The Religious Orders, which succeed each other in the Catholic Church, are subject to laws similar to those that govern the productions of nature. They grow from feeble and imperceptible seeds, increase, flourish, and bear fruit; then decrease, fade, and fall to the ground. But they have produced a fruit, which contains within it the germs of a new seed-time, and which bursts forth vigorously from the decaying sheath to reproduce its never-failing kind. This work of reproduction and subsequent expansion is aided, directed, and encouraged by him, to whom is divinely committed the government of the Church; and when pseudo, self-styled reformers essay the difficult task, their true character is unmasked in the inevitable ruin and desolation which follow, instead of the order and rehabilitation which were promised. Bluff King Hal, or the Merrie Monarch, as Henry VIII. was familiarly and affectionately called by his loving subjects in the beginning of his reign, was in need of money to squander on his passions and pleasures. In his newly assumed character, therefore, of Head of the Church in his dominions (which, by Act of Parliament, he made it high treason to deny), he suppressed the lesser monasteries whose annual income did not exceed £200. This was done, forsooth, in the interests of religion!!! The proceeds of the confiscation were soon dissipated, and the wily Cromwell, whom the King had appointed his _Vicar General_, suggested the suppression and appropriation to the King's uses, of all the monasteries within the realm. Again it is his zeal for the promotion of God's glory that is pleaded as his motive for the nefarious deed. Three years before, when addressing the Houses of Parliament in behalf of the measure for the suppression of the lesser monasteries, he publicly gave thanks to God, that in the large communities "religion is right well kept and observed." And yet, what a metamorphosis in such a short space! All had now fallen away, and had inexplicably sunk into all manner of iniquity! Spelman, in his _History of Sacrilege_, tells the mode adopted by this model Reformer to carry his motion for investing in the Crown the property of all the Religious Orders. "The King sent for the Commons," he tells us, "and informed them he would have the Bill pass, or take off some of their heads." This they knew to be no empty threat; and pass the Bill they did on that memorable day of May 13, 1539. The Lords, as a body, voted for it; partly through a feeling of jealousy towards the Churchmen, who enjoyed no inconsiderable share of the monarch's confidence and favour, and so they rejoiced at whatever promised to destroy this good understanding between them; and partly through cupidity, for they hoped for a share in the booty. The Bishops at that juncture are blamed for their weakness in complying with so unjust a proceeding; but they were divided in their councils; some considering it the less of two evils to