Henry VIII., however, was not satisfied. The hope which he had entertained of inducing Lambert to recant had been disappointed. The Anglo-Catholic party made up for this by everywhere extolling his learning and his eloquence. They praised his sayings to the skies--every one of them was an oracle; he was in very deed the defender of the faith. There was one, not belonging to that party, who wrote to Sir Thomas Wyatt, then foreign minister to the king, as follows:--'It was marvellous to see the gravity and the majestic air with which his majesty discharged the functions of _Supreme head of the Anglican Church_; the mildness with which he tried to convert that unhappy man; the force of reasoning with which he opposed him. Would that the princes and potentates of Christendom could have been present at the spectacle; they would certainly have admired the wisdom and the judgment of his majesty, and would have said _that the king is the most excellent prince in the Christian world_.'[275] This writer was Cromwell himself. He suppressed at this time all the best aspirations of his nature, believing that, as is generally thought, if one means to retain the favor of princes, it is necessary to adapt one's self to all their wishes. A mournful fall, which was not to be the only one of the kind! It has been said, 'Every flatterer, whoever he may be, is always a treacherous and hateful creature.'[276] CHAPTER III. THE SIX ARTICLES. (1538-1540.)