ection; but
whatever was revised or added was in the same handwriting. I had then
no further grounds for hesitation, and, overcome by the facts, I laid
aside all suspicion." Neither, he adds, would his correspondent doubt
Henry VIII's authorship of the book against Luther if he knew that
king's "happy genius". That famous book is sufficient proof that
theological studies held no small place in Henry's education. They
were cast in the traditional mould, for the Lancastrians were very
orthodox, and the early Tudors followed in their steps. Margaret
Beaufort left her husband to devote herself to good works and a
semi-monastic life; Henry VII. converted a heretic at the stake and
left him to burn;[52] and the theological conservatism, which Henry
VIII. imbibed in youth, clung to him to the end of his days.

[Footnote 47: _Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 26787._]

[Footnote 48: _Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19553._]

[Footnote 49: F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_,
i., 201.]

[Footnote 50: Printed in 1500 at the end of
Erasmus's _Adagia_.]

[Footnote 51: F.M. Nichols, pp. 423-24; _L. and
P._, iv., 5412.]

[Footnote 52: _Cotton MS._, Vitellius, A., xvi., f.
172.]

Nor were the arts neglected, and in his early years Henry acquired a
passionate and lifelong devotion to music. Even as Duke of York he had
a band of minstrels apart from those of the King and Prince Arthur;[53]
and when he was king his minstrels formed an indispensable part of his
retinue, whether he went on progress through his kingdom, or crossed
the seas on errands of peace or war.[54] He became an expert performer
on the lute, the organ and the harpsichord, and all the cares of State
could not divert him from practising on those instruments both day (p. 025)
and night. He sent all over England in search of singing men and boys
for the chapel royal, and sometimes appropriated choristers from
Wolsey's chapel, which he thought better provided than his own.[55]
From Venice he enticed to England the organist of St. Mark's, Dionysius
Memo, and on occasion Henry and his Court listened four hours at a
stretch to Memo's organ recitals.[56] Not only did he take delight in
the practice of music by himself and others; he also studied its
theory and wrote with the skill of an expert. Vocal and inst