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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Before the theory that early English humanism suffered an arrest at the death of More and Fisher hardens into dogma, it may be well to draw attention to the importance of a small group of English scholars who under the patronage of Henry VIII and Cromwell pursued classical studies in the household of Reginald Pole in Italy during the second decade of the sixteenth century, and who later put their learning to use in the king's service in England. One of that group, Richard Morison, deserves more than the scanty notice he has heretofore received. Drafted at a critical moment after the outbreak of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, he was advanced literally overnight to a position of strategic importance as official propagandist against the rebels. The four tracts which he wrote in 1536 and 1539 in support of the government's action, together with his unpublished writings, constitute the largest single body of evidence, though by no means the only evidence, for the persistence of the humanistic tradition in the period immediately after More's death. Moreover, they reveal a hitherto unsuspected acquaintance with the political works of Machiavelli, whose influence in Cromwellian political policy has recently been denied. The present description of the literary career of Morison is therefore of importance for its bearing on the history both of humanism and of political ideas in early Tudor England.
1 See J. S. Phillimore, “Blessed Thomas More and the Arrest of Humanism in England,” Dublin Review, 153 (July, 1913), pp. 1–26; R. W. Chambers, Thomas More (New York, 1935), and The Place of St Thomas More in English Literature and History (New York, 1937). Since then, Professor Douglas Bush has demonstrated conclusively that humanistic education in the universities suffered no falling off after the death of More. See “Tudor Humanism and Henry VIII,” University of Toronto Quarterly, vii (Jan., 1938), 162–177.
2 The account of Morison by W. A. J. Archbold in DNB is incomplete and not always accurate. In 1936, an article by C. R. Baskervill, “Sir Richard Morison as the author of two anonymous tracts on sedition,” was published posthumously “without his final revision” in Library, 4th Series, xvii, no. 1, 83–87. From material published in Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, as well as from two manuscript drafts of A Remedy in the Public Record Office (SP 6/13, fols. 16–24, 25–34), Baskervill was able to identify A Lamentation in whiche is shewed what Ruyne and destruction cometh of seditious rebellyon and A Remedy for Sedition, Berthelet, 1536 (Short-title Catalogue, Nos. 15185, 20877), as the work of Morison. In his brief but excellent description of the two tracts and the circumstances of their publication, he made only parenthetic reference to Morison's humanistic activity.
The present account, in addition to these materials, makes use of two fragments of drafts of A Remedy in the Public Record Office not mentioned by Baskervill, SP/240, fol. 192, and SP 6/8, pp. 303–304. I have also had access to photostatic reproductions of the Huntington Library copy of A Remedy and the British Museum copy of An Exhortation. For Morison's writing career after 1536, with which Baskervill was not concerned, I have relied largely on Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. In considering the career of Morison as a humanist, I make no pretense of describing in detail his later diplomatic career.
3 Wood's Athenae oxoniensis: Nov. 5; Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII, xiii (2), no. 817 (Nov.?, 1538), p. 325, hereinafter referred to as “L & P.”
4 L & P, vi, no. 1582 (Dec. 30, 1533), p. 643; Remedy E iiv-E iii. For Wolsey's efficient administration of law, see A. W. Pollard's Wolsey, pp. 72, 75, 84. Since Cromwell was an agent for Wolsey at this time, it is possible that Morison may have first known his future patron as a suppressor of monastic houses.
5 L & P, vi, no. 1582 (Dec. 30, 1533), p. 643.
6 See J. A. Gee, Life and Works of Thomas Lupset, p. 50.
7 With the learning of Wolsey's household Erasmus was much impressed. He wrote to Gonell, Sept. 1, 1520: “O vere splendidum Cardinalem qui tales viros habet in consiliis, cuius mensa talibus hominibus cingitur!” See Opus epistolarum, ed. Allen iii (1), no. 968, p. 356.
8 L & P, ix, no. 102.
9 Appointed March 15, 1542. See Ellis's Original Letters Illustrative of English History, Series 2, ii, 70–75.
10 “Sometime student at Louvain, when he betrayed 'good Tyndall.” See L & P, xiii (2), no. 507.
11 L & P, ix, no. 1011; x, no. 418. Imprisoned by Wolsey in 1528 for unlicensed preaching at Poghley. L & P, iv (2), no. 4074, p. 1804; no. 4741, p. 2056.
12 L & P, ix, no. 103.
13 L & P, ix, no. 1034; x, no. 321.
14 L & P, vi, no. 1582, p. 643. Cranmer had been consecrated just nine months since.
15 L & P, vii, nos. 1311, 1318.
16 L & P, ix, no. 103.
17 L & P, ix, no. 1034 (Dec. 29, 1535); x, no. 321 (Feb. 18, 1536).
18 L & P, ix, nos. 101–103, 687; x, nos. 320, 321.
19 L & P, ix, no. 102.
20 On September 5, 1535, Lily wrote to Starkey in London, asking to be remembered to Morison. But Morison's stay there must have been very short since he was in Padua on August 27, and again on October 26. L & P, ix, nos. 198, 292, 687.
21 L & P, ix, no. 198.
22 L & P, ix, no. 1011.
23 L & P, x, nos. 320, 372, 417.
24 L & P, x, nos. 417, 418.
25 L & P, x, no. 660.
26 L & P, x, no. 565.
27 L & P, x, nos, 801, 961, 970. Archbold in DNB dates his departure a year early.
28 L & P, x, no. 975.
29 L & P, xi, no. 1481.
30 L & P, xvi, nos. 154, 155.
31 L & P, xi, nos. 328, 513.
32 L & P, xi, no. 1422, p. 568; Thomas Swinnerton, otherwise Robertes, The Tropes and Figures of Scripture. In his dedication to Cromwell, he remarks that a person of “more rype lerninge than I, as for good Master Moryson,” might have done the book.
33 Berthelet began printing before July. See L & P, xi, no. 513, p. 206.
34 The date of the dedicatory epistle to Cromwell. The colophon is dated 1537. L & P, xi, no. 513 (Sept. 30, 1536), p. 206; no. 1481, p. 584.
35 L & P, xi, no. 672 (Oct. 12, 1536), p. 263; no. 717 (Oct. 15), p. 278; no. 1406, p. 557.
36 On October 23, Henry sent a copy of his articles “which before I had ready.” L & P, xi, no. 842 (1), p. 334. Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life and Reign of Henry VIII (ed. 1649), p. 415 says that “certain Books the King sent down, which were, as I take it, the Articles of Religion, devised by himself, being received by them, took much misunderstanding and ill impression.”
37 Kenneth Pickthorn, Early Tudor Government: Henry VIII, p. 340, hereinafter referred to as “Pickthorn.” It was delayed until the 6th because of news of fresh insurrection. (L & P, xi, no. 985–6, p. 404; no. 995, pp. 406–407). On November 14 (?) Henry informed Norfolk that “certayne bookes of His Hieghness aunswere” to the Yorkshire rebels were forwarded with “a proclamation implieng a pardon, copies of the same, . . . and all suche other writinges, escriptes, and mynuments, as be prepared for their dispeche.” State Papers, Henry VIII, i, 499; L & P, xi, no. 1064, p. 428.
38 Illustrium Maioris Britanniae scriptorum (1548), enlarged and printed as Scriptorum illuslrium maioris Britanniae Catalogus (1557–59). Bale adds “Atque alia in patrio sermone plura.” In his autograph notebook (probably begun in 1549 or 1550 and finished after September 1557) printed by R. L. Poole under the title Index Britanniae Scriptorum (Oxford, 1902), Bale mentions Invective, Exhortation, and a Historiam de rebus gestis ab Henrico octauo, with the note “Ex Bibliotheca regis.” The Folger Library possesses a single sheet in manuscript (MS. 1283–1) headed “Ex oratione Cardinalis Campagii ad Henricum octavum Anno regni decimo habetur in Libro morisoni de rebus gestis Hy: 8.” Bale may reasonably have known Morison during the years of their service under Cromwell and later as Morison's associate during their exile from England.
39 State Paper 6/13, no. 3, p. 39: “I cõplayned of Lincolne, but to late, I felt an other parte of my˜ busy wth me, or ever my Lamentacon cowd ever a brode.” See Pickthorn 323, 327.
40 The date of the overflow of the Don (Lord Herbert of Cherbury's Life & Reign of Henry VIII, ed. 1649, p. 414), mentioned in A Remedy as a providential act of God to prevent bloodshed (Sig. C ii). A manuscript called “An introduction to concord to the people of England” in Starkey's hand and written at the same time, contains a strikingly similar reference to the same episode (Public Record Office, State Paper 6/9, fols. 210–221. L & P, xi, no. 936. Not An Exhortation to Christian Unity and Obedience). Neither A Remedy nor the Starkey tract can therefore be identified with “a certain oration lately made by some of our subjects touching the malice and iniquity of this rebellion,” which, together with a proclamation by the council, was sent to all parts of the realm on October 21st, “to induce the traitors to submit and [encourage] your soldiers to the greater detestation of this abominable rebellion attempted by them of Yorkshire.” (L & P, xi, no. 816). A manuscript draft of this earlier oration is in the Public Record Office, SP 1/113, fols. 250–255 (L & P, xi, Appendix no. 12), entitled “A Letter sent to the comons that rebell, wherein louyngely is shewed to them, how they every way ryse to they owne extreme ruine and distruction.” The hand is neither Morison's nor Starkey's. Obviously, Cromwell commissioned at least three writers in active propaganda. Baskervill is right in rejecting the headnote attributing one manuscript draft of A Remedy (State Paper 6/13, fols. 16–24) to Tunstal, and at the same time in believing that Tunstal was active in the king's cause in 1536, as he certainly was in 1539. Morison's tracts, however, were the only ones printed.
41 L & P, xi, no. 955, p. 382.
42 The attacks were leveled mainly at Cromwell, but the rebels also named Cranmer and Latimer (Pickthorn 306, 318), to whom Morison as a student had applied for aid.
43 Lam. A iv, B iii, C–Cv.
44 Lam. B iii, B iv. These charges are maintained in spite of attack, in manuscript drafts of A Remedy, but dropped in the printed edition. See L & P, ix, no. 694.
45 Rem. A iv, B iv.
46 Rem. B iv–B iiv. The whole argument, specious as it is, was forced on Morison, since the removal of Cromwell from office was one of the cardinal points in the rebel demands.
47 Rem. C iv–ivv; D ii–iii. So also Starkey's Dialogue between Pole and Lupset (ed. Cowper), 74–76.
48 Rem. D iii–E.
49 Rem. E iv–F ii. So Starkey's Dialogue, 95.
50 Rem. F iii ff.
51 Lam. A ii–iii; Rem. A ii.
52 Edward Hall's The Union of the two noble and illustre families (1548, 1550), most ambitious of such works, was begun under the sponsorship of Cromwell. See also a report of Chapuys on “certain chronicles which he [Cromwell] is composing,” in L & P, xi, no. 42 (July 8, 1536), p. 26, and my note 38.
53 Quoted in Baskervill, op. cit., pp. 84–85. For further indications of royal supervision, see Lam. B ii; Rem. D i–D iv, F iii.
54 Public Record Office, SP 6/13, fols, 16–24, 25–34 (L & P, xi, no. 1409, pp. 559–560); SP 6/8, pp. 303–304 (L & P, xii (2), no. 405); SP 240, fol. 192 (L & P, xi, Addendum 1143).
55 SP 6/13, fol. 20v.
56 Ibid. fol. 22.
57 Rem. D ii–D iiv.
58 SP/240, fol. 192; SP 6/13, fol. 16; Rem. A ii.
59 SP 6/13, fol. 21v; Rem. F iiv.
60 Rem. B iv.
61 Lam. B ii.
62 Rem. D ii.
63 Lam. B iiv.
64 Rem. C iv.
65 Lam. B iv; Rem. A ii, B ii–B iiv, B iv, D iv.
66 Rem. C iiiv, C iiv–C iii.
67 Lam. B iv–B iiv, C.
68 L & P, xi, no. 1409, p. 36. Note Pole's remark in Apologia that Cromwell scorned the opinions of pious and learned men as themes good enough for sermons or the discussions of the schools, but of little use in practical politics, and decidedly out of favor at the courts of princes.
69 Rem. B.
70 Rem. F iii–F ivv. Published by Berthelet in 1540, and dedicated to Gregory, son of Thomas Cromwell, before his father's fall.
71 Rem. E iiv.
72 J. R. Green's Short History of the English People: Cromwell's statesmanship was “closely modelled on the ideal of the Florentine thinker whose book was constantly in his hand.” Lewis Einstein's Italian Renaissance in England: Cromwell was “the first great English disciple of Machiavelli.” Literary critics like Edward Meyer and Mario Praz, intent on discovering the origin of Elizabethan distortions of Machiavelli, have ignored this early influence altogether.
73 Paul Van Dyke, Renaissance Portraits, pp. 401 ff.
74 “Machiavelli and Tudor England,” Political Science Quarterly, xlii (1927), 605.
75 George T. Buckley, Atheism in the English Renaissance (1937), p. 33.
76 It is true that in the Apologia Pole fails to mention the name of the book he is attacking, and his description at one point, though it is relevant enough, has no counterpart anywhere in Machiavelli. But these observations may be disregarded, I think, in the face of the general effect of his description, which, as most critics agree, can hardly be applied to any other than Machiavelli, and certainly not to Castiglione's Courtier. Nor do the facts warrant Weissberger's assumption that Cromwell was too obscure in 1528 for Pole to search out Cromwell's vade mecum or to leave England in 1531 on Cromwell's account. As early as 1525, Cromwell had begun the suppression of the smaller religious houses, a policy most distasteful to Pole, and in 1527 he was well acquainted with Pole in London. Weissberger doubts both the sincerity and accuracy of Pole's Apologia. But it is useless to argue that papal sanction of the publication of Machiavelli's works by Pole's own publisher would indicate his sentiments toward Machiavelli when his antipathy is so unmistakably confirmed by John Leigh's testimony quoted below.
77 L & P, xi, no. 721, p. 337.
78 L & P, xiv (1), no. 285, p. 110. Henry Ellis, Original Letters: Third Series, iii, 63, dates this letter February 13, 1537. So also Sidney Lee (DNB: article on the eighth Baron Morley). Weissberger is unwarranted in assuming from this letter that Cromwell had not seen the Prince. What may be inferred from the letter is Lord Morley's confidence that Machiavelli would find ready acceptance in the current court policy.
79 L & P, xv, no. 356, p. 141. Discourses, Bk. ii, ch. xii. Weissberger does not mention this reference.
80 Buckley, op. cit., p. 33.
81 See note 97, below.
82 E. Meyer, Machiavelli and the Elizabethan Drama (Weimar, 1897) and Mario Praz, “Machiavelli and the Elizabethans,” Proceedings of the British Academy, xiii (1928), mention no earlier direct reference to Machiavelli than the Sempill ballads (1568).
83 Rem. E iiv. A reference to Wolsey. See p. 407, above.
84 L & P, xiv (1), no. 733 (April 10, 1539), p. 357; no. 771 (April 15, 1539), p. 371. He was not among the lists of the Privy Chamber entered in L & P at the first of the years 1538 and 1539. L & P, xiii (1) no. 1, p. 1; xiv (1), no. 2, p. 3. In connection with Exeter's removal from the Privy Chamber in 1538, the marchioness stated that “men of noble blood were put out and the King taketh in other at his pleasure.” Lord Montague believed that the new members were added to “color the putting out of the Lord Marquis.” L & P, xiii (2), no. 802 (Nov. 12, 1538), p. 314; no. 804 (Nov. 7, 1538), p. 317. Morison apparently made no secret of his expectation of being named. Consequently, when in June 1538, he was still not appointed, he appealed in considerable embarrassment to Cromwell: “Every man took it for a season to be so.” L & P, xiii (1), no. 1296, pp. 475–476. Ironically, his successor as prebendary of Yatminster Secunda in the church of Salisbury was Reginald Pole.
85 L & P, xii (2), nos. 405, 406.
86 Both were published by Berthelet in 1538. L & P, xiii (1), no. 622 (March 29, 1538) p. 229; no. 709, p. 271.
87 L & P, xiv (1), no. 401, p. 153. On February 2, Wriothesley, Ambassador to the Netherlands, wrote to Cromwell that “folks were very angry with the death of the Marquies,” but that he had declared to the best wits the treasons of the late Marquis and his accomplices (L & P, xiv (1), no. 208, pp. 86–87). Three days later, he was able to assure the favorably disposed Floris D'Egmont, Count of Buren, who had expressed a wish that “these things about the Marquis, Mountacute, Nevel and Carrowe were put in print” that “this was partly done and no doubt would be translated and sent abroad.” (L & P, xiv (1), no. 233, p. 93.) These references would seem to indicate that Morison's book was completed in February, though Castillon, the French ambassador, wrote to Montmorency on January 16 that he was sending him “a little book in English by the king about the death of the marquis of Exeter and lord Montague,” containing also “something about the king of Scots,” with the comment “J'entends que c'est leur proces fait apres leur mort.” Castillon may have been referring, of course, to manuscript. Note also Henry's instructions to Wyatt on January 19, 1539, to object to “those barking preachers there, slanderously defaming us in so celebre a place, which rather ought to be called false prophets and sheepcloked wolves.” L & P, xiv (1), no. 82.
88 L & P, xiv (1), no. 280, p. 109. See also L & P, xv, no. 478 (2), p. 199 for the circulation of Morison's tracts on the continent in 1540.
89 An Invective, E ii. See also: William Tyndale, Obedience of a Christian Man (1528) in Works of English Reformers, ed. Russell (1831), ii, pp. 213–214, 228; Stephen Gardiner, Si sedes ilia . . . (1535), in Pierre Janelle's Obedience in Church and State (1930), p. xiv; Certain Sermons appoynted by the Queenes Maiestie, 1574 (appeared first, 1571), pp. 552–554. In contrast to such orthodox views, see Thomas Starkey's Dialogue, John Ponet's A Shorte Treatise of Politicke Power, and Christopher Goodman's Bow Superior Powers Ought to be Obeyed. For a general discussion of the doctrine of non-resistance, see J. W. Allen, A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 125 ff.
90 Merriman, ii, 199. L & P, xiv (1), no. 538 (March 17, 1539), p. 210.
91 L & P, xiv (1), no. 869, pp. 405–407.
92 Morison was apparently writing it in March when the fear of French invasion was at its height. The departure of Marillac, the French ambassador, with only vague assurances of a successor looked ominous. Cromwell was pushing general musters, strengthening the defenses on the coast and the Scottish border. He was somewhat skeptical about the rumors of invasion, but none the less cautious:
My mynde is ever to this purpose that I shal ever mistrust my witt, or elles we shal fynde that all thies stourmes of Rumours have ben sett furth for a practise which I trust shal shortely come to light. But for all that, the cost and paines your grace taketh nowe aboute the preparacions & fortifications of the hole Realme shalbe thought well employed. (Merriman, ii, pp. 198–199. For preparations against invasion, see Merriman, i, 251–252). These were precisely the conditions mirrored in An Exhortation, and it seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that Morison had completed writing it before March 28th, when Castillon, the new French ambassador, arrived and thereby relieved the tension.
93 Exhort. C iii–C ivv.
94 Exhort. D ii.
95 Exhort. A vii–A viiv. An injunction of August, 1536, repeated in 1538, required a Latin and an English Bible in every church in the kingdom. The Tyndale-Coverdale [Matthew's] version appeared in August 1537, the Great Bible in April 1539.
96 Merriman, i, 252, referring to L & P, xiv (1), nos. 398–400, 529, 564, 615, 652–655.
97 Bk. VIII [ed. Detmold, i, 375.]
98 Exhort. D viiv–D viii.
99 L & P describes it as a manuscript of 35 pages in a clerk's hand with corrections by Morison, and addressed to Henry viii. See L & P, xvii, Appendix no. 2, p. 707.
100 Merriman, i, 285.
101 L & P, xv, no. 726, p. 338. It was a quality upon which he always prided himself. See L & P, ix, no. 102, p. 29; xiii (1), no. 1297, p. 476. There were rumors of Cromwell's fall as early as April 1539, but he managed to maintain his power against Gardiner until May 1540. See Merriman, i, 288, and A. F. Pollard “Council, star chamber and privy council under the Tudors,” EHR, xxxviii (1923), pp. 46–47.
102 Acts of the Privy Council, ed. Dasent (1550–52), pp. 45, 122, 125, 126; Giles in Life and Works of Ascham, i (1), lxv.
103 Scheyfve, ambassador for the Emperor in London, to Charles. State Papers, Spanish (1550–52), pp. 169, 176–177, hereinafter referred to as “SP Spanish.”
104 SP Spanish (1550–52), pp. 238–241. A record of one of these private gatherings is in Narratives of the Reformation, Camd. Soc. (1860), no. 77, p. 146, note. (See also R. W. Dixon's Church History of England, iii, 386–387, where a disputation at Morison's house, Dec. 3, 1551, is described in some detail.)
105 This undiplomatic conduct very nearly cost him his post, and earned him the reputation of “preacher,” which outlasted his whole term of office. When Wotton arrived at the emperor's court to present the Council's regret at Morison's conduct and to offer his recall, Charles smiled and said, “One should bear with the temper of those who are getting along in years and suffered from long and cruel illness.” SP Spanish, (1550–52), pp. 238–241, 247–248, 254–256, 310–317; (1553), p. 183; State Papers, Foreign (1547–53), no. 430, p. 162. See also R. W. Dixon, op. cit., iii, 337.
106 The Whole Works of Roger Ascham (ed. Giles), i (2), pp. 236, 285.
107 State Papers, Foreign (1547–53), no. 550, p. 216.
108 SP Spanish (Aug. 23, 1553), p. 183.
109 SP Spanish (Aug. 8, 1553), p. 155; (Sept. 23), p. 257. Morison's successor was Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Norwich.
110 To Bishop Gardiner. Works, i (2), 397.
111 Ralph Churton, Life of Alexander Newell, Dean of St. Paul's (Oxford 1809), p. 23.