His irresolute policy was incapable of pursuing any public end consistently, save that he employed the best Latinists of the time to give elegance to his state papers.

His method of governing was the purely personal one, to pay his friends and flatterers at the expense of the common good.

One of his most characteristic letters expresses his intention of rewarding with high office a certain gentleman who had given him a dinner of lampreys.
SECTION 3.

CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION [Sidenote: Corruption of the church not a main cause of the Reformation] In the eyes of the early Protestants the Reformation was a return to primitive Christianity and its principal cause was the corruption of the church.

That there was great depravity in the church as elsewhere cannot be doubted, but there are several reasons for thinking that it could not have been an important cause for the loss of so many of her sons.