Volume III Part 42 (1/2)
”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 Yorks.h.i.+re: _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_.”