Henry the Sixth Part 5

Having his eyes always fixed on virtue, he was wholly concerned to prefer virtuous men, and to these he was greatly attached.

But most strongly was the said king Henry moved by the pa.s.sion of enkindled affection when he said to Master William Waynflete, the successor of the most renowned cardinal of Winchester: 'Receive the enthronement of Winchester, so to be there as was the custom of the bishops before you. Be your days long in the land, and grow and go forward in the path of virtue.'

With like bounty did he prefer the bishops of Worcester and of Chichester together, and many others also, as is sufficiently known.

Also to enlarge the house of G.o.d and His worship, in the time when he bore rule he founded the two n.o.ble colleges before mentioned, which he endowed with large lands and revenues, for the maintenance of poor scholars not a few; wherein not only are the divine offices celebrated daily in the most devout manner, to the praise of Almighty G.o.d, but also scholastic teaching and the other arts pertaining thereto are constantly carried on, to the increase of knowledge. And for the beginning and foundation of these two colleges he sought out everywhere the best living stones, that is, boys excellently equipped with virtue and knowledge, and priests to bear rule over the rest as teachers and tutors: and as concerned the getting of priests the king said to him whom he employed in that behalf: 'I would rather have them somewhat weak in music than defective in knowledge of the scriptures.' And with regard to the boys or youths who were brought to him to be put to school, the king's wish was that they should be thoroughly educated and nourished up both in virtue and in the sciences. So it was that whenever he met any of them at times in the castle of Windsor, whither they sometimes repaired to visit servants of the king who were known to them, and when he ascertained that they were of his boys, he would advise them concerning the following of the path of virtue and, with his words, would also give them money to attract them, saying: 'Be you good boys, gentle and teachable, and servants of the Lord.' And if he discovered that any of them visited his court, he sometimes restrained them with a rebuke, bidding them not do so again, lest his young lambs should come to relish the corrupt deeds and habits of his courtiers, or lose partly or altogether their own good characters, like lambs or sheep, which, if they feed among briars and thorns, tear their fleeces and oftentimes wholly lose them.

_The humility of the king._

When I speak of the great humility of this king, I would have you know that he was most eminent for that virtue of humility. This pious prince was not ashamed to be a diligent server to a priest celebrating in his presence, and to make the responses at the ma.s.s, as _Amen_, _Sed libera nos_, and the rest. He did so commonly even to me, a poor priest. At table even when he took a slight refection, he would (like a professed religious) rise quickly, observe silence, and devoutly give thanks to G.o.d standing on every occasion. Also on the testimony of Master Doctor Towne, he made a rule that a certain dish which represented the five wounds of Christ as it were red with blood, should be set on his table by his almoner before any other course, when he was to take refreshment: and contemplating these images with great fervour he thanked G.o.d marvellous devoutly.

Again, once when riding in a street which lay outside the graveyard to the east of a certain church, wherein the pyx that hung over the altar did not contain the sacrament of the Eucharist, he on that account did not bare his head, as he was wont always at other times to do most reverently in honour of the sacrament; and when many of his lords and n.o.bles wondered thereat, he gave them his reason, saying: 'I know that my Lord Jesus Christ is not there for me to do so in His honour.' And it was found to be so as he had said. Nay, those who were his privy servants say that the king often saw our Lord Jesus presenting Himself in human form in the sacrament of the altar in the hands of the priest.

It was also his custom of his very great humility and devotion to bear in his own hands a great taper on the eve and at the season of the Lord's resurrection for his reverence and belief in the same.

_The humility of the king._

Further of his humility in his bearing, in his clothes and other apparel of his body, in his speech and many other parts of his outward behaviour;--it is well known that from his youth up he always wore round-toed shoes and boots like a farmer's. He also customarily wore a long gown with a rolled hood like a townsman, and a full coat reaching below his knees, with shoes, boots and foot-gear wholly black, rejecting expressly all curious fashion of clothing.

Also at the princ.i.p.al feasts of the year, but especially at those when of custom he wore his crown, he would always have put on his bare body a rough hair shirt, that by its roughness his body might be restrained from excess, or more truly that all pride and vain glory, such as is apt to be engendered by pomp, might be repressed.

_His work and pursuits._

As concerning the employments of the king and how well he pa.s.sed his days and his time, it is well known to many yet alive that he used wholly to devote the high days and Sundays to hearing the divine office and to devout prayer on his own behalf and his people's, lest his enemies should scorn his sabbaths; and he was earnest in trying to induce others to do the like. So that some who were once attendant on him declare that his whole joy and pleasure was in the due and right performance of the praise of G.o.d and of divine service. The other days of less solemnity he pa.s.sed not in sloth or vanities, not in banquetings or drunkenness, not in vain talk or other mischievous speech or chatter (all such he ever avoided in his lifetime and indeed used but very brief speech, of words tending to edification or profitable to others), but such days he pa.s.sed not less diligently either in treating of the business of the realm with his council as need might require, or in reading of the scriptures or of authors and chronicles. Such witness of him was borne by an honourable knight who was once his most trusty chamberlain, Sir Richard Tunstall, who gave this testimony of him both in speech and in writing: 'His delight was in the law of the Lord by day and by night.' And to prove this, the Lord King himself complained heavily to me in his chamber at Eltham, when I was alone there with him employed together with him upon his holy books, and giving ear to his wholesome advice and the sighs of his most deep devotion. There came all at once a knock at the king's door from a certain mighty duke of the realm, and the king said: 'They do so interrupt me that by day or night I can hardly s.n.a.t.c.h a moment to be refreshed by reading of any holy teaching without disturbance.'

A like thing to this happened once at Windsor when I was there.

Further, to confirm his notable devotion to G.o.d, many who yet survive and were once of his household say that he was wont almost at every moment to raise his eyes heavenward like a denizen of heaven or one rapt, being for the time not conscious of himself or of those about him, as if he were a man in a trance or on the verge of heaven: having his conversation in heaven, according to that word of the apostle: 'Our conversation is in heaven.'

_His oath._

Also he would never use any other oath to confirm his own truthful speech than the uttering of these words: 'Forsothe and forsothe,' to certify those to whom he spoke of what he said. So also he restrained many both gentle and simple from hard swearing either by mild admonition or harsh reproof; for a swearer was his abomination.

When he heard a great lord who was his chamberlain suddenly break out and swear bitterly, he sternly rebuked him, saying: 'Alas! you, that are lord of a great household, when you utter oaths like this contrary to G.o.d's commandment, give a most evil example to your servants and those that are under you, for you provoke them to do the like.'

_His pitifulness and patience._

Of the patience of this king and his most kind compa.s.sion which he showed throughout his life to them that sinned against him, while he was in power, many things may be related with all truth.

First; once when he was coming down from St Albans to London through Cripplegate, he saw over the gate there the quarter of a man on a tall stake, and asked what it was. And when his lords made answer that it was the quarter of a traitor of his, who had been false to the king's majesty, he said: 'Take it away. I will not have any Christian man so cruelly handled for my sake.' And the quarter was removed immediately.

He that saw it bears witness.

Again, four n.o.bles of high birth were convicted of treason and of the crime of lese-majeste and were legally condemned therefor by the judges to suffer a shameful death. These he compa.s.sionately released, and delivered from that bitter death, sending the writ of his pardon for their delivery to the place of execution by a swift messenger.

To other three great lords of the realm who conspired the death of this king (_or_ conspired in the king's troubles) and a.s.sembled an innumerable host of armed men, aiming ambitiously to secure the kingly power, as manifestly appeared afterwards, the king showed no less mercy: for he forgave all, both the leaders and the men under them, what they had maliciously designed against him, provided they submitted themselves to him.

Like compa.s.sion he showed to many others, and especially to two who were compa.s.sing his death; one of whom gave him a severe wound in the neck, and would have brained him, or cut off his head; but the king took it most patiently, saying: 'Forsothe and forsothe, ye do fouly to smyte a kynge enoynted so.' The other smote him in the side with a dagger when he was held prisoner in the Tower, and after the deed, believing that he had killed the king with his wicked blow, and fearing to be taken, fled with all speed; but was caught and brought before him, when the king, now recovered, and set free from that prison, and once more by the favour and act of G.o.d raised to the kingly dignity without a battle after a long course of exile and imprisonment, pardoned him of his great clemency, as he did also his aforesaid persecutor.

So the former servants of this king declare that he never would that any person, however injurious to him, should ever be punished: and this is plain in the case of many to whom he was exceeding gracious and merciful; for he was become an imitator of Him who saith, 'I will have mercy' and 'I will not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live,' who also, as the apostle saith, 'desired the salvation of all men.' Nor is this to be wondered at: for in his soul there was not even that vain satisfaction which hunters take in capturing beasts,--a misplaced pleasure: he did not care to see the creature, when taken, cruelly defiled with slaughter, nor would he ever take part in the killing of an innocent beast.

But what need of more? It is certain that the men among whom and towards whom the king was so kind and merciful proved at the last wholly ungrateful to him, as the Jews to Christ. For whereas G.o.d's right hand had raised him to so glorious a place, these [murderous ones], as has been said, conspiring together with savage rage, deprived even this most merciful king of his royal power, and drove him from his realm and governance; and after a long time spent in hiding in secret places wherein for safety's sake he was forced to keep close, he was found and taken, brought as a traitor and criminal to London, and imprisoned in the Tower there; where, like a true follower of Christ, he patiently endured hunger, thirst, mockings, derisions, abuse, and many other hardships, and finally suffered a violent death of the body that others might, as was then the expectation, peaceably possess the kingdom. But his soul, as we piously believe upon the evidence of the long series of miracles done in the place where his body is buried, liveth with G.o.d in the heavenly places, where after the troubles of this world he rejoiceth with the just in the eternal contemplation of G.o.d and in the stead of this earthly and transitory kingdom whereof he patiently bore the loss, he now possesseth one that endureth for ever.

_The revelations shown to him._

Furthermore I think it not well to pa.s.s over the heavenly mysteries which were shown to this king.

When he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, a certain chaplain of his asked him, about the time of the feast of Easter, how his soul agreed at that most holy season with the troubles that pressed upon him and so sprouted forth that he could by no means avoid them. The king answered in these words: 'The kingdom of heaven, unto which I have devoted myself always from a child, do I call and cry for. For this kingdom which is transitory and of the earth I do not greatly care. Our kinsman of March thrusts himself into it as is his pleasure. This one thing only do I require, to receive the sacrament at Easter, and the rites of the church on Maundy Thursday with the rest of Christendom, as I am accustomed.'

And for the much devotion which he always had to G.o.d and His sacraments, it seems not unsuitable that he should often have been enlightened by heavenly mysteries and comforted thereby in his afflictions. He is reported by some in his confidence, to whom he was used to reveal his secrets, to have often seen the Lord Jesus held in the hands of the celebrant and appearing to him in human form at the time of the Eucharist. Again, when he was at Waltham he told some one privately (though others also _standing_ behind him heard it) of a repeated revelation from the Lord vouchsafed to him three years running at that feast of St Edward which falls on the vigil of the Epiphany, of the glory of the Lord appearing in human form, of His crown, and of a vision of the a.s.sumption of the Blessed Mary both corporal and spiritual.

Also there is the matter of the absence of the sacrament from the pyx when he rode by a certain churchyard, on account of which he refrained from his wonted reverence to the sacrament, as is told above.

Also in the extreme pressure of his wars in the parts of the North, it is told by some who came from that region, that when there was for a time a scarcity of bread among his fellow-soldiers and troops, out of a small quant.i.ty of wheat, bread was so multiplied by his merits and prayers that a sufficiency and even a superfluity was forthcoming for all of his who sought and asked for it, whereas the rest that were opposed to him had to suffer from lack of meat.

Moreover, after the horrid and ungrateful rebellion of his subjects had continued a long time, and after these rebels had fought many hard battles against him, he fled at last with a few followers to a secret place prepared for him by those that were faithful to him. And, as he lay hid there for some time, an audible voice sounded in his ears for some seventeen days before he was taken, telling him how he should be delivered up by treachery, and brought to London without all honour like a thief or an outlaw, and led through the midst of it, and should endure many evils devised by the thoughts of wicked men, and should be imprisoned there in the Tower: of all which he was informed by revelation from the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saints John Baptist, Dunstan, and Anselm (whose consolations he did then as at other times enjoy) and was thereby strengthened to bear with patience these and like trials. But when he told this to some of his people, and namely to Masters Bedon and Mannynge, they were incredulous and believed it not, but thought all to be but vain wanderings until the event a.s.sured them of the truth.

It is also said that when the king was shut up in the Tower he saw a woman on his right hand (_or_ out of his window) trying to drown a little child, and warned her by a messenger not to commit such a crime and sin, hateful to G.o.d; and she, rebuked by this reproof, desisted from the deed she had begun.

Also, when this king Henry was asked during his imprisonment in the Tower why he had unjustly claimed and possessed the crown of England for so many years, he would answer thus: 'My father was king of England, and peaceably possessed the crown of England for the whole time of his reign. And his father and my grandfather was king of the same realm. And I, a child in the cradle, was peaceably and without any protest crowned and approved as king by the whole realm, and wore the crown of England some forty years, and each and all of my lords did me royal homage and plighted me their faith, as was also done to other my predecessors.

Wherefore I too can say with the Psalmist: The lot is fallen unto me in a fair ground: yea, I have a goodly heritage. For my right help is of the Lord, who preserveth them that are true of heart.'

Praise be to G.o.d.

Footnotes:

[47] _Lit._ from virtue to virtue.

NOTES

The style and literary ability of John Blacman must be rated very low.

In translating him one is forced to neglect his use of particles and tenses in order to produce a tolerable sense. He uses the pluperfect apparently as an equivalent of the preterite, and begins sentences with _unde_ where _unde_ has no meaning at all. There is no shape or proportion in the composition of his tract as it stands. At the end of the section on _Pietas et patientia_ he comes to a dignified close, but immediately continues with a chapter on _Revelationes_ which, one would think, ought not to have been an afterthought. This chapter ends in mid-air; there is no kind of finality about it. It must be either unfinished by the author or mutilated (as Hearne conjectured). If mutilated, political considerations may have been responsible, for the subject of the last paragraph is the question of Henry's right to the crown (and not any revelation vouchsafed to him); and I see signs that the tract was written before the accession of Henry VII, in the vagueness of such allusions to the reigning sovereign as are to be found in it. The clause 'propter regnum, ut tunc sperabatur, ab aliis pacifice possidendum' is the most overt of these, and no one can say that it is too explicit. The next sentence speaks of the long series of miracles done where Henry's body is buried. This may mean that the body is still at Chertsey, though in after years miracles occurred at Windsor. It will be remembered that Richard III transferred it hastily from Chertsey to Windsor because the reports of the miracles were testifying to a growth of interest in the good king which was not healthy for the dynasty of York.

So also in the prologue, Blacman will not dwell upon the descent, the coronation, and so on, of Henry, because these things are known to everyone and because of his subsequent fall. The latter is the more cogent reason.

To what has been said of Hearne's connexion with the book, it may be added that in the new edition of his _Collections_ (Oxf. Hist. Soc. vol.

X. p. 442) he tells us under date July 31, 1731, that "Mr West lately met with a small Pamphlet in 4to bound up with the Arminian Nunnery, at Little Gidding, and int.i.tuled 'Collectarium mansuetudinum (etc.).' 'Tis printed in the old black Letter by Cowpland, with the figure of a king in his Robes,... I do not remember to have ever seen this Book.

Archbishop Usher had seen John Blacman's MSS Collections wch probably contained a great many other things relating to the Carthusians and their Benefactors ... (Henry VI) was a pious, tho' very weak Prince. The Carthusians had most deservedly a great opinion of him,... and did what they could for his honour."