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 occurred to a minister of that age, with perhaps the single exception of Sir Thomas More. 'The King's will' was the ultima ratio with ministers, bishops, and judges alike, and the only excuse, however inadequate, for many of the judicial decisions of the period is to be found in the fact that prosecution, when the Crown was prosecutor, was itself equivalent to condemnation.

Henry VIII. came to the throne in the year 1509, at the age of eighteen years. For our present purpose, the early years of his reign, illustrated though they were by the brilliant career of Wolsey, need not detain us long. He found himself in a far better position than any king of England since Edward III. His title was for the time undisputed, and though possible rivals existed the country was in no mood to listen to them. His exchequer was full; his own manners, appearance, and character were all calculated to ensure his popularity, and personally popular he was and continued to be till the end of his reign. The position of the Church at the beginning of his reign was peculiar—in some respects not unlike that of the French Monarchy at the accession of Louis XVI. It apparently retained to the full all its old wealth, grandeur, and power. The Archbishop of Canterbury was Chancellor, the Bishop of Winchester was Secretary, the spiritual peers formed a majority of the House of Lords. The King's own marriage had depended upon a dispensation of the Pope, and within a very few years of Henry's accession, Wolsey—abbot, archbishop, cardinal, and legate a latere—became the foremost man, not only in England but in all Europe. The King himself was a professed theo-