Stubbs pleads that we cannot judge him, and abandons the attempt in despair.
-- * Oxford, 1720.
-- As he rejects with equal decision both the Roman Catholic picture and Froude's, he only puts us all to ignorance again.

Froude is at least intelligible.
It is a fact, and not a fancy, that Henry provided from the spoils of the monasteries for the defence of the realm, that he founded new bishoprics from the same source, that he disarmed the ecclesiastical tribunals, and broke the bonds of Rome.

The corruption of at least the smaller monasteries, some of which were suppressed by Wolsey before the rise of Cromwell, is established by the balance of evidence, and the disappearance of the Black Book which set forth their condition was only to be expected in the reign of Mary.

The crime which weighs most upon the memory of the King is the execution of Fisher and More.
More, though he persecuted heretics, is the saint and philosopher of the age.

Of Fisher Macaulay says that he was worthy to have lived in a better age, and died in a better cause.