taken from God, but must remain for ever
in his service. It was replied in substance that God's service was not
divided, but one; that all duties honestly done were religious duties;
that the person of the layman was as sacred as the person of the priest;
and the liturgy of obedience as acceptable as the liturgy of words.

[Sidenote: Necessity of caution.]

[Sidenote: Aversion of English statesmen to sweeping measures.]

Yet if, in the end, men found their way clearly, they moved towards it
with slow steps; and the first resolution at which they arrived embodied
partially the schemes of each of the honest reformers. In touching
institutions with which the feelings of the nation were deeply
connected, prudence and principle alike dictated caution. However
bitterly the people might exclaim against the abbeys while they
continued to stand, their faults, if they were destroyed, would soon be
forgotten. Institutions which had been rooted in the country for so many
centuries, retained a hold too deep to be torn away without wounding a
thousand associations; and a reaction of regret would inevitably follow
among men so conservative as the English, so possessed with reverence
for the old traditions of their fathers. This was to be considered; or
rather the parliament, the crown, and the council felt as the people
felt. Vast as the changes were which had been effected, there had been
as yet no sweeping measures. At each successive step, Henry had never
moved without reluctance. He hated anarchy; he hated change: in the true
spirit of an Englishman, he never surrendered an institution or a
doctrine till every means had been exhausted of retaining it,
consistently with allegiance to truth. The larger monasteries,
therefore, with many of the rest, had yet four years allowed them to
demonstrate the hopelessness of their amendment, the impossibility of
their renovation. The remainder were to reap the consequences of their
iniquities; and the judicial sentence was pronounced at last in a spirit
as rational as ever animated the English legislature.

[Sidenote: Act for the Dissolution of the smaller houses. Forasmuch as
religious persons in the little abbeys are living in manifest sin,]

[Sidenote: To the displeasure of God and the great infamy of the realm;]

[Sidenote: And forasmuch as reformation is seen to be hopeless,]

[Sidenote: It is believed that God will be better pleased to see the
possessions of such houses, now wasted