several contemporaries, however, assigned a different cause
for these royal favors. 'Some persons now suspect,' wrote Hilles to
Bullinger, 'that this was all an artifice, to make people conclude
that he [Cromwell] must have been a most wicked traitor, and guilty
of treason in every possible way; or else the king would never have
executed one who was so dear to him, as was made manifest by the
presents he had bestowed upon him.'[331] Besides, was it not the custom
of the ancients to crown their victims with flowers before sacrificing
them?
Henry was greedy of money, and was in want of it, for he spent it
prodigally. He applied to Cromwell for it. The latter was aware that in
making himself the king's instrument in this matter he was estranging
from himself the mind of the nation; but he considered that a great
sovereign must have great resources, and he was always willing to
sacrifice himself for the king, for to him he owed every thing, and
he loved him in spite of his faults. On April 23, four days after
receiving from the king such extraordinary favors, Cromwell proposed to
the house to suppress the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and urged
that their estates, which were considerable, should be given to the
king. This was agreed to by parliament. On May 3 he demanded for his
majesty a subsidy of unparalleled character, namely, four tenths and
fifteenths, in addition to ten per cent. on the rents of lands and five
per cent. on the value of merchandise. This also he obtained. Next he
went to the convocation of the clergy, and claimed from them two tenths
and twenty per cent. on ecclesiastical revenues for two years. Again he
succeeded. By May 8 the king had obtained through Cromwell's energy all
that he wished for.
[Sidenote: THE KING'S LETTER TO HIM.]
On the very next day, Sunday, May 9, Cromwell received in his palace a
note from the king thus worded:[332]
'HENRY R.
'By the King.
'Right trusty and well beloved cousin,--We greet you well;
signifying unto you our pleasure and commandment is that
forthwith, and upon the receipt of these our letters, setting
all other affairs apart, ye do repair unto us, for the treaty
of such great and weighty matters as whereupon doth consist
the surety of our person, the preservation of our honor, and
the tranquillity and quietness of you, and all other our
loving and faithful subjects, like as at your arrival here ye
shall more plainly perceive and understand. And that ye fail
not hereof, as we specially trust you.
'Given under our signet, at our manor of Westminster, the 9th
day of May.'
What could this urgent and mysterious note mean? Cromwell could not
rest after reading it. 'The surety of our person, the preservation of
our honor' are in question, said the king. We may imagine the agitation
of his mind, his fears as to the result of the visit, and the state
of perplexity in which, without losing a minute, he went in obedience
to the king's command. We have no information as to what passed at
this interview. Probably the minister supposed that he had justified
himself in his master's sight. On the following day, Monday, the earl
of Essex was present as usual in the House of Lords and introduced a
bill. The day after, parliament was prorogued till May 25. What could
be the reason for this? It has been supposed that Cromwell's enemies
wished to gain the time needful for collecting evidence in support of
the charges which they intended to bring against him. When the fifteen
days had elapsed, parliament met again, and the earl of Essex was in
his place on the first and following days. He was still in the assembly
as minister of the king on June 10, on which day, at three o'clock,
there was a meeting of the Privy Council. The duke of Norfolk, the earl
of Essex, and the other members were quietly seated round the table,
when the duke rose and accused Cromwell of high treason. Cromwell
understood that Norfolk was acting under the sanction of the king, and
he recollected the note of May 9. The lord chancellor arrested him and
had him conducted to the Tower.[333]
[Sidenote: CHARGES AGAINST CROMWELL.]
Norfolk was more than ever in favor, for Henry, husband of Anne of
Cleves, was at this time enamored of Norfolk's niece. He believed--and
Gardiner, doubtless, did not fail to encourage the belief--that he
must promptly take advantage of the extraordinary good-will which
the king testified to him to overthrow the adversary of Anglican
Catholicism, the powerful protector of the Bible and the Reformation.
In the judgment of this party Cromwell was a heretic and a chief of
heretics. This was the principal motive, and substantially the only
motive, of the attack made on the earl of Essex. In a letter addressed
at this time by the Council to Sir John Wallop,[334] ambassador at
the court of France, a circular letter sent also to the principal
officers and representatives of the king, the crime of which Cromwell
was accused is distinctly set forth. 'The lord privy seal,' it was
therein said, 'to whom the king's said majesty hath been so special
good and gracious lord, neither remembering his duty herein to God,
nor yet to his highness ... hath not only wrought clean contrary to
this his grace's most godly intent, secretly and indirectly advancing
the one of the extremes, and leaving the mean indifferent true and
virtuous way which his majesty sought and so entirely desired; but
also hath showed himself so fervently bent to the maintenance of that
his outrage that he hath not spared most privily, most traitorously,
to devise how to continue the same, and plainly in terms to say, as it
hath been justified to his face by good witness, that if the king and
all his realm would turn and vary from his opinions, he would fight
in the field in his own person, with his sword in his hand, against
him and all other; adding that if he lived a year or two he trusted to
bring things to that frame that it should not lie in the king's power
to resist or let it, if he would; binding his words with such oaths
and making such gesture and demonstration with his arms, that it might
well appear he had no less fixed in his heart than was uttered with his
mouth. For the which apparent and most detestable treasons, and also
for ... other enormities ... he is committed to the Tower of London,
there to remain till it shall please his majesty to have him thereupon
tried according to the order of his laws.' It was added that the king,
remembering how men wanting the knowledge of the truth would speak
diversely of the matter, desired them to declare and open the whole
truth.
Nothing could be more at variance with the character and the whole
life of Cromwell than the foolish sayings attributed to him. Every
intelligent man might see that they were mere falsehoods invented by
the Catholic party to hide its own criminal conduct. But at the same
time it most clearly pointed out in this letter the real motive of
the blow aimed at Cromwell, the first, true, efficient cause of his
fall, the object which his enemies had in view and towards which they
were working. They fancied that the overthrow of Cromwell would be
the overthrow of the Reformation. Wallop did not fail to impart the
information to the court to which he was accredited; and Henry VIII.
was delighted to hear of 'the friendly rejoyce of our good brother the
French king, the constable and others there,' on learning the arrest of
the lord privy seal.[335] This rejoicing was very natural on the part
of Francis I., Montmorency, and the rest of them.
[Sidenote: CRANMER'S PLEA FOR HIM.]
As soon as the arrest of June 10 was known, the majority of those who
had most eagerly sought after the favor of Cromwell, and especially
Bonner, bishop of London, immediately turned round and declared
against him. He had gained no popularity by promoting the last bills
passed to the king's advantage; and the news of his imprisonment was
therefore received with shouts of joy.[336] In the midst of the general
defection, one man alone remained faithful to the prisoner--this was
Cranmer. The man who had formerly undertaken the defence of Anne Boleyn
now came forward in defence of Cromwell. The archbishop did not attend
the Privy Council on Thursday, June 10; but being in his place on the
Friday, he heard that the earl of Essex had been arrested as a traitor.
The tidings astonished and affected him deeply. He saw in Cromwell
at this time not only his personal friend, not only the prudent and
devoted supporter of the Reformation, but also the ablest minister and
the most faithful servant of the king. He saw the danger to which he
exposed himself by undertaking the defence of the prisoner; and he felt
that it was his duty not recklessly to offend the king. He therefore
wrote to him in a prudent manner, reminding him, nevertheless,
energetically, of all that Cromwell had been. His letter to the king
was written the day after he heard of the fall of the minister. 'I
heard yesterday in your grace's council,' he says, 'that he [Cromwell]
is a traitor; yet who can not be sorrowful and amazed that he should
be a traitor against your majesty, he that was so advanced by your
majesty; he whose surety was only by your majesty; he who loved your
majesty (as I ever thought) no less than God; he who studied always
to set forwards whatsoever was your majesty's will and pleasure; he
that cared for no man's displeasure to serve your majesty; he that was
such a servant, in my judgment, in wisdom, diligence, faithfulness,
and experience, as no prince in this realm ever had; he that was so
vigilant to preserve your majesty from all treasons that few could be
so secretly conceived but he detected the same in the beginning? If the
noble princes of memory, King John, Henry II., and Richard II. had had
such a counsellor about them, I suppose that they should never have
been so traitorously abandoned and overthrown as those good pious
princes were.... I loved him as my friend, for so I took him to be; but
I chiefly loved him for the love which I thought I saw him bear ever
towards your grace, singularly above all other. But now, if he be a
traitor, I am sorry that ever I loved him or trusted him, and I am very
glad that his treason is discovered in time. But yet again I am very
sorrowful, for who shall your grace trust hereafter, if you might not
trust him? Alas! I bewail and lament your grace's chance herein, I wot
not whom your grace may trust. But I pray God continually night and day
to send such a counsellor in his place whom your grace may trust, and
who for all his qualities can and will serve your grace like to him,
and that will have so much solicitude and care to preserve your grace
from all dangers as I ever thought he had.'[337]
Cranmer was doubtless a weak man; but assuredly it was a proof of some
devotion to truth and justice, and of some boldness too, thus to plead
the cause of the prisoner before a prince so absolute as Henry VIII.,
and even to express the wish that some efficient successor might be
found. Lord Herbert of Cherbury thinks that Cranmer wrote to the king
_boldly_; and this is also our opinion. The prince being intolerant of
contradiction, this step of the archbishop was more than was needed to
ruin him as well as Cromwell.
Meanwhile, the enemies of the prisoner were trying to find other
grounds of accusation besides that which they had first brought
forward. Indeed, it seemed to some persons a strange thing that he
who, under Henry VIII. was head of the church, vicegerent in spiritual
affairs, should be a heretic and a patron of heretics; and many found
in this charge an 'occasion of merriment.'[338] They set to work,
therefore, after the blow, to discover offences on the part of the
accused. After taking great pains, this is what they discovered and
set forth in the bill of attainder: 1. That he had set at liberty
some prisoners suspected of treason; a crime indeed in the eyes of a
gloomy despot, but in the judgment of righteous men an act of justice
and virtue. 2. That he had granted freedom of export of corn, horses,
and other articles of commerce; the crime of free trade which would
be no crime now. Not a single instance can be specified in which
Cromwell had received any present for such license. 3. That he had,
though a low-born man, given places and orders, saying only that he
was sure that the king would approve them. On this point Cromwell
might reasonably allege the multiplicity of matters entrusted to his
care, and the annoyance to which it must have subjected the king, had
he continually troubled him to decide the most trifling questions.
4. That he had given permission, both to the king's subjects and to
foreigners, to cross the sea 'without any search.' This intelligent
minister appears to have aimed at an order of things less vexatious
and more liberal than that established under Henry VIII., and in
this respect he stood ahead of his age. 5. That he had made a large
fortune, that he had lived in great state, and had not duly honored the
nobility. There were not a few of the nobles who were far from being
honorable, and this great worker had no liking for drones and idlers.
With respect to his fortune, Cromwell incurred heavy expenses for the
affairs of the realm. In many countries he kept well-paid agents, and
the money which he had in his hands was spent more in state affairs
than in satisfying his personal wishes. In all this there was evidently
more to praise than to blame. But Cromwell had enemies who went further
than his official accusers.[339] The Roman Catholics gave out that he
had aspired to the hand of the king's daughter, the princess Mary. This
would have been a strange and sympathetic union, between the _Malleus
monachorum_ and the fanatical Mary!
These groundless charges were followed by the true motives for his
disgrace. It was alleged that he had adopted heretical (that is to
say, evangelical) opinions; that he had promoted the circulation of
heretical works; that he had settled in the realm many heretical
ministers; and that he had caused men accused of heresy to be set at
liberty. That when any one went to him to make complaint of detestable
errors, he defended the heretics and severely censured the informers;
and that in March last, persons having complained to him of the new
preachers, he answered that 'their preaching was good.'[340] For
these _crimes_, the acts of a Christian, honest and beneficent man,
condemnation must be pronounced. Cromwell indeed was guilty.
[Sidenote: THE LEADER OF THE PROSECUTION.]
The conduct of the prosecution was entrusted to Richard Rich, formerly
speaker of the House of Commons, now solicitor-general and chancellor
of the court of augmentations. He had already rendered service to the
king in the trials of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More; the same might
be expected of him in the trial of Cromwell. It appears that he accused
Cromwell of being connected with Throgmorton,[341] the friend and agent
of Cardinal Pole. Now the mere mention of Pole's name would put Henry
out of temper. Cromwell's alliance with this friend of the pope was the
pendant of his scheme of marriage with the lady Mary; the one was as
probable as the other. Cromwell wrote from his prison to the king on
the subject, and stoutly denied the fable. It was not introduced into
the formal pleadings; but the charge was left vaguely impending over
him, and it was reasserted that he was guilty of treason. Cromwell was
certainly not faultless. He was above all a politician, and political
interests had too much weight with him. He was the advocate of some
vexatious and unjust measures, and he acted sometimes in opposition to
his own principles. But his main fault was a too servile devotion to
the prince who pretended that he had been betrayed by him; and of this
he had given a lamentable proof in the case of Anne Boleyn.
His enemies were afraid that, if the trial were conducted openly before
his peers according to law, he would make his voice heard and clear
himself of all their imputations. They resolved therefore to proceed
against him without trial, and without discussion, by the parliamentary
method, by bill of attainder; a course pronounced by Roman Catholics
themselves 'a most iniquitous measure.'[342] He ought to have been
tried, and he was not tried. He was, however, confronted on Friday,
June 11, the day after his arrest, with one of his accusers, and thus
learnt what were the charges brought against him. Conducted again to
the Tower, he became fully aware of the danger which was impending over
him. The power of his enemies, Gardiner and Norfolk, the increasing
disfavor of Anne of Cleves, which seemed inevitably to involve his own
ruin, the proceedings instituted against Barnes and other evangelists,
the anger of the king--all these things alarmed him and produced the
conviction in his mind that the issue was doubtful, and that the danger
was certain. He was in a state of great distress and deep melancholy;
gloomy thoughts oppressed him, and his limbs trembled. The prison has
been called the porch of the grave, and Cromwell indeed looked upon it
as a grave. On June 30 he wrote to the king from his gloomy abode an
affecting letter, 'with heavy heart and trembling hand,' as he himself
said.
[Sidenote: EXAMINATION OF CROMWELL.]
About the end of June, the duke of Norfolk, the lord chancellor,
and the lord high admiral went to the Tower, instructed to examine
Cromwell and to make various declarations to him on the part of the
king. The most important of these related to the marriage of Henry
VIII. with Anne of Cleves. They called upon him to state all that he
knew touching this marriage, 'as he might do before God on the dread
day of judgment.' On June 30 Cromwell wrote to the king a letter in
which he set forth what he knew on the subject; and he added: 'And this
is all that I know, most gracious and most merciful sovereign lord,
beseeching Almighty God ... to counsel you, preserve you, maintain you,
remedy you, relieve and defend you, as may be most to your honor, with
prosperity, health and comfort of your heart's desire ... [giving you]
continuance of Nestor's years.... I am a most woeful prisoner, ready to
take the death, when it shall please God and your majesty; and yet the
frail flesh inciteth me continually to call to your grace for mercy and
grace for mine offences: and thus Christ save, preserve, and keep you.
'Written at the Tower this Wednesday, the last day of June, with the
heavy heart and trembling hand of your highness' most heavy and most
miserable prisoner and poor slave,
'THOMAS CRUMWELL.'
After having signed the letter, Cromwell, overpowered with terror at
his future prospects, added:--
'Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy.'[343]
The heads of the clerical party, impatient to be rid of an enemy
whom they hated, hurried on the fatal decree. The Parliament met
on Thursday, June 17, seven days after Cromwell's imprisonment;
and Cranmer, who had attended the sittings of the House of Lords on
the previous days, was not present on this occasion. The earl of
Southampton, who had become lord keeper of the privy seal in Cromwell's
place, entered and presented the bill of attainder against his
predecessor. It was read a first time. The second and third readings
followed on Saturday the 19th. Cranmer, whose absence had probably
been noticed, was present; and, according to his lamentable system,
adapted to the despotism of his master, after having complied with the
dictate of his conscience by calling to mind the merits of Cromwell,
he complied with the will of the king, and by his silence acquiesced
in the proceedings of the House. The bill was sent to the lower House.
It appears that the commons raised some scruples or objections, for
the bill remained under consideration for ten days. It was not until
June 29 that the commons sent the bill back to the peers, with some
amendments; and the peers, ever in haste, ordered that the three
readings should take place at the same sitting. They then sent it to
the king, who gave his assent to it. The man who was prosecuted had
been so powerful that it was feared lest he should regain his strength
and begin to advance with fresh energy.
The king, meanwhile, seems to have hesitated. He was less decided than
those who at this time enjoyed his favor.
Although the lord chancellor, the duke of Norfolk, and Lord Russell had
come to announce to Cromwell that the bill of attainder had passed,
he remained still a whole month in the Tower. The royal commissioners
interrogated him at intervals on various subjects. It seems even that
the king sent him relief, probably to mitigate the severities of his
imprisonment. Cromwell habitually received the king's commissioners
with dignity, and answered them with discretion. Whether the questions
touched on temporal or ecclesiastical affairs, he ever showed himself
better informed than his questioners.[344]
[Sidenote: HIS LETTER TO THE KING.]
Henry sent word to him that he might write any thing that he thought
meet under his present circumstances. From this, Cromwell appears to
have conceived a hope that the king would not permit his sentence to be
executed. He took courage and wrote to the king. 'Most gracious king,'
he said, 'your most lamentable servant and prisoner prostrate at the
feet of your most excellent majesty, have heard your pleasure ... that
I should write.... First, where I have been accused to your majesty
of treason, to that I say, I never in all my life thought willingly
to do that thing that might or should displease your majesty.... What
labors, pains, and travails I have taken, according to my most bounden
duty God also knoweth.... If it had been or were in my power, to make
your majesty so puissant, as all the world should be compelled to obey
you, Christ he knoweth I would,... for your majesty hath been... more
like a dear father... than a master.... Should any faction or any
affection to any point make me a traitor to your majesty, then all the
devils in hell confound me, and the vengeance of God light upon
me.... Yet our Lord, if it be his will, can do with me as he did with
Susan, who was falsely accused.... Other hope than in God and your
majesty I have not.... Amongst other things, most gracious sovereign,
master comptroller shewed me that your grace shewed him that within
these fourteen days ye committed a matter of great secresy, which I
did reveal.... This I did.... I spake privily with her [the queen's]
lord chamberlain... desiring him... to find some mean that the queen
might be induced to order your grace pleasantly in her behavior towards
you.... If I have offended your majesty therein, prostrate at your
majesty's feet I most lowly ask mercy and pardon of your highness....
Written with the quaking hand and most sorrowful heart of your most
sorrowful subject and most humble servant and prisoner, this Saturday
at your [Tower] of London.
'THOMAS CROMWELL.'[345]
Cromwell was resigned to death; and the principal object of his
concern was the fate of his son, his grandchildren, and likewise of
his domestic servants. His son was in a good position, having married
a sister of the queen Jane Seymour. 'Sir, upon my knees,' he said, 'I
most humbly beseech your gracious majesty to be good and gracious lord
to my poor son, the good and virtuous woman his wife, and their poor
children, and also to my servants. And this I desire of your grace for
Christ's sake.' The unhappy father, returning to his own case, finished
by saying, 'Most gracious prince, mercy, mercy, mercy!'[346] Cromwell
wrote twice in this manner; and the king was so much affected by the
second of these letters that he 'commanded it thrice to be read to
him.'[347]
Would Cromwell then, after all, escape? Those who were ignorant of what
was passing at court looked upon it as impossible that he should be
sacrificed so long as Anne of Cleves was queen of England. But the very
circumstances which seemed to them the guarantee of his safety were to
be instead the occasion of his ruin.
Henry's dislike to his wife was ever increasing, and he was determined
to get rid of her. But, as usual, he concealed beneath flowers the
weapon with which he was about to strike her. In the month of March,
the king gave, in honor of the queen, a grand fête with a tournament,
as he had done for Anne Boleyn; and amongst the numerous combatants,
who took part in the jousting were Sir Thomas Seymour, the earl of
Sussex, Harry Howard, and Richard Cromwell, nephew of the earl of
Essex, and ancestor of the great Protector Oliver.[348]
[Sidenote: CATHERINE HOWARD.]
One circumstance contributed to hasten the decision of the king.
There was at the court a young lady, small of stature, of a good
figure and beautiful countenance, of ladylike manners, coquettish and
forward, who at this time made a deep impression on Henry. This was
Catherine Howard, a niece of the duke of Norfolk, now residing with
her grandmother, the duchess-dowager, who allowed her great liberty.
Katherine was in every respect a contrast to Anne of Cleves. Henry
resolved to marry her, and for this purpose to get rid forthwith of
his present wife. As he was desirous of being provisionally relieved
of her presence, he persuaded her that a change of air would be very
beneficial to her, and that it was necessary that she should make
a stay in the country. On June 24 he sent the good princess, who
felt grateful for his attentions, to Richmond. At the same time he
despatched the bishop of Bath to her brother, the duke of Cleves,
with a view to prepare him for the very unexpected decision which was
impending over his sister, and to avert any vexatious consequences.[349]
Cromwell, then, had no aid to look for at the hands of a queen already
forsaken and ere long repudiated. He could not hope to escape death.
His enemies were urgent for the execution of the bill. They professed
to have discovered a correspondence which he had carried on with the
Protestant princes of Germany.[350]
Cromwell's determination to offer no opposition to the king led him
to commit serious mistakes, unworthy of a Christian. Nevertheless,
according to documents still extant, he died like a Christian. He was
not the first, nor the last, who in the presence of death, of capital
punishment, has examined himself, and confessed himself a sinner.
While he spurned the accusations made by his enemies, he humbled
himself before the weightier and more solemn accusations of his own
conscience. How often had his own will been opposed to the commandments
of the divine will! But at the same time he discovered in the Gospel
the grace which he had but imperfectly known; and the doctrines which
the Catholic church of the first ages had professed became dear to him.
On July 28, 1540, Cromwell was taken to Tower Hill, the place of
execution. On reaching the scaffold he said: 'I am come hither to die,
and not to purge myself.... For since the time that I have had years
of discretion, I have lived a sinner and offended my Lord God, for the
which I ask Him heartily forgiveness. And it is not unknown to many of
you that I have been a great travailler in this world, and being but
of a base degree, was called to high estate; and since the time I came
thereunto I have offended my prince, for the which I ask him heartily
forgiveness, and beseech you all to pray to God with me, that he will
forgive me. O Father, forgive me! O Son, forgive me! O Holy Ghost,
forgive me! O Three Persons in one God, forgive me!... I die in the
Catholic faith.... I heartily desire you to pray for the king's grace,
that he may long live with you in health and prosperity.'
By insisting in so marked a manner on the doctrine of the Trinity,
professed in the fourth century by the councils of Nicaea and
Constantinople, Cromwell doubtless intended to show that this was the
Catholic doctrine in which he asserted that he died. But he did not
omit to give evidence that his faith was that of the Scriptures.
[Sidenote: EXECUTION OF CROMWELL.]
After his confession, he knelt down, and at this solemn hour he uttered
this Christian and fervent prayer:[351] 'O Lord Jesu! which art the
only health of all men living and the everlasting life of them which
die in thee, I, wretched sinner, do submit myself wholly unto thy most
blessed will, and being sure that the thing can not perish which is
committed unto thy mercy, willingly now I leave this frail and wicked
flesh, in sure hope that thou wilt, in better wise, restore it to
me again at the last day in the resurrection of the just. I beseech
thee, most merciful Lord Jesus Christ! that thou wilt by thy grace
make strong my soul against all temptations, and defend me with the
buckler of thy mercy against all the assaults of the devil. I see and
acknowledge that there is in myself no hope of salvation, but all my
confidence, hope, and trust is in thy most merciful goodness. I have
no merits nor good works which I may allege before thee. Of sins and
evil works, alas! I see a great heap; but yet through thy mercy I
trust to be in the number of them to whom thou wilt not impute their
sins; but wilt take and accept me for righteous and just, and to be
the inheritor of everlasting life. Thou, merciful Lord! wast born for
my sake; thou didst suffer both hunger and thirst for my sake; thou
didst teach, pray, and fast for my sake; all thy holy actions and
works thou wroughtest for my sake; thou sufferedst most grievous pains
and torments for my sake; finally, thou gavest thy most precious body
and thy blood to be shed on the cross for my sake. Now, most merciful
Saviour! let all these things profit me, that thou freely hast done
for me, which hast given thyself also for me. Let thy blood cleanse
and wash away the spots and foulness of my sins. Let thy righteousness
hide and cover my unrighteousness. Let the merits of thy passion and
blood-shedding be satisfaction for my sins. Give me, Lord! thy grace,
that the faith of my salvation in thy blood waver not in me, but
may ever be firm and constant; that the hope of thy mercy and life
everlasting never decay in me: that love wax not cold in me. Finally,
that the weakness of my flesh be not overcome with the fear of death.
Grant me, merciful Saviour! that when death hath shut up the eyes of
my body, yet the eyes of my soul may still behold and look upon thee;
and when death hath taken away the use of my tongue, yet my heart may
cry and say unto thee, "Lord! into thy hands I commend my soul; Lord
Jesu! receive my spirit!" Amen.'[352]
This is one of the most beautiful prayers handed down to us in
Christian times.
Cromwell having finished his prayer and being now ready, a stroke of
the axe severed his head from his body.
Thus died a man who, although he had risen from the lowliest to the
loftiest estate, never allowed himself to be seduced by pride, nor
made giddy by the pomps of the world, who continued attached to his
old acquaintances, and was eager to honor the meanest who had rendered
him any service; a man who powerfully contributed to the establishment
of Protestantism in England,[353] although his enemies, unaware of the
very different meanings of the words 'Catholicism' and 'Popery,' took
pleasure in circulating the report in Europe, after his death, that he
died a Roman Catholic; a man who for eight years governed his country,
the king, the parliament, and convocation; who had the direction of all
domestic as well as foreign affairs; who executed what he had advised,
and who, in spite of the blots which he himself lamented, was one of
the most intelligent, most active, and most influential of English
ministers.[354] It is said that the king ere long regretted him.
However this may be, he protected his son and gave him proofs of his
favor, doubtless in remembrance of his father.
Another nobleman, Walter, Lord Hungerford, was beheaded at the same
time with Cromwell, for having endeavored to ascertain, by 'conjuring,'
how long the king would live.[355]