presence of Henry himself;[1] and when she failed to produce an effect upon Henry's obdurate scepticism, she turned to the hesitating ecclesiastics, and roused their nagging spirits. The Archbishop bent under her denunciations, and at her earnest request introduced her to Wolsey, then tottering on the edge of ruin.[2] He, too, in his confusion and perplexity, was frightened, and doubted. She made herself known to the Papal ambassadors, and through them she took upon herself to threaten Clement,[3] assuming, in virtue of her divine
- ↑ Revelations of Elizabeth Barton: Rolls House MS. In the epitome of the book of her Revelations it is stated that there was a story in it 'of an angel that appeared, and bade the Nun go unto the King, that infidel prince of England, and say that I command him to amend his life, and that he leave three things which he loveth and pondereth upon, i.e., that he take none of the Pope's right nor patrimony from him; the second, that he destroy all these new folks of opinion and the works of their new learning; the third, that if he married and took Anne to wife, the vengeance of God should plague him; and as she sayth she shewed this unto the King.'—Paper on the Nun of Kent: MS. Cotton. Cleopatra, E 4.
- ↑ Ellis, third series, vol. ii. p. 137. Warham had promised to marry Henry to Anne Boleyn. The Nun frightened him into a refusal by a pretended message from an angel.—MS. ibid.
- ↑ The Nun hath practised with two of the Pope's ambassadors within this realm, and hath sent to the Pope that if he did not his duty in reformation of kings, God would destroy him at a certain day which he had appointed. By reason whereof it is supposed that the Pope hath showed himself so double and deceivable to the King's Grace in his great cause of marriage as he hath done, contrary to all truth, justice and equity. As likewise the late Cardinal of England, and the Arch-
should not be a king one day nor one hour, and that he should die a villain's death. Saying further, that there was a root with three branches, and till they were plucked up it should never be merry in England: interpreting the root to be the late Lord Cardinal, and the first branch to be the King our sovereign lord, the second the Duke of Norfolk, the third the Duke of Suffolk.—25 Hen. VIII. cap. 12.
