uckle of St. Peter. The shrine, ranking though it did with Loretto
and Compostella in popular veneration, was now destroyed. With much
zest the government next attacked the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at
Canterbury, thus revenging the humiliation of another Henry at the
hands of the church. The martyr was now declared to be a rebel who had
fled from the realm.

[Sidenote: 1536]

The definition of doctrine, coupled with negotiations with the
Schmalkaldic princes, continued briskly. The project for an alliance
came to nothing, for John Frederic of Saxony wrote that God would not
allow them to have communication with Henry. Two embassies to England
engaged in assiduous, but fruitless, theological discussion. Henry
himself, with the aid of Cuthbert Tunstall, drew up a long statement
"against {306} the opinions of the Germans on the sacrament in both
kinds, private masses, and sacerdotal marriage." The reactionary
tendency of the English is seen in the _Institution of the Christian
Man_, [Sidenote: Definitions of Faith] published with royal authority,
and still more in the Act of the Six Articles. [Sidenote: 1537] In
the former the four sacraments previously discarded are again "found."
[Sidenote: 1539] In the latter, transubstantiation is affirmed, the
doctrine of communion in both kinds branded as heresy, the marriage of
priests declared void, vows of chastity are made perpetually binding,
private masses and auricular confessions are sanctioned. Denial of
transubstantiation was made punishable by the stake and forfeiture of
goods; those who spoke against the other articles were declared guilty
of felony on the second offence. This act, officially entitled "for
abolishing diversity in opinions" was really the first act of
uniformity. It was carried by the influence of the king and the laity
against the parties represented by Cromwell and Cranmer. It ended the
plans for a Schmalkaldic alliance. [Sidenote: July 10, 1539] Luther
thanked God that they were rid of that blasphemer who had tried to
enter their league but failed.

By a desperate gamble Cromwell now tried to save what was left of his
pro-German policy. Duke William of Cleves-Juelich-Berg had adopted an
Erasmian compromise between Lutheranism and Romanism, in some respects
resembling the course pursued by Henry. In this direction Cromwell
accordingly next turned and induced his master to contract a marriage
with Anne, [Sidenote: January 6, 1540]