apparently not beloved by either the clergy or people generally.

It was long after his time, when suspicious politicians or jealous ecclesiastics had ceased to fear or envy him, that his extraordinary merits were fully revealed to his fellow-countrymen.

Throughout Henry VIII.'s agitated, dangerous reign the great talents and efforts of many English literary men were ignored, opposed, or suppressed by political intrigue and regal despotism, perhaps even more than by popular ignorance or prejudice.

CHAPTER III

THE HOUSE OF TUDOR

LTHOUGH when the Act of Magna Charta

A was wrung from King John by an indignant

nobility all regal tyranny was thought to be either prevented or considerably checked, yet Henry VIII.'s conduct was often as arbitrary as that of any previous English sovereign. Evidently, however, this monarch, possessing a shrewdness, if not self-control, rarely combined with violent passions, always contrived to tyrannise over those in his power, and to prudently avoid all collision with others who might have defied it.'

He was far more implacable towards the nobility and statesmen, among whom, however, were some of the most learned men of the time, than he dared to be towards the lower classes. Hence his comparative popularity among the latter, despite conduct usually found incompatible with that coveted gift.

• See Macaulay's remarks on Henry's tyranny towards the nobility, and his submission or adhesion to the popular will.-"History of England," Vol. 1st, Ch. I.

It was England's fate to see some of her most learned men either executed, imprisoned, disgraced, or influenced by this fierce and practically most successful despot.

Unlike the nervous King John, or the desperate Richard III., Henry, while committing perhaps as many deliberate cruelties as either of them, by shrewdly following the spirit of his times, contrived to preserve popularity to the end of his terrible reign. Yet under his rule, two executed and two divorced queens, the executions of Lady Salisbury, Buckingham, and others, the premature death of Wolsey, broken-hearted by the king's harshness, and the execution of Sir Thomas More, alike prove Henry's implacable temper and almost absolute

power.

Sir T. More, Wolsey's successor in the Chancellorship, showed, even in youth, a great taste for literature. This inclination was remarked by the celebrated writer Erasmus, who, fortunately for the learned world, was no subject of Henry VIII. Both he and Luther about this time engaged the earnest attention of most thoughtful minds in western Europe by their theological views. Although each favoured the Reformation, they differed seriously from one another. I

More was a sincere Catholic, and his opinions were for some time shared by his royal master. But on Henry's conversion or inclination to Protestantism,

' Hallam's "Literary History," Vol. 1st.

More refused to own the king's religious supremacy as head of the English Church, and his refusal being thought equivalent to treason, he was executed. In his fanciful book, "The Utopia," this luckless statesman apparently sought relief from the troubles of public life in a world of imagination. Nothing in it denoted revolutionary intentions. None of his works were very popular, or much known in England, being only appreciated by a few learned men. The irritated king therefore decided on More's execution, without incurring popular anger, while gratifying his temper and vindicating his new assumptions.

During Henry's reign theological works producing and caused by religious differences chiefly occupied the British literary mind. They seemed for a time to almost replace those industrious translations and studies of classic works to which British literary thought had hitherto been chiefly devoted. In fact, theological disputes, intrigues, and interests were at their height during Henry VIII.'s reign. Cardinals, bishops, and learned reformers argued, preached, studied, and wrote, while the king, with mingled sagacity, intense selfish pride, and political prudence, never so united before in an English sovereign, really triumphed over all parties in turn. He evidently watched, or was well apprised of, the changes in English opinion with a rare, observant accuracy. He died almost, if not quite, as popular as he lived, after a career of tyrannical cruelty unsurpassed in

1 Hume's "History."

English history, without being endangered by revolution, or even attempted assassination.

The religious faith of England was now, for the first time in Christian history, in process of change. This change, however, was only that of Christian divisions. It left the chief doctrines of the faith and its political history unaltered. No new revelation, no discovery or intelligence derived from Syria, the seat of the Gospel history, aided the disputants. The construction put on Christianity by the Popes and the Reformers, the charges of superstition against the former and of heresy against the latter, chiefly engaged the thoughts, arguments, and attention of western Europe. The effect of this religious contest upon the English intellect was most important, engrossing, and permanent.

No previous English king was ever involved in the religious disputes of his subjects like Henry VIII. At this momentous period of English thought it was fated that the king who nominally ruled and legally checked or encouraged it should be a man of implacable temper, violent passions, yet great shrewdness.2 He really followed or accompanied the changing opinions of England while seeming to guide and direct them. The influence of opposing theologians in this reign almost eclipsed that of other literary men. At its beginning Cardinal Wolsey was preeminent, and at its close the Protestant Archbishop

1 Hume's "History." Also Macaulay's remarks on Henry VIII.'s successful home policy." History of England," Vol. 1st.

2

Macaulay's "History of England," Vol. Ist.