History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume II Part 38

[394] "The confessor can do no good with them (the monks), and the obstinate persons be not in fear of him; but be in great fear and danger of his life, by reason of their malice, for that he hath consented to the king's t.i.tle, and hath preached the same."--Bedyll to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 424.

[395] Cranmer: but we will hope the story is coloured. It is characteristic, however, of the mild, tender-hearted man who desired to glide round difficulties rather than scale and conquer them.

[396] A Deposition concerning the popish Conduct of a Priest: _Rolls House MS._

[397] Information given by John Maydwell, of treasonable Words spoken against Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn: _Rolls House MS._

[398] In this instance we need not doubt that the words were truly reported, for the offenders were tried and pleaded guilty.

[399] The conspiracy of "young Ryce," or Richard ap Griffyth, is one of the most obscure pa.s.sages in the history of this reign. It was a Welsh plot, conducted at Islington. [Act of Attainder of Richard ap Griffyth, 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 24.] The particulars of it I am unable to discover further, than that it was a desperate undertaking, encouraged by the uncertainty of the succession, and by a faith in prophecies (Confession of Sir William Neville: _Rolls House MS._), to murder the king. Ryce was tried in Michaelmas term, 1531, and executed. His uncle, who pa.s.sed under the name of Brancetor, was an active revolutionary agent on the Continent in the later years of Henry's reign.--See _State Papers_, Vol.

IV. pp. 647, 651, 653; Vol. VIII. pp. 219, 227, &c.

[400] Trial and Conviction of John Feron, clerk, and John Hale, clerk: Baga de Secretis; Appendix II. to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.

[401] History is never weary of repeating its warnings against narrow judgments. A year ago we believed that the age of arbitrary severity was past. In the interval we have seen the rebellion in India; the forms of law have been suspended, and Hindoo rajahs have been executed for no greater crime than the possession of letters from the insurgents. The evidence of a treasonable animus has been sufficient to ensure condemnation; and in the presence of necessity the principles of the sixteenth century have been instantly revived.--April, 1858.

[402] Act of Supremacy, 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 1.

[403] To guard against misconception, an explanatory doc.u.ment was drawn up by the government at the time of the pa.s.sing of the act, which is highly curious and significant. "The King's Grace," says this paper, "hath no new authority given hereby that he is recognised as supreme Head of the Church of England; for in that recognition is included only that he have such power as to a king of right appertaineth by the law of G.o.d; and not that he should take any spiritual power from spiritual ministers that is given to them by the Gospel. So that these words, that the king is supreme Head of the Church, serve rather to declare and make open to the world, that the king hath power to suppress all such extorted powers as well of the Bishop of Rome as of any other within this realm, whereby his subjects might be grieved; and to correct and remove all things whereby any unquietness might arise amongst the people; rather than to prove that he should pretend thereby to take any powers from the successors of the apostles that was given to them by G.o.d. And forasmuch as, in the session of this former parliament holden in the twenty-fifth year of this reign, whereby great exactions done to the king's subjects by a power from Rome was put away, and thereupon the promise was made that nothing should be interpreted and expounded upon that statute, that the King's Grace, his n.o.bles or subjects, intended to decline or vary from the congregation of Christ's church in anything concerning the articles of the Catholic faith, or anything declared by Holy Scripture and the Word of G.o.d necessary for his Grace's salvation and his subjects'; it is not, therefore, meet lightly to think that the self-same persons, continuing the self-same parliament, would in the next year following make an act whereby the king, his n.o.bles and subjects, should so vary. And no man may with conscience judge that they did so, except they can prove that the words of the statute, whereby the king is recognised to be the supreme Head of the Church of England, should show expressly that they intended to do so; as it is apparent that they do not.

"There is none authority of Scripture that will prove that any one of the apostles should be head of the universal Church of Christendom. And if any of the doctors of the church or the clergy have, by any of their laws or decrees, declared any Scripture to be of that effect, kings and princes, taking to them their counsellors, and such of their clergy as they shall think most indifferent, ought to be judges whether those declarations and laws be made according to the truth of Scripture or not; because it is said in the Psalms, 'Et nunc Reges intelligite, erudimini qui judicatis terram': that is, 'O kings! understand ye, be ye learned that judge the world.' And certain it is that the Scripture is always true; and there is nothing that the doctors and clergy might, through dread and affection, [so well] be deceived in, as in things concerning the honour, dignity, power, liberty, jurisdiction, and riches of the bishops and clergy; and some of them have of likelihood been deceived therein."--Heads of Arguments concerning the Power of the Pope and the Royal Supremacy: _Rolls House MS._

[404] 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 2.

[405] 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

[406] More warned Fisher of this. He "did send Mr. Fisher word by a letter that Mr. Solicitor had showed him, that it was all one not to answer, and to say against the statute what a man would, as all the learned men in England would justify."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 434.

[407] The act was repealed in 1547, I Edw. VI. cap. 12. The explanation which is there given of the causes which led to the enactment of it is temperate and reasonable. Subjects, says that statute, should obey rather for love of their prince than for fear of his laws: "yet such times at some time cometh in the commonwealth, that it is necessary and expedient for the repressing of the insolence and unruliness of men, and for the foreseeing and providing of remedies against rebellions, insurrections, or such mischiefs as G.o.d, sometime with us displeased, doth inflict and lay upon us, or the devil, at G.o.d's permission, to a.s.say the good and G.o.d's elect, doth sow and set among us,--the which Almighty G.o.d and man's policy hath always been content to have stayed--that sharper laws as a harder bridle should be made."

[408] 26 Henry VIII. cap. 14: "An Act for Nomination and Consecration of Suffragans within the Realm." I have already stated my impression that the method of nomination to bishop.r.i.c.ks by the crown, as fixed by the 20th of the 25th of Henry VIII., was not intended to be perpetual. A further evidence of what I said will be found in the arrangements under the present act for the appointment of suffragans. The king made no attempt to retain the patronage. The bishop of each diocese was to nominate two persons, and between these the crown was bound to choose.

[409] Parum erraturus sed pauca facturus.--_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p.

581.

[410] Ibid. p. 573.

[411] Nota qu'il ne sera pas paraventure si fort malayse a gaigner ce roy.--_Note on the margin of the Comte de Na.s.sau's Instructions._

[412]

_Charles V. to his Amba.s.sador at Paris._

"November, 1534.

" ... In addition, the Count de Na.s.sau and yourself may go further in sounding the King about the Count's proposal--I mean for the marriage of our cousin the Princess of England with the Duke d'Angoulesme. The Grand Master, I understand, when the Count spoke of it, seemed to enter into the suggestion, and mentioned the displeasure which the King of England had conceived against Anne Boleyn. I am therefore sincerely desirous that the proposal should be well considered, and you will bring it forward as you shall see opportunity. You will make the King and the Grand Master feel the importance of the connexion, the greatness which it would confer on the Duke d'Angoulesme, the release of the English debt, which can be easily arranged, and the a.s.surance of the realm of France.

"Such a marriage will be, beyond comparison, more advantageous to the King, his realm, and his children, than any benefit for which he could hope from Milan; while it can be brought about with no considerable difficulty. But be careful what you say, and how you say it. Speak alone to the King and alone to the Grand Master, letting neither of them know that you have spoken to the other. Observe carefully how the King is inclined, and, at all events, be secret; so that if he does not like the thing, the world need not know that it has been thought of.

"Should it be suggested to you--as it may be--that Anne Boleyn may be driven desperate, and may contrive something against the Princess's life, we answer that we can hardly believe her so utterly abandoned by conscience: or, again, the Duke of Anjou may possibly object to the exaltation of his brother; in which case we shall consent willingly to have our cousin marry the Duke of Anjou; and, in that case, beyond the right which appertains to the Duke and Princess from their fathers and mothers, they and either of them shall have the kingdom of Denmark, and we will exert ourselves to compose any difficulties with our Holy Father the Pope."--_MS. Archives at Brussels._

[413] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 584, 585.

[414] Ibid.

[415] This is Cromwell's paraphrase. Francis is not responsible for the language.

[416] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 584-590.

[417] See the long and curious correspondence between the English and Spanish courts in the _State Papers_, Vol. VI.

[418] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 587, 588.

[419] Ibid. p. 587.

[420] Who were to arrange the betrothal of Elizabeth to the Duke of Angoulesme.

[421] Henry VIII. to De Bryon: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 589.

[422] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 591.

[423] "Sua sponte solius veritatis propagandae studio; nulla regiae Majestatis intercessione expectata."--Cromwell to Ca.s.salis: Ibid. p.

592.

[424] Language can scarcely be stronger than that which he directed his amba.s.sador at Rome to use--short, at least, of absolute menace.--Ibid.

pp. 593, 594.

[425] _Historia Martyrum Anglorum_, cap. 2.

[426] _Historia Martyrum Anglorum_, cap. 8.

[427] _Historia Martyrum_, cap. 9.

[428] Stokesley, Bishop of London, among others: _State Papers_, Vol. I.

pp. 423, 424.

[429] _Historia Martyrum_, cap, 9.

[430] The 60th in the English version.

[431] Printed in Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I. Appendix, p. 208.

[432] Baga de Secretis; Appendix II. to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.

[433] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. I. p. 305; _Historia Martyrum Anglorum_.

[434] Father Maurice says that the jury desired to acquit; and after debating for a night, were preparing a verdict of Not Guilty; when Cromwell, hearing of their intention, went in person to the room where they were a.s.sembled, and threatened them with death unless they did what he called their duty. The story is internally improbable. The conditions of the case did not admit of an acquittal; and the conduct attributed to Cromwell is inconsistent with his character. Any doubt which might remain, in the absence of opposing testimony, is removed by the record of the trial, from which it appears clearly that the jury were not returned until the 29th of April, and _that the verdict was given in on the same day_.--Baga de Secretis; Appendix to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records_.