wife to be beheaded, that divorced, another declared a prostitute; this child bastardized, that legitimized and bastardized again, the Parliament (kind and independent souls!) made no scruple and smiled a willing obedience to his commands. They now at his bidding enacted as follows "that if the King married any one who had been incontinent taking her for a true maid she should be guilty of treason if she did not previously reveal her guilt to him." The people, as was natural, made merry with this singular act (which ought, if things had their right names, to be entitled "An Act to declare Anne of Cleves a prostitute, to protect the King from incontinent maids, and to make stealing of cattle by a Welshman High Treason,") and said he must henceforth look out for a widow, for no reputed maid would ever be persuaded to incur the penalty of the Statute. Hume the Historian afterwards adds, "The King married Catherine Parr widow of Nevil Lord Latimer, a woman of virtue and somewhat inclined to the new doctrine*. By this marriage Henry confirmed what had formerly been foretold in jest that he would be obliged to espouse a widow." No stronger evidence of her purity of life and conversation, nor better refutation of the whispers of malevolence do we desire than this! When folks' minds break out into jest and good humour, depend upon it, dissatisfaction is not at the

*Protestant Faith.

is no

bottom; a hearty laugh, as Lavater observes, bad index of an easy conscience. At her marriage with the King, as at every other action of her life, the snails of envy drew in their horns, and the envenomed tongue of slander was forced to vibrate in harmony with the good humours of the people. But what could be her motive in marrying a man with one leg in the grave? whom the world, save and except his own good easy subjects, with one mind likened to Nero, Domitian and Caligula! the confessed murderer of Ann Boleyn, the ruthless persecutor of Catherine of Arragon, the heartless husband of Anne of Cleves! An action without a motive is a thing impossible; an action without an adequate motive is a thing incredible. But what we ask again could be her motive? except the unaccountable love of the people of England for him; except his apparent zeal for the Reformed Church, in which she herself had taken so lively an interest; except that he appeared to her a favorite instrument of Heaven's great work of the World's redemption from the slavery of Superstition, we look in vain in her history for an adequate cause of this union. Avarice could not prompt her, pride could not seduce her, nor ambition blind her, nor yet could fear for her personal safety so overwhelm her-yet she married him-and withal

But as many marriages now before our eyes are in this respect inexplicable, how can we reasonably hope to unravel a mystery more than three hundred years ago and that too when Kings and Queens are the chief dramatis personæ. Let us therefore proceed, and revert to her as the Queen Consort of Henry the 8th, for it is important to weigh well her demeanor and influence in this her elevated station. We must again borrow from the elegant pen of the Bishop of Nismes to describe her, for not a word that he has said of Marie Therese but may be said with equal truth of Kateryn Parr. "It is true, that all the weight of authority and all the grandeur of the state is in the person of Kings; but one may say, that the regulation of manners and the advancement of piety at Court centre in the person of Queens. It is around them in general that all the spirit of the age, the desire to please, the love of seeing and being seen throng together in harmony. It is there, where are forged those fiery darts, according to the language of the Apostle, with which the enemy arms himself to fire the passions in those vain souls who are the idols of the world, and the world itself their idol. It is there, where are taught all the usages of luxury, of vanity, of ambition, and of delicacy; where are created those passions which move all others, and where by a commerce fatal to the salvation of souls some make themselves an art to seduce and others a glory to be seduced. As vice is contagious, it spreads itself

far and wide into the lower regions of Kingdoms; People make themselves models by those disorders of manners, and by a consequence melancholy but natural, the sins even of the great become the fashions of the people, and the corruption of the Court establishes itself at length as politesse in the provinces. To what lengths do these excesses go when a worldly Princess entertains or authorizes them? Who does not know that the spirit of the age is a poison which is inflamed and spread by such examples? And what hope of Salvation can one have in a place which becomes the centre of vanity, the realm of unholy desires, the abode of temptations, and the region of Idolatry. The Queen sanctified her Court in sanctifying herself. To be invited into her presence, it was not enough to follow her, it was also necessary to imitate her in her practices of piety. Wisdom and order reigned on every side of her. There modesty was more esteemed than beauty. There virtue was in more credit than fortune. To meditate on the sacred mysteries, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice, to listen to the Word of God, to recite the prayers of the Church; these were her occupations from day to day. Those who by their rank or by their duties had the honor to approach her were touched by her good examples; and the people who saw her in her devotions, (and in what devotions did they not see her?) admired her, blessed her and imitated her." Do not imagine, however, that Kateryn altho'

occupied thus about her own salvation took no part in the events and in the affairs of the age. She had in them all that Providence had destined for her. She was one of its most powerful instruments in the great work of the Reformation. Before she became Queen Consort, this mighty change had laid deep hold on the minds of men and the Institutions of the Country. The Pope's supremacy had been solemnly renounced by the Nation: the Monasteries had been suppressed or surrendered: Plays, interludes and farces had been swept from our Churches so long defiled by them: and the veil of Superstition had been so far rent, as to let the people see that religion was not a state mystery, but a plain fact; and that the Prayers and Psalms of the Church sounded as well in plain good old English, as in doggrel unintelligible Latin. Quiet had been its progress! amazing its effects! Yet Christendom, so far as human eye could discern, still hung on the balance of its destiny; the King " as a drunken man staggering in his vomit;" Paul the iiird, Luther, and Harry, each aspiring to be Gods; and at our Court such uncertainty, that the Cranmer of to-day might be the stricken Wolsey of to-morrow. all this, Kateryn, like a good Genius, watched over the cradle of the regenerated Nation—of regenerated Christendom; and, by her prudence and address removing all disturbing influences from her husband's mind, left the Divinity to stir within him. Let us hope for the eternal welfare of these realms!

Amid