14. The Practice of Prelates, Part 2

uer: re ας 282 THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES.

Then he goeth forth unto that which followeth: Unto thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and Whatsoever thou bindest in earth, it shall be bound in heaven,” &e. “1,0, saith he, in that he saith, whatsoever thou bindest in earth, he excepteth nothing; therefore, I may make laws, and bind both king and emperor!; when Christ, as he had no worldly kingdom, even so he spake of no worldly binding, but of binding of sinners. Christ gave his disciples the key of the knowledge of the law of God, to bind all sinners; and the key of the promises, to loose all that repent, and to let them into the mercy that is laid up for us in Christ.

Then eometh he unto another text, which Christ rehearseth, Matthew last, saying, “All power is given me in heaven and earth: go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to keep all that I commanded you: and behold, I am with you unto the world’s end.” Lo, saith the pope, Christ hath all power in heaven and earth without exception, and I am Christ’s vicar; wherefore all power is mine, and I am above all kings and emperors in temporal jurisdiction, and they but my servants, to kiss not my feet only, but my.x. also, if I list not to have them stoop so low: — when Christ, as I said, because he had no temporal kingdom, to even so he meant of no temporal power, but of power to save sinners, which the process of the text declareth, by that he saith, Go ye therefore, and teach and baptize; that is, preach this power unto all nations, and wash off their sins, through faith in the promises made in my blood.

Then he cometh unto another text, (Heb. vii.) which is, ne “The priesthood being translated, the law must needs be translated also.” Now, saith the pope, The priesthood is translated unto me; wherefore it pertaineth unto me to make laws, and to bind every man.’ And the epistle meaneth no such thing;

[[! Item Adrianus Papa. Generali decreto censemus et constituimus, x]

[ut execrandum anathema sit, et velut prsevaricator fidei catholics]

[semper apud Deum reus existat, quicunque regum seu episcoporum]

[vel potentum deinceps Romanorum pontificum decretorum censuram:]

[in quocunque crediderit vel permiserit violandam.— Decret. 2%, pars,]

[Caus. xxv. qu. 1. can. 11.] [2 So both in the folio and M, and S. S. ed.]]

Li

THE POPE CORRUPTETH SCRIPTURE. 283 but proveth evidently that the ceremonies of Moses must cease: for the priests of the old Testament must needs have been of the tribe of Levi, as Aaron was, whose duty for ever was the offering of sacrifices; wherefore, when that priesthood ceased, the sacrifices and ceremonies ceased also. Now that priesthood ceased in Christ, which was a priest of the order of Melchizedec, and not of the order of Aaron; for then he must have been of the tribe of Levi, and that he was not, but of the tribe of Judah, and of the seed of David: wherefore they that are under Christ’s priesthood are under no sacrifices or ceremonies. And of this manner juggle they with all the scripture: which falsehood lest the laymen should perceive with reading the process of the text, is all their fear, whatsoever they pretend.

Moreover, that thou mayest perceive the pope’s falsehood, mark, Christ said unto Peter, I will give,” and not I give;” neither said he, ‘I will give unto thee only.” Therefore, look in the twentieth chapter of John, where he gave them the keys after his resurrection, and thou shalt see he gave them unto all indifferently, saying, As my Father sent me, so send I you.” Whither sent he them? Unto all the world, and unto all nations, What to do? To preach the law, that the people might repent; and the promises, that they might believe in Christ for the remission of sins; saying, Receive the Holy Ghost: whosoever’s sin ye forgive, they shall be forgiven By which Holy Ghost he gave them understanding of the scripture, and of all that they should preach: as thou mayest see, Luke last, where he opened their wits to understand the scripture, and said, That repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations,” and that they were witnesses to preach it. Whereby thou seest, that to bind and to loose is but to preach and tell the people their faults, and to preach mercy in Christ to all that repent.

And when he saith, “All power is given me,” he saith not, Go thou, Peter, and preach: but saith unto all indifferently, Go ye and preach this power given me of my Father to save all that repent; and to damn them that repent not, but follow the lusts of their flesh, with full desire to live beastly, being enemies unto the law of God.

And (Matt. xviii.) Peter asked Christ, how oft he should

forgive his brother!, whether seven times? And Christ said, “Seventy times seven times.” As who should say, As oft as he repenteth, and asketh forgiveness. S Now, though this was spoken unto Peter only, because; Peter only moved the question, yet pertaineth it not unto us ’ 8] as well as unto Peter? Are not we as much bound to to.. z our forgive our neighbours that repent and ask forgiveness as Peter? Yes, verily. But because Peter only asked the — question, therefore did Christ teach us by Peter. If another had asked, he would have taught us by that other. And in Li Peter, like manner, when Christ asked, Who say ye that I am?” if any other of the apostles which believed it as well as Peter had said as Peter did, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living B God, which art come into the world of sinners, to save them;” “unto him would Christ have answered as he did to Peter, That upon the rock of that his confession he would have B built his church; and would have promised him keys, as well d» as he did Peter. Yea, and in the eighteenth chapter of Mat-? thew Christ saith to all the apostles, yea, and to all congre- π᾿ gations where sinners be, That whatsoever they bound should 5 be bound, and whatsoever they loosed should be loosed.

Moreover, every man and woman, that know Christ and his doctrine, have the keys, and power to bind and loose; in f an order yet?, and in their measure, as time, place, and occasion giveth, and privately. May not a wife, if her husband 1 7 sin against God and her, and take another woman, tell him F his fault between him and her secretly, and in good manner humbly, and bind his conscience with the law of God? And if he repent, may she not forgive him, and loose him, as well as the pope? Yea, and better too, as long as the sin is secret; Ξ inasmuch as he sinneth specially against her, and not against the pope. And so may the son do to his father, and a servant to his master, and every man to his neighbour; as thou seest in the said eighteenth chapter of Matthew. Howbeit, to bind and po loose in the conscience, by open preaching, pertaineth unto the E nto Officers that are appointed thereto. And to bind and loose £7- open sinners, and them that will not repent, till they be complained on unto the congregation, pertaineth unto the congregation.

[[! Marb. brether; S. S. ed. brother; Day, brethren.] [2 So Marb. and S. S. ed. In day, yet is wanting.]!]

Finally, there were many that preached Christ at Rome, Reasons yer? Peter came thither, if he came ever thither; as Paul, the greatest and many other. Had they not authority to bind and loose? EM Or else how did they convert the people? Peter also was an W- Τ’ apostle, and went from place to place as Paul did; and as Paul ordained bishops in every place to teach the people, so no doubt did Peter. Why then might not those bishops challenge authority by Peter, as well as they of Rome? They say also peter n in their own legends, that Peter had his seat at Antioch first. aAnuoc Did he run to Rome, leaving no man behind him to teach the people at Antioch? God forbid. Why then might not that bishop challenge Peter’s authority? They will haply say, sooner than prove it, that Peter died at Rome, and therefore his authority is greatest there. Then by that rule Christ’s power is no where so full as at Jerusalem. But what hath Christ’s invisible kingdom to do with places? Where Christ’s cuis gospel is, there is his power full and all his authority, as well ὃς qopel in one place as in another. ” Finally, to get authority whencesoever they can snatch it, y, they join Paul with Peter in their own laws, Distinctio xxii. W. z^ saying, “By the authority of Peter and Paul:”? which is clean against themselves. For they say in their own law, In the; 4, presence of the superior the power of the inferior ceaseth, and jester. is none at all%, Now if Peter be greater than Paul, then, by Bie eer.

[3 Yer: ere.] [ Marcellus Papa universis episcopis per Antiochiam constitutis,]

[epist. 1. Ipse enim [Petrus] caput est totius ecclesise, cui ait Do-]

[minus, Tu es Petrus &e. Ejus enim sedes primitus apud vos fuit,]

[quze postea, jubente Domino, Romam translata est. Nec ab ejus dis-]

[positione vos deviare oportet, ad quam cuncta majora ecclesiastica]

[negotia, divina disponente gratia, jussa sunt referri. Decr. 2%, pars,]

[Caus. xxiv. Qu. i. can. 15.] [5 In the Corp. Jur. canon. Distinct. xxr. cap. Sacrosancta, contains]

[the following sentence: Prima ergo sedes est ccelesti beneficio Romane]

[eeclesie, quam beatissimi Petrus et Paulus suo martyrio consecra-]

[runt. But the next Distinetio, xxr, which begins with the decree of]

[pope Nicolas II., De electione summi pontificis, contains, in that decree,]

[more exact language to Tyndale’s purpose: Quod si quis contra hoc]

[nostrum decretum synodali sententia promulgatum per seditionem &c]

[electus fuerit, auctoritate divina et sanctorum apostolorum Petri et]

[Pauli, perpetuo anathemate a liminibus sanctze Dei ecclesise abjiciatur.] 1 (9 Distinetio xxt. cap. 4. Inferior sedes. Sole clarius exhibuimus,]

[non posse quenquam, qui minoris auctoritatis est, eum qui majoris]

that rule, where Peter is present, there Paul is but a subject, and without authority. And where Christ is present bodily and preacheth himself, there the apostles give up their authority, and hold their peace, and sit down at his feet, and 5 become scholars and hearken too. Wherefore, in that they join Paul with Peter, and challenge their superiority as well z made by the authority of Paul as of Peter, there they make Paul: fellow and equal with Peter. And thus it is false that Peter was greater than his fellows. But the blind owls care not what they howl, seeing it is night, and the day-light of God’s word shut up, that no man can spy them. Moreover, with this term, Peter’s seat,’ they juggle apace 1 (as with infinite other), saying, That Peter’s seat is the chief seat;’ but what Peter’s seat is, that they tell you not: for wist ye that, ye should soon perceive that they lie. Peter’s seat is no stool, or chair, (for what hath the kingdom of Christ ἐρ do with such baggage?) but it is a spiritual thing. Christ E saith in the gospel, “The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat.” What was Moses’s seat there, a chair, or the temple, or the churches, or synagogue of the land? Nay verily, for — Moses came never there. But Moses’ seat was Moses’ law and: doctrine. Even so Peter’s seat is Peter’s doctrine, the gospel Christ, which Peter taught. And the same doctrine is Peter’s keys: so that Peter’s seat, Peter’s keys, and Peter’s doctrine is all one thing. Now is Peter’s doctrine Paul’s doctrine, and the doctrine of all the twelve apostles indifferently; for they taught all one thing. Wherefore it followeth, that Peter’s keys and Peter’s seat be the keys and seat of Paul also, and of all the other twelve apostles, and are nothing save the gospel of Christ. And thus, as Peter’s doctrine is no better than Paul’s, but one thing; even so Peter’s seat is no greater, nor higher, nor holier than the seat of the other 3 twelve. Peter’s seat now is Christ’s seat, Christ’s gospel, on which all the apostles sat, and on which this day sit all ᾿ they only that preach Christ truly. Wherefore, as antichrist preacheth not Peter’s doctrine (which is Christ’s gospel), so he sitteth not on Peter’s seat, but on the seat of Satan, whose vicar he is, and on the seat of his own laws and ceremonies, and false doctrine, whereunto he compelleth all men with violence of sword.

[potestatis est judiciis suis addicere, aut propriis definitionibus sub-]

[jugare.]]

Then he clamb to purgatory with the ladder of the said text, Whatsoever thou bindest in earth,” &c. Purgatory,” purgatory. Saith he, “is in earth’: wherefore I am lord there too,” pm. Nevertheless, as he can prove no purgatory, so can he not pimp prove that, if there were any, it should be in the earth. It might well be in the element or sphere of fire under the moon, as well as in the earth, But to bind and loose is, as I have above said, to preach, and to feed, and with Christ’s doctrine to purge souls. And they that be dead be not of the flock which Christ bade Peter feed, but they that live only.

Then clamb he up, with the same ladder still, over all vows and professions of all religious persons, and over oaths made between man and man, to dispense with them, and over all men’s testaments, to alter them. For what thou makest an hospital, that will he shortly make a college of priests, or a place of religion, or what he lusteth. Then all manner monks and friars, and like draff, took dispensations of him, for the ordinances of their old founders. And because, as they thought, they had prayed and distributed for their souls enough to bring them out of purgatory, they thrust them out of their bead-rolls, and took daily more and more.

But ever since they took dispensations of the pope, both for their rules, and to divide all among them, they received in the name, not of the poor, but of purgatory, to quench the raging fire thereof, which is as hot as their bellies can feign it, and fools be out of their wits to believe it; promising a mass “daily for forty shillings by the year, of which foundations - when they have gotten twenty, they will yet, with an union purchased of the pope, make but one chauntry. For if they should do all that they have promised, from the first founder unto this day, five hundred monks were not enough in many cloisters,: Thinkest thou that men were ever so mad to make the fashions that are now among them; to give the cellarer? such a sum, and the prior, and the sub-prior, and the other

[1 Ordinarius purgatorii locus, qui proprie et communiter nomine]

[purgatorii intelligitur, est sub terra, vicinus inferno.—Tractat. select.]

[De quatuor novissimis. N. 27. P. Dens. op. Lovanii, 1776.] [2 Marb. and Day selerar. S. and S. ed. sellerar. The monk who]

[had charge of the provisions.]]

officers so much for their parts as they have yearly; and t exempt the abbot from his brethren, and to send him out of — the abbey into such parks and places of pleasure, and give him a thousand, fifteen hundred, two thousand, or three thousand pounds yearly, to sport himself withal? Nay, but when through hypocrisy they had gotten land enough, then they turned unto the pope, and took dispensations both for — their rules which were too hard for such abundance, and for the wills of their founders, and served a great sort of founders under one per Dominum!, and divided among few that which was enough for a great multitude.

It was the pope that devised all these fashions, to corrupt the prelates with abundance of worldly pleasures, of which he wist that the worst would be most greedy, and for which he wist also that he should find Judases enough, that would forsake Christ and betray the truth, and be sworn false unto ες him and his Godhead. He maketh of many chauntries one, = of an abbey a cathedral church, and out of the abbeys plucked he the bishopricks. And as bishops pay for their bulls, even so do an infinite number of abbots in Christendom, in all lands some; which abbots be bishops within themselves, and immediately under the pope. And other abbots and priors send after the same ensample daily unto Rome, to purchase licence to wear a mitre? and a cross, and gay ornaments, to. be as glorious as the best, &c. And where, before God, no man is a priest but he that is appointed to preach Christ’s gospel unto the people; and the people ought not to give aught unto the spiritualty, but for the maintenance of the preaching of God’s word; the pope taketh six or seven, yea, ten, twenty, and as many benefices as he listeth, and giveth them unto one that preacheth not at all; as he doth all other dignities of the spiritualty. He that will purchase, and pay, and be sworn, shall have what he will.

[[! Alluding to the ordinary conclusion of their prayers, viz., Per]

[Dominum, he means that they put all their benefactors into one prayer,]

[to shorten their task.] [2 In the county of Gloucester alone there were six abbeys, whose]

[abbots had obtained the pope’s licence to wear mitres after the manner]

[of bishops.—Anderson’s Annals, B. 1. $ 1.]]

How they prove all their general Councils.

When the bishops and abbots and other great prelates had forsaken Christ and his living, and were fallen down before the beast, the viear of Satan, to receive their kingdom ef him; then the pope called together divers councils of such holy apostles, and there concluded and made of every opinion, that seemed profitable, an article of the faith. If thou ask where is the scripture to prove it? they answer, We be the church, and cannot err; and therefore, say they, what we conclude, though there be no scripture to prove it, it is as true as the scripture, and of equal authority with the seripture, and must be believed as well as the scripture under pain of damnation.’ For, say they, Our truth dependeth not of the truth of the scripture;’ that is, we be not true in our doing, because the scripture testifieth unto us that we do truly; but contrary, The truth of the scripture (say they) dependeth of us:’ that is, the scripture is true, because that we admit it, and tell thee that it is true. For how couldst thou know that it were the scripture except we told thee 503? And therefore we need no witness of the scripture for that we do: it is enough, that we so say of our own head; for we cannot err. Which reason is like as though young monks, newly professed, should come by the rules of their order and ordinances of their old founders, and would go about to keep them; and the old cankered monks should call them back unto the corrupt and false manner, that now is used, saying: Ye err. Do only as we teach you, for your profession is to obey your elders’ According unto the rules of our order and ordinances of our founder, shall they say. We can teach you no other, shall the old monks say, nor can lie unto you: ye ought therefore to believe us, and to do as

[83 Nicolaus papa archiepiscopis, &c. per Gallias constitutis. —Quibus]

[ad hsc asserendum est, quoniam si vetus novumque testamentum re-]

[eipienda sunt, non quod codici canonum ex toto habeantur annexa, sed]

[quod de his recipiendis Sti Papze Innocentii prolata videatur esse sen-]

[tentia, restat nimirum, quod decretales epistole Rom. pontificum sunt]

[recipiendee, etiamsi non sint codici canonum compaginate, quoniam]

[inter ipsos canones unum B. Leonis capitulum constat esse permistum,]

[quo ita omnia decretalia constituta sedis apostolice custodiri man-]

[dantur, vel si quis in illa commiserit, noverit sibi veniam denegari.—]

[Ἢ Decr. 1 pars. Dist. xix. e. 1.]]

[19]

[A [TYNDALE, τι.]

we bid you The young monks shall answer, We see that — ye lie, clean contrary unto all that is written in our rules and — ordinances.” The old monks shall say, Ye cannot understand them except we expound them unto you, neither yet know that they be your rules, except that ye believe that we cannot lie unto you. For how can ye know that these be — your rules and ordinances, but as we your elders tell you so? Now when we tell you that these be your rules and ordinances, how can ye be sure undoubtedly, that it is so, except = ye believe undoubtedly that we cannot lie? Wherefore, if ye will be sure that they be your rules and ordinances, then ye must first believe that we cannot lie. Leave such imaginations and disputations therefore, and lay your rules and ordinances out of your hands, and look no more on them; for they make you err: and come and do as we tell you, and captivate your wits, and believe that we cannot lie unto you, and that ye cannot understand your rules and ordinances.’ Even so, if thou say it is contrary unto the scripture; they of answer, that thou understandest it not, and that thou must captive thy wit, and believe that, though it seem never so — contrary, yet it is not contrary: no, if they determine that Christ is not risen again, and though the scripture testify that he is risen again, yet (say they) they be not contrary, if they be wisely understood. Thou must believe, say they, that there is some other meaning in the scripture, and that no man understandeth it. But that we say, whether without scripture, or against it, that must thou believe, that it is true.

And thus, because that the scripture would not agree with them, they thrust it out of the way first, and shut up the kingdom of heaven, which is Christ’s gospel, with false expositions, and with such sophistry, and with false principles of natural wisdom. And the abbots took the scripture from — their monks, lest some should ever bark against the abbots’ living; and set up such long service and singing, to weary them withal, that they should have no leisure to read in the scripture but with their lips; and made them good cheer to fill their bellies, and to stop their mouths. And the bishops in like manner, to occupy their priests withal, that they should-not study the scripture for barking against them, set up long service, wondrous intricate, so that in a dozen years thou couldst scarce learn to turn aright unto it: long matins,

long even-songs, long masses, long diriges, with vantage yet to mitigate the tediousness, quia levis est labor cum lucro; for lucre (say they) maketh the labour light:’ ever noselling them in ceremonies, and in their own constitutions, decrees, ordinances, and laws of holy church.

And the promises and testament, which the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood did preach daily unto the people, hat they put out of knowledge; and say now, that it is a sacrifice for the souls of purgatory, that they might the better sell their mass. And in the universities they have ordained that no man shall look on the scripture, until he be noselled in heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed with false principles; with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the scripture. And at his first coming unto university he is sworn that he shall not defame the university, whatsoever he seeth. And when he taketh first degree, he is sworn that he shall hold none opinion condemned by the church; but what such opinions be, that he shall not know. And then, when they be admitted to study divinity, because the scripture is locked up with such false expositions, and with false principles of natural philosophy, that they cannot enter in, they go about the outside, and dispute all their lives about words and vain opinions, pertaining as much unto the healing of a man’s heel, as health of his soul: provided yet alway, lest God give his singular grace unto any person, that none may preach except he be admitted of the bishops. Then came Thomas de Aquino, and he made the pope a god with his sophistry; and the pope made him a saint for his labour, and called him doctor Sanctus!: for whose holiness no man may deny whatsoever he saith, save in certain places, where, among so many lies, he said now and then true.

[[! The eolophon to the work, which will provide us with evidence for]

[what Tyndale has here affirmed, is as follows: Incipit Divi Thome]

[Aquinatis opus vigesimum; de regimine principum. And the tenth]

[chapter of its third book is headed, Hic sanctus doctor declarat de]

[dominio hominis secundum gradum et dignitatem: et primo de do-]

[minio Pape qualiter prsefertur omni dominio. In this chapter Aquinas]

[des presently introduces Matt. xvi. 18, 19; and says of that text, Ubi]

[quatuor ponuntur clausulz, omnes significativre dominii Petri suorum-]

[que successorum super omnes fideles; et propter quas merito summus]

[pontifex Romanus Christus dici potest, rex, et sacerdos. Si enim,]

[ete.—Th. Aquin. Opusc. f. 231. Lugd. 1562.] 19—2]

Ce Al E T 292 the Practice of Prelates. T

And in like manner, whosoever defendeth his traditions, — decrees, and privileges, him he made a saint also for his labour, ἢ were his living never so contrary unto the scripture; as ] Thomas of Canterbury!, with many other like, whose life was j like Thomas cardinal’s?, but not Christ’s; neither is Thomas. cardinal’s life anything, save a counterfeiting of St Thomas of — Canterbury. Thomas Becket was first seen? in merchandise E - temporal; and then, to learn spiritual merchandise, he gat P. him to Theobald archbishop of Canterbury; which sent him I divers times to Rome about business of holy church. And r1 when Theobald had spied his activity, he shore him deacon?, E! lest he should go back; and made him archdeacon of Canterbury, and upon that presented him to the king. And the king made him his chancellor, in which office he passed the I pomp and pride of Thomas cardinal, as far as the one’s shrine passeth the other’s tomb in glory and riches. And after that

he was a man of war, and captain over five or six thousand 2 men in full harness, as bright as St George, and his spear in ] his hand; and encountered whosoever came against him, and overthrew the jolliest rutter that was in all the host of — France. And out of the field, hot from blood-shedding, was 1 he made bishop of Canterbury, and did put off his helmet, ] and put on his mitre; put off his harness, and on with his 1 robes; and laid down his spear, and took his cross, ere his hands were cold; and so came, with a lusty courage of a man of war, to fight another while against his prince 1 for the pope; where his prince’s causes were with the: law of God, and the pope’s clean contrary. And the pomp i

[1 Thomas Becket.] = Ἢ [2 Thomas Wolsey, the cardinal.] [3 Versed in.] d 3 [4 Made him submit to the clerical tonsure.] χ [^ From the old French ruitre; which was however imitated from]

[the German reiter, a rider, especially a horse-soldier or knight.] [9 Post reditum regis Anglis, comitibus omnibus recusantibus, solus.]

[cancellarius [Becket] cum sua familia in Gallia remansit. Et postea tria I]

[castra munitissima, et quae inexpugnabilia videbantur, ipsemet loriea ᾿]

[indutus et galea cum suis in manu forti cepit. Ipsemet, clericus eum E]

[esset, cum valente milite Francorum, Engelramno de Tria, e regione 3]

[subditis equo calcaribus veniente armato, lancea demissa et equo ad- i]

[misso congressus, ipsum equo dejecit, et dextrarium lucrifecit. —Interim]

[diem suum postremum clausit archiepiscopus Theobaldus. Statuit ergo]

[rex Anglorum cancellarium suum in archiepiscopatum promovere,]

of his consecration was after his old worldly fashion. Howbeit yet he is made a saint for his worshipping of the holy seat of St Peter; not that seat of Peter which is Christ’s gospel, but another, lied to be Peter’s, and is indeed cathedra pestilentie, a chair of false doctrine. And because he could no skill of our Lord’s gospel, he said of matins with our lady. If any man understand the Latin, let him read his life, and compare it unto the scripture; and then he shall see such holiness as were here too long to be rehearsed”. And every abbey, and every cathedral church, did shrine them one god or other, and mingled the lives of the very saints with stark lies, to move men to offer: which thing they call devotion.

And though in all their doings they oppress the temporalty and their commonwealth, and be grievous unto the rich, and painful to the poor; yet they be so many, and so exercised in wiles, and so subtle, and so knit and sworn together, that they compass the temporalty, and make them bear them, whether they will or will not (as the oak doth the ivy), partly with juggling, and beside that with worldly policy. For every abbot wil make him that may do most in the shire, or with the king, the steward of his lands, and give him a fee yearly; and will lend unto some, and feast other, that by such means they do what they will. And little master parson, after the same manner, if he come into an house, and the wife be snout-fair, he will root himself there by one craft or other; either by using such pastime as the good man doth, or in being beneficial by one way or other, or he will lend. him, and so bring him into his danger? that he cannot thrust him out when he would, but must be compelled to bear him, and to let him be homely?, whether he will or no.

[intuitu meritorum persone; confidens quod sibi ad placitum et nutum]

[ut cancellarius fecerat, archiepiscopus obsequeretur.—Sparkes, Hist.]

[Angl. Scriptores varii e Cod. MSS. ed. Lond. 1723.] (7 In Day, our lady. Such as understand the Latin, read &c. But]

[in the Marburg edition, and because he coude no skylle of our Lorde’s]

[gospell, he sayde of matés with our ladye say they. If any mà under-]

[stond the Latyn, let him reade his life,’ &o.] [8 A state of dependence.] [9 Domesticated. ]]

example of practice out of our own chronicles

Take an ensample of their practice out of our own stories. Ring Harold exiled or banished Robert archbishop of Canter- ^ bury!: for what cause, the English Polychronicon specifieth /— not: but if the cause were not somewhat suspect, I think they would not have passed it over with silence. This Robert gat him immediately unto king William the conqueror, then duke of Normandy: and the pope Alexander sent duke William a banner, to go and conquer England? and clean remission unto whosoever would follow the banner, and go with king William. Here mark how straight the pope fol- 10Wed Christ’s steps and his apostles’! They preached forojyeness of sins to all that repented, through Christ’s bloodChis Shedding; the pope preacheth forgiveness of sins to all that — pop? will slay their brethren, bought with Christ’s blood, to subdue them unto his tyranny. Whatsoever other cause duke William — had against king Harold, thou mayest be sure that the pope would not have meddled, if Harold had not troubled his kingdom: neither should duke William have been able to — conquer the land at that time, except the spiritualty had wrought on his side. What blood did that conquest cost England, through which almost all the lords of the English blood were slain, and the Normans became rulers, and all the laws were changed into French! But what careth the holy father for shedding of laymen’s blood? It were better that holy church should lose one inch of her honour, or St Peter’s ien hundred thousand lay knaves lost their lives, than that seat one jot of her right.

And Anselmus, that was bishop in short time after, never left striving with that mighty prince king William the second, until he had compelled him, maugre his teeth, to deliver up

[[! Robertus, Episcopus Londoniensis, genere Normannorum, (Ead-]

[sino) successit; qui expulsus est de Anglia, et sedit annis duobus.]

[Steph. Birchington, Hist. de Archiep. Cantuar. ad ann. 1069.] [ Willelmus dux Normannorum, ne justam bellandi causam te-]

[meritas deformaret, ad papam Alexandrum nuntios destinavit, ut sus-]

[ceptum negotium auctoritate apostolica firmaretur. Unde papa, con-]

[sideratis utrinque litigantium causis, vexillum Willelmo in omen regni]

[transmisit.—Matt. Paris, Hist. Anglize.]]

investiture or election of bishops unto St Peter’s vicar, which investiture was of old time the king’s duty?,

And again, when the said king William would have had tribute, that priests gave yearly unto their bishops for their whores, paid to him; did not Ralph bishop of Chichester. forbid God’s service (as they call it), and stop up the church doors with thorns, throughout all his diocese, until the king had yielded him up his tribute again? For when the holy father had forbode priests their wives, the bishops permitted whores of their own, for a yearly tribute; and do still yet in all lands save in England, where they may not have any other save men’s wives only.

And again, for the election of Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, what misery and wretchedness was in the realm a long season! Then was the land interdicted many years: and when that holp not, then Ireland rebelled against king John immediately; and not without the secret workings of our prelates, I dare well say. But finally, when neither the interdicting neither that secret subtilty holp, and when John would in no means consent that St Peter’s vicar should reign alone over the spiritualty, and over all that pertained unto them, and that they should sin and do all mischief unpunished, the pope sent remission of sins to the king of France, for to go and conquer his land: whereof king John was so sore afraid, that he yielded up his crown to the pope, and sware to hold the land of him, and that his successors should do so likewise.

And again, in king Riehard the second’s days, Thomas Arundel, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor, was exiled with the earl of Derby. The outward pretence of the variance

[3 That is, the king’s due, or right.] [ William of Malmesbury confirms part of this statement, though]

[he does not say on what ground the money was to be paid. His words]

[are these: Religiosam contumaciam mandatis Henrici regis exhibuit,]

[volentis per totam Angliam a presbyteris peeuniam exigere. Id aliis]

[vel eoncedentibus, vel metu silentium tenentibus, in solo Radulfo rigor]

[pontifiealis emolliri nequivit, per totam siquidem dicecesin divina]

[vacare officia, januas ecclesiarum spinis obstrui przecepit, monachorum]

[cantum non inhibens, sed tamen laicis aditum arcens. He adds that]

[the king gave way.—De Gest. Pontif. Angl.—Rer. Anglic. Seript.]

[Lond. 1596, fol. 146 vers.] [> See n. 4, p. 339 Vol. 1.]]

between the king and his lords was for the deliverance of the — town of Brest in Britayne. But our prelates had another — secret mystery a brewing. They could not at their own lust —. slay the poor wretches which at that time were converted = unto repentance and to the true faith, to put their trust in — — Christ’s death and blood-shedding for the remission of their = sins, by the preaching of John Wicliffe. As soon as the “archbishop was out of the realm, the Irishmen began to rebel against king Richard, as before against king John; but not, hardly, without the invisible inspiration of them that rule both in the court and also in the consciences of all men. They be one kingdom, sworn together one to help another, scattered abroad in all realms. And howbeit that they strive among themselves who shall. be greatest, yet against the temporal power they be always δῦ one; though they dissemble it and feign, as though one held against the other, to know their enemy’s secrets, to betray them withal. They can inspire privily into the breasts of the — people what mischief they list, and no man shall know whence — it cometh. Their letters go secretly from one to another ics throughout all kingdoms. Saint Peter’s vicar shall have word in fifteen or sixteen days from the uttermost part of Christendom. The bishops of England at their need can write unto the bishops of Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Dutchland, France, and Spain, promising them as good a turn another time; putting them in remembrance that they be all one holy church, and that the cause of the tone is the cause of the tother!; saying, If our juggling break out, yours cannot be long hid And the other shall serve their turn, and bring the game unto their hands; and no man shall know how it cometh about. As soon as king Richard was gone to Ireland, to subdue these rebellions, the bishop came in again, and prevented the —— king, and took up his power against him, and took him prisoner, and put him down and to death most cruelly, and —. crowned the earl of Derby king. O merciful Christ! What blood hath that coronation cost England! But what care they? Their causes must be avenged. He is not worthy to — be king, that will not avenge their quarrels. For do not the kings receive their kingdom of the beast, and swear to wor- — [! This antithetical form, tone and tother, is very common in Sir Thomas More, and other writers of that age.]

4 ship him, and maintain his throne? And then, when the ear] of Derby, which was king Harry the fourth, was crowned, the prelates took his sword, and his son’s Harry the fifth after him (as all the king’s swords since), and abused them, to shed christian blood at their pleasure. And they coupled their cause unto the king’s eause (as now), and made it treason to believe in Christ as the scripture teacheth, and to resist the bishops (as now), and thrust them in the king’s prisons (as now), so that it is no new invention that they now do, but even an old practice; though they have done their busy care to hide their science, that their conveyance? should not be espied.

And in king Harry the sixth’s days, how raged they as fierce lions against good duke Humphry of Glocester, the king’s uncle, and protector of the realm in the king’s youth and childhood, because that for him they might not slay whom they would, and make what chevisance? they lusted! Would not the bishop of Winchester have fallen upon him and oppressed him openly with might and power in the city of London, had not the citizens come to his help?

“But at the last they found means to contrive a drift to bring their matters to pass, and made a parliament far from the citizens of London, where was slain the good duke, and only wealth of the realm, and the mighty shield that so long before had kept it from sorrow, which shortly after his death fell thereon by heaps. But the chronicles cannot tell wherefore he died, nor by what means. No marvel, verily: for he had need of other eyes than such as the world seeth withal, that should spy out their privy paths. Nevertheless the chronicles testify, that he was a virtuous man, a godly, and good to the commonwealth. Moreover the proctor of purgatory saith in his dialogue, Quoth I, and quoth he, and quoth your friend, how that the foresaid duke of Glocester was a noble man and a great clerk, and so wise that he could spy false miracles, and disclose them, and judge them from the true; which is an hateful science unto our spiritualty, and

[2 Sleight of hand; fraudulent management] [ Bargain.]]

[4 Tyndale calls Sir Thomas More The proctor of purgatory, in]

[allusion to his controversial treatise entitled ‘ The supplication of souls]

[which More composed in the form of an address To all good christen]

more abhorred amongst them than necromancy or witcheraft; — and a thing wherefore a man by their law, I dare well say, is ^ worthy to die, and that secretly, if it be possible. Now to be ^. good to the commonwealth, and to see false miracles, and Ἧ thirdly to withstand that France, then brought under the foot — d of the Englishmen, should not be set up again, by whose — power the pope holdeth down the emperor and reigneth in 1 his stead, be causes why he might die, though by what means L be not known. For to be good to the commonwealth is to be B hurtful to the spiritualty, seeing the one is the other’s prey, Ἢ as the lamb is the wolf’s. Secondarily, if a man be so clear- 1 eyed that he can spy false miracles, how can jugglers get their living, and be in price, where such a fellow is? Thirdly, ᾿ to keep down the kingdom of France is to pull St Peter’s vicar out of his seat. ἶ is Now if the great bawd, the whore of Babylon, were de- ^ stroyed, then would the brothel and stews of our prelates shortly perish. If Abaddon, that destroyer, king of the i grasshoppers which devour all that is green, were destroyed,: then were the kingdom of our caterpillars at an end. ^

By what craft the pope keepeth the emperor down

Mark another practice of our most holy prelates. When [Π6 empire was translated unto the Germans, though the em- — - peror was fallen down, and had kissed the pope’s feet, and was become his sworn servant, yet there was much strife, and open war oft-times, between the.popes and the emperors. And the popes have put down many good emperors by help of the bishops, which everywhere secretly persuaded the lords to forsake the emperors, and to take dispensations of the pope for their oaths.

And contrariwise, the emperors have now and then de- E

[people from their late acquaintance, kindred, spouses, companions, 1]

[playfellows, and friends—now poor prisoners, the silly souls in pur-]

[gatory.’ But the dialogue of Sir Thomas More is another work, and]

[is kept up by a repetition of Quoth I and quoth he; and in the four-:]

[teenth chapter of the first of its four books, More relates, as what he!]

[had heard from his father, the well-known tale of duke Humphry’s:]

[detecting the imposture, of a beggar who pretended to have been]

[miraculously healed of blindness at St Alban’s shrine.—Works of Sir]

[T. More, Lond. 1557, p. 134.]]

posed divers popes, at the request of the cardinals and other Ropes great prelates; by whose help only they were able to do it. pe For else verily, though all kings christened had sworn to depose one pope out of his seat, if they had not the favour of other prelates thereto, they might haply, by the secret practice of them, be put out of their own seats in the mean time. ~The pope therefore, to be sure of himself, and out of the fear and danger of the emperor, were he never so mighty, and that the emperor should not see his daily open pastimes, made friendship and amity with the Venetians on the one side of him, and let them come into certain cities of the emperor’s in Italy; and with the French king on the other Side, and let him also up into certain cities and possessions of the emperor’s, and he himself in the midst; and shut out the emperor from coming any more to Rome, and ever sent his coronation home to him. And then he made a law that no man should rebuke the pope for whatsoever he did; saying, that the pope was above all, and judge over all, and none over him; and therefore forbad in his law, Dis-inctio, xl. δὲ Papa, saying, Though the pope be proved negligent about himself, and also the soul-health of his brethren, and slack in his works, and speechless as concerning any good, and draw with him by his example innumerable. people to hell, to be punished with him with divers torments everlastingly; yet see that no mortal man presume once to rebuke his faults here: for he shall judge all men, and no man him! O antichrist! Is he not antichrist, that will not have his life tried by God’s word?

If the Venetians catch any of our holy father’s towns or possessions, whether by war, or that they have bought it, or that it be laid to mortgage unto them, or that the old pope hath given it with the marriage of some daughter unto the duke of Venice; then the holy father that succeedeth, when he seeth his season, sendeth for it again, saying, That it πεν not lawful for laymen to withhold St Peter’s patrimony.” If they allege that they bought it, and so forth, his fatherhood answereth, That the old pope had none authority to make any such chevisance with St Peter’s inheritance: he could have but the use of it his life long, and after it must needs return unto his successor again And upon that he interdict

[1 See 3 to 328 of Vol. 1.]

eth them, and eurseth them as black as coals, down to the pit of hell. 1, But the Venetians, knowing more of our holy father’s — OR practice, for their nighness, than we which dwell afar off, and E ^ wiserthan we of cold countries, perceiving also that their colour changeth not with his cursing, and that they sink not, and that their meat digesteth as well as before!, therefore fear not his interdietion nor excommunication, E Then our holy father raiseth up all the power that he is able to make in Italy against them, and sendeth for the 2 Souchenars to come and help. If he be not yet strong enough, then he sendeth unto the bishops of France, warning them that if his seat decay, theirs cannot long prosper; and therefore that they put their king in remembrance, how that he is called most Christian king, and that they desire him to do somewhat for his title against this disobedient rebellion unto the most holy see of Rome, our mother, holy church. a If another time the Frenchmen come to our holy father, 1 as they be ever gaping for Italy, to bring the empire home again to France; then that most holy vicar bringeth his whole power against them, with the power of the Venetians, and with his old friends the Souchenars?. If he be not yet Strong enough, then he sendeth to the bishops of England to help their god, and to move their king to do somewhat for holy church, putting him in remembrance of whom he holdeth his crown, and of his oath, and how many caps of maintenance have been ever sent unto his forefathers, and what honour it was unto them, and that he may easily get as great honour as they, and haply a more excellent title, if he will take our holy father’s part; besides that he shall purchase remission of all his sins. popes Then must the peace, and all the appointments made beof tween us and France, be broken, and the king must take a dispensation for his oath. For the king of France will attempt nothing in Italy, until he have sent his ambassadors,: and have made a perpetual peace with our king, the sacrament

[1 A coarse expression, which Tyndale says he borrowed from]

[Erasmus, is here omitted.]: [2 Souchenars, Marb. ed.; Zwitzers, S. S. ed.; Sochenars, Day. By:]

[each of these terms the Swiss are meant. See Vol 1. p.186.n.1] - Ξ [3 S. S. ed. has here Zwitzers, again. ]]

B of the body of our Saviour broke between them to confirm the appointment. But I suppose that the breaking signifieth that the appointment shall not long endure: for a great deal of E flour would not make so many hosts (as they call them), or Singing loaves’, as hath been broken in our days between Christian princes (as they will be called), to confirm. promises that have not been kept. Other use of that blessed sacrament will the princes none know: but Christ ordained it to be a perpetual memory that his body was broken for our sins upon the cross, and that all that repent should receive, as oft as they eat of it, forgiveness of their misdeeds through faith. If the kings of the earth, when they break that sacrament between them, do say on this wise, The body of our Saviour (which was broken on the cross for the sin of all that repent, and have good hearts, and would fain keep his law) be broke unto my damnation, if I break this oath;’ then is it a terrible oath, and they had need to take heed how they make it, and, if it be lawfully made, not to break it at all. But as they care for their oath, which they make in wedlock, so they care for this.

Whatsoever need the pope hath, he will not send to the emperor to come and help him in Italy, for fear lest he would take to himself whatsoever he conquered of the Frenchmen, and wax too strong, and minish our holy father’s power, and become our holy father’s vicar, as he is St Peter’s, Nevertheless, if we Englishmen will hire the emperor to come and fight against France, for the right of the church in these quarters that be next unto us, his fatherhood is content to admit his service.

When our king hath granted to take our holy father’s part, then the pretence and cloak outward must be, that the king will challenge his right in France. And, to aid the king in his right, must the commons be milked till they bleed again. Then, to do the king service, the lords sell, or lay their lands to mortgage. Then is clean remission given, to slay French dogs. He that dieth in the quarrel shall never see purgatory, clean but fly to heaven straight, even with a thought.

[[ Loaves; though spelt in the oldest editions loves. The thin]

[loaves, or wafers of meal, intended to be used at mass were called]

[singing loaves, because a psalm was to be sung whilst they were in]

[making].]

When the pope hath what he desireth in Italy, then must we make peace with the Frenchmen again immediately, that France be not altogether trodden under the foot; but that it remain alway in a mean state, strong enough to match the —. emperor and to keep him down, but not too mighty for oppressing the pope. And then our prelates, to bring th peace about, send immediately a friar Forest, or a vicar of Fo- Croydon, to preach before the king and his lords; which 3 Croy- preacher roareth and crieth unto them, as though he hallooed his hounds, aud maketh exclamations, saying: Alas! what will 1 prac ye do? Spare Christian blood. Will ye slay your own souls? Be not the Frenchmen as well Christians as ye? Moreover, ye slay poor innocents that never offended. Make peace for the passion of Christ. Kill not one another, as though Christ had not died for you; but fight rather against the Turks.’ Then come in the ambassadors of France, and money! a few prelates, and certain other the king’s play-fellows, that be A sworn with them to betray both the king and the realm too; &nd then is peace concluded. But outwardly there is nothing save a truce taken for half an year, till our soldiers be at home again, for fear lest they would not be content. Then cometh the whole host home beggared, both great and small; and the poor, that cannot suddenly get work, fall to stealing, and be hanged at home. This could More tell in his Utopia, before he was the cardinal’s sworn secretary, and fallen at his feet to betray the truth for to get promotion?, Take an example: the bishops sent king Henry the fifth out to conquer France. The cause was, saith the chronicles, that the king went about to take their temporalities from them;.

[[! Money, i. e. bribe.] 4 [? In the introductory dialogue to his Utopia, More represents a hg]

[foreign voyager as describing a conversation at Cardinal Moreton’s table, g]

[and saying: Laicus quidam.dicebat se mirari, cum tam pauci elaberen- =

[tur supplicio, quo malo fato fieret uti tam multi tamen ubique grass-]

[rentur. Tum ego, Nihil mireris, inquam: nam hzc punitio furum et]

[supra justum est, et non ex usu publico. Est enim ad vindicanda ]]

[furta nimis atrox, nec tamen ad refreenanda sufficiens. Sepe vel ab]

[externis bellis vel civilibus mutili redeunt domum, ut nuper apud vos a 1]

[Cornubiensi przlio, et non ita pridem a Gallico, qui vel reipublieze im-]

[pendunt membra vel regi, quos neque pristinas artes exercere debilitas 1]

[patitur, neque zetas novam discere. Utopia. Lib. 1.]]

THE POPE’S POLICY. 303 and therefore, to bring the king into another imagination, they monied him, and sent him into France?

When they had sent out the king, he conquered more than was their will, and more than they supposed possible for him in so short space, and brought France clean under the foot; so that our prelates had much secret business to set it up again. But what is impossible unto so great gods?

In king Henry’s the sixth days, our holy father of Rome made the bishop of Winchester a cardinal; which went shortly after into France, to treat of a truce between England and France. And him met a legate of Rome, and cardinal also: after which meeting Englishmen had ever the worse in France, and their chiefest friend, the duke of Burgaine!, forsook them? For when cardinals and bishops meet together, they have their secret council by themselves, wherein they conclude neither what is good for England, nor yet for France, but what is best for our holy father’s profit, to keep him in his state.

When king Henry was of age, there was a marriage between him and the earl of Armainacke’s daughter, in Gyan’; with the which should have been given many castles and towns in Gyan, and a great sum of money thereto. But that marriage was broken, not without the secret working of our prelates, and dispensation of our holy father, thou

[3 “This year [1513] the king [Henry V.] held his parliament at]

[Leicester, where among other things the foresaid bill put up by the]

[commons of the land, for the temporalities being in the church, was]

[again minded; in fear whereof, lest the king should thereunto give any]

[comfortable audience, as testify some writers, certain bishops and other]

[head men of the church put the king in mind to claim his right in]

[France, and for the exploit thereof they offered unto him great and]

[notable sums. By reason whereof the said bill was again put by, and]

[the king set his mind to the recovery of the same.’—Extract from a]

[eopy of Fabian’s chronicle in the library of St John’s College, Cam-]

[bridge; having on its fly-leaf the following note in the hand-writing]

[of Baker the antiquarian. “This is the first and uncastrated edition]

[of Fabian, said to be burned by order of cardinal Wolsey.— Bal. cent.]

[vin. 62.”] [4 Burgundy.] [6 This had been the subject of Art. xiv. in a list of 21 charges]

[against cardinal Beaufort, bishop of Winchester, presented to Henry VI.]

[by Humphry duke of Glocester, as printed in Foxe’s Acts and Mon.]

[3 B. v1.] [6 Armagnac.]’ [ Guienne.]]

mayest be sure; and a marriage was made between hi and the king’s daughter of Sicily, for which England

v. 1. gave up the whole dukedom of Gyan and earldom of Maine: whereby we lost all Normandy, whereof they were the key!; and beside that, the commons gave a fifteen and an half?, to fetch? her in with pomp. And then was the good duke of (3locester traitorously murdered; partly because he could judge false miracles, and partly because of the deliverance of these two countries: for, he being alive, they durst not do it.

And when king Edward had put down king Harry, a marriage was made and concluded between him and the king of Spain, this queen’s mother that now is. But ere the ambassadors were come home, our prelates had bewitched king Edward by their apostle, friar Bungay 5, and married him unto

[[! Tyndale seems to have thought that, as Armagnac was an im- Ed]

[portant part of the dutchy of Guienne, the castles &c. given with the 2]

[count’s daughter would have enabled the king of England to secure]

[possession of the whole. It is well known that there was great popular]

[indignation at the setting aside of this mate for one with Margaret]

[daughter of Regnier, a French prince who bore the titles of duke í]

[of Anjou, and king of Sicily, Naples and Jerusalem, without possess- 3]

[ing any corresponding territories. ] (2 A fifteenth was originally a tax to the amount of that portion of]

[the estimated value of every householder’s property in moveables. But]

[in the sixth year of Edward III. it was commuted on terms which fixed]

[its amount at no morethan £37,930 for all England.—Hollingshed. t]

[Vol. r.p. 230. and Blackstone’s Comment. pp. 308—9.] [3 Fol. and S. S. ed. fette.] [4 The princess here meant must have been Isabella, Queen of]

[Castile, who afterwards married Ferdinand of Aragon, and became b]

[mother to Catharine, the first wife of Henry VIII. Sir Thomas More]

[says, that after king Edward was in peaceable possession of the realm,]

[he sent over in embassiate the earl of Warwick to entreat and conclude i]

[a marriage between king Edward and the king’s daughter of Spain. dE]

[In which thing the earl of Warwick found the parties so toward, that T]

[he speedily brought the matter to a very good conclusion. Hist. Rich. ἢ]

[III. Works, Lond. 1557. p. 58. Tyndale seems to have used the word T]

[king here as rex has been used, to distinguish a queen regnant from a!]

[queen consort. The cry of the Hungarian magnates, Vivat rex noster, [3]

[Maria Theresa,’ has been admitted into history.] [5 In the first edition of Fabian’s Chronicle, after relating the events]

[of the battle of Barnet, in 1471, he says: Of the mists and other im-]

[pediments which fell upon the lord’s party, by reason of the incanta- a]

[tions by friar Bungay, as the fame went, we list not to write.” fol. cexxiii.] ἢ]

a widow that was a knight’s wife; lest, if Spain and England had been joined together, king Edward should have recovered. France again. But what followed after the breaking off the marriage between king Edward and the earl of Warwick? And what came of his children? Yea, and what came on king Henry of Windsor’s children also? But what care our prelates, what vengeance or mischief fall on princes, or on their realms, so their kingdom prosper?

In king Henry the seventh’s days the cardinal Morton and bishop Fox of Winchester delivered unto the king’s grace the confessions of as many lords as his grace lusted. Whosoever was mistrusted, if he shrove himself at the Charter-houses, Sion, Greenwich, at St John’s, or wheresoever it was, the confessor was commanded by the authority of the pope to deliver his confession written, and sworn that it was all. And cardinal Morton had a licence of the pope for fourteen to study necromancy, of which he himself was one; and other I have heard named, which at this time I pass over with silence, And how the holy friars observants carried feigned letters, to try who was true, I pass over with silence also. Howbeit, such temptations and feigned proffers were enough to move them that never would have thought amiss: yea, and in confession men will shrive themselves of thoughts, which they never went about in the outward deed.

When any great man is put to death, how his confessor entreateth him, and what penance is enjoined him, concerning what he shall say when he cometh unto the place of execution, I could guess at a practice that might make men’s ears glow.

And did not the subtle counsel of the said two prelates feign the siege of Boulogne, to make a pretence to gather in a fifteen, when there was no more war between the king of France and of England than is between a man’s head, that hath lust to sleep, and his pillow? which siege yet cost many a man their lives, yea, and some great men thereto, [6 Grafton’s Chronicle tells how Henry VIL gathered treasure by this threat of war, but ascribes the preparations to an object in which our king was deceived by Maximilian. His account, however, is in unison with Tyndale as to the desire of the French king Charles VIIL to remain at peace with England.] 20

TYNDALE, 11

ccu 306 THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES. ” which knew not of that feigning!. The king’s grace went over with a ten thousand men to conquer all France, and — - spent haply an hundred thousand pound, of which he saved — — the fourth part in the dandyprats?, and gathered at home five or six hundred, or more. And two other such feigned — - voyages could I haply rehearse, which I pass over for divers — causes, where many an Englishman lost his life. But what m” care they for men’s lives? - And did not our cardinal with like policy, think ye, (to gather that which he thought would not well be paid, except —. the commons saw some cause,) bring a great multitude of Scots a unto the English pale, either by some bishops of Scotland, or by some great man whom he corrupted with some yearly pension?——-against which the poor northern men must go on their own eost, to keep them out. And general procession was commanded at London thrice in the week, and throughout all the land, while the king’s receivers gathered the tax of the Ἶ common people. Which plague, and such like, after the threatening of God, Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii. and xxix., I am 1 sure will fall on all Christendom without cease, until they either defy the name of Christ with the Turks; or, if they wil be called Christians, they turn and look on his doc- trine. Yea, and what feigned the cardinal at that great loan, to beguile his own priests, to make them swear what they were worth, and the better willing to pay! for the common priests every rascal should know the secrets of the very true cause, be not so obedient unto their ordinaries that they will pay money, except they know why. Now it is not expedient that for many considerations; and therefore another pretence of must be made, and another cause alleged: and therefore ~~ the priests were charged by their ordinaries to appear before the gentlemen of the country, and temporal officers, and swear what every man was worth. Now the priests had lever — - be slain, and die martyrs, after the ensample of St Thomas of

[[! Grafton says, There was few or none killed, saving only one sir I]

[John Savage, knt.,’ and ascribes his death to his folly and pride.] [ The word is spelt dandeprats in Bailey’s Dictionary, where]

[the meaning given is a dwarf, or a small coin issued by Henry VIL] [3 That is, every unimportant personage.] ah z [ So Marb. ed. and Day; but in S. and 8. it is of the court.] I]

aE Tw OC HENRY VI, EDWARD IV., HENRY VII. 307 Canterbury, than to swear before a lay judge; for they think τὸ greater sin than to slay their own fathers, and that then the liberties of the church were clean lost, and they no better than the vile lay people. And when they were in that perplexity, that they must either swear, or run into the king’s danger, and lose their gods (I would say their goods); then my lord cardinal sent down his gracious power, that they should swear unto their ordinaries only. And then the priests, for joy that they were rid out of the laymen’s hands, were so glad and joyous, that they wist not what thanks to give my lord eardinal, and so were obedient to swear, and to lend; or else for all the curses that my lord cardinal hath, and the pope too, they would neither have sworn, or paid a penny.

The practice of our time

When the king’s grace came first to the right of the crown, and unto the governance of the realm, young and unexpert, Thomas Wolfsee, a man of lust and courage and bodily strength, to do and to suffer great things, and to endure in all manner of voluptuousness; expert and exercised in the course of the world, as he which had heard, read, and seen much policy, and had done many things himself, and had been of the secret counsel of weighty matters, as subtle as Sinon that betrayed Troy; utterly appointed to semble and dissemble, to have one thing in the heart and another in the mouth, being thereto as eloquent as subtle, and able to persuade what he lusted to them that were unexpert; so desirous and greedy of honour, that he cared not but for the next and most compendious way thereto, whether godly or ungodly; this wily wolf, I say, and raging sea, and shipwreck of all England, though he shewed himself pleasant and calm at the first (as whores do unto their lovers), came unto the king’s grace, and waited upon him, and was no man so obsequious and serviceable, and in all games and sports the first and next at hand; and as a captain to courage other, and a gay finder out of new pastimes, to obtain favour withal.

[ot [5 Because the canon law says, Clericum cujuslibet ordinis absque]

[pontificis sui permissu nullus przesumat ad secularem judicem attrahere,]

[nee laico quemlibet elerieum liceat accusare.— Corp. Jur. Can. Deer.]

[239 pars, 11. qu. 1. can. 3.] [6 His attached dependent and biographer George Cavendish has 20—2]

And thereto, as the secret communication went, which by — many tokens thou mayest well conjecture and gather to be —. true, he calked! the king’s nativity and birth, (which isa, Common practice among prelates in all lands;) whereby he saw ἢ i whereunto the king’s grace should be inclined all his life, and — what should be like to chance him at all times. And, as I heard it spoken of divers, he made by craft of —. necromancy graven imagery to bear upon him; wherewith he — — bewitehed the king’s mind, and made the king to dote upon Y him more than ever he did on any lady or gentlewoman; so — that now the king’s grace followed him, as he before followed the king. And then, what he said, that was wisdom; what: in:. he praised, that was honourable only. Moreover, in the meantime he spied out the natures and dispositions of the king’s play-fellows, and of all that were great; and whom he spied meet for his purpose, him he flattered, and him he made faithful with great promises, and to him he sware, and of him E: he took an oath again, that the one should help the other: for without a secret oath he admitted no man unto any part ξ of his privities. f 5 And ever as he grew in promotions and dignity, so. E gathered he unto him of the most subtle-witted, and of them 1 that were drunk in the desire of honour, most like unto him- i self: and after they were sworn, he promoted them, and with g great promises made them in falsehood faithful, and of them Ej ever presented unto the king’s grace, and put them into his service, saying, This is a man meet for your grace And by these spies, if aught were done or spoken in the court against the cardinal, of that he had word within an hour or two; ascribed Wolsey’s influence to the same sinful course. Speaking of; Wolsey when he was but dean of Lincoln, and the king’s almoner, i he says: He was most earnest and readiest among all the council to i

[advance the king’s only will and pleasure, without any respect to 3]

[the case. The king was young and lusty, disposed all to mirth and]

[pleasure, and to follow his desire and appetite, nothing minding to]

[travail in the busy affairs of this realm. The which the almoner]

[perceiving very well, took upon him therefore to disburden the king i]

[of so weighty a charge and troublesome business, putting the king in]

[comfort that he should not need to spare any time of his pleasure for]

[any business that should necessarily happen in the council.” Caven- 1]

[dish’s Life of Wolsey, 1825. Vol. 1. p. 18.] d [1 Calked: calculated.] 4]

and then came the cardinal to court with all his magic, to persuade the contrary. If any in the court had spoken against the cardinal, and the same not great in the king’s favour, the cardinal bade him walk a villain?, and thrust him out of the court headlong. If he were in conceit with the king’s grace, then he flattered, and persuaded, and corrupted some with gifts, and sent some ambassadors, and some he made eaptains at Calais, Hames, Guines, Jersey, and Guernsey, or sent them to Ireland, and into the north; and so occupied them, till the king had forgot them, and other were in their rooms, or till he had sped what he intended. I And in like manner played he with the ladies and gentlewomen. Whosoever of them was great, with her was he familiar, and to her gave he gifts: yea, and where St Thomas of Canterbury was wont to come after, Thomas cardinal went oft before, preventing his prince, and perverted the order of that holy man. If any were subtle-witted, and meet for his purpose, her made he sworn to betray the queen likewise, and tell him what she said or did. I know one that departed the court for no other cause, than that she would no longer betray her mistress.

And, after the same example, he furnished the court with chaplains of his own sworn disciples, and children of his own « bringing up, to be alway present, and to dispute of vanities, and to water whatsoever the cardinal had planted. If among those cormorants any yet began to be too much in favour with the king, and to be somewhat busy in the court, and to draw any other way than as my lord cardinal had appointed that the plough should go, anon he was sent to Italy or to Spain; or some quarrel was picked against him, and so was thrust out of the court, as Stokesly was.

He promoted the bishop of Lincoln that now is?, his most faithful friend and old companion, and made him confessor: to whom of whatsoever the king’s grace shrove himself, think ye not that he spake so loud that the cardinal heard it? And not unright; for as God’s creatures ought to obey God and

[2 The expression seems to have been equivalent to Begone, vile]

[man. We find in like manner, Walk, faytour;’ for,‘ Begone, impostor.”]]

[8 John Longland, principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford, was mado]

[bishop of Lincoln in 1521, and so continued till 1547. He was a fierco]

[persecutor of the protestants.]]

serve his honour, so ought the pope’s creatures to obey the — — pope and serve his majesty. Finally, Thomas Wolfsee became what he would, even porter of heaven, so that no man could enter into promotion but through him. o The cause of all that we have suffered these twenty years. About the beginning of the king’s grace that now is, France was mighty, so that I suppose that it was not mightier this five hundred years. King Lewis! of France had won Naples, and had taken Bononia from St Peter’s see. Wherefore pope July? was wroth, and cast how to bring the TY Frenchmen down, yet soberly, lest, while he brought him lower, he should give an occasion to lift up the emperor 3 higher. Our first voyage into Spain was to bring the Frenchmen lower: for our meyny? were set in the fore-front and borders of Spain, toward Gascoyne, partly to keep those ᾿ parties, and partly to fear the Gascoynes and to keep them at home, while in the meantime the Spaniards won Naverne. When Naverne was won, our men came to house, as many as — — died not there; and brought all their money home again, save that they spent there. Howbeit, for all the loss of Naverne, the Frenchmen were yet able enough to match Spain, the — Venetians, and the pope, and all the Souchenars that he. could make; so that there was yet no remedy but we must set on the Frenchmen also, if they should be brought out of Italy. Ε Then pope July wrote unto his dear son Thomas Ἷ Wolfsee, that he would be as good, as loving, and as helping ἢ [! Louis XII.]

[2 Julius II. pope from 1503 to 1513.] 3

[3 Meyny: many, a mixed multitude.] H [ Naverne is Navarre. In March 1511, Henry sent 1000 archers to 3 the aid of Ferdinand, as if to help him in combating the Moors; but 2 they were employed as Tyndale states. In the following November a Henry avowed a league with Ferdinand, and sent him a farther rein- 4j forcement. Their proposed object was to aid pope Julius to recover d Bologna ὅσο. by obliging Louis to draw off his forces from Italy; but the result was the conquest of Navarre by the Spanish monarch.— 1 Sh. Turners Hen. VIII B. 1. ch. v. and Rymer’s Feedera, Vol. xur.

2. the S. and S. edition they are called Zwitzers, as in the τ

[previous mention of the same people.] 3]

H to holy church as any Thomas ever was, seeing he was as able. Then the new Thomas, as glorious as the old, took the matter in hand and persuaded the king’s grace. And then the king’s grace took a dispensation for his oath, made upon the appointment of peace between him and the French king,

and promised to help the holy seat, wherein pope Peter never sat. But the emperor Maximilian might in no wise stand still, lest the Frenchmen should money him, and get aid of him, seeing the Almains refuse not money whencesoever it be proffered: then quoth Thomas Wolfsee, Oh, and like your grace, what an honour should it be unto your grace if the emperor were your soldier! So great honour never chanced any king christened; it should be spoken of while the world stood; the glory and honour shall hide and darken the cost, that it shall never be seen, though it shall cost half your realm! Dixit et factum est’. It was even so. And then a parliament, and then pay: and then upon the French dogs, with clean remission of all his sins that slew one of them; or if he be slain, (for the pardons have no strength to save in this life, but in the life to come only,) then to heaven straight without feeling of the pains of purgatory?

Then came our king with all his might, by sea and by land, and the emperor with a strong army, and the Spaniards, and the pope, and the Venetians, all at once against king Lewis of France. As soon as the pope had that he desired in Italy, then peace immediately: and Frenchmen were christian men; and pity, yea, and great sin also, were it to shed their blood; and the French king was The most christian king [9 So M. and S. S. ed. but Day since. ]

[7 Old editions, quod.]

[8 He spake and it was done. “The emperor Maximilian condescended to become one of Henry’s soldiers for a hundred crowns a day.”—Sharon Turner, B. 1. ch. v.]

[9 In the Articuli bull concesse regi et proficiscentibus cum eo ad bellum eontra Ludovicum Francorum regem,” 1512, the second clause is as follows: Item qui in castris aut locis dictorum exercituum aliquod opus ad expeditionem hujusmodi necessarium vel opportunum fecerint, aut victualia vel alia necessaria pro opere expeditionis hujusmodi commorantium per se vel alium detulerint, simili modo plenissimam remissionem consequantur:—where the words simili modo must be understood to imply the same thing as was expressed in the words omnium peccatorum suorum de quibus corde contriti et ore confessi fuerint,” in the first clause.—See Rymer, Vol. xiu. p 343]

again. And thus was peace concluded, and our Englishmen, OF rather sheep, came home against winter, and left their — — ο fleeces behind them. Wherefore no small number of them, —. while they, sought them better raiment at home, were hanged — for their labour. #

Why the king’s sister was turned unto France

When this peace was made, our holy cardinals and bishops — (as their old guise is to calk and cast forty, fifty, yea, an hundred years before, what is like to chance unto their kingdom) considered how the emperor that now is! was most like to be chosen emperor after his grandfather Maximilian; for Maximilian had already obtained of divers of the electors that it should so be.

They considered also how mighty he should be: first — king of Spain, with all that pertaineth thereto, which was wont to be five, six, or seven kingdoms; then duke of Bur-gaine, earl of Flanders, of Holland, Zealand, and Brabande, with all that pertain thereto; then emperor; and his brother duke of Austria; and his sister queen of Hungary. Where-. fore, thought our prelates, if we take not heed betimes, our kingdom is like to be troubled, and we to be brought under the feet. For this man shall be so mighty, that he shall with power take out of the French king’s hands, out of the hands of the Venetians, and from the pope also, whatsoever pertaineth unto the empire, and whatsoever belongeth unto his other kingdoms and dominions thereto; and then will he come to Rome and be crowned there; and so shall he overlook our holy father and see what he doth: and then shall the old heretics rise up again, and say that the pope is antichrist, and stir up again, and bring to light, that we have hid and brought asleep with much cost, pain, and blood-shedding, more than this hundred years long. [They] considered also that his aunt is queen of England, and his wife the king of England’s sister?; considered the old amity between the house of Burgaine and the old kings of England, so that they could never do aught

[[^ Charles V.] (? Henry’s sister Mary had been affianced, and actually married by]

[proxy, Dec. 17, 1508, to Charles, prince of Spain, the boy who was to]

[inherit so many kingdoms. The documents are in Rymer, Tom. xiu. ἢ]

[pp. 171— 215, 219—31, 236—9.] []

in France without their help; and last of all considered the eourse of merchandise that England hath in those parts, and also the natural hate that Englishmen bear to Frenchmen. Wherefore, if we shall use our old practice, and set the French king against him, then he shall lightly obtain the favour of the king of England, by the means of his aunt and his wife, and aid with men and money: wherefore we must take heed betimes, and break this amity; which thing we may by this our old craft easily bring to pass. Let us take a dispensation, and break this marriage, and turn the king’s sister unto the French king: if the French king get a male of her, then we shall lightly make our king protector of France, and so shall England and France be coupled together; and as for the queen of England, we shall trim her well enough, and occupy the king with strange love, and keep her that she shall bear no rule. And as the gods had spoken, so it came to pass. Our fair young daughter was sent to the old pocky king of France?, the year before our mortal enemy, and a miscreant worse than a Turk, and disobedient unto our holy father, and no more obedient than he was compelled to be against his will.

The cause of the journey to Calais

In short space thereafter Thomas Wolfsee, now cardinal, and legate a latere, and greatly desirous to be pope also, thought it exceeding expedient, for his many secret purposes, to bring our king and the king of France that now is together, both to make a perpetual peace and amity between them, and that, while the two kings and their lords dallied together, the great cardinals and bishops of both parties might betray them both, and the emperor and all christian kings thereto.

Then he made a journey of gentlemen, arrayed altogether in silk, so much as their very shoes and lining of their boots, more like their mothers than men of war; yea, I am sure that many of their mothers would have been ashamed of so nice and wanton array 5. Howbeit they went not to make war, but

[[? Louis XII. married the princess Mary Oct. 9, 1514, being then]

[very nearly three times her age.] [4 S. and S. ed. has yet.] [5 Francis I. succeeded Louis XII. in 1515.] [6 The kings of France and England met near Ardres, in the second]

314 THE PRACTICE OF PRELATES, εἰ Peace, for ever and a day longer. But to speak of the pom- nous apparel of my lord himself, and of his chaplains, it pass- ἢ ^^ eth the twelve apostles. I dare swear that if Peter and Paul d had seen them suddenly, and at a blush, they would have been harder of belief that they or any such should be their successors, than Thomas Didymus was to believe that Chris was risen again from death.

When all was concluded between the king of France and 1 ours, that Thomas Wolfsee had devised, and when the prelates of both parties had cast their penny-worths against all chances, and devised remedies for all mischiefs; then the right reverend E] father in God, Thomas, cardinal and legate, would go see the young emperor newly chosen to the room, and have a certain 1 Secret communication with some of his prelates also; and gat ” him to Bruges, in Flanders, where he was received with great solemnity, as belongeth unto so mighty a pillar of Christ’s 1 church, and was saluted at the entering into the town of a Merry fellow, which said, Salve rex regis tui atque regni 1 φᾷ; “Hail both king of thy king, and also of his realm.” E

[And though there were never so great strife between the]

[emperor and the French king, yet my lord cardinal juggled 2]

[him favour of them both; and finally brought the emperor to]

[Carina — Calais to the king’s grace, where was great triumph, and 1]

[Wolsey was..]

[asubie ^ great love and amity shewed on both parties!; insomuch that]

[a certain man marvelling at it asked the old bishop of Dur- 1]

[week of June, 1520. From the excessive pomp then displayed the 1]

[place of meeting received the name of the field of the cloth of gold.’] E! [! Tyndale has here mingled statements which belong to two dif-]

[ferent interviews between Wolsey and Charles V. “The emperor had Wu]

[come to Dover on the 25th of May, 1520, (where Wolsey had met him,) E.]

[and had remained with Henry, about to repair to Ardres, till the 31st. 3]

[On the 10th of July, Henry and the cardinal again met the emperor E]

[at Gravelines, from whence Charles returned with the English court 1]

[to Calais. But it was on July 20th of 1521 that Wolsey, who had gone 3]

[to Calais to act the impartial umpire between the French and imperial i]

[agents commissioned to meet him there, presently proceeded to Bru- εἰ]

[ges, attended by English lords, knights and others, to the number of M]

[460 horse, and was met by the emperor in person, a mile out of the -]

[town, who did him high honour and reverence.” Grafton’s Chron. ”]

[p. 1048. Sharon Turner says, The original letters from Henry, from 1]

[Charles, and the cardinal, preserved in the British Museum, shew the Ὁ]

[knavery of this pretended mediation. Hist. Hen. VIII B. 1. ch. x. ῇ]

[2ud ed. Vol. 1. p. 271.] E.]

ham?, how it might be that we were so great with the emperor, so shortly upon so strong and everlasting a peace made between us and the Frenchmen, the emperor and the king of France being so mortal enemies? My lord answered, That it might be well enough, if he wist all: but there was a certain secret (said he) whereof all men knew not? Yea, verily, they have had secrets this eight hundred years; which though all the laymen have felt them, yet few have spied them, save a few Judases, which for lucre have been confederate with them, to betray their own kings and all other.

Then were we indifferent and stood still; and the emperor and the French king wrestled together; and Ferdinandus, the emperor’s brother, won Milan of the Frenchmen, and the emperor Tournay, our great conquest; which yet, after so great eost in building a castle, we delivered up again to the Frenehmen, in earnest and hope of a marriage between the Dolphine and our princess.

How the emperor came through England

After that the emperor would into Spain, and came through England; where he was received in great honour, and with all that pertaineth to love and amity. The king’s grace lent him money, and promised him more; and the emperor should tarry a certain years, and marry our princess: not that the cardinal intended that, thou mayest be sure; for it was not profitable for their kingdom; but his mind was to dally with the emperor, and to keep him without a wife, that (insomuch as he was young and lusty) he might have been noselled and [2 Thomas Ruthal, lord privy seal, was made bishop of Durham in 1509, and was near the close of his life when these interviews took di had secretly pledged his sovereign to invade France, with

[permission to pretend to be the faithful ally of its king for eighteen]

[months more. But there was another secret article, by which the em-]

[Ξ peror and he pledged themselves to coerce and prosecute all and every]

[one in their dominions, who should seem to entertain wrong opinions]

[concerning the catholic faith, or endeavour to disturb the catholic faith]

[or the apostolic see. The articles of this convention are dated Bruges,]

[3 Aug. 25, 1521, and are quoted by Sharon Turner, B. 1. ch. x., from the]

[document in the Brit. Mus, Galba, B. 7. p. 104.] [ Before the end of November, 1521.]]

of entangled with whores (which is their nurturing of kings), and —— made so effeminate and beastly, that he should never have been able to lift up his heart to any goodness or virtue; that cardinals and bishops might have administered his dominions in the mean time, unto our holy father’s profit’. Hs The king of France, hearing the favour that was shewed — unto the emperor, sent immediately a defiance unto our king?

4. δ not without our cardinals’ and bishops’ counsel, thou mayest well wit: for Frenchmen are not so foolish to have done it so unadvisedly and so rashly, seeing they had too many in their tops already. Then our king spake many great words, that he would drive the French king out of his realm, or else the French king should drive him out of his. But had he added, as the legate Pandulph taught king John, with the popes licence,” his words had sounded much better: for there can no vow stand in effect, except the holy father confirmed it. We sent out our soldiers two summers against the Frenchmen, unto whose chief captains the cardinal had appointed how far they should go, and what they should do; and therefore — the French king was nothing afraid, but brought all his power against the emperor in other places: and so was the emperor ever betrayed. And thus the cardinal was the emperor’s friend openly, and the French king’s secretly. For at the friend meeting with the French king beside Calais, he utterly betrayed the emperor, yet for no love that he had to France, but to

[ Charles V. landed at Dover May 26, 1522, being met there by eardinal Wolsey, who was attended by a splendid train at the king’s especial command. Rymer, p. 767. On the 6th of June the emperor signed a document, preserved in Rymer, p. 769, obliging himself to pay Wolsey a pension of 7000 crowns of gold for his natural life, as an indemnity for what he was likely to lose by a breach with Francis. And on the third of July he signed another obligation pledging himself to secure to Wolsey an annual pension of 2500 ducats from the revenues of a Spanish bishoprick; which obligation is also amongst the documents printed in Rymer, Tom. xr. p. 770.]

[2 The contemporary chronicler, Grafton, says, that on the 21st of May Clarencieux king at arms, the English herald, came to the French.

[king’s chamber at Lyons; and said to him, Sir, I am charged to tell 1]

[you that the king, my sovereign lord, holdeth you for his mortal enemy]

[from this day forth; and that Francis replied, ‘Ilooked for this a i]

[great while agone: for sith the cardinal was at Bruges, I looked for]

[none other.’— Grafton’s Chron. Lond. 1569, p. 105.] 4]

ud EU Ca ecl LL EUM ro CHARLES V. AND FRANCIS I, 317 the pope; yea, and to have been pope haply, and to save their kingdom: which treason though all the world smelled it, yet it brake not out openly to the eye till the siege of Pavie. And the cardinal lent the emperor much money openly; and gave the French king more secretly’. He played with both hands to serve their secret that all men know not, as the bishop of Durham said. But whatsoever the Frenchmen did, they had ever the worse, notwithstanding the secret working of our holy prelates on their side.

Finally, unto the siege of Pavie came the French king personally with sixty thousand men of war, of which twelve thousand were horsemen, and with money enough. And the emperor’s host was under twenty thousand, of which were but three thousand horsemen, with no money at all: for he trusted unto the pope for aid of men, and unto our cardinal for money. But the pope kept back his men, till that the Frenchmen had given them a field; and our cardinal kept back his money for the same purpose. And thus was the silly emperor betrayed, as all his predecessors have been this eight hundred years. Howbeit there be that say, that the emperor’s soldiers so threatened Pace, the king’s grace’s ambassador, that he was fain to make chevisance with merchants for money, in the king’s name, to pay the soldiers withal, Wherefore the cardinal took from him all his promotions, and played tormentors with him, when he came home; because he presumed to do one jot more than was in his commission

[3 In January, 1525, the emperor’s ambassador in London brought]

[Wolsey to confess, that an agent of the French queen regent had been]

[eight months in London, and in communication with him.—Fiddes’s]

[Life of Wolsey, pp. 331—6.] [4 The chronicler Grafton makes the French king’s army contain]

[only half as many horse as Tyndale has stated; but the accuracy of]

[Tyndale’s information respecting the emperor’s forces appears remark-]

[able, when tested by the account transmitted to Henry from an English]

[agent in Italy.—See Sharon Turner, pp. 394—5.] [5In a letter now in the British Museum, Galba B. 8. 51, the]

[English ambassador says to Wolsey, writing ten days before the battle,]

[As for the king’s money, your grace knoweth my commission is ater]

[battle stricken.” [6 Wolsey afterwards persecuted Pace till he became a beggar and]

[a lunatic. S. Turner, B. 1. c. xr. Vol. 1. p. 355. But Mr. Turner]

[attributes this persecution to a bold remonstrance against Wolsey’s]

[EN conduct, in a letter to the cardinal himself, penned by Pace in 1524.]]

But, howsoever it was, the emperor’s men, in tarrying for help, had spent out all their victuals. Whereupon Bourbon, the chief captain of the emperor, said unto his under captains: Ye see help cometh not, and that our victuals are spent; wherefore there is no remedy but to fight, though we be un-. equally matched. If we win, we shall find meat enough; if we lose, we shall lose no more than we must lose with hunger, though we fight not.” And so they concluded to set upon the — Frenchmen by night. The king of France and his lords, supposing that the moon would sooner have fallen out of the sky than that the emperor’s host durst have fought with them, were somewhat negligent, and went the same night a mum- — — ming that Bourbon set upon them. The emperor’s host therefore with their sudden coming upon them amazed the = Frenchmen, and drave them upon heaps together one on 1 another, so that they never could come in array again; and —— — took the king, and divers of his lords, and slew many and 3 won the field. And there came out all the cardinal’s privy 1 treason: for in the French king’s tent (say men) were letters found!; and beside that in the French king’s treasure, and — in all the host, among the soldiers were English ships found innumerable, which had come sailing a thousand miles by land. z But what wonder? Ships be made to sail over the sea, and wings to fly into far countries, and to mount to the top of — — high hills. tak When the French king was taken, we sang Te Deum. d κρ But for all that singing we made peace with Frenchmen: and the pope, the Venetians, France, and England, were knit HH together; lest the emperor’s army should do any hurt in:

France. Whereby ye may conjecture of what mind the pope. and the cardinal were toward the emperor?, and with what heart our spiritualty, with their invisible secrets, samg Te ἢ [1 Searching of the king’s treasure, in his coffers there was found E: among them the league newly concluded between the king of England 8 and the French King under the great seal of England.’— Cavendish’s i Life of Wolsey, by Singer, p. 80.] [2 The peace was signed in England, Aug. 30, 1525. Id. p. 457.] ]

[3 The documents which afford evidence of Wolsey’s personal]

[hostility to the emperor at this time, and of that sovereign’s knowledge]

[of his abusive language, are cited by Sh. Turner, B. 1. ch. xy. Vol. 1. 3]

[pp. 449—55.] T]

Deum. And from that time hitherto the emperor and our cardinal have been twain.

After that, when the king of France was delivered home again, and his sons left in pledge, many ways were sought to bring home the sons also: but in vain, except the French king would make good that which he had promised the emperor. For the bringing home of those children no man more busied his wits than the cardinal. He would in any wise the emperor should have sent them home; and it had been but for our king’s pleasure, for the great kindness that he shewed him in times past. He would have married the king’s daughter, our princess, unto the dolphine again, or, as the voice went among many, unto the second brother; and he should have been prince in England, and king in time to eome. So that he sought all ways to pluck us from the emperor, and to join us unto France; to make France strong enough to match the emperor, and to keep him down; that the pope might reign a god alone, and do what pleaseth him, without controlling of any overseer. And for the same purpose he left nothing unprovided to bring the mart from Antwerp to Calais.

Why the queen must be divorced

If the cardinal could by such means have made us French, the queen had been queen yet; yea, though she had not been his wife. Neither would he have been more about to separate her, than he hath been to separate other that indeed were not his wives, but hath been rather diligent to couple them to him, to pluck him from his right wife; lest, if she had been (as right is) in his favour, she should have given his grace better counsel for the realm than he hath followed; and lest also the prince’s grace should have been moved through her more to have favoured the emperor.

But when there was found no other way, he inspired the king that the queen was not his wife, by the bishop of Lincoln

[[ At Amiens, Aug. 18, 1527, Wolsey stipulated with Francis that]

[the duke of Orleans should marry her.—Rymer, Tom. xiv. p. 202.) [5 S. and S. ed. has pleased.] (9 All that follows, of this treatise, except the last three paragraphs,]

[is omitted in S. and S. edition; and the largest part of it is also]

[omitted by Day.]]

his confessor, as the saying was!; by whom he hath breathed many things into his grace, and by whom he hath heard his — confession, and by whom, and like hypocrites, he hath long — betrayed him to have married him unto the king’s sister of France, as the fame went, by that means at the last to make — us French. And then the cardinal’s doctors laid their heads — together to seek subtle arguments and riddles to prove his divorcement. But all the chancellors of England (say men) — — which be all lawyers, and other doctors, mumpsimuses? of divinity, were called up suddenly to dispute the matter (under a colour to condemn Bilney and Arthur, heard I say), which is their old cast and subtilty, to pretend a contrary thing, and to cast a mist before the eyes of the people, to hide their juggling; that no man should once surmise whereabout they went. And the cardinal’s secretaries ministered reasons unto them. And so the matter was discussed with a plain conclusion that he must be divorced. ^ When the queen was warned, she desired learned counsel to defend her quarrel, that she should have no wrong; and it was granted her: and she chose. But, alas! what choice is there among the — fox’s whelps? All that be shaven be sworn together; and all that be promoted by them must play the Judases with 1 them. They may, to blind the world withal, dispute one 3 against another; but the conclusion shall be the pope’s profit, prelates’ pleasure, and the lusts of princes, which are their defenders. Finally it is concluded that the queen is not his wife; and the cause why they be not divorced, is peradventure that our prelates are afraid. If they could have brought any

[1 The contemporary historian, Polydore Vergil, confirms what E]

[Catharine declared before Wolsey and Campegio, that Wolsey origin- ”]

[ted the divorce, because she had censured his dissolute life; and he]

[then adds, “Is [scil. Wolsey] proinde quod cogitarat cum spe magna,]

[id exequi cupiens, cum Joanne Longland, Lincolniensi episcopo, de]

[quzestione futura amicé communicat, quod is esset qui regis confessio-]

[nem audiret.”—Angl. Hist. Lib. 27. p. 1730. Gand. 1557. He proceeds E]

[to say, that after this Wolsey first mentioned it to the king, but made 1]

[little impression upon him, till Longland came to his aid.] H [? The allusion is to the well-known tale respecting an ignorant:]

[priest, who used to say Mumpsimus Domine” where his Latin service-!]

[book had sumpsimus, and being told what he ought to say, replied]

[that he had used the word mumpsimus for 30 years, and would not]

[leave his old mumpsimus for a new sumpsimus.)]

marriage about, to join us unto France, it had been done long since; but because they cannot (for the French king’s sister knew too much of Christ to consent unto such wickedness), haply they would it were undone. I doubt not but they bear the king’s grace in hand that the pope dare not confirm for fear of the emperor; but I doubt not, if they feared not the emperor and the lords and commons, it had been done already.

After that my lord cardinal with More, his sworn secretary, and the bishop of London, that still Saturn, the imaginer of all mischief, went to France to juggle secretly, and carried with him more than he brought home again. This is of a truth, that he carried great treasure with him. The French galleys lay long in Thames’ mouth, and not for nought. The fame went plain, yea, and I know also one that saw in my lord cardinal’s court letters sealed with the king’s great seal, wherein was contained that the French king should have of us money sufficient for to find twenty thousand men against the emperor in Italy, from the second day of July, in the year of our Lord fifteen hundred twenty-seven, forward.

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