"But what these words were he would not declare, but in generality.

Howbeit, his open confession was right good."--_MS. State Paper Office_, first series, Vol. I.

[270] A general amnesty was proclaimed immediately after. "The notable unkindness of the people," Norfolk said, "had been able to have moved his Grace to have taken such punishment on the offenders as might have been terrible for all men to have thought on that should hereafter have only heard the names of sedition and rebellion.

"Yet the king's most royal Majesty, of his most tender pity and great desire that he hath rather to preserve you from the stroke of justice imminent upon your deserts, than to put you to the extremity of the same, trusting and supposing that the punishment of a few offenders in respect of the mult.i.tude, which have suffered only for an example to others to avoid the like attemptations, will be sufficient for ever to make all you and your posterities to eschew semblable offences, of his inestimable goodness and pity is content by this general proclamation to give and grant to you all, every of you, his general and free pardon."--_Rolls House MS._ A 2, 28; _State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 558.

[271] Like Cuthbert Tunstall, for instance, who, when upbraided for denying his belief in the Pope, said "he had never seen the time when he thought to lose one drop of blood therefore, for sure he was that none of those that heretofore had advantage by that authority would have lost one penny to save his life."--Tunstall to Pole: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 481.

[272] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 46.

[273] Ibid. p. 64.

[274] Trials of Lord Montague and the Marquis of Exeter: _Baga de Secretis_.

[275] _Epist. Reg. Pol._ Vol. II. p. 73.

[276] Pole to Contarini, _Epist._ Vol. II. p. 64. I call the rumour wild because there is no kind of evidence for it, and because the English resident at Antwerp, John Hutton, who was one of the persons accused by Pole, was himself the person to inform the king of the story.--_State Papers_, Vol. VII. p. 703.

[277] See Appendix to Volume IV

[278] Michael Throgmorton to Cromwell: MS. _penes me_.

[279] Cromwell to Throgmorton: _Rolls House MS._

[280] Robert Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.

[281] Depositions relating to the Protestants in Yorkshire: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XVIII.

[282] The monkish poetry was pressed into the service. The following is from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford. It is of the date, perhaps, of Henry VII.

"Listen, lordlings, both great and small, I will tell you a wonder tale, How Holy Church was brought in bale, c.u.m magna injuria.

"The greatest clerke in this land, Thomas of Canterbury I understand, Slain he was with wicked hand, Malorum potentia.

"The knights were sent from Henry the king: That day they did a wicked thing; Wicked men without lesing, Per regis imperia.

"They sought the bishop all about, Within his palace and without: Of Jesu Christ they had no doubt, Pro sua malicia.

"They opened their mouths woundily wide, They spake to him with much pride: 'Traitor! here shalt thou abide, Ferens mortis taedia.'

"Before the altar he kneeled down, And there they pared his crown, And stirred his braines up and down, Optans cli gaudia."

[283] Ward to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol.

XLVI.; Miles Coverdale to Cromwell: Ibid. Vol. VII.

[284] William Umpton to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series Vol. XLV.

[285] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVI.

[286] Crummock Water is a lake in c.u.mberland. The point of the song must have some play on the name of Cromwell, p.r.o.nounced as of old, "_Crummell_."

[287] _Rolls House MS._ first series, 683.

[288] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XLVIII.

[289] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.

[290] Ibid.

[291] Very few of these are now known to be in existence. Roy's _Satire_ is one of the best. It would be excellent if reduced to reasonable length. The fury which the mystery plays excited in the Catholic party is a sufficient proof of the effect which they produced. An interesting letter to Cromwell, from the author of some of them, is among the _State Papers_. I find no further mention of him:--

"The Lord make you the instrument of my help, Lord Cromwell, that I may have liberty to preach the truth. I dedicate and offer to your lordship a 'Reverend receiving of the sacrament,' as a lenten matter declared by six children, representing Christ, the word of G.o.d, Paul, Austin, a child, a man called Ignorancy, as a secret thing that shall have an end--once rehea.r.s.ed afore your eyes. The priests in Suffolk will not receive me into their churches to preach; but have disdained me ever since I made a play against the Pope's councillors, Error, collyclogger of conscience, and Incredulity. I have made a play called _A Rude Commonalty_. I am making of another, called _The Woman on the Rock_, in the fire of faith refining, and a purging in the true purgatory, never to be seen but of your lordship's eye. Aid me, for Christ's sake, that I may preach Christ."--Thomas Wylley, fatherless and forsaken: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. L.

[292] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.

[293] _MS. State Paper Office._

[294] _Rolls House MS._ first series; _MS. Cotton. Cleopatra_, E 4.

[295] Answers to Questions on the Sacraments by the Bishops: Burnet's _Collectanea_, p. 114.

[296] In one of the ablest and most liberal papers which was drawn up at this time, a paper so liberal indeed as to argue from the etymology of the word presbyter that "lay seniors, or antient men, might to some intents be called priests," I find this pa.s.sage upon the eucharist: "As concerning the grace of consecration of the body of our Lord in form of bread and wine, we beseech your Grace that it may be prohibited to all men to persuade any manner of person to think that these words of our Master Christ, when He 'took bread and blest it and brake it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, and eat ye, this is my body that shall be betrayed for you,' ought to be understood figuratively. For since He that spake those words is of power to perform them literally, though no man's reason may know how that may be, yet they must believe it. And surely they that believe that G.o.d was of power to make all the world of nought, may lightly believe he was of power to make of bread his very body."--_Theological MSS. Rolls House._

[297] Henry VIII. to the Bishops: _Rolls House MS._ A 15.

[298] The Iceland fleet is constantly mentioned in the _Records_. Before the discovery of Newfoundland, Iceland was the great resort of English fishermen. Those who would not venture so long a voyage, fished the coasts of Cork and Kerry. When Skeffington was besieging Dungarvon, in 1535, Devonshire fishing smacks, which were accidentally in the neighbourhood, blockaded the harbour for him. The south of Ireland at the same time was the regular resort of Spaniards with the same object.

Sir Anthony St. Leger said that as many as two or three hundred sail might sometimes be seen at once in Valentia harbour.--_State Papers_, Vol. V. p. 443, &c.

[299] _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXIV.

[300] Ibid. Vol. I. On the other hand the French cut out a Flemish ship from Portsmouth, and another from Southampton.

[301] _Rolls House MS._ A 2, 30.

[302] The inventory of his losses which was sent in by the captain is noticeable, as showing the equipment of a Channel fishing vessel.--One last of herring, worth 4_l._ 13_s._ Three hagbushes, 15_s._ In money, 1_l._ 16_s._ 8_d._ Two long bows, 4_s._ Two bills and a sheaf of arrows, 3_s._ 8_d._ A pair of new boots of leather, 3_s._ 4_d._ Two barrels of double beer, 3_s._ 4_d._ Four mantles of frieze, 12_s._ A bonnet, 1_s._ 2_d._ In bread, candles, and other necessaries, 2_s._ The second time, one hogshead of double beer, 6_s._--_MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XXVIII.

[303] Sir Thomas Cheyne writes to Cromwell: "I have received letters from Dover that the Frenchmen on the sea hath taken worth 2000_l._ of goods since the king being there, and a man-of-war of Dieppe and a pinnace took the king's barge that carries the timber for his Highness's work there, and robbed and spoiled the ship and men of money, victuals, clothes, ropes, and left them not so much as their compa.s.s. And another Frenchman took away a pink in Dover roads and carried her away. And on Tuesday last a great fleet of Flemings men-of-war met with my Lord Lisle's ship, laden with wool to Flanders, and one of them took all the victuals and ordnance. Thus the king's subjects be robbed and spoiled every day."--_MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. VI.

[304] Sir William Fitzwilliam to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_.

[305] Sir William G.o.dolphin to Cromwell: _MS. State Paper Office_, second series, Vol. XIII.

[306] _MS. State Paper Office_, Letters to the King and Council, Vol I.

[307] _MS._ ibid.

[308] Cromwell's Memoranda: _MS. Cotton. t.i.tus_, B 1. Many of the plans are in the Cotton Library, executed, some of them, with great rudeness; some finished with the delicacy of monastic illuminations; some, but very few, are good working drawings. It is a mortifying proof of the backwardness of the English in engineering skill, that the king for his works at Dover sent for engineers to Spain.

[309] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 50.