GIFT OF JANE K.SATHER RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ANGLICAN SCHISM. PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON RISE AND GROWTH OF THE ANGLICAN SCHISM, BT NICOLAS SANDER, D.D. M SOMETIME FELLOW OF NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD. PUBLISHED A.D. 158$, WITH A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY,. BY THE REV. EDWARD RISHTON, B.A., OF BRASENOSE COLLEGE, OXFORD. antJ BY DAVID LEWIS, M.A. * , LONDON: BURNS AND OATES. 1877. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION ...... Xlll EDWARD RISHTON TO THE READER . . . Cxli PREFACE cxlv BOOK I. CHAPTER I. STATE OF EUROPE MARRIAGE OF ARTHUR AND CATHERINE THE DISPENSATION THE BETHROTHAL OF HENRY AND CATHERINE . . . . . .1 CHAPTER II. PIETY OF CATHERINE DISSOLUTENESS OF HENRY THE PRIN- CESS MARY SOUGHT IN MARRIAGE BETROTHED TO THE DAUPHIN ....... 7 CHAPTER III. WOLSEY LONGLAND THE DIVORCE . . . .II CHAPTER IV. THE DIVORCE RESOLVED UPON THE BISHOP OF TARBES THE CARDINAL SENT AS AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE ANNE BOLEYN . . . . . . .17 a 348362 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. PAGE SIR THOMAS BOLEYN SIR FRANCIS BRYAN EDUCATION OF ANNE BOLEYN 2* CHAPTER VI. SIR THOMAS BOLEYN WARNS THE KING CONFESSION OF SIR THOMAS WYATT INFATUATION OF THE KING SIR THOMAS MORE MARY BOLEYN DISTRESS OF THE CARDINAL . 27 CHAPTER VII. THE KING SENDS ENVOYS TO ROME ANSWER OF THE POPE- DECISION OF THE CARDINALS LEGATES APPOINTED . 35 CHAPTER VIII. THE QUEEN PETITIONS THE POPE CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO ARRIVES IN ENGLAND HYPOCRISY OF HENRY FIRMNESS OF THE QUEEN ANNE BOLEYN AT COURT INSOLENCE OF THE KING'S AMBASSADORS . . . . .41 CHAPTER IX. PERPLEXITIES OF THE KING SITTING OF THE COURT IN BLACK- FRIARS THE KING AND QUEEN PRESENT THE QUEEN APPEALS TO THE POPE . . . . .51 CHAPTER X. OBJECTIONS OF HENRY'S LAWYERS ANSWER OF THE QUEEN'S LAWYERS . . . . . . .56 CONTENTS. Vll CHAPTER XI. PAGE THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER PLEADS FOR THE QUEEN DR. RID- LEY THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK CARDINAL CAMPEGGIO ADJOURNS THE POPE RECALLS THE POWERS OF THE LEGATES FALL OF WOLSEY . . . .66 CHAPTER XII. FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES BRIBERY REGINALD POLE WRITERS ON THE DIVORCE LETTER OF THE PEERS TO THE POPE . 77 CHAPTER XIII. DEATH OF CARDINAL WOLSEY OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CAN- TERBURY -CRANMER'S DISHONESTY THE ROYAL SUPRE- MACY THE MARRIAGE BEFORE THE DIVORCE . . 85 CHAPTER XIV. VALIDITY OF THE FIRST MARRIAGE IMPEDIMENTS OF MATRI- MONY SHAMELESSNESS OF HENRY SENTENCE OF THE POPE . . . . . . .95 CHAPTER XV. APOSTASY OF HENRY THE DIVORCE PRONOUNCED BY CRAN- MER CORONATION OF ANNE BOLEYN SIR THOMAS MORE THE OBSERVANT FRIARS THE ROYAL SUPREMACY . 104 CHAPTER XVI. MARTYRS THE CARTHUSIANS THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER SIR THOMAS MORE . . . . . 1 1 7 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVII. PAGE VISITATION OF THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES SUPPRESSION OF THE SMALLER MONASTERIES DEATH OF QUEEN CATHERINE EXECUTION OF ANNE BOLEYN FATHER FOREST LAMBERT MARTYRS ST. THOMAS BECKETT ANNE OF CLEVES CROMWELL . . . , . . .129 CHAPTER XVIII. CROMWELL'S FALL MARTYRS THE KING WEARY OF THE SCHISM CATHERINE HOWARD CATHERINE PARR- MARTYRS THE COINAGE DEBASED SUPPRESSION OF THE CHANTRIES . . . . . .148 CHAPTER XIX. MISERY OF THE KING COWARDICE OF THE BISHOPS DEATH OF THE KING . 160 BOOK II. CHAPTER I. THE ROYAL SUPREMACY UNCHRISTIAN EDWARD VI. THE PROTECTOR BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER SIR RALPH SADLER ....... 167 CHAPTER II. DESTRUCTION OF THE ALTARS CRANMER'S CHANGES LATIMER EXECUTION OF LORD SEYMOUR THE RISINGS IN THE WEST AND IN NORFOLK . . . . .178 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER III. J PAGB QUARRELS OF THE EARL OF WARWICK AND THE DUKE OF SOMERSET JOAN BOCHER MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS BUCER AND MARTYR DISPUTATIONS IN OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE . . . . . .189 CHAPTER IV. DOCTORS AND CONFESSORS FECKENHAM JOLIFFE CRISPIN AND MOREMAN DR. WATSON ANTONIO BUONVISI HARPSFIELD CARDINAL POLE GARDINER . CHAPTER V. DEBASING OF THE COIN PONET HOOPER . . .205 BOOK III. CHAPTER I. LADY JANE GREY ACCESSION OF MARY CONDEMNATION OF CRANMER ARRIVAL OF CARDINAL POLE PETITION OF PARLIAMENT ABSOLUTION AND RECONCILIATION OF THE KINGDOM ....... 219 CHAPTER II. SERMON OF GARDINER DEATH OF MARY ACCESSION OF ELIZABETH . .228 CONTENTS. BOOK IV. PAGE SYNOPSIS . . . . . . .237 CHAPTER I. HYPOCRISY OF ELIZABETH CECIL OATH OF SUPREMACY- HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH DELUSION OF THE CATHOLICS 241 CHAPTER II. THE ROYAL SUPREMACY LEGISLATION OF ELIZABETH . .247 CHAPTER III. THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS COWARDICE OF THE PEERS THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY THE CATHOLICS DRIVEN OUT OF THE COUNTRY ...... 254 CHAPTER IV. THE LAWYERS THE COUNTRY GENTLEMEN CATHOLICS FRE- QUENT THE HERETICAL ASSEMBLIES LACK OF MINISTERS IN THE NEW RELIGION . . . . .264 CHAPTER V. THE CREATION OF THE PROTESTANT BISHOPS THE OLD TITLES RETAINED MARRIAGE OF THE NEW CLERGY PARLIAMEN- TARY SANCTION OF THE PROTESTANT ORDINATIONS MAR- RIAGE OF THE CLERGY . . . . .270 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VI. PAGE DESTRUCTIVE TENDENCIES OF THE NEW CLERGY HONOUR PAID TO THE QUEEN CECIL'S FAST THE QUEEN CORRECTS THE PREACHERS VIOLATION OF TREATIES ENCOURAGEMENT OF FOREIGN REBELS THE NUNCIO OF THE POPE NOT ALLOWED TO LAND IN ENGLAND .281 CHAPTER VII. THE EMPEROR INTERCEDES ON BEHALF OF THE CATHOLICS- MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS THE EARLS OF NORTHUMBERLAND AND WESTMORELAND . . . . .292 CHAPTER VIII. THE SEMINARIES BULL OF ST. PIUS V. . . .297 CHAPTER IX. FURY OF THE QUEEN AND PARLIAMENT PENAL LEGISLATION ROWLAND JENKS RISE OF THE PURITANS THE SOCIETY OF JESUS CONVERSIONS MARTYRS . . .305 CHAPTER X. FATHER HEY WOOD MARTYRS THE PEERS ASSAILED SEVERITY OF THE PERSECUTION . . . . .318 Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XL PACK BANISHMENT OF THE PRIESTS MOKE PENAL LEGISLATION .326 CHAPTER XII. CECIL'S BOOK CARDINAL ALLEN MARTYRS DUTY AND ZEAL OF THE PRIESTS FAITHFULNESS OF THE LAITY CON- CLUSION . ... 334 ANNALS OF THE SCHISM . . . . -339 INDEX . . . . . . . .373 INTRODUCTION. THE earliest and the most trustworthy account which we possess of the great changes in Church and State that were wrought in the reign of Henry VIII. was written by the celebrated Dr. Nicolas Sander, and published in the year of our Lord 1585, at Cologne, with the following title : " Doctissimi viri Nicolai Sanderi, de origine ac progressu Schismatis Angli- can! liber. Continens historian! maxime ecclesiasticani, annorum. circiter sexaginta, lectu dignissimam : nimirum,ab anno 21 regni Henrici 8 quo pri- mum cogitare ccepit de repudianda legitima uxore serenissima Catherina, usque ad hunc vigesimum septimum Elizabethse, quoe ultima est ejusdem Henrici soboles. Editus et auctus per Edouardum Bishtonum. Praecipua capita totius operis post prsefationem authoris continentur. Colonise Agrippinae, Anno Domini, 1585." His work was sent to the printers after the death of the author, as may be gathered from the title-page, by the Eev. Edward Eishton, missionary priest, who added to it the Fourth Book. Dr. Sander himself had made some progress in his account of the reign of Elizabeth, but as he had not perfectly arranged it for the press, Mr. Eishton thought it best to supply its place, as he has done, with the clear and accurate sketch, which is here called the con- tinuation of the history. I XIV INTRODUCTION. Edward Kisbton, the first editor of Dr. Sander's account of the rise of the Anglican Schism, was " de- scended," according to Tanner, "from an ancient and honourable family in the county of Lancaster -familia antiqua et generosa in agro Lancastriensi oriundus " and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1568, when Elizabeth was queen of England. Having finished his course, he took his degree of B.A. in 1572, and in the following year entered the new seminary at Douai, then newly founded by William, afterwards Cardinal, Allen ; for among those who, according to the register of the seminary, began to study theology on the feast of St. Eemi, October i, 1573, was Edward Eishton of the diocese of Chester. 1 The seminary was an offence to queen Elizabeth and her ministers, who stirred up the heretics at Douai 2 to molest the English students whom Cardinal Allen had brought together. The molestations which the semin- arists had to endure were so serious that it was resolved to remove into a more peaceful city. John Wright, B.D., and Edward Eishton were therefore sent to Eheims, November 10, 1576, to prepare the way for the migration thither of their brethren in Douai, if a place could be found for them, and if the University of Eheims were disposed to receive them with goodwill. 3 On Easter Eve in the following year, April 7, 1577, Mr. Eishton was ordained priest at Cambrai, 4 and on the second Sunday after Easter, April 21, said Mass for the first time. He sang on that day the high Mass at 1 Collegii Anglo-Duaceni Diarium, 3 Collegii Anglo-Duaceni Biarimn, Diar. i. p. 5. Diar. ii. p. 113. 2 See bk. iv. chap. viii. p. 298. 4 Ibid., p. 1 18. INTRODUCTION. XV the high altar of the parish church, according to the rite there in use ; but the priests who were trained at Douai, vexatione dante intellectum, abandoned the local rites to which their forefathers had been accustomed in England, and said Mass according to the Eoman rite, in obedience to the decrees of St. Pius V. 1 He left Douai August 2 of this year, and went to Rome 2 to perfect his theological learning. On the i8th of April 1580 he left Eome, 3 and on the last day of May was in the seminary, then in Rheims, together with the future martyr, Edmund Cam- pian, of the Society of Jesus, and the celebrated Father Persons. Six other priests also were there on that day, two of whom, Ralph Sherwin and Luke Kirby, who had left Rome with him, not long after obtained the crown of the martyrs in England. 4 Mr. Rishton left Rheims on the 5th day of June, and made his way to England ; but "the feet swift to shed blood " overtook him, and he was seized, imprisoned, tried, and condemned to death. 5 That sentence, how- ever, was not executed, but he was kept a prisoner in the Tower, out of which he was taken January 21, 1585, and placed on board a vessel, and cast ashore on the coast of Normandy, by orders of Elizabeth. He reached Rheims on the 3d of March, and then went to Paris, where he met his friend, who prevailed upon him to publish this work of Dr. Sander. But during his imprisonment in the Tower of London he kept a diary, in which he recorded from time to time the merciless tortures to which the Catholics within its walls were subjected by 1 Collegii Anglo-Duaceni Diarium, 3 Ibid., Appen., p. 297. Diar. ii. p. 118. 4 Ibid., p. 166. 2 Ibid., p. 126. 6 See bk. iv. chap. ix. p. 313, note 2. XVI INTRODUCTION. the ministers of Elizabeth. The diary was published after his death, at the end of the edition of Dr. Sander's work which was printed in Eome, 1587, and remains as a record of savage, cruelty perpetrated by people who professed, and even practised, the utmost licence in matters of religion ; but labouring, as is always the habit of people so professing, under the most perfect incapacity of allowing to others the same deplorable liberty, or even tolerating the only religion that is true. From Paris he went to Pont-a-Mousson, but did not remain there because of the breaking out therein of a grave disease, not, however, escaping the danger he hoped to avoid, for he became seriously ill at Ste. Menehould, where he departed this life to receive the reward of his good confession. The day of his death, according to the Douai diary, was June 29, 1585, but it is not improbable that the report brought to the seminary at Kheims may have been inexact, or perhaps entered in the wrong place in the diary. Mr. Kishton has told the story of Alfield and Webley, who were put to death July 6 because they had brought into the country a book of Cardinal Allen. He must therefore have lived beyond the 29th of June. Still further, he has mentioned the deportation of priests in September of that year, and it may be that he lived even to see the beginning of 1586. On the other side may be said that the positive testi- mony of the Douai diary is too clear to be set aside, for the printers in Cologne may have added the story of Alfield and Webley, and the deportation of the priests, in order to make the history complete clown to the day INTRODUCTION. XV11 in which they were printing the continuation of Mr. Kishton. Nicolas Sander, the author of the work edited by Mr. Eishton, was descended from an ancient and honour- able family, which in the reign of king John was settled in Sanderstead, in the county of Surrey. The head of the house at that time seems to have been "William Sander, who, dying without issue, left his lands in that parish to the monastery of Hyde, near Winches- ter, and in the reign of Henry III. the monks entered into possession. In his other estates he was succeeded by his brother, and in the reign of Edward II. the family was settled at Sander Place, or Charlwood Place, in the parish of Charlwood, in the same county of Surrey. In the beginning of the sixteenth century the head of the family was Nicolas Sander of Charlwood, whose son, Sir Thomas Sander, was high sheriff of Surrey, A.D. 1553. The high sheriff of the same county, A.D. 1556, was William Sander of Aston, a younger brother of Nicolas Sander, the father of Sir Thomas. William Sander of Aston married Elizabeth Mynes, who in her widowhood went into exile that she might keep the faith, 1 and of that marriage there was issue twelve children, of whom Nicolas Sander was one. Two daughters entered reli- gion, and were professed in the monastery of Sion. Margaret, the elder, was prioress under Catherine Palmer, 1 De Visibili Monarcliia Ecclesise, Christo ab infantia dedicavit, duas p. 686, Wirceburg, 1592. " Nee filias sanctissimo D. Brigittse mo- mihi [Nicolao Sandero] fas est Elisa- nasterio tradidit, ubi ambsB lauda- betham Gulielmi Sanderi patris mei biliter degunt, quarum natu major, olim uxorem, nunc viduam clarissi- Margareta sub Catherina Palmera mam matrem meam, hac eadem sanctissima ejus conventus abbatissa laude privare quse prseter me quern priorissce locum tenet." XV111 INTRODUCTION. who recovered possession of the monastery in the reign of Mary, and who was forced to abandon it under Elizabeth. Another daughter was married to Henry Pits of Hampshire, and was the mother of John Pits, to whom we owe the great work " De Illustribus Anglise Scrip- toribus," printed in Paris, A.D. 1619. Nicolas was born at Charlwood, A.D. 1527, and was educated in the famous school of William of Wykeham, in Winchester ; from that school he went to the New College of its founder, in Oxford, of which he was ad- mitted scholar, August 6, 1546, and then fellow two years afterwards, August 6, 1548. He applied himself to the study of canon law, and took his degree in that faculty. In 1557 he gave public lectures as Shaggiing 1 profes- sor, 2 and in the next year he must have been known as a theologian as well as a canonist he was professor of divinity either in his own right or as the deputy of Eichard Bruern. 3 He resigned his fellowship and left England in 1561, never afterwards to set foot within it. Sir Francis Englefield, preferring banishment and the loss of his estates to the loss of the faith, went abroad, and took Nicolas Sander with him. And Sander was not un- 1 & Wood (History and Antiquities or from a bishop or bishops, or from of the University of Oxford, vol. ii. a noble person, or others." 901) says that the Shaggiing lee- 2 De Visibili Monarchia, lib. vii. tures were "lectures that were ex- n. 1833, p. 676, ed. Wirceburg. traordinary or temporary, allowed " Nicolaus Sanderus, qui tanquam either by public authority, common regius professor jus canonicum suo consent, or recommendations. Their jure in Oxoriio publice prselegit, ei readers also were called Shaggiing loco et muneri ob fidem conservan- lecturers, and did receive if they dam remmtians, et postea sacrse theo- reud not out of goodwill allowance logise professor factus hunc libriuu ad from the students of the university, communem utilitatem conscripsit." or from colleges, or from the king, 3 a Wood, p. 849. INTRODUCTION. XIX grateful, for he has left on record his great obligations to Sir Francis, who, he says, was his chief support for the twelve years which passed between his going abroad and the publication of his great book on the " Monarchy of the Church." 1 On leaving England he went to Eome, where he was created doctor in divinity, and was ordained priest by Thomas G-oldwell, the exiled bishop of St. Asaph. 2 In Eome he became known to the great Hosius, Cardinal Bishop of Ermland, who took him with him when he went as Legate of the Pope to Trent, and kept him also in attendance upon himself during his laborious mission in Poland, Prussia, and Lithuania. Eeleased from his attendance on the Cardinal, Dr. San- der went to Louvain, which was a true city of refuge to the English persecuted by the heretics, and was made regius professor of theology in that university. During his residence there he finished his great work, " De Visibili Monarchia Ecclesise, Lib. viii.," which was printed A.D. I 57 I 5 by John Fowler, like himself an exile, who had married one of the daughters of John Harris, once the secretary of Sir Thomas More. In the early part of the year 1572, St. Pius V. sent for Sander from Louvain, and his friends believed that His Holiness was about to raise him to the purple. The Pope died on the ist day of May, and it may be that Dr. Sander was sent for that he might proceed to Spain ; for he was in Madrid in November 1573, as appears 1 De Visibili Monarchia, 1892. sumptu ejusdem per hos duodecini " Pupillos Dei quos fovere, et suis annos potissimum alar et sustenter." opibus pascere nunquam destitit, me- 2 Ibid., 1602. " Qui mihi maims que in primis, cum et ductu ejus presbyterii Romse imposuit." Angliam ab initio reliquerim, et XX INTRODUCTION. from a paper in the Eecord Office, 1 an extract from which has been most kindly furnished to the writer by the Kev. Father Knox, D.D., of the London Oratory. At this time he was writing his history of the An- glican Schism. 2 He was again in Spain in 1577 with the Nuncio Monsignor Sega, bishop, then of Eipa Tranzone, and afterwards Cardinal bishop of Piacenza. From Spain he went as Nuncio of His Holiness Gregory XIII. to Ireland, where he landed in 1 5 79, and where he is said to have died of want, hunted to death by the agents of Elizabeth, A.D. 1580, according to Pits ; but A.D. 1583, according to Camden ; and according to another account, in the woods of Clenlis, A.D. 1582. Lord Burghley, who in "The Execution of Justice " calls him " a lewde schollar " he was as well born and well bred as his re viler says that, "wandering in the mountaines in Ireland without succour," he " died rav- ing in a phrensey." The name and writings of Dr. Sander are in honour among all people except his own. There is no stain upon his character : he was honest, fearless, and spoke plainly, without respect of persons, according to the obligations of his state. His writings are grave, solid, and learned, without conceit or affectation, showing the simplicity and directness of his nature. Grave histori- ans have been satisfied if they found a fact told by him ; and it is not improbable that the reason why his country- 1 Doin. Eliz. Add., vol. xxiii. n. 61. 2 See below, p. 100. " Doctor; Sanders cam from Rom to Madredyn November 1573." INTRODUCTION. XXI men dealt so hardly with his name is founded on their conviction that his authority was too great to be over- turned by any means except those which some of them too readily adopted scurrilous railing. Thus Dr. Cox, tutor to Edward VI., and under Elizabeth bishop of Ely, writing to Eodolph Gualter, February 1572, speaks as follows of him : " There came out last summer an immense volume monstrosum volumen cujusdam Nicolai Sanderi by one Nicolas Saunders, who is, they say, a countryman of ours, the title of which is ' The Monarchy of the Church.* He appears to have been a mercenary em- ployed by certain Cardinals, aided by the assistance of others, and decked out like JEsop's jackdaw." 1 Dr. Cox thus wrote of the book in the fulness of his knowledge; for as late as August 26 in the following year, 1573, he says, "I have not seen the book of Nicolas Saunders about Monarchy : should I see it, and think it deserving of an answer, I will do as the Lord shall enable me." 2 Then when men heard of his history of the Anglican Schism, they allowed themselves a licence, probably un- parallelled, in dealing with the author. Francis Mason, 3 in his "Vindication of the Church of England," thus speaks of the book his words are thus rendered by Lindsey : " Though in that libel of Sanders, concerning! the schism, the number of lies may seem to vie with the multitude of lines." 1 Zurich Letters, ist series, No. 3 Vindicise Eccles. Anglican., lib. 167, ed. Parker Society. The trans- iii. c. 9. " Quamquam in famoso isto lation is by Dr. Hastings Robinson. Sanderi de Schismate libello, men- 2 Ibid., 2d series, No. 94. dacioruni numerus cum linearum multitudine certare videatur." XX11 INTRODUCTION. " He was the first man," says Camden, 1 " that broached that damnable lie concerning the birth of queen Eliza- beth's mother, which no man in those days though the hatred and malice of the Papists was then fresh against her, and might remember it ever knew, Eng- land in full forty years after never heard of, the com- putation of time doth egregiously convince of falsehood and vanity, and he, forgetting himself, which a liar should not do, doth himself plainly confute. Yet are there some ill-disposed people who blush not at this day to beslur their writings with so impudent a lie." Heylyn, 2 calling him Dr. Slanders, speaks of " his pestilent and seditious book, entituled ' De Schis- mate Anglican o/ whose frequent falsehoods make him no fit author to be built on in any matter of import- ance." Strype, whose knowledge ought to have made him more careful of speech, uses the words, " Sanders, in his lying book of the English Schism ; " 3 and in another place 4 he thus reviles him : "A most profligate fellow, a very slave to the Eoman See, and a sworn enemy to his own country, caring not what he writ, if it might but throw reproach and dirt enough upon the reforming kings and princes, the reformers and the reformation." One " who made himself afterwards so famous for his slanderous accounts of the reformation, and for his zeal 1 Annals of queen Elizabeth, ad 3 Life of Cranmer, bk. i. chap, an. 15X3, in Rennet's History of xviii. England. 4 Eccles. Memorials, ii. ii. p. 2 Ecclesia Kestaurata, pt. iii. p. 180. 122. INTRODUCTION. XX111 in raising rebellions in Ireland against queen Eliza- beth." 1 ^ " He was almost as bad an historian," says Collier, 2 " as he was a subject; but his falsehoods having been detected at large already, I shall refer the reader to that performance." The " performance " to which Collier sends the reader is the " History of the Keformation," by Gilbert Bur- net, D.D., bishop of Salisbury ; moreover, a " perform- ance " for which Collier had no respect himself. " Liars by a frequent custom grow to such a habit," writes Burnet 3 and there have been people who said that Burnet knew it well "that in the commonest things they cannot speak truth, even though it might conduce to their ends more than their lies do. Sanders had so given himself up to vent reproaches and lies, that he often does it for nothing, without any end but to carry on a trade that had been so long driven by him that he knew not how to lay it down." Dr. Sander, according to the same writer, 4 " intended to represent the reformation in the foulest shape that was possible ; to defame queen Elizabeth, to stain her blood, and therefore to bring her title to the crown in question ; and to magnify the authority of the See of Eome, and celebrate monastic orders with all the praises and high characters he could devise : and therefore, after he had writ several books on these subjects with- out any considerable success, they being all rather filled with foul calumnies and detracting malice than good 1 Eccles. Memorials, iii. ii. p. 29. 3 Hist, of the Reformation, v. p. Oxford, 1822. 585, ed. Pocock. 2 Eccles. History, ii. p. 588. * Ibid., iv. p. 583. XXIV INTRODUCTION. arguments or strong sense, he resolved to try his skill another way, so he intended to tell a doleful tale which should raise a detestation of heresy, an ill opinion of the queen, cast a stain on her blood and disparage her title, and advance the honour of the Papacy." Dr. Sander certainly did commit to writing the hor- rible story of Anne Boleyn's birth, but it is not proved that he was either the first or the only one to do so, still less clear is it that he invented the " doleful tale." All that is certain and clear is that he believed the story to be true. In this he may have been in error, as other historians have been in error concerning many facts which they confidently related. He says distinctly that Anne Boleyn was the daugh- ter of Henry VIII. , and he says also with equal distinct- ness that she was so considered during her lifetime. Now, as Dr. Sander could not have been more than nine years old at the utmost when Anne Boleyn came to her unhappy end, and when the story of her birth was published in the streets of Paris, 1 few people will venture to say with Camden that he was the first person -primus omnium " that broached that damnable lie concerning the birth of queen Elizabeth's mother." If Dr. Sander had been silent on one point, the morals of Anne Boleyn, it is probable that he might have been held to be an accurate historian. But as he has not been silent, his adversaries have been content to use the information he has supplied us, and to repay him with senseless abuse. The writers of a certain kind seem to agree in chanting the praise of Anne Boleyn, 1 See below, bk. i. chap. xvii. p. 135, note i. INTRODUCTION. XXV and indeed Dr. Burnet admits that it is necessary to maintain the perfect honesty of that person, because the true story of her life " derogates so much from the first reformers." 1 As to the reputation of Anne Boleyn, Dr. Sander did it no harm. It is true that the weight of his authority is added to the testimony of others, but he is neither the first nor the loudest in publishing the matters which make the life of Anne Boleyn so sad, for Simon Grynseus 2 speaks of her as a woman entitled to no respect. Mr. Pocock 3 has produced proofs that she was evil spoken of at a time when Dr. Sander had probably learned neither to write nor to read. The French am- bassador did not spare her, 4 and the king's own sister, the duchess of Suffolk, is said to have uttered " oppro- brious language " against her. 5 The evil temper of Dr. Sander is supposed to have found satisfaction in decrying the person of Anne Boleyn ; but even in this he is not singular, for in the Venetian Calendar of State Papers, 6 edited by Mr. Kawdon Brown, is a contemporary account of Anne, not more flattering than that of Dr. Sander. " Madame Anne," says the writer, " is not one of the handsomest women in the world : she is of middling stature, swarthy complexion, long neck, wide mouth, bosom not much raised, and in fact has nothing but the English king's great appetite and her eyes, which are black and beautiful." That is an account of Anne Boleyn in October 1532, 1 See the passages quoted below. 4 Le Grand, iii. 325. 2 P. 26, note 2. 5 Venetian Calendar, Kawdon 3 Records of the Reformation, ii. Brown, iv. 761. pp. 468, 566. 6 Ibid., iv. 824. XXVI INTRODUCTION. when she was living "like a queen at Calais," accompanied by the king "to Mass and everywhere, as if she was such." Dr. Sander clearly was not writing without know- ledge, nor was he the slave of his resentments or his passions. Others before him had written of Anne Boleyn as he has done. His praise of queen Catherine and his dislike of Anne Boleyn were not his own, for he has but faithfully represented the times he has described. In 1531 an eyewitness gives the following account of them : l " There is now living with him [Henry] a young woman of noble birth, though many say of bad char- acter, whose will is law to him, and he is expected to marry her, should the divorce take place, which, it is supposed, will not be effected, as the peers of the realm, both spiritual and temporal, and the people, are opposed to it : nor during the present queen's life will they have any other queen in the kingdom. Her majesty is pru- dent and good, and during these differences with the king she has evinced constancy and resolution, never being disheartened or depressed." Again Lodovico Falier, in his report to the Senate, November 10, 1 53 1, 2 says: " The queen [Catherine] is of low stature, rather stout, with a modest countenance ; she is virtuous, just, replete with goodness and religion ; she speaks Spanish, Flemish, French, and English ; she is beloved by the islanders more than any queen that ever reigned." About the same time the French ambassador in Venice receives the following news : 3 1 Venetian Calendar, Raw don 2 Ibid., iv. 694. Brown, iv. 682. 3 Ibid., iv. 701. INTRODUCTION. XXV11 "It is said that more than seven weeks ago a mob of from seven to eight thousand women of London went out of the town to seize Boleyn's daughter, the sweet- heart of the king of England, who was supping at a villa in una casa di piacere on a river ; the king not being with her ; and having received notice of this she escaped by crossing the river in a boat. The women had intended to kill her, and amongst the mob were many men disguised as women ; nor has any great demonstration been made about this, because it was a thing done by women." These things were said and done when Dr. Sander was a baby, and by persons whom he probably never saw. The writers say that which he has said ; and if they are trustworthy reporters of things seen and heard by them, it is not reasonable to say that Dr. Sander is not to be believed merely because he also reports the same doings and the same words. Dr. Sander was not inventing, but at best repeating that which he had heard from others, seeing that the reader is referred by him to Rastall's Life of Sir -Thomas More for the fact he puts on record in his history of the Anglican Schism. Camden seems not to have ob- served the reference, or if he did, to have passed over it in silence. Dr. Burnet was a bolder man : he not only contra- dicts Dr. Sander, but denies also that Rastall ever wrote a Life of Sir Thomas More. The passage is not very short, but it deserves to be read. If the story of the birth of Anne Boleyn XXV111 INTRODUCTION. " Were true," writes Burnet, 1 " very much might be drawn from it, both to disparage king Henry, who pretended conscience to annul his marriage for the nearness of affinity, and yet would after that marry his own daughter. It leaves also a foul and lasting stain both on the memory of Anne Boleyn, and of her incomparable daughter, queen Elizabeth. It also derogates so much from the first reformers, wha had some kind of dependence on queen Anne Boleyn, that it seems to be of great importance, for directing the reader in the judgment he is to make of persons and things, to lay open the falsehood of this account. It were sufficient for blasting it, that there is no proof pre- tended to be brought for any part of it, but a book of one Rastall, a judge, that was never seen by any other person than that writer. The title of the book is * The Life of Sir Thomas More.' There is great reason to think that Rastall never writ any such book ; for it is most common for the lives of great authors to be prefixed to their works. Now this Rastall published all More's works in queen Mary's reign, to which if he had written his life, it is likely he would have prefixed it. No evidence, therefore, being given for his relation, either from record or letters, or the testimony of any person who was 'privy to the matter, the whole is to be looked on as a black forgery, devised on purpose to defame queen Elizabeth." Burnet's denial of the existence of the Life of Sir Thomas More, by William Eastall, seems to have had no weight with Tanner, for he in his " Bibliotheca Bri- tannico-Hibernica," p. 617, assigns to Eastall a Life of Sir Thomas More. Pits, before him, mentions a Life of Sir Thomas More among the works assigned to Eastall, and as Tanner was not ignorant of the writings of Burnet, the agreement of Tanner with Pits is distinctly an act of disbelief in the confident declamation of Burnet ; and be the history of Eastall's work what it may, it is clear that Dr. Tanner trusted to the authority of Pits, and admitted the existence of the book which Burnet had so rashly denied. 1 Hist. Reform., i. p. 83, ed. Pocock. INTRODUCTION. XXIX Lord Herbert in his Life of Henry VIII. does not seem to have had any doubts of the existence of that Life of Sir Thomas More which Dr. Burnet has called in question. He says of the stories told of Anne Boleyn, that they were " foul calumnies/ 7 and he had therefore no interest in admitting that Dr. Sander was but relating that which he had learned from others and not invented himself. " This author," says lord Herbert, meaning Dr. Sander, " though learned, but more credulous than be- comes a man of exact judgment, reports out of one William Kastall, a judge, in his Life of Sir Thomas More, that Mistress Anne Boleyn was the king's daughter by the wife of Sir Thomas Boleyn, while sub specie honoris he was employed by the king, ambas- sador in France." Lord Herbert knew of no reason for denying that the Life of Sir Thomas More had been written by Kastall, and that it contained the story of Anne Boleyn's birth. Neither does he abuse Dr. Sander as a forger or liar ; he thinks him indeed too credulous, but credulity is quite consistent with honesty ; and he admits him to be a learned man, and therefore allows his readers to believe that Dr. Sander did take this story from the Life of Sir Thomas More, written by William Rastall. Though the Life itself seems to be at present unknown, there is some evidence that it did once exist, for in the British Museum is a MS., 1 the title of which is " Certain Briefe Notes appertaining to Bishop Fisher, collected out of Sir Thomas More's Life, written by Mr. Justice Rastall." 1 Arundel MSS. 152, art. 3, fol. 264. C XXX INTRODUCTION. Now, if Dr. Sander was the forger he is said to have been, he must have been unwise in referring to any book at all, for no one will surely venture to say that he either foresaw or brought about the rarity of the MS. When Kishton prepared the history of the schism for the press, he too believed that there was other autho- rity for the story than that of Dr. Sander, seeing that he either left on the margin, or inserted himself, the reference to Rastall. Bishton and his friend to whom he gave the book for publication are also more or less involved in the forgery, and deserve more severe blame than Dr. Sander, for they, without any excuse, made more public still the calumny said to be the offspring of spite. Rishton was sent out of the country against his will, and hoped to return for the sake of preserving the faith among us, nevertheless he published this story. He could have done no greater harm to the Catholics he left behind, or to those who intended to enter the king- dom as priests, if the story was either unknown before or an invention of Dr. Sander, for it was carried into all lands; the book containing it went through many editions, and was translated into French, Italian, Spanish, and German while Elizabeth was still living. It was a wanton and utterly inexplicable insult not only to Elizabeth, but to all who acknowledged her as queen, whether subjects or allies, and under the circumstances a most grievous wrong done to the Catholics, whom Elizabeth and her ministers were daily harassing. Rishton and others, driven out of the country, were thrown upon the charity of good people on the Con- INTRODUCTION. XXXI tinent, and it was necessary for him, as a priest, to have the countenance and support of bishops and priests and other honourable men; it is therefore not conceivable that he should thus do damage to himself, increase the vexations his countrymen were subject to, and disgrace the memory, hitherto held in honour, of Dr. Sander, whom he professes to respect, and whom he calls a saintly man. Certainly Kishton believed the story, and he also believed that Dr. Sander believed it. Two years after the publication of Dr. Sander's book the same story concerning the birth of Anne Boleyn was published in Edinburgh by Adam Black wood, 1 a lawyer, who lived long in France. He too repeated the tale of Anne Boleyn's tainted birth, and of her levity at the French court. In the next year, 1588, this book of Blackwood was printed again at Antwerp, and being written in French it can hardly be supposed that it was unknown in France. Yet no voice was raised in contra- diction, and the story remained in possession. Now, whether true or false, it can hardly be said, under these conditions, that the history of Anne Boleyn's birth was the malicious invention of Dr. Sander. Besides, Adam Blackwood was a lawyer defending the good name of Mary queen of Scots, whom Elizabeth had put to death against all justice, and we must give him credit knowing nothing to the contrary that he was possessed at least of the common sagacity of his profession. He could have done no good to the memory of the murdered queen by repeating a story which nobody believed, but he might have done harm, and 1 Martyre de la Reyne d'Escosse. Edinburgh. 1587. XXX11 INTRODUCTION. stirred up many to defend Elizabeth, by publishing a shameful story which was not true. He told the tale as if it were well known and undisputed, and if he did not believe it himself, and if others too did not believe it, he must have been more or less out of his mind when he wrote as he did. But in the lifetime of Anne Boleyn herself, in the lifetime of her mother and reputed father, and when she was ostensibly the king's wife, and queen of Eng- land publicly crowned, common report at least hinted at the fearful stain of her birth. Mr. Pocock * has found a paper in the Eecord Office to which he has given the following most expressive heading : " Accusation brought against a priest named Jackson of having charged the king with adultery committed with Anne Boleyn and lady Boleyn, March 1533." Nicholas Harpsfield, 2 archdeacon of Canterbury, writ- ing in the reign of Mary, some twenty years before Dr. Sander wrote his book, and some thirty years before it was printed, says that he " credibly heard reported that the king knew the mother of the said Anne Bulleyne." Mr. Brewer 3 has lately published a letter of Sir George Throgmorton addressed to Henry VIII. , in which the writer recounts a conversation he had with Sir Thomas Dyngley, afterwards a martyr. Sir George confesses in his letter to the king that he had spoken of the king's criminal relations with lady Elizabeth Boleyn to the king himself. If he had not done so, it is not credible that he could have dared so to write to the king, nor is it credible that he invented the story. Certainly these 1 Records, ii. p. 468. 3 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII., 2 See p. 98, note 2. vol. iv. Introduction, p. cccxxix. INTRODUCTION. XXX111 reports may have been utterly false, and the fruit of malice or perverse imaginations^ but it is also certain that they did prevail, and as they did prevail, it is cer- tain that they were not the inventions of Dr. Sander, who at the time must have been a youth of ten or twelve years of age. Mr. Brewer 1 has also found that the reputation of lady Elizabeth Boleyn was none of the best. "Mrs. Amadas, apparently the wife of the crown jeweller/' whom he calls "a mad Welshwoman," was brought into trouble for saying that Sir Thomas Boleyn did not re- sent the corruption of his wife and his two daughters. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn, Anne's mother, " seems never to have been noticed by Katharine," the queen, is another statement of the same writer. 2 Now, if queen Catherine never "noticed " the wife of Sir Thomas Boleyn, there is nothing uncharitable in the supposition that the pure and devout queen had some grave reason for her neglect. Lady Elizabeth Boleyn was the sister of the duke of Norfolk, and the wife of a man high in the good graces of the king, nevertheless the queen kept aloof from her, and lady Elizabeth remained at the court, where she is found even after the trial in the Legatine court, and when the shame of her daughter could not be concealed, of the woman who was bent on the divorce of Catherine, and on taking her place on the throne. Cranmer, 3 writ- ing to Sir Thomas Boleyn from Hampton Court, June J 3> I 53 I > Sa 7 s > "The king his grace, my lady your wife, my lady Anne your daughter, be in good health, whereof thanks be to God." 1 Letters and Papers, Henry 2 Ibid., note i. VIII., vol. iv. Introduction, p. 3 Jenkyns, Cranmer's Eeinains- i. ccxxxii, note 2. p. i. > XXXIV INTRODUCTION. Cranmer, the chaplain of the family, seems to have his conscience blunted early, and if nothing more had been heard of lady Elizabeth Boleyn than this report of Cranmer, it need surprise no one that her good name was gone. But this is not all. Mr. Pocock 1 has brought to light, from the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, an account of Anne Boleyn, written during the reign of Elizabeth, agreeing substantially with the account given by Dr. Sander, namely, that she was the daughter of Henry VIII. Mr. Pocock's observation is, "Of whatever value the account given may be, it is plainly independent of Sanders' narrative." Mr. Pocock has so far, then, completely justified Dr. Sander from the undeserved charges of lies and forgeries which un- scrupulous men had brought against him. The very reverend M. A. Tierney, canon penitentiary of Southwark, showed to the present writer a copy of Cardinal Pole's book, "Pro Ecclesiastics Unitatis Defen- sio," in which a former possessor had written on the margin of p. Ixxvii as follows : "Audivi dixisse hoc aliquando ducissam Somerset- ensem, et hodie fama est, Annam ipsam, non Thomse Bulleni fuisse filiam sed ipsius Henrici 8 vi , qui illam ex Bulleni uxore dum vir peregre esset, generasset. Eaque ipsa de re regem a Bulleno admonitum antequam rex Annam duxisset sed frustra." This book had been the property of the reverend Edmund Hargatt, 2 February i, 1561, and Mr. Tierney's belief was that the note was in the handwriting of the 1 Records, ii. p. 373. Sander (De Visibili Monarchia Ec- 2 Among the priests who had clesiso, p. 672, n. 1736, ed. Wirce- taken refuge abroad mentioned by burg), is Edmundus Hargattus. INTRODUCTION. XXXV then owner, who was a priest driven out of the country because of the change of religion. It is not unreasonable to admit that this note was written some twenty years before the publication of Dr. Sander's book, and ten or twelve years before Dr. San- der began to write it. There is also no reason for imagining that Mr. Hargatt was writing deliberately that which was not true, so we may also admit with him that the story of Anne's unhappy birth was very well known at the time : " hodie fama est." It was the com- mon talk before the history of the schism by Dr. Sander was ever heard of. Sir Thomas More refused to take the oath of succes- sion as it was offered to him, though he was willing to take it ' provided he was not required to swear at the same time that the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn was valid. It may be imagined that his objec- tion to that marriage rested on the fact that Henry had been married to queen Catherine, and that queen Catherine was still living. But that was not his diffi- culty, though it undoubtedly was a difficulty, at least it was not the whole. These are his words in his letter to Dr. Wilson : " Finally, as touching the oath, the causes for which I refused it, no man wotteth what they be, for they be secret in mine own conscience : some other, peradven- ture, than those that other men would ween, and such as I never disclosed unto any man yet, nor never intend to do while I live." Sir Thomas More kept his secret to himself. It could not have been the bigamy of the king, for that XXXVI INTRODUCTION. was universally known, and any one might have guessed it. Still further, it is at least very probable, if not certain, that the secret reason was not the criminal relations of Henry with lady Elizabeth and her daughter Mary, the elder sister of Anne. Even if that story were false, it was not secret, for Sir George Throgmorton spoke of it to the king himself, who would be naturally the last per- son to hear it from a subject, if it had not been pub- licly spoken of, and treated as a notorious fact. Archdeacon Harpsfield 1 refers to these words of Sir Thomas More, and to the reports about lady Elizabeth Boleyn and her elder daughter Mary, " of the which im- pediments," he writes, " Sir Thomas More was not by likelihood ignorant, and seemeth to touch them, or such- like, in these words, among other things, to Dr. Wil- son." Harpsfield seems to insinuate something further as being either known to or suspected by Sir Thomas. " Them, or suchlike" is a strange expression. He refers again 2 to the fatal marriage and its dissolution in these words : " You will perchance now ask me what was the cause that the king's marriage with the lady Anne was never good. Surely, the true cause was that the king married her,, his true wife living, and so had two wives at once, which is by the civil law a thing infamous. If you will reply that that was not the cause that the king and Parliament found, I grant you, and the more pity." About forty years after archdeacon Harpsfield wrote, a prebendary of Chichester, Dr. Thomas Stapleton, a learned, sober, and grave man, defending himself and 1 Treatise of Marriage, bk. iii. p. 28, Eyston MS. 2 Ibid., p. 61. INTRODUCTION. XXXV11 liis countrymen, whom Elizabeth publicly defamed as degenerate and seditious men of mean birth. These reproaches, said Dr. Stapleton, show weakness of mind ; they are most unseemly in her mouth who utters them, for she is regarded as the cause of sedition throughout the world. She does not resemble the illustrious and Catholic race from which she is descended ; nay, nothing can be more at variance with the laws of nature than her existence. She certainly knows who her mother was, but everybody does not who was her father. 1 The sting of this answer of Stapleton on behalf of his outraged companions in exile lies in the words that the laws of nature had been departed from as far as it is possible, and that the reproach of that departure touched Elizabeth. That departure could mean nothing else but the story told by Dr. Sander, for the laws of nature were not violated, unless it be that her mother was the child of her father. In the year 1533, Cranmer, in open court styling himself Legate of the Apostolic See, even while usurping the jurisdiction of that see, contrary to the law pro- nounced the marriage of Henry and Catherine a nullity, and, five days later, pronounced the marriage of Henry and Anne Boleyn, contracted before the divorce, to be lawful and good. But in 1536, when Anne Boleyn was about to pay in her death the price of her unlawful rank, the same Cranmer, sitting again, as he says, in 1 Apologia pro rege Catholico, p. Christianum orbem habetur et qu38 161. " Sed cur tandem hos exules a nobilissimis et Catholicissimis pro- seditioses, degeneres et infimo loco avis, imo et db ipsis naturaz regulis natos esse denuntiat ? Impotentis quam longissime aberrat. Quae de- animi sunt hsec convitia et ineptis- nique probe novit qua matre nata sime a tali persona proficiscuntur, est, cum tamen de patre non inter