mediately arrested Norris, Brereton, Weston, and Rocheford; and ordered the queen next day to be carried to the Tower.

Anne, conscious of his unrelenting spirit, while she asserted her innocence, prepared for the melancholy doom which awaited her. From the Tower she wrote her husband a letter, full of the most tender expostulations; but this had no influence on his obdurate mind. Norris, Weston, Brereton, and Smeton, were tried; but no legal evidence was produced against them. Smeton was prevailed on, by the vain hopes of life, to confess a criminal correspondence with the queen; but even her enemies expected little advantage from this confession; for they never dared to confront him with her; and he was immediately executed; as were also Brereton and Weston. Norris had been much in the king's favour; and an offer of life was made him, if he would confess his crime, and accuse the queen: but he generously rejected the proposal; and said, that in his conscience he believed her entirely guiltless.

The queen and her brother were tried by a Jury of peers; the chief evidence amounted to no more than that Rocheford had been seen to lean on her bed, before some company. Though unassisted by counsel, she defended herself with great presence of mind; and the spectators could not forbear pronouncing her entirely innocent. Judgment, however, was given against her and Rocheford: when the dreadful sentence was pronounced, she was not terrified; but lifting up her hands to heaven, said, "O Father! O Creator! thou who art the way, the truth, and the life, thou knowest that I have not deserved this

fate!" Resigning all hopes of life, she sent her last message to the king, and acknowledged the obligations which she owed him, in thus uniformly continuing his endeavours for her advancement: from a private gentlewoman, she said, he had first made her a marchioness, then a queen, and now, since he could raise her no higher in this world, he was sending her to be a saint in heaven. She then renewed the protestations of her innocence, and recommended her daughter Elizabeth to his care. Before the lieutenant of the Tower, and all who approached her, she made the like declarations; and continued to behave herself with her usual serenity, and even with cheerfulness. "The executioner," she said to the lieutenant, " is, I hear, very expert; and my neck is very slender:" upon which she grasped it in her hand, and smiled. After suffering decapitation, her body was negligently thrown into a common chest of elm-tree, made to hold arrows, and was buried in the Tower.

The innocence of Anne Boleyn can scarcely be called in question: and the king made the most effectual apology for her, by marrying Jane Seymour, the very day after the execution. The parliament had the meanness to join in gratifying his lawless passions; the issue of both his former marriages were declared illegitimate, and the crown was settled on the king's issue by Jane Seymour, or any subsequent wife, and in case he should die without children, he was empowered by his will to dispose of the crown.

The convocation were not less obsequious: according to the wishes of Henry, they determined the standard of faith to consist in the scriptures, and the three creeds, the Apostolic, VOL. XX.

D

Nicene, and Athanasian; auricular confession and penance were admitted; but no mention was made of marriage, extreme unction, confirmation, or holy orders, as sacraments: and in this omission the influence of the protestants appeared. The real presence, however, was asserted, conformably to the ancient doctrine; while the terms of acceptance were established to be the merits of Christ, and the mercy and good pleasure of God, suitably to the new principles.

These articles were formed by the convocation, corrected by the king, whose faith was to be the standard of his subjects' belief, and subscribed by every member of that assembly. The multitude, however, were less tractable. The expelled monks, wandering about, excited both the piety and compassion of men; and as the ancient religion took hold of the populace by powerful motives, suited to vulgar minds, it was able, now it was brought in apparent hazard, to raise the strongest zeal in its favour, The first rising was in Lincolnshire, and consisted of twenty thousand men; but on the appearance of the duke of Suffolk, at the head of some regular forces, and secret assurances of pardon, they dispersed, and only a few of the ringleadears suffered.

But in the north, the revolt assumed a more serious appearance. The insurgents were led by Aske, a gentleman who possessed the art of governing the populace. Their enterprise they called the Pilgrimage of Grace: they took an oath that their only motives were the love of God; their care of the king's person and issue; their desire of purifying the nobility, of restoring the church, and of suppressing heresy. A. D. Alfared by these pretences, forty thou- 1537. sand hardy enthusiasts marched beneath a banner which represented the five wounds of Christ; and the countenance of the archbishop of York, and lord Darcy, at once sanctioned and supported the rebellion.

The duke of Norfolk was appointed general against the rebels, and after an ineffectual attempt at accommodation, the latter determined to pass a river in their front, and attack with superior numbers the royal army. They were twice disappointed in this design by violent falls of rain, which swelled the ford. Their minds, prone to superstition, were deeply affected by these occurrences; many of them dispersed; and the remainder were soon after routed by Norfolk. Aske, and lord Darcy, with many of the chiefs, were put to death; and an amnesty was granted to the common people.

Soon after this prosperous success, Henry's joy was crowned by the birth of a son, who was baptized by the name of Edward. Yet was not his happiness without alloy: the queen died two days after. But a son had so long been ardently wished for by Henry, and was now become so necessary, in order to prevent disputes with regard to the succession, that the king's affliction was drowned in his joy. The prince, not six days old, was created prince of Wales, duke of Cornwall, and earl of Chester; sir Edward Seymour, the queen's brother, was raised to the dignity of earl of Hertford; sir William FitzWilliams, high admiral, was created earl of Southampton; sir William Paulet, lord St. John; and sir John Russel, lord Russel.

A. D. Domestic quiet combining with Henry's 1538. rapacity produced the entire destruction of the monasteries; a new visitation of them was appointed; and the abbots and monks were induced, in expectation of better treatment, to make a voluntary resignation of their houses. At different times the king suppressed six hundred and forty-five monasteries; of which twentyeight had abbots that enjoyed a seat in parliament. Ninety colleges were demolished in several counties; two thousand three hundred and seventy-four chantries and free chapels; and an hundred and ten hospitals. The whole revenue of these establishments amounted to one hundred and sixty-one thousand one hundred pounds.

These violent measures, however, did not pass without murmurs and commotions; but Henry took an effectual method of interesting the nobility and gentry in the success of his plans: he either made a gift of the revenues of convents to his favourites and courtiers, or sold them at low prices, or exchanged them for other lands on very disadvantageous terms. He was so profuse in these liberalities, that he is said to have given a woman the whole revenue of a convent, as a reward for making a pudding, which happened to gratify his palate. He also settled pensions on the abbots and priors, proportioned to their former revenues or to their merits; and gave each monk a yearly pension of eight marks. At this time, six new bishoprics were erected, Westminster, Oxford, Peterborough, Bristol, Chester, and Gloucester; of which all but the first subsist at this day.

Beside the lands possessed by the monasteries,