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, ushered in with fo bright a morning, closed 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 say 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 eldest 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 specimen of his Latin, annexed to fome MSS. of Church Discipline in his time, fhews him to no great advantage as a fcholar: "Illa eft Ecclefia noftra Catholica, cum qua nec "Pontifex Maximus nec quifquis alius Prælatus habet "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-feven "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 Hofpitals, "one hundred and ten: the yearly value of all "which were, as I find it caft up, 161,100l. being above a third part of all our spiritual re• venues, befides the money made of the prefent " stock of cattle, corn, timber, lead, bells, &c. "and laftly, but chiefly, of the plate and church ornaments, which I find not valued, but may "be conjectured by that one Monaftery of St. "Edmond's Bury, whence was taken, as our "records fhew, feven thoufand 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 Sopol. 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,) inftead of divers fupernu 66 merary and idle perfons, men fit for employ ment either in war or peace, maintained at the "cost of the aforefaid Abbeys and Chauntries: "fo that the diffolutions (appearing in their "ftately foundations at this day) are by our po"litics thought amply recompenfed. Befides, "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 choiceft books "of their well-furnished Libraries; wherein I "find John Leland (a curious fearcher of antiquities) was employed," As Leo X. had given Henry the name of Defenfor Fidei, Clement the Seventh added to it the title of Liberator Urbis Romana. The book which procured Henry the first appellation is fuppofed to have been written by Fisher Bishop of Rochefter. The immenfe wealth which Henry had procured by the fuppreffion of the monafteries feems to have been. lavifhed 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, exactly well learned. Hath not he thereby onely fyfted out deteftible herefies, late mingled amonge the corne of his faithfull subjectes, "and caufed much of the chaffe to be thrown "into the fyre? alfo hypocrify and vayn super"ftition to be cleane banifhed, whereof I doubte "not but that there fhall be or it be longe a "more ample remembrance to his most noble " and immortal renoume." 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 "Houses of Religion and intended piety, were by Henry VIII. in a temper of indignation "against the Clergy of that time mingled with "infatiable avarice, facked, and razed, as by an enemy. It is true the Parliament did give them to him, but fo unwillingly, (as I have 66 ❝ heard,) "heard,) that when the bill had ftuck long in "the Lower Houfe, 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 έσ or two amongst them, and looking angrily at "them, first on one fide, then on the other, at "laft he faid, I hear that my bill will not pass; "but I will have it pafs, or I will have fome of ce 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 uses, leaving it "more to the confcience and piety of the King; "who, in a speech to the Parliament, promised "to perform the truft; 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 juft proceed, ings. For you, without my defire and re"queft, have committed to my order and difpo"fition, all Chauntries, Colleges, and Hofpitals, "and other places fpecified in a certain act, . firmly trufting that I will order them to the glory 66 |