History of England from the fall of Wolsey to the death of Elizabeth Volume III Part 35

[2] Richard Ebbes to Cromwell: _MS. Cotton. Vespasian_, B 7, fol. 87.

[3] "There be here both Englishmen and Irishmen many that doth daily invent slander to the realm of England, with as many naughty Popish practices as they can and may do, and specially Irishmen."--Ibid.

[4] "L'Empereur a deux fois qu'il avoit parle audit Evesque luy avoit faict un discours long et plein de grande pa.s.sion de la cruelle guerre qu'il entendoit faire contre le dit Roy d'Angleterre, au cas qu'il ne reprinst et rest.i.tuast en ses honneurs la Reyne Catherine sa tante, et luy avoit declare les moyens qu'il avoit executer vivement icelle guerre, et princ.i.p.alement au moyen de la bonne intelligence ce qu'il disoit avoir avec le Roy d'Ecosse." Martin du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 110.

[5] Reginald Pole states that the issue was only prevented by the news of Queen Catherine's death.--Pole to Prioli: _Epistles_, Vol. I. p. 442.

[6] Sleidan.

[7] Du Bellay's _Memoirs_, p. 135.

[8] "The Turks do not compel others to adopt their belief. He who does not attack their religion may profess among them what religion he will; he is safe. But where this pestilent seed is sown, those who do not accept, and those who openly oppose, are in equal peril."--Reginald Pole: _De Unitate Ecclesiae_. For the arch-enemy of England even the name of heretic was too good. "They err," says the same writer elsewhere, "who call the King of England heretic or schismatic. He has no claims to name so honourable. The heretic and schismatic acknowledge the power and providence of G.o.d. He takes G.o.d utterly away."--_Apology to Charles the Fifth._

[9] "Sire, je pense que vous avez entendu du supplication que le Roy fit, estant la present luy meme allant en ordre apres les reliques me teste portant ung torche en son mayn avecques ses filz, ses evesques, et cardinaulz devant luy, et les ducs, contes, seigneurs, seneschals, esquieres, et aultres n.o.bles gens apres luy; et la Reyne portee par deux hommes avecques la fille du Roy et ses propres. Apres touts les grosses dames et demoiselles suivants a pie. Quant tout ceci fit fayt on brulait vi. a ung feu. Et le Roy pour sa part remercioit Dieu qu'il avoit donne cognoissance de si grand mal le priant de pardon qu'il avoit pardonne a ung ou deux le en pa.s.se; et qu'il na pas este plus diligente en faysant execution; et fit apres serment que dicy en avant il les brulerait tous tous tant qu'il en trouveroit."--Andrew Baynton to Henry VIII.: _MS.

State Paper Office_, temp. Henry VIII., second series, Vol. IV.

[10] "The Duke of Orleans is married to the niece of Clement the Seventh If I give him Milan, and he be dependent only on his father, he will be altogether French ... he will be detached wholly from the confederacy of the Empire."--Speech of Charles the Fifth in the Consistory at Rome.

_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.

[11] Charles certainly did give a promise, and the date of it is fixed for the middle of the winter of 1535-36 by the protest of the French court, when it was subsequently withdrawn. "Your Majesty," Count de Vigny said, on the 18th of April, 1536, "promised a few months ago that you would give Milan to the Duke of Orleans, and not to his brother the Duke of Angoulesme"--Ibid.: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[12] "Bien estoit d'advis quant au faict d'Angleterre, afin qu'il eust plus de couleur de presser le Roy dudit pays a se condescendre a l'opinion universelle des Chretiens, que l'Empereur fist que notre Sainct Pere sommast de ce faire tous les princes et potentats Chretiens; et a luy a.s.sister, et donner main forte pour faire obeir le dit Roy a la sentence et determination de l'Eglise."--Du Bellay: _Memoirs_, p. 136.

[13] Du Bellay: _Memoirs._ "Hic palam obloquuntur de morte illius ac verentur de Puella regia ne brevi sequatur."--"I a.s.sure you men speak here tragice of these matters which is not to be touched by letters."--Harval to Starkey, from Venice, Feb. 5, 1535-36: Ellis, second series, Vol. II.

[14] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 442.

[15] "There hath been means made unto us by the Bishop of Rome himself for a reconciliation."--Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p.

476.

[16] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476. Lord Herbert, p. 196. Du Bellay's _Memoirs_.

[17] Du Bellay.

[18] Henry VIII. to Pace: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 476.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Pole to Prioli, March, 1536; _Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. I.

[21] Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 641.

[22] An interesting account of these speeches and of the proceedings in the consistory is printed in the _State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 646. It was probably furnished by Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis.

[23] Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[24] "Omnes qui sollerti judicio ista pensitare solent, ita statuunt aliquid proditionis in Gallia esse paratum non dissimile Ducis Borboniae proditioni. Non enim aliud vident quod Caaesarem illuc trahere posset."--Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Cromwell: _State Papers_, Vol. VII.

[25] See Ca.s.salis's Correspondence with Cromwell in May, 1536: _State Papers_, Vol VII.

[26] The clearest account which I have seen of the point in dispute between Charles V. and Francis I. is contained in a paper drawn by some English statesman apparently for Henry's use.--_Rolls House MSS._ first series, No. 757.

[27] When the English army was in the Netherlands, in 1543, the Emperor especially admired the disposition of their entrenchments. Sir John Wallop, the commander-in-chief, told him he had learnt that art some years before in a campaign, of which the Emperor himself must remember something, in the south of France.

[28] Pole, in writing to Charles V., says that Henry's cruelties to the Romanists had been attributed wholly to the "Leaena" at his side; and "when he had shed the blood of her whom he had fed with the blood of others," every one expected that he would have recovered his senses.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.

[29] "The news, which some days past were divulged of the queen's case, made a great tragedy, which was celebrated by all men's voices with admiration and great infamy to that woman to have betrayed that n.o.ble prince after such a manner, who had exalted her so high, and put himself to peril not without perturbation of all the world for her cause. But G.o.d showed Himself a rightful judge to discover such treason and iniquity. All is for the best. And I reckon this to the king's great fortune, that G.o.d would give him grace to see and touch with his hand what great enemies and traitors he lived withal."--Harvel to Starkey, from Venice, May 26: Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 77.

[30] Pole to Contarini: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 457.

[31] "Dicerem in ipso me adeo bonum animum reperisse ut procul dubio vestra Majestas omnia de ipso sibi polliceri possit."--Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.

[32] Neque ea cupiditate laborare ut suas fortunas in immensum augeat aut Pontificales fines propaget unde accidere posset ut ab hac ... .

inst.i.tuta ratione recederet.--Ibid. The MS. has been injured by fire--words and paragraphs are in places wanting. In the present pa.s.sage it is not clear whether Paul was speaking of the Papal authority generally, or of the Pontifical states in France and Italy.

[33] Causa vero matrimonii et in consistoriis et publice et privatim apud Clementem VII. se omnia quae [potuerit pro] vestra Majestate egisse; et Bononiae Imperatori per [horas] quatuor accurate persuadere conatum fuisse.--Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Henry VIII.: _MS. Cotton. Vitellius_, B 14, fol. 215.

[34] Ibid.

[35] _State Papers_, Vol. VII., June 5, 1536.

[36] Since Pole, when it suited his convenience, could represent the king's early career in very different colours, it is well to quote some specimens of his more favourable testimony. Addressing Henry himself, he says: "Quid non promittebant praeclarae illae virtutes quae primis annis princ.i.p.atus tui in te maxime elucebant. In quibus primum pietas quae una omnium aliarum, et totius humanae felicitatis quasi fundamentum est se proferebat. Cui adjunctae erant quae maxime in oculis hominum elucere solent just.i.tia clementia liberalitas, prudentia denique tanta quanta in illa tenera aetate esse potuit. Ut dixit Ezechiel de Rege a.s.syriorum, in paradiso Dei cedrus te pulcrior non inveniebatur."--_De Unitate Ecclesiae_, lib. 3.

Again, writing to Charles V., after speaking of the golden splendour of Henry's early reign, his wealth, his moderation, the happiness of the people, and the circle of ill.u.s.trious men who surrounded his throne, he goes on--

"Hi vero illam indolem sequebantur quam Regi Deus ipsi prius dederat cujus exemplar in Rege suo viderunt. Fuit enim indoles ejus aliquando prorsus regia. Summum in eo pietatis studium apparebat et religionis cultus; magnus amor just.i.tiae; non abhorrens tamen natura ut tum quidem videbatur a clementia."

And the time at which the supposed change took place is also marked distinctly:--

"Satanas in carne adhuc manentem natura hominis jam videtur spolia.s.se .

... sua induisse ... in qua nihil praeter formam videtur reliquisse quod sit hominis; ... . ne vitia quidem ... sed c.u.m omni virtute et donis illis Dei clestibus quibus c.u.m optimis Regum comparari poterat antequam in vicariatum Filii ejus se ingereret [praeditus est] postquam illum honorem impie ambivit et arripuit, non solum virtutibus omnibus privatus est sed etiam," etc.--Poli _Apologia ad Carolum Quintum_.

It was "necessary to the position" of Romanist writers to find the promise of evil in Henry's early life, after his separation from the Papacy, and stories like those which we read in Sanders grew like mushrooms in the compost of hatred. But it is certain that so long as he was orthodox he was regarded as a model of a Catholic prince. Cardinal Contarini laments his fall, as a fall like Lucifer's: "Qui fieri potuit per Deum immortalem," he wrote to Pole, "ut animus ille tam mitis tam mansuetus ut ad bene merendum de hominum genere a natura factus esse videatur sit adeo immutatus."--_Epist. Reg. Poli_, Vol. II. p. 31.

[37] Pole to Henry VIII.: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 305.

[38] Pole to the English Council: _Epist._, Vol. I.

[39] Ibid.

[40] Said by Cranmer to have been an able paper: "He suadeth with such goodly eloquence; both of words and sentences, that he is like to persuade many."--Cranmer's _Works_, edit. Jenkyns Vol. I. p. 2.

[41] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_.

[42] Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 281.

[43] "Quibus si rem persuadere velis multa preaeter rem sunt dicenda multa insinuanda."--_Epist. Reg. Pol._, Vol. I. p. 434. And again: "Illum librum scribo non tam Regis causa quam gregis Christi qui est universus Regni populus, quem sic deludi vix ferendum est."--Ibid. p.

437. I draw attention to these words, because in a subsequent defence of himself to the English Privy Council, Pole a.s.sured them that his book was a private letter privately sent to the king; that he had written as a confessor to a penitent, under the same obligations of secrecy: "Hoc genere dicendi Regem omnibus dedecorosum et probrosum reddo? Quibus tandem ill.u.s.trissimi Domini? Hisne qui libellum nunquam viderunt? an his ad quos legendum dedi? Quod si hic solus sit Rex ipse, utinam ipse sibi probrosus videretur Ad eum certe solum misi; quoc.u.m ita egi ut nemo unquam a confessionibus illi secretior esse potuisset hoc tantum spectans quod confessores ut illi tantum sua peccata ostenderem."--Apologia ad Ang. Parl.: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 181. So considerable an inconsistency might tempt a hasty person to use hard words of Pole.