"with him," adds Burnet," More's perfecu❝tions ended; for foon after he laid down the "Great Seal, which put the poor preachers at "ease."

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Luther being asked, Whether Sir Thomas More was executed for the Gofpel's fake? answered, By no means, for he was a very notable tyrant. "He was the King's chiefeft counsellor, a very "learned and a very wife man. He fhed the "blood of many innocent Christians that con"feffed the Gofpel, and plagued and tormented them like an executioner.'

"Colloq. Menfal." 464.

Yet how discordant does More's practice feem to be to his opinions! In his celebrated "Utopia" he lays it down as a maxim, that no one ought to be punished for his religion, and that every perfon might be of what religion he pleased.

FISHER,

BISHOP OF ROCHESTER.

HENRY the Eighth having demanded of the Convocation the furrender to him of the fmall Abbies in England, the Clergy in general agreed

to his requifition. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, perceiving how his brethren were inclined, thus addreffed them:

"My Lords, and the rest of my Brethren here "affembled, I pray you to take good heed to "what you do, left you do not know what you

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can and what you cannot do. For indeed the

things that are demanded at our hands are none "of ours to grant, nor theirs to whom we should "bestow them, if we fhould grant them their "defires; but they are the legacies of thofe tef"tators who have given them to the Church for

ever, under the penalty of a heavy curse im"pofed on all thofe who fhall any way go about "to alienate their property from the Church: "and besides, if we should grant these leffer

Abbies, &c. to the King, what fhall we do "otherwife than fhew him the way how in time "it may be lawful to him to demand the greater? "Wherefore, the manner of these proceedings

puts me in mind of a fable: How the axe

(which wanted a handle) came upon a time "unto the wood, making his moan to the great

trees, how he wanted a handle to work withal, "and for that cause he was conftrained to fit "idle. Wherefore he made it his request to "them, that they would be pleased to grant him one of their small faplings within the wood, to "make him a handle. So, becoming a complete

ແ

"axe, he fell to work within the fame wood; "that in process of time there was neither great દેદ nor small tree to be found in the place where "the wood stood. And fo, my And fo, my Lords, if you grant the King these smaller Monasteries, you "do but make him a handle, whereby, at his કેંદ own pleasure, he may cut down all the Cedars "within your Libanus; and then you may thank "yourselves, after you have incurred the heavy "displeasure of Almighty God."

"This fpeech," fays his Biographer, Dr. Bayley, "changed the minds of all those who were formerly bent to gratify the King's demands "herein, fo that all was rejected for that time."

Cromwell was fent to the good Bishop by the King, to know what he would do if the Pope fhould fend him a Cardinal's hat. "Sir," replied Fisher, "I know myself to be fo far "unworthy of any fuch dignity, that I think of "nothing less; but if any fuch thing should hap

pen, affure yourself I fhould improve that fa

vour to the beft advantage that I could in affifting the holy Catholick Church; and in "that refpect I would receive it upon my knees." Cromwell having reported this answer to the King, he faid, with great indignation, "Yea, is "he yet fo lufty? Well, let the Pope send him

"a Car

દ

a

Cardinal's hat when he will.

Mother of

God! he fhall wear it on his fhoulders then ; " for I will leave him never a head to fet it on."

Henry was foon afterwards as good as his word, and fent to the block one of the moft virtuous and upright prelates that his kingdom had ever produced. The Bishop met his fate with the conftancy and refignation of a martyr.

Charles the Fifth, on hearing of the death of this Prelate, told Sir Thomas Ellyot, the King of England's Ambaffador at his Court, that in killing Bifhop Fisher, his mafter had killed at one blow all the Bishops of England: " For," added he, "the Bishop was fuch an one, as for all purposes I think the King had not the like again in his realme, neither yet was he to be matched "throughout all Chriftendom."

ERASMUS,

THIS great man defcribes a custom prevalent in England in his time among the females, the discontinuance of which, as the British ladies have moft affuredly gained great attractions fince

the

the days of Erafmus, ftrangers, no lefs than natives, must most truly lament.

"Ex Angliâ, 1449

"Sunt hic in Angliâ nymphæ✶ divinis vul"tibus, blandæ, faciles. Eft præterea mos nunquam fatis laudandus, five quò venias, om

"The English," fays Mr. Barry, in his excellent work upon the Obftructions to the Arts in England, "have been "remarked for the beauty of their form even fo early as "the time of Gregory the Great, and it was one of the "motives for fending Austin the Monk amongst them. "Our women, also we fhall but flightly mention, for it would "bear too much the appearance of an infult over others, "were we to do but half justice to their elegant arrange "ment of proportions and beautiful delicate carnations."

"There is a delicate peachy bloom of complexion very "common in England (which is the fource of an infinite "truly picturefque variety, as it follows the directions and "the paffions of the mind) that is rarely and but partially "to be met with anywhere elfe, except in the fancied de"fcriptions of the Greek and Latin poets."

The celebrated Roger Ascham, in one of his letters from Augsburg, thus fpeaks of the English:

"England need fear no outward enemies; the lufty lads "verelie be in England. I have feen on a Sunday more "likelie men walking in St. Paul's Church, than I ever yet "faw in Augufta, where lieth an Emperor with a garrifon, "three Kings, a Queen, three Princes, a number of Dukes, " &c."