on two matters of grave magnitude—the prosecution of Gardiner, and the great vestment controversy.
The Duke of Somerset was again powerful. In the signatures of the council to public Acts his name once more headed the list. On the 28th of May he carried the nomination of Hooper to the bishopric of Gloucester, against a vehement opposition;[1] and he showed a disposition to re-assert his old pretensions, which alarmed either the jealousy or the regard of Warwick.[2] In some directions, however, he was inclined to use his recovered influence wisely. Ashamed perhaps of the part which he had himself borne in the treatment of the Bishop of Winchester, he moved in council, on the 8th of June, that, considering the Bishop's long imprisonment, if he would now conform himself and be obedient, he should be restored to his diocese.[3] The Duke, Bedford, Northampton, Petre, and the Earl of Wiltshire, went to Gardiner to the Tower, taking with them a copy of the Prayer-book. If he would accept it without reserve, they told him he should be released.
- ↑ John ab Ulmis to Bullinger: Epistolæ Tigurinæ.
- ↑ Whalley to Cecil, June 26, 1550: MS. Domestic, vol. x. State Paper Office. This letter has been printed by Mr Tytler, and introduced by him into his defence of Somerset; but he has mistaken the date by a year, and on the date his argument turns.
- ↑ Council, Records, MS.
men at arms in ordinary, as well for the safety of his Majesty's person as for the stay of his unquiet subjects, and for other service at all events, which, after long disputation, was thought and concluded upon as a thing very necessary.'—Privy Council Records, MS. February 25, 1550–51. From the accounts of subsequent musters and reviews, nine hundred or a thousand seems to have been the number of men maintained.
