The Practice of Prelates, Part 18
¶How the Emperour cam thorow Englond.
AFter that the Emperour wolde into Spayne and cam thorowe Englond where he was receaue wt great honour & wt al that pertayneth to louelove and amyte. The kings grace lent hym money and promysed hym more. And the Emperour shuld tarye a certayne yeares & mary our princesse: Not that the cardinall intēded that thou mayest be su…e, for it was not proffitable for theyr kingdom, but his mind was to dallye wyth the Emperour and to kepe him without a wyfe that (in so much as he was yong and lusty) he might hauehave bene noselled and entangeled wyth hores (which is their nurterīg Nurterīg. of kynges.of kinges) and made so effeminate and that he shuld neuer hauehave bene able to lift vp his harte to any goodnesse or vertue: that cardinalles and bysshopes myght hauehave administred his dominions in the meane time vntounto our holy fathers profyte.
The king of fraunce hearing the fauour that was shewed vntounto the Emp…roure, sent immediatlye a diffiaunce vntounto oure king, not wtout our cardinalles & bisshops counsell, thou mayst well wyt.
For frenchmen are not so folish to hauehave done it so vnaduisedlye and so rashlye / seynge they had to many in their toppes already. Then oure king spake manye greate wordes that he wold dryue the frenchkyng out of his realme, or els the frenchkyng shulde bryue him out of his▪ But had he added as the legate Pandulph taught kinge Ihon̄ / with the popes lycence, his wordes had sounded much better. For there can no vow stande in effect / except the holy father confirme it.
We sent out our sodiars, two sommers agaīst the frenchmē / vntounto whose chefe captaynes the Cardinall had appoynted, how farre they shuld go, ād what they shuld do▪ And therfore the frenchkyng was nothīg afrayed / but brought all hys Power agaynst the Emperour in other places. And …o was the Emperour euer betrayed. And thus the cardinall was ye emperours frend openly, and the frenchkinges secretlie, For at the m…ng / wyth the frenchkinge besyd Cal…s, he vtterly betrayed the Emperour▪ yet for no louelove that he had to Fraunce, but to helpe the Pope, yea ād to hauehave bene Pope happely / and to saue theyr kyngdome. Whych treason / though all the world smelled it, yet it brake not out openlie to the eye / tyll the sege of Pauye. And the Cardynall sent the emperoure muche monye openlye / and gaue the Frenchkyng more secretelye. He played with both handes to serue their secret▪ that all mē know not, as the bisshop of Deram sayed. But what soeuer the frenchmen did, they had euer the worse, no… withstondyng the secrete workyng of our holy prelates on their syde.
Fynallye vntounto the sege of Pauye came the Frenchkyng parsonallye with .lx. thousand men of warre,Pauye. of whych .xij, thousand were horsemen, and wyth money ynough And the Emperours host was vnderunder .xx. thousand, of whych were but .iij. thousand horsemen, wt no money at all. For he trusted vntounto the Pope for ayde of men, and vntounto oure Cardynall for money. But the Pope kepte backe hys men tyll that the frēchmē had geuen them a felde, and our Cardinall kepte backe hys money for the same purpose. And thus was the selye Emperoure betrayed, as all hys predecessours hauehave bene this .viiij. hūdred yeres. How be it there be that sa…e, how that the Emperours sodiars so thretened Pace,Pace… the kynges graces embassadoure, that he was fayne to make che…esaunce wyth marchauntes for money in the kinges name, to paye the soldyars with all. Wherfore the cardinall toke from hym all his promocions, and played tormētours wyth him whē he came home, because that he presumed to do one Iore more thē was in his commissiō But how so euer it was, ye emperours mē, in tarieng for helpe / had spent out all their vitayles. Whervpō Burbon the chefe captayne of the Emperoure sayd vntounto his vnderunder captaynes: ye se,Burbo… helpe cometh not, and that our vitales are spent. Wherfore there is no remedy but to fight though we be vnequally matched. If we wynne, we shall fynd meate ynough: if we loose, we shall loose no more th…n we must lose with hūgre / thogh we fyght not. And so they cōcluded to set vpō ye Frenchmē by night. The king of fraunce and his lorde… purposing that the mone wolde soner hauehave faullen out of the skye, then that the Emperoures host durst hauehave fought wyth them / were som what negligent, and wēt the same night a mummynge that Burbon sett vppon them. The Emperours host therfore with their sodayn comyng vppon thē, amased the frenchmen / and draue them vponupon heapes to gether one on an other, so yt they neuer coulde com in aray agayne, and toke the king and diuerse of his lords & slew many and wanne the felde. And there came out all the Cardinals preuye treason / for in the frenchkinges tent (say men) were letters founde / and besyde that in the Frenchkyngs treasure, and in all the host among the sodiars were englysh shippes found innumerable whiche had come saylynge a thousande myles by land. But what wonder, shippes be made to sayle ouer the sea, ād winges to fle into farre contrees & to mount to ye toppe of hye hylles.
When the frenchkyng was taken, we sang Te deum. But for all that singynge we made peace with frenchmen. And the Pope,Te deum. the Uenecians, Fraunce and England were knyt to gether, lest the Emperours army shuld do any hurte in fraunce Wherby ye may cōiecture of what mind ye pope & ye cardinal were to ward ye ēperour▪ and wt what hart our spiritualty wt theyr inuisible secretes, sang Te deū. And frō ye time hitherto / ye emperour ād our cardinall hauehave bene twayne.
After that, when the king of fraun… was delyuered home agayne / and hys sonnes left in pledge, many wayes were sought to bryng home the sonnes also: But in vayne / except ye frenchking wold make good ye which he had promysed the Emperour. For the bringing home of those Chylderne no Man more busyed his wittes / then the Cardinall. He wold in any wyse the emperour shuld hauehave sēt thē home / & it had bene but for our kynges pleasure, for the greate kindenesse that he shewed him ī times past. He wold hauehave maryed the kinges doughter our princesse vntounto the Dolphine agayne, or as the voyce went among many, vntounto the seconde Brother, and he shulde hauehave bene prince in Englonde and king in tyme to come, so that he sought alwayes to plucke vsus from the Emperour and to ioyne vsus vntounto Fraunce, to make fraunce stronge ynough to matche the Emperour / and to kepe him downe, that the pope myght reygne a GOD alone,the marte shuld hauehave bene at Ca…ce. and do what pleased him / without countrollynge of anye ouerseer. And for the same purpose, he lefte nothing vnprouided to brynge the marte frō Andwerp… to Cales.
This be sufficient at this tyme, though I coulde saye more, and though other hauehave deserued that I more sayd: ye and I could more depely hauehave ētred into the practise of our cardinall, but I spare for diuerse consyderacions, and namely for hys sake / whiche neuer spared me / nor any faythfull frende of his owne, nor anye that tolde hym truth, nor spareth to persecute the bloud of Christ in as cleare lyght as euer was, ād vnderunder as subtyll colour of ypocrysy as euer was any persecution syns the creation of the world. Neyther hauehave I sayde for hate of any parson or parsons (God I take to record) but of theyr wickednesse only, and to calle them to repentaunce / knowledginge that I am a synner also, & that a greuous. How beit, it is a deuelysh thyng and a mercylesse to defend wickednes against the open truth, and not to hauehave power to repent. And therfore I doubt not, if men wyll not be warned hereby, but that God wyll vtter more practise by whome he wyll, & not cease, vntyll he hauehave broken the bande of the wytye hypocrytes / which persecute so subtylly.
And fynally, let them remembre that I, to preuent all occasyons and all carnall beastes that seke fleshly lybertie, sent forth the true obedience of a Chrystē man wt yet they condempned, but after they had condēpned the newe testament, as ryght was, whence the obediēce had hys aucthorytie. Now thē if whē the lyght is come abroad in wc theyr wyckednesse can not be hyd, they fynde no such obedience in the people vntounto theyr old tyranny, whose faute is it? This is a sure conclusyon: none obedience yt is not of louelove can longe endure: and in your dedes can no man see any cause of louelove: and the knoledge of Chryst, for whose sake onelyonly a mā wold louelove you, though ye were neuer so euell, yea persecute. Now then if any disobedience ryse / are ye not the cause therof youre selues?
Saye not but that ye be warned.
End of the text · William Tyndale, The Practice of Prelates (1548)