ty in the sense, by its multiplied
tropes and figures, was sufficient to kindle the zeal of fanaticism,
and thereby throw civil society into the most furious combustion: that a
thousand sects must arise, which would pretend, each of them, to derive
its tenets from the Scripture; and would be able, by specious arguments,
or even without specious arguments, to seduce silly women and ignorant
mechanics into a belief of the most monstrous principles: and that if
ever this disorder, dangerous to the magistrate himself, received a
remedy, it must be from the tacit acquiescence of the people in some
new authority; and it was evidently better, without further contest or
inquiry, to adhere peaceably to ancient, and therefore the more secure
establishments.

These latter arguments, being more agreeable to ecclesiastical
governments, would probably have prevailed in the convocation, had it
not been for the authority of Cranmer, Latimer, and some other bishops,
who were supposed to speak the king's sense of the matter. A vote was
passed for publishing a new translation of the Scriptures; and in three
years' time the work was finished, and printed at Paris. This was deemed
a great point gained by the reformers, and a considerable advancement
of their cause. Further progress was soon expected, after such important
successes.

But while the retainers to the new religion were exulting in their
prosperity, they met with a mortification which seemed to blast all
their hopes: their patroness, Anne Boleyn, possessed no longer the
king's favor; and soon after lost her life by the rage of that furious
monarch. Henry had persevered in his love to this lady during six years
that his prosecution of the divorce lasted; and the more obstacles he
met with to the gratification of his passion, the more determined
zeal did he exert in pursuing his purpose. But the affection which had
subsisted, and still increased under difficulties, had not long attained
secure possession of its object, when it languished from satiety; and
the king's heart was apparently estranged from his consort. Anne's
enemies soon perceived the fatal change; and they were forward to widen
the breach, when they found that they incurred no danger by interposing
in those delicate concerns. She had been delivered of a dead son; and
Henry's extreme fondness for male issue being thus for the present
disappointed, his temper, equally violent and superstitious, was
disposed to make th