24 the people gathering to church in every parish read, nailed to the
church doors, a paper signed Henry R., setting forth that Lady Catherine
of Spain, heretofore called Queen of England, was not to be called by
that title any more, but was to be called princess dowager, and so to be
held and esteemed. The triumph of Anne was to last but three short
years.

_Protestantism_

Wycliffe's labour had left only the Bible as the seed of a future life,
and no trace remained in the sixteenth century of the Lollardry of the
fourteenth. But now Protestantism recommenced its enterprise in the
growing desire for a nobler, holier insight into the will of God. In the
year 1525 was enrolled in London a society calling itself "The
Association of Christian Brothers." Its paid agents went up and down the
land carrying tracts and Testaments with them, and enrolling in the
order all who dared risk their lives in such a cause.

The Protestants thus isolated were waiting for direction, and men in
such a temper are seldom left to wait in vain. Luther had kindled the
spark, which was to become a conflagration in Germany, at Wittemberg, on
October 31, 1517, by his denunciation of indulgences. His words found an
echo, and flew from lip to lip all through Western Europe. Tyndal, an
Oxford student, went to Germany, saw Luther, and under his direction
translated into English the Gospels and Epistles. This led to the
formation of the "association" in London. The authorities were alarmed.
The bishops subscribed to buy up the translations of the Bible, and
these were burned before a vast concourse in St. Paul's Churchyard. But
Wolsey had for two years been suppressing the smaller monasteries.
Simultaneously, Protestants were persecuted wherever they could be
detected and seized. "Little" Bilney, or "Saint" Bilney, a distinguished
Cambridge student, was burnt as a heretic at the stake, as were James
Bainham, a barrister of the Middle Temple, and several other members of
the "association." These were the first paladins of the reformation, and
the struggle went bravely forward. They were the knights who slew the
dragons and made the earth habitable for common flesh and blood.

As yet but two men of the highest order of power were on the side of
Protestantism--Latimer and Cromwell. These were now to come forward,
pressed by circumstances which could no longer dispense with them. When
the breach with the pope was made irreparable, and the papal part