A strange thing it is to hear of the wonderful trances and
visions of Mistress Anne Wentworth, of Suffolk, which told many
men the secrets of their hearts, which they thought no man could
have told, but God only. She cut stomachers in pieces, and made
them whole again ; and caused divers men, that spake against her
delusions, to go stark mad. All which things were proved, and
openly by her confessed, to be done by necromancy and the de-
ceit of the Devil.
But yet Elizabeth Barton, called the holy maid of Courtop
Street in Kent, passed all other in devilish devices: for she could,
when she list, feign herself to be in a trance, disfigure her face,
draw her mouth awry toward the one ear; feigning that she was
thus tormented of Satan for the sins of the people, and delivered
from his power by our blessed Lady of Courtop Street, and by
her led into heaven, hell, and purgatory, and there saw all the


UNWRITTEN VERITIES. 241


joys and pains of those places ; and took upon her to prophesy of Read more
things to come, and of the King’s death. This instrument of the of ee
Devil drew into her confederacy, both of heresy and treason, holy set forth in
monks of the Charter House, obstinate (they would be called) pee ee
Observant friars of Greenwich, nice nuns of Sion, black monks Chronicle.
