pleasour. With thys, Jesu preserve your Lordeship with long lyff and increase of honor. From London the xxiiijth day of August.

Alwayes redy at your Lordeshipps

comaundemente

WILLIAM PENNISON.

LETTER CXLI.

John Foster a priest, to Lord Cromwell, upon his obedience to the King, in putting away a wife whom he had married.

[MS. COTTON. CLEOP. E. IV. fol. 116 b. Orig.]

The Letter here presented, was evidently written immediately after the Parliament of 1539 had passed the Act of "The Six Articles;" more usually called "The Bloody Act."

A notion had gone forth that Priests might marry, and numbers of the clergy had seized the opportunity of choosing for themselves a helpmate, without dreaming that they should subsequently incur a penalty of the severest kind. Even Cranmer had taken to wife the niece of Osiander, an eminent divine of Nuremberg.

Cranmer, with all quietness, sent his wife back at once to Germany. But JOHN FOSTER, who moved in a lower rank of the priesthood, the writer of the present Letter, not only dismissed his wife to her friends at the distance of three score miles, but hastened to the Vicar-general, confessed how ill he had understood the word of God, complimented his Majesty's more erudite judgement, and sued for the royal pardon.

IN my most humblyst wyse, I beyng not so bold as to appere before youre Lordshyp untyll your plesure

ys knowyn, feere sett appartt, nede compellythe me to wrytt. Thys last Lentt I dyd no lesse then wrytt, and also to your presence I dyd approche, suyng for your lordschyppys gracious servyce; but now my sute ys muche other, for my dysfortune hathe byn to have conceyvyd untruly Goddys worde, and not only with yntellectyon to have thought yt, but exteryally and really I have fulfyllyd the same; for I, as then beyng a preste, have accompleschyd maryage; nothyng pretendyng but as an obedyentt subyect. For yf the Kyngys Grace could have founde yt lawfull that prestys mught have byn maryd, they wold have byn to the Crowne dubbyll and dubbyll faythefull, furst in love, secondly for fere that the Bysshope of Rome schuld sette yn hys powre unto ther desolacyon. But now by the noyse of the peopull I perseyve I have dunne amysce, which saythe that the Kyngy serudyte yugementt with all hys cowncell temperall and spyrytuall hathe stableschyd a contrary order, that all prestys schalbe separat by a day; with which order I have contentyd my selfe: and as sone as I herd it to be tru, I sentt the woman to her frendys iij. score mylys from me, and spedely and with all celeryte I have resorted hether to desyre the Kyngs Hyghtnes of hys favor and absolucyon for my amysce doyng; prayng and besechyng your Lordschypps gracyous cumfortt for the optaynyng of hys gracyous pardon: and I schalbe your bounden servauntt yn hartt and also yn

contynnuall servyse yf yt schall please your gracyous lordschypp to accept yt duryng my lyfe: wrythyn the xviij. day of June.

Your bounden for ever,

JOHN FOSTER.

LETTER CXLII.

Sir Thomas Elyot to Secretary Cromwell.

[MS. COTTON. TIT. B. I. fol. 371. Orig.]

The following Letter furnishes a valuable Supplement to the Memoirs of Sir Thomas Elyot, supplied by our biographers. It explains, moreover, that the Life of a Courtier in the time of Henry the Eighth was not always one of unalloyed success. During Wolsey's administration, indeed, few but churchmen were amply rewarded. Even Sir Thomas More, we have seen, when Speaker of the House of Commons, was more than ordinarily grateful for a hundred pounds.

None of the Writers who mention Sir Thomas Elyot's promotions, notice his having held the clerkship of the Council.

He appears to have been courted and celebrated by the most learned men of his time. His chief works were his "Governor" and his "Dictionary." A copy of the latter, fol. Berthelet, 1538, is extant in the library of the British Museum. It was originally Lord Cromwell's copy, to whom a Latin letter is addressed upon a blank leaf at the beginning, in Sir Thomas Elyot's hand. It afterwards passed into the Library of King Henry the Eighth.

Sir Thomas Elyot died in 1546, and was buried at Carleton in Cambridgeshire.

RIGHT worshipfull I recommend me unto you; and hartily thanke you for your gentill and wyse advertisements and counsayles gyven unto me in your Let

VOL. II.

I

tres which I receyvyd of my lovyng frende Mr Raynsford. Albeit, Sir, whan ye shall knowe all the occasyons of my discomforte, ye will not so moche blame me as pitie me, if your olde gentill nature be not chaunged. M: Cromwell I knowe well howe moche my dutie is to serve my soveraign lorde truely and diligently, which, God is my judge, I have doone to my powar with as good a wille, and as gladly, as any man could ymagine to doo: neither for myne obedience only, nor for hope of promocion, but for very harty love that I bare, and doo bere to the King's Highnesse besydes myn aleageance, therto moved by the incomparable goode qualities bothe of his persone and witte, which I have longe wondred at and lovid; as is my nature to doo in private persones, moche more in Princes, moste of all in the chief Governor of this Roialm and my soveraigne Lorde and Master. But whan I consyder myn infelicitie and losse of tyme in unprofitable study, will I or no, I am inforced to be cruciate in my poure mynde, which I confesse to be for lak of wisedom, but I have ben to little a tyme studious in philosophy. I suppose ye being wery of my longe bablyng, tary to here the infelicitie that I complayne me of. I pray you than take some pacience to here some part of my grief.

Sone after the decese of my poure father, the lande that I now have in Cambrigeshyr fell unto me not moche loked for: but to temper that sodayne Joye I

was furthwith assaultid with trouble by them which made title withoute ryght or goode consyderation : and allthowgh my lorde Cardinall, whome God pardone, knowing my title to be perfect and suer, as having it enrollid bifore him, and at the first beginning hiering him self the mutuall covenaunts bytwene my fader and my cosen Sir William Fynderne, whoes fader was my mothers unkle, by his goode justice gave me good comfort, yet then having agayn me many grete personages, by the meanes of M: Porte the justice, whoes daughter myn adversaries sone hadd maried, I was constrayned to retayne so many lernyd men, and so to applie my busyness, that the saide Sute contynuyng one yere and an half, stoode me above one hundred pounds. Afterward my saide lorde Cardinall, for some goode oppynion that he conceyvyd of me withoute my merites, advauncid me (as he supposid) to be Clerk of the Counsayle, withoute my sute or desyre. All be it afterward I was not ingrate as I will tell you hereafterward. Than was there newly delegate from the Sterre Chamber all maters of the North partes and Wales as ye know: those few that remayned were for the more parte the complaynts of beggars, which, shortly perceyving, I, my clerks repugning, did sett such a rate in fees ordinary as neither any man shold be excessifly grievyd, nor that I shold be seene to pike oute substance oute of other

a pick.