[556] State Papers, Vol. VIII. p. 318. The Queen of Navarre, who was constant to the English interests, communicated to the secretary of Sir John Wallop (the resident minister at Paris), an account of a conversation between herself and the Papal nuntio.
Ferrara had prayed her “to help and put her good hand and word that the French king might join the Emperor and his master for the wars against the Almayns and the King of England, which king was but a man lost and cast away.”
“Why, M. l’Ambassadeur,” the queen answered, “what mean you by that? how and after what sort do you take the King of England?”—“Marry,” quoth he, “for a heretic and a Lutheryan. Moreover, he doth make himself head of the Church.”—“Do you say so?” quoth she. “Now I would to God that your master, the Emperor, and we here, did live after so good and godly a sort as he and his doth.” The nuntio answered, “the king had pulled down the abbeys,” “trusting by the help of God it should be reformed or it were long.” She told him that were easier to say than to do. England had had time to prepare, and to transport an army across the Channel was a difficult affair. Ferrara said, “It could be landed in Scotland.”—“The King of Scotland,” she replied, “would not stir without permission from France;” and then (if her account was true) she poured out a panegyric upon the Reformation in England, and spoke out plainly on the necessity of the same thing in the Church of Rome. State Papers, Vol. VIII. p. 289, &c.
[557] Hall, p. 839. The case broke down, and Sampson was afterwards restored to favour; but his escape was narrow. Sir Ralph Sadler, writing to Cromwell, said, “I declared to the King’s Majesty how the Bishop of Chichester was committed to ward to the Tower, and what answer he made to such things as were laid to his charge, which in effect was a plain denial of the chief points that touched him. His Majesty said little thereto, but that he liked him and the matter much the worse because he denied it, seeing his Majesty perceived by the examinations there were witnesses enough to condemn him in that point.”—State Papers, Vol. I. p. 627.
[558] The Bishop of Chichester to Cromwell: Strype’s Memorials, Vol. II. p. 381.
[559] Another instance of Tunstall’s underhand dealing had come to light. When he accepted the oath of supremacy, and agreed to the divorce of Queen Catherine, he entered a private protest in the Register Book of Durham, which was afterwards cut out by his chancellor. Christopher Chator, whose curious depositions I have more than once quoted, mentions this piece of evasion, and adds a further feature of some interest. Relating a conversation which he had held with a man called Craye, Chator says, “We had in communication the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More attainted of treason. Craye said to me he marvelled that they were put to death for such small trespasses; to whom I answered that their foolish conscience was so to die. Then I shewed him of one Burton, my Lord of Durham’s servant, that told me he came to London when the Bishop of Rochester and Thomas More were endangered, and the said More asked Burton, ‘Will not thy master come to us and be as we are?’ and he said he could not tell. Then said More, ‘If he do, no force, for if he live he may do more good than to die with us.’”—Rolls House MS. first series.
[560] Lords Journals, 32 Henry VIII.
[561] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 1.
[562] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 2.
[563] 32 Henry VIII. cap. 3. “Many goes oft begging,” “and it causeth much robbing.”—Deposition of Christopher Chator. Here is a special picture of one of these vagabonds. Gregory Cromwell, writing to his father from Lewes, says, “The day of making hereof came before us a fellow called John Dancy, being apparelled in a frieze coat, a pair of black hose, with fustian slops, having also a sword, a buckler, and a dagger; being a man of such port, fashion, and behaviour that we at first took him only for a vagabond, until such time as he, being examined, confessed himself to have been heretofore a priest, and sometime a monk of this monastery.”—MS. State Paper Office, second series, Vol. VII.