A HISTORY OF LONDON sufferer during this period of persecution was Humphrey Monmouth, who was imprisoned in the Tower. His petition explaining his motives in helping Tyndale stated he had done the same and more for many others, and apparently he satisfied the Council of his orthodoxy, for there is no record of his having abjured, and nine years later he died a rich alderman. An accusation of heresy seems at this time to have greatly impaired a merchant's credit and position in the City, for Monmouth laid special stress on the ' sorrow and shame ' it caused to him : since Christmas he had done but one-twentieth of his usual trade."' But though novelties in doctrine were still unpopular, there were signs that anti-clerical feeling was increasing in London. According to Hall, when news came of the pope's imprisonment, in 1527, 'The commonalty little mourned for it, and said that the Pope was a ruffian and was not meet for the room ' ; and few either among priests or people obeyed Wolsey's order to fast."* There had been no improvement in the relations between the clergy and citizens. The rector of St. Mary Aldermary resigned in 1526, on the advice of the archbishop, in consequence of a quarrel with his parishioners ; the curate of St. Christopher's declared that though an accusa- tion brought against him was false he would certainly be found guilty by a City jury."" In August i 527 the tithe controversy was ' like to grow to a mar- vellous great grudge in the whole City ' unless Tunstall's ' great wisdom ' could find a remedy. The Common Council in 1529 granted none of the demands of the rectors, though on the other hand it is noticeable how anxious they were to secure peace at the ' blessed time ' of Easter and to emphasize their resolve, ' as good Catholic and true Christian men,' not to withhold anything which it could be lawfully proved they owed ' to God and Holy Church.' "* Several cases of heresy are assigned by Foxe to 1529. The popular"^ rector of St. Martin Outwich got into trouble by praying publicly for the soul of Richard Hun ; three priests, one connected with St. Mary at Hill, abjured various heresies."^ One of Hacker's disciples, a leatherseller named John Tewkesbury, was persuaded by Tunstall to recant ; his opinions were those of his Lollard associates, but he had also adopted those of Tyndale as expounded in the Wicked Mammon, of which he had sold copies to others."' An attempt had been made to stop the production of heretical books by arresting some of the English settlers at Antwerp, among them a 'mass priest of St. Botolph's in London ' and a London mercer.^'" Tunstall, who in 1529 was again sent abroad on an embassy, tried to check the dissemination of Tyndale's translation by a gentler method. Augustine Packington, a London merchant living in Antwerp, hearing that he wished to buy up the Testa- '" Str)-pe, Mem. i (i), 488 ; (ii), 363. '" Hall, Chron. 19 Hen. VIII. The Londoners do not seem to have realized the ecclesiastical importance of the antipapal proclamation of Sept. 1530 (see Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. O, fol. 199^), though it was 'much mused at' ; Hall, Chron. 22 Hen. VIII. '" Z. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 2619 (for instances of Wolsey's interference with Warham's jurisdiction in the City see ibid, iv, 193, and Strjpe, Mem. i [ii], 48), 2754 ; Hennessy, Novum Repert. '" Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. O, fol. 49 et seq., 1453. Vide supra, p. 250. '" Rec. Corp. Letter Bk. N, fol. 245*, 301 ; O, fol. 15* ; L. and P. Hen. Vlll, iv, 3862. "' Foxe, op. cit. V, 27, 28. "^ Ibid, iv, 689-93. He afterwards asserted that he had been compelled to abjure, but the account given by Foxe of his trial by no means supports this statement. »" L.and P.Hen.Vm,iw, 4511, 4693, 5137, 5192, 5275, 5402, 5461, 5462, 5493; cf. Strype, Mem. I (ii), 63. 256
