charge
of superstition, bigotry, cruelty, and unchristian persecution. Had
not these principles unhappily been laid aside for a time and
forgotten, we should scarcely have been pained by so severe a portrait
of Henry of Monmouth, as a writer who ought to have known better has
drawn, not in the warmth of debate and the hurry of controversy, but
in the hour of reflection and quietude. "In the midst of these
tragedies died Henry V, whose military greatness is known to most
readers. His vast capacity and talents for government have been (p. 323)
also justly celebrated. But what is man without the genuine fear
of God? This monarch, in the former part of his life, was remarkable
for dissipation and extravagance of conduct; in the latter he became
the slave of the popedom,[248] and for that reason was called the
Prince of Priests. Voluptuousness, ambition, superstition, each in
their turn, had the ascendant in this extraordinary character. Such,
however, is the dazzling nature of personal bravery and of prosperity,
that even the ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of
the persecutor, are lost or forgotten amidst the enterprises of the
hero and the successes of the conqueror. Reason and justice lift (p. 324)
up their voice in vain. The great and substantial defects of Henry V.
must hardly be touched on by Englishmen. The battle of Agincourt
throws a delusive splendour around the name of this victorious
King."[249]

[Footnote 248: The attachment of Henry to the See
of Rome, and the countenance given by him to the
encroachments of the Pope, have been greatly
exaggerated. Rapin took a different view of his
measures. "The proclamation" (he says) "made by
Henry, prohibiting the Pope's provisions, was a
death-blow to the court of Rome." On the death of
Henry, the Pope wrote a letter of condolence to the
council, in which he says, "We loved our son of
famous memory, Henry King of England, for there
were many and royal virtues in that Prince for
which he ought to be loved;" and then adds a strong
appeal to the council to abrogate the obnoxious
statutes which had so materially entrenched upon
his assumed prerogative. In a letter to H