her sentiments on the subject are expressed in the strongest terms; and though this work was not committed to writing till some time after her marriage with Henry, she had previously formed a matured judgment on its great leading principles. At present it will be suffi cient to quote only, as a specimen, the passage in which she compliments Henry-with somewhat extravagant adulation, it must be allowed, according to the manner of the times, and from conjugal partiality-for having shaken off the Papal authority, and for allowing the circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue among his subjects, and in which she denounces the Pope as a persecuting monster and a soul-deceiver, unequalled in all preceding ages. "Thanks be given," says she, " unto the Lord, that hath now sent us such a godly and learned king, in these latter days, to reign over us; that, with the virtue and force of God's Word, hath taken away the veils and mists of errors, and brought us to the knowledge of the truth, by the light of God's Word;' which was so long hid, and kept under, that the people were nigh famished and hungered, for lack of spiritual food. Such was the charity of the spiritual curates and shepherds. But our Moses, and most godly wise governor and king, hath delivered us out of the captivity and bondage of Pharaoh. I mean by this Moses King Henry VIII., my most sovereign favourable lord and husband; one (if Moses had figured any more than Christ), through the excellent grace of God, meet to be another expressed verity of Moses' conquest over Pharaoh. And I mean by this Pharaoh the Bishop of Rome, who hath been and is a greater persecutor of all true Christians than ever was Pharaoh of the children of Israel: for he is a persecutor of the gospel and grace, a setter forth of all superstition and counterfeit holiness, bringing many

1 By the close of the year 1541, only four years and four months from the time that Rogers's English Bible, before referred to (see p. 139), was imported to this country, there had issued from the press not fewer than twelve editions of the entire Bible, ten in folio, and two in quarto. The impression of each of these editions, it has been calculated, amounted, on an average, to 2000 copies, thus furnishing in whole 24,000 Bibles. Besides this ample supply, thousands of copies of the New Testament, printed at home, with numerous foreign editions, were in circulation among the people, and ardently read.-Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. ii., p. 153.

souls to hell with his alchemy and counterfeit money, deceiving the poor souls under the pretence of holiness; but so much the greater shall be his damnation, because he deceiveth and robbeth under Christ's mantle. The Lord keep and defend all men from his juggigs and sleights, but specially the poor, simple, and unlearned socs. And this lesson I would all men had of him, that, when they begin to mislike his doing, then only begin they to like God, and certainly not before."

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The persecuting Papists having thus some reason to dread that such a wornan as Katharine would exercise a powerful influence over the mind of Henry against Popery, and in favour of heresy, her marriage had hardly been consummated, when Gardiner and thers began to plot against her and the reformed members of her household. He found a ready tool in Dr. London, a canon of Windsor, formerly one of Cromwell's most active agents in the visitation of the monasteries. London having collected matter scient to criminate, under the act of the six articles, four pious individuals, Anthony Person, a priest, Robert Testwood and John Marbeck, both choristers, and Henry Filmer, who had impugned the doctrine of transubstantiation, transmitted this information to Gardiner, who resolved not only to bring them to the stake, in defise of the queen, but to convert, if possible, the discovery of their heresy into the means of her ruin. He laid the information before the king and council, moving, at the same time, that a warrant bd be issued, authorizing a search to be made for prohibited books and heretical papers, both in the town and in the castle of Windsor, the very residence of the queen. Henry, either thinking would be something like an insult for his palace to be rummaged by officers of justice, or shrewdly guessing that the repositories of his queen contained prohibited books, would not permit inquisition to be made within the precincts of his own residence, but he allowed search to be made in the town, upon which several heretical books and papers were seized. About the same time, besides the four

Harian Miscellany, vol. v., p. 289. 2 Ellis's Letters, first series, vol. ii., p. 79.

persons accused, Sir Philip Hoby, one of the gentlemen of the royal household, and Dr. Haines, a canon of Windsor and dean of Exeter, all suspected of heresy, were committed to prison. Person, Testwood, Marbeck, and Filmer were brought to trial, and a packed jury having found them guilty of heresy, they were condemned to the flames. Marbeck's life was saved at the intercession, it would appear, of the queen. Some MS. notes upon the Bible, and a MS. English concordance, carried down to the end of the letter L, which he had taken from a Latin concordance (having acquired some knowledge of the Latin tongue when a boy), by comparing the references in it with the corresponding passages in the English Bible, had been found in his house. As he was evidently illiterate, his examinators doubted his veracity when he asserted that these papers were exclusively the fruits of his own industry: but he soon removed their doubts, for being allowed the use of a Latin concordance and of an English Bible, he filled, in the course of a single day, no less than three sheets of paper with words under the letter M. The circumstance being told to Henry, it would seem by Katharine, who pleaded the cause of the condemned, he exclaimed, in a spirit of sympathy to which his bosom was generally a stranger, "Poor Marbeck has been in the habit of employing his time far better than those who examined him." It was, however, difficult to manage the fierce and intractable spirit of the monarch, and Katharine was unable to save the lives of the other three, who suffered at the stake with unshrinking fortitude, July 26, exactly a fortnight after her marriage.

Gardiner was still intent upon the destruction of Katherine and the heretical members of her court; for he never lost sight of an object he was earnest to accomplish; and his caterer, Dr. London, in concert with a lawyer named Simons, had, as the fruit of their vile ferreting labours, sent him pretended criminating matter affecting some members of the royal household, together with additional papers containing others of their machinations, by a person named Ockham, who had acted as clerk of the court which condemned the martyrs just mentioned. But the plot was discovered; for intelligence of what

was going on being communicated to one of the gentlemen accused, Ockham, while on his way to the prelate, was seized, with all the papers upon his person. It was certainly contrary to Gardiner's

al prudence thus to attempt to invade the peace of Katharine's household before the honeymoon was over, as a preliminary step to making an attempt upon herself, and Henry resented the audacity. Gardiner, however, had kept himself behind the scenes, and escaped. London and Simons, less fortunate, were apprehended and examined. gnorant of the seizure of Ockham, they alleged upon oath false retences in self-vindication, after which, to their utter confusion, their own papers were produced. They were sentenced to be publicly paraded through the streets of Windsor, Reading, and Newbury, on horseback, with their faces towards the horses' tails,

and having fastened on their heads a paper proclaiming their perjury. They were next placed in the pillory. This ignominious punishment made so deep an impression on the mind of London, that he died soon after in prison.'

Katharine in all respects performed the duties of a faithful wife, and conducted herself with uncommon prudence. Being a very Amiable woman, as well as a person of great good sense, she studied to kamour Henry, whose temper, in addition to its imperiousness,

Fone's Arts and Monuments, vol. v., p. 486.-Soames's Hist. of the Ref. in England, 1, pp. 538-542.

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had, in consequence of his bodily infirmities, become peevish and froward. At all times she greeted him with looks of affection, and paid him every kind attention, which, together with her unimpeachable virtue, secured his affection, respect, and confidence. She was, in truth, rather his nurse than his wife, his intemperance having brought on him prematurely the infirmities of old age.

Though, from the smallness of her stature, without the commanding majesty of some other ladies, Katharine yet had something in her countenance and bearing peculiarly charming, and her winning suavity, and polite vivacity of manner, was eminently fitted to give dignity and grace to the court, to which she had been suddenly and unexpectedly elevated. The notices of the interview which Don Manriquez de Lara, Duke of Najera, a Spanish nobleman, had with her and Henry, and the Princess Mary, during the close of the year 1543, and in the beginning of the year 1544, are interesting, as giving the impressions of a stranger as to the etiquette of the Engiish court, and the personages who came under his observation. "Before the duke arrived," says his secretary, "at the king's chamber,' he passed through three saloons, hung with tapestry; in the second of which were stationed, in order on either side, the king's body-guard, dressed in habits of red, and holding halberts. In the third saloon were nobles, knights, and gentlemen, and here was a canopy made of rich figured brocade, with a chair of the same material. To this canopy and chair the same respect was paid by all as if the king himself were present, every one standing on foot, with his cap in his hand. Here the brother of the queen and the

1 This was at Westminster Palace.

2 William Lord Parr, of Kendal, created Earl of Essex, Dec. 23, 1543, and by Edward VI. Marquis of Northampton, Feb. 16, 1545-6. Bishop Hooper, in a letter to Henry Bullinger, dated London, June 29, 1550, describes this nobleman, who was then Lord High Chamberlain of England, as "a man active in the cause of Christ."-Zurich Letters, first series, pp. 88, 93. King Edward used to call him "his honest uncle." On the accession of Queen Mary he was deprived of his honours for having supported the claims of Lady Jane Grey to the crown; but was restored by Queen Elizabeth. He is said to have excelled in the arts of war, music, and poetry. He died about the beginning of August, 1571, and was buried in St. Mary's Church, Warwick.-Granger's Biog. Hist. of England, vol. i., p. 234.-Zurich Letters, second series, vol. i., p. 257.