offence in any of the premises shall be adjudged high

The terrible powers which were thus committed to the Government lie on the surface of this language; but comprehensive as the statute appears, it was still further extended by the interpretation of the lawyers. In order to fall under its penalties it was held not to be necessary that positive guilt should be proved in any one of the specified offences; it was enough if a man refused to give satisfactory answers when subjected to official examination. At the discretion of the King or his ministers the active consent to the supremacy might be required of any person on whom they pleased to call, under penalty to the recusant of the dreadful death of a traitor. So extreme a measure can only be regarded as a remedy for an evil which was also extreme; and as on the return of quiet times the Parliament made haste to repeal a law which was no longer required, so in the enactment of that law we are bound to believe that they were not betraying English liberties in a spirit of careless complacency; but that they believed truly that the security of the State required unusual precautions. The nation was standing with its sword half drawn in the face of an armed Europe, and it was no time to permit

126 Hen. VIII. c. 13.

2 More warned Fisher of this. He did send Mr Fisher word by a letter that Mr Solicitor had showed him, that it was all one not to an

swer, and to say against the statute what a man would, as all the learned men in England would justify.’— State Papers, vol. i. p. 434.

dissensions in the camp.1 Toleration is good—but even the best things must abide their opportunity; and although we may regret that in this grand struggle for freedom, success could only be won by the aid of measures which bordered upon oppression, yet here also the even hand of justice was but commending the chalice to the lips of those who had made others drink it to the dregs. They only were likely to fall under the Treason Act who for centuries had fed the rack and the stake with sufferers for 'opinion.'

Having thus made provision for public safety, the Parliament voted a supply of money for the fortifications on the coast and for the expenses of the Irish war; and after transferring to the Crown the first-fruits of Church benefices, which had been previously paid to the See of Rome, and passing at the same time a large and liberal measure for the appointment of twenty-six suffragan bishops, they separated, not to meet again for more

2

than a year.

The Act was repealed in 1547, | rections, or such mischiefs as God, 1 Edw. VI. cap. 12. The explana- sometime with us displeased, doth tion which is there given of the inflict and lay upon us, or the devil, causes which led to the enactment of at God's permission, to assay the it is temperate and reasonable. Sub- good and God's elect, doth sow and jects, says that statute, should obey set among us,-the which Almighty rather for love of their prince than God and man's policy hath always for fear of his laws: yet such times been content to have stayed-that at some time cometh in the common- sharper laws as a harder bridle wealth, that it is necessary and exshould be made.' pedient for the repressing of the insolence and unruliness of men, and for the foreseeing and providing of remedies against rebellions, insur

226 Henry VIII. cap. 14: An Act for Nomination and Consecration of Suffragans within the Realm.'

have already stated my impression

Meanwhile, at Rome a change had taken place which for the moment seemed to promise that the storm after all might pass away. The conclave had elected as a successor to Clement a man who, of all the Italian ecclesiastics, was the most likely to recompose the quarrels in the Church; and who, if the genius or the destiny of the Papacy had not been too strong for any individual will, would perhaps have succeeded in restoring peace to Christendom. In the debates upon the divorce the Cardinal Farnese had been steadily upon Henry's side. He had maintained from the first the general justice of the King's demands. After the final sentence was passed, he had urged, though vainly, the reconsideration of that fatal step; and though slow and cautious, although he was a person who, as Sir Gregory Cassalis described him, 'would accomplish little, but would make few mistakes,' he had allowed his opinion upon this, as on other matters connected with the English quarrel, to be generally known. He was elected therefore by French influence as the person most likely to meet the difficulties of Europe in a catholic and conciliating spirit. He had announced his intention, immediately on Clement's death, of calling a general council

that the method of nomination to bishoprics by the Crown, as fixed by the 20th of the 25th of Henry VIII., was not intended to be perpetual. A further evidence of what I said will be found in the arrangements under the present Act for the appointment of suffragans. The King made no attempt to retain the pa

VOL. II.

tronage. The Bishop of each diocese was to nominate two persons, and between these the Crown was bound to choose.

1 Parum erraturus sed pauca facturus.-State Papers, vol. vii. p. 581.

2 Ibid. p. 573.

15

at the earliest moment, in the event of his being chosen to fill the Papal chair; and as he was the friend rather of Francis I. than of the Emperor, and as Francis was actively supporting Henry, and was negotiating at the same moment with the Protestant princes in Germany, it seemed as if a council summoned under such auspices would endeavour to compose the general discords in a temper of wise liberality, and that some terms of compromise would be discovered where by mutual concessions Catholic and Protestant might meet upon a common ground.

The moment was propitious for such a hope; for the accession of a moderate Pope coincided with the reaction in Germany which followed the scandals at Munster and the excesses of John of Leyden; and Francis pictured to himself a coalition between France, England, and the Lutherans, which, if the Papacy was attached to their side, would be strong enough to bear down opposition, and reconstitute the Churches of Europe upon the basis of liberality which he seemed to have secured for the Church of France. The flattering vision in the autumn of the following year dazzled the German princes. Perhaps in the novelty of hope it was encouraged even by the Pope, before he had felt the strong hand of fate which ruled his will.

To Charles V. the danger of some such termination of the great question at issue appeared most near and real. Charles, whose resentment at the conduct of England united with a desire to assert his authority over his subjects in Germany, beheld with the utmost alarm

a scheme growing to maturity which menaced alike his honour, his desire of revenge, his supremacy in Europe, and perhaps his religious convictions. A liberal coalition would be fatal to order, to policy, to truth; and on the election of Cardinal Farnese, the Count de Nassau was sent on a secret mission to Paris with overtures, the elaborate condescension of which betrays the anxiety that must have dictated them. The Emperor, in his self-constituted capacity of the Princess Mary's guardian, offered her hand with the English succession to the Duke of Angoulesme. From the terms on which he was supposed to stand with Anne Boleyn, it was thought possible that Henry might consent; he might not dare, as D'Inteville before suggested, to oppose the united demands of France and the Empire. To Mar

1 Nota qu'il ne sera pas para- | that the proposal should be well venture si fort malayse à gaigner considered, and you will bring it eeroy.-Note on the margin of the forward as you shall see opportunity. Comte de Nassau's Instructions. You will make the King and the * Charles V. to his Ambassador at Grand Master feel the importance of Paris. the connection, the greatness which it would confer on the Duke d'Angoulesme, the release of the English debt, which can be easily arranged, and the assurance of the realm of France.

November, 1534.

In addition, the Count de Nassau and yourself may go further in sounding the King about the Count's proposal-I mean for the marriage of our cousin the Princess 'Such a marriage will be, beof England with the Duke d'An-yond comparison, more advantageous goulesme. The Grand Master, I to the King, his realm, and his chilunderstand, when the Count spoke dren, than any benefit for which he of it, seemed to enter into the sug- could hope from Milan; while it gestion, and mentioned the dis- can be brought about with no conpleasure which the King of England siderable difficulty. But be careful had conceived against Anne Boleyn. what you say, and how you say it. I am therefore sincerely desirous Speak alone to the King and alone