were known to us there might be found much to modify our censure on the Archbishop's behaviour, it was plain that he had gone along with the King in the most questionable actions of the reign.
I found myself, however, unable to handle the later features of the Revolution without going back to the beginning of it. The coming of the Armada was the last act of a drama of which the divorce of Queen Catharine was the first. The publication of new materials, the improved accessibility of the records in our own and other countries, and the voluminous diplomatic correspondence which was thus opened to inquiry, threw fresh light upon much that had been obscure and unintelligible. I was thus led first to study more closely, and then to undertake the narrative of, the entire period, between the original quarrel with the Papacy, and the point at which the separation of England from the Roman communion was finally decided.
My general opinion on the character of the movement remains unchanged, but I have not consciously allowed myself to be influenced by my prepossessions; for of the persons whose actions I have had to describe, there are several of the most distinguished about whom I have been compelled to sacrifice prejudices early formed, tenaciously held, and unwillingly parted with. A qualified defence of Henry VIII. was forced upon me by the facts of the case. With equal reluctance
