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 GARDINER

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GARDINER

Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester; b. at Bury St. Edmund's between 1483 and 1490; d. at Whitehall, London, 12 Nov., 1555. His father is be- lieved to have been John Gardiner, a clothworker, the story attributing his parentage to Lionel Woodville being a later invention. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and became doctor of civil law in 1520, and of canon law in 1521. He was also elected fellow of his college. In 1524, he became one of Sir Robert Rede's lecturers in the LTniversity, and the Duke of Norfolk chose him as tutor for his son. It was through the duke that he was introduced to the notice of Cardinal Wolsey, who immediately appreci- ated his talents and scholarship, and made him his own private secretary. In 1525, he was elected mas- ter of Trinity Hall, and held that office till 1549. In 1527 he accompanied Wolsey to France, where he made the acquaintance of Erasmus. He was selected in the following year as ambassador to the pope with instructions to press the matter of the divorce. He delighted the king by his success in inducing the pope to appoint a sec- ond commission, and from this time he becomes a figure cif mark at court. He was rewarded u ith the .\rchdea- iDury of Norwicli on l' March, 1528- ". ), and immediately afterwards was sent again to Rome, bvit on this occasion he was unsuccessful. He be- came secretary to the king on 28 July, 1529, and soon gained great influence, especially after the fall of Wolsey, his former master, to whom he was now able to be of service, especially in the preservation of his foundation of Christ's College, Oxford.

His new power brought quick advancement. In 1531 he was made archdeacon of Leicester, while Oxford University conferred the doctorate of laws upon him, and late in the year he was elected Bishop of Winchester. He was consecrated on 27 Nov., and from this time began to show more independence of action, though he still remained high in the royal favour. Shortly after his consecration he spent two montlis in France as ambassador, but on his return he began to preach in his diocese and to administer the see with more per- sonal interest than had been expected from a courtier- prelate. That he was now less at court was thought to be due to the fact that he had formed definite opin- ions against the king on the divorce question. Pope Clement certainly believed this (" Letters and Papers Henry VIII", V. 561\ but notwithstanding such re- ports Gardiner acted as assessor in the Court which declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void, and he also took an active part in the coronation of Anne Boleyn.

By 1534, in which year he resigned the post of secre- tary to the king, he was in a difficult position. He was antagonistic to Cromwell and Cranmer, both of whom were then high in the royal counsels, and he strongly disapproved of the attack on the religious orders which was already contemplated. But his attachment to the king prevented him from taking up the firm attitude which Fisher and More had adopted, so that early in 1535 he not only accepted the royal supremacy, but he wrote his treatise " De vera obedi- entia", in which he argued that the pope had no legiti-

mate power over other churches, and that kings are entitled to supremacy in their respective churches. The book was received with delight by the Protestant party, while Catholics maintained that it had been written under compulsion and fear of death. Dr. S. R. Maitland (" Essays on Subjects connected with the Reformation", London, 1849) shows some ground for doubting the authenticity of this work as we have it, and in particular he makes a strong case against the genuineness of the scandalous preface attributed to Bonner. However, it succeeded in regaining for him the confidence of the king, and lie was again ap- pointed ambassador to France (1535), but, owing to the machinations of Cromwell, he was recalled in 1538.

In the following year he was sent on an embassy to Germany, and on liis return the celebrated Six .Articles — "the whip with six strings", generally believed to have been his work — was issued by the king. Their tendency was so opposed to the policy of Cromwell, that a struggle for life between these two men became inevitable. Cromwell succeeded in obtaining the dis- missal of Gardiner from the Privy Council, but his own power was at an end, and, when he was executed in 1541, he left Gardiner in possession of supreme politi- cal influence. This position he retained until the death of Henry, and, though he was actually in schism, he remained the chief support of the old reli- gion and was looked on by the reformers as their most dangerous enemy. During this period his own nephew, Blessed German Gardiner, underwent martjTdoui rather than take the oath of royal supremacy. At the funeral of Henry VIII in 1547, Gardiner took the chief place and was celebrant at the Mass, but his name had been omitted from the royal will, and he was excluded from the new Council of State. He immediately op- posed both the protector and the archbishop in their attempts at religious changes, whereupon he was com- mitted a prisoner to the Fleet, where he remained till Christmas. On his release he returned to his see, only to be recalled in May, 1548, to deliver a public sermon, so as to satisfy the Council. He preached at Paul's Cross on 29 June, maintaining the doctrine of the Real Presence, and was promptly sent to the Tower. Here he was kept for over three years in spite of his repeated protests against the illegality of his detention. At length, in December, 1551, he was brought to trial, and, on 18 April following, he was deprived of his bishopric, into which Poynet was intruded.

From this time till the accession of Queen Mary he remained a close prisoner in the Tower. She not only restored him to liberty, but raised him to the highest honours, and on 23 Aug., 1553, he was made Lord High Chancellor, and, being restored to his diocese, he crowned the Queen on 1 Oct. He tried vainly to save both Cranmer and Northumberland ; and other Prot- estants, such as Peter Martyr and Roger Ascham, experienced his kindness. He now made amends for his previous fall by taking a leading part in restoring England to communion with the Holy See. Another task entrusted to him was the rehabilitation of the public finances, and in this his ability and known in- tegrity were successful. On the important subject of the queen's marriage, Gardiner boldly opposed any foreign alliance, though by doing so he courted the enmity of both the Spanish and French ambassadors besides losing to some extent the confidence of the queen herself. His policy was not followed, and, in 1554, he himself blessed the marriage of Mary and Philip in his own catliedral at Winchester. The un- popularity of the marriage in London led to riotous scenes and much religious controversy, to meet which the statute "De hueretico comburendo" was re- enacted in December, 1554. About the same time Gardiner obtained from the pope a Bull confirming in their possessions all who held Church property seized during the reign of Henry VIII and Edward VT, it being felt that the surrender of this property would be