BISHOP AYLMER. 135 



Bishop s men ; and good green, and so would serve for his c H A p. 

 cushions, and the coverings of his tables. * Ij 



Another story was told of him, which I put also among Wronging 

 the rank of his slanders. That one George Allen, being his & rocer - 

 the Bishop s grocer, and dying, Tho. Allen and Rich. Al- 

 worth, merchants of London, were his executors. And 

 finding in the books of the deceased the Bishop to owe 14/. 

 odd money, on Easter- Wednesday, of all the days of the 

 year, they waited upon him at his palace at London for the 

 said money, for that they were to dispose of it according to 

 the trust reposed in them. But that the Bishop called them 

 rascals and villains, saying, that he owed the deceased no 

 thing, and that he had a general acquittance to shew. But 

 when they desired him to shew his discharge, and they 

 should be satisfied, he would shew them none, but bade 

 them go sue him. And then they replied, Do you use us 

 thus for asking our due ? We would you should know, we 

 are no such vile persons. To whom the Bishop again, 

 Away, citizens ! nay, you are rascals ; you are worse than 

 wicked mammon. And so lifting both his hands, and fling 

 ing them down again, said, You are thieves, you are co 

 zeners. Take that for a Bishop s blessing ; and so get you 

 hence : and so thrust them out of doors. But when they 

 shortly after went to bring the matter to further trial, he 

 sent a messenger to them confessing the debt. Yet they 

 could not get the money to this day. 



Another of his enemies slanders was, that he kept one Keeping 

 Benison, a poor man, in the Clink, for I cannot tell how^J^&quot; 

 long, unjustly without cause. 



They threw it also as an heinous reproach on him, that Ordaining 

 he ordained his porter that waited at his gate, for a Min- 

 ister. 



These and divers other stories were but the effects of a These ca- 

 calumniating spirit ; and were either false, or, if there were 

 any truth in them, they were so put together, as to make 

 that criminal and heinous, which indeed was justifiable, or 

 at least excusable. But the libeller, to set out his pasquil, 

 raked all things by all reports from all the sycophants in 



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