They were now to look on it as a gift from the king.

The very gratitude of Englishmen for fresh spiritual enlightenment was to tell to the profit of the royal power.

No conception could be further from that of the New Learning, from the plea for intellectual freedom which runs through the life of Erasmus or the craving for political liberty which gives nobleness to the speculations of More.
Nor was it possible for Henry himself to avoid drifting from the standpoint he had chosen.

He had written against Luther; he had persisted in opposing Lutheran doctrine; he had passed new laws to hinder the circulation of Lutheran books in his realm.

But influences from without as from within drove him nearer to Lutheranism.