Roger Bigelow Merriman

“ The means employed to attain this end—the intimidation of the clergy and the suppression of the monasteries, the attacks on the independence of Parliament, the ruthless execution of those who opposed the late innovations—all bear the stamp of the sinister genius of Cromwell as unmistakably as the great revolution that rendered them necessary. ”

“ The King is an absolute necessity to the welfare and progress of the State. If the King were removed, the country would probably be brought face to face with the horrors of a civil war. Cromwell thus brings his hearers to the first great principle of the policy that he was destined later to pursue, namely, concentration of power in the hands of the Crown, as a sine qua non of unity at home and safety abroad. ”

“ But there could be no hope of an alleviation of her sufferings, for the King and Cromwell were by this time irrevocably committed to a brutal attitude towards Katherine and her daughter by the course of events since the first trial of the divorce. The inference was obvious. As long as Katherine lived, a reconciliation with Charles, with all its attendant benefits, was impossible: her death alone could pave the way for it. ”

“ Only by pawning and selling lands, estates, goods and chattels could the nobility obtain sufficient sums to make a good appearance at the brilliant Court of Henry VIII.
Such a state of affairs was a golden opportunity to a man in Cromwell’s position and of Cromwell’s talents. To Wolsey, whose mind had been intent on the larger schemes of his foreign policy, the notion of staving off the hatred of the influential people about the King by gifts of money, would never have occurred. ”

“ I beseech thee most merciful Lord Jesus Christ, that thou wilt by thy grace make strong my Soul against all temptations, and defend me with the Buckler of thy mercy against all the assaults of the Devil. I see and knowledge that there is in my self no hope of Salvation, but all my confidence, hope and trust is in thy most merciful goodness. ”

“ Cromwell lived in an age when a wave of monarchical enthusiasm swept over the entire west of Europe: a belief in the absolute power of kings was the most salient characteristic of the political atmosphere of his day. He was essentially a man of his time in his faults and in his virtues, and could scarcely have anticipated modern constitutionalism. ”

“ England was at present a monster with two heads. If the King should take to himself the supreme power, religious as well as secular, every incongruity would cease; the clergy would immediately realize that they were responsible to the King and not to the Pope, and would forthwith become subservient to the royal will. Henry may have been surprised by the audacity of Cromwell’s scheme, but he was also much pleased, as it promised to satisfy all his dearest wishes. The Satanae Nuncius received his hearty thanks, and was further rewarded by a seat in the Privy Council [189] . ”

“ The prospect that Charles, in close alliance with his former rival, would soon be brought within striking distance of Gelderland, was by no means agreeable to Duke William. It was fairly obvious that Charles would bend his energies to punishing the Duke of Cleves for his contempt of the Imperial authority, before attempting to chastise the King of England for the general weal of Christendom. The Duke of Cleves was much more practical than his brother-in-law: like Henry he never let religious considerations or conscientious scruples weigh against the dictates of political expediency. ”

“ From the instructions which the Commissioners received in 1537, we gather that the main object of the Crown was to get a revenue from Ireland, and the plan which Cromwell pursued in order to attain this end is noteworthy, in that it differed so entirely from his policy in all the rest of England’s dependencies. Realizing that the country was worse than useless to the King, while it remained in the state in which it was when he came into power, he saw that it was so wild and disorganized, that subjugation by force would be possible and profitable, if attempted vigorously, and in time. ”

“ Theological differences were the ostensible reason for inability to conclude an agreement, but not the real one. The Protestantism of the Lutherans differed from that of Henry and Cromwell in much the same way as that of Tyndale, years before: they cared for their theology for its own sake, and not, like Henry, as a means to an end, as a stepping-stone to political greatness. A theological entente, however, would have been possible, had Cromwell and Henry united to bring it about ”

“ We have seen how Cromwell was destined to go one step further, and how by packed elections, fraud, and violence, he succeeded in converting it into an utterly subservient instrument of the royal will. It was now no longer a power to be feared, but one to be relied on; a firm ally that consistently obeyed the slightest hint of the wishes of the Crown. Consequently instead of rarely assembling as under Wolsey, it was being constantly summoned, as a necessary means to accomplish the designs of Henry and his minister. ”

“ Meantime the northern revolt had been crushed, Francis and Charles were still at war, and Pole’s chance had gone. By this time Henry had doubtless perceived that the new-made Cardinal could never be induced to support his cause, but would certainly oppose it as long as he lived. As reconciliation seemed impossible, the King turned his thoughts to arrest or execution. The foreign affairs of England at that juncture were in such a favourable condition that Henry felt strong enough to dictate both to the Emperor and to the King of France. ”

“ It was not alone in Parliament, Convocation, or Privy Council that he reigned supreme; on every department of the government service the stamp of his individual genius remains indelibly fixed. The permanence of his work was largely due to the way in which he clinched every reform which he introduced. He followed up the separation from Rome by attacking in turn the bishops, clergy, and friars, and by suppressing the monasteries. He obtained the support of the King in almost every measure which he invented, and then forced Parliament formally to legalize it. ”

“ Henry, constantly pretending to be desirous of arbitrating between France and Spain, ‘for the peax and weale of Christendome,’ as he elegantly put it, was in reality solely occupied with the endeavour to embroil them the more. Alternately encouraging and repelling advances from both sovereigns, by judiciously proposing and then retreating from alliances with each of them, he succeeded admirably in keeping Charles and Francis in a constant state of anxiety, as regarded his true position. Cromwell’s letters tell the story of the time very clearly. ”

“ But Cromwell did not see this. He exceeded his instructions, was voluble in his disparagement of the French in Chapuys’ presence, and finally brought matters to such a point that he went with Chapuys to the King to propose an Imperial alliance [588] . It was the most open avowal he had yet made of a leaning towards Spain, that he had doubtless cherished for a long time. Born among the common people, Cromwell’s early life had been spent in that atmosphere of bitter hatred of France, which for generations had been one of the most predominant characteristics of the lower classes in England. ”

“ Early in 1532 Cromwell began to create a system of espionage, the most effective that England had ever seen, that in a short time was to render unsafe the most guarded expression of dissent in politics or religion. ”

“ It is inevitable that there should be the widest divergence of opinion concerning every great figure in Reformation history, and it is idle to attempt to form an estimate of the character and work of Thomas Cromwell that will satisfy those who take different views of the great struggle during which his life was lived. ”

“ It was simply another expression of the old disagreement between Henry and Cromwell. The King, always looking for a chance of reconciliation with Charles and Francis, refused to enter an alliance the religious conditions of which would greatly enhance the difficulty of a return to his favourite scheme. He was only induced to enter a purely political league, which he doubtless felt he could throw over at any moment if he wished to do so; an agreement both political and religious he might have found it more difficult to escape from. ”

“ This measure certainly attained its immediate purpose, but it also laid the foundation for the growth of an extremely powerful territorial aristocracy, that later on was to use its influence to oppose the royal prerogative and pave the way for modern constitutionalism. While Cromwell, in his attacks on the older nobility, thought that he was removing the last impediments to absolute monarchy, he really, by enriching and strengthening this new aristocracy, was rearing an infinitely more potent enemy to the kingship for which he had sacrificed everything. ”

“ According to Chapuys, the Duke had ‘left the Court to be away when the affairs of Ireland were discussed, and this out of disdain that the King despised his advice, and at the suggestion of Cromwell and Skeffington had ill-treated the earl of Kildare, and ruined the affairs of Ireland. On this subject the Duke and Cromwell had reproached each other with many things . . . which shows the ill-will they have borne each other a long time, however much they have dissembled it [332] .’ But Norfolk’s efforts to undermine the influence of his rival were as yet unavailing. ”

“ Ample justification was soon afforded for Henry’s strict adherence to the policy of neutrality, for events on the Continent had moved rapidly forward, and Charles and Francis were at last at open war. By restraining Cromwell from making the mistake of cementing an alliance with the Emperor, and by guarding himself against a too close intimacy with Francis, the King had succeeded in placing England in such a position that the two great continental powers were forced to grovel at her feet. ”

“ But all these manners and externals were simply disguises to hide the real inward character of the man. The whole essence of Cromwell’s personality consists of different manifestations of one fundamental, underlying trait, which may perhaps be best expressed by the common phrase ‘a strict attention to business.’ Cromwell worshipped and sought after the practical and the useful only, and utterly disregarded everything else. ”

“ The King’s secretary was no less prompt in pointing out to the Imperial ambassador the bearing of the decease of the divorced Queen on England’s relations with Spain. He was not ashamed to remark to one of Chapuys’ men that the Emperor had the greatest cause to be thankful for the death of Katherine, which in his judgement was the very best thing that could have happened for the preservation of the amity between Henry and Charles, as it completely removed the sole cause of jealousy between them [587] . The Emperor was too hard-headed a politician not to see the force of Cromwell’s words. ”

“ Under these circumstances Henry thought it fit to summon a Parliament, the first since December, 1515. The policy of Wolsey, in regard to the great legislative body of the kingdom, had up to this time been very closely followed. He had not reached the point which Cromwell at a later day was destined to attain; that is, he had not so completely obtained the upper hand of the Commons that he could use them as a tool to accomplish his will. He rather regarded Parliament as a dangerous power to be suppressed at all costs, than as a means to attain his own ends. ”

“ In the south occur constant complaints by the monks that their superiors failed to observe the canons of religious asceticism; and on the other hand, whenever an abbot refused to acknowledge the Royal Supremacy, his subordinates were always sure to report him to head quarters, in the hope of gaining favour with the King or Cromwell [438] . The letters of Dr. Legh from the south of England contain frequent reports of ‘towardness’ among the inmates, and willingness to adopt the New Faith [439] . In the north one finds none of this. ”

“ It does not seem likely that the more experienced Henry would have originated the plan of murdering his wife, until the crisis in foreign affairs had become far more acute. Though he fully comprehended the many advantages of a closer alliance with Charles, he must have been reasonably certain that he had little cause to fear a direct attack in the immediate future, especially as the death of the Duke of Milan in the end of October had opened glorious possibilities for a renewal of the quarrel between Francis and Charles. ”

“ In the first half of the sixteenth century, hatred of France meant friendship with Spain, and from the first years of the reign of Henry VIII. one encounters at every turn evidences of the devotion of the common people to the Imperial cause. Wolsey’s policy of peace with France had won him almost as many enemies among the lower classes as his reputation as originator of oppressive financial measures. Cromwell had determined not to make the same mistake that his predecessor had, but he was foolish enough to err on the opposite side. ”

“ What the injudicious words spoken before Throgmorton and Riche were, it is impossible to tell; they were probably simply sentences into which a treasonable intent was read, as into those mentioned in the attainder; the ‘secrete matier’ which Cromwell was accused of revealing without leave may well have been a project of Henry’s to get rid of Anne, which for many reasons it was expedient for him to keep secret, until he was certain that he could free himself by one blow from the marriage which by this time had become intolerable to him. ”

“ The entire attention of England was now turned to the absorbing question of the divorce. The history of Wolsey’s failure to bring about the separation of Henry and Katherine of Aragon, does not belong to the ground covered by this essay. Suffice it to say that the Cardinal’s ineffectual attempts to satisfy Henry’s chief desire, coupled with the obvious error in his foreign policy, sealed his doom and gave Cromwell his opportunity. There is little need to dwell upon the way in which the attempt to divorce the Queen was regarded abroad. ”

“ The comparatively unimportant overtures for theological reconciliation with the Elector and the Landgrave were apparently at first received with less enthusiasm by the Lutherans, who had already had some experience of the King’s vacillating policy and evidently thought it a little suspicious that Henry had suddenly become so very urgent. We have seen that the King’s proposals for a religious agreement were chiefly intended as a blind to cover the more practical matrimonial proposals which had followed, but Cromwell evidently thought it worth while to keep up the deception as a precaution. ”

“ Sir John Dudley, ambassador to announce the death of the Queen at the Spanish Court, had expressed to the Emperor the King’s sorrow that his repeated offers of mediation with France had been set aside, whereupon Charles turned on him, and informed him that negotiations with France were already set on foot, though he relieved Henry’s anxiety a little by assuring him that no actual treaty should [235] be made without the King of England’s being included as a ‘premier contrahent,’ a promise which Cromwell was continually harping upon a year later, when the situation had entirely changed [594] . ”

“ Cromwell advised the King to shake off his allegiance to the Pope, solely because he saw that a divorce from Katherine of Aragon could never be obtained from Clement VII., as long as the latter was in the power of Charles V. His aim was to please the King by enabling him to divorce Katherine, so that he might marry Anne Boleyn; he realized that his desire could not be accomplished while the country remained true to the Old Faith; he cut the bonds that held England to Rome, and gained what Henry wished. ”

“ To whom I saide, “Why, Mr. Cromwell, what meaneth this dole? Is my lord in any danger that ye doe lament for him? or is it for any other losse, that ye have sustained by misfortune?” “Nay,” quoth he, “it is for my unhappy adventure. For I am like to lose all that I have laboured for, all the daies of my life, for doing of my master true and diligent service.” “Why Sir,” quoth I, “I trust that you be too wise to do anything by my lord’s commaundement otherwise than ye might doe, whereof you ought to be in doubt or daunger for losse of your goods.” ”

“ Cromwell wrote a letter for him to Lord William Howard and Gardiner, artfully instructing them to feel the way for a possible alliance with Mme. de Longueville, who had just been affianced to James of Scotland. It was too much of a favour to ask Francis to put aside the claims of a sovereign who had always been his true friend, to make way for those of the more powerful but perfidious King of England, and Henry’s offers were, after some negotiations, politely but firmly declined, to the latter’s intense chagrin [593] . ”

“ The merchants of the Low Countries were greatly alarmed lest they should lose the English trade, and instead of opposing every move which their rivals made, now began to grant them all possible concessions. The Emperor’s dread of alienating Henry also contributed to force them to adopt a more conciliatory attitude than ever before, and it may be justly said that at the close of Cromwell’s administration the mercantile relations of England and the Netherlands were so regulated as to secure every advantage for the former. ”

“ But the present crisis was one which called for more than the ordinary resources of the nation; nothing could be accomplished against France unless an enormous subsidy was granted; that subsidy could only be granted by Parliament, and Wolsey, rather unwillingly, was forced to consent to the King’s summoning it, relying on Henry’s great personal popularity, and the peculiarly bitter national hatred of France, to make it accomplish for him what he could not do for himself [47] . ”

“ But it must be a prejudiced person indeed who will accept word for word the catalogues of the religious persons reported guilty of the lowest and most degrading forms of vice, which Legh and Layton seemed to delight in sending to their master. Parliament, however, was too completely in Cromwell’s hands fairly to judge of the character of the visitors, or of the circumstances under which they drew up their ‘comperta,’ and the report was strong and clear; so it was not long before the first Act for the dissolution of the smaller monasteries was passed. ”

“ Calais was by no means an easy post to manage; Henry and Cromwell kept its officers and garrison exceedingly short of money; the soldiers wrangled and mutinied, and religious conferences amongst the townspeople sometimes took most violent forms, and not seldom resulted in dangerous riots. Placed as a sort of spy on the movements of Francis and the Emperor, in a town, the government of which on a small scale presented all the difficulties of that of a great kingdom, the Deputy was in a position which demanded resources greater than his own. ”