active part in the persecution of Anne Ascue, Nicholas Boleman, John Lassels, and others, who were burnt for denying the real presence, while he could not save an equal number of stanch Papists who suffered at the instance of the opposite party for denying the King's supremacy. But his chief object was to check the translation of the Bible, and its circulation among the laity, which he considered the grand source of heresy and insubordination to just spiritual authority. Having tried ineffectually to render the translation unintelligible, by retaining a large mixture of Latin words from the Vulgate, for which he contended there were no equivalent terms in the English tongue*, he succeeded in introducing a clause into an act of parliament upon the subject, confining the use of the translation to gentlemen and merchants, with a preamble, “that many seditious and ignorant persons had abused the liberty granted them of reading the Bible, and that great animosities, tumults, and schisms, had been occasioned by perverting the sense of the Scriptures." + sor. He still made ineffectual attempts to recover the King's favour. Having prevailed on the Convocation to grant rather [A. D. 1554.] a liberal subsidy, he hurried with the news to WindThe King taking horse on the terrace to ride out a hawking, saw Gardyner standing in a group with Lord Chancellor Wriothesley and other Councillors, and calling out to the Lord Chancellor said, "Did not I command you he should come no more amongst you?" The Lord Chancellor answered, " An it please your Grace his coming is to bring word of a benevolence given to your Majesty by the clergy." The King exclaimed, "Ah! let him come hither;' and so," observes the narrator of this scene, of which he was an eye-witness," he did his message, and the King went straight away." Being anxious to keep up a belief with the multitude that he still enjoyed the king's confidnce, it is related that Henry, lying ill in bed, and having summoned a Couucil, Gardyner attended, but was not admitted into the royal presence. Thereupon he remained in the utter Privy Chamber until the Council came from the King, and then went down with them, to the end, as was thought, to blind the world withal."§ The prosecution of the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Surrey, at the close of the reign, still further weakened the Catholic party; but a great struggle was made by them to have Gardyner included in the list of Henry's Executors, to whom the government was to be intrusted during the minority of his son. Sir Anthony Brown," a principal pillar of the Romanists," having at all times access to the King, as being of the Privy Chamber, knelt down, he lying sick in bed, and said, "My Lord of Winchester, I think Among these were ecclesia, pœnitentia, pontifex, contritus, holocausta, sacramentum, elmentum, cremonia, mysterium, presbyter, sacrificium, humilitas, satisfactio, pecca tum, gratia, hostia, charitas.-Burnet, vol. i. pp. 315. † 33 Hen. 8. c. 1. ‡ Sir Anthony Lenny. See Fox, Mart. 1 St. Tr. 560. § Ibid. by negligence, is left out of your Majesty's will, who hath done your Highness most painful, long, and notable service, and one without whom the rest shall not be able to overcome your great and weighty affairs committed unto them." Hold your peace, quoth the King, "I remembered him well enough, and of good purpose have left him out. For surely, if he were in my testament, and one of you, he would cumber you all, and you should never rule him, he is of so troublesome a nature, I myself could use him and rule him to all manner of purposes as seemed good unto me, but so shall you never do, and therefore talk no more of him to me in this behalf." Sir Anthony was urged on again to press the point, as every thing was felt to depend upon it; but Henry, well prepared by the Seymours and Catherine Par, who had got complete possession of him, put an end to all farther attempts, by exclaiming, "Have you not yet done to molest me in this manner? If you will not cease to trouble me, by the faith I owe unto God I will surely despatch thee out of my will also, and therefore let us hear no more of it."* On the accession of the new Sovereign, Gardyner, though excluded from the Council, set himself openly and fearlessly to oppose the measures brought forward JAN. 1547. ] under the Protector, to change the established religion;—and there can be no doubt that he had the law on his side. Before a parliament was called, the Council, disregarding the Act of the Six Articles which was still in force, issued orders for changing the ceremonial of Divine worship,-published a book of homilies to be read by all priests, inculcating the new doctrines,-and appointed ministers to go into every diocese to see that the new regulations were observed. Gardyner expressed his firm resolve that if the visitors came into his diocese he should proceed against them, that they might be restrained and punished. He made representations on the subject to the Protector, and tried to shew both the illegality and the inexpediency of these proceedings. "Tis a dangerous thing," said he, " to use too much freedom in researches of this kind. If you cut the old canal, the water is apt to run further than you have a mind to. Ifyou indulge the humours of novelty, you cannot put a stop to people's demands, nor govern their indiscretions at pleasure. To speak my mind and to act as my conscience directs, are two branches of liberty which I can never part with." He forcibly urged that Edward was too young and that the Protector was too much occupied to study subjects of controversy; that it was imprudent to run such a risk of disturbing the public peace during a minority; that injunctions issued in the King's name could not invalidate acts of parliament; and that as Cardinal Wolsey had incurred a premunire though he acted under royal licence, so all clergymen who taught the doctrines in homilies * Fox, Mart. 6 VOL. I. would be liable to the penalties enacted by the Six Articles, which he himself was determined to enforce for the honour of God and the good of the Church.* He likewise wrote in a contemptuous tone to Cranmer, defying him to prove the truth of certain doctrines inculcated in the book of homilies, and reproaching him with duplicity in now reprobating the opinions which he had appeared zealously to countenance during the life of the late King. Gardyner was in consequence summoned before the Council, and required to promise obedience to the royal injunctions. He appealed to the approaching parliament. The Protector's party became afraid of the resistance which, as a member of the House of Peers, he might offer to their measures, and they were still more alarmed at the flame he was beginning to kindle out of doors by addressing himself to the religious feelings of the people. Therefore, though he could not be charged with any offence against the law, he was in the most arbitrary manner forthwith committed to the Fleet, and detained a close prisoner till the end of the session. Attempts were in vain made during his confinement to gain him over to the new plan of reform. On one occasion, Cranmer, finding he could make no impression upon him, exclaimed testily, "Brother of Winchester, you like not any thing new unless you be yourself the author thereof.” "Your Grace wrongeth me," replied the true conservative; I have never been author yet of any one new thing, for which I thank my God." An intriguing subordinate was afterwards sent to him to hint that, if he would soften his opposition, he might have a place in the Council, and be restored to his see. But he answered indignantly," that his character and conscience forbade it; and that if he agreed on such terms, he should deserve to be whipped in every market town in the realm, and then to be hanged for an example, as the veriest varlet that ever was bishop in any realm christened."+ At the end of the sesions which had been so much smoothed by his absence he was set at liberty, and ordered by the [JUNE, 1549.] Council to preach at Paul's Cross before the King on the feast of St. Peter,—with an injunction that he should not touch on any controverted question. He declared to a friend that this was perhaps the only opportunity the young Prince might have of hearing the truth, and that he was determined, whatever might be the consequence, to explain to him the true Catholic doctrine with respect to the mass and the eucharist. He kept his word; but the next day he was committed to the Tower. During his absence from parliament the statute of the Six Articles was repealed. and bills were passed allowing the clergy to marry; —for the administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's supper to the laity in both kinds; -for uniformity of worship, *Strype. See the correspondence at full length, 1 St. Tr. 551. Still certain bishops, ani and for the use of the new Liturgy.* mated by Gardyner's example, refused to conform; and after he had been confined for two or three years, a resolu tion was taken to deprive him and them of their bish- [JULY, 1550.] oprics, so that the reformed Church might be complete. The method of proceeding against him was violent, and was hardly disguised by any colour of law or justice. A deputation from the Council were sent to tempt him with questions' Finding him more than they expected, they rose in their demands; and at last insisted on unconditional submission, and an acknowledgment of past errors. Perceiving that it was their purpose either to dishonour or to ruin him, or perhaps both, he determined not to gratify them by any further compliance. He therefore refused to answer any question till he should recover his liberty; but he asserted his innocence, and desired a fair trial. In a few days he was brought before the Council, when certain articles were read, and, in the King's name, he was required to subscribe them. He replied that "in all things his Majesty could lawfully command he was most ready to obey; but forasmuch as there were divers things required of him that his conscience would not bear, therefore he prayed them to have him excused." Immediate sequestration of his ecclesiastical revenue was pronounced, with an intimation that, if he did not submit within three months, he should be deprived of his bishopric. At the end of that time a commission was issued to the Metropolitan, three Bishops and six laymen, to bring him judicially to trial. Having protested against the validity of the commission, which was not founded on any statute or precedent, he defended himself with vigour; but Cranmer, on the twenty-second day of the proceedings, before the close of the defendant's proofs, which occasioned some disagreeable disclosures,-on the ground that he was contumacious, pronounced sentence against him that he should be deprived of his bishopric. He appealed to the King; but his appeal was not regarded, and he was now shut up in a meaner cell in the Tower,-with instructions from the Council that no man should see him but one of the warders; that all his books and papers should be taken from him; and that he should be refused the use of pen, ink, and paper. he lay in solitary confinement, without any miti- [JULY 6, 1553.] gation of his sufferings, till the accession of Queen Mary, when he was made Lord Chancellor and Prime Minister to that Sovereign. There Such was the seclusion in which Gardyner had been kept that he had not heard of the death of Edward VI., of the proclamation of Lady Jane Grey as Queen, or the manner in which the nation had taken up the cause of the rightful heir to the Crown,— when, on the morning of the 31st of July, 1553, he was told of + * Stat. 1 Ed. 6. those events, with the additional news that Queen Mary, accompanied by her sister Elizabeth, was actually making a triumphal procession through the streets of London, on her way to the Tower. It happened that in this fortress there were confined four other state prisoners, who had never been allowed to communicate with each other, and had been subjected to equal rigour,―the old Duke of Norfolk, attainted in the last days of Henry VIII., and saved from the block by the opportune death of that tyrant,-the Duchess of Somerset, who had been committed at the same time, with her husband, as an accomplice in his treasons,-Courtenay, son of the Marquis of Exeter, who, without being charged with any crime, had 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 congratulotion 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 more sudden and striking was his re-instatement. He was 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 [AUG. 23, 1553.] 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."+ * Ante, p. 51. + "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 |