nes from the words of the Scriptures themselves.
The idea seemed a good one, and Henry jumped at it. In an interview soon
afterwards he ordered Cranmer to put his arguments into a book, and placed
him in the household of Anne's father, the Earl of Wiltshire, to
facilitate the writing of it. The religious movement in Germany had found
many echoes in England, and doubtless Cranmer conscientiously objected to
Papal control. Certain it is that, fortified as he was by the
encouragement of Anne and her father, his book was a persuasive one, and
greatly pleased the King, who sent it to the Pope and others. Nor did
Cranmer's activity stay there. He entered into disputation everywhere,
with the object of gaining theological recruits for the King's side, and
wrote a powerful refutation of Reginald Pole's book in favour of
Katharine. The King thought so highly of Cranmer's controversial ability
that he sent him with Lee, Stokesley, and other theologians to Rome,
Paris, and elsewhere on the Continent, to forward the divorce, and from
Rome he was commissioned as English Ambassador with the Emperor.

Whilst Cranmer was thus fighting the King's battle abroad, another
instrument came to Henry's hand for use in England. On the disgrace of
Wolsey, his secretary, Thomas Cromwell, was recommended to Henry by
friends. The King disliked him, and at first refused to see him; but
consented to do so when it was hinted that Cromwell was the sort of man
who would serve him well in what he had at heart. The hint was a
well-founded one; for Thomas Cromwell was as ambitious and unscrupulous as
his master had been; strong, bold, and fortunately unhampered by
ecclesiastical orders. When Henry received him in the gardens at
Whitehall, Cromwell spoke as no priest, and few laymen, would have dared
to do: for, apart from the divorce question, there was to be no dallying
with heresy if Henry could help it, and the fires of Smithfield burning
doubters were already beginning to blaze under the influence of Sir Thomas
More. "Sire," said Cromwell to the King, "the Pope refuses you a divorce
... why wait for his consent? Every Englishman is master in his own house,
and why should not you be so in England? Ought a foreign prelate to share
your power with you? It is true the bishops make oath to your Majesty; but
they make another to the Pope immediately afterwards which absolves them
from it. Sire, you are but half a king, and we are but half your subjects.
Your