it was thought desirable that he should have been supposed to have
uttered before his death. It was accepted as authentic by Hall, and from
Hall's pages has been transferred into English history; and "the Lord
Cromwell" is represented to have confessed that he had been seduced into
heresy, that he repented, and died in the faith of the holy Catholic
Church. Reginald Pole, who, like others, at first accepted the official
report as genuine, warned a correspondent, on the authority of persons
whose account might be relied upon, that the words which were really
spoken were very different, and to Catholic minds were far less
satisfactory.[622] The last effort of Cromwell's enemies was to send him
out of the world with a lie upon his lips, to call in his dying witness
in favour of falsehoods which he gave up his life to overthrow. Clear he
was not, as what living man was clear? of all taint of superstition; but
a fairer version of his parting faith will be found in words which those
who loved him, and who preserved no record of his address to the people,
handed down as his last prayer to the Saviour:--
[Sidenote: His prayer on the scaffold.]
[Sidenote: The end.]
"O Lord Jesu, which art the only health of all men living, and the
everlasting life of them which die in Thee, I, wretched sinner, do
submit myself wholly to thy most blessed will; and, being sure that the
thing cannot perish which is submitted to thy mercy, willingly now I
leave this frail and wicked flesh, in sure hope that Thou wilt in better
wise restore it to me again at the last day in the resurrection of the
just. I beseech Thee, most merciful Lord Jesu Christ, that Thou wilt by
thy grace make strong my soul against all temptation, and defend me with
the buckler of thy mercy against all the assaults of the devil. I see
and acknowledge that there is in myself no hope of salvation; but all my
confidence, hope, and trust is in thy most merciful goodness. I have no
merits nor good works which I may allege before Thee: of sin and evil
works, alas! I see a great heap. But yet, through thy mercy, I trust to
be in the number of them to whom Thou wilt not impute their sins, but
wilt take and accept me for righteous and just, and to be the inheritor
of everlasting life. Thou, merciful Lord, wast born for my sake; Thou
didst suffer both hunger and thirst for my sake; all thy holy actions
and works Thou wroughtest for my sake; Thou sufferedst both grievous
pains and torments for my sake; finally, Thou gavest thy most precious
body and blood to be shed on the cross for my sake. Now, most merciful
Saviour, let all these things profit me that Thou hast freely done for
me, which hast given Thyself also for me. Let thy blood cleanse and wash
away the spots and foulness of my sins. Let thy righteousness hide and
cover my unrighteousness. Let the merits of thy passion and
bloodshedding be satisfaction for my sins. Give me, Lord, thy grace,
that the faith in my salvation in thy blood waver not, but may ever be
firm and constant; that the hope of thy mercy and life everlasting never
decay in me; that love wax not cold in me; finally, that the weakness of
my flesh be not overcome with fear of death. Grant me, merciful Saviour,
that when death hath shut up the eyes of my body, yet the eyes of my
soul may still behold and look upon Thee; and when death hath taken away
the use of my tongue, yet my heart may cry and say unto Thee, Lord, into
thy hands I commend my soul. Lord Jesu, receive my spirit. Amen."[623]
[Sidenote: His character.]
With these words upon his lips perished a statesman whose character will
for ever remain a problem.[624] For eight years his influence had been
supreme with the king--supreme in parliament--supreme in convocation;
the nation, in the ferment of revolution, was absolutely controlled by
him; and he has left the print of his individual genius stamped
indelibly, while the metal was at white heat, into the constitution of
the country. Wave after wave has rolled over his work. Romanism flowed
back over it under Mary. Puritanism, under another even grander
Cromwell, overwhelmed it. But Romanism ebbed again, and Puritanism is
dead, and the polity of the Church of England remains as it was left by
its creator.
And not in the Church only, but in all departments of the public
service, Cromwell was the sovereign guide. In the Foreign Office and the
Home Office, in Star Chamber and at council table, in dockyard and law
court, Cromwell's intellect presided--Cromwell's hand executed. His
gigantic correspondence remains to witness for his varied energy.
Whether it was an ambassador or a commissioner of sewers, a warden of a
company or a tradesman who was injured by the guild, a bishop or a
heretic, a justice of the peace, or a serf crying for emancipation,
Cromwell was the universal authority to whom all officials looked for
instruction, and all sufferers looked for redress. Hated by all those
who had grown old in an earlier system--by the wealthy, whose interests
were touched by his reforms--by the superstitious, whose prejudices he
wounded--he was the defender of the weak, the defender of the poor,
defender of the "fatherless and forsaken"; and for his work, the long
maintenance of it has borne witness that it was good--that he did the
thing which England's true interests required to be done.
Of the manner in which that work was done it is less easy to speak.
Fierce laws fiercely executed--an unflinching resolution which neither
danger could daunt nor saintly virtue move to mercy--a long list of
solemn tragedies--weigh upon his memory. He had taken upon himself a
task beyond the ordinary strength of man. His difficulties could be
overcome only by inflexible persistence in the course which he had
marked out for himself and for the state; and he supported his weakness
by a determination which imitated the unbending fixity of a law of
nature. He pursued an object the excellence of which, as his mind saw
it, transcended all other considerations--the freedom of England and the
destruction of idolatry: and those who from any motive, noble or base,
pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed, and passed on over their
bodies.
Whether the same end could have been attained by gentler methods is a
question which many persons suppose they can easily answer in the
affirmative. Some diffidence of judgment, however, ought to be taught by
the recollection that the same end was purchased in every other country
which had the happiness to attain to it at all, only by years of
bloodshed, a single day or week of which caused larger human misery than
the whole period of the administration of Cromwell. Be this as it will,
his aim was noble. For his actions he paid with his life; and he
followed his victims by the same road which they had trodden before him,
to the high tribunal, where it may be that great natures who on earth
have lived in mortal enmity may learn at last to understand each other.
[Sidenote: July 30. Double execution of Protestants and Romanists.]
Two days after, Barnes, Garret, and Jerome died bravely at the stake,
their weakness and want of wisdom all atoned for, and serving their
Great Master in their deaths better than they had served Him in their
lives. With them perished, not as heretics, but as traitors, the three
Romanizing priests. The united executions were designed as an evidence
of the even hand of the council. The execution of traitors was not to
imply an indulgence of heresy; the punishment of heretics should give no
hope to those who were disloyal to their king and country. But scenes of
such a kind were not repeated. The effect was to shock, not to
edify.[625] The narrow theory could be carried out to both its cruel
extremes only where a special purpose was working upon passions
specially excited.
END OF VOL. III.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] He told Sir Gregory Cassalis that he had been compelled by external
pressure to issue threats, "quæ tamen nunquam in animo habuit ad exitum
perducere."--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton.
Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.
[2] Richard Ebbes to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Vespasian_, B 7, fol. 87.
[3] "There be here both Englishmen and Irishmen many that doth daily
invent slander to the realm of England, with as many naughty Popish
practices as they can and may do, and specially Irishmen."--Ibid.
[4] "L'Empéreur a deux fois qu'il avoit parlè audit Evesque luy avoit
faict un discours long et plein de grande passion de la cruelle guerre
qu'il entendoit faire contre le dit Roy d'Angleterre, au cas qu'il ne
reprinst et restituast en ses honneurs la Reyne Catherine sa tante, et
luy avoit declarè les moyens qu'il avoit executer vivement icelle
guerre, et principalement au moyen de la bonne intelligence ce qu'il
disoit avoir avec le Roy d'Ecosse." Martin du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 110.
[5] Reginald Pole states that the issue was only prevented by the news
of Queen Catherine's death.--Pole to Prioli: _Epistles_, Vol. I. p. 442.
[6] Sleidan.
[7] Du Bellay's _Memoirs_, p. 135.
[8] "The Turks do not compel others to adopt their belief. He who does
not attack their religion may profess among them what religion he will;
he is safe. But where this pestilent seed is sown, those who do not
accept, and those who openly oppose, are in equal peril."--Reginald
Pole: _De Unitate Ecclesiæ_. For the arch-enemy of England even the name
of heretic was too good. "They err," says the same writer elsewhere,
"who call the King of England heretic or schismatic. He has no claims to
name so honourable. The heretic and schismatic acknowledge the power and
providence of God. He takes God utterly away."--_Apology to Charles the
Fifth._
[9] "Sire, je pense que vous avez entendu du supplication que le Roy
fit, estant la present luy même allant en ordre apres les reliques me
teste portant ung torche en son mayn avecques ses filz, ses evesques, et
cardinaulz devant luy, et les ducs, contes, seigneurs, seneschals,
esquieres, et aultres nobles gens apres luy; et la Reyne portée par deux
hommes avecques la fille du Roy et ses propres. Apres touts les grosses
dames et demoiselles suivants a pié. Quant tout ceci fit fayt on brûlait
vi. a ung feu. Et le Roy pour sa part remercioit Dieu qu'il avoit donne
cognoissance de si grand mal le priant de pardon qu'il avoit pardonne a
ung ou deux le en passé; et qu'il na pas este plus diligente en faysant
execution; et fit apres serment que dicy en avant il les brulerait tous
tous tant qu'il en trouveroit."--Andrew Baynton to Henry VIII.: _MS.
State Paper Office_, temp. Henry VIII., second series, Vol. IV.
[10] "The Duke of Orleans is married to the niece of Clement the Seventh
If I give him Milan, and he be dependent only on his father, he will be
altogether French ... he will be detached wholly from the confederacy of
the Empire."--Speech of Charles the Fifth in the Consistory at Rome.
_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.
[11] Charles certainly did give a promise, and the date of it is fixed
for the middle of the winter of 1535-36 by the protest of the French
court, when it was subsequently withdrawn. "Your Majesty," Count de
Vigny said, on the 18th of April, 1536, "promised a few months ago that
you would give Milan to the Duke of Orleans, and not to his brother the
Duke of Angoulesme"--Ibid.: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.
[12] "Bien estoit d'advis quant au faict d'Angleterre, afin qu'il eust
plus de couleur de presser le Roy dudit pays a se condescendre a
l'opinion universelle des Chrêtiens, que l'Empereur fist que notre
Sainct Pere sommast de ce faire tous les princes et potentats Chrêtiens;
et a luy assister, et donner main forte pour faire obeir le dit Roy à la
sentence et determination de l'Eglise."--Du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 136.
[13] Du Bellay: _Memoirs._ "Hic palam obloquuntur de morte illius ac
verentur de Puellâ regiâ ne brevi sequatur."--"I assure you men speak
here tragice of these matters which is not to be touched by
letters."--Harval to Starkey, from Venice, Feb. 5, 1535-36: Ellis,
second series, Vol. II.
[14] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 442.
[15] "There hath been means made unto us by the Bishop of Rome himself
for a reconciliation."--Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p.
476.
[16] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476. Lord Herbert,
p. 196. Du Bellay's _Memoirs_.
[17] Du Bellay.
[18] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Pole to Prioli, March, 1536; _Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. I.
[21] Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.
[22] An interesting account of these speeches and of the proceedings in
the consistory is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 646. It
was probably furnished by Sir Gregory Cassalis.
[23] Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.
[24] "Omnes qui sollerti judicio ista pensitare solent, ita statuunt
aliquid proditionis in Galliâ esse paratum non dissimile Ducis Borboniæ
proditioni. Non enim aliud vident quod Caæsarem illuc trahere
posset."--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.
[25] See Cassalis's Correspondence with Cromwell in May, 1536: _State
Papers_, Vol VII.
[26] The clearest account which I have seen of the point in dispute
between Charles V. and Francis I. is contained in a paper drawn by some
English statesman apparently for Henry's use.--_Rolls House MSS._ first
series, No. 757.
[27] When the English army was in the Netherlands, in 1543, the Emperor
especially admired the disposition of their entrenchments. Sir John
Wallop, the commander-in-chief, told him he had learnt that art some
years before in a campaign, of which the Emperor himself must remember
something, in the south of France.
[28] Pole, in writing to Charles V., says that Henry's cruelties to the
Romanists had been attributed wholly to the "Leæna" at his side; and
"when he had shed the blood of her whom he had fed with the blood of
others," every one expected that he would have recovered his
senses.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.
[29] "The news, which some days past were divulged of the queen's case,
made a great tragedy, which was celebrated by all men's voices with
admiration and great infamy to that woman to have betrayed that noble
prince after such a manner, who had exalted her so high, and put himself
to peril not without perturbation of all the world for her cause. But
God showed Himself a rightful judge to discover such treason and
iniquity. All is for the best. And I reckon this to the king's great
fortune, that God would give him grace to see and touch with his hand
what great enemies and traitors he lived withal."--Harvel to Starkey,
from Venice, May 26: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 77.
[30] Pole to Contarini: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 457.
[31] "Dicerem in ipso me adeo bonum animum reperisse ut procul dubio
vestra Majestas omnia de ipso sibi polliceri possit."--Sir Gregory
Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.
[32] Neque ea cupiditate laborare ut suas fortunas in immensum augeat
aut Pontificales fines propaget unde accidere posset ut ab hâc . . . .
institutâ ratione recederet.--Ibid. The MS. has been injured by
fire--words and paragraphs are in places wanting. In the present passage
it is not clear whether Paul was speaking of the Papal authority
generally, or of the Pontifical states in France and Italy.
[33] Causâ vero matrimonii et in consistoriis et publice et privatim
apud Clementem VII. se omnia quæ [potuerit pro] vestrâ Majestate egisse;
et Bononiæ Imperatori per [horas] quatuor accurate persuadere conatum
fuisse.--Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B
14, fol. 215.
[34] Ibid.
[35] _State Papers_, Vol. VII., June 5, 1536.
[36] Since Pole, when it suited his convenience, could represent the
king's early career in very different colours, it is well to quote some
specimens of his more favourable testimony. Addressing Henry himself, he
says: "Quid non promittebant præclaræ illæ virtutes quæ primis annis
principatûs tui in te maxime elucebant. In quibus primum pietas quæ una
omnium aliarum, et totius humanæ felicitatis quasi fundamentum est se
proferebat. Cui adjunctæ erant quæ maxime in oculis hominum elucere
solent justitia clementia liberalitas, prudentia denique tanta quanta in
illâ tenerâ ætate esse potuit. Ut dixit Ezechiel de Rege Assyriorum, in
paradiso Dei cedrus te pulcrior non inveniebatur."--_De Unitate
Ecclesiæ_, lib. 3.
Again, writing to Charles V., after speaking of the golden splendour of
Henry's early reign, his wealth, his moderation, the happiness of the
people, and the circle of illustrious men who surrounded his throne, he
goes on--
"Hi vero illam indolem sequebantur quam Regi Deus ipsi prius dederat
cujus exemplar in Rege suo viderunt. Fuit enim indoles ejus aliquando
prorsus regia. Summum in eo pietatis studium apparebat et religionis
cultus; magnus amor justitiæ; non abhorrens tamen natura ut tum quidem
videbatur a clementiâ."
And the time at which the supposed change took place is also marked
distinctly:--
"Satanas in carne adhuc manentem naturâ hominis jam videtur spoliasse .
. . . suâ induisse . . . in quâ nihil præter formam videtur reliquisse
quod sit hominis; . . . . ne vitia quidem . . . sed cum omni virtute et
donis illis Dei cœlestibus quibus cum optimis Regum comparari poterat
antequam in vicariatum Filii ejus se ingereret [præditus est] postquam
illum honorem impie ambivit et arripuit, non solum virtutibus omnibus
privatus est sed etiam," etc.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.
It was "necessary to the position" of Romanist writers to find the
promise of evil in Henry's early life, after his separation from the
Papacy, and stories like those which we read in Sanders grew like
mushrooms in the compost of hatred. But it is certain that so long as he
was orthodox he was regarded as a model of a Catholic prince. Cardinal
Contarini laments his fall, as a fall like Lucifer's: "Quî fieri potuit
per Deum immortalem," he wrote to Pole, "ut animus ille tam mitis tam
mansuetus ut ad bene merendum de hominum genere a naturâ factus esse
videatur sit adeo immutatus."--_Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. II. p. 31.
[37] Pole to Henry VIII.: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 305.
[38] Pole to the English Council: _Epist._, Vol. I.
[39] Ibid.
[40] Said by Cranmer to have been an able paper: "He suadeth with such
goodly eloquence; both of words and sentences, that he is like to
persuade many."--Cranmer's _Works_, edit. Jenkyns Vol. I. p. 2.
[41] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_.
[42] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 281.
[43] "Quibus si rem persuadere velis multa preæter rem sunt dicenda
multa insinuanda."--_Epist. Reg. Pol._, Vol. I. p. 434. And again:
"Illum librum scribo non tam Regis causâ quam gregis Christi qui est
universus Regni populus, quem sic deludi vix ferendum est."--Ibid. p.
437. I draw attention to these words, because in a subsequent defence of
himself to the English Privy Council, Pole assured them that his book
was a private letter privately sent to the king; that he had written as
a confessor to a penitent, under the same obligations of secrecy: "Hoc
genere dicendi Regem omnibus dedecorosum et probrosum reddo? Quibus
tandem illustrissimi Domini? Hisne qui libellum nunquam viderunt? an his
ad quos legendum dedi? Quod si hic solus sit Rex ipse, utinam ipse sibi
probrosus videretur Ad eum certe solum misi; quocum ita egi ut nemo
unquam a confessionibus illi secretior esse potuisset hoc tantum
spectans quod confessores ut illi tantum sua peccata
ostenderem."--Apologia ad Ang. Parl.: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 181. So
considerable an inconsistency might tempt a hasty person to use hard
words of Pole.
[44] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 441.
[45] Ibid. p. 442.
[46] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 445.
[47] Tunc statim misi cum ille e medio jam sustulisset illam quæ illi et
regno totius hujus calamitatis causa existimabatur.--_Apologia ad
Carolum Quintum._
[48] A MS. copy of this book, apparently the original which was sent by
Pole, is preserved among the _Records_ in the Rolls House, scored and
underlined in various places, perhaps by members of the Privy Council. A
comparison of the MS. with the printed version, shows that the whole
work was carefully rewritten for publication, and that various calumnies
in detail, which have derived their weight from being addressed directly
to the king, in what appeared to be a private communication by a
credible accuser--which have, therefore, been related without hesitation
by late writers as ascertained facts--are not in the first copy. So long
as Pole was speaking only to the king, he prudently avoided statements
which might be immediately contradicted, and confined himself to general
invective. When he gave his book to the world he poured into it the
indiscriminate slanders which were floating in popular rumour. See
_Appendix_ to the Fourth Volume.
[49] Partus Naturæ laborantis.
[50] Populus enim regem procreat.
[51] In the printed copy the king is here accused of having intrigued
with Mary Boleyn before his marriage with Anne. See _Appendix_.
[52] Elsewhere in his letters Pole touches on this string. If England is
to be recovered, he is never weary of saying, it must be recovered at
once, while the generation survives which has been educated in the
Catholic faith. The poison of heresy is instilled with so deadly skill
into schools and churches, into every lesson which the English youth are
taught, that in a few years the evil will be past cure. He was
altogether right. The few years in fact were made to pass before Pole
and his friends were able to interfere; and then it _was_ too late; the
prophecy was entirely verified. But, indeed, the most successful
preachers of the Reformation were neither Cranmer nor Parker, Cromwell
nor Burleigh, Henry nor Elizabeth, but Pole himself and the race of
traitors who followed him.
[53] These paragraphs are a condensation of five pages of invective.
[54] Reginald Pole to the King, Venice, May 27. MS. _penes me_.
Instructions to one whom he sent to King Henry by Reginald
Pole.--Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 478.
[55] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.
[56] In his _Apology to Charles the Fifth_, Pole says that Henry in his
answer to the book said that he was not displeased with him for what he
had written, but that the subject was a grave one, and that he wished to
see and speak with him. He, however, remembered the fable of the fox and
the sick lion, and would not show himself less sagacious than a brute.
Upon this, Lingard and other writers have built a charge of treachery
against Henry, and urged it, as might be expected, with much eloquent
force. It did not occur to them that if Henry had really said anything
so incredible, and had intended treachery, the letters of Tunstall and
Starkey would have been in keeping with the king's; they would not have
been allowed to betray the secret and show Pole their true opinions.
Henry's letter was sent on the 14th of June; the other letters bore the
same date, and went by the same post. But, indeed, the king made no
mystery of his displeasure. He may have written generally, as knowing
only so much of the book as others had communicated to him. That he
affected not to be displeased is as absurd in itself as it is
contradicted by the terms of the refusal to return, which Pole himself
sent in reply.--Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 295.
[57] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.
[58] Tunstall to Pole: _Rolls House MS._, Burnet's _Collectanea_, p.
479.
[59] Starkey to Pole: _Rolls House MS._
[60] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_, Vol. I. p. 148. Reginald Pole to
Edward VI.: _Epist._ Reg. Pol.
[61] Wordsworth's _Excursion_, Book V.
[62] _Sermons of Bishop Latimer_, Parker Society's edition, p. 33.
[63] In the State Paper Office and the Rolls House there are numerous
"depositions" as to language used by the clergy, showing their general
temper.
[64] Printed in Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 260. The complaints
are not exaggerated. There is not one which could not be illustrated or
strengthened from depositions among the _Records_.
[65] This, again, was intended for Latimer. The illustration was said to
be his; but he denied it.
[66] Many of the clergy and even of the monks had already taken the
permission of their own authority. Cranmer himself was said to be
secretly married; and in some cases women, whom we find reported in this
letter of Cromwell's visitors as concubines of priests, were really and
literally their wives, and had been formally married to them. I have
discovered one singular instance of this kind.
Ap Rice, writing to Cromwell in the year 1535 or 6, says:
"As we were of late at Walden, the abbot, then being a man of good
learning and right sincere judgment, as I examined him alone, shewed me
secretly, upon stipulation of silence, but only unto you, as our judge,
that he had contracted matrimony with a certain woman secretly, having
present thereat but one trusty witness; because he, not being able, as
he said, to contain, though he could not be suffered by the laws of man,
saw he might do it lawfully by the laws of God; and for the avoiding of
more inconvenience, which before he was provoked unto, he did thus,
having confidence in you that this act should not be anything
prejudicial unto him."--_MS. State Paper Office_, temp. Henry VIII.,
second series, Vol. XXXV.
Cromwell acquiesced in the reasonableness of the abbot's proceeding; he
wrote to tell him "to use his remedy," but to avoid, as far as possible,
creating a scandal.--_MS._ ibid. Vol. XLVI.
The government, however, found generally a difficulty in knowing what to
resolve in such cases. The king's first declaration was a reasonable
one, that all clergy who had taken wives should forfeit their orders,
"and be had and reputed as lay persons to all purposes and
intents."--Royal Proclamation: Wilkins's _Concilia_, Vol. III. p. 776.
[67] Luther, by far the greatest man of the sixteenth century, was as
rigid a believer in the real presence as Aquinas or St. Bernard.
[68] We were constrained to put our own pen to the book, and to conceive
certain articles which were by you, the bishops, and the whole of the
clergy of this our realm agreed on as Catholic.--Henry VIII. to the
Bishops and Clergy: Wilkins's _Concilia_, Vol. III. p. 825.
[69] Whether marriage and ordination were sacraments was thus left an
open question. The sacramental character of confirmation and extreme
unction is _implicitly_ denied.
[70] _Formularies of Faith_, temp. Henry VIII., Oxford edition, 1825.
Articles devised by the King's Majesty to stablish Christian quietness
and unity, and to avoid contentious opinions.
[71] Cromwell's patent as lord privy seal is dated the 2d of July, 1536.
On the 9th he was created Baron Cromwell, and in the same month
vicegerent _in rebus ecclesiasticis_.
[72] The judgment of the convocation concerning general councils, July
20, 28 Henry VIII: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 88.
[73] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 89.
[74] The Feast of St. Peter ad Vincula was on the 1st of August. These
injunctions could hardly have been issued before August, 1536; nor could
they have been later than September. The clergy were, therefore, allowed
nearly a year to provide themselves.
[75] Lewis's _History of the English Bible_.
[76] Lewis's _History of the English Bible_.
[77] The printing was completed in October, 1535.
[78] There is an excellent copy of this edition in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford.
[79] Preface to Coverdale's _Bible_.
[80] "The Lord Darcy declared unto me that the custom among the Lords
before that time had been that matters touching spiritual authority
should always be referred unto the convocation house, and not for the
parliament house: and that before this last parliament it was accustomed
among the Lords, the first matter they always communed of, after the
mass of the Holy Ghost, was to affirm and allow the first chapter of
Magna Charta touching the rights and liberties of the church; and it was
not so now. Also the Lord Darcy did say that in any matter which
toucheth the prerogative of the king's crown, or any matter that touched
the prejudice of the same, the custom of the Lords' house was that they
should have, upon their requests, a copy of the bill of the same, to the
intent that they might have their council learned to scan the same; or
if it were betwixt party and party, if the bill were not prejudicial to
the commonwealth. And now they could have no such copy upon their suit,
or at the least so readily as they were wont to have in parliament
before."--Examination of Robert Aske in the Tower: _Rolls House MS._, A
2, 29, p. 197.
[81] "The said Aske saith he well remembereth that the Lord Darcy told
him that there were divers great men and lords which before the time of
the insurrection had promised to do their best to suppress heresies and
the authors and maintainers of them, and he saith they were in number
fifteen persons."--_Rolls House Miscellaneous MSS._, first series, 414.
[82] Richard Coren to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.
[83] "The abbeys were one of the beauties of the realm to all strangers
passing through."--Examination of Aske: _Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.
[84] Examination of Aske; MS. ibid. I am glad to have discovered this
most considerable evidence in favour of some at least of the superiors
of the religious houses.
[85] "Strangers and buyers of corn were also greatly refreshed, horse
and man, at the abbeys; and merchandize was well carried on through
their help."--Examination of Aske: _Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.
[86] 27 Henry VIII. cap. 10.
[87] Among the unarranged MSS. in the State Paper Office is a long and
most elaborate explanation of the evils which had been created by the
system of uses. It is a paper which ought to find its place in the
history of English landed tenure; and when the arrangement of these MSS.
now in progress is completed, it will be accessible to any inquirer.
[88] "Masters, there is a statute made whereby all persons be restrained
to make their will upon their lands; for now the eldest son must have
all his father's lands; and no person, to the payment of his debts,
neither to the advancement of his daughters' marriages, can do nothing
with their lands, nor cannot give to his youngest son any
lands."--Speech of Mr. Sheriff Dymock, at Horncastle: _Rolls House MS._
A 2. 29.
"They want the Statute of Uses qualified, that a man be allowed to
bequeath part of his lands by will. It will invade the old accustomed
law in many things."--Examination of Aske: MS. ibid. "Divers things
should be reformed, and especially the Act of Uses. Younger brothers
would none of that in no wise."--Earl of Oxford to Cromwell:
_Miscellaneous MSS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. I.
[89] The depositions of prisoners taken after the rebellion are full of
evidence on this point. George Gisborne says: "We were in mind and will
to meet for certain causes, the which concerned the living of the poor
people and commons, the which they say be sore oppressed by gentlemen,
because their livings is taken away."--_Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous,
first series, 132.
Wm. Stapleton says: "Among the causes of the insurrection were pulling
down of villages and farms, raising of rents, enclosures, intakes of the
commons, worshipful men taking yeomen's offices, that is, becoming
dealers in farm produce."--_Rolls House MS._
I am tempted to add a petition sent from one of the discontented
districts to the crown, which betrays great ignorance of political
economy, although it exhibits also a clear understanding both of the
petitioners' sufferings and of the immediate causes of those sufferings.
"Please it your noble Grace to consider the great indigence and scarcity
of all manner of victual necessary to your subjects within this realm of
England, which doth grow daily more and more, by reason of the great and
covetous misusages of the farms within this your realm; which misusages
and the inconveniences thereof hath not only been begun and risen by
divers gentlemen of the same your realm, but also by divers and many
merchant adventurers, clothmakers, goldsmiths, butchers, tanners, and
other artificers and unreasonable covetous persons, which doth encroach
daily many farms more than they can occupy in tilth of corn; ten,
twelve, fourteen, or sixteen farms in one man's hands at once; when in
time past there hath been in every farm of them a good house kept, and
in some of them three, four, five, or six ploughs kept and daily
occupied, to the great comfort and relief of your subjects of your
realm, poor and rich. For when every man was contented with one farm,
and occupied that well, there was plenty and reasonable price of
everything that belonged to man's sustenance by reason of tillage;
forasmuch as every acre of land tilled and ploughed bore the straw and
the chaff besides the corn, able and sufficient with the help of the
shakke in the stubbe to succour and feed as many great beasts (as
horses, oxen, and kine) as the land would keep; and further, by reason
of the hinderflight of the crops and seeds tried out in cleansing,
winnowing, and sifting the corn, there was brought up at every barn-door
hens, capons, geese, ducks, swine, and other poultry, to the great
comfort of your people. And now, by reason of so many farms engrossed in
one man's hands, which cannot till them, the ploughs be decayed, and the
farmhouses and other dwelling-houses; so that when there was in a town
twenty or thirty dwelling-houses they be now decayed, ploughs and all
the people clean gone, and the churches down, and no more parishioners
in many parishes, but a neatherd and a shepherd instead of three score
or four score persons."--_Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, second series,
854.
[90] Abbot of York to Cromwell--_Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office,
second series, Vol. LII.
[91] See a very remarkable letter of Sir William Parr to Cromwell, dated
April 8, 1536, a few months only before the outbreak of the rebellion:
_Miscellaneous MS._ State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XXXI.
[92] It was said that the visitors' servants had made apparel, doublets,
yea, even saddle-cloths, of the churches' vestments.--Examination of
John Dakyn: _Rolls House MS._ miscellaneous, first series, 402.
[93] _Rolls House MS._
[94] Ibid., Miscellaneous, first series, 402.
[95] Aske's Deposition: _Rolls House MS._
[96] Depositions on the Rebellion, _passim_, among the MSS. in the State
Paper Office and the Rolls House.
[97] George Lumley, the eldest son of Lord Lumley, said in his evidence
that there was not a spiritual man in the whole north of England who had
not assisted the rebellion with arms or money.--_Rolls House MS._
[98] The parish priest of Wyley, in Essex, had been absent for three
weeks in the north, in the month of August, and on returning, about the
2d of September, said to one of his villagers, Thomas Rogers, "There
shall be business shortly in the north, and I trust to help and
strengthen my countrymen with ten thousand such as I am myself; and I
shall be one of the worst of them all. The king shall not reign
long."--Confession of Thomas Rogers: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. XXX. p. 112.
[99] Deposition of Thomas Brian: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.
[100] We find curious and humorous instances of monastic rage at this
time. One monk was seen following a plough, and cursing his day that he
should have to work for his bread. Another, a Welshman, "wished he had
the king on Snowdon, that he might souse his head against the
stones."--Depositions on the Rebellion: _Rolls House MS._
[101] Sir Robert Dighton and Sir Edward Dymmock said they heard many of
the priests cry, "Kill the gentlemen." The parson of Cowbridge said that
the lords of the council were false harlots; and the worst was Cromwell.
"The vicar of Haynton, having a great club in his hand, said that if he
had Cromwell there he would beat out his guts." "Robert Brownwhite, one
of the parsons of Nether Teynton, was with bow and arrows, sword and
buckler by his side, and sallet on his head; and when he was demanded
how he did, he said, 'None so well;' and said it was the best world that
ever he did see." My story, so far, is taken from the Miscellaneous
Depositions, _Rolls MS._ A 2, 28; from the Examination of William
Moreland, _MS._ A 2, 29; and from the Confession of John Brown, _Rolls
House MS._, first series, 892.
[102] Very opposite stories were told of the behaviour of the gentlemen.
On one side it was said that they were the great movers of the
insurrection; on the other, that they were forced into it in fear of
their lives. There were many, doubtless, of both kinds; but it seems to
me as if they had all been taken by surprise. Their conduct was that of
men who wished well to the rising, but believed it had exploded
inopportunely.
[103] The plough was to encourage the husbandmen; the chalice and host
in remembrance of the spoiling of the Church; the five wounds to the
couraging of the people to fight in Christ's cause; the horn to signify
the taking of Horncastle--Philip Trotter's Examination; _Rolls House
MS._ A 2, 29.
[104] Examination of Brian Staines: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29. In the
margin of this document, pointing to the last paragraph, is an ominous
finger ☞, drawn either by the king or Cromwell.
[105] Compare the Report of Lancaster Herald to Cromwell, _MS. State
Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIX.: "My especial good lord, so far
as I have gone, I have found the most corrupted and malicious
spiritualty, inward and partly outward, that any prince of the world
hath in his realm; and if the truth be perfectly known, it will be found
that they were the greatest corrupters of the temporality, and have
given the secret occasion of all this mischief."
[106] Lord Hussey to the Mayor of Lincoln: _Cotton. MS. Vespasian_, F
13.
[107] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 416. Cutler's Confessions MS.
ibid. 407. Deposition of Robert Sotheby: Ibid. A 2, 29.
[108] Lord Shrewsbury to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_. Letter to
the king and council, Vol. V. Hollinshed tells a foolish story, that
Lord Shrewsbury sued out his pardon to the king for moving without
orders. As he had done nothing for which to ask pardon, so it is
certain, from his correspondence with the king, that he did not ask for
any. Let me take this opportunity of saying that neither Hollinshed, nor
Stow, nor even Hall, nor any one of the chroniclers, can be trusted in
their account of this rebellion.
[109] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series.
[110] "My lord: Hugh Ascue, this bearer, hath shewed me that this day a
servant of Sir William Hussey's reported how that in manner, in every
place by the way as his master and he came, he hath heard as well old
people as young pray God to speed the rebellious persons in
Lincolnshire, and wish themselves with them; saying, that if they came
that way, that they shall lack nothing that they can help them unto. And
the said Hugh asked what persons they were which so reported, and he
said _all_; which is a thing as meseemeth greatly to be noted."--Sir
William Fitzwilliam to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. VI.
[111] Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_,
second series, Vol. VII.
[112] "Nothing we lament so much as that they thus fly; for our trust
was that we should have used them like as they have deserved; and I for
my part am as sorry as if I had lost five hundred pounds. For my lord
admiral (Sir John Russell), he is so earnest in the matter, that I dare
say he would eat them with salt."--Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell:
_MS. State Paper Office_.
[113] Henry VIII. to the Rebels in Lincolnshire: _State Papers_, Vol. I.
p. 463, &c.
[114] Confession of Thos. Mayne: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 432.
[115] Confession of Thos. Mayne: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 432.
[116] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: Ibid. 480.
[117] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 471.
Examination of the Prisoners: _Rolls House MS._
[118] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 480.
[119] "The captain and the Earl of Cumberland came of two
sisters."--Lord Darcy to Somerset Herald: _Rolls House MS._
[120] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 523.
[121] Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[122] "There was a letter forged in my name to certain towns, which I
utterly deny to be my deed or consent."--Narrative of Robert Aske:
_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28. This is apparently the letter which is
printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 467. It was issued on the 7th
or 8th of October (see Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2,
28), the days on which, according to Aske's own confession, he seems to
have been in the West Riding.
[123] The oath varied a little in form. In Yorkshire the usual form was,
"Ye shall swear to be true to God, the king, and the
commonwealth."--Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ The tendency of the
English to bind themselves with oaths, explains and partly justifies the
various oaths required by the government.
[124] Deposition of William Stapleton: _Rolls House MS._
[125] Henry VIII. to Lord Darcy, October 8th: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 282.
[126] Letters to and from Lord Darcy: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
282.
[127] Henry had written him a second letter on the 9th of October, in
which, knowing nothing as yet of the rising in Yorkshire, he had
expressed merely a continued confidence in Darcy's discretion.
[128] Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[129] Examination of Sir Thomas Percy: _Rolls House MS._ Demeanour of
Sir Thomas and Sir Ingram Percy: _MS._ ibid. first series, 896.
[130] "The said Aske suffered no foot man to enter the city, for fear of
spoils."--Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2,
28.
[131] Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. III.
[132] Henry VIII. to Lord Darcy, October 13: _Rolls House MS._
[133] Lord Darcy to the King, October 17: _Rolls House MS._
[134] Lord Shrewsbury to Lord Darcy: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
282. Darcy certainly received this letter, since a copy of it is in the
collection made by himself.
[135] Manner of the taking of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[136] I believe that I am unnecessarily tender to Lord Darcy's
reputation. Aske, though he afterwards contradicted himself, stated in
his examination that Lord Darcy could have defended the castle had he
wished.--_Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29. It was sworn that when he was
advised "to victual and store Pomfret," he said, "there was no need; it
would do as it was." Ibid. And Sir Henry Saville stated that "when Darcy
heard of the first rising, he said, 'Ah! they are up in Lincolnshire.
God speed them well. I would they had done this three years ago, for the
world should have been the better for it.'"--Ibid.
[137] Aske's Deposition: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 414.
[138] Examination of Sir Thomas Percy: _Rolls House MS._
[139] Stapleton's Confession: Ibid. A 2, 28.
[140] Examination of Christopher Aske: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
840
[141] Ibid.
[142] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._
[143] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 472.
[144] The Marquis of Exeter, who was joined in commission with the Duke
of Norfolk, never passed Newark. He seems to have been recalled, and
sent down into Devonshire, to raise the musters in his own county.
[145] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 493.
[146] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 519.
[147] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 495.
[148] This particular proclamation--the same, apparently, which was read
by Christopher Aske at Skipton--I have been unable to find. That which
is printed in the State Papers from the Rolls House Records, belongs to
the following month. The contents of the first, however, may be gathered
from a description of it by Robert Aske, and a comparison of the
companion proclamation issued in Lincolnshire. It stated briefly that
the insurrection was caused by forged stories; that the king had no
thought of suppressing parish churches, or taxing food or cattle. The
abbeys had been dissolved by act of parliament, in consequence of their
notorious vice and profligacy. The people, therefore, were commanded to
return to their homes, at their peril. The commotion in Lincolnshire was
put down. The king was advancing in person to put them down also, if
they continued disobedient.
[149] In explanation of his refusal, Aske said afterwards that it was
for two causes: first, that if the herald should have declared to the
people by proclamation that the commons in Lincolnshire were gone to
their homes, they would have killed him; secondly, that there was no
mention in the same proclamation neither of pardon nor of the demands
which were the causes of their assembly.--Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House
MS._ A 2, 28.
[150] Lancaster Herald's Report: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 485.
[151] Stapleton's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28. Does this
solitary and touching faithfulness, I am obliged to ask, appear as if
Northumberland believed that four months before the king and Cromwell
had slandered and murdered the woman whom he had once loved?
[152] "We were 30,000 men, as tall men, well horsed, and well appointed
as any men could be."--Statement of Sir Marmaduke Constable: _MS. State
Paper Office._ All the best evidence gives this number.
[153] Not the place now known under this name--but a bridge over the Don
three or four miles above Doncaster.
[154] So Aske states.--Examination: _Rolls House MS._, first series,
838. Lord Darcy went further. "If he had chosen," he said, "he could
have fought Lord Shrewsbury with his own men, and brought never a man of
the northmen with him." Somerset Herald, on the other hand, said, that
the rumour of disaffection was a feint. "One thing I am sure of," he
told Lord Darcy, "there never were men more desirous to fight with men
than ours to fight with you."--_Rolls House MS._
[155] "Sir Marmaduke Constable did say, if there had been a battle, the
southern men would not have fought. He knew that every third man was
theirs. Further, he said the king and his council determined nothing but
they had knowledge before my lord of Norfolk gave them knowledge." Earl
of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_.
[156] "I saw neither gentlemen nor commons willing to depart, but to
proceed in the quarrel; yea, and that to the death. If I should say
otherwise, I lie."--Aske's Examination: _Rolls House MS._
[157] Rutland and Huntingdon were in Shrewsbury's camp by this time.
[158] "They wished," said Sir Marmaduke Constable, "the king had sent
some younger lords to fight with them than my lord of Norfolk and my
lord of Shrewsbury. No lord in England would have stayed them but my
lord of Norfolk."--Earl of Oxford to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office._
[159] The chroniclers tell a story of a miraculous fall of rain, which
raised the river the day before the battle was to have been fought, and
which was believed by both sides to have been an interference of
Providence. Cardinal Pole also mentions the same fact of the rain, and
is bitter at the superstitions of his friends; and yet, in the multitude
of depositions which exist, made by persons present, and containing the
most minute particulars of what took place, there is no hint of anything
of the kind. The waters had been high for several days, and the cause of
the unbloody termination of the crisis was more creditable to the rebel
leaders.
[160] Second Examination of Robert Aske: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
838. It is true that this is the story of Aske himself, and was told
when, after fresh treason, he was on trial for his life. But his bearing
at no time was that of a man who would stoop to a lie. Life
comparatively was of small moment to him.
[161] Uncle of Marjory, afterwards wife of John Knox. Marjory's mother,
Elizabeth, to whom so many of Knox's letters were addressed, was an
Aske, but she was not apparently one of the Aughton family.
[162] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[163] Instructions to Sir Thomas Hilton and his Companions: _Rolls House
MS._ There are many groups of "articles" among the Records. Each focus
of the insurrection had its separate form; and coming to light one by
one, they have created much confusion. I have thought it well,
therefore, to print in full, from Sir Thomas Hilton's instructions, a
list, the most explicit, as well as most authentic, which is extant.
"I. Touching our faith, to have the heresies of Luther, Wickliffe, Huss,
Melancthon, Œcolampadius, Bucer's _Confessio Germanica_, _Apologia
Melancthonis_, the works of Tyndal, of Barnes, of Marshal, Raskall, St.
Germain, and such other heresies of Anabaptists, clearly within this
realm to be annulled and destroyed.
"II. To have the supreme head, touching _cura animarum_, to be reserved
unto the see of Rome, as before it was accustomed to be, and to have the
consecration of the bishops from him, without any first-fruits or
pensions to him to be paid out of this realm; or else a pension
reasonable for the outward defence of our faith.
"III. We humbly beseech our most dread sovereign lord that the Lady Mary
may be made legitimate, and the former statute therein annulled, for the
danger if the title might incur to the crown of Scotland. This to be in
parliament.
"IV. To have the abbeys suppressed to be restored--houses, lands, and
goods.
"V. To have the tenths and first-fruits clearly discharged, unless the
clergy will of themselves grant a rent-charge in penalty to the
augmentation of the crown.
"VI. To have the friars observants restored unto their houses again.
"VII. To have the heretics, bishops and temporals, and their sect, to
have condign punishment by fire, or such other; or else to try the
quarrel with us and our partakers in battle.
"VIII. To have the Lord Cromwell, the lord chancellor, and Sir Richard
Rich to have condign punishment as subverters of the good laws of this
realm, and maintainers of the false sect of these heretics, and first
inventors and bringers in of them.
"IX. That the lands in Westmoreland, Cumberland, Kendal, Furness, the
abbey lands in Massamshire, Kirkbyshire, and Netherdale, may be by
tenant right, and the lord to have at every change two years' rent for
gressam [the fine paid on renewal of a lease; the term is, I believe,
still in use in Scotland], and no more, according to the grant now made
by the lords to the commons there under their seal; and this to be done
by act of parliament.
"X. The statute of handguns and cross-bows to be repealed, and the
penalties thereof, unless it be on the king's forest or park, for the
killing of his Grace's deer, red or fallow.
"XI. That Doctor Legh and Doctor Layton may have condign punishment for
their extortions in the time of visitation, as bribes of nuns, religious
houses, forty pounds, twenty pounds, and so to ---- leases under one
common seal, bribes by them taken, and other their abominable acts by
them committed and done. "XII. Restoration for the election of knights
of shires and burgesses, and for the uses among the lords in the
parliament house, after their antient custom.
"XIII. Statutes for enclosures and intakes to be put in execution, and
that all intakes and enclosures since the fourth year of King Henry the
Seventh be pulled down, except on mountains, forests, or parks.
"XIV. To be discharged of the fifteenth, and taxes now granted by act of
parliament.
"XV. To have the parliament in a convenient place at Nottingham or York,
and the same shortly summoned.
"XVI. The statute of the declaration of the crown by will, that the same
be annulled and repealed.
"XVII. That it be enacted by act of parliament that all recognizances,
statutes, penalties under forfeit, during the time of this commotion,
may be pardoned and discharged, as well against the king as strangers.
"XVIII. That the privileges and rights of the Church be confirmed by act
of parliament; and priests not to suffer by the sword unless they be
degraded. A man to be saved by his book; sanctuary to save a man for all
cases in extreme need; and the Church for forty days, and further,
according to the laws as they were used in the beginning of this king's
days.
"XIX. The liberties of the Church to have their old customs, in the
county palatine of Durham, Beverley, Ripon, St. Peter's at York, and
such other, by act of parliament.
"XX. To have the Statute of Uses repealed.
"XXI. That the statutes of treasons for words and such like, made since
anno 21 of our sovereign lord that now is, be in like wise repealed.
"XXII. That the common laws may have place, as was used in the beginning
of your Grace's reign; and that all injunctions may be clearly decreed,
and not to be granted unless the matter be heard and determined in
Chancery.
"XXIII. That no man, upon subpœnas from Trent north, appear but at York,
or by attorney, unless it be upon pain of allegiance, or for like
matters concerning the king.
"XXIV. A remedy against escheators for finding of false offices, and
extortionate feestaking, which be not holden of the king, and against
the promoters thereof."
A careful perusal of these articles will show that they are the work of
many hands, and of many spirits. Representatives of each of the
heterogeneous elements of the insurrection contributed their grievances;
wise and foolish, just and unjust demands were strung together in the
haste of the moment.
For the original of this remarkable document, see Instructions to Sir
Thomas Hilton, Miscellaneous Depositions on the Rebellion: _Rolls House
MS._
[164] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._
[165] Lord Darcy to Somerset Herald: _Rolls House MS._
[166] Richard Cromwell to Lord Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_,
second series, Vol. VII.
[167] Devices for the Quieting of the North: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 606.
[168] _State Papers_, Vol. I. pp. 507, 508.
[169] Bundle of unassorted MSS. in the State Paper Office.
[170] _Rolls House MS._ second series, 278.
[171] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 476; and compare p. 500. The
instructions varied according to circumstances. There were many forms of
them, of which very few are printed in the _State Papers_. I extract
from several, in order to give the general effect.
[172] The king's words are too curious to be epitomized. The paper from
which I here quote is written by his secretary, evidently from
dictation, and in great haste. After speaking of the way in which the
vow of chastity had been treated by the monks, he goes on:--
"For the point of wilful poverty they have gathered together such
possessions, and have so exempted themselves from all laws and good
order with the same, that no prince could live in that quiet, in that
surety, in that ease, yea, in that liberty, that they lived. The prince
must carke and care for the defence of his subjects against foreign
enemies, against force and oppression; he must expend his treasures for
their safeguard; he must adventure his own blood, abiding all storms in
the field, and the lives of his nobles, to deliver his poor subjects
from the bondage and thrall of their mortal enemies. The monks and
canons meantime lie warm in their demesnes and cloysters. Whosoever
wants, they shall be sure of meat and drink, warm clothing, money, and
all other things of pleasure. They may not fight for their prince and
country; but they have declared at this rebellion that they might fight
against their prince and country. Is not this a great and wilful
poverty, to be richer than a prince?--to have the same in such certainty
as no prince hath that tendereth the weal of his subjects? Is not this a
great obedience that may not obey their prince, and against God's
commandment, against their duties of allegiance, whereto they be sworn
upon the Holy Evangelists, will labour to destroy their prince and
country, and devise all ways to shed Christian blood? The poor
husbandman and artificer must labour all weathers for his living and the
sustentation of his family. The monk and canon is sure of a good house
to cover him, good meat and drink to feed him, and all other things
meeter for a prince than for him that would be wilfully poor. If the
good subject will ponder and weigh these things, he will neither be
grieved that the King's Majesty have that for his defence and the
maintenance of his estate, so that he shall not need to molest his
subjects with taxes and impositions, which loiterers and idle fellows,
under the cloke of holyness, have scraped together, nor that such
dissimulers be punished after their demerits, if they will needs live
like enemies to the commonwealth."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 297.
[173] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 268.
[174] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 268.
[175] He was a bad, violent man. In earlier years he had carried off a
ward in Chancery, one Anne Grysanis, while still a child, and attempted
to marry her by force to one of his retainers.--Ibid. second series,
434.
[176] Sir Brian Hastings to Lord Shrewsbury: Ibid. first series, 626.
[177] Shrewsbury to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_; Letters to the
King and Council, Vol. V.
[178] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXXVI.
[179] Suffolk to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_; Letters to the King
and Council, Vol. V.
[180] It is to be remembered that Darcy still _professed_ that he had
been forced into the insurrection by Aske. This is an excuse for
Norfolk's request, though it would have been no excuse for Darcy had he
consented.
[181] Deposition of Percival Cresswell: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.
[182] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series. Autograph letter of Lord
Darcy to the Duke of Norfolk. It is unfortunately much injured.
[183] One of these is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 506. The
editor of these Papers does not seem to have known that neither this nor
any _written_ answer was actually sent. Amidst the confusion of the MSS.
of this reign, scattered between the State Paper Office, the Rolls
House, and the British Museum, some smothered in dirt and mildew, others
in so frail a state that they can be scarcely handled or deciphered, far
greater errors would be pardonable. The thanks of all students of
English history are due to Sir John Romilly for the exertions which he
has made and is still making to preserve the remnants of these most
curious documents.
[184] Henry VIII. to the Earl of Rutland: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 454
[185] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._
[186] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 1805; and see _State Papers_, Vol.
I. p. 558.
[187] Deposition of John Selbury: _Rolls House MS._ A 2. 29.
[188] Sir Anthony Wingfield to the Duke of Norfolk: _Rolls House MS._
first series, 692.
[189] The Duke of Norfolk, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir John Russell,
and Sir Anthony Brown.
[190] The Duke of Suffolk feared an even larger gathering: where
heretofore they took one man, he warned Norfolk, they now take six or
seven. _State Paper Office MS._ first series, Vol. III. Lord Darcy
assured Somerset Herald that they had a reserve of eighty thousand men
in Northumberland and Durham--which, however, the herald did not
believe. _Rolls House MS._
[191] The King to the Duke of Norfolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
278.
[192] _MS. State Paper Office._
[193] The names of the thirty-four were,--Lords Darcy, Neville, Scrope,
Conyers, Latimer, and Lumley; Sir Robert Constable, Sir John Danvers,
Sir Robert Chaloner, Sir James Strangways, Sir Christopher Danby, Sir
Thomas Hilton, Sir William Constable, Sir John Constable, Sir William
Vaughan, Sir Ralph Ellerkar, Sir Christopher Heliyarde, Sir Robert
Neville, Sir Oswald Wolstrop, Sir Edward Gower, Sir George Darcy, Sir
William Fairfax, Sir Nicholas Fairfax, Sir William Mallore, Sir Ralph
Bulmer, Sir Stephen Hamarton, Sir John Dauncy, Sir George Lawson, Sir
Richard Tempest, Sir Thomas Evers, Sir Henry Garrowe, and Sir William
Babthorpe.
[194] Examination of John Dakyn: _Rolls House MS._ first series, p. 402.
[195] They have been printed by Strype (_Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 266).
Strype however, knew nothing of the circumstances which gave them birth.
[196] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p.
511. The council, who had wrung these concessions from the king, wrote
by the same courier, advising him to yield as little as possible--"not
to strain too far, but for his Grace's honour and for the better
security of the commonwealth, to except from pardon, if by any means he
might, a few evil persons, and especially Sir Robert
Constable."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 27.
[197] "You may of your honour promise them not only to obtain their
pardons, but also that they shall find us as good and gracious lord unto
them as ever we were before this matter was attempted; which promise we
shall perform and accomplish without exception."--Henry VIII. to the
Duke of Suffolk: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 476.
[198] Aske, in his Narrative, which is in the form of a letter to the
king, speaks of "the articles now concluded at Doncaster, which were
drawn, read, argued, and agreed among the lords and esquires" at
Pomfret.--_Rolls House MS._
[199] Aske's Narrative: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[200] Instructions to the Earl of Sussex: Ibid. first series, 299.
[201] Scheme for the Government of the North: _Rolls House MS._ first
series, 900. In connexion with the scheme for the establishment of
garrisons, a highly curious draft of an act was prepared, to be
submitted to the intended parliament.
Presuming that, on the whole, the suppression of the monasteries would
be sanctioned, the preamble stated (and the words which follow are
underlined in the MS.) that--
"Nevertheless, the experience which we have had by those houses that are
already suppressed sheweth plainly unto us that a great hurt and decay
is thereby come, and hereafter shall come, to this realm, and great
impoverishing of many the poor subjects thereof, for lack of hospitality
and good householding that were wont in them to be kept, to the great
relief of the poor people of all the counties adjoining the said
monasteries, besides the maintaining of many smiths, husbandmen, and
labourers that were kept in the said houses.
"It should therefore be enacted:
"1. That all persons taking the lands of suppressed houses must duly
reside upon the said lands, and must keep hospitality; and that it be so
ordered in the leases.
"2. That all houses, of whatsoever order, habit, or name, lying beyond
the river of Trent northward, and not suppressed, should stand still and
abide in their old strength and foundation.
"3. That discipline so sadly decayed should be restored among them; that
all monks, being accounted dead persons by the law, should not mix
themselves in worldly matters, but should be shut up within limited
compass, having orchards and gardens to walk in and labour in--each monk
having forty shillings for his stipend, each abbot and prior five
marks--and in each house a governor, to be nominated by the king, to
administer the revenue and keep hospitality.
"4. A thousand marks being the sum estimated as sufficient to maintain
an abbey under such management, the surplus revenue was then to be made
over to a court, to be called the _Curia Centenariorum_, for the defence
of the realm, and the maintenance in peace as well as war of a standing
army; the said men of war, being in wages in the time of peace, to
remain in and about the towns, castles, and fortresses, within the realm
at the appointment of the lord admiral, as he should think most for the
surety of the realm."
A number of provisions follow for the organization of the court, which
was to sit at Coventry as a central position, for the auditing the
accounts, the employment of the troops, &c. The paper is of great
historic value, although, with a people so jealous of their liberties,
it was easy to foresee the fate of the project. It is among the _Cotton.
MSS. Cleopatra_, E 4, fol. 215.
[202] _Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 38.
[203] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 523.
[204] Confession of George Lascelles: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
774.
[205] And for another reason. They were forced to sue out their pardons
individually, and received them only, as Aske and Lord Darcy had been
obliged to do, by taking the oath of allegiance, and binding themselves
to obey the obnoxious statutes so long as they were unrepealed.--_Rolls
House MS._ first series, 471.
[206] Cromwell.
[207] Robert Aske to the King: _MS. State Paper Office_, Royal Letters.
[208] "Deum deprecantes ut dextram ense firmet caputque tuum hoc pileo
vi Spiritûs Sancti per columbam figurati protegat."--Paulus III. Regi
Scotiæ: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 269.
[209] "Nec tam muneris qualitatem quam mysterium et vim spiritualem
perpendes."--Ibid.
[210] Although the Doncaster petitioners had spoken of "their antient
enemies of Scotland," an alliance, nevertheless, in the cause of
religion, was not, after all, impossible. When James V. was returning
from France to Edinburgh, in the spring of 1537, his ship lay off
Scarborough for a night to take in provisions--
"Where certain of the commons of the country thereabout, to the number
of twelve persons--Englishmen, your Highness's servants" [I am quoting a
letter of Sir Thomas Clifford to Henry VIII.]--"did come on board in the
king's ship, and, being on their knees before him, thanked God of his
healthful and sound repair; showing how that they had long looked for
him, and how they were oppressed, slain, and murdered; desiring him for
God's sake to come in, and all should be his."--_State Papers_, Vol. V.
p. 80.
[211] Among the records in connexion with the entreaties and warnings of
the Privy Council are copies of letters to the same effect from his
mother and his brother. They are written in a tone of stiff
remonstrance; and being found among the government papers, must either
have been drafts which the writers were required to transcribe, or
copies furnished by themselves as evidence of their own loyalty. Lady
Salisbury's implication in the affair of the Nun of Kent may have
naturally led the government to require from her some proof of
allegiance.
[212] Reg. Polus, Paulo Tertio: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46. The
letter to which I refer was written in the succeeding summer, but the
language is retrospective, and refers to the object with which the
mission had been undertaken.
[213] "Perceiving by your last letters that there remaineth a little
spark of that love and obedience towards his Majesty which your bounden
duty doth require, and that by the same as well it appeareth your great
suspicion is conveyed to one special point--that is, to the pretended
supremacy of the Bishop of Rome--as that you shew yourself desirous
either to satisfy his Majesty or to be satisfied in the same, offering
yourself for that purpose to repair into Flanders, there to discourse
and reason it with such as his Highness shall appoint to entreat that
matter with you--for the hearty love and favour we bear to my lady your
mother, my lord your brother, and others your friends here, which be
right heartily sorry for your unkind proceedings in this behalf, and for
that also we all desire your reconciliation to his Highness's grace and
favour, we have been all most humble suitors to his Majesty to grant
your petition touching your said repair into Flanders, and have obtained
our suit in the same, so as you will come thither of yourself, without
commission of any other person."--The Privy Council to Pole, Jan. 18,
1537: _Rolls House MS._
[214] Ibid.
[215] "They shall swear and make sure faith and promise utterly to
renounce and refuse all their forced oaths, and that from henceforth
they shall use themselves as true and faithful subjects in all things;
and that specially they shall allow, approve, support, and maintain to
the uttermost of their power all and singular the acts, statutes, and
laws which have been made and established in parliament since the
beginning of the reign of our most dread Sovereign Lord."--_Rolls House
MS._ first series, 471.
[216] Confession of George Lumley: _Rolls House MS._ first series.
[217] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIX.
[218] Many of them are in the _State Paper Office_ in the Cromwell
Collection.
[219] John Hallam deposes: "Sir Francis Bigod did say, at Walton Abbey,
that 'the king's office was to have no care of men's souls, and did read
to this examinate a book made by himself, as he said, wherein was shewed
what authority did belong to the Pope, what to a bishop, what to the
king; and said that the head of the Church of England must be a
spiritual man, as the Archbishop of Canterbury or such; but in no wise
the king, for he should with the sword defend all spiritual men in their
right.'"--_Rolls House MS._, A 2, 29.
[220] Sir Francis Bigod's Confession: _Rolls House MS._ first series,
416. Confession of George Lumley: _Rolls House MS._ The MSS. relating to
the later commotions are very imperfect, and much injured.
[221] Lumley's Confession.
[222] Examination of John Hallam: _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 29.
[223] "The King's Highness hath declared by his own mouth unto Robert
Aske, that he intendeth we shall have our parliament at York frankly and
freely for the ordering and reformation of all causes for the
commonwealth of this realm, and also his frank and free convocation for
the good stay and ordering of the faith and other spiritual causes,
which he supposes shall come down under his great seal by my Lord of
Norfolk, who comes down shortly with a mean company after a quiet manner
to the great quietness and comfort of all good men. Wherefore, good and
loving neighbours, let us stay ourselves and by no means follow the
wilfulness of such as are disposed to spoil and to undo themselves and
you both, but to resist them in all that ye may, to the best of your
power; and so will I do for my part, and so know I well that all good
men will do; and if it had not been for my disease which hath taken me
so sore that I may neither go nor ride, I would have come and have
shewed you this myself for the good stay and quietness of you all, and
for the commonwealth of all the country. The parliament and the
convocation is appointed to be at York at Whitsuntide, and the
coronation of the Queen's Highness about the same time.
"Written in Spaldingmore this 16th day of January.
"ROBERT CONSTABLE, of Flamborough."
--Letter of Sir R. Constable to the Commons of the North on Bigod's
Insurrection: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 276.
[224] For this matter see _Rolls House MS._ first series, 276, 416,
1144, and _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 529.
[225] "Captain Aske was at London, and had great rewards to betray the
commons; and since that he came home they have fortified Hull against
the commons, ready to receive ships by the sea to destroy all the north
parts."--Demands of the Rebels who rose with Sir F. Bigod: _Rolls House
MS._ first series, 895.
[226] "Robert Aske, in a letter which he sent to Bigod, shewed that he
would do the best he could for the delivery of Hallam. And that he spoke
not that feignedly, it should appear that the said Aske, after that
Bigod was fled, came to the king's commissioners then sitting at Hull
about Hallam's examination, and shewed them how that he had heard of a
great commotion that should be in the bishoprick and other places, and
therefore advised them not to be hasty in proceeding to the execution of
the said Hallam.
"Also divers that had been with Bigod in his commotion came to the said
Aske, whom he did not apprehend, but bade them not fear, for he would
get their pardon."--Deposition on the Conduct of Robert Aske, MS. much
injured, _Rolls House_, first series, 416.
[227] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[228] In the first surprise in October, the Privy Council had been
obliged to levy men without looking nicely to their antecedents, and
they had recruited largely from the usual depôts in times of
difficulties, the sanctuaries. Manslayers, cutpurses, and other doubtful
persons might have liberty for a time, and by good conduct might earn
their pardon by taking service under the crown. On the present, as on
many other occasions, they had proved excellent soldiers; and those who
had been with Lord Shrewsbury had been rewarded for their steadiness.
Under the circumstances he had perhaps been better able to depend upon
them than on the more creditable portion of his force. After the
pacification at Doncaster, Norfolk was ashamed of his followers; he
proposed to disband them, and supply their place with penitent
volunteers from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. The king, who was already
displeased with Norfolk for his other proceedings, approved no better of
his present suggestion. "His Majesty," wrote the Privy Council, "marvels
that you should be more earnest in the dissuasion of the retainder of
them that have been but murderers and thieves (if they so have been),
than you were that his Grace should not retain those that have been
rebels and traitors. These men have done good rather than hurt in this
troublous time, though they did it not with a good mind and intent, but
for their own lucre.... What the others did no man can tell better than
you. If these men may be made good men with their advancement, his
Highness may think his money well employed. If they will continue evil,
all the world shall think them the more worthy punishment for that they
have so little regarded the clemency of his Highness calling them from
their evil doings to honest preferment."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, p.
33.
[229] Duke of Norfolk to the Earls of Sussex: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p.
534.
[230] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. IV.
[231] "I did not dare assemble the people of the country, for I knew not
how they be established in their hearts, notwithstanding that their
words can be no better."--Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office._
[232] Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS._ ibid.
[233] "This night I will send two or three hundred horse to them, and
have commanded them to set fire in many places of the rebels' dwellings,
thinking thereby to make them to steal away, and every man to draw near
to his own for the safeguard of his house and goods. I have also
commanded them that if the traitors so sparkle they shall not spare
shedding of blood; for execution whereof I will send such as I am sure
will not spare to fulfil my commandment."--Norfolk to Cromwell: _MS._
ibid.
[234] Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p.
537.
[235] Hall says, at Carlisle, but the official reports, as well as the
king's directions, imply that the executions were not limited to one
place.
[236] _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. II.
[237] "Of the mind of the king towards me I had first knowledge at mine
arriving in France; of the which, to shew you the full motive of my mind
herein, I was more ashamed to hear, for the compassion I had to the
king's honour, than moved by any indignation that I, coming not only as
ambassador, but as legate in the highest sort of embassage that is used
among Christian princes, a prince of honour should desire another prince
of like honour--'Betray the ambassador, betray the legate, and give him
into mine ambassador's hands, to be brought unto me.' This was the
dishonourable request, as I understand, of the king, which to me I
promise you was no great displeasure, but rather, if I should say truth,
I took pleasure therein, and said forthwith to my company that I never
felt myself to be in full possession to be a cardinal as when I heard
those tidings, whereby it pleased God to send like fortune to me as it
did to those heads of the Church whose persons the cardinals do
represent. In this case lived the apostles."--Pole to Cromwell: Strype's
_Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 326, &c.
[238] The value of Pole's accusations against Henry depends so much upon
his character that I must be pardoned for scrutinizing his conduct
rather closely. In his letter to Cromwell, dated the 2d of May, he
insists that his actions had been cruelly misunderstood. Besides making
the usual protestations of love and devotion to the king with which all
his letters to the English court are filled, he declares, in the most
solemn way, that, so far from desiring to encourage the insurgents, he
had prevented the Pope from taking the opportunity of putting out the
censures which might have caused more troubles. "That he had sent at
that time his servant purposely to offer his service to procure by all
means the king's honour, wealth, and greatness, animating, besides,
those that were chief of his nearest kin to be constant in the king's
service."--Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 321.
I shall lay by the side of these words a passage from his letter to the
Pope, written from Cambray on the 18th of the same month.
Both the French and Flemish councils, he says, are urging him to return
to Italy:--
"Eo magis quod causa ipsa quæ sola me retinere posset, et quæ huc sola
traxit, ne spem quidem ullam ostendere videtur vel minimo periculo
dignam, cur in his locis diutius maneam, populi tumultu qui causam ipsam
fovebat ita sedato ut multi supplicio sint affecti, duces autem omnes in
regis potestatem venerint."
He goes on to say that the people had been in rebellion in defence of
their religion. They had men of noble birth for their leaders; and
nothing, it was thought, would more inspirit the whole party than to
hear that one of their own nation was coming with authority to assist
their cause; nothing which would strike deeper terror into their
adversaries, or compel them to more equitable conditions.
For the present the tumult was composed, but only by fair words, and
promises which had not been observed. A fresh opportunity would soon
again offer. Men's minds were always rather exasperated than conquered
by such treatment. The people would never believe the king's word again;
and though for the moment held down by fear, would break out again with
renewed fury. He thought, therefore, he had better remain in the
neighbourhood, since the chief necessity of the party would be an
efficient leader; and to know that they had a leader ready to come to
them at any moment, yet beyond the king's reach, would be the greatest
encouragement which they could receive.--Reginald Pole to the Pope:
_Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46.
[239] Ibid.
[240] Bishop Hilsey to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. XXXV.
[241] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 416; much injured.
[242] The Privy Council, writing to the Duke of Norfolk, said: "You may
divulge the cause of their activity to the people of those parts, that
they may the rather perceive their miserable fortune, that, being once
so graciously pardoned, would eftsoons combine themselves for the
attempting of new treasons ... not conceiving that anything is done for
their former offences done before the pardon, which his Grace will in
nowise remember or speak of; but for those treasons which they have
committed again since in such detestable sort as no good subject would
not wish their punishment for the same."--_Hardwicke State Papers_, Vol.
I. p. 43.
[243] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28.
[244] Besides his personal interference, Aske, and Constable also, had
directed a notorious insurgent named Rudstone, "in any wise to deliver
Hallam from Hull."--Ibid.
[245] Sir Ralph Ellerkar called on Constable to join him in suppressing
Bigod's movement. Constable neither came nor sent men, contenting
himself with writing letters.--Ibid.
[246] Part of Pole's mission was to make peace between France and the
Empire. The four sovereigns would, therefore, be the Pope, the King of
Scotland, Francis, and Charles. I have gathered these accusations out of
several groups among the Rolls House MSS., apparently heads of
information, Privy Council minutes, and drafts of indictments. The
particulars which I have mentioned being repeated frequently in these
papers, and with much emphasis, I am inclined to think that they formed
the whole of the case.
[247] The proofs of "an animus" were severely construed.
A few clauses from a rough draft of the indictments will show how small
a prospect of escape there was for any one who had not resolutely gone
over to the government.
Aske wrote to the commons of the north a letter, in which was written,
"Bigod intendeth to destroy the effect of our petition and commonwealth;
whereby," Cromwell concluded, "it appeareth he continued in his false
opinion and traitorous heart." In another letter he had said to them,
"Your reasonable petitions shall be ordered by parliament," "showing
that he thought that their petitions were reasonable, and in writing the
same he committed treason."
Again, both Constable and he had exhorted the commons to wait for the
Duke of Norfolk and the parliament, telling them that the duke would
come only with his household servants; "signifying plainly that, if
their unreasonable requests were not complied with, they would take the
matter in their own hands again."
There are fifty "articles" against them, conceived in the same spirit,
of more or less importance.
[248] Sir William Parr to Henry VIII.: _MS. State Paper Office_, Letters
to the King and Council, Vol. V. _Rolls House MS._ first series, 76.
[249] Sir William Parr to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series Vol. XXXI.
[250] _Baga de Secretis._
[251] Lord Hussey may have the benefit of his own denial. Cromwell
promised to intercede for him if he would make a true confession. He
replied thus:--
"I never knew of the beginning of the commotion in neither of the places,
otherwise than is contained in the bill that I did deliver to Sir Thomas
Wentworth, at Windsor. Nor I was never privy to their acts, nor never
aided them in will, word, nor deed. But if I might have had 500 men I
would have fought with them, or else I forsake my part of heaven; for I
was never traitor, nor of none counsel of treason against his Grace; and
that I will take my death upon, when it shall please God and his
Highness."
In a postscript he added:
"Now at Midsummer shall be three years, my Lord Darcy, I, and Sir Robert
Constable, as we sate at the board, it happened that we spake of Sir
Francis Bigod, (how) his priest, in his sermons, likened Our Lady to a
pudding when the meat was out, with many words more; and then my Lord
Darcy said that he was a naughty priest; let him go; for in good sooth I
will be none heretic; and so said I, and likewise Sir Robert Constable;
for we will die Christian men."--_MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. XVIII.
[252] "And whereas your lordship doth write that, in case the
consciences of such persons as did acquit Levening should be examined,
the fear thereof might trouble others in like case, the King's Majesty
considering his treason to be most manifest, apparent, and confessed,
and that all offenders in that case be principals, and none accessories,
doth think it very necessary that the means used in that matter may be
searched out, as a thing which may reveal many other matters worthy his
Highness's knowledge; and doth therefore desire you not only to signify
their names, but also to travel all that you can to beat out the
mystery."--Privy Council to the Duke of Norfolk: _Hardwicke State
Papers_, Vol. I. p. 46.
[253] The list is in the _Rolls MS._ first series, 284. Opposite the
name of each juror there is a note in the margin, signifying his
connexions among the prisoners.
[254] Compare _Baga de Secretis_, pouch X. bundle 2, and _Rolls House
MS._, first series, 284.
[255] Word illegible in the MS.
[256] _MS._ in Cromwell's own hand: _Rolls House_, A 2, 29, fol. 160 and
161.
[257] _Rolls House MS._ first series. 207.
[258] _MS._ ibid. 1401.
[259] Depositions relating to Lord Delaware: _Rolls House MS._
[260] _MS. State Paper Office, Domestic_, Vol. XII.
[261] Ibid.
[262] _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1, 457.
[263] For instance, Sir Thomas Percy's eldest son inherited the earldom
of Northumberland; unfortunately, also his father's politics and his
father's fate. He was that Earl of Northumberland who rose for Mary of
Scotland against Elizabeth.
[264] Lady Bulmer seems from the depositions to have deserved as serious
punishment as any woman for the crime of high treason can be said to
have deserved. One desires to know whether in any class of people there
was a sense of compunction for the actual measure inflicted by the law.
The following is a meagre, but still welcome, fragment upon this
subject:--
"Upon Whitsunday, at breakfast, certain company was in the chauntry at
Thame, when was had speech and communication of the state of the north
country, being that proditors against the King's Highness should suffer
to the number of ten; amongst which proditors the Lady Bulmer should
suffer. There being Robert Jones, said it is a pity that she should
suffer. Then to that answered John Strebilhill, saying it is no pity, if
she be a traitor to her prince, but that she should have after her
deserving. Then said Robert Jones, let us speak no more of this matter;
for men may be blamed for speaking of the truth."--_Rolls House MS._
first series, 1862.
[265] _MS. State Paper Office_: ---- to Henry Saville.
[266] A second cause "is our most dear and most entirely beloved wife
the queen, being now quick with child, for the which we give most humble
thanks to Almighty God, albeit she is in every condition of that loving
inclination and reverend conformity, that she can in all things well
content, satisfy, and quiet herself with that thing which we shall think
expedient and determine; yet, considering that, being a woman, upon some
sudden and displeasant rumours and brutes that might be blown abroad in
our absence, she might take impressions which might engender danger to
that wherewith she is now pregnant, which God forbid, it hath been
thought necessary that we should not extend our progress this year so
far from her."--Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: _State Papers_, Vol.
I. p. 552.
[267] _MS. Rolls House_, A 2, 28.
[268] A curious drawing of Hull, which was made about this time, with
the plans of the new fortifications erected by Henry, is in the Cotton
Library. A gallows stands outside the gate, with a body hanging on it,
which was probably meant for Constable's.
[269] "Immediately tofore Sir Robert Constable should receive his
rights, it was asked of him if that his confession put in writing was
all that he did know. To which he made answer that it was all.
Notwithstanding he knew, besides that, sundry naughty words and high
cracks that my Lord Darcy had blown out, which he thought not best to
shew so long as the said lord was on life, partly because they should
rather do hurt than good, and partly because he had no proof of them.
"But what these words were he would not declare, but in generality.
Howbeit, his open confession was right good."--_MS. State Paper Office_,
first series, Vol. I.
[270] A general amnesty was proclaimed immediately after. "The notable
unkindness of the people," Norfolk said, "had been able to have moved
his Grace to have taken such punishment on the offenders as might have
been terrible for all men to have thought on that should hereafter have
only heard the names of sedition and rebellion.
"Yet the king's most royal Majesty, of his most tender pity and great
desire that he hath rather to preserve you from the stroke of justice
imminent upon your deserts, than to put you to the extremity of the
same, trusting and supposing that the punishment of a few offenders in
respect of the multitude, which have suffered only for an example to
others to avoid the like attemptations, will be sufficient for ever to
make all you and your posterities to eschew semblable offences, of his
inestimable goodness and pity is content by this general proclamation to
give and grant to you all, every of you, his general and free
pardon."--_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28; _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.
[271] Like Cuthbert Tunstall, for instance, who, when upbraided for
denying his belief in the Pope, said "he had never seen the time when he
thought to lose one drop of blood therefore, for sure he was that none
of those that heretofore had advantage by that authority would have lost
one penny to save his life."--Tunstall to Pole: Burnet's _Collectanea_,
p. 481.
[272] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46.
[273] Ibid. p. 64.
[274] Trials of Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter: _Baga de
Secretis_.
[275] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 73.
[276] Pole to Contarini, _Epist._ Vol. II. p. 64. I call the rumour wild
because there is no kind of evidence for it, and because the English
resident at Antwerp, John Hutton, who was one of the persons accused by
Pole, was himself the person to inform the king of the story.--_State
Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 703.
[277] See Appendix to Volume IV
[278] Michael Throgmorton to Cromwell: MS. _penes me_.
[279] Cromwell to Throgmorton: _Rolls House MS._
[280] Robert Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series,
Vol. XLVI.
[281] Depositions relating to the Protestants in Yorkshire: _MS. State
Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XVIII.
[282] The monkish poetry was pressed into the service. The following is
from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford. It is of the date, perhaps, of
Henry VII.
"Listen, lordlings, both great and small,
I will tell you a wonder tale,
How Holy Church was brought in bale,
Cum magnâ injuriâ.
"The greatest clerke in this land,
Thomas of Canterbury I understand,
Slain he was with wicked hand,
Malorum potentiâ.
"The knights were sent from Henry the king:
That day they did a wicked thing;
Wicked men without lesing,
Per regis imperia.
"They sought the bishop all about,
Within his palace and without:
Of Jesu Christ they had no doubt,
Pro suâ maliciâ.
"They opened their mouths woundily wide,
They spake to him with much pride:
'Traitor! here shalt thou abide,
Ferens mortis tædia.'
"Before the altar he kneelèd down,
And there they pared his crown,
And stirred his braines up and down,
Optans cœli gaudia."
[283] Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol.
XLVI.; Miles Coverdale to Cromwell: Ibid. Vol. VII.
[284] William Umpton to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second
series Vol. XLV.
[285] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.
[286] Crummock Water is a lake in Cumberland. The point of the song must
have some play on the name of Cromwell, pronounced as of old,
"_Crummell_."
[287] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 683.
[288] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVIII.
[289] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.
[290] Ibid.
[291] Very few of these are now known to be in existence. Roy's _Satire_
is one of the best. It would be excellent if reduced to reasonable
length. The fury which the mystery plays excited in the Catholic party
is a sufficient proof of the effect which they produced. An interesting
letter to Cromwell, from the author of some of them, is among the _State
Papers_. I find no further mention of him:--
"The Lord make you the instrument of my help, Lord Cromwell, that I may
have liberty to preach the truth. I dedicate and offer to your lordship
a 'Reverend receiving of the sacrament,' as a lenten matter declared by
six children, representing Christ, the word of God, Paul, Austin, a
child, a man called Ignorancy, as a secret thing that shall have an
end--once rehearsed afore your eyes. The priests in Suffolk will not
receive me into their churches to preach; but have disdained me ever
since I made a play against the Pope's councillors, Error, collyclogger
of conscience, and Incredulity. I have made a play called _A Rude
Commonalty_. I am making of another, called _The Woman on the Rock_, in
the fire of faith refining, and a purging in the true purgatory, never
to be seen but of your lordship's eye. Aid me, for Christ's sake, that I
may preach Christ."--Thomas Wylley, fatherless and forsaken: _MS. State
Paper Office_, second series, Vol. L.
[292] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.
[293] _MS. State Paper Office._
[294] _Rolls House MS._ first series; _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.
[295] Answers to Questions on the Sacraments by the Bishops: Burnet's
_Collectanea_, p. 114.
[296] In one of the ablest and most liberal papers which was drawn up at
this time, a paper so liberal indeed as to argue from the etymology of
the word presbyter that "lay seniors, or antient men, might to some
intents be called priests," I find this passage upon the eucharist: "As
concerning the grace of consecration of the body of our Lord in form of
bread and wine, we beseech your Grace that it may be prohibited to all
men to persuade any manner of person to think that these words of our
Master Christ, when He 'took bread and blest it and brake it, and gave
it to his disciples, and said, Take, and eat ye, this is my body that
shall be betrayed for you,' ought to be understood figuratively. For
since He that spake those words is of power to perform them literally,
though no man's reason may know how that may be, yet they must believe
it. And surely they that believe that God was of power to make all the
world of nought, may lightly believe he was of power to make of bread
his very body."--_Theological MSS. Rolls House._
[297] Henry VIII. to the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ A 15.
[298] The Iceland fleet is constantly mentioned in the _Records_. Before
the discovery of Newfoundland, Iceland was the great resort of English
fishermen. Those who would not venture so long a voyage, fished the
coasts of Cork and Kerry. When Skeffington was besieging Dungarvon, in
1535, Devonshire fishing smacks, which were accidentally in the
neighbourhood, blockaded the harbour for him. The south of Ireland at
the same time was the regular resort of Spaniards with the same object.
Sir Anthony St. Leger said that as many as two or three hundred sail
might sometimes be seen at once in Valentia harbour.--_State Papers_,
Vol. V. p. 443, &c.
[299] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXIV.
[300] Ibid. Vol. I. On the other hand the French cut out a Flemish ship
from Portsmouth, and another from Southampton.
[301] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.
[302] The inventory of his losses which was sent in by the captain is
noticeable, as showing the equipment of a Channel fishing vessel.--One
last of herring, worth 4_l._ 13_s._ Three hagbushes, 15_s._ In money,
1_l._ 16_s._ 8_d._ Two long bows, 4_s._ Two bills and a sheaf of arrows,
3_s._ 8_d._ A pair of new boots of leather, 3_s._ 4_d._ Two barrels of
double beer, 3_s._ 4_d._ Four mantles of frieze, 12_s._ A bonnet, 1_s._
2_d._ In bread, candles, and other necessaries, 2_s._ The second time,
one hogshead of double beer, 6_s._--_MS. State Paper Office_, second
series, Vol. XXVIII.
[303] Sir Thomas Cheyne writes to Cromwell: "I have received letters
from Dover that the Frenchmen on the sea hath taken worth 2000_l._ of
goods since the king being there, and a man-of-war of Dieppe and a
pinnace took the king's barge that carries the timber for his Highness's
work there, and robbed and spoiled the ship and men of money, victuals,
clothes, ropes, and left them not so much as their compass. And another
Frenchman took away a pink in Dover roads and carried her away. And on
Tuesday last a great fleet of Flemings men-of-war met with my Lord
Lisle's ship, laden with wool to Flanders, and one of them took all the
victuals and ordnance. Thus the king's subjects be robbed and spoiled
every day."--_MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VI.
[304] Sir William Fitzwilliam to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_.
[305] Sir William Godolphin to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_,
second series, Vol. XIII.
[306] _MS. State Paper Office_, Letters to the King and Council, Vol I.
[307] _MS._ ibid.
[308] Cromwell's Memoranda: _MS. Cotton. Titus_, B 1. Many of the plans
are in the Cotton Library, executed, some of them, with great rudeness;
some finished with the delicacy of monastic illuminations; some, but
very few, are good working drawings. It is a mortifying proof of the
backwardness of the English in engineering skill, that the king for his
works at Dover sent for engineers to Spain.
[309] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 50.
[310] Details of the equipments of many of these fortresses lie
scattered among the State Papers. The expenses were enormous, but were
minutely recorded.
[311] On whatever side we turn in this reign, we find the old and the
new in collision. While the harbours, piers, and the fortresses were
rising at Dover, an ancient hermit tottered night after night from his
cell to a chapel on the cliff, and the tapers on the altar, before which
he knelt in his lonely orisons, made a familiar beacon far over the
rolling waters. The men of the rising world cared little for the
sentiment of the past. The anchorite was told sternly by the workmen
that his light was a signal to the king's enemies, and must burn no
more; and when it was next seen, three of them waylaid the old man on
his road home, threw him down, and beat him cruelly.--_MS. State Paper
Office_, second series, Vol. XXXIII.
[312] Lord Montague, on the 24th of March, 1537, said, "I dreamed that
the king was dead. He is not dead, but he will die one day suddenly, his
leg will kill him, and then we shall have jolly stirring."--Trial of
Lord Montague: _Baga de Secretis_. The king himself, in explaining to
the Duke of Norfolk his reason for postponing his journey to Yorkshire
in the past summer, said: "To be frank with you, which we desire you in
any wise to keep to yourself, being an humour fallen into our legs, and
our physicians therefore advising us in no wise to take so far a journey
in the heat of the year, whereby the same might put us to further
trouble and displeasure, it hath been thought more expedient that we
should, upon that respect only, though the grounds before specified had
not concurred with it, now change our determination."--_State Papers_,
Vol. I. p. 555.
[313] "I assure your lordship his Grace is very sorry that ye might not
be here to make good cheer as we do. He useth himself more like a good
fellow among us that be here, than like a king, and, thanked be God, I
never saw him merrier in his life than he is now."--Sir John Russell to
Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXXVI.
[314] "Michael Throgmorton gave great charge to William Vaughan to
enquire if there had been any communication upon the opinions of the
physicians, whether the Queen's Grace were with child with a man child
or not."--Hutton to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 703.
[315] _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 570.
[316] Latimer to Cromwell: _State Paper Office_, Vol. I. p. 571.
[317] Hall is made to say she died on the 14th. The mistake was due
probably to the printer. He is unlikely himself to have made so large an
error.