Macaulay's popularity was at its height in 1858.

But Macaulay passes lightly in his Introduction over the sixteenth century, and the reign of Henry VIII., or at least the latter part of it, had never been so copiously illustrated before.
The Oxford Movement, which treated the Reformation as a discreditable incident worthy of oblivion, had not much influence with the laity.

Nine Englishmen in ten were quite prepared to glorify the reformers, and were by no means sorry to find how much evidence there was for the good old English view of a Parliamentary Church.

The Statutes of Supremacy and of Praemunire, even the execution of More and Fisher, reminded them that the Bishop of Rome neither had nor ought to have any jurisdiction within this realm of England.

That "gospel light first dawned from Boleyn's eyes" might be a paradox.