h which this order was carried
out; but not of its success, for the ideas survived the books
which contained them. A list of the books is given in Foxe (v.
566), and comprises twelve by Coverdale, twenty-eight by Bale,
thirteen by Basil (_alias_ Becon), ten by Frith, nine by Tyndale,
seven by Joye, six by Turner, three by Barnes. Some of these may
still be read, but more are non-existent. A complete account of
them and their authors would almost amount to a history of the
Reformation itself; but as they were burnt indiscriminately, as
heretical books, they have not the same interest that attaches to
books specifically condemned as heretical or seditious. Such of
them, however, as a book-lover can light upon--and pay for--are,
of course, treasures of the highest order.

Great numbers of books were burnt in the reigns of Edward VI. and
Mary, but it is not till the reign of the latter that a
particular book stands forward as maltreated in this way. And,
indeed, so many men were burnt in the reign of Queen Mary, that
the burning of particular books may well have passed unnoticed,
though pyramids of Protestant volumes, as Mr. D'Israeli says,
were burnt in those few years of intolerance rampant and
triumphant. The _Historie of Italie_, by William Thomas (1549),
is sometimes said (on what authority I know not) to have been not
merely burnt, but burnt by the common hangman, at this time. If
so, it is the first that achieved a distinction which is
generally claimed for Prynne's _Histriomastix_ (1633). The fact
of the mere burning is of itself likely enough, for Thomas wrote
very freely of the clergy at Rome and of Pope Paul III.: "By
report, Rome is not without 40,000 harlots, maintained for the
most part by the clergy and their followers." "Oh! what a world
it is to see the pride and abomination that the churchmen there
maintain." Yet Thomas himself had held a Church living, and had
been clerk of the Council to Edward VI. He was among the ablest
men of his time, and wrote, among other works, a lively defence
of Henry VIII. in a work called _Peregryne_, on the title-page of
which are these lines:

"He that dieth with honour, liveth for ever,
And the defamed dead recovereth never."

And a sadly inglorious death was destined to be his own. For,
shortly after Wyatt's insurrection, he was sent to the Tower,
Wyatt at his own trial declaring that the conspiracy to
assassinate Queen Mary when out walking was Thomas's,