Page images
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. VIII.

INSURRECTIONS IN THE WEST AND EAST OF ENGLAND, AND
IN THE MIDLAND COUNTIES; CAUSES OF THE COMMOTION;
SKETCH OF THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN ENGLAND AT THAT
PERIOD.

BOOK THE death of Henry VIII. and the accession of a

II.

youth but nine years old, had given at first new hopes and spirit to all the friends of the papal cause. Pole, on hearing of the pleasing news, had immediately urged the pontiff to avail himself of an opportunity, which, to his mistaken judgment, seemed to have been expressly sent from heaven;' and therefore urged him above all things to establish a cordial conciliation with the emperor, and dispatch to him the cardinal of Trent, as the person most likely to be an acceptable and efficient negotiator of all differences between them.2 Charles yielded so far to the solicitations, profit and passions of Rome, as to express to the English ambassador at his court his displeasure at the statutes on ecclesiastical subjects, which the English parliament had enacted;"

Occasio a Deo videtur oblata.' Pol. Ep. v. 4. p. 38. 2 See his two letters to Paul III. p. 38 & 39.

We learn this from Pole's letter of 8 April 1547, from Rome, to the confessor of Charles, expressing his delight at the circumstance: I have heard, with great pleasure, that his Cæsarean majesty had addressed the English ambassador with the most severe words, for the innovations and impious decrees which have been introduced and confirmed by the authority of the supreme council of England.' ib. p. 44. He urges the confessor to excite the mind of Cæsar in the cause of religion, by frequent exhortations (p. 46); that is, to direct his arms against England.

VIII.

but, intent on his more immediate interests, he CHAP. would not advance beyond his verbal censures; and before the first year of Edward's reign ended, took a similar liberty, in a more offensive tone, with the pontiff himself; for, elevated by his victory at Muhlberg, he directed his ambassador at the Tiber to make a public protestation against the papal conduct in removing the council from Trent; to insist on its return, and to express in no measured terms his dissatisfaction at the explanation which Paul III. had given for the steps he had taken; a freedom and a language which stung the pontifical pride so acutely, or disappointed it so severely, that cardinal Pole was commissioned to give the papal answer to the protestation with an elaborate copiousness of resentful rhetoric, which shewed that if the pontiff could not coerce the emperor by men in helms and harness, he could at least annoy him with his soldiers in oratory; to wound immediately his pride and feelings, and perhaps to raise up substantial military gendarmerie elsewhere for his future humiliation."

[ocr errors]

You demand,' says the replying cardinal, of his holiness, that he should rescind and abrogate the decree of the council, which ordered its translation to Bologna.” Quiri. v. 4. p. 386.

You call the pope's answer to his Cæsarean majesty on the present business, illegitimate, unsuited to the occasion, unfitting, full of fiction and coloring, quite delusory, and neither reason nor law. I repeat only your own words, which I wish had been more modest.' ib. 397. The official reply also expresses the disappointment of the vicarius Dei, that he had received not the fruits of sweet peace and concord, but the most bitter wild produce of indecent protestation and rebukes.' ib. 384.

6

6

• Quirini has printed it as the Responsio Pauli III. given to the emperor's ambassador in the public consistory at Rome.' 382-402. It begins, You have given a great cause of grief to our most holy lord, and to the sacred college of cardinals. What could be less expected from his Cæsarean majesty, than that in the very season when he had obtained a glorious victory against those on whom he had affixed the name of rebellion against himself, but chiefly against the Roman church,

II.

By such, not uncaused, or not ungoverned reciprocations of the mutual selfishness or humors of these pouting potentates, the wisest Sovereign of us all protected, without a miracle, both here and in Germany, the infant Hercules of the Reformation during his cradle growth; when a cordial friendship between these powers and France would have extinguished the endangered blessing, without much difficulty, for ever."

Disappointed in his attempt to allure Edward to make him the mentor to the throne, as he became afterwards, to her misery, to his sister Mary, Pole continued that treasonable intercourse with the supporters of the papacy in England, which he had begun so mischievously under Henry VIII., and which some of the best men of those times so strongly and so publicly reprobated." The result of his

when they called themselves Protestants, and that too with the aid of both the money and forces of his holiness, so profusely given as to exceed his proper strength-What could have been less expected, than after such a success, he should return such fruits to the piety and benevolence of his holiness, as to make the end of that war the beginning of protestations against him?' ib. 384. Pole has noted, I read this answer on 1 Feb. 1548, in the secret consistory, by the command of our lord, before the Cæsarean ambassador.' ib. 402.

7 One of the stoutest laborers for the popedom could not avoid remarking this for bishop Gardiner, in his letter to Cranmer, says, "If the present state in this world were to be considered, I have many times alleged, and the Protestants take it for a great argument to establish their proceedings, that the emperor was ever letted when he went about to enterprise any thing against them, as Bucer declareth at great length, in a letter written to the world. And when Sleidanus was here in England, he told me the like at Windsor; adding, that I should see magnas mutationes. And so I have seen, and have heard marvellous changes since that.' Letter printed in Strype's App. p. 781.

Hist. Hen. VIII. v. 2. p. 466-8.

Both the reforming bishop Latimer, and the sturdy catholic Tonstall, united in sentiment on this subject. Latimer, in his fifth sermon, called him the king's traitor.' 'I never remember that man but with a heavy heart.' Yet, recollecting his abilities, candidly remarks, that if he had taken the archbishopric of York, which Henry offered to him, he would

extensive correspondence and secret activity appeared first in Devonshire, where his family interest chiefly predominated. It was in this county that, on Whit Monday, a formidable revolt began, under the patronage of the commander of St. Michael's Mount, and other gentlemen, who soon headed 10,000 men. As if to aid the treason, a rumor was artfully spread, that the king had suddenly died; and as in that case a Romish queen would have instantly succeeded in Mary, who would have rewarded the leaders of the anti-reforming insurrection, the idea, while it was believed, would have the effect of deciding many to join the rebellious standard, who might have hesitated while the treason seemed more perilous to themselves or to their property."

10

These treasonable assemblages being headed by men of rank, who were acting on provided plans, and for determined objects, displayed their more intellectual organization in their articles of complaint and military movements. Seven heads of grievances and requisitions were followed by fifteen more, demanding that cardinal Pole should be recalled from his exile, and made a member of the privy council ---thus shewing the great author of their tumultuary

have done much good in that part of the realm, as a learned man and a preaching prelate.' p. 59. But the bishop of Durham was more indignant against him: The bishop of Rome hath allowed to his purpose a subject of this realm, Reynold Pole, coming of a noble blood, and thereby the more arrant traitor, to go about from prince to prince, and from country to country, to stir them to war against this realm, and to destroy the same, being his native country. This most unkind traitor is his minister to so devilish a purpose: without shame he still goeth on, exhorting thereunto all princes that will hear him.' Sermon on Palm Sunday 1539.

10 Edward notices in his journal, that he went publicly thro London,

CHAP.

VIII.

BOOK

II.

agitations; "-that the mass should be restored with the old system; and that the inclosures should be removed.12 Profaning their sacrament, by marching with it under a canopy at the head of their banded multitudes, with crosses, banners, consecrated candlesticks, and holy water, they laid siege to Exeter, in such numbers, and so well arranged, that if it had not still possessed its antient wall, and been resolutely defended by its citizens, it must have fallen before their attack.13 Paget blamed the mildness of government; recommended the German cavalry in Calais to be sent against them, and vigorous combinations with other forces. The privy seal, lord Russell, moved to repress them, but could not dislodge them from their trenches. He was reinforced by lord Gray with the German horse, and by Spinola with three hundred Italian arquebussiers. Their united efforts at last drove them from their siege, as the inhabitants were enduring the last extremities of famine rather than surrender.16 The

14

15

"Their twelfth article was: We think it very meet, because the lord cardinal Pole is of the king's blood, that he should not only have his pardon, but also be sent for to Rome, and promoted to be of the king's council.' To which Cranmer answered, Whosoever shall read his book, will judge cardinal Pole neither worthy to dwell in this realm, nor yet to live; for he doth extend all his wits and eloquence in that book to persuade the bishop of Rome, the emperor, the French king, and all other princes, to invade this realm by force. And sure I am, that if you have him, you must have the bishop of Rome also. For, the cardinal cannot be a subject, but where the other is his head.' Strype's Cranmer, App. 835.

Heylin, 76. Strype Cr. 264,
"Strype Eccl. Mem. v. 2. p. 262.
15 Strype Eccl. Mem. v. 2. p. 265.

13 Heylin, 76.

16 Heylin, 76. King Edward describes the conflicts more minutely in his journal, p. 9. From that time, the citizens of Exeter made the 6 August, the day of their deliverance, an annual feast. Heyl. 76. The vicar of St. Thomas, one of the principal incendiaries, was hanged at the top of his own tower, with his beads at his girdle.' ib. The prin

« PreviousContinue »