History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume III Part 36

[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 c.u.m ille e medio jam sustulisset illam quae 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 Naturae 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 pa.s.s 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 ill.u.s.trated or strengthened from depositions among the _Records_.

[65] This, again, was intended for Latimer. The ill.u.s.tration 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 G.o.d; 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. x.x.xV.

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 ma.s.s 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 pa.s.sing 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.