Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell, Vol. 1 of 2 / Life, Letters to 1535

by Roger Bigelow Merriman

Nor can the fact that Cromwell’s name figures prominently in connexion with the publication of the Ten Articles of 1536 be justly urged as a reason for ascribing to him any real devotion to the cause of Protestantism. Now that the severance from Rome was complete, the King and his minister saw that a definition of the faith of the Church of England had become necessary, in order that the unity of the new ecclesiastical system might be preserved. The Ten Articles of 1536 were adopted to make good this deficiency. Circumstances had rendered them inevitable, and the fact that Cromwell presented them to Convocation, and signed them first of all the members proves nothing, except perhaps the importance of his ecclesiastical office. The Ten Articles declared the Bible and the three Creeds to be the only Rule of Faith: Penance, Baptism, and the Eucharist were kept as sacraments: the veneration of saints, soliciting of their intercession, use of images, and the usual ceremonies in the service, though still held to be highly profitable, and as such worthy to be retained, were pronounced in themselves powerless to justify the soul[265]. But though the main aim of these Articles was doubtless to preserve the integrity of the Church of England at home, the time and circumstances under which they were published seem to indicate that they were also intended to serve a purpose abroad. We shall hear of them in this connexion in another chapter.

Cromwell’s zeal for the publication of the Bible in English, and also his injunctions to the clergy[266], must in the same way be attributed to political rather than to religious motives. He saw what a powerful weapon the Bible had become in the hands of the German Reformers, and soon succeeded in forcing Convocation, on December 19, 1534, to present a petition to the King for the suppression of treasonable books in the vulgar tongue, and for a translation of the Scriptures into English[267]. Less than two years later Cromwell’s efforts were rewarded by the appearance of an edition of the Scriptures patched together ‘out of Douche[268] and Latyn’ by his friend Miles Coverdale. There seems to have been a very general impression current that all passages which might have been interpreted in favour of Katherine, had purposely been rendered in the opposite sense[269]. But this version was soon destined to be superseded. The following year witnessed the appearance of the edition which is usually known as Matthew’s Bible, and which consisted of a combination of the translations of Tyndale and Coverdale. It received the official sanction of Cromwell and Cranmer, but its life was almost as short as that of its predecessor. In the autumn of 1537 Grafton and Whitchurch, two London printers whose names had been connected with the previous editions, received a licence from the King to publish a new version of the Bible at Paris, where the facilities for carrying on their trade were better than in England[270]. At first the work seems to have progressed with great success, and in September, 1538, the King’s minister, in anticipation of its speedy completion, issued injunctions that a copy of it should be placed in every church at the cost of the parson and the parishioners, and that no one was to be discouraged from reading it: he advised, however, that ‘the explication of obscure places’ be referred ‘to men of higher iugement in scripture[271].’ But Cromwell was a little premature with his injunctions. An unforeseen event occurred, which made the immediate publication of the new edition impossible. The Royal Inquisition had apparently got wind of the doings of Grafton and Whitchurch at Paris, and just as the task was approaching completion, they and all their subordinates, and the French printer at whose house the work was being carried on, were suddenly cited to appear before the Inquisitor-General for the realm of France[272]. The Englishmen made haste to escape, without even waiting to collect the implements of their trade or the Bibles that had already been printed. Cromwell, on hearing of the disaster, went with a piteous tale to the French ambassador, telling him that he himself had contributed 600 marks towards the publication of the Bible in Paris, and begging him to ask his master to permit the work to be continued there, or at least to allow the copies already finished to be sent to England safely, and not to suffer the Inquisition to confiscate them. But Francis replied that good things might be printed in England as well as in France, but that bad things should never be permitted to be printed in Paris, and he further refused to deliver up the copies already completed. He was unable, however, to prevent the final accomplishment of the work in London in 1539[273]. The new version, commonly known as the Great Bible, was the last authorized translation completed in the reign of Henry VIII., but apparently great efforts had to be made to prevent the publication of unlicensed editions. It was not long before a royal commission was issued to Cromwell, commanding him, in order to avoid diversity of translations, to see that no man printed any English Bible during the next five years except persons deputed by himself[274].

Perhaps the strongest point of Cromwell’s domestic administration was his financial policy. He never forgot the promise he had made on entering the King’s service to make Henry ‘the richest king that ever was in England,’ for he was shrewd enough to see that a full treasury was the first essential to the attainment of the larger aim of his policy, the establishment of a royal despotism. He skilfully contrived that many of the measures of the earlier years of his ministry, primarily intended to cut the bonds which held England to Rome, should also serve to increase the wealth of the Crown. The most noteworthy and successful of these measures was the abolition of the Annates. There can be little doubt that it was through Cromwell’s agency that a supplication was addressed to the King early in the year 1532[275] urging him to arrest the payment of First Fruits to the Papacy: ‘bokes of annates’ and remembrances concerning them are to be found in large numbers among the minister’s letters and papers[276], and the petition by which the measure to abolish the First Fruits was initiated was a method especially characteristic of him, reminding us in many respects of the way in which the independence of the clergy had been attacked but a short time before. But the King was very cautious in granting the request, which had thus been laid before him. He had not yet given up all hope of a peaceful solution of his difficulty with the Pope, and was not yet prepared, as Cromwell was, openly to defy the Holy See. So at first he determined to try the effect of a threat. The immediate result of Cromwell’s efforts was the passage in Parliament of an Act[277] which abolished Annates, but preserved to the Holy See certain payments on bulls obtained for the election of bishops: the ratification of this statute by the Crown, however, was expressly withheld, and the Act consequently remained inoperative, while a post was sent to Rome ‘to frighten the Pope about the Annates[278].’ But this plan failed: Clement refused to be terrorized into submission; the King became convinced that a complete break was inevitable, and, in July, 1533, the Act was ratified and declared in force by letters patent[279]. The following year saw the passage of another statute, which abolished all the payments preserved by the exceptions to the Act of 1532[280], and a little later Parliament completed the work which Cromwell had forced it to undertake by annexing the Annates to the Crown[281]. Supplementary to these statutes was the Act concerning Peter’s Pence and Dispensations[282], by which the Pope was deprived of all contributions that had not already been arrested by the Acts about Annates. The use to which the rescued funds were put is aptly described by a significant ‘remembrance’ of Cromwell’s to the effect that ‘thenhabitauntes and peple of this realme shall pay yerely vnto the kyng for ever, in lieu or stede of smoke pence, whiche they were wont to pay to the busshop of rome, for euery hed or house a certayne small thyng for and towardes the defense of thys Realme, whiche may be ymployed in makyng of forteresses throughout the Realme[283].’ Another significant paragraph, from a letter of Chapuys to Charles V., of Dec. 19, 1534, reads as follows: ‘The King, besides the 30,000 pounds which he newly obtained from the clergy, and an ordinary fifteenth from the laity, which was granted him last year, and which may amount to 28,000 pounds, has just imposed a tax by authority of Parliament, of the twentieth penny of all the goods of his subjects, and that foreigners shall pay double, which will amount to a great sum. These are devices of Cromwell, who boasts that he will make his master more wealthy than all the other princes of Christendom: and he does not consider that by this means he alienates the hearts of the subjects, who are enraged and in despair, but they are so oppressed and cast down, that without foreign assistance it is no use their complaining, and it will not be Cromwell’s fault, if they are not oppressed further[284].’

The King’s minister also appears to have been much occupied with the coinage. He was constantly present at ‘assayes’ of gold and silver, and further took active steps to stamp out the counterfeiters, of whom there appear to have been a great number[285]. He caused a proclamation to be issued ‘for the false and clipped Coyne going in this Realme with a greate punyshment to euery person that is founde with any false or counterfeit moneye.’ The systematic debasement of the currency that disgraced the reign of Henry VIII. had begun under Wolsey, but appears to have ceased entirely during Cromwell’s ministry: it began again after Cromwell’s death, assuming far greater proportions than before, and continued till the end[286]. That the King did not need to resort to such costly methods of replenishing his treasury while Cromwell was in power, bears eloquent testimony to the wisdom and success of his minister’s finance. The latter’s efforts to prevent the ‘conveying of coyne out of the realme’ shows that he saw the importance of securing plenty of good coin for English trade, and that he did not want to create an artificial cheapness. The statutes of Henry VII. forbidding the export of precious metals had been renewed by his son in an Act passed in 1511, but this law had run out in 1523, and from that time onward there was no legal hindrance to the practice, though the statutes enacted previous to Tudor times were still considered in force[287]. The result was that the earlier laws began to be transgressed, and Cromwell, in devising methods to prevent further infringements of them, hit upon the expedient of a royal proclamation, as we have already had occasion to notice.

Another most important measure passed during Cromwell’s ministry, was the so-called Statute of Uses[288]. It was at the same time a legal and a financial reform. In order to evade the common law, which prohibited testamentary disposition of landed property and rendered it strictly subject to primogeniture, the custom had long been prevalent that the owner should name before or at his death certain persons to whose ‘use’ his lands should be held. These persons became to all intents and purposes the true devisees; for though the trustee, or ‘feoffee to uses,’ alone was recognized by the common law, the beneficiary or ‘cestui que use’ soon began to receive strong support through the equitable jurisdiction of the Chancellor, and so was often able actually to enforce claims which originally had rested merely on moral obligation. This was the usual method of circumventing the laws of the realm, in order to make provision by will for younger children. In this particular it was perhaps legitimate, but at the same time it opened the way to a great number of abuses, which are stated at length in the preamble to the statute just mentioned. The chief of these were the extraordinary complication of titles to land, which resulted from the secret methods of devising it, and the loss to the King and the great lords of the feudal dues on successions, wardships, and marriages. Two ineffectual attempts had been made to remedy these evils in the reigns of Richard III. and Henry VII.[289], and at Cromwell’s accession to power the subject was brought up again. There is reason to think that the Statute of Uses was under consideration as early as 1531, and the main principle of it bears a close resemblance to the measure devised in the reign of Richard III. A mention of it occurs in Cromwell’s ‘remembrances’ of the year 1535[290], but it was not finally passed until 1536, probably on account of the popular opposition, which, according to Chapuys, was very pronounced. The upshot of the statute was, that all right to the estate was taken from the grantee to uses and vested in the beneficiary, and the distinction between legal and beneficial ownership was thus entirely destroyed. The ostensible tenant was made in every case the legal tenant; those entitled to the use of land became the actual holders of it. The Act further was intended to abolish the right to create further uses in the future: the power of disposing of interests in land by will was thus removed, and the King was restored to the enjoyment of his ancient feudal dues.

Beyond the casual mention in his ‘remembrances[291]’ there is no precise record of Cromwell’s connexion with this important measure. It is worthy of note, however, that the attainments needed to plan and draft such a statute were precisely those which Cromwell possessed in the very highest degree—intimate knowledge of the law, and great shrewdness in finance. The bold and effective way in which the measure struck at the root of the evil, and caused the extra-legal practice which had grown up to become its own ruin, is very characteristic of him. Furthermore, Cromwell was certainly believed to be the originator of the measure by the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace, which was partially caused by it, and as such his death was demanded. It therefore seems highly probable that it was he who devised this scheme in order to deal the death blow to a very annoying practice of evading the law, and to enrich the royal treasury. The statute, however, was not entirely successful in attaining the ends at which it aimed, for by a strained interpretation of the letter of the Act, the courts managed to evade the spirit of it, so that it failed to do away with the old distinction between beneficial and legal ownership, which it had been intended to destroy. In addition to this, the popular outburst of indignation aroused by the Statute of Uses was so strong that a few months before Cromwell’s death he saw the actual right of at least partial testamentary disposition of landed property obtained by the people. The Act concerning the willing of land by testament[292], passed in the spring of 1540, gave to every tenant in fee simple the right to bequeath at his pleasure all lands which he held by socage tenure, and two-thirds of the lands which he held by knight-service. The force of usage was such that when the King and Cromwell attempted to abolish a practice, which had rendered the willing of land possible under another name, the actual right to bequeath landed property without circumventing the law was wrested from them.

The King was glad to entrust his capable adviser with the preservation of that advantageous commercial position which had been won for England through the masterful policy of Henry VII. Cromwell’s varied experience in foreign markets and his intimate knowledge of all the details of the wool-trade, which was by far the most important element of English commerce, had taught him in his earlier years many lessons of which the whole nation was to reap the benefit. In general his administration witnessed but few departures from the highly successful commercial policy inaugurated by the first Tudor. His aim was rather to strengthen the advantages already gained, and to increase the security of English commerce and industry against the competition of continental rivals, than to attempt any radical innovations. The monopoly of the trade in the Mediterranean which Venice had enjoyed in Lancastrian times, had been a serious menace to the interests of the English merchants; but the Italian wars had now almost totally deprived the Republic of that prominent political position which she had occupied at the beginning of the century, and with the loss of her national greatness her commercial supremacy fell. The ancient privileges which had been granted to Venetian merchants and galleys previous to Tudor times, had been exchanged for a set of stringent enactments, which dealt a heavy blow to her trade and shipping during the reign of Henry VII. Cromwell followed the same policy, and further seized the favourable opportunity afforded by Venice’s decline to foster the interests of English merchants in other parts of the Mediterranean[293]. With the towns of the Hanseatic League the case was slightly different. The extensive privileges the merchants of the North German cities had enjoyed in earlier times, had raised them to such a commanding position that the growth of English commerce in the north was rendered well-nigh impossible. Henry VII.’s aim had been to overthrow the supremacy of the Hanseatic League, by a gradual withdrawal of the concessions which it had wrung from his predecessors. The early part of his son’s reign had witnessed a continuation of this wise policy, but during Cromwell’s ministry an alliance which the threatening situation on the Continent had led England to conclude with Lübeck, necessitated a temporary cessation of the process of curtailing the privileges of the Hanse merchants[294]. But the loud outcries of the people against the destructive competition of the Germans were sufficient to prevent Cromwell from making any permanent stand in their favour. Political necessity alone had induced him to postpone the complete withdrawal of their privileges: he knew that the tendency of the times was irresistibly against the Hanseatic towns, and he was perhaps the more willing to grant them a few temporary concessions in that he realized that nothing could ever raise them again to the position of dangerous rivals to English trade. His foresight was justified by the event; the process which Henry VII. had begun was completed by the fall of the Steelyard in the reign of Elizabeth. A more difficult problem was presented by the Netherlands. England and the Low Countries were commercially indispensable to each other; the English wool-market in Flanders was the centre of the mercantile interests of both nations. The merchants of the Netherlands, however, had contrived to get the better of their English neighbours until the accession of the house of Tudor; but the concessions which resulted from the temporary removals of the English wool-mart from Antwerp to Calais by Henry VII., and the enormously advantageous commercial treaty which that King was able to wring from the Archduke Philip when fortune had thrown the latter into his hands in 1506, had completely altered the situation to England’s profit[295]. The efforts of Henry VIII. and Wolsey had been directed towards preserving the provisions of the agreement of 1506, the validity of which the Netherlanders were of course unwilling to acknowledge. Cromwell went further than this; his administration witnessed not only the maintenance and increase of all the advantages which his predecessor had secured, but also the discussion of a plan for attaining complete commercial independence of the Low Countries, by bringing home the English wool-mart to London[296]. This scheme was not carried through, owing to the unwillingness of the King to offend the Emperor; but the news of the proposals for it was soon known in the Netherlands, and was not without its effect there. The merchants of the Low Countries were greatly alarmed lest they should lose the English trade, and instead of opposing every move which their rivals made, now began to grant them all possible concessions. The Emperor’s dread of alienating Henry also contributed to force them to adopt a more conciliatory attitude than ever before, and it may be justly said that at the close of Cromwell’s administration the mercantile relations of England and the Netherlands were so regulated as to secure every advantage for the former. Cromwell’s whole commercial policy was strongly influenced by his desire to increase and improve English shipping, especially at the last, when an invasion was threatened from the Continent[297]. His ‘remembrances’ are filled with items for appropriations for building and rigging vessels of various kinds, and for making and improving harbours[298]. He did his utmost to clear the Channel of pirates, and was diligent in writing letters to demand restitution of goods taken from English merchants at sea[299]. In 1540 he caused an Act to be passed for the ‘maintenance of the navy[300]’: one of its provisions restricted the privileges conferred on all foreign merchants by a proclamation in the previous year[301] to those who transported their wares in English ships.

Throughout Cromwell’s ‘remembrances’ occur countless minor items dealing with miscellaneous questions of internal reform. Memoranda for the building and improvement of roads and highways, for bettering the state of the coast defences, and for the regulation of the rates of wages, are especially numerous. In 1538 he aided Norfolk in suppressing a sort of strike among the Wisbech shoemakers, who had agreed to stop work unless their wages were raised from 15d. to 18d. per dozen boots sewed[302]. It is perhaps unnecessary to state that this strike was regarded as a revolt against authority, and that the masters gained an easy victory over the men. Among Cromwell’s injunctions to the clergy in 1538 is an order to keep parish registers of births, marriages, and deaths[303]. Apparently this measure was intensely unpopular, especially in the south-west of England, where people seem to have got the notion that ‘some charges more than hath been in time past shall grow to them by this occasion of registering of these things[304].’ Precisely what the immediate object of the injunction was it is difficult to say, though there is little reason to think that the fears it aroused among the people of Cornwall and Devonshire were realized. It has been grudgingly applauded by one writer, and characterized as ‘an inadequate attempt to supply the loss of the registers of various kinds which had been kept by the monks[305]’; but its inadequacy, however great, might well pass unmentioned, in the face of the many benefits which later resulted from it. However unpopular the measure may have been at the time, its author certainly deserves the thanks of posterity for preserving a vast amount of valuable information which would otherwise have been lost.

A few words remain to be added concerning Cromwell’s zeal for the advancement of learning. As his political schemes had caused him incidentally to take sides with the Reformation, his object was to strengthen those who favoured the new religion and opposed Rome. Education is necessary to reform; and Cromwell did not intend to leave to ignorant men the task of carrying on the work he had begun. He therefore took steps to see that the opportunities for learning were improved. Among the injunctions which he issued to the clergy in 1536[306], is a clause providing for an increased number of exhibitions at the schools and the Universities, ‘to thintent that lerned men maye hereafter spring the more.’ His dealings with Oxford and Cambridge do not seem to have been very important, although in June, 1535, he was appointed Chancellor of the latter in place of Fisher. He appears to have been much occupied in suppressing the various quarrels that constantly took place between the students and the townspeople, and the letters which he wrote to the Magistrates of Cambridge deal for the most part with this problem[307]. In October, 1535, the King appointed him Visitor to the University, and at the same time promulgated nine injunctions in which he directed the Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of Cambridge to abandon the ‘frivolous questions and obscure glosses’ of the schoolmen, to read and teach the Scriptures, and to swear to the Royal Supremacy and the new Succession[308]. Henry’s minister, as usual, was the instrument employed to see that the injunctions were enforced. Of Cromwell’s relations to Oxford still less remains to be said. There are letters from him concerning the admission of a President of Magdalen in 1535[309], and the election of a Master of Balliol in 1539. The latter appears to have been a most disreputable character, and Cromwell’s assertion that he was chosen without ‘any parcyalyte or corruptyon’ was certainly false[310]. A very interesting but comparatively well-known report from the pen of Dr. Layton gives us a vivid picture of the state of the University in 1535, and tells of the foundation of several new lectures at the various colleges[311].

As a reward for his success in the management of domestic affairs, the King conferred on him the many dignities and titles which, in 1536, marked the height of his power. He had been raised to the offices of Privy Councillor, Master of the Jewels, Clerk of the Hanaper, and Master of the King’s Wards in 1531 and 1532. The Chancellorship of the Exchequer had followed in 1533. He became Principal Secretary to the King in 1534, Master of the Rolls in the same year, Vicar-general and Visitor-general of the Monasteries in January, 1535, Lord Privy Seal, Vicegerent of the King in Spirituals[312] in July, 1536. He was also created Baron Cromwell of Okeham in the same month, and Knight of the Garter in August, 1537. During the last seven years of his ministry he was granted no less than nineteen minor offices, through which his income must have been very greatly increased[313]. Just prior to the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace, Cromwell’s position was almost that of a despot. He was supreme in Convocation, Privy Council, and Parliament; he enjoyed paramount authority in the direction of internal affairs, and next to the King was by far the most important man in the realm.