Volume III Part 25 (1/2)

[Sidenote: Scene at an execution at Ipswich.]

The mysteries of the faith were insulted in the celebration of the divine service. At one place, when the priest lifted up the host, a member of the congregation, ”a lawyer” and a gentleman, lifted up a little dog in derision. Another, who desired that the laity should be allowed communion in both kinds, taunted the minister with having drunk all the wine, and with having blessed the people with an empty chalice.

The intensity of the indignation which these and similar outrages created in the body of the nation, may be gathered from a scene which took place when an audacious offender was seized by the law, and suffered at Ipswich. When the fire was lighted, a commissary touched the victim with his wand, and urged him to recant. The man spat at him for an answer, and the commissary exclaimed that forty days' indulgence would be granted by the Bishop of Norwich to every one who would cast a stick into the pile. ”Then Baron Curzon, Sir John Audeley, with many others of estimation, being there present, did rise from their seats, and with their swords cut down boughs and threw them into the fire, and so did all the mult.i.tude of the people.”[439] It seems most certain that the country only refrained from taking the law into their own hands, and from trying the question with the Protestants, as Aske and Lord Darcy desired, by open battle, from a confidence that the government would do their duties, that in some way the law would interfere, and these excesses would be put down with a high hand.

[Sidenote: April. Preparation for the meeting of parliament.]

The meeting of parliament could be delayed no longer; and it must be a parliament composed of other members than those who had sate so long and so effectively.[440] Two years before it had been demanded by the northern counties. The promise had been given, and the expectation of a fresh election had been formed so generally, that the country had widely prepared for it. The counties and towns had been privately canva.s.sed; the intended representation had been arranged. The importance of the crisis, and the resolution of the country gentlemen to make their weight appreciated, was nowhere felt more keenly than in the court.

[Sidenote: The general election.]

[Sidenote: Exertions of Cromwell to secure a strong majority.]

Letters survive throwing curious light on the history of this election.

We see the Cromwell faction straining their own and the crown's influence as far as it would bear to secure a majority,--failing in one place, succeeding in another,--sending their agents throughout the country, demanding support, or entreating it, as circ.u.mstances allowed; or, when they were able, coercing the voters with a high hand. Care was taken to secure the return of efficient speakers to defend the government measures;[441] and Cromwell, by his exertions and by his anxiety, enables us to measure the power of the crown, both within parliament and without; to conclude with certainty that danger was feared from opposition, and that the control of the cabinet over the representation of England was very limited.

[Sidenote: Influence of the crown upon the elections.]

[Sidenote: Election at Shrewsbury in 1536.]

[Sidenote: Lord Southampton canva.s.ses the southern counties.]

[Sidenote: Arbitrary interference at Canterbury.]

[Sidenote: Cromwell cancels an election, and requires the return of his own nominees.]

The returns for the boroughs were determined by the chief owners of property within the limits of the franchise: those for the counties depended on the great landholders. In the late parliament Cromwell wrote to some gentleman, desiring him to come forward as the government candidate for Huntingdons.h.i.+re. He replied that the votes of the county were already promised, and unless his compet.i.tors could be induced to resign he could not offer himself.[442] In Shrops.h.i.+re, on the call of parliament to examine the treasons of Anne Boleyn,[443] there was a division of interest. ”The wors.h.i.+pful of the s.h.i.+re” desired to return a supporter of Cromwell: the sheriff, the undersheriff, and the town's people, were on the other side. The election was held at Shrewsbury, and the inhabitants a.s.sembled riotously, overawed the voters, and carried the opposition member by intimidation. On the present occasion Lord Southampton went in person round Surrey, Suss.e.x, and Hamps.h.i.+re, where his own property was situated. The election for Surrey he reported himself able to carry with certainty. At Guildford he manuvred to secure both seats, but was only able to obtain one. He was antic.i.p.ated for the other by a Guildford townsman, whom the mayor and burgesses told him that they all desired. Sir William Goring and Sir John Gage were standing on the court interest for Suss.e.x. Sir John Dawtry, of Petworth, and Lord Maltravers, had promised their support, and Southampton hoped that they might be considered safe. Farnham was ”the Bishop of Winchester's town,” where he ”spared to meddle” without Cromwell's express orders. If the bishop's good intentions could be relied upon, interference might provoke gratuitous ill feeling. He had friends in the town, however, and he could make a party if Cromwell thought it necessary. In Portsmouth and Southampton the government influence was naturally paramount, through the dockyards, and the establishments maintained in them.[444] So far nothing can be detected more irregular than might have been found in the efforts of any prime minister before the Reform Bill to secure a manageable House of Commons. More extensive interference was, however, indisputably practised, wherever interference was possible; at Oxford, we find Cromwell positively dictating the choice of a member, while at Canterbury, at the previous election, a case had occurred too remarkable for its arbitrary character to be pa.s.sed over without particular mention. Directions had been sent down from London for the election of two government nominees. An answer was returned, stating humbly that the order had come too late--that two members of the corporation of Canterbury were already returned. I have failed to discover Cromwell's rejoinder; but a week later the following letter was addressed to him by the mayor and burgesses:--

[Sidenote: The town submits.]

”In humble wise we certify you that the 20th day of this present month, at six o'clock in the morning, I, John Alc.o.c.k, mayor of Canterbury, received your letter directed to me, the said mayor, sheriff, and commonalty of the said city, signifying to us thereby the king's pleasure and commandment, that Robert Sacknell and John Bridges[445]

should be burgesses of the parliament for the same city of Canterbury; by virtue whereof, according to our bounden duty, immediately upon the sight of your said letter and contents thereof perceived, we caused the commonalty of the said city to a.s.semble in the court hall, where appeared the number of four score and seventeen persons, citizens and inhabitants of the said city; and according to the king's pleasure and commandment, freely with one voice, and without any contradiction, have elected and chosen the said Robert Sacknell and John Bridges to be burgesses of the parliament for the same city, which shall be duly certified by indenture under the seal of the said citizens and inhabitants, by the grace of the blessed Trinity.”

The first election, therefore, had been set aside by the absolute will of the crown, and the hope that so violent a proceeding might be explained tolerably through some kind of decent resignation is set aside by a further letter, stating that one of the persons originally chosen, having presumed to affirm that he was ”a true and proper burgess of the city,” he had been threatened into submission by a prospect of the loss of a lucrative office which he held under the corporation.[446]

For the parliament now elected, it is plain that the Privy Seal put out his utmost strength; and that he believed beforehand that his measures had been so well laid as to ensure the results which he desired. ”I and your dedicate councillors,” he wrote to the king, ”be about to bring all things so to pa.s.s that your Grace had never more tractable parliament.”[447] The event was to prove that he had deceived himself; a reaction set in too strong for his control, and the spirit which had dictated the Doncaster pet.i.tion, though subdued and modified, could still outweigh the despotism of the minister or the intrigues of his agents.

[Sidenote: Union of the provinces of Canterbury and York in the convocation.]

The returns were completed; the members a.s.sembled in London, and with them as usual the convocation of the clergy. As an evidence of the greatness of the occasion, the two provinces were united into one; the convocation of York held its session with the convocation of Canterbury; a synod of the whole English Church met together, in virtue of its recovered or freshly const.i.tuted powers, to determine the articles of its belief.[448]

[Sidenote: April 28. Parliament opens.]

[Sidenote: Speech from the throne.]

[Sidenote: The houses a.s.sembled to compose the religious differences in the realm.]

[Sidenote: Committee of opinion.]

[Sidenote: Suggestions offered by the moderate Reformers.]