to be safe. Reason may maintain its ground against reason; but where passion and caprice alone bear sway, there is no tenable possession of the mind. The spoils of the monasteries gratified Henry's rapacity; and the inferior perquisites which he was continually distributing among his flatterers, fixed their adherence to a minister who had provided so much to their satisfaction; but the number whom this conduct alienated was not small; and both the religion and morals of the king were so completely under the domination of his lust, that the tenets of one day were deemed heretical on the

next.

Thus circumstanced, Cromwell felt the necessity of caution in the exercise of his religious powers. He began by publishing a few articles of faith essentially different from the Romish; but not to shock the vulgar prejudices too strongly at once, he left some points doubtful, and others he did not touch.

His next care, and in this his wisdom and piety were equally conspicuous, was to publish a translation of the Scriptures; a copy of which was directed to be placed in every church, for the inspection of all ranks of people. The Lord's prayer, the belief, and the ten commandments, were likewise ordered to be taught in the English tongue. These judicious measures, menaced the speedy extirpation of the Romish religion, and its blind adherents were consequently incensed to madness. Insurrections broke out in different parts of the kingdom, the rebels boldly demanding that Cromwell should be brought to punishment as a subverter of the laws and religion of the land; but the disturbances were speedily quelled, and Henry only answered the complaints of the insurgents by bestowing fresh honours on his minister, who was now created earl of Essex.

The tide of prosperity had hitherto flowed without

interruption; but the earl, while studious to take pre cautions for preventing a reverse of fortune, adopted a measure which precipitated his fall.

Henry having lost his queen, Jane Seymour, (mother of Edward the Sixth,) for whom he seems to have entertained a sincere affection, turned his thoughts towards a German alliance. Essex warmly seconded his master's views, and brought about a marriage between him and Anne of Cleves, who was a protestant; in hopes thereby to strengthen his interest against the popish faction, which continually menaced him. So uncertain, however, is the issue of human events, that this very circumstance proved his ruin. Anne was personally disagreeable to Henry, who had a whimsi cal and vitiated taste; he ceased to live with her, and fixed his roving affections on Catharine Howard, niece to the duke of Norfolk. The papists, seeing this, redoubled their clamour against Essex, and some of the bishops promised to procure a divorce from the princess of Cleves, on condition of his being previously removed. Henry, whom no tie of honour or gratitude could bind when his passions were concerned, gave up his favourite; who was arrested by the duke of Norfolk at the council-board, and immediately conveyed to the Tower. Seven days after, he was accused in the house of lords, of heresy and treason, but the charges were either so frivolous or so false, that he was denied an opportunity of making his defence, and the bill of attainder passed both houses almost by acclamation.

Essex, during his confinement, cleared himself of every accusation in some very pathetic letters which he addressed to the king; but the die was cast, and compunction seldom touched the heart of that tyrant. The friends of the fallen minister, as is, too common, immediately deserted him, and his enemies triumphed

over him with inhuman insolence. Cranmer, the primate, alone maintained his cause, though with eneffectual zeal; and in the fidelity of this great and good man he met with a recompense for his own attachment to Wolsey.

Essex was brought to the block on the 28th of July, 1540, in the forty-second year of his age.

That he

might not injure his son, he avoided all reproaches against his enemies. He prayed fervently for the king, and the welfare of his country; and then gave the signal to the executioner; who, either unskilful or timid, mangled the unfortunate victim in the most shocking manner.

Essex was a sound politician, a good man, and warmly attached to the public welfare; but he committed many errors in his ministerial capacity. In his zeal for the new religion he had introduced the unjustifiable mode of attainder, in cases of treason and heresy, and his enemies availed themselves of his own law, to condemn him unconvicted and unheard.

In his person he was comely; in manners, courteous. He was exempt from all pride or arrogance; and in his highest exaltation was easy of access, and remarkably affable. His charity was unbounded, and his kindness to his dependants made their services appear like offices of love and gratitude, not the compulsion of superiority and duty.

HUGH LATIMER,

BISHOP OF WORCESTER,

Born, 1475.-Burnt at the Stake, 1555.

From 14th Edward IV., to 2d Mary I.

THAT a religion whose distinguishing character is charity and benevolence, should ever have been em

ployed as an engine of persecution, is mortifying to those who enter into its divine spirit, and to the sceptic and the infidel furnishes a weak but plausible argument against its authenticity. In these days, indeed, when bigotry and superstition are justly exploded among us, it must astonish every sincere Christian to reflect how it could have entered into the conception of man, that God can be honoured by a flagrant violation of his express command "to love one another," and that the kingdom of heaven is to be gained by the perpetration of crimes at which human nature turns pale. Yet it may be instructive to the rising generation to know, that in former times fires have blazed for the immolation of human sacrifices, under the name of a religion that abjures and abhors them.

Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and Cranmer, all men of eminence in learning and station, suffered at the stake in the sanguinary reign of the bigoted Mary, and sealed the truth of the genuine religion with their blood. I have selected the life of the first of these, as appearing to approach nearest to the standard of primitive simplicity and virtue; and furnishing the brightest example of suffering patience, and of unshaken fortitude in trial.

This apostolical divine was born at Thurcaster, in Leicestershire, of reputable parents, who by honest industry, remote from affluence, brought up six daughters besides this their only son.

Of the juvenile part of his life there are no particu lar memorials. He was entered of Cambridge, where he took priest's orders, and for some time shewed the utmost eagerness in defending the tenets of the Romish church, which then began to be attacked, and in opposing the progress of what were then deemed here

tical opinions. This activity and zeal procured him the office of cross-bearer at all solemnities, an office which he sustained with becoming dignity of deport

ment.

But fortunately he did not stay long in the mazes of error. He had a friend name Bilney, who, being attached to the doctrines of the Reformation, and entertaining a high opinion of Latimer's morals and abili ties, exerted himself to win him over as an associate in the same cause. Latimer, who acted from the purest principles, and was open to the conviction of truth, when his inquisitive mind had once become satisfied of the existence of error, soon professed himself a convert to. protestantism; and having once entered into its rational views, he supported his belief by public preaching, by private exhortation, and by invincible courage, joined to the most blameless manners.

It was not long, however, before he was sensible of the danger to which he had exposed himself, and persecution began to approach with rapid strides. The orthodox clergy, more exasperated against him than if he had never been their friend, thought it high time to oppose him openly. His opinions were declared heretical in their pulpit harangues: and some of their arguments against the innovation which he defended, that of using the scriptures in English, however canonical at that time, would only raise the smile of contempt in this enlightened age.

Notwithstanding this opposition, the protestant party, of which his friend Bilney and himself were the leaders, gained ground at Cambridge, and struck a panic into the dignitaries of that university. The latter finding arguments ineffectual, had recourse to authority. The diocesan was applied to; and at last a court was erected, consisting of bishops and canonists, who were