This is the tenth volume of the History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, and the fifth of the Second Series. A faithful history of the Reformation is now perhaps more necessary to that country than to any other.
CONTENTS
SEPARATES ENGLAND FROM THE PAPACY
First Bible of the Reformation — The Printer and the Impression — Olivetan’s Appeal to the Church Conversions after the Disputation. Hidden Errors — Formation of a living and united Church — Order of the Council — The Centre and the Head.
A CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE REFORMATION
The king immediately forwarded the same question to all the ecclesiastical corporations of the kingdom. The name of the king’s old tutor was left, therefore, in the bill of attainder.
BEGINNING OF DANGER FOR THE QUEEN AND FOR TYNDALE
The moment seemed favorable for getting rid of him: he was actually in the states of Charles V., that great enemy of the. He had placed two agents at the entrance, who were sitting at each side of the alley.
THE KING-PONTIFF AGAINST THE ROMAN- CATHOLICS AND THE PAPACY
The world will change again, you will see, and that too before long.’ — ‘But we have made oath to the king as head of the Church,’ said some persons to a priest. The first act passed by parliament was the ratification of the king’s new rifle, already officially recognized by the clergy.
LIGHT FROM BOTH SIDES
The friends of More and Fisher wished to restore the papacy of the Roman bishop; Henry VIII., Cromwell, and the court. Gardiner, and the other bishops of the catholic party cried out against such a monstrous design: ‘The teaching of the Church is sufficient,’ they said;. He therefore turned his mind at once to the realization of the plan he had so much at heart.
That old man, throned in the Vatican on the traditions of the School and the bulls of his predecessors, is their judge: they are bound to follow exactly his line, without wavering either to the right or the left. Such a system, the enemy of every liberty, even of the most legitimate, rose in the sixteenth century like a high wall to separate Rome and the new generation. No, the king is not head of the Church of England.’ A few minutes later and these monks, dressed in the robes of their order, were swinging in the air.
This was one of the crimes committed when the unlawful tiara of the pontiffs was placed unlawfully on the head of a king of England.
EXECUTION OF BISHOP FISHER AND SIR THOMAS MORE
The bishop would give no answer to the demand that he should recognize the king as head of the Church. They reached Smithfield ‘We will help you to ascend,’ said his bearers at the foot of the scaffold. The noble bearing and piety of the aged bishop inspired all around him with respect.
One of the Tower wardens marched in front, bearing an axe with the edge turned towards More; fm138 it was a token to the people of the prisoner’s fate. At length she heard the steps of the approaching guards, and saw her father appear. Fisher and More,’ he was to say, ‘had on all points of the internal policy of England come to conclusions diametrically opposed to the quiet and prosperity of the kingdom.
Fisher and More alone opposed laws which had been accepted by the general consent of the people, and were necessary to the prosperity of the kingdom.
VISITATION OF THE MONASTERIES: THEIR SCANDALS AND SUPPRESSION
The revenues of the religious orders are far greater than those of all the nobility of England. The cloister schools have fallen into decay, and the wants of the age require better ones. Certainly,’ he added, ‘I can make a better use of the money which the monks waste in their debaucheries.
The visitation of the monasteries began with those of Canterbury, the primatial church of England. There was one house for monks and another for nuns, and the blacksmith of the monastery. The Bill for the suppression of the monasteries passed the two Houses on the 4th of February, 1536.
The inhabitants of the cloisters were strangers in the world: England was to them an unknown land.
UNION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH THE PROTESTANTS OF GERMANY
Morus,’ he exclaimed, ‘has been put to death, and others with him.’ The cruelties of the king tortured the gentle Philip. While the king was uniting with the Confession of Augsburg, his relations with the most decided partisans of the papacy were far from improving. There was already some talk of sending the princess to the Tower, when the evangelical Cranmer ventured to intercede in behalf of the catholic Mary.
She had yielded to her imagination, to the absolute will of the king; her marriage had given her some moments of happiness, bug her sold was often troubled. At the same time Catherine’s death facilitated, as we have said, the alliance of the king with the protestants of Germany, who had maintained the validity of his marriage with the princess of Aragon. This alliance of the king with the Lutherans deeply chafed the catholics of the kingdom, already so seriously offended by the suppression of the monasteries and the punishment of the two men to whom Henry (they said) was most indebted.
But the blow which had struck two great victims had taught them that they must submit to the will of the monarch or perish.
ACCUSATION OF ANNE
Many of the queen’s pensioners did great service to the Church and State in after years. Latimer preached the Lent Sermons before the king, he was one of the most regular instruments of the queen’s active charity. The members of the ultramontane party saw the influence of the queen in all these nominations.
Norris, a gentleman of the king’s chamber, was engaged to Margaret, one of Anne’s maids of honor, and consequently was often in the queen’s apartments. Lord Rocheford, the queen’s brother, was the principal challenger, and Henry Norris was chief of the defenders. Kingston,’ she asked, ‘shall I die without justice?’ ‘Madam,’ answered the governor, ‘the meanest subject of the king has that.’ At these words the queen again laughed hysterically.
That she was innocent, he had no doubt; but how account for the behavior of the king.
ANNE FORGIVES HER ENEMIES, AND IS PUT TO DEATH
We see Anne thoroughly in this letter, one of the most touching that was ever written. He would strip her of the name of wife, and pretend that she had only been his concubine. Before her went the governor of the Tower, behind her came Lady Kingston and Lady Boleyn.
On the 17th of May the gentlemen who were to be executed were brought together into a hall of the Tower. On the very day of Anne Boleyn’s divorce, Da Casale, the English envoy at Rome, having heard of the queen’s imprisonment, hurried to the. Before taking it, she once more declared her innocence of the crime imputed to her.
The proofs of Anne’s crimes failing, the ferocious acts of the king were to supply their place.
REFORMING MOVEMENT AFTER ANNE’S DEATH;
CATHOLIC AND SCHOLASTIC REACTION
Why should a king, who is the supreme head of the State, occupy a similar place in the Church. If we may trust the arguments of your doctors, we must conclude that Nero was the head of the Church. After the words of the profane and of the pious came the words of the priests.
Forty priors and mitred abbots, members of the upper house, seemed to assure victory to the partisan of tradition. Petre, one of the convent visitors, whom the primate seated by his side — a delegate of a delegate. Let us seek Christ’s glory, the peace of the Church, and the means by which sins are forgiven.
It is better to give way,’ said Cromwell to Alesius; ‘I do not want to expose you to the hatred of the prelates.
A MOVEMENT OF SCHOLASTIC CATHOLICISM INAUGURATED BY THE KING
EVANGELICAL REACTION
The doctrine of the authority of the prince over the dogmas of the Church now became a fact. Everybody was eager to know what doctrines the new head of the Church was going to proclaim. That is the whole substance of the catholic doctrine,’ the partisans of Rome might urge.
Wishing to tone down what savored too much of the schools in the kings articles, he circulated among all the priests some instructions which were passably evangelical. BIBLIA, the Bible, that is to say, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; and reached England in the early part of 1536. The decapitated queen’s name was Anne, that of the queen-regnant was Jeanne: there was a resemblance between them.
His church was ornamented with images of the Virgin and Saints, before which the devout used to stick up tapers.
INSURRECTION OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND TO RESTORE THE PAPACY AND DESTROY
THE REFORMATION
Neither the king’s highness nor any temporal man,’ they said, ‘may be supreme head of the Church. On Monday morning one of the commissioners, who had no suspicions, quietly rode into the town, followed by a single servant. In England, almost all the nobility of the North rallied to it of their own accord.
They come forward in the name of the Church, and fight against the Church, which is the congregation of faithful men. Let us fight with the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.’. The Roman-catholic army arrived on the banks of the Don, on the other side of which (at Doncaster) the king’s forces were stationed.
There could no longer be any doubt, that the object of the insurrection was to crush the Reformation.
THE DEATH OF THE GREAT REFORMER OF ENGLAND
Two other editions of the New Testament appeared during the first year of his captivity. The king should know that the death of this man will be one of the highest pleasures to the enemies of the Gospel. The latter presented the letters of Cromwell and of the marquis to the president, but the archbishop and the council of Brabant were opposed to Tyndale.
Among such personages, and under their influence, the court was formed, and the trial of the reformer of England began. It was not his own cause that he undertook to defend, but the cause of the Bible;. We may well say that the blood of a martyr, precious in the eyes of the Supreme King, opened the gates of England to the Holy Scriptures.
The general dissemination of the Holy Scriptures forms an important epoch in the Reformation of England.
PROGRESS, STRUGGLES, AND MARTYRS OF THE REFORMATION IN GENEVA
