Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/502

482 Thus was the symmetry complete. The King, professing to be acting upon principle alone, had divorced a Catholic princess to make way for a friend of the Reformation. The sense of duty had been real, but it had been tainted with private inclination; and he had been rewarded with dishonour. The Protestants had supported him, because they saw a triumph for their party in a breach for any cause with the Papacy; and they were disgraced in the shameful catastrophe with which ihe marriage which they had encouraged had closed. The tide had turned. It was now a Protestant princess who had been divorced; and her place had been taken by a representative of a party who, if not Romanists, yet rivalled them in hatred of the Reformers. Again there had been something of justice in the King's motives. Again there had been something which was unsound. Again a great religious faction had endeavoured to serve their cause by paltering with equity; and again the same ignominy overtook both prince and party. Of the work which was done in both movements the goodremained, the corrupt perished. The high purposes of Providence were not permitted to be disfigured with