Page:Landholding in England.djvu/101

 the man who hunted out victims with most diligence, was Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, who retained office under every Government. So did William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke; so did Sir William Petre. It was they who forced the unwilling gentry to witness executions, and thanked those who went unasked. It was not the bishops. "Of 14 bishoprics," says Sir James Mackintosh, "the Catholic prelates used their influence so successfully as to prevent bloodshed in 9, and to reduce it within limits in the remaining 5. Justice to Gardiner requires it to be mentioned that his diocese was of the bloodless class." Gardiner saved Ascham when Sir Francis Inglefield tried to cite him to the Council. Bonner received a sharp reprimand from the Council, on two days of May 1555, for his slackness; and Foxe has preserved the words in which he complained of the task laid upon him by his "betters"—the Lords of the Council. The motive of his "betters" was not bigotry—they had changed their religion three times, and were ready to change it again; and they had sent Catholics to the stake in Edward's time as cheerfully as they now sent Protestants. But it must be remembered that the Reformers only opposed the persecution of "the Gospel." Cranmer and Ridley had caused Edward to issue a manifesto in which he was made to declare that as Moses put blasphemers to death, so ought a Christian prince, especially when called "Defender of the Faith," to "eradicate the cockle in the field of God's Church," and "cut out the gangrene that it might not spread." Latimer, justifying the execution of Admiral Seymour, preached that a brave death is no sign whatever of a man's being in the right, or a true man. Did not the Anabaptists that were burnt in divers towns in England go intrepidly to their death? "Well, let them go."

It is better that we should realise this. We shall be the less tempted to excuse the robbery of the poor, which was the instant result of the suppression of the monasteries, and we shall be less inclined to believe that the English