The History of England, Volume III Henry VIII A parliament
by David Hume
[15th April.] Henry soon after summoned a parliament, together with a convocation; and found neither of them in a disposition to complain of the infringement of their privileges. It was only doubted, how far they would carry their liberality to the king. Wolsey, who had undertaken the management of the affair, began with the convocation; in hopes, that their example would influence the parliament to grant a large supply. He demanded a moiety of the ecclesiastical revenues to be levied in five years, or two shillings in the pound during that time; and though he met with opposition, he reprimanded the refractory members in such severe terms, that his request was at last complied with. The cardinal afterwards, attended by several of the nobility and prelates, came to the house of commons; and in a long and elaborate speech laid before them the public necessities, the danger of an invasion from Scotland, the affronts received from France, the league in which the king was engaged with the pope and the emperor; and he demanded a grant of 800,000 pounds, divided into four yearly payments; a sum computed from the late survey or valuation, to be equal to four shillings in the pound of one year’s revenue, or one shilling in the pound yearly, according to the division proposed.a So large a grant was unusual from the commons; and though the cardinal’s demand was seconded by Sir Thomas More the speaker, and several other members attached to the court, the house could not be prevailed with to comply.b They only voted two shillings in the pound on all who enjoyed twenty pounds a year and upwards; one shilling on all who possessed between twenty pounds and forty shillings a year; and on the other subjects above sixteen years of age a groat a-head. This last sum was divided into two yearly payments; the former into four, and was not therefore at the outmost above six-pence in the pound. The grant of the commons was but the moiety of the sum demanded; and the cardinal, therefore, much mortified with the disappointment, came again to the house, and desired to reason with such as refused to comply with the king’s request. He was told, that it was a rule of the house never to reason but among themselves; and his desire was rejected. The commons, however, enlarged a little their former grant, and voted an imposition of three shillings in the pound on all possessed of fifty pounds a year, and upwards.NOTE [E] The procedings of this house of commons evidently discover the humour of the times: They were extremely tenacious of their money, and refused a demand of the crown, which was far from being unreasonable; but they allowed an encroachment on national privileges to pass uncensured, though its direct tendency was to subvert entirely the liberties of the people. The king was so dissatisfied with this saving disposition of the commons, that, as he had not called a parliament during seven years before, he allowed seven more to elapse, before he summoned another. And on pretence of necessity, he levied, in one year, from all who were worth forty pounds, what the parliament had granted him payable in four years;d a new invasion of national privileges. These irregularities were commonly ascribed to the cardinal’s counsels, who, trusting to the protection afforded him by his ecclesiastical character, was the less scrupulous in his encroachments on the civil rights of the nation.
That ambitious prelate received this year a new disappointment in his aspiring views. The pope, Adrian VI. died; and Clement VII. of the family of Medicis, was elected in his place, by the concurrence of the imperial party. Wolsey could now perceive the insincerity of the emperor, and he concluded that that prince would never second his pretensions to the papal chair. As he highly resented this injury, he began thenceforth to estrange himself from the imperial court, and to pave the way for an union between his master and the French king. Meanwhile, he concealed his disgust; and after congratulating the new pope on his promotion, applied for a continuation of the legantine powers, which the two former popes had conferred upon him. Clement, knowing the importance of gaining his friendship, granted him a commission for life; and by this unusual concession, he in a manner transferred to him the whole papal authority in England. In some particulars, Wolsey made a good use of this extensive power. He erected two colleges, one at Oxford, another at Ipswich, the place of his nativity: He sought, all over Europe, for learned men to supply the chairs of these colleges: And in order to bestow endowments on them, he suppressed some smaller monasteries, and distributed the monks into other convents. The execution of this project became the less difficult for him, because the Romish church began to perceive, that she over-abounded in monks, and that she wanted some supply of learning, in order to oppose the inquisitive, or rather disputative, humour of the reformers.
[a] This survey or valuation is liable to much suspicion, as fixing the rents a great deal too high: Unless the sum comprehend the revenues of all kinds, industry as well as land and money.
[b] Herbert, Stowe, 518. Parliamentary History. Strype, vol. i. p. 49.
[NOTE [E]] It is said, that when Henry heard that the commons made a great difficulty of granting the required supply, he was so provoked, that he sent for Edward Montague, one of the members, who had a considerable influence on the house; and he being introduced to his majesty, had the mortification to hear him speak in these words: Ho! man! will they not suffer my bill to pass? And laying his hand on Montague’s head, who was then on his knees before him: Get my bill passed by to-morrow, or else to-morrow this head of yours shall be off. This cavalier manner of Henry succeeded: For next day the bill passed. Collins’s British Peerage. Grove’s life of Wolsey. We are told by Hall, fol. 38. That cardinal Wolsey endeavoured to terrify the citizens of London into the general loan, exacted in 1525, and told them plainly, that it were better, that some should suffer indigence, than that the king at this time should lack; and therefore beware and resist not, nor ruffle not in this case, for it may fortune to cost some people their heads. Such was the style employed by this king and his ministers.
