The First Session of the Reformation Parliament
By Mark Holinshed
Thomas Wolsey
So Far
We have seen that Cardinal Archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey Papal Legate a latere, and Lord Chancellor had controlled the government of both Church and state in England for fifteen years until the Autumn of 1529.
With Wolsey gone there began a process to curb the authority of the clergy in matters concern the laity and eradicate their exactions for the performance of duties that did require the services of the Church.
Parliament was summoned to introduce legislation to re-balance the three estates of the realm (the Clergy, Nobility and Commons) and overhaul the pre-existing Medieval order of government. The Common House of the realm, however, was most certainly not, despite the fairy - tales that surround its assembly summoned to resolve the entirely private matter of Henry VIII's marital status.
Edward Hall
Most of the knowledge we have about proceedings of the first session of the Reformation Parliament was written by Edward Hall.
Edward Hall was a distinguished barrister and an under-sheriff of London, as was Sir Thomas More, quite a considerable man of letters and he was a Member of Parliament, elected in 1529, for Much Wenlock in Shropshire.
He is often labelled somewhat disparagingly as 'Hall, the chronicler'. Hall in his writing was ever loyal to his king, a foible perhaps, he had no time for the clergy, bias perhaps, but he was acting as the king's servant and reflecting the animosity against the clerics that was being demonstrated by the Commons in general.
A clergyman writing in the first half of the last century, noting the patronising attitude of some historians toward 'the chronicler' noted. 'One absurdity which strikes the lay student of the period is the fashion among certain historians of discounting or dismissing the best testimony there is on the grounds that the witness is 'only Hall.'
Hall, however, was there, sitting in the House of Commons participating in and recording its work.
If the guilty historian's vision did not fit with the first-hand witness account of the member of Parliament for Much Wenlock – no matter' its only Hall'. 'The first-hand witness is wrong and I the all seeing all knowing historian, four hundred and odd years later am correct.'
Thus, history has become infected with the bizarre notion that the Reformation Parliament was called to sort out Henry VIII's marital woes, notwithstanding that neither in the contemporary reports or the records of that time is it mentioned in connection with the Reformation Parliament.
One thing that the member for Much Wenlock makes perfectly clear: that the action of the Commons was their own and owed nothing to the inspiration from outside.
He says that the King summoned Parliament to begin the third day of November and declared that the same counsel should devise certain acts, necessary and needful to be passed at the said Parliament for Reformation of certain exactions done by the clergy to the laypeople."
Sir Thomas More Henry VIII's, new Lord Chancellor, opened proceedings. He castigated his predecessor Wolsey for his excesses and excused Henry VIII for his absence of diligence.
We have seen that Cardinal Archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey Papal Legate a latere, and Lord Chancellor had controlled the government of both Church and state in England for fifteen years until the Autumn of 1529.
With Wolsey gone there began a process to curb the authority of the clergy in matters concern the laity and eradicate their exactions for the performance of duties that did require the services of the Church.
Parliament was summoned to introduce legislation to re-balance the three estates of the realm (the Clergy, Nobility and Commons) and overhaul the pre-existing Medieval order of government. The Common House of the realm, however, was most certainly not, despite the fairy - tales that surround its assembly summoned to resolve the entirely private matter of Henry VIII's marital status.
Edward Hall
Most of the knowledge we have about proceedings of the first session of the Reformation Parliament was written by Edward Hall.
Edward Hall was a distinguished barrister and an under-sheriff of London, as was Sir Thomas More, quite a considerable man of letters and he was a Member of Parliament, elected in 1529, for Much Wenlock in Shropshire.
He is often labelled somewhat disparagingly as 'Hall, the chronicler'. Hall in his writing was ever loyal to his king, a foible perhaps, he had no time for the clergy, bias perhaps, but he was acting as the king's servant and reflecting the animosity against the clerics that was being demonstrated by the Commons in general.
A clergyman writing in the first half of the last century, noting the patronising attitude of some historians toward 'the chronicler' noted. 'One absurdity which strikes the lay student of the period is the fashion among certain historians of discounting or dismissing the best testimony there is on the grounds that the witness is 'only Hall.'
Hall, however, was there, sitting in the House of Commons participating in and recording its work.
If the guilty historian's vision did not fit with the first-hand witness account of the member of Parliament for Much Wenlock – no matter' its only Hall'. 'The first-hand witness is wrong and I the all seeing all knowing historian, four hundred and odd years later am correct.'
Thus, history has become infected with the bizarre notion that the Reformation Parliament was called to sort out Henry VIII's marital woes, notwithstanding that neither in the contemporary reports or the records of that time is it mentioned in connection with the Reformation Parliament.
One thing that the member for Much Wenlock makes perfectly clear: that the action of the Commons was their own and owed nothing to the inspiration from outside.
He says that the King summoned Parliament to begin the third day of November and declared that the same counsel should devise certain acts, necessary and needful to be passed at the said Parliament for Reformation of certain exactions done by the clergy to the laypeople."
Sir Thomas More Henry VIII's, new Lord Chancellor, opened proceedings. He castigated his predecessor Wolsey for his excesses and excused Henry VIII for his absence of diligence.
Sir Thomas More's Opening Speech – Wolsey the Castrated Ram - Reported by Edward Hall
 Thomas More
The king sat in his Throne or seat royal, and Sir Thomas More his Chancellor standing on the right hand of the king behind the bar made an eloquent Oration.
He declared that like as a good shepherd which not alone kepeth and attends well his sheep, but all so foresees and provides for all things, which either may be hurtful or annoy some to his flock, or may preserve and defend the same against all perils that may chance to come. So the king which was the shepherd, ruler and governor of his realm, vigilantly foreseeing things to come considered how divers laws before this time were made now by long continuance of time and mutation of things, very insufficient, and imperfect, and also by the frail condition of man, divers new enormities were sprung amongst the people, for the which no law was yet made to reform the same, which was the very cause why at that time the king had summoned his high court of parliament. He resembled the king to a shepherd, or heard man for this cause, for if a prince be compared to his riches, he is but a rich man, if a prince be compared to his honour, he is but an honourable man : but compare him to the multitude of his people and the number of his flock, then he is a ruler, a governor of might and puissaunce, [great power]. So that his people make him a prince, as of the multitude of sheep, comes the name of a shepherd : and as you see that amongst a great flock of sheep some be rotten and faulty which the good shepherd sends from the good sheep, so the great wether [castrated ram] which is of late fallen as you all know, so craftily, so scabedly[shabbily] Yea and so untruly juggled with the king, that all men must needs guess and think that he thought in himself, that he had no wit to perceive his crafty doing, or else that he presumed that the king would not see nor know his fraudulent juggling and attempts. But he was deceived, for his graces sight was so quick and penetrable, that he saw him, yea and saw through him, both within and without, so that all thing to him was open, and according to his desert he hath had a gentle correction, which small punishment the king will not to be an example to other offenders, but clearly declares that whosoever here after shall make like attempt to commit like offence, shall not escape with like (light) punishment. |
Once the opening ceremonies were done with, the House of Commons elected its speaker, Thomas Audley. Edward Hall tells us of the opening measures.
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When the commons were assembled in the nether house, they began to common of their griefs wherewith the spiritualty had before time grievously oppressed them, both contrary to the law of the realm, and contrary to all right, and in especial they were sore moved with six greater causes.
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The six great causes - detailed below - much flow from the so-called and infamous Hunne affair fifteen years before.
The Death of Richard Hunne
The Hunne Affair
Richard Hunne was a wealthy Londoner, a liveryman of the Merchant Taylors Company in the City who prospered during the early years of the reign of Henry VIII. After a dispute with his local priest, Hunne sought to use the English Common Law courts instead of the courts ecclesiastical to challenge the authority of the clergy.
Church officials reacted by arresting him. He was imprisoned waiting to be tried in an ecclesiastical court on the capital charge of heresy. In December 1514, while waiting for the case to be heard Hunne was found dead by hanging in his cell.
Murder by church officials was suspected, and his death caused widespread anger against the clergy, a political and religious backlash followed
Background
Almost four years previously, in March 1511, Hunne had refused to pay the standard mortuary charge following the funeral of his dead five-week-old son. The mortuary fee of the day was the deceased person's second-best piece of clothing or second-best beast.
The rector of St Mary Matfelon in Whitechapel's claim for fees, in this case, was the baby's christening robe which Hunne denied him. Hunne argued that neither a child nor a dead person could be deemed to own anything under civil law. It followed in that case that the priest was not entitled to it, the gown was Hunne's property, not the clergyman's. His was a point of principle, not finance. Hunne was a charitable man and perhaps saw himself as something of a campaigner for those that had been put to hardship by such clerical demands.
The matter was not pursued by the Church until Hunne, and a friend challenged the rector of St Michael Cornhill over a separate matter, the title to a tenement, in November 1511. The rector then sued Hunne for the mortuary fee and appeared in the ecclesiastical Court of Audience in April 1512. The court found in favour of the rector.
Praemunire
After an incident in his local Church on 27 December 1512, Hunne began legal proceedings in January the following year for slander claiming his character and business had been ruined by the priest's accusation of ex-communication. He also countered further with a praemunire charge against the church court in which he argued that its authority derived from a Papal legate and was thus a foreign court which could have no jurisdiction over the King of England's subjects.
The London clergy re-joined with a charge against Hunne, for heresy. On this charge, Hunne was sent to the Lollards' Tower of St Paul's Cathedral. Where he was found hanging dead on 4 December 1514.
The church authorities argued that Hunne had committed suicide while in custody. Hunne's family rejected that. Hunne had been a man of some standing, he had many friends and allies. He had been spoiling for a showdown with the clergy and must have imagined himself emerging as the victor; however, instead, against an all-powerful Church, it was his undoing. Albeit against the odds, others would continue with his cause.
In late November 1515, the Bishop of London's Chancellor William Horsey was charged with Hunne's murder and brought before a secular court – but he was acquitted. Upon instructions signed by the young king, but no doubt initiated by Archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey Horsey was judged to be innocent.
The Times of Wolsey's Ascendancy
A few weeks before the trial Wolsey had been made a Cardinal by Pope Leo X. At the time of the prosecution Parliament had been sitting, and the members of the Commons were making great efforts to have some justice accorded to Hunne's now impoverished family. The House also drew up articles to curb abuse of the benefits the clergy enjoyed, particularly their immunity to prosecution (which in fact Horsey had not claimed) in a secular court. Parliament's actions, however, were frustrated by many of the spiritual lords in the upper House. It is worthy of note therefore that as Parliament was being dissolved, at the very same time, Wolsey was being made lord chancellor.
There would be but one Parliament in the fourteen years before the Reformation Parliament was summoned. The 1523 Parliament, therefore, was the only Parliament to be held during Wolsey's Chancellorship – but what use would a tyrant have for Parliament?
The contemporary historian Polydor Virgil summed up the mood of the time. "The amount of scandal that has arisen here and now especially on account of one heretic lately condemned to death by the Bishop of London, the people here and there exclaiming now and then raging against the clergy – or all would be – if the king's majesty were not curbing their fury."
At precisely the same time as the king's majesty was undertaking its curbing Wolsey's rule became more dominant and would continue to rule, unchecked right up until the time this Reformation Parliament was called.
When their time did come the hitherto simmering wrath of the Commons was unleashed.
The Six Great Causes
Richard Hunne was a wealthy Londoner, a liveryman of the Merchant Taylors Company in the City who prospered during the early years of the reign of Henry VIII. After a dispute with his local priest, Hunne sought to use the English Common Law courts instead of the courts ecclesiastical to challenge the authority of the clergy.
Church officials reacted by arresting him. He was imprisoned waiting to be tried in an ecclesiastical court on the capital charge of heresy. In December 1514, while waiting for the case to be heard Hunne was found dead by hanging in his cell.
Murder by church officials was suspected, and his death caused widespread anger against the clergy, a political and religious backlash followed
Background
Almost four years previously, in March 1511, Hunne had refused to pay the standard mortuary charge following the funeral of his dead five-week-old son. The mortuary fee of the day was the deceased person's second-best piece of clothing or second-best beast.
The rector of St Mary Matfelon in Whitechapel's claim for fees, in this case, was the baby's christening robe which Hunne denied him. Hunne argued that neither a child nor a dead person could be deemed to own anything under civil law. It followed in that case that the priest was not entitled to it, the gown was Hunne's property, not the clergyman's. His was a point of principle, not finance. Hunne was a charitable man and perhaps saw himself as something of a campaigner for those that had been put to hardship by such clerical demands.
The matter was not pursued by the Church until Hunne, and a friend challenged the rector of St Michael Cornhill over a separate matter, the title to a tenement, in November 1511. The rector then sued Hunne for the mortuary fee and appeared in the ecclesiastical Court of Audience in April 1512. The court found in favour of the rector.
Praemunire
After an incident in his local Church on 27 December 1512, Hunne began legal proceedings in January the following year for slander claiming his character and business had been ruined by the priest's accusation of ex-communication. He also countered further with a praemunire charge against the church court in which he argued that its authority derived from a Papal legate and was thus a foreign court which could have no jurisdiction over the King of England's subjects.
The London clergy re-joined with a charge against Hunne, for heresy. On this charge, Hunne was sent to the Lollards' Tower of St Paul's Cathedral. Where he was found hanging dead on 4 December 1514.
The church authorities argued that Hunne had committed suicide while in custody. Hunne's family rejected that. Hunne had been a man of some standing, he had many friends and allies. He had been spoiling for a showdown with the clergy and must have imagined himself emerging as the victor; however, instead, against an all-powerful Church, it was his undoing. Albeit against the odds, others would continue with his cause.
In late November 1515, the Bishop of London's Chancellor William Horsey was charged with Hunne's murder and brought before a secular court – but he was acquitted. Upon instructions signed by the young king, but no doubt initiated by Archbishop of York, Thomas Wolsey Horsey was judged to be innocent.
The Times of Wolsey's Ascendancy
A few weeks before the trial Wolsey had been made a Cardinal by Pope Leo X. At the time of the prosecution Parliament had been sitting, and the members of the Commons were making great efforts to have some justice accorded to Hunne's now impoverished family. The House also drew up articles to curb abuse of the benefits the clergy enjoyed, particularly their immunity to prosecution (which in fact Horsey had not claimed) in a secular court. Parliament's actions, however, were frustrated by many of the spiritual lords in the upper House. It is worthy of note therefore that as Parliament was being dissolved, at the very same time, Wolsey was being made lord chancellor.
There would be but one Parliament in the fourteen years before the Reformation Parliament was summoned. The 1523 Parliament, therefore, was the only Parliament to be held during Wolsey's Chancellorship – but what use would a tyrant have for Parliament?
The contemporary historian Polydor Virgil summed up the mood of the time. "The amount of scandal that has arisen here and now especially on account of one heretic lately condemned to death by the Bishop of London, the people here and there exclaiming now and then raging against the clergy – or all would be – if the king's majesty were not curbing their fury."
At precisely the same time as the king's majesty was undertaking its curbing Wolsey's rule became more dominant and would continue to rule, unchecked right up until the time this Reformation Parliament was called.
When their time did come the hitherto simmering wrath of the Commons was unleashed.
The Six Great Causes
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The first for the excessive fines, which the ordinaries took for probate of Testaments, in so much that sir henry Guilford knight of the garter and comptroller of the king's house, declared in the open Parliament on his fidelity that he and other binge executors to Sir William Compton knight paid for the probate of his will to the Cardinal and the Archbishop of Canterbury a thousand Marke sterling: after this declaration were shewed so many extortions done by ordinaries for probates of wills, that it were too much to rehearse.
The second cause was the great polling and extreme exaction, which the spiritual men used in taking of corps presents or mortuaries, for the children of the defunct should all die for hunger and go a begging rather than they would of charity give to them the sely kow which the dead man ought if he had but only one, such was the charity then. The third cause was, that priests being surveyors, stewards and officers to Bishops, Abbots, and other spiritual heads, had and occupied Farms, Granges, and grazing in every country, so that the pore husbandmen could have nothing but of them, and yet for that they should pay dearly. The fourth cause was that Abbots, Priors and spiritual men kept Tan houses, and bought and sold wool, clothe and all manner of merchandise as other temporal merchants did. The fifth cause, was because the spiritual persons promoted to greater benefices and having their living of their flock, were liyng in the court in lord's houses, and took all of the parishioners, and nothing spent on them at all, so that for lack of residence both the pore of the parish lackd refreshing, and universally all the parishioners lacked preaching, and true instruction of God's word, to the greater peril of their souls. The sixth cause was to see one priest being little learned to have ten or twelve benefices and to be resident on none, and to know many well learned scholars in the universities which were able to preach and teach to have nether benefice nor exhibition. |
There is More from Hall
These things before this time might in nowise be touched nor yet talked of by no man except he would be made a heretic, or lese al that he had, for the bishops were chancellors, and had all the rule about the king, so that no man durst once presume to attempt anything contrary to their profit, or commodity.But now when God has illuminated the eyes of the King and their subtle doings once espied the men began charitably to desire a Reformation, and so at this Parliament men began to show their grudges.
The reality of God's illumination of Henry VIII's eyes is that the over-mighty clergyman, Wolsey, had been eliminated. Without him in the way Parliament intended to exercise its own authority.
Back to Edward Hall Reporting from Westminster
Back to Edward Hall Reporting from Westminster
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Whereupon the burgesses of the Parliament appointed such as were learned in the law being of the Common House to draw one bill of the probates of Testaments another for mortuaries and the third for nonresidents pluralities and taking farms by spiritual men. |
Thomas Cromwell was among the men appointed to the drafting committee.
Parliament, in addition to the legislation relating to the clergy in England, authorised twenty two other Acts of Parliament ranging from An Act limiting the Prices of Woollen Hats, Bonnets, and Caps made beyond the Seas, and brought to be sold within this Realm to An Act repealing a Grant lately made by the King's Highness to the Citizens of York, for the shipping of certain Wools into the Port of Hull.
No mention of Anne Boleyn or a divorce – there never would be, it was not the concern of the Commons.
Parliament, in addition to the legislation relating to the clergy in England, authorised twenty two other Acts of Parliament ranging from An Act limiting the Prices of Woollen Hats, Bonnets, and Caps made beyond the Seas, and brought to be sold within this Realm to An Act repealing a Grant lately made by the King's Highness to the Citizens of York, for the shipping of certain Wools into the Port of Hull.
No mention of Anne Boleyn or a divorce – there never would be, it was not the concern of the Commons.
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The mood, temperament and determination of the Common House and the First Laws the Reformation Parliament created
The mood, temperament and determination of the Common House and the First Laws the Reformation Parliament created