Henry loved power, and he hated restraint, and hence he had been well pleased with the earlier steps of Cromwell's policy, which had made him, as we have just seen, il re papa, as it were—at once Pope and Emperor as far as his dominions extended: but he never forgot that he had been himself the champion of the Faith against Luther, he never loved Protestants or Protestantism, he could not endure the name of heretic; and he seems at this time to have been seized with some misgiving, as to whether his previous articles had not gone a little too far, and to have been anxious to show that his repudiation of Roman authority did not mean that the supreme head of the English Church would himself appear as a patron or condoner of heretical opinions. This reaction in Henry's mind was itself due no doubt mainly to the recent rebellion in the north, the famous Pilgrimage of Grace. The movement had been an alarming one, and the fact that it was occasioned in a great degree by discontent with the King's recent religious measures, may have given him reason to reflect on his course. His council always contained a reactionary element, to which such an event was certain to give strength and prominence; and Cromwell's influence was even then beginning to wane. Thus it came to pass that the Six Articles, which were in all probability Henry's own composition, represented exactly his own opinions, and were regarded, and rightly regarded, by the Protestants as reactionary—as, with their penal enactment attached to them, they soon were proved to be. Such being the character of this famous document, the history of its enactment is strictly accordant with it. Its introduction is preluded by a statement to Parliament by the Chancellor[1]
- ↑ Stubbs, Appendix iv. p. 116.
