72 FAMOUS SCOTS 



over light-headed; and Henry Darnley, a Booby who 

 had fine legs. Thus is History written.' 



In England, the Reformation took place in a way 



quite different from that in which it was effected in 



Scotland. The strong hand of Henry vm. piloted the 



nation for a time through a crisis, and for a space at 



least it would appear that the nation was content to 



surrender its religious conscience into the hands of the 



king. He attempted, says Macaulay with perfect truth, 



to constitute an Anglican church differing from the 



Roman Catholic on the point of the Supremacy, and on 



that alone. There can be little doubt that to the court 



of Henry the king was the head of both church and 



state, and that the power of the keys temporal as well as 



ecclesiastical resided in the Crown. So far did Cranmer 



carry out this idea that, regarding his own spiritual 



functions as having ceased with the death of Henry, he 



renewed his commission under Edward vi., and for 



mere denial of the Act of Supremacy More and Fisher 



were sent to the block. It is true that Elizabeth was 



induced to part with a good deal of this exaggerated 



prerogative, yet she still exercised such a domineering and 



inquisitorial power as threatened to unfrock any refractory 



creature of her creation. It was natural, therefore, that 



the church created almost exclusively by the will of the 



Crown should for her rights and privileges rest entirely 



upon the Crown. The people had never been consulted 



in her creation, and it was to the Crown alone that the 



clergy could look. Her constitution, her traditions, 



