For their Parliament he
had the Councils of a thousand years. For one kingdom he had all the other
Christian Powers. The Bishops had broken their vows; the Parliament had no
authority to make laws against the unity of Christendom, and had capitally
sinned in making them. His crime had been his opposition to the second
marriage of the King. He had faith, however, that, as St. Paul persecuted
St. Stephen, yet both were now in Paradise, so he and his judges, although
at variance in this world, would meet in charity hereafter.[334]

The end came quickly. The trial was on the 1st of July; on the 6th the
head fell of one of the most interesting men that England ever produced.
Had the supremacy been a question of opinion, had there been no conspiracy
to restore by arms the Papal tyranny, no clergy and nobles entreating the
landing of an army like that which wasted Flanders at the command of the
Duke of Alva, no Irish nobles murdering Archbishops and receiving Papal
absolution for it, to have sent Sir Thomas More to the scaffold for
believing the Pope to be master of England would have been a barbarous
murder, deserving the execration which has been poured upon it. An age
which has no such perils to alarm its slumbers forgets the enemies which
threatened to waste the country with fire and sword, and admires only the
virtues which remain fresh for all time; we, too, if exposed to similar
possibilities might be no more merciful than our forefathers.

The execution of Fisher and More was the King's answer to Papal thunders
and domestic conspirators, and the effect was electric. Darcy again
appealed to Chapuys, praying that the final sentence should be instantly
issued. He did not wish to wait any longer for Imperial aid. The Pope
having spoken, the country would now rise of itself. The clergy would
furnish all the money needed for a beginning, and a way might be found to
seize the gold in the treasury. Time pressed. They must get to work at
once. If they loitered longer the modern preachers and prelates would
corrupt the people, and all would be lost.[335] Cifuentes wrote from Rome
to the Emperor that the Bishop of Paris was on his way there with
proposals from Francis for an arrangement with England which would be
fatal to the Queen, the Church, and the morals of Christendom. He begged
to be allowed to press the Pope to hold in readiness a brief deposing
Henry; a brief which, if once issued, could not be recalled.[336]

CH