Mary had restored Catholic orthodoxy, and her passion for Philip had
been gratified. To complete her work and her happiness, it remained to
bring back her subjects to the bosom of the Catholic Church. Reginald
Pole had by this time awoke from some part of his delusions. He had
persuaded himself that he had but to appear with a pardon in his hand
to be welcomed to his country with acclamation: he had ascertained
that the English people were very indifferent to the pardon, and that
his own past treasons had created especial objections to himself. Even
the queen herself had grown impatient with him. He had fretted her
with his importunities; his presence in Flanders had chafed the
parliament, and made her marriage more difficult; while he was
supposed to share with the English nobles their jealousy of a foreign
sovereign. So general was this last impression about him, that his
nephew, Lord Stafford's son, who was one of the refugees, went to seek
him in the expectation of countenance and sympathy: and, farther, he
had been in correspondence with Gardiner, and was believed to be at
the bottom of the chancellor's religious indiscretions.[347] Thus his
anxiety to be in England found nowhere any answering desire; and
Renard, who dreaded his want of wisdom, never missed an opportunity of
throwing difficulties in the way. In the spring of 1554 Pole had gone
to Paris, where, in an atmosphere of so violent opposition to the
marriage, he had not thought it necessary to speak in favour of it.
The words which Dr. Wotton heard that he had used were reported to the
emperor; and, at last, Renard went so far as to suggest that the
scheme of sending him to England had been set on foot at Rome by the
French party in the Consistory, with a view of provoking insurrection
and thwarting the Imperial policy.[348]
[Footnote 347: Renard.]
[Footnote 348: Que pourroit estre l'on auroit mis
en avant au consistoire cette commission par
affection particuliere pour plustot nuire, que
servir aux consciences; attendu qu'ilz sont
partiaulx pour les princes Chrestiens, et souvent
meslent les choses seculieres et prophanes avec les
conseils divins et ecclesiastiques.--Renard to
Philip: _Granvelle Papers_, vol. iv.]
{p.148} The emperor, taught by his old experiences of Pole,
acquiesced in the views of his ambassador. If England was to be
brought back to its allegiance, the negotiation would require a
delicacy of handling for which the present legate was wholly unfit;
and Charles wrote at last to the pope to suggest that the commission
should be transferred to a more competent person. Impatient language
had been heard of late from the legate's lips, contrasting the
vexations of the world with the charms of devotional retirement. To
soften the harshness of the blow, the emperor said that he understood
Pole was himself weary of his office, and wished to escape into
privacy.
The respect of Julius for the legate's understanding was not much
larger than the emperor's; but he would not pronounce the recall
without giving him an opportunity of explaining himself. Cardinal
Morone wrote to him to inquire whether it was true that he had thought
of retirement; he informed him of the emperor's complaints; and, to
place his resignation in the easiest light (while pointing, perhaps,
to the propriety of his offering it), he hinted at Pole's personal
unpopularity, and at the danger to which he would be exposed by going
to England.
But the legate could not relinquish the passionate desire of his life;
while, as to the marriage, he was, after all, unjustly suspected. He
requested Morone, in reply, to assure the pope that, much as he loved
retirement, he loved duty more. He appealed to the devotion of his
life to the church as an evidence of his zeal and sincerity; and,
although he knew, he said, that God could direct events at his will
and dispense with the service of men, yet, so long as he had strength
to be of use, he would spend it in his Master's cause. In going to
England he was venturing upon a stormy sea; he knew it well;[349] but,
whatever befell him, his life was in God's hands.
[Footnote 349: He begged Morone not to suppose him
ignorant, "quale sia il mare d'Inghilterra nel
quale io ho da navigare et che fortuna et travagli
potrei haver a sostinere per condurre la navi in
porto."--Pole to Morone: _Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol.
iv. I have not seen Morone's first letter. The
contents are to be gathered, however, from Pole's
answer, and from a second letter of apology which
Morone wrote two months later.]
A fortnight after (May 25), he wrote again, replying more elaborately
to the emperor's charges. It was true, he admitted, that in his
letters to the queen he had dwelt more upon her religious duties than
upon her marriage: it was true that he had been backward in his
demonstrations of pleasure, because he was a person of few words. But,
so far from disapproving of that marriage, he looked upon it as the
distinct work of God; {p.149} and when his nephew had come with
complaints to him, he had forbidden him his presence. He had spoken of
the rule of a stranger in England as likely to be a lesson to the
people; but he had meant only that, as their disasters had befallen
them through their own king Henry, their deliverance would be wrought
for them by one who was not their own. When the late parliament had
broken up without consenting to the restoration of union, he had
consoled the queen with assuring her that he saw in it the hand of
Providence; the breach of a marriage between an English king and a
Spanish princess had caused the wound which a renewed marriage of a
Spanish king and an English queen was to heal.[350]
[Footnote 350: Scrissi alla Regina non la volendo
contristare condolermi di cio, che lo interpretava
et intendeva che questa tardita non venisse tanto
da lei quanto delle Providentia di Dio, il qual
habbia ordinato che si come per discordia
matrimoniale d'un Re Inglese et d'una Regina
Hispana fu levata l'obedientia della chiesa de quel
Regno cosi dalla concordia matrimoniale d'un Re
Hispano et d'una Regina Inglese ella vi doverse
ritornare.--Pole to Morone: _Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol.
iv.]
The defence was elaborate, and, on the whole, may have been tolerably
true. The pope would not take the trouble to read it, or even to hear
it read;[351] but the substance, as related to him by Morone,
convinced him that the emperor's accusations were exaggerated: to
recall a legate at the instance of a secular sovereign was an
undesirable precedent;[352] and the commission was allowed to stand.
Julius wrote to Charles, assuring him that he was mistaken in the
legate's feelings, leaving the emperor at the same time, however, full
power to keep him in Flanders or to send him to England at his own
discretion.
[Footnote 351: E benche S. Sanctita non havesse
patienza secundo l'ordinario suo di leggere o di
udir la lettera, nondimeno le dissi talmente la
summa che nostro restare satisfattissima, e disse
esser piu che certa che quella non haveva dato
causa ne all' Imperatore ne ad altri d'usar con lei
termini cosi extravaganti.--Morone to Pole:
Burnet's _Collectanea_.]
[Footnote 352: Ibid.]
Pole was to continue the instrument of the reconciliation; the
conditions under which the reconciliation could take place were less
easy to settle. The popes, whose powers are unlimited where the
exercise of them is convenient for the interests of the Holy See, have
uniformly fallen back upon their inability where they have been called
on to make sacrifices. The canons of the church forbade, under any
pretext, the alienation of ecclesiastical property; and until Julius
could relinquish _ex animo_ all intention of disturbing the lay
holders of the English abbey lands, there was not a chance that the
question of his supremacy would be so much as entertained by either
Lords or Commons.
{p.150} The vague powers originally granted to the legate were not
satisfactory; and Pole himself, who was too sincere a believer in the
Roman doctrines to endure that worldly objections should stand in the
way of the salvation of souls, wrote himself to the Holy See,
entreating that his commission might be enlarged. The pope in
appearance consented. In a second brief, dated June 28th, he extended
the legate's dispensing powers to real property as well as personal,
and granted him general permission to determine any unforeseen
difficulties which might arise.[353] Ormaneto, a confidential agent,
carried the despatch to Flanders, and on Ormaneto's arrival, the
legate, believing that his embarrassments were at last at an end, sent
him on to the Bishop of Arras, to entreat that the perishing souls of
the English people might now be remembered. The pope had given way;
the queen was happily married, and the reasons for his detention were
at an end.[354]
[Footnote 353: Powers granted by the Pope to
Cardinal Pole: Burnet's _Collectanea_.]
[Footnote 354: Charles V. to Renard: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv.]
Both Arras and the emperor, however, thought more of Philip's security
than of perishing souls. Arras, who understood the ways of the Vatican
better than the legate, desired that, before any steps were taken, he
might be favoured with a copy of these enlarged powers. He wished to
know whether the question of the property was fairly relinquished to
the secular powers in England, and whether the church had finally
washed its hands of it;[355] at all events, he must examine the brief.
On inspection, the new commission was found to contain an enabling
clause indeed, as extensive as words could make it; but the See of
Rome reserved to itself the right of sanctioning the settlement after
it had been made;[356] and the reservation had been purposely made, in
order to leave the pope free to act as he might please at a future
time. Morone, writing to Pole a fortnight after the date of the brief,
told him that his holiness was still unable to come to a
resolution;[357] while Ormaneto said openly to Arras, that, although
the pope would be as moderate as possible, yet his moderation must not
be carried so far as to {p.151} encourage the rest of Christendom in
an evil example. Catholics must not be allowed to believe that they
could appropriate church property without offence, nor must the Holy
See appear to be purchasing by concessions the submission of its
rebellious subjects.[358]
[Footnote 355: Che gran differenza sarebbe se fosse
stata commessa la cosa o al S. Cardinale, o alli
Serenissimi Principi.--Ormaneto to Priuli, July 31:
Burnet's _Collectanea_.]
[Footnote 356: Salvo tamen in his, in quibus
propter rerum magnitudinem et gravitatem haec sancta
sedes merito tibi videretur consulenda, nostro et
praefatae sedis beneplacito et confirmatione.--Powers
granted by the Pope to Cardinal Pole: Ibid.]
[Footnote 357: Nondimeno non si risolveva in tutto,
com anco non si risolveva nella materia delli beni
ecclesiastici, sopra la qual sua Sanctita ha
parlato molte volte variamente.--Morone to Pole,
July 13: Ibid.]
[Footnote 358: Il scauroit bien user de moderation
quant aux biens occupez; mais que toutesfois il
fauldroit que se fust de sorte que la reste de la
Chrestiente n'en print malvais exemple; et
signamment que aucuns Catholiques qui tiennent
biens ecclesiastiques soubz leur main ne
voulsissent pretendre d'eulx approprier avec cest
exemple; et que de vouloir laisser les biens a
ceulx qui les occupent, il ne conviendroit pour ce
qu'il sembleroit que ce seroit racheter, comme a
deniers comptans l'auctorite du siege apostolique
en ce coustel-la. The Emperor to Renard: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. pp. 282, 283.]
This language was not even ambiguous; Pole was desired to wait till an
answer could be received from England; and the emperor wrote to Renard
(August 3), desiring him to lay the circumstances before the queen and
his son. He could believe, he said, that the legate himself meant
well, but he had not the same confidence in those who were urging him
forward, and the pope had given no authority for haste or precipitate
movements.[359]
[Footnote 359: Nous scavons que le diet Cardinal
n'a commission de presser si chauldement en cette
affaire--ains avons heu soubz main advertissement
du nunce propre de sa Sainctete que la resolution
de la commission dudict Cardinal est que toutes
choses se traictent comm'il nous semblera pour le
mieulx et qu'il tienne cecy pour regle.--_Granv.
Papers_, vol. iv.]
The emperor's letter was laid before a council of state at Windsor, on
the 6th of August; and the council agreed with Charles that the
legate's anxieties could not for the present be gratified. He was
himself attainted, and parliament had shown no anxiety that the
attainder should be removed. The reimposition of the pope's authority
was a far more ticklish matter than the restoration of orthodoxy,[360]
and the temper of the people was uncertain. The cardinal had, perhaps,
intelligence with persons in England of a suspicious and dangerous
kind, and the execution of his commission must depend on the pleasure
of the next parliament. He was not to suppose that he might introduce
changes in the constitution of the country by the authority of a papal
commission, or try experiments which might put in peril the sacred
person of the prince.[361]
[Footnote 360: Trop plus chastolleux que celuy de
la vraye religion.--Renard to the Emperor: Ibid. p.
287.]
[Footnote 361: Ibid.]
Once more the cup of hope was dashed to the ground, and Reginald Pole
was sent back to his monastery at Dhilinghen like a child unfit to be
trusted with a dangerous plaything. In times of trial his pen was his
refuge, and in an appeal to Philip he poured out his characteristic
protest.
{p.152} "For a whole year," he wrote, "I have been now knocking at
the door of that kingdom, and no person will answer, no person will
ask, Who is there? It is one who has endured twenty years of exile
that the partner of your throne should not be excluded from her
rights, and I come in the name of the vicar of the King of kings, the
Shepherd of mankind. Peter knocks at your door; Peter himself. The
door is open to all besides. Why is it closed to Peter? Why does not
that nation make haste now to do Peter reverence? Why does it leave
him escaped from Herod's prison, knocking?
"Strange, too, that this is the house of Mary. Can it be Mary that is
so slow to open? True, indeed, it is, that when Mary's damsel heard
the voice she opened not the door for joy; she ran and told Mary. But
Mary came with those that were with her in the house; and though at
first she doubted, yet, when Peter continued knocking, she opened the
door; she took him in, she regarded not the danger, although Herod was
yet alive and was king.
"Is it joy which now withholds Mary, or is it fear? She rejoices, that
I know, but she also fears. Yet why should Mary fear now when Herod is
dead? The providence of God permitted her to fear for awhile, because
God desired that you, sire, who are Peter's beloved child, should
share the great work with her. Do you, therefore, teach her now to
cast her fears away. It is not I only who stand here--it is not only
Peter--Christ is here--Christ waits with me till you will open and
take him in. You who are King of England, are defender of Christ's
faith; yet, while you have the ambassadors of all other princes at
your court, you will not have Christ's ambassador; you have rejected
your Christ.
"Go on upon your way. Build on the foundation of worldly policy, and I
tell you, in Christ's words, that the rain will fall, the floods will
rise, the winds will blow, and beat upon that house, and it will fall,
and great will be the fall thereof."[362]
[Footnote 362: Pole to Philip: _Epist._ Reg. Pol.
vol. iv.]
The pleading was powerful, yet it could bear no fruits--the door could
not open till the pope pronounced the magic words which held it
closed. Neither Philip nor Mary was in a position to use violence or
force the bars.
After the ceremony at Winchester, the king and queen had gone first to
Windsor, and thence the second week in August they went to Richmond.
The entry into London was fixed for the 18th; after which, should it
pass off without disturbance, {p.153} the Spanish fleet might sail
from Southampton Water. The prince himself had as yet met with no
discourtesy; but disputes had broken out early between the English and
Spanish retinues, and petty taunts and insolences had passed among
them.[363] The prince's luggage was plundered, and the property stolen
could not be recovered nor the thieves detected. The servants of Alva
and the other lords, who preceded their masters to London, were
insulted in the streets, and women and children called after them that
they need not have brought so many things, they would be soon gone
again. The citizens refused to give them lodgings in their houses, and
the friars who had accompanied Philip were advised to disguise
themselves, so intense was the hatred against the religious
orders.[364] The council soon provided for their ordinary comforts,
but increase of acquaintance produced no improvement of feeling.
[Footnote 363: Avecques d'aultres petits
depportements de mocquerie qui croissent tous les
jours d'ung couste et d'aultre.--Noailles to the
King of France, August 1.]
[Footnote 364: Noailles, and compare Pole to
Miranda, Oct. 6: _Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol. v.]
The entry passed off tolerably. Gog and Magog stood as warders on
London Bridge, and there were the usual pageants in the city. Renard
conceived that the impression produced by Philip had been rather
favourable than otherwise; for the people had been taught to expect
some monster but partially human, and they saw instead a well-dressed
cavalier, who had learnt by this time to carry his hand to his bonnet.
Yet, although there were no open signs of ill-feeling, the day did not
end without a disagreeable incident. The conduit in Gracechurch Street
had been newly decorated: "the nine Worthies" had been painted round
the winding turret, and among them were Henry VIII. and Edward. The
first seven carried maces, swords, or pole-axes. Henry held in one
hand a sceptre, in the other he was presenting a book to his son, on
which was written _Verbum Dei_. As the train went by, the unwelcome
figure caught the eye of Gardiner. The painter was summoned, called
"knave, traitor, heretic," an enemy to the queen's Catholic
proceedings. The offensive Bible was washed out, and a pair of gloves
inserted in its place.[365]
[Footnote 365: _Chronicle of Queen Mary._
Contemporary Narrative: _MS. Harleian_, 419.]
Nor did the irritation of the people abate. The Spaniards, being
without special occupation, were seen much in the streets; and a vague
fear so magnified their numbers that four of them, it was thought,
were to be met in London for one Englishman.[366] {p.154} The halls
of the city companies were given up for their use; a fresh provocation
to people who desired to be provoked. A Spanish friar was lodged at
Lambeth, and it was said at once he was to be Archbishop of
Canterbury; at the beginning of September twelve thousand Spanish
troops were reported to be coming to "fetch the crown." Rumour and
reality inflated each other. The peers, who had collected for the
marriage, dispersed to their counties; and on the 10th of September,
Pembroke, Shrewsbury, and Westmoreland were believed to have raised a
standard of revolt at York. Frays were continually breaking out in the
streets, and there was a scandalous brawl in the cloisters at
Westminster. Brief entries in diaries and council books tell
continually of Englishmen killed, and Spaniards hanged, hanged at
Tyburn, or hanged more conspicuously at Charing Cross; and on the
12th, Noailles reported that the feeling in all classes, high and low,
was as bad as possible.
[Footnote 366: _Chronicle of Queen Mary._]
There was dread, too, that Philip was bent on drawing England into the
war. The French ambassador had been invited to be present at the entry
into London; but the invitation had been sent informally by a common
messenger not more than half an hour before the royal party were to
appear. The brief notice was intended as an affront, and only after
some days Noailles appeared at court to offer his congratulations.
When he came at last, he expressed his master's hope to Philip that
the neutrality of England would continue to be observed. Philip
answered with cold significance, that he would keep his promise and
maintain the treaties, as long as by doing so he should consult the
interest of the realm.[367]
[Footnote 367: Tant et si longuement que se seroit
l'utilite et commodite de ce dict Royaulme
d'Angleterre.--Noailles to the King of France.]
Other menacing symptoms were also showing themselves: the claim for
the pensions was spoken of as likely to be revived; the English ships
in the Channel were making the neutrality one-sided, and protecting
the Spanish and Flemish traders; and Philip, already weary of his
bride, was urging on Renard the propriety of his hastening, like an
obedient son, to the assistance of his father. Under pretence of
escort he could take with him a few thousand English cavalry and
men-at-arms, who could be used as a menace to France, and whose
presence would show the attitude which England was about to assume.
Sick, in these brief weeks, of maintaining the show of an affection
which he did not feel, and sick of a country where his friends were
insulted if he was treated respectfully himself, he was {p.155}
already panting for freedom, and eager to utilise the instruments
which he had bought so dearly.[368]
[Footnote 368: Renard to Charles V.: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. p. 294.]
Happily for the queen's peace of mind, Renard was not a man to
encourage impatience. The factions in the council were again showing
themselves; Elizabeth lay undisposed of at Woodstock. Pomfret,
Belgium, even Hungary, had been thought of as a destination for her,
and had been laid aside one after the other, in dread of the people.
If she was released, she would again be dangerous, and it was
uncertain how long Lord Howard would endure her detention. A plan
suggested by Lord Paget seemed, after all, to promise the best--to
marry her to Philibert of Savoy, and thus make use of her as a second
link to connect England with the House of Austria. But here the
difficulty would be with the queen, who in that case would have to
recognise her sister's rank and expectations.
The question should be settled before Philip left England, and he must
have faced parliament too, and, if possible, have been crowned. If he
went now, he would never come back; let him court the people advised
the keen Renard; let him play off the people against the lords; there
was ill blood between the rich and poor, let him use the opportunity.
The state of public feeling did not improve when, at the end of
September, Bonner commenced an inquisition into the conduct and
opinions of the clergy of his diocese. In every parish he appointed a
person or persons to examine whether the minister was or ever had been
married; whether, if married and separated from his wife, he continued
in secret to visit her; whether his sermons were orthodox; whether he
was a "brawler, scolder, hawker, hunter, fornicator, adulterer,
drunkard, or blasphemer;" whether he duly exhorted his parishioners to
come to mass and confession; whether he associated with heretics, or
had been suspected of associating with them; his mind, his habits, his
society, even the dress that he wore, were to be made matter of close
scrutiny.
The points of inquiry were published in a series of articles which
created an instantaneous ferment. Among the merchants they were
attributed to the king, queen, and Gardiner, and were held to be
the first step of a conspiracy against their liberties. A report
was spread at the same time that the king meditated a seizure of
the Tower; barriers were forthwith erected in the great thoroughfares
leading into the city, and no one was allowed to pass unchallenged.[369]
[Footnote 369: Renard to the Bishop of Arras: Ibid.
p. 330.]
{p.156} The Bishop of London was called to account for having
ventured so rash a step without permission of crown or council. He
replied that he was but doing his duty; the council, had he
communicated with them, would have interfered with him, and in the
execution of his office he must be governed by his own conscience.[370]
But the attitude of the city was too decided even for the stubborn
Bonner, he gave way sullenly, and suspended the execution of his
order.
[Footnote 370: Renard to the Emperor: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. p. 321.]
Worse clouds than these nevertheless had many times gathered over the
court and dispersed again. It was easy to be discontented; but when
the discontent would pass into action, there was nothing definite to
be done; and between the leading statesmen there were such large
differences of opinion, that they could not co-operate.[371] The
court, as Renard saw, could accomplish everything which they desired
with caution and prudence. The humours of the people might flame out
on a sudden if too hastily irritated, but the opposite tendencies of
parties effectually balanced each other; and even the papal difficulty
might be managed, and Pole might in time be brought over, if only
there was no precipitation, and the pope was compelled to be
reasonable.
[Footnote 371: Entre les seigneurs et gens de la
noblesse et de credit et administration, il y a
telle partialite que l'un ne se fie de
l'autre.--Ibid.]
But prudence was the first and last essential; the legate must be
content to wait, and also Philip must wait. The winter was coming on,
and the court, Renard said, was giving balls; the English and Spanish
noblemen were learning to talk with one another, and were beginning to
dance with each other's wives and daughters. The ill-feeling was
gradually abating; and, in fact, it was not to be believed that God
Almighty would have brought about so considerable a marriage without
intending that good should come of it.[372] The queen believed herself
_enceinte_, and if her hopes were well founded, a thousand causes of
restlessness would be disposed of; but Philip must not be permitted to
harass her with his impatience to be gone. She had gathered something
of his intentions, and was already pretending more uncertainty than in
her heart she felt, lest he {p.157} should make the assurance of her
prospects an excuse for leaving her. In a remarkable passage, Renard
urged the emperor on no account to encourage him in a step so
eminently injudicious, from a problematic hope of embroiling England
and France. "Let parliament meet," he said, "and pass off quietly, and
in February his highness may safely go. Irreparable injury may and
will follow, however, should he leave England before. Religion will be
overthrown, the queen's person will be in danger, and parliament will
not meet. A door will be opened for the practices of France; the
country may throw itself in self-protection on the French alliance,
and an undying hatred will be engendered between England and Spain. As
things now are, prudence and moderation are more than ever necessary;
and we must allow neither the king nor the queen to be led astray by
unwise impatient advisers, who, for the advancement of their private
opinions, or because they cannot have all the liberty which they
desire, are ready to compromise the commonwealth."[373]
[Footnote 372: Les choses se vont accommoder a quoy
sert la saison de l'hiver et ce que en la court
l'on y danse souvent; que les Espaignolz et Angloys
commencent a converser les ungs avec les aultres
... et n'y a personne qui puisse imaginer que Dieu
ait voulu ung si grand marriage et de telz princes,
pour en esperer sinon ung grand bien publique pour
la Chrestiente, et pour restablir et asseurer les
estatz de vostre majeste troublez par ses
ennemis.--Renard to the Emperor: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. p. 319.]
[Footnote 373: _Granvelle Papers_, vol. iv. p.
320.]
So matters stood at the beginning of October, when parliament was
about to be summoned, and the great experiment to be tried whether
England would consent to be re-united to Catholic Christendom. The
writs went out on the 6th, and circulars accompanied them, addressed
to those who would have the conduct of the elections, stating that,
whatever false reports might have been spread, no "alteration was
intended of any man's possessions." At the same time the queen
required the mayors of towns, the sheriffs, and other influential
persons to admonish the voters to choose from among themselves "such
as, being eligible by order of the laws, were of a wise, grave, and
Catholic sort; such as indeed meant the true honour of God and the
prosperity of the commonwealth."[374]These general directions were
copied from a form which had been in use under Henry VII., and the
citizens of London set the example of obedience in electing four
members who were in every way satisfactory to the court.[375] In the
country the decisive failure of Carew, Suffolk, and Crofts showed that
the weight of public feeling was still in favour of the queen
notwithstanding the {p.158} Spanish marriage; and the reaction
against the excesses of the Reformation had not yet reached its
limits. On the accession of Mary, the restoration of the mass had
appeared impossible, but it had been effected safely and completely
almost by the spontaneous will of the people. In the spring the pope's
name could not be mentioned in parliament; now, since the queen was
bent upon it, and as she gave her word that property was not to be
meddled with, even the pope seemed no longer absolutely intolerable.
[Footnote 374: Royal Circular; printed in Burnet's
_Collectanea_.]
[Footnote 375: Les lettres de la convocation du
parlement sont este pourjectees sur la vieille
forme dont l'on usoit au temps du Roy Henry
septieme pour avoir en icelluy gens de bien
Catholiques: et a propos et selon ce ceulx de
Londre en publique assemblee ont choisiz quatre
personnaiges que l'on tient estre fort saiges et
modestes.--Renard to the Emperor: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. p. 324.]
The reports of the elections were everywhere favourable. In the Upper
House, except on very critical points, which would unite the small
body of the lay peers, the court was certain of a majority, being
supported of course by the bishops--and the question of Pole's coming
over, therefore, was once more seriously considered. The pope had been
given to understand that, however inconsistent with his dignity he
might consider it to appear to purchase English submission by setting
aside the canons of the church, he must consent to the English terms,
or there was no hope whatever that his supremacy would be recognised.
If in accepting these terms he would agree to a humiliating
reconciliation, only those who objected on doctrinal grounds to the
papal religion were inclined to persist in refusing a return of his
friendship. The dream of an independent orthodox Anglicanism which had
once found favour with Gardiner was fading away. The indifferent and
the orthodox alike desired to put an end to spiritual anarchy; and the
excommunication, though lying lightly on the people, and despised even
by the Catholic powers, had furnished, and might furnish, a pretext
for inconvenient combinations. Singularity of position, where there
was no especial cause for it, was always to be avoided.
These influences would have been insufficient to have brought the
English of themselves to seek for a reunion. They were enough to
induce them to accept it with indifference when offered them on their
own conditions, or to affect for a time an outward appearance of
acquiescence.
Philip, therefore, consulted Renard, and Charles invited Pole to
Brussels. Renard, to whom politics were all-important, and religion
useful in its place, but inconvenient when pushed into prominence,
adhered to his old opinion. He advised the "king to write privately to
the pope, telling him that he had already so many embarrassments on
his hands that he could not afford to increase them;" "the changes
already made were insincere, and the legatine authority was odious,
not only in England, {p.159} but throughout Europe;" "the queen, on
her accession, had promised a general toleration,[376] and it was
useless to provoke irritation, when not absolutely necessary." Yet
even Renard spoke less positively than before. "If the pope would make
no more reservations on the land question--if he would volunteer a
general absolution, and submit to conditions, while he exacted
none--if he would sanction every ecclesiastical act which had been
done during the schism, the marriages and baptisms, the ordinations of
the clergy, and the new creations of episcopal sees--above all, if he
would make no demand for money under any pretence, the venture might,
perhaps, be made." But, continued Renard, "his holiness, even then,
must be cautious in his words; he must dwell as lightly as possible on
his authority, as lightly as possible on his claims to be obeyed: in
offering absolution, he must talk merely of piety and love, of the
open arms of the church, of the example of the Saviour, and such other
generalities."[377] Finally, Renard still thought the legate had
better remain abroad. The reconciliation, if it could be effected at
all, could be managed better without his irritating presence.
[Footnote 376: Le mandement et declaration que
vostre Majeste a faict publier sur le point de la
religion, laissant la liberte a ung chacun pour
tenir quelle religion l'on vouldra.--Renard to
Philip and Mary: _Granvelle Papers_, vol. iv. p.
327.]
[Footnote 377: Et que sa Sainctete le fonde in
pietate Christiana et ecclesiastica quia, nunquam
Ecclesia claudit gremium, semper indulget exemplo
Salvatoris, et Evangelium semper consolatur, semper
remittit, et sur plusieurs aultres fondemens
generaulx.--Ibid. p. 326.]
Pole himself had found the emperor more gracious. Charles professed
the greatest anxiety that the papal authority should be restored. He
doubted only if the difficulties could be surmounted. Pole replied
that the obstacles were chiefly two--one respecting doctrine, on which
no concession could be made at all; the other respecting the lands, on
which his holiness would make every concession. He would ask for
nothing, he would exact nothing; he would abandon every shadow of a
claim.
If this was the case, the emperor said, all would go well.
Nevertheless, there was the reservation in the brief, and the pope,
however generous he might wish to be, was uncertain of his power. The
doctrine was of no consequence. People in England believed one
doctrine as little as another;[378] but they {p.160} hated Rome,
they hated the religious orders, they hated cardinals; and, as to the
lands, _could_ the church relinquish them?[379] Pole might believe
that she could; but the world would be more suspicious, or less easy
to convince. At all events, the dispensing powers must be clogged with
no reservations; nor could he come to any decision till he heard again
from England.
[Footnote 378: Perciocche quanto alla Doctrina
disse che poco se ne curavano questo tali non
credendo ne all' una ne all' altra via.--Pole to
the Pope, October 13: Burnet's _Collectanea_.]
[Footnote 379: Disse anche che essendo stati questi
beni dedicati a Dio non era da concedere cosi ogna
cosa a quelli che la tenevano.--Burnet's
_Collectanea_.]
The legate was almost hopeless; yet his time of triumph--such triumph
as it was--had nearly arrived. The queen's supposed pregnancy had
increased her influence; and, constant herself in the midst of general
indecision, she was able to carry her point. She would not mortify the
legate, who had suffered for his constancy to the cause of her mother,
with listening to Renard's personal objections; and when the character
of the approaching House of Commons had been ascertained, she gained
the consent of the council, a week before the beginning of the
session, to send commissioners to Brussels to see Pole and inspect his
faculties. With a conclusive understanding on the central question,
they might tell him that the hope of his life might be realised, and
that he might return to his country. But the conditions were explicit.
He must bring adequate powers with him, or his coming would be worse
than fruitless. If those which he already possessed were insufficient,
he must send them to Rome to be enlarged;[380] and although the court
would receive him as legate _de latere_, he had better enter the
country only as a cardinal and ambassador, till he could judge of the
state of things for himself.[381] On these terms the commissioners
might conduct him to the queen's presence.
[Footnote 380: The greatest and only means to
procure the agreement of the noblemen and others of
our council was our promise that the Pope's
Holiness would, at our suit, dispense with all
possessors of any lands or goods of monasteries,
colleges, or other ecclesiastical houses, to hold
and enjoy their said lands and goods without any
trouble or scruple; without which promise it had
been impossible to have had their consent, and
shall be utterly impossible to have any fruit and
good concord ensue. For which purpose you shall
earnestly pray our said cousin to use all possible
diligence, and say that if he have not already, he
may so receive authority from the See Apostolic to
dispense in this manner as the same, being now in
good towardness, may so in this Parliament take the
desired effect; whereof we see no likelihood except
it may be therewithal provided for this matter of
the lands and goods of the Church.--Instructions to
Paget and Hastings, November 5; Tytler, vol. ii. p.
446.]
[Footnote 381: Tytler, vol. ii. p. 446.]
The bearers of this communication were Lord Paget and Sir {p.161}
Edward Hastings, accompanied, it is curious to observe, by Sir William
Cecil.[382]
[Footnote 382: Cecil had taken no formal part in
Mary's government, but his handwriting can be
traced in many papers of State, and in the Irish
department he seems to have given his assistance
throughout the reign. In religion Cecil, like
Paget, was a latitudinarian. His conformity under
Mary has been commented upon bitterly; but there is
no occasion to be surprised at his conduct--no
occasion, when one thinks seriously of his
position, to blame his conduct. There were many
things in the Catholic creed of which Cecil
disapproved; and when his opportunity came, he gave
his effectual assistance for the abolition of them;
but as long as that creed was the law of the land,
as a citizen he paid the law the respect of
external obedience.
At present religion is no longer under the control
of law, and is left to the conscience. To profess
openly, therefore, a faith which we do not believe
is justly condemned as hypocrisy. But wherever
public law extends, personal responsibility is
limited. A minority is not permitted to resist the
decisions of the legislature on subjects in which
the legislature is entitled to interfere; and in
the sixteenth century opinion was as entirely under
rule and prescription as actions or things. Men may
do their best to improve the laws which they
consider unjust. They are not, under ordinary
circumstances, to disobey them so long as they
exist. However wide the basis of a government,
questions will ever rise between the individual and
the state--questions, for instance, of peace or
war, in which the conscience has as much a voice as
any other subject; where, nevertheless,
individuals, if they are in the minority, must
sacrifice their own opinions; they must contribute
their war taxes without resistance; if they are
soldiers, they must take part as combatants for a
cause of which they are convinced of the injustice.
That is to say, they must do things which it would
be impious and wicked in them to do, were they as
free in their obligations as citizens as they are
_now_ free in the religion which they will profess.
This was the view in which the mass was regarded by
statesmen like Cecil, and generally by many men of
plain straightforward understanding, who believed
transubstantiation as little as he. In
Protestantism, as a constructive theology, they had
as little interest as in Popery; when the
alternative lay between the two, they saw no reason
to sacrifice themselves for either.
It was the view of common sense. It was not the
view of a saint. To Latimer, also, technical
theology was indifferent--indifferent in proportion
to his piety. But he hated lies--legalised or
unlegalised--he could not tolerate them, and he
died sooner than seem to tolerate them. The
counsels of perfection, however, lead to conduct
neither possible, nor, perhaps, desirable for
ordinary men.]
They presented themselves to the emperor, who, after the report which
they brought with them, made no more difficulty. The enlarged powers
had been sent for three weeks before; but there was no occasion to
wait for their arrival. They might be expected in ten days or a
fortnight, and could follow the legate to England.[383]
[Footnote 383: Charles was particular in his
inquiries of Mary's prospect of a family. He spoke
to Sir John Mason about it, who was then the
resident ambassador:--
"Sir, quoth I," so Mason reported the conversation,
"I have from herself nothing to say, for she will
not confess the matter till it be proved to her
face; but by others I understand, to my great joy,
that her garments wax very straight. I never
doubted, quoth he, of the matter, but that God,
that for her had wrought so many miracles, would
make the same perfect to the assisting of nature to
his good and most desired work: and I warrant it
shall be, quoth he, a man-child. Be it man, quoth
I, or be it woman, welcome it shall be; for by that
we shall be at the least come to some certainty to
whom God shall appoint by succession the government
of our estates."--Mason to the King and Queen,
November 9: Tytler, vol. ii. p. 444.]
{p.162} The effect on Pole of the commissioners' arrival "there
needed not," as they said themselves, "many words to declare."[384]
His eager temperament, for ever excited either with wild hopes or
equally wild despondency, was now about to be fooled to the top of its
bent. On the pope's behalf, he promised everything; for himself, he
would come as ambassador, he would come as a private person, come in
any fashion that might do good, so only that he might come.
[Footnote 384: Paget and Hastings to the Queen:
Ibid. p. 459]
Little time was lost in preparation. Parliament met on the 12th of
November. The opening speech was read, as usual, by Gardiner, and was
well received, although it announced that further measures would be
taken for the establishment of religion, and the meaning of these
words was known to every one. The first measure brought forward was
the repeal of Pole's attainder. It passed easily without a dissentient
voice, and no obstacle of any kind remained to delay his appearance.
Only the cautious Renard suggested that Courtenay should be sent out
of the country as soon as possible, for fear the legate should take a
fancy to him; and the Prince of Savoy had been invited over to see
whether anything could be done towards arranging the marriage with
Elizabeth. Elizabeth, indeed, had protested that she had no intention
of marrying; nevertheless, Renard said, she would be disposed of, as
the emperor had advised,[385] could the queen be induced to consent.
[Footnote 385: Neantmoins il sera necessaire
achever avec elle selon l'advis de vostre
Majeste.--Renard to the Emperor: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv.]
England was ready therefore, and the happy legate set out from
Brussels like a lover flying to his mistress. His emotions are
reflected in the journal of an Italian friend who attended him. The
journey commenced on Tuesday, the 13th; the retinues of Paget and
Hastings, with the cardinal's household, making in all a hundred and
twenty horse. The route was by Ghent, Bruges, and Dunkirk. On the 19th
the party reached Gravelines, where, on the stream which formed the
boundary of the Pale, they were received in state by Lord Wentworth,
the Governor of Calais. In the eyes of his enthusiastic admirers the
{p.163} apostle of the church moved in an atmosphere of marvel. The
Calais bells, which rang as they entered the town, were of
preternatural sweetness. The salutes fired by the ships in the harbour
were "wonderful." The cardinal's lodging was a palace, and as an
august omen, the watchword of the garrison for the night was "God long
lost is found."[386] The morning brought a miracle. A westerly gale
had blown for many days. All night long it had howled through the
narrow streets; the waves had lashed against the piers, and the
fishermen foretold a week of storms. At daybreak the wind went down,
the clouds broke, a light air from the eastward levelled the sea, and
filled the sails of the vessel which was to bear them to England. At
noon the party went on board, and their passage was a fresh surprise.
They crossed in three hours and a half, and the distance, as it
pictured itself to imagination, was forty miles.[387] At Dover the
legate slept. The next day Lord Montague came with the Bishop of Ely,
bringing letters of congratulation from the queen and Philip, and an
intimation that he was anxiously looked for. He was again on horseback
after breakfast; and as the news of his arrival spread, respect or
curiosity rapidly swelled his train. The Earl of Huntingdon, who had
married his sister, sent his son Lord Hastings, with his tenants and
servants, as an escort. But there was no danger. Whatever might be the
feelings of the people towards the papal legate, they gave to Reginald
Pole the welcome due to an English nobleman.
[Footnote 386: Dio gran tempo perduto e hora
ritrovato.--Descriptio Reductionis Angliae: _Epist._
Reg. Pol. vol. v.]
[Footnote 387: Imbarcatosi adunque sua S. R. ad un
hora di giorno, passo a Doure nell' Isola in tre
hore et mezza che fu camino di quaranta miglia
fatto con extraordinaria prestezza.--_Epist._ Reg.
Pol. vol. v.]
The November evening had closed in when the cavalcade entered
Canterbury. The streets were thronged, and the legate made his way
through the crowd, amidst the cries of "God save your grace." At the
door of the house--probably the archbishop's palace--where he was to
pass the night, Harpsfeld, the archdeacon, was standing to receive
him, with a number of the clergy; and with the glare of torches
lighting up the scene, Harpsfeld commenced an oration as the legate
alighted, so beautiful, so affecting, says Pole's Italian friend, that
all the hearers were moved to tears. The archdeacon spoke of the
mercies of God, and the marvellous workings of his providence. He
dwelt upon the history of the cardinal, whom God had preserved through
a thousand dangers for the salvation of his country; and, firing up at
last in a blaze of enthusiasm, he {p.164} exclaimed, "Thou art Pole,
and thou art our Polar star, to light us to the kingdom of the
heavens. Sky, rivers, earth, these disfigured walls--all things--long
for thee. While thou wert absent from us all things were sad, all
things were in the power of the adversary. At thy coming all things
are smiling, all glad, all tranquil."[388] The legate listened so far,
and then checked the flood of the adoring eloquence. "I heard you with
pleasure," he said, "while you were praising God. My own praises I do
not desire to hear. Give the glory to Him."
[Footnote 388: "Tu es Polus, qui aperis nobis Polum
regni caelorum. Aer, flumina, terra, parietes ipsi,
omnia denique te desiderant. Quamdiu abfuisti omnia
fuerunt tristia et adversa. In adventu tuo, omnia
rident, omnia laeta, omnia tranquilla." I have
endeavoured to preserve the play on the word Polus,
altering the meaning as little as the necessities
of translation would allow. It has been suggested
to me that the word "parietes" implies properly
_internal_ walls, and the allusion was to the
defacement of the cathedral.]
From Canterbury, Richard Pate, who, as titular Bishop of Worcester,
had sat at the council of Trent, was sent forward to the queen with an
answer to her letter, and a request for further directions. The legate
himself went on leisurely to Rochester, where he was entertained by
Lord Cobham, at Cowling Castle. So far he had observed the
instructions brought to him by Paget, and had travelled as an ordinary
ecclesiastic, without distinctive splendour. On the night of the 23rd,
however, Pate returned from the court with a message that the legatine
insignia might be displayed. A fleet of barges was in waiting at
Gravesend, where Pole appeared early on the 24th; and, as a further
augury of good fortune, he found there Lord Shrewsbury, with his early
friend the Bishop of Durham, who had come to meet him with the repeal
of his attainder, to which the queen had given her assent in
parliament the day before.
To the fluttered hearts of the priestly company the coincidence of the
repeal, the informality of an act of parliament receiving the royal
assent before the close of a session, were further causes of
admiration. They embarked; and the Italians, who had never seen a
tidal river, discovered, miracle of miracles, that they were ascending
from the sea, and yet the stream was with them. The distance to London
was soon accomplished. They passed under the bridge at one o'clock on
the top of the tide, the legate's barge distinguished splendidly by
the silver cross upon the bow. In a few minutes more they were at the
palace-stairs at Whitehall, where a pier was built on arches out into
the river, and on the pier stood the Bishop of Winchester, with the
lords of the council.
{p.165} The king and queen were at dinner, the arrival not being
expected till the afternoon. Philip rose instantly from the table,
hurried out, and caught the legate in his arms. The queen followed to
the head of the grand staircase; and when Pole reached her, she threw
herself on his breast, and kissed him, crying that his coming gave her
as much joy as the possession of her kingdom. The cardinal, in
corresponding ecstasy, exclaimed, in the words of the angel to the
Virgin, "Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in
mulieribus."[389] The first rapturous moments over, the king, queen,
and legate proceeded along the gallery, Philip and Pole supporting
Mary on either side, and the legate expatiating on the mysteries of
Providence.
[Footnote 389: "Cardinalis cum reginam salutaret,
nec ulla humana verba occurrerent tali muliere
digna, Sanctis Scripturarum verbis abuti non
verebatur, sed in primo congressu iisdem quibus
matrem Dei salutavit Angelus, Reginam Polus
alloquitur, Ave Maria," etc.--Salkyns to Bullinger:
_Epistolae_ Tigurinae, p. 169.]
"High thanks, indeed," he exclaimed, "your majesty owes to the favour
of the Almighty, seeing that, while he permits you to bring your godly
desires to perfection, he has united at this moment in your favour the
two mightiest powers upon earth--the majesty of the emperor
represented in the king your husband, and the pope's holiness
represented in myself." The queen, as she walked, replied "in words of
sweet humility," pouring out gentle excuses for past delays. The
legate, still speaking with ecstatic metaphor, answered that it was
the will of God; God waited till the time was mature, till he could
say to her highness, "Blessed be the fruit of thy womb."[390]
[Footnote 390: "Il Signor Legato rispose che Dio
havea voluto, che fusse tardato a tempo piu maturo,
perche egli havesse potuto dire a sua Altezza come
diceva Benedictus fructus ventris tui."--Descriptio
Reductionis Angliae.]
In the saloon they remained standing together for another quarter of
an hour. When the cardinal took his leave for the day, the king; in
spite of remonstrance, re-attended him to the gate. Alva and the
Bishop of Winchester were in waiting to conduct him to Lambeth Palace,
which had been assigned him for a residence. The See of Canterbury was
to follow as soon as Cranmer could be despatched.
Arrived at Lambeth, he was left to repose after his fatigues and
excitements. He had scarcely retired to his apartments when he was
disturbed again by a message from the queen. Lord Montague had hurried
over with the news that the angelic salutation had been already
answered. "The babe had leapt {p.166} in her womb."[391] Not a
moment was lost in communicating the miracle to the world. Letters of
council were drawn out for _Te Deums_ to be sung in every church in
London. The next day being Sunday, every pulpit was made to ring with
the testimony of heaven to the truth.
[Footnote 391: Descriptio Reductionis Angliae.]
On Monday the 26th the cardinal went to the palace for an audience,
and again there was more matter for congratulation. As he was
approaching the king's cabinet, Philip met him with a packet of
despatches. The last courier sent to Rome had returned with unheard-of
expedition, and the briefs and commissions in which the pope
relinquished formally his last reservations, had arrived. Never,
exclaimed the Catholic enthusiast, in a fervour of devout
astonishment--never since the days of the apostles had so many tokens
of divine approbation been showered upon a human enterprise. The
moment of its consummation had arrived.[392] Since the thing was to
be, no one wished for delay. Three days sufficed for the few necessary
preparations, and the two Houses of Parliament were invited to be
present unofficially at Whitehall on the afternoon of Wednesday the
28th. In the morning there was a procession in the city and a _Te
Deum_ at St. Paul's. After dinner, the Great Chamber was thrown open,
and the Lords and Commons crowded in as they could find room. Philip
and Mary entered, and took their seats under the cloth of state; while
Pole had a chair assigned him on their right hand, beyond the edge of
the canopy. The queen was splendidly dressed, and it was observed that
she threw out her person to make her supposed condition as conspicuous
as possible.[393] When all were in their places, the chancellor rose.
[Footnote 392: The queen's assurances respecting
her child were so emphatic, that even Noailles
believed her. Profane persons were still
incredulous. On Sunday the 25th, the day after the
_Te Deums_, Noailles says, "S'est trouve ung
placard attache a la porte de son palais, y estant
ces mots en substance: 'serons nous si bestes, oh
nobles Angloys, que croy renotre reyne estre
enciente si non d'un marmot ou d'un dogue?'"]
[Footnote 393: Contemporary Diary: _MS. Harleian_,
iv. 19.]
"My Lords of the Upper House," he said, "and you my masters of the
Nether House, here is present the Right Reverend Father in God the
Lord Cardinal Pole, come from the Apostolic See of Rome as ambassador
to the king's and queen's majesties, upon one of the weightiest causes
that ever happened in this realm, and which pertaineth to the glory of
God and your universal benefit; the which embassy it is their
majesties' {p.167} pleasure that it be signified unto you all by his
own mouth, trusting that you will accept it in as benevolent and
thankful wise as their highnesses have done, and that you will give an
attent and inclinable ear to him."
The legate then left his chair and came forward. He was now fifty-four
years old, and he had passed but little of his life in England; yet
his features had not wholly lost their English character. He had the
arched eye-brow, and the delicately-cut cheek, and prominent eye of
the beautiful Plantagenet face; a long, brown, curling beard flowed
down upon his chest, which it almost covered; the mouth was weak and
slightly open, the lips were full and pouting, the expression
difficult to read. In a low voice, audible only to those who were near
him, he spoke as follows:--"My Lords all, and you that are the Commons
of this present parliament assembled, as the cause of my repair hither
hath been wisely and gravely declared by my Lord Chancellor, so,
before I enter into the particulars of my commission, I have to say
somewhat touching myself, and to give most humble and hearty thanks to
the king's and queen's majesties, and after them to you all--which of
a man exiled and banished from this commonwealth, have restored me to
be a member of the same, and of a man having no place either here or
elsewhere within this realm, have admitted me to a place where to
speak and where to be heard. This I protest unto you all, that though
I was exiled my native country, without just cause, as God knoweth,
yet the ingratitude could not pull from me the affection and desire
that I had to your profit and to do you good.
"But, leaving the rehearsal hereof, and coming more near to the matter
of my commission, I signify unto you all, that my principal travail is
for the restitution of this noble realm to the antient nobility, and
to declare unto you that the See Apostolic, from whence I come, hath a
special respect to this realm above all others; and not without cause,
seeing that God himself, as it were, by providence hath given to this
realm prerogative of nobility above others, which, to make plain unto
you, it is to be considered that this island first of all islands
received the light of Christ's religion."
Going into history for a proof of this singular proposition, the
legate said that the Britons had been converted by the See Apostolic,
"not one by one, as in other countries, as clocks increase the hours
by distinction of times," "but altogether, at once, as it were, in a
moment." The Saxons had brought back heathenism, but had again been
soon converted; and the popes {p.168} had continued to heap benefit
upon benefit on the favoured people, even making them a present of
Ireland, "which pertained to the See of Rome." The country had
prospered, and the people had been happy down to the time of the late
schism; from that unhappy day they had been overwhelmed with
calamities.
The legate dwelt in some detail on the misfortunes of the preceding
years. He then went on: "But, when all light of true religion seemed
extinct, the churches defaced, the altars overthrown, the ministers
corrupted, even like as in a lamp, the light being covered yet it is
not quenched--even so in a few remained the confession of Christ's
faith, namely, in the breast of the queen's excellency, of whom to
speak without adulation, the saying of the prophet may be verified,
_ecce quasi derelicta_: and see how miraculously God of his goodness
preserved her highness contrary to the expectations of men, that when
numbers conspired against her, and policies were devised to disinherit
her, and armed power prepared to destroy her, yet she, being a virgin,
helpless, naked, and unarmed, prevailed, and had the victory of
tyrants. For all these practices and devices, here you see her grace
established in her estate, your lawful queen and governess, born among
you, whom God hath appointed to govern you for the restitution of true
religion and the extirpation of all errors and sects. And to confirm
her grace more strongly in this enterprise, lo how the providence of
God hath joined her in marriage with a prince of like religion, who,
being a king of great might, armour, and force, yet useth towards you
neither armour nor force, but seeketh you by way of love and amity;
and as it was a singular favour of God to conjoin them in marriage, so
it is not to be doubted but he shall send them issue for the comfort
and surety of this commonwealth.
"Of all princes in Europe the emperor hath travailed most in the cause
of religion, yet, haply by some secret judgment of God, he hath not
obtained the end. I can well compare him to David, which, though he
were a man elect of God, yet for that he was contaminate with blood
and wars, he could not build the temple of Jerusalem, but left the
finishing thereof to Solomon, who was _Rex pacificus_. So it may be
thought that the appeasing of controversies of religion in Christendom
is not appointed to this emperor, but rather to his son; who shall
perform the building that his father had begun, which church cannot be
builded unless universally in all realms we adhere to one head, and do
acknowledge him to be the vicar of God, and to have power from
above--for {p.169} all power is of God, according to the saying,
_non est potestas nisi in Deo_.
"All power being of God, he hath derived that power into two parts
here on earth, which is into the powers imperial and ecclesiastical;
and these two powers, as they be several and distinct, so have they
two several effects and operations. Secular princes be ministers of
God to execute vengeance upon transgressors and evil livers, and to
preserve the well-doers and innocents from injury and violence; and
this power is represented in these two most excellent persons the
king's and queen's majesties here present. The other power is of
ministration, which is the power of keys and orders in the
ecclesiastical state; which is by the authority of God's word and
example of the apostles, and of all holy fathers from Christ hitherto
attributed and given to the Apostolic See of Rome by special
prerogative: from which See I am here deputed legate and ambassador,
having full and ample commission from thence, and have the keys
committed to my hands. I confess to you that I have the keys--not as
mine own keys, but as the keys of Him that sent me; and yet cannot I
open, not for want of power in me to give, but for certain impediments
in you to receive, which must be taken away before my commission can
take effect. This I protest before you, my commission is not of
prejudice to any person. I am come not to destroy, but to build; I
come to reconcile, not to condemn; I am not come to compel, but to
call again; I am not come to call anything in question already done;
but my commission is of grace and clemency to such as will receive
it--for, touching all matters that be past, they shall be as things
cast into the sea of forgetfulness.
"But the mean whereby you shall receive this benefit is to revoke and
repeal those laws and statutes which be impediments, blocks, and bars
to the execution of my commission. For, like as I myself had neither
place nor voice to speak here amongst you, but was in all respects a
banished man, till such time as ye had repealed those laws that lay in
my way, even so cannot you receive the benefit and grace offered from
the Apostolic See until the abrogation of such laws whereby you had
disjoined and dissevered yourselves from the unity of Christ's Church.
"It remaineth, therefore, that you, like true Christians and provident
men, for the weal of your souls and bodies, ponder what is to be done
in this so weighty a cause, and so to frame your acts and proceedings
as they may first tend to the glory of {p.170} God, and, next, to
the conservation of your commonwealth, surety, and quietness."
The speech was listened to by such as could hear it with profound
attention, and several persons were observed to clasp their hands
again and again, and raise them convulsively before their faces. When
the legate sat down, Gardiner gave him the thanks of parliament, and
suggested that the two Houses should be left to themselves to consider
what they would do. Pole withdrew with the king and queen, and
Gardiner exclaimed: A prophet has "the Lord raised up among us from
among our brethren, and he shall save us." For the benefit of those
who had been at the further end of the hall, he then recapitulated the
substance of what had been said. He added a few words of exhortation,
and the meeting adjourned.
The next day, Thursday, Lords and Commons sat as usual at Westminster.
The repeal of all the acts which directly, or by implication, were
aimed at the papacy, would occupy, it was found, a considerable time;
but the impatient legate was ready to accept a promise as a pledge of
performance, and the general question was therefore put severally in
both Houses whether the country should return to obedience to the
Apostolic See. Among the Peers no difficulty was made at all. Among
the Commons, in a house of 360, there were two dissentients--one,
whose name is not mentioned, gave a silent negative vote; the other,
Sir Ralph Bagenall, stood up alone to protest. Twenty years, he said,
"that great and worthy prince, King Henry," laboured to expel the pope
from England. He for one had "sworn to King Henry's laws," and, "he
would keep his oath."[394]
[Footnote 394: The writer of the Italian
"Description" says that Bagenall gave way the next
day. The contemporary narrative among the _Harleian
MSS._ says that he persisted, and refused to kneel
at the absolution.]
But Bagenall was listened to with smiles. The resolution passed, the
very ease and unanimity betraying the hollow ground on which it
rested; and, again, devout Catholics beheld the evident work of
supernatural agency. Lords and Commons had received separately the
same proposition; they had discussed it, voted on it, and come to a
conclusion, each with closed doors, and the messengers of the two
Houses encountered each other on their way to communicate their
several decisions.[395] The chancellor arranged with Pole the forms
which should be {p.171} observed, and it was agreed that the Houses
should present a joint petition to the king and queen, acknowledging
their past misconduct, engaging to undo the anti-papal legislation,
and entreating their majesties, as undefiled with the offences which
tainted the body of the nation, to intercede for the removal of the
interdict. A committee of Lords and Commons sate to consider the words
in which the supplication should be expressed, and all preparations
were completed by the evening.
[Footnote 395: "Mentre la casa alta mandava a far
sapere la sua conclusione alla casa bassa, la casa
bassa mandava anch' ella per fare intendere il
medesimo alla casa alta, sicche i messi s'
incontrarono per via; segno evidentissimo che lo
Spirito di Dio lavorava in amendue i luoghi in un
tempo i di una medesima conformita."--Descriptio
Reductionis Angliae.]
And now St. Andrew's Day was come; a day, as was then hoped, which
would be remembered with awe and gratitude through all ages of English
history. Being the festival of the institution of the Order of the
Golden Fleece, high mass was sung in the morning in Westminster Abbey;
Philip, Alva, and Ruy Gomez attended in their robes, with six hundred
Spanish cavaliers. The Knights of the Garter were present in gorgeous
costume, and nave and transept were thronged with the blended chivalry
of England and Castile. It was two o'clock before the service was
concluded. Philip returned to the palace to dinner, and the brief
November afternoon was drawing in when the parliament reassembled at
the palace. At the upper end of the great hall a square platform had
now been raised several steps above the floor, on which three chairs
were placed as before; two under a canopy of cloth of gold, for the
king and queen; a third on the right, removed a little distance from
them, for the legate. Below the platform, benches were placed
longitudinally towards either wall. The bishops sat on the side of the
legate, the lay peers opposite them on the left. The Commons sat on
rows of cross benches in front, and beyond them were the miscellaneous
crowd of spectators, sitting or standing as they could find room. The
cardinal, who had passed the morning at Lambeth, was conducted across
the water in a state barge by Lord Arundel and six other peers. The
king received him at the gate, and, leaving his suite in the care of
the Duke of Alva, who was instructed to find them places, he
accompanied Philip into the room adjoining the hall, where Mary, whose
situation was supposed to prevent her from unnecessary exertion, was
waiting for them. The royal procession was formed. Arundel and the
Lords passed in to their places. The king and queen, with Pole in his
legate's robes, ascended the steps of the platform, and took their
seats.
When the stir which had been caused by their entrance was over,
Gardiner mounted a tribune; and in the now fast-waning light he bowed
to the king and queen, and declared the resolution {p.172} at which
the Houses had arrived. Then turning to the Lords and Commons, he
asked if they continued in the same mind. Four hundred voices
answered, "We do." "Will you then," he said, "that I proceed in your
names to supplicate for our absolution, that we may be received again
into the body of the Holy Catholic Church, under the pope, the supreme
head thereof?" Again the voices assented. The chancellor drew a scroll
from under his robe, ascended the platform, and presented it unfolded
on his knee to the queen. The queen looked through it, gave it to
Philip, who looked through it also, and returned it. The chancellor
then rose and read aloud as follows:--
"We, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons of the present
parliament assembled, representing the whole body of the realm of
England, and dominions of the same, in our own names particularly, and
also of the said body universally, in this our supplication directed
to your majesties--with most humble suit that it may by your gracious
intercession and means be exhibited to the Most Reverend Father in God
the Lord Cardinal Pole, Legate, sent specially hither from our Most
Holy Father Pope Julius the Third and the See Apostolic of Rome--do
declare ourselves very sorry and repentant for the schism and
disobedience committed in this realm and dominions of the same,
against the said See Apostolic, either by making, agreeing, or
executing any laws, ordinances, or commandments against the supremacy
of the said See, or otherwise doing or speaking what might impugn the
same; offering ourselves, and promising by this our supplication that,
for a token and knowledge of our said repentance, we be, and shall be
always, ready, under and with the authority of your majesties, to do
that which shall be in us for the abrogation and repealing of the said
laws and ordinances in this present parliament, as well for ourselves
as for the whole body whom we represent. Whereupon we most humbly
beseech your majesties, as persons undefiled in the offences of this
body towards the Holy See--which nevertheless God by his providence
hath made subject to your majesties--so to set forth this, our most
humble suit, that we may obtain from the See Apostolic, by the said
Most Reverend Father, as well particularly as universally, absolution,
release, and discharge from all danger of such censures and sentences
as by the laws of the church we be fallen in; and that we may, as
children repentant, be received into the bosom and unity of Christ's
Church; so as this noble realm, with all the members {p.173}
thereof, may, in unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolic and
pope for the time being, serve God and your majesties, to the
furtherance and advancement of his honour and glory."[396]
[Footnote 396: Foxe, vol. vi. p. 571. The petition
was in Latin; but, as I have nowhere seen the
original, I have not ventured to interfere with
Foxe's translation. Foxe, who could translate very
idiomatically when he pleased, perhaps relieved his
indignation on the present occasion by translating
as awkwardly as possible.]
Having completed the reading, the chancellor again presented the
petition. The king and queen went through the forms of intercession,
and a secretary read aloud, first, the legate's original commission,
and, next, the all-important extended form of it.
Pole's share of the ceremony was now to begin.
He first spoke a few words from his seat: "Much indeed," he said, "the
English nation had to thank the Almighty for recalling them to his
fold. Once again God had given a token of his special favour to the
realm; for as this nation, in the time of the Primitive Church, was
the first to be called out of the darkness of heathenism, so now they
were the first to whom God had given grace to repent of their schism;
and if their repentance was sincere, how would the angels, who rejoice
at the conversion of a single sinner, triumph at the recovery of a
great and noble people."
He moved to rise; Mary and Philip, seeing that the crisis was
approaching, fell on their knees, and the assembly dropped at their
example; while, in dead silence, across the dimly-lighted hall, came
the low, awful words of the absolution.
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, which with his most precious blood hath
redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities, that he might
purchase unto himself a glorious spouse without spot or wrinkle, whom
the Father hath appointed head over all his Church--he by his mercy
absolves you, and we, by apostolic authority given unto us by the Most
Holy Lord Pope Julius the Third, his vicegerent on earth, do absolve
and deliver you, and every of you, with this whole realm and the
dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and from all and every
judgment, censure, and pain for that cause incurred; and we do restore
you again into the unity of our Mother the Holy Church, in the name of
the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Amidst the hushed breathing every tone was audible, and at the pauses
were heard the smothered sobs of the queen. "Amen, amen," rose in
answer from many voices. Some were really affected; some were caught
for the moment with a contagion which it was hard to resist; some
threw themselves weeping in {p.174} each other's arms. King, queen,
and parliament, rising from their knees, went immediately--the legate
leading--into the chapel of the palace, where the choir, with the
rolling organ, sang _Te Deum_; and Pole closed the scene with a
benediction from the altar.
"Blessed day for England," cries the Italian describer, in a rapture
of devotion. "The people exclaim in ecstasies, we are reconciled to
God, we are brought back to God: the king beholds his realm, so lately
torn by divisions, at the mercy of the first enemy who would seize
upon it, secured on a foundation which never can be shaken: and who
can express the joy--who can tell the exultation of the queen? She has
shown herself the handmaid of the Lord, and all generations shall call
her blessed: she has given her kingdom to God as a thank-offering for
those great mercies which He has bestowed upon her."[397]
[Footnote 397: Descriptio Reductionis Angliae:
_Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol. v.]
And the legate; but the legate has described his emotions in his own
inimitable manner. Pole went back to Lambeth, not to rest, but to pour
out his soul to the Holy Father.
In his last letter he said "he had told his holiness that he had hoped
that England would be recovered to the fold at last; yet he had then
some fears remaining, so far estranged were the minds of the people
from the Holy See, lest at the last moment some compromise might ruin
all."
But the godly forwardness of the king and queen had overcome every
difficulty; and on that evening, the day of St. Andrew--of Andrew who
first brought his brother Peter to Christ--the realm of England had
been brought back to its obedience to Peter's See, and through Peter
to Christ. The great act had been accomplished, accomplished by the
virtue and the labour of the inestimable sovereigns with whom God had
blessed the world.
"And oh," he said, "how many things, how great things, may the church
our mother, the bride of Christ, promise herself from these her
children? Oh piety! oh antient faith! Whoever looks on them will
repeat the words of the prophet of the church's early offspring; 'This
is the seed which the Lord hath blessed.' How earnestly, how lovingly,
did your holiness favour their marriage; a marriage formed after the
very pattern of that of our Most High King, who, being Heir of the
world, was sent down by his Father from his royal throne, to be at
once the Spouse and the Son of the Virgin Mary, and be made the
Comforter and the Saviour of mankind: and, in like manner, the
greatest {p.175} of all the princes upon earth, the heir of his
father's kingdom, departed from his own broad and happy realms, that
he might come hither into this land of trouble, he, too, to be spouse
and son of this virgin; for, indeed, though spouse he be, he so bears
himself towards her as if he were her son, to aid in the
reconciliation of this people to Christ and the church.[398]
[Footnote 398: This amazing comparison (for one
cannot forget what Philip had been, was, and was to
be) must be given in the original words of the
legate:
"Quam sancte sanctitas vestra omni auctoritate
studioque huic matrimonio favit; quod sane videtur
prae se ferre magnam summi illius regis
similitudinem, qui mundi haeres a regalibus sedibus
a patre demissus fuit, ut esset virginis sponsus et
filius, et hac ratione universum genus humanum
consolaretur ac servaret. Sic enim hic rex maximus
omnium qui in terris sunt haeres, patriis relictis
regnis de illis quidem amplissimis ac felicissimis
in hoc turbulentum regnum de contulit, hujusque
virginis sponsus et filius est factus; ita enim
erga illam se gerit tanquam filius esset cum sit
sponsus, ut quod jam plane perfecit sequestrem se
atque adjutorem ad reconciliandos Christo et
Ecclesiae hos populos praeberet."--Pole to the Pope:
_Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol. v.]
"When your holiness first chose me as your legate, the queen was
rising up as a rod of incense out of trees of myrrh, and as
frankincense out of the desert. And how does she now shine out in
loveliness? What a savour does she give forth unto her people. Yea,
even as the prophet saith of the mother of Christ, "before she was in
labour she brought forth, before she was delivered she hath borne a
man-child." Who ever yet hath seen it, who has heard of the similitude
of it? Shall the earth bring forth in a day, or shall a nation of men
be born together? but Mary has brought forth the nation of England
before the time of that delivery for which we all are hoping!"
Unable to exhaust itself in words, the Catholic enthusiasm flowed over
in processions, in sermons, masses, and _Te Deums_. Gardiner at Paul's
Cross, on the Sunday succeeding, confessed his sins in having borne a
part in bringing about the schism. Pole rode through the city between
the king and queen, with his legate's cross before him, blessing the
people. When the news reached Rome Julius first embraced the
messenger, then flung himself on his knees, and said a Paternoster.
The guns at St. Angelo roared in triumph. There were jubilees and
masses of the Holy Ghost, and bonfires, and illuminations, and
pardons, and indulgences. In the exuberance of his hopes, the pope
sent a nuncio to urge that, in the presence of this great mercy, peace
should be made with France, where the king was devoted to the church;
the Catholic powers would then have the command of Europe, and the
heretics could be destroyed.[399] One thing only {p.176} seemed
forgotten, that the transaction was a bargain. The papal pardon had
been thrust upon criminals, whose hearts were so culpably indifferent
that it was necessary to bribe them to accept it; and the conditions
of the compromise, even yet, were far from concluded.
[Footnote 399: Pallavicino.]
The sanction given to the secularisation of church property was a
cruel disappointment to the clergy, who cared little for Rome, but
cared much for wealth and power. Supported by a party in the House of
Commons who had not shared in the plunder, and who envied those who
had been more fortunate,[400] the ecclesiastical faction began to
agitate for a reconsideration of the question. Their friends in
parliament said that the dispensation was unnecessary. Every man's
conscience ought to be his guide whether to keep his lands or
surrender them. The queen was known to hold the same opinion, and
eager preachers began to sound the note of restitution.[401] Growing
bolder, the Lower House of Convocation presented the bishops
immediately after with a series of remarkable requests. The pope, in
the terms on which he was reinstated, was but an ornamental unreality;
and the practical English clergy desired substantial restorations
which their eyes could see and their hands could handle.
[Footnote 400: Renard to the Emperor: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv.]
[Footnote 401: "It was this morning told me by one
of the Emperor's council, who misliked much the
matter, that a preacher of ours whose name he
rehearsed, beateth the pulpit jollily in England
for a restitution of abbey lands. It is a strange
thing in a well-ordered commonwealth that a subject
should be so hardy to cry unto the people openly
such learning, whereby your winter work may in the
summer be attempted with some storm. These
unbridled preachings were so much misliked in the
ill-governed time as men trusted in this good
governance it should have been amended; and so may
it be when it shall please my Lords of the Council
as diligently to consider it, as it is more than
necessary to be looked unto. The party methinketh
might well be put to silence, if he were asked now,
being a monk, and having professed and vowed
solemnly wilful poverty, he can with conscience
keep a deanery and three or four benefices."--Mason
to Petre: _MS. Germany_, bundle 16, _Mary_, State
Paper Office. It is not clear who the offender was.
Perhaps it was Weston, Dean of Westminster and
Prolocutor of Convocation.]
They demanded, therefore, first, that if a statute was brought into
parliament for the assurance of the church estates to the present
possessors, nothing should be allowed to pass prejudicial to their
claims "on lands, tenements, pensions, or tythe rents, which had
appertained to bishops, or other ecclesiastical persons."
They demanded, secondly, the repeal of the Statute of Mortmain, and
afterwards the abolition of lay impropriations, the {p.177}
punishment of heretics, the destruction of all the English
Prayer-books and Bibles, the revival of the act _De Haeretico
Comburendo_, the re-establishment of the episcopal courts, the
restoration of the legislative functions of Convocation, and the
exemption of the clergy from the authority of secular magistrates.
Finally, they required that the church should be restored absolutely
to its ancient rights, immunities, and privileges; that no Premunire
should issue against a bishop until he had first received notice and
warning; that the judges should define "a special doctrine of
Premunire," and that the Statutes of Provisors should not be wrested
from their meaning.[402]
[Footnote 402: Demands of the Lower House of
Convocation, December, 1554; printed in Wilkins's
_Concilia_.]
The petition expressed the views of Gardiner, and was probably drawn
under his direction. Had the alienated property been no more than the
estates of the suppressed abbeys, the secular clergy would have
acquiesced without difficulty in the existing disposition of it. But
the benefices impropriated to the abbeys which had been sold or
granted with the lands, they looked on as their own; the cathedral
chapters and the bishops' sees, which had suffered from the second
locust flight under Edward, formed part of the local Anglican Church:
and Gardiner and his brother prelates declared that, if the pope chose
to set aside the canons, and permit the robbing of the religious
orders, he might do as he pleased; but that he had neither right nor
powers to sanction the spoliation of the working bishops and clergy.
Thus the feast of reconciliation having been duly celebrated, both
Houses of Parliament became again the theatre of fierce and fiery
conflict.
There were wide varieties of opinion. The lawyers went beyond the
clergy in limiting the powers of the pope; the lawyers also said the
pope had no rights over the temporalities of bishops or abbots, deans,
or rectors; but they did not any more admit the rights of the clergy.
The English clergy, regular and secular, they said, had held their
estates from immemorial time under the English crown, and it was not
for any spiritual authority, domestic or foreign, to decide whether an
English king and an English parliament might interfere to alter the
disposition of those estates.
On other questions the clerical party were in the ascendant; They had
a decided majority in the House of Commons; in the Upper House there
was a compact body of twenty bishops; and Gardiner held the proxies of
Lord Rich, Lord Oxford, Lord {p.178} Westmoreland, and Lord
Abergavenny. The queen had created four new peers; three of whom, Lord
North, Lord Chandos, and Lord Williams, were bigoted Catholics; the
fourth, Lord Howard, was absent with the fleet, and was unrepresented.
Lord North held the proxy of Lord Worcester; and the Marquis of
Winchester, Lord Montague, and Lord Stourton acted generally with the
chancellor. Lord Russell was keeping out of the way, being suspected
of heresy; Wentworth was at Calais; Grey was at Guisnes; and the
proxies of the two last noblemen, which in the late parliament were
held by Arundel and Paget, were, for some unknown reason, now held by
no one. Thus, in a house of seventy-three members only, reduced to
sixty-nine by the absence of Howard, Russell, Wentworth, and Grey,
Gardiner had thirty-one votes whom he might count upon as certain; he
knew his power, and at once made fatal use of it.
For two parliaments the liberal party had prevented him from
recovering the power of persecution. He did not attempt to pass the
Inquisitorial Act on which he was defeated in the last session. But
the act to revive the Lollard Statutes was carried through the House
of Commons in the second week in December; on the 15th it was brought
up to the Lords; and although those who had before fought the battle
of humanity, struggled again bravely in the same cause, this time
their numbers were too small; they failed, and the lives of the
Protestants were in their enemies' hands.[403] Simultaneously Gardiner
obtained for the bishops' courts their long-coveted privilege of
arbitrary arrest and discretionary punishment, and the clergy
obtained, as they desired, the restoration of their legislative
powers. The property question alone disintegrated the phalanx of
orthodoxy, and left an opening for the principles of liberty to assert
themselves. The faithful and the faithless among the laity were alike
participators in church plunder, and were alike nervously sensitive
when the current of the reaction ran in the direction of a demand for
restitution.
[Footnote 403: "La chambre haulte y faict
difficulte pour ce que l'auctorite et jurisdiction
des evesques est autorizee et renouvellee, et que
le peine semble trop griefve. Mais l'on tient
qu'ilz s'accorderont par la pluralite."--Renard to
the Emperor, December 21: _Granvelle Papers_, vol.
iv.]
Here, therefore, Paget and his friends chose their ground to maintain
the fight.
It has been seen that Pole especially dreaded the appearance of any
sort of composition between the country and the papacy. The submission
had, in fact, been purchased, but the purchase ought to be disguised.
As soon, therefore, as the parliament {p.179} set themselves to the
fulfilment of their promise to undo the acts by which England had
separated itself from Rome, the legate required a simple statute of
repeal. The pope had granted a dispensation; it was enough, and it
should be accepted gratefully: the penitence of sinners ought not to
be mixed with questions of worldly interest; the returning prodigal,
when asking pardon at his father's feet, had made no conditions; the
English nation must not disfigure their obedience by alluding, in the
terms of it, to the pope's benevolence to them.
The holders of the property, on the other hand, thinking more of the
reality than the form, were determined that the Act of Repeal should
contain, as nearly as possible, a true statement of their case. They
_had_ made conditions, and those conditions had been reluctantly
complied with; and, to prevent future errors, the nature of the
compact ought to be explained with the utmost distinctness. They had
replaced the bishops in authority, and the bishops might be made use
of at some future time, indirectly or directly, to disturb the
settlement. A fresh pontiff might refuse to recognise the concessions
of his predecessors. The papal supremacy, the secularisation of the
church property, and the authority of the episcopal courts should,
therefore, be interwoven inextricably to stand or fall together; and
as the lawyers denied the authority of the Holy See to pronounce upon
the matter at all, the legal opinion might be embodied also as a
further security.
After a week of violent discussion, the lay interest in the House of
Lords found itself the strongest. Pole exclaimed that, if the
submission and the dispensation were tied together, it was a
simoniacal compact; the pope's holiness was bought and sold for a
price, he said, and he would sooner go back to Rome, and leave his
work unfinished, than consent to an act so derogatory to the Holy See.
But the protest was vain; if the legate was so anxious, his anxiety
was an additional reason why the opposition should persevere; if he
chose to go, his departure could be endured.[404]
[Footnote 404: "Le parlement faict instance que, en
statut de la dicte obedience la dicte dispense soit
inseree, ce que le dict cardinal ne veult admettre,
a ce que ne semble la dicte obedience avoir este
rachetee; et est passee si avant la dicte
difficulte que le dict cardinal a declare qu'il
retourneroit plutot a Rome et delaisseront la chose
imparfaite que consentir a chose contre l'auctorite
dudict S. Siege, et de si grande
prejudice."--Renard to the Emperor, December:
_Granvelle Papers_, vol. iv.]
So keen was the debate that there was not so much as a Christmas
recess. Christmas Day was kept as a holyday. On {p.180} the 26th the
struggle began again, and, fortunately, clouds had risen between the
House of Commons and the court. Finding more difficulty than he
expected in embroiling England with France, Philip, to feel the temper
of the people, induced one of the peers to carry a note to the Lower
House to request an opinion whether it was not the duty of a son to
assist his father. An answer was instantly returned that the question
had been already disposed of by the late parliament in the marriage
treaty, and the further discussion of it was unnecessary.[405]
Secretary Bourne, at the instigation of Gardiner, proposed to revive
the claims on the pensions; but he met with no better reception. And
the court made a further blunder. Mary had become so accustomed to
success, that she assured herself she could obtain all that she
desired. The object of the court was to secure the regency for Philip,
with full sovereign powers, should she die leaving a child; should she
die childless, to make him her successor. The first step would be
Philip's coronation, which had been long talked of, and which the
House of Commons was now desired to sanction. The House of Commons
returned a unanimous refusal.[406]
[Footnote 405: "Ces jours passez, il y eust ung
personnaige de la haulte chambre, auquel il sembla
pour ne perdre temps debvoir porter, (comme il
fist) un billette a la basse par laquelle il
mettait en advant s'il n'estoit pas raisonnable que
le filz secourust le pere, voullant dire de ce roy
a l'Empereur. Ce qui fut si bien recueilly du tiers
estat, si promptment et avecques grande raison
respondu, comme par le dernier parlement et le
traite de mariaige d'entre ce roy et royne cela
avoit este et estoit tellement considere, qu'il
n'estoit plus besoing mettre telles choses en
advant pour les faire entrer a la
guerre."--Noailles to the King of France:
_Ambassades_, vol. iv. p. 76.]
[Footnote 406: "Je vous puis dire, Sire, que toutes
ces choses ont passe bien loing de l'esperance
qu'il avoit, puisqu'il s'attendoit de se faire
couronner, comme despuis six jours il en avoit
particulierement faict rechercher ceulx de la basse
chambre dudict parlement qui luy out tous d'une
voix rejette."--Noailles to the King of France:
_Ambassades_, vol. iv. p. 137.]
The effects of these cross influences on the papal statute, though
they cannot be traced in detail, must have been not inconsiderable. At
length, on the 4th of January, after passing backwards and forwards
for a fortnight between the two Houses, the Great Bill, as it was
called, emerged, finished, in the form of a petition to the crown:--
"Whereas," so runs the preamble,[407] "since the 20th year of King
Henry VIII., of famous memory, much false and erroneous doctrine hath
been taught, preached, and written, partly by divers natural-born
subjects of this realm, and partly being brought in hither from sundry
foreign countries, hath been sown {p.181} and spread abroad within
the same--by reason whereof as well the spiritualty as the temporalty
of your highness's realm and dominions have swerved from the obedience
of the See Apostolic, and declined from the unity of Christ's Church,
and so have continued until such time as--your majesty being first
raised up by God, and set in the seat royal over us, and then by his
divine and gracious Providence knit in marriage with the most noble
and virtuous prince the king our sovereign lord your husband--the
pope's holiness and the See Apostolic sent hither unto your majesties,
as unto persons undefiled, and by God's goodness preserved from the
common infection aforesaid, and to the whole realm, the Most Reverend
Father in God the Lord Cardinal Pole, Legate _de Latere_, to call us
again into the right way, from which we have all this long while
wandered and strayed; and we, after sundry and long plagues and
calamities, seeing, by the goodness of God, our own errours, have
knowledged the same unto the said Most Reverend Father, and by him
have been and are (the rather at the contemplation of your majesties)
received and embraced into the unity of Christ's Church, upon our
humble submission, and promise made for a declaration of our
repentance to repeal and abrogate such acts and statutes as had been
made in parliament since the said 20th year of the said King Henry
VIII., against the supremacy of the See Apostolic, as in our
submission exhibited to the said most Reverend Father in God, by your
majesties appeareth--it may like your majesty, for the accomplishment
of our promise, that all such laws be repealed. That is to say:--
[Footnote 407: 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, cap. 8.]
"The Act against obtaining Dispensations from Rome for Pluralities and
non-Residence.[408]
[Footnote 408: 21 Henry VIII. cap. 13.]
"The Act that no person shall be cited out of the Diocese where he or
she dwelleth.[409]
[Footnote 409: 23 Henry VIII. cap. 9.]
"The Act against Appeals to the See of Rome.[410]
[Footnote 410: 24 Henry VIII. cap. 12.]
"The Act against the Payment of Annates and First-fruits to the See of
Rome.[411]
[Footnote 411: 23 Henry VIII. cap. 20. The Act was
repealed, but the annates were not restored.]
"The Act for the Submission of the Clergy.[412]
[Footnote 412: 25 Henry VIII. cap. 19.]
"The Act for the Election and Consecration of Bishops.[413]
[Footnote 413: 25 Henry VIII. cap. 20.]
"The Act against Exactions from the See of Rome.[414]
[Footnote 414: 25 Henry VIII. cap. 21.]
"The Act of the Royal Supremacy.[415]
[Footnote 415: 26 Henry VIII. cap. 1.]
{p.182} "The Act for the Consecration of Suffragan Bishops.[416]
[Footnote 416: 26 Henry VIII. cap. 14.]
"The Act for the Reform of the Canon Law.[417]
[Footnote 417: 27 Henry VIII. cap. 15.]
"The Act against the Authority of the Pope.[418]
[Footnote 418: 28 Henry VIII. cap. 10.]
"The Act for the Release of those who had obtained Dispensations from
Rome.[419]
[Footnote 419: 28 Henry VIII. cap. 16.]
"The Act authorising the King to appoint Bishops by Letters
Patent.[420]
[Footnote 420: 31 Henry VIII. cap. 9.]