A perplexing, though nice conjunction of affairs induced Henry at last to throw off all relation to, or dependence upon, the church of Rome, and to bring about a reformation, in which, however, many of the Romish errors and superstitions were retained. Henry never could have effected this mighty measure, had it not been for his despotic disposition, which broke out on every occasion.

The dissolution of the religious houses, and the immense wealth that came to Henry by seizing all the ecclesiastical property in his kingdom, enabled him to give full scope to his arbitrary temper; and his wishes, however unreasonable, were too readily complied with in consequence of the shameful servility of his parliament. The best and most innocent blood of England was shed on scaffolds, and seldom any long time passed without being marked with some illustrious victim of his tyranny.

CHAP. LI.

Of the Death of King Henry; with Remarks on his Reign.

HENRY's health had long been declining, and his approaching dissolution had plainly been foreseen by all around him for some days. But, as it had been declared treason to foretel the king's death, no one durst inform him of his condition, lest in the transports of his fury, he

should order the author of such intelligence to immediate punishment. Sir Anthony Denny, however, at last ventured to make known to him the awful truth. He signified his resignation, and desired that Cranmer might be sent for. The primate came, though not before the king was speechless. But as he still seemed to retain his senses, Cranmer desired him to give some sign of his dying in the faith of Christ. He squeezed the primate's hand, and immediately expired, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and thirty-eighth of his reign; affording in his end, a striking example, that composure in the hour of death, is not the inseparable characteristic of a well spent life, nor vengeance, in this world, the universal fate of blood-thirsty tyrants. Happily we know, that there is a state beyond the grave, where all accounts will be settled, and a tribunal, where every one must answer for the deeds done in the flesh; otherwise we should be apt to conclude, from seeing the same things happen to the just and to the unjust, to the cruel and to the merciful, that there was no eye in heaven, which regarded the actions of men, nor any arm to punish.

Some kings have been tyrants from contradiction and revolt; some from being misled by favorites, and some from a spirit of party. But Henry was cruel from a depraved disposition alone; cruel in government, cruel in religion, and cruel in his family. Our divines have taken some pains to vindicate the character of that brutal prince, as if his conduct and our reformation had any connection with each other. There

is nothing so absurd as to defend the one by the other. The most noble designs are brought about by the most vicious instruments; for we see even that cruelty and injustice were employed in our holy redemption.

But the history of his reign yields us other lessons, than those of morality; lessons which come home to the heart of every Englishman, and which he ought to remember every moment of his existence. It teaches us the most alarming of all political truths; "that the most absolute despotism may prevail in a state, and yet the form of a free constitution remain." Ñay, it even leads us to a conjecture still more interesting to Britons, "That in this country, a tyrannical prince most successfully exercises his violence, under the shelter of those barriers, which the constitution has placed, as the security of national freedom; of our lives, our liberties, and our properties." Henry changed the national religion, and in a great measure, the spirit of our laws. He exercised the most enormous violences against the first men in the kingdom. He loaded the people with oppsessive taxes, and he pillaged them with loans, which it was known he never meant to pay. But he never attempted to abolish the parliament, or even to retrench any of its most doubtful privileges. The parlia ment was the grand instrument of his tyranny. It authorized his oppressive taxes, and absolved him from the payment of his debts. It gave its sanction to his most violent and sanguinary mea. sures; to measures which, of himself, he durst not have carried into execution; or which, if sup

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posed to be merely the result of his own arbitrary will, would have roused the spirit of the nation to assert the rights of humanity. Law would have been given to the tyrant's power, or some arm would have been found. bold enough to rid the world of such a monster, by carrying vengeance to his heart.

The conclusion to be drawn from these facts and reasonings is, (and it deserves our most serious attention) that the British constitution, though so happily poised, that no part of it seems to preponderate;-though so admirably constructed, that every one of the three estates is a check upon each of the other two, and both houses of parliament upon the crown;-though the most rational and perfect system of freedom, which human wisdom has framed,-it is no positive security against the despotism of an artful or tyrannical prince; and that, if Britons should ever be slaves, such an event is not likely to happen, as in France or Spain, by the abolition of our national assembly, but by the corruption of its members; by making that supposed bulwark of our liberty, as in ancient Rome, the means of our slavery.

Our admirable constitution is but a gay shadow to conceal our shame, and the iniquity of our oppressors, unless our senators are animated by the same spirit which gave it birth. If they can be over-awed by threats, seduced from their duty by bribes, or allured by promises, another Henry may rule us with a rod of iron, and drench once more the scaffold with the

best blood in the nation. The parliament will be the humble and secure minister of his tyrannies.

CHAP. LII.

Of Cardinal Wolsey.

THOMAS WOLSEY, the first who promoted the divorce of Catharine, Henry's first queen, was a butcher's son, of Ipswich in Suffolk. He was a student at Magdalen-College, Oxford, and greatly distinguished by his talents. Fox, bishop of Winchester, having introduced him to court, he soon obtained the deanery of Lincoln.

Henry VIII. who had a great affection for him, appointed him a member of his privy coun cil; made him prime minister; a little after bishop of Lincoln; and afterwards archbishop of York. By the interest of Francis I. he was raised to the purple; and Henry made him lord chancellor.

Not being satisfied with these preferments, Wolsey aimed at the pontifical chair, to which Charles V. had promised to raise him. But as that emperor failed to promote his interest in two conclaves, in the first whereof he caused Adrian, formerly his tutor, to be elected pope; Wolsey, out of revenge, persuaded king Henry to solicit the divorce; which affair afterwards proved his ruin. For as Wolsey had not credit