s due to the one man who saw his way distinctly,
Thomas Cromwell. The nation was substantially united in the divorce
question, could the divorce be secured without a rupture with the European
powers. It was united also on the necessity of limiting the jurisdiction of
the clergy, and cutting short the powers of the consistory courts. But in
questions of "opinion" there was the most sensitive jealousy; and from the
combined instincts of prejudice and conservatism, the majority of the
country in a count of heads would undoubtedly have been against a
separation from Rome.

The clergy professed to approve the acts of the government, but it was for
the most part with the unwilling acquiescence of men who were without
courage to refuse. The king was divided against himself. Nine days in ten
he was the clear-headed, energetic, powerful statesman; on the tenth he was
looking wistfully to the superstition which he had left, and the clear
sunshine was darkened with theological clouds, which broke in lightning and
persecution. Thus there was danger at any moment of a reaction, unless
opportunity was taken at the flood, unless the work was executed too
completely to admit of reconsideration, and the nation committed to a
course from which it was impossible to recede. The action of the
conservatives was paralysed for the time by the want of a fixed purpose.
The various parts of the movement were so skilfully linked together, that
partial opposition to it was impossible; and so long as the people had to
choose between the pope and the king, their loyalty would not allow them to
hesitate. But very few men actively adhered to Cromwell. Cromwell had
struck the line on which the forces of nature were truly moving--the
resultant, not of the victory of either of the extreme parties, but of the
joint action of their opposing forces. To him belonged the rare privilege
of genius, to see what other men could not see; and therefore he was
condemned to rule a generation which hated him, to do the will of God, and
to perish in his success. He had no party. By the nobles he was regarded
with the same mixed contempt and fear which had been felt for Wolsey. The
Protestants, perhaps, knew what he was, but he could only purchase their
toleration by himself checking their extravagance. Latimer was the only
person of real power on whose friendship he could calculate, and Latimer
was too plain spoken on dangerous questions to be useful as a political
suppo