Queen Ann's death was considered by the popish party as the signal of victory. They had little conception, that the protestants could unite under any other leader, who could have interest with the king. But they formed a wrong judgment; and had the mortification, to see the primate's influence in no degree diminished. All therefore, who wished well to a reformation, looked up to him, as the only person, who was capable of conducting it. And indeed he was every way qualified to answer their wishes. By prudent caution, discrete forbearance, and pure simplicity of manners, he was able to oppose and counter-act the designs of some of the most artful men of his time. For there are seasons, when simplicity will have the advantage of art; and will mislead even the designing man; who judging from his own feelings, considers a plain, and open behaviour as a mask.

It was very necessary indeed that the protestant cause should have at least one able leader: for except the archbishop himself, there was not a man who favoured it, and had the power to conduct it. The earl of Essex, it is true, who was then secretary of state, was a man of great ability. No one had taken a juster measure of the times; or understood with more exactness, that difficult part of the ministerial office, the management of parties. But Essex sat at another helm, which called for all his address; and he could rarely assist the archbishop, however well-inclined, except when the affairs of the church coincided with the business of the state: nor was he enough acquainted with theological matters to give a consequential opinion in any of the intended alterations of religion.

Among the bishops of those times, who favoured the reformation, were, Latimer bishop of Worcester, Shaxton of Salisbury, and Barlow of St. David's. These were the primate's natural coadjutors; but none of them was able to give him any material assistance.

Latimer possessed every virtue that could adorn a Christian prelate. No man opposed vice more successfully; or kept the clergy of his diocese in better order. But in traversing the arts of party, he had no address. Perfectly sincere himself, he had little comprehension of the duplicity of others; and seemed to think, that nothing was requisite to give either a party, or an individual, a proper direction, but a genuine display of truth. He considered only what was right to be done; not what the times could bear.

Shaxton had lived more in the world than Latimer; but was still a worse associate to the archbishop. He had an unaccommodating sourness about him; which was continually taking, or giving offence. His moroseness was marked strongly in the lines of his visage; which almost prejudiced men at sight against every proposal he could make. Nor was he without a tincture of pride, and self importance; which are bad in any man, worse in a churchman, and worst of all in a reformer.

Barlow was as little depended on by the archbishop as either of the other. He was a man of sense and learning; but was so indiscrete, so totally unguarded, and his conversation so full of levity, that the primate was always afraid of any communication with him on matters of business: and would sometimes say, on coming to the conclusion of a long debate; "This is all very true; but my brother Barlow, in half an hour, will teach the world to believe it is but a jest."

Perhaps indeed it was not to be regretted, that the primate had no associate. Under the wise councils of one prudent man the arduous business of reformation probably prospered better, than it could have done in the hands of many. In the whole system of human affairs, it is certainly the nicest point to conduct the religious opinions of the public. The more quietly, and gently every change is introduced, the better. Altercation is fatal to the attempt; and altercation is generally found in a multiplicity of voices. A multiplicity of opinions succeeds a multiplicity of voices. The passions armed with religious zeal soon enter the lists; and all is presently confusion.

The wisdom, and decisive judgment of a single leader prevented this. By attending carefully to times, and seasons, and throwing out only such innovations as he found men were able to bear, the prudent archbishop introduced imperceptibly the most consequential changes.

His difficulties however were very great. To form a religious establishment out of the general confusion, in which all things were now involved, appeared a work of infinite perplexity. That flux of opinions, which the reformation occasioned, was an endless source of discord: and the more men receded from that central point of authority, which had drawn them together; the wider they spread from each other. Every man had his favourite tenet, in which he thought the sum of christianity consisted; little sects began to form themselves; and the primate soon found, how impossible it was to impress the large idea of religion upon the narrow mind of party.

The same diversity of opinion which distracted the people, was found among the leaders. Every one had his own creed; and the mischief was, that no man thought it a hardship to impose his own creed on others. Some thought the ceremonies only of the Romish church were antichristian; and adhered with firmness to its doctrines. Others rejected the doctrines; but were dazzled with the splendor of its ceremonies. Some again thought it prudent, as a conciliating measure, to retain every thing that could be retained with innocence: while others cried out loudly for utter extirpation; and thought the farther they got from popery, the nearer they advanced to truth.

The difficulties, in the way of reformation, which arose thus from the different opinions of protestants, were still greatly increased by the opposition of papists. This large body of men, it may easily be imagined, were more than ordinarily inflamed by the turn, which affairs were likely to take against them. If they were before formidable for their numbers, they now became more so, when embodied in a suffering cause, supporting one common end, and availing themselves of all those arts, which are generally made use of by the instruments of declining party. Among these arts, the most obvious, and the most effectual, was, to soment jealousy, and discord among the various sectaries of the new religion; to which of themselves they were sufficiently inclined.

But the difficulties, which arose from the popish party, would have been more easily surmounted, if the king had not been at its head. The fame, which Henry had acquired, as defender of the faith, had invariably attached his haughty mind to the doctrines of popery. The supremacy indeed slattered his ambition; and he was glad, as far as that was an object, to coincide with the circumstances of the times: but he was careful to have it believed, that he was no convert to the opinions of the new faith; and that his heart had not received the least impression against the religion of his forefathers. Whatever advantage therefore the protestants gained during this reign, they were intirely indebted for it, either to the pride, the caprice, or the interest of the king.

Amidst all these difficulties, the archbishop endeavoured gradually to mature in his own breast every part of the great scheme he had in view, before he ventured to bring it forward.

He began, in the spirit of equity, with redressing the abuses of his own courts; tho together with these abuses, he retrenched his own sees and those of his officers. This gave the public an early and favourable impression of his designs.

The great number of idle holidays, with which the calendar was charged, became the next object of his censure. The archbishop himself, to the astonishment of those around him, sat down to a hot supper on the eve of St. Thomas of Canterbury. As these holidays interfered with feed time and harvest, it was generally not unpopular to abolish them.

It was popular also, as well as highly necessary, to regulate the public discourses of the clergy. The pulpit eloquence indeed of that time was little more than a gross attempt to exalt the power of the church. The good archbishop saw its abuse; and endeavoured to make it the vehicle of instruction. But the regulations he yet made were few.

With his usual caution he felt his ground, as he proceeded; and it was not till long afterwards, that he compleated his intention on this head, by the publication of the homilies.

How exceedingly a reformation in preaching was wanted, we may judge from the following extracts from sermons, which we may suppose were the best the times produced, as they were thought worthy of being made public.—In one of these sermons, the priest inveighing against irreverence to the ministers of religion, tells the following story: "St. Austin," says he, "saw two women prating together in the pope's chapel, and the fiend sitting in their necks, writing a long roll of what the women said. Presently letting it fall, St. Austin took it up; and asking the women, what they had said, they answered, Only a few pater-nosters. Then St. Austin read the bill, and there was never a good word in it."—In another sermon we are told, "that, four men had stolen an abbot's ox. The abbot did a sentence, and cursed them. Three of them were shriven, and asked mercy. The fourth died, without being absolved. So when he was dead, his spirit walked by night, and scared all who stirred from their houses after sun set. It happened that once, as a priest went in the night, with God's body, to a sick man, the spirit met him, and told him who he was, and why he walked; and prayed the priest to tell his wife to make amends to the abbot, that he might absolve him; for he could have no rest till then. So this was done, and the poor soul at length went to rest."—In a sermon upon the mass, the people are told, that, among the benefits arising from it, "On the day they hear it, all idle oaths, and forgotten sins shall be forgiven. On that day they shall not lose their sight; nor die a sudden death; nor wax aged: and every step thitherward, and homeward, an angel shall reckon."—The immediate tendency of such discourses was obvious.