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8 | <title>Primary Sources: Henry VIII's speech before Parliament, 1545</title>
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22 | <img border="0" src="h8speech.gif" width="575" height="87"><p align="center"> </td>
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30 | <td valign="top" width="48%" bgcolor="#FFFFE8"><font size=-1>This speech,
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31 | given on 24 December 1545, was recorded by a member of Parliament.</font><p><font size=-1>
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32 | These words bring Henry VIII's personality to life - at times belligerent,
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33 | then coaxing, mixing flattery and threats. Unlike his descendants,
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34 | Henry had few problems with parliament; his domination of its members was
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35 | legendary.</font><p> </td>
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36 | <td width="4%"></td>
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38 |
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39 | On 24 December the king's majesty came into the parliament
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40 | house, to give his royal assent to such acts as had been passed there,
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41 | where the speaker made to him an eloquent oration, to which it has always
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42 | been the custom for the lord chancellor to answer, but at this time it
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43 | was the king's pleasure that it should be otherwise, for the king himself
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44 | answered, as follows word for word, as near as I was able to report it.
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45 | <p>'Although my Chancellor for the time being has been used, before
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46 | this time, very eloquently and substantially to answer such orations as
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47 | have been set forth in this high court of parliament, yet he is not so
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48 | able to open and set forth my mind and meaning and the secrets of my heart
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49 | in so plain and ample manner as I myself can. Wherefore, taking it
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50 | upon myself to answer your eloquent oration, master speaker, I say that
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51 | where you, in the name of our well beloved commons, have both praised and
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52 | extolled me for the notable qualities which you have conceived to be in
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53 | me, I most heartily thank you all that you have reminded me of my duty,
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54 | which is to endeavor myself to obtain and get such excellent qualities
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55 | and necessary virtues as a prince or governor should or ought to have,
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56 | of which gifts I recognize myself both bare and barren. But for such
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57 | small qualities as God has endowed me with I render to his goodness my
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58 | most humble thanks, intending with all my wit and diligence to get and
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59 | acquire for myself such notable virtues and princely qualities as you have
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60 | alleged to be incorporated in my person. Having first remembered
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61 | these thanks for your loving admonition and good counsel, I next thank
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62 | you again because, considering our great charges (not for our pleasure
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63 | but for your defense, not for our gain but to our great cost) which we
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64 | have lately sustained, as well in defense against our and your enemies
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65 | as for the conquest of that fortress which was to this realm most displeasant
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66 | and noisome, and shall be by God's grace hereafter most profitable and
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67 | pleasant to our nation, you have freely of your own decision granted to
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68 | us a certain subsidy, specified here in an act, which truly we take in
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69 | good part, regarding more your kindness than the profit thereof, as he
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70 | that sets more by your loving hearts than by your substance. Besides
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71 | this hearty kindness I cannot a little rejoice when I consider the perfect
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72 | trust and sure confidence which you have put in me, as men having undoubted
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73 | hope and unfeigned belief in my good deeds and just proceedings for you,
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74 | since without my desire or request you have committed to my order and disposition
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75 | all chantries, colleges, hospitals and other places specified in a certain
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76 | act, firmly trusting that I will order them to the glory of God and the
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77 | profit of the commonwealth. Surely if, contrary to your expectation,
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78 | I should suffer the ministries of the church to decay, or learning (which
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79 | is so great a jewel) to be diminished, a poor and miserable people to be
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80 | unrelieved, you might say that I, being put in so special a trust as I
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81 | am in this case, were no trusty friend to you, nor a charitable man to
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82 | my fellow Christians, nor a lover of the public wealth, nor yet one who
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83 | feared God, to whom account must be rendered of all our doings. Doubt
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84 | not, I pray you, that you expectations will be fulfilled more Godly or
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85 | goodly than you will wish or desire, as you will plainly see afterwards. </p>
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86 |
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87 | <p>'Now, since I find such kindness on your part towards me, I cannot choose
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88 | but to love and favor you, affirming that no prince in the world more favors
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89 | his subjects than I do you, and no subjects or commons more love and obey
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90 | their sovereign lord than I see you do me, for whose defense my treasure
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91 | shall not be hidden, nor if necessity requires it will my person be not
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92 | risked. But although I with you and you with me are in this perfect
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93 | love and concord, this friendly amity cannot continue unless both you,
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94 | my lords temporal, and you, my lords spiritual, and you, my loving subjects,
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95 | study and take pains to amend one thing which is surely amiss and far out
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96 | of order, which I most heartily require you to do, which is that charity
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97 | and concord is not amongst you, but discord and dissension bears rule in
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98 | every place. St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, in the 12th chapter:
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99 | 'Charity is gentle, Charity is not envious, Charity is not proud,' and
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100 | so on in that chapter. Behold then what love and charity is amongst
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101 | you when one calls another heretic and anabaptist and he calls him back
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102 | papist, hypocrite, and pharisee. Are these tokens of charity amongst
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103 | you? No, no, I assure you that this lack of charity amongst yourselves
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104 | will be the hindrance and assuaging of the fervent love between us, as
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105 | I said before, unless this is healed and clearly made whole. I must
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106 | judge the fault and occasion of this discord to be partly the negligence
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107 | of you, the fathers and preachers of the spirituality. For if I know
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108 | a man who lives in adultery I must judge him to be a lecherous and carnal
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109 | person; if I see a man boast and brag about himself I cannot but deem him
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110 | a proud man. I see and hear daily that you of the clergy preach against
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111 | each other without charity or discretion. Some are too stiff in their
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112 | old 'Mumpsimus', others are are too busy and curious in their new 'Sumpsimus'.
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113 | Thus almost all men are in variety and discord, and few or none truly and
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114 | sincerely preach the word of God as they ought to do. Shall I now
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115 | judge you to be charitable persons who do this? No, no, I cannot
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116 | do so. Alas, how can the poor souls live in concord when you preachers
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117 | sow amongst them in your sermons debate and discord? They look to
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118 | you for light and you bring them darkness. Amend these crimes, I
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119 | exhort you, and set forth God's word truly, both by true preaching and
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120 | giving a good example, or else, I, whom God has appointed his vicar and
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121 | high minister here, will see these divisions extinct, and these enormities
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122 | corrected, according to my true duty, or else I am an unprofitable servant
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123 | and an untrue officer'. ....
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124 | <p align="center"> <p align="center"><a href="primary.html">
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125 | <font size="2">to Primary Sources</font></a></td>
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