Henry's book being terminated by the aid of the bishop of Rochester, the king showed it to Sir Thomas More, who begged him to pronounce less decidedly in favour of the papal supremacy. "I will not change a word," replied the king, full of servile devotion to the popedom. "Besides, I have my reasons," and he whispered them in More's ear. Doctor Clarke, ambassador from England at the court of Rome, was commissioned to present the pope with a magnificently bound copy of the king's work. "The glory of England," said he, "is to be in the foremost rank among the nations in obedience to the papacy."[402] Happily Britain was ere long to know a glory of a very different kind. The ambassador added that his master, after having refuted Luther's errors with the _pen_, was ready to combat his adherents with the _sword_.[403] The pope, touched with this offer, gave him his foot, and then his cheek to kiss, and said to him: "I will do for your Master's book as much as the church has done for the works of St. Jerome and St. Augustine." [402] Fiddes' Life of Wolsey. p. 249. [403] Totius regni sui viribus et armis. (Rymer, Fœdera, VI. p. 199.) By the strength and arms of his whole kingdom. [Sidenote: DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.] The enfeebled papacy had neither the power of intelligence, nor even of fanaticism. It still maintained its pretensions and its pomp, but it resembled the corpses of the mighty ones of the earth that lie in state, clad in their most magnificent robes: splendour above, death and corruption below. The thunder-bolts of a Hildebrand ceasing to produce their effect, Rome gratefully accepted the defence of laymen, such as Henry VIII and Sir Thomas More, without disdaining their judicial sentences and their scaffolds. "We must honour those noble champions," said the pope to his cardinals, "who show themselves prepared to cut off with the sword the rotten members of Jesus Christ.[404] What title shall we give to the virtuous king of England?"--_Protector of the Roman church_, suggested one; _Apostolic king_, said another; and finally, but not without some opposition, Henry VIII was proclaimed _Defender of the Faith_. At the same time the pope promised ten years' indulgence to all readers of the king's book. This was a lure after the fashion of the middle ages, and which never failed in its effect. The clergy compared its author to the wisest of kings; and the book, of which many thousand copies were printed, filled the Christian world (Cochlœus tells us) with admiration and delight. [404] Putida membra...ferro et materiali gladio abscindere. (Rymer, Fœdera, vi, p. 199.) To cut off the rotten members with iron and the material sword.