The Reign of Henry the Eighth Part 33

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

[350] 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

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

[352] _M. de la Pomeroy to Cardinal Tournon._

"London, March 23, 1531-2.

"My Lord,--I sent two letters to your lords.h.i.+p on the 20th of this month.

Since that day Parliament has been prorogued, and will not meet again till after Easter.

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

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

[353] STRYPE, _Eccles. Mem._, vol. i. part 2, p. 158.

[354] Ibid.

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

[356] 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

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

[358] STRYPE, _Eccles. Mem._, vol. i. p. 199, etc.

[359] 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

[360] STOW, p. 562.

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

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

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

[363] BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 435.

[364] Note of the Revelations of Elizabeth Barton: _Rolls House MS._

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

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

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

[367] Deposition of Robert Legate concerning the Language of the Monks of Furness: _Rolls House MS._

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

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

[370] Ibid. p. 251.

[371] Lyst to Cromwell. Ibid. p. 255. STRYPE, _Eccles. Memor._, vol. i.

Appendix, No. 47.

[372] STOW'S _Annals_, p. 562. This expression pa.s.sed into a proverb, although the words were first spoken by a poor friar; they were the last which the good Sir Humfrey Gilbert was heard to utter before his s.h.i.+p went down.

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

They have blinded his Grace."

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

[375] The wishes of the French Court had been expressed emphatically to Clement in the preceding January. Original copies of the two following letters are in the Bibliotheque Imperial at Paris:--

_The Cardinal of Lorraine to Cardinal ---- at Rome._

"Paris, Jan. 8, 1531-2.

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

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

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

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

"From Abbeville."

_Francis the First to Pope Clement the Seventh._

"Paris, Jan. 10, 1531-2.

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

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

"Seeing, nevertheless, Most Holy Father, that the affair in question is still far from settlement, and knowing our good brother to be displeased and dissatisfied, we fear that some great scandal and inconvenience may arise at last which may cause the diminution of your Holiness's authority.

There is no longer that ready obedience to the Holy See in England which was offered to your predecessors; and yet your Holiness persists in citing my good brother the King of England to plead his cause before you in Rome.

Surely it is not without cause that he calls such treatment of him unreasonable. We have ourselves examined into the law in this matter, and we are a.s.sured that your Holiness's claim is unjust and contrary to the privilege of kings. For a sovereign to leave his realm and plead as a suitor in Rome, is a thing wholly impossible,[377] and therefore, Holy Father, we have thought good to address you once more in this matter. Bear with us, we entreat you. Consider our words, and recall to your memory what by letter and through our ministers we have urged upon you. Look promptly to our brother's matter, and so act that your Holiness may be seen to value and esteem our friends.h.i.+p. What you do for him, or what you do against him, we shall take it as done to ourselves.

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

[376] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 428. LEGRAND, vol. iii.