Cranmer, who was likewise attacked, the King
himself stretched out a protecting hand. When he once more made common
cause with the Emperor against France, and undertook a war on the
Continent, he previously ordered the introduction of an English
Litany, which was to be sung in processions. The fact that the Bible
was read in the vernacular, and popular devotional exercises retained
in use, saved the Protestant ideas and efforts, despite all
persecution, from extinction.

It gives a disagreeably grotesque colouring to the government of Henry
VIII to see how his matrimonial affairs are mixed up with those of
politics and religion. Queen Catharine Howard, whose marriage with him
marked also the preponderance of the Catholic principle, was without
any doubt guilty of offences like those which were imputed to her
predecessor Anne: at her fall her relations, the leaders of the
anti-Protestant party, lost their position and influence at court. The
King then married Catharine Parr, who had good conduct and womanly
prudence enough to keep him in good temper and contentment. But she
openly cherished Protestant sympathies; and she was once seriously
attacked on their account. Henry however let her influence prevail, as
it did not clash with his own policy.

Now that once the sanctity of marriage had been violated, the place of
King's wife became as it were revocable; the antagonistic factions
sought to overthrow the Queen who was inconvenient to them; that which
has been at various times demanded of other members of the household,
that they should be in complete agreement with the ruling system, was
then required with respect to their wives, and indeed to the wife of
the sovereign himself; the importance of marriage was now shown only
by the violence with which it was dissolved.

This self-willed energetic sovereign however by no means so completely
followed merely his own judgment as has been assumed. We saw how after
Wolsey's fall he at first inclined to the protestant doctrines, and
then again persecuted them with extreme energy. He sacrificed, as
formerly Empson and Dudley, so Wolsey and now Cromwell to the public
opinion roused against them. He recognised with quick penetration
successive political necessities and followed their guidance. The most
characteristic thing is that he always seemed to belong body and soul
to these tendencies, however much they differed from each other: he
let them be established by laws contradi