Introduct. bishoprick of Toledo1, with the promise whereof he had before bound him to his side. And now the Cardinal resolves to take the opportunity of the King's distractions, for perfecting his revenge against him. In order whereunto, as he had drawn the King to make peace with France, and to conclude a marriage for his daughter with the Duke of Orleance; so now he hopes to separate him from the bed of Katherine, the Emperor's aunt, and marry him to Madam Rhenee2, the French Queen's sister, who afterwards was wife to the Duke of Ferrara. About which time the picture of Madam Margaret, the sister of King Francis, first married to the Duke of Alanzon, was brought amongst others into England, by Thomas Bollen, Viscount Rochford, at his return from the French court, where he had been Ambassador for the King of England: which first occasioned a report in the common people, and afterwards a mistake in our common chronicles touching this lady's being designed by Wolsie for a wife to his master; whereas she was at that time actually married to the Count of Albret, King of Navarre in title, and in title only1.

Anne Boleyn appears at

court.

1527.

7. But Rochford brought with him out of France another the English piece, which more excelled the picture of the Duchess of Alanzon than that Duchess did the ordinary beauties in the court of France; that is to say, his daughter Anne, whom he had bred up for a time in the house of the Duchess, which rendered her an exact mistress of the gaieties and garb of the great French ladies. Appearing in the court of England, she

1 The refusal of the Archbishoprick of Toledo rests on the authority of Polydore Vergil.-Herb. 84. It appears that Wolsey had enjoyed a pension of 10,000 ducats out of the revenues of that see,conferred by the Emperor, and confirmed by the Pope; also that Charles had promised him the bishoprick of Badajoz.-Turner, Hist. of Henry, &c. i. 238. Comp. Harmer, (Wharton), Spec. of Errors, p. 1. 2 Renée, afterwards the patroness of Calvin.

3 Hall, 728; Holinsh. iii. 736; Speed, 776; Herbert, 99; Shakespeare, Hen. VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

4 "Jan. 24, 1527-five months before Wolsey set out on his embassy."-Ling. vi. 380. It would seem, however, that Wolsey had thought of this Princess as a wife for his master before her marriage to the titular King of Navarre.

5 These words are repeated in the Introduction to the reign of Elizabeth, § 2; which section may be referred to for the time of Anne Boleyn's return to England.

shewed herself with so many advantages above all other ladies Introduct. about the Queen, that the King easily took notice of her. Whether more captivated by the allurements of her beauty or the facetiousness of her behaviour, it is hard to say; certain it is, that he suffered himself to be so far transported in affection towards her, that he could think of nothing else but what might tend to the accomplishment of his desires; so that the separation from the bed of Katherine, which was but coldly followed upon case of conscience, is now more hotly prosecuted in the heat of concupiscence. In the meantime the King adviseth with the Cardinal, and the Cardinal with the most learned men in the realm of England'. By whom it was modestly resolved, that the King had a very just ground to consult the Pope, and to use all lawful means for extricating himself out of those perplexities in which this marriage had involved him. The Pope had been beholden to the King for procuring his liberty when the imperialists held him prisoner in the fort of St Angelo, and was in reason bound to gratify him for so great a benefit. But then withal, he neither was to provoke the Emperor, nor hazard the 175 authority and reputation of the see apostolic, by running on the King's errand with more haste than speed. He therefore goes to work like a Pope of Rome, and entertains the King with hopes, without giving the Emperor and his adherents any cause of despair. A commission is therefore granted to two Cardinals, that is to say, Cardinal Thomas Wolsie, Archbishop of York, and Lawrence Campegius, whom Henry some few years before had made Bishop of Salisbury; both beneficiaries to the King, and therefore like enough to consult more his interest than the Queen's contentment.

5

the divorce

rine.

S. Of the erecting of a Court Legantine in the convent of Process of the Black Friars in London, the citing of the King and Queen from Katheto appear before them, the King's pathetical oration in the bemoaning of his own misfortunes, and the Queen's appeal from the two Cardinals to the Pope, I shall now say nothing; leaving

1 Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. i. 539.

2 See the correspondence in the Appendix to Burnet, Vol. 1. b. 2. A bull of dispensation, authorising the King, for the sake of offspring, to contract a second marriage, in Wilkins, iii. 707.

3 1524. He was afterwards deprived.-See i. 65.

Introduct. the reader for those passages to our common annals1. Suffice it in this place to note, that, while the business went on favourable in the King's behalf, Wolsie was given to understand of his desperate loves to Mistress Bollen; which represented to him two ensuing mischiefs, not to be otherwise avoided than by slackening the course of these proceedings. For, first, he saw that if the King should be divorced definitively from his present wife, he should not be able to draw him to accept of Madam Rhenee, the French Queen's sister, which was the mark he chiefly aimed at. And secondly, he feared that Mistress Anne had brought so much of the Lutheran3 with her as might in time become destructive to the Church of Rome. Of this he certifies the Pope; the Pope recalls Campegius, and revokes his commission,-leaving the King to cast about to some new ways to effect his purpose. And at this time it happened, that Dr Thomas Cranmer (who afterwards obtained to the see of Canterbury) discoursing with some of the King's Ministers 5

1 June, 1529.-Hall, 754; Stow, 541; Holinsh. iii. 737; Speed, 779; Godwin, 52; Herbert, 107; Cavendish, Life of Wolsey in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. i. 542. 2 "it," omitted in Edd. 1, 2.

66

3 Baker, 277. "A gentlewoman nothing favourable to his pontifical pomp, nor no great follower of the rite of those times."-Speed, 782. Comp. 783.

"What though I know her virtuous,

4 Stow, 559.

And well deserving? yet I know her for

A spleeny Lutheran."-Shakesp. Hen. VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2.

5 Edward Fox, afterwards Bishop of Hereford, the almoner, and Gardiner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, the secretary. John Fox relates that when attending on the King in a progress, these two lodged at Waltham in the house of a gentleman named Cressy, and there met with Cranmer, who was tutor to the sons of their host, and had withdrawn from Cambridge with his pupils on account of a sickness then prevailing in the University. (viii. 6.) The martyrologist differs from Heylyn, in stating that Cranmer suggested an appeal to the Universities at home as well as to those of other countries; and the truth of the statement, both in its wider and in its narrower extent, has been disputed. Collier argues (iv. 150) that it must be erroneous, because the meeting at Waltham did not take place until August 1529; whereas (1) the determination of the University of Orleans bears date April 1529; (2) the King, in his speech at Bridewell, Nov. 8, 1528 (Fox, ii. 327, ed. 1631) declares that he had already applied to "the greatest clerks in Christendom" for their opinions; (3) Ca

about the intricateness and perplexity of this great affair, de- Introduct. clared for his opinion in it, that it were better for the King to

vendish (in Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. i. 539) ascribes to Wolsey the sugges-
tion of a reference to the Universities. The same reasoning is repeated
by Fiddes, Life of Wolsey, 444; and in deference to it Dr Wordsworth
(Eccl. Biog. iii. 129), and Dr Jenkyns (Pref. to Cranmer, vii.), have
given up Fox's story as untrue-in so far, at least, as concerns the
subject of the conference. On the other hand, Archdeacon Todd
(Life of Cranmer, i. 11, seqq.) and Dr Weber, of Heidelberg, (in his
Gesch. der Akatholischen Kirchen und Sekten von Grossbritannien, i.
656-7,—a careful and well-digested work, which as yet extends only
to the end of Henry's reign) endeavour to maintain the claim put in
for Cranmer, while they allow that the consultation of the Universities
had been before proposed by Wolsey. To me it appears that the
compromise attempted by the last-mentioned writers is less probable
than either of the opinions between which it is intended to mediate.
For how, on this supposition, can we account for the sudden rise of
Cranmer? If the consultation had been before suggested by Wolsey,
is it likely that a repetition of this old idea from another quarter
would have been hailed as particularly valuable, or regarded as a
token of singular merit in the proposer? (Mr Todd and Dr Weber
add to the improbability of their view, by admitting the former, that
the Orleans decree had already been given; the latter, that the English
Universities had been consulted before Nov. 1528; admissions which
are both erroneous.) On the whole, I cannot but consider Fox's state-
ment the most probable. For (1) the date of the Orleans determina-
tion is incorrect. Dr Weber assumes it to be so, because all the other
academical judgments are of 1530, and he cannot suppose that that
of Orleans preceded them by a year; but we have more satisfactory
evidence in the wording itself "die quinto mensis Aprilis, ante
pascha." For in 1529, Easter-day was March 28; in 1530, it was
April 17, (Nicolas, Chronology, 66-7); so that we must refer the de-
cree to the latter year, and suppose the scribe to have committed an
error, which might very easily be made, when the beginning of the
year was reckoned from March 25. (2) Henry's words in Nov. 1528
are more naturally to be understood of a reference to individual
Divines and Canonists, than to academic bodies. (3) It might seem
that Cavendish, a contemporary, and a member of Wolsey's house-
hold, would be the highest authority on this subject, and entitled to
claim our belief; he has, however, vitiated his story by stating that
Wolsey not only suggested the reference to the Universities, but pro-
cured their opinions under their several seals, (Wordsw. i. 540);—a
statement which cannot possibly be true, as it was not until after the
Cardinal's disgrace that a judgment was given by any University—
that of Cambridge bearing date in Feb. 1530 (Burnet, 1. b. ii. Append.
32); that of Oxford, April 8 (Wood's Hist. of Oxford, ed. Gutch, iv.

Introduct. govern himself therein by the judgment and determination of the universities beyond the seas, than to depend upon the shifts and artifices of the court of Rome1. Which being told unto the King, he dispatched Cranmer unto Rome, in the company of Rochford, now made Earl of Wiltshire2, to maintain the King's cause by disputation; and at the same time employs his agents to the universities of France and Italy, who, being under the command of the French King or the power of the Pope, gave sentence in behalf of Henry, condemning his marriage with the Lady Katherine, the relict of his brother, to be simply unlawful in itself, and therefore not to be made valid by a dispensation from the Popes of Rome.

Fall of Wolsey.

1530.

9. The putting the King upon this course proved the fall of Wolsie; who, growing every day less than other in the King's esteem, was brought within the compass of a pramunire3, and thereby stript of all his goods, to an infinite value; removed not long after unto York, and there arrested1 of high treason by the Earl of Northumberland, and committed to the custody of Sir William Kingston, being then Lieutenant of the Tower. By whom conducted towards London, he departed this life in the abbey of Leicester: his great heart not being able to endure so many indignities as had been lately put upon him, and having cause to fear much worse than his former sufferings. But the removing this rub did not much smoothe the way to the King's desires. The Queen's appeal unto the Pope was the greatest difficulty, from which since she could not be removed, it must be made unprofitable and ineffectual for 44); those of foreign Universities, in the spring of the same year. We are, therefore, justified in setting Cavendish's witness aside, except as to the fact of Wolsey's having held consultations on the subject of the divorce with Bishops and other learned persons. In addition to this, we know that between Christmas and Easter 1528-9, there were conferences at Lambeth between divines from both Universities, which did not end in any decisive conclusion.-(Wood, Hist. Oxf. iv. 36.) But, as there was no academic sentence, either at home or abroad, until 1530, and as the arguments of Collier and others do not bear examination, I have little hesitation in believing the statement of Fox-that the consultation of the Universities was first proposed by Cranmer, and that in or about the month of August 1529.

1 Dec. 8, 1529.-Godwin, 68.

2 Herbert, 140.

4 Nov. 4, 1530.

3 Oct. 1529.-Sup. i. 38.

5 Nov. 30.-Godw. 65.