VIII. lower house of convocation. But farther, the truth of the HENRY case is fully discovered from the subscriptions of the convocation published by this reverend prelate. In this list all the members of the upper house subscribe apart, which method Bp. Burnet, was followed by those of the lower: the instrument is an form. pt. 1. original, and may be safely trusted. Here it is evident that the bishops, abbots, and priors constituted the upper house: and that all deans, archdeacons, proctors of the clergy, and chapters of cathedrals, sat in the lower house of convocation. And that this reign did not introduce anything new as to this point, may be proved from precedents more than one century prior to the reformation. For instance, in the convocation held in the year 1462, the lower house wanting a small sum of ready money, agreed to raise it by setting a fine upon the absent members. To this purpose a list of the absentees of the lower house was brought in. Amongst which were these the deans of Sarum, Lincoln, Windsor, Wells, and Chichester; the archdeacons of Colchester, Winchester, Surrey, Taunton, Dorset, &c. How the distinction of the two houses was thus settled, it may not be improper to relate. Some time after the present constitution of parliaments was introduced, in the reign of Henry III.; some time after this, great numbers of abbots and priors were summoned to parliament, by writs directed to each of them. Now all the religious thus summoned by particular writs sat amongst the peers. These abbots and priors had a double capacity, and were ranged under two distinctions: as ecclesiastical prelates they were part of the first; and as holding their baronies of the king, part of the second estate represented in parliament. For we are to observe, that such abbots and priors as held in chief of the king were usually summoned to parliament. Hist. Re Addend. p. 315. 75. A. D. 1537. What members sat in each house of convocation. Harmer, p. 31, 32. In the reign of Edward III. the number of abbots and priors summoned by particular writs was considerably lessened: and this custom held on to the reformation. For after the reign last-mentioned, only some of the greater abbots received summons. And here the number, though not unalterably fixed, was always between twenty and thirty. They had sometimes a warrant from the king to dispense with their attendance of which we have an instance in the reign before us. num. 23. See Records, CRAN MER, To return when the kings forbore sending particular sumAbp. Cant. mons to the lesser abbots and priors, they lost the privilege of being members of the second estate. However, they still continued to be summoned to convocations by the archbishop's mandate. Now those religious who held immediately of the king, and whose predecessors had been summoned as part of the baronage, continued their claim in the convocation, and were admitted to sit with the bishops as formerly. Harmer, p. 32. et deinc. Latimer sion. Journal, fol. 46, 47. About this time Hugh Latimer's case was brought before A.D. 1532. the upper house of convocation. This Latimer had been preaches delated in the synod last year for maintaining erroneous docagainst purgatory, &c. trine in some letters written to one Greenwood, of Cambridge; and being required to take an oath to make a true answer to interrogatories, he declined the jurisdiction of the house, and appealed to the king: but the king refusing the application, His submis returned him to the convocation, upon which he acknowledged Convocation himself mistaken, and was pardoned upon his submission. But now he relapsed, as they called it, to his former opinions. The articles he was charged with were, his denying purgatory, worshipping of saints, and going in pilgrimage to their images. He had subscribed a recantation upon these heads, and promised not to preach offensively upon them for the future. Notwithstanding this engagement, his conscience would not allow him to keep his word: for in the pulpit at Bristol he declaimed against the received doctrines, and therefore, to March 26, disable him in his credit, the house, at the motion of the bishop of Winchester, ordered a copy of his submission should be sent down into those parts. 1533. Id. fol. 53, 54. The king attempts to queen Catha rine to re marriage, but without success. To proceed the king tried once more to prevail with the prevail with queen to acquiesce in the divorce. And to make the proposal go down the better, she was told the king would settle her first linquish her jointure, and that she should be treated with the honour of princess of Wales. But this offer was refused; she still continued to justify her marriage, and held to her appeal. But the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn could be concealed no longer; and therefore on Easter eve she was declared queen, and pompously crowned in June following. But before this last solemnity, it was thought fit to proceed to a judicial dissolution of the former marriage. The process was formed in this manner: first, Cranmer acquainted the king, in a letter, that his marriage with queen Catharine had been much cen VIII. sured both at home and abroad: that his subjects were par- HENRY ticularly apprehensive the title to the crown might be entangled, and the peace of the kingdom endangered by this means. That, therefore, he desired an authority of his majesty to put an end to this matter. Upon this request, the king sends him an order to call a court, and proceed to judgment. See Records, num. 24. pronounced Cranmer being thus furnished, the king and the queen were The sentence cited to appear before him at Dunstable. This place was of the divorce pitched on because the queen lay near it at Ampthill for this by Cranmer. May 23. reason she could not pretend being unacquainted with what was doing. And thus there being no need of many days in the citation, the process might be ended the sooner. The court was held upon the tenth of May; the king appeared by proxy, but the queen neither in person nor otherwise. For this reason, after a third citation, she was declared contumax. And here the depositions of the witnesses relating to the consummation of the marriage with prince Arthur were read. The censures of the universities, the determinations of the provinces of Canterbury and York, the opinions of canonists and divines in favour of the divorce, were likewise recited in court. And, lastly, on the twenty-third of May the archbishop, by the advice of canonists and divines, consulted upon this occasion, proceeded to give judgment, and pronounced the marriage between the king and queen Catharine to have been only an engagement de facto and not de jure, and by consequence, to have been null, and of no force from the beginning. And thus king Henry and the lady Catharine (for she is not called Doming queen) are pronounced separated, and divorced from each other, and at liberty to engage elsewhere. Catharina. Bp. Burnet's Records, num. 47. inspeximus Doctor Heylin mentions a letter of Cranmer's to Cromwell form. part 1. upon this occasion. The letter, transcribed from the Cotton Collect. of library, imports a resolution of the archbishop's coming to a book 2. final sentence on the eighteenth of May. And here Cranmer from an conjures Cromwell and the king not to divulge so great a Rot. Pat. 25. secret: for he was afraid such a discovery might bring the H. 8. princess dowager to Dunstable. And that her appearing in Heylin, court. either at or before the time of sentence, might perplex form under Q. Mary, the affair, and put them all to a stand; but by her not appear- .7. ing, this danger was over, and the matter went as the king would have it. . And thus the cause, which had been six years depending, Hist. Re 76. was determined at last. However, the king's proceedings did not pass without censure. Some of those who believed them well founded as to the main, were not satisfied in every circumceedings cen- stance. They were altogether of opinion the divorce ought to CRANMER, Abp. Cant. The pro sured. have been pronounced before the king's engagements with Anne Boleyn: and that the first marriage ought to have been dissolved before the second was made. For to break a marriage without any public sentence was, as they conceived, an unprecedented singularity. And since one of the principal reasons of state urged in this affair was to settle the succession, they thought this end would not be answered; that the title to the crown would be more entangled: for was there not a strong pretence to question the second marriage, upon the score of its being made before the first was discharged? In short, it was generally concluded that judgment in form had been better omitted, than come so late. Some excepted to the archbishop's being judge. He had written a book for the divorce, and declared himself on the king's side of the question. To this it was answered, that when a man acts in a new post, his former sentiment is no disabling circumstance. For do not judges sometimes try causes in which they formerly gave counsel, and pleaded at the bar? And to come somewhat nearer, popes are not supposed tied to the opinions they held in a lower station. And, lastly, it was replied, that the archbishop proceeded only upon what had been already concluded by the universities, convocations, &c., and did no more Bp. Burnet's than put their decisions into a form of law. Hist. Re form. pt. 1. p. 101, 102, The king endeavours to justify himself to foreign princes. Upon the twenty-eighth of May the archbishop held another court at Lambeth, where, without assigning the reasons in the judgment, he confirmed the king's marriage with the new queen Anne. The king dispatched ambassadors to most of the courts of Europe, to justify his marriage upon the grounds already mentioned. He was particularly solicitous to give the emperor satisfaction, and prevent a rupture with that prince. To this purpose, he acquaints his imperial majesty, that he designed to justify his practice at the court of Rome, and treat farther with the pope. That he hoped his imperial majesty would put a friendly construction upon his proceedings, and continue his The emperor correspondence as formerly. The emperor told sir Thomas not satisfied. Wyat, the ambassador, that he was well informed how that affair had been managed; and that he should advise with his HENRY council upon farther measures. By this answer, it might easily be perceived, he intended to break with the king. VIII. Lord Herbert, p. 350, 351. The court of The news of archbishop Cranmer's sentence, and the king's marriage with Mrs. Boleyn, was very ill received at Rome. Rome highly disgusted. That court thought the papal authority much disregarded: for the king, to commission one of his subjects to judge finally in the cause while the appeal was depending, was new, and unprecedented: and that by such freedoms the supremacy of the see of Rome was plainly struck at. Thus the college of cardinals was much disgusted; and those in the emperor's interest addressed the pope to exert his character, and proceed to censures against the king. The pope, though not willing to come to extremities, grati- June. fied them in some measure. He gave sentence against the attentates,' as they call them; that is, he declared archbishop Cranmer's judgment of no force. For since the queen, by her appeal, had remitted the cause to the court of Rome, it was not in the power of any other prelates or prince to intermeddle with it. And since the king had countenanced Cranmer in this late process, he is declared liable to excommunication, unless he disowned Cranmer's sentence, and restored the cause to its former condition. And to do this, he had time given him until the end of September. Id. p. 357, 358. The pope and the French king had concerted an interview Sanders de at Marseilles and now the time drawing near, the king of glic. p. 111. England endeavoured to disengage Francis from meeting his agents at the The king's holiness. To this purpose the duke of Norfolk was dispatched interview at to the French court. His instructions were to desire the king of France to make a halt at least, till the pope had given his master satisfaction: he had likewise in charge to offer the French king an assistance for a war in Piedmont: but then this proposal was made upon condition, that king Francis should stop the exporting of treasure out of his dominions to Rome and likewise erect a patriarchate in pursuance of the late treaty at Calais. The French king's answer was smooth and friendly and though his word had gone too far to break off the interview, yet he promised the king his best offices at Marseilles: and 1 Proceedings in a court of judicature after a prohibition is decreed. Schism. An Marseilles. |