The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: The after-growth of the constitution

Wolsey and the divorce; no male heir, and Mary's legitimacy assailed; real

grounds for a divorce belittled by unworthy motives; position of the pope as
final judge in such matters, under the theory of the mediæval empire; Wolsey
first attempts to hear the case as legate; then refers it to Rome, and guarantees
a successful issue; conflicting motives which there embarrassed its considera-
tion; appointment of Campeggio and failure of his mission; Wolsey's over-
throw; last of the great ecclesiastical statesmen; distribution of his powers;

his portrait of Henry VIII. .

5. Cromwell, 1529-40: his early life; disciple of Machiavelli; member of the

parliament of 1523; his fidelity to Wolsey, who had employed him in the sup-

pression of monasteries; after Wolsey's fall he suggests to the king a new line

of policy; outline of that policy in its broader aspects

Review of the prior relations between the English Church and papacy; resistance

of the feudal supremacy of Boniface VIII.; Statute De asportatis ; Statute of

Provisors; Statute of Præmunire; Lollardry; religious revolt of the fourteenth

century a mere prologue to that of the sixteenth

Cromwell aimed not at the restraint but entire abolition of the papal power;

sworn of the privy council; the divorce becomes the mainspring of separation;

Henry's policy of menace and coercion; parliament made the tool of the crown

Outline of the work of the Reformation Parliament of 1529; its first session began

in November with an attack upon the clergy; detailed accusation against them;

the bishops called upon to answer ; clergy's dual allegiance; acts for their dis-

cipline, and for the reduction of probate and administration fees; mortuary

fees or “corse presents;" act as to clerical trading, residence, and pluralities;

king released from his debts

Wiltshire's mission to the emperor; attended by Cranmer, who had suggested the

submission of the question of the divorce to the learned; he writes a treatise

upon the subject; his scheme put into practical operation; coercion and bribery

fail to produce a consensus of opinion

Henry draws nearer to Cromwell's policy, – fresh assault upon the clergy in

second session, January, 1530–31; convocation forced to admit the king's head-

ship of the church with a qualification; cautious policy of the commons; after

adjournment, lords and part of the commons address the pope in the king's

behalf ; Catherine banished to Ampthill ; Gardiner's mission to Rome

Third session of 1531–32; statute limiting jurisdiction of church courts to diocese

of defendant's residence; conditional statute forbidding payment of annates or

firstfruits, and authorizing the consecration of bishops without papal author-

ity; convocation forbidden to legislate without royal license (“Act of Submis-

sion,” 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, passed at the end of 1533); conditional excommuni-

cation of Henry and Anne .

Fourth session, February, 1532–33; statute forbidding appeals to Rome in certain

cases; the course of appeal; Cranmer appointed primate; questions involved

in divorce submitted to convocation ; Cranmer's decree, which the pope declared

null; Elizabeth born, September 7, 1533 .

Fifth session, January, 1534; statutes confirming submission of clergy, forbidding

all appeals to Rome, and the payment of Peter's pence; statute as to annates

reënacted with provision authorizing nomination of bishops by congé d'Ilire, the

method employed to the present day

Henry's first succession act; oath to support the succession drafted under the

act refused by Fisher and More; breach made final by papal decree, March,

1534, confirming Henry's marriage with Catherine; Henry's bitter response

Sixth session, November, 1534, completes the work of separation ; Act of Supre-

macy; all allegiance now due to Henry as king and pontiff; statute to remedy

defects in the succession oath; the new oath, and penalties for its refusal ;

Cromwell appointed vicar-general; firstfruits and tenths taken from the pope

and given to the king; statute creating twenty-six new bishoprics

The new machinery of persecution first applied to the Carthusians; then to Fisher

and More; form of the indictments; outcry which followed their executions;

the bull of deposition.

Suppression of the lesser monasteries; confiscations in the reign of Henry V.;

Morton's attempt to reform the clergy in 1489; Warham's attempt in 1511;

Wolsey's attempt in 1523 supplemented by the suppression of lesser monas-

teries ; Cromwell and Leighton employed in the work; right of visitation trans-

ferred by the Act of Supremacy from the pope to the king; terms of the

commission to Leighton, Legh, and Rice; their report to the seventh and last

session of the Reformation parliament, which began in February, 1536; a great

debate on the report; statute for the suppression of all monasteries with annual

incomes of less than two hundred pounds; summary of the work of the great

parliament of 1529

A new parliament meets in June, 1536; trial and execution of Anne Boleyn ;

Henry marries Jane Seymour; second succession act.

Great rebellion in the north, 1536–37, known as the “ Pilgrimage of Grace;”

Aske's appeal for the “ commonwealth," a term which embodied the growing

political idea of the age; the rebellion cruelly suppressed by Cromwell

Strife of the rival factions at the council board; divergent views of Anglicans and

Lutherans; Henry's attempt to provide a common ground upon which all
parties could meet; convocation of 1536; Ten Articles of religion the result;
Lutheranism and the League of Schmalkald, into which Henry strives to enter ;
the Ten Articles expanded into the larger statement known as the “ Institution
of a Christian Man;" certain articles drawn up at Wittenberg in 1536; Thir-

teen Articles of 1538 .

Parliament of 1539 called to hush religious discord; speech from the throne;

statute giving the king's proclamations the force of law; suppression of the

greater monasteries; disappearance of the parliamentary abbots; creation of

new bishoprics; how the abbey lands were disposed of; sale and transfer of

lands facilitated by statute; Henry dictates the Statute of the Six Articles,

which closes the doctrinal legislation of his reign; penalties for offending

against the act

Revival of persecution by the Anglicans; motives for a Lutheran alliance; Crom-

well reverses the policy of persecution; the effect in Germany; designs involved

in the marriage of Henry with Anne of Cleves; the failure of Cromwell's

scheme results in his overthrow .

6. Henry's Secular Legislation: relaxation of feudal restraints upon alienation;

feudalism extinguished the right of devise, and enacted the statutes of mort-

main; origin of uses or trusts; right of devise thus in a measure revived;

statute of 27 Hen. VIII. as to uses and wills; it facilitated " bargains and

sales ;” statute of 32 Hen. VIII. reëstablishing the right of devise; Statute of

Limitations, 32 Hen. VIII. c. 2; statute as to superstitious uses, 23 Hen.

VIII. C. 10; statute as to common recoveries, 32 Hen. VIII. c. 3; their recent

abolition

Dissolution of monasteries transferred care of poor from church to state; begging

and vagrancy; state first assumed the care of the poor by statute of 27 Hen.

VIII. C. 25; beginning of the parochial poor law system; statute of 32 Hen.

VIII. c. 7, authorizing laymen to sue for tithes

First statute of bankrupts, 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 4; statute of amendments and

jeofail, 32 Hen. VIII. c. 30; benefit of clergy taken away in many cases by
23

1. The Closing Years of Henry's Reign (1540-47): general results of Crom

well's policy, - exaltation of the crown, humiliation of the church; Cromwell
employs the parliament as the tool of the crown; the lords a spiritless body,

and the commons made up of royal nominees; estates called together year after
-"year to sanction the royal policy; the abnormal aggregation of civil and ecclesi-

astical powers vested in the crown; the church a mere department of state; its
dogmas and liturgy fixed by the royal authority; rivalry of the religious factions
after Cromwell's fall; Norfolk's return to power after Henry's marriage with
Catherine Howard in 1540; his hostility to the new religious movement undis-
guised; Henry married to Catherine Parr, July, 1543; when he realized that the

breach with the papacy was final; translation of the Bible and parts of the ser-
vice-books into English; the “Great Bible” of 1539; an English Litany;
Henry's appeal for religious toleration; his final arrangements; the Seymours
and the nobles of the “new blood” irrevocably bound to the cause of the
Reformation

8. Edward VI.'s Title to the Crown: summary of principles regulating the suc-

cession, elective kingship blended with feudal theory of hereditary right, civil

always followed by ecclesiastical election, king's peace died with him, the Con-

quest worked no immediate change in the primitive system, transition from per-

sonal to territorial kingship, royal office regarded as a descendible estate,

Edward I. reigns before his coronation, maxim that the king never dies finally

established, accession of Richard II. under the doctrine of representation, elec-

tions become a mere ceremony, ecclesiastical election of Henry VIII., assembly

of estates reasserts right to regulate succession, deposition of Edward II. and

Richard II., parliamentary title of the Lancasters, Edward IV.'s assertion of

indefeasible right, parliamentary settlements in reign of Henry VIII. ; statutes

recognizing Edward VI.'s right; Henry's final disposition by will; named six-

teen executors as a council of regency; died January 28, 1547

104

CHAPTER III.

EDWARD VI. AND THE ENGLISH REFORMATION.

1. History of Regencies from Henry III. to Edward VI. : administration of

royal authority during absence, infancy, or incapacity of the king; first regency

after the Conquest constituted at the accession of Henry III. ; regency at the

accession of Edward III. ; proceedings at the accession of Richard II., the first

to succeed under the doctrine of representation ; regencies during the reign of

Henry VI.; sole power of the estates to create regencies emphasized; growing

influence of the commons; regency at the accession of Edward V.; four princi-

ples of constitutional law now distinctly recognized; provisions made by Henry

VIII. for a regency during minority of Edward VI.; provisions of the act of 28

Hen. VIII. c. 7; council of regency appointed by will under authority of the

act; act of 28 Hen. VIII. C. 17; usurpation of Seymour; process by which

he established his protectorate; modification of plan of government provided

by the will; removal of the lord chancellor; patent issued in Edward's name

making Somerset protector with unlimited powers

109

2. Protectorate of Somerset: English Reformation inaugurated by Somerset and

Cranmer; policy of regarding the church as a mere department of state con-

tinued; new patents for bishops as well as judges; source and extent of

episcopal jurisdiction as defined in Cranmer's patent; right of visitation first

transferred from the pope to the crown by 25 Hen. VIII. C. 21, extended;

Cranmer's scheme of reform outlined in the instructions now issued for a new

visitation ; resisted by Bonner and Gardiner, who were imprisoned; necessary

legislation enacted in the parliament which met on November 4, 1547 ; neces-

sity for the repeal of the Six Articles defining heresy; statutory definitions of

heresy prior to that act; all prior statutes upon the subject repealed by i Edw.

VI. c. 12; common law as to heresy as settled in Sawtre's case revived

114

The mass superseded by the communion; treasons act of 26 Hen. VIII. c. 13

repealed; and act of 25 Edw. III. c. 3, with a few amendments, restored ; in
1552 provision made for two witnesses in cases of treason; elections of bishops
by congé d'élire abolished, and their appointment vested in the king ; act giving
royal proclamations the force of law repealed; cruel vagrancy act of i Edw.
VI. c. 2

117

Origin and fate of the chantry lands; primary objects of such donations; distinc-

tion between “superstitious” and “good and charitable uses;" act of 37 Hen.

VIII. C. 4, giving the chantry lands to the king ; act of 1 Edw. VI. c. 14, declar-

ing that such lands should be applied to “good and godly uses”

118

Unsuccessful attempt of the clergy to gain representation in the nether house of

parliament;” marriage of priests declared to be lawful; first Act of Uniformity

and the Book of Common Prayer; question of the communion ; first or “high

church” prayer-book of 1549; introduction of the new liturgy followed by

revolt in the western counties

119