Master Fishe receiuyng the kynges signet, went and declared hys message to the Lord Chauncellour, who tooke it as sufficient for his owne discharge, but asked him "if he had any thynge for the discharge of his wife:" for she a litle before had by chaunce displeased the Friers, for not sufferyng them to say their Gospels in Latine in her house, as they did in others, vnlesse they would say it in English. Whereupon the Lord Chauncellour, though he had discharged the man, yet leauyng not his grudge towardes the wife, the next morning sent his man for her to appeare before hym: who, had it not bene for her young daughter, which then lay sicke of the plague, had bene lyke to come to much trouble. Of the which plague her husband, the said Master Fish deceasing with in half a yeare, she afterward maryed to one Master James Baynham, Syr Alexander Baynhams sonne, a worshypful Knight of Glo[uce]stershyre. The which foresayd Master James Baynham, not long after, [1 May 1532] was burned, as incontinently after in the processe of this story, shall appeare. And thus much concernyng Symon Fishe the author of the _booke of beggars_, who also translated a booke called _the Summe of the Scripture_ out of the Dutch [_i.e. German_]. * * * * * Now commeth an other note of one Edmund Moddys the kynges footeman, touchyng the same matter. This M[aster]. Moddys beyng with the kyng in talke of religion, and of the new bookes that were come from beyond the seas, sayde "if it might please hys grace, he should see such a booke, as was maruell to heare of." The kyng demaunded "what they were." He sayd, "two of your Merchauntes, George Elyot, and George Robinson." The kyng [ap]poynted a tyme to speake with them. When they came before his presence in a priuye [_private_] closet, he demaunded "what they had to saye, or to shew him" One of them said "yat there was a boke come to their hands, which they were there to shew his grace." When he saw it, hee demaunded "if any of them could read it." "Yea" sayd George Elyot, "if it please your grace to heare it," "I thought so" sayd the kyng, "for if neede were thou canst say it without booke." The whole booke beyng read out, the kyng made a long pause, and then sayd, "if a man should pull downe an old stone wall and begyn at the lower part, the vpper part thereof might chaunce to fall vpon his head:" and then he tooke the booke and put it into his deske, and commaunded them vpon their allegiance, that they should not tell to any man, that he had sene the booke. III. To this account we may add two notices. Sir T. MORE replying in his _Apology_ to the "Pacifier" [CHRISTOPHER SAINT GERMAIN] in the spring of 1533, gives at _fol._ 124, the following account of our Author's death--