hrow of,
ecclesiastical despotism were precious services, which ought to be
remembered to his honour; and, when the good doctor to whom he trusted his
life, out of compassion for an unfortunate lady was, perhaps, willing to
administer a doubtful potion to him, or to aid in inviting a Catholic
army into England to extinguish the light that was dawning there, only
those who are Catholics first and Englishmen afterwards will say that it
was well done on the doctor's part.

The temper of the nation was growing dangerous, and the forces on both
sides were ranging themselves for the battle. Bishop Fisher has been seen
sounding on the same string. He, with More, had now been for many months
in the Tower, and his communications with Chapuys having been cut off, he
had been unable to continue his solicitations; but the Ambassador had
undertaken for the whole of the clergy on the instant that the Emperor
should declare himself. The growth of Lutheranism had touched their hearts
with pious indignation; their hatred of heresy was almost the sole
distinction which they had preserved belonging to their sacred calling.
The regular orders were the most worthless; the smaller monasteries were
nests of depravity; the purpose of their existence was to sing souls out
of purgatory, and the efficacy of their musical petitionings being no
longer believed in, the King had concluded that monks and nuns could be
better employed, and that the wealth which maintained them could be turned
to better purpose--to the purpose especially of the defence of the realm
against them and their machinations. The monks everywhere were the active
missionaries of treason. They writhed under the Act of Supremacy. Their
hope of continuance depended on the restoration of the Papal authority.
When they were discovered to be at once useless and treacherous, it was
not unjust to take their lands from them and apply the money for which
those lands could be sold, to the fleet and the fortresses on the coast.

In this, the greatest of his reforms, Cromwell had been the King's chief
adviser. He had been employed under Wolsey in the first suppression of the
most corrupt of the smaller houses. In the course of his work he had
gained an insight into the scandalous habits of their occupants, which
convinced him of the impolicy and uselessness of attempting to prolong
their existence. Institutions however ancient, organizations however
profoundly sacred, cannot outlive the reco