[107] The 3d Day of July (1526), the Cardinal of Yorke passed through the City of London, with many lords and gentlemen, to the number of twelve hundred horse——The 11th day of May he took shipping at Dover, and landed at Calais the same day.
Grafton, p. 1150.
[108] Lanzen-Knechts, the name by which these bands of German mercenaries were then designated.
[109] Cavendish uses this word again in his poems:
“Wherin was found a certyn defuse clause
Wrested by craft to a male intente.” p. 139.
See Fox’s Acts, &c. p. 1769:
“Cook. Then answere me, What sayest thou to the blessed sacrament of the altar? Tell me:
“Jackson. I answered; it is a diffuse question, to aske me at the first dash, you promising to deliver me.” See also p. 1574. “Diffuse and difficult.”
It appears to have been used in the sense of obscure, but difficult is the reading of Grove’s edition. I find diffused explained by Cotgrave “diffus, espars, OBSCURE.” And in a Latin Greek and English Lexicon by R. Hutton, printed at London by H. Bynneman, 1583, the Latin adverb, obscure, is interpreted “darkely, obscurely, DIFFUSELY.”