his counsel and chamber. But Dr. London took occasion All the foresaid seized papers and writings were put The conspiratorsare into a chest, and brought up to Lambeth; the king being imprisoned. minded to peruse them, and to punish the principals. In fine, divers of the chief of the knot were committed to prison, where they remained till the next year, some more closely confined than others; all during the archbishop's pleasure. All that the archbishop required of them was repentance and recantation, and an ingenuous confession. of their faults and falseness to him. Abiding for some time under affliction, their spirits began to mollify; and then, by supplicatory letters to the archbishop, they begged his pardon, made their confessions, and desired their liberty. lease. About which time a parliament was at hand. Then 122 great labour was made by their friends for a general Their repardon from the king, procuring him a subsidy, the easier to obtain it. Which indeed followed, and wiped away all punishment, and correction for their fault. But without the king's indulgence they were like suddenly to have had their liberty by the archbishop's intercession for them, being a man that delighted not in revenge. fessions and In the before-mentioned manuscript volume, belonging The conto Benet College, whence I have extracted most of these letters. relations, are remaining the interrogatories prepared for Dr. London, wrote by the archbishop's own hand, together with the humble confessions and letters of Willoughby, Gardiner, Serles, Milles, Sentleger, and others concerned. Some of which I have transcribed into the Appendix. XXXIII. Numb. rators. Gardiner's expressions seemed so penitent, styling the archbishop his father, that it made such an impression upon the archbishop's heart, that when he saw him next, he told him, "Ye call me father; in good faith I will be a father to you indeed." Yet this very man, so ungrateful he was, that soon after this kind reconciliation of the archbishop to him, and, (as it seems,) his deliverance out of prison, he and the rest had fresh communications together again insomuch that the archbishop was fain to enter upon a new trouble with them, putting them under restraint again, and interrogating them concerning their late communication. Unless this letter of Gardiner writ unto his grace may admit of a more favourable interpretation: : "Most honourable father; unadvisedly, as God shall save me, I have offended your grace; and I think not the contrary, but that some back friend hath done me more hurt and hinderance than I have at your grace's hands deserved. For I know well in mine own conscience I have nothing so highly offended, as I do perceive that your grace is informed of me. In good faith I speak it of my conscience, and before God, I would I were under ground. For now have I lost that, which I never thought to lose again yea, that of which had I was as glad as ever I was of benefit received in this world, as knoweth my Saviour Christ Jesus: who preserve your grace. "Yours, Will. Gardiner." The ends of But while these things were transacted at Canterbury, the conspion the archbishop's behalf, against these false accusers, Dr. London, one of the great incendiaries, was censured at Windsor. For he, and one Symons a lawyer, and Ockham, that laid traps for others, were catched at length themselves. They were men that busied themselves in framing indictments upon the Six Articles, against great numbers of those that favoured or professed the gospel, and in sending them to court to Winchester", who was to prefer the complaints to the council. The king being more and more informed of their base conspiracies, and disliking their bloody dispositions, commanded the council should search into the matters. And so London and his fellows, being examined before the said council, were in 123 the end found to be perjured in denying, upon their oaths, what they had indeed done, and was proved manifestly to their faces. Hereupon they were adjudged perjured persons, and appointed to ride through Windsor, Reading, and Newbury, where they had done most mischief, with their faces towards the horse-tail, and a paper upon their heads, declaring their crime; and to stand upon the pillory in each of those towns. And that punishment they underwent, and then were sent to the Fleet. London not long after died there, probably out of shame and sorrow this was the end of one of these conspirators. German Gardiner was a year after hanged, drawn and quartered, as a traitor, for denying the king's supremacy. And the bishop of Winchester after this never had favour or regard of the king more. And Heywood, another of the crew of the informers and witnesses, was condemned for treason with Gardiner; but making a recantation, his life was spared. The arch bishop ac fore the ration of Cranmer. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE ARCHBISHOP FALLS INTO MORE TROUBLES. AFTER this, the archbishop received two terrible shocks more, if I am right in the placing them, as I think I am, though I leave Foxe to follow Morice, the archbishop's secretary, in his manuscript declaration of the said archbishop. The former was a complaint that was made openly against him in parliament; and the latter, when the lords of the privy council accused him unto the king, and required that he should be sent to the tower. Sir John Gostwick, a knight for Bedfordshire, a man of cused be- great service in his time, but papistical, stood up in the house, and laid to his charge his sermons and lectures, parliament. MS. decla- both at Sandwich and Canterbury, containing, as he archbishop said, manifest heresy against the sacrament of the altar. Though it was much they should accuse him in that point, seeing he then held a corporeal presence; but it displeased them that it was after the Lutheran way, rather than after theirs of transubstantiation. But the king perceived easily this proceeded of malice, for that he was a stranger in Kent, and had neither heard the archbishop preach nor read there. Knowing thereby that he was set on, and made an instrument to serve other men's purposes; the king marvellously stormed at the matter, calling Gostwick openly varlet, and said, "That he had played a villanous part, to abuse in open parliament the primate of the realm, especially being in favour with the prince as he was. What will they do with him," said he, "if I were gone?" Whereupon the king sent word unto Gostwick, by one of his privy chamber, after this sort: "Tell the varlet Gostwick, that if he do not acknowledge his fault unto my lord of Canterbury, and so reconcile himself towards him that he may become his good lord, I will soon both make him a poor Gostwick, and otherwise punish him, to the example of others. He wondered," he said, "he could hear my lord of Canterbury preaching out of 124 Kent, and that if he had been a Kentish-man, he might have had some more shadow to put up an accusation against him." Now Gostwick, hearing of this grievous threat, came with all possible speed unto Lambeth, and there submitted himself in such sorrowful case, that my lord out of hand not only forgave all his offences, but also went directly unto the king for the obtaining of the king's favour; which he obtained very hardly, and upon condition that the king might hear no more of his meddling that way. x ["Such therefore as had conceived deep rancour and displeasure against him, ceased not to prosecute him by all possible means. Then they brought against him a new kind of accusation, and caused sir John Gostwick, knight, a man of contrary religion, to accuse the archbishop openly in the parliamenthouse, laying to his charge his sermons preached at Sandwich, and his lectures read at Canterbury, wherein should be contained manifest heresies against the sacrament of the altar, &c., which accusation came to the king's ear. 'Why, (quoth the king,) where dwelleth Gostwick ? as I take it either in Bedford This happened, I suppose, shire or Buckinghamshire, and |