Reformed Churchmen: 17 November 1558 A.D. Reginald Pole—70th of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury; Persecutorial Anglo-Italian and Royalist Agent of the Bishop of Italy Operating on English Soil

17 November 1558 A.D. Reginald Pole—70^th of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury; Persecutorial Anglo-Italian and Royalist Agent of the Bishop of Italy Operating on English Soil

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Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office during the Counter Reformation.

Contents

To the reign of Queen Mary I

Pole was born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, on 12 March 1500.^[1]^[2] to Sir Richard Pole and Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, and was their third son. His maternal grandparents were George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, and Isabella 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.

His nursery is said to have been at Sheen Priory.^[3] He matriculated at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, in 1512, and at Oxford was taught by William Latimer and Thomas Linacre, graduating with a BA on 27 June 1515. In February 1518, King Henry VIII granted him the deanery of Wimborne Minster, Dorset; after which he was Prebendary of Salisbury and Dean of Exeter in 1527.^[4] He was also a canon in York, and had several other livings, although he had not been ordained a priest; he represented Henry VIII in Paris in 1529, persuading the theologians of the Sorbonne to support Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon.^[5]

In 1521, Pole went to the University of Padua, where 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 condemned as heretics by the Roman Catholic Church, with Vermigli—as a well-known Protestant theologian—having a significant share in the Reformation in Pole's native England.

His studies in Padua were partly financed by his election as a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with more than half of the cost paid by Henry VIII himself^[6] on 14 February 1523, which allowed him to study abroad for three years.

Pole returned home in July 1526, when he went to France, escorted by Thomas Lupset. Henry VIII offered him the Archbishopric of York or the Diocese of Winchester if he would support his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Pole withheld his support and went into self-imposed exile in France and Italy in 1532, continuing his studies in Padua and Paris. After his return he held the benefice of Vicar of Piddletown, Dorset, between 20 December 1532 and about January 1535/1536.^[7]

In May 1536, Reginald Pole finally and definitively broke with the King. In 1531, he had warned of the dangers of the Boleyn marriage; he had returned to Padua in 1532, and received a last English benefice in December. Chapuys had suggested to the Emperor Charles V that Pole marry the Lady Mary and combine their dynastic claims; Chapuys also communicated with Reginald through his brother Geoffrey.

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 which denied Henry's position on the marriage of a brother's wife, and denied the Royal Supremacy; Pole also urged the Princes of Europe to depose Henry immediately. Henry wrote to the Countess of Salisbury, who in turn sent her son a letter reproving him for his "folly."^[8]

The incensed king, with Pole himself out of his reach, took a terrible revenge on Pole's family. Although Pole's mother and his elder brother had written to him in reproof of Pole's attitude and action, he did not spare them.

In 1537, Pole (still not ordained) was created a Cardinal; Pope Paul III put him in charge of organizing assistance for the Pilgrimage of Grace (and related movements), an effort to organise a march on London to install a Roman Catholic government instead of Henry's; 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.^[9]

Sir Geoffrey Pole was arrested in August 1538; he had been corresponding with Reginald, and the investigation of Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (Henry VIII's first cousin and the Countess of Salisbury's second cousin) had turned up his name; he had appealed to Thomas Cromwell, who had him arrested and interrogated. Under interrogation, Sir Geoffrey said that Henry Pole, his eldest brother, Lord Montagu, and Exeter had all 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, although Cromwell had 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 in January, with the exception of Geoffrey Pole, they were executed.

In January 1539, Sir Geoffrey was pardoned, and Montagu and Exeter were tried and executed for treason, while Reginald Pole was attainted in absentia. In May 1539, Montagu, Lady Salisbury, Exeter, 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 to assist any invasion — and titles, and they were also sentenced to death, 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, symbolising Lady Salisbury's support of Roman Catholicism and the rule of Reginald and Mary; the supposed discovery, six months after her house and effects had been searched when she was arrested, is likely to be a fabrication.

Margaret Pole, as she was now called, 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 and supported by the King. In 1540, Cromwell himself fell from favour and was himself executed and attainted. Margaret Pole was finally executed in 1541 (her execution was dreadfully botched and horrifying even for those brutal times), protesting her innocence until the last - a highly publicized case which was considered a grave miscarriage of justice both at the time and later. 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.

Styles of Reginald Pole

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Canterbury

Aside from the aforementioned oppositional treatise, King Henry's harshness towards the Pole family might have derived from the fact that Pole's mother, Margaret Plantagenet, was considered the last surviving member of the House of Plantagenet. Under some circumstances, that descent could have made Reginald – until he definitely entered the clergy – a possible contender for the throne itself. Indeed, in 1535 Pole was considered by Eustace Chapuys, the Imperial ambassador to England, as a possible husband for Princess Mary, later Mary I of England.

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Pole's cappella (chapel) in Rome

Pole was made a cardinal by Pope Paul III in 1536, over Pole's own objections. He also became Papal Legate to England in February 1536/1537. In 1542 he was appointed as one of the three Papal Legates to preside over the Council of Trent, in 1549 he was appointed by Pope Paul III Abbot of Gavello or Canalnuovo, and after the death of Pope Paul III in 1549 Pole, at one point, had nearly the two-thirds of the vote he needed to become Pope himself^[10] at the papal conclave, 1549–50. His personal belief in justification by faith over works had caused him problems at Trent and accusations of heresy at the conclave.

Later years

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0c/Tomb_of_Reginald_Pole.jpg/200px-Tomb_of_Reginald_Pole.jpg

His tomb at Canterbury Cathedral.

The death of King Edward VI on 6 July 1553 and the accession of Mary I to the throne of England hastened Pole's return from exile, as Papal Legate to England (which he served as until 1557). In 1554, Cardinal Pole came to England to receive the kingdom back into the Roman fold. However, Mary and the Emperor Charles V delayed him until 20 November 1554, due to apprehension that Pole might oppose the Queen's forthcoming marriage to Charles's son, Philip of Spain.^[11]

As Papal Legate, Pole negotiated a papal dispensation allowing the new owners of confiscated former monastic lands to retain them, and in return Parliament enabled the Revival of the Heresy Acts in January 1555.^[12] This revived former measures against heresy: the letters patent of 1382 of Richard II, an Act of 1401 of Henry IV, and an Act of 1414 of Henry V. All of these had been repealed under Henry VIII and Edward VI.^[13] On 13 November 1555, Cranmer was officially deprived of the See of Canterbury.^[14]

Under Mary's rule, Pole, whose attainder was reversed in 1554, was finally ordained as a Priest on 20 March 1556 ^[15] and consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury two days later,^[16] an office he would hold until his death. He was also Chancellor of both Oxford and Cambridge universities in 1555 and 1555/1556 respectively.^[17] 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.^[18] Despite this, which should have absolved them under Mary’s own Revival of the Heresy Acts, the Queen could not forget their responsibility for her mother's unhappy divorce.^[19]

In 1555, Queen Mary began permitting the burning of Anglicans for heresy, and some 220 men and 60 women were executed before her death in 1558. Pole shares responsibility for these persecutions which, despite his intention, contributed to the ultimate victory of the English Reformation.^[20] On the other hand, Pole was in failing health during the worst period of persecution, and there is some evidence that he favored 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."^[10] As the reign wore on, an increasing number of people turned against Mary and her government,^[21] and some people who had been indifferent to the English Reformation began turning against Catholicism.^[22]^[23] Writings such as John Foxe's 1568 Book of Martyrs, which emphasized the sufferings of the reformers under Mary, helped shape popular opinion against Catholicism in England for generations.^[21]^[23]

Reginald Pole died in London, during an influenza epidemic, on 17 November 1558, at about 7:00pm, nearly twelve hours after Queen Mary's death from illness.^[24] He was buried on the north side of the Corona at Canterbury Cathedral.

Author

Pole was the author of De Concilio and of treatises on the authority of the Roman Pontiff and the Anglican Reformation of England, and of many important letters, full of interest for the history of the time, edited by Angelo Maria Quirini.^[25]

He 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".^[26]

In fiction

Cardinal Pole is a major character in the historical novel The Trusted Servant by Alison Macleod.^[27] The book's (fictional) protagonist is sent by King Henry VIII to assassinate Pole in Italy. He relents and saves the Cardinal from a fellow assassin, and is taken into Pole's service. As first presented to the reader, Cardinal Pole is a kindly, indeed almost saintly man, highly liberal and tolerant by the standards of the time, and the protagonist becomes very devoted to his service. But when Pole returns to England after King Henry's death and the accession of Mary, he is portrayed as becoming increasingly tyrannical and oppressive, exasperated with the recalcitrance of the English, their refusal to re-embrace Roman Catholicism and their sympathy for the underground Protestant sects. Macleod also suggests that Pole was subconsciously guided by vindictiveness against the English, for having failed to stand by his mother when she was put to death under Henry. Finally, the protagonist breaks with Pole and helps condemned Protestants to escape. When last seen in the book, Pole is presented as a tragic, broken man, whose dreams and ideals have all turned to ashes. While facing the hostility of the Protestants, he is also suddenly attacked by the Pope, his former friend Caraffa.

In the novel Q by Luther Blissett, while not appearing himself, Pole is mentioned many times as the book's subject as a moderate cardinal favouring religious tolerance, in the upheavals caused by the Reformation and the Roman Church's response during the 16th century.

Cardinal Pole is a major character in Peter Walker's novel, The Courier's Tale, published in 2010. The years of Pole's exile in Italy and later return to England as Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Queen Mary are told through the story of his confidential agent, Michael Throckmorton (an actual historical figure).

Reginald Pole is a character in Lucy Beckett's historical novel The Time Before You Die - A Novel of the Reformation published by Antony Rowe (Eastbourne, East Sussex) 2005 (first published by Ignatius Press, San Francisco 1999).

Reginald Pole is a side character in Jean Plaidy's novel In The Shadow of The Crown published in 1988 by Three Rivers Press. He is shown as one of Queen Mary I's love interests through out the book.

In Season 3 of Showtime's series The Tudors, Cardinal Pole is portrayed by Canadian actor Mark Hildreth.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Reginald Pole