[281] Depositions relating to the Protestants in Yorkshire: MS. State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XVIII.
[282] The monkish poetry was pressed into the service. The following is from a MS. in Balliol College, Oxford. It is of the date, perhaps, of Henry VII.
“Listen, lordlings, both great and small,
I will tell you a wonder tale,
How Holy Church was brought in bale,
Cum magnâ injuriâ.
“The greatest clerke in this land,
Thomas of Canterbury I understand,
Slain he was with wicked hand,
Malorum potentiâ.
“The knights were sent from Henry the king:
That day they did a wicked thing;
Wicked men without lesing,
Per regis imperia.
“They sought the bishop all about,
Within his palace and without:
Of Jesu Christ they had no doubt,
Pro suâ maliciâ.
“They opened their mouths woundily wide,
They spake to him with much pride:
‘Traitor! here shalt thou abide,
Ferens mortis tædia.’
“Before the altar he kneelèd down,
And there they pared his crown,
And stirred his braines up and down,
Optans cœli gaudia.”
[283] Ward to Cromwell: MS. State Paper Office, second series, Vol. XLVI.; Miles Coverdale to Cromwell: Ibid. Vol. VII.
[284] William Umpton to Cromwell: MS. State Paper Office, second series Vol. XLV.