and talks of returning.": him instructions were issued by the Queen to Paget and Hastings to conduct him: but he was to be admitted into the realm not as a legate, but as a cardinal ambassador,† on the explicit understanding that the Pope should dispense all possessors of monastic and collegiate lands and goods to hold them still and that he should procure this power, if he had it not already. He procured it: § the English envoys proceeded to Brussels along with The time seemed come for * Wotton and Mason to the Queen, Calend. of State Pap. Foreign, p. 72, 82, 125, 132. Cf. Tytler, ii. 352, 387. It may be observed that there was an exact parallel to this in English history. In the fifteenth century, in 1428, when the Bishop of Winchester, Beaufort, was created a cardinal and also constituted legate by the great pope Martin the Fifth, an appeal was made by the proctor of the English crown against the Pope and the court of Rome to the next general council, in case of aught attempted in the character of legate to the prejudice of any rights or privileges: but the appeal contained that the bishop might act as a cardinal. "Simul atque compertum est episcopum legatinam potestatem, irrequisito rege, suscepisse et legatina insignia tulisse," the proctor put in the appeal, which affirmed “Quod nullus apostolicæ sedis legatus venire debeat in regnum regis Angliæ, aut alia sua terras et dominia, nisi ad regis Angliæ pro tempore existentis vocationem, petitionem, requisitionem, seu rogatum: Romanis pontificibus tolerantibus et consentientibus tam tacite quam expresse." It was added however, "Si dictus Episcopus non tanquam legatus, sed tanquam cardinalis, quidquam dicere, aperire, aut proponere a papa regi vellet, sibi liceret." Parker, Antiquit. 425 (in Chicheley). Tytler, ii. 446. § Several of Pole's letters refer to this. He wrote to the Pope that his powers were not so ample as interested persons desired: that to the words componendi et transigendi should be added cedendi et remittendi: and that a clause about having recourse to the Apostolic See in arduis et gravibus should be omitted. Brussels, Oct. 19 and 23. Ven. Cal. 581, 2. The Pope seems to have acceded to both alterations: the latter clause appears not in the "Bulla potestatem concedens C. Polo Angliam Eccles. Romanæ reuniendi": and the former clause runs, "Ac cum possessoribus bonorum ecclesiasticorum (restitutis prius, si tibi expedire videretur, immobilibus per eos indebite detentis) super fructibus male perceptis, ac bonis mobilibus consumptis, concordandi et transigendi ac eos desuper liberandi et quietandi." Wilkins, iv. 92. Pallavicino says that the two words transigendi et componendi made the possessors suspicious lest Pole should erect a tribunal and try them all. Con. di Trent, xiii. 9, 5. Cecil and presently reported that the Cardinal would set forth for England, proposing to travel slowly by short stages because of his infirm health.* On the day of the commencement of the journey, the English escort to the number of forty, and the Italian household and friends of Pole met in the court of the abbey where he slept: and at the sound of the trumpet a hundred and twenty cavaliers sprang to horse. The feeble Cardinal issued forth, was lifted into a litter, and began his progress to the land of his nativity. The dear Priuli, the intelligent Ormanetto, the elegant Floribello, Stella the younger, Bernardi, others of his intimates, not to speak of the Englishmen Richard Pate the titular Bishop of Worcester, and Thomas Goldwell and William Peto the Observant, formerly of Greenwich, surrounded his moving couch, while in successive days he accomplished the distance to Ghent, to Bruges, to Nieuport, to Dunkirk. At Gravelines, in a state barge in the centre of the stream that marked the boundary of the English pale, appeared Lord Wentworth the governor of Calais : and, according to the enthusiastic description which we owe to one of the Italians present, from the time that the exile touched English ground, all seemed to move in an atmosphere of wonder. The bells of Calais, as he entered the town, burst into peals of ravishing sweetness. The salutes fired by the artillery in the forts and the ships in the harbour were entrancing to the ear. By an astonishing coincidence the watchword of the garrison for the night was, "God long lost is found." In the morning the * Tytler, ii. 451, 457. Mr. Froude thinks it necessary to explain how Cecil could come to conduct Pole, vi. 266, note. His note hereon is a curiosity. Cecil had conformed without hesitation, and was going comfortably to Mass. + "In lingua Inglese questo motto, DIO GRAN TEMPO PERDUTO E HORA RITROVATO." Descriptio Reductionis Angliæ ad Catholicam unitatem. This, which is published in Pole's Epistles, Part V. 303 stormy west wind that had blown for a week in a gale which kept all vessels in port and had been predicted by mariners likely to last, sank suddenly by miracle: * the seas were laid, and a gentle breeze from the opposite quarter filled the sails of the fleet that waited to waft the apostolic flock to England. At noon they stepped on board, and flew to Dover, a distance of forty miles, in the marvellously short space of three hours and a half, landing the same evening, November 20, and passing the night at the former priory of St. Martin, once a dependency of Canterbury. The next morning appeared Lord Montague, and Pole's friend Bishop Thirlby of Ely (new from Brussels), with a guard of honour and soon afterwards Nicolas Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, with a deputation from the Chapter. Harpsfield inquired whether Pole would be received at Canterbury by the clergy in the style of a legate: to which the answer was that not before he had seen the Queen, not so long as the realm was schismatical. After dinner, which was ceremoniously served, a cavalcade of four hundred horsemen, splendidly equipped, conducted the Cardinal from Dover to Canterbury: and the new pilgrimage was welcomed by the rejoicing citizens who saw in imagination the honours of St. Thomas restored, and their hostels and lodgings filled again with his votaries. The archdeacon had gone forward, to do the utmost that he was allowed to welcome the returning exile, who had descended from his litter and ridden on horseback into the town. He stood at the door of his residence: the ruins of the palace of the archbishops were in view: † and as the evening was closing in, the blaze of lighted torches (Edit. Brussels, 1757), is from a work, "sine loco et nomine impresso" entitled "Il felicissimo Ritorno del Regno d'Inghilterra alla Catholica Unione ed alla obedientia della sede Apostolica." * "La mutatione del tempo, che fu miracolosa." Ib. + It had been burned in a fire that happened some years before. illuminated the group, while Harpsfield pronounced an elaborate gratulatory oration. He extolled the providence of God, by which, in a marvellous manner, the life of Pole had been preserved amidst a thousand dangers. "Thou art Pole," he exclaimed, "the pole of the kingdom of heaven that openest to us. All nature longs for thee: for thee the sky, the waters, the earth, these very walls, have sighed. When thou wast absent all things were sad and disastrous: at thy coming all things wear the smile of joy and peace." ""* At this point Pole interposed and gravely said, "So long as you were praising God, I heard you with pleasure: my own praises I desire not to hear: I desire not to hear of qualities which I know not to be in myself: give God the praise." Such was his first contact with an official who was destined, it may be conjectured, to cast an unfavourable shadow over the rest of his career. Pole now sent forward one of his company, Pate, to inform the King and Queen of his prosperous progress. He then advanced to Sittingbourne; thence on the following day, November 23, to Rochester: and in the episcopal city of his predecessor in the cardinalate, who had made room for him by a death upon the scaffold, he assumed, November 24, his messenger being returned with a royal request to that purpose, pomp of a legate, the recognized minister of the Pope. A cross, two silver pillars, two poleaxes of silver were borne before him the Italians smilingly instructed a willing throng in the disused ceremonies that were wont to mark the presence of so great a person; and the joy of an ever increasing concourse conducted a solemn procession from the Tu es Polus qui aperis nobis polum regni coelorum: Aer, flamma, terra, parietes ipsi, omnia denique te desiderant. Quamdiu abfuisti, omnia fuerunt tristia, et adversa: in adventu tuo omnia rident, omnia læta, omnia tranquilla. Ib. Rochester to Gravesend. There the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Bishop of Durham were waiting to receive the exile: who presented him with the Act of Parliament reversing his attainder, and restoring his family to hereditary honour. This new decree was sealed with a golden seal; and bore, which was an extraordinary circumstance, the royal assent: for the King and Queen had been to the House of Lords, and given assent to it the day before: instead of signing it, as usual, with the rest of the Acts at the end of the Session. The Bishop of Durham presented him also with letters patent for the exercise of his legatine functions: and this formal admission or permission saved the independence of the realm.* A fleet of barges, the royal barge splendidly decorated, tossed in the river: the company embarked in a rapture of joy and admiration and wonder seemed crowned when Jordan, as it were, was driven back; and they, though they were coming from the sea, found themselves rapidly ascending with the tide against the stream.† Borne swiftly onward, *Burnet first mentions this. "There was a commission sent him under the great seal, bearing date the 10th of November, authorising him to exercise his legatine power in England. By this he (Gardiner) showed them that no legate should ever come into England to execute any power till his faculties were seen and approved by the Queen. Others thought this was but a vain imagination," &c. Pt. II. Bk. ii. Harmer, or Wharton, has attempted to correct Burnet as to the date. "This license bears date on the 10th of December that year as may be seen in the Cardinal's own Register, where it is enregistered." Specimen of Errors, 142. The corrector is incorrect for once at least: the license bears date 10 November, as may be seen from the copy in the Cardinal's own Register, fol. 7. (Litteræ patentes regiæ de jurisdictione legatina exercenda: dat. November 10.) Where would have been the sense of sending Pole a license so late as December, when he had already exercised his jurisdiction to the full? The document is printed in Strype, v. 248, and in Wilkins, iv. 109, with the right date. +"Con quella felice insigna della Croce, nella quale si sperava ogni vittoria, si cominciò a navigare verso Londra: e ancor che si andasse contro acqua, si navigava nondimeno come a secondo; perchioche era il reflusso del mare : il quale a le hore consuete suole per la larghezza grande del fiume; legni maggiori dell' Oceano infino a Londra," &c. Descriptio |