lour and most
excellent in his personal endowments, but is likewise so gifted and adorned
with mental accomplishments of every sort, that we believe him to have few
equals in the world. He speaks English, French, Latin, understands Italian
well; plays almost on every instrument; sings and composes fairly; is
prudent, and sage, and free from every vice."--_Four Years at the Court of
Henry VIII._ vol. i. p. 76.

Four years later, the same writer adds,--

"The king speaks good French, Latin, and Spanish; is very religious; hears
three masses a day when he hunts, and sometimes five on other days; he
hears the office every day in the queen's chamber--that is to say, vespers
and complins."--Ibid. vol. ii. p. 312. William Thomas, who must have seen
him, says,

"Of personage he was one of the goodliest men that lived in his time; being
high of stature, in manner more than a man, and proportionable in all his
members unto that height; of countenance he was most amiable; courteous and
benign in gesture unto all persons and specially unto strangers; seldom or
never offended with anything; and of so constant a nature in himself that I
believe few can say that ever he changed his cheer for any novelty how
contrary or sudden so ever it were. Prudent he was in council and
forecasting; most liberal in rewarding his faithful servants, and even unto
his enemies, as it behoveth a prince to be. He was learned in all sciences,
and had the gift of many tongues. He was a perfect theologian, a good
philosopher, and a strong man at arms, a jeweller, a perfect builder as
well of fortresses as of pleasant palaces, and from one to another there
was no necessary kind of knowledge, from a king's degree to a carter's, but
he had an honest sight in it."--_The Pilgrim_ p. 78.

[177] Exposition of the Commandments, set forth by Royal authority, 1536.
This treatise was drawn up by the bishops, and submitted to, and revised
by, the king.

[178] SAGUDINO'S _Summary. Four Years at the Court of Henry VIII._ vol. ii.
P. 75.

[179] "The truth is, when I married my wife, I had but fifty pounds to live
on for me and my wife so long as my father lived, and yet she brought me
forth every year a child."--Earl of Wiltshire to Cromwell: ELLIS, third
series, vol. iii. pp. 22, 3.

[180] BURNET, vol. i. p. 69.

[181] Thomas Allen to the Earl of Shrewsbury: LODGE'S _Illustrations_, vol.
i. p. 20.

[182] Earl of Northumberland to Cromwell: printed by LORD HERBE