studies of his mother or his other portraits show us that he is not looking into the clouds, but looking close, very close indeed, into each individual man's life and thoughts. But it is almost too wearisome to continue harping on a somewhat one-string theory, even though that one string be the chord of self which is the chiefest note in history, and which, for the first time since the advent of Christianity, Christians had been free to strike without shame or without fear.

6

All

And the passionate individuality that burst out in the revolt of the sixteenth century is seen clearly to have marred all the work of German artists of that period. Here is what Ruskin said of Albert Dürer's portrait of Erasmus: egotism and insanity this, gentlemen. Hard words to use; but not too hard to define the faults which rendered so much of Dürer's great genius abortive, and to this day paralyse, among the details of a lifeless and ambitious precision, the student no less than the artist of German blood.' 1 Egotism perilously near insanity. Ruskin describing Dürer might have been describing Luther or Calvin or many another leader of that restless age.

It is necessary for us to go on with the facts of history and not to spend more time in theory, but before plunging into the reign of Henry VIII it

1 Ariadne Florentina, in vol. xxii. of the Library edition of Ruskin's works edited by Cook and Wedderburn, p. 419.

would be as well to point out why we have theorised at all. History, when read as a mere storehouse of facts, can only be dull; history, when read as a storehouse of facts that will illuminate a theory or theories, is the most useful, the most necessary, and the most interesting of work: and though the theory that runs through the author's mind may not always be obvious, still, if this volume be read in conjunction with these few words, it may in some slight degree become apparent that the battle that was fought in England and in Europe, and which we call the Reformation, was no dead and dull battle over mere theology, or over mere items of passing interest, but was a battle which, with altered characters and with slightly different watchwords, is being refought in our own times and in our own land. reading the history of the sixteenth century with this point of view constantly before one will serve in some slight way to make the dull pages that open with pageantry and end in tragedy somewhat more interesting than they might otherwise be.

And

But besides this, the fascinating ultimate aim of history, it is necessary, and nowhere more so than in dealing with the history of the Reformation, to get clear, definite data of dull facts on which to build one's theories. In this work the author has attempted to recapitulate the facts,

not the gossip which so often has done duty for the facts, of the English Reformation. The author cannot and, if he could, would not desire to be colourlessly impartial in the deductions he may draw and the theories he has attempted to build on them, but in the statement of facts it is not so difficult to be impartial; it suffices to be truthful. The question of authorities is one, if not the main, question that the historian of facts has to reckon with. In the list of authorities, contemporary and modern, which is appended to this work, the author has included only those which he has read and studied, not consulted. It has been the work of several years of toil; perhaps much of it might have been spared if not so many merely second-rate modern books had been included, but the author had a definite reason for their inclusion: it was important for him to know as fully as possible what opinion the average Englishman held of the Reformation, and this could only be acquired by a careful and prolonged study of these popular manuals of Reformation history. Many more might perhaps have been added, but human life, after all, is of limited duration. Further instalments will appear in subsequent volumes. Of course these remarks do not apply to the entries at the end of the Bibliography. They are placed separately as works of reference, and as such the author has used them.

One word may here be added of a personal nature. If health and life are spared, the author hopes to be able to carry on this work down to the execution of Charles I in 1649. This, of course, will take many volumes, how many it is impossible to say.

As in the course of this work the author has had to carefully study modern economical books and many works relating to the present condition of England, more especially of course of the working-classes, it were well here to state that none of these have been included in the present Bibliography, but will be all placed separately in a further volume. In the footnotes the abbreviations L. and P. refer to the 'Letters and Papers: Foreign and Domestic,' edited by J. S. Brewer; V. Cl., to the Venetian Calendar; Sp. Cl., to the Spanish Calendar.

CHAPTER I

HENRY VII died on the 22nd of April 1509 at Richmond Palace, Sheen; his only surviving son, Henry, Prince of Wales, then nearly eighteen years of age, was by the old monarch's bedside when the end came. The next day the new

King moved to the Tower of London. describes the first days of the reign:

Hall thus

'And the same day, he departed from his manour of Richemond to the tower of London, where he remained, closely and secrete, with his counsaill, till the funeralles of his father were finished and ended.'1

There seems to have been a double fear for the new King's safety in the minds of his Council, for on the 23rd the Duke of Buckingham's brother, Lord Henry Stafford, was sent to the Tower, as well as the late King's two unpopular ministers Empson and Dudley. Stafford was soon released and made Earl of Wiltshire. Empson and Dudley, however, were reserved for a worse