1538.]
THE EXETER CONSPIRACY.
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Only in one instance was the demolition of a shrine marked by anything peculiar.
The aim from the beginning of the movement, both of the King and the Parliament, had been to represent their measures, not as new things, but as a reassertion of English independence, a revival of the historical policy of the English kings. From the defeat of Henry II., on the death of Becket, to the accession of the House of Lancaster, the Plantagenet princes had fought inch by inch for the recovery of the ground which had been lost. After sleeping a century and a half, the battle had recommenced; and the Crown was determined to inaugurate its victories by the disgrace and destruction of the famous champion whose spirit still seemed to linger in the field. August 18.On the 18th of August Cranmer informed the vicegerent that he suspected that the blood of St Thomas of Canterbury shown in the cathedral was an imposture, like the blood of Hales, 'a feigned thing, made of some red ochre, or such like matter.'[1] He desired that there might be an investigation, and mentioned Dr Legh and his own chaplain as persons fitted for the conduct of it. The request appears to have been granted, and the suspicion about the blood to have been confirmed.[2] The opportunity was taken to settle accounts in full with the hero of the Eng-