Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/25

Rh of Henry VI and to see what, if any, evidence exists of an exceptional piety and religious sentiment on his part.

In 1433 the King, then a boy of twelve, went to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmund to pass the Christmas festivities. The Council, in fact, proposed to the Abbot that he should receive their royal master for a long period, and his visit to the monks lasted till St. George's Day 1434. The record of this visit states that to do honour to the guest the Abbot appointed a hundred officers of all ranks to attend upon him and his suite. Henry arrived on the eve of Christmas, and was solemnly received at the church door by Abbot Curteys and the community, and was conducted at once to pay his devotions at the shrine of the Martyr King behind the High Altar.

The King took part in all the religious ceremonies of the time, joining in the festivities and making himself acquainted with every part of the vast establishment. After the Epiphany he dispensed with the more ceremonious observances of the Abbot's palace and, taking up his abode with the Prior, enjoyed with his courtiers a mild kind of hunting. Later he went to the Abbot's house