The pilgrim Author:William Thomas Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A Relation of a Conference had between. William Thomas, Clerk of the Council to King Edward VI., and certain Italian Gentlemen in his Travels, touching the Actio... more »ns o/KiNG Henry VIII., entitled Peregrine. Anno 1546. He that dieth with honour liveth for ever, And the defamed dead recovereth never. r ONSTKAINED by misfortune to abandon the V place of my nativity, and to walk at the random of the wide world; in the month of February, and after the Church of England the year of our Lord God 1546, it happened me to arrive in the city of Bonony in the region of Italy; where, in company of certain gentlemen, known to be an Englishman, I was earnestly apposed of the nature, quality, and customs of my country, and especially of divers particular things touching the estate of our King's Majesty Henry the 8th, who then nearly was departed out of this present life. And albeit that my gross intelligence extended not to the sufficient satisfaction of those important questions that were there demanded of 1ne, yet, to avoid occasioning of discourtesy towards those courteous gentlemen who so courteously provoked me, and to learn of them some notable things worth the knowledge (and being, as they were, men of singular reputation and judgment), I enterprised liberally to commune with them and to say mine opinion touching the things in question. The discourse whereof I have thought good to put in writing, not only for the private defence of that noble Prince whose honour hath been wrongfully touched, but also for the general satisfaction of them whose ears may happen to be occupied with unjust and false rumours ; beseeching thee, therefore, gentle reader, to accept the truth of mine intent without offence, in case thine appetite should move thee to mislike my report: for, surely, if thou set...« less