Sir Thomas More a little before he was arraigned and condemned (in the year of our Lord 1535, and in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth), being shut up so close in prison in the Tower that he had no pen nor ink, wrote with a coal a pistle in Latin to Master Anthony Bonvisi (merchant of Luke and then dwelling in London), his old and dear friend, and sent it unto him, the copy whereof here followeth.

Good Master Bonvisi Of All Friends Most Friendliest, and to Me Worthily Dearliest Beloved, I Heartily Greet You.

Sith my mind doth give me (and yet may chance falsely but yet so it doth) that I shall not have long liberty to write unto you, I determined therefore while I may to declare unto you by this little epistle of mine how much I am comforted with the sweetness of your friendship, in this decay of my fortune.