He was a man of the New Learning; he was proud of his orthodoxy and of his title of Defender of the Faith.

And above all he shared to the utmost his people's love of order, their clinging to the past, their hatred of extravagance and excess.

The first sign of reaction was seen in the Parliament of 1539.
Never had the Houses shown so little care for political liberty.

The Monarchy seemed to free itself from all parliamentary restrictions whatever when a formal statute gave the king's proclamations the force of parliamentary laws.

Nor did the Church find favour with them.