The king having taken the first step, it was not difficult for Wolsey to induce him to take another. To defend the honour of Thomas Aquinas, to stand forward as the champion of the church, and to obtain from the pope a title equivalent to that of _Christianissimus_, most Christian king, were more than sufficient motives to induce Henry to break a lance with Luther. "I will combat with the pen this Cerberus, sprung from the depths of hell,"[398] said he, "and if he refuses to retract, the fire shall consume the heretic and his heresies together."[399] [398] Velut Cerberum ex inferis producit in lucem. Regis ad lectorem. Epist. p. 94. [399] Ut errores ejus eumque ipsum ignis exurat. Ibid. p. 95. The king shut himself up in his library: all the scholastic tastes with which his youth had been imbued were revived; he worked as if he were archbishop of Canterbury, and not king of England; with the pope's permission he read Luther's writings; he ransacked Thomas Aquinas; forged, with infinite labour, the arrows with which he hoped to pierce the heretic; called several learned men to his aid, and at last published his book. His first words were a cry of alarm. "Beware of the track of this serpent," said he to his Christian readers; "walk on tiptoe; fear the thickets and caves in which he lies concealed, and whence he will dart his poison on you. If he licks you, be careful! the cunning viper caresses only that he may bite!"[400] After that Henry sounded a charge: "Be of good cheer! Filled with the same valour that you would display against Turks, Saracens, and other infidels, march now against this _little friar_,--a fellow apparently weak, but more formidable through the spirit that animates him than all infidels, Saracens, and Turks put together."[401] Thus did Henry VIII, the _Peter the Hermit_ of the sixteenth century, preach a crusade against Luther, in order to save the papacy. [400] Qui tantum ideo lambit ut mordeat. Assertio Sept. Sacram. [401] Sed animo Turcis omnibus Sarracenis omnibus usquam infidelibus nocentiorem fraterculum. Ibid. p. 147. [Sidenote: PRUDENCE OF MORE.] He had skilfully chosen the ground on which he gave battle: sacramentalism and tradition are in fact the two essential features of the papal religion; just as a lively faith and Holy Scripture are of the religion of the Gospel. Henry did a service to the Reformation, by pointing out the principles it would mainly have to combat; and by furnishing Luther with an opportunity of establishing the authority of the Bible, he made him take a most important step in the path of reform. "If a teaching is opposed to Scripture," said the Reformer, "whatever be its origin--traditions, custom, kings, Thomists, sophists, Satan, or even an angel from heaven,--all from whom it proceeds must be accursed. _Nothing can exist contrary to Scripture_, and every thing must exist for it."