[93] The expression is remarkable. They were not to dwell on the offences of their brethren coram laicis qui semper clericis sunt infesti.--WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 618.

[94] Johannes permissione divina Cantuar. episcop. totius Angliae primas c.u.m in praesenti convocatione pie et salubriter consideratum fuit quod nonnulli sacerdotes et alii clerici ejusdem nostrae provinciae in sacris ordinibus const.i.tuti honestatem clericalem in tantum abjecerint ac in coma tonsuraque et superindumentis suis quae in anteriori sui parte totaliter aperta existere dignosc.u.n.tur, sic sunt dissoluti et adeo insolescant quod inter eos et alios laicos et saeculares viros nulla vel modica comae vel habituum sive vestimentorum distinctio esse videatur quo fiet in brevi ut a multis verisimiliter formidatur quod sicut populus ita et sacerdos erit, et nisi celeriori remedio tantae lasciviae ecclesiasticarum personarum quanto ocyus obviemus et clericorum mores hujusmodi maturius compescamus, _Ecclesia Anglicana quae superioribus diebus vita fama et compositis moribus floruisse dignoscitur nostris temporibus quod Deus avertat, praecipitanter ruet_;

Desiring, therefore, to find some remedy for these disorders, lest the blood of those committed to him should be required at his hands, the archbishop decrees and ordains,--

Ne aliquis sacerdos vel clericus in sacris ordinibus const.i.tutus togam gerat nisi clausam a parte anteriori et non totaliter apertam neque utatur ense nec sica nec zona aut marcipio deaurato vel auri ornatum habente.

Incedent etiam omnes et singuli presbyteri et clerici ejusdem nostrae provinciae coronas et tonsuras gerentes aures patentes ostendendo juxta canonicas sanctiones.--WILKINS, vol. iii. p. 619.

[95] See WARHAM'S _Register_, MS. Lambeth.

[96] 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

[97] ROY'S _Satire against the Clergy_, written about 1528, is so plain-spoken, and goes so directly to the point of the matter, that it is difficult to find a presentable extract. The following lines on the bishops are among the most moderate in the poem:--

"What are the bishops divines-- Yea, they can best skill of wines Better than of divinity; Lawyers are they of experience, And in cases against conscience They are parfet by practice.

To forge excommunications, For tythes and decimations Is their continual exercise.

As for preaching they take no care, They would rather see a course at a hare; Rather than to make a sermon To follow the chase of wild deer, Pa.s.sing the time with jolly cheer.

Among them all is common To play at the cards and dice; Some of them are nothing nice Both at hazard and momchance; They drink in golden bowls The blood of poor simple souls Perishing for lack of sustenance.

Their hungry cures they never teach, Nor will suffer none other to preach," etc.

[98] LATIMER'S _Sermons_, pp. 70, 71.

[99] A peculiarly hateful form of clerical impost, the priests claiming the last dress worn in life by persons brought to them for burial.

[100] Fitz James to Wolsey, FOXE, vol. iv. p. 196.

[101] _Supplication of the Beggars_; FOXE, vol. iv. p. 661. The glimpses into the condition of the monasteries which had been obtained in the imperfect visitation of Morton, bear out the pamphleteer too completely.

See chapter x. of this work, second edition.

[102] FOXE, vol. iv. p. 658.

[103] 13 Ric. II. stat. ii. c. 2; 2 Hen. IV. c. 3; 9 Hen. IV. c. 8. Lingard is mistaken in saying that the Crown had power to dispense with these statutes. A dispensing power was indeed granted by the 12th of the 7th of Ric. II. But by the 2nd of the 13th of the same reign, the king is expressly and by name placed under the same prohibitions as all other persons.

[104] HALL, p. 784.

[105] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22.

[106] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24. Speech of Sir Ralph Sadler in parliament, _Sadler Papers_, vol. iii. p. 323.

[107] Nor was the theory distinctly admitted, or the claim of the house of York would have been unquestionable.

[108] 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22, Draft of the Dispensation to be granted to Henry VIII. _Rolls House MS._ It has been a.s.serted by a writer in the _Tablet_ that there is no instance in the whole of English history where the ambiguity of the marriage law led to a dispute of t.i.tle. This was not the opinion of those who remembered the wars of the fifteenth century. "Recens in quorundam vestrorum animis adhuc est illius cruenti temporis memoria,"

said Henry VIII. in a speech in council, "quod a Ricardo tertio c.u.m avi nostri materni Edwardi quarti statum in controversiam voca.s.set ejusque heredes regno atque vita priva.s.set illatum est."-WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol.

iii. p. 714. Richard claimed the crown on the ground that a precontract rendered his brother's marriage invalid, and Henry VII. tacitly allowed the same doubt to continue. The language of the 22nd of the 25th of Hen. VIII.

is so clear as to require no additional elucidation; but another distinct evidence of the belief of the time upon the subject is in one of the papers laid before Pope Clement.

"Constat, in ipso regno quam plurima gravissima bella saepe exorta, confingentes ex justis et legitimis nuptiis quorundam Angliae regum procreatos illegitimos fore propter aliquod consangunitatis vel affinitatis confictum impedimentum et propterea inhabiles esse ad regni successionem."--_Rolls House MS._; WILKINS'S _Concilia_, vol. iii. p. 707.

[109] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[110] _Appendix 2 to the Third Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records_, p. 241.

[111] _Sadler Papers_, vol. iii. p. 323.

[112] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[113] _Four Years at the Court of Henry the Eighth_, vol. ii. pp. 315-16.

[114] Sir Charles Brandon, created Duke of Suffolk, and married to Mary Tudor, widow of Louis XII.

[115] 28 Hen. VIII. c. 24.

[116] The treaty was in progress from Dec. 24, 1526, to March 2, 1527 [LORD HERBERT, pp. 80, 81], and during this time the difficulty was raised. The earliest intimation which I find of an intended divorce was in June, 1527, at which time Wolsey was privately consulting the bishops.--_State Papers_ vol. i. p. 189.

[117] It was for some time delayed; and the papal agent was instructed to inform Ferdinand that a marriage which was at variance a jure et laudabilibus moribus could not be permitted nisi maturo consilio et necessitatis causa.--Minute of a brief of Julius the Second, dated March 13, 1504, _Rolls House MS_.

[118] LORD HERBERT, p. 114.

[119] LORD HERBERT, p. 117, Kennett's edition. The act itself is printed in BURNET'S _Collectanea_, vol. iv. (Nares' edition) pp. 5, 6. It is dated June 27, 1505. Dr. Lingard endeavours to explain away the renunciation as a form. The language of Moryson, however, leaves no doubt either of its causes or its meaning. "Non multo post sponsalia contrahuntur," he says, "Henrico plus minus tredecim annos jam nato. Sed rerum non recte inceptarum successus infelicior homines non prorsus oscitantes plerumque docet quid recte gestum quid perperam, quid factum superi volunt quid infectum.

Nimirum Henricus Septimus nulla aegritudinis prospecta causa repente in deteriorem valetudinem prolapsus est, nec unquam potuit affectum corpus pristinum statum recuperare. Uxor in aliud ex alio malum regina omnium laudatissimia non multo post morbo periit. Quid mirum si Rex tot irati numinis indiciis admonitus coeperit cogitare rem male illis succedere qui vellent hoc nomine c.u.m Dei legibus litem inst.i.tuere ut diutius c.u.m homine amicitiam gerere possent. Quid deinceps egit? Quid aliud quam quod decuit Christianissimum regem? Filium ad se accersiri jubet, accersitur. Adest, adsunt et multi n.o.bilissimi homines. Rex filium regno natum hortatur ut sec.u.m una c.u.m doctissimis ac optimis viris cogitavit nefarium esse putare leges Dei leges Dei non esse c.u.m papa volet. Non ita longa oratione usus filium patri obsequentissimum a sententia nullo negotio abduxit. Sponsalia contracta infirmantur, pontificiaeque auctoritatis beneficio palam renunciatum est. Adest publicus tabellio--fit instrumentum. Rerum gestarum testes rogati sigilla apponunt. Postremo filius patri fidem se illam uxorem nunquam ducturum."--_Apomaxis_ RICARDI MORYSINI. Printed by Berthelet, 1537.

[120] See LINGARD, sixth edition, vol. iv. p. 164.

[121] HALL, p. 507.

[122] He married Catherine, June 3, 1509. Early in the spring of 1510 she miscarried.--_Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._ vol. i. p. 83.

Jan. 1, 1511. A prince was born, who died Feb. 22.--HALL.

Nov. 1513. Another prince was born, who died immediately.--LINGARD, vol.

iv, p. 290.

Dec. 1514. Badoer, the Venetian amba.s.sador, wrote that the queen had been delivered of a still-born male child, to the great grief of the whole nation.

May 3, 1515. The queen was supposed to be pregnant. If the supposition was right, she must have miscarried.--_Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._ vol. i. p. 81.

Feb. 18, 1516. The Princess Mary was born.

July 3, 1518. "The Queen declared herself quick with child." (Pace to Wolsey: _State Papers_, vol. i. p. 2,) and again miscarried.

These misfortunes we are able to trace accidentally through casual letters, and it is probable that these were not all. Henry's own words upon the subject are very striking:--

"All such issue male as I have received of the queen died incontinent after they were born, so that I doubt the punishment of G.o.d in that behalf. Thus being troubled in waves of a scrupulous conscience, and partly in despair of any issue male by her, it drove me at last to consider the estate of this realm, and the danger it stood in for lack of issue male to succeed me in this imperial dignity."--CAVENDISH, p. 220.

[123] "If a man shall take his brother's wife it is an unclean thing. He hath uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless."--_Leviticus_ xx. 21. It ought to be remembered, that if the present law of England be right, the party in favour of the divorce was right.

[124] _Letters of the Bishop of Bayonne_, LEGRAND, vol. iii.