which matter is the rather to be consulted upon,
for that the said Cranmer is already
attainted."--_MS. Privy Council Register._ The
answer of the judges I have not found, but it must
have been unfavourable to the intentions of the
court. Joan Bocher was burnt under the common law,
for her opinions were condemned by all parties in
the church, and were looked upon in the same light
as witchcraft, or any other profession definitely
devilish. But it was difficult to treat as heresy,
under the common law, a form of belief which had so
recently been sanctioned by act of parliament.]

The tempers of men were never worse than at that moment, Renard wrote.
In the heat of the debate, on the 28th of April, Lord Thomas Grey was
executed as a defiance to the liberal party. Gardiner persuaded the
queen, perhaps not without reason, that he was himself in danger of
being arrested by Paget and Pembroke;[322] and an order was sent to
the Lieutenant of the Tower that if the chancellor was brought thither
under warrant of the council only, he was not to be received.[323]

[Footnote 322: Renard to Charles V., May 13: _Rolls
House MSS._]

[Footnote 323: Noailles.]

On the other hand, twelve noblemen and gentlemen undertook to stand by
Mary if she would arrest Paget and Pembroke. The chancellor, Sir
Robert Rochester, and the Marquis of Winchester {p.136} discussed
the feasibility of seizing them; but Lord Howard and the Channel fleet
were thought to present too formidable an obstacle. With the queen's
sanction, however, they armed in secret. It was agreed that, on one
pretence or another, Derby, Shrewsbury, Sussex, and Huntingdon should
be sent out of London to their counties. Elizabeth, if it could be
managed, should be sent to Pomfret, as Gardiner had before proposed;
Lord Howard should be kept at sea; and, if opportunity offered,
Arundel and Paget might, at least, be secured.[324]

[Footnote 324: Renard to Charles V., May 13:
Tytler, vol. ii.]

But Pomfret was impossible, and vexation thickened on vexation. Lord
Howard was becoming a bugbear at the court. Report now said that two
of the Staffords, whom he had named to co