NOTE BBBB. 



NOTE BBBB. 



Upon the first day of the term, when he was to take his place in court, he de 

 clined the attendance of his great friends, who offered, as the manner was, to 

 bring him to his first settling with a pomp of an inauguration. But he set out early 

 in the morning with the company of the judges and some few more, and passing 

 through the cloisters into the Abbey, he carried them with him into the chapel 

 of Henry the Seventh, where he prayed on his knees (silently, but very devoutly, 

 as might be seen by his gesture) almost a quarter of an hour ; then rising up 

 cheerfully, he was conducted with no other train, to a mighty confluence that 

 expected him in the hall, whom from the bench of the court of Chancery, he 

 greeted with this speech. 



&quot; My Lords and Gentlemen all, I would to God my former course of life had 

 so qualified me for this great place (wherein by the will of God and the special 

 favour of the King I am for a time to bestow myself) that I might have fallen 

 to my business without any farther preface or salutation, especially considering, 

 that, as the orator observes, Id ipsum dicere nunquam sit non ineptum, nisi 

 cusu est necessarium. This kind of orationing hath ever a tincture of levity, if 

 it be not occasioned by some urgent necessity. For my own part, I am as far 

 from affecting this speech, as I was from the ambition of this place ; but having 

 found by private experience that sudden and unexpected eruptions put all the 

 world into a gaze and wonderment, I thought it most convenient to break the 

 ice with this short deliberation, which I will limit to these two heads : my calling, 

 and my carriage in this place of judicature. 



&quot; For my calling unto this office, it was (as most here present cannot but 

 know) not the cause, but the effect of a resolution in the state, to change or 

 reduce the governor of this court from a professor of our municipal laws to some 

 one of the nobility, gentry, or clergy of this kingdom. Of such a conclusion of 

 state (quae aliquando incognita semper justa), as I dare not take upon me to 

 discover the cause, so I hope I shall not endure the envy. Peradventure the 

 managing of this court of equity doth Recipere magis et minus, and is as soon 

 diverted with too much as too little law. Surely those worthy lords, which to 

 their eternal fame, for the most part of an hundred years governed and honoured 



by Sir John Harrington, or by some other by his means, that I intend to make 

 his highness s son, the Duke of York, my heir j whereupon, as it is reported, 

 his highness proposeth to bestow the honour of a baron on me ; whereof as I am 

 most unworthy, so I vow to God and your lordships, I never harboured the 

 least thought or proud desire of any such matter. My mind, in my younger 

 times, hath been ever free from ambition ; and now I am going to my grave, to 

 gape for such a thing were mere dotage in me, so unworthy also, as I confess 

 unto your lordships. That this knight hath been often tampering with me to 

 that purpose, to entertain honour, and to make the noble duke my heir, is true ; 

 to whom I made that answer, as, had he either wit or honesty (with reverence 

 to your lordships be it spoken), he never would have engaged himself in this 

 business, so egregiously to delude his majesty, and wrong me. My humble 

 suit unto your lordships is, that considering this occasion hath brought me into 

 question, and in his hazard of his highness s displeasure, having never given 

 Sir John Harrington, or any man living, either promise or semblance to do any 

 such act, but upon his motions grew into utter dislike with him for such idle 

 speeches, your lordships will vouchsafe me this favour, to inform his highness 

 aright, how things have proceeded directly without my privity ; and withal, that 

 my trust is in his gracious disposition, not to conceit the worse of me for other 

 men s follies ; but that I may have free liberty with his princely leave, wherein 

 I rest most assured, to dispose of my own, as other his majesty s loyal subjects. 

 And so, most humbly recommending my duty and service to your lordships, 

 for the increase of whose honours and happiness I shall ever pray, I rest, 



&quot; Your Lordship s poor beadsman, THOMAS SUTTON.&quot; 



