other Parliament is summoned, and another Convocation, where Gardiner anticipated that he might even yet work wondrously. Let him try; that he himself, and his brethren may come to their greatest humiliation, and to their final discomfiture as a Convocation.

SECTION V.

THE ENEMY ON THE RACK-PARLIAMENT OPENED THE FIFTH QUEEN EXECUTED-HENRY BENT ON WAR WITH SCOTLAND-NEGOTIATING WITH FRANCE AND SPAIN.

CONVOCATION MET-THE BIBLE INTRODUCED THERE FOR DISCUSSION AT LAST SINGULAR DISPLAY-GARDINER'S GRAND EFFORT IN OPPOSITION -CRANMER INFORMS THE KING-THEY ARE ALL DISCOMFITED, THOUGH YET SITTING, or before the bishops LEFT LONDON-PROGRESS OF THE TRUTH IN ENGLAND.

By this year, such had been the progress made in the cause of Divine Truth, that the imaginations of its enemies were literally put to the rack. Oppose they must; but how to proceed, was a problem not of easy solution. Upon his second return from the Continent, in October last, Gardiner had found far greater occasion for regret, than he had done even before, in September 1538. Then, he could step into his fiery chariot, and bring Lambert to the stake; he and Norfolk had been worming themselves into royal favour ever after; and upon setting off for the imperial Court, in November 1540, whether he should there fully succeed or not, every thing at home seemed to promise other, and, as he thought, better days; now that Crumwell was gone, and his Majesty so delighted with the Queen which had been furnished to him by the old learning party. She was their first and only choice, on whose sway depended anticipations not a few. But now, that mainstay had fallen; Gardiner's friend, the Duke of Norfolk, had been trembling for his personal honours, if not his life; while, to crown all, that pillar of strength, Cuthbert Tunstal, had not merely given way, but his name had been employed, by royal authority, as though he had personally gone over to the other side. Still the party must rally once more. By this time, it might have been supposed that

their arrows would have been expended and their quiver empty; but, subtle and ingenious in the extreme, their sophistry prevailed once more. If the peculiar situation of the King be taken into account, it must appear surprising that they should have been successful in swaying his mind now; though, in the end, we shall leave it to the judgment of the reader, whether the whole proceeding, on the part of Henry, does not carry very much of the appearance of a snare, in which, when caught, the Bishop of Winchester, from being the most conspicuous character, became the most ridiculous. Be this as it may, these men will not stop till they have exposed themselves to the derision of posterity; and as soon as we have briefly disposed of the civil events of the year, the entire scene will come before us.

Parliament having assembled on Monday the 16th of January, proceeded immediately to the loathsome and revolting affairs connected with the royal household. Among the members present, was to be seen the son of Crumwell, and sitting as a Baron; so strange were the movements of our capricious Monarch. Commissioners having been appointed to examine the Queen once more; on the 28th, she repeated her confessions, though to what extent is not recorded. Both Houses declared her guilty; and in the Act passed, they petitioned the King, at once, "not to be troubled, lest it might shorten his life!” and that the Queen and all the others attainted, "might be punished with death!" The bill was passed by the 8th of February; on Saturday the 11th, Henry gave his assent; and on Monday the 13th, without any regard to his express promise of mercy, blood was shed.2 That infamous woman, Lady Rochford, had been an accomplice; and thus, she who had acted so dreadful a part towards her own husband, and his sister Anne Boleyn, now righteously perished on the same scaffold with the Queen, to whose ruin she had also contributed. The property of the other branches of the Howard family being once secured in his Majesty's Palace at Westminster and elsewhere, the public censure of such severity led Henry to pardon those, whom Parliament in the perfection of its servility had condemned to death, though some of the parties were left to linger long in prison.

For shame, or rather some fear of consequences, Henry could not come forward to demand a subsidy, and Crumwell was no more; but as he was now bent upon war with Scotland, he wished the Commons would only condescend to meet his inclination, by offering him money,

The Commissioners were the Duke of Suffolk, the Earl of Southampton, Cranmer, and Thirlby. Journals of Parliament.

without its being asked. He gave them a broad hint; but however ready they were to bow to his sanguinary proceedings, this being an affair affecting themselves personally, for once they feigned not to understand him, and the House rose without voting one farthing. At the same time, however, so far to please the ever-craving Monarch, they had consented to pass an Act by which his Majesty might possess himself of the revenues attached to Colleges and Hospitals; an Act which made both Oxford and Cambridge tremble, and an affair of which we shall hear again in 1545, when Henry has farther advanced on the road to ruin. All offence with the Duke of Norfolk at present, had been conveniently passed over, as his services were demanded to head the army against Scotland. A country so divided at the moment, whose nobility were striving to secure their independence of the Crown, while the power of Beaton and his adherents contended for the superiority, was quite unable to resist. The expedition, in its results, so affected the Scottish monarch, that he fell a sacrifice to his vexation. James sunk into a low fever, and expired on the 14th of December, leaving his only daughter "Mary, Queen of Scots," an infant of eight days old.

With regard to Continental affairs, it may only be observed that the strange negotiations of Henry with the King of France, respecting the marriage, of which Norfolk had written in December, between the Duke of Orleans and the Princess Mary, as well as the arrears of Henry's pension, and even proposed war with the Emperor; they were carried on till so late as the 15th of May. But in the very same month Commissioners had been appointed to enter into other negotiations with Capuis, the Imperial Ambassador, at Stepney, the result of which will appear with the ensuing spring. 3

A new Parliament having assembled, on the following Friday, or the 20th, the Convocation also met; and as it sat till the 29th of March, of course it proved, as usual, though only apparently, a critical period for the Sacred Scriptures. After so many storms, as all along there had been no real danger, so there will not be any now. At the opening, Richard Cox, Archdeacon of Ely, had preached to the House, of course in Latin, and if he had intended his text to be satirical, he could not have been more severe. It was "Vos estis sal terræ,"—" ye are the salt of the earth!!"-and no doubt a very different sermon from that of Latimer six years ago.1

3 Gov. State Papers, i., pp. 739-740-notes.

4 Latimer, who had pled so boldly for the Scriptures above eleven years ago, and in 1536 so pointedly inquired what they had ever done, was now in the Tower. This Cox had been one of the original canons in Wolsey's College, as formerly noted, and was preceptor to King Edward. His conduct at Frankfort proves that he was of a violent temper, and, as Chancellor of Oxford, he has been greatly blamed. Somewhat softened by time, he lived to the advanced

age of 81.

After being detained for some time by the King's personal unhappy affairs in Parliament, these men proceeded to business in the Convocation; and at their third session, on Friday the 17th of February, the Translation of the Scriptures, so often discussed there without any result, must once more come before them. The reader cannot have forgotten their former abortive attempts, and may be the more curious to observe what happened now. They appear ever to have been afraid to look any farther than the New Testament, and it was of this they felt most apprehension. Upon this day, therefore, Cranmer required the bishops and clergy to revise the translation of the New Testament, and so successful had been the votaries of the "old learning," that this was done in the King's name. It must have been no welcome proposal to the Archbishop, after he had so fully committed himself. However, as usual, he must obey; and therefore having divided the volume into fourteen parts, he allotted them to fifteen Bishops, as follow :—

Here, let it be observed, were two notable and curious omissions. What had become of Tunstal and Bonner-the former once so outrageously zealous against the Scriptures in London; the latter as much so for them while in Paris? Tunstal having but recently committed himself to two editions of the Bible, by express commandment from the King, must have either declined; or, with his characteristic "stillness," perhaps expected to "oversee" once more the wished-for revisal. Bon

5 Poor man! He had been "bestowing a great labour" upon the very same Gospel, seven years ago, to no purpose. See vol. i., pp. 446, 453.

ner, though a canonist and wily politician, was very probably no scholar; or, like his predecessor, John Stokesly, would have no connexion with the affair.

At their sixth meeting Gardiner came forward, therefore, with the fruit of his own counsel, and made a proposal perfectly characteristic, which he was sure to carry triumphantly within the Convocation. It was at best a puerile design, and to us now, a most contemptible one, with a view to keep the people of England in their ancient ignorance. He then read a list of not fewer than one hundred and two Latin words, that for their genuine and native meaning, and for the majesty of the matter in them contained," might be retained in the English translation, or be fitly Englished with the least alteration. For the sake of illustration, only a slight specimen will be sufficient.

Ecclesia, pænitentia, pontifex, olacausta (so in the record) idiota, baptizare, sacramentum, simulacrum, confiteor tibi Pater, panis, præpositionis, benedictio, satisfactio, peccator, episcopus, cisera, zizania, confessio, pascha, hostia.

The bearing of the entire list is very apparent. Gardiner, indeed, had talked of "majesty" in the words, but there was something else than majesty in view. Witness," says old Fuller," the word 'penance,' which, according to the vulgar sound, contrary to the original sense thereof, was a magazine of will worship, and brought in much gain to the priests, who were desirous to keep that word, because that word kept them."

Cranmer, however, being now at his post, and retaining influence with his Majesty, although he had once more dealt out the books of the New Testament among his fellows, soon observed from their discussions, what would be the result; and therefore determined to wait upon Henry, and inform him how matters went. The Bishops, therefore, were now relieved from their several tasks, and they were, moreover, no more to be consulted on the subject! They must be overruled, to a man, though in Convocation assembled. After entering the House, on Friday the 10th of March, Cranmer informed his brethren "that it was the King's will and pleasure, that the translation both of the old and the New Testament, should be examined by both Universities!" In vain did the House oppose, and in vain protest; for all the Bishops present did so, with only two exceptions, viz., Goodrich of Ely, and Barlow