Incidents of the Reign of Henry VIII [pp. 65-83]

1882.] fNcIDENTs OF THE REIGN OF HE2vR y VffL 69
vice. In fact, poor people sent their" offerings "to him. I must
add, however, that Crumwell gave large quantities of food to the
destitute. Perhaps his conscience reminded him that he was
ki'nsJf the pitiless plunderer of the generous benefactors of the
poor.
The spy system was carried to an extreme degree both at
home and abroad by Lord Crumwell. Mr. Froude admits that
his hero "bought information anywhere and at any cost." Here
was a direct encouragement to perjury and fraud, and in too
many cases the judicial murder of honest men. Crumwell has
been described by some Puritan writers as a man "actuated by
pure and honest motives, having no approach to mean or sordid
feeling." Thomas Fuller, whose knowledge of the public men
of Henry's reign can scarcely be doubted, writes in these words
of Crumwell's contemporaries: "Courtiers keep what they catch,
and catch what they can." Thomas Crumwell set down to his
own share of the abbey lands no lcss M~an thirty inanors-no mean
proof that he was in no wise oblivious of personal interests, and
that the "information he purchased" in condemnation of the
monastic houses was worthy of the man by whom it was purchased.
Such is a brief outline of the political life of the statesman
who impeached the "grand old Countess of Salisbury." Distinguished for the best and most amiable qualities suited to adorn
her sex and station, her treatment raised an almost universal sentiment of sympathy. She appears to have been a woman with the
mind of an heroic Roman matron of old in firmness, dignity, and
fortitude. All her contemporaries speak of her as a woman of
noble, generous, and kindly nature. Whiting states that there
was "no such noble dame in all England as the Countess of Salisbury."
The Earl of Southampton and the Bishop of Ely were commanded by Lord Crumwell to arrest the Countess of Salisbury.
The report they made to the crown "on the matter with which
they were charged" exhibits in some measure the bearing and
character of this illustri6us lady:
"Yesterday [November 13] we travelled with the Lady Salisbury till almost night. She would utter and confess little or nothing more than the
first day she did, but she still stood and persisted in the denial of all. This
day, although we entreated her, sometimes with mild words, and now
roughly and aspeftly by traitoring her and her sons to the ninth degree,
yet would she nothing utter, but utterly denieth all that is objected unto
her. We suppose that there hath not been saw or heard of a woman so