without any comment. The book of Articles may be divided into three parts. The first declares that the belief in the three Creeds-the Apostles', the Nicene, and the Athanasian-is necessary for salvation; the second explains the three great sacraments of Baptism, Penance, and the Holy Eucharist, and pronounces them the ordinary means of justification; and the third teaches that, though the use of images, the intercession of saints, and the usual ceremonies in the service, have not in themselves the power to remit sin, or justify the soul, yet they are highly profitable, and ought to be retained. Henry having, by these Articles, fixed the landmarks of English orthodoxy, now ordered the convocation "to set forth a plain and sincere exposition of doctrine" for the better information of his subjects. This task was accomplished by the publication of a book, entitled, "The godly and pious Institution of a Christian Man,"-a work which was subscribed by all the Bishops and dignitaries of the church, and pronounced by them to accord "in all things with the true meaning of Scripture." It explains the Creeds, the seven Sacraments, which it divides into three of a higher, and four of a lower order, the ten Commandments, the Paternoster and Ave Maria, Justification, and Purgatory. It denies the supremacy of the Pope, and inculcates passive obedience to the King; and that Sovereigns are accountable to God alone; and it is chiefly remarkable for the earnestness with which it refuses salvation to all persons out of the pale of the Catholic church. By way of concession to the men of the new learning, as well as to replenish his coffers, the King ordered a number of holidays to be abolished, shrines to be demolished, and superstitious relics to be burnt. There is one proceeding in connection with this order, which on account of its singularity and absurdity, deserves attention.

In the reign of Henry II., Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, sometime Lord High Chancellor of England, and a great champion of the rights of the church, had been murdered in his own Cathedral by four gentlemen in the King's service, who mistook for a command a rash expression of their master. The prelate was afterwards canonized by the Pope, and the

* The Archbishop having frequently given offence to the King, by opposing his designs upon the rights and property of the church, the King, one day in a transport of fury, cried out, and repeated several times, that "he cursed all those whom he had honoured with his friendship, and enriched by his bounty, seeing none of them had the courage to rid him of one Bishop, who gave him more trouble than all the rest of his subjects." Hearing these words, Sir William Tracy, Sir Hugh Morville, Sir Richard Briton, and Sir Reginald Fitz-Orson, "who," says Butler, "had no other religion than to flatter their Prince," conspired privately to murder the Archbishop, and perpetrated the sacrilegious act on the 29th of December, 1170.

anniversary of his martyrdom was consecrated to God in honour of the saint. It was now suggested to Henry VIII., that so long as the name of St. Thomas of Canterbury should remain in the calendar, men would be stimulated by his example to brave the ecclesiastical authority of their Sovereign. The King's attorney was therefore instructed to exhibit an information against "Thomas Becket, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury;" and that individual was formally cited to appear in court, and answer to the charge. The saint having neglected to quit the tomb, in which he had reposed for more than three centuries and a half, would have been decided against for default, had not the King, by his special grace, assigned him a counsel. The court sat at Westminster; the Attorney-General and the advocate of the accused were heard; and sentence was finally pronounced that Becket had been guilty of rebellion, contumacy, and treason; that his bones should be publicly burnt, and that the offerings which had been made at his shrine should be forfeited to the crown.* The sentence was executed in due form; and the gold, silver, and jewels, the spoils obtained by the demolition of the shrine, were conveyed in two ponderous coffers to the royal treasury. A proclamation was afterwards published, stating that forasmuch as it now clearly appeared that Thomas Becket had been killed in a riot excited by his own obstinacy, and had been canonized by the Bishop of Rome, the King's Majesty thought it expedient to declare that he was no saint, but rather a rebel and traitor to his Prince, and therefore commanded that he should not be esteemed or called a saint; that all images and pictures of him should be destroyed; the festivals in his honour be abolished, and his name and remembrance be erased out of all books, under pain of imprisonment. Henry, like all other Reformers, made his own judgment the standard of orthodoxy; and he executed the laws against those who differed from him, with equal rigour, both before and after his quarrel with the court of Rome. Before that event the teachers of Lollardism excited his ire; and after it he was not less eager to light the faggot for the punishment of heresy. A number of German Anabaptists landed in England in 1535; they were instantly apprehended, and fourteen of them, who refused to recant, were condemned to the flames. In 1538 more missionaries of the same sect followed, and a similar fate was awarded to them. Even Henry's own relations and friends were sacrificed on the plea of high treason or heresy. Even Cromwell, his Vicar-General and factotum, who, by cunning and servility, had raised himself from the shop of a fuller to the Earldom of Essex, and the highest seat in the House of Lords, died on the scaffold.

In 1541 the King published six articles of belief, in the form of an Act of Parliament. The 1st article declared that in the Blessed Eucharist is really present the natural body of Christ, under the forms and without the substance of bread and wine. 2nd. That communion under both kinds is not necessary ad salutem. 3rd. That priests may not marry by the law of God. 4th. That Vows of chastity are to observed. 5th. That private masses ought to be retained. And 6th. That the use of auricular confession is expedient and necessary. This statute declares that if any person preach, write, or dispute against the first article, he shall not be allowed to abjure, but shall suffer death as a heretic; or if he preach, write, or speak openly against any of the other five, he shall incur the usual penalties of felony. Thus it appears that Henry was still opposed to the Lutheran doctrines of Justification by Faith alone, &c. By law the Catholic and Protestant were now placed on an equal footing, in respect to capital punishment. If to admit the papal supremacy was treason, to reject the papal creed was heresy. The one could be expiated only by the halter and the knife; the other led the offender to the stake and the faggot. On one occasion Powel, Abel, and Featherstone had been attainted for denying the supremacy of the King; Barnes, Garret, and Jerome, for maintaining heterodox opinions-they were now coupled, Catholic and Protestant, on the same hurdles; drawn together from the Tower to Smithfield, and while the former were hanged and quartered as traitors, the latter were consumed in the flames as heretics.

The King had formerly sanctioned the publication of an English version of the Bible, and granted permission to all his subjects to peruse it; but in 1543, he had discovered that the indiscriminate reading of the holy volumes had not only generated a race of teachers who promulgated doctrines the most strange and contradictory, but had taught ignorant men to discuss the meaning of the inspired writings in alehouses and taverns, till, heated with controversy and liquor, they burst into injurious language and provoked each other to breaches of the peace. And in his last speech to the Parliament, he complained bitterly of the religious dissensions which pervaded every parish in the realm. After observing that it was partly the fault of the clergy, some of whom were "so stiff in their old mumpsimus, and others so busy in their new sumpsimus," instead of preaching the word of God, they were employed in railing at each other; and partly the fault of the laity, who delighted in censuring the proceedings of the clergy, he said: "If you know that any preach perverse doctrine, come and declare it to some of our council, or to us, to whom is committed by God the authority to reform and order such causes and behaviours; and be not judges yourselves of your own

fantastical opinions and vain expositions; and although you be permitted to read holy scripture, and to have the word of God in your mother tongue, you must understand it is licensed you so to do, only to inform your conscience, and inform your children and families, and not to dispute, and to make scripture a railing and taunting stock against priests and preachers. I am very sorry to know and hear," he added, "how irreverently that precious jewel, the word of God, is disputed, rhymed, sung, and jingled, in every alehouse and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same;

and yet I am as much sorry, that the readers of the same follow it in doing so faintly and coldly. For of this I am sure, that charity was never so faint among you, and virtuous and godly living was never less used, nor God himself among you never less served.”*

Tyndal's and Coverdale's versions of the Bible were this year (1543) ordered to be disused altogether, as "crafty, false, and untrue;" and permission to read the authorised translation, without note or comment, was confined to persons of the rank of lords or gentlemen. A new work was published in the same year, with the title of "A necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any christned Man," or the "King's Book." This book, the composition of which occupied two committees of prelates and theologians for three years, contains a more full exposition of the doctrines to be taught, than that given in a previously published book, called "The Institution," with the addition of Transubstantiation, and the sufficiency of communion under one kind. The doctrines contained in this book were approved of by both houses of convocation; and the Archbishop ordered them to be studied and followed by every preacher.

Towards the latter end of his reign, Henry became more arbitrary, both in spirituals and temporals. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishop of London, and several other prelates, were obliged to make conveyances in his favour, of many manors belonging to their different dioceses, upon very slight considerations, and these deeds were confirmed by Parliament.+

The King, who had long indulged, without restraint, in the pleasures of the table, at last became so enormously corpulent, that he could neither, support the weight of his own body, nor remove without the aid of machinery into the different apartments of his palace. Even the fatigue of subscribing his name to the writings which required his signature, was more than he could bear; and three commissioners were appointed to perform that duty.

An inveterate ulcer in the thigh, which had more than once threatened his life, and which now seemed to baffle all the skill of his surgeons, added to the irascibility of his temper; and in the latter part of the year 1546, his health was rapidly declining. In his last illness, according to one account, he was constantly attended by his confessor, the Bishop of Rochester, heard mass daily in his chamber, and received the communion under one kind; another account states that he died in the anguish of despair; and a third represents him refusing spiritual aid till he could only reply to the exhortation of the Archbishop by a squeeze of the hand. As the awful hour of his dissolution approached, we are told by Burnet, that he became more froward, imperious, and untractable, than ever. His courtiers durst not remind him. of the change he was shortly to undergo, or desire him to prepare himself for it. At length, Burnet says, Sir Anthony Denny had the courage and honesty to disclose it to him; the King expressed his sorrow for the sins of his past life, and said he trusted in the mercies of Christ, which were greater than his sins. He died at Westminster, on Friday, the 28th of January, 1547, in the 56th year of his age, and 38th of his reign, leaving behind him the terrible character, that throughout his long reign he neither spared man in his anger, nor woman in his lust. By his will he provided for the interment of his body, the celebration of masses, and the distribution of alms for the benefit of his soul. This will is now deposited in the Chapter House, Westminster. Henry VIII. was succeeded on the throne by his only son Edward VI., (by Jane Seymour, his third Queen), being then just nine years old. His coronation was solemnized on the 20th of the following month (February), a new form having been drawn up for it, by his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, now called the Lord Protector, and the ceremony was concluded with a solemn high mass sung by Archbishop Cranmer. Somerset, and the other guardians of the youthful monarch, were favourable to the new doctrines, and to the professors of the new learning, though they deemed it prudent to

The body of Henry lay in state in the chapel of Whitehall, which was hung with black cloth; eighty large wax tapers were kept constantly burning; twelve lords mourners sat around within a rail; and every day masses and a dirge were performed. At the commencement of the service, Norroy, King-at-arms, called aloud: "Of your charity, pray for the soul of the high and mighty Prince, our late Sovereign Lord, Henry VIII." On the 14th of February the body was removed to Sion House, on the 15th to Windsor, and the next day was interred in the midst of the choir, near the body of Jane Seymour. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, preached the sermon, and read the funeral service, which concluded with the Psalm "De profundis." See Sandford, 492; Strype, 2; Rec. iii., 17; Hayward, 275.

+ Strype's Cranmer, p. 144.