which they had extorted from the helplessness of their flocks.

and over whose interests he continued to watch until death supervened, he avowed to Cavendish his determination to proceed forthwith to court In pursuance of this resolution, therefore, "where I will either make or mar." His po- official notice was issued in December, 1530, sition as a Member of Parliament, his known that all the clergy lay under a præmunire, and capacities for business, the confidence which that the crown intended to prosecute. Convothe fallen minister had reposed in him, the pos- cation was to meet in the middle of January, session of a sufficient amount of enterprise and and this startling fact was communicated to the self-assertion, all helped to qualify him to exe- bishops in order to divert their attention to cute some bold stroke as soon as a convenient subjects which might profitably occupy their opportunity should arise. He carefully watched deliberations. The church legislature had sat the course of events; he noted how the king's in the preceding year contemporaneously with heart was set upon the attainment of the divorce; the sitting of Parliament, at the time when their he was observant of the relationship between privileges were being discussed, and when their the temporal and spiritual powers; he had tra- conduct had been so angrily challenged; but velled much on the Continent and had sagacity these matters had not disturbed their placid enough to discern the signs of the times; he equanimity; for while the bishops were comperceived the true meaning of the recent debates posing their answer to the House of Commons, in the House of Commons; he foresaw the im- the Convocation had been engaged in debating pending struggle in ecclesiastical matters, and the most promising means of persecuting heretics when a fitting occasion offered he suggested to and preventing the circulation of the Bible. Henry a course which instantly commended itself The session had continued into the spring of to the monarch as likely to end the difficulty. | 1529-30, when the king had been prevailed In an interview with the king, Cromwell apo-upon to grant an Order in Council prohibiting logized for being so presumptuous as to offer the circulation of Tyndale's Testament, in the advice where so many had tried and had signally failed, but he suggested that the real obstacle to the divorce was the pope. The most eminent men in the English and foreign Universities had pronounced in its favour, but still the pope hesitated. Why should the king of England forego his rights? At present, England was like a monster with two heads. Only let Henry assume his rightful authority and that of the pope might be set aside. Then, the clergy, sensible that their lives and fortunes were in the royal hands would be changed from haughty antagonists into the obsequious instruments of his will.

preface of which the clergy were spoken of disrespectfully. His consent had been obtained on the representation of the bishops that the translation was faulty, and on their undertaking to supply its place with a corrected version. But in obtaining the order, they supposed themselves to have gained a victory; and their triumph had been celebrated in St. Paul's church-yard with the auto de fé, already described, when such New Testaments as the diligence of apparitors could discover, were solemnly burned. From occupations such as these a not unwholesome distraction was furnished by the intimation of the præmunire. The Convocation Henry was struck with the suggestion and was appalled by this sudden turn of affairs and resolved to act upon it. Cromwell was ap- by the utter ruin that threatened them. They pointed a member of the Privy Council, and had recognized Wolsey's legatine court, and henceforth his fortune was made,-to end only this was construed by the King's Bench to be at the block. The method suggested by him an infraction of the Statute of Provisors. Hence was not difficult of accomplishment. The higher the entire body of the clergy were held to have clergy had been encouraged by Wolsey's position incurred the dreadful and crushing penalties to commit excessive acts of despotism which which had been at first pronounced upon Wolsey had created deep animosity among the people. himself. Panic seized upon them; when it was The overthrow of the last ecclesiastical minister hinted that the king might be appeased by a was an opportunity to teach them that the considerable fine, self-imposed under the name privileges so shamefully abused were at an end; of an "Aid." The province of Canterbury, and as the lesson was so difficult for them to therefore at once offered the enormous sum of one learn, the letter of the law which they had hundred thousand pounds; and the clergy of York, broken was put in force to quicken their per- being much fewer, were desirous to compound ceptions. They were to be punished indirectly for eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty for their other evil doings, and forced to sur-pounds.

render some portion of the unnumbered exactions Before this pecuniary atonement would be

1529-1530]

THE CLERGY IN A PRÆMUNIRE.

accepted by the king, he availed himself of the clergy's extremity to insist upon their acknowledging him as the "Protector and only Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England," and this title was to be inserted in the preamble of the subsidy-bill which Convocation was about to pass. It is difficult, in the absence of assigned reasons, to conjecture why Henry did this at this particular juncture, or what he actually meant by it; but one thing appears certain, that this title was not intended to imply what was implied four years later, when a similar title was conferred upon the king by Act of Parliament after the final breach with Rome.

419

and its penalties. They hesitated for another
night. The day following, the archbishop sub-
mitted the clause containing the title to the
Upper House, with a saving paragraph which,
as Burnet sententiously observes, "the nature of
things did require to be supposed:" "We
recognise the king's majesty to be our only
sovereign lord, the singular protector of the
Church and clergy of England, and as far as is
allowed by the law of Christ, also as our Supreme
Head." The words were read aloud by the
archbishop, and were received in silence.
you assent?" he asked. The House remained
speechless. "Whoever is silent seems to con-
sent," the archbishop said. A voice answered
out of the crowd, "Then are we all silent.”
They separated for a few hours to collect them-
selves. In the afternoon sitting they discussed
the sufficiency of the subterfuge; and at length
agreeing that it saved their consciences, the
clause was finally passed; the bishop of Rochester,
among the rest, giving unwilling acquiescence.

"Do

So for the present terminated this grave matter. The pardon was immediately submitted to Parliament, where it was embodied in a Statute; and this act of dubious justice accomplished, the Convocation was allowed to return to its old employment and continue the prosecution of heretics.

To do them justice, the clergy seem to have been more startled by this demand than by the penal consequences of præmunire, and they seem to have hesitated and resisted longer upon this abstract question. Henry and his Council were resolute. Only by conceding the required title should the clergy receive their pardon; nor would he accept the atoning subsidy without the title. There had been a debate of three days, whether they should or should not consent, when, on the 9th of February, a deputation of the judges appeared in Convocation, to ask whether the Houses were agreed, and to inform them finally that the king had determined to allow no qualifications. The clergy begged During this time, Parliament had been holding for one more day, and on the following morning a session from the sixteenth of January onwards the bishops held a private meeting to discuss for ten weeks. On the thirtieth of March Lord some plan to turn aside the blow. They desired Chancellor More came down to the House of to see Cromwell, to learn, perhaps, if there was Commons and read to the members the dea chance of melting the hard heart of Henry; cisions of the various Universities on the question and after an interview which could not have that had been submitted to them as to the been encouraging, they sent two of their number, competency of Pope Julius II. to grant the the bishops of Exeter and Lincoln, to attempt dispensation for Henry's marriage with Catherine. the unpromising task. It was in vain; they Sir Thomas More said that in the disturbed were obliged to return with the answer that the state of the country the king desired them king would not see them, they had seen only to report this in their respective districts, "in the judges, who had assured them in simple order that all men might perceive that he had language that the pardon was not to be settled not attempted this matter of his own will or until the supremacy was admitted. The answer pleasure, as some reported, but only for the was communicated to the House, and again discharge of his conscience and surety of the "debated." Submission was against the con- succession of his realm." Besides this a letter sciences of the unhappy clergy; to obey their was addressed to Pope Clement by twenty-eight consciences involved forfeiture of property; and spiritual lords and forty-two temporal lords, who naturally in such a dilemma they found resolution reminded him that notwithstanding the interests difficult. They attempted another appeal sug- at issue the country had vainly sought the pope's gesting that eight of their number should hold assistance. The merits of the case ought to a conference with the privy council, and "dis- have been sufficient without need of entreaty, cover, if they might, some possible expedient." but as his Holiness had not given what But Henry replied as before, that he would it was his duty as a father to grant, they have a clear answer, "yes, or no." They might were compelled to utter their complaints, say "yes," and their pardon was ready. They remembering the past miseries and calamities might say "no"-and accept the præmunire of the nation. Clement is reminded that Henry

Thus was the matter regarded by these seventy members of the House of Lords; and such was the feeling of the people at large, excluding, however, no inconsiderable proportion of the women in the kingdom, by whom Catherine was esteemed as an outraged wife.

had saved the papacy from ruin, and yet grati- promises and intentions towards her. There is tude was not manifested, for a flood of miseries not absolute proof that Anne Boleyn surwere impending over the commonwealth, threat- rendered her honour, while there is strong ening to revive ancient controversies on the suc- presumptive evidence that she steadily resisted cession which had been extinguished only with all the blandishments of the king; but her much blood and slaughter, and the pope was memory would not have suffered so much at the only obstacle to a marriage that could avert the hands of bigoted and merciless detractors if such dangers. Clement is warned that in the she had been careful to act true to her feminine event of his continued refusal or neglect a instincts while the divorce was pending. Hapremedy must be sought elsewhere. pily, a veil of oblivion has been dropped over what must have been a painful underplot of individual feelings, for Catherine would not abate one jot of her queenly rights and dignity, but insisted upon accompanying the king in his progresses and in sharing his bed and board long after he had instituted proceedings for a separation. In June 1531, a deputation from the Privy Council waited upon her at Greenwich with a copy of the communion which Sir Thomas More had laid before Parliament, and with a formal demand that she should withdraw her appeal to Rome and submit to an arbitration within the kingdom. This she refused to do, as might have been expected, and her refusal was couched in terms that heighten the respect naturally felt for her. In the following month the king parted from her at Windsor and never saw her more.. After a time an establishment was provided for her at Ampthill, a manor belonging to Henry, not far from Dunstable, and thither she was compelled to remove. There, her little court became the nucleus around which gathered all who were more zealous for Rome than for England; all who were opposed to or who were displeased with the government; all who were the secret emissaries of foreign foes; all who were disaffected or disappointed; and thus, out of these elements was formed a party that occasioned no slight trouble to the civil administration during the remainder of the Tudor dynasty.

It is impossible not to feel deeply for her position and misfortunes; and it is equally impossible to abstain from censuring the want of womanly delicacy and propriety manifested by Anne Boleyn in remaining in the royal house, hold, occupying, in fact, the position of a rival princess, accepting the undisguised attentions of the king, and eagerly looking forward to the time when a legal release from his existing marriage vows would enable him to fulfil his

The clerical question had not been fully and finally decided by the proceedings of Convocation in the month of February Although the dignitaries and the proctors who represented the body of the clergy had compounded with the king to avert the penalties of præmunire by the payment of one hundred and eighteen thousand pounds, the manner of raising this large sum remained to be settled. Hall has preserved a quaint scene, by looking upon which it is easy to estimate the perplexity and trouble. The bishops had privately arranged that each diocese should be managed separately, and there was a secret determination on the part of some of the prelates to shift as much of the burden as possible from their own shoulders to

A vivid idea of the immediate locality of this strange scene will be gained from the accompanying illustration, taken by the kind permission of A. V. Newton Esq., of Chancery Lane, from the large map of London compiled by the late W. Newton Esq. from the most reliable authorities. For facility of reference the names of the streets are given in the modern forms. The view of the Cathedral represents it prior to the destruction of the spire and of other portions by fire in 1561. The numbers on the map refer to the following celebrated spots,

those of the clergy. With this object, Stokesley, | else is now so dear that poverty enforceth us bishop of London, convened five or six upon to say 'Nay.' Besides, my Lord, we never whom he could depend, hoping to obtain their meddled with the Cardinal's faculties. Let the sanction to measures which were certain to be bishops and abbots who have offended, pay." rejected in a larger assembly. a larger assembly. This secret This blunt address was tumultuously applauded, meeting was to be held on the first of September expressing as it did so plainly the general senin the Chapter-house of St. Paul's, but the timent. The bishop's officers tried to appease project got wind, and instead of the chosen the clamour and to maintain something like six upwards of six hundred of the Middlesex outward decorum, but the crowd was in no clergy, accompanied by a mob of London citi- mood to be thus quieted, and fierce taunts were zens, assembled at the appointed place and interchanged. From words they soon came to clamoured for admission. The bishop, alarmed blows, and the officers speedily got the worst but not defeated, sent out a list of the persons in the affray, so that the meeting broke up in who might be admitted and these made their confusion. Thus Stokesley's notable scheme way through the crowd with much difficulty and defeated itself. were allowed to pass the guarded door. Those who were excluded, angry at the invidious selection and incited by the mob around, broke open the door, attacked the bishop's officers, stormed the place of meeting and appeared before the astonished prelate, an excited, angry, shouting crowd. When the noise had a little subsided, Stokesley arose and said in the mildest accents,-"My brethren, I marvel not a little why ye be so heady. Ye know not what shall be said to you, therefore I pray you keep silence, and hear me patiently. My friends, ye all know that we be men frail of condition and no angels; and by frailty and lack of wisdom we have misdemeaned ourselves towards the king our sovereign lord and his laws, so that all we of the clergy were in præmunire, by reason whereof all our promotions, lands, goods, and chattels were to him forfeit, and our bodies ready to be imprisoned. Yet his Grace, moved with pity and compassion, demanded of us what we could say why he should not extend his laws upon us. Then the fathers of the clergy humbly besought his Grace for mercy; to whom he answered he was ever inclined to mercy. Then for all our great offences we had but little penance, for when he might by the rigour of his laws have taken all our livelihoods he was contented with one hundred thousand pounds, to be paid in five years. And though this sum may be more than we may easily bear, yet, by the rigour of his law, we should have borne the whole burden: whereupon, my brethren, I charitably exhort you to bear your parts of your livelihood and salary towards payment of this sum granted."

1. Paul's Cross.

2. St. Paul's School.
3. St. Eleanor's Cross.
4. Fleet Prison.

Time passed on, and in January, 1532, Convocation and Parliament were again assembled. The old conflict broke out between the temporal and the spiritual powers, and again the latter received a check. It was customary for wills to begin with the following phrase:-"I bequeath my soul to Almighty God, and to our Lady Saint Mary, and to all the saints in heaven." William Tracy, a respectable gentleman of Gloucestershire, departed from this form, and when his last will was read after his decease, it was found to begin in the following

manner:

"First, and before all other things, I com mit myself to God and his mercy; believing, without any doubt or mistrust, that by his grace, and the merits of Jesus Christ, and by the virtue of his passion and his resurrection, I have, and shall have, remission of all my sins, and also resurrection of body and soul, according as it is written: I believe that my Redeemer liveth, and that in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and in my flesh shall see my Saviour;' this my hope is laid up in my bosom. And, touching