of securing to the Obstruc the directed to exercise proves that the exceptions CH. 9. were expected to be extensive; and in many A.D. 1534. quarters these precautions themselves were rapidly Difficulty discovered to be inadequate. Several even of the obedience most trusted among the bishops attempted an order. obstructive resistance. The clergy of the north tiveness of were notoriously disobedient. The Archbishop bishops, of York was reported to have talked loosely of 'standing against' the king 'unto death.'* The Bishop of Durham fell under suspicion, and was summoned to London. His palace was searched and his papers examined in his absence; and the result, though inconclusive, was unsatisfactory.† The religious orders again (especially the monks of such houses as had been implicated with the Nun of Kent) were openly recusant. At the convent at Sion, near Richmond, a certain Father And of the Ricot preached as he was commanded, 'but he clergy. made this addition, that he which commanded him to preach should discharge his conscience: and as soon,' it was said, 'as the said Ricot began to declare the king's title,' ' nine of the brethren departed from the sermon, contrary to the rule of their religion, to the great slander of the audience.'‡ Indeed it soon became evident that among the regular John ap Rice to Secretary Cromwell, with an account of the search of the Bishop of Durham's chamber: Rolls House MS. * ELLIS, third series, vol. ii. to observe how the injunctions P. 373. were obeyed. He said that he was in much despair of the reformation of the friars by any gentle or favourable means;' and advised, that fellows who leave sermons should be put in prison, and made a terrible example of.' Bedyll to Cromwell: State Papers, vol. i. p. 422. Bedyll had been directed by Cromwell Сн. A.D. 1534. CH. 9. regular clergy no compliance whatever was to be looked for; and the agents of the government began to contemplate the possible consequences, with a tenderness not indeed for the prospective sufferers, but for the authorities whom they would so cruelly compel to punish them. I am right sorry,' wrote Cromwell's secretary to him, 'to see the foolishness and obstinacy of divers religious men, so addict to the Bishop of Rome and his usurped power, that they contemn counsel as careless men and willing to die. If it were not for the opinion which men had, and some yet have, in their apparent holiness, it made no great matter what became of them, so their souls were saved. And for my part, I would that all such obstinate persons of them as be ready to die for the advancement of the Bishop of Rome's authority were dead indeed by God's hand, that no man should run wrongfully into obloquy for their just punish Powers of the confessional, ment.'* But the open resistance of mistaken honesty was not the danger which the government most feared. Another peril threatened their authority, deeper and more alarming by far. The clergy possessed in the confessional a power of secret influence over the masses of the people, by which they were able at once (if they so pleased) to grant their penitents licences for insincerity, to permit them to perjure themselves under mental reservations, and to encourage them to expiate a venial falsehood by concealed disaffection. *State Papers, vol. i. p. 422, et seq. The secrets of confession were inviolable. Anathemas CH. 9. in some the most fearful forbade their disclosure; and, A.D. 1534. secured behind this impenetrable shield, the The clergy church might defy the most stringent provisions, cases advise and baffle every precaution. their peni. tents to oaths with reserva From the nature of the case but little could take the transpire of the use or the abuse which was a mental made at such a time of so vast a power; but tion. Cromwell, whose especial gift it was to wind himself into the secrets of the clergy, had his sleuthhounds abroad, whose scent was not easily baffled. The long tyranny of the priesthood produced also its natural retribution in the informations which were too gladly volunteered in the hour of revenge; and more than one singular disclosure remains among the State Papers, of language used in this mysterious intercourse. Every man who doubted whether he might lawfully abjure the pope, consulted his priest. Haughton, the Prior of Charterhouse, in all such cases, declared that the abjuration was illegal, and might not be made.* He himself refused openly. It is likely that he directed others to be as open as himself. But Haughton's advice was as exceptional as his conduct. Father Forest, of Greenwich, who was a brave man, and afterwards met nobly a cruel death, took the oath to the king as he was required; while he told a penitent that he had abjured the pope in the outward, but not in the inward man, that he owed an obedience to the pope which he could not shake off,' and that it STRYPE'S Memorials, vol. i. p. 305. CH. 9. A.D. 1534. Confession of John เ was 'his use and practice in confession, to induce men to hold and stick to the old fashion of belief.'* Here, again, is a conversation which a treaStaunton. cherous penitent revealed to Cromwell; the persons in the dialogue being the informer, John Staunton, and the confessor of Sion Monastery, who had professed the most excessive loyalty to the crown. The informer, it must be allowed, was a good-for-nothing person. He had gone to the confessor, he said, to be shriven, and had commenced his confession with acknowledging the seven deadly sins particularly,' and next the misspending of his five wits.' As an instance of the latter, he then in detail had confessed to heresy; he could not persuade himself that the priest had power to forgive him. 'Sir,' he professed to have said to the confessor, 'there is one thing in my stomach which grieveth my conscience very sore; and that is by reason of a sermon I heard yesterday of Master Latimer, saying that no man of himself had authority to forgive sins, and that the pope had no more authority than another bishop; and therefore I am in doubt whether I shall have remission of my sins of you or not, and that the pardon is of no effect.' *Confessions of Father Fo- | and the obstinate persons be not rest: Rolls House MS. This in fear of him; but he in great seems to have been generally known at the time. Latimer alludes to it in one of his fear and danger of his life, by reason of their malice, for that he hath consented to this king's title, and hath preached the same.' - Bedyll to Cromwell : State Papers, vol. i. p. 424. A.D. 1534. The priest answered, 'That Latimer is a false CH. 9. knave; and seven or eight times he called him false knave, and said he was an eretycke.' 'Marry, this I heard Latimer say,' the confessor continued, that if a man come to confession, and be not sorry for his sins, the priest hath no power to forgive him. I say the pope's pardon is as good as ever it was; and he is the Head of the Universal Church, and so I will take him. Here in England the king and his parliament hath put him out; but be of good comfort, and steadfast in your faith; this thing will not last long, I warrant you. You shall see the world change shortly.' To this the informer said that he had replied, "You know how that we be sworn unto the King's Grace, and he hath already abjured the pope.' fessor 'As for that,' said the priest, 'an oath loosely The conmade may be loosely broken; and by this example thinks that be ye in ease. I had an enemy come into this an oath loosely church, and one of his friends and mine came made may be loosely unto me and said, 'Sir, I pray you let us go broken. drink with yonder man.' And the said friend maketh such importunate suit unto me to drink with my enemy, that I promise him by my faith that I will go and drink with him; and so indeed doth drink with him. But what then,' said the priest, though I go and drink with him upon this promise, trow you that I will forgive him with my heart. Nay, nay, I warrant you. And so in likewise in this oath concerning the abjuration of the pope. I will not abjure him in my heart,' said the priest, for these words were not spoken unto Peter for nought-'I will give thee |