Born at Stourton Castle, Staffordshire, England, March 3, 1500: died at London, Nov. 18, 1558. An English Roman Catholic prelate. He was the son of Sir Richard Pole and Margaret, countess of Salisbury, niece of Edward IV. He entered Magdalen College, Oxford, and at the age of 19 went to Padua to complete his education, returning in 1525. In 1532 he went again to Italy, and was created cardinal Dec. 22, 1536. He quarreled with Henry VIII., who caused a bill of attainder to be passed against him and set a price on his head. His mother was thrown into the Tower and beheaded. In 1545 he was a legate-president of the Council of Trent. On the death of Edward VI. he was sent to England to assist Queen Mary. Pole, who was only in deacon’s orders, desired to marry the queen, and she for a time favored the project, but it was finally abandoned. After the burning of Cranmer, Pole was ordained priest, and on March 22, 1556, was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. His legation as papal ambassador to England was canceled by Paul IV. His death occurred on the day after that of the queen. He was largely responsible for the persecution of Protestants during her reign.
Personal
Such a one as, for his wisdom, joined with learning, virtue, and godliness, all the world seeketh and adoreth. In whom it is to be thought that God hath chosen a special place of habitation. Such is his conversation adorned with infinite godly qualities, above the ordinary sort of men. And whosoever within the realm liketh him worst, I would he might have with him the talk of one half-hour. It were a right stony heart that in a small time he could not soften.
He still lives an overthrower of evangelical truth and a most impious betrayer of his country, advising the Emperor that his first care should be to bring all England into his power. May our omnipotent Lord God confound him with all his shaven and anointed ones. Amen.
The same daye Reygnold Poole, Cardinall, and not long before made Archbishop of Canterbury, departed this life, doubtfull whether by naturall disease, or by violence of griefe, or by some other strange inforcement…. Hee was learned and eloquent, of noe comely presence, but of good grace in delivering his speach: herewith haughty, ambitious, and vehement in the pursuite of his purposes. Whereupon, as he had been formerly impatient for not atteyning to the full degrees of his desires and hopes, so now, most of all, in fore-seeing the abatement of his honour, and the alteratione of the relligeone which hee did professe; for establishment whereof, in former times, he had practised so farr that he had reasone to conceive he could not be indured in the change.
The Cardinal was not a man made to raise a fortune, being, by the greatness of his birth and his excellent virtues, carried far above such mean designs. He was a learned, modest, humble, and good-natured man; and had indeed such qualities, and such a temper, that, if he could have brought the other bishops to follow his measures, or the Pope and Queen to approve of them, he might have probably done much to have reduced this nation to popery again. But God designed better things for it: so he gave up the Queen to the bloody counsels of Gardiner, and the rest of the clergy. It was the only thing in which she was not led by the Cardinal. But she imputed his opinion in that particular, rather to the sweetness of his temper, than to his wisdom and experience: and he, seeing he could do nothing of what he projected in England, fell into a languishing, first of his mind, that brought after it a decay of his health, of which he died.
He was a man of great learning and of great humanity, very modest and obliging, and very well qualified for publick employ. He was of a midling stature, fresh-colour’d, and had eyes very lively and sparkling, and a cheerful look…. He was buried fourty Days after his Death in a Leaden Coffin on the North-side of Becket’s Crown, where is a Table-Monument of Brick Plaister’d over and Painted, and against the Wall a Painting of the Resurrection, a Sepulchre, twelve Angels, our God in Hebrew written, and Angels supporting the Cardinal’s Arms.
The benign character of this prelate, the modesty and humanity of his deportment, made him be universally beloved; insomuch that in a nation where the most furious persecution was carried on, and where the most violent religious factions prevailed, entire justice, even by most of the reformers, has been done to his merit.
He was of middle stature, and of a healthy rather than robust constitution; though he was sometimes subject to a defluxion which fell on his arm and caused an inflamation in his right eye. His complexion was fair, mixed with an agreeable vermillion, and his beard and hair in his youth, of a light colour, his countenance was open and serene, enlivened with a cheerful and pleasant eye, the index of his mind, which was unsuspecting, honest, and benevolent.
The cardinal was a man of letters, polished in manners and virtuous in mind, generous, humane, and to a certain extent liberal in feeling. Yet religion made him a traitor to his sovereign and benefactor, a scurrilous libeller, and a persecutor even unto death of those who dissented from his creed. For though it may be true that he did not urge on the persecution, he always assented to it; and not a week before his death, five persons, the last of the victims whom his own certificate had given over to the secular arm, were burnt in his diocese.
To a natural kindness of temper he united an urbanity and a refinement of manners, derived from familiar intercourse with the most polished society of Europe. His royal descent entitled him to mix on terms of equality with persons of the highest rank, and made him feel as much at ease in the court as in the cloister. His long exile had opened to him an acquaintance with man as he is found in various climes, while as a native-born Englishman, he perfectly understood the prejudices and peculiar temper of his own countrymen. “Cardinal Pole,” says the Venetian minister, “is a man of unblemished nobility, and so strict in his integrity, that he grants nothing to the importunity of friends. He is so much beloved, both by prince and people, that he may well be styled the king where all is done by his authority.”
The cultured and gentle Reginald Pole.
General
As concerning the king’s cause, master Raynolde Poole hath written a book much contrary to the king’s purpose, with such wit, that it appeareth that he might be for his wisdom of the council to the king’s grace; and of such eloquence, that if it were set forth and known to the common people, I suppose it were not possible to persuade them to the contrary. The Principal intent whereof is, that the king’s grace should be content to commit his great cause to the judgment of the pope; wherein meseemeth he lacketh much judgment. But he (per)suadeth that with such goodly eloquence, both the words and sentence, that he were like to persuade many: but me he persuadeth in that point nothing at all. But in many other things he satisfieth me very well.
This Pasquil is an Author eminent on many accounts. First, for his self-concealment, being noscens omnia, & notus nemini. Secondly, for his intelligence, who can display the deeds of midnight at high noon, as if he hid himself in the holes of their bed-staves, knowing who were Cardinals’ Children better than they knew their Fathers. Thirdly, for his unpartial boldness. He was made all of tongue and teeth, biting whate’er he touch’d, and it bled whate’er he bit; yea, as if a General Council and Pasquil were only above the Pope, he would not stick to tell where he trod his holy sandals awry. Fourthly, for his longevity, having lived (or rather lasted) in Rome some hundreds of years, whereby he appears no particular person, but a successive Corporation of Satyrists. Lastly, for his impunity, escaping the Inquisition; whereof some assign this reason, because hereby the Court of Rome comes to know her faults, or rather to know that their faults are known; which makes Pasquil’s Converts (if not more honest) more wary in their behaviour…. Yet afterwards he became Alterious Orbis Papa, when made Arch-bishop of Canterbury by Queen Mary. He was a person free from passion, whom none could anger out of his ordinary temper. His youthful Books were full of the Flowers of Rhetorick; whilst the withered stalkes are only found in the writings of his old Age, so dry their style, and dull their conceit.
His learning and eloquence were remarkable, while his perfect knowledge of the Latin language was unique. If certain critics have regarded his style as somewhat diffuse; others, again admit that, even when he was wrong, it was so perfect and graceful alike in its simplicity and force, that it scarcely seemed capable of improvement. The long list of his works, which stands at the close of this chapter—many of them exceedingly rare—proves that both in dogmatic and moral theology, in history, biography, politics, and law, he was a very master in the Church Universal. Few prelates of his day did more to undermine error and establish and settle his readers in the Faith. His great and chief treatise, “On the Unity of the Church,” a very masterpiece of reasoning, is full of divine wisdom, carefully set forth with perfect truth, much skill, and the greatest prudence.
Another fatal book which belongs to this period is “Pro unitate ecclesiæ ad Henricum VIII.,” written by Reginald Pole in the secure retreat of Padua, in which the author compares Henry to Nebuchadnezzar, and prays the Emperor of Germany to direct his arms against so heretical a Christian, rather than against the Turks. Secure in his retreat at the Papal Court, Pole did not himself suffer on account of his book, but the vengeance of Henry fell heavily upon his relations in England.
As a writer Pole’s style is verbose, but he never cared for literary fame. None of his writings were penned with a mere literary aim, except his early anonymous life of Longolius.
