“Pleaseth hit your Honour with my moste humble dowtye, to be advertised, that where it hath pleasyd your Lordship to be the verie meane to the King’s Majestie for my preferment, most unworthie to be Abbes of this the King’s Monasterie of Godystowe.... I trust to God that I have never offendyd God’s laws, neither the King’s, wherebie this poore monasterie ought to be suppressed. And this notwithstanding, my good Lorde, so it is, that Dr. London, whiche (as your Lordship doth well know) was agaynst my promotion, and hath ever sence borne me great malys and grudge, like my mortal enemye, is sodenlie cummynd unto me, with a great rowte with him, and here doth threaten me and my Sisters, saying that he hath the King’s commission to suppress this House spyte of my teeth. And when he saw that I was contente that he sholde do all things according to his Commission, and shewyd him playne that I wolde never surrender to his hande, being my awncyent enemye; now he begins to entreat me, and to invegle my Sisters, one by one, otherwise than ever I herde tell that the King’s subjects bathe been handelyd, and here tarieth and contynueth to my great coste and charges, and will not take my answere that I will not surrender till I know the King’s gracious commandment, or your good Lordship’s.... “And notwithstanding that Dr. London, like an untrew man, hath informed your Lordship that I am a spoiler and a waster, your good Lordship shall know that the contrary is trewe; for I have _not alienatyd one halporthe_ of goods of this monasterie, movable or unmovable, but have rather increas’d the same, nor never made lease of any farme or peece of grounde belongyng to this House, or then hath been in times paste, alwaies set under Convent Seal for the wealthe of the House. And therefore my very truste is, that I shall find the Kynge as gracious Lord unto me, as he is to _all other_ his subjects, seyng I have not offendyd.” The letter is dated from Godstow, or, as it was spelt then, Godistow, and signed-- “Your most bounden Beds Woman, “Katherine Bulkeley, _Abbes there_.” From other convents came pathetic appeals from the helpless inmates, who were threatened with loss of home and livelihood. One abbess wrote to Cromwell-- “But now as touchynge my nowne parte, I most humbly beseche yow to be so specyall good mayster unto me yowre poore bedewoman as to give me yowre best advertysment and counseyle what waye shal be best for me to take, seynge there shal be none left here but myselfe and thys poore madyn.... Trustynge and nothynge dowtynge in youre goodnes, that ye wyll so provyd for us, that we shall have syche onest lyvynge that we shall not be drevyn be necessyte nether to begge nor to fall to other unconvenyance.” The Prioress and nuns of Legborne wrote, saying--