On January 6 the marriage ceremony was performed at Greenwich by the archbishop, with much solemnity but also with great mournfulness. Henry comforted himself for his misfortune by the thought that he should be allied with the Protestant princes against the emperor, if only they would consent somewhat to modify their doctrine. On the morrow Cromwell again asked him how he liked the queen. Worse than ever, replied the king. He continued however, to testify to his wife the respect due to her.
It was generally anticipated that this union would be favorable to the Reformation. Butler, in a letter to Bullinger at Zurich, wrote: 'The state and condition of that kingdom is much more sound and healthy since the marriage of the queen than it was before. She is an excellent woman, and one who fears God; great hopes are entertained of a very extensive propagation of the Gospel by her influence.' And in another letter he says: 'There is great hope that it [the kingdom] will ere long be in a much more healthy state; and this every good man is striving for in persevering prayer to God.'[312] Religious books were publicly offered for sale, and many faithful ministers, particularly Barnes, freely preached the truth with much power, and no one troubled them.[313] These good people were under a delusion. 'The king,' they said, 'who is exceedingly merciful, would willingly desire the promotion of the truth.'[314]
FALLACIOUS HOPES.
But the Protestantism of the king of England was displayed not so much in matters of faith as in public affairs. He showed much irritation against the emperor; and this gave rise to a characteristic conversation. Henry having instructed (January, 1540) his ambassador in the Netherlands, Sir Thomas Wyatt, to make certain representations and demands on various subjects which concerned his government, 'I shall not interfere,' drily replied the grand potentate. Wyatt having further made complaint that the English merchants in Spain were interfered with by the Inquisition, the emperor laconically answered that he knew nothing about it, and referred him to Granvella. Wyatt then having been so bold as to remark that the monarch answered him in an ungracious manner,[315] Charles interrupted him and said that he 'abused his words toward him.' But the ambassador, who meant exactly to carry out his master's orders, did not stop, but uttered the word ingratitude. Henry considered Charles ungrateful on the ground that he had greatly obliged him on one important occasion. In fact, the emperor Maximilian having offered to secure the empire for the king of England, the thought of encircling his brows with the crown of the Roman emperors inflamed the ardent imagination of the young prince, who was an enthusiast for the romantic traditions of the Middle Ages. But, after the death of Maximilian, the Germans decided in favor of Charles. The latter then came to England, and the two kings met. Not very much is known of what they said in their interview; but whatever it might be, Henry yielded, and he believed that to his generosity Charles was indebted for the empire. 'Ingratitude!' replied the emperor to the ambassador. 'From whom mean you to proceed that ingratitude?... I would ye knew I am not ingrate, and if the king your master hath done me a good turn I have done him as good or better. And I take it so, that I can not be toward him ingrate; the inferior may be ingrate to the greater. But peradventure because the language is not your natural tongue, ye may mistake the term.' 'Sir,' replied Wyatt, 'I do not know that I misdo in using the term that I am commanded.' The emperor was much moved. 'Monsieur l'ambassadeur,' he said, 'the king's opinions be not always the best.' 'My master,' Wyatt answered, 'is a prince to give reason to God and to the world sufficient in his opinions.' 'It may be,' Charles said coolly.[316] His intentions were evidently becoming more and more aggressive. Henry VIII. clearly perceived what his projects were. 'Remember,' said the king the same month to the duke of Norfolk, whom he had sent as envoy extraordinary to France, 'that Charles has it in his head to bring Christendom to a monarchy.[317] For if he be persuaded that he is a superior to all kings, then it is not to be doubted that he will by all ways and means ... cause all those whom he so reputeth for his inferiors to acknowledge his superiority in such sort as their estates should easily be altered at his arbitre.' These words show that Henry possessed more political good sense than was usually attributed to him; but they are not exactly a proof of his evangelical zeal.
THE SAXON AMBASSADORS.
He did something, however, in this direction. Representatives of the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse had accompanied Anne of Cleves to England. Henry received them kindly and entertained them magnificently; he succeeded so well in dazzling them by his converse and his manners, that these grave ambassadors sent word to their masters how the nuptials of his majesty had been celebrated under joyful and sacred auspices.[318] Nevertheless, they did not conceal from Henry VIII. that the elector and the landgrave 'had been thrown into consternation, as well as many others, by an atrocious decree, the result of the artifices of certain bishops, partisans of Roman impiety.' Thereupon the king, who wished by all means to gain over the evangelical princes, declared to their representatives 'that his wisdom should soften the harshness of the decree, that he would even suspend its execution, and that there was nothing in the world that he more desired than to see the true doctrine of Christ shine in all churches,[319] and that he was determined always to set heavenly truth before the tradition of men.' In consequence of these statements of the king the Wittenberg theologians sent to him some evangelical articles, to which they requested his adherence, and which were entirely opposed to those of Gardiner.[320] We shall presently see how Henry proceeded to fulfil his promises.
Cromwell was anxious to take advantage of these declarations to get the Gospel preached, and he knew men capable of preaching it. He relied most of all on Barnes, who had returned to England with the most flattering testimonials from the Wittenberg reformers, and even from the elector of Saxony and the king of Denmark. Barnes had been employed by Henry in the negotiation of his marriage with Anne of Cleves, and had thus contributed to this union, a circumstance which did not greatly recommend him to the king. There were, besides, Garret, curate of All Saints' Church, in Honey-lane, of whom we have elsewhere spoken;[321] Jerome, rector of Stepney, and others. Bonner, who on his return from France was elected bishop of London, and who was afterwards a zealous persecutor, designated these three evangelical ministers to preach at Paul's Cross during Lent in 1540. Bonner, perhaps, still wished to curry favor with Cromwell; or perhaps these preachers had been complained of, and the king wished to put them to the test.[322] Barnes was to preach the first Sunday (Feb 14); but Gardiner, foreboding danger, wished to prevent him, and consequently sent word to Bonner that he should that day preach himself. Barnes resigned the pulpit to this powerful prelate, who, well aware what doctrine the three evangelicals would proclaim at St. Paul's, was determined to prevent them, and craftily to stir up prejudices against the innovators and their innovations. Confutation beforehand, he thought, is more useful than afterwards. It is better to be first than second; better to prevent evils than to cure them. He displayed some ingenuity and wit. Many persons were attracted by the notion that the Reformation was a progress and advance. He alleged that it was the contrary; and, taking for his text the words addressed to Jesus by the tempter on the pinnacle of the temple, Cast thyself down, he said: 'Nowadays the devil tempteth the world and biddeth them to cast themselves backward. There is no forward in the new teaching, but all backward. Now the devil teacheth, Come back from fasting, come back from praying, come back from confession, come back from weeping for thy sins; and all is backward, insomuch that men must now learn to say their Pater-Noster backward.'[323] The bishop of Winchester censured with especial severity the evangelical preachers, on the ground that they taught the remission of sins through faith and not by works. Of old, he said, heaven was sold at Rome for a little money; now that we have done with all that trumpery the devil hath invented another—he offers us heaven for nothing. A living faith which unites us to the Saviour was counted as nothing by Gardiner.
BOLDNESS OF BARNES.
On the following Sunday Barnes preached. The lord-mayor and Gardiner, side by side, and many other reporters, says the Chronicle, were present at the service. The preacher vigorously defended the doctrine attacked by the bishop; but unfortunately, he indulged, like him, in attempts at wit, and even in a play upon his name, complaining of the gardener who would not take away the tares from the garden of the Lord. This punning would anywhere have been offensive; it was doubly offensive in the pulpit in the presence of the bishop himself. 'Punning,' says one, 'the poorest kind of would-be wit.' Barnes, however, appears to have been conscious of his fault; for before he closed his discourse he humbly begged Gardiner, in the presence of all his hearers, to lift up his hand, if he forgave him. Gardiner lifted up only a finger. Garret preached energetically the next Sunday; but he studiously avoided offending any one. Lastly, Jerome preached, and taking up the passage relating to Sarah and Hagar in the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, maintained that all those who are born of Sarah, the lawful wife, that is, who have been regenerated by faith, are fully and positively justified.[324]