1542. CHAP. stacle to their farther progress: it had been provided, by XXXII. the local statutes of most of these foundations, that no president, or any number of fellows, could consent to such a deed, without the unanimous vote of all the fellows; and this vote was not easily obtained. All such statutes were annulled by Parliament; and the revenues of these houses were now exposed to the rapacity of the king and his favourites. The church had been so long their prey, that nobody was surprised at any new inroads made upon her. From the regular, Henry now proceeded to make devastations on the secular clergy. He extorted from many of the bishops a surrender of chapter lands; and by this device he pillaged the sees of Canterbury, York, and London, and enriched his greedy parasites and flatterers with their spoils. Eccle siastical affairs. The clergy have been commonly so fortunate as to make a concern for their temporal interests go hand in hand with a jealousy for orthodoxy; and both these passions be regarded by the people, ignorant and superstitious, as proofs of zeal for religion; but the violent and headstrong character of Henry now disjoined these objects. His rapacity was gratified by plundering the church, his bigotry and arrogance by persecuting heretics. Though he engaged the Parliament to mitigate the penalties of the six articles, so far as regards the marriage of priests, which was now only subjected to a forfeiture of goods, chattels, and lands during life, he was still equally bent on maintaining a rigid purity in speculative principles. He had appointed a commission, consisting of the two archbishops, and several bishops of both provinces, together with a considerable number of doctors of divinity; and by virtue of his ecclesiastical supremacy, he had given them in charge to choose a religion for his people. Before the commissioners had made any progress in this arduous undertaking, the Parliament, in 1541, had passed a law, by which they ratified all the tenets which these divines should thereafter establish with the king's consent: and they were not ashamed of thus expressly declaring that they took their religion upon trust, and had no other rule, in spiritual as well as temporal concerns, than the arbitrary will of their mas k See note [N], at the end of the volume. 1542. ter. There is only one clause of the statute which may CHAP. seem at first sight to savour somewhat of the spirit of XXXII. liberty it was enacted, that the ecclesiastical commissioners should establish nothing repugnant to the laws and statutes of the realm. But in reality this proviso was inserted by the king to serve his own purposes. By introducing a confusion and contradiction into the laws, he became more master of every one's life and property. And as the ancient independence of the church still gave him jealousy, he was well pleased, under cover of such a clause, to introduce appeals from the spiritual to the civil courts. It was for a like reason that he would never promulgate a body of canon law; and he encouraged the judges on all occasions to interpose in ecclesiastical causes, wherever they thought the law of royal prerogative concerned. A happy innovation, though at first invented for arbitrary purposes! The king, armed by the authority of Parliament, or rather by their acknowledgment of that spiritual supremacy which he believed inherent in him, employed his commissioners to select a system of tenets for the assent and belief of the nation. A small volume was soon after published, called the Institution of a Christian Man, which was received by the convocation, and voted to be the standard of orthodoxy. All the delicate points of justification, faith, free-will, good works, and grace, are there defined with a leaning towards the opinion of the reformers the sacraments, which a few years before were only allowed to be three, were now increased to the number of seven, conformably to the sentiments of the Catholics. The king's caprice is discernible throughout the whole; and the book is in reality to be regarded as his composition: for Henry, while he made his opinion a rule for the nation, would tie his own hands by no canon or authority, not even by any which he himself had formerly established. The people had occasion, soon after, to see a farther instance of the king's inconstancy. He was not long satisfied with his Institution of a Christian Man: he ordered a new book to be composed, called the Erudition of a Christian Man; and without asking the assent of the convocation, he published by his own authority, and CHAP. that of the Parliament, this new model of orthodoxy. XXXII. It differs from the Institution'; but the king was no less 1542. positive in his new creed, than he had been in the old; and he required the belief of the nation to veer about at his signal. In both these compositions he was particularly careful to inculcate the doctrine of passive obedience; and he was equally careful to retain the nation in the practice. While the king was spreading his own books among the people, he seems to have been extremely perplexed, as were also the clergy, what course to take with the Scriptures. A review had been made, by the synod, of the new translation of the Bible; and Gardiner had proposed, that instead of employing English expressions throughout, several Latin words should still be preserved; because they contained, as he pretended, such peculiar energy and significance, that they had no correspondent terms in the vulgar tongue". Among these were, ecclesia, pœnitentia, pontifex, contritus, holocausta, sacramentum, elementa, ceremonia, mysterium, presbyter, sacrificium, humilitas, satisfactio, peccatum, gratia, hostia, charitas, &c. But as this mixture would have appeared extremely barbarous, and was plainly calculated for no other purpose than to retain the people in their ancient ignorance, the proposal was rejected. The knowledge of the people, however, at least their disputative turn, seemed to be an inconvenience still more dangerous; and the king and Parliament", soon after the publication of the Scriptures, retracted the concession which they had formerly made, and prohibited all but gentlemen and merchants from perusing them °. Even that liberty was not granted without an apparent hesitation, and a dread of the consequences: these persons were allowed to read, so it be done quietly and with good order. And the preamble to the act sets forth, that many seditious and ignorant persons had abused the liberty granted them of reading the Bible, and that great diversity of opinion, animosities, 1 Collier, vol. ii. p. 190. n Which met on the 22d of January, 1543. m Burnet, vol. i. p. 315. 。 33 Hen. VIII. c. 1. The reading of the Bible, however, could not at that time have much effect in England, where so few persons had learned to read. There were but five hundred copies printed of this first authorized edition of the Bible; a book of which there are now several millions of copies in the kingdom. tumults, and schisms, had been occasioned by perverting CHAP. the sense of the Scriptures." It seemed very difficult XXXII. to reconcile the king's model for uniformity with the permission of free inquiry. The mass-book also passed under the king's revisal, and little alteration was as yet made in it: some doubtful or fictitious saints only were struck out, and the name of the pope was erased. This latter precaution was likewise used with regard to every new book that was printed, or even old book that was sold. The word pope was carefully omitted or blotted out"; as if that precaution could abolish the term from the language, or as if such a persecution of it did not rather imprint it more strongly in the memory of the people. The king took care, about this time, to clear the churches from another abuse which had crept into them. Plays, interludes, and farces, were there often acted in derision of the former superstitions; and the reverence of the multitude for ancient principles and modes of worship was thereby gradually effaced. We do not hear that the Catholics attempted to retaliate, by employing this powerful engine against their adversaries, or endeavoured, by like arts, to expose that fanatical spirit by which, it appears, the reformers were frequently actuated. Perhaps the people were not disposed to relish a jest on that side: perhaps the greater simplicity and the more spiritual abstract worship of the Protestants gave less hold to ridicule, which is commonly founded on sensible representations. It was, therefore, a very agreeable concession which the king made to the Catholic party, to suppress entirely these religious comedies. Thus Henry laboured incessantly, by arguments, creeds, and penal statutes, to bring his subjects to an uniformity in their religious sentiments: but as he entered himself, with the greatest earnestness, into all those scholastic disputes, he encouraged the people, by his example, to apply themselves to the study of theology; and it was in vain afterwards to expect, however present fear might restrain their tongues or pens, that they would cordially agree in any set of tenets or opinions prescribed to them. P Parliamentary History, vol. iii. p. 113. a Burnet, vol. i. p. 318. 1542. CHAP. 1542. Scotland. CHAPTER XXXIII. WAR WITH SCOTLAND.-VICTORY AT SOLWAY.-DEATH OF JAMES V.-TREATY HENRY, being determined to avenge himself on the King XXXIII of Scots for slighting the advances which he had made him, would gladly have obtained a supply from ParliaWar with ment, in order to prosecute that enterprise; but as he did not think it prudent to discover his intentions, that assembly, conformably to their frugal maxims, would understand no hints; and the king was disappointed in his expectations. He continued, however, to make preparations for war; and as soon as he thought himself in a condition to invade Scotland, he published a manifesto, by which he endeavoured to justify hostilities. He complained of James's breach of word, in declining the promised interview, which was the real ground of the quarrel": but in order to give a more specious colouring to the enterprise, he mentioned other injuries; namely, that his nephew had granted protection to some English rebels and fugitives, and had detained some territory which Henry pretended belonged to England. He even revived the old claim to the vassalage of Scotland, and he summoned James to do homage to him as his liege lord and superior. He employed the Duke of Norfolk, whom he called the scourge of the Scots, to command in the war; and though James sent the Bishop of Aberdeen, and Sir James Learmont of Darsay, to appease his uncle, he would hearken to no terms of accommodation. While Norfolk was assembling his army at Newcastle, Sir Robert Bowes, attended by Sir Ralph Sadler, Sir Ralph Evers, Sir Brian Latoun, and others, made an incursion into Scotland, and advanced towards Jedburgh, with an intention of pillaging and destroying that town. The Earl of Angus and George a Buchanan, lib. 14. Drummond in James the Fifth. |