1552.]
EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.
81
Sir Edward was obeyed, being a man to whom disobedience was difficult; only it seems he gave no encouragement to the preachers. It was enough if the literal injunctions of the home Government were observed, without consigning the pulpits to voluble rhetoricians who turned their congregations into swarms of exasperated hornets.[1]
- ↑ St Leger, at the end of 1549, informed the council 'that there had been but one sermon made in the country for three years, and that by the Bishop of Meath.'—MS. Ibid.—That one experiment was enough to deter Bellingham from encouraging a second. The Bishop, after the first venture had been made, wrote a piteous account of the prospects of Protestantism, and of his own prospects, if he persisted.'After most hearty commendation, in like manner I thank you for your letter, and where by the same ye wished me to be defended from ill tongues—res est potius optabilis quam speranda. Ye have not heard such rumours as is here all the country over against me, as my friends doth shew me. One gentlewoman, unto whom I did christen a man child which beareth my name, came in great council to a friend of mine, desiring how she might find means to change her child's name. And he asked her why? and she said, because I would not have him bear the name of an heretic. A gentleman dwelling nigh unto me forbade his wife, which would have sent her child to be confirmed by me, so to do, saying, his child should not be confirmed by him that denied the sacrament of the altar. A friend of mine rehearsing at the market that I would preach the next Sunday, divers answered they would not come thereat, lest they should learn to be heretics. One of the lawyers declared to a multitude that it was great pity that I was not burned, for if I preached heresy, so was I worthy therefore; and if I preached right, yet was I worthy, for that I kept the truth from knowledge. This gentleman loveth no sodden meat, nor can skill but only of roasting. One of our judges said to myself that, it should be proved in my face that I preached against learning. A beneficed man of mine own promotion came unto me weeping, and desired that he might declare his mind unto me without my displeasure. I said, I was well content. My Lord, said he, before ye went last to Dublin, ye were the best beloved man in your diocese that ever came into it, and now ye are the worst beloved that ever came here. I asked wherefore. Why, said he, for ye have taken open part with the heretics, and preached against the sacrament of
