of her prophecy being then in existence, and of the facts being in his day undisputed. Some of those older records, which between 1641 and 1663 were reprinted with much fidelity, might possibly have been issued, if not in the lifetime of the sibyl herself, at all events in the lifetime of some of those who dwelt in York when the occurrences took place. After Cardinal Wolsey's death, Mother Shipton told Master Besley to take a jewelled pillar out of York Cathedral and to present it to Henry VIII. It might be asked how Master Besley could do this at the more instigation of an old woman, and without the consent of the Archbishop. But history shows that the See of York was vacant for nearly a year after Cardinal Wolsey's death, so that while it was in the charge of underlings, at a time when Henry VIII began to seize church property in all directions, this Mr. Besley may have had the power to do what is recorded of him. Besley's name is spelt "Beasley " in Lilly's reprint of the Shipton prophecy, and I find in Drake's Eboracum that in the year 1486 a John Beasley was one of the Sheriffs of York.
