CHAP. IV. 96 30 CONDEMNATION OF PECOCK. Creed. He denied that it was written by the Apostles; he had repudiated one Article-Christ's descent into hell; and in those days to deny one Article of the Creed was to deny the whole. Thus Lancastrian to the Yorkists, to all Churchmen a despiser of Church authority, to the Anti-Papalists an Ultramontane, to the rabble a heretic, or almost worse than a heretic, what was wanting to the abominations of Reginald Pecock? He had the audacity to demand that he should be tried by his peers in intellect and learning. It would have been difficult to have found a jury, even a single judge, who fulfilled this qualification—certainly not the Primate Stafford, no preacher, confessedly no theologian. Of the monks, the most active preachers, he had expressed unreserved contempt. He had called them 'pulpit brawlers.' But faith makes martyrs, fanaticism makes martyrs ; logic makes none. Pecock had followed out his own thoughts to their legitimate conclusion; but with his temper of mind conclusions are not convictions. The poor tailor, the humble artisan-had confronted the stake and the fire, and laid down their lives for their faith.. The great intellect of his age, the most powerful theologian in England, disgraced himself by miserable cowardice. He may have wished to propitiate his judges, and the assessors of his judges, the rude multitude, by his pitiful confession -My pride and my presumption have brought me to this;'-he may even so have satisfied, or blinded his own. conscience. The abjuration of Pecock (in those days no slight credit to the Church)-the public abjuration-was accepted. He escaped the fire; he was only degraded from his episcopate, and dragged out the rest of his life in peaceful and undisturbed, if ignominious, seclusion. Paul's Cross in his case led not to Smithfield. Pecock was in favour of the marriage of the Clergy." He seems to have held a well-ordered family life the best and holiest state for the ecclesiastic, as for all other Christians. Probably all agreed tacitly to suppress the charge of that heretical doctrine. The advocates of celibacy would not wish to publish the adverse opinions even of so notorious a heretic. The married Clergy, where there was marriage, would be cautious in betraying themselves to the popular clamour by making common cause with so unpopular an advocate. Bishop Pecock had even, in anticipation of his own fate, taught, at least limited toleration. 'The Clergy will be condemned at the last day, if by free 'will they draw not men into consent of true faith other'wise than by fire and sword and hangement.'s Yet he will not deny. the second means to be lawful, if the former be first used. CHAP. IV. CHAP. V. CHAPTER V. S. PAUL'S, DURING THE WARS OF THE ROSES. THE long episcopate of Thomas Kemp, nephew of John 1 Wharton, in vitâ. THOMAS KEMP, BISHOP OF LONDON. 99 exclude during their lives from the presence of the King, and to forbid the approach nearer than twelve miles from the King's Court, of Edward Duke of Somerset, the Bishop of London, and others of evil fame. In the next year, however (1449-1450), Kemp was consecrated; his temporalities restored. In the Wars of the Roses the Clergy seem mostly to have stood aloof: episcopal banners floated not over the bloody fields of S. Alban's, Wakefield, or Towton. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the first subject in the realm, and usually Lord High Chancellor, was compelled to take part at least in all the public ceremonials. Neville of York was too closely connected with the King Maker to remain at peace; but though John Kemp may have maintained his impartial and serener dignity, S. Paul's was summoned to witness, and, as it were, to ratify and hallow, all the changes of those terrible times. What solemn perjuries were uttered; what pompous but hollow thanksgivings resounded within its walls, as each faction triumphed, and appealed to God for the justice of its cause:— success the sole test of its justice! Already, many years before, the lowering prognostics of these scenes, the first clouds of those fearful family feuds might be seen hovering about, in the church or in its neighbourhood. At the doors of the Cathedral, Roger Bolingbroke the Necromancer, accused of inciting, abetting, and aiding, by his diabolic magic, the ambitious designs of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, was exhibited on a platform in front of S. Paul's. With Bolingbroke, Southwell, a Canon of S. Paul's, was deeply implicated in these wicked dealings. The penance of Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester no doubt commenced or closed near the Cathedral, when she was led along, wrapped in a sheet, with a burning taper in her hand : CHAP. V. 100 CHAP. V. KING HENRY IN S. PAUL'S. Mailed up in shame, with papers on my back, To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans. Shakspeare, and the chronicles which he followed, say nothing of S. Paul's. Yet it can hardly be supposed but that some part of poor Eleanor's penance (witchcraft was a religious offence) would be performed either within the walls, or in the precincts of the church. The strange fiction, which translated her husband's (Duke Humphrey of Gloucester's) tomb from S. Alban's to S. Paul's, adds some interest to this event. The poet Lydgate describes King Henry's first peaceful visit to S. Paul's. He set forth from the Tower :: Long in his mind to be conceived, With how good will that day he was received; And there to meet him with procession Was the Archbishop and the Chancellor, Lincoln and Bath, of whole hearts and entire, Salisbury, Norwich, and Ely, In 'pontificalibus' arrayed richly; There was the Bishop of Rochester also; As of duty they ought to do On procession with the King to go. With observances belonging for a King The Mayor, the citizens turned and left him.2 But we descend to darker times, to more certain records. In March, 1452 (two years after Kemp's accession), Richard Duke of York, in S. Paul's, took his oath of 2 Henry VI. Part 11. Act п. Scene 4. Fabyan, p. 614. Stowe, P. 388. Quoted in Malcolm at much greater length, vol. iii. p. 156. |