The preceding letter had not the effect that was expected, and therefore the King issued the following proclamation in 1536:

"A PROCLAMATION AGAINST SEDITIOUS PRENCERS. "HENRY VIIIth.

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'Right trusty and well-beloved Cousin, we greet you well, and where it is come to our knowledge that sundry persons as well religious, as secular priests and curates in their parishes, and divers places within this our realm, do daily as much as in them is, set forth and extol the jurisdiction and authority of the Bishop of Rome, otherwise called Pope, sowing their seditious, pestilent, and false doctrine, praying for him in the pulpit, and making him a God, to the great deceit, illuding, and seducing of our subjects, bringing them into errors, sedition, and evil opinions, more preferring the powers, laws, and jurisdictions of the said Bishop of Rome, than the most holy laws and precepts of Almighty God. We therefore minding not only to provide for an unity and quietness, to be had and continued among our said subjects, but also coveting and desiring them to be brought to a profession and knowledge of the mere verity and truth, and no longer to be seduced, nor blinded with any such superstition and false doctrine of any earthly usurper of God's laws, will therefore and command you, that where and whensoever ye shall find, perceive, know, or hear tell of any such seditious persons, that in such wise do spread, teach, or preach, or otherwise set forth any such opinions and pernicious doctrine, to the exaltation of the power of the Bishop of Rome; bringing thereby our subjects into error, grudge, and murmuration, ye undelayedly do apprehend and take them, or cause them to be apprehended and taken, and so committed to ward, there to remain without bail or mainprize, until upon your advertisement thereof unto us, or our council, ye shall know our further pleasure in that behalf: Given under Our Signet, at Our Manor of Greenwich the xii. day of April."—Ibid., p. 102.

On the 23rd of June this year the Convocation protested—

"That they intended not to do or speak anything which might be unpleasant to the King, whom they acknowledge their supreme head, and were resolved to obey his commands, renouncing the Pope's usurped authority, with all his laws and inventions, now extinguished and abolished; and did addict themselves to Almighty God, and his laws and unto the King, and the laws made within this kingdom."-Burnet, i., 330.

The King now threw all the energy of his determined will into his antipapal policy. The Queens Catherine and Anne were dead, and the Pope, esteeming the juncture propitious, made advances for a reconciliation. Henry was but roused to more furious opposition. He suddenly called a Parliament, and, "to cut off all hopes of reconciliation", he caused to be eracted two mist antagonistic statutes. Of these, the first was designed to uproot the power and estate of the abbots; the second was "for the utter extinguishing of the authority of the Bishop of Rome ".

The latter of these Acts was passed with all the haste of ardent purpose: read in the Lords the first time the 5th of July, it became law of the land by the 15th. It is remarkable for the intense but just bitterness of its language towards Antichrist; and it cannot be that any man endued with but an ordinary understanding and common honesty of purpose, and much

less one who has read the preceding pages, will venture to assert that such an Act contemplated leaving the Papists in any position similar to that which they occupy at present; that it was passed merely to deny the legal validity of the Pope's dicta; or simply to uproot his contentious jurisdiction. The object of the statute may be summed in but one word-Extermination: its most pertinent Sections are beneath.

"28 HEN. VIII. CAP. 10.

"AN ACT EXTINGUISHING THE AUTHORITY OF THE BISHOP OF ROME. "Forasmuch as notwithstanding the good and wholesome laws, ordinances, and statutes heretofore made, enacted, and established by the King's highness our most gracious Sovereign Lord, and by the whole consent of his high Court of Parliament, for the Extirpation, Abolition, and Extinguishment out of this Realm, and other his Grace's Dominions, Seigniories, and Countries, of the pretended power and usurped authority of the Bishop of Rome, by some called the Pope, used within the same or elsewhere, concerning the same Realm, Dominions, Seigniories, or Countries, which did obfuscate and wrest God's holy word and testament a long season from the spiritual and true meaning thereof, to his unholy and carnal affections, as Pomp, Glory, Avarice, Ambition, and Tyranny, covering and shadowing the same with his human and politic devices, traditions, and inventions, set forth to promote and establish his only dominion, both upon the souls and also the bodies and goods of all Christian people, excluding Christ out of his Kingdom and rule of man's soul, as much as he may, and all other temporal Kings and Princes out of their dominions, which they ought to have by God's law, upon the bodies and goods of their subjects: whereby he did not only rob the King's Majesty, being only the supreme head of this his Realm of England immediately under God, of his honour, right and pre-eminence, due unto him by the Law of God, but spoiled this his Realm yearly of innumerable treasure, and with the loss of the same deceived the King's loving and obedient subjects, persuading to them by his Laws, Bulls, and other his deceivable means, such dreams, vanities, and phantasies, as by the same many of them were seduced, and conveyed unto superstitious and erroneous opinions: so that the King's Majesty, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons in this Realm, being over wearied and fatigued with the experience of the infinite abominations and mischiefs, proceeding of his impostures, and craftily colouring of his deceits, to the great damages of souls, bodies, and goods, were forced of necessity for the public weal of this Realm, to exclude that foreign pretended power, jurisdiction and authority, used and usurped within this Realm, and to devise such remedies for their relief in the same, as doth not only redound to the honour of God, the high praise and advancement of the King's Majesty and of his Realm, but also to the great and inestimable utility of the same. And notwithstanding the said wholesome laws so made, and heretofore established, yet it is come to the knowledge of the King's Highness, and also to divers and many his loving, faithful, and obedient subjects, how that divers seditious and contentious persons, being imps of the said Bishop of Rome and his See, and in heart members of his pretended monarchy, do in corners and elsewhere as they dare, whisper, inculcate, preach, and persuade, and from time to time instil into the ears and heads of the poor simple and unlettered people, the advancement and continuance of the said bishop's feigned and pretended authority, pretending the same to have his ground and original of God's law, whereby the opinions of many be suspended, their judgments corrupted and deceived, and diversity

in opinions augmented and increased, to the great displeasure of Almighty God, the high discontent of our said most dread sovereign Lord, and the interruption of the unity, love, charity, concord, and agreement, that ought to be in a Christian region and congregation. For avoiding whereof, and repression of the follies of such seditious persons, as be the means and authors of such inconveniences: Be it enacted, ordained, and established by the King our Sovereign Lord, and the Lords spiritual and temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that if any person or persons, dwelling, demurring, inhabiting or staying within this Realm, or within any other the King's Dominions, Seigniories, or Countries, or the marshes of the same, or elsewhere within or under his obeisance and power, of what estate, dignity, pre-eminence, order, degree, or condition soever he or they be, after the last day of July, which shall be in the year of our Lord God 1536, shall by writing, ciphering, printing, preaching, or teaching, deed or act, obstinately or maliciously hold, or stand with, to extol, set forth, maintain or defend the authority, jurisdiction or power of the Bishop of Rome, or of his See, heretofore claimed, used or usurped within this Realm, or in any dominion or country, being of, within, or under the King's power or obeisance, or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously invent anything for the extolling, advancement, setting forth, maintenance, or defence of the same, or any part thereof, or by any pretence obstinately or maliciously attribute any manner of jurisdiction, authority, or pre-eminence to the said See of Rome, or to any Bishop of the same See for the time being within this Realm, or in any the King's dominions or countries: that, then every such person or persons, so doing or offending, their aiders, assistants, comforters, abettors, procurers, maintainers, fautors, counsellors, concealers, and every of them, being thereof lawfully convicted, according to the Laws of this Realm, for every such default and offence shall incur and run into the dangers, penalties, pains, and forfeitures, ordained and provided by the Statute of provision and præmunire, made in the xvi year of the reign of the noble and valiant Prince, King Richard the second, against such as attempt, procure or make provision to the See of Rome, or elsewhere, for any thing or things, to the derogation or contrary to the prerogative royal or jurisdiction of the Crown and Dignity of this Realm.

“V. And for stronger defence and maintenance of this Act, it is ordained and enacted by authority aforesaid, that all and every ecclesiastical Judge, Ordinary, Chancellor, Commissary, Official, Vicar-General, and other Ecclesiastical Officer, or Minister, of what dignity, pre-eminence, or degree soever they shall be: and all and every temporal Judge, Justice, Mayor, Bailiff, Sheriff, Under-sheriff, Eschietor, Alderman, Juror, Constable, Headborough, Thirdborough, Borsolder, and every other lay Officer and Minister to be made, created, elected, or admitted within this Realm, or any other the King's dominions, of what estate, order, degree, or condition soever he shall be, from and after the said last day of July, shall before he take upon him the execution of such Office, make, take, and receive a corporal oath upon the evangelists, before such person or persons as have, or shall have authority to admit him: That he from henceforth shall utterly renounce, refuse, relinquish, or forsake the Bishop of Rome, and his authority, power, and jurisdiction; and that he shall never consent nor agree that the Bishop of Rome shall practise, exercise, or have any manner of authority, jurisdiction, or power within this Realm, or any other the King's dominions, but that he shall resist the same at all times to the uttermost of his power. And that from henceforth he shall accept, repute, and take the King's Majesty to be the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England. And

that to his cunning, wit, and uttermost of his power, without gule, fraud, or other undue means, he shall observe, keep, maintain and defend the whole effects and contents of all and singular Acts and Statutes made, and to be made within this Realm, in derogation, extirpation and extinguishment of the Bishop of Rome and his authority; and all other Acts and Statutes made and to be made in reformation and corroboration of the King's power of supreme head on earth of the Church of England: and this he shall do against all manner of persons, of what estate, dignity, degree, or condition they be, and in nowise do nor attempt, nor to his power suffer to be done or attempted, directly or indirectly, any thing or things privily or apertly, to the let, hinderance, damage, or derogation thereof, or of any part thereof, by any manner of means, or for any manner of pretence. And in case any oath be made or hath been made by him to any person or persons, in maintenance, defence or favour of the Bishop of Rome or his authority, jurisdiction, or power, he repute the same as vain and annihilate, so help him God, all Saints, and the holy Evangelists.

"VII. And it is also enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons, limited or commanded by authority of this Act, to make the said Oath, or commanded by any other person or persons, authorized by the King's Highness' commission, under his great Seal, or his Seal ordained for causes Ecclesiastical, to make the said Oath, obstinately refuse that to do: that then every such offence and contempt shall be High Treason, and the offenders thereof being lawfully convicted, shall suffer pain of death, and other forfeitures, penalties, and losses, as is limited and accustomed in cases of High Treason, by any laws or statutes of this Realm heretofore made."-Gibson's "Codex ", I. 29.

To this Statute we add as next in date, and with every moral certainty that it was one of its practical results,—

THE SECOND SUBMISSION OF THE PRIOR OF WORCESTER.

"Illustrissimo et Potentissimo in Christo Principi et Domino nostro, Henrico Octavo Dei Gratia Angliæ et Franciæ Regi, Defensori Fidei, Domino Hiberniæ, in Terris Supremo Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, sub Christo, Capiti; Vestri humiles Subditi, et devotissimi Oratores, Henricus Holbecke, Prior Ecclesia Cathedralis Wigorn' et ejusdem Loci Conventus, Ordinis Sancti Benedicti Wigorniensis Diocesis, Reverentiam et Obedientiam, tam Excellenti et Præpotenti Principi debitas et condignas, cum omni Subjectionis Honore-Noverit Majestas Vestra Regia, Quod nos Prior et Conventus memorati, non Vi aut Metu coacti, Dolore, aut aliqua alia sinistra Machinatione ad hoc inducti, sive seducti, sed ex nostris certis Scientiis, Animis deliberatis, merisque et spontaneis Voluntatibus, pure, sponte et absolute, profitemur, spondemus, ac ad Sancta Dei Evangelia, per nos corporaliter tacta, juramus illustrissimæ veræ Regiæ Majestati, Singulari et Summo Domino nostro et Patrono, Henrico Octavo, Dei Gratia, Angliæ et Francia Regi, Fidei Defensori, Domino Hiberniæ ac in Terris Ecclesiæ Anglicana Supremo immediate sub Christo Capiti; quod posthac nullo externo Imperatori Regi Principi aut Prælato nec Romani Pontifici (quem Papam vocant) Fidelitatem aut Obedientiam, Verbo vel Scripto simpliciter, vel sub juramento, promittemus aut dabimus, vel dari curabimus, sed omni tempore Casu et Conditione Partes vestræ regiæ Majestatis ac Successorum vestrorum sequemur et observabimus, et pro viribus Defendemus, contra omnem Hominem quem vestræ Majestati aut Successoribus vestris adversarium cognoscemus vel suspicabimur. Solique vestræ regiæ Majestati velut Supremo nostro Principi quem etiam Supremum in Terris Ecclesiæ Anglicana

sub Christo Caput agnoscimus et acceptamus, et Successoribus vestris Fidelitatem et Obedientiam sincere et ex animo præstabimus. Papatum Romanum non esse a Deo in Sacris Literis Ordinatum profitemur. Sed humanitus traditum constanter affirmamus, et palam declaramus et declarabimus, et ut alii sic publicent diligenter curabimus. Nec tractatum cum quocunque mortalium privatim aut publicè inibimus, quod Episcopus Romanus aliquam Auctoritatem vel Jurisdictionem amplius hic habeat aut exerceat, vel ad ullam posthac restituatur, ipsumque Romanum Episcopum modernum aut ejus in illo Episcopatu Successorum quemqunque non Papam, non summum Pontificem, non Universalem Episcopum, nec Sanctissimum Dominum, sed solum Romanum Episcopum vel Pontificem (ut priscis mos erat) scienter publicè asseremus. Juraque et Statuta hujus Regni pro extirpatione et sublatione Papatus ac Auctoritatis et Jurisdictionis ejusdem Romani Episcopi quandocunque edita sive sancita pro viribus scientia et ingeniolis nostris ipsi firmiter Observabimus ac pro ab aliis quantum in nobis fuerit sic observari curabimus atque efficemus: nec posthac ad dictum Romanum Episcopum appellabimus aut appellari consentiemus: nec in ejus curia pro Jure aut Justitia agemus aut agenti Respondebimus, nec ibidem Accusatoris aut Rei Personam Sustinebimus. Et si quid dictus Episcopus per Nuncium vel per Literas significaverit, qualecunque id fuerit, illud quam citissime commode poterimus, aut vestræ Regiæ Majestati et vestris à Secreti, Consiliariis, vestrisve Successoribus aut eorum à Secretis Consiliariis significabimus aut significari faciemus. Nosque Literas aut Nuncium ad eundem Romanum Episcopum, vel ejus curiam nec mittemus, nec mitti faciemus, nisi vestræ Majestate conscia et consentiente aut vestro Successore quod dicta Literæ vel Nuncius ad illum deferentur; Bullas, Brevia, aut rescripta quæcunque pro nobis vel aliis ab Episcopo Romano vel ejus curia non impetrabimus, vel ut talia à quovis impetrentur non consulemus. Et si talia pro nobis insciis aut Ignorantibus generaliter, vel specialiter impetrabuntur vel alio quomodolibet concedentur, eis Renunciabimus et non Consentiemus; nec utemus iisdem ullo pacto seu modo. At eas vestræ Majestati et Successoribus vestris tradi, curabimus, omnibusque dicti Romani Episcopi Concessionibus, Privilegiis, largitionibus et indultis cujuscunque naturæ seu qualitatis existant, ac sub quocunque Verborum tenore concessæ fuerint, à dicta sede Romana directe vel indirecte, mediate vel immediate aut alias qualitercunque dicti Romani Episcopi auctoritate largitis sive consensis quibuscunque publicè et expresse in his Scriptis renunciavimus, easque irritas et inanes esse Volumus. Et soli vestræ Regiæ Majestati velut Supremo nostro Principi et Ecclesiæ Anglicana Capiti et Successoribus vestris nos subditos et subjectos fore profitemur et nos ac Successores nostros subjicimus: Et solummodo subditos fore spondemus. Nos eidem Romano Episcopo vel ejus Nunciis Oratoribus, Collectoribus aut Legatis ullam procurationem, pensionem, portionem, censum aut quamqunque aliam Pecuniarum Summam quoqunque nomine appelletur, per nos aut interpositam Personam vel Personas solvemus nec solvi faciemus. Statutumque de Successione vestra Regia in Parliamento vestro tento apud Westmon' Anno Regni vestri 28 ac omnia et singula in eodem contenta juxta vim formam et effectum ejusdem fideliter Observabimus. Præterea in Vim Pacti profitemur et spondemus ac sub Fidelitate vestræ Majestati debita, et nostra coram Deo Conscientia, promittemus quod contra hanc nostram professionem et sponsionem, nulla dispensatione, nulla exceptione, nulla appellatione aut provocatione; nulloque juris aut facti remedio, nos tuebimur: et si quam protestationem in præjudicium hujus nostræ Professionis faciemus, eam in præsens et in omne tempus futurum revocamus et eidem renunciamus per præsentes Literas; quibus propriis