far and wide. The tract is entitled 'A miraculous work of late done at Court-of-Strete in Kent, published to the deuoute people of this tyme for their spiritual consolation, by Edward Thwaytes, Gent,' 1527. Immediately afterwards Elizabeth left Aldington, at the alleged command of the Virgin, for the priory of St. Sepulchre at Canterbury, where a cell was assigned her, with Bocking as her confessor and attendant. There her prophetic powers quickly developed, and she assumed the title of the Nun of Kent. She prophesied throughout 1527 and 1528, not only on all questions of national interest, but on the private circumstances of visitors who flocked to her cell and offered her fees for her services. 'Divers and many as well great men of the realm as mean men and many learned men, but specially many religious men, had great confidence in her, and often resorted to her.' Friendly monks of Christ Church supplied her secretly with sufficient information to enable her to escape serious error in her prophecies, and she maintained her reputation by long fastings, by self-inflicted wounds which she attributed to her combats with the devil, and by stories of her ascents to heaven by way of the priory chapel. From time to time her oracles were collected, and in 1528 Archbishop Warham showed one collection to Henry VIII, who refused to attach any weight to them, and Sir Thomas More, who also examined them at the king's request, spoke of them at this time as 'such as any simple woman might speak of her own wit.' But More had already done much indirectly to give permanence to Elizabeth's fame. He published (in ch. xvi. of his Dialogue on catholic practices, 1528) a categorical statement of his belief in the divine inspiration of Anne Wentworth, 'the maid of Ipswich,' a daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth of Ipswich, who, although only twelve years old, had in 1527 imitated most of Elizabeth's early experiences, and had then retired to the abbey of the Minories (Cranmer's Works, Parker Soc. p. 65). Anne afterwards withdrew her pretensions to the gift of prophecy. William Tindal repeatedly denounced both Elizabeth of Kent and Anne of Ipswich as impostors from 1528 onwards (cf. his Obedience of a Christen Man, 1528, p. 327, and his Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (1530), p. 91, in Parker Soc. edition of Tyndale's Works). But only a few of the bolder reformers appear to have wholly discredited Elizabeth's claims to divine inspiration at this date.
As soon as the king's intention of procuring a divorce from Queen Catherine was known at Canterbury, Elizabeth largely increased her influence by passionately inveighing against it, 'in the name and by the authority of God.' She publicly forbade the divorce, and prophesied that if any wrong were offered Queen Catherine, Henry 'should no longer be king of this realm .... and should die a villain's death.' Archbishop Warham was easily convinced by her; and her bold words led him to revoke his promise to marry the king to Anne Boleyn. On 1 Oct. 1528 he wrote at the nun's request to Wolsey, begging him to grant her an interview. Wolsey assented, and, it is said, was confirmed by the girl in his repugnance to the divorce. After the cardinal's death in 1531, Elizabeth declared that by her intercession he was ultimately admitted to heaven. Between 1528 and 1532 the nun was recognised throughout England as the chief champion both of Queen Catherine and of the catholic church in England. Bishop Fisher held repeated consultations with her, and wept with joy over her revelations. The monks of Sion often invited her to their house; there Sir Thomas More met her more than once, and treated her with suspicious reverence. The monks of the Charterhouse, both at London and Sheen, and the Friar Observants of Richmond, Greenwich, and Canterbury, publicly avowed their belief in her power of prophecy. The Marchioness of Exeter and the Countess of Salisbury, with many other peeresses, regularly consulted her at their own houses, and her prophecies were frequently forwarded to Queen Catherine and the Princess Mary. The pope's agents in England (Silvester Darius and Antonio Pollio) and the pope himself (Clement Vl) she threatened with certain destruction unless they worked boldly in behalf of Queen Catherine. According to her own account, Henry VIII and the relatives of Anne Boleyn sought in vain to bribe her into silence. In October 1532 Henry, accompanied by Anne Boleyn, met Francis I at Calais, and the girl asserted that her utterances alone had prevented the celebration there of the marriage of Anne with the king. When on his return from France Henry passed through Canterbury on his way to London, Elizabeth thrust herself into his presence, and made fruitless attempts to terrify him into a change of policy. She tried hard, at the same time, to obtain an audience of Queen Catherine, but the queen . prudently declined to hold any communication with her, and there appears no ground for the common assumption that both Catherine and the Princess Mary at any time compromised themselves by their relations
