Latimer. They were not
among "the many noblemen" to whom the commissioners referred; for their
confessions remain, and contain no allusion to the Nun; but they were
examined at this particular time on general suspicion; and the arrest,
under such circumstances, of two near relatives of Lady Salisbury,
indicates clearly an alarm in the council, lest she might be
contemplating some serious movements. At any rate, either on her account
or on their own, the Nevilles fell under suspicion, and while they had
no crimes to reveal, their depositions, especially that of Sir William
Neville, furnish singular evidence of the temper of the times.

[Sidenote: Confession of Sir William Neville.]

The confession of the latter begins with an account of the loss of
certain silver spoons, for the recovery of which Sir William sent to a
wizard who resided in Cirencester. The wizard took the opportunity of
telling Sir William's fortune: his wife was to die, and he himself was
to marry an heiress, and be made a baron; with other prospective
splendours. The wizard concluded, however, with recommending him to pay
a visit to another dealer in the dark art more learned than himself,
whose name was Jones, at Oxford.

[Sidenote: Jones, the Oxford conjuror.]

"So after that," said Sir William [Midsummer, 1532], "I went to Oxford,
intending that my brother George and I should kill a buck with Sir Simon
Harcourt, which he had promised me; and there at Oxford, in the said
Jones's chamber, I did see certain stillatories, alembics, and other
instruments of glass, and also a sceptre and other things, which he said
did appertain to the conjuration of the four kings; and also an image of
white metal; and in a box, a serpent's skin, as he said, and divers
books and things, whereof one was a book which he said was my Lord
Cardinal's, having pictures in it like angels. He told me he could make
rings of gold, to obtain favour of great men; and said that my Lord
Cardinal had such; and promised my said brother and me, either of us,
one of them; and also he showed me a round thing like a ball of crystal.

"He said that if the King's Grace went over to France [the Calais visit
of October, 1532], his Grace should marry my Lady Marchioness of
Pembroke before that his Highness returned again; and that it would be
dangerous to his Grace, and to the most part of the noblemen that should
go with him; saying also that he had written to one of the king's
council to