n coming from heaven in
the body generate on earth." "The pope's laws
spiritual did no other but that the soul did in the
body, giving life to the same, confirming and
strengthening the same;" and that it was which the
angel signified in Christ's conception, declaring
what his authority should be, that he should sit
_super domum David_, which was a temporal reign,
_ut confirmet illud et corroboret_, as the
spiritual laws did.

The quotation is inaccurate. The words in the
Vulgate are, _Dabit illi Dominus sedem David patris
ejus: et regnabit in domo Jacob in aeternum_.

The letter contains another illustration of Pole's
habit of mind. "There was never spiritual man," he
says, "put to execution according to the order of
the laws of the realm but he was first by the canon
laws condemned and degraded; whereof there be as
many examples afore the time of breaking the old
order of the realm these last years, as hath been
delinquents. Let the records be seen. And specially
this is notable of the Bishop of ----, which, being
imprisoned for high treason, the king would not
proceed to his condemnation and punishment afore he
had the pope's bull given him...."

The historical argument proceeded smoothly up to
the name, which, however, was not and is not to be
found. Pole was probably thinking of Archbishop
Scrope, who, however, unfortunately for the
argument, was put to death _without_ the pope's
sanction.--Draft of a Letter from Cardinal Pole to
Cranmer: _Harleian MSS._ 417.]

The appeal was intended perhaps to provoke the queen to let him die
with his friends, in whose example and companionship he felt his
strength supported. But it could not be; he was the spectator of their
fate, while his own was still held at a distance before him. He
witnessed the agonies of Ridley; and the long imprisonment, the
perpetual chafing of Soto the Spanish friar, {p