CHAP.

V.

CHAPTER V.

S. PAUL'S, DURING THE WARS OF THE ROSES.

THE long episcopate of Thomas Kemp, nephew of John
Kemp, promoted to York, lasted for thirty-nine years
(A.D. 1450–1489). It comprehended the whole period of
the Wars of the Roses to the fourth year after the acces-
sion of Henry VII. The turbulent commencement of
Kemp's prelacy did not presage so lengthened, and, in its
later part, such peaceable possession of the see. Kemp's
accession to the bishopric had something of the violence
and intrigue, more of the irregularity, of those darkening
days. Bishop Gilbert, from age or infirmity, for the last
two years of his life, gave hope of a speedy vacancy by re-
signation or death. The dominant minister of the min-
ister-governed King obtained from the Pope, Nicholas V., a
Provision securing the succession in either case to Thomas
Kemp. But the Duke of Suffolk became all-powerful at
Court; the royal favour veered. Attempts were made at
Provision, and obtain a

Rome to supersede the former
second with the nomination of the Bishop of Carlisle.
The Pope refused to change with the vacillating politics of
the Court. On the death of Gilbert, Kemp laid claim to
the see.
His claim was not admitted; his consecration
was delayed; and his temporalities remained in the hands
of the King. Kemp held the empty title. A petition
was presented from the Lower House of Parliament to

Wharton, in vitâ.

THOMAS KEMP, BISHOP OF LONDON.

99

V.

exclude during their lives from the presence of the King, CHAP. and to forbid the approach nearer than twelve miles from the King's Court, of Edward Duke of Somerset, the Bishop of London, and others of evil fame. In the next year, however (1449-1450), Kemp was consecrated; his temporalities restored.

In the Wars of the Roses the Clergy seem mostly to have stood aloof: episcopal banners floated not over the bloody fields of S. Alban's, Wakefield, or Towton. The Archbishop of Canterbury, as the first subject in the realm, and usually Lord High Chancellor, was compelled to take part at least in all the public ceremonials. Neville of York was too closely connected with the King Maker to remain at peace; but though John Kemp may have maintained his impartial and serener dignity, S. Paul's was summoned to witness, and, as it were, to ratify and hallow, all the changes of those terrible times. What solemn perjuries were uttered; what pompous but hollow thanksgivings resounded within its walls, as each faction triumphed, and appealed to God for the justice of its cause :— success the sole test of its justice!

Already, many years before, the lowering prognostics of these scenes, the first clouds of those fearful family feuds might be seen hovering about, in the church or in its neighbourhood. At the doors of the Cathedral, Roger Bolingbroke the Necromancer, accused of inciting, abetting, and aiding, by his diabolic magic, the ambitious designs of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, was exhibited on a platform in front of S. Paul's. With Bolingbroke, Southwell, a Canon of S. Paul's, was deeply implicated in these wicked dealings. The penance of Eleanor Duchess of Gloucester no doubt commenced or closed near the Cathedral, when she was led along, wrapped in a sheet, with a burning taper in her hand:

СНАР.

V.

Mailed up in shame, with papers on my back,
And followed with a rabble, that rejoice

To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans.2 Shakespeare, and the chronicles which he followed, say nothing of S. Paul's. Yet it can hardly be supposed but that some part of poor Eleanor's penance (witchcraft was a religious offence) would be performed either within the walls, or in the precincts of the church. The strange fiction, which translated her husband's (Duke Humphrey of Gloucester's) tomb from S. Alban's to S. Paul's, adds some interest to this event.

The poet Lydgate describes King Henry's first peaceful visit to S. Paul's. He set forth from the Tower ::

Long in his mind to be conceived,

With how good will that day he was received;
Coming to Powles, then he light adown,

And there to meet him with procession

Was the Archbishop and the Chancellor,

Lincoln and Bath, of whole hearts and entire,

Salisbury, Norwich, and Ely,

'In pontificalibus' arrayed richly;

There was the Bishop of Rochester also;
The Dean of Powles, and Canons every one,

As of duty they ought to do

On procession with the King to go.

With observances belonging for a King
Solemnly began to convey him indeed,
Up into the church with full devout singing,
And when he had made his offering,

The Mayor, the citizens bowed and left him.3

But we descend to darker times, to more certain records. In March, 1452 (two years after Kemp's accession), Richard Duke of York, in S. Paul's, took his oath of

2 Henry VI. Part 11. Act II. Scene 4. Fabyan, p. 614. Stowe, p. 388.

Quoted in Malcolm at much greater length, vol. iii. p. 156.

fealty to King Henry on the Sacrament, before a numerous assemblage of peers and others. Kemp could hardly not be on his throne. The oath which York swore is extant, and seems studiously, skilfully drawn up to involve him in the deepest perjury. No particular is omitted; no pledge, no word, which did not, as it were, anticipate its flagrant violation, its contemptuous trampling under foot of the whole, ere many years had passed away :-'I, 'Richard Duke of York, confess and beknow that I am, and ought to be, humble subject and liegeman to you, my Sovereign Lord, King Henry VI. I ought, therefore, to bear you faith and truth as to my Sovereign Liege • Lord; and shall do all days unto my life's end. . . . I shall ' not take anything upon me against your royal estate or 'obeysance, that is due thereto; nor suffer any other man to do as far forth as it shall be in my power to let it. I shall never hereafter take upon me to gather any rowt, or to make any assembly of your people without 'your commandement or licence, even in my lawful de'fence. I shall report me at all times to your Highness.

6

6

6

...

And over, I agree me and will, if I any time hereafter, 'as by the grace of our Lord God I never shall, anything attempte by way of feate or otherwise against your royal Majesty, and the obeisance that I owe thereto, or anything take upon me otherwise than as above expressed, 'I from that time forth be unabled, held, and taken as an untrue and openly foresworn man, and unable to all 'manner of worship, estate, and degree, be it such as I now occupy, or any other that might in any wise grow unto me hereafter.' And on this oath, in the great church of London, in the presence of the ministering Archbishop, the Duke of York appeals to the Host, the Body of Christ, before him."

4 Stowe's London, p. 395.

CHAP.
V.

CHAP.

V.

102

RECONCILIATION IN S. PAUL'S.

Six years have hardly passed. It is March, 1458. The bloody battle of S. Alban's had been fought; Parliaments and Councils had been held, negotiations endlessly carried on between the contending parties; the poor King had sunk for a time into mental imbecility. He had now recovered the command of his poor unkingly intellect. After all this, in token of reconciliation, there was a solemn procession to S. Paul's. There was some dread of a collision between the hostile and ill-accordant factions. King Henry and Queen Margaret slept at the Bishop's Palace in the precincts. The great Lords assembled in the chapel of that palace. The King, holding his full Court, surrounded by Yorkists and Lancastrians, sate on a throne. The Archbishop Bourchier set the crown on his head. The procession to the Church, preceded by the Archbishop, his cross borne before him by the Bishop of Rochester, was met by the Dean and Chapter (was Kemp present among the Lords ?). Two and two came those terrible Nobles, so soon to meet again in deadly battle-the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Salisbury, the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Warwick. Then came the poor King, crowned, with the sceptre in his hand. The Queen followed smiling (oh! the bitterness of that smile), and 'conversing familiarly' with the Duke of York. They knelt in prayer-one at least, the King, on his faldstool-in devout, earnest, Christian prayer. The nobles were on their knees behind. High Mass was sung; the Archbishop pronounced the benediction-Go in peace!'-that benediction to have but brief, but very slight effect! The people no doubt rejoiced at heart, and listened to the service with fond hopes of happier and more peaceful times. A ballad of the time describes this meeting :

5 All this is well and clearly told, among many historians, by Lingard. Henry VI.