"Well then," said Hackett, who was annoyed at their setting the law above his master's will, "I will go and buy all these books, and send them to the cardinal, that he may burn them." With these words he left the court. But his anger evaporating,[648] he set off for Malines to complain to the regent and her council of the Antwerp decision. "What!" said he, "you punish those who circulate false money, and you will not punish still more severely the man who coins it?--in this case, he is the printer." "But that is just the point in dispute," they replied; "we are not sure the money is _false_."--"How can it be otherwise," answered Henry's agent, "since the bishops of England have declared it so?" The imperial government, which was not very favourably disposed towards England, ratified Eyndhoven's acquittal, but permitted Hackett to burn all the copies of the New Testament he could seize. He hastened to profit by this concession, and began hunting after the Holy Scriptures, while the priests eagerly came to his assistance. In their view, as well as in that of their English colleagues, the supreme decision in matter of faith rested not with the word of God but with the pope; and the best means of securing this privilege to the pontiff was to reduce the Bible to ashes. [648] My choler was descended. Anderson's Annals of the Bible, i, p. 129. Notwithstanding these trials, the year 1526 was a memorable one for England. The English New Testament had been circulated from the shores of the Channel to the borders of Scotland, and the Reformation had begun in that island by the word of God. The revival of the sixteenth century was in no country less than in England the emanation of a royal mandate. But God, who had disseminated the Scriptures over Britain, in defiance of the rulers of the nation, was about to make use of their passions to remove the difficulties which opposed the final triumph of his plans. We here enter upon a new phasis in the history of the Reformation; and having studied the work of God in the faith of the little ones, we proceed to contemplate the work of man in the intrigues of the great ones of the earth. CHAPTER V. Wolsey desires to be revenged--The Divorce suggested--Henry's Sentiments towards the Queen--Wolsey's first Steps--Longland's Proceedings--Refusal of Margaret of Valois--Objection of the Bishop of Tarbes--Henry's uneasiness--Catherine's Alarm--Mission to Spain. [Sidenote: WOLSEY DESIRES TO BE REVENGED.] [Sidenote: THE DIVORCE SUGGESTED.]