ind, a foreign invasion on the part of the Catholic
powers, an internal revolt in England, and such things--and set the
clock back again, and, unlike Dom Anthony, they had a home where they
could follow their Rules in tolerable comfort.

The country was indeed very deeply stirred by the events that were
taking place; but for the present, partly from terror and partly from
the great forces that were brought to bear upon English convictions, it
gave no expression to its emotion. The methods that Cromwell had
employed with such skill in the past were still active. On the worldly
side there was held out to the people the hope of relieved taxation, of
the distribution of monastic wealth and lands; on the spiritual side the
bishops under Cranmer were zealous in controverting the old principles
and throwing doubt upon the authority of the Pope. It was impossible for
the unlearned to know what to believe; new manifestoes were issued
continually by the King and clergy, full of learned arguments and
persuasive appeals; and the professors of the old religion were
continually discredited by accusations of fraud, avarice, immorality,
hypocrisy and the like. They were silenced, too; while active and
eloquent preachers like Latimer raged from pulpit to pulpit, denouncing,
expounding, convincing.

Meanwhile the work went on rapidly. The summer and autumn of '38 saw
again destruction after destruction of Religious Houses and objects of
veneration; and the intimidation of the most influential personages on
the Catholic side.

In February, for example, the rood of Boxley was brought up to London
with every indignity, and after being exhibited with shouts of laughter
at Whitehall, and preached against at Paul's Cross, it was tossed down
among the zealous citizens and smashed to pieces. In the summer, among
others, the shrine of St. Swithun at Winchester was defaced and robbed;
and in the autumn that followed the friaries which had stood out so long
began to fall right and left. In October the Holy Blood of Hayles, a
relic brought from the East in the thirteenth century and preserved
with great love and honour ever since, was taken from its resting place
and exposed to ridicule in London. Finally in the same month, after St.
Thomas of Canterbury had been solemnly declared a traitor to his prince,
his name, images and pictures ordered to be erased and destroyed out of
every book, window and wall, and he himself summoned with grotesque
sol