1549.]
FALL OF THE PROTECTOR.
443
Norfolk insurgents he was believed distinctly to approve, and even to have been in private communication with their leaders.[1] For several weeks they were unmolested. The city of Norwich was free to them to come and go. The mayor himself, partly by compulsion, had sat with Ket as joint assessor under the oak, and had been obeyed when he advised moderation. The ultimate intention, so far as the people had formed an intention, was to give a lesson to the gentlemen and to reform the local abuses. They had no thought, like the western rebels, of moving on London, or moving anywhere. They were in permanent session on Mousehold Hill, and there they seemed likely to remain as long as there
- ↑ Before censuring Somerset for what he did not do, one ought to be able to judge what he was able to do; and before blaming his communications, one ought to know what they were. It is certain, however, that, when the insurrection was put down, he pardoned and dismissed many prisoners who were sent to London for trial. Ket himself was not punished till after the Duke's deposition from the Protectorate, and his leniency was approved and perhaps advised by Latimer. The following letter of Sir Anthony Aucher to Cecil, written on the 10th of September, shows the feeling with which the aristocratic party regarded both Latimer and Somerset:—'Under pretence of simplicity there may rest much mischief, and so I fear there doth in these men called Commonwealths, and their adherents. To declare unto you the state of the gentlemen—I mean as well the greatest as the lowest—I assure you they are in such doubts that almost they dare touch none of them, not for that they are afraid of them, but for that some of them have been sent up and come away without punishment. And that Commonwealth, called Latimer, hath gotten the pardon of others, and so they speak manifestly, that I may well gather some of them to be in jealousy of my Lord's friendship; and, to be plain, think my Lord's Grace rather to will the decay of the gentlemen than otherwise. There was never none that ever spake as vilely as these called Commonwealths does.'—MS. Domestic, Edward VI. vol. viii. State Paper Office.
