[Footnote 289: Harpsfield speaks with becoming truth and spirit of Henry's great attention to ecclesiastical establishments: "Splendidum etiam illud sacellum westmonasterij, magno sumptu atque magnificentia ab eodem est conditum. In quod coenobium valde fuit liberalis et munificus. Nullumque fere fuit in tota Anglia monachorum, aut fratrum coenobium, nullum collegium, cujus preces, ad animam ipsius Deo post obitum commendandam, sedulo non expetierat. Legavit autem singulorum praefectis sex solidos et octo denarios, singulis autem eorundem presbyteris, tres solidos et quatuor denarios: ceteris non presbyteris viginti denarios." _Hist. Eccles. Anglic._, p. 606, edit. 1622, fol.] [Footnote 290: The reader is here introduced to his old acquaintance, who appeared in the title-page to my first "_Bibliomania_:"-- [Illustration] I am the firste fole of all the hole navy To kepe the pompe, the helme, and eke the sayle: For this is my mynde, this one pleasoure have I-- Of bokes to haue great plenty and aparayle. I take no wysdome by them: nor yet avayle Nor them perceyve nat: And then I them despyse. Thus am I a foole, and all that serue that guyse. _Shyp of Folys_, &c., _Pynson's edit._, 1509, fol.] We have now reached the threshhold of the reign of HENRY VIII.--and of the era of THE REFORMATION. An era in every respect most important, but, in proportion to its importance, equally difficult to describe--as it operates upon the history of the Bibliomania. Now blazed forth, but blazed for a short period, the exquisite talents of Wyatt, Surrey, Vaux, Fischer, More, and, when he made his abode with us, the incomparable Erasmus. But these in their turn. PHIL. You omit Wolsey. Surely he knew something about books? LYSAND. I am at present only making the sketch of my grand picture. Wolsey, I assure you, shall stand in the foreground. Nor shall the immortal Leland be treated in a less distinguished manner. Give me only "ample room and verge enough," and a little time to collect my powers, and then-- LIS. "Yes, and then"--you will infect us from top to toe with the BOOK-DISEASE! PHIL. In truth I already begin to feel the consequence of the innumerable miasma of it, which are floating in the atmosphere of this library. I move that we adjourn to a purer air. LYSAND. I second the motion: for, having reached the commencement of Henry's reign, it will be difficult to stop at any period in it previous to that of the Reformation. LIS. Agreed. Thanks to the bacchanalian bounty of Lorenzo, we are sufficiently enlivened to enter yet further, and more enthusiastically, into this congenial discourse. Dame nature and good sense equally admonish us now to depart. Let us, therefore, close the apertures of these gorgeous decanters:-- "Claudite jam rivos, pueri: sat prata biberunt!" [Illustration]