o his mouth the expression
'Thy word is a light to my feet.' The order soon followed to place a
copy of the Book of books in every church: there every man might look
into the disputed places, and convince himself, by this highest of
codes, as to the rightfulness of the procedure that had been chosen.

But then it was impossible to stop at mere divergences of
jurisdiction. The German interpretation of Scripture gained ground in
every direction: a theological school grew up, though only here and
there, which adhered to it more or less openly.

It must needs have had the greatest effect, that the followers of this
view obtained a great number of bishoprics. The archbishopric of
Canterbury had already fallen to the lot of a man who had completed
his theological training in Germany: this very man, Thomas Cranmer,
had carried through the divorce; his was one of those natures which
must have the support of the supreme power to help them to follow out
their own views; as they then appear enterprising and courageous, so
do they become pliant and yielding when this favour fails them; they
do not shine through moral greatness, but they are well suited to
preserve, under difficult circumstances, what they have once embraced,
for better times. Hugh Latimer was cast in a sterner mould; he
actually dared, in the midst of the persecutions, to admonish the
King, whose chaplain he was, of the welfare of his soul and his duty
as King. However little this act effected for the moment, yet he may
have thus contributed to enlighten the King (who now and then showed
him personal goodwill) as to his title of 'Defender of the Faith.'
Latimer was a fervent and effective preacher: he was made bishop of
Worcester. Nicolas Shaxton, Bishop of Salisbury, Hilsey of Rochester,
Bisham of S. Asaph's and then S. David's, Goodrich of Ely, were all
disposed to Protestantism. Edward Fox who had been named Bishop of
Hereford, had at Schmalkald openly declared the Pope to be Antichrist,
and assured the Protestants in the strongest manner of his sovereign's
inclination to attach himself to their Confession. It was the grand
union of these biblical scholars among the bishops, which in the
Convocation of 1536 undertook to carry through the work of drawing
their church nearer that of Germany. Latimer opened the war by a
fervent sermon against image-worship, indulgences, purgatory, and
other doctrines or rites which were at variance with the Bible.
Cranmer proved