AUTHOR OF " THE ASSERTIO SACRAMENTORUM," &C. 201 



ral manner of his scholastic models.* Does there lie^ also, any 

 self-destroying absurdity in this supposition, that if Henry had not 

 been the real writer of the book, the author or authorst would have 

 received some splendid mark of the royal patronage, if it were only 

 for the prevention of all disclosures ? But in what page of the vo- 

 luminous records of his reign are such traces to be discovered ? 

 NoWj it is no answer to this question to say that, if they had been 

 troublesome in their applications for reward, or if they had dared to 

 breathe an expression indicative of divulging the truth, Henry 

 would have had them strung up like acorns on trees, without judge 

 or jury. The same escape from his direct tyranny was as open to them 

 as to Cardinal Pole ; and in a foreign land, beyond the limits of his 

 power, their fiery attacks upon his reputation would have so scorched 

 it, that it would have shrunk into as vile and worthless a thing as 

 shrivelled parchment. But Hefiry knew his proud situation toa 

 well to subject himself to such critical discipline. Prone as he 

 might be to sacrifice nobles or ecclesiastics, as a holocaust to his 

 fierce and etil passions, yet he took especial care that his throhe 

 should never be allied with contempt ; and therefore disdained a 

 falsehood, however great the object at stake. He and his people^ 

 differ as they might in other points of Scripture, thoroughly acqui- 



* Although School divinity was Henry's favorite study, yet that he did 

 not confine himself to one particular branch of literature, and that he pos- 

 sessed more than a common share of mental endowments, may be evidenced 

 by his becoming an occasional writer of poetry. Warton tells us that Lord 

 Eglintoun had a genuine book of manuscript sonnets composed by Henry, 

 — Hist, of Eng. Poetry^ vol. iii., p. 58 ; and the following effusion of his Muse 



was addressed to Ann Boleyne, on the authority of Sir J". Harrington iV«r- 



gee AntiqiuB, Lond., 1804, p. 388. 



"The eagle's force subdues each byrd that flies : 

 What metal can resyst the flaminge fyre, 

 And melte the ice, and make the frost rety re ? 

 The hardiest stones are piercede thro' wyth tools ; 

 The wysest are, with princes, made but fools." 



These lines were set to music by the famous Bird, and printed in Psalmst 

 Sonnets, and Songs^ 1611. 



-f- SeckendorfF, in his Comment, de Lutheranismo, p. 187, ascribes the regius 

 Uhelhis, or the king's book, to the pen of Edward Lee, afterwards Archbishop 

 of York; but, observes Mr, Bruce, from a passage in the next page, it 

 would appear that Luther merely suspected that prelate, and the grounds of 

 his suspicion are not stated. Mr. Bruce has investigated the whole subject 

 with the greatest care, and has looked into all the authorities where doubts 

 are entertained of the king's authorship of the book.— See Ardmologia, \o\ 

 25,p. 67— 76. 



VOL. IV. NO. XVI. O 



