tharine was unlawful and invalid. Cramner, the
primate, and Cromwell, now secretary of state, who highly loved and
esteemed More, entreated him to lay aside his scruples; and their
friendly importunity seemed to weigh more with him than all the
penalties attending his refusal.[**] He persisted, however, in a mild
though firm manner, to maintain his resolution; and the king, irritated
against him as well as Fisher, ordered both to be indicted upon the
statute, and committed prisoners to the Tower.

* Collier's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii.

** Burnet, vol. i. p. 156.

The parliament, being again assembled, conferred on the king the title
of the only supreme "head" on earth of the church of England; as they
had already invested him with all the real power belonging to it.
In this memorable act, the parliament granted him power, or rather
acknowledged his inherent power, "to visit, and repress, redress,
reform, order, correct, restrain, or amend all errors, heresies, abuses,
offences, contempts, and enormities, which fell under any spiritual
authority or jurisdiction."[*] They also declared it treason to attempt,
imagine, or speak evil against the king, queen, or his heirs; or to
endeavor depriving them of their dignities or titles. They gave him a
right to all the annates and tithes of benefices which had formerly been
paid to the court of Rome. They granted him a subsidy and a fifteenth.
They attainted More and Fisher for misprision of treason. And they
completed the union of England and Wales, by giving to that principality
all the benefit of the English laws.

* 26 Henry VIII. cap. 1.

Thus the authority of the popes, like all exorbitant power, was ruined
by the excess of its acquisitions, and by stretching its pretensions
beyond what it was possible for any human principles or prepossessions
to sustain. Indulgences had in former ages tended extremely to enrich
the holy see; but being openly abused, they served to excite the first
commotions and opposition in Germany. The prerogative of granting
dispensations had also contributed much to attach all the sovereign
princes and great families in Europe to the papal authority; but meeting
with an unlucky concurrence of circumstances, was now the cause why
England separated herself from the Romish communion. The acknowledgment
of the king's supremacy introduced there a greater simplicity in
the government, by uniting the spiritual with the civil power,
and prev