Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/526

506 the opponents of it punished. They asked no more. But the Gospel, considered in its more homely aspect of a code of duty, was not so prosperous in England.

The effect upon the multitude of the sudden and violent change in religion, had been to remove the restraints of an established and recognized belief, to give them an excuse for laughing to scorn all holy things, for neglecting their ordinary duties, and for treating the Divine government of the world as a bugbear, once terrible, which every fool might now safely ridicule. Parliament might maintain the traditional view of the eucharist, but the administration had neutralized a respect which the Lords had maintained with difficulty. Since the passing of the Chantries and Colleges Act, the Government, under pretence of checking superstition, had appropriated all the irregular endowments at the Universities. They cancelled the exhibitions, which had been granted for the support of poor scholars. They suppressed the professorships and lectureships which had been founded by Henry VIII. The students fell off. 'Some were distracted, others pined away in grief, spent their time in melancholy, and wandered up and down discontentedly.' Some, and those the wisest among them, 'took upon them mechanical and sordid professions.' Degrees were held antichristian. Learning was no necessary adjunct to a creed which 'lay in a nutshell.' Universities were called 'stables of asses,