The Life and Times of Thomas Cranmer (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 edition. Excerpt: ... CRANMER AND HIS TIMES. CHAPTER I. Henry The Eighth ascended the throne in 1509, at the age of eighteen. His father, Henry the Seventh, had left him a well filled treasury, a kingdom at peace with all the world, loyal subjects, and experienced ministers. Henry united in himself the claims of Lancaster and York. Nature had given him personal beauty, and he was educated in the learning of the times. Had that learning been such as the education of modern times presents to the youthful and ardent mind, a wholly different character might have been formed. But he was doomed to pass his early days in the study of abstruse theological questions, considering learning as the field of polemical debate, and early enlisting under the banners of Thomas Aquinas. This course of education could have but little favorable influence in forming his moral character, or in cultivating a taste for high and noble pursuits. In manly exercises and in the accomplishments of the day, he was said to be well skilled; but it is evident that the theory of self-education had never been inculcated upon the mind of the youthful King. There is not the distinction, which the thoughtless are apt to imagine, between the high-born and the low. All have a work to accomplish for themselves, which no earthly power can accomplish for them. The monarch may become the slave of his own vices, and the poorest subject a monarch over himself. The Universal Father does not give to one of his children bread, to another a stone, but he gives to all the power of being virtuous; and this power he has placed in the soul. It is not far that we have to seek it, or long to wait for it; it comes in the form of conscience and principle, and, cherished, springs into action. It has been common to...