odosius more haughtily than John Knox lectured Queen Mary and her
ministers on the vanities of Holyrood; and Catholic priests, it seems, were
not afraid to display even louder disrespect.

On Sunday, the first of May, 1532, the pulpit at Greenwich was occupied by
Father Peto, afterwards Cardinal Peto, famous through Europe as a Catholic
incendiary; but at this time an undistinguished brother of the Observants
convent. His sermon had been upon the story of Ahab and Naboth, and his
text had been, "Where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, even there shall
they lick thy blood, O king." Henry, the court, and most likely Anne Boleyn
herself, were present; the first of May being the great holy-day of the
English year, and always observed at Greenwich with peculiar splendour.
The preacher had dilated at length upon the crimes and the fall of Ahab,
and had drawn the portrait in all its magnificent wickedness. He had
described the scene in the court of heaven, and spoken of the lying
prophets who had mocked the monarch's hopes before the fatal battle. At the
end, he turned directly to Henry, and assuming to himself the mission of
Micaiah, he closed his address in the following audacious words:--"And now,
O king," he said, "hear what I say to thee. I am that Micaiah whom thou
wilt hate, because I must tell thee truly that this marriage is unlawful,
and I know that I shall eat the bread of affliction and drink the waters of
sorrow, yet because the Lord hath put it in my mouth I must speak it.
There are other preachers, yea too many, which preach and persuade thee
otherwise, feeding they folly and frail affections upon hopes of their own
worldly promotion; and by that means they betray thy soul, thy honour, and
thy posterity; to obtain fat benefices, to become rich abbots and bishops,
and I know not what. These I say are the four hundred prophets who, in the
spirit of lying, seek to deceive thee. Take heed lest thou, being seduced,
find Ahab's punishment, who had his blood licked up by the dogs."

Henry must have been compelled to listen to many such invectives. He left
the chapel without noticing what had passed; and in the course of the week
Peto went down from Greenwich to attend a provincial council at Canterbury,
and perhaps to communicate with the Nun of Kent. Meantime a certain Dr.
Kirwan was commissioned to preach on the other side of the question the
following Sunday.

Kirwan was one of those men of whom the preacher