The Greatest Works of Charles Carleton Coffin. Charles Carleton Coffin
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The people love him, he is so sweet and tender, and they scowl upon the friars who have maliciously accused him.
It is a strange request which the friars make of him:
"Oh, Master Bilney! the people think that we have caused you to be put to death, and they will no longer give to us, if you do not speak to them in our behalf."
The man, with the light of heaven on his face, turns to the people:
"I pray you, good people, be never the worse to these men for my sake. They are not the authors of my death."
Not they — but the Lord High Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, as zealous for the Church as Paul when he hold the clothes of those who hurled stones at Stephen just outside of the gate at Jerusalem. Another day will come to Sir Thomas. Now he is burning the meek-hearted man who stands for the right of private judgment. The time will come when lie will assert his right of private judgment, and then we shall see what will happen to him.
One hundred years have passed since the monks dug up the hones of Doctor Wicklif. If there was little liberty in the world then, there is very little now, although a century has gone. If the monks and priests were corrupt then, it is certain that many of them are leading scandalous lives in these days of Henry VIII. the bishops have their courts, and punish with a light penance a crime in a priest, which is atoned for only by death if committed by common people. Thomas Wyseman, a priest, who has led a scandalous life, is sentenced to do penance by offering a wax-candle at the altar of St Bartholomew's Church, and say five Paternosters, five Ave-Marias, and as many Credos. Having done this, he pays six shillings and eightpence into the Bishops' Court, and is absolved, and can go on saying mass and absolving the people. But the same crime committed by one of the people is punished with death.
There is a long list of priests who are leading scandalous lives: The vicars of Ledburg, of Bras-myll, of Stow, of Clome, the parson of Wentnor, of Rusburg, of Plowden, the Dean of Pamtsburg, and many more.
The people are losing confidence in priests who live in sin, or who can atone for sin by offering a wax-candle. They are losing faith in the Church that makes atonement so easy for a priest, while it metes out death to everybody else. The rhymers write ballads lampooning the priests.
"I, Collin Clout,
As I go about,
And wondering as I walk,
I hear the people talk;
Men say for silver and gold
Mitres are bought and sold.
A straw for God's curse!
What are they the worse?
"What care the clergy though Gill sweat,
Or Jack of the Noke?
The poor people they yoke
With summers and citations
And excommunications.
* * * * * *
"But Doctor Ballatus
Parum litteratus
Dominus Doctoratus,
At the broad-gate house,
Doctor Daupatus
And Bachelor Bacheleratus,
Drunken as a mouse,
At the ale-house,
Taketh his pillian and his cup
At the good ale-tap.
For lack of good wine.
* * * * * *
"Such temporal war and hate,
As now is made of late
Against Holy Church estate,
Or to maintain good quarrels:
The laymen call them barrels
Full of gluttony and hypocrisy.
What counterfeits and paints,
As they were very saints!"
It is the year 1547. Fourteen years have passed since Anne Boleyn's coronation. A great man, with a round, bloated face, double chin, coarse features, fat paunch, weak and helpless, with an offensive ulcer on one of his legs, lies in bed. A fair-looking, kind-hearted woman sits by his side, taking care of him. The man is fifty-six years old, and has been a king thirty-six years. His will has been supreme; he has had things his own way, but can have them no longer, for one mightier than he is about to make him a visit — the king of terrors — Death.
We saw him at the Field of the Cloth of Gold; we saw him putting away Katherine of Aragon, and marrying Anne Boleyn. Three years later, he chopped off Anne's head, and married Jane Seymour the next day, who died the next year in giving birth to a son — happily for her. He married Anne of Cleves, and was divorced from her. Then he married Katherine Howard, in July, 1540, and cut her head off, February 12th, 1542; and married Katherine Parr, in July, 1543 — the woman who is sitting by his side and soothing his pain.
Important changes have taken place during these years, in which great things have been unwittingly done for liberty by this man, so powerful once, so weak and helpless now. The changes have been brought about through his passion for Anne Boleyn.
The timid Pope — destitute of conscience or moral principle; afraid of Charles; afraid of Henry — promised to grant him a divorce from Katherine, and then failed to keep his promise. Archbishop Cranmer, speaking for the bishops of England, pronounces the marriage with.Katherine illegal, and sanctions his marriage with Anne. The Pope declares that the bishop cannot make such a decision — all power belongs to him. The Parliament will see about that, and declares that the Pope has no authority in England. The bishops decide, in their sessions, that the Pope has no more authority in England than any other foreign bishop, which is none at all.
The king has always appointed the bishops, and Parliament makes the king the head of the Church^thus setting the Pope aside. Parliament declares that Elizabeth, and not Mary, is the true heir to the crown, because the marriage of Henry and Katherine was illegal; and they require all the nobles and bishops to swear to support the law. If any one refuses, he shall be deemed guilty of high treason. Sir Thomas More, who has resigned his office to Thomas Cromwell, whom we saw with Wolsey at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, is living at Greenwich, His daughter Margaret is married to Mr. Roper, and lives with him. He is called upon to appear at Lambeth Palace and take the oath. He comes up the Thames in a boat, with his daughter's husband, and appears before the commission. He is willing to take part of the oath — to support Elizabeth whenever she may come to the throne; but he will not swear that the marriage of Henry and Katherine was illegal. He sets up his private judgment, just as Thomas Bilney and Thomas Bayfold set up theirs. It was for having a New Testament in his possession, for preaching the truth as he understood it, not as dictated by the Pope, that Sir Thomas sent the good man to his death; and now he sets up his own judgment against the law of the realm. It is treason, to be punished with death; and he goes to the Bloody Tower, a prisoner, entering by the Traitor's Gate, with Bishop Fisher, an old man eighty years of age, who also will not take the oath. In Westminster Hall, where Anne Boleyn sat down to the grand banquet, Sir Thomas has his trial. He will not swear, and is found guilty of high treason.
At the Tower stairs, he bids farewell to his beloved daughter Margaret, who has affectionately waited upon him in prison.
At nine o'clock on the morning of the 6th of July, 1535, Sir Thomas and the sheriff come out from the Tower. A great company has assembled to see him executed. Some of the people do not like him. They remember how he has sent many a poor man to the stake, and there is no pity in some of the faces around him; but there are others who are sorry to see him suffer