Friars; Monasticism and religious orders -- England
After the kyng had kept the booke in his bosome iij. or iiij. dayes, as is
credibly reported, such knowledge was giuen by the kynges seruauntes to
the wife of ye sayd Symon Fishe, yat she might boldly send for her
husband, without all perill or daunger. Whereupon she thereby beyng
incouraged, came first and made sute to the kyng for the safe returne of
her husband. Who vnderstandyng whose wife she was, shewed a maruelous
gentle and chearefull countenaunce towardes her, askyng "where her husband
was." She aunswered, "if it like your grace, not farre of[f]." Then sayth
he, "fetch him, and he shal come and go safe without perill, and no man
shal do him harme," saying moreouer, "that hee had [had] much wrong that
hee was from her so long:" who had bene absent now the space of two yeares
and a halfe,
Which from Christmas 1526 would bring us to June 1529, which
corroborates the internal evidence above quoted. FOX evidently now
confuses together two different interviews with the King. The first
at the Court in June 1529; the other on horseback with the King,
followed afterwards by his Message to Sir T. MORE in the winter of
1529-30, within six months after which S. FISH dies. His wife never
would have been admitted to the Court, if she had had a daughter ill
of the plague at home.
In the whiche meane tyme, the Cardinall was deposed, as is aforeshewed,
and M[aster]. More set in his place of the Chauncellourshyp.
Thus Fishes wife beyng emboldened by the kynges wordes, went immediatly to
her husband beyng lately come ouer, and lying priuely within a myle of the
Court, and brought him to the kyng: which appeareth to be about the yeare
of our Lord. 1530.
When the kyng saw hym, and vnderstood he was the authour of the booke, he
came and embraced him with louing countenance: who after long talke: for
the space of iij. or iiij. houres, as they were ridyng together on
huntyng, at length dimitted him, and bad him "take home his wife, for she
had taken great paynes for him." Who answered the kyng agayne and sayd, he
"durst not so do, for fear of Syr Thomas More then Chauncellor, and
Stoksley then Bishop of London. This seemeth to be about the yeare of our
Lord. 1530.
This bringing in of STOKESLEY as Bishop is only making confusion worse
confounded. STOKESLEY was consecrated to the see of London on the 27th
Nov. 1530. By that time, S. FISH had died of the plague which occurred in
London and its suburbs in the summer of 1530; and which was so severe,
that on 22nd June of that year, the King prorogued the Parliament to the
following 1st October. _Letters &c. HENRY VIII._ Ed. by J. S. BREWER,
M.A., IV, Part 3, No. 6469. _Ed._ 1876.
The Martyrologist, throughout, seems to be right as to his facts, but
wrong as to his dates.
The kyng takyng his signet of[f] his finger, willed hym to haue hym
reommended to the Lord Chauncellour, chargyng him not to bee so hardy to
worke him any harme.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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