History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume V Part 51

Necessity of the Reformation--Wolsey's Earnestness with Da Casale--An Audience with Clement VII--Cruel Position of the Pope--A Judas' Kiss--A new Brief--Bryan and Vannes sent to Rome--Henry and Du Bellay--Wolsey's Reasons against the Brief--Excitement in London--Metamorphosis--Wolsey's Decline--His Anguish.

[Sidenote: NECESSITY OF THE REFORMATION.]

The king and a part of his people still adhered to the popedom, and so long as these bonds were not broken the word of G.o.d could not have free course. But to induce England to renounce Rome, there must indeed be powerful motives: and these were not wanting.

Wolsey had never given such pressing orders to any of Henry's amba.s.sadors: "The king," he wrote to Da Casale on the 1st of November 1528, "commits this business to your prudence, dexterity, and fidelity; and I conjure you to employ all the powers of your genius, and even to surpa.s.s them. Be very sure that you have done nothing and can do nothing that will be more agreeable to the king, more desirable by me, and more useful and glorious for you and your family."[907]

[907] Vobis vestraeque familiae utilius aut honorificentius. State Papers, vii, p. 114.

[Sidenote: CLEMENT BETWEEN CHARLES AND HENRY.]

Da Casale possessed a tenacity which justified the cardinal's confidence, and an active excitable mind: trembling at the thought of seeing Rome lose England, he immediately requested an audience of Clement VII. "What!" said he to the pope, "just as it was proposed to go on with the divorce, your nuncio endeavours to dissuade the king!... There is no hope that Catherine of Aragon will ever give an heir to the crown. Holy father, there must be an end of this. Order Campeggio to place the _decretal_ in his majesty's hands."--"What say you?" exclaimed the pope. "I would gladly lose one of my fingers to recover it again, and you ask me to make it public ... it would be my ruin."[908] Da Casale insisted: "we have a duty to perform," he said; "we remind you at this last hour of the perils threatening the relations which unite Rome and England. The crisis is at hand. We knock at your door, we cry, we urge, we entreat, we lay before you the present and future dangers which threaten the papacy.[909]... The world shall know that the king at least has fulfilled the duty of a devoted son of the church. If your holiness desires to keep England in St. Peter's fold, I repeat ... now is the time ... now is the time."[910] At these words, Da Casale, unable to restrain his emotion, fell down at the pope's feet, and begged him to save the church in Great Britain. The pope was moved. "Rise," said he, with marks of unwonted grief,[911] "I grant you all that is in my power; I am willing to confirm the judgment which the legates may think it their duty to pa.s.s; but I acquit myself of all responsibility as to the untold evils which this matter may bring with it.... If the king, after having defended the faith and the church, desires to ruin both, on him alone will rest the responsibility of so great a disaster."

Clement granted nothing. Da Casale withdrew disheartened, and feeling convinced that the pontiff was about to treat with Charles V.

[908] Burnet, Records, ii. p. 20. Unius digiti jactura....quod factum fuit revocarem.

[909] Admonere, exclamare, rogare, instare, urgere, pulsare, pericula praesentia et futura demonstrare. State Papers, vii, p. 112.

[910] Tempus jam in promptu adest. State Papers, vii. p. 112.

[911] Burnet's Ref. i. p. 44. Records, p. xx.

Wolsey desired to save the popedom; but the popedom resisted. Clement VII was about to lose that island which Gregory the Great had won with such difficulty. The pope was in the most cruel position. The English envoy had hardly left the palace before the emperor's amba.s.sador entered breathing threats. The unhappy pontiff escaped the a.s.saults of Henry only to be exposed to those of Charles; he was thrown backwards and forwards like a ball. "I shall a.s.semble a general council," said the emperor through his amba.s.sador, "and if you are found to have infringed the canons of the church in any point, you shall be proceeded against with every rigour. Do not forget," added his agent in a low tone, "that your birth is _illegitimate_, and consequently excludes you from the pontificate." The timid Clement, imagining that he saw the tiara falling from his head, swore to refuse Henry every thing. "Alas!" he said to one of his dearest confidants, "I repent in dust and ashes that I ever granted this decretal bull. If the king of England so earnestly desires it to be given him, certainly it cannot be merely to know its contents. He is but too familiar with them. It is only to tie my hands in this matter of the divorce; I would rather die a thousand deaths." Clement, to calm his agitation, sent one of his ablest gentlemen of the bed-chamber, Francis Campana, apparently to feed the king with fresh promises, but in reality to cut the only thread on which Henry's hopes still hung. "We embrace your majesty,"

wrote the pope in the letter given to Campana, "with the paternal love your numerous merits deserve."[912] Now Campana was sent to England to burn clandestinely the famous decretal;[913] Clement concealed his blows by an embrace. Rome had granted many divorces not so well founded as that of Henry VIII; but a very different matter from a divorce was in question here; the pope, desirous of upraising in Italy his shattered power, was about to sacrifice the Tudor, and to prepare the triumph of the Reformation. Rome was separating herself from England.

[912] Nos illum paterna charitate complecti, ut sua erga nos atque hanc sedem plurima merita requirunt. State Papers, vii. 116.

[913] To charge Campegius to burn the decretal. Herbert, p. 250.

Burnet's Ref. i, 47.

[Sidenote: SECRET BRIEF OF JULIUS II.]

All Clement's fear was, that Campana would arrive too late to burn the bull; he was soon rea.s.sured; a dead calm prevented the _great matter_ from advancing. Campeggio, who took care to be in no hurry about his mission, gave himself up, like a skilful diplomatist, to his worldly tastes; and when he could not, due respect being had to the state of his legs, indulge in the chase, of which he was very fond, he pa.s.sed his time in gambling, to which he was much addicted. Respectable historians a.s.sert that he indulged in still more illicit pleasures.[914] But this could not last for ever, and the nuncio sought some new means of delay, which offered itself in the most unexpected manner. One day an officer of the queen's presented to the Roman legate a _brief_ of Julius II, bearing the same date as the _bull_ of dispensation, signed too, like that, by the secretary Sigismond, and in which the pope expressed himself in such a manner, that Henry's objections fell of themselves. "The emperor," said Catherine's messenger, "has discovered this brief among the papers of Puebla, the Spanish amba.s.sador in England, at the time of the marriage."--"It is impossible to go on," said Campeggio to Wolsey; "all your reasoning is now cut from under you. _We must wait for fresh instructions._" This was the cardinal's conclusion at every new incident, and the journey from London to the Vatican being very long (without reckoning the Roman dilatoriness), the expedient was infallible.

[914] Hunting and gaming all the day long, and following harlots all the night. Ibid. p. 52.

Thus there existed two acts of the same pope, signed on the same day--the one secret, the other public, in contradiction to each other.

Henry determined to send a new mission to Rome. Anne proposed for this emba.s.sy one of the most accomplished gentlemen of the court, her cousin, Sir Francis Bryan. With him was joined an Italian, Peter Vannes, Henry's Latin secretary. "You will search all the registers of the time of Julius II," said Wolsey to them; "you will study the hand-writing of secretary Sigismond, and you will attentively examine the ring of the fisherman used by that pontiff.[915]--Moreover you will inform the pope that it is proposed to set a certain greyfriar, named De Angelis, in his place, to whom Charles would give the _spiritual_ authority, reserving the _temporal_ for himself. You will manage so that Clement takes alarm at the project, and you will then offer him a guard of 2000 men to protect him. You will ask whether, in case the queen should desire to embrace a religious life, on condition of the king's doing the same, and Henry should yield to this wish,[916] he could have the a.s.surance that the pope would afterwards release him from his vows. And, finally, you will inquire whether, in case the queen should refuse to enter a convent, the pope would permit the king to have _two wives_, as we see in the Old Testament."[917]

The idea which has brought so much reproach on the landgrave of Hesse was not a new one; the honour of it belongs to a cardinal and legate of Rome, whatever Bossuet may say. "Lastly," continued Wolsey, "as the pope is of a timid disposition, you will not fail to season your remonstrances with threats. You, Peter, will take him aside and tell him that, as an Italian, having more at heart than any one the glory of the holy see, it is your duty to warn him, that if he persists, the king, his realm, and many other princes, will for ever separate from the papacy."

[915] State Papers, vii. p. 126, note.

[916] Only thereby to conduce the queen thereunto. Ibid. p. 136, note.

[917] De duabus uxoribus. Henry's Instructions to Knight, in the middle of December 1528. Ibid. p. 137. Some great reasons and precedents of the Old Testament appear. Instructions to same, 1st Dec.

Ibid. p. 136, note.

[Sidenote: HENRY'S CONFERENCE WITH DU BELLAY.]

It was not on the mind of the pope alone that it was necessary to act; the rumour that the emperor and the king of France were treating together disturbed Henry. Wolsey had vainly tried to sound Du Bellay; these two priests tried craft against craft. Besides, the Frenchman was not always seasonably informed by his court, letters taking _ten days_ to come from Paris to London.[918] Henry resolved to have a conference with the amba.s.sador. He began by speaking to him of _his matter_, says Du Bellay, "and I promise you," he added, "that he needs no advocate, he understands the whole business so well." Henry next touched upon the _wrongs_ of Francis I, "recalling so many things that the envoy knew not what to say."--"I pray you, Master Amba.s.sador,"

said Henry in conclusion, "to beg the king, my brother, to give up a little of his amus.e.m.e.nts during a year only for the prompt despatch of his affairs. Warn those whom it concerns." Having given this spur to the king of France, Henry turned his thoughts towards Rome.

[918] La dite lettre du roi, combien qu'elle ft du 3, je l'ai recue sinon le 13; le pareil m'advint quasi de toutes autres. Du Bellay to Montmorency, 20th Dec. Le Grand, Preuves.

[Sidenote: NON-AUTHENTICITY OF THE BRIEF.]

In truth, the fatal brief from Spain tormented him day and night, and the cardinal tortured his mind to find proofs of its non-authenticity; if he could do so, he would acquit the papacy of the charge of duplicity, and accuse the emperor of forgery. At last he thought he had succeeded. "In the first place," he said to the king, "the brief has the same date as the bull. Now, if the errors in the latter had been found out on the day it was drawn up, it would have been more natural to make another than to append a brief pointing out the errors. What! the same pope, the same day, at the pet.i.tion of the same persons, give out two rescripts for one effect,[919] one of which contradicts the other! Either the bull was good, and then, why the brief? or the bull was bad, and then, why deceive princes by a worthless bull? Many names are found in the brief incorrectly spelt, and these are faults which the pontifical secretary, whose accuracy is so well known, could not have committed.[920] Lastly, no one in England ever heard mention of this brief; and yet it is here that it ought to be found." Henry charged Knight, his princ.i.p.al secretary, to join the other envoys with all speed, in order to prove to the pope the supposit.i.tious character of the doc.u.ment.

[919] State Papers, vol. vii. p. 130.

[920] Queen _Isabella_ was called _Elizabeth_ in the brief; but I have seen a doc.u.ment from the court of Madrid in which Queen Elizabeth of England was called Isabella; it is not therefore an error without a parallel.

[Sidenote: WOLSEY'S TROUBLE.]

This important paper revived the irritation felt in England against Charles V, and it was resolved to come to extremities. Every one discontented with Austria took refuge in London, particularly the Hungarians. The amba.s.sador from Hungary proposed to Wolsey to adjudge the imperial crown of Germany to the elector of Saxony or the landgrave of Hesse, the two chiefs of protestantism.[921] Wolsey exclaimed in alarm: "It will be an inconvenience to Christendom, _they are so Lutheran_." But the Hungarian amba.s.sador so satisfied him that in the end he did not find the matter quite so inconvenient. These schemes were prospering in London, when suddenly a new metamorphosis took place under the eyes of Du Bellay. The king, the cardinal, and the ministers appeared in strange consternation. Vincent da Casale had just arrived from Rome with a letter from his cousin the prothonatory, informing Henry that the pope, seeing the triumph of Charles V, the indecision of Francis I, the isolation of the king of England, and the distress of his cardinal, had flung himself into the arms of the emperor. At Rome they went so far as to jest about Wolsey, and to say that since he could not be St. Peter they would make him St. Paul.

[921] Du Bellay to Montmorency, 12 Jan. 1529. Le Grand, Preuves, p.

279.

While they were ridiculing Wolsey at Rome, at St. Germain's, they were joking about Henry. "I will make him get rid of the notions he has in his head," said Francis; and the Flemings, who were again sent out of the country, said as they left London, "that this year they would carry on the war so vigorously, that it would be really a sight worth seeing."

Besides these public griefs, Wolsey had his private ones. Anne Boleyn, who had already begun to use her influence on behalf of the despotic cardinal's victims, gave herself no rest until Cheyney, a courtier disgraced by Wolsey, had been restored to the king's favour. Anne even gave utterance to several biting sarcasms against the cardinal, and the duke of Norfolk and his party began "to speak big," says Du Bellay. At the moment when the pope, scared by Charles V, was separating from England, Wolsey himself was tottering. Who shall uphold the papacy?... After Wolsey, n.o.body! Rome was on the point of losing the power which for nine centuries she had exercised in the bosom of this ill.u.s.trious nation. The cardinal's anguish cannot be described; unceasingly pursued by gloomy images, he saw Anne on the throne causing the triumph of the Reformation: this nightmare was stifling him. "His grace, the legate, is in great trouble," wrote the bishop of Bayonne. "However ... he is more cunning than they are."[922]

To still the tempest Wolsey had only one resource left: this was to render Clement favourable to his master's designs. The crafty Campana, who had burnt the decretal, conjured him not to believe all the reports transmitted to him concerning Rome. "To satisfy the king,"

said he to the cardinal, "the holy father will, if necessary, descend from the pontifical throne."[923] Wolsey therefore resolved to send to Rome a more energetic agent than Vannes, Bryan, or Knight, and cast his eyes on Gardiner. His courage began to revive, when an unexpected event fanned once more his loftiest hopes.

[922] Le Grand, Preuves, p. 295, 296.

[923] Burnet, Hist. Ref. vol. i. p. 60.

CHAPTER VI.

The Pope's Illness--Wolsey's Desire--Conference about the Members of the Conclave--Wolsey's Instructions--The Pope recovers--Speech of the English Envoys to the Pope--Clement willing to abandon England--The English demand the Pope's Denial of the Brief--Wolsey's Alarm--Intrigues--Bryan's clearsightedness--Henry's Threats--Wolsey's new Efforts--He calls for an Appeal to Rome, and retracts--Wolsey and Du Bellay at Richmond--The Ship of the State.

[Sidenote: THE POPE'S ILLNESS.]

On the 6th of January 1529, the feast of Epiphany, just as the pope was performing ma.s.s, he was attacked by a sudden illness; he was taken to his room, apparently in a dying state. When this news reached London, the cardinal resolved to hasten to abandon England, where the soil trembled under his feet, and to climb boldly to the throne of the pontiffs. Bryan and Vannes, then at Florence, hurried on to Rome through roads infested with robbers. At Orvieto they were informed the pope was better; at Viterbo, no one knew whether he was alive or dead; at Ronciglione, they were a.s.sured that he had expired; and, finally, when they reached the metropolis of the popedom, they learnt that Clement could not survive, and that the imperialists, supported by the Colonnas, were striving to have a pope devoted to Charles V.[924]

[924] State Papers, vii. p. 143-150.

[Sidenote: PARTIES AMONG THE CARDINALS.]

But great as might be the agitation at Rome, it was greater still at Whitehall. If G.o.d caused De' Medici to descend from the pontifical throne, it could only be, thought Wolsey, to make him mount it. "It is expedient to have such a pope as may save the realm," said he to Gardiner. "And although it cannot but be incommodious to me in this mine old age to be the common father, yet, when all things be well pondered, the qualities of all the cardinals well considered, I am the only one, without boasting, that can and will remedy the king's secret matter. And were it not for the redintegration of the state of the church, and especially to relieve the king and his realm from their calamities, all the riches and honour of the world should not cause me to accept the said dignity. Nevertheless I conform myself to the necessities of the times. Wherefore, Master Stephen, that this matter may succeed, I pray you to apply all your ingenuity, spare neither money nor labour. I give you the amplest powers, without restriction or limitation."[925] Gardiner departed to win for his master the coveted tiara.