of the unceremonious visit paid by their majesties to
cardinal pole at lambeth palace.
on the same day, at a late hour, in a large room of the palace, panelled with dark oak, and lighted by a deep bay-window filled with stained glass, beside a table covered with books and papers, sat cardinal pole and lord priuli. they were engaged in conversation. pole wore his scarlet soutane and lawn rochet, and had a red silk calotte on his head. priuli was in black velvet, which set off his noble figure to great advantage.
“an embassy is about to be dispatched in a few days to rome,” observed pole. “it will consist of my nephew, lord montague, the bishop of ely, and sir edward carne. if you have any desire to return to your beloved italy, you can do so in their company. do not let any consideration for me weigh with you, i entreat. i am not without misgiving that this chill climate, and, above all, the exhalations from the marshes near the palace, may be prejudicial to your health. i need not say how greatly i shall miss you, but i shall be reconciled to the deprivation by feeling that you are better off than with me.”
“if i can serve you by accompanying this embassy to rome, i will readily do so, dear friend,” rejoined priuli; “but i have no desire to return to italy. it would be idle to say that i do not prefer sunshine and an exhilarating 207atmosphere to a cold and brumous climate like that of england. undoubtedly, i would rather dwell in rome than in london, but, deprived of your society, italy, with its blue sky and noble monuments, would be a blank to me. i am happier here than i should be at the vatican without you. say no more, therefore, to me on that head, i beseech you. but you yourself may be compelled to return to rome. not improbably you may be elected to the pontifical throne!”
“should it be so, i should decline the dignity,” replied the cardinal. “you, my good friend, who know my sentiments perfectly, are aware that i have little ambition, and that all my exertions have been directed to the welfare of our holy church. this cause i can best serve by remaining here, and i trust heaven may spare me for the complete fulfilment of my task. i do not delude myself with any false hopes. i shall never behold rome again, and it is from this conviction that i would not hinder your return.”
“i will remain with you to the last,” rejoined priuli. “my life is linked with yours. nothing but death can divide us.”
at this juncture an usher announced the lord chancellor, and the next moment gardiner entered the room. both the cardinal and priuli rose to receive him. after courteous but grave salutations had passed between them, gardiner remarked, “your eminence desires to speak to me about those recusants who were yesterday excommunicated by the ecclesiastical tribunal, and delivered to the secular power. i may as well state at once that nothing can be advanced in arrest of the judgment certain to be passed upon them. they obstinately persisted in their heresy, and firmly refused to subscribe to the doctrines of the church.”
“i grieve to hear it,” replied pole. “yet i trust they will not be severely dealt with.”
“they will be dealt with as they deserve—they will be burnt at the stake,” rejoined gardiner.
“but not without time allowed them for reflection, i trust, my lord,” said the cardinal. “undue severity will injure our cause rather than serve it. these men will be accounted martyrs, and held up as an example to others. policy, therefore, would dictate milder measures.”
“mild measures have been tried, and have proved ineffectual,” 208rejoined gardiner. “we must now make a terrible example of these obstinate and dangerous heretics.”
again the usher entered, and this time to inform the cardinal that their majesties had arrived at the palace, and were already in the courtyard. hereupon pole instantly arose, and followed by priuli, repaired to the ante-chamber. scarcely had he entered it, when the royal pair, preceded by sir john gage, and attended by several officers of the court, appeared at the outer door. the cardinal immediately hurried forward to bid them welcome, and thank them for the distinguished honour conferred upon him by the visit.
“had i been aware of your coming, gracious madam,” he said to the queen, “i would have been at the gate to receive you.”
“it is not a visit of ceremony,” replied mary, “therefore we did not deem it necessary to send intimation of our design. if your eminence is at leisure, the king and myself will gladly pass an hour in your society, and profit by your counsels.”
“i am entirely at your majesty’s disposal,” replied the cardinal, bowing. “i pray you enter. and you, too, sire,” he added, conducting them to the inner room.
mary looked ill and languid, and moved slowly and with difficulty, requiring the king’s support. but her illness being attributed to her condition, occasioned no alarm.
on reaching the inner room, the queen seated herself on a high, carved oak chair proffered her by the cardinal, while philip occupied a fauteuil on her left. as their majesties would not allow the cardinal to remain standing, he took a seat on the other side of the queen. at a little distance from the royal pair stood gardiner, priuli, and sir john gage. all the other attendants withdrew.
“i did not expect to find you here, my lord,” the queen observed to gardiner, after bowing to him and priuli.
“i was sent for, gracious madam,” replied the lord chancellor. “the cardinal desired to confer with me on an important matter connected with the maintenance of the established church, in which his eminence and myself differ in opinion. in most matters i should readily defer to his eminence’s better judgment. but i cannot do so in this instance. 209i am glad your majesty has come, as i feel certain you will support my views.”
“whence arises this difference of opinion?” demanded mary. “i should have thought your lordship and the cardinal must infallibly agree on all points touching the welfare of the church.”
“the question between us, gracious madam,” said pole, “is whether, on the score of humanity and policy, it would not be better to deal leniently rather than severely with those who profess heretical opinions. i allude particularly to the ministers of the reformed church who have just been excommunicated and degraded, and delivered over to the secular power, and who, unless mercy be shown them, will suffer a dreadful death.”
mary’s brow darkened.
“surely your eminence would not pardon them if they persist in their heresies?” she cried.
“i would not put them to death,” rejoined pole, “but would endeavour to convince them of their errors by argument and instruction. failing in this, i would resort to such measures as might be deemed best adapted to meet the exigencies of the case—but those measures should be tempered with mercy.”
“i did not expect such opinions as these from your eminence,” observed mary. “the enemies of our faith must be destroyed, or they will destroy us. a single diseased sheep will taint the whole flock. if you have an unsound limb, the surgeon will tell you that for the safety of the body it must be cut off. the preservation, therefore, of the catholic church requires that these tares amidst the corn be rooted up and cast into the fire.”
“these false brethren are seditious as well as heretical,” said philip sternly; “rebels against the queen, and enemies to the church. no mercy ought to be shown them.”
“your eminence perceives that their majesties are of my opinion,” said gardiner to the cardinal. “but has not our church deep wrongs to avenge? have we not suffered stripes and persecution from these heretics when they were in power? have not i myself been deprived of my revenues, and imprisoned within the tower, with the sentence of death 210hanging over my head, for years, until happily released by her majesty?”
“at least, your life was spared,” observed pole.
“it was spared more from fear than favour,” retorted gardiner. “but had king edward lived another year, nay, a few months longer, i should not have been here now to protest against leniency towards such bitter enemies. one of the latest acts of cranmer was to frame a sanguinary code against the professors of the ancient faith, which had it been put in force, would have been fraught with fearful consequences; but ere that code became law, king edward died, and the weapon sharpened for our destruction fell from the maker’s hands.”
“to strike off his own head,” cried philip, fiercely. “your eminence would scarcely extend your clemency to this arch-offender?” he added to the cardinal.
“i would pardon him, if he recanted,” replied pole.
“what, pardon cranmer, the apostate and heretic!” exclaimed gardiner. “pardon him who betrayed and enslaved the church of which he ought to have been the protector!—who manifested the most abject compliance with the will of his royal master, flattering his passions, and humouring his caprices! pardon him who shamefully promoted and pronounced the divorce between the king and her majesty’s royal mother, casting thereby a blemish on their daughter! would you pardon him whose life has been one of dissimulation, and who professed and practised what in his secret heart he disbelieved and abhorred? would you pardon a reformer, who subscribed the terrible six articles, though they were directed chiefly against his own sect, and who would have subscribed any other articles enjoined by his royal master—who on king edward’s accession declared himself in favour of the principles of zuinglius and calvin—who abolished the ancient worship—attacked every article of our church—denied its traditions—stigmatised its rites—brought over foreign sectaries, however anti-christian their tenets, as martin bucer, paul fagius, peter martyr, ochinus, and others, procured them churches, and recommended them to royal favour—and who filled up the measure of his guilt by supporting the treasonable projects of northumberland, helping him to place a usurper on the throne, and preaching 211against the rightful claims of our sovereign mistress? would you spare this hypocrite, this apostate, this heretic, this double-dyed traitor?”
“his crimes are many and indefensible, but i would leave their punishment to heaven,” rejoined pole.
“i could forgive him every injury he has done me, except the divorce pronounced against my sainted mother,” said mary, her cheek flushing, and her eyes kindling as she spoke. “in pronouncing that unjust sentence, he uttered his own condemnation. his fate is sealed.”
“why has the punishment he so richly merits been so long delayed?” demanded philip.
“his offences, sire, are of so heinous a nature,” responded gardiner, “and so fraught with injury to our holy religion in its most vital part, that it has been necessary to refer them to that supreme tribunal before which such inquests can only properly be held. his case has been laid before the pope, who has appointed the bishop of gloucester and a commission to try him. on their report, judgment will be pronounced in solemn consistory by his holiness. what that judgment will be, cannot for a moment be doubted. cranmer will be excommunicated and anathematised, deprived of the archbishopric of canterbury, and of all ecclesiastical privileges. furthermore he will be degraded and delivered to the secular power, and your majesties will be required by his holiness to proceed towards him as the law directs.”
“for his offences the law prescribes death by fire, and by that death he shall die,” said mary.
“alas, that it should be so!” muttered pole. “when will the true spirit of the gospel, which inculcates toleration, charity, and forgiveness of injuries, be understood, and its principles practised? i would make a last appeal to your majesties in behalf of those unfortunates,” he added to the queen.
before replying, mary consulted the king by a look. his stern expression of countenance confirmed her.
“it is in vain,” she replied. “my heart is steeled against them.”
