Before England was free she had to become Protestant, and Henry, whatever his motives, was on the Protestant side.

That he was himself an unscrupulous tyrant is beside the point.

He was an ephemeral phaemomenon, and, as a matter of fact, his tyranny, which the people never felt, died with him.
The Church of Rome was a permanent fact, immortal, if not unchangeable, which would have reduced England, if it had prevailed, to the condition of France, Italy, and Spain.

Whether Henry VIII.
was a good man, or a bad one, is not the question.

Bishop Stubbs, who cannot be accused of anti-ecclesiastical, or anti-theological prejudice, calls him a "grand, gross figure," not to be tried and condemned by ordinary standards of private morals.