Poynet, a chaplain of Cranmer’s who had not long before been made bishop of Rochester. At the accession of Queen Mary, the duke of Norfolk and other state prisoners of high rank were in the Tower along with him; but the queen, on her first entry into London, set them all at liberty. Gardiner was restored to his bishopric and appointed lord chancellor, and he set the crown on the queen’s head at her coronation. He also opened her first parliament and for some time was her leading councillor.
He was now called upon, in advanced life, to undo not a little of the work in which he had been instrumental in his earlier years—to vindicate the legitimacy of the queen’s birth and the lawfulness of her mother’s marriage, to restore the old religion, and to recant what he himself had written touching the royal supremacy. It is said that he wrote a formal Palinodia or retractation of his book De vera obedientia, but it does not seem to be now extant; and the reference is probably to his sermon on Advent Sunday 1554, after Cardinal Pole had absolved the kingdom from schism. As chancellor he had the onerous task of negotiating the queen’s marriage treaty with Philip, to which he shared the general repugnance, though he could not oppose her will. In executing it, however, he took care to make the terms as advantageous for England as possible, with express provision that the Spaniards should in nowise be allowed to interfere in the government of the country. After the coming of Cardinal Pole, and the reconciliation of the realm to the see of Rome, he still remained in high favour. How far he was responsible for the persecutions which afterwards arose is a debated question. He no doubt approved of the act, which passed the House of Lords while he presided there as chancellor, for the revival of the heresy laws. Neither is there any doubt that he sat in judgment on Bishop Hooper, and on several other preachers whom he condemned, not exactly to the flames, but to be degraded from the priesthood. The natural consequence of this, indeed, was that when they declined, even as laymen, to be reconciled to the Church, they were handed over to the secular power to be burned. Gardiner, however, undoubtedly did his best to persuade them to save themselves by a course which he conscientiously followed himself; nor does it appear that, when placed on a commission along with a number of other bishops to administer a severe law, he could very well have acted otherwise than he did. In his own diocese no victim of the persecution is known to have suffered till after his death; and, much as he was already maligned by opponents, there are strong evidences that his natural disposition was humane and generous. In May 1553 he went over to Calais as one of the English commissioners to promote peace with France; but their efforts were ineffectual. In October 1555 he again opened parliament as lord chancellor, but towards the end of the month he fell ill and grew rapidly worse till the 12th of November, when he died over sixty years of age.
Perhaps no celebrated character of that age has been the subject of so much ill-merited abuse at the hands of popular historians. That his virtue was not equal to every trial must be admitted, but that he was anything like the morose and narrow-minded bigot he is commonly represented there is nothing whatever to show. He has been called ambitious, turbulent, crafty, abject, vindictive, bloodthirsty and a good many other things besides, not quite in keeping with each other; in addition to which it is roundly asserted by Bishop Burnet that he was despised alike by Henry and by Mary, both of whom made use of him as a tool. How such a mean and abject character submitted to remain five years in prison rather than change his principles is not very clearly explained; and as to his being despised, we have seen already that neither Henry nor Mary considered him by any means despicable. The truth is, there is not a single divine or statesman of that day whose course throughout was so thoroughly consistent. He was no friend to the Reformation, it is true, but he was at least a conscientious opponent. In doctrine he adhered to the old faith from first to last, while as a question of church policy, the only matter for consideration with him was whether the new laws and ordinances were constitutionally justifiable.
His merits as a theologian it is unnecessary to discuss; it is as a statesman and a lawyer that he stands conspicuous. But his learning even in divinity was far from commonplace. The part that he was allowed to take in the drawing up of doctrinal formularies in Henry VIII.’s time is not clear; but at a later date he was the author of various tracts in defence of the Real Presence against Cranmer, some of which, being written in prison, were published abroad under a feigned name. Controversial writings also passed between him and Bucer, with whom he had several interviews in Germany, when he was there as Henry VIII.’s ambassador.
He was a friend of learning in every form, and took great interest especially in promoting the study of Greek at Cambridge. He was, however, opposed to the new method of pronouncing the language introduced by Sir John Cheke, and wrote letters to him and Sir Thomas Smith upon the subject, in which, according to Ascham, his opponents showed themselves the better critics, but he the superior genius. In his own household he loved to take in young university men of promise; and many whom he thus encouraged became distinguished in after life as bishops, ambassadors and secretaries of state. His house, indeed, was spoken of by Leland as the seat of eloquence and the special abode of the muses.
He lies buried in his own cathedral at Winchester, where his effigy is still to be seen. (J. Ga.)
GARDINER, a city of Kennebec county, Maine, U.S.A., at the
confluence of Cobbosseecontee river with the Kennebec, 6 m.
below Augusta. Pop. (1890) 5491; (1900) 5501 (537 foreign-born);
(1910) 5311. It is served by the Maine Central railway.
The site of the city is only a few feet above sea-level, and the
Kennebec is navigable for large vessels to this point; the water
of the Cobbosseecontee, falling about 130 ft. in a mile, furnishes
the city with good power for its manufactures (chiefly paper,
machine-shop products, and shoes). The city exports considerable
quantities of lumber and ice. Gardiner was founded in 1760 by
Dr Sylvester Gardiner (1707–1786), and for a time the settlement
was called Gardinerston; in 1779, when it was incorporated as a
town, the founder being then a Tory, it was renamed Pittston.
But in 1803, when that part of Pittston which lay on the W.
bank of the Kennebec was incorporated as a separate town and
new life was given to it by the grandson of the founder, the present
name was adopted. Gardiner was chartered as a city in 1849.
The town of Pittston, on the E. bank of the Kennebec, had a
population of 1177 in 1900.
GARDNER, PERCY (1846–), English classical archaeologist,
was born in London, and was educated at the City
of London school and Christ’s College, Cambridge (fellow, 1872).
He was Disney professor of archaeology at Cambridge from 1880
to 1887, and was then appointed professor of classical archaeology
at Oxford, where he had a stimulating influence on the study
of ancient, and particularly Greek, art. He also became prominent
as an historical critic on Biblical subjects. Among his works
are: Types of Greek Coins (1883): A Numismatic Commentary
on Pausanias (with F. Imhoof-Blumer, 1887); New Chapters in
Greek History (1892), an account of excavations in Greece and
Asia Minor; Manual of Greek Antiquities (with F. B. Jevons,
2nd ed. 1898); Grammar of Greek Art (1905); Exploratio
Evangelica (1899), on the origin of Christian belief; A Historic
View of the New Testament (1901); Growth of Christianity (1907).
His brother, Ernest Arthur Gardner (1862–), educated at the City of London school and Caius College, Cambridge (fellow, 1885), is also well known as an archaeologist. From 1887 to 1895 he was director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens, and later became professor of archaeology at University College, London. His publications include: Introduction to Greek Epigraphy (1887); Ancient Athens (1902); Handbook of Greek Sculpture (1905); Six Greek Sculptors (1910). He was elected first Public Orator of London University in 1910.
GARDNER, a township of Worcester county, Massachusetts,
U.S.A. Pop. (1890) 8424; (1900) 10,813, of whom 3449 were
foreign-born; (1910 census) 14,699. The township is traversed
by the Boston & Maine railway. It has an area of 21.4 sq. m. of
hill country, well watered with streams and ponds, and includes
the villages of Gardner (15 m. by rail W. of Fitchburg), South
