History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 57

Anne Boleyn's friends were not working alone. There was not a person at court whom Wolsey's haughtiness and tyranny had not offended; no one in the king's council in whom his continual intrigues had not raised serious suspicions. He had (they said) betrayed in France the cause of England; kept up in time of peace and war secret intelligence with Madam, mother of Francis I; received great presents from her;[1008] oppressed the nation, and trodden under foot the laws of the kingdom. The people called him _Frenchman_ and _traitor_, and all England seemed to vie in throwing burning brands at the superb edifice which the pride of this prelate had so laboriously erected.[1009]

[1008] Du Bellay's Letters, Le Grand, Preuves, p. 374.

[1009] Novis etiam furoris et insaniae facibus incenderunt. (Sanders, p. 49.) They burned with new brands of rage and madness.

Wolsey was too clearsighted not to discern the signs of his approaching fall. "Both the rising and the setting sun (for thus an historian calls Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon) frowned upon him,"[1010] and the sky, growing darker around him, gave token of the storm that was to overwhelm him. If the _cause_ failed, Wolsey incurred the vengeance of the king; if it succeeded, he would be delivered up to the vengeance of the Boleyns, without speaking of Catherine's, the emperor's and the pope's. Happy Campeggio! thought the cardinal, he has nothing to fear. If Henry's favour is withdrawn from him, Charles and Clement will make him compensation. But Wolsey lost every thing when he lost the king's good graces. Detested by his fellow-citizens, despised and hated by all Europe, he saw to whatever side he turned nothing but the just reward of his avarice and falseness. He strove in vain, as on other occasions, to lean on the amba.s.sador of France; Du Bellay was solicited on the other side. "I am exposed here to such a heavy and continual fire that I am half dead,"

exclaimed the bishop of Bayonne;[1011] and the cardinal met with an unusual reserve in his former confidant.

[1010] Fuller, p. 176.

[1011] Du Bellay to Montmorency, 15th June. Le Grand, Preuves, p. 324.

Yet the crisis approached. Like a skilful but affrighted pilot, Wolsey cast his eyes around him to discover a port in which he could take refuge. He could find none but his see of York. He therefore began once more to complain of the fatigues of power, of the weariness of the diplomatic career, and to extol the sweetness of an episcopal life. On a sudden he felt a great interest about the flock of whom he had never thought before. Those around him shook their heads, well knowing that such a retreat would be to Wolsey the bitterest of disgraces. One single idea supported him; if he fell, it would be because he had clung more to the pope than to the king: he would be the martyr of his faith.--What a faith, what a martyr!

CHAPTER X.

Anne Boleyn at Hever--She Reads the Obedience of a Christian Man--is recalled to Court--Miss Gainsford and George Zouch--Tyndale's Book converts Zouch--Zouch in the Chapel-Royal--The Book seized--Anne applies to Henry--The King reads the Book--Pretended Influence of the Book on Henry--The Court at Woodstock--The Park and its Goblins--Henry's Esteem for Anne.

[Sidenote: ANNE BOLEYN AT HEVER.]

While these things were taking place Anne was living at Hever Castle in retirement and sadness. Scruples from time to time still alarmed her conscience. It is true, the king represented to her unceasingly that his salvation and the safety of his people demanded the dissolution of a union condemned by the divine law, and that what he solicited several popes had granted. Had not Alexander VI annulled, after ten years, the marriage of Ladislaus and Beatrice of Naples? Had not Louis XII, the father of his people, been divorced from Joan of France? Nothing was more common, he said, than to see the divorce of a prince authorized by a pope; the security of the state must be provided for before every thing else. Carried away by these arguments and dazzled by the splendour of a throne, Anne Boleyn consented to usurp at Henry's side the rank belonging to another. Yet, if she was imprudent and ambitious, she was feeling and generous, and the misfortunes of a queen whom she respected soon made her reject with terror the idea of taking her place. The fertile pastures of Kent and the gothic halls of Hever Castle were by turns the witnesses of the mental conflicts this young lady experienced. The fear she entertained of seeing the queen again, and the idea that the two cardinals, her enemies, were plotting her ruin, made her adopt the resolution of not returning to court, and she shut herself up in her solitary chamber.

[Sidenote: ANNE RECALLED TO COURT.]

Anne had neither the deep piety of a Bilney, nor the somewhat vague and mystic spirituality observable in Margaret of Valois; it was not feeling which prevailed in her religion, it was knowledge, and a horror of superst.i.tion and pharisaism. Her mind required light and activity, and at that time she sought in reading the consolations so necessary to her position. One day she opened one of the books prohibited in England, which a friend of the Reformation had given her: _The Obedience of a Christian Man_. Its author was William Tyndale, that invisible man whom Wolsey's agents were hunting for in Brabant and Germany, and this was a recommendation to Anne. "If thou believe the promises," she read, "then G.o.d's truth justifieth thee; that is, forgiveth thy sins and sealeth thee with his Holy Spirit. If thou have true faith, so seest thou the exceeding and infinite love and mercy which G.o.d hath shown thee freely in Christ: then must thou needs love again: and love cannot but compel thee to work. If when tyrants oppose thee thou have power to confess, then art thou sure that thou art safe.[1012] If thou be fallen from the way of truth, come thereto again and thou art safe. Yea, Christ shall save thee, and the angels of heaven shall rejoice at thy coming."[1013] These words did not change Anne's heart, but she marked with her nail, as was her custom,[1014] other pa.s.sages which struck her more, and which she desired to point out to the king if, as she hoped, she was ever to meet him again. She believed that the truth was there, and took a lively interest in those whom Wolsey, Henry, and the pope were at that time persecuting.

[1012] Tyndale and Fryth's Works, vol. i. 295.

[1013] Tyndale's Works, vol. i. p. 300.

[1014] Wyatt's Memoirs, p. 438.

Anne was soon dragged from these pious lessons, and launched into the midst of a world full of dangers. Henry, convinced that he had nothing to expect henceforward from Campeggio, neglected those proprieties which he had hitherto observed, and immediately after the adjournment ordered Anne Boleyn to return to court; he restored her to the place she had formerly occupied, and even surrounded her with increased splendour. Every one saw that Anne, in the king's mind, was queen of England; and a powerful party was formed around her, which, proposed to accomplish the definitive ruin of the cardinal.

[Sidenote: MISS GAINSFORD AND GEORGE ZOUCH.]

After her return to court, Anne read much less frequently _The Obedience of a Christian Man_ and the _Testament of Jesus Christ_.

Henry's homage, her friends' intrigues, and the whirl of festivities, bade fair to stifle the thoughts which solitude had aroused in her heart. One day having left Tyndale's book in a window, Miss Gainsford, a fair young gentlewoman[1015] attached to her person, took it up and read it. A gentleman of handsome mien, cheerful temper, and extreme mildness, named George Zouch, also belonging to Anne's household, and betrothed to Miss Gainsford, profiting by the liberty his position gave him, indulged sometimes in "love tricks."[1016] On one occasion when George desired to have a little talk with her, he was annoyed to find her absorbed by a book of whose contents he knew nothing; and taking advantage of a moment when the young lady had turned away her head, he laughingly s.n.a.t.c.hed it from her. Miss Gainsford ran after Zouch to recover her book; but just at that moment she heard her mistress calling her, and she left George, threatening him with her finger.

[1015] Strype, i. p. 171.

[1016] Ibid. p. 172.

As she did not return immediately, George withdrew to his room, and opened the volume; it was the _Obedience of a Christian Man_. He glanced over a few lines, then a few pages, and at last read the book through more than once. He seemed to hear the voice of G.o.d. "I feel the Spirit of G.o.d," he said, "speaking in my heart as he has spoken in the heart of him who wrote the book."[1017] The words which had only made a temporary impression on the preoccupied mind of Anne Boleyn, penetrated to the heart of her equerry and converted him. Miss Gainsford, fearing that Anne would ask for her book, entreated George to restore it to her; but he positively refused, and even the young lady's tears failed to make him give up a volume in which he had found the life of his soul. Becoming more serious, he no longer jested as before; and when Miss Gainsford peremptorily demanded the book, he was, says the chronicler, "ready to weep himself."

[1017] Ibid.

Zouch, finding in this volume an edification which empty forms and ceremonies could not give, used to carry it with him to the king's chapel. Dr. Sampson, the dean, generally officiated; and while the choir chanted the service, George would be absorbed in his book, where he read: "If when thou seest the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, thou believest in this promise of Christ: _This is my body that is broken for you_, and if thou have this promise fast in thine heart, thou art saved and justified thereby; thou eatest his body and drinkest his blood. If not, so helpeth it thee not, though thou hearest a thousand ma.s.ses in a day: no more than it should help thee in a dead thirst to behold a bush at a tavern door, if thou knewest not thereby that there was wine within to be sold."[1018] The young man dwelt upon these words: by faith he ate the body and drank the blood of the Son of G.o.d. This was what was pa.s.sing in the palaces of Henry VIII; there were saints in the household of Caesar.

[1018] Tyndale and Fryth's Works, vol. i. p. 286.

[Sidenote: ANNE BOLEYN BEFORE THE KING.]

Wolsey, desirous of removing from the court everything that might favour the Reformation, had recommended extreme vigilance to Dr.

Sampson so as to prevent the circulation of the innovating books.

Accordingly, one day when George was in the chapel absorbed in his book, the dean, who, even while officiating, had not lost sight of the young man, called him to him after the service, and rudely taking the book from his hands, demanded: "What is your name, and in whose service are you?" Zouch having replied, the dean withdrew with a very angry look, and carried his prey to the cardinal.

When Miss Gainsford heard of this mishap, her grief was extreme; she trembled at the thought that the _Obedience of a Christian Man_ was in Wolsey's hands. Not long after this, Anne having asked for her book, the young lady fell on her knees, confessed all, and begged to be forgiven.[1019] Anne uttered not a word of reproach; her quick mind saw immediately the advantage she might derive from this affair.

"Well," said she, "it shall be the dearest book to them that ever the dean or cardinal took away."

[1019] She on her knees told it all. Strype, vol. i. p. 172.

"The n.o.ble lady," as the chronicler styles her, immediately demanded an interview of the king, and on reaching his presence she fell at his feet,[1020] and begged his a.s.sistance. "What is the matter, Anne,"

said the astonished monarch. She told him what had happened, and Henry promised that the book should not remain in Wolsey's hands.

[1020] Upon her knees she desireth the king's help for her book. Ibid.

[Sidenote: THE KING READS TYNDALE'S BOOK.]

Anne had scarcely quitted the royal apartments when the cardinal arrived with the famous volume, with the intention of complaining to Henry of certain pa.s.sages which he knew could not fail to irritate him, and to take advantage of it even to attack Anne, if the king should be offended.[1021] Henry's icy reception closed his mouth; the king confined himself to taking the book, and bowing out the cardinal.

This was precisely what Anne had hoped for. She begged the king to read the book, which he promised to do.

[1021] Wyatt's Memoirs, p. 411.

And Henry accordingly shut himself up in his closet, and read the _Obedience of a Christian Man_. There were few works better calculated to enlighten him, and none, after the Bible, that has had more influence upon the Reformation in England. Tyndale treated of _obedience_, "the essential principle," as he terms it, "of every political or religious community." He declaimed against the unlawful power of the popes, who usurped the lawful authority of Christ and of his Word. He professed political-doctrines too favourable doubtless to absolute power, but calculated to show that the reformers were not, as had been a.s.serted, instigators of rebellion. Henry read as follows:--

"The king is in the room of G.o.d in this world. He that resisteth the king, resisteth G.o.d; he that judgeth the king, judgeth G.o.d. He is the minister of G.o.d to defend thee from a thousand inconveniences; though he be the greatest tyrant in the world, yet is he unto thee a great benefit of G.o.d; for it is better to pay the tenth than to lose all, and to suffer wrong of one man than of every man."[1022]

[1022] Tyndale's Works, edited by Russel, vol. i. p. 212

These are indeed strange doctrines for _rebels_ to hold, thought the king; and he continued:--

"Let kings, if they had lever [rather] be Christians in deed than so to be called, give themselves altogether to the wealth [well-being] of their realms after the ensample of Jesus Christ; remembering that the people are G.o.d's, and not theirs; yea, are Christ's inheritance, bought with his blood. The most despised person in his realm (if he is a Christian) is equal with him in the kingdom of G.o.d and of Christ.

Let the king put off all pride, and become a brother to the poorest of his subjects."[1023]

[1023] Ibid. p. 233.

[Sidenote: TYNDALE'S DOCTRINE ON KINGS.]

It is probable that these words were less satisfactory to the king. He kept on reading:--

"Emperors and kings are nothing now-a-days, but even hangmen unto the pope and bishops, to kill whomsoever they condemn, as Pilate was unto the scribes and pharisees and high bishops to hang Christ."[1024]

[1024] Ibid. p. 274.