in three hundred pounds to discharge him of the said Garret, and to see him surely to Master Proctor’s of Oxford; yet could he not have him, for the justice said that the order of the law would not so serve."[525] The fortunate captor had therefore to content himself with the consciousness of his exploit, and the favourable report of his conduct which was sent to the bishops; and Garret went first to Ilchester, and thence was taken by special writ, and surrendered to Wolsey.

Thus unkind had fortune shown herself to the chief criminal, guilty of the unpardonable offence of selling Testaments at Oxford, and therefore hunted down as a mad dog, and a common enemy of mankind.  He escaped for the present the heaviest consequences, for Wolsey persuaded him to abjure.  A few years later we shall again meet him, when he had recovered his better nature, and would not abjure, and died as a brave man should die.  In the meantime we return to the university, where the authorities were busy trampling out the remains of the conflagration.

Two days after his letter respecting the astrologer, the Warden of New College wrote again to the Diocesan, with an account of his further proceedings.  He was an efficient inquisitor, and the secrets of the poor undergraduates had been unravelled to the last thread.  Some of “the brethren” had confessed; all were in prison; and the doctor desired instructions as to what should be done with them.  It must be said for Dr. London, that he was anxious that they should be treated leniently.  Dalaber described him as a roaring lion, and he was a bad man, and came at last to a bad end.  But it is pleasant to find that even he, a mere blustering arrogant official, was not wholly without redeeming points of character; and as little good will be said for him hereafter, the following passage in his second letter may be placed to the credit side of his account.  The tone in which he wrote was at least humane, and must pass for more than an expression of natural kindness, when it is remembered that he was addressing a person with whom tenderness for heresy was a crime.

“These youths,” he said, “have not been long conversant with Master Garret, nor have greatly perused his mischievous books; and long before Master Garret was taken, divers of them were weary of these works, and delivered them to Dalaber.  I am marvellous sorry for the young men.  If they be openly called upon, although they appear not greatly infect, yet they shall never avoid slander, because my Lord’s Grace did send for Master Garret to be taken.  I suppose his Grace will know of your good lordship everything.  Nothing shall be hid, I assure your good lordship, an every one of them were my brother; and I do only make this moan for these youths, for surely they be of the most towardly young men in Oxford; and as far as I do yet perceive, not greatly infect, but much to blame for reading any part of these works."[526]