But they were executed for treason, not for heresy, and to clear their memory it is necessary to show that they had no part in conspiring with a foreign Power against their lawful sovereign.

That Power, the Church of Rome, a Power till 1870, Froude cordially hated.

He regarded it as an obstacle to progress, an enemy of freedom, an enslaver of the intellect and the soul.

The English Catholics of his own time were mild, honourable, and loyal.

Although they had been relieved of their disabilities, they had no power.
Froude's reading and reflection led him to infer that when the Church was powerful it aimed a deadly blow at English independence, and that Henry VIII., with all his moral failings, was entitled to the credit of averting it.