rks
of their course, and have no compass and no celestial charts by which to
steer. In the years which preceded the French Revolution, Cagliostro was
the companion of princes,--at the dissolution of paganism the practicers
of curious arts, the witches and the necromancers, were the sole objects
of reverence in the Roman world; and so, before the Reformation,
archbishops and cardinals saw an inspired prophetess in a Kentish
servant-girl; Oxford heads of colleges sought out heretics with the help
of astrology; Anne Boleyn blessed a basin of rings, her royal fingers
pouring such virtue into the metal that no disorder could resist
it;[219] Wolsey had a magic crystal; and Cromwell, while in Wolsey's
household, "did haunt to the company of a wizard."[220] These things
were the counterpart of a religion which taught that slips of paper,
duly paid for, could secure indemnity for sin. It was well for England
that the chief captain at least was proof against the epidemic--no
random scandal seems ever to have whispered that such delusions had
touched the mind of the king.[221]

[Sidenote: The king incurs the censures of the church.]

While the government were prosecuting these inquiries at home, the law
at the Vatican had run its course; November passed, and as no submission
had arrived, the sentence of the 12th of July came into force, and the
king, the queen, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were declared to have
incurred the threatened censures.

[Sidenote: Measures of the Council.]

[Sidenote: Renewed suggestion of a Protestant league.]

The privy council met on the 2d of December, and was determined in
consequence that copies of the "Act of Appeals," and of the king's
"provocation" to a general council, should be fixed without delay on
every church-door in England. Protests were at the same time to be drawn
up and sent into Flanders, and to the other courts in Europe, "to the
intent the falsehood and injustice of the Bishop of Rome might appear to
all the world." The defences of the country were to be looked to; and
"spies" to be sent into Scotland to see "what they intended there," "and
whether they would confeder themselves with any outward princes."
Finally, it was proposed that the attempt to form an alliance with the
Lutheran powers should be renewed on a larger scale; that certain
discreet and grave persons should be appointed to conclude "some league
or amity with the princes of Germany,"--"that is to say, the Kin