I.

BOOK good letters. And it generally passes current, that he bred his second son a scholar, having designed him to be Archbishop of Canterbury; but that has no foundation; for the writers of that time tell, that his elder brother Prince Arthur was also bred a scholar. And all the instruction King Henry had in learning, must have been after his brother was dead, when that design had vanished with his life. For he being born the twentyeighth of June 1491, and Prince Arthur dying the second of April 1502, he was not full eleven years of age when he became Prince of Wales; at which age princes have seldom made any great progress in learning. But King Henry the Seventh judging either that it would make his sons greater princes, and fitter for the management of their affairs, or being jealous of their looking too early into business, or their pretending to the crown upon their mother's title, which might have been a dangerous competition to him, that was so little beloved by his subjects, took this method for amusing them with other things: thence it was, that his son was the most learned prince that had been in the world for many ages, and deserved the title Beau-clerke, on a better account than his predecessor that long before had carried it. The learning then in credit was either that of the schools, about abstruse questions of divinity, which from the days of Lombard were debated and descanted on with much subtlety and nicety, and exercised all speculative divines; or the study of the canon law, which was the way to business and preferment. To the former of these the King was much addicted, and delighted to read often in Thomas Aquinas; and this made Cardinal Wolsey more acceptable to him, who was chiefly conversant in that sort of learning. He loved the purity of the Latin tongue, which made him be so kind to Erasmus, that was the great restorer of it, and to Polydore Virgil; though neither of these

I.

made their court dexterously with the Cardinal, which BOOK did much intercept the King's favour to them; so that. the one left England, and the other was but coarsely used in it, who has sufficiently revenged himself upon the Cardinal's memory. The philosophy then in fashion was so intermixed with their divinity, that the King understood it too; and was also a good musician, as appears by two whole masses which he composed. He never wrote well, but scrawled so that his hand was scarce legible.

Being thus inclined to learning, he was much courted by all hungry scholars, who generally over Europe dedicated their books to him, with such flattering epistles, that it very much lessens him, to see how he delighted in such stuff. For if he had not taken pleasure in it, and rewarded them, it is not likely that others should have been every year writing after such ill copies. Of all things in the world flattery wrought most on him ; and no sort of flattery pleased him better than to have his great learning and wisdom commended. And in this his parliaments, his courtiers, his chaplains, foreigners and natives, all seemed to vie who should exceed most, and came to speak to him in a style which was scarce fit to be used to any creature. But he designed to entail these praises on his memory, cherishing churchmen more than any king in England had ever done; he also courted the Pope with a constant submission, and upon all occasions made the Popes' interests his own, and made war and peace as they desired him. So that had he died any time before the nineteenth year of his reign, he could scarce have escaped being canonized, notwithstanding all his faults; for he abounded in those virtues which had given saintship to kings for near a thousand years together, and had done more than they all did, by writing a book for the Roman faith.

I.

prerogative

astical mat

ters.

BOOK England had for above three hundred years been the tamest part of Christendom to the Papal authority, and The King's had been accordingly dealt with. But though the parin ecclesi- liaments, and two or three high-spirited kings, had given some interruption to the cruel exactions and other illegal proceedings of the court of Rome, yet that court always gained their designs in the end. But even in this King's days, the crown was not quite stript of all its authority over spiritual persons. The investitures of bishops and abbots, which had been originally given by the delivery of the pastoral ring and staff, by the kings of England, were after some opposition wrung out of their hands; yet I find they retained another thing, which upon the matter was the When any see was vacant, a writ was issued Custodia out of the chancery for seizing on all the temporalities temporali- of the bishoprick, and then the King recommended one

fatis.

same.

to the Pope, upon which his bulls were expeded at Rome, and so by a warrant from the Pope he was consecrated, and invested in the spiritualities of the see; but was to appear before the King either in person or by proxy, and renounce every clause in his letters and bulls, that were or might be prejudicial to the prerogative of the crown, or contrary to the laws of the land, and was to swear fealty and allegiance to the King. And after this a new writ was issued out of the chancery, bearing that this was done, and that thereupon the temRestitutio poralities should be restored. Of this there are so many precedents in the records, that every one that has searched them must needs find them in every year; but when this began, I leave to the more learned in the law to discover. And for proof of it the reader will Collect. find in the Collection the fullest record which I met

temporalitatis.

Numb. 1. with concerning it in Henry the Seventh his reign, of

Cardinal Adrian's being invested in the bishoprick of

Bath and Wells. So that upon the matter the Kings

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then disposed of all bishopricks, keeping that still in BOOK their own hands which made them most desired in. those ages; and so had the bishops much at their de

votion.

But King Henry in a great degree parted with this, by the above-mentioned power granted to Cardinal Wolsey, who being Legate as well as Lord Chancellor, it was thought a great error in government to lodge such a trust with him, which might have passed into a precedent for other legates pretending to the same power; since the Papal greatness had thus risen, and oft upon weaker grounds to the height it was then at. Yet the King had no mind to suffer the laws made Licence to against the suing out of bulls in the court of Rome Peterburg. without his leave to be neglected; for I find several li-Novemb. 3. cences granted to sue bulls in that court, bearing for Reg. Rot. their preamble the statute of the sixteenth of Richard the Second against the Pope's pretended power in Eng

land.

the Prior of

1. part. 5to

Pat.

But the immunity of ecclesiastical persons was a thing that occasioned great complaints. And good cause there was for them. For it was ordinary for persons after the greatest crimes to get into orders; and then not only what was past must be forgiven them, but they were not to be questioned for any crime after holy orders given, till they were first degraded; and till that was done they were the Bishop's prisoners. Whereupon there arose a great dispute in the beginning of this King's reign, of which none of our historians having taken any notice, I shall give a full account of it. King Henry the Seventh in his fourth parliament a contest did a little lessen the privileges of the clergy, enacting ecclesiasti that clerks convicted should be burnt in the hand. But cal immunity. Keilthis not proving a sufficient restraint, it was enacted in way's Reparliament, in the fourth year of this King, that all

about the

ports.

BOOK murderers and robbers should be denied the benefit of

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their clergy. But though this seemed a very just law, yet to make it pass through the House of Lords, they added two provisos to it, the one for excepting all such as were within the holy orders of bishop, priest, or deacon; the other that the act should only be in force till the next parliament. With these provisos it was unanimously assented to by the Lords on the twentysixth of January, 1513, and being agreed to by the Commons, the royal assent made it a law: pursuant to which, many murderers and felons were denied their clergy, and the law passed on them to the great satisfaction of the whole nation. But this gave great offence to the clergy, who had no mind to suffer their immunities to be touched or lessened. And judging that if the laity made bold with inferior orders, they would proceed further even against sacred orders; therefore as their opposition was such, that the act not being continued, did determine at the next parliament, (that was in the fifth year of the King,) so they, not satisfied with that, resolved to fix a censure on that act as contrary to the franchises of the holy church. And the Abbot of Winchelcomb being more forward than the rest, during the session of parliament in the seventh year of this King's reign, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, said openly, That that act was contrary to the law of God, and to the liberties of the holy church, and that all who assented to it, as well spiritual as temporal persons, had by so doing incurred the censures of the church. And for confirmation of his opinion, he published a book to prove, that all clerks, whether of the greater or lower orders, were sacred, and exempted from all temporal punishments by the secular judge, even in criminal cases, This made great noise, and all the temporal lords, with the concurrence of the House of Commons, desired the King to suppress the growing insolence of the clergy.