Excerpt from History of the Church in England Opposition to papal authority was familiar to men but a Spiritual supremacy, an ecclesiastical headship, as it separated Henry VIII. From all his predecessors by an immeasurable interval, SO was it without pre cedent and at variance with all tradition.1 The causes which led to this Spiritual supremacy were in Henry himself, whilst they were developed by peculiar circumstances. The young king, who in April, 1509, succeeded a cool, calculating, unattrac tive father, found England, in fact, recovering from a crisis. Every word and act of Henry VII. Had contributed to strengthen the royal hand, Whether for good or evil, and a situation singular in the annals of English history favoured his policy. The Wars of the Roses had produced little short of a revolution, whilst practically they had not affected moneyed interests. Neither famine, pestilence, nor high prices had followed in their wake. Their results as wars of a class were apparent all through the Tudor reign. The Old nobility, the bulwark of the people, because of the lawful resist ance they offered to a sovereign's unjust demands. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.