KNOLE 263 



broke the endless round of civil and ecclesiastical 

 business. Few men realised so thoroughly as War- 

 ham the new conception of an intellectual and moral 

 equality before which the old social distinctions of 

 the world were to vanish away." 



Thomas Cranmer, a very different man, occupied 

 the see of Canterbury after Warham's death. Cran- 

 mer played vigorously into Henry's hands over the 

 royal divorce, and has not been left unscathed by 

 comment for diminishing the lands of his see by 

 giving the King Knole Palace, which Henry had 

 always coveted. A quaintly written letter from 

 Cranmer 's secretary attempts to vindicate his 

 master from the charge of pandering to the King's 

 whim. "As touching the exchange," urges the 

 secretary, " men ought to consider with whom he 

 had to do, especially with such a Prince, as would 

 not be bridled nor gainsaid in any of his requests. 

 My Lord, minded to have retained Knole unto 

 himself, said that it was too small a house for his 

 Majesty. ' Marry,' said the King, ' I will rather 

 have it than this house (meaning Otford), for it 

 standeth on a better soil. This house standeth 

 low and is rheumatic, like unto Croydon, where I 

 could never be without sickness ; and as for Knole, 

 it standeth on a sound, perfect, wholesome ground, 

 and if I should make abode there, as I do surely 

 mind to do, now and then, I will live at Knole, and 

 most of my house shall live at Otford.' And so 



