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Reginald Pole

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His Eminence
Reginald Pole
Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury
and Primate of All England
File:British (English) School - Reginald Pole (1500–1558), Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury - 1129160 - National Trust.jpg
Church Catholic Church
Installed 22 March 1556
Term ended 17 November 1558
Predecessor Thomas Cranmer
Successor Matthew Parker
Orders
Ordination 20 March 1556
Consecration 22 March 1556
by Nicholas Heath
Created cardinal 22 December 1536
by Paul III
Personal details
Born 12 March 1500
Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, England
Died 17 November 1558 (aged 58)
London, England
Buried The Corona, Canterbury Cathedral, Kent
51°16′48″N 1°04′57″E / 51.27995°N 1.08248°E
Parents Sir Richard Pole
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury

Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal and the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558 during the Marian Restoration of Catholicism.

Early life

Pole was born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, on 12 March 1500,[1] the third son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury. He was named after the now beatified Reginald of Orleans, O.P. His maternal grandparents were George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence,[2] and Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence; thus he was a great-nephew of kings Edward IV and Richard III and a great-grandson of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.

Accounts vary as to where Pole received his early education: either Sheen Priory, Christchurch or Canterbury.[3][4] Shortly thereafter, he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1512. At Oxford he was taught by William Latimer, his principal tutor,[4] and Thomas Linacre, who taught him at some point between 1518 and 1520. In 1512, Henry VIII, who was his second cousin, had paid him a pension of £12, renewed the following year; intended to go towards his education.[4] Pole graduated with a BA degree on 27 June 1515. In February 1518, King Henry granted him the deanery of Wimborne Minster, Dorset. He went on to be Prebendary of Salisbury, and Dean of Exeter in 1527.[5] On 19 March 1518 he was appointed prebend of Ruscombe Southbury, Salisbury,[6] only to exchange that on 10 April 1519 for "Yetminster secunda".[6][4] He was also a canon in York, and had several other livings, albeit not yet ordained a priest. Assisted by Bishop Edward Foxe, he represented Henry VIII in Paris in 1529, probing general opinion among theologians of the Sorbonne on the annulment of Henry's marriage with Catherine of Aragon.[7]

In 1521, with a £100 stipend from King Henry VIII, Pole went to the University of Padua. It was here that he met leading Renaissance figures, including Pietro Bembo, Gianmatteo Giberti (formerly Pope Leo X's datary and chief minister), Jacopo Sadoleto, Gianpietro Carafa (the future Pope Paul IV), Rodolfo Pio, Otto Truchsess, Stanislaus Hosius, Cristoforo Madruzzo, Giovanni Morone, Pier Paolo Vergerio the younger, Peter Martyr Vermigli and Vettor Soranzo. The last three were eventually to be condemned as heretics by the Catholic Church. As a widely known Protestant theologian, Vermigli contributed significantly to the Reformation in Pole's native England.[8]

Pole's studies in Padua were partly financed by his election as a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. More than half of the cost was met by Henry VIII himself,[9] on 14 February 1523. This allowed him to study abroad for three years.

While in Padua, Reginald's brother, Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, presented to him the living of South Harting, Sussex on 10 April 1526. Three months later, Pole returned home, arriving from France escorted by Thomas Lupset. He was appointed prebend of Knaresborough in York Minster on 22 April 1527. On 25 July 1527, Pole was presented a canonry in Exeter Cathedral, to be declared Dean just four days later.[4] Pole was sent to Paris in October 1529, but returned home in the summer of 1530. For some of his time in England he lived in John Colet's former house at Sheen.[4]

Pole and Henry VIII

Pole had most probably arrived back in England in 1527, but whatever political influence he had acquired was not documented until November 1528.[4] The following October, he was sent to Paris with the purpose of getting an agreeable opinion on the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage from the university doctors.[4] It is possible that Pole started learning Hebrew from Robert Wakefield after he returned home from France, which would suggest that Henry might have wanted to deploy Pole in the annulment project.[4] Henry offered him the Archbishopric of York or the Diocese of Winchester if he would support the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. It is likely that in May or June 1531 Pole furnished Henry with an analysis of the political difficulties with regard to a divorce, particularly the dangers this would bring to the succession.[4] Pole withheld his support and went into self-imposed exile in France and Italy in 1532, where he continued his studies in Padua and Paris. After his return, he held the benefice of vicar of Piddletown, Dorset, between 20 December 1532 and sometime around January 1536.[10]

In May 1536, Reginald Pole finally and decisively broke with the King. Five years earlier, he had warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage; he had returned to Padua in 1532 and received a last English benefice that December. Eustace Chapuys, the imperial ambassador to England, had suggested to Emperor Charles V that Pole marry Henry's daughter Mary and combine their dynastic claims; Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother Geoffrey. At this time Pole was not definitively in Holy Orders.[11]

The final break between Pole and Henry followed upon Thomas Cromwell, Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Starkey and others addressing questions to Pole on behalf of Henry. He answered by sending the King a copy of his published treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, which, besides being a theological reply to the questions, was a strong denunciation of the King's policies, refuting Henry's position on marrying his brother Arthur's widow and denying the royal supremacy. Pole also urged the princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote to Pole's mother, the Countess of Salisbury, who in turn sent her son a letter reproving him for his "folly".[12]

Cardinal Pole

On 22 December 1536, Pole, already a deacon, was created a cardinal[13][14] over Pole's own objections.[15] He was the fourth of the five English cardinals of the first half of the sixteenth century.[16][17] He also became papal legate to England in February 1536/1537. Pope Paul III put him in charge of organising assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements), an effort to organise a march on London to demand Henry replace his ‘reformist’ advisers with more traditional, Catholic minds; neither Francis I of France nor the Emperor supported this effort, and the English government tried to have Pole assassinated. In 1539, Pole was sent to the Emperor to organise an embargo against England – the sort of countermeasure he had himself warned Henry was possible.[7]

The King, with Pole himself out of his reach, took revenge on Pole's family for engaging in treason by word against the King. This later became known as the Exeter Conspiracy. The leading members were arrested, and all their properties seized. This destroyed the Pole family.[18] Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald. The investigation of Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII's first cousin and the Countess of Salisbury's first cousin once removed) had turned up his name. Sir Geoffrey appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey admitted that Henry Pole, 1st Baron Montagu, and Exeter had both been parties to his correspondence with Reginald. Montagu, Exeter, and Lady Salisbury were arrested in November 1538, together with Henry Pole and other family members, on charges of treason. This was despite Cromwell having previously written that they had "little offended save that he [Reginald Pole] is of their kin". They were committed to the Tower of London and, apart from Geoffrey Pole, they were all eventually executed.

In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned. Montagu and Exeter were tried and executed for treason. Reginald Pole was attainted in absentia. In May 1539, Montagu, Exeter, Lady Salisbury, and others were also attainted, as her father had been; this meant that they lost their lands – mostly in the South of England, conveniently located (alleged the crown) to assist any invasion – and titles. Those still alive in the Tower were also sentenced to death, and so could be executed at the King's will. As part of the evidence given in support of the Bill of Attainder, Cromwell produced a tunic bearing the Five Wounds of Christ, purported to show Lady Salisbury's support of traditional Catholicism. This, supposedly, came to light six months after her house and effects had already been searched when she was arrested. It is likely to have been planted there.

Margaret Pole was held in the Tower of London for two and a half years under severe conditions; she, her grandson (Montagu's son), and Exeter's son were held together on orders of the King. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favour and was himself attainted and executed. Margaret was finally executed in 1541, protesting her innocence until the last – a highly publicised case considered a grave miscarriage of justice both at the time and later. Her execution was gruesome, botched by an inexperienced executioner, who delivered nearly a dozen blows before she was finally killed. Pole is known to have said that he would "never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". Some 350 years later, in 1886, Margaret was beatified by Pope Leo XIII.[19] Aside from the hostile treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, another contribution fuelling King Henry's brutality towards the Pole family might have been that Pole's mother, Margaret, was one of the last surviving members of the House of Plantagenet. Under some circumstances, that line of descent could have made Reginald – until he definitely entered the clergy – a possible contender for the throne itself.

In 1542 Reginald Pole was appointed as one of the three papal legates to preside over the Council of Trent. In the 1549–1550 papal conclave which followed the death of Pope Paul III in 1549, Pole, at one point, had 26 out of the 28 votes he needed to become pope himself.[7] His personal belief in justification by faith alone over works had caused him problems at Trent and accusations of heretical crypto-Lutheranism at the conclave. Thomas Hoby, visiting Rome so as to be present in the city during the conclave, recorded that Pole failed to be elected "by the Cardinall of Ferrara his meanes the voice of manie cardinalls of the French partie, persuading them that Cardinall Pole was both Imperiall and also a verie Lutheran".[20]

Later years

The death of Edward VI on 6 July 1553 and the accession of Mary I to the throne of England hastened Pole's return from exile, as a papal legate to England (which he remained until 1557) with a view to receiving the kingdom back into the Catholic fold. However, Queen Mary I and Emperor Charles V delayed his arrival in the country until 20 November 1554, due to concerns that Pole might oppose Mary's forthcoming marriage to Charles's son, Philip of Spain.[21] It was only after the marriage was safely out of the way, that the English parliament finally set about repealing his attainder on 22 November 1554.

Pole opened his papal commission and presented his legatine credentials before Philip & Mary and the assembled members of Parliament at the Palace of Whitehall on 27 November 1554, delivering a notable oration before them.[22] Among the dignitaries in attendance was Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, the most prominent Catholic minister in England, who would steer the restoration of Catholicism through parliament in January 1555.

As papal legate, Pole negotiated a papal dispensation allowing the new owners of confiscated former monastic lands to retain these. In return for this concession, Parliament then enabled the Revival of the Heresy Acts in January 1555.[23] This revived former measures against heresy: the letters patent of 1382 of Richard II, the Suppression of Heresy Act 1400 (2 Hen. 4. c. 15) of Henry IV, and the Suppression of Heresy Act 1414 (2 Hen. 5. Stat. 1. c. 7) of Henry V. All of these had been repealed under Henry VIII and Edward VI.[24] On 13 November 1555, Thomas Cranmer was officially deprived of the See of Canterbury.[25] The Pope promoted Pole to the rank of cardinal-priest and made him administrator of the See of Canterbury on 11 December 1555.[26]

Pole was finally ordained a priest on 20 March 1556 and consecrated a bishop two days later, becoming archbishop of Canterbury.[7][27] an office he would hold until his death. In 1555 and 1555/1556 respectively he also became chancellor of both Oxford and Cambridge universities.[28] As well as his religious duties, he was in effect the Queen's chief minister and adviser. Many former enemies, including Cranmer, signed recantations affirming their religious belief in transubstantiation and papal supremacy.[29] Despite this, which should have absolved them under Mary's own Revival of the Heresy Acts, the Queen could not forget their responsibility for the annulment of her mother's marriage.[30]

In 1555, Queen Mary began permitting the burning of Protestants for heresy, and some 220 men and 60 women were executed before her death in 1558. In the view of some historians, these Marian persecutions contributed to the ultimate victory of the English Reformation,[31] though Pole's involvement in these heresy trials is disputed.[32] Pole was in failing health during the worst period of persecution, and there is some evidence that he favoured a more lenient approach: "Three condemned heretics from Bonner's diocese were pardoned on an appeal to him; he merely enjoined a penance and gave them absolution."[13]

Despite being a lifelong devout Catholic, Pole had a long-running dispute with Pope Paul IV, dating from before the latter's election as Pope. Elected in 1555, Paul IV had a distaste for Catholic humanism and men like Pole who pushed a softer version of Catholicism to win over Protestants. He was also fiercely anti-Spanish, opposing Queen Mary's marriage to Philip II of Spain and rejecting Pole's support for it. Because of this disagreement, Paul first cancelled Pole's legatine authority, and then sought to recall Pole to Rome to face investigation for heresy in his early writings. Mary refused to send Pole to Rome, yet accepted his suspension from office.[33]

In the will of Sir Robert Acton dated 24 September 1558, Pole is named as one of the Executors, despite the fact that Acton expressed himself in terms consistent with his dying in the Protestant faith.[34] Pole died in London, during an influenza epidemic, on 17 November 1558, at about 7:00 pm, nearly 12 hours after Queen Mary's death.[35] He was buried on the north side of the Corona at Canterbury Cathedral.

Author

Pole was the author of De Concilio, of a treatise on the authority of the pope and of a set of measures introduced by him to restore Catholic practice in England. He was also the author of many important letters, full of interest for the history of the time, edited by Angelo Maria Quirini.[36]

Pole is known for his strong condemnation of Machiavelli's book The Prince, which he read in Italy, and on which he commented: "I found this type of book to be written by an enemy of the human race. It explains every means whereby religion, justice and any inclination toward virtue could be destroyed".[37]

Cardinal Pole is an 1863 novel by William Harrison Ainsworth. Cardinal Pole is a major character in the historical novels The Time Before You Die by Lucy Beckett, The Courier's Tale by Peter Walker and The Trusted Servant by Alison Macleod,[38] and features in Hilary Mantel's novel The Mirror & the Light, the third and last of her novels on the life of Thomas Cromwell.

Reginald Pole is a major character in Queen of Martyrs: The Story of Mary I by Samantha Wilcoxson.[39]

Reginald Pole, along with his brothers, sister, and mother, are the central family in Philippa Gregory's historical novel The King's Curse.[40]

Cardinal Reginald Pole is a major supporting character in Rosamund Gravelle's play Three Queens,[41][42] with the role first played by Les Kenny-Green.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Reginald Pole — Cardinal, b. at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, England, in March, 1500; d. at Lambeth Palace, 17 Nov., 1558; third son of Sir Richard Pole, Knight of the Garter, and Margaret, daughter of George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Edward IV. From the beginning of his reign Henry VIII recognized him as a near kinsman and showed him special favour, while in 1513 he created his widowed mother Countess of Salisbury, an act of tardy reparation for the attainder and execution under Henry VII of her only brother Edward, Earl of Warwick. She was also made governess to the Princess Mary in 1516 and we may assume that Pole's intimacy with the royal mistress whom he was afterwards to serve so devotedly began before he left England. The boy received his early education in the Charterhouse at Sheen, where he spent five years. He went to Oxford at the age of twelve or thirteen, and took his degree soon after he was fifteen. He was, it seems, intended for the Church, a choice to which he willingly assented, and though he had received no orders and was still hardly more than a lad, benefices were showered upon him, amongst others, a prebend bearing with it the title of dean in the collegiate church of Wimborne (15 Feb., 1518).

Throughout all his career Pole's attraction for a studious life was most pronounced. At his own wish and with the approval and pecuniary help of Henry VIII he set out in Feb., 1521 for Padua, at that time a great centre of learning, and in the coterie of scholars which he found there the young kinsman of the King of England became a great favourite. Men like Longolius (de Longueil), who, dying shortly afterwards, left Pole his library, Leonicus, who taught him Greek, Bembo the humanist, and later Cardinal Contarini, also one day destined to adorn the Sacred College, and the English scholar Lupset, all sought his intimacy, while at a later period and under other circumstances he acquired the friendship and won the high esteem of Erasmus and More. All these were not only learned but large-minded men, and the mere fact of his choosing such associates would suffice to prove that Pole was not the bigot he has been sometimes represented. Pole remained in Italy until 1527. After a visit to Rome in 1526, and on his return he still pursued his studies, residing within the enclosure of the Carthusians at Sheen. Even at this date he had not yet received minor orders, but he was nevertheless elected Dean of Exeter (12 Aug., 1527).

Shortly after this the great matter of the king's divorce came to a head, and Pole, to avoid having to take sides in a complication in which conscience, friendship, and gratitude to his royal kinsman were inextricably entangled, obtained permission to continue his studies in Paris. But he did not thus escape from his embarrassment, for his aid was asked by the king to obtain from the university an opinion favourable to the divorce. When the young student pleaded inexperience, Fox was sent to assist him. The situation wa a delicate one and Pole probably did little to forward a cause so distasteful to his own feeling (the effective pressure, as we know, was really applied by Francis I), but he had the credit of managing the business and was thanked for his exertions (see Calendar, IV, 6252, 6483, 6505). None the less, Henry required his kinsman to return to England, and when shortly afterwards Wolsey's disgrace was followed by his death, Pole was invited to succeed him as Archbishop of York, or to accept the See of Winchester. That this was merely a bribe to obtain Pole's support was not so obvious then as it must seem to us now in the light of subsequent developments. He hesitated and asked for a month to make up his mind. Finally he obtained an interview with the king and seems to have expressed his feelings on the divorce question so boldly that Henry in his fury laid his hand upon his dagger. To explain his position he subsequently submitted a memorial on the subject which, even according to the unfriendly testimony of Cranmer, was a masterly document (Strype, "Cranmer", Ap. 1), moderately and tactfully worded. "The king", so Pole pleaded—it was in the early part of 1531—"standeth even upon the brink of the water and he may yet save all his honour, but if he put forth his foot but one step forward, all his honour is drowned."

The course of subsequent history fully justified Pole's prescience, and indeed for a moment the king seems to have wavered, but evil counsels urged him forward on the road to destruction. Still, as Pole had not made his opposition public, Henry was magnanimous enough at this stage to give him permission in January, 1532, to withdraw to the continent, while continuing as before to pay his allowances out of the royal exchequer. Resuming, eventually, his peaceful life in Padua, Pole renewed or established an intimacy with the leaders in the world of letters, men like Sadolet (then Bishop of Carpentras), Contarini, and Ludovico Priuli. The two or three years which followed were probably the happiest he was fated ever to know.

Meanwhile events were moving rapidly in England. The last strands which bound England to Rome had been severed by the king in 1534. The situation was desperate, but many seemed to think that it was in Pole's power to render aid. On the side of Princess Mary and her cousin Charles V advances were made to him in June, 1535, and after some demur he agreed to make an attempt at mediation. On the other hand, Henry seemed still to cling to the idea of gaining him over to support the divorce, and through the intermediary of Pole's chaplain, Starkey, who happened to be in England at the close of 1534, Pole had been pressed by the king to write his opinion on the lawfulness jure divino of marriage with a deceased brother's widow, and also upon the Divine institution of the papal supremacy. Pole reluctantly consented, and his reply after long delay eventually took the form of a treatise, "Pro ecclesiasticæ Unitatis defensione". It was most uncompromising in language and argument, and we cannot doubt that events in England, especially the tragedy of the execution of Fisher and More and of his friends the Carthusians, had convinced Pole that it was his duty before God to speak plainly, whatever the cost might be to himself and his family. The book, however, was not made public until a later date. It was at first sent off privately to the king (27 May, 1536), and Henry on glancing through it at once dispatched the messenger, who had brought it, back to Pole, demanding his attendance in England to explain certain difficulties in what he had written. Pole, however, while using courteous and respectful language to the king, and craving his mother's pardon in another letter for the action he felt bound to take, decided to disobey the summons. At this juncture he was called to Rome by command of Paul III. To accept the papal invitation was clearly and before the eyes of all men to side with the pope against the king, his benefactor. For a while Pole, who was by turns coaxed and threatened in letters from his mother and relatives in England, seems to have been in doubt as to where his duty lay. But his advisers, men like Ghiberti, Bishop of Verona, and Caraffa, the founder of the Theatines, afterwards Paul IV, urged that God must be obeyed rather than man. So the papal invitation was accepted, and by the middle of November, 1536, Pole, though still without orders of any kind, found himself lodged in the Vatican.

The summons of Paul III had reference to the commission which he had convened under the presidency of Contarini to draw up a scheme for the internal reform of the Church. The pope wished Pole to take part in this commission, and shortly afterwards announced his intention of making him a cardinal. To this proposal Pole, influenced in part by the thought of the sinister construction likely to be put upon his conduct in England, made an energetic and, undoubtedly, sincere resistance, but his objections were overborne and, after receiving the tonsure, he was raised to the purple along with Sadolet, Caraffa, and nine others on 22 Dec., 1536. The commission must have finished its sittings by the middle of February (Pastor, "Geschichte der Päpste", V, 118), and Pole was despatched upon a mission to the north on 18 Feb., with the title of legate, as it was hoped that the rising known as the "Pilgrimage of Grace" might have created a favourable opportunity for intervention in England. But the rivalry between Charles V and Francis I robbed Pole's mission of any little prospect of success. He met in fact with rebuffs from both French and Spaniards, and eventually had to take refuge with the Cardinal bishop of Liège. After being recalled to Rome, he was present in the spring of 1538 at the meeting between Charles V and Francis I at Nice. Meanwhile Pole's brothers had been arrested in England, and there was good reason to believe that his own life was in danger even in Venetian territory from Henry's hired assassins (cf. Pastor, op. cit., V, 685). Pole then set himself with the pope's approval to organize a European league against Henry. He met Charles at Toledo in Feb., 1539, but he was politely excluded from French territory, and after learning the sad news of his mother's martyrdom, he was recalled to Rome, where he was appointed legate to govern from Viterbo the district known as the Patrimony of St. Peter. His rule was conspicuously mild, and when two Englishmen were arrested, who confessed that they had been sent to assassinate him, he remitted the death penalty and was content to send them for a very short term to the galleys.

In 1542 Pole was one of the three legates appointed to preside over the opening of the Council of Trent. Owing to unforeseen delays the Fathers did not actually assemble until Dec., 1545, and the English cardinal spent the interval in writing the treatise "De Concilio". At the second session of the Council, 7 Jan., 1546, the impressive "Admonitio Legatorum ad Patres Concilii" (see Ehses, "Conc. Trid.", IV, 548-53) was drafted by Pole. For reasons of health he was compelled to leave Trent on 28 June, but there seems to be good evidence that his malady was real enough, and not feigned, as some have pretended, on account of the divergence of his views from those of the majority upon the question of justification (Pastor, op. cit., V, 578, note 3). None the less before the Diet of Ratisbon he undoubtedly had shared certain opinions of his friend Contarini in this matter which were afterwards reprobated by the Council (ibid., V, 335-37). But at that period (1541) the Council had not spoken, and Pole's submission to dogmatic authority was throughout his life absolute and entire. It is possible that an exaggerated idea of those errors produced at a later date that bias in the mind of Caraffa (Paul IV) which led him so violently to suspect Pole as well as Morone (q.v.) of heretical opinions.

On the death of Henry VIII Pole with the approval of Paul III made persistent efforts to induce the Protector Somerset and the Privy Council to treat with the Holy See, but, while these overtures were received with a certain amount of civility, no encouragement was given to them. Paul III died 10 Nov., 1549, and in the conclave which followed, the English cardinal was long regarded as the favourite candidate. Indeed it seems that if on a particular occasion Pole had been willing to present himself to the cardinals, when he had nearly two-thirds of the votes, he might have been made pope "by adoration". Later the majority in his favour began to decline, and he willingly agreed to a compromise which resulted in the election of Cardinal Del Monte (Julius III). On the votes given for Pole, see "The Tablet", 28 Aug., 1909, pp. 340-341.

The death of Edward VI, 6 July, 1553, once more restored Pole to a very active life. Though the cardinal was absent from Rome, Julius III at once appointed him legate in England, and Pole wrote to the queen to ask her advice as to his future procedure. Both Mary's advisers in England and the Emperor Charles V, who was from the first anxious to marry the new queen to his son Philip, considered that the country was not yet ready for the reception of a papal legate. Julius, by way of covering the credit of his envoy in the delays that might possibly ensue, entrusted Pole with a further commission to establish friendly relations between the Emperor Charles and Henry II of France. All this brought the cardinal a good many rebuffs, though he was courteously received in Paris. Charles V, however, deliberately set himself to detain Pole on the continent until the marriage between Mary and Philip had been concluded (see ). Eventually Pole was not allowed to reach Dover before 20 Nov., 1554, provision having previously been made that holders of church property should not be compelled to restore the lands that they had alienated. A great reception was given to the legate upon his arrival in London, and on 30 Nov., Pole, though not even yet a priest, formally absolved the two Houses of Parliament from the guilt of schism. Owing to Pole's royal descent and his friendship with the queen, he exercised a considerable indirect influence over affairs of state and received a special charge from Philip to watch over the kingdom during his absence. On the other hand, the cardinal does not seem to have been at all anxious to add to his responsibilities, and when Archbishop Cranmer was deprived, he showed no great eagerness to succeed him in his functions as archbishop. Still a synod of both convocations was held by him as legate in Nov., 1555, which passed many useful decrees of ecclesiastical reform, rendered necessary by the disturbed condition of the Church after twenty years of separation from Roman authority. On 20 March, 1557, Pole was ordained priest, and two days after he was consecrated archbishop, while he solemnly received the pallium on the feast of the Annunciation in the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow, delivering an address which is still preserved.

With the persecutions which have cast so regrettable a shadow over Mary's reign Pole seems to have had little to do (Dixon, "Hist. of the Ch. of Eng.", IV, 572). "Three condemned heretics from Bonner's diocese were pardoned on an appeal to him; he merely enjoined a penance and gave them absolution" (ibid., 582). The cardinal was now somewhat infirm, and his last days, like those of his royal mistress, were much saddened by fresh misunderstandings with Rome, due mainly to the impetuous temper and bitter anti-Spanish feeling of Paul IV. As a Neapolitan, Paul was bent upon driving the Spaniards out of Naples, and war broke out in Italy between the pope and King Philip. The pope made an alliance with France, and Philip set deliberately to work to implicate England in the quarrel, whereupon Paul withdrew his legates from the Spanish dominions and cancelled the legation of Pole. Although the tension of this state of affairs was in some measure remedied by concessions on the part of the pope, which were wrung from him by the success of Philip's arms, the cloud had by no means completely lifted, aggravated as it was by the pope's perverse conviction of Pole's doctrinal unsoundness, when the cardinal in Nov., 1558, contracted a mortal sickness and died a few hours after Queen Mary herself.

Throughout his life Pole's moral conduct was above reproach, his sincere piety and ascetical habits were the admiration of all. "Seldom", writes Dr. James Gairdner, than whom no one is more competent to pronounce judgment, "has any life been animated by a more single-minded purpose". As compared with the majority of his contemporaries, Pole was conspicuously gentle, both in his opinions and in his language. He had the gift of inspiring warm friendships and he was most generous and charitable in the administration of his revenues.

An early life of Pole was written by his secretary Beccatelli. It may be found printed in Quirini's great collection, Epistola Reginaldi Poli et aliorum ad se (5 vols., Brescia, 1744-57); upon these materials was founded the History of the Life of Reginald Pole by Philipps (Oxford, 1764), which still retains its value. A more modern biography is that of "Martin Haile" (Miss Mary Hallé), The Life of Reginald Pole (London, 1910); compare also Zimmermann, Cardinal Pole (Freiburg, 1893); Antony, The Angelical Cardinal (London, 1909); Lee, Reginald Pole (London, 1888); an admirable account of Pole by Gairdner is given in Dict. Nat. Biog.; on the other hand the Life of Pole in Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury (London, 1860-84) is disfigured by conspicuous anti-Catholic animus. Much useful supplementary information is furnished by the Monumenta Concilii Tridentini, vols. I and IV (Freiburg, 1901-04), and in Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste (Freiburg, 1908-10), IV, V. See also "The Tablet", 28 Aug., 1909, p. 340. The edition of the letters published by Quirini is far from complete, and many still remain in MS.

References

  1. Back to citation White, William (1834). History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire. Sheffield: Published by the author. p. 261.
  2. Back to citation Mayer, Thomas F. (1999). "A Reluctant Author: Cardinal Pole and His Manuscripts". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 89 (4): i–115. doi:10.2307/3185877. ISSN 0065-9746. JSTOR 3185877.
  3. Back to citation Thornbury, George Walter; Walford, Edward (1872). Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places. Vol. 2. London, England: Cassell. p. 553.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.00 Back to citation occurrence 4.01 Back to citation occurrence 4.02 Back to citation occurrence 4.03 Back to citation occurrence 4.04 Back to citation occurrence 4.05 Back to citation occurrence 4.06 Back to citation occurrence 4.07 Back to citation occurrence 4.08 Back to citation occurrence 4.09 Mayer, T. F. (2004). "Pole, Reginald (1500–1558), cardinal and archbishop of Canterbury". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22456. Retrieved 3 April 2023. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Back to citation "Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury". Britannia Biographies. 1908. Archived from the original on 7 August 2008. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Listed as a prebendary in Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300: Volume 4, Salisbury. Institute of Historical Research, London, 1991.
  7. Back to citation occurrence 7.0 Back to citation occurrence 7.1 Back to citation occurrence 7.2 Back to citation occurrence 7.3 "Pole, Reginald". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/22456. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  8. Back to citation "Pietro Bembo: Lover, Linguist, Cardinal 9780773571921". dokumen.pub. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  9. Back to citation "Lambeth Palace Library Research Guide: Reginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury (1500-1558)" (PDF). Lambeth Palace Library. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  10. Back to citation Emden, Alfred Brotherston (1974). A biographical register of the University of Oxford, A.D. 1501 to 1540. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 453. ISBN 0199510083.
  11. Back to citation Froude, James Anthony. "The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon The Story as Told by the Imperial Ambassadors Resident at the Court of Henry VIII". www.gutenberg.org. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  12. Back to citation ODNB, "Reginald Pole"; "Geoffrey Pole". Pole and his hagiographers gave several later accounts of Pole's activities after Henry met Anne Boleyn. These are not consistent; and if – as he claimed at one point – Pole rejected the annulment in 1526 and refused the Oath of Supremacy in 1531, he received benefits from Henry for a course of action for which others were sentenced to death.
  13. Back to citation occurrence 13.0 Back to citation occurrence 13.1 "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Reginald Cardinal Pole". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 28 May 2026.
  14. Back to citation "Cardinal Reginald Pole". obo.
  15. Back to citation Mayer, Thomas F. (July 1987). "A Diet for Henry VIII: The Failure of Reginald Pole's 1537 Legation". Journal of British Studies. 26 (3): 305–331. doi:10.1086/385892. ISSN 0021-9371. S2CID 145195155.
  16. Back to citation Murphy, John (16 December 2017). "Cardinal Reginald Pole: Questions of Self-Justification and of Faith". Royal Studies Journal. 4 (2): 177. doi:10.21039/rsj.v4i2.173. S2CID 158550919.
  17. Back to citation The other four Cardinals were Christopher Bainbridge, Thomas Wolsey, John Fisher, and William Petow.
  18. Back to citation Ronald Fritze, ed., Historical Dictionary of Tudor England, 1485-1603 (1991), pp. 191-92.
  19. Back to citation "Margaret Pole | Saints Resource". saintsresource.com. Retrieved 30 December 2018.
  20. Back to citation Edward Chaney, The Evolution of the Grand Tour: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations since the Renaissance (London, 2nd ed. 2000), pp. 64, 92 and 109
  21. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Mary Tudor". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  22. Back to citation Cobbett (1806) Parliamentary History of England, v.1, p.617-18
  23. Back to citation Bucholz, R. O; Key, N. (2009). Early modern England 1485–1714: a narrative history. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-1-4051-6275-3.
  24. Back to citation Gee, Henry; Hardy, William John, eds. (1914). Documents Illustrative of English Church History. London: Macmillan.
  25. Back to citation "Marian Government Policies". Retrieved 5 July 2007.
  26. Back to citation Lee, Frederick George (6 December 1888). "Reginald Pole, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury: an historical sketch, with an introductory prologue and practical epilogue". London: J. C. Nimmo – via Internet Archive.
  27. Back to citation Duffy, Eamon (2009). Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-15216-6. JSTOR j.ctt1npq81.
  28. Back to citation "Pole, Reginald (PL556R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  29. Back to citation Cross, F. L; Livingstone, E. A., eds. (1997). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. p. 428. ISBN 019211655X.
  30. Back to citation "Thomas Cranmer". Stpeter.org. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  31. Back to citation Pogson, Rex H. (1975). "Reginald Pole and the Priorities of Government in Mary Tudor's Church". The Historical Journal. 18 (1): 3–20. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00008645. S2CID 159964116.
  32. Back to citation Mann, Stephanie (30 November 2016). "The Man Who Was Almost Pope: Reginald Cardinal Pole". The National Catholic Register. EWTN. Retrieved 25 October 2017. “Pole is usually not blamed for the campaign of heresy trials and burnings that is such a blot on the reign of 'Bloody Mary'. Known for his gentleness and patience with those suspected of heresy, he regarded them as sinners rather than traitors, urging leniency, conversion, and forgiveness.”
  33. Back to citation "Reginald Pole | archbishop of Canterbury". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 November 2020.
  34. Back to citation "ACTON, Robert (By 1497-1558), of Elmley Lovett and Ribbesford, Worcs. And Southwark, Surr. | History of Parliament Online".
  35. Back to citation p. 24 May 9 History Today, an excerpted article taken from Eamon Duffy's "Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor," published by Yale University Press- History Today Vol 59 (5) May 2009, pp 24–29
  36. Back to citation five volumes, Brescia, 1744–57
  37. Back to citation Pole, Reginald (6 December 1965). "Defense of the Unity of the Church". Newman Press – via Google Books.
  38. Back to citation "The Papers of Alison Macleod (1920-)". Labour History Archive and Study Centre. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
  39. Back to citation Connolly, Sharon Bennett (14 April 2017). "Book Corner: Queen of Martyrs, the Story of Mary I by Samantha Wilcoxson". History... the interesting bits!. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  40. Back to citation "The King's Curse | Philippa Gregory - Official Website". www.philippagregory.com. Retrieved 15 June 2026.
  41. Back to citation Rosamund Gravelle - Productions: Three Queens
  42. Back to citation Barons Court Theatre - Past Productions

Bibliography

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