had been pronounced, every one had free liberty to think and speak as he pleased.  So great, indeed, was the anxiety to disprove Catherine’s assertion that England was a locus suspectus, and therefore that the cause could not be equitably tried there, that even in the distribution of patronage there was an ostentatious display of impartiality.  Not only had Sir Thomas More been made chancellor, although emphatically on Catherine’s side; but Cuthbert Tunstal, who had been her counsel, was promoted to the see of Durham.  The Nun of Kent, if her word was to be believed, had been offered an abbey,[364] and that Henry permitted language to pass unnoticed of the most uncontrolled violence, appears from a multitude of informations which were forwarded to the government from all parts of the country.  But while imposing no restraint on the expression of opinion, the council were careful to keep themselves well informed of the opinions which were expressed, and an instrument was ready made to their hands, which placed them in easy possession of what they desired.  Among the many abominable practices which had been introduced by the ecclesiastical courts, not the least hateful was the system of espionage with which they had saturated English society; encouraging servants to be spies on their masters, children on their parents, neighbours on their neighbours, inviting every one who heard language spoken anywhere of doubtful allegiance to the church, to report the words to the nearest official, as an occasion of instant process.  It is not without a feeling of satisfaction, that we find this detestable invention recoiling upon the heads of its authors.  Those who had so long suffered under it, found an opportunity in the turning tide, of revenging themselves on their oppressors; and the country was covered with a ready-made army of spies, who, with ears ever open, were on the watch for impatient or disaffected language in their clerical superiors, and furnished steady reports of such language to Cromwell.[365]

Specimens of these informations will throw curious light on the feelings of a portion at least of the people.  The English licence of speech, if not recognised to the same extent as it is at present, was certainly as fully practised.  On the return of the Abbot of Whitby from the convocation at York in the summer of 1532, when the premunire money was voted, the following conversation was reported as having been overheard in the abbey.

The prior of the convent asked the abbot what the news were.  “What news,” said the abbot, “evil news.  The king is ruled by a common ——­ Anne Boleyn, who has made all the spiritualty to be beggared, and the temporalty also.  Further he told the prior of a sermon that he had heard in York, in which it was said, when a great wind rose in the west we should hear news.  And he asked what that was; and he said a great man told him at York, and if he knew as much as three in England he would tell what the news were.  And he said who were they? and he said the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Wiltshire, and the common ——­ Anne Boleyn."[366]