tholic, who was alfo executed for his religion. Thefe CHA P. catholics were Abel, Fetherstone, and Powel, who de- XXXII. clared, that the most grievous part of their punishment was the being coupled to fuch heretical mifcreants as fuffered with them K.

1541.

THOUGH the fpirit of the English seemed to be totally funk under the defpotic power of Henry, there appeared fome fymptoms of difcontent: An inconfiderable infurrection broke out in Yorkshire, headed by Sir John Nevil; but it was foon fuppreffed, and Nevil, with other ringleaders, was executed. The rebels were fuppofed to have been inftigated by the intrigues of cardinal Pole; and the king was instantly determined to make the countefs of Salisbury, who already lay under sentence of death, fuffer for her fon's offences. He ordered her to be car- 27 May. ried to the place of execution; and this venerable matron maintained still, in these distressful circumstances, the fpirit of that long race of monarchs, from whom she was defcended. She refused to lay her head on the block, or fubmit to a fentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that, if he would have her head he must win it the best way he could: And thus fhaking her venerable grey locks, fhe ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck, before he was able to give her the fatal ftroke. Thus perifhed the laft of the line of Plantagenet, which, with great glory, but still greater crimes and misfortunes, had governed England for the space of three hundred years. The lord Leonard Grey, a man who had formerly rendered service to the crown, was also beheaded for treason, soon after the countess of Salisbury. We know little of the grounds of his profe

cution.

THE infurrection in the North engaged Henry to make a progress thither, in order to quiet the minds of his people, to reconcile them to his government, and to abolish the antient fuperftitions, to which thefe parts were much addicted. He had alfo another motive for his journey: He propofed to hold a conference at York with his nephew the king of Scotland, and, if poffible, to cement a clofe and indiffoluble union with that kingdom.

Saunders, de Schifm. Angl. L Herbert, p. 468.

THE

1541. State of affairs in

Scotland.

CHAP. THE fame fpirit of religious innovation, which had XXXII. feized the other parts of Europe, had made its way into Scotland, and had begun, long before this period, to excite the lame jealoufies, fears, and perfecutions. About the year 152, Patrick Hamilton, a young man of a noble family, having been created abbot of Ferne, was fent abroad for his education; but had fallen into company with fome reformers, and he returned into his own country very ill difpofed towards that church, of which his birth and his merit entitled him to attain the highest honours. The fervour of youth and his zeal for novelty made it impoffible for him to conceal his fentiments; and Campbel, prior of the Dominicans, who, under colour of friendship, and a fympathy of opinion, had infinuated himself into his confidence, accufed him to Beaton, arch/bishop of St. Andrews. Hamilton was invited to St. Andrews, in order to maintain, with fome of the clergy, a difpute concerning the controverted points; and after much reafoning with regard to juftification, free-will, original fin, and other topics of that nature, the conference ended with their condemning Hamilton to be burned for his errors. The young man, who had been deaf to the infinuations of ambition, was lefs likely to be fhaken with the fears of death; while he proposed to himself, both the glory of bearing teftimony to the truth, and the immediate reward attending his martyrdom. The people, who compaffionated his youth, his virtue, and his noble birth, were much moved with the conftancy of his end; and an accident, which foon followed, ftill more confirmed them in their favourable fentiments towards him. He had cited Campbel, who still infulted him at the stake, to answer before the judgment-feat of Chrift; and as that perfecutor, either astonished with thefe events, or overcome with remorfe, or, perhaps, feized cafually with a distemper, foon after loft his fenfes, and fell into a fever, of which he died; the people regarded Hamilton as a prophet, as well as a martyr L.

AMONG the difciples converted by Hamilton, was one friar Forreft, who became a zealous preacher; and who, though he did not openly difcover his fentiments, was fufpected to lean towards the new opinions. His diocefan, the bishop of Dunkel, enjoined him, when he met with a

L Spotfwood's, Hift. ehurch of Scotland, p. 64.

good

.

good epistle or good gofpel, which favoured the liberties ofC H A P. holy church, to preach on it, and let the reft alone. For XXXII. reft answered, that he had read both the Old and New Teftament, and had not found an ill epiftie, or ill gospel 1541. in any part of them. The extreme attachment to the Scriptures was regarded in thefe days as a fure characteristic of herefy; and Forrest was foon after brought to trial, and condemned to the flames. While the priests were deliberating on the place of his execution, a by-ftander advised them to burn him in fome cellar: for that the smoke of Mr. Patrick Hamilton had infected all thofe on whom it blew M

The clergy were at that time reduced to great difficulties, not only in Scotland, but all over Europe. As the reformers aimed at a total fubverfion of antient establishments, which they reprefented as idolatrous, impious, deteftable; the priests, who found both their honours and properties at stake, thought that they had a right to refift, by every expedient, thefe dangerous invaders, and that the fame fimple principles of equity, which juftified a man in killing a pyrate or a robber, would acquit them for the execution of fuch heretics. A toleration, though it is never acceptable to ecclefiaftics, might, they faid be admitted in other cafes; but feemed an abfurdity, where fundamentals were shaken, and where the poffeffions, and even the subsistance of the established clergy were brought in danger. But though the church was thus carried by policy, as well as inclination, to kindle the fires of perfecution, they found the fuccefs of this remedy very precarious, and obferved, that the enthufiaftic zeal of the reformers, inflamed by punishment, was apt to prove contagious on the compaffionate minds of the fpectators. The new doctrine, amidst all the dangers to which it was expofed, spread itself secretly every where; and the minds of men were gradually difpofed to a revolution in religion.

BUT the most dangerous fymptom for the clergy in Scotland was, that the nobility, moved by the example of England, had caft a wifhful eye on the church revenues, and hoped, if a reformation took place, to enrich themselves by the plunder of the ecclefiaftics. James himfelf, who was very poor, and was fomewhat inclined

M Spotswood, p. 65.

to

CHAP. to magnificence, particularly in building, had been swayXXXII. ed by like motives; and began to threaten the clergy with the fame fate which had attended them in the neigh1541. bouring country. Henry alfo, never ceafed exhorting his nephew to imitate his example; and being moved both by the pride of making profelytes, and the profpe& of fecurity, if Scotland thould embrace a close union with him, he folicited the king of Scots to meet him at York; and he obtained a promife to that purpose.

THE ecclefiaftics were extremely alarmed with this refolution of James, and they employed every expedient, in order to prevent the execution of it. They reprefented the dangers of innovation; the pernicious confequences of aggrandizing the nobility, already too powerful; the hazard of putting himself into the hands of the English, his hereditary enemies; the dependance which must enfue upon his lofing the friendship of France, and of all foreign potentates. To thefe confiderations, they added the prospect of immediate intereft, by which they found the king to be much governed: They offered him a prefent gratuity of fifty thousand pounds Scots: They promifed him, that the church fhould always be ready to contribute to his fupply: And they pointed out to him the confifcations of heretics, as the means of filling his exchequer, and of adding a hundred thousand pounds a year to the crown revenues *. The infinuations of his new queen, to whom youth, beauty, and address had given a powerful influence over him, feconded all these reafons; and James was at last engaged, firft to delay his journey, then to fend excuses to the king of England, who had already come to York, in order to be prefent at the interview 9.

HENRY, vexed with the difappointment, and enraged at the affront, vowed vengeance against his nephew; and he began, by permitting pyracies at fea, and incurfi

ons

N Buchanan, lib. xiv. Drummond in Ja. 5. Pitscotie, ibid. Knox.

Henry had fent fome books, richly ornamented, to his nephew, who, as foon as he faw by the titles that they had a tendency to defend the new doctrines, threw them into the fire, in the prefence of the perfon who brought them: Adding, it was better he fhould deftroy them, than they him. See Epift. Reginald. Pole, pars. 1. p. 172.

ons at land, to put his threats in execution. But he re. CHA P. ceived foon after, in his own family, an affront to which XXXII. he was more sensible, and which touched him in a point where he had always fhewn an extreme delicacy. He 1541. had thought himself very happy in his new marriage: The agreeable perfon and difpofition of Catherine had entirely captivated his affections; and he made no secret of his devoted attachment to her. He had even put up prayers in his chapel, returning thanks to heaven for the felicity which the conjugal ftate afforded him; and he defired the bishop of Lincoln to compofe a form of thanksgiving for that purpose. But the queen very little merited this tenderness: She had abandoned herself to lewd- Discovery nefs. One Lafcelles brought intelligence of her diffolute of the life to Cranmer; and told him, that his fitter, formerly queen's dif a fervant in the old dutchefs of Norfolk's family, with folute life. whom Catherine was educated, had given him a particular account of her disorders. Derham and Mannoc, both of them fervants of the dutchefs, had been admitted to her bed; and she had even taken little care to conceal her fhame from the other fervants of the family. The primate, ftruck with this intelligence, which it was equally dangerous to conceal or to discover, communicated the matter to the earl of Hertford and to the chancellor. They agreed, that the matter fhould by no means be buried in filence; and the archbishop himself feemed the most proper perfon to difelofe it to the king. Cranmer, unwilling to speak on so delicate a subject, wrote a narrative of the whole, and conveyed it to Henry, who was infinitely astonished at the intelligence. So confident was he of the fidelity of his confort, that he gave at first no credit to the information; and he faid to the privyfeal, to lord Ruffel, high admiral, Sir Anthony Brown, and Wriothesely, that he regarded the whole as a forgery. Cranmer was now in a very perilous fituation; and had not full proofs been found, certain and inevitable deftruction hung over him. The king's impatience, however, and jealoufy prompted him to fearch the matter to the bottom: The privy-feal was ordered to examine Lafcelles, who perfifted in the information he had given; and still appealed to his fifter's teftimony. That nobleman made next a pretence of hunting, and went to Suffex, where the woman at that time refided: He found her both constant in her former intelligence, and particular

as