History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume II Part 39

[435] "In thee, O Lord, have I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion: deliver me in thy righteousness. Bow down thine ear to me; make haste to deliver me. And be thou my strong rock and house of defence, that thou mayest save me. For thou art my strong rock, and my castle; be thou also my guide, and lead me for thy name's sake. Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength. Into thy hands I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, thou G.o.d of truth!"

[436] _Historia Martyrum Anglorum._

[437] On the 19th of June. Hall says they were insolent to Cromwell on their trial.

[438] "By the hand of G.o.d," according to Mr. Secretary Bedyll. "My very good Lord, after my most hearty commendations, it shall please your lords.h.i.+p to understand that the monks of the Charterhouse here in London which were committed to Newgate for their traitorous behaviour, long time continued against the King's Grace, be almost dispatched by the hand of G.o.d, as may appear to you by this bill enclosed; whereof, considering their behaviour and the whole matter, I am not sorry, but would that all such as love not the King's Highness and his worldly honour were in like case."--Bedyll to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, p. 162.

[439] Stow, p. 571. And see the Diary of Richard Hilles, merchant, of London. _MS._, Balliol College, Oxford.

[440] Stow's _Chronicle_, p. 571.

[441] Latimer alludes to the story with no disapproval of the execution of these men--as we should not have disapproved of it, if we had lived then, unless we had been Anabaptists ourselves. A brave death, Latimer says, is no proof of a good cause. "This is no good argument, my friends; this is a deceivable argument: he went to his death boldly--ergo, he standeth in a just quarrel. The Anabaptists that were burnt here in divers towns in England (as I heard of credible men--I saw them not myself), went to their death intrepide, as you will say; without any fear in the world--cheerfully: well, let them go. There was in the old times another kind of poisoned heretics that were called Donatists; and these heretics went to their execution as they should have gone to some jolly recreation or banquet."--Latimer's _Sermons_, p.

160.

[442] He wrote to the king on the 14th of June, in consequence of an examination at the Tower; but that letter could not have been spoken of on the trial of the Carthusians.--See _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 431.

[443] "I had the confessor alone in very secret communication concerning certain letters of Mr. Fisher's, of which Father Reynolds made mention in his examination; which the said Fisher promised the King's Grace that he never showed to any other man, neither would. The said confessor hath confessed to me that the said Fisher sent to him, to the said Reynolds, and to one other brother of them, the copy of his said letters directed to the King's Grace, and the copy of the king's answer also. He hath knowledged to me also that the said Fisher sent unto them with the said copies a book of his, made in defence of the King's Grace's first marriage, and also Abel's book, and one other book made by the emperour's amba.s.sador, as I suppose."--Bedyll to Cromwell: _Suppression of the Monasteries_, pp. 45, 46.

[444] The accounts are consistent on this subject with a single exception. A letter is extant from Fisher, in which he complained of suffering from the cold and from want of clothes. This must have been an accident. More was evidently treated well (see More's _Life of More_); and all the circ.u.mstances imply that they were allowed to communicate freely with their friends, and to receive whatever comforts their friends were pleased to send them. The official statements on this subject are too positive and too minute to admit of a doubt. Cromwell writes thus to Ca.s.salis: "Carceribus manc.i.p.ati tractabantur humanius atque mitius quam par fuisset pro eorum demeritis; per Regem illis licebat proximorum colloquio et consuetudine frui. Ii fuerant illis appositi praescriptique ministri quos a vinclis immunes antea fidos charosque habebant; id cibi genus eaque condimenta et vest.i.tus eis concedebantur quae eorum habitudini ac tuendae sanitati, ipsi consanguinei, nepotes atque affines et amici judicabant esse magis accommoda."--_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 634.

[445] More's _Life of More_.

[446] "Instructions given by the King's Majesty to the Right Reverend Father in G.o.d, his right trusty and well-beloved counsellor the Bishop of Hereford, whom his Majesty at this time sendeth unto the Princes of Germany."--_Rolls House MS._

[447] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 635.

[448] Compare _State Papers_, Vol. I. pp. 431-436, with the Reports of the trials in the Baga de Secretis. Burnet has hastily stated that no Catholic was ever punished for merely denying the supremacy in official examinations. He has gone so far, indeed, as to call the a.s.sertions of Catholic writers to this effect "impudent falsehoods." Whether any Catholic was prosecuted who had not given other cause for suspicion, I do not know; but it is quite certain that Haughton and Fisher were condemned solely on the ground of their answers on these occasions, and that no other evidence was brought against them. The government clearly preferred this evidence as the most direct and unanswerable, for in both those cases they might have produced other witnesses had they cared to do so.

[449] "Omnes Cardinales amicos nostros adivi; eisque demonstravi quam temere ac stulte fecerint in Roffensi in Cardinalem eligendo unde et potentissimum Regem et universum Regnum Angliae mirum in modum laedunt et injuria afficiunt; Roffensem enim virum esse gloriosum ut propter vanam gloriam in sua opinione contra Regem adhuc sit permansurus; qua etiam de causa in carcere est et morti condemnatus."--Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 604.

[450] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 604.

[451] Pontifex me vehementer rogavit, ut vias omnes tentare velim, quibus apud Regiam Majestatem excusatam hanc rem faciam, unde se plurimum dolere dixit, c.u.m praesertim ego affirmaverim rem esse ejusmodi ut excusationem non recipiat.--Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: Ibid.

[452] Ibid. p. 616.

[453] _Historia Martyrum Anglorum._

[454] Report of the Trial of John Fisher: Baga de Secretis: Appendix to the _Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Records_.

[455] If his opinions had been insufficient for his destruction, there was an influence at court which left no hope to him: the influence of one whose ways and doings were better known then than they have been known to her modern admirers. "On a time," writes his grandson, "when he had questioned my aunt Roper of his wife and children, and the state of his house in his absence, he asked her at last how Queen Anne did. 'In faith, father,' said she, 'never better. There is nothing else at the court but dancing and sporting.' 'Never better?' said he; 'alas, Meg, alas, it pitieth me to remember unto what misery she will shortly come.

These dances of hers will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like footb.a.l.l.s, but it will not be long ere her head will dance the like dance.'"--More's _Life of More_, p. 244.

[456] The composition of the commission is remarkable. When Fisher was tried, Lord Exeter sate upon it. On the trial of More, Lord Exeter was absent, but his place was taken by his cousin, Lord Montague, Reginald Pole's eldest brother, and Lady Salisbury's son. Willingly or unwillingly, the opposition n.o.bles were made _participes criminis_ in both these executions.

[457] I take my account of the indictment from the government record. It is, therefore, their own statement of their own case.--Trial of Sir Thomas More: Baga de Secretis, pouch 7, bundle 3.

[458] Fisher had unhappily used these words on his own examination; and the ident.i.ty of language was held a proof of traitorous confederacy.

[459] If this was the const.i.tutional theory, "divine right" was a Stuart fiction.

[460] More's _Life of More_, p. 271

[461] More's _Life of More_, pp. 276, 277.

[462] "And, further to put him from his melancholy, Sir Thomas More did take his urinal, and cast his water, saying merrily, 'I see no danger but the man that owns this water may live longer, if it please the king.'"--More's _Life_, p. 283. I cannot allow myself to suppress a trait so eminently characteristic.

[463] More's _Life of More_, p. 287.

[464] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 606.

[465] Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 620, 621.

[466] _State Papers_, Vol. VII. pp. 620, 621.

[467] Strype's _Memor. Eccles._, Vol. I., Appendix, p. 211. These words are curious as directly attributing the conduct of the monks to the influence of More and Fisher.

[468] Cromwell to Gardiner: Burnet's _Collectanea_, pp. 460, 461.

[469] "If the Duke of Saxe, or any of the other princes, shall in their conference with him, expostulate or show themselves displeased with such information as they may percase have had, touching the attainder and execution of the late Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, the said Bishop shall thereunto answer and say, that the same were by order of his laws found to be false traitors and rebels to his Highness and his crown. The order of whose attainder with the causes thereof, he may declare unto them, saying that in case the King's Highness should know that they would conceive any sinister opinion of his Grace, for the doing of any act within his realm, his Grace should not only have cause to think they used not with him the office of friends.h.i.+p, which would not by any report conceive other opinion of so n.o.ble a prince as he is than were both just and honourable; but also to note in them less constancy of judgment than he verily thinketh they have. And hereupon the said Bishop shall dissuade them from giving credit to any such report, as whereby they shall offend G.o.d in the judgment of evil upon their neighbour; and cause his Majesty to muse that they would of him, being a prince of honour, conceive any other opinion than his honour and friends.h.i.+p towards them doth require. Setting this forth with such a stomach and courage as they may not only perceive the false traitorous dealings of the said persons; but consider what folly it were in them upon light report to judge of another prince's proceedings otherwise than they would a foreign prince should judge of them."--Instructions to the Bishop of Hereford by the King's Highness: _Rolls House MS._

[470] It will be observed that many important facts are alluded to in this letter, of which we have no other knowledge.

[471] Cromwell to Ca.s.salis: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 633.

[472] Paul himself said that it was reserved at the intercession of the Princes of Europe. Intercession is too mild a word for the species of interference which was exerted. The pope sent a draft of the intended bull to France; and the king having no disposition to countenance exaggerated views of papal authority, spoke of it as _impudentissimum quoddam breve_; and said that he must send the Cardinal of Lorraine to Rome, to warn his Holiness that his pretence of setting himself above princes could by no means be allowed; by such impotent threats he might not only do no good, but he would make himself a laughing-stock to all the world.--Christopher Mount to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

p. 628

[473] His sub excommunicationis poena mandamus ut ab ejusdem Henrici regis, suorumque officialium judicium et magistratuum quorumcunque obedientia, penitus et omnino recedant, nec illos in superiores recognoscant neque illorum mandatis obtemperent.--Bull of Pope Paul against Henry VIII.

[474] The Venetian Amba.s.sador told Mount that the first article stood thus, "Admitt.i.tur Protestas Pontificis Maximi absolute;" to which Mount says he answered, "Hoc Latinum magis sapit Sorbonam Parisiensem quam Witenbergensem Minervam." Du Bellay afterwards said that the saving clause was attached to it, "Modo secundum verb.u.m Dei omnia judicet;" and that this had been added at the desire of the French king; which Mount did not believe--and indeed found great difficulty in discovering any credible account of what was really taking place, beyond the fact that the Lutherans were so anxious for an agreement, that they were walking with open eyes into a net which would strangle them.--See _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 630, &c.

[475] Ibid.

[476] Ego colendissime Patrone (si scribere licet quod sentio) non nihil nocere puto amicitiae ineundae et confirmandae inter serenissimum Regem nostrum et Principes Germanos, nimiam serenissimi Regis nostri prudentiam. Germanorum animi tales sunt ut apertam et simplicem amicitiam colant et expetant. Ego quoque Germanos Principes super hac causa saepius expostulantes audivi, ut qui suspensam hanc et causariam amicitiam not satis probarent. Dixerunt enim hac re fieri ut plerique alii foedus sec.u.m inire detrectarent et refugerunt qui id ultro factum fuerant si serenissimum Angliae Regem aperte stare cernerent.--Mount to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 625.

[477] This was Lord Burleigh's word for the const.i.tution of the English Church.

[478] Instructions to the Bishop of Hereford: _Rolls House MS._

[479] In case they shall require that the King's Majesty shall receive the whole confession of Germany as it is imprinted, the bishop shall say that when the King's Highness shall have seen and perused the articles of the league, and shall perceive that there is in it contained none other articles but such as may be agreeable with the Gospel, and such as his Highness ought and conveniently may maintain, it is not to be doubted, and also, "I durst boldly affirm," the said bishop shall say, "that the King's Highness will enter the same [league]." But it shall be necessary for the said duke and the princes confederate to send to the King's Highness such personages as might devise, conclude, and condescend in every article.--Instructions to the Bishop of Hereford: _Rolls House MS._

CHAPTER X.

THE VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES.