OUT OF HIS PLACE; OR, NOT FITTING A MITRE
"A Father's tenderness, a Shepherd's care,
A Leader's courage, which the cross can bear;
A Ruler's awe, a Watchman's wakeful eye,
A Pilot's skill the helm in storm to ply.
A Fisher's patience, and a Laborer's toil,
A Guide's dexterity to disembroil,
An Intercessor's unction from above,
A Teacher's knowledge, and a Savior's love.
—BISHOP KEN.
“He that learneth of young men is like a man that eateth unripe grapes, but he that learneth of the ancients is like a man that eateth ripe grapes." —RABBI JOSE BAR JEHUDAH
A.D. 1535-1539.
IMPOSTURE— SHAM MIRACLES AND REAL PLOTS— MADE A BISHOP— REPROVING THE KING AGAIN— STRANGE SILENCE ABOUT THE QUEEN'S MURDER— SAVED FROM THE PAPACY BY A CARDINAL AND A POPE.
THE Papists, enraged at the turn that affairs had somewhat unexpectedly taken, resolved nevertheless to resolutely oppose the incoming tide of Protestantism, which they could clearly see would soon sweep into their foul caverns. Among other expedients, they resolved to employ an imposture which was ready at hand awaiting their development and application of what had been practiced without detection upon a smaller scale.
One Elizabeth Barton, a servant-maid of Aldington, in Kent, had all her life been subject to severe fits of epilepsy. During the agony of these spasms her tongue protruded from her mouth, her eyeballs seemed to be starting out of their sockets, and she uttered many disconnected and incoherent expressions. Richard Masters, the parish priest, gave out that during these fits the poor creature was in a state of Divine trance, and that then she received revelations from God. In a short time Elizabeth Barton was looked upon as one inspired, and her sayings speedily acquired peculiar authority as being supposed to emanate from God. A neighboring monk, one Edward Bockyng from Canterbury, assisted Masters, and the girl herself readily yielded to the deception. Barton then gave out that the Virgin Mary had appeared to her, and had promised to restore her to health on condition that she visited an image of the Virgin which was exposed in a chapel in Masters' parish. Upon the day appointed two thousand persons assembled to witness the anticipated miracle; the girl threw herself into strange postures, after which she pretended to be restored to health again.
The success of this sham miracle prepared the way for further and more ambitious designs, and Elizabeth Barton, now a nun, began to speak upon the affairs of the Kingdom. She produced a letter which she pretended, had been written from heaven by Mary Magdalene. The leaders of the Papists were especially careful to circulate an assertion of hers which was, that if the King persisted in seeking for a divorce he should not live a month longer. Time falsified this prediction, and then the prophetess declared that, like Saul, Henry was rejected from the Kingdom, although he was permitted to live for a time. From various indications it was evident that, under cover of these supposed revelations, a great conspiracy was brewing, and Cromwell interfered to bring the imposture to light. Cranmer and Latimer were associated with him in the inquiry, and the nun confessed the whole imposture. Even the Princess Mary and her mother, Catharine of Aragon, had been accomplices to some extent in the plot which had aimed at the dethroning of the King in favor of his daughter Mary.
Latimer, who was not at home in politics, now returned to his country parish. Once more he came to London, and this time at Cranmer's request that he might preach before the King at Windsor. The Dean of Windsor was very reluctant to obey the Royal mandate, but he had no choice but to yield. From February the 18th until the 1st of April, therefore, Latimer preached every Wednesday before the Court. These sermons have perished, but in all probability they contributed in their measure to hasten the abolition of all Papal authority within the kingdom.
In his new capacity as head of both Church and State, Henry limited the succession to the Crown to the posterity of Anne Boleyn, and merely as a safeguard against the many machinations which it was known were being put forth by the Papists, all good subjects were required to acknowledge this exclusion of Mary from the throne. The Princess Mary herself owed her life to Cranmer's intercession, for her father had resolved to permit her to 'be punished for her parricidal conduct.
More and Fisher refused to take these oaths, and although every possible device was employed by Cranmer to save them, they were executed. More, it must not be forgotten, was as much a persecutor as his fellow-criminal Fisher, and both met with the legal penalty which had been affixed to their political crime. From More's letters we get a glimpse of Latimer which, after making due allowance for the writer's animosity and unfairness, is interesting as showing Latimer's jovial and merry disposition: "I tarried in the old burned chamber that looketh into the garden (i.e., of Lambeth Palace), and would not go down because of the heat. In that time saw I Master Doctor Latimer come into the garden, and there walked he with divers others, doctors and chaplains of my lord of Canterbury (Cranmer). And very merry I saw him, for he laughed and took one or twain about the neck so handsomely that if they had been women I would have weened he had waxen wanton.”
The next information that we have of this wanton merry Rector is, that Cranmer not only licensed him to preach, but also entrusted him with the power of supervision over the preachers in the West of England, with the authority of revoking the license of any man who appeared to be unfit for the office. This was only preliminary to a yet further promotion, for in the critical state of political affairs it was almost a necessity that Latimer should be called to fill one of the bishoprics which had become vacant upon the renunciation of Papal authority. Latimer was too practical and energetic not to do his very best in whatever position he might be found, but he certainly was not eminent for administrative talents. He was a popular tribune, and served the Gospel best by an itinerant ministry. But Cromwell, who then ruled England, was urgent, and perhaps persuaded by Cranmer, who must have daily realized the perilous posture of affairs, Latimer accepted the bishopric of Worcester. Out of the diocese, as it was when he ruled it, the present government of Gloucester and Bristol has been taken; and as at that period Bristol was the second port in the kingdom, the position was as influential as it was exhaustive. The revenue of the Bishop, it is computed, amounted to about ₤ 15,000 per year, at the present value of money, and the Bishop, moreover, possessed many convenient houses in London and in various parts of the country. The new prelate was the first elected under the new ecclesiastical constitution, and probably in Winchester, on the 26th of September 1535, Latimer was consecrated. He carried his simple tastes with him to his new position.
“I am more inclined," he writes, "to feed many plainly and necessarily than a few deliciously and voluptuously. As for plate and hangings, they have not cost me twenty shillings. In plate my New Year's gifts doth my need with glass and byrral; and I delight more to feed hungry bellies than to clothe dead walls.”
It was the custom at that time for the Bishops to present New Year's gifts to the King, and these presents were generally sums of money. In subsequent years Latimer gave what would now be equivalent to ₤300, but Foxe, the martyrologist, relates the following anecdote of Latimer's first New Year's gift to Henry. The story is rejected by some it is true, but solely upon the insufficient ground that Foxe has not named his authorities.
“There was then," says Foxe, "and remained still, an ancient custom received from the old Romans that upon New Year's Day, being the first day of January, every Bishop with some handsome New Year's gift should gratify the King. And so they did. Some did gratify the King with gold, some with silver, some with a purse full of money, some one thing, some another. But Master Latimer, being Bishop of Worcester, then among the rest, presented a New Testament for his gift, with a napkin having this motto upon it, Fornicatores et Adulteres judicabit Dominus'—’. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.'”
The incident is at least probable, and is in accordance with Latimer's outspoken fidelity. He certainly ventured to remonstrate with the King publicly upon the base uses to which the funds which had been obtained by the suppression of the smaller monasteries had been devoted. "The abbeys," he said, "were ordained for the comfort of the poor, and it is not decent that the King's horses should be kept in them, and the living of poor men be thereby minished and put away." To those who reproved him for censuring a King, Latimer boldly replied, "I spake my conscience as God's Word directed me." In another sermon which was preached at St. Paul's Cross, London, about March 1536, Latimer again spake his conscience thus: "Bishops, abbots, priors, parsons, canons, resident priests, and all are strong thieves; yea, dukes, lords, and all. The King made a marvelous good Act of Parliament that certain men should sow every one of them two acres of hemp; but it were all too little were it so much more to hang the thieves in England. Bishops, abbots, with such other, should not have so many servants nor so many dishes; but go to their first foundation to keep hospitality, to feed the needy people; not jolly fellows with golden chains and velvet gowns." In truth, the utterance of no mere time-server, but of a man who discerned the evil case of the most in those times of scramble.
The execution of Anne Boleyn filled the Papal party with delight. From "this domestic evil," as they called her, they said, had "descended all disorders," and they once more began to anticipate the return of their authority. Whatever may have been the exact degree of the Queen's guilt, it cannot be doubted that she was certainly put out of the way because of her husband's desire to marry Jane Seymour. Indiscreet she may have been, but in spite of all Mr. Froude's special pleading, the general conviction of Englishmen is that she was innocent. Nor can Cranmer be acquitted of guilty acquiescence in her murder. Anne Boleyn had favored the Reformers in a very marked manner, and for Latimer she had expressed her regard. It would have enhanced our esteem for Latimer, if he had made some attempt at least in order to save the poor victim of Henry's cruelty. Strangely enough, the Bishop of Worcester was silent upon this momentous question, and therefore he cannot be acquitted of offense in the matter. The death of Anne Boleyn was the triumph of the Papal party; if Latimer believed her guilty, why did he not disavow her? Or if she were innocent, why did he not say so? Probably the counsel of over-wise friends prevailed, and for fear of offending Henry, Latimer held his peace. If so, he with others had soon cause to regret the death of this unhappy Queen, for now the Reformed were once more persecuted. But for one or two so-called accidents the Papal dominion might have been restored in England, but again the hopes of the Romanists were blighted by their own advocates. Cardinal Pole's violent book, which had been written years before, came to England just in time to prevent the reconciliation. It spoke of Henry as "the vilest of plunderers, and a thief and a robber;" and it urged the people to rebel against a tyrant who was far more vile than King Saul, who was rejected by God from the Kingdom. The arrival of the book saved the nation from the peril, and not only the King, but the bulk of his subjects felt that the breach could not be healed. Henry persecuted the Reformed in order to prove his orthodoxy, but he never from this moment entertained a serious thought of yielding to the Papacy, which had authorized such an attack upon him. With varying success the new opinions were spread through England until in Elizabeth's reign the Reformation was completed.
History is indeed only "Providence made visible," and hence it may be accounted as one of the most powerful of the evidences of revealed religion.