Peace with France proclaimed, 13 June, 1546.
All parties were, however, tired of the war, and in the following June (1546) a peace was concluded. Henry was allowed to retain Boulogne as security for a debt, and the French admiral soon afterwards paid a visit to the city, where he was heartily welcomed and hospitably entertained.[1251]
Uniformity of religion enforced, 1546.
Recantation of the rector of St. Mary Aldermary.
Freed from the embarrassment of foreign wars, Henry now had leisure to turn his attention to home affairs, and more particularly to the establishment of that uniformity which he so much desired, and which he endeavoured to bring about by getting rid of all those who differed in opinion from himself. Those who openly declared their disbelief in any one of the "Six Articles," and more particularly in the first article, which established the doctrine of the real presence, ran the risk of death by the gallows, the block or the stake. A city rector, Dr. Crome, of the church of St. Mary Aldermary, got into disgrace for speaking lightly of the benefits to be derived from private masses, and, although his argument tended to minimise the effect of the recent confiscation of so many chantries, he was called upon to make a public recantation at Paul's Cross.[1252]
Trial and execution of Anne Ascue.
Others were not so compliant. Among these was Anne Ascue or Ascough, a daughter of Sir William Ascough, of Kelsey, in Lincolnshire, and sometimes known as Anne Kyme, from the name of her husband, with whom she had ceased to live. In June, 1545, she and some others, among whom was another woman, Joan, wife of John Sauterie, of London, had[pg 416] been arraigned at the Guildhall "for speaking against the sacrament of the altar"; but, no evidence being adduced against her, she was on that occasion acquitted and discharged.[1253] Scarcely a year elapsed before she was again in custody. On the 18th June, 1546, she was tried at the Guildhall and condemned to be burned alive as a heretic at Smithfield, where the city chamberlain had orders to erect a "substantial stage," whence the king's council and the civic authorities might witness the scene.[1254]
Improved water supply of the city, 1545-1546.
The insanitary condition of the city, occasioned for the most part by an insufficient supply of water, was not improved by the influx of disbanded and invalided soldiers, followed by a swarm of vagabonds and idlers, which took place at the conclusion of peace with France. To the soldiers licences were granted to solicit alms for longer or shorter periods, whilst the vagabonds were ordered to quit the city.[1255] The water question had been taken in hand by the Common Council towards the close of the preceding year (1545), when Sir Martin Bowes entered upon his mayoralty, and a tax of two fifteenths was imposed upon the inhabitants of the city for the purpose of conveying fresh water from certain "lively sprynges" recently discovered at Hackney.[1256] Bowes himself was very energetic in the matter, and before he went out of office he had the satisfaction of seeing a plentiful supply of water brought into the heart of the city from the suburban manor of Finsbury.[1257]
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, &c., vested in the City, 13 Jan., 1547.