was unlawful, and the bull of Pope Julius II. invalid; inasmuch as the alleged grounds for granting were not true. For in the preamble it was stated that the dispensation was granted at the special request of Prince Henry, who, at the time that the bull was obtained, had scarcely reached his twelfth year, and, as far as he had any will of his own, was strongly opposed to the bargain.

When, after many delays, it was at last decided by the Pope to send Campeggio as Wolsey's assessor, and that they, in the quality of commissioners for the Pope, should take cognizance of the cause pending between Henry and Catherine, Bishop Fisher, along with Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely, and Henry Standish, Bishop of St. Asaph, were appointed the Queen's advisers and counsel. Henry could have had no thought at that time, of disowning the Papal authority, for he appeared in person at the citation of the Pope's representatives, to answer their interrogatories.

"It was fashionable among the heathen," says old Fuller, "at the celebration of their centenary solemnities, which returned but once in a hundred years, to have a herald publickly to proclaim Come hither to behold what you never saw before, and are never likely to see again."" But here happened such a spectacle, in a great room called the Parliament chamber, in Blackfriars, as never before or after was seen in England, viz. King Henry summoned in his own land to appear before two judges, the one Wolsey, directly his subject by birth, the other his subject occasionally by his preferment, Campeggio being lately made Bishop of Salisbury. Summoned, he appeared personally, and the Queen did the like the first day, but afterwards both by their Doctors." As to be present on such a strange occasion would be no trivial incident in any man's life, and the part he bore in the proceedings was a most important one in Fisher's, we shall not scruple to extract largely from the account of this trial, given by Cavendish, the faithful servant and biographer of Wolsey, a contemporary, and probably an eye-witness, whose leaning, if any, was to the Queen's, which was also Fisher's side. It must be premised, that the trial commenced on the 31st of May, 1529.

"Then after some deliberation, his (Campeggio's) commission, understood, read, and perceived, it was by the council determined that the King and the Queen his wife, should be lodged at Bridewell,* and that

* The sending of the King and Queen to Bridewell seems ominous to modern ears, till they recollect (if ever they knew) that the Bridewell here meant was a magnificent house in Fleet-street, sometime the property of the extortioner Empson, but merged in the crown at his attainder, and given by the King to Wolsey. In the patent, dated 1510, an orchard and twelve gardens are enumerated as belonging to it. It stood

in the Black-Friars, a certain place should be appointed where the King and the Queen might most conveniently repair to the court, there to be erected and kept for the disputation and determination of the King's case, whereas these two legates sat in judgment as notable judges, before whom the King and Queen were duly cited and summoned to appear. Which was the strangest and newest sight, and device, that ever was heard or read in any history or chronicle in any region, that a King and Queen should be convented and constrained by process compellatory to appear in any court as common persons, within their own realm or dominion, to abide the judgment and decrees of their own subjects, having the royal diadem and the prerogatives thereof."

"If eyes be not blind men may see, if ears be not stopped they may hear, and if pity be not exiled they may lament, the sequel of this pernicious and inordinate carnal love. The plague whereof is not ceased, (although this love lasted but a while,) which our Lord quench, and take from us his indignation.

Now

"Ye shall understand, that there was a court erected in the BlackFriars, in London, where these two Cardinals sat in judgment. will I set you out the manner and order of the court there. First, there was a court placed with tables, benches, and bars, like a consistory, a place judicial, for the judges to sit on. There was also a cloth of estate, under the which sat the King, and the Queen sat at some distance beneath the King: under the judges' feet sat the officers of the court. The chief scribe there was Dr. Stephens,* who was afterwards Bishop of Winchester: the apparitor was one Cooke, most commonly called Cooke of Winchester. Then sat there, within the said Court, directly before the King and the judges, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor Warham, and all the other Bishops. Then at both ends, with a bar made for them, the counsellors on both sides. Doctors for the King were Dr. Sampson, that was afterwards Bishop of Chichester, and Dr. Bell, who was afterwards Bishop of Worcester, with divers others.

The

upon the ground which is now occupied by Salisbury Square and Dorset-street, its gardens reaching to the river. In this Bridewell took place that interview between Queen Catherine and the two Cardinals, so beautifully dramatized by Shakespeare. Henry VIII. Act 3, Scene 1st.

This was the Gardiner, "of undesirable celebrity," who in his younger days was usually called by his christian name, Stephen, or Stevens. He was the natural son of a Bishop, therefore he had but an equivocal title to a sirname.

It should be remembered, that the practitioners in the courts of civil and canon law were generally ecclesiastics before the Reformation.

"Now on the other side stood the counsel for the Queen; Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Dr. Standish, some time a Grey Friar, and then Bishop of St. Asaph, two notable clerks in Divinity; and in especial the Bishop of Rochester, a very godly man and a devout person, who after suffered death at Tower-Hill; the which was greatly lamented through all the foreign Universities of Christendom. There was also another ancient Doctor, called, as I remember, Doctor Ridley, small person in stature, but surely a great and an excellent clerk in Divinity.

a very

"The court being thus furnished and ordered, the judges commanded the crier to proclaim silence: then was the judges' commission, which they had of the Pope, published and read openly, before all the audience there assembled. That done, the crier called the King by the name of King Henry of England, come into court,' &c. With that the King answered and said, 'Here, my Lords.' Then he called also the Queen, by the name of Catherine, Queen of England, come into court,' &c., who made no answer to the same, but rose up incontinent out of her chair, where as she sat, and because she could not come directly to the King for the distance which severed them, she took pain to go about unto the King, kneeling down at his feet in the sight of all the court and assembly, to whom she said, in effect, in broken English, as followeth :- *

666

'Sir,' quoth she, 'I beseech you, for all the loves that have been

"Here the Queen arose, and after her respects dealt to the Cardinals, in such manner as seemed neither uncivil to them, nor unsuiting to herself, uttered the following speech at the King's feet, in the English tongue, but with her Spanish tone, a clip whereof was so far from rendering it the less intelligible, that it sounded the more pretty and pleasant to the hearers thereof. Yea, her very pronunciation pleaded for her with all ingenuous auditors, providing her some pity, as due to a foreigner far from her own country".---Fuller's Church History. Book V.

The speech which Fuller puts into the Queen's mouth is essentially the same as that in Cavendish, from whom it was transferred into the Chronicles. Shakespeare has shown his good sense and good feeling by preserving it almost entire in his Henry VIII.

"Hall has given a different report of this speech of the Queen's, which he says was made in French, and translated by him, as well as he could, from notes taken by Campeggio's secretary. In his version she accuses Wolsey with being the first mover of her troubles, and reproaches him, in bitter terms, with pride and voluptuousness. Such harsh language could hardly deserve the praise 'modeste tamen eam locutam fuisse' given by Campeggio.---Note to Singer's edition of Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. Burnet, whose "cue" was not to excite compassion for Queen Catherine, denies the authenticity of the speech altogether. He affirms positively that the King did not appear personally, but by proxy; and that the Queen withdrew after reading a protest against the competency of the judges "And from this it is clear," says the

between us, and for the love of God, let me have justice and right; take of me some pity and compassion, for I am a poor woman and a stranger, born out of your dominions. I have no assured friend, and much less indifferent counsel, I flee to you as to the head of justice within this realm. Alas, Sir, wherein have I offended you, or what occasion of displeasure? Have I designed against your will and pleasure, intending, as I perceive, to put me from you? I take God and all the world to witness, that I have been to you a true, humble, and obedient wife, ever conformable to your will and pleasure, that never said or did any thing to the contrary thereof, being always well pleased and contented with all things in which you had any delight or dalliance, whether it were in little or in much, I never grudged in word or countenance, or shewed a visage or spark of discontentation. I loved all those whom ye loved, only for your sake, whether I had cause or no, and whether they were my friends or my enemies. This twenty years I have been your true wife, or more, and by me you have had divers children, although it hath pleased God to call them out of this world, which hath been no default in me. And when ye had me at the first, I take God to be my judge I was a true maid; and whether it be true or no, I put it to your conscience. If there be any just cause by the law that ye can allege against me, either of dishonesty or any other impediment, to banish and put me from you, I am well content to depart, to my great shame and dishonour; and if there be none, then here I most lowly beseech you, let me remain in my former estate, and receive justice at your hands. The King your father was, in the time of his reign, of such estimation throughout the world for his excellent

Bishop, "that the speeches that the historians have made for them are all plain falsities." It is easy to contradict the confident affirmation of the historian, upon the authority of a document published by himself in his records, p. 78. It is a letter from the King to his agents, where he says, "At which time both we and the Queen appeared in person, and they minding to proceed further in the cause, the Queen would no longer make her abode to hear what the judges would fully discern, but incontinently departed out of the court; wherefore she was thrice preconnisate, and called eftsoons to return and appear, which she refusing to do, was denounced by the judges, contumax, and a citation decerned for her appearance on Friday." Which is corroborated also by Fox's Acts, p. 958. Indeed the testimony for the personal appearance of the King before the Cardinals is surprisingly powerful, even though we did not go beyond Cavendish and the other ordinary historians. But in addition to these, Dr. Wordsworth has produced the authority of William Thomas, Clerk of the Council in the reign of Edward VI., who, in a professed apology for King Henry VIII. extant in MS. in the Lambeth and some other libraries, speaking of this affair, affirms, "that the Cardinal Campeggio caused the King, as a private party, in person to appear before him, and the Lady Catherine both.".--Singer.

wisdom, that he was accounted and called of all men the second Solomon, and my father, Ferdinand, King of Spain, who was esteemed to be one of the wittiest Princes that reigned in Spain, many years before, were both wise and excellent Kings in wisdom and princely behaviour. It is not therefore to be doubted, but that they elected and gathered as wise counsellors about them as to their high discretions was thought meet. Also, as to me seemeth, there were in those days as wise and as well learned men, and men of as good judgment as be at present in both realms, who thought then the marriage betwixt you and me good and lawful. Surely it is a wonder unto me, that my marriage, after twenty years, should be thus called in question, with new invention against me, that never intended but honesty. Alas, Sir, I see I am wronged, having no indifferent counsel to speak for me, but such as are assigned me, with whose wisdom and learning I am not acquainted. Ye must consider, that they cannot be indifferent counsellors for my part which be your subjects, and taken out of your own council before, wherein they be made privy, and dare not, for your displeasure, disobey your will, being once made privy thereunto. Therefore I most humbly require you, in the way of charity, and for the love of God, who is a just judge, to spare me the extremity of this new court until I may be advertised what way and order my friends in Spain will advise me to take. And if ye will not extend to me so much indifferent favour, your pleasure then be fulfilled, and to God I commit my cause." Having thus spoken, she rose, courtesied to the King, and left the court, accompanied by Griffith, her steward, and though summoned a second time in due form, she refused to return, or in any way to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court; nor could she ever after be induced to appear before it. Nevertheless, the trial or rather examination proceeded, the Queen being adjudged contumacious.

According to the author just quoted, the King next addressed himself to the judges and audience; commencing with a full acknowledgement of Catherine's freedom from all personal offence, and resting his cause solely on his conscientious scruples. "For as much," quoth he, "as the Queen be gone, I will in her absence declare unto you all my Lords here presently assembled, she hath been to me as true, as obedient, and as conformable a wife as I could, in my fancy, wish or desire. She hath all the virtuous qualities that ought to be in a woman of her dignity, or in any other of baser estate. Surely she is also a noble woman born, if nothing were in her, but only her conditions will well declare the same."

He then, after explaining the first suggestion, and progressive corroboration of his scruples, (to which he would not allow that any amorous