"Father; being also one who came partly in by "the fword, and had fo high a courage in all "points of regality, and was ever victorious in "rebellions and feditions of the people. The "crown extremely rich and full of treasure, "and the kingdom like to be fo in a fhort time; "for there was no war, no dearth, no ftop of "trade or commerce: it was only the Crown " which had fucked too hard, and now being full, "and upon the head of a young King, was like a to draw lefs. Laftly, he was inheritor of his "father's reputation, which was great throughout "the world." Princes however, like private men, do not always take advantage of, the bleffing that are afforded them. Whatever good is procured with put effort, is feldom or ever improved in proportion to its facility of being fo; and perhaps the moft wicked as well as the weakest man is to be found amongst those who have nothing either to hope of to fear. Henry's reign, ushered in with so bright a morning, closed with clouds and with tempests: murder, rapine, and defolation, marked its progrefs, and the only bright event in it took its rife more from a fatiety of pleasure, and from a defire to command, than from any regard to religion, or any defire VOL. III. F to to promote the happiness of his people. The wellknown Spanish lines fay 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 Difcipline in his time, fhews him to no great advantage as a scholar: "Illa eft Ecclefia noftra Catholica, cum qua net "Pontifex Maximus nec quifquis alius Prælatus habet quicquam agere, præterquam in fuas "diocefas." "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 sc hundred « hundred and forty-feven, whereof twenty-feven "had voices amongst the Peers; of Colleges there * were demolished, in divers fhires, ninety; of “Chaunteries and free Chapels, two thousand "three hundred and seventy-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 fpiritual re« venues, befides the money made of the prefent "ftock of cattle, corn, timber, lead, bells, &c. " and lastly, but chiefly, of the plate and church "ornaments, which I find not valued, but may be conjectured by that one Monastery of St. "Edmond's Bury, whence was taken, as our "records fhew, feven thousand 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 « 8000l. a-year. So that religion, adds Lord Herbert, "feemed not fo much to fuffer thereby "as fome of the Clergy of thofe times and of « ours would have it believed; our kingdom having in the meanwhile (as Lord Cromwell "projected it), instead of divers fupernumerary stand idle persons, men fit for employment either **in war or peace, maintained at the coft of the *** aforefaid Abbeys and Chaunteries: so that the ❝ diffolutions F 2 "diffolutions (appearing in their stately foun"dations at this day) are by our politics thought "amply recompenfed. Befides, the King, in de"molishing them, had fo tender a care of learn"ing, that he not only preferred divers able per"fons 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 Romanæ. The book which procured Henry the firft appellation is fupposed to have been written by Fisher Bishop of Rochefter. The immense wealth which Henry had procured by the fuppreffion of the Monafteries feems to have been lavished with a prodigality as enormous as the rapacity with which it was acquired. "What in Henry the Seventh," fays Lord Herbert," is called covetoufnefs by fome perfons, was a royal virtue; whereas the exceffive and "needlefs expences of Henry the Eighth drew "after them those miserable confequences which the world hath often reproached. Howbeit, here may be occafion to doubt whether the "immenfe "immense treasure which Henry the Seventh “left behind him, was not accidentally the cause "of those ills that followed;, while the young "Prince his fon, finding fuch a mass of money, "did first carelessly fpend, and after strive to fupply as he could.” "One of the liberties," fays Lord Herbert, "which our King took at his spare time, was to "love. For as recommendable parts concurred " in his person, and they again were exalted in his "high dignity and valour, fo it must seem lefs "ftrange, if amid the many faire Ladies which "lived in his Court he both gave and received " temptation." Puttenham, in his " Art of Poetry," gives the following account of a vifit this Prince paid to fome Lady of his Court : "The King (Henry the Eighth)," fays Puttenham, "having Sir Andrew Flamack his "ftandard-bearer (a merry-conceited man, and " apt to fcoffe) with him in his barge, paffing " from Westminster to Greenwich, to visit a fair "Lady whom the King loved, and who was lodged "in the tower of the park; the King coming "within fight of the tower, and being disposed to "be merry, faid, Flamack, let us rhyme. As F 3 "well |