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pages, presents a most finished model of the venal, timeserving and ambitious courtier, whose primary object it is to render every thing subservient to his private interests and personal aggrandizement. If it had been possible to feed ambition to the full, it might have been expected, that, long before this ruler of princes and arbitrator of Europe had terminated his political career, he would have been constrained to say, "It is enough." But ambition, no less than avarice, belongs to that insatiate race which perpetually cries "give, give." After having accumulated an overwhelming mass of honours, offices and possessions, Wolsey was still as rapacious as ever-still grasping with undiminished avidity at new dignities and possessions, up to the very moment in which, having "touched the highest "6 point of all his greatness, from the full meridian of his "glory, he hastened to his setting. Then he fell, like 66 a bright exhalation in the evening, and no man saw him "more."

Familiar as every one who reads these pages must be with that justly-admired soliloquy, which our great dramatic poet has put into the mouth of the fallen cardinal, the interior of a character like that of Wolsey is delineated therein with so much fidelity and beauty, that no apology can be necessary for introducing it in this place.

"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope: to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a rip'ning, nips his root:
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventur'd,
Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
These many summers, in a sea of glory,
But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream, that must for ever hide me."

How fitly does an inspired apostle designate the toils in which the men of this world are so assiduously employed from the morning to the evening of life, when he

calls them "the unfruitful works of darkness!" We have contemplated one of this class of character, who devoted talents of the highest order to these unprofitable laboursand after having borne the heat and burden of the day, what recompense did he receive? What were the fruits reaped by one who had sown to the flesh so incessantly and abundantly? Would to God that they who are entering on the career of human life, and especially who are destined to occupy public and elevated stations in society, were duly impressed with the valuable lesson which the fall of Wolsey so forcibly teaches-that ere they devote themselves to the service of the world, they would pause, and attentively consider the import of the last expiring accents of this fallen statesman : "If I had served my God as I have served my king, he would not have abandoned my hoary hairs!" Why, then, it may be justly asked why do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfies not?-why submit to so galling a yoke-why serve so hard a master, as the world has ever proved to its deluded votaries— why not assert your freedom, as heirs of an heavenly kingdom, and aspire after a glorious and eternal recompense of reward? There is a Master-O! how compassionate and kind!-who, " having loved his own which were in the world, loves them to the end," and who has said to the meanest and most despised of his faithful servants, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I will guide thee by my counsel, and afterwards receive thee "to glory." "Happy," may it be truly said, "happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before "thee and hear thy wisdom."

ESSAY IV.

The Reign of HENRY VIII. continued, during the
Administration of Cromwell and Cranmer.

A. D. 1529-1540.

THE disgrace and death of Cardinal Wolsey led to an entire change, both of men and measures. The administration of public affairs was now committed, if not to abler, yet to more upright and disinterested, statesmen. Sir Thomas More, Dr. Thomas Cranmer, and Thomas Cromwell, afterwards earl of Essex, now divided between them those civil and ecclesiastical offices, which the cardinal had monopolized. All these were men of sterling integrity, and distinguished talents. The former, though the most learned man of his age, was extremely bigoted in his attachment to the church of Rome; and, notwithstanding the natural mildness of his disposition, persecuted with unrelenting severity all those who were suspected of Lutheranism, or, as it was then denominated, heresy. But his two colleagues were secretly attached to the protestant cause, and accomplished, by indirect means, a gradual reformation of religion in England; on which account, if for no other cause, they have a just claim to the grateful remembrance of posterity.

A short time before Wolsey was dismissed from office, the king, accompanied by many of his courtiers, made a progress through the northern provinces of his kingdom, with the hope of tranquillizing his agitated mind by a change of scenes and occupation. On his return from this tour, they spent a night at Waltham. Two ecclesiastical attendants of the king, Gardiner and Fox, were lodged in the same house in which CRANMER then resided, who was as yet unknown to the court, though highly distinguished in the university of Cambridge, as a profound theologian. During the evening the conversation turned on the king's divorce, and the reluctance which had been

manifested by the court of Rome to sanction that measure. Cranmer suggested that the readiest way to quiet the king's conscience, and to extort the pope's consent, would be to submit the question of the lawfulness of the marriage to the most celebrated universities in Europe; and expressed his conviction that most, if not all of those learned bodies, would decide according to the king's wishes. The hint was instantly communicated to Henry, who resolved to act upon it without delay. Application was made to the principal universities in France and Italy, as well as to those of Oxford and Cambridge. No labour or expense were spared to procure a favourable verdict, and the issue of the negotiation was as successful as Henry could desire; since a great majority of the universities pronounced the marriage of Henry with his brother's widow, to be contrary to the laws both of God and man. While these discussions were pending, Cranmer was introduced to court, obtained the confidence of the king, and was speedily elevated by him to the highest ecclesiastical dignities.

CROMWELL had been raised by cardinal Wolsey from the lowest station in society to the important post of con'fidential secretary; the duties of which office he had discharged with the utmost fidelity and zeal. When the tide of royal favour turned against his patron and benefactor, he alone adhered to him with a firm and grateful attachment; and when the fallen favourite was accused of high treason before the parliament, he only ventured to lift up his voice in defence of his unfortunate master. Though he failed in his attempt to vindicate the cardinal, yet his zeal and courage, his fidelity and gratitude, attracted the notice of the king; who immediately received him into his service, constituted him a member of the privy-council, and shortly afterwards secretary of state. In these important stations, he displayed an unusual combination of policy and wisdom; so as to govern the councils, and retain the confidence of the most capricious and arbitrary of monarchs, during a period of more than ten years.

In addition to the names which have been already mentioned, there was a third, and yet more powerful, auxiliary, to whose secret influence the greater part of the subsequent proceedings of this reign are to be attributed. This

was the unfortunate Ann Boleyn, daughter of sir Thomas Boleyn, who was celebrated alike for her wit, her beauty, and her splendid accomplishments. The king, having conceived a most ardent attachment for this lady, and failing in all his attempts to accomplish her seduction, resolved at length to make her his queen. Unaccustomed to the least control of his furious passions, he could no longer brook the tardy and vacillating measures of the court of Rome, but resolved first to celebrate privately his marriage with Ann Boleyn, and then to terminate, by his own authority, the long-protracted business of the divorce. Sanctioned by the decision of many foreign universities, and by the decrees of his yet more obsequious parliament, he authorized Cranmer, who had been recently elevated to the see of Canterbury, to pronounce the sentence of divorce between himself and queen Catharine of Arragon, who was henceforth to bear the title of princess dowager of Wales. Immediately after the primate had annulled the king's previous marriage, in a convocation held at Dunstable, the nuptials of the king with Ann Boleyn, and her coronation, were celebrated with great pomp.

Nothing could exceed the indignation of the pope and his cardinals, when intelligence of these proceedings was received at Rome. But, apprehensive of widening the breach which had been already made in the church by the protestant league, they refrained for a time, from violent measures, and even manifested a disposition to negotiate with Henry and his ministers. The king of France, who was sincerely desirous of effecting a reconciliation between the courts of England and Rome, mediated successfully that the whole business seemed to have been amicably concluded; and nothing but the arrival of a courier from London to signify the king's approbation of the treaty, was necessary to its final arrangement. But that courier having been accidentally. (or rather by the special direction of Providence) delayed beyond the stipulated day, the emperor Charles V., who resented highly Henry's conduct to his aunt, prevailed on the court of Rome to pass a definitive sentence in favour of the king's previous marriage, and to issue a bull requiring him to receive again his repudiated wife, or

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