was proved to have been suspected by Henry VIII. of a tendency towards Rome, and his name had been therefore omitted from the list of executors. He had been concerned further, three years before Henry's death, in the prosecution of various members of the royal household, when his conduct had been especially displeasing to the King:[1] and it was proved further that Henry believed he had held some secret communication with the Emperor, at the time of his last embassy, on the state of religion in England.
But for these offences he could not be plausibly punished. The prosecution, therefore, turned upon his sermon. He had complied inadequately with the royal injunctions. He had aggravated his offence by irreverent demeanour towards his judges. He was declared, therefore, to have been guilty of a misdemeanour against the commonwealth; and he was pronounced, on the 14th of February, by the president, to be deposed from his bishopric.[2] When his sentence was read, he called his judges 'heretics and sacramentaries.' The council sat the day following to determine on his further punishment; and they decided not only that he should remain in the Tower, but, whereas up to this time he
- ↑ His past history was searched with the most zealous scrutiny. Every expression which Henry ever used in his disfavour had been treasured up, and was produced against him. It is quite certain, therefore, that, if there had been so much as a basework of truth for the Protestant legend of his attempt to destroy Catherine Parr, it would have been made the most of on this occasion. I look on that story, not as exaggerated reality, but as pure unadulterated fable.
- ↑ The whole account of the proceedings, with the depositions of the witnesses, is in the sixth volume of Foxe.
