Ergo, the first cause of the Reformation was “the satisfying an inordinate and brutal passion.” But is he sure of this? If he be not, it is a horrible calumny upon our church, upon King Henry VIII., and the whole nation, as I shall presently show. No, he confesses he cannot be sure of it: for, saith he, “no man can carry it so high as the original cause with any certainty:” and at the same time, he undertakes to demonstrate, “the immediate cause to be Henry the Eighth’s inordinate and brutal passion:” And afterwards affirms, as confidently as if he had demonstrated it, that “our Reformation was erected on the foundations of lust, sacrilege, and usurpation. Yet,” saith he, “the king only knew whether it was conscience or love, or love alone, which moved him to sue for a divorce.”[98] Then, by his favour, the king only could know what was the immediate cause of that which he calls the schism. Well! but he offers at some probabilities, that lust was the true cause. Is ergoteering come to this already? “But this we may say, if conscience had any part in it, she had taken a long nap of almost twenty years together before she awakened.” Doth he think that conscience doth not take a longer nap than this in some men, and yet they pretend to have it truly awakened at last? What thinks he of late converts? Cannot they be true, because conscience hath slept so long in them? Must we conclude in such cases, that “some inordinate passion gives conscience a jog at last? so that it cannot be denied,” he saith, “that an inordinate and brutal passion had a great share, at least, in the production of the schism.” How, cannot be denied! I say, from his own words, it ought to be denied; for he confesses “none could know but the king himself;” he never pretends that the king confessed it; how then cannot it be denied? yea, how dare any one affirm it? especially when the king himself declared, in a solemn assembly, in these words, saith Hall, (as near, saith he, as I could carry them away,) speaking of the dissatisfaction of his conscience—“For this only cause, I protest before God, and in the word of a prince, I have asked counsel of the greatest clerks in Christendom; and for this cause I have sent for this legate, as a man indifferent, only to know the truth, and to settle my conscience, and for none other cause, as God can judge.” And both then, and afterwards, he declared, that his scruples began upon the French ambassador’s making a question about the legitimacy of the marriage, when the match was proposed between the Duke of Orleans and his daughter; and he affirms, that he moved it himself in confession to the bishop of Lincoln, and appeals to him concerning the truth of it in open court. Sanders[99] himself doth not deny, that the French ambassador (whom he calls the bishop of Tarbe, afterwards Cardinal Grammont; others say it was Anthony Vesey, one of the presidents of the parliament of Paris) did start this difficulty in the debate about this