Search York

quence, unworthily to spot your honor and name, and therby

to shame your self: and judging a Princes act so unad-

visedly without al learning, honest respect, and prudence.

And I wot not, whether you did this, moved with a certain

indignation, because you have been before time of some men

much noted to have over much respect of worldly circum-

stance, and therby to lack the true judgment of things : and

so for the avoiding hereof, for you never loved to be noted

to lack any part of judgment, but of al things you most

abhorred that name, you are therfore now run to the con-

trary, and have no respect of worldly things at al. You

seem now neither to regard king, friend, nor country, but,

as much as lyeth in you, dishonor them al. Insomuch, that

this I think of you plainly, that if you would set out to the

world your sentence to the King written, I would judge

you to be one of the most extreme enemies, both to the

Kings honor, and to al your friends, and to our wliole na-

tion, that ever was bred in our country. But I shal never

think you to have so little prudence and honesty, nor never

to be so mad and frantic, as to do any such detestable deed.

But this I judge of the writing of your book, that you being

fully persuaded in the contrary opinion, thought frankly to

open your judgment therin, and put it to the Kings secret

consideration. But that you wil common abroad such a

venomous book, so fid of defamation to your Soveraign

Lord and Master, so slanderous to his actys established, I

can never be persuaded ; but rather I think. And if you

had seen, how that here omnia Christi dogmata^ et Jidei

nostroR sacr amenta be observed, and how al old and honest

customesand rites of the Church be kept and maintained, and

IT 2

292 APPENDIX OF

how christianly God is honoured here among us, I am sure

you would never have written so slanderous a book.

But persuaded I am, Master Pole, by common fame and

false report, your judgment is corrupted. For I know well

how we be with you wrongly reported. In so much that at

my coming home, if I had found al such things to be true,

which before my departure thence I heard there openly

commoned, I would rather have fled from my country, than

have tarried here among such corrupt opinions and heresies.

But after I had been here a while, and observed the fashions

here of living, christianly used, I perceived then the vanity

19/ of fame, wherby for the most part al things are misreported.

And this ^t sundry times I remember I wrote to you most

diligently, to the intent I would have had you delivered

from such suspicion ; certifying you, that here among us

was little alteration, beside the casting down of this pri-

macy ; to which every honest and Christian mind may, as I

think, wel be obedient, without any off*ence of Gods law, or

injury to his word.
Wlierfore, Master Pole, I shal yet once again require

you, by the love that you have placed in your heart to your

masters honor and natviral country, to weigh this matter a

little better, and cleave not so stifly to your own opinion :

suffer not your self to be blinded with such extreme folly,

to judg it necessary to mankind to have but one Head in

earth, as there is but one God in heaven. The which, by

your opinion, must needs follow, if al men were christned,

as we believe once they shal be. At the which time, I think,

there shal no man be so mad as to think, that from one Bp.

of Rome al spiritual power shal be derived to the rest of the

world; and that of his judgment al mankind shal depend,

as upon the only Vicar of Christ. For tho it hath been long

sufl^ered in this west part of the world, as a thing convenient

to the conservation of a certain unity ; yet to say, that it

should be likewise required in the whole world, if it were

christned, appeareth to me an extreme folly. The breaking

therfore of order is but a politic matter ; hke as the institu-

tion of the same was at the beginning. Wherfore, Master

RECORDS AND ORIGINALS. 293

Pole, blind not your conscience with such simplicity. Suffer

not your self to be deceived by a light persuasion, of the

which sort your book is ful. For plainly, to say to you even

as I think, your arguments in the matter are but vulgar and

common, set out with a more fair face and colour of elo-

quence, than with any deep and sure ground of truth and

equity. In so much I wonder manytimcs with my self, how

you fel into this extreme sentence of the primacy. Wherin

I thought you would have considered the matter with some

higher judgment, than doth the common sort of men of weak

capacity. 1 never thought you would have so followed the

common error of the world, and left the weighing of the

nature of the thing with an indifferent ey. But here I find

the proverb of the Greeks to be true, TojoDtoj Icttjv exua-rov,

&c. Every ma?i lightly drawes much of the maners of them

and judgments, with whom he is gladly conversant. The

Italian judgments are much bent to defend the honor of

their country ; which by the primacy of Rome hath been

much upholden. By the reason wherof you peradventure

have been somewhat more hard to receive the trvith of this

matter indifferently.
But I trust. Master Pole, hereafter the love of your own

country, your bounden duty to your Soveraign Lord and

INIaster, shal so prevail in your stomac, that you, in time re-

tracting your sentence, shal to your great comfort enjoy the

same quiet. For sorrowful I shal be to se you persist in

any such sentence and folly, wherby you should refuse to

come to the presence of your Prince, and perpetually to lack

the fruition of your natural friends and country.

And wheras of late 1 hear the Bp. of Rome hath invited

you to consult with him upon a council general, I would

advise you as one of your most loving friends, to consider \(\^

the cause wel, before you apply ; and look wel to the office

which you owe to your Prince : and suffer not your con-

science to be bound with a superstitious knot, conceived by

foolish scrupulosity. For if you judge your self more to be

bounden to that foreign Bp. than to your natural Soveraign

Lord, you shed, of a! wise men, I think, be judged to lack

u 3

294. APPENDIX OF
a great part of wit, and more of vertiie and lionesty. You

shal be judged plainly to be blinded Avith some great affec-

tion, and to be an untrue subject unto your master, and an

open enemy to your country : which you say you love so

intyrely. Consider therfore this matter with your self earn-

estly. For there hangeth more therupon, than I fear me

you conceive. For this one thing I shal say to you, which

I pray you fasten in your breast, that if you follow the

breves of the Pope to you directed, and busy your self to

set forth the sentence, which you have written to the King,

blowing up that authority with arrogaucy ; you shal be

noted in the Christian common weal as seditious a person

and minister, as great a breach to Christian unity, as ever

" In the Jiath don ^ anij others in our dayes, by their rashnes and

room of . ^ • 1 1 • 1 I 1 J J
these words temerity, r or as seditious is he, which al old customes and

was first usasres of the Church defendeth over obstinately, as he that

writ Mar- . . .
tyn Luther, without discretion subverteth al rashly.
but blotted Tj^^j,^^^.^^ Master Pole, revolve this thing wel in your

own mind; and let not the advice of Cardinal Contarini,

nor yet of the Bp. Chete, (if you have comitted your coun-

sils with them,) so weigh your stomac, that you forget al

humanity : regarding neither Prince, country, nor friend, for

a peevish popish matter. Ncc tibi, Pole, Ha imjwnas, tit

cum tuearis hanc Pontificis autlMritatetn , neg-otium Christi

te age)-e putcs. Ego certe vereor, ne dum hoc agis, Christum

plane deseras. Quid enim aliud est Christum deserere, qudm

legitimo Principi, qui in bonis artibus te liberaliter edtica-

vit, hi ho7iestissimis mandatis non obtemperare f Quid dul-

cissimoB patricB, qucB te aluit, operam tuam denegare ; pa-

reniibus et charissimis amicis humani kominis ojfficia non

prcestare ? At dices, et Princeps et patria Christum dese-

ruere. O Pole, quam hisanis, si proptem unum Pontijicem

desertum, nos Christum deseruisse arbitrere. Ego profecto

spero fore, ut post hanc a Pontijice defectioncm, arctius

Christo hcEvcamus.

And yet I wil not despair, but that you shal hereafter, as

a more obedient person to your Prince than to the Pope,

help lo set forward at home the truth of Christs doctrine,

RECORDS AND ORIGINALS. 295

to his honor and glory. For the which I shal never cease

to pray : and that you may se such light of truth, wherby

you may both in this case and in al other truly serve your

Prince and country : and that both you and I, with al other,

which make profession of Christs name, may also at the last

agree together in concord of opinion and unity.

Lapsus es, Pole, ab officio humani hom'mis, qui ob tarn

levem causam, patriam et parentes et optimum Principem

deseris : sed ignorantia plan^ lapsus es ; cui ego omues

omnium errores,juxta Platonem, tribuere soleo.

»
Number LXXXII. 199
Mr. Pole to the King; who had commanded him home to

explain his book.

PLEASETH it your Grace to be advertised, that I have Cleopatra,
, , 1 . , • 1 1 -• ^ 1 E. 6. p. 334.
received your most honorable letters, bearmg date the 14th

of June, delivered me the last of the same. Wherby your

Grace doth give me to understand, as wel of the receit of ray

book and letters addressed to your Gr. and sent by my

servant, as also declare your plesure touching the said book,

and me the author therof. That wheras there be divers

places that cannot so vively be perceived by writing as they

should be by conferring the same presently with the writer,

your Gr. having the desire in al points the book compre-

hendeth, to penetrate into the right meaning and sentence

therof; therupon you declare your plesure, that, al excuses

set apart, I should with al diligence repair unto your pre-

sence. So that, as far as I can learn by your Graces letter,

(but much more by Mr. Secretary, stirring me more vehe-

mently, and yet most of al by the bearer of both, informed

of your plesure by Master Secretary, which hath been most

fervent of al touching the suasion of my return,) your ex-

pectation at present is, not for any letter of mine, but rather

for my person, to appear presently, without delay, afore

your Gr. for the causes rehearsed. Wherin now^, if I testi-

fying God, that seeth the hearts of men, should this affirm,

that there was never thing that I more desired, than to obey

296 APPENDIX OF

your Graces commandment in this behalf, and that with al

dihgence, wherby I might, beside al other commodities of

my return, have this one great plesure to be interpreter of

mine own Avriting, (which not sincerely understood, might

be cause of many inconveniences,) surely I should say none

otherwise, than afore God I do think in my heart. But be-

cause my coming ensueth not hereof, I should no fail have

the less credence, unles that I did declare some great cause,

why my wil agreing with your Graces commandment, ne-

vertheles I do not put the same in execution.

Which cause now I shal shew, wherin needeth no further

proces to be used, if I say briefly, that he that calleth me

wil not let me come. Then if I say, your Gr. that called

me, hath put such an impediment in my Avay, that letteth

me, I cannot pas to your Gr. except temerariously I should

cast away my self. This surely and truly, afore God and

man, I may say, that being in that case I might go, or run,

your Gr. calhng me unto you. There is no let in this world

were able to retain me from coming to your Gr. but only

that procedeth of your self. Your Gr. alone may stop my

coming : no man of what condition soever he be, prince or

private, no other cause beside. I being as I am now at such

liberty, as for ony let in these parties, I might come. But

now how and in what maner do 1 say this, that your Gr.

doth let me, stop me, and utterly exclude me from coming

to you at this time, your Gr. having read ony part of my

book, I need no great declaration. For this I have there

200 expressed by a long process. But this briefly in plain words.

To shew now the same to your Grace : it is the law, the

which your Gr. wil shal stand in strength, that is in no

realme in Christendome used, but in yours ; that we never

had in yours but now alate, sineth the time you cast your

love and affection to her, which, as her deeds declared, never

bare love and affection towards you ; by which law every

man is made a traitor, that wil not agree to give you title,

to make you Head of the Church in your realm, and so to

accept you. This law, so sore in appearance against ihem

that do not agree therunto, with such extremity executed,

RECORDS AND ORIGINALS. 297

and put in effect with so sore severity against the best men

of your reahii, both in vertue and learning, put to execution

of death for the same, and suffering the pain of traitors;

which in heart and mind, as al their deeds show from the

beginning of their hfe to the latter dayes, had ever been

your most faithful servants : this lav/, being stil in vigor

and strength, against the which in a maner is al the process

of my book, your Gr. without any further discourse here

may soon perceive, if it be a sufficient impediment, that I do

not come at this ])resent.

And here your Gr. seeth, how I use no excuses for delay

of my coming, which you command me utterly to set apart,

albeit surely for the hastines of my coming at this time I had

many reasonable excuses, as the time of the year is, in these

extreme heats so unreasonable for me to journey, especially

as I found my body affect, when that message was brought

n)e, with divers just causes beside. But utterly if I should

have run through fire and water, tho I had been sick in my

bed, when the message came, I think nothing could have let

me, but I would have ventured to set forward at your call-

ing. But this cause I have now rehersed must needs take

away al such purpose, except I would be accounted a traitor

of my own life. For the which I am more bound to answer,

than for any other mans beside. IVtv body being not so

much mine own possession, as it is of God and Christ, that

hath redeemed me. Which I am boiuid to keep to his pie-

sure, and not temerariously to cast it away. So that in this

your Gr. now hearing what a great cause I have to let me,

or any of my opinion to come, where such laws be executed,

I trust I need to make no further process in justifying my

remaining in these parts, albeit your Graces letters cal. To

the which, I testify God, my mind is more prompter to

obey, than your Gr. to command, if this great let were not

unto me ; wherby I cannot but with grievous offence to

God put my mind in execution.
And now as touching the cause why your Gr. doth cal

me : which is for better information and understanding of

those things written in my book ; I cannot tcl how much

298 APPENDIX OF

your Gr. had read therin ; but this I wil say, (which I

think your Gr. reading the same shal find true,) that for un-

derstanding of things written there, I have handled them in

such plainnes, clearnes, and copiousnes, that there needeth

very smal comment therof, other of me the author, or of

any other, for the clear understanding, this being my chief

purpose to make al things clear. And so I doubt not, but

I have performed, in such maner whosoever understand ony

thing therin, that hath the least practise of such matters, he

201 shal understand the whole. And if there lack ony thing

for the understanding of my true sentence and meaning,

the which your Gr. writeth your desire chiefly to be en-

formed of, surely it is that thing, the which I cannot give,

that is an indifferent mind in the reader, such a mind to the

reader as I had when I writ it, delivered of al aff*ection, but

only of the truth, and your Gr. honour and wealth : this

mind I had when I writ. But whoso wil se that same in

me, he must bring the like with him, and read also the

whole course of my book. For he that readeth one part

alone, he may both deceive himself, and more be deceived

in the true meaning of my sentence. For in some part he

shal think by my words, I am the greatest enemy your Gr.

ever had, and that I mean more the undoing of your honor,

than the maintaining therof. But he that wil compare one

part with the other, beginning with the end, and confer the

whole process together, tho in some part he shal se the

matiers were so sore handled, yet he shal perceive the

ground of that sharp handling was rooted of most ardent

love, and tended to a most laudible and loving end : and

that there was never book written with more sharpnes of

words, nor again with more ferventnes of love and affection,

to maintain your honor and wealth both in this world and

in another.
Wherfore, as I said, here lyeth al the difficulty to under-

stand my true meaning in the book, to bring an indifferent

mind both to your Gr. to the cause, and to me : which had,

of the understanding the book, whosoever hath any smal

practise in that kind of letters, there can be no doubt. For

RECORDS AND ORIGINALS. 299

he hath the very key to open the whole secrets of my mind.

And as touching my self, this I wil say, taking on my side

to record God himself, who knoweth my mind, (which I

count he gave me,) my whole desire is, was, and ever shal

be, that your Gr. might reign long in honor, in wealth, in

surety, in love and estimation of al men. And this I do

say again, (remaining those innovations your Gr. hath of

late made in the Church,) that tlie desire that I have, and

al that love yon? was nor is not ony thing possible to take

effect, but rather to be contrary to that I desire, with great

loss of honor to stand in great peril divers wayes, not only

afore God, but in the face of the world : beginning here

that same, which hereafter should be more terrible. This

ony man of ony smal prudence might judge, and this was

in the mouth and judgment of al men, that ever I could

speak withal in such matters, that were at liberty to speak,

where they might shew their mind. But this men did not

only judge as of a thing to come, but of that they might se

dayly, how your honor and estimation is decreased in every

mans opinion, and therwith your peril must needs increase.

Tliis I testify God, I have not read a Prince spoken of

more universally with more dishonor, when your actions

come abroad to be known, then I have heard with my ears

in divers places, and generally whersoever I have come, to

the greatest sorrow that ever I bare in my mind : your ac-

tions giving matier to every matier of communication, for

the strangenes of them, that in no other realm hath been

used. Insomuch that if I should say, that I found my self

sometime in place, where I was not known my self, nor

your Gr. but by those actions ; taking upon me, as I have

been wont, openly to defend your cause, if I should say I

was in jeopardy of my life among them, to your cause per-

tained nothing unto, only incitate by the injustice they 202

judged therin, surely I should say none otherwise than the

truth is. And this is most true, that unto this day, touch-

ing these innovations, and the acts following, wheras I have

spoken with divers, and many of al sorts of men, to find

300 APPENDIX OF

but one that did praise them or allow them, this afore God

I never did.

But to let this pas now, and to give count to your Gr. of

my writing, which is my principal intent. The matier be-

ing in this case in the estimation of all men that ever I spake

withal, Cometh then your commandment unto me by Mr.

Secretaries letters, that I should write in the matier, and

shew my sentence in that principal matier, which was

ground of al innovation, touching the old ordinances of the

Church, when you take the name of the highest Head of

the Church in your realm. Here first was al my care, be-

cause your Gr. grounded your self of certain places of

Scripture, which divers books written in justification of your

cause did express.

The first that ever came to my hands was of Doctor

Sampsons. To that I made answer; taking away (as I

doubt not but whosoever read my book shal clearly per-

ceive) al the reasons and arguments (as nothing concluding)

that he putteth. Which don, I entred to confirm in his

place that Head of the Church, whom the Church so many

hundred years hath confessed to be institute by Christ him-

self, the first institutor of the whole Church. And herein

I do confound al such reasons as Dr. Sampsons book bring-

eth to the contrary. Which done, because sometimes the

verity and justice of a sentence is not only known by way

of argument, as it is by the fruit that followeth therof,

which fruit standing in the acts, which followed of this

title taken, albeit al came by your Graces authority, yet I

could never persuade my self, that your self did wel see or

know what they were. For I could never think, that re-

maining a spark of that generosity of nature, that I ever

judged to be in you, that the deeds being of such sort, as

every man knoweth they be, you could ever have found in

your heart to have don them, or suffered them to be don in

your realm. Which deeds, with the maintenance of your