he redde certyn articles in the said proclamacion to the said S Jamys with certeyn persons ther being present; the said Sir Jamys said I will take non for Quene but Quene Katharin; who the devell made Nan Bullen that hoore Quene, for I will never take hir for Quene, and the King on his bering: and then the said William said hold thy peace thou wots not what thou sais, and, but that thou art a preist, I shuld punyshe the that other should take ensample.

John Dalton th'elder, gentilman, sworn and examyned, saith, that he was present when William Dalton squyer redde the said proclamacion, and the said Sir Jamys said I will call hir Quene Katharyn lettyng for noman, for Nan Bulleyn that noghty pake a or hoore, I do not remember whether, who the devell made hir Quene; and the King shalbe no King but on his bering.

Thomas Lathom the yonger, sworn and examyned, deposith and saith that, after that, a nother tyme, the same day and yere above said that S Jamys Harrison said that Nan Bullen that hoore shall not be Quene.

Jamys Woddes, sworn and examyned, deposith and saithe that he herd the proclamacion redde in the Howse of John Blackston's and the said S Jamys said then that he wold not take non for the Quene but Quene Katharin; and as for Nan Bulleyn that hoore shalbe no Quene.

a paikie, a female street walker, a trull. JAMIESON.

Adam Banaster, sworn and examyned, deposith and saith that S Jamys Harrison the xxiiij Day of July in the howse of Thomas Grauesyns said that he wold never take Nan Bulleyn for Quene, to be hanged for the same, but for Nan Bulleyn.

Richard Sumner and John Clayton, sworn and examyned, deposen and say that they came in cumpenny with the said St Jamys Harrison from the town of Perbalt to Eccleston, where the said Sir Jamys said unto theym this is a mervelous world, the King will put down the order of Preists and distroye the Sacrament, but that will be as Thomas Dykonson said, that it cannot reign longe, for he saithe that Yorke wilbe London hastelye.

by Your humblyst and obedyent servants

E. DERBY.

HENR. FARYNGTEN K

LETTER CXVI.

Queen Anne Boleyn to Thomas Cromwell.

[MS. COTTON. CLEOP. E. V. fol. 330 b. Orig.]

From the following Letter, if from no other source, it may be gathered that Anne Boleyn favoured the dissemination of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue. Her own copy of Tyndal's translation of "The Newe Testament, imprinted at Antwerp by Marten Emperowr, Anno M. D. xxxiiij." is still extant among the Books bequeathed, in 1799, to the British Museum, by the rev. Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode. It is upon vellum, illuminated. Upon the gilding of the leaves, in a red letter, are the words ANNA REGINA ANGLIÆ.

ANNE THE QUENE.

By the Quene.

TRUSTIE and right welbiloued we grete you well. And where as we be crediblie enformed that the berer hereof Richard Herman marchaunte and citizen of Antwerpe in Brabant was in the tyme of the late lorde Cardynall put and expelled frome his fredome and felowshipe of and in the Englishe house there, for nothing ells (as he affermethe) but oonly for that that hea dyd bothe with his gooddis and pollicie, to his greate hurte and hynderans in this Worlde, helpe to the settyng forthe of the Newe Testamente in Englisshe. We therefore desire and instantly praye you that with all spede and favoure convenient ye woll cause this good and honeste marchaunt, being my Lordis true faithfull and loving subjecte, restored to his pristine fredome, libertie, and felowshipe aforesaid, and the soner at this oure requeste, and at your good leyser to here hym in suche thinges as he hathe to make further relacion unto you in this behalf. Yeven undir our Signete at my Lordis manoure of Grenewiche the xiiijth daye of May.

To our trustie and right welbeloved

Thomas Crumwell squyer Chief Secretary

unto my Lorde the Kings Highnes.

a The words" still like a good crysten man" are here obliterated: the pen having been drawn across them.

LETTER CXVII.

Sir Thomas More to King Henry the Eighth; a Letter of submission and excuse.

[FROM THE CHAPTER house at WESTMINSTER.]

This Letter, which is one of the best specimens of Sir Thomas More's style, has been published before, but with a different spelling, with one or two small variations, and with the omission of the last sentence. Under these circumstances, the original having occurred in a Collection of detached Papers in the Chapter House at Westminster, it has been thought that the republication of it in the present Volume would not be unacceptable.

There are one or two passages in this Letter from which it may be gathered that King Henry the Eighth had condescended to use great familiarity with Sir Thomas More. Erasmus has said much upon this subject in his Letters. Of Sir Thomas More's embassies abroad, he says, "Semel atque iterum extrusus est in legationem, in qua cum se cordatissime gessisset, non conquievit serenissimus Rex`Henricus, ejus nominis octavus, donec hominem in aulam suam pertraheret. Cur enim non dicam pertraheret? Nullus unquam vehementius ambiit in aulam admitti, quam hic studuit effugere. Verum, cum esset optimo Regi in animo, familiam suam éruditis, gravibus, cordatis, et integris viris differtam reddere, cum alios permultos, tum MORUM in primis accivit, QUEM SIC IN INTIMIS HABET, UT A SE NUNQUAM PATIATUR DISCedere. SIVE SERIIS UTENDUM EST, NIHIL ILLO CONSULTIUS, SIVE VISUM EST REGI FABULIS AMŒNIORIBUS LAXARE ANIMUM, NULLUS COMES FESTIVIOR. Sæpe res arduæ judicem gravem et cordatum postulant, has sic Morus discutit, ut utraque pars habeat gratiam. Nec tamen ab eo quisquam impetravit, ut munus à quoquam acciperet. Felices res publicas, si Mori similes magistratus ubique præficeret Princeps.'

a

Another circumstance connected with the subject of this Letter, also occurs in Erasmus's Epistles: and does not seem to have been known to our historians. It is that upon Wolsey's fall, Henry pressed Cranmer to take the Chancellorship more than once, before he offered it to Sir THOMAS MORE. The whole passage which contains this fact is curious: for it also contains abuse of Wolsey whom Erasmus had so often and so courtingly praised. It is as follows:

a Desid. Erasmi Epist. CCCXLVII. Edit. Lugd. Bat. 1706. tom. i. col. 476.

"Cardinalis Eboracensis sic offendit animum regium, ut spoliatus bonis et omni dignitate, tueatur, non in carcere, sed in quodam ipsius prædio, adhibitis triginta duntaxat seu famulis seu custodibus. Proferuntur in illum querelæ innumeræ, ut vix existiment effugere posse capitis supplicium. Hic est fortunæ ludus, ex ludimagistro subvectus est ad regnum; nam plane regnabat verius quam ipse Rex. Metuebatur ab omnibus, amabatur a paucis, ne dicam a nemine. Paucis ante diebus quam caperetur, curaverat Richardum Pacæum conjiciendum in carcerem, ac minitabatur etiam meo archiepiscopo Cantuariensi. Ante ruinam exaltuntur spiritus ait Salomon. Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis vocatus, imo revocatus est AD CANCELLARII MUNUS, quo non aliud in Anglia majus: sed is excusavit ætatem, jam imparem tanto negotio. Itaque provincia delegata est THOMÆ MORO, magno omnium applausu, nec minore bonorum omnium lætitia subvectus, quam dejectus Cardinalis.”

HIT may lyke your Highnes to call to your graciouse remembraunce, that at such tyme as of that great weighty rome and office of your Chauncellor, with which, so far above my merits or qualitees able and mete, therefore your Highnes had of your incomparable goodnes honored and exalted me, ye were so good and graciouse unto me as at my pore humble suit to discharge and disburden me; gevyng me lycence with your graciouse favor to bestow the resydew of my lyfe to come about the provysion for my soule in the servyce of God, and to be your bedisman and pray for you. It pleased your Highnes ferther to say unto me, that for the service which byfore I had done yow (which it than lyked your goodnes far above my deserving to commend) that in eny suit that I shold after have to your Grace, that either shold concerne myn honor (that word it lyked your Highnes to use unto me) or that

a Erasmi Epist. MCLI. Joanni. Vergaræ. ut supr. tom ii. col. 1348.