History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume III Part 45

[389] "'The marquis was the man that should help and do them good' (men said). See the experience, how all those do prevail that were towards the marquis. Neither a.s.sizes, nisi prius, nor bill of indictment put up against them could take effect; and, of the contrary part, how it prevailed for them."--Sir Thomas Willoughby to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton.

t.i.tus_, B 1, 386.

[390] Depositions relating to Lord Delaware: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 426.

[391] Depositions taken before Sir Henry Capel: Ibid. 1286.

[392] "A man named Howett, one of Exeter's dependents, was heard to say, if the lord marquis had been put to the Tower, at the commandment of the lord privy seal, he should have been fetched out again, though the lord privy seal had said nay to it, and the best in the realm besides; and he the said Howett and his company were fully agreed to have had him out before they had come away."--_Rolls House MS._ first series, 1286.

[393] Deposition of Geoffrey Pole: _Rolls House MS._

[394] Jane Seymour was dead, and the king was not remarried: I am unable to explain the introduction of the words, unless (as was perhaps the case) the application to the painter was in the summer of 1537, and he delayed his information till the following year.

[395] Sir William G.o.dolphin to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIII.

[396] Ibid.

[397] Wriothesley to Sir Thos. Wyatt: Ellis, second series, Vol. II.

[398] G.o.dolphin's Correspondence: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIII.

[399] Instructions by the King's Highness to John Becket, Gentleman of his Grace's Chamber, and John Wroth, of the same: printed in the _Archaeologia_.

[400] "Kendall and Quyntrell were as arrant traitors as any within the realm, leaning to and favouring the advancement of that traitor Henry, Marquis of Exeter, nor letting nor sparing to speak to a great number of the king's subjects in those parts that the said Henry was heir-apparent, and should be king, and would be king, if the King's Highness proceeded to marry the Lady Anne Boleyn, or else it should cost a thousand men's lives. And for their mischievous intent to take effect, they retained divers and a great number of the king's subjects in those parts, to be to the lord marquis in readiness within an hour's warning."--Sir Thomas Willoughby to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1.

[401] Deposition of Alice Paytchet: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. x.x.xIX.

[402] Examination of Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter: _Rolls House MS._ first series, 1262.

[403] "The Lord Darcy played the fool," Montague said; "he went about to pluck the council. He should first have begun with the head. But I beshrew him for leaving off so soon."--_Baga de Secretis_, pouch xi.

bundle 2.

[404] "I am sorry the Lord Abergavenny is dead; for if he were alive, he were able to make ten thousand men."--Sayings of Lord Montague: Ibid.

[405] "On Monday, the fourth of this month, the Marquis of Exeter and Lord Montague were committed to the Tower of London, being the King's Majesty so grievously touched by them, that albeit that his Grace hath upon his special favour borne towards them pa.s.sed over many accusations made against the same of late by their own domestics, thinking with his clemency to conquer their cankeredness, yet his Grace was constrained, for avoiding of such malice as was prepensed, both against his person royal and the surety of my Lord Prince, to use the remedy of committing them to ward. The accusations made against them be of great importance, and duly proved by substantial witnesses. And yet the King's Majesty loveth them so well, and of his great goodness is so loath to proceed against them, that it is doubted what his Highness will do towards them."--Wriothesley to Sir T. Wyatt: Ellis, second series, Vol. II.

[406] Southampton to Cromwell: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 110.

[407] Southampton to Cromwell: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 114.

[408] Robert Warren to Lord Fitzwaters: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1, 143.

[409] Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 494, &c.

[410] Hall, followed by the chroniclers, says that the executions were on the 9th of January; but he was mistaken. In a MS. in the State Paper Office, dated the 16th of December, 1538, Exeter is described as having suffered on the 9th of the same month. My account of these trials is taken from the records in the _Baga de Secretis_: from the Act of Attainder, 31 Henry VIII. cap. 15, not printed in the Statute Book, but extant on the Roll; and from a number of scattered depositions, questions, and examinations in the Rolls House and in the State Paper Office.

[411] The degrading of Henry Courtenay, late Marquis of Exeter, the 3d day of December, and the same day convicted; and the 9th day of the said month beheaded at Tower Hill; and the 16th day of the same month degraded at Windsor: _MS. State Paper Office_. Unarranged bundle.

[412] Examination of Christopher Chator: _Rolls House MS._ first series.

[413] Gibbon professes himself especially scandalized at the persecution of Servetus by men who themselves had stood in so deep need of toleration. The scandal is scarcely reasonable, for neither Calvin nor any other Reformer of the sixteenth century desired a "liberty of conscience" in its modern sense. The Council of Geneva, the General a.s.sembly at Edinburgh, the Smalcaldic League, the English Parliament, and the Spanish Inquisition held the same opinions on the wickedness of heresy; they differed only in the definition of the crime. The English and Scotch Protestants have been taunted with persecution. When nations can grow to maturity in a single generation, when the child can rise from his first grammar lesson a matured philosopher, individual men may clear themselves by a single effort from mistakes which are embedded in the heart of their age. Let us listen to the Landgrave of Hesse. He will teach us that Henry VIII. was no exceptional persecutor.

The Landgrave has heard that the errors of the Anabaptists are increasing in England. He depicts in warning colours the insurrection at Munster: "If they grow to any mult.i.tude," he says, "their acts will surely declare their seditious minds and opinions. Surely this is true, the devil, which is an homicide, carrieth men that are entangled in false opinions to unlawful slaughters and the breach of society....

There are no rulers in Germany," he continues, "whether they be Popish or professors of the doctrines of the Gospel, that do suffer these men, if they come into their hands. All men punish them grievously. We use a just moderation, which G.o.d requireth of all good rulers. Whereas any of the sect is apprehended, we call together divers learned men and good preachers, and command them, the errors being confuted by the Word of G.o.d, to teach them rightlier, to heal them that be sick, to deliver them that were bound; and by this way many that are astray are come home again. These are not punished with any corporal pains, but are driven openly to forsake their errours. If any do stubbornly defend the unG.o.dly and wicked errours of that sect, yielding nothing to such as can and do teach them truly, these are kept a good s.p.a.ce in prison, and sometimes sore punished there; yet in such sort are they handled, that death is long deferred for hope of amendment; and, as long as any hope is, favour is shewed to life. If there be no hope left, then the obstinate are put to death." Warning Henry of the snares of the devil, who labours continually to discredit the truth by grafting upon it heresy, he concludes:--

"Wherefore, if that sect hath done any hurt there in your Grace's realm, we doubt not but your princely wisdom will so temper the matter, that both dangers be avoided, errours be kept down, and yet a difference had between those that are good men, and mislike the abuses of the Bishop of Rome's baggages, and those that be Anabaptists. In many parts of Germany where the Gospel is not preached, cruelty is exercised upon both sorts without discretion. The magistrates which obey the Bishop of Rome (whereas severity is to be used against the Anabaptists) slay good men utterly alien from their opinions. But your Majesty will put a difference great enough between these two sorts, and serve Christ's glory on the one side, and save the innocent blood on the other."--Landgrave of Hesse to Henry VIII., September 25, 1538: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII.

[414] "They have made a wondrous matter and report here of the shrines and of burning of the idol at Canterbury; and, besides that, the King's Highness and council be become sacramentarians by reason of this emba.s.sy which the King of Saxony sent late into England."--Theobald to Cromwell, from Padua. October 22, 1538: Ellis, third series, Vol. III.

[415] The history of Lambert's trial is taken from Foxe, Vol. V.

[416] Cromwell to Wyatt: Nott's _Wyatt_, p. 326.

[417] Cromwell to Wriothesley: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 155.

[418] Christopher Mount writes: "This day (March 5) the Earl William a Furstenburg was at dinner with the Duke of Saxe, which asked of him what news. He answered that there is labour made for truce between the Emperor and the Turk. Then said the duke, to what purpose should be all these preparations the Emperor maketh? The earl answered, that other men should care for. Then said the duke, the bruit is here--it should be against the King of England. Then said the earl, the King of England shall need to take heed to himself."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 606.

[419] The negotiations for the marriages.

[420] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 165.

[421] _i.e._, he was to marry the Princess Mary.

[422] Wriothesley to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 167.

[423] "Within these fourteen days, it shall surely break out what they do purpose to do; as of three ways, one--Gueldres, Denmark, or England; notwithstanding, as I think, England is without danger, because they know well that the King's Grace hath prepared to receive them if they come. There be in Holland 270 good s.h.i.+ps prepared; but whither they shall go no man can tell. Preparations of all manner of artillery doth daily go through Antwerp.

"All the spiritualty here be set for to pay an innumerable sum of money.

Notwithstanding, they will be very well content with giving the aforesaid money, if all things may be so brought to pa.s.s as they hope it shall, and as it is promised them--and that is, that the Pope's quarrel may be avenged upon the King's Grace of England."--March 14, ---- to Cromwell; _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XVI.

[424] William Ostrich to the wors.h.i.+pful Richard Ebbes, Merchant in London: _MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. II.

[425] Sir Ralph Sadler to Cromwell, from Dover, March 16: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. x.x.xVII.

[426] Hollinshed, Stow.

[427] Letters of Sir Thomas Cheyne to Cromwell, March and April, 1539: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series.

[428] Cromwell to the King: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1, 271.

[429] Philips's _Life of Pole_. Four letters of Cardinal Alexander Farnese to Paul III.: _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 281, &c.

[430] One of these, for instance, writes to him: "Vale amplissime Pole quem si in meis auguriis aliquid veri est adhuc Regem Angliae videbimus."

His answer may acquit him of vulgar selfishness: "I know not where you found your augury. If you can divine the future, divine only what I am to suffer for my country, or for the Church of G.o.d, which is in my country.

eis o??nos ?ristos ?m?nesthai per? patr?s.

For me, the heavier the load of my affliction for G.o.d and the Church, the higher do I mount upon the ladder of felicity."--_Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. III. pp. 37-39.