THE PARLIAMENT OF 1529
No Englishman can look back uninterested on the meeting of the parliament
of 1529. The era at which it assembled is the most memorable in the history
of this country, and the work which it accomplished before its dissolution
was of larger moment politically and spiritually than the achievements of
the Long Parliament itself. For nearly seven years it continued surrounded
by intrigue, confusion, and at length conspiracy, presiding over a people
from whom the forms and habits by which they had moved for centuries were
falling like the shell of a chrysalis. While beset with enemies within the
realm and without, it effected a revolution which severed England from the
papacy, yet it preserved peace unbroken and prevented anarchy from breaking
bounds; and although its hands are not pure from spot, and red stains rest
on them which posterity have bitterly and long remembered; yet if we
consider the changes which it carried through, and if we think of the price
which was paid by other nations for victory in the same struggle, we shall
acknowledge that the records of the world contain no instance of such a
triumph, bought at a cost so slight and tarnished by blemishes so trifling.
The letters of the French Ambassador[191] describe to us the gathering of
the members into London, and the hum of expectation sounding louder and
louder as the day of the opening approached. In order that we may see
distinctly what London felt on this occasion, that we may understand in
detail the nature of those questions with which parliament was immediately
to deal, we will glance at some of the proceedings which had taken place in
the Bishops' Consistory Courts during the few preceding years. The duties
of the officials of these courts resembled in theory the duties of the
censors under the Roman Republic. In the middle ages, a lofty effort had
been made to overpass the common limitations of government, to introduce
punishment for sins as well as crimes, and to visit with temporal penalties
the breach of the moral law. The punishment best adapted for such offences
was some outward expression of the disapproval with which good men regard
acts of sin; some open disgrace; some spiritual censure; some suspension of
communion with the church, accompanied by other consequences practically
inconvenient, to be continued until the offender had made reparation, or
had openly repented, or had given confirmed proof of amendment. The
administration of such a discipline fell, as a matter of course, to the
clergy. The clergy were the guardians of morality; their characters were a
claim to confidence, their duties gave them opportunities of observation
which no other men could possess; while their priestly office gave solemn
weight to their sentences. Thus arose throughout Europe a system of
spiritual surveillance over the habits and conduct of every man, extending
from the cottage to the castle, taking note of all wrong dealing, of all
oppression of man by man, of all licentiousness and profligacy, and
representing upon earth, in the principles by which it was guided, the laws
of the great tribunal of Almighty God.
Such was the origin of the church courts, perhaps the greatest institutions
ever yet devised by man. But to aim at these high ideals is as perilous as
it is noble; and weapons which may be safely trusted in the hands of saints
become fatal implements of mischief when saints have ceased to wield them.
For a time, we need not doubt, the practice corresponded to the intention.
Had it not been so, the conception would have taken no root, and would have
been extinguished at its birth. But a system which has once established
itself in the respect of mankind will be tolerated long after it has
forfeited its claim to endurance, as the name of a great man remains
honoured though borne by worthless descendants; and the Consistory courts
had continued into the sixteenth century with unrestricted jurisdiction,
although they had been for generations merely perennially flowing
fountains, feeding the ecclesiastical exchequer. The moral conduct of every
English man and woman remained subject to them. Each private person was
liable to be called in question for every action of his life; and an
elaborate network of canon law perpetually growing, enveloped the whole
surface of society. But between the original design and the degenerate
counterfeit there was this vital difference,--that the censures were no
longer spiritual. They were commuted in various gradations for pecuniary
fines, and each offence against morality was rated at its specific money
value in the episcopal tables. Suspension and excommunication remained as
ultimate penalties; but they were resorted to only to compel unwilling
culprits to accept the alternative.
The misdemeanours of which the courts took cognisance[192] were "offences
against chastity," "heresy," or "matter sounding thereunto," "witchcraft,"
"drunkenness," "scandal," "defamation," "impatient words," "broken
promises," "untruth," "absence from church," "speaking evil of saints,"
"non-payment of offerings," and other delinquencies incapable of legal
definition; matters, all of them, on which it was well, if possible, to
keep men from going wrong; but offering wide opportunities for injustice;
while all charges, whether well founded or ill, met with ready acceptance
in courts where innocence and guilt alike contributed to the revenue.[193]
"Mortuary claims" were another fertile matter for prosecution; and probate
duties and legacy duties; and a further lucrative occupation was the
punishment of persons who complained against the constitutions of the
courts themselves; to complain against the justice of the courts being to
complain against the church, and to complain against the church being
heresy. To answer accusations on such subjects as these, men were liable to
be summoned, at the will of the officials, to the metropolitan courts of
the archbishops, hundreds of miles from their homes.[194] No expenses were
allowed; and if the charges were without foundation, it was rare that costs
could be recovered. Innocent or guilty, the accused parties were equally
bound to appear.[195] If they failed, they were suspended for contempt. If
after receiving notice of their suspension, they did not appear, they were
excommunicated; and no proof of the groundlessness of the original charge
availed to relieve them from their sentence, till they had paid for their
deliverance.
Well did the church lawyers understand how to make their work productive.
Excommunication seems but a light thing when there are many communions. It
was no light thing when it was equivalent to outlawry; when the person
excommunicated might be seized and imprisoned at the will of the ordinary;
when he was cut off from all holy offices; when no one might speak to him,
trade with him, or show him the most trivial courtesy; and when his
friends, if they dared to assist him, were subject to the same penalties.
In the _Register_ of the Bishop of London[196] there is more than one
instance to be found of suspension and excommunication for the simple crime
of offering shelter to an excommunicated neighbour; and thus offence begot
offence, guilt spread like a contagion through the influence of natural
humanity, and a single refusal of obedience to a frivolous citation might
involve entire families in misery and ruin.
The people might have endured better to submit to so enormous a tyranny, if
the conduct of the clergy themselves had given them a title to respect, or
if equal justice had been distributed to lay and spiritual offenders.
"Benefit of clergy," unhappily, as at this time interpreted, was little
else than a privilege to commit sins with impunity. The grossest moral
profligacy in a priest was passed over with indifference; and so far from
exacting obedience in her ministers to a higher standard than she required
of ordinary persons, the church extended her limits under fictitious
pretexts as a sanctuary for lettered villany. Every person who could read
was claimed by prescriptive usage as a clerk, and shielded under her
protecting mantle; nor was any clerk amenable for the worst crimes to the
secular jurisdiction, until he had been first tried and degraded by the
ecclesiastical judges. So far was this preposterous exemption carried, that
previous to the passing of the first of the 23rd of Henry the Eighth,[197]
those who were within the degrees might commit murder with impunity, the
forms which it was necessary to observe in degrading a priest or deacon
being so complicated as to amount to absolute protection.[198]
Among the clergy, properly so called, however, the prevailing offence was
not crime, but licentiousness. A doubt has recently crept in among our
historians as to the credibility of the extreme language in which the
contemporary writers spoke upon this painful topic. It will scarcely be
supposed that the picture has been overdrawn in the act books of the
Consistory courts; and as we see it there it is almost too deplorable for
belief, as well in its own intrinsic hideousness as in the unconscious
connivance of the authorities. Brothels were kept in London for the
especial use of priests;[199] the "confessional" was abused in the most
open and abominable manner.[200] Cases occurred of the same frightful
profanity in the service of the mass, which at Rome startled Luther into
Protestantism;[201] and acts of incest between nuns and monks were too
frequently exposed to allow us to regard the detected instances as
exceptions.[202] It may be said that the proceedings upon these charges
prove at least that efforts were made to repress them. The bishops must
have the benefit of the plea, and the two following instances will show how
far it will avail their cause. In the Records of the London Court I find a
certain Thomas Wyseman, priest, summoned for fornication and incontinency.
He was enjoined for penance, that on the succeeding Sunday, while high mass
was singing, he should offer at each of the altars in the Church of St.
Bartholomew a candle of wax, value one penny, saying therewith five
_Paternosters_, five _Ave Marys_, and five _Credos_. On the following
Friday he was to offer a candle of the same price before the crucifix,
standing barefooted, and one before the image of cur Lady of Grace. This
penance accomplished he appeared again at the court and compounded for
absolution, paying six shillings and eightpence.[203]
An exposure too common to attract notice, and a fine of six and eightpence
was held sufficient penalty for a mortal sin.
Even this, however, was a severe sentence compared with the sentence passed
upon another priest who confessed to incest with the prioress of Kilbourn.
The offender was condemned to bear a cross in a procession in his parish
church, and was excused his remaining guilt for three shillings and
fourpence.[204]
I might multiply such instances indefinitely; but there is no occasion for
me to stain my pages with them.[205]
An inactive imagination may readily picture to itself the indignation
likely to have been felt by a high-minded people, when they were forced to
submit their lives, their habits, their most intimate conversations and
opinions to a censorship conducted by clergy of such a character; when the
offences of these clergy themselves were passed over with such indifferent
carelessness. Men began to ask themselves who and what these persons were
who retained the privileges of saints,[206] and were incapable of the most
ordinary duties; and for many years before the burst of the Reformation the
coming storm was gathering. Priests were hooted, or "knocked down into the
kennel,"[207] as they walked along the streets--women refused to receive
the holy bread from hands which they thought polluted,[208] and the
appearance of an apparitor of the courts to serve a process or a citation
in a private house was a signal for instant explosion. Violent words were
the least which these officials had to fear, and they were fortunate if
they escaped so lightly. A stranger had died in a house in St. Dunstan's
belonging to a certain John Fleming, and an apparitor had been sent "to
seal his chamber and his goods" that the church might not lose her dues.
John Fleming drove him out, saying loudly unto him, "Thou shalt seale no
door here; go thy way, thou stynkyng knave, ye are but knaves and brybours
everych one of you."[209] Thomas Banister, of St. Mary Wolechurch, when a
process was served upon him, "did threaten to slay the apparitor." "Thou
horson knave," he said to him, "without thou tell me who set thee awork to
summon me to the court, by Goddis woundes, and by this gold, I shall brake
thy head."[210] A "waiter, at the sign of the Cock," fell in trouble for
saying that "the sight of a priest did make him sick," also, "that he would
go sixty miles to indict a priest," saying also in the presence of
many--"horsyn priests, they shall be indicted as many as come to my
handling."[211] Often the officers found threats convert themselves into
acts. The apparitor of the Bishop of London went with a citation into the
shop of a mercer of St. Bride's, Henry Clitheroe by name. "Who does cite
me?" asked the mercer. "Marry, that do I," answered the apparitor, "if thou
wilt anything with it;" whereupon, as the apparitor deposeth, the said
Henry Clitheroe did hurl at him from off his finger that instrument of his
art called the "thymmelle," and he, the apparitor, drawing his sword, "the
said Henry did snatch up his virga, Anglice, his yard, and did pursue the
apparitor into the public streets, and after multiplying of many blows did
break the head of the said apparitor."[212] These are light matters, but
they were straws upon the stream; and such a scene as this which follows
reveals the principles on which the courts awarded their judgment. One
Richard Hunt was summoned for certain articles implying contempt, and for
vilipending his lordship's jurisdiction. Being examined, he confessed to
the words following: "That all false matters were bolstered and clokyd in
this court of Paul's Cheyne; moreover he called the apparitor, William
Middleton, false knave in the full court, and his father's dettes, said he,
by means of his mother-in-law and master commissary, were not payd; and
this he would abide by, that he had now in this place said no more but
truth." Being called on to answer further, he said he would not, and his
lordship did therefore excommunicate him.[213] From so brief an entry we
cannot tell on which side the justice lay; but at least we can measure the
equity of a tribunal which punished complaints against itself with
excommunication, and dismissed the confessed incest of a priest with a fine
of a few shillings.
Such then were the English consistory courts. I have selected but a few
instances from the proceedings of a single one of them. If we are to
understand the weight with which the system pressed upon the people, we
must multiply the proceedings at St. Paul's by the number of the English
dioceses; the number of dioceses by the number of archdeaconries; we must
remember that in proportion to the distance from London the abuse must have
increased indefinitely from the absence of even partial surveillance; we
must remember that appeals were permitted only from one ecclesiastical
court to another; from the archdeacon's court to that of the bishop of the
diocese, from that of the bishop to the Court of Arches; that any language
of impatience or resistance furnished suspicion of heresy, and that the
only security therefore was submission. We can then imagine what England
must have been with an archdeacon's commissary sitting constantly in every
town; exercising an undefined jurisdiction over general morality; and every
court swarming with petty lawyers who lived upon the fees which they could
extract. Such a system for the administration of justice was perhaps never
tolerated before in any country.
But the time of reckoning at length was arrived; slowly the hand had
crawled along the dial plate; slowly as if the event would never come: and
wrong was heaped on wrong; and oppression cried, and it seemed as if no ear
had heard its voice; till the measure of the circle was at length
fulfilled, the finger touched the hour, and as the strokes of the great
hammer rang out above the nation, in an instant the mighty fabric of
iniquity was shivered into ruins. Wolsey had dreamed that it might still
stand, self-reformed as he hoped to see it; but in his dread lest any hands
but those of friends should touch the work, he had "prolonged its sickly
days," waiting for the convenient season which was not to be; he had put
off the meeting of parliament, knowing that if parliament were once
assembled, he would be unable to resist the pressure which would be brought
to bear upon him; and in the impatient minds of the people he had
identified himself with the evils which he alone for the few last years had
hindered from falling. At length he had fallen himself, and his disgrace
was celebrated in London with enthusiastic rejoicing as the inauguration of
the new era. On the eighteenth of October, 1529, Wolsey delivered up the
seals. He was ordered to retire to Esher; and, "at the taking of his
barge," Cavendish saw no less than a thousand boats full of men and women
of the city of London, "waffeting up and down in Thames," to see him sent,
as they expected, to the Tower.[214] A fortnight later the same crowd was
perhaps again assembled on a wiser occasion, and with truer reason for
exultation, to see the king coming up in his barge from Greenwich to open
parliament.
"According to the summons," says Hall, "the King of England began his high
court of parliament the third day of November, on which day he came by
water to his palace of Bridewell, and there he and his nobles put on their
robes of Parliament, and so came to the Black Friars Church, where a mass
of the Holy Ghost was solemnly sung by the king's chaplain; and after the
mass, the king, with all his Lords and Commons which were summoned to
appear on that day, came into the Parliament. The king sate on his throne
or seat royal, and Sir Thomas More, his chancellor, standing on the right
hand of the king, made an eloquent oration, setting forth the causes why at
that time the king so had summoned them."[215]
"Like as a good shepherd," More said, "which not only keepeth and attendeth
well his sheep, but also foreseeth and provideth for all things which
either may be hurtful or noysome to his flock; so the king, which is the
shepherd, ruler, and governor of his realm, vigilantly foreseeing things to
come, considers how that divers laws, before this time made, are now, by
long continuance of time and mutation of things, become very insufficient
and imperfect; and also, by the frail condition of man, divers new
enormities are sprung amongst the people, for the which no law is yet made
to reform the same. For this cause the king at this time has summoned his
high court of parliament; and I liken the king to a shepherd or herdsman,
because if a prince be compared to his riches, he is but a rich man; if a
prince be compared to his honour, he is but an honourable man; but compare
him to the multitude of his people, and the number of his flock, then he is
a ruler, a governor of might and puissance; so that his people maketh him a
prince, as of the multitude of sheep cometh the name of a shepherd.
"And as you see that amongst a great flock of sheep some be rotten and
faulty, which the good shepherd sendeth from the good sheep; so the great
wether which is of late fallen, as you all know, so craftily, so scabedly,
yea, so untruly juggled with the king, that all men must needs guess that
he thought in himself, either the king had no wit to perceive his crafty
doings, or else that he would not see nor know them.
"But he was deceived, for his Grace's sight was so quick and penetrable
that he saw him; yea, and saw through him, both within and without; and
according to his desert he hath had a gentle correction, which small
punishment the king will not to be an example to other offenders; but
clearly declareth that whosoever hereafter shall make like attempt, or
shall commit like offence, shall not escape with like punishment.
"And because you of the Commons House be a gross multitude, and cannot all
speak at one time, the king's pleasure is, that you resort to the Nether
House, and then amongst yourselves, according to the old and antient
custom, choose an able person to be your common mouth and speaker."[216]
The invective against "the great wether" was not perhaps the portion of the
speech to which the audience listened with least interest. In the minds of
contemporaries, principles are identified with persons, who form, as it
were, the focus on which the passions concentrate. At present we may
consent to forget Wolsey, and fix our attention on the more permanently
essential matter--the reform of the laws. The world was changing; how
swiftly, how completely, no living person knew;--but a confusion no longer
tolerable was a patent fact to all men; and with a wise instinct it was
resolved that the grievances of the nation, which had accumulated through
centuries, should be submitted to a complete ventilation, without reserve,
check, or secrecy.
For this purpose it was essential that the Houses should not be interfered
with, that they should be allowed full liberty to express their wishes and
to act upon them. Accordingly, the practice then usual with ministers, of
undertaking the direction of the proceedings, was clearly on this occasion
foregone. In the House of Commons then, as much as now, there was in theory
unrestricted liberty of discussion, and free right for any member to
originate whatever motion he pleased. "The discussions in the English
Parliament," wrote Henry himself to the pope, "are free and unrestricted;
the crown has no power to limit their debates or to controul the votes of
the members. They determine everything for themselves, as the interests of
the commonwealth require."[217] But so long as confidence existed between
the crown and the people, these rights were in great measure surrendered.
The ministers prepared the business which was to be transacted; and the
temper of the Houses was usually so well understood, that, except when
there was a demand for money, it was rare that a measure was proposed the
acceptance of which was doubtful, or the nature of which would provoke
debate. So little jealousy, indeed, was in quiet times entertained of the
power of the crown, and so little was a residence in London to the taste of
the burgesses and the country gentlemen, that not only were their expenses
defrayed by a considerable salary, but it was found necessary to forbid
them absenting themselves from their duties by a positive enactment.[218]
In the composition of the House of Commons, however, which had now
assembled, no symptoms appeared of such indifference. The election had
taken place in the midst of great and general excitement; and the members
chosen, if we may judge from their acts and their petitions, were men of
that broad resolved temper, who only in times of popular effervescence are
called forward into prominence. It would have probably been unsafe for the
crown to attempt dictation or repression at such a time, if it had desired
to do so. Under the actual circumstances, its interest was to encourage the
fullest expression of public feeling.
The proceedings were commenced with a formal "act of accusation" against
the clergy, which was submitted to the king in the name of the Commons of
England, and contained a summary of the wrongs of which the people
complained. This remarkable document must have been drawn up before the
opening of parliament, and must have been presented in the first week of
the session,--probably on the first day on which the House met to transact
business.[219] There is appearance of haste in the composition, little
order being observed in the catalogue of grievances; but inasmuch as it
contains the germ of all the acts which were framed in the following years
for the reform of the church, and is in fact the most complete exhibition
which we possess of the working of the church system at the time when it
ceased to be any more tolerable, I have thought it well to insert it
uncurtailed. Although the fact of the presentation of this petition has
been well known, it has not been accurately described by any of our
historians, none of them appearing to have seen more than incorrect and
imperfect epitomes of it.[220]
"TO THE KING OUR SOVEREIGN LORD
"In most humble wise show unto your Highness and your most prudent wisdom
your faithful, loving, and most obedient servants the Commons in this your
present parliament assembled; that of late, as well through new fantastical
and erroneous opinions grown by occasion of frantic seditious books
compiled, imprinted, published, and made in the English tongue, contrary
and against the very true Catholic and Christian faith; as also by the
extreme and uncharitable behaviour and dealing of divers ordinaries, their
commissaries and sumners, which have heretofore had, and yet have the
examination in and upon the said errours and heretical opinions; much
discord, variance, and debate hath risen, and more and more daily is like
to increase and ensue amongst the universal sort of your said subjects, as
well spiritual as temporal, each against the other--in most uncharitable
manner, to the great inquietation, vexation, and breach of your peace
within this your most Catholic Realm:
"The special particular griefs whereof, which most principally concern your
Commons and lay subjects, and which are, as they undoubtedly suppose, the
very chief fountains, occasions, and causes that daily breedeth and
nourisheth the said seditious factions, deadly hatred, and most
uncharitable part taking, of either part of said subjects spiritual and
temporal against the other, followingly do ensue.--
"I. First the prelates and spiritual ordinaries of this your most excellent
Realm of England, and the clergy of the same, have in their convocations
heretofore made or caused to be made, and also daily do make many and
divers fashions of laws, constitutions, and ordinances; without your
knowledge or most Royal assent, and without the assent and consent of any
of your lay subjects; unto the which laws your said lay subjects have not
only heretofore been and daily be constrained to obey, in their bodies,
goods, and possessions; but have also been compelled to incur daily into
the censures of the same, and been continually put to importable charges
and expenses, against all equity, right, and good conscience. And yet your
said humble subjects ne their predecessors could ever be privy to the said
laws; ne any of the said laws have been declared unto them in the English
tongue, or otherwise published, by knowledge whereof they might have
eschewed the penalties, dangers, or censures of the same; which laws so
made your said most humble and obedient servants, under the supportation of
your Majesty, suppose to be not only to the diminution and derogation of
your imperial jurisdiction and prerogative royal, but also to the great
prejudice, inquietation, and damage of your said subjects.
"II. Also now of late there hath been devised by the Most Reverend Father
in God, William, Archbishop of Canterbury, that in the courts which he
calleth his Courts of the Arches and Audience, shall only be ten proctors
at his deputation, which be sworn to preserve and promote the only
jurisdiction of his said courts; by reason whereof, if any of your lay
subjects should have any lawful cause against the judges of the said
courts, or any doctors or proctors of the same, or any of their friends
and adherents, they can ne may in nowise have indifferent counsel: and
also all the causes depending in any of the said courts may by the
confederacy of the said few proctors be in such wise tracted and delayed,
as your subjects suing in the same shall be put to importable charges,
costs, and expense. And further, in case that any matter there being
preferred should touch your crown, your regal jurisdiction, and
prerogative Royal, yet the same shall not be disclosed by any of the
said proctors for fear of the loss of their offices. Your most obedient
subjects do therefore, under protection of your Majesty, suppose that
your Highness should have the nomination of some convenient number of
proctors to be always attendant upon the said Courts of Arches and
Audience, there to be sworn to the preferment of your jurisdiction and
prerogative, and to the expedition of the causes of your lay subjects
repairing and suing to the same.
"III. And also many of your said most humble and obedient subjects, and
_specially those that be of the poorest sort_, within this your Realm, be
daily convented and called before the said spiritual ordinaries, their
commissaries and substitutes, _ex officio_; sometimes, at the pleasure of
the said ordinaries, for malice without any cause; and sometimes at the
only promotion and accusement of their summoners and apparitors, being
light and undiscreet persons; without any lawful cause of accusation, or
credible fame proved against them, and without any presentment in the
visitation: and your said poor subjects be thus inquieted, disturbed,
vexed, troubled, and put to excessive and importable charges for them to
bear--and many times be suspended and excommunicate for small and light
causes upon the only certificate of the proctors of the adversaries, made
under a feigned seal which every proctor hath in his keeping; whereas the
party suspended or excommunicate many times never had any warning; and yet
when he shall be absolved, if it be out of court, he shall be compelled to
pay to his own proctor twenty[221] _pence_; to the proctor which is against
him other twenty pence, and twenty pence to the scribe, besides a privy
reward that the judge shall have, to the great impoverishing of your said
poor lay subjects.
"IV. Also your said most humble and obedient servants find themselves
grieved with the great and excessive fees taken in the said spiritual
courts, and especially in the said Courts of the Arches and Audience; where
they take for every citation two shillings and sixpence; for every
inhibition six shillings and eightpence; for every proxy sixteen pence; for
every certificate sixteen pence; for every libel three shillings and
fourpence; for every answer for every libel three shillings and fourpence;
for every act, if it be but two words according to the register, fourpence;
for every personal citation or decree three shillings and fourpence; for
every sentence or judgment, to the judge twenty-six shillings and
eightpence; for every testament upon such sentence or judgment twenty-six
shillings and eightpence; for every significavit twelve shillings; for
every commission to examine witnesses twelve shillings, which charges be
thought importable to be borne by your said subjects, and very necessary to
be reformed.
"V. And also the said prelates and ordinaries daily do permit and suffer
the parsons, vicars, curates, parish priests, and other spiritual persons
having cure of souls within this your Realm, to exact and take of your
humble servants divers sums of money for the sacraments and sacramentals of
Holy Church, sometimes denying the same without they be first paid[222] the
said sums of money, which sacraments and sacramentals your said most humble
and obedient subjects, under protection of your Highness, do suppose and
think ought to be in most reverend, charitable, and godly wise freely
ministered unto them at all times requisite, without denial, or exaction of
any manner sums of money to be demanded or asked for the same.
"VI. And also in the spiritual courts of the said prelates and ordinaries
there be limited and appointed so many judges, scribes, apparitors,
summoners, appraysers, and other ministers for the approbation of
Testaments, which covet so much their own private lucres, and the
satisfaction and appetites of the said prelates and ordinaries, that when
any of your said loving subjects do repair to any of the said courts for
the probate of any Testaments, they do in such wise make so long delays, or
excessively do take of them so large fees and rewards for the same as is
importable for them to bear, directly against all justice, law, equity, and
good conscience. Therefore your most humble and obedient subjects do, under
your gracious correction and supportation, suppose it were very necessary
that the said ordinaries in their deputation of judges should be bound to
appoint and assign such discreet, gracious, and honest persons, having
sufficient learning, wit, discretion, and understanding; and also being
endowed with such spiritual promotion, stipend, and salary; as they being
judges in their said courts might and may minister to every person
repairing to the same, justice--without taking any manner of fee or reward
for any manner of sentence or judgment to be given before them.
"VII. And also divers spiritual persons being presented as well by your
Highness as others within this your Realm to divers benefices or other
spiritual promotions, the said ordinaries and their ministers do not only
take of them for their letters of institution and induction many large sums
of money and rewards; but also do pact and covenant with the same, taking
sure bonds for their indemnity to answer to the said ordinaries for the
firstfruits of their said benefices after their institution--so as they,
being once presented or promoted, as aforesaid, are by the said ordinaries
very uncharitably handled, to their no little hindrance and impoverishment;
which your said subjects suppose not only to be against all laws, right,
and good conscience, but also to be simony, and contrary to the laws of
God.
"VIII. And also _the said spiritual ordinaries do daily confer and give
sundry benefices unto certain young folks, calling them their nephews or
kinsfolk_, being in their minority and within age, not apt ne able to serve
the cure of any such benefice: whereby the said ordinaries do keep and
detain the fruits and profits of the same benefices in their own hands, and
thereby accumulate to themselves right great and large sums of money and
yearly profits, to the most pernicious example of your said lay
subjects--and so the cures and promotions given unto such infants be only
employed to the enriching of the said ordinaries; and the poor silly souls
of your people, which should be taught in the parishes given as aforesaid,
for lack of good curates [be left] to perish without doctrine or any good
teaching.
"IX. Also, a great number of holydays now at this present time, with very
small devotion, be solemnised and kept throughout this your Realm, upon the
which many great, abominable, and execrable vices, idle and wanton sports,
be used and exercised, which holydays, if it may stand with your Grace's
pleasure, and specially such as fall in the harvest, might, by your
Majesty, with the advice of your most honourable council, prelates, and
ordinaries, be made fewer in number; and those that shall be hereafter
ordained to stand and continue, might and may be the more devoutly,
religiously, and reverendly observed, to the laud of Almighty God, and to
the increase of your high honour and favour.
"X. And furthermore the said spiritual ordinaries, their commissaries and
substitutes, sometimes for their own pleasure, sometimes by the sinister
procurement of other spiritual persons, use to make out process against
divers of your said subjects, and thereby compel them to appear before
themselves, to answer at a certain day and place to such articles as by
them shall be, _ex officio_, then proposed; and that secretly and not in
open places;[223] and forthwith upon their appearance, without any
declaration made or showed, commit and send them to ward, sometimes for
[half] a year, sometimes for a whole year or more, before they may in
anywise know either the cause of their imprisonment or the name of their
accuser;[224] and finally after their great costs and charges therein, when
all is examined and nothing can be proved against them, but they clearly
innocent for any fault or crime that can be laid unto them, they be again
set at large without any recompence or amends in that behalf to be towards
them adjudged.
"XI. And also if percase upon the said process and appearance any party be
upon the said matter, cause, or examination, brought forth and named,
either as party or witness, and then upon the proof and trial thereof be
not able to prove and verify the said accusation and testimony against the
party accused, then the person so accused is for the more part without any
remedy for his charges and wrongful vexation to be towards him adjudged and
recovered.
"XII. Also upon the examination of the said accusation, if heresy be
ordinarily laid unto the charge of the parties so accused, then the said
ordinaries or their ministers use to put to them such subtle
interrogatories concerning the high mysteries of our faith, as are able
quickly to trap a simple unlearned, or yet a well-witted layman without
learning, and bring them by such sinister introductions soon to their own
confusion. And further, if there chance any heresy to be by such subtle
policy, by any person confessed in words, and yet never committed neither
in thought nor deed, then put they, without further favour, the said person
either to make his purgation, and so thereby to lose his honesty and
credence for ever; or else as some simple silly soul [may do], the said
person may stand precisely to the testimony of his own well-known
conscience, rather than confess his innocent truth in that behalf [to be
other than he knows it to be], and so be utterly destroyed. And if it
fortune the said party so accused to deny the said accusation, and to put
his adversaries to prove the same as being untrue, forged and imagined
against him, then for the most part such witnesses as are brought forth for
the same, be they but two in number, never so sore diffamed, of little
truth or credence, they shall be allowed and enabled, only by discretion of
the said ordinaries, their commissaries or substitutes; and thereupon
sufficient cause be found to proceed to judgment, to deliver the party so
accused either to secular hands, after abjuration,[225] without remedy; or
afore if he submit himself, as best happeneth, he shall have to make his
purgation and bear a faggot, to his extreme shame and undoing.
"In consideration of all these things, most gracious Sovereign Lord, and
forasmuch as there is at this present time, and by a few years past hath
been outrageous violence on the one part and much default and lack of
patient sufferance, charity, and good will on the other part; and
consequently a marvellous disorder [hath ensued] of the godly quiet, peace,
and tranquillity in which this your Realm heretofore, ever hitherto, has
been through your politic wisdom, most honourable fame, and catholic faith
inviolably preserved; it may therefore, most benign Sovereign Lord, like
your excellent goodness for the tender and universally indifferent zeal,
benign love and favour which your Highness beareth towards both the said
parties, that the said articles (if they shall be by your most clear and
perfect judgment, thought any instrument of the said disorders and
factions), being deeply and weightily, after your accustomed ways and
manner, searched and considered; graciously to provide (all violence on
both sides utterly and clearly set apart) some such necessary and behoveful
remedies as may effectually reconcile and bring in perpetual unity, your
said subjects, spiritual and temporal; and for the establishment thereof,
to make and ordain on both sides such strait laws against transgressors and
offenders as shall be too heavy, dangerous, and weighty for them, or any of
them, to bear, suffer, and sustain.
"Whereunto your said Commons most humbly and entirely beseech your Grace,
as the only Head, Sovereign Lord and Protector of both the said parties, in
whom and by whom the only and sole redress, reformation, and remedy herein
absolutely resteth [of your goodness to consent]. By occasion whereof all
your Commons in their conscience surely account that, beside the marvellous
fervent love that your Highness shall thereby engender in their hearts
towards your Grace, ye shall do the most princely feat, and show the most
honourable and charitable precedent and mirrour that ever did sovereign
lord upon his subjects; and therewithal merit and deserve of our merciful
God eternal bliss--whose goodness grant your Grace in goodly, princely, and
honourable estate long to reign, prosper, and continue as the Sovereign
Lord over all your said most humble and obedient servants."[226]
But little comment need be added in explanation of this petition, which,
though drawn with evident haste, is no less remarkable for temper and good
feeling, than for the masterly clearness with which the evils complained of
are laid bare. Historians will be careful for the future how they swell the
charges against Wolsey with quoting the lamentations of Archbishop Warham,
when his Court of Arches was for a while superseded by the Legate's Court,
and causes lingering before his commissaries were summarily dispatched at a
higher tribunal.[227] The archbishop professed, indeed, that he derived no
personal advantage from his courts,[228] and as we have only the popular
impression to the contrary to set against his word, we must believe him;
yet it was of small moment to the laity who were pillaged, whether the
spoils taken from them filled the coffers of the master, or those of his
followers and friends.
When we consider, also, the significant allusion[229] to the young folks
whom the bishops called their nephews, we cease to wonder at their lenient
dealing with the poor priests who had sunk under the temptations of frail
humanity; and still less can we wonder at the rough handling which was soon
found necessary to bring back these high dignitaries to a better mind.
The House of Commons, in casting their grievances into the form of a
petition, showed that they had no desire to thrust forward of themselves
violent measures of reform; they sought rather to explain firmly and
decisively what the country required. The king, selecting out of the many
points noticed those which seemed most immediately pressing, referred them
back to the parliament, with a direction to draw up such enactments as in
their own judgment would furnish effective relief. In the meantime he
submitted the petition itself to the consideration of the bishops,
requiring their immediate answer to the charges against them, and
accompanied this request with a further important requisition. The
legislative authority of convocation lay at the root of the evils which
were most complained of. The bishops and clergy held themselves independent
of either crown or parliament, passing canons by their own irresponsible
and unchecked will, irrespective of the laws of the land, and sometimes in
direct violation of them; and to these canons the laity were amenable
without being made acquainted with their provisions, learning them only in
the infliction of penalties for their unintended breach. The king required
that thenceforward the convocation should consent to place itself in the
position of parliament, and that his own consent should be required and
received before any law passed by convocation should have the force of
statute.[230]
Little notion, indeed, could the bishops have possessed of the position in
which they were standing. It seemed as if they literally believed that the
promise of perpetuity which Christ had made to his church was a charm which
would hold them free in the quiet course of their injustice; or else, under
the blinding influence of custom, they did not really know that any
injustice adhered to them. They could see in themselves only the ideal
virtues of their saintly office, and not the vices of their fragile
humanity; they believed that they were still holy, still spotless, still
immaculate, and therefore that no danger might come near them. It cannot
have been but that, before the minds of such men as Warham and Fisher, some
visions of a future must at times have floated, which hung so plainly
before the eyes of Wolsey and of Sir Thomas More.[231] They could not have
been wholly deaf to the storm in Germany; and they must have heard
something of the growls of smothered anger which for years had been audible
at home, to all who had ears to hear.[232] Yet if any such thoughts at
times did cross their imagination, they were thrust aside as an uneasy
dream, to be shaken off like a nightmare, or with the coward's consolation,
"It will last my time." If the bishops ever felt an uneasy moment, there is
no trace of uneasiness in the answer which they sent in to the king, and
which now, when we read it with the light which is thrown back out of the
succeeding years, seems like the composition of mere lunacy. Perhaps they
had confidence in the support of Henry. In their courts they were in the
habit of identifying an attack upon themselves with an attack upon the
doctrines of the Church; and reading the king's feelings in their own, they
may have considered themselves safe under the protection of a sovereign who
had broken a lance with Luther, and had called himself the Pope's champion.
Perhaps they thought that they had bound him to themselves by a declaration
which they had all signed in the preceding summer in favour of the
divorce.[233] Perhaps they were but steeped in the dulness of official
lethargy. The defence is long, wearying the patience to read it; wearying
the imagination to invent excuses for the falsehoods which it contains. Yet
it is well to see all men in the light in which they see themselves; and
justice requires that we allow the bishops the benefit of their own reply.
It was couched in the following words:--[234]
"After our most humble wise, with our most bounden duty of honour and
reverence to your excellent Majesty, endued from God with incomparable
wisdom and goodness. Please it the same to understand that we, your orators
and daily bounden bedemen, have read and perused a certain supplication
which the Commons of your Grace's honourable parliament now assembled have
offered unto your Highness, and by your Grace's commandment delivered unto
us, that we should make answer thereunto. We have, as the time hath served,
made this answer following, beseeching your Grace's indifferent benignity
graciously to hear the same.
"And first for that discord, variance, and debate which, in the preface of
the said supplication they do allege to have risen among your Grace's
subjects, spiritual and temporal, occasioned, as they say, by the
uncharitable behaviour and demeanour of divers ordinaries: to this we, the
ordinaries, answer, assuring your Majesty that in our hearts there is no
such discord or variance ort our part against our brethren in God and
ghostly children your subjects, as is induced in this preface; but our
daily prayer is and shall be that all peace and concord may increase among
your Grace's true subjects our said children, whom God be our witness we
love, have loved, and shall love ever with hearty affection; never
intending any hurt ne harm towards any of them in soul or body; ne have we
ever enterprised anything against them of trouble, vexation, or
displeasure; but only have, with all charity, exercised the spiritual
jurisdiction of the Church, as we are bound of duty, upon certain
evil-disposed persons infected with the pestilent poison of heresy. And to
have peace with such had been against the Gospel of our Saviour Christ,
wherein he saith, _Non veni mittere pacem sed gladium_. Wherefore,
forasmuch as we know well that there be as well-disposed and
well-conscienced men of your Grace's Commons in no small number assembled,
as ever we knew at any time in parliament; and with that consider how on
our part there is given no such occasion why the whole number of the
spirituality and clergy should be thus noted unto your Highness; we
humbling our hearts to God and remitting the judgment of this our
inquietation to Him, and trusting, as his Scripture teacheth, that if we
love him above all, omnia cooperabuntur in bonum, shall endeavour to
declare to your Highness the innocency of us, your poor orators.
"And where, after the general preface of the same supplication, your
Grace's Commons descend to special particular griefs, and first to those
divers fashions of laws concerning temporal things, whereon, as they say,
the clergy in their convocation have made and daily do make divers laws, to
their great trouble and inquietation, which said laws be sometimes
repugnant to the statutes of your Realm, with many other complaints
thereupon:[235] To this we say, that forasmuch as we repute and take our
authority of making of laws to be grounded upon the Scriptures of God and
the determination of Holy Church, which must be the rule and square to try
the justice and righteousness of all laws, as well spiritual as temporal,
we verily trust that in such laws as have been made by us, or by our
predecessors, the same being sincerely interpreted, and after the meaning
of the makers, there shall be found nothing contained in them but such as
may be well justified by the said rule and square. And if it shall
otherwise appear, as it is our duty whereunto we shall always most
diligently apply ourselves to reform our ordinances to God's commission,
and to conform our statutes to the determination of Scripture and Holy
Church; _so we hope in God, and shall daily pray for the same, that your
Highness will, if there appear cause why, with the assent of your people,
temper your Grace's laws accordingly; whereby shall ensue a most sure and
hearty conjunction and agreement; God being lapis angularis_.
"And as concerning the requiring of your Highness's royal assent to the
authorising of such laws as have been made by our predecessors, or shall be
made by us, in such points and articles, as we have authority to rule and
order; we knowing your Highness's wisdom, virtue, and learning, nothing
doubt but that the same perceiveth how the granting thereunto dependeth not
upon our will and liberty, _and that we may not submit the execution of our
charges and duty certainly prescribed to us by God to your Highness's
assent_; although, indeed, the same is most worthy for your most princely
and excellent virtues, not only to give your royal assent, but also to
devise and command what we should for good order or manners by statutes and
laws provide in the church. Nevertheless, we considering we may not so nor
in such sort restrain the doing of our office in the feeding and ruling of
Christ's people, we most humbly desire your Grace (as the same hath done
heretofore) to show your Grace's mind and opinion unto us, which we shall
most gladly hear and follow if it shall please God to inspire us so to do;
and with all humility we therefore beseech your Grace, following the steps
of your most noble progenitors, to maintain and defend such laws and
ordinances as we, according to our calling and by the authority of God,
shall for his honour make to the edification of virtue and the maintaining
of Christ's faith, whereof your Highness is defender in name, and hath been
hitherto indeed a special protector.
"Furthermore, where there be found in the said supplication, with mention
of your Grace's person, other griefs that some of the said laws extend to
the goods and possessions of your said lay subjects, declaring the
transgressors not only to fall under the terrible censure of
excommunication, but also under the detestable crime of heresy:
"To this we answer that we remember no such, and yet if there be any such,
it is but according to the common law of the Church, and also to your
Grace's law, which determine and decree that every person spiritual or
temporal condemned of heresy shall forfeit his moveables or immoveables to
your Highness, or to the lord spiritual or temporal that by law hath right
to them.[236] Other statutes we remember none that toucheth lands or goods.
If there be, it were good that they were brought forth to be weighed and
pondered accordingly.
"Item as touching the second principal article of the said supplication,
where they say that divers and many of your Grace's obedient subjects, and
especially they that be of the poorest sort, be daily called before us or
before our substitutes ex officio; sometimes at the pleasure of us, the
ordinaries, without any probable cause, and sometimes at the only promotion
of our summoner, without any credible fame first proved against them, and
without presentment in the visitation or lawful accusation:
"On this we desire your high wisdom and learning to consider that albeit in
the ordering of Christ's people, your Grace's subjects, God of His
spiritual goodness assisteth his church, and inspireth by the Holy Ghost as
we verily trust such rules and laws as tend to the wealth of his elect
folk; yet upon considerations to man unknown, his infinite wisdom leaveth
or permitteth men to walk in their infirmity and frailty; so that we cannot
ne will arrogantly presume of ourselves, as though being in name spiritual
men, we were also in all our acts and doings clean and void from all
temporal affections and carnality of this world, or that the laws of the
church made for spiritual and ghostly purpose be not sometime applied to
worldly intent. This we ought and do lament, as becometh us, very sore.
Nevertheless, as the evil deeds of men be the mere defaults of those
particular men, and not of the whole order of the clergy, nor of the law
wholesomely by them made; our request and petition shall be with all
humility and reverence; that laws well made be not therefore called evil
because by all men and at all times they be not well executed; and that in
such defaults as shall appear such distribution may be used _ut unusquisque
onus suum portet_, and remedy be found to reform the offenders; unto the
which your Highness shall perceive as great towardness in your said orators
as can be required upon declaration of particulars. And other answer than
this cannot be made in the name of your whole clergy, for though _in multis
offendimus omnes_, as St. James saith, yet not 'in omnibus offendimus
omnes;' and the whole number can neither justify ne condemn particular acts
to them unknown but thus. He that calleth a man ex officio for correction
of sin, doeth well. He that calleth men for pleasure or vexation, doeth
evil. Summoners should be honest men. If they offend in their office, they
should be punished. To prove first [their faults] before men be called, is
not necessary. He that is called according to the laws ex officio or
otherwise, cannot complain. He that is otherwise ordered should have by
reason convenient recompence and so forth; that is well to be allowed, and
misdemeanour when it appeareth to be reproved.
"Item where they say in the same article that upon their appearance ex
officio at the only pleasure of the ordinaries, they be committed to prison
without bail or mainprize; and there they lie some half a year or more
before they come to their deliverance; to this we answer,--
"That we use no prison before conviction but for sure custody, and only of
such as be suspected of heresy, in which crime, thanked be God, there hath
fallen no such notable person in our time, or of such qualities as hath
given occasion of any sinister suspicion to be conceived of malice or
hatred to his person other than the heinousness of their crime deserveth.
_Truth it is that certain apostates, friars, monks, lewd priests, bankrupt
merchants, vagabonds, and lewd idle fellows of corrupt intent, have
embraced the abominable and erroneous opinions lately sprung in Germany_;
and by them some have been seduced in simplicity and ignorance. Against
these, if judgment has been exercised according to the laws of the church,
and conformably to the laws of this realm, we be without blame. If we have
been too remiss and slack, we shall gladly do our duty from henceforth. If
any man hath been, under pretence of this [crime], particularly offended,
it were pity to suffer any man to be wronged; and thus it ought to be, and
otherwise we cannot answer, no man's special case being declared in the
said petition.
"Item where they say further that they so appearing ex officio, be
condemned to answer to many subtle questions by the which a simple,
unlearned, or else a well-witted layman without learning sometimes is, and
commonly may be trapped and induced into peril of open penance to their
shame, or else [forced] to redeem their penance for money, as is commonly
used; to this we answer that we should not use subtlety, for we should do
all things plainly and openly; and if we do otherwise, we do amiss. We
ought not to ask questions, but after the capacities of the man. Christ
hath defended his true doctrine and faith in his Catholic church from all
subtlety, and so preserved good men in the same, as they have not (blessed
be God) been vexed, inquieted, or troubled in Christ's church. Thereupon
evil men fall in danger by their own subtlety; we protest afore God we have
neither known, read, nor heard of any one man damaged or prejudiced by
spiritual jurisdiction in this behalf, neither in this realm nor any other,
but only by his own deserts. Such is the goodness of God in maintaining the
cause of his Catholic faith.
"Item where they say they be compelled to do open penance, or else redeem
the same for money; as for penance, we answer it consisteth in the arbitre
of a judge who ought to enjoin such penance as might profit for correction
of the fault. Whereupon we disallow that judge's doing who taketh money for
penance for lucre or advantage, not regarding the reformation of sin as he
ought to do. But when open penance may sometimes work in certain persons
more hurt than good, it is commendable and allowable in that case to punish
by the purse, and preserve the fame of the party; foreseeing always the
money be converted _in usus pios et eleemosynam_, and thus we think of the
thing, and that the offenders should be punished.
"Item where they complain that two witnesses be admitted, be they never so
defamed, of little truth or credence, adversaries or enemies to the
parties; yet in many cases they be allowed by the discretion of the
ordinaries to put the party defamed, ex officio, to open penance, and then
to redemption for money; so that every of your subjects, upon the only will
of the ordinaries or their substitutes, without any accuser, proved fame,
or presentment, is or may be infamed, vexed, and troubled, to the peril of
their lives, their shames, costs, and expenses:
"To this we reply, _the Gospel of Christ teacheth us to believe two
witnesses; and as the cause is, so the judge must esteem the quality of the
witness; and in heresy no exception is necessary to be considered if their
tale be likely; which hath been highly provided lest heretics without
jeopardy might else plant their_ _heresies in lewd and light persons, and
taking exception to the witnesses, take boldness to continue their folly.
This is the universal law of Christendom, and hath universally done good.
Of any injury done to any man thereby we know not_.
"Item where they say it is not intended by them to take away from us our
authority to correct and punish sins, and especially the detestable crime
of heresy:
"To this we answer, in the prosecuting heretics we regard our duty and
office whereunto we be called, and if God will discharge us thereof, or
cease that plague universal, as, by directing the hearts of princes, and
specially the heart of your Highness (laud and thanks be unto Him), His
goodness doth commence and begin to do, we should and shall have great
cause to rejoice; as being our authority therein costly, dangerous, full of
trouble and business, without any fruit, pleasure, or commodity worldly,
but a continued conflict and vexation with pertinacity, wilfulness, folly,
and ignorance, whereupon followeth their bodily and ghostly destruction, to
our great sorrow.
"Item where they desire that by assent of your Highness (if the laws
heretofore made be not sufficient for the repression of heresy) more
dreadful and terrible laws may be made; this We think is undoubtedly a more
charitable request than as we trust necessary, considering that by the aid
of your Highness, and the pains of your Grace's statutes freely executed,
your realm may be in short time clean purged from the few small dregs that
do remain, if any do remain.
"Item where they desire some reasonable declaration may be made to your
people, how they may, if they will, avoid the peril of heresy. No better
declaration, we say, can be made than is already by our Saviour Christ, the
Apostles, and the determination of the church, which if they keep, they
shall not fail to eschew heresy.
"Item where they desire that some charitable fashion may be devised by your
wisdom for the calling of any of your subjects before us, that it shall not
stand in the only will and pleasure of the ordinaries at their own
imagination, without lawful accusation by honest witness, according to your
law; to this we say that a better provision cannot be devised than is
already devised by the clergy in our opinion; and if any default appear in
the execution, it shall be amended on declaration of the particulars, and
the same proved.
"Item where they say that your subjects be cited out of the diocese which
they dwell in, and many times be suspended and excommunicate for light
causes upon the only certificate devised by the proctors, and that all your
subjects find themselves grieved with the excessive fees taken in the
spiritual courts:
"To this article, for because it concerneth specially the spiritual courts
of me the Archbishop of Canterbury, please it your Grace to understand that
about twelve months past I reformed certain things objected here; and now
within these ten weeks I reformed many other things in my said courts, as I
suppose is not unknown unto your Grace's Commons; and some of the fees of
the officers of my courts I have brought down to halves, some to the third
part, and some wholly taken away and extincted; and yet it is objected to
me as though I had taken no manner of reformation therein. Nevertheless I
shall not cease yet; but in such things as I shall see your Commons most
offended I will set redress accordingly, so as, I trust, they will be
contented in that behalf. And I, the said archbishop, beseech your Grace to
consider what service the doctors in civil law, which have had their
practice in my courts, have done your Grace concerning treaties, truces,
confederations, and leagues devised and concluded with outward princes; and
that without such learned men in civil law your Grace could not have been
so conveniently served as at all times you have been, which thing, perhaps,
when such learned men shall fail, will appear more evident than it doth
now. The decay whereof grieveth me to foresee, not so greatly for any cause
concerning the pleasure or profit of myself, being a man spent, and at the
point to depart this world, and having no penny of any advantage by my said
courts, but principally for the good love which I bear to the honour of
your Grace and of your realm. And albeit there is, by the assent of the
Lords Temporal and the Commons of your Parliament, an act passed thereupon
already, the matter depending before your Majesty by way of supplication
offered to your Highness by your said Commons;[237] yet, forasmuch as we
your Grace's humble chaplains, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, be
bounden by oath to be intercessors for the rights of our churches; and
forasmuch as the spiritual prelates of the clergy, being of your Grace's
parliament, consented to the said act for divers great causes moving their
conscience, we your Grace's said chaplains show unto your Highness that it
hath appertained to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for the space of
four hundred years or thereabouts to have spiritual jurisdiction over all
your Grace's subjects dwelling within the provinces; and to have authority
to call before them, not only in spiritual causes devolved to them by way
of appeal, but also by way of querimony and complaint; which right and
privilege pertaineth not only to the persons of the said archbishops, but
also to the pre-eminences of their churches. Insomuch that when the
archbishop of either of the sees dieth, the said privileges do not only
remain to his successor (by which he is named Legatus natus), but also in
the meantime of vacation the same privilege resteth in the churches of
Canterbury and York; and is executed by the prior, dean and chapter of the
said churches; and so the said act is directly against the liberty and
privileges of the churches of Canterbury and York; and what dangers be to
them which study and labour to take away the liberties and privileges of
the church, whoso will read the general councils of Christendom and the
canons of the fathers of the Catholic church ordained in that behalf, shall
soon perceive. And further, we think verily that our churches, to which the
said privileges were granted, can give no cause why the pope himself (whose
predecessors granted that privilege) or any other (the honour of your Grace
ever except) may justly take away the same privileges so lawfully
prescribed from our churches, though we [ourselves] had greatly offended,
abusing the said privileges. But when in our persons we trust we have given
no cause why to lose that privilege, we beseech your Grace of your goodness
and absolute power to set such orders in this behalf as we may enjoy our
privileges lawfully admitted so long.
"Item where they complain that there is exacted and demanded in divers
parishes of this your realm, other manner of tythes than hath been
accustomed to be paid this hundred years past; and in some parts of this
your realm there is exacted double tythes, that is to say, threepence, or
twopence-halfpenny, for one acre, over and beside the tythe for the
increase of cattle that pastureth the same:
"To this we say, that tythes being due by God's law, be so duly paid
(thanked be God), by all good men, as there needeth not exaction in the
most parts of this your Grace's realm. As for double tythes, they cannot be
maintained due for one increase; whether in any place they be unduly
exacted in fact we know not. This we know in learning, that neither a
hundred years, nor seven hundred of non-payment, may debar the right of
God's law. The manner of payment, and person unto whom to pay, may be in
time altered, but the duty cannot by any means be taken away.
"Item where they say that when a mortuary is due, curates sometimes, before
they will demand it, will bring citation for it; and then will not receive
the mortuaries till they may have such costs as they say they have laid out
for the suit of the same; when, indeed, if they would first have charitably
demanded it, they needed not to have sued for the same, for it should have
been paid with good will:
"We answer that curates thus offending, if they were known, ought to be
punished, but who thus doeth we know not.
"Item where they say that divers spiritual persons being presented to
benefices within this your realm, we and our ministers do take of them
great sums of money and reward; we reply that this is a particular abuse,
and he that taketh reward doeth not well; and if any penny be exacted above
the accustomed rate and after convenient proportion, it is not well done.
But in taking the usual fee for the sealing, writing, and registering the
letters, which is very moderate, we cannot think it to be reputed as any
offence; neither have we heard any priests in our days complain of any
excess therein.
"And where they say in the same article that such as be presented be
delayed without reasonable cause, to the intent that we the ordinaries may
have the profit of the benefice during the vacation, unless they will pact
and convent with us by temporal bonds, whereof some bonds contain that we
should have part of the profit of the said benefice, which your said
subjects suppose to be not only against right and conscience, but also
seemeth to be simony, and contrary to the laws of God:
"To this we do say that a delay without reasonable cause, and for a
lucrative intent, is detestable in spiritual men, and the doers cannot
eschew punishment: but otherwise a delay is sometimes expedient to examine
the clerk, and sometimes necessary when the title is in variance. All other
bargains and covenants being contrary to the law ought to be punished, as
the quality is of the offence more or less, as simony or inordinate
covetousness.