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K. Henry. 8. The death of Cardinall Wolsey. Humfrey Mummuth.

shoprikes of Yorke and Winchester, with great plentie of substance, & had licenced hym to lye in his dioces of Yorke, where he so continued the space of a yeare.MarginaliaThe Cardinall complayneth to the Pope, of the king. But after, in the yeare following, which was. 1531. he being in his dioces, wrot to þe Court of Rome, and to diuers other Princes letters in reproch of the king, and in as much as in him lay, he styrred them to reuenge his cause against the king and his realme, in so much, that diuers opprobrious words against the king, were spoken to Doct. Edward Keerne, the kinges Oratour at Rome, and it was said to hym, that for the Cardinalles sake, the king should haue the woorse speede in the suite of his matrimonie. The Cardinall also would speake fayre to the people to winne their harts, and declared euer, that he was vniustly and vntruely ordered, which fayre speaking made many men beleue that he saide true: & to Gentlemen he gaue great gyftes, to allure them vnto hym: and to be had in more reputatiō among the people,MarginaliaThe Cardinalls proude iourney toward Yorke. he determined to be installed or inthronised at Yorke, with al the pompe that might be, and caused a throne to be erected in the Cathedral Church, in such an height and fashion, as was neuer seene, and sent to all the Lordes, Abbots, Priors, Knightes, Esquiers, and Gentlemen of his dioces, to be at his manor of Cawod the sixt day of Nouēber, and so to bring hym to Yorke, with all maner of pompe and solempnitie.

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The king which knewe his doynges and priuie conueiance, al this yeare dissembled the matter, to see what he would do at length, tyl that he saw his proud hart so highly exalted, that he would be so triumphātly installed, without making the king priuie, yea and in maner, in disdaine of the king, thought it not meete nor conuenient to suffer hym any longer, to cōtinue in his malitious & proud purposes and attemptes: wherefore he directed his letters to the Earle of Northumberland, willyng hym with al diligence, to arrest the Cardinal, & to deliuer hym to the Earle of Shrewsbury, great Steward of the kinges housholde. When the Earle had seene the letters, he with a conueniēt number came to the Manor of Cawod the fourth day of Nouemb. and whē he was brought to the Cardinal in his chāber,MarginaliaThe Cardinall arested. he said to him, my Lord, I pray you take patiēce, for here I arrest you. Arrest me, said þe Cardinal? Yea, said the Earle, I haue a commaundement so to do. You haue no such power, said the Cardinal, for I am both a Cardinall and a Legate De Latere, and a Pere of the College of Rome, & ought not to be arrested by any tēporal power, for I am not subiect to that power, wherfore if you arrest me, I wyl withstand it. Wel, said the Earle, here is the ktnges commission (which he shewed hym) and therfore I charge you to obey. The Cardinall somewhat remembred hym selfe, and said, Wel my Lord, I am content to obey, but although that I by negligence fel into the punishment of the Premunire, and lost by the law all my landes and goodes, yet my person was in the kinges protection, and I was pardoned that offence, wherefore I maruell why I nowe should be arrested & specially cōsideryng that I am a member of the Sea Apostolique, on whom no temporall man ought to lay violent handes. Wel, I see the king lacketh good counsaile. Well said the Earle, when I was sworne Wardē of the Marches, you your self told me, that I might with my staffe arrest al men, vnder the degree of a king, & nowe I am more stronger, for I haue a commission so to do, which you haue seene. The Cardinal at length obeyed, and was kept in a priuie chamber, and his goodes seased, and his officers discharged, and his Phisitiō called Doctor Augustine, was likewise arrested, and brought to the Tower by Syr Walter Welsh, one of the kings chamber. The sixt day of Nouember he was conueyed from Cawod, to Sheffeld castle, & there deliuered to the Earle of Shrewsburies keeping, tyl the kinges pleasure were knowen. Of this attachement was much communyng amongst the common people, wherefore many were glad, for he was not in the fauour of the commonaltie.

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MarginaliaThe Cardinall brought vp toward London. When the Cardinal was thus arrested, the kyng sent sir William Kingston Knight, Captaine of the Garde, and Constastle of the Tower of Lōdon, with certane yoemen of the gard, to Sheffeld, to fetch the Cardinal to the Tower. When the Cardinall saw the Captaine of the Garde, he was sore astonished, and shortly became sicke, for then he perceiued some great trouble toward him,MarginaliaThe Cardinall poysoneth him selfe. and for that cause mē said that he willingly toke so much quātitie of a strong purgatiō that his nature was not able to beare it. Also the matter that came frō hym was so blacke, that the stayning therof could not be gottē out of hys blāckets by any meanes. But sir William Kingston comforted hym and by easie iorneyes he brought hym to the Abbey of Leycester, the. xxvij. day of Nouember, where for very feblenes of nature, caused by purgations and vomites, he dyed the seconde night folowing and in the same Abbey lyeth bured.

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It is testified by one, yet being aliue, in whose armes the said Cardinal died, that his body being dead, was black as pitch, also was so heauie, that sixe could scarse beare it. Futhermore, it dyd so stinke aboue the ground, that they were constrayned to hasten the buriall thereof in the night season, before it was day. At the which burial, such a tempest, with such a stinch there arose, that al the torches went out, and so he was throwen into the tombe, and there was layde.

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MarginaliaThe pride of the Cardinall. By the ambitious pride and excessiue worldly wealth of this one Cardinal, al men may easily vnderstand & iudge what the state and condition of all the rest of the same order (whom we cal spiritual men) were in those dayes, as well in all other places of Christendome, as especially here in England, where as the princely possessions and great pride of the Clergie, did not only farre passe and exceede the common measure and order of subiectes, but also surmounted ouer kinges and princes, and al other estates, as may well appeare by his doynges and order of his storie aboue described.

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Amongest other actes of the foresaid Cardinall, this is not to be forgotten, that he founded a newe Colledge in Oxford, for the furniture wherof, he had gathered together all the best learned he could heare of, amongest which number were these: Clarke, Tindal, Sommer, Frith, and Tauerner, with other mo: which holding in assemble together in the College, were accoūted to be heretiqes (as they called them) and thereupon were cast into a prison of the college, where saltfishe lay, through the stinke wherof the most part of them were infected,MarginaliaClarke dyed in the Cardinalls Colledge in prison. and the saide Clarke beyng a tender young man, and the most singular in learnyng amongest them al, dyed in the said prison, and other in other places in the towne, also of the same infection deceased.

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And thus hauyng deteined the Reader enough, or rather too much, with this vainglorious Cardinall, now we wyl reduce our storie again to more other fruitefull matter, and as the order of tyme requireth, first beginnyng with M. Humfrey Mummuth, a vertuous and a good Alderman of London, who in the tyme of the said Cardinal was troubled, as in the storie here foloweth.

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¶ The trouble of Humfrey Mummuth, Alderman of London.  
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Humphrey Monmouth and Thomas Hitten

The principal source for this section is a letter from Humphrey Monmouth to the Privy Council, written on 19 May 1528, found in Foxe's papers (British Library, Harleian MS 425 fo. 10 ff; transcription in John Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, Relating Chiefly to Religion and the Reformation of it (Oxford, 1822), vol. I part ii, pp. 363-8). Foxe abbreviates this text to extract this narrative from it. In the process, he suppresses Monmouth's claim to have burned all his suspected books and his correspondence with Tyndale. He also suppresses Monmouth's fulsome profession of Catholic orthodoxy in that letter, including a reference to pardons he had received on a pilgrimage to Rome and his earnestly pious statement of trust 'in God I received at Easter last past'. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials I/ii, pp. 366-7.Alec Ryrie

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MarginaliaThe story of Humfrey Mummuth. MAister Humfrey Mummuth was a right godly & sincere Alderman of London, who in the dayes of Cardinall Woolsey, was troubled and put in the Tower, for the Gospel of Christ, and for mainteinyng them that fauoured the same.

MarginaliaArticles ministred against Humfrey Mummuoth by Byshop Stokesley. Stokesley then Bishop of London, ministred articles vnto him, to the number of xxiiij. as for adhering to Luther and his opinions: for hauing and reading heretical bookes and treatises, for geuyng exhibition to William Tyndall, Roy, and such other, for helping them ouer the sea to Luther, for ministring priuie helpe to translate, as wel the Testament, as other bookes into Englishe for eatyng fleshe in Lēt, for affirming faith only to iustifie, for derogating from mens constitutions, for not praying to Saintes, not allowing Pilgrimage, auricular confession, the Popes pardons: briefly, for beyng an aduauncer of al Martin Luthers opinions. &c.

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He being of these articles examined and cast in the Tower, at last was compelled to make his sute or purgation, writing to the foresaid Cardinal, then Lord Chauncelor, and the whole Counsaile, out of the Tower. In the contentes wherof he answeared to the criminous accusation of them whiche charged hym with certaine bookes, receyued from beyond the sea: Also for his acquaintaunce with M. Tyndall.MarginaliaThe purgation and aunswere of Humfrey Mummuth to the articles. Whereunto he saide, that he denyed not, but that foure yeares then past  

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In fact in the latter part of 1523. Tyndale left Monmouth's house for the Continent in or around April 1524.

, he had heard the sayd Tyndal preach two or three sermons at S. Dunstons in the West, and afterward meeting with the said Tyndall, had certaine communication with hym concerning his liuing, who then told hym that he had none at al, but trusted to be in the Bishop of London his seruice: for then he laboured to be his chaplayne.MarginaliaTyndal refused of Byshop Stokesley to be his Chaplein. But beyng refused of the Bishop, so came againe to the saide Mummeth this examinate, and besought hym to helpe hym. Who the same tyme tooke hym into his house, for halfe a yeare, where the said Tyndal lyued (as he sayd) like a good priest, studying both night & day.MarginaliaThe temperate conuersation of W. Tyndall. He would eat but soddē meate, by his good wyl, nor drinke but smale single beere. He was neuer seene in that house to weare lynnen about hym, al the space of his being there. Whereupon the sayd Mummuth had the better likyng of hym, so that he promised hym ten pound (as he then sayd) for his father and mothers soules, and all Christen soules, which money afterward he sent him ouer to Hamborow, according to his promise. And yet not to hym alone he gaue this exhibition,

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but