the king's bloody, that he should not only have his pardon, but also be sent for to Rome, and promoted to be of the king's council. In this article I will answer no more but this: if ever any cardinal or legate were beneficial unto this realm, we may have some hope of some other to follow his steps: but if all that ever were in this realm were pernicious and hurtful unto the same, I know not why we should be with child to long for any more. For by the experience of them that have been heretofore, we may conjecture of them that be to come. And I fear me that cardinal Pole would follow rather the whole race of the rest, than to begin a better of himself. Surely I have read a book of his making, which whosoever shall read, if he have a true y ["He was of the blood royal, and cousin-germain to the king, (Henry VIII.), by both the houses of York and Lancaster, being by his mother descended from the duke of Clarence, brother to king Edward IV.;" and was "educated with princely munificence by him." See also Collier's Eccl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 389. ed. Lond. 1840, 41. Burnet's Hist. of Reformat. vol.i. p. 444. ed. Oxon. 1829, and Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. pp. 421, 422. ed. Lond. 1845.] z ["Blood, should not." MS. C.C.C.C.] a [The book is intituled by Strype and Collier, "De Unione Ecclesiastica," by Burnet, "De Unitate Ecclesiastica; written against Henry's divorce from queen Katherine, and his " it was "His assuming the supremacy. * [Cotton MSS. Cleop. E. vi. fol. 334. British Museum.] heart to our late sovereign lord king Henry VIII., or to this realm, he will judge cardinal Pole neither worthy to dwell in this realm, nor yet to live: For he doth extend all his wits and eloquence in that book to persuade the bishop of Rome, the emperor, the French king, and all other princes, to invade this realm by force. And sure I am, that if you have him, you must have the bishop of Rome also. For the cardinal cannot be a subject, but where the other is his head. This sufficeth briefly to this article. Your thirteenth article is this: We will that no gentleman shall have any more servants than one to wait upon him, except he may dispend one hundred mark land. And for every hundred mark we think it reasonable he should have a man. Yet have you not foreseen one thing, you wise disposers of the commonwealth. For if a gentleman of an hundred mark land, (who by your order must have but one ser111 vant, except he might spend two hundred marks), should send that one servant to London, you have not provided who shall wait upon him until his servant come home again. Nor you have not provided where every gentleman may have one servant that can do all things necessary for him. I fear me the most part of you that devised this article, (whom I take to be loiterers and idle unthrifts), if you should serve a gentleman, he should be fain to do all things himself, for any thing that you could or would do for him. But one thing methink very strange : "See an analysis of cardinal Pole's See also above, pp. 116, 555, n. y, Burnet ut supra, vol. i. pp. 11-16; and Todd's Life of abp. Cranmer, vol. ii. p. 132.] b ["Of an hundred pounds land." MS. C.C.C.C.] for where much complaint is made of divers gentlemen, because they keep not houses, you provide by your order that no gentleman shall keep house, but all shall sojourn with other men. For who can keep an household with one servant, or with two servants, after the rate of two hundred marks, or with three, after the rate of three hundred, and so upward? For here, it seems, you be very desirous to make gentlemen rich: for after this proportion every gentleman may lay up clearly in his coffers at the least the one half of his yearly revenue, and much more. But it was not for good mind that you bare to the gentlemen that you devised this article; but it appeareth plainly that you devised it to diminish their strength, and to take away their friends, that you might command gentlemen at your pleasures. But you be much deceived in your account. For although by your appointment they lacked household servants, yet shall they not lack tenants and farmers which, if they do their duties, will be as assured to their lords as their own household servants. For of those lands, which they have or hold of their lords, they have their whole livings for themselves, their wives, children, and servants. And for all these they attend their own business, and wait not upon their lords but when they be called thereto. But the household servant, leaving all his own business, waiteth daily and continually upon his master's service; and for the same hath no more but meat and drink and apparel for himself only so that all tenants and farmers, which know their duties, and be kind to their lords, will die and live with them, no less than their own household servants. Therefore I would wish you to put this fantasy out of your heads, and this article out of your book, as well for the unreasonableness as for the ungodliness thereof. ["But here it seemeth." Id.] 112 For was it ever seen in any country since the world began, that the commons did appoint the nobles and gentlemen the number of their servants? Standeth it with any reason to turn upside downd the good order of the whole world, that is every where, and ever hath been, that is to say, the commoners to be governed by the nobles, and the servants by their masters? Will you now have the subjects to govern their king, the villains to rule the gentlemen, and the servants their masters? If men would suffer this, God will not; but will take vengeance of all them that will break his order, as he did of Dathan and Abiram; although for a time he be a God of much sufferance, and hideth his indignation under his mercy, that the evil of themselves may repent, and see their own folly. Your fourteenth article is this: f We will that the half part of the abbey-lands and chantry lands in every man's possession, however he came by them, be given again to two places, where two of the chief abbeys were within every county; where such half part shall be taken out, and there to be established a place for devout persons, which shall pray for the king and the commonwealth. And to the same we will have all the alms of the churchbox given for these seven years. At the beginning you pretended that you meant nothing against the king's majesty, but now you open yourselves plainly to the world that you go about to pluck the crown from his head; and, against all justice and equity, not only to take from him such lands as be annexed unto his crown, and be parcel of the same, but also against all right and reason to take from all other men such lands as they came e d[" To turn upso down." MS. C.C.C.C.] ["Will you have now." Id.] f["Abbeys was within." Id.] to by most just title, by gift, by sale, by exchange, or otherwise. There is no respect nor difference had amongst you, whether they came to them by right or by wrong. Be you so blind that you cannot see how justly you proceed to take the sword in your hands against your prince, and to dispossess just inheritors without any cause? Christ would not take upon him to judge the right and title of lands between two brethren; and you arrogantly presume not only to judge, but unjustly to take away all men's right titles; yea, even from the king himself. And do you not tremble for fear that the vengeance of God shall fall upon you, before you have grace to repent? And yet you, not contented with this your rebellion, would have your shameful act celebrated with a perpetual memory, as it were to boast and glory of your iniquity. For, in memory of your fact, you would have stablished in every county two places to pray for the king and the commonwealth; whereby your abominable behaviour at this present may never be forgotten, but be remembered unto the world's end; that when the king's majesty was in wars both with Scotland and France, you, under pretence of the commonwealth, rebelled, and made so great sedition against him. within his own realm, as never before was heard of. And therefore you must be prayed for for ever, in every county of this realm. It were more fit for you to make humble supplication upon your knees to the king's majesty, desiring him not only to forgive you this fault, but also that the same may never be put in chronicle nor writing; and that neither shew nor mention may remain to your posterity, that ever subjects were so unkind to their prince, and so ungracious towards God, that, contrary to God's word, they should ["More meet for you." Id.] |