CHAPTER XI.
The conversion of Henry VIII., because the pope refused to annul his marriage with Catharine, aunt of Charles V., was not the proudest, but one of the most important triumphs of the new faith.

Had Catharine's charms been fresher, or Anne Boleyn less alluring, the course of history would have been changed.

Henry VIII., as persecutor of heretics, would have found congenial occupation for his ferocious instincts, and the triumph of Protestantism would have been long delayed.

But no such cause existed for the success of the Reformation on French soil.

The slumbering germs of heresy, left perhaps by Abelard, or by the heretics in Toulouse and Provence, were quickly warmed into life.