Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 2.djvu/229

1534.] of the use or the abuse which was made at such a time of so vast a power; but Cromwell, whose especial gift it was to wind himself into the secrets of the clergy, had his sleuth-hounds abroad, whose scent was not easily baffled. The long tyranny of the priesthood produced also its natural retribution in the informations which were too gladly volunteered in the hour of revenge; and more than one singular disclosure remains among the State Papers, of language used in this mysterious intercourse. Every man who doubted whether he might lawfully abjure the Pope, consulted his priest. Haughton, the Prior of Charterhouse, in all such cases, declared absolutely that, the abjuration might not be made. He himself refused openly; and it is likely that he directed others to be as open as himself. But Haughton's advice was as exceptional as his conduct. Father Forest, of Greenwich, who was a brave man, and afterwards met nobly a cruel death, took the oath to the King as he was required; while he told a penitent that he had abjured the Pope in the outward, but not in the inward man, that he 'owed an obedience to the Pope which he could not shake off,' and that it was 'his use and practice in confession, to induce men to hold and stick to the old fashion of belief.'

Here, again, is a conversation which a treacherous penitent revealed to Cromwell; the persons in the