could in no wise be profitable to them that were dead, and could not help them.'[1]
It is hard to believe that the King's resolution was fixed, or even that his personal feelings were known to be decided against the marriage of the clergy, when a person evidently high in office could thus openly recommend to him the permission of it, and the reforming preachers at the Court had spoken freely to the same effect before him in their sermons.[2] For the present, however, this matter with the rest waited the determination of the committee of religion, who had remained ten days over their labours, and so far had arrived at no conclusions. In the interval the history of the northern rebellion was laid before the Houses, with an account of the late conspiracy of the Marquis of Exeter and Lord Montague. Bills of attainder were presented against many of those who had suffered, and in the preambles their offences were stated, though with little detail. The omission in all but two instances is not important, for the Act of Parliament could have contained only what was proved upon the trials, and the substance of the accusations is tolerably well known. A more explicit statement might have been desired and expected when a parliamentary attainder was the beginning and end of the process. The Marchioness of Exeter and the
- ↑ A Device for extirpating Heresies among the People: Rolls House MS.
- ↑ 'Nothing has yet been settled respecting the marriage of the clergy, although some persons have very freely preached before the King upon the subject.'—John Butler to Conrad Pellican, March 8, 1539: Original Letters on the Reformation, second series, p. 624.
