In

their brother, to the succession of the crown. case they all died without children, he left the succession after them to the children and heirs of his youngest sister, the duchess of Brandon, to the entire exclusion of his eldest sister Margaret, who, after the death of her first husband the king of Scotland, had married the earl of Angus, and had one daughter, wife of the earl of Lenox, and mother of Henry Darnley, of whom you will hear more.

Wickliffe's opinions, notwithstanding the early persecutions of his followers, had never been eradicated. During the long civil wars the government had so many cares, that it attended but little to any affairs of religion. Consequently the Lollards increased in number; and in the early part of this reign their opinions gathered strength from the success of their protestant brethren in Germany, where Luther, a new reformer, had arisen, and drew people more and more from popery. Henry VIII. at first treated the Lollards with the utmost rigour, but relaxed towards them at the time of his quarrel with the pope. This reign is generally considered as the era of the reformation in England, and much certainly was at this time done towards it. The country was freed from subjection to the pope: the clergy were made amenable to the same laws with the laity. But the same capriceand violence of temper that had made the king do thus much prevented him from completing the great work he had begun. He abolished the reli

gious houses with all their rules and observances, and yet appointed priests to say masses for his own soul. He forbade the worship of images, and commanded the church service to be read in English; and yet he burnt many persons for heresy. He permitted the Bible to be translated, and then forbade it to be read except by particular persons. But notwithstanding all the impediments the king's inconsistencies put in the way of the Reformation, and the steadier opposition of the Romish clergy, the pure light of the new religion was still kept burning, chiefly through the firm perseverance of Cranmer, till in time it cleared away the darkness of superstition and popery.

CONVERSATION ON CHAPTER XXVII.

George. I think Cranmer must have been very clever to have been able to keep, from first to last, in the good graces of such a changeable king.

Mrs. Markham. We may, without prejudice, suppose that the continued favour which Henry showed to Cranmer was from respect to the singleminded integrity of his character. He was the only one of Henry's favourites who had no little selfish views of his own. His whole soul was placed

on one great object—the reformation of religion; and to that all the powers of his mind were applied. Wolsey's great abilities were solely employed in raising himself to the highest worldly dignity. Cromwell, though a zealous reformer, was intent on enriching himself from the pillage of the religious houses. And the other courtiers, one and all, had their own narrow selfish ends to serve. Cranmer's character was so devoid of covetousness and ambition, that he at first declined the archbishopric, and at last only accepted it from the hope that it would give him better means of forwarding the cause he had so much at heart. And that he did not deceive himself in this is clear from the tenure of his whole after life. For he never lost sight of his object, and by his mild, temperate, and judicious conduct, protected the Protestant cause through all the storms of Henry's changeful temper and this is the more to be admired, because, with all Cranmer's zeal, abilities, learning, and piety, he had a timidity of character that often betrayed him into weaknesses, which men of firmer ' nerve would have avoided.

Mary. Then I dare say he was often frightened to death by that ill-tempered king.

Mrs. M. On the contrary, the king was afraid of him. Such is the power of virtue over vice that the overbearing Henry stood in awe of the gentletempered Cranmer, and usually contrived to send him to a distance when he was about to commit

VOL. II.

any of his most flagrant acts.

The king's regard

for him was at all times sincere; and at one time, when Gardiner and the duke of Norfolk thought they had got the king's consent to have him sent to the Tower, Henry privately warned the archbishop of the plot, and advised him how to defeat the malice of his enemies.

Mary. But why were they enemies to so good a man?

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Mrs. M. They were the chief supporters of the popish party; and it was natural for them to dislike one who was so strenuous an adversary to their religion. Even now the Papists and ourselves think very differently of Cranmer's character. What we call discretion in him they call craft, and of this craft, among other instances, they mention the following:-Cranmer was very anxious that the public service of the church should be in English instead of Latin, but he knew the king would violently oppose such a change. He therefore thought it best to lead to it by degrees; and when a prayer was to be composed for the king's preservation in the expedition to France in 1544, Cranmer besought him that it might be composed in English, that the people might pray with the more fervour from understanding what they uttered. By degrees Cranmer gained permission to have the Lord's prayer also, the Creed, and the commandments, read in English in the churches; and the year before the king's death the liturgy was added.

Mary. But I think you said they had English Bibles?

Mrs. M. Some few copies remained of Wickliffe's translation, but Cranmer was very desirous of obtaining a better translation. At last he got the king's permission to have one made, but it was four years before the work was completed. These Bibles, when they at length appeared, were received with thankfulness all over the kingdom: they were placed in churches, and secured by a chain to the reading desk. The people flocked to the places where they could hear the Bible read, and many persons learned to read, for the sole purpose of perusing it. But Henry, in the latter part of his life, withdrew this general privilege, and would not permit the Bible to be read by the lower orders of the people.

Richard. It was very hard upon them to lose their Bibles; yet still they had by learning to read gained something that the king could not take away from them.

Mrs. M. The increase of books, through the invention of printing, had already made the English much greater readers than formerly; but in regard to writing they do not seem to have been much advanced. At least I judge so from an anecdote in a letter dated 1516*, giving an account of some seditious paper that was stuck up on St. Paul's

* Lodge's Illustrations of British History.