cientific mastery of such a subject
could have been acquired by a boy of twelve years of age, for he was no
more when he became Prince of Wales. He must have studied theology with the
full maturity of his intellect; and he had a fixed and perhaps unfortunate
interest in the subject itself.[176]

In all directions of human activity Henry displayed natural powers of the
highest order, at the highest stretch of industrious culture. He was
"attentive," as it is called, "to his religious duties," being present at
the services in chapel two or three times a day with unfailing regularity,
and showing to outward appearance a real sense of religious obligation in
the energy and purity of his life. In private he was good-humoured and
good-natured. His letters to his secretaries, though never undignified, are
simple, easy, and unrestrained; and the letters written by them to him are
similarly plain and businesslike, as if the writers knew that the person
whom they were addressing disliked compliments, and chose to be treated as
a man. Again, from their correspondence with one another, when they
describe interviews with him, we gather the same pleasant impression. He
seems to have been always kind, always considerate; inquiring into their
private concerns with genuine interest, and winning, as a consequence,
their warm and unaffected attachment.

As a ruler he had been eminently popular. All his wars had been successful.
He had the splendid tastes in which the English people most delighted, and
he had substantially acted out his own theory of his duty which was
expressed in the following words:--

"Scripture taketh princes to be, as it were, fathers and nurses to their
subjects, and by Scripture it appeareth that it appertaineth unto the
office of princes to see that right religion and true doctrine be
maintained and taught, and that their subjects may be well ruled and
governed by good and just laws; and to provide and care for them that all
things necessary for them may be plenteous; and that the people and
commonweal may increase; and to defend them from oppression and invasion,
as well within the realm as without; and to see that justice be
administered unto them indifferently; and to hear benignly all their
complaints; and to show towards them, although they offend, fatherly pity.
And, finally, so to correct them that be evil, that they had yet rather
save them than lose them if it were not for respect of justice, and
mainte