EVIDENCE AND EXAMPLES. 59 



contradictory if not of an unduly self-confident 

 temper. All religious persecution rests on self-con- 

 fidence, and More in his later years presided over the 

 rack. His first action in public life was one of petu- 

 lant self-assertion let alone ingratitude considering 

 the remarkable and disinterested kindness which 

 Henry VII. and Cardinal Morton had shown to him. 

 A little later Wolsey, no doubt on good grounds, told 

 him that he never approved of anything. When 

 orthodoxy was defiant he opposed it : when heresy in 

 its turn became defiant he defended the older faith. 

 Erasmus, brilliant, quick, clear, witty, yet wise, was 

 the foremost figure in Europe and he was himself 

 quite conscious of the fact. 



