There can be no doubt of the grossness of many of these abuses, and the zeal against them was honest, though it would have shown more courage if it had flown at higher game; but the daily discussion of them helped to keep alive and inflame the general feeling against so great a "delinquent" as the Lord Chancellor was supposed to be.

And, indeed, two of the worst charges against him were made before the Commons.

One was a statement made in the House by Sir George Hastings, a member of the House, who had been the channel of Awbry's gift, that when he had told Bacon that if questioned he must admit it, Bacon's answer was: "George, if you do so, I must deny it upon my honour--upon my oath." The other was that he had given an opinion in favour of some claim of the Masters in Chancery for which he received L1200, and with which he said that all the judges agreed--an assertion which all the judges denied.

Of these charges there is no contradiction.[4] Bacon made one more appeal to the King (April 21).

He hoped that, by resigning the seal, he might be spared the sentence: "But now if not _per omnipotentiam_ (as the divines speak), but _per potestatem suaviter disponentem_, your Majesty will graciously save me from a sentence with the good liking of the House, and that cup may pass from me; it is the utmost of my desires.
"This I move with the more belief, because I assure myself that if it be reformation that is sought, the very taking away the seal, upon my general submission, will be as much in example for these four hundred years as any furder severity." At length, informally, but for the first time distinctly, the full nature of the accusation, with its overwhelming list of cases, came to Bacon's knowledge (April 20 or 21).