rliament
was packed, and was skilfully managed; and he had on his side the
popular impatience of ecclesiastical abuses, a new feeling of national
pride which would brook no foreign interference, the old desire of the
laity to lighten their own burdens by the wealth of the church, and a
growing inclination to question or reject sacerdotal authority. He used
these advantages to forward his policy, and when he met with opposition,
enforced his will as a despot. The parliament of 1529 lasted until 1536;
it broke the bonds of Rome, established royal supremacy over the English
Church, and effected a redistribution of national wealth at the expense
of the spirituality. It began by acts abolishing ecclesiastical
exactions, such as excessive mortuaries and fees for probate, and by
prohibiting pluralities except in stated cases, application to Rome for
licence to evade the act being made penal. Henry having crushed his
minister Cardinal Wolsey, archbishop of York, declared the whole body of
the clergy involved in a _praemunire_ by their submission to Wolsey's
legatine authority, and ordered the convocation to purchase pardon by a
large payment, and by acknowledging him as "Protector and Supreme Head
of the English Church and Clergy." After much debate, the acknowledgment
was made in 1531, with the qualification "so far as the law of Christ
allows." A "supplication" against clerical jurisdiction and legislation
by convocation was obtained from the Commons in 1532, and Henry received
from convocation the "submission of the clergy," surrendering its
legislative power except on royal licence, and consenting to a revision
of the canon law by commissioners to be appointed by the king. A bill
for conditionally withholding the payment of _annates_, or first-fruits,
to Rome was passed, and Henry took advantage of the fear of the Roman
court lest it should lose these payments, to obtain without the usual
fees bulls promoting Cranmer to the see of Canterbury in 1533, and thus
was enabled to gain his divorce. Cranmer pronounced his marriage to
Catherine null, and declared him lawfully married to Anne Boleyn.
Clement VII. retorted by excommunicating the king, but for that Henry
cared not. Appeals to Rome were forbidden by statute, and the council
ordained that the pope should thenceforth only be spoken of as bishop of
Rome, as not having authority in England. In 1534 the restraint of
annates was confirmed by law, all payments to Rome were forbi