Campeggio's Progress through Kent in 1518

( 255 ) CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT IN 1518 V. J. B. TORR. INTRODUCTION. CARDINAL Campeggio is weU known as Wolsey's coUeague in the hearing of the famous divorce suit between Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, tried at Blackfriars in London, in 1529. But fewer people are aware that some eleven years earUer Campeggio performed another legatine commission in this country, a visit which, although fruitless in its immediate objects, had nevertheless an incidental result of the most important character. The foUowing pages give the reader a graphic account of Campeggio's landing in England on the former occasion, and of his stately progress through Kent to London. The original is to be found among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, and is written in an early sixteenth century hand, which makes it probable that the proceedings were recorded shortly after their occurrence. I am not aware that this MS. has been previously printed. Many readers wiU probably be reminded of the accounts of Wolsey's own progresses, as given by his biographers, Cavendish and Fiddes. A few words upon the career of Campeggio may not be out of place in this introduction. Lorenzo Campeggio was born in 1472, of a noble famUy settled in Bologna, at which university, and at Pavia, we find him studying Imperial law some twenty years later. EventuaUy he married and had a son who, foUowing his father, attained the cardinalate at the creation of Pope Juhus I I I in 1551. The lawyer Lorenzo, having suffered the loss of his wife, decided to embrace a second profession, in which legal attainments were at that period one of the surest means of promotion. Accordingly, he took Holy Orders, and soon 256 CAMPEGGIO's PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. came under the notice of Pope Leo X, by whom he was appointed Bishop of Feltri and also Auditor of the Rota in Rome. Leo employed him on a diplomatic mission to the Emperor Maximilian I, and conferred a cardinal's hat upon him during his absence. In the following year, 1518, Campeggio was despatched on the legatine journey to Henry VIII which forms the subject of this paper. Not only was he honourably received, but Henry bore him such good wiU that he afterwards gave him the see of Salisbury, in 1524. I t is uncertain whether the King nominated him spontaneously, or merely acquiesced in the continuance of the same evil system of non-resident episcopal commendams given to ahens, which Worcester suffered for nearly forty years, and which had affected Hereford and Bath and WeUs also at this period. Not only were the Itahan agents in Rome of Henry VII and VIII rewarded by an illegal conference of the revenues of Enghsh sees upon them (thus the future Pope Clement VII held Worcester for a year); but the notorious episcopal pluralism of Wolsey himself served to perpetuate one of the greatest abuses in ecclesiastical affairs, in the case of a man who showed a desire in many respects for reformation. However Campeggio's case may have been, it mattered Uttle, as by the early 16th century in England, as also in France and Spain, episcopal appointments lay in reahty with the Crown,1 and the system of Papal " provisions " had become, like the claim to confer the temporalities of a see, a technical formahty which preserved the dignity of the Apostohc See while the temporal prince remained the master of the situation. Campeggio's English preferment was but a beginning, as soon afterwards he occupied the archbishopric of Bologna 1 In England, at any rate, this held good from a considerably earlier date. It is an important point, proved by numerous instances, as for example, the appointment to Worcester in 1434, and still more notably to York in 1425, where that resolute reviver of Papal power after the Great Schism, Martin V, suffered signal humiliation in his attempt to override the Privy Counoil of Henry VI. Since writing the above, I find that Lingard, who treats of the subject at length under the reigns of Edward III and Richard II, sums up in the case of the latter by saying that the Popes henceforth "provided " none but the Royal nominees, and that "this long and angry controversy ended entirely to the advantage of the Crown." (Hist. Eng. iii, 173.) CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. 257 and other bishoprics in Italy, agreeably to the pubhc opinion of the day, which had not unduly recoUed at the thirteen sees held by Julius II—many of them in plurality—before he became Pope. Campeggio's talents were again employed in Germany, now in the Lutheran ferment, in 1524, and three years later he found himself besieged with his master Clement VII, by the Imperial troops, in the castle of Sant' Angelo overlooking the Tiber. Shortly afterwards followed the great mission to England over the divorce, in which aU parties had so many interests, involving a tedious delay of years, that it is creditable to Campeggio that he acquitted himself so fairly. As is well known, upon Katherine's appeal the case was recaUed to Rome, whither the cardinal returned, not without an affront from the customs officers at Dover which was probably inspired by the irritation of Henry at the further check received. At the abohtion of the Papal jurisdiction in England, in 1534, Campeggio was deprived of Salisbury by Act of Parliament, as an alien and non-resident, although he had never been required to perform his duties in person. He died in Rome in 1539, a man of good reputation, who, if ecUpsed by Wolsey's brilhant talents, had during his life at least what FuUer caUs ingenium par negotio. To come now to Campeggio's visit to this country in 1518; Leo X sent him with two objects, both of which he failed to negotiate successfuUy. The first was to secure the adherence of Henry VIII to a general alliance of Christian princes against the Turkish menace in eastern Europe ; the second, to impose a Papal tax of a tenth on aU the clerical revenues in England, towards the cost of the projected crusade. Mutual jealousy and mistrust among the monarchs, coupled with their greater preoccupation with other concerns, rendered the alliance project abortive; and the clergy proved intractable about the tax* In the first place, no such tax could be levied without Royal hcence, and this under severe penalties, as had appeared in the sharp reprimand of 21 258 CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. Richard II to Archbishop Courtenay in 1389 -,1 and in the second, men had learned from the precedents of later mediseval crusading projects that the funds coUected generaUy went no further than the Papal treasury: hinc caute agendum. The reply of the Enghsh Convocations was that they were already drained by the exactions of the Crown, for the war with France, taxes approved by Julius I I ; and that the decree of Constance had forbidden Papal taxation of the Church save in urgent necessity, and even then it must be by authority of a general Council.2 The palmy days of Henry III were gone; in England the growth of the power of the Crown, and the frequently enacted legislation against Papal encroachments, which, even if spasmodicaUy put into effect, was always a trump card in reserve, had combined to stem the flow of revenue abroad, except when the King was agreeable, and this was generaUy (as with Henry VII) when he could get a share for himself; and a simUar growth of strongly entrenched national states on the Continent (especiaUy France and Spain3) during the preceding century had curbed the Papal power there also. The foreign clergy accordingly made but a meagre response to the similar financial demands now made upon them. Campeggio had also been empowered to conduct, in company with Wolsey, a legatine visitation of the exempt Enghsh monasteries, but the latter wanted to undertake this work single-handed, and was planning, by concentrating both Royal and Papal power in his own hands to make himseh master of the Enghsh Church. His boundless ambition— not stopping short of the Papacy itseh—was acceptable to Henry VIII, who saw the way to obtain, by the co-operation of himself and his favourite, an even greater control of the Church than had been enjoyed by his father. The king therefore lent aU his support to the cardinal's schemes, whereby the latter was quickly enabled to supersede the normal workings of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to place 1 Wilkins, Concilia, III, 207. 2 Collier, Hec. Hist. (ed. Lathbury), IV, 24. 3 Of. the firm hand taken in Church affairs by Louis XI and Ferdinand and Isabella, in their respective dominions. CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. 259 the unfortunate primate, Warham of Canterbury, in subordination to himself,1 becoming virtuaUy a Thomas CromweU many years before the rupture with Rome. Wolsey had accordingly no difficulty in getting Henry's aid to defeat Campeggio's monastic visitation, and he used the weapon of delay. The English kings, hke those of France, had always insisted upon their right to exclude a Papal legate from their dominions unless he had obtained their consent to enter,2 and this veto was brought to bear upon Campeggio in 1518, while Wolsey was gaining time. Campeggio was therefore detained at Calais until Dr. Clark, the envoy representing Henry and Wolsey, could get to Rome and back again, having demanded the appointment of Wolsey as an equal legatus a latere with Campeggio, a request which Leo X conceded. This was the important sequel to Campeggio's mission which remained after the Itahan's temporary and fruitless legatine commission was completed, that of Wolsey being, however, permanent and the means that made him absolute over the Enghsh clergy. This was the great crime, his acceptance of the commission, which with typical Tudor duphcity Henry—all along acquiescent if not actuaUy its instigator—urged against the cardinal in later years, to cause his faU. Wolsey feU, struck down by the force of the Praemunire legislation treacherously invoked by the king, and with him, a Uttle afterwards, was involved the entire body of the Enghsh clergy who had had, wiUy niUy, to obey the very authority which now they were in peril for having 1 There had been precedents for this : in the twelfth century, Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester, had, as legate, overshadowed Archbishop Theobald; and in the fifteenth, the rights of Canterbury were again set aside when Chichele was fettered by Cardinals Beaufort and Kempe. Chichele was a good canonist who saw the evils of such innovations on the ancient economy, and while Henry V lived the insult was forbidden. The archbishop's remarkable letter of protest to the king in 1418 should be read, in its original English, in Duck's Life of Chichele (ed. 1699), pp. 126-31 : as the result, Beaufort's permanent legateship was postponed for some years. 2 This was the Royal claim, jealously maintained ; but a Pontiff such as Boniface VIII, who regarded himself as master of the world even in temporal matters, must inevitably be constantly chafing against i t : hence the close watch set on foreign legates while in England, despite the honours shown to them as their due. 260 CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. accepted. As is well known, Henry cleverly used this opportunity, not only for the extortion of an enormous fine from the whole clergy, but also as a powerful weapon to make himself their absolute master. For this reason, then, the episode of this Uttle noticed embassy of Campeggio was destined to become a landmark in Enghsh Church history. As to the actual record of Campeggio's journey through Kent, Uttle need be said by way of introduction, since it teUs its own story quite plainly. It may however be noted that the direct route to London was not taken, on account of the detour to Boxley Abbey and Warham's fine new manor house at Otford. Moreover, the cardinal took the unusual course of landing, like Csesar, at Deal, and not, as usuaUy, at Dover. Deal was about this period growing in importance, owing to the ever increasing silting up of Sandwich Haven, but the buUding of any considerable town near the shore appears to have been deferred until the foUowing century.1 I t is of interest further to remember that Campeggio's reception at Canterbury took place at the then newlyfinished Christ Church Gate, the inscription formerly visible upon it stating that it was completed in the year 1517. Any references to the shrine of St. Thomas are always worthy of note, and we have it here recorded that the legate paid two visits to it.2 It cannot be doubted that by this time the once enormously popular cult of the saint had much diminished,3 which may explain the remarkable absence of commotion in Canterbury when the shrine was later in Henry VIII's reign removed by his order. The visit of Campeggio was about six years after that of Colet and Erasmus, so vividly 1 Leland speaks of Deal as still a " fisscher village " half a mile from the sea—an under-estimate. The blocking of Sandwich Haven was later aggravated by the grounding of a ship of Pope Paul IV (1555-9), which became a wreck incapable of removal. 2 It is stated that he was shown certain other of the great and strange store of relics which mediaeval Christ Church possessed. The almost exclusive interest to even the educated visitor to great churches in the Middle Ages lay in their relics, so often the object of Erasmus's satire. Leland is among the first to take any notice of monuments, other than saints' tombs; and long afterwards observers begin to appreciate, at first uncritically, the glories of the architecture about them. Eor an early (1446) visit to Christ Church, see Stanley, Memorials, 266-8. 3 See inter alia, Stanley, op. cit. 253, and Arch. Oant. XXXVI I I , 169-60. CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. 261 pictured by the latter in his Peregrinatio religionis ergo, and two years before that of Henry VIII and the Emperor Charles V. Campeggio's lodging at St. Augustine's, and his attendance at High Mass in the now destroyed abbey church and at the great dinner on his Sunday in the metropolitical city are also worthy of remark. The manner of the legate's reception at Blackheath and in London will be read with interest, and is strikingly similar to the account of the bringing of the red hat by an Apostohc Protonotary to Wolsey, in November, 1515, to be found in Fiddes' Life of Wolsey (London, 1726, 2nd ed., CoUections, pp. 201-2). It wiU be noted how early pubhc functions began in Tudor England: Campeggio has arrived in Canterbury from Sandwich before ten o'clock; and the memorable consecration of Parker on the December morning of 1559 begins in Lambeth Chapel long before daybreak. So, too, at the solemn investiture of Wolsey as cardinal in Westminster Abbey, we read that Archbishop Warham began to sing the Mass of the Holy Ghost by nine o'clock ; and early in 1528, at the thanksgiving in St. Paul's for the escape of Clement VII from the sack of Rome by the Imperial army, Wolsey had arrived in state and had gone in procession in the church before about the same time : " And duringe that the howre was a singing he was revestyd in pontificahbus,"1 to attend the High Mass celebrated by my Lord of London before him. The " howre" means the singing of Terce, canonicaUy appointed for about nine in the morning, at the third hour of the day. I t only remains to add that the MS. has been faithfuUy reproduced in this transcript, with the exception that modern punctuation has been inserted. That of the original is so confusing and inconsistent in its employment, that, notice being here given, it has seemed a pardonable liberty to rescue the modern reader from it. The letter " w " is so difficult in places, to assign certainly as a capital or uncial, that modern usage has been foUowed in cases of doubt ; and marks over the text have been omitted, unless serving to show contractions. 1 Eiddes, op. cit., Coll., p. 144. 262 CAMPEGGIO'S PROGRESS THROUGH KENT. HARLEIAN MS. 433. (July, 1518.) fol. 293. The Receyuyng of the popes legate in to England Anno xmo RR h vhj ul . (23rd) Md, that the Friday, the xxiij u daie of the moneth of Iuly, The yere of or lord god MiCCCCCxviij, and the xt h yere of the Reigne of or souuraine lord king henry the vhj t n , that nowe Reigneth, The popes legate, caUid dns laurencius de Campegio, arrived at a place callid the Deele, besids Sandewich, where the Bisshop of Chichestr',1 The lord of Burgevennye and the lord Cobham, w* a grete nombre of Estates and gentilmen of Kent, receyued hym, and soo frome thense conveyed hym to Sandewich aforesaid, where he restid that nyght. (24th) The Saturday next, the said Bisshop, lordes, Estates, & gentilmen conveied hym frome thense to Canterbery, where he was betwene ix and x of the clokke before noone, and afore his ente there chaunging his apparaiU, was Receyued by aU the clergie and reUgious men there, And alsoo by the maior of that Citie w* the Aldermen, and soo brought to the gats of Crists Churche, where Tharchebisshop of Canterbery,2 The Bisshop of Rochest',3 wfc Thabbotts of Saint Augustines4 and Faur sham,B The priours of Crists Churche6 and of Saint Gregories,7 being aU in pontificahbs, receyued hym solempnehe. And aftir he hadde kissed the hooly Crucifix he was brought vp to the high Awter, The Monkes singing Sume Vinitati