Everything about Stephen Gardiner totally explained
» For the British architect, see Stephen Gardiner (architect).
Stephen Gardiner (c. 1497 –
November 12,
1555) was an
English bishop and politician of the
English Reformation period who served as
Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen
Mary I of England.
Early life
He was born in
Bury St Edmunds, but the date of his birth is suspect. His father is known to have been William Gardiner, a substantial cloth merchant of the town where he was born (see his will, printed in
Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaeological Institute, i. 329), who took care to give him a good education. His mother
Helen was reputed to be an illegitimate daughter of
Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford.
In 1511 Gardiner, still a boy, met
Erasmus in
Paris (Nichols's
Epistles of Erasmus, ii. 12, 13). He had probably already begun his studies at
Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in the classics, especially in
Greek. He then devoted himself to the canon and civil law, in which subjects he attained so great a proficiency that no one could dispute his pre-eminence. He received the degree of doctor of
civil law in 1520, and of
Canon law in the following year.
Diplomatic career
Before long his abilities attracted the notice of Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, who made him his secretary, and in this capacity he's said to have been with him at More Park 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 doesn't appear to have been actively engaged in Henry's service till three years later. In that of Wolsey be undoubtedly acquired a knowledge of foreign politics, and 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.
Role in the divorce
That year he accompanied Wolsey on his important diplomatic mission to France, the splendour and magnificence of which have been graphically described. Among the cardinal's imposing train --including several noblemen and privy councillors--Gardiner alone seems to have understood the importance of this embassy. Henry was particularly anxious to cement his alliance with King
Francis I of France, and gain his co-operation in his plans to divorce
Catherine of 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 court, Master Stevens, for fresh instructions; to which he was obliged to reply that he positively couldn't spare him as he was the only instrument he'd in advancing the king's 'Great Matter'. Next year Gardiner, still in the service of Wolsey, was sent by him to
Italy along with
Edward Foxe, provost of
King's College, Cambridge, to promote the same business with the pope. His despatches survived, and give a wonderful impression of the zeal and ability with which he discharged his functions. His familiarity with the canon law gave him a great advantage. He was instructed to procure from the pope a decretal commission, laying down principles of law by which Wolsey and Campeggio might hear and determine the cause without appeal. The demand, though supported by plausible pretexts, wasn't only unusual but clearly inadmissible.
Pope Clement VII was then at
Orvieto, and had recently escaped from captivity at St Angelo at the hands of the imperialists. Even fear of offending the emperor couldn't have induced him to refuse a legitimate request from a king like Henry. He referred the question to the cardinals about him; with whom Gardiner held long arguments. What was to be thought, be said, of a spiritual guide, who either couldn't or wouldn't show the wanderer his way? The king and lords of England would be driven to think that God had taken away from the Holy See the key of knowledge.
This ingenious pleading didn't succeed, and he'd to be content with a general commission for Campeggio and Wolsey to try the case in England. This, as Wolsey saw, was quite inadequate for the purpose in view; and he instructed Gardiner, while thanking the pope for the commission actually granted, to press him once more to send the desired decretal on, even if it were only to be shown to the king and himself and then destroyed. Otherwise, he wrote, he'd lose his credit with the king, who might be tempted to throw off his allegiance to Rome. At last the pope gave in, on the express conditions 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 home; but early in the following year, 1529, when proceedings were delayed on information of the brief in Spain, he was sent once more to Rome. This time, however, his efforts were unavailing. The pope would make no further concessions.
Bishop of Winchester
Gardiner's services, however, were fully appreciated. He was appointed the king's secretary. He had already been archdeacon of
Taunton for several years, and the archdeaconry of Norfolk was added to it in March 1529; two years later he resigned it for that of
Leicester. In 1530 he was sent to Cambridge to procure the decision of the university as to the unlawfulness of marriage with a deceased brother's wife, in accordance with the new plan devised for settling the question without the pope's intervention. In this he succeeded, though not without a good deal of artifice, more creditable to his ingenuity than to his virtue. In November 1531 the king rewarded him with the
bishopric of Winchester, vacant since Wolsey's death. The unexpected promotion was accompanied by expressions from the king which made it still more honourable, showing that if he'd been subservient, it wasn't for the sake of his own advancement. Gardiner had, in fact, argued boldly with the king 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 displeased the king by taking part in the preparation of the "Answer of the Ordinaries" to the complaints brought against them in the
House of Commons. On this subject he wrote to the king in his own defence.
Gardiner wasn't 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, when the archbishop, in the absence of
Queen Catherine, pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void on
May 23,
1533. 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. In the same year he'd 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 so often abroad that he'd little influence on the king's councils; but in 1539 he took part in the enactment of the severe statute of the
Six Articles, which led to the resignation of Bishops
Latimer and
Shaxton and the persecution of the Protestant party. In 1540, on the execution of
Thomas Cromwell he was elected chancellor of the
University of Cambridge. A few years later he attempted, in concert with others, to fasten a charge of heresy upon Archbishop Cranmer in connection with the Act of the Six Articles; and but for the personal intervention of the king he'd probably have succeeded. He was, despite having supported the royal supremacy, 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 hadn't 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'd of Cranmer; for it was Gardiner, who even under royal supremacy, was anxious to prove that England hadn't 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.
Heresy 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 musician Marbeck, was pardoned by Gardiner's procurement.
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. Under King
Edward VI, he completely opposed 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 resulted in his being imprisoned in the Fleet, and the visitation of his diocese was held during his imprisonment. Though soon released, he was soon called before the council, and, refusing to give them satisfaction on some points, was thrown into the
Tower of London, where he remained for the rest of the reign, a period of over five years. During this time he unsuccessfully demanded to be called before parliament as a
peer of the realm. His bishopric was given to Dr Poynet, a chaplain of Cranmer's who was previously Bishop of Rochester. At the accession of
Queen Mary, the
Duke of Norfolk and other state prisoners of high rank were in the Tower along with him; 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. He also opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor.
Mary Tudor's reign
He was now called upon, in old age, to undo not a little of the work in which he'd 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
De vera obedientia; but the reference is probably to his sermon on
Advent Sunday 1554, after
Reginald Cardinal Pole had absolved the kingdom from
schism. As chancellor he'd the onerous task of negotiating the queen's marriage treaty with
Philip II of Spain, for which he shared a general repugnance. In executing it, he took care to make the terms as advantageous for England as possible, with express provision that the Spaniards should in nowise be allowed to interfere in the government of the 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 open to debate. 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. There is no doubt that he sat in judgment on Bishop 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 Church, they were handed over to the secular power to be burned. Gardiner, however, undoubtedly did his best to persuade them to save themselves by a course which he conscientiously followed himself. 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's evidence that his character was humane and generous. 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, aged over sixty.
Legacy
Gardiner is commonly represented as a morose and narrow-minded bigot. He was called ambitious, turbulent, crafty, abject, vindictive, and bloodthirsty; it was asserted by
Gilbert Burnet that he was despised by both Henry VIII and by Mary I, both of whom made use of him as a tool. Yet he submitted to five years in prison rather than change his principles; and there's no contemporary evidence that either Henry nor Mary considered him despicable. He was no friend to the Reformation, but he was a conscientious opponent. In doctrine he adhered to the old faith from first to last, while as a question of church policy, the only matter for consideration with him was whether the new laws and ordinances were constitutionally justifiable.
It is as a statesman and a lawyer, rather than as a theologian, that he was notable. His learning was great. 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
false name. Controversial writings also passed between him and Bucer, with whom he'd several interviews in Germany, when he was there as Henry VIII's ambassador. He was a friend of learning in every form, and took great interest especially in promoting the study of Greek at Cambridge. He was, however, opposed to the new method of pronouncing the language introduced by Sir
John Cheke, and wrote letters to him and Sir Thomas Smith upon the subject, in which, according to
Roger Ascham, his opponents showed themselves the better critics, but he the superior genius. In his own household he loved to take in 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 was spoken of by
John Leland as the seat of eloquence and the special abode of the
muses.
He died, probably in his early sixties, and was buried in
Winchester Cathedral, where his effigy is still to be seen. Some claim that his last words were
Erravi cum Petro, sed non flevi cum Petro (Like Peter, I've erred, unlike Peter, I've not wept).
Fictional portrayals
A very fanciful portrayal of Bishop Gardiner can be seen in the movie
Elizabeth (film), where he's portrayed by actor
Terence Rigby as a villainous bishop who took part in the
Ridolfi plot and who vehemently opposed
Elizabeth I's
Act of Uniformity. This is quite inaccurate, since Gardiner had died before Elizabeth ascended the throne. A more accurate portrayal of Gardiner can be seen in the BBC dramas 'The Six Wives of Henry VIII' and 'Elizabeth R'.
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