LETTER CXXXI.

The Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Ely to Lord Cromwell. A Second Letter.

[FRAGM. IN THE COTTONIAN LIBRARY. Ibid. Orig.]

according to the purport of

lettres of the xiiijth of this Novembre wee have nowe removed the Lady of Sarisbury, and this last night arrived with the same at Cowdrey. And where in the same our Lettres wee towched our opinions, that beeing removed, she wold perhappes uttre some thing more than alreadie she had doone: so this shall bee to advertiese you that syns our arrivall here, trayvayleng sondry tymes and aftre sondry sortes with her, somwhat elles of newe have wee goten of her wich wee deeme materiall. And liek wiese laboreng with Standishe, have pyked ouzt of him more than in the beginneng wee could. And shall aswell therof, as of all oodre our procedinges, and specially of her gesture and precise aunswers and declarations to the maters obiect against her, make your lordshippe true reaport at our retorne. Wee assure your Lordshippe, wee have dealid with suche a one, as men have not dealed withall to fore us; wee may call her rather a

if

strong and constaunt man, than a woman. For in all behavior howe so ever wee have used her, she hath shewid her self so ernest, vehement, and precise, that more could not bee, so that wee thinking thoughe wee used all industrie and diligence to presse her to uttre more, any more lay in her stomake, wee shold but spend tyme, and not mutch or no thing prevayle, agreed to departe hense towardes the Kinges Maiestie, and no ferther to travayle at this tyme. And so beeing in redines to take our journay between one and ij at aftre none this xvjth. of Novembre, and even at poynt to take leave of her, John Chadreton, and Whyte, whome wee appoynted with oodre, to take ordre of her houshold, til the Kinges pleasure were further knowne, sent us Lettres, wherin were enclosed certayne bulles graunted by a bushoppe of Rome, wiche were found in Standishe chambre, with a copie of a lettre found in a gentilwoman's chest, made, as it apperith by tenor therof, by the said Lady unto the Lord Mountague. And forasmutche, as the mater comprised therin semed have

this next day til none, and so to make no more here, but putting her in suche ordre

here, as the Kinges pleasure is she shold bee left in, with convenient speed to come h

And then

give you advertisement of all togidre. Thus th❜oly

Trinitie have your lordshippe

Cowdrey the xvjth, of Novem.

keeping. From

Your Lordshippe asured,

W. SOVTHAMPTON.
THOMAS ELIEN.

To our singuler good Lorde the Lord Privie seale his good Lordshippe.

LETTER CXXXII.

Lord Cromwell to the King; a portion of a Letter dated London, the 14th of March. The discovery of a nest of Traitors on board a French Ship at South Shields.

[MS. COTTON. TIT. B. I. fol. 263 b. Orig.]

In the former, and in some earlier Letters of the present Series, the traits which are mentioned of Lord Cromwell's character are scattered. A few remarks upon the general circumstances of his life will not be misplaced here: and he may perhaps be exhibited to less advantage than before.

His origin was obscure; nor is even his parentage thoroughly ascertained. From a Letter already printed, there seems reason to believe

that he had some connexion either in early or in middle life with the household of the Marchioness of Dorset; a and Hall informs us that he was Wolsey's "chief doer" in suppressing some of the meaner monasteries preparatory to the foundation of Cardinal College; an employment which shows that he must have been in Wolsey's service at least as early as 1524. Yet we are told that he served in the capacity of a common soldier in the Duke of Bourbon's army at the sacking of Rome, which did not happen till 1527; and which could not possibly have been. Fox is the authority for this fact; b as well as for the assertion that Cromwell, MORE, and Gardiner were brought up together in Wolsey's household; whereas More, who was brought up in the family of archbishop Morton, was so few years younger than Wolsey himself, that he was even a representative in parliament in the reign of Henry the Seventh, long before Wolsey attained to power.

Nor do the doubted parts of Fox's narrative end here. Cromwell, in a passage which has been particularly referred to in the former Series of these Letters, is described as scrupulous, when in a state of grandeur, to repay the debts and obligations of his humbler fortune; more especially to one Francis Frescobald, a Florentine, who had been his benefactor when abroad. Yet even the charm of this Tale is dissolved when we find its authority is a Novel of Bandello.c

The outline of Cromwell's history is given in few words by Cardinal Pole; who states the general belief that he was born in a village in the neighbourhood of London; that he was the son of a fuller, and at one time (whether sooner or later is not said) a common soldier in the wars of Italy; that he was afterwards in the service of a Venetian merchant whom the Cardinal knew, and kept his books of accompt; that being tired of commercial life, he came home, and took to the profession of the law, but that even in this pursuit he did not succeed till Wolsey employed him in suppressing some decayed Monasteries; that in that business his genius was developed, and that his conduct in it rendered him so un

a See the former Series, vol. i. p. 218. Letter LXXVIII.

b" Cromwell," he says, "had yet no sound taste nor judgment of Religion, but was wild and youthful, without sense or regard of God and his word, as he himself was wont often times to declare unto Cranmer archbishop of Canterbury, shewing what a ruffian he was in his young days, and how he was in the wars of the Duke of Bourbon AT THE SIEGE OF ROME, also what a great doer he was with Geffrey Chambers in publishing and setting forth the Pardon of Boston every where in Churches as he went, and so continued till at length by learning the Text of the New Testament without book, of Erasmus's translation, in his going and coming from Rome, he began to be touched and called to a better understanding."

c Novelle, edit. Mil. 1560. 12o. vol. ii. p. 140. Nov. XVIII.

popular that the public voice called for his punishment: fortunately for him, at the moment, he obtained an introduction at Court. a

The reader probably remembers that remarkable passage in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, in which the writer says, "It chanced me upon All-hallown day to come into the great chamber at Asher, in the morning, to give mine attendance, where I found Master Cromwell leaning in the great window, with a primer in his hand, saying of our Lady mattins. He prayed not more earnestly than the tears distilled from his eyes. Whom I bade good morrow. And with that I perceived the tears upon his cheeks. To whom I said, 'Why, master Cromwell, what meaneth all this your sorrow? Is my lord in any danger, for whom ye lament thus ? or is it for any loss that ye have sustained by any misadventure ?' 6 Nay, nay,' quoth he, it is my unhappy adventure, which am like to lose all that I have travailed for all the days of my life, for doing of my master true and diligent service.' 'Why, Sir,' quoth I, "I trust ye to be too wise, to commit any thing by my lord's commandment otherwise than ye might do of right, whereof ye have any cause, to doubt of loss of your goods.' 'Well, well,' quoth he, I cannot tell; but all things I see before mine eyes, is as it is taken; and this I under

"Sic ergo, si tale nomen quæratur, Cromvellum eum appellant, si genus, de nullo quidem ante eum, qui id nomen gereret, audivi. Dicunt tamen, viculum esse prope Londinum, ubi natus erat, et ubi pater ejus pannis verrendis victum quæritabat, sed de hoc parum refert. Nunc si conditio quæratur, sic quidem de eo intellexi, aliquem in Italia fuisse gregarium militem, fuisse etiam mercatorem, nec tamen longius progressum in mercatura fuisse, quam ut scriba esset mercatoris, et libros rationum servaret, optime vero novi illum mercatorem, qui Venetus erat natione, cui operas suas locabat. Tandem hujus conditionis pertæsus, domum reversus, causidicis se immiscuit, his qui jura Regni profitentur. In quo eo magis se proficere sperabat, quod versuti et callidi ingenii sibi conscius esset ad defendendum tam iniquum, quam æquum, quod ex externorum commercio valde acuerat, cum nostrorum hominum ingeniorum simplicitatem semper contemneret. Nec tamen in hoc genere valde crevit, antequam ad Monasteriorum ruinam perventum est. Quod incœpit vivente adhuc Cardinali Eboracense, dum Monasteria quædam pene a suis deserta, et illorum bona ac prædia in subsidium pauperum qui in gymnasiis literis operam dabant essent conversa. Hic vero notus esse cœpit, idque ostendit ad hanc artem solam se natum fuisse, ad ruinam et vastationem, id quod crebra aliarum artium mutatio declaravit, in quibus nihil crevit, in hac vero statim celebris esse cœpit, et pluribus notus, ita tamen in illis initiis hujus suæ artis notus, ut cum Cardinalis, cujus assecla fuit, et ex cujus authoritate et imperio illam suam artem exercebat, ab administratione Reipublicæ remotus esset, et dignitate privatus, ipse omnium voce, qui aliquid de eo intellexerant, ad supplicium posceretur. Hoc enim affirmare possum, qui Londini tum adfui et voces audivi, adeo etiam ut per civitatem universam rumor circumferretur, eum in carcerem fuisse detrusum, et propediem productum iri ad supplicium. Nec vero populus ullum spectaculum libentius expectabat, nec ille rumor ex alia re nascebatur, nisi quod omnes eum sciebant omni supplicio dignum." Poli Apolog. ad Car. V. Imperat. pp. 126, 127.