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GARDINER, STEPHEN (c. 1493–1555)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 462 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GARDINER, See also:STEPHEN (c. 1493–1555) , See also:English See also:bishop and See also:lord See also:chancellor, was a native of See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds. The date of his See also:birth as commonly given, 1483, seems to be about ten years too See also:early, and surmises which have passed current that he was some one's illegitimate See also:child are of no authority. His See also:father is now known to have been See also:John Gardiner, a substantial See also:cloth See also:merchant of the See also:town where he was See also:born (see his will, printed in Proceedings of the See also:Suffolk Archaeological See also:Institute, i. 329), who took care to give him a See also:good See also:education. In 1511 he, being then a lad, met See also:Erasmus at See also:Paris (See also:Nichols's Epistles of Erasmus, ii. 12, 13). But he had probably already been to See also:Cambridge, where he studied at Trinity See also:Hall and greatly distinguished him-self in the See also:classics, especially in See also:Greek. He afterwards devoted himself to the See also:canon and See also:civil See also:law, in which subjects he attained so See also:great a proficiency that no one could dispute his pre-See also:eminence. He received the degree of See also:doctor of civil law in 1520, and of canon law in the following See also:year. Ere See also:long his abilities attracted the See also:notice of See also:Cardinal See also:Wolsey, who made him his secretary, and in this capacity he is said to have been with him at More See also:Park in See also:Hertfordshire, when the conclusion of the celebrated treaty of the More brought See also:Henry VIII. and the See also:French ambassadors thither. It is stated, and with great See also:probability, that this was the occasion on which he was first introduced to the See also:king's notice, but he does not appear to have been actively engaged in Henry's service till three years later.

In that of Wolsey be undoubtedly acquired a very intimate know-ledge of See also:

foreign politics, and in 1527 he and See also:Sir See also:Thomas More were named commissioners on the See also:part of See also:England in arranging a treaty with the French ambassadors for the support of an See also:army in See also:Italy against the See also:emperor. That year he accompanied Wolsey on his important See also:diplomatic See also:mission to See also:France, the splendour and magnificence of which are so graphically described by See also:Cavendish. Among the imposing See also:train who went with the cardinal—including, as it did, several noblemen and privy councillors—Gardiner alone seems to have been acquainted with the real See also:heart of the See also:matter which made this See also:embassy a thing of such See also:peculiar moment. Henry was then particularly anxious to See also:cement his See also:alliance with See also:Francis I., and gain his co-operation as far as possible in the See also:object on which he had secretly set his heart—a See also:divorce from See also:Catherine of See also:Aragon. In the course of his progress through France he received orders from Henry to send back his secretary Gardiner, or, as he was called at See also:court, See also:Master See also:Stevens, for fresh instructions; to which he was obliged to reply that he positively could not spare him as he was the only See also:instrument he had in advancing the king's " See also:secret matter." Next year Gardiner, still in the service of Wolsey, was sent by him to Italy along with See also:Edward See also:Fox, See also:provost of King's See also:College, Cambridge, to promote the same business with the See also:pope. His despatches on this occasion are still extant, and whatever we may think of the cause on which he was engaged, they certainly give a wonderful'impression of the zeal and ability with which he discharged his functions. Here his perfect familiarity with the canon law gave him a great See also:advantage. He was instructed to procure from the pope a decretal See also:commission, laying down principles of law by which Wolsey and See also:Campeggio might hear and determine the cause without See also:appeal. The demand, though supported by plausible pretexts, was not only unusual but clearly inadmissible. See also:Clement VII. was then at See also:Orvieto, and had just recently escaped from captivity at St Angelo at the hands of the imperialists. But fear of offending the emperor could not have induced him to refuse a really legitimate See also:request from a king like Henry. He naturally referred the question to the cardinals about him; with whom Gardiner held long arguments, enforced, it would seem, by not a little browbeating of the College.

What was to be thought, he said, of a spiritual See also:

guide, who either could not or would not show the wanderer his way ? The king and lords of England would be driven to think that See also:God had taken away from the See also:Holy See the See also:key of knowledge, and that pontifical See also:laws which were not clear to the pope himself might as well be committed to the flames. This ingenious See also:pleading, however, did not serve, and he was obliged to be content with a See also:general commission for Campeggio and Wolsey to try the cause in England. This, as Wolsey saw, was quite inadequate for the purpose in view; and he again instructed Gardiner, while thanking the pope for the commission actually granted, to See also:press him once more by very urgent pleas, to send the desired decretal on, even if the latter was only to be shown to the king and himself and then destroyed. Otherwise, he wrote, he would lose his See also:credit with the king, who might even be tempted to throw off his See also:allegiance to See also:Rome altogether. At last the pope—to his own See also:bitter regret afterwards—gave what was desired on the See also:express conditions named, that Campeggio was to show it to the king and Wolsey and no one else, and then destroy it, the two legates holding their court under the general commission. After obtaining this Gardiner returned See also:home; but early in the following year, 1529, when proceedings were delayed on See also:information of the brief in See also:Spain, he was sent once more to Rome. This See also:time, however, his efforts were unavailing. The pope would make no further concessions, and would not even promise not to revoke the cause to Rome, as he did very shortly after. Gardiner's services, however, were fully appreciated. He was appointed the king's secretary. He had been already some years See also:archdeacon of See also:Taunton, and the archdeaconry of See also:Norfolk was added to it in See also:March 1529, which two years later he resigned for that of See also:Leicester.

In 1530 he was sent to Cambridge to procure the decision of the university as to the unlawfulness of See also:

marriage with a deceased See also:brother's wife, in accordance with the new See also:plan devised for settling the question without the pope's intervention. In this he succeeded, though not without a good See also:deal of artifice, more creditable to his ingenuity than to his virtue. In See also:November 1531 the king rewarded him for his services with the bishopric of See also:Winchester, vacant by Wolsey's See also:death. The promotion was unexpected, and was accompanied by expressions from the king which made it still more See also:honourable, as showing that if he had been in some things too subservient, it was from no abject, self-seeking policy of his own. Gardiner had, in fact, ere this remonstrated boldly with his See also:sovereign on some points, and Henry now reminded him of the fact. " I have often squared with you, Gardiner," he said familiarly, " but I love you never the worse, as the bishopric I give will convince you." In 1532, nevertheless, he excited some displeasure in the king by the part he took in the preparation of the famous " See also:Answer of the Ordinaries " to the complaints brought against them in the See also:House of See also:Commons. On this subject he wrote a very manly See also:letter to the king in his own See also:defence. His next important See also:action was not so creditable; for he was, not exactly, as is often said, one of See also:Cranmer's assessors, but, according to Cranmer's own expression, " assistant " to him as counsel for the king, when the See also:archbishop, in the See also:absence of See also:Queen Catherine, pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void on the 23rd of May 1533. Immediately afterwards he was sent over to See also:Marseilles, where an interview between the pope and Francis I. took See also:place in See also:September, of which event Henry stood in great suspicion, as Francis was ostensibly his most cordial ally, and had hitherto maintained the See also:justice of his cause in the matter of the divorce. It was at this interview that See also:Bonner intimated the appeal of Henry VIII. to a general See also:council in See also:case the pope should venture to proceed to See also:sentence against him. This appeal, and also one on behalf of Cranmer presented with it, were of Gardiner's See also:drawing up. In 1535 he and other bishops were called upon to vindicate the king's new See also:title of " Supreme See also:Head of the See also:Church of England." The result was his celebrated See also:treatise De See also:vera obedientia, the ablest, certainly, of all the vindications of royal supremacy.

In the same year he had an unpleasant dispute with Cranmer about the visitation of his See also:

diocese. He was also employed to answer the pope's brief threatening to deprive Henry of his See also:kingdom. During the next few years he was engaged in various embassies in France and See also:Germany. He was indeed so much abroad that he had little See also:influence upon the king's See also:councils. But in 1539 he took part in the enactment of the severe See also:statute of the Six Articles, which led to the resignation of Bishops See also:Latimer and Shaxton and the persecution of the See also:Protestant party. In 1540, on the death of See also:Cromwell, See also:earl of See also:Essex, he was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge. A few years later he attempted, in See also:concert with others, to fasten a See also:charge of See also:heresy upon Archbishop Cranmer in connexion with the See also:Act of the Six Articles; and but for the See also:personal, intervention of the king he would probably have succeeded. He was, in fact, though he had supported the royal supremacy, a thorough opponent of the See also:Reformation in a doctrinal point of view, and it was suspected that he even repented his advocacy of the royal supremacy. He certainly had not approved of Henry's general treatment of the church, especially during the ascendancy of Cromwell, and he was frequently visited with storms of royal indignation, which he schooled himself to See also:bear with See also:patience. In 1544 a relation of his own, named See also:German Gardiner, whom he employed as his secretary, was put to death for See also: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. But in truth 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 See also: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 See also:arch-bishop himself for heresy, the archbishop could always rely on the king's See also:protection in the end.

Heresy was gaining ground in high places, especially after the king's marriage with Catherine See also:

Parr; and there seems to be some truth in the See also:story that 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. In fact, just after her marriage, four men of the Court were condemned at See also:Windsor and three of them were burned. The See also:fourth, who was the musician Marbeck, was pardoned by Gardiner's procurement. Great as Gardiner's influence had been with Henry VIII., his name was omitted at the last in the king's will, though Henry was believed to have intended making him one of his executors. Under Edward VI. he was completely opposed to the policy of the dominant party both in ecclesiastical and in civil matters. The religious changes he objected to both on principle and on the ground of their being moved during the king's minority, and he resisted Cranmer's project of a general visitation. His remonstrances, however, were met by his own committal to the See also:Fleet, and the visitation of his diocese was held during his imprisonment. Though soon afterwards released, it was not long before he was called before the council, and, refusing to give them See also:satisfaction on some points, was thrown into the See also:Tower, where he continued during the whole See also:remainder of the reign, a See also:period slightly over five years. During this time he in vain demanded his See also:liberty, and to be called before See also:parliament as a peer of the See also:realm. His bishopric was taken from him and given to Dr Poynet, a See also:chaplain of Cranmer's who had not long before been made bishop of See also:Rochester. At the See also:accession of Queen See also:Mary, the See also:duke of Norfolk and other See also:state prisoners of high See also:rank were in the Tower along with him; but the queen, on her first entry into See also:London, set them all at liberty. Gardiner was restored to his bishopric and appointed lord chancellor, and he set the See also:crown on the queen's head at her See also:coronation.

He also opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor. He was now called upon, in advanced See also:

life, to undo not a little of the See also:work in which he had been instrumental in his earlier years—to vindicate the See also:legitimacy of the queen's birth and the lawfulness of her See also:mother's marriage, to restore the old See also:religion, and to recant what he himself had written touching the royal supremacy. It is said that he wrote a formal Palinodia or retractation of his See also:book De vera obedientia, but it does not seem to be now extant; and the reference is probably to his See also:sermon on See also:Advent See also:Sunday 1JJ4, after Cardinal See also:Pole had absolved the kingdom from See also:schism. As chancellor he had the onerous task of negotiating the queen's marriage treaty with See also:Philip, to which he shared the general repugnance, though he could not oppose her will. In executing it, however, he took care to make the terms as advantageous for England as possible, with express See also:provision that the Spaniards should in nowise be allowed to interfere in the See also:government of the See also:country. After the coming of Cardinal Pole, and the reconciliation of the realm to the see of Rome, he still remained in high favour. How far he was responsible for the persecutions which afterwards arose is a debated question. He no doubt approved of the act, which passed the House of Lords while he presided there as chancellor, for the revival of the heresy laws. Neither is there any doubt that he sat in See also:judgment on Bishop See also:Hooper, and on several other preachers whom he condemned, not exactly to the flames, but to be degraded from the priesthood. The natural consequence of this, indeed, was that when they declined, even as laymen, to be reconciled to the Church, they were handed over to the See also:secular See also:power to be burned. Gardiner, however, undoubtedly did his best to persuade them to See also:save themselves by a course which he conscientiously followed himself; nor does it appear that, when placed on a commission along with a number of other bishops to administer a severe law, he could very well have acted otherwise than he did. In his own diocese no victim of the persecution is known to have suffered till after his death; and, much as he was already maligned by opponents, there are strong evidences that his natural disposition was humane and generous.

In May 1553 he went over to See also:

Calais as one of the English commissioners to promote See also:peace with France; but their efforts were ineffectual. In See also:October 1555 he again opened parliament as lord chancellor, but towards the end of the See also:month he See also:fell See also:ill and See also:grew rapidly worse till the 12th of November, when he died over sixty years of See also:age. Perhaps no celebrated See also:character of that age has been the subject of so much ill-merited abuse at the hands of popular historians. That his virtue was not equal to every trial must be admitted, but that he was anything like the morose and narrow-minded See also:bigot he is commonly represented there is nothing whatever to show. He has been called ambitious, turbulent, crafty, abject, vindictive, bloodthirsty and a good many other things besides, not quite in keeping with each other; in addition to which it is roundly asserted by Bishop See also:Burnet that he was despised alike by Henry and by Mary, both of whom made use of him as a See also:tool. How such a mean and abject character submitted to remain five years in See also:prison rather than See also:change his principles is not very clearly explained; and as to his being despised, we have seen already that neither Henry nor Mary considered him by any means despicable. The truth is, there is not a single divine or, statesman of that See also:day whose course throughout was so thoroughly consistent. He was no friend to the Reformation, it is true, but he was at least a conscientious opponent. In See also:doctrine he adhered to the old faith from first to last, while as a question of church policy, the only matter for See also:consideration with him was whether the new laws and ordinances were constitutionally justifiable. His merits as a theologian it is unnecessary to discuss; it is as a statesman and a lawyer that he stands conspicuous. But his learning even in divinity was far from See also:commonplace. The part that he was allowed to take in the drawing up of doctrinal formularies in Henry VIII.'s time is not clear; but at a later date he was the author of various tracts in defence of the Real Presence against Cranmer, some of which, being written in prison, were published abroad under a feigned name.

Controversial writings also passed between him and See also:

Bucer, with whom he had several interviews in Germany, when he was there as Henry VIII.'s See also:ambassador. He was a friend of learning in every See also:form, and took great See also:interest especially in promoting the study of Greek at Cambridge. He was, however, opposed to the new method of pronouncing the See also:language introduced by Sir John See also:Cheke, and wrote letters to him and Sir Thomas See also:Smith upon the subject, in which, according to See also:Ascham, his opponents showed themselves the better critics, but he the See also:superior See also:genius. In his own See also:household he loved to take in See also:young university men of promise; and many whom he thus encouraged became distinguished in after life as bishops, ambassadors and secretaries of state. His house, indeed, was spoken of by See also:Leland as the seat of eloquence and the See also:special See also:abode of the See also:muses. He lies buried in his own See also:cathedral at Winchester, where his effigy is still to be seen. (J.

End of Article: GARDINER, STEPHEN (c. 1493–1555)

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