Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483Lindsey, Karen, xvii, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived, Perseus Books, 1995. – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I.
Skilled in canon law, he had a significant career as a civil servant and diplomat, being brought to King Henry VIII's attention when working for Cardinal Wolsey, then serving as the king's secretary. As a bishop, he was the most important religious conservative to retain his diocese during the later reign of Henry, supporting the king's claim as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. He spent most of the reign of Edward VI in prison, but was restored by Mary I of England, in whose reign he died.
Early life Gardiner was born in Bury St Edmunds, but the date of his birth is uncertain. His father could have been a John Gardiner, but also could have been William Gardiner, a substantial cloth merchant of the town where he was born,see his will, printed in Proceedings of the Suffolk Archaeological Institute, i. 329 who took care to give him a good education. His mother was said to be Ellen or Helen Tudor, an illegitimate daughter of Jasper Tudor, 1st Duke of Bedford,The Complete Peerage by G. E. Cockayne, edited by the Hon. Vicary Gibbs, vol.2, London, 1912, p.73n. but American research from 2011 suggests that this lady was the mother of a different cleric, Thomas Gardiner.Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study in Colonial And Medieval Families, Genealogical Publishing, 2011, p. 370.
In 1511 Gardiner, aged 28, met Erasmus in Paris.Nichols's Epistles of Erasmus, ii. 12, 13 He had probably already begun his studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in the classics, especially in Greek. He then devoted himself to canon and civil law, in which subjects he attained so great a proficiency that no one could dispute his pre-eminence. He received the degree of doctor of civil law in 1520, and of canon law in the following year.
Diplomatic career Before long his abilities attracted the notice of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who made him his secretary,"Stephen Gardiner (1483 – 1555), Bishop of Winchester", National Trust Collections and in this capacity he is said to have been with him at The More in Hertfordshire, when the conclusion of the celebrated Treaty of the More brought King Henry VIII and the French ambassadors there. This was probably the occasion on which he first came to the King's notice, but he does not appear to have been actively engaged in Henry's service till three years later. He undoubtedly acquired a knowledge of foreign politics in the service of Wolsey.
In 1527 he and Sir Thomas More were named commissioners on the part of England, in arranging a treaty with the French ambassadors for the support of an army in Italy against Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. As a canon lawyer, he was sent to Orvieto in 1527 to secure a decretal commission from Pope Clement VII to allow the King's divorce case to be tried in England.Janelle, Pierre. Obedience in Church and State, Cambridge University Press, 2014 In 1535 he was also appointed ambassador to France,Bates, J. Barrington. "Stephen Gardiner's Explication and the Identity of the Church", Anglican and Episcopal History, Vol. 72, No. 1, March 2003 where he remained for three years.Collins, Brian M., "The Pomp of Two Bishops of Winchester when Travelling", Winchester Cathedral
Role in the royal divorce
That year he accompanied Wolsey on his important diplomatic mission to France, the splendour and magnificence of which have been graphically described by George Cavendish in his biography of Wolsey. Among the Cardinal's retinue – including several noblemen and privy councillors – Gardiner alone seems to have understood the importance of this embassy. Henry was particularly anxious to cement his alliance with King Francis I of France, and gain support for his plans to divorce Catherine of Aragon. In the course of his progress through France, Wolsey received orders from Henry to send back his secretary, Gardiner, for fresh instructions. Wolsey was obliged to reply that he positively could not spare Gardiner as he was the only instrument he had in advancing the king's "Great Matter". The next year, Wolsey sent Gardiner and Edward Foxe, provost of King's College, Cambridge, to Italy to promote the same business with the Pope. His dispatched messages have survived, and illustrate the competence with which Gardiner performed his duties.
Gardiner's familiarity with canon law gave him a great advantage. He was instructed to procure a decretal commission from the Pope, which was intended to construct principles of law by which Wolsey might render a decision on the validity of the King's marriage without appeal. Though supported by plausible pretexts, the demand was received as unusual and inadmissible. Pope Clement VII, who had been recently forced to seek refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo by mutinous soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire, had managed to escape to Orvieto. Now fearful of offending Charles V, nephew of Queen Catherine, Clement refused to issue a definitive ruling concerning Henry's annulment.T.A.Morris, Europe and England in the Sixteenth Century, (Routledge 1998), p. 166 The matter was instead referred to his cardinals, with whom Gardiner held long debates.
Gardiner's pleading was unsuccessful. Though the issue had not been specifically resolved, a general commission was granted, enabling Wolsey, along with Papal Legate, Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio, to try the case in England. While grateful to the Pope for the small concession, Wolsey viewed this as inadequate for the purpose in view. He urged Gardiner to press Clement VII further to deliver the desired decretal, even if it were only to be shown to the King and himself and then destroyed. Otherwise Wolsey feared he would lose his credit with Henry, who might be tempted to discard his allegiance to Rome. However, Clement VII made no further concessions at the time and Gardiner returned home. The two legates held their court under the guidelines of the general commission.
King's secretary, conservative and absolutist
Gardiner was a conservative, nationalist and an opponent of Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell and of any innovation in the Church, although he acquiesced grudgingly in the steadily increasing influence of the Reformation on the royal counsels. A description of his character from George Cavendish declared him "a swarthy complexion, hooked nose, deep-set eyes, a permanent frown, huge hands and a vengeful wit. He was ambitious, sure of himself, irascible, astute, and worldly."G. Cavendish, The Life of Wolsey (1557); Weir, p. 298
In early August 1529 he was appointed the King's secretary. He had already been archdeacon of Taunton for several years. The archdeaconries of Worcester and of Norfolk were also added to a list of pluralities before November 1529 and in March 1530 respectively; in April 1531 he resigned all three for that of Leicester. In 1530 the King demanded a precedent from Cambridge to procure the decision of the university as to the unlawfulness of marriage with a deceased brother's wife: in accordance with the new plan devised for settling the question without the Pope's intervention. In this Gardiner succeeded. In November 1531 the King rewarded him with the bishopric of Winchester, vacant since Wolsey's death. The unexpected promotion was accompanied by expressions from the King which made it still more honourable, showing that if he had been subservient, it was not for the sake of his own advancement. Gardiner had, in fact, argued boldly with the King on some points, and Henry now reminded him of the fact. "I have often squared with you, Gardiner," he said familiarly, "but I love you never the worse, as the bishopric I give will convince you." In 1532, nevertheless, he displeased the King by taking part in the preparation of the "Answer of the Ordinaries" to the complaints brought against them in the House of Commons. On this subject he wrote to the King in his own defence.
Gardiner was not exactly, as is often said, one of Cranmer's assessors, but, according to Cranmer's own expression, "assistant" to him as counsel for the king, when the archbishop, in the absence of Queen Catherine, pronounced her marriage with Henry null and void on 23 May 1533. Immediately afterwards he was sent to Marseille, where an interview between the Pope and Francis I took place in September. Henry was deeply suspicious, as Francis, ostensibly his ally, had previously maintained the justice of his cause in the matter of the divorce. It was at this interview that Edmund Bonner intimated the appeal of Henry VIII to a general council in case the Pope should venture to proceed to sentence against him. This appeal, and another on behalf of Cranmer presented with it, were drawn up by Gardiner.
In 1535 he and other bishops were called upon to vindicate the King's new title of "Supreme Head of the Church of England." The result was his celebrated treatise De vera obedientia, the ablest of all the vindications of royal supremacy. "Princes ought to be obeyed", wrote Gardiner, "by the commandment of God; yea, and to be obeyed without question". He certainly believed in the semi-divinity of kings, and the divine majesty's right to rule as if the King's law was God's law.De Vera Obedientia; John Scarisbrick, Henry VIII; Weir, Henry VIII, p. 19 In the same year he had a dispute with Cranmer about the visitation of his diocese. He was also employed to answer the Pope's brief threatening to deprive Henry of his kingdom.
During the next few years he took part in various embassies to France and Germany. He was often so abroad, having little influence on the King's councils; but in 1539 he took part in the enactment of the Six Articles, which led to the resignation of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Shaxton and the persecution of the Protestant party. In 1540, on the execution of Thomas Cromwell, he was elected chancellor of the University of Cambridge. A few years later he attempted, in concert with others, to fasten a charge of heresy upon Archbishop Cranmer in connection with the Six Articles and would, but for the personal intervention of the king, probably have succeeded.
Despite having supported royal supremacy, he was a thorough opponent of the Reformation from a doctrinal point of view, and is thought to have been a leader of the Prebendaries' Plot against Cranmer. He had not approved of Henry's general treatment of the church, especially during the ascendancy of Cromwell. In 1544 a relation of his, named German Gardiner, whom he employed as his secretary, was executed for treason in reference to the King's supremacy, and his enemies insinuated to the King that he himself was of his secretary's way of thinking. The King had need of him quite as much as he had of Cranmer; for it was Gardiner who, even under royal supremacy, was anxious to prove that England had not fallen away from the faith, while Cranmer's authority as primate was necessary to upholding that supremacy.
Thus Gardiner and the Archbishop maintained opposite sides of the King's church policy; and though Gardiner was encouraged by the King to put up articles against the archbishop for heresy, the Archbishop could always rely on the King's protection in the end. Protestantism was gaining ground in high places, especially after the King's marriage to Catherine Parr; the Queen herself was nearly committed for it at one time, when Gardiner, with the King's approbation, censured some of her expressions in conversation. Just after her marriage, four men of the court were condemned at Windsor and three of them were burned. The fourth, who was the theologian and composer John Merbecke, was pardoned by Gardiner's procurement, who said he was "but a musician".