He

the greatest service I have ever received. Courage: I have a very short neck, endeavour to do your work skilfully.(a) placed the band over his eyes himself, laid his head on the block, being first very careful as to the arrangement of his beard, 'for," said he, smiling, "that has coinmitted no act of treason," and the head fell. Let us now listen to the legend. It happened that Meg, after praying for the repose of her father's soul, was looking in her apron pocket for a few angels that she might buy a shroud for her father, but she had no money, for she had given all that she had to the poor the previous evening. She went to a shop to buy a few yards of linen. After having made her purchases, she commenced ransacking her pocket for her purse, though she was aware that it was empty, to make the shopkeeper imagine that she had left her money at home, in order that he might be induced to give her credit, when by a miraculous interposition from God, she found enough in her purse to pay for the shroud.(b)

Sanders has handed down this pious narration. What does it matter to us that Burnet declaims against this miracle? If More had betrayed, as it was said he had, his prince and his country, is it to be believed that the people would have invented this miracle? The people have never yet descended so low as to canonize a traitor to his country; therefore it is of immense utility to consult legends. They are popular verdicts, condemning, absolving, or amusing, and even judging those who are judges of the earth. More's head was exposed on London Bridge, and then given to Margaret, who had it embalmed, preserved it as long as she lived, and, when on the point of death, ordered that this precious relic should be placed in her arms

(a) "The next Wednesday he was beheaded in the great square before the Tower, and spoke a few words before his execution, and finally begged the bystanders to pray for him, promising that he would pray for them. Then he exhorted and earnestly entreated them to pray to God for the king, to give him good counsel, protesting that he died a faithful servant to God and to the king, as a Christian should do."

(b) Le Grand.-Sanders.

in her coffin.(c) Scarcely had his remains been interred in the chapel of St. Peter, ad vincula in the Tower, ere Cromwell hastened to announce to the English ambassadors, the death of the traitor who had conspired secretly against the life of the king, the peace of the state, and the authority of the laws.(d)

More, as well as Fisher, were but political agitators, who had conspired with the enemies of their country to overthrow the dynasty of the Tudors; two notorious criminals, who were to have fallen under the sword of the law, had they even a thousand heads. On hearing of the last moments of the chancellor, it is said that Henry, exceedingly frightened, arose from the table, exclaiming to Anne, "You have been the cause of his death;" then entering into his cabinet, and seizing a pen, commenced to insult the memory of the two martyrs. "The Bishop of Rochester," he informed the world, 66 was an infamous traitor;(e) and the ex-chancellor had been convicted of high treason."(f) But Europe paid no attention to Henry's evidence; everywhere was manifested feelings of indignation against the murderer of these two noble victims; even eyes which had never seen More, swam in tears ;(g) and more than one scholar became the panegyrist of these two confessors of Christ. "None weep at London, none write, for the eye as well as

(c) Campbell.

(d) Touching Mr. More and the Bishop of Rochester, with such others as were executed here, these treasons, conspiracies, and practices, severally practised as well within the realm and without, to move and stir dissension, and to sow sedition within the realm, intending thereby, not only the destruction of the king, but also the whole subversion of his realm, being explained and declared; and so manifestly proved afore them, that they could not avoid, or deny it.-Cromwell's letter, 23rd August, 1535.

(e) That having such malice rooted in their hearts against their prince, and for the total destruction of the common weal of the realm, were well worthy, if they had had a thousand lives, to have suffered ten times a more terrible death.

(f) Thou art the cause of this man's death. -British Biography.

(g) The treasons traiterously committed against us and our laws, by the late Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, Kngt. King's letter.

finger trembles," writes Erasmus, “as if under each stone reposed a scorpion."(a) More was one of the literary ornaments of his age; he was one of the first to engage in the movement of intellectual regeneration, which was then commencing to exercise so great an influence on independent minds; his ingenuous satire, his piquant irony, contributed more than he was aware, at first, to the triumph of the Reformation. But as soon as he perceived that the human mind, for whose emancipation he was labouring, would use her liberty for the destruction of the Faith, he halted, alarmed at what he had done; like Erasmus, who ended in pitying the monk whose robe he wished to destroy, when he perceived that Luther destroyed both the vestment and the monk. More, from his retreat at Chelsea, had perceived the brewing of the storm which was about to burst on the Church of England; witness of the approach of its heralds, he desired that an evidence of his unalterable faith should be handed down to posterity. He composed himself the epitaph that was to be placed on his tomb.(b) There he tells us that he died as he had lived, faithful to his religion. One expression alone might make some hesitate as to his charity; he boasts of having been an opponent of heretics. Molestus is the term he uses, and which was afterwards used by his adversaries as a remarkable manifestation of his systematic intolerance, of which he made a show even on the sepulchral stone.(c) But the expression is as good Latin as it is Christian

(a) MSS. Mus. Brit., Titus, B. I, p. 536 (b) See Appendix (M.)

(c) "Hæreticis molestus." More disclaimed this title as too ambitious: "Quod in epitaphio profiteor hæreticis me fuisse molestum, hoc ambitiosè feci."-Morus Erasmo, ex rure nostro Chelsico, 1532.

Erasmus fearlessly calls on the world to witness that none perished in England during the ministry of Sir Thomas More for the crime of heresy.(d) More had made his profession of Faith; though he hated the sect, he had no hatred for the sectarian. As a statesman, he wished to extirpate sectarianism by its roots; as a Christian, he was anxious for the pardon of the victim of heresy.(e) We must be careful not to judge More's severity towards religious innovation by the ideas of this

THE character of the Revolution which had commenced in England, has been briefly described by M. Guizot. The tyranny of Rome, as has been and is still often said, was not its cause. "It is not true," (says M. Guizot,) "that the court of Rome was tyrannical in the sixteenth century; it is not true that the abuses were then more numerous; never, perhaps on the contrary, was the ecclesiastical government more tolerant."(a) He adds, "The religious revolution in England was the work of the king. The king and the episcopate divided among themselves, either in riches or in power, the spoils of the government of the Papacy.(b) The revolutions they accomplished were maintained by intimidation, interest, and falsehood, three instruments of governing, which Henry used with unparalleled skill. He required but a few months to have himself acknowledged as Supreme Head of the Church by Parliament, by convocation, by the monastic orders, by the nation at large. The supremacy of the king became as much a dogma of faith as the Real Presence. Henry had no necessity to read Machiavelli to learn how a prince should be obeyed. We have already referred to that member of Parliament, whom he threatened to decapitate unless his bill passed into law, and on the following morning the subsidies were granted. Now it is more difficult to raise money than to take an oath the Parliament which reluctantly advanced the prince the suosidies,

(a) Guizot. Hist. de la Civilization en Europe.

(b) Ibid

would have granted him more spiritual dignities than he required; had the prince wished, it would have conceded to him the keys of Paradise. At first, a few members, more conscientious than their comrades, protested against the supremacy, and were immediately put to death. The nation, threatened with the halter or the block, was silent, and obeyed without even a murmur. Fear, the ordinary punishment of every nation that treats with despotism, chains the arm and the tongue; man, in this state, ceases to be the image of God. Cupidity unites itself with fear to enslave the conscience. The clergy, who saw the regard which Cranmer had obtained for his services, were eager in making advances to the monarch. All the agents employed in the matrimonial affair in Italy, had been handsomely rewarded with a bishopric, or something equivalent to a diocese. As a reward for his insolent conduct to the hoaryheaded Pontiff, Gardiner had obtained the see of Worcester; Lee, who was neither a Calvinist nor a scholar, strutted about since the marriage (which he had blessed) in a beautiful episcopal palace; and Sampson amused himself in counting the precious stones which adorned the mitre with which he had been rewarded by royalty for a pamphlet in favour of the supremacy, written in a scholastic style. But what was this wealth compared to that which those in power promised themselves on the suppression of the religious houses, true gardens of Hesperides, full of golden apples, coveted by dukes, gentlemen, magistrates, bishops, and priests? Melancthon on analyzing the

causes which contributed to the triumph of the Reformation in Germany, acknowledges that the princes who were the most active in the diffusion of the new gospel, were not actuated by a wish to propagate light, to glorify the new creed, to ameliorate the state of society, but by that of self-interest.(a) Luther affirms that the remonstrances, (ostensoria,) had operated more than one conversion.(b) Falsehoods were used as a justification for the iniquitous acts of those in power; every life taken was that of a conspirator unworthy of pity. More and Fisher, on leaving church, had returned to

their retreat to finish their manifesto which they had addressed to the king's enemies. The seat of all these machinations against England was at Rome or at Madrid. Those Carthusians, who were perhaps ignorant of the name of the reigning sovereign of Spain, were in correspondence with the ministers of Charles V.(c)

Consult Strype; you will meet with one Dr. Wilson, commissioned to rouse the citizens of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and other counties; and a theologian of Oxford, (Hubbardon,) a kind of tutor, giving utterance to gross insults against the king in the pulpit, in the hallroom and in jesting.(d) There is another emissary of the name of Powell, a secret agent of Rome, who incited all whom he met to rebellion. There is a priest (Harrison) who said in the pulpit, that Nan Bullen should only be queen effigy.(e) And from those anecdotes invented by Cromwell, Henry stated that a conspiracy had been formed against his life and person by the monks; a con

66

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(a) Sie bekümmerten sich gar nicht um die Lehre, es sei ihnen blosz um die Freiheit und die Herrschaft zu thun.

(b) Viele sind noch gut evangelisch, weil es noch Katholische Monsieranzen gibt.Jakob Marr, Die Ursachen der schnellen Verbreitung der Reformation.

(c) Brit. Mus. MSS. Vesp., C. IV., p. 267. (d) Another, and old divine of Oxford, Hubbardon was employed in the west country, wholly at the devotion of the bishops, doing whatsoever they bade him... He would dance, hop, and use histrionic gestures in the pulpit. -Eccl. Memorials.

(e) That the Nan Bullen should not be queen, but on his (the king's) bearings.Ellis, 2nd Series, II., 43.

spiracy from which he had been delivered by Divine Providence. The spoliation of the religious houses had been long determined on by the king. This measure was but a natural consequence of the schism with Rome. Wolsey had, in 1526, obtained a bull from the Holy See, permitting him to secularize a certain number of the religious houses, (f) whose revenue was employed in supporting the two great literary institutions which the minister had just founded at Ipswich and Oxford.(g)

Wolsey's projects, though authorized by a letter from the sovereign, were earnestly opposed by several of the clergy.(h) The cardinal was accused of attacking the liberties of the Church; of concealing, under a specious zeal for literature, his unbridled cupidity, and it was predicted that owing to this fatal example, the government would be unable to find money should the Commons refuse the grant. Henry, deeply attached to the Holy See at this period, was affected by these complaints, and advised Wolsey not to irritate the clergy. The money which had been employed in building the two colleges had not been legitimately obtained. Religious houses had been illegally robbed to build these gymnasia, whereas, the crown in its distress would be unable to obtain that which a subject had obtained.(i) Wolsey had confided the reformation of the smaller houses to Cromwell, and he discharged that office with too ardent a zeal to be disinterested. He found in the monasteries

(f) Rymer's Fœdera, XIV., 240, 243, 251. (g) Wood's History of the University of Oxford.

(h) Tytler.

(i) Because I dare be bolder with you than a great many that mumble it abroad; and to the intent that the foundation by you meant and begun should take prosperous success, I think it very fit you should know these things. Surely it is reckoned that much of the gold that buildeth the same should not be the best acquired and gotten, reckoning it to come from many a religious house unlawfully, bearing the cloak of kindness towards the edifying of your college, which kindness cannot sink in any man's heart to be in them; since those same religious houses would not grant to their sovereign in his necessity so much by a great deal as they have to you for the building of your college. Tytler.

gold, precious stones, vases and jewels, in the inventory that he had drawn up, which he forgot to include, and which he appropriated without scruple. He was, however, careful, from a sense of shame, to conceal the fruit of his robbery during his master's administration; but after Henry's marriage he became bolder, and felt no fear in displaying his conventual spoils in his rich mansion. Like the elector, John of Saxony, he felt a pleasure in ridiculing the drunkenness of the monks, while he was quaffing wine from the goblets, which he had stolen from some of the convents. His guests imitated their host, and several tales were circulated at the table of the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the sins or misdoings of the religious. Let us relate some of the anecdotes that were in circulation, and the reader will probably imagine himself at the hostlery of the Black Eagle at Wittemberg, at one of Luther's evening suppers, at which he used to amuse himself at the expense of those brethren whom he had not left through a feeling of charity even a cowl. It was said at York place, that on searching a garden attached to a convent, a great number of skulls of new-born babes had been found, the fruits of a homicidal incontinence. (a) This is the same anecdote as that which the Saxon related in so laughable a manner at Wittemberg, while speaking of his voyage to Italy; only the Augustinian, more poetical than Cromwell's guest, stated the number of skulls to be six thousand.(b) It was also said at York Place, that a monk and nun had been found together, and that the dress of a lay brother had been discovered in the cell of a nun; (c) but they mentioned neither the name of the abbot nor the colour of the lay brother's habit.

They were not so discreet at Wittemberg, for the colour of the hood was specified, as well as the name of the monk by whom it had been worn. The silence a York Place displayed more skill, for every convent was liable to be accused. At York Place, violent language was used respecting the scandalous wealth amassed

Voss.

Tisch-Reden.-Audin's Luther.

Voss,

by houses consecrated to prayer, and in which the inmates had taken the vow of poverty; and had any one taken a glance at the table of the epicure, groaning under the weight of goblets stolen from the religious houses, he would certainly not have been able to call in question the veracity of the declaimers, but might have accused them of slander. At Wittemberg, at least, Luther's companions, doctors in civil and in canon law, bachelors, philosophers, preachers, and ecclesiastics, condemned to quaff Eimbeck beer in stone flagons, might laugh at illiterate monks who were using valuable goblets! The reader, could he but have a glance at the pamphlets printed in England and Saxony against monkery at the commencement of the spoliation of monasteries in both these countries, would be amazed at their similarity.(d) The same insults, the same figures of rhetoric, the same arguments, and the same follies are brought forward, only the Saxon pamphlet is more amusing than the English. In Germany, he would find men whose witticisms would make him laugh till he wept; while in England, Sampson, for instance, when he wished to be witty, knew not how to commence. Give Teniers and a common sign painter the same tavern scene to depict upon canvas; the former, by pourtraying real life, will excite your admiration, while the latter will fail to amuse you even by his caricatures. At York Place, certain orders were accused of counterfeiting money, a crime that could easily have been discovered owing to the connexion between religious houses and the people. At certain seasons of the year, every religious house was visited by some thousands of pilgrims, ie., at the principal festivals of our Lady, and at every monastery a table and a bed were placed at the traveller's disposal.

At Wittemberg, the monks were represented, when the heads of Luther and his comrades were excited by the beer of Eimback, as living representations of ignorance and covetousness; but they never, even in their moments of excitement, thought of accusing them of coining. Cromwell only required three words, supremum

(d) Compare Tisch-Reden and Burnet.