and many
records have been destroyed since he wrote.]

[Footnote 1076: Cromwell to Henry VIII., in
Merriman, ii., 268-72.]

* * * * *

Henry, however, was never patient of matrimonial or other yokes, and
it was quite certain that, as soon as he could do so without serious
risk, he would repudiate his unattractive wife, and probably other
things besides. For Anne's defects were only the last straw added to
the burden which Henry bore. He had not only been forced by
circumstances into marriage with a wife who was repugnant to him, but
into a religious and secular policy which he and the mass of his
subjects disliked. The alliance with the Protestant princes might be a
useful weapon if things came to the worst, and if there were a joint
attack on England by Francis and Charles; but, on its merits, it was
not to be compared to a good understanding with the Emperor; and Henry
would have no hesitation in throwing over the German princes when once
he saw his way to a renewal of friendship with Charles. He would
welcome, even more, a relief from the necessity of paying attention to
German divines. He had never wavered in his adhesion to the cardinal
points of the Catholic faith. He had no enmity to Catholicism, provided
it did not stand in his way. The spiritual jurisdiction of Rome (p. 387)
had been abolished in England because it imposed limits on Henry's own
authority. Some of the powers of the English clergy had been destroyed,
partly for a similar reason, and partly as a concession to the laity.
But the purely spiritual claims of the Church remained unimpaired; the
clergy were still a caste, separate from other men, and divinely
endowed with the power of performing a daily miracle in the conversion
of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Even
when the Protestant alliance seemed most indispensable, Henry
endeavoured to convince Lutherans of the truth of the Catholic
doctrine of the mass, and could not refrain from persecuting heretics
with a zeal that shook the confidence of his reforming allies. His
honour, he thought, was involved in his success in proving that he,
with his royal supremacy, could defend the faith more effectively than
the Pope, with all his pretended powers; and he took a personal
interest in the conversion and burning of heretics. Several instances
are recorded of his arguing a whole day