His new power
brought changes. It was necessary to reform the Church, and the
wealth of the monasteries tempted him to do it. There was a new
spirit of enquiry, and the King was led on by that spirit, with
dilatory and hesitating steps, to examine old creeds. The religious
fervour of the Reformation had caught the people; and the King stood
still, if he did not turn back.
But his ministers had no misgivings. Thomas Cromwell tried to hurry
the Reformation on--the monasteries were dissolved, the Bible was
translated, and the sway of Rome was disowned. The king appointed
the bishops, decided church cases, and even determined what the creed
of his country was to be. Somerset, in the reign of Edward VI., made
the movement a doctrinal one, and forced it on with equal vigour.
Wales looked on, with indifference and apathy at first, and then with
murmurs. The movement had no attraction: it had many causes of
offence. In England the political movement became a patriotic, an
intellectual, and a religious movement; and it succeeded. In
Ireland, also, it was political, but it could not appeal to
patriotism, because it was an English movement; and it failed. In
Wales, it was neither welcomed nor opposed; it was simply tolerated,
and with a bad grace.
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