Qui reges estis populis quicunque præstis

Qualiter his gestis gladios prohibere potestis."

See also HALE, p. 42, where an abominable instance is mentioned, and a still worse in the Suppression of the Monasteries, pp. 45-50.

[201] HALE, p. 12.

[202] Ibid. pp. 75, 83; Suppression of the Monasteries, p. 47.

[203] Ibid. p. 80.

[204] Ibid. p. 83.

[205] I have been taunted with my inability to produce more evidence. For the present I will mention two additional instances only, and perhaps I shall not be invited to swell the list further.

1. In the State Paper Office is a report to Cromwell by Adam Bekenshaw, one of his diocesan visitors, in which I find this passage:—

"There be knights and divers gentlemen in the diocese of Chester who do keep concubines and do yearly compound with the officials for a small sum without monition to leave their naughty living."