to the Papacy would count for nothing.

[Footnote 270: _L. and P._, ii., 3054.]

* * * * *

For the present, those services were to be remembered. They were not,
indeed, inconsiderable. It would be absurd to maintain that, since his
accession, Henry had been actuated by respect for the Papacy more than
by another motive; but it is indisputable that that motive had entered
more largely into his conduct than into that of any other monarch.
James IV. and Louis had been excommunicated, Maximilian had obstinately
countenanced a schismatic council and wished to arrogate to himself
the Pope's temporal power. Ferdinand's zeal for his house had eaten
him up and left little room for less selfish impulses; his anxiety for
war with the Moor or the Turk was but a cloak; and the value of his
frequent demands for a Reformation may be gauged by his opinion that
never was there more need for the Inquisition, and by his anger with
Leo for refusing the Inquisitors the preferments he asked.[271] From
hypocrisy like Ferdinand's Henry was, in his early years, singularly
free, and the devotion to the Holy See, which he inherited, was of a
more than conventional type. "He is very religious," wrote (p. 106)
Giustinian, "and hears three masses daily when he hunts, and sometimes
five on other days. He hears the office every day in the Queen's chamber,
that is to say, vesper and compline."[272] The best theologians and
doctors in his kingdom were regularly required to preach at his Court,
when their fee for each sermon was equivalent to ten or twelve pounds.
He was generous in his almsgiving, and his usual offering on Sundays
and saints' days was six shillings and eightpence or, in modern
currency, nearly four pounds; often it was double that amount, and
there were special offerings besides, such as the twenty shillings he
sent every year to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury. In January,
1511, the gentlemen of the King's chapel were paid what would now be
seventy-five pounds for praying for the Queen's safe delivery, and
similar sums were no doubt paid on other occasions.[273] In 1513,
Catherine thought Henry's success was all due to his zeal for
religion,[274] and a year or two later Erasmus wrote that Henry's
Court was an example to all Christendom for learning and piety.[275]

[Footnote 271: _Sp. Cal._, ii., 80, 89, 167, 175.]

[Footnote 27