destroyed the power
of the barons, there was no effectual check on the despotic will of
the sovereign. The new nobility were the creatures of the Crown,
hence bound to support it; the clergy were timid, the Commons anything
but bold, so that Parliament gradually became the servile echo and
ready instrument of the throne.

That body twice released the King from the discharge of his just
debts. It even exempted him from paying certain forced loans which he
had extorted from his people. Parliament also repeatedly changed the
laws of succession to the Crown to please him. Moreover it promptly
attainted and destroyed such victims as he desired to put out of the
way (S351). Later (1539) it declared that proclamations, concerning
religious doctrines, when made by the King and Council, should have
the force of acts of Parliament. This new power enabled Henry to
pronounce heretical many opinions which he disliked and to punish them
with death.

351. Execution of More and Fisher (1535).

Thomas Cromwell had been Cardinal Wolsey's private secretary; but he
had now become chief counselor to the King, and in his crooked and
cruel policy reduced bloodshed to a science. He first introduced the
practice of condemning an accused prisoner without any form of trial
(by Act of Attainder), and sending him to the block[1] without
allowing him to speak in his own defense (S356). No one was now safe
who did not openly side with the King.

[1] Act of Attainder. See Constitutional Documents in Appendix,
p. xxxii.

Sir Thomas More, who had been Lord Chancellor (S339), and the aged
Bishop Fisher were executed because they could not affirm that they
conscientiously believed that Henry was morally and spiritually
entitled to be the head of the English Church (S349).

Both died with Christian fortitude. More said to the governor of the
Tower with a flash of his old humor, as the steps leading to the
scaffold shook while he was mounting them, "Do you see me safe up, and
I will make shift to get down by myself."

352. Destruction of the Monasteries; Seizure of their Property,
1536-1539.

When the intelligence of the judicial murder of the venerable
ex-chancellor reached Rome, the Pope issued a bull of excommunication
and deposition against Henry (S194). It delivered his soul to Satan,
and his kingdom to the first invader.

The King retaliated by the suppression of the monasteries. In doing
so, he simply hastened a process