stood aside and
raised no voice whilst Cromwell and his master still worked havoc on the
religious houses, regardless of Jane's timid intercession. Boxley,
Walsingham, and even the sacred shrine of Canterbury, yielded their relics
and images, venerated for centuries, to be scorned and destroyed; whilst
the vast accumulated treasures of gold and gems that enriched them went to
fill the coffers of the King, and their lands to bribe his favourites.
Throughout England the work of confiscation was carried on now with a zeal
which only greed for the resultant profit can explain.[183] The attacks
upon superstition in the Church by those in authority naturally aroused a
feeling of greater freedom of thought amongst the mass of the people. The
establishment of an open Bible in English in every church for the perusal
of the parishioners, due, as indeed most of the doctrinal changes were,
to Cranmer, encouraged men to think to some extent for themselves. But
though, for purposes to which reference will be made presently, Henry
willingly concurred in Cranmer's reforming tendencies and Cromwell's
anti-ecclesiastical plans for providing him with abundant money, he would
allow no departure from orthodoxy as he understood it. His love for
theological controversy, and his undoubted ability and learning in that
direction, enabled him to enforce his views with apparently unanswerable
arguments, especially as he was able, and quite ready, to close the
dispute with an obstinate antagonist by prescribing the stake and the
gibbet either to those who repudiated his spiritual supremacy or to those
who, like the Anabaptists, questioned the efficacy of a sacrament which he
had adopted. For Henry it was to a great extent a matter of pride and
self-esteem now to show to his own subjects and the world that he was
absolutely supreme and infallible, and this feeling unquestionably had
greatly influenced the progress effected by the reformation and
emancipation from Rome made after the disappointing marriage with Jane
Seymour.

But there was also policy in Henry's present action. Throughout the years
1536 and 1537 Francis and the Emperor had continued at war; but by the
close of the latter year it was evident that both combatants were
exhausted, and would shortly make up their differences. The Papal
excommunication of Henry and his realm was now in full force, making
rebellion against the King a laudable act for all good Catholics; and any
agreement be