HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  28 } - They agreed to enact no new canons, constitutions or ordinances without the king's consent, that those already passed should be submitted to a committee consisting of clergy and laymen nominated by the king, and that the laws adopted by this committee and approved by the king should continue in full force. Sir Thomas More, who had worked hard in defence of the Church, promptly resigned his office of Lord Chancellor that he might have a freer hand in the crisis that had arisen. In March 1532 another step was taken to overawe the Roman court and force the Pope to yield to Henry's demands. An Acts was passed abolishing the Annats or First Fruits paid to Rome by all bishops on their appointment to vacant Sees. If the Pope should refuse to appoint without such payments, it was enacted that the consecration should be carried out by the archbishop of the province without further recourse to Roman. Such a measure, tending so directly t...

( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  27 } - A petition against the bishops, drawn up by Thomas Cromwell at the suggestion of Henry, [ 20 ] was present ed in the name of the House of Commons to the king. In this petition the members were made to complain that the clergy enacted laws and statutes in Convocation without consulting the king or the Commons, that suitors were treated harshly before the ecclesiastical courts, that in regard to probates the people were worried by excessive fees and unnecessary delays, and that the number of holidays was injurious to trade and agriculture. This complaint was forwarded to Convocation for a reply. The bishops, while vindicating for the clergy the right to make their own laws and statutes, showed themselves not unwilling themselves not unwilling to accept a compromise, but Parliament at the instigation of Henry refused to accept their proposals. The king, who was determined to crush the power of the clergy, insisted that Convocation should...

  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  26 } - When the case was opened at the Rota in the same month an excusator appeared to plead, but as he had no formal authority from the king he was not admitted. The case, however, was postponed from time to time in the hope that Henry might relent.In the mean-time at the king's suggestion several deputations waited upon Catharine to induce her to recall her appeal to Rome. Annoyed by her obstinacy Henry sent her away from court, and separated from her her daughter. After November 1531, the king and queen never met again. Popular feeling in London and throughout England was running high against the divorce, and against any breach with the Emperor, who might close the Flemish markets to the English merchants. The clergy. who were indignant that their representatives should have paid such an immense sum to secure pardon for an offence of which they had not been more guilty than the king himself, remonstrated warmly against the taxation...

  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  25 } - The Convocation of Canterbury offered a sum of &100,000, but the offer was refused unless the clergy were prepared to recognise the king as the sole protector and supreme head of the church and Convocation showed itself decidedly hostile, but at last after many consulations had been held Warham, the aged Archbishop of Canterbury, proposed that they should acknowledge the king as their singular protector only, and supreme lord, and as far as the law of Christ allows even supreme head. Whoever is silent, said the archbishop, may be taken to consent, and in this way by the silence of the assembly the new formula was passed. [ 19 ] At the Convocation of York, Bishop Tunstall of Durham, while agreeing to a money payment, made a spirited protest against the new title, to which protest Henry found it necessary to forward a reassuring reply. Parliament then ratified the pardon for which the clergy had paid so dearly, had to set at ...

  (CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  24 } - The prospect thus held out to him was so enticing that Henry determined to follow the advice, not indeed as yet with the intention of involving his kingdom inopen schism, but in the hope that the Pope might be forced to yield to his demands. In December 1530 he addressed a strong letter to Clement VII. He demanded once more that the validity of his marriage should be submitted to an English tribunal, and warned the Pope to abstain from interfering with the rights of the king, if he wished that the prerogatived of the Holy See should be respected in England [ 18 ] This Letter of Henry VIII. was clearly an ultimatum, non-compliance with which meant open war. At the beginning of 1531 steps were taken to prepare the way for royal supremacy. For exercising legatine powers in England Cardinal Wolsey had been indicted and found guilty of the violation of the stature of Praemunire, and as the the clergy had submitted to his lagatine aut...

  ( CHAPTER  2 )  -  { PT.  23 } - To this Clement VII. sent a dignified reply ( Sept. ), in which he pointed out that throughout the whole proceedings he had shown the greatest regard for Henry, and that any delay that had occurred at arriving at a verdict was due to the fact that the king had appointed no legal representatives at the Roman courts. [ 17 ] The French ambassador also took energetic measures to support the English agents threatening that his master might be forced to join hands with Henry if necessary; but even this threat was without result, and the king's agents was obliged to report that his case at Rome was practically hopeless, and that at any moment the Pope might insist in proceeding with the trial. When Henry realised that marriage with Ann Boleyn meant defiance of Roman he was inclined to hesitate. Both from the point of view of religion and of public policy separation from the Holy See was decidedly objectionable. Whilehe was in this fra...