exulting at the approach of his crown of martyrdom. On the twenty-second of June the Lieutenant of the Tower having informed him, at five o'clock in the morning, that he was to suffer that day; he thanked him for his intelligence, and after sleeping soundly for two hours, dressed himself with unusual neatness, observing to his servant that it was his marriage-day.' From his extreme weakness, the Warders of the Tower were obliged to carry him in a chair to the scaffold on Tower-Hill, where he was beheaded, and the next day his head was fixed upon LondonBridge.

Thus perished, in the seventy-seventh year of his age, this excellent prelate, by a sentence which has left a foul blot on the judicial proceedings of his country. With respect to his person, he is represented as a tall, comely, robust man, though he became much emaciated in the decline of life. In his manner of living, he was regular and temperate; to the afflicted extremely compassionate, and most liberal in his charities to the poor. It would be doing injustice to his memory to omit the testimony of Erasmus (from whom he learned Greek, when an old man) that he was a man of the highest integrity, of profound learning, incredible sweetness of temper, and uncommon greatness of soul.'* may be regarded as one of the first and most active restorers of ancient learning in England. His inhuman severity, however, against the Reformers is an indelible stain upon his character.

He

* Vir non solùm mirabili integritate vitæ, verùm etiam alta et reconditâ doctrinâ, tum morum quoque incredibili comitate commendatus maximis pariter ac minimis.'

He was the author of several theological and controversial tracts in Latin and English, of little repute indeed at present; but his opinion of the King's marriage, in a letter to T. Wolsey, merits the notice of the curious.

As a specimen of his stile and manner, I subjoin a short passage from his Sermon preached at the funeral of Margaret Countess of Richmond,' which was republished by Mr. Thomas Baker in 1708. This discourse, on Luke x. 40. But Martha-came to him, and said, &c. contains not only a detailed character of the subject in a copious parallel between her and Martha, but also a striking display of the superstition of the times:

First I say, the comparison of them two may be made in four things: in nobleness of person; in discipline of their bodies; in ordering of their souls to God; in hospitalities keeping, and charitable dealing to their neighbours. In which four, the noble woman Martha (as say the doctors, entreating this gospel and her life) was singularly to be commended and praised; wherefore let us consider likewise, whether in this noble Countess may any thing like be found.

First, the blessed Martha was a woman of noble blood, to whom by inheritance belonged the castle of Bethany; and this nobleness of blood they have, which descended of noble lineage. Beside this, there is a nobleness of manners, without which the nobleness of blood is much defaced: for as Boëcius saith, If aught be good in the nobleness of blood, it

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* Printed in the Collection of Records at the end of the second volume of Collier's Ecclesiastical History.

is for that thereby the noble men and women should be ashamed to go out of kind, from the virtuous manners of their ancestry before.' Yet also there is another nobleness, which ariseth in every person by the goodness of nature, whereby full often such as come of right poor and unnoble father and mother, have great abilities of nature to noble deeds. Above all the same, there is a fourth manner of nobleness, which may be called an increased nobleness, as by marriage and affinity of more noble persons, such as were of less condition may increase in higher degree of nobleness.

In every of these I suppose this Countess was noble. First, she came of noble blood, lineally descending of King Edward III. within the fourth degree of the same. Her father was John, Duke of Somerset; her mother was called Margaret, right noble, as well in manners as in blood, to whom she was a very daughter in all noble manners: for she was bounteous and liberal to every person of her knowledge or acquaintance. Avarice and covetousness she most hated, and sorrowed it full much in all persons, but specially in any that belonged unto her. She was also of singular easiness to be spoken unto, and full courteous answer she would make to all that came unto her. Of marvellous gentleness she was unto all folks, but specially unto her own, whom she trusted and loved right tenderly. Unkind she would be unto no creature, nor forgetful of any kindness or service done to her before; which is no little part of very nobleness. She was not vengeable nor cruel, but ready anon to forget and to forgive injuries done unto her, at the least desire or motion made unto her for the same. Merciful also and piteous she was unto such as were grieved and wrongfully troubled,

and to them that were in poverty or sickness, or any other misery.

To God and to the church full obedient and tractable, searching his honour and pleasure full busily. A wariness of herself she had alway, to eschew every thing that might dishonest any noble woman, or distain her honour in any condition. Frivolous things, that were little to be regarded, she would let pass by; but the other that were of weight and substance, wherein she might profit, she would not let, for any pain or labour, to take upon hand. These and many other such noble conditions, left unto her by her ancestors, she kept and increased therein with a great diligence.

The third nobleness also she wanted not, which I said was the nobleness of nature. She had in a manner all that was praisable in a woman either in soul or body. First, she was of singular wisdom, far passing the common rate of women. She was good in remembrance, and of holding memory; a ready wit she had also to conceive all things, albeit they were right dark. Right studious she was in books, which she had in great number, both in English and in French; and for her exercise, and for the profit of others, she did translate divers matters of devotion out of the French into English. Full often she complained, that in her youth she had not given her to the understanding of Latin, wherein she had a little perceiving, specially of the Rubryshe of the Ordinal for the saying of her service, which she did well understand. Hereunto in favour, in words, in gesture, in every demeanor of herself, so great nobleness did appear, that what she spake or did, it marvellously became her.

• The fourth nobleness, which we named a nobleness gotten or increased, she had also. For albeit she of her lineage were right noble, yet nevertheless by marriage adjoining of other blood, it took some increasement.

So what by lineage, what by affinity, she had thirty kings and queens within the four degrées of marriage unto her; beside earls, marquisses, dukes, and princes. And thus much we have spoken of her nobleness.

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*

Her sober temperance in meats and drinks was known to all them that were conversant with her, wherein she lay in as great weight of herself as any person might, keeping always her strait measure, and offending as little as any creature might: eschewing banquets, rere-suppers, juiceries betwixt meals. As for fasting, for age and feebleness albeit she were not bound, yet those days that by the church were appointed, she kept them diligently and seriously, and in especial the holy Lent throughout, that she restrained her appetite to one meal of fish on the day; beside her other peculiar fasts of devotion, as St. Antony, St. Mary Magdalene, St. Katharine, with others; and, throughout all the year, the Friday and Saturday she full truly observed. As to hard clothes' wearing, she had her shirts and girdles of hair, which when she was in health, every week she failed not certain days to wear, sometime the other, that full often her skin (as I heard her say) was pierced therewith. As for chastity, though she alway continued not in her virginity, yet in her husband's days, long time before he died, she obtained of