Finally, and perhaps most important of all, Cromwell never lost anything that might be turned to good account. It has been shown how he not only succeeded in freeing himself from any ill-name at Wolsey’s fall, but also actually used his master’s overthrow to further his own ends, and make himself known and popular at Court. But this is only a slender hint of what was to follow. It was precisely from this same practical utilitarian standpoint, that he regarded and made use of to his own ends the King’s amours, the suppression of the monasteries, the Reformation. Catholicism and Protestantism passed over his head; he was not touched by either of them. He simply used them as pieces in the great game which he was playing. Such was the man who, for the next ten years, was to have almost the sole guidance of the course of English history. As was his purpose when he rode on the afternoon of All Hallows Day to London to look after his own interests and those of his master, so was his mission as minister and counsellor of the King, ‘to make or to marre.’ CHAPTER VI IN THE KING’S SERVICE The decade which followed Cromwell’s appointment as counsellor to Henry VIII. witnessed some of the most striking changes that have ever taken place in England. The question which must obviously occur to every student of the period, is whether the King himself, or his new minister, was the real cause of the secular and religious revolution of the years 1530 to 1540. The difficulty of the problem is increased by the fact that Henry and Cromwell made every effort to conceal their traces; scarcely any information can be gleaned from their correspondence. We are therefore forced to draw our conclusions for the most part from external evidence and the reports of contemporary writers.