primate; involved in necessity. A new heir to the throne was on the way, whose legitimacy could not possibly be upheld without a dissolution of the union between Catherine and Henry, and such dissolution could not be accomplished as a finality through the decree of an English ecclesiastical court, until all chance of an appeal to the pope was made impossible.1 That end having been accomplished by the act in question, the next step was the selection of a judge upon whom the king could surely rely. Such a one was easily found in Cranmer, the king's tried advocate, who Cranmer upon the death of Warham had been tendered the archbish- appointed opric of Canterbury, to which he was consecrated in March.2 The king's marriage, which, pending the papal confirmation of Cranmer's appointment, had been kept strictly secret, was made public soon thereafter, when the questions involved in questions the divorce were submitted in a special and peculiar form to divorce subconvocation, where, after considerable debate, answers favor- mitted to able to the king were carried by large majorities.3 The new tion; archbishop, thus supported by the voice of the clergy, soon exhorted his master to permit him to take cognizance of the divorce, and, for the good of the realm, to hear and determine it. In May Cranmer rendered his decree, in which it was held Cranmer's that the marriage with Catherine was void from the beginning by reason of the fact that the original dispensation of Julius II. was beyond the papal power;5 and at a little later day another hearing was had, at which the marriage with Anne was confirmed as valid and lawful. Two months later the which the pope depope annulled the sentence pronounced by Cranmer upon the clared null; queen."-Amos, Reformation Parliament, p. 257. cil, to refer all ecclesiastical appeals and petitions, now cognizable by the judicial committee, to the new court of appeal constituted by that act. When so acting, such court of appeal shall consist of "such and so many of the judges thereof, and shall be assisted by such assessors, being Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England," as shall be directed by any general rules to be made by order in council. 1 The "dates appear to supply a cogent reason why the king should have availed himself of the aid of parliament, in the present session, to corroborate his marriage, and, prospectively, the archbishop's sentence, by a new law of ecclesiastical appeals that might gag the mouth of an appellant 2 The necessary bulls were expedited on 21st and 22d February and on the 3d of March, and the consecration took place on the 30th of that month. 8 See the account in Burnet, vol. i. p. 98, as corrected by Lingard, vol. v. p. 8. 4 For Cranmer's abject memorial letter (April 11) to the king, see State Papers, vol. i. p. 390. 5 The decree contained in an Inspeximus, Rot. Parl., 25 Reg. 2d part, is printed in Burnet, vol. ii. (Collectanea), liv. 6 On May 29 the second decree was given at Lambeth, and is in the same Inspeximus. convoca decree, Elizabeth ground that the case was then pending before himself;1 and so matters stood at the birth of the princess Elizabeth,2 on the 7th of September, 1533. born, September 7, 1533. Fifth session, 1533-34; and the When the fifth session began, on the 15th of January,3 January 15, everything was still involved in a state of painful uncertainty. The long protracted negotiations with Rome were still pending, and no one knew when or how the end would be reached. And yet, in evident anticipation of the final catastrophe, all judicial and financial connection with Rome was now comstatutes pletely broken by two memorable statutes: in the first the confirming submission surrender which had been made by the clergy a year before of of clergy, their legislative independence was confirmed, and the partial restriction which had been put upon appeals to Rome in the fourth session was extended to all cases whatsoever; in the forbidding second 5 was contained a prohibition against the payment.of all appeals to Rome, Peter's pence, and every other kind of payment made to the payment of pope for dispensations, licenses, faculties, grants, relaxations, and the like usually obtained from that source. This last named statute at the same time provided that certain dispensations, licenses, faculties, and other writings which had been formerly obtained from Rome should thereafter be sought of the archbishop of Canterbury, who might be compelled by the king's writ to grant licenses, faculties, or dispensations.6 Turning then to the Annates Act, which had finally been confirmed by letters patent, after the refusal of the pope to with provi- notice the communication made to him under it, parliament izing nomi- reenacted it 8 with additional clauses, providing that bishops should no longer be presented to the pope for confirmation, but that, on the vacancy of any cathedral church, the king should grant to the dean and chapter, or to the prior and See above, p. 70, Peter's pence; statute as to annates reenacted sion author nation of bishops by congé d'élire, 1 The brief (July 12) declared that Henry by his disobedience had incurred the penalties of excommunication, which, however, as an act of grace, were suspended until the following September. Bonner to Cromwell, State Papers, vol. vii. p. 481. 2 Hall, p. 805. 3 It closed on the 30th of March, 1534 4 This was the act entitled "An act for the submission of the clergy to the king's majesty" (25 Hen. VIII. c. 19), already referred to as the "Act of Submission." monks, "a license under the great seal "1 to elect the person named in the letters missive, which right, if not exercised within twelve days, should be forfeited to the crown. It was further provided that the prelate named or elected, after he had sworn fealty, and after he had been invested and consecrated, should sue his temporalities out of the king's hands, and make corporal oath to the king and to no other.2 This ancient method of nominating and electing bishops and arch- the method employed bishops by congé d'élire, under which the real power of ap- to the prepointment was vested in the crown, has continued in force to sent day. the present day, although its character has been completely transformed by the growth of the modern constitution, under which the appointing power has passed from the crown to the minister, who represents the will of the people.3 first succes In order to remove as far as possible the doubt and uncer- Henry's tainty which still surrounded the legitimacy of the princess sion act; Elizabeth, there was also passed at this session the first 4 of Henry's statutes for the settlement of the royal succession, which, after adjudging that his marriage with Catherine was null, and that his subsequent marriage with Anne was valid, carefully marked out the order in which the children of Anne should follow him. First, the sons were to succeed, with their heirs; if sons failed them, then "to the eldest issue female, which is the Lady Elizabeth, now Princess . . . and so from issue female to issue female, and to the heirs of their bodies, one after another, by course of inheritance, according to their 1 The license contained no restriction, but it was attended" with a letter missive containing the name of the person which they shall elect and choose." 2 For commentaries upon this act, see Amos, Reformation Parliament, PP. 270-273; Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, vol. iii. p. 242 and note (a). The account given by Amos of the controversy touching the congé d'élire, which occurred in the reign of James I., and to which Coke was a party, is specially interesting. 8 "Practically therefore our English prelate, alone among all the prelates of the world, is now raised to his episcopal throne by the same popular election which raised Ambrose to his epis copal chair at Milan."-Green, Hist. 4 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22. Amos, Refor port the drafted under the by Fisher breach made final by papal decree, ages, as the crown of England hath been accustomed and ought to go, in cases where there be heirs female to the same." To slander the king's last marriage was declared to be high treason, if the offence was committed in writing, and misprision of treason, if by words only; and all subjects of full age were commanded to swear obedience to the act under penalty oath to sup- of misprision of treason. Under this mandate an oath to supsuccession port the succession, whose form had not been prescribed, and whose terms seem to have been more comprehensive than the act refused provisions of the statute warranted, was drawn and presented and More; by a commission, and generally taken by all, including the universities and convocations,1 with the notable exceptions of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More,2 whose refusal was quickly followed by their imprisonment. Early in April,3 1534, and within a week after the end of the session last referred to, the news was received in England that on the 23d of March the long struggle, which had begun six years before with the application to Rome for a bull annulling the king's marriage with Catherine, had ended at last in a decree adjudging that marriage to be legal, and the papal dispensation under which it had been contracted regular and valid. And in accordance with the papal practice it was ordered that, if the king should within a given time fail to bow to the judgment, he should be excommunicate, and should forfeit the allegiance of his subjects; and finally that he should be deposed by the emperor, who had undertaken the execution of that part of the sentence even before it was rendered. To this final thrust from Rome Henry responded, in the face of the threatened invasion, in a royal proclamation ordering the pope's name to be erased from the prayers, canons, and mass-books of the churches, with the injunction that it should "be never more (except to his con March 15, 1534, confirming Henry's marriage with Cath erine; Henry's bitter re sponse. 1 Wilkins, Conc., vol. iii. pp. 771, 774, mitted to the Tower. During the year 775. they were both attainted for misprision of treason for refusing "since the first of May last to take the oath for the establishment of the succession." As to the examination of More, see his Works, pp. 1429, 1447. 2 The form of the substituted oath, which is printed in Blount, vol. i. pp. 417, 418, contained a virtual acknowledgment of the king's ecclesiastical supremacy prior to the passage of the Act of Supremacy. Both Fisher and More were willing to swear to the succession as fixed by the statute, but both refused the substituted oath in April, 1534, and were thereupon com 8 See Amos, Reformation Parlia ment, p. 279. 4 Legrand, vol. i. pp. 273-276; vol. iii. pp. 630-638; State Papers, vol. vii. p. 579. tumely and reproach) remembered, but perpetually suppressed and obscured." 1 session, separation: premacy; In this temper it was that the parliament, whose sixth ses- Sixth sion began on the 3d of November, entered upon the task of November, completing the work of separation, which had been gradually 1534, completes the approaching consummation according to the definite and com- work of prehensive plan of Cromwell that now culminated in the Act of Supremacy, whose brief and comprehensive language defies Act of Suabridgment: "Albeit," runs the act, "the king's majesty justly and rightfully is and ought to be the supreme Head of the Church of England, and is so recognized by the clergy of this realm in their convocation, yet nevertheless, for corroboration and confirmation thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ's religion within this realm of England, and to repress and extirp all errors, heresies, and other enormities and abuses. heretofore used in the same: Be it enacted, by authority of this present Parliament, that the king our Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors kings of this realm, shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia, and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all the honors, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, authorities, immunities, profits, and commodities, to the said dignity belonging and appertaining; and that our said Sovereign Lord, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority to resist, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed most to the pleasure of Almighty God, the increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm — any usage, custom, 1 Royal Proclamation, June, 1534. 2 26 Hen. VIII. c. I. The title indorsed on the original act is "The King's Grace to be authorized Supreme Head;" that on the Statute Roll is "An Act concerning the King's Highness to be Supreme Head of the Church of England, and to have authority to reform and redress all errors, heresies, and abuses in the same." See Amos, |