“Who is there that does _not_ aim at the throne? Just now it was Buckingham, now it is Northumberland, and only because there is no proper heir. Sire, you must consider the country, and your people, and name a successor.” “No! I will not have anyone waiting for my decease.” “Then we shall have the Wars of the Roses again, which cost England a million men and eighty of our noblest families.” The King smiled. “Our noblest!” Then he rose and stepped to the window: “I must now accompany the Queen home,” he said. “She has gone to sleep outside, and this damp is not good for her in her weak condition.” “At her Majesty’s age one must be very careful,” replied the Cardinal. He emphasized the word _age_, for Katherine was forty, and gave no more hopes of an heir to the throne. Her daughter Mary might certainly be married, but one did not know to whom. “Sire,” he continued, “do not be angry, but I have just now opened the Holy Scripture.... It may be an accident--will you listen?” “Speak.” “In the third Book of Moses, the twentieth and twenty-first chapters, I read the following--but you will not be angry with your servant?” “Read.” “These are the Lord’s solemn words: ‘If any man take his brother’s wife, it is evil; they shall be childless.’” The King was excited, and approached the Cardinal. “Is that there? Yes, truly! God has punished me by taking my sons one after the other. What a wonderful book, in which everything is written! That is the reason then! But what says Thomas Aquinas, the ‘Angel’ of the Schoolmen?” “Yes, sire, if you wish the matter elucidated, we must consult the learned.” “Let us do so,--but quietly and cautiously. The Queen is blameless, and nothing evil must happen to her. Quietly and cautiously, Wolsey! But I must know the truth.” * * * * * In a room near the “Bloody Tower,” the Cardinal and More were carrying on a lively conversation. “What is happening now in Germany?” asked the Cardinal. “While Luther was in the Wartburg, his pupil Karlstadt came to Wittenberg, and turned everything upside down. Citing the prohibition of images in the Old Testament, he stirred up students and the rabble to attack the churches and throw all sacred objects outside.” “That’s the result of the Bible! To give it into the hands of the unlearned means letting hell loose.” “Then....” “What did Luther say to that?” “He hurried down from the Wartburg and denounced Karlstadt and his followers, but I cannot say that he confuted them. A councillor quoted the book of Moses, ‘Thou shalt not make to thee any image nor likeness.’ And a shoemaker answered, ‘I have often taken off my hat before images in a room or in the street; but that is idolatry, and robs God of the glory which belongs to Him alone.’” “What did Luther say?” “That then, on account of occasional misuse, one must kill all the women, and pour all the wine into the streets.”