of England, then fifty-three in number, did not participate in this enormous act of injustice and barbarity. Her indictment charged her, "With having procured her brother, and the other four, to lie with her, which they had done often, which was to the slander of the issue begotten between the king and her. The only evidence produced against her, was a declaration, which a lady Wingfield, who was in her grave, was said to have made a little before her death. The queen, who had been denied an advocate, pleaded not guilty, and behaved with great dignity and composure. She was, however, to the everlasting shame of her judges, declared guilty of high treason, and sentenced to be either burned or beheaded, as the king should direct. She heard this dreadful sentence without being terrified; but lifting up her her eyes and hands to heaven, she said, "O Father! O Creator! thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, thou knowest that I did not deserve this death." Then, turning to the judges, she made the most pathetic declarations of her innocence. The lord mayor and aldermen of London, and some others who had been admitted to be spectators of this trial, went away with the full conviction of the queen's innocence.

Henry's fury was not quite satisfied with this atrocious sentence, he still wanted to have his marriage with Ann Boleyn annulled, and her issue declared illegitimate. With this view she was threatened to have the sentence issued against her, executed in its greatest rigour, and was thus prevailed on to confess, in court, some lawful impediment to her marriage with the king. The afflicted primate, who sat as judge of the question, thought himself obliged, by this confession, to pronounce the marriage null and invalid. Henry, in the raving fits of his jealousy and brutality, was utterly incapable of perceiving the inconsistency of his proceedings; or he would have acknowledged, that if there was no marriage be

tween him and Ann there could not possibly be an adultery; and, therefore, that the sentence of death was to be reversed; but on this occasion, he not only sacrificed the life of his queen, and the legitimacy of his child, but trampled upon all law, justice, and feelings, to gratify his passion.

Little time was allowed to the unhappy queen, to prepare for the last scene of this barbarous tragedy. In this awful interval, she retained her usual serenity, and spent several hours of the day in private devotion, or with her almoner. On the 19th of May, about eleven o'clock, she was brought to a scaffold, erected on the green in the tower; her looks were cheerful, and she never appeared more beautiful. She said that she was come to die, as she was sentenced by the law; she would accuse none, nor say any thing of the ground upon which she was judged. She prayed heartily for the king, and acknowledged that he had always been to her a good and gracious sovereign. She was beheaded by the executioner of Calais, who was sent for, as more expert than any in England. Her remains were thrown into a common chest for holding arrows, and instantly buried in the chapel of the

tower.

How could any doubt remain of the innocence. of this unfortunate queen, when Henry, her accuser, or rather her murderer, knew not whom to accuse as her lover, or could not bring the least proof against any of those he accused? Had he never contracted a criminal passion for Jane Seymour, we never should have heard of the indiscretions, and still less of the crimes, of Ann Boleyn; nothing but her beauty and virtues would have been recorded. It may be said, however, that her misfortunes were principally owing to an imprudence of her's, against which her own experience should have been a most effectual warning. Nobody knew bet

ter than she did how Henry's affections were liable to be captivated by the charms of the queen's maids of honour; therefore, she should not have exposed him to a relapse, by appointing to that situation the handsome and agreeable Jane Seymour, whom Henry married only one day after her own execution. It then became evident, that the only crime of Ann Boleyn was her being an obstacle to Henry's impatience of gratifying his new passion.

Princess Mary thought the death of her step-mother a proper opportunity for reconciling herself to the king; but Henry would not hear of it, unless she would consent to adopt his theological tenets, acknowledge his supremacy, renounce the pope, and own her mother's marriage to be unlawful and incestuous. These points were of hard digestion with the princess; but after some delays, and even refusals, she complied with her father's conditions.

A new parliament was called, and opened June 8th, with a speech of the chancellor, lord Audley, full of the most disgusting flattery. After representing in strong terms, and in the king's presence, how unhap py his majesty had been in his two former marriages, which, said he, would have deterred any other man from engaging again in matrimony, "this, our most excellent prince, on the humble petition of the nobility, and not out of any carnal lust or affection, had again condescended to contract matrimony." (Journal of the House of Lords, vol. 1. p. 84.) The propriety of such a petition after a long widowhood could not be denied, but the possibility of finding a moment to present it during a widowhood which lasted hardly twenty-four hours, is not so easily conceived. Richard Rich, speaker of the house of commons, striving to outstrip the chancellor in flattery, compared Henry, for justice and prudence to Solomon, for strength and fortitude to Sampson, for beauty and comeliness to Absalom.

Henry, finding that the parliament was no less submissive in their deeds, than obsequious in their praises, did not miss that opportunity of having his most lawless passions gratified. An act for regulating the succession was passed, the divorces of the king from his two former queens were confirmed by it, and their issue illegitimated, and declared incapable of inheriting the crown; it was even made treason to assert the legitimacy of either of them; to throw any slander upon the present king, queen, or their issue, was subjected to the same penalty; the crown was settled on the king's issue by Jane Seymour, or any subsequent wife, and in case he should die with. out children, he was impowered to dispose of the crown by his will, or letters patent; an enormous power in the hand of a prince so violent and so capricious. Whoever, being required, refused to answer upon oath to any article of this act of settlement, was declared to be guilty of treason; and by this clause, a political inquisition was established, and the accusations of treason multiplied to an unlimited degree. The king was also empowered to confer on any one, by his will or letters patent, any castles, honours, liberties, or franchises. Another act made it treason to marry, without the king's consent, any princess related in the first degree to the crown. The king, or any of his successors, was empowered to repeal or annul, by letters patent, whatever act of parliament had been passed before he was twenty-four years of age. Whoever maintained the authority of the bishop of Rome by word or writ, or endeavoured in any manner to restore it in England, was subjected to the penalty of a premunire; that is, his goods were forfeited, and he was put out of the protection of law.

The convocation of the clergy, which sat at the same time with the parliament, encouraged the king in his resolution of breaking entirely with the court

of Rome. There was secretly a great division of sentiments in the minds of this assembly; but the authority of the king kept every one submissive and silent; and the new assumed supremacy, with whose limits no one was fully acquainted, restrained the most furious movements of theological raucour. One party, by their opposition to the pope, seconded the king's ambition and love of power; the other, by maintaining the ancient theological tenets, were more conformable to his speculative principles. The church in general was averse to the reformation ; and the lower house of the assembly framed a list of sixty-seven opinions, which they pronounced erroneous, and which was a collection of principles, some held by the ancient Lollards, others by the modern protestants. They sent these opinions to the upper house to be censured. The convocation, after some debate, came at last to decide articles of faith, the standard of which they determined to consist in the scriptures and the three creeds, the Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian; a signal victory for the reformers. Auricular confession and penance were admitted; a doctrine agreeable to the catholics. No mention was made of marriage, extreme unction, confirmation, or holy orders, as sacraments; and in this omission, the mfluence of the protestants was obvious. The real presence was asserted according to the ancient doctrine. The terms of acceptance were established to be the merits of Christ, and the inercy and good pleasure of God, suitably to the new principles.

So far the two parties seem to have made a fair partition, by sharing alterately the several clauses, and the same compromise was observed in framing the subsequent articles. "The catholics prevailed in asserting, that the use of images was warranted by scripture; the protestants, in warning the people against idolatry, and the abuse of these sensible re