III.

1539.

Anne of

Cromwell, though he complied with the king's hu- BOOK mour, yet he studied to gain upon him, and to fix him in an alliance that should certainly separate. him from the emperor, and engage him again into a marries closer correspondence with France, on design to sup-Cleve. port the princes of Germany against the emperor, whose uneasiness under the laws and liberties of the empire began to be suspected: and all the popish party depended wholly on him. I did in my second Vol. II. volume publish a commission to Cromwell, thinking book ii. N. it was that which constituted him the king's vicege-29. rent, which I, upon reading the beginning of it, took to be so; but that was one of the effects of the haste in which I wrote that work: it does indeed in the preamble set forth," that the king was then in some Commis"sort to exercise that supreme authority he "over the church of England, under Christ;

66

Coll. Rec.

sion to

had Cromwell since tute some

to consti

they who pretended that that authority ought to under him. "be lodged with them, did pursue their own private

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gains, more than the public good; and had brought "matters, by the negligence of their officers, and "their own ill example, to such a state, that it might be feared, that Christ would not now own "his own spouse. Therefore, since the supreme authority over all persons, without any difference, "was given him from Heaven, he was bound (as much

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as he could) to cleanse the church from all briers, "and to sow the seeds of virtue in it. Those who "before exercised this authority, thinking them"selves above all censure, had (by their own bad

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examples) laid stumblingblocks before the people. "He therefore, designing a general reformation of "his kingdom and church, resolved to begin with "the fountains; for they being cleansed, the streams

III.

1539.

66

PART "would run clear: but since he could not be person"ally present every where, he had deputed Thomas "Cromwell, his principal secretary, and master of "the rolls, to be in all ecclesiastical causes his vicegerent and vicar-general; with a power to name "others, to be authorized under the great seal. But "he being so employed in the public affairs of the kingdom, that he could not personally discharge "that trust; therefore he deputed A, B, C, D, to "execute that trust. The king being pleased with "this deputation, did likewise empower them to "visit all churches, both metropolitical, cathedral, "and collegiate churches, hospitals and monasteries, " and all other places, exempt or not exempt, to cor"rect and punish what was amiss in them, by cen"sures of suspension and deprivation, to give them "statutes and injunctions in the king's name, and to "hold synods, chapters, or convocations, summoning "all persons concerned to appear before them, and presiding in them, giving them such rules as they "shall judge convenient: calling such causes as they "shall think fit from the ecclesiastical courts, to be

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judged by them; and to force obedience, both by "ecclesiastical censures and fines, and other tempo"ral punishments;" with several other clauses of a very extended and comprehensive nature. How far this was put in practice, does not fully appear to me. It certainly struck so deep into the whole ecclesiastical constitution, that it could not be easily borne. But the clergy had lost their reputation and credit, so that every invasion that was made on them, and on their courts, seemed to be at this time acceptable to the nation; one extreme very naturally producing another for all did acquiesce tamely, in submitting

III.

to a power that was now in high exaltation, and BOOK that treated those that stood in its way, not only with the utmost indignation, but with the most rigorous severity.

1539.

love with

Howard.

But to return to Cromwell. He, in concurrence He is in with the court of France, carried matters so, that Katherine the marriage with Anne of Cleve was made up. This occasioned one of the most unjustifiable steps in all that reign. Among the papers that were sent me from Zurick, there is a long and particular account of many passages in this matter, with some other important transactions of this year, writ by one Richard Hill, who writes very sensibly and very piously; and he being zealous for a further reformation, went out of England as a man concerned in trade, which he pursued only as a just excuse to get out of the way: but before he went over, he wrote a long account to Bullinger of the affairs in England. He tells him, "that before Whit-Sunday three persons were burnt in Southwark because "they had not received the sacrament at Easter, and "had denied transubstantiation. There was after "that one Collins, a crazed man, likewise burnt, all

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by Gardiner's procurement." A little before Midsummer it began to be whispered about, that the king intended a divorce with Anne, who had been married to him above five months. It was observed that the king was much taken with a young person, a niece of the duke of Norfolk's, (whom he afterwards married;) Gardiner took care to bring them together to his palace, where they dined once, and had some meetings and entertainments there. This went on some time before there was any talk of the divorce: it was indeed believed that there was an

.III.

Cromwell's

fall.

PART ill commerce between them. Cromwell was newly made earl of Essex: Bourchier, in whom that line 1539. was extinct, who had been a severe persecutor, falling from his horse, and breaking his neck, died without being able to speak one word. The king gave Cromwell not only his title, but all that fell to the crown by his dying without heirs: yet he enjoyed not this long; for in the beginning of June he was sent to the Tower. He did not know the secret cause of his fall; it was generally believed it was because he did not flatter the king enough, and that he was against the divorce, as thinking it would neither be for the king's honour, nor the good of the kingdom. Some suspected that his late advancement, and great grants the king had given him, was an artifice to make people conclude, when they saw him disgraced after such high favour, that certainly some very black thing was discovered: and it was also thought, that the king restored to his son (who was so weak, that he was thought almost a fool) much of his father's estate and goods, (as he made him a baron in December, after his father's death,) on design to make the father more silent, for fear of provoking the king to take from him what he had then given him. Here I stop the prosecuting the rest of the letter, till I have added somewhat more concerning Cromwell.

Rymer,

t. xiv.

He had many offices in his person; for besides that he was lord vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters, and lord privy-seal, he was lord chamberlain, and chancellor of the exchequer. Rymer has published the grants that the king made of those offices, in which it is said, that they were void upon his attainder; but, which was more, he was the chief min

III.

1539.

the German

ister, and had the king's confidence, for ten years toge- BOOK ther, almost as entirely as cardinal Wolsey had it formerly. Mount had been sent to Germany to press A new a closer league defensive against the pope, and any treaty with council that he might summon. When the princes princes. did object the act of the six articles, and the severities upon it; he confessed to one of the elector's ministers, that the king was not sincere in the point of religion: he had therefore proposed a double marriage of the king with Anne of Cleve, and of the duke of Cleve with the lady Mary; for he said, the king was much governed by his wives. The elector of Saxony, who had married the other sister of Cleve, had conceived so bad an opinion of the king, that he expressed no heartiness, neither in the marriage, nor in any alliance with England: but he yielded to the importunities of others, who thought the prospect of the advantage from such an alliance was great.

Tit. B. 1.

Some of

memoran

There are great remains, that show how exact a Cotton lib. minister Cromwell was; there are laid together many remembrances of things that he was to lay Cromwell's before the king. They are too short to give any dums. great light into affairs; yet I will mention some of them. In one, he mentions the abbots of Glassenbury and Reading, who were then prisoners, and were examined. The witnesses, with the council, were ordered to be sent to Berkshire and Somersetshire. Mention is made of their complices, who were to be tried, and to suffer with them. To this I must add, that in one of the Zurick letters it is written to Bullinger, that three of the richest abbots in England had suffered for a conspiracy, into which they had entered, for restoring the pope's authority in England.