The English, license of speech, if not recognized to the same extent as it is at present, was certainly as fully practised. On the return of the Abbot of Whitby from the Convocation at York in the summer of 1532, when the premunire money was voted, the following conversation was reported as having been overheard in the abbey.
The prior of the convent asked the abbot what the news were. 'What news?' said the abbot, 'evil news. The King is ruled by a common Anne Boleyn, who has made all the spiritualty to be beggared, and the temporalty also. Further he told the prior of a sermon that he had heard in York, in which it was said, when a great wind rose in the west we should hear news. And he asked what that was; and he said a great man told him at York, and if he knew as much as three in England he would tell what the news were. And he said who were they? and he said the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Wiltshire, and the common Anne Boleyn.'[1]
The dates of these papers cannot always be determined; this which follows, probably, is something later, but it shows the general temper in which the clergy
- ↑ Accusation brought by Robert Wodehouse, Prior of Whitby, against the Abbot, for slanderous words against Anne Boleyn: Rolls House MS.
King or his council, and affirm the contents of the said writings to be true, and do as much, as in him shall be for the approvement of the same, that then all and every person or persons offending as aforesaid, shall be deemed and adjudged a felon or felons; and being lawfully convicted of such offence, after the laws of the realm, shall suffer pains of death and loss and forfeiture of lands, goods, and chattels, without benefit of clergy or privilege of sanctuary to be admitted or allowed in that behalf.'
