“Where certain of the commons of the country thereabout, to the number of twelve persons—Englishmen, your Highness’s servants” [I am quoting a letter of Sir Thomas Clifford to Henry VIII.]—“did come on board in the king’s ship, and, being on their knees before him, thanked God of his healthful and sound repair; showing how that they had long looked for him, and how they were oppressed, slain, and murdered; desiring him for God’s sake to come in, and all should be his.”—State Papers, Vol. V. p. 80.
[211] Among the records in connexion with the entreaties and warnings of the Privy Council are copies of letters to the same effect from his mother and his brother. They are written in a tone of stiff remonstrance; and being found among the government papers, must either have been drafts which the writers were required to transcribe, or copies furnished by themselves as evidence of their own loyalty. Lady Salisbury’s implication in the affair of the Nun of Kent may have naturally led the government to require from her some proof of allegiance.
[212] Reg. Polus, Paulo Tertio: Epist. Reg. Pol. Vol. II. p. 46. The letter to which I refer was written in the succeeding summer, but the language is retrospective, and refers to the object with which the mission had been undertaken.
[213] “Perceiving by your last letters that there remaineth a little spark of that love and obedience towards his Majesty which your bounden duty doth require, and that by the same as well it appeareth your great suspicion is conveyed to one special point—that is, to the pretended supremacy of the Bishop of Rome—as that you shew yourself desirous either to satisfy his Majesty or to be satisfied in the same, offering yourself for that purpose to repair into Flanders, there to discourse and reason it with such as his Highness shall appoint to entreat that matter with you—for the hearty love and favour we bear to my lady your mother, my lord your brother, and others your friends here, which be right heartily sorry for your unkind proceedings in this behalf, and for that also we all desire your reconciliation to his Highness’s grace and favour, we have been all most humble suitors to his Majesty to grant your petition touching your said repair into Flanders, and have obtained our suit in the same, so as you will come thither of yourself, without commission of any other person.”—The Privy Council to Pole, Jan. 18, 1537: Rolls House MS.
[214] Ibid.
[215] “They shall swear and make sure faith and promise utterly to renounce and refuse all their forced oaths, and that from henceforth they shall use themselves as true and faithful subjects in all things; and that specially they shall allow, approve, support, and maintain to the uttermost of their power all and singular the acts, statutes, and laws which have been made and established in parliament since the beginning of the reign of our most dread Sovereign Lord.”—Rolls House MS. first series, 471.
[216] Confession of George Lumley: Rolls House MS. first series.
[217] MS. State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XIX.
[218] Many of them are in the State Paper Office in the Cromwell Collection.
[219] John Hallam deposes: “Sir Francis Bigod did say, at Walton Abbey, that ‘the king’s office was to have no care of men’s souls, and did read to this examinate a book made by himself, as he said, wherein was shewed what authority did belong to the Pope, what to a bishop, what to the king; and said that the head of the Church of England must be a spiritual man, as the Archbishop of Canterbury or such; but in no wise the king, for he should with the sword defend all spiritual men in their right.’”—Rolls House MS., A 2, 29.