Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

Catholics by Protestants. Cranmer drew up a list of heresies which, if

not abjured, were to be punished with death; they included

affirmation of the Real Presence in the Eucharist, or the

ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope, and denial of the inspiration of

the Old Testament, or the two natures in Christ, or justification by

faith. `062616 Joan Bocher of Kent went to the stake for questioning

the Incarnation (1550). To Ridley, Protestant Bishop of London, who

begged her to recant, she said: "Not long ago you burnt Anne Askew for

a piece of bread [for denying transubstantiation], yet came yourselves

to believe the doctrine for which you burnt her; and now you will burn

me for a piece of flesh [referring to the phrase in the Fourth Gospel-

"The Word was made flesh"], and in the end you will believe this

also." `062617 Only two heretics were burned in Edward's reign;

however, many Catholics were imprisoned for hearing Mass, or openly

criticizing the currently orthodox creed. `062618 Obstinately Catholic

priests were deposed from their posts, and some were sent to the

Tower. `062619 Gardiner, still there, was offered freedom if he

would consent to preach the Reformed faith; refusing, he was removed

"to a meaner lodging" in the Tower, and was deprived of paper, pen,

and books. In 1552 Cranmer issued his Second Book of Common Prayer,

which denied the Real Presence, rejected the sacrament of extreme

unction, and otherwise revised the First Book in a Protestant

direction. Parliament now passed a Second Act of Uniformity, which

required all persons to attend regularly, and only, religious services

conducted according to this Book of Common Prayer; three violations of

this Act were to be punished with death. In 1553 the Royal Council

promulgated forty-two "Articles of Religion" drawn up by Cranmer,

and made them obligatory on all Englishmen.

While virtue and orthodoxy became law, the Warwick protectorate

was distinguishing itself, in a corrupt age, by its corruption. This

did not prevent the malleable young Edward from making Warwick Duke of

Northumberland (October 4, 1551). A few days later the Duke atoned for

an act of political decency- the release of Somerset- by charging

his predecessor with an attempt to re-establish himself in power.

Somerset was arrested, tried, and convicted, chiefly on evidence given

by Sir Thomas Palmer; an order of the King was forged to call for

Somerset's execution; and on January 22, 1552, he met his death with

courage and dignity. Northumberland, when he in turn faced

execution, confessed that through his means Somerset had been

falsely accused; and Palmer, before his death, confessed that the

evidence he had sworn to had been invented by Northumberland. `062620

Rarely in English history had an administration been so unpopular.

Protestant clergymen, who had praised the new Protector in gratitude

for his support, turned against him as his crimes increased. King

Edward was sinking toward death; Mary Tudor, by an act of

Parliament, had been named heiress to the throne if Edward remained

childless; and Mary, made queen, would soon revenge herself on those

who had led England from the old faith. Northumberland felt that his

life was in jeopardy. His one comfort was that his agents had formed

Edward to his obedience. He induced the dying King to settle the crown

upon Lady Jane Grey, daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and granddaughter

of Henry VIII's sister; moreover, Jane had recently married

Northumberland's son. Edward had not, like his father, received

Parliamentary authority to name his successor; nearly all England took

Princess Mary's accession as inevitable and just; and Jane protested

that she did not want to be queen. She was a woman of unusual

education: she wrote Greek, studied Hebrew, and corresponded with

Bullinger in Latin as good as his own. She was no saint; she could

be sharply critical of Catholics, and laughed at transubstantiation;

but she was far more sinned against than sinning. At first she took

her father-in-law's scheme as a jest. When her mother-in-law insisted,

Jane resisted. Finally her husband commanded her to accept the throne,

and she- "not choosing," she said, "to be disobedient to her husband"-

obeyed. Northumberland now prepared to arrest Mary's leading

supporters, and to lodge the Princess herself in the Tower, where

she might be taught resignation.

Early in July the King neared his end. He coughed and spat blood,

his legs swelled painfully, eruptions broke out over his body, his

hair fell out, then his nails. No one could say what this strange

disease was; many suspected that Northumberland had poisoned him. At

last, after long suffering, Edward died (July 6, 1553), still but

fifteen, too young to share the guilt of his reign.

The next morning Northumberland rode out toward Hunsdon to seize the

Princess. But Mary, warned, escaped to Catholic friends in Suffolk,

and Northumberland returned to London without his prey. By promises,

threats, or bribes, he persuaded the Privy Council to join him in

proclaiming Jane Grey queen. She fainted. Recovering, she still

protested that she was unfit for the perilous honor forced upon her.

Her relatives pleaded with her, arguing that their lives depended upon

her acceptance. On July 9 she reluctantly acknowledged herself to be

Queen of England.

But on July 10 news reached London that Mary had proclaimed

herself queen, that the northern nobles were flocking to her

support, and that their forces were marching upon the capital.

Northumberland hurriedly gathered what troops he could, and led them

out to the issue of battle. At Bury his soldiers told him that they

would not take another step against their lawful sovereign. Crowning

his crimes, Northumberland sent his brother, with gold and jewels

and the promise of Calais and Guines, to bribe Henry II of France to

invade England. The Privy Council got wind of the mission, intercepted

it, and announced allegiance to Mary. The Duke of Suffolk went to

Jane's room, and informed her that her ten-day reign was over. She

welcomed the news, and asked innocently might she now go home; but the

Council, which had sworn to serve her, ordered her confined in the

Tower. There, soon, Northumberland too was a prisoner, praying for

pardon but expecting death. The Council sent out heralds to proclaim

Mary Tudor queen. England received the tidings with wild rejoicing.

All through that summer night bells caroled and bonfires blazed. The

people brought out tables and food, and picnicked and danced in the

streets.

The nation seemed to regret the Reformation, and to look with

longing upon a past that could now be idealized since it could not

return. And truly the Reformation had as yet shown only its

bitterest side to England: not a liberation from dogma, inquisition

and tyranny, but their intensification; not a spread of

enlightenment but a spoliation of universities and the closing of

hundreds of schools; no enlargement of kindness but almost an end to

charity and carte blanche to greed; no mitigation of poverty but

such merciless grinding of the poor as England had not known for

centuries- perhaps had never known. `062621 Almost any change would be

welcome that would eliminate Northumberland and his crew. And poor

Princess Mary, who had won the secret love of England by her

patience in twenty-two years of humiliation- surely this chastened

woman would make a gentle queen.

III. THE GENTLE QUEEN: 1553-54

-

To understand her we should have had to live with her the tragic

youth during which she had hardly ever tasted happiness. She was

scarcely two (1518) when her father took to mistresses and neglected

her grieving mother; eight when he asked for an annulment of his

marriage; fifteen when her parents parted, and mother and daughter

went into a separate exile. Even when the mother was dying the

daughter was forbidden to go to her. `062622 After the birth of

Elizabeth (1533) Mary was declared a bastard, and was shorn of her

title of princess. The Imperial ambassador feared that Anne Boleyn

would seek the death of her daughter's rival for the throne. When

Elizabeth was moved to Hatfield Mary was compelled to go and serve her

there, and to live in "the worst room of the house." `062623 Her

servants were taken from her, and were replaced by others subject to

Miss Shelton of Hatfield, who, reminding her that she was a bastard,

said, "If I were in the King's place I would kick you out of the

King's house for your disobedience," and told her that Henry had

expressed his intention to have her beheaded. `062624 All that first

winter at Hatfield (1534) Mary was ill, her nerves shattered with

contumely and fear, her body and soul not unwillingly near death. Then

the King relented and spared her some casual affection, and for the

remainder of the reign her position eased. But as the price of this

hard graciousness she was required to sign an acknowledgment of

Henry's ecclesiastical supremacy, her mother's "incestuous

marriage," and her own illegitimate birth. `062625

Her nervous system was permanently affected by these experiences;

"she was subject to a heart complaint," `062626 and she remained in

frail health till the end of her life. Her courage returned when,

under the Somerset protectorate, Parliament declared her

heiress-apparent to the throne. Since her Catholic faith, bred into

her childhood with Spanish fervor, and strengthened by her mother's

living and dying exhortations, had been a precious support in her

griefs, she refused to abandon it when she hovered on the edge of

power; and when the King's Council bade her cease hearing Mass in

her rooms (1549) she would not obey. Somerset connived at her

resistance; but Somerset fell, her brother the King approved the

order, and three of her servants, for ignoring it, were sent to the

Tower (1551). The chaplain who had said Mass for her was taken from

her, and she finally agreed to forgo the beloved ritual. Her spirit

broken, she begged the Imperial ambassador to arrange her escape to

the Continent. The cautious Emperor refused to sanction the plan,

and it fell through.

Her moment of triumph came at last when Northumberland could find no

man to fight against her, and those who came in arms to uphold her

cause asked no pay, but brought their own supplies and offered their

personal fortunes to finance the campaign. When she entered London

as queen (August 3, 1553) even that half-Protestant city rose almost

unanimously to welcome her. Princess Elizabeth came diffidently to

meet her at the city gates, wondering whether Mary would hold

against her the indignities suffered in Elizabeth's name; but Mary

greeted her with a warm embrace, and kissed all the ladies in her

half-sister's train. England was as happy as when Henry VIII, young

and handsome and generous, had mounted the throne.

Mary was now thirty-seven, and heartless time had already crossed

her face with omens of decay. She had seldom known an adult year

without a serious illness. She was troubled with dropsy,

indigestion, and racking headaches; she was treated with repeated

bloodlettings, which left her nervous and pale. Her recurrent

amenorrhea plunged her at times into hysterical grief with fear that

she would never bear a child. `062627 Now her body was thin and frail,

her forehead was wrinkled, her reddish hair was streaked with gray,

her eyes were so weak that she could read only with the page held

close to her face. Her features were plain, almost masculine; her

voice was as deep as a man's; life had given her all the frailties,

none of the charms, of womanhood. She had some womanly

accomplishments- she knitted patiently, embroidered skillfully, and

played the lute; to which she added a knowledge of Spanish, Latin,

Italian, and French. She would have made a good woman had she not been

cursed with theological certainty and royal power. She was honest to

the point of simplicity, incapable of diplomacy, and pitifully anxious

to love and be loved. She had bursts of temper and shrewish speech.

She was obstinate, but not proud; she recognized her mental

limitations, and listened humbly to advice. She was inflexible only

where her faith was concerned; otherwise she was clement and

compassionate, liberal to the unfortunate, and eager to redress the

wrongs of the law. Frequently she visited incognito the homes of the

poor, sat and talked with the housewives, made note of needs and

grievances, and gave whatever help she could. `062628 She restored

to the universities the endowments filched from them by her

predecessors.

The best side of her character showed in the relative tolerance of

her early reign. She not only released Gardiner, Bonner, and others

who had been imprisoned for refusing to accept Protestantism, but

she pardoned almost all those who had tried to keep her from the

throne. Some of these, however, like the Duke of Suffolk, she

compelled to pay heavy fines into the treasury; then, the revenue

being so aided, she reduced taxes substantially. Peter Martyr and

other alien Protestants were allowed safe-conducts to leave the

country. The Queen's Council gave a hasty trial to Northumberland

and six others who had conspired to arrest Mary and crown Jane Grey;

all seven were condemned to die. Mary wished to pardon even

Northumberland, but Simon Renard, now Imperial ambassador, dissuaded

her. All the unforgiven three made a last-minute profession of the

Roman Catholic faith. Jane Grey called the sentence just, and the

confessions cowardly. `062629 Mary proposed to release her, but

yielded so far to her councilors as to order her to be kept in loose

confinement within the Tower grounds. `062630

On August 13 the Queen issued an official declaration that she would

not "compel or constrain consciences" in the matter of religious

belief; `062631 this was one of the first proclamations of religious

tolerance by a modern government. Innocently hopeful of converting

Protestants by argument, she arranged a public debate between

opposed theologians, but it evaporated in bitter and inconclusive

dispute. Shortly thereafter Bishop Bonner's chaplain had a dagger

thrown at him from a crowd that resented his Catholic preaching; he

was rescued from death by two Protestant divines. `062632 Frightened

out of her tolerance, Mary ordered (August 18, 1553) that until

Parliament could meet and consider the problems raised by the conflict

of faiths, no doctrinal sermons should be preached except in the

universities. Cranmer, still Archbishop, was bidden keep to his

Lambeth palace; he retorted with a blast against the Mass as an

"abominable blasphemy"; he and Latimer were committed to the Tower

(September 1553). Bishop Ridley of London, who had branded both Mary

and Elizabeth as bastards, had gone to the Tower two months before.

All in all, Mary's conduct in these early months of her reign

excelled, in lenience and tolerance, that of the other major rulers of

her time.

The problems she faced might have overwhelmed one far superior to

her in intelligence and tact. She was shocked by the confusion and

corruption prevalent in the administration. She ordered the corruption

to stop; it hid its head and continued. She gave a good example by

reducing the expenses of the royal household, pledging a stable

currency, and leaving parliamentary elections free from royal

influence; the new elections were "the fairest which had taken place

for many years." `062633 But her reduction of taxes left government

income lower than outgo; to make up the difference she levied an

export duty on cloth and an import duty on French wines; these

measures, which were expected to help the poor, caused a commercial

recession. She tried to arrest the growth of capitalism by limiting to

one or two the looms that any individual might own. She denounced

"rich clothiers" for paying low wages, and forbade the payment of

wages in kind. `062634 But she could not find in her entourage men

of the force and integrity required to implement her good will; and

economic laws overrode her aims.

Even in religion she met with severe economic obstacles. There was

hardly an influential family in England that did not hold property

taken from the Church; `062635 such families, of course, opposed any

return to the Roman faith. The Protestants, numerically a minority,

financially powerful, might at any moment provide the sinews for a

revolt that would place Protestant Elizabeth on the throne. Mary was

anxious to restore the right of Catholics to worship according to

their own ritual; yet the Emperor, who had been fighting Protestantism

for thirty-two years, cautioned her to move slowly, and to be

content with having Mass said privately for herself and her

immediate circle. But she felt her religion too deeply to be politic

with it. The skeptical generation that had grown up in London marveled

at the frequency and fervor of her prayers, and the Spanish ambassador

probably thought it a nuisance when she asked him to kneel beside

her to ask divine guidance. She felt that she had a sacred mission

to restore the faith that had become so dear to her because she had

suffered for it. She sent a messenger to the Pope begging him to

remove the interdict on religious services in England; but when

Cardinal Pole wished to come to England as papal legate, she agreed

with Charles that the time was not ripe for so bold a move.

The Parliament that met on October 5, 1553, was by no means

subservient. It agreed to repeal all the legislation of Edward's reign

concerning religion; it reduced to their earlier proportions the

severe penalties prescribed in the laws of Henry VIII and Edward VI;

and it graciously informed the Queen that "the illegitimation of

your most noble person" was now annulled, and she had ceased to be a

bastard. But it refused even to consider the restoration of

ecclesiastical property, it resisted any hint that papal sovereignty

should be acknowledged, and it left Mary the unwilling head of the

English Church. By this authority she replaced Protestant bishops with

the Catholic prelates that had been expelled; Bonner was again

Bishop of London; Gardiner was again Bishop of Winchester, and a close

adviser of the Crown. Married priests were dismissed from their

parishes. The Mass was again allowed, then encouraged; and (says a

Protestant historian) "the eagerness with which the country

generally availed itself of the permission to restore the Catholic

ritual proved beyond a doubt that except in London and a few large

towns, the popular feeling was with the Queen." `062636 By an edict of

March 4, 1554, the Catholic worship was completely reinstated,

Protestantism and other "heresies" were made illegal, and all

Protestant preaching or publication was prohibited.

The nation was much less disturbed by this return of the theological

pendulum than by Mary's marriage plans. She was constitutionally

fearful of marriage, but she faced the trial in the hope of having

an heir who would prevent the accession of Protestant Elizabeth.

Mary claimed to be a virgin, and probably was; perhaps if she had

sinned a bit she would have been less somber, tense, and certain.

Her Council recommended to her Edward Courtenay, great-grandson of

Edward IV, but his debauched ways were not to Mary's taste.

Rejected, he schemed to marry Elizabeth, depose Mary, enthrone

Elizabeth, and rule England through her- never dreaming how little

chance he had of dominating that virile lady. Charles V offered Mary

his son Philip, to whom he was about to bequeath all but the

Imperial title; and he pledged the Netherlands as a gift to any male

issue of the marriage. Mary thrilled at the thought of having as her

husband the ruler of Spain, Flanders, Holland, Naples, and the

Americas; and her half-Spanish blood warmed at the prospect of a

political and religious union of England with Spain. She modestly

suggested that her greater age- ten years above Philip's- was a

barrier; she feared that her faded charms would not suffice his

youthful vigor or imagination; she was not even sure that she would

know how to make love. `062637 For his part Philip was reluctant;

his English agents reported that Mary was "a perfect saint," who

"dressed badly"; `062638 could not something more alluring be found

among the royal families of Europe? Charles persuaded him by

pointing out that the marriage would give Spain a strong ally

against France, and precious support in the Netherlands, which were

bound to England commercially; perhaps Protestantism in Germany

could be suppressed by the united action of Spain, France, and England

as Catholic states; and the union of the Hapsburgs and the Tudors

would constitute a power capable of giving Western Europe a generation

of compulsory peace.

The Queen's Council and the English people recognized the force of

these considerations, but they feared that the marriage would make

England an appendage of Spain, and would involve England in

recurrent wars against France. Charles countered by offering, in his

son's name, a marriage contract by which Philip should bear the

title King of England only so long as Mary lived; she was to retain

sole and full royal authority over English affairs; she was to share

all of Philip's titles; and if Don Carlos (Philip's son by an

earlier marriage) died without issue, Mary or her son was to inherit

the Spanish Empire; moreover, added the astute Emperor, Mary was to

receive L60,000 a year for life from the Imperial revenues. All this

seemed generous enough, and with a few minor provisions the English

Council sanctioned the marriage. Mary herself, despite her modest

timidity, looked forward to it eagerly. How long she had waited for

a lover!

But the people of England resented her choice. The Protestant

minority, which was bearing up under suppression in the hope that

Elizabeth would soon succeed a fragile and barren Mary, feared for its

life if the power of Spain should stand beside Mary in enforcing the

Catholic restoration. Nobles rich in ecclesiastical property

shivered at the thought of disgorging. Even Catholic Englishmen

objected to putting upon the throne a dour foreigner who would

doubtless use England for his own alien purposes. Protests were voiced

everywhere in the land. The city of Plymouth, in panic, asked the King

of France to take it under his protection. Four nobles laid plans

for an uprising to begin on March 18, 1554. The Duke of Suffolk

(pardoned father of Jane Grey) was to raise Warwickshire, Sir James

Croft was to lead his Welsh tenants, Sir Peter Carew would rouse

Devonshire, and Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger would lead the revolt

in Kent. The elder Wyatt- the poet- had secured a mass of Church

lands, which his son was loath to surrender. The conspirators made the

mistake of confiding their plans to Courtenay, whose task was to

secure Elizabeth's co-operation. Bishop Gardiner, who had kept watch

on Courtenay as a rejected and perhaps vengeful suitor for Mary's

hand, had him arrested, and Courtenay, presumably under torture,

betrayed the plot.

The conspirators, preferring to die in battle rather than on the

block, rose hurriedly to arms, and revolt flared up in four counties

at once (February 1554). Wyatt led an army of 7,000 men toward London,

and sent out an appeal to all citizens to prevent England from

becoming an appanage of Spain. The Protestant part of the London

populace set in motion a plan to open the gates to Wyatt. The

Queen's Council hesitated to commit itself, and raised not one soldier

in her defense. Mary herself could not understand why the country that

had so welcomed her accession should refuse her the happiness and

fulfillment that she had dreamed of through so many years of misery.

If now she had not taken matters into her own hands with unwonted

resolution, her reign and her life would have soon ended. But she went

Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

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