One day this question, about the sleep of souls--one that in the ancient Church had long since been examined, by Metito--was presented to Luther, who disposed of it in few words. "These," said he, "are picked nutshells." FOOTNOTES: [43] Michael Servetus was a controversialist in matters of philosophy and religion. For many years he was the object of attack by the different orthodox schools on account of his heretical speeches and writings. In 1553 he published a work which led to his arrest by order of the inquisitor-general at Lyons. Servetus escaped, but was again taken, at the instance of Calvin, and was burned at Geneva, October 27, 1553.--ED. ENGLAND BREAKS WITH THE ROMAN CHURCH DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTERIES A.D. 1534 JOHN RICHARD GREEN Following the fall of Wolsey, Sir Thomas More became lord chancellor of England, but the real power of Wolsey passed to another and perhaps even more able minister, Thomas Cromwell. Henry VIII needed always some strong, able, crafty guide to show him a path through the intricacies of European politics, and enable him at the same time to follow the savage dictates of his passion and his whims. Such a helper he found now in Cromwell. Few men have ever been so daring or so ruthless as this great statesman. He helped Henry in all his evil schemes, though Green and other critics as well have thought to discern a larger, wiser policy in the impenetrable mind of the subtle minister. As secretary of state he drove England at his own pace through the vast religious changes of the period. For the ruin he brought upon Catholicism, and more especially for his destruction of the thousand monasteries that dotted England, he has been called the "hammer of the monks." Of even lower birth than Wolsey, and rising to almost equal power, Cromwell began life as a son of a blacksmith. He wandered over Europe and especially Italy as a soldier, merchant, and general adventurer of the lower and wilder type. He became Wolsey's right-hand man, and held loyally by his chief even after the latter's overthrow. It had been Henry's passion for Anne Boleyn, and the resulting necessity for divorce from his wife Catherine, that caused Wolsey's fall. On the same passion did Cromwell build his rise. He secretly urged the King to break with Rome entirely and declare himself sole head of the English Church. Thus he could divorce himself. Henry first tried a last negotiation with the Pope; that failing, he turned to his new adviser.