CHA P.bore not, in these respects, any proportion to thofe of XXXI. the leffer. BESIDE the lands, poffeffed by the monafteries, the 1538. regular clergy enjoyed a confiderable part of the benefices of England, and of the tythes, annexed to them; and these were alfo at this time transferred to the crown, and by that means came into the hands of laymen: an abuse which many zealous churchmen regard as the most criminal facrilege. The monks were formerly much at their eafe in England, and enjoyed revenues, which much exceeded the regular and ftated expence of the house. We read of the abbey of Chertsey in Surrey which poffeffed 744 pounds a year, though it contained only fourteen monks: That of Furness, in the county of Lincoln, was valued at 960 pounds a year, and contained but thirty monks. In order to diffipate their revenues, and fupport popularity, the monasteries lived in a very hofpitable manner; and befides the poor, maintained from their effals, there were many decayed gentlemen, who paffed their lives in travelling from convent to convent, and were entirely fubfifted at the tables of the friars. By this hofpitality, as much as by their own inactivity, did the convents prove nurferies of idleness; but the king, not to give offence by too fudden an innovation, bound the new proprietors of abbey lands, to fupport the antient hofpitality. But this engagement was fulfilled in very few places, and for a very short time. IT is eafy to imagine the indignation, with which the intelligence of all thefe violences was received at Rome; and how much the ecclefiaftics of that court, who had fo long kept the world in fubjection by big founding epithets, and by holy execrations, would now vent their rhetoric against the character and conduct of Henry. The pope was provoked at last to publith the bull, which had been paffed against that monarch; and in a public manner he delivered over his foul to the devil, and his dominions to the first invader. Libels were dispersed, in which he was anew compared to the most furious perfecutors in antiquity; and the preference was now given on their fide. He had declared war with the dead, whom the pagans themselves refpected; was at open enmity with heaven; and had engaged in profeffed hoftility with the whole host of faints L Burnet, vol. i. p. 237. and and angels. Above all, he was often reproached with his CHA P. resemblanae to the emperor Julian, whom, it was faid, XXXI. lie imitated in his apoftacy and learning, though he fell fhort of him in his morals. Henry could distinguish in 1538. many of these libels the ftile and animofity of his kinfman Pole; and he was thence incited to vent his rage, by every poffible expedient, on that famous cardinal.. REGINALD DE LA POLE or Reginald Pole, was de- Cardinal fcended of the royal family, being fourth fon of the coun- Pole. tefs of Salisbury, daughter of the duke of Clarence. He discovered in very early youth evident fymptoms of that fine genius, and generous difpofition, by which, during his whole life, he was fo much diftinguished; and Henry having conceived great friendship for him, proposed to raise him to the higheft ecclefiaftical dignities; and as a pledge of future favours, he conferred on him the deanry of Exeter M, in order to fupport him in the expences of his education. Pole was carrying on his studies in Paris, at the time when the king folicited the fuffrages of that univerfity in favour of his divorce; but though applied to by the English agent, he declined taking any part in that affair. Henry bore this neglect with more temper than was natural to him; and he appeared unwilling, on that account, to renounce friendship with a perfon, whose virtues and talents, he hoped, would prove useful as well as ornamental to his court and kingdom. He allowed him ftill to poffefs his deanry, and gave him permission to finish his studies at Padua: He even paid him some court, in order to bring him into his measures; and wrote to him, while in that univerfity, defiring him to give his opinion freely, with regard to the measures taken in England, for abolishing the papal authority. Pole had now entered into an intimate friendship with whatever was eminent for dignity or merit in Italy; Sadolet, Bembo, and other revivers of true taste and learning; and he was moved by thefe conne&ions, as well as by religious zeal, to forget, in fome refpect, the duty which he owed to Henry, his benefactor, and his fovereign. He repli ed, by writing a treatife of the unity of the church, in which he inveighed against the king's fupremacy, his divorce, his fecond marriage; and he even exhorted the VOL, IV. M M Goodwin's Annals. emperor CHA P. emperor to revenge on him the injury done to the impeXXXI. rial family, and to the catholic cafe. Henry, though provoked beyond measure at this outrage, diffembled his 1538. resentment; and fent a meffage to Pole, defiring him to return to England, in order to explain certain passages of his book, which he found fomewhat obfcure and difficult : Pole was on his guard against this infiduous invitation; and was determined to remain in Italy, where he was extremely and univerfally beloved. THE pope and emperor thought themselves obliged to provide for a man of Pole's eminence and dignity, who, in support of their cause, had sacrificed all his pretenfions to fortune in his own country. He was created a cardinal; and though he took no higher orders than those of a deacon, he was fent legate into Flanders about the year 1536 N. Henry was fenfible, that Pole's chief intention in choofing that employment, was to foment the mutinous difpofition of the English catholics; and he therefore remonftrated in fuch a vigorous manner with the queen of Hungary, regent of the Low Countries, that she dif miffed the legate, without allowing him to exercise his commiffion. The enmity, which he bore Pole, was now open, as well as violent; and the cardinal, on his part, kept no farther measures in his intrigues against Henry. He is even fufpected of having afpired to the crown, by means of a marriage with the lady Mary; and the king was every day alarmed by informations, which he received, of the correspondence maintained in England by that fugitive. Courtney, marquis of Exeter, had entered into a confpiracy with him; Sir Edward Nevil, brother to the lord Abergavenny, Sir Nicholas Carew, mafter of horse, and knight of the garter; Henry de la Pole, lord Montacute, and Sir Geoffrey de la Pole, brothers to the cardinal. These perfons were indicted, and tried, and convicted, before lord Audley,, who prefided in the trial, as high steward. They were all executed, except Sir Geoffrey de la Pole, who was pardoned; and he owed this grace to his having firft carried to the king fecret intelligence of the confpiracy. We know little of the juftice or iniquity of the fentence pronounced against these men: We only know, that the condemnation of a man, who was, at that time, profecuted by the N Herbert court court, forms no prefumption of his guilt: though as no CHA P. hiftorian of credit mentions, in the prefent cafe, any XXXI. complaints occafioned by thefe trials, we may prefume that fufficient evidence was produced against the marquis 1538. of Exeter and his affociates °. CHAP. likes her CHA P. XXXII. Diffutation with Lambert-- A Parliament —— Law of life HE rough hand of Henry feemed well adapted for rending afunder thofe bands, by which the antient fuperftition had fastened itself on the kingdom; and 1538. though, after renouncing the pope's fupremacy, and fuppreffing monafteries, moft of the political ends of a reformation were already attained, few people expected, that he would ftop at thofe innovations. The spirit of oppofition, it was thought, would carry him to the utmoft extremity against the church of Rome; and lead him to declare war against the whole doctrine and worhip, as well as difcipline, of that mighty hierarchy. He had formerly appealed from the pope to a general council; but now, that a general council was fummoned to meet at Mantua, he previously renounced all fubmiffion to it, as being fummoned by the pope, and lying entirely under fubjection to that fpiritual ufurper. He engaged his clergy to make a declaration to the like purpose; and he had prefcribed, to them many other alterations in antient tenets and practices. Cranmer took advantage of every opportunity to carry him on in this courfe; and while queen Jane lived, who favoured the reformers, he had, by means of her infinuations and addrefs, been very fuccessful in his endeavours. After her death, Gardiner, who was returned from his embaffy to France, kept the king more in fufpence; and by feigning an unlimited fubmiffion to his will, he was frequently able to guide him to his own purpofes. Fox, bishop of Hereford, had fupported Cranmer in his fchemes for a more thorough reformation; but his death had made way for the promotion of Bonner, who, though he had hitherto feemed a furious |