CHA P. as to the facts; and the whole bore but too much the XXXII. face of probability. Mannoc and Derham, who were

arrested at the fame time, and examined by the chancel1541. lor, made the queen's guilt entirely certain by their confeffion; and dicovered other particulars which redounded ftill more to her difhonour. Three maids of the family were admitted into her fecrets; and tome of them had even paffed the night in bed with her and her lovers. All the examinations were laid before the king, who was fo deeply affected, that he remained a long time fpeechless, and at laft burst into tears. He found to his furprize, that his great skill in diftinguishing a true maid, of which he boafted in the cafe of Anne of Cleves, had failed him in that of his prefent confort. The queen being now queftioned, denied her guilt; but when informed, that a full difcovery was made, fhe confeffed, that she had been criminal before her marriage; and only infifted, that the had never been false to the king's bed. But as there was evidence, that one Colepeper had paffed the night with her alone fince her marriage; and as it appeared, that she had taken Derham, her old paramour, into her fervice, the feemed to deserve very little credit in this affeveration and the king befides, was not of a humour to make any difference between these degrees of guilt.

1542.

HENRY found, that he could not fo fully nor expedi16th Jan. tiously fatiate his vengeance on all these criminals as by affembling a parliament, the ufual inftrument of his ty ranny. The two houfes, having received the queen's confeffion, began by an addrefs to the king, which confifted of feveral particulars. They entreated him not to be vexed with this untoward accident, to which all men were fubje&; but to confider the frailty of human_nature, and the mutability of human affairs; and from thefe views to derive a fubject of confolation. They defired leave to frame a bill of attainder against the queen and her accomplices; and they begged him to give his affent to this bill, not in perfon, which would renew his vexation, and might endanger his health, but by commiffioners appointed for that purpofe. And as there was a law in force, making it treafon to fpeak ill of the queen, as well as king, they craved his royal pardon, if any of them should, on the prefent occafion, have tranfgreffed any part of that ftatute.

HAVING obtained a gracious anfwer to thefe requests, C H A P. the parliament proceeded to a bill of attainder for treafon XXXII. against the queen, and the viscountess of Rocheford, who

had conducted her fecret amours; and in this bill Cole- 1542. peper and Derham were alfo comprized. At the fame ime they paffed a bill of attainder for misprifion of treafon against the old dutchefs of Norfolk, Catherine's grandmother; her uncle, lord William Howard, and his lady, together with the countefs of Bridgewater, and nine perfons more; because they knew the queen's vicious course of life before her marriage, and had concealed it. This was an effect of Henry's ufual extravagance, to expect parents fhould fo far forget the ties of natural affection, and the fentiments of fhame and decency, as to reveal to him the moft fecret disorders of their family. He himself feems to have been fenfible of the cruelty of this fentence: For he pardoned the dutchefs of Norfolk, and most of the others, condemned for mifprifion of treason.

that

HOWEVER, to secure himself for the future, as well as his fucceffors, from this fatal accident, he engaged the parliament to frame a law, equally full of extravagance. It was enacted, that any one, who knew, or vehemently prefumed any guilt in the queen, and did not, within twenty days, difclose it to the king or council, should be guilty of treafon; prohibiting every one, at the fame time, from spreading the matter abroad, or even privately whispering it to others. It was alfo enacted, that, if the king married any woman, who had been incontinent, taking her for a true maid, the fhould be guilty of treason, in cafe fhe did not previously reveal her guilt to him. The people made merry with this extraordinary claufe, and faid, that the king muft henceforth look out for a widow; for no reputed maid would ever be perfuaded to incur the penalty of the ftatute A. After all these laws were paffed, the queen was beheaded on Tower-hill, together with the lady Rocheford. They behaved in a manner fuitable to their diffolute life, and as the lady Rocheford was known to be the chief inftrument in bringing Anne Boleyn to her end, fhe died unpitied; and men were farther confirmed, by the difcovery of this woman's guilt, in the favourable fentiments, which they had entertained of that unfortunate queen.

A Burnet, vol. i. p. 314.

THE

CHAP. THE king made no demand of any fubfidies from this XXXII. parliament; but he found means of enriching his exche

quer from another quarter: He took farther fteps towards 1542. the diffolution of colleges, hofpitals, and other foundations of that nature. The courtiers had been practising on the presidents and governors, to make a surrender of their revenues to the king; and they had been fuccefsful with eight of them. But there was an obftacle to their farther progrefs: It had been provided, by the local ftatutes of moft of these foundations, that no president, nor any fellows, could make fuch a deed without the unanimous vote of all the fellows; and this confent was not easily obtained. All fuch ftatutes were now annulled by parliament; and the revenues of thefe houfes, fo ufeful to the public, were now exposed to the rapacity of the king and his favourites ". The church had been so long their prey, that nobody was furprized at any new inroads made upon it. From the regular, Henry now proceeded to make devastations on the fecular clergy. He extorted from many of the 'bishops a furrender of chapter lands; and by this device he pillaged the fees of Canterbury, York, and London, and enriched his greedy parafites and flatterers with their spoils.

Ecclefiaftic affairs.

THE clergy have been commonly fo fortunate as to make a concern for their temporal interefts go hand in hand with a jealoufy for orthodoxy; and both these pasfions be regarded, by the people, ignorant and fuperstitious, as a zeal for religion: But the violent and headstrong character of Henry now dif-joined thefe objects. His rapacity was gratified by plundering the church; his bigotry and arrogance by perfecuting heretics. Though he engaged

It was enacted by this parliament, that there should be trial of treafon in any county where the king fhould appoint by commiflion. The ftatutes of treafon had been extremely multiplied in this reign; and fuch an expedient faved trouble and charges in trying that crime. The fame parliament erected Ireland into a kingdom; and. Henry henceforth annexed the title of king of Ireland to his other titles. This feffion, the commons first began the practice of freeing any of their members, who were arrefted, by a writ iffued by the speaker. Formerly it was ufual for them to apply for a writ from chancery to that purpose. This precedent encreafed the authority of the commons, and had afterwards confiderable confequences. Holingfhed, p. 955, 956. Baker, p. 289.

1542.

engaged the parliament to mitigate the penalties of the CHA P. fix articles, so far as regard the marriage of priests, which XXXII. was now only fubjected to a forfeiture of goods, chattels, and lands during life; he was ftill equally bent on maintaining a rigid purity in fpeculative principles. He had appointed a commiffion, confifting of the two archbifhops and feveral bishops of both provinces, together with a confiderable number of doctors of divinity; and by virtue of his ecclefiaftical fupremacy he had given them in charge to chufe a religion for his people. Before the commiffioners had made any progrefs in this arduous undertaking, the parliament, in 1541, had paffed a law, by which they ratified all the tenets, which these divines fhould thereafter establish with the king's confent: And they were not ashamed of thus exprefsly declaring, that they took their religion upon truft, and had no other rule, in religious as well as temporal concerns, than the arbitrary will of their mafter. There is only one clause of the ftatute, which may seem at first fight to favour fomewhat of the fpirit of liberty: It was enacted that the ecclefiaftical commiffioners fhould eftablish nothing. repugnant to the laws and ftatutes of the realm. But in reality this provifo was inferted by the king, to serve his own purposes. By introducing a confufion and contradiction into the laws, he became more the master of every one's life and property. And as the antient independence of the church still gave him jealoufy, he was well pleafed, under cover of fuch a clause, to introduce appeals from the fpiritual to the civil courts. It was for å ̈ like reafon, that he would never promulgate a body of canon law; and he encouraged the judges on all occafions to interpose in ecclefiaftical causes, wherever they thought the law or royal prerogative concerned. A happy innovation! though at firft invented for arbitrary purposes.

THE king, armed by the authority of parliament, or rather by their acknowledgment of that fpiritual fupremacy, which he believed inherent in him, employed his commiffioners to select a system of tenets for the affent and belief of the nation. A fmall volume was foon after published, called, the Inftitution of a Chriftian Man, which was received by the convocation, and voted to be the infallible standard of orthodoxy. All the delicate points of justification, faith, free-will, good works, and grace, are there defined with a leaning towards the opinion VOL. IV.

of

CHAP. of the reformers: The facraments, which a few years XXXII. before were only allowed to be three, are now encreased

to the number of feven, conformably to the sentiments 1542. of the catholics. The king's caprice is difcernible throughout the whole; and the book is in reality to be regarded as his compofition. For Henry, while he made his opinion a rule for the nation, would tye his own hands by no canon nor authority, not even by any which he himself had formerly established.

THE people had occafion foon after to fee a farther inftance of the king's inconftancy. He was not long fatisfied with his Inftitution of a Christian Man: He ordered a new book to be compofed, called, the Erudition of a Chriftian Man; and without asking the affent of the convocation, he published, by his own authority, and that of the parliament, this new model of orthodoxy. It differs from the Inftitution ; but the king was no less pofitive in his new creed than he had been in the old; and he required the belief of the nation to veer about at his fignal. In both thefe books, he was particularly careful to inculcate the doctrine of paffive obedience; and he was no less careful to retain the nation in the practice.

Ꭰ

WHILE the king was spreading his own books among the people, he seems to have been extremely perplexed, as were also the clergy, what courfe to take with the Scriptures. A review had been made by the ecclefiaftical fynod of the new tranflation of the Bible; and Gardiner had propofed, that, instead of employing English expreffions throughout, feveral Latin words fhould ftill. be preserved; because they contained, as he pretended, fuch peculiar energy and fignificance, that they had no correfpondent terms in the vulgar tongue E. Among thefe were eclefia, pœnitentia, pontifex, contritus, holocaufta, facramentum, elementa, ceremonia, myfterium, presbyter, facrificium, humilitas, fatisfactio, peccatum, gratia, hoftia, charitas, &c. But as this mixture would have appeared extremely barbarous, and was plainly calculated for no other purpose than to retain the people in their antient ignorance, the propofal was rejected. The knowledge of the people, however, at least their difputative

Collier, vol. ii. p. 190.

turn,

Burnet, vol. i. p. 315.