tion must depend) while he was a child, and could know nothing at all, and the protector, being absent, not much more. These, however, were words only, and he did not stop there; for when the homilies and injunctions for that visitation were published, he insisted, on the perusal of them, that he could not comply with them, though at the expence of losing his bishopric; asserting, at the same time, that all their proceedings were framed against the law both of God and the king, of the danger of which, he said, he was well apprized.

Upon his coming to London he was called before the council, Sept. 25, 1547; and there refusing to promise either to receive the homilies, or pay obedience to the visitors, if they came into his diocese, he was committed close prisoner to the Fleet. Some days after, he was sent for to the deanery of St. Paul's by Cranmer, who, with other bishops, discoursed in defence of the homily upon justification; which he had censured, as excluding charity from any share in obtaining it. The archbishop proceeded to apologize for Erasmus's "Paraphrase on the New Testament," as the best extant; which, being ordered by the injunctions to be set up in all churches, had been objected to by Gardiner. His grace, seeing no hopes from arguments, which made no impression, let fall some words of bringing him into the privy-council, in case of his concur rence with them; but that too having no effect, he was remanded to the Fleet, where he continued till the parliament broke up, Dec. 24, and then was set at liberty by the general act of amnesty, usually passed on the accession of a prince to the throne. He was never charged with any offence judicially, every thing being done in virtue of that extent of prerogative which had been assumed by Henry VIII. which was thought necessary for mortifying the prelate's haughty temper, as well as to vindicate their proceedings from the contempt he had shewn them.

After his discharge he went to his diocese; and, though he opposed, as much as possible, the new establishment in its first proposal, yet now it was settled by act of parliament, he knew how to conform; which he not only did himself, but took care that others should do the same. Yet he no sooner returned to town than he received an order, which brought him again before the council; where, after some rough treatment, he was directed not to stir from his house till he went to givę satisfaction in a

sermon, to be preached before the king and court in a public audience; for the matter of which he was directed both what he should, and what he should not say, by sir William Cecil. He did not refuse to preach, which was done on St. Peter's day; but so contrarily to the purpose required*, that he was sent to the Tower the next day, June 30, 1548, where he was kept close prisoner for a year. But his affairs soon after put on a more pleasing countenance. When the protector's fall was projected, Gardiner was deemed a necessary implement for the purpose; his head and hand were both employed for bringing it about, and the original draught of the articles was made by him. Upon this change in the council he had such assurances of his liberty, and entertained so great hopes of it, that it is said he provided a new suit of clothes in order to keep that festival; but in all this he was disappointed: his first application for a discharge was treated with contempt by the council, who laughing said, "the bishop had a pleasant head;" for reward of which, they gave him leave to remain five or six weeks longer in prison, without any notice taken to him of his message. Nor did the lords shew any regard to his next address: and he had been almost two years in the Tower, when the protector, restored to that high office, went with others by virtue of an order of council, June 9, 1550, to confer with him in that place. In this conference they proposed to release him upon his submission for what was past, and promise of obedience for the future, if he would also subscribe the new settlement in religion, with the king's complete power and supremacy, though under age; and the abrogation of the six articles. He consented to, and actually subscribed, all the conditions except the first, which he refused, insisting on his innocence. The lords used him with great kindness, and encouraged him to hope his troubles should be quickly ended, and upon this, seeing also the protector, among them, he flattered himself with the hopes of being released in two days, and in that confidence actually made his farewell feast. But the contempt he had at first shewn to the council, being still avowed by his refusing to make a submission now, was not so readily overlooked. On the

* His text was Matthew viii. 15. whence he took occasion, in acknowledging the king's supremacy, to deny that of his council, whom he treated

very contemptuously. The MS. is extant in Bene't college library, at Cambridge. Tanner's Bibl. Brit. Hibern. p. 509.

contrary, this first visit was followed by several others of the like tenor; which meeting with the same refusal, at length the lords Herbert, Petre, and bishop Ridley, brought him new articles, in which the required acknowledgement, being made more general, runs thus: "That he had been suspected of not approving the king's proceedings, and being appointed to preach, had not done it as he ought to have done, and so deserved the king's displeasure, for which he was sorry ;" and the other articles being enlarged were, "besides the king's supremacy, the suppression of abbies and chanteries, pilgrimages, masses, and images, adoring the sacrament, communion in both kinds, abolishing the old books, and bringing in the new book of service, with that for ordaining priests and bishops, the completeness of the scripture, and the use of it in the vulgar tongue, the lawfulness of clergymen's marriage, and for Erasmus's Paraphrase, that it had been on good considerations ordered to be set up in churches." These being read, he insisted first to be released from his imprisonment, and said that he would then freely give his answer, such as he would stand by, and suffer if he did amiss; but he would trouble himself with no more articles while he was detained in prison, since he desired not to be delivered out of his imprisonment in the way of mercy, but of justice. On July 19, he was brought before the council, who having told him that they sat by a special commission to judge him, asked whether he would subscribe these last articles or no? which he answering in the negative, his bishopric was sequestered, and he required to conform in three months on pain of deprivation. Upon this the liberty he had before of walking in some open galleries, when the duke of Norfolk was not in them, was taken from him, and he was again shut up in his chamber. At the expiration of the limited time, the bishop still keeping his resolution, was deprived for disobedience and contempt, by a court of delegates, in which Cranmer presided, after a trial which lasted from Dec. 15 to Feb. 14 following, in twenty-four sessions. He appealed from the delegates to the king, but no notice was taken of it, the court being known to be final and unappealable.

In the course of the proceedings, Gardiner always behaved himself contemptuously toward the judges, and particularly called them sacramentarians and heretics; on which account he was ordered to be removed to a meaner

lodging in the Tower; to be attended by one servant only, of the lieutenant's appointment; to have his books and papers taken from him; to be denied pen, ink, or paper; and nobody suffered to visit him. However, as he continued a close prisoner here during the rest of Edward's reign, the severity of this order was afterwards mitigated; as appears from various pieces written by him in this confinement. He is said to have kept up his spirits and resolution, and it is not improbable, that he foresaw the great alteration in affairs which was speedily to take place. The first dawning of this began to appear on the demise of king Edward, when Mary was publicly proclaimed queen July 19, 1553. On Aug. 3 she made her solemn entry into the Tower, when Gardiner, in the name of himself and his fellow-prisoners, the duke of Norfolk, duchess of Somerset, lord Courtney, and others of high rank, made a congratulatory speech to her majesty, who gave them all their liberty. The spokesman took his seat in council the same day, and on the 8th performed the obsequies for the late king in the queen's presence. On the 9th he went to Winchester-house in Southwark, after a confinement of somewhat more than five years; and was declared chanHe had the honour of cellor of England on the 23d. crowning the queen Oct. 1, and on the 5th opened the first parliament in her reign. By these hasty steps Gardiner rose to the prime ministry; and was possessed at this time of more power, civil and ecclesiastical, than any English minister ever enjoyed, except his old master cardinal Wolsey. He was also re-chosen chancellor of Cambridge, and restored to the mastership of Trinity-hall there, of which, among his other preferments, he had been deprived in the former reign.

The great and important affairs transacted under his administration, in bringing about the change in the constitution by queen Mary, are too much the subject of general history to be related here. The part that Gardiner acted' is very well known; and although from the arrival of cardinal Pole in England, he held only the second place in affairs relating to the church, in matters of civil government, his influence was as great as before, and continued without the least diminution to the last. By his advice a parliament was summoned to meet in Oct. 1555. As he was always a guardian of the revenues of the ecclesiastics, both regular and secular, he had at this time projected

some additional security for church and abbey lands. He opened the session with a well-judged speech, Oct. 21, and was there again on the 23d, which was the last time of his appearing in that assembly. He fell ill soon after, and died Nov. 12, aged seventy-two. His death was occasioned probably by the gout; the lower parts of his body, however, being mortified, and smelling offensively, occasion was hence taken to consider the manner of his death as a judgment. The report that he was seized with the disury in consequence of the joy with which he was transported on hearing of the martyrdom of Latimer and Ridley, has been disproved by the dates of that event, and of his illness, in this way. Fox says that when seized with the disorder he was put to bed, and died in great torments a fortnight afterwards. But, says Collier, Latimer and Ridley suffered Oct. 16, and Gardiner opened the parliament on the 21st, and was there again on the 23d, and lastly, died Nov. 12, not of the disury, but the gout. The reader will determine whether the disorder might not have been contracted on the 16th, and increased by his subsequent exertions; and whether upon the whole, Collier, with all his prejudices in favour of popery, which are often very thinly disguised, was likely to know more of the matter than the contemporaries of Gardiner. Godwin and Parker say that he died repeating these words, "Erravi cum Petro, at non flevi cum Petro;" i. e. "I have sinned with Peter, but I have not wept with Peter."

He died at York place, Whitehall, whence his body was removed to a vault in St. Mary Overy's church, Southwark; and after great preparations for the solemnity, was carried for final interment to Winchester cathedral.

Gardiner, says an excellent modern biographer, was one of those motley ministers, half statesman and half ecclesiastic, which were common in those needy times, when the revenues of the church were necessary to support. the servants of the crown. It was an inviduous support; and often fastened the odium of an indecorum on the king's ministers; who had, as ministers always have, opposition enough to parry in the common course of business; and it is very probable that Gardiner, on this very ground, has met with harder measure in history, than he might otherwise have done. He is represented as having nothing of a churchman about him but the name of a bishop. He had been bred to business from his earliest youth; and was VOL. XV.