ing to their
universal distribution and the freemasonry among themselves, the secret
disposition of every family in England was intimately known to them. No
movement, therefore, could be securely overlooked in which these orders
had a share; the country might be undermined in secret; and the
government might only learn their danger at the moment of explosion.

[Sidenote: Arrest of the Nun and five monks.]

[Sidenote: She confesses.]

[Sidenote: A list is obtained of the persons who were implicated with
her.]

No sooner, therefore, were the commissioners in possession of the
general facts, than the principal parties--that is to say, the Nun
herself and five of the monks of Christ Church at Canterbury--with whom
her intercourse was most constant, were sent to the Tower to be
"examined,"--the monks it is likely by "torture," if they could not
otherwise be brought to confession. The Nun was certainly not tortured.
On her first arrest, she was obstinate in maintaining her prophetic
character; and she was detected in sending messages to her friends, "to
animate them to adhere to her and to her prophecies."[197] But her
courage ebbed away under the hard reality of her position. She soon made
a full confession, in which her accomplices joined her; and the
half-completed web of conspiracy was ravelled out. They did not attempt
to conceal that they had intended, if possible, to create an
insurrection. The five monks--Father Bocking, Father Rich, Father Rysby,
Father Dering, and Father Goold--had assisted the Nun in inventing her
"Revelations": and as apostles, they had travelled about the country to
communicate them in whatever quarters they were likely to be welcome.
When we remember that Archbishop Warham had been a dupe of this woman,
and that even Wolsey's experience and ability had not prevented him from
believing in her power, we are not surprised to find high names among
those who were implicated. Vast numbers of abbots and priors, and of
regular and secular clergy, had listened eagerly; country gentlemen
also, and London merchants. The Bishop of Rochester had "wept for joy"
at the first utterances of the inspired prophetess; and Sir Thomas More,
"who at first did little regard the said revelations, afterwards did
greatly rejoice to hear of them."[198] We learn, also, that the Nun had
continued to _communicate with "the Lady Princess Dowager" and "the Lady
Mary, her daughter_."[199]

[Sidenote: The Countess of Salisb