Stephen Gardiner
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Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483[1] – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip.
Early life
Gardiner was born in
In 1511 Gardiner, aged 28, met
Diplomatic career
Before long his abilities attracted the notice of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who made him his secretary,[7] and in this capacity he is said to have been with him at The More in Hertfordshire, when the conclusion of the celebrated Treaty of the More brought King Henry VIII and the French ambassadors there. This was probably the occasion on which he first came to the king's notice, but he does not appear to have been actively engaged in Henry's service till three years later. He undoubtedly acquired a knowledge of foreign politics in the service of Wolsey.
In 1527 he and Sir Thomas More were named commissioners on the part of England, in arranging a treaty with the French ambassadors for the support of an army in Italy against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. As a canon lawyer, he was sent to Orvieto in 1527 to secure a decretal commission from Pope Clement VII to allow the king's divorce case to be tried in England.[8] In 1535 he was also appointed ambassador to France,[9] where he remained for three years.[10]
Role in the royal divorce
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That year he accompanied Wolsey on his important diplomatic mission to France, the splendour and magnificence of which have been graphically described by
Gardiner's familiarity with canon law gave him a great advantage. He was instructed to procure a decretal commission from the pope, which was intended to construct principles of law by which Wolsey might render a decision on the validity of the king's marriage without appeal. Though supported by plausible pretexts, the demand was received as unusual and inadmissible.[citation needed] Pope Clement VII, who had been recently imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo by mutinous soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire, had managed to escape to Orvieto. Now fearful of offending Charles V, nephew of Queen Catherine, Clement refused to issue a definitive ruling concerning Henry's annulment.[12] The matter was instead referred to his cardinals, with whom Gardiner held long debates.[citation needed]
Gardiner's pleading was unsuccessful. Though the issue had not been specifically resolved, a general commission was granted, enabling Wolsey, along with
King's secretary, conservative and absolutist
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Gardiner was a conservative and an opponent of Anne Boleyn, Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell and of any innovation in the Church, although he acquiesced grudgingly in the steadily increasing influence of the Reformation on the royal counsels. A description of his character from George Cavendish declared him "a swarthy complexion, hooked nose, deep-set eyes, a permanent frown, huge hands and a vengeful wit. He was ambitious, sure of himself, irascible, astute, and worldly."[13]
In early August 1529 he was appointed the
Gardiner was not exactly, as is often said, one of Thomas Cranmer's assessors, but, according to Cranmer's own expression, "assistant" to him as counsel for the king,[clarification needed] when the archbishop, in the absence of Queen Catherine, pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void on 23 May 1533.[citation needed] Immediately afterwards he was sent to Marseille, where an interview between the pope and Francis I took place in September. Henry was deeply suspicious, as Francis, ostensibly his ally, had previously maintained the justice of his cause in the matter of the divorce. It was at this interview that Edmund Bonner intimated the appeal of Henry VIII to a general council in case the pope should venture to proceed to sentence against him. This appeal, and another on behalf of Cranmer presented with it, were drawn up by Gardiner.
In 1535 he and other bishops were called upon to vindicate the king's new title of "Supreme Head of the Church of England." The result was his celebrated treatise De vera obedientia, the ablest of all the vindications of royal supremacy. "Princes ought to be obeyed", wrote Gardiner, "by the commandment of God; yea, and to be obeyed without question". He certainly believed in the semi-divinity of kings, and the divine majesty's right to rule as if the King's law was God's law.[14] In the same year he had a dispute with Cranmer about the visitation of his diocese. He was also employed to answer the pope's brief threatening to deprive Henry of his kingdom.
During the next few years he took part in various embassies to France and Germany. He was often so abroad, having little influence on the king's councils; but in 1539 he took part in the enactment of the
Despite having supported royal supremacy, he was a thorough opponent of the Reformation from a doctrinal point of view, and is thought to have been a leader of the Prebendaries' Plot against Cranmer. He had not approved of Henry's general treatment of the church, especially during the ascendancy of Cromwell. In 1544 a relation of his, named German Gardiner, whom he employed as his secretary, was executed for treason in reference to the king's supremacy, and his enemies insinuated to the king that he himself was of his secretary's way of thinking. The king had need of him quite as much as he had of Cranmer; for it was Gardiner who, even under royal supremacy, was anxious to prove that England had not fallen away from the faith, while Cranmer's authority as primate was necessary to upholding that supremacy.
Thus Gardiner and the archbishop maintained opposite sides of the king's church policy; and though Gardiner was encouraged by the king to put up articles against the archbishop for heresy, the archbishop could always rely on the king's protection in the end. Protestantism was gaining ground in high places, especially after the king's marriage to Catherine Parr; the Queen herself was nearly committed for it at one time, when Gardiner, with the king's approbation, censured some of her expressions in conversation. Just after her marriage, four men of the Court were condemned at Windsor and three of them were burned. The fourth, who was the theologian and composer John Merbecke, was pardoned by Gardiner's procurement, who said he was "but a musician".
In 1546 Gardiner was the significant person involved in a conservative plot to discredit Maud Lane who was Catherine Parr's cousin, Gentlewoman and confidante. The plan was to find evidence of her heresy but the plot failed and plans to kidnap the queen and two of her ladies were not enacted. Gardiner's position was reduced by this.[15]
Edward VI's reign
Great as Gardiner's influence had been with Henry VIII, his name was omitted from the king's will, though Henry was believed to have intended making him one of his executors. Henry had made provision in his will for a 16-man Council to rule England during his son Edward's minority (
Mary I's reign
At the accession of Queen Mary I, the Duke of Norfolk and other state prisoners of high rank were in the Tower along with Gardiner; but the Queen, on her first entry into London, set them all free. Gardiner was restored to his Bishopric and appointed Lord Chancellor, and he placed the crown on the Queen's head at her coronation.[20] He also opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor. He was now also called upon, in old age, to undo not a little of the work in which he had been instrumental in his earlier years – to demonstrate the legitimacy of the Queen's birth and the legality of her mother's marriage, to restore the old religion, and to recant his own words touching the royal supremacy.
It is said that he wrote a formal Palinodia or retractation of his book
There is no doubt that he sat in judgment on Bishop John Hooper, and on several other preachers whom he condemned to be degraded from the priesthood. The natural consequence of this was that when they declined, even as laymen, to be reconciled to the Roman Church, they were handed over to the secular power to be burned. In his diocese no victim of the persecution is known to have suffered until after his death; and, much as he was already maligned by opponents, there is much to show that his personality was generous and humane. In May 1555 he went to Calais as one of the English commissioners to promote peace with France; but their efforts were ineffectual. In October 1555 he again opened parliament as Lord Chancellor, but towards the end of the month he fell ill and grew rapidly worse until he died.
Death
Bishop Gardiner died at Westminster on 12 November 1555. He was temporarily buried in a vault at the church of
Fictional portrayals
Gardiner plays an important part in Shakespeare and Fletcher’s play Henry VIII.
Bishop Gardiner is a character in the Fifth Queen trilogy by Ford Madox Ford. Gardiner is a major character in The Path to Somerset by Janet Wertman, which centers on his rivalry with the rising Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset.[23]
Gardiner is a prominent character in
Gardiner is the villain in Alison MacLeod's 1965 historical novel The Heretic, a biography of the Protestant martyr Anne Askew, of whose execution Gardiner was the main instigator.
Gardiner is played by
In the 2022 Starz series Becoming Elizabeth Bishop Gardiner is portrayed by Alex Macqueen.
See also
- Secretary of State (England)
- Privy Councillor
References
- Perseus Books, 1995.
- ^ see his will, printed in Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaeological Institute, i. 329
- ^ The Complete Peerage by G. E. Cockayne, edited by the Hon. Vicary Gibbs, vol.2, London, 1912, p.73n.
- ^ Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial And Medieval Families, Genealogical Publishing, 2011, p. 370.
- ^ Nichols's Epistles of Erasmus, ii. 12, 13
- ^ "Stephen Gardiner (GRDR506S)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "Stephen Gardiner (1483 – 1555), Bishop of Winchester", National Trust Collections
- ISBN 9781107425958
- ^ Bates, J. Barrington. "Stephen Gardiner's Explication and the Identity of the Church", Anglican and Episcopal History, Vol. 72, No. 1, March 2003
- ^ Collins, Brian M., "The Pomp of Two Bishops of Winchester when Travelling", Winchester Cathedral
- ^ Cavendish, George (23 January 2017). Singer, Samuel Weller (ed.). The Life of Cardinal Wolsey. George Wyatt.
- ^ T.A.Morris, Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century, (Routledge 1998), p. 166
- ^ G. Cavendish, The Life of Wolsey (1557); Weir, p. 298
- ^ De Vera Obedientia; John Scarisbrick, Henry VIII; Weir, Henry VIII, p. 19
- ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ The Letters of Stephen Gardiner, ed. Muller, James Arthur, Cambridge University Press 2013
- ^ The Letters of Stephen Gardiner, ed. Muller, James Arthur, Cambridge University Press 2013 p. 396
- ^ "The Acts and Monuments Online". www.dhi.ac.uk. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
- ^ The Letters of Stephen Gardiner, op.cit.
- ^ Dale Hoak, 'Coronations and the Transformations of the Tudor Monarchy', Charles S. Knighton, Richard Mortimer, Westminster Abbey Reformed: 1540–1640 (Routledge, 2003), p. 136.
- ^ Heralds' Account of Gardiner's Obsequies, College of Arms, cited in The Letters of Stephen Gardiner, op.cit. pp.502-517
- ^ Latham, Edward. Famous Sayings and their Authors, 2d ed. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1906, p.240.
- ^ "Fiction Book Review: The Path to Somerset by Janet Wertman. Janet Wertman, $13.99 (378p) ISBN 978-0-9971338-4-4". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
External links
- Media related to Stephen Gardiner at Wikimedia Commons
- public domain: Gairdner, James (1911). "Gardiner, Stephen". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 460–462. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the