"Calendar" does not appear in the title and it
includes much besides State papers; such a
description also tends to confuse it with the
eleven volumes of Henry VIII.'s State papers
published _in extenso_ in 1830-51. The series now
extends to Dec., 1544, and is cited in the text as
_L. and P._.]

[Footnote 3: Cited as _Spanish Calendar_; the
volume completing Henry's reign was published in
1904.]

[Footnote 4: Cited as _Ven. Cal._; this
correspondence diminishes in importance as the
reign proceeds, and also, after 1530, the documents
are epitomised afresh in _L. and P._.]

[Footnote 5: Three series, _viz._, that edited by
Thorp (2 vols., 1858), a second edited by Bain (2
vols., 1898) and the _Hamilton Papers_ (2 vols.,
1890-92).]

[Footnote 6: Vol. i. of the _Irish Calendar_, and
also of the _Carew MSS._; see also the _Calendar of
Fiants_ published by the Deputy-Keeper of Records
for Ireland.]

[Footnote 7: _Correspondance de MM. Castillon et
Marillac_, edited by Kaulek, and of _Odet de
Selve_, 1888.]

[Footnote 8: The most important of these is vol. i.
of Lord Salisbury's MSS.; other papers of Henry
VIII.'s reign are scattered up and down the
Appendices to a score and more of reports.]

[Footnote 9: _E.g._, Wriothesley's _Chronicle_,
_Chron. of Calais_, and _Greyfriars Chron_.]

[Footnote 10: _E.g._, Leadam, _Domesday of
Inclosures_, and _Transactions_, _passim_.]

These sources probably contain at least a million definite facts
relating to the reign of Henry VIII.; and it is obvious that the task
of selection has become heavy as well as invidious. Mr. Froude has
expressed his concurrence in the dictum that the facts of history are
like the letters of the alphabet; by selection and arrangement they
can be made to spell anything, and nothing can be arranged so easily
as facts. _Experto crede_. Yet selection is in