talke, not onely to the end that your Maiestie might with lesse griefe passe ouer this paynfull time of your infirmitie, being intentiue to our talke, & hoping that your Maiestie should reape some ease therby: but also that I hearing you Maiesties learned discourse, might receaue to my self some profit therof. Wherin I assure your Maiestie I haue not missed anye part of my desire in that behalfe, alwayes referring my selfe in all such matters vnto your Maiestie, as by ordinaunce of nature it is conuenient for me to doo.

MarginaliaPerfecte agrement betwen the kyng & the Queene.And is it euen so sweete hart, quoth the king? And tended your argumentes to no worse an ende? Then perfect friendes we are nowe againe, as euer at anye tyme heretofore: and as hee satte in hys chaire, embracing her in hys armes and kissing her, hee added this saying: that it did him more good at that tyme to heare those wordes of her own mouth, then if he had heard present newes of an hundreth thousand poundes in money fallen vnto him. And with great signes and tokens of marueilous ioy and liking, with promises and assurances, neuer agayne in any sort more to mistake her, entring into other very pleasaunt discourses with the Queene & the Lordes, & Gentlemē standing by, in þ^e end (being very farre on þ^e night) he gaue her leaue to depart. Whom in her absence to the standers by, he gaue as singular and as effectuous cōmendations, as before time to the Bishop and the Chauncelor (who then were neither of them present) he seemed to mislike of her.

MarginaliaThe kyng abhorred the malicious workynges of the bloudye Papistes.Now then (God be thanked) the kinges minde was cleane altered, & he detested in his hart (as afterwards he plainly shewed) this tragicall practise of those cruell Cayphases: who nothing vnderstanding of the kings well reformed mynde, and good disposition toward the Queene, were busily occupied about thinking and prouiding for their next dayes labour, which was the daye determined to haue caried the Queene to the Tower.

MarginaliaThys purpose being altered that the Ladyes should be first taken, it was then appoynted that they with the Queene should altogether be apprehended in maner as is here declared.The day and almost the houre appointed being come, the king being disposed in the after noone to take the ayre (waited vpon with two gentlemen onely of his bed chamber) went into the Garden, whether the Queene also came, being sent for by þ^e king himself, the three Ladies aboue named, alone waityng vppon her. With whom the king at that time dysposed him selfe to be as pleasant as euer he was in al his lyfe before: when sodainly in the myddest of their myrth, the houre determined being come, in commeth the L. Chauncellour into the Garden, with a fourtye of the kinges garde at hys heeles, with purpose in deede to haue taken the Queene together with the three Ladyes aforesayde, whome they had before purposed to apprehende alone, euen then vnto the Tower. Whom the king sternly beholding, and breaking of his myrth with the queene, stepping a litle a side, called the Chauncellour vnto him. Who vpon his knees spake certayne woordes vnto the king, but what they were (for that they were softly spoken, and the king a good prety distance from the queene) it is not well knowen: but it is most certayne that the kinges replying vnto him was, MarginaliaThe king reuileth Wrysley L. Chauncellour.knaue, for his aunswere: yea, arrant knaue, beast, and foole, MarginaliaThe Lord Chauncellour commaunded to auaunte out of the kynges sight.and wyth that the king commaunded him presently to auaūt out of presence. Which words although they were vttered somewhat low, yet were they so vehemently whyspered out by þ^e king, that the Queene did easely with her Ladies aforesayd ouer heare them: which had bene not a litle to her comfort, if she had knowen at that time the whole cause of his comming so perfectly, as after she knewe it. MarginaliaWrysleyes deuises, & Winchesters plateforme, lye in the dust.Thus departed the L. Chauncellour out of the kings presence as he came, with all his trayne, the whole mould of all his deuise being vtterly broken.

The kyng after his departure immediatly returned to þ^e Queene. Whō she perceiuing to be very much chafed (albeit cōmyng towards her, he enforced him self to put on a mery coūtenaunce) with as sweete wordes as she could vtter, endeuoured to qualifie the kyng his displeasure: with request vnto his Maiestie in the behalfe of the Lord Chauncellor, whom he seemed to be offended withall: MarginaliaThe Queene maketh excuse for her enemy.saying for his excuse, that albeit she knew not what iust cause his Maiestie had at that tyme, to be offended with him, yet she thought that ignoraunce, not will, was the cause of his errour: and so besought hys Maiestie (if the cause were not very haynous) at her humble sute to take it.

Ah poore soule (quoth hee) thou litle knowest how euill hee deserueth this grace at thy handes. Of my worde (sweete hart) he hath bene towardes thee, an arrant knaue, and so let hym goe. To this the Queene in charitable maner replying in fewe woordes, ended that talke: MarginaliaThe Queene by Gods marueilous blessing deliuered of all her aduersitie.hauyng also by Gods only blessyng, happely for that tyme and euer, escaped the daungerous snares of her bloudy and cruell ennemies for the Gospels sake.

¶ The pestiferous purpose of this Byshop, and of such lyke bloudy aduersaries practising thus agaynst þ^e queene, & procedings of gods gospel (as ye haue heard) putteth me in remēbraūce of an other lyke story of hys wicked workyng in like maner, a litle before, but much more pernicious and pestilent to the publicke Church of Iesus Christ, then this was daungerous to the priuate estate of the Queene. Whiche story likewyse I thought here as in cōuenient place, to be adioyned and notified to be knowen to all posteritie, accordyng as I haue it faithfully recorded and storyed by him, which heard it of þ^e Archbishop Cranmers owne mouth declared, in order and forme as foloweth.

¶ A discourse touching a certaine pollicie vsed by Steuen Gardiner bishop of Winchester, in staying Kyng Henry the. VIII. from redressing of certayne abuses of ceremonies in the Churche, being Ambassadour beyonde the seas  

Commentary     Close

Between 1535 and 1539, Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, was frequently on the continent, involved in embassies to both France and Germany. No league between England, France and the Empire was ever concluded, however, during this period. Rather, the events described here (to the extent that they took place) are contextualised by an entente agreed between King Francis I of France and Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, in 1538. This was the same year that Henry VIII sent out a set of Injunctions to his clergy, which Eamon Duffy characterises as outlawing 'in one fell swoop' pilgrimages as well as 'virtually the entire external manifestation of the cult of the saints, and also what was in many regions the single most common feature of mortuary piety, by forbidding the burning of candles before any image and commanding the quenching of the lights which…burned in their dozens during divine service in every church and chapel in the land' (Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 [New Haven, 1992], p. 407).

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If one takes the Injunctions of 1538 (and Duffy's interpretation of them) as a measure, then it is not difficult to interpret them as reflecting a reformist 'mood' in 1538 that will be reversed over the course of the next year. The years between 1538 and the end of Henry VIII's reign have traditionally been considered a period of conservative 'backlash' when it comes to religious policy in England, resulting in such measures as the Act of the Six Articles (1539), the King's Book and the Act for the Advancement of Religion (both in 1543), the execution of Thomas Cromwell (1540), and the burning of Anne Askew and others. Foxe is wedded to a view of the 1540s in line with this interpretation. Indeed, he was its historiographical originator. In this interpretation, the story of Gardiner in France - successfully blocking further reform - is part and parcel. Nevertheless, Foxe's telling of this story here lends itself to an interpretation of events of the 1540s at least partly in line with recent scholarship arguing for analysis of Henrician domestic policy, certainly between 1538 and 1540, against a backdrop of foreign policy. According to Foxe, Henry aborted such reform in order to facilitate the creation of a league comprising England, the French and the German emperor. While this was never concluded, it is evident that the league successfully concluded between France and the Empire had an important effect on Henrician policy, both religious and foreign. The threat to England and its apostate king (excommunicated in December 1538) posed by an alliance between these two Roman Catholic powers was immense. And while the period between 1538 and 1540 saw negotiations between England and German members of the Schmalkaldic League intensify (and fail), and while Henry's desire for non-Romanist allies in Germany during this period also resulted in his ill-fated marriage to Anne of Cleves, it is also the case that Henry was concerned to find room to maneuver in his relationships with Francis I and Charles V.

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For interpretations measuring the influence of foreign policy considerations on the framing of domestic religious policy see Rory McEntegert, Henry VIII, the League of Schmalkalden and the English Reformation (London, 2002); Alec Ryrie, The Gospel and Henry VIII: Evangelicals in the Early English Reformation (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 29-34; Richard Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (Basingstoke, 1993), pp. 154-55. G.W. Bernard makes a compelling argument for the importance of Henry's concern to find leverage with both France and the Empire, and the extent to which that motivated the execution of Cromwell (G.W. Bernard, , The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church [New Haven, 2005], pp. 556-69).

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IT chaunced in the time of king Henry the eyght, when hys hyghnes did lastly (not many yeares before hys death) conclude a league betwene the Emperour, the French king, and himselfe, MarginaliaSteuen Gardiner Ambassadour.that the byshop of Wynchester Steuen Gardiner by name, was sent in Ambassade beyonde the Seas, for that purpose. In whose absence the archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, attending vpon the kinges court, sought occasion somwhat to further the reformation of the corrupt religion, not yet fullye restored vnto a perfection. For like, as the sayd Archbishop was alwayes diligent and forward to preferre and aduaunce the sincere doctrine of the Gospell: so was that other bishop a contrarye instrument, continuallye spurning against the same, in what soeuer coast of the world he remayned. For euen now he being beyond þ^e Seas in the temporall affaires of the Realme, forgat not but founde the meanes, MarginaliaWinchester a great hinderer of the course of the Gospell.as a most vigilant Champion of the byshop of Rome, to stop and hinder, aswell the good diligence of the sayd Archbishop, as the godlye disposition of the kings Maiesty in that behalfe: which thus chaunced.

Whilest the sayd bishop of Winchester was nowe remaining beyond þ^e Seas, about þ^e affaires aforesayd, MarginaliaThe kynges cōference with D. Cranmer about reformation of the Church.the kinges Maiestie, and the sayd Archbishop, hauyng conference together for the reformation of some superstitious enormities in the church: MarginaliaRoode loftes.amongst other thinges, the king determined forthwith to pull downe the Roodes in euerye church, MarginaliaRinging on Alhallow night.and to suppresse the accustomed ringing on Alhallow nyght, with a fewe such like vayne ceremonies: And therefore, when the sayde Archb. taking his leaue of the king, to go into Kēt his dioces, his highnes willed him to remēber, þ^t he should cause ij. letters to be deuised: for me (quoth the kyng)