sants, rendered desperate by oppression and cruelty, rose in a body, declaring themselves unable longer to submit to their condition. But, as might have been expected of men whom oppression had kept in ignorance, and cruelty made ferocious, they were incapable of adopting measures calculated to secure the rights of humanity in future, many of them vainly imagining that their safety depended on extinguishing the rights of property with all established institutions,-a result to which they were led by deducing all their evils from these sources. To complete their misguided fury, religion mingled with their other passions, and was carried to the highest pitch of fanaticism -a circumstance which cast obloquy on the cause of reform, and alarmed princes and the higher ranks throughout Europe. Of this the Catholics did not fail to make a proper use, their cry, according to Bishop Jewel, who flourished in the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, being " these men," meaning the reformers, "be rebels, they would have no magistrates, they would have all things in common. Behold what they have done in Helvetia; behold what they have done in Germany. Look out your Chronicles; you shall find all the uproars and seditions which have been these forty years stirred up by some of them t." Under the Mosh. vol. iv. p. 64. et seq.; 423. et seq. + Jewel's Works, Ed. 1611. p. 178. Wolsey, in his last moments, began an exhortation to take heed of the Lutherans, by the example of those of Bohemia, lest they should likewise subvert the secular power. Herbert, p. 148. Halle says, that 100,000 rose up in Germany, f. 142. influence of such panics, and observing that new sects daily sprung up from the lower classes, while each teemed with mortal intolerance towards all others, as if it derived exclusive authority from heaven, the higher ranks, who were impatient at the papal yoke, were much disposed to trust the reformation to the government, particularly to the king, as its head as well as leader of the reformation, and to strengthen the executive, that it might direct the current, lest the spirit of fanaticism, emerging in a variety of shapes, should, with the fury of a hurricane, sweep before it all the established orders of society*. The aristocracy seem, at the outset, to have meditated the plunder of the church, and delusive hopes as to exemptions from tithes encouraged many in all classes to proceed with the great work of reformation. The aristocracy were not disappointed: For the religious houses being dissolved, the larger portion of the immense territory belonging to them was either given away by the king to favourites, or sold at low rates to the nobility and gentry of the several counties. This, at once, bound men of greatest influence to the interest of the crown, and obliged them to support the measures proposed to them from the throne, lest, before their rights were confirmed by time, the sovereign should be provoked to throw himself back into the arms of the Catholics, and * The Papists alleged that there were no fewer than 34 sects in Germany. Jewel's Works, p. 406. with their assistance recover for the church the property of which she had been plundered. Opposition was to have been expected from the clergy; and from their numbers in the upper house of parliament, it might have retarded the grand change. But an advantage was taken of them, which reduced them to the necessity of acquiescing in the first movements; and by such means, not only brought them more under the influence of the crown in all subsequent measures, but taught them the folly of contending with the stream. Wolsey, as he had violated the statutes against purchasing bulls from Rome, by those for his legantine power, which he had exercised for years, had incurred a premunire, for which he was prosecuted; and though he might have alleg. ed, with truth, that his royal master had instigated him to that very proceeding which he now so severely visited in the form of law, he more prudently pleaded ignorance of the statute, and submitted to the royal mercy. He was, by sentence of the court, declared to be out of the king's protection, and to have forfeited his goods and chattels, and even his personal liberty. But Henry retained some kindness for his former favourite, and allowed him to retire with the means of supporting a splendid establishment *. The blow Herbert, p. 124, et seq. See in p. 124 an account of the Cardinal's splendid furniture. Burnet, vol. i. p. 146, et seq. Lord Burgley, in a State Paper to Queen Elizabeth about favourites, says of Wolsey, that he had a family equal to that of a great prince. There were in it one Earl, and nine Barons, and about a thousand Knights; against the cardinal was followed up by another against the whole clergy, as accessory to his crime, by submitting to his usurped power. Having been regularly convicted of this offence, they submitted to the king's mercy; and Henry availed himself of his situation to exact rigorous terms for sealing their pardon 1. That the two provinces of Canterbury and York should pay into the Exchequer £118,840-an immense sum in those days; and that the whole clergy should acknowledge him to be sole, and supreme, head of the church under Christ. The first condition was instantly complied with; but the second was demurred to, the clergy contending that a layman could not be properly styled the head of a spiritual establishment, till the king told them that he claimed the title only in so far as it was agreeable to the word of God; and, with that qualification, they assented. In a year or two afterwards, however, he obtained a confirmation of his title, both in parliament and convocation, without the qualification. The spiritual peers out-numbered the temporal; but the and, (Burnet, vol. v. p. 36,) this is confirmed by his defence, as preserved by Godwin. Rer. Ang. Annal. lib. i. Ang. 1529. In performing divine service he had even dukes and earls to give him the water and the towel. Burnet, Hist. of Ref. vol. i. p. 35. The practice of great men having the sons of good, nay of the highest families as servants, was quite common. Mr. Galt, in his Life of Wolsey, p. 160. has fully shown the error of Mr. Hume on this subject. For an account of Wolsey's fall, &c. see Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. i. c. 15, and 16. What a fall to the cardinal; his household reduced so low as to about 160! Herbert, p. 147. * Herbert, p. 151, et seq. Hist. of the Puritans, vol. i. c. i. Burnet, vol. i. p. 204, et seq. Neal's VOL. I. Ꮐ bishops, according to Burnet, were always much at the king's devotion, and though there were twenty-six parliamentary abbots, and two priors, they could not alone arrest the current, while all their hopes now depended on pleasing the king. Had, however, the spiritual peers remained united in firm opposition, the effect could only have been temporary; as, besides being probably molested with penal laws for extortions, &c. which they justified by prescription, the creation of a few temporal peers would have given a preponderance against them, when their ill-judged and unavailing attempts to contend with the other branches of the legislature would have been productive of a greater fall than they had any cause to anticipate. Wolsey, that he might render himself memorable as a patron of learning, and founder of bishoprics, as well as enlarge the royal power over all religious establishments, used his great influence at one time with the pope to obtain a bull for suppressing a few monasteries, on the condition of still converting the property to pious uses; and, as a pretext was necessary, he visited those endowments by virtue of his legantine power, and attached to them charges of immorality, which opened the road afterwards to their total suppression*. Some petty houses were by him suppressed, of Burnet, p. 34. Herbert, 102. This author says, that the cardinal "knew this would please the king, who began to think that religious persons might serve God as well by fighting for the kingdom as praying for it, so he assured himself the authority thereof would be derived on him chiefly, and the pope, in the meantime, obnoxious, |