most learned divine, in moulding the faith and discipline of the English
church, which has not been very materially altered since his time, was
Archbishop Cranmer.[138] Few men, about whose conduct there is so little
room for controversy upon facts, have been represented in more opposite
lights. We know the favouring colours of protestant writers; but turn to
the bitter invective of Bossuet; and the patriarch of our reformed
church stands forth as the most abandoned of time-serving hypocrites. No
political factions affect the impartiality of men's judgment so grossly,
or so permanently, as religious heats. Doubtless, if we should reverse
the picture, and imagine the end and scope of Cranmer's labour to have
been the establishment of the Roman catholic religion in a protestant
country, the estimate formed of his behaviour would be somewhat less
favourable than it is at present. If, casting away all prejudice on
either side, we weigh the character of this prelate in an equal balance,
he will appear far indeed removed from the turpitude imputed to him by
his enemies, yet not entitled to any extraordinary veneration. Though it
is most eminently true of Cranmer that his faults were always the effect
of circumstances, and not of intention; yet this palliating
consideration is rather weakened when we recollect that he consented to
place himself in a station where those circumstances occurred. At the
time of Cranmer's elevation to the see of Canterbury, Henry, though on
the point of separating for ever from Rome, had not absolutely
determined upon so strong a measure; and his policy required that the
new archbishop should solicit the usual bulls from the pope, and take
the oath of canonical obedience to him. Cranmer, already a rebel from
that dominion in his heart, had recourse to the disingenuous shift of a
protest, before his consecration, that "he did not intend to restrain
himself thereby from anything to which he was bound by his duty to God
or the king, or from taking part in any reformation of the English
church which he might judge to be required."[139] This first deviation
from integrity, as is almost always the case, drew after it many others;
and began that discreditable course of temporising, and undue
compliance, to which he was reduced for the rest of Henry's reign.
Cranmer's abilities were not perhaps of a high order, or at least they
were unsuited to public affairs; but his principal defect was in that
firmness by which men of more ordinary talents may ensure respect.
Nothing could be weaker than his conduct in the usurpation of Lady Jane,
which he might better have boldly sustained, like Ridley, as a step
necessary for the conservation of protestantism, than given into against
his conscience, overpowered by the importunities of a misguided boy. Had
the malignity of his enemies been directed rather against his reputation
than his life, had he been permitted to survive his shame, as a prisoner
in the Tower, it must have seemed a more arduous task to defend the
memory of Cranmer; but his fame has brightened in the fire that
consumed him.[140]
_Cranmer's moderation in introducing changes not acceptable to the
zealots._--Those who, with the habits of thinking that prevail in our
times, cast back their eyes on the reign of Edward VI. will generally be
disposed to censure the precipitancy, and still more the exclusive
spirit, of our principal reformers. But relatively to the course that
things had taken in Germany, and to the feverish zeal of that age, the
moderation of Cranmer and Ridley, the only ecclesiastics who took a
prominent share in these measures, was very conspicuous; and tended
above everything to place the Anglican church in that middle position
which it has always preserved, between the Roman hierarchy and that of
other protestant denominations. It is manifest from the history of the
Reformation in Germany, that its predisposing cause was the covetous and
arrogant character of the superior ecclesiastics, founded upon vast
temporal authority; a yoke long borne with impatience, and which the
unanimous adherence of the prelates to Rome in the period of separation
gave the Lutheran princes a good excuse for entirely throwing off. Some
of the more temperate reformers, as Melancthon, would have admitted a
limited jurisdiction of the episcopacy: but in general the destruction
of that order, such as it then existed, may be deemed as fundamental a
principle of the new discipline, as any theological point could be of
the new doctrine. But, besides that the subjection of ecclesiastical to
civil tribunals, and possibly other causes, had rendered the superior
clergy in England less obnoxious than in Germany, there was this
important difference between the two countries, that several bishops
from zealous conviction, many more from pliability to self-interest, had
gone along with the new-modelling of the English church by Henry and
Edward; so that it was perfectly easy to keep up that form of
government, in the regular succession which had usually been deemed
essential; though the foreign reformers had neither the wish, nor
possibly the means, to preserve it. Cranmer himself, indeed, during the
reign of Henry, had bent, as usual, to the king's despotic humour; and
favoured a novel theory of ecclesiastical authority, which resolved all
its spiritual as well as temporal powers into the royal supremacy.
Accordingly, at the accession of Edward, he himself, and several other
bishops, took out commissions to hold their sees during pleasure.[141]
But when the necessity of compliance had passed by, they showed a
disposition not only to oppose the continual spoliations of church
property, but to maintain the jurisdiction which the canon law had
conferred upon them.[142] And though, as this papal code did not appear
very well adapted to a protestant church, a new scheme of ecclesiastical
laws was drawn up, which the king's death rendered abortive, this was
rather calculated to strengthen the hands of the spiritual courts than
to withdraw any matter from their cognisance.[143]
The policy, or it may be the prejudices, of Cranmer induced him also to
retain in the church a few ceremonial usages, which the Helvetic, though
not the Lutheran, reformers had swept away; such as the copes and
rochets of bishops, and the surplice of officiating priests. It should
seem inconceivable that any one could object to these vestments,
considered in themselves; far more, if they could answer in the
slightest degree the end of conciliating a reluctant people. But this
motive unfortunately was often disregarded in that age; and indeed in
all ages an abhorrence of concession and compromise is a never-failing
characteristic of religious factions. The foreign reformers then in
England, two of whom, Bucer and Peter Martyr, enjoyed a deserved
reputation, expressed their dissatisfaction at seeing these habits
retained, and complained, in general, of the backwardness of the English
reformation. Calvin and Bullinger wrote from Switzerland in the same
strain.[144] Nor was this sentiment by any means confined to strangers.
Hooper, an eminent divine, having been elected Bishop of Gloucester,
refused to be consecrated in the usual dress. It marks, almost
ludicrously, the spirit of those times, that, instead of permitting him
to decline the station, the council sent him to prison for some time,
until by some mutual concessions the business was adjusted.[145] These
events it would hardly be worth while to notice in such a work as the
present, if they had not been the prologue to a long and serious drama.
_Persecution under Mary._--It is certain that the re-establishment of
popery on Mary's accession must have been acceptable to a large part, or
perhaps to the majority, of the nation. There is reason however to
believe that the reformed doctrine had made a real progress in the few
years of her brother's reign. The counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, which
placed Mary on the throne as the lawful heir, were chiefly protestant,
and experienced from her the usual gratitude and good faith of a
bigot.[146] Noailles bears witness, in many of his despatches, to the
unwillingness which great numbers of the people displayed to endure the
restoration of popery, and to the queen's excessive unpopularity, even
before her marriage with Philip had been resolved upon.[147] As for the
higher classes, they partook far less than their inferiors in the
religious zeal of that age. Henry, Edward, Mary, Elizabeth, found almost
an equal compliance with their varying schemes of faith. Yet the larger
proportion of the nobility and gentry appear to have preferred the
catholic religion. Several peers opposed the bills for reformation under
Edward; and others, who had gone along with the current, became active
counsellors of Mary. Not a few persons of family emigrated in the latter
reign; but, with the exception of the second Earl of Bedford, who
suffered a short imprisonment on account of religion, the protestant
martyrology contains no confessor of superior rank.[148] The same
accommodating spirit characterised, upon the whole, the clergy; and
would have been far more general, if a considerable number had not
availed themselves of the permission to marry granted by Edward; which
led to their expulsion from their cures on his sister's coming to the
throne.[149] Yet it was not the temper of Mary's parliaments, whatever
pains had been taken about their election, to second her bigotry in
surrendering the temporal fruits of their recent schism. The bill for
restoring first fruits and impropriations in the queen's hands to the
church passed not without difficulty; and it was found impossible to
obtain a repeal of the Act of Supremacy without the pope's explicit
confirmation of the abbey lands to their new proprietors. Even this
confirmation, though made through the legate Cardinal Pole, by virtue of
a full commission, left not unreasonably an apprehension that, on some
better opportunity, the imprescriptible nature of church property might
be urged against the possessors.[150] With these selfish considerations
others of a more generous nature conspired to render the old religion
more obnoxious than it had been at the queen's accession. Her marriage
with Philip, his encroaching disposition, the arbitrary turn of his
counsels, the insolence imputed to the Spaniards who accompanied him,
the unfortunate loss of Calais through that alliance, while it
thoroughly alienated the kingdom from Mary, created a prejudice against
the religion which the Spanish court so steadily favoured.[151] So
violent indeed was the hatred conceived by the English nation against
Spain during the short period of Philip's marriage with their queen,
that it diverted the old channel of public feelings, and almost put an
end to that dislike and jealousy of France which had so long existed.
For at least a century after this time we rarely find in popular writers
any expression of hostility towards that country; though their national
manners, so remote from our own, are not unfrequently the object of
ridicule. The prejudices of the populace, as much as the policy of our
counsellors, were far more directed against Spain.
_Its effect rather favourable to protestantism._--But what had the
greatest efficacy in disgusting the English with Mary's system of faith,
was the cruelty by which it was accompanied. Though the privy council
were in fact continually urging the bishops forward in this
prosecution,[152] the latter bore the chief blame, and the abhorrence
entertained for them naturally extended to the doctrine they professed.
A sort of instinctive reasoning told the people, what the learned on
neither side had been able to discover, that the truth of a religion
begins to be very suspicious, when it stands in need of prisons and
scaffolds to eke out its evidences. And as the English were
constitutionally humane, and not hardened by continually witnessing the
infliction of barbarous punishments, there arose a sympathy for men
suffering torments with such meekness and patience, which the populace
of some other nations were perhaps less apt to display, especially in
executions on the score of heresy.[153] The theologian indeed and the
philosopher may concur in deriding the notion that either sincerity or
moral rectitude can be the test of truth; yet among the various species
of authority to which recourse had been had to supersede or to supply
the deficiencies of argument, I know not whether any be more reasonable,
and none certainly is so congenial to unsophisticated minds. Many are
said to have become protestants under Mary, who, at her coming to the
throne, had retained the contrary persuasion.[154] And the strongest
proof of this may be drawn from the acquiescence of the great body of
the kingdom in the re-establishment of protestantism by Elizabeth, when
compared with the seditions and discontent on that account under Edward.
The course which this famous princess steered in ecclesiastical
concerns, during her long reign, will form the subject of the two
ensuing chapters.
FOOTNOTES:
[83] Burnet. Reeves's _History of the Law_, iv. p. 308. The contemporary
authority is Keilwey's Reports. Collier disbelieves the murder of Hun on
the authority of Sir Thomas More; but he was surely a prejudiced
apologist of the clergy, and this historian is hardly less so. An entry
on the journals, 7 H. 8, drawn of course by some ecclesiastic,
particularly complains of Standish as the author of periculosissimae
seditiones inter clericam et secularem potestatem.
[84] Burnet is confident that the answer to Luther was not written by
Henry (vol. iii. 171), and others have been of the same opinion. The
king, however, in his answer to Luther's apologetical letter, where this
was insinuated, declares it to be his own. From Henry's general
character and proneness to theological disputation, it may be inferred
that he had at least a considerable share in the work, though probably
with the assistance of some who had more command of the Latin language.
Burnet mentions in another place, that he had seen a copy of the
_Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man_, full of interlineations by the
king.
[85] Epist. Lutheri ad Henricum regem missa, etc. Lond. 1526. The letter
bears date at Wittenberg, September 1, 1525. It had no relation,
therefore, to Henry's quarrel with the Pope, though probably Luther
imagined that the king was becoming more favourably disposed. After
saying that he had written against the king "stultus ac praeceps," which
was true, he adds, "invitantibus iis qui majestati tuae parum favebant,"
which was surely a pretence; since who, at Wittenberg, in 1521, could
have any motive to wish that Henry should be so scurrilously treated? He
then bursts out into the most absurd attack on Wolsey; "illud monstrum
et publicum odium Dei et hominum, Cardinalis Eboracensis, pestis illa
regni tui." This was a singular style to adopt in writing to a king,
whom he affected to propitiate; Wolsey being nearer than any man to
Henry's heart. Thence, relapsing into his tone of abasement, he says,
"ita ut vehementer nunc pudefactus, metuam oculos coram majestate tua
levare, qui passus sim levitate ista me moveri in talem tantumque regem
per malignos istos operarios; praesertim cum sim foex et vermis, quem
solo contemptu oportuit victum aut neglectum esse," etc. Among the many
strange things which Luther said and wrote, I know not one more
extravagant than this letter, which almost justifies the supposition
that there was a vein of insanity in his very remarkable character.
[86] Collier, vol. ii. Appendix, No. 2. In the _Hardwicke Papers_, i.
13, we have an account of the ceremonial of the first marriage of Henry
with Catherine in 1503. It is remarkable that a person was appointed to
object publicly in Latin to the marriage, as unlawful, for reasons he
should there exhibit; "whereunto Mr. Doctor Barnes shall reply, and
declare solemnly, also in Latin, the said marriage to be good and
effectual in the law of Christ's church, by virtue of a dispensation,
which he shall have then to be openly read." There seems to be something
in this of the tortuous policy of Henry VII.; but it shows that the
marriage had given offence to scrupulous minds.
[87] See Burnet, Lingard, Turner, and the letters lately printed in
State Papers, temp. Henry VIII. pp. 194, 196.
[88] Burnet wishes to disprove the bribery of these foreign doctors. But
there are strong presumptions that some opinions were got by money
(Collier, ii. 58); and the greatest difficulty was found, where
corruption perhaps had least influence, in the Sorbonne. Burnet himself
proves that some of the cardinals were bribed by the king's ambassador,
both in 1528 and 1532. Vol. i. Append. pp. 30, 110. See, too, Strype, i.
Append. No. 40.
The same writer will not allow that Henry menaced the university of
Oxford in case of non-compliance; yet there are three letters of his to
them, a tenth part of which, considering the nature of the writer, was
enough to terrify his readers. Vol. iii. Append. p. 25. These probably
Burnet did not know when he published his first volume.
[89] The king's marriage is related by the earlier historians to have
taken place November 14, 1532. Burnet however is convinced by a letter
of Cranmer, who, he says, could not be mistaken, though he was not
apprised of the fact till some time afterwards, that it was not
solemnised till about the 25th of January (vol. iii. p. 70). This letter
has since been published in the _Archaeologia_, vol. xviii., and in
Ellis's _Letters_, ii. 34. Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; for
though Burnet, on the authority, he says, of Cranmer, places her birth
on September 14, the former date is decisively confirmed by letters in
Harl. MSS. 283, 22, and 787, 1 (both set down incorrectly in the
catalogue). If a late historian therefore had contented himself with
commenting on these dates and the clandestine nature of the marriage, he
would not have gone beyond the limits of that character of an advocate
for one party which he has chosen to assume. It may not be unlikely,
though by no means evident, that Anne's prudence, though, as Fuller says
of her, "she was cunning in her chastity," was surprised at the end of
this long courtship. I think a prurient curiosity about such obsolete
scandal very unworthy of history. But when this author asserts Henry to
have cohabited with her for three years, and repeatedly calls her his
mistress, when he attributes Henry's patience with the pope's chicanery
to "the infecundity of Anne," and all this on no other authority than a
letter of the French ambassador, which amounts hardly to evidence of a
transient rumour, we cannot but complain of a great deficiency in
historical candour.
[90] The principal authority on the story of Henry's divorce from
Catherine is Burnet, in the first and third volumes of his _History of
the Reformation_; the latter correcting the former from additional
documents. Strype, in his _Ecclesiastical Memorials_, adds some
particulars not contained in Burnet, especially as to the negotiations
with the pope in 1528; and a very little may be gleaned from Collier,
Carte, and other writers. There are few parts of history, on the whole,
that have been better elucidated. One exception perhaps may yet be made.
The beautiful and affecting story of Catherine's behaviour before the
legates at Dunstable is told by Cavendish and Hall, from whom later
historians have copied it. Burnet, however, in his third volume, p. 46,
disputes its truth, and on what should seem conclusive authority, that
of the original register, whence it appears that the queen never came
into court but once, June 18, 1529, to read a paper protesting against
the jurisdiction, and that the king never entered it. Carte accordingly
treated the story as a fabrication. Hume of course did not choose to
omit so interesting a circumstance; but Dr. Lingard has pointed out a
letter of the king, which Burnet himself had printed, vol. i. Append.
78, mentioning the queen's presence as well as his own, on June 21, and
greatly corroborating the popular account. To say the truth, there is no
small difficulty in choosing between two authorities so considerable, if
they cannot be reconciled, which seems impossible: but, upon the whole,
the preference is due to Henry's letter, dated June 23, as he could not
be mistaken, and had no motive to misstate.
This is not altogether immaterial; for Catherine's appeal to Henry, de
integritate corporis usque ad secundas nuptias servata, without reply on
his part, is an important circumstance as to that part of the question.
It is however certain, that, whether on this occasion or not, she did
constantly declare this; and the evidence adduced to prove the contrary
is very defective, especially as opposed to the assertion of so virtuous
a woman. Dr. Lingard says that all the favourable answers which the king
obtained from foreign universities went upon the supposition that the
former marriage had been consummated, and were of no avail unless that
could be proved. See a letter of Wolsey to the king, July 1, 1527,
printed in State Papers, temp. Henry VIII. p. 194; whence it appears
that the queen had been consistent in her denial.
[91] Stat. 21, Hen. 8, cc. 5, 6; Strype, i. 73; Burnet, 83. It cost a
thousand marks to prove Sir William Compton's will in 1528. These
exactions had been much augmented by Wolsey, who interfered, as legate,
with the prerogative court.
[92] It is hard to say what were More's original sentiments about the
divorce. In a letter to Cromwell (Strype, i. 183, and App. No. 48;
Burnet, App. p. 280) he speaks of himself as always doubtful. But, if
his disposition had not been rather favourable to the king, would he
have been offered, or have accepted, the great seal? We do not indeed
find his name in the letter of remonstrance to the pope, signed by the
nobility and chief commoners in 1530, which Wolsey, though then in
disgrace, very willingly subscribed. But in March, 1531, he went down to
the House of Commons, attended by several lords, to declare the king's
scruples about his marriage, and to lay before them the opinions of
universities. In this he perhaps thought himself acting ministerially.
But there can be no doubt that he always considered the divorce as a
matter wholly of the pope's competence, and which no other party could
take out of his hands, though he had gone along cheerfully, as Burnet
says, with the prosecution against the clergy, and wished to cut off the
illegal jurisdiction of the Roman see. The king did not look upon him as
hostile; for even so late as 1532, Dr. Bennet, the envoy at Rome,
proposed to the pope that the cause should be tried by four
commissioners, of whom the king should name one, either Sir Thomas More
or Stokesly, Bishop of London. Burnet, i. 126.
[93] Dr. Lingard has pointed out, as Burnet had done less distinctly,
that the bill abrogating the papal supremacy was brought into the
Commons in the beginning of March, and received the royal assent on the
30th; whereas the determination of the conclave at Rome against the
divorce was on the 23rd; so that the latter could not have been the
cause of this final rupture. Clement VII. might have been outwitted in
his turn by the king, if, after pronouncing a decree in favour of the
divorce, he had found it too late to regain his jurisdiction in England.
On the other hand, so flexible were the parliaments of this reign, that,
if Henry had made terms with the pope, the supremacy might have revived
again as easily as it had been extinguished.
[94] Burnet, iii. 44; and App. 24.
[95] Conf. Burnet, i. 94, and App. No. 35; Strype, i. 230; Sleidan,
_Hist. de la Reformation_ (par Courayer), l. 10. The notions of these
divines, as here stated, are not very consistent or intelligible. The
Swiss reformers were in favour of the divorce, though they advised that
the Princess Mary should not be declared illegitimate. Luther seems to
have inclined towards compromising the difference by the marriage of a
secondary wife. Lingard, p. 172. Melancthon, this writer says, was of
the same opinion. Burnet indeed denies this; but it is rendered not
improbable by the well-authenticated fact that these divines, together
with Bucer, signed a permission to the landgrave of Hesse to take a wife
or concubine, on account of the drunkenness and disagreeable person of
his landgravine. Bossuet, _Hist. des Var. des Egl. Protest_. vol. i.,
where the instrument is published. Clement VII., however, recommended
the king to marry immediately, and then prosecute his suit for a
divorce, which it would be easier for him to obtain in such
circumstances. This was as early as January, 1528 (Burnet, i., App. p.
27). But at a much later period, September 1530, he expressly suggested
the expedient of allowing the king to retain two wives. Though the
letter of Cassali, the king's ambassador at Rome, containing this
proposition, was not found by Burnet, it is quoted at length by an
author of unquestionable veracity, Lord Herbert. Henry had himself, at
one time, favoured this scheme, according to Burnet, who does not,
however, produce any authority for the instructions to that effect said
to have been given to Brian and Vannes, despatched to Rome at the end of
1528. But at the time when the pope made this proposal, the king had
become exasperated against Catherine, and little inclined to treat
either her or the holy see with any respect.
[96] Strype, i. 151 _et alibi_.
[97] Strype, _passim_. Tunstal, Gardiner, and Bonner wrote in favour of
the royal supremacy; all of them, no doubt, insincerely. The first of
these has escaped severe censure by the mildness of his general
character, but was full as much a temporiser as Cranmer. But the history
of this period has been written with such undisguised partiality by
Burnet and Strype on the one hand, and lately by Dr. Lingard on the
other, that it is almost amusing to find the most opposite conclusions
and general results from nearly the same premises. Collier, though with
many prejudices of his own, is, all things considered, the fairest of
our ecclesiastical writers as to this reign.
[98] Burnet, 188. For the methods by which the regulars acquired wealth,
fair and unfair, I may be allowed to refer to the _View of the Middle
Ages_, ch. 7, or rather to the sources from which the sketch there given
was derived.
[99] Harmer's _Specimens of Errors in Burnet_.
[100] Strype, i. Append. 19.
[101] Burnet; Strype. Wolsey alleged as the ground for this suppression,
the great wickedness that prevailed therein. Strype says the number is
twenty; but Collier, ii. 19, reckons them at forty.
[102] Collier, though not implicitly to be trusted, tells some hard
truths, and charges Cromwell with receiving bribes from several abbeys,
in order to spare them. P. 159. This is repeated by Lingard, on the
authority of some Cottonian manuscripts. Even Burnet speaks of the
violent proceedings of a Doctor Loudon towards the monasteries. This man
was of infamous character, and became afterwards a conspirator against
Cranmer, and a persecutor of protestants.
[103] Burnet, 190; Strype, i. ch. 35, see especially p. 257; Ellis's
_Letters_, ii. 71. We should be on our guard against the Romanising
high-church men, such as Collier, and the whole class of antiquaries,
Wood, Hearne, Drake, Browne, Willis, etc., etc., who are, with hardly an
exception, partial to the monastic orders, and sometimes scarce keep on
the mask of protestantism. No one fact can be better supported by
current opinion, and that general testimony which carries conviction,
than the relaxed and vicious state of those foundations for many ages
before their fall. Ecclesiastical writers had not then learned, as they
have since, the trick of suppressing what might excite odium against
their church, but speak out boldly and bitterly. Thus we find in
Wilkins, iii. 630, a bull of Innocent VIII. for the reform of
monasteries in England, charging many of them with dissoluteness of
life. And this is followed by a severe monition from Archbishop Morton
to the abbot of St. Alban's, imputing all kinds of scandalous vices to
him and his monks. Those who reject at once the reports of Henry's
visitors will do well to consider this. See also Fosbrooke's _British
Monachism, passim_.
[104] The preamble of 27 H. 8, c. 28, which gives the smaller
monasteries to the king, after reciting that "manifest sin, vicious,
carnal, and abominable living, is daily used and committed commonly in
such little and small abbeys, priories, and other religious houses of
monks, canons, and nuns, where the congregation of such religious
persons is under the number of twelve persons," bestows praise on many
of the greater foundations, and certainly does not intimate that their
fate was so near at hand. Nor is any misconduct alleged or insinuated
against the greater monasteries in the act 31 H. 8, c. 13, that
abolishes them; which is rather more remarkable, as in some instances
the religious had been induced to confess their evil lives and ill
deserts. Burnet, 236.
[105] _Id. ibid._ and Append. p. 151; Collier, 167. The pensions to the
superiors of the dissolved greater monasteries, says a writer not likely
to spare Henry's government, appear to have varied from L266 to L6 per
annum. The priors of cells received generally L13. A few, whose services
had merited the distinction, obtained L20. To the other monks were
allotted pensions of six, four, or two pounds, with a small sum to each
at his departure, to provide for his immediate wants. The pensions to
nuns averaged about L4. Lingard, vi. 341. He admits that these were ten
times their present value in money; and surely they were not
unreasonably small. Compare them with those, generally and justly
thought munificent, which this country bestows on her veterans of
Chelsea and Greenwich. The monks had no right to expect more than the
means of that hard fare to which they ought by their rules to have been
confined in the convents. The whole revenues were not to be shared among
them as private property. It cannot of course be denied that the
compulsory change of life was to many a severe and an unmerited
hardship; but no great revolution, and the Reformation as little as any,
could be achieved without much private suffering.
[106] The abbots sat till the end of the first session of Henry's sixth
parliament, the act extinguishing them not having passed till the last
day. In the next session they do not appear, the writ of summons not
being supposed to give them personal seats. There are indeed so many
parallel instances among spiritual lords, and the principle is so
obvious, that it would not be worth noticing, but for a strange doubt
said to be thrown out by some legal authorities, near the beginning of
George III.'s reign, in the case of Pearce, Bishop of Rochester,
whether, after resigning his see, he would not retain his seat as a lord
of parliament; in consequence of which his resignation was not accepted.
[107] Burnet, i. Append. 96.
[108] P. 268. Dr. Lingard, on the authority of Nasmith's edition of
Tanner's _Notitia Monastica_, puts the annual revenue of all the
monastic houses at L142,914. This would only be one-twentieth part of
the rental of the kingdom, if Hume were right in estimating that at
three millions. But this is certainly by much too high. The author of
Harmer's _Observations on Burnet_, as I have mentioned above, says the
monks will be found not to have possessed above one-fifth of the
kingdom, and in value, by reason of their long leases, not one-tenth.
But on this supposition, the crown's gain was enormous.
According to a valuation in Speed's _Catalogue of Religious Houses,
apud_ Collier, Append. p. 34, sixteen mitred abbots had revenues above
L1000 per annum. St. Peter's, Westminster, was the richest, and valued
at L3977, Glastonbury at L3508, St. Alban's at L2510, etc.
[109] An act entitling the queen to take into her hands, on the
avoidance of any bishopric, so much of the lands belonging to it as
should be equal in value to the impropriate rectories, etc., within the
same, belonging to the crown, and to give the latter in exchange, was
made (1 Eliz. c. 19). This bill passed on a division in the Commons by
104 to 90, and was ill taken by some of the bishops, who saw themselves
reduced to live on the lawful subsistence of the parochial clergy.
Strype's _Annals_, i. 68, 97.
[110] Burnet, 268, 339. In Strype, i. 211, we have a paper drawn up by
Cromwell for the king's inspection, setting forth what might be done
with the revenues of the lesser monasteries. Among a few other
particulars are the following: "His grace may furnish 200 gentlemen to
attend on his person; every one of them to have 100 marks yearly--20,000
marks. His highness may assign to the yearly reparation of highways in
sundry parts, or the doing of other good deeds for the commonwealth,
5000 marks." In such scant proportion did the claims of public utility
come after those of selfish pomp, or rather perhaps, looking more
attentively, of cunning corruption.
[111] Burnet, i. 223.
[112] It is a favourite theory with many who regret the absolute
secularisation of conventual estates, that they might have been rendered
useful to learning and religion by being bestowed on chapters and
colleges. Thomas Whitaker has sketched a pretty scheme for the abbey of
Whalley, wherein, besides certain opulent prebendaries, he would provide
for schoolmasters and physicians. I suppose this is considered an
adherence to the donor's intention, and no sort of violation of
property; somewhat on the principle called _cy pres_, adopted by the
court of chancery in cases of charitable bequests; according to which,
that tribunal, if it holds the testator's intention unfit to be
executed, carries the bequest into effect by doing what it presumes to
come next in his wishes, though sometimes very far from them. It might
be difficult indeed to prove that a Norman baron, who, not quite easy
about his future prospects, took comfort in his last hours from the
anticipation of daily masses for his soul, would have been better
satisfied that his lands should maintain a grammar-school, than that
they should escheat to the crown. But to waive this, and to revert to
the principle of public utility, it may possibly be true that, in one
instance, such as Whalley, a more beneficial disposition could have been
made in favour of a college than by granting away the lands. But the
question is, whether all, or even a great part, of the monastic estates
could have been kept in mortmain with advantage. We may easily argue
that the Derwentwater property, applied as it has been, has done the
state more service, than if it had gone to maintain a race of
Ratcliffes, and been squandered at White's or Newmarket. But does it
follow that the kingdom would be the more prosperous, if all the estates
of the peerage were diverted to similar endowments? And can we seriously
believe that, if such a plan had been adopted at the suppression of
monasteries, either religion or learning would have been the better for
such an inundation of prebendaries and schoolmasters?
[113] The first act for the relief of the impotent poor passed in 1535
(27 H. 8, c. 25). By this statute no alms were allowed to be given to
beggars, on pain of forfeiting ten times the value; but a collection was
to be made in every parish. The compulsory contributions, properly
speaking, began in 1572 (14 Eliz. c. 5). But by an earlier statute (1
Edward 6, c. 3), the bishop was empowered to proceed in his court
against such as should refuse to contribute, or dissuade others from
doing so.
[114] The _Institution_ was printed in 1537; the _Erudition_, according
to Burnet, in 1540; but in Collier and Strype's opinion, not till 1543.
They are both artfully drawn, probably in the main by Cranmer, but not
without the interference of some less favourable to the new doctrine,
and under the eye of the king himself. Collier, 137, 189. The doctrinal
variations in these two summaries of royal faith are by no means
inconsiderable.
[115] Strype, i. 165. A statute enacted in 1534 (25 H. 8, c. 15), after
reciting that "at this day there be within this realm a great number
cunning and expert in printing, and as able to execute the said craft as
any stranger," proceeds to forbid the sale of bound books imported from
the Continent. A terrible blow was thus levelled both against general
literature and the reformed religion; but, like many other bad laws,
produced very little effect.
[116] The accounts of early editions of the English Bible in Burnet,
Collier, Strype, and an essay by Johnson in Watson's _Theological
Tracts,_ vol. iii., are erroneous or defective. A letter of Strype in
Harleian MSS. 3782, which has been printed, is better; but the most
complete enumeration is in Cotton's list of editions, 1821. The
dispersion of the Scriptures, with full liberty to read them, was
greatly due to Cromwell, as is shown by Burnet. Even after his fall, a
proclamation, dated May 6, 1542, referring to the king's former
injunctions for the same purpose, directs a large Bible to be set up in
every parish church. But, next year, the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner
prevailing over Cranmer, Henry retraced a part of his steps; and the act
34 H. 8, c. 1. forbids the sale of Tindal's "false translation," and the
reading of the Bible in churches, or by yeomen, women, and other
incapable persons. The popish bishops, well aware how much turned on
this general liberty of reading the Scriptures, did all in their power
to discredit the new version. Gardiner made a list of about one hundred
words which he thought unfit to be translated, and which, in case of an
authorised version (whereof the clergy in convocation had reluctantly
admitted the expediency), ought, in his opinion, to be left in Latin.
Tindal's translation may, I apprehend, be reckoned the basis of that now
in use, but has undergone several corrections before the last. It has
been a matter of dispute whether it were made from the original
languages or from the Vulgate. Hebrew and even Greek were very little
known in England at that time.
The edition of 1537, called Matthews's Bible, printed by Grafton,
contains marginal notes reflecting on the corruptions of popery. These
it was thought expedient to suppress in that of 1539, commonly called
Cranmer's Bible, as having been revised by him, and in later editions.
In all these editions of Henry's reign, though the version is properly
Tindal's, there are, as I am informed, considerable variations and
amendments. Thus, in Cranmer's Bible, the word _ecclesia_ is always
rendered congregation, instead of church; either as the primary meaning,
or, more probably, to point out that the laity had a share in the
government of a Christian society.
[117] Burnet, 318; Strype's _Life of Parker_, 18; Collier (187) is of
course much scandalised. In his view of things, it had been better to
give up the Reformation entirely, than to suffer one reflection on the
clergy. These dramatic satires on that order had also an effect in
promoting the Reformation in Holland. Brandt's _History of Reformation
in Low Countries_, vol. i. p. 128.
[118] I can hardly avoid doubting, whether Edward VI.'s journal,
published in the second volume of Burnet, be altogether his own; because
it is strange for a boy of ten years old to write with the precise
brevity of a man of business. Yet it is hard to say how far an
intercourse with able men on serious subjects may force a royal plant of
such natural vigour; and his letters to his young friend Barnaby
Fitzpatrick, published by H. Walpole in 1774, are quite unlike the style
of a boy. One could wish this journal not to be genuine; for the manner
in which he speaks of both his uncles' executions does not show a good
heart. Unfortunately, however, there is a letter extant, of the king to
Fitzpatrick, which must be genuine, and is in the same strain. He
treated his sister Mary harshly about her religion, and had, I suspect,
too much Tudor blood in his veins. It is certain that he was a very
extraordinary boy, or, as Cardan calls him, monstrificus puellus; and
the reluctance with which he yielded, on the solicitations of Cranmer,
to sign the warrant for burning John Boucher, is as much to his honour,
as it is against the archbishop's.
[119] The litany had been translated into English in 1542. Burnet, i.
331; Collier, III, where it may be read, not much differing from that
now in use. It was always held out by our church, when the object was
conciliation, that the liturgy was essentially the same with the
mass-book. Strype's _Annals_, ii. 39; Hollingshed, iii, 921 (4to
edition).
[120] It was observed, says Strype, ii. 79, that where images were left
there was most contest, and most peace where they were all sheer pulled
down, as they were in some places.
[121] Collier, p. 257, enters into a vindication of the practice, which
appears to have prevailed in the church from the second century. It was
defended in general by the nonjurors, and the whole school of Andrews.
But, independently of its wanting the authority of Scripture, which the
reformers set up exclusively of all tradition, it contradicted the
doctrine of justification by mere faith, in the strict sense which they
affixed to that tenet. See preamble of the act for dissolution of
chantries, 1 Edw. 6, c. 14.
[122] Collier, p. 248, descants, in the true spirit of a high churchman,
on the importance of confession. This also, as is well known, is one of
the points on which his party disagreed with the generality of
protestants.
[123] Nostra sententia est, says Luther, _apud_ Burnet, 111, Appendix,
194, corpus ita cum pane, seu in pane esse, ut revera cum pane
manducetur, et quemcunque motum vel actionem panis habet, eundem et
corpus Christi.
[124] "Bucer thought, that for avoiding contention, and for maintaining
peace and quietness in the church, somewhat more ambiguous words should
be used, that might have a respect to both persuasions concerning the
presence. But Martyr was of another judgment, and affected to speak of
the sacrament with all plainness and perspicuity." Strype, ii. 121. The
truth is, that there were but two opinions at bottom as to this main
point of the controversy; nor in the nature of things was it possible
that there should be more; for what can be predicated concerning a body,
in its relation to a given space, but presence and absence?
[125] Burnet, ii. 105, App. 216; Strype, ii. 121, 208; Collier, etc. The
Calvinists certainly did not own a local presence in the elements. It is
the artifice of modern Romish writers, Dr. Milner, Mr. C. Butler, etc.,
to disguise the incompatibility of their tenets with those of the church
of England on this, as they do on all other topics of controversy, by
representing her as maintaining an actual, incomprehensible presence of
Christ's body in the consecrated elements; which was never meant to be
asserted in any authorised exposition of faith; though in the
seventeenth century it was held by many distinguished churchmen. See the
27th, 28th, and 29th articles of religion. An eminent living writer, who
would be as useful as he is agreeable, if he could bring himself to
write with less heat and haste, says, that at Elizabeth's accession,
among other changes, "the language of the article which affirmed a real
presence was so framed as to allow latitude of belief for those who were
persuaded of an exclusive one." Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. ii.
p. 247. The real presence was not affirmed, but denied, in the original
draft; and as to what Mr. S. calls "an exclusive one" (that is,
transubstantiation, if the words have any meaning), it is positively
rejected in the amended article.
[126] It appears to have been common for the clergy, by licence from
their bishops, to retain concubines, who were, Collier says, for the
most part their wives. P. 262. But I do not clearly understand in what
the distinction could have consisted; for it seems unlikely that
marriages of priests were ever solemnised at so late a period; or if
they were, they were invalid.
[127] Stat. 2 and 3 Edw. VI. c. 21; 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 12; Burnet, 89.
[128] 2 Strype, 53. Latimer pressed the necessity of expelling these
temporising conformists.--"Out with them all! I require it in God's
behalf: make them _quondams_, all the pack of them." _Id._ 204; 2
Burnet, 143.
[129] Burnet, iii. 190, 196. "The use of the old religion," says Paget,
in remonstrating with Somerset on his rough treatment of some of the
gentry, and partiality to the commons, "is forbidden by a law, and the
use of the new is not yet printed in the stomachs of eleven out of
twelve parts of the realm, whatever countenance men make outwardly to
please them in whom they see the power resteth." Strype, ii. Appendix,
H.H. This seems rather to refer to the upper classes, than to the whole
people. But at any rate it was an exaggeration of the fact, the
protestants being certainly in a much greater proportion. Paget was the
adviser of the scheme of sending for German troops in 1549, which,
however, was in order to quell a seditious spirit in the nation, not by
any means wholly founded upon religious grounds. Strype, xi. 169.
[130] 2 Edward 6, c. 1; Strype, xi. 81.
[131] 37 H. 8, c. 2; 1 Edw. 6, c. 14; Strype, ii. 63; Burnet, etc.
Cranmer, as well as the catholic bishops, protested against this act,
well knowing how little regard would be paid to its intention. In the
latter part of the young king's reign, as he became more capable of
exerting his own power, he endowed, as is well known, several excellent
foundations.
[132] Strype, Burnet, Collier, _passim_; Harmer's _Specimens_, 100. Sir
Philip Hobby, our minister in Germany, writes to the Protector in 1548,
that the foreign protestants thought our bishops too rich, and advises
him to reduce them to a competent living; he particularly recommends his
taking away all the prebends in England. Strype, 88. These counsels, and
the acts which they prompted, disgust us, from the spirit of rapacity
they breathe. Yet it might be urged with some force that the enormous
wealth of the superior ecclesiastics had been the main cause of those
corruptions which it was sought to cast away, and that most of the
dignitaries were very averse to the new religion. Even Cranmer had
written some years before to Cromwell, deprecating the establishment of
any prebends out of the conventual estates, and speaking of the
collegiate clergy as an idle, ignorant, and gormandising race, who
might, without any harm, be extinguished along with the regulars.
Burnet, iii. 141. But the gross selfishness of the great men in Edward's
reign justly made him anxious to save what he could for a church that
seemed on the brink of absolute ruin. Collier mentions a characteristic
circumstance. So great a quantity of church plate had been stolen, that
a commission was appointed to enquire into the facts, and compel its
restitution. Instead of this, the commissioners found more left than
they thought sufficient, and seized the greater part to the king's use.
[133] They declared, in the famous protestation of Spire, which gave
them the name of Protestants, that their preachers having confuted the
mass by passages of Scripture, they could not permit their subjects to
go thither; since it would afford a bad example, to suffer two sorts of
service, directly opposite to each other, in their churches. Schmidt,
_Hist. des Allemands_, vi. 394, vii. 24.
[134] Stat. 2 and 3 Edw. 6, c. 1; Strype's _Cranmer_, p. 233.
[135] Burnet, 192. Somerset had always allowed her to exercise her
religion, though censured for this by Warwick, who died himself a
papist, but had pretended to fall in with the young king's prejudices.
Her ill treatment was subsequent to the protector's overthrow. It is to
be observed that, in her father's life, she had acknowledged his
supremacy, and the justice of her mother's divorce. 1 Strype, 285; 2
Burnet, 241; Lingard, vi. 326. It was of course by intimidation; but
that excuse might be made for others. Cranmer is said to have persuaded
Henry not to put her to death, which we must in charity hope she did not
know.
[136] When Joan Boucher was condemned, she said to her judges, "It was
not long ago since you burned Anne Askew for a piece of bread, and yet
came yourselves soon after to believe and profess the same doctrine for
which you burned her; and now you will needs burn me for a piece of
flesh, and in the end you will come to believe this also when you have
read the Scriptures and understand them." Strype, ii. 214.
[137] Gardiner had some virtues, and entertained sounder notions of the
civil constitution of England than his adversaries. In a letter to Sir
John Godsalve, giving his reasons for refusing compliance with the
injunctions issued by the council to the ecclesiastical visitors (which,
Burnet says, does him more honour than anything else in his life), he
dwells on the king's wanting power to command anything contrary to
common law, or to a statute, and brings authorities for this. Burnet,
ii. Append. 112. See also Lingard, vi. 387, for another instance. Nor
was this regard to the constitution displayed only when out of the
sunshine. For in the next reign he was against despotic counsels, of
which an instance has been given in the last chapter. His conduct,
indeed, with respect to the Spanish connection, is equivocal. He was
much against the marriage at first, and took credit to himself for the
securities exacted in the treaty with Philip, and established by
statute. Burnet, ii. 267. But afterwards, if we may trust Noailles, he
fell in with the Spanish party in the council, and even suggested to
parliament that the queen should have the same power as her father to
dispose of the succession by will. _Ambassades de Noailles_, iii. 153,
etc., etc. Yet according to Dr. Lingard, on the imperial ambassador's
authority, he saved Elizabeth's life against all the council. The
article GARDINER, in the _Biographia Britannica_, contains an elaborate
and partial apology, at great length; and the historian just quoted has
of course said all he could in favour of one who laboured so strenuously
for the extirpation of the northern heresy. But he was certainly not an
honest man, and had been active in Henry's reign against his real
opinions.
Even if the ill treatment of Gardiner and Bonner by Edward's council
could be excused (and the latter by his rudeness might deserve some
punishment), what can be said for the imprisonment of the bishops Heath
and Day, worthy and moderate men, who had gone a great way with the
reformation, but objected to the removal of altars, an innovation by no
means necessary, and which should have been deferred till the people had
grown ripe for further change? Mr. Southey says, "Gardiner and Bonner
were deprived of their sees and imprisoned: but _no rigour was used
towards them_." _Book of the Church_, ii. 111. Liberty and property
being trifles!
[138] The doctrines of the English church were set forth in 42 articles,
drawn up, as is generally believed, by Cranmer and Ridley, with the
advice of Bucer and Martyr, and perhaps of Cox. The three last of these,
condemning some novel opinions, were not renewed under Elizabeth, and a
few other variations were made; but upon the whole there is little
difference, and none perhaps in those tenets which have been most the
object of discussion. See the original Articles in Burnet, ii. App. N.
55. They were never confirmed by a convocation or a parliament, but
imposed by the king's supremacy on all the clergy, and on the
universities. His death however, ensued before they could be actually
subscribed.
[139] Strype's _Cranmer_, Appendix, p. 9. I am sorry to find a
respectable writer inclining to vindicate Cranmer in this protestation,
which Burnet admits to agree better with the maxims of the casuists than
with the prelate's sincerity: Todd's Introduction to _Cranmer's Defence
of the True Doctrine of the Sacrament_ (1825), p. 40. It is of no
importance to enquire, whether the protest were made publicly or
privately. Nothing can possibly turn upon this. It was, on either
supposition, unknown to the promisee, the pope at Rome. The question is,
whether, having obtained the bulls from Rome on an express stipulation
that he should take a certain oath, he had a right to offer a
limitation, not explanatory, but utterly inconsistent with it? We are
sure that Cranmer's views and intentions, which he very soon carried
into effect, were irreconcilable with any sort of obedience to the pope;
and if, under all the circumstances, his conduct was justifiable, there
would be an end of all promissory obligations whatever.
[140] The character of Cranmer is summed up in no unfair manner by Mr.
C. Butler, _Memoirs of English Catholics_, vol. i. p. 139; except that
his obtaining from Anne Boleyn an acknowledgment of her supposed
pre-contract of marriage, having proceeded from motives of humanity,
ought not to incur much censure, though the sentence of nullity was a
mere mockery of law.--Poor Cranmer was compelled to subscribe not less
than six recantations. Strype (iii. 232) had the integrity to publish
all these, which were not fully known before.
[141] Burnet, ii. 6.
[142] There are two curious entries in the Lords' Jour., 14th and 18th
of November 1549, which point out the origin of the new code of
ecclesiastical law mentioned in the next note: "Hodie questi sunt
episcopi, contemni se a plebe, audere autem nihil pro potestate sua
administrare, eo quod per publicas quasdam denuntiationes quas
proclamationes vocant, sublata esset penitus sua jurisdictio, adeo ut
neminem judicio sistere, nullum scelus punire, neminem ad aedem sacram
cogere, neque caetera id genus munia ad eos pertinentia exequi auderent.
Haec querela ab omnibus proceribus non sine moerore audita est; et ut
quam citissime huic malo subveniretur, injunctum est episcopis ut
formulam aliquam statuti hac de re scriptam traderent: quae si consilio
postea praelecta omnibus ordinibus probaretur, pro lege omnibus
sententiis sanciri posset.
"18 November. Hodie lecta est billa pro jurisdictione episcoporum et
aliorum ecclesiasticorum, quae cum proceribus, _eo quod episcopi nimis
sibi arrogare viderentur_, non placeret, visum est deligere prudentes
aliquot viros utriusque ordinis, qui habita matura tantae rei inter se
deliberatione, referrent toti consilio quid pro ratione temporis et rei
necessitate in hac causa agi expediret." Accordingly, the Lords appoint
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Ely, Durham, and Lichfield,
Lords Dorset, Wharton, and Stafford, with Chief Justice Montague.
[143] It had been enacted, 3 Edw. 6, c. 11, that thirty-two
commissioners, half clergy, half lay, should be appointed to draw up a
collection of new canons. But these, according to Strype, ii. 303
(though I do not find it in the act), might be reduced to eight, without
preserving the equality of orders; and of those nominated in November
1551, five were ecclesiastics, three laymen. The influence of the former
shows itself in the collection, published with the title of _Reformatio
Legum Ecclesiasticum_, and intended as a complete code of protestant
canon law. This was referred for revisal to a new commission; but the
king's death ensued, and the business was never again taken up. Burnet,
ii. 197; Collier, 326. The Latin style is highly praised; Cheke and
Haddon, the most elegant scholars of that age, having been concerned in
it. This however is of small importance. The canons are founded on a
principle current among the clergy, that a rigorous discipline, enforced
by church censures and the aid of the civil power, is the best safeguard
of a christian commonwealth against vice. But it is easy to perceive
that its severity would never have been endured in this country, and
that this was the true reason why it was laid aside; not, according to
the improbable refinement with which Warburton has furnished Hurd,
because the old canon law was thought more favourable to the prerogative
of the Crown. Compare Warburton's _Letters to Hurd_, p. 192, with the
latter's _Moral and Political Dialogues_, p. 308, 4th edit.
The canons trench in several places on the known province of the common
law, by assigning specific penalties and forfeitures to offences, as in
the case of adultery; and though it is true that this was all subject to
the confirmation of parliament, yet the lawyers would look with their
usual jealousy on such provisions in ecclesiastical canons. But the
great sin of this protestant legislation is its extension of the name
and penalties of heresy to the wilful denial of any part of the
authorised articles of faith. This is clear from the first and second
titles. But it has been doubted whether capital punishments for this
offence were intended to be preserved. Burnet, always favourable to the
reformers, asserts that they were laid aside. Collier and Lingard, whose
bias is the other way, maintain the contrary. There is, it appears to
me, some difficulty in determining this. That all persons denying any
one of the articles might be turned over to the secular power is
evident. Yet it rather seems by one passage in the title, de judiciis
contra haereses, c. 10, that infamy and civil disability were the only
punishments intended to be kept up, except in case of the denial of the
christian religion. For if a heretic were, as a matter of course, to be
burned, it seems needless to provide, as in this chapter, that he should
be incapable of being a witness, or of making a will. Dr. Lingard, on
the other hand, says, "It regulates the delivery of the obstinate
heretic to the civil magistrate, that he may _suffer death_ according to
law." The words to which he refers are these: Cum sic penitus insederit
error, et tam alte radices egerit, ut nec sententia quidem
excommunicationis ad veritatem reus inflecti possit, tum consumptis
omnibus aliis remediis, ad extremum ad civiles magistratus ablegetur
_puniendus_. _Id._ tit. c. 4.
It is generally best, where the words are at all ambiguous, to give the
reader the power of judging for himself. But I by no means pretend that
Dr. Lingard is mistaken. On the contrary, the language of this passage
leads to a strong suspicion that the rigour of popish persecution was
intended to remain, especially as the writ de haeretico comburendo was in
force by law, and there is no hint of taking it away. Yet it seems
monstrous to conceive that the denial of predestination (which by the
way is asserted in this collection, tit. de haeresibus, c. 22, with a
shade more of Calvinism than in the articles) was to subject any one to
be burned alive. And on the other hand, there is this difficulty, that
Arianism, Pelagianism, popery, anabaptism, are all put on the same
footing; so that, if we deny that the papist or free-willer was to be
burned, we must deny the same of the anti-trinitarian, which contradicts
the principle and practice of that age. Upon the whole, I cannot form a
decided opinion as to this matter. Dr. Lingard does not hesitate to say,
"Cranmer and his associates perished in the flames which they had
prepared to kindle for the destruction of their opponents."
Upon further consideration, I incline to suspect that the temporal
punishment of heresy was intended to be fixed by act of parliament; and
probably with various degrees, which will account for the indefinite
word "puniendus."
Before I quit these canons, one mistake of Dr. Lingard's may be
corrected. He says that divorces were allowed by them not only for
adultery, but cruelty, desertion, and _incompatibility of temper_. But
the contrary may be clearly shown, from tit. de matrimonio, c. 11, and
tit. de divortiis, c. 12. Divorce was allowed for something more than
incompatibility of temper; namely, _capitales inimicitiae_, meaning, as I
conceive, attempts by one party on the other's life. In this respect,
their scheme of a very important branch of social law seems far better
than our own. Nothing can be more absurd than our modern _privilegia_,
our acts of parliament to break the bond between an adulteress and her
husband. Nor do I see how we can justify the denial of redress to women
in every case of adultery and desertion. It does not follow that the
marriage tie ought to be dissolved as easily as it is, at least by the
rich, in the Lutheran states of Germany.
[144] Strype, _passim_. Burnet, ii. 154; iii. Append. 200; Collier, 294,
303.
[145] Strype, Burnet. The former is more accurate.
[146] Burnet, 237, 246; 3 Strype, 10, 341. No part of England suffered
so much in the persecution.
[147] _Ambassades de Noailles_, v. ii. _passim_. 3 Strype, 100.
[148] Strype, iii. 107. He reckons the emigrants at 800. _Life of
Cranmer_, 314. Of these the most illustrious was the Duchess of Suffolk,
first cousin of the queen. In the parliament of 1555, a bill
sequestering the property of "the Duchess of Suffolk and others,
contemptuously gone over the seas," was rejected by the Commons on the
third reading. Journals, 6th December.
It must not be understood that all the aristocracy were supple
hypocrites, though they did not expose themselves voluntarily to
prosecution. Noailles tells us that the Earls of Oxford and
Westmoreland, and Lord Willoughby, were censured by the council _for
religion_; and it was thought that the former would lose his title (more
probably his hereditary office of chamberlain), which would be conferred
on the Earl of Pembroke, v. 319. Michele, the Venetian ambassador, in
his Relazione del Stato d'Inghilterra, Lansdowne MSS. 840, does not
speak favourably of the general affection towards popery. "The English
in general," he says, "would turn Jews or Turks if their sovereign
pleased; but the restoration of the abbey lands by the crown keeps alive
a constant fear among those who possess them."--Fol. 176. This
restitution of church lands in the hands of the Crown cost the queen
L60,000 a year of revenue.
[149] Parker had extravagantly reckoned the number of these at 12,000,
which Burnet reduces to 3000, vol. iii. 226. But upon this computation
they formed a very considerable body on the protestant side. Burnet's
calculation, however, is made by assuming the ejected ministers of the
diocese of Norwich to have been in the ratio of the whole; which, from
the eminent protestantism of that district, is not probable; and Dr.
Lingard, on Wharton's authority, who has taken his ratio from the
diocese of Canterbury, thinks they did not amount to more than about
1500.
[150] Burnet, ii. 298; iii. 245. But see Philips's _Life of Pole_, sect.
ix. _contra_; and Ridley's answer to this, p. 272. In fact, no scheme of
religion would on the whole have been so acceptable to the nation, as
that which Henry left established, consisting chiefly of what was called
catholic in doctrine, but free from the grosser abuses and from all
connection with the see of Rome. Arbitrary and capricious as that king
was, he carried the people along with him, as I believe, in all great
points, both as to what he renounced, and what he retained. Michele
(Relazione, etc.) is of this opinion.
[151] No one of our historians has been so severe on Mary's reign,
except on a religious account, as Carte, on the authority of the letters
of Noailles. Dr. Lingard, though with these before him, has softened and
suppressed, till this queen appears honest and even amiable. A man of
sense should be ashamed of such partiality to his sect. Admitting that
the French ambassador had a temptation to exaggerate the faults of a
government wholly devoted to Spain, it is manifest that Mary's reign was
inglorious, her capacity narrow, and her temper sanguinary; that,
although conscientious in some respects, she was as capable of
dissimulation as her sister, and of breach of faith as her husband; that
she obstinately and wilfully sacrificed her subjects' affections and
interests to a misplaced and discreditable attachment; and that the
words with which Carte has concluded the character of this unlamented
sovereign, though little pleasing to men of Dr. Lingard's profession,
are perfectly just: "Having reduced the nation to the brink of ruin, she
left it, by her seasonable decease, to be restored by her admirable
successor to its ancient prosperity and glory." I fully admit, at the
same time, that Dr. Lingard has proved Elizabeth to have been as
dangerous a prisoner, as she afterwards found the Queen of Scots.
[152] Strype, ii. 17; Burnet, iii. 263, and Append. 285, where there is
a letter from the king and queen to Bonner, as if even he wanted
excitement to prosecute heretics. The number who suffered death by fire
in this reign is reckoned by Fox at 284, by Speed at 277, and by Lord
Burghley at 290. Strype, iii. 473. These numbers come so near to each
other, that they may be presumed also to approach the truth. But Carte,
on the authority of one of Noailles's letters, thinks many more were put
to death than our martyrologists have discovered. And the prefacer to
Ridley's _Treatise de Coena Domini_, supposed to be Bishop Grindal, says
that 800 suffered in this manner for religion. Burnet, ii. 364. I
incline, however, to the lower statements.
[153] Burnet makes a very just observation on the cruelties of this
period, that "they raised that horror in the whole nation, that there
seems ever since that time such an abhorrence to that religion to be
derived down from father to son, that it is no wonder an aversion so
deeply rooted and raised upon such grounds, does upon every new
provocation or jealousy or returning to it break out in most violent and
convulsive symptoms."--P. 338. "Delicta majorum immeritus luis,
_Romane_." But those who would diminish this aversion, and prevent these
convulsive symptoms, will do better by avoiding for the future either
such panegyrics on Mary and her advisers, or such insidious extenuations
of her persecution as we have lately read, and which do not raise a
favourable impression of their sincerity in the principles of toleration
to which they profess to have been converted.
Noailles, who, though an enemy to Mary's government, must, as a
catholic, be reckoned an unsuspicious witness, remarkably confirms the
account given by Fox, and since by all our writers, of the death of
Rogers, the proto-martyr, and its effect on the people. "Ce jour d'huy a
este faite la confirmation de 'alliance entre le pape et ce royaume par
un sacrifice publique et solemnel d'un docteur predicant nomme Rogerus,
le quel a ete brule tout vif pour estre Lutherien; mais il est mort
persistant en son opinion. A quoy le plus grand partie de ce peuple a
pris tel plaisir, qu'ils n'ont eu crainte de luy faire plusieurs
acclamations pour comforter son courage; et meme ses enfans y on
assiste, le consolant de telle facon qu'il semblait qu'on le menait aux
noces."--V. 173.
[154] Strype, iii. 285.