ir own confessions
removed uncertainty; the guilt was clear--the sentence was inevitable. But
the fault of those who had been listeners only was less easy of
measurement, and might vary from comparative innocence to a definite breach
of allegiance.

The government were unwilling to press with severity on the noble lords and
ladies whose names had been unexpectedly brought to light; and there were
two men of high rank only, whose complicity it was thought necessary to
notice. The Bishop of Rochester's connection with the Nun had been culpably
encouraging; and the responsibility of Sir Thomas More was held also to be
very great in having countenanced, however lightly, such perilous schemers.

In the bill, therefore, as it was first read, More and Fisher found
themselves declared guilty of misprision of treason. But the object of this
measure was rather to warn than to punish, nor was there any real intention
of continuing their prosecution. Cromwell, under instructions from the
king, had communicated privately with both of them. He had sent a message
to Fisher through his brother, telling him that he had only to ask for
forgiveness to receive it;[687] and he had begged More through his
son-in-law, Mr. Roper, to furnish him with an explicit account of what had
passed at any time between himself and the Nun,[688] with an intimation
that, if honestly made, it would be accepted in his favour.

These advances were met by More in the spirit in which they were offered.
He heartily thanked Cromwell, "reckoning himself right deeply beholden to
him;"[689] and replied with a long, minute, and evidently veracious story,
detailing an interview which he had held with the woman in the chapel of
Sion Monastery. He sent at the same time a copy of a letter which he had
written to her, and described various conversations with the friars who
were concerned in the forgery. He did not deny that he had believed the Nun
to have been inspired, or that he had heard of the language which she was
in the habit of using respecting the king. He protested, however, that he
had himself never entertained a treasonable thought. He told Cromwell that
"he had done a very meritorious deed in bringing forth to light such
detestable hypocrisy, whereby every other wretch might take warning, and be
feared to set forth their devilish dissembled falsehoods under the manner
and colour of the wonderful work of God."[690] More's offence had not been
great. His acknow