A
system of extortion was employed, which "the people, into whom there is
infused for the preservation of monarchies a natural desire to discharge
their princes, though it be with the unjust charge of their counsellors,
did impute unto Cardinal Morton and Sir Reginald Bray, who, as it after
appeared, as counsellors of ancient authority with him, did so second
his humours as nevertheless they did temper them. Whereas Empson and
Dudley, that followed, being persons that had no reputation with him,
otherwise than by the servile following of his bent, did not give way
only as the first did, but shaped his way to those extremities for which
himself was touched with remorse at his death."[4] The means of exaction
chiefly consisted in the fines incurred by slumbering laws, in commuting
for money other penalties which fell on unknown offenders, and in the
sale of pardons and amnesties. Every revolt was a fruitful source of
profit. When the great confiscations had ceased, much remained to be
gleaned by true or false imputations of participation in treason. To be
a dweller in a disaffected district, was, for the purposes of the king's
treasure, to be a rebel.
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