CHAPTER II. Katherines literary genius—Efforts to further the Reformation—Saves CambridgeUniversity from ruin—Nurses the King with skill—Trince Edward's affectionate Utters to her—The last gleam of magnificence in Henry the Eighth's court—His last address to parliament against religious dissensions—The Catholics take umbrage at the Queen's patronage of Anne Askew—Anne tortured and burned—The Kitufs pig saved—Katherine discourses with the King on Theological subjects—Differs with him—He takes offence at her opposition—Ttot against her—Herimpeachment prepared, which an accident discovers to lier—Her anguish and illness—The. King visits her—Reconciliation—Her enemies rebuked—Surrey beheaded—Henry the Eighth's last illness and death—His bequest to Katherine— Accession of his son—His funeral—Katherine acknowledged as Queen-Dowager—His death celebrated with rejoicings at Rome. !jAD Katherine Parr and hcrno less learn ed, gentle, pious com peers, Anne Askew, Margaret Poper, and Lady Jane Grey lived in the present century, they would assuredly have been stigmatized as irreclaimable blue-stockings. For them, life's frothy gaieties, courtly dalliance, the pursuit of empty vanities and unsubstantial pleasures, were without charm, and with a laudable zeal they devoted every hour, save those necessity forced them to dedicate to the ordinary routine of life, to the study of literature, strange tongues, and tbe then all-engrossing passion-exciting subject of theological controversy. The " Lamentations of a Sinner,"—a brief, but eloquent treatise on the utter helplessness of human nature unaided by divine grace, written by Katherine Parr, about the vear 1445, containing within the tiny compass of one hundred and twenty thinly filled pages, the gist of all the arguments that Protestant divines have for centuries levelled against Catholicism,—bears, throughout, the unmistakeable impress of genius, was a valuable auxiliary to the cause of the lieformation, and might be read with pleasure and instruction even in the present much-vaunted era of learning and advancement. Being prompted to the task of authorship by a nobler impulse than love of praise and renown ; ι a desire to unchain the mind from the fetters of popery, and spread abroad the light of true piety unclouded by ignorant superstition or faithless infidelity ; ; the good Queen urged and aided other genial spirits with all the means that prudence permitted, in the same noble enterprize. That Miles Coverdale might hasten the translation of the Bible, a task his zeal had induced him to under1 take, she made him her almoner, and with her own ready pen afforded him valuable assistance in his labour of love. Such, too, were her winning manners and persuasive art, that she prevailed upon that firm adherent of the old Komish creed, the Princess Mary, to bear an active part with the learned Br. Udal, whom she employed, at her own sole expense, in editing the translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases, which she published in 1545, herself defraying the cost. Nor were these her only efforts to further the cause of the reformation. Henry, after involving himself and his subjects in great pecuniary difficulties by an insane debasement of the coinage, demanded and obtained aid from parliament, who also granted an additional subsidy, which they begged him to accept, as it pleased the great King Alexander to receive thankfully a sup of water of a poor man by the highwayside. These sums, however, were gone in a trice, and the venal parliament, to satisfy the rapacity of the extravagant King, actually placed the lands and the revenues of all the colleges, chantries