a height, that his opinion was received as fidents. In the mean time the queen S ephen Cardiner, bishop of Winchester, had gained an entire afcendancy over the queen by his fuccefs, in governing the parliament, and engaging them to approve of the Spanish alliance, and the re-eftablishment of the ancient religion. Thefe points, fo happily performed, had raifed his character for wisdom and policy to fuch diner, on the contrary, had always made moft Thefe we shall give in the words of the ingenious Mr. Hume: "The practice of perfecution, faid the defenders of cardinal Pole's opinion, is the fcandal of all religion ; and the theological animofity, fo fierce and violent, far from being an argument of men's conviction in their oppofite tegets, is a certain proof that they have never reach ed most unprejudiced perfons think, would have been the best support of the Catholic religion that could have been devised, and the most prejudicial to the interest of proteftantifm. The arguments of Gardiner being more agreeable to the cruel bigotry of Mary and Philip, were better received; and though ed any serious persuasion, with regard to these remote and sublime subje&s. Even those who are the most impatient in other controverfies, are mild and moderate in comparison of polemical divines; and wherever a man's knowledge and experience give him a perfect aifurance of his own opinion, he regards with contempt, rather than anger, the oppofition and mistakes of others. But while men zealously maintain what they neither clearly comprehend nor entirely believe, they are shaken in their imagined faith by the oppofite perfuafion, or even doubts of other men ; and vent on their antagonists that impatience, which is the natural refult of so disagreeable a state of the understanding. They then embrace easily any pretence for representing opponents as impious and prophane; and if they can also find a colour for connecting this violence with the interefts of civil government, they can no longer be restrained from giving uncontrouled (cope to vengeance and refentment. But furely never enterprize was more unfortunate than that of founding perfecution upon policy, or endeavouring, for the fake of peace, to fettle an entire uniformity of opinion in questions, which of all others are least subjected to the criterion of human reafon. The univerfal and uncontradicted prevalence of one opinion in religious subjects, can only be owing at first to the ftupid ignorance and barbarism of the people, who never indulge themselves in any fpeculation or enquiry; and there is no other expedient for maintaining that uniformity, fo fondly fought after, but by banishing for ever all curiofity, and all improvement in fcience and cultivation. It may not, indeed, appear difficult to check, by a steady feverity, the first beginning of controversy; but, besides, that this policy expofes for ever the people to all the abject terrors of fuperftition, and the magiftrate to the endless encroachments of ecclefiaftics, it also renders men fo delicate, that they never can endure to hear of opposition; and they will fometime pay dearly for that false tranquillity in which they have been fo long indulged. As healthful bodies are ruined by too nice a regimen, and are thereby rendered incapable of bearing the unavoidable incidents of human life, a people, who never were allowed to imagine that their principles could be contested, fly out into the most outrageous violence when any event (and such events are common) produces a faction among their clergy, and gives rife to any difference in tenet or opinion. But whatever may be said in favour of fuppreffing, by persecution, the first beginnings of herefy, no solid argument can be alledged for extending feverity towards multitudes, or endeavouring, by capital punishments, to extirpate an opinion, which has diffused itfelf through men of every rank and station. Befides the barbarity of such an attempt, it proves commonly ineffectual to the purpose intended, and ferves only to make men more obftinate in their perfuafion, and to encrease the number of their profelytes. The melancholy, with which the fear of death, torture, and perfecution, inspires the fectaries, is the proper difpofition for foftering religious zeal: the prospect of eternal rewards, when brought near, overpowers the dread of temporal punishment. The glory of martyrdom ftimulates all the more furious zealots, especially the leaders and preachers; where a violent animofity is excited by oppreffion, men país naturally from a hatred of the persons of their tyrants to a more violent abhorrence of their doctrine; and the spectators, moved with pitý towards the supposed martyrs, are naturally feduced to embrace those principles, which can infpire men with a conftancy that appears almost supernatural. Open the door to toleration, the mutual hatred relaxes among the fectaries; their attachment to the particular religion decays; their common occupations and pleasures of life fucceed to the acrimony of disputation; and the fame man, who, in other circumstances, would have braved flames and tortures, is engaged to change his religion from the smallest profpect of favour and advancement, or even from the frivolous hopes of becoming more fashionable in his principles.' Such were deavouring throughout his whole life to extirpate herefy, bad, in the end, reaped nothing but difappointment and confufion), the toleration was entirely rejected. However, the morals of the clergy, and the management and regulation of ecclefaftical affairs, the queen committed to the care of. Pole; and, for that purpofe, had granted him a licence to hold a fynod. In this convention, which was opened when the debates for and againft toleration first began, the legate proposed a book, he had prepared, containing regula. tions for the extirpation of herefy, to the fame purport as the arguments he used in Council. These were paffed in the form of twelve decrees, and enjoined the clergy not to perfecute heretics, but reform themfelves; and, as the surest method to bring back the stragglers into the fold, feek to reclaim, others by their own good ex ́ample. Whether in this he acted beyond "the power granted him by the queen or not, certain it is, these orders were of nowany arguments on either fide, which, as effect, as the very oppofite course was pur fued by the government itself: for it was determined to let loose the laws in their full rigour, against the reformned religion; and England was foon filled with fcenes of horror, which have ever fince rendered the Romish fuperftition the object of general deteftation, and which prove that no human depravity can equal revenge and eruelty, covered with the mantle of religion. Ferrars, bishop of St. David's, who was condemned to be burnt with many others, appealed to cardinal Pole; but he had not the power to relieve him. In the midst of these savage actions, Mary took it in her head to be very uneafy, and troubled in her confcience about fome church lands the had in her poffeffion; and as Pope Julius had formerly published a bull, excommunicating all those who had feized fuch lands, fhe began to think herself in a state of excommunication, and the efore refolved to refign all the poffeffed. She caufed a lift to be made and given to cardinal Pole, and immediately delivered them up to him for the ufes they were properly first granted." We now come to speak of an affair, which has been by many reprefented as the great stain in the life of cardinal Pole.Some have said that the death of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, was chiefly owing to him; for it is very remarkable, that though Pole had his congé d'elire, as well as two bulls, difpatched from Rome for the archbishopric fome months before Cranmer's execution, yet he made no ufe of them while the latter lived, but the very next day after the archbishop's death, he took poffeffion of the fee of Canterbury. Others entirely acquit the cardinal of any share in this bufinefs, and attribute the execution of Cranmer to the cruelty of Philip and the queen and fo do all the hiftorians, ex-" cept Burnet, who takes notice of this report, and neither abfolutèly receives it, nor entirely rejects it. Without producing is ufnally the cafe in most controversies, Even were fome of the chief arguments made ufe of by cardinal Pole, and those of his party. In this land of liberty, where no one is difturbed on account of his religious principles, daily experience convinces us of their truth and efficacy. The established church undoubtedly owes the increafe of its communicants, and in fhort the strength of its foundation, to the toleration allowed to all diffenters; who, finding themselves treated like brethren, voluntarily return to the church, which they never would have done, had they met with any oppofition by diffenting from it. with doing that in his life-time, which might as well be performed after his death, when he could no longer be fenfible of it. If it be asked why the cardinal did not procure him his life, which he might have been fuffered to pass away in confinement, in a state of deprivation; it is eafily anfwered, he had it not in his power. He had to deal with a princefs, naturally of uncommon bigotted principles, and thefe reinforced by the perfuafions of a Spanish husband, and many hasty counsellors, who had her confidence equally as much as the cardinal; in a word, with a daughter of Henry VIII. who in every refpect inherited her father's imperious and uncontroulable temper. In fine, from the comparison of fo foul a deed with all the other actions of cardinal Pole, and his humane difpofition; and when we confider that the death of Cranmer was no ways necessary to procure his fucceffion to the fee of Canterbury, and that the cardinal could not feek it through any motive of revenge, as no enmity or hatred prevailed between them, but on the contrary, Pole always profeffed himself his friend; we hope, and are induced to believe that this is a groundlefs calumny. Perhaps it was raised against him by his enemies, who, enraged to fee him admired for fuch humane fentiments, as they acted fo oppofite to themselves, in revenge fixed upon this method of blackening his memory, which bishop Burnet too credulously espoused. But this laft is only a conjecture, not founded upon evidence, and may be either received or rejected. However, it is certain that cardinal Pole was guilty of fome actions against the proteftants, which nothing can excufe. We don't know that he was the means of depriving any one of life; but other punishments he certainly inflicted on them. Nevertheless, all thefe proceedings ought to be imputed to the Pope, by whofe commands they were done; and it is a great pity that cardinal Pole had not courage enough to contend with fo haughty a pontiff as Paul IV, who thought of no other way to bear down protestantism, than by fetting up the inquifition every where. The cardinal was confecrated to the fee of Canterbury by the bishops of London, Ely, Lincoln, Rochester, and St. Asaph, in the church of the Grey-Friars at Greenwich. A few days after, he went in ftate to Bow-church in Cheapfide, where the bishops of Worcester and Ely, (after the former had faid mafs) put the pall upon him: a device firft fet up by Pope Pafchal II. in the beginning of the 12th century, and, in truth, contrived only to engage all archbishops to a more immediate dependence on the papal fee, they being, after taking the pall, to act as legati nati, the Pope's legates born. Thus invefted, he went into the pulpit, and preached on the origin, matter, and use of that vestment. In a day or two after, he was installed by his commiffary; and, in the course of this fame year, was elected, first, chancellor of the university of Oxford, and foon after of Cambridge. These learned feminaries he vifited by his commiffaries, to reform them in the fense of those times, when some very extraordinary prosecutions were carried on. The purport of their commission was to restore the Pope's authority, and to enquire if there were any who neglected the Popish ceremonies, and upon the leaft fufpicion to eject them The commiffioners fent to Oxford were Dr. Brookes, bishop of Gloucester'; Dr. Colet, dean of St. Paul's; and the cardinal's trufty fervant Ormaneto. Under this commiffion they raged against a great many in the university, and burnt all the heretical books they found in the public marketplace, and amongst the rest every English Bible. Amazing effrortery! to 'deem the book of life itself, the very foundation of that religion 'they pretended to be fo zealous for, heretical, because printed in any other language than Latin. Is not this a plain proof of the impofture of the fuperftitious rites of the Romish religion, fince the priests of it are fo careful to conceal the scriptures from the eye of the people, and thus deprive them of the opportunity of detecting their impofitions? It is really amazing, that thefe pious zealots would fuffer the Bible to be expofed in any other language than the original Hebrew, which would have been intelligible to a very few perfons only, and must then have better served their turn. To proceed, the commiffioners made a procefo against the wife of Peter Martyr. body lay buried in one of the churches there; and the having been a foreigner that understood no English, witnesses were not to be found that had heard her utter Her any heretical points. Notice of this being tranfmitted to the cardinal, he wrote back, and ordered that her bones fhould be taken up, because they lay near thofe of St. Fridefwide. This was done accordingly, and her body was re-buried in a dunghill. If poor Catherine could have been fenfible of the removal of her bones, she would, to be fure, have thought half highly honoured, in their being thought of fuch confequence; fince they underwent in the reign of Elizabeth another change, being once more dug up, and not only laid near, but mixed with thofe of St. Fridefwide, that they might in future times run their fortunes together; fince in this united ftate no one could diftinguish the one, from the other. This laft alteration was made, however, not out of any religious motive, but purely in revenge for, or rather ridicule of, the first abfurd removal. Melchior Adam gives her the character of an excellent matron, and fays, the cardinal had been a particular friend to her husband before his laft departure from Italy. She had been formerly a nun, and had broken her vow of celibacy, and this was the caufe of fuch inveterate rage against her. The commiffioners fent to Cambridge were, Dr. Scott, bishop of Chefter, Dr. Watson, and Dr. Chriftopherson, the two bishops elect of Lincoln and Chichester, and likewife Ormaneto, who practifed the like feverities as thofe at Oxford. Particularly, on their arrival, they put the churches of St. Mary's and St. Michael's under an interdict, because the bodies of Bucer and Fagius, two heretics, were buried in them; after which, they proceeded against them in a formal courfe of law. The bodies were cited to appear; or if any would come in their names, they were required to defend them. After three citations, the dead bodies not rifing to speak for themselves, in obedience to their call, and none coming to plead for them, (for fear of being fent after them) the visitors thought fit to proceed with their farce. The bishop of Chefter rofe up and made a fpeech, fhewing the earnestness of the university to have justice done ; to which the reft of the commiffioners condefcended. Therefore, having examined many witneffes of the herefy that Bucer and Fagius had taught, they adjudged them dbftinate heretics, and appointed the bodies to be taken up out of the holy ground, and to be delivered to the fecular power. The writ being brought from London, their bones were taken up, and carried in coffins to the stake prepared for the purpofe; and there, with many of their books and heretical writings, were all burnt together. When the scene was changed in the fucceeding reign, public honours were done at this univerfity to the merits of thefe learned men. In the midst of such inhuman and ridiculous feverities, though better thus exercifed on the dead than on the living, the cardinal-chancellor took care to have the ftatutes (at leaft at Oxford) revised, and some new ones added, for the better regulation of the univerfity, which flourished more in his time, than either before, under king Edward, or after, under Elizabeth. It has been already obferved that Paul IV. who now fat in the papal chair, hated cardinal Pole. He it was, when only cardinal Peter Caraffa, who fo furiously and indecently oppofed Pole's election to the popedom, on the death of Paul III. and that hatred he ftill entertained. Philip of Spain being at war with France, had drawn Mary into the quarrel, and received from her a reinforcement of eight thousand men. Paul efpoufed the cause. of France, who was his auxiliary, the Pope himself being a principal in the war; and this junction of the English with the Spaniards furnished him with a pretence of gratifying his ill will against Pole. Inflamed to fee England fiding against his friend, he refolved to wreak his vengeance some where, and gladly feized the opportunity of fixing upon the cardinal as the victim of his wrath, who had lately been guilty of a fresh offence in writing to his Holiness, perfuading him to peace, the favourite ftudy and defire of Pole. This, the haughty pontiff refented, as a kind of monition to do his duty: the infolence of it was great, and added to his other offences, and unwillingness to execute the Pope's commands (from their extreme harshness), too great to be borne with longer. In this spirit he openly declared, it might now be feen how little the cardinal regarded the apoftolic fee, when he suffered the queen to affift its enemies in fo particular a manner. He fit made a decree for a general revocation of |
