parties. It is obvious that by
favouring the anti-clericals he could destroy the power of the Church.
It is not so certain, but it is probable that, by supporting the
Church, he could have staved off its ruin so long as he lived.
Parliament might have been urgent, but there was no necessity to call
it together. The Reformation Parliament, which sat for seven years,
would probably have been dissolved after a few weeks had Clement
granted the divorce. It met session after session, to pass one measure
after another, each of which was designed to put fresh pressure on the
Pope. It began with the outworks of the papal fortress; as soon (p. 277)
as one was dismantled, Henry cried "Halt," to see if the citadel
would surrender. When it refused, the attack recommenced. First one,
then another of the Church's privileges and the Pope's prerogatives
disappeared, till there remained not one stone upon another of the
imposing edifice of ecclesiastical liberty and papal authority in
England.

[Footnote 766: _Cf._ A. Zimmermann, "Zur
kirchlichen Politik Heinrichs VIII., nach den
Trennung vom Rom," in _Roemische Quartalschrift_,
xiii., 263-283.]

CHAPTER XI. (p. 278)

"DOWN WITH THE CHURCH."

The Reformation Parliament met for its first session on the 3rd of
November, 1529, at the Black Friars' Hall in London.[767] No careful
observer was in any doubt as to what its temper would be with regard
to the Church. It was opened by the King in person, and the new Lord
Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, delivered an address in which he
denounced his predecessor, Wolsey, in scathing terms.[768] Parliament
had been summoned, he said, to reform such things as had been used or
permitted in England by inadvertence. On the following day both Houses
adjourned to Westminster on account of the plague, and the Commons
chose, as their Speaker, Sir Thomas Audley, the future Lord Chancellor.
One of their first duties was to consider a bill of attainder against
Wolsey,[769] and the fate of that measure seems to be destructive of
one or the other of two favourite theories respecting Henry VIII.'s
Parliaments. The bill was opposed in the Commons by Cromwell and
thrown out; either it was not a mere expression of the royal will, or
Parliament was something more than the tool of the Court. For it is
hardly credible that Henr