Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/93

 Tower, the latter having just before been attainted by parliament of misprision in connection with the Nun of Kent. Along with them also was imprisoned Dr. Nicholas Wilson, formerly the king's confessor.

Even yet the severance from Rome was not complete, and before the news of the papal sentence arrived a desperate effort seems to have been made in parliament to induce the pope still further to defer its issue. All the enactments against the papal authority were to be provisional, so far that the king might annul or modify them before Midsummer day if the pope did what was desired of him. With this proviso parliament was prorogued on 30 March to meet again in November and complete the work. Meanwhile the king did his best to strengthen his alliance with France, and to strike terror into his subjects at home by the execution of the Nun and her adherents (20 April). Even Bishops Gardiner and Tunstall and Archbishop Lee expected to be committed to the Tower. Preachers were appointed to revile the pope and exalt the king's cause, and all other political preaching was silenced, while every clergyman in the land and every monk within his monastery was compelled to sign a declaration that the ‘bishop of Rome’ had no more authority in England than any other foreign bishop. And lest the religious orders, whose members had nothing to lose, should prove intractable, all the four orders of friars were placed by royal authority under the control of two men who could be depended on as visitors, Dr. George Browne [q. v.], prior of the Augustinian hermits, and Dr. John Hilsey [q. v.], provincial of the Black Friars.

Mere suasion and sophistry, however, were not enough. In June two cart-loads of friars were packed off to the Tower, and later in the year it was found advisable to suppress one order of friars entirely, the reformed order of Franciscans called the Observants. The recusants were transferred to other houses, locked up as prisoners, and placed in chains. Even Queen Catherine and the Princess Mary were warned that they stood in danger of death if they refused to acknowledge the statute which made the one a widow and the other a bastard; but neither would obey, and against them at least the king did not dare carry out his threats. In November parliament met again, and first of all confirmed the act of convocation declaring the king supreme head of the church, a title which was on 15 Jan. following formally added to the royal style. The oath taken to the succession act was ratified, and penalties inflicted on refusal. Those first-fruits and tenths of benefices which had been withheld from the pope were granted to the king, and a complete valuation of ecclesiastical property was ordered to secure their due exaction. A very severe law was passed against treason, which was made to include calling the king heretic, and even wishing to deprive him or Anne Boleyn or their heirs of the royal dignity. Henry was also voted a new subsidy, and bills of attainder against Fisher, More, and the Earl of Kildare became law.

Next year (1535) all this legislative tyranny came into full operation. So insupportable was the prospect that secret messages were sent by leading noblemen to the imperial ambassador to tell him that thousands would welcome an invasion by the emperor to relieve the country from oppression. The emperor, however, did not see his way to interfere, and in April the first judicial proceedings were taken against deniers of the royal supremacy. Prior Houghton of the London Charterhouse, with the heads of two other houses of the same order, a monk of Sion named Dr. Reynolds, and John Hale, vicar of Isleworth, were condemned and butchered with a brutality even beyond that of ordinary executions for treason. A few weeks were allowed to elapse to see what impression their fate would make on Fisher and More and the other monks of the London Charterhouse. The two former were questioned in the Tower whether they would accept the royal supremacy, and were arraigned for refusing. Three of the Charterhouse monks tried along with Fisher were hanged and quartered on 19 June; Fisher himself was beheaded on 22 and More on 6 July. The bishops were at the same time enjoined to preach the royal supremacy every Sunday and feast day and to cause the pope's name to be erased from books of every kind.

Fisher had been created a cardinal by the new pope, Paul III, shortly before his death, and his execution was the worst affront Henry had given to the holy see. The pope immediately wrote to the different princes of Europe intimating his intention to deprive Henry of his kingdom, and asking their aid to give effect to the sentence. His anger, however, was ineffectual. Francis I fully acknowledged Henry's impiety and barbarity, but could not afford to give up such an ally until he had recovered Milan. The emperor, then engaged in the conquest of Tunis, knew too well that any action on his part would make England combine with France against him. Henry, whose diplomacy had taught both princes to recognise the need of his friendship, was meanwhile anxious to win over the protestants of Germany, and invited