His promises were, as he then was, mighty;
But his performances, as he is now, nothing;
Of his own body he was ill, and gave
The clergy ill example.

Grif.

Noble madam,

Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water. May it please your highness
To hear me speak his good now?

Kath.

I were 7 malicious else.

Grif.

Yes, good Griffith,

This Cardinal,

Though from an humble stock, undoubtedly

Was fashioned to much honour from his cradle.
He was a scholar, and a ripe and good one;
Exceeding wise, fair spoken, and persuading;
Lofty and sour to them that loved him not;
But to those men that sought him sweet as summer.
And though he were unsatisfied in getting,
(Which was a sin,) yet in bestowing, madam,
He was most princely; ever witness for him
Those twins of learning that he raised in you,
Ipswich and Oxford; one of which fell with him.
Unwilling to outlive the good that did it;
The other, though unfinished, yet so famous,
So excellent in art, and still so rising,
That Christendom shall ever speak his virtue.
His overthrow heap'd happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little.
And, to add greater honours to his age
Than man could give him, he died fearing God.

1 From Shakespeare's "Henry
VIII." Queen Katharine, first wife
of Henry VIII., died at Kimbolton
Castle, Huntingdonshire, in 1535.
2 Taint'-ed, disgraced; or attaint-
ed, guilty of treason.

3 Mules were generally ridden by church dignitaries.

4 Ye, for obj. you.

5 Stom'-ach, appetite for honours, etc.; ambition.

Sim'-o-ny, buying or selling church preferments :-named from Simon Magus, Acts viii.

7 I were. I should be.

8 Christchurch College, Oxford.

THE abolition of the Pope's power was all that the king, and perhaps a majority of the people, meant to effect by the ecclesiastical measures of his reign. Henry's plan was to maintain the Church discipline and doctrines unchanged, but to do this without the authority of the Pope.

As time went on, it became clear, however, that to stop here was impossible, for many gross abuses had grown up in the Church, and the spirit of the age demanded their reform.

Among the first to suffer were the monasteries; the idle, luxurious lives which many of the monks led, serving as a pretext for the overthrow of these institutions.

The abbeys, priories, and other large religious houses were the most beautiful buildings in England, and the land which belonged to them was the richest and best cultivated. The heads of these houses lived in princely state, but they were kind to their tenants, and charitable. There was no poor-law in England then, and the needy had no sure resource in time of sickness and distress, excepting the food, alms, and medicine which were given away at every convent and monastery. The king now seized all these houses, with everything that belonged to them. Some of the abbots resisted, and were hanged as traitors; as for the monks and nuns, they were turned out of doors with a small present of money.

In all, 3219 houses were suppressed, and their yearly income, equal to between two and three millions of our present money, was placed at the king's disposal.

Cranmer, Latimer, and others entreated that some portion of this might be devoted to pious and charitable purposes; but Henry and his courtiers were too greedy to fall in with such a suggestion. It is true that six new bishoprics were endowed,

and some of the coast defences repaired; but the bulk of the money was squandered in lavish grants to the new aristocracy.

The amount of distress caused by the suppression of these religious houses, and the confiscation 2 of their revenues, cannot easily be imagined; and many who had witnessed their overthrow with joy, soon felt that their rejoicing was premature.

The monastery lands had passed into the hands of harder landlords; and the taxes, which the people fondly hoped would now be remitted, were soon levied as if the royal coffers were no better filled than before. Nor were any means adopted to supply the poor and the sick with the relief, and the way-worn traveller with the shelter of which they had been deprived. Many, too, felt that they had sustained a great loss, when they looked at the ruined piles with which so much that was solemn in their lives was associated. No wonder then that a majority of the people wished for a return to the old state of things.

This feeling of discontent was fostered by the monks, who had been driven from their homes and scattered over the country without any adequate means of support. Popular tumults consequently took place in different parts of the country.

The most formidable of these revolts broke out in Yorkshire, and was called "The Pilgrimage of Grace," because a number of priests, bearing crosses, headed the insurgents. These risings, which were put down with more or less ease, gave work to the executioner for many months after

their suppression. In the meantime famous relics, and images, and shrines disappeared; and many of the most beautiful buildings in the kingdom were destroyed.

But while Henry had broken with Rome, and laid violent hands on Church property, he still adhered to the old religious doctrines, and refused to let any of his subjects believe what he denied, or deny. what he believed. He therefore, in 1539, embodied his views in an "Act for abolishing diversity of opinions," or the "Six Articles," which laid down what everybody was to believe about the sacrament, etc., and adjudged death by burning to those who dissented.

Protestants and Catholics alike suffered under the provisions of this measure, the former for heresy, the latter for treason. Thus Henry burned at one stake in Smithfield three men who denied the most mysterious dogma of the Catholic faith; and three others who refused to acknowledge him as the supreme head of the Church.

4

In the matter of burning, indeed, he was most impartial. He burned for small things and he burned for great. No Czar of Russia, no Sultan of Turkey was more despotic in enforcing his commands, and the nation seems to have silently acquiesced in all his wishes.

Some, however, were made of sterner stuff, and preferred to die rather than submit to the tyrant's will; and no martyrs suffered with more constancy than the adherents of the Romish Church. It is plain that those who had always held the Pope's