Compare 1577 edition: 1 ¶ Howsoeuer this may séeme a fable, but no writ|ten veritie, & therefore esteemed as the chaffe of sum|mer flowers; yet as in the tales of A [...]sop many good morals are comprised, so the scope whereto this appa|rition tendeth being necessarie, maketh the argu|ment it selfe of the more authoritie. The end therefore being (as you sée) to reuoke the king from woorse to better, from the swines-stie of vice to the statelie throne of vertue, from the kennell of sinne to the ri|uers of sanctitie, prooueth that euen verie fictions of poets (though of light credit) haue their drift manie times to honest purpose, and therefore bring with them a competent weight of profit to the readers. So the scope of this tale being the same that Dauid pointeth at in the second psalme, when he saith,
maketh the narration it selfe (though otherwise sée|ming méere fabulous) to be somewhat authenticall. But to returne to the course of our storie, and now to saie somewhat of this Henrie the seconds sonne the yoong king, by whom the troubles were moued, (note you this) that after he had receiued the crowne togither with his said wife, they both passed the seas incontinentlie backe againe into Normandie, R. Houed. Ger. Dor. where on the seauen and twentith of September, at a ge|nerall assemblie holden within the city of Auranches in the church of the apostle S. Andrew,King Henrie purgeth him|selfe of the archbishop Beckets death. king Henrie the father, before the cardinals the popes legats, and a great number of bishops and other people, made his purgation, in receiuing an oth vpon the ho|lie relikes of the saints, and vpon the sacred euange|lists, that he neither willed, nor commanded the arch|bishop Thomas to be murthered, and that when he heard of it, he was sorie for it. But bicause he could not apprehend them that slue the archbishop, and for that he feared in his conscience least they had execu|ted that vnlawfull act vpon a presumptuous bold|nesse, bicause they had perceiued him to be offended with the archbishop, he sware to make satisfaction (for giuing such occasion) in this maner.(At vos in populos quibus est permissa potefias,Ex. G. Buch. paraph. in psal. 2.Et ius ab alta sede plebi dicitis,Errorum tenebras depellite, discite verum, &c.)
Compare 1577 edition: 1 1 In primis,O vile sub|iection vnbe|séeming a king that he would not depart from pope Alexander, nor from his catholike successours, so long as they should repute him for a catholike king.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 Item, that he would neither impeach appeales, nor suffer them to be impeached, but that they might freelie be made within the realme vnto the pope, in causes ecclesiasticall; yet so, that if the king haue the parties suspected, they shall find him suerties that they shall not procure harme or hinderance whatsoe|uer to him or to his realme.