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 suggestion 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 statement the most probable. For (1) the date of the Orleans determination 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 decree 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 household, 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 proeured 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 Wiltshire, 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 arrested 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. the time to come. And thereupon a proclamation1 is set forth Introduct. on the 19th of September, 1530, in these following words, viz.: "THE King's Highness straitly chargeth and commandeth, that no manner of person, of what estate, degree or condition, he or they be of, do purchase or attempt to purchase, from the court of Rome, or elsewhere, nor use, nor put in execution, divulge or publish, any thing heretofore within this year passed, purchased, or to be purchased hereafter, containing matter prejudicial to the high authority, jurisdiction, and pre6 rogative royal of this said realm, or to the let, hindrance, or 176 impeachment of his Grace's noble and virtuous intended pur poses in the premises; upon pain of incurring his Highness's disowned. 10. This was the prologue to the downfall of the Pope in The Pope England, seconded by the King's taking to himself the title of Supreme Head of the Churches of England and Ireland, acknowledged in the convocation, and confirmed in parliament, and ending finally in an Act intituled, "An Act for extinguishing the Authority of the Bishops of Rome3." And in all this the King did nothing but what he had example and authority for, at that very time; for in the year 1520, (being but ten years before the setting forth of this proclamation), Monsieur d'Lautreth, governor for the French King in the dukedom of Millain, taking a displeasure against Pope Leo the Tenth, deprived him of all his jurisdiction within the dukedom. And that being done, he so disposed of all ecclesiastical affairs, that the Church there was supremely governed by the Bishop of Bigorre (a Bishop of the Church of France) without the intermeddling of the Pope at all. The like we find to have been done by the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who, being no less displeased with Pope Clement the Seventh, abolished the 1 Sup. i. 38; Hall, 772; Fox, ii. 329, ed. 1631, wrongly refers this proclamation to the year 1532, and is followed by Wilkins, iii. 755. 2 Sup. i. 38-9. 3 Sup. i. 39. 4 Ut præfecto sacris Bigoranno [Bigerronum] Episcopo, omnia sine Romani Pontificis authoritate administrarentur. - Thuan. Author. [Thuan. 1. i. c. 9, Tom. i. p. 20—where it is explained in a note that Bigerronum Episcopus means the Bishop of Tarbes.] 5 Edd. "eighth." Introduct. papal power and jurisdiction out of all the churches of his kingdom in Spain; which though it held but for a while (till the breach was closed) yet left he an example by it (as my author noteth) that there was no necessity of any Pope or supreme Pastor in the Church of Christ1. And before either of these acts or edicts came in point of practice, the learned Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris, (when the Pope's power was greater far than it was at the present), had writ and published a discourse, entituled De Auferibilitate Papa2, touching the total abrogating of the papal office. Which certainly he had never done, had the papal office been found essential and of intrinsecal concernment to the Church of Christ. According unto which position of that learned man, the greatest Princes of those times did look upon the Pope, and the papal power, as an excrescence at the least in the body mystical, subject and fit to be pared off as occasion served. And if they did or do permit him to retain any part of his former greatness, it is permitted rather upon self ends or reasons of state, or otherwise to serve their turn by him as their need requireth, than out of any opinion of his being so necessary that the Church cannot be well governed or subsist without him. 1531. 11. But leaving these disputes to some other place, we must return unto the Queen. To whom some Lords are sent in the end of May, anno 1531, declaring to her the determinations of the universities concerning the pretended marriage betwixt her and the King. And therewith they demanded of her, whether, for quieting the King's conscience and putting an end to that debate, she would be content to refer the matter to four Bishops and four temporal Lords. But this she absolutely refused, saying, she was his lawful wife, that she would stand to her appeal, and condescend to nothing in that partieular, but by the counsel of the Emperor, and the rest of 1 Ecclesiasticam disciplinam citra Romani [pontificii] nominis authoritatem posse consecrari, [ad tempus conservari.] Author. [Thuan. 1. i. c. 11, T. i. p. 23. It will be seen that Heylyn has somewhat exaggerated the opinion of De Thou- especially when the omission of the words ad tempus is considered, (consecrari being merely a misprint, as appears by comparing our author's Tracts, p. 25-from which place the argument of this section is repeated.)] 2 Opera, i. 154, ed. Paris, 1606. 1532. her friends'. This answer makes the King more resolute, Introduct. more open in the demonstration of his affections to the Lady Anne Bollen; whom he makes Marchioness of Pembroke, by his letters patents, bearing date the first of September, 15322; takes her along with him to Callis in October following, there to behold the glorious interview betwixt him and the French King, and, finally, privately marrieth her within few days after his return3, the divorce being yet unsentenced betwixt him and the Queen. Not long after which, it was thought necessary to the King to call a parliament, wherein he caused an Act to pass, that no person should appeal for any cause out of this realm to the Pope of Rome1; but that all appeals should be made by the party grieved from the Commissary to the Bishop, from the Bishop to the Archbishop, and from the Archbishop to the King, as had been anciently observed amongst the first Kings of the house of Normandy. It was also enacted in the same, that all causes [of] ecclesias7 tical cognisance5, in which the King himself was a party, should 177 be determined finally in the upper house of convocation, with out being bound to make recourse to the court of Rome. raised to the 12. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the meantime Cranmer dying, Cranmer is designed for his successor in that eminent Primacy. dignity; which he unwillingly accepts of, partly in regard that he was married at that time, and partly in reference to an oath which he was to take unto the Pope at his consecrations. But the King was willing, for his own ends, to wink at the one, and the Pope was not in a condition, (as the case then stood,) to be too peremptory in the other. So that a protestation 1 Hall, 781; Herbert, 53. 2 Speed, 783. 3 On the date of the marriage, see Eliz. Introd. § 7 and note. 4 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12. 5 Edd. 1, 2, "all causes ecclesiastical cognisances." Ed. 3, "all causes ecclesiastical," (omitting " cognisance.") 6 Stow, 562; Holinsh. iii. 777. 7 Aug. 22, 1532.-Richardson, in Godwin De Præsul. 136. 8 Fox, viii. 65; Godwin, Ann. 70. His unwillingness is denied by Lingard: but see Jenkyns, iv. 92; Weber, Gesch. d. Akath. Kirchen, 282. |