Abjurations went on, as usual, after his accession to the throne; and the Clergy admired him not less than the Commons. Within less than a year after his coronation, Pope Julius II. expressed his favour towards him by a special act, which is recorded in a letter to Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Julius, desiring to bestow some signal apostolic gift on his dearest Son in Christ, Henry, most illustrious King of England, whom he embraced with a peculiar charity, in order to do him honour in the beginning of his reign, sent him a golden rose, anointed with sacred chrism, sprinkled with odoriferous musk, and blessed with his own hands, after the manner of the Roman Pontiffs, to be given to His Majesty at mass, with ceremonies prescribed, and an apostolic blessing.*

After an interval of about three years, persecution broke out again in the bishopric of Canterbury. A numerous congregation of praying people in Tenterden, Kent, was to be dispersed. Archbishop Warham had several small companies of them brought before him at his residence in Knoll, where they were examined, convicted of heresy, and required to abjure. The court then adjourned to Lambeth, and continued to examine, convict, exact abjuration, impose penance, and make the penitents swear that they would discover all whom they knew to hold prohibited opinions. Either from a prevalent notion that compulsory oaths and abjurations were not binding, or from terror prevailing over conscience, many submitted, and a few betrayed their brethren; but three failed to satisfy the Priests. William Carter would not deny that it was enough to pray to God alone, and therefore needless to address prayer to saints; and some who had been united with him in the meetings at Tenterden swore that he had taught them other obnoxious truths. He was pronounced an obstinate heretic, and given up to the secular power. Agnes Grevill was indicted on the same articles. She pleaded, "Not guilty;" but her husband and two sons were brought as witnesses. Her husband swore that, for twenty-eight years, she had persisted in holding forbidden opinions; and her sons deposed, that she had always endeavoured to imbue them with her sentiments. Robert Harrison also pleaded, "Not guilty;" but witnesses were found to prove the contrary; and the Archbishop, on the same day, signed the writs for certifying the sentences to the Chancery, concluding in these words: "Our holy mother, the Church, having nothing further that she can do in this matter, we leave the forementioned heretics, and every one of them, to your Royal Highness, and to your secular Council." John Brown loaded with the shame that covered Tiberius, because of his cruelty and other crimes. France has gone yet further. France has canonized Clovis, and regards him as the founder of the Christian religion in this kingdom; and perhaps even my Lord of Meaux has often invoked him in his prayers, and taught Monsieur the Dauphin to trust in the merits of that Prince, as in those of St. Louis. Yet this father of the Christian religion disgraced his life by enormous and innumerable crimes.✶ ✶✶ ✶ But how can it be said that Henry introduced new and unheard-of dogmas when he combated the tyranny of the Pope, image-worship, and some other abuses, of which the reform had been a thousand times demanded; and seeing the Lollards and Vaudois professed in England the same religion, of which Henry VIII. began to form the establishment ?"-Histoire de la Réligion des Eglises Réformées, partie IIme., chap. 9me.

* Burnet, book i., Collection of Records, ii.

WILLIAM SWEETING AND JAMES BREWSTER.

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and Edward Walker were dealt with in the same manner. A plea of "Not guilty" availed them not. If they thought that by any casuistry the peril of confessing Christ might be eluded, they were deceived. The circumstances of their execution are not related; but of the fact there can be no doubt* (A.D. 1511).

Disobedience to the inquisitorial discipline of the Church was as grave an offence as heresy, and to be punished with equal rigour, as is exemplified in the execution of William Sweeting and James Brewster. The former of these had served the Prior of St. Osithe's for sixteen years, and so effectually taught him scriptural truths, that he became suspected of heresy, and was compelled to abjure. The faithful servant was committed to the Lollards' Tower at St. Paul's, then abjured in the Cathedral, was made to carry a faggot at the Cross, and to do the same at Colchester, his native town, with the perpetual penance of wearing a faggot on his left sleeve. For two years he carried the badge, until the Parson of Colchester employed him in the service of the church, and, as it would be unseemly for a holy-water Clerk to carry a mark of heresy, caused him to put it off. From Colchester he removed to a place under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester, where he was holy-water Clerk for another year; thence to Chelsea, where he obtained employment as neatherd, and kept the cattle for the town. One morning, as he was driving the kine to pasture, he was apprehended and taken before the Bishop, and his chamber searched for books. The charges were, that he had conversed with heretics, dissuaded his wife from going on pilgrimage, and burning candles before images, and said something contrary to the doctrine of transubstantiation. These offences were irremissible, because he had thrown aside the faggot. James Brewster, another Colchester man, was also apprehended, and convicted of having taken off his faggot, at the command of the Comptroller of the Earl of Oxford, who employed him on one of his Lordship's estates, and would not allow a servant under his direction to wear a badge of priestly tyranny. He was also charged with having been "five times" in the fields with his townsman, Sweeting, together with some few others who were named, hearing him read out of a prohibited book. had worked at the same bench with a heretical carpenter. He possessed a little book of Scripture in English, of an old writing, almost illegible for age. He had heard one Master Bardfield, of Colchester, say, "He that will not worship Maozim † in heart and thought shall die in sight;" but, being so ignorant as not to know that the word means mass-god," or "host," gave Master Bardfield sore offence. And he had expressed himself heretically in some private conversations. The two friends made no defence, but meekly submitted themselves to the mercy of their Judges, who gave judgment that they should be released from excommunication; but the Bishop of London sentenced them, notwithstanding, as relapsed heretics, * Burnet, part i., book i.

He

“strongholds." The title of a Syrian idol, (Dan. xi. 38,) sagely applied to their "massing god" by some Romish triflers. Amused with a similar alliteration, they translate "a sufficiency," by missa, "the masă!”

delivered them to the secular arm; and they were burnt in Smithfield at one fire* (Oct. 18th, 1511).

So did the church of God yield her victims to Antichrist at intervals of every few years. A persecution in some part of the kingdom. would disperse or burn the most devoted members of the humble brotherhood, and impose the brand or the faggot on some other more conspicuous confessors. A calm succeeded, but to be followed by a like tempest in some other quarter, ending again in fire and faggot. This state of things continued for, at least, thirty-five years after the burning of Sweeting and Brewster; but a new train of events, having no relation whatever to spiritual religion, began to open the way for Christian liberty in England. The exemption of the Clergy from criminal jurisdiction had long been found subversive of public order and morality; and in the preceding reign† an Act of Parliament prescribed, that Clerks convicted should be burnt in the hand, unless they could produce their letters of orders, or a certificate from their Ordinary, within a day. But criminous Clerks were not to be restrained by so slight a terror. The layman who should dare to read his New Testament exhibited openly a seared cheek; while the incorrigible mass-Priest only carried a scar on the palm, quite out of sight. This expedient was too feeble to avail: robberies, assaults, and murders were still perpetrated with impunity under the shield of ecclesiastical privilege. The House of Commons, therefore, enacted, that all murderers and robbers should be denied the benefit of their Clergy; but the Lords would not consent to so heavy a blow on the power of the Church, and limited the Act to persons in lesser orders, still exempting the Bishop, Priest, and Deacon (January 26th, 1513). The Clergy ought to have submitted to this compromise; but, seeing that the whole body of unordained Monks, all Nuns, and swarms of holy-water Clerks, and menials in the service of the churches, were thus made amenable to the same tribunal as other men, and that the charm of personal inviolability would be broken, clamoured against the Act. The Abbot of Winchelcombe denounced it in a sermon at Paul's Cross, as contrary to the law of God and the liberties of holy Church; and declared, that all who assented to it, as well spiritual as temporal persons, incurred the censures of the Church. The temporal Lords and the Commons took fire at this demonstration of monkish lawlessness, and called on the King to repress the insolence of the Clergy. The King summoned his Council, and all the Judges, to hear and to debate the question. Dr. Standish, chief of the King's spiritual Council, argued for the new law; and, on the other side, the Abbot of Winchelcombe represented the Church. Worsted in dispute, he was desired by the Council and Judges to go to St. Paul's Cross and recant his offensive sermon; but he refused, and all the Bishops sustained him in the refusal. Both parties were immovable, yet each dreaded the consequences * Foxe, book vii.

† An. 4 et 5, Hen. VII., c. 12. No credential had been previously required from those who claimed the benefit of Clergy. If a criminal could but read, he enjoyed immunity as a Clerk.

I An. 4, Hen. VIII., c. 2. "Such as ben within holy orders only exempt." The lawyers did not acknowledge the lesser orders to be included in the term "holy."

HENRY VIII. IN FRANCE.

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of a rupture between the spiritual and temporal powers. The quarrel was suspended, not settled, and an incident soon occurred to raise the question again.*

Meanwhile a new personage appeared on the field of ecclesiastical and civil politics, but fell, unconsciously to himself, into the grasp of the Sovereign Providence that made him, almost from that time, a chief instrument in breaking off the Papal yoke from England.

Thomas Wolsey, Chaplain and Almoner to the King, son of a butcher at Ipswich, but afterwards eminent for learning in Oxford, now about forty years of age, and, by promotion from the University to the court, stimulated to insatiable ambition, already exerted great influence over Henry, a well educated, but impetuous, young man of one-and-twenty. Wolsey found him strongly addicted to the study of scholasticism and canon law, proud of his fancied attainments as a theologian, fervently attached to the Church of Rome, and anxious to shine in the eyes of Christendom as a brave, magnificent, and religious Prince,-religious, as the word was understood, however godless. Wolsey conceived the design of making himself so useful, acceptable, and necessary to the King and to the court of Rome, as to render both subservient to his own advancement. Occasion offered. Maximilian I. and Louis XII. were at war with each other; and as Maximilian was then leagued with the Pope, and Louis, on the other hand, was prosecuting by force of arms some dynastic claims in Italy, the latter was regarded as an enemy of the Church. Wolsey persuaded, or, if he did not persuade, assiduously encouraged, Henry to make war on Louis, and invade France, in compliance with an exhortation from Pope Julius. The King professed to undertake the war according to his duty to God and to his Church, for the defence of the Church, and for the extinction of a detestable schism, aiding such of his confederates and allies as should join him "in that God's quarrel." "Faile ye not to accomplish the premises," wrote he to Sir David Owen, with a command to bring a hundred men for the expedition, "as ye tender the honour and suretie of us, and of this our realme, and the advauncement and furtheraunce of this meritorious voyage." The royal Chaplain displayed his zeal by going over to Calais with the King, and discharging the unclerical office of victualling the army, deeming this diligence so far meritorious as to entitle him to future compensation from Rome and from the Emperor. The Church rewarded him speedily, the Emperor courted him, and his successor gave him a promise of assistance for election to the Papal throne on the first vacancy. This promise was not kept; Wolsey became disappointed and disgusted; and, while revenging himself on Charles V., unwittingly promoted a schism in the Church. His very zeal for Popery thus led to our deliverance from its oppression; when, after a long career of power, his haughty spirit had suddenly brought him to a fall.

Henry had not long returned from France when the dispute concerning clerical privilege was renewed. Richard Hun, a merchant*Burnet, part i., book i.

Strype, Memorials Ecclesiastical, vol. i., part ii., Appendix, No. 1.

tailor in the city of London, a man of unblemished reputation, reputed to be "a good Catholic," and possessing considerable property, sent a child to nurse in a neighbouring parish.* The infant died at the age of five weeks: the Parson, Thomas Dryfield, claimed a bearingsheet as his perquisite; but Hun considered the demand unreasonable, and refused to pay. Dryfield sued him in the spiritual court; Hun found himself obliged to take legal advice in his defence, and, at the instance of his Counsel, sued the Priest in a præmunire † for having brought a subject of the King before a foreign court, that court sitting under the authority of the Pope's Legate. The Priests, and especially Fitz-James, Bishop of London, were exceedingly provoked at a proceeding that tended to lower their temporal power in England; and, to perplex the case and baffle the civil court, they charged Hun with heresy, and shut him up in the Lollards' Tower, (the tower of St. Gregory's church, which was contiguous with the cathedral, and so called because used as a prison for heretics,) where none of his friends were allowed to visit him. Dr. Horsey, the Bishop's Chancellor, undertook to manage the affair, and being, ex officio, Warder of the Tower, he also acted as prosecutor of the prisoner, and brought him before Fitz-James, in his new palace at Fulham, on Friday, December 2d, 1514. The Bishop, seated in his chapel, proceeded to take evidence of the Lollardism of this persecuted citizen. Horsey and some other Priests were the only persons professing to be witnesses: their affirmation passed as proof sufficient and they had no difficulty in making out six articles to the effect, that Hun had disputed against tithes; compared Priests and Bishops to the Scribes and Pharisees who crucified Christ; spoken freely of the immorality and covetousness of the Clergy; sympathised with Joan Baker, a woman recently abjured; and "that the said Richard Hun hath, in his keeping, divers English books prohibited and damned by the law as the Apocalypse in English, Epistles and Gospels in English, Wycliffe's damnable works, and other books containing infinite errors, in which he hath been a long time accustomed to read, teach, and study daily." In all this there was nothing unlikely; for thousands gave expression to such views, and possessed and read such books. The episcopal register contained no answer to these charges; but, in another hand, the following words were found written: "As touching these articles, I have not spoken them as they be here laid; howbeit, unadvisedly I have spoken words somewhat sounding to the same, for which I am sorry, and ask God mercy, and submit me to my Lord's charitable and favourable correction.” There was no signature, nor any evidence that the writing was of his hand. while Horsey and his victim were away at other servants, gossiping in their kitchen that he would suffer a grievous penance. the notion of penance; and, probably *St. Mary Matfilon.-Foxe.

Now it is remarkable, that Fulham, Horsey's cook and in London, were predicting Some, indeed, went beyond interpreting words they had

Præmunire (for præmoneri) facias A. B. "You shall summon A. B. to appear," &c., are the first words of the writ issued in prosecution of one who has resorted to a foreign judicature, or obeyed a foreign authority, as, for example, of the Pope. The offence itself, also, is hence called a præmunire.