Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/265

1539.] and sundry treasons committed and done by the Abbot of Glastonbury, the certainty whereof would appear in a Book of Depositions,' which they forwarded with the accusers' names attached to their statements, 'very haut and rank treason.' The Book perhaps contained details and proofs of the connection of the Abbot with the Pilgrimage of Grace; at all events, those who desire to elevate the Abbot of Glastonbury to the rank of the martyr, confess, in doing so, their belief that he was more faithful to the Church than to the State, that he was guilty of regarding the old ways as better than the new, and that he had acted in the spirit of his belief. The Pope by his latest conduct had embittered the quarrel to the utmost. He had failed to excite a holy war against England, but three English merchants had been burnt by the Inquisition in Spain. Five more had been imprisoned and one had been tortured only for declaring that they considered Henry VIII. to be a Christian. Their properties had been confiscated, they had borne faggots and candles in a procession as san benitos, and Paul had issued a promise of indulgence to all pious Catholics who would kill an English heretic.