Some recently-discovered documents show that Lord Crumwell was always in favour of the celibacy of the clergy, and had angry discussions with Cranmer upon the subject. Did Crumwell know of the Archbishop's marriage? A very doubtful question; or what "consideration" did the sordid Minister give for the £40 a year regularly paid by Dr. Cranmer to him?

After recurring to the immense services rendered by Lord Crumwell to the State, Mr. Froude describes him as the "most despotic minister England had ever seen;" that "all parties hated him, even those whom he loved;" that "the Popish party were loud in their acclamations and joy at his fall;" that the remnant of the old English nobles "exulted at his misfortune;" the House of Norfolk were enthusiastic, and Lord Surrey exclaimed: "Now is that foul churl dead, so ambitious of the blood of others; now is he stricken down with his own staff;" that "Francis the First congratulated Henry;" that the Emperor Charles the Fifth exclaimed jubilantly, "So he hath reached the Tower as a prisoner;" that the Pope and the Cardinals rejoiced; "that the common people whom he had sustained had forgotten him," and "he passed away without the sympathies of the population."*

Even if Mr. Froude had not stated these facts respecting Crumwell, there is self-contradiction enough in the following description to detract from the worship he would fain secure for the great Monastic Inquisitor:-" Lord Crumwell pursued an object, the excellence of which, as his mind saw it, transcended all other considerations-the freedom of

* Froude's History of England, vol. iii. p. 525.

England and the destruction of idolatry; those who from any motive, noble or base, pious or impious, crossed his path, he crushed, and passed on over their bodies. . . . . His aim was noble! For his actions he paid with his life; and he followed his victims by the same road which they had trodden before him, to that high tribunal, where, it may be, that great natures who on earth have lived in mortal enmity may learn at last to understand each other."*

Notwithstanding this inconsistent eulogy, posterity can discover in Thomas Crumwell nothing but a bold, bad, ambitious man. He has been pronounced sincere, yet he pretended to be of one religion, whilst he died in the communion of another, and left the last will and testament of a Catholic. Honest-why, he not only bore false witness but embezzled the fruits of his perjury, and finally perished, professing his return to a creed whose doctrines he had disavowed, and so many of whose ministers he had beggared or slain. Divested of word-painting, this is the true picture of the "most despotic Minister England had ever seen."

It has been stated that Crumwell expressed "much contrition on the scaffold for the part he had taken in the confiscation of Church property, and in slaying many good and noble citizens." But a recent writer is at issue with many as regards this statement, and contends that the speech attributed to Crumwell at Tower Hill was a forgery, and that put forward by Maister Foxe is the "genuine prayer."+ It is rather strange that Burnet should not have given the

Froude's History of England, vol. iii. p. 526.

+ That most truthful author, Mr. Frazer Tytler, has, with great clearness traced the misrepresentations of John Foxe when tested with authentic State Paper Records.

document published as Crumwell's dying speech by Foxe as genuine, and which, by the way, when examined, looks more like the studied performance of Poynet or John Bale, than the words of a man who appeared on the scaffold in confusion and tears," betraying the most abject terror of his doom. Did Burnet justly doubt the authenticity of Foxe's "speech ?" or what motive induced him to give in his "Reformation" a "Catholic declaration," with an endeavour to translate it in a Puritan sense?

The following is the scaffold speech attributed to Thomas Crumwell by Burnet :

"He (Crumwell) acknowledged his sins against God, and his offences against the King who had raised him from a base degree. He declared that he died in the Catholic faith. He desired them to pray for the King, for the Prince, and for himself; and then prayed fervently for the remission of his past sins, and admission into eternal glory.

That this version of Crumwell's dying words is the true one, and not that of Foxe, derives much proof from the fact of Burnet taking the trouble of endeavouring to explain it according to his own wishes, which he essays in this fashion :

"By what Lord Crumwell spoke at his death, he left it much to be doubted of what religion he died, but it is certain he was a Lutheran. The term, Catholic faith, used by him, seemed to make it doubtful, but that it was then used in England in its true sense in opposition to the novelties of the See of Rome."*

Neither John Foxe nor any of his eccentric modern admirers could make a statement more discordant with fact

• Burnet's Reformation, vol. i. part i. pp. 516, 517 (Oxford edit.), 1816.

than the above. Again I refer the reader to the scene where Crumwell and Cranmer were prominent in upholding the Royal theologian in a discussion upon the "Real Presence" with Lambert. This memorable incident took place in 1538. About the same time Crumwell wrote to Sir Thomas Wyatt, the English Ambassador in Germany, detailing an account of the "glorions conference," to which I have already alluded. Both Crumwell and Cranmer made a most marked display in favour of Transubstantiation and other Catholic doctrines, on the occasion in question. If they did not believe in those principles at that period, then they must have practised hypocrisy and perjury to an amazing extent. At the time of Crumwell's death (1540) there was no established Protestant liturgy of England. If the "novelties of the See of Rome" were set aside by the Reformers-if the Reformation, as alleged, was merely a recurrence to the olden purity of belief, where have we the ancient and reverend liturgy? We hear not a word of that; it was not until 1547 that Dr. Cranmer and his colleagues set about the arrangement of a new liturgy out of existing Popish materials. In Thomas Crumwell's time the Reformers were merely in rebellion against Rome-an insurgency strong and expansive as the temporal possessions of Catholicity in the island. Everything was in confusion and disorder. In devising a fashion of faith, the Reformers had to make choice between the shifting doctrines of Luther, who permitted polygamy to his patron, the abstract principles of Zwingli, the savage dogmatisms of John Knox, or the horrors of the Anabaptist socialist teaching, which England, however, was too honest and moral to sanction. The quarrels about respective elements of belief

were bitter amongst the early Reformers, whilst the King, the greater portion of the independent nobility, and the mass of the people remained adherents of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Henry only desired to plunder the Church, not to gainsay her doctrines, which he never did. What did Crumwell mean by saying, "Not doubting of any article of faith, or of any sacrament of the Church?" Of what Church? Protestantism was not proclaimed for seven years after his death. Again, he says "he had been seduced." Seduced from what? And to what did he return? As before said, he had not Protestantism to return to, and he must fain recur to the Church of his great patrons, Pace and Wolsey. There was no other Church in the realm. "Novelties of the See of Rome!" they were "Novelties," why did not the Reformers recur to the more ancient cultus, if such there were? Instead of this they merely lopped some branches from the old Roman trunk, and set them up to become so many independent offshoots of belief as we find at present in England. Mr. Froude is very outspoken and candid as to "lopping branches from the Roman trunk," and leaves his readers in a puzzle as to what "branch" he himself is now attached. But the most remarkable version of Lord Crumwell's dying speech is that recorded by John Stowe :

If

"I am come hither to die, and not to purge myself, as some think, peradventure, that I will. For if I should do so, I were a very wretch and miser. I am by the law condemned to die, and thank my Lord God that hath appointed me this death for mine offences. For since the time that I have had years of discretion I have lived a sinner, and offended my Lord God, for the which I ask Him heartily forgiveness. And it is not unknown to many of you that I have been a great traveller in this world, and, being but of base