attery, ignorance, derision,
contumely, discord, great swearing, drinking, hypocrisy,
fraud, superstition, deceit, conspiracy to wrong their
neighbour, and other of that kind, was had in special
favour and regard. Laud and praise be to God that
hath sent us the true knowledge. Honour and long
prosperity to our sovereign lord, and his noble council
that teaches to advance the same. Amen.

"By John Lee, your faithful bedeman, and canon of
the said monastery of Wigmore.

"Postscript. My good lord, there is in the said abbey
a cross of fine gold and precious stones, whereof one
diamond was esteemed by Doctor Booth, Bishop of
Hereford, worth a hundred marks. In that cross is
enclosed a piece of wood, named to be of the cross
that Christ died upon, and to the same hath been
offering. And when it should be brought down to the
church from the treasury, it was brought down with
lights, and like reverence as should have been done
to Christ Himself. I fear lest the abbot upon Sunday
next, when he may enter the treasury, will take away
the said cross and break it, or turn it to his own use,
with many other precious jewels that be there.

"All these articles afore written be true as to the
substance and true meaning of them, though peradventure
for haste and lack of counsel some words be
set amiss or out of their place. That I will be ready
to prove forasmuch as lies in me, when it shall like your
honourable lordship to direct your commission to men
(or any man) that will be indifferent and not corrupt
to sit upon the same, at the said abbey, where the
witnesses and proofs be most ready and the truth is
best known, or at any other place where it shall be
thought most convenient by your high discretion and
authority."

The statutes of Provisors, commonly called Premunire
statutes, which forbade all purchases of bulls
from Rome under penalty of outlawry, have been
usually considered in the highest degree oppressive;
and more particularly the public censure has fallen
upon the last application of those statutes, when, on
Wolsey's fall, the whole body of the clergy were laid
under a premunire, and only obtained pardon on payment
of a serious fine. Let no one regret that he has
learnt to be tolerant to Roman Catholics as the nineteenth
century knows them. But it is a spurious
charity, which, to remedy a modern injustice, hastens to
its opposite; and when philosophic historians indulge
in loose invective against the statesm