By far the greater portion of Cromwell’s correspondence during the years 1525-1529 is connected with the suppression of the monasteries or the foundation of Wolsey’s colleges. Reports and receipts of money from his agents who visited the religious houses in various parts of the country at his orders, or who superintended the works at Ipswich and Oxford, crowd in upon him with great frequency. Deeds of the sale of castles and manors, valuations and inventories of the property of various monasteries, are received by him in large numbers[71]. In these letters we frequently meet with the names of William Brabazon and Ralph Sadler, who were destined in the near future to become so well known as his agents and commissioners when he entered the King’s service. Before this period he had made the acquaintance of Stephen Vaughan, his friend and correspondent in later years, who figured in connexion with Tyndale in the Low Countries. Vaughan was certainly known to Cromwell at least as early as 1523[72]; and in 1526 was employed by the Cardinal’s servant in connexion with the college at Oxford. In April, 1527, we find Cromwell helping his friend in the recovery of certain goods lost on the sea, and in the following year Vaughan addresses a cordial letter to his benefactor, reporting various things of interest in London, and announcing that he has found so strong a chain for the wicket of Cromwell’s house at Austin Friars Gate, that it will be impossible for any one to enter by force[73]. A year later he was employed as Cromwell’s agent in the Netherlands. Though mainly occupied with Wolsey’s affairs, Cromwell’s correspondence during the years 1524-1529 shows that he still kept up his business as a lawyer independently. William Bareth writes in November, 1525, that he trusts he will solicit his matter to Mr. Rowe, and sends his wife six plovers ‘for to drynke a quart of wyn w_i_t_h_all[74]’; in August, 1526, George Monoux, alderman, promises Cromwell that if his ‘grete matier’ is brought to a safe conclusion, he shall have twenty marks[75]. A ‘lovyng l_ette_re’ from the Aldermen of our Lady’s Gild in Boston, in Dec. 1528, shows that Cromwell still retained the friendship which he probably made years before by obtaining for them the indulgences from the Pope by the offer of choice sweetmeats. It was doubtless through him that the Gild gained the privilege of supplying rare and delicate fowls for the Cardinal’s sumptuous table[76]. Cromwell also found time to correspond with Miles Coverdale, who was then at Cambridge, and who writes with enthusiasm of the pleasures of a visit to his friend in London[77].