DIVORCE OF ANNE OF CLEVES.
(1540.)
[Sidenote: ROME TRIUMPHANT.]
The Catholic party was triumphant. It had set aside the Protestant
queen and sacrificed the Protestant minister; and it now proceeded to
take measures of a less startling character, but which were a more
direct attack on the very work of the Reformation. It thought proper to
put to death some of those zealous men who were boldly preaching the
pure Gospel, not only for the sake of getting rid of them, but even
more for the purpose of terrifying those who were imitating them or who
were willing to do so.
Of these men, Barnes, Garret, and Jerome were the most known. They
were in prison; but Henry had hitherto scrupled about sacrificing men
who preached a doctrine opposed to the pope. The party, moreover,
united all their forces to bring about the fall of Cromwell, who had
been confined within the same walls. After his death, the death of the
preachers followed as a matter of course; it was merely the corollary;
it was a natural consequence, and needed no special demonstration; the
sentence, according to the Romish party, had only to be pronounced to
be evidently justified. On these principles the king's council and the
parliament proceeded; and two days after the execution of Cromwell,
these three evangelists, without any public hearing, without knowing
any cause of their condemnation, without receiving any communication
whatsoever,[356] were taken out of prison, July 30, 1540, to be
conducted to Smithfield, where they were to be deprived, not only of
their ministry, but of their lives.
Henry, however, was not free from uneasiness. He had openly asserted
that he leaned neither to one side nor to the other; that he weighed
both parties in a just balance; and now, while he is boasting of his
impartiality, every body persists in saying that he gives all the
advantage to the papists. What is he to do in order to be just and
impartial? Three papists must be found to be put to death at the
same time with the evangelicals. Then nobody will venture to assert
that the king does not hold the balance even. The measure shall be
faultless and one of the glories of his reign. The three papists
selected to be placed in the other scale bore the names of Abel, Powel,
and Fetherstone. The first two were political pamphleteers who had
supported the cause of Catherine of Aragon; and the third was, like
them, an opponent of royal supremacy. It seems that in this matter
the king also made allowance for the composition of his own council,
which comprised both friends and enemies of the Reformation. Amongst
the former were the archbishop of Canterbury, the duke of Suffolk,
viscounts Beauchamp and Lisle, Russell, Paget, Sadler, and Audley.
Amongst the latter were the bishops of Winchester and Durham, the
duke of Norfolk, the earl of Southampton, Sir Antony Brown, Paulet,
Baker, Richard, and Wingfield. There was therefore a majority of one
against the Reformation, just enough to turn the scale. Henry, with a
show of impartiality, assigned three victims to each of these parties.
Preparations were made at the Tower for carrying out this equitable
sentence. In the court-yard were three hurdles, of oblong shape, formed
of branches of trees closely intertwined, on which the culprits were
to be drawn to the place of execution. Why three only, as there were
six condemned? The reason was soon to be seen. When the three prisoners
of each side were brought out, they proceeded to lay one evangelical
on the first hurdle, and by his side a papist, binding them properly
to each other to keep them in this strange coupling. The same process
was gone through with the second and the third hurdles;[357] they then
set out, and the six prisoners were drawn two and two to Smithfield.
Thus, in every street through which the procession passed, Henry VIII.
proclaimed by this strange spectacle that his government was impartial,
and condemned alike the two classes of divines and of doctrines.
[Sidenote: PAPIST AND PROTESTANT MARTYRS.]
The three hurdles reached Smithfield. Two and two, the prisoners were
unbound, and the three evangelicals were conducted to the stake. No
trial having been allowed them by the court, these upright and pious
men felt it their duty to supply its place at the foot of the scaffold.
The day of their death thus became for them the day of hearing. The
tribunal was sitting and the assembly was large. Barnes was the first
speaker. He said: 'I am come hither to be burned as a heretic.... God I
take to record, I never (to my knowledge) taught any erroneous
doctrine ... and I neither moved nor gave occasion of any
insurrection.... I believe in the Holy and Blessed Trinity; ... and that
this blessed Trinity sent down the second person, Jesus Christ, into the
womb of the most blessed and purest Virgin Mary.... I believe that
through his death he overcame sin, death and hell; and that there is
none other satisfaction to the Father, but this his death and passion
only.' At these words Barnes, deeply moved, raised his hands to heaven,
and prayed God to forgive him his sins. This profession of faith did not
satisfy the sheriff. Then some one asked him what he thought of praying
to the saints. 'I believe,' answered Barnes, 'that they are worthy
of all the honor that Scripture willeth them to have. But, I say,
throughout all Scripture we are not commanded to pray to any
saints.... If saints do pray for us, then I trust to pray for you within
the next half-hour.' He was silent, and the sheriff said to him: 'Well,
have you any thing more to say?' He answered: 'Have ye any articles
against me for the which I am condemned?' The sheriff answered: 'No.'
Barnes then put the question to the people whether any knew wherefore he
died. No one answered. Then he resumed: 'They that have been the
occasion of it I pray God forgive them, as I would be forgiven myself.
And Doctor Stephen, bishop of Winchester that now is, if he have sought
or wrought this my death, either by word or deed, I pray God forgive
him.... I pray that God may give [the king] prosperity, and that he may
long reign among you; and after him that godly prince Edward may so
reign that he may finish those things that his father hath begun.'[358]
Then collecting himself, Barnes addressed three requests to the sheriff,
the prayer of a dying man. The first was that the king might employ
the wealth of the abbeys which had been poured into the treasury in
relieving his poor subjects who were in great need of it. The second
was that marriage might be respected, and that men might not live in
uncleanness. The third, that the name of God might not be taken in vain
in abominable oaths. These prayers of a dying man, who was sent to the
scaffold by Henry himself, ought to have produced some impression on
the heart of the king. Jerome and Garret likewise addressed affecting
exhortations to the people. After this, these three Christians uttered
together their last prayer, shook hands with and embraced each other,
and then meekly gave themselves up to the executioner. They were bound
to the same stake, and breathed their last in patience and in faith.
On the same day, at the same hour, and at the same place where
the three friends of the Gospel were burnt, the three followers
of the pope, Abel, Fetherstone, and Powel were hung. A foreigner
who was present exclaimed: '_Deus bone! quomodo hic vivunt gentes?
Hic suspenduntur papistæ, illic comburuntur antipapistæ._' The
simple-minded and ignorant asked what kind of religion people should
have in England, seeing that both Romanism and Protestantism led to
death. A courtier exclaimed: 'Verily, henceforth I will be of the
king's religion, that is to say, of none at all!'[359]
[Sidenote: PROPOSED DIVORCE OF THE QUEEN.]
Cromwell and these six men were not to be the only objects of the
king's displeasure. Even before they had undergone their sentence,
the king had caused his divorce to be pronounced. In marrying Anne
of Cleves, his chief object had been to form an alliance with the
Protestants against the emperor. Now these two opponents were by this
time reconciled with each other. Henry, therefore, deeply irritated, no
longer hesitated to rid himself of the new queen. He was influenced,
moreover, by another motive. He was smitten with the charms of another
woman. However, as he dreaded the raillery, the censures, and even the
calamities which the divorce might bring upon him, he was anxious not
to appear as the originator of it, and should the accusation be made,
to be able to repel it as a foul imposture without shadow of reality.
He resolved, therefore, to adopt such a course that this strange
proceeding should seem to have been imposed upon him. This intention
he hinted to one of the lords in whom he had full confidence; and the
latter made some communications about it, on July 3, to the Privy
Council. On the 6th his majesty's ministers pointed out to the upper
house the propriety of their humbly requesting the king, in conjunction
with the lower house, that the convocation of the clergy might examine
into his marriage with Anne of Cleves, and see whether it were valid.
The lords adopted the proposal; and a commission consisting of the lord
chancellor, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the dukes of Norfolk
and Suffolk, presented it to the commons, who gave their assent to
it. Consequently the whole House of Lords and a commission of twenty
members of the lower house appeared before the king, and stated that
the matter about which they had to confer with him was of such an
important character that they must first request his permission to lay
it before them. Henry, feigning utter ignorance of what they meant,
commanded them to speak. They then said,--'We humbly pray your majesty
to allow the validity of your marriage to be investigated by the
convocation of the clergy; we attach all the more importance to this
proceeding because the question bears upon the succession to the throne
of your majesty.' It was well known that the king did not love Anne,
and that he was even in love with another.[360] This is a striking
instance of the degree of meanness to which Henry VIII. had reduced his
parliament; for an assembly, even if some mean souls are to be found in
it, undertakes not to be despicable, and what is noblest in it usually
comes to the surface. But if the shameful compliances of the parliament
astonish us, the audacious hypocrisy of Henry VIII. surprises us still
more. He stood up to answer as if in the presence of the Deity; and
concealing his real motives he said,--'There is nothing in the world
more dear to me than the glory of God, the good of England, and the
declaration of the truth.' All the actors in this comedy played their
parts to perfection.[361] The king immediately sent to Richmond some
of his councillors, amongst them Suffolk and Gardiner, to communicate
to the queen the demand of the parliament and to ascertain her opinion
with respect to it. After many long conferences, Anne gave her consent
to the proposal.[362]
[Sidenote: EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES.]
The next day, July 7, the matter was brought before Convocation by
Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, who was very anxious to see a Roman
Catholic queen upon the throne of England. A committee was nominated
for the purpose of examining the witnesses; and of this committee the
bishop was a member. An autograph declaration of the king was produced,
in which he dwelt strongly on the fact that he took such a dislike to
Anne as soon as he saw her that he thought instantly of breaking off
the match; that he never inwardly consented to the marriage, and that
in fact it had never been consummated.[363] Within two days all the
witnesses were heard. Henry was impatient; and the Roman party urgently
appealed to the assembly to deliver a judgment which would rid England
of a Protestant queen. Cranmer, out of fear or feebleness (he had just
seen Cromwell lose his head), went with the rest of them. In his view
the will of Henry VIII. was almost what destiny was for the ancients--
---- Des arrêts du destin l'ordre est invariable. ----
On July 9, Convocation, relying upon the two reasons given by the
king, and upon the fact that there was something ambiguous in Anne's
engagement with the son of the duke of Lorraine, decided that his
majesty 'was at liberty to contract another marriage for the good of
the realm.'[364] None of these reasons had any validity.[365] Nor
did Henry escape the condemnation and the raillery which he had so
much feared. 'It appears,' said Francis I., 'that over there they are
pleased to do with their women as with their geldings,--bring a number
of them together and make them trot, and then take the one which goes
easiest.'[366]
[Sidenote: THE DIVORCE ACCEPTED.]
The archbishop of Canterbury on July 10 reported to the House of Lords
that Convocation had declared the marriage null and void by virtue both
of the law of God and of the law of England. The bishop of Winchester
read the judgment and explained at length the grounds of it, and the
house declared itself satisfied. The archbishop and the bishop made
the same report to the Commons. On the following day--Henry did not
intend that any time should be lost--the lord chancellor, the duke
of Norfolk, the earl of Southampton, and the bishop of Winchester
betook themselves to Richmond, whither the innocent queen had been
sent for change of air, and informed her, on the king's behalf, of the
proceedings of parliament and of Convocation. Anne was distressed by
the communication. She had supposed that the clergy would acknowledge,
as it was their duty to do, the validity of her marriage. However
it may be, so sharp was the stroke that she fainted away.[367] The
necessary care was bestowed on her, and she recovered, and gradually
reconciled herself to the thought of submission to Henry's will. The
delegates told her that the king, while requiring her to renounce the
title of queen, conferred on her that of his adopted sister, and gave
her precedence in rank of all the ladies of the court, immediately
after the queen and the daughters of the king. Anne was modest; she
did not think highly of herself, and had often felt that she was not
made to be queen of England. She therefore submitted, and the same day,
July 11, wrote to the king,--'Though this case must needs be most hard
and sorrowful unto me, for the great love which I bear to your most
noble person, yet having more regard to God and his truth than to any
worldly affection, as it beseemed me ... I knowledge myself hereby to
accept and approve the same [determination of the clergy] wholly and
entirely putting myself, for my state and condition, to your highness's
goodness and pleasure; most humbly beseeching your majesty ... to
take me for one of your most humble servants.' She subscribed herself
'Your majesty's most humble sister and servant, Anne, daughter the
Cleves.'[368]
The king sent word to her that he conferred on her a pension of three
thousand pounds, and the palace at Richmond. Anne wrote to him again,
July 16, to thank him for his great kindness, and at the same time
sent him her ring.[369] She preferred--and herein she showed some
pride--to remain in England, rather than to go home after such a
disgrace had fallen upon her. 'I account God pleased,' she wrote to her
brother, 'with what is done, and know myself to have suffered no wrong
or injury.... I find the king's highness ... to be as a most kind,
loving and friendly father and brother.... I am so well content and
satisfied that I much desire my mother, you, and other mine allies so
to understand it, accept and take it.'[370] Seldom has a woman carried
self-renunciation to such a length.