doors. He feels that he is responsible for the souls of the members of the university, being in his diocese, and he proposes going to Oxford, “if it shall stand with your honourable pleasure." 1

§ 4. Thus, however much Wolsey might have been personally inclined to leave the new opinions alone, he could scarce avoid acting under these various stimulants. His first action was to send for certain divines of Oxford to come to him in London. These having agreed upon a solemn condemnation of Luther's tenets, a paper condemning his doctrine was drawn up and sent down to Oxford, to be affixed on the dial of St. Mary's Church.2 His next step was to issue a proclamation by his authority as legate, ordering all books of Luther's to be brought to the bishop of the diocese, or his commissary, by the 1st of August, and afterwards to be sent to himself.

§ 5. Of these obnoxious publications the cardinal determined to make a solemn holocaust, with every circumstance of publicity and pomp. Attended by thirty-six abbots, mitred priors, and bishops, he repaired to St. Paul's and heard a sermon from Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Then the condemned books were ranged before him in baskets, and, a huge fire having been lighted, the baskets were emptied into the flames. Certain persons who were suspected of favouring the Lutheran opinions-among them Dr. Barnes, a friar from Cambridge, afterwards burned as a hereticwere made each to throw a faggot into the flame. Then absolution was pronounced, and the faithful who were present were gratified with an indulgence. By these harmless measures the cardinal endeavoured to satisfy the alarmists, who were eager for a more vigorous repression of the new opinions.3

§ 6. While these public proceedings were being taken against the Lutherans, the king, who had for some time been employed on a controversial work in answer to Luther's Babylonian Captivity of the Church, had appeared against them in print. On the 25th of August 1521, his book, entitled "Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, adversus Martinum Lutherum, edita ab invictissimo Angliæ et Francia rege et domino Hiberniæ, Henrico, ejus nominis octavo," came forth complete from the hands of the printer, Richard Pynson, of London.

1 Ellis, i. 251.

2 Wood, Fusti Oxon; Ellis, i. 243.

A late historian of these times says: "With this ostentatious pageant Wolsey staved off more severe measures for the present, in the hope that they could be avoided altogether. Burning books was not a very serious matter, but burning men was of much more importance; and although Longland suggested pursuing the heretics ad ignem, Wolsey preferred dealing with them in his own way, marking their errors, but sparing their persons. -Blunt, Hist. of Reformation, p. 84.

D

§ 7. Twenty-eight copies splendidly bound were forwarded to Clerk, the English ambassador at Rome, some for presentation to the pope and cardinals, and some for the pope to present to divers potentates and universities. These copies were all signed by the king's own hand. The pope's copy, bound in cloth of gold, was presented privately to his Holiness immediately on the arrival of the parcel, and the ambassador narrowly watched and carefully reported the manner of its reception. The pope, he says, liked the "trim decking" of the book very well, and opened and read it for five leaves successively, and the ambassador thinks that if time and place had been suitable, he would not have ceased until he had read it through. Clerk called his attention to the two verses which the king had written at the end of the book,1 and these the pope praised greatly, and then the ambassador pressed that the book might be formally presented and received at a public consistory. A public consistory was declined on the ground that it might draw lay attention to the pestilent doctrines, but a private consistory was held October 2, when the book was solemnly presented, Clerk making a Latin oration on his knees. The pope answered somewhat shortly, praising the book and the author, describing Luther as a "most filthy monster," declaring his joy that he had been slain by this doughty champion. On the next day (October 3, 1521), the title of Defender of the Faith was solemnly conferred upon Henry by the pope. It is somewhat of a curious comment on the above that a year after, the English ambassador, writing to Wolsey, tells him that the copies of the book sent to the pope for distribution had never been distributed, but were lying unnoticed and forgotten.2

§ 8. Collier, in his Ecclesiastical History, gives a full account of the king's book, with copious extracts. His judgment is, that "the king seems to have the better of the controversy, and generally speaking to be much the sounder divine. His principles are more catholic and his proofs more cogent. He seems superior to his adversary in the vigour and propriety of his style, in the force of his reasoning, and the learning of his citations."s Mr. Brewer, on the contrary, describes the royal book as "an empty wind-bag." "The cardinal principles of Luther's teaching the king did not understand, and did not therefore attempt to confute. Contented to point out the mere straws on the surface of the current-the 1 "Anglorum rex Henricus. Leo Decime, mittit

Hoc opus et fidei testem et amicitiæ."

Royal versifiers may perhaps consider themselves unshackled by the rules of quantity.

2

Ellis, Original Letters (Series 3), Letters xcix. c. cxii. Brewer, Introd. to Calendar, vol. iii. p. ccccxx. 3 Collier, Ch. Hist. iv. 47.

apparent inconsistencies of Luther, his immoderate language, his disparagement of authority-the royal controversialist never travels beyond the familiar round, and reproduces, without force, originality, or feeling, the weary topics he had picked up without much thought or research from the theological manuals of the day. Even his invective is as mean and feeble as his logic."1

§ 9. Luther replied to the king's book with excessive violence, scorn, and raillery, affecting to treat it as in great measure the work of Edward Lee, a divine in favour with the king-afterwards Archbishop of York. There is no reason to suppose that this was the case. Answers to Luther's reply quickly appeared. One was by a Franciscan friar named Thomas Murner, who afterwards came into England in expectation of a reward, and received £100.

§ 10. Another came out under the pseudonym of Guilelmus Rosseus. This was quickly known to be the work of Thomas More. It was the singular characteristic of this great man that while his nature was pure and gentle, his writings were full of the coarsest invective and most unseemly ribaldry. "I should be glad," says Mr. Brewer, "to believe that More was not the author of this book. That a nature so pure and gentle, so adverse to coarse abuse, and hitherto not unfavourable to the cause of religious reform, should soil its better self with vulgar and offensive raillery, destitute of all wit and humour, shocks and pains like the misconduct of a dear friend."2

§ 11. An answer of altogether a superior type was written by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. This, entitled Assertionis Lutheranc Confutatio, was printed at Antwerp by an English printer named Addison, to whom the king had given license," in order to hinder the frauds in printing, especially in works which contended for the Catholic faith, of which he had taken upon himself the defence, as he was bound to do by the name conferred upon him by Pope Leo of pious memory."

113

§ 12. In spite of the solemn burning of books at which he had presided, Cardinal Wolsey was not disposed to think that the spread of Lutheran opinions could be combated by mere repression. In the year 1523 the bishops were anxious to have a commission sent to Cambridge to root out from thence the holders of Lutheran opinions, but the cardinal would not consent to it. He had other designs in view of quite a different character to meet the growing heresy. In the year 1523, being disappointed of the popedom,

1 Brewer, Introd. to Calendar, vol. iii. p. ccccxxvi.

3

Strype, Memorials of Reformation, i. 41 (folio ed.)

Herbert's Henry VIII., Kennett, ii. 129.

2 Ib. p. ccccxxix.

which he had desired, the new pope (Clement VII.), to conciliate him, gave him the appointment of legate for life. The opportunity was taken advantage of by the cardinal to obtain also certain bulls for the suppression of monasteries. He had begun a magnificent college at Oxford, and he designed also to build one at Ipswich, his native place. For the endowment of these he desired to have the revenues of certain small priories granted to him, in the same way that Chicheley had for All Souls, Waynflete for Magdalen, and Wyckham for the St. Mary Winton colleges. The small priories, many of which were alien,1 had always been a scandal and a nuisance to the English Church, and it was thought a good deed to get rid of them. In his application for the bulls, Wolsey stated the designs which he had in view in building his colleges. He spoke of the importance of meeting the new views spreading in the Church by a learned clergy who should be able to overthrow them by argument. "That as printing could not be put down, it were best to set up learning against learning, and by introducing able persons to dispute, to suspend the laity betwixt fear and controversies." The clergy had been much reproached by the new sectaries for ignorance. He would remove the reproach. There were many superfluous and useless monas teries in the land, in which neither learning nor religion were cared for. The taking away of such might give greater solidity to the others. Two bulls were granted by the pope for the suppression of the smaller monasteries to the number of forty, subject to the king's consent and that of the representatives of the founders.+ The latter provision was probably not much cared for, and the king readily issued his letters-patent, as he had long taken an interest in the plan.

§ 13. For the cardinal's College at Oxford had been begun some years before this period. About 1520, which was somewhat near the time of its commencement, Bishop Longland writes

1 That is, the religious houses that were affiliated or offshoots of foreign monasteries of renown. The mischief was that they depended on the foreign house, and could not be brought under episcopal discipline. Wolsey says of them in his letter to the king, "Neither God was served, nor religion kept." Wolsey's agent for the suppression, Dr. Allen, was accused of precisely the same sort of treatment of the monks as was afterwards laid to the charge of Cromwell's commissioners. Wolsey wrote to the king to excuse his conduct.-State Papers of Henry VIII., i. 154.

2 "Oppressed by debts and incumbrances of various kinds, the smaller religious houses had fallen into ruins-discipline was neglected--the inmates were poor and illiterate."-Brewer, Introd. to Calendar, vol. iv. p. lxxii. 3 Lord Herbert's Henry VIII., Kennett, ii. 61.

4 The first bears date April 1524, the second March 1525.-Collier, Eccl. Hist. iv. 53.

to Wolsey that the king was much interested in the scheme, and that Queen Catherine had been informed by him of the "good learning and letters" which would be fostered by the foundation, the "notable lectures and exercitations of learning" which would take place, how the Bible should be expounded, and many good prayers said for her Grace.1 The revenues of the suppressed monasteries were designed to furnish out a goodly apparatus of learning at Cardinal College, founded on the site of St. Fredeswide's priory at Oxford. By the original intention there were to be at this institution a dean, sub-dean, sixty canons of the first order, forty of the second, thirteen chaplains, twelve clerks, sixteen choristers. There were to be lecturers or professors in divinity, canon-law, physic, philosophy, logic, and humanity. Four censors, three treasurers, four stewards, and twenty inferior servants, one hundred and eighty-six students.

§ 14. A considerable number of Cambridge men was incorporated in the new college before its buildings were completed. The university records give the names of John Clarke, John Fryer, Geoffrey Harman, Richard Coxe, John Fryth. It is a very remarkable circumstance that all these men were Lutherans of more or less decided views. Accordingly, the Oxford annalist tells us that "Lutheranism increased daily in the university, and chiefly in the Cardinal College by certain Cantabrigians that there remained."2 John Clarke was especially conspicuous as a Lutheran teacher, and great numbers of the students resorted to his lectures. Fryth soon left the university to join Tyndale in Germany. It is probable that Wolsey selected these men advisedly, thinking that his patronage would soothe down their theological eagerness, and that the arguments of the learned men who would be associated with them in his college would suffice to convince them of their error. But the times were too excited, inquiry was too much awakened, and the earnestness in seeking after truth too great, to allow this policy to succeed. Reforming opinions had now laid hold of the English mind to a considerable extent, and the publication of the New Testament in English, which now took place, gave a fresh impulse to these views.

§ 15. The author of this important work, and one of the most conspicuous actors in the earlier Reformation, was William Tyndale, a Gloucestershire man of a good family, who had studied both at Oxford and Cambridge, and had shown great eagerness to make use of the labours of Erasmus in gaining a knowledge of the

1 Ellis, Orig. Letters (Series 1), i. 181.

2 Anthony Wood, Annals of Oxford; Ellis, Orig. Letters (Series 3), i. 244.