Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/511

1541.] of the court is so great, as all acts and processes coming out of any inferior courts must for the time cease, and give place to the highest.'

The despotism of Henry was splendidly veiled when he could applaud so resolved an assertion of the liberties of the House of Commons, and could acknowledge that any portion of his own power was dependent on their presence and their aid.

From domestic incidents, intricate in themselves, and more intricate from the imperfect light in which we see them, the story now turns to a series of events brought complete before the eye in a steady stream of information, where the last years of this perplexed and stormy reign will appear in fairer colours. England at home, and viewed from the inner side, was full of passion, confusion, and uncertainty; the Church anchorage no longer tenable in the change of wind, and the new anchorage in the Bible as yet partially discovered and imperfectly sounded. But she reserved her weakness for her own eyes. The inhabitants of but a part of a small island provoked the envy of the world by their wealth, and the jealousy of the world by their freedom from the scourge of war, which, lacerating all other nations, left them alone unscathed. Torn as they were by dissensions, they appeared an easy and a tempting prey; but when the cloud gathered to overwhelm them, it displayed, on its rising, not a prostrate victim appealing for mercy, but a proud and