CHAP the notice of Wolsey. Not succeeding in attracting VII the attention of the Cardinal, Warham (himself a believer in the nun) placed some of her "prophecies" in the hands of the King, who referred them to Sir Thomas More but More had no higher opinion of them than had Wolsey. Her prophecies become treasonable Numbers resort to her From this time the nun's prophecies began to take a more serious turn, and the results were ultimately of a very tragic kind. "After she had been at Canterbury awhile, and had heard this said Dr. Bocking rail like a frantic person against the King's Grace's purposed marriage, against his Acts of Parliament, and against the maintenance of heresies within his realm," she began to have visions and revelations respecting the King, the Cardinal (alive and dead), the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the public affairs with which they were associated. These drew to her persons who ought to have known better : "Divers and many, as well great men of the realm as mean men, and many learned men, but specially divers and many religious men, had great confidence in her, and often resorted unto her and communed with her, to the intent they might by her know the will of God; and chiefly concerning the King's marriage, the great heresies and schisms within the realm, and the taking away the liberties of the Church; for in these three points standeth the great number of her visions, which were so many that her ghostly father could scantly write them in three or four quires of paper.' "97 About midsummer in the year 1533, Archbishop Cranmer continues to write, he "sent for this holy maid to examine her; and from me she was had to Master Cromwell to be further examined there. And now" [Christmas of the same year] "she hath • Ellis' Orig. Letters, III. ii. 137. 7 Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 81 and note x. VII fession of confessed all, and uttered the very truth, which is CHAP this: that she never had vision in all her life, but all that ever she said was feigned of her own imagination, only to satisfy the minds of them the which Her conresorted unto her, and to obtain worldly praise." 8 imposture After this disclosure the nun and five monksBocking, Rich, Rysby, Dering, and Goold-were sent to the Tower, where some or all of them were tortured; their extorted confessions unravelling a real or imaginary conspiracy for the death of the King, and for placing the Princess Mary on the throne. The Countess of Salisbury, and others of the nobility near to the royal blood, were implicated, and so also were Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. Fisher at A.D. 1534 Shortly after the meeting of Parliament on January More and 15, 1533-4, a bill of attainder was introduced against tainted the nun, the five monks, More, Fisher, Abel (the with her Queen's confessor), and others. It was passed on March 21st, and on April 21st, the nun, Masters, Bocking, and the other four monks, were all executed at Tyburn. of the plot Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were the only other persons towards whom Cromwell and the King seem to have wished to show any great severity, and it is not unlikely, therefore, that the supposed Doubt as plot against the King's life was a political fiction, for to reality neither King nor minister ever showed mercy to those whom they considered guilty of treason. Fisher and More were, in fact, marked for destruction, and their condemnation was only a question of time. They were leading men, the one in the world of thought, and the other in that of religion, and both had shown Jenkyns' Cranmer, i. 82, VII More escapes for a time CHAP enough independence to render them dangerous in the eyes of Henry and Cromwell. They escaped for a time, because nothing could be really proved against them. Sir Thomas More wrote to the King claiming the fulfilment of a promise made him on his resignation of the chancellorship, that the King would stand his friend in any trouble: and he was pardoned. Bishop Fisher stoutly denied the charges of treason that were made against him, but was condemned to forfeit all his goods, and to be imprisoned. Then Fisher knew that his time was come, and he retired for his last few days of liberty CHAP to his house at Rochester. VII Meanwhile an Act was passing through Parlia- A.D. 15:4 ment, in the meshes of which both More and Fisher were destined to be fatally entangled. This was "An Act concerning the King's Succession" [25 Hen. VIII. cap. 22], which was passed on March 30, 1534, nine days after the Act of Attainder by which Fisher and the rest had been condemned, and sixteen before he was sent to the Tower. Boleyn's mated This Statute enacted that the King's marriage Anne with Queen Catherine being invalid, and that with children Queen Anne being established, his children by the latter should be the lawful successors to the Crown. Perhaps there would have been little practical difficulty in gaining a general acquiescence in the Act so far but there was a sting in its last clause but one in the shape of an enactment that any and every person whatever among the subjects might be called upon to swear that they would "truly, firmly, and constantly, without fraud or guile, observe, fulfil, maintain, defend, and keep, to their cunning, wit, and uttermost of their powers, the whole effects and contents of this present Act." Even this might have been borne, but beyond this a form of oath was contrived which had no legislative authority whatever, which is not in the Act, and which must have been framed at a subsequent date. This form of oath was as follows:2 "Ye shall swear to bear your faith, truth, and obedience The form only to the King's Majesty, and to the heirs of his body, 2 This oath is entered in the Journals of the House of Lords at the close of the proceedings of the session a most strange afterthought, and creating a suspicion of dishonesty. of the Cath VII CHAP according to the limitation and rehearsal within this Statute of succession above specified; and not to any other within this A.D. 1535 realm, nor foreign authority, prince or potentate; and in case any oath be made or hath been made by you to any other person or persons, that then you do repute the same as vain and annihilate and that to your cunning, wit, and utmost of your power, without guile, fraud, or other undue means, ye shall observe, keep, maintain, and defend this Act above specified, and all the whole contents and effects thereof, and all other acts and statutes made since the beginning of this present Parliament, in confirmation or for due execution of the same, or of anything therein contained. And thus ye shall do against all manner of persons, of what estate, dignity, degree, or condition soever they be; and in no wise do or attempt, nor to your power suffer to be done or attempted directly or indirectly, any thing or things, privily or apertly, to the let, hindrance, darnage, or derogation thereof, by any manner of means, or for any pretence or cause, So help you God and all Saints." More's iew of the Dath Commissions were appointed at once to tender this oath in all parts of the country, and one sat at the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth, before which both the Bishop and Sir Thomas More were called, on Monday the fifteenth of April. For a time the ex-chancellor's legal knowledge foiled the King. The oath was not in the Statute, was different in tenor from that substantially given there : he would swear simply to the succession but not to the new oath now tendered to him, and which he considered to be unlawful. He would not prejudice the mind of any other person, but for his own mind it was made up and nothing should change it. He also intimated that he had certain secret reasons for not taking the oath, which he would disclose only to the King himself. What these were never transpired, 3 See Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., ii. 182, ed. 1814. |