penitent to declaim against the new doctrines, and to prophecy the death of the king, if he persisted in his intended divorce from Catherine. Henry at length began to think the matter worthy of his attention; and having ordered Elizabeth and her accomplices to be arrested, they confessed, and suffered for their guilt. The better to undeceive the multitude, the 1535. forgery of many of the prophetess's miracles was detected; and even the sca dalous prostitution of her manners was laid open to the public. A. D. The detection of this imposture hurt the credit of the monks; the king, to take vengeance on them, suppressed three monasteries; and finding the little clamour excited by this act of power, he was more encouraged to lay his rapacious hands on the remainder. Meanwhile he exercised punishments on individuals who were obnoxious to him. The parliament had made it treason to deprive the king of his dignity or titles; they had lately added to his other tities that of supreme head of the church; and hence it was inferred, that to deny his supremacy was treason. Many priors and ecclesiastics lost their lives for this new species of guilt; and Henry, impelled by his violent temper, and desirous of striking a terror into the whole nation, proceeded to make examples of Fisher and More. John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, was a prelate eminent for learning and morals, still more than for his ecclesiastical dignities, and for the high favour which he had long enjoyed with the king. When he was thrown into prison, he had not only been deprived of all his revenues, but stripped of his very clothes, and without con sideration sideration of his extreme age, or his former rank, he was allowed nothing but rags. In this condition, he lay in prison above a twelvemonth; when the pope, willing to recompence the sufferings of so faithful an adherent, created him a cardinal, without his privity or concurrence. This promotion of a man, merely for his opposition to royal authority, roused the indignation of the king; and Fisher being indicted for denying the king's supremacy, was tried, condemned, and beheaded. The execution of this prelate was intended as a warning to More, whose compliance, on account of his great authority both abroad and at home, and his high reputation for learning and virtue, was anxiously desired by the king. That prince also bore as great personal affection and regard to More, as his imperious mind, the sport of passions, was susceptible of towards a man who in any particular opposed his violent incli. nations. But More could never be prevailed on to acknowledge any opinion so contrary to his principles as that of the king's supremacy; and though Henry exacted that compliance from the whole nation, there was as yet no law obliging any one to take an oath to that purpose. Rich, the solicitor-general, was sent to confer with More, then a prisoner, who observed a cautious silence with regard to the supremacy: he was only inveigled to say, that any question with regard to the law which established that prerogative, was a two-edged sword: if a person answer one way, it will confound his soul; if another, it will destroy his body. No more was wanted to found an indictment of high treason against the prisoner. His silence was called malicious, malicious, and made a part of his crime; and these words, which had casually dropped from him, were interpreted as a denial of the supremacy. Trials now were mere formalities: the jury gave sentence against More, who had long expected this fate, and who needed no preparation to fortify him against the terrors of death. Not only his constancy, but even his cheerfulness, never forsook him; and he made a sacrifice of his life to his integrity, with the same indifference that he maintained in any ordinary occurrence. When he was mounting the scaffold, he said to one, 66 Friend, help me up, and when I come down again let me shift for myself." The executioner asking him forgiveness he granted the request, but told him, " you will never get credit by beheading me, my neck is so short." Then laying his head on the block, he bade the executioner stay till he put aside his beard; "for," said he, "it never committed treason." Nothing was wanting to the glory of this end, except a cause, more worthy of such a sacrifice More was beheaded in the fiftythird year of his age. A. D. When the intelligence of these executions was carried to Rome, Paul III. who had succeeded Clement in the apostolic chair, excommunicated the king and his adherents, deprived him of his crown, and gave his kingdom to any invader; but Henry was little alarmed by these measures. He knew the emperor, whose 1536. enmity alone he had reason to apprehend, was at that time hard pressed by the Turks and the protestant princes of Germany; and an incident which happened soon after seemed to open the way for a reconciliation between him self self and Charles. Queen Catherine was seized with a lingering illness, which at last brought her to her grave: she died at Kimbolton in the county of Huntingdon, in the fiftieth year of her age. A little before she expired, she wrote a very tender letter to the king; in which she gave him the appellation of her most dear lord, king, and husband; and concluded with these words, "I make this vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things." The king was touched even to the shedding of tears, by this last tender proof of Catherine's affection; but queen Anne is said to have expressed her joy for the death of a rival, beyond what decency or humanity could permit. The emperor thought that, as the demise of his aunt had removed all personal animosity between him and Henry, it might not be impos sible to detach him from the alliance of France; but his advances were received with coldness, and all success that he met with in his invasion of Province, served to render the king of England me indifferent to his proffered friendship. Hey, conscious of the advantages of his situation, at last determined to suppress the monasteries, and to put himself in possession of their ample revenues. He delegated his supremacy to Cromwel, who was then secretary of state, and who employed commissioners to inquire into the conduct and deportment of the i: ars. The reports of these were most unfavourable; and, if we may credit the suspicious evidence they collected, monstrous disorders piled in many of the religious houses. Some few monasteries, terrified with this rigous inquisition, surrendered their revenues into into the king's hands; and the monks received small pensions as the reward of their obsequiousness. Orders were then given to dismiss such nuns and friars as were below four and twenty. The doors of the convents were next opened, even to such as were above that age; and every one recovered his liberty who desired it. But as all these expedients did not fully answer the king's purpose, he had recourse to his usual instrument of power, the parliament; and in order to prepare men for the innovations projected, the report of the visitors was published, and a general horror was endeavoured to be excited in the nation against institutions, which had long been the objects of the most profound veneration. The king, though determined utterly to abolish the monastic orders, resolved to proceed gradually in this great work; and he gave directions to the parliament to go no further at present, than to suppress the lesser monasteries, which possessed revenues below two hundred pounds a year. By this act, three hundred and seventy-six monasteries were suppressed, and their revenues, amounting to thirty-two thousand pounds a year, were granted to the king; besides their goods, chattels, and plate, computed at a hundred thousand pounds more. It does not appear that any opposition was made to this important law: so absolute was Henry's authority and indeed in several important civil regulations, he found the parliament equally obsequious. After all the wished-for laws were passed, the king dissolved the parliament: a parliament memorable not only for the great and important innovations |