The History of England - Vols. 1 to 6 (214 page)

he addressed himself in the following words to Sir William Nov. 28.

Kingston, constable of the Tower, who had him in custody. “I pray you, have me heartily recommended unto his royal majesty, and beseech him on my behalf to call to his remembrance all matters that have passed tween us from the beginning, especially with regard to his business with the queen; and then will he know in his conscience whether I have offended him.

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“He is a prince of a most royal carriage, and hath a princely heart: and rather than he will miss for want any part of his will, he will endanger the one half of his kingdom.

“I do assure you, that I have often kneeled before him, sometimes three hours together, to persuade him from his will and appetite; but could not prevail: had I but served God as diligently as I have served the king, he would not have given me over in my grey hairs. But this is the just reward that I must receive for my indulgent pains and study, not regarding my service to God, but only to my prince. Therefore, let me advise you, if you be one of the privy-council, as by your wisdom you are fit, take care what you put into the king’s head: For you can never put it out again.”
d

Thus died this famous cardinal, whose character seems to have Wolsey’s death.

contained as singular a variety, as the fortune to which he was exposed. The obstinacy and violence of the king’s temper may alleviate much of the blame, which some of his favourite’s measures have undergone; and when we consider, that the subsequent part of Henry’s reign was much more criminal than that which had been directed by Wolsey’s counsels, we shall be inclined to suspect those historians of partiality, who have endeavoured to load the memory of this minister with such violent reproaches. If, in foreign politics, he sometimes employed his influence over the king for his private purposes, rather than his master’s service, which, he boasted, he had solely at heart; we must remember, that he had in view the papal throne; a dignity, which, had he attained it, would have enabled him to make Henry a suitable return for all his favours. The cardinal of Amboise, whose memory is respected in France, always made this apology for his own conduct, which was, in some respect, similar to Wolsey’s; and we have reason to think, that Henry was well acquainted with the views by which his minister was influenced, and took a pride in promoting them. He much regretted his death, when informed of it; and always spoke favourably of his memory: A proof, that humour more than reason, or any discovery of treachery, had occasioned the last persecutions against him.

A new session of parliament was held, together with a

1531. 16 January. A

convocation; and the king here gave strong proofs of his

parliament.

extensive authority, as well as of his intention to turn it to the depression of the clergy. As an ancient statute, now almost obsolete, had been employed to ruin Wolsey, and render his exercise of the legantine power criminal, notwithstanding the king’s permission; the same law was now turned against the ecclesiastics. It was pretended, that every one, who had submitted to the legantine court, that is, the whole church, had violated the statute of provisors; and the attorney-general accordingly brought an indictment against them.
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The convocation knew, that it would be in vain to oppose reason or equity to the king’s arbitrary will, or plead that their ruin would have been the certain consequence of not submitting to Wolsey’s commission, which was procured by Henry’s consent, and supported by his authority.

They chose therefore to throw themselves on the mercy of their sovereign; and they

agreed to pay 118,840 pounds for a pardon.f
A confession was likewise extorted from them, that
the king was the protector and the supreme head of the church and clergy
of England;
though some of them had the dexterity to get a clause inserted, which invalidated the whole submission, and which ran in these terms,
in so far as is
permitted by the law of Christ.

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The commons, finding that a pardon was granted the clergy, began to be apprehensive for themselves, lest either they should afterwards be brought into trouble on account of their submission to the legantine court, or a supply, in like manner, be extorted from them, in return for their pardon. They therefore petitioned the king, to grant a remission to his lay subjects; but they met with a repulse. He told them, that if he ever chose to forgive their offence, it would be from his own goodness, not from their application, lest he should seem to be compelled to it. Some time after, when they despaired of obtaining this concession, he was pleased to issue a pardon to the laity; and the commons expressed great gratitude for that act of clemency.
g

By this strict execution of the statute of provisors, a great part of 1532.

the profit, and still more of the power, of the court of Rome was cut off; and the connexions between the pope and the English clergy were, in some measure, dissolved. The next session found both king and parliament in the same dispositions.

An act was passed against levying the annates or first fruits;
h

15 January.

being a year’s rent of all the bishoprics that fell vacant: a tax which was imposed by the court of Rome for granting bulls to the new prelates, and which was found to amount to considerable sums. Since the Progress of the second of Henry VII. no less than one hundred and sixty

reformation.

thousand pounds had been transmitted to Rome, on account of this claim; which the parliament, therefore, reduced to five per cent. on all the episcopal benefices. The better to keep the pope in awe, the king was entrusted with a power of regulating these payments, and of confirming or infringing this act at his pleasure: And it was voted, that any censures, which should be passed by the court of Rome, on account of that law, should be entirely disregarded, and that mass should be said, and the sacraments administered, as if no such censures had been issued.

This session the commons preferred to the king a long complaint against the abuses and oppressions of the ecclesiastical courts; and they were proceeding to enact laws for remedying them, when a difference arose, which put an end to the session, before the parliament had finished all their business. It was become a custom for men to make such settlements, or trust deeds, of their lands by will, that they defrauded, not only the king, but all other lords, of their wards, marriages, and reliefs; and by the same artifice the king was deprived of his premier seisin, and the profits of the livery, which were no inconsiderable branches of his revenue. Henry made a bill be drawn to moderate, not remedy altogether, this abuse: He was contented, that every man should have the liberty of disposing in this manner of the half of his land; and he told the parliament in plain terms, “If they would not take a reasonable thing, when it was offered, he would search out the extremity of the law; and then would not offer them so much again.” The lords came willingly into his terms; but the commons rejected the bill: A singular instance, where Henry might see, that his power and authority, though extensive, had yet some boundaries. The commons, however, found reason to repent of their victory. The king made good his threats: he called together the judges and ablest lawyers, who argued the question in chancery; and it was decided, that a man could not by law bequeath any part of his lands, in 1532. 10 April.

prejudice of his heir.
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The parliament being again assembled after a short prorogation, the king caused the two oaths to be read to them, that which the bishops took to the pope, and that to the king, on their installation; and as a contradiction might be suspected between them, while the prelates seemed to swear allegiance to two sovereigns;
k
the parliament shewed their intention of abolishing the oath to the pope, when their proceedings were suddenly stopped by the breaking out of the plague at Westminster, which occasioned a prorogation. It is remarkable, that one Temse ventured this session to move, that the house should address the king, to take back the queen, and stop the prosecution of his divorce. This motion made the king send for Audley, the speaker: and explain to him the scruples, with which his conscience had long been burdened; scruples, he said, which had proceeded from no wanton appetite, which had arisen after the fervours of youth were past, and which were confirmed by the concurring sentiments of all the learned societies in Europe. Except in Spain and Portugal, he added, it was never heard of, that any man had espoused two sisters; but he himself had the misfortune, he believed, to be the first Christian man that had ever married his brother’s widow.
l

After the prorogation, Sir Thomas More, the chancellor, foreseeing that all the measures of the king and parliament led to a breach with the church of Rome, and to an alteration of religion, with which his principles would not permit him to concur, desired leave to resign the great seal; and he descended from his high station with more joy and alacrity than he had mounted up to it. The austerity of this man’s virtue, and the sanctity of his manners, had no wise encroached on the gentleness of his temper, or even diminished that frolic and gaiety, to which he was naturally inclined.

He sported with all the varieties of fortune into which he was thrown; and neither the pride, naturally attending a high station, nor the melancholy incident to poverty and retreat, could ever lay hold of his serene and equal spirit. While his family discovered symptoms of sorrow on laying down the grandeur and magnificence, to which they had been accustomed, he drew a subject of mirth from their distresses; and made them ashamed of losing even a moment’s chearfulness, on account of such trivial misfortunes. The king, who had entertained a high opinion of his virtue, received his resignation with some difficulty; and he delivered the great seal soon after to Sir Thomas Audley.

During these transactions in England, and these invasions of the papal and ecclesiastical authority, the court of Rome was not without solicitude; and she entertained just apprehensions of losing entirely her authority in England; the kingdom, which, of all others, had long been the most devoted to the holy see, and which had yielded it the most ample revenue. While the imperial cardinals pushed Clement to proceed to extremities against the king, his more moderate and impartial counsellors represented to him the indignity of his proceedings; that a great monarch, who had signalized himself, both by his pen and his sword, in the cause of the pope, should be denied a favour, which he demanded on such just grounds, and which had scarcely ever before been refused to any person of his rank and station.

Notwithstanding these remonstrances, the queen’s appeal was received at Rome; the king was cited to appear; and several consistories were held, to examine the validity of their marriage. Henry was determined not to send any proxy to plead his cause before this court: He only dispatched Sir Edward Karne and Dr. Bonner, in quality of excusators, so they were called, to carry his apology, for not paying that deference to PLL v6.0 (generated September, 2011)

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the papal authority. The prerogatives of his crown, he said, must be sacrificed, if he allowed appeals from his own kingdom; and as the question regarded conscience, not power or interest, no proxy could supply his place, or convey that satisfaction, which the dictates of his own mind alone could confer. In order to support himself in this measure, and add greater security to his intended defection from Rome, he procured an interview with Francis at Boulogne and Calais,

where he renewed his personal friendship, as well as public 11th Oct.

alliance, with that monarch, and concerted all measures for their mutual defence. He even employed arguments, by which, he believed, he had persuaded Francis to imitate his example in withdrawing his obedience from the bishop of Rome, and administering ecclesiastical affairs without having farther recourse to that see. And being now fully determined in his own mind, as well as resolute to stand all consequences, he privately celebrated his marriage with Anne Boleyn,

whom he had previously created marchioness of Pembroke.

14th Nov.

Rouland Lee, soon after raised to the bishopric of Coventry, officiated at the marriage. The duke of Norfolk, uncle to the new queen, her father, mother, and brother, together with Dr. Cranmer, were present at the ceremony.
m

Anne became pregnant soon after her marriage: and this event, both gave great satisfaction to the king, and was regarded by the people as a strong proof of the queen’s former modesty and virtue.

The parliament was again assembled: and Henry, in conjunction 1533. 4th Feb. A with the great council of the nation, proceeded still in those parliament.

gradual and secure steps, by which they loosened their

connexions with the see of Rome, and repressed the usurpations of the Roman pontiff.

An act was made against all appeals to Rome in causes of matrimony, divorces, wills, and other suits cognizable in ecclesiastical courts; appeals esteemed dishonourable to the kingdom, by subjecting it to a foreign jurisdiction; and found to be very vexatious, by the expence and the delay of justice, which necessarily attended them.
n
The more to show his disregard to the pope,

Henry, finding the new queen’s pregnancy to advance, publicly 12th April.

owned his marriage; and in order to remove all doubts with regard to its lawfulness, he prepared measures for declaring, by a formal sentence, the invalidity of his marriage with Catherine: A sentence which ought naturally to have