VII CHAP being robbed of its few proper hours of life, there was a general wail of misery and indignation; and A.D. 1535 as for his shrivelled neck it seemed as if there was nothing left for the axe to pass through. Anecdote of Anne Bishop head As soon as the head of the aged Bishop was Boleyn and severed from his body, it was put into a bag by the executioner, for the purpose of being carried to the bridge, there to be put upon a pole. But a message came for him to carry it to Anne Boleyn, who wished to see it before it was set up. We need not be too hard upon her; she was a graceless woman, and her wantonness had brought her into brutal company. As she looked on her victim's dead face, she said contemptuously, "Is this the head that so often exclaimed against me? I trust it shall never do no more harm." Then to suit her action to her words, she cuffed the poor speechless lips with the back of her hand, but so hard, that a projecting tooth hurt her finger, and caused a sore that did not soon heal. But the indignity shown to the old Bishop's head decapita was not greater than that which was shown to his ted body mutilated body. It was stripped naked and left on the scaffold (guarded by soldiers) until eight o'clock in the evening. One Christian hand cast a decent veil of straw upon his middle, and that was all the care shown, until the King's order came for its removal; then the body was carried away swinging across a couple of halberds, to be tumbled headforemost and naked into a grave on the north side of All-Hallows Churchyard, where it awaits the re Ill-treat ment of his There is a long letter from Stephen Vaughan to Cromwell, written from Antwerp in August 1533, in which he charges Fisher with having written and published a book against the King's matter, and More with having been an accomplice. He also says that another much larger book is being printed, which he supposes to be also by them. [St. Pap., vii. 489.] VII prediction Boleyn surrection of the just.1 The day of his death was CHAP that of the martyrdom of St. Alban (then observed on the 22nd of June), the year 1535. Before it A.D. 1535 came round again the Queen who had insulted him when dead had shared his fate within a few yards of the same spot, on the Tower Green, within the Tower walls. More had spoken words to his daughter on More's this subject which were almost like a prophecy. about Once on coming home after some absence, he asked Anne after many acquaintances, and among others after Queen Anne. "In faith, father,' said his daughter, 'never better. There is nothing else at the court but dancing and sporting.' 'Never better?' said he, 'alas! Meg, alas! it pitieth me to remember unto what misery she will shortly come. These dances of hers will prove such dances that she will spurn our heads off like foot-balls; but it will not be long ere her head will dance the like dance.""2 mas More's More's own head followed that of Fisher after a Sir Thofortnight's interval, on July 6th. Nothing could sur- last hours pass the self-possession with which he met his fate, but there was an affectation about his last acts and words which makes it seem studied, and as if he was striving to emulate the philosopher of classical ages rather than the martyr of Christian times. He did himself injustice, for notwithstanding the persistence of his jesting habits, he had prepared for death like one who well-knew and keenly felt what he was pre 1 Baily's Life of Fisher, 206-216. Baily also tells an anecdote, that while Fisher was in his study in his house at Lambeth Marsh, a cannon-shot passed right through. On inquiry, he was told that it had come from the Earl of Wiltshire's house on the opposite side of the river. So, calling his servants, he 2 More's Life of More, p. 244. VII CHAP paring for: and no martyr ever displayed a more thorough spirit of forgiveness towards all who were A.D. 1535 instrumental in his condemnation. He went forth Anecdote of Anne More's portrait to Tower Hill, a hale man (but for his imprisonment) of fifty-six years of age, on Tuesday, the octave of St. Peter and the eve of St. Thomas of Canterbury (as he himself noticed), July 6, 1535 :3 3 Immediately after the execution, word was brought thereof to the King; who being then at dice when it was told him, at the hearing thereof seemed to be wonderfully amazed. 'And is it true' (quoth the King); 'is Sir Thomas More, my chancellor, dead?' The messenger answered, 'Yea, if it may please your Majesty.' He turned to Queen Anne, who then stood by, and, wistfully looking upon her, said, 'Thou, thou art the cause of this man's death.' So presently went to his chamber, and there wept full bitterly." A good portrait of Sir Thomas More, by Holbein, Boleyn and is now in the Louvre, which the first art critic of our day thinks may be the same as that of which Baldinucci, in his "Lives of Painters," tells the following story-King Henry had a fine portrait of the chancellor, which hung in a certain apartment with those of other eminent men. On the day of More's execution, after the King had reproached her with being the cause of his death, Queen Anne Boleyn, casting her eyes on the portrait, fancied that its gaze was fixed on her reproachfully, and seized with a sudden terror of remorse, she flung the picture out of the window, exclaiming, "Oh me! the man seems to be still alive."4 3 In Foxe's Acts and Monuments it is curious to find the author placing More in his Calendar of Martyrs on June 19th. 4 It was picked up by a passerby, and eventually carried to Rome, where in Baldinucci's time it still remained, though not now to be found there. For further particulars see some account of the "Life and Works of Hans Holbein," by Ralph Nicholson Wornum. VII In this manner passed away two great and good CHAP men, one whose work was done, the other still capable of many years' good service to his country. A.D. 1535 Neither of them did much either in advancing or retarding the Reformation, and yet the names of both are so closely bound up with the transactions of the time that it is impossible to omit this account of their latter days. Their deaths mark, moreover, an epoch of reaction, especially among the clergy. There was a degree of reckless tyranny in those deaths which exhibited in strong colours the intensely cruel disposition of the King, and of his minister, Cromwell. It was felt that no one was safe when men so thoroughly guiltless of any real crime could thus be sacrificed. Still more was it felt that religion had very little to do with the course which the King was taking, and that there was great danger of religion itself being shipwrecked and the Church destroyed if that course were not checked. The reaction thus started went on gaining strength until it overthrew the Reformation for a time, and ended at last by founding the Roman Catholic schism in England. CHAPTER VIII CHAP Narrow ness of older clergy AUTHORITATIVE DEALINGS WITH DOCTRINE IN THE REIGN W OF HENRY THE EIGHTH [A.D. 1536-A.D. 1547] THEN King Henry the Eighth had established his own authority in the Church of England, his ideas on the subject of its reformation were very nearly exhausted. Those ideas were chiefly confined to the gratification of his wishes in the matter of the divorce, to the acquisition of power in that of the supremacy, and to the resuscitation of his attenuated treasury by the dissolution of the monasteries. There was, however, a great power at work of which the King had not taken an estimate, and that was the power of national thought, deriving its impulse from no visible quarter, but moving forward with an irresistible force. But, perhaps, one great stimulating element in the development of national thought was the persistence with which many of the older clergy adhered to an exceedingly narrow interpretation of the schoolmen, and of the medieval system of the Church in general. The schoolmen were mental giants, whose works could scarcely be despised by any one who has made 1 |
