stubble," while those parts of the fabric which were formed of "gold, silver, and precious stones," endured the fiery trial: from thence arose that glorious fabric, the English Reformation, which thus was evidenced to be built upon the only true Foundation.

One of the first effects of the Reformation, as will be seen, was to sweep away the monastic system, which even in its best form was productive of serious evil. The following lines refer to this :

"And what is Penance, with her knotted thong,
Mortification, with her shirt of hair,
Wan cheek, and knees indurated with prayer,
Vigils, and fastings, rigorous as long;

If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong

The pious, humble, useful secular,

And rob the people of his daily care,

Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong?
Inversion strange! that, unto one who lives
For self, and struggles with himself alone,
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives;
That to a monk allots, in the esteem
Of God and man, place higher than to him
Who on the good of others builds his own!"

After a darker picture of monastic voluptuousness, the poet proceeds :

:

"Threats come, which no submission may assuage,
No sacrifice avert, no power dispute;

The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute,

And 'mid their choirs, unroofed by selfish rage,
The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage,
The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit;
And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.
The owl of evening, and the woodland fox,
For their abode the shrines of Waltham choose;
Proud Glastonbury can no more refuse

To stoop her head before these desperate shocks-
She whose high pomp displaced, as story tells,
Arimathean Joseph's wattled cells."

HENRY VIII.

PART III.

FROM A.D. 1535, TO A.D. 1546.

THE position of Henry was very difficult during the last ten years of his reign. In order to have right views of the events which followed his throwing off the papal yoke, it is necessary to keep in mind the high ideas of royal prerogative entertained by Henry, and submissively adopted by his subjects. The monarchs of the Plantagenet line had continually been forced to bend before their nobles, but the power of the aristocracy was materially diminished by the civil wars of the Roses; while the commonalty gained strength to afford sufficient support to the crown, yet not enough to claim much consideration from the ruling powers. Under the Tudors, the royal prerogative was carried to its fullest extent in England; the peculiarity of the times, with the abilities of Henry and Elizabeth, were favourable to the exaltation of regal power; also, notwithstanding the errors and excesses into which they were occasionally led, the commonalty prospered under their sway. One circumstance that mainly contributed to this prosperity was the downfall of popery; the removal of that fabric of superstition and ecclesiastical tyranny, which had been reared at the expense of the best interests of the nation, and pressed as a heavy weight upon its onward progress.

We have seen that the popedom was directly opposed

to Henry and his proceedings, and that the monastic orders were actively engaged in stirring up rebellion. The new pope, Paul III., ordered the king to recall the divorce, and the laws against the supremacy, or to appear at Rome to answer for himself. In case of refusal, Henry was declared to be excommunicated, his subjects were absolved from allegiance to him, the nobles were directed to take arms against their sovereign, the clergy were commanded to depart from the realm, and all foreign princes were released from their treaties and engagements with England. The adherents of Henry were to be treated as slaves, and their property taken by any one who could seize it. The actions falsely imputed to Henry by popish historians, are surely far less criminal than the deeds here sanctioned, and even commanded, by one who called himself the vicar of the Son of God upon earth. Similar measures humbled king John; the threat of them induced Henry II. to submit; but Henry VIII. was a different character, and lived in other times. Though the pope sanctioned this decree on August 30, 1535, he delayed to give publicity to its contents; they were, however, made known to Henry.

The destruction of the monasteries was now resolved upon this would weaken the papal power; it would prevent the further efforts of that body against the king, while their revenues and property would replenish the exhausted treasury; and the destruction of establishments, in many instances, justly hateful for the pride and vices of their inmates, was likely to prove a popular measure. Commissioners were sent forth to visit the monasteries, and report fully upon their state. They proceeded, at first, to visit the smaller establishments; their evidence clearly showed, that these places, in general, were wholly perverted from the original designs of their founders. Both monks and nuns were, in many instances, habitually guilty of licentiousness; some, like the prior of Bradley, gloried in their shame, and even produced the pope's sanction for their sinful

conduct. Coining and robbery were among the crimes perpetrated, and the grossest frauds were detected. Images were found moved by secret wires; the blood of a duck, renewed weekly, was shown as that of our Saviour; the most absurd relics were collected together. Many of these fraudulent deceptions were openly exhibited to the people at Paul's Cross, and other public places. At Worcester was a highly revered image of the virgin Mary. When stripped of her ornaments, it proved to be the clumsy carved statue of an ancient bishop. Others were merely gorgeous toys, yet blasphemous in their design and execution, as the following description of one will show: " A marvellous lively and beautiful image of the picture of our Lady, so called the Lady of Bolton, which picture was made to open, with gimmes from her breast downward; and within the same image was wrought and pictured the image of our Saviour, marvellous finely gilt, holding up his hands, and holding betwixt his hands a large fair crucifix of Christ, all of gold; the which crucifix was to be taken forth every Good Friday, and every man did creep into it that was in the church at that time, and afterwards it was hung up again within the said image; and every principal day the said image was opened, that every man might see pictured within her the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, most curiously and finely gilt, and both the sides within her very finely varnished with green varnish and flowers of gold, which was a goodly sight for all the beholders thereof."

In February, 1536, the parliament sanctioned the suppression of three hundred of the lesser monasteries; their revenues were calculated to be 32,000l. per annum; the valuables collected were estimated at 100,0007.; though it was evident that a considerable amount had been embezzled. In these proceedings Cromwell acted as superintendent, under the title of vicar-general, or the king's vicegerent in ecclesiastical matters; thus he carried out the scheme formed while under Wolsey's roof, a proceeding which the cardinal

I

originated. At this period the first legal provision for the poor appears among the statutes of the realm. The monastic system was one great cause of pauperism; its progress, with the change in the value of property, rendered the poor a burden on the country as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century, before the suppression of monasteries. Let it ever be remembered, that the monastic system fostered, and did not prevent pauperism, though the evil was brought more directly into public notice through the selfish proceedings of many who gained by suppressing those establishments. The year 1536 was eventful. Early in January the divorced queen Catherine died at Kimbolton. Queen Anne did not conceal her satisfaction at the removal of her predecessor. Though the king was affected by Catherine's death, and commanded his attendants to put on mourning, Anne slighted his will, by assuming a gayer garb than ordinary. She soon had cause for sorrow: the premature birth of a dead son suggested apprehensions in the mind of Henry, that his second marriage would not be more decisive than the first, as to the succession to the throne. Scripture tells us of the uncertainty of earthly things, and the insecurity of those who hold posts of honour. "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." "In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." This was realized in the history of Anne Boleyn: the court was a sphere in which she was exposed to injuries and temptations; that liveliness of disposition which had forwarded her elevation, rendered her joyous and unthinking. Her enemies watched their opportunity; they availed themselves of the falsehood and treachery of an infamous and bigoted woman, lady Rochford, the sister-in-law of Anne, to hasten her downfall, by poisoning the king's mind against her. Henry was prepared to listen to these insinuations, for the attractions of another had awakened his regards. The pro