The Reign of Henry the Eighth Part 27

[125] Legates to the Pope, printed in BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 40.

[126] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 117.

[127] _Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne_, LEGRAND, vol. iii.; HALL, 669.

[128] They were shut up in the Castle of St. Angelo.

[129] _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 18, 19.

[130] The fullest account of Wolsey's intentions on church reform will be found in a letter addressed to him by Fox, the old blind Bishop of Winchester, in 1528. The letter is printed in STRYPE'S _Memorials Eccles._ vol. i. Appendix 10.

[131] _Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne_, LEGRAND, vol. iii. It is not uncommon to find splendid imaginations of this kind haunting statesmen of the 16th century; and the recapture of Constantinople always formed a feature in the picture. _A Plan for the Reformation of Ireland_, drawn up in 1515, contains the following curious pa.s.sage: "The prophecy is, that the King of England shall put this land of Ireland into such order that the wars of the land, whereof groweth the vices of the same, shall cease for ever; and after that G.o.d shall give such grace and fortune to the same king that he shall with the army of England and of Ireland subdue the realm of France to his obeysance for ever, and shall rescue the Greeks, and recover the great city of Constantinople, and shall vanquish the Turks and win the Holy Cross and the Holy Land, and shall die Emperor of Rome, and eternal blisse shall be his end."--_State Papers_, vol. ii. pp. 30, 31.

[132] Knight to Henry: _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 2, 3.

[133] Wolsey to Ca.s.salis: Ibid. p. 26.

[134] The dispensing power of the popes was not formally limited. According to the Roman lawyers, a faculty lay with them of granting extraordinary dispensations in cases where dispensations would not be usually admissible--which faculty was to be used, however, dummodo causa cogat urgentissima ne regnum aliquod funditus pereat; the pope's business being to decide on the question of urgency.--Sir Gregory Ca.s.salis to Henry VIII., Dec. 26, 1532. _Rolls House MS._

[135] Knight and Ca.s.salis to Wolsey: BURNET'S _Collect._ p. 12.

[136] STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i., Appendix p. 66.

[137] Sir F. Bryan and Peter Vannes to Henry; _State Papers_, vol. vii. p.

144.

[138] STRYPE'S _Memorials_, Appendix, vol. i. p. 100.

[139] Ibid. Appendix, vol. i. pp. 105-6; BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 13.

[140] Wolsey to the Pope, BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 16: Vereor quod tamen nequeo tacere, ne Regia Majestas, humano divinoque jure quod habet ex omni Christianitate suis his actionibus adjunctum freta, postquam viderit sedis Apostolicae gratiam et Christi in terris Vicarii clementiam desperatam Caesaris intuitu, in cujus manu neutiquam est tam sanctos conatus reprimere, ea tunc moliatur, ea suae causae perquirat remedia, quae non solum huic Regno sed etiam aliis Christianis principibus occasionem subministrarent sedis Apostolicae auctoritatem et jurisdictionem imminuendi et vilipendendi.

[141] BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 20. Wolsey to John Ca.s.salis: "If his Holyness, which G.o.d forbid, shall shew himself unwilling to listen to the king's demands, to me a.s.suredly it will be but grief to live longer, for the innumerable evils which I foresee will then follow. One only sure remedy remains to prevent the worst calamities. If that be neglected, there is nothing before us but universal and inevitable ruin."

[142] Gardiner and Fox to Wolsey; STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. i. Appendix, p. 92.

[143] His Holiness being yet in captivity, as he esteemed himself to be, so long as the Almayns and Spaniards continue in Italy, he thought if he should grant this commission that he should have the emperour his perpetual enemy without any hope of reconciliation. Notwithstanding he was content rather to put himself in evident ruin, and utter undoing, than the king or your Grace shall suspect any point of ingrat.i.tude in him; heartily desiring with sighs and tears that the king and your Grace which have been always fast and good to him, will not now suddenly precipitate him for ever: which should be done if immediately on receiving the commission your Grace should begin process. He intendeth to save all upright thus. If M. de Lautrec would set forwards, which he saith daily that he will do, but yet he doth not, at his coming the Pope's Holiness may have good colour to say, "He was required of the commission by the amba.s.sador of England, and denying the same, he was, eftsoons, required by M. de Lautrec to grant the said commission, inasmuch as it was but a letter of justice." And by this colour he would cover the matter so that it might appear unto the emperour that the pope did it not as he that would gladly do displeasure unto the emperour, but as an indifferent judge, that could not nor might deny justice, specially being required by such personages; and immediately he would despatch a commission bearing date after the time that M. de Lautrec had been with him or was nigh unto him. The pope most instantly beseecheth your Grace to be a mean that the King's Highness may accept this in a good part, and that he will take patience for this little time, which, as it is supposed, will be but short.--Knight to Wolsey and the King, Jan. 1, 1527-8: BURNET _Collections_, 12, 13.

[144] Such at least was the ultimate conclusion of a curious discussion.

When the French herald declared war, the English herald accompanied him into the emperor's presence, and when his companion had concluded, followed up his words with an intimation that unless the French demands were complied with, England would unite to enforce them. The Emperor replied to Francis with defiance. To the English herald he expressed a hope that peace on that side would still be maintained. For the moment the two countries were uncertain whether they were at war or not. The Spanish amba.s.sador in London did not know, and the court could not tell him. The English amba.s.sador in Spain did not leave his post, but he was placed under surveillance. An embargo on Spanish and English property was laid respectively in the ports of the two kingdoms; and the merchants and residents were placed under arrest. Alarmed by the outcry in London, the king hastily concluded a truce with the Regent of the Netherlands, the language of which implied a state of war; but when peace was concluded between France and Spain, England appeared only as a contracting party, not as a princ.i.p.al, and in 1542 it was decided that the antecedent treaties between England and the empire continued in force.--See LORD HERBERT; HOLINSHED; _State Papers_, vols. vii. viii. and ix.; with the treaties in RYMER, vol. vi. part 2.

[145] Gardiner to the King: BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 426.

[146] Duke of Suffolk to Henry the Eighth: _State Papers_, vol. vii, p.

183.

[147] Duke of Suffolk to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 183.

[148] HALL, p. 744.

[149] When the clothiers of Ess.e.x, Kent, Wiltshire, Suffolk, and other shires which are clothmaking, brought cloths to London to be sold, as they were wont, few merchants or none bought any cloth at all. When the clothiers lacked sale, then they put from them their spinners, carders, tuckers, and such others that lived by clothworking, which caused the people greatly to murmur, and specially in Suffolk, for if the Duke of Norfolk had not wisely appeased them, no doubt but they had fallen to some rioting. When the king's council was advertised of the inconvenience, the cardinal sent for a great number of the merchants of London, and to them said, "Sirs, the king is informed that you use not yourselves like merchants, but like graziers and artificers; for where the clothiers do daily bring cloths to the market for your ease, to their great cost, and then be ready to sell them, you of your wilfulness will not buy them, as you have been accustomed to do. What manner of men be you?" said the cardinal. "I tell you that the king straitly commandeth you to buy their cloths as beforetime you have been accustomed to do, upon pain of his high displeasure."--HALL, p. 746.

[150] LEGRAND, vol. iii. p. 157. By manners and customs he was referring clearly to his intended reformation of the church. See the letter of Fox, Bishop of Winchester (STRYPE'S _Memorials_, vol. ii. p. 25), in which Wolsey's intentions are dwelt upon at length.

[151] Ibid. pp. 136, 7.

[152] _State Papers_, vol. vii. pp. 96, 7.

[153] Wolsey to Ca.s.salis: Ibid. p. 100.

[154] State Papers, vol. vii. pp. 106, 7

[155] Ibid. p. 113.

[156] Ibid. vii. p. 113.

[157] Take the veil.

[158] Instruction to the Amba.s.sadours at Rome: _State Papers_, vol. vii. p.

136.

[159] _Letters of the Bishop of Bayanne_, LEGRAND, vol. iii.

[160] LEGRAND, vol. iii. 231.

[161] Instrucion para Gonzalo Fernandez que se envoie a Ireland al Conde de Desmond, 1529.--MS. Archives at Brussels.--_The Pilgrim_, note 1, p. 169.

[162] Henrici regis octavi de repudianda domina Catherina oratio Idibus Novembris habita 1528.

Veneranda et chara n.o.bis praesulum procerum atque consiliariorum cohors quos communis reipublicae atque regni nostri administrandi cura conjunxit. Haud vos latet divina nos Providentia viginti jam ferme annis hanc nostram patriam tanta felicitate rexisse ut in illa ab hostilibus incursionibus tuta semper interea fuerit et nos in his bellis quae suscepimus victores semper evasimus; et quanquam in eo gloriari jure possumus majorem tranquillitatem opes et honores prioribus huc usque ductis socculis, nunquam subditis a majoribus parentibusque nostris Anglia regibus quam a n.o.bis provenisse, tamen quando c.u.m hac gloria in mentem una venit ac concurrit mortis cogitatio, veremur ne n.o.bis sine prole legitima decedentibus majorem ex morte nostra patiamini calamitatem quam ex vita fructum ac emolumentum percepistis. Recens enim in quorundam vestrorum animis adhuc est illius cruenti temporis memoria quod a Ricardo tertio c.u.m avi nostri materni Edwardi Quarti statum in controversiam voca.s.set ejusque heredes regno atque vita priva.s.set illatum est. Tum ex historiis notae sunt illae dirae strages quae a clarissimis Angliae gentibus Eboracensi atque Lancastrensi, dum inter se de regno et imperio multis aevis contenderent, populo evenerunt. Ac illae ex justis nuptiis inter Henric.u.m Septimum et dominam Elizabetham clarissimos nostros parentes contractis in n.o.bis inde legitima nata sobole sopitae tandem desierunt. Si vero quod absit, regalis ex nostris nuptiis stirps quae jure deinceps regnare possit non nascatur, hoc regnum civilibus atque intestinis se versabit tumultibus aut in exterorum dominationem atque potestatem veniet. Nam quanquam forma atque venustate singulari, quae magno n.o.bis solatio fuit filiam Dominam Mariam ex n.o.bilissima foemina Domina Catherina procreavimus, tamen a piis atque eruditis theologis nuper accepimus quia eam quae Arturi fratris nostri conjux ante fuerat uxorem duximus nostras nuptias jure divino esse vet.i.tas, partumque inde editum non posse censeri legitimum. Id quod eo vehementius nos angit et excruciat, quod c.u.m superiori anno legatos ad conciliandas inter Aureliensem ducem et filiam nostram Mariam nuptias ad Francisc.u.m Gallorum regem misissemus a quodam ejus consiliario responsum est, "antequam de hujusmodi nuptiis agatum inquirendum esse prius an Maria fuerit filia nostra legitima; constat enim 'inquit,' quod exdomina Catherina fratris sui vidua cujusmodi nuptiae jure divino interdictae sunt suscepta est." Quae oratio quanto metu ac horrore animum nostrum turbaverit quia res ipsa aeternae tam animi quam corporis salutis periculum in se continet, et quam perplexis cogitationibus conscientiam occupat, vos quibus et capitis aut fortunae ac multo magis animarum jactura immineret, remedium nisi adhibere velitis, ignorare non posse arbitror. Haec una res--quod Deo teste et in Regis oraculo affirmamus--nos impulit ut per legatos doctissimorum per totum orbem Christianum theologorum sententias exquireremus et Romani Pontificis legatum verum atque aequum judicium de tanta causa laturum ut tranquilla deinceps et interga conscientia in conjugio licito vivere possimus accerseremus. In quo si ex sacris litteris hoc quo viginti jam fere annis gavisi sumus matrimonium jure divino permissum esse manifeste liquidoque constabit, non modo ob conscientiae tranquillitatem, verum etiam ob amabiles mores virtutesque quibus regina praedita et ornata est, nihil optatius nihilque jucundius accidere n.o.bis potest. Nam praeterquam quod regali atque n.o.bili genere prognata est, tanta praeterea comitate et obsequio conjugali tum caeteris animi morumque ornamentis quae n.o.bilitatem ill.u.s.trant omnes foeminas his viginti annis sic mihi anteire visa est ut si a conjugio liber essem ac solutus, si jure divino liceret, hanc solam prae caeteris foeminis stabili mihi jure ac foedere matrimoniali conjungerem. Si vero in hoc judicio matrimonium nostrum jure divino prohibitum, ideoque ab initio nullum irritumque fuisse p.r.o.nuncietur, infelix hic meus casus multis lacrimis lugendus ac deplorandus erit. Non modo quod a tam ill.u.s.tris et amabilis mulieris consuetudine et consortio divertendum sit, sed multo magis quod specie ad similitudinem veri conjugii decepti in amplexibus plusquam fornicariis tam multos annos trivimus nulla legitima prognata n.o.bis sobole quae n.o.bis mortuis hujus inclyti regni hereditatem capessat.

Hae nostrae curae istaeque solicitudines sunt quae mentem atque conscientiam nostram dies noctesque torquent et excurciant, quibus auferendis et profligandis remedium ex hac legatione et judicio opportunum quaerimus.

Ideoque vos quorum virtuti atque fidei multum attribuimus rogamus ut certum atque genuinum nostrum de hac re sensum quem ex nostro sermone percepistis populo declaretis: eumque excitetis ut n.o.bisc.u.m una oraret ut ad conscientiae nostrae pacem atque tranquillitatem in hoc judicio veritas multis jam annis tenebris involuta tandem patefiat.--WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol. iii. p. 714.

[163] HALL, _Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne_, LEGRAND, vol. iii.

[164] LEGRAND, vol. iii.

[165] Ibid. vol. iii. pp. 232, 3.

[166] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 120; Ibid. p. 186.

[167] BURNET'S _Collectanea_, p. 41.

[168] _State Papers_, vol. vii. p. 193.

[169] The Emperor could as little trust Clement as the English, and to the last moment could not tell how he would act.

"Il me semble," wrote Inigo di Mendoza to Charles on the 17th of June, 1529,--"il me semble que Sa Saintete differe autant qu'il peut ce qu'