Page:History of england froude.djvu/601

1531–2.] his return to his living, he was informed that he was to be cited before Stokesley. His friends in the neighbourhood wrote to him, evidently in great alarm, and more anxious that he might clear himself, than expecting that he would be able to do so; he himself, indeed, had almost made up his mind that the end was coming.

The citation was delayed for a few weeks. It was issued at last, on the 10th of January, 1531–2, and was served by Sir Walter Hungerford, of Farley. The offences with which he was charged were certain 'excesses and irregularities' not specially denned; and the practice of the bishops in such cases was not to confine the prosecution to the acts committed; but to draw up a series of articles, on which it was presumed that the orthodoxy of the accused person was open to suspicion, and to question him separately upon each. Latimer was first examined by Stokesley; subsequently at various times by the bishops collectively; and finally, when certain formulas had been submitted to him,