Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAP.
XL.

Gardyner released, is

been shut up ever since his father's execution, in the year 1538, and Tunstal, Bishop of Durham, who, imitating the firmness of Gardyner, had likewise been deprived and sentenced to close imprisonment. As the procession approached amidst the deafening acclamations of the people, these five illustrious captives were liberated; and having immediately met and appointed Gardyner to deliver an address of congratulation to the new Queen in their names, they all knelt down on the green inside the great gate leading from Tower Hill. As she entered, Gardyner, still on his knees, pronounced his address in terms and in a tone the most affecting. Mary burst into tears, called them her prisoners, bade them rise, and, having kissed them, restored them to complete liberty.

If Gardyner's fall from power had been precipitate, much made Lord more sudden and striking was his re-instatement.

and Prime

Minister.

He was

Chancellor the Queen's chief favourite and adviser from their first interview, and, taken from a dungeon, he was invested with the supreme power of the state. We have seen, in the life of Lord Chancellor Goodrich, that the Great Seal, which he renounced on the dethronement of Queen Jane, was carried by the Lords Arundel and Paget to the Queen at Framlingham. She brought it with her to London, as an emblem of her sovereignty, and she immediately delivered it to Gardyner, as Lord Keeper, till he might be more regularly installed; at the same time swearing him of her Privy Council. At the end of three weeks she constituted him Lord Chancellor, with an intimation that he should use the Great Seal which bore the name and style of her deceased brother till another, bearing her own name and style, should be made. It is curious to observe, that she herself assumed the title of Supreme Head of the Church.†”

Aug. 23. 1553.

66

*Ante, p. 37.

t "Memd. qd die Mercurii videlt vicisemo tertio die Augusti anno regni Dne Marie Dei Gra Angl. Franc. et Hiber. Regine Fidei Defensoris et in Terra Ecclie Anglicane et Hibernie supremi capitis primo circa horam quintam post meridiem ejusdem diei Magnum Sigillum ipsius Domne Regine quondamque sigillum excellentissimi Principis Edward Sexti nuper Regis Anglie Angl. defunct. fris prce Dne Regine percharissimi apud Richemount in sua privata cra ibidem sigillum illud in quadam baga &c. Reverendo in Xro Pri Sta Stepho Winton Epo deliberavit ad sigillandum et excendum ut Magnum Sigillum ipsius Dne Regine quousque aliud Magnum Sigillum cum nome et titulo Regine insculptum fabricari et de novo fieri possit," &c. Rot. Cl. 1 Mar.

CHAPTER XLI.

LIFE OF LORD CHANCELLOR GARDYNER, FROM THE ACCESSION OF
QUEEN MARY.

Ir must be admitted that the earliest measures of Mary's reign, prompted by Gardyner, were highly praiseworthy. The depreciated currency was restored; a new coinage came out of sovereigns and half-sovereigns, according to the old standard; the subsidy extorted from the late parliament was remitted; and, to discountenance puritanical severity, the festivities which distinguished the Court in the time of Henry VIII. were restored. No complaint could as yet be made of undue severity in punishing the late movement in favour of Queen Jane; for though she and her youthful husband, and various others, were convicted of treason, Northumberland only and two of his associates were actually executed.

CHAP.

XLI.

July 6. 1553.

Good mea

sures of

new reign.

crowned

by Lord

The privilege of crowning the Sovereigns of England, we Queen have seen, belongs to the Archbishops of Canterbury; but Mary would have considered it an insult to her mother's Chancellor. memory, and little less than sacrilege, to have permitted Cranmer to perform this rite, and he was in no situation to assert the claim of his see, as he was at present liable to be prosecuted as a traitor for signing the settlement to disturb Mary's succession, and for having actually supported the title of Queen Jane. The honour of anointing the Queen and placing the crown upon her head was conferred on Lord Chancellor Gardyner, who had been restored to his see of Winchester.

1555.

To please the people, he took care that the ceremony Sept. 30. should be performed with great magnificence, ancient precedent being strictly adhered to in the religious part of it; and the banquet in Westminster Hall gave high satisfaction to all who partook of it, whether Romanists or Reformers. Gardyner deserved still more praise for publishing, the same

XLI.

CHAP. evening, a general pardon under the Great Seal (with a few exceptions) to all concerned in treasonable or seditious practices since the Queen's accession.

His policy.

Roman
Catholic
Bishops

restored.

Hopes were entertained that his elevation to power had mitigated the sternness of his character, and that moderate and humane councils would continue to distinguish the new reign. These hopes, probably, would not have been disappointed, had not the Chancellor formed a strong opinion that it was essentially necessary for the safety of the state that the new doctrines should be utterly suppressed, and that church government should be restored to the same condition in which it was before the rupture with Rome. He was no enthusiast; he was not naturally cruel; he was not bigoted in his creed, having several times shown that he could make profession of doctrine bend to political expediency. But even in the reign of Henry VIII. he had come to the conclusion that the privilege of free inquiry in religion was incompatible with the peace of society, and that the only safe policy was to enforce the established standard of faith. His own sufferings during the reign of Edward VI. had, no doubt, strengthened these views, and he was now prepared resolutely to carry through the most rigorous measures, any temporary display of liberality being intended only to facilitate the attainment of his object. He resolved, at the same time, to proceed with caution, and to wait till he had brought about a reconciliation with Rome and the restitution of the Catholic religion by authority of parliament, before resorting to the axe and the stake as instruments of conversion.

Meanwhile he himself and the other Bishops deprived during the last reign being restored, the heretical Archbishop of York and the Bishops of London, Exeter, and Gloucester were sent to prison, whither Cranmer and Latimer soon followed them. It should be recorded, however, that when some zealous Catholics urged the imprisonment of the celebrated foreign reformer, Peter Martyr, Gardyner, to his honour, pleaded that he had come over by an invitation from a former government, and furnished him with supplies to return to his own country in safety.

CHAP.
XLI.

A. D. 1553.

Parliament meeting on the 5th of October, the Chancellor, after celebrating a solemn mass of the Holy Ghost according to the ancient ritual, delivered, in presence of the Queen and the two Houses, an eloquent oration, in which he celebrated Chancellor's speech the piety, clemency, and other virtues of the reigning Sove- at opening reign, and called upon the legislature to pass the laws which were required, after the late dissensions and disturbances, for the good of the Church and the safety of the realm.

The first act which he proposed was most laudable, as it swept away all the newly created treasons, although it was considered by some an insidious attempt to restore the authority of the Pope. He had little difficulty in changing the national religion as to doctrine and worship; but there was a great alarm at the thought of restoring Papal supremacy, as this might draw along with it a restoration of the church lands, with which the nobles and gentry had been enriched.

In the Lords, there was no show of opposition to any proposed measure; but, notwithstanding great pains taken by Gardyner to manage the elections, there were symptoms of discontent exhibited in the House of Commons, which rendered it prudent that several bills brought in should be postponed.

of parlia

ment.

Proceed

ings in parliament.

tion of

Judge

The most strenuous opponent of the Catholic counter- Persecurevolution was that same Sir James Hales, the Judge of the Common Pleas, who, at the close of the reign of Edward VI., Hales. had risked his life by refusing to join in the illegal scheme for setting Mary aside from the succession to the Crown.

In vacation time he resided in Kent, where he acted as a ▲. D. 1553. magistrate; and presiding as chairman at the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions, held for that county, he gave charge to the grand jury to inquire of all offences touching the Queen's supremacy and religious worship, against the statutes made in the time of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., which he told them remained in full force, and parliament alone could repeal. In consequence, an indictment being found for the unlawful celebration of mass, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, Hales tried, con

CHAP.
XLI.

His dia

the Lord

On the first day of the following term, the Judges were to be sworn in before the Chancellor in Westminster Hall, under their appointment by the new Sovereign; and Hales logue with having, with the rest, presented himself to his Lordship, the Chancellor. following dialogue took place between them, highly characteristic of the individuals and of the age. Lord Chancellor, "Master Hales, ye shall understand, that like as the Queen's Highness hath heretofore conceived good opinion of you, especially for that ye stood both faithfully and lawfully in her cause of just succession, refusing to set your hand to the book, among others that were against her Grace in that behalf: so now, through your own late deserts against certain her Highness's doings, ye stand not well in her Grace's favour, and, therefore, before ye take any oath, it shall be necessary for you to make your purgation." Hales, J."I pray you, my Lord, what is the cause?" Lord Chancellor.- "Information is given that ye have indicted certain priests in Kent for saying mass." Hales J. “My

Lord, it is not so; I indicted none; but, indeed, certain indictments of like matter were brought before me at the last sessions there holden, and I gave order there as the law required. So I have professed the law, against which, in cases of justice, I will never, God willing, proceed, nor in any wise dissemble, but with the same show forth my conscience; and if it were to do again, I would do no less than I did." Lord Chancellor." Yea, Master Hales, your conscience is known well enough; I know you lack no conscience." Hales, J."My Lord, you may do well to search your own conscience, for mine is better known to myself than to you; and to be plain, I did as well use justice in your said mass case by my conscience as by law, wherein I am fully bent to stand in trial to the utmost that can be objected. And if I have therein done any injury or wrong, let me be judged by the law; for I will seek no better defence, considering chiefly that it is my profession." Lord Chancellor." Why, Master Hales, although you had the rigour of the law on your side, yet ye might have regard to the Queen's Highness's present doings in that case. And further, although ye seem to be

« AnteriorContinuar »