legate out of England. Gardiner, who knew well the temper of the nation, had taken care that he should not come until amply provided with powers to confirm to their holders the abbey and church estates. At first Pole had been allowed by the pope "to treat, compound, and dispense" with the holders of this property as to their rents, then this power was extended from rents to lands, tenements, and tithes. Gardiner was not satisfied even with this— a dispensation which, depending on the good pleasure of the cardinal, implied a certain amount of uncertainty. At length, then, the pope signed a bull empowering Pole "to give, aliene, and transfer " all Church property to its present holders. Armed with this welcome document, the cardinal was sure of a good reception. § 24. On November 28 (1554) he met the Parliament, and made an harangue to them in presence of the king and queen. The next day the two houses voted, almost unanimously, their repentance for the schism, and their desire to be received back into the unity of the Catholic Church. On the day after (November 30, St. Andrew's Day) they appeared before the cardinal and desired absolution on their bended knees. The cardinal rising with extended arms, pronounced the absolution of the nation, and its entrance again into union with Rome. On Advent Sunday Bishop Gardiner preached, extolling the happiness of again recovering the papal unity, which he himself had done as much as any man to break off. The clergy in their Convocation had, like the Parliament, petitioned for absolution, and on December 6 (1554), before the cardinal at Lambeth, they were solemnly reconciled.2 § 25. The Convocation was then made use of to give a decent pretext for the all-important measure of the confirmation of the abbey lands to their present holders. They address their majesties, desiring them to intercede with the legate to grant a ratification of their titles to the possessors of church lands, inasmuch as any attempt to recover them "would not only redound to the disturbance of the public peace, but be a means that the unity in the Catholic Church could not obtain its desired effect." They pledge themselves to accept and act upon whatever the lord legate shall determine. But at the same time they "desire the restitution of all their ecclesiastical rights, liberties, and jurisdictions," without which they say they cannot "discharge their common duties." The cardinal was graciously pleased to accede to this request. By an instrument published December 24 (1554), he pronounced (1) That all cathedral churches, colleges, and schools founded during 1 Dodd, vol. ii. Appendix xxii.; Lingard, v. 69 (4to edition). Heylin, Eccl. Rest. p. 43. Cardwell, Synod. ii. 440. "3 the schism should be preserved; (2) That all marriages contracted within the prohibited degrees, but sanctioned by the law, should be valid ; (3) That all institutions to benefices, all dispensations granted under any Act of Parliament, all judicial processes made before ordinaries or delegates, should be confirmed; (4) That all persons having sufficient conveyance of any land, tenements, or other property formerly belonging to the Church might, without scruple of conscience, and without impediment or trouble by pretence of any general council, canons, and ecclesiastical laws, thenceforth continue to enjoy the same. This dispensation of the cardinal was inserted in the body of the Act of Parliament which reasserted the papal supremacy,1 repealed all Acts which contravened it, declared that the title of Supreme Head of the Church never rightfully belonged to the Crown, restored the jurisdiction of all ecclesiastical ordinaries, and suspended the operation of the statutes of mortmain for twenty years. "This statute," says Dr. Hook, "sealed Pole's triumph over the liberties of his country, and we cannot record it without expressing the indignation which every patriot must feel against the legislators of that day.” 2 § 26. The Lower House of Convocation addressed the bishops during this Parliament to obtain for them various privileges and immunities, and among other requests they desire to know whether those who have preached heretical doctrine shall be summoned before their ordinaries and compelled to recant or else punished. Thus reminded, the bishops proceeded to obtain from a subservient Parliament the power to recur to the old manner of dealing with heretics taken away by the statute of Henry VIII. which required a regular court and witnesses.4 The Parliament repealed this law and enacted the revival of the old statutes made against the Lol. lards, so that the clergy of reforming opinions were now left utterly helpless in the hands of their enemies.5 the § 27. An embassy had been despatched to Rome to acquaint pope with the good news of the submission of the revolted nation. Pope Julius died before it arrived, and Marcellus II., his successor, 1 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, c. 8. "The cardinal-legate strove long to prevent the two enactments as to the restoration to obedience and the title to ecclesiastical property being combined in one Act. But the English nobility adhered immovably to its demand, so that they must stand or fall together."-Von Ranke, Hist. of England, i. 203. 2 Lives of the Archbishops, iii. 290. 3 Cardwell, Synod. ii. 430. The demands run to the number of 28. 4 25 Henry VIII. c. 14. 5 "Gardiner assures us, and we may believe him in this, that it was not he that prompted the revival of the old laws against the Lollards. The chief impulse to it came, on the contrary, from the queen."-Von Ranke, i. 209 only lived twenty-one days. Paul IV., who followed, received the ambassadors with high compliments, and conferred upon Philip and Mary the title of King of Ireland (in place of the old title of Lord). In England a gorgeous procession to celebrate the restoration of catholic unity was made in London on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and on the following day the Parliament and Convocation were dissolved. § 28. The cardinal desired the clergy to repair to their cures, and to use lenity and moderation, endeavouring to recover their people by gentleness rather than by violence. He now issued out 66 his commissions to the bishops, and in the vacancy of the two metropolitan sees to the deans and chapters of those sees, giving them the fullest powers to absolve all those who repented of heresy and schism; to confirm the ordinations of those who were ordained under the new Ordinal, to absolve those who had been constrained to break their monastic vows, and who had taken any oath against the papal supremacy. The clergy, when absolved, were to be em powered to absolve the laity in the form following Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and by the apostolic authority granted and committed unto me, I absolve you from all sentences of excommunication, and from all other censures and pains into the which you be fallen by reason of heresy and schism, or any otherwise; and I restore you to the unity of our holy mother the Church, and to the communion of all sacraments, dispensing with you for all manner of irregularity; and by the same authority I absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 1 § 29. The Church of England was thus thrust back into the condition in which it was before 1529. All the gains of the Reformation-gains which had been acquired at so great a cost—were wrested from it. Its nationality was again obscured, and the vast mass of superstitious follies and abuses, implied by the name Rome, was again heaped upon it. The effects of this retrogressive step, so glibly voted by the Parliament, were now to be witnessed; and amidst the fearful scenes of the next four years was to be generated in the breasts of Englishmen that indelible hatred of "popery which was destined to be at once the support and the difficulty of the Anglican Church of the future. 1 Burnet, Records, iii. v. 33. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. (A) BONNER'S PROCEEDINGS IN LONDON AGAINST THE MARRIED CLERGY. It appears that Bonner commenced proceedings against the married clergy in February 1554, a month before the issue of the Injunctions. The married priests were summoned to appear before him within a fortnight. Certain articles were issued to the priest, which he was called upon to answer. If the answer admitted his marriage he was deprived of his benefice, suspended from his priestly functions, inhibited from continuing with his wife. If he was a regular, and had taken vows of chastity, his matrimony was declared void, and certain penance was enjoined to him. We have record of the penance ordered. On May 14, John Turner, rector of St. Leonard's, Eastcheap, was ordered to appear in his church, and holding a lighted taper in his hand, to pronounce in a loud voice the following form which had been drawn up for him:-"Good people, I am come hither at this present time to declare unto you my sorrowful and penitent heart, for that, being a priest, I have pre sumed to marry one Amy German, widow, and under pretence of that matrimony, contrary to the canons and customs of the universal Church, have kept her as my wife, and lived contrary to the canons and ordinances of the Church, and to the evil example of good Christian people; whereby now, being ashamed of my former wicked living, here I ask Almighty God mercy and forgiveness, and the whole Church, and am sorry and penitent even from the bottom of my heart: Therefore, and in token hereof, I am here, as you see, to declare and show unto you this my repentance, that before God on the latter day you may testify with me of the same; and I most heartily and humbly pray and desire you all, whom by this evil example doing I have greatly offended, that for your part you will forgive me, and remember me in your prayers, that God may give me grace, that hereafter I may live a continent life, according to his laws, and the godly ordinances of our mother the holy Catholic Church, through and by His grace. And I do here before you all openly promise so to do during my life.” (Strype's Cranmer.) CHAPTER XIV. THE PERSECUTION OF THE REFORMERS. 1555-1558. § 1. Persecution of the Reformers devoid of any reasonable explanation. § 2. The authors of this policy. §3. Reformers petition to be brought to trial. § 4. The first sufferers-Rogers, Saunders, Hooper, and Taylor. § 5. Burning of Bishop Farrar. § 6. Letter to the bishops to quicken their zeal. § 7. The ignorance and simplicity of the victims. § 8. General remarks on the persecution. § 9. Reformers from beyond sea write to the Queen. § 10. The answer to their letter. § 11. Cranmer before Bishop Brooks. § 12. He writes to the Queen. § 13. Trial of Ridley and Latimer. § 14. Their degradation. § 15. They are burned at Oxford, October 16. § 16. Act to restore Tenths and First Fruits, and Impropriations, to the Church. § 17. The Legatine Synod. Cranmer condemned by the Pope. § 19. His degradation. § 20. His recantations. § 21. His purposed execution concealed from him. § 22. He abjures his recantations. § 23. His death and character. § 24. Pole made archbishop. § 25. The Queen restores religious houses. § 26. Commission for destroying compromising documents. § 27. Visitation of the Universities. § 28. Commission to search out heretics. § 29. The Pope deprives Pole of his commission as legate. § 30. Meeting of Convocation in 1558. § 31. Death of Queen Mary. § 18. § 1. THE persecution of the reformers under Mary was uncalled for by any, even an imaginary, expediency, and can only be assigned to motives of bigotry and revenge. The old religion had been re-established without tumult and without difficulty. The leading reformers were either in prison or in exile. No danger was to be apprehended from them, and if the authorities had any faith in the prudence of the measures taken by the cardinal-legate, they might fairly hope soon to see the whole land of one mind again in religious matters. What purpose, then, were cruel executions to serve, and how could they be held consistent with any intelligent policy? It was not now, as in the days of Elizabeth, when treason against the State necessarily formed an ingredient in religious sentiments differing from the established religion. With the exception of a few fanatics, the reformers all recognised Mary as the rightful queen. She was supported by all the great powers of the Continent. The emperor was her close ally, and the King of France had ordered Te Deum to be sung in all his churches for the restoration of England to the faith. The outbreak of persecution has appeared so strange even to Romanist |