progress of the Reformation, the renunciation of the pope's authority,
and the establishment of the regal supremacy. The following account,
from an unpublished treatise, of the manner in which these questions
were first brought to the king's mind (whether authentic or not) may
not be unacceptable to my readers.
"Now unto that you say, that because Pope Clement would not dispense
with his second matrimonie, his majestie extirped out of England the
papal authoritie, a thinge of most auncient and godly reverence as you
take it, I aunsweare that after the kinges highness had so appeared in
person before the Cardinal Campegio, one of the princes of his realm,
named the _Duke of Suffolk_, a great wise man, and of more familiaritie
with the kinge than any other person, asked his majestie, 'how this
matter might come to passe, that a prince in his own realme should so
humble himself before the feet of a vile, strange, vitious priest,'
(for Campegio there in England demeaned himself in very deed most
carnally -- --). Whereunto the king aunswered, "he could not tell;
but only that it seemed unto him, the spiritual men ought to judge
spiritual matters; and yet as you saye (said the king) me seemeth there
should be somewhat in it, and I would right gladly understand, why and
how, were it not that I would be loth to appeare more curious than
other princes." "Why, sir (sayd the duke), your majestie may cause the
matter to be discussed secretly by your learned men, without any rumour
at all." "Very well (sayd the kinge), and so it shall be." And thus
inspired of God, called he diverse of his trusty and great doctours
unto him; charging them distinctly to examine, _what lawe of God should
direct so carnal a man as Campegio, under the name of spiritual, to
judge a king in his owne realme_. According unto whose commandment,
these doctors resorting together unto an appointed place, disputed this
matter _large et stricte_, as the case required. And as the blacke by
the white is knowen, so by conferring the oppositions together, it
appeared that the evangelical lawe varied much from the canon lawes in
this pointe. So that in effect, because two contraries cannot stand
_in uno subjecto, eodem casu et tempore_, they were constrained to
recurre unto the kinges majesties pleasure, to knowe whether of these
two lawes should be preferred: who smiling at the ignorance of so fonde
a question aunsweared, that the Gospell of Christ ought to be the
absolute rule unto all others; commanding them therefore to followe
the same, without regard either to the civile, canon, or whatsoever
other lawe. And here began the quicke: for these doctours had no sooner
taken the Gospel for their absolute rule, but they found this popish
authoritie over the kinges and princes of this earth to be usurped."
_William Thomas's Apology for King Henry the Eighth_, written A. D.
1547. p. 34. Lambeth Library. MSS. No. 464. _W._
[145] The history and occasion of this great obligation of the Duke
of Suffolk to the cardinal, who plainly intimates that but for his
interposition the duke must have lost his life, does not appear to be
known to the historians. See _Fiddes's Life of Wolsey_. p. 454. _W._
A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1755 (Dr. Pegge), who appears
to have paid much attention to the Cardinal Wolsey's history, suggests
that Wolsey was the means of abating the anger of Henry at the marriage
of Suffolk with his sister Mary Queen of France, which might have been
made a treasonable offence. A letter from Mary to Wolsey, dated March
22, 1515, after her marriage with Suffolk, which is still extant in the
Cotton Collection, gives some probability to this conjecture.
[146] i. e. Dr. Stephen Gardiner.
[147] i. e. The season of hunting, when the hart is in _grease_ or
full season. Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the more recent manuscripts
read--'all _that_ season.'
[148] The following additional particulars of the route are found
in more recent MSS. "And were lodged the first night at a towne in
Bedfordshire, called Leighton Bussarde, in the parsonage there, being
Mr. Doctor Chambers's benefice, the kings phisitian. And from thence
they rode the next day."
[149] The king had listened to their suggestions against the
cardinal, and they felt assured of success; they are represented by
an eyewitness, as boasting openly that they would humble him and all
churchmen, and spoil them of their wealth: "La faintaisie de ces
seigneurs est, que lui mort ou ruiné ils déferrent incontinent icy
l'estat de l'eglise, et prendront tous leurs biens; qu'il seroit ja
besoing que je le misse en chiffre, car ils le crient en plaine table."
_L'Evesque de Bayonne, Le Grand_, Tom. iii. p. 374.
[150] "Le pis de son mal est, que Mademoiselle de Boulen a faict
promettre à son Amy qu'il ne l'escoutera jamais parler; car elle pense
bien qu'il ne le pourroit garder d'en avoir pitié."
_Lettre de l'Eveque de Bayonne ap. Le Grand_, Tom. iii. p. 375.
The manor of THE MOOR was situate in the parish of Rickmansworth, in
Hertfordshire; the site is still called Moor Park. It was purchased
and the house built by George Neville, Archbishop of York. Edward the
fourth had promised to make that prelate a visit there, and while he
was making suitable preparations to receive his royal master he was
sent for to Windsor, and arrested for high treason. The king seized
at the Moor all his rich stuff and plate to the value of 20,000_l._
keeping the archbishop prisoner at Calais and Hammes. _Stowe_, A^o.
1472. There was a survey of the house in 1568, by which it appears the
mansion was of brick, the chief buildings forming a square court, which
was entered by a gate-house with towers: the whole was moated. It was
then in a dilapidated state.
[151] "Le Cardinal Campège est encores à Douvres, et à ceste heure
(je) viens d'entendre que, soubz couleur de faute de Navires, on ne le
veult laisser passer, sans y prendre avis, de paeur qu'il n'emporte le
thrésor du Card. d'Yorc."
_Lettre de l'Evesque de Bayonne, apud Le Grand Hist. du Divorce._
[152] The Term then began the ninth of October.
[153] Esher.
[154] The Eighteenth November, 1529.
[155] This inventory is preserved among the Harleian MSS. No. 599.
[156] These words follow in the more recent MSS. "Yet there was laide
upon every table, bokes, made in manner of inventories, reporting the
number and contents of the same. And even so there were bokes made
in manner of inventories of all things here after rehearsed, wherein
he toke great paines to set all things in order against the king's
comming."
[157] Baudkyn, cloth made partly of silk and partly of gold. Derived
from _Baldacca_, an Oriental name for Babylon, being brought from
thence.--"_Baldekinum_--pannus omnium ditissimus, cujus, utpote
stamen ex filio _auri_, subtegmen ex _serico_ texitur, plumario opere
intertextus." _Ducange Glossar. in voce._ It sometimes is used for a
_canopy_ or _cloth of state_.
[158] The name of Cardinal Wolsey's fool is said to have been "Master
Williams, otherwise called Patch." An inquiry into this very curious
feature in the domestic manners of the great in ancient times could not
fail to be very interesting. Mr. Douce has glanced at the subject in
his Illustrations of Shakspeare; and gave his friends reason to hope
for a more enlarged inquiry at a future period: it would afford me real
pleasure to hear that his intentions were not finally abandoned.
[159] The Bishop of Bayonne, who paid him a visit of commiseration at
this period, gives the following affecting picture of his distress,
in a most interesting letter which will be found in the Appendix; he
says: "J'ay esté voir le Cardinal en ses ennuis, où que j'y ay trouvé
_le plus grand example de fortune qu' on ne sçauroit voir_, il m'a
remonstré son cas en la plus mauvaise rhétorique que je vis jamais,
_car cueur et parolle luy falloient entièrement_; il a bien pleuré et
prié que le Roy et Madame voulsissent avoir pitié du luy--mais il m'a
à la fin laissé sans me povoir dire austre chose qui vallist mieux que
son visage; qui est bien dechue de la moitié de juste pris. Et vous
promets, Monseigneur, que sa fortune est telle que ses ennemis, encores
qu'ils soyent Anglois, ne se sçauroyent garder d'en avoir pitié, ce
nonobstant ne le laisseront de le poursuivre jusques au bout." He
represents him as willing to give up every thing, even the shirt from
his back, and to live in a hermitage if the king would desist from his
displeasure.
[160] Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the later manuscripts read:
"_which had bine a strange sight in him afore_;" but this can hardly
be right? The splendour of Cromwell's subsequent fortunes, their
tragical close, and the prominent figure he makes in the events of this
reign, which are among the most important of modern history, gives
this circumstantial account a great degree of interest. His father
was a blacksmith at Putney, the son was first an agent to an English
factory at Antwerp, then a trooper in the Duke of Bourbon's army, and
was present at the sacking of Rome. It appears that he assisted Mr.
Russell (afterwards Earl of Bedford), in making his escape from the
French at Bologna, and it is probably to this circumstance that he
owed the friendly offices of that gentleman at a subsequent period.
After passing some time in the counting-house of a Venetian merchant,
he returned to England and studied the law. Wolsey, it appears, first
met with him in France, and soon made him his principal agent in the
dissolution of monasteries and the foundation of his colleges. It was
a trust which he discharged with ability, and is said to have enriched
himself; yet he here complains that he "never had any promotion at
the cardinal's hands to the increase of his living." And he tells the
cardinal in his troubles, that "the soliciting his cause hath been very
chargeable to him, and he cannot sustain it any longer without other
respect than he hath had heretofore." He says, "I am a thousand pounds
worse than I was when your troubles began." And after announcing the
king's determination to dissolve the cardinal's colleges, he says:
"I intreat your grace to be content, and let your prince execute his
pleasure."
Cardinal Pole relates that he openly professed to him his Machiavelian
principles; he had learned, he said, "that vice and virtue were
but names, fit indeed to amuse the leisure of the learned in their
colleges, but pernicious to the man who seeks to rise in the courts
of princes. The great art of the politician was, in his judgment, to
penetrate through the disguise which sovereigns are accustomed to
throw over their real inclinations, and to devise the most specious
expedients by which they may gratify their appetites without appearing
to outrage morality or religion." He shared largely in the public odium
in which the cardinal was held, and Pole, who was then in London, says
that the people loudly clamoured for his punishment.
[161] The day after it appears Cromwell was at court, and sought an
audience from the king, which was granted him; Cardinal Pole, who had
the account from Cromwell himself and others who were present, relates
that upon this occasion Cromwell suggested to the king a mode of
overcoming the difficulty of the pope's opposition to the divorce, by
taking the authority into his own hands, and declaring himself head of
the church within his own realm. The king gave ear to the proposition,
and was so well pleased with Cromwell, that he thanked him, and
admitted him to the dignity of a privy counsellor. This was the first
step; to carry into effect this project his assistance was deemed
necessary, and he arrived at length to the highest honours of the
state; but at last became the victim of his own Machiavelian intrigues,
and the vindictive spirit of the monarch. It has been doubted whether
Cromwell deserves the credit of attachment to his fallen master to the
whole extent which some writers have supposed. It is evident, from
the very interesting conversation above, that he despaired of ever
seeing Wolsey reinstated in his fortunes, and he was too subtle in his
policy to have endeavoured to swim against the stream of court favour.
That the cardinal suspected his fidelity to his cause is evident
from fragments of two letters published by Fiddes among Mr. Master's
collections, in one of which Cromwell says: "I am informed your grace
hath me in some diffidence, as if I did dissemble with you, or procure
any thing contrary to your profit and honour. I much muse that your
grace should so think or suspect it secretly, considering the pains I
have taken, &c. Wherefore I beseech you to speak without faining, if
you have such conceit, that I may clear myself; I reckoned that your
grace would have written plainly unto me of such thing, rather than
secretly to have misrepresented me. But I shall bear your grace no less
good will. Let God judge between us! Truly your grace in some things
overshooteth yourself; there is regard to be given to what things you
utter, and to whom."
The cardinal, in answer to this, protests: "that he suspects him not,
and that may appear by his deeds, so that he useth no man's help nor
counsel but his. Complaint indeed hath been made to him, that Cromwell
hath not done him so good offices as he might concerning his colleges
and archbishoprick; but he hath not believed them; yet he hath asked of
their common friends how Cromwell hath behaved himself towards him; and
to his great comfort hath found him faithful. Wherefore he beseecheth
him, with weeping tears, to continue stedfast, and give no credit to
the false suggestions of such as would sow variance between them, and
so leave him destitute of all help."
But the testimony of Cavendish in his favour is conclusive; he says
that, by reason of "his honest behaviour in his master's cause, he grew
into such estimation in every man's opinion, that he was esteemed to be
the most faithfullest servant to his master of all other, wherein he
was of all men greatly commended."
[162] In _prease_, i. e. the _press_ or _crowd_.
[163] A writer before cited (Dr. Pegge), is of opinion that the House
of Commons could not do otherwise than acquit him, notwithstanding the
validity of several of the articles alleged against him, because he had
either suffered the law for them already, or they were not sufficiently
proved: indeed some of them were not proper grounds of censure.
'Wolsey says of these articles himself, "whereof a great part be
untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing
thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the
prince's person nor to the state." The rejection of the bill may be
justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not
have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not
received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.'
[164] During the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to Henry VIII. "on
Monday at nine of the clocke at night, was begun a banquet, which
endured till the next morning at three of the clocke, at the which
banquet the emperor, the king, and the Queene did wash together, the
Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolke holding the
towel. Next them did washe _the Lord Cardinall_, the Queene of Fraunce,
and the Queene of Arragon. At which banquet the emperor kept the
estate, the king sitting on the left hand, next him the French Queene;
and on the other side sate the Queene, _the Cardinall_, and the Queene
of Aragon; which banquet was served by the emperor's owne servants."
_Stowe's Annals_, p. 510. edit. 1615. _W._
[165] This instrument is published by Fiddes in his Collections, p. 224.
[166] The anguish and anxiety he suffered may be seen by the letters
written at this period to his old servants Cromwell and Gardiner; I
have placed them in the Appendix, as a necessary illustration of this
affecting picture.
[167] In an extract from a letter to Cromwell, published by Fiddes, the
cardinal says: "My fever is somewhat asswaged, and the black humour
also, howbeit I am entering into the kalends of a more dangerous
disease, which is the dropsy, so that if I am not removed into a dryer
air, and that shortly, there is little hope." And in a letter to
Gardiner, which will be found in the Appendix, he repeats his wish to
be removed from Asher: "Continuing in this moiste and corrupt ayer,
beyng enteryd in the passion of the dropsy, _Appetitus et continuo
insomnio_, I cannot lyve: wherfor of necessyte I must be removed to
some dryer ayer and place."
[168] _Stuff_ was the general term for all kind of _moveables_ or
baggage. See the instrument of the king's benefaction to the cardinal
after his forfeiture by the premunire, in Rymer's Fœdera, and in
Fiddes' Collections. The reader will find the _Schedule_ which was
affixed to it, in our Appendix.
[169] "From the old gallery next the king's lodging, unto the first
gatehouse." _Wordsworth's Edition._
[170] "Of four thousand marks," say the more recent MSS. and Dr.
Wordsworth's Edit.
[171] Those to whom they were granted appear to have been the Lord
Sandys and his son Thomas; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Henry Guilford,
Sir John Russel, and Sir Henry Norris. This suit to the cardinal seems
to have been successfully brought about. Their pensions out of the
revenues of the see of Winchester were settled on them for life by Act
of Parliament, notwithstanding the just objection in the text. Rot.
Parl. clxxxviii. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 22.
[172] From the Ital. _intagliare_, to cut, carve, &c.
[173] _Prêt, Somme prêtée._ Fr. A sum in advance. _W._
[174] "His train was in number one hundred and threescore persons."
This addition is in Dr. Wordsworth's edition and the later MSS.
[175] He was now fifty-nine years old.
[176] The book of Ceremonies before cited, which was compiled in
the reign of Henry VIII. observes: "Upon Easter Day in the morning
_the ceremonies_ of the _resurrection_ be very laudable, to put us
in remembrance of Christ's resurrection, which is the cause of our
justification." _Strype's Eccles. Memorials_, v. i. p. 294. _Records._
What these ceremonies were we may collect from the Rubrics upon that
day, in the _Processionale secundum usum Sarum_. fol. 72. edit. 1555;
which are to this effect: On Easter Day, before mass, and before the
ringing of the bells, let the clerks assemble, and all the tapers
in the church be lighted. Then two persons shall draw nigh to the
sepulchre, and after it is censed let them take the cross out of the
sepulchre, and one of them begin _Christus resurgens_. Then let the
procession commence. After this they shall all worship (_adorent_)
the cross. Then let all the crucifixes and images in the church be
unveiled, &c. &c. In like manner Good Friday also had its peculiar
ceremonies. Bishop Longland closes his sermon preached on that day
before King Henry VIII. A. D. 1538, in the following manner: "In meane
season I shall exhorte you all in our Lord God, _as of old custome
hath here this day bene used_, every one of you or ye departe, with
moost entire devocyon, knelynge tofore our Savyour Lorde God, this
our Jesus Chryst, whiche hath suffered soo muche for us, to whome we
are soo muche bounden, _whoo lyeth in yonder sepulchre_; in honoure
of hym, of his passyon and deathe, and of his five woundes, to say
five Pater-nosters, five Aves, and one Crede: that it may please his
mercifull goodness to make us parteners of the merites of this his most
gloryous passyon, bloode, and deathe." _Imprynted by Thomas Petyt._ See
also Michael Wood's _Dialogue or Familiar Talks_. A. D. 1554. Signat.
D. 3. _W._
[177] See above, page 158, Dr. Wordsworth's note.
[178] In Mr. Ellis's very interesting collection of Historical Letters,
vol. i. p. 176, there is an extract of a letter from Sir William
Fitzwilliams, then on a mission in France, relating a conversation he
had with the French king upon his hearing the Duke of Buckingham was in
the Tower. With the Cardinal's answer.
[179] The favourable representation given of this portion of the
cardinal's life, notwithstanding what is said by Fox, p. 908, is fully
confirmed by an authority which cannot be suspected of partiality to
his memory, that of a State Book, which came out from the office of the
king's printer in the year 1536, intituled _A Remedy for Sedition_.
"Who was lesse beloved in the Northe than my lord cardynall, God have
his sowle, before he was amonges them? Who better beloved, after he had
ben there a whyle? We hate oft times whom we have good cause to love.
It is a wonder to see howe they were turned; howe of utter enemyes they
becam his dere frendes. He gave byshops a ryght good ensample, howe
they might wyn mens hartys. There was few holy dayes, but he would ride
five or six myle from his howse, nowe to this parysh churche, nowe to
that, and there cause one or other of his doctours to make a sermone
unto the people. He sat amonges them, and sayd masse before all the
paryshe. He sawe why churches were made. He began to restore them to
their ryght and propre use. He broughte his dinner with hym, and bad
dyvers of the parish to it. He enquired, whether there was any debate
or grudge betweene any of them; yf there were, after dinner he sente
for the parties to the churche, and made them all one. Men say well
that do well. Godde's lawes shal never be so set by as they ought,
before they be well knowen." Signat. E. 2. _W._
[180] In the more recent MS. and in Dr. Wordsworth's edition, "Newsted
Abbey."
[181] Next, _i.e._ nearest.
[182] The prevailing hour of dinner with our ancestors appears to have
been much earlier. In the Northumberland Household Book it is said, "to
X of the clock that my lord goes to dinner."
"With us," says Harrison, in the Description of England, prefixed to
Holinshed's Chronicle, p. 171, "the Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Students
do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at
five, or betweene five and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and
sup seldome before twelve at noone, and six at night, especiallie in
London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone, as they call it, and
sup at seven or eight: but out of the tearme in our Universities the
scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they generally dine and
sup when they may: so that to talke of their order of repast, it were
but a needlesse matter."
"_Theophilus._ You wente to diner betyme I perceave. _Eusebius._ Even
as I doe commonly, when I have no busynes, betwene nyne and ten; me
thinkes it is a good houre: for by that meanes I save a breakfast,
whyche for such idlers as I am, is most fittest." _Dialogue between
Eusebius and Theophilus._ Signat. B 4. A. D. 1556. _W._
[183] Dr. Brian Higden at that time bore the office.
[184] The Cardinal perhaps remembered the credit which was gained by
his successful rival Cardinal Adrian, who being elected to the papacy
by the Conclave, through the influence of the emperor Charles V.
"before his entry into the cittie of Rome (as we are told by one of Sir
Thomas More's biographers), putting off his hose and shoes, and as I
have credibly heard it reported, bare-footed and bare-legged, passed
through the streets towards his Palace, with such humbleness, that
all the people had him in great reverence." Harpsfield's _Life of Sir
Thomas More_. Lambeth MSS. No. 827, fol. 12. _W._
[185] Storer, in his Poetical Life of Wolsey, 1599, has availed himself
of this declaration of the cardinal, in a passage justly celebrated
for its eminent beauty. The image in the second stanza is worthy of a
cotemporary of Shakspeare:
I did not mean with predecessors pride,
To walk on cloth as custom did require;
More fit that cloth were hung on either side
In mourning wise, or make the poor attire;
More fit the dirige of a mournful quire
In dull sad notes all sorrows to exceed,
For him in whom the prince's love is dead.
I am the tombe where that affection lies,
That was the closet where it living kept;
Yet wise men say, Affection never dies;--
No, but it turns; and when it long hath slept,
Looks heavy, like the eye that long hath wept.
O could it die, that were a restfull state;
But living, it converts to deadly hate.