Constitutional History of England Volume I Part 7

[95] Conf. Burnet, i. 94, and App. No. 35; Strype, i. 230; Sleidan, _Hist. de la Reformation_ (par Courayer), l. 10. The notions of these divines, as here stated, are not very consistent or intelligible. The Swiss reformers were in favour of the divorce, though they advised that the Princess Mary should not be declared illegitimate. Luther seems to have inclined towards compromising the difference by the marriage of a secondary wife. Lingard, p. 172. Melancthon, this writer says, was of the same opinion. Burnet indeed denies this; but it is rendered not improbable by the well-authenticated fact that these divines, together with Bucer, signed a permission to the landgrave of Hesse to take a wife or concubine, on account of the drunkenness and disagreeable person of his landgravine. Bossuet, _Hist. des Var. des Egl. Protest_. vol. i., where the instrument is published. Clement VII., however, recommended the king to marry immediately, and then prosecute his suit for a divorce, which it would be easier for him to obtain in such circ.u.mstances. This was as early as January, 1528 (Burnet, i., App. p.

27). But at a much later period, September 1530, he expressly suggested the expedient of allowing the king to retain two wives. Though the letter of Ca.s.sali, the king's amba.s.sador at Rome, containing this proposition, was not found by Burnet, it is quoted at length by an author of unquestionable veracity, Lord Herbert. Henry had himself, at one time, favoured this scheme, according to Burnet, who does not, however, produce any authority for the instructions to that effect said to have been given to Brian and Vannes, despatched to Rome at the end of 1528. But at the time when the pope made this proposal, the king had become exasperated against Catherine, and little inclined to treat either her or the holy see with any respect.

[96] Strype, i. 151 _et alibi_.

[97] Strype, _pa.s.sim_. Tunstal, Gardiner, and Bonner wrote in favour of the royal supremacy; all of them, no doubt, insincerely. The first of these has escaped severe censure by the mildness of his general character, but was full as much a temporiser as Cranmer. But the history of this period has been written with such undisguised partiality by Burnet and Strype on the one hand, and lately by Dr. Lingard on the other, that it is almost amusing to find the most opposite conclusions and general results from nearly the same premises. Collier, though with many prejudices of his own, is, all things considered, the fairest of our ecclesiastical writers as to this reign.

[98] Burnet, 188. For the methods by which the regulars acquired wealth, fair and unfair, I may be allowed to refer to the _View of the Middle Ages_, ch. 7, or rather to the sources from which the sketch there given was derived.

[99] Harmer's _Specimens of Errors in Burnet_.

[100] Strype, i. Append. 19.

[101] Burnet; Strype. Wolsey alleged as the ground for this suppression, the great wickedness that prevailed therein. Strype says the number is twenty; but Collier, ii. 19, reckons them at forty.

[102] Collier, though not implicitly to be trusted, tells some hard truths, and charges Cromwell with receiving bribes from several abbeys, in order to spare them. P. 159. This is repeated by Lingard, on the authority of some Cottonian ma.n.u.scripts. Even Burnet speaks of the violent proceedings of a Doctor Loudon towards the monasteries. This man was of infamous character, and became afterwards a conspirator against Cranmer, and a persecutor of protestants.

[103] Burnet, 190; Strype, i. ch. 35, see especially p. 257; Ellis's _Letters_, ii. 71. We should be on our guard against the Romanising high-church men, such as Collier, and the whole cla.s.s of antiquaries, Wood, Hearne, Drake, Browne, Willis, etc., etc., who are, with hardly an exception, partial to the monastic orders, and sometimes scarce keep on the mask of protestantism. No one fact can be better supported by current opinion, and that general testimony which carries conviction, than the relaxed and vicious state of those foundations for many ages before their fall. Ecclesiastical writers had not then learned, as they have since, the trick of suppressing what might excite odium against their church, but speak out boldly and bitterly. Thus we find in Wilkins, iii. 630, a bull of Innocent VIII. for the reform of monasteries in England, charging many of them with dissoluteness of life. And this is followed by a severe monition from Archbishop Morton to the abbot of St. Alban's, imputing all kinds of scandalous vices to him and his monks. Those who reject at once the reports of Henry's visitors will do well to consider this. See also Fosbrooke's _British Monachism, pa.s.sim_.

[104] The preamble of 27 H. 8, c. 28, which gives the smaller monasteries to the king, after reciting that "manifest sin, vicious, carnal, and abominable living, is daily used and committed commonly in such little and small abbeys, priories, and other religious houses of monks, canons, and nuns, where the congregation of such religious persons is under the number of twelve persons," bestows praise on many of the greater foundations, and certainly does not intimate that their fate was so near at hand. Nor is any misconduct alleged or insinuated against the greater monasteries in the act 31 H. 8, c. 13, that abolishes them; which is rather more remarkable, as in some instances the religious had been induced to confess their evil lives and ill deserts. Burnet, 236.

[105] _Id. ibid._ and Append. p. 151; Collier, 167. The pensions to the superiors of the dissolved greater monasteries, says a writer not likely to spare Henry's government, appear to have varied from 266 to 6 per annum. The priors of cells received generally 13. A few, whose services had merited the distinction, obtained 20. To the other monks were allotted pensions of six, four, or two pounds, with a small sum to each at his departure, to provide for his immediate wants. The pensions to nuns averaged about 4. Lingard, vi. 341. He admits that these were ten times their present value in money; and surely they were not unreasonably small. Compare them with those, generally and justly thought munificent, which this country bestows on her veterans of Chelsea and Greenwich. The monks had no right to expect more than the means of that hard fare to which they ought by their rules to have been confined in the convents. The whole revenues were not to be shared among them as private property. It cannot of course be denied that the compulsory change of life was to many a severe and an unmerited hardship; but no great revolution, and the Reformation as little as any, could be achieved without much private suffering.

[106] The abbots sat till the end of the first session of Henry's sixth parliament, the act extinguishing them not having pa.s.sed till the last day. In the next session they do not appear, the writ of summons not being supposed to give them personal seats. There are indeed so many parallel instances among spiritual lords, and the principle is so obvious, that it would not be worth noticing, but for a strange doubt said to be thrown out by some legal authorities, near the beginning of George III.'s reign, in the case of Pearce, Bishop of Rochester, whether, after resigning his see, he would not retain his seat as a lord of parliament; in consequence of which his resignation was not accepted.

[107] Burnet, i. Append. 96.

[108] P. 268. Dr. Lingard, on the authority of Nasmith's edition of Tanner's _Not.i.tia Monastica_, puts the annual revenue of all the monastic houses at 142,914. This would only be one-twentieth part of the rental of the kingdom, if Hume were right in estimating that at three millions. But this is certainly by much too high. The author of Harmer's _Observations on Burnet_, as I have mentioned above, says the monks will be found not to have possessed above one-fifth of the kingdom, and in value, by reason of their long leases, not one-tenth.

But on this supposition, the crown's gain was enormous.

According to a valuation in Speed's _Catalogue of Religious Houses, apud_ Collier, Append. p. 34, sixteen mitred abbots had revenues above 1000 per annum. St. Peter's, Westminster, was the richest, and valued at 3977, Glas...o...b..ry at 3508, St. Alban's at 2510, etc.

[109] An act ent.i.tling the queen to take into her hands, on the avoidance of any bishopric, so much of the lands belonging to it as should be equal in value to the impropriate rectories, etc., within the same, belonging to the crown, and to give the latter in exchange, was made (1 Eliz. c. 19). This bill pa.s.sed on a division in the Commons by 104 to 90, and was ill taken by some of the bishops, who saw themselves reduced to live on the lawful subsistence of the parochial clergy.

Strype's _Annals_, i. 68, 97.

[110] Burnet, 268, 339. In Strype, i. 211, we have a paper drawn up by Cromwell for the king's inspection, setting forth what might be done with the revenues of the lesser monasteries. Among a few other particulars are the following: "His grace may furnish 200 gentlemen to attend on his person; every one of them to have 100 marks yearly--20,000 marks. His highness may a.s.sign to the yearly reparation of highways in sundry parts, or the doing of other good deeds for the commonwealth, 5000 marks." In such scant proportion did the claims of public utility come after those of selfish pomp, or rather perhaps, looking more attentively, of cunning corruption.

[111] Burnet, i. 223.

[112] It is a favourite theory with many who regret the absolute secularisation of conventual estates, that they might have been rendered useful to learning and religion by being bestowed on chapters and colleges. Thomas Whitaker has sketched a pretty scheme for the abbey of Whalley, wherein, besides certain opulent prebendaries, he would provide for schoolmasters and physicians. I suppose this is considered an adherence to the donor's intention, and no sort of violation of property; somewhat on the principle called _cy pres_, adopted by the court of chancery in cases of charitable bequests; according to which, that tribunal, if it holds the testator's intention unfit to be executed, carries the bequest into effect by doing what it presumes to come next in his wishes, though sometimes very far from them. It might be difficult indeed to prove that a Norman baron, who, not quite easy about his future prospects, took comfort in his last hours from the antic.i.p.ation of daily ma.s.ses for his soul, would have been better satisfied that his lands should maintain a grammar-school, than that they should escheat to the crown. But to waive this, and to revert to the principle of public utility, it may possibly be true that, in one instance, such as Whalley, a more beneficial disposition could have been made in favour of a college than by granting away the lands. But the question is, whether all, or even a great part, of the monastic estates could have been kept in mortmain with advantage. We may easily argue that the Derwent.w.a.ter property, applied as it has been, has done the state more service, than if it had gone to maintain a race of Ratcliffes, and been squandered at White's or Newmarket. But does it follow that the kingdom would be the more prosperous, if all the estates of the peerage were diverted to similar endowments? And can we seriously believe that, if such a plan had been adopted at the suppression of monasteries, either religion or learning would have been the better for such an inundation of prebendaries and schoolmasters?

[113] The first act for the relief of the impotent poor pa.s.sed in 1535 (27 H. 8, c. 25). By this statute no alms were allowed to be given to beggars, on pain of forfeiting ten times the value; but a collection was to be made in every parish. The compulsory contributions, properly speaking, began in 1572 (14 Eliz. c. 5). But by an earlier statute (1 Edward 6, c. 3), the bishop was empowered to proceed in his court against such as should refuse to contribute, or dissuade others from doing so.

[114] The _Inst.i.tution_ was printed in 1537; the _Erudition_, according to Burnet, in 1540; but in Collier and Strype's opinion, not till 1543.

They are both artfully drawn, probably in the main by Cranmer, but not without the interference of some less favourable to the new doctrine, and under the eye of the king himself. Collier, 137, 189. The doctrinal variations in these two summaries of royal faith are by no means inconsiderable.

[115] Strype, i. 165. A statute enacted in 1534 (25 H. 8, c. 15), after reciting that "at this day there be within this realm a great number cunning and expert in printing, and as able to execute the said craft as any stranger," proceeds to forbid the sale of bound books imported from the Continent. A terrible blow was thus levelled both against general literature and the reformed religion; but, like many other bad laws, produced very little effect.

[116] The accounts of early editions of the English Bible in Burnet, Collier, Strype, and an essay by Johnson in Watson's _Theological Tracts,_ vol. iii., are erroneous or defective. A letter of Strype in Harleian MSS. 3782, which has been printed, is better; but the most complete enumeration is in Cotton's list of editions, 1821. The dispersion of the Scriptures, with full liberty to read them, was greatly due to Cromwell, as is shown by Burnet. Even after his fall, a proclamation, dated May 6, 1542, referring to the king's former injunctions for the same purpose, directs a large Bible to be set up in every parish church. But, next year, the Duke of Norfolk and Gardiner prevailing over Cranmer, Henry retraced a part of his steps; and the act 34 H. 8, c. 1. forbids the sale of Tindal's "false translation," and the reading of the Bible in churches, or by yeomen, women, and other incapable persons. The popish bishops, well aware how much turned on this general liberty of reading the Scriptures, did all in their power to discredit the new version. Gardiner made a list of about one hundred words which he thought unfit to be translated, and which, in case of an authorised version (whereof the clergy in convocation had reluctantly admitted the expediency), ought, in his opinion, to be left in Latin.

Tindal's translation may, I apprehend, be reckoned the basis of that now in use, but has undergone several corrections before the last. It has been a matter of dispute whether it were made from the original languages or from the Vulgate. Hebrew and even Greek were very little known in England at that time.

The edition of 1537, called Matthews's Bible, printed by Grafton, contains marginal notes reflecting on the corruptions of popery. These it was thought expedient to suppress in that of 1539, commonly called Cranmer's Bible, as having been revised by him, and in later editions.

In all these editions of Henry's reign, though the version is properly Tindal's, there are, as I am informed, considerable variations and amendments. Thus, in Cranmer's Bible, the word _ecclesia_ is always rendered congregation, instead of church; either as the primary meaning, or, more probably, to point out that the laity had a share in the government of a Christian society.

[117] Burnet, 318; Strype's _Life of Parker_, 18; Collier (187) is of course much scandalised. In his view of things, it had been better to give up the Reformation entirely, than to suffer one reflection on the clergy. These dramatic satires on that order had also an effect in promoting the Reformation in Holland. Brandt's _History of Reformation in Low Countries_, vol. i. p. 128.

[118] I can hardly avoid doubting, whether Edward VI.'s journal, published in the second volume of Burnet, be altogether his own; because it is strange for a boy of ten years old to write with the precise brevity of a man of business. Yet it is hard to say how far an intercourse with able men on serious subjects may force a royal plant of such natural vigour; and his letters to his young friend Barnaby Fitzpatrick, published by H. Walpole in 1774, are quite unlike the style of a boy. One could wish this journal not to be genuine; for the manner in which he speaks of both his uncles' executions does not show a good heart. Unfortunately, however, there is a letter extant, of the king to Fitzpatrick, which must be genuine, and is in the same strain. He treated his sister Mary harshly about her religion, and had, I suspect, too much Tudor blood in his veins. It is certain that he was a very extraordinary boy, or, as Cardan calls him, monstrificus puellus; and the reluctance with which he yielded, on the solicitations of Cranmer, to sign the warrant for burning John Boucher, is as much to his honour, as it is against the archbishop's.

[119] The litany had been translated into English in 1542. Burnet, i.

331; Collier, III, where it may be read, not much differing from that now in use. It was always held out by our church, when the object was conciliation, that the liturgy was essentially the same with the ma.s.s-book. Strype's _Annals_, ii. 39; Hollingshed, iii, 921 (4to edition).

[120] It was observed, says Strype, ii. 79, that where images were left there was most contest, and most peace where they were all sheer pulled down, as they were in some places.

[121] Collier, p. 257, enters into a vindication of the practice, which appears to have prevailed in the church from the second century. It was defended in general by the nonjurors, and the whole school of Andrews.

But, independently of its wanting the authority of Scripture, which the reformers set up exclusively of all tradition, it contradicted the doctrine of justification by mere faith, in the strict sense which they affixed to that tenet. See preamble of the act for dissolution of chantries, 1 Edw. 6, c. 14.

[122] Collier, p. 248, descants, in the true spirit of a high churchman, on the importance of confession. This also, as is well known, is one of the points on which his party disagreed with the generality of protestants.

[123] Nostra sententia est, says Luther, _apud_ Burnet, 111, Appendix, 194, corpus ita c.u.m pane, seu in pane esse, ut revera c.u.m pane manducetur, et quemcunque motum vel actionem panis habet, eundem et corpus Christi.

[124] "Bucer thought, that for avoiding contention, and for maintaining peace and quietness in the church, somewhat more ambiguous words should be used, that might have a respect to both persuasions concerning the presence. But Martyr was of another judgment, and affected to speak of the sacrament with all plainness and perspicuity." Strype, ii. 121. The truth is, that there were but two opinions at bottom as to this main point of the controversy; nor in the nature of things was it possible that there should be more; for what can be predicated concerning a body, in its relation to a given s.p.a.ce, but presence and absence?

[125] Burnet, ii. 105, App. 216; Strype, ii. 121, 208; Collier, etc. The Calvinists certainly did not own a local presence in the elements. It is the artifice of modern Romish writers, Dr. Milner, Mr. C. Butler, etc., to disguise the incompatibility of their tenets with those of the church of England on this, as they do on all other topics of controversy, by representing her as maintaining an actual, incomprehensible presence of Christ's body in the consecrated elements; which was never meant to be a.s.serted in any authorised exposition of faith; though in the seventeenth century it was held by many distinguished churchmen. See the 27th, 28th, and 29th articles of religion. An eminent living writer, who would be as useful as he is agreeable, if he could bring himself to write with less heat and haste, says, that at Elizabeth's accession, among other changes, "the language of the article which affirmed a real presence was so framed as to allow lat.i.tude of belief for those who were persuaded of an exclusive one." Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. ii.

p. 247. The real presence was not affirmed, but denied, in the original draft; and as to what Mr. S. calls "an exclusive one" (that is, transubstantiation, if the words have any meaning), it is positively rejected in the amended article.

[126] It appears to have been common for the clergy, by licence from their bishops, to retain concubines, who were, Collier says, for the most part their wives. P. 262. But I do not clearly understand in what the distinction could have consisted; for it seems unlikely that marriages of priests were ever solemnised at so late a period; or if they were, they were invalid.

[127] Stat. 2 and 3 Edw. VI. c. 21; 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 12; Burnet, 89.

[128] 2 Strype, 53. Latimer pressed the necessity of expelling these temporising conformists.--"Out with them all! I require it in G.o.d's behalf: make them _quondams_, all the pack of them." _Id._ 204; 2 Burnet, 143.

[129] Burnet, iii. 190, 196. "The use of the old religion," says Paget, in remonstrating with Somerset on his rough treatment of some of the gentry, and partiality to the commons, "is forbidden by a law, and the use of the new is not yet printed in the stomachs of eleven out of twelve parts of the realm, whatever countenance men make outwardly to please them in whom they see the power resteth." Strype, ii. Appendix, H.H. This seems rather to refer to the upper cla.s.ses, than to the whole people. But at any rate it was an exaggeration of the fact, the protestants being certainly in a much greater proportion. Paget was the adviser of the scheme of sending for German troops in 1549, which, however, was in order to quell a seditious spirit in the nation, not by any means wholly founded upon religious grounds. Strype, xi. 169.

[130] 2 Edward 6, c. 1; Strype, xi. 81.

[131] 37 H. 8, c. 2; 1 Edw. 6, c. 14; Strype, ii. 63; Burnet, etc.

Cranmer, as well as the catholic bishops, protested against this act, well knowing how little regard would be paid to its intention. In the latter part of the young king's reign, as he became more capable of exerting his own power, he endowed, as is well known, several excellent foundations.

[132] Strype, Burnet, Collier, _pa.s.sim_; Harmer's _Specimens_, 100. Sir Philip Hobby, our minister in Germany, writes to the Protector in 1548, that the foreign protestants thought our bishops too rich, and advises him to reduce them to a competent living; he particularly recommends his taking away all the prebends in England. Strype, 88. These counsels, and the acts which they prompted, disgust us, from the spirit of rapacity they breathe. Yet it might be urged with some force that the enormous wealth of the superior ecclesiastics had been the main cause of those corruptions which it was sought to cast away, and that most of the dignitaries were very averse to the new religion. Even Cranmer had written some years before to Cromwell, deprecating the establishment of any prebends out of the conventual estates, and speaking of the collegiate clergy as an idle, ignorant, and gormandising race, who might, without any harm, be extinguished along with the regulars.

Burnet, iii. 141. But the gross selfishness of the great men in Edward's reign justly made him anxious to save what he could for a church that seemed on the brink of absolute ruin. Collier mentions a characteristic circ.u.mstance. So great a quant.i.ty of church plate had been stolen, that a commission was appointed to enquire into the facts, and compel its rest.i.tution. Instead of this, the commissioners found more left than they thought sufficient, and seized the greater part to the king's use.

[133] They declared, in the famous protestation of Spire, which gave them the name of Protestants, that their preachers having confuted the ma.s.s by pa.s.sages of Scripture, they could not permit their subjects to go thither; since it would afford a bad example, to suffer two sorts of service, directly opposite to each other, in their churches. Schmidt, _Hist. des Allemands_, vi. 394, vii. 24.

[134] Stat. 2 and 3 Edw. 6, c. 1; Strype's _Cranmer_, p. 233.

[135] Burnet, 192. Somerset had always allowed her to exercise her religion, though censured for this by Warwick, who died himself a papist, but had pretended to fall in with the young king's prejudices.

Her ill treatment was subsequent to the protector's overthrow. It is to be observed that, in her father's life, she had acknowledged his supremacy, and the justice of her mother's divorce. 1 Strype, 285; 2 Burnet, 241; Lingard, vi. 326. It was of course by intimidation; but that excuse might be made for others. Cranmer is said to have persuaded Henry not to put her to death, which we must in charity hope she did not know.

[136] When Joan Boucher was condemned, she said to her judges, "It was not long ago since you burned Anne Askew for a piece of bread, and yet came yourselves soon after to believe and profess the same doctrine for which you burned her; and now you will needs burn me for a piece of flesh, and in the end you will come to believe this also when you have read the Scriptures and understand them." Strype, ii. 214.