He did not hesitate to flaunt his great personal vainglory in public.
Of those, again, who maintain the traditional view, some, like Niebuhr and Grote, regard it as convicting Alexander of mad ambition and vainglory, whilst to Kaerst Alexander only incorporates ideas which were the timely fruit of a long historical development.
Never was man more free than Latimer from the taint of fanaticism or less dominated by " vainglory," but the motives which now inspired his courage not only placed him beyond the influence of fear, but enabled him to taste in dying an ineffable thrill of victorious achievement.
It is a strange fact that Henry, though he was in many respects a conscientious man, with a strong sense of responsibility, and a sincerC piety, was so blind to the unrighteousness of his own actions that he died asserting that neither ambition nor vainglory had led him into France, but a genuine desire to assert a righteous claim, which he desired his heirs to prosecute to the bitter end.
He checked the vainglory of Alexander, when he aspired to the honours of divinity, by pointing to his wounded finger, saying, "See the blood of a mortal, not of a god."