Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/47

1537.] The materials for the prosecution were complete. It remained to proceed with the trials. But I must first mention the fate of the prisoners from Lincolnshire, who had been already disposed of. In their case there was not the complication of a pardon. They had been given up hot-handed by their confederates, as the principal instigators of the rebellion. More than a hundred seem to have been sent originally to the Tower. Upwards of half of these were liberated after a short imprisonment. On the 6th of March Sir William Parr, with a special commission, sat at Lincoln, to try the Abbot of Kirkstead, with thirty of the remainder. The Lincoln jury regarded the prisoners favourably; Thomas Moigne, one of the latter, spoke in his defence for three hours so skilfully, according to Sir William Parr's report, that 'but for the diligence of the King's Serjeant,' he and all the rest would have been acquitted. Ultimately the Crown secured their verdict: the Abbot, Moigne, and another were hanged on the following day at Lincoln, and four others a day or two later at Louth and Horncastle. The commission petitioned for the pardon of the rest. After a delay of a few weeks the King consented, and they were dismissed.

Twelve more, the Abbot of Barlings, one of his monks, and others who had been concerned in the murder of the chancellor, were then brought to the bar in