nothing extraordinary had happened. “And whereas upon the holydays during his High Chancellorship one of his gentlemen, when the service at the church was done, ordinarily used to come to my Lady his wife's pew-door, and say unto her Madam, my Lord is gone,' he came into my Lady his wife's pew himself, and making a low courtesy, said unto her, Madam, my Lord is gone,' which she imagining to be but one of his jests, as he used many unto her, he sadly affirmed unto her, that it was true. This was, the way he thought fittest to break the matter unto his wife who was full of sorrow to hear it.”† He immediately set about providing for his officers and servants who were to leave him, and he succeeded in placing them with bishops and noblemen. His state barge, which carried him to Westminster Hall and Whitehall, he transferred, with his eight watermen, to his successor. His Fool, who must have been a great proficient in jesting, practising under such a master, he made over to the Lord Mayor of London, with a stipulation that he should continue to serve the office of fool to the Lord Mayor for the time being.t After this he called together all his children and grandchildren who had dwelt with him, and asked their advice how he might now, in the decay of his ability, bear out the whole charges of them all, as he gladly would have continued to do. When they were all silent-" Then will I (said he) show unto you my mind: I have been brought up at Oxford, at an Inn of Chancery, at Lincoln's Inn, and in the King's Court, from the lowest degree to the highest; and yet have I, in yearly revenues at this present, little left me above a hundred pounds by the year: so that now, if we wish to live together, you must be content to be contributaries together. But my counsel is, that we fall not to the lowest fare first : we will not therefore, descend to Oxford fare, nor to the fare of * Roper, 54. "This fool whose name was Pattison, appears in Holbein's famous picture of the More family. One anecdote of him has been often related. When at a dinner at Guildhall, the subject of his old master having refused to take the oath of supremacy was discussed, the fool exclaimed,' Why, what aileth him that he will not swear? Wherefore should he stick to swear? I have sworn the oath myself." In the "Il Moro," an Italian account of Sir Thomas More, printed at Florence, and dedicated to Cardinal Pole, there is another anecdote of this jester, supposed to be related by the Chancellor himself, giving us not a very exalted notion of the merriment caused by these simpletons. Yesterday, while we were dining, Pattison seeing a guest with a very large nose said 'there was one at table who had been trading to the PROMONTORY OF NOSES." All eyes were turned to the great nose, though we discreetly preserved silence, that the good man might not be abashed. Pattison, perceiving the mistake he had made, tried to set himself right, and said, 'He lies who says the gentleman's nose is large for on the faith of a true knight it is rather a small one." At this all being inclined to laugh, I made signs for the fool to be turned out of the room. But Pattison, who boasted that he brought every affair that he commenced to a happy conclusion, resisted, and placing himself in my seat at the head of the table said aloud with my tone and gesture, There is one thing I would have you to know. That gentleman there has not the least bit of nose on his face,' New Inn, but we will begin with Lincoln's Inn diet, where many right worshipful men of great account and good years, do live full well; which, if we find ourselves the first year not able to maintain then will in the next year come down to Oxford fare, where many great, learned, and ancient fathers and doctors are continually conversant; which, if our purses stretch not to maintain neither, then may we after, with bag and wallet, go a begging together, hoping that for pity some good folks will give us their charity,, and at every man's door to sing a salve Regina, whereby we shall still keep company, and be merry together.' In those times there was no pensions of 5000l. a year for Exchancellors, nor sinecures for their sons; and More might truly have said "Virtute me involvo, probamque He certainly never repented the step he had taken, although, after severe sufferings, it led him to the scaffold; and, but for the persecutions of the tyrant whom he refused to serve, there can be no doubt that he would have spent most happily the remainder of his days in the bosom of his family, ardently engaged in those literary and philosophical pursuits which professional avocations and official duties had so often interrupted. He had not treated the law as a mere trade; and when the first day of term afterwards came round, he had no inclination to join in the procession to Westminster Hall-not participating the feelings of the retired tallow-chandler, who could not keep away from his old shop on "melting days." He now experienced the delightful calm which he describes in his letter of congratulation on the resignation of Lord Chancellor Warham : “I have always esteemed your most reverend fatherhood happy in your courses, not only when you executed, with great renown the office of Chancellorship, but also more happy now, when, being rid of that great care, you have betaken yourself to a most wished quietness, the better to live to yourself, and to serve God more easily; such a quietness, I say, that is not only more pleasing than all these troublesome businesses, but also more honourable far, in my judgment, than all those honours which you there enjoyed. Wherefore many, and amongst them myself do applaud and admire this your act, which proceeded from a mind, I know not whether more modest in that you would willingly forsake so magnificent a place, or more heroical in that you would condemn it, or more innocent in that you feared not to depose yourself from it; but, surely, most excellent and prudent it was to do so; for which, your rare deed, I cannot utter unto you how I rejoice for your sake, and how much I congratulate you for it, seeing your fatherhood to enjoy so honourable a fame, and to have obtained so rare a glory, by sequestering yourself far from all worldly * More, 203. businesses, from all tumults of causes, and to bestow the rest of your days, with a peaceable conscience for all your life past, in a quiet calmness, giving yourself wholly to your book, and to true Christian philosophy."* Writing now to Erasmus, he says that "he himself had obtained what, from a child, he had continually wished-that, being freed from business and public affairs, he might live for a time only to God and himself." Accordingly, he passed the first year of his retirement in reviving his recollections of favourite authors, in bringing up his acquaintance with the advancing literature of the day, in retouching his own writings, and planning new works for the further increase of his fame and the good of his fellow-creatures. His happiness was only alloyed by witnessing the measures in progress under his successor and Cromwell, which he had the sagacity to foresee would soon lead to others more violent and more mischievous. The threats to break off all intercourse with Rome having proved ineffectual, it was at last openly resolved to carry them into effect, and, without any divorce from Ca- [a. D. 1532.] therine by the Pope's authority, that the King should marry Anne Boleyn. In September, 1532, she was created Marchioness of Pembroke, and, notwithstanding the gallant defence of Burnet and other zealous Protestants, who think that the credit of the Reformation depends upon her purity, it seems probable that Queen Catherine, having been banished from Court, and taken up her abode at Ampthill, Anne, in the prospect of the performance of the ceremony, had, after a resistance of nearly six years, consented to live with Henry as his wife. On the 25th of January, 1533, she being then in a state of pregnancy, they were privately married.‡ The marriage was kept secret till Easter following, when she was declared Queen, and orders were given for her coronation. § The troubles of the Ex-chancellor now began. To give countenance to the ceremony, he was invited to be present by three Bishops as the King's messengers, who [. D. 1533.] likewise offered him 207. to buy a dress suitable to the occasion. He declined the invitation, and thereby gave mortal offence to the new Queen, who ever afterwards urged violent proceedings against * More, 207. † I must be allowed to say that I consider still more absurd the attempts of Romish zealots to make her out to have been a female of abandoned character from her early youth. See Lingard, vol. vi. ch. iii. An attempt has been made to show a marriage on the 14th Nov 1532, nine months before the birth of Queen Elizabeth, which happened on the 7th Sept. 1533; but this is disproved by the testimony of Cranmer himself. See 1 Hallam's Const. Hist. p. 84. § It is curious that Shakspeare, living so near the time, places the marriage and coronation of Anne in the life time of Cardinal Wolsey, who died three years before; but the dramatist is not more inaccurate as to dates than most of our prose historians of that period. See Hen. VIII. act. iv. him. But instead of considering him disloyal or morose, we ought rather to condemn the base servility of the clergy and nobility who yielded to every caprice of the tyrant under whom they trembled, and now heedlessly acquiesced in a measure which might have been the cause of a civil war as bloody as that between the houses of York and Lancaster. There had as yet been no sentence of divorce, nor act of parliament, to dissolve Henry's first marriage; all lawyers, in all countries, agreed that it was valid till set aside by competent authority; and the best lawyers were then of the opinion, at which I believe those most competent to consider the questiou have since arrived, that even upon the supposition of the consummation of Catherine's marriage with Arthur, (which she, a most sincere and pious lady, always solemnly denied, and which Henry when she appealed to him* did not venture to assert,) the marriage was absolutely valid;-as, according to the then existing law, the Pope's dispensation was sufficient to remove the objection of affinity; and there is no ground for saying that the Pope, in granting the dispensation, exceeded his powers by expressly violating any divine precept. Little weight is to be attributed to the divorce pronounced by Cranmer, holding his court at Dunstable, whether Catherine appeared in it or not; for there was another suit for the same cause, which had been regularly commenced in England before Wolsey and Campeggio, still pending at Rome. But all doubt as to the legitimacy of Elizabeth was removed, not only by a subsequent marriage between her parents after Cranmer's divorce, and a judgment by him that their marriage was valid, but by an act of the legislaturef, which in our country has always been supreme, notwithstanding any opposition of bishops, popes, or councils. The first attempt to wreak vengeance on More for his obstinacy, was by summoning him before the Privy Council to [A. D. 1534.] answer a charge of having been guilty of bribery while he was Lord Chancellor. · One Parnell was induced to complain of a decree obtained against him by his adversary Vaughan, whose wife, it was alleged, had bribed the Chancellor with a gilt cup. The accused party surprised the Council at first by owning that "he had received the cup as a new-year's gift." Lord Wiltshire, the King's father-in-law, indecently but prematurely exulted, "Lo! did I not tell you, my Lords, that you would find this matter true?" But, my Lords," replied More, "hear the other part of my tale. After having drunk to her of wine, with which butmy ler had filled the cup, and when she had pledged me, I restored it to her, and would listen to no refusal."‡ The only other cases of bribery brought forward against him were his acceptance of a gilt cup from a suitor of the name of Gresham, after he had given Gresham a cup of greater value for it * "De integritate corporis usque ad secundas nuptios servatâ.” † 25 Hen. 8. c. 22. in exchange; and his acceptance from a Mrs. Croker for whom he had made a decree against Lord Arundel, of a pair of gloves, in which were contained 407. in angels; but he had told her with a smile, that though it were ill manners to refuse a lady's present, and he should keep the gloves, he must return the gold, which he forced her to carry back.* The next proceeding against him, equally without foundation, wore a more alarming aspect; and, at one time, seemed fraught with destruction to him. A bill was introduced into parliament to attaint of high treason Elizabeth Barton, a woman commonly called "the Holy Maid of Kent," and her associates, upon the suggestion, that, under pretence of revelations and miracles, she had spoken disrespectfully of the King, and insisted that Catherine was still his lawful wife. She had obtained a great reputation for piety; and some sensible men of that age were inclined to think, that supernatural gifts were conferred upon her by heaven. Among these were Archbishop Warham, Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and, probably, Sir Thomas More. Being in the convent at Sion, More was prevailed upon to see and converse with her there; but he most studiously prevented her from saying a word to him about the King's divorce, the King's marriage, or the King's supremacy, or any such subject. However, this interview being reported at Court, More's name was introduced into the bill of attainder as an accomplice; not with the intention at first of making him a sacrifice, but in the expectation that, under the impending peril, his constancy would yield. He begged to be heard, to make his defence against the bill openly at the bar; but this proposal raised great alarm from his legal knowledge and his eloquence, and the influence of his name. It was resolved, therefore, that he should only be heard privately before a committee named by the King, consisting of Cranmer, the new Archbishop, Audley, the new Chancellor, the Duke of Norfolk, and Cromwell. When he came before them, in respect of the high office he had filled, they received him courteously, requesting him to sit down with them; but this he would on no account consent to. Having got him among them, instead of discussing his guilt or innocence, on the charge of treason made against him by the bill of attainder, they tried to make a convert of him to the King's views. They began quietly-telling him how many ways the King's Majesty had showed his love and favour towards him-how gladly he would have had him continue in his office- how desirous he was to have heaped still more and more benefits upon him—and, finally, that he could ask no worldly honour or profit at his Highness's hands but that he should obtain it, so that he would add his con * Ibid. 222. + We need not wonder at the credulity of the most eminent men of that age when in our own day a nobleman, distinguished by his talents and his eloquence as well as by his illustrious birth, has published a pamphlet to support two contemporaneous miraculous maids, the "Estatica" and the "Adolorata." |