Volume III Part 50 (2/2)

[609] The bishop, nevertheless, was not satisfied that it would be refused, if it could be had. He thought, evidently, that Henry would act prudently by being liberal in the matter. Speaking of the miscontentment which had been shown, he added: ”For any overture that yet hath been opened you may do your pleasure. How be it, in case of their suit unto your Majesty, if the duke shall be content by his express consent to approve your proceeding, specially the said decree of your clergy, whereby all things may be here ended and brought to silence, and the lady there remaining still, this duke, without kindling any further fire, made your Majesty's a.s.sured friend with a demonstration thereof to the world, and that with so small a sum of money to be given unto him (sub colore rest.i.tutionis pecuniae pro oneribus et dote licet vere nulla interesset), or under some other good colour... . G.o.d forbid your Majesty should much stick thereat.”--Bishop of Bath to Henry VIII.: _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 425.

[610] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 392.

[611] Ibid. p. 386.

[612] _State Papers_, Vol. VIII. p. 397.

[613] Pate to the Duke of Suffolk: Ibid. p. 412.

[614] No draft of the bill exists in its original form. As it pa.s.sed it conferred on lay impropriators the same power of recovering t.i.thes as was given to the clergy. The members of the lower house had been, many of them purchasers of abbey lands, and impropriated t.i.thes formed a valuable item of the property. It is likely that the bishops overlooked, and that the commons remembered this important condition.--_Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII. Session of July 12.

[615] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 10.

[616] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 26.

[617] Philpot's confession is preserved. He describes how Sir Gregory Botolph, returning to Calais from a journey to Rome, took him one night upon the walls, and after swearing him to secrecy, showed himself a worthy pupil of Reginald Pole.

”If England have not a scourge in time,” Botolph said, ”they will be all infidels, and no doubt G.o.d to friend, there shall be a redress; and know ye for a truth what my enterprise is, with the aid of G.o.d and such ways as I shall devise. I shall get the town of Calais into the hands of the Pope and Cardinal Pole, who is as good a Catholic man as ever I reasoned with; and when I had declared everything of my mind unto them, no more but we three together in the Pope's chamber, I had not a little cheer of the Pope and Cardinal Pole; and after this at all times I might enter the Pope's chamber at my pleasure.”

Philpot asked him how he intended to proceed, Calais being so strong a place. ”It shall be easy to be done,” Botolph said. ”In the herring time they do use to watch in the lantern gate, whereat there be in the watch about a dozen persons, and against the time which shall be appointed in the night, you, with a dozen persons well appointed for the purpose, shall enter the watch and destroy them. That done, ye shall recoil back with your company and keep the stairs, and at the same time I with my company shall be ready to scale the walls over the gate. I will have five or six hundred men that shall enter with me on the first burst. We shall have aid both by sea and land, within short s.p.a.ce.”--Confession of Clement Philpot: _Rolls House MS._ Viscount Lisle, the old commandant of Calais, an illegitimate son of Edward IV., was suspected of having been privy to the conspiracy, and was sent for to England. His innocence was satisfactorily proved, but he died in the Tower on the day when he would have been liberated.

[618] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 58: unprinted, _Rolls House MS._

[619] _Lords Journals_, 32 Henry VIII. The clerk of the parliament has attached a note to the summary of the session declaring that throughout its progress the peers had voted unanimously. From which it has been concluded, among other things, that Cranmer voted for Cromwell's execution. The archbishop was present in the house on the day on which the bill for the attainder was read the last time. There is no evidence, however, that he remained till the question was put; and as he dared to speak for him on his arrest, he is ent.i.tled to the benefit of any uncertainty which may exist. It is easy to understand how he, and the few other peers who were Cromwell's friends, may have abstained from a useless opposition in the face of an overwhelming majority. We need not exaggerate their timidity or reproach them with an active consent, of which no hint is to be found in any contemporary letter, narrative, or doc.u.ment.

[620] Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 160.

[621] Ellis, second series, Vol. II. p. 160; this is apparently the letter printed by Burnet, _Collectanea_, p. 500.

[622] ”Vereor ne frustra c.u.m Reverendissima Dominatione vestra per litteras de Cromwelli resipiscentia sum gratulatus, nec enim quae typis sunt excusa quae ad me missa sunt, in quibus novissima ejus verba recitantur, talem animum mihi exprimunt qualem eorum narratio qui de ejus exitu et de extremis verbis mec.u.m sunt locuti.”--Pole to Beccatelli: _Epist._ Vol. III.

[623] Prayer of the Lord Cromwell on the Scaffold: Foxe, Vol. V.

[624] His death seems to have been needlessly painful through the awkwardness of the executioner, ”a ragged and butcherly miser, who very ungoodly performed the office.”--Hall.

[625] ”Men know not what part to follow or to take.”--Foxe, Vol. V.

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