ily; and that a man possessed
of no manner of literature should be set at the head of the church.

As soon as the act of the six articles had passed, the Catholics were
extremely vigilant in informing against offenders; and no less than five
hundred persons were in a little time thrown into prison. But Cromwell,
who had not had interest enough to prevent that act, was able for the
present to elude its execution. Seconded by the duke of Suffolk and
Chancellor Audley, as well as by Cranmer, he remonstrated against the
cruelty of punishing so many delinquents; and he obtained permission to
set them at liberty. The uncertainty of the king's humor gave each party
an opportunity of triumphing in its turn. No sooner had Henry passed
this law, which seemed to inflict so deep a wound on the reformers,
than he granted a general permission for every one to have the new
translation of the Bible in his family; a concession regarded by that
party as an important victory.

But as Henry was observed to be much governed by his wives while he
retained his fondness for them, the final prevalence of either party
seemed much to depend on the choice of the future queen. Immediately
after the death of Jane Seymour, the most beloved of all his wives,
he began to think of a new marriage. He first cast his eye towards the
duchess dowager of Milan, niece to the emperor; and he made proposals
for that alliance. But meeting with difficulties, he was carried by his
friendship for Francis rather to think of a French princess. He demanded
the duchess dowager of Longueville, daughter of the duke of Guise, a
prince of the house of Lorraine; but Francis told him, that the lady was
already betrothed to the king of Scotland. The king, however, would
not take a refusal: he had set his heart extremely on the match: the
information which he had received of the duchess's accomplishments and
beauty, had prepossessed him in her favor; and having privately sent
over Meautys to examine her person, and get certain intelligence of her
conduct, the accounts which that agent brought him served further to
inflame his desires. He learned that she was big made; and he thought
her on that account the more proper match for him who was now become
somewhat corpulent. The pleasure, too, of mortifying his nephew, whom he
did not love, was a further incitement to his prosecution of this match;
and he insisted that Francis should give him the preference to the king
of Scots. Bu