How the Pope, at the Queen's Entreaty, Sent Cardinal Pole to England As

Book 2, chapter 12 How the Pope, at the Queen’s Entreaty, Sent Cardinal Pole to England as His Legate1

Since the healing of so grievous a rupture and the cleansing of so gangrenous and universal a wound as the entire kingdom had received in separation from and disobedience to the Apostolic See required much time, effort, and divine inspiration, unthinkable without the goodwill and support of the supreme pontiff, the queen implored Pope Julius iii, then presiding from the throne of Saint Peter, to send her Cardinal Reginald Pole as his legate.2 Being a na- tive of the kingdom, so distinguished in blood, and one who, along with his entire family, had suffered so many troubles and disasters for the Catholic faith in the days of her father, King Henry, he seemed, with his great virtue, learn- ing, and wisdom, an apt instrument to restore the realm to the Catholic faith and reduce it to obedience to the pope, as she desired. At first, she spoke of this with a few bishops and several trusted counselors, in the deepest seclu- sion and secrecy (to avoid the anticipated disturbance and dissension). The pope was highly pleased with the queen’s entreaty, and resolved to send Car- dinal Pole as legate a latere. But because he knew the division and discord the heretics had incited in that kingdom and foresaw the potential obstacles in so arduous a task, before sending the legate he dispatched his chamberlain, Giovanni Francesco Commendone—an able, clever man, who later became a cardinal—with all haste, to observe the state of things and inform him and the legate of all that was happening.3 Commendone fulfilled his instructions with such diligence and circumspection that in addition to his observations

1 Sander, De origine ac progressu, 336–41. 2 Pope Julius iii (r.1550–55), born Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, was elected on Febru- ary 7, 1550, after the death of Paul iii on November 10 of the previous year. The initiative in naming Pole legate to England came from Julius (he did so in August 1553, almost as soon as news of Mary’s accession was confirmed); it was initially uncertain whether Mary would accept a papal legate. In September 1553, one of Pole’s agents wrote of the necessity of “induc[ing] Mary to ask for you,” and it was not until November 1554 that letters patent confirmed the cardinal’s legatine powers. crp, 2:129–31, 186. 3 Though the pope did express concerns on this score (he wrote to Pole, “delay might be best because of the heretics”), the hesitation in dispatching Pole stemmed more from imperial worries that the cardinal might object to Mary’s marriage to Philip, and English fears that he would reopen the question of formerly monastic property. Ibid., 2:195. Rex H. Pogson,

374 Book 2, chapter 12 throughout the country, he was able to speak with the queen several times in secret. He brought His Holiness a document in her own hand, humbly begging absolution for the kingdom for the schism and promising obedience to the Apostolic See, as well as the dispatch of ambassadors to offer this publicly, as soon as the realm was at peace and free of the fears then rampant.4 With this document and Commendone’s favorable report, the pope was per- fectly prepared to send the legate, who for his own part had worked to scope out the territory and widen a path that most had deemed totally closed-off. Pole wrote the queen a letter emphasizing the mercy our Lord had shown in giving her the scepter and crown of that kingdom without the support of the emperor or any other prince whatsoever, but only the succor and assistance of heaven—to the end that she acknowledge all as coming from his hand, seek to serve and please him, and understand that his divine majesty is accustomed to try and test his own,5 to purify them with every sort of affliction, and then, once they have been thoroughly proved, to console and exalt them. That the service she owed our Lord was to sever the roots of chaos in the kingdom and provide for religion, peace, and justice—so long exiled that neither sprig nor trace nor memory of them remained—to flower there anew. And that if she contemplated the causes of so much devastation and disruption, she would find that the beginning and source of all had been disobedience to the Church: for when Henry her father turned his back on Jesus Christ and his vicar and cast off obedience to the pope for offering no support in the divorce from the queen her mother, it was at that very instant that, together with this obedience, true religion, justice, and security fled the realm, and it was transformed into a den of thieves.6 Consequently, to cleanse this sore it was necessary to return to the ancient and Catholic faith, and to begin at its root and foundations— as her piety, zeal, wisdom, and valor gave hope that she would—acknowl- edging the Apostolic See and rendering it the obedience due to the supreme

“Reginald Pole and the Priorities of Government in Mary Tudor’s Church,” hj 18, no. 1 (March 1975): 3–20, here 3n4. Commendone, a papal chamberlain and protonotary apostolic to Julius iii, was dispatched to England in 1553 to survey religious affairs in the kingdom. “Biographical Dictionary—Consistory of March 12, 1565,” in chrc. 4 In September 1553, Commendone reported to the consistory Mary’s favorable attitude and her desire for an absolution for the religious irregularities of her accession and coronation. At the same time, he cautioned that the situation in England was too uncertain to warrant a papal legate just yet. crp, 2:195. David Loades, “The Enforcement of Reaction, 1553–1558,” jeh 16, no. 1 (April 1965): 54–66, here 54. 5 Isa. 48:10; Heb. 12:6; James 1:12. 6 Matt. 21:13; Luke 19:46.