ce,
to pass the dormitory door when she pleased--a privilege of which the
Statute uncharitably hints that she availed herself for a less respectable
purpose. But whatever was her secret conduct, her outward behaviour was in
full keeping with her language and profession. She related many startling
stories, not always of the most decent kind, of the attempts which the
devil made to lead her astray. The devil and the angels were in fact
alternate visitors to her cell, and the former, on one occasion, burnt a
mark upon her hand, which she exhibited publicly, and to which the monks
were in the habit of appealing, when there were any signs of scepticism in
the visitors to the priory. On the occasion of these infernal visits,
"great stinking smokes" were seen to issue from her chamber, "savouring
grievously through all the dorture;" with which, however, it was suspected
subsequently that a paper of brimstone and assafoetida, found among her
property after her arrest, had been in some way connected. We smile at
these stories, looking back at them with eyes enlightened by scientific
scepticism; but they furnished matter for something else than smiles when
the accounts of them could be exhibited by the clergy as a living proof of
the credibility of the Aurea Legenda,--when the subject of them could be
held up as a witness, accredited by miracles, to the truth of the old
faith, a living evidence to shame the incredulity of the Protestant
sectaries. She became a figure of great and singular significance; a "wise
woman," to whom persons of the highest rank were not ashamed to have
recourse to inquire of her the will of God, and to ask the benefit of her
intercessory prayers, for which also they did not fail to pay at a rate
commensurate with their credulity.[325]

This position the Nun of Kent, as she was now called, had achieved for
herself, when the divorce question was first agitated. The monks at the
Canterbury priory, of course, eagerly espoused the side of the queen, and
the Nun's services were at once in active requisition. Absurd as the
stories of her revelations may seem to us, she had already given evidence
that she was no vulgar impostor, and in the dangerous career on which she
now entered, she conducted herself with the utmost skill and audacity. Far
from imitating the hesitation of the pope and the bishops, she issued
boldly, "in the name and by the authority of God," a solemn prohibition
against the king; threatening t