haps the most wicked as well as the weakest man is to be found amongst those who have nothing either to hope or to fear. Henry's reign, ufhered in with fo bright a morning, clofed with clouds and with tempefts: murder, rapine, and defolation marked its progress, and the only bright event in it took its rise more from a fatiety of pleasure, and from a defire to command, than from any regard to religion, or any defire to promote the happiness of his people. The well-known Spanish lines fay of this Monarch, Sure as thefe ftones thy mortal part conceal, Head of the Church, yet at a woman's feet! Henry was intended for the Church while his eldeft brother, Prince Arthur, lived, and was of course brought up to mufic and to Latin. A Te Deum of his compofition is ftill fung at ChriftChurch, Oxford. The following fpecimen of his Latin, annexed to fome MSS. of Church Difcipline in his time, fhews him to no great advantage as a fcholar: "Illa eft Ecclefia noftra Catholica, cum qua nee "Pontifex Maximus nee quifquis alius Prælatus "habet "habet quicquam agere, præterquam in fuas 66 diocefas." "This then is our Catholic Church, with "which neither the Pope nor any other prelate "has any thing to do, except in their own "diocefes." "The number of Monafteries fuppreffed by "this King," fays Lord Herbert, "was fix "hundred and forty-feven, whereof twenty-seven "had voices amongst the Peers; of Colleges there "were demolished, in divers fhires, ninety; of "Chauntries and Free Chapels, two thoufand "three hundred and feventy-four; of Hospitals, "one hundred and ten: the yearly value of all "which were, as I find it caft up, 161,100l. 66 ' being above a third part of all our spiritual re"venues, befides the money made of the present "ftock of cattle, corn, timber, lead, bells, &c. "and lastly, but chiefly, of the plate and church " ornaments, which I find not valued, but may "be conjectured by that one Monastery of St. "Edmond's Bury, whence was taken, as our "records fhew, seven thousand marks of gold "and filver, befides divers ftores of great value. "The revenues allotted by the King to the new "Bishopricks which he had founded, amounted "to 8000l. a-year. So that religion," adds Lord Lord Herbert, "feemed not fo much to fuffer "thereby as fome of the Clergy of those times "and of ours would have it believed; our king"dom having in the meanwhile, (as Lord Crom"well projected it,) instead of divers fupernumerary and idle perfons, men fit for employ• ment either in war or peace, maintained at the "coft of the aforefaid Abbeys and Chauntries: "fo that the diffolutions (appearing in their 66 ftately foundations at this day) are by our po"litics thought amply recompenfed. Besides, "the King, in demolishing them, had so tender a care of learning, that he not only preferred "divers able perfons which he found there, but "took special care to preserve the choicest books "of their well-furnished Libraries; wherein I "find John Leland (a curious fearcher of anti"quities) was employed." As Leo X. had given Henry the name of Defenfor Fidei, Clement the Seventh added to it the title of Liberator Urbis Romanæ. The book which procured Henry the first appellation is supposed to have been written by Fisher Bishop of Rochester. The immenfe wealth which Henry had procured by the suppreffion of the monafteries feems to have been. lavished with a prodigality as enormous as the rapacity with which it was acquired. "Sir Thomas Eliot, Knight, in his Image of "Governance, tranflated," as he fays, "out of "Greke into Englyfhe, in the favour of the Nobi litie," after having enumerated the Emperors, Kings, and Generals of old who were men of learning, fays, " And to return home to our "own countrey, and whereof we ourselves may "be wytneffes, howe much hath it profited unto "this Realme, that it now hath a King, our "Sovereyne Lord King Henry the Eighth, exઃ actly well learned. Hath not he thereby onely fyfted out deteftible herefies, late mingled amonge the corne of his faithfull fubjectes, " and caused much of the chaffe to be thrown "into the fyre? alfo hypocrify and vayn super"ftition to be cleane banished, whereof I doubte "not but that there fhall be or it be longe a "more ample remembrance to his most noble " and immortal renoume." 66 Sir Henry Spelman, in his " Hiftory of Sa crilege," fays, "Whole thousands of churches " and chapels dedicated to the service of God, "together with the Monafteries, and other "Houfes of Religion and intended piety, were "by Henry VIII. in a temper of indignation "against the Clergy of that time mingled with "insatiable avarice, facked, and razed, as by an enemy. It is true the Parliament did give "them to him, but fo unwillingly, (as I have "heard,) "heard,) that when the bill had ftuck long in "the Lower House, and could get no paffage, "he commanded the Commons to attend him "in the forenoon in his gallery, where he let them wait till late in the afternoon; and then "coming out of his chamber, walking a turn or two amongst them, and looking angrily at "them, first on one fide, then on the other, at ❝ last he faid, I hear that my bill will not pass; "but I will have it pafs, or I will have fome of your heads; and without other rhetorick or "perfuafion returned to his chamber. Enough was faid, the bill paffed, and all was given him "as he defired." "It is to be obferved," adds Spelman, " that "the Parliament did give all these to the King, yet did they not ordain them to be demolished, * or employed to any irreligious ufes, leaving it more to the confcience and piety of the King; "who, in a speech to the Parliament, promised "to perform the trust; wherein he faith, I can"not a little rejoyce, when I confider the per"fect truft and confidence which you have put "in me, in my good doings and just proceedings. For you, without my defire and re 66 queft, have committed to my order and dispo"fition, all Chauntries, Colleges, and Hospitals, " and other places specified in a certain act, firmly trufting that I will order them to the |