Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/219

1545.] point, as you be in divers others, accounted among the rest of the world as blessed men.'

With these words Henry passed down from the throne and departed. Many of his hearers had been overcome, like himself, and were in tears; both in Parliament and the country a sensation was created, profound while it lasted; and perhaps it might have been more permanent in its effects, had not the remedy which the King prescribed been the exercise of the one virtue for ever unknown in controversies of religion. Yet, although the admonition was addressed to all sides, it was a declaration in favour of freedom. It prescribed toleration, which the Catholics considered to be a crime. It prescribed charity where they believed it to be their duty to hate. In January their alarm was increased by a circular prepared at the King's desire by Cranmer, forbidding the adoration of the cross on Palm Sunday and the ringing of bells on All-hallows Eve, which was a relic of Pagan superstition. Gardiner, who at the moment was busy completing at Brussels the revision of the treaty with the Emperor, succeeded in suspending for the moment the issue of the order. He assured the King that, if such an evidence of English tendencies was given to the world, his labours would be fruitless. But the intention was none the