But fortune, which had been long propitious to our author, began now
to change sides, and try him as well with affliction as prosperity,
in both which characters, his behaviour, integrity and courage were
irreproachable. The amorous monarch King Henry VIII, at last obtained
from his Parliament and Council a divorce from his lawful wife, and
being passionately fond of Anna Bullen, he married her, and declared
her Queen of England: This marriage Sir Thomas had always opposed, and
held it unlawful for his Sovereign to have another wife during his
first wife's life. The Queen who was of a petulant disposition, and
elated with her new dignity could not withhold her resentment against
him, but animated all her relations, and the parties inclined to the
protestant interest, to persecute him with rigour. Not long after the
divorce, the Council gave authority for the publication of a book,
in which the reasons why this divorce was granted were laid down; an
answer was soon published, with which Sir Thomas More was charged as
the author, of which report however he sufficiently cleared himself in
a letter to Mr. Cromwel, then secretary, and a great favourite with
King Henry. In the parliament held in the year 1534, there was an
oath, framed, called the Oath of Supremacy, in which all English
subjects should renounce the pope's authority, and swear also to the
succession of Queen Ann's children, and lady Mary illegitimate. This
oath was given to all the clergy as well bishops as priests, but no
lay-man except Sir Thomas More was desired to take it; he was summoned
to appear at Lambeth before archbishop Cranmer, the Lord Chancellor
Audley, Mr. Secretary Cromwel, and the abbot of Westminster, appointed
commissioners by the King to tender this oath. More absolutely
refused to take it, from a principle of conscience: and after various
expostulations he was ordered into the custody of the abbot of
Westminster; and soon after he was sent to the tower, and the
lieutenant had strict charge to prevent his writing, or holding