allowed for some time to enjoy his temporal possessions; but the inconstant monarch soon after renewed his prosecutions, and the cardinal being arrested for high treason, disease and anguish of mind put an end to his life. He was succeeded in the office of chancellor' by Sir Thomas More, a man of low extraction, but worthy, by his integrity and abilities, of the dignity to which he was raised. He, too, soon after fell a sacrifice to the inhumanity and caprice of his master.

Clement VII., who saw that it was impossible to look for the favor of Henry, resolved, at least, to keep well with the emperor, and for this purpose he immediately issued a bull condemning the sentence of the archbishop of Canterbury. This measure deprived the see of Rome of all authority over the kingdom of England. Henry immediately obliged his clergy to declare him head of the church; and his parliament, without hesitation, confirmed this title, and entirely suppressed the pope's authority within his dominions. The first measure which he took in virtue of his supremacy of the national church was the abolition of the monasteries, and the confiscation of their immense riches, which, according to bishop Burnet's calculation, amounted, besides an immense value in plate and jewels, to a yearly revenue of £1,600,000. Out of these spoils he founded six new bishoprics, and a college; -rewarded a few of his own servants so largely as to enable them to found what are now some of the wealthiest houses in the British peerage; and converted the remainder to his own use. It was pity that, in the execution of this measure, which was certainly attended with many substantial political advantages, there should have been so much indulgence of that savage spirit of destruction, which has deprived posterity not only of many of the finest Gothic structures, but of many valuable treasures of learning, which were contained in the libraries belonging to the ancient abbeys and monasteries.

Yet Henry, though he had thus quarrelled with the pope, and despoiled and abolished the monasteries, had not renounced the religion of the church of Rome. He still prided himself on his title of Defender of the Faith, and he continued, in every respect, to be a good catholic, except that he chose to be pope in his own kingdom. He was as great an enemy to the tenets of Luther, of Calvin, or of Wicliffe, as he was to the supremacy of the Roman pontiff; and the favorers of the latter, as well as those who espoused the doctrines of the former, were equally the victims of sanguinary persecution. Meantime the passion of the king was cooled for Anne Bullen, and had changed its object. He had fallen in love with Jane Seymour, one of the maids of honor, and he was not ashamed to accuse the queen of adultery upon the most frivolous grounds, which might have been furnished by the conduct of even the most virtuous woman upon earth. Compliments, idly paid to her beauty by some of her courtiers, were

construed into proofs of a criminal intercourse. The parliament, with the meanest submission to the will of the tyrant, passed sentence of death, and Anne Bullen was removed from the throne to the scaffold. She left by Henry a daughter, Elizabeth, afterwards queen of England. Henry was next day publicly married to Jane Seymour, who, happily for herself, died about a year afterwards. His fourth wife was Anne of Cleves, who did not retain his affections above nine months. He represented to his clergy, that at the time he married her he had not given his inward consent; but it is less surprising that a monarch of this character should urge such an excuse, than that his clergy and parliament should sustain it. Anne was divorced, and he married for his fifth wife Catharine Howard. It was upon this occasion that Sir Thomas More incurred, as Wolsey had done, the indignation of his sovereign. He disapproved of the match with Catharine: he was accused of heresy and treason, condemned and beheaded. The character of Catharine Howard, which had been rather suspicious before her marriage, was soon a sufficient pretext for a new sentence of divorce; yet her crimes, in the eye of Henry, were such as nothing but her blood could expiate, and she, like Anne Bullen, was publicly beheaded. Catharine Parr, the sixth in order whom this tyrant advanced to his bed, escaped very narrowly from the fate of her predecessors, for having dared, with too much zeal, to combat some of his religious opinions: she, however, had the good fortune to survive him. The political occurrences of the reign of Henry, as we have seen, regarded chiefly matters of religion. His warlike enterprises we have already taken notice of, in treating of his contemporaries, the emperor Charles V., Francis I. of France, and James V. of Scotland. He died at length, to the relief of his subjects, in the year 1547, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and left the throne of England to Edward VI., his son by Jane Seymour.

During the reign of Edward VI., the protestant religion prevailed in England, because the sentiments of the prince were favorable to the doctrines of the Reformation; but this period of toleration was short, for Edward, of whom his people had justly conceived great hopes, died at the early age of fifteen. He had, upon his death-bed, conveyed the crown to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, descended of Henry VII., in prejudice of his sister Mary; but, after a short struggle, which can hardly be called a civil war, the party of Mary prevailed, and the unfortunate Jane fell a victim to the partial affection of her cousin, and the favor of a great body of the people, who wished to see her settled upon a throne which her moderation would rather have declined than accepted. Mary, who inherited the cruel and tyrannical disposition of her father, began her reign by putting to death her cousin Jane, together with her father-in-law and husband. This outset was a prognostic of the temper of her reign, which was one continued

scene of bloodshed and persecution. The protestants, who had multiplied exceedingly during the short reign of Edward, were persecuted with the most sanguinary rigor. It was a doctrine of Mary's, as bishop Burnet informs us, that as the souls of heretics are afterwards to be eternally burning in hell, there could be nothing more proper than to imitate the divine vengeance, by burning them on earth. In the course of this reign it is computed that about eight hundred persons were burnt alive in England. Yet this monster of a woman died in peace; with the consideration, no doubt, of having merited eternal happiness as a reward of that zeal she had shown in support of the true religion.*

Mary was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne Bullen-a protestant; and, perhaps, more zealously so, from an abhorrence of the creed of her sister. The bulk of the nation, influenced naturally by the same motives, became in her reign zealous protestants. From that period the religion of England became stationary. The liturgy was settled in its present form, and the hierarchy of protestant archbishops, bishops, priests,

*

Mary had prepared to employ the same means for the extirpation of heresy from her kingdom of Ireland, but her purpose was defeated by a singular accident. The following account was found among the MSS. of Sir James Ware, copied from the papers of Richard, earl of Cork :—

"Queen Mary having dealt severely with the protestants in England, about the latter end of her reign, signed a commission for to take the same course with them in Ireland; and to execute the same with greater force, she nominates Dr. Cole one of the commissioners. This doctor coming with the commission to Chester, on his journey, the mayor of that city, hearing that her majesty was sending a messenger into Ireland, and he being a churchman, waited on the doctor, who, in discourse with the mayor, taketh out of a cloak-bag a leather box, saying unto him, Here is a commission that will lash the heretics of Ireland, (calling the protestants by that title.) The good-woman of the house being well affected to the protestant religion, and also having a brother, named John Edmonds, of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much troubled at the doctor's words; but watching her convenient time, while the mayor took his leave, and the doctor complimented him down stairs, she opens the box, takes the commission out, and places in lieu thereof a sheet of paper with a pack of cards wrapped up therein, the knave of clubs being faced uppermost. The doctor coming up to his chamber, suspecting nothing of what had been done, put up the box as formerly. The next day, going to the water-side, wind and weather serving him, he sails towards Ireland, and landed on the 7th of October, 1558, at Dublin. Then coming to the castle, the Lord Fitzwalters being Lord Deputy, sent for him to come before him and the privy-council; who, coming in, after he had made a speech, relating upon what account he came over, he presents the box unto the Lord Deputy, who causing it to be opened, that the secretary might read the commission, there was nothing save a pack of cards, with the knave of clubs uppermost; which not only startled the Lord Deputy and council, but the doctor, who assured them he had a commission, but knew not how it was gone. Then the Lord Deputy made answer-Let us have another commission, and we will shuffle the cards in the meanwhile. The doctor, being troubled in his mind, went away, and returned into England; and coming to the court, obtained another commission; but staying for a wind on the water-side, news came to him that the queen was dead; and thus God preserved the protestants of Ire land."

Queen Elizabeth was so delighted with this story, that she sent for Elizabeth Edmonds, and gave her a pension of forty pounds during her life.-See Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, or History of Ireland, vol ii., p. 308.-Harleian Miscellany. No. 79.-Mosheim's Eccles. History, vol. ii., p. 70.

The church of

and deacons established as it now continues. England, in her tenets, has chiefly conformed to the Lutheran system of reformation.

The reign of Elizabeth, on many accounts remarkable, we shall by and by consider in a civil point of view. It is sufficient at present to observe, that with regard to religion her administration was mild and moderate. The laws gave their countenance to the established mode of worship, but authorized no persecution of those who peaceably approved themselves good and quiet subjects, whatever were their opinions on controverted points of theology.

Thus the doctrines of the Reformation obtained, as we have seen, in the course of half a century, a permanent footing in Germany and Switzerland, in Denmark and Sweden, and in England. The progress of the Reformation in Scotland we shall afterwards observe in treating of the reign of queen Elizabeth and of Mary queen of Scots. But we have not yet accomplished our plan of a complete delineation of those remarkable occurrences which characterized the reign of Charles V.

CHAPTER XXI.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.-Columbus discovers Cuba-The Caribbees-America-Description of Inhabitants and Productions-Cruelties of the Spaniards→ Conquest of Mexico-Discovery of Peru-Administration of the Spaniards— Possessions of other European Nations in America.

AMONG those great events which distinguished the reign of Charles V. was the conquest of Mexico by Fernando Cortes, and of Peru by the Pizarros. The discovery of the American continent by Columbus was made some years before, in the preceding reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, but we have postponed till now to mention that great event, that we may here delineate the whole in one connected view.

The union of the kingdoms of Castile and Arragon under Ferdinand and Isabella rendered Spain, as we have seen, one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe. The enterprising genius of one man now opened to her a source of wealth, to all appearance inexhaustible.

Christopher Columbus, an obscure individual, but a man of a penetrating genius, struck with the enterprises of the Portuguese, was seized with an irresistible ardor of achieving something that might perpetuate his fame, while, at the same time, it gratified his

predominant passion of curiosity, and the love of adventure. He applied first to the state of Genoa, of which he was a subject, and humbly solicited the public aid for assistance to attempt some discoveries in the western seas. He was treated as a visionary by his countrymen; and with the same ill success he made application to the courts of Portugal and of England. He then betook himself to Spain, where, after fruitless solicitation for several years, he at length obtained from Ferdinand and Isabella an armament of three small ships, and the sum of seventeen thousand ducats, for defraying the expenses of his voyage. After a navigation of thirty-three days from the Canary Islands, during which time his crew, despairing of ever obtaining sight of land, repeatedly threatened to throw their admiral overboard, he at length arrived at one of the Bahama Islands, which he named San Salvador; and soon after, he discovered the Islands of Cuba and Hispaniola, which he took possession of in the name of the monarchs of Spain. The inhabitants of those islands, from their distance from the continent, could give him no hopes of those immense discoveries which were to follow; he therefore returned, within the course of seven months, to Spain, bringing with him some of the natives of Hispaniola, some rarities of the country, and some presents in gold. He was received with triumphal honors, and regarded by the Spaniards as something more than human. There was now no difficulty in prevailing with Ferdinand and Isabella to equip a new armament for the prosecution of these discoveries. Columbus sailed a second time with a fleet of seventeen ships, and returned after the discovery of the Caribbee Islands and of Jamaica. But his enemies, jealous of the reputation he had acquired, had prevailed on the court of Spain to send along with his fleet an officer, who, in the character of justiciary, might establish such regulations in the new colonies as were most for the advantage of the Spanish government. This officer, on account of some differences between Columbus and his soldiers, put the admiral in irons on board his own ship, and returned with him a prisoner to Spain. The court, it is true, repaired this affront in the best manner possible. Columbus justified his conduct, and was sent out a third time in the prosecution of new discoveries. It was in this third voyage that he descried the continent, within ten degrees of the equator, towards that part of South America where Carthagena was afterwards built. To this immense continent Amerigo Vespuzio had the honor of giving his name, as he was the first that reported in Europe the intelligence of that discovery; of which, though he only followed the footsteps of Columbus, he arrogated to himself the merit.

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The Americans are a tall race of men, of just proportions, and of a strong conformation of limbs. The color of their skin is à reddish brown; their hair is long, lank, and black, extremely coarse, and they have no appearance of beard: a circumstance

VOL. II.

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