course.

But when left to himself, he became at once a persecutor of the protestants.

In the year 1544 a litany in English was put forth by royal authority. This may be considered as the first official step towards removing the Latin language from the public services of the church of England. The special design of this movement was, to interest the common people in the processions and prayers, in cities, towns, and parishes, which were ordered by the king about this time, in view of his war with France and Scotland.

In 1545 "King Henry's Primer," in English, and in English and Latin, three different sizes, was published by Richard Grafton and Edward Whitchurch, by the king's special grant. The litany and suffrages in this primer, with slight alterations, have been retained in the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, to this day.* In the original, the "holy virgin, Mary, mother of God," "all holy angels and archangels, and all holy orders of blessed spirits," "all holy patriarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, and all the blessed company of heaven," are invoked to "pray for us."† And in the "Dirige" the dead are prayed for: "Be merciful to the souls of thy servants being departed from this world in the confession of thy name

* Preface to the Three Primers, pp. lxi.-lxiv.

† Litany, etc., p. 481, in Three Primers; Lathbury's Hist. Com. Prayer, 8-10.

Lord, bow thine ear unto our prayers, wherein we devoutly call upon thy mercy, that thou wilt bestow the souls of thy servants (which thou hast commanded to depart from this world) in the country of peace and rest, and cause them to be made partners with thy holy servants, through Christ our Lord. Amen." * Notwithstanding these and like blemishes, it was a great point gained to get the royal sanction to the use of the vernacular, in the public services of the church.

In pursuance of his general plan, to keep both the great parties of the kingdom in fear and subjection, the king issued a proclamation on the 8th of July, 1546, prohibiting the use of English books; declaring, "that from henceforth, no man, woman, or person, of what estate, condition, or degree soever he or they be, shall, after the last day of August next ensuing, receive, have, take, or keep in his or their possession, the text of the New Testament in Tyndale's or Coverdale's translation in English, nor any other than is permitted by the act of parliament in the four-and-thirtieth and five-and-thirtieth year of his majesty's most noble reign; nor after the said day shall receive, have, take, or keep in his or their possession, any manner of books printed or written in the English tongue, which be, or shall be set forth in the names of Frith, Tyndale, Wickliffe, Joy, Roy, Basil, Bale, Barnes, Coverdale, Turner, Tracy, or

by any of them, or any other book or books containing matter contrary to the said act, made in the year thirty-four or thirty-five; but shall, before the last day of August next coming, deliver the same English book or books *** to the mayor, bailiff, or chief constable of the town where they dwell, to be by them delivered over openly within forty days *** to the sheriff of the shire, or to the bishop's chancellor or commissary of the same diocese; to the intent the said bishop, etc., may cause them incontinently [immediately] to be openly burned."

A disregard of this proclamation subjected the offender to "imprisonment and punishment of the body, at the king's majesty's will and pleasure "; and also to "such fine and ransom to his highness. for the same, as by his majesty or four of his grace's said council shall be determined," etc.* Then, soon after, as a partial offset to this tyrannical popish proclamation, came out, on the 11th of August, of the same year, the king's letter to Bonner, commanding him to see enforced the decree of convocation abrogating sundry holy-days. †

But Henry's work, good and bad, was now almost finished. His end was near at hand. His account was about to be sealed up for the great day of reckoning. On the 28th of January, 1546-47, after some months of suffering, this great

* Fox, 11. 496.

† Fox, 11. 511.

and accomplished prince-in whom the hopes and fears of millions had so long centred; whose frowns and favors had agitated so many breasts; who during an entire generation had kept all Europe in a state of feverish excitement; who had been the chosen instrument in the hands of Divine Providence to overthrow the papal supremacy in England, and to weaken its power throughout Christendom - closed his arbitrary and eventful reign of thirty-six years, and a life stained with many acts of ingratitude, meanness, and cruelty, though adorned with many commendable deeds.

The changeable course of Henry VIII., the strange admixture of passion and reason, of radicalism and conservatism, of protestantism and popery, in short, of good and bad, in him, make it extremely difficult to form a just estimate of his character and reign. Sometimes we are disposed to laud him, as almost a saint; and at others, to condemn him, as altogether a sinner. At one time he seems to be driving on the good work of reform with a steady, vigorous, careful hand; at another, equally intent on destroying the work of his own hands. And not only is he thus changeable and uncertain, but some of his acts seem in themselves utterly contradictory. Thus, in the same fire he burns to death both papist and protestant; he condemns as felony the very sentiments of his favorite archbishop, to whom he immediately sends the high officers of his court to administer comfort, and to assure him of his

continued regard, or, as Fox says, "to cherish, comfort, and animate" him.* The last seven years of Henry's life seem particularly self-contradictory, and at war with the previous seven years. But, on the whole, changeable and passionate, uncertain and inconsistent, as Henry confessedly was, yet, during his eventful reign, great, very great progress was certainly made in the work of improvement; so great, that, instead of beginning the English Reformation, as some have done, with the reign of Edward VI., we should rather regard the acts of that short reign as simply the finishing off of the great work.

Not to go into minutiæ, Henry did for England what good men had been sighing and praying for during many previous generations, but what no English monarch before his day had the courage, or perhaps the ability to do, however good his inclination. He broke the galling yoke of popery from the necks of his subjects; he completely overturned the pope's supremacy, and dissipated the phantom of his universal power, demonstrating the utter helplessness of the poor old sinner, who, calling himself "the servant of servants," yet assumed to be king of kings, and to rule the nations with a rod of iron. He made it plain to Christendom, that, when stripped of his stolen regalia, and deprived of the support of the kings of the earth, the pope was really only the bishop

* Acts and Mons., 11. 372.