See Appendix.
[88] The pillar, as well as the cross, was emblematical, and designed to imply, that the dignitary before whom it was carried was a pillar of the church. Dr. Barnes, who had good reason why these pillars should be uppermost in his thoughts, glances at this emblem, in the case of the cardinal, in the following words; “and yet it must bee true, because a pillar of the church hath spoken it.” Barnes’ Works, p. 210, A. D. 1572. See also Tindal’s Works, p. 370. W.
[89] It was made One of the Articles of Impeachment against him: “That by his outrageous Pride he had greatly shadowed a long season his Grace’s Honour.” Art. XLIV. Sir Thomas More, when Speaker of the House of Commons, noticing a complaint which had been made by the cardinal, that nothing could be said or done in that house, but it was presently spread abroad, and became the talk of every tavern or alehouse, “Masters, (says he) forasmuche as my lord cardinall latelie laied to our charges the lightnes of our tongues for things uttered out of this house, it shall not in my minde be amisse to receive him with all his pompe, with his maces, his pillers, pollaxes, his crosses, his hatt, and the greate seal too; to thintent, that if he finde the like fault with us heereafter, wee maie be the bolder from ourselves to laie the blame on those that his grace bringeth hither with him.” Roper’s Life of Sir Thomas More, p. 21, edit. 1817. Sir Thomas also, in his Apology, written in the year 1533, reflects severely upon the change introduced among the clergy, through the cardinall’s means, in the luxury and sumptuousness of their dress. Works, p. 892.
The pulpit likewise occasionally raised its voice against him. Doctor Barnes, who was burnt in Smithfield in the year 1541, preached at St. Edward’s Church in Cambridge, a sermon, for which he was called to appear before the cardinal. This was a part of their dialogue, as it is related in Fox: "What Master Doctor (said the cardinall) had you not a sufficient scope in the Scriptures to teach the people, but that my golden shoes, my pollaxes, my pillers, my golden cushions, my cross did so sore offend you, that you must make us ridiculum caput amongst the people? We were jolily that day laughed to scorne. Verely it was a sermon more fitter to be preached on a stage than in a pulpit; for at the last you said I weare a paire of redde gloves, I should say bloudie gloves (quoth you) that I should not be cold in the midst of my ceremonies. And Barnes answered, I spake nothing but the truth out of the Scriptures, according to my conscience, and according to the old doctors." Fox’s Acts, p. 1088. W.
The following curious passage from Doctor Barnes’s ‘Supplication to the King,’ printed by Myddelton, in 12mo, without date, is probably more correct than the exaggeration of the good old martyrologist. It opens to us, as Dr. Wordsworth justly remarks, some part of the philosophy upon which the cardinal defended the fitness of that pomp and state which he maintained.
“Theie have baculum pastolarem to take shepe with, but it is not like a shepeherdes hooke, for it is intricate and manifolde crooked, and turneth always in, so that it may be called a mase, for it hath neither beginning nor ending, and it is more like to knocke swine and wolves in the head with, than to take shepe. Theie have also pillers and pollaxes, and other ceremonies, which no doubte be but trifels and thinges of nought. I praye you what is the cause that you calle your staffe a shepeherdes staffe? You helpe no man with it? You comforte no man?—You lift up no man with it? But you have stryken downe kynges, and kyngedomes with it; and knocked in the head Dukes and Earls with it. Call you this a sheepeherdes staffe? There is a space in the shepeherdes staffe for the foote to come oute againe, but youre staffe turneth and windeth alwayes inwarde and never outewarde, signifieing that whatsoever he be that cometh within your daunger, that he shall neuer come oute againe. This exposition youre dedes do declare, let them be examined that you have had to do with; and let us see howe they have escaped youre shepeherdes hooke. But these be the articles for the which I must nedes be an heretike, never the less all the worlde may see how shamefully, that I have erred agaynst your holinesse in saying the truth. My Lord Cardinall reasoned with me in this article, all the other he passed over, saving this and the sixth article. Here did he aske, “if I thought it good and reasonable, that he shulde lay downe his pillers and pollaxes and coyne them?” Here is the heresye that is so abhomynable. I made him answere, that I thoughte it well done. “Than, (saide he), howe thynke you, were it better for me (being in the honour and dignitie that I am) to coyne my pillers and pollaxes and to give the money to five or sixe beggers; than for to maintaine the commenwelthe by them, as I do? Do you not recken (quod he) the commenwelthe better than fyve or sixe beggers?” To this I did answere that I rekened it more to the honour of God and to the salvation of his soule and also to the comforte of his poore bretheren that they were coyned and given in almes, and as for the commenwelthe dyd not hange of them, (where be they nowe?) for as his grace knewe, the commenwelthe was afore his grace, and must be when his grace is gone, and the pillers and pollaxes came with him, and should also go away with him. Notwithstanding yf the commenwelthe were in suche a condicion that it had nede of them, than might his grace so longe use them, or any other thinge in theyr stede, so long as the commenwelth neded them, Notwithstanding I sayd, thus muche dyd I not say in my sermon agaynst them, but all onely I dampned in my sermon the gorgeous pompe and pride of all exterior ornamentes. Than he sayde, “Well—you say very well.” But as well as it was said I am sure that these wordes made me an heretike, for if these wordes had not bene therein, mine adversaries durst never have shewed their faces against me. But now they knewe well that I could never be indifferently hearde. For if I had got the victorie than must all the Bishops and my Lord Cardinal have laid downe all their gorgeous ornamentes, for the which they had rather burne xx such heretikes as I am, as all the worlde knoweth. But God is mighty, and of me hath he shewed his power, for I dare say they never intended thing more in their lives, than they did to destroy me, and yet God, of his infinite mercy, hath saved me, agaynst all their violence: unto his Godly wisdome is the cause all onely knowne. The Byshop of London that was then, called Tunstal, after my departing out of prison, sayd unto a substancyal man, that I was not ded (for I dare say his conscience did not recken me such an heretike, that I wolde have killed myself, as the voyce wente, but yet wolde he have done it gladly of his charyte) but I was, saide he, in Amsterdam (where I had never been in my lyfe, as God knoweth, nor yet in the Countrey this ten yeares) and certaine men dyd there speake with me (said he) and he fained certaine wordes that they shulde say to me, and I to them, and added thereunto that the Lord Cardinal woulde have me againe or it shulde coste hym a greate somme of money, howe moche I do not clerelye remember. I have marvayle that my Lorde is not ashamed, thus shamefully and thus lordly to lye, althoughe he might doo it by auctoritie. And where my Lord Cardinal and he wold spend so moche money to have me agayne, I have great marvayle of it, What can they make of me? (I am now here, what say you to me?) I am a symple poore wretche, and worthe no mans money in the worlde (saving theirs) not the tenth peny that they will give for me, and to burne me or to destroye me, cannot so greatly profyt them. For when I am dead, the sunne, and the moone, the starres, and the element, water and fyre, ye and also stones shall defende this cause againste them rather than the verity shall perish.”
[90] Chambers, short guns, or cannon, standing upon their breeching without carriages, chiefly used for festive occasions; and having their name most probably from being little more than chambers for powder. It was by the discharge of these chambers in the play of Henry VIIIth. that the Globe Theatre was burnt in 1613. Shakspeare followed pretty closely the narrative of Cavendish.
[91] Mumchance appears to have been a game played with dice, at which silence was to be observed.
[92] Rounding, sometimes spelt rowning, i. e. whispering.
[93] “The king gave good testymony of his love to this lady, creating her in one day Marquesse of Pembroke (that I may use the words of the patent) for the nobylity of her stocke, excellency of her virtues and conditions, and other shewes of honesty and goodness worthyly to bee commended in her. And giving her a patent for a 1000 pounds yerely to maynteyne this honour with. She was the first woman, I read, to have honor given to her and her heyres male.”