R.O. Cal. vii. 73. January ‹1534›.
Reports the passage in the Commons of the Act forbidding any man to keep more than 2000 sheep, and requiring every farmer to put one-eighth of his land in tillage. If the Bill passes the Lords also it will be the most beneficial thing done ‘sythyn Brewtyse tyme.’
Pleasythyt your most Royall Mageste to be aduertysyd how that according to your most highe pleasure and commaundement I haue made serche for suche patenttes and grauntys as your highnes and also the most Famous kyng your father whos Sowle our lorde pardon haue grauntyd vnto sir Rychard Weston knyght your vndertesawrer of your exchequer and the same haue sent to your highnes herin closyd yt may also please your most Royall Mageste to knowe how that yesterdaye ther passyd your Commons a byll that no person within this your Realme shall herafter kepe and Noryshe aboue the Nombre of twoo thousand shepe and also that the eight parte of euerye mans lande being a Fermour shall for euer herafter be put in tyllage yerlye which byll yf by the gret wysdom vertuew goodnes and zerale[806] that your highnes beryth towardes this your Realme might haue good Successe and take good effect Amongyst your lordes aboue I doo Coniecture and Suppose in my pore Symple and vnworthye Judgement that your highnes shall do the most noble proffyttable and most benefycyall thing that euer was done to the Commone welthe of this your Realme and shall therby Increase suche welthe in the same amongyst the gret Nombre & multytude for your most louyng and obedye[nt] Subiectys as neuer was Seane in this Realme Sythen Brewtyse tyme most humblye prostrate at the Fete of your Magnifycence beseche your highnes to pardon my boldnes ‹in› this wrytyng to your grace which onlye procedythe for the trowthe dewtye allegaunce and loue I doo bere to your mageste and the Common welth of this your Realme as our lorde knowyth vnto whom I shall as I am most bounden Incessantlye praye for the contenewans & prosperous conseruacyon of your most excellent most Royall and Imperyall estate long to Indure
68. ‹Cromwell› to ‹Fisher›.
B.M. Cleop. E. iv, f. 101; Cal. vii. 238. ‹Feb. 1534.›
Reproves him at length for his communications with the Nun of Kent, and replies to seven reasons given by Fisher for not reporting her revelations to the King. Advises him to lay aside excuses, and beg the King’s mercy.
My lorde in my right hertie wise I commende me to your lordship doing you to vnderstand that I haue receyued your letteres dated at Rochester the xviijth of this moneth. In whiche ye declare what craft and cunnyng ye haue to persuade and to set a good countenaunce vpon an yl mater. Drawing som scriptures to your purpose whiche wel weyed acording to the places whereof they be taken. make not so muche for your purpose as ye allege thaim for. And where in the first lefe of your letters ye write that ye doubt nothing neither before god, nor befor the worlde if nede shal that require: so to declare yourself. whatsoeuer hath been said of you. that ye haue not deserued suche hevy wordes or terrible thretes as hath been sent from me vnto you by your brother[807].
How ye can declare your self affore god and the world when nede shal require I can not tell, but I think verely that your declaration made by thes letteres is far insufficient to prove that ye haue deserued no hevy wordes in this behalf and to sey playnly I sent you no hevy wordes but wordes of great comfort wylling your brother to shewe you how benigne and merciful the prince was. And that I thoug[ht] it expedient for you to write vnto his highnes and to recognise your offence and desire his pardon, whiche his grace wold not denye you now in your aige and sikkenes. Whiche my counsel I wold ye had folowed, rather than to haue writen thes letteres to me excusing your self as thoughe there were no maner of defaute in you. But my lord if it were in an other mannys caas than your owne and out of the mater whiche ye fauor I doubt not but that ye wold think him that shuld haue doen as ye have doen non only worthy hevy wordes but also hevy dedys. For where ye labor to excuse your self of your hering believing and conceling of the nunnys fals and faynid reuelations, and of your manyfold sending of your chapley[n] vnto her, by a certeyn intent whiche ye pretende yourself to haue had, to knowe by commonyng with her or by sending your chapellaine to her, whether her reuelations were of god or no. alleging diuerse scriptures. that ye were bound to prove thaim, and not to reiecte thaim affore they were proued My Lord whether ye haue vsed a due meane to trie her and her reuelations, or no. It appereth by the processe of your owne letteres. For where ye write that ye had conceyuid a greate opinion of the holines of the woman for many considerations rehersed in your letteres comprised in vi articles, whereof the first is grownde vpon the brute and fame of her, the secunde vpon her entreng into religion after her traunses and disfiguration, the third vpon rehersall that her gostly father being lerned and religious shuld testifie that she was a maide of greate holines. The fourth vpon the report that diuerse other vertuose prestes men of good lernyng and reputation, shuld so testifie of her, with whiche gostly father and preestes ye never spake as ye confesse in your letters. The fyveth vpon the prayse of my late lord of Canterbury, which shewed you (as ye write) that she had many greate visions the sixt vpon this saing of the prophete Amos, Non faciet dominus deus verbum, nisi reuelauerit secretum suum ad seruos suos prophetas by whiche considerations ye were induced to the desire to know the very certente of this mater, whether the reuelations whiche were pretended to be shewed to her from god were true reuelations or nott? your lordship in al the sengle[808] of your letteres shewe not that ye made no ferther trial vpo[n] the trueth of her and her reuelation, but only in commonyng with her and sending your chapellaine to her, with Idle questions as of the thre mary magdalens. by whiche your commony[ng] and sending, ye tried out nothing of her falshed, nouther (as it is credibly supposed) entended to do, as ye myght haue doen many weyes more easely than with commonyng with her or sending to her; for litel credens was to be gyven to her affirmyng her owne fayned reuelations to be from god.
For if credence shuld be gyven to euery suche lewd person as wold affirme himself to haue reuelations from god what redyer wey were there to subuert al common we[l]thes and good orders in the worlde.
Verily my lord if ye had entended to trie out the trueth of her and of her reuelations ye wold haue taken an other wey with you, first ye wold not haue been contented with the vayne voyces of the peple making brutes of her traunses & disfiguration But like a wise discrete and circumspect prelate ye shuld haue examined (as other haue) suche sad and credible persons as were present att her traunses & disfigurationes, not one or two, but a good number by whoes testimony ye shuld haue proued whether the brutes of her traunces and disfigurations were true or not And likewise ye shuld haue tried by what craft and persuasion she was made a religious woman. And if ye had been so desirous as ye pretende to enquire out the trueth or falshed of this woman and of her reuelations, it is to be supposed ye wold haue spoken with her good religious and wel lerned gostly father (as ye cal him) or this tyme: and also with the vertuose, and wel lerned preestes (as they were estemed) of whoes reaportes ye were informed by thaim whiche herd thaim speke[809] ye wold also haue been mynded to se the booke of her revelations whiche was offerd you. of whiche ye myght haue had more trial of her and of her reuelations, than a hundred communications with her, or of as many sendings of your chapellen vnto her. As for the late lord of Cauntreburys seying vnto you that she had many greate visions, it ought to move you never a deale to gyve credence vnto her or her reuelations, For the said lord knew no more certente of her or of her reuelations than ye dyd by her owne reaport. And as towching the saing of Amos the prophete, I thinke veryly the same moved you but a litell to herkyn vnto her, for sythe the consummation and thende of thold testament and sythens the passion of Christ god hathe doen many greate and notable thinges in the worl[d]e, whereof he shewed no thing to his prophetes that hath commen to the knowlege of men. My lord all thes thinges moved you not to gyve credence vnto her, but only the very mater whereupon she made her fals proficyes to whiche mater ye were so affected (as ye be noted to be on al maters whiche ye enter ons into) that nothing could com amysse that made for that purpose