we fynd not so greate maters here as we thought we shuld have doen. The crafty nunne kept herself very secrete here, and shewed her marchaundise more openly when she war far from home; and if she had been as ware in other places as she hath been here, we suppose she had continued in her falshede lenger than she hath doen, whiche was to long. The greatest cause of demore here now, is to accomplisshe certen practises whiche we have devised with the frere observantes of Canterburie, and we trust to bring thaim to some good effect. We tarry also to examine the priour of Hortone,* whiche is detected as a participant of the nunnys revelations concernyng the kinges grace reigne and his marriage. We have wreten unto yow that we fere that in caas we shall carry the parson of Aldingtone to Londone agayne now shortly, he wol miscary by the wey, or sone after; whereupon we desire you to send us your advise. We beseche you to be good maister to John Antony, for he hath shewed as muche kyndnes unto us as a man of his behaviour myght do, and hath always beene diligent to further our causes as myche as he myght. As towching the monkes of Christes churche whiche bee detected in this mater, whiche be but v. or vj. yong men, whiche have red part of Bokkinges boke of the nunnys revelations, my lord of Cauntrebury, now being in his visitacion, wol examine thaim at his leysure, and therfore we think it shal not be nede for us to tarry thair examination, onles ye send us contrary word by this berer, wherin and in other the premisses we desire you to send unto us your mynd at lenght. ffrom Cauntrebury, the xth day of December. upon Yower owne, ROLAND LEE. Evyr your awne, THOMAS BEDYLL. * At Monks' Horton, five miles from Hythe, was a cell of the priory of Lewes. Richard Gloucester, alias Brisley, was its last prior. CAMD. Soc. E X. LIST OF THE NUN'S GOODS. [From MS. Cotton. Cleopat. E. iv. fol. 84.] Stoffe receyvyd the xvj. day of Februare, of dame Elysabeth Barton, by the handes of the priores of sayent Sepulcres withowt Canterbury, into the handes of John Antony of Canterbury, as her after foloeth. ffyrst, a coschyn blade, and one old coschyn, ij. carpettes, whereof one ys cut in to pecys. A old matteres, vij. corsse schettes, a kyverlet and a laydy priores hath and payed iiijs. A whyet corter, wych my lady priores hath, and payed xijd. A lyttell old dyaper towell. iij. pylloberes. ij. canstyckes. A coet, wyche dame Kateren Wyttsam hath, payed vs. A pece of a plancke for a tabyll. A lyttell chyst. Stoffe wyche remayneth in the nonnere pertaynyng unto dame Elysabeth Berton, at the request of my lady priores. ffyrst, ij. nyew coschyns, gyven unto the churche. A old mantell, and a kyrtell, unto the yongest nonne. A Yrysche mantell, a colere, with ij. grett chystes, and ij. stolys, and a canstycke, to my lady priores. A kyverlet, and a old kyrtell, to dame Alys Colman, at the request of my lady priores. It has been already stated that Sir Thomas More and Bishop Fisher were involved in the affair of the "holy maid of Kent:" they were committed to the Tower about the time of her execution, and were both condemned to the scaffold. Fisher was beheaded on the 22nd of June, 1535, and Sir Thomas More suffered on the 6th of the following month. The following is the draught of a letter written by Cromwell to Fisher, before his imprisonment. XI. CROMWELL TO BISHOP FISHER. [Cotton. MS. Cleopat. E. iv. fol. 85*.] My lord, in my right hertie wise I commende me to your lordship, doing you to understand that I have receyved your lettres dated at Rochester the xviijth day of this moneth, in whiche you declare what craft and cunnyng ye have to persuade and to set a good countenaunce upon all that mater, drawing som scriptures to your purpose whiche, wel weyed acording to the places whereof they be taken, make not so muche for your purpose as ye allege thaim for. And where in the first lefe of your letters, ye write that ye doubt nothing, neither before God nor before the worlde, if nede shal that require, so to declare your self, whatsoever hath beene said of you, that ye have not deserved suche hevy wordes or terrible thretes as hath beene sent from me unto you by your brother. How ye can declare your self affore God and the worlde when nede shal require, I can not tell; but I think verely that your declaration made by thes lettres is far insufficient to prove that ye have deserved no hevy wordes in this behalf; and to sey playnly, I sent you no hevy wordes, but wordes of great comforte, wylling your brother to shewe you how benigne and merciful the princewas, and that I thought it expedient for you to write unto his highnes and to recognise your offence and desire his pardon, whiche his grace wold not denye you now in your aige and sikkenes. Whiche my counsel I wold ye had folowed, rather than to have writen thes lettres to me, excusing your self as thoughe there were no maner of defaut in you. But, my lord, if it were in an other mannys caas than your owne, and out of the mater whiche ye favor, I doubt not but that ye wold think him that shuld have doen as ye have doen not only worthy hevy wordes, but also hevy dedys. For wher ye labor to excuse your self of your hering, beleving, and conceling of the nunnys fals and fayned revelations, and of your manyfold sending of your chapeleyn unto her, by a certen intent whiche ye pretende your self to have had to knowe by commonyng with her, or by sending your chapellaine to her, whether her revelations were of God or no, alleging diverse scriptures that ye were bound to prove thaim, and not to receve thaim affore they were proved; my lord, whether ye have used a due meane to trie her and her revelations, or no, it appereth by the prouffe of your owne lettres; ffor wher ye write that ye had conceyved a greate opinion of the holines of this woman for many considerations rehersed in your lettres, comprised in vj. articles, whereof the first is grownde upon the brute and fame of her; The secunde upon her entering into religion after her traunces and disfiguration; The third upon rehersall that her gostly father, being lerned and religious, shuld testifie that she was a maide of greate holines; The fourth upon the report that diverse other vertuose prestes, men of good lernyng and reputation, shuld so testifie of her, with whiche gostly father and preestes ye never spake, as ye confesse in your letters; The fyveth upon the prayses of my late lord of Canterbury, whiche shewed you (as ye write) that she had many greate visions; The sixt upon this saing of the prophete Amos, Non favet Dominus Deus verbum, nisi revelaverit secretum suum ad servos suos prophetas; by whiche considerations ye were induced to the desire to know the very certente of this mater, whether thes revelations whiche were pretended to be shewed to her from God were true revelations or nott. Your lordship in al the sequell of your lettres shewe not that ye made no forther trial upon the trueth of her and her revelations, but only in commonyng with her, and sending your chapellaine to her with idle questians, as of the thre Mary Magdelens. By whiche your conversing and sending, ye tried out no thing of her falshed, nouther (as it is credibly supposed) entended to do, as ye myght have doen many weyes more easely than with commonyng with her or sending to her; for litel credens was to be gyven to her affirmyng her owne fayned revelations to be frome God. ffor if credense shuld be gyven to every suche lewd person as wold affirme him self to have revelations from Good, what redyer wey wer ther to subvert al common welths and good orders in the world? Verely, my lord, if ye had entended to trie out the trueth of her and of her revelations, ye wold have taken another wey with you. First, ye wold not have beene contented with the vayne voyces of the peple making brutes of her traunses and disfigurations, but like a wise, discrete, and circumspect prelate, ye shuld have examined (as other have) suche sad and credible persons as wer present att her traunsces and disfigurations; not one or two, but a good number, by whoes testimony ye shuld have proved whether the brutes of her traunces and disfigurations were true or not. And likwise ye shuld have tried by what craft and persuasion she was made a religious woman. And if ye had beene so desirous as ye pretende to enquire out the trueth or falshed of this woman and of her revelations, it is to be supposed ye wold have spoken with her godd, religious, and wel lerned gostly father or this tyme, and also with the vertuose and wel lerned preestes (as they were estemed), of whoes reaportes ye wer informed by thaim whiche herd thaim speke; ye wold also have beene mynded to se the booke of her revelations which was offerd you, of whiche ye myghte have had more trial of her and of her revelations than of a hundred communications with her, or of as many sendinges of your chapellen unto her. As for the late lord of Cauntreburys seyng unto you that she had many greate visions, it ought to move you never a deale to gyve credence unto her or her revelations; ffor the said lord knew no more certente of her or of her revelations than ye dyd |