king's true wife; and "neither for her daughter, family, possession, 66 3 66 § 34. Within a week after the sentence at Dunstable, Cranmer pronounced at Lambeth the validity of the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and after gorgeous processions and pageants in the city of London on Whitsunday (June 1, 1533), Cranmer assisted 1 State Papers, i. 397-404. 2 Ib. 3 For the text of this decree, see Notes and Illustrations. at the ceremony of her coronation, six other bishops, numerous abbots and priors, and a large number of nobles, assisting in the splendid ceremonial and festivities. On September 5, 1533, the Princess Elizabeth was born, and the archbishop acted as godfather at her baptism.1 1 Cranmer's Works, i. 245. Herbert's Henry VIII. (ap. Kennett), ii.169. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A) EARLY LIFE OF ANNE Scarcely any subject has been more misrepresented by historians than the early life of Anne Boleyn. The following is abridged from Mr. Brewer's account of her, he being the best authority for the reign of Henry VIII. Anne Boleyn was born in 1507, being the second daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn of Blickling, Norfolk, knight, and the Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk. She was thus by her mother's side descended from the proudest family of England. Her father was employed as ambassador to France, and took with him his daughter Anne to that country when she was about fifteen. Her stay would not seem to have been long, for she was in England in the year 1522. This sufficiently confutes the monstrous lies heaped together against her by Sanders. She thus became first known at the English court when she was about sixteen. Her beauty and grace caused a great sensation. She was of dark complexion, with wonderful eyes, and long black hair of exquisite softness. There had been a negotiation, in which the king and cardinal had taken part, for betrothing her to Sir Piers Butler, in order to reconcile the conflicting claims of the Butlers and Boleyns to the earldom of Ormond. Anne's grandmother was an Ormond. But the negotiation never came to a final issue. Anne had numerous admirers in the English court, among whom the king was soon to be counted. She was an accomplished musician and dancer, and still more remarkable for her grace than her beauty. There was a sort of rivalry between Sir Thomas Wyat and the king, as to who should be her chosen knight, in which, as might be expected, the king proved victorious. There was certainly no contract of marriage between Anne and the Lord Percy, as alleged by Cavendish, though there probably may have been some love-making. Anne, in fact, was a lively and fascinating coquette, attracting all more or less, but especially exercising her fascination on the king. "Whether it was the contrast between her and Catherine that piqued his fancy, or whether from idle gallantry he fell into more serious passion, the fascination that Anne exercised over him was complete."-(Brewer.) There could not, however, have been anything specially marked in the king's devotion to her before 1525, if (as is supposed), Wolsey in that year thought that the king might take to wife the Duchess of Alençon. It was probably not till 1526 that the cardinal became aware of the real strength of Henry's passion for Anne, and then, if Cavendish may be trusted, he went on his knees to the king, to dissuade him from trying to make her his wife. This would fully account for the hostility which Anne and her family always entertained towards the cardinal. Anne seems to have played the role of coquette with consummate skill. Often the king was reduced to despair by her suddenly quitting court, or by some unexpected slight and coldness. She thus caused him to commit to writing distinct promises that he would marry her. With regard to the point to which their intimacy advanced before marriage, Mr. Brewer, we think, says most judiciously, "She was not a woman of any high principle, but, like her father, she was not deficient in worldly wisdom and ambition. That she loved the king at any time is questionable-that she would stoop to his advances, as others had done, and throw away her chances of an honourable marriage, was not to be expected." This, however, is intimately connected with the point discussed in the next section. (B) DATE OF THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY AND ANNE BOLEYN. The older chroniclers (Hall, p. 794), make the king to have been married to Anne Boleyn privately by Roland Lee on Nov. 14, 1532, being St. Erkenwuld's day. This is also distinctly asserted by Sanders (De Schismate Anglic. p. 60.) Cranmer, however, in a letter to Archdeacon Hawkins, says that they were married "much about St. Paul's day." This has been generally supposed to mean Jan. 25, the day in the calendar of the Apostle Paul. Mr. Pocock, an able critic of the history of these times, says, "This is a very loose expression, and even if Cranmer was not designedly vague, his testimony is not worth much. It is yet possible that Sanders' story of the marriage having taken place on Nov. 14, 1552, may be true, though it has been thought that this date has been assigned to it in order to save Anne Boleyn's reputation." (Records of Reformation, Introduction, p. xxvi.) Certainly this motive would have no power with Sanders. It is probable, however, that Cranmer's expression, "much about St. Paul's day," and the date of the chroriclers, "the feast of St. Erkenwuld" may be reconciled, and that in fact they mean the same thing. St. Erkenwuld's day was kept with great ceremony and observance at St. Paul's Church. St. Erkenwuld was a canonised bishop of London. In the year 1386 a decree was published by Robert, Bishop of London, ordering special honour to be done to this festival, appointing collects to be said at the office of the mass, and granting forty days' indulgence to those who assisted at the celebration. (Wilkins' Concil. iii. 196.) May it not have been the custom to describe this festival day at St. Paul's as "St. Paul's day," and may not Cranmer have meant this day? (C) EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS THOMAS CRANMER was born at Aslacton, Notts, July 2, 1484. He was the second F son, and had two brothers and four sisters. His father was a country gentlean of good property. Cranmer was sent, when a boy, to a school where a very severe master so ill-treated him, that his secretary, Ralph Morice, says he never fully recovered the effects. At the age of fourteen he was sent to Cambridge, and became a member of Jesus College, of which society he was afterwards fellow. He was much addicted to field sports, and does not appear to have gained any special eminence at the university. Dr. Hook, his latest biographer, thinks that he had chosen the study of the law for his profession. He married, while still a layman, the daughter or niece of an innkeeper, who died before the expiration of his year of grace, so that he was reinstated in his fellowship. In the year 1523 he entered holy orders, and was soon after made Doctor of Divinity. Cardinal Wolsey is said to have invited him with other Cambridge men to his new college at Oxford, but this Cranmer declined. Mr. Brewer asserts (we are not aware upon what evidence) that Cranmer was chaplain to Lord Rochford, and tutor to Anne Boleyn. He also thinks it probable that he was early employed in the negotiations for the divorce, and was sent to Rome with the draft of a new dispensation forwarded to Dr. Knight. It was during the prevalence of the sweating sickness, when all who could retreated from the towns, that Cranmer was acting as tutor to the sons of Mr. Cressy, when he met with Gardiner and Fox, and was introduced to the king. (D) THE FORM OF THE ANNULLING OF THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY AND CATHERINE, "Plene et evidenter invenimus et comperimus prædictum matrimonium inter præfatos illustrissimum et potentissimum principem et dominum nostrum Henricum octavum, ac serenissimam dominam Catherinam, ut præmittitur, contractum et consummatum, nullum et invalidum omnino fuisse et esse, ac divino jure prohibente contractum et consummatum fuisse: idcirco nos Thomas Archiepiscopus, Primas et Legatus antedictus, Christi nomine primitus invocato, et solum Deum præ oculis nostris habentes, pro nullitate et invaliditate dicti matrimonii pronunciamus decernimus et declaramus, ipsumque prætensum matrimonium fuisse et esse nullum et invalidum et divino jure prohibente contractum et consummatum, nulliusque valoris aut momenti esse, sed viribus et firmitate bere sortiri affectus, prolemque exinde juris caruisse et carere, præfatoque susceptani et suscipiendam fuisse et fore illustrissimo domino Henrico octavo et legitimam, et præfatum Henricum Angliæ serenissimæ dominæ Catharinæ non licere regem teneri et obligatum fuisse et fore ad in eodem prætenso matriminio permanere cohabitandum cum dictâ Catherinâ Reetiam pronunciamus decernimus et de- ginâ ejus legitimâ conjuge, illamque mariclaramus, ipsosque potentissimum prin- tali affectione et regio honore tractandum, cipem Henricum octavum ac serenissimam et eundem Henricum Angliæ regem ad dominam Catherinam, quatenus de facto præmissa omnia et singula cum affectu et non de jure dictum prætensum matri- adimplendum, condemnandum, omnibusmonium ad invicem contraxerunt et con- que juris remediis cogendum et compel summarunt, ab invicem separamus et lendum fore prout condemnamus cogimus divorciamus atque sic divorciatos et et compellimus: molestatisnesque et deseparatos, necnon ab omni vinculo matri- negationes per eundem Henricum regem moniali respectu dicti prætensi matri- eidem Catherinæ super invaliditate ac monii liberos et immunes fuisse et esse foedere dicti matrimonii quomodolibet pronunciamus decernimus et declaramus, factas et præstitas fuisse et esse illicitas per hanc nostram sententiam definitivam in et injustas, et eidem Henrico Regi super his scriptis. In quorum testimonium, etc. illis ac invaliditate matrimonii hujus modi perpetuum silentium imponendum fore imponimus, eundemque Henricum Angliæ regem in expensis in hujusmodi causâ pro parte dictæ Catherinæ reginæ coram nobis, et dictis omnibus legitimè factis condemnandum fore et condemnamus quarum expensarum taxationem nobis in posterum reservamus.-Pocock's Records of Reformation, ii. 532. (E) THE POPE'S BULL DECLARING THE VALIDITY OF THE MARRIAGE. Matrimonium intra prædictos Catherinam et Henricum Angliæ reges contractum et inde secuta quæcunque fuisse et esse validum et canonicum, validaque et canonica, suosque debitos debuisse et de CHAPTER V. THE REFORMATION PARLIAMENT AND CONVOCATION. 1529-1536. §1 Character of the Parliament of 1529. § 2. Sir T. More's speech as Chancellor. § 3. His attack upon Wolsey's character. § 4. Bills affecting the rights of the clergy brought into the Commons. § 5. The clergy strongly oppose the bill against pluralities. § 6. Bishop Fisher in the House of Lords. § 7. The Commons complain of his speech. § 8. The king sunimons Bishop Fisher before him. § 9. The three bills pass the Upper House. § 10. Lords and Members of the Commons remonstrate with the pope. § 11. Irritation of the Parliament against Rome. § 12. Clergy brought in guilty of Præmunire offer a money composition. § 13. Their acceptance of the supremacy is demanded. § 14. The clergy acknowledge the royal supremacy. § 15. The "pardon" of the clergy. § 16. The true nature of the supremacy. § 17. The address of the Commons against the Ordinaries. § 18. The first answer of the Ordinaries. § 19. The second answer. § 20. The king's requirements. § 21. The submission of the clergy. § 22. The clergy petition against the pope's annates. § 23. The Act to abolish papal annates. § 24. The Act for restraint of appeals. § 25. Negotiations with Rome, which prove abortive. §. 26. The statute of the submission of the clergy. § 27. Appeals further regulated. § 28. Act to regulate appointments to bishoprics. § 29. Act to make illegal papal dispensations. § 30. First succession Act. § 31. Act to regulate proceedings in matter of heresy. § 32. Act of supremacy. § 33. Treason Act. § 34. Act to give king first fruits and tenths. § 35. The pope's supremacy thus formally repudiated. § 36. Convocation petitions for an English Bible. §1. THE Parliament which met in November 1529 was composed, in an unusually large degree, of office-holders under the crown, and its spirit was one of complete subserviency to the king's will. It showed its servility not only by sanctioning all the illegal methods to which resort had been had for raising money, but, still more, by passing a law which enacted that all the loans made to the king were to be regarded as gifts, and that he was discharged from all obligation of repayment.1 This, as might be expected, caused grievous dissatisfaction in the country. Nevertheless the work which this Parliament performed in the restoration of its liberty to the Church of England was so important, that its character has been enthusiastically lauded by historians. One has not shrunk from declaring that "the records of the world contain no instance of such a triumph, bought at a cost so slight, and tarnished with blemishes so trifling."2 1 Hallam, Const. Hist. i. 23. 2 Froude, Hist. of England, i. 188. |