Volume 1 — Notes. (continued 2)

336 Also it is a proverb of old date—"The pride of France, the treason of England, and the war of Ireland, shall never have end." State Papers, vol. ii. p. 11

337 There was a secret ambassador with the Scots king from the emperour, who had long communicated with the king alone in his privy chamber. And after the ambassador's departure the king, coming out into his outer chamber, said to his chancellor and the Earl Bothwell, "My lords, how much are we bounden unto the emperour that in the matter concerning our style, which so long he hath set about for our honour, that shall be by him discussed on Easter day, and that we may lawfully write ourself Prince of England and Duke of York." To which the chancellor said, "I pray God the pope confirm the same." The Scots king answered, "Let the emperour alone."—Earl of Northumberland to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. iv. p. 599.

338 HALL, p. 783.

339 "The bishop was brought in desperation of his life."—Rolls House MS., second series, 532. This paper confirms Hall's account in every point.

340 HALL, p. 796.

341 BURNET, vol. iii. p. 115.

342 Warham was however fined £300 for it.—HALL, 796. A letter of Richard Tracy, son of the dead man, is in the MS. State Paper Office, first series, vol. iv. He says the King's Majesty had committed the investigation of the matter to Cromwell.

343 LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 46.

344 Cap. iii.

345 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 1.

346 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

347 Be it further enacted that no archbishop or bishop, official, commissary, or any other minister, having spiritual jurisdiction, shall ask, demand, or receive of any of the king's subjects any sum or sums of money for the seal of any citizen, but only threepence sterling.—23 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

348 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 10.—By a separate clause all covenants to defraud the purposes of this act were declared void, and the act itself was to be interpreted "as beneficially as might be, to the destruction and utter avoiding of such uses, intents, and purposes."

349 Annates or firstfruits were first suffered to be taken within the realm for the only defence of Christian people against infidels; and now they be claimed and demanded as mere duty only for lucre, against all right and conscience.—23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

350 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

351 It hath happened many times by occasion of death unto archbishops or bishops newly promoted within two or three years after their consecration, that their friends by whom they have been holpen to make payment have been utterly undone and impoverished.—23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.

352 M. de la Pomeroy to Cardinal Tournon.

"London, March 23, 1531-2.

"My Lord,—I sent two letters to your lordship on the 20th of this month. Since that day Parliament has been prorogued, and will not meet again till after Easter.

"It has been determined that the Pope's Holiness shall receive no more annates, and the collectors' office is to be abolished. Everything is turning against the Holy See, but the King has shown no little skill; the Lords and Commons have left the final decision of the question at his personal pleasure, and the Pope is to understand that, if he will do nothing for the King, the King has the means of making him suffer. The clergy in convocation have consented to nothing, nor will they, till they know the pleasure of their master the Holy Father; but the other estates being agreed, the refusal of the clergy is treated as of no consequence.

"Many other rights and privileges of the Church are abolished also, too numerous to mention."—MS. Bibliot. Impér. Paris.

353 STRYPE, Eccles. Mem., vol. i. part 2, p. 158.

354 Ibid.

355 Sir George Throgmorton, Sir William Essex, Sir John Giffard, Sir Marmaduke Constable, with many others, spoke and voted in opposition to the government. They had a sort of club at the Queen's Head by Temple Bar, where they held discussions in secret, "and when we did commence," said Throgmorton, "we did bid the servants of the house go out, and likewise our own servants, because we thought it not convenient that they should hear us speak of such matters."—Throgmorton to the King: MS. State Paper Office.

356 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

357 Printed in STRYPE, Eccles. Mem., vol. i. p. 201. Strype, knowing nothing of the first answer, and perceiving in the second an allusion to one preceding, has supposed that this answer followed the third and last, and was in fact a retractation of it. All obscurity is removed when the three replies are arranged in their legitimate order.

358 STRYPE, Eccles. Mem., vol. i. p. 199, etc.

359 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

360 STOW, p. 562.

361 "In connection with the Annates Act, the question of appeals to Rome had been discussed in the present session. Sir George Throgmorton had spoken on the papal side, and in his subsequent confession he mentioned a remarkable interview which he had had with More.

"After I had reasoned to the Bill of Appeals," he said, "Sir Thomas More, then being chancellor, sent for me to come and speak with him in the parliament chamber. And when I came to him he was in a little chamber within the parliament chamber, where, as I remember, stood an altar, or a thing like unto an altar, whereupon he did lean and, as I do think, the same time the Bishop of Bath was talking with him. And then he said this to me, I am very glad to hear the good report that goeth of you, and that ye be so good a Catholic man as ye be. And if ye do continue in the same way that ye begin, and be not afraid to say your conscience, ye shall deserve great reward of God, and thanks of the King's Grace at length, and much worship to yourself."—Throgmorton to the King: MS. State Paper Office.

362 In part of it he speaks in his own person. Vide supra, cap. 3.

363 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 435.

364 Note of the Revelations of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS.

365 It has been thought that the Tudor princes and their ministers carried out the spy system to an iniquitous extent,—that it was the great instrument of their Machiavellian policy, introduced by Cromwell, and afterwards developed by Cecil and Walsingham. That both Cromwell and Walsingham availed themselves of secret information, is unquestionable,—as I think it is also unquestionable that they would have betrayed the interests of their country if they had neglected to do so. Nothing, in fact, except their skill in fighting treason with its own weapons, saved England from a repetition of the wars of the Roses, envenomed with the additional fury of religious fanaticism. But the agents of Cromwell, at least, were all volunteers;—their services were rather checked than encouraged; and when I am told, by high authority, that in those times an accusation was equivalent to a sentence of death, I am compelled to lay so sweeping a charge of injustice by the side of a document which forces me to demur to it. "In the reign of the Tudors," says a very eminent writer, "the committal, arraignment, conviction, and execution of any state prisoner, accused or suspected, or under suspicion of being suspected of high treason, were only the regular terms in the series of judicial proceedings." This is scarcely to be reconciled with the 10th of the 37th of Hen. VIII., which shows no desire to welcome accusations, or exaggerated readiness to listen to them.

"Whereas," says that Act, "divers malicious and evil disposed persons of their perverse, cruel, and malicious intents, minding the utter undoing of some persons to whom they have and do bear malice, hatred, and evil will, have of late most devilishly practised and devised divers writings, wherein hath been comprised that the same persons to whom they bear malice should speak traitorous words against the King's Majesty, his crown and dignity, or commit divers heinous and detestable treasons against the King's Highness, where, in very deed, the persons so accused never spake nor committed any such offence; by reason whereof divers of the king's true, faithful, and loving subjects have been put in fear and dread of their lives and of the loss and forfeiture of their lands and chattels—for reformation hereof, be it enacted, that if any person or persons, of what estate, degree, or condition he or they shall be, shall at any time hereafter devise, make, or write, or cause to be made any manner of writing comprising that any person has spoken, committed, or done any offence or offences which now by the laws of this realm be made treason, or that hereafter shall be made treason, and do not subscribe, or cause to be subscribed, his true name to the said writing, and within twelve days next after ensuing do not personally come before the king or his council, and affirm the contents of the said writings to be true, and do as much as in him shall be for the approvement of the same, that then all and every person or persons offending as aforesaid, shall be deemed and adjudged a felon or felons; and being lawfully convicted of such offence, after the laws of the realm, shall suffer pains of death and loss and forfeiture of lands, goods, and chattels, without benefit of clergy or privilege of sanctuary to be admitted or allowed in that behalf."

366 Accusation brought by Robert Wodehouse, Prior of Whitby, against the Abbot, for slanderous words against Anne Boleyn: Rolls House MS.

367 Deposition of Robert Legate concerning the Language of the Monks of Furness: Rolls House MS.

368 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 254.

369 Father Forest hath laboured divers manner of ways to expulse Father Laurence out of the convent, and his chief cause is, because he knoweth that Father Laurence will preach the king's matter whensoever it shall please his Grace to command him.—Ibid. p. 250.

370 Ibid. p. 251.

371 Lyst to Cromwell. Ibid. p. 255. STRYPE, Eccles. Memor., vol. i. Appendix, No. 47.

372 STOW'S Annals, p. 562. This expression passed into a proverb, although the words were first spoken by a poor friar; they were the last which the good Sir Humfrey Gilbert was heard to utter before his ship went down.

373 Vaughan to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 489-90. "I learn that this book was first drawn by the Bishop of Rochester, and so being drawn, was by the said bishop afterwards delivered in England to two Spaniards, being secular and laymen. They receiving his first draught, either by themselves or some other Spaniards, altered and perfinished the same into the form that it now is; Peto and one Friar Elstowe of Canterbury, being the only men that have and do take upon themselves to be conveyers of the same books into England, and conveyers of all other things into and out of England. If privy search be made, and shortly, peradventure in the house of the same bishop shall be found his first copy. Master More hath sent oftentimes and lately books unto Peto, in Antwerp—as his book of the confutation of Tyndal, and of Frith's opinion of the sacrament, with divers other books. I can no further learn of More's practices, but if you consider this well, you may perchance espy his craft. Peto laboureth busylier than a bee in the setting forth of this book. He never ceaseth running to and from the court here. The king never had in his realm traitors like his friars—[Vaughan wrote "clergy." The word in the original is dashed through, and "friars" is substituted, whether by Cromwell or by himself in an afterthought, I do not know]—and so I have always said, and yet do. Let his Grace look well about him, for they seek to devour him. They have blinded his Grace."

374 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 262, etc.

375 The wishes of the French Court had been expressed emphatically to Clement in the preceding January. Original copies of the two following letters are in the Bibliothèque Impérial at Paris:—

The Cardinal of Lorraine to Cardinal —— at Rome.

"Paris, Jan. 8, 1531-2.

"RIGHT REVEREND FATHER AND LORD IN CHRIST.—After our most humble commendations—The King of England complains loudly that his cause is not remanded into his own country; he says that it cannot be equitably dealt with at Rome, where he cannot be present. He himself, the Queen, and the other witnesses, are not to be dragged into Italy to give their evidence; and the suits of the Sovereigns of England and France have always hitherto been determined in their respective countries.

"Nevertheless, by no entreaty can we prevail on the Pope to nominate impartial judges who will decide the question in England.

"The King's personal indignation is not the only evil which has to be feared. When these proceedings are known among the people, there will, perhaps, be a revolt, and the Apostolic See may receive an injury which will not afterwards be easily remedied.

"I have explained these things more at length to his Holiness, as my duty requires. Your affection towards him, my lord, I am assured is no less than mine. I beseech you, therefore, use your best endeavours with his Holiness, that the King of England may no longer have occasion to exclaim against him. In so doing you will gratify the Most Christian King, and you will follow the course most honourable to yourself and most favourable to the quiet of Christendom.

"From Abbeville."

Francis the First to Pope Clement the Seventh.

"Paris, Jan. 10, 1531-2.

"MOST HOLY FATHER,—You are not ignorant what our good brother and ally the King of England demands at your hands. He requires that the cognisance of his marriage be remanded to his own realm, and that he be no further pressed to pursue the process at Rome. The place is inconvenient from its distance, and there are other good and reasonable objections which he assures us that he has urged upon your Holiness's consideration.

"Most Holy Father, we have written several times to you, especially of late from St. Cloud, and afterwards from Chantilly, in our good brother's behalf; and we have further entreated you, through our ambassador residing at your Court, to put an end to this business as nearly according to the wishes of our said good brother as is compatible with the honour of Almighty God. We have made this request of you as well for the affection and close alliance which exist between ourselves and our brother, as for the filial love and duty with which we both in common regard your Holiness.

"Seeing, nevertheless, Most Holy Father, that the affair in question is still far from settlement, and knowing our good brother to be displeased and dissatisfied, we fear that some great scandal and inconvenience may arise at last which may cause the diminution of your Holiness's authority. There is no longer that ready obedience to the Holy See in England which was offered to your predecessors; and yet your Holiness persists in citing my good brother the King of England to plead his cause before you in Rome. Surely it is not without cause that he calls such treatment of him unreasonable. We have ourselves examined into the law in this matter, and we are assured that your Holiness's claim is unjust and contrary to the privilege of kings. For a sovereign to leave his realm and plead as a suitor in Rome, is a thing wholly impossible,³⁷⁷ and therefore, Holy Father, we have thought good to address you once more in this matter. Bear with us, we entreat you. Consider our words, and recall to your memory what by letter and through our ministers we have urged upon you. Look promptly to our brother's matter, and so act that your Holiness may be seen to value and esteem our friendship. What you do for him, or what you do against him, we shall take it as done to ourselves.

"Holy Father, we will pray the Son of God to pardon and long preserve your Holiness to rule and govern our Holy Mother the Church.—FRANCIS."

376 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 428. LEGRAND, vol. iii.

377 Chose beaucoup plus impossible que possible.

378 LORD HERBERT, p. 160. RYMER, vol. vi. part ii. p. 171.

379 Francis seems to have desired that the intention of the interview should be kept secret. Henry found this impossible. "Monseigneur," wrote the Bishop of Paris to the Grand Master, "quant à tenir la chose secrette comme vous le demandez, il est mal aisé; combien que ce Roy fust bien de cest advis, sinon qu'il le treuve impossible; car a cause de ces provisions et choses, qu'il fault faire en ce Royaulme, incontinent sera sceu a Londres, et de la par tout le monde. Pourquoy ne faictes vostre compte qu'on le puisse tenir secret.

"Monseigneur, je sçay veritablement et de bon lieu que le plus grant plaisir que le Roy pourroit faire au Roy son frere et a Madame Anne, c'est que le dit seigneur m'escripre que je requiere le Roy son dit frere qu'il veuille mener la dicte Dame Anne avec luy a Callais pour la veoir et pour la festoyer, afin qu'ils ne demeurrent ensembles sans compagnie de dames, pour ce que les bonnes cheres en sont tous jours meilleures: mais il fauldroit que en pareil le Roy menast la Royne de Navarre à Boulogne, pour festoyer le Roy d'Angleterre.

"Quant à la Royne pour rien ce Roy ne vouldroit qu'elle vint: Il häit cest habillement à l'Espagnolle, tant qu'il luy semble veoir un diable. Il desireroit qu'il pleust au Roy mener à Boulogne, messeigneurs ses enfans pour les veoir.

"Surtout je vous prie que vous ostez de la court deux sortes de gens, ceulx qui sont imperiaulx, s'aucuns en y a, et ceux qui ont la reputation d'estre mocqueurs et gaudisseurs, car c'est bien la chose en ce monde autant häie de ceste nation."—Bishop of Paris to the Grand Master: LEGRAND, vol. iii. pp. 555, 556.

380 Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII.: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 433. Valde existimabam necessarium cum hoc Principe (i.e., Francis) agere ut duobus Cardinalibus daret in mandatis ut ante omnes Cardinalis de Monte meminissent, eique pensionem annuam saltem trium millium aureorum ex quadraginta millibus quæ mihi dixerat velle in Cardinales distribuere, assignaret. Et Rex quidem hæc etiam scribi ad duos Cardinales jussit secretario Vitandri. Quicum ego postmodo super iis pensionibus sermonem habui, cognovique sic in animo Regem habere ut duo Cardinales cum Romæ fuerint, videant, qui potissimum digni hâc Regiâ sint liberalitate; in eosque quum quid in Regno Galliæ ecclesiasticum vacare contigerit ex meritis uniuscujusque pensiones conferantur. Tunc autem nihil in promptu haberi quod Cardinali de Monte dari possit—verum Regio nomine illi de futuro esse promittendum quod mihi certe summopere displicuit; et secretario Vitandri non reticui ostendens pollicitationes hujusmodi centies jam Cardinali de Monte factas fuisse; et modo si iterum fiant nihil effecturas nisi ut illius viri quasi ulcera pertractent; id quod Vitandris verum esse fatebatur pollicitusque est se, quum Rex a venatu rediisset velle ei suadere ut Cardinalem de Monte aliquâ presenti pensione prosequatur; quâ quidem tibi nihil conducibilius aut opportunius fieri possit.

381 State Papers, vol. iv. p. 612.

382 Ibid, p. 616.

383 The State Papers contain a piteous picture of this business, the hereditary feuds of centuries bursting out on the first symptoms of ill-will between the two governments, with fire and devastation.—State Papers, vol. iv. p. 620-644.

384 If the said Earl of Angus do make unto us oath of allegiance, and recognises us as Supreme Lord of Scotland, and as his prince and sovereign, we then, the said earl doing the premises, by these presents bind ourself to pay yearly to the said earl the sum of one thousand pounds sterling.—Henry VIII. to the Earl of Angus: State Papers, vol. iv. p. 613.

385 A letter of Queen Catherine to the Emperor, written on the occasion of this visit, will be read with interest:—

"HIGH AND MIGHTY LORD,—Although your Majesty is occupied with your own affairs and with your preparations against the Turk, I cannot, nevertheless, refrain from troubling you with mine, which perhaps in substance and in the sight of God are of equal importance. Your Majesty knows well, that God hears those who do him service, and no greater service can be done than to procure an end in this business. It does not concern only ourselves—it concerns equally all who fear God. None can measure the woes which will fall on Christendom, if his Holiness will not act in it and act promptly. The signs are all around us in new printed books full of lies and dishonesty—in the resolution to proceed with the cause here in England—in the interview of these two princes, where the king, my lord, is covering himself with infamy through the companion which he takes with him. The country is full of terror and scandal; and evil may be looked for if nothing be done, and inasmuch as our only hope is in God's mercy, and in the favour of your Majesty, for the discharge of my conscience, I must let you know the strait in which I am placed.

"I implore your Highness for the service of God, that you urge his Holiness to be prompt in bringing the cause to a conclusion. The longer the delay the harder the remedy will be.

"The particulars of what is passing here are so shocking, so outrageous against Almighty God, they touch so nearly the honour of my Lord and husband, that for the love I bear him, and for the good that I desire for him, I would not have your Highness know of them from me. Your ambassador will inform you of all."—Queen Catherine to Charles V. September 18.—MS. Simancas.

The Emperor, who was at Mantua, was disturbed at the meeting at Boulogne, on political grounds as well as personal. On the 24th of October he wrote to his sister, at Brussels.

Charles the Fifth to the Regent Mary.

Mantua, October 16, 1532.

I found your packets on arriving here, with the ambassadors' letters from France and England. The ambassadors will themselves have informed you of the intended conference of the Kings. The results will make themselves felt ere long. We must be on our guard, and I highly approve of your precautions for the protection of the frontiers.

As to the report that the King of England means to take the opportunity of the meeting to marry Anne Boleyn, I can hardly believe that he will be so blind as to do so, or that the King of France will lend himself to the other's sensuality. At all events, however, I have written to my ministers at Rome, and I have instructed them to lay a complaint before the Pope, that, while the process is yet pending, in contempt of the authority of the Church, the King of England is scandalously bringing over the said Anne with him, as if she were his wife.

His Holiness and the Apostolic See will be the more inclined to do us justice, and to provide as the case shall require.

Should the King indeed venture the marriage—as I cannot think he will—I have desired his Holiness not only not to sanction such conduct openly, but not to pass it by in silence. I have demanded that severe and fitting sentence be passed at once on an act so wicked and so derogatory to the Apostolic See.—The Pilgrim, p. 89.

386 There can be little doubt of this. He was the child of the only intrigue of Henry VIII. of which any credible evidence exists. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Blunt, an accomplished and most interesting person; and the offspring of the connection, one boy only, was brought up with the care and the state of a prince. Henry FitzRoy, as he was called, was born in 1519, and when six years old was created Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset, the title of the king's father.

In 1527, before the commencement of the disturbance on the divorce, Henry endeavoured to negotiate a marriage for him with a princess of the imperial blood; and in the first overtures gave an intimation which could not be mistaken, of his intention, if possible, to place him in the line of the succession. After speaking of the desire which was felt by the King of England for some connection in marriage of the Houses of England and Spain, the ambassadors charged with the negotiation were to say to Charles, that—

"His Highness can be content to bestow the Duke of Richmond and Somerset (who is near of his blood, and of excellent qualities, and is already furnished to keep the state of a great prince, and yet may be easily by the king's means exalted to higher things) to some noble princess of his near blood."—ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 121.

He was a gallant, high-spirited boy. A letter is extant from him to Wolsey, written when he was nine years old, begging the cardinal to intercede with the king, "for an harness to exercise myself in arms according to my erudition in the Commentaries of Cæsar."—Ibid. p. 119.

He was brought up with Lord Surrey, who has left a beautiful account of their boyhood at Windsor—their tournaments, their hunts, their young loves, and passionate friendship. Richmond married Surrey's sister, but died the year after, when only seventeen; and Surrey revisiting Windsor, recalls his image among the scenes which they had enjoyed together, in the most interesting of all his poems. He speaks of

The secret grove, which oft we made resound

Of pleasant plaint and of our ladies' praise;

Recording oft what grace each one had found,

What hope of speed, what dread of long delays.

The wild forest; the clothed holts with green;

With reins availed, and swift y-breathed horse,

With cry of hounds, and merry blasts between,

Where we did chase the fearful hart of force.

The void walls eke that harboured us each night,

Wherewith, alas! reviveth in my breast

The sweet accord, such sleeps as yet delight

The pleasant dream, the quiet bed of rest;

The secret thought imparted with such trust.

The wanton talk, the divers change of play,

The friendship sworn, each promise kept so just,

Wherewith we past the winter nights away.

387 Compare LORD HERBERT with A Paper of Instructions to Lord Rochfort on his Mission to Paris: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 427, etc.; and A Remonstrance of Francis I. to Henry VIII.: LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 571, etc. It would be curious to know whether Francis ever actually wrote to the pope a letter of which Henry sent him a draft. If he did, there are expressions contained in it which amount to a threat of separation. In case the pope was obstinate Francis was to say, "Lors force seroit de pourvoir audict affaire, par autres voyes et façons, qui peut etre, ne vous seroint gueres agreable."—State Papers, vol. vii. p. 436.

388 A nostre derniere entrevue sur la fraternelle et familiere communication que nous eusmes ensemble de noz affaires venant aux nostres, Luy declarasmes comme a tord et injustment nous estions affligez, dilayez, et fort ingratemeut manniez et troublez, en nostre dicte grande et pesante matiere de marriage par la particuliere affection de l'empereur et du pape. Lesquelz sembloient par leurs longues retardations de nostre dicte matiere ne sercher autre chose, sinon par longue attente et laps de temps, nous frustrer malicieusement du propoz, qui plus nous induict a poursuivir et mettre avant la dicte matiere; c'est davoir masculine succession et posterite en laquelle nous etablirons (Dieu voulant) le quiet repoz et tranquillite de notre royaulme et dominion. Son fraternel, plain, et entier advis (et a bref dire le meilleur qui pourroit estre) fut tel; il nous conseilla de ne dilayer ne protractor le temps plus longuement, mais en toute celerite proceder effectuellement a laccomplisment et consummation de nostre marriage.—Henry VIII. to Rochfort: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 428-9.

389 The extent of Francis's engagements, as Henry represents them, was this:—He had promised qu'en icelle nostre dicte cause jamais ne nous abandonneroit quelque chose que sen ensuyst; ainsi de tout son pouvoir l'establiroit, supporteroit, aideroit et maintiendroit notre bon droict, et le droict de la posterite et succession qui sen pourroit ensuyr; et a tous ceulz qui y vouldroyent mettre trouble, empeschement, encombrance, ou y procurer deshonneur, vitupere, ou infraction, il seroit enemy et adversaire de tout son pouvoir, de quelconque estat qu'il soit, fust pape ou empereur,—avecque plusieurs autres consolatives paroles. This he wished Francis to commit to paper. Car autant de fois, que les verrions, he says, qui seroit tous les jours, nous ne pourrions, si non les liscent, imaginer et reduire a notre souvenance la bonne grace facunde et geste, dont il les nous prononçait, et estimer estre comme face a face, parlans avecque luy.—State Papers, vol. vii. p. 437. Evidently language of so wide a kind might admit of many interpretations.

390 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 571, etc.

391 Note of the Revelations of Eliz. Barton: Rolls House MS. Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 17.

The intention was really perhaps what the nun said. An agent of the government at Brussels, who was watching the conference, reported on the 12th of November:—"The King of England did really cross with the intention of marrying; but, happily for the emperor, the ceremony is postponed. Of other secrets, my informant has learned thus much. They have resolved to demand as the portion of the Queen of France, Artois, Tournay, and part of Burgundy. They have also sent two cardinals to Rome to require the Pope to relinquish the tenths, which they have begun to levy for themselves. If his Holiness refuse, the King of England will simply appropriate them throughout his dominions. Captain —— heard this from the king's proctor at Rome, who has been with him at Calais, and from an Italian named Jeronymo, whom the Lady Anne has roughly handled for managing her business badly. She trusted that she would have been married in September.

"The proctor told her the Pope delayed sentence for fear of the Emperor. The two kings, when they heard this, despatched the cardinals to quicken his movements; and the demand for the tenths is thought to have been invented to frighten him.

"They are afraid that the Emperor may force his Holiness into giving sentence before the cardinals arrive. Jeronymo has been therefore sent forward by post to give him notice of their approach, and to require him to make no decision till they have spoken with him."—The Pilgrim, p. 89.

392 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

393 Revelations of Eliz. Barton: Rolls House MS.

394 State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 435, 468.

395 Letter from ——, containing an account of an interview with his Holiness: Rolls House MS.

396 This proposal was originally the king's (see chapter 2), but it had been dropped because one of the conditions of it had been Catherine's "entrance into religion." The pope, however, had not lost sight of the alternative, as one of which, in case of extremity, he might avail himself; and, in 1530, in a short interval of relaxation, he had definitely offered the king a dispensation to have two wives, at the instigation, curiously, of the imperialists. The following letter was written on that occasion to the king by Sir Gregory Cassalis:—

Serenissime et potentissime domine rex, domine mi supreme humillimâ commendatione premissâ, salutem et felicitatem. Superioribus diebus Pontifex secreto, veluti rem quam magni faceret, mihi proposuit conditionem hujusmodi; concedi posse vestræ majestati, ut duas uxores habeat; cui dixi nolle me provinciam suscipere eâ de re scribendi, ob eam causam quod ignorarem an inde vestræ conscientiæ satisfieri posset quam vestra majestas imprimis exonerare cupit. Cur autem sic responderem, illud in causâ fuit, quod ex certo loco, unde quæ Cæsariani moliantur aucupari soleo exploratum certumque habebam Cæsarianos illud ipsum quærere et procurare. Quem vero ad finem id quærant pro certo exprimere non ausim. Id certe totum vestræ prudentiæ considerandum relinquo. Et quamvis dixerim Pontifici, nihil me de eo scripturum, nolui tamen majestati vestræ hoc reticere; quæ sciat omni me industriâ laborâsse in iis quæ nobis mandat exequendis et cum Anconitano qui me familiariter uti solet, omnia sum conatus. De omnibus autem me ad communes literas rejicio. Optime valeat vestra majestas.—Romæ die xviii. Septembris, 1530.

Clarissimi vestrai Majestatis, Humillimus servus,

GREGORIUS CASSALIS,

—LORD HERBERT, p. 140.

397 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 394, etc.

398 The obtaining the opinion in writing of the late Cardinal of Ancona, and submitting it to the emperor. This minister, the most aged as well as the most influential member of the conclave, had latterly been supposed to be inclined to advise a conciliatory policy towards England; and his judgment was of so much weight that it was thought likely that the emperor would have been unable to resist the publication of it, if it was given against him. At the critical moment of the Bologna interview this cardinal unfortunately died: he had left his sentiments, however, in the hands of his nephew, the Cardinal of Ravenna, who, knowing the value of his legacy, was disposed to make a market of it. It was a knavish piece of business. The English ambassadors offered 3000 ducats; Charles bid them out of the field with a promise of church benefices to the extent of 6000 ducats; he did not know precisely the terms of the judgment, or even on which side it inclined, but in either case the purchase was of equal importance to him, either to produce it or to suppress it. The French and English ambassadors then combined, and bid again with church benefices in the two countries, of equal value with those offered by Charles, with a promise of the next English bishopric which fell vacant, and the original 3000 ducats as an initiatory fee. There was a difficulty in the transaction, for the cardinal would not part with the paper till he had received the ducats, and the ambassadors would not pay the ducats till they had possession of the paper. The Italian, however, proved an overmatch for his antagonists. He got his money, and the judgment was not produced after all.—State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 397-8, 464. BURNET, vol. iii. p. 108.

399 Bennet to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 402.

400 Sir Gregory Cassalis to the King: Rolls House M.S., endorsed by Henry, Litteræ in Pontificis dicta declaratoriæ quæ maxime causam nostram probant.

401 There was a tradition (it cannot be called more), that no Englishman could be compelled against his will to plead at a foreign tribunal. "Ne Angli extra Angliam litigare cogantur."

402 Henry VIII. to the Ambassadors with the Pope: Rolls House M.S.

403 Ibid.

404 So at least the English government was at last convinced, as appears in the circular to the clergy, printed in BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 447, etc. I try to believe, however, that the pope's conduct was rather weak than treacherous.

405 So at least Cranmer says; but he was not present, nor was he at the time informed that it was to take place.—ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 32. The belief, however, generally was, that the marriage took place in November; and though Cranmer's evidence is very strong, his language is too vague to be decisive.

406 Individual interests have to yield necessarily and justly to the interests of a nation, provided the conduct or the sacrifice which the nation requires is not sinful. That there would have been any sin on Queen Catherine's part if she had consented to a separation from the king, was never pretended; and although it is a difficult and delicate matter to decide how far unwilling persons may be compelled to do what they ought to have done without compulsion, yet the will of a single man or woman cannot be allowed to constitute itself an irremovable obstacle to a great national good.

407 It is printed by LORD HERBERT, and in LEGRAND, vol. iii.

408 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 558, etc.

409 Ye may show unto his Holiness that ye have heard from a friend of yours in Flanders lately, that there hath been set up certain writings from the See Apostolic, in derogation both of justice and of the affection lately showed by his Holiness unto us; which thing ye may say ye can hardly believe to be true, but that ye reckon them rather to be counterfeited. For if it should be true, it is a thing too far out of the way, specially considering that you and other our ambassadors be there, and have heard nothing of the matter. We send a copy of these writings unto you, which copy we will in no wise that ye shall show to any person which might think that ye had any knowledge from us nor any of our council, marvelling greatly if the same hath proceeded indeed from the pope; [and] willing you expressly not to show that ye had it of us.—State Papers, vol. vii. p. 421.

410 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 454.

411 Sir John Wallop to Henry: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 422.

412 Francis represented himself to Henry as having refused with a species of bravado. "He told me," says Sir John Wallop, "that he had announced previously that he would consent to no such interview, unless your Highness were also comprised in the same; and if it were so condescended that your Highness and he should be then together, yet you two should go after such a sort and with such power that you would not care whether the pope and emperor would have peace or else coups de baston."—Wallop to Henry, from Paris, Feb. 22. But this was scarcely a complete account of the transaction; it was an account only of so much of it as the French king was pleased to communicate. The emperor was urgent for a council. The pope, feeling the difficulty either of excluding or admitting the Protestant representatives, was afraid of consenting to it, and equally afraid of refusing. The meeting proposed to Francis was for the discussion of this difficulty; and Francis, in return, proposed that the great Powers, Henry included, should hold an interview, and arrange beforehand the conclusions at which the council should arrive. This naïve suggestion was waived by Charles, apparently on grounds of religion. LORD HERBERT, Kennet's Edit. p. 167.

413 The emperor's answer touching this interview is come, and is, in effect, that if the pope shall judge the said interview to be for the wealth and quietness of Christendom, he will not be seen to dissuade his Holiness from the same; but he desired him to remember what he showed to his Holiness when he was with the same, at what time his Holiness offered himself for the commonwealth to go to any place to speak with the French king.—Bennet to Henry VIII.; State Papers, vol. vii. p. 464.

414 The estrapade was an infernal machine introduced by Francis into Paris for the better correction of heresy. The offender was slung by a chain over a fire, and by means of a crane was dipped up and down into the flame, the torture being thus prolonged for an indefinite time. Francis was occasionally present in person at these exhibitions, the executioner waiting his arrival before commencing the spectacle.

415 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

416 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 12

417 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 441.

418 D'Inteville to Francis the First: MS. Bibliothèque Impérial, Paris—Pilgrim, p. 92.

419 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

420 He had been selected as Warham's successor; and had been consecrated on the 30th of March, 1533. On the occasion of the ceremony when the usual oath to the Pope was presented to him, he took it with a declaration that his first duty and first obedience was to the crown and laws of his own country. It is idle trifling, to build up, as too many writers have attempted to do, a charge of insincerity upon an action which was forced upon him by the existing relation between England and Rome. The Act of Appeals was the law of the land. The separation from communion with the papacy was a contingency which there was still a hope might be avoided. Such a protest as Cranmer made was therefore the easiest solution of the difficulty. See it in STRYPE'S Cranmer, Appendix, p. 683.

421 BURNET, Vol. iii. pp. 122-3

422 Bennet to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 402. Sir Gregory Cassalis to the same: Rolls House MS.

423 BURNET, vol. iii. p. 123.

424 Ibid. vol. i. p. 210.

425 See State Papers, vol. i. pp. 415, 420, etc.

426 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 22. It is very singular that in the original Bull of Julius, the expression is "forsan consummavissetis;" while in the brief, which, if it was genuine, was written the same day, and which, if forged, was forged by Catherine's friends, there is no forsan. The fact is stated absolutely.

427 LORD HERBERT, p. 163. BURNET. vol. iii. p. 123.

428 State Papers, vol. i. pp. 390. 391.

429 Ye therefore duly recognising that it becometh you not, being our subject, to enterprise any part of your said office in so weighty and great a cause pertaining to us being your prince and sovereign, without our licence obtained so to do; and therefore in your most humble wise ye supplicate us to grant unto you our licence to proceed.—State Papers, vol. i. p. 392.

430 State Papers, vol. i. p. 392.

431 Cromwell to the King on his Committal to the Tower: BURNET, Collectanea, p. 500.

432 So at least she called him a few days later.—State Papers, vol. i. p. 420. We have no details of her words when she was summoned; but only a general account of them.—State Papers, vol. i. p. 394-5.

433 The words of the sentence may be interesting:—"In the name of God, Amen. We, Thomas, by Divine permission Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, in a certain cause of inquiry of and concerning the validity of the marriage contracted and consummated between the most potent and most illustrious Prince, our Sovereign Lord, Henry VIII., by the grace of God King of England and France, Defender of the Faith, and Lord of Ireland, and the most serene Princess, Catherine, daughter of his Most Catholic Majesty, Ferdinand, King of Spain, of glorious memory, we proceeding according to law and justice in the said cause which has been brought judicially before us in virtue of our office, and which for some time has lain under examination, as it still is, being not yet finally determined and decided; having first seen all the articles and pleas which have been exhibited and set forth of her part, together with the answers made thereto on the part of the most illustrious and powerful Prince, Henry VIII.; having likewise seen and diligently inspected the informations and depositions of many noblemen and other witnesses of unsuspected veracity exhibited in the said cause; having also seen and in like manner carefully considered not only the censures and decrees of the most famous universities of almost the whole Christian world, but likewise the opinions and determinations both of the most eminent divines and civilians, as also the resolutions and conclusions of the clergy of both Provinces of England in Convocation assembled, and many other wholesome instructions and doctrines which have been given in and laid before us concerning the said marriage; having further seen and in like manner inspected all the treaties and leagues of peace and amity on this account entered upon and concluded between Henry VII., of immortal fame, late King of England, and the said Ferdinand, of glorious memory, late King of Spain; having besides seen and most carefully weighed all and every of the acts, debates, letters, processes, instruments, writs, arguments, and all other things which have passed and been transacted in the said cause at any time; in all which thus seen and inspected, our most exact care in examining, and our most mature deliberation in weighing them hath by us been used, and all other things have been observed by us, which of right in this matter were to be observed; furthermore, the said most illustrious Prince, Henry VIII., in the forementioned cause, by his proper Proctor having appeared before us, but the said most serene Lady Catherine in contempt absenting herself (whose absence we pray that the divine presence may compensate) [cujus absentia Divinâ repleatur præsentiâ. Lord Herbert translates it, "whose absence may the Divine presence attend," missing, I think, the point of the Archbishop's parenthesis] by and with the advice of the most learned in the law, and of persons of most eminent skill in divinity whom we have consulted in the premises, we have found it our duty to proceed to give our final decree and sentence in the said cause, which, accordingly, we do in this manner.

"Because by acts, warrants, deductions, propositions, exhibitions, allegations, proofs and confessions, articles drawn up, answers of witnesses, depositions, informations, instruments, arguments, letters, writs, censures, determinations of professors, opinions, councils, assertions, affirmations, treaties, and leagues of peace, processes, and other matters in the said cause, as is above mentioned, before us laid, had, done, exhibited, and respectively produced, as also from the same and sundry other reasons, causes, and considerations, manifold arguments, and various kinds of proof of the greatest evidence, strength, and validity, of which in the said cause we have fully and clearly informed ourselves, we find, and with undeniable evidence and plainness see that the marriage contracted and consummated, as is aforesaid, between the said most illustrious Prince, Henry VIII., and the most serene Lady Catherine, was and is null and invalid, and that it was contracted and consummated contrary to the law of God: therefore, we, Thomas, Archbishop, Primate, and Legate aforesaid, having first called upon the name of Christ for direction herein, and having God altogether before our eyes, do pronounce sentence, and declare for the invalidity of the said marriage, decreeing that the said pretended marriage always was and still is null and invalid; that it was contracted and consummated contrary to the will and law of God, that it is of no force or obligation, but that it always wanted, and still wants, the strength and sanction of law; and therefore we sentence that it is not lawful for the said most illustrious Prince, Henry VIII., and the said most serene Lady Catherine, to remain in the said pretended marriage; and we do separate and divorce them one from the other, inasmuch as they contracted and consummated the said pretended marriage de facto, and not de jure; and that they so separated and divorced are absolutely free from all marriage bond with regard to the foresaid pretended marriage, we pronounce, and declare by this our definitive sentence and final decree, which we now give, and by the tenour of these present writings do publish. May 23rd, 1533."—BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 68, and LORD HERBERT.

434 HALL.

435 Ibid.

436 Ibid. p. 801. Hall was most likely an eye-witness, and may be thoroughly trusted in these descriptions. Whenever we are able to test him, which sometimes happens, by independent contemporary accounts, he proves faithful in the most minute particulars.

437 FOXE, vol. v. p. III.

438 Northumberland to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. iv. pp. 598-9.

439 Hawkins to Henry VIII.: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 488.

440 BURNET. vol. iii. p. 115.

441 State Papers, vol. i. p. 398.

442 Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: Rolls House MS.

443 ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 43.

444 Cotton M.S. Otho X, p. 199. State Papers, vol. i. p. 397.

445 State Papers, vol. i. p. 403.

446 Cromwell had endeavoured to save Frith, or at least had been interested for him. Sir Edmund Walsingham, writing to him about the prisoners in the Tower, says:—"Two of them wear irons, and Frith weareth none. Although he lacketh irons, he lacketh not wit nor pleasant tongue. His learning passeth my judgment. Sir, as ye said, it were great pity to lose him if he may be reconciled."—Walsingham to Cromwell: M.S. State Paper Office, second series, vol. xlvi.

447 ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 40.

448 "The natural body and blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven, and not here, it being against the truth of Christ's natural body to be at one time in more places than one." The argument and the words in which it is expressed were Frith's.—See FOXE, vol. v. p. 6.

449 The origin of the word Lollards has been always a disputed question. I conceive it to be from Lolium. They were the "tares" in the corn of Catholicism.

450 35 Ed. I.; Statutes of Carlisle, cap. 1-4.

451 Ibid.

452 25 Ed. III. stat. 4. A clause in the preamble of this act bears a significantly Erastian complexion: come seinte Eglise estoit founde en estat de prelacie deins le royaulme Dengleterre par le dit Roi et ses progenitours, et countes, barons, et nobles de ce Royaulme et lours ancestres, pour eux et le poeple enfourmer de la lei Dieu. If the Church of England was held to have been, founded not by the successors of the Apostles, but by the king and the nobles, the claim of Henry VIII. to the supremacy was precisely in the spirit of the constitution.

453 38 Ed. III. stat. 2; 3 Ric. II. cap. 3; 12 Ric. II. cap. 15; 13 Ric. II. stat. 2. The first of these acts contains a paragraph which shifts the blame from the popes themselves to the officials of the Roman courts. The statute is said to have been enacted en eide et confort du pape qui moult sovent a estee trublez par tieles et semblables clamours et impetracions, et qui y meist voluntiers covenable remedie, si sa seyntetee estoit sur ces choses enfournee. I had regarded this passage as a fiction of courtesy like that of the Long Parliament who levied troops in the name of Charles I. The suspicious omission of the clause, however, in the translation of the statutes which was made in the later years of Henry VIII. justifies an interpretation more favourable to the intentions of the popes.

454 The abbots and bishops decently protested. Their protest was read in parliament, and entered on the Rolls. Rot. Parl. iii. [264] quoted by Lingard, who has given a full account of these transactions.

455 13 Ric. II. stat. 2.

456 See 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.

457 This it will be remembered was the course which was afterwards followed by the parliament under Henry VIII. before abolishing the payment of first-fruits.

458 Lingard says, that "there were rumours that if the prelates executed the decree of the king's courts, they would be excommunicated."—Vol. iii. p. 172. The language of the act of parliament, 16 Ric. II. cap. 5, is explicit that the sentence was pronounced.

459 16 Ric. II. cap. 5.

460 Ibid.

461 Ibid.

462 LEWIS, Life of Wycliffe.

463 If such scientia media might be allowed to man, which is beneath certainty and above conjecture, such should I call our persuasion that he was born in Durham.—FULLER'S Worthies, vol. i. p. 479.

464 The Last Age of the Church was written in 1356. See LEWIS, p. 3.

465 LELAND.

466 LEWIS, p. 287.

467 1 Ric. II. cap. 13.

468 WALSINGHAM, 206-7, apud LINGARD. It is to be observed, however, that Wycliffe himself limited his arguments strictly to the property of the clergy. See MILMAN'S History of Latin Christianity, vol. v. p. 508.

469 WALSINGHAM, p. 275, apud LINGARD.

470 5 Ric. II. cap. 5.

471 WILKINS, Concilia, iii. 160-167.

472 De Heretico comburendo. 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15.

473 STOW, 330, 338.

474 Rot. Parl. iv. 24, 108, apud LINGARD; RYMER, ix. 89, 119, 129, 170, 193; MILMAN, Vol. v. p. 520-535.

475 2 Hen. V. stat. 1, cap. 7.

476 There is no better test of the popular opinion of a man than the character assigned to him on the stage; and till the close of the sixteenth century Sir John Oldcastle remained the profligate buffoon of English comedy. Whether in life he bore the character so assigned to him, I am unable to say. The popularity of Henry V., and the splendour of his French wars, served no doubt to colour all who had opposed him with a blacker shade than they deserved: but it is almost certain that Shakspeare, though not intending Falstaff as a portrait of Oldcastle, thought of him as he was designing the character; and it is altogether certain that by the London public Falstaff was supposed to represent Oldcastle. We can hardly suppose that such an expression as "my old lad of the castle," should be accidental; and in the epilogue to the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, when promising to reintroduce Falstaff once more, Shakspeare says, "where for anything I know he shall die of the sweat, for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." He had, therefore, certainly been supposed to be the man, and Falstaff represented the English conception of the character of the Lollard hero. I should add, however, that Dean Milman, who has examined the records which remain to throw light on the character of this remarkable person with elaborate care and ability, concludes emphatically in his favour.

477 Two curious letters of Henry VI. upon the Lollards, written in 1431, are printed in the Archæologia, vol. xxiii. p. 339, etc. "As God knoweth," he says of them, "never would they be subject to his laws nor to man's, but would be loose and free to rob, reve, and dispoil, slay and destroy all men of thrift and worship, as they proposed to have done in our father's days; and of lads and lurdains would make lords."

478 Proceedings of an organised Society in London called the Christian Brethren, supported by voluntary contributions, for the dispersion of tracts against the doctrines of the Church: Rolls House MS.

479 HALE'S Precedents. The London and Lincoln Registers, in FOXE, vol. iv.; and the MS. Registers of Archbishops Morton and Warham, at Lambeth.

480 KNOX'S History of the Reformation in Scotland.

481 Also we object to you that divers times, and specially in Robert Durdant's house, of Iver Court, near unto Staines, you erroneously and damnably read in a great book of heresy, all [one] night, certain chapters of the Evangelists, in English, containing in them divers erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of heresy, in the presence of divers suspected persons.—Articles objected against Richard Butler—London Register: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 178.

482 FOXE, vol. iv. p. 176.

483 MICHELET, Life of Luther, p. 71.

484 Ibid.

485 Ibid. p. 41.

486 WOOD'S Athenæ Oxonienses.

487 FOXE, vol. iv. p. 618.

488 The suspicious eyes of the Bishops discovered Tyndal's visit, and the result which was to be expected from it.

On Dec. 2nd, 1525, Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop of York, then king's almoner, and on a mission into Spain, wrote from Bordeaux to warn Henry. The letter is instructive:

"Please your Highness to understand that I am certainly informed as I passed in this country, that an Englishman, your subject, at the solicitation and instance of Luther, with whom he is, hath translated the New Testament into English; and within few days intendeth to return with the same imprinted into England. I need not to advertise your Grace what infection and danger may ensue hereby if it be not withstanded. This is the next way to fulfil your realm with Lutherians. For all Luther's perverse opinions be grounded upon bare words of Scripture, not well taken, ne understanded, which your Grace hath opened in sundry places of your royal book. All our forefathers, governors of the Church of England, hath with all diligence forbid and eschewed publication of English Bibles, as appeareth in constitutions provincial of the Church of England. Nowe, sure, as God hath endued your Grace with Christian courage to sett forth the standard against these Philistines and to vanquish them, so I doubt not but that he will assist your Grace to prosecute and perform the same—that is, to undertread them that they shall not now lift up their heads; which they endeavour by means of English Bibles. They know what hurt such books hath done in your realm in times past."—Edward Lee to Henry VIII.: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 71.

489 Answer of the Bishops: Rolls House MS. See cap. 3.

490 Answer of the Bishops, vol. i. cap. 3.

491 See, particularly, State Papers, vol. vii. p. 302.

492 Proceedings of the Christian Brethren: Rolls House MS.

493 See the letter of Bishop Fox to Wolsey: STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i. Appendix.

494 Particulars of Persons who had dispersed Anabaptist and Lutheran Tracts: Rolls House MS.

495 Dr. Taylor to Wolsey: Rolls House MS. Clark to Wolsey: State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 80, 81.

496 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 189.

497 Memoirs of Latimer prefixed to Sermons, pp. 3, 4; and see STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i.

498 FOXE, vol. v. p. 416.

499 Tunstall, Bishop of London, has had the credit hitherto of this ingenious folly, the effect of which, as Sir Thomas More warned him, could only be to supply Tyndal with money.—HALL, 762, 763. The following letter from the Bishop of Norwich to Warham shows that Tunstall was only acting in canonical obedience to the resolution of his metropolitan:—

"In right humble manner I commend me unto your good Lordship, doing the same to understand that I lately received your letters, dated at your manor of Lambeth, the 26th day of the month of May, by the which I do perceive that your Grace hath lately gotten into your hands all the books of the New Testament, translated into English, and printed beyond the sea; as well those with the glosses joined unto them as those without the glosses.

"Surely, in myn opinion, you have done therein a gracious and a blessed deed; and God, I doubt not, shall highly reward you therefore. And when, in your said letters, ye write that, insomuch as this matter and the danger thereof, if remedy had not been provided, should not only have touched you, but all the bishops within your province; and that it is no reason that the holle charge and cost thereof should rest only in you; but that they and every of them, for their part, should advance and contribute certain sums of money towards the same: I for my part will be contented to advance in this behalf, and to make payment thereof unto your servant, Master William Potkyn.

"Pleaseth it you to understand, I am well contented to give and advance in this behalf ten marks, and shall cause the same to be delivered shortly; the which sum I think sufficient for my part, if every bishop within your province make like contribution, after the rate and substance of their benefices. Nevertheless, if your Grace think this sum not sufficient for my part in this matter, your further pleasure known, I shall be as glad to conform myself thereunto in this, or any other matter concerning the church, as any your subject within your province; as knows Almighty God, who long preserve you. At Hoxne in Suffolk, the 14th day of June, 1527. Your humble obedience and bedeman,

"R. NORWICEN."

500 FOXE, vol. iv.

501 The papal bull, and the king's licence to proceed upon it, are printed in Rymer, vol. vi. part ii. pp. 8 and 17. The latter is explicit on Wolsey's personal liberality in establishing this foundation. Ultro et ex propriâ liberalitate et munificentiâ, nec sine gravissimo suo sumptu et impensis, collegium fundare conatur.

502 Would God my Lord his Grace had never been motioned to call any Cambridge man to his most towardly college. It were a gracious deed if they were tried and purged and restored unto their mother from whence they came, if they be worthy to come thither again. We were clear without blot or suspicion till they came, and some of them, as Master Dean hath known a long time, hath had a shrewd name.—Dr. London to Archbishop Warham: Rolls House MS.

503 Dr. London to Warham: Rolls House MS.

504 DALABER'S Narrative.

505 Clark seems to have taken pupils in the long vacation. Dalaber at least read with him all one summer in the country.—Dr. London to Warham: Rolls House MS.

506 The Vicar of Bristol to the Master of Lincoln College, Oxford: Rolls House MS.

507 Dr. London to Warham: Rolls House MS.

508 Radley himself was one of the singers at Christchurch: London to Warham. MS.

509 Dr. London to Warham: Rolls House MS.

510 On the site of the present Worcester College. It lay beyond the walls of the town, and was then some distance from it across the fields.

511 Christchurch, where Dalaber occasionally sung in the quire. Vide infra.

512 Some part of which let us read with him. "I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death; and the father the child; and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."

513 Rector of Lincoln.

514 Warden of New College.

515 The last prayer.

516 Dr. Maitland, who has an indifferent opinion of the early Protestants, especially on the point of veracity, brings forward this assertion of Dalaber as an illustration of what he considers their recklessness. It seems obvious, however, that a falsehood of this kind is something different in kind from what we commonly mean by unveracity, and has no affinity with it. I do not see my way to a conclusion; but I am satisfied that Dr. Maitland's strictures are unjust. If Garret was taken, he was in danger of a cruel death, and his escape could only be made possible by throwing the bloodhounds off the scent. A refusal to answer would not have been sufficient; and the general laws by which our conduct is ordinarily to be directed, cannot be made so universal in their application as to meet all contingencies. It is a law that we may not strike or kill other men, but occasions rise in which we may innocently do both. I may kill a man in defence of my own life or my friend's life, or even of my friend's property; and surely the circumstances which dispense with obedience to one law may dispense equally with obedience to another. If I may kill a man to prevent him from robbing my friend, why may I not deceive a man to save my friend from being barbarously murdered? It is possible that the highest morality would forbid me to do either. I am unable to see why, if the first be permissible, the second should be a crime. Rahab of Jericho did the same thing which Dalaber did, and on that very ground was placed in the catalogue of saints.

517 A cell in the Tower, the nature of which we need not inquire into.

518 FOXE, vol. v. p. 421.

519 Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: Rolls House MS.

520 Ibid.

521 Dr. Forman, rector of All Hallows, who had himself been in trouble for heterodoxy.

522 Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln, Feb. 20, 1528: Rolls House MS.

523 Now Cokethorpe Park, three miles from Stanton Harcourt, and about twelve from Oxford. The village has disappeared.

524 Vicar of All Saints, Bristol, to the Rector of Lincoln: Rolls House MS.

525 The Vicar of All Saints to the Rector of Lincoln: Rolls House MS.

526 Dr. London to the Bishop of Lincoln: Rolls House MS.

527 Long extracts from it are printed in FOXE, vol. iv.

528 Another of the brethren, afterwards Bishop of St. David's, and one of the Marian victims.

529 Bishop of Lincoln to Wolsey, March 5, 1527-8: Rolls House MS.: and see ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.

530 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 77.

531 With some others he "was cast into a prison where the saltfish lay, through the stink whereof the most part of them were infected; and the said Clark, being a tender young man, died in the same prison."—FOXE, vol. iv. p. 615.

532 London to Warham: Rolls House MS.

533 Petition of the Commons, vol. i. cap. 3.

534 Ibid. And, as we saw in the bishops' reply, they considered their practice in these respects wholly defensible.—See Reply of the Bishops, cap. 3.

535 Petition of the Commons, cap. 3.

536 Hen. V. stat. 1.

537 He had been "troublesome to heretics," he said, and he had "done it with a little ambition;" for "he so hated this kind of men, that he would fie the sorest enemy that they could have, if they would not repent."—MORE'S Life of More, p. 211.

538 See FOXE:, vol. iv. pp. 689, 698, 705.

539 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.

540 John Stokesley.

541 Petition of Thomas Philips to the House of Commons: Rolls House MS.

542 Ibid.

543 FOXE, vol. v. pp. 29, 30.

544 The circumstances are curious. Philips begged that he might have the benefit of the king's writ of corpus cum causâ, and be brought to the bar of the House of Commons, where the Bishop of London should be subpœnaed to meet him. [Petition of Thomas Philips: Rolls House MS.] The Commons did not venture on so strong a measure; but a digest of the petition was sent to the Upper House, that the bishop might have an opportunity of reply. The Lords refused to receive or consider the case: they replied that it was too "frivolous an affair" for so grave an assembly, and that they could not discuss it. [Lords' Journals, vol. i. p. 66.] A deputation of the Commons then waited privately upon the bishop, and being of course anxious to ascertain whether Philips had given a true version of what had passed, they begged him to give some written explanation of his conduct, which might be read in the Commons' House. [Lords' Journals, vol. i. p. 71.] The request was reasonable, and we cannot doubt that, if explanation had been possible, the bishop would not have failed to offer it; but he preferred to shield himself behind the judgment of the Lords. The Lords, he said, had decided that the matter was too frivolous for their own consideration; and without their permission, he might not set a precedent of responsibility to the Commons by answering their questions.

This conduct met with the unanimous approval of the Peers. [Lords' Journals, vol. i. p. 71. Omnes proceres tam spirituales quam temporales unâ, voce dicebant, quod non consentaneum fuit aliquem procerum prædictorum alicui in eo loco responsurum.] The demand for explanation was treated as a breach of privilege, and the bishop was allowed to remain silent. But the time was passed for conduct of this kind to be allowed to triumph. If the bishop could not or would not justify himself, his victim might at least be released from unjust imprisonment. The case was referred to the king: and by the king and the House of Commons Philips was set at liberty.

545 Petition of John Field: Rolls House MS.

546 Jan. 1529-30.

547 Illegal. See 2 Hen. V. stat. 1.

548 Seventh Sermon before King Edward. First Sermon before the Duchess of Suffolk.

549 FOXE, vol. iv. p. 649.

550 Articles against James Bainham: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 703.

551 FOXE, vol. iv. p. 702.

552 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 705.

553 Ibid. vol. iv. p. 694.

554 HALL, p. 806; and see FOXE, vol iv. p. 705.

555 Instructions given by the Bishop of Salisbury: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 493.

556 From a Letter of Robert Gardiner: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 706.

557 LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 101.

558 Latimer speaks of sons and daughters.—Ibid. p. 101.

559 Ibid.

560 Where the Cornish rebels came to an end in 1497.—BACON'S History of Henry the Seventh.

561 LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 197.

562 On which occasion, old relations perhaps shook their heads, and made objection to the expense. Some such feeling is indicated in the following glimpse behind the veil of Latimer's private history:—

"I was once called to one of my kinsfolk," he says ("it was at that time when I had taken my degree at Cambridge); I was called, I say, to one of my kinsfolk which was very sick, and died immediately after my coming. Now, there was an old cousin of mine, which, after the man was dead, gave me a wax candle in my hand, and commanded me to make certain crosses over him that was dead; for she thought the devil should run away by and bye. Now, I took the candle, but I could not cross him as she would have me to do; for I had never seen it before. She, perceiving I could not do it, with great anger took the candle out of my hand, saying, 'It is pity that thy father spendeth so much money upon thee;' and so she took the candle, and crossed and blessed him; so that he was sure enough."—LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 499.

563 "I was as obstinate a papist as any was in England, insomuch that, when I should be made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and his opinions."—LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 334.

564 Jewel of Joy, p. 224, et seq.: Parker Society's edition. LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 3.

565 LATIMER'S Remains, pp. 27-31.

566 Ibid. pp. 308-9.

567 LATIMER to Sir Edward Baynton: Letters, p. 329.

568 Letters, p. 323.

569 He thought of going abroad. "I have trust that God will help me," he wrote to a friend; "if I had not, I think the ocean sea should have divided my Lord of London and me by this day."—Remains, p. 334.

570 Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton.

571 See Latimer's two letters to Sir Edward Baynton: Remains, pp. 322-351.

572 "As ye say, the matter is weighty, and ought substantially to be looked upon, even as weighty as my life is worth; but how to look substantially upon it otherwise know not I, than to pray my Lord God, day and night, that, as he hath emboldened me to preach his truth, so he will strengthen me to suffer for it.

"I pray you pardon me that I write no more distinctly, for my head is [so] out of frame, that it would be too painful for me to write it again. If I be not prevented shortly, I intend to make merry with my parishioners, this Christmas, for all the sorrow, lest perchance I never return to them again; and I have heard say that a doe is as good in winter as a buck in summer."—Latimer to Sir Edward Baynton, p. 334.

573 LATIMER'S Remains, p. 334.

574 Ibid. p. 350.

575 "I pray you, in God's name, what did you, so great fathers, so many, so long season, so oft assembled together? What went you about? What would ye have brought to pass? Two things taken away—the one that ye (which I heard) burned a dead man,—the other, that ye (which I felt) went about to burn one being alive. Take away these two noble acts, and there is nothing else left that ye went about that I know," etc., etc.—Sermon preached before the Convocation: LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 46.

576 "My affair had some bounds assigned to it by him who sent for me up, but is now protracted by intricate and wily examinations, as if it would never find a period; while sometimes one person, sometimes another, ask me questions, without limit and without end."—Latimer to the Archbishop of Canterbury: Remains, p. 352.

577 Remains, p. 222.

578 Sermons, p. 294.

579 The process lasted through January, February, and March.

580 Sermons, p. 294.

581 He subscribed all except two—one apparently on the power of the pope, the other I am unable to conjecture. Compare the Articles themselves—printed in LATIMER'S Remains, p. 466—with the Sermon before the Convocation.—Sermons, p. 46; and BURNET, vol. iii. p. 116.

582 Nicholas Glossop to Cromwell: ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 237.

583 Where he was known among the English of the day as Master Frisky-all.

584 See FOXE. vol. v. p. 392.

585 Eustace Chappuys to Chancellor Granvelle: MS. Archiv. Brussels: Pilgrim, p. 106.

586 See Cromwell's will in an appendix to this chapter. This document, lately found in the Rolls House, furnishes a clue at last to the connections of the Cromwell family.

587 Are we to believe Foxe's story that Cromwell was with the Duke of Bourbon at the storming of Rome in May, 1527? See FOXE, vol. v. p. 365. He was with Wolsey in January, 1527. See ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 117. And he was again with him early in 1528. Is it likely that he was in Italy on such an occasion in the interval? Foxe speaks of it as one of the random exploits of Cromwell's youth, which is obviously untrue; and the natural impression which we gather is, that he was confusing the expedition of the Duke of Bourbon with some earlier campaign. On the other hand Foxe's authority was Cranmer, who was likely to know the truth; and it is not impossible that, in the critical state of Italian politics, the English government might have desired to have some confidential agent in the Duke of Bourbon's camp. Cromwell, with his knowledge of Italy and Italian, and his adventurous ability, was a likely man to have been sent on such an employment; and the story gains additional probability from another legend about him, that he once saved the life of Sir John Russell, in some secret affair at Bologna. See FOXE, vol. v. p. 367. Now, although Sir John Russell had been in Italy several times before (he was at the Battle of Pavia, and had been employed in various diplomatic missions), and Cromwell might thus have rendered him the service in question on an earlier occasion, yet he certainly was in the Papal States, on a most secret and dangerous mission, in the months preceding the capture of Rome. State Papers, vol. vi. p. 560, etc. The probabilities may pass for what they are worth till further discovery.

588 A damp, unfurnished house belonging to Wolsey, where he was ordered to remain till the government had determined upon their course towards him. See CAVENDISH.

589 CAVENDISH, pp. 269-70.

590 Ibid. p. 276.

591 Chappuys says, that a quarrel with Sir John Wallop first introduced Cromwell to Henry. Cromwell, "not knowing how else to defend himself, contrived with presents and entreaties to obtain an audience of the king, whom he promised to make the richest sovereign that ever reigned in England."—Chappuys to Granvelle: The Pilgrim, p. 107.

592 Or Willyams. The words are used indifferently.

593 The clause enclosed between brackets is struck through.

594 Struck through.

595 Mary, widow of Louis of Hungary, sister of the emperor, and Regent of the Netherlands.

596 She was much affected when the first intimation of the marriage reached her. "I am informed of a secret friend of mine," wrote Sir John Hacket, "that when the queen here had read the letters which she received of late out of England, the tears came to her eyes with very sad countenance. But indeed this day when I spake to her she showed me not such countenance, but told me that she was not well pleased.

"At her setting forward to ride at hunting, her Grace asked me if I had heard of late any tidings out of England. I told her Grace, as it is true, that I had none. She gave me a look as that she should marvel thereof, and said to me, 'Jay des nouvelles qui ne me semblent point trop bonnes,' and told me touching the King's Highness's marriage. To the which I answered her Grace and said, 'Madame, je ne me doute point syl est faict, et quand le veult prendre et entendre de bonne part et au sain chemyn, sans porter faveur parentelle que ung le trouvera tout lente et bien raysonnable par layde de Dieu et de bonne conscience.' Her Grace said to me again, 'Monsieur l'ambassadeur, c'est Dieu qui le scait que je vouldroye que le tout allysse bien, mais ne scaye comment l'empereur et le roy mon frere entendront l'affaire car il touche a eulx tant que a moy.' I answered and said, 'Madame, il me semble estre assuree que l'empereur et le roy vostre frere qui sont deux Prinssys tres prudens et sayges, quant ilz auront considere indifferentement tout l'affaire qu ilz ne le deveroyent prendre que de bonne part.' And hereunto her Grace made me answer, saying, 'Da quant de le prendre de bonne part ce la, ne sayge M. l'ambassadeur.'"—Hacket to the Duke of Norfolk: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 452.

597 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 457.

598 Sir Gregory Cassalis to the Duke of Norfolk. Ad pontificem accessi et mei sermonis illa summa fuit, vellet id præstare ut serenissimum regem nostrum certiorem facere possemus, in suâ causâ nihil innovatum iri. Hic ille, sicut solet, respondit, nescire se quo pacto possit Cæsarianis obsistere,—State Papers, vol. vii. p. 461.

599 Bennet to Henry: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 462.

600 Ibid.

601 Letter undated, but written about the middle of June: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 474

602 Of the Archbishop of York, not of Canterbury: which provokes a question. Conjectures are of little value in history, but inasmuch as there must have been some grave reason for the substitution, a suggestion of a possible reason may not be wholly out of place. The appeal in itself was strictly legal; and it was of the highest importance to avoid any illegality of form. Cranmer, by transgressing the inhibition which Clement had issued in the winter, might be construed by the papal party to have virtually incurred the censures threatened, and an escape might thus have been furnished from the difficulty in which the appeal placed them.

603 Publico ecclesiæ judicio.

604 RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 188.

605 The French king did write unto Cardinal Tournon (not, however, of his own will, but under pressure from the Duke of Norfolk), very instantly, that he should desire the pope, in the said French king's name, that his Holyness would not innovate anything against your Highness any wise till the congress: adding, withal, that if his Holyness, notwithstanding his said desire, would proceed, he could not less do, considering the great and indissoluble amity betwixt your Highnesses, notorious to all the world, but take and recognise such proceeding for a fresh injury.—Bennet to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 468.

606 Ibid. p. 469.

607 Ibid. p. 469.

608 Ibid. p. 470.

609 Ibid. p. 467, note, and p. 470.

610 BURNET, vol. i. p. 221.

611 We only desire and pray you to endeavour yourselves in the execution of that your charge—easting utterly away and banishing from you such fear and timorousness, or rather despair, as by your said letters we perceive ye have conceived—reducing to your memories in the lieu and stead thereof, as a thing continually lying before your eyes and incessantly sounded in your ears, the justice of our cause, which cannot at length be shadowed, but shall shine and shew itself to the confusion of our adversaries. And we having, as is said, truth for us, with the help and assistance of God, author of the same, shall at all times be able to maintain you.—Henry VIII. to Bonner: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 485.

612 Bonner to Cromwell: Ibid. vol. vii. p. 481.

613 The proclamation ordering that Catherine should be called not queen, but Princess Dowager.

614 Catherine de Medici.

615 Henry VIII. to the Duke of Norfolk: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 493.

616 Sir John Racket, writing from Ghent on the 6th of September, describes as the general impression that the Pope's "trust was to assure his alliance on both sides." "He trusts to bring about that his Majesty the French king and he shall become and remain in good, fast, and sure alliance together; and so ensuring that they three (the Pope, Francis, and Charles V.) shall be able to reform and set good order in the rest of Christendom. But whether his Unhappiness's—I mean his Holiness's—intention, is set for the welfare and utility of Christendom, or for his own insincerity and singular purpose, I remit that to God and to them that know more of the world than I do."—Hacket to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 506.

617 John the Magnanimous, son of John the Steadfast, and nephew of the Elector Frederick, Luther's first protector.

618 State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 499-501.

619 Princeps Elector ducit se imparem ut Regiæ Celsitudinis vel aliorum regum oratores eâ lege in aulâ suâ degerent; vereturque ne ob id apud Cæsaream majestatem unicum ejus Dominum et alios male audiret, possetque sinistre tale institutum interpretari.—Reply of the Elector: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 503.

620 Vaughan to Cromwell: State Papers, vol vii. p. 509.

621 I consider the man, with other two—that is to say, the Landgrave von Hesse and the Duke of Lunenberg—to be the chief and principal defenders and maintainers of the Lutheran sect: who considering the same with no small difficulty to be defended, as well against the emperor and the bishops of Germany, his nigh and shrewd neighbours, as against the most opinion of all Christian men, feareth to raise any other new matter whereby they should take a larger and peradventure a better occasion to revenge the same. The King's Highness seeketh to have intelligence with them, as they conjecture to have them confederate with him; yea, and that against the emperor, if he would anything pretend against the king.—Here is the thing which I think feareth the duke.—Vaughan to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 509-10.

622 HALL, p. 805.

623 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 512.

624 The Duke of Albany, during the minority of James V., had headed the party in Scotland most opposed to the English. He expelled the queen-mother, Margaret, sister of Henry; he seized the persons of the two young princes, whom he shut up in Stirling, where the younger brother died under suspicion of foul play (Despatches of GIUSTINIANI, vol. i. p. 157); and subsequently, in his genius for intrigue, he gained over the queen dowager herself in a manner which touched her honour.—Lord Thomas Dacre to Queen Margaret: ELLIS, second series, vol. i. p. 279.

625 Ex his tamen, qui hæc a Pontifice, audierunt, intelligo regem vehementissime instare, ut vestræ majestatis expectatione satisfiat Pontifex.—Peter Vannes to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 518.

626 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 520.

627 Hoc dico quod video inter regem et pontificem conjunctissime et amicissime hic agi.—Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid.

628 Vannes to Cromwell: Ibid. pp. 522-3.

629 BURNET, Collectanea, p. 436.

630 Letter of the King of France: LEGRAND, vol. iii. Reply of Henry: FOXE, vol. v. p. 110.

631 Commission of the Bishop of Paris: LEGRAND, vol. iii; BURNET, vol. iii. p. 128; FOXE, vol. v. p. 106-111. The commission of the Bishop of Bayonne is not explicit on the extent to which the pope had bound himself with respect to the sentence. Yet either in some other despatch, or verbally through the Bishop, Francis certainly informed Henry that the Pope had promised that sentence should be given in his favour. We shall find Henry assuming this in his reply; and the Archbishop of York declared to Catherine that the pope "said at Marseilles, that if his Grace would send a proxy thither he would give sentence for his Highness against her, because that he knew his cause to be good and just."—State Papers, vol. i. p. 421.

632 MS. Bibl. Impér. Paris.—The Pilgrim, pp. 97, 98. Cf. FOXE, vol. v. p. 110.

633 I hear of a number of Gelders which be lately reared; and the opinion of the people here is that they shall go into England. All men there speak evil of England, and threaten it in their foolish manner.—Vaughan to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 511.

634 RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 189.

635 Parties were so divided in England that lookers-on who reported any one sentiment as general there, reported in fact by their own wishes and sympathies. D'Inteville, the French ambassador, a strong Catholic, declares the feeling to have been against the revolt. Chastillon, on the other hand, writing at the same time from the same place (for he had returned from France, and was present with d'Inteville at the last interview), says, "The King has made up his mind to a complete separation from Rome; and the lords and the majority of the people go along with him."—Chastillon to the Bishop of Paris: The Pilgrim, p. 99.

636 STRYPE, Eccles. Memor., vol. i. p. 224.

637 Instructions to the Earls of Oxford, Essex, and Sussex, to remonstrate with the Lady Mary: Rolls House MS.

638 Ibid.

639 On the 15th of November, Queen Catherine wrote to the Emperor, and after congratulating him on his successes against the Turks, she continued,

"And as our Lord in his mercy has worked so great a good for Christendom by your Highness's hands, so has he enlightened also his Holiness; and I and all this realm have now a sure hope that, with the grace of God, his Holiness will slay this second Turk, this affair between the King my Lord and me. Second Turk, I call it, from the misfortunes which, through his Holiness's long delay, have grown out of it, and are now so vast and of so ill example that I know not whether this or the Turk be the worst. Sorry am I to have been compelled to importune your Majesty so often in this matter, for sure I am you do not need my pressing. But I see delay to be so calamitous, my own life is so unquiet and so painful, and the opportunity to make an end now so convenient, that it seems as if God of his goodness had brought his Holiness and your Majesty together to bring about so great a good. I am forced to be importunate, and I implore your Highness for the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in return for the signal benefits which God each day is heaping on you, you will accomplish for me this great blessing, and bring his Holiness to a decision. Let him remember what he promised you at Bologna. The truth here is known, and he will thus destroy the hopes of those who persuade the King my Lord that he will never pass judgment."—Queen Catherine to Charles V.: MS. Simancas, November 15, 1533.

640 Letter to the King, giving an account of certain Friars Observants who had been about the Princess Dowager: Rolls House MS.

641 We remember the northern prophecy, "In England shall be slain the decorate Rose in his mother's belly," which the monks of Furness interpreted as meaning that "the King's Grace should die by the hands of priests."—Vol. i. cap. 4.

642 Statutes of the Realm, 25 Henry VIII. cap. 12. State Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS. Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to Cromwell: Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 20.

643 Thus Cromwell writes to Fisher: "My Lord, [the outward evidences that she was speaking truth] moved you not to give credence to her, but only the very matter whereupon she made her false prophecies, to which matter ye were so affected—as ye be noted to be on all matters which ye once enter into—that nothing could come amiss that made for that purpose."—Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 30.

644 Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: Rolls House MS.

645 Ibid.

646 Ibid.

647 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

648 Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: Rolls House MS. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12. The "many" nobles are not more particularly designated in the official papers. It was not desirable to mention names when the offence was to be passed over.

649 Report of the Commissioners—Papers relating to the Nun of Kent: Rolls House MS.

650 Goold, says the Act of the Nun's attainder, travelled to Bugden, "to animate the said Lady Princess to make commotion in the realm against our sovereign lord; surmitting that the said Nun should hear by revelation of God that the said Lady Catherine should prosper and do well, and that her issue, the Lady Mary, should prosper and reign in the realm."—25 Henry VIII. cap. 13.

651 Report of the Proceedings of the Nun of Kent: Rolls House MS.

652 MS. Bibliot. Impér., Paris. The letter is undated. It was apparently written in the autumn of 1533.

653 Il a des nouvelles amours. In a paper at Simancas, containing Nuevas de Inglaterra, written about this time, is a similar account of the dislike of Anne and her family, as well as of the king's altered feelings towards her. Dicano anchora che la Anna è mal voluta degli Si. di Inghilterra si per la sua superbia, si anche per l'insolentia e mali portamenti che fanno nel regno li fratelli e parenti di Anna; e che per questo il Re non la porta la affezione que soleva per che il Re festeggia una altra Donna della quale se mostra esser inamorato, e molti Si. di Inghilterra lo ajutano nel seguir el predito amor per deviar questo Re dalla pratica di Anna.

654 HALL.

655 "I, dame Elizabeth Barton," she said, "do confess that I, most miserable and wretched person, have been the original of all this mischief, and by my falsehood I have deceived all these persons (the monks who were her accomplices), and many more; whereby I have most grievously offended Almighty God, and my most noble sovereign the King's Grace. Wherefore I humbly, and with heart most sorrowful, desire you to pray to Almighty God for my miserable sins, and make supplication for me to my sovereign for his gracious mercy and pardon."—Confession of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS.

656 Papers relating to Elizabeth Barton: Ibid.

657 State Papers, vol. i. p. 415.

658 A curious trait in Mary's character may be mentioned in connection with this transfer. She had a voracious appetite; and in Elizabeth's household expenses an extra charge was made necessary of £26 a year for the meat breakfasts and meat suppers "served into the Lady Mary's chamber."—Statement of the expenses of the Household of the Princess Elizabeth: Rolls House MS.

659 He is called frater consobrinus. See FULLER'S Worthies, vol. iii. p. 128.

660 He was killed at the battle of Pavia.

661 Courtenay, Earl of Devonshire, married Catherine, daughter of Edward.

662 Believe me, my lord, there are some here, and those of the greatest in the land, who will be indignant if the Pope confirm the sentence against the late Queen.—D'Inteville to Montmorency: The Pilgrim, p. 97.

663 She once rode to Canterbury, disguised as a servant, with only a young girl for a companion.—Depositions of Sir Geoffrey Pole: Rolls House MS.

664 Confession of Sir William Neville: Rolls House MS.

665 Confession of Sir George Neville: Ibid.

666 Confession of the Oxford Wizard: Ibid.

667 Queen Anne Boleyn to Gardiner: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 355. Office for the Consecration of Cramp Rings: Ibid.

668 So at least the Oxford Wizard said that Sir William Neville had told him.—Confession of the Wizard: Rolls House MS. But the authority is not good.

669 Henry alone never listened seriously to the Nun of Kent.

670 John of Transylvania, the rival of Ferdinand. His designation by the title of king in an English state paper was a menace that, if driven to extremities, Henry would support him against the empire.

671 Acts of Council: State Papers, vol. i. pp. 414-15.

672 Henry VIII. to Sir John Wallop: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 524.

673 Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 517. Vaughan describes Peto with Shakespearian raciness. "Peto is an ipocrite knave, as the most part of his brethren be; a wolf; a tiger clad in a sheep's skin. It is a perilous knave—a raiser of sedition—an evil reporter of the King's Highness—a prophecyer of mischief—a fellow I would wish to be in the king's hands, and to be shamefully punished. Would God I could get him by any policy—I will work what I can. Be sure he shall do nothing, nor pretend to do nothing, in these parts, that I will not find means to cause the King's Highness to know. I have laid a bait for him. He is not able to wear the clokys and cucullys that be sent him out of England, they be so many."

674 Hacket to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 528.

675 Ibid. p. 530.

676 Hacket to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 531.

677 So at least Henry supposed, if we may judge by the resolutions of the Council "for the fortification of all the frontiers of the realm, as well upon the coasts of the sea as the frontiers foreanenst Scotland." The fortresses and havens were to be "fortefyed and munited;" and money to be sent to York to be in readiness "if any business should happen."—Ibid. vol. i. p. 411.