The Life of Alexander Barclay 367 espying him in Rheines's shop, 'Yea,' said he, 'Will not that cowl of yours be left off yet? And, if I hear by one o'clock that this apparel be not changed, thou shalt be hanged immediately for example of all others.' And so, putting his cowl away, he durst never wear it after." This incident probably took place shortly before the writing of the letters quoted above since Dynham speaks of him as "a Frere in a somewhat honester weed." From the foregoing documents we are able to gain a general idea of Barclay's activities during the period left blank by his biographers. In the Roman Church he had been a reactionary. He wished the Church to be remodeled and reformed, but from within. This led him to attack Wolsey with the result that he was compelled to flee to the continent. The next year he is brought back and charged with these attacks. But it must not be inferred from this that Barclay had become a Protestant. As he attacked Wolsey, so he apparently attacks Cromwell. It must be remembered that the Reformation in England was political as well as religious. Barclay accepted the political, but not the religious reformation. The result is that we find him a few years later preaching in Cornwall and Devonshire. He had put off his cowl, had outwardly conformed, but is attacked by the extreme party as too conservative. He has not " defaced the usurped power of the Bp. of Rome," and thinks that men are " too busy pulling down images. " Latimer himself takes up the matter and writes about it to Cromwell. These things account for the animosity of Bale, and his attacks upon Barclay's character. Bale belonged to the party of Latimer and Cromwell, and to him Barclay was a wolf in sheep's clothing. But Barclay was not within the reach of his enemies, and received preferment in the English Church. He became Vicar of Much Badew in Essex on Feb. 7, 1546, and of St. Mathew at Wokey in Somerset on March 30, of the same year. On April 30, 1552 he was presented with the rectory of All Hallows, Lombard Street, 27 but a few weeks later he died, as Newcourt's record shows, and was buried at Croyden. 28 The 27 Newcourt, Reportorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (under respective parishes named).
28 Lysons, The Environs of London (under Croyden).
