'Thomas Crumwell.'
After having signed the letter, Cromwell, overpowered with terror at his future prospects, added:—
'Most gracious prince, I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy.'[343]
The heads of the clerical party, impatient to be rid of an enemy whom they hated, hurried on the fatal decree. The Parliament met on Thursday, June 17, seven days after Cromwell's imprisonment; and Cranmer, who had attended the sittings of the House of Lords on the previous days, was not present on this occasion. The earl of Southampton, who had become lord keeper of the privy seal in Cromwell's place, entered and presented the bill of attainder against his predecessor. It was read a first time. The second and third readings followed on Saturday the 19th. Cranmer, whose absence had probably been noticed, was present; and, according to his lamentable system, adapted to the despotism of his master, after having complied with the dictate of his conscience by calling to mind the merits of Cromwell, he complied with the will of the king, and by his silence acquiesced in the proceedings of the House. The bill was sent to the lower House. It appears that the commons raised some scruples or objections, for the bill remained under consideration for ten days. It was not until June 29 that the commons sent the bill back to the peers, with some amendments; and the peers, ever in haste, ordered that the three readings should take place at the same sitting. They then sent it to the king, who gave his assent to it. The man who was prosecuted had been so powerful that it was feared lest he should regain his strength and begin to advance with fresh energy.
The king, meanwhile, seems to have hesitated. He was less decided than those who at this time enjoyed his favor.
Although the lord chancellor, the duke of Norfolk, and Lord Russell had come to announce to Cromwell that the bill of attainder had passed, he remained still a whole month in the Tower. The royal commissioners interrogated him at intervals on various subjects. It seems even that the king sent him relief, probably to mitigate the severities of his imprisonment. Cromwell habitually received the king's commissioners with dignity, and answered them with discretion. Whether the questions touched on temporal or ecclesiastical affairs, he ever showed himself better informed than his questioners.[344]
HIS LETTER TO THE KING.
Henry sent word to him that he might write any thing that he thought meet under his present circumstances. From this, Cromwell appears to have conceived a hope that the king would not permit his sentence to be executed. He took courage and wrote to the king. 'Most gracious king,' he said, 'your most lamentable servant and prisoner prostrate at the feet of your most excellent majesty, have heard your pleasure ... that I should write.... First, where I have been accused to your majesty of treason, to that I say, I never in all my life thought willingly to do that thing that might or should displease your majesty.... What labors, pains, and travails I have taken, according to my most bounden duty God also knoweth.... If it had been or were in my power, to make your majesty so puissant, as all the world should be compelled to obey you, Christ he knoweth I would,... for your majesty hath been... more like a dear father... than a master.... Should any faction or any affection to any point make me a traitor to your majesty, then all the devils in hell confound me, and the vengeance of God light upon me.... Yet our Lord, if it be his will, can do with me as he did with Susan, who was falsely accused.... Other hope than in God and your majesty I have not.... Amongst other things, most gracious sovereign, master comptroller shewed me that your grace shewed him that within these fourteen days ye committed a matter of great secresy, which I did reveal.... This I did.... I spake privily with her [the queen's] lord chamberlain... desiring him... to find some mean that the queen might be induced to order your grace pleasantly in her behavior towards you.... If I have offended your majesty therein, prostrate at your majesty's feet I most lowly ask mercy and pardon of your highness.... Written with the quaking hand and most sorrowful heart of your most sorrowful subject and most humble servant and prisoner, this Saturday at your [Tower] of London.
'Thomas Cromwell.'[345]
Cromwell was resigned to death; and the principal object of his concern was the fate of his son, his grandchildren, and likewise of his domestic servants. His son was in a good position, having married a sister of the queen Jane Seymour. 'Sir, upon my knees,' he said, 'I most humbly beseech your gracious majesty to be good and gracious lord to my poor son, the good and virtuous woman his wife, and their poor children, and also to my servants. And this I desire of your grace for Christ's sake.' The unhappy father, returning to his own case, finished by saying, 'Most gracious prince, mercy, mercy, mercy!'[346] Cromwell wrote twice in this manner; and the king was so much affected by the second of these letters that he 'commanded it thrice to be read to him.'[347]