But they were taxed afresh directly afterwards.It was fortunate for them,indeed,that so many nobles were so greedy for this wealth;since,if it had remained with the Crown,there might have been no end to tyranny for hundreds of years.One of the most active writers on the Church's side against the King was a member of his own family-a sort of distant cousin,REGINALD POLE by name-who attacked him in the most violent manner (though he received a pension from him all the time),and fought for the Church with his pen,day and night.As he was beyond the King's reach-being in Italy-the King politely invited him over to discuss the subject;
But he,knowing better than to come,and wisely staying where he was,the King's rage fell upon his brother Lord Montague,the Marquis of Exeter,and some other gentlemen:who were tried for high treason in corresponding with him and aiding him-which they probably did-and were all executed.The Pope made Reginald Pole a cardinal;but,so much against his will,that it is thought he even aspired in his own mind to the vacant throne of England,and had hopes of marrying the Princess Mary.His being made a high priest,however,put an end to all that.His mother,the venerable Countess of Salisbury-who was,unfortunately for herself,within the tyrant's reach-was the last of his relatives on whom his wrath fell.When she was told to lay her grey head upon the block,she answered the executioner,'No!My head never committed treason,and if you want it,you shall seize it.'So,she ran round and round the scaffold with the executioner striking at her,and her grey hair bedabbled with blood;and even when they held her down upon the block she moved her head about to the last,resolved to be no party to her own barbarous murder.All this the people bore,as they had borne everything else.
Indeed they bore much more;for the slow fires of Smithfield were continually burning,and people were constantly being roasted to death-still to show what a good Christian the King was.He defied the Pope and his Bull,which was now issued,and had come into England;but he burned innumerable people whose only offence was that they differed from the Pope's religious opinions.There was a wretched man named LAMBERT,among others,who was tried for this before the King,and with whom six bishops argued one after another.When he was quite exhausted (as well he might be,after six bishops),he threw himself on the King's mercy;but the King blustered out that he had no mercy for heretics.So,HE too fed the fire.
All this the people bore,and more than all this yet.The national spirit seems to have been banished from the kingdom at this time.
The very people who were executed for treason,the very wives and friends of the 'bluff'King,spoke of him on the scaffold as a good prince,and a gentle prince-just as serfs in similar circumstances have been known to do,under the Sultan and Bashaws of the East,or under the fierce old tyrants of Russia,who poured boiling and freezing water on them alternately,until they died.
The Parliament were as bad as the rest,and gave the King whatever he wanted;among other vile accommodations,they gave him new powers of murdering,at his will and pleasure,any one whom he might choose to call a traitor.But the worst measure they passed was an Act of Six Articles,commonly called at the time 'the whip with six strings;'which punished offences against the Pope's opinions,without mercy,and enforced the very worst parts of the monkish religion.Cranmer would have modified it,if he could;
but,being overborne by the Romish party,had not the power.As one of the articles declared that priests should not marry,and as he was married himself,he sent his wife and children into Germany,and began to tremble at his danger;none the less because he was,and had long been,the King's friend.This whip of six strings was made under the King's own eye.It should never be forgotten of him how cruelly he supported the worst of the Popish doctrines when there was nothing to be got by opposing them.
This amiable monarch now thought of taking another wife.He proposed to the French King to have some of the ladies of the French Court exhibited before him,that he might make his Royal choice;but the French King answered that he would rather not have his ladies trotted out to be shown like horses at a fair.He proposed to the Dowager Duchess of Milan,who replied that she might have thought of such a match if she had had two heads;but,that only owning one,she must beg to keep it safe.At last Cromwell represented that there was a Protestant Princess in Germany-those who held the reformed religion were called Protestants,because their leaders had Protested against the abuses and impositions of the unreformed Church-named ANNE OF CLEVES,who was beautiful,and would answer the purpose admirably.The King said was she a large woman,because he must have a fat wife?