III

A. D. 1536

vorce from

fessed something to Archbishop Cranmer which he CHAP considered to be a conclusive proof that her marriage with the King was not valid. This confession being repeated by her before the Archbishop, sitting in his court at Lambeth on the 17th, Cranmer pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void. Thus divorced, as if her first great crime was to come back Her diupon her own head in vengeance, she returned to the the King Tower for a few hours, and at noon the next day, May 19, 1536, gave her neck to the headsman-let us reverently hope, in part expiation of her sins-on Tower Green, commending her soul to a merciful God. So little honour was paid to her, or so great Her death haste was used, that nothing better than an empty minious arrow chest was provided to receive her body and burial the dissevered head, which was then carried a few yards to St. Peter ad Vincula, and there buried in the chancel. Next day Henry married a new wife, with whom he had already had an intrigue of some standing.

and igno

of her char.

The miserable fate of Anne Boleyn wins our com- Estimate passion, and the greatness to which her daughter acter attained has been in some degree reflected back upon herself. Had she died a natural death, and had she not been the mother of Queen Elizabeth, we should have estimated her character at a very low value indeed. Protestantism might still, with its usual unhistorical partizanship, have gilded over her immoralities; but the Church of England must ever look upon Anne

7 It is thought (by some writers) to be almost certain that this confession related to the King's illicit intercourse with her sister, Mary Boleyn, which would, according to law, have vitiated the marriage of herself to the King.

8 The young Duke of Richmond was one of the four peers present at her death. He had married the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk, whom she speaks of as always her enemy. Doubtless there were jealousies about the succession.

III

CHAP Boleyn with downcast eyes full of sorrow and shame. By the influence of her charms, Henry was induced to take those steps which ended in setting the Church of England free from an uncatholic yoke: but that such a result should be produced by such an influence is a fact which must constrain us to think that the land was guilty of many sins, and that it was these national sins which prevented better instruments from being raised up for so righteous an object.

IN

CHAPTER IV

THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROYAL SUPREMACY

[A.D. 1529-1534]

IV

N tracing out to its end the subject of the divorce CHAP we have been obliged to pass a few years beyond the straight course of our story; and it will, now be necessary to go back to the time immediately succeeding the fall of Wolsey, that we may follow out the details of some very important transactions relating to the internal economy of the Church.

and the

The principal charge made against the Cardinal Wolsey was, that he had transgressed against the Statute Præmunire 16, Richard II., cap. 5, by acting as legate a latere, A.D. 1529 and had thus incurred the penalty of " præmunire." The statute in question was enacted for the purpose of checking the extravagant assumptions of the Popes, chiefly as regarded the exercise of patronage and interference with decisions on ecclesiastical subjects which had been given in the King's court. There is nothing about legates in it; but the enacting clause ordains, "That if any purchase or pursue, What the or cause to be purchased or pursued in the court of ir Rome, or elsewhere, by any such translations, processes, and sentences of excommunications, bulls,

"Præmu

IV

CHAP instruments, or any other things whatsoever, which touch the King, against him, his crown, and his regality, or his realm, as is aforesaid, and they which bring within the realm, or them receive, or make thereof notification, or any other execution whatsoever within the same realm or without, that they, their notaries, procurators, maintainers, abettors, And pen- fautors, and counsellors, shall be put out of the red under it King's protection, and their lands and tenements,

alty incur

goods and chattels, forfeit to our lord the King ; and that they be attached by their bodies, if they may be found, and brought before the King and his council, there to answer to the cases aforesaid; or that process be made against him by pramunire facias, in manner as it is ordained in other statutes or provisos; and other which do sue in any court in derogation of the regality of our lord the King.' No one ever pretended that this shut out the person incurring the penalty from the King's pardon, although, until that pardon was obtained, any one convicted of præmunire wore, in legal language, “a wolf's head," and might have been slain with impunity till the reign of Elizabeth. This pardon was substantially, and perhaps verbally, granted to Wolsey when he began to exercise the office of legate, in the form of a license under the great seal, which was amply sufficient, one would suppose, Injustice to cover any technical transgression of the statute. of punishing Wolsey Henry, moreover, gave a legal recognition to Wolsey as legate for he appeared before him in his judicial character (derived from the Pope and confirmed by the King) on October 16, 1518, and entered into a formal engagement to perform the contract made 1 Amos, Statutes of Henry VIII., 59.

for falling under it

1

IV

tioned by

respecting the marriage of the Princess Mary with CHAP the Dauphin, asking that if he failed to perform his promise, Wolsey should excommunicate him, and pass sentence of interdict on his kingdom.2 Wolsey His legate. nobly declined, however, to plead these distinct acts ship sancof sanction and recognition, saying, "Because I will the King not here stand to contend with his Majesty in his own case, I will here presently before you confess the indictment, and put myself wholly to the mercy and grace of the King, trusting that he hath a conscience, and reason to consider the truth, and my humble submission and obedience, wherein I might well stand to my trial with justice." As is well known, the King met this generous submission by appropriating Wolsey's goods down to the last penny and the last blanket, including the colleges which were in progress at Oxford and Ipswich. He then issued a pardon again to his fallen minister, and restored a small portion of his goods and in

come.

land in

It might have been supposed that the penalty of All Engthe Pramunire would at least end here. But the volved in King discovered that a further ingenious use might guilt Wolsey's be made of it, and a still further and more splendid spoil still be raked into the yawning gulf of his ever greedy coffers. For the Act of Parliament not only imposed the penal consequences of forfeiture and possible death upon the principal offenders, but upon "their notaries, procurators, maintainers, abettors,

2 Brewer's Calend. St. Pap., ii. 4504. For further particulars about the legateship of Wolsey, see pages 52-9.

3 Cavendish in Wordsw. Ecc. Biog., i. 463.

4 A similar forfeiture took place in the cases of Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher. The latter had not clothes left to keep him warm when in the Tower.