Cardinal Reginald Pole

“ As Reginald Pole said in one of his letters, the jewel which the Church had so long kept half concealed was again brought to light. This trend of thought found expression in the writings of Thomas de Vio, Cardinal Cajetan, and for some time was looked on with favour in the highest quarters of the Church. That section of the Oratory of Divine Love which wished to spiritualise theology and to deepen the bases of the Christian life found ample support in the accepted theology of the day. ”

“ POLE, REGINALD (1500–1558) , cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury, was son probably the third of Sir Richard Pole (d. 1505) , by his wife Margaret, who was of the blood royal [see Pole, Margaret] . Born in March 1500 at Stourton Castle in Staffordshire, he was carefully brought up by his mother, and then spent five years at the school of the Charterhouse at Sheen. Henry VIII was much interested in his education, and paid 121. for his maintenance at school in 1512. Soon afterwards he was sent to Oxford, to the house of the Carmelite friars. ”

“ The times, it must be confessed, were most painful and trying; wickedness in high places forced many persons from their allegiance against their will who would have been, under happier circumstances, the most loyal and devoted of subjects. The mind of Cardinal Pole was deeply imbued with a love of the Catholic religion, and wherever he might be, whatever he might be doing, his unique object was its reëstablishment in his beloved and native land. ”

“ His friends in Italy were alarmed lest he should, in spite of the manifest danger, revisit his country. Paul III was consequently induced to summon him to Rome to a consultation about a proposed general council. With some reluctance he obeyed the call, and reached Rome in November 1536. He was lodged by the pope with great honour in the Vatican.
Pole found himself at Rome the youngest and most energetic member of a committee summoned by Paul III, after consultation with Pole's friend Cardinal Contarini, to draw up a scheme for reforming the discipline of the church. ”

“ He was made chancellor of the University of Oxford, by the resignation of Sir John Mason, and chancellor of that of Cambridge also, on the death of Gardiner.
To a sensitive mind there is no greater anguish than that which springs from the hostility of those whom it has faithfully served. This suffering it was Cardinal Pole's lot to incur. His whole life had been devoted to God, the church, and the holy see. For these he had endured exile, persecution, and the loss of all things. ”

“ His hatred to the house of Austria, his aversion to the concessions made in England with reference to church property, and to the religious position which Cardinal Pole had hitherto taken up in the questions at issue within the Catholic Church, determined the Pope to interfere in the home affairs of England with a strong hand. For these Cardinal Pole was the one indispensable man, on whose shoulders the burden of affairs rested. But it was this very man whom Paul IV now deprived of his legatine power, on which much of his consequence rested, and transferred it to a Franciscan monk. ”

“ The papal chamberlain was despatched to inform Pole of the final resolution, along with a barber to shave his crown; and Pole submitted. He was made a cardinal on 22 Dec. 1536, deriving his title from the church of St. Mary in Cosmedin. In the following February he was nominated papal legate to England.
The news of Pole's cardinalate enraged Henry VIII, but he forbore to show any open sign of anger. Popular disaffection was spreading in the north. A conciliatory attitude was needed to prevent a disastrous development. A letter to Pole was drawn up on 18 Jan. ”

“ He had remained with Pole during his retirement at the convent of Maguzano, had attended him to Brussels and to Paris, whither the Cardinal went to negotiate terms of peace between Spain and France, and of course accompanied him to England. Besides the Lord Priuli, Pole was attended by his secretary, Floribello, an excellent scholar, together with the Signori Stella and Rollo, both men of learning and piety, though somewhat advanced in years. ”

“ History has taught us how much his love was worth; for his embraces were sure pledges of ruin and destruction. He did not, however, withdraw Reginald's pension of five hundred crowns, but allowed him to leave England again.
Having emphatically declared his dissent from the resolutions of parliament and convocation, Pole found his position more and more uneasy. He turned his face again to the south, and in 1532 took up his residence for a time at Avignon. During his absence the fatal divorce was completed, and the doom of England as a Catholic country was sealed. ”

“ It is not our purpose to enter into the history of the severe measures which were adopted for the extirpation of heresy in England, and which we may, with the light which subsequent events have cast upon them, with reason suspect to have been extreme and injudicious. We are concerned only with the history of Cardinal Pole, and every thing goes to prove that he always preferred lenient to severe measures, so far as he considered it compatible with the welfare of religion and the safety of the throne. ”

“ The noble cast of the Cardinal’s countenance, proclaiming his royal descent—his reverend air, increased by the long grey beard that descended to his waist—the benignity and sweetness of his looks—the stateliness of his deportment—all produced an indescribable effect on the spectators. Lofty of stature, and spare of person—the result of frequent fastings—Pole, notwithstanding the ailments under which he laboured, carried himself erect, and ever maintained a most dignified deportment. ”

“ He was again summoned to return to England to explain himself, but declined until he could do so with honour and safety; but he was on the point of going at all risks, when he heard from his mother and brother that the whole family would suffer if he remained obstinate. Paul III. who had prepared a bull of excommunication and deposition against Henry, summoned Pole to Rome in October, and two months after created him cardinal. ”

“ Continuing in the same strain, he expostulated with Philip and Mary, and concluded by saying that if he personally were not acceptable, he begged that another might be summoned in his stead. [479]
Few, conversant with the celebrities of the sixteenth century, will fail to see in Reginald Pole the most distinguished Englishman of his day. Of royal descent, a notable scholar and a man whose conscience ruled every action of his life, he voluntarily exiled himself, when, at the cost of a single principle, the highest preferments in Church or State lay open to him. ”

“ Wotton, Mary’s ambassador in France, wrote to Sir William Petre as follows:—
“The Pope has made Cardinal Pole legate a latere to the Emperor and French King, and thereafter he is to go to her Majesty. His errand is to attempt a reconciliation between the two former sovereigns, and if any Cardinal is able to do good in the matter, Pole is that person, being esteemed of an honest mind and virtuous life, and so much respected by the Emperor, that at the last vacation of the Papacy, the Imperial Cardinals laboured to have him made Pope.” ”

“ Cardinal Pole had long been sickly from an intermitting fever; and he died the same day with the queen, about sixteen hours after her. The benign character of this prelate, the modesty and humanity of his deportment, made him be universally beloved; insomuch that in a nation where the most furious persecution was carried on, and where the most violent religious factions prevailed, entire justice, even by most of the reformers, has been done to his merit. ”

“ His administration of his diocese set an example to other prelates; and his reform of his clergy served in many ways as a model to the Fathers at Trent, though he himself did not live to take any active part in that assembly. At Padua Reginald Pole spent many years, and though he was only a layman his manner of life and conduct of his household were not unworthy to be compared with those of Giberti. The University of Padua numbered then among its teachers some of the most eminent scholars of the day, and it was one of the centres of the Christian Renaissance. ”

“ Most of the English nobles and men of wealth, as you know, have shared in the monstrous spoliation of the Church that occurred during the two previous reigns, and these persons will never acknowledge the supreme authority of the Pontiff, unless their ill-gotten possessions are secured to them. Until this point be conceded by his Holiness, the Lord Chancellor assures me it will be futile and even dangerous to propose the measure. Mauriquez has been dispatched to Rome to argue the matter with the Pope, and, till the question be decided, Cardinal Pole must be detained at Brussels. ”

“ He sympathised with More from principle, as well as for friendship's sake, and was courageous enough to help Friar Peto, who had fled to the Low Countries after preaching a violent sermon against King Henry VIII. Cardinal Pole speaks of him in much the same terms as More does, as 'a special benefactor of all catholic and good persons, whom I will not leave unnamed, for worthy is he of name, and I doubt not but his name is in the Book of Life. ”

“ His return to his see, at the commencement of Mary's reign, seems to have been popular; and we know at least of one occasion on which he appears to have tried to save a victim, even against his own will. Another person who shares to some extent the responsibility of the persecution is Cardinal Pole. But to him, on the other hand, historians appear to have been most unaccountably lenient. He may possibly have deserved his early reputation as a learned and studious man, and he seems to have been sincere, and fairly free from selfish and personally ambitious schemes ”

“ Even then, the Londoners were not satisfied, erroneously connecting the Bishop’s measures with Spanish policy, and clamouring for the arrival of Reginald Pole, who, in spite of his long exile, was known to be a thorough Englishman at heart, and to have been disinclined to the Queen’s marriage.
But although, when once the alliance was an accomplished fact, the Emperor’s zeal for the salvation of souls appeared suddenly to awake, and although he expressed keen anxiety that the Papal Legate should proceed at once to his mission in England, [478] Pole was still prevented from accomplishing it. ”

“ Of Cardinal Pole himself people spoke diversely; some saying that he was the gentlest of all the Popish Bishops, and had been known to visit Bishop Bonner’s burnings ere the fire was lighted, and to free all of his own diocese: while others maintained that under the appearance of softness he masked great severity. Old Bishop Tunstal was perhaps the best to deal with; for he “barked the more that he might bite the less.” ”

“ Indeed, since Wolsey’s palmiest days no such distinction had been shown to an ecclesiastic. Priuli, also, came in for some share of the tribute of respect paid to his illustrious friend.
On the following day, in order to celebrate Pole’s arrival publicly, a grand tournament was held in the court of the palace, where galleries were erected, adorned with rich hangings, having two canopies of crimson cloth of silver, embroidered with the royal arms, prepared for their Majesties—a chair for the Cardinal being set near that of the Queen. ”

“ Many of the cardinal's dearest friends were no more. Contarini, Bembo, Sadolet, Cortesius, Badia, and Giberti, Bishop of Verona, slept the sleep of death, while Flaminius and Victoria Colonna, Marchioness of [357] Pescara, had also gone down to the grave. Cardinal Pole, therefore, was fain to retire beforehand from a transitory world, and seek once more in the shade of the cloister the peace that passes all understanding and the prospect of a heaven near at hand. ”

“ The Cardinal protested against an invective which could only irritate, and entreated Pole to reconsider what he had written.
If Pole had been honest—if he had desired only the interests of the Catholic Church—he would have listened to advice; but he replied that he well knew the King's character, and that the evil had risen to its present height because no one had ventured to speak the truth to him. Henry was not a man who could be moved by gentleness. Long ago the heaviest censures of the Church ought to have been launched upon him, and by that time he would have returned to his obedience. ”

“ 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. ”

“ These proceedings were very seriously criticised in England. For the vain glory of a red hat, [232] said Tonstall and Stokesley, Pole is, in fact, an instrument of the pope to set forth his malice, to depose the king from his kingdom, and to stir his subjects against him. There was, however, something more in his case than a cardinal's hat; there was, we must acknowledge, a faith doubtless fanatical but sincere in the papacy. Not long afterwards the pope nominated him the new cardinal legate beyond the Alps; the object of this measure being per dar fermento, [233] to excite men's minds. ”

“ In this extremity, his thoughts turned to Pole, who owed him everything, and who, he could not believe, would ever openly take part against him. Cuthbert Tonstall, Reginald’s dearest friend, had swallowed the new oath, and accepted the bishopric of Durham; why should Reginald’s conscience be more tender? A messenger was, therefore, posted to Padua, with letters to Pole inviting him to accept the king’s offers of favour, and write in defence of those royal claims which had been accepted as law by the English Parliament and Hierarchy. ”