secretary to the Cardinal, and originally the son of a blacksmith. He won the favor of Henry, by the earnestness with which he seconded his marriage with Anne.

In the office of Chancellor, Wolsey was succeeded by Sir Thomas More. His sanguinary measures must ever cast a shadow over his excellent gifts and high qualities. We must not forget, that the religion of that period seems to have partaken but little of the spirit of its great founder. The flaming sword guarded its precincts, and both Catholics and Protestants sacrificed their victims upon its altars.

CHAPTER IV.

VERY Soon after his consecration, the Primate was called upon by Henry to pronounce the divorce. Cranmer had been too deeply engaged in the matter to feel any reluctance to utter this final decision. We are willing to believe that history, rather than his own heart, was silent on the subject of humanity.

But it is to be feared, that his conviction of the unholiness of the marriage, his desire of defeating the tyranny of the Pope and taking vigorous. measures against the Church of Rome, added to his paternal affection for Anne, who had long honored, respected, and imbibed his opinions, and who, he had every reason to believe, would prove a powerful agent in the reform he was desirous of promoting; that all these considerations acted powerfully on his feelings, and absorbed all tenderness and compassion for the unfortunate Queen. It is difficult for us to imagine, that a good and pious man should have taken the decided part he did in this matter; but we are often disappointed in Cranmer's character; he seems sometimes to have yielded to the urgency or impulse

of the moment, with a want of resolution that was a melancholy augury of the future.

To give to Anne the dignity of a title was Henry's next object; and he determined, in defiance of all established rules, to create her Marchioness of Pembroke. This was done with much pomp and ceremony. "She wore a circote of cloth of gold, richly trimmed with crimson, and on her head had no other coif or head geer than her own braided hair. The King, with his royal hands placed on her head the halfe coronet, and the Lady Mary Howard threw over her shoulders the ermine mantle, white as snowe. When thus equipped, she was most beautifull to behold; and some of the Papistes sayd, if it were only for looks and comeliness, she was worthy to be Queene. The King could not be satisfyed with gazing upon her.”

Those who have seen the picture of Anne will easily credit this account. There is a mixture of playfulness and dignity mingled in her expression, that must have been truly captivating. She had now nearly reached the zenith of her ambition; the coronet, she was well aware, would soon be exchanged for a royal diadem; and we may without difficulty imagine, that the bloom of her cheek, and the lustre of her eye, had acquired fresh brilliancy as she saw it hovering over her.

The playfulness and freedom of her manner was, at this time, one of her great charms in the eyes of the capricious monarch.

The superb set of jewels sent to Anne by the King on this occasion, is thus recorded in Strype's Appendix to his "Memorials.” We give it in the ancient text.

"Furste, One Carkeyne of gold antique warke, having a shielde of gold, set with a great Rose, containing xij Dyamants. One fayer table Dyamant. One poynted Dyamant. One table Rubye. One table Emerawde. And iij fayer hinging perles.

"Item, Another Carkeyne of golde of harts with ij hands holding a great owche of golde, set with a great table balasse. One poynted diamant. Two table dyamants: Whereof one rising with Lozanges, and the other flat. And one other long lozanged diamant. And iiij perles, with one longe perle pendaunt.

"Item, Another Carkeyne of golde enameled with blac and white, with an owche of golde enameled white and blew: Set with a great rockey Rubye: One rockey Emerawde: One pointed Dyamant: one table Dyamant. A harte of a Dyamant, rising ful of Lozanges. And one fayer hinging perle.

"Item, Another Carkeyne of lynks of gold. The one enameled blac, the other gold: having an

owche of golde, set with a great rockey balasse: Two smal table Dyamants; and one Lozanged Dyamant. Five slight perles, and one long perle pendaunt therat.

"Item, Another Carkeyne of gold, garnished thorowly with xxij coletts of dyamants, contening in al lxxvij diamant smal and great and xliij perles, with an owche of antique, set with xiiij dyamants, one rockey Rubye, and one rockey Emerawde; and a flat round hinging perle.

“Item, Another Carkeyne of golde, enameled blac, with an owche, set with a fayer table balasse, and three smal tryangled dyamants, and five perles.

"Item, A George on horse back: garnished with xvj smal Dyamants. And in the belly of the Dragon a rockey perle.

"Item, Another Carkeyne of golde: al blac, having a George on horseback; garnished with xviij smal Dyamants. And in the belly of the Dragon a perle ragged.

"Item, A cheyne of gold, of Spaynishe facion, enameled, white, red, and black."

We are aware that the above list of articles may want a glossary. The carkeyne is a collar; fayer, fair; balasses, rubies; Lozanges, a figure in heraldry denoting the arms of the family.

Soon after Anne was made Marchioness of Pembroke, she was privately married to the