September 1548 aged thirty-five, and was interred Strype has, by her Chap

in the Church there.

lain Dr. Parkhurst afterwards Bishop of Norwich, the following Latin

Epitaph.

"Hoc Regina novo dormit Katharina sepulchro,
Sexus fæminei flos, honor atque decus:

Hæc fuit Henrico conjux fidissima regi:
Quem postquam è vivis Parca tulisset atrox,
Thomæ Seymero [cui tu Neptune tridentem
Porrigis] eximio nupserat illa viro:

Huic peperit natam; a partu cum septimus orbem
Sol illustrasset, mors truculenta necat.
Defunctam madidis famuli deflemus ocellis,
Humescit tristes terra Britanna genas.
Nos infelices mæror consumit acerbus,
Inter cælestes gaudet et illa choros."

"In this new tomb the Royal Katherine lies,
Flower of her sex, renowned, great, and wise;
A wife by every nuptial virtue known,
And faithful partner once of Henry's Throne.
To Seymour next her plighted hand she yields,
Seymour, who Neptune's trident justly yields;
From him a beauteous daughter blessed her arms,
An infant copy of her parents' charms.

When now seven days this tender flower had bloomed,
Heaven in its wrath, the mother's soul resumed,
Great Katharine's merit in our grief appears,
While fair Britannia dews her cheek with tears,

Our Loyal breasts with rising sighs are torn,
With saints she triumphs-we with mortals mourn."

In 1782 her ashes, according to Dr. Nash, were disturbed by some of her own sex; again in 1784, and in 1786 by himself; when she was found in

every feature as perfect as one embalmed in a Theban sarcophagus as life itself; and when last laid bare, with a wreath of ivy in the form of a coronet entwined round her temples ! a berry having, as it is supposed, by chance fallen there and germinated. Woman's curiosity (which he says prompted it) is proverbial, but our knowledge of womankind did not enable us to imagine any of the sex descending to the vaults of the dead to gratify it. Be this story true, or false, let us pray, that when they have run their course, they may sleep in blessings: that when they are released from the bonds of the flesh, no sound may ever reach them but that of the last Trump, when the dead shall be raised incorruptible and all shall be changed. Should it be, that retributive justice, for this sacrilege, await them in the grave, let us hope, that they may be found as calmly serene, and as perfect in death, as KATERYN PARR.

On the leaden envelope was found this Inscription:

Christopher Baqubrigg".

CARDINAL OF ST. PRAXEDE, LEGATE TO THE COURT OF ROME, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, MASTER OF THE ROLLS, &c.

1460-1514.

"O Cromwell, Cromwell!

Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my King, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies."

SHAKESPEAR.

mortuis nil nisi bonum is the pall which the hand of Charity commonly throws over the memory of the dead; but Charity, sublime and Godlike as it is, like every other virtue has its stated limits, beyond which it ceases to be. As we cannot here in a few words ascertain its just boundary line, we must be content with saying that as a rule of action, the maxim can have no place in Biographical History, nor indeed in any Public Record meant for the instruction or edification of mankind. On History's page, whether winged for the future or but for life's little day, Truth-the white-robed son of

* It is sometimes written Bainbrigg, and sometimes Bainbridge, but he himself signed it as above.

Light-reigns supreme over all; the Will and Understanding are alike vassals to his throne; let their allegiance for an instant be withdrawn, and the scribe becomes, like every liar, brave towards God and a coward towards man. Hence our bounden duty here, in the lives of Baynbrigg and Curwen especially, waiving aside this false Form of Charity, to set about the task with loins girt with Truth, and our feet washed with pure water.

Before we proceed to the narrative of his life, we must be allowed to make another remark, rather perhaps an apology, for an apparent anachronism in placing in a work purporting to commence with the Reformation, the adventures of a man who lived and died a member of the Church of Rome, and before the period usually assigned to the final separation of this Island from her power. The inconsistency lies only in appearance, in reality there is none; for when we calmly and dispassionately consider the course of things, when with the eye of reason we survey the world as it passes by us, when the difficulty, if not impossibility of determining the punctum indifferens (where the arterial and venous blood of the system social as well as physical commingles-where the one ends and the other begins) is acknowledged, surely no great impropriety (if any) will be laid to our charge, for carrying back the first Reformation-movement to the commencement of the reign of Henry the 8th. Indeed if the German Historians are right, we might

go back still further: this however is enough for our measure*.

Wolsey, the great child of fortune, destined so soon to succeed Baynbrigg in his honours at York and Rome in all their dignities and dangers, was from an humble stock, but fashioned to much honor. Our Cardinal was nobili ortus familia+was of a noble stock, and no less fashioned to much honor. Such is the race of life. He was born at Hilton (Bacon) in the County of Westmorland about the year 1460: according to Anthony Wood Hiltona (ut fertur) secus Applebeiam natus; and Dr. Burn seems to think that he was born at Burton in the Parish of Warcop; but we adhere, after much consideration and research to Hilton as founded on sounder data and better authority.

Concerning his school days we are quite at fault. The first quest of him is in Queen's College Oxford; and of the course of his studies there, of his general demeanor, of the hopes and expectations

For the same reason might have been included in these Memoirs the Life of Thomas Langton, Bishop of Winchester (1493) born at Appleby, Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, &c. and that of Bishop Redman, but it is necessary to draw the line somewhere, and we begin with the learned Cardinal.

+ Godwin.

See Wood's Ath. Oxon. 116 (Edit Bliss); Godwin and Surtees Hist. of Durham.

§ This College was founded in 1340, by Robert Egglesfield, Confessor to Philippa Queen of Edward iii. (from whence it is called Queen's College) for a Provost and 12 Fellows, since increased to 16, to be chosen from the counties of Cumberland and