displeasure the Convocation of Canterbury was
forced to vote him a very considerable sum of money, yet even this did
not satisfy him. Rather it seemed to him the fitting and decisive
moment for forcing the clergy, conformably with the Address of the
Commons, to accept the Anglican point of view. He demanded from
Convocation the express acknowledgment that they recognised him as
_the Protector and the Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of
England_; he commanded the judges not to issue the Act of Pardon
unless this acknowledgment were at once incorporated with the bill for
the money payment. It is not hard to see what made him choose this
exact moment for so acting; it was the serious turn which the affair
of his Divorce had taken at Rome. He had once more made application to
the Curia to let it be decided in England; the Cardinals discussed the
point in their Consistory, Dec. 22, 1530, but resolved that the
question must come of right before the Assessors of the Rota, who
should afterwards report on it to the Sacred College.[111] What their
sentence would be was the less doubtful, since the Curia was now
linked closer than ever with the Emperor, who had just closed the Diet
of Augsburg in the way they wished, and was now about to carry out its
decrees. The traces of a new alliance with Rome, which was imputed to
Wolsey as an act of treason, must have contributed to the same result.
The King wished to break off this connexion by a Declaration, which
would serve him as a standing-ground later on, and show the Court of
Rome that he had nothing to fear from it. On Feb. 7, 1531, the King's
demand was laid before both Houses of Convocation. Who could avoid
seeing its decisive significance for the age? The clergy, which had
without much trouble agreed to the money-vote, nevertheless strove
long against a Declaration which altered their whole position. But a
hard necessity lay on them. In default of the Pardon, which, as the
judges repeatedly assured them, depended on this Declaration, they
would have found themselves out of the protection of the King and the
Law. They sent two bishops, to get the King's demand softened by a
personal appeal; Henry VIII refused to hear them. They proposed that
some members of both Houses should confer with the Privy Council and
the judges; the answer was that the King wished for no discussion, he
wanted a clear answer. Thus much however they ascertained, that the
King would be content with a mo