Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/21



HE Anglo-Catholics had established their supremacy in the destruction of their great enemy, and in the rupture with the Protestants of the Continent; but they had feared to compromise their success by an indiscretion like that which before had spoiled their triumph. They had been forced to content themselves with a power of persecution, which, after the martyrdoms of Barnes and his companions, they had scarcely dared to employ; and Gardiner, the leading spirit of the party, perceived acutely that his victory was but half won, that at any moment it might be snatched from him, unless he could lay a check on the free circulation of the Scriptures. In the face of the King's resolution a direct movement for such a purpose, he knew, would be hopeless. But the Bishop of Winchester was as dexterous as he was resolute; and a side route might conduct him to his object when the open road was closed.

From 1536, when the vicar-general's injunctions