“Sire, as I was on the point of closing this letter, a gentleman of the Court came to me from the King his master to tell me not to be surprised that Cramvel had been sent to the Tower, and that as the common, ignorant people as usual spoke of it variously, and in such a manner as to mislead one, I might think and write accordingly, he wished me to know the truth, and the reason why he had taken him all invested in authority as he was”. He goes on to say that the King, according to his own statement, wished to settle religious matters in England on a Catholic basis, and was opposed by Cromwell, who was in league with the German Lutherans, and working against his master and the Acts of Parliament; that he had betrayed himself, and said that he hoped to do away with the old preachers, so that the new ones would be listened to, adding that “the affair would soon be brought to such a pass, that the King with all his power would not be able to prevent it, but that his own party would be so strong that he would make the King descend to the new doctrines, even if he had to take arms against him, in which case, he reckoned that he would not be inferior but rather superior in power, and able to establish that which he had long proposed to do”.[241] This was Henry’s version of his minister’s disgrace, and there was, beyond doubt, an element of truth in it, but the immediate irritating cause of Henry’s displeasure was, as we shall presently see, Cromwell’s guilt in providing him with a wife whom he disliked, and his inability to release him from a bond, for the forming of which he was mainly responsible. Meanwhile, Marillac gives an interesting description of Cromwell’s arrest:—