[211] 'I will not take upon me to make any exposition.'—_Ibid._ p. 317. [212] Cranmer's _Letters and Remains_, p. 330. [213] Latimer's _Sermons_, pp. 93, 256.—Dean Hook's _Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury_, passim. [214] 'Dolking and becking.'—Collyer's _Records_, ii. p. 159. [215] _Ibid._ [216] Collyer's _Records_, ii. pp. 156-159. [217] 'A new gown of strong cloath.'—Fuller, _Church History_, p. 311. [218] 'The king oppresses his people like a tyrant.'—Cranmer's _Letters and Remains_, p. 319. [219] 'Ignarus fucorum grex evolare solebat.'—Strype, _Records_, i. p. 136. [220] 'Novæ ut lampades, novique faces possint accendi.'—Strype, _Records_, i. p. 337. [221] 'The pacifier of God's wrath, the bearer of sins.'—Strype, _Records_, i. p. 307. CHAPTER VIII. UNION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH THE PROTESTANTS OF GERMANY. (1534 TO 1535.) Henry VIII. having thrown down the _pillar of the papacy_—the monks—felt the necessity of strengthening the work he had begun by alliances with the continental protestants. He did not turn to the Swiss or the French Reformers: their small political importance, as well as the decided character of their Reform, alienated him from them. 'What inconsiderate men they are,' said Calvin, 'who exalt the king of England. To ascribe sovereign authority to the prince in everything, to call him supreme head of the Church under Christ, is in my opinion blasphemy.'[222] [Sidenote: MELANCHTHON.] Henry hoped more from Germany than from Switzerland. As early as 1534 three senators of Lubeck had presented to him the Confession of Augsburg, and proposed an alliance against the Roman pontiff.[223] Anne Boleyn pressed the king to unite with the protestants, and in the spring of 1535 Barnes was sent to Wittemberg, where he induced the Reformers to claim his master's protection. Melanchthon, who was more inclined than Luther to have recourse to princes, since he did not refuse to unite with Francis I., did not reject the advances of Henry VIII. 'Sire,' he wrote in March 1535, 'this is now the golden age for Britain.[224] In times of old, when the armies of the Goths had stifled letters in Europe, your island restored them to the universe. I entreat you in the name of Jesus Christ to plead for us before kings.' The illustrious doctor dedicated to this prince the new edition of his _Common-Places_, and commissioned Alesius, a Scotchman, to present it with the hope that he should see England become the salvation of many nations, and even of the whole Church of Christ.[225] Alesius, who had taken refuge in Saxony, was happy to return to that island from which the fanaticism of the Scotch clergy had compelled him flee. He was presented to the uncle of his king, and Henry, delighted with the Scotchman, said to him: 'I name you my scholar,' and directed Cranmer to send Melanchthon two hundred crowns. They were accompanied by a letter for the illustrious professor, in which the king signed himself: _Your friend Henry_.