1532.

BOOK "fer any violence, or any wrong by any means. Their "counsel to me credited by them, their messengers or "letters, I shall not willingly discover to any person. "The papacy of Rome, the rules of the holy fathers, "and the regality of St. Peter, I shall help and maintain, "and defend against all men. The Legate of the see "apostolic going and coming, I shall honourably en"treat. The rights, honours, privileges, authorities of "the church of Rome, and of the Pope and his successors, I shall cause to be conserved, defended, aug"mented, and promoted. I shall not be in council, "treaty, or any act, in the which any thing shall be imagined against him, or the church of Rome, their rights, seats, honours, or powers. And if I know any such to be moved or compassed, I shall resist it "to my power, and, as soon as I can, I shall advertise "him, or such as may give him knowledge. The "rules of the holy fathers, the decrees, ordinances, "sentences, dispositions, reservations, provisions, and "commandments apostolic, to my power I shall keep, "and cause to be kept of others. Heretics, schisma"tics, and rebels to our holy father and his successors, Prosequar "I shall resist and persecute to my power. I shall come to the synod when I am called, except I be "letted by a canonical impediment. The thresholds "of the Apostles I shall visit yearly personally, or by my deputy. I shall not alienate or sell my posses"sions without the Pope's counsel. So God me help "and the holy Evangelists."

et impugnabo în orig.

Their oath

66

*

The oath to the King.

"I John, Bishop of A. utterly renounce, and clearly to the King « forsake all such clauses, words, sentences and grants, "which I have, or shall have hereafter of the Pope's "Holiness, of and for the bishoprick of A. that in

any wise hath been, is, or hereafter may be hurtful

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1532.

"or prejudicial to your Highness, your heirs, succes- BOOK sors, dignity, privilege, or estate royal. And also I "do swear, that I shall be faithful and true, and faith "and truth I shall bear to you my sovereign Lord, "and to your heirs, kings of the same, of life and limb, and earthly worship above all creatures, for to "live and die with you and yours against all people. "And diligently I shall be attendant to all your needs "and business, after my wit and power, and your "counsel I shall keep and hold, acknowledging myself "to hold my bishoprick of you only, beseeching you "of restitution of the temporalities of the same, pro"mising as before, that I shall be a faithful, true, and "obedient subject to your said Highness, heirs, and "successors, during my life; and the services and "other things due to your Highness for the restitution "of the temporalities of the same bishoprick, I shall "truly do, and obediently perform. So God me help “and all saints." In the original, it is only, So help me Cleop. E. 6. God, and these holy Evangelists.

Bib. Cott.

Fol. 54.

down his

The contradiction that was in these was so visible, More laid that it had soon produced a severe censure from the office. House, if the plague had not hindered both that, and the bill of subsidy. So on the fourteenth of May the parliament was prorogued. Two days after, Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor, having oft desired leave to deliver up the Great Seal, and be discharged of his office, obtained it; and Sir Thomas Audly was made Lord Chancellor. More had carried that dignity with great temper, and lost it with much joy. He saw now how far the King's designs went; and though he was for cutting off the illegal jurisdiction which the popes exercised in England, and therefore went cheerfully along with the suit of præmunire; yet when he saw a total rupture like to follow, he excused himself, and retired from business with a greatness of mind, that

1532.

BOOK was equal to what the ancient philosophers pretended II. in such cases. He also disliked Anne Boleyn, and was prosecuted by her father, who studied to fasten some criminal imputations on him about the discharge of his employment; but his integrity had been such, that nothing could be found to blemish his reputation.

An inter

view with

King.

In September following, the King created Anne Bothe French leyn Marchioness of Pembroke, to bring her by degrees up to the height for which he had designed her. And in October he passed the seas, and had an interview with the French King; where all the most obliging compliments that were possible passed on both sides with great magnificence, and a firm union was concerted about all their affairs. They published a league that they made, to raise a mighty army next year against the Turk; but this was not much considered, it being generally believed that the French King and the Turk were in a good correspondence. As for the matter of the King's divorce, Francis encouraged him to go on in it, and in his intended marriage with Anne Boleyn; promising, if it were questioned, to assist him in it: and as for his appearance at Rome, as it was certain he could not go thither in person, so it was not fit to trust the secrets of his conscience to a proxy. The French King seemed also resolved to stop the payments of annates, and other exactions of the court of Rome; and said, he would send an ambassador to the Pope, to ask redress of these, and to protest, that if it were not granted, they -would seek other remedies by provincial councils : and since there was an interview designed between the Pope and the Emperor at Bononia in December, the French King was to send two cardinals thither to procure judges for ending the business in England. There was also an interview proposed between the

11.

Pope and the French King at Nice or Avignon. To BOOK this the King of England had some inclinations to go for ending all differences, if the Pope were well disposed to it.

1532.

to Rome

King, with inof the Cott. Libr.

structions.

Upon this Sir Thomas Eliot was sent to Rome with Eliot sent answer to a message the Pope had sent to the from whose instructions both the substance message and of the answer may be gathered. "Pope had offered to the King, that, if he would name

"The

any indifferent place out of his own kingdom, he "would send a legate and two auditors of the Rota "thither, to form the process, reserving only the sen"tence to himself. The Pope also proposed a truce "of three or four years, and promised that in that "time he would call a general council. For this message the King sent the Pope thanks; but for the

peace, he could receive no propositions about it, "without the concurrence of the French King; and "though he did not doubt the justice of a general council, yet, considering the state of the Emperor's affairs at that time with the Lutherans, he did not "think it was seasonable to call one. That as for "sending a proxy to Rome, if he were a private per

Vil. B. 13.

son, he could do it; but it was a part of the prero"gative of his crown, and of the privileges of his sub"jects, that all matrimonial causes should be originally judged within his kingdom by the English church, which was consonant to the general coun"cils and customs of the ancient church, whereunto "he hoped the Pope would have regard: and that for keeping up his royal authority, to which he was "bound by oath, he could not, without the consent of "the realm, submit himself to a foreign jurisdiction; hoping the Pope would not desire any violation of "the immunities of the realm, or to bring these into "public contention, which had been hitherto enjoyed

66

II.

1532.

BOOK" without intrusion or molestation. The Pope had "confessed, that, without an urgent cause, the dispen"sation could not be granted. This the King laid "hold on, and ordered his ambassador to shew him "that there was no war, nor appearance of any, be"tween England and Spain, when it was granted. To verify that, he sent an attested copy of the treaty be"tween his father and the crown of Spain at that time: "by the words of which it appeared, that it was then "taken for granted that Prince Arthur had consum"mated the marriage, which was also proved by good "witnesses. In fine, since the thing did so much "concern the peace of the realm, it was fitter to judge "it within the kingdom than any where else; therefore "he desired the Pope would remit the discussing of it "to the church of England, and then confirm the sen"tence they should give. To the obtaining of this, "the ambassador was to use all possible diligence; yet "if he found real intentions in the Pope to satisfy the

The King married

Anne Bo

leyn Nov.

14.

King, he was not to insist on that as the King's final "resolution; and to let the Cardinal of Ravenna see "that the King intended to make good what was "promised in his name, the bishoprick of Coventry " and Litchfield falling vacant, he sent him the offer of it, with a promise of the bishoprick of Ely when it "should be void;"

Soon after this, he married Anne Boleyn, on the fourteenth of November, upon his landing in England; but Stow says, that it was on the twenty-fifth of JanuCowper, ary. Rowland Lee (who afterwards got the bishoprick Holinsties, and San- of Coventry and Litchfield) did officiate in the marders. riage. It was done secretly, in the presence of the

Duke of Norfolk, and her father, her mother, and brother. The grounds on which the King did this were, that his former marriage being of itself null, there was no need of a declarative sentence, after so many