recognises us as Supreme Lord of Scotland, and as his prince and sovereign,
we then, the said earl doing the premises, by these presents bind ourself
to pay yearly to the said earl the sum of one thousand pounds
sterling.--Henry VIII. to the Earl of Angus: _State Papers_, vol. iv. p.
613.
[385] A letter of Queen Catherine to the Emperor, written on the occasion
of this visit, will be read with interest:--
"HIGH AND MIGHTY LORD,--Although your Majesty is occupied with your own
affairs and with your preparations against the Turk, I cannot,
nevertheless, refrain from troubling you with mine, which perhaps in
substance and in the sight of God are of equal importance. Your Majesty
knows well, that God hears those who do him service, and no greater service
can be done than to procure an end in this business. It does not concern
only ourselves--it concerns equally all who fear God. None can measure the
woes which will fall on Christendom, if his Holiness will not act in it and
act promptly. The signs are all around us in new printed books full of lies
and dishonesty--in the resolution to proceed with the cause here in
England--in the interview of these two princes, where the king, my lord, is
covering himself with infamy through the companion which he takes with him.
The country is full of terror and scandal; and evil may be looked for if
nothing be done, and inasmuch as our only hope is in God's mercy, and in
the favour of your Majesty, for the discharge of my conscience, I must let
you know the strait in which I am placed.
"I implore your Highness for the service of God, that you urge his Holiness
to be prompt in bringing the cause to a conclusion. The longer the delay
the harder the remedy will be.
"The particulars of what is passing here are so shocking, so outrageous
against Almighty God, they touch so nearly the honour of my Lord and
husband, that for the love I bear him, and for the good that I desire for
him, I would not have your Highness know of them from me. Your ambassador
will inform you of all."--Queen Catherine to Charles V. September 18.--MS.
Simancas.
The Emperor, who was at Mantua, was disturbed at the meeting at Boulogne,
on political grounds as well as personal. On the 24th of October he wrote
to his sister, at Brussels.
_Charles the Fifth to the Regent Mary._
Mantua, October 16, 1532.
I found your packets on arriving here, with the ambassadors' letters from
France and England. The ambassadors will themselves have informed you of
the intended conference of the Kings. The results will make themselves felt
ere long. We must be on our guard, and I highly approve of your precautions
for the protection of the frontiers.
As to the report that the King of England means to take the opportunity of
the meeting to marry Anne Boleyn, I can hardly believe that he will be so
blind as to do so, or that the King of France will lend himself to the
other's sensuality. At all events, however, I have written to my ministers
at Rome, and I have instructed them to lay a complaint before the Pope,
that, while the process is yet pending, in contempt of the authority of the
Church, the King of England is scandalously bringing over the said Anne
with him, as if she were his wife.
His Holiness and the Apostolic See will be the more inclined to do us
justice, and to provide as the case shall require.
Should the King indeed venture the marriage--as I cannot think he will--I
have desired his Holiness not only not to sanction such conduct openly, but
not to pass it by in silence. I have demanded that severe and fitting
sentence be passed at once on an act so wicked and so derogatory to the
Apostolic See.--_The Pilgrim_, p. 89.
[386] There can be little doubt of this. He was the child of the only
intrigue of Henry VIII. of which any credible evidence exists. His mother
was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Blunt, an accomplished and most
interesting person; and the offspring of the connection, one boy only, was
brought up with the care and the state of a prince. Henry FitzRoy, as he
was called, was born in 1519, and when six years old was created Earl of
Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the title of the king's
father.
In 1527, before the commencement of the disturbance on the divorce, Henry
endeavoured to negotiate a marriage for him with a princess of the imperial
blood; and in the first overtures gave an intimation which could not be
mistaken, of his intention, if possible, to place him in the line of the
succession. After speaking of the desire which was felt by the King of
England for some connection in marriage of the Houses of England and Spain,
the ambassadors charged with the negotiation were to say to Charles, that--
"His Highness can be content to bestow the Duke of Richmond and Somerset
(who is near of his blood, and of excellent qualities, and is already
furnished to keep the state of a great prince, _and yet may be easily by
the king's means exalted to higher things_) to some noble princess of his
near blood."--ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 121.
He was a gallant, high-spirited boy. A letter is extant from him to Wolsey,
written when he was nine years old, begging the cardinal to intercede with
the king, "for an harness to exercise myself in arms according to my
erudition in the Commentaries of Cæsar."--Ibid. p. 119.
He was brought up with Lord Surrey, who has left a beautiful account of
their boyhood at Windsor--their tournaments, their hunts, their young
loves, and passionate friendship. Richmond married Surrey's sister, but
died the year after, when only seventeen; and Surrey revisiting Windsor,
recalls his image among the scenes which they had enjoyed together, in the
most interesting of all his poems. He speaks of
The secret grove, which oft we made resound
Of pleasant plaint and of our ladies' praise;
Recording oft what grace each one had found,
What hope of speed, what dread of long delays.
The wild forest; the clothed holts with green;
With reins availed, and swift y-breathed horse,
With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between,
Where we did chase the fearful hart of force.
The void walls eke that harboured us each night,
Wherewith, alas! reviveth in my breast
The sweet accord, such sleeps as yet delight
The pleasant dream, the quiet bed of rest;
The secret thought imparted with such trust.
The wanton talk, the divers change of play,
The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just,
Wherewith we past the winter nights away.
[387] Compare LORD HERBERT with A Paper of Instructions to Lord Rochfort on
his Mission to Paris: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 427, etc.; and A
Remonstrance of Francis I. to Henry VIII.: LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 571, etc.
It would be curious to know whether Francis ever actually wrote to the pope
a letter of which Henry sent him a draft. If he did, there are expressions
contained in it which amount to a threat of separation. In case the pope
was obstinate Francis was to say, "Lors force seroit de pourvoir audict
affaire, par autres voyes et façons, qui peut etre, ne vous seroint gueres
agreable."--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 436.
[388] A nostre derniere entrevue sur la fraternelle et familiere
communication que nous eusmes ensemble de noz affaires venant aux nostres,
Luy declarasmes comme a tord et injustment nous estions affligez, dilayez,
et fort ingratemeut manniez et troublez, en nostre dicte grande et pesante
matiere de marriage par la particuliere affection de l'empereur et du pape.
Lesquelz sembloient par leurs longues retardations de nostre dicte matiere
ne sercher autre chose, sinon par longue attente et laps de temps, nous
frustrer malicieusement du propoz, qui plus nous induict a poursuivir et
mettre avant la dicte matiere; c'est davoir masculine succession et
posterite en laquelle nous etablirons (Dieu voulant) le quiet repoz et
tranquillite de notre royaulme et dominion. Son fraternel, plain, et entier
advis (et a bref dire le meilleur qui pourroit estre) fut tel; il nous
conseilla de ne dilayer ne protractor le temps plus longuement, mais en
toute celerite proceder effectuellement a laccomplisment et consummation de
nostre marriage.--Henry VIII. to Rochfort: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p.
428-9.
[389] The extent of Francis's engagements, as Henry represents them, was
this:--He had promised qu'en icelle nostre dicte cause jamais ne nous
abandonneroit quelque chose que sen ensuyst; ainsi de tout son pouvoir
l'establiroit, supporteroit, aideroit et maintiendroit notre bon droict, et
le droict de la posterite et succession qui sen pourroit ensuyr; et a tous
ceulz qui y vouldroyent mettre trouble, empeschement, encombrance, ou y
procurer deshonneur, vitupere, ou infraction, il seroit enemy et adversaire
de tout son pouvoir, de quelconque estat qu'il soit, fust pape ou
empereur,--avecque plusieurs autres consolatives paroles. This he wished
Francis to commit to paper. Car autant de fois, que les verrions, he says,
qui seroit tous les jours, nous ne pourrions, si non les liscent, imaginer
et reduire a notre souvenance la bonne grace facunde et geste, dont il les
nous prononçait, et estimer estre comme face a face, parlans avecque
luy.--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 437. Evidently language of so wide a
kind might admit of many interpretations.
[390] LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 571, etc.
[391] Note of the Revelations of Eliz. Barton: _Rolls House MS. Suppression
of the Monasteries_, p. 17.
The intention was really perhaps what the nun said. An agent of the
government at Brussels, who was watching the conference, reported on the
12th of November:--"The King of England did really cross with the intention
of marrying; but, happily for the emperor, the ceremony is postponed. Of
other secrets, my informant has learned thus much. They have resolved to
demand as the portion of the Queen of France, Artois, Tournay, and part of
Burgundy. They have also sent two cardinals to Rome to require the Pope to
relinquish the tenths, which they have begun to levy for themselves. If his
Holiness refuse, the King of England will simply appropriate them
throughout his dominions. Captain ---- heard this from the king's proctor
at Rome, who has been with him at Calais, and from an Italian named
Jeronymo, whom the Lady Anne has roughly handled for managing her business
badly. She trusted that she would have been married in September.
"The proctor told her the Pope delayed sentence for fear of the Emperor.
The two kings, when they heard this, despatched the cardinals to quicken
his movements; and the demand for the tenths is thought to have been
invented to frighten him.
"They are afraid that the Emperor may force his Holiness into giving
sentence before the cardinals arrive. Jeronymo has been therefore sent
forward by post to give him notice of their approach, and to require him to
make no decision till they have spoken with him."--_The Pilgrim_, p. 89.
[392] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.
[393] Revelations of Eliz. Barton: _Rolls House MS._
[394] _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 435, 468.
[395] Letter from ----, containing an account of an interview with his
Holiness: _Rolls House MS._
[396] This proposal was originally the king's (see chapter 2), but it had
been dropped because one of the conditions of it had been Catherine's
"entrance into religion." The pope, however, had not lost sight of the
alternative, as one of which, in case of extremity, he might avail himself;
and, in 1530, in a short interval of relaxation, he had definitely offered
the king a dispensation to have two wives, at the instigation, curiously,
of the imperialists. The following letter was written on that occasion to
the king by Sir Gregory Cassalis:--
Serenissime et potentissime domine rex, domine mi supreme humillimâ
commendatione premissâ, salutem et felicitatem. Superioribus diebus
Pontifex secreto, veluti rem quam magni faceret, mihi proposuit conditionem
hujusmodi; concedi posse vestræ majestati, ut duas uxores habeat; cui dixi
nolle me provinciam suscipere eâ de re scribendi, ob eam causam quod
ignorarem an inde vestræ conscientiæ satisfieri posset quam vestra majestas
imprimis exonerare cupit. Cur autem sic responderem, illud in causâ fuit,
quod ex certo loco, unde quæ Cæsariani moliantur aucupari soleo exploratum
certumque habebam Cæsarianos illud ipsum quærere et procurare. Quem vero ad
finem id quærant pro certo exprimere non ausim. Id certe totum vestræ
prudentiæ considerandum relinquo. Et quamvis dixerim Pontifici, nihil me de
eo scripturum, nolui tamen majestati vestræ hoc reticere; quæ sciat omni me
industriâ laborâsse in iis quæ nobis mandat exequendis et cum Anconitano
qui me familiariter uti solet, omnia sum conatus. De omnibus autem me ad
communes literas rejicio. Optime valeat vestra majestas.--Romæ die xviii.
Septembris, 1530.
Clarissimi vestrai Majestatis, Humillimus servus,
GREGORIUS CASSALIS,
--LORD HERBERT, p. 140.
[397] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 394, etc.
[398] The obtaining the opinion in writing of the late Cardinal of Ancona,
and submitting it to the emperor. This minister, the most aged as well as
the most influential member of the conclave, had latterly been supposed to
be inclined to advise a conciliatory policy towards England; and his
judgment was of so much weight that it was thought likely that the emperor
would have been unable to resist the publication of it, if it was given
against him. At the critical moment of the Bologna interview this cardinal
unfortunately died: he had left his sentiments, however, in the hands of
his nephew, the Cardinal of Ravenna, who, knowing the value of his legacy,
was disposed to make a market of it. It was a knavish piece of business.
The English ambassadors offered 3000 ducats; Charles bid them out of the
field with a promise of church benefices to the extent of 6000 ducats; he
did not know precisely the terms of the judgment, or even on which side it
inclined, but in either case the purchase was of equal importance to him,
either to produce it or to suppress it. The French and English ambassadors
then combined, and bid again with church benefices in the two countries, of
equal value with those offered by Charles, with a promise of the next
English bishopric which fell vacant, and the original 3000 ducats as an
initiatory fee. There was a difficulty in the transaction, for the cardinal
would not part with the paper till he had received the ducats, and the
ambassadors would not pay the ducats till they had possession of the paper.
The Italian, however, proved an overmatch for his antagonists. He got his
money, and the judgment was not produced after all.--_State Papers_, vol.
vii. pp. 397-8, 464. BURNET, vol. iii. p. 108.
[399] Bennet to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 402.
[400] Sir Gregory Cassalis to the King: _Rolls House M.S._, endorsed by
Henry, Litteræ in Pontificis dicta declaratoriæ quæ maxime causam nostram
probant.
[401] There was a tradition (it cannot be called more), that no Englishman
could be compelled against his will to plead at a foreign tribunal. "Ne
Angli extra Angliam litigare cogantur."
[402] Henry VIII. to the Ambassadors with the Pope: _Rolls House M.S._
[403] Ibid.
[404] So at least the English government was at last convinced, as appears
in the circular to the clergy, printed in BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 447,
etc. I try to believe, however, that the pope's conduct was rather weak
than treacherous.
[405] So at least Cranmer says; but he was not present, nor was he at the
time informed that it was to take place.--ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p.
32. The belief, however, generally was, that the marriage took place in
November; and though Cranmer's evidence is very strong, his language is too
vague to be decisive.
[406] Individual interests have to yield necessarily and justly to the
interests of a nation, provided the conduct or the sacrifice which the
nation requires is not sinful. That there would have been any sin on Queen
Catherine's part if she had consented to a separation from the king, was
never pretended; and although it is a difficult and delicate matter to
decide how far unwilling persons may be compelled to do what they ought to
have done without compulsion, yet the will of a single man or woman cannot
be allowed to constitute itself an irremovable obstacle to a great national
good.
[407] It is printed by LORD HERBERT, and in LEGRAND, vol. iii.
[408] LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 558, etc.
[409] Ye may show unto his Holiness that ye have heard from a friend of
yours in Flanders lately, that there hath been set up certain writings from
the See Apostolic, in derogation both of justice and of the affection
lately showed by his Holiness unto us; which thing ye may say ye can hardly
believe to be true, but that ye reckon them rather to be counterfeited. For
if it should be true, it is a thing too far out of the way, specially
considering that you and other our ambassadors be there, and have heard
nothing of the matter. We send a copy of these writings unto you, which
copy we will in no wise that ye shall show to any person which might think
that ye had any knowledge from us nor any of our council, marvelling
greatly if the same hath proceeded indeed from the pope; [and] willing you
expressly not to show that ye had it of us.--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p.
421.
[410] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 454.
[411] Sir John Wallop to Henry: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 422.
[412] Francis represented himself to Henry as having refused with a species
of bravado. "He told me," says Sir John Wallop, "that he had announced
previously that he would consent to no such interview, unless your Highness
were also comprised in the same; and if it were so condescended that your
Highness and he should be then together, yet you two should go after such a
sort and with such power that you would not care whether the pope and
emperor would have peace or else _coups de baston_."--Wallop to Henry, from
Paris, Feb. 22. But this was scarcely a complete account of the
transaction; it was an account only of so much of it as the French king was
pleased to communicate. The emperor was urgent for a council. The pope,
feeling the difficulty either of excluding or admitting the Protestant
representatives, was afraid of consenting to it, and equally afraid of
refusing. The meeting proposed to Francis was for the discussion of this
difficulty; and Francis, in return, proposed that the great Powers, Henry
included, should hold an interview, and arrange beforehand the conclusions
at which the council should arrive. This naïve suggestion was waived by
Charles, apparently on grounds of religion. LORD HERBERT, Kennet's Edit. p.
167.
[413] The emperor's answer touching this interview is come, and is, in
effect, that if the pope shall judge the said interview to be for the
wealth and quietness of Christendom, he will not be seen to dissuade his
Holiness from the same; but he desired him to remember what he showed to
his Holiness when he was with the same, at what time his Holiness offered
himself for the commonwealth to go to any place to speak with the French
king.--Bennet to Henry VIII.; _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 464.
[414] The estrapade was an infernal machine introduced by Francis into
Paris for the better correction of heresy. The offender was slung by a
chain over a fire, and by means of a crane was dipped up and down into the
flame, the torture being thus prolonged for an indefinite time. Francis was
occasionally present in person at these exhibitions, the executioner
waiting his arrival before commencing the spectacle.
[415] 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.
[416] 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 12
[417] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 441.
[418] D'Inteville to Francis the First: MS. Bibliothèque Impérial,
Paris--_Pilgrim_, p. 92.
[419] 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.
[420] He had been selected as Warham's successor; and had been consecrated
on the 30th of March, 1533. On the occasion of the ceremony when the usual
oath to the Pope was presented to him, he took it with a declaration that
his first duty and first obedience was to the crown and laws of his own
country. It is idle trifling, to build up, as too many writers have
attempted to do, a charge of insincerity upon an action which was forced
upon him by the existing relation between England and Rome. The Act of
Appeals was the law of the land. The separation from communion with the
papacy was a contingency which there was still a hope might be avoided.
Such a protest as Cranmer made was therefore the easiest solution of the
difficulty. See it in STRYPE'S _Cranmer_, Appendix, p. 683.
[421] BURNET, Vol. iii. pp. 122-3
[422] Bennet to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 402. Sir Gregory
Cassalis to the same: _Rolls House MS._
[423] BURNET, vol. iii. p. 123.
[424] Ibid. vol. i. p. 210.
[425] See _State Papers_, vol. i. pp. 415, 420, etc.
[426] BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 22. It is very singular that in the
original Bull of Julius, the expression is "forsan consummavissetis;" while
in the brief, which, if it was genuine, was written the same day, and
which, if forged, was forged by Catherine's friends, there is no forsan.
The fact is stated absolutely.
[427] LORD HERBERT, p. 163. BURNET. vol. iii. p. 123.
[428] _State Papers_, vol. i. pp. 390. 391.
[429] Ye therefore duly recognising that it becometh you not, being our
subject, to enterprise any part of your said office in so weighty and great
a cause pertaining to us being your prince and sovereign, without our
licence obtained so to do; and therefore in your most humble wise ye
supplicate us to grant unto you our licence to proceed.--_State Papers_,
vol. i. p. 392.
[430] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 392.
[431] Cromwell to the King on his Committal to the Tower: BURNET,
_Collectanea_, p. 500.
[432] So at least she called him a few days later.--_State Papers_, vol. i.
p. 420. We have no details of her words when she was summoned; but only a
general account of them.--_State Papers_, vol. i. p. 394-5.
[433] The words of the sentence may be interesting:--"In the name of God,
Amen. We, Thomas, by Divine permission Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of
all England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, in a certain cause of inquiry
of and concerning the validity of the marriage contracted and consummated
between the most potent and most illustrious Prince, our Sovereign Lord,
Henry VIII., by the grace of God King of England and France, Defender of
the Faith, and Lord of Ireland, and the most serene Princess, Catherine,
daughter of his Most Catholic Majesty, Ferdinand, King of Spain, of
glorious memory, we proceeding according to law and justice in the said
cause which has been brought judicially before us in virtue of our office,
and which for some time has lain under examination, as it still is, being
not yet finally determined and decided; having first seen all the articles
and pleas which have been exhibited and set forth of her part, together
with the answers made thereto on the part of the most illustrious and
powerful Prince, Henry VIII.; having likewise seen and diligently inspected
the informations and depositions of many noblemen and other witnesses of
unsuspected veracity exhibited in the said cause; having also seen and in
like manner carefully considered not only the censures and decrees of the
most famous universities of almost the whole Christian world, but likewise
the opinions and determinations both of the most eminent divines and
civilians, as also the resolutions and conclusions of the clergy of both
Provinces of England in Convocation assembled, and many other wholesome
instructions and doctrines which have been given in and laid before us
concerning the said marriage; having further seen and in like manner
inspected all the treaties and leagues of peace and amity on this account
entered upon and concluded between Henry VII., of immortal fame, late King
of England, and the said Ferdinand, of glorious memory, late King of Spain;
having besides seen and most carefully weighed all and every of the acts,
debates, letters, processes, instruments, writs, arguments, and all other
things which have passed and been transacted in the said cause at any time;
in all which thus seen and inspected, our most exact care in examining, and
our most mature deliberation in weighing them hath by us been used, and all
other things have been observed by us, which of right in this matter were
to be observed; furthermore, the said most illustrious Prince, Henry VIII.,
in the forementioned cause, by his proper Proctor having appeared before
us, but the said most serene Lady Catherine in contempt absenting herself
(whose absence we pray that the divine presence may compensate) [cujus
absentia Divinâ repleatur præsentiâ. Lord Herbert translates it, "whose
absence may the Divine presence attend," missing, I think, the point of the
Archbishop's parenthesis] by and with the advice of the most learned in the
law, and of persons of most eminent skill in divinity whom we have
consulted in the premises, we have found it our duty to proceed to give our
final decree and sentence in the said cause, which, accordingly, we do in
this manner.
"Because by acts, warrants, deductions, propositions, exhibitions,
allegations, proofs and confessions, articles drawn up, answers of
witnesses, depositions, informations, instruments, arguments, letters,
writs, censures, determinations of professors, opinions, councils,
assertions, affirmations, treaties, and leagues of peace, processes, and
other matters in the said cause, as is above mentioned, before us laid,
had, done, exhibited, and respectively produced, as also from the same and
sundry other reasons, causes, and considerations, manifold arguments, and
various kinds of proof of the greatest evidence, strength, and validity, of
which in the said cause we have fully and clearly informed ourselves, we
find, and with undeniable evidence and plainness see that the marriage
contracted and consummated, as is aforesaid, between the said most
illustrious Prince, Henry VIII., and the most serene Lady Catherine, was
and is null and invalid, and that it was contracted and consummated
contrary to the law of God: therefore, we, Thomas, Archbishop, Primate, and
Legate aforesaid, having first called upon the name of Christ for direction
herein, and having God altogether before our eyes, do pronounce sentence,
and declare for the invalidity of the said marriage, decreeing that the
said pretended marriage always was and still is null and invalid; that it
was contracted and consummated contrary to the will and law of God, that it
is of no force or obligation, but that it always wanted, and still wants,
the strength and sanction of law; and therefore we sentence that it is not
lawful for the said most illustrious Prince, Henry VIII., and the said most
serene Lady Catherine, to remain in the said pretended marriage; and we do
separate and divorce them one from the other, inasmuch as they contracted
and consummated the said pretended marriage de facto, and not de jure; and
that they so separated and divorced are absolutely free from all marriage
bond with regard to the foresaid pretended marriage, we pronounce, and
declare by this our definitive sentence and final decree, which we now
give, and by the tenour of these present writings do publish. May 23rd,
1533."--BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 68, and LORD HERBERT.
[434] HALL.
[435] Ibid.
[436] Ibid. p. 801. Hall was most likely an eye-witness, and may be
thoroughly trusted in these descriptions. Whenever we are able to test him,
which sometimes happens, by independent contemporary accounts, he proves
faithful in the most minute particulars.
[437] FOXE, vol. v. p. III.
[438] Northumberland to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. iv. pp. 598-9.
[439] Hawkins to Henry VIII.: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 488.
[440] BURNET. vol. iii. p. 115.
[441] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 398.
[442] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._
[443] ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 43.
[444] _Cotton M.S._ Otho X, p. 199. _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 397.
[445] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 403.
[446] Cromwell had endeavoured to save Frith, or at least had been
interested for him. Sir Edmund Walsingham, writing to him about the
prisoners in the Tower, says:--"Two of them wear irons, and Frith weareth
none. Although he lacketh irons, he lacketh not wit nor pleasant tongue.
His learning passeth my judgment. Sir, as ye said, it were great pity to
lose him if he may be reconciled."--Walsingham to Cromwell: _M.S. State
Paper Office_, second series, vol. xlvi.
[447] ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 40.
[448] "The natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and
not here, it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one
time in more places than one." The argument and the words in which it is
expressed were Frith's.--See FOXE, vol. v. p. 6.
[449] The origin of the word Lollards has been always a disputed question.
I conceive it to be from Lolium. They were the "tares" in the corn of
Catholicism.
[450] 35 Ed. I.; Statutes of Carlisle, cap. 1-4.
[451] Ibid.
[452] 25 Ed. III. stat. 4. A clause in the preamble of this act bears a
significantly Erastian complexion: _come seinte Eglise estoit founde en
estat de prelacie deins le royaulme Dengleterre par le dit Roi et ses
progenitours, et countes, barons, et nobles de ce Royaulme et lours
ancestres, pour eux et le poeple enfourmer de la lei Dieu._ If the Church
of England was held to have been, founded not by the successors of the
Apostles, but by the king and the nobles, the claim of Henry VIII. to the
supremacy was precisely in the spirit of the constitution.
[453] 38 Ed. III. stat. 2; 3 Ric. II. cap. 3; 12 Ric. II. cap. 15; 13 Ric.
II. stat. 2. The first of these acts contains a paragraph which shifts the
blame from the popes themselves to the officials of the Roman courts. The
statute is said to have been enacted en eide et confort du pape qui moult
sovent a estee trublez par tieles et semblables clamours et impetracions,
et qui y meist voluntiers covenable remedie, si sa seyntetee estoit sur ces
choses enfournee. I had regarded this passage as a fiction of courtesy like
that of the Long Parliament who levied troops in the name of Charles I. The
suspicious omission of the clause, however, in the translation of the
statutes which was made in the later years of Henry VIII. justifies an
interpretation more favourable to the intentions of the popes.
[454] The abbots and bishops decently protested. Their protest was read in
parliament, and entered on the Rolls. _Rot. Parl._ iii. [264] quoted by
Lingard, who has given a full account of these transactions.
[455] 13 Ric. II. stat. 2.
[456] See 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.
[457] This it will be remembered was the course which was afterwards
followed by the parliament under Henry VIII. before abolishing the payment
of first-fruits.
[458] Lingard says, that "there were rumours that if the prelates executed
the decree of the king's courts, they would be excommunicated."--Vol. iii.
p. 172. The language of the act of parliament, 16 Ric. II. cap. 5, is
explicit that the sentence was pronounced.
[459] 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.
[460] Ibid.
[461] Ibid.
[462] LEWIS, _Life of Wycliffe_.
[463] If such _scientia media_ might be allowed to man, which is beneath
certainty and above conjecture, such should I call our persuasion that he
was born in Durham.--FULLER'S _Worthies_, vol. i. p. 479.
[464] _The Last Age of the Church_ was written in 1356. See LEWIS, p. 3.
[465] LELAND.
[466] LEWIS, p. 287.
[467] 1 Ric. II. cap. 13.
[468] WALSINGHAM, 206-7, apud LINGARD. It is to be observed, however, that
Wycliffe himself limited his arguments strictly to the property of the
clergy. See MILMAN'S _History of Latin Christianity_, vol. v. p. 508.
[469] WALSINGHAM, p. 275, apud LINGARD.
[470] 5 Ric. II. cap. 5.
[471] WILKINS, _Concilia_, iii. 160-167.
[472] _De Heretico comburendo._ 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15.
[473] STOW, 330, 338.
[474] _Rot. Parl._ iv. 24, 108, apud LINGARD; RYMER, ix. 89, 119, 129, 170,
193; MILMAN, Vol. v. p. 520-535.
[475] 2 Hen. V. stat. 1, cap. 7.
[476] There is no better test of the popular opinion of a man than the
character assigned to him on the stage; and till the close of the sixteenth
century Sir John Oldcastle remained the profligate buffoon of English
comedy. Whether in life he bore the character so assigned to him, I am
unable to say. The popularity of Henry V., and the splendour of his French
wars, served no doubt to colour all who had opposed him with a blacker
shade than they deserved: but it is almost certain that Shakspeare, though
not intending Falstaff as a portrait of Oldcastle, thought of him as he was
designing the character; and it is altogether certain that by the London
public Falstaff was supposed to represent Oldcastle. We can hardly suppose
that such an expression as "my old lad of the castle," should be
accidental; and in the epilogue to the Second Part of _Henry the Fourth_,
when promising to reintroduce Falstaff once more, Shakspeare says, "where
for anything I know he shall die of the sweat, for Oldcastle died a martyr,
and this is not the man." He had, therefore, certainly been supposed to _be
the man_, and Falstaff represented the English conception of the character
of the Lollard hero. I should add, however, that Dean Milman, who has
examined the records which remain to throw light on the character of this
remarkable person with elaborate care and ability, concludes emphatically
in his favour.
[477] Two curious letters of Henry VI. upon the Lollards, written in 1431,
are printed in the _Archæologia_, vol. xxiii. p. 339, etc. "As God
knoweth," he says of them, "never would they be subject to his laws nor to
man's, but would be loose and free to rob, reve, and dispoil, slay and
destroy all men of thrift and worship, as they proposed to have done in our
father's days; and of lads and lurdains would make lords."
[478] Proceedings of an organised Society in London called the Christian
Brethren, supported by voluntary contributions, for the dispersion of
tracts against the doctrines of the Church: _Rolls House MS._
[479] HALE'S _Precedents_. The London and Lincoln Registers, in FOXE, vol.
iv.; and the MS. Registers of Archbishops Morton and Warham, at Lambeth.
[480] KNOX'S _History of the Reformation in Scotland_.
[481] Also we object to you that divers times, and specially in Robert
Durdant's house, of Iver Court, near unto Staines, you erroneously and
damnably read in a great book of heresy, all [one] night, certain chapters
of the Evangelists, in English, containing in them divers erroneous and
damnable opinions and conclusions of heresy, in the presence of divers
suspected persons.--Articles objected against Richard Butler--London
Register: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 178.
[482] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 176.
[483] MICHELET, _Life of Luther_, p. 71.
[484] Ibid.
[485] Ibid. p. 41.
[486] WOOD'S _Athenæ Oxonienses_.
[487] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 618.
[488] The suspicious eyes of the Bishops discovered Tyndal's visit, and the
result which was to be expected from it.
On Dec. 2nd, 1525, Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, then king's
almoner, and on a mission into Spain, wrote from Bordeaux to warn Henry.
The letter is instructive:
"Please your Highness to understand that I am certainly informed as I
passed in this country, that an Englishman, your subject, at the
solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated the
New Testament into English; and within few days intendeth to return with
the same imprinted into England. I need not to advertise your Grace what
infection and danger may ensue hereby if it be not withstanded. This is the
next way to fulfil your realm with Lutherians. For all Luther's perverse
opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not well taken, ne
understanded, which your Grace hath opened in sundry places of your royal
book. All our forefathers, governors of the Church of England, hath with
all diligence forbid and eschewed publication of English Bibles, as
appeareth in constitutions provincial of the Church of England. Nowe, sure,
as God hath endued your Grace with Christian courage to sett forth the
standard against these Philistines and to vanquish them, so I doubt not but
that he will assist your Grace to prosecute and perform the same--that is,
to undertread them that they shall not now lift up their heads; which they
endeavour by means of English Bibles. They know what hurt such books hath
done in your realm in times past."--Edward Lee to Henry VIII.: ELLIS, third
series, vol. ii. p. 71.
[489] Answer of the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ See cap. 3.
[490] Answer of the Bishops, vol. i. cap. 3.
[491] See, particularly, _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 302.
[492] Proceedings of the Christian Brethren: _Rolls House MS._
[493] See the letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey: STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i.
Appendix.
[494] Particulars of Persons who had dispersed Anabaptist and Lutheran
Tracts: _Rolls House MS._
[495] Dr. Taylor to Wolsey: _Rolls House MS._ Clark to Wolsey: _State
Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 80, 81.
[496] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 189.
[497] Memoirs of Latimer prefixed to _Sermons_, pp. 3, 4; and see STRYPE'S
_Memorials_, vol. i.
[498] FOXE, vol. v. p. 416.
[499] Tunstall, Bishop of London, has had the credit hitherto of this
ingenious folly, the effect of which, as Sir Thomas More warned him, could
only be to supply Tyndal with money.--HALL, 762, 763. The following letter
from the Bishop of Norwich to Warham shows that Tunstall was only acting in
canonical obedience to the resolution of his metropolitan:--
"In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lordship, doing the
same to understand that I lately received your letters, dated at your manor
of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do perceive
that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the books of the New
Testament, translated into English, and printed beyond the sea; as well
those with the glosses joined unto them as those without the glosses.
"Surely, in myn opinion, you have done therein a gracious and a blessed
deed; and God, I doubt not, shall highly reward you therefore. And when, in
your said letters, ye write that, insomuch as this matter and the danger
thereof, if remedy had not been provided, should not only have touched you,
but all the bishops within your province; and that it is no reason that the
holle charge and cost thereof should rest only in you; but that they and
every of them, for their part, should advance and contribute certain sums
of money towards the same: I for my part will be contented to advance in
this behalf, and to make payment thereof unto your servant, Master William
Potkyn.
"Pleaseth it you to understand, I am well contented to give and advance in
this behalf ten marks, and shall cause the same to be delivered shortly;
the which sum I think sufficient for my part, if every bishop within your
province make like contribution, after the rate and substance of their
benefices. Nevertheless, if your Grace think this sum not sufficient for my
part in this matter, your further pleasure known, I shall be as glad to
conform myself thereunto in this, or any other matter concerning the
church, as any your subject within your province; as knows Almighty God,
who long preserve you. At Hoxne in Suffolk, the 14th day of June, 1527.
Your humble obedience and bedeman,
"R. NORWICEN."
[500] FOXE, vol. iv.
[501] The papal bull, and the king's licence to proceed upon it, are
printed in _Rymer_, vol. vi. part ii. pp. 8 and 17. The latter is explicit
on Wolsey's personal liberality in establishing this foundation. Ultro et
ex propriâ liberalitate et munificentiâ, nec sine gravissimo suo sumptu et
impensis, collegium fundare conatur.
[502] Would God my Lord his Grace had never been motioned to call any
Cambridge man to his most towardly college. It were a gracious deed if they
were tried and purged and restored unto their mother from whence they came,
if they be worthy to come thither again. We were clear without blot or
suspicion till they came, and some of them, as Master Dean hath known a
long time, hath had a shrewd name.--Dr. London to Archbishop Warham: _Rolls
House MS._
[503] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._
[504] DALABER'S _Narrative._
[505] Clark seems to have taken pupils in the long vacation. Dalaber at
least read with him all one summer in the country.--Dr. London to Warham:
_Rolls House MS._
[506] The Vicar of Bristol to the Master of Lincoln College, Oxford: _Rolls
House MS._
[507] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._
[508] Radley himself was one of the singers at Christchurch: London to
Warham. _MS._
[509] Dr. London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._
[510] On the site of the present Worcester College. It lay beyond the walls
of the town, and was then some distance from it across the fields.
[511] Christchurch, where Dalaber occasionally sung in the quire. Vide
infra.
[512] Some part of which let us read with him. "I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as
doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and
they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the
gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall
speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death; and
the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my
name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Whosoever
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which
is in heaven. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny
before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace
on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man
at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and
the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be
they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is
not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of
me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it."
[513] Rector of Lincoln.
[514] Warden of New College.
[515] The last prayer.
[516] Dr. Maitland, who has an indifferent opinion of the early
Protestants, especially on the point of veracity, brings forward this
assertion of Dalaber as an illustration of what he considers their
recklessness. It seems obvious, however, that a falsehood of this kind is
something different in kind from what we commonly mean by unveracity, and
has no affinity with it. I do not see my way to a conclusion; but I am
satisfied that Dr. Maitland's strictures are unjust. If Garret was taken,
he was in danger of a cruel death, and his escape could only be made
possible by throwing the bloodhounds off the scent. A refusal to answer
would not have been sufficient; and the general laws by which our conduct
is ordinarily to be directed, cannot be made so universal in their
application as to meet all contingencies. It is a law that we may not
strike or kill other men, but occasions rise in which we may innocently do
both. I may kill a man in defence of my own life or my friend's life, or
even of my friend's property; and surely the circumstances which dispense
with obedience to one law may dispense equally with obedience to another.
_If_ I may kill a man to prevent him from robbing my friend, why may I not
deceive a man to save my friend from being barbarously murdered? It is
possible that the highest morality would forbid me to do either. I am
unable to see why, if the first be permissible, the second should be a
crime. Rahab of Jericho did the same thing which Dalaber did, and on that
very ground was placed in the catalogue of saints.
[517] A cell in the Tower, the nature of which we need not inquire into.
[518] FOXE, vol. v. p. 421.
[519] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._
[520] Ibid.
[521] Dr. Forman, rector of All Hallows, who had himself been in trouble
for heterodoxy.
[522] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln, Feb. 20, 1528: _Rolls House MS._
[523] Now Cokethorpe Park, three miles from Stanton Harcourt, and about
twelve from Oxford. The village has disappeared.
[524] Vicar of All Saints, Bristol, to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House
MS._
[525] The Vicar of All Saints to the Rector of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._
[526] Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: _Rolls House MS._
[527] Long extracts from it are printed in FOXE, vol. iv.
[528] Another of the brethren, afterwards Bishop of St. David's, and one of
the Marian victims.
[529] Bishop of Lincoln to Wolsey, March 5, 1527-8: _Rolls House MS._: and
see ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.
[530] ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.
[531] With some others he "was cast into a prison where the saltfish lay,
through the stink whereof the most part of them were infected; and the said
Clark, being a tender young man, died in the same prison."--FOXE, vol. iv.
p. 615.
[532] London to Warham: _Rolls House MS._
[533] Petition of the Commons, vol. i. cap. 3.
[534] Ibid. And, as we saw in the bishops' reply, they considered their
practice in these respects wholly defensible.--See _Reply of the Bishops_,
cap. 3.
[535] Petition of the Commons, cap. 3.
[536] Hen. V. stat. 1.
[537] He had been "troublesome to heretics," he said, and he had "done it
with a little ambition;" for "he so hated this kind of men, that he would
fie the sorest enemy that they could have, if they would not
repent."--MORE'S _Life of More_, p. 211.
[538] See FOXE:, vol. iv. pp. 689, 698, 705.
[539] 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.
[540] John Stokesley.
[541] Petition of Thomas Philips to the House of Commons: _Rolls House MS._
[542] Ibid.
[543] FOXE, vol. v. pp. 29, 30.
[544] The circumstances are curious. Philips begged that he might have the
benefit of the king's writ of corpus cum causâ, and be brought to the bar
of the House of Commons, where the Bishop of London should be subpoenaed to
meet him. [Petition of Thomas Philips: _Rolls House MS._] The Commons did
not venture on so strong a measure; but a digest of the petition was sent
to the Upper House, that the bishop might have an opportunity of reply. The
Lords refused to receive or consider the case: they replied that it was too
"frivolous an affair" for so grave an assembly, and that they could not
discuss it. [_Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 66.] A deputation of the Commons
then waited privately upon the bishop, and being of course anxious to
ascertain whether Philips had given a true version of what had passed, they
begged him to give some written explanation of his conduct, which might be
read in the Commons' House. [_Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 71.] The request
was reasonable, and we cannot doubt that, if explanation had been possible,
the bishop would not have failed to offer it; but he preferred to shield
himself behind the judgment of the Lords. The Lords, he said, had decided
that the matter was too frivolous for their own consideration; and without
their permission, he might not set a precedent of responsibility to the
Commons by answering their questions.
This conduct met with the unanimous approval of the Peers. [_Lords'
Journals_, vol. i. p. 71. Omnes proceres tam spirituales quam temporales
unâ, voce dicebant, quod non consentaneum fuit aliquem procerum prædictorum
alicui in eo loco responsurum.] The demand for explanation was treated as a
breach of privilege, and the bishop was allowed to remain silent. But the
time was passed for conduct of this kind to be allowed to triumph. If the
bishop could not or would not justify himself, his victim might at least be
released from unjust imprisonment. The case was referred to the king: and
by the king and the House of Commons Philips was set at liberty.
[545] Petition of John Field: _Rolls House MS._
[546] Jan. 1529-30.
[547] Illegal. See 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.
[548] Seventh Sermon before King Edward. First Sermon before the Duchess of
Suffolk.
[549] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 649.
[550] Articles against James Bainham: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 703.
[551] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 702.
[552] Ibid. vol. iv. p. 705.
[553] Ibid. vol. iv. p. 694.
[554] HALL, p. 806; and see FOXE, vol iv. p. 705.
[555] Instructions given by the Bishop of Salisbury: BURNET'S
_Collectanea_, p. 493.
[556] From a Letter of Robert Gardiner: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 706.
[557] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 101.
[558] Latimer speaks of sons and daughters.--Ibid. p. 101.
[559] Ibid.
[560] Where the Cornish rebels came to an end in 1497.--BACON'S _History of
Henry the Seventh_.
[561] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 197.
[562] On which occasion, old relations perhaps shook their heads, and made
objection to the expense. Some such feeling is indicated in the following
glimpse behind the veil of Latimer's private history:--
"I was once called to one of my kinsfolk," he says ("it was at that time
when I had taken my degree at Cambridge); I was called, I say, to one of my
kinsfolk which was very sick, and died immediately after my coming. Now,
there was an old cousin of mine, which, after the man was dead, gave me a
wax candle in my hand, and commanded me to make certain crosses over him
that was dead; for she thought the devil should run away by and bye. Now, I
took the candle, but I could not cross him as she would have me to do; for
I had never seen it before. She, perceiving I could not do it, with great
anger took the candle out of my hand, saying, 'It is pity that thy father
spendeth so much money upon thee;' and so she took the candle, and crossed
and blessed him; so that he was sure enough."--LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 499.
[563] "I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, insomuch that,
when I should be made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration went against
Philip Melancthon and his opinions."--LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 334.
[564] _Jewel of Joy_, p. 224, et seq.: Parker Society's edition. LATIMER'S
_Sermons_, p. 3.
[565] LATIMER'S _Remains_, pp. 27-31.
[566] Ibid. pp. 308-9.
[567] LATIMER to Sir Edward Baynton: _Letters_, p. 329.
[568] _Letters_, p. 323.
[569] He thought of going abroad. "I have trust that God will help me," he
wrote to a friend; "if I had not, I think the ocean sea should have divided
my Lord of London and me by this day."--_Remains_, p. 334.
[570] Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton.
[571] See Latimer's two letters to Sir Edward Baynton: _Remains_, pp.
322-351.
[572] "As ye say, the matter is weighty, and ought substantially to be
looked upon, even as weighty as my life is worth; but how to look
substantially upon it otherwise know not I, than to pray my Lord God, day
and night, that, as he hath emboldened me to preach his truth, so he will
strengthen me to suffer for it.
"I pray you pardon me that I write no more distinctly, for my head is [so]
out of frame, that it would be too painful for me to write it again. If I
be not prevented shortly, I intend to make merry with my parishioners, this
Christmas, for all the sorrow, _lest perchance I never return to them
again_; and I have heard say that a doe is as good in winter as a buck in
summer."--Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton, p. 334.
[573] LATIMER'S _Remains_, p. 334.
[574] Ibid. p. 350.
[575] "I pray you, in God's name, what did you, so great fathers, so many,
so long season, so oft assembled together? What went you about? What would
ye have brought to pass? Two things taken away--the one that ye (which I
heard) burned a dead man,--the other, that ye (which I felt) went about to
burn one being alive. Take away these two noble acts, and there is nothing
else left that ye went about that I know," etc., etc.--Sermon preached
before the Convocation: LATIMER'S _Sermons_, p. 46.
[576] "My affair had some bounds assigned to it by him who sent for me up,
but is now protracted by intricate and wily examinations, as if it would
never find a period; while sometimes one person, sometimes another, ask me
questions, without limit and without end."--Latimer to the Archbishop of
Canterbury: _Remains_, p. 352.
[577] _Remains_, p. 222.
[578] _Sermons_, p. 294.
[579] The process lasted through January, February, and March.
[580] _Sermons_, p. 294.
[581] He subscribed all except two--one apparently on the power of the
pope, the other I am unable to conjecture. Compare the Articles
themselves--printed in LATIMER'S _Remains_, p. 466--with the Sermon before
the Convocation.--_Sermons_, p. 46; and BURNET, vol. iii. p. 116.
[582] Nicholas Glossop to Cromwell: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 237.
[583] Where he was known among the English of the day as Master Frisky-all.
[584] See FOXE. vol. v. p. 392.
[585] Eustace Chappuys to Chancellor Granvelle: _MS. Archiv. Brussels:
Pilgrim_, p. 106.
[586] See Cromwell's will in an appendix to this chapter. This document,
lately found in the Rolls House, furnishes a clue at last to the
connections of the Cromwell family.
[587] Are we to believe Foxe's story that Cromwell was with the Duke of
Bourbon at the storming of Rome in May, 1527? See FOXE, vol. v. p. 365. He
was with Wolsey in January, 1527. See ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 117.
And he was again with him early in 1528. Is it likely that he was in Italy
on such an occasion in the interval? Foxe speaks of it as one of the random
exploits of Cromwell's youth, which is obviously untrue; and the natural
impression which we gather is, that he was confusing the expedition of the
Duke of Bourbon with some earlier campaign. On the other hand Foxe's
authority was Cranmer, who was likely to know the truth; and it is not
impossible that, in the critical state of Italian politics, the English
government might have desired to have some confidential agent in the Duke
of Bourbon's camp. Cromwell, with his knowledge of Italy and Italian, and
his adventurous ability, was a likely man to have been sent on such an
employment; and the story gains additional probability from another legend
about him, that he once saved the life of Sir John Russell, in some secret
affair at Bologna. See FOXE, vol. v. p. 367. Now, although Sir John Russell
had been in Italy several times before (he was at the Battle of Pavia, and
had been employed in various diplomatic missions), and Cromwell might thus
have rendered him the service in question on an earlier occasion, yet he
certainly was in the Papal States, on a most secret and dangerous mission,
in the months preceding the capture of Rome. _State Papers_, vol. vi. p.
560, etc. The probabilities may pass for what they are worth till further
discovery.
[588] A damp, unfurnished house belonging to Wolsey, where he was ordered
to remain till the government had determined upon their course towards him.
See CAVENDISH.
[589] CAVENDISH, pp. 269-70.
[590] Ibid. p. 276.
[591] Chappuys says, that a quarrel with Sir John Wallop first introduced
Cromwell to Henry. Cromwell, "not knowing how else to defend himself,
contrived with presents and entreaties to obtain an audience of the king,
whom he promised to make the richest sovereign that ever reigned in
England."--Chappuys to Granvelle: _The Pilgrim_, p. 107.
[592] Or Willyams. The words are used indifferently.
[593] The clause enclosed between brackets is struck through.
[594] Struck through.
[595] Mary, widow of Louis of Hungary, sister of the emperor, and Regent of
the Netherlands.
[596] She was much affected when the first intimation of the marriage
reached her. "I am informed of a secret friend of mine," wrote Sir John
Hacket, "that when the queen here had read the letters which she received
of late out of England, the tears came to her eyes with very sad
countenance. But indeed this day when I spake to her she showed me not such
countenance, but told me that she was not well pleased.
"At her setting forward to ride at hunting, her Grace asked me if I had
heard of late any tidings out of England. I told her Grace, as it is true,
that I had none. She gave me a look as that she should marvel thereof, and
said to me, 'Jay des nouvelles qui ne me semblent point trop bonnes,' and
told me touching the King's Highness's marriage. To the which I answered
her Grace and said, 'Madame, je ne me doute point syl est faict, et quand
le veult prendre et entendre de bonne part et au sain chemyn, sans porter
faveur parentelle que ung le trouvera tout lente et bien raysonnable par
layde de Dieu et de bonne conscience.' Her Grace said to me again,
'Monsieur l'ambassadeur, c'est Dieu qui le scait que je vouldroye que le
tout allysse bien, mais ne scaye comment l'empereur et le roy mon frere
entendront l'affaire car il touche a eulx tant que a moy.' I answered and
said, 'Madame, il me semble estre assuree que l'empereur et le roy vostre
frere qui sont deux Prinssys tres prudens et sayges, quant ilz auront
considere indifferentement tout l'affaire qu ilz ne le deveroyent
prendre que de bonne part.' And hereunto her Grace made me answer,
saying, 'Da quant de le prendre de bonne part ce la, ne sayge M.
l'ambassadeur.'"--Hacket to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, vol. vii.
p. 452.
[597] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 457.
[598] Sir Gregory Cassalis to the Duke of Norfolk. Ad pontificem accessi et
mei sermonis illa summa fuit, vellet id præstare ut serenissimum regem
nostrum certiorem facere possemus, in suâ causâ nihil innovatum iri. Hic
ille, sicut solet, respondit, nescire se quo pacto possit Cæsarianis
obsistere,--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 461.
[599] Bennet to Henry: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 462.
[600] Ibid.
[601] Letter undated, but written about the middle of June: _State Papers_,
vol. vii. p. 474
[602] Of the Archbishop of York, not of Canterbury: which provokes a
question. Conjectures are of little value in history, but inasmuch as there
must have been some grave reason for the substitution, a suggestion of a
possible reason may not be wholly out of place. The appeal in itself was
strictly legal; and it was of the highest importance to avoid any
illegality of form. Cranmer, by transgressing the inhibition which Clement
had issued in the winter, might be construed by the papal party to have
virtually incurred the censures threatened, and an escape might thus have
been furnished from the difficulty in which the appeal placed them.
[603] Publico ecclesiæ judicio.
[604] RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 188.
[605] The French king did write unto Cardinal Tournon (not, however, of his
own will, but under pressure from the Duke of Norfolk), very instantly,
that he should desire the pope, in the said French king's name, that his
Holyness would not innovate anything against your Highness any wise till
the congress: adding, withal, that if his Holyness, notwithstanding his
said desire, would proceed, he could not less do, considering the great and
indissoluble amity betwixt your Highnesses, notorious to all the world, but
take and recognise such proceeding for a fresh injury.--Bennet to Henry
VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 468.
[606] Ibid. p. 469.
[607] Ibid. p. 469.
[608] Ibid. p. 470.
[609] Ibid. p. 467, note, and p. 470.
[610] BURNET, vol. i. p. 221.
[611] We only desire and pray you to endeavour yourselves in the execution
of that your charge--easting utterly away and banishing from you such fear
and timorousness, or rather despair, as by your said letters we perceive ye
have conceived--reducing to your memories in the lieu and stead thereof, as
a thing continually lying before your eyes and incessantly sounded in your
ears, the justice of our cause, which cannot at length be shadowed, but
shall shine and shew itself to the confusion of our adversaries. And we
having, as is said, truth for us, with the help and assistance of God,
author of the same, shall at all times be able to maintain you.--Henry
VIII. to Bonner: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 485.
[612] Bonner to Cromwell: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 481.
[613] The proclamation ordering that Catherine should be called not queen,
but Princess Dowager.
[614] Catherine de Medici.
[615] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 493.
[616] Sir John Racket, writing from Ghent on the 6th of September,
describes as the general impression that the Pope's "trust was to assure
his alliance on both sides." "He trusts to bring about that his Majesty the
French king and he shall become and remain in good, fast, and sure alliance
together; and so ensuring that they three (the Pope, Francis, and Charles
V.) shall be able to reform and set good order in the rest of Christendom.
But whether his Unhappiness's--I mean his Holiness's--intention, is set for
the welfare and utility of Christendom, or for his own insincerity and
singular purpose, I remit that to God and to them that know more of the
world than I do."--Hacket to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 506.
[617] John the Magnanimous, son of John the Steadfast, and nephew of the
Elector Frederick, Luther's first protector.
[618] _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 499-501.
[619] Princeps Elector ducit se imparem ut Regiæ Celsitudinis vel aliorum
regum oratores eâ lege in aulâ suâ degerent; vereturque ne ob id apud
Cæsaream majestatem unicum ejus Dominum et alios male audiret, possetque
sinistre tale institutum interpretari.--Reply of the Elector: _State
Papers_, vol. vii. p. 503.
[620] Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol vii. p. 509.
[621] I consider the man, with other two--that is to say, the Landgrave von
Hesse and the Duke of Lunenberg--to be the chief and principal defenders
and maintainers of the Lutheran sect: who considering the same with no
small difficulty to be defended, as well against the emperor and the
bishops of Germany, his nigh and shrewd neighbours, as against the most
opinion of all Christian men, feareth to raise any other new matter whereby
they should take a larger and peradventure a better occasion to revenge the
same. The King's Highness seeketh to have intelligence with them, as they
conjecture to have them confederate with him; yea, and that against the
emperor, if he would anything pretend against the king.--Here is the thing
which I think feareth the duke.--Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol.
vii. pp. 509-10.
[622] HALL, p. 805.
[623] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 512.
[624] The Duke of Albany, during the minority of James V., had headed the
party in Scotland most opposed to the English. He expelled the
queen-mother, Margaret, sister of Henry; he seized the persons of the two
young princes, whom he shut up in Stirling, where the younger brother died
under suspicion of foul play (_Despatches of_ GIUSTINIANI, vol. i. p. 157);
and subsequently, in his genius for intrigue, he gained over the queen
dowager herself in a manner which touched her honour.--Lord Thomas Dacre to
Queen Margaret: ELLIS, second series, vol. i. p. 279.
[625] Ex his tamen, qui hæc a Pontifice, audierunt, intelligo regem
vehementissime instare, ut vestræ majestatis expectatione satisfiat
Pontifex.--Peter Vannes to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 518.
[626] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 520.
[627] Hoc dico quod video inter regem et pontificem conjunctissime et
amicissime hic agi.--Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid.
[628] Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid. pp. 522-3.
[629] BURNET, _Collectanea_, p. 436.
[630] Letter of the King of France: LEGRAND, vol. iii. Reply of Henry:
FOXE, vol. v. p. 110.
[631] Commission of the Bishop of Paris: LEGRAND, vol. iii; BURNET, vol.
iii. p. 128; FOXE, vol. v. p. 106-111. The commission of the Bishop of
Bayonne is not explicit on the extent to which the pope had bound himself
with respect to the sentence. Yet either in some other despatch, or
verbally through the Bishop, Francis certainly informed Henry that the Pope
had promised that sentence should be given in his favour. We shall find
Henry assuming this in his reply; and the Archbishop of York declared to
Catherine that the pope "said at Marseilles, that if his Grace would send a
proxy thither he would give sentence for his Highness against her, because
that he knew his cause to be good and just."--_State Papers_, vol. i. p.
421.
[632] MS. Bibl. Impér. Paris.--_The Pilgrim_, pp. 97, 98. Cf. FOXE, vol. v.
p. 110.
[633] I hear of a number of Gelders which be lately reared; and the opinion
of the people here is that they shall go into England. All men there speak
evil of England, and threaten it in their foolish manner.--Vaughan to
Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 511.
[634] RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 189.
[635] Parties were so divided in England that lookers-on who reported any
one sentiment as general there, reported in fact by their own wishes and
sympathies. D'Inteville, the French ambassador, a strong Catholic, declares
the feeling to have been against the revolt. Chastillon, on the other hand,
writing at the same time from the same place (for he had returned from
France, and was present with d'Inteville at the last interview), says, "The
King has made up his mind to a complete separation from Rome; and the lords
and the majority of the people go along with him."--Chastillon to the
Bishop of Paris: _The Pilgrim_, p. 99.
[636] STRYPE, _Eccles. Memor._, vol. i. p. 224.
[637] Instructions to the Earls of Oxford, Essex, and Sussex, to
remonstrate with the Lady Mary: _Rolls House MS._
[638] Ibid.
[639] On the 15th of November, Queen Catherine wrote to the Emperor, and
after congratulating him on his successes against the Turks, she continued,
"And as our Lord in his mercy has worked so great a good for Christendom by
your Highness's hands, so has he enlightened also his Holiness; and I and
all this realm have now a sure hope that, with the grace of God, his
Holiness will slay this second Turk, this affair between the King my Lord
and me. Second Turk, I call it, from the misfortunes which, through his
Holiness's long delay, have grown out of it, and are now so vast and of so
ill example that I know not whether this or the Turk be the worst. Sorry am
I to have been compelled to importune your Majesty so often in this matter,
for sure I am you do not need my pressing. But I see delay to be so
calamitous, my own life is so unquiet and so painful, and the opportunity
to make an end now so convenient, that it seems as if God of his goodness
had brought his Holiness and your Majesty together to bring about so great
a good. I am forced to be importunate, and I implore your Highness for the
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in return for the signal benefits
which God each day is heaping on you, you will accomplish for me this great
blessing, and bring his Holiness to a decision. Let him remember what he
promised you at Bologna. The truth here is known, and he will thus destroy
the hopes of those who persuade the King my Lord that he will never pass
judgment."--Queen Catherine to Charles V.: _MS. Simancas_, November 15,
1533.
[640] Letter to the King, giving an account of certain Friars Observants
who had been about the Princess Dowager: _Rolls House MS._
[641] We remember the northern prophecy, "In England shall be slain the
decorate Rose in his mother's belly," which the monks of Furness
interpreted as meaning that "the King's Grace should die by the hands of
priests."--Vol. i. cap. 4.
[642] Statutes of the Realm, 25 Henry VIII. cap. 12. State Papers relating
to Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._ Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury,
to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 20.
[643] Thus Cromwell writes to Fisher: "My Lord, [the outward evidences
that she was speaking truth] moved you not to give credence to her, but
only the very matter whereupon she made her false prophecies, to which
matter ye were so affected--as ye be noted to be on all matters which
ye once enter into--that nothing could come amiss that made for that
purpose."--_Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 30.
[644] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._
[645] Ibid.
[646] Ibid.
[647] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.
[648] Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._ 25 Hen. VIII.
cap. 12. The "many" nobles are not more particularly designated in the
official papers. It was not desirable to mention names when the offence was
to be passed over.
[649] Report of the Commissioners--Papers relating to the Nun of Kent:
_Rolls House MS._
[650] Goold, says the Act of the Nun's attainder, travelled to Bugden, "to
animate the said Lady Princess to make commotion in the realm against our
sovereign lord; surmitting that the said Nun should hear by revelation of
God that the said Lady Catherine should prosper and do well, and that her
issue, the Lady Mary, should prosper and reign in the realm."--25 Henry
VIII. cap. 13.
[651] Report of the Proceedings of the Nun of Kent: _Rolls House MS._
[652] MS. Bibliot. Impér., Paris. The letter is undated. It was apparently
written in the autumn of 1533.
[653] Il a des nouvelles amours. In a paper at Simancas, containing Nuevas
de Inglaterra, written about this time, is a similar account of the dislike
of Anne and her family, as well as of the king's altered feelings towards
her. Dicano anchora che la Anna è mal voluta degli Si. di Inghilterra si
per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia e mali portamenti che fanno
nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna; e che per questo il Re non la
porta la affezione que soleva per che il Re festeggia una altra Donna della
quale se mostra esser inamorato, e molti Si. di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel
seguir el predito amor per deviar questo Re dalla pratica di Anna.
[654] HALL.
[655] "I, dame Elizabeth Barton," she said, "do confess that I, most
miserable and wretched person, have been the original of all this mischief,
and by my falsehood I have deceived all these persons (the monks who were
her accomplices), and many more; whereby I have most grievously offended
Almighty God, and my most noble sovereign the King's Grace. Wherefore I
humbly, and with heart most sorrowful, desire you to pray to Almighty God
for my miserable sins, and make supplication for me to my sovereign for his
gracious mercy and pardon."--Confession of Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House
MS._
[656] Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: Ibid.
[657] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 415.
[658] A curious trait in Mary's character may be mentioned in connection
with this transfer. She had a voracious appetite; and in Elizabeth's
household expenses an extra charge was made necessary of £26 a year for the
meat breakfasts and meat suppers "served into the Lady Mary's
chamber."--Statement of the expenses of the Household of the Princess
Elizabeth: _Rolls House MS._
[659] He is called _frater consobrinus_. See FULLER'S _Worthies_, vol. iii.
p. 128.
[660] He was killed at the battle of Pavia.
[661] Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, married Catherine, daughter of Edward.
[662] Believe me, my lord, there are some here, and those of the greatest
in the land, who will be indignant if the Pope confirm the sentence against
the late Queen.--D'Inteville to Montmorency: _The Pilgrim_, p. 97.
[663] She once rode to Canterbury, disguised as a servant, with only a
young girl for a companion.--Depositions of Sir Geoffrey Pole: _Rolls House
MS._
[664] Confession of Sir William Neville: _Rolls House MS._
[665] Confession of Sir George Neville: Ibid.
[666] Confession of the Oxford Wizard: Ibid.
[667] Queen Anne Boleyn to Gardiner: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 355. Office
for the Consecration of Cramp Rings: Ibid.
[668] So at least the Oxford Wizard said that Sir William Neville had told
him.--Confession of the Wizard: _Rolls House MS._ But the authority is not
good.
[669] Henry alone never listened seriously to the Nun of Kent.
[670] John of Transylvania, the rival of Ferdinand. His designation by the
title of king in an English state paper was a menace that, if driven to
extremities, Henry would support him against the empire.
[671] Acts of Council: _State Papers_, vol. i. pp. 414-15.
[672] Henry VIII. to Sir John Wallop: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 524.
[673] Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 517.
Vaughan describes Peto with Shakespearian raciness. "Peto is an ipocrite
knave, as the most part of his brethren be; a wolf; a tiger clad in a
sheep's skin. It is a perilous knave--a raiser of sedition--an evil
reporter of the King's Highness--a prophecyer of mischief--a fellow I would
wish to be in the king's hands, and to be shamefully punished. Would God I
could get him by any policy--I will work what I can. Be sure he shall do
nothing, nor pretend to do nothing, in these parts, that I will not find
means to cause the King's Highness to know. I have laid a bait for him. He
is not able to wear the clokys and cucullys that be sent him out of
England, they be so many."
[674] Hacket to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 528.
[675] Ibid. p. 530.
[676] Hacket to Cromwell: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 531.
[677] So at least Henry supposed, if we may judge by the resolutions of the
Council "for the fortification of all the frontiers of the realm, as well
upon the coasts of the sea as the frontiers foreanenst Scotland." The
fortresses and havens were to be "fortefyed and munited;" and money to be
sent to York to be in readiness "if any business should happen."--Ibid.
vol. i. p. 411.
[678] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 19.
[679] A design which unfortunately was not put in effect. In the hurry of
the time it was allowed to drop.
[680] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 14.
[681] 23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.
[682] At this very time Campeggio was Bishop of Salisbury, and Ghinucci,
who had been acting for Henry at Rome, was Bishop of Worcester. The Act by
which they were deprived speaks of these two appointments as _nominations_
by the king.--25 Henry VIII. cap. 27.
[683] Wolsey held three bishoprics and one archbishopric, besides the abbey
of St. Albans.
[684] Thus when Wolsey was presented, in 1514, to the See of Lincoln, Leo
X. writes to his beloved son Thomas Wolsey how that in his great care for
the interests of the Church, "Nos hodie Ecclesiæ Lincolniensi, te in
episcopum et pastorem præficere intendimus." He then informs the Chapter of
Lincoln of the appointment; and the king, in granting the temporalities,
continues the fiction without seeming to recognise it:--"Cum dominus summus
Pontifex nuper vacante Ecclesiâ cathedrali personam fidelis clerici nostri
Thomæ Wolsey, in ipsius Ecclesiæ episcopum præfecerit, nos," etc.--See the
Acts in RYMER, vol. vi. part 1, pp. 55-7.
[685] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 20. The pre-existing, unrealities with respect to
the election of bishops explain the unreality of the new arrangement, and
divest it of the character of wanton tyranny with which it appeared _primâ
facie_ to press upon the Chapters. The history of this statute is curious,
and perhaps explains the intentions with which it was originally passed. It
was repealed by the 2nd of the 1st of Edward VI. on the ground that the
liberty of election was merely nominal, and that the Chapters ought to be
relieved of responsibility when they had no power of choice. Direct
nomination by the crown was substituted for the _congé d'élire_, and
remained the practice till the reaction under Mary, when the indefinite
system was resumed which had existed before the Reformation. On the
accession of Elizabeth, the statute of 25 Henry VIII. was again enacted.
The more complicated process of Henry was preferred to the more simple one
of Edward, and we are naturally led to ask the reason of so singular a
preference. I cannot but think that it was this. The Council of Regency
under Edward VI. treated the Church as an institution of the State, while
Henry and Elizabeth endeavoured (under difficulties) to regard it under its
more Catholic aspect of an organic body. So long as the Reformation was in
progress, it was necessary to prevent the intrusion upon the bench of
bishops of Romanising tendencies, and the deans and chapters were therefore
protected by a strong hand from their own possible mistakes. But the form
of liberty was conceded to them, not, I hope, to place deliberately a body
of clergymen in a degrading position, but in the belief that at no distant
time the Church might be allowed without danger to resume some degree of
self-government.
[686] 25 Henry VIII. cap. 21.
[687] I sent you no heavy words, but words of great comfort; willing your
brother to shew you how benign and merciful the prince was; and that I
thought it expedient for you to write unto his Highness, and to recognise
your offence and to desire his pardon, which his Grace would not deny you
how in your age and sickness.--Cromwell to Fisher: _Suppression of the
Monasteries_, p. 27.
[688] Sir Thomas More to Cromwell: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 350.
[689] Ibid.
[690] Ibid.
[691] More to Cromwell: STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i. Appendix, p. 195.
[692] More to the King: ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 47.
[693] Cromwell to Fisher: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 27, et seq.
[694] _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 27, et seq.
[695] John Fisher to the Lords in Parliament: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii.
p. 289.
[696] _Lords' Journals_, p. 72.
[697] 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.
[698] In a tract written by a Dr. Moryson in defence of the government,
three years later, I find evidence that a distinction was made among the
prisoners, and that Dr. Bocking was executed with peculiar cruelty. "Solus
in crucem actus est Bockingus," are Moryson's words, though I feel
uncertain of the nature of the punishment which he meant to designate.
"Crucifixion" was unknown to the English law; and an event so peculiar as
the "crucifixion" of a monk would hardly have escaped the notice of the
contemporary chroniclers. In a careful diary kept by a London merchant
during these years, which is in MS. in the Library of Balliol College,
Oxford, the whole party are said to have been hanged.--See, however,
_Morysini Apomaxis_, printed by Berthelet, 1537.
[699] HALL, p. 814.] The inferior confederates were committed to their
prisons with the exception only of Fisher, who, though sentenced, found
mercy thrust upon him, till by fresh provocation the miserable old man
forced himself upon his fate.[700
[700] LORD HERBERT says he was pardoned; I do not find, however, on what
authority: but he was certainly not imprisoned, nor was the sentence of
forfeiture enforced against him.
[701] This is the substance of the provisions, which are, of course, much
abridged.
[702] _Lords' Journals_, vol. i. p. 82. An act was also passed in this
session "against the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome." We trace it in
its progress through the House of Lords. (_Lords' Journals_, Parliament of
1533-4.) It received the royal assent (ibid.), and is subsequently alluded
to in the both of the 28th of Henry VIII., as well as in a Royal
Proclamation dated June, 1534; and yet it is not on the Roll, nor do I
anywhere find traces of it. It is not to be confounded with the act against
payment of Peter's Pence, for in the _Lords' Journals_ the two acts are
separately mentioned. It received the royal assent on the 30th of March,
while that against Peter's Pence was suspended till the 7th of April. It
contained, also, an indirect assertion that the king was Head of the
English Church, according to the title which had been given him by
Convocation. (King's Proclamation: FOXE, vol. v. p. 69.) For some cause or
other, the act at the last moment must have been withdrawn.
[703] See BURNET, vol. i. pp. 220-1: vol. iii p. 135; and LORD HERBERT. Du
Bellay's brother, the author of the memoirs, says that the king, at the
bishop's entreaty, promised that if the pope would delay sentence, and send
"judges to hear the matter, he would himself forbear to do what he proposed
to do"--that is, separate wholly from the See of Rome. If this is true, the
sending "judges" must allude to the "sending them to Cambray," which had
been proposed at Marseilles.
[704] See the letter of the Bishop of Bayonne, dated March 23, in LEGRAND.
A paraphrase is given by BURNET, vol. iii. p. 132.
[705] Promisistis predecessori meo quod si sententiam contra regem Angliæ
tulisset, Cæsar illum infra quatuor menses erat invasurus, et regno
expulsurus.--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 579.
[706] Letter of Du Bellay in LEGRAND.
[707] Ibid.
[708] Sir Edward Karne and Dr. Revett to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol.
vii. pp. 553-4.
[709] State Papers, vol. vii. p. 560, et seq.
[710] His Highness, considering the time and the malice of the emperour,
cannot conveniently pass out of the realm--since he leaveth behind him
another daughter and a mother, with their friends, maligning his
enterprises in this behalf--who bearing no small grudge against his most
entirely beloved Queen Anne, and his young daughter the princess, might
perchance in his absence take occasion to excogitate and practise with
their said friends matters of no small peril to his royal person, realm,
and subjects.--_State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 559.
[711] LORD HERBERT.
[712] I mentioned their execution in connection with their sentence; but it
did not take place till the 20th of April, a month after their attainder:
and delay of this kind was very unusual in cases of high treason. I have
little doubt that their final sentence was in fact pronounced by the pope.
[713] The oaths of a great many are in RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 195, et
seq.
[714] His great-grandson's history of him (_Life of Sir Thomas More,_, by
CRESACRE MORE, written about 1620, published 1627, with a dedication to
Henrietta Maria) is incorrect in so many instances that I follow it with
hesitation; but the account of the present matter is derived from Mr.
Roper, More's son-in-law, who accompanied him to Lambeth, and it is
incidentally confirmed in various details by More himself.
[715] MORE'S _Life of More_, p. 232.
[716] More held extreme republican opinions on the tenure of kings, holding
that they might be deposed by act of parliament.
[717] MORE'S _Life of More_, p. 237.
[718] BURNET, vol. i. p. 255.
[719] MORE'S _Life of More_, p. 237.
[720] Cromwell to the Archbishop of Canterbury: _Rolls House MS._
[721] _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 411, et seq.
[722] Royal Proclamation, June, 1534.
[723] Ibid.
[724] FOXE, vol. v. p. 70.