‘He brought me without the gates ... into a field.’—Anderson, _Annals of the English Bible_, p. 272. Footnote 97: Anderson (Chr.), _Annals of the English Bible_, p. 152. Footnote 98: Ibid. Footnote 99: ‘Lest I would have persued him.’—Anderson, p. 152. Footnote 100: ‘Being something fearful.’—_Ibid._ Footnote 101: Cotton MSS. Titus, bk. i. fol. 6, 7. Anderson, _Annals_, i. p. 273. Footnote 102: ‘At opportune leasure his Highness would read the content.’—Ibid p. 275. Footnote 103: ‘Ye bear much affection toward the said Tyndale.’—Cotton MSS. Galba, bk. x. fol. 388. Anderson, _Annals_, p. 275. Footnote 104: The corrections are still to be seen in the original draft, and are indicated in the biographical notice of Tyndale at the beginning of his _Practices_ (Parker Society), pp. 46, 47. Footnote 105: _State Papers_, vii. p. 303. Footnote 106: ‘In such wise that water stoode in his eyes.’—_State Papers_, vii. p. 303. Footnote 107: Tyndale, _Exposition_, p. 141. Footnote 108: _State Papers_, vii. p. 302. CHAPTER IX. THE KING OF ENGLAND RECOGNIZED AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH. (JANUARY TO MARCH 1531.) Henry VIII. desired to introduce great changes into the ecclesiastical corporation of his kingdom. His royal power had much to bear from the power of the clergy. It was the same in all Catholic monarchies; but England had more to complain of than others. Of the three estates, Clergy, Nobility, and Commons, the first was the most powerful. The nobility had been weakened by the civil wars; the commons had long been without authority and energy; the prelates thus occupied the first rank, so that in 1529 an archbishop and cardinal (Wolsey) was the most powerful man in England, not even the king excepted. Henry had felt the yoke, and wished to free himself, not only from the domination of the pope, but also from the influence of the higher clergy. If he had only intended to be avenged of the pontiff, it would have been enough to allow the Reformation to act; when a mighty wind blows from heaven, it sweeps away all the contrivances of men. But Henry was deficient neither in prudence nor calculation. He feared lest a diversity of doctrine should engender disturbances in his kingdom. He wished to free himself from the pope and the prelates, without throwing himself into the arms of Tyndale or of Latimer. [Sidenote: Papal Rule Hurtful To The State.]