specially galling in More's attitude of reserve. The religious reforms of the new learning were being rapidly carried out, but it was plain that the man who represented the very life of the new learning believed that the sacrifice of liberty and justice was too dear a price to pay even for religious reform. In the actual changes which the divorce brought about there was nothing to move More to active or open opposition. Though he looked on the divorce and re-marriage as without religious warrant, he found no difficulty in accepting an Act of Succession passed in 1534, which declared the marriage of Anne Boleyn valid, annulled the title of Catherine's child, Mary, and declared the children of Anne the only lawful heirs to the crown. His faith in the power of Parliament over all civil matters was too complete to admit a doubt of its competence to regulate the succession to the throne. But, by the same act, an oath recognizing the succession as then arranged, was ordered to be taken by all persons; and this oath contained an acknowledgment that the marriage with Catherine was against Scripture, and invalid from the beginning. Henry had long known More's belief on this point; and the summons to take this oath was simply a summons to death. More was at his house at Chelsea when the summons called him to Lambeth, to the house where he had bandied fun with Warham and Erasmus, or bent over the easel of Holbein. For a moment there may have been some passing impulse to yield. But it was soon over. Triumphant in all else, the monarchy was to find its power stop short at the conscience of man. The great battle of spiritual freedom, the battle of the Protestant against Mary, of the Catholic against Elizabeth, of the Puritan against Charles, of the Independent against the Presbyterian, began at the moment when More refused to bend, or to deny his convictions at a king's bidding.

XXXII.

A HOLY MISSION.-EWALD.

[Henry VIII. severed England from the papacy, and yet he did not reform the English Church. Under his young son, Edward VI., England became nominally Protestant, but the religious changes were made so rapidly that they had not time to take root among the mass of the people. On the accession of Edward's half-sister, Mary, all the religious innovations made by him and his father were annulled, and England again became Catholic. Mary chose, as her chief adviser in ecclesiastical affairs, Reginald Pole, a cardinal of the Church of Rome, whom she made archbishop of Canterbury. He was of royal blood, being a Plantagenet by descent. In consequence of his opposition to the measures of Henry VIII. he had been forced to flee to the Continent to save his life, had been prominent, for many years, in Catholic councils abroad, and, it is said, once narrowly missed an election to the papal chair. In the autumn of 1554 he was at Brussels, patiently waiting to be summoned home, in order to take part in the great work of restoring England to the old Church.]

IF Pole was ever to land in England, the present moment was as opportune for the purpose as any other. A messenger was, accordingly, dispatched to Brussels to arrange certain details. The legate was to pledge himself not to interfere with such church property as had been secularised in the last two reigns; and, as it was considered advisable that he should enter England, not as a legate, but as a prince of the Church and an Englishman, he was to comply with this decision. These points being settled, Pole prepared for his journey.

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Lord Paget and Sir Edward Hastings crossed the Channel to escort him to England. The envoys were charmed with the cardinal. Whensoever he shall be in England," they wrote to their queen, "believe that country shall fare the better for him, for he is the man of God, full of all godliness and virtue, ready to humble himself to all fashions that may do good." From Brussels to Calais his eminence traveled

by easy stages, “for his weak body,” says Paget, “ can make no great journeys, and his estate is also to be considered." At Calais he was received by the governor with every honor; the bells rang, the men-of-war in the harbor fired salutes, and an enthusiastic crowd cheered his name and mission in front of his lodgings. The next day, the weather being propitious, Pole crossed over to Dover, and, having rested the night, took horse, escorted by a powerful cavalcade of neighboring gentry, to Canterbury. As the legate passed slowly along that undulating highway, trod by the feet of so many pilgrims, which leads to the famous cathedral town, not a hostile glance was leveled at him, not an irreverent remark was heard. Some looked on in silent curiosity; others knelt in the roadway, and bent their heads beneath the blessing hand; from the throats of most of them rose the cry, “ God save your grace!" for, cardinal or no, he came of the proud stock of the Plantagenets, and in those days Englishmen thought far from lightly of the names which were then historical in the land. From Canterbury Pole rode slowly on to Rochester, where he became the guest of Lord Cobham. At Gravesend was moored the legate's barge, splendid in its trappings, and with the silver cross, which Pole had now received permission to exhibit, conspicuous at its prow. The cardinal sailed up the Thames, the river being crowded with gayly-dressed craft, and, after a voyage of three hours, landed at Whitehall Stairs, where he was received by Philip and Mary with every appearance of homage and affection. Lambeth Palace, now that Cranmer had been deposed, was assigned to him as his quarters.

St. Andrew's Day had been fixed for the solemn ceremony of restoring backsliding England to the apostolic fold, When the appointed time arrived the greatest excitement prevailed, and it was remarked that many of the lower classes, who hung about Lambeth and the palace gates, were in tears. Those who spoke disparagingly of what was about to take

place were in the minority, and but few dared to give open expression to adverse opinions. The tone of the people was reverent, and charged with deep emotion. Parliament met in the early dusk of a November afternoon at Whitehall. On a raised dais sat the king and queen, under a canopy of cloth of gold, with the cardinal on their right, his chair slightly. in advance of the royal seat. Facing the distinguished three, crowding every inch of the great hall, were the nobles and the commons, with such spectators as had obtained permission to attend. When silence had been restored, Gardyner, now lord chancellor, at the bidding of their majesties, opened the proceedings. He read from a written paper, and his words were to the effect that England, represented by her Parliament, expressed her deep repentance for her past schism and disobedience, and implored the apostolic see to receive her again into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church. The perusal finished, all eyes were fixed upon Pole. The moment that he had so long prayed for in his cell, by the waters of the Lago di Guarda, had at last arrived; the end for which he had defied sickness and fatigue had been attained; the goal of his ambition had been reached; and before him stood the once proud, rebellious England, penitent and submissive, begging grace for her misdeeds. His heart was full, and his voice trembled as he spoke a few prefatory words from his chair. England, he said, should indeed be grateful to the Almighty for bringing her to the unity of the Church and to the obedience of the see apostolic. As in the days of the primitive Church, she had been the first to be called from heathenism to Christianity, so now she was the first of the Protestant peoples to whom grace had been granted to repent her of her past heresy. If heaven, he exclaimed, rejoiced over the conversion of one penitent sinner, how great must be the celestial joy over the conversion of an entire nation! Then he rose from his seat and lifted his right hand.

The moment of reconciliation had arrived; the whole au

dience fell on their knees and awaited in the stillest silence, broken only now and then by the smothered sob of an emotion that could not be controlled, the removal of the ban of excommunication. "Our Lord Jesus Christ," said the legate, in tones that filled every corner of the chamber, “who has, through his most precious blood, redeemed and washed us from all our sins and iniquities, that he might purchase unto himself a glorious spouse without spot or wrinkle, whom the Father has appointed head over all his Church; He by his mercy absolves you, and we, by apostolic authority given unto us by the Most Holy Lord Pope, Julius the Third, his vicegerent on earth, do absolve and deliver you, and every of you, with this whole realm and the dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and from all and every judgment, censure, and pain for that cause incurred. And we do restore you again into the unity of our mother, the Holy Church, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." His words ended, there rose up from the relieved, yet awestricken, congregation "a spontaneous and repeated shout of Amen, Amen." Their majesties now made a move, followed by their subjects, to the palace chapel, where the organ pealed forth the jubilant strains of the Te Deum.

England had sworn fealty to the pope; still, the object of the legate was twofold-to have the papal supremacy acknowledged, and to stamp out the heresies that had sprung up in the English Church. A kind and amiable man in private life, Pole was severity itself when the favorite tenet of his creed was concerned. He would use all his persuasive powers to convert the heretic from his errors; but if such a one persistently refused to turn toward the light, let him at once be put away and cast into outer darkness. In the memorable Marian persecutions Cardinal Pole took a leading part. His voice was ever in favor of mercy, provided there seemed a prospect of a recantation from the heretic; but when no such hope was held out, no judge was sterner or