CHAPTER 10.
coming of Antichrist; the mendicant friars scattered discontent in every house which they entered, the most fanatical of them not fearing to insinuate that the wrath of God would soon hurl the impious prince from his throne. In towns and villages, in castles and alehouses, men talked of nothing but the divorce and the primacy claimed by the king. Women standing at their doors, men gathering round the blacksmith’s forge, spoke more or less disrespectfully of parliament, the bishops, the dangers of the Romish Church, and the prospects of the Reformation. If a few friends met at night’ around the hearth, they told strange tales to one another. The king, queen, pope, devil, saints, Cromwell, and the higher clergy formed the subject of their conversation. The gypsies at that time strolling through the country added to the confusion. Sometimes they would appear in the midst of these animated discussions, and prophesy lamentable events, at times calling up the dead to make them speak of the future. The terrible calamities they predicted froze their hearers with affright, and their sinister prophecies were the cause of disorders and even of crimes. Accordingly an act was passed pronouncing the penalty of banishment against them. fj122 An unfortunate event tended still more to strike men’s imaginations. It was reported that the Bishop of Rochester, that prelate so terrible to the reformers and so good to the poor, had narrowly escaped being poisoned by his cook. Seventeen persons were taken ill after eating porridge at the episcopal palace. One of the bishop’s gentlemen died, as well as a poor woman to whom the remains of the food had been given. It was
maliciously remarked that the bishop was the only one who frankly opposed the divorce and the royal supremacy. Calumny even aimed at the throne. When Henry heard of this, he resolved to make short work of all such nonsense; he ordered the offense to be deemed as high-treason, and the wretched cook was taken to Smithfield, there to be boiled to death. fj123 This was a variation of the penalty pronounced upon the evangelicals.
Such was the cruel justice of the sixteenth century.
While the universities, parliament, convocation, and the nation appeared to support Henry VIII., one voice was raised against the divorce. It was that of a young man brought up by the king, and that voice moved him deeply.
There still remained in England some scions of the house of York, and among them a nephew of that unhappy Warwick whom Henry VII. had cruelly put to death. Warwick had left a sister Margaret, and the king,
desirous of appeasing the remorse he suffered on account of the tragical end of that prince, ‘the most innocent of men,’ fj124 had married her t6 Sir Richard Pole, a gentleman of her own family. She was left a widow with two daughters and three sons. The youngest, Reginald, became a favorite with Henry VIII., who destined him for the archiepiscopal see of
Canterbury. ‘Your kindnesses are such,’ said Pole to him, ‘that a king could grant no more, even to a son.’ fj125 But Reginald, to whom his mother had told the story of the execution of the unhappy Warwick, had
contracted an invincible hatred against the Tudors. Accordingly, in despite of certain evangelical tendencies, Pole, seeing Henry separating from the pope, resolved to throw himself into the arms of the pontiff. Reginald, invested with the Roman purple, rose to be president of the council and primate of all England under Queen Mary. Elegant in his manners, with a fine intellect, and sincere in his religious convictions, he was selfish, irritable, and ambitious. Desires of elevation and revenge led a noble nature astray. If the branch of which he was the representative was ever to recover the crown, it could only be by the help of the Roman pontiffs.
Henceforward their cause was his. Loaded with benefits by Henry VIII., he was incessantly pursued by the recollection of the rights of Rome and of the White Rose; and he went so far as to insult before all Europe the prince who had been his first friend.
At this time Pole was living at a house in the country, which Henry had given him. One day he received at this charming retreat a communication from the Duke of Norfolk. ‘The king destines you for the highest honors of the English Church,’ wrote this nobleman, ‘and offers you at once the important sees of York and Winchester, left vacant by the death of Cardinal Wolsey.’ At the same time the duke asked Pole’s opinion about the divorce. Reginald’s brothers, and particularly Lord Montague,
entreated him to answer as all the catholic world had answered, and not irritate a prince whose anger would ruin them all. The blood of Warwick and the king’s revolt against Rome induced Pole to reject with horror all the honors which Henry offered; and yet that prince was his benefactor.
He fancied he had discovered a middle course which would permit him to satisfy alike his conscience and his king.
He went to Whitehall, where Henry received him like a friend. Pole hesitated in distress; he wished to let the king know his thoughts, but the
words would not come to his lips. At last, encouraged by the prince’s affability, he summoned up his resolution, and, in a voice trembling with emotion, said: ‘You must not separate from the queen.’ Henry had
expected something different. Is it thus that his kindnesses are repaid? His eyes flashed with anger, and he laid his hand on his sword. Pole humbled himself. ‘If I possess any knowledge, to whom do I owe it unless to your Majesty? In listening to me you are listening to your own pupil.’ fj126 The king recovered himself, and said, — ‘I will consider your opinion, and send you my answer.’ Pole withdrew. ‘He put me in such a passion,’ said the king to one of his gentlemen, ‘that I nearly struck him… But there is something in the man that wins my heart.’
Montague and Reginald’s other brother again conjured him to accept the high position which the king reserved for him; but his soul revolted at being subordinate to a Tudor. He therefore wrote a memoir, which he presented to Henry, and in which he entreated him to submit implicitly the divorce question to the court of Rome. ‘How could I speak against your marriage with the queen?’ he said. ‘Should I not accuse your Majesty of having lived for more than twenty years in an unlawful union? fj127 By the divorce you will array all the powers against you, — the pope, the emperor; and as for the French… we can never find in our hearts to trust them. You are at this moment on the verge of an abyss… One step more, and all is over. fj128 There is only one way of safety left your Grace, and that is submission to the pope.’ Henry was moved. The boldness with which this young nobleman dared accuse him, irritated his pride; still his friendship prevailed, and he forgave it. Pole received the permission he had asked to leave England, with the promise of the continued payment of his pension.
Reginald Pole was, as it were, the last link that united the royal pair. Thus far the king had continued to show the queen every respect; their mutual affection seemed the same, only they occupied separate rooms. fj129 Henry now decided to take an important step. On the 14th of July a new
deputation entered the queen’s apartment, one of whom informed her that as her marriage with Prince Arthur had been duly consummated she could not be the wife of her husband’s brother. Then after reproaching her with having, contrary to the laws of England and the dignity of the crown, cited his Majesty before the pope’s tribunal, he desired her to choose for her
residence either the castle of Oking or of Estamsteed, or the monastery of Bisham. Catherine remained calm, and replied, — ‘Wheresoever I retire, nothing can deprive me of the title which belongs to me. I shall always be his Majesty’s wife.’ fj130 She left Windsor the same day, and removed to the More, a splendid mansion which Wolsey had surrounded with beautiful gardens; then to Estamsteed, and finally to Ampthill. The king never saw her again; but all the papists and discontented rallied round her.
She entered into correspondence with the sovereigns of Europe, and became the center of a party opposed to the emancipation of England.