Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustration.
See 41484-h.htm or 41484-h.zip:
(https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/41484/pg41484-images.html)
or
(https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41484/41484-h.zip)
Images of the original pages are available through
Internet Archive. See
http://archive.org/details/historyofreforma05merluoft
Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.
The carat character (^) in 1^{ma.} indicates that the letters
following, enclosed in curly brackets, are superscripted.
Collins's Select Library.
HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
The Reformation in England.
by
J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D.,
President of the Theological School of Geneva, and Vice-President of the
Societe Evangelique.
Translated by H. White,
B.A. Trinity College Cambridge, M.A. and Ph. Dr. Heidelberg.
The Translation Carefully Revised by Dr. Merle d'Aubigne.
Printed by Arrangement with Messrs. Oliver and Boyd, from the
Author's Own English Edition.
VOL. V.
Glasgow:
William Collins, Publisher & Queen's Printer.
1862.
PREFACE TO VOLUME FIFTH.
In the four previous volumes the author has described the origin and
essential development of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century on
the Continent; he has now to relate the history of the Reformation in
England.
The notes will direct the reader to the principal sources whence the
author has derived his information. Most of them are well known;
others, however, had not been previously explored, among which are the
later volumes of the State Papers published by order of Government, by
a Commission of which the illustrious Sir Robert Peel was the first
president. Three successive Home Secretaries, Sir James Graham, Sir
George Grey, and the Honourable Mr. S. H. Walpole, have presented the
author with copies of the several volumes of this great and important
collection: in some instances they were communicated to him as soon as
printed, which was the case in particular with the seventh volume, of
which he has made much use. He takes this opportunity of expressing
his sincere gratitude to these noble friends of literature.
The History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century was received
with cordiality on the Continent; but it has had a far greater number
of readers in the British dominions and in the United States. The
author looks upon the relations which this work has established
between him and many distant Christians, as a precious reward for his
labours. Will the present volume be received in those countries as
favourably as the others? A foreigner relating to the Anglo-Saxon race
the history of their Reformation is at a certain disadvantage; and
although the author would rather have referred his readers to works,
whether of old or recent date, by native writers, all of them more
competent for the task than himself, he did not think it becoming him
to shrink from the undertaking.
At no period is it possible to omit the history of the Reformation in
England from a general history of the Reformation of the Sixteenth
Century; at the present crisis it is less possible than ever.
In the first place, the English Reformation has been, and still is,
calumniated by writers of different parties, who look upon it as
nothing more than an external political transformation, and who thus
ignore its spiritual nature. History has taught the author that it was
essentially a religious transformation, and that we must seek for it
in men of faith, and not, as is usually done, solely in the caprices
of the prince, the ambition of the nobility, and the servility of the
prelates. A faithful recital of this great renovation will perhaps
show us that beyond and without the measures of Henry VIII there was
something--everything, so to speak--for therein was the essence of the
Reformation, that which makes it a divine and imperishable work.
A second motive forced the author to acknowledge the necessity of a
true History of the English Reformation. An active party in the
Episcopalian Church is reviving with zeal, perseverance, and talent,
the principles of Roman-catholicism, and striving to impose them on
the Reformed Church of England, and incessantly attacking the
foundations of evangelical Christianity. A number of young men in the
universities, seduced by that deceitful _mirage_ which some of their
teachers have placed before their eyes, are launching out into
clerical and superstitious theories, and running the risk of falling,
sooner or later, as so many have done already, into the ever-yawning
gulf of Popery. We must therefore call to mind the reforming
principles which were proclaimed from the very commencement of this
great transformation.
The new position which the Romish court is taking in England, and its
insolent aggressions, are a third consideration which seems to
demonstrate to us the present importance of this history. It is good
to call to mind that the primitive Christianity of Great Britain
perseveringly repelled the invasion of the popedom, and that after the
definitive victory of this foreign power, the noblest voices among
kings, lords, priests, and people, boldly protested against it. It is
good to show that, while the word of God recovered its inalienable
rights in Britain in the sixteenth century, the popedom, agitated by
wholly political interests, broke of itself the chain with which it
had so long bound England.--We shall see in this volume the English
government fortifying itself, for instance under Edward III, against
the invasions of Rome. It has been pretended in our days, and by
others besides ultra-montanists, that the papacy is a purely spiritual
power, and ought to be opposed by spiritual arms only. If the first
part of this argument were true, no one would be readier than
ourselves to adopt the conclusion. God forbid that any protestant
state should ever refuse the completest liberty to the Roman-catholic
doctrines. We certainly wish for reciprocity; we desire that
ultra-montanism should no longer throw into prison the humble
believers who seek consolation for themselves, and for their friends,
in Holy Scripture. But though a deplorable fanaticism should still
continue to imitate in the nineteenth century the mournful tragedies
of the Middle Ages, we should persist in demanding the fullest
liberty, not only of conscience, but of worship, for Roman-catholics
in protestant states. We should ask it in the name of justice, whose
immutable laws the injustice of our adversaries can never make us
forget; we should ask it on behalf of the final triumph of truth; for
if our demands proved unavailing, perhaps with God's help it might be
otherwise with our example. When two worlds meet face to face, in one
of which light abounds, and in the other darkness, it is the darkness
that should disappear before the light, and not the light fly from
before the darkness. We might go even farther than this: far from
constraining the English catholics in anything, we would rather desire
to help them to be freer than they are, and to aid them in recovering
the rights of which the Roman bishops robbed them in times posterior
to the establishment of the papacy; for instance, the election of
bishops and pastors, which belongs to the clergy and the people.
Indeed, Cyprian, writing to a bishop of Rome (Cornelius), demanded
three elements to secure the legitimacy of episcopal election: "The
call of God, the voice of the people, and the consent of the
co-bishops."[1] And the council of Rome, in 1080, said: "Let the
clergy and the _people_, with the consent of the apostolic see or of
their _metropolitan_, elect their bishop."[2] In our days,--days
distinguished by great liberty,--shall the church be less free than it
was in the Middle Ages?
[1] Divinum judicium, populi suffragium, co-episcoporum consensus.
Epist. 55.
[2] Clerus et populus, apostolicæ sedis, vel metropolitani sui
consensu, pastorem sibi eligat. Mansi, xx, p. 533.
But if we do not fear to claim for Roman-catholics the rights of the
church of the first ages, and a greater liberty than what they now
possess, even in the very seat of the popedom, are we therefore to
say that the state, whether under Edward III or in later times, should
oppose no barrier against Romish aggressions? If it is the very life
and soul of popery to pass beyond the boundaries of religion, and
enter into the domain of policy, why should it be thought strange for
the state to defend itself, when attacked upon its own ground? Can the
state have no need of precautions against a power which has pretended
to be paramount over England, which gave its crown to a French
monarch, which obtained an oath of vassalage from an English king, and
which lays down as its first dogma its infallibility and immutability?
And it was not only under Edward III and throughout the Middle Ages
that Rome encroached on royalty; it has happened in modern times also.
M. Mignet has recently brought to light some remarkable facts. On the
28th of June 1570, a letter from Saint Pius V was presented to the
catholic king Philip II by an agent just arrived from Rome. "Our dear
son, Robert Ridolfi," says the writer, "will explain (God willing) to
your majesty certain matters which concern not a little the honour of
Almighty God.... We conjure your majesty to take into your serious
consideration the matter which he will lay before you, and to furnish
him with all the means your majesty may judge most proper for its
execution." The pope's "dear son," accordingly, explained to the duke
of Feria, who was commissioned by Philip to receive his communication,
"that it was proposed to kill Queen Elizabeth; that the attempt would
not be made in London, because it was the seat of heresy, but during
one of her journeys; and that a certain James G---- would undertake
it." The same day the council met and deliberated on Elizabeth's
assassination. Philip declared his willingness to undertake the foul
deed recommended by his holiness; but as it would be an expensive
business, his minister hinted to the nuncio that the pope ought to
furnish the money. This horrible but instructive recital will be found
with all its details in the _Histoire de Marie Stuart_, by M. Mignet,
vol. ii, p. 159, etc. It is true that these things took place in the
sixteenth century; but the Romish church has canonized the priestly
murderer,--an honour conferred on a very small number of popes,--and
the canonization took place in the eighteenth century.[3] This is no
very distant date.
[3] Acta canonisationis S. Pil. V. Romæ, 1720, folio.
And these theories, so calculated to trouble nations, are still to be
met with in the nineteenth century. At this very moment there are
writers asserting principles under cover of which the pope may
interfere in affairs of state. The kings of Europe, terrified by the
deplorable outbreaks of 1848, appear almost everywhere ready to
support the court of Rome by arms; and ultra-montanism is taking
advantage of this to proclaim once more, "that the popedom is above
the monarchy; that it is the duty of the inferior (the king) to obey
the superior; that it is the duty of the superior (the pope) to depose
the sovereigns who abuse their power, and to condemn the subjects who
resist it; and, finally, that this public law of Christian Europe,
abolished by the ambition of sovereigns or the insubordination of
peoples, should be revived." Such are the theories now professed not
only by priests but by influential laymen.[4] To this opinion belong,
at the present hour, all the zeal and enthusiasm of Romanism, and this
alone we are bound to acknowledge is consistent with the principles of
popery. And accordingly it is to be feared that this party will
triumph, unless we oppose it with the united forces of the human
understanding, of religious and political liberty, and above all of
the word of God. The most distinguished organ of public opinion in
France, alarmed by the progress of these ultramontane doctrines, said
not long ago of this party: "In its eyes there exists but one real
authority in the world, that of the pope. All questions, not only
religious but moral and political, are amenable to one tribunal,
supreme and infallible, the pope's. The pope has the right to absolve
subjects of their oath of fidelity; subjects have the right to take up
arms against their prince when he rebels against the decisions of the
holy see. This is the social and political theory of the Middle
Ages."[5]
[4] See in particular _Le Catholicisme_, _le Liberalisme_, _et le
Socialisme_, and other writings of Donoso Cortes, marquis of
Valdegamas, one of the most distinguished members of the
constitutional party in Spain.
[5] Journal des Debats, 18th January 1853.
Since the popedom asserts claims both spiritual and temporal, the
church and the state ought to resist it, each in his own sphere, and
with its peculiar arms: the church (by which I mean the believers),
solely with Holy Scripture; the state with such institutions as are
calculated to secure its independence. What! the church is bound to
defend what belongs to the church, and the state is not to defend what
belongs to the state? If a band of robbers should endeavour to plunder
two houses, would it be just and charitable for one neighbour to say
to the other, "I must defend my house, but you must let yours be
stripped?" If the pope desires to have the immaculate conception of
the Virgin, or any other religious doctrine, preached, let the fullest
liberty be granted him, and let him build as many churches as he
pleases for that purpose: we claim this in the plainest language. But
if the pope, like Saint Pius, desires to kill the queen of England, or
at least (for no pope in our days, were he even Saint enough to be
canonized, would conceive such an idea), if the pope desires to
infringe in any way on the rights of the state, then let the state
resist him with tried wisdom and unshaken firmness. Let us beware of
an ultra-spiritualism which forgets the lessons of history, and
overlooks the rights of kings and peoples. When it is found among
theologians, it is an error; in statesmen, it is a danger.
Finally, and this consideration revives our hopes, there is a fourth
motive which gives at this time a particular importance to the history
we are about to relate. The Reformation is now entering upon a new
phasis. The movement of the sixteenth century had died away during the
seventeenth and eighteenth, and it was often to churches which had
lost every spark of life that the historian had then to recount the
narrative of this great revival. This is the case no longer. After
three centuries, a new and a greater movement is succeeding that which
we describe in these volumes. The principles of the religious
regeneration, which God accomplished three hundred years ago, are now
carried to the end of the world with the greatest energy. The task of
the sixteenth century lives again in the nineteenth, but more
emancipated from the temporal power, more spiritual, more general; and
it is the Anglo-Saxon race that God chiefly employs for the
accomplishment of this universal work. The English Reformation
acquires therefore, in our days, a special importance. If the
Reformation of Germany was the foundation of the building, that of
England was its crowning stone.
The work begun in the age of the apostles, and renewed in the times of
the reformers, should be resumed in our days with a holy enthusiasm;
and the work is very simple and very beautiful, for it consists in
establishing the throne of Jesus Christ in the church and on earth.
Evangelical faith does not place on the throne of the church either
human reason or religious conscientiousness, as some would have it;
but it sets thereon Jesus Christ, who is both the knowledge taught and
the doctor who teaches it; who explains his word by the word, and by
the light of his Holy Spirit; who by it bears witness to the truth,
that is to say, to his redemption, and teaches the essential laws
which should regulate the inner life of his disciples. Evangelical
faith appeals to the understanding, to the heart, and to the will of
every Christian, only to impose on them the duty to submit to the
divine authority of Christ, to listen, believe, love, comprehend, and
act, as God requires.
Evangelical faith does not place on the throne of the church the civil
power, or the secular magistrate; but it sets thereon Jesus Christ,
who has said, _I am King_; who imparts to his subjects the principle
of life; who establishes his kingdom here on earth, and preserves and
develops it; and who, directing all mortal events, is now making the
progressive conquest of the world, until he shall exercise in person
his divine authority in the kingdom of his glory.
Finally, evangelical faith does not place on the throne of the church
priests, councils, doctors, or their traditions,--or that vice-God
(_veri Dei vicem gerit in terris_, as the Romish gloss has it), that
_infallible_ pontiff, who, reviving the errors of the pagans, ascribes
salvation to the forms of worship and to the meritorious works of men.
It sets thereon Jesus Christ, the great high-priest of his people, the
God-man, who, by an act of his free love, bore in our stead, in his
atoning sacrifice, the penalty of sin;--who has taken away the curse
from our heads, and thus become the creator of a new race.
Such is the essential work of that Christianity which the apostolic
age transmitted to the reformers, and which it now transmits to the
Christians of the nineteenth century.
While the thoughts of great numbers are led astray in the midst of
ceremonies, priests, human lucubrations, pontifical fables, and
philosophic reveries, and are driven to and fro in the dust of this
world, evangelical faith rises even to heaven, and falls prostrate
before Him who sitteth on the throne.
The Reformation is Jesus Christ.
"Lord, to whom shall we go, if not unto thee?" Let others follow the
devices of their imaginations, or prostrate themselves before
traditional superstitions, or kiss the feet of a sinful man.... O,
King of glory, we desire but Thee alone!
EAUX-VIVES, GENEVA, _March 1853_.
CONTENTS.
BOOK XVII.
ENGLAND BEFORE THE REFORMATION.
CHAPTER I.
Introduction--Work of the Sixteenth Century--Unity and Diversity--
Necessity of considering the entire Religious History of England--
Establishment of Christianity in Great Britain--Formation of
Ecclesiastical Catholicism in the Roman Empire--Spiritual Christianity
received by Britain--Slavery and Conversion of Succat--His mission to
Ireland--Anglo-Saxons re-establish Paganism in England--Columba at
Iona--Evangelical Teaching--Presbytery and Episcopacy in Great
Britain--Continental Missions of the Britons--An Omission, page 21
CHAPTER II.
Pope Gregory the Great--Desires to reduce Britain--Policy of Gregory
and Augustine--Arrival of the Mission--Appreciation--Britain superior
to Rome--Dionoth at Bangor--First and Second Romish Aggressions--Anguish
of the Britons--Pride of Rome--Rome has recourse to the
Sword--Massacre--Saint Peter scourges an Archbishop--Oswald--His
Victory--Corman--Mission of Oswald and Aidan--Death of Oswald, page 33
CHAPTER III.
Character of Oswy--Death of Aidan--Wilfrid at Rome--At Oswald's
Court--Finan and Colman--Independence of the Church attacked--Oswy's
Conquests and Troubles--_Synodus Pharensis_--Cedda--Degeneration--The
Disputation--Peter, the Gatekeeper--Triumph of Rome--Grief of the
Britons--Popedom organized in England--Papal Exultation--Archbishop
Theodore--Cedda re-ordained--Discord in the Church--Disgrace and
Treachery of Wilfrid--His end--Scotland attacked--Adamnan--Iona
resists--A King converted by Architects--The Monk Egbert at
Iona--His History--Monkish Visions--Fall of Iona, page 43
CHAPTER IV.
Clement--Struggle between a Scotchman and an Englishman--Word
of God only--Clement's Success--His condemnation--Virgil and the
Antipodes--John Scotus and Philosophical Religion--Alfred and
the Bible--Darkness and Popery--William the Conqueror--Wulston
at Edward's Tomb--Struggle between William and Hildebrand--The
Pope yields--Cæsaropapia, page 58
CHAPTER V.
Anselm's Firmness--Becket's Austerity--The king scourged--John becomes
the Pope's Vassal--Collision between Popery and Liberty--The
Vassal King ravages his kingdom--Religion of the Senses and
Superstition, page 66
CHAPTER VI.
Reaction--Grostete--Principles of Reform--Contest with the Pope--
Sewal--Progress of the Nation--Opposition to the Papacy--Conversion
of Bradwardine--Grace is Supreme--Edward III--Statutes of
_Provisors_ and _Præmunire_, page 72
CHAPTER VII.
The Mendicant Friars--Their Disorders and Popular Indignation--
Wickliffe--His Success--Speeches of the Peers against the Papal
Tribute--Agreement of Bruges--Courtenay and Lancaster--Wickliffe
before the Convocation--Altercation between Lancaster and
Courtenay--Riot--Three Briefs against Wickliffe--Wickliffe at
Lambeth--Mission of the _Poor Priests_--Their Preachings and
Persecutions--Wickliffe and the Four Regents, page 77
CHAPTER VIII.
The Bible--Wickliffe's Translation--Effects of its Publication--
Opposition of the Clergy--Wickliffe's Fourth
Phasis--Transubstantiation--Excommunication--Wickliffe's Firmness--
Wat Tyler--The Synod--The condemned Propositions--Wickliffe's
Petition--Wickliffe before the Primate at Oxford--Wickliffe summoned
to Rome--His answer--The Trialogue--His Death--And Character--His
Teaching--His Ecclesiastical Views--A Prophecy, page 86
CHAPTER IX.
The Wickliffites--Call for Reform--Richard II--The first Martyr--
Lord Cobham--Appears before Henry V--Before the Archbishop--His
Confession and Death--The Lollards, page 97
CHAPTER X.
Learning at Florence--The Tudors--Erasmus visits England--Sir
Thomas More--Dean Colet--Erasmus and young Henry--Prince
Arthur and Catherine--Marriage and Death--Catherine betrothed
to Henry--Accession of Henry VIII--Enthusiasm of the Learned--
Erasmus recalled to England--Cromwell before the Pope--Catherine
proposed to Henry--Their Marriage and Court--Tournaments--Henry's
Danger, page 106
CHAPTER XI.
The Pope excites to War--Colet's Sermon at St. Paul's--The Flemish
Campaign--Marriage of Louis XII and Princess Mary--Letter from
Anne Boleyn--Marriage of Brandon and Mary--Oxford--Sir Thomas
More at Court--Attack upon the Monasteries--Colet's Household--He
preaches Reform--The Greeks and Trojans, page 114
CHAPTER XII.
Wolsey--His first Commission--His complaisance and Dioceses--Cardinal,
Chancellor, and Legate--Ostentation and Necromancy--His Spies and
Enmity--Pretensions of the clergy, page 122
CHAPTER XIII.
The Wolves--Richard Hun--A Murder--Verdict of the Jury--Hun
condemned, and his Character vindicated--The Gravesend Passage-boat--
A festival disturbed--Brown tortured--Visit from his Wife--A
Martyr--Character of Erasmus--1516 and 1517--Erasmus goes to
Basle, page 126
BOOK XVIII.
THE REVIVAL OF THE CHURCH.
CHAPTER I.
Four reforming Powers--Which reformed England?--Papal Reform?--
Episcopal Reform?--Royal Reform?--What is required in a legitimate
Reform--The Share of the Kingly Power--Share of the Episcopal
Authority--High and Low Church--Political Events--The Greek and
Latin New Testament--Thoughts of Erasmus--Enthusiasm and anger--
Desire of Erasmus--Clamours of the Priests--Their Attack at Court--
Astonishment of Erasmus--His Labours for this Work--Edward
Lee; his Character--Lee's _Tragedy_--Conspiracy, page 134
CHAPTER II.
Effects of the New Testament in the Universities--Conversations--A
Cambridge Fellow--Bilney buys the New Testament--The first Passage--
His Conversion--Protestantism, the Fruit of the Gospel--The
Vale of the Severn--William Tyndale--Evangelization at Oxford--
Bilney teaches at Cambridge--Fryth--Is Conversion Possible?--True
Consecration--The Reformation has begun, page 144
CHAPTER III.
Alarm of the Clergy--The Two Days--Thomas Man's Preaching--True
real Presence--Persecutions at Coventry--Standish preaches at St.
Paul's--His Petition to the King and Queen--His Arguments and
Defeat--Wolsey's Ambition--First Overtures--Henry and Francis
Candidates for the Empire--Conference between Francis I and Sir
T. Boleyn--The Tiara promised to Wolsey--The cardinal's Intrigues
with Charles and Francis, page 151
CHAPTER IV.
Tyndale--Sodbury Hall--Sir John and Lady Walsh--Table-Talk--The
Holy Scriptures--The Images--The Anchor of Faith--A Roman
Camp--Preaching of Faith and Works--Tyndale accused by the
Priests--They tear up what he has planted--Tyndale resolves to
translate the Bible--His first triumph--The Priests in the
taverns--Tyndale summoned before the Chancellor of Worcester--
Consoled by an aged Doctor--Attacked by a schoolman--His Secret
becomes known--He leaves Sodbury Hall, page 158
CHAPTER V.
Luther's Works in England--Consultation of the Bishops--The Bull of
Leo X published in England--Luther's books burnt--Letter of
Henry VIII--He undertakes to write against Luther--Cry of Alarm--
Tradition and Sacramentalism--Prudence of Sir T. More--The
Book presented to the Pope--_Defender of the Faith_--Exultation of
the king, page 166
CHAPTER VI.
Wolsey's Machinations to obtain the Tiara--He gains Charles V--Alliance
between Henry and Charles--Wolsey offers to command the Troops--Treaty
of Bruges--Henry believes himself King of France--Victories
of Francis I--Death of Leo X, page 173
CHAPTER VII.
The Just Men of Lincolnshire--Their Assemblies and Teaching--Agnes
and Morden--Itinerant Libraries--Polemical Conversations--Sarcasm--
Royal Decree and Terror--Depositions and Condemnations--Four
Martyrs--A Conclave--Charles consoles Wolsey, page 177
CHAPTER VIII.
Character of Tyndale--He arrives in London--He preaches--The Cloth
and the Ell--The bishop of London gives Audience to Tyndale--He
is dismissed--A Christian Merchant of London--Spirit of Love in
the Reformation--Tyndale in Monmouth's House--Fryth helps him
to translate the New Testament--Importunities of the Bishop of
Lincoln--Persecution in London--Tyndale's Resolution--He
departs--His Indignation against the Prelates--His Hopes, page 182
CHAPTER IX.
Bilney at Cambridge--Conversions--The University Cross-Bearer--A
Leicestershire Farmer--A Party of Students--Superstitious
Practices--An obstinate Papist--The Sophists--Latimer attacks
Stafford--Bilney's Resolution--Latimer hears Bilney's Confession--
Confessor converted--New Life in Latimer--Bilney preaches
Grace--Nature of the Ministry--Latimer's Character and Teaching--
Works of Charity--Three Classes of Adversaries--Clark and
Dalaber, page 190
CHAPTER X.
Wolsey seeks the Tiara--Clement VII is elected--Wolsey's dissimulation--
Charles offers France to Henry--Pace's Mission on this Subject--Wolsey
reforms the Convents--His secret Alliances--Treaty between France
and England--Taxation and Insurrection--False Charges against the
Reformers--Latimer's Defence--Tenterden Steeple, page 201
CHAPTER XI.
Tyndale at Hamburg--First two Gospels--Embarrassment--Tyndale
at Wittemberg--At Cologne--The New Testament at Press--Sudden
Interruption--Cochlæus at Cologne--Rupert's Manuscripts--Discovery
of Cochlæus--His Inquiries--His alarm--Rincke and the
Senate's Prohibition--Consternation and Decision of Tyndale--Cochlæus
writes to England--Tyndale ascends the Rhine--Prints
two Editions at Worms--Tyndale's Prayer, page 207
CHAPTER XII.
Worms and Cambridge--St. Paul resuscitated--Latimer's Preaching--
Never Man spake like this Man--Joy and Vexation at Cambridge--
Sermon by Prior Buckingham--Irony--Latimer's Reply to Buckingham--
The Students threatened--Latimer preaches before the Bishop--He
is forbidden to preach--The most zealous of Bishops--Barnes
the Restorer of Letters--Bilney undertakes to convert him--Barnes
offers his pulpit to Latimer--Fryth's Thirst for God--Christmas
Eve, 1525--Storm against Barnes--Ferment in the Colleges--Germany
at Cambridge--Meetings at Oxford--General Expectation, page 215
BOOK XIX.
THE ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT AND THE COURT OF ROME.
CHAPTER I.
Church and State essentially distinct--Their fundamental Principles--
What restores Life to the Church--Separation from Rome necessary--
Reform and Liberty--The New Testament crosses the sea--Is
hidden in London--Garret's Preaching and Zeal--Dissemination of
Scripture--What the People find in it--The Effects it produces--
Tyndale's Explanations--Roper, More's son-in-law--Garret carries
Tyndale's Testament to Oxford--Henry and his Valet--The
Supplication of the Beggars--Two Sorts of Beggars--Evils caused
by Priests--More's Supplications of the Souls in Purgatory, page 228
CHAPTER II.
The two Authorities--Commencement of the Search--Garret at Oxford--
His Flight--His return and Imprisonment--Escapes and takes Refuge
with Dalaber--Garret and Dalaber at Prayer--The _Magnificat_--
Surprise among the Doctors--Clark's Advice--Fraternal Love at
Oxford--Alarm of Dalaber--His Arrest and Examination--He is
tortured--Garret and twenty Fellows imprisoned--The Cellar--
Condemnation and Humiliation, page 238
CHAPTER III.
Persecution at Cambridge--Barnes arrested--A grand Search--Barnes
at Wolsey's Palace--Interrogated by the Cardinal--Conversation
between Wolsey and Barnes--Barnes threatened with the Stake--His
Fall and public Penance--Richard Bayfield--His Faith and
Imprisonment--Visits Cambridge--Joins Tyndale--The Confessors
in the Cellar at Oxford--Four of them die--The rest liberated, page 246
CHAPTER IV.
Luther's Letter to the King--Henry's Anger--His Reply--Luther's
Resolution--Persecutions--Barnes escapes--Proclamations against
the New Testament--W. Roy to Caiaphas--Third Edition of the New
Testament--The Triumph of Law and Liberty--Hacket attacks the
Printer--Hacket's Complaints--A seizure--The Year 1526 in
England, page 255
CHAPTER V.
Wolsey desires to be revenged--The Divorce suggested--Henry's
Sentiments towards the Queen--Wolsey's first Steps--Longland's
Proceedings--Refusal of Margaret of Valois--Objection of the
Bishop of Tarbes--Henry's uneasiness--Catherine's Alarm--Mission
to Spain, page 261
CHAPTER VI.
Anne Boleyn appointed Maid of Honour to Catherine--Lord Percy
becomes attached to her--Wolsey separates them--Anne Enters
Margaret's Household--Siege of Rome; Cromwell--Wolsey's
Intercession for the Popedom--He demands the Hand of Renée of
France for Henry--Failure--Anne re-appears at Court--Repels the
king's Advances--Henry's Letter--He resolves to accelerate the
Divorce--Two Motives which induce Anne to refuse the Crown--
Wolsey's Opposition, page 267
CHAPTER VII.
Bilney's Preaching--His arrest--Arthur's Preaching and Imprisonment--
Bilney's Examination--Contest between the Judge and the Prisoner--
Bilney's weakness and Fall--His Terrors--Two Wants--Arrival
of the Fourth Edition of the New Testament--Joy among the
Believers, page 275
CHAPTER VIII.
The Papacy intercepts the Gospel--The King consults Sir Thomas
More--Ecclesiastical Conferences about the divorce--The Universities--
Clark--The Nun of Kent--Wolsey decides to do the king's
Will--Mission to the Pope--Four Documents--Embarrassment of
Charles V--Francis Philip at Madrid--Distress and Resolution of
Charles--He turns away from the Reformation--Conference at the
Castle of St. Angelo--Knight arrives in Italy--His Flight--Treaty
between the Pope and the Emperor--Escape of the Pope--Confusion
of Henry VIII--Wolsey's orders--His Entreaties, page 281
CHAPTER IX.
The English Envoys at Orvieto--Their oration to the Pope--Clement
gains Time--The Envoys and Cardinal Sanctorum Quatuor--Stratagem
of the Pope--Knight discovers it and returns--The Transformations
of Antichrist--The English obtain a new Document--Fresh
Stratagem--Demand of a second Cardinal-legate--The Pope's
new Expedient--End of the Campaign, page 289
CHAPTER X.
Disappointment in England--War declared against Charles V--Wolsey
desires to get him deposed by the Pope--A new Scheme--Embassy
of Fox and Gardiner--Their Arrival at Orvieto--Their
first interview with Clement--The Pope reads a treatise by Henry--
Gardiner's Threats and Clement's Promise--The Modern Fabius--Fresh
Interview and Menaces--The pope has not _the key_--Gardiner's
Proposition--Difficulties and delays of the Cardinals--Gardiner's
last Blows--Reverses of Charles V in Italy--The Pope's
Terror and Concession--The _Commission_ granted--Wolsey demands
the _Engagement_--A Loophole--The Pope's Distress, page 297
CHAPTER XI.
Fox's Report to Henry and Anne--Wolsey's Impression--He demands
the Decretal--One of the Cardinal's petty Manœuvres--He sets
his Conscience at Rest--Gardiner fails at Rome--Wolsey's new
perfidy--The King's Anger against the Pope--Sir T. More predicts
Religious Liberty--Immorality of Ultramontane Socialism--Erasmus
invited--Wolsey's last Flight--Energetic Efforts at Rome--Clement
grants all--Wolsey triumphs--Union of Rome and
England, page 307
BOOK XX.
THE TWO DIVORCES.
CHAPTER I.
Progress of the Reformation--The two Divorces--Entreaties to Anne
Boleyn--The Letters in the Vatican--Henry to Anne--Henry's
Second Letter--Third--Fourth--Wolsey's Alarm--His fruitless
Proceedings--He turns--The Sweating Sickness--Henry's Fears--New
Letters to Anne--Anne falls sick; her Peace--Henry writes to her--
Wolsey's Terror--Campeggio does not arrive--All dissemble at
Court, page 316