cence, and the Roman Church was allowed once more to exert all her illusive powers over the human mind, in honour of a Prince who taught his countrymen to reject her fascinations with contempt. During the five days immediately following Henry's death, his corpse was laid in state within his chamber; where, besides an ample attendance of household officers, waited day and night some of the royal chaplains to chaunt those solemn services, so seductive to the living, which Romanists believe are efficacious in affording comfort to the tortured spirits of the dead. Twelve days after the body was removed from the living apartments did it repose within the chapel of the palace, and there were incessantly repeated, on a grander scale, those ministrations, deemed propitiatory, which an imaginative mind can seldom witness with indifference. While these imposing ceremonies were in progress, the Norroy king of arms, advancing at stated intervals to the entrance of the choir, said aloud to those who filled the ante-chapel, "Of your charity pray for the soul of the most high and mighty Prince, our late sovereign lord and king, Henry VIII." On the 14th of February, every thing being at length in readiness, the gorgeous funeral moved from Westminster, "the weather being very fair, and the people very desirous to see the sights"."

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Account of King Henry's funeral extracted from the books belonging to the College of Arms. (Strype, Eccl. Mem. II. 299.) In this funeral procession were displayed twelve banners of arms, on one of which were emblazoned the bearings of the

by their deceased master. These gentlemen deposed that his Majesty had intended to confer peerages upon certain individuals, to honour by higher titles others already noble, and to enhance the value of these distinctions by the grant of endowments dismembered from the immense property placed at the disposal of the crown by the ruin of the Howards. It appeared, however, that this last intention had been abandoned: for the Duke of Norfolk obtaining intelligence of it, and calculating that the sun of his family's greatness was set for ever, should his fortune be wholly dissipated, earnestly requested of the King to retain unbroken his extensive acquisitions. "My lands," he said, "are good and stately gear, fitted to provide a suitable establishment for the young Prince of Wales; upon whom, I hope that his Majesty will bestow them entire." With the aged prisoner's entreaty Henry determined to comply, and to provide for those whom he intended to distinguish by farther pillaging the dignified clergy. All these matters having been laid before the council, it was determined that the Protector should be created Duke of Somerset ; his brother Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudley; the Earl of Essex, brother to Queen Catharine Parr, Marquess

g "Which title appertaining to the King's progenitors of the house of Lancaster, and since the expiring of the Beauforts, conferred on none but Henry, the natural son of the king deceased; was afterwards charged upon him, (the Protector,) as an argument of his aspiring to the crown; which past all doubt he never aimed at." Heylin, Hist. Ref. 31.

of Northampton"; John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, Earl of Warwick', the Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton*; Sir Richard Rich, Lord Rich of Lees; Sir William Willoughby, Lord Willoughby of Parham; and Sir Edmund Sheffield, Lord Sheffield of Butterwick. Other creations, though intended, were not carried into effect, probably because the individuals whom it had been determined to ennoble, saw little prospect of attaining an augmentation of wealth adequate to the maintenance of a rank above that actually in their possession'.

On the 19th of February, the young King attended by a magnificent retinue rode from the Tower to the palace at Westminster, and on the following day, being Shrove-Sunday, he was crowned by Archbishop Cranmer, in the Abbeychurch, with the usual solemnities". Upon no occasion does the most dignified individual among the clergy appear to so much advantage, as when, by connecting the sovereign's inauguration with the most hallowed rites of religion, he reminds the

He married Anne, daughter and heiress of Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex, a lady who numbered among her ancestors, the Bohuns, once Earls of Northampton. Ibid.

1 As descended from the Beauchamps who formerly bore that title. Ibid.

"Son of William Wriothesley, and grandchild of John Wriothesley; both of them in their times advanced no higher than to the office of an herald; the father by the title of York, the grandfather by that of Garter, king at arms." Ibid. 32. 1 Burnet, Hist. Ref. II. 23.

m Hayward, 276. Strype, Eccl. Mem. II. 35.

first individual in the state that his elevated rank is only a trust delegated to him by God for the benefit of his people. It was not, however, by means of significant ceremonies alone, that Cranmer admonished his royal godson, on the day of his coronation. As there appears to have been no sermon, he supplied its place by addressing the young monarch to the following effect. "The promise which your Highness hath made to rerounce the devil and all his works is not to be understood, in the sense imposed upon it by the Bishop of Rome, as binding you to any dependence on his see. Paul the Third wrote to your royal father, Didst thou not promise, when crowned by our permission, to forsake the devil and all his works, and dost thou run to heresy? For the breach of this thy promise, knowest thou not, that it is in our power to dispose of thy sword and sceptre to whom we please? We, however, dread sovereign, of your Majesty's clergy, do humbly conceive that this promise implies no subserviency to the Roman See. Your ancestors received their crowns from God, and they could not resign them to the Bishop of Rome, or to his legates, without a breach of their coronation oaths. It is true that the Archbishops of Canterbury have been used to crown and anoint your predecessors, and it is asserted, that their authority to perform these offices is derived from Rome. But even were that assertion true, it could not be endured that an Archbishop should presume to approve or reject a Prince upon the grounds of his subservience, or

of his opposition to the Roman see. In truth, the rites of coronation are mere ceremonies which affect not an individual's title to the throne: they are, indeed, important ceremonies, for they admonish kings of their duty towards God. The dignity of him who is the object of this august ceremonial renders it becoming that the most distinguished of the clergy should anoint his sovereign. But if that ecclesiastic refuse to officiate upon such an occasion, any other prelate may be called upon to supply his place: nor is the royal title at all invalidated because the officer, upon whom it properly devolves to crown his king, has declined the office. Nor does the bishop of Rome, nor any prelate owning his authority, possess the right to make stipulations with a sovereign upon these ceremonies. The officiating bishop may indeed admonish the inaugurated king of what God requires at his hands, namely, religion and virtue. Not, therefore, as authorised by the bishop of Rome, but as a messenger from my Saviour Jesus Christ, I shall now humbly remind your Majesty of the duties which have devolved upon you. Your Highness, then, as God's vicegerent within your dominions, is bound to see that among those committed to your governance, God be truly worshipped, idolatry destroyed, images removed, and the tyranny of the Roman bishops overthrown. You are to reward virtue, to punish crime, to justify the innocent, to relieve the poor, to promote peace, to repress violence, and to execute justice throughout your realm. For examples of the