56 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF THE CHARACTER 



ing so firmly and resolutely his convictions in the face of all conse- 

 quences, had conferred upon him the high dignity of a cardinal, he 

 calmly replied, " If the red hat were lying at my feet I would not 

 stoop to pick it up, so small a value do I set upon it/'* 



O ! what a rebuke, what an admonition, is there in the first of 

 these sayings, to that extreme selfishness and spirit of worldliness 

 which have marked the conduct of many a succeeding prelate, and 

 of which we have saddening glimpses in our own remembrance, 

 and which, it must be confessed, have left an intensely painful 

 fgjBling upon the humble-minded Christian, while they have called 

 forth protesting voices among the people, even against the episco- 

 pate itself. Now a reverend historian of the present day, whose 

 protestant predilections are quite as strong as those of Burnett, is 

 not afraid to make this ample and generous admission, that '^ we 

 cannot fail to respect the man who would never exchange his small 

 bishopric of Rochester for more valuable preferment/'t If there be, 

 then, still those among our first order of priesthood who are tempt- 

 ed to cast a wistful look upon a wealthier see — to feel a desire of 

 accumulation beyond what Christianity prescribes — and thus to 

 cling to mammon while professing to serve the church — let them 

 shut their eyes, and think of Bishop Fisher's truly evangelical de- 



Carwithen's History of the Church of England^ v. i., p. 143. This Pope died 

 on the 26th of September, 1535, and Paul created Fisher a Car^dinal, in a ge- 

 neral promotion, on the 21st of May, 15 — — See Wharton, Confin. Hist. Roff. 

 Angl. Sacr. I . 



• The bitter brutal jest which Henry passed upon this offer, might lead 

 one to suppose, that Fisher had earnestly sought to obtain this papal present: 

 — " Let the Pope send him a hat when he will ; but by God's mother he 

 shall not wear it on his shoulders then, for I will leave him never a head to 

 set it on." Now, from the fact of Fisher's having been named to the purple 

 before the intelligence of his condemnation could have been brought to Rome, 

 it is quite manifest that this appointment was not made " sorely to vex and 

 irritate Henry," but out of respect to his talents and virtues, and steady at- 

 tachment to the Papal see, of which he had always been the inflexible and 

 uncompromising advocate. " Finally, the said, Machon writeth, that he, ex- 

 postulating with the Bishop of Rome for that he had made the Bishop of 

 Rochester a Cardinal, knowing him to be the person whom your Grace fa- 

 voured not, and had most worthily deserved your Grace's highe indignation. 

 The said Bishop of Rome answered, that he had not doon it for any dis- 

 pleasure unto your Highness, but only for that he thought him, for his 

 singular lerning and good lyving to be a personne most mete to be present 

 in the general Counsail, there to have his ayde and assistence in suche doubts 

 as might arr'iser— MS. Harl., Baker, 7030, p. 206. 



f See Short's Sketch of the History of the Church of England^ v. i., p. 147. 



