dy in the kingdom counted for much but the
King. He stepped at once into Wolsey's place, became his own prime
minister, and ruled with a vigour which was assuredly not less than
the Cardinal's. Such transformations are not the work of a moment, and
Henry's would have been impossible, had he in previous years been so
completely the slave of Vanity Fair, as most people thought. In
reality, there are indications that beneath the superficial gaiety of
his life, Henry was beginning to use his own judgment, form his own
conclusions, and take an interest in serious matters. He was only
twenty-eight in 1519, and his character was following a normal course
of development.

From the earliest years of his reign Henry had at least two serious
preoccupations, the New Learning and his navy. We learn from Erasmus
that Henry's Court was an example to Christendom for learning and
piety;[337] that the King sought to promote learning among the clergy;
and on one occasion defended "mental and _ex tempore_ prayer" against
those who apparently thought laymen should, in their private (p. 123)
devotions, confine themselves to formularies prescribed by the
clergy.[338] In 1519 there were more men of learning at the English
Court than at any university;[339] it was more like a museum, says the
great humanist, than a Court;[340] and in the same year the King
endeavoured to stop the outcry against Greek, raised by the reactionary
"Trojans" at Oxford. "You would say," continues Erasmus, "that Henry
was a universal genius. He has never neglected his studies; and
whenever he has leisure from his political occupations, he reads, or
disputes--of which he is very fond--with remarkable courtesy and
unruffled temper. He is more of a companion than a king. For these
little trials of wit, he prepares himself by reading schoolmen,
Thomas, Scotus or Gabriel."[341] His theological studies were
encouraged by Wolsey, possibly to divert the King's mind from an
unwelcome interference in politics, and it was at the Cardinal's
instigation that Henry set to work on his famous book against
Luther.[342] He seems to have begun it, or some similar treatise,
which may afterwards have been adapted to Luther's particular case,
before the end of the year in which the German reformer published his
original theses. In September, 1517, Erasmus heard that Henry had
returned to his studies,[343] and, in the following June, Pace writes
to Wolsey that, with respect to the co