Cruelty was one of Henry's most salient traits, and was, perhaps, the faculty by which he succeeded in imposing himself most strongly upon his contemporaries. He not only murdered his wives, his ministers, and his friends, but he pursued those who opposed him with a vindictiveness which appalled them. He was ingenious in devising torments.
Friar Forest, whose crime was the denial of the royal supremacy, he caused to be slowly roasted over a rood which he had fetched from Wales on purpose. They "hanged [him] in Smithfield in chains, upon a gallows quick, by the middle and arm-holes, and fire was made under him, and so was he consumed and burned to death."[226] Henry relished the idea of the show so much, that Chapuys thought him disappointed at not being able to attend with his whole court.
His way of dealing with the Carthusians was equally characteristic. The Carthusians were in the Church what Darcy was in the State: men of the old imaginative type, of austere life and ascetic habits, in whom still glowed the fiery enthusiasm of Hildebrand. They could not accept Henry as God's viceregent upon earth. The three priors--Houghton, Webster, and Lawrence--were "ripped up in each other's presence, their arms torn off, their hearts cut out and rubbed upon their mouths and faces."[227]
Three more were chained upright to posts, where they stood for fourteen days, "without the possibility of stirring for any purpose whatever, held fast by iron collars on their necks, arms, and thighs."[228] Then they were hanged and disembowelled.
In 1537, ten were still resolute. They were chained in Newgate like the others, where, according to Stowe, nine "died ... with stink and miserably smothered." The tenth, who survived, was hanged.
Had Henry been hampered, like Darcy, with scruples about honour, truth, or conscience, he too might have been undone. His power lay in his capacity for doing what was needful for success. He enticed Aske to London, and, when he held him, slew him. He pardoned Darcy, and then sent him to Tower Hill.
Lacking force to crush the rebels, Norfolk, in the royal name, pacified the people with pardon and promises of redress. They dispersed, thinking themselves safe. Henry ignored his pledges, risings followed; but, when the country had been tranquillized and his army was again in peaceful possession, he thus instructed the Duke:--