Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

J >> J. Endell Tyler >> Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

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[Footnote 242: Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici,
vol. viii. p. 556.]

[Footnote 243: It is not to be forgotten that Henry
of Monmouth had from his very childhood been
interested by accounts of the state of Palestine.
His father, as we have seen, went himself to the
Holy Sepulchre; and, even during Henry's wars in
France, his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester,
visited Constance as he was proceeding in the guise
of a pilgrim to the Holy Land.]

But Hume would have it believed that this was a late and feeble
resolve of Henry, formed on his death-bed, when he was acting the part
of a self-deceiver, forgetful of the lamentable effects of his
ambition, and seeking comfort from his self-deception in the last
moments of his life. There is strong and clear evidence that he not
only had contemplated such a measure, but had actually taken important
preliminary steps to facilitate the execution of his design, whenever
he might be happily released from his present engagements. "This
vindicatory evidence" (to use the words of Mr. Granville Penn)[244]
"of the veracity and sincerity of Henry, is a manuscript discovered at
Lille, in Flanders, in the autumn of 1819, which proves to positive
demonstration, that at the moment when Henry was suddenly arrested in
his victorious progress by the hand of death, his mind was actually,
though secretly, engaged in projecting an attack on the infidel power
in Egypt and Syria, as soon as he should have pacified the internal
agitations of France; and that a confidential military agent of high
character and distinguished rank had been despatched by him to survey
the maritime frontier of those two countries, and to procure, upon the
spot, the information necessary towards embarking in so vast an (p. 316)
enterprise.

[Footnote 244: Mr. Granville Penn's interesting
paper was read before the Royal Society of
Literature at their first meeting in the year 1825,
and is recorded in the first volume of their
Transactions.]

"The manuscript is a small quarto in vellum, in old French, finely
written in black character, and richly illuminated; consisting of
fifty-four pages, and comprising a succinct military survey of the
coasts and defences of Egypt and Syria, from Alexandria round to
Gallipoli, made by the command of Henry within the three last years of
his life, and completed and reported immediately after his unexpected
death, by which death it was rendered unavailing. The confidential
author of this survey was Gilbert de Lannoi, counsellor and
chamberlain to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and that Duke's
ambassador to Henry."

The same writer thus expresses himself in conclusion. "His declaration
was not the prompting of a sickly conscience striving to procure
delusive comfort from 'the late and feeble' resolves of a death-bed,
as Hume unworthily asserts; it was the composed and deliberate
communication of a dying captain and sovereign, disclosing to those
around him, under a strong sentiment of devotion, a secret of that
kingly office which he was then on the point of relinquishing for
ever. To enter upon an appreciation of the moral value of the
enterprise which Henry had then in prospect, would be as much out of
place here, as it would be absurd to estimate it by the rule of the
present age. In those ages, when all the higher orders of society
were either clerical or martial, much real piety of sentiment (p. 317)
must, in innumerable instances, have been compounded with the
widely-extended romantic spirit which was ardent to hazard life on
sacred ground of Judea, rather than to suffer the continuance of its
profanation by the avowed enemy of the Christian name.

"The establishment of this point, certifying, as it does an
interesting fact hitherto unknown, and effectually repelling and
exposing an unjustifiable sarcasm directed against one of the most
illustrious princes that have graced the English crown, may acquire in
the history of truth the importance to which it might not be able to
lay claim in the political history of a people."[245]

[Footnote 245: This same interesting subject is far
more elaborately discussed by that excellent
antiquary the Rev. John Webb; whose Introductory
Dissertation and Illustrative Notes, (in the
Archaeologia, vol. xxi. p. 281,) abound with most
valuable information. The title prefixed to
Lannoi's work is this:

"The Report made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Knight,
upon surveys of several cities, ports, and rivers,
taken by him in Egypt and Syria, in the year of
grace of our Lord 1422, by order of the most high,
most puissant, and most excellent prince, King
Henry of England, heir and Regent of France, whom
God assoil." The whole of Mr. Webb's paper well
deserves perusal.]

In dismissing the immediate subject of this inquiry, the Author of
these Memoirs feels himself under the painful necessity of recording
his deliberate judgment on the inaccuracies of that celebrated writer,
whose reflections upon Henry's dying declaration have been (p. 318)
animadverted upon here. Through the whole series of years to the
events of which these Memoirs are chiefly limited, he has been able to
find very few transactions in recording or commenting upon which Hume
has not been guilty of error; whilst the mistakes into which he has
fallen (some more, some less, gravely affecting the character of an
historian,) are generally such as an examination of the best evidence,
conducted with ordinary care, would have enabled him successfully to
avoid. Hume, unfortunately, supplied himself without stint from the
stream after it had mingled with many turbid and discolouring waters.
To draw, in each case of doubt and difficulty, from the well-head of
historical truth, would have exacted more time and labour than he was
ready to bestow. Had he prescribed to himself a system of research the
very opposite to that in which he unhappily indulged, instead of
representing Henry of Monmouth to have left the world with the
falsehood of a self-deceiver on his tongue, he would have been
compelled to record him as a man of piety, mercy, and truth.

CHAPTER XXIX. (p. 319)

WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR? -- JUST PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCTING
THE INQUIRY, AND FORMING THE JUDGMENT. -- MODERN CHARGE AGAINST HENRY.
-- REVIEW OF THE PREVALENT OPINIONS ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. -- TRUE
PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. -- DUTY OF THE STATE AND OF
INDIVIDUALS TO PROMOTE THE PREVALENCE OF TRUE RELIGION. -- CHARGE
AGAINST HENRY, AS PRINCE OF WALES, FOR PRESENTING A PETITION AGAINST
THE LOLLARDS. -- THE MERCIFUL INTENTION OF THAT PETITION. -- HIS
CONDUCT AT THE DEATH OF BADBY.

WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR?

In estimating the character of an individual, nothing is more
calculated to mislead ourselves, or to subject him to injustice at our
hands, than a disregard of the time, and country, and circumstances in
which he lived. It is equally unwise, and unfair, and deceitful, for a
human judge to establish one fixed standard[246] of excellence in any
department whatever of scientific or practical knowledge, and (p. 320)
then to try the merits of all persons alike with reference to that
one test. The injustice and absurdity of estimating the talents for
investigation and acumen, the skill, and industry, and perseverance of
a chemical student, many centuries ago, by the knowledge of the most
celebrated men of the present day, and to pronounce all who fell below
that standard to have been deficient in natural talents, or in a
faithful exercise of them, would be seen and acknowledged by all. At
this time, errors in navigation would be unpardonable, which would
have implicated a pilot in no culpability at all, who lived before the
invention of the mariner's compass, and when half our globe was as yet
unknown. The same observations are applicable when we would estimate
the moral excellence of an individual, his worth in a private or a
public capacity, his character as a subject or a governor,--as the
framer, or the guardian, or the administrator of the laws. Many a
practice in ordinary social intercourse, which would not be tolerated,
and would fix a stigma on those who were examples of it as persons to
be shunned and excluded from society in one age or country, might in
another not only be endured, but be even countenanced and encouraged
by those who would take the lead in the improvement and refinement (p. 321)
of civilized life. The grand broad fundamental principles of right and
wrong must abstractedly be acknowledged always and in every place; but
in the interpretation[247] of them, and in their practical
application, we shall find in the records of successive ages every
conceivable diversity. If, in these days, we are tempted to brand with
the mark of ignorance, and superstition, and cruelty, those among our
predecessors who enacted laws against witchcraft, and condemned to
death those who were found guilty of dealings with the spirit of
wickedness, we must at the same time remember that persons who are
examples of every Christian excellence, of reverence for God's law, of
justice and charity, are now engaged in occupations which those men
held in abhorrence. They believed in the reality of witchcraft, and
condemned those who were pronounced guilty of the crime; we believe
that the crime cannot be committed, that it is merely a creature of
the imagination, and we denominate those who pretend to the power of
committing it impostors: just as by the Mosaic law they were condemned
as deceivers, pretending to possess a power and knowledge independently
of the Almighty. Our predecessors considered the lending of (p. 322)
money upon interest as an offence against the law of God, and
reprobated those who so employed their capital as usurers, who had
forfeited all title to the name of merciful Christians;--whilst in the
present day the most scrupulous person does not hesitate, as in a
matter of conscience, to depend for the means of subsistence on such a
source of income. Assuming that in each of these two cases our views
are formed on a sounder principle of moral and religious philosophy,
we have no more right to disparage the character of any individual,
who did his best in the midst of less favourable circumstances, than
we should have to reprobate the helmsman of former days, because in
the darkness of a starless night he had no compass wherewith to save
his ship from wreck.

[Footnote 246: The Bible is always and everywhere
the standard of divine truth; but to condemn an
individual for wilful ignorance of its heavenly
doctrines, to whom no opportunity has been afforded
of learning them, would be unreasonable and unjust.
A corresponding principle applies to the
interpretation of the Bible. Our responsibility in
every case increases with our privileges and
opportunities.]

[Footnote 247: It will be borne in mind, that the
question here is not whether there be not one
immutable principle, nor whether there ought not to
be one uniform interpretation of that principle; we
are inquiring only into the nature of that rule by
which we may equitably judge of the moral and
religious characters of men.]

These principles must be borne in mind, and acted upon whenever we
would examine the spirit and character of any individual on the charge
of superstition, bigotry, cruelty, and unchristian persecution. Had
not these principles unhappily been laid aside for a time and
forgotten, we should scarcely have been pained by so severe a portrait
of Henry of Monmouth, as a writer who ought to have known better has
drawn, not in the warmth of debate and the hurry of controversy, but
in the hour of reflection and quietude. "In the midst of these
tragedies died Henry V, whose military greatness is known to most
readers. His vast capacity and talents for government have been (p. 323)
also justly celebrated. But what is man without the genuine fear
of God? This monarch, in the former part of his life, was remarkable
for dissipation and extravagance of conduct; in the latter he became
the slave of the popedom,[248] and for that reason was called the
Prince of Priests. Voluptuousness, ambition, superstition, each in
their turn, had the ascendant in this extraordinary character. Such,
however, is the dazzling nature of personal bravery and of prosperity,
that even the ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of
the persecutor, are lost or forgotten amidst the enterprises of the
hero and the successes of the conqueror. Reason and justice lift (p. 324)
up their voice in vain. The great and substantial defects of Henry V.
must hardly be touched on by Englishmen. The battle of Agincourt
throws a delusive splendour around the name of this victorious
King."[249]

[Footnote 248: The attachment of Henry to the See
of Rome, and the countenance given by him to the
encroachments of the Pope, have been greatly
exaggerated. Rapin took a different view of his
measures. "The proclamation" (he says) "made by
Henry, prohibiting the Pope's provisions, was a
death-blow to the court of Rome." On the death of
Henry, the Pope wrote a letter of condolence to the
council, in which he says, "We loved our son of
famous memory, Henry King of England, for there
were many and royal virtues in that Prince for
which he ought to be loved;" and then adds a strong
appeal to the council to abrogate the obnoxious
statutes which had so materially entrenched upon
his assumed prerogative. In a letter to Henry
himself (Kal. Nov. xiv. An. iv.) nearly two years
before his death, the Pope refers to a promise made
by Henry that he had no desire to curtail the
authority of the Roman See in his new dominions;
and also to an undertaking that he would bring the
obnoxious statutes under the notice of his
parliament; and that, "_if they could not be
supported on honest and lawful grounds_," he would
satisfy the Pope in that particular. Surely these
are not the expressions of one who was "the slave
of the Popedom."--See "Annales Ecclesiastici."]

[Footnote 249: Milner's Church History, vol. iv. p.
196.]

It is very painful to read this sentence; but the historian and
biographer must not be driven by such sweeping condemnation into the
opposite extreme; nor be deterred by the apprehension of unpopularity
from laying open his views both of the moral and religious question in
the abstract, and also of the acts, and character, and spirit of the
individual subject of inquiry.

The principles of religious liberty were ill understood through many
years before, and subsequently to, the time of Henry V. The sentiments
of persons in every rank of life in those days seem to have been built
upon an understanding, that the authorities, ecclesiastical and civil,
were bound in duty to expel heresy by force. It was not the case of a
dominant party enacting penalties abhorrent from the sympathies of the
mass of the people; "the people themselves wished to have it so, and
the priests bore rule by their means." So thorough a triumph had the
gigantic policy of Rome achieved over the freedom, and the wills, and
the judgments of the inhabitants of Europe! Like her other victories,
this too was the work of progressive inroads on the liberties (p. 325)
of Christians. Never at rest, ever active, the arch-conqueror fastened
to her chariot-wheels, one by one, the most valued rights and most
solemn duties of responsible agents. The right of private judgment in
matters of religion had been resigned by the vast majority of the
people of Christendom, and the duty and responsibility in each
individual of searching for the truth himself had been laid aside long
before Henry V. was called to take a part in the affairs of this
world. Bold and noble spirits, indeed, were found in successive
periods to assert their own rights and to declare the privileges and
the duties of their fellow-creatures, and to think for themselves in a
matter which so deeply involved their own individual and eternal
welfare; whilst the bulk of mankind in Christendom not only resigned
their faith to the absolute control of the priesthood, but exacted
also from their fellow-citizens a similar surrender, on pain of losing
their share in the protection and advantages of the state. Thus had
heresy, in various nations of Europe, become synonymous with rebellion
and treason; a rejection of the determinations of the church in
matters of doctrine was identified in most men's minds with rejection
of the authority of the civil magistrate;[250] and every one who dared
to dispute the jurisdiction of Rome was regarded as a dangerous (p. 326)
innovator, and an enemy to his own country.

[Footnote 250: This view of heresy we find to have
been at a very early date propagated and encouraged
by the Pope and the See of Rome. Walsingham
records, that, three years before Richard II.'s
deposition from the throne, "the Pope wrote to him
with a prayer (orans) that he would assist the
prelates of the church in the cause of God, and of
the King himself, and of the kingdom, against the
Lollards; whom he declared to be traitors, not only
of the church, but of the throne. And he besought
him with the greatest urgency (obnixius) to condemn
those whom the prelates should have declared
heretics.--Ypod. Neust. 1396.]

That this was a state of things to be deplored by every friend of
liberty and lover of truth, is not questioned; that domination over
the consciences of men has ever been the object of the church of Rome,
and that the spirit of persecution will ever be characteristic of her
principles, is not here denied; nor are these observations made for
the purpose of softening the feelings of abhorrence with which any
persons may be disposed to view the proceedings of a persecuting
spirit in those things which concern our most momentous interests so
awfully. We refer to these historical reminiscences solely for the
purpose of forming a more correct estimate of the individual character
of one who lived in those times, and was born, and cradled, and
educated in that atmosphere. It is easy to charge Henry V. with "the
ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of the
persecutor;" but it were more worthy of a historian (his eye bent
singly on the truth) to substitute inquiry for assumption, and (p. 327)
careful weighing of the evidence for indiscriminate condemnation.
There is such a thing as persecution, though the dungeon and the stake
be not employed for its instruments; and true charity will be tender
of the character of a fellow-mortal, though he is removed from this
scene of trouble and trial, and has no longer the power of answering
the accusations with which his good name is assailed. We may be as
honest as those who write most bitterly, in our abhorrence of
persecution; and yet think the individual who put its most rigid laws
into effect, deserving of compassion and pity that his lot had fallen
in such days of bigotry and ignorance, rather than of reprobation for
not having discovered for himself a more enlightened path of duty.

It is not because we are obliged to confess that even the outward acts
of Henry V. have been those of a persecutor, that these preliminary
remarks are offered; it is rather to prepare our minds for a fair
examination of his conduct, with reference to the only just and equal
standard; for a candid and searching analysis of the evidence drawn
from original sources, before it has become turbid and coloured by the
channel through which it is often forced to flow; and for an
unprejudiced judgment on his character,--a judgment perverted neither,
on the one hand, by the dazzling splendour of his victories, nor, on
the other, by that very common but most iniquitous principle of (p. 328)
adjudication condemns the accused from hatred of the crime laid to
his charge. The Author's sentiments on the character of religious
persecution in general, and of the persecuting spirit of the church of
Rome in particular, need not be disguised. He would never be disposed
to acquit Henry V, or any other person, from a feeling of sympathy
with the spirit of persecution.

The religion of the Gospel abhors all persecution. The faith of Christ
must be maintained and propagated by more holy and heavenly weapons
than those which can be forged by human authority and power.
Persecution prevails in a Christian community only so far as the
genuine spirit of the Gospel is quenched or checked among its members.
The church has a power of compelling men to come to Christ, and to
embrace the true faith, but its instruments of compulsion must be
spiritual only: its sword must be supplied from God's own armoury. The
sentence, "Having the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," conveys
an idea of tremendous consequences in store for those who refuse to
obey the truth; but the consequences are reserved for the immediate
dispensation of Him "who knoweth the thoughts." That believers, when
possessed of temporal power, should have recourse to bodily restraint,
and torture, and death, as the earthly punishment of those who
entertain unsound doctrine, is a monstrous invention, which can (p. 329)
derive no countenance from "the Word," and must be supported only
by a worldly sword, and the arm of man wielding it. If, indeed,
Christians are so far forgetful of the spirit of the Gospel as, on the
plea of defending and spreading its genuine doctrines, to disturb the
peace, and shake the foundations, and threaten the overthrow of
society, the civil magistrate, whether Christian or heathen, will
interpose. But neither has he, more than the church, any authority
whatever for interfering by violence with the faith of any one. It is
the duty of a Christian magistrate to provide for his people the means
of religious instruction, and worship, and consolation; but, on the
principles which alone can be justified, he must leave them at liberty
to reject or to avail themselves of the benefit. Their neglect, or
their abuse of it, will form a subject of inquiry at another tribunal;
and the final, irreversible judgment to be pronounced there, man has
no right to anticipate by pain and punishment on earth. These are the
true principles of Christianity, and a church departs from the Gospel
whenever these principles are neglected.

In adopting, however, these principles, and making them practically
one's own, it must never be forgotten that there is a danger of
confounding them, as they are unhappily too often confounded, with the
results of a philosophy, falsely so called, which would teach
governments to be indifferent to the religion of their people, (p. 330)
and would encourage individuals to take no interest in the
dissemination of religious truth. East is not more opposed to west,
than the spirit of persecution, which would compel others by secular
punishments to make profession of whatever doctrines the government of
a country may adopt, is opposed to that Christian wisdom which
maintains it to be equally the bounden duty of the state to provide
for the religious instruction and comfort of its members, as it is the
duty of a father to train up his own children in the faith and fear of
God. The poles are not further asunder, than that holy anxiety for the
salvation of our fellow-creatures which would impel Christians, to the
very utmost bound of the sphere of their influence, to promote as well
unity in the faith as the bond of peace and righteousness of life, is
removed from that narrow bigotry which fixes on those who differ from
ourselves the charge of wilful blindness, and obstinate hatred of the
truth, to be visited by man's rebuke here, and God's displeasure for
ever.[251] A wise and pious writer of our own has said,[252] (p. 331)
"Show me the man who would desire to travel to heaven alone,
regardless of his fellow-creature's progress thitherward, and in that
same person I will show you one who will never be admitted there." The
principle applies equally to an individual and a commonwealth. Show me
a State which neglects to provide for the spiritual edification and
comfort of its members, and in its institutions proves itself
unconcerned as to the advancement of religious truth, and in that
State you see a commonwealth whose counsels are not guided by the
spirit of the Gospel, and therefore on which, however for a time it
may shine and dazzle men's eyes with the splendour of conquest, and be
making gigantic strides in secular aggrandizement, the blessing (p. 332)
of the God of Truth and Love cannot be expected to descend.

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