A few years after Cabot's return Henry laid the corner stone of that
"solemn and sumptuous chapel" which bears his own name, and which
joins Westminster abbey on the east. There he gave orders that his
tomb should be erected, and that prayers should be said over it "as
long as the world lasted."
Emerson remarks in his "English Traits" that when the visitor to the
Abbey mounts the flight of twelve black marble steps which lead from
it to the edifice where Henry lies buried, he passes from the medieval
to the beginning of the modern age,--a change which the different
style of the architecture distinctly marks (S324).
The true significance of Henry's reign is, that it, in like manner,
stands for a new epoch,--new in modes of government, in law, in
geographical discovery, in letters, art, and religion.
The century just closing was indeed one of the most remarkable in
history, not only in what it had actually accomplished, but still more
in the seed it was sowing for the future. The celebrated German
artist Kaulbach, in his fresco of "The Age of the Reformation," has
summed up all that it was, and all that it was destined to become in
its full development.
Therein we see it as the period which witnessed the introduction of
firearms, and the consequent overthrow of feudal warfare and feudal
institutions; the growth of the power of royalty and of nationality
through royalty; the sailing of Columbus and of Cabot; the revival of
classical learning; the publication of the first printed book; and
finally, the birth of Martin Luther, the monk who broke away from the
Catholic Church, and persuaded many people to become Protestants.