Page:History of england froude.djvu/392

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370
REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTH
[ch. 5.

Norfolk, and he says he took him in his arms and bade him welcome.'[1]

Forest, unfortunately for himself, misconstrued forbearance into fear, and went his way at last, through treason and perjury, to the stake. In the mean time the Observants were left in possession of the royal chapel, the weak brother died in prison, and the King, when at Greenwich, continued to attend service, submitting to listen, as long as submission was possible, to the admonitions which the friars used the opportunity to deliver to him.

In these more courteous days we can form little conception of the license which preachers in the sixteenth century allowed themselves, or the language which persons in high authority were often obliged to bear. Latimer spoke as freely to Henry VIII. of neglected duties, as to the peasants in his Wiltshire parish. St Ambrose did not rebuke the Emperor Theodosius more haughtily than John Knox lectured Queen Mary and her ministers on the vanities of Holyrood; and Catholic priests, it seems, were not afraid to display even louder disrespect.

May 1.On Sunday, the first of May, 1532, the pulpit at Greenwich was occupied by Father Peto, afterwards Cardinal Peto, famous through Europe ac a Catholic incendiary; but at this time an undistinguished brother of the Observants convent. His sermon had been upon the story of Ahab and Naboth, and his text had been,
  1. Lyst to Cromwell. Ellis, third series, vol. ii. p. 255. Strype, Eccles. Memor., vol. i. Appendix, No. 47.