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back into an infinite abyss of immeasurable space; and the firm earth
itself, unfixed from its foundations, was seen to be but a small atom in
the awful vastness of the universe. In the fabric of habit which they
had so laboriously built for themselves mankind were to remain no
longer.

_II.--The Fall of Wolsey's Policy_

Times were changed in England since the second Henry walked barefoot
through the streets of Canterbury, and knelt while the monks flogged him
on the pavement in the Chapter House, doing penance for Becket's murder.
The clergy had won the battle in the twelfth century because they
deserved it. They were not free from fault and weakness, but they felt
the meaning of their profession. Their hearts were in their vows, their
authority was exercised more justly, more nobly, than the authority of
the crown; and therefore, with inevitable justice, the crown was
compelled to stoop before them.

The victory was great, but, like many victories, it was fatal to the
conquerors. It filled them with the vanity of power; they forgot their
duties in their privileges, and when, a century later, the conflict
recommenced, the altering issue proved the altering nature of the
conditions under which it was fought. The nation was ready for sweeping
remedies. The people felt little loyalty to the pope. The clergy pursued
their course to its end. They sank steadily into that condition which is
inevitable from the constitution of human nature, among men without
faith, wealthy, powerful, and luxuriously fed, yet condemned to celibacy
and cut off from the common duties and common pleasures of ordinary
life.

Many priests spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging at
taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. If, however, there
were no longer saints among the clergy, there could still arise among
them a remarkable man. In Cardinal Wolsey the king found an adviser who
was essentially a transition minister, holding a middle place between an
English statesman and a Catholic of the old order. Under Wolsey's
influence, Henry made war with Louis of France in the pope's quarrel,
entered the polemic lists with Luther, and persecuted the English
Protestants.

Yet Wolsey could not blind himself to the true condition of the church,
before which lay the alternative of ruin or amendment. Therefore he
familiarised Henry with sense that a reformation was inevitable.
Dreaming that it could be effected from within, by