In 1529 he would have been a King's man and not a Pope's man, an Englishman first and a Churchman afterwards.

Lord Melbourne used to declare, in his paradoxical manner, that Henry VIII.

was the greatest man who ever lived, because he always had his own way.
Strength is not greatness, and Melbourne must not be taken literally.

What can be pleaded for Henry, without paradox and with truth, is that he imposed upon Catholic and Protestant alike the supremacy of the law.

Froude preached the subordination of the Church to the State; and while supporters of the voluntary principle regarded him with suspicion, adherents to the sacerdotal principle shrank from him with horror.
The reviews of Froude's earliest volumes were mostly unfavourable.
The Times indeed was appreciative and sympathetic.