for it is better able to maintain a thousand men for evermore,
putting the king's good grace, nor the realm, to no cost nor charge."

"Also, concerning our sovereign lord the king's going over, this I
said, 'If I had been worthy to be his grace's council, I would
counsel his grace not to have gone over at that time of year.'"

One mode of consulting spirits was by the Beryl, by means of a speculator
or seer. Having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the
invocation peculiar to the spirit or angel he wished to call (for each
had his peculiar form of invocation), the seer looked into a crystal or
beryl, to see his answer, represented generally by some type or figure;
sometimes, though rarely, the angels were heard to speak articulately.

Different kinds of stone were also employed, and occasionally a piece of
coal. In Stapleton's confession, he mentions the _plate_ he used being
left in the possession of Sir Thomas Moore.

Other records of similar proceedings, that have been extracted from the
archives of the Record-chamber, make frequent mention of the magic
crystals or stones.

The great names mixed up with the curious transactions described in these
two documents, give additional interest to them as matters of history,
and specimens of the enlightenment prevalent among the very highest
circles of society, in the period that so immediately preceded the
Elizabethan age. A runaway monk, turning necromancer, was received into
communion with some of the noblest of the land; and an educated
gentleman, as Sir Edward Neville may be presumed to have been, hoped to
win favour by promises to discover the philosopher's stone.

Three centuries have passed, and the only traces that may be found of
these high-born credulities, lurk in the darkest corners of the darkest
alleys of poverty and ignorance.

CHAPTER VIII.
CONVENTUAL REMAINS.

_Conventual Remains_.--_St. Andrew's Hall_.--_The Festival_.--_Music_:
_Dr. Hook_, _Dr. Crotch_.--_Churches_.--_Biographical Sketches_:
_Archbishop Parker_, _Sir J. E. Smith_, _Taylor_, _Hooker_, _Lindley_,
_Joseph John Gurney_.

The sketch of the Cathedral has embraced so much of the early history of
the various religious "orders," as to render but little necessary
respecting the origin of the "freres," or friars, whose settlements, in
the city and neighbourhood, once occupied such important place in its
limits and history.

The Black Friars,