tion over other churches. (3) That kings, princes, and Christian magistrates are each entitled to supremacy in their respective churches, and are bound to make religion their first care.’ Although Reginald Pole declared that the treatise contained nothing which a man of average intelligence would not be able to refute, it was generally accepted as a very able statement of the argument in the royal defence. Cromwell caused copies to be circulated on the continent, where it was hailed with delight by the protestant party, and in 1537 the Swiss reformers, Capito, Hedio, and Bucer, reprinted it at Strasburg, with a preface in which they strongly recommended the volume as an exposition of the true theory of the privileges and duties of the primitive bishop. Apprehensive, however, of the displeasure of the pope, Gardiner (or his friends) caused the report to be circulated among the Roman party that he had written the treatise under compulsion and in fear of death in case of refusal (Calendar of State Papers, x. No. 570).
It is certain that Gardiner's manifesto brought about no better understanding between himself and Cranmer, whom he continued to do his best to thwart and counteract. When the latter visited, as metropolitan, the diocese of Winchester, the bishop challenged his jurisdiction, maintaining that inasmuch as the archbishop had relinquished the title of legate of the holy see, he could no longer justly claim that of ‘Primas totius Angliæ,’ this being derogatory to the king's authority as ‘head of the church’ (Cleopatra, F. i. 260). In common with the majority of the bishops, however, Gardiner seems to have faithfully performed his share in the new translation of the New Testament which Cranmer had projected in 1533, for we find him writing (10 June 1535) to Cromwell, and stating that having finished the translation of SS. Luke and John, and being much exhausted by his severe labours, he intends to abstain altogether for a time from books and writing (State Papers Henry VIII, i. 430).
In the meantime the signal service which he had rendered to the royal cause had completely regained for him Henry's favour. In September 1535 the king's ‘experience of his wisdom and moderation’ induced him again to appoint him ambassador to the French court, with instructions ‘to negotiate such articles in the treaty as shall be for the interest of the two crowns.’ Gardiner arrived in Paris on 3 Nov., and his general conduct of the business gave Henry so much satisfaction that he directed Cromwell to intimate to him that, whatever might be the result of the negotiations he might be assured that the royal favour towards him would remain unaffected. In his answer to the petition of the rebels in 1536 Henry names Gardiner, along with Fox of Hereford and Bishop Sampson, as the three spiritual advisers whom he considers deserving of being called ‘noble.’ During Gardiner's stay in Paris he was consulted by Henry with respect to the proposals put forward by the protestants of Germany for the formation of a protestant league with England; and in February 1535–6 he forwarded a paper to Cromwell giving it as his opinion that Henry in his realm was ‘emperor and head of the church of England,’ but that, should he enter into the proposed league, he would become ‘bound to the church of Germany, and would be able to do nothing without their consent’ (Strype, Mem. i. i. 236). His policy continued, however, to be characterised by a certain disingenuousness; for while Campeggio, when contemplating his journey to England, mentions Gardiner as one of those on whose support he chiefly relies, the latter in the same year (1536) drew up a scheme whereby Henry might be enabled for the future altogether to ignore the bishop of Rome, suggesting that the substance of any bulls which the king might desire to retain in force should be reissued in the royal name without mention of the Roman pontiff.
But notwithstanding his compliant spirit and undoubted ability, Gardiner appears shortly after this again to have incurred Henry's suspicion. He was suspected of favouring the imperial interests, and Cromwell regarded him both with mistrust and dislike. In 1538 he was accordingly superseded as ambassador in Paris by Bonner. He retired to his diocese in a dejected and resentful frame of mind. In November of the same year he took part, however, in the trial of John Lambert for heresy at Westminster. His qualifications, both as a canonist and a diplomatist, were indeed too valuable to permit of his long remaining unemployed by the state. In 1539 he was again sent on an embassy to Germany. His intercourse with the protestant divines brought about no modification of his doctrinal views; and the six articles, which were promulgated soon after his return, were generally believed to have been mainly his work. Their reactionary character completed the breach between himself and Cromwell, and each felt that the overthrow of his adversary was now essential to his own safety. In the privy council Gardiner challenged the appointment by Cromwell of Barnes (‘defamed for heresy’) as commissioner to Germany. Cromwell's influence was still sufficiently powerful to procure Gardiner's dis-
