CH. 4 be the first to mention separation-or the lanA.D. 1532. guage may have been furnished by the Erastian party in the Church, who hoped to gratify the King by it, and save the annates for themselves; but there was no intention, if the battle was really to be fought, of decorating the clergy with the Act passed spoils. The bill was passed, but passed condi Annates ally. tionally, leaving power to the Crown if the pope would consent to a compromise of settling the question by a composition. There was a Papal party in the House of Commons whose opposition had perhaps to be considered, and the annates were left suspended before Clement at once as a menace and a bribe. 'Forasmuch,' concluded the statute, as the King's Highness and this his high Court of Parliament neither have nor do intend in this or any other like cause any manner of extremity or violence, before gentle courtesy and friendly ways and means be first approved and attempted, and without a very great urgent cause and occasion given to the contrary; but principally coveting to disburden this Realm of the said great exactions and intolerable charges of annates and firstfruits: [the said Court of Parliament] have therefore thought convenient to commit the *Sir George Throgmorton, we did commence,' said ThrogSir William Essex, Sir John morton, ' we did bid the servants Giffard, Sir Marmaduke Con- of the house go out, and likewise stable, with many others, spoke our own servants, because we and voted in opposition to the thought it not convenient that government. They had a sort they should hear us speak of of club at the Queen's Head by such matters.'-Throgmorton to Temple Bar, where they held the King: MS. State Paper discussions in secret,' and when Office. CH. 4. The pope urged to an arrange final order and determination of the premises unto the King's Highness, so that if it may seem to A.D. 1532. his high wisdom and most prudent discretion meet to move the Pope's Holiness and the Court consent to of Rome, amicably, charitably, and reasonably, to ment. compound either to extinct the said annates, or by some friendly, loving, and tolerable composition to moderate the same in such way as may be by this his Realm easily borne and sustained, then those ways of composition once taken shall stand in the strength, force, and effect of a law.'* power of tion, The business of the session was closing. It remained to receive the reply of convocation on the limitation of its powers. The convocation, Legislative presuming, perhaps, upon its concessions on the convocaannates question, and untamed by the premunire, had framed their answer in the same spirit which had been previously exhibited by the bishops. They had re-asserted their claims as resting on divine authority, and had declined to acknowledge the right of any secular power to restrain or meddle with them. The second answer, as may be supposed, fared no better than the first. It was dered conreturned with a peremptory demand for submission; and taught by experience the uselessness of further opposition, the clergy with a bad grace complied. The form was again drawn by the * 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20. + Printed in STRYPE, Eccles. Mem., vol. i. p. 201. Strype, knowing nothing of the first answer, and perceiving in the second an allusion to one pre ceding, has supposed that this At length surren clusively. A.D. 1532. CH. 4. bishops, and it is amusing to trace the workings of their humbled spirit in their reluctant descent from their high estate. They still laboured to protect their dignity in the terms of their con The bishops submis sion, cession: 'As concerning such constitutions and ordimake their nances provincial,' they wrote, 'as shall be made hereafter by your most humble subjects, we having our special trust and confidence in your most excellent wisdom, your princely goodness, and fervent zeal for the promotion of God's honour and Christian religion, and specially in your incomparable learning far exceeding in our judgment the learning of all other kings and princes that we have read of; and not doubting but that the same should still continue and daily increase their con in your Majesty; do offer and promise here unto the incom- the same, that from henceforth we shall forbear wisdom of to enact, promulge, or put in execution any In consequence of viction of parable his Ma jesty. such constitutions and ordinances so by us to be made in time coming, unless your Highness by your Royal assent shall license us to make, promulge, and execute such constitutions, and the same so made be approved by your Highness's authority. 'And whereas your Highness's most honourable Commons do pretend that divers of the constitutions provincial, which have been heretofore enacted, be not only much prejudicial to your Highness's prerogative royal, but be also overmuch onerous to your said Commons, we, your most humble servants for the consideration before said, be contented to refer all the said constitu A.D. 1532. tions to the judgment of your Grace only. And CH. 4. whatsoever of the same shall finally be found prejudicial and overmuch onerous as is pretended, we offer and promise your Highness to moderate or utterly to abrogate and annul the same, according to the judgment of your Grace. Saving to us always such liberties and immunities of this Church of England as hath been granted unto the same by the goodness and benignity of your Highness and of others your most noble progenitors; with such constitutions provincial as do stand with the laws of Almighty God and of your Realm heretofore made, which we most humbly beseech your Grace to ratify and approve by your most Royal assent for the better execution of the same in times to come.'* without a last at subterfuge. The acknowledgment appeared to be complete, and might perhaps have been accepted without minute examination, except for the imprudent acuteness of the Lower House of Convocation. As it passed through their hands, they Yet not discovered-what had no doubt been intended as a loophole for future evasion—that the grounds tempt at which were alleged to excuse the submission were the virtues of the reigning king: and therefore, as they sagaciously argued, the submission must only remain in force for his life. They introduced a limitation to that effect. Some further paltry dabbling was also attempted with the phraseology: and at length, impatient with such dishonest trifling, and weary of a discussion *STRYPE, Eccles. Mem., vol. i. p. 199, &c. A.D. 1532. CH. 4 in which they had resolved to allow but one conclusion, the king and the legislature thought it well to interfere with a high hand, and cut short such unprofitable folly. The language of the bishops was converted into an act of parliament; a mixed commission was appointed to revise the Conclusion canon law, and the clergy with a few brief strokes legislative were reduced for ever into their fit position of revolution. subjects. Thus with a moderate hand this great of the revolution was effected, and, to outward appearance, with offence to none except the sufferers, whose misuse of power when they possessed it deprived them of all sympathy in their fall. But no change of so vast a kind can be other than a stone of stumbling to those many persons for whom the beaten ways of life alone are tolerable, and who, when these ways are broken, are bewildered and lost. Religion, when men are under its influence at all, so absorbs their senses, and so pervades all their associations, that no faults in the ministers of it can divest their persons of reverence; and just and necessary as all these alterations were, many a pious and noble heart was wounded, many a man was asking himself in his perplexity where things would end, and still more sadly, where, if these quarrels deepened, would lie his own duty. Now the effects of Nun of Kent grew louder in her Cassandra wailings. Now the mendicant friars mounted the pulpits exclaiming sacrilege; bold men, who feared nothing that men could do to them, and Various the change. ** 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20. |