It is only through the stray depositions of royal spies that we catch a glimpse of the wrath and hate which lay seething under this silence of the people.
For the silence was a silence of terror.

Before Cromwell's rise and after his fall from power the reign of Henry the Eighth witnessed no more than the common tyranny and bloodshed of the time.

But the years of Cromwell's administration form the one period in our history which deserves the name that men have given to the rule of Robespierre.

It was the English Terror.
It was by terror that Cromwell mastered the king.

Cranmer could plead for him at a later time with Henry as "one whose surety was only by your Majesty, who loved your Majesty, as I ever thought, no less than God." But the attitude of Cromwell towards the king was something more than that of absolute dependence and unquestioning devotion.