Footnote 552: Ibid., iv., 6111.[(back)]
Footnote 553: It has been denied that More either persecuted or gloried in the persecution of heretics; but he admits himself that he recommended corporal punishment in two cases and "it is clear that he underestimated his activity" (D.N.B., xxxviii., 436, and instances and authorities there cited).[(back)]
Footnote 554: Dr. Gairdner (Engl. Hist. Rev., xi., 675) speaks of the "full diplomatic correspondence which we possess"; the documents are these: (1) an undated letter (L. and P., iv., App. 105) announcing the ambassador's arrival in England; (2) a letter of 21st March (iv., 2974); (3) a brief note of no importance to Dr. Brienne, dated 2nd April (ibid., 3012); (4) the formal commission of Francis I., dated 13th April (ibid., 3059); (5) the treaty of 30th April (3080); and (6) three brief notes from Turenne to Montmorenci, dated 6th, 7th and 24th April. From Tarbes himself there are absolutely no letters relating to his negotiations, and it would almost seem as though they had been deliberately destroyed. Our knowledge depends solely upon Dodieu's narrative.[(back)]
Footnote 555: L. and P., iv., 4942.[(back)]
Footnote 556: "There will be great difficulty," wrote Clerk, "circa istud benedictum divortium." Brewer interpreted this as the earliest reference to Henry's divorce; it was really, as Dr. Ehses shows, in reference to the dissolution of the precontract between Francis I. and Charles V.'s sister Eleanor (Engl. Hist. Rev., xi., 676).[(back)]
Footnote 557: L. and P., iv., 3231.[(back)]
Footnote 558: Ibid., iv., 4231, 4942. Henry's own account of the matter was as follows: "For some years past he had noticed in reading the Bible the severe penalty inflicted by God on those who married the relicts of their brothers"; he at length "began to be troubled in his conscience, and to regard the sudden deaths of his male children as a Divine judgment. The more he studied the matter, the more clearly it appeared to him that he had broken a Divine law. He then called to counsel men learned in pontifical law, to ascertain their opinion of the dispensation. Some pronounced it invalid. So far he had proceeded as secretly as possible that he might do nothing rashly" (L. and P., iv., 5156; cf. iv., 3641). Shakespeare, following Cavendish (p. 221), makes Henry reveal his doubts first to his confessor, Bishop Longland of Lincoln: "First I began in private with you, my Lord of Lincoln" ("Henry VIII.," Act II., sc. iv.); and there is contemporary authority for this belief. In 1532 Longland was said to have suggested a divorce to Henry ten years previously (L. and P., v., 1114), and Chapuys termed him "the principal promoter of these practices" (ibid., v., 1046); and in 1536 the northern rebels thought that he was the beginning of all the trouble (ibid., xi., 705); the same assertion is made in the anonymous "Life and Death of Cranmer" (Narr. of the Reformation, Camden Soc., p. 219). Other persons to whom the doubtful honour was ascribed are Wolsey and Stafileo, Dean of the Rota at Rome (L. and P., iv., 3400; Sp. Cal., iv., 159).[(back)]
Footnote 559: L. and P., iv., 5291. This examination took place on 5th and 6th April.[(back)]
Footnote 560: Ibid., iv., 3140.[(back)]
Footnote 561: L. and P., iv., 5859; cf. iv., 737.[(back)]