Henry VIII., a Historical Sketch as Affecting the Reformation in
England. By Charles Hastings Collette. (W. H. Allen and Co.)—Mr. Collette is a veteran controversialist, and the character of Henry VIII. is only important to him as a weapon against the Romanists. Hence he goes further even than Mr. Fronde, with whose conclusions he generally agrees. Henry he thinks to have been, perhaps, our "greatest monarch." To others he seems to have been that most loathsome of sensualists—a man who is at once cold-blooded and lascivious. No doubt the desire to be rid of Catherine of Arragon manifested itself years before the King ever saw Anne Boleyn ; but Anne was certainly supplanted to make room for Jane Seymour. Mr. Collette glides silently over the indecent haste of this latter marriage. Nor is there any object in bolstering up Henry's character, unless it be the pleasure of opposing the Romanists who decry him. He was never a Protestant, but simply a tyrant who wished to possess himself of the spiritual as well as the temporal power. In doctrine he remained a Catholic till his death. On the other hand, Mr. Collette does, we think, show that the divorce was refused by the Pope simply from fear of Charles V. The language of the book towards the Catholic Church is throughout violent beyond measure.
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