he lyfe and passion of Saint Amphabel, whiche conuerted saint
Albon to the fayth of Christe_, of which John Lydgate was the author. It
was printed at the request of Robert Catton, abbot of the monastery, and
it would seem as if Herford's press was situated within the abbey
precincts. The next book, _The confutacyon of the first parte of Frythes
boke ... put forth by John Gwynneth clerk_, 1536, 8vo, was the work of
one of the monks of the abbey, who in the previous year had signed a
petition to Sir Francis Brian on the state of the monastery (_Letters
and Papers, Henry VIII._, vol. ix. p. 394). Another of the signatories
to that petition was Richard Stevenage, who was at that time chamberer
of the abbey, and was created abbot on the deprivation of Robert Catton
in 1538. Of the three books which Herford printed in that year, two were
expressly printed for Richard Stevenage. These were _A Godly disputation
betweene Justus and Peccator and Senex and Juvenis_, and _An Epistle
agaynste the enemies of poore people_, both octavos, of which no copies
are now known. In some of Herford's books is a curious device with the
letters R. S. intertwined on it, which undoubtedly stand for Richard
Stevenage. His reign as abbot was a short one, for on 5th December 1539
he delivered the abbey over to Henry VIII's commissioners. Just before
that event, on the 12th October, he wrote a letter to Cromwell in which
the following passage occurs:--

'Sent John Pryntare to London with Harry Pepwell, Bonere and Tabbe,
of Powlles churchyard stationers, to order him at your pleasure.
Never heard of the little book of detestable heresies till the
stationers showed it me.'--(_Letters and Papers, Hen. VIII._, Vol.
xiv., Pt. 2, No. 315.)

The 'John Pryntare' can be none other than John Herford. 'Bonere' was a
misreading for _Bonham_, and these three, Pepwell, Tab, and Bonham, all
of them printers or booksellers in St. Paul's Churchyard, were evidently
sent down especially to inquire into the matter.

We next hear of John Herford as in London in 1542, but meanwhile a
modification of Stevenage's device was used by a London printer named
Bourman. From the _Letters and Papers of Henry VIII._, vol. xv. pp. 115,
etc., it appears that after his retirement from the abbey, Richard
Stevenage went by the name of Boreman. He is invariably spoken of as
'Stevenage _alias_ Boreman,' so that the Nicholas Bourman, the London
printer, was perhaps