No. I
FOUR PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE VISIT OF THOMAS SACKVILLE , AFTERWARDS EARL OF DORSET, TO ROME IN 1563-64 FROM a religious point of view the year 1564 was more peaceful and hopeful for Europe than any other in Elizabeth's reign. Profiting by the opportunity, many young Englishmen made the tour of Europe, either to finish their educationor
to practise a little economy , and the latter was perhaps the chief motive in the case of the youthful and attractive Thomas Sackville, whose wanderings had broughthimto Rome before Christmas, 1563 (Foreign Calendar 1564, p. 34). Though he had in Parliament voted for the laws which had caused the downfall of the old Church and the life- long exile of the English Catholics who were living in Rome, the chief of these fugitives, that is to say, the warden and chaplains of the ancient English hospice (or hospital) there, invited him to dinner at their board. This hospitality, however , was not approved by every one, and before Christmas the young man was imprisoned on suspicion of being a dangerous heretic,
together with Mr William Travers and two servants. His friends at the hospice , however, soon procured his liberty , and an influential testimonial was drawn up on 19 January ( DocumentA here reproduced in facsimile) to attest his high position and reputation in England. It is addressed to the Governatore , or civic prefect of Rome , which shows that Sackville had fallen under his jurisdiction , not under that of the Inquisition , and we gather from it that the prisoner was either already out of restraint , or would be released as soon as evidence was forthcoming as to his identity and character. In fact, he was not only set free, but introducedto thePopehimself, and seems to have made some offers of interceding with Elizabeth on thereligious question. The negotiation was not hurried. Our second document (B) , dated four months later, shows the very moderateand amicable position which the Pope actually took in regard to Elizabeth, and his promises of further friendliness leave nothing to be desired . It is true that there is no pretence of renouncingthe rights which the Middle Ages had given to the papacy, but it is clear that the desirefor peace altogetheroutweighs the wish to exercise those rights . Of course , this indicated a policy on which opinions might differ. Many men of that day thought that the reform of the Church could only be secured by the vigorous exercise of rigorous discipline against all enemies, great as well as small, that attempts to secure toleration from Elizabeth were a loss of time and dignity , that the right course was to excommunicateand depose her. This policy had many favourers then, and was actually put into practice under the next Pope a few years later. But this far from neutralizing the value of the present declarations on a policy of moderation makes them all the more important. It shows that the Pope decided on his policy in the face of a certain amount of opposition. That there was opposition to the course adopted with Sackville is statedin the petition, and is further illustrated by an anonymous paper, but one evidently drawn up by a person who knew the English hospice at the time. It contains a series of fifty-two articles which in the writer's opinion required investigation. None of them concern us except the nineteenth, in which it is asked whether Thomas Sachfield " and GulielmusTrevers, a heretic and a schismatic who " in England, had "not been invited to dinner at, the voted against papal authority hospice ; and the twentieth, which inquires the names of the Englishmen by whose help Sackville was freed from prison. (The paper has strayed into Archives S.J. , Fundationes Collegiorum Anglia , 1, pp. 3-9. ) ,
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