Chapter 23

[123]Evensong.“Which persons for their waiting befoir noon hath licence at afternoon to go about their own business from the saide noon to iij of the clocke that evensong begin.”Northumberland Household Book, p. 310.[124]The shalme, or shawm, was a wind instrument like a hautboy, with a swelling protuberance in the middle. In “Commenius’s Visible World,” translated by Hoole, 1659, the Latin wordgingrasis translated by shawn, and the form of the instrument is represented as below. Its proper name appears to have beenshawme; it is derived from the Teutonic. Drayton mentions it as shrill-toned: ‘E’en from the shrillestshaumunto the cornamute.’Polyolbionv. iv. p. 376.[125]Now, Wordsworth’s edit. The passages within brackets which follow are not found in any other manuscript: a space almost always marking the deficiency of this relation, and the succeeding account of the libels of the French against the cardinal.[126]Catherine Reneé, one of the daughters of Louis the Twelfth. It does not seem that this exposition of the cardinal’s views in regard to the union of Henry with this princess, in case of a divorce, were without foundation, for he persuaded himself that Henry’s passion for Anne Boleyn would soon subside, and thought this alliance a sure mode of perpetuating the peace and union between the sovereigns. The other part of the assertion was proved true by the subsequent treaty, in which it was agreed that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis, or the Duke of Orleans; the first if he should remain a widower until she was of sufficient age, the second if it seemed expedient that Francis should keep his faith to the emperor, and marry his sister Leonora, to whom he was contracted by the Treaty of Madrid. Hence the necessity of keeping these designs secret, and the cardinal’s anger at their developement.[127]This passage stands in the ordinary MSS., and in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition, in the following abridged and confused manner. The transcribers of the MSS. appear to have been sensible that their copy was defective, for in several of them one or two blank leaves are here left.“Now shortly after there were divers malicious practices pretended against us by the French, who by their theft somewhat impaired us: whereupon one of them, being a man I was well acquainted with, maintained a seditious untruth, openly divulged, and set forth by a subtle and traitorous subject of their realm, saying also that he doubted not, but the like had been attempted within the king of England his majesty’s dominions; but to see so open and manifest blasphemy to be openly punished, according to their traitorous deserts, notwithstanding I saw but small redress.”[128]The twentieth of October,A. D.1527. The embassadors were the Maréchal de Montmorency, the Bishop of Bayonne, the President of Rouen, and Monsieur d’Humieres.[129]The book of ceremonies (compiled under the influence of the Bishops Gardiner and Tonstall, and in opposition to that of Cranmer, about the year 1540, and designed to retain in the church many operose and superstitious rites, by setting them off with the aids of a philosophical and subtle interpretation), describing in succession the different parts of the Canon of the Mass, proceeds thus, "Then saith the priestthrice,Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, &c.advertising us ofthreeeffects of Christ’s passion; whereof thefirstis, deliverance from the misery of sin; thesecondis from pain of everlasting damnation; wherefore he saith twiceMiserere nobis, that is to say,Have mercy on us; and thethirdeffect is, giving of everlasting peace, consisting in the glorious fruition of God."Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. i. p. 289. Records. See alsoMirror of our Lady. fol. 189, andBecon’s Works. Vol. iii. fol. 49.A. D.1564.W.[130]These cupboards or rather sideboards of plate were necessary appendages to every splendid entertainment. The form of them somewhat resembled some of the old cumbrous cabinets to be found still in ancient houses on the continent. There was a succession of step-like stages, or desks, as Cavendish calls them, upon which the plate was placed. The reader will have a better conception than description can convey of this piece of antient ostentation, from a print in a very curious work by Julio Bello, entitledLaurea Austriaca:Francof.1627, folio, p. 640. Where our King James I. is represented entertaining the Spanish ambassadors in 1623.[131]Proface.An expression of welcome equivalent to Much good may it do you! Mr. Steevens conjectured it to be from the old French expression, ‘Bon prou leur face,’ which is to be found in Cotgravein voceProu. This was a happy conjecture of Mr. Steevens, for Mr. Nares has pointed out its true origin in the old Norman-French or Romance language: ‘Proufacesouhait qui veut dire, bien vous fasse,proficiat.’Roquefort.Glossaire de la Langue Romane.[132]‘Mademoiselle de Boulan à la fin y est venue, et l’a le Roy logée en fort beau logis, qu’il a fait bien accoustrer tout auprès du sien, et luy est la cour faicte ordinairement tous les jours plus grosse que de long temps ne fut faicte à la Royne.’Lettre de l’Evesque de’ Bayonne.[133]It is a question of fact which has been warmly debated, whether the suffrages of the Universities in Henry’s favour were purchased by money. It does not seem very necessary thatweshould enter into this dispute. But any one who wishes so to do, may consultBurnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, Vol. iii. p. 401, Appendix.Harmer’s Specimen of Errors, p. 7.Fiddes’s Life of Wolsey, p. 420.Poli Epistolæ, Vol. i. p. 238.A. D.1744.W.[134]Eight of these determinations soon after were printed in one volume, with a long Discourse in support of the judgments contained in them, under the following title: “The Determinations of the moste famous and moste excellent Universities of Italy and Fraunce, that it is so unlefull for a man to marry his Brother’s Wyfe, that the Pope hath no power to dispence therewith: imprinted by Thomas Berthelet the viith day of Novembre, 1531.” They were also published in Latin: in which language they are exhibited by Bishop Burnet in hisHist. of the Reformation, Vol. i. book ii. No. 34. Records.W.[135]i. e. theBullaor Papal seal. The passage marked with * * contains three words which I could not decipher.[136]DoctorStephenGardiner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, at this time in great estimation with Wolsey. In letters and other documents of this period he is often called DoctorStevens. Mr. Grainger in the third vol. of Bishop Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, p. 385, Appendix, intimates that this was a colloquial vulgarism; “vulgarly, as Stephen Gardiner was Mr.Stevyns, in Wolsey’s Letter.” But it is questionable, I think, whether this is the true account of that name. The bishop himself, in his Declaration of his Articles against George Joye,A. D.1546, fol. 3. b. of the 4to edition, thus speaks of it, “a booke, wherein he wrote, how DoctorStevens(bywhiche nameI wasthencalled) had deceyved him.”In Doctor Barnes’ account of his examination before the bishops at Westminster, he calls Gardiner “Doctor Stephen then secretary.”[137]The reader may consult Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, Vol. iii. p. 46-48. The bishop affirms positively that the king did not appear personally, but by proxy; and that the queen withdrew after reading a protest against the competency of her judges. “And from this it is clear (says the bishop), that the speeches that the historians have made for them are all plain falsities.” It is easy to contradict the confident affirmation of the historian upon the authority of a document published by himself in his Records, i. 78. It is a letter from the king to his agents, where he says: "At which time both we and the queen appeared in person, and they minding to proceed further in the cause, the queen would no longer make her abode to hear what the judges would fully descern, but incontinently departed out of the court; wherefore she was thrice preconnisate, and called eftsoons to return and appear; which she refusing to do, was denounced by the judgescontumax, and a citation decerned for her appearance on Friday." Which is corroborated also byFox’s Acts, p. 958. Indeed the testimony for the personal appearance of the king before the cardinals is surprisingly powerful; even though we do not go beyond Cavendish, and the other ordinary historians. But in addition to these, Dr. Wordsworth has produced the authority of William Thomas, Clerk of the Council in the reign of King Edward VI, a well informed writer; who, in a professed Apology for Henry VIII, extant in MS. in the Lambeth and some other libraries, speaking of this affair affirms, “that the Cardinal (Campeggio) caused the king as a private party in person to appear before him, and the Lady Katharine both.” P. 31.[138]Hall has given a different report of this speech of the queen’s, which he says was madein French, and translated by him, as well as he could, from notes taken by Cardinal Campeggio’s secretary. In his version she accuses Wolsey with being the first mover of her troubles, and reproaches him, in bitter terms, of pride and voluptuousness: such harsh language could hardly deserve the praise ‘modeste tamen eam locutum fuisse,’ given by Campeggio.[139]SeeNeve’s Animadversions on Phillips’s Life of Cardinal Pole, p. 62.[140]Nothing of this kind is to be found in the journal of this embassy, or in the letters of the bishop and his companions, which have been preserved, and many of which have been published byLe Grand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII.[141]“In a Manuscript Life of Sir Thomas More, written not many years after Longland’s death, this account is given. ‘I have heard Dr. Draycot, that was his (Longland’s) chaplain and chancellor, say, that he once told the bishop what rumour ran upon him in that matter; and desired to know of him the very truth. Who answered, that in very deed he did not break the matter after that sort, as is said: but the king brake the matter to him first; and never left urging him until he had won him to give his consent. Of which his doings he did forethink himself, and repented afterward.’ MSS. Coll. Eman. Cantab.” Baker’s Notes onBurnet’s Hist. of the Reformation: in Burnet, Vol. iii. p. 400, Appendix. The same Life is among the MSS. in the Lambeth Library, No. 827, (see fol. 12), and, I have reason to think, was composed about the year 1556, and by Nicolas Harpsfield. From these concurrent testimonies it should appear, that the charge which has been often urged against Wolsey, that it was through his intrigues that Longland first suggested his scruples to the king, is unfounded.W.Wolsey was at the time loudly proclaimed as the instigator of the divorce, and though he denied it upon some occasions, he admitted it on others; but Cardinal Pole asserts that it was first suggested by certain divines whom Anne Boleyn sent to him for that purpose. It is remarkable that he says this when writing to the king, and would surely not have ventured to say so if he had not had good grounds for the assertion.[142]July, 1529.[143]This determination of Campeggio was in consequence of secret instructions from the pope (unknown to Wolsey), at the instance of the emperor, who had prevailed upon the pontiff to adjourn the court and remove the cause to Rome.[144]These proceedings led the way to the next great step in the progress of the Reformation, the renunciation of the pope’s authority, and the establishment of the regal supremacy. The following account, from an unpublished treatise, of the manner in which these questions were first brought to the king’s mind (whether authentic or not) may not be unacceptable to my readers."Now unto that you say, that because Pope Clement would not dispense with his second matrimonie, his majestie extirped out of England the papal authoritie, a thinge of most auncient and godly reverence as you take it, I aunsweare that after the kinges highness had so appeared in person before the Cardinal Campegio, one of the princes of his realm, named theDuke of Suffolk, a great wise man, and of more familiaritie with the kinge than any other person, asked his majestie, ‘how this matter might come to passe, that a prince in his own realme should so humble himself before the feet of a vile, strange, vitious priest,’ (for Campegio there in England demeaned himself in very deed most carnally — —). Whereunto the king aunswered, “he could not tell; but only that it seemed unto him, the spiritual men ought to judge spiritual matters; and yet as you saye (said the king) me seemeth there should be somewhat in it, and I would right gladly understand, why and how, were it not that I would be loth to appeare more curious than other princes.” “Why, sir (sayd the duke), your majestie may cause the matter to be discussed secretly by your learned men, without any rumour at all.” “Very well (sayd the kinge), and so it shall be.” And thus inspired of God, called he diverse of his trusty and great doctours unto him; charging them distinctly to examine,what lawe of God should direct so carnal a man as Campegio, under the name of spiritual, to judge a king in his owne realme. According unto whose commandment, these doctors resorting together unto an appointed place, disputed this matterlarge et stricte, as the case required. And as the blacke by the white is knowen, so by conferring the oppositions together, it appeared that the evangelical lawe varied much from the canon lawes in this pointe. So that in effect, because two contraries cannot standin uno subjecto, eodem casu et tempore, they were constrained to recurre unto the kinges majesties pleasure, to knowe whether of these two lawes should be preferred: who smiling at the ignorance of so fonde a question aunsweared, that the Gospell of Christ ought to be the absolute rule unto all others; commanding them therefore to followe the same, without regard either to the civile, canon, or whatsoever other lawe. And here began the quicke: for these doctours had no sooner taken the Gospel for their absolute rule, but they found this popish authoritie over the kinges and princes of this earth to be usurped."William Thomas’s Apology for King Henry the Eighth, writtenA. D.1547. p. 34. Lambeth Library. MSS. No. 464.W.[145]The history and occasion of this great obligation of the Duke of Suffolk to the cardinal, who plainly intimates that but for his interposition the duke must have lost his life, does not appear to be known to the historians. SeeFiddes’s Life of Wolsey. p. 454.W.A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1755 (Dr. Pegge), who appears to have paid much attention to the Cardinal Wolsey’s history, suggests that Wolsey was the means of abating the anger of Henry at the marriage of Suffolk with his sister Mary Queen of France, which might have been made a treasonable offence. A letter from Mary to Wolsey, dated March 22, 1515, after her marriage with Suffolk, which is still extant in the Cotton Collection, gives some probability to this conjecture.[146]i. e. Dr. Stephen Gardiner.[147]i. e. The season of hunting, when the hart is ingreaseor full season. Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the more recent manuscripts read—‘allthatseason.’[148]The following additional particulars of the route are found in more recent MSS. “And were lodged the first night at a towne in Bedfordshire, called Leighton Bussarde, in the parsonage there, being Mr. Doctor Chambers’s benefice, the kings phisitian. And from thence they rode the next day.”[149]The king had listened to their suggestions against the cardinal, and they felt assured of success; they are represented by an eyewitness, as boasting openly that they would humble him and all churchmen, and spoil them of their wealth: “La faintaisie de ces seigneurs est, que lui mort ou ruiné ils déferrent incontinent icy l’estat de l’eglise, et prendront tous leurs biens; qu’il seroit ja besoing que je le misse en chiffre, car ils le crient en plaine table.”L’Evesque de Bayonne, Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 374.[150]“Le pis de son mal est, que Mademoiselle de Boulen a faict promettre à son Amy qu’il ne l’escoutera jamais parler; car elle pense bien qu’il ne le pourroit garder d’en avoir pitié.”Lettre de l’Eveque de Bayonne ap. Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 375.The manor ofThe Moorwas situate in the parish of Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire; the site is still called Moor Park. It was purchased and the house built by George Neville, Archbishop of York. Edward the fourth had promised to make that prelate a visit there, and while he was making suitable preparations to receive his royal master he was sent for to Windsor, and arrested for high treason. The king seized at the Moor all his rich stuff and plate to the value of 20,000l.keeping the archbishop prisoner at Calais and Hammes.Stowe, Ao. 1472. There was a survey of the house in 1568, by which it appears the mansion was of brick, the chief buildings forming a square court, which was entered by a gate-house with towers: the whole was moated. It was then in a dilapidated state.[151]“Le Cardinal Campège est encores à Douvres, et à ceste heure (je) viens d’entendre que, soubz couleur de faute de Navires, on ne le veult laisser passer, sans y prendre avis, de paeur qu’il n’emporte le thrésor du Card. d’Yorc.”Lettre de l’Evesque de Bayonne, apud Le Grand Hist. du Divorce.[152]The Term then began the ninth of October.[153]Esher.[154]The Eighteenth November, 1529.[155]This inventory is preserved among the Harleian MSS. No. 599.[156]These words follow in the more recent MSS. “Yet there was laide upon every table, bokes, made in manner of inventories, reporting the number and contents of the same. And even so there were bokes made in manner of inventories of all things here after rehearsed, wherein he toke great paines to set all things in order against the king’s comming.”[157]Baudkyn, cloth made partly of silk and partly of gold. Derived fromBaldacca, an Oriental name for Babylon, being brought from thence.—“Baldekinum—pannus omnium ditissimus, cujus, utpote stamen ex filioauri, subtegmen exsericotexitur, plumario opere intertextus.”Ducange Glossar. in voce.It sometimes is used for acanopyorcloth of state.[158]The name of Cardinal Wolsey’s fool is said to have been “Master Williams, otherwise called Patch.” An inquiry into this very curious feature in the domestic manners of the great in ancient times could not fail to be very interesting. Mr. Douce has glanced at the subject in his Illustrations of Shakspeare; and gave his friends reason to hope for a more enlarged inquiry at a future period: it would afford me real pleasure to hear that his intentions were not finally abandoned.[159]The Bishop of Bayonne, who paid him a visit of commiseration at this period, gives the following affecting picture of his distress, in a most interesting letter which will be found in the Appendix; he says: “J’ay esté voir le Cardinal en ses ennuis, où que j’y ay trouvéle plus grand example de fortune qu’ on ne sçauroit voir, il m’a remonstré son cas en la plus mauvaise rhétorique que je vis jamais,car cueur et parolle luy falloient entièrement; il a bien pleuré et prié que le Roy et Madame voulsissent avoir pitié du luy—mais il m’a à la fin laissé sans me povoir dire austre chose qui vallist mieux que son visage; qui est bien dechue de la moitié de juste pris. Et vous promets, Monseigneur, que sa fortune est telle que ses ennemis, encores qu’ils soyent Anglois, ne se sçauroyent garder d’en avoir pitié, ce nonobstant ne le laisseront de le poursuivre jusques au bout.” He represents him as willing to give up every thing, even the shirt from his back, and to live in a hermitage if the king would desist from his displeasure.[160]Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the later manuscripts read: “which had bine a strange sight in him afore;” but this can hardly be right? The splendour of Cromwell’s subsequent fortunes, their tragical close, and the prominent figure he makes in the events of this reign, which are among the most important of modern history, gives this circumstantial account a great degree of interest. His father was a blacksmith at Putney, the son was first an agent to an English factory at Antwerp, then a trooper in the Duke of Bourbon’s army, and was present at the sacking of Rome. It appears that he assisted Mr. Russell (afterwards Earl of Bedford), in making his escape from the French at Bologna, and it is probably to this circumstance that he owed the friendly offices of that gentleman at a subsequent period. After passing some time in the counting-house of a Venetian merchant, he returned to England and studied the law. Wolsey, it appears, first met with him in France, and soon made him his principal agent in the dissolution of monasteries and the foundation of his colleges. It was a trust which he discharged with ability, and is said to have enriched himself; yet he here complains that he “never had any promotion at the cardinal’s hands to the increase of his living.” And he tells the cardinal in his troubles, that “the soliciting his cause hath been very chargeable to him, and he cannot sustain it any longer without other respect than he hath had heretofore.” He says, “I am a thousand pounds worse than I was when your troubles began.” And after announcing the king’s determination to dissolve the cardinal’s colleges, he says: “I intreat your grace to be content, and let your prince execute his pleasure.”Cardinal Pole relates that he openly professed to him his Machiavelian principles; he had learned, he said, “that vice and virtue were but names, fit indeed to amuse the leisure of the learned in their colleges, but pernicious to the man who seeks to rise in the courts of princes. The great art of the politician was, in his judgment, to penetrate through the disguise which sovereigns are accustomed to throw over their real inclinations, and to devise the most specious expedients by which they may gratify their appetites without appearing to outrage morality or religion.” He shared largely in the public odium in which the cardinal was held, and Pole, who was then in London, says that the people loudly clamoured for his punishment.[161]The day after it appears Cromwell was at court, and sought an audience from the king, which was granted him; Cardinal Pole, who had the account from Cromwell himself and others who were present, relates that upon this occasion Cromwell suggested to the king a mode of overcoming the difficulty of the pope’s opposition to the divorce, by taking the authority into his own hands, and declaring himself head of the church within his own realm. The king gave ear to the proposition, and was so well pleased with Cromwell, that he thanked him, and admitted him to the dignity of a privy counsellor. This was the first step; to carry into effect this project his assistance was deemed necessary, and he arrived at length to the highest honours of the state; but at last became the victim of his own Machiavelian intrigues, and the vindictive spirit of the monarch. It has been doubted whether Cromwell deserves the credit of attachment to his fallen master to the whole extent which some writers have supposed. It is evident, from the very interesting conversation above, that he despaired of ever seeing Wolsey reinstated in his fortunes, and he was too subtle in his policy to have endeavoured to swim against the stream of court favour. That the cardinal suspected his fidelity to his cause is evident from fragments of two letters published by Fiddes among Mr. Master’s collections, in one of which Cromwell says: “I am informed your grace hath me in some diffidence, as if I did dissemble with you, or procure any thing contrary to your profit and honour. I much muse that your grace should so think or suspect it secretly, considering the pains I have taken, &c. Wherefore I beseech you to speak without faining, if you have such conceit, that I may clear myself; I reckoned that your grace would have written plainly unto me of such thing, rather than secretly to have misrepresented me. But I shall bear your grace no less good will. Let God judge between us! Truly your grace in some things overshooteth yourself; there is regard to be given to what things you utter, and to whom.”The cardinal, in answer to this, protests: “that he suspects him not, and that may appear by his deeds, so that he useth no man’s help nor counsel but his. Complaint indeed hath been made to him, that Cromwell hath not done him so good offices as he might concerning his colleges and archbishoprick; but he hath not believed them; yet he hath asked of their common friends how Cromwell hath behaved himself towards him; and to his great comfort hath found him faithful. Wherefore he beseecheth him, with weeping tears, to continue stedfast, and give no credit to the false suggestions of such as would sow variance between them, and so leave him destitute of all help.”But the testimony of Cavendish in his favour is conclusive; he says that, by reason of “his honest behaviour in his master’s cause, he grew into such estimation in every man’s opinion, that he was esteemed to be the most faithfullest servant to his master of all other, wherein he was of all men greatly commended.”[162]Inprease, i. e. thepressorcrowd.[163]A writer before cited (Dr. Pegge), is of opinion that the House of Commons could not do otherwise than acquit him, notwithstanding the validity of several of the articles alleged against him, because he had either suffered the law for them already, or they were not sufficiently proved: indeed some of them were not proper grounds of censure.‘Wolsey says of these articles himself, “whereof a great part be untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the prince’s person nor to the state.” The rejection of the bill may be justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.’[164]During the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to Henry VIII. “on Monday at nine of the clocke at night, was begun a banquet, which endured till the next morning at three of the clocke, at the which banquet the emperor, the king, and the Queene did wash together, the Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolke holding the towel. Next them did washethe Lord Cardinall, the Queene of Fraunce, and the Queene of Arragon. At which banquet the emperor kept the estate, the king sitting on the left hand, next him the French Queene; and on the other side sate the Queene,the Cardinall, and the Queene of Aragon; which banquet was served by the emperor’s owne servants.”Stowe’s Annals, p. 510. edit. 1615.W.[165]This instrument is published by Fiddes in his Collections, p. 224.[166]The anguish and anxiety he suffered may be seen by the letters written at this period to his old servants Cromwell and Gardiner; I have placed them in theAppendix, as a necessary illustration of this affecting picture.[167]In an extract from a letter to Cromwell, published by Fiddes, the cardinal says: “My fever is somewhat asswaged, and the black humour also, howbeit I am entering into the kalends of a more dangerous disease, which is the dropsy, so that if I am not removed into a dryer air, and that shortly, there is little hope.” And in a letter to Gardiner, which will be found in the Appendix, he repeats his wish to be removed from Asher: "Continuing in this moiste and corrupt ayer, beyng enteryd in the passion of the dropsy,Appetitus et continuo insomnio, I cannot lyve: wherfor of necessyte I must be removed to some dryer ayer and place."[168]Stuffwas the general term for all kind ofmoveablesor baggage. See the instrument of the king’s benefaction to the cardinal after his forfeiture by the premunire, in Rymer’s Fœdera, and in Fiddes’ Collections. The reader will find theSchedulewhich was affixed to it, in ourAppendix.[169]“From the old gallery next the king’s lodging, unto the first gatehouse.”Wordsworth’s Edition.[170]“Of four thousand marks,” say the more recent MSS. and Dr. Wordsworth’s Edit.[171]Those to whom they were granted appear to have been the Lord Sandys and his son Thomas; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Henry Guilford, Sir John Russel, and Sir Henry Norris. This suit to the cardinal seems to have been successfully brought about. Their pensions out of the revenues of the see of Winchester were settled on them for life by Act of Parliament, notwithstanding the just objection in the text. Rot. Parl. clxxxviii. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 22.[172]From the Ital.intagliare, to cut, carve, &c.[173]Prêt, Somme prêtée.Fr. A sum in advance.W.[174]“His train was in number one hundred and threescore persons.” This addition is in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the later MSS.[175]He was now fifty-nine years old.[176]The book of Ceremonies before cited, which was compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. observes: “Upon Easter Day in the morningthe ceremoniesof theresurrectionbe very laudable, to put us in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection, which is the cause of our justification.”Strype’s Eccles. Memorials, v. i. p. 294.Records.What these ceremonies were we may collect from the Rubrics upon that day, in theProcessionale secundum usum Sarum. fol. 72. edit. 1555; which are to this effect: On Easter Day, before mass, and before the ringing of the bells, let the clerks assemble, and all the tapers in the church be lighted. Then two persons shall draw nigh to the sepulchre, and after it is censed let them take the cross out of the sepulchre, and one of them beginChristus resurgens. Then let the procession commence. After this they shall all worship (adorent) the cross. Then let all the crucifixes and images in the church be unveiled, &c. &c. In like manner Good Friday also had its peculiar ceremonies. Bishop Longland closes his sermon preached on that day before King Henry VIII.A. D.1538, in the following manner: “In meane season I shall exhorte you all in our Lord God,as of old custome hath here this day bene used, every one of you or ye departe, with moost entire devocyon, knelynge tofore our Savyour Lorde God, this our Jesus Chryst, whiche hath suffered soo muche for us, to whome we are soo muche bounden,whoo lyeth in yonder sepulchre; in honoure of hym, of his passyon and deathe, and of his five woundes, to say five Pater-nosters, five Aves, and one Crede: that it may please his mercifull goodness to make us parteners of the merites of this his most gloryous passyon, bloode, and deathe.”Imprynted by Thomas Petyt.See also Michael Wood’sDialogue or Familiar Talks.A. D.1554. Signat. D. 3.W.[177]See above, page158, Dr. Wordsworth’snote.[178]In Mr. Ellis’s very interesting collection of Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 176, there is an extract of a letter from Sir William Fitzwilliams, then on a mission in France, relating a conversation he had with the French king upon his hearing the Duke of Buckingham was in the Tower. With the Cardinal’s answer.[179]The favourable representation given of this portion of the cardinal’s life, notwithstanding what is said by Fox, p. 908, is fully confirmed by an authority which cannot be suspected of partiality to his memory, that of a State Book, which came out from the office of the king’s printer in the year 1536, intituledA Remedy for Sedition. “Who was lesse beloved in the Northe than my lord cardynall, God have his sowle, before he was amonges them? Who better beloved, after he had ben there a whyle? We hate oft times whom we have good cause to love. It is a wonder to see howe they were turned; howe of utter enemyes they becam his dere frendes. He gave byshops a ryght good ensample, howe they might wyn mens hartys. There was few holy dayes, but he would ride five or six myle from his howse, nowe to this parysh churche, nowe to that, and there cause one or other of his doctours to make a sermone unto the people. He sat amonges them, and sayd masse before all the paryshe. He sawe why churches were made. He began to restore them to their ryght and propre use. He broughte his dinner with hym, and bad dyvers of the parish to it. He enquired, whether there was any debate or grudge betweene any of them; yf there were, after dinner he sente for the parties to the churche, and made them all one. Men say well that do well. Godde’s lawes shal never be so set by as they ought, before they be well knowen.” Signat. E. 2.W.[180]In the more recent MS. and in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition, “Newsted Abbey.”[181]Next,i.e.nearest.[182]The prevailing hour of dinner with our ancestors appears to have been much earlier. In the Northumberland Household Book it is said, “to X of the clock that my lord goes to dinner.”“With us,” says Harrison, in the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicle, p. 171, “the Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Students do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at five, or betweene five and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelve at noone, and six at night, especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or eight: but out of the tearme in our Universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they generally dine and sup when they may: so that to talke of their order of repast, it were but a needlesse matter.”“Theophilus.You wente to diner betyme I perceave.Eusebius.Even as I doe commonly, when I have no busynes, betwene nyne and ten; me thinkes it is a good houre: for by that meanes I save a breakfast, whyche for such idlers as I am, is most fittest.”Dialogue between Eusebius and Theophilus.Signat. B 4. A. D. 1556.W.

[123]Evensong.“Which persons for their waiting befoir noon hath licence at afternoon to go about their own business from the saide noon to iij of the clocke that evensong begin.”

Northumberland Household Book, p. 310.

[124]The shalme, or shawm, was a wind instrument like a hautboy, with a swelling protuberance in the middle. In “Commenius’s Visible World,” translated by Hoole, 1659, the Latin wordgingrasis translated by shawn, and the form of the instrument is represented as below. Its proper name appears to have beenshawme; it is derived from the Teutonic. Drayton mentions it as shrill-toned: ‘E’en from the shrillestshaumunto the cornamute.’Polyolbionv. iv. p. 376.

Polyolbionv. iv. p. 376.

[125]Now, Wordsworth’s edit. The passages within brackets which follow are not found in any other manuscript: a space almost always marking the deficiency of this relation, and the succeeding account of the libels of the French against the cardinal.

[126]Catherine Reneé, one of the daughters of Louis the Twelfth. It does not seem that this exposition of the cardinal’s views in regard to the union of Henry with this princess, in case of a divorce, were without foundation, for he persuaded himself that Henry’s passion for Anne Boleyn would soon subside, and thought this alliance a sure mode of perpetuating the peace and union between the sovereigns. The other part of the assertion was proved true by the subsequent treaty, in which it was agreed that the Princess Mary should marry either Francis, or the Duke of Orleans; the first if he should remain a widower until she was of sufficient age, the second if it seemed expedient that Francis should keep his faith to the emperor, and marry his sister Leonora, to whom he was contracted by the Treaty of Madrid. Hence the necessity of keeping these designs secret, and the cardinal’s anger at their developement.

[127]This passage stands in the ordinary MSS., and in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition, in the following abridged and confused manner. The transcribers of the MSS. appear to have been sensible that their copy was defective, for in several of them one or two blank leaves are here left.“Now shortly after there were divers malicious practices pretended against us by the French, who by their theft somewhat impaired us: whereupon one of them, being a man I was well acquainted with, maintained a seditious untruth, openly divulged, and set forth by a subtle and traitorous subject of their realm, saying also that he doubted not, but the like had been attempted within the king of England his majesty’s dominions; but to see so open and manifest blasphemy to be openly punished, according to their traitorous deserts, notwithstanding I saw but small redress.”

“Now shortly after there were divers malicious practices pretended against us by the French, who by their theft somewhat impaired us: whereupon one of them, being a man I was well acquainted with, maintained a seditious untruth, openly divulged, and set forth by a subtle and traitorous subject of their realm, saying also that he doubted not, but the like had been attempted within the king of England his majesty’s dominions; but to see so open and manifest blasphemy to be openly punished, according to their traitorous deserts, notwithstanding I saw but small redress.”

[128]The twentieth of October,A. D.1527. The embassadors were the Maréchal de Montmorency, the Bishop of Bayonne, the President of Rouen, and Monsieur d’Humieres.

[129]The book of ceremonies (compiled under the influence of the Bishops Gardiner and Tonstall, and in opposition to that of Cranmer, about the year 1540, and designed to retain in the church many operose and superstitious rites, by setting them off with the aids of a philosophical and subtle interpretation), describing in succession the different parts of the Canon of the Mass, proceeds thus, "Then saith the priestthrice,Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, &c.advertising us ofthreeeffects of Christ’s passion; whereof thefirstis, deliverance from the misery of sin; thesecondis from pain of everlasting damnation; wherefore he saith twiceMiserere nobis, that is to say,Have mercy on us; and thethirdeffect is, giving of everlasting peace, consisting in the glorious fruition of God."Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, Vol. i. p. 289. Records. See alsoMirror of our Lady. fol. 189, andBecon’s Works. Vol. iii. fol. 49.A. D.1564.W.

[130]These cupboards or rather sideboards of plate were necessary appendages to every splendid entertainment. The form of them somewhat resembled some of the old cumbrous cabinets to be found still in ancient houses on the continent. There was a succession of step-like stages, or desks, as Cavendish calls them, upon which the plate was placed. The reader will have a better conception than description can convey of this piece of antient ostentation, from a print in a very curious work by Julio Bello, entitledLaurea Austriaca:Francof.1627, folio, p. 640. Where our King James I. is represented entertaining the Spanish ambassadors in 1623.

[131]Proface.An expression of welcome equivalent to Much good may it do you! Mr. Steevens conjectured it to be from the old French expression, ‘Bon prou leur face,’ which is to be found in Cotgravein voceProu. This was a happy conjecture of Mr. Steevens, for Mr. Nares has pointed out its true origin in the old Norman-French or Romance language: ‘Proufacesouhait qui veut dire, bien vous fasse,proficiat.’Roquefort.Glossaire de la Langue Romane.

[132]‘Mademoiselle de Boulan à la fin y est venue, et l’a le Roy logée en fort beau logis, qu’il a fait bien accoustrer tout auprès du sien, et luy est la cour faicte ordinairement tous les jours plus grosse que de long temps ne fut faicte à la Royne.’Lettre de l’Evesque de’ Bayonne.

Lettre de l’Evesque de’ Bayonne.

[133]It is a question of fact which has been warmly debated, whether the suffrages of the Universities in Henry’s favour were purchased by money. It does not seem very necessary thatweshould enter into this dispute. But any one who wishes so to do, may consultBurnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, Vol. iii. p. 401, Appendix.Harmer’s Specimen of Errors, p. 7.Fiddes’s Life of Wolsey, p. 420.Poli Epistolæ, Vol. i. p. 238.A. D.1744.W.

[134]Eight of these determinations soon after were printed in one volume, with a long Discourse in support of the judgments contained in them, under the following title: “The Determinations of the moste famous and moste excellent Universities of Italy and Fraunce, that it is so unlefull for a man to marry his Brother’s Wyfe, that the Pope hath no power to dispence therewith: imprinted by Thomas Berthelet the viith day of Novembre, 1531.” They were also published in Latin: in which language they are exhibited by Bishop Burnet in hisHist. of the Reformation, Vol. i. book ii. No. 34. Records.W.

[135]i. e. theBullaor Papal seal. The passage marked with * * contains three words which I could not decipher.

[136]DoctorStephenGardiner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, at this time in great estimation with Wolsey. In letters and other documents of this period he is often called DoctorStevens. Mr. Grainger in the third vol. of Bishop Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, p. 385, Appendix, intimates that this was a colloquial vulgarism; “vulgarly, as Stephen Gardiner was Mr.Stevyns, in Wolsey’s Letter.” But it is questionable, I think, whether this is the true account of that name. The bishop himself, in his Declaration of his Articles against George Joye,A. D.1546, fol. 3. b. of the 4to edition, thus speaks of it, “a booke, wherein he wrote, how DoctorStevens(bywhiche nameI wasthencalled) had deceyved him.”In Doctor Barnes’ account of his examination before the bishops at Westminster, he calls Gardiner “Doctor Stephen then secretary.”

In Doctor Barnes’ account of his examination before the bishops at Westminster, he calls Gardiner “Doctor Stephen then secretary.”

[137]The reader may consult Burnet’s Hist. of the Reformation, Vol. iii. p. 46-48. The bishop affirms positively that the king did not appear personally, but by proxy; and that the queen withdrew after reading a protest against the competency of her judges. “And from this it is clear (says the bishop), that the speeches that the historians have made for them are all plain falsities.” It is easy to contradict the confident affirmation of the historian upon the authority of a document published by himself in his Records, i. 78. It is a letter from the king to his agents, where he says: "At which time both we and the queen appeared in person, and they minding to proceed further in the cause, the queen would no longer make her abode to hear what the judges would fully descern, but incontinently departed out of the court; wherefore she was thrice preconnisate, and called eftsoons to return and appear; which she refusing to do, was denounced by the judgescontumax, and a citation decerned for her appearance on Friday." Which is corroborated also byFox’s Acts, p. 958. Indeed the testimony for the personal appearance of the king before the cardinals is surprisingly powerful; even though we do not go beyond Cavendish, and the other ordinary historians. But in addition to these, Dr. Wordsworth has produced the authority of William Thomas, Clerk of the Council in the reign of King Edward VI, a well informed writer; who, in a professed Apology for Henry VIII, extant in MS. in the Lambeth and some other libraries, speaking of this affair affirms, “that the Cardinal (Campeggio) caused the king as a private party in person to appear before him, and the Lady Katharine both.” P. 31.

[138]Hall has given a different report of this speech of the queen’s, which he says was madein French, and translated by him, as well as he could, from notes taken by Cardinal Campeggio’s secretary. In his version she accuses Wolsey with being the first mover of her troubles, and reproaches him, in bitter terms, of pride and voluptuousness: such harsh language could hardly deserve the praise ‘modeste tamen eam locutum fuisse,’ given by Campeggio.

[139]SeeNeve’s Animadversions on Phillips’s Life of Cardinal Pole, p. 62.

[140]Nothing of this kind is to be found in the journal of this embassy, or in the letters of the bishop and his companions, which have been preserved, and many of which have been published byLe Grand, Histoire du Divorce de Henri VIII.

[141]“In a Manuscript Life of Sir Thomas More, written not many years after Longland’s death, this account is given. ‘I have heard Dr. Draycot, that was his (Longland’s) chaplain and chancellor, say, that he once told the bishop what rumour ran upon him in that matter; and desired to know of him the very truth. Who answered, that in very deed he did not break the matter after that sort, as is said: but the king brake the matter to him first; and never left urging him until he had won him to give his consent. Of which his doings he did forethink himself, and repented afterward.’ MSS. Coll. Eman. Cantab.” Baker’s Notes onBurnet’s Hist. of the Reformation: in Burnet, Vol. iii. p. 400, Appendix. The same Life is among the MSS. in the Lambeth Library, No. 827, (see fol. 12), and, I have reason to think, was composed about the year 1556, and by Nicolas Harpsfield. From these concurrent testimonies it should appear, that the charge which has been often urged against Wolsey, that it was through his intrigues that Longland first suggested his scruples to the king, is unfounded.W.Wolsey was at the time loudly proclaimed as the instigator of the divorce, and though he denied it upon some occasions, he admitted it on others; but Cardinal Pole asserts that it was first suggested by certain divines whom Anne Boleyn sent to him for that purpose. It is remarkable that he says this when writing to the king, and would surely not have ventured to say so if he had not had good grounds for the assertion.

Wolsey was at the time loudly proclaimed as the instigator of the divorce, and though he denied it upon some occasions, he admitted it on others; but Cardinal Pole asserts that it was first suggested by certain divines whom Anne Boleyn sent to him for that purpose. It is remarkable that he says this when writing to the king, and would surely not have ventured to say so if he had not had good grounds for the assertion.

[142]July, 1529.

[143]This determination of Campeggio was in consequence of secret instructions from the pope (unknown to Wolsey), at the instance of the emperor, who had prevailed upon the pontiff to adjourn the court and remove the cause to Rome.

[144]These proceedings led the way to the next great step in the progress of the Reformation, the renunciation of the pope’s authority, and the establishment of the regal supremacy. The following account, from an unpublished treatise, of the manner in which these questions were first brought to the king’s mind (whether authentic or not) may not be unacceptable to my readers."Now unto that you say, that because Pope Clement would not dispense with his second matrimonie, his majestie extirped out of England the papal authoritie, a thinge of most auncient and godly reverence as you take it, I aunsweare that after the kinges highness had so appeared in person before the Cardinal Campegio, one of the princes of his realm, named theDuke of Suffolk, a great wise man, and of more familiaritie with the kinge than any other person, asked his majestie, ‘how this matter might come to passe, that a prince in his own realme should so humble himself before the feet of a vile, strange, vitious priest,’ (for Campegio there in England demeaned himself in very deed most carnally — —). Whereunto the king aunswered, “he could not tell; but only that it seemed unto him, the spiritual men ought to judge spiritual matters; and yet as you saye (said the king) me seemeth there should be somewhat in it, and I would right gladly understand, why and how, were it not that I would be loth to appeare more curious than other princes.” “Why, sir (sayd the duke), your majestie may cause the matter to be discussed secretly by your learned men, without any rumour at all.” “Very well (sayd the kinge), and so it shall be.” And thus inspired of God, called he diverse of his trusty and great doctours unto him; charging them distinctly to examine,what lawe of God should direct so carnal a man as Campegio, under the name of spiritual, to judge a king in his owne realme. According unto whose commandment, these doctors resorting together unto an appointed place, disputed this matterlarge et stricte, as the case required. And as the blacke by the white is knowen, so by conferring the oppositions together, it appeared that the evangelical lawe varied much from the canon lawes in this pointe. So that in effect, because two contraries cannot standin uno subjecto, eodem casu et tempore, they were constrained to recurre unto the kinges majesties pleasure, to knowe whether of these two lawes should be preferred: who smiling at the ignorance of so fonde a question aunsweared, that the Gospell of Christ ought to be the absolute rule unto all others; commanding them therefore to followe the same, without regard either to the civile, canon, or whatsoever other lawe. And here began the quicke: for these doctours had no sooner taken the Gospel for their absolute rule, but they found this popish authoritie over the kinges and princes of this earth to be usurped."William Thomas’s Apology for King Henry the Eighth, writtenA. D.1547. p. 34. Lambeth Library. MSS. No. 464.W.

"Now unto that you say, that because Pope Clement would not dispense with his second matrimonie, his majestie extirped out of England the papal authoritie, a thinge of most auncient and godly reverence as you take it, I aunsweare that after the kinges highness had so appeared in person before the Cardinal Campegio, one of the princes of his realm, named theDuke of Suffolk, a great wise man, and of more familiaritie with the kinge than any other person, asked his majestie, ‘how this matter might come to passe, that a prince in his own realme should so humble himself before the feet of a vile, strange, vitious priest,’ (for Campegio there in England demeaned himself in very deed most carnally — —). Whereunto the king aunswered, “he could not tell; but only that it seemed unto him, the spiritual men ought to judge spiritual matters; and yet as you saye (said the king) me seemeth there should be somewhat in it, and I would right gladly understand, why and how, were it not that I would be loth to appeare more curious than other princes.” “Why, sir (sayd the duke), your majestie may cause the matter to be discussed secretly by your learned men, without any rumour at all.” “Very well (sayd the kinge), and so it shall be.” And thus inspired of God, called he diverse of his trusty and great doctours unto him; charging them distinctly to examine,what lawe of God should direct so carnal a man as Campegio, under the name of spiritual, to judge a king in his owne realme. According unto whose commandment, these doctors resorting together unto an appointed place, disputed this matterlarge et stricte, as the case required. And as the blacke by the white is knowen, so by conferring the oppositions together, it appeared that the evangelical lawe varied much from the canon lawes in this pointe. So that in effect, because two contraries cannot standin uno subjecto, eodem casu et tempore, they were constrained to recurre unto the kinges majesties pleasure, to knowe whether of these two lawes should be preferred: who smiling at the ignorance of so fonde a question aunsweared, that the Gospell of Christ ought to be the absolute rule unto all others; commanding them therefore to followe the same, without regard either to the civile, canon, or whatsoever other lawe. And here began the quicke: for these doctours had no sooner taken the Gospel for their absolute rule, but they found this popish authoritie over the kinges and princes of this earth to be usurped."William Thomas’s Apology for King Henry the Eighth, writtenA. D.1547. p. 34. Lambeth Library. MSS. No. 464.W.

[145]The history and occasion of this great obligation of the Duke of Suffolk to the cardinal, who plainly intimates that but for his interposition the duke must have lost his life, does not appear to be known to the historians. SeeFiddes’s Life of Wolsey. p. 454.W.A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1755 (Dr. Pegge), who appears to have paid much attention to the Cardinal Wolsey’s history, suggests that Wolsey was the means of abating the anger of Henry at the marriage of Suffolk with his sister Mary Queen of France, which might have been made a treasonable offence. A letter from Mary to Wolsey, dated March 22, 1515, after her marriage with Suffolk, which is still extant in the Cotton Collection, gives some probability to this conjecture.

A writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1755 (Dr. Pegge), who appears to have paid much attention to the Cardinal Wolsey’s history, suggests that Wolsey was the means of abating the anger of Henry at the marriage of Suffolk with his sister Mary Queen of France, which might have been made a treasonable offence. A letter from Mary to Wolsey, dated March 22, 1515, after her marriage with Suffolk, which is still extant in the Cotton Collection, gives some probability to this conjecture.

[146]i. e. Dr. Stephen Gardiner.

[147]i. e. The season of hunting, when the hart is ingreaseor full season. Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the more recent manuscripts read—‘allthatseason.’

[148]The following additional particulars of the route are found in more recent MSS. “And were lodged the first night at a towne in Bedfordshire, called Leighton Bussarde, in the parsonage there, being Mr. Doctor Chambers’s benefice, the kings phisitian. And from thence they rode the next day.”

[149]The king had listened to their suggestions against the cardinal, and they felt assured of success; they are represented by an eyewitness, as boasting openly that they would humble him and all churchmen, and spoil them of their wealth: “La faintaisie de ces seigneurs est, que lui mort ou ruiné ils déferrent incontinent icy l’estat de l’eglise, et prendront tous leurs biens; qu’il seroit ja besoing que je le misse en chiffre, car ils le crient en plaine table.”L’Evesque de Bayonne, Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 374.

L’Evesque de Bayonne, Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 374.

[150]“Le pis de son mal est, que Mademoiselle de Boulen a faict promettre à son Amy qu’il ne l’escoutera jamais parler; car elle pense bien qu’il ne le pourroit garder d’en avoir pitié.”Lettre de l’Eveque de Bayonne ap. Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 375.The manor ofThe Moorwas situate in the parish of Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire; the site is still called Moor Park. It was purchased and the house built by George Neville, Archbishop of York. Edward the fourth had promised to make that prelate a visit there, and while he was making suitable preparations to receive his royal master he was sent for to Windsor, and arrested for high treason. The king seized at the Moor all his rich stuff and plate to the value of 20,000l.keeping the archbishop prisoner at Calais and Hammes.Stowe, Ao. 1472. There was a survey of the house in 1568, by which it appears the mansion was of brick, the chief buildings forming a square court, which was entered by a gate-house with towers: the whole was moated. It was then in a dilapidated state.

Lettre de l’Eveque de Bayonne ap. Le Grand, Tom. iii. p. 375.

The manor ofThe Moorwas situate in the parish of Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire; the site is still called Moor Park. It was purchased and the house built by George Neville, Archbishop of York. Edward the fourth had promised to make that prelate a visit there, and while he was making suitable preparations to receive his royal master he was sent for to Windsor, and arrested for high treason. The king seized at the Moor all his rich stuff and plate to the value of 20,000l.keeping the archbishop prisoner at Calais and Hammes.Stowe, Ao. 1472. There was a survey of the house in 1568, by which it appears the mansion was of brick, the chief buildings forming a square court, which was entered by a gate-house with towers: the whole was moated. It was then in a dilapidated state.

[151]“Le Cardinal Campège est encores à Douvres, et à ceste heure (je) viens d’entendre que, soubz couleur de faute de Navires, on ne le veult laisser passer, sans y prendre avis, de paeur qu’il n’emporte le thrésor du Card. d’Yorc.”Lettre de l’Evesque de Bayonne, apud Le Grand Hist. du Divorce.

Lettre de l’Evesque de Bayonne, apud Le Grand Hist. du Divorce.

[152]The Term then began the ninth of October.

[153]Esher.

[154]The Eighteenth November, 1529.

[155]This inventory is preserved among the Harleian MSS. No. 599.

[156]These words follow in the more recent MSS. “Yet there was laide upon every table, bokes, made in manner of inventories, reporting the number and contents of the same. And even so there were bokes made in manner of inventories of all things here after rehearsed, wherein he toke great paines to set all things in order against the king’s comming.”

[157]Baudkyn, cloth made partly of silk and partly of gold. Derived fromBaldacca, an Oriental name for Babylon, being brought from thence.—“Baldekinum—pannus omnium ditissimus, cujus, utpote stamen ex filioauri, subtegmen exsericotexitur, plumario opere intertextus.”Ducange Glossar. in voce.It sometimes is used for acanopyorcloth of state.

[158]The name of Cardinal Wolsey’s fool is said to have been “Master Williams, otherwise called Patch.” An inquiry into this very curious feature in the domestic manners of the great in ancient times could not fail to be very interesting. Mr. Douce has glanced at the subject in his Illustrations of Shakspeare; and gave his friends reason to hope for a more enlarged inquiry at a future period: it would afford me real pleasure to hear that his intentions were not finally abandoned.

[159]The Bishop of Bayonne, who paid him a visit of commiseration at this period, gives the following affecting picture of his distress, in a most interesting letter which will be found in the Appendix; he says: “J’ay esté voir le Cardinal en ses ennuis, où que j’y ay trouvéle plus grand example de fortune qu’ on ne sçauroit voir, il m’a remonstré son cas en la plus mauvaise rhétorique que je vis jamais,car cueur et parolle luy falloient entièrement; il a bien pleuré et prié que le Roy et Madame voulsissent avoir pitié du luy—mais il m’a à la fin laissé sans me povoir dire austre chose qui vallist mieux que son visage; qui est bien dechue de la moitié de juste pris. Et vous promets, Monseigneur, que sa fortune est telle que ses ennemis, encores qu’ils soyent Anglois, ne se sçauroyent garder d’en avoir pitié, ce nonobstant ne le laisseront de le poursuivre jusques au bout.” He represents him as willing to give up every thing, even the shirt from his back, and to live in a hermitage if the king would desist from his displeasure.

[160]Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the later manuscripts read: “which had bine a strange sight in him afore;” but this can hardly be right? The splendour of Cromwell’s subsequent fortunes, their tragical close, and the prominent figure he makes in the events of this reign, which are among the most important of modern history, gives this circumstantial account a great degree of interest. His father was a blacksmith at Putney, the son was first an agent to an English factory at Antwerp, then a trooper in the Duke of Bourbon’s army, and was present at the sacking of Rome. It appears that he assisted Mr. Russell (afterwards Earl of Bedford), in making his escape from the French at Bologna, and it is probably to this circumstance that he owed the friendly offices of that gentleman at a subsequent period. After passing some time in the counting-house of a Venetian merchant, he returned to England and studied the law. Wolsey, it appears, first met with him in France, and soon made him his principal agent in the dissolution of monasteries and the foundation of his colleges. It was a trust which he discharged with ability, and is said to have enriched himself; yet he here complains that he “never had any promotion at the cardinal’s hands to the increase of his living.” And he tells the cardinal in his troubles, that “the soliciting his cause hath been very chargeable to him, and he cannot sustain it any longer without other respect than he hath had heretofore.” He says, “I am a thousand pounds worse than I was when your troubles began.” And after announcing the king’s determination to dissolve the cardinal’s colleges, he says: “I intreat your grace to be content, and let your prince execute his pleasure.”Cardinal Pole relates that he openly professed to him his Machiavelian principles; he had learned, he said, “that vice and virtue were but names, fit indeed to amuse the leisure of the learned in their colleges, but pernicious to the man who seeks to rise in the courts of princes. The great art of the politician was, in his judgment, to penetrate through the disguise which sovereigns are accustomed to throw over their real inclinations, and to devise the most specious expedients by which they may gratify their appetites without appearing to outrage morality or religion.” He shared largely in the public odium in which the cardinal was held, and Pole, who was then in London, says that the people loudly clamoured for his punishment.

Cardinal Pole relates that he openly professed to him his Machiavelian principles; he had learned, he said, “that vice and virtue were but names, fit indeed to amuse the leisure of the learned in their colleges, but pernicious to the man who seeks to rise in the courts of princes. The great art of the politician was, in his judgment, to penetrate through the disguise which sovereigns are accustomed to throw over their real inclinations, and to devise the most specious expedients by which they may gratify their appetites without appearing to outrage morality or religion.” He shared largely in the public odium in which the cardinal was held, and Pole, who was then in London, says that the people loudly clamoured for his punishment.

[161]The day after it appears Cromwell was at court, and sought an audience from the king, which was granted him; Cardinal Pole, who had the account from Cromwell himself and others who were present, relates that upon this occasion Cromwell suggested to the king a mode of overcoming the difficulty of the pope’s opposition to the divorce, by taking the authority into his own hands, and declaring himself head of the church within his own realm. The king gave ear to the proposition, and was so well pleased with Cromwell, that he thanked him, and admitted him to the dignity of a privy counsellor. This was the first step; to carry into effect this project his assistance was deemed necessary, and he arrived at length to the highest honours of the state; but at last became the victim of his own Machiavelian intrigues, and the vindictive spirit of the monarch. It has been doubted whether Cromwell deserves the credit of attachment to his fallen master to the whole extent which some writers have supposed. It is evident, from the very interesting conversation above, that he despaired of ever seeing Wolsey reinstated in his fortunes, and he was too subtle in his policy to have endeavoured to swim against the stream of court favour. That the cardinal suspected his fidelity to his cause is evident from fragments of two letters published by Fiddes among Mr. Master’s collections, in one of which Cromwell says: “I am informed your grace hath me in some diffidence, as if I did dissemble with you, or procure any thing contrary to your profit and honour. I much muse that your grace should so think or suspect it secretly, considering the pains I have taken, &c. Wherefore I beseech you to speak without faining, if you have such conceit, that I may clear myself; I reckoned that your grace would have written plainly unto me of such thing, rather than secretly to have misrepresented me. But I shall bear your grace no less good will. Let God judge between us! Truly your grace in some things overshooteth yourself; there is regard to be given to what things you utter, and to whom.”The cardinal, in answer to this, protests: “that he suspects him not, and that may appear by his deeds, so that he useth no man’s help nor counsel but his. Complaint indeed hath been made to him, that Cromwell hath not done him so good offices as he might concerning his colleges and archbishoprick; but he hath not believed them; yet he hath asked of their common friends how Cromwell hath behaved himself towards him; and to his great comfort hath found him faithful. Wherefore he beseecheth him, with weeping tears, to continue stedfast, and give no credit to the false suggestions of such as would sow variance between them, and so leave him destitute of all help.”But the testimony of Cavendish in his favour is conclusive; he says that, by reason of “his honest behaviour in his master’s cause, he grew into such estimation in every man’s opinion, that he was esteemed to be the most faithfullest servant to his master of all other, wherein he was of all men greatly commended.”

The cardinal, in answer to this, protests: “that he suspects him not, and that may appear by his deeds, so that he useth no man’s help nor counsel but his. Complaint indeed hath been made to him, that Cromwell hath not done him so good offices as he might concerning his colleges and archbishoprick; but he hath not believed them; yet he hath asked of their common friends how Cromwell hath behaved himself towards him; and to his great comfort hath found him faithful. Wherefore he beseecheth him, with weeping tears, to continue stedfast, and give no credit to the false suggestions of such as would sow variance between them, and so leave him destitute of all help.”

But the testimony of Cavendish in his favour is conclusive; he says that, by reason of “his honest behaviour in his master’s cause, he grew into such estimation in every man’s opinion, that he was esteemed to be the most faithfullest servant to his master of all other, wherein he was of all men greatly commended.”

[162]Inprease, i. e. thepressorcrowd.

[163]A writer before cited (Dr. Pegge), is of opinion that the House of Commons could not do otherwise than acquit him, notwithstanding the validity of several of the articles alleged against him, because he had either suffered the law for them already, or they were not sufficiently proved: indeed some of them were not proper grounds of censure.‘Wolsey says of these articles himself, “whereof a great part be untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the prince’s person nor to the state.” The rejection of the bill may be justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.’

‘Wolsey says of these articles himself, “whereof a great part be untrue: and those which be true are of such sort, that by the doing thereof no malice or untruth can be arrected unto me, neither to the prince’s person nor to the state.” The rejection of the bill may be justly ascribed to the relentment of the king, for Cromwell would not have dared to oppose it, nor the Commons to reject it, had they not received an intimation that such was the royal pleasure.’

[164]During the visit of the Emperor Charles V. to Henry VIII. “on Monday at nine of the clocke at night, was begun a banquet, which endured till the next morning at three of the clocke, at the which banquet the emperor, the king, and the Queene did wash together, the Duke of Buckingham giving the water, the Duke of Suffolke holding the towel. Next them did washethe Lord Cardinall, the Queene of Fraunce, and the Queene of Arragon. At which banquet the emperor kept the estate, the king sitting on the left hand, next him the French Queene; and on the other side sate the Queene,the Cardinall, and the Queene of Aragon; which banquet was served by the emperor’s owne servants.”Stowe’s Annals, p. 510. edit. 1615.W.

[165]This instrument is published by Fiddes in his Collections, p. 224.

[166]The anguish and anxiety he suffered may be seen by the letters written at this period to his old servants Cromwell and Gardiner; I have placed them in theAppendix, as a necessary illustration of this affecting picture.

[167]In an extract from a letter to Cromwell, published by Fiddes, the cardinal says: “My fever is somewhat asswaged, and the black humour also, howbeit I am entering into the kalends of a more dangerous disease, which is the dropsy, so that if I am not removed into a dryer air, and that shortly, there is little hope.” And in a letter to Gardiner, which will be found in the Appendix, he repeats his wish to be removed from Asher: "Continuing in this moiste and corrupt ayer, beyng enteryd in the passion of the dropsy,Appetitus et continuo insomnio, I cannot lyve: wherfor of necessyte I must be removed to some dryer ayer and place."

[168]Stuffwas the general term for all kind ofmoveablesor baggage. See the instrument of the king’s benefaction to the cardinal after his forfeiture by the premunire, in Rymer’s Fœdera, and in Fiddes’ Collections. The reader will find theSchedulewhich was affixed to it, in ourAppendix.

[169]“From the old gallery next the king’s lodging, unto the first gatehouse.”Wordsworth’s Edition.

[170]“Of four thousand marks,” say the more recent MSS. and Dr. Wordsworth’s Edit.

[171]Those to whom they were granted appear to have been the Lord Sandys and his son Thomas; Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Henry Guilford, Sir John Russel, and Sir Henry Norris. This suit to the cardinal seems to have been successfully brought about. Their pensions out of the revenues of the see of Winchester were settled on them for life by Act of Parliament, notwithstanding the just objection in the text. Rot. Parl. clxxxviii. Stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. 22.

[172]From the Ital.intagliare, to cut, carve, &c.

[173]Prêt, Somme prêtée.Fr. A sum in advance.W.

[174]“His train was in number one hundred and threescore persons.” This addition is in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition and the later MSS.

[175]He was now fifty-nine years old.

[176]The book of Ceremonies before cited, which was compiled in the reign of Henry VIII. observes: “Upon Easter Day in the morningthe ceremoniesof theresurrectionbe very laudable, to put us in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection, which is the cause of our justification.”Strype’s Eccles. Memorials, v. i. p. 294.Records.What these ceremonies were we may collect from the Rubrics upon that day, in theProcessionale secundum usum Sarum. fol. 72. edit. 1555; which are to this effect: On Easter Day, before mass, and before the ringing of the bells, let the clerks assemble, and all the tapers in the church be lighted. Then two persons shall draw nigh to the sepulchre, and after it is censed let them take the cross out of the sepulchre, and one of them beginChristus resurgens. Then let the procession commence. After this they shall all worship (adorent) the cross. Then let all the crucifixes and images in the church be unveiled, &c. &c. In like manner Good Friday also had its peculiar ceremonies. Bishop Longland closes his sermon preached on that day before King Henry VIII.A. D.1538, in the following manner: “In meane season I shall exhorte you all in our Lord God,as of old custome hath here this day bene used, every one of you or ye departe, with moost entire devocyon, knelynge tofore our Savyour Lorde God, this our Jesus Chryst, whiche hath suffered soo muche for us, to whome we are soo muche bounden,whoo lyeth in yonder sepulchre; in honoure of hym, of his passyon and deathe, and of his five woundes, to say five Pater-nosters, five Aves, and one Crede: that it may please his mercifull goodness to make us parteners of the merites of this his most gloryous passyon, bloode, and deathe.”Imprynted by Thomas Petyt.See also Michael Wood’sDialogue or Familiar Talks.A. D.1554. Signat. D. 3.W.

[177]See above, page158, Dr. Wordsworth’snote.

[178]In Mr. Ellis’s very interesting collection of Historical Letters, vol. i. p. 176, there is an extract of a letter from Sir William Fitzwilliams, then on a mission in France, relating a conversation he had with the French king upon his hearing the Duke of Buckingham was in the Tower. With the Cardinal’s answer.

[179]The favourable representation given of this portion of the cardinal’s life, notwithstanding what is said by Fox, p. 908, is fully confirmed by an authority which cannot be suspected of partiality to his memory, that of a State Book, which came out from the office of the king’s printer in the year 1536, intituledA Remedy for Sedition. “Who was lesse beloved in the Northe than my lord cardynall, God have his sowle, before he was amonges them? Who better beloved, after he had ben there a whyle? We hate oft times whom we have good cause to love. It is a wonder to see howe they were turned; howe of utter enemyes they becam his dere frendes. He gave byshops a ryght good ensample, howe they might wyn mens hartys. There was few holy dayes, but he would ride five or six myle from his howse, nowe to this parysh churche, nowe to that, and there cause one or other of his doctours to make a sermone unto the people. He sat amonges them, and sayd masse before all the paryshe. He sawe why churches were made. He began to restore them to their ryght and propre use. He broughte his dinner with hym, and bad dyvers of the parish to it. He enquired, whether there was any debate or grudge betweene any of them; yf there were, after dinner he sente for the parties to the churche, and made them all one. Men say well that do well. Godde’s lawes shal never be so set by as they ought, before they be well knowen.” Signat. E. 2.W.

[180]In the more recent MS. and in Dr. Wordsworth’s edition, “Newsted Abbey.”

[181]Next,i.e.nearest.

[182]The prevailing hour of dinner with our ancestors appears to have been much earlier. In the Northumberland Household Book it is said, “to X of the clock that my lord goes to dinner.”“With us,” says Harrison, in the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicle, p. 171, “the Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Students do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at five, or betweene five and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelve at noone, and six at night, especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or eight: but out of the tearme in our Universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they generally dine and sup when they may: so that to talke of their order of repast, it were but a needlesse matter.”“Theophilus.You wente to diner betyme I perceave.Eusebius.Even as I doe commonly, when I have no busynes, betwene nyne and ten; me thinkes it is a good houre: for by that meanes I save a breakfast, whyche for such idlers as I am, is most fittest.”Dialogue between Eusebius and Theophilus.Signat. B 4. A. D. 1556.W.

[182]The prevailing hour of dinner with our ancestors appears to have been much earlier. In the Northumberland Household Book it is said, “to X of the clock that my lord goes to dinner.”

“With us,” says Harrison, in the Description of England, prefixed to Holinshed’s Chronicle, p. 171, “the Nobilitie, Gentrie, and Students do ordinarilie go to dinner at eleven before noone, and to supper at five, or betweene five and six at afternoone. The merchants dine and sup seldome before twelve at noone, and six at night, especiallie in London. The husbandmen dine also at high noone, as they call it, and sup at seven or eight: but out of the tearme in our Universities the scholars dine at ten. As for the poorest sort, they generally dine and sup when they may: so that to talke of their order of repast, it were but a needlesse matter.”

“Theophilus.You wente to diner betyme I perceave.Eusebius.Even as I doe commonly, when I have no busynes, betwene nyne and ten; me thinkes it is a good houre: for by that meanes I save a breakfast, whyche for such idlers as I am, is most fittest.”Dialogue between Eusebius and Theophilus.Signat. B 4. A. D. 1556.W.

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