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POLE, REGINALD (1500-1558)
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See also:POLE, REGINALD (1500-1558) , See also:English See also:cardinal and See also:arch-See also:bishop of Canterburj, See also:born at Stourton See also:Castle, See also:Staffordshire, was the third son of See also:Sir See also:Richard Pole, See also:Knight of the Garter, and See also:Margaret, countess of See also:Salisbury, a daughter of See also:George, See also:duke of See also:Clarence, and therefore niece of See also:Edward IV. He was intended for the See also: On his return to England he spoke strongly against the project to the king, who seems to have dealt gently with him in the See also:hope of using him for his own ends. He offered him the See also:sees of See also:York or See also:Winchester, and kept them vacant for ten months for his See also:acceptance. There was a stormy interview at York See also:Place; but Pole succeeded in mollifying the king's rage so far that Henry told him to put into See also:writing his reasons against the divorce. This was done, and, recognizing the difficulties of the situation, the king gave him leave to travel abroad, and allowed him still to retain his revenues as See also:dean of Exeter. In 1535. which saw by the deaths of Bishop See also:Fisher and Sir Thomas More a See also:change in Henry's policy, Pole received orders to senda formal opinion on the' royal supremacy, and the king promised to find him suitable employment in England, even if the opinion were an adverse one. The parting of the ways had been reached. Pole's reply, which took a year to write, and was afterwards published with additions under the See also:title See also:Pro unitate ecclesiae, was sent to England (May 25, 1536) and was meant for the king's See also:eye alone. It contained a vigorous and severe attack upon the royal policy, and did not shrink from warning Henry with temporal See also:punishment at the hands of the See also:emperor and the king of See also:France if he did not repent of his cruelties and return to the Church. He was again summoned to return to England to explain himself, but declined until he could do so with honour and safety; but he was on the point of going at all risks, when he heard from his See also:mother and See also:brother that the whole See also:family would suffer if he remained obstinate. See also:Paul III. who had prepared a See also:bull of See also:excommunication and deposition against Henry, summoned Pole to Rome in See also:October, and two months after created him cardinal. In See also:January 1537 he received a See also:sharp See also:letter of rebuke from the king's See also:council, together with the See also:suggestion that the See also:differences might be discussed with royal deputies either in France or See also:Flanders, provided that Pole would attend without being commissioned by any one. He replied that he was willing and had the See also:pope's leave to meet any deputies anywhere. Paul III. in the See also:early See also:spring of that year named him See also:legate a latere to See also: Here he came into See also:close relations with See also:Vittoria See also:Colonna, See also:Contarini, Sadoleto, See also:Bembo, See also:Morone, Marco See also:Antonio, Flaminio, and other scholars and leaders of thought; and many of the questions raised by the See also:Reformation in See also:Germany were eagerly discussed in the circle of Viterbo. The burning question of the See also:day, See also:justification by faith, was a See also:special subject of discussion. The " See also:dolce libriccino," the famous Trattate utilissimo del beneficio di Gesu Christo crocifisso verso i christiani, which was the See also:composition of a Sicilian See also:Benedictine and had been touched up by the See also:great latinist Flaminio, just appeared at See also:Mantua in 1542 under the auspices of Morone, and had a wide circulation (over 40,000 copies of the second edition, See also:Venice 1543, were sold). Containing extracts from the See also:Hundred and Ten Divine Considerations of Juan See also:Valdes (q.v.), it was soon regarded with the utmost horror by many. But 1 at Viterbo it was in favour, and the orthodox See also:interpretation was regarded rather than the other which might be taken in the Lutheran sense. Pole's own attitude to the question of justification by faith is given by Vittoria Colonna, to whom he said that she ought to set herself to believe as though she must be saved by faith alone and to act as though she must be saved by See also:works alone. In the excited See also:temper of the times any defender of justification by faith was looked upon by the old school as heretical; and Pole, with the circle at Viterbo, was denounced to the See also:Inquisition, with all sorts of crimes imputed to him. Though the See also:process went on from the pontificate of Paul III. to that of Paul IV., nothing was done against the cardinal until the time of the latter pope, who was his See also:personal enemy. It is by no means certain that Pole ever knew about the process begun against him; and immediate subsequent events show that no See also:credence was given to the charges.' While at Viterbo his See also:rule was See also:firm but mild; and no See also:charge of persecuting heretics is made against him. He regained many, such as his friend Flaminio, by See also:patience and kindliness, to a reconsideration of their errors. During this time also he was still engaged in furthering a proposed armed expedition to See also:Scotland to aid the papal party, and in 1545 he was again asking help from Charles V. But the Council of See also:Trent (q.v.), first summoned in 1536, was at last on the point of See also:meeting, and this required all his See also:attention. In 1542 he had been appointed one of the presiding legates and had written in preparation his See also:work De concilio; and now in 1545, after a brief visit to Rome, he went secretly, on See also:account of fear of assassination by Henry's agents, to Trent, where he arrived on the 4th of May 1545. At the council he took a high spiritual See also:line, and his learning and devout life made him a great See also:leader in that See also:assembly. He advocated that dogmatic decrees should go together with those on reform as affording the only See also:stable See also:foundation. His views on the subject of See also:original See also:sin, akin as it is to that of justification, were accepted and embodied in the See also:decree. He was See also:present when the latter subject was introduced, and he entreated the fathers to study the subject well before committing themselves to a decision. On the 28th of See also:June 1546 he See also:left Trent on account of See also:ill-See also:health and went to Padua. While he was there frequent communications passed between him and the council and the draft of the decree on justification was sent to him. His suggestions and amendments were accepted, and the decree em-bodies the doctrines that Pole had always held of justification by a living faith which showed itself in good works. This effectually disproves the See also:story that he left the Council of Trent so as to avoid taking See also:part in an adverse decree. On the See also:death of Henry (See also:Jan. 28, 1547), Pole, by name, was left out of the See also:general See also:pardon; and in the subsequent rising in the See also:West the insurgents demanded that he should be sent for and made the first on the See also:record in the council. He wrote several times to England to prepare a conference, but only received a See also:rude reply from See also:Somerset, who sent him a copy of the See also:Book of See also:Common See also:Prayer. At the See also:conclave of 1549 Pole received two-thirds of the votes, but by a delay, caused by his sense of responsibility, he lost the See also:election and Julius III. succeeded. He then retired to Magazzano on the See also:Lake of See also:Garda and occupied himself by editing his book Pro unitate ecclesiae, with an intended See also:dedication to Edward VI.
The See also:accession of See also:Mary opens the third period of his life. On the 5th of August 1553 he was appointed legate to the new See also:queen and began his negotiations. But many difficulties were put in the way of return. He was still under See also:attainder; and the temper of England was not yet ripe for the presence of a cardinal.
See, however, See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie (ed. 3) § " Pole," where it is said that " only his procrastination, and then his death saved him from appearing before the Inquisition." Within the institution of the Inquisition his name continued to be regarded as that of a heretic and misleader of others, as is proved by the See also:mass of See also:evidence accumulated against him in the Compendium inquisitorum (v. archivio See also:delta society di storia patria, Rome, 1880), p. 283, &c.—(En.)
The project of the queen's See also:marriage was also an obstacle. A marriage between her and Pole, who was then only a See also:deacon, was proposed by some, but this did not at all meet the views of the emperor, who therefore hindered him the more from setting out for England. The marriage with See also: Arriving at See also:Whitehall, where he was received with joy by Mary and Philip on the 3oth of See also:November, he proceeded to parliament and there absolved the kingdom and accepted in the pope's name the demands respecting ecclesiastical See also:property. He entered wisely on his work of reformation, for which he was well prepared. One of the most important matters he had to See also:deal with was to rectify the canonical position of those who had been ordained or consecrated since the See also:breach with Rome. Acting according to the instructions he had received from Rome, where the See also:matter had been fully gone into, he made an investigation, and divided the See also:clergy ordained after that period into two classes; one consisting of those ordained in See also:schism, indeed, but according to the old See also:Catholic rite, and the other of those who had been ordained by the new rite See also:drawn up by See also:Cranmer and enforced by act of parliament 1st of See also:April 1550. The first class, after submission, were absolved from their irregularity, and, receiving See also:penance, were reinstated; the second class were simply regarded as laymen and dismissed without penance or See also:absolution. At his first See also:convocation he exhorted the bishops to use gentleness rather than rigour in their dealings with heretics; and Pole, in himself, was true to his principle. He was not responsible for the cruel persecution by which the reign was disfigured. On the 4th of November 1555 Pole opened, in the See also:chapel royal at See also:Westminster, a legatine See also:synod, consisting of the See also:united convocations of the two provinces, for the purpose of laying the See also:foundations of See also:wise and solid re-forms. In the Reformatio Angliae which he brought out in 1556, based on his Legatine Constitutions of 1555, he ordered that every See also:cathedral church should have its See also:seminary, and the very words he uses on this subject seem to have been copied by the Council of Trent in the twenty-third session (1563). He also ordered that the See also:Catechism of Caranza, who, like him, was to suffer from the Inquisition for this very book, should be translated into English for the use of the laity. On Cranmer's deprivation, Pole became See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury; and, having been ordained See also:priest two days before, he was consecrated on the 22nd of See also: His personal enemy Caraffa had become pope under the name of Paul IV. and was biding his time. When Rome quarrelled with See also:Spain, and France, on behalf of the pope, took up arms, England could no longer observe See also:neutrality. To injure Spain and heed-less of England's need, Paul IV. deprived Pole of his power both as legate a lateee and legatus natus as archbishop of Canterbury (June 14, 1557); he also reconstituted the process of the Inquisition against the cardinal and summoned him to Rome to See also:answer to the See also:crime and heresies imputed to him. No remonstrances on the part of the queen, of Pole or the English clergy could induce the pope to withdraw his See also:sentence except to declare that the cardinal still held the, position of legatus natus inherent in the primatial see. In a dignified but strong letter Pole says: " As you are without example in what you have done against me, I am also without an example how I ought to behave to your Holiness ": and he See also:drew up a See also:paper containing an account of the various acts of hostility he had experienced from the pope, but on second thoughts he burnt the document, saying it were not well to discover the shame of his See also:father. Mary, who had been warned by her See also:ambassador to the pope that See also:prison awaited Pole, prevented the breve ordering the cardinal to proceed to Rome from being delivered, and so Pole remained in England. Broken down as much by the See also:blow as by ill-health the cardinal died at See also:Lambeth on the 17th of November 1558, twelve See also:hours after Mary's death and under the unmerited disgrace of the papacy in See also:defence of which he had spent his life. He was buried at Canterbury near the spot where the shrine of St Thomas Becket once stood. The See also:chief See also:sources for Pole's See also:biography are his life written in Italian by his secretary Beccatelli, which was translated into Latin by See also:Andrew Dudith as Vita Poli cardinalis (Venice, 1563), and his letters (Epistolae Reginaldi Poli) edited by See also:Girolamo Quirini and published in 5 volumes (See also:Brescia, 1744–1757), a new edition of which is in preparation at Rome with additions from the Vatican Archives. See also the See also:State Papers (See also:foreign and domestic) of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Mary; the See also:Spanish and Venetian State Papers; vol. i. of A. Theiner's Acta genuina S.S. 0ecumenici Caecilii iridentini (1874); the Compendia dei processi del santo uffizio di See also:Roma da See also:Paolo III. a Paolo IV. (Societa See also:romana di
storia patria, Archivio, 261 seq.) ; T. Phillipp's History of the
Life of R. Pole (Oxford, 1764–1767); See also:Athanasius See also:Zimmermann, S.J., Kardinal Pole sein Leben and See also:seine Schriften (See also:Regensburg, 1893); See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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