LETTER XVII.
Cardinal Wolsey to Secretary Gardener,
Desiring him to favour the cause of the Provost of Beverly, and to intercede with the king for him and his colleges. (From Strype.)
Myne awne gentil Maister Secretary,
After my mooste herty recommendations, these shal be to thanke you for the greate humanite, lovyng & gentil recule, that ye have made unto the poore Provost of Beverly: & specialy, for that ye have in such wise addressed hym unto the kings highnes presence, that his grace not onely hath shewed unto hym, that he is his goode & gracious lorde, but also that it hath pleased hys majeste to admitte & accepte hym as his poore orator & scholer. Wherby both he & I accompte our selfs so bounden unto you, that we cannot telle how to requite this your gratitude & kyndenes; mooste hartely praying you to contynue in your good favour towards hym, & to take hym & his pore causis into your patrocynye & protection. And, as myne assured expectation & trust is, to remember the poor state & condition that I stond in, & to be a meane to the kyngs highness for my relefe in the same. In doyng wherof ye shal not onely deserve thanks of God, but also declare to your perpetual laud and prayse, that ye beyng in auctorite, have not forgoten your olde maister & frynde. And in the wey of charite, & for the love that ye bere to virtue, & ad bona studia, be meane to the kyngs highnes for my poore colleges; and specially for the college of Oxford. Suffer not the things, which by your greate lernyng, studie, counsaile & travaile, hath bene erected, founden, & with good statutes & ordinances, to the honour of God, increase of vertue & lernyng established, to be dissolved or dismembred. Ye do know, no man better, to what use the monasteries, suppressed by the popis licence, the kyngs consente concurryng with the same, & a pardon for the premoneri[242], be converted. It is nat to be doubted, but the kyngs highnes, of his high vertue & equite, beyng informed how every thing is passed, his mooste gracious license & consente (as is aforesaid) adhibited therunto, wol never go aboute to dissolve the said incorporations or bodyes, wherof so greate benefite & commodite shal insue unto his realme & subjects. Superfluities, if any such shal be thought & founden, may be resecat; but to destroy the hole, it were to greate pitie.
Eftsones therefore, good Maister Secretaire, I beseche you to be good maister & patrone to the said colleges: “Et non sinas opus manuum tuarum perire, aut ad nihilum redige.” Thus doyng, both I, & they shal not onely pray for you, but in such wise deserve your paynes, as ye shal have cause to thinke the same to be wel bestowed & imployed, like as this present berer shal more at the large shewe unto you. To whom it may please the same to geve firme credence. And thus mooste hartely fare ye wel. From Sothewell, the xxiijth day of July.
Your lovyng frende,
T. CARLIS EBOR.
To the right honorable & my singular good frende Mr Doctor Stephyns, Secretory to the Kings Highnes.