Pedro de Ribadeneyra’s Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England: A Spanish Jesuit’s History of the English Reformation

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures

List of Bibliographic Abbreviations

List of Textual Abbreviations

Notes on the Translation

Introduction

The Life and Times of Pedro de Ribadeneyra

From De origine ac progressu to the Historia

The Politics of History, the Politics of the Historia

The Spanish Armada

The Second Volume of the Historia

A Textual History of the Historia

The Historia and the Society of Jesus

“O ladies, no ladies at all”: Gender and Power in the Historia

A Modern Historian?

La cisma de Inglaterra and the Reception of the Historia

Assessing the Historia

The Ecclesiastical History of the Schism of the Kingdom of England

To Our Lord Prince Don Philip

The Author, to the Pious Christian Reader

The Argument of the Present History, and the Origins of the Lamentable Schism in England

Book 1: Here Begins the History of the English Schism

1 Of the Marriage of the Princess Doña Catherine to Arthur, Prince of England, and of the Marriage She Contracted after His Death with His Brother, Henry

2 How King Henry VIII Married the Princess Doña Catherine, and of the Children Born to Them

3A The Title of Defender of the Faith given King Henry by the Apostolic See, and the Reason for This

3 Of the Dissimilar Habits of the Queen and the King

4 Of the Cardinal of York’s Ambition, and of the Advice He Gave the King Concerning His Marriage

5 Of the King’s Actions Concerning His Marriage to the Queen, and What the French Ambassador Proposed to Dissolve It

6 Of the Other Means Wolsey Used to Achieve His End, and of His Journey to France

7 Of Anne Boleyn, Her Disposition and Abilities

8 What Thomas Boleyn and the Councilors Said to the King Concerning Anne Boleyn, and How He Responded

9 What Wolsey Negotiated in France, and His Return to England

10 Of the Other Actions the King Took, the Troubles of His Heart, and Those of Wolsey’s

11 Of the Ambassadors the King Sent to the Pope, and of His Holiness’s Decision in the Matter of the Divorce

12 What the Queen Wrote to the Pope, What His Holiness Decreed, and Certain Private Matters That Came to Pass in This Affair

13 How the Matter of the Divorce Began to Be Legally Considered, and of the Appeal Lodged by the Queen

14 What Rochester and Other Worthy Persons Said in the Queen’s Favor, and What Campeggio Answered Concerning the Sentence

15 The King Pressures the Legate, the Pope Remands the Case to Himself, and Wolsey is Arrested

16 Of the Other Methods the King Used to Give Color to His Wickedness, and of the Results

17 Of the Threats the King Made against the Pope, and of the Death of Wolsey

18 How the King Named Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury, of His Sinful Life, and of How He Deceived the Pope

19 The Conference between the Kings of England and France, and What They Discussed

20 The King’s First Attack on the Clergy of England

21 How the King, against the Pope’s Mandate, Secretly Married Anne Boleyn

22 Of Thomas Cromwell, and of the Heretics Who Flooded the King’s Court, and What They Proposed against the Churchmen

23 What Parliament Decreed Concerning the Clergy, and the Judgment Cranmer Gave in the King’s Favor

24 What Christendom Thought of the King’s Marriage, and Pope Clement’s Sentence against Him

25 What Henry Did When He Learned of the Pope’s Sentence

26 Of the Parliament Convened to Approve the King’s Marriage and to Destroy Religion

27 Of the Inhuman Persecution the King Initiated against All Religious

28 Of the Illustrious Men Thomas More and John of Rochester, and of the Latter’s Martyrdom

29 The Martyrdom of Thomas More

30A Other Details of the Life and Death of Thomas More

30 The Sentence of Pope Paul III against King Henry

31 Henry Despoils the Monasteries, and Impoverishes Himself with Their Wealth

32 What the Queen Wrote to Her Confessor, Encouraging Him in the Face of Death, and How He Answered Her

33 The Death of Queen Doña Catherine and the Letter She Wrote to the King

34 The King Sentences Anne Boleyn to a Public Death, and the Reason for This

35 The King’s Marriage to Jane Seymour, the Sessions of Parliament, the Disturbances That Arose in the Realm, and the Birth of Edward

36 Cardinal Pole’s Arrival in Flanders, and the Results Thereof

37 The King’s Cruelty against the Franciscans, and the Death of Father Brother John Forest

38 Of Henry’s Sacrilege against the Tombs, Relics, and Images of the Saints, and the Pope’s Judgment against Him

39 The Assault on the Monasteries of England, and the Tyranny with Which it Was Done

40 The Death of Whiting, Abbot of Glastonbury; The End of the Religious Orders in England; And the Beginnings of the Society of Jesus

41 Henry Marries Anne of Cleves, Exalts Cromwell, and Imposes New Burdens on His Kingdom

42 The King Tires of and Divorces His Wife, after Having Cromwell Put to Death

43 Of Catherine Howard, Henry’s Fifth Wife, and How, after Ordering Her Put to Death, He Married Katherine Parr

44 How Henry Declared Himself King of Ireland, and the Right the Kings of England Had to Call Themselves Its Lords

45 The Poverty Henry Found Himself in after Despoiling the Churches, and the Taxes He Imposed on His Kingdom

46 The King’s Cruelty, and How the Lord Punished His Ministers for Their Sins

47 The King’s Last Illness and Death, and the Provisions of His Will

48 Of Henry’s Natural Gifts and Character

49 How God Punished King Henry through His Own Sins

Book 2: The Second Book of the Schism of England, Concerning King Edward, and the Queens Doña Mary and Elizabeth, His Sisters

1 How King Henry’s Testament was Disregarded, and How the Earl of Hertford became Protector of the Realm

2 The Means the Protector Employed to Pervert the Faith of the Boy King and that of the Kingdom

3 What Parliament Enacted against Our Sacred Religion

4 The Catholics’ Sentiments, and the Weakness They Showed

5 The Princess Doña Mary’s Constancy in the Catholic Faith, and the Methods the Heretics Employed to Separate Her from it

6 How the Regents Attempted to Uproot the Catholic Faith

7 The Things that Happened to Check the Heretics

8 How the Protector Killed His Brother, and How He was Overthrown and Slain by the Earl of Warwick

9 The Ambition of the Earl of Warwick, Who Named Himself Duke of Northumberland; The Death of King Edward and the Succession of Queen Mary

10 How the Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk Proclaimed Jane Queen of England, and What Befell Them

11 What Queen Mary Did on Taking Possession of the Kingdom

12 How the Pope, at the Queen’s Entreaty, Sent Cardinal Pole to England as His Legate

13 How the Queen Negotiated a Marriage with the Prince of Spain, and of the Disturbances This Provoked in the Kingdom, and How They Were Quelled

14 Of the Devilish Trick Utilized by the Heretics to Interfere with the Queen’s Marriage to the Prince of Spain

15 How the Queen’s Marriage to King Don Philip Took Place, and with it the Reconciliation of the Realm with the Apostolic See

16 The Impediments to This Reconciliation, and How They Were Resolved

17 How the False Bishops were Punished, and Cranmer, Primate of England, was Burned

18 How the Universities were Reformed, and Our Sacred Religion Flourished

19 The Death of Queen Mary

20 Of the Virtues of Queen Doña Mary

21 How Queen Elizabeth’s Reign Began, and How the King of France Considered Her Unfit to Rule

22 How the Queen Subsequently Revealed Herself as an Enemy of Catholicism, and What She Did to Destroy it

23 The Parliament Convened by the Queen, and How She Made it Decide as She Desired

24 How the Queen Named Herself Supreme Governor of the Church, and of the Laws Enacted about This

25 The Persecution Initiated against the Catholics for Refusing to Recognize the Queen as Head of the Church

26 The Form the Queen Provided for Church Governance

27 The Means the Pope and Other Christian Monarchs Took to Recall the Queen, and the Sentence Pope Pius v Rendered against Her

28 What Ensued from the Bull’s Publication in England

29 The Establishment of the English Seminaries in Rheims and Rome, and Their Fruits

30 The Entry of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus into England

31 The Harsh Laws the Queen Enacted against the Fathers of the Society of Jesus and the Other Catholic Priests

32 Of the Life, Imprisonment, and Martyrdom of Father Edmund Campion of the Society of Jesus

33 Of the Other Martyrs and Persecuted Catholics

34 How the Queen and Her Ministers Claimed that the Holy Martyrs Did Not Die for the Sake of Religion, but Rather for Other Crimes

35 The Means the Heretics Employed to Spin Out Their Lies and Make Them Seem Like Truth

36 Various Marvels that God has Worked for the Glory of the Martyrs of England

37 The Martyrologies and Calendars the Heretics Produced in England

38 The False Mercy the Queen Showed Certain Priests in Banishing Them from the Kingdom

39 The Methods the Queen Has Used to Unsettle Neighboring Countries

40 The Imprisonment and Death of Queen Mary of Scotland

41 The Happiness That the English Heretics Preach Concerning Their Kingdom

The Conclusion to This Work

Book 3: The Third Book of the Schism of England, Recounting Various Martyrs and Other Things that have Occurred in that Realm Since the First Part of this History was Published

To Our Lord the Prince, Don Philip

To the Benign and Pious Reader

1 The Edict Passed against the Catholics by the Advice of the Earl of Leicester, and of His Death, and that of Several Servants of God

2 The Falls of Two Catholics, and What the Lord Worked through Them

3 The Martyrdom in Oxford of Two Priests and Two Catholic Laymen

4 Further Martyrs Who Died in London

5 The Death of Francis Walsingham, the Queen’s Secretary

6 Of the Crosses That Appeared in England

7 The Arrival in England of Several Priests from the English Seminary at Valladolid, and What Came of This

8 Of Three False Puritan Prophets Who Appeared in England

9 The Death of Christopher Hatton, Chancellor of the Realm

10 The Edict the Queen Proclaimed against Priests and Catholics, and Their Deaths

11 Of Several Prominent Women Who Lost Their Wealth, Honors, and Lives for the Catholic Faith

12 The Heretics Seize Four Young Brothers for Their Faith, and are Left Humiliated

13 How the English Heretics Accuse the Catholics of being Sorcerers

14 The Benefit the Catholics Have Derived from This Persecution

15 Why the Catholics of England Refuse to Attend the Heretics’ Synagogues or to Recognize the Queen as Head of Their Church

16A The Edict the Queen Promulgated against Our Sacred Religion, and against the Pope, and the Catholic King, Who Defend it

16B What is Contained in the Edict the Queen Promulgated against Our Sacred Religion

17 That This Edict is Sacrilegious and Blasphemous against God

18 The War in France, Which the Edict Calls Utterly Unjust

19 Of the English Seminaries that Have Been Established for the Benefit of the Kingdom of England

20 How the Heretics of England Criticize the Pope for the English Seminaries He Supports, While the New Christians of Japan Thank Him for Having Done the Same in Their Land

21 The Qualities Those Entering the Seminaries are to Have, and the Oath They Take, and the Things They Do While There

22 The Spirit and Manner in Which These Young Men Return to England

23 How the Seminarians Return to England, and What They Do There

24 The Edict’s Cruelty against the Seminarians and the Jesuits

25 How False it is that None Die in England for the Sake of Religion, as the Edict Claims

26 The Edict’s Proofs that None Die in England for Reasons of Religion

27 That this Edict is Oppressive and Intolerable to the Entire Kingdom of England

28 Why They Publish Such False and Damaging Edicts

29 What the Instigators of this Persecution Ought to Consider

30 What Ought to Inspire the Seminary Priests and the Other Catholics in this Conquest

31 A Continuation of the Preceding Chapter, and an Exposition of Three Particular Reasons that May Further Inspire the Martyrs

32 Why God Allows the English Catholics to be so Persecuted

To the Pious Reader

A Brief Account of the Martyrs Who Have Departed the English Colleges and Seminaries at Rome and Rheims in France, and Suffered in England in Defense of the Catholic Faith

Appendix I: The Exhortation to the Armada

Appendix II: Ribadeneyra’s Letter-Memorial on the Causes of the Armada’s Failure (Probably to Juan de Idiáquez y Olazábal)

Appendix III: Luis de Granada on the Historia

Appendix IV: John Cecil’s Letter to Joseph Cresswell, September 20, 1591

Appendix V: Juan López Manzano’s Breve Catalogo

Bibliography

Biblical Index

Index