Volume 1 — Notes.

1 Printed in FOXE, vol. iv. p. 659, Townsend's edition.

2 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 4.

3 Bishop Latimer, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, suggested another purpose which this act might answer. One of his audience, writing to the Mayor of Plymouth, after describing the exceedingly disrespectful language in which he spoke of the high church dignitaries, continues, "The king," quoth he, "made a marvellous good act of parliament that certain men should sow every of them two acres of hemp; but it were all too little were it so much more to hang the thieves that be in England."—Suppression of the Monasteries, Camden Society's publications, p. 38.

4 32 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

5 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

6 Antiquities of Hengrave, by Sir T. GAGE.

7 See especially 2 Hen. VII. capp. 16 and 19.

8 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

9 See especially the 4th of the 5th of Elizabeth.

10 10 Ed. III. cap. 3.

11 Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. (edit. 1817), pp. 227-8.

12 "The artificers and husbandmen make most account of such meat as they may soonest come by and have it quickliest ready. Their food consisteth principally in beef, and such meat as the butcher selleth, that is to say, mutton, veal, lamb, pork, whereof the one findeth great store in the markets adjoining; besides souse, brawn, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit, fowls of sundry sorts, as the other wanteth it not at home by his own provision, which is at the best hand and commonly least charge. In feasting, this latter sort—I mean the husbandmen—do exceed after their manner, especially at bridals and such odd meetings, where it is incredible to tell what meat is consumed and spent."—HARRISON'S Description of England, p. 282.

The Spanish nobles who came into England with Philip were astonished at the diet which they found among the poor.

"These English," said one of them, "have their houses made of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly so well as the king."—Ibid. p. 313.

13 State Papers, Hen. VIII. vol. ii. p. 10.

14 HALL, p. 646.

15 25 Ed. III. cap. I.

16 Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. p. 199.

17 3 Ed. IV. cap. 2.

18 10 Hen. VI. cap. 2.

19 STOW'S Chronicle.

20 Statutes of Philip and Mary.

21 From 1565 to 1575 there was a rapid and violent rise in the prices of all kinds of grain. Wheat stood at four and five times its earlier rates; and in 1576, when Harrison wrote, was entirely beyond the reach of the labouring classes. "The poor in some shires," he says, "are enforced to content themselves with rye or barley, yea, and in time of dearth many with bread made either of peas, beans, or oats, or of all together and some acorns among, of which scourge the poorest do soonest taste, sith they are least able to provide themselves of better. I will not say that this extremity is oft so well seen in time of plenty as of dearth, but if I should I could easily bring my trial. For, albeit that there be much more ground eared now almost in every place than hath been of late years, yet such a price of corn continues in each town and market, that the artificer and poor labouring man is not able to reach to it, but is driven to content himself with beans, peas, oats, tares, and lentils."—HARRISON, p. 283. The condition of the labourer was at this period deteriorating rapidly. The causes will be described in the progress of this history.

22 Chronicle, p.568.

23 33 Hen. VIII. cap. II. The change in the prices of such articles commenced in the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., and continued till the close of the century. A discussion upon the subject, written in 1581 by Mr. Edward Stafford, and containing the clearest detailed account of the alteration, is printed in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. ix. p.139, etc.

24 Leland, Itin., vol. vi. p.17. In large households beef used to be salted in great quantities for winter consumption. The art of fatting cattle in the stall was imperfectly understood, and the loss of substance in the destruction of fibre by salt was less than in the falling off of flesh on the failure of fresh grass. The Northumberland Household Book describes the storing of salted provision for the earl's establishment at Michaelmas; and men now living can remember the array of salting tubs in old-fashioned country houses. So long as pigs, poultry, and other articles of food, however, remained cheap and abundant, the salt diet could not, as Hume imagines, have been carried to an extent injurious to health; and fresh meat, beef as well as mutton, was undoubtedly sold in all markets the whole year round in the reign of Henry VIII., and sold at a uniform price, which it could not have been if there had been so much difficulty in procuring it. Latimer (Letters, p.412), writing to Cromwell on Christmas Eve, 1538, speaks of his winter stock of "beeves" and muttons as a thing of course.

25 STAFFORD'S Discourse on the State of the Realm. It is to be understood, however, that these rates applied only to articles of ordinary consumption. Capons fatted for the dinners of the London companies were sometimes provided at a shilling apiece. Fresh fish was also extravagantly dear, and when two days a week were observed strictly as fasting days, it becomes a curious question to know how the supply was kept up. The inland counties were dependent entirely on ponds and rivers. London was provided either from the Thames or from the coast of Sussex. An officer of the Fishmongers' Company resided at each of the Cinque Ports whose business it was to buy the fish wholesale from the boats and to forward it on horseback. Three hundred horses were kept for this service at Rye alone. And when an adventurous fisherman, taking advantage of a fair wind, sailed up the Thames with his catch and sold it first hand at London Bridge, the innovation was considered dangerous, and the Mayor of Rye petitioned against it.

Salmon, sturgeon, porpoise, roach, dace, flounders, eels, etc., were caught in considerable quantities in the Thames, below London Bridge, and further up, pike and trout. The fishermen had great nets that stretched all across Limehouse-reach four fathoms deep.

Fresh fish, however, remained the luxury of the rich, and the poor were left to the salt cod, ling, and herring brought in annually by the Iceland fleet.

Fresh herrings sold for five or six a penny in the time of Henry VIII., and were never cheaper. Fresh salmon five and six shillings apiece. Roach, dace, and flounders from two to four shillings a hundred. Pike and barbel varied with their length. The barbel a foot long sold for five-pence, and twopence was added for each additional inch: a pike a foot long sold for sixteen pence, and increased a penny an inch.—Guildhall MSS. Journals 12, 13, 14, 15.

26 "When the brewer buyeth a quarter of malt for two shillings, then he shall sell a gallon of the best ale for two farthings; when he buyeth a quarter malt for four shillings, the gallon shall be four farthings, and so forth... and that he sell a quart of ale upon his table for a farthing."— Assize of Brewers: from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford.

By an order of the Lord Mayor and Council of the City of London, in September, 1529, the price of a kilderkin of single beer was fixed at a shilling, the kilderkin of double beer at two shillings; but this included the cask; and the London brewers replied with a remonstrance, saying that the casks were often destroyed or made away with, and that an allowance had to be made for bad debts. "Your beseechers," they said, "have many city debtors, for many of them which have taken much beer into their houses suddenly goeth to the sanctuary, some keep their houses—some purchase the king's protection, and some, when they die, be reckoned poor, and of no value, and many of your said beseechers be for the most part against such debtors remediless and suffer great losses."

They offered to supply then: customers with sixteen gallon casks of single beer for eleven pence, and the same quantity of double beer for a shilling, the cask included. And this offer was accepted.

The corporation, however, returned two years after to their original order. Guildhall Records, MS. Journal 13, pp. 210, 236.

27 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 14.

The prices assessed, being a maximum, applied to the best wines of each class. In 1531, the mayor and corporation "did straitly charge and command that all such persons as sold wines by retail within the city and liberties of the same, should from henceforth sell two gallons of the best red wine for eightpence, and not above; the gallon of the best white wine for eightpence, and not above; the pottle, quart, and pint after the same rate, upon pain of imprisonment."

The quality of the wine sold was looked into from time to time, and when found tainted, or unwholesome, "according to the antient customs of the city," the heads of the vessels were broken up, and the wines in them put forth open into the kennels, in example of all other offenders. Guildhall MS. Journals 12 and 13.

28 Sermons, p.101.

29 See HARRISON, p. 318. At the beginning of the century farms let for four pounds a year, which in 1576 had been raised to forty, fifty, or a hundred. The price of produce kept pace with the rent. The large farmers prospered; the poor forfeited their tenures.

30 The wages were fixed at a maximum, showing that labour was scarce, and that its natural tendency was towards a higher rate of remuneration. Persons not possessed of other means of subsistence were punishable if they refused to work at the statutable rate of payment; and a clause in the act of Hen. VIII. directed that where the practice had been to give lower wages, lower wages should be taken. This provision was owing to a difference in the value of money in different parts of England. The price of bread at Stratford, for instance, was permanently twenty-five per cent. below the price in London. (Assize of Bread in England: Balliol MS.) The statute, therefore, may be taken as a guide sufficiently conclusive as to the practical scale. It is of course uncertain how far work was constant. The ascending tendency of wages is an evidence, so far as it goes, in the labourer's favour; and the proportion between the wages of the household farm servant and those of the day labourer, which furnishes a further guide, was much the same as at present. By the same statute of Henry VIII. the common servant of husbandry, who was boarded and lodged at his master's house, received 16s. 8d. a year in money, with 4s. for his clothes; while the wages of the out-door labourer, supposing his work constant, would have been £5 a year. Among ourselves, on an average of different counties, the labourer's wages are £25 to £30 a year, supposing his work constant. The farm servant, unless in the neighbourhood of large towns, receives about £6, or from that to £8.

Where meat and drink was allowed it was calculated at 2d. a day, or 1s. 2d. a week. In the household of the Earl of Northumberland the allowance was 2½d. Here, again, we observe an approach to modern proportions. The estimated cost of the board and lodging of a man servant in an English gentleman's family is now about £25 a year.

31 Mowers, for instance, were paid 8d. a day.—Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII.

32 In 1581 the agricultural labourer, as he now exists, was only beginning to appear. "There be such in the realm," says Stafford, "as live only by the labour of their hands and the profit which they can make upon the commons."—STAFFORD'S Discourse. This novel class had been called into being by the general raising of rents, and the wholesale evictions of the smaller tenantry which followed the Reformation. The progress of the causes which led to the change can be traced from the beginning of the century. Harrison says he knew old men who, comparing things present with things past, spoke of two things grown to be very grievous—to wit, "the enhancing of rents, and the daily oppression of copyholders, whose lords seek to bring their poor tenants almost into plain servitude and misery, daily devising new means, and seeking up all the old, how to cut them shorter and shorter; doubling, trebling, and now and then seven times increasing their fines; driving them also for every trifle to lose and forfeit their tenures, by whom the greatest part of the realm doth stand and is maintained, to the end they may fleece them yet more: which is a lamentable hearing."—Description of England, p.318.

33 HALL, p. 581. Nor was the act in fact observed even in London itself, or towards workmen employed by the Government. In 1538, the Corporation of London, "for certain reasonable and necessary considerations," assessed the wages of common labourers at 7d. and 8d. the day, classing them with carpenters and masons.—Guildhall MSS. Journal 14, fol. 10. Labourers employed on Government works in the reign of Hen. VIII. never received less than 6d. a day, and frequently more.—Chronicle of Calais, p. 197, etc. Sixpence a day is the usual sum entered as the wages of a day's labour in the innumerable lists of accounts in the Record Office. And 6d. a day again was the lowest pay of the common soldier, not only on exceptional service in the field, but when regularly employed in garrison duty. Those who doubt whether this was really the practice, may easily satisfy themselves by referring to the accounts of the expenses of Berwick, or of Dover, Deal, or Walmer Castles, to be found in the Record Office in great numbers. The daily wages of the soldier are among the very best criteria for determining the average value of the unskilled labourer's work. No government gives higher wages than it is compelled to give by the market rate.

34 The wages of the day labourer in London, under this act of Elizabeth, were fixed at 9d. the day, and this, after the restoration of the depreciated currency.—Guildhall MSS. Journal 18, fol. 157, etc.

35 4 Hen. VII. cap. 16. By the same parliament these provisions were extended to the rest of England. 4 Hen. VII. cap. 19.

36 HALL, p. 863.

37 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 22.

38 There is a cause of difficulty "peculiar to England, the increase of pasture, by which sheep may be now said to devour men and unpeople not only villages but towns. For wherever it is found that the sheep yield a softer and richer wool than ordinary, there the nobility and gentry, and even those holy men the abbots, not contented with the old rents which their farms yielded, nor thinking it enough that they, living at their ease, do no good to the public, resolve to do it hurt instead of good. They stop the course of agriculture.... One shepherd can look after a flock which will stock an extent of ground that would require many hands if it were ploughed and reaped. And this likewise in many places raises the price of corn. The price of wool is also risen ... since, though sheep cannot be called a monopoly, because they are not engrossed by one person; yet they are in so few hands, and these are so rich, that as they are not prest to sell them sooner than they have a mind to it, so they never do it till they have raised the price as high as possible."—Sir THOMAS MORE'S Utopia, Burnet's Translation, pp. 17-19.

39 I find scattered among the State Papers many loose memoranda, apparently of privy councillors, written on the backs of letters, or on such loose scraps as might be at hand. The following fragment on the present subject is curious. I do not recognise the hand:—

"Mem. That an act may be made that merchants shall employ their goods continually in the traffic of merchandise, and not in the purchasing of lands; and that craftsmen, also, shall continually use their crafts in cities and towns, and not leave the same and take farms in the country; and that no merchant shall hereafter purchase above £40 lands by the year."—Cotton MS. Titus, b. i. 160.

40 When the enclosing system was carried on with greatest activity and provoked insurrection. In expressing a sympathy with the social policy of the Tudor government, I have exposed myself to a charge of opposing the received and ascertained conclusions of political economy. I disclaim entirely an intention so foolish; but I believe that the science of political economy came into being with the state of things to which alone it is applicable. It ought to be evident that principles which answer admirably when a manufacturing system capable of indefinite expansion multiplies employment at home—when the soil of England is but a fraction of its empire, and the sea is a highway to emigration—would have produced far different effects, in a condition of things which habit had petrified into form, when manufactures could not provide work for one additional hand, when the first colony was yet unthought of, and where those who were thrown out of the occupation to which they had been bred could find no other. The tenants evicted, the labourers thrown out of employ, when the tillage lands were converted into pastures, had scarcely an alternative offered them except to beg, to rob, or to starve.

41 Lansdowne MS. No. I. fol. 26.

42 GIUSTINIANI'S Letters from the Court of Henry VIII.

43 Ibid.

44 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 18.

45 Under Hen. VI. the household expenses were £23,000 a year—Cf. Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, vol. vi. p. 35. The particulars of the expenses of the household of Hen. VIII. are in an MS. in the Rolls House. They cover the entire outlay except the personal expenditure of the king, and the sum total amounts to £14,365 10s. 7d. This would leave above £5000 a year for the privy purse, not, perhaps, sufficient to cover Henry's gambling extravagances in his early life. Curious particulars of his excesses in this matter will be found in a publication wrongly called The Privy Purse Expenses of Henry the Eighth. It is a diary of general payments, as much for purposes of state as for the king himself. The high play was confined for the most part to Christmas or other times of festivity, when the statutes against unlawful games were dispensed with for all classes.

46 18 Hen. VI. cap. 11.

47 4 Hen. VII. cap. 12.

48 During the quarter sessions time they were allowed 4s. a day.—Ric. II. xii. 10.

49 The rudeness of the furniture in English country houses has been dwelt upon with much emphasis by Hume and others. An authentic inventory of the goods and chattels in a parsonage in Kent proves that there has been much exaggeration in this matter. It is from an MS. in the Rolls House.

The Inventory of the Goods and Catales of Richd. Master, Clerk, Parson of Aldington, being in his Parsonage on the 20th Day of April, in the 25th Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King Henry VIII.

Plate

Silver spoons, twelve.

In the Hall

Two tables and two forms.

Item, a painted cloth hanging at the upper part of the hall.

Item, a green banker hung on the bench in the hall.

Item, a laver of laten.

In the Parlour

A hanging of old red and green saye.

Item, a banker of woven carpet of divers colours.

Item, two cushions.

Item, one table, two forms, one cupboard, one chair.

Item, two painted pictures and a picture of the names of kings of England

pinned on the said hanging.

In the Chamber on the North Side of the said Parlour

A painted hanging.

Item, a bedstedyll with a feather bed, one bolster, two pillows, one blanket,

one roulett of rough tapestry, a testner of green and red saye.

Item, two forms.

Item, one jack to set a basin on.

In the Chamber over the Parlour

Two bedsteads.

Item, another testner of painted cloth.

Item, a painted cloth.

Item, two forms.

At the Stairs' Hed beside the Parson's Bedchamber

One table, two trestylls, four beehives.

In the Parson's Lodging-chamber

A bedstedyll and a feather bed, two blankets, one payr of sheets, one

coverlet of tapestry lined with canvas, one bolster, one pillow with

a pillocote.

Item, one gown of violet cloth lined with red saye.

Item, a gown of black cloth, furred with lamb.

Item, two hoods of violet cloth, whereof one is lined with green sarsenet.

Item, one jerkyn of tawny camlet.

Item, a jerkyn of cloth furred with white.

Item, a jacket of cloth furred.

Item, a sheet to put in cloth.

Item, one press.

Item, a leather mail.

Item, one table, two forms, four chairs, two trestylls.

Item, a tester of painted cloth.

Item, a pair of hangings of green saye, with two pictures thereupon.

Item, one cupboard, two chests.

Item, a little flock bed, with a bolster and a coverlet.

Item, one cushion, one mantell, one towel, and, by estimation, a pound

of wax candles.

Item, Greek books covered with boards, 42.

Item, small books covered with boards, 33.

Item, books covered with leather and parchment, 38.

In the said Chest in the said Chamber

Three pieces of red saye and green.

Item, one tyke for a bolster, two tykes for pillows.

Item, a typpett of cloth.

Item, diaper napkins, 4, diaper towels, 2.

Item, four pairs of sheets, and one shete, two tablecloths.

In the other Chest in the same Chamber

One typpett of sarsenett.

Item, two cotes belonging to the crosse of Underbill, whereupon hang

thirty-three pieces of money, rings, and other things, and three

crystal stones closed in silver.

In the Study

Two old boxes, a wicker hamper full of papers.

In the Chamber behind the Chimney

One seam and a half of old malt.

Item, a trap for rats.

Item, a board of three yards length.

In the Chamber next adjoining westwards

One bedstedyll, one flock bed, one bolster.

One form, two shelf boards, one little table, two trestylls, two awgyes, one

nett, called a stalker, a well rope, five quarters of hemp.

In the Buttery

Three basins of pewter, five candlesticks, one ewer of lateen, one chafing

dish, two platters, one dish, one salter, three podingers [? porringer],

a saltseller of pewter, seven kilderkyns, three keelers, one form, five

shelves, one byn, one table, one glasse bottell.

In the Priest's Chamber

One bedstedyll, one feather bed, two forms, one press.

In the Woman's Keeping

Two tablecloths, two pairs of sheets.

In the Servant's Chamber

One painted hanging, a bedstedyll, one feather bed, a press, and a shelf.

In the Kitchen

Eight bacon flitches, a little brewing lead, three brass pots, three kettles,

one posnett, one frying-pan, a dripping-pan, a great pan, two trivetts,

a chopping knife, a skimmer, one fire rake, a pothanger, one pothooke,

one andiron, three spits, one gridiron, one firepan, a coal rake of iron,

two bolts [? butts], three wooden platters, six boldishes, three forms,

two stools, seven platters, two pewter dishes, four saucers, a covering

of a saltseller, a podynger, seven tubbs, a caldron, two syffs, a capon

cope, a mustard quern, a ladder, two pails, one beehive.

In the Mill-house

Seven butts, two cheeses, an old sheet, an old brass pan, three podyngers,

a pewter dish.

In the Boulting-house

One brass pan, one quern, a boulting hutch, a boulting tub, three little

tubbys, two keelers, a tolvett, two boulters, one tonnell.

In the Larder

One sieve, one bacon trough, a cheese press, one little tub, eight shelves,

one graper for a well.

Wood

Of tall wood ten load, of ash wood a load and a half.

Poultry

Nine hens, eight capons, one cock, sixteen young chickens, three old

geese, seventeen goslings, four ducks.

Cattle

Five young hoggs, two red kyne, one red heifer two years old, one bay

gelding lame of spavins, one old grey mare having a mare colt.

In the Entries

Two tubbs, one trough, one ring to bear water and towel, a chest to keep

cornes.

In the same House

Five seams of lime.

In the Woman's Chamber

One bedstedyll of hempen yarn, by estimation 20 lbs.

Without the House

Of tyles, ——, of bricks, ——, seven planks, three rafters, one ladder.

In the Gate-house

One form, a leather sack, three bushels of wheat.

In the Still beside the Gate

Two old road saddles, one bridle, a horse-cloth.

In the Barn next the Gate

Of wheat unthrashed, by estimation, thirty quarters, of barley unthrashed,

by estimation, five quarters.

In the Cartlage

One weene with two whyles, one dung-cart without whyles, two shod-whyles,

two yokes, one sledge.

In the Barn next the Church

Of oats unthrashed, by estimation, one quarter.

In the Garden-house

Of oats, by estimation, three seams four bushels.

In the Court

Two racks, one ladder.

50 Two hundred poor were fed daily at the house of Tomas Cromwell. This fact is perfectly authenticated. Stowe the historian, who did not like Cromwell, lived in an adjoining house, and reports it as an eye witness.—See STOWE'S Survey of London.

51 HARRISON'S Description of Britain.

52 The Earl and Countess of Northumberland breakfasted together alone at seven. The meal consisted of a quart of ale, a quart of wine, and a chine of beef: a loaf of bread is not mentioned, but we hope it may be presumed. On fast days the beef was exchanged for a dish of sprats or herrings, fresh or salt.—Northumberland Household Book, quoted by Hume.

53 Some notice of the style of living sometimes witnessed in England in the old times may be gathered from the details of a feast given at the installation of George Neville, brother of Warwick the King Maker, when made Archbishop of York.

The number of persons present including servants was about 3500.

The provisions were as follow—

Wheat, 300 quarters.

Ale, 300 tuns.

Wine, 104 tuns.

Ipocras, 1 pipe.

Oxen, 80.

Wild bulls, 6.

Muttons, 1004.

Veal, 300.

Porkers, 300.

Geese, 3000.

Capons, 2300.

Pigs, 2000.

Peacocks, 100.

Cranes, 200.

Kids, 200.

Chickens, 2000.

Pigeons, 4000.

Conies, 4000.

Bitterns, 204.

Mallards and teals, 4000.

Heronshaws, 4000.

Fesants, 200.

Partridges, 500.

Woodcocks, 400.

Plovers, 400.

Curlews, 100.

Quails, 100.

Egrets, 1000

Rees, 200.

Harts, bucks, and roes, 400 and odd.

Pasties of venison, cold, 4000.

Pasties of venison, hot, 1506.

Dishes of jelly, pasted, 1000.

Plain dishes of jelly, 4000.

Cold tarts, baken, 4000.

Cold custards, 4000.

Custards, hot, 2000.

Pikes, 300.

Breams, 300.

Seals, 8.

Porpoises, 4.

54 LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 64.

55 Statutes of the Realm, 1 Ed. VI. cap. 12.

56 HOOKER'S Life of Sir Peter Carew.

57 In a subsequent letter he is described as learning French, etymology, casting of accounts, playing at weapons, and other such exercises.—ELLIS, third series, vol. i. p. 342-3.

58 It has been objected that inasmuch as the Statute Book gives evidence of extensive practices of adulteration, the guild system was useless, nay, it has been even said that it was the cause of the evil. Cessante causâ cessat effectus;—when the companies lost their authority, the adulteration ought to have ceased, which in the face of recent exposures will be scarcely maintained. It would be as reasonable to say that the police are useless because we have still burglars and pickpockets among us.

59 Throughout the old legislation, morality went along with politics and economics, and formed the life and spirit of them. The fruiterers in the streets were prohibited from selling plums and apples, because the apprentices played dice with them for their wares, or because the temptation induced children and servants to steal money to buy. When Parliament came to be held regularly in London, an order of Council fixed the rates which the hotel-keeper might charge for dinners. Messes were served for four at twopence per head; the bill of fare providing bread, fish, salt and fresh, two courses of meat, ale, with fire and candles. And the care of the Government did not cease with their meals, and in an anxiety that neither the burgesses nor their servants should be led into sin, stringent orders were issued against street-walkers coming near their quarters.—Guildhall MSS. Journals 12 and 15.

The sanitary regulations for the city are peculiarly interesting. The scavengers, constables and officers of the wards were ordered, "on pain of death," to see all streets and yards kept clear of dung and rubbish and all other filthy and corrupt things. Carts went round every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, to carry off the litter from the houses, and on each of those days twelve buckets of water were drawn for "every person," and used in cleaning their rooms and passages.

Particular pains were taken to keep the Thames clean, and at the mouth of every sewer or watercourse there was a strong iron grating two feet deep.—Guildhall MSS. Journal 15.

60 And not in England alone, but throughout Europe.

61 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 25.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid.

64 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 4; 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 5.

65 Statut. Winton. 13 Edw. I. cap. 6.

66 12 Rich. II. cap. 6: 11 Hen. IV. cap. 4.

67 ELLIS'S Original Letters, first series, vol. i. p. 226.

68 It has been stated again and again that the policy of Henry the Eighth was to make the crown despotic by destroying the remnants of the feudal power of the nobility. How is such a theory to be reconciled with statutes the only object of which was the arming and training of the country population, whose natural leaders were the peers, knights, and gentlemen? We have heard too much of this random declamation.

69 33 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

70 From my experience of modern archery I found difficulty in believing that these figures were accurately given. Few living men could send the lightest arrow 220 yards, even with the greatest elevation, and for effective use it must be delivered nearly point blank. A passage in HOLINSHED'S Description of Britain, however, prevents me from doubting that the words of the statute are correct. In his own time, he says that the strength of the English archers had so notoriously declined that the French soldiers were in the habit of disrespectfully turning their backs, at long range, "bidding them shoot," whereas, says Holinshed, "had the archers been what they were wont to be, these fellows would have had their breeches nailed unto their buttocks." In an order for bowstaves, in the reign of Henry the Eighth, I find this direction: "Each bowstave ought to be three fingers thick and squared, and seven feet long: to be got up well polished and without knots."—Butler to Bullinger: Zurich Letters.

71 Page 735, quarto edition.

72 The Personages, Dresses, and Properties of a Mystery Play, acted at Greenwich, by command of Henry VIII. Rolls House MS.

73 Hall says "collar of the garter of St. Michael," which, however, I venture to correct.

74 Rich. II. 12, cap. 7, 8, 9; Rich. II. 15, cap. 6.

75 Lansdowne MSS. 1, fol. 26.

76 Injunctions to the Monasteries: BURNET'S Collect. pp. 77-8.

77 Letter of Thomas Dorset to the Mayor of Plymouth: Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 36.

78 "Divers of your noble predecessors, kings of this realm, have given lands to monasteries, to give a certain sum of money yearly to the poor people, whereof for the ancienty of the time they never give one penny. Wherefore, if your Grace will build to your poor bedemen a sure hospital that shall never fail, take from them these things.... Tie the holy idle thieves to the cart to be whipped, naked, till they fall to labour, that they, by their importunate begging take not away the alms that the good charitable people would give unto us sore, impotent, miserable people, your bedemen."—FISH'S Supplication: FOXE, vol. iv. p. 664.

79 27 Hen. VIII. cap. 25.

80 Roads, harbours, embankments, fortifications at Dover and at Berwick, etc.—STRYPE's Memorials, vol. 1. p. 326 and 419.

81 It is to be remembered that the criminal law was checked on one side by the sanctuary system, on the other by the practice of benefit of clergy. Habit was too strong for legislation, and these privileges continued to protect criminals long after they were abolished by statute. There is abundant evidence that the execution of justice was as lax in practice as it was severe in theory.

82 27 Ed. III. stat. 1; 38 Ed. III. stat. 2; 16 Rich. cap. 5.

83 25 Ed. III. stat. 4; stat. 5, cap. 22; 13 Rich. II. stat. 2, cap. 2; 2 Hen. IV. cap. 3; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.

84 See p. 42.

85 Lansdowne MS. 1, fol. 26; STOW'S Chron. ed. 1630, p. 338.

86 2 Hen. IV. cap. 3; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.

87 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15.

88 Hen. VII. cap. 4. Among the miscellaneous publications of the Record Commission, there is a complaint presented during this reign, by the gentlemen and the farmers of Carnarvonshire, accusing the clergy of systematic seduction of their wives and daughters.

89 Hen. IV. cap. 15.

90 MORTON'S Register, MS. Lambeth. See vol. ii. cap. 10, of the second edition of this work for the results of Morton's investigation.

91 MORTON'S Register; and see WILKINS'S Concilia, vol. iii. pp. 618-621.

92 Quibus Dominus intimavit qualis infamia super illos in dictâ civitate crescit quod complures eorundem tabernas pandoxatorias, sive caupones indies exerceant ibidem expectando fere per totum diem. Quare Dominus consuluit et monuit eosdem quod in posterum talia dimittant, et quod dimittant suos longos crines et induantur togis non per totum apertis.

93 The expression is remarkable. They were not to dwell on the offences of their brethren coram laicis qui semper clericis sunt infesti.—WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 618.

94 Johannes permissione divinâ Cantuar. episcop. totius Angliæ primas cum in præsenti convocatione pie et salubriter consideratum fuit quod nonnulli sacerdotes et alii clerici ejusdem nostræ provinciæ in sacris ordinibus constituti honestatem clericalem in tantum abjecerint ac in comâ tonsurâque et superindumentis suis quæ in anteriori sui parte totaliter aperta existere dignoscuntur, sic sunt dissoluti et adeo insolescant quod inter eos et alios laicos et sæculares viros nulla vel modica comæ vel habituum sive vestimentorum distinctio esse videatur quo fiet in brevi ut a multis verisimiliter formidatur quod sicut populus ita et sacerdos erit, et nisi celeriori remedio tantæ lasciviæ ecclesiasticarum personarum quanto ocyus obviemus et clericorum mores hujusmodi maturius compescamus, Ecclesia Anglicana quæ superioribus diebus vitâ famâ et compositis moribus floruisse dignoscitur nostris temporibus quod Deus avertat, præcipitanter ruet;

Desiring, therefore, to find some remedy for these disorders, lest the blood of those committed to him should be required at his hands, the archbishop decrees and ordains,—

Ne aliquis sacerdos vel clericus in sacris ordinibus constitutus togam gerat nisi clausam a parte anteriori et non totaliter apertam neque utatur ense nec sicâ nec zonâ aut marcipio deaurato vel auri ornatum habente. Incedent etiam omnes et singuli presbyteri et clerici ejusdem nostræ provinciæ coronas et tonsuras gerentes aures patentes ostendendo juxta canonicas sanctiones.—WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 619.

95 See WARHAM'S Register, MS. Lambeth.

96 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

97 ROY'S Satire against the Clergy, written about 1528, is so plain-spoken, and goes so directly to the point of the matter, that it is difficult to find a presentable extract. The following lines on the bishops are among the most moderate in the poem:—

"What are the bishops divines—

Yea, they can best skill of wines

Better than of divinity;

Lawyers are they of experience,

And in cases against conscience

They are parfet by practice.

To forge excommunications,

For tythes and decimations

Is their continual exercise.

As for preaching they take no care,

They would rather see a course at a hare;

Rather than to make a sermon

To follow the chase of wild deer,

Passing the time with jolly cheer.

Among them all is common

To play at the cards and dice;

Some of them are nothing nice

Both at hazard and momchance;

They drink in golden bowls

The blood of poor simple souls

Perishing for lack of sustenance.

Their hungry cures they never teach,

Nor will suffer none other to preach," etc.

98 LATIMER'S Sermons, pp. 70, 71.

99 A peculiarly hateful form of clerical impost, the priests claiming the last dress worn in life by persons brought to them for burial.

100 Fitz James to Wolsey, FOXE, vol. iv. p. 196.

101 Supplication of the Beggars; FOXE, vol. iv. p. 661. The glimpses into the condition of the monasteries which had been obtained in the imperfect visitation of Morton, bear out the pamphleteer too completely. See chapter x. of this work, second edition.

102 FOXE, vol. iv. p. 658.

103 13 Ric. II. stat. ii. c. 2; 2 Hen. IV. c. 3; 9 Hen. IV. c. 8. Lingard is mistaken in saying that the Crown had power to dispense with these statutes. A dispensing power was indeed granted by the 12th of the 7th of Ric. II. But by the 2nd of the 13th of the same reign, the king is expressly and by name placed under the same prohibitions as all other persons.

104 HALL, p. 784.

105 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22.

106 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24. Speech of Sir Ralph Sadler in parliament, Sadler Papers, vol. iii. p. 323.

107 Nor was the theory distinctly admitted, or the claim of the house of York would have been unquestionable.

108 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22, Draft of the Dispensation to be granted to Henry VIII. Rolls House MS. It has been asserted by a writer in the Tablet that there is no instance in the whole of English history where the ambiguity of the marriage law led to a dispute of title. This was not the opinion of those who remembered the wars of the fifteenth century. "Recens in quorundam vestrorum animis adhuc est illius cruenti temporis memoria," said Henry VIII. in a speech in council, "quod a Ricardo tertio cum avi nostri materni Edwardi quarti statum in controversiam vocâsset ejusque heredes regno atque vitâ privâsset illatum est."-WILKINS'S Concilia, vol. iii. p. 714. Richard claimed the crown on the ground that a precontract rendered his brother's marriage invalid, and Henry VII. tacitly allowed the same doubt to continue. The language of the 22nd of the 25th of Hen. VIII. is so clear as to require no additional elucidation; but another distinct evidence of the belief of the time upon the subject is in one of the papers laid before Pope Clement.

"Constat, in ipso regno quam plurima gravissima bella sæpe exorta, confingentes ex justis et legitimis nuptiis quorundam Angliæ regum procreatos illegitimos fore propter aliquod consangunitatis vel affinitatis confictum impedimentum et propterea inhabiles esse ad regni successionem."—Rolls House MS.; WILKINS'S Concilia, vol. iii. p. 707.

109 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

110 Appendix 2 to the Third Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records, p. 241.

111 Sadler Papers, vol. iii. p. 323.

112 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

113 Four Years at the Court of Henry the Eighth, vol. ii. pp. 315-16.

114 Sir Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk, and married to Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII.

115 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

116 The treaty was in progress from Dec. 24, 1526, to March 2, 1527 [LORD HERBERT, pp. 80, 81], and during this time the difficulty was raised. The earliest intimation which I find of an intended divorce was in June, 1527, at which time Wolsey was privately consulting the bishops.—State Papers vol. i. p. 189.

117 It was for some time delayed; and the papal agent was instructed to inform Ferdinand that a marriage which was at variance a jure et laudabilibus moribus could not be permitted nisi maturo consilio et necessitatis causâ.—Minute of a brief of Julius the Second, dated March 13, 1504, Rolls House MS.

118 LORD HERBERT, p. 114.

119 LORD HERBERT, p. 117, Kennett's edition. The act itself is printed in BURNET'S Collectanea, vol. iv. (Nares' edition) pp. 5, 6. It is dated June 27, 1505. Dr. Lingard endeavours to explain away the renunciation as a form. The language of Moryson, however, leaves no doubt either of its causes or its meaning. "Non multo post sponsalia contrahuntur," he says, "Henrico plus minus tredecim annos jam nato. Sed rerum non recte inceptarum successus infelicior homines non prorsus oscitantes plerumque docet quid recte gestum quid perperam, quid factum superi volunt quid infectum. Nimirum Henricus Septimus nullâ ægritudinis prospecta causâ repente in deteriorem valetudinem prolapsus est, nec unquam potuit affectum corpus pristinum statum recuperare. Uxor in aliud ex alio malum regina omnium laudatissimia non multo post morbo periit. Quid mirum si Rex tot irati numinis indiciis admonitus cœperit cogitare rem male illis succedere qui vellent hoc nomine cum Dei legibus litem instituere ut diutius cum homine amicitiam gerere possent. Quid deinceps egit? Quid aliud quam quod decuit Christianissimum regem? Filium ad se accersiri jubet, accersitur. Adest, adsunt et multi nobilissimi homines. Rex filium regno natum hortatur ut secum una cum doctissimis ac optimis viris cogitavit nefarium esse putare leges Dei leges Dei non esse cum papa volet. Non ita longâ oratione usus filium patri obsequentissimum a sententiâ nullo negotio abduxit. Sponsalia contracta infirmantur, pontificiæque auctoritatis beneficio palam renunciatum est. Adest publicus tabellio—fit instrumentum. Rerum gestarum testes rogati sigilla apponunt. Postremo filius patri fidem se illam uxorem nunquam ducturum."—Apomaxis RICARDI MORYSINI. Printed by Berthelet, 1537.

120 See LINGARD, sixth edition, vol. iv. p. 164.

121 HALL, p. 507.

122 He married Catherine, June 3, 1509. Early in the spring of 1510 she miscarried.—Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. i. p. 83.

Jan. 1, 1511. A prince was born, who died Feb. 22.—HALL.

Nov. 1513. Another prince was born, who died immediately.—LINGARD, vol. iv, p. 290.

Dec. 1514. Badoer, the Venetian ambassador, wrote that the queen had been delivered of a still-born male child, to the great grief of the whole nation.

May 3, 1515. The queen was supposed to be pregnant. If the supposition was right, she must have miscarried.—Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. i. p. 81.

Feb. 18, 1516. The Princess Mary was born.

July 3, 1518. "The Queen declared herself quick with child." (Pace to Wolsey: State Papers, vol. i. p. 2,) and again miscarried.

These misfortunes we are able to trace accidentally through casual letters, and it is probable that these were not all. Henry's own words upon the subject are very striking:—

"All such issue male as I have received of the queen died incontinent after they were born, so that I doubt the punishment of God in that behalf. Thus being troubled in waves of a scrupulous conscience, and partly in despair of any issue male by her, it drove me at last to consider the estate of this realm, and the danger it stood in for lack of issue male to succeed me in this imperial dignity."—CAVENDISH, p. 220.

123 "If a man shall take his brother's wife it is an unclean thing. He hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless."—Leviticus xx. 21. It ought to be remembered, that if the present law of England be right, the party in favour of the divorce was right.

124 Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, LEGRAND, vol. iii.

125 Legates to the Pope, printed in BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 40.

126 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 117.

127 Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, LEGRAND, vol. iii.; HALL, 669.

128 They were shut up in the Castle of St. Angelo.

129 State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 18, 19.

130 The fullest account of Wolsey's intentions on church reform will be found in a letter addressed to him by Fox, the old blind Bishop of Winchester, in 1528. The letter is printed in STRYPE'S Memorials Eccles. vol. i. Appendix 10.

131 Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, LEGRAND, vol. iii. It is not uncommon to find splendid imaginations of this kind haunting statesmen of the 16th century; and the recapture of Constantinople always formed a feature in the picture. A Plan for the Reformation of Ireland, drawn up in 1515, contains the following curious passage: "The prophecy is, that the King of England shall put this land of Ireland into such order that the wars of the land, whereof groweth the vices of the same, shall cease for ever; and after that God shall give such grace and fortune to the same king that he shall with the army of England and of Ireland subdue the realm of France to his obeysance for ever, and shall rescue the Greeks, and recover the great city of Constantinople, and shall vanquish the Turks and win the Holy Cross and the Holy Land, and shall die Emperor of Rome, and eternal blisse shall be his end."—State Papers, vol. ii. pp. 30, 31.

132 Knight to Henry: State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 2, 3.

133 Wolsey to Cassalis: Ibid. p. 26.

134 The dispensing power of the popes was not formally limited. According to the Roman lawyers, a faculty lay with them of granting extraordinary dispensations in cases where dispensations would not be usually admissible—which faculty was to be used, however, dummodo causa cogat urgentissima ne regnum aliquod funditus pereat; the pope's business being to decide on the question of urgency.—Sir Gregory Cassalis to Henry VIII., Dec. 26, 1532. Rolls House MS.

135 Knight and Cassalis to Wolsey: BURNET'S Collect. p. 12.

136 STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i., Appendix p. 66.

137 Sir F. Bryan and Peter Vannes to Henry; State Papers, vol. vii. p. 144.

138 STRYPE'S Memorials, Appendix, vol. i. p. 100.

139 Ibid. Appendix, vol. i. pp. 105-6; BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 13.

140 Wolsey to the Pope, BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 16: Vereor quod tamen nequeo tacere, ne Regia Majestas, humano divinoque jure quod habet ex omni Christianitate suis his actionibus adjunctum freta, postquam viderit sedis Apostolicæ gratiam et Christi in terris Vicarii clementiam desperatam Cæsaris intuitu, in cujus manu neutiquam est tam sanctos conatus reprimere, ea tunc moliatur, ea suæ causæ perquirat remedia, quæ non solum huic Regno sed etiam aliis Christianis principibus occasionem subministrarent sedis Apostolicæ auctoritatem et jurisdictionem imminuendi et vilipendendi.

141 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 20. Wolsey to John Cassalis: "If his Holyness, which God forbid, shall shew himself unwilling to listen to the king's demands, to me assuredly it will be but grief to live longer, for the innumerable evils which I foresee will then follow. One only sure remedy remains to prevent the worst calamities. If that be neglected, there is nothing before us but universal and inevitable ruin."

142 Gardiner and Fox to Wolsey; STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i. Appendix, p. 92.

143 His Holiness being yet in captivity, as he esteemed himself to be, so long as the Almayns and Spaniards continue in Italy, he thought if he should grant this commission that he should have the emperour his perpetual enemy without any hope of reconciliation. Notwithstanding he was content rather to put himself in evident ruin, and utter undoing, than the king or your Grace shall suspect any point of ingratitude in him; heartily desiring with sighs and tears that the king and your Grace which have been always fast and good to him, will not now suddenly precipitate him for ever: which should be done if immediately on receiving the commission your Grace should begin process. He intendeth to save all upright thus. If M. de Lautrec would set forwards, which he saith daily that he will do, but yet he doth not, at his coming the Pope's Holiness may have good colour to say, "He was required of the commission by the ambassador of England, and denying the same, he was, eftsoons, required by M. de Lautrec to grant the said commission, inasmuch as it was but a letter of justice." And by this colour he would cover the matter so that it might appear unto the emperour that the pope did it not as he that would gladly do displeasure unto the emperour, but as an indifferent judge, that could not nor might deny justice, specially being required by such personages; and immediately he would despatch a commission bearing date after the time that M. de Lautrec had been with him or was nigh unto him. The pope most instantly beseecheth your Grace to be a mean that the King's Highness may accept this in a good part, and that he will take patience for this little time, which, as it is supposed, will be but short.—Knight to Wolsey and the King, Jan. 1, 1527-8: BURNET Collections, 12, 13.

144 Such at least was the ultimate conclusion of a curious discussion. When the French herald declared war, the English herald accompanied him into the emperor's presence, and when his companion had concluded, followed up his words with an intimation that unless the French demands were complied with, England would unite to enforce them. The Emperor replied to Francis with defiance. To the English herald he expressed a hope that peace on that side would still be maintained. For the moment the two countries were uncertain whether they were at war or not. The Spanish ambassador in London did not know, and the court could not tell him. The English ambassador in Spain did not leave his post, but he was placed under surveillance. An embargo on Spanish and English property was laid respectively in the ports of the two kingdoms; and the merchants and residents were placed under arrest. Alarmed by the outcry in London, the king hastily concluded a truce with the Regent of the Netherlands, the language of which implied a state of war; but when peace was concluded between France and Spain, England appeared only as a contracting party, not as a principal, and in 1542 it was decided that the antecedent treaties between England and the empire continued in force.—See LORD HERBERT; HOLINSHED; State Papers, vols. vii. viii. and ix.; with the treaties in RYMER, vol. vi. part 2.

145 Gardiner to the King: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 426.

146 Duke of Suffolk to Henry the Eighth: State Papers, vol. vii, p. 183.

147 Duke of Suffolk to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 183.

148 HALL, p. 744.

149 When the clothiers of Essex, Kent, Wiltshire, Suffolk, and other shires which are clothmaking, brought cloths to London to be sold, as they were wont, few merchants or none bought any cloth at all. When the clothiers lacked sale, then they put from them their spinners, carders, tuckers, and such others that lived by clothworking, which caused the people greatly to murmur, and specially in Suffolk, for if the Duke of Norfolk had not wisely appeased them, no doubt but they had fallen to some rioting. When the king's council was advertised of the inconvenience, the cardinal sent for a great number of the merchants of London, and to them said, "Sirs, the king is informed that you use not yourselves like merchants, but like graziers and artificers; for where the clothiers do daily bring cloths to the market for your ease, to their great cost, and then be ready to sell them, you of your wilfulness will not buy them, as you have been accustomed to do. What manner of men be you?" said the cardinal. "I tell you that the king straitly commandeth you to buy their cloths as beforetime you have been accustomed to do, upon pain of his high displeasure."—HALL, p. 746.

150 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 157. By manners and customs he was referring clearly to his intended reformation of the church. See the letter of Fox, Bishop of Winchester (STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. ii. p. 25), in which Wolsey's intentions are dwelt upon at length.

151 Ibid. pp. 136, 7.

152 State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 96, 7.

153 Wolsey to Cassalis: Ibid. p. 100.

154 State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 106, 7

155 Ibid. p. 113.

156 Ibid. vii. p. 113.

157 Take the veil.

158 Instruction to the Ambassadours at Rome: State Papers, vol. vii. p. 136.

159 Letters of the Bishop of Bayanne, LEGRAND, vol. iii.

160 LEGRAND, vol. iii. 231.

161 Instrucion para Gonzalo Fernandez que se envoie a Ireland al Conde de Desmond, 1529.—MS. Archives at Brussels.—The Pilgrim, note 1, p. 169.

162 Henrici regis octavi de repudiandâ dominâ Catherinâ oratio Idibus Novembris habita 1528.

Veneranda et chara nobis præsulum procerum atque consiliariorum cohors quos communis reipublicæ atque regni nostri administrandi cura conjunxit. Haud vos latet divinâ nos Providentiâ viginti jam ferme annis hanc nostram patriam tantâ felicitate rexisse ut in illâ ab hostilibus incursionibus tuta semper interea fuerit et nos in his bellis quæ suscepimus victores semper evasimus; et quanquam in eo gloriâri jure possumus majorem tranquillitatem opes et honores prioribus huc usque ductis socculis, nunquam subditis a majoribus parentibusque nostris Angliâ regibus quam a nobis provenisse, tamen quando cum hâc gloriâ in mentem una venit ac concurrit mortis cogitatio, veremur ne nobis sine prole legitimâ decedentibus majorem ex morte nostrâ patiamini calamitatem quam ex vitâ fructum ac emolumentum percepistis. Recens enim in quorundam vestrorum animis adhuc est illius cruenti temporis memoria quod a Ricardo tertio cum avi nostri materni Edwardi Quarti statum in controversiam vocasset ejusque heredes regno atque vitâ privâsset illatum est. Tum ex historiis notæ sunt illæ diræ strages quæ a clarissimis Angliæ gentibus Eboracensi atque Lancastrensi, dum inter se de regno et imperio multis ævis contenderent, populo evenerunt. Ac illæ ex justis nuptiis inter Henricum Septimum et dominam Elizabetham clarissimos nostros parentes contractis in nobis inde legitimâ natâ sobole sopitæ tandem desierunt. Si vero quod absit, regalis ex nostris nuptiis stirps quæ jure deinceps regnare possit non nascatur, hoc regnum civilibus atque intestinis se versabit tumultibus aut in exterorum dominationem atque potestatem veniet. Nam quanquam formâ atque venustate singulari, quæ magno nobis solatio fuit filiam Dominam Mariam ex nobilissimâ fœminâ Dominâ Catherinâ procreavimus, tamen a piis atque eruditis theologis nuper accepimus quia eam quæ Arturi fratris nostri conjux ante fuerat uxorem duximus nostras nuptias jure divino esse vetitas, partumque inde editum non posse censeri legitimum. Id quod eo vehementius nos angit et excruciat, quod cum superiori anno legatos ad conciliandas inter Aureliensem ducem et filiam nostram Mariam nuptias ad Franciscum Gallorum regem misissemus a quodam ejus consiliario responsum est, "antequam de hujusmodi nuptiis agatum inquirendum esse prius an Maria fuerit filia nostra legitima; constat enim 'inquit,' quod exdominâ Catherinâ fratris sui viduâ cujusmodi nuptiæ jure divino interdictæ sunt suscepta est." Quæ oratio quanto metu ac horrore animum nostrum turbaverit quia res ipsa æternæ tam animi quam corporis salutis periculum in se continet, et quam perplexis cogitationibus conscientiam occupat, vos quibus et capitis aut fortunæ ac multo magis animarum jactura immineret, remedium nisi adhibere velitis, ignorare non posse arbitror. Hæc una res—quod Deo teste et in Regis oraculo affirmamus—nos impulit ut per legatos doctissimorum per totum orbem Christianum theologorum sententias exquireremus et Romani Pontificis legatum verum atque æquum judicium de tantâ causâ laturum ut tranquillâ deinceps et intergâ conscientiâ in conjugio licito vivere possimus accerseremus. In quo si ex sacris litteris hoc quo viginti jam fere annis gavisi sumus matrimonium jure divino permissum esse manifeste liquidoque constabit, non modo ob conscientiæ tranquillitatem, verum etiam ob amabiles mores virtutesque quibus regina prædita et ornata est, nihil optatius nihilque jucundius accidere nobis potest. Nam præterquam quod regali atque nobili genere prognata est, tantâ præterea comitate et obsequio conjugali tum cæteris animi morumque ornamentis quæ nobilitatem illustrant omnes fœminas his viginti annis sic mihi anteire visa est ut si a conjugio liber essem ac solutus, si jure divino liceret, hanc solam præ cæteris fœminis stabili mihi jure ac fœdere matrimoniali conjungerem. Si vero in hoc judicio matrimonium nostrum jure divino prohibitum, ideoque ab initio nullum irritumque fuisse pronuncietur, infelix hic meus casus multis lacrimis lugendus ac deplorandus erit. Non modo quod a tam illustris et amabilis mulieris consuetudine et consortio divertendum sit, sed multo magis quod specie ad similitudinem veri conjugii decepti in amplexibus plusquam fornicariis tam multos annos trivimus nullâ legitimâ prognatâ nobis sobole quæ nobis mortuis hujus inclyti regni hereditatem capessat.

Hæ nostræ curæ istæque solicitudines sunt quæ mentem atque conscientiam nostram dies noctesque torquent et excurciant, quibus auferendis et profligandis remedium ex hâc legatione et judicio opportunum quærimus. Ideoque vos quorum virtuti atque fidei multum attribuimus rogamus ut certum atque genuinum nostrum de hâc re sensum quem ex nostro sermone percepistis populo declaretis: eumque excitetis ut nobiscum una oraret ut ad conscientiæ nostræ pacem atque tranquillitatem in hoc judicio veritas multis jam annis tenebris involuta tandem patefiat.—WILKINS'S Concilia, vol. iii. p. 714.

163 HALL, Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, LEGRAND, vol. iii.

164 LEGRAND, vol. iii.

165 Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 232, 3.

166 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 120; Ibid. p. 186.

167 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 41.

168 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 193.

169 The Emperor could as little trust Clement as the English, and to the last moment could not tell how he would act.

"Il me semble," wrote Inigo di Mendoza to Charles on the 17th of June, 1529,—"il me semble que Sa Sainteté differe autant qu'il peut ce qu' auparavant il avoit promis, et je crains qu'il n'ait ordonné aux legatz ce qui jusques à present avoit resté en suspens qu'ils procedent par la première commission. Ce qui faisant votre Majesté peut tenir la Reine autant que condamné."—MS. Archives at Brussels.

The sort of influence to which the See of Rome was amenable appears in another letter to the Emperor, written from Rome itself on the 4th of October. The Pope and cardinals, it is to be remembered, were claiming to be considered the supreme court of appeal in Christendom.

"Si je ne m'abuse tous ou la pluspart du Saint College sont plus affectionnez à vostre dite Majesté que à autre Prince Chrestien: de vous escrire, Sire, particulièrement toutes leurs responses seroit chose trop longue. Tant y a que elles sont telles que votre Majesté a raison doubt grandement se contenter d'icelles.

"... Seulement diray derechief à vostre Majesté, et me souvient l'avoir dict plusieurs fois, qu'il est en vostre Majesté gaigner et entretenir perpetuellement ce college en vostre devotion en distribuant seulement entre les principaulx d'eulx en pensions et benefices la somme de vingt mille ducas, l'ung mille, l'autre deulx ou trois mille. Et est cecy chose, Sire, que plus vous touche que à autre Prince Chrestien pour les affaires que vostre Majesté a journellement à despescher en ceste court."—M. de Præt to Charles V. August 5th, 1529. MS. Ibid.

170 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 377.

171 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 374.

172 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 355.

173 Ibid.

174 Memorandum relating to the Society of Christian Brethren. Rolls House MS.

175 DALABER'S Narrative, printed in FOXE, vol. iv. Seeley's Ed.

176 All authorities agree in the early account of Henry, and his letters provide abundant proof that it is not exaggerated. The following description of him in the despatches of the Venetian ambassador shows the effect which he produced on strangers in 1515:—

"Assuredly, most serene prince, from what we have seen of him, and in conformity, moreover, with the report made to us by others, this most serene king is not only very expert in arms and of great valour and most excellent in his personal endowments, but is likewise so gifted and adorned with mental accomplishments of every sort, that we believe him to have few equals in the world. He speaks English, French, Latin, understands Italian well; plays almost on every instrument; sings and composes fairly; is prudent, and sage, and free from every vice."—Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. i. p. 76.

Four years later, the same writer adds,—

"The king speaks good French, Latin, and Spanish; is very religious; hears three masses a day when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days; he hears the office every day in the queen's chamber—that is to say, vespers and complins."—Ibid. vol. ii. p. 312. William Thomas, who must have seen him, says,

"Of personage he was one of the goodliest men that lived in his time; being high of stature, in manner more than a man, and proportionable in all his members unto that height; of countenance he was most amiable; courteous and benign in gesture unto all persons and specially unto strangers; seldom or never offended with anything; and of so constant a nature in himself that I believe few can say that ever he changed his cheer for any novelty how contrary or sudden so ever it were. Prudent he was in council and forecasting; most liberal in rewarding his faithful servants, and even unto his enemies, as it behoveth a prince to be. He was learned in all sciences, and had the gift of many tongues. He was a perfect theologian, a good philosopher, and a strong man at arms, a jeweller, a perfect builder as well of fortresses as of pleasant palaces, and from one to another there was no necessary kind of knowledge, from a king's degree to a carter's, but he had an honest sight in it."—The Pilgrim p. 78.

177 Exposition of the Commandments, set forth by Royal authority, 1536. This treatise was drawn up by the bishops, and submitted to, and revised by, the king.

178 SAGUDINO'S Summary. Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII. vol. ii. P. 75.

179 "The truth is, when I married my wife, I had but fifty pounds to live on for me and my wife so long as my father lived, and yet she brought me forth every year a child."—Earl of Wiltshire to Cromwell: ELLIS, third series, vol. iii. pp. 22, 3.

180 BURNET, vol. i. p. 69.

181 Thomas Allen to the Earl of Shrewsbury: LODGE'S Illustrations, vol. i. p. 20.

182 Earl of Northumberland to Cromwell: printed by LORD HERBERT and by BURNET.

183 28 Hen. VIII. cap. 7.

184 Since these words were written, I have discovered among the Archives of Simancas what may perhaps be some clue to the mystery, in an epitome of a letter written to Charles V. from London in May, 1536:—-

"His Majesty has letters from England of the 11th of May, with certain news that the paramour of the King of England, who called herself queen, has been thrown into the Tower of London for adultery. The partner of her guilt was an organist of the Privy Chamber, who is in the Tower as well. An officer of the King's wardrobe has been arrested also for the same offence with her, and one of her brothers for having been privy to her offences without revealing them. They say, too, that if the adultery had not been discovered, the King was determined to put her away, having been informed by competent witnesses that she was married and had consummated her marriage nine years before, with the Earl of Northumberland."

185 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 131.

186 Wyatt's Memorials, printed in Singer's CAVENDISH, p. 420.

187 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 132.

188 ELLIS, first series, vol. i. p. 135. "My Lord, in my most humblest wise that my poor heart can think, I do thank your Grace for your kind letter, and for your rich and goodly present; the which I shall never be able to deserve without your great help; of the which I have hitherto had so great plenty, that all the days of my life I am most bound of all creatures, next to the King's Grace, to love and serve your Grace. Of the which I beseech you never to doubt that ever I shall vary from this thought as long as any breath is in my body."

189 CAVENDISH Life of Wolsey, p. 316. Singer's edition.

190 CAVENDISH, pp. 364, 5.

191 Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne, LEGRAND, vol. iii. pp. 368, 378, etc.

192 See HALE'S Criminal Causes from the Records of the Consistory Court of London.

193 Petition of the Commons, infra, p. 191, etc.

194 Reply of the Ordinaries to the petition of the Commons, infra, p. 202, etc.

195 Petition of the Commons. 23 Hen. VIII. c. 9.

196 HALE'S Criminal Causes, p.4.

197 An Act that no person committing murder, felony, or treason should be admitted to his clergy under the degree of sub-deacon.

198 In May, 1528, the evil had become so intolerable, that Wolsey drew the pope's attention to it. Priests, he said, both secular and regular, were in the habit of committing atrocious crimes, for which, if not in orders, they would have been promptly executed; and the laity were scandalised to see such persons not only not degraded, but escaping with complete impunity. Clement something altered the law of degradation in consequence of this representation, but quite inadequately.—RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 96.

199 Thomas Cowper et ejus uxor Margarita pronubæ horribiles, et instigant mulieres ad fornicandum cum quibuscunque laicis, religiosis, fratribus minoribus, et nisi fornicant in domo suâ ipsi diffamabunt nisi voluerint dare eis ad voluntatem eorum; et vir est pronuba uxori, et vult relinquere eam apud fratres minores pro peccatis habendis.—HALE, Criminal Causes, p. 9.

Joanna Cutting communis pronuba at præsertim inter presbyteros fratres monachos et canonicos et etiam inter Thomam Peise et quandam Agnetam, etc.—HALE, Criminal Causes, p. 28.

See also Ibid. pp. 15, 22, 23, 39, etc.

In the first instance the parties accused "made their purgation" and were dismissed. The exquisite corruption of the courts, instead of inviting evidence and sifting accusations, allowed accused persons to support their own pleas of not guilty by producing four witnesses, not to disprove the charges, but to swear that they believed the charges untrue. This was called "purgation."

Clergy, it seems, were sometimes allowed to purge themselves simply on their own word.—HALE, p. 22; and see the Preamble of the 1st of the 23rd of Henry VIII.

200 Complaints of iniquities arising from confession were laid before Parliament as early as 1394.

"Auricularis confessio quæ dicitur tam necessaria ad salvationem hominis, cum fictâ potestate absolutionis exaltat superbiam sacerdotum, et dat illis opportunitatem secretarum sermocinationum quas nos nolumus dicere, quia domini et dominæ attestantur quod pro timore confessorum suorum non audent dicere veritatem; et in tempore confessionis est opportunum tempus procationis id est of wowing et aliarum secretarum conventionum ad peccata mortalia. Ipsi dicunt quod sunt commissarii Dei ad judicandum de omni peccato perdonandum et mundandum quemcunque eis placuerint. Dicunt quod habent claves cœli et inferni et possunt excommunicare et benedicere ligare et solvere in voluntatem eorum; in tantum quod pro bussello vel 12 denariis volunt vendere benedictionem cœli per chartam et clausulam de warrantiâ sigillitâ sigillo communi. Ista conclusio sic est in usu quod non eget probatione aliquâ."—Extract from a Petition presented to Parliament: WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 221.

This remarkable paper ends with the following lines:—

"Plangunt Anglorum gentes crimen Sodomorum

Paulus fert horum sunt idola causa malorum

Surgunt ingrati Giezitæ Simone nati

Nomine prælati hoc defensare parati

Qui reges estis populis quicunque præstis

Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibere potestis."

See also HALE, p. 42, where an abominable instance is mentioned, and a still worse in the Suppression of the Monasteries, pp. 45-50.

201 HALE, p. 12.

202 Ibid. pp. 75, 83; Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 47.

203 Ibid. p. 80.

204 Ibid. p. 83.

205 I have been taunted with my inability to produce more evidence. For the present I will mention two additional instances only, and perhaps I shall not be invited to swell the list further.

1. In the State Paper Office is a report to Cromwell by Adam Bekenshaw, one of his diocesan visitors, in which I find this passage:—

"There be knights and divers gentlemen in the diocese of Chester who do keep concubines and do yearly compound with the officials for a small sum without monition to leave their naughty living."

2. In another report I find also the following:—

"The names of such persons as be permitted to live in adultery and fornication for money:—

"The Vicar of Ledbury.

The Vicar of Brasmyll.

The Vicar of Stow.

The Vicar of Cloune.

The Parson of Wentnor.

The Parson of Rusbury.

The Parson of Plowden.

The Dean of Pountsbury.

The Parson of Stratton.

Sir Matthew of Montgomery.

Sir —— of Lauvange.

Sir John Brayle.

Sir Morris of Clone.

Sir Adam of Clone.

Sir Pierce of Norbury.

Sir Gryffon ap Egmond.

Sir John Orkeley.

Sir John of Mynton.

Sir John Reynolds.

Sir Morris of Knighton, priest.

Hugh Davis.

Cadwallader ap Gern.

Edward ap Meyrick.

With many others of the diocese of Hereford."

The originals of both these documents are in the State Paper Office. There are copies in the Bodleian Library.—MS. Tanner, 105.

206 Skelton gives us a specimen of the popular criticisms:—

"Thus I, Colin Clout,

As I go about,

And wondering as I walk,

I hear the people talk:

Men say for silver and gold

Mitres are bought and sold:

A straw for Goddys curse,

What are they the worse?

"What care the clergy though Gill sweat,

Or Jack of the Noke?

The poor people they yoke

With sumners and citacions,

And excommunications.

About churches and markets

The bishop on his carpets

At home soft doth sit.

This is a fearful fit,

To hear the people jangle.

How wearily they wrangle!

But Doctor Bullatus

"Parum litteratus,

Dominus Doctoratus

At the broad gate-house.

Doctor Daupatus

And Bachelor Bacheleratus,

Drunken as a mouse

At the ale-house,

Taketh his pillion and his cap

At the good ale-tap,

For lack of good wine.

As wise as Robin Swine,

Under a notary's sign,

Was made a divine;

As wise as Waltham's calf,

Must preach in Goddys half;

In the pulpit solemnly;

More meet in a pillory;

For by St. Hilary

He can nothing smatter

Of logic nor school matter.

"Such temporal war and bate

As now is made of late

Against holy church estate,

Or to mountain good quarrels;

The laymen call them barrels

Full of gluttony and of hypocrisy,

That counterfeits and paints

As they were very saints.

"By sweet St. Marke,

This is a wondrous warke,

That the people talk this.

Somewhat there is amiss.

The devil cannot stop their mouths,

But they will talk of such uncouths

All that ever they ken

Against spiritual men."

I am unable to quote more than a few lines from ROY'S Satire. At the close of a long paragraph of details an advocate of the clergy ventures to say that the bad among them are a minority. His friend answers:—

"Make the company great or small,

Among a thousand find thou shall

Scant one chaste of body or mind."

207 Answer of the Bishops to the Commons' Petition: Rolls House MS.

208 Joanna Leman notatur officio quod non venit ad ecclesiam parochialem; et dicit se nolle accipere panem benedictum a manibus rectoris; et vocavit eum "horsyn preste."—HALE, p. 99.

209 HALE, p. 63.

210 Ibid. p. 98.

211 Ibid. p. 38.

212 Ibid. p. 67.

213 Ibid. p. 100.

214 CAVENDISH, Life of Wolsey, p. 251.

215 HALL, p. 764.

216 Ibid. p. 764.

217 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 361.

218 6 Hen. VIII. cap. 16.

219 The session lasted six weeks only, and several of the subjects of the petition were disposed of in the course of it, as we shall see.

220 The MS. from which I have transcribed this copy is itself imperfect, as will be seen in the "reply of the Bishops," which supplies several omitted articles. See p. 137, et seq. It is in the Rolls House.

221 The penny, as I have shown, equalled, in terms of a poor man's necessities, a shilling. See chap. i.

222 See instance's in HALE: p, 62, Omnium Sanctorum in muro.—M. Gulielmus Edward curatus notatur officio quod recusat ministrare sacramenta ecelesiastica ægrotantibus nisi prius habitis pecuniis pro suo labore: p. 64, St. Mary Magdalen.—Curatus notatur officio prbpter quod recusavit solemnizare matrrimonium quousque habet pro hujusmodi solemnizatione, 3s. 8d.; and see pp. 52, 75.

223 I give many instances of this practice in my sixth chapter. It was a direct breach of the statute of Henry IV., which insists on all examinations for heresy being conducted in open court. "The diocesan and his commissaries," says that act, "shall openly and judicially proceed against persons arrested."—2 Hen. IV. c. 15.

224 Again breaking the statute of Hen. IV., which limited the period of imprisonment previous to public trial to three months.—2 Hen. IV. c. 15.

225 To be disposed of at Smithfield. Abjuration was allowed once. For a second offence there was no forgiveness.

226 Petition of the Commons. Rolls House MS.

227 See STRYPE, Eccles. Memorials, vol. i. p. 191-2,—who is very eloquent in his outcries upon his subject.

228 Answer of the Bishops, p. 204, etc.

229 Explanations are not easy; but the following passage may suggest the meaning of the House of Commons:—"The holy Father Prior of Maiden Bradley hath but six children, and but one daughter married yet of the goods of the monastery; trusting shortly to marry the rest."—Dr. Leyton to Cromwell: Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 58.

230 Reply of the Bishops, infra.

231 CAVENDISH, Life of Wolsey, p. 390. MORE'S Life of More, p. 109.

232 Populus diu oblatrans. Fox to Wolsey. STRYPE, Eccl. Mem. vol. i. Appendix, p. 27.

233 RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 119.

234 The answer of the Ordinaries to the supplication of the worshipful the Commons of the Lower House of Parliament offered to our Sovereign Lord the King's most noble Grace.—Rolls House MS.

235 The terms of the several articles of complaint are repeated verbally from the petition. I condense them to spare recapitulation.

236 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15; 2 Hen. V. cap. 7.

237 An Act that no person shall be cited out of the diocese in which he dwells, except in certain cases. It received the Royal assent two years later. See 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 9.

238 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 5. An Act concerning fines and sums of money to be taken by the ministers of bishops and other ordinaries of holy church for the probate of testaments.

239 HALE, Precedents, p. 86.

240 Ibid.

241 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 6. An Act concerning the taking of mortuaries, or demanding, receiving, or claiming the same.

In Scotland the usual mortuary was, a cow and the uppermost cloth or counterpane on the bed in which the death took place. A bishop reprimanding a suspected clergyman for his leaning toward the Reformation, said to him:—

"My joy, Dean Thomas, I am informed that ye preach the epistle and gospel every Sunday to your parishioners, and that ye take not the cow nor the upmost cloth from your parishioners; which thing is very prejudicial to the churchmen. And therefore, Dean Thomas, I would ye took your cow and upmost cloth, or else it is too much to preach every Sunday, for in so doing ye may make the people think we should preach likewise."—CALDERWOOD, vol. i. p. 126.

The bishop had to burn Dean Thomas at last, being unable to work conviction into him in these matters.

242 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13. An Act that no spiritual person shall take farms; or buy and sell for lucre and profit; or keep tan-houses or breweries. And for pluralities of benefices and for residence.

243 HALL, p. 767.

244 Ibid. 766

245 Ibid. 767.

246 Ibid. 766.

247 Ibid. 768.

248 So reluctant was he, that at one time he had resolved, rather than compromise the unity of Christendom, to give way. When the disposition of the court of Rome was no longer doubtful, "his difficultatibus permotus, cum in hoc statu res essent, dixerunt qui ejus verba exceperunt, post profundam secum de universo negotio deliberationem et mentis agitationem, tandem in hæc verba prorupisse, se primum tentâsse illud divortium persuasum ecclesiam Romanam hoc idem probaturum—quod si ita ilia abhorreret ab illâ sententiâ ut nullo modo permittendum censeret se nolle cum eâ contendere neque amplius in illo negotio progredi."

Pole, on whose authority we receive these words, says that they were heard with almost unanimous satisfaction at the council board. The moment of hesitation was, it is almost certain, at the crisis which preceded or attended Wolsey's fall. It endured but for three days, and was dispelled by the influence of Cromwell, who tempted both the king and parliament into their fatal revolt.—POLI Apologia ad Carolum Quintum.

249 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 446. The censures were threatened in the first brief, but the menace was withdrawn under the impression that it was not needed.

250 Ibid. The second brief is dated March 7, and declares that the king, if he proceeds, shall incur ipso facto the greater excommunication; that the kingdom will fall under an interdict.

251 Cranmer was born in 1489, and was thus forty years old when he first emerged into eminence.

252 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 226.

253 Je croy qu'il ne feist en sa vie ceremonie qui luy touchast si prés du cœur, ne dont je pense qu'il luy doive advenir moins du bien. Car aucunes fois qu'il pensoit qu'on ne le regardast, il faisoit de si grands soupirs que pour pesante que fust sa chappe, il la faisoit bransler à bon escient.—Lettre de M. de Gramont, Evêque de Tarbès. LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 386.

254 ELLIS, Third Series, vol. ii. p. 98. "In the letters showed us by M. de Buclans from the emperor, of the which mention was made in ciphers, it was written in terms that the French king would offer unto your Grace the papalite of France vel Patriarchate, for the French men would no more obey the Church of Rome."—Lee to Wolsey.

255 A ce qu'il m'en a declaré des fois plus de trois en secret, il seroit content que le dit mariage fust ja faict, ou par dispense du Legat d'Angleterre ou autrement; mais que ce ne fust par son autorité, in aussi diminuant sa puissance, quant aux dispenses, et limitation de droict divin.—Dechiffrement de Lettres de M. de Tarbès.—LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 408.

256 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 408.

257 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 230.

258 The Bishop of Tarbès to the King of France. LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 401.

259 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 234.

260 Ibid. p. 235.

261 We demand a service of you which it is your duty to concede; and your first thought is lest you should offend the emperor. We do not blame him. That in such a matter he should be influenced by natural affection is intelligible and laudable. But for that very reason we decline to submit to so partial a judgment.—Henry VIII. to the Pope: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 431.

262 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 394.

263 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 317.

264 For Croke's Mission, see BURNET, vol. i. p. 144 e.

265 State Papers, vol. vii. p. 241.

266 Friar Pallavicino to the Bishop of Bath. Rolls House MS.

267 Croke and Omnibow to the King. Rolls House MS.

268 Generalis magister nostri ordinis mandavit omnibus suæ religionis professoribus, ut nullus audeat de auctoritate Pontificis quicquam loqui. Denique Orator Cæsareus in talia verba prorupit, quibus facile cognovi ut me a Pontifice vocari studeat et tunc timendum esset saluti meæ. Father Omnibow to Henry VIII. Rolls House MS.

269 BURNET'S Collect. p. 50. Burnet labours to prove that on Henry's side there was no bribery, and that the emperor was the only offender; an examination of many MS. letters from Croke and other agents in Italy leads me to believe that, although the emperor only had recourse to intimidation, because he alone was able to practise it, the bribery was equally shared between both parties.

270 LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 458. The Grand Master to the King of France:—De l'autre part, adventure il n'est moins a craindre, que le Roy d'Angleterre, irrité de trop longues dissimulations, trouvast moyen de parvenir a ses intentions du consentement de l'Empereur, et que par l'advenement d'un tiers se fissent ami, Herode et Pilate.

271 Ibid. vol. iii. p. 467, etc.

272 Letter from the King of France to the President of the Parliament of Paris. Rolls House MS.

273 Letter from Reginald Pole to Henry VIII. Rolls House MS.

274 Pole to Henry VIII. Rolls House MS.

275 BURNET, Collectanea, p. 429.

276 State Papers, vol. i. p. 377.

277 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 436; State Papers, vol. i. p. 378.

278 It is not good to stir a hornet's nest.

279 BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 431.

280 Ibid. p. 48.

281 Preface to LATIMER'S Sermons. Parker Society's edition, p. 3.

282 "King Harry loved a man," was an English proverb to the close of the century. See SIR ROBERT NAUNTON'S Fragmenta Regalia, London, 1641, p. 14.

283 Sir George Throgmorton, who distinguished himself by his opposition to the Reformation in the House of Commons.

284 BURNET'S Collect, p. 429.

285 A Glasse of Truth.

286 Ibid. p. 144.

287 35 Ed. I.; 25 Ed. III. stat. 4; stat. 5, cap. 22; 27 Ed. III. stat. 1; 13 Ric. II. stat. 2, cap. 2; 16 Ric. II. cap. 5; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.

288 CAVENDISH, p. 276.

Gardiner has left some noticeable remarks on this subject.

"Whether," he says, "a king may command against a common law or an act of parliament, there is never a judge or other man in the realm ought to know more by experience of that the laws have said than I.

"First, my Lord Cardinal, that obtained his legacy by our late Sovereign Lord's requirements at Rome, yet, because it was against the laws of the realm, the judges concluded the offence of Premunire, which matter I bare away, and took it for a law of the realm, because the lawyers said so, but my reason digested it not. The lawyers, for confirmation of their doings, brought in the case of Lord Tiptoft. An earl he was, and learned in the civil laws, who being chancellor, because in execution of the king's commandment he offended the laws of the realm, suffered on Tower Hill. They brought in examples of many judges that had fines set on their heads in like cases for transgression of laws by the king's commandment, and this I learned in that case.

"Since that time being of the council, when many proclamations were devised against the carriers out of corn, when it came to punish the offender, the judges would answer it might not be by the law, because the Act of Parliament gave liberty, wheat being under a price. Whereupon at last followed the Act of Proclamations, in the passing whereof were many large words spoken."

After mentioning other cases, he goes on:—

"I reasoned once in the parliament house, where there was free speech without danger, and the Lord Audely, to satisfy me, because I was in some secret estimation, as he knew, 'Thou art a good fellow, Bishop,' quoth he; 'look at the Act of Supremacy, and there the king's doings be restrained to spiritual jurisdiction; and in another act no spiritual law shall have place contrary to a common law, or an act of parliament. And this were not,' quoth he, 'you bishops would enter in with the king, and by means of his supremacy order the laws as ye listed. But we will provide,' quoth he, 'that the premunire shall never go off your heads.' This I bare away then, and held my peace."—Gardiner to the Protector Somerset: MS. Harleian, 417.

289 13 Ric. II. stat. 2, cap. 2. Et si le Roi envoie par lettre on en autre maniere a la Courte du Rome al excitacion dascune person, parount que la contrarie de cest estatut soit fait touchant ascune dignité de Sainte Eglise, si celuy qui fait tiel excitacion soit Prelate de Sainte Eglise, paie au Roy le value de ses temporalitees dun an. The petition of parliament which occasioned the statute is even more emphatic: Perveuz tout foitz que par nulle traite ou composition a faire entre le Seint Pere le Pape et notre Seigneur le Roy que riens soit fait a contraire en prejudice de cest Estatute a faire. Et si ascune Seigneur Espirituel ou Temporel ou ascune persone quiconque de qu'elle condition q'il soit, enforme, ensence ou excite le Roi ou ses heirs, l'anientiser, adnuller ou repeller cest Estatut a faire, et de ceo soit atteint par due proces du loy que le Seigneur Espirituel eit la peyne sus dite, etc.—Rolls of Parliament, Ric. II. 13.

290 Even further, as chancellor the particular duty had been assigned to him of watching over the observance of the act.

Et le chancellor que pur le temps serra a quelle heure que pleint a luy ou a conseill le Roy soit fait d'ascunes des articles sus ditz par ascune persone que pleindre soy voudra granta briefs sur le cas ou commissions a faire au covenables persones, d'oier et terminer les ditz articles sur peyne de perdre son office et jamais estre mys en office le Roy et perdre mille livres a lever a l'oeps le Roy si de ce soit atteint par du proces.—Rolls of Parliament, Ric. II. 13.

291 BURNET, vol. iii. p. 77. See a summary of the acts of this Convocation in a sermon of Latimer's preached before the two Houses in 1536. LATIMER'S Sermons, p. 45.

292 The king, considering what good might come of reading of the New Testament and following the same; and what evil might come of the reading of the same if it were evil translated, and not followed; came into the Star Chamber the five-and-twentieth day of May; and then communed with his council and the prelates concerning the cause. And after long debating, it was alleged that the translations of Tyndal and Joy were not truly translated, and also that in them were prologues and prefaces that sounded unto heresy, and railed against the bishops uncharitably. Wherefore all such books were prohibited, and commandment given by the king to the bishops, that they, calling to them the best learned men of the universities, should cause a new translation to be made, so that the people should not be ignorant of the law of God.—HALL, p. 771. And see WARHAM'S Register for the years 1529-1531. MS. Lambeth.

293 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 15.

294 BURNET, vol. iii. p. 78.

295 State Papers, vol. vii. 457.

296 Memoranda relating to the Clergy: Rolls House MS.

297 BURNET, vol. iii. p. 80.

298 The King's Highness, having always tender eyes with mercy and pity and compassion towards his spiritual subjects, minding of his high goodness and great benignity so always to impart the same unto them, as justice being duly administered, all rigour be excluded; and the great benevolent minds of his said subjects [having been] largely and many times approved towards his Highness, and specially in their Convocation and Synod now presently being in the Chapter House of Westminster, his Highness, of his said benignity and high liberality, in consideration that the said Convocation has given and granted unto him a subsidy of one hundred thousand pounds, is content to grant his general pardon to the clergy and the province of Canterbury, for all offences against the statute and premunire.—22 Hen. VIII. cap. 15.

299 BURNET, vol. 1. p. 185.

300 An instance is reported in the Chronicle of the Grey Friars ten years previously. The punishment was the same as that which was statutably enacted in the case of Rouse.

301 HALL, p. 781.

302 Most shocking when the wrong persons were made the victims; and because clerical officials were altogether incapable of detecting the right persons, the memory of the practice has become abhorrent to all just men. I suppose, however, that, if the right persons could have been detected, even the stake itself would not have been too tremendous a penalty for the destroying of human souls.

303 22 Hen. VIII. cap. 10.

304 See a very curious pamphlet on this subject, by SIR FRANCIS PALGRAVE. It is called The Confessions of Richard Bishop, Robert Seymour, and Sir Edward Neville, before the Privy Council, touching Prophecie, Necromancy, and Treasure-trove.

305 Miscellaneous Depositions on the State Of the Country: Rolls House MS.

306 See the Preamble of the Bill against conjurations, witchcraft, sorceries, and enchantments.—33 Hen. VIII. cap. 8.

Also "the Bill touching Prophecies upon Arms and Badges."—33 Hen. VIII. cap. 14.

A similar edict expelled the gipsies from Germany. At the Diet of Spires, June 10, 1544.

Statutum est ne vagabundum hominum genus quos vulgo Saracenos vocant per Germaniam oberrare sinatur usu enim compertum est eos exploratores et proditores esse.—State Papers, vol. ix. p. 705.

307 ELLIS, first series, vol. ii. p. 101.

308 Bulla pro Johanne Scot, qui sine cibo et potu per centum et sex dies vixerat.-RYMER, vol. vi. part 2, p. 176.

309 BUCHANAN, History of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 156.

310 Letter of Archbishop Cranmer.—ELLIS, second series, vol. ii. p. 314.

311 Statutes of the Realm. 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

312 Extracts from a Narrative containing an Account of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS.

313 Statutes of the Realm.

314 Rolls House MS.

315 Ibid.

316 Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 19.

317 Ibid.

318 Proceedings connected with Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS.

319 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

320 Ibid.

321 Ibid.

322 Cranmer's Letter. ELLIS, third series, vol. iii. p. 315.

323 More to Cromwell: BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 350.

324 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

325 Confessions of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS. Sir Thomas More gave her a double ducat to pray for him and his. BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 352. Moryson, in his Apomaxis, declares that she had a regular understanding with the confessors at the Priory. When penitents came to confess, they were detained while a priest conveyed what they had acknowledged to the Nun; and when afterwards they were admitted to her presence, she amazed them with repeating their own confessions.

326 The said Elizabeth subtilly and craftily conceiving the opinion and mind of the said Edward Bocking, willing to please him, revealed and showed unto the said Edward that God was highly displeased with our said sovereign lord the king for this matter; and in case he desisted not from his proceeding in the said divorce and separation, but pursued the same and married again, that then within one month after such marriage, he should no longer be king of this realm; and in the reputation of Almighty God he should not be a king one day nor one hour, and that he should die a villain's death. Saying further, that there was a root with three branches, and till they were plucked up it should never be merry in England: interpreting the root to be the late lord cardinal, and the first branch to be the king our sovereign lord, the second the Duke of Norfolk, and the third the Duke of Suffolk.—25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.

327 Revelations of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS. In the epitome of the book of her Revelations it is stated that there was a story in it "of an angel that appeared, and bade the Nun go unto the king, that infidel prince of England, and say that I command him to amend his life, and that he leave three things which he loveth and pondereth upon, i.e., that he take none of the pope's right nor patrimony from him; the second that he destroy all these new folks of opinion and the works of their new learning; the third, that if he married and took Anne to wife, the vengeance of God should plague him; and as she sayth she shewed this unto the king."—Paper on the Nun of Kent: MS. Cotton, Cleopatra, E 4.

328 ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. p. 137. Warham had promised to marry Henry to Anne Boleyn. The Nun frightened him into a refusal by a pretended message from an angel.—MS. ibid.

329 The Nun hath practised with two of the pope's ambassadors within this realm, and hath sent to the pope that if he did not do his duty in reformation of kings, God would destroy him at a certain day which he had appointed. By reason whereof it is supposed that the pope hath showed himself so double and so deceivable to the King's Grace in his great cause of marriage as he hath done, contrary to all truth, justice, and equity. As likewise the late cardinal of England, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, being very well-minded to further and set at an end the marriage which the King's Grace now enjoyeth, according to their spiritual duty, were prevented by the false revelations of the said Nun. And that the said Bishop of Canterbury was so minded may be proved by divers which knew then his towardness.—Narrative of the Proceedings of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS.

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

331 HALL, p. 780.

332 RYMER, vol. vi. p. 160. We are left to collateral evidence to fix the place of this petition, the official transcriber having contented himself with the substance, and omitted the date. The original, as appears from the pope's reply (LORD HERBERT, p. 145), bore the date of July 13; and unless a mistake was made in transcribing the papal brief, this was July, 1530. I have ventured to assume a mistake, and to place the petition in the following year, because the judgment of the universities, to which it refers, was not completed till the winter of 1530; they were not read in parliament till March 30, 1531; and it seems unlikely that a petition of so great moment would have been presented on an incomplete case, or before the additional support of the House of Commons had been secured. I am far from satisfied, however, that I am right in making the change. The petition must have been drawn up (though it need not have been presented) in 1530; since it bears the signature of Wolsey, who died in the November of that year.

333 Mademoiselle de Boleyn est venue; et l'a le Roy logée en fort beau logis; et qu'il a faict bien accoustrer tout auprés du sien. Et luy est la cour faicte ordinairement tous les jours plus grosse que de long temps elle ne fut faicte a la Royne. Je crois bien qu'on veult accoutumer par les petie ce peuple à l'endurer, afin que quand ivendra à donner les grands coups, il ne les trouve si estrange. Toutefois il demeure tous jours endurcy, et croy bien qu'il feroit plus qu'il ne faict si plus il avoit de puissance; mais grand ordre se donne par tout.—Bishop of Bayonne to the Grand Master: LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 231.

334 HALL, p. 781.

335 It seems to have been his favourite place of retirement. The gardens and fishponds were peculiarly elaborate and beautiful.—Sir John Russell to Cromwell: MS. State Paper Office.