of divinity, for want of putting them on to other learning, and gave no encouragement to studies of human learning, by preferring those that were deserving. The Convocation, taking this into consideration, do decree that no person shall exercise any jurisdiction in any office as vicargeneral, commissary, or official, unless he shall first in the university have taken degrees in the CIVIL OF CANON LAWS. A shrewd trick this was to stop the growth of the study of divinity and WICKLIFF'S and to embellish men's minds way; with a kind of learning that may gain them preferment, or at least an opinion of abilities be yond the common strain, and dangerous to be meddled with.” *

Such expedients for perpetuating the reign of ignorance cannot be attended with much success, and will never be resorted to by those who have learned to read the "signs of the times." The devices of the clergy in the fifteenth century bore some resemblance to the narrow views of James and of his son Charles, who, when they found their subjects becoming more than usually serious, gave orders to republish the Book of Sports. In both cases we perceive a degree of practical wisdom equal to that of men, who, to prolong the duration of night, should, at the dawn of day, desire the windows to be curtained and additional candles to be brought. More intelligent and vigilant rulers would, in either instance, have studied the indications of a new era about to open upon the theological and political world, and prepared themselves for the exer

Bacon's Discourses, Part ii.

tions to which they might be called, whether to obviate or to satisfy its claims.

But we must not permit ourselves to dilate upon the remoter causes of that memorable catastrophe, which deprived Charles of life, and raised Cromwell to supreme power. It may be sufficient to observe, that to the policy of Henry VII., who spent the greater part of his reign in studying how to depress the nobles and exalt the throne, may be ascribed those high notions of the kingly prerogative which his son and grand-daughter reduced to practice, and which James the First made the subject of learned commentaries. The wars of the Roses had reduced many of the greater barons to poverty or embarrassment, while the increase of luxury inflamed them with the desire of living in a style of expense unknown to their more frugal ancestors. Henry, to gratify their humour, and accomplish his own purposes, permitted them to sell their estates, a privilege not attached to the charter by which they originally held their fiefs; and at the same time prohibited them from maintaining their wonted bands of armed followers. These two measures, indeed, the unrestricted allowance to dispose of their lands, and the interdiction of their numerous retainers, naturally accompanied each other, and the crafty king lived long enough to appreciate the effects of his contrivance in the degradation of many of his principal tenants, and in the increasing influence of that more active class, whose property consisted in money and mechanical skill. He saw the soil of his kingdom passing, year after year, into the hands of men, who claimed

no other privileges, and aspired to no higher consequence, than such as always belong to wealth in a free country; and he possessed art sufficient to transfer to the crown all the power and reverence which his titled vassals had consented to relinquish.

The Eighth Henry, who was formed by nature to be a despot, mounted the throne with the determination to maintain all the ground which his father had gained. Lord Bacon informs us, that when this prince assumed the sceptre of England, "there was no such thing as any great and mighty subject who might any way eclipse or overshadow the imperial power." With this advantage on the side of regal authority, he brought with him to the administration of affairs a spirit of that firm and steady temper, which was well fitted to break the edge of any rising opposition. Besides the confidence of youth, he was of a nature so elate and imperious, so resolved and fearless, that no resistance could succeed, and hardly any thought of it could be entertained, against him. Sir Nicholas Bacon says, that he feared nothing but the falling of the heavens, and that though he was a man "underneath many passions, he was above all fear." Still it was long before he thought himself secure against the Barons, the old enemies of the throne; and, therefore, he employed every method of artifice and rapine to sink them much lower than was consistent with the safety of the state. He did not consider the wise maxim repeated by Lord Verulam, that "depression of the nobility may make a king more absolute, but it will at the same time make him less safe;" on

the contrary, he pursued the object bequeathed to him by his father, and laboured to establish the prerogative on the ruins of the privileged orders. With this view, he followed the same example, in placing churchmen in all the offices of trust, and in encouraging to the utmost all branches of trade and commerce; preferring to owe whatever obligations he might be obliged to contract, to the wealthy merchants who flourished under his government, rather than to the haughty lords, who were ever wont to dispute the pretensions of majesty. His power, too, was greatly augmented by that decided step towards the Reformation which threw off the supremacy of Rome. From that moment the throne did not only rest on its own basis, as having no longer any dependence on the papal chair; it rose still higher than ever, for the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not thereby annihilated but transferred, and all the powers of the Roman pontiff now centred in the person of the King. The remainder of his reign shows that he was politic enough to make the best use of the advantages which the course of events had placed within his reach. The high authority in spirituals which he had gained, enabled him to hold all men, who either feared or desired greater innovations, in the most entire dependence. In a word, every thing contributed to the advancement of the regal power. The amazing revolution to which his ungovernable passions gave rise, was hailed by a majority of the nation as a deliverance from a galling and most invidious tyranny, and was therefore thought worthy of support, even at the expense of the greatest sacrifices. For this

reason, the Parliament went readily along with the King in all his measures; and, beyond the example of former times, was constantly obsequious to him, even in the most capricious and inconsistent acts of his government.

The despotism which Henry exercised, being in no small degree connected with the peculiar cast of his temper, was somewhat modified by the circumstances in which his son and two daughters administered the government. But the spirit with which he animated the body politic remained still unchanged. In the days of Elizabeth, the claims of the prerogative were as high, and the power of Parliament as low, as during the reign of her imperious father. The main object of her people, for many years after she ascended the throne, was to secure the interests of Protestantism; and, to gain an end of such transcendent importance to their temporal and spiritual welfare, they were willing to postpone all considerations which respected merely the balance of power among the different orders of the state. Besides, there was so little harmony among the professors of religion, whether of the new form or the old, that the Queen had nothing to fear from their combination; and as her life was threatened by fanatical individuals at home, and her country by bigoted sovereigns abroad, all the friends of the Reformation, however much they might disagree on minor points, united in their determination to defend her Majesty, and to defeat the designs of the Roman Catholics. In truth, Elizabeth owed much of her strength to the conflicting opinions of her subjects on the great article of religious belief,