Note 589 — Chapter XVII

Richard Pate, a priest of high Anglican views, and now minister at the Imperial court, supplied the Emperor’s silence by his own enthusiasm. He wrote to Henry an ecstatic letter on the “fall of that wicked man who, by his false doctrines and like disciples, so disturbed his Grace’s subjects, that the age was in manner brought to desperation, perceiving a new tradition taught.” “What blindness,” he exclaimed, “what ingratitude is this of this traitor’s, far passing Lucifer’s, that, endeavouring to pluck the sword out of his sovereign’s hand, hath deserved to feel the power of the same. But lauded be our Lord God that hath delivered your Grace out of the bear’s claws, as not long before of a semblable danger of the lioness!”—Pate to Henry VIII.: State Papers, Vol. VIII. p. 364.