ereford, as Francis did Bellay, lord of Langley, to
treat with them. But during the first fervors of the reformation,
an agreement in theological tenets was held, as well as a union of
interests, to be essential to a good correspondence among states; and
though both Francis and Henry flattered the German princes with hopes of
their embracing the confession of Augsbourg, it was looked upon as a
bad symptom of their sincerity, that they exercised such extreme
rigor against all preachers of the reformation in their respective
dominions.[*] Henry carried the feint so far, that, while he thought
himself the first theologian in the world, he yet invited over
Melaricthon, Bucer, Sturmius, Draco, and other German divines, that
they might confer with him, and instruct him in the foundation of their
tenets. These theologians were now of great importance in the world; and
no poet or philosopher, even in ancient Greece, where they were treated
with most respect, had ever reached equal applause and admiration with
those wretched composers of metaphysical polemics. The German princes
told the king, that they could not spare their divines; and as Henry
had no hopes of agreement with such zealous disputants, and knew that in
Germany the followers of Luther would not associate with the disciples
of Zuinglius, because, though they agreed in every thing else, they
differed in some minute particulars with regard to the eucharist, he was
the more indifferent on account of this refusal. He could also foresee,
that even while the league of Smalcalde did not act in concert with him,
they would always be carried by their interests to oppose the emperor:
and the hatred between Francis and that monarch was so inveterate,
that he deemed himself sure of a sincere ally in one or other of these
potentates.

* Sleidan, lib. 10.

{1536.} During these negotiations, an incident happened in England,
which promised a more amicable conclusion of those disputes, and seemed
even to open the way for a reconciliation between Henry and Charles.
Queen Catharine was seized with a lingering illness, which at last
brought her to her grave; she died at Kimbolton, in the county of
Huntingdon, in the fiftieth year of her age. A little before she
expired, she wrote a very tender letter to the king, in which she gave
him the appellation of "her most dear lord, king, and husband." She told
him that as the hour of her death was now approaching, she laid hold
of this