Note 4 — THE GATHERER
Reading edition
Footnote 4
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(return)
The following letter was addressed by Layton, one of the emissaries of the Dissolution, to Lord Cromwell, at the Reformation:—
"Please your worship to understand that the Abbot of Fountaynes hath so greatly dilapidated his house, wasted ye woods, notoriously keeping six ———; and six days before our coming, he committed theft and sacrilege, confessing the same; for at midnight he caused the chapleyne to stele the keys of the secton, and took out a jewel, a cross of gold with stones; one Warren, a goldsmith of the Chepe, was with him in his chamber at the hour, and there they stole out a great emerode with a rubye, the said Warren made the Abbot believe the rubye was a garnet, and so for that he paid nothing for the emerode, but £20. He sold him also plate, without weight or ounces.
"Subscribed, your poor Priest and faithful servant, R. LAYTON."