[73]Wolsey, in his endeavours to obtain the purple pall, had relied much on the assistance of Adrian, Bishop of Bath, himself a cardinal, then the Pope’s collector in England, but residing at Rome, and acting by Polydore Vergil, his deputy. Adrian being either unable or unwilling to render the expected service, Wolsey, conceiving that he had been betrayed, seized upon the deputy collector, Polydore, and committed him to the Tower, where he remained, notwithstanding repeated remonstrances from the court of Rome, until the elevation of Wolsey to the cardinalate procured his liberty. This will account for the unfavourable light in which Wolsey is placed in Polydore Vergil’s History.[74]“Not farre unlike to this was the receaving of the Cardinals hatte. Which when a ruffian had brought unto him to Westminster under his cloke, he clothed the messenger in rich aray, and sent him backe to Dover againe, and appoynted the Bishop of Canterbury to meet him, and then another company of Lordes and Gentles I wotte not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was set on a cupborde and tapers about, so that the greatest Duke in the lande must make curtesie thereto: yea and to his empty seat he being away.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 374.Fox’s Acts, p. 902.W.[75]Dr. Fiddes and Mr. Grove remark, that this is a prejudiced statement of the case, and that Cavendish was misled by false information. It does not indeed appear that Wolsey used any indirect means to supersede Archbishop Warham, and the following passages in the correspondence of Sir Thomas More with Ammonius seem to prove the contrary. Sir Thomas says: “The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length resigned the office of Chancellor, which burthen, as you know,he had strenuously endeavoured to lay down for some years; and the long wished for retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of having acquitted himself honourably in that high station. The Cardinal of York,by the Kings Orders, succeeds him; who discharges the duty of the post so conspicuously as to surpass the hopes of all, notwithstanding the great opinion they had of his other eminent qualities: and what was most rare, to give so much content and satisfaction after so excellent a predecessor.â€Ammonius, writing to Erasmus, says: “Your Archbishop, with the King’s good leave, has laid down his post, which that of York,after much importunity, has accepted of, and behaves most beautifully.â€[76]This is noticed by the satirist Roy, in his invective against Wolsey:Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,And they beare two crosses right longe,Gapinge in every man’s face:After them follow two lay-men secular,And each of them holdinge a pillarIn their hondes, insteade of a mace.Then followeth my lord on his muleTrapped with gold, &c.Dr. Wordsworth, misled by Anstis, has erroneously attributed this satire to Skelton, confounding it probably with that writer’s“Why come ye not to court.â€See note at the end of the Life.[77]Even so early as the reign of Henry III, the annual amount of the benefices in the hands of Italians, in this kingdom, was 70,000 marks; more than three times the value of the whole revenue of the crown.M. Paris, in Vit. Hen. III. Ann. 1252.Wordsworth.[78]These are termedunder pastelers, in the more recent MSS.[79]TheGospellerwas the priest who read the Gospel. ThePisteller, the clerk who read the Epistle.[80]Revestry, from the FrenchRevestir; contractedly writtenVestry.[81]Those Lords that were placed in the great and privy chambers wereWards, and as such paid for their board and education. It will be seen below that he had a particular officer called “Instructor of his Wards.â€Grove.[82]Among whom, as we shall see below, was the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland. This was according to a practice much more ancient than the time of Wolsey; agreeably to which, young men of the most exalted rank resided in the families of distinguished ecclesiastics, under the denomination of pages, but more probably for the purposes of education than of service. In this way Sir Thomas More was brought up under Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury; of whom he has given a very interesting character in his Utopia. From Fiddes’s Appendix to the Life of Wolsey, p. 19, it appears that the custom was at least as old as the time of Grosthed, Bishop of Lincoln, in the reign of Henry III, and that it continued for some time during the seventeenth century. In a paper, written by the Earl of Arundel, in the year 1620, and intitledInstructions for you my son William, how to behave yourself at Norwich, the earl charges him, “You shall in all things reverence, honour, and obey my Lord Bishop of Norwich, as you would do any of your parents: esteeminge whatsoever he shall tell or command you, as if your grandmother of Arundell, your mother, or myself should say it: and in all things esteem yourself as my lord’s page; a breeding, which youths of my house, far superior to you, were accustomed unto; as my grandfather of Norfolk, and his brother, my good uncle of Northampton, were both bredd as pages with bishopps.†See also Paul’sLife of Archbishop Whitgift, p. 97.It is not out of place to mention, what we are told by Sir George Wheler in hisProtestant Monastery, p. 158. A. D. 1698. “I have heard say, in the times no longer ago than King Charles I, that many noblemen’s and gentlemen’s houses in the country were like academies, where the gentlemen and women of lesser fortunes came for education with those of the family; among which number was the famous Sir Beaville Granville and his lady, father and mother of our present lord of Bath.â€W.[83]Dr. Wordsworth’s edition saysone hundred and eighty. The manuscripts differ in stating the numbers, the edition of 1641 haseight hundred persons. And, in consequence, Wolsey has been so far misrepresented, by some writers, as to have it asserted that he kepteight hundred servants![84]At Bruges, “he was received with great solemnity, as belongeth unto so mighty a pillar of Christes church, and was saluted at the entring into the towne of a merry fellow which sayd,Salve rex regis tui, atque regni sui, Hayle both king of thy king, and also of his realme.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 370, A. D. 1572.[85]Liveries, are things’livered, i. e. delivered out.[86]Bread of the finest flour.A castis a share or allotment.[87]So our author, in hispoetical legend, dwells upon this regal pomp of his master:‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,That dayly before me were carried hyghe,Upon great horses opynly in the streett;And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nygheMy presence, I was so pryncely to behold;Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’See Appendix.[88]The pillar, as well as the cross, was emblematical, and designed to imply, that the dignitary before whom it was carried was apillarof the church. Dr. Barnes, who had good reason why these pillars should be uppermost in his thoughts, glances at this emblem, in the case of the cardinal, in the following words; “and yet it must bee true, because apillar of the churchhath spoken it.â€Barnes’ Works, p. 210, A. D. 1572. See alsoTindal’s Works, p. 370.W.[89]It was made One of the Articles of Impeachment against him: “That by his outrageous Pride he had greatly shadowed a long season his Grace’s Honour.†Art. XLIV. Sir Thomas More, when Speaker of the House of Commons, noticing a complaint which had been made by the cardinal, that nothing could be said or done in that house, but it was presently spread abroad, and became the talk of every tavern or alehouse, “Masters, (says he) forasmuche as my lord cardinall latelie laied to our charges the lightnes of our tongues for things uttered out of this house, it shall not in my minde be amisse to receive him with all his pompe, with his maces, his pillers, pollaxes, his crosses, his hatt, and the greate seal too; to thintent, that if he finde the like fault with us heereafter, wee maie be the bolder from ourselves to laie the blame on those that his grace bringeth hither with him.â€Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 21, edit. 1817. Sir Thomas also, in his Apology, written in the year 1533, reflects severely upon the change introduced among the clergy, through the cardinall’s means, in the luxury and sumptuousness of their dress.Works, p. 892.The pulpit likewise occasionally raised its voice against him. Doctor Barnes, who was burnt in Smithfield in the year 1541, preached at St. Edward’s Church in Cambridge, a sermon, for which he was called to appear before the cardinal. This was a part of their dialogue, as it is related in Fox: "What Master Doctor (said the cardinall) had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pollaxes, my pillers, my golden cushions, my cross did so sore offend you, that you must make usridiculum caputamongst the people? We were jolily that day laughed to scorne. Verely it was a sermon more fitter to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit; for at the last you said I weare a paire ofreddegloves, I should saybloudiegloves (quoth you) that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies. And Barnes answered, I spake nothing but the truth out of the Scriptures, according to my conscience, and according to the old doctors."Fox’s Acts, p. 1088.W.The following curious passage from Doctor Barnes’s ‘Supplication to the King,’ printed by Myddelton, in 12mo, without date, is probably more correct than the exaggeration of the good old martyrologist. It opens to us, as Dr. Wordsworth justly remarks, some part of the philosophy upon which the cardinal defended the fitness of that pomp and state which he maintained.“Theie havebaculum pastolaremto take shepe with, but it is not like a shepeherdes hooke, for it is intricate and manifolde crooked, and turneth always in, so that it may be called a mase, for it hath neither beginning nor ending, and it is more like to knocke swine and wolves in the head with, than to take shepe.Theie have also pillers and pollaxes, and other ceremonies, which no doubte be but trifels and thinges of nought. I praye you what is the cause that you calle your staffe a shepeherdes staffe? You helpe no man with it? You comforte no man?—You lift up no man with it? But you have stryken downe kynges, and kyngedomes with it; and knocked in the head Dukes and Earls with it. Call you this a sheepeherdes staffe? There is a space in the shepeherdes staffe for the foote to come oute againe, but youre staffe turneth and windeth alwayes inwarde and never outewarde, signifieing that whatsoever he be that cometh within your daunger, that he shall neuer come oute againe. This exposition youre dedes do declare, let them be examined that you have had to do with; and let us see howe they have escaped youre shepeherdes hooke. But these be the articles for the which I must nedes be an heretike, never the less all the worlde may see how shamefully, that I have erred agaynst your holinesse in saying the truth.My Lord Cardinall reasoned with me in this article, all the other he passed over, saving this and the sixth article. Here did he aske, “if I thought it good and reasonable, that he shulde lay downe his pillers and pollaxes and coyne them?â€Here is the heresye that is so abhomynable.I made him answere, that I thoughte it well done. “Than, (saide he), howe thynke you, were it better for me (being in the honour and dignitie that I am) to coyne my pillers and pollaxes and to give the money to five or sixe beggers; than for to maintaine the commenwelthe by them, as I do? Do you not recken (quod he) the commenwelthe better than fyve or sixe beggers?â€To this I did answere that I rekened it more to the honour of God and to the salvation of his soule and also to the comforte of his poore bretheren that they were coyned and given in almes, and as for the commenwelthe dyd not hange of them, (where be they nowe?) for as his grace knewe, the commenwelthe was afore his grace, and must be when his grace is gone, and the pillers and pollaxes came with him, and should also go away with him. Notwithstanding yf the commenwelthe were in suche a condicion that it had nede of them, than might his grace so longe use them, or any other thinge in theyr stede, so long as the commenwelth neded them, Notwithstanding I sayd, thus muche dyd I not say in my sermon agaynst them, but all onely I dampned in my sermon the gorgeous pompe and pride of all exterior ornamentes. Than he sayde, “Well—you say very well.†But as well as it was said I am sure that these wordes made me an heretike, for if these wordes had not bene therein, mine adversaries durst never have shewed their faces against me. But now they knewe well that I could never be indifferently hearde. For if I had got the victorie than must all the Bishops and my Lord Cardinal have laid downe all their gorgeous ornamentes, for the which they had rather burne xx such heretikes as I am, as all the worlde knoweth. But God is mighty, and of me hath he shewed his power, for I dare say they never intended thing more in their lives, than they did to destroy me, and yet God, of his infinite mercy, hath saved me, agaynst all their violence: unto his Godly wisdome is the cause all onely knowne. The Byshop of London that was then, called Tunstal, after my departing out of prison, sayd unto a substancyal man, that I was not ded (for I dare say his conscience did not recken me such an heretike, that I wolde have killed myself, as the voyce wente, but yet wolde he have done it gladly of his charyte) but I was, saide he, in Amsterdam (where I had never been in my lyfe, as God knoweth, nor yet in the Countrey this ten yeares) and certaine men dyd there speake with me (said he) and he fained certaine wordes that they shulde say to me, and I to them, and added thereunto that the Lord Cardinal woulde have me againe or it shulde coste hym a greate somme of money, howe moche I do not clerelye remember. I have marvayle that my Lorde is not ashamed, thus shamefully and thus lordly to lye, althoughe he might doo it by auctoritie. And where my Lord Cardinal and he wold spend so moche money to have me agayne, I have great marvayle of it, What can they make of me? (I am now here, what say you to me?) I am a symple poore wretche, and worthe no mans money in the worlde (saving theirs) not the tenth peny that they will give for me, and to burne me or to destroye me, cannot so greatly profyt them.For when I am dead, the sunne, and the moone, the starres, and the element, water and fyre, ye and also stones shall defende this cause againste them rather than the verity shall perish.â€[90]Chambers, short guns, or cannon, standing upon their breeching without carriages, chiefly used for festive occasions; and having their name most probably from being little more thanchambersfor powder. It was by the discharge of thesechambersin the play of Henry VIIIth. that the Globe Theatre was burnt in 1613. Shakspeare followed pretty closely the narrative of Cavendish.[91]Mumchanceappears to have been a game played withdice, at which silence was to be observed.[92]Rounding, sometimes speltrowning, i. e.whispering.[93]“The king gave good testymony of his love to this lady, creating her in one day Marquesse of Pembroke (that I may use the words of the patent) for the nobylity of her stocke, excellency of her virtues and conditions, and other shewes of honesty and goodness worthyly to bee commended in her. And giving her a patent for a 1000 pounds yerely to maynteyne this honour with. She was the first woman, I read, to have honor given to her and her heyres male.â€Sir Roger Twysden’s MS. note.[94]“Not above seven yeares of age, Anno 1514.†as appears from a fragment of this life with notes by Sir Roger Twysden, of which a few copies were printed in 1808, by Mr. Triphook, from whence also the following note is copied.[95]“It should seeme by some that she served three in France successively; Mary of England maryed to Lewis the twelfth, an. 1514, with whome she went out of England, but Lewis dying the first of January following, and that Queene (being) to returne home, sooner than either Sir Thomas Bullen or some other of her frendes liked she should, she was preferred to Clauda, daughter to Lewis XII. and wife to Francis I. then Queene (it is likely upon the commendation of Mary the Dowager), who not long after dying, an. 1524, not yet weary of France she went to live with Marguerite, Dutchess of Alançon and Berry, a Lady much commended for her favor towards good letters, but never enough for the Protestant religion then in the infancy—from her, if I am not deceived, she first learnt the grounds of the Protestant religion; so that England may seem to owe some part of her happyness derived from that Lady.â€[96]This expression, unless the author himself were misinformed, must not be extended to imply an absolute precontract. Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VIII. p. 448, has published an original letter from this nobleman, then Earl of Northumberland, written in the year 1536, a short time before Q. Anne’s suffering, in which he denies any such contract, in the most solemn terms. This letter will be found in the Appendix.W.I have placed this letter in the Appendix (Letter VIII) for the convenience of the reader.[97]Geffrey Bollen, a gentlemen of Norfolk, Mayor of London, 1457, marryed one of the daughters and heyres of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings, by whome he had William Bolleyn (knight of the Bath at Richard 3ds coronation) who marryed the Earl of Ormonds daughter (he though of Ireland, sate in the English parliament above English Barons), by her he had Thomas Bollen, whome the Erle of Surrey after Duke of Norfolk chose for his son-in-law; of which marriage this Anne was born, 1507.Note from Sir R. Twysden’s MS. Frag.[98]This was the Lady Mary Talbot, daughter to George Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had no issue. "Though little ceremony, and probably as little time, was used in patching up these nuptials. As might be expected, they were most unhappy. So we are told, on the authority of the earl’s own letters, in the very laboured account of the Percy family given in Collins’ Peerage, ed. 1779, perhaps the best piece of family history in our language. “Henry, the unthrifty Earl of Northumberland, died at Hackney in the prime of life, about ten or twelve years after he had consented to this marriage. Of this term but a very small portion was spent in company of his lady. He lived long enough, however, not only to witness the destruction of his own happiness, but the sad termination of Anne Boleyn’s life. In the admirable account of the Percy family, referred to above, no mention is made of the lady who, on these terms, consented to become Countess of Northumberland, in her long widowhood. She sequestered herself from the world at Wormhill, on the banks of the Derbyshire Wye, amidst some of the sublimest scenery of the Peak. Wormhill is about eighteen miles from Sheffield, where Lady Northumberland’s father, brother, and nephew, successively Earls of Shrewsbury, spent the greater part of their lives.â€Who wrote Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey?p.30.The reader will be pleased to refer to the note as it now stands in Mr. Hunter’s Essay, prefixed to the present edition. He thinks thatWreshill, and notWormhill, must be meant, as there is no other evidence to show that Lady Percy had a house at Wormhill.[99]i. e.fumed. This metaphorical use of the word has not occurred to me elsewhere.[100]The charms of Anne had also attracted Sir Thomas Wyatt, and some of his poems evidently allude to his passion; he was afterwards closely questioned as to the nature of his intimacy with her. A very curious narrative of some particulars relating to this attachment, from the pen of a descendant of the poet, has fortunately been preserved among the MS. collections of Lewis the antiquary. A few copies of this memoir were printed in 1817, but as it has still almost the rarity of a manuscript, I shall enrich my Appendix by reprinting it as a most curious and valuable document relating to this eventful period of our history.[101]In the very interesting memoir of Anne Boleyn, by George Wyat, which the reader will find in theAppendix, the queen’s prudent conduct is mentioned, and the following anecdote related: ‘These things being well perceived of the queen, which she knew well to frame and work her advantage of, and therefore the oftener had her (i. e. Anne Boleyn) at cards with her, the rather also that the king might have the less her company, and the lady the more excuse to be from him, also she esteem herself the kindlier used, and yet withal the more to give the king occasion to see the nail upon her finger. And in this entertainment, of time they had a certain game, that I cannot name, then frequented, wherein dealing, the king and queen meeting they stopt; and the young lady’s hap was, much to stop at a king. Which the queen noting, said to her, playfully,My Lady Anne, you have good hap to stop at a king, but you are like others, you will have all or none.’[102]Yet nothing can be more strong than her expressions of gratitude and affection to the cardinal at this period when his assistance was of importance to her views. Two letters of hers to the cardinal have been published by Burnet, I. 55, [see our Appendix,Letter XI.] in which she says: “all the days of my life I am most bound of all creatures next 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. And as touching your grace’s trouble with the sweat, I thank our Lord that them that I desired and prayed for are scaped, and that is the king and you. And as for the coming of the Legate, I desire that much, and if it be God’s pleasure, I pray him to send this matter shortly to a good end, and then I trust, my lord, to recompense part of your great pains.†In another letter she says: “I do know the great pains and troubles that you have taken for me, both day and night, is never like to be recompensed on my part, but al only in loving you next the king’s grace above all creatures living.†In a third letter, published by Fiddes, “I am bound in the mean time to owe you my service: and then look what thing in the world I can imagine to do you pleasure in, you shall find me the gladdest woman in the world to do it, and next unto the king’s grace, of one thing I make you full promise to be assured to have it, and that is my hearty love unfeignedly during my life.†It should seem, therefore, unless we suppose her to have been insincere in her expression of gratitude, that her animosity did not proceed from any displeasure at the rupture of the affair with Lord Percy; but from subsequent causes. She was probably worked upon by the cardinal’s enemies in the court.[103]The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant, and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the Lady Regent of France, he had made de Praet (the emperor’s ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion, and after a few months, De Praet, in his letters to the emperor, and to Margaret, the governess of the Netherlands, expressed his apprehension that all was not right, and the reasons for his surmises. His letters were intercepted by the cardinal, and read before the council. Charles and Margaret complained of this insult, and the cardinal explained as well as he could. At the same time protesting against the misrepresentation of De Praet, and assuring them that nothing could be further from his wish than that any disunion should arise between the king his master and the emperor; and notwithstanding the suspicious aspect of this transaction, his dispatches both immediately before and after this fracas strongly corroborate his assertions. [See additional note at the end of the Life.] Wolsey suspected that the Pope was inclined toward the cause of Francis, and reminded him, through the Bishop of Bath, of his obligations to Henry and Charles. The Pope had already taken the alarm, and had made terms with the French king, but had industriously concealed it from Wolsey, and at length urged in his excuse that he had no alternative. Joacchino was again in England upon a different mission, and was an eyewitness of the melancholy condition of the cardinal when his fortunes were reversed. He sympathised with him, and interested himself for him with Francis and the Queen Dowager, as appears by his letters published inLegrand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII.[104]Dr. Fiddes has justly observed, that Cavendish, in his account of these transactions, asserted some things not only without sufficient authority, but contrary to the evidence of documents which he has adduced. By these it appears, that if there was any delay in the supplies promised on the part of England it was purely accidental; and that the remissness of the emperor to furnish his quota was the principal cause of the extremity to which the Duke of Bourbon’s army was reduced. Cavendish is also wrong in his relation of the siege of Pavia and its consequences. The fact is, that the Duke of Bourbon did not command in the town, but marched at the head of the imperial army to relieve it; and the garrison did not sally out until the two armies were engaged. The demonstrations of joy with which the victory at Pavia was received in London is also an argument for the sincerity of Henry and the cardinal at this time. The story of the treaty between Henry and Francis, said to have been found in the tent of the latter after the victory, is also a mere fiction. In the spirit of a true son of the Apostolic Church, Cavendish deprecates every thing which might tend to bring the Pope into jeopardy; and he cannot help bearing hard even upon the cardinal, because he was thought indirectly the cause ‘of all thismischief.’ What is here said receives confirmation from some interesting letters of the cardinal in the Appendix to Galt’s Life of Wolsey, No. IV. V. VI. p. cxxxiv, &c. 4to edition, Lond. 1812.[105]These intrigues, in which the cardinal bore so large a part, did not redound to the glory of his country. Our merry neighbours even then had begun to make our diplomatic inferiority the subject of their sport and ridicule. William Tindall, in hisPractice of popish Prelates, referring to these events, tells us, “The Frenchmen of late dayes made a play or a disguising at Paris, in which the emperour daunsed with the pope and the French king, and weried them, the king of England sitting on a hye bench, and looking on. And when it was asked, why he daunsed not, it was answered, that he sate there,but to pay the minstrels their wages onely: as who should say, wee paid for all mens dauncing.â€Tindall’s Works, p. 375. A. D. 1572.W.[106]Abrakehere seems to signify asnareortrap. The word has much puzzled the commentators on Shakspeare (See Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 1). One of its antient significations was asharp bitto break horses with. A farrier’sbrakewas a machine to confine or trammel the legs of unruly horses. An antient instrument of torture was also calleda brake; and a thornybrakemeant an intricate thicket of thorns. Shakerly Marmion, in his comedy of ‘Holland’s Leaguer’, evidently uses the word in the same sense with Cavendish:“———-Her I’ll makeA stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€[107]The 3d Day of July (1526), the Cardinal of Yorke passed through the City of London, with many lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve hundred horse——The 11th day of May he took shipping at Dover, and landed at Calais the same day.Grafton, p. 1150.[108]Lanzen-Knechts, the name by which these bands of German mercenaries were then designated.[109]Cavendish uses this word again in his poems:“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclauseWrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.SeeFox’s Acts, &c. p. 1769:“Cook.Then answere me, What sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the altar? Tell me:“Jackson.I answered; it is adiffusequestion, to aske me at the first dash, you promising to deliver me.†See also p. 1574. “Diffuseanddifficult.â€It appears to have been used in the sense ofobscure, butdifficultis the reading of Grove’s edition. I finddiffusedexplained by Cotgrave “diffus,espars,OBSCURE.†And in a Latin Greek and English Lexicon by R. Hutton, printed at London by H. Bynneman, 1583, the Latin adverb,obscure, is interpreted “darkely, obscurely,DIFFUSELY.â€[110]The great seal could not be carried out of the king’s dominions without violating the law; letters patent were passed to enable Dr. Taylor to hold it in his absence.[111]Stradiots and Arbenois.These were light armed cavalry, said by Guicciardini to have been Greek mercenaries in the service of Venice, retaining their Greek name στÏατιώται. Arbenois is Albanians,Albanois,Fr.The following passage fromNicot Thresor de la Langue Françoise, ed. 1606. fol.will fully explain this:“A présent on apelle en particulierAlbanoisces hommes de cheval armez à la légère, autrement dit Stratiote, ouStradiots(par la consonne moyenne), qui portent les chapeaux à haute testière, desquels on se sert pour chevaux légers, qui viennent dudit pays d’Albanie, dont les Papes se servent encore de ce temps és garnisons de plusieurs villes du Saint siège,Albani, olim Epirotæ.â€[112]In like manner, we saw, a little above, that at Calais he gave “benediction and pardon.†From a letter to the cardinal, from Humfrey Monmouth, confined in the Tower on suspicion of heresy, we may gather what notion was entertained, even by comparatively enlightened men, of the efficacy of these pardons. "If I had broken most part of the Ten Commandments of God, being penitent and confessed (I should be forgiven) by reason of certain pardons that I have, the which my company and I had graunted, whan we were at Rome, going to Jerusalem, of the holy father the pope,a pÅ“na et a culpa, for certain times in the year: and that, I trust in God, I received at Easter last past. Furthermore I received, when your grace was last at Pawles, I trust in God, your pardon ofa pÅ“naet a culpa; the which I believe verily, if I had done never so great offences, being penitent and confessed, and axing forgiveness, that I should have forgiveness."Strype’s Ecclesiast. Memor.vol. i. p. 248. Appendix. The cardinal had also a bull granted by Pope Leo Xth. A. D. 1518. to give in certain cases and conditions plenary remission from all sins.Fiddes, p. 48. Appendix.W.[113]Among other distinguished honours conferred by Francis upon the Cardinal was the singular privilege of pardoning and releasing prisoners and delinquents confined in the towns through which he passed, in the same manner as the king himself was used to do: the only culprits excluded from the power of pardon given him by this patent were those guilty of the most capital crimes.[114]i. e.Switzers. Cavendish revels in his subsequent description of thetall Scotswho formed the French king’s body guard.[115]Whose mule if it should be soldSo gayly trapped with velvet and goldAnd given to us for our schare,I durst ensure the one thingAs for a competent lyvyngeThis seven yeare we should not care.Roy’s Satire.In the picture of the Champs de drap d’or, which has been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, the cardinal appears mounted on a richly caparisoned mule.[116]A previous negotiation of a singular nature had been begun, for the Bishop of Bath writes to the cardinal in March, 1527, that "Francis is very desirous to have the Princess Mary, and to have her delivered into his hands as soon as the peace is concluded. Our king pretends her non age, and will have all, pension, &c., concluded first. The Queen Regent is earnest also for the present marriage: Saying there is no danger, for she herself was married at xi. And for this match there might be a device to satisfy both sides, saying the princess will be well toward xii by August. At that time both princes should meet at Calais with a small company and charge, there her son, after the marriage solemnized, might abide himself for an hour or less with my Lady Princess; she said the king her son was a man of honour and discretion, and would use no violence, especially the father and mother being so nigh; meaning, thatconatus ad copulam cum illa, quæ est proxima pubertati, prudentia supplente ætatem, should make every thing sure that neither party should now vary. So the king her son might be assured of his wife, and King Henry carry back his daughter till she should be accounted more able, &c. This overture our ambassadors think very strange."Fiddes Collections, p. 176. The Bishop of Bath returned into England soon after the cardinal went on his mission, to relate to Henry the course adopted by the cardinal in treating with Francis, and also to explain to him certain devices concerning his own secret matters.Mr. Master’s Collections.[117]Skinner explains this word,a curtain. It evidently signifies here an enclosed or divided space or seat, decorated with rich draperies or curtains. In another place we havea traverse of sarsenet, which confirms Skinner’s explanation.[118]Grises, greeses, orsteps, for it was spelt various ways according to the caprice of the writer, from the Latingressus.[119]Theroodeloftwas the place where the cross stood; it was generally placed over the passage out of the church into the chancel.[120]The passage within brackets is not to be found in any of the more recent MSS., nor in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition.[121]Erasmus, in a letter to Aleander, dwells with delight upon this custom:"Quanquam si Britanniæ dotes satis pernosses Fauste, næ tu alatis pedibus, huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hic nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis Camænis facile anteponas.Est præterea mos nunquam satis laudatus: Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris: redis? redduntur suavia; venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te? dividuntur basia: occuritur alicubi? basiatur affatim: denique, quocunque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quæ si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari."Erasmi Epistol.p. 315, edit. 1642. “It becometh nat therefore the persones religious to folowethe maner of secular persones, that in theyr congresses and commune metyngs or departyng done use to kysse, take hands, or such other touchings, that good religious persones shulde utterly avoyde.â€Whytford’s Pype of Perfection.fol. 213. b.A. D.1532.W.[122]This name is speltCreekyandCrykkyin the autograph MS. In Wordsworth’s edition it is Crokey. Grove has itCrockly, and two of the MSS. copiesCrokir. I know not whether I have divined the true orthography, but there was a noble family of this name at the time.
[73]Wolsey, in his endeavours to obtain the purple pall, had relied much on the assistance of Adrian, Bishop of Bath, himself a cardinal, then the Pope’s collector in England, but residing at Rome, and acting by Polydore Vergil, his deputy. Adrian being either unable or unwilling to render the expected service, Wolsey, conceiving that he had been betrayed, seized upon the deputy collector, Polydore, and committed him to the Tower, where he remained, notwithstanding repeated remonstrances from the court of Rome, until the elevation of Wolsey to the cardinalate procured his liberty. This will account for the unfavourable light in which Wolsey is placed in Polydore Vergil’s History.
[73]Wolsey, in his endeavours to obtain the purple pall, had relied much on the assistance of Adrian, Bishop of Bath, himself a cardinal, then the Pope’s collector in England, but residing at Rome, and acting by Polydore Vergil, his deputy. Adrian being either unable or unwilling to render the expected service, Wolsey, conceiving that he had been betrayed, seized upon the deputy collector, Polydore, and committed him to the Tower, where he remained, notwithstanding repeated remonstrances from the court of Rome, until the elevation of Wolsey to the cardinalate procured his liberty. This will account for the unfavourable light in which Wolsey is placed in Polydore Vergil’s History.
[74]“Not farre unlike to this was the receaving of the Cardinals hatte. Which when a ruffian had brought unto him to Westminster under his cloke, he clothed the messenger in rich aray, and sent him backe to Dover againe, and appoynted the Bishop of Canterbury to meet him, and then another company of Lordes and Gentles I wotte not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was set on a cupborde and tapers about, so that the greatest Duke in the lande must make curtesie thereto: yea and to his empty seat he being away.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 374.Fox’s Acts, p. 902.W.
[74]“Not farre unlike to this was the receaving of the Cardinals hatte. Which when a ruffian had brought unto him to Westminster under his cloke, he clothed the messenger in rich aray, and sent him backe to Dover againe, and appoynted the Bishop of Canterbury to meet him, and then another company of Lordes and Gentles I wotte not how oft, ere it came to Westminster, where it was set on a cupborde and tapers about, so that the greatest Duke in the lande must make curtesie thereto: yea and to his empty seat he being away.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 374.Fox’s Acts, p. 902.W.
[75]Dr. Fiddes and Mr. Grove remark, that this is a prejudiced statement of the case, and that Cavendish was misled by false information. It does not indeed appear that Wolsey used any indirect means to supersede Archbishop Warham, and the following passages in the correspondence of Sir Thomas More with Ammonius seem to prove the contrary. Sir Thomas says: “The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length resigned the office of Chancellor, which burthen, as you know,he had strenuously endeavoured to lay down for some years; and the long wished for retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of having acquitted himself honourably in that high station. The Cardinal of York,by the Kings Orders, succeeds him; who discharges the duty of the post so conspicuously as to surpass the hopes of all, notwithstanding the great opinion they had of his other eminent qualities: and what was most rare, to give so much content and satisfaction after so excellent a predecessor.â€Ammonius, writing to Erasmus, says: “Your Archbishop, with the King’s good leave, has laid down his post, which that of York,after much importunity, has accepted of, and behaves most beautifully.â€
[75]Dr. Fiddes and Mr. Grove remark, that this is a prejudiced statement of the case, and that Cavendish was misled by false information. It does not indeed appear that Wolsey used any indirect means to supersede Archbishop Warham, and the following passages in the correspondence of Sir Thomas More with Ammonius seem to prove the contrary. Sir Thomas says: “The Archbishop of Canterbury hath at length resigned the office of Chancellor, which burthen, as you know,he had strenuously endeavoured to lay down for some years; and the long wished for retreat being now obtained, he enjoys a most pleasant recess in his studies, with the agreeable reflection of having acquitted himself honourably in that high station. The Cardinal of York,by the Kings Orders, succeeds him; who discharges the duty of the post so conspicuously as to surpass the hopes of all, notwithstanding the great opinion they had of his other eminent qualities: and what was most rare, to give so much content and satisfaction after so excellent a predecessor.â€
Ammonius, writing to Erasmus, says: “Your Archbishop, with the King’s good leave, has laid down his post, which that of York,after much importunity, has accepted of, and behaves most beautifully.â€
[76]This is noticed by the satirist Roy, in his invective against Wolsey:Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,And they beare two crosses right longe,Gapinge in every man’s face:After them follow two lay-men secular,And each of them holdinge a pillarIn their hondes, insteade of a mace.Then followeth my lord on his muleTrapped with gold, &c.Dr. Wordsworth, misled by Anstis, has erroneously attributed this satire to Skelton, confounding it probably with that writer’s“Why come ye not to court.â€See note at the end of the Life.
[76]This is noticed by the satirist Roy, in his invective against Wolsey:
Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,And they beare two crosses right longe,Gapinge in every man’s face:After them follow two lay-men secular,And each of them holdinge a pillarIn their hondes, insteade of a mace.Then followeth my lord on his muleTrapped with gold, &c.
Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,And they beare two crosses right longe,Gapinge in every man’s face:After them follow two lay-men secular,And each of them holdinge a pillarIn their hondes, insteade of a mace.Then followeth my lord on his muleTrapped with gold, &c.
Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,And they beare two crosses right longe,Gapinge in every man’s face:After them follow two lay-men secular,And each of them holdinge a pillarIn their hondes, insteade of a mace.Then followeth my lord on his muleTrapped with gold, &c.
Before him rydeth two prestes stronge,
And they beare two crosses right longe,
Gapinge in every man’s face:
After them follow two lay-men secular,
And each of them holdinge a pillar
In their hondes, insteade of a mace.
Then followeth my lord on his mule
Trapped with gold, &c.
Dr. Wordsworth, misled by Anstis, has erroneously attributed this satire to Skelton, confounding it probably with that writer’s
“Why come ye not to court.â€
See note at the end of the Life.
[77]Even so early as the reign of Henry III, the annual amount of the benefices in the hands of Italians, in this kingdom, was 70,000 marks; more than three times the value of the whole revenue of the crown.M. Paris, in Vit. Hen. III. Ann. 1252.Wordsworth.
[77]Even so early as the reign of Henry III, the annual amount of the benefices in the hands of Italians, in this kingdom, was 70,000 marks; more than three times the value of the whole revenue of the crown.M. Paris, in Vit. Hen. III. Ann. 1252.
Wordsworth.
[78]These are termedunder pastelers, in the more recent MSS.
[78]These are termedunder pastelers, in the more recent MSS.
[79]TheGospellerwas the priest who read the Gospel. ThePisteller, the clerk who read the Epistle.
[79]TheGospellerwas the priest who read the Gospel. ThePisteller, the clerk who read the Epistle.
[80]Revestry, from the FrenchRevestir; contractedly writtenVestry.
[80]Revestry, from the FrenchRevestir; contractedly writtenVestry.
[81]Those Lords that were placed in the great and privy chambers wereWards, and as such paid for their board and education. It will be seen below that he had a particular officer called “Instructor of his Wards.â€Grove.
[81]Those Lords that were placed in the great and privy chambers wereWards, and as such paid for their board and education. It will be seen below that he had a particular officer called “Instructor of his Wards.â€Grove.
[82]Among whom, as we shall see below, was the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland. This was according to a practice much more ancient than the time of Wolsey; agreeably to which, young men of the most exalted rank resided in the families of distinguished ecclesiastics, under the denomination of pages, but more probably for the purposes of education than of service. In this way Sir Thomas More was brought up under Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury; of whom he has given a very interesting character in his Utopia. From Fiddes’s Appendix to the Life of Wolsey, p. 19, it appears that the custom was at least as old as the time of Grosthed, Bishop of Lincoln, in the reign of Henry III, and that it continued for some time during the seventeenth century. In a paper, written by the Earl of Arundel, in the year 1620, and intitledInstructions for you my son William, how to behave yourself at Norwich, the earl charges him, “You shall in all things reverence, honour, and obey my Lord Bishop of Norwich, as you would do any of your parents: esteeminge whatsoever he shall tell or command you, as if your grandmother of Arundell, your mother, or myself should say it: and in all things esteem yourself as my lord’s page; a breeding, which youths of my house, far superior to you, were accustomed unto; as my grandfather of Norfolk, and his brother, my good uncle of Northampton, were both bredd as pages with bishopps.†See also Paul’sLife of Archbishop Whitgift, p. 97.It is not out of place to mention, what we are told by Sir George Wheler in hisProtestant Monastery, p. 158. A. D. 1698. “I have heard say, in the times no longer ago than King Charles I, that many noblemen’s and gentlemen’s houses in the country were like academies, where the gentlemen and women of lesser fortunes came for education with those of the family; among which number was the famous Sir Beaville Granville and his lady, father and mother of our present lord of Bath.â€W.
[82]Among whom, as we shall see below, was the eldest son of the Earl of Northumberland. This was according to a practice much more ancient than the time of Wolsey; agreeably to which, young men of the most exalted rank resided in the families of distinguished ecclesiastics, under the denomination of pages, but more probably for the purposes of education than of service. In this way Sir Thomas More was brought up under Cardinal Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury; of whom he has given a very interesting character in his Utopia. From Fiddes’s Appendix to the Life of Wolsey, p. 19, it appears that the custom was at least as old as the time of Grosthed, Bishop of Lincoln, in the reign of Henry III, and that it continued for some time during the seventeenth century. In a paper, written by the Earl of Arundel, in the year 1620, and intitledInstructions for you my son William, how to behave yourself at Norwich, the earl charges him, “You shall in all things reverence, honour, and obey my Lord Bishop of Norwich, as you would do any of your parents: esteeminge whatsoever he shall tell or command you, as if your grandmother of Arundell, your mother, or myself should say it: and in all things esteem yourself as my lord’s page; a breeding, which youths of my house, far superior to you, were accustomed unto; as my grandfather of Norfolk, and his brother, my good uncle of Northampton, were both bredd as pages with bishopps.†See also Paul’sLife of Archbishop Whitgift, p. 97.
It is not out of place to mention, what we are told by Sir George Wheler in hisProtestant Monastery, p. 158. A. D. 1698. “I have heard say, in the times no longer ago than King Charles I, that many noblemen’s and gentlemen’s houses in the country were like academies, where the gentlemen and women of lesser fortunes came for education with those of the family; among which number was the famous Sir Beaville Granville and his lady, father and mother of our present lord of Bath.â€W.
[83]Dr. Wordsworth’s edition saysone hundred and eighty. The manuscripts differ in stating the numbers, the edition of 1641 haseight hundred persons. And, in consequence, Wolsey has been so far misrepresented, by some writers, as to have it asserted that he kepteight hundred servants!
[83]Dr. Wordsworth’s edition saysone hundred and eighty. The manuscripts differ in stating the numbers, the edition of 1641 haseight hundred persons. And, in consequence, Wolsey has been so far misrepresented, by some writers, as to have it asserted that he kepteight hundred servants!
[84]At Bruges, “he was received with great solemnity, as belongeth unto so mighty a pillar of Christes church, and was saluted at the entring into the towne of a merry fellow which sayd,Salve rex regis tui, atque regni sui, Hayle both king of thy king, and also of his realme.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 370, A. D. 1572.
[84]At Bruges, “he was received with great solemnity, as belongeth unto so mighty a pillar of Christes church, and was saluted at the entring into the towne of a merry fellow which sayd,Salve rex regis tui, atque regni sui, Hayle both king of thy king, and also of his realme.â€Tindal’s Works, p. 370, A. D. 1572.
[85]Liveries, are things’livered, i. e. delivered out.
[85]Liveries, are things’livered, i. e. delivered out.
[86]Bread of the finest flour.A castis a share or allotment.
[86]Bread of the finest flour.A castis a share or allotment.
[87]So our author, in hispoetical legend, dwells upon this regal pomp of his master:‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,That dayly before me were carried hyghe,Upon great horses opynly in the streett;And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nygheMy presence, I was so pryncely to behold;Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’See Appendix.
[87]So our author, in hispoetical legend, dwells upon this regal pomp of his master:
‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,That dayly before me were carried hyghe,Upon great horses opynly in the streett;And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nygheMy presence, I was so pryncely to behold;Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’
‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,That dayly before me were carried hyghe,Upon great horses opynly in the streett;And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nygheMy presence, I was so pryncely to behold;Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’
‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,That dayly before me were carried hyghe,Upon great horses opynly in the streett;And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nygheMy presence, I was so pryncely to behold;Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’
‘My crossis twayne of silver long and greate,
That dayly before me were carried hyghe,
Upon great horses opynly in the streett;
And massie pillers gloryouse to the eye,
With pollaxes gylt that no man durst come nyghe
My presence, I was so pryncely to behold;
Ridyng on my mule trapped in silver and in golde.’
See Appendix.
[88]The pillar, as well as the cross, was emblematical, and designed to imply, that the dignitary before whom it was carried was apillarof the church. Dr. Barnes, who had good reason why these pillars should be uppermost in his thoughts, glances at this emblem, in the case of the cardinal, in the following words; “and yet it must bee true, because apillar of the churchhath spoken it.â€Barnes’ Works, p. 210, A. D. 1572. See alsoTindal’s Works, p. 370.W.
[88]The pillar, as well as the cross, was emblematical, and designed to imply, that the dignitary before whom it was carried was apillarof the church. Dr. Barnes, who had good reason why these pillars should be uppermost in his thoughts, glances at this emblem, in the case of the cardinal, in the following words; “and yet it must bee true, because apillar of the churchhath spoken it.â€Barnes’ Works, p. 210, A. D. 1572. See alsoTindal’s Works, p. 370.W.
[89]It was made One of the Articles of Impeachment against him: “That by his outrageous Pride he had greatly shadowed a long season his Grace’s Honour.†Art. XLIV. Sir Thomas More, when Speaker of the House of Commons, noticing a complaint which had been made by the cardinal, that nothing could be said or done in that house, but it was presently spread abroad, and became the talk of every tavern or alehouse, “Masters, (says he) forasmuche as my lord cardinall latelie laied to our charges the lightnes of our tongues for things uttered out of this house, it shall not in my minde be amisse to receive him with all his pompe, with his maces, his pillers, pollaxes, his crosses, his hatt, and the greate seal too; to thintent, that if he finde the like fault with us heereafter, wee maie be the bolder from ourselves to laie the blame on those that his grace bringeth hither with him.â€Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 21, edit. 1817. Sir Thomas also, in his Apology, written in the year 1533, reflects severely upon the change introduced among the clergy, through the cardinall’s means, in the luxury and sumptuousness of their dress.Works, p. 892.The pulpit likewise occasionally raised its voice against him. Doctor Barnes, who was burnt in Smithfield in the year 1541, preached at St. Edward’s Church in Cambridge, a sermon, for which he was called to appear before the cardinal. This was a part of their dialogue, as it is related in Fox: "What Master Doctor (said the cardinall) had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pollaxes, my pillers, my golden cushions, my cross did so sore offend you, that you must make usridiculum caputamongst the people? We were jolily that day laughed to scorne. Verely it was a sermon more fitter to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit; for at the last you said I weare a paire ofreddegloves, I should saybloudiegloves (quoth you) that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies. And Barnes answered, I spake nothing but the truth out of the Scriptures, according to my conscience, and according to the old doctors."Fox’s Acts, p. 1088.W.The following curious passage from Doctor Barnes’s ‘Supplication to the King,’ printed by Myddelton, in 12mo, without date, is probably more correct than the exaggeration of the good old martyrologist. It opens to us, as Dr. Wordsworth justly remarks, some part of the philosophy upon which the cardinal defended the fitness of that pomp and state which he maintained.“Theie havebaculum pastolaremto take shepe with, but it is not like a shepeherdes hooke, for it is intricate and manifolde crooked, and turneth always in, so that it may be called a mase, for it hath neither beginning nor ending, and it is more like to knocke swine and wolves in the head with, than to take shepe.Theie have also pillers and pollaxes, and other ceremonies, which no doubte be but trifels and thinges of nought. I praye you what is the cause that you calle your staffe a shepeherdes staffe? You helpe no man with it? You comforte no man?—You lift up no man with it? But you have stryken downe kynges, and kyngedomes with it; and knocked in the head Dukes and Earls with it. Call you this a sheepeherdes staffe? There is a space in the shepeherdes staffe for the foote to come oute againe, but youre staffe turneth and windeth alwayes inwarde and never outewarde, signifieing that whatsoever he be that cometh within your daunger, that he shall neuer come oute againe. This exposition youre dedes do declare, let them be examined that you have had to do with; and let us see howe they have escaped youre shepeherdes hooke. But these be the articles for the which I must nedes be an heretike, never the less all the worlde may see how shamefully, that I have erred agaynst your holinesse in saying the truth.My Lord Cardinall reasoned with me in this article, all the other he passed over, saving this and the sixth article. Here did he aske, “if I thought it good and reasonable, that he shulde lay downe his pillers and pollaxes and coyne them?â€Here is the heresye that is so abhomynable.I made him answere, that I thoughte it well done. “Than, (saide he), howe thynke you, were it better for me (being in the honour and dignitie that I am) to coyne my pillers and pollaxes and to give the money to five or sixe beggers; than for to maintaine the commenwelthe by them, as I do? Do you not recken (quod he) the commenwelthe better than fyve or sixe beggers?â€To this I did answere that I rekened it more to the honour of God and to the salvation of his soule and also to the comforte of his poore bretheren that they were coyned and given in almes, and as for the commenwelthe dyd not hange of them, (where be they nowe?) for as his grace knewe, the commenwelthe was afore his grace, and must be when his grace is gone, and the pillers and pollaxes came with him, and should also go away with him. Notwithstanding yf the commenwelthe were in suche a condicion that it had nede of them, than might his grace so longe use them, or any other thinge in theyr stede, so long as the commenwelth neded them, Notwithstanding I sayd, thus muche dyd I not say in my sermon agaynst them, but all onely I dampned in my sermon the gorgeous pompe and pride of all exterior ornamentes. Than he sayde, “Well—you say very well.†But as well as it was said I am sure that these wordes made me an heretike, for if these wordes had not bene therein, mine adversaries durst never have shewed their faces against me. But now they knewe well that I could never be indifferently hearde. For if I had got the victorie than must all the Bishops and my Lord Cardinal have laid downe all their gorgeous ornamentes, for the which they had rather burne xx such heretikes as I am, as all the worlde knoweth. But God is mighty, and of me hath he shewed his power, for I dare say they never intended thing more in their lives, than they did to destroy me, and yet God, of his infinite mercy, hath saved me, agaynst all their violence: unto his Godly wisdome is the cause all onely knowne. The Byshop of London that was then, called Tunstal, after my departing out of prison, sayd unto a substancyal man, that I was not ded (for I dare say his conscience did not recken me such an heretike, that I wolde have killed myself, as the voyce wente, but yet wolde he have done it gladly of his charyte) but I was, saide he, in Amsterdam (where I had never been in my lyfe, as God knoweth, nor yet in the Countrey this ten yeares) and certaine men dyd there speake with me (said he) and he fained certaine wordes that they shulde say to me, and I to them, and added thereunto that the Lord Cardinal woulde have me againe or it shulde coste hym a greate somme of money, howe moche I do not clerelye remember. I have marvayle that my Lorde is not ashamed, thus shamefully and thus lordly to lye, althoughe he might doo it by auctoritie. And where my Lord Cardinal and he wold spend so moche money to have me agayne, I have great marvayle of it, What can they make of me? (I am now here, what say you to me?) I am a symple poore wretche, and worthe no mans money in the worlde (saving theirs) not the tenth peny that they will give for me, and to burne me or to destroye me, cannot so greatly profyt them.For when I am dead, the sunne, and the moone, the starres, and the element, water and fyre, ye and also stones shall defende this cause againste them rather than the verity shall perish.â€
[89]It was made One of the Articles of Impeachment against him: “That by his outrageous Pride he had greatly shadowed a long season his Grace’s Honour.†Art. XLIV. Sir Thomas More, when Speaker of the House of Commons, noticing a complaint which had been made by the cardinal, that nothing could be said or done in that house, but it was presently spread abroad, and became the talk of every tavern or alehouse, “Masters, (says he) forasmuche as my lord cardinall latelie laied to our charges the lightnes of our tongues for things uttered out of this house, it shall not in my minde be amisse to receive him with all his pompe, with his maces, his pillers, pollaxes, his crosses, his hatt, and the greate seal too; to thintent, that if he finde the like fault with us heereafter, wee maie be the bolder from ourselves to laie the blame on those that his grace bringeth hither with him.â€Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 21, edit. 1817. Sir Thomas also, in his Apology, written in the year 1533, reflects severely upon the change introduced among the clergy, through the cardinall’s means, in the luxury and sumptuousness of their dress.Works, p. 892.
The pulpit likewise occasionally raised its voice against him. Doctor Barnes, who was burnt in Smithfield in the year 1541, preached at St. Edward’s Church in Cambridge, a sermon, for which he was called to appear before the cardinal. This was a part of their dialogue, as it is related in Fox: "What Master Doctor (said the cardinall) had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pollaxes, my pillers, my golden cushions, my cross did so sore offend you, that you must make usridiculum caputamongst the people? We were jolily that day laughed to scorne. Verely it was a sermon more fitter to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit; for at the last you said I weare a paire ofreddegloves, I should saybloudiegloves (quoth you) that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies. And Barnes answered, I spake nothing but the truth out of the Scriptures, according to my conscience, and according to the old doctors."Fox’s Acts, p. 1088.W.
The following curious passage from Doctor Barnes’s ‘Supplication to the King,’ printed by Myddelton, in 12mo, without date, is probably more correct than the exaggeration of the good old martyrologist. It opens to us, as Dr. Wordsworth justly remarks, some part of the philosophy upon which the cardinal defended the fitness of that pomp and state which he maintained.
“Theie havebaculum pastolaremto take shepe with, but it is not like a shepeherdes hooke, for it is intricate and manifolde crooked, and turneth always in, so that it may be called a mase, for it hath neither beginning nor ending, and it is more like to knocke swine and wolves in the head with, than to take shepe.Theie have also pillers and pollaxes, and other ceremonies, which no doubte be but trifels and thinges of nought. I praye you what is the cause that you calle your staffe a shepeherdes staffe? You helpe no man with it? You comforte no man?—You lift up no man with it? But you have stryken downe kynges, and kyngedomes with it; and knocked in the head Dukes and Earls with it. Call you this a sheepeherdes staffe? There is a space in the shepeherdes staffe for the foote to come oute againe, but youre staffe turneth and windeth alwayes inwarde and never outewarde, signifieing that whatsoever he be that cometh within your daunger, that he shall neuer come oute againe. This exposition youre dedes do declare, let them be examined that you have had to do with; and let us see howe they have escaped youre shepeherdes hooke. But these be the articles for the which I must nedes be an heretike, never the less all the worlde may see how shamefully, that I have erred agaynst your holinesse in saying the truth.My Lord Cardinall reasoned with me in this article, all the other he passed over, saving this and the sixth article. Here did he aske, “if I thought it good and reasonable, that he shulde lay downe his pillers and pollaxes and coyne them?â€Here is the heresye that is so abhomynable.I made him answere, that I thoughte it well done. “Than, (saide he), howe thynke you, were it better for me (being in the honour and dignitie that I am) to coyne my pillers and pollaxes and to give the money to five or sixe beggers; than for to maintaine the commenwelthe by them, as I do? Do you not recken (quod he) the commenwelthe better than fyve or sixe beggers?â€To this I did answere that I rekened it more to the honour of God and to the salvation of his soule and also to the comforte of his poore bretheren that they were coyned and given in almes, and as for the commenwelthe dyd not hange of them, (where be they nowe?) for as his grace knewe, the commenwelthe was afore his grace, and must be when his grace is gone, and the pillers and pollaxes came with him, and should also go away with him. Notwithstanding yf the commenwelthe were in suche a condicion that it had nede of them, than might his grace so longe use them, or any other thinge in theyr stede, so long as the commenwelth neded them, Notwithstanding I sayd, thus muche dyd I not say in my sermon agaynst them, but all onely I dampned in my sermon the gorgeous pompe and pride of all exterior ornamentes. Than he sayde, “Well—you say very well.†But as well as it was said I am sure that these wordes made me an heretike, for if these wordes had not bene therein, mine adversaries durst never have shewed their faces against me. But now they knewe well that I could never be indifferently hearde. For if I had got the victorie than must all the Bishops and my Lord Cardinal have laid downe all their gorgeous ornamentes, for the which they had rather burne xx such heretikes as I am, as all the worlde knoweth. But God is mighty, and of me hath he shewed his power, for I dare say they never intended thing more in their lives, than they did to destroy me, and yet God, of his infinite mercy, hath saved me, agaynst all their violence: unto his Godly wisdome is the cause all onely knowne. The Byshop of London that was then, called Tunstal, after my departing out of prison, sayd unto a substancyal man, that I was not ded (for I dare say his conscience did not recken me such an heretike, that I wolde have killed myself, as the voyce wente, but yet wolde he have done it gladly of his charyte) but I was, saide he, in Amsterdam (where I had never been in my lyfe, as God knoweth, nor yet in the Countrey this ten yeares) and certaine men dyd there speake with me (said he) and he fained certaine wordes that they shulde say to me, and I to them, and added thereunto that the Lord Cardinal woulde have me againe or it shulde coste hym a greate somme of money, howe moche I do not clerelye remember. I have marvayle that my Lorde is not ashamed, thus shamefully and thus lordly to lye, althoughe he might doo it by auctoritie. And where my Lord Cardinal and he wold spend so moche money to have me agayne, I have great marvayle of it, What can they make of me? (I am now here, what say you to me?) I am a symple poore wretche, and worthe no mans money in the worlde (saving theirs) not the tenth peny that they will give for me, and to burne me or to destroye me, cannot so greatly profyt them.For when I am dead, the sunne, and the moone, the starres, and the element, water and fyre, ye and also stones shall defende this cause againste them rather than the verity shall perish.â€
[90]Chambers, short guns, or cannon, standing upon their breeching without carriages, chiefly used for festive occasions; and having their name most probably from being little more thanchambersfor powder. It was by the discharge of thesechambersin the play of Henry VIIIth. that the Globe Theatre was burnt in 1613. Shakspeare followed pretty closely the narrative of Cavendish.
[90]Chambers, short guns, or cannon, standing upon their breeching without carriages, chiefly used for festive occasions; and having their name most probably from being little more thanchambersfor powder. It was by the discharge of thesechambersin the play of Henry VIIIth. that the Globe Theatre was burnt in 1613. Shakspeare followed pretty closely the narrative of Cavendish.
[91]Mumchanceappears to have been a game played withdice, at which silence was to be observed.
[91]Mumchanceappears to have been a game played withdice, at which silence was to be observed.
[92]Rounding, sometimes speltrowning, i. e.whispering.
[92]Rounding, sometimes speltrowning, i. e.whispering.
[93]“The king gave good testymony of his love to this lady, creating her in one day Marquesse of Pembroke (that I may use the words of the patent) for the nobylity of her stocke, excellency of her virtues and conditions, and other shewes of honesty and goodness worthyly to bee commended in her. And giving her a patent for a 1000 pounds yerely to maynteyne this honour with. She was the first woman, I read, to have honor given to her and her heyres male.â€Sir Roger Twysden’s MS. note.
[93]“The king gave good testymony of his love to this lady, creating her in one day Marquesse of Pembroke (that I may use the words of the patent) for the nobylity of her stocke, excellency of her virtues and conditions, and other shewes of honesty and goodness worthyly to bee commended in her. And giving her a patent for a 1000 pounds yerely to maynteyne this honour with. She was the first woman, I read, to have honor given to her and her heyres male.â€
Sir Roger Twysden’s MS. note.
[94]“Not above seven yeares of age, Anno 1514.†as appears from a fragment of this life with notes by Sir Roger Twysden, of which a few copies were printed in 1808, by Mr. Triphook, from whence also the following note is copied.
[94]“Not above seven yeares of age, Anno 1514.†as appears from a fragment of this life with notes by Sir Roger Twysden, of which a few copies were printed in 1808, by Mr. Triphook, from whence also the following note is copied.
[95]“It should seeme by some that she served three in France successively; Mary of England maryed to Lewis the twelfth, an. 1514, with whome she went out of England, but Lewis dying the first of January following, and that Queene (being) to returne home, sooner than either Sir Thomas Bullen or some other of her frendes liked she should, she was preferred to Clauda, daughter to Lewis XII. and wife to Francis I. then Queene (it is likely upon the commendation of Mary the Dowager), who not long after dying, an. 1524, not yet weary of France she went to live with Marguerite, Dutchess of Alançon and Berry, a Lady much commended for her favor towards good letters, but never enough for the Protestant religion then in the infancy—from her, if I am not deceived, she first learnt the grounds of the Protestant religion; so that England may seem to owe some part of her happyness derived from that Lady.â€
[95]“It should seeme by some that she served three in France successively; Mary of England maryed to Lewis the twelfth, an. 1514, with whome she went out of England, but Lewis dying the first of January following, and that Queene (being) to returne home, sooner than either Sir Thomas Bullen or some other of her frendes liked she should, she was preferred to Clauda, daughter to Lewis XII. and wife to Francis I. then Queene (it is likely upon the commendation of Mary the Dowager), who not long after dying, an. 1524, not yet weary of France she went to live with Marguerite, Dutchess of Alançon and Berry, a Lady much commended for her favor towards good letters, but never enough for the Protestant religion then in the infancy—from her, if I am not deceived, she first learnt the grounds of the Protestant religion; so that England may seem to owe some part of her happyness derived from that Lady.â€
[96]This expression, unless the author himself were misinformed, must not be extended to imply an absolute precontract. Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VIII. p. 448, has published an original letter from this nobleman, then Earl of Northumberland, written in the year 1536, a short time before Q. Anne’s suffering, in which he denies any such contract, in the most solemn terms. This letter will be found in the Appendix.W.I have placed this letter in the Appendix (Letter VIII) for the convenience of the reader.
[96]This expression, unless the author himself were misinformed, must not be extended to imply an absolute precontract. Lord Herbert, in his Life of Henry VIII. p. 448, has published an original letter from this nobleman, then Earl of Northumberland, written in the year 1536, a short time before Q. Anne’s suffering, in which he denies any such contract, in the most solemn terms. This letter will be found in the Appendix.W.
I have placed this letter in the Appendix (Letter VIII) for the convenience of the reader.
[97]Geffrey Bollen, a gentlemen of Norfolk, Mayor of London, 1457, marryed one of the daughters and heyres of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings, by whome he had William Bolleyn (knight of the Bath at Richard 3ds coronation) who marryed the Earl of Ormonds daughter (he though of Ireland, sate in the English parliament above English Barons), by her he had Thomas Bollen, whome the Erle of Surrey after Duke of Norfolk chose for his son-in-law; of which marriage this Anne was born, 1507.Note from Sir R. Twysden’s MS. Frag.
[97]Geffrey Bollen, a gentlemen of Norfolk, Mayor of London, 1457, marryed one of the daughters and heyres of Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings, by whome he had William Bolleyn (knight of the Bath at Richard 3ds coronation) who marryed the Earl of Ormonds daughter (he though of Ireland, sate in the English parliament above English Barons), by her he had Thomas Bollen, whome the Erle of Surrey after Duke of Norfolk chose for his son-in-law; of which marriage this Anne was born, 1507.
Note from Sir R. Twysden’s MS. Frag.
[98]This was the Lady Mary Talbot, daughter to George Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had no issue. "Though little ceremony, and probably as little time, was used in patching up these nuptials. As might be expected, they were most unhappy. So we are told, on the authority of the earl’s own letters, in the very laboured account of the Percy family given in Collins’ Peerage, ed. 1779, perhaps the best piece of family history in our language. “Henry, the unthrifty Earl of Northumberland, died at Hackney in the prime of life, about ten or twelve years after he had consented to this marriage. Of this term but a very small portion was spent in company of his lady. He lived long enough, however, not only to witness the destruction of his own happiness, but the sad termination of Anne Boleyn’s life. In the admirable account of the Percy family, referred to above, no mention is made of the lady who, on these terms, consented to become Countess of Northumberland, in her long widowhood. She sequestered herself from the world at Wormhill, on the banks of the Derbyshire Wye, amidst some of the sublimest scenery of the Peak. Wormhill is about eighteen miles from Sheffield, where Lady Northumberland’s father, brother, and nephew, successively Earls of Shrewsbury, spent the greater part of their lives.â€Who wrote Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey?p.30.The reader will be pleased to refer to the note as it now stands in Mr. Hunter’s Essay, prefixed to the present edition. He thinks thatWreshill, and notWormhill, must be meant, as there is no other evidence to show that Lady Percy had a house at Wormhill.
[98]This was the Lady Mary Talbot, daughter to George Earl of Shrewsbury, by whom he had no issue. "Though little ceremony, and probably as little time, was used in patching up these nuptials. As might be expected, they were most unhappy. So we are told, on the authority of the earl’s own letters, in the very laboured account of the Percy family given in Collins’ Peerage, ed. 1779, perhaps the best piece of family history in our language. “Henry, the unthrifty Earl of Northumberland, died at Hackney in the prime of life, about ten or twelve years after he had consented to this marriage. Of this term but a very small portion was spent in company of his lady. He lived long enough, however, not only to witness the destruction of his own happiness, but the sad termination of Anne Boleyn’s life. In the admirable account of the Percy family, referred to above, no mention is made of the lady who, on these terms, consented to become Countess of Northumberland, in her long widowhood. She sequestered herself from the world at Wormhill, on the banks of the Derbyshire Wye, amidst some of the sublimest scenery of the Peak. Wormhill is about eighteen miles from Sheffield, where Lady Northumberland’s father, brother, and nephew, successively Earls of Shrewsbury, spent the greater part of their lives.â€
Who wrote Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey?p.30.
The reader will be pleased to refer to the note as it now stands in Mr. Hunter’s Essay, prefixed to the present edition. He thinks thatWreshill, and notWormhill, must be meant, as there is no other evidence to show that Lady Percy had a house at Wormhill.
[99]i. e.fumed. This metaphorical use of the word has not occurred to me elsewhere.
[99]i. e.fumed. This metaphorical use of the word has not occurred to me elsewhere.
[100]The charms of Anne had also attracted Sir Thomas Wyatt, and some of his poems evidently allude to his passion; he was afterwards closely questioned as to the nature of his intimacy with her. A very curious narrative of some particulars relating to this attachment, from the pen of a descendant of the poet, has fortunately been preserved among the MS. collections of Lewis the antiquary. A few copies of this memoir were printed in 1817, but as it has still almost the rarity of a manuscript, I shall enrich my Appendix by reprinting it as a most curious and valuable document relating to this eventful period of our history.
[100]The charms of Anne had also attracted Sir Thomas Wyatt, and some of his poems evidently allude to his passion; he was afterwards closely questioned as to the nature of his intimacy with her. A very curious narrative of some particulars relating to this attachment, from the pen of a descendant of the poet, has fortunately been preserved among the MS. collections of Lewis the antiquary. A few copies of this memoir were printed in 1817, but as it has still almost the rarity of a manuscript, I shall enrich my Appendix by reprinting it as a most curious and valuable document relating to this eventful period of our history.
[101]In the very interesting memoir of Anne Boleyn, by George Wyat, which the reader will find in theAppendix, the queen’s prudent conduct is mentioned, and the following anecdote related: ‘These things being well perceived of the queen, which she knew well to frame and work her advantage of, and therefore the oftener had her (i. e. Anne Boleyn) at cards with her, the rather also that the king might have the less her company, and the lady the more excuse to be from him, also she esteem herself the kindlier used, and yet withal the more to give the king occasion to see the nail upon her finger. And in this entertainment, of time they had a certain game, that I cannot name, then frequented, wherein dealing, the king and queen meeting they stopt; and the young lady’s hap was, much to stop at a king. Which the queen noting, said to her, playfully,My Lady Anne, you have good hap to stop at a king, but you are like others, you will have all or none.’
[101]In the very interesting memoir of Anne Boleyn, by George Wyat, which the reader will find in theAppendix, the queen’s prudent conduct is mentioned, and the following anecdote related: ‘These things being well perceived of the queen, which she knew well to frame and work her advantage of, and therefore the oftener had her (i. e. Anne Boleyn) at cards with her, the rather also that the king might have the less her company, and the lady the more excuse to be from him, also she esteem herself the kindlier used, and yet withal the more to give the king occasion to see the nail upon her finger. And in this entertainment, of time they had a certain game, that I cannot name, then frequented, wherein dealing, the king and queen meeting they stopt; and the young lady’s hap was, much to stop at a king. Which the queen noting, said to her, playfully,My Lady Anne, you have good hap to stop at a king, but you are like others, you will have all or none.’
[102]Yet nothing can be more strong than her expressions of gratitude and affection to the cardinal at this period when his assistance was of importance to her views. Two letters of hers to the cardinal have been published by Burnet, I. 55, [see our Appendix,Letter XI.] in which she says: “all the days of my life I am most bound of all creatures next 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. And as touching your grace’s trouble with the sweat, I thank our Lord that them that I desired and prayed for are scaped, and that is the king and you. And as for the coming of the Legate, I desire that much, and if it be God’s pleasure, I pray him to send this matter shortly to a good end, and then I trust, my lord, to recompense part of your great pains.†In another letter she says: “I do know the great pains and troubles that you have taken for me, both day and night, is never like to be recompensed on my part, but al only in loving you next the king’s grace above all creatures living.†In a third letter, published by Fiddes, “I am bound in the mean time to owe you my service: and then look what thing in the world I can imagine to do you pleasure in, you shall find me the gladdest woman in the world to do it, and next unto the king’s grace, of one thing I make you full promise to be assured to have it, and that is my hearty love unfeignedly during my life.†It should seem, therefore, unless we suppose her to have been insincere in her expression of gratitude, that her animosity did not proceed from any displeasure at the rupture of the affair with Lord Percy; but from subsequent causes. She was probably worked upon by the cardinal’s enemies in the court.
[102]Yet nothing can be more strong than her expressions of gratitude and affection to the cardinal at this period when his assistance was of importance to her views. Two letters of hers to the cardinal have been published by Burnet, I. 55, [see our Appendix,Letter XI.] in which she says: “all the days of my life I am most bound of all creatures next 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. And as touching your grace’s trouble with the sweat, I thank our Lord that them that I desired and prayed for are scaped, and that is the king and you. And as for the coming of the Legate, I desire that much, and if it be God’s pleasure, I pray him to send this matter shortly to a good end, and then I trust, my lord, to recompense part of your great pains.†In another letter she says: “I do know the great pains and troubles that you have taken for me, both day and night, is never like to be recompensed on my part, but al only in loving you next the king’s grace above all creatures living.†In a third letter, published by Fiddes, “I am bound in the mean time to owe you my service: and then look what thing in the world I can imagine to do you pleasure in, you shall find me the gladdest woman in the world to do it, and next unto the king’s grace, of one thing I make you full promise to be assured to have it, and that is my hearty love unfeignedly during my life.†It should seem, therefore, unless we suppose her to have been insincere in her expression of gratitude, that her animosity did not proceed from any displeasure at the rupture of the affair with Lord Percy; but from subsequent causes. She was probably worked upon by the cardinal’s enemies in the court.
[103]The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant, and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the Lady Regent of France, he had made de Praet (the emperor’s ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion, and after a few months, De Praet, in his letters to the emperor, and to Margaret, the governess of the Netherlands, expressed his apprehension that all was not right, and the reasons for his surmises. His letters were intercepted by the cardinal, and read before the council. Charles and Margaret complained of this insult, and the cardinal explained as well as he could. At the same time protesting against the misrepresentation of De Praet, and assuring them that nothing could be further from his wish than that any disunion should arise between the king his master and the emperor; and notwithstanding the suspicious aspect of this transaction, his dispatches both immediately before and after this fracas strongly corroborate his assertions. [See additional note at the end of the Life.] Wolsey suspected that the Pope was inclined toward the cause of Francis, and reminded him, through the Bishop of Bath, of his obligations to Henry and Charles. The Pope had already taken the alarm, and had made terms with the French king, but had industriously concealed it from Wolsey, and at length urged in his excuse that he had no alternative. Joacchino was again in England upon a different mission, and was an eyewitness of the melancholy condition of the cardinal when his fortunes were reversed. He sympathised with him, and interested himself for him with Francis and the Queen Dowager, as appears by his letters published inLegrand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII.
[103]The name of this person was Giovanni Joacchino Passano, a Genoese; he was afterwards called Seigneur de Vaux. The emperor, it appears, was informed of his being in England, and for what purpose. The cardinal stated that Joacchino came over as a merchant, and that as soon as he discovered himself to be sent by the Lady Regent of France, he had made de Praet (the emperor’s ambassador) privy thereto, and likewise of the answer given to her proposals. The air of mystery which attached to this mission naturally created suspicion, and after a few months, De Praet, in his letters to the emperor, and to Margaret, the governess of the Netherlands, expressed his apprehension that all was not right, and the reasons for his surmises. His letters were intercepted by the cardinal, and read before the council. Charles and Margaret complained of this insult, and the cardinal explained as well as he could. At the same time protesting against the misrepresentation of De Praet, and assuring them that nothing could be further from his wish than that any disunion should arise between the king his master and the emperor; and notwithstanding the suspicious aspect of this transaction, his dispatches both immediately before and after this fracas strongly corroborate his assertions. [See additional note at the end of the Life.] Wolsey suspected that the Pope was inclined toward the cause of Francis, and reminded him, through the Bishop of Bath, of his obligations to Henry and Charles. The Pope had already taken the alarm, and had made terms with the French king, but had industriously concealed it from Wolsey, and at length urged in his excuse that he had no alternative. Joacchino was again in England upon a different mission, and was an eyewitness of the melancholy condition of the cardinal when his fortunes were reversed. He sympathised with him, and interested himself for him with Francis and the Queen Dowager, as appears by his letters published inLegrand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII.
[104]Dr. Fiddes has justly observed, that Cavendish, in his account of these transactions, asserted some things not only without sufficient authority, but contrary to the evidence of documents which he has adduced. By these it appears, that if there was any delay in the supplies promised on the part of England it was purely accidental; and that the remissness of the emperor to furnish his quota was the principal cause of the extremity to which the Duke of Bourbon’s army was reduced. Cavendish is also wrong in his relation of the siege of Pavia and its consequences. The fact is, that the Duke of Bourbon did not command in the town, but marched at the head of the imperial army to relieve it; and the garrison did not sally out until the two armies were engaged. The demonstrations of joy with which the victory at Pavia was received in London is also an argument for the sincerity of Henry and the cardinal at this time. The story of the treaty between Henry and Francis, said to have been found in the tent of the latter after the victory, is also a mere fiction. In the spirit of a true son of the Apostolic Church, Cavendish deprecates every thing which might tend to bring the Pope into jeopardy; and he cannot help bearing hard even upon the cardinal, because he was thought indirectly the cause ‘of all thismischief.’ What is here said receives confirmation from some interesting letters of the cardinal in the Appendix to Galt’s Life of Wolsey, No. IV. V. VI. p. cxxxiv, &c. 4to edition, Lond. 1812.
[104]Dr. Fiddes has justly observed, that Cavendish, in his account of these transactions, asserted some things not only without sufficient authority, but contrary to the evidence of documents which he has adduced. By these it appears, that if there was any delay in the supplies promised on the part of England it was purely accidental; and that the remissness of the emperor to furnish his quota was the principal cause of the extremity to which the Duke of Bourbon’s army was reduced. Cavendish is also wrong in his relation of the siege of Pavia and its consequences. The fact is, that the Duke of Bourbon did not command in the town, but marched at the head of the imperial army to relieve it; and the garrison did not sally out until the two armies were engaged. The demonstrations of joy with which the victory at Pavia was received in London is also an argument for the sincerity of Henry and the cardinal at this time. The story of the treaty between Henry and Francis, said to have been found in the tent of the latter after the victory, is also a mere fiction. In the spirit of a true son of the Apostolic Church, Cavendish deprecates every thing which might tend to bring the Pope into jeopardy; and he cannot help bearing hard even upon the cardinal, because he was thought indirectly the cause ‘of all thismischief.’ What is here said receives confirmation from some interesting letters of the cardinal in the Appendix to Galt’s Life of Wolsey, No. IV. V. VI. p. cxxxiv, &c. 4to edition, Lond. 1812.
[105]These intrigues, in which the cardinal bore so large a part, did not redound to the glory of his country. Our merry neighbours even then had begun to make our diplomatic inferiority the subject of their sport and ridicule. William Tindall, in hisPractice of popish Prelates, referring to these events, tells us, “The Frenchmen of late dayes made a play or a disguising at Paris, in which the emperour daunsed with the pope and the French king, and weried them, the king of England sitting on a hye bench, and looking on. And when it was asked, why he daunsed not, it was answered, that he sate there,but to pay the minstrels their wages onely: as who should say, wee paid for all mens dauncing.â€Tindall’s Works, p. 375. A. D. 1572.W.
[105]These intrigues, in which the cardinal bore so large a part, did not redound to the glory of his country. Our merry neighbours even then had begun to make our diplomatic inferiority the subject of their sport and ridicule. William Tindall, in hisPractice of popish Prelates, referring to these events, tells us, “The Frenchmen of late dayes made a play or a disguising at Paris, in which the emperour daunsed with the pope and the French king, and weried them, the king of England sitting on a hye bench, and looking on. And when it was asked, why he daunsed not, it was answered, that he sate there,but to pay the minstrels their wages onely: as who should say, wee paid for all mens dauncing.â€Tindall’s Works, p. 375. A. D. 1572.W.
[106]Abrakehere seems to signify asnareortrap. The word has much puzzled the commentators on Shakspeare (See Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 1). One of its antient significations was asharp bitto break horses with. A farrier’sbrakewas a machine to confine or trammel the legs of unruly horses. An antient instrument of torture was also calleda brake; and a thornybrakemeant an intricate thicket of thorns. Shakerly Marmion, in his comedy of ‘Holland’s Leaguer’, evidently uses the word in the same sense with Cavendish:“———-Her I’ll makeA stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€
[106]Abrakehere seems to signify asnareortrap. The word has much puzzled the commentators on Shakspeare (See Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 1). One of its antient significations was asharp bitto break horses with. A farrier’sbrakewas a machine to confine or trammel the legs of unruly horses. An antient instrument of torture was also calleda brake; and a thornybrakemeant an intricate thicket of thorns. Shakerly Marmion, in his comedy of ‘Holland’s Leaguer’, evidently uses the word in the same sense with Cavendish:
“———-Her I’ll makeA stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€
“———-Her I’ll makeA stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€
“———-Her I’ll makeA stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€
“———-Her I’ll make
A stale to catch this courtier ina brake.â€
[107]The 3d Day of July (1526), the Cardinal of Yorke passed through the City of London, with many lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve hundred horse——The 11th day of May he took shipping at Dover, and landed at Calais the same day.Grafton, p. 1150.
[107]The 3d Day of July (1526), the Cardinal of Yorke passed through the City of London, with many lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve hundred horse——The 11th day of May he took shipping at Dover, and landed at Calais the same day.
Grafton, p. 1150.
[108]Lanzen-Knechts, the name by which these bands of German mercenaries were then designated.
[108]Lanzen-Knechts, the name by which these bands of German mercenaries were then designated.
[109]Cavendish uses this word again in his poems:“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclauseWrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.SeeFox’s Acts, &c. p. 1769:“Cook.Then answere me, What sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the altar? Tell me:“Jackson.I answered; it is adiffusequestion, to aske me at the first dash, you promising to deliver me.†See also p. 1574. “Diffuseanddifficult.â€It appears to have been used in the sense ofobscure, butdifficultis the reading of Grove’s edition. I finddiffusedexplained by Cotgrave “diffus,espars,OBSCURE.†And in a Latin Greek and English Lexicon by R. Hutton, printed at London by H. Bynneman, 1583, the Latin adverb,obscure, is interpreted “darkely, obscurely,DIFFUSELY.â€
[109]Cavendish uses this word again in his poems:
“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclauseWrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.
“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclauseWrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.
“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclauseWrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.
“Wherin was found a certyndefuseclause
Wrested by craft to a male intente.†p. 139.
SeeFox’s Acts, &c. p. 1769:
“Cook.Then answere me, What sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the altar? Tell me:
“Jackson.I answered; it is adiffusequestion, to aske me at the first dash, you promising to deliver me.†See also p. 1574. “Diffuseanddifficult.â€
It appears to have been used in the sense ofobscure, butdifficultis the reading of Grove’s edition. I finddiffusedexplained by Cotgrave “diffus,espars,OBSCURE.†And in a Latin Greek and English Lexicon by R. Hutton, printed at London by H. Bynneman, 1583, the Latin adverb,obscure, is interpreted “darkely, obscurely,DIFFUSELY.â€
[110]The great seal could not be carried out of the king’s dominions without violating the law; letters patent were passed to enable Dr. Taylor to hold it in his absence.
[110]The great seal could not be carried out of the king’s dominions without violating the law; letters patent were passed to enable Dr. Taylor to hold it in his absence.
[111]Stradiots and Arbenois.These were light armed cavalry, said by Guicciardini to have been Greek mercenaries in the service of Venice, retaining their Greek name στÏατιώται. Arbenois is Albanians,Albanois,Fr.The following passage fromNicot Thresor de la Langue Françoise, ed. 1606. fol.will fully explain this:“A présent on apelle en particulierAlbanoisces hommes de cheval armez à la légère, autrement dit Stratiote, ouStradiots(par la consonne moyenne), qui portent les chapeaux à haute testière, desquels on se sert pour chevaux légers, qui viennent dudit pays d’Albanie, dont les Papes se servent encore de ce temps és garnisons de plusieurs villes du Saint siège,Albani, olim Epirotæ.â€
[111]Stradiots and Arbenois.These were light armed cavalry, said by Guicciardini to have been Greek mercenaries in the service of Venice, retaining their Greek name στÏατιώται. Arbenois is Albanians,Albanois,Fr.The following passage fromNicot Thresor de la Langue Françoise, ed. 1606. fol.will fully explain this:
“A présent on apelle en particulierAlbanoisces hommes de cheval armez à la légère, autrement dit Stratiote, ouStradiots(par la consonne moyenne), qui portent les chapeaux à haute testière, desquels on se sert pour chevaux légers, qui viennent dudit pays d’Albanie, dont les Papes se servent encore de ce temps és garnisons de plusieurs villes du Saint siège,Albani, olim Epirotæ.â€
[112]In like manner, we saw, a little above, that at Calais he gave “benediction and pardon.†From a letter to the cardinal, from Humfrey Monmouth, confined in the Tower on suspicion of heresy, we may gather what notion was entertained, even by comparatively enlightened men, of the efficacy of these pardons. "If I had broken most part of the Ten Commandments of God, being penitent and confessed (I should be forgiven) by reason of certain pardons that I have, the which my company and I had graunted, whan we were at Rome, going to Jerusalem, of the holy father the pope,a pœna et a culpa, for certain times in the year: and that, I trust in God, I received at Easter last past. Furthermore I received, when your grace was last at Pawles, I trust in God, your pardon ofa pœnaet a culpa; the which I believe verily, if I had done never so great offences, being penitent and confessed, and axing forgiveness, that I should have forgiveness."Strype’s Ecclesiast. Memor.vol. i. p. 248. Appendix. The cardinal had also a bull granted by Pope Leo Xth. A. D. 1518. to give in certain cases and conditions plenary remission from all sins.Fiddes, p. 48. Appendix.W.
[112]In like manner, we saw, a little above, that at Calais he gave “benediction and pardon.†From a letter to the cardinal, from Humfrey Monmouth, confined in the Tower on suspicion of heresy, we may gather what notion was entertained, even by comparatively enlightened men, of the efficacy of these pardons. "If I had broken most part of the Ten Commandments of God, being penitent and confessed (I should be forgiven) by reason of certain pardons that I have, the which my company and I had graunted, whan we were at Rome, going to Jerusalem, of the holy father the pope,a pœna et a culpa, for certain times in the year: and that, I trust in God, I received at Easter last past. Furthermore I received, when your grace was last at Pawles, I trust in God, your pardon ofa pœnaet a culpa; the which I believe verily, if I had done never so great offences, being penitent and confessed, and axing forgiveness, that I should have forgiveness."Strype’s Ecclesiast. Memor.vol. i. p. 248. Appendix. The cardinal had also a bull granted by Pope Leo Xth. A. D. 1518. to give in certain cases and conditions plenary remission from all sins.Fiddes, p. 48. Appendix.W.
[113]Among other distinguished honours conferred by Francis upon the Cardinal was the singular privilege of pardoning and releasing prisoners and delinquents confined in the towns through which he passed, in the same manner as the king himself was used to do: the only culprits excluded from the power of pardon given him by this patent were those guilty of the most capital crimes.
[113]Among other distinguished honours conferred by Francis upon the Cardinal was the singular privilege of pardoning and releasing prisoners and delinquents confined in the towns through which he passed, in the same manner as the king himself was used to do: the only culprits excluded from the power of pardon given him by this patent were those guilty of the most capital crimes.
[114]i. e.Switzers. Cavendish revels in his subsequent description of thetall Scotswho formed the French king’s body guard.
[114]i. e.Switzers. Cavendish revels in his subsequent description of thetall Scotswho formed the French king’s body guard.
[115]Whose mule if it should be soldSo gayly trapped with velvet and goldAnd given to us for our schare,I durst ensure the one thingAs for a competent lyvyngeThis seven yeare we should not care.Roy’s Satire.In the picture of the Champs de drap d’or, which has been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, the cardinal appears mounted on a richly caparisoned mule.
[115]
Whose mule if it should be soldSo gayly trapped with velvet and goldAnd given to us for our schare,I durst ensure the one thingAs for a competent lyvyngeThis seven yeare we should not care.
Whose mule if it should be soldSo gayly trapped with velvet and goldAnd given to us for our schare,I durst ensure the one thingAs for a competent lyvyngeThis seven yeare we should not care.
Whose mule if it should be soldSo gayly trapped with velvet and goldAnd given to us for our schare,I durst ensure the one thingAs for a competent lyvyngeThis seven yeare we should not care.
Whose mule if it should be sold
So gayly trapped with velvet and gold
And given to us for our schare,
I durst ensure the one thing
As for a competent lyvynge
This seven yeare we should not care.
Roy’s Satire.
In the picture of the Champs de drap d’or, which has been engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, the cardinal appears mounted on a richly caparisoned mule.
[116]A previous negotiation of a singular nature had been begun, for the Bishop of Bath writes to the cardinal in March, 1527, that "Francis is very desirous to have the Princess Mary, and to have her delivered into his hands as soon as the peace is concluded. Our king pretends her non age, and will have all, pension, &c., concluded first. The Queen Regent is earnest also for the present marriage: Saying there is no danger, for she herself was married at xi. And for this match there might be a device to satisfy both sides, saying the princess will be well toward xii by August. At that time both princes should meet at Calais with a small company and charge, there her son, after the marriage solemnized, might abide himself for an hour or less with my Lady Princess; she said the king her son was a man of honour and discretion, and would use no violence, especially the father and mother being so nigh; meaning, thatconatus ad copulam cum illa, quæ est proxima pubertati, prudentia supplente ætatem, should make every thing sure that neither party should now vary. So the king her son might be assured of his wife, and King Henry carry back his daughter till she should be accounted more able, &c. This overture our ambassadors think very strange."Fiddes Collections, p. 176. The Bishop of Bath returned into England soon after the cardinal went on his mission, to relate to Henry the course adopted by the cardinal in treating with Francis, and also to explain to him certain devices concerning his own secret matters.Mr. Master’s Collections.
[116]A previous negotiation of a singular nature had been begun, for the Bishop of Bath writes to the cardinal in March, 1527, that "Francis is very desirous to have the Princess Mary, and to have her delivered into his hands as soon as the peace is concluded. Our king pretends her non age, and will have all, pension, &c., concluded first. The Queen Regent is earnest also for the present marriage: Saying there is no danger, for she herself was married at xi. And for this match there might be a device to satisfy both sides, saying the princess will be well toward xii by August. At that time both princes should meet at Calais with a small company and charge, there her son, after the marriage solemnized, might abide himself for an hour or less with my Lady Princess; she said the king her son was a man of honour and discretion, and would use no violence, especially the father and mother being so nigh; meaning, thatconatus ad copulam cum illa, quæ est proxima pubertati, prudentia supplente ætatem, should make every thing sure that neither party should now vary. So the king her son might be assured of his wife, and King Henry carry back his daughter till she should be accounted more able, &c. This overture our ambassadors think very strange."Fiddes Collections, p. 176. The Bishop of Bath returned into England soon after the cardinal went on his mission, to relate to Henry the course adopted by the cardinal in treating with Francis, and also to explain to him certain devices concerning his own secret matters.Mr. Master’s Collections.
[117]Skinner explains this word,a curtain. It evidently signifies here an enclosed or divided space or seat, decorated with rich draperies or curtains. In another place we havea traverse of sarsenet, which confirms Skinner’s explanation.
[117]Skinner explains this word,a curtain. It evidently signifies here an enclosed or divided space or seat, decorated with rich draperies or curtains. In another place we havea traverse of sarsenet, which confirms Skinner’s explanation.
[118]Grises, greeses, orsteps, for it was spelt various ways according to the caprice of the writer, from the Latingressus.
[118]Grises, greeses, orsteps, for it was spelt various ways according to the caprice of the writer, from the Latingressus.
[119]Theroodeloftwas the place where the cross stood; it was generally placed over the passage out of the church into the chancel.
[119]Theroodeloftwas the place where the cross stood; it was generally placed over the passage out of the church into the chancel.
[120]The passage within brackets is not to be found in any of the more recent MSS., nor in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition.
[120]The passage within brackets is not to be found in any of the more recent MSS., nor in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition.
[121]Erasmus, in a letter to Aleander, dwells with delight upon this custom:"Quanquam si Britanniæ dotes satis pernosses Fauste, næ tu alatis pedibus, huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hic nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis Camænis facile anteponas.Est præterea mos nunquam satis laudatus: Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris: redis? redduntur suavia; venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te? dividuntur basia: occuritur alicubi? basiatur affatim: denique, quocunque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quæ si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari."Erasmi Epistol.p. 315, edit. 1642. “It becometh nat therefore the persones religious to folowethe maner of secular persones, that in theyr congresses and commune metyngs or departyng done use to kysse, take hands, or such other touchings, that good religious persones shulde utterly avoyde.â€Whytford’s Pype of Perfection.fol. 213. b.A. D.1532.W.
[121]Erasmus, in a letter to Aleander, dwells with delight upon this custom:
"Quanquam si Britanniæ dotes satis pernosses Fauste, næ tu alatis pedibus, huc accurreres; et si podagra tua non sineret, Dædalum te fieri optares. Nam ut e pluribus unum quiddam attingam. Sunt hic nymphæ divinis vultibus, blandae, faciles, et quas tu tuis Camænis facile anteponas.Est præterea mos nunquam satis laudatus: Sive quo venias omnium osculis exciperis; sive discedas aliquo, osculis demitteris: redis? redduntur suavia; venitur ad te? propinantur suavia: disceditur abs te? dividuntur basia: occuritur alicubi? basiatur affatim: denique, quocunque te moveas, suaviorum plena sunt omnia. Quæ si tu, Fauste, gustasses semel quam sint mollicula, quam fragrantia, profecto cuperes non decennium solum, ut Solon fecit, sed ad mortem usque in Anglia peregrinari."Erasmi Epistol.p. 315, edit. 1642. “It becometh nat therefore the persones religious to folowethe maner of secular persones, that in theyr congresses and commune metyngs or departyng done use to kysse, take hands, or such other touchings, that good religious persones shulde utterly avoyde.â€Whytford’s Pype of Perfection.fol. 213. b.A. D.1532.W.
[122]This name is speltCreekyandCrykkyin the autograph MS. In Wordsworth’s edition it is Crokey. Grove has itCrockly, and two of the MSS. copiesCrokir. I know not whether I have divined the true orthography, but there was a noble family of this name at the time.
[122]This name is speltCreekyandCrykkyin the autograph MS. In Wordsworth’s edition it is Crokey. Grove has itCrockly, and two of the MSS. copiesCrokir. I know not whether I have divined the true orthography, but there was a noble family of this name at the time.