A Bearbaiting upon [the] Thames before the King.
The bear and the dogs so shaked the wherry wherein the Secretary was, that the boat being full of water sank to the ground; and being also, as it chanced, an ebbing tide, he sat there in the end of the wherry up to the middle in water. To whom came the bear and all the dogs. The bear, seeking as it were aid and succour of him, came back with his hinder parts The Book of Dr Cranmer against the Six Articles lost in the Thames. upon him; and so, rushing upon him, the Book was loosed from the Secretary's girdle, and so fell into the Thames out of his reach.
The flying of the people, after that the bear was loose, from one boat to another, was so cumbrous that divers persons were thrown into the Thames: the King commanding certain men, that could swim, to strip themselves naked; and to help to save them that were in danger.
This pastime so displeased the King, that he bade, "Away, away with the bear! and let us go all hence!"
The Secretary, perceiving his Book to fleet away in the Thames, called to the Bearward to take up the Book.
This Bearward was Princess Elizabeth's servant.
Dr Cranmer's Book against the Six Articles delivered to a Popish Priest.
When the Bearward had the Book in his custody, being an arrant Papist, far from the religion of his Mistress (for he was the Lady Elizabeth's Bearward, now the Queen's Majesty), ere that the Secretary could come to land, he had delivered the Book to a Priest of his own affinity in religion standing on the bank: who, reading in the Book, and perceiving that it was a manifest Refutation of the Six Articles, made much ado; and told the Bearward that whosoever claimed the Book, should surely be hanged.
Anon, the Secretary came to the Bearward for his Book.
"What," quoth the Bearward, "dare you challenge this Book? Whose servant be you?"