was raging, he wrote again to Philip on the observance due to the Apostolic See, "in which," said he, "God has chosen His Vicar to reside, and as head of the Church there to be respected by all its members."* To the Pope also he sent two earnest expostulations concerning the danger and scandal of so bloody a quarrel between such persons, particularly with regard to England and the Queen: asking at the same time for instructions for himself how to proceed in the recovery of the kingdom, for that the Pope never communicated with him, and he was working in the dark. The Queen herself, who had dared so much for Rome, remonstrated with the Pontiff, exhorting him to abstain from disturbing her husband's affairs, and letting him know that the people of England were greatly encouraged, from that cause, to resume Lutheran opinions. On his part the Pope put forth another Bull of jubilee for all who would pray for peace.§

* Venetian Cal. p. 696.

Venetian Cal. p. 623.

† Poli Epist. v. p. 20, 22.

§ Carne to King and Queen, December. Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, 278.

CHAPTER XXIX.

1557.

BEFORE Pole became Canterbury it was said that a great part of the English priests wished him back in Rome.* But as it regarded their temporal interests, it is possible that the English priests may have seen reason to alter their opinion during the three years that Pole occupied the primacy. To his disposition was entrusted the great gift of the Crown to the clergy, the tenths and firstfruits, the rectories, glebes, and benefices appropriate, which Mary had resigned, to the amount of some sixty thousand pounds a year; a benefaction which was however considered to be subject to the payment of the pensions and corrodies of the late religious and the chantry priests. Eighteen months after the gift was given, Pole certified the bishops that all the poorest livings, those of twenty marks and under of annual value, were free thenceforth from the payment of tenths promising, as the pensions were discharged by decease, to disburden the rest of the clergy.† A year afterwards he wrote again to the bishops: "Hitherto, for want of a perfect understanding of the state of the fund which their Majesties have placed at our disposition, we could not fully perform our desire of * Calend. of State Papers, Dom. 74.

+ From Richmond, 3 Aug. 1557. Wilkins, iv. 153.

releasing the clergy from their perpetual tenths, but only the poorest livings: now however, finding that there is an overplus after payment of all pensions and such other charges, we remit one half of the tenths of all the clergy, of the bishops, and the capitular bodies, besides those tenths of the poorest, that have been remitted: And, as some bishops will have to make up payments of pensions, even after these remissions, while others will have an overplus when they have paid pensions and such charges, we order that the overplus of the one supply the wants of the other: thus Canterbury and Rochester are overburdened, Sarum has an overplus: let Sarum pay some of the charge of Rochester and Canterbury London is overcharged, particularly with synodals for the Abbot of Westminster: let Norwich and Exeter, which have overplus, undertake some of the burden of London: Peterborough has an overplus, and may relieve Ely, Lincoln, Bath, Gloucester, and Oxford, which are all overcharged: Wigorn is overcharged, there is an overplus in Hereford: let Hereford discharge some of Wigorn: the overplus of Chichester may lighten the burden of Winton and Coventry and Lichfield may be relieved out of the abundance of St. David." Pole might have counted himself among

He gives the exact sums, which is interesting.

the pensioners of Winchester: the thousand pounds. annually derived to him from that diocese savoured indeed simoniacally: and both he and White are said to have sought for it the papal absolution. His conduct in the management itself of the Queen's gift has been questioned, upon the point whether he ought to have paid all the pensions of the late regulars out of it but for that he alleged a provision of the Act of Parliament concerning the grant.* It was not in integrity that Pole was defective in the care of a trust his better qualities would appear, and as it regarded money he was both generous and scrupulous. To the remission of tenths he added the benevolent design of restoring to the

April 1, 1558: Wilkins, iv. 175, 176. How proposed Pole to make such benevolent transferences of overplus" to deficiency? His simple plan was straitly to charge a bishop having an overplus to put it in a chest with three keys, and not to open the chest till he told him what to do with the overplus. Wilkins, 148.

* Archbishop Parker, Pole's successor, reflects unfavourably on his management of this trust: that the clergy thought, when the royal concession was made, that they would have no longer to pay tenths and firsts, and yet they had to pay them in full to Pole: that the pretext for this was the payment of the pensions of the monks out of it; that this was Pole's doing, to save the Queen's pocket; and that the Queen's gift did the clergy more harm than good: "Quibus (monachis) Polus ex illis decimis ac primitiis satisficiendum esse suasit, ne cum extenuatis regiis facultatibus ærarium publicum tantas largitiones ferre non possit, regina liberalitate sua detrimentum sentiat, Ita hæc reginæ concessio multo magis obfuit quam profuit," &c. Antiq. 527. Pole himself conceived that he was following the Act of Parliament, which was passed "with a proviso nevertheless in the same act that the said tenths should still continue to be answered, and go towards the payment of pensions, corrodies, annuities, and other charges, the discharging whereof the clergy had for the consideration aforesaid undertaken, as by the same act more plainly appeareth." Letter in Wilkins, 153. The provision is in 2 and 3 P. and M., 4. § 7: and is perfectly clear: the crown was to be exonerated from all such pensions, and the clergy were to undertake them.

bishops the patronage of the rectories and vicarages that was vested in the Crown, in consideration of a sum of seven thousand pounds to be paid by the bishops collectively and the last instrument perhaps that was issued in this reign was the Privy Seal ordering this concession in general, and surrendering to the Bishop of Canterbury the patronage of nineteen benefices.*

It was not in the management of money, but of men and of affairs that the defects of the character of Pole were discernible. In the heat of the persecution he abandoned his diocese to reckless subalterns, shutting his eyes to their rigours, willing not to know what was done by them, though feeling himself bound not to forbid it. He made such works as he did, the Synod, the monetary trust, an excuse and screen, to keep alive the applause of conscience and the appearance of active and spontaneous exertion. He clung to the Queen.† With the Queen he moved from Greenwich to St. James's, from St. James's to Richmond: and if he resorted for any short space to his own manors of Croydon or Lambeth, the Queen was not far distant,

* November 5, 1558, Wilkins, iv. 177. How far this design was carried out, I am unable to say but it was in progress to the very last days of Pole and Mary. Among the domestic papers of the reign. there are this grant to Canterbury, dated October 25 and docketed November 10: a similar grant to the Archbishop of York, Oct. 29, docketed Nov. 10: to Chichester: to Lincoln, both Nov. 5, docketed Nov. 10: to Worcester: to Winchester: to Carlisle to London: to York again of patronage omitted before: all these made and docketed Nov. 10. Domestic Calend. pp. 108, 9, 11, 12. Pole's successor, Parker, remarks, somewhat harshly, that the nineteen benefices restored to Canterbury was the only good that Pole ever did his see, save that he made some additions to Lambeth palace.

+ Michiel says that Pole usually saw the Queen for two or three hours every day. "The Cardinal being occupied from morning till night with perpetual audiences, besides his interviews with the Queen, who for the most part chooses to remain apart with him daily for two or three hours, would be compelled to resign, or expire of fatigue, without the assistance of M. Priuli." Report of England, 1557. Ven. Cal. 1071.