ion between
England and France; and there were several occasions when, if the Pope had
been left to himself, he would have found a solution that would have kept
England in the orthodox fold. But for the persistence of the opposition
Henry would never have taken the first step that led to the Reformation.
Having taken it, each other step onward was the almost inevitable
consequence of the first, having regard to the peculiar character of the
King. It has been the main business of this book to trace in what respect
the policy that ended in the great religious schism was reflected or
influenced by the matrimonial adventures of the King, who has gone down to
history as the most married monarch of modern times. We have seen that,
although, with the exception of Katharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn, each
for a short time, the direct influence of Henry's wives upon events was
small, each one represented, and coincided in point of time with, a
change in the ruling forces around the King. We have seen that the
libidinous tendency of the monarch was utilised by the rival parties, as
were all other elements that might help them, to forward the opportunity
by which a person to some extent dependent upon them might be placed at
the side of the King as his wife; and when for the purpose it was
necessary to remove the wife in possession first, we have witnessed the
process by which it was effected.

The story from this point of view has not been told before in its
entirety, and as the whole panorama unrolls before us, we mark curiously
the regular degeneration of Henry's character, as the only checks upon his
action were removed, and he progressively defied traditional authority and
established standards of conduct without disaster to himself. The power of
the Church to censure or punish him, and the fear of personal reprobation
by the world, were the influences that, had they retained their force over
him to the end, would probably have kept Henry to all appearance a good
man. But when he found, probably to his own surprise, that the jealous
divisions of the Catholic powers on the Continent made defiance of the
Church in his case unpunishable, and that crafty advisers and servile
Parliaments could give to his deeds, however violent and cruel, the
sanction of Holy Writ and the law of the land, there was no power on earth
to hold in check the devil in the breast of Henry Tudor; and the man who
began a vain, brilliant sensualist, with the