* Burnet, vol. i. p. 297.

** Burnet, vol. i. p. 207. Strype, vol. i. p. 285.

The trial and conviction of Queen Anne, and the subsequent events, made
it necessary for the king to summon a new parliament; and he here,
in his speech, made a merit to his people, that, notwithstanding the
misfortunes attending his two former marriages, he had been induced for
their good to venture on a third. The speaker received this profession
with suitable gratitude; and he took thence occasion to praise the
king for his wonderful gifts of grace and nature: he compared him, for
justice and prudence, to Solomon; for strength and fortitude, to Samson;
and for beauty and comeliness, to Absalom. The king very humbly replied,
by the mouth cf the chancellor, that he disavowed these praises; since,
if he were really possessed of such endowments, they were the gift
of Almighty God only. Henry found that the parliament was no less
submissive in deeds than complaisant in their expressions, and that
they would go the same lengths as the former in gratifying even his most
lawless passions. His divorce from Anne Boleyn was ratified;[*] that
queen and all her accomplices were attainted; the issue of both his
former marriages were declared illegitimate, and it was even made
treason to assert the legitimacy of either of them; to throw any slander
upon the present king, queen, or their issue, was subjected to the same
penalty; the crown was settled on the king's issue by Jane Seymour, or
any subsequent wife; and in case he should die without children, he was
empowered, by his will or letters patent, to dispose of the crown; an
enormous authority, especially when intrusted to a prince so violent and
capricious in his humor. Whoever, being required, refused to answer upon
oath to any article of this act of settlement, was declared to be guilty
of treason; and by this clause a species of political inquisition
was established in the kingdom, as well as the accusations of treason
multiplied to an unreasonable degree. The king was also empowered to
confer on any one, by his will or letters patent, any castles, honors,
liberties, or franchises; words which might have been extended to the
dismembering of the kingdom, by the erection of principalities and
independent jurisdictions. It was also, by another act, made treason
to marry, without the king's consent, any princess related in the first
degree to the crown. This act was occasioned by the dis