And then my lord came thither with his chaplain, one Doctor Marshall, saying first his mattins, and heard two masses on his knees. And then after he was confessed, he himself said mass. And when he had finished mass, and all his divine service, returned into his chamber, where he dined among divers of his doctors, where as Master Cromwell dined also; and sitting at dinner, it chanced that my lord commended the true and faithful service of his gentlemen and yeomen. Whereupon Master Cromwell took an occasion to say to my lord, that in conscience he ought to consider their truth and loyal service that they did him, in this his present necessity, which never forsaketh him in all his trouble.
"It shall be well done, therefore," said he, "for your grace to call before you all these your most worthy gentlemen and right honest yeomen, and let them understand, that ye right well consider their patience, truth, and faithfulness; and then give them your commendation, with good words and thanks, the which shall be to them great courage to sustain your mishap in patient misery, and to spend their life and substance in your service."
"Alas, Thomas," quoth my lord unto him, "ye know I have nothing to give them, and words without deeds be not often well taken. For if I had but as I have had of late, I would depart with them so frankly as they should be well content: but nothing hath no savour; and I am ashamed, and also sorry that I am not able to requite their faithful service. And although I have cause to rejoice, considering the fidelity I perceive in the number of my servants, who will not depart from me in my miserable estate, but be as diligent, obedient, and serviceable about me as they were in my great triumphant glory, yet do I lament again the want of substance to distribute among them." "Why, sir," quoth Master Cromwell, "have ye not here a number of chaplains, to whom ye have departed very liberally with spiritual promotions, in so much as some may dispend, by your grace's preferment, a thousand marks by the year, and some five hundred marks, and some more, and some less; ye have no one chaplain within all your house, or belonging unto you, but he may dispend at the least well (by your procurement and preferment) three hundred marks yearly, who had all the profit and advantage at your hands, and other your servants none at all; and yet hath your poor servants taken much more pains for you in one day than all your idle chaplains hath done in a year. Therefore if they will not freely and frankly consider your liberality, and depart with you of the same goods gotten in your service, now in your great indigence and necessity, it is pity that they live; and all the world will have them in indignation and hatred, for their abominable ingratitude to their master and lord."