Not only was his language violent in the extreme, but his acts were equally merciless when his passions were aroused.

Appointed chancellor after the fall of Wolsey, he did not scruple to hit the man who was down, describing {295} him, in a scathing speech in Parliament, as the scabby wether separated by the careful shepherd from the sound sheep.

In his hatred of the new opinions he not only sent men to death and torture for holding them, but reviled them while doing it.

"Heretics as they be," he wrote, "the clergy doth denounce them.

And as they be well worthy, the temporality doth burn them.