Volume III Part 36 (1/2)

[44] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 441.

[45] Ibid. p. 442.

[46] Pole to Prioli: _Epist._, Vol. I. p. 445.

[47] Tunc statim misi c.u.m ille e medio jam sustulisset illam quae illi et regno totius hujus calamitatis causa existimabatur.--_Apologia ad Carolum Quintum._

[48] A MS. copy of this book, apparently the original which was sent by Pole, is preserved among the _Records_ in the Rolls House, scored and underlined in various places, perhaps by members of the Privy Council. A comparison of the MS. with the printed version, shows that the whole work was carefully rewritten for publication, and that various calumnies in detail, which have derived their weight from being addressed directly to the king, in what appeared to be a private communication by a credible accuser--which have, therefore, been related without hesitation by late writers as ascertained facts--are not in the first copy. So long as Pole was speaking only to the king, he prudently avoided statements which might be immediately contradicted, and confined himself to general invective. When he gave his book to the world he poured into it the indiscriminate slanders which were floating in popular rumour. See _Appendix_ to the Fourth Volume.

[49] Partus Naturae laborantis.

[50] Populus enim regem procreat.

[51] In the printed copy the king is here accused of having intrigued with Mary Boleyn before his marriage with Anne. See _Appendix_.

[52] Elsewhere in his letters Pole touches on this string. If England is to be recovered, he is never weary of saying, it must be recovered at once, while the generation survives which has been educated in the Catholic faith. The poison of heresy is instilled with so deadly skill into schools and churches, into every lesson which the English youth are taught, that in a few years the evil will be past cure. He was altogether right. The few years in fact were made to pa.s.s before Pole and his friends were able to interfere; and then it _was_ too late; the prophecy was entirely verified. But, indeed, the most successful preachers of the Reformation were neither Cranmer nor Parker, Cromwell nor Burleigh, Henry nor Elizabeth, but Pole himself and the race of traitors who followed him.

[53] These paragraphs are a condensation of five pages of invective.

[54] Reginald Pole to the King, Venice, May 27. MS. _penes me_.

Instructions to one whom he sent to King Henry by Reginald Pole.--Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 478.

[55] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.

[56] In his _Apology to Charles the Fifth_, Pole says that Henry in his answer to the book said that he was not displeased with him for what he had written, but that the subject was a grave one, and that he wished to see and speak with him. He, however, remembered the fable of the fox and the sick lion, and would not show himself less sagacious than a brute.

Upon this, Lingard and other writers have built a charge of treachery against Henry, and urged it, as might be expected, with much eloquent force. It did not occur to them that if Henry had really said anything so incredible, and had intended treachery, the letters of Tunstall and Starkey would have been in keeping with the king's; they would not have been allowed to betray the secret and show Pole their true opinions.

Henry's letter was sent on the 14th of June; the other letters bore the same date, and went by the same post. But, indeed, the king made no mystery of his displeasure. He may have written generally, as knowing only so much of the book as others had communicated to him. That he affected not to be displeased is as absurd in itself as it is contradicted by the terms of the refusal to return, which Pole himself sent in reply.--Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 295.

[57] Starkey to Pole: Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 282.

[58] Tunstall to Pole: _Rolls House MS._, Burnet's _Collectanea_, p.

479.

[59] Starkey to Pole: _Rolls House MS._

[60] Phillips' _Life of Cardinal Pole_, Vol. I. p. 148. Reginald Pole to Edward VI.: _Epist._ Reg. Pol.

[61] Wordsworth's _Excursion_, Book V.

[62] _Sermons of Bishop Latimer_, Parker Society's edition, p. 33.

[63] In the State Paper Office and the Rolls House there are numerous ”depositions” as to language used by the clergy, showing their general temper.

[64] Printed in Strype's _Memorials_, Vol. II. p. 260. The complaints are not exaggerated. There is not one which could not be ill.u.s.trated or strengthened from depositions among the _Records_.

[65] This, again, was intended for Latimer. The ill.u.s.tration was said to be his; but he denied it.

[66] Many of the clergy and even of the monks had already taken the permission of their own authority. Cranmer himself was said to be secretly married; and in some cases women, whom we find reported in this letter of Cromwell's visitors as concubines of priests, were really and literally their wives, and had been formally married to them. I have discovered one singular instance of this kind.