He wanted to vindicate the reformers, and to prove that in the struggle against Papal Supremacy English patriots took the side of the king.
He was roused to indignation by slanders against the character of Elizabeth; and he held, as almost every one now holds, that the attempt to make an innocent saint of Mary Stuart was futile.

Even More and Fisher he refused to accept as candidates for the crown of martyrdom.

They were both excellent men.

More was, in some respects, a great man.

They were certainly far more virtuous than the king who put them to death.