A piece of controversial fiction which portrays Elizabethan times and doings, and which specifically deals with the suppression of the monasteries and the proclamation of the Royal supremacy in religious affairs. “Father Benson frankly takes sides.... The good is all on the side of the monasteries, the bad on the side of Henry and Cromwell and their creatures.” (Acad.)
“An exceptionally good historical novel, as such things go. It is a clever, a thorough, and a powerful work; but, in our opinion, it was a mistake to write it.”
+ – Acad. 69: 1080. O. 14, ’05. 340w.
“The story, which is long, is mainly used as a vehicle for expressing the author’s decided views upon the religious and political matters of the day, and is rather overweighted by the historical detail which obtrudes itself too persistently in the foreground.”
– + Ath. 1905, 2: 794. D. 9. 170w.
“The work does not, on the whole, show as much careful elaboration as its predecessor [‘By what authority?’]. In compensation, however, the story has more unity and proportion, chiefly because there are fewer characters to claim the attention.”
+ – Cath. World. 82: 848. Mr. ’06. 460w.
“He draws his characters with ease and sympathy, but not with that intensity of insight which creates a type and yet gives it the force of an individual. But they are not complete and striking human beings; and this is the flaw in what is a really beautiful and sensitive piece of work.”
+ – Lond. Times. 4: 359. O. 27, ’05. 500w.