'Qui sum quæ mihi Sors fuerat narrabo. Johannes Roffa Sacrum primo, Lincolnia condit in unum But the most valuable memorial to his fame is the character given of him by Sir Thomas More,—“ A wyse mane & a good, & of much experyence, & one of the best learned menne undoubtedly that Englande hadde in hys time." " He left behind him considerable reputation as an author, his two greatest works being "A Commentary on the Canticles," and a treatise" De Potestate summi Pontificis et Imperatoris." Had they been written a few years later, we should have been able to pass judgment upon them; but they never were printed, and they have not come down to us. He appears to have been a great encourager of reviving learning, but he is more loudly extolled for his "re-edification of the episcopal palace at Buckden." X No other Chancellor was appointed by Richard during the short remainder of his reign. The invasion of the Earl of Richmond was now impending. To him the discontented were flocking as a deliverer, from all parts of the kingdom; and there was a general feeling among the people, that the man stained with so many crimes ought not longer to be permitted to occupy the throne which he had usurped. The Great Seal was given by Richard into the temporary keeping of Thomas Barrowe, Master of the Rolls," for the despatch of necessary Willis's Cathedrals, Bishops of Lincoln, vol. iii. pp. 7, 59. u Life of Ric. III., p. 529. * On a manuscript of Matthew Paris (Royal MSS. 14, C. vii.) now in the British Museum, there is an inscription in Latin, dated June 1, 1488, in the handwriting and with the signature of John Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, in which whosoever shall obliterate or destroy the Bishop's memorandum respecting the ownership of the volume is solemnly declared to be accursed.-Warton's Dissertation on Introduction of Learning into England, p. 111. It appears, from an inscription in the author's own hand, to have been a presenta tion copy from himself, probably to some church or monastery.-Sketches of the History of Literature and Learning in England, vol. ii. 168. Knight's Weekly Volume, No. XVIII. y God. de Præs. Linc. Although Lord Chancellor Russell has considerable historical interest, he is not mentioned by modern historians, and many of my well-informed readers may never have heard of his existence. I consider him one of the "Cancellarian mummies" I have dug up and exhibited to the public. z Rot. Cl. 3 Ric. 3, n. 1. Rym. F xii. 272. business, and it probably remained with him till the conclusion of the reign, although some accounts represent that Richard carried it with him when he marched against Richmond, and had it in his tent at Bosworth Field,-in which case it must at once have fallen into the hands of the victor, and, next to the crown worn by Richard in the fight, have been his earliest emblem of royalty.a We do not find any equity decisions in these two short reigns, although, amidst arms, the laws seem to have been regularly administered, and there have been handed down to us Reports in the Year Books, beginning "De Termino Trinitatis Anno primo Edwardi Quinti. Lord Chancellor Russell appears to have been perplexed by the cases which came before him respecting uses; and, to obviate the necessity for a Bill in Chancery, it was enacted that the person entitled to direct the trustee to convey should himself be entitled to execute a conveyance to carry the estate; but this new expedient to remedy the inconvenience of uses only produced the additional confusion which must necessarily follow when two persons have an equal legal right to dispose of the same land, and the deduction of title, by tracing the legal estate, on which the security of tenure in England depends, became impossible. b CHAPTER XXV. CHANCELLORS AND LORD KEEPERS FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VII. TILL THE APPOINTMENT OF ARCHBISHOP WARHAM AS LORD KEEPER. KING HENRY VII., returning from Bosworth Field, appointed for his first Chancellor John Alcock, now Bishop of A.D. 1485. Worcester, who for a few months, while Bishop of Rochester, had filled the office under Edward IV., and an ac C a See Nicholls' Lit. Anec. vi. 47. Walpole's Hist. Doubts. Antiq. Bish. Rochester. Harl. MSS. No. 2578. Buck's Life of Richard III. in Kennet, vol. i. b 1 Ric. 3, c. 1. It is remarkable that this is the first statute in the English language, the statutes hitherto having been all in Latin or French, and it was taken as a precedent, for all statutes afterwards are in English. It is curious that in this reign, which we regard VOL. I. with so much horror, laws were given to the people of England, for the first time since the Conquest, in their own language, and acts of parliament were for the first time printed.Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, i. 704. But it would appear that they were still entered on the parliament roll in French. Tomlin's Ed. of Statutes, p. 638. c Rot. Parl. 1 Hen. 7, p. 1. 2 A count of whom I have reserved for this place. He was born at Beverley, in the county of York, of no distinguished family, and raised himself entirely by his own merits. He studied at Cambridge, where he obtained great distinction, particularly for his knowledge of the civil and canon law. He was patronised by Lord Chancellor Stillington,-was extremely useful to him,--and, as his deputy, performed most of the duties belonging to the Great Seal. In 1471, as a reward for his services, he was made Bishop of Rochester and Master of the Rolls. He contrived to ingratiate himself equally with Lord Chancellor Rotheram, through whose interest he was translated to Worcester, and intrusted, for a short time, with the Great Seal, under the title of Chancellor. Now was the triumph of his powers of insinuation and versatility; having been brought forward and employed by the House of York, and never having had any open rupture with Richard, he at once gained the confidence of Henry, who hardly ever favoured any one who had neither fought with the Lancastrians in the field, nor been engaged in plots to promote their ascendency. There is no record of the day of the delivery of the Seal to him ; but in the Parliament Roll of the 1st of Henry VII. it is stated, that “on the 7th of November, in the first year of the King's reign, the Reverend Lord and Father in God John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, CANCELLARIUS MAGNUS ANGLIÆ, declared the cause of summoning parliament." Great reliance must have been placed on his learning and experience for settling the delicate points which were to be brought forward. One of these was the effect of the attainder, by a parliament of Richard, of a great number of the temporal Peers now summoned. Could they, at the commencement of the session, take their seats in the House of Lords? The Chancellor asked the opinion of the Judges, who held that they ought not to sit till their attainder had been reversed,thereby recognising the principle that "any statute passed by a parliament under a King de facto is ever after to be taken for law till repealed." But a more puzzling question arose as to the effect of the attainder of Henry himself, as Earl of Richmond; for how could this be reversed without an exercise of the prerogative in giving the royal assent? and could the royal assent be given till the outlawry was reversed? The Chancellor again consulted the Judges, and they cut the knot by unanimously resolving, "that the descent of the Crown of itself takes away all defects, and stops in blood by reason of attainder,' "d which has ever since been received as a maxim of constitutional law; and no doubt was relied upon by the Jacobites, who attempted to restore the Princes of the House of Stuart, attainted under King William, Queen Anne, and George I. The Chancellor gave great satisfaction to his wary master by the dexterity with which he met such difficulties, and he was translated to the rich see of Ely as a reward for his services; but there does not seem to have been any intention to employ him after the new government was fairly started; and the King reserved his real confidence for JOHN MORTON, who had been in exile with him, who had been attainted for adhering to him, who had mainly contributed to his elevation, and whom he resolved to make his chief adviser for the rest of his reign. The exact date of the transfer of the Great Seal to him is unknown, as it is not recorded in the Close Roll; but it is supposed to have happened in August, 1487, and was certainly before November in that year, when there were bills addressed to him as Chancellor, which are still extant. e Bishop Alcock, the Ex-Chancellor, lived in the enjoyment of his new diocese till the 1st of October, 1500; when, according to a quaint authority I have consulted, "he was translated from this to another life." He had in his latter days a great character for piety, abstinence, and other religious mortifications. He built a chapel at Beverley, founded a chantry to pray for the souls of his parents, and turned St. Rudegunda's old nunnery at Cambridge, founded by Malcolm, King of Scots, into the flourishing foundation of Jesus College. In the two first reigns of the House of Tudor, the Great Seal may be considered in its greatest splendour; for the Chancellor was generally the first minister of the Crown, and by his advice the Lord Treasurer, and the other high officers of state, were appointed. Henry, whose darling object was to depress the powerful barons hitherto so formidable to his predecessors, was determined to rule by men more dependent on him than the nobility, who enjoyed, by hereditary right, possessions and jurisdictions dangerous to royal authority. The new Chancellor was, in all respects, such a man as the King wished for his minister. JOHN MORTON was born in the year 1410, at Bere, in Dorset4 Farl Boll. 1 Hen. 7. 1 Parl. Hist. 450. e See Philpot, p. 68. Rot. Parl. 3 Hen. 7. shire, of a private gentleman's family. He received his earliest education at the Abbey of Cerne, whence he was removed to Baliol College, Oxford, where he devoted himself to the study of the civil and canon law, and took with great distinction the degree of LL.D. He then went to London, at all times the best field for talents and energy, and practised as an advocate in Doctors' Commons. In the Court of Arches, and the other ecclesiastical Courts, there was then much business, producing both fame and profit; and success at the civil law bar frequently led to promotion both in church and state. Morton was soon the decided leader; and he rose to such distinction by his learning and eloquence, that he gained the good opinion of Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, who recommended him to Henry VI. He was sworn of the Privy Council by that Sovereign, was made Prebendary of Salisbury, and had the valuable living of Blakesworth bestowed upon him. In the struggles which ensued between the rival families, he adhered with the most unshaken fidelity and unbounded zeal to the Lancastrian cause,--till Edward IV. was firmly seated on the throne,-when he thought it not inconsistent with the duties of a good citizen to submit to the ruling powers, without renouncing his former attachments. He petitioned for pardon at the same time as Fortescue. Edward was so much struck with his honourable conduct, that without requiring from him any unbecoming concessions, he continued him a Privy Councillor, appointed him Master of the Rolls, conferred upon him great ecclesiastical preferment crowned with the Bishopric of Ely,-and, by his last will, made him one of his executors. Some of the biographers of Morton state, that he was likewise Lord Chancellor to Edward IV., but this is a mistake. In the year 1473, during the ill ness of Lord Chancellor Stillington, he for a short time was intrusted with the custody of the Great Seal, and no doubt did the duties of the office, but he then only acted as deputy to the Chancellor. Being executor of Edward IV., and enjoying the entire confidence of the Queen, he had a sort of guardianship of the royal children, and Richard thought it would be a great point gained to corrupt him as he had corrupted Buckingham and others; but Morton rejected all his overtures with scorn and indignation, and thereby incurred the special hatred of the usurper. 1 1473. |